Nebula Senshi Arc
Episode Eight
Written by: Kchan
Disclamer: I have not created SailorMoon or any other characters from the show. The animated television series SailorMoon is produced by Toei Animation Co. Ltd, and is based on the manga series by Naoko Takeuchi, first published in Japan by Kodansha Ltd. I have made this fanfic to express how much I really like the show Sailor Moon!!
Chapter 8: Into the wasp nest. Eta Carinae discovers a movie plot.
“Hello Mother.” She entered the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table and spotted the newspaper that had been tossed along on it.
“Good morning Sora. Did you sleep well?” Her mother handed her some coffee and some toast.
“Uh huh…” Sora eyed the movie poster that her father had handed to her the day before, now printed as an ad. She picked it up and scanned the headlines; all saying it was going to be the next blockbuster. Sora stared at the actress, and got an uneasy feeling. “She’s peculiar…” she thought as she proceeded to eat her breakfast.
“Is she the person you and your friends going to meet today?” Sora looked up and saw her mother’s golden eyes staring at the same thing she was.
“Yea..”
“She looks so strange…well it is a romantic scifi story? My I’ll be happy once they are done promoting it and it finally gets to the screen.” So her mother thought she looked strange, perhaps Ami-san was right, perhaps she was foreign.
“Why is that mother?” Her mother giggled and pointed right at her nose.
“Then your father can stop putting in all those long hours! Don’t you miss him?” The timing of her question came at a bad time as Sora was drinking her coffee and almost choked on it.
“Ugg…”
“Are you ok?” Sora nodded her head as she was coughing something fierce. Her mother brought her a napkin and Sora wiped her mouth and coughed into it. “Oh I think that’s the door, I’ll be right back.” Sora’s coughing subsided and she frowned a bit. My mother is wonderful, but has a short attention span, and my father, well he is overbearing. She glanced at the paper again, now covered with coffee blotches and spotted Beta Katsumi.
“Still, I do miss him…”
“Your friends Usagi, Ami, Minako and Rei are here for you.” Sora felt panic rise from within.
“No way, why are they all here? Am I late?” She glanced at the wall clock and saw that it was just 7:20 am. “It’s early…” She rose quickly from the table, grabbed her bag, and put on her shoes. “Goodbye Mother. I’ll be at Father’s work after school today.” Her mother smiled and waved at her, as she opened the door and left the house.
“Hi Sora-chan!” Usagi chirped at her. Sora looked at her to the others, each with a happy smiling face.
“Why…?”
“I’m amazed actually myself, I’ve rarely seen these two get up this early.” Rei interrupted her question. “It’s like the end of the world or something…” she continued as Usagi glared at her.
“I can be on time, sometimes, right Minako-chan?”
“Of course! When there is a big day, we greet it head on! After all there is no time like the present!”
“I’m amazed, you got that proverb right….” Ami stared at her.
“What? I don’t goof them up that much anymore. I’m a high school student!”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Rei-chan!” Minako grabbed Sora’s arm as they walked to school.
“You guys are really excited about this thing aren’t you?” Sora muttered as she watched Minako get starry eyes, Rei and Usagi nod in unison and Ami politely smiling in agreement.
“Of course we are! There won’t be another opportunity for me…er us again!” Minako laughed loudly as the others looked embarrassed.
“Minako-chan, you are freaking her out.”
“I am not, Usagi-chan. Right?” Minako looked at her now with puppy dog eyes.
“Just a little, but tell me is this the only reason why you came to see me?” Sora stared to get a huge feeling of doubt in her stomach and a nagging thought that perhaps after this was over they wouldn’t want to be her friends anymore. It had happened before, so it could again. She let her defenses down, and now she was preparing for the hurt that she knew so well, was to come. Instead she was pleasantly surprised by their reactions. She looked at her feet instantly and stopped walking. She knew she had hurt their feelings. After all she was the one who asked them to come.
“Sora-chan, we came to see you because we wanted to walk to school together. You’re our friend!” Sora glanced up and saw Usagi’s eyes staring right back at her. They looked sad, but genuine. She glanced and saw that everyone had the same look.
“I’m sorry…it’s just that…” Usagi patted her arm and shook her head.
“No need to apologize, nor explain.” She smiled and Sora couldn’t help but to smile back.
“I have true friends…I haven’t had any in such a long time, that I’ve forgotten how to trust.” She thought this as she watched Usagi and Rei start bickering about something, and how Ami and Minako were trying to break it up. The walk to school was a pleasant one, and the summer breeze, made the morning feel nice and cool. Sora briefly stared upwards as she slowly remembered the night before. Her thoughts were interrupted as they girls started to wave goodbye to Rei. “This is where you go to school?”
“Yea, you should come when we have our festival, it’s really awesome.” Sora glanced at the school and noticed that it looked expensive, and elegant. It really reminded her of Rei. “Well I’ll see you guys later today.” Sora nodded and watched her go in the front gates, and then almost being knocked down by a short red headed girl that wasn’t watching where she was running. Sora didn’t see the rest as Minako tugged on her arm.
“So, how long has your father been working at this movie studio?”
“Huh? Oh…” she shooked her head and continued on, telling them a little about her father and what he did. Usagi generally nodded her head and said little tidbits about her dad and the photography work he does, Minako listened intently like her life depended on it, and Ami asked quite a bit of technical questions. By the time they were done talking, they had walked into the school, and needed to part ways.
“See ya later Sora-chan!” Usagi said as they went up the stairs. Sora smiled and walked into her homeroom.
Suddenly she wanted the day to go by fast so she could join them again, and go to the studio. It was a strange new feeling for her, to be proud of her father, and to have friends. She realized she must have been letting her happiness show, because a lot of her other classmates started talking to her.
“Woah, is the cucumber queen letting her tough exterior break down today?” Sora frowned and looked behind her and saw Kamara-kun smirking. She rolled her eyes and looked forward and focused on the class instead. He wasn’t going to ruin her mood, even though he was going to be part of her little adventure later in the day.
“I wished I didn’t give him that pass…he is just a black rain cloud over my parade.” She glanced briefly over her shoulder to see him quickly scrawling some notes. “Weird, he looks like he actually trying to do work. I’ve always thought of him as a slacker.”
“Shiori-san, could you please read next?” Sora snapped her head forward and felt sick to her stomach.
“Oh..oh no…I wasn’t paying attention.” She fumbled for her book and dropped it to the floor. “Sorry teacher…” she muttered as she knelt down to pick it up and touched Kamara-kun’s hand.
“Here’s your book,” he said very softly as she spotted a note he left on the page. It told her what page to start at and what paragraph. She stood straight and started to read the passage.
“Why, why did he do that…?” she inwardly thought as she survived a near and complete disaster.
“Thank you Shiori-san.” Sighing she sat in her seat and felt Kamara’s gaze at the back of her head. She didn’t dare look back and silently prayed that the school day would end.
The day did end, just like every other day, and Sora had a strange day at that. Not only did she almost goof up in class, she spilled her lunch on herself, tripped and narrowly avoided a fight with one of the more popular, pretty upperclass girls, even though she stepped on her foot. Again, it was Kamara-kun that helped her out each one of these times.
“He didn’t even make fun of me, and he had the perfect opportunity to do so.”
“It’s not like you to be this spacey.” Sora turned around and saw him right behind her.
“I know, I guess night makes a fool of us all in daylight.” She muttered as she was looking out for Usagi and the others. It took him a moment to reply, but he looked pretty happy with himself when he finally understood what she meant.
“Didn’t sleep well huh? Are you that excited about meeting that actress, or seeing your father in action?”
“Yes to the first, but no to the others. I’m not excited about meeting her, more like anxious, and we won’t see my father. He’ll probably be off doing other things.”
“Ah.” “So did you want me to meet you at that restaurant you were telling me about…?” he said after while.
“No. We are just waiting on the others, and then we will go there to meet one more…” Sora perked up when she spotted Usagi’s familiar and unique pigtails bouncing in the halls.
“Sora-chan!” Minako popped from behind Usagi and waved frantically at her. “We got our passes and we are ready, right girls?” She gave a huge grin as she looked towards both Usagi and Ami.
“Yes..” Ami replied as she was obviously looking at Kamara who was behind Sora. “
Oh, sorry, this is…” Sora stepped out of the way to introduce her annoying shadow to them, but didn’t get a chance.
“Name’s Kamara Ryu, nice to meet you all.” He bowed and smiled politely.
“Woah…he can be normal?” She thought as the three of them introduced themselves.
“Ok, let’s go! It’s nice to meet another Beta Katsumi fan!” Minako blurted out as she drugged both Sora and Usagi by the arms, leaving Ami and Kamara behind.
“Say, he’s kinda cute…” Usagi said as Minako let go of them. “Is he your boyfriend or something?” Sora felt her eyes grow wide as she gave her a startled expression.
“No, I invited him because I owed him.”
“Eh?”
“COME ON! You two are so slow!!” Minako yelled over them as she was waiting on Ami and Kamara to catch up.
“Well I think he likes you…he looks at you with such a soft expression…” Usagi whispered as they were coming closer. Sora felt her cheeks grow hot.
“I don’t think so, I think he is just annoying…” Usagi laughed.
“I had that problem last year, an annoying guy that just wouldn’t give up…” She trailed off as she watched Minako drag Ami towards their current location.
“Minako-chan, please try to be less…” Ami sighed. It was a fruitless fight as the girl was clearly insane from her luck to meet this star. They spent the rest of the time keeping up with her as she ran to the Crown Parlor, where Rei was waiting. Sora was trying her best to talk a conversation with them as they were chatting, but kept giving Kamara sideways glances. He was talking the most with Ami, and Rei, but every now again he would catch her eye and smile over at her direction. Sora quickly turned forward and tried to listen intently to whatever Minako was babbling about. This lasted for about 15 minutes as they caught a bus to her father’s studio. On the bus she felt nostalgic for a moment, realizing she hadn’t visited him in about 4 to 5 years.
“I shouldn’t be so cold to him…he just drives me crazy. Kinda like Kamara-kun…”
“Sora-chan! It’s so nice to see you again, and look how much you have grown!” Sora once again felt her cheeks flush as one of her father’s old friends greeted them after they passed the gates.
“Hello Masami-san.” She bowed and felt him pet her head.
“Oh don’t be so formal, I know you haven’t seen me in awhile, tell me you haven’t forgotten your old uncle Hideaki have you?” She smiled and remembered how he used to sneak her in the studio to let her meet actors and actresses and to get their autographs.
“No…” she laughed as he commented on how tall she looked.
“Oh, and are these the lucky few who get to meet Katsumi-san?” Sora nodded as she introduced everyone for the third time that day. She noticed that Minako had restrained her formal insane fan-girliness and was acting quite mature. “Excellent, well I shall be your guide. It will be awhile to meet her as she is probably still on the set. Why don’t I give you a tour in the meantime? Everyone approved and listened intently to him talk about the studio, it’s history and pointed out some of the famous people that had come through. Sora kept feeling the same nostalgic feeling she had earlier and realized what made her stop coming. She had been used at her old school as a way for her so call friends to meet some famous people. She stopped and stared at old picture of a director as Hideaki and the others walked further ahead. Sora didn’t notice they were gone, but instead started to have a flood of sad and angry memories that came on to her so strongly.
“Wow Sora-chan! You are the best!!”
“It’s so cool that you can meet all these idols!”
“Don’t be selfish, Sora-chan! You gotta let us meet them!”
“These autographs won’t do. If you want to be our friend, you got introduce us.”
“You are our real friend aren’t you?”
“Don’t be a snob Sora, just let us meet them.”
“Yes, she’s plain and ugly but she has connections. Let’s just pretend we are her friends…”
“Let’s pretend…”
“Plain and ugly…”
“Connections….” She pounded the wall and felt tears on her cheeks.
“Why have I come here again? This will just happen all over, and….” She quickly wiped her face and tried to regain her composure. “No, Usagi-chan isn’t like that, nor the others…they wouldn’t.”
“Are you sure? You’ve been here before, Sora.” She sneered.
“Shutup. I can’t hide behind you forever…” Sora glared at the picture and saw her angry image before her. “I’m not alone anymore, and I don’t need hide behind this lonely wolf image I’ve created, and that means you.” She continued to glare until she saw another reflection behind her.
“Sora?” She whipped around and saw her father. “Are you ok?” She quickly nodded her head and put on a fake smile.
“Yea, just a little nervous. I guess I lost the others…” He looked worried but seemed to understand.
“Well my little bird, shall we go and find them?” she smiled a genuine smile. He hadn’t called her that in years. For the first time in a long time she felt close to him.
“Perhaps I’ve been blaming him all this time…?” They walked in silence for a while. “Sorry, father.”
“Hmmm? For what?” She stared at him and just couldn’t find the words to say. Instead she hugged him. In that moment, she felt that was more than words could say.
“I’ve missed you too.”
“Ah there you are, oh I see you found your old man.” Sora heard Hideaki’s voice and saw him and the others.
“So these are your friends, nice to meet you all! Sorry I can’t stay, I gotta put away some equipment.” With that he patted Sora’s head and left. He didn’t embarrass her, wasn’t overbearing or anything at all. Sora felt much better.
“You’re dad is shy isn’t he?” Usagi asked her.
“Old Shinji? Naw, he’s just tired. Ok, now come on kids, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for!” They were walking onto an elaborate Sci-Fi set. Sora could tell that they were all impressed. She was too actually; it looked like they were on a frozen cold planet with strange and bizarre vegetation. “If you think this is neat you should see our tech department, they do all the special effects.”
“I would love too!” Ami popped out, before realizing she did and blushed a bit.
“Don’t worry little lady, all in good time. Now all of this is under Shinji’s department.”
“Your dad does this?” Kamara asked her as he looked completely impressed. She nodded and looked about, feeling a sense of pride.
“This is where those long hours were poured into….”
“Yep, and he supervises the camera stuff as well. He is very valuable here and we all appreciate him…ah, Karin-san, is Katsumi-san ready to meet the winners of the contest?” He stopped and asked a very meek and stout woman.
“Oh, Hideaki-san. Just a moment, I was bringing her something, I’ll go and ask!” She ran off as quickly as she appeared behind a wall, that undoubtedly was where Katsumi’s dressing room was. Their attention was diverted when Minako unexpectedly made a gasp.
“Minako-chan…?” Sora heard Usagi ask as she was struggling to keep her composure. At the same moment, Rei also gasped.
“Rei-chan?” Usagi asked as she was twitching her head between the two.
“Ah, while we are waiting on Karin-san, would you like to meet Katsu-san?”
“Who…?” Usagi started but suddenly had both Minako and Rei’s hands over her mouth.
“Yes…” they both chirped while nodding their heads.
“HEY, Hiro-san, got a moment to meet some fans?” The thin, lanky, young, man nodded his head and wandered over.
“Yo!” He said as he flashed them his all famous idol smile. Sora saw all the girls swoon, and even felt her heart skip a bit. He was simply gorgeous and she had a hard time tearing herself from his silver eyes and perfect spiky punk strawberry blonde hair.
“These guys here are going to meet Katsumi-san in a few minutes and I was just giving a tour of the studio.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m sure you all know me, but just in case you don’t, I’m Katsu Hiro.” He smiled again and smirked as he saw Minako’s, Usagi’s and Rei’s expressions. “I’m Katsumi-san’s costar in this film, and I do hope you will support it!”
“We will…” the girls said in unison.
“Oh and this is Shinji’s daughter, Sora.” Hideaki continued and pointed over to her. She just wanted to die. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to meeting stars, idols and singers, none of them ever looked as cool and cute as he did. It freaked her out that Hideaki even said her name. Hiro’s expression softened up a bit when Hideaki said this, and Sora felt even more nervous.
“Well, very nice to meet you Sora-san, your father is a very talented man. We owe a lot to him.” With that he held her hand and kissed it. “Thank you for coming and bringing such nice friends here.” He smiled at her again, and Sora just nodded dumbly and felt that if she moved she would faint on the spot. Noone had ever, ever shown her such chivalry before and it was making her feel flushed, dizzy and over come with a well of happy emotions. “Please say hi to him.” He then nodded at Hideaki, and smiled at the others. Sora didn’t notice as she was trying to maintain her feet on the ground that Kamara had instinctively placed his hand on her shoulder. She did snap out of it as he whispered in her ear,
“Don’t fall for his pretty face, it’s just a façade.” She looked over at him as saw him looked slightly perturbed as Katsu-san walked away.
“Ah, Hideaki-san, Katsumi-san is ready to meet everyone.”
“Thank you Karin-san! Here is the moment you have been waiting for. Karin-san, could you please escort them, I have to make some quick calls.” He smiled at them all. “After your meeting, I’ll show you some of the wonders of my tech department.” Sora saw Ami’s face light up as he said this. They soon got over their previous excitement meeting one star and prepared themselves to meet an upcoming superstar. They wandered in the back, passed the doors with star’s names on them. Sora never remembered meeting anyone in his or her own dressing room before, and found it quite peculiar. Usually in the past they always came out to meet her and her so called ‘friends’. This experience was going to be new and she started to feel nervous and anxious again.
“Here they are Katsumi-san.” Karin bowed and ushered them in and they shut the door behind them. In front of them was the lovely, frail and elegant young woman with sky blue eyes and long golden blonde hair.
“Hello there, I’m very happy to meet you. I am Beta Katsumi. Who might you be?” Sora found her introduction slightly odd.
“It’s almost like she found it hard to introduce herself.” Sora shook away this feeling.
“Hello, my name is Aino Minako!” she bowed and smiled.
“I’m Tskunio Usagi, and I love your films!” Usagi said excitedly. Sora noticed that Minako slightly frowned at her.
“Probably wishes she said I love the film bit.” Sora inwardly thought as she smirked.
“Hino Rei, and I’m also a big fan of yours.”
“I’m…I’m..Mizuno Ami.” Ami blushed and hurriedly bowed.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Kamara Ryu.” He then tapped Sora on the shoulder.
“Weirdo.” “My name is…”
“Ah and you, you are Shiori-san’s daughter, Soran, yes?” Sora nodded and still felt uneasy.
“Yes, I’m Shiori Sora.” She stressed on her first name as Katsumi-san said it wrong.
“Ah, lovely name. Means sky, yes?” Sora nodded again.
“Very, very pleased to meet you all. So do you have questions, I assume yes?” Minako was just twitching and nodded rapidly.
“What is your favorite scene to do?”
“Good question, uh, Minako-chan, yes?” Minako looked thrilled and smiled. “I like to do dramatic scenes, yes, with lots of emotions. Makes people see the light and dark in things. Very good energy, make people love this energy. More people see, happier I feel, yes.” She was looking about the room, and then stared into space for a while.
“Weird answer…”
“You are so devoted to your work Beta-san!” Minako squealed.
“Oh, please, all of you call me Katsumi, yes. It’s not formal here. You are all guests of mine. Please sit down and feel comfortable, yes?” Everyone found a spot, with Rei and Ami in separate chairs by a couch which Usagi, Minako, Sora and Kamara all squeezed into.
“I never wanted to be this close to him…” Sora thought as she felt her elbow bump into his. “Sorry..” she mouthed and saw him smile but looking a little uncomfortable as well.
“More questions?” Ami spoke up at this.
“Are you Greek Be..I mean Katsumi?” Katsumi-san laughed at this and grinned.
“Yes, I guess you can tell I’m not Japanese, yes? Very smart, Ami-chan, yes? Ah no, but I is not Greek, just a stage name, yes? I’m how you say…” she stared and looked at Sora piercingly before returning her gaze to Ami, “Ah foreign, I am. Not from here, but I love to put on an act, er um, to act yes?” Sora wiggled a bit, the couch was uncomfortable and she felt a little shy after the long stare Katsumi-san gave her.
“I don’t like how she avoided her question…besides she looks familiar….”
“May I ask question, yes?” All of them nodded, except Kamara who was starting to look bored. “What do you like in movie?”
“I love romance!” both Minako and Usagi said at the same time.
“I really like romantic comedies too,” Usagi clarified a bit.
“Yes, yes, both good energies, hard to act, but good yes?”
“I love drama, romance and action! It has to makes sense and it needs to be fast paced!” Rei had a twinkle in her eye as she was remembering some of her favorite films.
“I like the science related films and documentaries, though I do appreciate a good story as well.” Ami added.
“Ah, good, good genres, very good, yes? What about you, Ryu-chan?” Sora felt Kamara stiffen as she called him by his first name.
“I, I like action, that has a good plot and flows well. I also love comedies, Beta-san.” He stressed on saying her last name. Sora found that amusing.
“I guess she unnerved him. Deserves him right, now he knows how it feels.” Sora saw Katsumi-san staring at her next.
“Oh, I like fantasy…” she said meekly as everyone looked at her.
“Such as..?” Katsumi-san inquired.
“Like elves, fairies. Oh and I love scifi, especially with space and such, with super heroes, or stories about the weather…” she trailed off as Kamara chucked.
“You are…” he started but was interrupted by Katsumi-san who finished his sentence.
“…as I would expect from you. We are too alike…yes?” She said this without her strange accent and had her eyes flicker to dark color, almost black for a moment. Sora felt chills down her spine and tried to see if anyone else noticed. They were discussing what Sora just said.
“They can’t hear me, Soran-chan. Thank you for the gift though. I wasn’t expecting this, perhaps this is a trick or are you that naïve?” Sora then noticed Katsumi-san looked to her and then to Usagi and back. “Perhaps you know who I am now and want to help me out? I may have a deal for you…if that is the case.” Sora then noticed the room getting dark.
“Are you ok Sora?” She quickly looked at Kamara who was giving her a worried look.
“I..I need to use the bathroom.” She got up quickly and left. “What…what the heck was that…?” she thought as she got out onto the set. She felt extremely scared and nervous as she wiped her sweaty palms against her skirt. She suddenly felt a breeze and her hand tingling. Looking down she saw her bracelet glowing like it did the night before.
“Thank you for the gift…” Katsumi-san’s words echoed from the bracelet, as she lifted her hand to her face. She suddenly had another strange vision, again from what it did before when she saw the hamster, instead she saw Katsumi-san repeating her words, as she was looking at Usagi with an expression of hunger, and anticipation.
“No way. It’s like I’m watching what I just experienced in slow motion…” She felt an intense fear as the wind distracted her by picking up some papers on the floor that flowed back towards Katsumi-san’s dressing room. It then hit her, like a ton of bricks. “She’s…she is after Usagi-chan!” Sora started running but felt her movements become extremely sluggish.
“Sora-san!” she glanced over her shoulder and saw Katsu-san waving at her. She tripped and fell on the floor.
“Where did he come from…?”
“Ouch, that must’ve hurt!” he said as he helped her up.
“Sorry, you just surprised me…” Sora quietly said as she found herself lost in his deeply mysterious silver eyes.
“I have that affect on people…” he said rather sheepishly. The wind blew between them and she heard again a previous comment, but from Kamara.
“Don’t fall for his pretty face…a façade…façade…” Sora blinked and realized his eyes enraptured her.
“Where is the real Katsu Hiro?” she asked, rather surprised that she even thought of the question, and was quite unsure where it came from. He laughed at her.
“What do you mean Sora-san? Perhaps you truly injured yourself. I can take you to the company’s nurse…?” She glared at him as the wind picked up the papers and wrapped them around her trying to guide her to Katsumi-san’s direction. “That determine look, you have, it makes you even lovelier…S..o…r…a-chan…” she felt frozen as he continued to walk towards him.
“Don’t look into his eyes…” she trying to close them, but listening to her own advice and doing it were two different things.
“You are very pretty, perhaps I can keep you in a cage…” His comments disturbed her, causing her to open her eyes. She found herself diving into those beautiful silvery pools. “That’s right my rare golden eyed bird…keep looking.” She felt extremely sluggish and even the wind picked up, she found it very difficult to move, and to breathe. She keep thinking only of him, his eyes…gorgeous eyes.
“Sora-chan? Why is your leg bleeding?” The trance was instantly broken as she saw both Kamara and Usagi standing together, looking at them. Sora then looked back at Katsu-san and quickly backed away from him.
“I tripped…” she said in a rather monotone voice.
“I helped her up, and was going to escort her to the company’s nurse.” He said in a nice cheery and completely different voice. Sora watched him as he walked over to them, and noticed that Usagi completely believed him. She saw that Kamara raised his eyebrows and looked unimpressed. A slight breeze fluttered on Sora’s cheek and knew she had to get Usagi and the others out of there. She didn’t completely understand her mission as a sailor solider, but she instantly knew they were after her friend, and had to protect her. She was extremely disturbed that her new opponents were where her father worked. She shrugged this feeling quickly and grabbed Usagi’s arm as Katsu-san tried some idol chit-chat with her.
“Usagi-chan, why are you here?”
“Oh, Kamara-san and I were worried when you left so suddenly. We thought you got sick…” Sora smiled and looked over at Kamara.
“I have to do this smoothly, and get out of this wasp’s nest without the others realizing what danger we are in. I got to act now…” She hated to put Kamara into the frying pan, but she had to get the others out of Katsumi-san’s room. Taking a deep breath she grabbed his hand and gave him her sweetest smile. She noticed he was very focused on Katsu-san’s actions, but the moment she touched him he looked very surprised.
“Ryu-kun, could you ask the others to come back here? We gotta find Hideaki before it gets to late.” She stressed on the word late and lowered her eyes. He seemed to have gotten the message.
“No problem!” He walked away, looking at her, Usagi and Katsu-san.
“He seems worried…could he tell something was wrong…?” She shook her head. “Can’t worry about that, gotta get them out of here!”
“Why don’t I take you to the nurse hmmm?” Katsu said, looking them both up and down. “He is such a smooth talker…” Sora twitched and glared at him quickly.
“Does it hurt that bad?” Usagi asked as she obviously saw her reaction.
“No, I’m fine.” She said flatly while still holding onto Usagi’s arm. She didn’t want to let her go, fearing that something terrible would happen if she did.
“It’s my obligation, Sora-san. Your father will get very upset if he found out I didn’t help you.” Sora couldn’t respond as Usagi also interjected herself.
“Come on Sora-chan, the others will catch up. Your poor leg.” Usagi gave her a very sad look as she started to walk, forcing Sora as well.
“This isn’t good…what is that thing up to? Where is Kamara?” she looked over her shoulder while thinking in normal circumstances she would have never wanted to see him this badly as she did now. Slowly they entered a hallway, climbed up some stairs and walked past a couple of empty offices. Usagi and Katsu were once again doing idol chit-chat. Sora felt strength as she held onto Usagi this entire time.
“It’s as if I can repel off his trance abilities when I hold her arm.” She saw Usagi’s smile at something he said. “What is it about her they want? What is her strange power…?” She felt a breeze that blew both of their hair when they entered the nurse’s office. The window was open, causing the breeze and the blinds flap gently in the room. Sora saw it was getting dark…and even Usagi made a comment about it.
“Well after the nurse sees you, I guess we should be going home.” She said as she gave her a gentle smile. Sora noticed Usagi started to move about the room, causing Sora to let go of her arm.
“Usagi-chan…” Sora uttered as Usagi turned to look at her, but Katsu got in front of Sora.
“Lucky!” he exclaimed as went to reach for Usagi.
“Don’t you touch her!” Sora yelled and went to hit him in the back. She was expecting pain from this impact, but instead she felt she put her hand into glue.
“I was just catching her Sora-chan.” His head did a complete 360 as he stared at her. “She is in my trance.” Sora tried to get her arm out of his back frantically, as panic welled up in her. “I wouldn’t worry about her my golden eye bird…she isn’t my prey. You are…” Sora screamed.
"He isn’t human…he is like those things I fought a while ago. Oh God…..”
“Yes, I love this, the fear, the screams!” He still had maintained his human form as he made his entire body form in her direction.
“LET ME GOOOOOO!” He was now hugging her close to him and trying to get her to stare at him.
“No my little pet…you are so lovely. I’ll give this ugly one to my mistress, I’m sure she will let me keep you.” Sora flinched and struggled, trying to kick him.
“That tickles my golden-eye dear, now just look into my eyes. It will be ok…” Sora felt her strength giving out, as she brought her hand to her face. “Stop it my lovely. You don’t have any power any more…now your friend is asleep on the floor, just accept this and become mine…” She gritted her teeth and felt a huge gust of wind and saw papers flying about. One flew in his face and she saw her bracelet with an extremely strong aura around it.
“Say it Eta Carinae!” The hamster’s voice echoed from it. She had forgotten she could transform.
“Eta Carinae, MAKEUP!” She was engulfed in a huge blue intense light.
“Where…what?” Sora jumped away from him, as he was blinded by the brightness of her transformation light. In a split second she became Sailor Eta Carinae and jumped away from Katsu-san and by Usagi who was draped halfway on a nurse’s bed and on the floor.
“Usagi-chan…” The wind blew her right cheek causing her to turn to that direction. She saw Katsu peeling the papers off his face.
“What did you do my pet…oh.” He stared at her and gave her a monstrously huge and hungry smile. “Such light, you have. This explains everything, you are a nebula senshi. That’s why I like you so much.”
“Shutup.” She lowered her eyes.
“Ah, you want to play? Fine then, I’ll capture you and put you in a cage, my delicious bird, and feed on your banks of light….” She felt her eye twitched.
“You disgust me, pig!” She crossed her arms, but didn’t have enough time to start her attack as he made his arms elongate and reached for her neck. She barely dodged him.
“You are a tad slow, my bird.” He jumped for her, and she rolled underneath, smashing into a glass cabinet of medical supplies. “Oh, don’t break your little, ittle wing.” He said in a condescending tone. She gripped her shoulder and struggled on her feet.
“I have to blind him…then I can use my attack, but with what?” He was being a little cocky now, walking slowly to her with a victorious smug on his face. She grabbed a bottle and read the label. Her eyebrow raised and smirked a little. “
I like it when you call me that…” she tried to sound seductive as she quietly opened the bottle and put it behind her back.
“Oh…?” he looked amused as he walked closer.
“Yes, I’m sorry if I’m acting poorly. I can be your good little bird too…” she wanted to gag from this, but if putting on this charade would appeal to his ego, she would use it to her advantage.
“I would like that very much…” he was now just two steps away from her face. She traced her fingers on his chest causing his eyes to light up.
“Now’s my chance!” She quickly flung the opened bottle of fluid into his eyes and ran away, ignoring the intense pain in her shoulder.
“ARRRGGGHH!” he screamed as he covered his eyes with his hands and flailed wildly about.
“Gotta love alcohol, it’s good for cleansing wounds.” She said as she crossed her arms. “Eta Carinae ultraviolet emission!” she screamed and a small intense light formed from her wrists, slowly becoming larger until it was dinner plate sized. She then thrusted it towards him, as he was still frantically clawing at his face. It hit him point blank and a huge tower of light engulfed him causing him to evaporate.
“Feed on that bank of light…” she muttered as watched a shadowy creature fly above and out of him screaming and wailing until it vanished. She collapsed on the ground, landing on her knees, when she noticed that his body was still there. I hope he is the real thing, and is still alive. She was gripping her shoulder and saw the room was swirling about her. “I must have used all my strength and he probably drugged me or something with that eye trick…” she thought as she fell face forward on the ground. “I hope Usagi-chan is ok.” She felt her eyes getting heavy as she heard footsteps first faintly and then louder. She closed them for just a moment and opened them when she heard quite abit of commotion.
“Usagi-chan!! Sora-chan!!”
“What happened?”
“Are you ok?”
“Isn’t that Katsu-san?”
“Look at all the broken glass…”
“Were they mugged?”
“Someone call security!”
“Usagi and this guy aren’t waking up!” Sora didn’t open them as she heard everyone panicking and trying to figure out the situation. She did feel a strong grip on her shoulders, causing more pain and her eyes to open. Blinking slowly and still seeing everything out of focus she could make out a pair of extremely worried ice blue eyes.
“Sora…are you…?” she didn’t hear the rest as the voices started to slow and drag, like she was underwater.
“I like staring at those eyes…” she thought as she closed hers again. “I’m so tired…” she muttered and drifted into a deep sleep.
“Sora dear, here are some more flowers!” Sora glanced as she saw her mother bring in another lovely vase, this time containing pale yellow lilies, her favorite flower.
“Who are they from?”
“Let’s see…” her mother set it down and read the little note.
“It says get well soon my lady, but no signature…” she flipped the card and looked confused. “There is a silly drawing of a dragon though.” Sora smirked a little and shook her head.
“Kamara-kun is really something else. His first name means dragon…”
“How very odd.” Her mother continued. Sora smiled gently as she watched her fidget with all of the floral arrangements, trying to get them organized. She got some from her friends, and a lot from the movie studio itself. She turned and looked at her dad who was wiping his glasses with a Kleenex.
“The doctor says you can go home tomorrow, he thinks that your shoulder wound will heal pretty soon.” Sora nodded her head and continued smiling as he put them on and went to pat her on the head. She had been in the hospital for about 2 days and missed a bit of school. The media had told everyone that someone was trying to kill Katsu-san and he heroically saved the day by rescuing his two adoring fans that were with him at the time. Sora snorted. Of course she was relived that she had de-transformed when she collapsed and noone knew the truth, but to give him praise was just more than she could stand.
“Even though he isn’t possessed anymore, I just don’t like him.” She spotted the huge balloon, flowers and card he had sent her. “I wonder what he remembers?” she thought as she remembered how he, Usagi and all of her friends visited her the day before. “I’m glad they recovered so quickly, it’s really amazing.”
“So what do you want for dinner tonight?” her mother asked as she went over to Sora’s bedside.
“I’m sure, not more of this terrible food.” Her father wrinkled his nose. Sora giggled remembering how he tasted her lunch earlier.
“I don’t care, like father said, anything is better than what I’ve been getting.”
“Alright, we shall get the finest cuisine for you my little bird.” Sora inwardly cringed. She wasn’t fond of that nickname as she used to be.
“Yet if father calls me that, it is different.”
“We will be back dear.” Her mother then kissed her on her forehead and walked out of the room, arm in arm with her father. Sora sighed and felt extremely stressed. It wasn’t about her parents, but what had happened.
“I need to find those cats the hamster talked about to me, before this gets worse.” She had an uneasy knot in her stomach, as she pictured Katsumi-san’s eyes flash from periwinkle blue to a soulless black. “I don’t want my father working in the same place as that…” she shuddered. “That woman. I…I gotta get help!” She then remembered Kamara-kun’s face, right before she passed out. “Why am I thinking of him?” She shook her head and stared at her IV solution. “Oh well, I thought Usagi-chan said she had a cat named,” she paused for a moment trying to recall the name. “Was it Lunar, Moony, Archilles or something like that? I’ll see if this cat is the one that can help me, and I gotta do it when no one is around. I don’t want to look crazy…” she felt the gentle summer breeze caress her cheek.
“You agree don’t you?” She smiled and closed her eyes. She felt this was a good sign. “I’m not alone anymore, I can do this. I just need some help…” with that thought she drifted into a nice nap with the warm breeze making her feel more comfortable then she had felt in a long time.
END Episode Eight.