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So young and yet so lonely. Hearing the harsh whispers from behind Michiru's back as she sat in the classroom. Most kids were too intimidated to approach her. Other kids took a far more insidious and cruel route by spreading rumors or talking behind her back while she was within earshot. No one ever approached her, either due to having that unapproachable air or to reinforce the idea that she deserved no friends.
Others carried conflicting impressions - Michiru was either a shy, sad loner or a stuck-up bitch too good to be around her classmates. There was never a middle ground.
Michiru wanted to be left alone.
Wish granted.
Once in a while, the occasional admirer would leave a love letter in her shoe cubby at school. Michiru would never read it. Times like that would give her an excuse to take a trip out to the beach. It became a small ritual. She placed the letter on the sand and set it on fire with her dad's lighter. Michiru liked the temperature contrast of cool sand on her bare feet and the heat of the fire burning away the letter. She’d watch the wind carry the ashes of someone’s infatuations and fantasies into the ocean.
The wind always had a knack of blowing in the right direction when Michiru needed it. The moon controlled the tide, but the wind created the friction necessary for waves.
s
It was the first time she had received a waking vision. Previously, she’d have recurring nightmares but waved them away as stress. Michiru was awake, but she lost her sight, losing connection with the present. She felt outside of her body. She watched herself from afar. Michiru watched in horror as she saw herself walk into the ocean. No matter what she did - from kicking her legs to swinging her arms - nothing could stop her body from walking into the chaotic waters. The strength of the tide grew fiercer the closer her body walked.
Michiru tried to scream. No sound came out.
The out-of-body experience shook Michiru to her core—watching herself get consumed by a large wave, and then, nothing. She ceased to exist. The sea ate her up.
Accepting her fate, she felt herself ascend and shift into another space, in another place and time. It felt like a glimpse into the future. But everything looked wrong.
The world was dark all around her. Michiru recognized a significant intersection in downtown Tokyo was full of people, but something seemed off. No one was moving. No one was speaking. They seemed frozen in place. Statuesque.
Michiru tried to move closer but felt a force keeping her in place. Something prevented her from moving where she floated. She looked down and noticed there was one figure moving around. It was hard to make out, but they were the only person moving in a seemingly dead world. They were running around as if trying to search for anything or anyone but in vain.
A crack of lightning, no, not lightning. The best Michiru could describe it was streaks of black plasma flying through the air. As she looked up, she noted there were long strokes of black against a blood-soaked sky. The negative energy moved with intention. It morphed into something almost Tsunami-like, swirling into a large mass. She could feel her breath getting heavier and her eyes growing wider, watching as the plasma form whirled towards both her and the people below.
Distracted, she failed to notice the figure was trying to get her attention by yelling. It was hard to hear what they were trying to say. The moment Michiru looked at the person again.
Blink.
Michiru opened her eyes. She fell to her hands and knees when she realized she couldn’t breathe easily. Her lungs burned, there was something trapped in them, but Michiru couldn’t get it out. Forming a fist, she pounded her chest, trying to give herself some support in getting whatever was trapped in her body out. The coughing grew harsher, her throat felt tired and sore, but she persisted. She was so close. The final cough was enough for her reflexes to expel the debris in her lungs. Each cough released briny liquid, seafoam, and pieces of seaweed. A larger piece hung out from her lips, caught in her esophagus. She grabbed the piece and pulled it out from her mouth. It was incredibly long. She could feel it in her lungs and throat. With a final pull, she removed the remaining seaweed from inside her body. She returned her focus on breathing again.
A breeze passed through and felt colder - she felt colder - she felt her uniform cling to her body. Michiru looked at herself, covered in seaweed, seafoam, and soaked from head to toe. It dawned on her. She did go in the ocean. The pace of her breathing picked up faster and faster. The panic set in, her heartbeat pounding so hard she could feel it in her eardrums. The beach she was at wasn’t populated during this time of day. It was early fall. No one went to the beach when the weather got colder. Michiru looked ahead, and she wanted to scream.
There were no footprints. The sand ahead was smooth and untouched.
No evidence that she’d even walked into the water beyond her wet clothes and seaweed.
Impossible. It was physically impossible to walk ten meters back and forth without creating prints in the sand.
Nothing made sense.
The only thing Michiru could do was hastily put on her shoes and run home.
The only thing Michiru could do was forget this ever happened.
The following vision occurred while she was bathing one night. It was a stressful day full of exams after exams. She had studied so hard the last month and was confident that she’d pass, but the stress was still stress. The immense pressure from her advanced courses proved almost too much for her. Thankfully, she could finally put the day behind and relax.
Michiru often liked to sink into the warm water and hold her breath. Practicing how long she could stay underneath the water.
Michiru focused on the feeling of fresh, clean, warm water.
She opened her eyes and stared out to the ceiling - its pattern shifting and blurred through the water.
Something felt off to Michiru. Like her body didn’t feel right, she felt tense and stiff. As if she couldn’t move or get up from her current position underneath the water. Her legs, arms, and back twitched and tried to move - nothing. The panic set in. She had to think quickly - what was causing her body to become stiff as a board? A pinched nerve? Panic attack? A rare quick onset degenerative nerve disease? Making every attempt to move all the joints in her body was a fruitless endeavor.
Michiru was stuck underneath the water.
Her thoughts turned bitter at the possibility she was going to die young and in the bathtub. Of all the ways to die, it had to be when she was relaxing. Worst of all, others would get the wrong idea: That she committed suicide. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to leave this world. She had plans. She had dreams. She had goals. She had recently made her first friend.
She hadn’t even experienced reciprocated romantic love.
She had a crush, yes. Her crush was a tall, handsome girl she saw at a sporting event held at a neighboring school in the late fall. Out of boredom, she’d watch the hundred-meter dash to see if she’d get some inspiration by sketching the runners. As she was about to practice drawing figures in motion, the short-haired blonde caught her attention. Michiru froze and felt her heart leap into her throat. Is this how love at first sight felt? The blonde looked taller than the other girls her age. She was hypnotized by the movements of the blonde running from start to finish. Michiru's pencil stayed in one place, never moving or touching the paper. Exhilarated and in total awe of watching someone become the wind. The blonde won the race with ease. The announcer declared that she had set a new personal record. She was beautiful and fast. Michiru would eavesdrop on people’s conversations to learn the name of the racer.
Haruka Tenoh.
A name she wrote in her sketchbook. A name she’d burn into her brain. Haruka Tenoh became the start of an obsession for Michiru.
Now she was never going to meet her. Now she was going to die, and worst of all - she'd be found naked and dead. How humiliating. She wanted to take a well-earned bath, not become an obituary or statistic.
Michiru screamed as loud as possible. Only air bubbles escaped from her mouth. She was losing air—the water filling her lungs.
She blacked out.
Her eyes opened to reveal she was in the same place as the last vision. This time she was closer to the devastation. She could see the people who were stuck in place. Their faces were frozen in fear, panic, and hopelessness. The black, crackling, plasma mass now moved into the crowd of people - sucking them into the void.
Michiru could feel salty tears streaming down her face. She was stuck. She felt the force holding her in place again. Powerless to do nothing but watch the end of the world. Her peripheral vision caught movement.
There was that figure from last time. Michiru observed them running through the crowds of frozen people. She could see the person better, but not their face. Something about them seemed so familiar, but not. Michiru couldn’t figure out who.
The figure yelled out her name, and as she was about to turn towards her…
Blink.
Michiru was standing. Wait, wasn’t she in the bathtub? Why was everything dark? Her head felt fuzzy, and her vision blurry as if she was underwater. She felt so disoriented. It was hard to put together where she was.
Blink.
She was wearing clothes. They felt cold and wet, sticking to her body.
Blink.
She heard the ocean waves crashing. She could smell the salt of the sea carried by the wind.
It finally dawned on Michiru - she had another vision. It felt so real. But it didn’t explain how she ended up back at this beach. How she was wearing clothes and how she was all wet. As she became aware of her body, she felt something wrapped around her arms. She looked down, and to her horror, there were Portuguese man o’ wars attached to her arms. There was a delay between the pain and her reaction to seeing one of the deadliest creatures of the sea. Before she could even react, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, her body convulsing, falling to her knees, unable to stop the near-paralyzing pain. Blacking out again as the high tide rolled in, she fell to the ground.
Cough, cough, cough. Water sputtering out from her mouth. Seaweed covered her face, and a small crab tried to escape from Michiru's tangled, wavy hair. Her mouth tasted of the fish and salt. She picked herself up and wiped her eyes. It was early dawn. The sun was beginning to peer its head out into her world. She had been on the beach for the entire night. Michiru felt a chill down her spine as her teeth began to chatter as she tried to look at herself to figure out if she was okay. Her whole body began to shake when a warm breeze rolled through. It was comforting despite it being a chilly early spring morning. The ocean was cruel, but the wind was like a warm, invisible blanket. The only thing she noted was that there was more seaweed on her and a ring of seaweed surrounding her. She looked at her arms and was shocked to see there was nothing, no mark left behind. It felt so real. Goosebumps formed all over her arms, and her shoulders began to shake again. It felt bizarre and disturbing, like some cosmic prank. Michiru never believed in any of that junk. She enjoyed reading trashy horoscopes, but only for fun. She liked that they were simple, harmless, and fun.
The experience was neither.
It was a waking nightmare.
Her home was a few miles away, and she had no money to hail a taxi or take a bus. The best she could do was try to run home. Michiru was thankful that she wasn’t dead, but death sounded like a friendlier alternative.
When she got home, she started to paint out what she saw in her vision. It scared her.
She tried to paint over it, layer after layer, thick paint the image getting more distorted and bleak.
Anytime she hung out with her friend, she didn’t know what to do with herself. Her friend was so sweet, too. Elza enjoyed Michiru’s company - she could see through Michiru’s introversion. What Elza found was a friend who was intelligent, sarcastic, playful, and cute. Elza found a girl who was like her. The first time they kissed, Michiru didn’t remember it.
Which was sad. A first kiss was supposed to be cherished. Michiru’s mind often wandered off to different places, leaving her physical body to fend for itself. The visions would happen randomly during the day, but not as intensely. They were silent and cold. They were unfeeling. During the day, the apparitions came and went, but the feeling of existential dread stayed. It scared her that she was experiencing such haunting images; no other girl her age should. Most girls were concerned about their grades and having crushes. Michiru experienced a mental prison and a crisis of living.
She tried to rectify it by staying present and in the moment. In return, she grew bold to kiss Elza back. Something felt off about the kiss. Like, it wasn’t right. Not because Elza was a girl, that was fine. Because Elza wasn’t the one Michiru should be kissing.
Everything felt wrong.
Her thoughts returned to Haruka. Was it cheating to fantasize about someone you didn’t know? Was it cheating when she’d go to Haruka’s sporting events? Was it cheating to watch from afar, seeing her run or ride a dirtbike? Was it cheating to keep a cigar box of magazine clippings and memorize Haruka’s race statistics for both track and motorsports?
Michiru didn’t want to think about the answer. She was honest with Elza, and, thankfully, Elza was okay with being friends. They reasoned that they were still young and had time to figure themselves out. Who knew what the future held?
The thought of the future—of this inevitable, crushing destiny—created a growing bitterness inside her.
Michiru avoided taking baths and going to the ocean. She opted to take quick showers and spend time at the indoor pool. She stopped going under and opted to wade in the waters in the shallow end of the pool. Never before was she scared of the water in all her life, but she was hesitant about what had happened to her. She wasn't in the mood or mindset to take risks.
When it was hushed, she swore she could hear the ocean talking to her—trying to call her back—trying to get her attention—requesting her presence, saying that she needed to awaken. It didn’t make sense. She was already awake. She woke up when it was morning and fell asleep at night. Awake, from what exactly?
The ocean responded that she was in a walking dream, that her bubble was about to pop if she didn’t heed the call. The world she knew would cease to exist. It was destiny.
There's no such thing as destiny or fate. Humans lived and died. What their purposes were was what they made it themselves. Why was she arguing with herself?
She tried to drown out the voices by playing her violin as loud as possible. There was something in her, and it scared her. It terrified her. She wanted to be a regular girl who painted colorful cosmic portraits and played beautiful sonatas on the violin.
In recent months, the colorful cosmic portraits turned dark, dreary, and full of doom.
People thought of it as her best work.
The beautiful sonatas became dissonant, shrieking in the air.
People thought she was taking an incredible musical evolutionary step.
Everyone ate it up. Michiru's suffering was their pleasure. All she could think of were the visions that clouded her head—the end of the world and the eerie silence that followed its destruction. And the unknown figure running around helplessly in her head. It was all death and destruction.
Setting the violin back into its case, Michiru resolved that she needed to go back to the ocean. She had to see if she was crazy or if there was something more. If she was wrong, she was dead. If she was right…
…She didn’t know what would happen if she was right.
To best calm her nerves, she walked to the beach. It was a long walk, but she knew that if she was serious about the decision, walking was the commitment. She could turn around at any point and have to walk back home. The journey gave her time to ponder. It gave her time to appreciate her life and, at the same time, regret for what she was never able to do. Regret to leave Elza all alone but knew her friend would push on and heal with time. Regret that she never got to meet her crush.
Michiru smiled bitterly to herself. She knew it was the sad definition of a crush - she bared the brunt of those feelings alone and silently.
The tide was abnormally high for the time of day. The sky was clear, but the waves roared as if there was a typhoon. She walked closer to the shoreline. The water reacted with a heavy crash. Michiru observed they were king tides. The shoreline receded, and an enormous wave formed. The wind blew with the fury of a tornado. Michiru stood firm, stood tall, as if unaffected by the elements. She took a huge breath. The wave was at least three times taller than her.
Michiru outstretched her arms as she walked closer and closer to the wave as it was about to crash into her. A knot formed in her throat. She choked back a sob. Only a single tear fell down her face.
The moment of impact.
The crash.
There was no calm before the storm. The storm consumed her.
Was this how Captain Ahab felt when the madness and obsession over the white whale brought him to his eventual demise? Had Michiru met her white whale in the form of the ocean?
It didn't matter anymore because she ceased to exist. Her physical form melted into seafoam on the ocean's surface. It felt pleasant to no longer worry about her body. It was nice knowing it. She was one with the sea.
Taken into the depths far out and beyond what she’d seen in documentaries or books - it was a whole huge world, hidden from human eyes. Deeper and deeper into the depths. Typical mammals could never survive the pressure and deep darkness without protection. Michiru was once a thirteen-year-old girl, but in her current form, she felt like Poseidon. She was Neptune.
Watching the anglerfish lure their prey with a fake piece of effective bait.
The Giant Squid was flowing through the slow currents.
Deep into the abyss and beyond. One with the waters.
In the darkness, a light shone below.
Michiru followed closer to the light. It was so beautiful and bright.
The light source began to move, and Michiru followed closely. She felt herself leaving her body. Watching herself swim toward the light, as her incorporeal form became one with the anglerfish. Michiru felt there was kinship with angler fish. A creature the deep feared, ugly to some, beautiful to her. It was feared in the deeps and held its own, but it wasn't the biggest threat.
She was the hunter: the light, her lure.
She was the prey: the light, her end.
Enough chasing.
Time to dine.
The anglerfish stopped, turned around, and opened her mouth, drawing her prey closer and closer to the light source. So close to her prey. The hunger kept her alive and sustained in the deep, dark depths.
Michiru watched herself—the anglerfish—eat her smaller self, the fish. She didn't want to spit her out or save her. Michiru had to do this because this was the beginning of the end. It was a sea change. The sea responded to her, the currents guided her through the deep, dark depths. She would eat a school of herself if she were directed to do so. She had to destroy the her that lived before. She was to be born anew. It was pain. It was a pleasure. It was longing, and it was intimacy. The jaws closed onto the light, chomping down on the source. It exploded, and Michiru morphed back into her human form. The ocean currents reached deep and twirled around her, pulling her up towards the surface. In the open sea, a whirlpool formed, and Michiru floated out. For the first time in her young life, she felt reborn. The old her, gone. Dead.
The ocean took her, and she was reborn, dubbed the true heir of the sea.
It all made sense. She had a purpose beyond existing as a human.
The ocean revealed its true nature, and she accepted its message of love.
She wasn’t ready then, but she was now. She was prepared to accept its gifts.
Its first gift was its connection. The sea would communicate with Michiru - help guide where she needed to go.
The second gift was her power. She awakened as Sailor Neptune, Guardian of the Ocean Deep.
It had one last gift to give her.
The last gift was to find her partner. The person she was destined to meet. The one that would help her with her mission:
Prevent the Silence by retrieving the three talismans and summoning the holy grail.
Michiru’s heart flipped, and she gasped when the ocean revealed to her that the figure in her visions was her destined partner. The image cleared, giving Michiru the face of who she was fated to meet. She smiled, and a warmth spread in her heart.
Maybe this crush of hers wasn’t as fleeting as she thought. It was so much more than she ever anticipated.
The waves returned her to the shore. It was dark outside, and she was all alone. Michiru looked down at herself - she was wearing her guardian uniform. She felt power drawing from her fingertips. She felt like she could do more in this form. The sea advised she needed to destroy a monster - no, a Daimon. The sea told her where to go. She nodded and ran faster than she’d ever run before. She was jumping higher than what was humanly possible.
She was beyond superhuman. She was unnaturally powerful.
She followed the path laid out by the sea, a pull forged in her head like a magnet, and she jumped from rooftop to rooftop until the roar of the ocean grew louder, indicating she was where she needed to be for whatever danger was to come. She stood on the rooftop two stories above, from where a lone patron, separated from their group, was puking after a fun night of raving in an alley a block away from the club. Michiru turned her eyes away from the person down below her and took in her surroundings. The thud of the bass drum stopped, its abrupt pause caught Michiru's attention. She had never been to this district in Tokyo before. The club in front of her was lit in pink, decorated with rainbows, as the music resumed, followed by a muffled cheer resonating from the club. Michiru could make out figures standing outside the club; there was an alternative look to them compared to the strict Catholic school uniforms that usually surrounded her on a day-to-day basis. They were men and women, but not together. No. Two men were holding each other, swaying and smiling. The women were together, making out, while another couple was singing the song that played from inside the club. Everyone was enjoying each other's company and being who they were without a care. Michiru stared, realizing where she was, the gay district in Tokyo. She felt her heart burst seeing people like her. The shock turned to joy, the 'o' expression turning to an open smile. She knew she was too young to go inside, but maybe one day.
As Michiru watched the club with awe, she failed to notice an old white medical vehicle rolling up. It did not have a red cross but a prominent black star on the front doors of the car. The thud of the pulsing bass could be felt from where the patron kneeled, throwing up everything they had eaten and drunk. Unsuspecting and alone, the perfect target. Unaware of the presence of a red-haired woman sitting in a car with a gun. A weapon she concocted to try to extract pure heart crystals. Every experimental weapon she had made had yet to extract a crystal, but with recent modifications, maybe build number sixty-eight-dot-one alpha would be the game-changer. She shot the small handgun at the lone patron, "Nice shot!" the mysterious redhead exclaimed, sticking her arm out, waving the victory symbol. As she observed, the person turned into another monster.
"Failure. Bummer. Back to the drawing board." Eudial shifted the car to drive and checked her surroundings. She adjusted her side view mirror to see a figure from above. She pulled herself out of the window and sat on the door. Whoever that was looked like trouble, the woman gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger, fired the warning shot.
The energy blast whirred past Neptune's head; it was a near miss. In an instant, she moved her head just millimeters shy of getting hit. Neptune blinked back to reality, realizing what had transpired.
"HEY! Who do you think you are? This is MY TURF." Eudial yelled with defiance. She refilled the energy pistol and aimed it directly at Neptune. "The first shot was a warning. The next won't be. The crystals belong to us. Get in our way and the Deathbusters will end you."
Eudial heard the sound of the poor victim screaming and giggled in excitement, "That's my cue to leave. My friend will do the dirty work for me."
As she slid back into the driver's seat, Eudial brought two fingers to her lips and blew a kiss to the stranger-turned-monster. "Ciao, baby!" Her tone was saccharine-sweet and dismissive.
Eudial hit the gas and turned her eyes to the road. She made her escape. Eudial said aloud, 'I'm gonna need a bigger gun!'
Neptune was about to lunge after the car, but noticed something was very wrong with the person below her. The person's body formed into large warts as they began to contort and deform into a vicious monstrosity. Neptune watched in horror as the innocent person turned into something incomprehensible. She noted the monster was getting its bearings; the sound coming from the club gained the Daimon's attention. It stood glaring at the club for a moment. It was up to her to stop it from hurting any people. Before the monster began to move, Neptune dove down and used her elbow to connect with the monster's skull. A successful hit, there was a crack in the neck and skull of the monster, and it fell on its stomach. Neptune landed and immediately flipped back into the alley away from the club, gaining space from the monster.
The Daimon turned its head and growled in Neptune's direction. Neptune stared back and took in a sharp breath; she refused to keep her eyes off the monster. Her sharp breathing turned focused, and even, she held her fists up. She didn't know what else to do, because in the moment, it was either her or the monster. And if the monster won, she wouldn't be the only victim. It would mean the end. Neptune squeezed her fists tighter, feeling the energy surging through her arm to her fingers. A crackling of teal plasma coursing through her veins. It was familiar, and yet, so new to her. Neptune could do this. Michiru couldn't. The monster roared and charged at her. Its claws outstretched, while Neptune was instinctively quick to dodge, the creature was able to nick at her forearm. It wasn't a deep scratch, but it still hurt. Neptune screamed, holding up her hands, feeling the sea's power generating above her.
DEEP.
SUBMERGE.
Words she never uttered rolled off her tongue as if she had always said them. The words linked to the power, as she directed it towards the Daimon. The teal transparent energy consumed the monster. The sound of the electronic music from the club was loud enough that none of the patrons could hear any commotion. Neptune felt the power escape her body, returning to her civilian form. Michiru stumbled forward a few steps, sweat dripping from her forehead. Her breath hitched as she came back to reality.
'What just happened?' She thought that the remaining electric charge she felt from within shifted into a twisted nausea. She balanced herself against the brick wall as she felt everything in her stomach come up.
Seafoam.
Sand.
Seaweed.
The pieces of seaweed were smaller this round. 'I hope this isn't a regular thing,' she thought to herself as she collected herself, wiping her mouth and eyes. Michiru steadied her breath, rolled up the sleeve of her shirt to check the area where the Daimon scratched her. To her surprise, the wound was closing up. Michiru ran her fingers along the closing wound, "I can heal... quickly?" Logically, a wound like that would've required a few stitches but it closed up as if nothing had happened. All that remained was light scar tissue. Seeing the wound heal began to click in Michiru how she was able to survive so much of what she experienced. That meant the Portuguese Man o' War experience really happened. It was real pain. Every pain she felt was as real as the last. It was overwhelming.
Michiru went to examine the aftermath of the Daimon several feet in front of her. The pink light of the club extended out enough for Michiru to see that the Daimon had transformed back into a human. She looked at a person on the ground. There was something about them that felt... familial. Not in the sense that she knew the person, but there was a kindred pull to them. They were a woman, short, boyish, with brown hair, wearing a motorcycle leather jacket. Michiru noted the woman looked handsome. Like Haruka. It looked like they were breathing, just passed out, and lying on their stomach. Michiru knelt to help the person sit up. 'Guardian strength', Michiru realized. The woman was tall and muscular, yet lifting her felt like nothing. Michiru decided that she wouldn't dwell on the question. There were far more questions she needed answered.
She felt a hard crash of waves from the southeast. The ocean was getting her attention. It felt akin to Morse code, the movement of the ocean. Hard, soft, short, and long distances all had their patterns and meanings. It spoke to say where she was, which wasn't a mistake. Fate worked in mysterious ways.
The sea knew her better than she knew herself. It told of a destined partner. Someone that she knew, but they did not know her. The waves described a tall blonde, the soldier of Uranus, and just like Neptune, was responsible for protecting the Moon Kingdom from outside threats. This burden was not hers alone to bear. It was a shared weight. Michiru did her best to focus on the vision the ocean was sharing. It felt as if she had astral projected to the ocean from above; she could see the waves and foam form into the face of Haruka Tenoh. Michiru's eyes widened as she gasped at the revelation. It further said, 'Your destined partner awaits you. You cannot do this alone. Seek her. She needs you more than you know.'
"What is this? Some sort of joke or my imagination?"
It barked back, 'I do not play for fools. I only reveal the truth. It goes beyond your desires.'
Michiru's breath hitched in response. Her cheeks burned at the insinuation. Of course, it knew of her little crush.
'Do whatever it takes to awaken your partner. The fate of the world rests on your shoulders.'
Michiru accepted her new life. She awakened as a soldier. A guardian. A protector. She had a purpose. She nodded and made her way to the nearest subway station. She needed to head home.
Michiru sat on a bench seat in an empty subway car. As she was collecting her thoughts, the ocean directed 'You must retrieve the talisman. Stop the silence. If you fail, then the entire world will be destroyed.'
Michiru muttered out loud instead of speaking through her mind to the sea, "And you're going to tell me when I'm supposed to drop everything to fight some monster?"
'Yes.'
"Ah, okay. Great. Good to know."
Silence followed, ironic, Michiru noted. The thing that used to be a source of solace turned into existential dread. A representation of the ultimate end. Michiru looked around the empty car, feeling eerie, and decided she'd rather talk to an overbearing presence like the ocean than remain silent. "What can you tell me about Haruka?"
'Not much. She's the soldier of Uranus. You two used to work together and have worked together in previous incarnations. You only come to power when you're needed. For outside threats.'
Michiru nodded. She crossed her legs and wrapped her arms around herself. The ocean continued, 'She is probably experiencing the same dreams as you.'
Michiru rolled her eyes. "You have a way of getting your message across."
'Not I. The wind. It is the Element of Uranus. At the moment, I know not what the left hand does. Connection severed.'
"Oh, ok." Michiru rested her chin on her hand as she contemplated what the ocean was saying. Despite claiming not to know a lot, it shared some interesting insight into Haruka.
'There is something I need from you.'
Michiru did not respond; she narrowed her eyes and leaned forward, keeping focus.
'When you find the talisman, when removed from the user, the user dies.'
Michiru stayed silent. Her body still despite the movement of the train, as the sea explained, 'Your mission requires sacrifice. Three users will die. They are only three compared to the billions. And you will not be alone.'
"I know. I have to find Haruka."
'No. A dark force. Invaders. It is a race against time. They have a head start. Remember the stakes.'
Michiru looked around and muttered some curses under her breath, uncomfortable with the truth. "Can't you tell me who has them?"
No response.
Michiru asked again, but louder, "Can't you tell me who has them?!"
Again, no response.
The train slowed down to a halt, the announcer stating the stop and guiding when the doors would open. A couple began to walk into the car. With tears bursting out her eyes Michiru screamed the question again, demanding an answer. The couple looked at her, and she looked back. The man and woman turned around to decide to enter another car. Michiru got up and left the subway car; it was her stop anyway. She made a beeline for the bathroom to collect herself, thankful no one was in there as she slammed the stall and laid against the wall. Trying to collect herself. Trying to understand.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Michiru cried.
'It's your destiny.'
"Oh, now you decide to respond."
'I didn't have an answer to your question. Why respond?'
Michiru sucked her left cheek in; she was going to pick and choose her battles. The conversation was not productive; it felt as if she had to accept she would be on her own until Haruka finally awakened. Her heartbeat quickened at the thought of Haruka. It meant she would finally have a reason to interact with her. It wasn't every day that the threat of the universe lay in talking to one's crush. It was cruel that fate would put her in that position. Most people get scared of asking someone out for a date. She had to ask her crush to save the world with her.
Michiru learned the purpose of her mission. She knew the weight on her shoulders. She knew that Haruka was her destined partner. She was willing to make any and every sacrifice.
No matter what.