Title: Flight 295: Now boarding

Author: Lillie Bell

Rated: PG-13

Disclaimer : IDEA; I don't own Sailor Moon ... if I did, don't ya think there'd be a lot more manga out by now? I also don't own Twister, which is SO cool b/c it was in S! I don't know about you, but I got a strange kick out of seeing this sadistic, maniacal evil doctor playing Twister with his minions (:in low, Tomoe-san voice: "Kaori-kun"). Maybe it's just me ...

"Flight 295: Now Boarding"

"At this time, the captain would like you to please begin shutting down all electronic devices," a young, female voice came over the intercom of the small jet plane. Sighing, Mamoru Chiba quietly pressed the OFF button on his black laptop, folded it into a small slab, and placed the lightweight computer in the briefcase at his feet. He swallowed as he stared at the pair of loafers that adorned his feet. "Please put up your tray, Sir," a red-haired stewardess said to the man staring at the floor. Obligingly, he lifted his head and folded the white tray to the airline seat ahead of him. Sitting back in his own horrifically blue chair, his ocean-blue eyes closed and he begged his thoughts to stray away from the upcoming flight.

"Ah!" a loud, piercing scream rang through the air, catching every passengers' attention so that they turned to see what the disturbance was. "Hold the plane for me! I'm almost there!" A girl of twenty bolted through the tall, closing door of the airplane's rear. Breathing heavily, she smiled up at the stewardess who took her ticket and pointed the girl to her seat. Nodding a thank you, the blonde thrust her waist-length braid behind her shoulder and pulled a bookbag resembling a white bunny onto her back as she walked toward her appointed faded blue chair.

The girl's audience, having seen the disturbance as just someone being late for a flight, promptly positioned themselves forward and directed their attention to whatever it was stationed on before. With tray in the standing position, computers and appliances put to rest,
and a friendly voice preparing to come on the intercom to alert passengers of their departure, all was normal and well in the quaint, old sealiner jet. Mamoru was glad.

A hand suddenly thrust itself in the man's face, he stared at it a moment as a voice accompanied the hand, "Hi! I'm Usagi Tsukino, guess we're flying buddies."

Mamoru gently nodding, shaking the hand that was inches from his nose. Still surprised at the girl's giddiness, he choked out his own name and watched as she sat her small body into the chair beside him. "Wow!" she was saying as she groped through her bookbag for some unknown object, "I love flying! It's so neat that people can fly through the air, just as birds do, y'know."

The dark-haired man beside her gulped. Flying. The one thing in the world he hated. Swallowing for the umpteenth time, he sat back in his chair and pulled up the slide that blocked the window. Somehow the girl's incessant jabber reached his ears and he heard her saying something about how he was lucky that he got the window seat and now he could see all the beautiful ocean that they would be flying over. He mumbled back some timed reply and tried to remain as calm as he could.

Usagi clenched her teeth, "That has to be the tenth time he's changed his sitting position!" her mind screamed. She watched, from the corner of her eye, the handsome man beside her uncross his legs and pull his shoe onto his other knee. She swallowed down her annoyance, she had to be on this flight with him for two hours and she did not want it to be two hours of being on bad terms. She hated being on bad terms with people, being annoyed by them, being hated by them, it was so pointless and stupid. "Eleven," she murmured softly as his hands went from being wrapped around his ankle to clutching the end of each armrest. She heard him draw in a long breath and swallow hard as the plane started moving from its parked position. Suddenly,the girl understood, and with this understanding she had to hold her hand to her mouth to calm her laughing. A big smile came across her features as the man shifted once again, just as the plane was leaving the ground and cutting its way into the topmost layers of the Earth. "Poor man," she could not help but think, "He's afraid of flying."

There. That was it. All over and done with, now just two hours of turbulent bliss. Mamoru sighed, his body soon relaxing from the tension it was put through moments earlier. The head flight attendant, in her maroon and yellow uniform was saying something about safety and the directions to the exits. Her bright, red hair caused her to stand out from the three other attendants behind her in matching uniforms. A small glint of light caught the man's attention and he found himself looking at the small, golden broach on the woman's breast pocket. None of the other girls had one and from the distance he sat at, he could not tell what exactly it was.

Curiosity crossed the man's features as did a crooked smile; even when he was off-duty, he always found some little mystery to solve.
Usagi sighed, these introductions and explanations of the aircraft were so repetitive. Could not they liven them up by having the stewardesses dance around or something? A look of disgust fanned the girl's face. Most of the stewardesses she had encountered before were old and wrinkled, not the in their mid-20's, like these were; she certainly didn't want to see a bunch of old women dancing around, telling her about oxygen masks and detachable life jackets.

Becoming sufficiently bored, the blonde looked to the man beside her, wondering if he was still having a bad time with the flight. He appeared totally engrossed in the thick book in his hands, completely calm. The girl blinked, peering at him once again, squashing any doubts of this man being a different one from the man before. Usagi chuckled, now staring at him through the corner of her eye as she fished through her bag once more. This man, Mamoru Chiba, was becoming very interesting to her. Pulling up a small notepad, she smiled devilishly. "I'm gonna find out what makes you tick, Mr. Chiba," she thought deliciously.

"Would you like a beverage?" the same red-haired stewardess asked the preoccupied passengers. Looking up from their own worlds, Mamoru and Usagi each stared at the woman in complete confusion. She repeated her question. Both nodded in understanding and soon were served their appropriate drinks: Usagi, a cherry cola, and Mamoru, coffee, and the stewardess went on her way to the next pair of passengers a few seats ahead of them. Usagi smiled, watching the man next to her slowly put his book into the briefcase he kept well hidden between the steel wall and his chair. It had taken her a time to find out that it was a briefcase and that it was, in fact, sitting between the ugly, blue chair and the hideously white wall of the plane. She pulled the little red straw into her mouth and drank down the deliciously cherry drink as she saw him calmly pull down his tray table and place the correct amount of sugar and cream in his coffee. A small smile graced the corners of his mouth and Usagi could not help but wonder what he was marveling at. She turned away from him and shuffled through her bookbag once more.

"What is it you keep looking for, Miss?" his low voice asked. Usagi blinked as chills ran down her spine. She had not paid attention to the sound of his voice before and he had only said two or three words. The girl swallowed softly as she sat up once again, without retrieving anything from the bag, and placed her cola on her tray.

"I ... uh ... I-I can't find my coloring book."

The corner of her eye surveyed him withholding a chuckle and she could not help but smile as the tips of his mouth perked even more. His face turned to her, his black bangs in his ocean-blue, beautiful eyes, his intelligent, though small, smile. His head tilted just slightly so that she felt that she was under him instead of beside him, causing a rush of attraction so large she had to restrain herself from blushing from it. He said softly, a chuckle in his oceanic orbs, "How old are you?"

The girl underneath Mamoru's strong gaze laughed nervously, scratching the back of her head. Her reaction was enough to heighten the smile on his face and he was once again repressing a chuckle. This girl he was sitting next to was certainly something else. He had never met anyone like her. She was giggly and innocent, yet her sky blue eyes revealed a high intelligence and understanding. She was simply amazing. Even as she pressed her index fingers together and mumbled a grudging reply, he could not think anything except wrapping her in his arms and kissing her. He shook his head, still smiling, "Don't you think twenty years old is a little old to be playing with coloring books."

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-five."

"Don't you think twenty-five years old is a little old to be afraid of flying?"

He bit his cheek, slightly angered. So she had noticed. "I'm not really afraid of flying,
it's just the landing and taking off where I have problems."

"Well, I think it's silly."

"I think you're silly."

She blinked and looked at him with a confused face. A chuckle met his eyes once again, but never found its way to the rest of his features. Usagi sighed and went back to her little yellow notepad. This Mamoru guy was going to be a handful. She glanced at him once again and saw he was back to reading his thick book with his large reading glasses adorning his face. A smile came to her face, maybe this flight would not be as bad as she thought.

"Damn airline planes ... always have to be so cold ..." Usagi was grumbling as she rifled through her bookbag once again. An object on her lap and a small hint of black at the side of her vision caught her attention. Sitting up, she saw Mamoru offering her a black jacket.

"You're cold, right?" he asked softly, not wanting to disturb the other passengers who were asleep. He had exchanged his book for the black, folding laptop and had rolled the sleeves of his white shirt up to his elbows. A long legal pad was spread across his black slacks and the scribbles on it were incomprehensible to Usagi. Saying a soft thank you, the girl laid her seat back and curled up in the large jacket. She was facing toward the aisle and away from him.

Now Mamoru could look at her without her knowing. With that thought, the straight corners of his mouth stood a little. He could not explain his sudden attraction to the young girl next to him. He had had some relationships within his college years and some in high school, but none that were as momentous as this. Just looking at her, being next to her, filled his being with a sense of security and happiness. They were strange emotions, normally void from his life, and the man found it strange to feel them coursing through his veins once again. How could one simple, little girl do this to him?

"You're a police officer."

The questioned startled him and took a few moments before he looked down to the girl beside him. She had turned over and now he could see her beauteous, blue eyes peering up at him. Her hand was on one of the sleeves of the jacket, around a circular badge indicating his precinct. Mamoru nodded, "I'm an investigator for the precinct. Obviously I do good work because they always have me come up to Hokkaido and work on the drug problems up there."

"Oh," Usagi said softly. Turning her body, she curled it toward the window and pulled the jacket up to her chin. With a deep breath she inhaled the scent of his body that was left upon the black jacket. A small smile came to her face as she envisioned bank robberies and drug scandals, stakeouts and long nights in slum districts. To think how much the cloth in her arms had been through thrilled her. How many times was it shot at? Rolled through the dirt? Sat up, late at nights, waiting for a break? How many times had it accompanied her fellow passenger in raids upon houses and how many crimes had it seen? The jacket was a story in its own right and she wanted to unravel all its secrets.

"So, what do you do, my young, just-graduated-from-college girl? Why are you going to Hokkaido in the middle of winter?"

His low voice had surprised her and she stared at the investigator for a moment to assure herself that he had spoken to her. Sitting up slightly, she replied, "I'm a criminal psychologist. Well, that's what I'll be when I get my master's and doctorate. I'm going to visit my grandparents. They keep a small shrine in the hills, it's very beautiful this time of year. The snow is falling and everything is white. It snows much more than it does in Tokyo. We build forts and snowmen and armies and whatever we want, out of the snow; there's so much of it. In fact, one year we made an ice Twister board and we all played Twister! It was really a lot of fun!"

"Sounds like it"

Usagi sat up and pulled her knees to her chin. Wrapping the jacket around her knees, she quickly grabbed the strap of her black tank top as it fell off her shoulder. Placing it to its rightful position, she sent her small, creamy arms through the sleeves of the jacket, then wrapped them around her legs. She made an interesting spectacle: jean shorts, tennis shoes, tank top, and braid squashed by a huge, black jacket. The fact that her slender hands reached 3/4th's of the way down the sleeves did not make the scene any less comical. Every time Mamoru turned to look at the young girl the smile on his face grew and he chuckled as he went back to typing information into the small, black laptop.

For a time they went on in silence, Usagi dozing and Mamoru filling his life with the paperwork he had always completed it with. At moments, he would look at the young girl and wonder what would happen after this plane ride. Would they see each other again? She was quite nice and beautiful, and seeing her again would not have bothered him in the least. That was what he was thinking as the stewardess with red hair came to him and asked if he wanted anything.

At first she smiled, but when she noticed the jacket around Usagi, she seemed to become nervous. The little, golden broach of a dove with a small, dangling tassel, almost showed the woman's agitation. "W-we have blankets, if she is cold," she started. Obviously from the size of the jacket, the stewardess knew it could not belong to the girl.

The black-haired man smiled politely at her and said that his fellow passenger was fine.

Her confidence appeared to heighten and she graciously returned the man's smile and pulled her cart farther down the aisle. He watched her as she went, noting her movements, until she went behind the faded purple drape that separated the stewardesses' quarter from the passengers.

Vaguely, he thought he saw her tan high heels walk farther on, into the cockpit. Suspicion plagued him now and he put away his laptop and legal pad. Closing his tray against the chair in front of him, Mamoru prepared to stand up and investigate. "What are you doing?"

The singsong voice of the girl beside him stopped the man from unlatching his safety belt. He looked at her, seriousness evident in all his features. "Listen, Usagi," he said quietly, leaning down next to her ear, "Something's wrong. That head stewardess is wearing tan high heels, while all the others wore orange. She got real nervous when she saw you with my jacket on and had a look on her face of insecurity. I acted like I didn't notice and she loosened up a little and went on to the other passengers. The strange thing is, after she went into the little stewardess' area on the other side of that curtain, she kept walking. It looks to me like she walked into the cockpit."

Usagi blinked. "So?"

"So ... she had taken a good look at the badge on that jacket. No doubt, she knows the precinct. I think something's going on that we don't know about because besides her I haven't seen any of the other stewardesses that were here in the beginning. I haven't heard one word from the captain about how we can take off our safety belts and use electronic appliances. Yes, yes, I know the light for the safety belts is off, but normally they tell the passengers as well. Besides, did you see that broach she was wearing? A golden dove, with a ruby red eye, and a single white tassel hanging from its stomach. I've been doing some research about the drug and gang activity around Hokkaido and have found that some very organized gangs have ranks and the like. Very much like the army. Well, there is one quite notorious gang--no, mob; they're much too large and organized to be a small, street-punk gang--whose colour is red. Under this assumption the eye of the dove represents the red of the mob, that the dove is the mob itself, as that is its name, and the tassel her rank. I would also come to the assumption that this plane has a cargo of drugs on it and that that woman is not alone."

The girl took a second to fully understand what the man was saying. She chuckled and smiled at him, "Really, Mamoru, you've watched one too many spy movies! You're finding evidence where there's none to be found. C'mon, just relax and enjoy the flight."

He smirked, "Yeah, guess you're right. I'm just letting my imagination get to me." He inhaled a long breath and leaned to his left to zip up his leather briefcase. A sigh escaped his lips. It still did not feel right ... "Would you excuse me?"

Usagi smiled and pulled her legs into her seat, letting him through. Silently, she watched him walk to the bathroom a few rows behind their seats. She turned around in her seat once the door had closed and heaved a heavy sigh. She had to chuckle at his instant ability to reason.
After all, his arguments were very well thought out and the idea of someone transporting drugs on an old, cheap seaplane like this one did not surprise her. The blonde sighed and went back to her peaceful nap.

A finger tapping her shoulder soon aroused the girl from her sleep. She looked up groggily at the stewardess, who had a smile on her face. Something about that smile turned Usagi's stomach, it was almost cruel. The tall woman's green eyes stared down at the girl and she said simply, "Mr. Chiba has become ill and is in the infirmary. He requested that his briefcase and jacket be brought to him. If you like, I can find you a blanket?"

The girl's veins ran cold. Suddenly ill? He had been in perfect health the last she saw of him. What would have caused him a sudden pain? Noticing that the stewardess was without patience, Usagi reached across her seat and picked up the leather briefcase from between the old, smelly chair and the rusting wall. She handed it to the stewardess, who accordingly ripped the jacket from her lap and threw a blanket at the girl. The college graduate grumbled as she pulled the starched, maroon linen from around her face. She watched as the stewardess walked past the grey door for the bathroom and into a black door on the wall where the hall ended.

White letters painted the kanji characters for "Infirmary" on the door and it shut with a mighty hiss.

The blonde looked around quickly, surveying the other passengers. There were not many and those that there were scattered across the chairs and rows. No one seemed to be moving. She looked up to the dingy, purple curtain. Peering underneath it, she saw nothing. Surely the other flight attendants were around here somewhere? He had been right, though. No other stewardesses had shown their face since the speech about plane safety. Where had they gone?

Usagi gulped. Mamoru was right, something strange was going on. She looked back at the infirmary door. The bathroom was beside it, jutting out of the wall. Probably added to the airplane a few years ago. Quickly searching for anyone who would see her, the girl stood up and made her way to the large, grey box. She bit her lip as she touched its door and opened it. The stench of an hour of flight met her nostrils and she almost fell over from the strength of it.

Swallowing hard, the blonde walked into the bathroom backwards, trying to look through a crack in the infirmary door. She almost saw something, when large hands grabbed her from behind and wrestled her to the floor. The door of the bathroom shut loudly and with it, all the light.

Usagi groped around in the darkness, feeling her way across the wet floor to the door, as large hands grabbed at her shoulders and pushed her down on to the steel of the floor. A sudden slice of pain went through her neck and back as something cold and hard hit her in the back of the head. Clenching her teeth, she struggled for consciousness as a cool trickle of blood ran down the side of her neck. Tears welled up in her eyes as she tried to move and only succeeded in making her head pound. Something grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her up to a standing position. Usagi was about to scream from the horrible pain in her head when something hit her.

Black filled her vision and all her pain disappeared as she fell limp in the heavy arms.

Usagi woke to tremendous pain and a cold floor. She breathed quietly, softly, as the pain of consciousness subsided. Carefully, she opened her eyes to a dark room. She could feel a wall behind her back and that her hands were tied and pushed against the cold steel. Looking around, she saw three other girls next to her, all in the maroon outfits of the stewardesses. They were sitting against the wall, watching something ahead of them. Usagi gritted her teeth and forced her aching body to sit up. She looked down at the braid that was hanging over her shoulder and saw that it was covered in dry blood. The girl swallowed hard and leaned against the wall, sitting with her legs crossed. Hazily, she stared ahead of her. The red-haired woman was standing behind a man in tight blue jeans and a black, leather jacket. He was holding a sleek, semi-automatic by its barrel and his other hand behind his back. Two people sat in front of him, both with white rope tied around their flight uniforms. They had numerous cuts and gashed across their faces and looked like they were about to fall over. Usagi bit her lip as the man raised his gun and hit both with the end of it.

"They're the captain and her assistant," a male voice said from beside the girl. Usagi turned her eyes toward the voice and was surprised to see Mamoru Chiba. She could not hide her amazement and happiness at finding him well. Unable to give the man a hug, she simply smiled graciously and took his returned smile as a mutual feeling.

"Get them over to another corner," the brown-haired man with a gun was saying. He asked gruffly, "What's next?"

The woman smiled sinisterly, "The investigator, Mamoru Chiba." She handed the man the leather briefcase and pointed to the dark-haired man in the corner.

"Well, well, Mamoru Chiba. You chose a bad day to fly to Hokkaido," the elder man walked over to Mamoru, removing the black gloves that had adorned his fingers. He peered down at the young investigator and sneered, "You remember me, don't you? I was that dealer you busted in Tokyo. It was your first night as a police officer. You ruined my business, you know that? I could never work in Tokyo again. So, now I transport goods from Honshu to Hokkaido."

"And when you get bored you highjack a plane and take a few hostages?" Mamoru smirked. "I could get you in jail for a long time for this, Toshi."

Toshi smiled. He picked up one of his gloves and slapped Mamoru across the face with it.

Not satisfied, the brown-haired man grabbed the other by his collar and threw him into the adjacent wall. The investigator grunted as his back hit the wall and then the floor. His shoulder flared with pain. Toshi walked over to him and launched his steel-tipped boots into the other's stomach. Mamoru coughed and heaved as air was thrust out of his lungs. He swallowed hard and clenched his teeth as Toshi grabbed him and yanked him to a standing position by his hair. The man searched through the briefcase on the ground. Throwing it away, he held in his hand a larger gun than the one he had held before. A cruel chuckle filled the room as Toshi began hitting the other man with his own weapon. Mamoru grunted once more as Toshi landed his fist in his stomach. As the other man fell over his hand, the drug dealer sent his knee crashing into the investigator's face, causing him to reel back into the wall.

Mamoru clenched his teeth as darkness invaded his vision. The back of his head was thrust against the wall once more and he felt his body limply crumble to the ground. Blood ran down the sides of his face and he knew the boots had left marks all their own upon his stomach. His lungs hurt him incredibly; every time he breathed in and out, a cough of blood accompanied.

Painfully, he rolled his neck so that his cheek was on the cold steel. He closed his eyes and swallowed down the liquid in his throat. His stomach surged, angered by the return of its juices, and Mamoru clenched his teeth as Toshi walked across his back to the red-haired woman.

They were saying something, but the young man did not know what. Breathing liquidly, he curled himself in a ball in hopes of quelling the pain in his stomach. Distantly, he heard the door shut behind him and was glad that Toshi had left.

Tears dripped down Usagi's face as she clenched her teeth and forced herself to stand up.

Clumsily, she walked over the where Mamoru was, collapsing the last few steps. On her knees, she opened her mouth to speak to him but movement beside her stopped her from saying anything.

The tall, red-haired woman stood above her with a vehement look upon her face. She smiled cruelly down at Usagi before producing a knife from her back pocket. The girl shut her eyes as she awaited the blow, but instead felt the ropes around her hands loosen and her arms freed.

Looking up at the woman, Usagi gasped at the sadistic look on her features. "You clean him up so Toshi can have a little bit more fun with him, okay?" she turned and left the room, laughing at the look of disgust across Usagi's face.

Carefully, she cradled Mamoru's head in her lap as she wiped away the blood from his forehead with her hand. He opened his eyes halfway and his hand came up to hold hers that was laying in her lap. She quietly held his hand and wrapped her arms around his battered body as she cried into his shoulder.

"Is he your husband, Miss?" one of the flight attendants asked her. She turned her head, her cheeks covered in tears and his blood, and shook her head. The three looked sorrowfully at her and the man from against their wall.

"He's just a very nice passenger."

The small, grey room was in the perfect shape of a box. The three stewardesses stood against the wall facing the door while Usagi tended to the investigator on one of the beds on the adjacent wall. Crossing the threshold between the walls, she approached the two beds upon the other side and asked the captain and co-pilot how they were feeling. The captain was in the bed above the co-pilot and Usagi handed her the blanket she kindly pleaded for. Returning to Mamoru's bed, which was protruding from the wall at her waist, the blonde gently swabbed away dry blood from the corner of his mouth.

Mamoru had lost consciousness soon after falling to the ground. He could not be sure exactly when, or for how long, but the fact that he was still in the little room told him it could not have been long. His hands were on a soft cloth, he was not on the steel of the floor,
and his wounds did not hurt so much. Opening his eyes, the investigator came upon the beautiful vision of Usagi looming above him. She smiled at him, pressing her finger against his lips before he could speak, and kissed him softly on the lips. She giggled at the surprised expression on his face and hugged him tightly, glad that he was feeling better.

"You stayed and looked after me?" he asked softly, running his hand down her cheek.

She smiled through the chills his gentle touch brought her. "Yes."

He grinned genuinely at her, "Thank you." He would have said more, but the sudden beeping of his watch stopped him. "Usagi, we should have landed by now." The man looked up at the captain, "Do you know where they're headed?"

The captain shook her head gravely. She turned her face to the door, revealing a long bruise across her cheek, "We don't have much fuel. They might be able to fly it to one of the little islands. From what I can tell, we haven't changed immediate direction, so we're not heading south."

One of the flight attendants stepped away from the wall. She was taller than the other two and had brown hair and olive green eyes. "What are they going to do with the passengers?"

At that moment, a loud crack rang through the air. The group was up on their feet without hesitation, they ran for the door, except for Mamoru. Sitting back down on the foldout cot, he watched as one of the flight attendants, with her black hair in a bun, opened the door and peered out. She quickly pulled her head inside the room and shut the door. "They're coming back here!" she ran back to her position up against the wall as the others followed suit. "They've shot one of the passengers," she announced softly.

"They'll kill more until they get what they want," Mamoru said quietly from his bed. Usagi walked over and sat next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. She was about to speak when Toshi and the red-haired woman posing as a flight attendant came in their room.

"Mamoru!" the brown-haired man yelled emphatically. His jolly self went strolling over to the bruised man and gave the younger a firm slap on the back. "So nice to see you feeling better!" At the site of Mamoru's distaste, Toshi smirked and remarked to the whole group, "In case you were wondering, we just killed a teller. Hope none of you were planning on going to TellTrust Bank after this, they might be a little short of employees." His sadistic smile added to the cruelty of his joke.

"What kind of freak are you?" the third, blue-haired stewardess yelled at the man. She gasped as he pulled out his gun, anger flaring in his eyes as he aimed to kill the woman. The girls and pilots stared in amazement, not knowing what to do. Toshi clenched his teeth as his finger tightened around the trigger. Only one choice, Mamoru lunged for the gun. Just as he was about to reach it, Toshi pulled up the black metal and slammed it into the other's face. Landing into the wall once more, Mamoru brought a hand up to his bleeding lip as Usagi ran to his kneeling position. Cupping his cheeks, she checked the bleeding injury and found a long, black bruise upon the man's face.

"Oh, I see how it is." Toshi leaned down and grabbed the blonde by her shirt. Pulling her to him, he smiled sadistically at Mamoru, his gun pointed to the girl's forehead. "She right nice, isn't she? Young, skinny, not really busty, but can't complain."

A pair of henchman burst through the door and shoved five passengers into the room and exited. "Ah, good. I always demand a larger audience," Toshi was saying as the two men and three women huddled in a corner. He sighed loudly, "Now that we're all here, we can have some fun." He smiled cruelly and aimed his gun at an elderly woman. She fell to the ground after a loud crack ran through the air. A black leathered arm pointed the gun to the blue-haired stewardess, "Sometimes other people pay for one's own folly."

The stewardess cried, comforted only by the shoulder of the co-pilot next to her. The other passengers had come to join the stewardesses against the wall facing the door, content to be away from the facedown body of the elderly woman. Toshi smiled triumphantly, and walked, arm around Usagi's neck, dragging her, out of the door. "Akai," he said to the fake flight attendant, "see that the passengers enjoy their flight. Good day."

The woman smiled and nodded in his direction as the large, black door closed. Her tan high heels clacked against the floor as she took an authoritative stance in front of the door, facing the passengers. She pulled a sleek, black pistol from her inner, breast pocket of her uniform's coat. Cocking it, she snickered, "Now, you all be good children and do what you're told."

The pain in Mamoru's head had subsided a little, so he crawled over to the captain who was busy comforting one of the female passengers. The two drew back into the corner beside Mamoru's bed and began to talk.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" He asked quietly, peering up from the bed slab to see if the woman on guard was watching them.

The young woman shook her head sadly. Taking off her captain's hat, she let her shoulder -length blonde hair rain down. "We're stilll headed north, that is all I know."

A grieving woman let out a squeal but sobbed quietly. The captain looked at the investigator, "It was her mother. They were going to the woman's wedding in Hokkaido."

The pair looked back at the woman and the support group around her. "There has to be a way out of here."

The blonde turned to face the beaten man. "They brought their own pilots, only they know where we're going. We have about an hour's left of fuel after passing the airport along Hokkaido's shore." She bit her lip. "What will they do to us?"

Mamoru sighed as she turned once again to look at the crew. The woman had fallen asleep, or fainted. Either way, she had stopped crying and was lying perfectly still. A male passenger in his mid-30's placed her resting body upon a bed slab across the room. "That's her fiancée. The sixty-year-old man next to him is his father. The other elder man that was shot was no doubt his father-in-law. I saw them before they boarded the plane, they were all together." She smiled softly, staring at the ground. "I talked to them before we took off, they're real nice people."

"What about her?" he pointed to a green-haired woman who was slumped in the corner away from the others. She was staring at the floor, fumbling with the edges of her flowery dress.

The captain shrugged, still looking at the sad scene in front of her. The fiancée had sat at the end of the bed, holding his light brown hair in his hands. He pulled the blazer of his beige suit around him and stared at the ground below his feet. The elder man was combing his gnarled fingers through the girl's hair, focusing all his attention on his daughter-in-law. His plaid, long-sleeve shirt rustled each time his hand moved down the woman's high forehead and into the jungle of reddish-brown hair.

Akai watched all this with disgust. People could be annoying at times. She looked over at the body of the elderly woman, seeing a pool of blood flowing from beneath her. The woman bit her cheek. "I don't want to get these shoes dirty," she thought while peering at the little river of blood trickle its way down the floor.

"We'll need some kind of disturbance," Mamoru was saying to the pilot. "If we can get her distracted, I could get her gun."

"Wait! You'd go and fight those people? Are you crazy? They've got guns! There's no way you'd stand a chance, especially with the shape you're in. You're not fit to go anywhere."

Through clenched teeth, "I'm going. One of us has to."

"She turned her blue eyes to the man before her. Minako Aino knew that this passenger of hers would not change his mind. His stubborn gaze bore into her and she returned it with as much anger and frustration.

"Listen," he said finally. He glanced at her name tag, "Captain Aino, I know you've got an obligation to keep your passengers safe. If we lay low and don't do anything, they'll kill us eventually, anyway."

"Maybe they won't? Who's to say? One thing's for sure, if you go out there and die they will be more likely to kill all of us than they were before."

He smirked, "I just won't die, then."

She opened her mouth, but a sudden jarring of the plane left her scrambling for something to hold on to as her body, as well as everyone else's, was thrust to and fro. A small scream caused her to look up. She saw the writhing body of Akai being held by the investigator. The woman's pistol was now in his hand and blood dripped down from it on to the floor. The captain quickly stood and ran for one of the cabinets against the wall with the door.

Mamoru was having a hard time holding on to the fake flight attendant. In having stolen her gun, he also slapped her across the face with it. Now, she was bleeding horrendously from the gash from her forehead to her nose. Small amounts of puss were leaking from the woman's eye as Mamoru's hand held tightly to her mouth. He was not going to let her scream loud enough to alert anyone. Her fingernails were clawing through the skin on his hands when someone removed his hand from behind and applied a cloth to the woman's large mouth.
Mamoru blinked as he saw the captain thrust two fingers, in the shape of a V, in his face.

The wonders of chloroform. She winked and said, "V is for Victory! Now, go and get the bad men!"

Mamoru smirked and quietly approached the door. He opened it and slowly slipped out of the square room.

Ducking behind the first pair of wrinkled, old window seats, the investigator peered ahead of him, at the purple curtain. Being a small aircraft, the cockpit was not far. The two henchmen that had brought the rest of the passengers in to the infirmary room now paced up and down the deserted aisle.

There were only two aisles on the plane and as the henchman closest to him turned to walk down it once again, Mamoru quietly crouched and followed behind. He was ready to jump into any of the seats, were the man in front of him to turn around. The black automatic that the man held swung side-to-side as he waddled down the aisle. "Almost at the curtain," Mamoru mouthed to himself.

He turned his head to see the other man synchronized with the one the investigator was following. Just as the henchmen neared the first row of seats, Mamoru jumped up and knocked the man in front of him out. Seeing his partner fall suddenly, the other man ran from his aisle and pointed his gun in Mamoru's face. So this was it ... didn't get very far.

BANG!

Mamoru blinked as the man in front of him fell forward. Looking down to the infirmary door, he saw Captain Aino displaying her two fingers in a V. She jogged up to him, "If you're gonna kill the pilots, it helps to have one extra."

He smiled and nodded. Cocking the pistol, he and the captain peered through the crack on the side of the curtain. Seeing no one guarding the passageway, they jumped through and kicked open the door of the cockpit. They walked in, guns ready.

Immediately upon entering, Mamoru shot the man in the pilot's chair. Grabbing his stomach, the man fell over and the investigator motioned Captain Aino to take care of the plane. She ran to her station and soon the plane was tilting in a separate direction. Meanwhile, Mamoru had positioned his gun on the standing Toshi. He had been standing in the corner when the pair first arrived, but Mamoru had found him quickly. Usagi was behind Toshi, badly bleeding and slumped against the airplane's large console on the floor.

Toshi smirked, "So, that's it, then? You'll just shoot me in cold blood?"

"Can't be any colder than yours."

"Ah, what happened to the Mamoru I knew? You used to not care about other people. Those were the good old days, remember? Back then, I wasn't the only dealer, was I?"

His knowing smile surprised Usagi. Mamoru? A drug dealer? She would have never guessed.

The girl blinked between the two of them, not sure who really was the villain in this?

"C'mon, Mamoru! How much are they paying you at this stupid job, anyway? You know I can double it, triple it ..." he held out his hand, "C'mon, where's my sniper when I need him?"

Mamoru smirked and put his hands to his sides. Toshi opened up his arms to give Mamoru a hug, but when he was close enough, punched the other in the nose. Bleeding once more, Mamoru's smirk never left his face. Toshi sneered at him, "You haven't changed, Mamoru Chiba. You're just a legal killer now."

Toshi jumped on Mamoru before he had time to act. The two men went rolling around on the floor, throwing various punches, grabbing for the gun, kicking and grunting, until they both fell out of the cockpit and separated. A loud moan came from one of the men, but was soon quieted. They did not remain apart for long, however, and soon they were rolling through the aisle, toward the infirmary once again.

It had taken a lot of pain and energy, but Usagi managed to pull herself up and through the cockpit door. Grappling onto the nearest chair before she fell, the girl tilted her head to watch the two men fighting. Mamoru looked to be getting the upper hand and Usagi smiled. Then a shot rang out from the gun and horror flashed itself across the girl's features.

The two men were so close to each other that blood was all over both of them so that Usagi could not know who had been shot. Just as Mamoru was about to deliver a blow with his fist, Toshi reached up and grabbed the gun from him. Standing up quickly, pointing the cold metal at the investigator, Toshi struggled to regulate his breathing. He watched the man below him put pressure on his left shoulder. Toshi smirked. He cocked the gun. "It must hurt like hell to die."

"NOO!" Usagi gathered all her strength and ran full speed at Toshi. Running down the aisle, she picked up her previously discarded bookbag and lifted it up. Smacking the brown -haired man on the back of the head with tthe bookbag, Usagi fell forward, all her energy spent.

The gun had gone off after she had hit him. As she slowly fell to the floor, a smile was on her face. She awaited the crash of the steel of the floor but it never came. Instead, her face was against wet linen and strong arms were wrapping themselves around her body. Distantly, she heard a voice calling her name. It was a scared voice ...

Mamoru stared down at the fainted girl in his arms. Her face was bruised and there were many abrasions on her body, no doubt from Toshi. Fumbling toward the unconscious man, the investigator picked up the gun that was in front of him. He was about to place it beside himself, when he noticed the white bunny-like bookbag. It had fallen to the ground behind Toshi. The impact from the fall had opened the bookbag and its contents were on the floor. A few small toys, a paperback book, a thick, heavily-bound book, and a folded Twister board and spinner. Mamoru chuckled and looked back down at the beauty in his arms. He whispered to her softly, kissing her forehead, "Maybe we can play Twister in the snow?"

He sighed when she did not answer him. He knew she was unconscious, would be for a while. Her body needed a rest and to be cleaned. From her cuts, he knew she would not need any stitches, but she did have some nasty looking bruises and many abrasions. He held her softly, ignoring the pain it brought to his wounded shoulder as she lay her head there.

Looking back at the bookbag, Mamoru let curiosity get to him. He pushed and pulled himself and Usagi over to the bag. Picking up the hardcover book, he opened it to find tons and tons of perfectly drawn, black and white, pictures. Flipping to the first page, he read the small, handwritten note:

"Most people keep a diary or a journal when they're young. I'm unique. I chose to keep a coloring book. Here, I draw my diary ... my journal. I live through my moments again and again, each time in different colors and different ways. Some would say this is silly. I'm too old to have a coloring book. But, this is only mine and mine alone. No one else's. So, leave me to my childish coloring book and I'll leave you to your fantasies.

Usagi Tsukino - age 12."

Mamoru chuckled. Only she would have said something like that and it make complete sense to him. He laid the book in its bag, not wanting to destroy it with the blood that ran down his arm. Usagi shifted in her unconsciousness and Mamoru's arm stung from the sudden movement.

Around him, he heard the passengers and attendants tying up the mob in the infirmary room.

Some came by and congratulated him, he thought. But he could not be sure. Everything he saw passed through a haze and his calf began to pound with immense pain. He grabbed onto it with his free hand and felt something protruding from his skin. Swallowing hard, he looked down at his leg to see the bone fractured and pulled out of the skin. His entire leg was red with blood and the pain was unbearable. "Must have broken it when we feel out of the cockpit," he thought.

He clenched his teeth as the bullet in his shoulder seemed to turn inside of his body. He felt it ripping through layers of skin, mercilessly following its own trail of destruction. His breathing came faster and he felt his heart palpitate. Clutching his chest, Mamoru grunted as his vision of the floor went hazy and dim, then focused again. His body was shaking and a quick jar of the plane caused him to fall backwards. Laying on his back on the floor, he knew the plane had landed. Groping for a few more seconds of consciousness, Mamoru saw the ambulances' lights through the opened window of the plane. A smile crossed his face before he saw black.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, kid. It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was, Toshi. It shouldn't have happened."

"C'mon, kid. Where's that spunk? It was an accident, get over it."

"No. I'm finished with your shit, Toshi."

"Ah, Mamoru, is that any way to treat the man who's brought you up?"

"You're not my father."

"And Takana wasn't your brother."

"He was my friend."

"If he was your friend he should have listened to you. If he'd have listened to you, he wouldn't be dead."

"But he is dead. It's my fault!"

"Why do you say that? It was a simple misunderstanding."

"NO! I'm not going to believe that. I've shot and killed everyone that you've wanted me to, without so much as a thought. I'm tired of it. That last hit was it."

"But you missed the last one."

"No, I hit it right. You wanted me to kill Takana, didn't you? He was getting in the way,
always keeping me busy. You thought he'd make me go against you."

" ... Yeah, so."

"So, I'm not doing it anymore."

"You'll regret this, kid. We don't forget those who betray us."

"And I can't forget the faces of those I've killed."

"I'll miss ya, kid."

"And that's how it was," Mamoru said quietly from his hospital bed. All of his body but his chest was covered in the light green linens of the Hokkaido hospital. A large bulge on his left signified his fractured calf. Bandages were wound around his shoulder, and an IV and its stand trickled some unknown painkiller into the man's system. He exhaled a deep breath and turned his head to his audience.

A young girl of twenty, her blonde hair braided and running down her shoulder, peered at him sadly. "I'm very sorry for your friend," she replied softly. The jean pants and sweater she wore reflected the weather outside. Snow. She loved the snow. But Mamoru could not see it, his bed was against the wall, beside the window. She looked out at the small, white droplets as they rained down.

"Is it snowing?" he asked her knowingly. From the smile, he had guessed right. Gently he raised his good arm and touched her shoulder. She turned and he smiled happily, "How 'bout a good game of Snow Twister when I'm out of here?"

Her eyes welled up with tears and she grinned from ear to ear. Taking his hand, she kissed it softly, and whispered to him, "Maybe we can build forts and armies and snow angels. Maybe we can ice skate, though, you certainly couldn't for a while," she looked at his thickly bound leg.

He chuckled and wrapped his arm around her. "Thank you for staying with me," he said softly. She smiled up at him and came to the knowledge that his face was a few inches from hers. He chuckled softly and added teasingly, "I never did repay you earlier."

She giggled and closed her eyes as his soft lips touched her own.

On the table, on the other side of the bed, away from the window, a thick, hardcover book lay open. A small rush of heat flipped the pages of the book. On the page the heat had unknowingly turned to was a drawn picture of the plane and the people of Flight 295. On the page adjacent to this one was a perfectly drawn picture of a prince and a princess of long ago.

Her long, flowing blonde hair was tied in two balls that crowned her head. A long braid of hair fell from each of these balls and gathered around the princess's white gown, almost as if they were dancing. Her smiling face was reflected in her sky blue eyes and the man they focused on was equally as happy; his emotions shown clearly through his ocean-blue orbs. He wore a black tunic and matching slacks. Royal medals adorned a side of his breast while a black with red interior cape gathered at his back. His ebony hair danced in a forgotten wind and his hands in hers mirrored the moonlight above them. The rose garden they were in delicately protected the lovers from the Moon's all-seeing eye. This was their wedding day. They would not be forgotten.

Ya, I know ... strange ending. Who cares? I liked it . Sorry for the brutality, but it wouldn't be any fun without it ) And for those who want to know: yes, the couple got married (the one who's parents got shot). I didn't leave them on the flight forgotten, or made Akai wake up and shoot them all, see? I'm not THAT cruel!