Eclipsed by the Legend

Part 2

"Ami!  How are you?  You've changed so much."
"Ami, look at me!  During the flight, I had this annoying kid behind me pulling on my hair.  My bun is all loose!"
"I like your suit so much, where did you get it?  I need to do so much shopping while I am here, I mean, geez, you know how it is to be a superstar, you can't wear the same dress twice."
"It's good to see you again, I've missed you."
Ami gave each of her friends a hug, as she led them towards the car-park.

"Wow, Ami, a sports-car?  Not something I expected from you!  Can you believe it?  My managers have refused to let me buy a sports-car because they think it's too dangerous!"
Ami smiled.  "Minako, I think that depends entirely on the person driving it.  I'm sorry, I was going to drive a colleague's car to pick you up, but it had to go in suddenly for a repair.  I hope all your luggage fits in, geez, how will you fit the shopping in?"
"Don't worry about so much Ami.  I read and hear a lot from the papers about you and your famous hand in the operation theatre.  They call you the jewel of Japan.  All the teachers are coming out and saying 'I knew it'.  Ami, you've beaten all the odds in coming here."
"Rei, I had a lot of support, from you.  Now, it's so unbelievable with all the attention I get from doing a small surgery procedure, but I never expected so much interest back home.  My mother, she calls and tells me how its boosted her workload because everyone wants to see her when they are sick."
Suddenly huge hands reached onto her shoulders.  "Ami, look at you, you hardly weight anything."  Ami looked at Makoto, she couldn't help but smile at her size.  Ami, although not short, only reached her shoulders, as did everyone else, thus, Makoto worked on a much larger scale than Ami did.  "I have to do some cooking for you, I promised your mother that much before I came."
"Oh no, I have an Italian housekeeper, she cooks for me during the week, and I cook on weekends.  I'm just too busy, late nights and..."

"Oooo... look at these flowers!  This place is so big, Ami, how do you live here?"
"Usagi, I just do."
"Miz, the flowers, they come today with a card."
"Anna, what are you doing here?"
"Miz, I promiz you cake, but me, I forget yesterday.  So tis morning, I come in and give you cake I make at home.  You not know I not remember?"
"I was so tired last night, I didn't notice.  Oh, guys, this is Anna, my housekeeper."
Assortment of hi's.
"The cake, it is on the table now, still warm.  I come in tis morning, leave the cake, and put up the flowers for you, and I see there is a card, so I bring it in for you.  Do you still need me tis morning for anyting Miz?"
"No Anna, I'll be fine, do you need a lift home?"
"My son, he pick me up.  Waiting outside for me"
"Ok then, thanks, I'll see you Monday."

"Oooo... who are the flowers from?  Who's the card from??"
"Guys, wait!  It's for me, let me open it!"
 

"Hey, what kind of a person is that?  Sends you flowers and tell you not to receive them."
"Usagi, what is wrong with your brain?  Obviously, someone else other than the person who sent the flowers, put the card there."
"Rei, don't be so harsh on her."
"Ami can anyone help it? *sigh* Look, how many have you had?"
"I've been getting them since the Hospital Ball last month."
"Have you called the police?!"
"What for?... Oh, you mean the card?  This is the first one."
"Any anonymous phone calls?"

Ami suddenly stared at Rei, and quietly walked towards her phone.  Picking up her telephone organizer, she quickly leafed through them, stopping at a Scott Feikna.  Within moments she began speaking in rapid spill of German leaving her friends open mouth and amazed.
"Good morning, is this Mrs. Feikna?  My name is Ami, one of Scott's colleagues from the hospital, is Scott at home at the moment?"
"Oh... when do you expect him to be back?"
"I see, then I'll probably speak to him on Monday then, thank you."
Ami looked up at her friends again.  "He's not going to be back until tomorrow evening, so the chance of any mishap befalling him before then shouldn't be too high.  I'll tell him to stop sending flowers tomorrow."

The five of them looked at each other, no one knowing quite what to say to suit the situation.  Usagi was as usual the first to break the silence.
"Ok, since we can't do much more about it, then why don't we go out for something to eat?"
"Umm... we have to do some shopping, I need some new clothes remember?""You two..." Ami looked at Rei and smiled at her protectiveness.  "Rei, we can't spend the day worrying.  Why don't we have some cake before we go?  Then Makoto can decide whether Anna is feeding me properly, and make a proper report to my mother about it."

With shaking hands, he placed his binoculars on the seat next to his.  She was still as beautiful today he decided, if possible, even more.  Why was she looking worried?  From tomorrow onwards, there would be no more flowers from Scott, Ami would have to tell him to back off now that she understood his feelings.  Smiling happily in his seat, he moved his hand to turn the ignition, as his car grunted, he leaned back and starting dreamed of the future, their future.

'Tomorrow I'm sending you some roses, my darling.  I saw some beautiful pale blue roses in the florist shop, that should go well with the rest of your house.  I'll ask the florist to deliver them tomorrow morning.  My beautiful Ami, my princess, my honeybun, why do you like blue so much?  It suits you, but why do you like it?  This is something I must ask you when we are together, alone, away from the crude, rude world.  You look so nice today, with your hair down, and without those glasses, I wish that you would do that all the time.  When we get married, I will remember to ask you to do that for me, everyday.

When Ami had awaken from troubled sleep, she found that Rei was already up.  Having lived most of her life in a temple, Rei was accustomed to waking in the early hours of the morning.  She had carefully arranged the new lilies into the vase in the corridor, and placing the old ones into another vase.  The alternation process was repeated four times, with the last bunch being thrown out.  On the glass coffee table in the living room, rested another bunch of pale blue roses, matching perfectly with the metallic blue support of the glass table.  As Ami quietly stepped into the living room dressed in her nightgown, she looked at Rei quizzically.

"Two bunches, one is the lillies as you see in the hallway, and this.  I think that they are be competing against each other for your attention." Looking at Ami, Rei noticed her pale face. "Ami, are you alright?"
"Yes I'm fine.  Rei, can you please throw those roses out.  I don't want them in the house or anywhere near me, it gives me the creeps.."
Ami slowly sat down, leaning to the wall for support.  The phone rang, she reached out to answer it.  "Hello?"
"My sweet, I know you're awake, I didn't want to disturb you earlier." "You can see me?" "That is not the point. I see that he is still sending you flowers.  He will be sorry."
"It's only because...  Hello?  Hello?"  Ami let the phone drop from her hands onto her lap, the others ran into the room, disturbed by her yell from their deep sleep.  "Do you guys realize what is happening?  We are being watched by this person."
"What?"  "Watched by who?"s followed her amazing statement.
"The person, the roses, the note.  He has a white Honda, I can see his car from here.  He's just driven off, he knows that I'm still getting the lillies, he knows..." Ami began to cry, losing control of her composure for the first time.
"Emm... So Ami, do you still want these roses thrown away?"
"No...  Keep them.  I don't want to make things worse than they already are."

She didn't take me seriously, she didn't listen to me.  Scott will regret this, I'm not going to let him get away for trying to steal away my Ami.  She's mine, no one else can take her away from me.  Then kill him.  Kill him?  That's crazy, I'll never get away for that, and she never love me again.  Not if you listen to my directions.  What directions?  Today happens to be the last day of the month.  Since the other person pre-orders them, if you kill him tonight, she'll never get his flowers again.  But how do I kill him?  Leave that to me.  He is the hospital ranches at the moment, get me there, and I'll do everything else for you.

The ICU (Intensive Care Unit in a hospital) doors burst open as Ami rushed in, trailing behind her, her four friends who were being restrained by security guards.  Dressed casually in a long sleeveless blue dress with a white chiffon overlay, and her neat hair pinned by small clips around her temples and ears pushed her hair out of her way, she stunned the other doctors in the vicinity. They had never seen her dress so casually, the simplicity of her beauty surprised those who believed beauty to be deliberate.

Despite the casual dress, her authority did not escape her, without hesitation, she stopped the Head of ICU, Doctor Vanheer.
"How is he?  Is he still... conscious?"
"Doctor Mizuno I'm sorry, I shouldn't have called you here.  He just slipped away."
"Did you get down what he had to say?"
"He was rather delirious by then, very... err... vague.  It probably didn't amount to too much, what he had to say.  Excuse me Doctor Mizuno.  Security, can you please remove these ladies?  This is a private conversation, err... confidential..." He lowered his voice as her friends were being brought away.  "He was saying words like 'monster', 'heart', 'evil', someone called Andrew.  I doubt that even if you were here, he would have said much more."
"Monster?"
"Umm... yes, I believe so. He was clutching a strange necklace until the last minute, and then he pushed it into my hand."  He pulled out his handkerchief, as he carefully unfolded it, Ami gasped.  It was a necklace that she had seen a long time ago but she didn't remember when.  Hung on a long and coarse silver chain, was a smooth and thick diamond shaped amethyst-like stone, each corner dangerously sharp.  She desperately racked her mind, hoping to gain some answers, but found none.
"Will the police want it?"
"I think that they would be interested to see what it is. I doubt they will have fingerprints."
"I have a friend here who can do readings from objects, I would like to let her have a look.  She might make more out of what Scott said."
"If you think that is necessary.  May I presume that it will stay in the hospital?"
"I'll be in my office, and I'll make sure I return it before I leave for the day."

Ami turned, and quickly walked towards a window.  She suddenly twirled around again, taking all eyes with her.  "What was the cause of death?"
Doctor Vanheer opened the curtains which separated them from Scott's body.  "That's the strange thing, there are no external injuries at all.  There's no sign of struggle, like he knew the person who attacked him, or..."
"Or because he didn't have time to struggle."
The doctor shrugged.  "I have arranged for an autopsy later in the afternoon, until then, I can't say what the cause of death is."
Ami looked at Scott, cocking her head to one side, as her hair fell from behind her ear.  Walking over, she quietly lifted his head, bending downwards, she moved her delicate fingers to touch the back of his neck.  "There are small lumps there, reminds me of burns from jellyfish, or octopus sucker burns.  Some type of physical wound he received only a few hours ago before what happened happened. Even though they are only external injuries that I doubt even drew blood they might mean something.  I should imagine that these are not medical wounds.  It's not the cause of death, but the cause is somewhere, close to that spot, maybe not even death, but..."  She lifted Scott's eyelids.  "He was hypnotized before whatever happened to him happened.  That's why there was no struggle."  She took the necklace from Doctor Vanheer's hand, and walked off, leaving him and many others to stare at her in amazement.

Ami sat on her leather chair, swiveling around she hid her thin body behind the massive frame.  Staring upwards, blankly, the clock ticked restlessly as she continued to think.  Her friends sat opposite her, behind her large rose wood desk, waiting for her speak.  It was almost as though she was in command of the situation.  She was accustomed to the other doctors, or patients, waiting for her directions on the other side of the desk, while she quietly thought, moving the pieces in her brain like a chess game, but she never imagined that the same would happen when her friends were with her.  She had so often been eclipsed by the rest that only Luna truly listened and waited for her opinions, while the others rushed off into action, uselessly.  She could sit there, and think of the solution in her brain while the others were on their feet trying to look for things, with no direction as to what they were looking for.  The four of them sitting there now, reminded her of her patients, waiting for her to analyze charts and scans before telling them the results of treatments and tests.  They tried to concentrate their attentions on to the necklace that Rei was turning in her hand continuously, examining it, but their minds were on what Ami would have to say.

"Rei, can you do a reading on this?"
"Not really, I don't know anything about this place, it makes it hard for me to interpret what I see."
"What about if I gave you the words and you gave me any associations?"
"I could try."  Rei closed her eyes, as Ami began to recite a list of words.
"Heart."
Rei immediately replied.  "Taking out, energy, removing from the body, purity, silver."
"Attack."
"Trial, light."
"Andrew."
"Attacker."
"Any physical descriptions that you can give me?"
"Blond, blue eyes.  I don't know why, but he looks like the guy downstairs at reception, the one that waved and said 'hello' to you."

Ami sat up at that.  She, too, closed her eyes momentarily.  There was an Andrew downstairs in the reception, but was he working today?  He was.  His voice, he was the one that was stalking her, following her.  Yet with his small, thin frame, it was hard to imagine that he could do anything to hurt someone.
"Flowers."
Rei looked at Ami, although she couldn't see her behind the chair, she looked for a long time before replying.  "Death.  Ami are you suspecting..."
"Monster."
"Nothing! I don't associate anything with it.  Ami!..."
"Youma."
"Same thing!  Ami!..."
"Evil."
"Power, power to attack.  Energy.  My God, no!  Ami, it's over!  The Dark Kingdom has fallen, they can't do anything anymore, this is impossible!"
"Doesn't the necklace remind you of something, someone?"
"No.  Why should it?"
Ami turned around immediately.  "Queen Beryl had that around her neck, I recognized it.  No external injuries on the bodies other than sucker marks, remember the first of the youmas that attacked Tokyo?  The doctors thought everyone on the street was dead, but they were alive with no living signs, almost like a coma.  The doctors killed a lot these people when they were doing the autopsy, don't you see?  They were alive then, they knew what happening around them, they felt everything!  The doctors removed their vital organs from them while they were still alive and feeling everything!  We can't let it happen here, there will be bound to be a lot people 'dying' the same way, we can't let them be killed like this.  I'm not going to let anyone in this hospital perform autopsy on anyone that may be alive, just because our technology reads them as dead."
"Youma, again?  I'm not going to be SailorMoon, I thought the deal was we could be normal when we sealed the entrance!"
"The entrance might have re-opened Usagi.  You have to help, because until we stop this youma, more will come when this one gathers enough energy to re-awaken the others.  We have to seal off the Dark Kingdom entrance again.  This is almost like an exercise for the youma, he is just trying out his strength, next time will be worse, the whole street, the whole city, maybe even the whole of Germany."
"Usagi, Ami's right."
"Makoto, thank you for trusting me.  Because it doesn't know that we are here, it will make our job much easier.  But I should check whether this is right first, and see if I can find where the youma is hiding, if he is really hiding in Andrew's body. If it is, then we're in for trouble.  He can get into crowds so easily, if it has the power to take energy, having a human host will be perfect."
"And how are you going to do that?  In case you haven't noticed, Luna and Artemis have long gone?  Dead?  Finito?  Sayonara?"
"Thanks Minako for reminding me and trying to be helpful.  We can do this by ourselves.  That's what Luna gave me a mini-computer for.  We couldn't have depended on them forever."

Ami leaned forwards, reaching for her handbag.  Slipping her hand inside, she pulled out her small computer from the days when she was still fighting for justice.  "I've turned it into my organizer, I just had to write a few new programs for it, which means I can keep all my tools with me, without looking too suspicious."  She quickly turned it on, and began typing into it.  Her fingers tapped quickly at the keyboard, leaving the other staring.  Although they had been used to using computers, or seeing others use it, the speed of which Ami's fingers were working was astounding.  Each one of them silently hoped that Ami's hunch was wrong, but none of them was crazy enough to doubt Ami's power of deduction. 

The computer beeped suddenly, breaking the silence.  The frown of Ami's forehead deepened, as she continued tapping away.  They continued to hope, but deep inside them they knew that the frown had confirmed it all.  Ami had to be right, there was no other explanation for the strange collapse of Scott.
"The seal has been broken, but only one youma is alive, awake at the moment.  He's really in the receptionist downstairs' body, his name is Andrew, the person who had been stalking me.  God, I would have never made the connection until now, but I suppose, it all makes sense.  The note, it was so un-him.  He normally wouldn't even hurt a fly.  But now, it means that the youma has complete control over his movements, his mind, his everything.  I don't think we can save him."
"So was the note from him, or the youma?"
"Data shows that everything was the youma.  He has just left the hospital, I've put a trace on his movements, I hope he isn't going anywhere with too many people at the moment."
"Well then, lets go and get him."
"How can you say that Makoto?  I am a superstar, I can't go around fighting anymore!"
"Minako, we have to do this together, the five of us.  Ami, right?"
"Before we go, I should call Doctor Vanheer."
"For what?"

Without a word, Ami picked up the phone and dialed an internal number.  Putting her fingers to her lips to signal silence from her friends, she began to speak.
"Doctor Vanheer?  This is Doctor Mizuno."
...
"Yes.  I'll return the necklace to you now, but I wanted to have a word with you about the autopsy."
...
"I want it delayed.  There are several reasons, but until I come back and give you directions about performing the autopsy, I don't want it done."
...
"I prefer not to give any reasons at the moment."
...
"I shouldn't imagine that the delay will last any longer than 2 or 3 days."
...
"Thankyou."

Part III

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