Sailormoonland Big Bang, Part 2

[heavenly_pearl]

Rei’s eyes fluttered opened, and she groaned, feeling a wave of dizziness wash over her as she struggled to focus her vision on her new surroundings.

She was no longer at the Hikawa shrine. Whoever had attacked them had imprisoned them in a small, windowless room. The only source of illumination came from a naked light bulb hanging above her head. Her wrists and ankles were bound together by metal handcuffs, and a few feet away, she found Suzume laying on her side, similarly trussed up.

"Kimura-san!"

Rei used the little mobility she had to scoot over to her father’s fiancée, relieved to see that Suzume was at least still breathing, although she remained unconscious.

"What’s going on here? What happened to us?"

Her memories were hazy. She remembered talking to Suzume, but then they were attacked and… She couldn’t recall what happened next. They must have been knocked out somehow. Chloroform?

But why? She didn’t think it was a new enemy. Their attackers’ methods were too mundane, too human, to be the work of some supernatural entity.

She shook her head. That wasn’t important at the moment. They needed to find a way out of there.

If only she could transform into Sailor Mars, it would be a simple matter to break out. Unfortunately, she didn’t have her henshin stick on hand. With things being so peaceful for so long, Rei had fallen out of the habit of carrying it and her communicator everywhere she went. Even if she did happen to have those items with her, it would have been difficult to use them with her hands bound together behind her back.

She glanced around the room, searching for anything that might prove useful in setting them free, but it was completely empty except for the two of them. No beds, no chairs, no boxes… No windows, either, and there were likely guards posted outside the door, blocking the one possible escape route.

She sighed. As much as she hated to admit it, there was little she could do at this point, except hope that somebody would notice they were missing and come rescue them. With her grandfather out of town, though, and her friends wrapped up in studying for their upcoming college entrance exams, it would probably be a while before anybody realized she was gone.

As for her father… He was probably too busy working to even care about his fiancée‘s absence, much less hers.

Suzume moaned, finally stirring from her sleep.

"Kimura-san, are you okay?" Rei asked.

"Rei-chan?" She blinked a couple of times. "I-I think so," she said, struggling to sit up against the wall. "What happened?"

"We’ve been kidnapped, I think, although I don’t know by whom. I didn’t see who attacked us. Did you?"

Suzume seemed unsurprised by what happened. "It’s the Takishima-gumi. It has to be."

"The Takishima-gumi? You mean, as in the Yakuza?"

Her face grim, she nodded. "They’ve been trying to blackmail Takashi for the past couple of weeks," Suzume revealed. "Their main source of revenue is the sex trade, but a new bill that Takashi introduced in the Diet will make it more difficult to conduct their business if passed. They’re the ones who leaked the news of our affair and my pregnancy to the media. We decided it was more important to get the bill passed than to protect our reputations, so he didn’t take them up on their offer to keep quiet in exchange for withdrawing the bill."

"But otou-sama told me he didn’t know how the media found out about you," Rei said, remembering the conversation they had right after the scandal broke out.

"He didn’t want to worry you." She frowned. "But what happened to our bodyguards? Why didn’t they come to our rescue when we were attacked?"

"Bodyguards?" Rei thought back to the previous night when she had arrived at her father’s apartment for dinner. "You mean, those guards weren’t there to keep away the paparazzi?"

"They did that, too, but your father mainly hired them to protect us in case something like this happened. One of them has been guarding you, too, in secret," Suzume said. "They’re supposedly some of the best in the business, so I don’t understand what happened to them."

She got her answer a few minutes later when the door to the room swung open and a heavy-set man in a black suit stepped inside. Rei had never seen him before, but Suzume let out a small gasp, apparently recognizing him.

"Yamaguchi-kun?" Another man walked up behind the first. "Touma-kun?" Suzume’s eyes narrowed. "You were the ones who kidnapped us? But you were hired to protect us!"

"Sorry, Kimura-san," the second man -- Touma -- said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "The Takishima-gumi offered us a deal that was too sweet to pass up. Don’t worry; you won’t be harmed as long as Hino-sama does as he‘s told." He turned to his partner. "I’ll let the boss know that they’ve regained conscious."

Yamaguchi nodded his understanding, and Touma left to relay the message.

"How could you do this to us?" Suzume demanded to know, still seething in anger at the bodyguards’ betrayal. "Have you no honor? No pride?"

"I don’t want to hear that from a woman who uses her body to get ahead in her career," Yamaguchi said, looking down at her.

Suzume was too stunned by the accusation to react, looking as if she had just been slapped in the face.

"When will you set us free?" Rei asked, wanting some answers. "Has my father been contacted yet? Has he agreed to your boss’s demands?"

"The trade-off will be tonight. If all goes according to plan, you’ll be released in time to enjoy a late family dinner and fall asleep in your own cozy beds."

"And if it doesn’t?" Her heart began to race a little faster. "What will happen to us if otou-sama refuses to follow orders?"

"You just better pray to whatever deity you worship that he does," was all Yamaguchi would say before he left as well, slamming the door shut behind him.

Great, Rei thought bitterly. Otou-sama is the last person I want to depend on in this situation. Again, she berated herself for becoming lax about keeping her henshin stick and communicator with her at all times. When they got out of there -- if they ever got of there -- she would make certain she never made that mistake again.

She glanced over at Suzume, who seemed to be doing her best not to break down. In spite of her efforts, however, a few stubborn tears ran down her cheeks. "It’s not true," she said in a soft, barely audible voice. "It’s not. I love him. It wasn’t like that at all."

"Kimura-san?"

"You believe me, right, Rei-chan?" She looked up. "What that man said, it was a lie. You have to believe me. I would never do something like that."

"I…" Seeing the desperation on Suzume’s face, Rei sighed. She didn’t know -- or particularly care -- whether or not the woman had slept with her father just to further her career, but if it mattered to her so much… "Yes, I believe you, Kimura-san," she said.

Suzume managed a small, grateful smile. "Thank you."

"But will otou-sama really do as they say?" Rei asked, turning the subject to far more pressing matters. "They want him to retract some bill proposal, right? Do you think he’ll actually do it?

"He’ll think of something," she declared, pulling herself back together. "I know he will, so don’t worry. Everything is going to be fine."

Rei only wished she could have the same kind of faith in Hino Takashi as Suzume did.

*****

The hours went by slowly. With no windows or clocks in sight, it was difficult to judge what time of day it was. It could still be morning, or it might have already been nightfall.

Their captors didn’t provide any meals, either. Rei was starving, but she imagined Suzume was even more so, considering her pregnancy. To her credit, however, she didn’t complain about the lack of food even once. Had Usagi been in the same situation, Rei was certain she would whine about it to high heaven, a thought that might have made her laugh if things weren’t so serious.

"I’m sorry, Rei-chan," Suzume said, pulling Rei away from her thoughts. It was the first thing either of them had said in quite a while.

"For what?"

"It’s my fault you got dragged into this. Takashi told me that I shouldn’t leave the apartment unless it was absolutely necessary, but I didn’t listen and went to the shrine to talk to you. I thought it would be okay as long as Yamaguchi-kun and Touma-kun were there to protect us, but…"

"I don’t blame you, Kimura-san." Rei let out a weary sigh. "If anyone is at fault for this, it’s otou-sama."

"I wish you wouldn’t say things like that…"

"Well, it’s the truth, isn’t it?" she snapped, unable to hide her anger any longer. "If he had just given into their demands in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess."

"Do you really want such a weak-willed father?" Suzume wondered. "Do you even know what the bill is about?"

"No, and I don’t really care."

"Well, you should, because it’s important piece of legislation that will hopefully protect thousands of men, women, and children from becoming victims of human trafficking. That’s what the Takishima-gumi do, Rei-chan. They go to China, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, and they convince poor, uneducated women to come to Japan, where they force them into participating in prostitution and pornography. So, knowing that, do you really think your father should have given in to these monsters‘ demands, just to keep his family safe from harm?"

"I-I didn’t realize," Rei said, feeling ashamed for her earlier outburst. "I just --"

"I know." Suzume scooted over to Rei so that they were sitting side by side, their backs against the wall. "You’re hungry, and you’re tired, and you’re sore. You’re looking for somebody to blame, but this isn’t your father’s fault. He made a tough decision, but I still believe it was the right one. If you want to be pissed off at somebody, then direct your anger at the Takishima-gumi. They’re the ones who really deserve it."

"You’re right." Behind her back, Rei clenched her hands into tight fists and began pulling them in opposite directions with all her strength. If only she could free herself from the handcuffs… But she didn’t have the physical strength in her civilian form to break them. Even Makoto might have found it a difficult task to perform. "Dammit," she swore under her breath, her wrists aching from the attempt.

"Rei-chan, are you okay?"

Rei lightly banged the back of her head against the wall. "I’m fine," she said. "I just wish there was something I could do to get us out of here."    

"It shouldn’t be much longer now," Suzume said. "Yamaguchi said the trade-off would be tonight."

"But what is otou-sama going to do, Kimura-san? You just told me that the bill was too important for him to drop. If he refuses to do what they say…" Rei tried very hard not to think about what would happen to them if things didn’t go the way the gang wanted. "What are we going to do?"

"I don’t know," she admitted in a soft voice, losing some of the faith she had shown earlier. "I just don’t know."

The both of them were startled a few minutes later when the door opened once again. Rather than Yamaguchi and Touma, their new visitors were two heavily tattooed men who roughly pulled Suzume and Rei to their feet after releasing the cuffs around their ankles. Rei, seeing a chance to escape, attempted to knee her handler in the groin, but he quickly blocked her, pulling her toward him and holding a sharp knife at her throat.

"Rei-chan!" Suzume shouted.

"No funny business, girlie, if ya know what’s good for you," the man growled. "Do you understand?"

Rei gave a slight nod, and the man shoved her forward, out of the small room that had been their prison and into a narrow corridor.

"Now walk," he barked, keeping one hand gripped to her arm so tightly that Rei had to bite down on her lip to keep from crying out.

Suzume and the other man followed after them, taking up the rear.

They were led inside what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse, where several more gang members had assembled, armed with knives, pipes, and guns. In the very center of the room, standing underneath an overhead light, was Rei’s father, carrying a large black suitcase in his hand. His eyes widened when he saw them come in.

"Suzume-san. Rei-san."

"Takashi!" Upon seeing him, Suzume attempted to break free of her handler’s grasp, but one of the other members stepped forward to discipline her, slapping a long metal pipe against the palm of his hand.

"Stop!" Rei’s father ordered. "Don’t harm her. I brought the money like you asked." He set the suitcase down on the cement floor, then stepped back, his hands in the air. "One hundred million yen, in cash."

A man dressed in flashy clothes Rei assumed was the gang leader signaled for one of his flunkies to bring the suitcase to him. The underling opened the suitcase and presented it to his boss, who inspected it, making certain the cash was real and not counterfeit.

"It’s a start, Hino," the boss said, dismissing the flunky with a wave of his hand, "but money is not our main objective. You know what we really want. Kill the bill."

"Let them go," Rei’s father said. "They have nothing to do with this. This is between you and me."

"Oh, but wasn’t it this one who convinced ya to introduce the bill in the first place?" He walked over to Suzume. "You should have left well enough alone, missie. Women have no place in politics. After all, the only things they’re good for is cleaning and screwing, am I right, boys?"

Her eyes narrowed in righteous fury as the other gang members voiced their agreement, Suzume spat in his face.

"Honestly, I don’t get what you see in this one, Hino," he said, wiping his cheek with a handkerchief. "She’s not even that pretty. Now, the miko, on the other hand…"

"Stay away from Rei-chan, you pig!" Suzume shouted, straining against her handler‘s hold on her. "She really doesn’t have anything to do with this."

"Suzume-san, please," Rei’s father begged. "You’re making things worse."

The boss smirked. "Yes, listen to your man like a proper little woman should."

"I will not," she said, defiant. "If you want to punish me for my role in creating the bill, fine, you can have me, but let Rei-chan go. You got your money; that should be enough to buy her freedom. She’s only a child!"

"Kimura-san…" Rei murmured, shocked that Suzume would be willing to sacrifice herself to protect her.

"A child, huh?" The boss’s lecherous eyes roamed up Rei’s body, causing her to shudder in disgust. "She don’t look much like a child to me."

"You really are a pig," Rei’s father declared, his hands clenched at his sides. "I came here hoping to settle things diplomatically, but…"

"But what? What can someone like you do to me?" The boss laughed when he failed to provide an answer. "Yeah, that’s what I thought. You talk tough, but you don’t have the guts to follow through -- just what I’d expect from a politician. You might as well give it up now, ‘cause unlike you, I always follow through on my threats. In fact, why don’t I give you a little taste of what will happen to your daughter if I don’t get what I want?"

Rei’s heart began pounding against her ribcage as he walked over to her and roughly yanked up her chin, forcing her to look into eyes of evil. "Such a pretty little thing, isn’t she?" he said, licking his chapped lips. "I always did find girls dressed as miko a turn-on, and to think she’s the real, genuine article. A virgin, right?"

She glared at him, refusing to dignify the question with a response. The boss let go of his grip on her chin, and his hand slithered downwards, moving to slide underneath her robes. Rei was just about kick him where it would hurt the most, when --

"Get your filthy hands off my daughter, you bastard!"

Rei had never heard her father sound so angry before in her entire life, his voice full of venom as he pulled a gun out from a holster hidden underneath his blazer. The boss, taken by surprise, removed his hand from Rei’s chest and turned around.

"My, my, an elected official in the possession of an illegal firearm?" He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and shook his head. Despite the fact that the gun was aimed directly at him, he didn’t appear too concerned by the threat, seeming almost amused by the whole thing. "What is this country coming to?"

Rei’s father’s arm shook, yet he kept the gun directed at the boss, not backing down. "Release Suzume-san and Rei-san right now, or I’ll shoot."

"You don’t have the balls to shoot me, Hino," he said, pulling out his own gun. "Me, on the other hand? I don’t have a problem with it."

Without as much as a warning, he shot Rei’s father in the shoulder, forcing him to discard the gun. Groaning, he fell down to his knees, gripping his wounded arm with his good hand.

"Takashi!" Suzume shrieked at the same time Rei found herself shouting, "Otou-sama!"

After picking up the gun her father had dropped from the floor, the boss walked up to him and pressed the barrel of his gun against his temple. The other gun -- her father’s gun -- he pointed in the direction of where Rei and Suzume were being held.

"I’ve had enough playing Mr. Nice Guy," the boss said. His voice was no longer mocking, but cool and serious. "If you don’t agree to make that bill disappear in the next minute, I’ll put a bullet in your brain, then have a little fun with your mistress and your cute daughter before sending them to join you. Yeah, I think that will serve quite nicely as a warning to any of your other buddies who might be thinking of throwing their support behind the bill. So, what’s it gonna be, Hino? Will you choose to save your family, or will you die for your politics?"

Rei never heard her father’s answer, for at that moment, the warehouse was filled with a familiar fog, throwing everything into chaos.

*****

"What the hell?" Rei’s handler muttered, loosening his grip on her arm.

It was just the opening she was waiting for. Turning around, Rei used all her strength to ram her shoulder into him, pushing him into the wall behind them. The man hit his head hard against the brick and slumped down to ground, knocked unconscious.

"Good work, Rei-chan," Venus said, jumping down from the catwalk above them as the rest of the senshi began engaging the other gang members in battle. Using her Love-Me Chain attack, she tied the man up with an energy rope. "Are you alright?"

Rei smiled, never so glad to see her friends in her life. "Yeah," she said, pivoting around to show Venus the handcuffs. "Just get these things off of me, will you? That guy should have the key on him. Check his pockets."

Venus quickly located a set of keys and got to work on freeing Rei.

"How did you find us?" Rei asked as Venus tried to figure out which key would unlock the handcuffs.

"Ami-chan’s computer. I needed a study break, so I dropped by the shrine to ask if you wanted to catch a late movie. When I saw you weren’t around, though, I got a little worried and contacted the others. Ah, I think this is it!" Locating the right key, she released Rei from the handcuffs, then handed her the Mars henshin wand. "Here, I thought this might come in handy."  

"Thanks."

As Venus left to go help the others with the fighting, Rei held up her wand and called out, "Mars Crystal Power, Make-up!" Since Mercury’s fog was so thick, there was no need to worry about being discovered. A blaze of fire engulfed her body, and a few moments later, Rei was transformed into her alter-ego, Sailor Mars.

"Rei-san!"

"Rei-chan!"

Somewhere in the dense fog, Rei heard her father and Suzume calling out her name. Thank goodness they’re still alive! she thought. When the fog first appeared, she had heard a number of gunshots go off, some of the gang members probably startled by the appearance of the strange phenomenon. She worried that one of the stray bullets might have hit one of them.

They needed to get out of there, though, especially her father. Following the sound of their voices, Rei made her way through the fog until she finally found them walking together, her father leaning against Suzume for support. He looked pale, and the sleeve of his expensive suit jacket was soaked in blood.

Rei had to cover her mouth to stop herself from crying out when she saw him. Right now, she was Sailor Mars; she couldn’t betray herself as Hino Rei.

"You two need to get out of here," she said in an as authoritative voice she as she could manage. "Call for the ambulance and the police."

Her father shook his head. "No," he said, coughing. "I have to find my daughter first. I can‘t leave her."

"S-She’s fine." Rei glanced away, afraid that if she looked him in the eye, she would start crying. Ten years, he had treated her almost as if she didn’t exist, yet as he barely hung onto life, his only thought was making sure she was safe. "She snuck out when the fighting first broke out," she lied.

"Are you certain?" Suzume asked, tightening her grip around her injured fiancé’s waist as she struggled to hold him up. Somehow, she had gotten free of her own handcuffs.

"Yes, now go! The exit is that way. I’ll cover you."

Rei followed the two of them as they slowly made their way toward the door she hoped led outside, throwing her ofuda scrolls at any gang member they came across. If the losers hadn’t been human, she would have taken great pleasure in using her powers to make them burn to ashes in a fiery inferno, but she supposed she would just have to be satisfied with making sure they all received the maximum amount of jail time when it was all over.

Every once in a while, she glanced over at her father, who seemed to be growing weaker by the moment. He had lost a severe amount of blood, and Suzume was having trouble holding him up, but Rei couldn’t help her when she was busy fighting off attackers.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally managed to find their way out of the warehouse. Rei breathed a sigh of relief, but the peace was not to last. Only a few steps away from the exit, her father collapsed, pulling Suzume halfway down with him. Suzume screamed at the top of her lungs, and it took all of Rei’s willpower not to do the same. Though she meant to go back inside and help the others once she got them out of harm’s way, her body remained frozen in place.

"Takashi! Takashi!" Suzume kneeled down beside him, taking his hand in hers. "Stay with me, sweetheart," she said, tears running down her cheeks. "Please, stay with me."

"Suzume-san…" His voice was weak, and every word he spoke seemed to take an extraordinary amount of effort. "I’m sorry. This is my fault. I should --"

She shook her head, cutting him off. "No, you’re not to blame. That bill will protect so many people; it needs to be passed. We worked so hard on it…"

He gave her a small smile. "I love you," he said. "I never told you that, did I?" He slipped his hand out of her grasp and placed it against Suzume’s stomach. "Sorry, I don’t think I will be able to keep my promise. Take care of Rei-san and the baby for me…"

At that last part, Rei could no longer hold back her tears, and her Sailor Mars transformation faded away.

Suzume gasped. "R-Rei-chan? You’re…?"

Rei kneeled down on the other side of her father, ignoring Suzume’s unfinished question. There would be time later to explain.

"Otou-sama, don’t say things like that!" she begged. "Your baby needs you." She choked back a sob. "I-I need you."

"Rei-san… I’m…so sorry…"

"No." Rei wiped away her tears with her hands. "Don’t you dare abandon me again," she said. "If you do, I really will never forgive you, so you have to live. Do you hear me? You are not dying!" She tore off one of her sleeves and handed it to Suzume. "Use this to apply pressure to the wound. Otou-sama, do you have a cell with you?"

"Jacket… Left pocket."

Rei located the phone and contacted emergency services, praying that they would make would make it there in time.

*****

"How is he?" Rei asked Suzume, slipping into her father’s hospital room a couple of hours later.

While Suzume had accompanied him to the hospital, Rei had gone with the police to give them her statement, knowing that she would drive herself crazy if she had to sit around, waiting for news on her father’s condition. At least talking to cops made her feel like she was doing something useful.

"Oh, Rei-chan, you‘re back."

Suzume sat in the chair next to her father’s bed, holding his left hand in between her own. He was asleep, most likely still under anesthesia, and his right shoulder was wrapped in bandages. Though he still looked rather pale to Rei, he was beginning to get some of his color back.

"The surgery was successful," Suzume said in a strained voice, "but, um, the doctors said that he might not ever fully regain control of his arm." She set his hand back down on the bed and brushed away her tears, trying to compose herself. "Sorry, I -- What happened with the police?" she asked, changing the subject.

Rei walked over to the foot of the bed. "They think they’ve managed to round up all the members of the Takishima-gumi who were present at the warehouse," she informed her. "They made twenty-three arrests, but there were four casualties, including Kozuka Ryota, the leader."

"Good. I’m glad."

Rei hesitated a moment before asking the question that had immediately crossed her mind when she learned that Kozuka had been killed. "Kimura-san, did -- I mean, was otou-sama the one…?"

"I don’t know," she admitted. "That fog was so thick, I couldn’t see much of anything. Does it really matter if he did? It was obviously self-defense."

"You’re right. I guess it doesn’t matter."

"But did you tell the cops?"

"No, I ‘forgot’ to mention it," Rei said, knowing that Suzume was referring to the pistol in her father’s possession. "His fingerprints are probably on the gun, though, and there were plenty of other witnesses who saw him threaten Kozuka with it. What‘s going to happen to him? Will otou-sama go to jail?"

Suzume sighed. "I don’t know, Rei-chan. Probably, although considering the circumstances, I hope he will get a light sentence. In any case, his political career will be over once it hits the news."

"But --"

"Takashi knew what he was risking when he chose to arm himself, and I’m sure he’s prepared to face the consequences for his actions." A small, sad smile crossed her lips as she brushed back the hair from his forehead. "He may have broken the law, but he still believes in it."

"Then why did he do it?"

"Isn’t it obvious? It‘s because he -- Takashi?"

A soft moan escaped his lips as he stirred awake. "Suzume-san?" He sounded disorientated. "What happened? Where am I?"

"The hospital. You were shot, but the doctors say you’re going to be just fine." She smiled, but Rei thought it looked rather forced and noticed that she didn‘t tell him about the possible lack of mobility in his right arm. "I’m so glad. I thought we were going to lose you."

"The Takishima-gumi…" he murmured, starting to remember. His eyes widened. "Are you okay? And the baby? Did they hurt you?"

"We all made it through." She placed a hand on her stomach. "The baby’s fine, I’m fine…" Suzume glanced over at Rei, who was still standing at the foot of bed. "Rei-chan is fine, too."

He followed Suzume’s gaze, noticing Rei was also in the room for the first time. "Rei-san…"

"Um, I think I’ll go down to the cafeteria for some dinner," Suzume announced, rising from the chair and kissing Rei’s father on the forehead. "Now that I know you’re going to be alright, my appetite is coming back." She whispered something in his ear that Rei couldn’t hear, then left the room, giving them some privacy.

Rei remained standing where she was, her hands gripping the footboard. As happy as she was to see him alive and well after everything that had happened -- and she was -- that didn’t just erase the many years of bad blood between them. She wasn’t quite sure how to act, and judging by his silence, her father was feeling the same.

"H-How are you feeling, otou-sama?" Rei finally asked.

"I’ve been better," he admitted, "but I’m glad you and Suzume-san are safe."

"I like her. I didn’t think I would, but Kimura-san is a good person."

"Yes, she’s a remarkable woman. As are you, Rei-san." Rei glanced up, surprised, and he smiled. "So, you’re some kind of superheroine? Or is ‘magical girl’ the more correct terminology?"

"Something like that, yeah." Feeling a little bit more at ease, she took a seat in chair Suzume had vacated. "It’s kind of a long story, though. I’ll tell you all about it some other time."

"I’d like that," he said. "There’s so much I don’t know about you, but I’d like that to change -- I mean, if that‘s okay with you. I know I probably have no right to expect you to give me a second chance, but…"

"I think I’d like that, too," Rei said. Hesitantly, she reached for her father’s hand. "I’d like that very much, otou-sama." 

Yeeeeah, the ending isn't great. (And it's missing a "One Year Later" epilogue scene I'm still working on.) This is more of a first draft than anything else, but it'll have to do for now. At least it's mostly finished!