Permanent
Part 32
End game.
Ryoga Hibiki stood with his back to Akane Tendo on the roof of a
business in the middle of Tokyo. From what he could tell every angel was
blocked from escape. To put it bluntly, they had no where to go but
through their opponents.
"Any ideas?" said Akane tensely.
"Not off the top of my head, you know these girls?" said Ryoga calmly.
Standing around them was a group of girls dressed in sailor fukus.
"Evil which knows no love for man, I shall defeat you!" cried the lead
girl, she had long flowing pigtails that blew dramatically in the wind
behind her.
Ryoga paused and stepped towards her. "You mind telling me what this is
about? Why are you attacking us?"
"Because you're evil demons of course. Don't try and fool us, we know
better!" cried another one of the girls. She had short cut brown hair
that matched her leader in dramatic billowing easily.
"Take this! Star power fire chain!" cried the girl next to her, her hair
was long and dark.
Ryoga crossed his arms in front of his body and took the impact of the
blast full on. The girls stepped back in shock when nothing happened.
The former lost boy smiled at them. "I don't have any magical energy for
your techniques to attack."
Akane growled but kept still waiting for the next move.
On a nearby rooftop the white cloaked figure watched the exchange
carefully. "A familiar? That could be troublesome..."
"Should I interrupt?" asked Ukyo as he landed beside him.
"No, let them be for now. We would only complicate things at the
moment," replied the man calmly.
The boy nodded and turned his attention back to the battle.
"Sailor Sol! What are we going to do?" snapped the short haired senshi
as she moved next to her leader. The battle had been a stale mate. The
girls threw their best attacks out, but the boy kept moving between them
and the still unmoving demon.
"Looks like we have to fight hand to hand. There's only two of them..."
replied the blonde with an uncertain look on her face.
Ryoga smiled as the blasts stopped pelting him. The spells where mostly
warding magic. No real attack spells seemed to be in these girl's
arsenal. They seemed to specialize in exorcisms. He smiled as he realized
that he was lucky, warding spells and exorcisms fell under the
jurisdiction of curses. The Saint Pill's effects kept him protected.
"Stop wasting our time, you've got no reason to attack us!"
The girls charged forward and Ryoga took up a defensive stance. Akane's
eyes started to glow also as she joined him. The sailor team's fast paced
run slowed slightly at the sight of this.
Sailor Sol was the first to reach them. Ryoga snapped out in a punch
that slammed into her chest and sent her away into a wall crushing it to
dust. The other girls caught up at that moment and the two martial artist
moved at speeds they could barely see.
Akane seemed to snap as her eyes shot out a bright yellow light. She
roared in anger and lifted the first senshi to reach her over her head
taking a hard blow to the chest without blinking in exchange. She threw
the poor girl into her two companions sending them to the ground in a
painful looking pile. Ryoga performed a leg sweep that took out the other
girl quite quickly.
The pair was about to take advantage of the momentary daze of their
attackers, but the girls recovered a little too quickly and formed a
tight circle around them again.
"Damn!" muttered the girl with long dark hair as she wiped her chin.
"Power up girls," said Sailor Sol as a bright aura started to form
around her.
Akane and Ryoga paused; this did not look good. The girls seemed to
vanish into a blur in front of them. The martial artists braced
themselves for impact when a voice cut through the air.
"That's enough!"
All present froze and turned towards the voice. A very angry looking
woman was floating in the air glaring at them with a red aura burning
around her.
"Ranma!" cried Akane as she recognized her savior.
The sorceress smirked slightly and noticed how close one of the senshi's
fists was to her friend's face. "First of all we have to do away with
this..." Ranma extended her arm and blasted a concentrated beam of energy
into Akane's chest.
All present gawked in shock as the girl fell to the ground with a look
of hurt confusion on her face.
Ryoga bent down and lifted her off the ground slightly by her shoulders
with a numb expression on his face. He blinked in surprise when no injury
was present. Only the charred remains of the protection amulet remained.
The senshi whirled around in battle positions towards the new threat
when the short haired girl stopped them. "Don't attack her!"
"What?" said Sol with a shocked look on her face.
"Stella says we can't hurt her," said the girl dejectedly.
"And why not?" snapped the long haired girl in shock.
"Because she created the amulets we use for our powers," replied the
girl simply.
This caught the group by surprise. The senshi paused and looked at her
in confusion.
"What?" said the senshi with long blonde hair. She paused and turned
towards her friends. "Come to think of it, they didn't attack until we
did! What the hell is going on? We never have to take initiative this
way!"
Akane stepped forward and frowned at them. "Why won't you leave me
alone? Every night you crazy psychos attack me for no reason. I'm getting
a little tired of it."
"What do you mean?" asked the lead magical girl.
"Akane isn't a demon!" snapped Ranma calmly. "She's half human."
"What?" said a tiny voice over the headset the short haired senshi wore.
"Half human?" said Sol with a look of complete shock on her face.
"I was cursed when fighting a demon," replied Akane coolly. More than a
little disgusted anger showed on her face.
Ranma ignored them and turned towards Ryoga. "You did good Mr. P. I
never would have known it was this bad if you hadn't come along and let
me keep an eye on things."
"What are you talking about?" said the boy with an even more confused
look.
"Well, if I was here, Akane wouldn't have been attacked until I was
gone. Whoever is doing this knew about me. He tried to put a spell on me
that would keep me in the dark about what was going on. Unfortunately I
figured out what was happening and took care of that."
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't they attack with you here?" said Ryoga
as he attempted to understand the situation.
"Whoever pulled this little stunt knew about me. He knew I was too
powerful to risk my interference. I'm on to him though," Ranma smirked
confidently and turned towards the group of girls. "You had better check
your sources more carefully. Where did you get this information Stella?"
A small pink rodent scurried onto the rooftop and huffed angrily. "A
very reliable source! Or so I thought, he upgraded the team's powers and
supported the magic you gave us. He was a seraphim."
Ranma turned and looked at Akane for a moment. "I see."
Another new voice broke the silence. "Well, it seems my distraction did
not make it in time Ranma Saotome." A figure floated down from the sky
and lit up the rooftop as he descended from above. Two large white wings
that let off a huge amount of light folded behind his back as he landed,
the pure white cloak fell back into place covering his body as he walked
towards them. "No worries, you'll deal with it soon enough."
"Ranma, what's going on here?" said Akane as she calmed visibly and
turned towards the newcomer.
"You're a combination of demon and human Akane. There are certain places
that would see that as a threat," replied the red haired girl simply.
"Certain places indeed," muttered the man calmly. He kept his head low
and smirked to himself allowing his golden locks to fall from the hood
that covered his head.
"Whatever your reasons. I won't let you hurt Akane. I know who you are,"
snarled Ranma defiantly.
The man looked up slightly and smiled even wider.
"Only one man had access to the kind of knowledge you needed to cover
your tracks from me the way you did..." Ranma smiled and stood between
the angel and Akane carefully. "The faulty amulet just clenches it!"
The angel lifted his arm, three glowing claws brushed through his bangs
as he chuckled to himself. "My dear, you have no idea."
The senshi stepped back away from the conflict towards the edge of the
rooftop. They waited patiently for some sort of clear enemy to appear.
"What's going on Stella?" asked Sol quietly.
"I'm not sure, but I don't think it involves us any longer. We'd best
leave, things could become very dangerous here." The rodent scurried away
with the girls following nervously behind. "We'll find out the outcome
and plan from there."
"Well, what do you have to say for yourself Hikaru?" snapped Ranma
angrily as she pointed at the man.
The white clad figure merely removed his hood and smirked. Hikaru
Gosunkugi smiled at his mentor from underneath his wild golden locks and
flexed his new arm impatiently. The appendage seemed to be made out of
magical energy. "Nothing really Sensei. I didn't have much choice in the
matter. You made those amulets? An excellent job..."
"I assume Keiko was your doing?" said Ranma as she calmed visibly.
"One of my early experiments under your tutelage, actually her power
levels were a complete accident. The talking rat was your idea?"
Ranma smiled slightly and nodded. "The spell called for a c...c...cat
actually. I had to improvise a bit, the unusual color was a result of
that."
"These demon hunters are your fault?" snapped Akane in shock. She looked
at her friend in disbelief.
"Only those five that just left. It's not something you tell people
about, they have secret identities for a reason Akane."
Both of the teen's jaws dropped like lead weights.
"So Gosunkugi, tell me how you got possessed by that?" Ranma pointed to
the wings that poked under the cloak, and the now familiar golden shadow.
"Fell asleep on a white magic book. It kind of opened the doorway so to
speak," replied the boy with a shrug.
"You realize that if you keep attacking Akane I'm going to have to stop
you," said Ranma coolly.
"You don't stand a chance. I have the power of the gods backing me,"
snorted the possessed boy in reply.
Ranma merely smiled, "That demon would have said something similar you
know..."
The reply caught Gosunkugi by surprise and he sneered at her. "You don't
know what you're dealing with boy."
"I think I've got some idea," said Ranma calmly.
Gosunkugi charged forward screaming in rage. Ranma kicked straight back
from the spot she was standing on and completed the rune she was drawing
in the ground with her foot. The angel's eyes went wide with shock as he
realized what had happened.
A red light blasted up from the ground and enveloped him from the
intricately drawn rune. "No! Damn you! Do you have any idea what you've
done?"
Ranma nodded. "Nothing evil really. I'm just putting you back where you
belong angel."
"If I'm not here, she'll..." the thing screamed in pain as it attempted
to claw it's way out of the light.
"Nooo! You've doomed your world fool!"
Ranma raised her eyebrow as a ball of light formed on Hikaru's chest. It
shot upwards into the sky and parted the clouds as it rocketed away from
Nerima. "That did not sound promising."
"Is it over?" said Akane timidly as she stepped forward and poked at
Hikaru's passed out body on the ground.
"For now, we won't be hearing from him again in this life time. They can
only come down every couple of hundred years or so." Ranma turned and
lifted Hikaru over her shoulder.
"I'm going to get him home. I'll see you at school tomorrow Akane. I'll
tell Stella to put the word out about you in the magical girl circles
around town. You shouldn't be bothered much any more."
With that said Ranma jumped off the roof and into the night.
Ryoga blinked and looked around in confusion. "So...now what?"
Akane smiled at him with a relieved look on her face. "Come on, I'll buy
you some Ramen."
Ryoga turned slightly green. "Akane, is there somewhere else? I kind of
eat a lot of Ramen you know?"
The girl blinked and snickered to herself. "Oh, I forgot where you
lived! Come on, there's an all night Thai place near here."
About an hour later Ranma walked into the Cat Caf� with her head hung
low. Words like that coming from a demon would be nothing to worry about,
but an angel was something completely different. "I have to look into
this, it can't be ignored..." she muttered the sentence to herself when a
bundle of energy flew into her arms and kissed her full on the lips as
she walked into the restaurant.
"Aiyah! Is home Ranma! Come, Having guest for you!" squealed the girl
cheerfully.
"I was afraid you'd be angry with me for leaving that way," muttered the
red head sheepishly.
"Why Talcum be angry with Airen?" asked the girl in confusion.
"No reason. I have a guest you say?"
Ranma walked into the room and stopped cold as something sharp and cold
pointed against her neck.
A beautiful woman in her late thirties stood pointing a katana at her
neck with a strangely calm, but very angry look on her face. "Who are
you? What have you done with my son?"
"Son?" muttered Ranma out loud as her eyes went wide.
On the other side of the room Cologne and Ko li stood watching the scene
in complete shock.
Tatewaki Kuno stared at the moon again and ruffled his wings behind his
back in agitation. "Another bad moon? I'm certainly glad these things
seem to not involve me these days." He frowned and turned back into his
home, not noticing the ominous dark cloud forming over his home.
TBC...
Got a little tired of the whole Magical Girl story and decided that it
needed to end. Akane's troubles are far from over though, but I think
you'll be surprised.
I'm betting no one guessed that Hikaru might be behind the magical
girls. He isn't written out of the story either by the way, but things
are about to get ugly again.
So now I moved into something new! Nodoka! Ukyo's still out there,
Happosai is back in Japan, and more dark forces are forming in the near
future.
Bwahahahahahahahahahaaa!
C&C to Carrotglace@juno.com
URL Http://www.geocities.com/misatira/