A/N: This story can also be read on my Fanfiction account here.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Sailor Moon or Digimon. However, I do own the OCs that are thrown in here.
In the Light of the Fading Moon
Destruction and darkness; that was all she saw. The angel stood among the destruction and floating stars, turning the depressing scene into a miniature night sky. She had fought so hard and won but the planet was ravaged in the end. The angel was alone; she was the sole survivor. Her friends, her family, her lover…all the inhabitants of the world had all been killed in the long struggle.
Bitter tears stained her face, reflecting the red and black ground that they fell to. “I won,” the winged young woman said to herself. “I-I thought this wasn’t s-supposed to happen…” In an effort to keep her body from shaking, she curled into herself, hands entangled around each other as she kept them close to her chest.
The stars glowed, becoming translucent figures of the friends she had lost. “I’m sorry…I-I wasn’t strong enough!” she apologized to the silent ghosts. “I-I wish I was able to…”
“You are,” a new voice called to her.
The winged girl looked up, startled, and said the newcomer’s name in a small whisper.
“You can bring everyone back. You just have to wish hard enough. Give this world new life and correct the destruction.”
Wish…wish hard enough and make it happen.
Chapter 1: A Sky Illuminating Us
The blonde sighed, clutching a sheet of paper in her hands. “Just perfect,” she muttered to herself. On the paper, a bright red fifty-two had been placed above the black pen markings. English really wasn’t her forte.
The thirteen year old placed her head on her desk, groaning, her long straw blonde hair fell off the desk. At the moment, it was passing time and they were waiting for their next teacher to arrive. From next to her, she could hear the scraping of a chair against the wood floor.
“Hey, Zoe, how’d you do?” asked a male voice.
Zoe Orimoto looked up, her bright green eyes half closed in annoyance as the girl scowled at the dark brown haired and chocolate brown-eyed boy. “A fifty-two,” she muttered.
The brunet gaped at her in surprise before breaking into fits of giggles. “I can’t believe I did better than you, Zoe,” he laughed.
“Oh, quiet, Takuya,” she answered, looking away with a flushed face.
“Come on, Zoe,” Takuya Kanbara playfully begged, trying to snatch the paper from her hands but the blonde’s hands remained faster.
“Takuya-kun, I thought all your energy would be spent after physical education and that lecture from Lutten-sensei,” a raven-haired boy said, approaching them. His dark blue eyes fixed on the paper that Takuya was trying to nab.
“Oh, Kouichi, you don’t have to use the honorific,” Takuya laughed, forgetting the object he was after.
Kouichi Kimura laughed softly. All of them however knew that he was just too polite to drop the honorifics. The teen joined his friends and they began to chitchat until the teacher arrived and scattered back to their desks as the arithmetic teacher began.
As the arithmetic lesson dragged on, Zoe found her eyes moving towards the window and out at the newly bloomed cherry blossoms that rustled in the breeze. She sighed as quietly as possible, her mind reaching back to the days where she had been in the Digital World, where the blonde had been three years prior with her five friends—Takuya, Kouichi, Koji Minamoto, Tomoki Himi, and Junpei Shibayama.
Wind was her element and breezy and beautiful days like this always made her wish she was outside or at least had the window open. From there, she allowed her mind to wander, being sure to occasionally check back in with reality to take notes and answer any questions when they were thrown her way before going back into her own little world again.
Then, she heard it, almost like a distant call.
Realize yourself, a whisper said.
Zoe blinked, quickly looking around for the source of the voice.
“Orimoto-san,” called the teacher, “since you’re awake, how about I have you answer question three from the homework?”
Zoe tried controlling her features to not show her embarrassment as she rose with her workbook in hand. “Yes, sensei,” she answered, walking over to the chalkboard. She carefully wrote the problem and the process she did to find the answer. What was that voice? she thought, scrawling the process with the chalk. Upon completion, she returned to her seat, not listening to the comments her teacher was making.
Green eyes were drawn back to the window and into the tree. Among the soft shadows of the blossoms, she could see a black mass. Red eyes peered from the shadows, making Zoe’s skin crawl. Even though the blonde wasn’t into the idea of demons existing like her grandparents, her mind automatically jumped to stories her grandmother used to tell her about monsters and demons (though, she really didn’t believe it now that Zoe was more grown up, however, her superstitious heritage had been instilled by such stories). However, it really didn’t help that the red eyes reminded her of Duskmon.
The blonde turned her attention away, hoping it was some sort of a trick of her eyes. Yet she still felt the red eyes gaze at her. The green-eyed teen did her best to focus her attention on the work her teacher handed out but she kept catching herself giving a side-glance out the window. Every time Zoe dared look, the eyes were still there.
Was it a demon like in her grandmother’s stories? Maybe it was a Digimon that had somehow made it through the remains of the destroyed underground station? A ghost, maybe? She didn’t remember hearing about any gho—
The bell rung. Zoe nearly jumped out of her chair and skin. She gripped her chair to be sure that she didn’t fall out. After a few seconds, her heart calmed down a bit. Gathering her books and homework, the girl put her things into her bag. Again, Zoe looked out the window only to be met with a surprise: the pair of red eyes weren’t there.
“Hey, Zoe-chan, you okay?” Kouichi asked, traces of concern in his face.
Zoe, startled, looked over to Takuya and Kouichi as they approached her. “Yeah, you’ve been acting strangely throughout class,” added Takuya, shouldering his bag. He was calmer than his darker haired friend but remained curious.
“You were watching her throughout the class and not paying attention?” inquired Kouichi, turning his gaze at the boy, a playfully accusing look on his face earning a returning irritated glance from Takuya.
“I just thought I saw something,” she answered, glancing at the spot again.
Her two friends followed her gaze. “Whatever it was, it isn’t there anymore,” noted Kouichi.
“No duh, captain obvious,” Takuya said.
“How about we just get going home?” Zoe asked. “We have some homework and we have that anniversary coming up tonight, remember? Though I highly doubt Takuya would have a problem with it since he isn’t above skipping homework.”
“Hey, I’ve only done it a few times! And they were on small things that weren’t worth anything!” the boy exclaimed. “Hell, I’m pretty sure Kouichi has done it a few times.”
“Takuya-kun, I only do it with problems I don’t understand,” Kouichi combated.
Being backed into a corner, Takuya dropped the subject and began walking out of the classroom. His two friends laughed and followed him out the door.
- - -
Zoe sighed, finishing up her math. Only an hour before, she been finished being scolded by her father for getting a low score on her English test. Somewhere along the way, she was grounded then ungrounded, agreeing to cook dinner in her mother’s stead.
The girl sighed, putting her workbook away before raising to go and make an early dinner for her family. Might as well make mushroom risotto, she thought, pulling out a skillet and putting it on the stove. Zoe began going for the olive oil and her mind winding back to the voice she had earlier.
“Realize yourself,” the voice had said. What did it even mean?
“Hn, what am I thinking about that?” she thought aloud, shaking her head. “My mind was playing tricks on me.” Zoe cut up some onion and garlic before sautéing the ingredients. As the blonde went about readying the rice, something outside of the window next to the pantry cupboard, she saw a black cat sitting on the low stonewall that separated their yard from the sidewalk.
Zoe quickly turned on her heels and returned to her cooking. “Accidenti,” she muttered, “more bad luck.” Zoe quickly finished making the food
After dinner, she changed into a light green dress with pink stripes and prepared for any bad luck might come her way: grabbing her lavender raincoat just in case of rain, making sure her cell phone was charged, and anything else she could think of.
“Ciao!” called her mother as she came into the living room. “You know it isn’t supposed to be raining tonight.”
“Yeah but mom, you can never be too careful after seeing a black cat,” Zoe replied, grabbing a Tupperware bowl full of baked goods for her friends. Her mother watched her daughter go out the door.
Mrs. Orimoto sighed. “Here we go,” she said, before returning to the dishes.
- - -
Zoe raced through the city, cutting it close several times. She had escaped being almost being ran over, was hit by a rouge soccer ball from a soccer game, and had somehow misread the street she was supposed to go down and ended up backtracking in order to find it.
The teen sighed and muttered to herself. “Man, I am really unlucky. All because of that black cat…” Zoe checked her watch. It was only five twenty and she was now twenty minutes late. She groaned, slouching forwards a little as she walked and then looking up to check the street she was coming to, which, fortunately, was the correct one and the blonde sighed with relief. Of course, that lasted for a short moment.
At the corner of the road, a cat sat with its tail flicking back and forth in anticipation. Zoe gulped. Of course, it had to be a black cat. “Great,” she sighed. There wasn’t any other way Zoe could think of and she was already running late. “Might as well. Things can’t get any worse.”
The blonde continued walking forwards and turned the corner, ignoring the cat. She continued down the street and eventually came to the café that she was to meet her friends. The five already had seats outside with Kouji being the first one to notice Zoe coming.
“Hey, what took you so long?” he asked, standing up when his friend was within talking distance. Being Kouichi’s younger twin, Kouji had the same eyes and colored hair though the younger wore his longer.
“Bad luck,” Zoe sighed. “I’ll be right around.” Within a few minutes, she was seated at the table, squeezed in between Tomoki and Kouichi.
“What do you mean by bad luck?” inquired the brown haired Tomoki, his blue-green eyes staring curiously at her.
“Nearly getting ran over, hit in the back by a soccer ball…” she sighed, putting the baked goods on the table.
“Sounds worse than some of my almost accidents,” Kouichi inputted.
“Yeah but you still take the cake,” Junpei said, picking a cookie out of the Tupperware. His brown eyes quickly checking what kind he had taken before turning them to Kouichi. “You fell down the stairs before we even met you.”
Kouichi gave off a nervous laugh as the others giggled good-heartedly.
“Yeah but that’s no worse than Takuya coming in full speed and crashing into safety glass,” Kouji pointed out, causing Takuya to flush from embarrassment himself.
“T-that was because I was in a hurry!” Takuya defended himself. The others laughed louder, causing the veteran Flame Warrior to jam a brownie into his mouth to bite back a comeback.
“Hey, Zoe, is that your cat?” Tomoki cut in.
The laughing subsided as Zoe began saying she didn’t own a cat. She stopped herself when she saw the cat that Tomoki was referring too. She froze. It was the same black cat that she had seen earlier. She was sure of it.
“You sure?” asked Kouji. “It seems to be staring at you pretty intently.”
As Kouji pointed out, it was. Zoe and the cat locked looks, examining each other. The feline looked too well groomed to be a stray as its black coat was dully shinning in the late afternoon sun. Something seemed supernatural about the animal, not including the fact that it had a golden crescent moon shaped stone embedded into its head and the fact its eyes were red.
Wait…red eyes… She raised, her chair scooting back so fast that it toppled. “Scat!” she screamed at the cat, catching the attention of all of the passing people and those seated in the café.
“Oh, come off it, Z,” Takuya said, raising and pressing gently on her shoulders for her to sit. “It’s just a cat.”
“Takuya, black cats are bad luck! There’s something weird about that cat, too. It’s been following me all afternoon!” She didn’t mention the red eyes; it would just sound too weird.
“That’s just superstition,” Kouji said, frowning.
“You might have catnip on you,” suggested Tomoki.
Zoe sighed and sat down. Might as well not look like a bigger idiot, she thought to herself, taking a sugar cookie from the Tupperware.
Soon, the six began talking. As Kouji and JP went to a private school and Tomoki went to a elementary school in Shinjuku, they weren’t able to meet as often as they’d like and they all had stories, ranging from school pranks to tests to family life and then ending with reminiscing on adventures passed, namely in the Digital World.
- - -
It was starting to get late and the sun was beginning to set. Upon checking the time, it was closing in on eight, causing Tomoki to get up. “I have to get home,” he announced, disappointment tracing his voice. “My curfew is in a half hour and Mom and Dad would blow a gasket and send Yutaka to come out and get me.”
“Well, I should be going too,” Junpei said, stretching. “My mom and dad themselves will blow one when they hear I skipped cram school tonight for this.”
“Sorry about that,” Kouichi apologized. He was the one who had tried to plan the get-together and since the next day was Shinya’s birthday, he would hate to pull Takuya from some quality time with his younger brother.
“Nah, I needed it,” Junpei said, raising and taking a few cookies for the way home. “I can’t stand it there, even if I started last week. There’s only so much studying someone can take.”
“Agreed!” Takuya exclaimed, doing the same as his older friend but his handful much bigger than the first’s.
“Takuya! Leave some for everyone else to take home!” Zoe chastised. She then looked over at Kouji, who was himself standing, hands in pockets. He moved his eyes to the cookies. “You want any?” she asked. “If so, you should grab them before Takuya or Junpei take them all. You too, Tomoki and Kouichi!”
“Thanks!” Tomoki and Kouichi took a few.
“Thanks,” mumbled Kouji, doing the same as his brother and younger friend.
Satisfied, Zoe resealed the container and they left, being sure to pay for their drinks. Each went their separate ways, Kouji and Kouichi off in one direction and Junpei and Tomoki to the train station, leaving Takuya and Zoe alone to walk in the same direction home.
Along the way, Takuya slowly ate the cookies. “I’m beginning to wonder who has the bigger stomach, you or Junpei,” she said aloud.
Takuya shrugged. “I’m a growing teen.”
“Yeah, you grow any taller and you’ll reach the moon,” Zoe joked.
Takuya refrained from smirking at her playful jab. “You noticed the cat at all?” he asked, pointing behind them.
Zoe whirled around to see the strange cat following at a short distance. The cat slowed down to a slower trot to close the distance and sat at her feet, meowing and staring at her curiously, as if it wanted to ask a question. The blonde made a face. This one must’ve been well taken care of before being abandoned. No stray would follow a human around. She knew this well, having lived in Italy where feral cats were everywhere.
Zoe, pushing aside her superstitious thoughts, bent down and offered the black cat a cookie. “You’re not from around here, huh?” she asked it.
The feline stared at the cookie, almost uninterested.
Takuya walked over to them and bent down and rubbed its ears. The cat seemed hesitant to purr, red eyes still fixed on Zoe. The said blonde sighed, putting the cookie into her mouth before picking up the cat. Her mom would surely yell at her for bringing it home but what else could she do, let it get run over? She shifted the cat to one arm and took a bite from the baked good and swallowed.
“My mom’s going to throw a fit but you probably belong to someone,” she said. “I’ll keep you with me until we find your owner’s, how does that sound?”
The cat meowed contently.
Takuya chortled as he stood up. “I thought you said black cats were bad luck.”
Zoe, in turn, stuck her tongue out at him, causing the brunet to laugh harder.
The cat’s whiskers twitched. Fast as lightning, it had righted itself in Zoe’s arms, jumped onto her shoulder and leapt to the ground and began hissing.
The two watched for a second, completely befuddled. “Well, that’s weird,” Takuya said. Zoe had to agree, her eyes traveling in the direction where the cat’s hisses were directed. Whatever was bothering the black mass of fur, it was behind a concrete wall.
Something in the Italian began to turn. Her mind echoed something: danger. “Uh, Takuya, I think we should just forget about the cat and get out of here,” she said, grabbing her best friend’s arm. However, the curious boy remained still, eyes fixed on something on the other side of the fence.
“Something is pissing the cat off.”
“No duh, Sherlock. That’s why we need to get out of here.” Zoe tried again, this time, the boy allowed himself to be dragged away. The two teens began walking down the street. After a few steps, they heard a scream.
The two whirled around. The scream happened to be close. Faster than Zoe could stop him, Takuya was off running back towards where he believe the scream came from. Zoe called after him and took out her cell phone in order to call the police. Funny thing was, she didn’t have a bar of signal.
“Odd,” she said to herself. In most places like this, she could get really good cell service. She didn’t give it anymore thought, deciding to pocket her cell and race after her friend before he could get himself into trouble.
She followed the path Takuya took, rounding the wall and walking into someone’s yard. There, she found her friend, standing stock still with his back turned to her. “Takuya, what are you doing?” she said in a low voice, just in case there was someone in the house.
She walked over to him and glanced at his face that was locked in one of shock. Confused, the blonde followed his gaze. Upon sharing the same sight with her friend, Zoe’s face turned to that of horror. Before her stood a tall monster that looked like nothing she had ever seen before. She had seen strange and scary things in the Digital World but this was a new form of scary.
The creature was large, easily towering over the humans but still small enough to be hidden by the concrete garden wall. It had thick arms and torso and large hands. The creature’s body ended with a pair of bull’s legs and a wolfish face with horns growing out of the sides of its head. Thick fur that glowed in the setting sun covered its body.
What nearly made Zoe cry out was that it was holding a small body in one of its large hands, small enough to have been a five-year-old child but the small body looked as if it had aged hundreds of years. They might have seen digital angels, dragons, dinosaurs, and demons in the Digital World but they definitely had never seen anything like this.
The blonde wasn’t too sure if the creature had seen her or not (she hoped for the latter). Carefully, she leaned and whispered into his ear, “Takuya, we need to get out of here.”
“Right.” Takuya nodded and they slowly backed up. One step was all that was needed to grab the creature’s attention. Swiftly, it turned its head and roared, dropping its prey for two more victums. The two to abandon their slow withdrawal. They turned and raced, holding tightly onto each other’s wrists as to not lose each other.
They turned onto the street and began running down it. The two could feel their hearts pounding in their ears, their veins pulsing with blood and adrenaline. They managed to get a short distance when they heard the roar of the beast and the loud clomping of heavy hooves.
Then the creature jumped and landed, blocking their way. Takuya and Zoe came to a stop and were about to turn right around when they heard someone yell, “DUCK!”
Zoe was quick to. Then, she heard a scream of pain and anguish. The blonde looked back fearfully to find Takuya in the creature’s grasp and glowing a bright green color.
“Takuya!” Zoe screamed. She looked frantically for a weapon. There wasn’t any. Panic slowly filled her, her eyes falling on the dropped plastic container. She went to pick it up but the black cat landed on it, making her drop it. Zoe couldn’t help but glare at the cat. “NO! I won’t have any bad luck now!”
“Calm yourself and listen!” the cat yelled above the screams in a very mature woman’s voice.
“Like hell! I have to save my friend.” She wasn’t even fazed by the talking cat. She was in too much of a panic and adrenaline high to even care.
“I know,” the cat answered, her voice a tad calmer than the frantic girl. “I have something better than this hunk of plastic.”
“Fine, whatever,” Zoe said hurriedly, letting go of the plastic. “If it’s my Spirit, that’d be great!”
The feline didn’t respond, instead jumping and flipping. In a sparkle of dust, an item appeared and landed on the ground: a small golden brooch with a silver crescent moon at its center and four differently colored gemstones embedded around it. Zoe picked it up, examined it quickly. A hunk of metal was definitely more effective than a hunk of plastic.
She was about to throw it when the cat told her to stop. “Shout ‘Moon Prism Power: Make Up!’” the cat instructed. It sounded cheesy and cliché but Zoe did as instructed, though as she called out the phrase, her voice remained doubtful.
However, in a flash of yellow light, her doubts were proven wrong. A rush of power flowed through her body, similar to—yet radically different than—when she had transformed into Fairymon all those years ago. However, when the light faded, she was not a tall Digimon with wings but instead was dressed in a white sailor suit with a lavender collar and skirt over black bloomers, pale yellow bows, yellow flats, and white gloves with fuchsia cuffs as well as being adorn in a fuchsia chocker with a crescent moon on it and a gold tiara with a similar golden crescent moon on it.
“Now call out an attack!”
“Like what?” Zoe asked, a bit aggravated and confused as to why she had just preformed a transformation like a magic girl from an anime show. “Lunar Winds?”
With that, the wind began to pick up drastically from behind Zoe. Silver blades appeared in the wind and cut at the monster. It let go of the boy as it roared in pain as it gave off blood where it had been hit.
“Not bad,” commented the cat, quite surprised.
Zoe pushed the surprise out of her mind and smirked. “I’ve done stuff like this before,” she answered. She ran in as quickly as possible. Small translucent butterfly wings appeared on her feet as she gained momentum and jumped into the air, calling out the attack again. “Lunar Winds!”
The wind again picked up and twin silver blades slashed at the creature. She landed on its head before flipping off of it, as nimbly as if she had gained Kazemon’s form again. She turned, only to get caught off guard by the creature as it let out a roar and snatched her up in its thick hands and squeezed tightly.
She cried out and began glowing green, much like Takuya had. She slowly felt her energy being sapped from her. She struggled and wiggled but the grip remained firm. She screamed out in pain.
Escape! Her mind scrambled for something. Quick! Run! Then she grabbed something in her mind. Words. Words of power. Again, she called out her attack, screaming it to the heavens.
And the wind answered her call. A blast of wind came in from the east, a blast so strong that unprotected trees swayed a few inches and a chorus of leaves sang shrilly. In it, a singular silver blade raced through. The next thing Zoe knew, she was on the ground, free.
The monster roared in agony. Zoe flinched and dared not look at the mess that was the armless minotaur-wolf hybrid, feeling slightly guilty. She rose, her balance slightly unstable from the sapping of her energy.
“Zoe, you have to finish it off,” called the cat. Zoe looked down at the pitiful creature as it roared in agony, a pool of red blood. She tried to compose herself.
I have to put it out of its misery, she thought. It’s the only humane thing to do…like the guys who put down dying animals in shelters… No matter the bracing, she still felt bad. Zoe closed her eyes tight and took in a deep breath. “L-Lunar Winds!” she called, fumbling over the words.
Then the beast’s agonizing cries subsided. Zoe then only dared open her eyes, only to watch as the creature’s body decayed quickly, leaving behind blood soaked ashes.
“You did well,” a voice congratulated.
“Thanks,” she said bitterly, unsure to take it as a compliment. “You have some explaining to do.”
“As do you, Miss Zoe Orimoto,” the cat answered calmly. “And to answer your question, the reason why no one is coming out of their homes is because they are unaware and asleep.”
“What do you mean?” Zoe asked, looking at the cat.
“Later,” she replied. “First, I think we should get your friend home. He’s going to be out cold for a while.”
Chapter 1: End
The song title is borrowed from a part of the lyrics from “God Is a Girl” by Groove Coverage. “There is a sky illuminating us, there is someone out there that we truly trust.”
The reason why I’m using honorifics with a majority of the characters is to bring in more characterization for them. Zoe doesn’t use it because she’s still unaccustomed to using them, instead using Italian titles (Mr., Ms., Mrs., Ect). Takuya doesn’t use them because he’s comfortable with everyone and he watches too much English dubbed shows. Kouichi is pretty much laid out. :P As to why Zoe doesn’t get her Japanese name is because in my mental verse, Zoe was born in Italy to an Italian mother.
Zoe’s ability to jump like that is based after the Jump card in Cardcaptor Sakura (though the Jump Card’s effects are more like Kero’s wings).
JP and Kouji both go to the same private school, the former being in third year junior high (ninth grade) while the latter is second year junior high (eighth grade). The same for Kouichi, Zoe, and Takuya. Tommy is fifth grade.
Um…what else? Well, I can’t think of anything else…You won’t need to watch the anime or read the manga to understand this. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have questions, feel free to ask.
