ASSASSIN, Chapter Three By: Shari Hirtle Email: Odango2001@aol.com Rating: PG September 12, 2000 You know, I just noticed that these chapters are awfully short..... Anyway! Hi, lol, I hope everyone likes the story so far! I’m really amazed at how fast I’ve written this! I just started it about a week ago so it’s really weird since I’m known for taking forever to finish a story, hehe. Well, I’ll let you read on, see ya at the end of the page, lol! Disclaimer: All Sailor Moon characters do not belong to me, they belong to Naoko Takeuchi and some other people, everyone else belongs to me. ~*~ Mamoru woke to loud shrieking, echoing through the halls of his mansion. He shot up in alarm and looked around the room, his eyes landed on a black envelope and he instantly knew the screams weren’t real. Mamoru let out the breath he hadn’t known he was holding and picked the envelope up, off his night stand. Mamoru, As you know, you are to go to Zoge No Kuni today so I have sent you a horse and carriage to get you there on time. I know that you have probably just woken up and that you are very grumpy, but I don’t care! Get up and get ready because your ride will leave with out you and if you are not in Zoge No Kuni when I want you to be then I will have someone assassinate YOU. Well, now that we’ve got that all cleared up, I’ve… programmed the horses to take you straight to the house you will be staying in for the next month. You may wonder around for a while, but I’d like you to find the Princess as soon as possible and start the plan. So you know who the Princess is, she will have blue eyes, blonde hair, and there will be a gold crescent moon on her forehead. Well, I believe that’s all. Oh yes, your ride will leave in about… Oh, say… 15 minutes! So hurry, hurry, hurry! Have a nice trip! Sincerely, The King “Fifteen minutes?!! But I have to get dressed AND eat, you know! AARRGGHH!!! I HATE THIS MAN ALREADY!!” ~*~ Zoge No Kuni (AN: Oh! I forgot to tell you, Zoge No Kuni means The Land of Ivory) Mamoru arrived in Zoge’ at around 12:00 and was starving. He walked around in his new mansion while eating a sandwich, trying to decide which of the rooms would be his bedroom. After he ‘wondered around’ for about an hour, Mamoru remembered what Oni had said in his letter and headed out to find the Princess. “Now, if I were a princess where would I be?” Mamoru asked himself and sweat-dropped, “In the royal palace. But where the hell is that?!” he looked around and saw the top of a white castle. Mamoru grabbed someone’s arm and pulled the person to him, “What is that?” he asked. “That’s the Ivory Tower,” the person said, a young boy. Mamoru looked down at the boy and blinked. The boy sighed, “It’s where the royals live,” he said, using a tone that said ‘duh!’ The boy yanked his arm away and ran up the street. ~*~ Mamoru went quickly, but quietly through a forest he had come to when he reached the end of the meadow he had been walking in. He could tell he was not far from the Ivory Tower for there were no people in these woods and they seemed slightly different from the ones he had passed through earlier, like they were almost enchanted, which probably meant that they were royal property. Mamoru had been looking for the blasted princess for so long he thought he might just turn around and go home any second now, but he suddenly heard a startled yelp, a bark?, and a big slash. He followed the sound of running water he hadn’t heard before and came to a short cliff, a small waterfall flowing off it and down about 10 feet to a large pond..... with a beautiful girl and dog swimming in it. Mamoru was dumb-struck, he’d never seen a girl like this before, he hadn’t thought that it was possible for one person to hold so much beauty. The girl was about 19 and living up to the name Zoge’ with ivory cream skin in a sky blue, satin dress with a low cut square-neck, it was belted high under the bosom with a dark blue ribbon, and the long sleeves flared out as they reached her delicate fingers and hung down to her knees. Her eyes were closed with her long, thick, dark lashes brushing softly against her flushed cheeks. But what amazed Mamoru the most was her hair. The long golden stresses platinum under the water, swirling around her and floating down to her ankles. A small smile appeared on the girl’s lips as a Golden Retriever swam up to her and its fur brushed her hand. Mamoru was oblivious to the world around him, he never wanted to leave this place, staring down at the angel who was... wait, who was she? He had been so busy taking in her beauty that he hadn’t even noticed the golden crescent moon on her forehead, but now that he had his whole body went numb and his skin became incredibly pale. The princess... I’ve got to.. kill her? Mamoru suddenly slipped, almost losing his balance and falling off the cliff, into the pond. The princess’ eyes shot open as a few rocks fell into the water. She looked up to the exact spot Mamoru was standing, but he had ducked behind a rock just in time to avoid her view. He almost immediately regretted it, I could have seen her eyes. If the rest of her is that beautiful her eyes must be gorgeous. Why did I duck anyway? I’m going to meet her sooner or later. I’ve got to, he thought as a picture of King Oni draining the blood out of him formed in his mind and he shuddered. He heard the princess get out of the water and he stood again to see her, she was standing over the pond, ringing out her hair. She braided it and flung the braid behind her as she whistled for the dog and started to leave. Mamoru, forgetting he was on a cliff, started to walk forward after her only to run out of ground fall down into the pond! The Princess jumped and spun around just in time to see Mamoru’s head go under and she ran back to lake, looking in. Mamoru popped out of the water and the princess jumped again, backing up as he made his way out of the pond. “Just my luck... right in front... so stupid.. soaked,” the princess heard him mumbling as he looked down at his drenched clothes and tried to ring out the end of his shirt, she couldn’t help but laugh, he looked so funny. Mamoru instantly looked up from his shirt and his eyes met the princess’. Bright cerulean sapphires. They were... beyond words. “Hello,” she said with a smile, giggling a little. Mamoru just stared, even her voice was beautiful. “Now, just where did you come from? I could have sworn there was no one else around here.” Finding his voice Mamoru stuttered, “Well, I-I.. I was just.. and then, you see, uhh..” She giggled again, “You were spying on me?” “Uh, no, heh heh.. ‘course not,” she gave him a look and folded her arms. He put his hand behind his head and laughed nervously, “well, okay, I was.. sorta... I guess-- but just a little!” She laughed again, “You’re cute,” his head shot up in surprise, she smiled, “what’s your name?” “Mamoru. Mamoru Chiba.” “Mamoru,” she repeated and nodded, “yes, I like it. I’m Princess Serenity, but all my friends call me-- well, they would call me Usagi if I had any friends. Mother never lets me out of the Tower so I don’t meet anyone, well except princes, but they’re all so boring and all they ever seem to want to talk about is themselves. I shouldn’t be out here, I’m skipping my study session.... Mamoru smiled as he watched the princess babble on about practically nothing to him, a perfect stranger. She seemed so.. sweet and innocent, how could anyone ever want to hurt her? What had she done to her brother that made him want her dead? .....Oh, how stupid of me, rambling on like this and you don’t even know me. I’m sorry to bore you so.” “Oh, no, it’s quite all right,” Mamoru said dreamily, just staring at her and she blushed, quickly looking down at her hands. The golden retriever that had been swimming with Usagi suddenly came out of the woods and sat down next to her. The dog sat for a while and looked from Usagi to Mamoru and after a few minutes passed she couldn’t take the silence anymore and stood, barking quietly. Usagi jumped at the sound and looked down to see her dog looking up at her with her tongue hanging out and her tail wagging, “Oh, this is Dosa, Dosa this is Mamoru,” Usagi said as Dosa sniffed at Mamoru’s legs, “she wants to go for a walk. Oh, would you like to come?” Mamoru was surprised that she had asked him along, seeing as she still didn’t really know him, but he nodded, “Of course.” ~*~ hours later In a few hours Usagi and Mamoru had become best friends and knew almost everything about each other... almost. It was dark now and the white stars shone brightly against the midnight blue of the sky. Mamoru lay on the grass with his arms folded behind his head, looking up at the stars. Usagi sat next to him, taking out the braid in her hair as Dosa came over and snuggled up on Usagi’s spread out skirts. “Do you know any magic?” Mamoru asked. “Hm-mm, my mother has been teaching me how to use my powers since I was 10,” Usagi looked up from her hair and focused her eyes on the stars. Suddenly, a group of stars started to move and formed the shape of a man, then letters started to form above it, spelling Mamoru. Circles of more stars started to spin around the form and after a few seconds everything stopped and the picture bust into silent fireworks of colorful glitter, falling down on them. Mamoru reached up to touch a sparkle, but his hand went right through it and he looked over at Usagi who was smiling at him, “Magic is not real, therefore you cannot touch it. Magic is only an illusion,” she said, finishing un-braiding her hair as she let the now silk-ish, wavy strands blow gently around her in the wind. After a few minutes passed, out of no where Mamoru asked, “Do you have any siblings?” Usagi, although she had not really been moving before, seemed to freeze and her skin went a little pale, her eyes tearing up. She looked down, trying to hide the tear that slid down her cheek with her hair, but Mamoru saw it before she could keep it from him. She shook her head slightly, “No. No.. I used to... sort of, he wasn’t much of a brother to me; he hated me... and everyone else that ever tried to talk to him actually,” she said, her voice breaking slightly as she went on, “but he died.. a long time ago, after he--” Usagi stopped herself as she started to sob. Mamoru sat up and put a hand on her shoulder, “I’m sorry, I.. I didn’t know.” Usagi shook her head and quickly wiped away her tears, “No, it’s all right.” Then, they heard something that sounded like two huge crystal glasses clinging against each other, the sound came 9 times. It was a beautiful sound that Mamoru had never heard before. “Oh no, it’s already 9:00! I had no idea it was so late, Mother is going to kill me! I must go, I’m sorry,” Usagi said and stood, waking Dosa up and the two started running towards the Ivory Tower. “Wait! When can I see you again?!” Mamoru called after her. She stopped running and turned to look at him, “I don’t think--” she stopped mid-sentence as she watched him give her a sad puppy-dog face and she laughed, “tomorrow.. when the bells chime 12,” she said and smiled at him before turning and running off. Mamoru sighed happily and turned, walking towards his house, but then stopped, one word running through his mind. Oni.... Mamru frowned and shook his head, I can’t. I can’t kill her, I won’t! You will! Oni’s voice roared in his mind. You must, you gave me your word. “Well, I take it back!” Mamoru said aloud. Then I will have to kill you.. or kill her myself... infront of you. Mamoru could almost feel Oni smirk as he felt defeat and sighed. Why was he trying to protect Usag-- Princess Serenity anyway? It’s not like he really became her friend... right? Does that mean your word is mine once again? Yes. Yes.. I give you... my word. -------------------------------- End Chapter Three. September 13, 2000 Email is one of my fav. things in the entire world! Hint Hint!