Subject: [FFML] Re: [fanfic][TM!] The Devil and Miss Mihoshi
From: "D.F. Roeder" <dfroeder@flash.net>
Date: 7/18/2000, 7:44 PM
To: "FFML" <ffml@fanfic.com>, "DB Sommer" <sommer@3rdm.net>

MUAAAHAHAHA!! Another victim of my nit-picky C&C!

DEVIL:  Hey, man. You're stealing my thunder.

DFR:  Oh! Errr, apologies. [exits, stage right, through the doorway
to... ]



  The Devil and Miss Mihoshi

Oh, boy. If there was ever a loaded title... and I don't mean it in
the H way, either. :)

/me rosins up his bow... IN THE MUSICAL SENSE!! Gah, what a
buncha...



  Writer's note: Yes, I'm aware Mihoshi isn't Mihoshi's
  last name, but the
  title just wouldn't be the same if I said Miss Kiramitsu
  (spelling's off
  the top of my head, it could be a little off)

Kuramitsu, but Miss Mihoshi works. It's a reasonable translation of
Mihoshi-san, more or less.



  Day 1

  Brimstone flames full of suffering and misery and woe and
  despair rose high
  above, instinctively seeking out the respite they knew
  existed somewhere
  above, yet could never reach due to the very nature of
  the abyss they had
  been cast into. The sound of pain reached His ears, pain
  in the form of
  screams and shouts by the eternally damned that had, by
  their own actions,
  chosen to be taken into His care to this damnable realm
  below. There was
  more suffering and agony in his domain than ever before,
  and his legions of
  followers/victims grew by the minute.

  Existence was good for the Devil.

Well, if there were ever a time for disaster to strike... :)



  But now it was time to engage in a task that he enjoyed
  more than just
  about anything, even running the abyss. It was time to
  the collect some
  non-truly evil souls.

Suggest: ...truly non-evil souls.


  This time

This time,


  a number of them that
  lived close together
  had caught his eye. Basically good people, but all of
  them with oh so,
  horrible

oh, so horrible


  flaws that would make them so very easy to
  corrupt and brought

bring


  into his realm where he could take a personal hand in
  their torment.

  But which one of the delicious individuals to start with?
  There were so
  many to choose from: Demons, Queens, Goddesses.

Curious why you capped all of those.



  A
  veritable feast of the
  powerful. Which one would be the first to fall into his
  carefully laid
  traps?

  Then it was decided. That one. She would be the easiest
  to trick and gather
  into his grasp. She would serve as an appetizer, then he
  would move on to
  another one that was more substantial afterwards. Perhaps
  the indecisive
  boy would be next.

Gee. I wonder who that could be? :P



  Or the short scientist that thought
  she was so clever.
  He would show her though; no one was more clever than
  him, as he would
  delightfully demonstrate to her. Ten thousand years? He
  had been at the
  collecting game since the very first soul was created.
  Even a so-called
  Goddess

Again, why the cap?


  wouldn't stand a chance.

  As he considered the most poetic way with which to entrap the
  self-proclaimed 'Smartest Genius in the Galaxy,' all
  thoughts of his first
  target were pushed to the back of his mind. He made his way to his
  dimensional gateway machine. It was true that he could
  transport both
  himself and others across immeasurable distances using
  just his own
  personal power, but it was annoying. Investing the time
  to create the
  machine proved to be much less of a drain on his personal
  power.

"Thank God for Black and Decker!! Oops! Did I say 'God'?" The Devil
snickered.



  Likewise

Likewise,


  he could just order his minions to use the machine to go
  places rather than
  wasting his time sending them himself. That left him with
  many more
  opportunities to make the denizens of his realm suffer.
  Creating the
  machine was definitely one of the better choices he had
  made over the
  millennia.

  Once at the large, black device crafted from pure
  obsidian, he pushed a
  button that opened a golden glowing portal to the mortal
  realm of Earth.

  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  Sunlight seemed to force Mihoshi's eyelids open as the
  rays poured into her
  blue-white orbs and forced her awake.

force:forced   Suggest changing one.



  With the return of
  consciousness, she
  was forced

And yet a third... :)



  to take a moment to remember where she was;

was:


  outside on the back
  porch. She lazily sat up, almost catlike, and stretched
  out, raising her
  hands to the skies and yawning. As her hands came back
  down, one of them
  brushed across the wooden handle of a broom that had been
  lying next to
  her.

I kept expecting the brush with the handle to set off some Rube
Goldbergian disaster. ^_^ Tease.



  The rest of her memory came back to her. She was
  supposed to have been
  sweeping the walkway, but it had been so nice and sunny
  and she had been so
  full from the wonderful lunch that Sasami had made that
  Mihoshi just knew
  she needed to have a little nap. She had laid down with
  the mental promise
  that after she had awakened, she would sweep.

HAHA! Maybe an unintentional play on words, but it almost felt like:
"...after she had awakened, she would sleep."  ^_^



  And now she had awakened. Well rested, she cheerily rose
  to her feet,
  picked up the broom, than

then


  began to sweep
  enthusiastically. She hadn't been
  sweeping for more than two minutes before something shiny
  in the distance,
  somewhere near one of the mountains, caught her eye. She
  released her hold
  on the broom, now distracted by the flash. A combination
  of detective
  skills and her own innate curiosity got the better of
  her,

her. (?)


  She dropped the
  broom and was about to wander off and see what the flash
  was when a hand
  tapped her shoulder. She turned to see a sharply dressed
  man in a brown
  business suit standing casually behind her, as though he
  had been there the
  entire time, despite the fact the entire yard was an open
  area and Mihoshi
  knew she hadn't seen him before.

This Mihoshi is significantly dimmer in the frontal area of the
brain than that of "Vacation Days," no?



  The Galaxy Police officer took a closer look at his face.
  His features were
  sharp, almost hawkish, and his deep black eyes seemed
  radiate

seemed *to* radiate


  a small red
  glow from within. "Can I help you?" Mihoshi asked cheerfully.

  "Actually

"Actually,


  I'm here to help you." The words seemed to flow
  from the man's
  mouth as naturally as water over falls. "I'm something of
  a traveling
  salesman." He pulled out a set of videotapes contained in
  an elaborately
  enameled box with a distinctive white and brown cartoon
  character on the
  side. "And I just happens

happen



  to have a complete set of
  Moldiver tapes,
  including a never seen before lost episode and interviews with the
  producers of the series. Certainly a Collector's Set if
  ever there was
  one."

  Stars nearly appeared in Mihoshi's eyes as she clasped
  her hands together
  and began jumping up and down. "Wow! Moldiver is my
  absolutist most
  favorite television show here on Earth!"

See the Mecha-Washuu episode from the TV series, kids. ^_^



  The man's smile grew wider. "And they can all be yours if
  you just sign on
  the dotted line." He held out the contract plainly before
  her so that she
  could read every word, including the fine print towards
  the bottom that
  specifically stated that the price of the tapes was
  Mihoshi's mortal soul.

Wouldn't that be "immortal" soul?



  He would have preferred obscuring the words somehow, but
  there was a cosmic
  set of rules even the Devil had to follow.

But, of course. EVERY-thing has rules. :)



  His eyes twinkled as he watched Mihoshi, still in a
  joyous delirium, sign
  the document without bothering to read it; her eyes were
  for the set of
  tapes alone. As she ended with the final, sweeping stroke
  of her last name,
  the Devil felt the energy from the pact take effect. It
  had worked. She was
  his.

  "HAHAHAHAHA!" The Devil's voice boomed throughout the
  valley the shrine and
  house was located in.

Ending on a preposition. Suggest: The Devil's voice boomed
throughout the valley in which the shrine and house were located.



  "I'm glad to see you're so happy with making the sale,"
  Mihoshi said,
  smiling the whole time.

  "You little fool," the Devil retorted. "You've signed
  your soul over to me
  for a handful of measly videotapes. You mortals are so
  ridiculously easy to
  ensnare. Hahahaha!"

  Mihoshi looked at him, confused. "My soul?"

  "Yes," The Devil continued chuckling.

Either: "Yes."
or: "Yes," the Devil...




  Mihoshi considered that. "Wow! If it cost that much, they
  must have been
  really hard to find."

And so it starts... ^_^



  "Hahahaha...huh?" It wasn't often one could surprise the
  Devil. Usually

Usually,


  he
  was very much on the ball. Over the millennia

Over the millennia,

(I must commend you on the proper spelling of 'millennia', although
I understand the single 'n' version is also considered correct. ;)


  he had
  heard just about every
  protest, curse, and attempt to wheedle out of the
  contract there was from
  every race there that existed, including his favorites,
  Shisterians, a race
  composed solely of lawyers .

Extra space.


  But this, this was a tactic
  he hadn't seen
  before. Perhaps the girl thought it was a joke and was
  just playing along.
  "I'm quite serious, my dear." He held the contract out
  for her to read
  again, pointing out the fine print.

  "Oh no.

"Oh, no.


  I believe you." Mihoshi waved her hand
  dismissively at the signed
  document and returned her attention to the tapes.

  Now this was becoming downright bizarre. There was
  nothing about Mihoshi
  that suggested she was depressed and desired being
  consigned to Hell in any
  way. On the contrary, she was literally one of the most
  happy and vivacious
  beings in existence. Even when she was sad, it wasn't for
  every

very


  long. It
  was one of the reasons he desired her soul so badly;
  beings that happy were
  an affront to him. "Listen to me, I now have full
  possession of your soul.
  Not soul music. Not soul food, but your one and only
  immortal soul that
  makes up the unique being that is you."

  Mihoshi.

?  Mihoshi said, (?)


  "Ohh, I like soul food. Tenchi took us to
  America once and we
  stopped in Baton Rouge and ate some there at this nice
  little out of the
  way restaurant that was owned by the nicest two people.
  Though personally

personally,


  I
  preferred the Cajun style of cooking we had at another
  restaurant the next
  day. Sasami did try to make some once, but it just lacked
  something. I
  don't-"

Torture through minutiae. Mihoshi's trademark. ^_^




  "We're getting off the subject here," the Devil interrupted, quite
  thoroughly irritated that the girl wasn't more
  distressed. She was supposed
  to be in a state of absolute misery by now. That was the
  way it worked. "I
  am now in possession of your soul and we're going
  straight to hell. You're
  going to be damned for eternity. MUHAHAHA-"

  "Umm, Mr. Devil," Mihoshi said tentatively, her somewhat
  embarrassed
  demeanor disrupting the Devil's ability to laugh evilly.

Amongst other things... :)



  "What?!"

  "You should try laughing with a more high pitch if you
  want to sound evil.
  Kagato did that and it really scared me. What you're
  doing is just mildly
  annoying."

^_^



  The Devil couldn't respond to that. How dare the little
  mortal imply his
  laugh wasn't evil!

evil?!


  She was going to pay. Without another
  word he hit a
  button on a small device on his waist and transported
  them back to the
  fiery domain of Hell and all of its grandeur.

  Cries of hopelessness echoed throughout the realm as
  various scenes of
  torture, from the impossibly physical to the deeply
  emotional, went on
  about them. Surely the girl would be frightened now as she came to
  understand that this desolation was all that she had to
  look forward to
  from now until the end of eternity.

  With a snap of his fingers a number of evil-looking
  demons suddenly
  appeared and surrounded Mihoshi, leering at her with no
  attempt to conceal
  their anticipation of what was to come. They looked to
  the Devil, awaiting
  their orders on what tortures to inflict upon this new soul.

  "Wow, it sure is hot in here," Mihoshi said as she wiped
  the sweat from her
  brow. "Have you ever thought of turning on the
  air-conditioning? I bet it
  would make things a lot more pleasant."

  "It's not supposed to be pleasant, you stupid little
  twit! It's supposed to
  be miserable! It's Hell!" the Devil roared.

  "Oh?" Mihoshi said, as though puzzling something out.
  After a moment, she
  raised her hand up, as though asking a teacher a question
  in class.

  Now as much bewildered as much as enraged, the Devil
  dared to ask, "What?!"

  "If you really want to make people suffer, you should
  make it more humid.
  This is more of a dry heat, and everyone knows that if
  it's hot and humid
  it's much more miserable than it just being hot."

  "That's a good point. I'm surprised the boss never
  thought of that," one of
  the demons surrounding Mihoshi said. A moment later, its
  head was ripped
  off its shoulders.

HAHAHAHA!!



  "It's a dry heat because I want it to be a dry heat and
  not a humid one!
  Dry heat is better!" The

the



  Devil bellowed at the body as it
  hit the ground.
  As his temper reached the breaking point, control over
  his corporeal form
  was lost. His eyes grew to twice their size and turned
  red, blood beginning
  to pour from them in rivulets.

  Mihoshi handed him a tissue. "If you get blood on that
  suit it's going to
  stain."

*THUMP!*  C&C'er falls out of chair...



  "ARGHHH!" The

the



  Devil raged, turning away from her and to
  one of the demons
  at hand. "Enough! Brack'che!"

I feel I should understand something about the demon's name, but it,
ah, escapes me. Gomen.



  A four-armed demon, wearing a host of snake-headed whips
  and incredibly
  sharp and pointed instruments designed solely of the
  implementation of pain
  that hung from his belt, stepped forward. Brackish drool
  escaped from two
  of his three mouths as he slavered in anticipation. "Yes, sir?"

  "Let this fragile soul know the true meaning of the word
  'pain.' Do things
  to her that cannot to be done to flesh in the mortal
  world because it would
  yield to Death before the true suffering could begin."

  The slavering increased a threefold.

increased threefold.




  "Yes, your eternally damned
  unholiness."

  The Devil's eyes shrank back to the former size as the
  tears of blood dried
  up, the epitome of control once again. After all, was not
  Brack'che one of
  his best torturers? If ever there was a master artisan at
  his craft, it was
  that demon. Truly the Devil had outdone himself when he
  created that one.
  Never had a soul failed to shatter under Brack'che's
  skillful hands. Only
  the fact that the Devil wanted the rest of those souls
  near the Misaki

Masaki



  Shrine so badly was why he chose not to stay around and
  watch the fun.
  Besides, he didn't particularly want to be around
  Mihoshi. She had made him
  lose control in front of the demons, something the Devil
  hadn't done since
  he had lost that stupid fiddling contest with that boy
  from Georgia. Worse,
  that particular little pustule had made an annoying song
  about it and now
  everyone knew the Devil had managed to be tricked. Even
  worse, it had been
  at the hands of an inbred redneck cracker.

ARGH! Not THAT song?! Interesting, I saw that on TV the other day.
Of all the coincidences...



  But that too had passed. Now satisfied with the knowledge
  that things were
  in good hands (four of them, to be precise), the Devil
  departed Hell once
  again.


  Day 2

  The Devil walked through the gateway back to Hell,
  extraordinarily upset.
  He had failed to get the soul he had so desperately
  wanted. That stupid
  Tenchi boy was such a weenie.

TENCHI:  AM NOT!

RYOUKO:  Well...

AEKA:  Okay, here's the test. Which of us do you choose?

TENCHI:  Um... Which of what?

RYOUKO:  [rolling eyes]  Which GIRL?!

TENCHI:  Um... Um... Which? Do I hafta?

AEKA:  Right. Weenie.

TENCHI:  HEY!



  The Devil had offered to
  take care of all of
  his girl problems, and all for the measly cost of his
  soul. Certainly it
  was a bargain. Like there was any other way the romance
  problem would be
  solved without bloodshed with those four parties
  involved. "Let me think
  about it for a couple of weeks," the boy had said. What a
  wishy-washy putz.

:)



  But at least there was something he could look forward
  to: the state
  Mihoshi was in. By now

By now,


  Brack'che would have her almost in
  the palm of his
  hand, if not completely broken outright. It would serve the little
  annoyance right for daring to upset her new master.

  The Devil hummed a little tune to himself as he made his
  way to Brack'che's
  'Cavern O' Fun.' As the Devil rounded a corner and the
  cavern came into
  view, he paused, the last echoes of the tune disappearing
  several seconds
  after he had stopped humming. The sight before him was
  inconceivable.

  There was Mihoshi, completely naked and with multiple
  marks on her body,
  sitting next to Brack'che,

no comma



  and smiling pleasantly.
  Brack'che was nowhere
  near as pleased, holding his head in all four of his
  hands and sobbing.

  Yes, just a little something wrong with the picture.

  "What's going on here?! Why isn't this girl broken yet?!"
  the Devil roared.

  "She," Brack'che sobbed like a baby. "She... I can't do
  it. I can't torture
  her, your evil righteousness."

  "Why?"

  "Because... because she likes the pain, sir. I mean she
  really, really,

no comma



  enjoys it."

  Mihoshi's whole body turned a beet red and she squirmed a
  little. "I'm so
  embarrassed. Don't let Tenchi know about it. I would just
  die if he found
  out."

O_O

TENCHI:  Uh, Mihoshi? Perhaps you're more Aeka-san's type.

MIHOSHI:  Oh?

AEKA-SAMA:  OUJOSAMA TO OYOBI!! *CRACK!*

TENCHI:  See?

MIHOSHI:  WAI!!!

/cue DEVO soundtrack... /cue FF bondage scene...

:P



  "I've never had this happen before. I could break anyone,
  even the most
  twisted of masochists," the demon continued sobbing. "But
  no matter what I
  did to her, it just wouldn't work. I used absolutely
  every trick I knew,
  but she'd just happily ask for more. And she was so
  polite. I can't inflict
  pain on them if they enjoy it. It's just plain wrong.
  This is Hell, not
  some S+M country club.

:P



  I'm a miserable failure, not
  worthy of any respect.
  I'm a bad demon."

  Mihoshi picked up a whip. "Want me to punish you? Aeka
  showed me how to use
  one of these." The Galaxy Police officer gave an expert
  crack of the whip,
  getting a feel for the weapon.

SEE?! SEE?! I was RIGHT!! :)



  "It's what I deserve for being such a failure as a
  demon." Brack'che got
  down on all fours and presented himself for Mihoshi.

  As Mihoshi began beating on the demon with a skill that
  would have made
  Aeka green with envy, the Devil ripped the weapon out of
  her hand. Blood
  once again began pouring out of his eyes, this time
  joined by green boils
  forming on his flesh.

Ewww. I'm flashing on a scene from Dune, with that Harkonnen doctor
muttering about the Baron's diseases... Gack.



  Somehow, in some way, she had
  managed to go from
  tortured to torturer in the blink of an eye. "You
  ignorant little toad! You
  think you're so clever trying to outmaneuver me? Well
  I'll show you! You
  haven't seen one one-hundredth of what I can do! Per'vurt
  Hen'Tai! You and
  your corps come forth and reveal yourselves to your lord
  and master!"

  In the blink of an eye a dozen huge tentacle demons
  appeared. Each one had
  numerous long, ropelike protrusions in the shape of male
  phalluses whipping
  around their bodies. Impossibly larger ones protruded
  from their pelvises.
  Even their heads had what appeared to be purple helmets
  on the tops.

Oh, one lives for the details... ^_^



  The largest (in every way) of the tentacle demons moved
  forward. A milky
  white substance spilled from his mouth as he gurgled out,
  "Yes, your large,
  stiff, most evilness?"

<laughter>



  The Devil simply pointed at Mihoshi and said, "That one.
  Rape away to your
  heart's content."

  Per'vurt Hen'Tai appeared confused. "I don't have a
  heart, sir. Just large
  testicles. Remember? In fact, you created us to live with
  nothing but
  test -"

  "It's just a saying, you moron!" The Devil tried
  suppressing his anger.
  True, he had created the demons to be stupid (especially
  the tentacle ones,
  since their balls literally did do all their thinking for
  them) to keep
  them from getting any ideas about trying to overthrow him and run
  everything themselves, but maybe the next generation of
  tentacle demons
  should be a wee bit smarter. Still, Per'vurt Hen'Tai and
  his demons didn't
  need brains to do their job. All they needed was to be horny.

  Again, the Devil left Mihoshi to the leering demons as he
  made his way back
  to the mortal plane. This time the blonde would pay.


  Day 6

  The Devil felt like ripping out another patch of his hair
  in frustration as
  he went directly to Hell using his inherent powers rather than the
  dimensional gate machine he usually employed. Before
  going to the shrine,
  he had spent a few days in the Mid-East, which had cheered him up
  considerably from the whole Tenchi and Mihoshi fiascoes.

Oooo, now a political slam. Wide-ranging humor here, folks. ^_^



  The decades of
  people fanatically hating each other had provided him
  with a delightful
  vacation spot to relax and enjoy himself. Once he felt
  better, he went back
  to the Misaki

Masaki (I'm going to give you to Per'vurt Hen'Tai if you don't get
this right. :P)



  shrine to return to the task of collecting
  the rest of the
  resident's

residents'


  souls.

Although, I suggest: ...the rest of the resident souls.



  Only things hadn't worked out the way
  they were supposed
  to. Again.

  First

First,


  he had approached Ryouko, who had somehow divined
  who he really was
  the instant she saw him.

Hmmm.



  Instead of fighting or just
  rejecting him out of
  hand, she had tried to convince him of how nice and
  desirable it would be
  to take Aeka's soul instead of her own. For hours she
  lauded about how much
  better it would be to take a 'snobby, uptight, prissy,
  Juraian princess'
  instead of a 'cute, lovable, cuddly demon' like herself.

HAHAHAHAAA!!!



  Deciding Aeka would indeed be the easier target,

And proving himself amenable to suggestion, as well... :)



  the
  Devil approached her.
  Yet somehow she too was able to determine his true
  identity and then spent
  the next several hours trying to convince him how much
  better it would be
  to 'grab that awful demon woman who's going to end up in
  Hell anyway,'
  instead of a 'righteous and noble personage' such as
  herself. At some point
  Ryouko phased into the room to see how things were going,
  overheard Aeka's
  description of her, and the two got into a fight. The
  Devil had ended up
  getting bounced around the room several times in the
  melee, and eventually
  opted to retreat rather than let the corporeal form he
  was using take any
  further damage. They'd pay for their treatment of him; it
  was just be at a
  later time.

*THUMP-THUMP!*  C&C'er falls out of chair, gets back up, and falls
out again.  ^_^  That was a priceless bit. :)



  But now he was back in Hell, and with his return, the
  delightful memory of
  the position he had left Mihoshi in came back to him. Oh
  yes, time to see
  how the little bitch responded to being raped endlessly
  by tentacle demons.

  It didn't take him long to find out. He walked back to
  the cavern again,
  only to see the pack of tentacle demons sitting outside.

  "What's the matter, boys?" the Devil asked. "You look a
  little... flaccid."

  "It's unbelievable, sir," Per'vurt Hen'Tai said in a
  clear, melodic voice,
  devoid of any white fluid. "She's drained every one of us dry."

  The Devil's mouth nearly hit the floor. "What?"

  "It's true. Look." Per'vurt Hen'Tai picked off a piece of
  dried off skin.
  "See. My usually pretty sperm-oiled skin is flaking off."

Hmm, I guess Lubriderm is out the question. It's milky and white,
too! :)



  "For the first time in my existence, I can't get it up,
  sir," Another

another



  demon
  confessed. He tried waving one of his limp tentacles. It
  moved less than an
  inch. "My confidence is shot. I just feel so... inadequate."

LOL!! Tentacle demon impotence. Who would've thought it could
happen?  :P



  "Yeah," Another

another


  one piped up.

Heh, piped. Heh.



  "It's sort of like being in
  Hell. I mean a
  Hell for us instead of the mortals," the demon clarified.

  The sentiment was repeated among the group.

  "Well, what shape is she in?" the Devil asked, the
  disbelief continuing to
  overwhelm him.

  In answer to his question, a seductive voice drifted from
  the direction of
  the cavern. "Oh Hen'Tai-chan, I'm ready for another
  round. You did say you
  could get it up again, didn't you?"

"Oh, Hen'Tai-chan. I'm ready...

Well, I see you've made up for Mihoshi not getting any in Vacation
Days in fine form. :)




  Per'vurt Hen'Tai gave a nervous look at the opening to
  the cavern, than
  began to back fearfully away. The rest of the tentacle
  demons followed
  suit. The Devil was about to say something when Mihoshi's
  head poked from
  around the opening of the passageway. The demons took one
  look at her
  amorous face, then turned and ran as fast as they could,
  screaming in
  terror.

  Mihoshi pouted, one of the rare times she didn't appear
  her usual bubbly,
  cute self. "Mother always said men were like that. They
  just want sex for
  themselves and don't care about your needs and wants."

Ooooiiiii... Of course, bearing in mind how much Mihoshi eats, this
shouldn't, er, come as a surprise. ;p



  The Devil's face began twitching madly. "You probably
  think you've won,
  don't you? Don't you?! Well

Well,


  think again! I have plenty of
  more

I have plenty more



  tortures for
  you! Including this one!"

  It was time to cut loose and really let her have it.
  Obviously

Obviously,


  physical
  tortures were proving themselves completely ineffective,
  which meant it was
  time to go for the mental ones. With a broad sweep of his
  hand the illusion
  took shape. Rock melted away to reveal a view in the
  seeming distance.
  Several people were bound and gagged with thick metal
  chains, insidious
  demons getting ready to fall upon them and engage in
  unspeakable acts. The
  people were everyone Mihoshi knew on Earth. From Tenchi
  to Aeka's wooden
  guardians.

DEMON 1:  Oi! Look at that. [points to a guardian]

DEMON 2:  What do we do with it?

DEMON 1:  Dunno. Have a weenie roast?

DEMON 2:  Yeah, we got that Tenchi guy.

KAMIDAKE:  What happened to the wonderful, spring-like weather we
were enjoying.

AZAKA:  Gone to Hell, I would imagine.

KAMIDAKE:  Oh... HEY! Keep that torch away from my feet!



  The Devil gave a dramatic gesture. "Behold your friends,
  whose souls now
  reside in Hell as well." Of course it was nothing more
  than an illusion
  designed to break Mihoshi's spirit, the real members of
  the group still
  eluding his possession, but he was The Lord of Lies,
  after all. Such
  actions kept him from losing his unique touch. A rictus
  of a grin spread
  across his features as he waited for Mihoshi's reaction.
  Would it be a cry
  of denial and a plea to release them, or would it be a
  roar of anger as she
  tried to attack him? There were so many numerous
  conceivable responses, and
  the Devil's mind raced through the possibilities.

  "Oh

"Oh,



  wow! My friends are all here too.

here, too.



  Yipee!"

  Okay. That was a new one.

:)



  The Devil grabbed Mihoshi by the neck and began shaking
  her. "WHAT IS THE
  MATTER WITH YOU, YOU IDIOT?!" he roared, finally losing
  the last semblance
  of control he possessed. Not only were his eyes bleeding
  and skin breaking
  out with pustules, but steady streams of steam poured
  from his ears and
  mouth.

Awww, come on! You were getting progressively more gross with each
rising indicator of the Devil's displeasure, and now you wimp out on
me. Steam?!  :P



  "I'm just happy to see my friends," Mihoshi managed to
  get out between the
  shakes. "It's just like it was back on Earth."

  "It is not! They're in Hell, you simpleton! Their souls
  are damned. That's
  damned! D... A... M... N... E...."

  "I thought there was another 'N' in there," Mihoshi mentioned.

LOL!!



  "STOP TRYING TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT!" The Devil shook
  Mihoshi with each
  word.

  "I'm not trying to change the subject," Mihoshi said
  sincerely once the
  shaking stopped. "It's just that I don't know what the
  problem is. I think
  it's pretty nice here. So far you've treated me pretty
  well. Quite frankly,
  I expected Hell to be much worse. I personally think it's
  just that you've
  gotten a bum rap about this eternal damnation thing."

  "No! Hell's a bad place! A bad place!" The

the


  Devil
  insisted, his screams
  taking on a pleading tone.

  "Aside from the heat thing, not really."

  "ARGH!" The

the



  Devil roared, releasing his hold on Mihoshi
  and tossing her to
  the ground in disgust. She was driving him crazy. He had
  to get away from
  her for a while. That was it. Just a little break until
  he came up with
  something that would break her for sure.


  Day 35

  A much longer vacation had been needed this time

LOL!



  for the Devil to
  rediscover his focus. However

However,



  rediscover it he did, but
  all that ended up
  doing was forcing him to end up in the process of licking
  his wounds once
  again.

"end up" twice in the same sentence. Suggest:  ,but all that did was
force him to end up licking his wounds once again.



  It was just so... wrong. All he had tried to do
  was trick that
  little Sasami girl into giving up her soul. True, she was
  an exceptionally
  bright child and tended to be very pure of heart, but she
  also had a
  tendency towards pranks and mischief, which was a chink
  in her armor.
  Somehow, in some way, he'd find a way in and get it from her.

  But just as he approached her, that blasted little cabbit
  had wandered in,
  and like its mistress, was able to perceive the Devil for
  what he was. It
  sensed what he intended to do with Sasami and promptly
  reacted violently
  and effectively, driving him off with an attack of a most
  unusual nature.

  Damnit, carrots weren't supposed to go in THERE!

LOL!!!



  The Devil pulled the last one out, with a wince of pain,
  as he transported
  himself back to his fiery realm. Choosing to take the
  scenic route, he
  approached the gates leading into Hell itself. He hoped a
  casual stroll
  through his domain would cheer him up. He was running out
  of things to do
  to make himself happy.

  As he neared the set of adamantine gates the formed the
  entryway to his
  realm, the Devil heard a growling noise and smiled. He
  hadn't seen his
  three-headed pet watchdog, (and Guardian to the entryway
  of Hell) Cerebrus,
  in quite a while. It would be nice to have the ever
  faithful demon hound
  greet him with a growl and a contemptuous snap of the
  jaws. And that was
  the most favorable reaction one could expect from the
  guardian of the gates
  during those few times it was in a good mood, which
  wasn't very often.
  Truly the Devil had outdone himself in creating that demon.

  As the Devil passed through the gates he shouted out,
  "Make way, you
  disgustingly vicious bast-" the rest of the greeting died
  on his lips as he
  watched the impossible scene unfold before him.

  "Good boy! Sit! Excellent. Roll Over! Very good. Now Play
  Dead! No, no,
  Doggie! I said 'Play Dead', not 'Make Dead'. Leave that
  poor demon alone.
  Let's try it again. Now Play Dead! That's better. Come here, you."

Well, a bit predictable by this point, but hey, Cerebrus needs more
fic time. :)



  The Devil's jaw had dropped low enough to touch the
  ground as he watched
  Mihoshi pet all three of the guardian demon's heads, one
  after another.
  Cerebrus was panting happily and wagging his tail in the
  throes of obvious
  happiness. The only time Cerebrus ever wagged his tail
  was when he was
  killing something.

  Slowly, almost as though he was in a dream, the Devil put
  one foot before
  the other and ended up next to Mihoshi. Softly, he said,
  "How can this be?
  He bites everyone except me. Even the other demons. He
  hates everything."

  Mihoshi continued petting him happily. "Oh, you've got
  him all wrong. He's
  just a big lovable puppy. Shake!" Cerebrus complied and
  held up a hand,
  which Mihoshi shook. She then wrapped her arms around the
  neck of one of
  the heads, causing the other two to whine in jealousy.
  Mihoshi quickly
  hugged both of the others as well, showing that they
  weren't going to be
  left out.

  Again, the Devil just stood there in open disbelief,
  anger eluding him. He
  tried speaking, but further words wouldn't seem to come
  from his mouth.

  "I have to be going now. It was nice seeing you again,
  Mr. Devil. This
  place isn't the same without you." Mihoshi waved politely
  to the Devil,
  then gave Cerebrus one last cuddle before walking off.
  The guardian hound
  howled mournfully at her as she headed out of sight.

  The Devil just stared at where she had been moments
  before. "Any minute now
  I'm going to wake up and realize this is some horrible
  dream and everything
  will be back to normal, isn't that right, Cerebrus?" He
  looked down at his
  guardian.

  The three-headed dog was taking a leak on his leg.

Okay, that helped the scene. ^_^




  Day 125

ERK!



  That was it! He was calling it quits! That was the
  absolute last straw! It
  was supposed to have been so simple. Even a Goddess
  couldn't resist the
  all-consuming evil that made the Devil what he was. He
  could have gained
  her soul. It wasn't that hard. He had approached Washuu,
  intent on striking
  a deal with her for universal knowledge. But instead of
  dealing with him,
  she said she was only interested in one precise bit of
  knowledge: how well
  her new 'Ticklematic 2000' worked. And since the Devil
  had happened to be
  in the laboratory at the precise moment she had finished
  completing it how
  would he like to be her Guinea pig?

HEHEHEHE.



  Of course he had tried to resist, but somehow she cut off
  his ability to
  dimensionally travel and neutralized the rest of his
  Hellish powers
  temporarily.

O_O  Which should be telling him something, but alas...



  She then suspended him in mid-air with some bizarre
  restraining device and proceeded to unleash every one of
  the ten thousand
  settings the machine had upon him. It was a couple of
  days later that she
  finally set him loose, his throat dry and cracked because
  he had been
  laughing for two days straight. He'd have her killed, if
  it wasn't for the
  fact she now terrified him more than he hated her.

HEHEHE.



  The gathering of souls'

No apostrophe - no possessive involved. However, suggest:  The
gathering-of-souls business...



  business was just becoming too
  dangerous. Maybe it
  was time to get into another line of work.

Vinyl siding by Sears! Errr...



  And now he was back in Hell, and he wasn't very happy
  about it. The answer
  was quite simple, really. It was all because SHE was
  there. He was at an
  impasse with what to do about her. Nothing worked.
  Elaborate tortures went
  over her head. Physical ones didn't bother her. He
  couldn't kill her; it
  was pointless since she was already in Hell, which was
  where her soul would
  end up since she signed the contract.

And cause you to lose the one current option you have for removing
her...



  He couldn't release
  her from the
  contract; in all of the millennia he had existed he had
  never willingly
  done that.

  But he had to do something. She was having a very
  negative effect on the
  other denizens of Hell. She recently had a talk with what
  was once one of
  the Devil's favorite evil mortal's souls. Somehow, in
  some way, she had had
  a long discussion with Hitler and had not only convinced
  him of the evil of
  his ways and had him repent, but also persuaded him to
  convert to Judaism
  and open a synagogue.

  In Hell.

:j



  Something had to be done with the girl, and soon.

  There was, however, still one sure fire thing that would
  cheer him now,
  something that never failed to please him. In a way, it
  was what he did
  best, something only he could do properly, not chancing
  the work to others,
  confident in the knowledge that they could not help but
  be inferior when
  compared to the master. There was nothing better than
  torturing those
  basically good souls he had tricked into coming to Hell.
  Those were always
  the best to torment, much better than the evil ones that
  actually belonged
  there.

  He made his way to the locked magical doors that bound
  the brightest of the
  captive souls. It was perhaps the most secure place in
  his realm, with both
  physical and metaphysical properties that would keep the
  souls locked in,
  never to know the taste of freedom for eternity. Chains,
  locks, magical
  glyphs, a moat of acid, each one making the facility all
  but impregnable.

  Which failed to explain why the doors were wide open and
  the chamber beyond
  was completely devoid of even the soul of a rat.

  Time lost all meaning as the Devil stood there, open
  mouthed, until a quiet
  voice from off to the side said, "Hi there."

  The Devil turned his head, mouth still agape the entire
  time. He knew who
  was there even before she had spoken. He had come to
  loathe the voice more
  than anything in existence, but still he turned to
  actually see her rather
  than being content to picture her in his mind's eye.

  Mihoshi stood there, looking somewhat embarrassed with
  her hand behind her
  head. Eventually, the Devil forced out a "How?"

  "How?" Mihoshi echoed.

  "How did you enter the most sealed and secured chamber in
  Hell? There are
  over a hundred devices that should have unleashed pain
  beyond imagining and
  prevented you from opening it. It should have been
  impossible for you to
  get past even the first line of defense I have in warding
  off intruders,
  let alone managing to successfully open the doors and
  release all of the
  souls within."

  Mihoshi looked stunned. "Wow! Miss Washu says the exact
  same thing every
  time I enter her lab."

WASHUU:  Welcome to the club, Lucifer.

DEVIL:  WAAAHHH!!!



  "And how do you do that?"

  Mihoshi shrugged. "I don't know, I just do it. I mean,
  all I was looking
  for was something to drink since I was thirsty, and I saw
  the door and
  tried to see if there was a water fountain in there since
  it looked like
  the sort of place where a water fountain might be."

  "You couldn't possibly have opened that door. It only
  opens for me," the
  Devil pointed out.

  "Oh. I guess it's a good thing I didn't know that. If I
  knew I wasn't able
  to open it, I might not have been able to open it."

  The Devil said in a soft voice, "I hate you," and
  proceeded to walk away.

  Hell just wasn't as fun as it used to be anymore.

:)




  Day 200

  The Devil raged as he stepped through a gateway and back
  into Hell. What
  was happening on the Mortal Plane was unbelievable.
  Politicians were acting
  in the interest of the people instead of themselves.
  Lawyers were following
  the intent of the law rather than the words. Lasting
  peace had been
  achieved in the Middle East.

  The Cubs had won a pennant!

Oh, well, there's the event signaling the Four Horseman. (Apologies
to Cubbies fans :)



  "HOW CAN THIS BE?!" The

the


  Devil raged to the Realm above as
  he finished
  stepping through the portal. As he put his foot down, he
  promptly slipped
  on a patch of ice and did an acrobatic somersault in
  midair before landing
  facefirst in a snowbank.

Again, predictable, but we all knew it was going there. :)



  "Oh, well I guess this explains everything," he said in a
  calm voice with
  his face still buried in the snow.

  He remained there for some time before finding the energy
  to wearily regain
  his feet. He raised his head up and looked over the land
  of the Eternally
  Damned that was his to lord over as he pleased. Now it
  looked like a winter
  wonderland, exactly like something out of a Rockwell
  painting. There were
  skaters, ice sculptures, and even numerous sleigh bells
  ringing as demons
  pulled sleds like teams of reindeer, giving the mortals
  free rides. So this
  was what Hell looked like frozen over. At least his
  minions had the decency
  to make snow demons instead of snow angels.

  The Devil didn't say a word; there weren't any that would
  satisfactorily
  describe his feelings. He looked around with half-lidded
  eyes, seeking out
  the cause of the current condition of his domain. He knew
  exactly who it
  was. He just needed to see her one last time. He didn't
  have to wait long
  as the cause of all of his misery skied up to him, coming
  abruptly to a
  stop, kicking up a spray of snow that covered him
  completely in a thick
  sheath of the white substance.

  He felt someone jam a carrot in his mouth.

False Ryo-Ohki alarm.

[snip]



  "OUT! OUT! GET OUT!" The Devil screamed as ripped up
  Mihoshi's contract
  into a million pieces and opened a gateway to Earth. He
  tried pushing the
  Galaxy Police officer through, but she held onto the
  sides of the portal,
  refusing to budge.

  "I want my Moldiver tapes!" She cried a deluge of tears
  that sprayed
  everywhere, including the control panel to the gateway.

She has her priorities. ^_^



  "Fine! You can take them with you!"

  "What about Doggie?"

  "You can take him too!" He whistled for Cerebrus, who,
  upon seeing Mihoshi
  distressed, began biting the Devil's legs with all three
  of his heads.

HAHAHAHA!!!



  "But what about-"

  "I swear to you I'll leave you and your friends and all
  of their children
  and children's children alone for the next ten
  generations! Just leave
  right now!" And with one final shove he pushed Mihoshi
  through the portal,
  tossed her the tapes, then kicked Cerebrus through as
  well. The instant
  everything was clear of the portal, he mentally shut it,
  leaving only
  silence in its wake.

  The Devil stopped then, scarcely believing it was over.
  He had actually
  succeeded.

Well, in a sense, anyway. ^_^



  She was gone. Forever. He was finally free. It
  was a wonderful
  feeling, like a tremendous burden had been lifted from
  his shoulders. In
  response, he began to dance around in joy. All he needed
  to do now was shut
  down the portal to Pluto, and then everything would be
  back to normal.

  Which was, of course, when the control panel to the
  dimensional gateway
  began sparking, the water from Mihoshi's tears finally
  soaking through the
  keyboards and reaching the delicate wiring within. The
  Devil went over to
  the machine and tried to turn it off, but it was to no
  avail; the gateway
  refused to close. But if Mihoshi thought she had pulled
  one over on him,
  she was in for a rude awakening. At the last second, he
  had managed to get
  the last laugh on her, which she would discover once she
  arrived back on
  Earth.

Hmmm...



  "And at least I know that things can't get any worse
  around here anymore."

  Another spark caused the controls to the radio that the
  Devil had built
  into the device, the one linked to Hell's audio system,
  turn on. The
  melodic symphony of "I love you. You love me," began
  emitting from the
  machine, carrying to every corner of the land.

  The sounds of agony from the denizens of Hell began
  immediately after, the
  Devil's cries the loudest of all.

Ah. *nods wisely*  The Hell of Barneys. Now, there *is* a Ninth
Worst Hell.



  Day 201

  "...and that was everything that happened to me while I
  was in Hell,"
  Mihoshi finished her tale to the others gathered around the table.

  "I guess he wasn't such a bad fellow after all," Yoshou
  said, wondering why
  the Devil hadn't made a play for his soul.

Good question, and intriguing.



  "He was definitely very ticklish," Washuu confirmed, a
  bit sad that how

now (and don't say 'brown cow'!  :)


  her
  string of unbroken perfect experiments was about to come
  to an end since
  Mihoshi was undoubtedly about to become a semi-permanent
  fixture in her lab
  once again.

  Sasami poked her head in from the kitchen. "Mihoshi, could you get
  Cerebrus-chan to quit chasing Ryo-Ohki around? He's got
  her up a tree
  again."

  "That last cracker is mine!"

  "No, it's mine, Thunderthighs!"

  "How dare you refer to me in such terms, you awful demon
  woman! And my
  thighs are not big!"

  Tenchi winced as the argument over the cracker continued.
  A pity about the
  Devil promising never to bother him again. It had gotten
  to the point were
  Tenchi was ready to take him up on that offer of saving
  him from all of his
  girl problems.

Too late. You're now paying for your wishy-washy-ness.



  "Actually, I'm afraid the Devil isn't nice after all,"
  Mihoshi sniffled.

  "What do you mean?" Tenchi asked.

  Mihoshi's eyes welled up with tears. "The Moldiver tapes
  he gave me are in
  Beta format! I can't watch them, and it's all his fault.
  He tricked me, the
  big meanie. WAHHHH!"

HAHAHAHA!!! Oh, dear. The Hell of Beta Format. ^_^



  Hope you enjoyed. Just had to get that little thing out
  of my system. Might
  do one more shorter Utena fic before returning to my work
  on 'Should Old
  Acquaintance Be Forgot' after that, depending on how much
  time I have.

My request is "Old Acquaintance." :)

Nice job, DB. Keep up the good work!

Ja ne!
Dave

*******************************************
D.F. Roeder
FanFiction - http://www.flash.net/~dfroeder/index.html

















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