Since it's ballooning to absurd dimensions, far outstripping previous
chapters, and probably you think I'm dead or something, I'm posting it. It
still has no end in sight, but hey! It's like 100kb! 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 to 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 there, 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
dropoff, 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 because of
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.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Hotaru reappeared in Nerima, summoning another swarm of
demons - this time sending them into the subway. Sending them
to steal that truck had been fairly entertaining too,but she
wanted to see how the Senshi would handle this situation. She
hustled across the district to meet Ranma as he left the
Ucchan's.
"So, boss, where are we off to now?" Hotaru said, shifting her
distinctive outfit to something a little less flashy - a nice, plain
black dress.
"Actually, I have no idea. Little piggy never was one to be
found easy."
"What are you going to have to do with the Lost One?" Hotaru
said, wrinkling up her nose. "He's a dishonorable bastard. Good
source of depression, though, but I don't think you're in the
mood for a meal."
"I owe him." Ranma said, shrugging. "I did knock the damn
fool into that pool."
"You're going to cure him? That's... nice of you." Hotaru said.
She remained conspicuously silent as they walked down the
street, sneaking glances at him.
Ranma smiled after a minute's silence. "Oh, don't worry, it's
not all I'm going to do to him."
"That's better." The two of them laughed lightly, continuing on
their mostly random walk around Nerima. Given Ryouga's
obsession with Akane, he should be somewhere nearby.
Several hours passed with no sign of Ryouga.
Ranma and Hotaru stopped under a tree, noting that the Tokyo
Subway was down. "You had something to do with this, didn't
you?" Hotaru nodded with a who-me? smile plastered on her
face. "Well... that would mean the Senshi are probably finished
with whatever fun you sent their way. Look, I'm going to
continue to look for Ryouga... you can take the opportunity to
beat up the Outers, OK?"
Hotaru snapped her fingers and saluted sloppily as Ranma left.
"Gotcha, boss." She happily ran in the direction of Juuban.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Setsuna Meiou was not a happy camper. For the past few
weeks she had been cut off from her powers while a mazoku, an
enemy only thought a rumor even in the Silver Millenium, had
come out of nowhere to derail the promise of Crystal Tokyo -
possibly irretrievably. And still, she hadn't been able to talk to
the Princess, because she hadn't had the necessary proof of her
identity yet. That was about to change, though.
Setsuna adjusted the handkerchief tied around her head and
carefully climbed up the drainpipe of the Tsukino home. The
little black cat in the window miya'd loudly and ran into her
target's room. "Hope the door's closed," she muttered. Talking
some sense into that damn cat would be difficult.
With a final grunt, Setsuna flipped herself over the windowsill
and fell with a thump to the floor. She froze for a second,
listening to hear if anyone noticed the sound. She breathed a
sigh of relief.
The cat miyah'ed again. "Dammit, Luna, shut up." she
whispered harshly. "I need to speak to you." The cat stared at
her, slightly confused, then backed away. "Ah, hell," Setsuna
grumbled, then grabbed a pillowcase from Usagi's bed. She
quickly scooped up the cat and stuffed it in the pillowcase
before it could do anything, and lightly slid down the drainpipe,
which came loose and fell off the house noisily. Setsuna landed
on Luna.
"YOOOWWWWLLL!" the cat screeched, and clawed Setsuna.
"Ow! Damnit!" she yelled, then saw Mrs. Tsukino opening the
door.
"Ahh! Thief!" the woman yelled, chasing Setsuna off with a
broomstick. "Thief! Thief!" Setsuna ran as only the mortally
embarrassed can.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ami finished listening to the tape for the fourth time, and began
to write. 'Happousai. Kasumi. Akane. Ryouga. Check. We
could also squeeze this 'Ukyou' for information, or bug her
shop. It would be easier to keep tabs on this 'Ranma' than
having Umino spend every day after school there.' She set
down the pencil and sighed. This was *not* how the fights were
supposed to go. Enemies hadn't attacked in groups, or
employed spies, they sure as heck hadn't subverted the Senshi -
the thought of Saturn being on their side was frightening, and
Pluto was an unknown, having vanished around the same time
Saturn showed up on the wrong side. If both of them had been
turned...
Ami shuddered.
On the other hand, this was *her* kind of fight. She had always
been weak in combat, but her information gathering skills were
second to none. Or at least, second to none among the good
guys. These enemies had somehow found out their home phone
numbers... which meant they had their addresses. From that
point on every Senshi slept with their eyes half-open. So Ami
had to built a information net just as good, and fast.
That meant putting a spy in the bad guy's camp. But who? Ami
shook her head. That would be a tough one.
'Now to review what I know of the Enemy,' she thought.
'Goal: apparently to take over the Earth. Power: very strong
magic - possibly Ginshizhou level? Methods - organized group
assaults, preplanned, suprise, ambush, unconventional tactics.'
Ami reflected on that. The Senshi had been having a hard time
with just the grunt level troops, because of that. They knew that
the higher level enemies were far stronger - Mamoru had been
protected by all kinds of Silver Millenium magical shields, yet
he had switched genders without any resistance whatsoever
from those shields.
The Senshi should be dead, then, if that was their target. So
why weren't they? Ami considered that very carefully. 'Are they
just pinning us down?' That seemed the most likely explanation.
But if they were really after world domination, then they'd want
to take the Senshi off the playing field first. So they weren't
after the world domination... unless...
Ami picked up her pen again. 'Possible allies? Beyond
Amazons/Musk/Phoenix People? Enemy does not want us to
find, and is keeping us separate?' That would have to be looked
in to.
The other possibility was that they weren't after world
domination at all, just either control of part of the world for
some reason, or were searching for something. If it was the
latter, the Senshi would have to find out what and destroy it.
She didn't hold any illusions of being able to take it and keep it
away from these enemies.
Ami tapped her fingers on her desk, then pulled out a fresh
sheet of paper. Carefully clipping letters from her magazines,
she began to compose a letter to Ukyou.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Nabiki continued to laze on the beach, waited on hand and foot,
and brought reports by her crawling army of informers. Life
was good, and her magic powerful enough to keep Shanghai
permanently wamr and sunny.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Hotaru walked up to the front door of Haruka and Michiru's
house, still in her normal-looking black dress, and rapped on the
door. She stood slightly out of the way of the peephole, so they
couldn't see her face.
The door opened. "Hello!" the green-haired girl cheerfully said,
before noticing their visitor. "You look-" WHAM.
Hotaru cracked her knuckles as Michiru flew limply back into
the house. "You aren't much without your magic, are you?"
Haruka came running, shouting angrily.
"Hey! You'll pay for that, you maniac!" She drew back one fist,
which fired out at the face of their surprise assailant. The fist
met one finger in midair and stopped as if it had hit a wall.
"You don't know what you're dealing with, do you?" Hotaru
said, grinning. Her 'Dark Senshi' outfit, unlike Ranma's, was
just an alteration of the real thing, and still had the disguise
field. She was throwing away that advantage now, but she really
didn't care. This was fun.
"Huh?" Haruka said. Hotaru's hand closed over Haruka's and
her hand shot out, covering Haruka's face and holding it in an
iron grip. "Murrggr!" Hotaru walked Haruka out of the room,
looking like it was some bizzare waltz.
"This is payback, one thousand years delayed," Hotaru said,
conversationally, as she pushed Haruka back towards the
bathroom. " I remember the Silver Millennium very well. There
wasn't a whole lot going for it.. but you and Little Miss
Neptune over there were the worst of the lot."
Haruka's eyes popped open. "Mmm! Sttrn!" Her hand started
poking through her pockets, trying to find something. Hotaru's
leg shot through a quick arc and blasted into her gut, however,
putting an end to that. With the wind thoroughly blasted out of
her lungs, Haruka collapsed onto the floor, gasping.
Hotaru picked up Haruka and shoved her head in the toilet,
then flushed. Michiru stumbled into the bathroom, holding a
baseball bat in one hand and her broken nose in the other. She
shot Hotaru a murderous glare. Hotaru just smirked back.
Michiru came in, baseball bat held overhead in a manner that
suggested the violinist had taken some kendo lessons once upon
a time.Hotaru met the bat with a hard right - a foolish move, if
she were human - and splintered the bat. Again her leg swung
out, lightning fast, and blasted the air out of a Senshi.
"Whooof!" Michiru grunted, as she was thrown backwards
through the door. Hotaru grabbed one of their decorative vases
and clouted her over the head with it, sending pieces of
expensive pottery everywhere and Michiru into dreamland.
"WORLD SHAKING!" was cried out from behind, at about the
same time that a ball of magical force jumped from the ground
and sent Hotaru flying. Hotaru moved with the blast,
summoning her own powers and adding them to the blow,
flying through a wall like a human missile. It shattered into
pieces of drywall and wood, dumping junk across the
motorcycle Hotaru slammed into. Quickly jumping to her feet,
she hefted the Yamaha and chucked it back trough the hole she
just made.
As Sailor Uranus deftly avoided the flying motorcycle, Hotaru
waved her hand, summoning up the spell a lesser sorcerer
would need to name: Diem Wind. Caught in midair, Haruka
turned into a human missile as well, destroying another wall and
ending up back in the toilet. She shakily got up from the
smashed porcelain, as water gurgled everywhere. 'Damn,
there's no way...' she thought, and quickly activated the
communicator as she dodged into the shower. "Usagi!" she
hissed. "Drop whatever you're doing and get the others here.
One of those damn mazoku is trashing my house. Neptune's
down. Over." She clicked it shut, then glanced out into the
wrecked bathroom. She saw Hotaru kick Michiru in the ribs,
making sure she was really unconscious.
Hotaru gave Michiru one more kick, just for meanness's sake,
and walked confidently towards the bathroom. The other Senshi
should know something was up, by now; pretty soon she'd have
a major battle on her hands. She was pretty sure she could
knock out Uranus and leave the Senshi a pretty unmistakeable
message before they arrived, though.
Haruka timed her jump well, flying at Hotaru with a flawless
jump kick that was rendered irrelevant by the fact that hitting
Hotaru was like punching a steel statue, except Hotaru hit back.
Hotaru summoned the Silence Glaive, swatted another Earth
Shaking aside, blowing up the sink and sending two more
fountains to help the swiftly growing lake they were fighting in,
and blocked the Space Sword with the staff of the Glaive,
forcing Haruka back with her superior strength. "You're not
going to win this fight." Hotaru stated, giving Haruka a stiff
shove and pushing her back into the shower. Hotaru kicked the
Space Sword out of her hand before she could bring it to bear
again, then slammed the girl into the wall, choking her with the
Glaive.
Hotaru smiled as Haruka was pinned to the shower wall, trying
to loosen the pressure on her neck. Hotaru relaxed a little when
she saw Haruka's smile and attempt to speak, out of curiousity.
Haruka gave a weak grin. "Normally.. I'd like it.. if a pretty
girl.. pinned me to the shower wall.." Hotaru's face quickly
clouded over. 'That was the best blow I've landed all fight.'
Haruka thought, just before a fist sent her head through the wall
and blackness overtook her.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
The Senshi arrived to the Outer's home to find the door still
open and the place ominously quiet, except for the burble of
water. They walked in carefully through the open door.
"Michiru! Haruka!" Moon yelled, seeing them tied up in the
middle of the room. They tried untying the knots, which didn't
quite work, as they had been pulled inhumanly tight. Makoto
found the Space Sword, however, and that made short work of
the ropes.
The Outers still slumped to the floor, out cold. "Concussions."
Mercury said, checking the two of them. "Broken nose on
Michiru, going to be some bruising on Haruka, though not as
bad - she was in her Senshi form for most of it, I think. Let's
get them upstairs." Mercury then froze the water leaking out
from the bathroom. It was a temporary fix, but it would stop
the water from completely ruining the carpets.
"What about the enemy?" Rei asked crossly.
"Nothing picked up on the Mercury computer. Whoever did
this is gone." Mercury answered crisply. 'Damn, this is exactly
what I feared. They know where we live, and they have all the
advantages of surprise. We're going to need to talk about this.'
Trouble was, she couldn't handle all the thinking by herself,
and... Usagi was just too much of a meatball head to
understand.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Setsuna was on the roof of a shop in Juuban, talking to a cat,
explaining why she was a sailor suited warrior of love and
justice, and not a thief as she appeared at first glance. "Do you
understand now?" Setsuna said, exasperated.
"How do I know you're not an enemy?" Luna asked
suspiciously, for about the thousandth time.
Setsuna repressed the urge to strangle the cat. Barely. "I am
*not* an enemy! I've described the Silver Millennium *in
detail* to you, you lousy piece of flea bait!"
The cat's tail flicked to the side. "Perhaps, but the Enemy," -
the capitalization was audible - "has captured Hotaru. They
would know all about the Silver Millennium as well."
Setsuna counted to ten, then tried a different tack. "Then have
Usagi use the crystal to give my powers back. If nothing
happens, you'll know I'm not Sailor Pluto."
Luna pointed out what seemed to be a hole in that argument.
"But if you're with the enemy, then we'll be giving you your
powers back."
Setsuna was momentarily stunned by the colossal illogic of that
statement. This time, she didn't resist the urge to throttle the
cat. "THEN WHY THE HELL WOULD THEY LOCK MY
POWERS?" she yelled, blasting Luna's fur back as if she were
in a hurricane.
"...I'll see what I can do." Luna meekly answered.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ranma smiled as he saw the subject of his search come in to
view. Ryouga was hard to find; he'd have even considered
calling him impossible to find, except for the obvious fact that
he had found him. Well, stumbled across him, at any rate.
Ryouga had backtracked often, made random, impossible to
predict turns and had generally navigated like blind hikers with
a GPS on the fritz. While Ryouga at times appeared to be
attempting to head towards Nerima, it was only the fact that
Ranma knew it was the only place Ryouga would want to go
that revealed Ryouga's destination.
Currently, Ryouga was on Shikoku, having somehow managed
to avoid activating his curse on the way to the island. It was
only the magical signature of that curse, his rather impressive
aura of despair, and not a small amount of luck that had led
Ranma to this small campfire in the wilds. Ranma watched
Ryouga start to cook his dinner, and silently melted into the
shadows, becoming insubstantial. He crept closer to the flame,
tripping Ryouga's danger senses, but Ryouga didn't see him as
he glanced around. Human eyes were made for seeing people,
not unmoving shadows.
Ryouga shifted uneasily and started looking for the stars -
whether for navigation or just gathering his thoughts, Ranma
didn't know - but the canopy of brancehes overhead only let the
light of a few stars through. The pig-cursed boy turned back to
the fire with a sigh.
"Akane.. if only I could be with you..." he said, tinging his
words with a tasty shot of depression. "Damn Ranma! He
showed himself to be the demon I always thought he was! Until
I learn a new move, some new secret that will let me kill the
demon and free you..." Ryouga stopped his righteous
declaration and hit himself in the head. "Baka baka baka! I
sounded like Kuno there..." A sharp hiss reminded him of his
food. "Hey, it looks about ready."
Ranma coiled towards Ryouga, rising from the ground in an
impressive and unnecessary display. The jumping shadows from
the campfire leapt around the rising blackness and faded out,
revealing the smirking, hovering form of Ranma Metallium. 'I
am just too cool.' he thought to himself with a smirk.
"Smells good, P-chan. What's cooking?" he said, exchanging
the smug smirk for a truly insufferable grin.
"RANMA!" Ryouga shouted angrily. He jumped up and yanked
his umbrella off the top of his pack, readying himself for
combat.
"Oh please." Ranma snickered. "What could you possibly do to
me? Fighting you would be an incredible bore right now. Wait,
I've got an idea. Usually you'd burst into my room and try to
kill me for some stupid reason, and I'd easily defeat your
clumsy attempt. Let's see what happens if you're the one on the
defensive." Ranma said, seeming to dismiss Ryouga as he talked
to the air.
"Ahh.." Ryouga said, perplexed.
Ranma suddenly reversed himself, flying at Ryouga at
impossible speed. "Ryouga! Prepare to DIE!"
"Gah!" Ryouga siad, flinching aside at the last second. Ranma's
fist shot by at about Warp 5, creating a small sonic boom and
tearing several bandannas off his head by the force of the breeze
it generated. 'He's even MORE powerful now!' Ryouga
thought, panicking. He and everyone else hadn't been able to
beat up Ranma before. How the heck was he supposed to get
rid of him now?
Ranma smirked again, causing this question to fly out of
Ryouga's mind. Instead, he wordlessly screamed and thrust his
umbrella straight ahead, only to hit air as Ranma vanished
completely milliseconds before the umbrella hit. Ryouga
stumbled forwards and looked around for his vanished
opponent. His eyes locked onto another lightning fast punch
just before it impacted his head.
Ranma punched Ryouga into a tree as if he were a rag doll,
causing the tree to shudder and dump a load of leaves on the
fighters. An angry squirrel bounced off of Ryouga's head and
chattered as it searched for safer ground. Ranma smiled as
Ryouga got up. "You overextended yourself! Stupid student!"
Ranma sternly said, mocking Ryouga.
Ryouga shook his head, focusing on Ranma. He dimly heard
Ranma's words, which further enraged him. "I'm not your
student, you dishonorable rat!" Ryouga dropped his umbrella
and charged Ranma, who stood his ground this time. Every time
he launched a punch or kick, a hand lazily reached out and
flicked it away. Ranma's smile never vanished as he danced
around Ryouga, impossible to hit and just out of reach. Ryouga
eventually stopped to take a breath. Ranma assumed his midair
meditative pose.
"Ranma.." Ryouga said, earning a more attentive look from the
pigtailed boy, "since when have you been this good?"
Ranma smiled. "Simple. My whole life I've been taught the Art.
A good deal of the Art involves making use of one's ki."
Ryouga nodded; no one human could do what they did and not
use ki. "Mazoku don't have ki."
"Then how could you..?" Ryouga asked, jerking in surprise.
"Mazoku are far more powerful than mere humans. Mazoku are
energy. It's just that I have a lot more nowadays. With every
little bit of power, I grow faster. Stronger. Better. While you
will grow old and shrivelled, even as you gain greater mastery
over your ki."Ryouga growled and glowed with anger. "Yeah,
go ahead and get mad. Give me more power."
The aura snapped out of existence around Ryouga. "So I don't
have any chance to beat you." Ryouga stared at Ranma. "That
doesn't change anything, Ranma! If I can't kill you, I'll die
trying!" He rushed at Ranma again, this time without his
trademark berserk fury. Again Ranma taunted him with that
cruel little smirk, but he restrained himself. He and Ranma
danced around the fire again, without a single punch landing
like last time. "Dammit Ranma! Fight me for real!" he shouted,
his voice betraying the anger he wasn't showing.
"That's Akane's line, P-chan. Better not tell her you used it or
she might cook you dinner!" Ranma taunted. Sure enough,
Ryouga's barely-there restraint broke once again. "Pitiful."
Ranma summed up, losing his smile. He grabbed Ryouga's next
punch and pulled him forward. A fist slammed into Ryouga's
gut with the force of hundreds of his old punches.
Ryouga staggered back, coughing up blood. "You can't rely on
your toughness anymore, pig. Get up." Ranma punctuated his
command with a kick to the chin, whipping in so fast that
Ryouga didn't even have time to block. "Your defenses are
nonexistent!" Ranma shouted as he leapt in to rain punches
upon Ryouga's face. He ducked under one of Ryouga's
punches and threw him over his shoulder. "You overcommit to
your attacks!" Ryouga jumped up to his feet only to be swept
off them again. "Your balance sucks!" With a feral roar,
Ryouga jumped up to tackle Ranma, who easily caught him in
midair. "And most of all, you have no style!" Ranma threw him
in the fire.
Ryouga screamed and jumped out, rolling around on the
ground. "C'mon, student, the fun's just begun!"
"I'm not your student!" the battered and burnt Ryouga snarled
from the ground.
"Oh? Then why am I taking you to school?" Ranma inquired.
Ryouga growled again and sprung back up. He charged at
Ranma and the fight was rejoined.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ami walked into the Okonomiyaki Ucchan's in her senshi
uniform. It was hidden under the trench coat and hat she was
wearing, but the powerful disguise field was a happy tool for
her to have, even if the rest of her 'disguise' made her look like
an escapee from a bad detective movie. She sat at the counter
and smiled at the chef. She was the only customer in at the
moment.
Ukyou shot her a hard look, one full of unhappy powerlessness.
Apparently, her friend had neglected to provide her with
magical power, unlike that Akane girl down the street. That was
a lucky omission on the part of their enemy. "You know why
I'm here." Ami said, conversationally.
"Yes." Cold. Hateful.
"You know what I'll do if you decline my offer." Ami stated.
She didn't even bother pretending it was a question.
"Yes."
Ami smiled. It was not a nice smile. It should have never graced
the lips of a Senshi - unless that Senshi were the enigmatic Pluto
or the rogue Saturn. "Then you are prepared to cooperate with
us on this matter?"
Uykou glared at Ami with a fiery hatred. "Yes."
"Good, then. I would like you to start by telling me everything
you know about.. Ranma." She pulled a tape recorder out of
her pocket briefly to turn it on - just enough of a glimpse to let
her know she was being recorded. "If you answer untruthfully, I
will find out."
Ukyou sighed and mentally travelled back to those long ago
years of her youth, and a pigtailed little boy named Ranma.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
At the Hiwaka Shrine, the Senshi were assembled in their fukus.
Confronting them was a green-haired woman in casual clothing
standing behind Luna. Even Mamoru was in her new fuku state,
the Senshi deciding that they would need the extra power,
especially as Ami was skipping on them, citing 'important
unavoidable business'.
Sailor Moon stepped forward, even as the other Senshi fanned
out to be further apart to prevent multiple Senshi from being hit
if the woman was hostile. They also were standing so as to not
interfere with one another.
Losing is the most effective teacher of them all.
"You really have nothing to fear." their guest said, remaining
remarkably calm and confident in the face of this sort of
firepower. Too calm, in fact, for one Senshi.
The still-hurting Sailor Uranus raised her hands in preparation
for an attack. "She's too calm! She has to be an enemy!"
Sailor Moon held up a hand to quiet her. "Maybe, maybe not.
We have to give her that chance."
"She'll kill us all!" Uranus said, sounding not entirely in her
right mind.
"Just hold your fire." Sailor Moon said, then summoned up her
healing powers. "Moon.. Healing.. Escalation!" she shouted,
swirling around and gesturing with her wand. A bright, blinding
light briefly dazzled the Senshi before their vision returned.
"AHHHH!!!" screamed the voice of their guest, now spasming
as a war between white and black lighting seared across her
body. She was now dressed in the familiar fuku of Pluto,
however.
"Well, she was Pluto after all." Luna murmered, watching the
twitching Senshi.
"What's going on? What's happening?" Sailor Moon shrieked,
not understanding at all what was going on with Setsuna. She
started to reach forward when a loud BANG sounded and
Setsuna's body jumped on the floor. Tendrils of smoke wafted
from the now ominously still Senshi, as if she were a robot that
had shorted out.
"Is she dead?" Minako said tentatively.
"Of all the nights for Ami to skip out on us!" Rei groused,
before taking Setsuna's pulse. "She's out cold but alive."
"I wonder what that was, then?" Jupiter asked. No one had a
good answer.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ranma felt a jolt of pain as he sat down, waiting for the
currently unconscious Ryouga to revive so he could kick his ass
again. "Shit, seems someone found Pluto again. P-chan will
have to wait." It would be a while before he woke up anyhow.
Ranma vanished onto the Astral plane, instantly moving back to
Tokyo and following the thin tendril of power connecting Pluto
to the Gates of Time. Using his not inconsiderable power, he
began the arduous task of severing the link. He was soon joined
by Hotaru, whom he summoned, in this task. Still, it would be
nearly an hour before they finished the task. They could only
hope that Pluto had gotten help from the Senshi and not
Cologne or some other force. Ranma might be immune to the
effects of the Gates, but they would still be an unacceptable tool
for the Senshi to possess.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ami walked out of the Ucchan's, satisfied that she had received
an accurate account of Ranma's activities - at least everything
that Ukyou knew of, anyhow. She began walking towards the
Tendo dojo. With the confirmation of the identity of Ranma's
other lieutenant, she felt it was more important than ever to
have an ear or two in the Tendo home.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Strand after strand of the spells that bound Sailor Pluto to the
Time Gate came loose under the relentless assault of Ranma
and Hotaru. It was a literal race against the clock, and the clock
- Sailor Pluto - could pop back to the time gate and mess up
their plans royally at any moment. It wasn't through
manipulating the timestream, although Ranma and Hotaru
wouldn't rule out the possibility of her breaking the rules about
time travel in their cases. It was the fact that the unpredictability
would be removed from their actions and those of the senshi.
That was in direct contradiction to their orders.
Hotaru, unlike Nabiki, you see, knew the whole story behind
Ranma's orders. She had beaten it out of him after his
reappearance for giving her such a scare.
Even now, as the strands connecting Pluto to the Gates of Time
were halfway severed, they could feel the connection becoming
more active.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
"Oww..." Sailor Pluto said, grabbing her head. She cradled it
gently, as if it were made of glass and might fall and shatter if
she let go. "My HEAD..."
"I'll get some asprin!" Minako said cheefully, and fairly ran to
the medicine cabinet. They had painkillers in all varieties these
days.
Sailor Moon held up three fingers in front of Pluto. "How many
fingers am I holding up?" she asked.
Sailor Pluto looked blearily in Moon's general direction. "I
can't see. Everything's all bright and flashy."
"She acts like she has a concussion." Sailor Jupiter said,
thinking of an incident when she was training.
"She acts like she had a hangover." Rei sniped. Everyone
looked at her. "What?"
The Senshi shook their heads in unison and turned back to
Setsuna, leaving Rei to sweat a little in embarrassment.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ranma and Hotaru quickly redoubled their efforts, ripping
through the pulsing strands of magic like nitro-boosted
chainsaws.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Pluto's headache worsened, even after the asprin. They had laid
her down on a spare futon and turned off the lights. Only a
flashlight with a rag thrown over it provided dim light in the
room.
"What do you suppose is wrong?" Minako asked Usagi before
remembering to keep it down. A pained moan escaped Pluto's
lips as her head pounded from the sudden noise. The Senshi had
detransformed earlier, deeming Pluto a good guy. The resulting
light show had nearly knocked Pluto out again.
"I don't know." Usagi whispered back, very softly. "I really
REALLY wish Ami were here. She's the one who knows about
this kind of thing."
"But she's got a headache in her Senshi form. I don't know
about you, but usually if I have a headache and transform, it
goes away." Rei whispered, joining the conversation.
The Senshi returned to their troubled watch of their reclaimed
Senshi.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
With one last effort, the two mazoku severed the last little bit of
energy connecting Sailor Pluto to the Gates of Time. Mentally
giving each other a high five, the two returned to the material
plane, Hotaru following Ranma back to Ryouga's campsite.
"He's gone. We should go find him again. After all, he has a
role in my plan to fulfill."
"That of practice dummy?" Hotaru said, smirking.
"No, just dummy. And wipe that smirk off your face. I'm going
to teach you, too."
Hotaru grumbled at that one. "Why? I'm pretty skilled at
martial arts myself, you know. I still remember the Saturn Star-
Fist school from the Silver Millenium, you know."
"I know. I can still beat you easy in a fight, though. And I don't
want that."
"You want me to be able to beat you?" Saturn said,
incredulously.
"I just want a sparring partner." Ranma said, shrugging.
"Oh."
"I'm not asking you to abandon your school, just to practice
with me." Ranma said, as they followed the path of bad
intentions Ryouga had blazed.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
As if the suffering were shut off by a switch, Sailor Pluto
convulsed once, then had a peaceful look come over her face.
"Now is she dead?" Rei asked, fearfully.
A snore answered her from the bed. "No, she's asleep."
Mamoru said, still female and slightly angry. She grabbed
Pluto's shoulder. "Wake up!"
Pluto's eyes opened slowly, as if she were awakening from a
long slumber. She looked at each of the Senshi, one after the
other. "Where am I?"
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
"Do you have any idea how he does this?" Hotaru asked, as
they passed a ramen hut for the second time. According to the
stars, their maps, and the fact that Ryouga had apparently
simply smashed through all obstacles in a straight line, they
hadn't walked in a circle or even deviated from a heading of due
west. Yet they were passing the same ramen hut.
"I dunno. This directional curse goes a bit deeper than I thought
it did. It's like he's warping space or something." Ranma deftly
snagged two bowls of ramen and tossed some money. They
didn't need the ramen, but it was sort of comforting in a way, a
reminder of their past existence.
"I hope we run into the jerk soon." Hotaru grumbled. Beating
the snot out of Ryouga would be highly entertaining for a while.
Playing conqueror, on the other hand, wasn't. "What are we
going to do after we get the ball rolling?"
"Well, we need to shore up the Senshi and stuff. They're all still
being stupid and relying on their magic. It's really slow going
with them. We're going to have to up the pressure on them, or
something, and force them to make changes, it looks like."
Ranma slurped up the rest of his ramen and wiped his mouth off
on his sleeve. "That's why we're chasing Ryouga, after all. I
want to drive home the fact that he can't win without magic
home. Hopefully he'll catch the hint and go track down.. er...
run into the Senshi."
Hotaru blinked. "So you're saying that you're chasing one of
the most dense people on earth, to beat him up and get a point
through his skull, so he can find some other incredibly dense
people, when he can't find his ass with both hands and a mirror,
so he can convince them to abandon their current tactics?"
"Ah, yeah, that's about the size of it." Ranma said. Put that
way, it did sound kind of stupid.
"I thought alcohol didn't affect mazoku." Hotaru said lightly,
rolling her eyes.
"Well, I didn't hear you give any suggestions, and I'm kind of
short on ideas. Nothing seesm to faze them." Ranma said,
gloomily. He loathed feeling dumb, but he hadn't a clue what to
do with the senshi.
Hotaru and Ranma walked in silence for a while longer. "I've
got an idea!" Hotaru said, snapping her fingers.
"What?" Ranma said. He could almost see the light bulb pop
into place over Hotaru's head.
Hotaru clicked her nails on her teeth for a second as she
thought of how to start her plan. With anyone else, the question
would be insane, but... "Ranma, do you know Martial Arts
Stenography?"
Ranma blinked. "Yeah. Once Genma got busted for public
intoxication and I got challenged by the court reporter-" Hotaru
held up a hand.
"I don't want the whole story. OK, we need to get a
typewriter..." They picked up a typewriter in the next town and
started writing.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
It was a few days later that Ami was walking around in a newly
opened bookstore. She was amazed at how fast the bookstore
had been completed; one night, it was an empty warehouse, the
next morning, it was a giant bookstore. It was apparently run by
those Amazon refugees from China. As such, she figured they
weren't going to be helping the bad guys.
A book caught her eye. It was titled, "Tactics and Strategy for
Dummies", written by one Hotaru Tomoe. Ami picked it up.
Emblazoned on the cover was 'Don't be a Senshi! Fight smart!'
She turned beet red. The book went in her basket, though.
'How dare they make such accusations against us!' she fumed.
'Though, now that I think about it, I was complaining last week
that we weren't thinking things through enough. Still! They
have NO RIGHT to criticize us!'
Ami walked through the store, ignoring the other books on her
way to the counter. She'd have to buy the book so she could rip
it to shreds in front of the others. "I'd like to buy this, please."
she asked of the counter clerk. She had the weirdest orange hair
and her name.. Floss? Who named their kid Floss? Maybe her
father was a demented dentist.
"Nihao! Welcome to Amazon Bookstore, how Floss help?"
Ami slapped down a wad of bills - exact change, plus tax. "I'd
like to buy this book-"
"Blue-hair girl have Amazon Bookstore Book Club Card?"
Floss asked, streaming rays of uber-kawaii from her smile. Ami
was mentally staggered by the sheer cuteness.
"Um, no, I-"
"Club Card only 1,000 yen! Is good price, yes?"
"Ah, I'm really not-"
The girl pulled a really big sword out of nowhere. "Floss think
blue-hair girl really want Club Card. Is Floss right?" Ami smiled
nervously and shoved 1,000 more yen at the cashier. The girl
handed her a book club card, which she signed. She grabbed her
book and fled the store before she ended up buying anything
else.
Floss waved to the fleeing girl. "Bai-bai, honor customer! Come
back again!"
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Nabiki rested in her private, luxurious plane. It had - before she
got creative with her magic - been a Boeing, freshly delivered
from Seattle, which she had intercepted before it reached the
airline. Now, it was a flying palace, opulently appointed, and
her current headquarters. She drummed her fingers nervously.
Taking out China and sweeping into Central Asia had made
people nervous. Pyongyang's fall made them noisy. Strike at the
Persian Gulf and those rattling sabers might be drawn. Of
course, she had unlimited numbers of soldiers, and her troops
were tougher, more loyal, and more vicious than their
opponents, but the weapons of modern war weren't free.
Currently, the mess in Afghanistan was distracting much of the
world's attention. She had that going for her, at least. And Iran
and Iraq had the advantages of being unloved states. But still...
It might be the lynchpin of the world, and a plum assignment,
but stealing the world's oil supplies would be difficult. Unless...
Nabiki popped open one of the books on black magic Ranma
had lent her and started looking for methods of transmuting
materials. She might need some help on this one, too. Rouge
and Tarou - whom she had, in contradiction to Ranma's orders,
extended the pledge of immortality to, not killed and turned him
into a mazoku - might be needed to help. Tarou's studies were
coming along nicely in black magic anyhow. That, and he
seemed to revel in the thought of cursing Happousai.
Nabiki's fingers slid over the pages, searching for the right kind
of spell. There were so many of them...
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
"Serenity-sama!" Setsuna called out, running up to Usagi, then
kneeling. "What would you command your humble servant to
do?" The former Guardian of Time and now full time Sailor
Suited Warrior of Love and Justice, Setsuna Meiou, waited
patiently for Usagi's reply.
Usaig sweated. This was weird. "Er.. I was just dropping by to
see how you were doing."
Setsuna answered, still not looking up. "I feel fine, Serentity-
sama."
"Um. Don't call me that. Talk to me like you would.. your
sister!" Usagi said, brightening.
"I feel fine, My Sister!" (1)
"Er.. on second thought, don't do that."
"As you wish, Serenity-sama!" she replied ferverently.
"Uh.. so.." Usagi sweated some more. How was she to get
Setsuna to act.. normal?
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ami laid back in her Lay-Z-Boy recliner and wrapped up the
new book she had purchased. Another empty box of Pocky
landed on the floor, next to several of its close friends and
relatives. There was so much stuff she had never thought of
here.
Ami slipped on a coat and returned to the Amazon bookstore,
returning with a copy of the Prince, a few books on modern
international relations, and an armload of junk the cashier had
forced on her. "Damn book nazi." she muttered as she returned
home, now reloaded for another round of studying.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ryouga was finally found swimming in a stream. His pack,
clothes, and a steaming kettle of water waited at the edge of the
stream. Ranma picked up the kettle and started to pour it into
the stream. "Damn pigs, leaving their trash everywhere!" he
called out, as Hotaru grinned mischeviously and started to ball
up the Lost Boy's clothes. The outraged squeal from a
swimming piglet sounded from the water, and a ferocious,
angry, tiny piglet flew out of the water to be spiked into the
gravel by Ranma. Ranma threw the rest of the hot water on
him.
"Gleep!" Ryouga said, noticing Hotaru for the first time. He
covered himself. Ranma took his clothes out of Hotaru's hands
and tossed them to the mortally embarrassed boy. He pulled his
pants on with lightning speed.
"He's smaller than you." Hotaru said. Ranma blinked for a
moment before blushing bright red. Ryouga got red too, but for
a different reason.
"Ranma!" he shouted, only to get cut off by Ranma.
"Oh no! You aren't blaming me at all for this one!" Ranma
shouted back. He then turned to Hotaru. "And how do you
know? You.. you spied on me!"
Ryouga growled, a bass rumble that shook bones. "Ranma-"
"Quiet, you."
"Actually, I just bought pictures from Nabiki."
"Nabiki? Nabiki!"
"Ranma!"
Both mazoku turned on him. "Shut up!" Ryouga stumbled back
to fall on his ass.
"She's selling pictures of me?" Ranma asked, annoyed. "Still?"
Hotaru nodded. "Man! Why me?" Ranma stomped in circles, as
Ryouga and Hotaru silently watched. "I'm going to get her for
that. I really am. I have just the spell for it too. But revenge is a
dish best served cold."
"No it isn't!" Ryouga yelled, determined to fight Ranma about
SOMETHING.
"How would you know? You're an object lesson, hothead."
Ranma snarled back.
Ryouga leapt to his feet, somehow getting the setting sun to
gleam painfully over his shoulder, and pointed dramatically.
"No man has truly tasted venegance until he has quenched the
fires of hate in the cooling entrails of his opponent!" Ranma
blinked for a second. "Ha! Top that!"
Hotaru applauded from the side. Ranma shot her a look.
"Who's side are you on anyhow?"
"Hey, that was pretty cool, you have to admit."
Ranma racked his brains for a more dramatic reply, but failed to
come up with anything. "I give up. I'm still a better martial
artist, P-chan." Ryouga glowed again. "Heh, I'll wipe that off
your face soon enough." They took up stances again. Hotaru
stepped forward and slashed down with one hand.
"Begin!"
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Sailor Mercury slipped silently across the rooftops of Nerima.
She stared long at the oft-patched roof of the Tendo Dojo. This
had been the last home of one enemy, and the current home of
another. She fingered a small bug in one hand. It had been
suprisingly easy to build with the help of the Mercury computer
and a local electronics store. She idly wondered why they had
all the necessary parts in bulk and the help winked when she
bought them. Who would be building bugs in Nerima?
Her original plan had been to confront the inhabitants about the
evil demons they associated with, and squeeze them for
information. She had discarded that after reading the book.
They knew where the Senshi lived and could 'squeeze' them as
well. So she had decided on this path.
Wrapping a bandanna over her head, the newly sneaky Sailor
Suited Warrior of Love and Justice slipped through an open
upstairs window. Melted pile of plastic and metal apparently
fused to a wooden floor, check. This was their enemy Nabiki's
room. She silently stepped over to the closet and carefully
rummaged through it, looking for useful things to steal. A book
on black magic fell down; Mercury caught it before it hit the
ground. Silently she began scanning pages into the Mercury
Computer.
'This thing is going to be so useful when I get to college.'
Mercury thought, smirking. She slipped one bus into a crack in
the wall. It looked like the result of a poor patching job. 'Just
what happened in this house anyhow?' Mercury silently finished
her scanning job - the book wasn't that thick, and every page
was thick, heavy parchment - and carefully placed the book
back just as it had been. There was no way she would be
detected.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Half a world away, Nabiki idly looked up and noted that
someone had entered her room. Probably Kasumi again. She
had told her sister that she'd clean the mess out of her room
herself, but Kasumi had given her five false alarms this week
alone. She glanced at the clock and nodded, then returned to
reading.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Mercury found an entire boxful of bugs in the closet. 'Jackpot!'
she thought, then started wondering where they had been
placed. 'I'm going to have to search everyone's house, or tell
them to, at any rate. Wonderful.' She carefully snipped certain
important wires in the bugs anyhow, in case they hadn't gotten
around to bugging the Senshi's houses yet.
Mercury slipped back out the window and onto the roof. Let's
see, youngest daughter in dojo, oldest in kitchen, old men on
porch. Time to bug another bedroom. A cane rapped on her
shoulder.
Mercury started violently and dropped a few bugs on the roof.
"Startled you, didn't I?" a small, shrivelled little man said.
"What are you doing? Planting bugs for Nabiki?" he added.
"Well, no..." Mercury said, uncertain of what do do. Happousai
was a renowned pervert and panty thief. Would he give her
away.
Happousai looked at the frozen girl and raised an eyebrow.
"Planting bugs on Nabiki, eh? Well, I like your sense of style.
So I'll forgive you if you let me have a nice cry in your bosom!"
The pervert jumped towards her with a lecherous grin.
"Ack! Die!" Mercury said, her blood running cold. She held up
her hand and froze the little creep in a huge block of ice. She
looked at her hand in wonder. "I didn't use an attack.. how did
I...?" She quickly glanced at the pervert. "I wonder?" Picking
up the iced pervert, she quickly vanished across the rooftops of
Nerima.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Ranma looked at the flattened body of Ryouga with disdain.
"Pathetic." he said, kicking Ryouga against a large rock.
Ryouga slumped over, his body propped up so he could still
look at Ranma.
"Shut up." Ryouga answered feebly. Ranma laughed.
"I'd have Hotaru heal you, but I don't feel that nice." Ranma
said, turning away from him. His eyes were closed and an
insufferably smug grin was plastered on his face. "I'll tell you
what. I'll cure your curse if you admit I'm the better martial
artist."
"You'll what?" Ryouga said, then the rest of what Ranma said
caught up to him. "What? Never!" he said stubbornly.
"Heh, have it your way, then." Ranma said, shrugging as he
turned to Hotaru. "Maybe he doesn't mind his curse after all. I
guess he doesn't care about Akane much either."
Ryouga stopped cold. "What do you mean?" he asked,
growling ferally.
"I mean those Senshi girls roughed her up and might try it
again."
"They what?" Ryouga said, now in a towering rage.
"They roughed her up some. You should go protect her. You're
obviously incapable of getting your revenge on me as you are
now anyhow. If you can defeat the Senshi, you might be able to
actually hurt me."
"Hey! You can't have me run off and fight your battles for
you!" Ryouga yelled, as Ranma turned around.
"Who's fighting? Either one of them could squash them like the
roaches they are. " Hotaru said, smiling. Ryouga stared at her.
"They bug us, so we bug them. But Akane's not as tough as we
are, is she?" Ryouga clenched his fists in rage.
"Fine. Which way is the Tendo Dojo?" Ryouga asked. The walk
would give his bruises time to heal.
"It's thataway." Ranma said, pointing across the stream. Ranma
walked over to it and into it. "Of course it's over the stream.
You're cursed, aren't you. What a foolish question." Ryouga
growled again before noticing something.
'He IS cured!' Ryouga thought, watching Ranma walk off with
his little sidekick. 'Damn you, Ranma! I'll find out your cure
and use it myself! There will be a reckoning!'
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
(1) Sorry, Corwin, I couldn't resist!
Heh heh.
and Crossover Corner
www.geocities.com/animecrossovers
and Tannim's
http://tannim.anifics.com/index.html
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