#fortythousandth

The Adventures of Siren and Windblade!

Today’s Issue: Shot Through The Heart (And You’re To Blame)

Seaboard City, a typical city like any other… except for one thing.

Seaboard City is protected by a plethora of powerful heroines who wield control over the many elements. Moon Girl, Water Wiz, Flameheart, Thunderbloom, Heavy Metal, all dedicated warriors who fight for love and for justice.

But there are none as dedicated as the lovely pair called Siren and Windblade! So resolute in their mission to thwart evil and defend peace, so totally willing to do whatever it may take to ensure that the world is still standing, the only thing that can match their dedication to peace is the love that Siren and Windblade hold for each other.

But will that love be enough to get them through tonight’s ordeal? Or will that love be the reason for their defeat?

…

(A limousine being driven by a sandy haired woman in a smashing tuxedo; a woman with sea green hair in an elegant evening gown resides in the back)

A typical Seaboard City night, as classical violinist Michiru Kaioh and her chauffeur/companion/lover Haruka Tenoh are on their way for an evening of refinement… or so they think. The duo has their doubts.

“I’m still not sure what possessed Yuko Arimura to invite us to the unveiling of the Marine Cathedral.” Haruka questions. “Arimura isn’t known for being a social creature even if she is a philanthropist.”

“True, but after what happened the other night I felt we could use an evening of distraction.” Michiru explain.

(For last night, see previous issue: Masks, Masks, Everywhere)

“Of course, if the party is a dud, I’m sure there are other ways to spend the evening.” Michiru mused with a grin.

“I’m just happy being behind the wheel of a car.” Haruka replied.

“Is that ALL you want to do with the evening?” Michiru coyly inquired. Haruka blushed.

Of course, their smiles and blushing didn’t convey how they really felt.

I just wish I could shake this terrible sense of dreading brewing within me, like a storm out at sea, Michiru internally worried about the night.

Michiru, Haruka thought, I don’t know why I have such a feeling of worry about tonight, but I promise no matter what happens, I will protect you.

A few minutes later, the car managed to reach the opening of the newly completed Marine Cathedral, an extravagant and somewhat tacky display of philanthropist Yuko Arimura’s wealth. There were several other cars parked outside the building.

“Looks like we’ve managed to be fashionably late.” Michiru mused.

“As always.” Haruka chimed in.

As Haruka helped Michiru from the car, the two lovers could hear the sounds of a good time being had by the other party goers. Once inside, the two found themselves in a grand reception area filled with the crème de la crème of Seaboard high society. Music was playing, food was being served, drinks poured. Talking, dancing, romance, it appeared for all intents and purposes to be the perfect evening.

“Well, it seems Arimura invited everybody who’s anybody.” Michiru surveyed the happy crowd. “Look, there’s Senator Hino. I’ll say hi.”

“Why? The man’s an asshole.” Haruka pointed out. “I’ve heard unsavory things about him.”

“Oh? Are you worried for my safety?” Michiru smirked.

“N-no,” Haruka blushed. “I mean-“

“Hello, Senator Hino.” Michiru called out to the senator, who was engrossed in conversation with a woman in a black evening gown. The senator hadn’t seemed to hear Michiru, or if he had, he ignored her.

“How rude.” Haruka huffed. “Hey, excuse me, but someone just said hello.”

“Haruka don’t worry about it.” Michiru told her companion to calm her down, but she was too late to stop Haruka from reaching for the Senator’s shoulder…

And was shocked when Haruka’s hand went right through the senator!

“Haruka!” Michiru grabbed Haruka’s arm and pulled her away from the shimmering hologram in front of them. This had a kind of domino effect, as now every other person, no, every other thing in the large room besides Haruka and Michiru start to disappear!

Now Haruka and Michiru are on guard, as the sound of shrill, cackling laughter echoes throughout the Cathedral. Haruka grimaces from the sounds.

“How distasteful.” Michiru glowers.

“AHAHAHAHAHA! I can’t believe you actually fell for this!” A voice from above cried out.

A large, flat screen began descending from an opening in the cathedral ceiling. At first, static fills the screen like snow, but then the image clears, revealing known other than the masked villainess known as the Eudialian!

“You-!” Haruka shouted.

The Eudialian! A mystery witch with the powers of science and magic, a woman who steals the treasures of a human’s heart by crystallizing everything good about them with a shot from her special weapon, the Heart Buster.

“Surprised?” The Eudialian threw a lock of her red hair behind her shoulder. “I’ll bet you weren’t expecting to see me again so soon after last night. Did you like my party, Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh? Or should I say Windblade and Siren?!”

“What have you done with Yuko Arimura?!” Haruka shouted to the screen.

“Yuko Arimura is the least of your worries right now!” The Eudialian taunted. “Although…”

Michiru didn’t like that look on the villain’s face.

“Seeing as how you’re going to die, I guess I can let you two clueless monkeys in on the secret.”

“What secret?” Haruka demanded.

“I AM Yuko Arimura!” Eudialian screamed, ripping off her red domino mask.

“WHAT?!” The two heroines shouted.

“Oh come on!” Eudialian taunted. “You hadn’t figured this out before last night? I mean, all this mask does is hide my cheek bones! It doesn’t even hide the color of my eyes! What morons!”

“Are you really one to pull that on us?” Michiru asked.

“Huh?”

“I mean, our costumes do the same thing with our faces,” Michiru explained, “And you couldn’t tell who we were until we unmasked last night.”

“How many other Japanese women are there with sandy blonde and sea green hair?” Haruka joked.

“…SHUT UP!”

“Oh? Did we strike a nerve?” Michiru asked.

“ENOUGH!” Eudialian slammed her fists down on the control board in front of her.

At that moment, a number of men and women dressed entirely in red began emerging from openings in the walls. Armed with the guns,

“Bureau of Bad Behavior,” the Eudialian shouted, “Behave badly!”

And with that, the men and women dressed in red began their ambush on the two lovely warriors. Pity for them.  No matter how many shots were fired, the two warriors managed to dodge getting hit by a single bullet. And no matter how much the Eudialian screamed at her underlings to get the two heroes, she may as well have been yelling at paint to dry quicker. Haruka ran like the wind, and Michiru, for all her grace, plowed through the entourage of hired help like a tsunami. And all in evening wear.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” Haruka snarked. “Sorry, but it looks like we’ve finished your little game earlier than expected.”

“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” Eudialian seethed.

“Well, I’d have to s-“

Michiru wasn’t able to finish that sentence, as she suddenly jumped to push Haruka out of the way of a heavy red board that almost slammed Haruka into the wall.

“Michiru! MICHIRU!” Haruka screamed. But before she could do anything, the board that held Michiru disappeared into the far wall to her left!

“Sorry, Haruka!” The Eudialian “apologized.” “But the game only ends when I say it does! And if you want to win, you have to find your partner before midnight, otherwise I’ll be adding her heart to my grand collection of treasures! And if my information is correct, I’ll have my hands on a veritable crown jewel!”

“What do you mean?!”

“You’ll find out…”

TO BE CONTINUED…

…

“Well that was just a mock up, but what do you think? Pretty great, am I right?”

Minako had just finished outlining her idea for a comic book, a comic based on fictionalized exploits of the Sailor Senshi but partially based on their actual adventures. Specifically, she was running it by Haruka and Michiru, figuring that with the money they had, Minako was sure to get this thing going.

Unfortunately, Michiru seemed less than eager.

“Um, Minako, I’m confused.” Michiru began. “Why would you begin with a story that’s halfway into the overall series?”

“Because it’s the most important story in the series!” Minako bluffed, hoping to appease Michiru’s ego.

“Do you have any preliminaries for the characters’ costumes? You weren’t very detailed about their appearances besides hair color.”

“I’ve got some designs mulling.” Minako did not.

“The story felt rushed.”

“It’s just a first draft.”

“Do you have outlines for the earlier stories?”

“We can discuss it.”

“I don’t know, Minako.”

“Well, what did YOU think, Haruka?” Minako turned to the blonde girl, who’d been silent for the most of the discussion.

“Haruka?” Michiru asked.

“I LOVE IT.” Haruka said.

“Yes!” Minako jumped up.

“Haruka.” Michiru sighed.

“The action! The romance! The heroes!”

“YES! YES! YES!”

“HOW SOON CAN THIS BE STARTED?”

“WE JUST NEED TO SORT OUT SOME DETAILS!”

“CAN I CO-WRITE A BACK-UP SEQUENCE ABOUT WINDBLADE?”

“IF YOU’VE GOT THE MONEY YOU CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT!”

“CAN WINDBLADE HATE SEIYA KOU?”

“HATE AWAY, BABY!”

That was about the next twenty minutes, of Haruka and Minako excitedly going over stuff for this ungodly endeavor.

As usual, she swallows her words. And Mina doesn’t pick up on any of that: “It’s just, I’m finalizing my birthday party invitation list and I want to know if I have to include the Blonde Salad, Michigan.”

Michiru blinks. Those nick names are new.

“I like her, but it’s hard. She’s walked in on me with the enemy twice. She almost saw me transforming. And I also have reoccurring dreams that …”

“Oh, ple-AHSE Michi-Ruuuu, the walls in this apartment are very thin, despite what you think you spent your many money on”, Mina raises one eyebrow.

“I didn’t mean –” Michiru starts to defend herself; trying to properly explain while she sees Haruka so on and off. If both would get what they wanted it would be more on than off, but Michiru doesn’t allow herself to bring Haruka into more danger, will never allow herself to endanger Haruka’s perfect and hot soul. And yet she can’t stay away from her. If you’ve seen paradise once … and it’s all Mina’s fault.

That moment, the white-furred kitty Mina has recently adopted walks casually into the room, distracting Michiru and therefore gets glared at. With her mind fleeting, Michiru checks the clock again: “It’s mid-May. Your birthday is by the end of October.”

“As I said, my birthday is approaching fast. And it’s going to be a soire”, Mina has found a muffin in the meantime and sits down with it across from Michiru now.

“Soirée”, Michiru corrects her.

“Yeah, whatever, give me all the ‘Great Gatsby’ stuff”, Mina plays with one chocolate sprinkle until she pops it into her mouth.

“Have you ever read that book even?”

“No, but I saw the first forty minutes before I started to masturbate furiously”, Mina winks at Michiru. While Michiru shields herself with her newspaper, Mina just goes on: “I want it all, I want confetti and fat birds flying with banners that spell my name, I want karaoke and cakes and people singing karaoke in cakes, I want them to sing my songs, songs about me, me, ME!”

Michiru and the kitty share a glance. “And you want me to pay for that?”

“My little garlic breadstick, mi casa es su casa”, Mina eats the muffin with a very open mouth so Michiru goes back to hide behind her newspaper.

“What if we have Senshi duties?” Michiru looks at the picture of herself almost plead-fully. Michiru on that picture, dressed in an evening gown, playing the violin, an image of pure grace … and now she’s sitting here with a klutz – and has to work with her even.

“Oh, come on - stop being such a negative Nancy! All my friends are gonna be there, it’s gonna be fantastic!”

Michiru lays down the newspaper and asks with one tilted head: “Which friends?”

It’s actually more her being curious than her being mean. But, of course, it’s wrong. And it immediately dawns on her. It’s still too early to make jokes about it, even if she intended to. Not with her awaking Mina just a while ago. Ruining her life. As she’s going to ruin Haruka’s. But it seems as this is what Michiru does: Ruining lives.

Mina hasn’t lost her cheerfulness in her voice so far, it’s only now that she puts down the muffin and mumbles: “Okay then. No party for me. I’m sorry I interrupted you.”

She slowly gets up, her lids hanging low. She hates when this happens. When she’s reminded of what she truly is. It’s not Michiru’s comment on the duties. It’s her comment on the truth. Mina used to be a big star in volleyball. She had dreams of becoming an adult. It wasn’t out of her reach, being popular and talented was there. And now she has to suppress the fact that this is never going to happen like Michiru suppresses the urge to curse.

Michiru is holding back the tears, she’s always holding them back, but she know Mina’s will run freely once she’s in her room. So she puts down the newspaper.

“Haruka and I will come.”

Mina stops in her tracks. “Really?”

“Yes. But I think we should make it more intimidate. Small and quiet suits you just as much as big and loud, Mina.”

Mina still lets her head hang low, even though her spirits just went up: “Will you invite your friend the priestess?”

“I will mention it to Rei a few weeks in advance, yes”, Michiru nods even though Rei is not a friend. But she wishes her to be somehow.

She gets back to sit with Michiru and eats her muffin: “You know it hasn’t always been this way.”

“I know”, Michiru takes a sip of her tea, “Do you want to walk to school together?”

“Yeah.”

“But please change first.”