Shitennou's Day Out

We are the Shitennou, the Four Kings of Heaven. Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite.
During the age known as Silver Millennium, we four were tasked with the role of protecting the prince of the Earth Kingdom, Endymion.
For many years we served our Prince dutifully, until the day we four were led astray by a creature born from unholy means. We were weak, and because of our weakness, Silver Millennium fell, and our prince died.
Thousands of years later, we were reborn as humans with vague memories of our past. But the demon that corrupted us in the past did so again, and one by one we fell under the power of the Moon Princess reborn as a Sailor Soldier.
Now, as spirits, we act as aides to our now reborn Prince, who will one day awaken as King of a new Silver Millennium.
However, this was not one of our finest days.

“Master Endymion!”

The four wraiths gathered around Mamoru Chiba as he lay across the desk in his apartment. He didn’t seem to be moving, and his body language did not read positively. Kunzite, the highest ranked of the Shitennou, tried to keep his cool. His three associates, however, were panicking at the distressing scene before them.

“What’s wrong with him? He looks awful!” Zoisite yelled.

“How long has been like this?” Nephrite asked.

“Is he still breathing? What could have caused this?” Jadeite wondered aloud.

Not saying a word, Kunzite’s specter hovered closer to Mamoru to attempt at getting a look at his master’s face. Upon closer inspection, he saw that Mamoru’s face was looking rather red and flush. There was sweat on his forehead and his breathing sounded somewhat hoarse. Regardless, he was at least breathing. Kunzite sighed in relief, which was kind of odd considering he was a ghost and didn’t need to breath, but now’s not the time for nitpicking.

“It’s alright.” Kunzite explained to his compatriots. “He’s still breathing. I think he’s fine, it looks like he’s just sick.”

“Really?” Zoisite was slightly amazed. “But Master Endymion is usually so careful with his health.”

“It doesn’t surprise me. He’s been up every night trying to work on that thesis paper for his university courses.” Nephrite casually reminded the others, trying to sound like he wasn’t panicking just a moment ago.

“The Princess and her friends tend to keep a better eye on things such as this.” Jadeite pointed out, recalling how often Mamoru spent his days with Usagi Tsukino and her compatriots when he wasn’t focusing on school work. A few of them seemed to be very health conscious, especially Makoto.

“But we haven’t really seen them in a while. I think the Master mentioned they have exams of their own coming up.” Nephrite remembered Mamoru mentioning something like that a few days ago.

“Ah, I’m guessing the Princess’ guards have been keeping her away then.” Jadeite reasoned. Most of them could picture it now. The four girls dragging away the reincarnated Moon Princess to make her focus on studying even though she wanted to spend time with Mamoru. It was… not the most elegant picture to come to mind.

“Well, maybe we should give her more credit than that.” Zoisite said.

Jadeite and Nephrite just gave Zoisite a blank stare.

“…did you really mean that?” Nephrite drolly asked.

“O-of course! She is the future queen after all!” Zoisite stammered.

“We have to wake Master Endymion up.” Kunzite spoke after being silent for so long. The other three zipped to his side the moment he began talking. “He’s just going to get sicker if he’s left like this.”

“How’re we going to wake him up, Kunzite?” Zoisite asked.

“How do you think?” Nephrite rhetorically asked. “We tell him to. MASTER ENDYMION!”

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Jadeite felt a ringing in his ears, which didn’t make sense. “Do you want everyone in the building to wake everyone?!”

“Are you forgetting he’s the only one that can see and hear us?” Nephrite scowled, before he yelled “MASTER ENDYMION!”

“Don’t treat me like I’m an idiot!” Jadeite got on the defensive.

“Well don’t act like one!” Nephrite shot back.

“Stop it you two!” Zoisite tried to hold Jadeite back.

“Nephrite get a hold of yourself.” Kunzite put his hand around Nephrite’s wrist.

“Me? Jadeite’s the one who’s asking stupid questions and getting mad about it!” Nephrite indignantly said.

“I’ll show you ‘getting mad about it!’” Jadeite shouted, and managed to break free of Zoisite as he punched Nephrite’s form… and somehow knocked him into Mamoru’s undisturbed body.

“Oh damn.” Jadeite said in an astonished tone of voice.

“Jadeite what did you do?!” Zoisite was horrified.

“I-I don’t know!” Jadeite stammered. “I only meant to hit him! I-“

“Wait! Master Endymion’s waking up.” Kunzite ordered the other two to be quiet. They heard Mamoru say something in low murmur, and slowly, his eyelids began to flutter. The three Shitennou lined up as Mamoru got up from his seat.

“Master Endymion,” Kunzite began, bowing his head. “I am so sorry for this disturbance.”

“Kunzite?” Mamoru said. Except… that wasn’t Mamoru’s voice.

“NEPHRITE?!”

“Are you, are you really in the prince’s body?!” Zoisite screamed.

“It looks like.” Nephrite/Mamoru flexed his arms. “Man, I’d forgotten what it felt like to have a body, even a sick one.”

“How are you doing that?!” Jadeite couldn’t believe it. “Did you know you could do that? Did you know he could do that? HOW LONG HAVE BEEN WE ABLE TO DO THAT?”

“My God would you shut up, Jadeite?” Nephrite/Mamoru crossed his arms over his chest and looked rather annoyed. “Is this what it’s like for him with us hanging around? No wonder he barely talks to us.”

“Th-that’s not true!” Zoisite looked rather hurt.

“Nephrite, get out of there now.” Kunzite did NOT look pleased at this situation at all. Zoisite and Jadeite seemed rather scared of him at the moment. Nephrite, not so much.

“Or what? You’ll kill me? For the third time?” Nephrite/Mamoru smirked. And then sneezed, suddenly remembering Mamoru was sick. “Whoa. I haven’t sneezed in years. That felt great!”

“I’m so glad you’re enjoying yourself while our Prince suffers.” Jadeite mocked.

“Well you’re just mad you didn’t think of this first.” Nephrite then sneezed again, and looked like he was really enjoying it. Somehow that was not the weirdest thing about this situation.

“Are you seriously thinking of abusing our Prince’s body like this?!” Zoisite was offended.
“Nephrite, this is one of the worst offenses you could make against Master Endymion.” Kunzite judged.

“Like you wouldn’t have done exactly the same thing, Kunzite.” Nephrite pointed out. “And I’m not going to ‘abuse’ anything. But can you blame me for wanting to enjoy this for a while? Or did you forget we’ve been dead for nearly two years now and have been stuck as nothing but glorified smoke.”

The other Shitennou went silent.

“You’re right Nephrite.” Jadeite surprisingly admitted. “I guess we can’t blame you for making a human response.”

Nephrite seemed proud of his victory.

“So move over.”

And with that, Jadeite lunged at Mamoru’s body, somehow managing to knock Nephrite out.

“Hey!” Nephrite yelled. “I wasn’t done yet!”

“Oh, you were right Nephrite,” Jadeite/Mamoru exclaimed, “This is spectacular! Hey I wonder what he has to eat around here.”

“Keep dreaming!” Nephrite responded, and jumped back into Mamoru’s body.

“You had your fun, now it’s my turn!” Jadeite jumped back in.

“I didn’t even get to use the bathroom yet!”

The pattern of Nephrite and Jadeite possessing Mamoru repeated for a bit, as Zoisite feebly tried to get them to stop, until finally-

“ENOUGH!”</i></u>

The horrified Shitennou stopped dead (no pun intended) in their tracks at the sound of their leader’s vengeful shriek. Kunzite looked ready to obliterate all three of them, even Zoisite, who hadn’t even really done anything.

“Both of you stop it!” Kunzite ordered. “You’re acting like children! Did you forget what our duty is? We’re the Four Kings of Heaven destined to guard the prince of the Earth, and here we are, using him like a puppet! Like common ghosts!”

Nephrite and Jadeite looked at each other, both feeling very ashamed of themselves at the moment.

“I, you are right Kunzite.” Nephrite apologized.

“I’m sorry, I forgot myself for a moment.” Jadeite was contrite.

Kunzite sighed.

“You see what happens when you let your emotions get the best of you? Thank goodness Kunzite is so level headed and trust worthy.” Zoisite brownnosed.

“Yes… besides, it’s my turn.” Kunzite quickly added.

“WHAT?!”

“Hey-!”

And just like that, Kunzite had forced his way into controlling Mamoru’s body.

“Kunzite you dirty cheater!”

“I saw an opportunity and I went for it. Besides, I’m the leader. If anyone gets to experience this it’s me.”

“Oh Kunzite how could you.” Zoisite sobbed.

“LIKE HELL YOU DO!” Jadeite and Nephrite cursed in unison.

“Ha! You’ll have to be quicker than that!”

“GET BACK HERE!”

…

“-this key is the symbol of mine and Mamoru’s eternal love. He gave it to me on my…”

“Hey! Usagi why did you stop?”

“I, I…”

Usagi Tsukino lost her words when she saw the bizarre sight in Mamoru’s living room. There was Mamoru, his body jerking around as if he was having the wind repeatedly knocked out of him, and he seemed to be arguing with three different people even though he was alone.

Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Makoto Kino, and Minako Aino couldn’t believe it either. Minako especially wished she had a camera with her and film equipment. The girls had decided to hold their study session at Mamoru’s place, but they never imagined seeing this. Mamoru didn’t even notice they were there.

“At least let me know what food tastes like again!”

“I want to go to the botanical gardens!”

“All of you stop you’re being ridiculous!”

“I’m the leader and I say I’m going swimming!”

“He, he’s possessed!” Makoto gasped.

“It’s like he’s four different people.” Ami observed.

“Mamoru! What’s happened to you?!” Usagi sobbed.

And then the four girls all turned towards Rei.

Rei sighed then she looked irritated.

“It figures I have to deal with this on my day off. Guys, could you wait outside for a moment? I’ll take care of this.”

She shoved the four girls out of the apartment and slammed the door shut. From out in the hall, they then heard:

“EVIL SPIRIT BE EXORCISED!”

There was a flash of light, what sounded like five different screams, and then, silence.

“Rei…?” Usagi asked.

The door slammed open and Rei marched out.

“He’ll be fine in an hour, but I think he has a cold. Let’s go to the pharmacy and get some medicine for him.” Rei nonchalantly explained.

Inside the apartment, Mamoru was slumped against the wall near his TV with an ofuda scroll plastered to his face. The Shitennou were scattered around the room, looking as if they’d been hit by a truck four times.

“It… was… still… worth it.” Nephrite moaned.

“Oh shut up.” The others moaned.