Here we go.. I'm still alive and kicking. This is the 'in between' chapter 
that will bridge the first and second arcs, and it's rather big. In fact, 
this is the largest of the Ranmazoku chapters so far.. and.. it isn't 
finished. Enjoy.


-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: ranmazokuspecial.txt

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **
Ranmazoku Special 
By PansutoTarou5925
 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

DISCLAIMER - I do not own the rights to Slayers nor do I
own the rights to Ranma �. Long live the rightful owners of
these two fine anime. This work is non-commercial and is done
only in imitation of Rumiko Takahashi and Hajime Kanzaka.
Imitation is the sincerest flattery, no? US rights owned by Viz
and Software Sculptors. If I mention the Senshi, Sailor Moon
belongs to Naoko Takeuchi(Sp, anyone?) and.. and.. I dunno
who has the US rights, but it's theirs not mine. (I'm drawing a
blank)

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Author's note - This story originated from an idea on
Nighthawk's page and is some guy named NesTea's fault. If
he's reading this, I'm curious to know what he thinks of all this.
Questioning me would be like questioning Xellos if you ask
when the next section comes out, because it's a secret.

ALTAVERSE WARNING - This is an ALTAVERSE. Events,
characters and the like may not resemble canon. People who are
rabid canon-thumpers beware! (and eat a Dragon Slave while
you're at it)

SPECIAL WARNING - The previous events were the first arc
of Ranmazoku, chapters 1-10. This is an intermission period
between the events of Ranmazoku and Ranmazoku Next.

NOTE - [...] indicates telepathic communication between
Ranma and Hotaru in the Astral plane.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Nabiki sighed in contentment. The beach here was just fantastic.
And her campaign of 'liberation' had met with great success. Of
course, she could credit Ranma's considerable magical
assistance in that regard. Her magically enhanced army had
ripped right through the Red Army, and were now
consolidating their gains. Her timetables called for a tighter hold
on China before making her stab to the southwest, and the
lynchpin of the world.


Of course, the war with the Senshi was started and nasty, as
well. They were tougher than her troops - but only in their
home. Once they started teleporting, they weren't so tough.
The problem was that they tended to teleport in those damn
Musk and Amazons. Fortunately, she managed to exercise some
restraint on their activities. It wasn't that hard to have a few
sailor-suited girls pumped up with black magic cause enough
random destruction in Tokyo to get the authorities on their
cases. Of course, blackmailing the Senshi into leaving her alone
had been harder. Not in that they didn't fold immediately, but
more in the fact that they had a distressing tendency to kill the
messenger. It was only when she phoned them directly from the
Chinese embassy at their home that they took her seriously.

She wondered why Ranma wasn't letting her simply eliminate
them. He had just replied "Orders from the top." Which just
begged the question of who Ranma reported to.

Nabiki ignored that. Problems were so easy to push away when
you had a pina colada on the beach.

The legion of Nannichuan-cursed soldiers who would do
anything she asked didn't hurt either. Nabiki smiled. *Every*
world leader should build a capitol beach house...

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Ranma and Hotaru left the first Mazoku Lord's mansion. While
Dolphin's place would be annoying - though far less than it
would have been prior to Ranma having control over the curses
of Jusenkyo - Dynast's place was still a frozen hell. Dynast had
been rather shocked, to say the least, when Ranma had
teleported directly into his innermost chambers. That had
spoken of a power level on the order of Zelas, or Dolphin, or
Dynast himself... in other words, that one of the two vacancies
for the position of Mazoku Lord was now filled. Ranma
thought back to their conversation.

"Sherra will be disappointed." the master general noted. "She
wanted so much to deny any child of Xellos even life, never
mind such power." He laughed lightly. "She's still after enough
power to claim the other seat. So you may have a rival."

Ranma shrugged. "That's her problem, not mine."


"I see you have a general," Dynast said, glancing at Hotaru,
"but I do not detect in her the powers of a priest. Do you have a
candidate in mind, or have you already gotten one?" A sly smile
crossed his face. If he were lucky the answer would reveal
much about this great unknown with the Metallium name.

'Her name is Nabiki. I acquired her recently in the Desert of
Destruction." Ranma said, smoothly deceiving his fellow lord
with the truth. Let him turn over every sun bleached rock in the
desert; no clues would be found to Nabiki's whereabouts.

"In the Desert?" Dynast said, raising an eyebrow. "The desert
tribes are quite tough."

"Oh, of course, they make excellent servants." The chatter had
gone downhill from there, until Ranma had gotten bored and
left suddenly.

"Why did we leave?" Hotaru asked, jolting him out of his
reverie.

Ranma turned around. "Look, my name means Chaos Demon,
doesn't it?"

Hotaru nodded. "Yeah, I've always wondered that, given your
mother -"

"That means I'm allowed to be unpredictable, Hotaru." Ranma
said, interrupting her.  Ranma turned back around, then
suddenly whirled back, causing Hotaru to walk into him. "As
for my mother..." He trailed off.

"Yes?" Hotaru prompted.

"I don't know either." Hotaru slowly toppled, losing her grip on
the Silence Glaive in surprise.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Farther away, Lina Inverse was busy pillaging the table of
catered food at Martina's wedding. Sausages, breads splashed
with olive oil, rare cheeses, and sliced fruit all disappeared
before her mighty assault. Beside her was her valiant comrade-
at-arms, Gourry Gabriev, valiantly doing battle against a platter
of turkey.

All other guest had fled the field of combat and were observing
the spectacle. Usually with comments like,  "Have you ever
seen such atrocious manners?" and, "What pigs!", but most of
all, "They're not leaving any for me!" They were about to be
saved, however. And not by any heavenly source.

As night had fallen and the party raged on, so to had Ranma and
Hotaru continued their trip to visit the other lords of the
mazoku, to confirm Ranma's new position. It was as the moon
was rising that Ranma and Hotaru had begun their visit with
Zelas, his grandmother, and the new order of things was set in
stone. It was a change that would alter forever the world.

The moon went black, and an earthquake shook the ground.
This got Lina's attention, although Gourry was still stuffing his
face. The mild quake wasn't enough to cause damage, but it
certainly got the attention of the crowd. Once they noticed the
blackened moon, however, the guests started to panic. "It's the
end of the world!" one man shouted. Overhead the stars
themselves moved, some exploding, some dimming, others
brightening, as the heavens made war upon themselves.

"Incredible!" Lina said, awestruck. "Hey, Gourry, check this
out!" she said, staring at the constellations in tumult. When no
response was forthcoming she clouted Gourry upside the head
with her mug.

"Mmmggh?" Gourry said, his face stuffed. He then saw the
fireworks in the sky and his jaw dropped, spilling half-eaten
turkey on the ground.

A patch of stars in the east where before had been the glow of
Gaav's symbol, a ring of red stars, now glowed two stars, one
bright and shining blue, the other deeper, darker, and nearly
purple, at the head of what seemed a serpentine coil of stars.
The star-dragon fought, driving back the lesser stars, until it
cleared a space about it, and its head looked west to the
Wolves, symbol of Zelas.

"Gourry! Do you know that this means?" Lina asked excitedly.
Normally she'd have to smack Gourry for not knowing, but
today she was too excited, and simply continued on. "There
must be a new mazoku lord, one to replace the ones we've
killed. There's going to be whole new realms of black magic
opened up!" Lina looked into the sky at the two stars that
seemed to be a path to destiny. If she learned and developed the
first spells from this new source, her name would live among
sorcerers for all time.

The food forgotten - by Lina, at least - the two paid the
newlyweds their respects and left, immediately seeking Xellos.
If anyone could tell them about the new force in the world, he
could.


 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

"New Mazoku Lord?" Xellos asked, curious. He peered over
the table, his eyes still closed. "Whatever are you talking about,
Lina?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "A week ago. Stars falling from the skies,
earthquakes, portentous signs of doom in the heavens. That sort
of thing. A new constellation appearing in the sky where Gaav's
was. You know, that new Mazoku Lord." The two companions
watched as Xellos downed another mug of ale. The bastard was
eating on their bill and still wasn't telling them anything useful.

"Ahh! You're talking about that little event!" Xellos rubbed his
chin thoughtfully, as if it were something that required deep
thought. "I might know something about that.. then again, I
might not."

Lina's face clouded over. In a remarkably accurate imitation of
Xellos's voice, she mocked him. "I might shove a Dragon Slave
up your butt... then again, I might not."

Xellos laughed. "In that case, I guess I can't refuse. The new
Mazoku Lord is named Ranma. He's said to be quite the
warrior. He's already engaged in some fights with Sherra, in
fact. He's the mazoku the rumors have been talking about who
battled her near the northern mountains."

"Ranma, eh?" Lina said thoughtfully. "I thought I knew of
every powerful mazoku around, but that's a new one to me."

"It's a new one to a lot of mazoku. You see, Ranma is just a
child. An infant, by mazoku standards. But a very powerful and
ambitious infant." Xellos said, smiling. He was quite proud of
his son's achievement. Of course, he couldn't let the fact that
Ranma was his son slip to Lina. It would give them the wrong
impression of him.

Lina blinked incredulously. "So, every powerful mazoku is out
killing each other for the power, and the one who gets the
power is an infant?" Xellos nodded, then took another drink
from his mug. "That's insane!"

"Quite so." Xellos agreed. "However, because he was so
young, no one had any reason to hate him - or fear him. That
gave young Ranma a lot more freedom than for some older
mazoku. He's already gathered to himself some like minded
young mazoku and will doubtless stir up a lot of trouble.

"Sounds like a barrel of fun." Lina stated dourly. There's a child
demon running around with enough power to rearrange a few
continents. Life sucked. They'd be fighting him within the year,
she wagered.

Xellos, however, chuckled. Lina figured it was because of her
discomfort. Or maybe it was the thought of some kid wreaking
havoc. Or maybe it was that he had picked this crummy dive
and found perverse joy in forcing her to drink this swill and pay
for it. There were far too many potential sources of joy for the
mazoku. Best to get away from him. "OK, Xellos. Drop dead,
will ya?"

Xellos laughed and waved at Lina and Gourry. "See you again
Lina. And you too, Gourry." He chuckled for a while, then left.
He wasn't paying for the crappy drinks here. The waitress
cursed, noting that the purple haired bastard hadn't left a tip.

Outside the restaurant, Lina ripped the tape off Gourry's mouth
that had prevented him from making a fool of himself. Well,
more of a fool; pouring that mug of ale down his shirt because
he forgot about the tape was one of the most boneheaded things
she had ever seen. "OK, Gourry. We're off to the northern
mountains." Left unsaid was her desire to avoid Zefelia and her
sister, something that would be marginally complicated by
going to the mountains. "We're going to find clues to help us
find this Ranma kid."

Gourry had a spaced out look. He raised one finger. "One thing.
If this mazoku is a child..."

"Yes?" Lina asked.

"Does that mean he'll look like Phibrizzo?" Gourry finished
cluelessly. Lina staggered back as if stricken, then recovered
herself. 

"NO HE WON'T, YOU EEEDIOT!" she yelled, punching him
in the head. Grumbling, she walked off towards their 'liberated'
horses. At least on horseback Gourry had fewer chances to
annoy her. The horse did that well enough alone.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Ranma sneezed, wondering if someone was talking about him.
Hotaru had an answer for that. "Of course you're being talked
about. Look at the fireworks that went off because of you. That
whole damn world probably knows about you now. All they
know is 'Ranma.. who the hell is Ranma?' but they certainly
know about you."

Ranma ignored Hotaru's comments. She had been kind of
bitchy the last few days. Ranma chalked it up to it being 'that
time of month', although the real reason was currently thirty
feet away in a barely-there bikini. Namely, Nabiki.

"You've done real good for such a short period of time."
Ranma said, for what had to be the hundredth time.

"Oh, please," Nabiki said, still lying on the sand, "you've only
said that a hundred times already. A little magic, a few million
soldiers, and it's simple, really. "

"How modest and unlike the Nabiki we all know and love."
Hotaru grumbled. Her armored outfit didn't really fit in at the
beach, but she'd be damned if she was going to look like part of
Nabiki's side of operations. Unfortunately, that meant sweating
in black leather.

Ranma chuckled. "Awww, does little Hotaru-chan want an
army of her own? Fine, you need some action anyhow. I'll give
you everything you need to form your own army of destruction
tonight. You've got priority over Russia. Deal?"

"Only if I get Europe after." Hotaru said, still grumbling, but
only because Ranma was more likely to give her that important
theater as well.

"Deal. I'll handle India and Southeast Asia. Nabiki, how goes
the battle in Korea?" Ranma asked, switching his attention
again.

Nabiki flipped up her shades to take a better look at Ranma. "It
goes alright, I suppose. It's a real pain pretending to be
democratic and peaceful, and that my troops in the North are
local rebels that I'm just supporting. But, on the other hand,"
she chuckled, "the whole notion of Communism being
overthrown is something that the West wants to desperately
believe. So they fool themselves, too."

Ranma blinked. "You mean they believe our front government
in Shanghai?"

Nabiki nodded. "The Senshi and their assorted allies in Japan
have raised a fuss, and they're propping up the Commies with
magical aid, a kind of common front against the demons sort of
thing. But they're mostly ignored, even in Japan. Heck, the
Japanese government wanted to deport them, but they made
noises about being political refugees. They aren't exactly
welcome."

"So they're trying to deport the Amazons, Musk, and the
people of Phoenix Mountain, huh?" Ranma said. He then
thought of something. "I bet the people of Phoenix Mountain
are having a REAL fun time. Those wings probably are
attracting scientists like a magnet."

Nabiki grinned. "Got it in one. Though several of them are lying
low by using Jusenkyo curses."

"So how goes the family, Nabiki?" Ranma asked, curious. He
wasn't too unhappy about leaving Nerima, as his home had
always been the road, but he was kind of curious about what
was going on in the old neighborhood. He felt he could drop by
and exult in his victory over the others. After all, there wasn't
anything they could do about his presence - yet. If L-sama's
plans continued the way they were supposed to, the Senshi
would eventually develop enough power to at least
inconvenience him. 


"They're doing well. I've been teaching Akane some black
magic. Simple stuff, really, but it's caused the Senshi to raise a
fuss." Nabiki said. "I've disabused them of the notion that
Akane is one of us."

Ranma and Hotaru turned around at that. "Oh? And how did
you do that?" Ranma asked. "Those clowns haven't shown too
much of an acceptance of anything resembling reality yet."

Nabiki smirked. "Normally, I would say yes. However, I sent a
few weak minions over there to be trashed by Akane. They can
tell Akane is human, ergo, by their incredibly simplistic view of
the world, she must be one of the good guys."

"Strictly speaking, she's not one of us." Hotaru was quick to
point out. Anything that Nabiki did to attempt to increase her
share of power in relation to her and Ranma was by nature to be
suspected. At least in Hotaru's eyes, anyhow, Nabiki was
untrustworthy.

As for Ranma, who knew whom Ranma trusted? Hotaru,
certainly....

"Have we located either of the others?" Ranma asked, dropping
the conversation about Akane.

Nabiki sat up and took off her sunglasses. Finally, they got to
the important stuff. "We've located Rouge. Pantyhose-"

"Refer to him as Tarou only." Ranma interjected.

"OK, Tarou is currently unlocated. We have no idea where he
is."

"Where's Rouge?" Ranma asked. It would be nice to expand his
'Dark Senshi', and, besides, he had an angle for recruiting her.

"Would you believe in Shanghai?" Nabiki said. "Convenient,
no?" Ranma nodded.

"Hotaru." he said, getting his general's attention. He brought
her aside to give her private instructions. "I want you to go to
Nerima. Quietly. Don't raise a fuss until I'm there to support
you. I'd not tell you that except I know how much you want to
smash the Outers. Remember that if you wait until later, you'll
be able to get your revenge multiple times after they start
cloning Senshi." She nodded. "I'm going to head to Shanghai
and recruit a new member. I think you will agree that you don't
need to play bodyguard in our own territory."

"This area is not fully pacified." Hotaru quickly pointed out.

Ranma shrugged dismissively. "What are they going to do, nuke
me? They don't have any way of hurting me." Hotaru conceded
the point and vanished, teleporting away to Japan. Ranma
jogged off to the city.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Hotaru arrived in Tokyo within seconds of leaving China. The
Senshi would inevitably detect her arrival, so she summoned a
few of the simple Brass Demons that they had been using as
shock troops and left. They'd provide a simple distraction.

She smiled as she left the scene. Unlike the sloppy Senshi and
their allies, Ranma, Nabiki and she were disciplined and well
prepared. They didn't waste their time with the elaborate and
foolish plans that most of the Senshi's enemies had used.  Even
as she was not yet two blocks from where she appeared, the
Senshi arrived and began fighting the demons. They had been
doing this every few days, and Nabiki had carefully and
methodically tracked each of the Senshi home. They knew
where each one lived, and their true identities. They knew what
they liked, disliked, how badly they did in school - the whole
nine yards. Nabiki was collecting quite a dossier on each of
them in Shanghai. That would assist with battle plans greatly.
Of course, it also meant that Nabiki was becoming important in
her intelligence gathering activities.

Hotaru believed that for Ranma to become too dependent on
any one person - except herself, as she was completely loyal to
the cause - was dangerous. Hence her decision to develop her
own network of spies. Hence her destination. The Kuno
mansion.

Hotaru arrived and simply floated over the grounds, avoiding
the many traps and dangerous creatures that lined the grounds.
She phased through the walls and started searching.

All of the people were garbed in black. While to a great degree
this was because ninety percent of them were ninja, one needed
only to look at Principal Kuno, dressed in a tacky black
Hawaiian shirt with black rose lei, to realize that they were still
mourning the death of Tatewaki Kuno. She ignored them and
continued on, attracting notice from the many ninja. Since it
was her intention to be noticed, she ignored them, and smashed
through the door to the gymnasium.

Inside, Kodachi Kuno was practicing, an activity brought to a
screeching halt by the appearance of the tall Dark Senshi.
"Greetings, Lady Kuno." she said, remembering what she had
learned of their madness from Ranma.

"You are one of those wretched Dark Senshi that have vexed
our defenders." Kodachi said, ignoring her politeness.

"Perhaps." Hotaru said. "Defenders they might be, but they
can't help you. I can." At least she could now that Ranma, and
hence she, had more power.

"And what possible help could you be?" Kodachi said, absently
twirling a club. "You can't bring my brother back. And as much
as I dislike him, it pains me to have my father moping about the
house so."

"I can bring him back." Hotaru said. The words struck Kodachi
as if she had been shot. Behind her she could hear several of the
ninja scurrying off to fetch Principal Kuno. that was fine with
her. It would indebt more people to her.

"Explain." Kodachi said, having practically teleported in front
of Hotaru after recovering from her shock.

"I can bring him back to life. In return, all I need is for you to
keep me informed of a few things around town." Hotaru said.

"You want us to be your spies." Kodachi said, disgusted.

"You've already got spies. I just want you to pass along what
you learn. Perhaps once or twice we'll have a special task for
you - but we'll reward you separately for those." Hotaru said
smoothly.

Kodachi licked her lips. Nervously, she summoned the nerve to
ask this.. creature.. something near and dear to her heart. "You
don't suppose you could bring back.. Mother.. could you?" Her
heart stopped, hoping against hope.

Hotaru cocked her head to the side, thinking. 'I have no idea
whether I can bring people back from the dead once they've
been gone so long. Maybe Ranma can - but then I'd have to
reveal this to him. Well, I can always justify it as me developing
my own intel network...' Hotaru straightened and pulled down
the edge of her dress. "I'll see what can be done. But your debt
will be great, I assure you."

Kodachi ignored her, turning instead to the small shrine of her
mother in the gymnasium. Her mother had instilled in her her
twin loves of botany and gymnastics. "I am sure you will be able
to help us." Kodachi said, regaining a touch of her normal
pridefulness. Hotaru smiled. This combination of arrogance and
pride would prove helpful in getting them to spy. It was as her
instructors on Saturn had told her, so many millennia ago. The
best spies were those who worked for you because of ego and
conscience.

Hotaru faded out of sight. "Expect your brother back by
sundown," she said as she faded from sight. Flying invisibly
through the walls and out of the trap-infested Kuno compound,
she headed swiftly to the empty lot that was currently being
walled off from the public and paved over. The location of the
Spring of Drowned Kuno.

Principal Kuno rushed into the gymnasium, followed by Sasuke
and the other high level ninja retainers. "What dey say, wahine?
Dey gonna bring mah boy back?" Kodachi continued to look at
the shrine of her mother. She did not reply.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Ranma walked into Shanghai. The city that had been the jewel
of China's economy under the Communists was somewhat
subdued, confused at the sudden shift of governments. There
was some celebrating going on and a political rally going on in a
park. They really believed - at least some of them - that a true
democratic system would be put in place. Most weren't so
enthusiastic. They figured that leaders came and leaders went,
but life went pretty much the same as always - that is, badly.
Ranma snorted. If they knew what he really had planned they'd
be stunned at its sheer audacity. But then again, no one had
ever had the sheer power and willingness to see through his
ideals. Ranma knew. He had spent the last few days looking
through books searching for ways to not sound like a complete
ass when talking about politics. After all, one of them needed to
go up in front of CNN or NHK or whatever and give a little
speech. Already they were harassing Nabiki's troops. It was his
personal opinion that they needed to get Tarou for dealing with
reporters. Having him give speeches to anyone would be pretty
damn funny (although Ranma was privately worried that he'd
start a war because of his big mouth. Actually, that's why
Ranma was hiding from the cameras, too. The only people he
seemed to never screw up with were other mazoku.) and he was
Chinese to boot, so they wouldn't wonder what the heck a
Japanese national was doing in charge of the revolution.
Besides, Tarou had declared his plans for political power before
anyhow.

Ranma shook his head. Politics gave him a headache. He just
wanted to be left alone to do his own thing. Of course, it was
never that easy...

Ranma found the girl he was seeking in a restaurant. She was
singing karaoke. Nabiki had informed him of her existence after
getting a list of current curse victims from the Guide. Given his
now complete control over the curses of Jusenkyo, able to lock,
alter, or remove curses at will, as well as bestow them on the
unwary, Ranma felt that he had the perfect offers to both Tarou
and this young Chinese lady. If he gave Tarou conscious control
over his curse, removing the triggers of hot and cold water, he
felt the multiply-cursed boy would swear himself to his service.
Especially if the promise of power and conquest came with it.
Rouge he had a different approach planned for.

He knew much about the different curses now. The Spring of
Drowned Asura affected not merely the body but also the mind
of the person afflicted. It was almost an entirely different
person. Ranma felt that if he toned down the personality change
- just a *tiny* bit more aggressive, and enhanced the mazoku
characteristics of the cursed form - and gave her conscious
control as well, that she would join them as well.

Ranma's mental reviewing of his plans almost caused him to
miss the end of her singing. Quickly he walked over to the girl.
"Hello. I believe your name is Rouge?" he said in his heavily
accented Chinese.

The girl in question blinked at him. The distinctive taint of
Jusenkyo told him that this was indeed the girl, though he
wondered if she was going to deny her identity here. "Yes, I
am. Who are you?" She began to drink a beer, ignoring Ranma
for the most part. She probably thought he was just another guy
hitting on her.

Ranma shrugged. "Just someone who can help. You're cursed
by Jusenkyo, aren't you?" Immediately Rouge chocked on her
beer and started to cough. "I'll take that as a yes." Ranma said
dryly. "Anyhow, I know how crazy everything is right now. We
could use someone with your unique... skills. In return, we can
offer some control over the curse - remove the problems with
water and.. the ever so slight personality shift you might have
noticed." Ranma smirked slightly at the last.

"And what would this job entail?" Rouge said, having recovered
somewhat from inhaling her beer.

"Oh, several things, but mostly the use of your cursed form..."
Ranma said, leading her to a corner booth as he continued his
pitch.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Hotaru had easily smashed through the concrete that the
government had put over the Kuno 'spring'. She sympathized
with them; she wouldn't want random passerby turned into
obsessed morons either. Sighing, as she was about to bring back
the archetype of said morons, she held her hand over the waters
of the pool.

Her hand glowed dark and began to pull tendrils of water
upwards, as the water splashed and churned in agitation. More
and more thin lines of water came from the disturbed surface of
the pool. Drawn up to her hand along magical lines of force, the
water began to glow the same color as her hand. Hotaru began
then to shape the water she was pulling up, forming it into the
shape of a kendoist she had only heard the name of. She didn't
know what he looked like, but that was alright.

The waters of Jusenkyo always remembered. Even if they were
in an empty lot in Japan.

Kuno's shape was growing more and more distinct. Bringing
back someone who had been drowned in a spring was easy.
There was no doubt in her mind that Ranma could go hunting
for the spirit of Mrs. Kuno, as well, but it wouldn't be so easy.
Not only was the human body largely water anyhow, but the
springs themselves retained the shape and mind of the person
who drowned their, as well as their spirit.

Kuno's new body, kendo outfit and all, flopped onto the
ground.

"Get up." Hotaru commanded, then gave him a kick to the ribs.
Kuno grunted and got up.

Kuno's eyes lit up, and Hotaru had a sick feeling in the pit of
her stomach. "Ahh, my dark angel, you have rescued me from
the waters. But wait, where is the vile sorcerer?" Kuno asked,
placing his hand over his eyes in a comical pantomime of
searching.

"He's in China." Hotaru said truthfully. "Listen -"

"Aha!" Kuno said, taking a triumphant pose. "No doubt he
fears my wrath!"

"Actually, he thinks you're dead." Hotaru grumbled, highly
annoyed. "Hey, look, there's a few things you need to know..."
Hotaru trailed off as a bouquet of flowers was shoved in her
face. She took them, looking over them as if she had been
handed several large, disgusting snakes.

"Allow me to give you a small token of my gratitude." Kuno
rambled, ignoring her. "It is my duty as a samurai to repay you
for saving my life, dark angel. So.. I will date with thee!"
Hotaru smashed him over the head with the Silence Glaive.
Damn fool.

She grabbed a piece of paper that had been on the concrete wall
and burned a message on the back with magic. 'You WERE
dead. Ask your sister. I've brought you back. Have a few
strange powers now. Find out about them on your own. Jerk.
Without love, your "Dark Angel"' Rolling up the note, she
jammed it in his mouth and left. With any luck the Senshi would
sense the magic, see this moron, jump to conclusions, and kick
his ass.


It was unlikely, but she could always hope.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Ranma sighed and decided to leave for Japan. Rouge had finally
agreed, but only on one condition: that Ranma give her a better
singing voice. That was a sufficiently weird request, and
Jusenkyo unfortunately did not have a spring of drowned idol
singer, but that was an easy one to fix. A little silent command
to Nabiki, a little magic, one almost-drowned idol singer later,
and...

He was *very* happy to be clear of the karaoke bar now.
Despite her power and abilities, Rouge's love of singing was
somehow very annoying. She was.. cheerful. Happy. Not things
that were normally associated with the allies of mazoku. Maybe
it would throw off their enemies. It wasn't like Ranma was
going to dismiss people just because they annoyed him. If that
were true he'd have never recruited Nabiki.

Ranma walked into an alley and teleported straight to Nerima.
Which quite surprised the muggers who had planned on robbing
him.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Ranma appeared over Furinkan High as the sun set. Jumping
easily off the roof, Ranma sprinted off towards the Ucchan's.
He expected the Senshi to show up en route. He was not
disappointed.

"Halt, evildoer! For being a beacon of such evil on a beautiful
sunset, which could be spent far better cuddling with a
boyfriend, we, the Sailor Suited.. hey! Don't yawn!" Sailor
Moon said, insulted that this mazoku thingy was taking her so
casually.

"Hey! It's that guy again!" Jupiter said. "Saturn's boyfriend."
Ranma stumbled at hearing that description.

"It's purely a working relationship, I assure ya." Ranma snarled.
"Now scram before I blast you into next week."

"We will never run from the forces of darkness, villain!" Sailor
Moon proclaimed.

"Speak for us all, will you, meatball head" Sailor Mars
muttered.

"As nice as it would be to chat with you, I simply don't have
the time." Ranma aimed high and blasted the shadowy figure of
Tuxedo Mask with a blast of energy. That guy annoyed the hell
out of him anyhow. Roses....

"TUXEDO MASK!" Moon yelled, running over to the crater
where their backup had fallen. "Are you OK? You're..
you're..."

"groan.." the slightly dazed Tuxedo Mask mumbled. "I fell..
funny.."

"you're.." Moon said, still in shock at what she saw. The others
ran up behind her as Ranma began to chuckle.

"I don't know what you're laughing about, but we'll get you for
it!" Venus said, shaking her fist. She turned around. "What's ..
oh my god..."

"Tuxedo Mask is.." Rei said, gasping in shock.

"A GIRL!" Moon said, finally snapping out of her shock.
"WAAAH!" The feminized Mamoru felt her new body with
increasing horror.

Ranma just laughed evilly and vanished.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

The Senshi were currently having an emergency meeting at the
Shrine. While this had been occurring more often of late,
especially with the mazoku stirring up trouble so far away,
where they couldn't easily fight, and dealing with their
newfound allies and their problems fitting in to Japanese
society, they were usually fruitless arguments on how to deal
with the subversive monsters or how to get the Metropolitan
Police to stop chasing Phoenix People, not arguments over
female clothing.

They certainly felt weird when the person being argued over
was Mamoru Chiba, future King of the Earth. The general
bizzareness was definitely contributing to the tense atmosphere
in the Shrine.

The fact that the rarely seen Outers were around and kept
snickering about Mamoru's misfortune wasn't helping. That and
Mamoru's own foul mood as she kept tripping over her feet in
the clothes Usagi had currently picked for her. Usagi and
company were arguing rather loudly over the next horror she'd
be forced to wear.

"Oh, Mamoru-*chan*," Haruka said, eliciting a fresh round of
giggles from Michiru. "If you want, you can stay at our house
for a few days. We'll be happy to tell you how to treat Usagi."
Then she joined her partner in a fresh round of giggles.

Mamoru flushed with anger, the redness going nicely with the
dark pink hair she had somehow gotten as a girl. "You two
aren't helping any."

"What do you think we were offering to do?" Michiru
snickered.

"At least we know where Chibi-Usa gets her hair from."
Haruka whispered loudly. The two broke into a fresh round of
laughter and moved outside, letting Mamoru fume over her
condition in solitude.

Mamoru prowled the hallways for a while, hoping to avoid the
attention of the girls. A faint "Mamo-chan!' wafting down the
hallway told her she had failed.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Hotaru smiled fiercely and surveyed her troops. She had gone
for more of the demons and less of the Jusenkyo-cursed ants
that Nabiki had favored, and had added her own specialty -
mass destruction via the Silence Glaive. Teleporting hordes of
her loyal troops into the main cities, then blasting the defending
armies away with the wonderous power of her Silence Glaive
Surprise had allowed her to oversweep the arid steppes of
Kazakstan.

She watched as the grim order she had given out were obeyed,
as the offices and buildings that knit together this land were
systematically razed. To chaos and anarchy was she sworn, and
under its black banner she would bring all nations. She glanced
eastward and sneered. Nabiki claimed she needed to keep some
central governance in place in order to fool the UN and keep
the Senshi at bay. Hotaru thought it was more her love of
control. In her eyes, that was a betrayal of their mission of
freedom.

Her hand tightened around the Glaive. She had carried out this
strike with efficiency and forethought, and struck with complete
surprise When she headed north, she would not have that last
advantage. As she faded back to Nerima, to meet up with
Ranma again, she stopped worrying about the Russians. The
Russians knew something was up. On the other hand...

Just because they knew it was coming didn't mean they could
stop it.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Nabiki sneezed lightly and shook her head. Someone was
thinking about her, she idly thought, most likely Ranma's pet
Nazi in the leather skirt. She snorted and took another sip of her
daiquiri. Ranma kept that lunatic out of her hair, and that was
fine enough for her. All she cared about was the power, after
all. She wasn't the kind of fanatically loyal lieutenant that
Hotaru was, and she thought that was for the better. It meant
her counsel was more calm. Rational. Evenhanded. That made
her spies and intrigue all the more effective, in her opinion.

She lifted the dossier for one Aino Minako up and flipped
through it absently. She had thought up a half-dozen plans for
subverting or distracting the various Senshi from being a threat.
Each and every plan had been nixed by Ranma though. He
seemed to want the Senshi to grow in power for some reason.
That didn't mean that she didn't send a little grief their way
now and again. Ranma had thought her plan to get the
formidible Hinako Ninomiya transferred to the same school as
Usagi to be a stroke of genius. Her chronic lateness would
mean daily chi-drainings, and, as a bonus, several of the other
Senshi were in her class and could reasonably expect to be
drained as well. The only drawback in the plan was that the
Senshi might kill Hinako if they decided she was a youma. In
which case Ranma could always bring her back and add her to
the pack.

Nabiki smirked. She kind of hoped that happened; another
pretty face would give Little Miss Fanatic an aneurysm. She
was so obviously chasing Ranma it wasn't even funny. Of
course, as usual, Ranma was completely oblivious. The
situation almost made her nostalgic. It reminded her so much of
the endless warring that Akane and the other fiancees would do
to catch Ranma's heart.

Nabiki waved to one of her troops - more like a personal
servant in this one's case - and signalled for another drink.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

For the third time this week Ranma walked through the doors
of the Ucchan's. For the first time this week, it was empty
enough to talk to his friend.. "Hey, Ucchan. How's business?" 

The okonomiyaki chef in question turned around, smiling.
"Doing good, Ranchan. There's a whole bunch of new
customers nowadays. Amazons, Musk, even those weird
Phoenix People. That and normal Chinese people. They've been
kinda frightened lately, what with the government falling and
all." She winked at him, and slid over one of her specials, which
vanished with familiar speed. "Now, you wouldn't happen to
know anything about that, would you?"

Ranma burped slightly, then smirked. Why not tell Ucchan? "Of
course. It's got nothing at all to do with me. The Amazons and
everyone running away from me and the government collapses.
Had nothing to do with it" Ukyou nodded and served up
another handful of steaming goodness, which vanished nearly as
fast as the first. "What are people going to do about it, anyhow?
No one's got the kind of magic I have to toss around, not even
the Senshi, and do they really care that I knocked over a bunch
of Communists anyhow? They're into this peace and justice BS,
they should have done it ages ago."

"So what's next on your list?" Ukyou wondered. First China,
and now Kazakstan had mysteriously disappeared into a storm
of anarchy and disorder. There was even less news out of
Central Asia than China; no one knew what was going on there.

"Touching base with all my old friends in Nerima. There's a few
people I wouldn't mind seeing, yourself not the least among
them. I wanna talk to the old freak too. I got some stuff
Happousai would really want, you know? Kasumi, Akane, a
few other people." Ranma quickly drank a Coke and sighed. He
then smiled mischeviously and shifted to female. The slight
thump of a customer falling out of their seat in shock was
ignored by the two friends. "And Ryouga. I've got an old debt
to pay back to the little pig." Ukyou looked at her friend with
shock.

"You did it without the water?" Ukyou asked, shocked.

Ranma flexed her arm. "I got some serious powers , here.
Anything you want to turn into? I can give you *complete*
control."

Ukyou laughed. "Maybe I'll take you up on the offer some day.
But I'd have to think about it."

Ranma snorted and got up. "Anyhow, I'll see you later. It's
more fun to pound on the freak when I'm like this anyhow."
She walked out, and Ukyou immediately turned back to
cleaning dishes.

Umino quickly got out of his seat and flipped off his tape
recorder. One of the Sailor Senshi had been asking him to do all
sorts of stuff for her in this district - taking pictures,
interviewing people - but this had been the weirdest assignment.
He had been on the lookout for this.. erm.. guy.. for a while,
staking out this restaurant and waiting with the little Pressman
in his pocket.

He hurried to a library near his school and slipped the tape
behind a copy of Robert's Rules of Order. It was the usual dro-
off, and no person with a life would ever check it out. He had
wondered if Sailor Mercury came to pick it up herself, and had
lurked around the corner, but apparently she had gotten Ami to
pick them up. He whistled, he hadn't thought the Senshi would
be any good at this kind of cloak and dagger stuff.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

A very unhappy Mamoru stumbled back into the shrine. Still in
her damned "Sailor Earth" fuku, at that. With a groan of long
suffering, she dismissed the stupid costume and collapsed
noisily on the floor. "Damn those monsters." This time, eight of
the demons had been sent and were hijacking trucks. There
didn't seem to be any purpose to it, but it had made their night a
lot more interesting, racing along in Haruka's car and
exchanging fire with the enemy in a high speed chase. It also
meant that the police would be looking for Haruka becaus eof
her car being taken for a joyride by the Senshi, except that they
had obliterated the car with her magical lava and a few World
Shakings.

It also meant that only a few Senshi had been driving in the car.
The rest detransformed and had wandered off to meet here after
they killed the demons. Meaning that, while she, Usagi, Haruka,
Michiru, and Rei had been jammed into a car and doing a very
good imitation of some demented action flick, the others had
been able to goof off here. The world wasn't fair.

"Oh, Mamoru!" Ami said, waving at the injured girl. "I've got
some good news about your transofrmation." Mamoru's head
perked up.

"What could *possibly* be good news?" she asked.

"It can be reversed somehow. Something to do with water."
Mamoru practically vanished into the bathroom as Usagi and
the other battle-weary Senshi trooped into the Shrine. She
started up everything and anything that had to do with water. It
had to be something this simple, especially when her
apartment's water heater was all messed up, didn't it?
Eventually she tried jumping into the furo and let loose a shout
of triumph.

"That was a GUY!" Rei said, alarmed. "In the bath - Mamoru!"
She quickly grabbed a broom, followed closely by her friends as
they prepared to teach the pervert a lesson and save poor
Mamo-chan. Just before they entered the door opened and a
naked, jubilant guy ran out. 

"EEEEK!" they all shouted, and promptly beat the crap out of
him.

"...urk..." the freshly pounded Mamoru muttered. The fact that
all the girls were now apologizing profusely wasn't helping.
This sucked.


 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

So, how do ya like it? Longest chapter of Ranmazoku so far..
and STILL not finished. I'm thinking about writing more
tonight, but hey, it still isn't finished.. and I wanted y'all to
know I was still alive. 

Heh heh.



                                   

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http://tannim.anifics.com/index.html

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