She woke up with a start and sat up abruptly. The world around her was... It wasn't her world. This wasn't where she had been only a moment ago... she thought. She couldn't be certain.
Suddenly, it felt as though she couldn't be certain of anything anymore. She seemed to remember being in a huge city, Tokyo, surrounded people she loved; yet now she was here, wherever here was.
All she could see around her were the ruins of buildings, empty hollows of skyscrapers and smaller buildings rising above the rubble on the streets like half-formed scarecrows. No, less like scarecrows. No, if they reminded her of anything, it was more of skeletons.
She fought down a shiver, wrapping her arms around herself. Glancing down, she could see she was surrounded by blonde hair; it was definitely her own. She was wearing a short-sleeved sailor-style shirt with a matching navy skirt, short socks, and black dress shoes.
Her mind sluggishly provided details: she was wearing her school uniform, the summer one to be exact. It was her high school uniform at that. The brooch fastened at the center of the bow on her shirt contained something very important to her. She had a small mirror, a pink handkerchief, a few pieces of half-melted candy, and a little money in her skirt pockets, enough to visit a vending machine on her way home.
She was eighteen years old. Two years ago, her world had very nearly ended. It had only been saved at the very last possible moment. It had been a victory that had been won by the skin of her teeth.
The brooch she wore let her transform into Sailor Moon--no, it was Eternal Sailor Moon now. In another life, she had been called Serenity. Her name now was Usagi, Tsukino Usagi.
But why she was here? How did she come to be here? And where was "here"? Those bits of information stubbornly refused to come.
Well, she wasn't going to find anything out by sitting here.
Carefully, she pushed herself to her feet. Various small aches and pains made themselves known, but she dismissed them as from having laid on what looked to be either stone or concrete for too long. Grey dust covered the backside of her clothes, where she had been laying down, and she dusted absently at herself. She picked a direction at random before she started walking slowly.
She didn't recognize where she was at all. Nothing looked familiar. In fact, it almost reminded her of what Tokyo had looked like inside Galaxia's bubble--who was Galaxia, oh, wait, never mind, she remembered now--but this was much more graphic and widespread. She didn't see a single building that was completely intact and standing.
It looked as though an angry child had come through and knocked everything over. Whatever city this had once been, it was a shade of its former self.
Was she the only one here? She hadn't seen a single other soul anywhere. She would almost suspect that she was the only one here, if it weren't for the idea not making any sense at all. If she was the only one in this city, then who had brought her here? Who had dropped her in the shadow of one of the largest buildings? And who was making the soft rustling noises she heard on occasion from other half-destroyed buildings?
No, she definitely could not be the only living soul here. It didn't make sense otherwise.
Still, she hugged her way close to the buildings as she walked. Stones fell from some unseen location, and it was all she could do not to scream. As it was, though, she did whirl to see if she could see anyone in the direction the sound had come from. The streets remained stubbornly empty.
It's like a horror movie, she thought to herself, not even daring to breathe the words aloud at this point. Nothing should be this quiet unless it's the setting for a horror movie.
Turning back to face the way she had been walking, she found herself even more terrified. This horrid wasteland just seemed to keep going on and on. There was no end in sight. There were no people in sight. There was no sign of life in sight.
What was she supposed to do? Where was she supposed to go?
With her next step, something seized her skirt. As she whirled again, biting back a panicked scream was much more difficult this time. There was no one behind her, though, no one holding on to her clothes to keep her in one place. The truth was a lot more mundane than that: the fabric was caught on a scrap of metal sticking out of concrete.
She took a step back and carefully untangled the cloth before it could rip free or, worse, become even more entangled than it already was. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck here--or worse, have to strip out of her skirt, in the middle of some strange street to get free.
She could almost be amused at herself for thinking something like that. Even on her worst day, she didn't think that that was something she would do. In fact, she might not have had the best recollection of herself just yet, but she didn't think that either of those options were things she would be willing to do.
With a final tug and only a small tear, her skirt came free. So she could get around again now, but she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to. Everything about this wasteland screamed out to her: of danger, of traps, of horrific killers in weird masks waiting to kill unsuspecting teenagers.
But where could she go? She didn't know of a single safe place here. Presumably where she had woken up had been safe, since she had woken up unharmed there, but that didn't mean anything really. But where else was there to go? Going forward was unappealing, but heading back the direction she had come might have been even more so; it felt like giving up before she even really started.
With a soft sigh, she turned once more to head further along the road--and a creature stood directly before. No, it wasn't a creature: it was a man... or rather a mockery of a man. She was fairly short, and he was not much taller than she was, covered in dust and some kind of filth, dressed in ragged clothes. To her surprise, there wasn't much of a smell to him, not enough to let her know about its presence before she saw it with her own eyes, but as it--he--it opened its mouth, she could see it was filled with ragged but extremely sharp teeth, like he had filed each one to a razor sharp point.
Faster than she could even process what he looked like, he lunged at her. This time, the scream came easily. A half second later, though, her hand was on her locket. "Moon Eternal! Make-up!" What she could do in this situation as Eternal Sailor Moon that she couldn't do as Usagi, she wasn't sure, but maybe the transformation at least would scare it away.
Nothing happened.
There was no transformation, nothing. She didn't have her powers to defend herself.
With another yelp, she whirled and started running back the way she had come. The creature followed her the first few buildings or so; that was the only real way to measure distance; before it began to flag and falter. After another one, it stopped completely.
One second she glanced over her shoulder and it was standing where it had stopped its pursuit. A few seconds later, though, when she looked back again, the creature was gone, completely without a trace.
She didn't stop running though. Even as her feet slipped on dust and rubble and pebbles, she kept running. Loose gravel upset her balance briefly, causing her to stumble. She hit the ground hard on one knee and hand, barely registering that she had skinned them both, before she was up and running again.
She didn't stop her running until she was back at that building where she had woken up. Its low crumbling overhang that blocked out most of the grey sky was a welcome sight now. She threw herself into a crevice left by two pillars. It was just big enough for her to wedge herself into, but nothing and no one was coming in after her. She tucked herself back as far as she could and just hoped and prayed that the creature didn't decide to follow her any further.
In the quiet of her small sanctuary, her breathing sounded as loud as shots, each exhale punching into the air around her.
To try to calm herself, she pulled her brooch loose from her shirt and opened it. The Ginzuishou was still inside it. She didn't know of any reason why it should have not worked. It made no sense, no sense at all.
And yet that was what had happened. She was trapped in a strange place, with strange creatures that seemed to want to do something horrible to her, with no real way to defend herself.
How much worse could this possibly get?
18 August 2012
And here is the first chapter of my Camp NaNoWriMo August 2012 project: "Of Worlds to Fall". There will be at least 50 chapters, as I am using LJ's Fanfic50's prompt table 7 to write this.
Hope you guys like it, and see you in Chapter Two!
~Apollymi