A DBZ/Sailor Moon crossover by LadyRivka

Author's Notes: Hotaru, for the intents and purposes of this story, will be a cyborg, like she is in the manga. – L.R.

She had been running, God knew how long.

Away from Kaolinite and the Witches 5. Away from her usually loving father. This would be their retribution, losing their "beloved" Hotaru, knowing she was going to collapse somewhere, God knew where.

Hotaru had stopped a couple of times to catch her breath on her way away from home, away from Mugen, away from everything. When she had stopped in the woods, she noticed a small cabin on top of a small hill; she had mustered her last ounce of energy to climb the hill and knock on the door of the cabin. Then, wheezing and panting, she collapsed on the stoop.

Juunanagou opened the door to his cabin, expecting to get a visit from Juuhachi or the like. But, no, there lay a dark-haired girl, he'd guess about twelve or thirteen years old, almost unconscious.

He just stared at her for a while, and then muttered, "Why should I help this miserable human anyway?"

Her answer surprised him. "I'm not exactly human…"

"You-you heard me? What do you mean?"

"I'm a cyborg."

"Then why are you so weak? And why do I sense a faint trace of ki?"

"If I weren't, I'd be dead…" She passed out after managing to whisper these final words.

Juunanagou decided to lift her up and put her to bed someplace in the cabin.

Hotaru awoke, finding herself inside the cabin, laying on a raggedy old couch in the middle of its central room.

Above her hovered the face of a boy, maybe eighteen or thereabouts, with long black hair and eerily piercing blue eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Why…why do you care so much…about me?" She sputtered and coughed, trying to regain her normal breathing.

"Fellow cyborg in need," he said. Just then, he noticed a scrape on her leg, one that she had neglected. He went out to get some supplies for it.

"Where are you going?" she asked him.

"Your leg's cut pretty bad…"

"Don't worry, I'll handle it." With that, she raised her hand to the wound; white sparks emanated from it, and the wound, as if by magic, began to close up.

Juunanagou was surprised by what he just saw. "Kami, how'd you do that? Are you programmed that way?"

"No…I've been able to do it since I was little." Hotaru smiled at him. It was a warm smile, an inviting smile. A smile that seemed to be reserved for him and him alone.

Curious, Juunana asked who she was.

"My name's Tomoe Hotaru. I ran away form home and…"

"Why?"

"My dad, well, he's a scientist, and he and his assistants are giving me a rough time…"

"I know about that." Juunanagou smirked slightly, but reassuringly. "Let's just say I gave the scientist who cyborgated me his just desserts."

"Now," continued Hotaru, "what's your name?"

"Juunanagou."

"That's odd…having a number for a name." She looked at him with genuine curiosity.

"It's the only name I know…Number Seventeen. The man I got revenge on erased my humanity, and programmed me to be an assassin…"

"That's horrible! So you don't remember anything before you were a cyborg?"

"No." Juunanagou sulked. "I would have killed you, save the fact you told me you were like me…"

"You-you would've?" Hotaru gasped for breath, half-scared out of her wits.

"Don't be afraid, little one." Juunanagou inched closer to a trembling Hotaru. "I'm not going to hurt you." He leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, much like the beating of a firefly's wings.

Hotaru was in total shock. Why would he be interested in her? Scrawny, sickly, twelve-year-old her? She looked up into his eyes again, and saw not a cold-hearted fiend, but a kindred spirit, a spirit, which, like hers, had been almost annihilated by the machinations of an evil scientist.

Their faces inched in towards each other, like a magnetic attraction. They kissed, delicately, almost passionately. Juunanagou broke the kiss to note that the sun was setting.

And together they walked out onto the front yard, holding hands, watching the sun set…and later watching the fireflies come out with their little tail-lights, Hotaru's namesake and a symbol of her destiny.

~*end*~