The weekend had been wasted without Usagi managing to contact her friend, nor do anything else, held back by worry. She had spend all the evening with Mamoru knocking and even trying to break in at Makoto's. The bell wasn't working, the lock on and no one answered. From outside, she had seen all the windows were open, by this cold weather what an idea, it was late October!
Sunday, she had consulted Luna, Ami and Rei, to know if they had any idea on how to act. Despite what she expected, Ami was of no help. Her only advice was that Makoto should immediately see a doctor, but didn't answer as to what to do if she refused. She still implied the warriors might have for next mission to break a door and forcefully take out a young lady. It was Rei, this time, who found the most practical solution, and the plan arranged during the evening was now to be carried out.
Monday afternoon, right after school, before rush hour and the people who would unavoidably invade the alleys of the park they were playing in. Three of the warriors obviously had fun. To simulate at best the noises of an attack, they were actually faking one, running after each other, screaming like excited children. While Usagi called Makoto with her communicator, Minako ran after the others, growling, in a concert of high-pitched screams. Even Ami, despite her initial shyness, was absorbed into this childish task. Makoto wasn't responding, but Usagi transmitted anyway:
"Mako! We need help! We're at Juuban park, enemies… they're too numerous! Too powerful! Come fast, please! … we know how you can transform, but please… Argh!"
The young women ceased their race, catching their breath. They hadn't played this game since they had turned six, but somehow it was still fun, even for a serious goal. Especially for the two bystanders who looked at them. "Do you realise, Ami said, how many lies you just said? Bad girl!
- And do you realise you are covered with dust, your hair are a mess, you left your books in the grass and you squeak like a horny squirrel?"
Ami blushed and got her things together. Then they went to a picnic table and waited for the missing warrior. Usagi looked up to follow a large bird, some kind of eagle, circling the sky. She didn't see that kind very often. Seeing her looking up, the others did the same and noticed the bird in their turn.
Flying above them, it turned, tracing a large circle. After a while, Ami consulted her computer. "Odd, she concluded, according to the distance I triangulated, to look this size an eagle should have a wingspan of… three metres eighty-six.
– Maybe it's a weird kind of plane, Minako suggested.
– Why would it be circling? Rei objected, Ami, are you sure of your computer?
- Yes, and I trust my eyes too. It looks huge, even at this distance. I'll check my database, but I doubt any Japanese species looks like that.
- Aah! Usagi cried, It's growing bigger!
- It's going down, you idiot! Rei answered."
And in fact, the shadowy form corclyng above them was tightening its circles and closing in. Frightening. A bird this side probably didn't eat mice. Minako looked around and screamed. An enormous dog was poorly hidden behind the trees. In a bush, two yellow eyes stared. She took little time to understand: "The enemy!"
They immediately transformed while the monstrous animals attacked. They had to hide under the table to avoid the claws of what they had thought was an eagle. It was really a man's body with a feathered head and armed with a curved beak, with strong legs ending on enormous claws, with an overly musculat chest supporting wings at the height of all this weight. Its flight was stabilised by a fan of long feathers on its backside. The air displaced by its wings was, from this short distance, a violent wind.
While they ducked this assault, the large dog leapt, barking. Its voice was almost human but the anger it had in place of thought was only more obvious. Its long, sturdy limbs shown it wasn't a normal canine. They had to leave their hiding place to escape its teeth. What was hidden in the bush didn't move.
Their play wasn't one anymore, there actually was an attack! The enemy was gaining experience, they were facing a handful of powerful monsters instead of dozens of diminished monsters. Luckily, the dog was stupid and wanted to follow its prospect victims in a straight line, so it was squeezing with difficulty between the planks of the table. So they had the time to avoid the eagle, who was much quicker.
Mercury slowed the dog further by blocking its way with ice, but doing so the exposed herself and the bird would have broken her neck if Venus hadn't shot right into its left wing, unfortunately without great damage. The beam took two feathers but didn't touch the flesh. The creature instinctively turned from its flight to protect its wing from what had hurt it and only scratched its target.
It then regained altitude, tracing tight circles above the warriors. "Burning Mandala!" In one motion, it moved away from the flames. "Moon Tiara Action!" Such a slow projectile wasn't a danger for it. "Meteor Shower!" Even the multiple attack wasn't enough for its skilled body. "Shine Aqua Illusion!" The attack was poor when thrown upward and fell back without touching it. It climbed further, then dived, headed in such a way it could hit any of them with only a small motion. They flattened onto the ground and it missed, but it didn't have to go far to be ready to attack again and, to help nothing, the dog had just realised it could walk backward and it didn't seem happy of the delay.
Their life relied too often on this kind of coincidence… Makoto came just in time and caught the dog's legs with a twisting motion, tripping it, and kicked its breath out. The Sailors got up hastily and escaped the eagle again, who had taken too much speed and was too low to go after them. It righted itself with a kick on the ground and resumed its flight, climbing back to a few metres. Mars finished off the dog during that time, in the end it was a poor enemy. There was only the bird left, and that pair of eyes who still wouldn't leave the bush.
Makoto threw her transformation tool to Moon. Of course, the girl didn't catch it and had to pick it up from the ground. She had said her she knew hoe she could transform, it wasn't the best time to explain her they only wanted to trick her into coming out. She'd do some things with the stick, then say she had thought it would have worked, keeping the explanations for more even times. Looking up, she saw the enemy wasn't about to attack, each time it was about to dive, Venus sent it a beam of light it had to avoid. She had time.
She thought a bit, then had an idea, one that could actually work! She lifter the stick in the same way she had seen her guardians do so many times and shouted: "Jupiter Power Make Up!"
The formula, even spoken by an unknown voice, activated the stick, who loaded itself with energy, her energy. Then she felt violent electric shocks in the fingers and she dropped it with a short squeak. On the ground, it continued emitting tiny lightnings. "Here, pick it up!" Makoto obeyed, and as soon as her hand closed around the tool, it indelicately brought her back to the transformation one had the nerve to interrupt, as if preventing it to finish its work had angered it.
Once transformed, she looked at the monster again, then at her allies. They were looking at her only. Oh no! She hadn't thought of that, they could see much of her like that, even her make up probably disappeared! In many spots, worms had hatched, she killed all those she found, but others were under her skin, eating her, creating holes under the sucked in skin in random places. She washed any moulds she found, but it didn't change her livid, unhealthy tone. All her body, like her face, was skinny and dehydrated, and the desiccated flesh around each wound was darkened and hard. A yellow liquid soaked part of the front of her suit.
She knew the others didn't see that much details, she would only look like a very pale girl, skinny, covered with lesions, a very sick girl to say shortly, but judging from their face, they didn't expect that. Venus even neglected to keep the monster busy, and here it was charging them again, perfectly in line to hit Sailor Moon, stupidly frozen by surprise.
She let her worries aside, threw herself on her and pushed her on the ground, but she didn't have the time to get out of the way herself. The eagle would have had little to do to catch her and rip her apart, yet it missed. Worse, it hit her with its wing, without enough strength to throw her down, but enough ot nearly turn around completely in its flight, stall and crash in a cloud of dust.
Angry, it got up and jumped onto the place he had been hit, sweeping randomly with its sharp beak, that Jupiter easily avoided. She successfully summoned thunder, and it retreated with a raspy cry, flying difficultly with its partly burned feathers.
"Jupiter! Moon exclaimed, It can't see you! … This fight is up to you!
- Oh no… it can't depend on me."
A look was enough to explain this reasoning. Her attack has spent most of the energy of her transformation, which destabilised. Her suit, or part of it, lost its cohesion and turned into a cloud of ribbons, then formed back, and the phenomenon happened over and over, she was reminding of a broken neon, frantically blinking in a struggle not to turn off. "I still have enough strength for a small lightning, but it won't be of much help. I'd rather hold it while you attack.
- No! Moon objected, It's too dangerous! What if you were hit?
- Don't worry! It's very light, I noticed when it ran into me, if Mercury…
- Of course! the girl finished for her, A little layer of ice, and it'll be too heavy to fly!"
They watched, waiting for it to dive again. It didn't take time, its damages wings soared poorly and it tired quickly. It took aim at Venus this time, and as soon as it became obvious the girl laid down and Makoto stepped over her, ready for impact.
As expected, the monster didn't see her and with a push on the chest, the toppled it. While she dragged it with large handfuls of feathers from its tail, the only spot where the beak and claws couldn't reach her, so it couldn't go back up, Mercury only had to spend one "Shabon Freeze" to load it with too much ice for its strength.
Powerless, it succumbed in one instant to Sailor Moon's sceptre. The danger was no more…
"What about the eyes in the bush?
Mars's question put them all back on their guards and they carefully closed in. As to prove they weren't an effect of the sun, the eyes blinked, but nothing moved. Mars decided not to wait for it to attack and to strike first, but she had to hold back her fire for Moon suddenly moved between her and the target. "Are you insane, dumpling head?"
For only explanation, she bent down, got back up and turned toward her, holding a small black cat wearing a red collar. Curiosity or fear had held their third enemy in its hiding place, it wouldn't cause too much trouble. Moon let the cat go free and got rid of her transformation, mimicked by Mars, Mercury and Venus. Jupiter kept her uncertain form. The danger really being gone this time, they could worry all they liked about their friend. "Makoto! Usagi exclaimed, How can you pretend you don't need help? Will I have to drag you by force to the hospital?
- I don't need to go! she replied in a hateful tone, which surprised the others as much as herself. Only you can help me, but I know you too well, you'd never do that for a friend!
- Come on, you know it's not true, tell me what to do and I will at once.
- This energy you're giving me, find a way to block it. I don't want a single joule of it. That's what's making me suffer.
- But… what if you…
- Too scared to lose a friend? Too afraid to be alone? Think about others for once in your useless life! You make me live a nightmare, you should have let me die!
- I would never let a friend die.
- Keep your complexes for yourself, you selfish! And keep your damned energy and if I die, that'll already be better than that!"
She wanted to leave but Usagi caught her wrist, Rei took the other and while she squirmed Minako caught her by the waist and Ami by the legs, to prevent her from kicking. They could hold her but it wouldn't take them very far. At least as long as they held her she couldn't go and hide in her apartment.
Jupiter twisted some more in an attempt to pull free from them, then gave up. There was only one thing to do: "Supreme Thunder!" Her power went right through her own body, who cared since she didn't feel pain, and moved into the others'. All the energy from her transformation now spent, she lost it and ran in her normal form to get away from them. Rei, who either had been struck less hardly either resisted better than the others, went after her.
Makoto stopped when she saw a piece of wood on the side of the alley, she took it and brandished it. "Go help the others instead, take my advice. If I have to beat you…
- We will find a solution, Mako, let us help you.
– There's nothing you can do! You can't save me, nothing can, I just want to go with dignity, is it too much asked? Think of me as dead, and never bother me again!"
She threw the stick at Rei with all of her strength, missing her on purpose but forcing her to bend down, and used the distraction to take an advance from her. She didn't stop before being home, then locked and blocked the door.

Chapter 8