Outrunning Your Destiny - Part 2
Rei shuffled her feet as she walked across the grounds of the temple. She had been there for two hours now and in that time several young girls had come to the temple to buy love charms and leave their wishes hanging on the branches of the old tree. Rei secretly found many of the Shinto traditions to be silly as she had been brought up in a catholic home where wishes were not simply granted by writing them down. Finally she heard the bells of the church down the street chiming and she jumped realizing that it was six o’clock. If she hurried she would make the 6:05 bus.
She yelled a goodbye to her grandfather and hurried towards the steps. Her mother would be proud of her if she made it home early. More importantly she would have time to get ready before Kaidou came over for dinner.
As she neared the tall row of steps leading out of the shrine two crows swoop down at her causing her to nearly collide with them. She swatted at the pesky birds, screaming as she feared their attack.
“Phobos, Deimos!” her grandfather yelled. The two birds stopped circling her and perched on the old man’s shoulders. “They won’t hurt you, Rei.”
As if the old man couldn’t get any weirder. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of having those two birds touching her. “I have to catch the bus grandpa!” she called over her shoulder as she continued to run towards the steps.
“You can’t outrun your destiny, child,” her grandfather yelled after her.
What did the old man know anyway? She kept running, not bothering to look back at the red pen tightly clutched in his calloused hands. He rolled the pen over, noticing the mark of Mars resting atop. This was her fate and he feared what would happen if she continued to run away. The great fire told him about this moment, it was just unfortunate that he realized now was the time after it had already passed. He gave the pen back to one of the large crows and the birds returned to the sky, soaring overhead and watching as their charge stepped onto the bus.
Rei froze as her eyes met those of the bus driver, his blue eyes shining brightly on the oddly dim bus, holding her captivated. His light, curly hair looked so much Kaidou’s and she could feel her heart beating faster. She could feel her cheeks turning pink as she stepped further onto the bus and sat in the front row. Feeling a cold sensation, she looked around and noticed the collapsed bodies of the other young girls on the bus. Her eyes quickly flickered out the window where she saw the two crows perched on the steps of the temple, a red pen held in one of their beaks. ‘You can’t outrun your destiny, child.’ Her grandfather’s words rand through her ears. ‘My destiny?’ she asked herself. The bus started to move forward into a dark void. Darkness started to penetrate her mind, visions of fire being extinguished passing before her eyes followed by nothingness.
Jadeite looked over the faces of the girls on the bus. None of them seemed important enough to be one of the senshi he hunted for his queen. Although the last girl, the one with the long raven hair, he thought to himself, she was surely different. He kneeled over her body and ran his fingers lightly over her forehead. How beautiful he thought, but nothing special. She was not one of the senshi. His fingers slid free from her hair and he moved to stand, but somehow her image kept him stationary. Why was she so familiar to him? If she were special he would have need of her, but in the Dark Kingdom her beauty would fade and she would die. Despite all of this he couldn’t bring himself to leave her.
He gathered the unconscious bundle into his arms, shifting her so that he could wave open a portal with his fingertips. All thoughts of the other girls and the untapped energy of their bodies on the bus were quickly forgotten as the scent of her perfume invaded his nostrils. As the dark portal closed behind him another one opened into the empty dimension revealing a girl dressed as a stewardess.