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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: destiny03.txt
-- Desc: destiny03.txt
SMARTALECK PRODUCTIONS
Destiny
By arun<arundude1@yahoo.com>
<arun2110@sancharnet.in>
Chapter#03 <Completed on 07/05/2001> <Revision#3>
This is a Ranma 1/2 - Sailor Moon crossover with certain
aspects of Ramayana.
Disclaimers:
Ranma and the cast members of Ranma 1/2 are owned by Rumiko
Takahashi and Shogukkan. Rumiko Takahashi is one of the most brilliant
people to walk on the face of this earth. We the fans of the anime
world are forever indebted to her for giving us Ranma and co. Thank you
Rumiko Takahashi for bringing laughter back into our lives.
Sailor Moon and its characters are owned by Naoko Takeuchi,
Toei animation and KODANSHA.
I donot own the characters of both these shows, nor do I
even pretend to own them. This work of fiction is but a tribute to the
above anime shows.
Guys:
*....* indicate thoughts. In the first and second chapters
<...> indicates Japanese and "..." indicates Chinese.
In all the other chapters the reciprocal is true.
***********************************************************************
It was well past eight PM in Tokyo when the cab Ranma and the Amazons
were traveling on stopped in front of a traditional Japanese house.
There is a large training hall by its side and a pond adorned its
front. The house and the garden that surrounded it looked well
maintained.
Ranma paid the cabby and opened the gates.
"Welcome to my humble abode Matriarch. It is a honour to
have you here." said Ranma. Shampoo did not know the truth about him
and he was having the time of his life playing the role of an obedient
Amazon male.
"Shampoo like it very much." announced Shampoo. It was true
that Shampoo loved the house. It was also true that she hated the city.
She had spent the whole of her life in the unpolluted atmosphere of the
village and her senses still hadnot adjusted to the smoke, over
population and congestion of the city.
"I agree with Shampoo, Ranma. The house looks homely."
"Thank you elder." said Ranma.
He opened the front door, ushered his guests in, and
proceeded to show them around of the house. Their little tour finished
the two Amazon women withdrew to their rooms to freshen up.
Cologne and Shampoo freshened up and came downstairs to
find Chinese cuisine waiting for them at the table. Ranma had taken the
liberty of ordering takeout food from one of the Chinese restaurants in
the area.
"Matriarch, I would be honored if you would dine with me in
my humble abode." said Ranma. The sentence was a formal greeting
practiced amongst the Amazons and Cologne smiled when she heard it. It
proved to her that though he had been away for long he was still very
much an Amazon at heart.
"Yes Ranma. I would be most honored to dine in your humble
abode." Again, the reply was formal and traditional. If he wanted to
adhere to formality, she would too.
"Thank you, elder. Please sit down and let me serve your
meal." said Ranma. He was now getting into the part of playing the
humble host.
Cologne smiled once again. Ranma was testing her table
manners it seemed. If so she would play, no, become the part of the
Amazonian guest. She nodded and assented to his request.
Shampoo sat herself and watched the traditional exchanges
that took place between her great grandmother and their cute host. She
had sparred with him during their walk through the mountains and he was
very good. The way his muscles moved was poetry in motion and she had
lost several of their little sparring sessions while she was busy
drooling over him. He seemed to tolerate it, though her great
grandmother had been very strict in that regard.
"So, Ranma, what do you do for a living?" asked Cologne
curious as to how he spent his time. She was always bored in the
village and she wanted to know how he remained as cheerful as he was
after having lived two thousand years.
"I had applied for a job in one of the highschool here and
my application was accepted. I am going to start my work there as a
physical education coach day after tomorrow." replied Ranma temporarily
ceasing the very fast bowl to mouth express. Growing up under the
tutelage of Master Yuan Puyi had made him a very fast eater indeed.
Cologne nodded. Teaching children was a fine way to spend
one's time. Children were the hope for the future and it wouldn't do
for them to have anything less than quality education. Even in the
village, all children were compulsorily made to study the Chinese
government's equivalent of high school and then some more if they
wanted too. Knowledge is the most powerful weapon one could have and
the village elders would never neglect that part of the younger
generation's education. *Shampoo must have excellent knowledge of the
outside world if she is to be a matriarch.* Thought Cologne.
"I think that Shampoo must attend school here. It will
raise her awareness of the outside world." said Cologne. It would be a
wonderful opportunity for Shampoo to interact with children from the
outside world and remove some of her irritable traits.
Ranma paused briefly and nodded. "Yes, matriarch. I was
also thinking of enrolling her in the school I am going to work in."
"Excellent idea."
"But great grandmother, Shampoo no want to go to school."
wailed the young Amazon. She had thought that they had come to Japan to
train.
Cologne glared at Shampoo. "You will go to school child.
Your Japanese is poor and you will need the knowledge this experience
will provide if you wish to become the matriarch one day. Remember what
I had taught you, strength alone doesn't win wars, knowledge does. In
that department you are sorely lacking and I aim to rectify that by any
means possible."
"Yes, great grandmother." Shampoo's face mirrored quite the
opposite of what her mouth said.
Ranma looked at Shampoo and laid down his chopsticks. He
wanted to try a different approach on her. "Shampoo..."
The purple haired Amazon looked up at him.
Now that he had her attention, he continued. "Shampoo, do
you have many friends in her village?" he asked.
Shampoo shook her head.
"Why don't you have friends in the village, Shampoo?"
"Because I am the village's best fighter and most of them
are either my rivals or are afraid of me." she replied. That was true.
The only one she could call her friend was that idiot Mousse, who was
always chasing her.
Ranma nodded. Children behaved like that all the time. "Now
Shampoo, Japanese culture is different from that of the Amazons. Here
people will not avoid you just because you can beat them to a pulp in a
fair fight. They will initially avoid you but that will change once
they realize that you are not that different from them. Therefore if
you go to school, work hard and be nice to people than they will become
your friends. So do you want to have friends or not?"
Shampoo's head bobbed up and down. She wanted, no, she
_needed_ friends. Life was lonely without friends and friends brought
joy and happiness to one's life.
"Good. If you want to have lots of friends, you have got to
go to school because that is where you will meet a lot of children your
age." said Ranma.
A smile came to Shampoo's face. "I will go to school." she
proclaimed.
Ranma returned her smile. "You promise that you will work
hard and learn everything that you could if you go to school." He had
to make sure that she wouldnot spend all her time with her friends and
learn nothing at all.
"Yes."
"It's all right then. Now eat your ramen."
At the head of the table, Cologne broke into a chuckle. It
looked like Ranma had been teaching children for a long time.
***********************************************************************
Rei Hino AKA Sailor Mars, one of the sexy sailor senshi sat
infront of the holy fire meditating in the lotus position. She was
practicing fire readings this particular night and she had done three
fire readings so far that night. She had to wait half an hour before
the ki she had used during each reading was recharged. It had been over
an hour since she had done the last reading. She was even now
concentrating and replenishing her ki reserves for what she hoped would
be the longest fire reading she had ever done. This particular day had
been in the works for several months now and all through those months
she had been preparing herself for this reading.
The last three readings had been nothing but warm-up
exercises and now she was just about ready to begin the mother of all
fire readings.
"Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen." she said
and using the words as the focus released the ki into the fire.
The fire grew with a whoosh and assumed a white color,
which symbolized the peace in her mind at that instant.
Within the fire, images began to float around. She saw a
silver millennium's creation. Queen Serenity's election as the monarch
to the throne of the Moon kingdom, which was still in its infancy. She
witnessed the peace and harmony that prevailed during those first few
years. Then the images blurred for just an instant and became clear
again.
This time she saw the through the queen's eyes the rape and
murder of her ancestor by some kind of six-handed monster. She felt the
queen's anguish and helplessness as well as her fear for her own life
and that of her people. She saw the plains and cities of Saturn
burning. The black clouds of smoke that arose from them reached the
skies above and darkened the landscape. She saw children being skinned
alive. Their cries for help falling on dead ears. She saw those very
same six-handed monsters eating the children's hearts after having
wrenched it from their struggling and screaming wrecks that were once
bodies.
The image blurred again. When it became clear, she stood on
the icy mountains of Pluto. Her location offered excellent view of the
city below as it was ravaged and burnt to the ground by the six-handed
monsters.
The image blurred again. This time she saw through the eyes
of her queen. A part of her subconscious realized with a start that her
majesty was Queen Serenity the first. She saw a huge gathering of
magicians and mana in the plains of Mars. They were about to execute a
very powerful spell and she could feel and touch the raw energy in the
air.
Then she heard a shriek. Her mind told her that it was one
of those monster's that was trying to prevent the gathering of energy
and thus the execution of the spell. She felt despair before it gave
way to peace. Serene happiness came over her and then she felt the
enormous amount of energy coursing through her. Her mind heard the
screams of desperation as the monsters tried to escape their prison.
The image blurred again. This time it stopped at the end of
the Silver Millennium. She saw the last Queen Serenity send all of them
into the future after they had been killed and the Moon kingdom had
fallen. With the last of her energy spent her majesty collapsed and
died after she sealed away Queen Beryl.
The image blurred again. Now it stopped at the time when
all the reincarnated inner sailors had first become a team. It played
the scenes of their epic battles with the forces of Queen Beryl, the
Black Moon family and Pharaoh 90.
The image blurred and this time she saw Fuji Mountain. the
view was from the top and she was floating weightlessly in the air.
The image blurred again. She saw a darkness more powerful
than any they had ever faced spread itself across the world. At it's
head she saw a middle-aged man, laughing aloud as the darkness
destroyed everything in its path. The sailor's fight with him but they
are no match for him. Then there is a flash of light and a dragon of
incredible grace and beauty descended upon them all. The dragon fought
with the man and everywhere it stepped light followed. Finally, the
dragon defeated the man and light spread throughout the universe.
The sacred fire died out again.
Rei shivered in her meditating position. The clothes on her
body was smoking. She tried to stand up but her eyeballs rolled into
her head and she fell down with a thud on the shrine floor.
A few moments later grandfather Hino opened the door to the
room and ran in. He lifted up his very hot granddaughter and carried
her to the tub. Not even looking at his burned hands and thorax he laid
her on the tub turned the water on and poured all the ice cubes in the
house. Then he pressed several pressure points and fetched the
emergency medical kit. Pretty soon her body temperature had almost
returned to normal and she had a intravenous drip running.
***********************************************************************
The next morning...
Rei woke up and moaned. She had one hell of a headache. She
shifted in her bed and noticed that there was nothing on her except for
the blanket over her. She scanned the room and recognized it as her
own. There were a couple of things that did not belong in her room.
They were her grandfather, who was snoring in the chair by her bedside
and the intravenous drip that hung by her bedside.
She tried to get up but found that she lacked the energy to
do so. She grunted at the effort, which woke up her grandfather.
Grandfather Hino woke up with a start. "It wasn't me, I swear." he
shouted. Then he looked around, got his bearings and looked sheepishly
at his granddaughter.
"Sorry for waking you up child." he said.
"What am I doing here?" she asked. Her hand automatically
went to her head. Her head felt like it had been run through a cheese
grater and then the whole process had been repeated all through the
night.
Grandfather Hino put his aged hand on her shoulder and made
her lie down on the bed. He shh'd her and then fetched another
intravenous pack. He connected the lines and sat down by her side. His
wrinkled fingers caressed her cheek with love.
"Grandfather, what happened to me? Why am I here?" she
asked. Her voice was also failing her and her question became a
whisper. Her body simply lacked the energy to do anything.
"You executed a technique that is highly dangerous,
yesterday night. The technique is called the fire vision and its use is
forbidden. The technique draws ki from the user just like in the fire
reading but the user has no control over the process. Until the vision
is finished or the user dies the ki is drawn regardless of the user's
well being. More often than not, the user dies whenever the technique
is invoked." explained grandfather Hino and then paused.
Rei nodded. From what grandfather was telling her it seemed
that she had gotten herself into a situation she couldn't handle.
"You were very lucky yesterday. You used the technique for
nearly a minute. There aren't many that can last that long. It proved
nearly too much for your body. When I sensed what you were doing, I
rushed as fast as I could but the vision was over by then and you lay
there in a coma near death. Your ki was severely depleted and it still
is. It will take another week before you become normal again but until
then, you will be weak. You will be able to attend school from
tomorrow, I think!"
Rei nodded once more. That was pretty much all she could do
at the moment and even that sent waves of pain through her head.
"Grandfather..." she whispered.
"Yes, child." the oldman asked lovingly.
"Would you phone Ami and the others and ask them to come
and visit me in the evening?" asked Rei.
"I will do as you wish, child. Now, go to sleep. You need
the rest." he ordered lovingly.
Rei was only happy too comply and as soon as she closed her
eyes fatigue overcame her and she went happily to Morpheus's embrace.
***********************************************************************
Shampoo woke up feeling refreshed after a good night's
sleep. She yawned and stretched her legs. She looked at the clock and
saw that it was already six thirty in the morning.
*Great grandmother is going to kill me.* She thought as she
hurriedly took her bath and dressed herself for the usual morning spar
with her great grandmother.
Just then, she heard her great grandmother shout "Kacchu
Tenshin Amaguriken". Thinking that there was a thief in the house she
clutched her bonbori's and ran out of her room and out into the garden
from where the shout had come from. She reached it in a moment and the
sight that greeted her left her jaws touching the ground.
***********************************************************************
Ranma had got up at four in the morning and together with
his great great granddaughter had run the usual thirty-mile sprint.
When they had returned to the house, they had warmed up for the
sparring match doing some muscle relaxing katas. At around six Cologne
had signaled that she was ready and they had taken their stances.
Without any preliminaries, Cologne had leapt into the
attack. She wanted to impress her great great grandfather and what
better way to do that than to take the fight to his camp. She would
demonstrate her prowess and skill in the art. Hopefully that would be
enough to impress him.
Ranma had been amused at her show of aggression and both
had spared for the better part of an hour when he sensed the slight
increase in ki flows. His experience had taught him that such an
increase usually came before a Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken. Sure enough
Cologne shouted out the technique and had jumped towards him. Over the
years, Ranma had realized that offense is often the best defense and
accordingly he had leapt towards her. Cologne had been caught off-
guard. Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken was nigh impossible to counter when
used by an experienced fighter and the best way to counter an
Amaguriken attack by such a fighter was simply run away. Therefore,
after years of using the technique she had began to concentrate fully
on the technique and holes had appeared in her otherwise perfect guard.
This proved to be the Achilles heel in her attack. When
Ranma went on the offensive at the same time as herself, she was
totally unprepared for the attack. He simply used a paralyzing Shiastsu
point and while she tagged him a couple of dozen times in his thorax
and abdomen it was he who won the fight. Ranma's body flew towards the
walls at the force of the hits. He righted himself in mid-air and
bounded of the walls landing safely on his feet.
Cologne's paralyzed body was unable to counter her inertia
and she fell on her behind. All Ranma had to do was walk upto her and
ask for her surrender. Cologne complied and Ranma was about to release
her when they heard a thud behind them. Shampoo had seen her great
grandmother's defeat at the hands of their host and had promptly
fainted when the realization of what had happened hit her.
Ranma shook his head. "They sure don't make Amazons as they
used to." he announced and gave the matriarch his hand.
"What do you mean they don't make Amazon's as they used
too?" asked Cologne. She took hold of his hand and rose up from the
ground.
"Well, Shampoo is obviously faint hearted." he replied
pointing his thumb at the young Amazon.
"She is not faint hearted. If my memory serves me correct
Shampoo's response was the same as the other's had, the last time you
defeated an Amazonian matriarch." replied Cologne.
Ranma's scratched his neck. "I suppose you are right.
Anyway, why don't you go and freshen yourself while I prepare
breakfast."
Cologne shook her head. "No, my dear great great
grandfather. You must allow your humble great great granddaughter to
pay her respects to her great great grandfather by cooking your
breakfast."
Ranma looked at the heavens. *Kid's these days.* "Impudent
child. Well, you have your wish. You can cook, can't you?" asked Ranma.
Through his two thousand years of wanderings, he had eaten his share of
bad and very bad food. He even believed that he had met the worst cook
in all of eternity in India. Her rice laid him in bed, close to death
for three days. In the end, it had been his superior constitution that
had saved his life. He had taken nearly three months to recover from
that one meal alone. The woman was a widow of course, her husband had
died soon after he had married her and her only son had died the first
time ever he had eaten his mother's home cooked meal.
***********************************************************************
Ranma, Cologne and Shampoo set out to enroll the purple
haired Amazon in Juuban high and Ranma rediscovered the reason for his
hatred of Japanese Bureaucracy. The paper pushers always annoyed him
like hell.
They had to wait about an hour after they had filled all
the forms. He sat in the chair allotted to him fuming at the injustice
of it all. There he was, arguably the most powerful being on the planet
and the bureaucrats were treating him like just another commoner. It
was these kinds of situations that made him want to shout and let the
world know that he was an immortal.
Ranma tapped the armrest impatiently with his fingers. He
could hardly wait for the registration process to be over. Earlier in
the day, he had received a very important news from one of his
associates about his heritage and he wanted to visit his brother.
When they were finally done with the papers even the ever-
cheerful Shampoo was looking bored.
"Congratulations Shampoo you are now a student of Juuban
high." said Ranma.
"Shampoo so happy." said the Amazon and gave him one of the
famous Amazon 'crush them till you hear their ribs pop' hug. Ranma's
face turned an unhealthy shade of white and Shampoo released him
hurriedly from the hug. She didnot want their cute host to die on her.
Outside the school campus, Shampoo noticed that Ranma
seemed to be bothered by something. Several times he opened his mouth
and only to shut it. Finally he paused in his walk and scratched the
back f his neck. "Shampoo, will you go the house and stay there till I
and the matriarch get home. We have something important to attend to."
*There I said it. Let's just hope that she isn't too inquisitive about
the subject.*
Cologne raised an eyebrow but did not say anything. Shampoo
excused herself and ran off towards the house.
"Shampoo is quite a bundle of energy, Cologne." he said.
"Yes, she is. Ranma may I ask where are we going and why we
are going there?" questioned the matriarch.
"When I heard Ryuu's family name I was mildly surprised. I
had never again expected to meet someone from the clan Saotome. His
father also struck a chord in memory and I had asked one of my business
associates to make discreet inquiries. It turns out that Genma had lost
his first born in an unfortunate accident about a decade ago."
"And..."
"And the first born's name is Ranma Saotome, my birth name.
After a few more discreet inquiries my associate has ascertained that
Genma is infact my father. I..." He paused. "I cannot believe that I am
the son of that greedy moron."
"Are you going to tell your parents?" asked Cologne.
"Nah! I wouldn't do that even if my life depended on it."
Cologne raised an eyebrow. *Why would not anyone want to be
with his or her parents?*
"If you are thinking about why I do not want to introduce
myself to my parents, believe me there is an excellent reason. It seems
that Genma has more than a dozen arrest warrants in his name and
hundreds of petty debts throughout Japan and even some in China. I
definitely do not want to be associated with the likes of him or the
woman who calls herself his wife and yet turns a blind eye to his
dishonorable activities." explained Ranma.
"Then why are we going there, great great grandfather?"
Cologne snickered at the great grandfather bit. A old woman must have
her share of fun and what better way to go about it then to irritate
Ranma. He was quite forgiving and though he was annoyed at her
continued insistence of calling him by his title, he too enjoyed a good
laugh or two.
"We are going there because I being an Amazon means that
Ryuu is also an Amazon. That boy has a lot of potential and I want to
make him realize it. Now stop your laughing and follow me child." said
Ranma and smiled at the child part. Revenge was always sweet unless it
was you who was caught in it.
Cologne frowned at the child part. It irritated her to hear
him refer to her as a child. He seemed to realize that and whenever she
used the 'Oh great great grandfather!' thing he would get back at her
with the 'Behave yourself, child' part.
***********************************************************************
"So this is Nerima?" asked Ranma to none in particular.
Cologne poggoed on her staff beside Ranma to the amazement
of several passerby's. Some even fainted at the sight of the wizened
matriarch when they saw her laugh. It definitely was not a sight for
the faint hearted.
The twosome walked around making inquiries about the Tendo
dojo. A Samaritan helped them on with his directions and soon they were
infront of the gates of the not so renowned Tendo school of Anything
Goes Martial arts.
Ranma and Cologne leapt over the wall and landed softly on
the grass. Ranma walked upto the door and knocked it.
***********************************************************************
Kasumi hummed to herself as she prepared lunch for the
family. It is never easy to cook for a group of seven (Happousai seldom
ate in the house), which included two motor mouths by the name of
Ryuuken and Genma Saotome. The boy had taken after his father in his
eating habits and even his three-year stay in the Amazon village had
done little to change it.
Kasumi had always enjoyed cooking. It was fun to cook. Her
love for cooking didnot make the task of cooking for seven less tedious
and she hummed to herself for as they say music makes a long road
short.
Her thoughts drifted to Ryuu once again and she shook her
head. Uncle Genma was obviously not the choice for the parent of the
year award and living with him had created its own problems in Ryuuken.
The boy did not show his love and affection towards his loved ones and
his social etiquette left much to be desired. He was not only one of
the best fighters she had seen in the nineteen years since her birth
but also the worst in terms of social etiquette.
The five would be rescuers had arrived the night before and
Genma had related the events that culminated in her sister's rescue.
She was thankful to Ranma Qin, whoever he maybe, for saving her sisters
life. Uncle Genma had tried more than once during the narration of the
story to portray himself as the hero. However, Ryuu had bonked him on
the head everytime he had tried and Genma sported a couple of bumps on
his head.
Kasumi ceased stirring the wok and listened to the sounds
of the house. It was quiet, which meant that Ryouga was lost somewhere
inside the house as usual, Akane must be in her room mad at someone or
something, Nabiki must be in her room discovering people's secrets to
blackmail them with, Ryuu must be in the dojo practicing his katas,
grandfather Happousai must be out on his er... rounds and her father
and uncle Genma must be out walking in the park.
She turned to the wok and was starting to stir the pork
again when there was a knock on the door. Though traditional Japanese
foods were often uncooked she preferred the food she ate dead and
curried more often than not. Humming to herself, Kasumi wiped her hands
on the apron, turned the knob of the burner down and went to receive
the visitors. *I wonder if its Nodoka auntie. It is so nice of her to
visit us once in a while.*
When she reached the door she straightened her gown and
opened the door. A handsome hunk(blush) stood at the door his right
hand raised to knock once more. Behind him stood what she guessed to be
a statue of some kind. She had never been able to figure out what works
of modern art represented and by the looks of it, it would remain so
for a long time to come. When the man saw her his eyes widened in
shock. His hand stopped as it were and he mumbled something about
jasmine.
"Yes they are lovely flowers." she replied. *He must be a
horticulturist.*
The man simply stood there looking into her eyes with a
gaze that revealed his innermost thoughts and emotions.
"Um... Do you... want something Mr...?" stammered Kasumi.
His gaze was awakening long repressed feelings in her.
Ranma shook himself out of his stupor. "I am sorry miss.
You remind me of someone I once loved and lost. My name is Ranma Qin.
The matriarch of the Amazon village and I have come here looking for a
boy named Ryuuken Saotome. Is he here?"
"He is in the dojo Ranma-san." replied Kasumi. There was
something familiar about him. Her mind couldnot figure out what it was
but she felt so at ease around him.
"Thank you..."
"Kasumi, Kasumi Tendo." she replied. Her voice as sweet and
melodious as ever.
"Thank you, Kasumi-san. We will visit him there then." said
Ranma and bowed once to her. He tried to avert his face from hers as he
recovered from the bow but he couldnot. Her face, her sweet and gentle
ki reminded him so much of his long dead wife Xas Min that he wanted to
take her in his arms and never let go of her.
Ranma shook his head to clear it of the adulterous
thoughts. For two thousand years he had remained loyal to his wife and
he wasn't about to betray her now. He turned and headed towards the
dojo with Cologne behind him.
***********************************************************************
Ryuuken Saotome, heir to the Saotome branch of Matsubeto
Katuto Ryuu, relaxed and focused on the kata he was about to perform.
He had created it during his second year in the Amazon village. His
kata had so impressed the matriarch that she had personally praised
him, a rarity if there ever was one in the village. The kata was an
amalgam of the grace of Tai Chi Chuan, the speed of Matsubeto Katuto
Ryuu and the efficiency of Amazonian Wu Shu. His body moved with the
grace of a deer as it flexed and flowed to create a perfect orchestra
of power and speed that few could replicate.
Halfway through the kata he jumped into the air and hung
there. Air combat was a specialty of his families school of combat and
he was more skilled in it then even his father. Inspite of all of his
skills in the art Ryuu would be the first to admit to anyone that
martial arts is not easy. He had trained throughout his life to attain
the level of skill he had reached. There was still a long way to go
before he could be considered a master. He knew that the arts did not
come very easily to him. He grasped the basics fast but the focus that
was so important was forever lacking in him. As a result he had to
train extra hard to perfect each move that he had been taught.
Banishing these thoughts from his mind Ryuu bounded of the
ceiling unaware of his environment and landed on his feet. He finished
his kata and bowed to his imaginary audience.
An unknown pair of hands clapped behind him and he turned.
Few people were able to get that close to him without alerting him to
their presence and except for Happousai none were in Japan or so he
thought.
Ryuu eyes widened as he was greeted with the sight of his
mentor and his newest friend applauding his effort. "What are you two
doing here?"
"I am here to accept your proposal. I will become your
sensei." said Ranma.
*That's strange. If Ranma is an Amazon than why is the
matriarch keeping mum. They don't do that in the village unless they
are in the presence of the head of the family or the someone older than
themselves or their sensei... Duh! What am I thinking, he isn't much
older than Kasumi.* "I thought you said that the Amazons will not teach
me unless I become a member of the tribe. I tell you now, I have no
intention of ever becoming a Amazon. So you can forget about trying to
enlist me." said Ryuu and folded his arms against his chest. He did not
want to be an Amazon and they certainly weren't going to force him into
becoming one.
Ranma smirked and shook his head. "We are not here offering
what we are in return for you becoming a member of the tribe." said
Ranma. *You already are an Amazon, little brother.*
"Then I guess it's okay then. When do we start?" asked
Ryuu. The question was directed at the matriarch. The matriarch had the
final say in all matters in the village.
"Hold on there, Ryuu, there is one condition that you must
abide by if you want to learn from me." said Ranma.
"Oh man! I thought that it was too good to be true. Let's
hear it. What string have you attached?"
"It's simple. The matriarch and I are unwilling to stay at
this house. Therefore if you want to learn from me you will stay at my
house, go to the school I tell you to attend and..." Ranma paused.
"And..."
"And you will get good grade's in school." finished Ranma.
"Huh! What has school got to do with this and isn't the
matriarch going to teach me also?" asked Ryuu. *What does school have
to do with martial arts? Isn't a C or a D enough at school?* Thought
the heir to the Saotome branch of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu.
"I will answer your two questions. First getting good
grades at school is important because learning gives you knowledge and
knowledge is power on the battlefield. Second, no, the matriarch isn't
going to be teaching you any techniques..."
Ryuu interrupted.
"Hey, I ain't got an empty head you know? I want the
matriarch to teach me the techniques she knows or I want no part of
your proposal." *What kind of fool do they think I am?* Fumed Ryuu. His
three-year stay in the village had taught him a couple of things about
Amazonian customs. One, the matriarch may be elected but she is the
dictator as far as anyone is concerned. Two, the matriarch knew
techniques that the rest of the tribe did not have access to.
Bonk!
"What did you hit me for?" shouted Ryuu indignantly rubbing
the sore spot on his head where the matriarch's staff had made contact
with.
"Do not interrupt your elders when they are speaking to
you, boy." said Cologne in reply. She was peeved at the way Ryuu had
interrupted Ranma. Such behaviour was ill-fitting an Amazon warrior.
"Cologne you will stop it at this instant. Children are not
meant to be hit."
"Yes sensei." said Cologne and hung her head.
"He is your sensei." asked Ryuu picking his jaws of the
floor. No wonder Saffron was afraid of Ranma.
"Hai. I will be the sensei to both of you. Now do you agree
with the terms?" asked Ranma.
"You damn well bet I am." replied Ryuu.
Ranma sighed. The boy had a long way to go before he could
be called a master. You simply cannot become a master with your skill
alone. You have to have some semblance of social etiquette and all
that.
"I won't allow it." shouted Genma from the entrance of the
dojo. Behind him stood lost boy, Akane, Soun, Nabiki (she had her
camera with her.), Kasumi, Genma and the grandmaster of Matsubeto
Katuto Ryuu, the infamous panty-thief Happousai.
"And why do I need your permission?" asked Ranma. He knew
that Genma was Ryuu's and unfortunately his father. He had expected the
challenge from his father and had decided to take the initiative and
challenge the resident master of the school before he did. He planned
to show Ryuu his place in the grander scheme of things and he wanted to
show off a little too.
"I am Genma Saotome, father of Ryuuken Saotome, patriarch
of the Saotome clan and the master of the Saotome branch of Matsubeto
Katuto Ryuu. I will not let you take my son away from me even if I have
to die stopping you" replied Genma tersely. He had recognized the
unspoken challenge in Ranma's words.
Ranma just raised an eyebrow. "Please, is that speech
supposed intimidate me or something. If that was the purpose I can tell
you that your speech needs a lot of work on it." said Ranma and got
into his stance.
***********************************************************************
Happousai stood at the corner of the dojo and watched Ranma
appraisingly. He was using one of his very own ki probes, the strongest
in his arsenal and yet he found his probing blocked. That spoke of
great skill on the part of the challenger and he was certain that Genma
had bitten of more than he could chew.
"Hello Happi." said the old woman by his heir's side.
Happousai's blood froze. He had never expected to see her
again after the little incident at the Amazon village nearly three
hundred years back. *Or was it more than three hundred years back?*
"Heheheheheh! Cologne, how are you doing?" he asked suddenly nervous.
Cologne smiled the smile of a predator that had cornered
its prey. "Nice to see you too, Happi." she said and tossed her hair
behind her back. It was supposed to be a 'come hither and make me
yours' kind of toss but at her age it looked like the dreaded 'come
here and die when you see me' toss. Naturally Happousai and the others
cringed at her action. Cologne hmphed. *These fools cannot recognize
true beauty when they see it!*
Happousai knew that he could take her on and beat her any
day of the week if he really wanted too but he could never hit a woman,
atleast not with an intent to kill or maim. He knew that though he
could beat Cologne his skills were not that great and he was not good
enough to enable him to do so without hurting or even killing her. That
had been the cause of his undoing during his attempted 'greatest heist'
in history. Back in those good old days when he was a hotshot young man
with almost legendary skills he did his little 'tours in the women's
lockers' as a hobby, a way to pass to time. One of his martial artist
friends (another pervert) had told him of the legendary beauty and
skill of Amazon women and their undergarments (they had those for
special occasions even then).
His curiosity piqued Happousai had went to the village but
the maidens had become a little too hostile towards his little raids
(they treasured their silky darlings). He had tried to evade them and
when he couldn't he had abandoned his silky darlings and had stolen
their village treasures. He wanted to get back at them for their unruly
behaviour towards him and what better way to do it then by hitting them
where it hurt the most. The Amazons had always been proud of their
treasures and stealing those treasures would be sweet revenge indeed or
so he had thought.
That fateful day, the Amazons had taken great offense at
his act of thievery er... revenge. They had called their first war
council in over a thousand years. Happousai had decided that even he
couldnot stand upto a tribe full of angry and exceptionally skilled
warrior women and had fled. Cologne had been one of the Amazons sent to
track him down. She had succeeded and failed at the same time. She did
track him down but she then had a rather passionate if short love
affair with him.
During the course of their tryst, Cologne had discovered
that Happousai never hit women seriously. She had made good use of his
weakness and soon Happousai had run off into the sunset (anywhere was
better than being with her and all that.).
"Nice to see you, Cologne. Its been such a long time." he
replied.
Cologne smiled and hopped towards him. "Yes, it has been a
long time, hasn't it?" she said and again tossed her hair.
*The horror! Oh the horror!* Thought Happousai and tried to
look relaxed. *Good thing she's not after me anymore. I'll die of a
heart attack if she puckers up.*
***********************************************************************
Meanwhile, the staring match between Genma and Ranma
continued on uninterrupted. In the middle of the staring contest, Ranma
paid attention to his granddaughters interaction with the two foot old
grandmaster of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu (Happousai was famous or rather
infamous amongst the martial arts community.). He observed their ki and
chuckled to himself. The two of them seemed to have had a rather
passionate love affair in the past.
It was Genma who finally backed down from the staring match
though he did not get out of his stance. Ranma simply bent his back leg
a little and shifted his weight to achieve perfect balance.
"Shall we?" he asked nonchalantly.
Genma nodded.
"Good, all of you clear out of the dojo. Genma, here and I
are going to have a nice man to man discussion." announced Ranma.
The others stepped out of the dojo and the two combatants
eyed each other warily. They bowed in respect to each other and Genma
leapt into the attack. From what he had seen at Phoenix mountain Ranma
was a very powerful fighter and the only chance he had of winning was
by taking the fight to Ranma's camp. He was wrong of course.
Genma's figure blurred as he moved at close to his top
speed. His fists probed Ranma's defenses for a second and found no
holes that could be utilized in it. His school of combat emphasized
adaptability and Genma adapted to Ranma's defense. Instead of searching
for attacks he began to throw high-speed punches at random. He hoped
that Ranma would be ill prepared for such an attack and he might get a
few hits in early in the fight. However, he did not know that Ranma was
a master and masters seldom concentrated their defenses on their weak
points. Ranma easily blocked or maneuvered our of his attacks. A minute
passed and Genma withdrew from the confrontation and assumed his stance
a dozen feet away from Ranma. He was sweating profusely while Ranma
didnot even look winded.
When the fight had started Ranma had assumed that Genma
would be a pushover but his opinion of his father had changed very
quickly. Though Genma's honor was despicable he definitely had skills
in the fighting department. The way his father had adapted very quickly
to his defense and the random attacks Genma had launched were a
testament to his skills. *He has some skills. Let's see if he is as
adaptable in his defense as in his offense.* With a 'kyahhh' that rang
throughout he dojo Ranma rushed Genma and pulled back his fist. Genma
launched a kick to Ranma's chin when he was within range. Ranma had
other idea's and he moved out of the way without slowing down. He
brought his fist forward at the same speed Genma had attacked him in a
move that even an amateur could have seen coming from miles away.
Genma's training under Happousai had honed his reflexes to
a great extent and this proved to be his undoing. Genma saw the fist
coming at his face and his reflexes took over. Eventhough his mind
screamed trap his reflexes paid no heed to it and both his hands sped
towards the incoming punch to block it.
By blocking the punch Genma took the bait and left his
defenses wide open. Ranma pulled back his punch at the last instant and
came to a stop. Within a microsecond he had pulled back his left leg
and swung it back. His calf muscles tensed and be brought the leg
forward in a kick aimed at Genma's solar plexus. Genma's years of
experience shown through as his body weaved slightly to get out of the
way even before Ranma had initiated the kick but he was too slow and
the kick connected with a resounding thump. Genma's body flew towards a
supporting beam and connected with it. The beam splintered under the
force of the impact and that section of the building came crashing down
on Genma.
Dust flew everywhere and when it settled the rubble began
to shake. Genma emerged from the mess with a laceration here and there
and a cut upper lip. He wiped away the blood from his face and took a
stance. The kick had hurt like hell and he had momentarily slipped into
unconsciousness because of it.
Genma's brain informed him that there was no way that he
could win a fight against a fighter of Ranma's caliber. If the fight
were another petty one he would have given up and groveled for mercy
but this fight wasn't petty, at least not for him. His son treated him
like a piece of garbage and had no respect for him. This was his final
chance to go earn his son's respect and he was determined not to goof
it up. His resolve strengthened Genma did something that he had hoped
he would never do, he unlocked the second of the forbidden techniques
in a serious fight.
Ranma watched as his father stood up shakily and wiped the
blood of his face. Ranma knew that Genma knew that the fight was lost
and he had expected Genma to give up the fight like the coward he had
been throughout his life. However, Genma took a deep breath and took a
stance against him. His pride in his father increased still more when
he saw his father disappear from view.
Ranma was astonished when Genma disappeared from sight. He
had encountered such a technique once before some eight hundred years
before and the technique itself didnot surprise him. He was surprised
at the fact that his father could have perfected such a technique.
His thoughts drifted back to eight hundred years ado. He
had been in Japan for less than a decade when a ninja had sworn a blood
feud against him. Ranma had not wanted to kill the man and had left for
the forests. The ninja had followed him and had tried to assassinate
him. He had gotten mad and had attacked the ninja when the ninja used
his trump card. As a shadow fighter, the ninja knew that he had no
chance of beating Ranma in a fair one on one fight. His stamina and
endurance would simply fail him. Therefore he had opted for guerrilla
tactics. He used the cloaking technique to disappear from view and
strike at Ranma from beyond. For the next few days he had played a game
of cat and mouse with Ranma until in desperation Ranma had cornered him
in a forest clearing be a mountain. The ninja had used his cloaking
technique to maximum advantage and Ranma had been at the receiving end
for the first four and a half-hours of the battle. Then he had
discovered the only flaw in the technique and utilized it. After that
the fight had lasted just half a minute longer and Ranma had toasted
the ninja alive with a powerful ki attack.
Caught in his memories Ranma forgot about his father and
paid dearly for it. A swiveling kick to his head followed by a haymaker
to his head sent him flying towards the dojo wall. Ranma twisted in mid
air and bounded off the wooden wall. Cracks appeared where his feet had
made contact with the wooden boards. Ranma bounced of a beam and came
at Genma right arm extended palm first.
Genma was naturally surprised to see Ranma coming at him
eventhough he was invisible. His arms moved for a block but Ranma
seemed to sense it somehow. He brought his left arm and deflected the
block in a Tai Chi Chuan maneuver. Without slowing down Ranma brought
his right arm to bear at Genma's abdomen. The arm was inclined upwards
and it made contact with Genma's diaphragm. The shock wave from the
blow traveled back and forth several times inside Genma's ribcage
before stopping. During his time his heart stopped and his lungs
deflated. Genma let out a scream and became visible once more. He
collapsed onto the floor and Ranma withdrew from him. Ranma's pride in
his father grew even more as Genma stood up by himself. He wobbled a
little and coughed up some blood. With determination etched all over
his face Genma took a stance.
"You have lost the fight Saotome sensei. Give up now."
"Never!" *I will not fail my son this time around.*
"I will not offer quarter again." warned Genma.
"So be it."
"Hai." Ranma lowered his head. His anger and shame towards
his father had disappeared. Now there remained only pride and love.
Genma jumped into the air and threw a Moko Kaimon Ha at
Ranma. Ranma evaded easily and the attack exploded against another
section of the dojo and brought it down. Genma laded lightly on his
toes and shot up into the air and shouted "Kijin Raishu Dan!"
Ranma had felt the gathering of ki and had realized that
Genma that Genma was about to hit him with a ki projection attack. He
slid out of the way and landed behind Genma. He was about to move
forward for the final attack when he sensed a familiar flow of energy.
Even before the conscious part of his brain realized what was
happening, the unconscious part of his brain realized that Genma was
about to fire a vacuum blade at him. His instincts took over and pumped
ki into his hands. He withdrew his arm at hypersonic speed and a large
crescent shaped ki charged vacuum blade formed. Genma released his ki
powered vacuum blade at the same instant and the two blades sped
towards each other. Two thousand experience came to the fore and Ranma
fired another ki charged vacuum blade at Genma before he back flipped
and bounded of the wooden beams in the roof.
Genma dove out of the way as soon as he released his attack
and rolled away.
***********************************************************************
The fight was hardly normal. Happousai had never seen his
student so determined before and he realized that Genma wanted to gain
his sons respect. He had been very surprised when Genma had unlocked
both the Yamasenken and the Umisenken.
He had probed the challenger with one of his very own ki
probes when he had first issued the challenge. The probe was the best
in his arsenal and even Cologne, his nearest competitor in terms of
skill had never been able to block it. He was therefore surprised when
the challenger had blocked it quite easily. That block had made
Happousai, grandmaster of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu realize that Genma was
in deep trouble.
The fact that Cologne herself was training under Ranma had
made him wary. If nothing Cologne was very proud and she would not
learn under others if they weren't a great deal more skilled than her.
The very fact that the Amazon matriarch had accepted Ranma as her
sensei was proof of the boys skills in the art. He had therefore
carefully observed Ranma's seemingly inefficient movements and had
found them to be a lot more efficient that his own. The boy moved with
a grace that would have laid a tiger to shame and he was quite skillful
in concealing that grace too.
When Genma had initiated the cloaking technique he had
assumed that Ranma would lose the fight. Ranma hadnot dodged the first
strike and he had smirked. He had revised his estimate of Ranma's
prowess after that attack. He had turned towards Cologne and she had
looked shocked. He was about to make fun of her new sensei when he had
bounded of the wall and attacked Genma.
Happousai knew from experience that Genma never screamed.
He had been proud of that fact. Through all those years of torture,
er... training he had never seen Genma scream out in pain. The boy
would take the punishment, er... training as a man and not even shed a
drop of tear. Therefore , it surprised him greatly when Genma had
screamed in agony. Genma's cloaking technique had failed and Genma had
collapsed onto the floor.
Genma had continued to amaze him by getting up after that
attack and assuming a stance. Ranma had popped the question but Genma
had refused. Then he had attacked Ranma with more of the forbidden
techniques and amazingly Ranma had countered them with his very own
technique. A technique that was considered a myth by the martial arts
community for over four hundred years.
Happousai's ki senses screamed run as soon as Ranma
released his counter attack. He dove for cover and glanced towards
Cologne. She too, was diving onto the ground. In mid-flight, he shouted
a warning to the others. "Hit the dirt!".
***********************************************************************
The two blades of energy met and the vacuum blades canceled
each other out. However without its vacuum blade to contain the ki,
Ranma's attack expanded several fold and smashed against the dojo
walls. The resulting explosion shook the earth and reduced that section
of the wall to dust. The stress proved too much for the dojo and it
collapsed under its own weight.
The second ki charged vacuum blade sped towards the house
and easily sliced through the first wall. There was a moment of silence
as the blade disappeared from. Then there was a deafening boom and the
ground shook once more. A fireball rose up into the air and the roof of
the house flew apart, throwing debris high into the air. There followed
another moment of silence and then debris began to rain down from the
sky. Pieces of concrete, wood and whatnot rained down all over the
neighborhood.
When it was all over Ranma extricated himself from the
ground followed by the others in quick succession. Happousai got up and
looked at him with awe written all over his face. Soun was whimpering
and Kasumi had a forlorn look on her face. Thankfully Akane was knocked
unconscious and Ryouga was kneeling in front of the house with a dark
green aura radiating from him. Ryuu's eyes were wide with shock and
Nabiki looked like she could use a anti-depressant or something.
"I am so sorry."
***********************************************************************
The fight had given her lots of photo opportunities and she
had been in heaven until the last thirty seconds. Having got the info
about Ranma from Ryuu through some wily manipulation she had gotten
down to business. The way the muscles in Ranma's body moved, his
muscles rippling with use would set all girls who saw him on fire. *I
will be rich when this is over.* She had thought.
Then Genma had gone ahead and used some dangerous attack
and Ranma had reacted in kind. The result, her family bankrupted in
less than a minute.
When Happousai had shouted "Hit the dirt." she had complied
without hesitation. The old man might be a pervert but he was damn fine
martial artist and if he shouted a warning you listened. She had barely
avoided getting caught in the first explosion and then there had been
silence. She had began thoughts of getting up and giving the two a
piece of her mind when there was another explosion behind her. The heat
was great but she did not get hit by debris and the like when they
started raining.
After the 'rain' had stopped she heard some scuffling. She
took that as a signal that everything was safe and rose.
Ranma, the man who had destroyed her life, stood examining
the scene with cold precision. *My families destroyed.* The realization
dawned to her. Years of sleaze gathered on friend and foe alike
destroyed by a simple brawl. For the first time since her mothers death
Nabiki shed tears.
"I am so sorry." she heard him say.
"You bastard." she shouted and threw herself at him.
***********************************************************************
*Mother!*
*Mother, you are gone forever.*
Kasumi felt like crying. In fact she was crying. Her salty
tears flowed freely across her cheeks and dropped like little drops of
rain onto the ground below. *Mother, I have lost you.*
The eldest daughter of Soun Tendo had loved her mother very
much. Kimiko Tendo, formerly Kimiko Yamammoto had been the best mother
that anyone could have. She was kind, gentle, loving, and compassionate
and she loved her family. She had been everything that a daughter could
hope for in her mother. Naturally, Kasumi had been devastated when her
mother died at the young age of twenty-nine. Even worse she had seen
her mother suffer and wilt away under the ovarian cancer that hounded
her to her death.
Like anyother child Kasumi would have recovered from the
loss if only her father had been there to comfort her and give her love
when she needed it most. But Soun had not. She still hated her father
for that. He had abandoned his children when his wife had died. He had
become a burden when he should have been the pillar and had been the
one responsible for the path her family had taken. And yet she loved
him. She loved him as her father and gave him the respect that a father
deserves but she hated him all the same.
With none to guide them in their hour of need the family of
Soun Tendo had become a shadow of its former shelf. Kasumi knew that
her mother would not want the family to fall apart, whatever the
circumstances maybe. Therefore she had donned the mantle of her mother.
A position that she could never replace. Kasumi had not lost the sense
of loss, however and over time her child's mind had made the house her
mother. That was the reason she paid so much attention to it. To her it
was her mother and as such she loved and cared for it with all the love
and care one gave to a mother.
Now, the house lay in smoldering ruins and with it the
floodgates that had kept her grief under control for so long burst
open.
***********************************************************************
Nabiki kept pounding away on Ranma's chest until Ryuu
pulled her away from him. She hugged Ryuu and wept into his chest.
"I am so sorry. I... My regret knows no bounds, Tendosan."
Nabiki pulled away from Ryuu and leveled her gaze at him.
"Bastard. You destroyed everything." she shouted.
Ranma did not look into her eyes.
"I am so sorry, Tendosan. I... I will do anything to atone
for what I had done."
"Atone... There is no atonement for you bastard."
"I will atone by building you a new home."
Nabiki calmed a little. If the house was rebuilt then all
would be well. The data she had lost would take sometime to regather
but it could be done.
Ranma heaved a breath of relief.
***********************************************************************
Soun Tendo was aghast. He had lost his house and his
children were homeless. He was too deep in shock to even cry.
He surveyed the pile of rubble that had been his home and
legacy just two minutes ago. *It has become a pile of garbage, just
like my life.*
He knew that he had acted cowardly when his wife had died
and it was his actions that had almost destroyed the family. *Maybe its
time I started acting like one.*
He clutched his fists and put his arms around Kasumi.
Kasumi hugged him and cried into his chest. "Mother!" she kept saying
again and again.
"Shh! It's all right Kaschan. Papa's here." he soothed.
"She's dead daddy." Kasumi gasped between sobs.
"Yes, she's dead. But she lives in our hearts and can never
die as long as we don't forget her."
Kasumi's sobs decreased in intensity and pretty soon she
stopped crying all together. "Thank you daddy." said Kasumi as she
wiped away her tears.
Soun was about to reply when he heard Nabiki shout bastard.
He turned towards her and saw her confronting Ranma.
*I should have raised her well. Kimiko, I am sorry that I
failed you.* Thought Soun as he walked towards his second born and
Ranma.
***********************************************************************
"You must also pay compensation for what you had done."
said Nabiki. The businesswoman in her had taken over as soon as Ranma
had said that he would rebuild the house.
Ranma nodded mutely.
"And you will have to pa..."
"That's enough Nabiki. Go and comfort your elder sister."
interrupted Soun in a commanding voice.
Nabiki turned towards him and spoke. "Don't interrupt me
when I am speaking daddy." she said with disdain.
*Where did I go wrong with you.* "You will not address me
in such a tone. Now do as I told you." replied Soun.
Nabiki glared but Soun did not buckle like he had so many
times in the past. Finally she shot a 'you will pay for this' glance at
him and went away.
"Accept my apologies for my daughter's behaviour Qinsan."
Ranma bowed in reply. "It is I who must beg your
forgiveness Tendosan. Please accept my humblest apologies."
"There is no need to apologize, Qinsan."
"Please call me Ranma."
"All right Ranma, there is no need to apologize. It was a
honor to witness your challenge to my dear friend Genma." replied the
Tendo patriarch.
"Nonetheless I must pay for the damage that I have done. I
will rebuild your home and dojo as a repayment, Tendosan."
"Thank you Ranma."
"Your family would need a place to stay in till your house
is rebuilt, wouldn't it Tendosan?"
The Tendo patriarch nodded.
"I would be most honored if you and your family would stay
in my house till then Tendosan."
"Thank you Ranma." With that Soun retreated to check on his
third daughter Akane.
Happousai approached Ranma and was about to introduce
himself when Ranma addressed him.
"Nice to meet you in person at last, grandmaster Happousai.
You too are welcome to stay at my house one condition. You have to stop
stealing ladies panties and groping them."
"But I need the ki they provide to survive." complained
Happousai.
Ranma laughed out aloud. "I am not as stupid as the others
grandmaster, Happousai. Don't tell me that a man as skilled as you
needs them. I can see from your ki that you have mastered three
different ki replenishing techniques in the course of your life."
"I..." stuttered Happousai. He had hoped that everyone
would overlook that little detail.
"Do you accept my proposition grandmaster?" asked Ranma.
Happousai nodded mutely. He could always return to his
hobby after the stay had ended.
"Fine then."
***********************************************************************
Setsuna was agitated. That was bad. The sailor of Pluto had
one of the coolest heads on the planet. For several days now she had
been denied access to time travel. That alone didnot bother her. The
fact that she, the guardian of time couldnot even view the future
bothered her. Try as she might the time-stream refused to bend to her
magic and show her the future. She could still view the past but she
couldnot travel back in time too. Something big was happening and for
once sailor Pluto didnot have any idea what it was.
The resurrected sailor Pluto was the same as the one who
died millennia ago when the Moon Kingdom fell. She had the same
loyalty, though it was now perverted and she had the same memories. Of
all the senshi only she was blessed with the memories and experiences
of her previous life. Perhaps it was her position as the guardian of
time that gave her memories of her past life. When she had first
awakened in her new body after millennia of slumber, her experiences in
this life had been locked away in a part of her subconscious and she
had abandoned her roots in this life. She had imprisoned herself by the
time-gates to plot the future for her queen.
On the first day of her new job she had noticed a ripple of
very small magnitude in the time-stream. Normally ripples didnot occur
and if they did then it normally meant that something was wrong in the
space time continuum. For example, her forbidden attack the dark dome
enclose had such an effect on the time continuum. The dark dome enclose
created a spiked ripple unlike the smooth one that she had observed.
Setsuna had realized that there were two possibilities; one - Sometime
in the past there had been a huge change in the time continuum and the
change had been of such magnitude that it had influenced the entire
history of mankind or two - The ripple was just a small quirk in the
time-stream and it would be best to leave it alone. Setsuna knew that
the first hypothesis was almost impossible and had therefore dismissed
it completely after some investigation.
She had discovered that the ripple had first appeared two
thousand years ago and it had remained constant all through those two
thousand years. This little bit of evidence had supported the second
hypothesis and she had stopped the investigation. She had more
important things, like planning the resurrection of the Moon Kingdom to
attend to.
Her efforts had been highly successful and her plans for
the future and the present had went without a hitch for nearly three
decades. But events in the last seven days had endangered her plans for
the future. The ripple that she had so carelessly dismissed as a quirk
in the time-stream was now getting bigger and bigger by the minute. If
you took into account the very small nature of the ripple and its
microscopic growth its influence on the time-stream would be
negligible. However, that very small ripple was causing many other
small ones to form and all these ripples were coherent. Ordinarily
Setsuna would have dismissed the ripples as not worthy of further
investigation. But all these ripples small and coherent as they were
headed for a superimposition that would create a huge wave in the time-
stream. A wave in the time-stream was nothing to laugh about and a wave
of this magnitude would create a huge changes to the flow of time and
the events in real space. The future had also become murky and her
access to her future and past selves had been restricted by something
that her mind couldnot comprehend. The new ripples too continued to
grow in strength and if they were continued to grow it was very
possible that they might endanger the existence of the Silver
Millennium in the future. Setsuna as the guardian of time simply
couldnot allow anything of that sort to happen to the future that she
had worked so hard for.
The guardians of time were arguably the most powerful
sailors in existence as they had it in their power to change time. The
origins of the sailors stretched several hundred years before the
creation of the Silver Millennium. Evil had run rampant across the
planets of the solar system and humans had been powerless against it. A
few brave souls had asked the Gods for help and the Gods did help
humanity. They provided the humans with weapons that would bond
themselves to the souls of worthy humans. The humans thus bonded would
become phenomenal mana manipulators and they would be essentially
immortal. From such a time emerged the guardians of the solar system,
the sailor senshi. Until the formation of the Moon Kingdom, the
individual sailors served as the protectors of their respective
kingdoms. After the creation of the Moon kingdom the sailors were made
matriarchs of their planets except in the case of Earth. The third
planet from the sun had four native guardians and therefore the power
remained in the hands of the then ruling family.
Since Pluto was the farthest planet from the sun, the Gods
saw it fit to provide it with the most powerful guardian of all. A
guardian whose domain was the time-stream itself protected the planet.
The guardian of Pluto was also one of only three sailors whose powers
could be revoked once they were bestowed, the other two being the
sailor of the Moon and the sailor of Saturn. All three of them were
very powerful and the gods didnot want their power falling into the
wrong hands.
The sailors of Pluto had to be ruthless and cold hearted
unlike the other sensei since they were frequently confronted with
situations in which the death of one or more innocents may mean life
for the entire population. As such the talisman for Pluto bonded with
worthy humans who had ruthless personalities. Thus sailors of Pluto had
always been similar to guns primed to explode. Setsuna Meiou knew that
there had been three separate sailors of time in the past who had taken
their mission a little too far. She had been an exemplary sailor of
time during her previous life but the uncertainty of the establishment
of the Moon kingdom once again on Earth had made her throw her records
to the dogs. Scarcely a day had passed since her powers had awakened in
her new body when she had made a vow to herself to make sure that the
Silver Millennium would come to pass. Since then the old Pluto had been
locked away and a new and lethal Pluto had emerged. In the first three
years of her life she had seen to it that thirty men and women whose
descendants would pose threat to the establishment of the long dead
kingdom of the Moon had been eradicated.
Setsuna knew that though she was the guardian of time, it
was not within her powers to tamper with it. The Gods would revoke her
powers if they judged that she was misusing her powers. They had
proclaimed when they had first created the talisman for the guardian of
time that the guardian should not tamper with the time-stream unless it
was absolutely necessary. Everyone had the right to choose their own
destiny unless the gods had something planned for them and the guardian
should not tamper with individual freedom. By messing up with the time-
stream she was taking their freedom and thus their destinies from their
hands. She counted herself lucky. Her zeal to see the Silver Millennium
had made her ignore this God proclaimed rule and eventhough she had
been responsible for the murder of innocents they had done nothing to
stop her. Now with the very establishment of the kingdom of the Moon
threatened by the ripple Setsuna decided to abandon all caution and
destroy the source of the ripple before the future she had worked so
hard for was destroyed. Gods and their rules be damned she would
protect her life's work. With these thoughts Setsuna began her stint as
a private eye searching for the person or thing that caused the ripple.
***********************************************************************
The ritzy blonde who bore the name Usagi Tsuinko walked
with her friends Makoto, Minako and Ami along with her future daughter
Chibi-usa towards Rei's shrine. Along with the group were the cats Luna
and Artemis. Each of them had received a telephone call in the morning
from Rei's grandfather who told them that Rei was ill and wouldn't be
able to attend school that day. Usagi had been worried all day long as
Rei did not usually cut classes when she was ill. That meant the Rei
illness must be very serious indeed to warrant her rest. The five-some
kept silent as they walked towards their destination. The inner senshi
were the best of friends and it was this friendship that kept the group
together eventhough all of them had quite different personalities.
They reached the shrine and Rei's grandfather welcomed them
into the building. They immediately went into Rei's room to find her
lying on her bed reading a manga. Earlier in the evening grandfather
Rei's grandfather had decided that there was no more need for the
intravenous drips and had stopped them. Rei looked tired and weak but
had gotten her voice back. The headache that had tormented her in the
morning had also gone away and she had decided to pass her time by
reading manga. When they entered the room Rei put down the manga and
smiled at them.
"Rei what's wrong with you?" asked Usagi as she sat down on
the bed by her friends side.
"I am all right, Usagi." replied Rei weakly. Her strength
hadnot returned completely.
The others kept silent waiting for her explanation.
"I tried to do a fire reading yesterday. Apparently I ended
up doing something else. My grandfather says that the technique that I
executed is called a fire vision. Anyway, the technique almost drained
me to death. If grandfather hadnot arrived and helped me when I fainted
he says I would have died."
The others filed away this piece of information.
"You are going to be okay now, aren't you?" asked Makoto.
Like the rest of the group she too was very concerned.
Rei nodded. "I wanted to talk to you about something else."
"You can talk when you have grown strong." said Ami.
"Ami is right. You don't have to strain yourself now." said
Usagi.
"No, I must tell it to you now. While my ki was being
drained away by the technique I had a vision. It frightened me very
much." said Rei. She resisted Usagi's attempts to make her lie down and
sat on the bed clutching the blanket to her chest as she was still
naked underneath.
"You can tell us later, Rei. Now your rest is more
important than anything else." said Makoto.
"No, I will rest later. I have to tell you what I saw. I
think it is very important that I tell you." replied Rei. She was
getting angry at her friends mothering. Though their intentions were
good she did not need help from anyone.
"Let her tell what she saw and then we can make her take
rest." said Luna.
Ami realized that Rei would insist on telling them her
vision and reluctantly agreed with Luna's words and the others
relented.
"Okay Rei, tell us what you saw in your vision." said Luna.
"The vision was very confusing as well as terrifying. I saw
things from the past as well as what I believe will be the future. Do
any of you remember anything about the creation of the Silver
Millennium?" she asked.
Even Luna shook her head at the question.
"I saw its creation in the dream. Evidently the planets in
the solar system was ruled by different empires. It was Queen Serenity
the first who united it under a single government. The rulers of each
of the planets unanimously elected her as the ruler of the Moon
kingdom. I saw the peace and happiness that prevailed over the land
under her just rule. Then I saw one of my ancestors. She was a Sailor
of Mars just like myself and I watched as a six-handed monster raped
and skinned her alive."
There were gasps all around.
"That's terrible Rei." said Usagi.
Rei nodded and continued. "Then my vision took me to
Saturn, Pluto and finally to Mars. On each of these planets the six-
handed monsters were running rampant and spreading death and
destruction everywhere. I saw children being eaten alive, rivers
running red with blood. On Mars I saw Queen Serenity the first give up
her life to defeat the monsters and send them to their prison.
"Then my vision made me experience our deaths at the hands
of Beryl and her army. I saw Queen Serenity send us into the future and
die.
"Finally, the vision made me see our unification and then I
saw a brief image of Fuji-san."
"Fuji-san, what is the connection between Fuji-san and your
vision?" asked Ami.
"I don't know Ami. Anyway, after that I saw a great
darkness spreading all over the Earth. The darkness was made of the
army of the six-handed monsters. At their head was a middle-aged man
who laughed at the deaths of all the people around him. We fought
against his army but they were too strong and we were being defeated.
It was then that I saw a dragon emerge from the sky." said Rei.
"A dragon?" asked Luna.
"Yes, a dragon emerged from the sky. It fought with the man
and won. It spread light everywhere it went."
"It seems that a new threat is about to make its
appearance." said Luna. "Artemis do you remember anyone of the enemies
of the Silver Millennium who had six-handed monsters at their
disposal." asked Luna.
"I don't remember such an army." replied Artemis.
"Me too. Then we can safely assume that we have never
fought against this enemy before." concluded Luna.
***********************************************************************
Makoto, Ami and Minako walked slowly into the school campus
all around them students were filing into the main building. Ami was
reading some book and Minako and Makoto were discussing boys. They
waited at the entrance for Usagi to arrive with Mamoru.
"Do you see the way that cute boy smiled at me on the way
here?" asked Minako.
"Which cute boy? There were lots of those today." replied
Makoto.
"The boy with the kakoi look and a jersey on him."
"Oh! That one. I thought that he was looking at me."
"No, he was looking at me."
"No, me."
"Me."
"Ah! Who cares about him?" exclaimed Makoto.
"Huh!" Minako hadnot expected to win the argument so
easily.
"I have got a better looking one. He reminds me so much of
my old boyfriend." replied Makoto. She was staring unabashedly at a
young man with a ponytail walking five new students to school.
"Wow! He is so handsome." said Minako a little too loudly.
The man turned towards them and smiled at them before walking away.
"He smiled at me." exclaimed Minako and swooned. Her mind
was already playing scenes of the knight in shining armor taking her in
his arms and ridding off into the sunset. The knight in shining armor
happened to be none other than the handsome young man who had just
smiled at her. She would become good friends with the new students.
*That maybe the easiest way to reach him and I will let destiny do
everything else, after all we are fated to be together.*
"No way. He smiled at me." replied Makoto. In her mind too,
the same romantic scene was playing itself over and over again.
Ami sighed. Those two were always chasing boys and fighting
over them.
A few minutes later Usagi arrived and both Minako and
Makoto wasted no time telling her of their new _boyfriend_. The group
walked into class and saw one of the new students and immediately
introduced themselves to him.
"Hai, my name is Minako Aino, Ami Mizuno and Makoto Kino.
We would like to welcome you to our class." Minako as always took the
first step in the new friendship as she was the outgoing member of the
three.
"Hai, nice to meet you all. My name is Ryuuken Saotome. My
friends call me Ryuu. You can call me Ryuu if you want to." Ryuu was in
heaven. Three cute girls were _interested_ in him.
Minako nodded.
"I will do that only if you call me Mina." replied Minako.
"You can call me Mako-chan."
"Just call me Ami." said Ami and returned to her book.
"I will do that." replied Ryuu. His three-year stint in the
village had increased his immunity to fainting at the sight of cute,
flirting girls considerably.
"So which school did you transfer from?" asked Ami closing
her book. She had learnt all she could from it.
"Ummm... Furinkan High in the Nerima ward."
"We have heard pretty strange rumours about that school.
Are they true?" asked Makoto.
"What exactly did you hear?" asked Ryuu.
"Well for starters the principal is supposed to be insane."
"That's true. Principal Kuno is obsessed with Hawaii and
shaving the students head."
"Then there are rumours about a martial artist girl who
beats up dozens of boys in the morning." said Ami.
Ryuu smiled. "I didn't think that Akane would be so popular
and all." he said and twirled his shoulder length hair.
"Does that mean that the rumours are true?" asked Ami.
"Who is Akane?" asked Minako.
"Akane is the girl who beats up those boys. Principal
Kuno's son, an insane kendoist named Kuno Tatewaki made an announcement
last year that anyone who wanted to date Akane must beat her in combat.
All the perverts in the school ambush her every morning to date with
her."
"She must be a good martial artist then." said Makoto.
"Nah! Akane's a slowpoke tomboy. She is able to beat the
boys because they have no skill in fighting."
"You speak as though you have fought with her." said
Makoto. She was convinced that anyone who could beat-up that many boys
must be skillful.
"Yeah I have since I stayed in her house and all."
"You stayed in her house. Are you her relative or
something?"
Ryuu shook his head. "Nothing of that sort actually. My
father is an old friend of Mr. Soun, that's Akane's dad. He and pops
got the idea to unite our two schools by marrying their children. So
technically I am her as well as her sisters fiancee as I haven't chosen
her or any of her sisters."
"Oh!" the three of them chorused. They were beginning to
get a headache.
"Not that I want to. Anyway, the first day we met I sparred
with her and she was pretty poor."
"You know the arts?" asked Makoto.
"Yeah I guess so. I am the heir to the Saotome branch of
Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu."
"Wow! You must be pretty good then." said Makoto in wonder.
"Yeah! I am the best." replied Ryuu.
"And a modest one too." giggled Minako.
Ryuu blushed.
The teacher arrived then and everyone became silent.
"Class we have a new student in our class. Mr. Ryuuken
would you please come forward and tell something about yourself." said
the teacher.
Ryuu stepped forward. "Hai, I am Ryuuken Saotome. I studied
in Furinkan high last year but transferred here since my sensei told me
to. Before that I traveled from place to place learning martial arts."
There where whispers around the room. Ryuu was well built
for a fifteen-year-old and looked cute. Almost all the girls had drool
running over their faces. Ryuu noticed their expressions but remained
clueless. He went to his seat and sat down. Every eye in the room
followed him as he walked. The teacher began the class and true to the
promise that he had made Ryuu concentrated on the lessons.
***********************************************************************
Ranma entered the training hall. This was his first class
and he planned to make a good impression. The students stood in respect
when he entered the gymnastics hall and he bade them to sit. Scanning
the class he saw Ryuu sitting one of the girls who had commented at
him. Ryuu was smiling at him but he did not return the smile.
"Silence please. Good, I am your new Physical education
coach. My name is Ranma Qin and you will call me as sensei. Now, I want
you to stand up and tell me your name as well as answer any questions
that I may ask."
One by one the students did so.
When they were done Ranma addressed them again. "I have
some experience in karate and kempo among other styles and I will be
your martial arts club coach as well. This school has not won any
championships in the last six years in any martial arts tournament and
I plan to rectify that situation."
Ryuu snickered in the background.
"Did I say anything funny, Mr. Saotome?"
"No sir!" came the reply.
"Then why are you laughing?"
"Mako-chan here said that she could take you on and beat
you up sir."
"Is that so, Miss Kino?"
Makoto stood up. "Hai, sensei."
"Well then, care for a spar."
Makoto nodded and was about to step forward when Ryuu
caught her arms. She turned towards him and he shook his head.
"Is there any problem there Miss Kino?"
"No problem sensei." replied Makoto and Ryuu released her
arm.
Makoto walked forward and stood on the mat.
"Take your stance, Miss Kino."
"Hai sensei." she replied and took her stance. She would
show him a thing or two about fighting.
Makoto rushed forward with a haymaker aimed at Ranma's
face. The blow could have given him a black eye if only he had been
there. Instead he tapped her from behind. Makoto blinked. She had not
even seen him move. Makoto turned to face him again.
"You shouldn't leave yourself open to attack, Miss Kino."
Makoto nodded and spun around to deliver a spin-kick to his
midsection. Ranma moved out of the way and Makoto fell down unable to
stop her spinning.
"You should watch your balance, Miss Kino."
Several boys snickered. They had never seen Makoto
outmatched in a fight. Makoto turned towards them and gave a 'you guys
are so dead' glare. Ranma took this opportunity to kick her legs from
underneath her.
"You shouldn't let your attention wander, Miss Kino."
Makoto landed on her behind. She got up and rubbed her
back.
"Does your back smart, Miss Kino?"
"Arghhh!" shouted Makoto. Her temper flared and she punched
Ranma with her fist putting all her strength behind it.
Ranma did not move this time. He simply brought his palms
in front and cushioned her blow. Then he moved inside her defenses and
raised his right hand for a claw strike. Makoto realized too late that
the new sensei was a psycho and closed her eyes. Seconds passed. Makoto
opened her right eye. Ranma smiled at her.
"You have got some potential Miss Kino. You would become a
better fighter if you do not lose your temper and concentrate on your
defense more."
Makoto nodded.
"Please take your seat, Miss Kino."
Makoto nodded dumbly and sat on the ground by her new
friend.
"You are lucky, he went easy on you." said Ryuu.
"Easy?"
"Yes. He is the new sensei I am studying under. If he had
went all out you wouldnot have lasted two seconds."
"Huh!"
"He couldn't have been playing. You saw how fast he moved,
I have never seen anyone move that fast." said Ami.
"He was deliberately slowing himself down though he was
moving faster than my normal speed. Makoto, did you notice how tense
his muscles were?" asked Ryuu.
Makoto nodded. She had seen his body tense whenever she had
attacked. She had thought that he was afraid that she might hit her but
now that she thought about it she realized that he was actually slowing
himself down to her level. "How fast is he?" she asked.
"He is very fast. Today morning I attacked him with a
Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken and he countered it with his natural speed
and he was telling a joke to Cologne at the same time."
"What is a Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken and Why would he speak
with a Cologne?" asked Makoto.
"Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken is a ki technique of the
Joketsuzoku Amazons. It enables the user to use the ki to move very
fast. Cologne is one of my former sensei's. She is also the matriarch
of the Joketsuzoku Amazons." explained Ryuu.
"I don't believe you. There is no such thing as a ki
attack." said Makoto.
Ryuu burst out laughing.
"Mr. Saotome, why are you laughing again?" asked Ranma.
"Mako-chan says that there are no such things as ki attacks
sensei."
"Is that so, Miss Kino?" asked Ranma.
Makoto banged her head against the wall and stood up.
"Um... Hai, sensei."
"Then how do you explain this." asked Ranma and produced a
sizable ki ball in his palms.
The students became wide eyed and Ranma made the ki ball
disappear. Ami began recording the data that she had gathered.
Makoto stuttered. "H... How di... di... did you do that?"
she asked.
"Its not hard Miss Kino. If you train hard at the arts then
eventually you too will be able to harness your body's ki. Now, do you
need any more proof?" asked Ranma.
Makoto shook her head and sat down. No wonder she had lost
the fight so easily. All the sensei's she had studied under had said
that ki attacks are just legends. Their new sensei must be a master of
the art if he could do that.
"Since that little discussion is finished, I want to tell
you all something. What I am about to say is particularly important for
the members of the martial arts club. I had asked the principal for
permission to train you all early in the morning and he had agreed. As
such all club members as well as those of you who want to train must
assemble here at six hundred hours every morning."
Several students groaned in the back.
Ranma smiled. "I can hear the approval from some of you in
the back. Those of you who just gave your approval in the back know
that I know your face. I will expect the three of you at five thirty
hours in the morning." said Ranma.
Since it was his first class Ranma told jokes and played
some games to know the students better, Finally when the bell rang he
excused the students and they began filing out. When all the students
went out Makoto, Ami, Minako, Usagi and Ryuu approached him.
"Yes, Miss Kino do you want something?" asked Ranma.
"Hai sensei."
"Then go ahead."
"I... We, that is, me, Usagi, Ami and Minako have a friend
who needs help..."
"Go on." said Ranma and put his pencil on the desk.
"She is a temple maiden and she recently performed a
technique called the fire vision an..."
Ranma started. "What kind of idiot would perform the fire
vision?"
"Err! She did not know that it was the fire vision. She did
not even know that such a technique existed. She thought she was doing
a powerful fire reading but she was wrong. As a result her body is very
low in ki. We were thinking whether you would be willing to help her."
said Makoto.
"In what way do you want me to help her?"
"Since you seem to be a master and we thought that you
could transfer some ki to Rei and..."
"Who told you that I can perform ki transfers? Ryuu did you
tell them?" asked Ranma.
"No sensei." replied Ryuu.
"We thought that you would know how to do that and..."
replied Makoto.
Ranma grinned and nodded. "I will do it. Meet me at the
gates in the evening and we will go to your friend's home."
"Hai sensei."
"Now run to your class if you don't want to stand in the
hall."
"Hai sensei." chorused the five and ran.
***********************************************************************
The school bell rang signaling the start of the lunch
break. The students rushed to the cafeteria to get some eats.
"Come on lets eat. I am famished." said Ryuu as he sat down
under a tree.
Usagi had not even sat down to eat when Ryuu had finished
half of his lunch. By the time the motor mouth in the sailor team had a
few mouthful Ryuu had finished.
"Burppppp! Excuse me." said Ryuu as he rubbed his tummy.
The girls looked at him in absolute wonder. None could eat that fast.
"Hey guys, over here." shouted Ryuu and waved his hands.
Akane and Ryouga came and sat down with them. Akane was
pulling Ryouga by a string she had attached to his neck.
"Guys, this is the famous Akane Tendo from Furinkan high
and this is her boyfriend Ryouga Hibiki. Akane, these are my classmates
Makoto Kino."
"Hai."
"Ami Mizuno."
"Hai."
"Usagi Tsuinko."
"Hai."
"And Minako Aino."
"Hai."
"Wow! I can't believe that I am actually sitting next to
_the_ Akane Tendo." said Makoto.
Akane raised her eyebrows.
"Apparently, your everyday exploits with the lechers in the
school has made you famous throughout the city." explained Ryuu.
"Oh!" Akane fidgeted. She did not know whether to take it
as a compliment or to be offended by it.
"Hey Ryouga, how many times did you get lost today?" asked
Ryuu.
Ryouga bared his fangs and growled. The sailors looked
bewildered.
Ryuu decided to fill them in. "Oh! I did not tell you, did
I? Ryouga here has the worst sense of direction in the whole world.
Heck, he can even get lost in a room with a single door."
"Oh!" said Ami. She did not believe him of course. *Noone
would be so directionally challenged, could they?*
"Ryuuuuuuuu!" shouted Ryouga and lunged towards his friend.
Ryouga punched at where Ryuu's face was but Ryuu simply evaded. The
hand met the tree trunk. There was a crack and the tree began to fall.
Luckily the tree did not fall over anyone and Ryuu breathed a sigh of
relief.
"Ryouga, you pig-headed moron. You could have hurt
somebody." shouted Ryuu.
"Ryouga stop picking on Ryuuchan." shouted Akane and hefted
the mallet from mallet space.
Bam! Bang!
Ryouga lay senseless, his head embedded in the ground.
The sailors looked on in shock. In their experience mortals
couldnot survive such hits.
Ryuu noticed the looks on their faces and all the other
students in the ground. "Don't worry, he will wake up soon." he said.
The girls did not look comforted.
"How can you say that? Noone can survive such a hit on the
head." muttered Usagi. She had just witnessed a murder. Her eyes were
brimming with tears.
Ryouga chose that time to moan and extricate himself from
the ground. He rubbed his head and picked up his bento box by some
miracle of nature (he did not get lost searching for it) and began to
eat as though nothing had happened.
Some of the students fainted, their hearts a little too
weak to handle the situation.
"How... How did you do that?" asked Ami. She was astounded
to say the least.
Ryouga scratched his head, looked blankly at her and asked
in all innocence. "Do what?"
The girls face faulted.
Ryuu whapped him on the head. "They are curious as to how
you survived the dreaded mallet strike, you moron."
"Oh that! I don't know. I have always been able to do
that." replied Ryouga, rubbing his forehead in deep thought. *Doesn't
everyone survive mallet strikes?*
Ryuu struck his head against the fallen tree trunk. It
splintered under the blow. The girls eyes widened at the display of
strength.
"Wadda moron? What he meant to say is he has been training
in martial arts all his life and his body is thus able to withstand
powerful blows."
"Oh!" said Ami. She still did not accept that their
explanation. A scan with her computer for possession would show whether
they are humans or not.
"I am hungry. Mako-chan, since you are eating your food,
can I have yours?" asked Ryuu.
Makoto handed it over to him.
Ryuu finished the second bento in record time and burped
once more.
"Your food was great, Mako-chan. Did you cook it?" asked
Ryuu.
Makoto nodded.
"You are a great cook, Mako-chan, unlike some tomboy, we
both know." said Ryuu.
"Ryuu no baka." shouted Akane and once again the mallet
appeared in her hands. However, Ryuu did not stand there like a brick
as Ryouga did and Akane ran after him with her mallet raised to the
skies above.
***********************************************************************
The bell rang signaling the end of the school day. Ryuu and
the sailors walked to the front gate where Ranma, Akane and Ryouga were
waiting for them.
"Hey Ryouga, where is Nabiki?" asked Ryuu.
Ryouga just shuddered at the mention of the Tendo family
mercenary's name. Akane hit him in his chest and answered. "She said
she had a business meeting with her contacts and had to leave early."
Ryuu nodded. That sounded just like Nabiki. *She probably
wanted to shift her base of operations or something.*
"Akane, do you know the way home?" asked Ranma.
"Hai."
"Please see to it that Ryouga does not get lost on the way
to the house. I and Ryuu have a little business to attend to."
Akane nodded and tugged Ryouga behind her.
"I am coming with you sensei." asked Ryuu.
"Yes, you will learn from watching the transfer." replied
Ranma.
"Hai sensei."
"Makoto will you lead the way?"
"Hai sensei."
Ranma followed the sailors as they walked towards the
Shinto shrine. All the way the girls kept pestering him with questions
and Ryuu with his loud mouth contributed a lot too.
Finally they reached the shrine.
"Here we are sensei." said Makoto.
They entered the shrine grounds and knocked on the door.
Presently, grandfather Hino opened the door and welcomed them.
"Grandfather Hino, this is our new physical training coach,
Mr. Ranma Qin and our new classmate, Ryuuken Saotome." introduced
Minako.
"Its a pleasure meeting you sir." said Ranma and bowed in
respect to the old man.
The old priest bowed in acknowledgment.
"Grandfather Hino, Ranma sensei is a martial arts master.
He is here to help Rei." said Makoto.
"Oh!" Realization dawned to Fuchida Hino, grandfather of
Rei Hino. His years of experience had taught him that ki transfers
couldnot be done as martial artists use chi. Chi transfers caused more
trouble than the problems they solved. The recipient might even become
psychologically unstable. "I am afraid I cannot allow that child." *He
must be a novice in chi projection else he would have realized that chi
transfers are not feasible.*
"But Rei needs it." said Usagi. She looked as though she
was about to burst into tears. *Why is grandfather Hino saying no to
us? We only want to help Rei.*
Seeing his granddaughters best friend about to burst into
tears Fuchida decided to explain. "Usagichan you do not understand. You
see martial artists use their emotions to focus ki. Transfer of chi is
very dangerous and Rei maybe hurt by it."
"I am afraid Hino-san is correct." said Ranma.
Now, Fuchida Hino was perplexed. If the young man knew that
chi transfers were not feasible why had he come with the girls. His
thoughts were shared by everyone except Ryuu. Ryuu realized what Ranma
was about to do and a grin came to his face.
"As I said, chi transfers should never be done. However ki
transfers can be done and I am here to do it." said Ranma.
"You can directly access your ki. How did you manage it?"
asked grandfather Hino in wonder.
"Yes, Hino-san, I can directly access my ki. As to how I do
it, it is a secret of the Joketsuzoku Amazons and I can't tell you."
replied Ranma.
"Then please come this way Ranmasan." said grandfather Hino
and led the way to the Rei's bedroom. He could hardly wait to see the
technique in action.
***********************************************************************
Rei lay in her bed reading a manga. She had felt weak and
had not attended school. She had been awake for most of the day and
though she was still weak she could now move about within the room. She
had bathed and dressed herself though her grandfather had insisted that
he wash her. She understood his concern for her health but her sense of
modesty had not allowed it and she had locked him out of her room. She
was a teenager and needed some privacy. Her grandfather had understood
her unwillingness and he had not bothered her for the last three hours.
She had been reading the mangas all day long and was bored
beyond measure. She couldnot wait for her friends to show up. Then they
could have their little girly chat and maybe she could ask Makoto or
someone to stay with her till late night.
The manga she was reading was one of her favorites. It had
pink, romance, cute men and most importantly more pink (all that a girl
dreams of). It was not one of those ecchi ones but it had loads and
loads of mushy scenes and stuff. Though it seemed that she was reading
the manga as she flipped the pages once in a while, she was actually
dreaming about her knight in shining armor when her grandfather knocked
on the door.
"Rei, your friends have come to see you!" said her
grandfather through the door. The voice was muffled by the door.
"Coming grandfather." she replied and opened the door.
"Rei, this is Mr. Ranma Qin and Ryuuken Saotome. They are
from Juuban high." introduced her grandfather.
Rei bowed to both of them and then shot a quizzical glance
at Usagi. The Moon princess did not notice it but her grandfather did.
"They are here to give you a ki transfer."
"Oh!"
"Hino san, would you please lie down on the bed so that I
can examine you." said Ranma.
Rei dutifully lay down on the bed. Ranma sat by her and she
felt a tingling in the back of her neck. A minute passed before he
opened his eyes.
"A beautiful granddaughter you have here Hino-san." said
Ranma.
"Thank you sensei." replied grandfather Hino.
"You granddaughter is in excellent physical condition if
you take into account her chosen line of work. Her ki is also fairly
strong and she has great potential in the mana manipulation department.
I could also sense that her ki reserves are vastly diminished from the
fire vision."
Grandfather Rei nodded. He had known everything Ranma had
said except for his granddaughter's potential for mana manipulation.
Ranma turned towards Rei. "Young lady, I hope you learned
your lesson. Fire visions were banned less than fifty years after their
creation because only a handful survived of the hundreds who tried it."
"Hai sensei."
"Good. Now, that I have your promise that you won't try it
again intentionally, I can proceed with the treatment." said Ranma. He
raised his hand, extended his fingers and allowed more ki to flow
through them.
Grandfather Hino's eyes widened in surprise. If someone had
told him that ki could be focused with such accuracy a day ago he would
have laughed at them.
"Hino-san," Ranma addressed Rei, "I am going to make sure
that you can never willingly or unwillingly drain yourself of ki to
death. inorder for me to do that I have to press a pressure point close
to your breasts. I will not if you want me to. Do I have your
permission?" asked Ranma.
Rei nodded. "Hai sensei."
Ranma acknowledged and pressed various pressure points all
over her body.
"It is done. Now try accessing your ki for a fire reading."
said Ranma.
Rei relaxed on her bed and focused on her medium. Then she
tried to draw her ki. She could sense the little amount of ki that
flowed inside her body but she couldnot draw even the tiniest amount of
it.
"I can't draw my ki. I can feel it there, but I just can't
draw it." said Rei in astonishment.
Grandfather Rei looked at Ranma with utter wonder in his
eyes. A technique, which would prevent someone from accessing their ki
even temporarily, was thought to be impossible.
"How did you do it, sensei?" he asked in wonder. His
respect for Ranma was growing by the minute.
"Its a forbidden technique, Hino-san. I could have
permanently restricted Rei's access to her ki. However, she is going to
become a priestess and she would need access to her ki. She will never
be able to execute the fire vision or any of the twelve forbidden
techniques in Shinto though she has the potential to learn all of them.
She will be able to access her ki when her mind had reached its peace
and not before." said Ranma.
Grandfather Rei nodded. *This man is simply amazing. How
did he learn about the twelve forbidden techniques? Only a few priests
have even heard of them.*
Ranma again addressed Rei. "Hino-san, I am now going to
transfer some of my ki to you. Do I have the permission to do so?"
asked Ranma.
Rei looked at her grandfather who signaled that it was all
right. Having got the approval of her grandfather she turned to Ranma.
"Hai sensei."
Ranma nodded and placed his palm over her forehead. His
palm began to glow white as the process began. A few seconds later the
glow faded and Ranma removed his hand.
"How do you fell now, Hino-san?" he asked.
Rei felt her strength and vitality returning to her. "I am
feeling fine sensei." she answered.
"Good." said Ranma and rose up. "Remember Hino-san, if you
want to practice a variation of a technique have your grandfather by
your side. The next time you might not be so lucky."
Rei nodded. She had learned her lesson.
"We will be going then." said Ranma as he stood up.
"Sensei, you have to stay here and have supper with us."
said grandfather Hino.
"I have to refuse, Hino-san. Its getting late and Ryuu here
has to get home and do his homework." said Ranma.
"Then please have some tea."
"If you insist." said Ranma.
"Would oolong tea be okay, sensei?"
"Yes, it would be perfect."
Ranma, Ryuu and grandfather Hino left the room and went
downstairs. The girls stayed behind to gossip.
***********************************************************************
After half an hour of small talk Ranma and Ryuu took their
leave after bidding adieu.
"Sensei, how do you know so much about Shinto techniques?"
asked Ryuu. He was really curious about that topic.
Ranma put his finger on his lips and tapped it. He thought
for a while and a smile came to his face. "Now, that's a secret." he
replied in all innocence.
Ryuu face faulted. When he recovered he decided to ask
Ranma another question which was also bothering him.
"Sensei, during my three years in the village I saw the
healers and the fighters use Shiastsu for all kinds of purposes. Yet
they never combined ki with the technique. Yet today I saw you use ki
while pressing Rei's pressure points."
Ranma looked at him and smiled. "You are very observant
Ryuu. What I did cannot be done with Shiastsu? It is an extremely
dangerous and deadly style that is essentially a very advanced version
of Shiastsu." replied Ranma.
"Will you teach me that style?" asked Ryuu.
"Perhaps I would one day, when you are ready for the burden
it will place upon your shoulders. Till then heed my words. Do not ever
try to combine Shiastsu and ki without my supervision and do not
practice on animal or human alike. If you do so, they might die before
you realize what you had done." warned Ranma.
"Hai sensei."
"Do you have anymore questions?" asked Ranma.
"Hai sensei. You said you would teach me the ki projection
techniques. When will you start teaching them?"
Ranma laughed. "Ryuu, I mean to keep my promise. I will
teach you the technique when you had perfected your hand attacks and
defenses. I think that you will be able to reach a reasonable amount of
perfection in hand to hand combat in two or three years. Until then I
will teach only a single ki attack. I normally wouldn't do that but I
need to replace your ridiculous chi attack with something more
efficient and powerful." said Ranma.
"Hai sensei." What Ranma said made sense. You can't build a
skyscraper on mud. You have to prepare the ground for it and lay a good
foundation and that is what they were doing now.
"Now, we will play a little game. I want you to climb onto
that fence and somersault without losing your balance. While doing
that, I want you to juggle these three balls." said Ranma. He produced
three balls from inside his shirt and threw them at Ryuu. "Up you go."
said Ranma.
Ryuu obliged and was able to do the routine two times
before he fell down. Ranma shook his head. *This is going to take a
longtime.*
"Sensei, do I have to do this?" asked Ryuu.
"Yes, Ryuu, you have to. I noticed in our morning fight
that though your attacks are pretty good you were not perfectly
balanced. I also noticed that there were certain errors and your body
was not perfectly coordinated. This game will rectify both of them."
replied Ranma.
Ryuu nodded and repeated the exercise.
Suddenly there was a loud explosion a block from them and
Ryuu fell to the ground. Ranma signaled him to follow and ran towards
the site of the explosion.
***********************************************************************
Indra, general of Raja Chola, walked amongst the mortal
population of Juuban. He had requested that he be given the job of
eliminating the sailor senshi from the face of the earth. With him was
the best warrior in his clan, Surya.
They had traveled from the summit of Fuji mountain to the
mortal city called Tokyo with their cloak on the whole time. The cloak
was actually an advanced ki technique that projected its user in any
shape they wanted into the minds of the observers. The technique would
have been hard to detect even by the most experienced of the mortal
fighters and the mortals, weak as they had become over the ages had no
chance of finding them out.
Their journey had been unusually quiet, if you count the
forty monkeys that they had slaughtered, dismembered and ate on their
way to the city. Ashura's generally had an unquenchable thirst for
destruction and Indra was amongst the most destructive in the entire
army. Though he was a capable warrior he could not be compared to the
other generals of Raja Chola's army. Indra's clan mainly dealt with
scouting and reconnaissance. As such they were not the best fighters
but their hiding skills were above par. Indra had been given strict
orders not to alert the sensei of their presence before the attack and
he had followed it to the word. He had made sure that the monkey
remains looked like they had been scavenged and had not attacked any
humans so far. He _would_ have lots of fun on his way back to the
mountain after he had destroyed the sensei.
His senses could pick up their signatures. But even he, the
best tracker in the entire army couldnot hope to track the sensei with
their God created shields on. Therefore, he had decided to do some
mischief once he had arrived in their vicinity and wait for them to
come to him.
His partner Surya had agreed with the plan and had given
his go ahead. Surya had more experience in search and destroy missions
and Indra was only too happy to follow his advice. Any messing up on
his part would mean their total obliteration at the hands of Raja
Chola.
Now, they stood in front of a grocery store on either side
of the street. Indra turned towards Surya and gave the signal to
proceed. Surya immediately released the technique and his six-handed
figure came into view. Indra would de-cloak later after the sensei
arrived to give them the surprise of their lives.
Surya spotted a car screeching to a halt and summoned a
fireball (his body's manifestation of his ki) and threw it at the car.
The driver tried to maneuver out of the way but he could not react in
time and the ball of energy impacted against his windshield. With a
bright flash of light, flames and smoke the car exploded killing its
driver instantly.
Surya then summoned another fireball and threw it at the
grocery store. The ball was three feet in diameter and it tore up the
ground as it sped towards it target. The ball burned through the glass
in the window, impacted on the farside of the store and exploded,
killing all inside it. The blast destroyed the entire building and sent
scrapnels in all directions. Glass, wood and metal tore flesh and rock
alike. Surya burst out laughing in glee. He hadnot had such fun in a
long time.
When his laughter subsided he began to throw fireballs
indiscriminately in all directions.
***********************************************************************
Ranma ran towards the site of the explosion. His senses had
picked up the ki blast and his senses were in overdrive. He had not
been actively probing the area while talking with Ryuu because he had
not expected something of this sort to happen. Now, he could pick up
two very powerful and completely sadistic ki signatures. Both the
things, whatever they were, were ki reactors and were producing
insanely huge amounts of ki as well as tapping into the ki flows in the
area.
Ryuu tried to rush past him as he rounded the corner but
Ranma would have none of it. He had already sensed five powerful mana
manipulators tapping into the mana in the area and with a little bit of
luck he wouldn't have to fight today. He grabbed Ryuu and pulled him
into an alley from which they could view the fight.
***********************************************************************
At the time gates Sailor Pluto stood her knuckles bare and
her teeth gritting against each other. Before her images of a pig-
tailed man floated on the time-stream. She had tracked down the cause
of the original ripple and had been astonished to find that it was a
man, a man who was over two thousand years old. She had seen his entire
life in the time-gate and had discovered all his secrets. When she had
come across the images of his fight with the god-king she had been
astonished. Even Serenitysama would have with unable to defeat the God
with the powers that she possessed. Surely such a power couldn't be
benevolent. Though she had not seen him plot 'evil things' her
desperation and ruthlessness got the better of her. The future as she
had planned it was threatened by this very man and she would be loathe
to let him get away with destroying everything that she had worked for.
She waved her arms and the images fluttered out of
existence. She then carved a rip in the time-stream and entered her
room in real-time. She changed back to her non-sailor form and walked
into the hall. Hotaru, Michiru and Haruka were playing a game of cards.
"May I have your attention? I have something important to
say." she quipped.
"Sure thing, Setsuna." said the green haired, sailor of
Neptune and put down her cards. She wasn't winning the game anyway.
Hotaru put away the cards and made herself comfortable on
Haruka's lap. Setsuna looked around the room dramatically and settled
her gaze upon her fellow outer sailors.
"I have discovered a new threat to the Moon kingdom." she
announced.
Haruka and Michiru looked at each other. For Setsuna to
tell them of it must mean that it was very powerful and very dangerous.
"I had spent the last three days at the time-gates. There
is something wrong with it. I couldnot speak with my past or present
selves nor travel back in time. Initially, I didnot know what was wrong
with it but then I found out the cause..."
"Its related to the threat, isn't it?" asked Haruka.
Setsuna didnot even bother to reply. They didnot have the
time to chat. Something had to be done and done fast. "As I was saying,
this threat has been lying low and waiting for over two thousand years
and its starting to reveal itself now. I think that the queen is in
immediate danger. It is more powerful than I alone can hope to deal
with. Therefore, I have come to ask all of you for your help."
Haruka nodded in assent. She would die before she let any
harm come to the queen. The other outers had similar expressions on
their face. "Let's save the queen then."
***********************************************************************
At the Shinto shrine Ami picked up the signal from the
Ashura's and alerted the others. They locked the door and transformed
into their alter egoes. Jumping across roof tops they arrived at the
scene of the attack to find a six-handed monster that fit Rei's
description of the enemy throwing balls of energy all over the street.
Moon spoke her introductory speech and posed. "For love and
justice, I am the pretty, sailor-suited fighter Sailor Moon! On behalf
of the Moon, I will punish you."
Surya looked at the direction from which the proclamation
had come from and when he saw the sailors he smiled. "Oh goody! Toys to
play with."
Ami did not like the way this monster was reacting. The
minions of the other enemies they had faced till then would be either
afraid or annoyed whenever they arrived. This one seemed happy too see
them and the smile on its face reminded her of the smile predators give
their prey.
Surya examined the sailors and licked its lips. The
appetizers were over and now the main course was being served. "Finally
some toys to play with. Can I break your arms? I wonder how your virgin
blood tastes?"
"Shutup and die monster." replied Rei.
Surya stopped his speech. However, he didnot stop his
examination. "I will kill you last. You and your leader have more inner
strength than any of the others. I will torture you last and if you are
lucky I might even deflower you."
Rei's cheeks flushed red. *How dare that... that thing
think such thoughts about her?* "Die! Mars Fire Soul!" A stream of fire
raced towards the Ashura.
Surya smirked and produced two obsidian sickles from his
back. He dodged the blast and focused ki into the sickles. The blast
hit an abandoned car behind him and the car exploded. The smirk turned
into a lopsided grin. "Now all you die."
***********************************************************************
Author rants:
That's it for chapter three (smiles evilly). I have seen
many writers do this (end a chapter with a cliffhanger) and I wanted to
give them a dose of their medicine. For those of you who have never
written a fic what can I say... Ah yes! If I tell you what happens in
the next chapter I would have to kill ya. ^o^
Anyways it time for the customary prostration on the ground
in front of my pre-readers and all that.
The story is hosted at the following sites:
1. Mine (http://samrtaleck.anifics.com)
2. Lady cosmos (http://www.crosswinds.net/~ladycosmos/)
3. Rakhal's Penultimate Ranma Fanfic index
(http://www.rakhal.com/FFIndex/lstmain.html)
4. FFML archives
(http://miniarchive.dyndns.org:123/cgi-bin/MiniArchive.exe)
5. Mediaminer fanfic archives (www.mediaminer.org/fanfic)
I would like to take this oppurtunity to
prostrate myself in front of my pre-readers. Thank you, guys! This
couldn't have been possible without all of you:
jakub [jpilecki@poczta.onet.pl]
Kaz [kazblah945@aol.com]
Madcat [madcat08@hotmail.com]
Brain [bmccullough@nucles.com]
James Merritt [j.merritt1@home.com]
Philip Penty [plainswaker@hotmail.com]
Nathan Shuker [rezantis@hotmail.com]
Zero [shinzero@home.com]
Hints for you readers from the author:
Hint #1: Arun does not write to a schedule, he really has
to spend a lot of time with his psychiatrist.
Hint #2: (for those out standing critics out there[;)])Call
Arun anything you want in your mail provided (though he won't) he has
the right to call you by these same names. Arun appreciates
constructive negative comments and he really loves the positive
comments. Its the 'Go to hell you mother F***ing Freak of nature' and
such that he hates. Please send me your negative comments though I
would be most grateful if you would tone down the I hate you part a
little.
Hint #3: The truth is out there, hey, don't ask me where
but is out there since Fox 'spooky' Mulder says so.
Hint #4: There is no hint #4.
Hint #5: Read the author's rants section if there is one.
It would clear some of yer questions as well as create some totally
unrelated ones.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: destiny04.txt
-- Desc: destiny04.txt
SMARTALECK PRODUCTIONS
Destiny
By arun<arun2110@sancharnet.in>
<arundude1@sancharnet.in>
Chapter#04 Completed on 07/23/2001
This is a Ranma 1/2 - Sailor Moon crossover with certain
aspects of Ramayana.
Disclaimers:
Ranma and the cast members of Ranma 1/2 are owned by Rumiko
Takahashi and Shogukkan. Rumiko Takahashi is one of the most brilliant
people to walk on the face of this earth. We the fans of the anime
world are forever indebted to her for giving us Ranma and co. Thank you
Rumiko Takahashi for bringing laughter back into our lives.
Sailor Moon and its characters are owned by Naoko Takeuchi,
Toei animation and KODANSHA.
I do not own the characters of both these shows, nor do I
even pretend to own them. This work of fiction is but a tribute to the
above anime shows.
Guys:
!....! indicate thoughts. In the first and second chapters
<...> indicates Japanese and "..." indicates Chinese.
In all the other chapters, the reciprocal is true.
\...\ indicates Tamil as it spoken and \\...\\ indicates
Tamil translations.
***********************************************************************
Surya examined the sailors and licked his lips. The appetizers were
over and now the main course was being served. "Finally some toys to
play with. Can I break your arms?" he asked. "I wonder how your virgin
blood tastes?" He spoke in that manner because he wanted to make the
sailors angry. Angry opponents make serious mistakes, which can be
capitalized on.
"Shut up and die monster." replied Rei.
Surya stopped his speech. He did not stop his examination
however and he continued to examine and taunt the fiery one. "I will
kill you last. You and your leader have more inner's strength than any
of the others. I will torture you last and if you are lucky I might
even deflower you." he announced and licked in lips in anticipation.
Rei's cheeks flushed red. *How dare that... that thing
think such thoughts about her?* "Die! Mars Fire Soul!" A stream of fire
raced towards the Ashura.
Surya smirked and produced two obsidian sickles from his
back. He dodged the blast and focused ki into the sickles. The blast
hit an abandoned car behind him and the car went up in flames. The
smirk turned into a lopsided grin. "Now all of you die." he announced
with an annoying smirk on his face. The fiery one was asking for it by
loosing her anger so easily.
Rei grit her teeth and launched another attack, "Mars
Firebird strike!" A bird of fire formed and flew towards the Ashura.
This time however, Surya did not move and the blast of fire hit him
full force. His aura bloomed into a white-hot inferno of energy and
countered the blast.
When the blast died away he stood in the middle of the
scarred and smoking pavement and his eyes turned from light green to
bright red. Without prelude, he leapt into the offensive.
***********************************************************************
Ryuu had one look at the thing before he decided that it
was evil. It had six arms and was dressed in some strange fashion,
which he could not recognize. It was the one that had attacked the
pedestrians without any warning and therefore it must be evil.
"Sensei we have to help those girls." he exclaimed a bit
too loudly.
Ranma put his index finger on his mouth and 'shhed' him.
"Quiet boy." said Ranma. It seemed that the boy was itching for a
fight. Obviously Ryuu's enthusiasm and the 'I am invincible' bravado
that a teenager possessed in such large quantities were working
overtime.
Ryuu tried once again. This time though he kept his voice
low. "Sensei, we have to help those girls."
Ranma's eyes did not stray from the battle. "No, we will
not help them. At least not at this instant." he replied.
"Huh! But sensei those girls are out matched and it is a
martial artists duty to help the weak and needy." he said. Ryuu's
training voyage with Genma had imprinted in him the code of conduct of
a martial artist. Genma rarely followed it of course rather sending his
son to do the work during their travels but the lessons had been learnt
none the less.
"Those girls...", Ranma paused as he pointed his index
finger towards the battle, "are the sailor senshi. I am sure that they
can take care of themselves." replied Ranma though he knew better. He
had already analyzed the combatants skill levels and had decided that
the sailors were going to get their asses kicked.
Ryuu shook his head. He wasn't fooled by Ranma's attempt at
a lie. "You are lying sensei. Those girls are nowhere near as skilled
as that thing and they are going to lose no matter what they do."
Ranma turned a little and eyed his kohai. He was a little
impressed. Obviously his little brother possessed a lot of raw talent.
"Yes, Ryuu, you are right. However, we will not help the sailors until
they are in big trouble and they are very much in need of our help."
replied Ranma.
"But sensei I have heard a little about the sailors and
they are the good guys. I also think that thing is evil. I am willing
to swear my life on that."
"Ryuu, no one knows the sailor senshi's ultimate goal and I
am not willing to get myself involved in a war of which I know nothing
about." replied Ranma. *The boy is young and his inexperience is
showing through though he does have a point about the sailors. They
seem to be the good guys but we can't be sure.*
Ryuu did a double take at the battle and spoke. "Sensei
this is but a fight and not a full scale war." *What's up with sensei?
Is he nuts or something? I don't think that six people fighting against
each other constitutes a war.*
Ranma smiled in reply. It seemed that his brother though a
great fighter lacked the important skills of observation that was a
sine qua non of an experienced warrior. "Believe me, Ryuu, this s a war
and they are the combatants. You see that shadow over there..." Ranma
pointed with his index finger towards a shadow by an alley.
Ryuu nodded. He could see a shadow in one of the alleys on
the opposite side of the road. Though he could see it, he did not have
the least idea why his sensei would bring that up. It looked like
someone was hiding there. *Its just some pedestrian hiding there and
waiting for things to calm down.* He thought.
"That, my dear student, is another one of those six-handed
things. That one is hiding because that one is serving as the
reinforcement for that thing the sailors are facing. Whoever commands
those things anticipates more players in this game of death. I think we
can safely assume that the expected players are the other members of
the senshi team. That thing is there to surprise the other sailors when
they arrive and hopefully prevent them from turning the tide of the
battle."
"Other sailors?" *Is sensei right? Are we really witnessing
a war?* Ryuu's mind was overwhelmed. A war between super powered girls
and some sort of evil monster was the last thing he expected to see in
Tokyo.
"Oh yes, Ryuu! There are other sailors. It is because of
that fact I am not inclined to help in this battle. Who knows what will
happen when those other sailors arrive. They might be able to turn the
tide of the battle. Moreover, the sailors have a reputation for
attacking first and asking questions later. They might even attack us
and then we'd have a major problem on our hands."
Ryuu was still not convinced. A martial artist's code of
conduct said that they were supposed to help the weak and abused. The
girls were weak and even though they might turn against their rescuers,
it was his duty to protect them.
"Look Ryuu, those things are not unnatural." said Ranma. he
could sense that his kohai was still not convinced.
"They sure look unnatural to me, sensei." replied Ryuu.
"Yes they do appear unnatural but they are not. You see
Ryuu, demons are unnatural. They do not belong in this plane of
existence nor do they belong in any other. On the other hand, Kappa,
Tengu, Kitsune, Oni etc., are all natural. They may be powerful spirits
and some of them have bad reputations, which they deserve but they are
not unnatural. If a demon is present in any plane of existence nature
itself works to banish it. Demons are creatures from the huge expanses
of void between the different planes. They belong there and it is their
natural abode. However, if they try to move into a plane they are
trying to move into something that is not meant for them and as such
their continued existence in that plane is resisted by nature. Though
demons can be very powerful, they can bring only a very small portion
of that power to bear if they came into a plane. The rest of their
energy is spent trying to resist nature. Therefore demons always have a
unnatural feel about them and I cannot feel such an aura around that
thing."
Ryuu filed away this bit of information for use in the
future. You never knew when a tiniest bit of information might come in
handy.
Ranma continued. "That thing whatever it may be is not a
demon but a creature of nature. Therefore, we cannot interfere in this
war. Those things may have a reason for attacking the sailors and we do
not know what that reason is. Until we do we cannot go and stick our
heads right into the war. I..." Ranma paused, his brows creased in
concentration. "I know I have heard old stories about those things
somewhere but their identity eludes me." said Ranma pointing to the
Ashura.
"Are you sure you have heard about those things sensei?"
asked Ryuu. He had never heard about six-handed freaks of nature during
his travels or during his stay at the Amazonian village.
"Yes. I have heard about them. I am sure of it." Ranma
paused. "Rest easy, my dear student. We will help the sailors if they
really need our help and their teammates have not arrived. Until then,
we will not join the fight. Is that understood?"
Ryuu nodded.
***********************************************************************
Sailor Moon, the heir to the throne of the Moon kingdom,
stood surprise written all over her face. The surprise was mixed with
another emotion - anger. *How dare that six-handed bastard speak in
such a way to my friend?* The Moon princess normally did not allow such
words pop into her mind but the thing had offended Rei and Usagi was
very protective of her friends.
She readied her tiara and focused mana into it. Giving her
customary pose she shouted, "Moon Tiara Acti... Ugh!".
***********************************************************************
Surya almost smiled at the attack that the fiery one had
launched at him. The blast was weak even by mortal standards. A skilled
warrior with some proficiency at ki manipulation and a decade or two of
experience would have thrown a blast far more powerful than that one.
*The sailors have become weak. They are not even a threat anymore.* He
mused to himself. *However, I must obey my Lord's command and get rid
of them. Maybe I can toy with them before ending their wretched
existence.* Thought Surya as he attacked.
As he ran forward, his ki enhanced senses told him that a
single mortal was hiding in an alley in the block to his right. *He is
a skilled one but he is not skilled enough to pose a threat to me
though he might be more than Indra can handle. He is young and his aura
is really tasty. I will track him down after the battle and eat him
after I am done with these pests. Oh! How I long to taste human flesh
once mor...* His thoughts were cut off when his senses picked up the
rapid gathering of mana for an attack.
Without wasting an instant, he leapt into the offensive.
First up was the most powerful of the pests, the one who was their
queen. She was very powerful though she was in a way, the weakest
member of the group. From the way her ki flowed through her body, it
seemed that she did not have the least bit of skill in the art of war.
She was the only one preparing for an attack and that made his job all
the more easier. He could concentrate only on her for the precious
second or two when he would be rushing in for the attack. His defenses
were at their weakest then and it would spell disaster if the sailors
scored a hit so early in the fight. With a speed that easily rivaled
the Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken, Surya ran towards Sailor Moon. His hands
were extended and his body was surrounded in a white halo of fire, his
body's manifestation of his ki. His sickles glowed yellow under the
influence of the ki he was focusing through them. His saffron dhoti
tied in a katcham allowed him complete freedom of movement. Katchai
style of wearing dhoti's was particularly designed to allow maximum
flexibility and was well suited for the Ashura's modus operandi in
times of war. The Ashura's strategy placed more import on skill and
agility then on brute power.
Sailor Moon saw his incoming attack and threw her tiara at
him a little too early in the hope that it would buy some time for her
to escape his attack. However, Surya was too fast to be caught in that
mis-timed throw and he easily maneuvered out of the incoming weapon and
got into Sailor Moon's defenses.
The senshi had always practiced the 'stand and deliver'
routine and Sailor Moon was a stringent follower of that stratagem. The
typical 'stand and deliver' routine worked fine if your opponent used
the same strategy but when your opponent mounts a blitz you are done
for. The stand and deliver is very useful in confrontations in which
both the sides are more or less immobile and have weapons whose rate of
fire is very low. In confrontations where mobility and rate of incoming
attacks were high, the strategy is a death warrant and a disaster
waiting to happen.
The Ashura's were skilled warriors whose fighting
philosophies emphasized speed and agility over brute power. In any
battle situation your typical Ashura would dodge blows as they were
thrown at him and then come in for the kill. The Ashura's were powerful
and immensely skilled ki adepts but they preferred the sweat and blood
of hand to hand combat to ki blasts. Though they used long range
attacks whenever they felt that the situation demanded one, they simply
did not use ki projection attacks as their primary weapons. If your
opponent was skilled enough they might adapt to ki attacks very quickly
and your primary weapon would become useless against them. Therefore
they used ki blasts sparingly in battles.
As a result of the 'stand and deliver' strategy, Sailor
Moon remained static the entire time she gathered the mana for her
attack. That was the biggest mistake anyone can make against a highly
mobile opponent. History had shown many a time that in a war strength
alone can never guarantee victory - The Spanish invasions of the
English isles, the allied invasion of Iraq were prime examples. You do
not stand still against a fast and agile enemy and fight against them.
It is tantamount to committing suicide.
When Surya got into Sailor Moon's defenses she was still
static and it was child's play for an agile and experienced warrior
like him to attack her. He started the attack with a supersonic ki
enhanced kick to her midsection. Sailor Moon's breath was driven out
from the blow and her body flew, bent under the force of the kick.
Surya had no intention of letting off for a second. He ran after her at
the same speed as the Moon princess to keep their bodies at rest
relative to each other and sunk one of his sickles into her shoulders.
Sailor Moon's eyes clouded with unshed tears and her
rapidly dilating pupils clearly showed the pain that ripped through her
body. Blood dripped from her mouth partly due to the injury that she
had suffered and partly because of the fact that she had bitten her
lips to keep from screaming out loud. Surya still ran after her. With a
jerk that tore even more flesh and bone he pulled out his weapon and
increased his speed just a little until he was inches from her face.
He then slowed down just a little and spun around, his
right leg extended for a spinning kick. His leg glowed blinding white
and easily broke the sound barrier as he began his attack. His inertia
kept his going whilst Sailor Moon's body moved a little further from
him. His leg swung and connected with a thump that could be clearly
heard throughout the block. He had judged the ki enhanced kick
perfectly and his foot connected exactly where he had aimed. Usagi's
head snapped to the side. The blow would have killed a normal man but
Usagi's 'magic' saved her.
Sailor Moon's jawbone broke under the attack and her
direction of flight changed. Forces measuring several hundred gees
worked on her body and she momentarily fainted. Her body flew towards a
wall and crashed into it. If the wall had been made of a spider web
several feet thick it could have withstood the awesome force of the
impact. Unfortunately it was made of plain reinforced concrete and it
exploded inwards. The shrapnel's instantly killed the old aged couple
who were hiding in the room. The impact slowed down her a little but
Sailor Moon still flew, albeit at a slower speed and impacted against
another wall. This wall too shattered into a million pieces of dust,
pebbles and steel cables. Her velocity decreased appreciably and her
body landed on the hard and unrelenting concrete floor. Her inertia
kept her body moving and she skidded and bounced off the floor and came
to a halt against another wall.
Outside the building Surya's enhanced hearing picked up
Sailor Moon's resting-place and he made a mental note to go there and
kill her once he was done with the others. With a wicked grin on his
face he turned towards the other sailors and spoke. "Who's next?"
***********************************************************************
Rei Hino in the guise of Sailor Mars stood still her mouth
agape at the sight that she had just witnessed. Sure her best friend
and team leader Usagi was a klutz and not the most skillful fighter in
the world. She bungled a lot of her attacks and rarely did things
right. However, on this fight she had done everything perfectly and yet
had ended up being beat up. The thing had went through her as though
she was a twig or something. Even their most powerful enemies had not
been able to accomplish that and Rei was shocked more than she had ever
been in her life.
She was also astonished to see the thing in action right in
front of her eyes. It had moved so fast that even with her magically
enhanced senses its movements had been but blurs to her.
Her astonishment and shock quickly gave way to anger and
finally to fear. Her mind realized that the sailors were indeed toys to
it. She also realized that it was playing with them. That realization
was enough to send cold shivers down her spine.
***********************************************************************
Minako stood her eyes the size of saucers staring at the
spot where Sailor Moon had impacted against the concrete wall. In just
three seconds the strongest member in the team and one of her best
friends had been defeated by something that had looked like it had come
out of a bad horror movie at first sight.
If anyone had asked her a minute ago she would have said
that their team was invincible, after all, they had fought against the
best that the Negaverse could throw at them and still survived to tell
about it. Now, she knew that they had been wrong all along. The ease
with which the monster had defeated Sailor Moon their future queen and
princess for the time being, proved that fact without an inch for
doubt. There was no way anyone would have won a battle against Moon so
easily if they were not vastly more powerful than her.
These thoughts gave raise to fear. Fear so primeval that it
was imprinted into the very genes and she stood, her muscles unable to
move and defend herself if she were to be attacked.
***********************************************************************
Ami AKA Sailor Mercury was astounded. There simply was no
way that anything could move that gracefully. The way that monster had
moved was poetry in motion. She was sure that even their new sensei,
whom she suspected was more powerful than he cared to show to the
outside world would not be able to move that fast. The speeds at which
their adversary had moved would have put huge strains on his body and
she was sure that without 'magic' no one would be able to move that
fast. The strange thing was, there was not even the slightest flicker
of 'magic' or mana or whatever you may call it on its body though the
readings for the energy that Queen Beryl had directed her forces to
steal were higher than she had previously believed possible.
It was _logical_ to assume that anything that could move
that fast must spend insanely large amounts of energy to sustain the
speeds at which it moved. However, the readings from her instruments
proved her wrong. She had checked her instruments and double-checked
them but the energy readings never varied. The thing was slightly more
powerful than Mars but the advantage it possessed in terms of speed and
mobility was incalculable. Realization dawned to her that they were in
serious trouble. They had to stand still if they were to attack and by
the looks of what had happened to Sailor Moon their future looked grim
if they chose that option. They were caught in a catch-22 situation and
she could see no way out of it.
She had to warn her friends before they rushed into a fight
they could not hope to win. There was the slightest of chances that the
thing could be _defeated_ but only if the remaining four of them
_coordinated_ their attacks perfectly. Unfortunately, Sailor Jupiter
had other ideas.
***********************************************************************
Makoto AKA Sailor Jupiter was mad, very mad. *I will not
let that monster get away with hurting Usagi and speaking of Rei in
such a manner.* No one treated her friends like that and got away with
it. Her blood boiled at the way that thing had hurt Usagi and her body
ached for revenge. Makoto's years of loneliness had made her treasure
her relationship with the inner's more than life itself. She would be
loathe to let anyone get away with what the thing had done.
"I will kill you for hurting my princess. Supreme Thunder!"
she cried out and focused the mana through her tiara.
The lightning bolt hit her tiara and she sent the energy at
the Ashura. The energy hit the shield and threw back the Ashura a few
feet.
***********************************************************************
Surya cursed himself for letting his thoughts stray. He had
been gloating over the quick victory and one of them had used the
opening he had left and attacked him. He could have been hurt though
the injuries he would have suffered from the blast would not have been
serious. However, the blast would have reduced his agility and then the
chances of him winning the battle would have become remote. Thankfully,
his ki protected him by shunting most of the energy.
He shook his head as he got up. He would not make the same
mistake twice and he would fight very hard to defeat the sailors. He
would make sure that this battle was their last. He smiled to himself.
There he was, not even a match for some of the less skilled fighters in
his clan and the senshi were not even a match for him. His king would
conquer the mortal realm without too many casualties and when the
mortals had fallen to their army, the God's will follow.
He assumed his stance and was about to attack when a field
of soap bubbles covered everything.
***********************************************************************
"No!" shouted Sailor Mercury when she saw the thing taking
a stance. "Jupiter, get out of there before it kills you. Shabon
Spray!"
The entire area got covered with soap bubbles that her
attack produced. The defensive ring of bubbles had always protected the
sailors and disoriented their enemies whenever the sailors needed time
to regroup in the past. Against all the other opponents, it had worked
perfectly. Though their enemies had been either magical creatures or
'magic' wielders, they used only their eyesight and not their magical
senses to see and observe the world around them like the sailors
themselves. However, against an Ashura the technique that had worked
for them so many times in the past failed miserably. The Ashura's used
their finely tuned ki senses to maximum advantage in any fight and the
sailors did not have any ki cloaking techniques in their arsenal of
attacks and defenses. As such, they were at a severe disadvantage.
Sailor Mercury was the only sailor who had the necessary equipment to
sense him and the others were at his mercy.
***********************************************************************
Surya silently laughed to himself at the girl's obvious
blunder. His opponents were now blind and he had complete advantage on
the battlefield. He had never been one to look at a gift horse in the
mouth and he wasn't about to start doing now. The sailors had made it
that much easier for him to kill them and he would comply with their
wishes.
His aura blazing like an inferno about him Surya leapt once
more into the attack.
First up was Sailor Venus. She was the sailor nearest to
him and naturally, it was logical to attack her first. His ki roared
about him with even greater intensity as he focused it and ran towards
her. He gripped his sickle lightly and twirled it as though it was an
extension of his own hands. The concrete on the pavement cracked under
the heat of his aura as he ran over it. His sickles hummed like a
tuning fork as enough ki to blow a block to kingdom come was focused
through it.
Surya's speed was such that he was but a blur all through
his charge. He came to rest a yard and a half before Venus by using his
ki to absorb the inertia of his body. The girl looked at him and she
did not move. It appeared that she was paralyzed by her fears. *And one
of them is a wimp!* He thought as he swung his sickle at her stomach.
No quarter would be offered nor will it be given when begged for. This
was a fight to the death and the senshi were the ones who were going to
die, he told himself. The sickle missed her stomach by nearly a foot
but a deep gash appeared on her abdomen and blood gushed from it. The
technique he was using accomplished the same thing as the neko-ken
claws though his worked differently. By focusing on the sickle and the
air that surrounded it, Surya was able to 'extend' the cutting edge of
the sickle by nearly a foot. This was done by tapping into the ki flows
in the area and it would have been easily sensed by a ki adept though
even they would have had a hard time evading it.
Surya had no intention of letting her get off so easily
however, and he focused a little amount of ki into one of his remaining
four arms and shot it at her. The blast hit Sailor Venus right in her
chest and she flew and impacted against a lamppost. Venus's flight was
abruptly brought to an end and she lost consciousness. The metal would
not resist the force that was applied onto it in so short a period of
time and it bent and deformed. It creaked irritably as it did and
Sailor Venus slid off it and came to rest on the pavement. A pool of
blood collected on the ground around her. Even as she slid off the pole
her 'magic' began to heal her and made sure that Sailor Venus would
live to fight for another day.
Ami's sensors picked up the attack. She realized what was
going on and cursed herself. She should have known that the thing had
super-senses. The soap bubbles would take another minute or two before
they dissipated naturally and they did not have that much time on their
hands. Knowing that she was close to her friends without having
anything with drove her nuts. A fighter like Rei would have fired a
blast at the monster and hoped that the time she had bought would be
enough for her friends to save themselves. However, Ami wasn't Rei
Hino, she was Sailor Mercury, the brains of the outfit and as such she
thought before she acted.
She knew that if she attracted the thing to herself she
would most probably die and her friends would follow her shortly on a
lovely trip inside a coffin or an urn to the local cemetry. No,
sacrifice was not the option. She needed to get rid of the soap bubbles
and rid themselves of the deathtrap that she had created. If she could
somehow do that then maybe they had a slight chance of getting through
this confrontation alive. She concentrated and let the mana flow
through her. She knew that she had precious little time before the
thing assaulted the next sailor and therefore she concentrated more
than she had ever before. She tried to hide the mana as best as she
possibly could and then she released it with the shout, "Shabon Spray
Disperse!".
The wall of soap bubbles faded out of existence just in
time for Jupiter to dodge the sickle as the Ashura slashed at her mid-
section. A tendril of white extended from the sickle and it left a
trail as it blazed through the air. The senshi of Jupiter was the best
hand to hand fighter among the inner's senshi and probably the best
fighter amongst all the senshi and she was very proud of that fact.
Now, she evaded as fast as she could as slash after slash was executed.
Some of them were too close for comfort but she wasn't complaining. She
was lucky to survive those near misses and she tried her best to get
more luck on her side.
***********************************************************************
Surya turned towards most significant threat that remained
standing amongst the accursed sailors. The girl's ki was slightly
focused and he was able to sense that the girl had some martial arts
training in her. She was probably the only one who had any reasonable
chance of surviving his onslaught and he was determined to eliminate
her before the others decided to lend her a hand.
Surya was no fool. He knew that it was only a matter of
time before the girls decided to coordinate their attacks. It was the
soundest strategy against a technically superior but numerically
inferior opponent. Even his strategy would fail if all the sailors
decided to attack him at the same time. One of them may attack while
the remaining two kept him moving and on the defensive. He could not
take their attacks and come out unscathed and if they did coordinate
both their attacks and their defenses successfully there was chance
that they would succeed in eliminating him.
The girl was tiring very quickly. She simply had not the
endurance to keep up the blistering speed for very long. His attacks
were getting closer and closer to home and his lips salivated in
anticipation of the smell of fresh blood. Blood lust had overtaken him
and it drove him on in his relentless onslaught.
***********************************************************************
Mercury watched that thing go after Jupiter and to her
relief, her friend was able to evade it. She knew that Jupiter would
not be able to hold out for long and that Jupiter needed help fast if
she were to survive another minute.
"Mercury Aqua Magic!" she shouted and launched the attack.
The only other time she had used the attack she had fainted because of
the strain that it created on her body. She had tired to control the
flow of ki during the first time and that action had did her in. This
time she focused only a little on the attack and tried to disperse all
the extra mana into the atmosphere instead of trying to contain its
flow. Her plan worked and she was able to do a less powerful version of
the same attack. The ball of ice broke into many fragments and each of
these fragments headed towards the thing.
***********************************************************************
Surya was very close. His nostrils flared with the expected
smell of freshly shed blood. *I have her now. Soon I would have carried
out my Lord's command and these pests will be no more.* He thought
happily to himself.
He knew that the sailor pest he was fighting with would
last another two or at the most, three slashes before he tagged her
with his attack. The extended range of the sickle was a huge blessing
and if it were not for that, he was sure that the bitch would last much
longer against him. He slashed upwards with his right hand and the ki
blade sliced through the strand of hair that blew about her. The hair
had not even began its journey down to the earth when he retrieved the
sickle and pulled back his left hand for another go. *See you in hell
bitch!* He thought. The left arm had began to move forward when he
sensed mana being focused. Cursing his luck under his breath he
abandoned the attack and leapt into the air.
***********************************************************************
Jupiter's muscles ached under the strain that she was
placing upon them. Even with all her 'magic' she did not have the
endurance to fight at such grueling speeds for an extended period of
time. She backpedaled as yet another slash, this one directed up,
missed her face by mere inches. Her hair was not so lucky and she felt
them as they were cut. The amount of focus that she was using had made
her hypersensitive to her environment and she felt the slightest gusts
of wind on her face as the sickles continued their onslaught.
*I won't last much longer.* She thought bitterly to
herself. The thought of her death did not strike terror in her heart as
she had once thought it would. She had died before and though she knew
that this time she won't be coming back, she felt detached from the
situation.
The thing pulled back its left arm and began to swing its
sickle at her. *This is the last one.* She thought even as she tried to
evade it. It was a hopeless cause, she knew as much as that thing did
but she was not about to give up hope and die without it. Growing up
alone in the world she had often encountered such situations, it had
been her hope, and perseverance that had seen her through those
situations. She would fight or rather evade till the end. It might buy
her teammates a few precious seconds and those seconds might end up
saving their lives.
The thing seemed to pause in mid-attack for the briefest
period of time. Its mind seemed to be in a state of turmoil. The look
disappeared as soon as it had appeared and the thing leapt straight up
into the air.
Time seemed to stand still for Makoto. She had been just
given a second chance at life. She heard Mercury shout out real loud
'Mercury Aqua Magic'. Makoto thanked the kami and rolled away. She did
not plan to be in the thing's path when it landed on terra firma once
more.
***********************************************************************
Ami saw the thing jump into the air to avoid her blast but
she deliberately delayed it until it was near the apex of its flight.
Then she let loose her attack. The thing turned around in mid-air and
fired a huge blast of energy at her. She jumped out of the way but the
resulting explosion still knocked her off her feet.
She closed her eyes and waited for her death. She knew that
she not fast enough to evade it should it choose to go after her next.
The seconds tickled by but the attack never came. She opened her eyes
and looked around. Jupiter was holding out her hands to her while Mars
was busy trying to fry the thing with another of her fire based
attacks.
She took hold of Jupiter's hands and got up. "Thank you
Jupiter."
Her fellow senshi nodded in acknowledgment. Time was not on
their side and they could not afford to waste it.
"I have a plan that just might work." she shouted as loud
as she would. Over the din of the flames that sprouted out of Mars's
hands it was barely audible. "We might win if we cover each others
back. Keep moving and don't let that thing get near you. If it
approaches you just evade and let the others attack it. Try to move
while you launch your attacks and cover the others back."
Rei nodded and Jupiter dipped her head slightly in
acknowledgment.
***********************************************************************
Surya turned around in mid-air and as he did so, he focused
a basketball-sized ball of ki onto one of his hands. He hurled it at
the green haired sailor who had attacked him. The girl threw herself
out of the way but was still caught in the explosion that ripped away
the concrete and left a meter deep ditch where the ki ball had hit.
Even as he released the blast at the sailor he brought his
two sickles before him and then slashed downwards at the attack that
the sailor had thrown at him. The clash of the conflicting energies
produced an explosion, which threw him back. Surya flew through the air
and smashed against a building. The wall was dented but it did not
break. Gravity took over and Surya fell. He righted himself in mid-air
in a move that was as nimble as a cats and landed on his feet. He let
his body be as relaxed as it possibly could be to decrease the forces
that acted upon his body and rolled with his sickles tucked away. He
thus absorbed the energy of impact and eyed the sailor who had dared to
attack him with raised eyebrows. She was still on the ground with her
eyes closed presumably waiting for her death.
*Pathetic behavior.* He thought to himself. *Maybe I should
end her existence right now.* He hated cowards and it seemed that two
of the sailors were cowards at heart.
However, fate had other ideas and one of the other two
attacked him. He dodged away from the fire and ran around her staying
just out of the range of her fire. She would not be able to keep it up
for long and when she grew tired, she would die. The flames ignited
everything in their path and the whole area filled with smoke from the
burning buildings.
***********************************************************************
Ami and Makoto ran towards Rei and stood some distance from
her on both sides. Rei stopped her attack as soon as they had assumed
their positions. The four of them stood admist the burning ruins eyeing
each other and waiting for the other to make the first move. It was the
Ashura who made the first move. Being on the defensive against a
coordinated enemy is asking for death to come a callin' and he knew
that very well. If he were kept on the defensive his most significant
advantage would be lost and with it, any hopes of winning the battle
would be lost as well.
Surya ran forward and the senshi scattered. He went after
the brown haired bitch first. She was the one most tired from her
recent encounter with him and he planned to take her out of the
equation completely. He attuned his senses to a degree of perfection
that had been lacking before and charged forward, his sickles blazing
like the corona of the sun towards the bitch. His senses easily picked
up the other two moving towards his back in an attempt to flank him. A
blast of mana was fired at him from a hundred yards from his back. He
moved out of the way and adopted a zigzag pattern of advance. It would
take a while with the other girls at his back but he would kill the
bitch in the end.
His speed was somewhat lesser than his previous top speed
as he had concentrate a significant portion of his consciousness to
detection of attacks but that was a sacrifice worth the effort. Without
his senses to warn him of incoming attacks, he would be toast in a
minute or two. His partner Surya was hiding in the background but he
doubted whether that sadistic freak would turn the tide of the battle.
Surya came at Jupiter attacking as fast and as furiously as
he possibly could. He knew that it would take a lot to get the girl but
in the end it would be worth the effort. Without her skills and backup
the others would die and his Lord would reward him and his clan for a
job well done.
The brown haired bitch easily avoided his attack. His speed
had diminished to her level and as things were she had the upper hand
in battle. Though her skills were in no way comparable to him she had
the help of her friends and the old saying 'united we stand and divided
we fall' held true to her situation.
The sickles ripped through the air leaving ionized air in
its wake. Jupiter evaded the blows with difficulty and jumped in the
air. He was about to follow her when his danger sense sounded. The
blast was very near to him and he did not have the time to leap out of
the way. The mana hit the ground behind him and the ground blew up. He
tucked in his arms and legs and rolled with the blast. He came to rest
some fifty yards away with several bruises on the right side of his
body.
*That's it!* Thought Surya and shouted "I will not lose to
the likes of weaklings like you and fail my Lord.". He had concentrated
so hard on sensing the attack that he had been unable to erect his ki
barrier in time to defend himself from the last attack. The attack had
wounded him and he lacked the necessary skills to heal himself. The
wound would heal naturally but his reflexes and speed would suffer
during the battle. There was still a possibility of victory he knew,
but the odds were now stacked heavily against him. He could retreat and
others more powerful than him could be sent to destroy the sailors but
he refused to consider that alternative. Retreat was dishonorable and
he would rather die than live without honor. He closed his eyes and
tapped into the ki flows in the area. His body began to shine a shade
of unhealthy blue and the power readings on Ami's console kept on
climbing. The sailors tried to stop him with some attacks but the ki
barrier he had erected around himself was just too strong.
***********************************************************************
"Wow! What is that thing made off?" remarked Ryuu as his ki
senses went into overload. The thing had become an inferno of ki all of
a sudden.
Ranma's face had become grimmer by the second for the last
half a minute or so. The technique that the thing was using was one of
the most deadly ever developed. Every person or thing had a limit for
ki storage that should and normally could not be exceeded. However,
users of the technique were able to flood themselves with ki and gained
enormous power for an hour or so before he or she collapsed and died.
The technique was used often in times of war when fights to the death
were common. A skilled warrior who chose to use the technique would
level an entire army before he died from the side effects.
Ryuu looked on in wonder, his mouth agape at what the thing
was doing. The thing was soaking up the ki in the area and if the look
on his sensei's face was any indication it looked like the Sensei were
in a lot of trouble. Even his ill-tuned senses could pick up the energy
that radiated in huge waves from that thing and he was sure that if
Cologne or Happousai had been with him they would have suffered a
stroke or something.
"Ryuu..." said Ranma quietly.
Ranma had to repeat the call several times before Ryuu
responded to him. The boy was in a stupor and Ranma had to shake him
out of it. "Hai sensei." replied the fifteen-year-old heir to the
Saotome branch of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu smartly.
"I think that the necessity for our intervention increases
by the second. When we do try to rescue the girls I will take care of
their opponents while you move the girls to that building over there.
When you had done that stay with them till the fight's over, Is that
understood?"
"Hai sensei." replied Ryuu.
Ranma nodded and turned towards the fight once more. He
relaxed and began to draw ki and mana into him in anticipation of the
battle that was about to come. The things could not possibly sense his
preparation as he was using a technique the likes of which they could
not even begin to comprehend.
***********************************************************************
Surya howled in pain and anger. The ki that was coursing
through his body was both a blessing and a curse. He had little control
over his senses and he had become supersensitive. The little flecks of
dust that hit him every now and then and the radiated heat from one of
the fires were giving him a taste of hell. He rose into the air, his
fists clenched tight as pain shot through his body. He would make his
clan proud and kill the sailors before he died.
Since his hypersensitivity ruled out hand to hand combat he
threw both his sickles at the brown haired one. The sickle sped at
several times the speed of sound and impacted against the asphalt on
the road. Jupiter tried her best to get out of the way but the sickles
were too fast for her. She had not taken three strides when the sickles
exploded. The ki that had been stored in them broke its prison and
escaped violently. The sickles blew up as a result and Jupiter's back
became a pincushion as several hundred sharpnels embedded themselves in
her body. The blast was relatively small and it threw Jupiter only a
couple of feet. Her hands extended up through the flight and she let
out a scream of agony. She lost consciousness before she hit the ground
and lay where she had fallen. Her 'magic' worked on making her whole as
she lay in Morpheus's embrace.
Surya tried to laugh but his body responded with an
unnatural groan. Blood dripped in drops from his body but he did not
care. He had a command to execute and honor to bring to his clan. The
black haired bitch attacked him once again with one of her fire blasts.
The blast was weak and his ki barrier repelled it without any undue
stress on his dying body. He tried to laugh at her weak attack but that
laugh too came out as a groan.
The whore launched another attack. It too was as
ineffective as the first one. He focused large ki balls on all his
hands and threw them at her. The whore tried her best to escape but she
was as unskilled a fighter as they came. Even then she was able to
evade four of the balls but the last two hit the ground just a few feet
behind her. The twin concussion waves picked her up from the ground and
slammed her face first an exposed steel girder from a building. She
lost consciousness without so much as a moan and slid to the ground
where she lay in a bloody heap.
Surya eyed the cowardly one. She was the last one standing.
After she was dead he would kill all the others and die a honorable
death, his duty completed. Even through all the pain that flooded his
brain and body he looked at her and managed to smile evilly.
***********************************************************************
*'I am sorry... I am so sorry...'*
*'You are just a failure, you failed all of us!'* replied
Rei and the others. They looked sadly at her, their eyes filled with
pity as though she were a beggar that they might pass on the street.
*'We thought we were your friends. You proved us wrong. You
are nothing but a crybaby and coward.'* They mocked her. Her very own
friends mocked her.
*'I am not weak.'* She muttered, her eyes brimming with
tears. *Was she not supposed to be their friend and future queen?*
*'But you are!'* They replied. *'You were supposed to
protect us and there we were always trying to protect you. You failed
us Usagi. You failed to protect us.'*
She cried. She cried and ran. However, no matter where she
went the voices, those familiar voices mocked and followed her.
Everything was black around her and no matter where she ran there was
not a speck of light anywhere. There was nothing except for the voices
of her friends, distorted and mocking following her everywhere she ran
trying to escape them.
"Usagi..." A soft voice spoke.
It was Mamoru she realized.
"Usagi..."
"Mamoru..." she whispered.
"I am here Usako." he whispered back lovingly. He had found
her bruised and battered. She was bleeding profusely from the wound on
the shoulder and he applied his healing 'magic' on her. The bleeding
slowed down and finally stopped. Her bones and flesh healed and the
wound closed.
Her vision cleared and she opened her eyes. A black blur
appeared before her. Momentarily the blur condensed into the concerned
face of the man she loved, the man who would one day be her future
husband and king of the reincarnated Moon Kingdom, Mamoru. She tried to
sit but pain shot down her entire body in protest. Her eyes roamed
around and she saw a pool of blood with her in the middle. The shoulder
wound had sealed and she could feel the bones and tissues mend under
the healing 'magic' of her lover.
"I have got to help them fight that thing." she whispered.
Her lips split when she opened them to speak. Her lips had never felt
so dry in her life.
"You stay here Usako, I will help them."
"No!" she replied as loud as she could. Droplets of blood
oozed out of the split lips. "I have to help my friends." she replied,
her voice again dropped to a whisper. They were her friends and she
would never abandon them.
"Please Usako, you are in no condition to fight. Lie here
and I will help them." *Her voice after all that she has gone through
still has that irrefutable tone that a queen should have.* He mused to
himself.
She shook her head adamantly as a result of which pain shot
through her body. She grit her teeth and glared at him. *Doesn't he
understand that as their queen it is my duty to take care of them and
protect them?* She thought to herself.
Mamoru sighed in frustration. She was in too bad a
condition to fight but she refused to let her friends fight without
her. Loyalty was one of her most endearing qualities and it refused to
abandon her even in the condition that she was in. She was in no
condition to fight and she would not fight if he could help it.
"All right Usako, I will take you there but you have to
promise. You will not fight anymore this day. Do we have a deal?" He
was determined to not let her fight. *The other sailors would have to
make do without her just this once.* He thought to himself.
She nodded.
He thanked the kami for making her see a little reason.
"Come Usako, I will carry you there." he said and slid his arms
underneath her broken and bruised body.
Pain shot throughout her body and she bit her lips to keep
from screaming out loud. She was sure that if she screamed Mamoru would
not take her to the scene of the battle. Blood dripped from these fresh
wounds drop by precious drop onto the dusty floor below. She blacked
out twice while he lifted her as the pain proved too much for her
weakened body.
Mamoru looked at the battered body of his future wife and
shook his head in wonder. She never failed to amaze him. She possessed
courage and inner strength far beyond her age and as he watched her
struggle against her pain his pride, respect and love for her grew by
leaps and bounds.
He shifted her battered body in his arms carried her the
rubble that her impact had created. There were dents here and there and
the smell of freshly caked blood and death was everywhere. He passed
through the holes that her body her created and gingerly set her by a
wall taking care to make her as comfortable as possible. He removed
little flecks of concrete that were embedded in her pale skin and
kissed her gently on the forehead. He normally was not so expressive in
public but the situation demanded a kiss. It was like some part of him
wanted to kiss her one last time before he went into battle.
He rose up to go but Usagi somehow managed to raise her
arms and grab onto his. He turned around and knelt by her side. Their
eyes met and their faces inched closer to each other. He opened his
mouth and closed his eyes. Their lips met midway and they kissed. The
kiss did not have any amount of lust behind it. It was filled with care
and love. It was more of a confirmation of their commitment and love
for each other than of physical attraction. Mamoru's hands slid around
her body and he hugged her, drawing her body into his protective
custody. Finally she broke the kiss and looked lovingly at him. Her
body seemed to have recovered some of her colour and she had a little
of that happy look that she always had on her face. By some unspoken
signal she let go off his arms and he caressed her blood caked cheek
with his hand. "I love you very much Usako." he said and stood up. The
kiss still lingered in his mouth and he could taste the salt from her
sweat and the metallic taste of her blood in his lips. He would make
whoever or whatever that had hurt her pay for her injuries and the pain
that she had suffered. He turned and hopped onto a roof and looked at
the battlefield.
There was rubble everywhere and small fires burned her and
there. The smoke from them rose to the skies above. There was smoke
everywhere and though it did not reduce visibility in any way it put
some stress on the respiratory system. There were huge holes in some of
the building and the whole area looked like a battle zone.
He saw that all the other sailors had fallen and that only
Mercury stood. She had a look of absolute terror on her face and was
staring up into the air. He followed her gaze and got his first view of
the enemy. _It_ floated in the air some thirty feet off the ground and
it's entire being was focused on Mercury. The thing, whatever it was
had six arms and a halo of energy swirled all around its body. It
looked awe inspiring and yet terrible at the same time. It was as if
that thing was death incarnate. It evoked a fear in him so primitive
that it was embedded in the genes themselves. His entire being was
filled with horror. It had a smile on its face that sent cold shivers
down his spine. He shook himself out of the stupor and formulated a
plan. It was obvious that the things attention was focused upon Mercury
as his was on it. He readied a set of explosive roses to throw at the
thing. His 'magic' was not as powerful as the sailors but he knew that
strength alone did not win wars. He had proven it many times in the
past when he had helped the more powerful sailors in their battles
against the minions of the Negaverse. He was too focused on his plan
and on that thing before him that he did not notice the one creeping up
behind him until it was too late to run.
*Something's wrong here!* He realized. He was standing in
plain sight and the thing even though it was focused entirely on
Mercury could not just ignore it as it was doing right now. When the
amount of power that it wielded was taken into account that single fact
meant nothing but something told him that it was all wrong. Though he
would never admit to it his intuition had never failed him before. He
had felt it during his first encounter with Usagi and many times during
their later adventures when he or any of the others were in grave
danger. He turned and saw...
***********************************************************************
Indra had observed the fight with great interest. From the
moment the first shot had been fired by the sailors he had known that
Surya would win in the end. His comrade in arms had fought bravely and
fiercely bringing honor to his clan and to himself. Indra envied him a
little. The Ashura was little over two thousand years old, young
compared to his fifteen thousand years of life and experience. Yet
Surya was more skillful than him. It was taken for granted amongst the
Ashura's that given time Surya would become one of the best warriors
under his majesty Raja Chola's command. The millennia of imprisonment
had not been wasted by the Ashura's. They had trained hard and had
become abler fighters. Some of them had abilities that bordered on the
miraculous. It had not been in vain. He was sure that he could take on
any one of the sailor whores and beat them in a fair fight.
Indra had seen the way Surya had dealt with two of the
whores and it had been magnificent. The execution and timing of the
attacks were prefect and the blows had been devastating. Then Surya had
gone after the brown haired one and amazingly enough she had been able
to hold out against him for nearly three minutes, a long time if you
took into account both their skills or the lack thereof on the part of
the sailor whore. The sailor's movements had been as graceful as a
tortoises but her mana manipulation had seen her through the situation.
Surya had taken too long a time to take her down and in the end he
failed to accomplish even that. The whore escaped with her life just in
the nick of time and the one of the others had come up with an
effective strategy to be used against his comrade. Surya had tried to
take them on with his own powers but it was fairly obvious that his
skills were inadequate for the task at hand.
Indra envied his partners mental toughness. It was a
quality that he lacked very much. Indra knew without a shadow of doubt
that if he had been caught in such a situation he would have run for
his life and let his honor rot in the mud. His self preservation
instincts were fairly strong and he knew that old saying 'He who fights
and runs away lives to fight another day.' quite well. However, Surya
had done something that was not only foolish but also extremely heroic.
Surya had overridden and flooded his bodies ki storage
capacities and had essentially given away his life so that he may get a
chance to take the sailors. Honor was always a strange thing and it
made men and God's alike do strange and illogical things.
With a slightly heavy and envious heart Indra had gone back
to his duty and had observed the fight. According to the plan that they
had made together he was to watch and observe the fight and be on the
lookout. It would not do if there was any outside interference during
the course of the battle. Indra had did so and he had sensed one mortal
fairly early in the fight. The mortal had kept to himself and had not
in any way tried to intrude into the fight. At first Indra had thought
that the mortal was very smart or stupid. His monitoring of the mortal
had led him to conclude that the mortal belonged to the former
category. The mortal's ki though fairly focused was not completely
controlled and he had been able to sense the change in the mortal's
emotions as the mortal had witnessed the various stages of the fight.
It proved that though the mortal was inclined to support the whores he
was also wise enough to realize that his interference would not make a
difference in the fight.
Indra had promised himself that he would hunt the mortal
and eat him after the sailors were dead. Since the primary hunt was
near its end the familiar stirrings for blood had taken root in Indra's
mind. Though not the blood thirstiest of the Ashura's he was certainly
not one of the mild hearted ones like Surya. He enjoyed the taste of
warm blood in his lips and his fingers ached in anticipation as the
time drew nearer. He longed to feel once more the hopeless and tehe
electric feeling that radiated in a death struggle whils a mortal's
struggled vainly for his life in his clutches.
About the time Surya had initiated the technique he had
sensed another mana manipulator in the area. However, when compared
with the sailor senshi this newcomer was weak and could be easily taken
care off. Since the newcomer did not pose any threat to his partner,
Indra had let him be. He had even let the fool carry the sailor leader
from her resting-place.
When the fool had gotten too close to the battle Indra had
decided to not take any chances. Thus the secondary hunt had began.
Indra had stalked the mortal like a tiger stalked its prey. The fool
was as weak as they came and he had not even realized that he was being
stalked. Indra had been very disappointed. He had hoped that the mortal
would have the animal instincts but the mortal seemed to be the epitome
of the weak state that the mortals had reached after the prison had
been created.
Indra stopped a couple of yards behind the mortal.
Surprisingly the mortal had sensed him and turned around. *Perhaps this
hunt will not be a total waste.* Thought Indra as he revealed his
glorious persona to the mortal.
The mortal's face showed a variety of emotions during the
next couple of seconds. He seemed to be shocked at Indra's sudden
appearance and his face showed it clearly. Then the shock gave way to
revulsion, fear and finally hatred. His face grew pale and he looked
ready to puke. The mortal clutched his cane tightly and glared
defiantly at the Ashura.
Anyone would tell you that the sight of a six-handed thing
with medium sized fangs protruding from its mouth and a halo of fire
nearly a foot thick is fearful. This was the sight that confronted
Mamoru AKA Tuxedo Kamen when he turned around. Throw in an eye that
glowed an unnatural shade of red and a pair of sickles, which also
glowed red, and you got the stuff with which nightmares are made off.
"Scream for me!" spoke Indra and attacked.
***********************************************************************
Tuxedo Kamen turned around and nearly fainted. He was not
faint-hearted but the thing that stood before him evoked primitive
emotions in him. Feelings of utter horror and revulsion. It opened its
mouth and said something but in his state of shock he could not discern
what it had said. Then it lunged towards him.
Tuxedo Kamen found himself between a monster and free
space. The thing did not look as fearsome as the first one and it moved
at Jupiter's normal speed. Given his not so great background in the
arts and his weak mana manipulation abilities Tuxedo Kamen found
himself on the defensive.
The thing lunged at him with an angled slash and he back
pedaled furiously as the slashes almost hit home several times. Mamoru
released his hold on the cane and warded off one particularly fast
slash aimed at his mid-section. He threw the roses at it to cover his
retreat. The thing slashed at the roses and they exploded. Tuxedo Kamen
breathed a sigh of relief but he was not out of the woods yet. His
celebrations were cut short as the thing emerged through the smoke, its
halo of fire as strong as ever and winked its eyes. He realized then
that he was nothing but a plaything for it. Before he had gotten his
guard back on a black ball of energy appeared on one of its arms and it
released the energy at the ground below his feet at point blank range.
Tuxedo Kamen tried to evade but he was too slow and the
blast was fired at very close range. The ki projectile exploded and
threw him up into the air. The top of the building collapsed and the
thing jumped into the air after him.
***********************************************************************
Indra laughed to himself as the mortal blocked one of its
slashes. The mortal tried to cover his retreat by throwing some roses
at him. The Ashura general easily sliced through them all and they
exploded. Indra ran into the smoke screen, winked at the mortal and
summoned a ball of ki. Before the mortal could react he threw the ki
ball at the ground near the mortal's feet.
To Indra's amusement the mortal tried to evade but he was
too slow and clumsy. The ki ball hit the concrete roof and exploded.
Pieces of concrete, steel rods and dust flew into the air at high
velocities and the roof collapsed. The mortal was thrown off the roof
and Indra leapt after him. *The fun has only began and he is not
getting away from me that easily. I am not done with him yet.*
Air rushed past Indra's body, picking his hair up and
tossing it as he flew through the air. He reached the mortal at the
apex of his flight and as the mortal began to fall back onto the ground
he spun around and delivered a kick to the mortals chest. He heard the
crunch of breaking ribs and smiled to himself. He landed softly on his
feet and balanced himself by pushing his hands against the asphalt as
he fell forward. The mortal flew diagonally and crashed into a high
rise building. The force of impact was not large enough to shatter the
steel girder into which he crashed. There was a momentary 'Thung!' as
the girder vibrated and then Tuxedo Kamen slid off the girder and
plummeted to the ground below.
***********************************************************************
Tuxedo Kamen crashed onto the ground. The impact forced the
air out of his lungs and he felt and heard more ribs break on impact.
Blood gushed out of his broken nose and pooled on the ground. When the
dust cleared. He shook his head, an action that hurt a lot and got up
shakily onto his feet. Standing sent waves of dizzying pain through his
body and he grunted and clenched his fists until his knuckles popped. A
huge spike of pain shot through his chest and then stabilized itself.
The pain began to grow in intensity. With his knowledge of the human
anatomy and wounds, Tuxedo Kamen realized that his lungs had been
punctured. He fought the fainting spell that threatened to send him
into the oblivion of unconscious and glared defiantly at the thing that
had landed before him.
"Scream for me." it said in a guttural voice and then it
charged once more.
Tuxedo Kamen's world became one of pain and screams from
then on.
***********************************************************************
Indra landed before the mortal who was visibly struggling
to stand on his legs. "Scream for me." he said once more and charged
the mortal.
At half distance he turned the sickles around and changed
the amount of ki that flowed into it. The flow of ki turned into a
trickle, the sickle would not be sharper but it would be a hell of a
lot stronger now.
The mortal stood wobbling on his legs but his defiance and
hatred showed plainly across his face. Indra did not care for anything
but the screams of pain combined with the smell of fear and blood as he
lunged at the mortal.
***********************************************************************
From Tuxedo Kamen's perceptive the thing disappeared from
where it stood and then appeared right in from of him. It again shouted
"Scream" and attacked.
He raised his right arm to punch it. The right side of his
body screamed in protest and the pain in his chest intensified. The
punch was clumsy and the thing easily blocked his punch with one hand
and then brought its sickle to bear on the arm. The sickle made contact
with the elbow joint and the elbow popped. Mamoru howled in pain and
struggled weakly. His arm was now pointing backwards and bone protruded
from it. Blood trickled onto the ground and splattered before
collecting in a little pool below. The thing did not let go off his
arms however. Its eyes had a far away twinkle in them and it grinned
joyously. It applied pressure on his twisted arm and jerked it. Mamoru
screamed once more as white hot tendrils of pain shot through his arms.
He clawed at the air and lost consciousness.
The thing looked like it was enjoying the torture session
very much. Its face took an expression of pure joy just like a child's,
when you gave him a new toy to play with. It cackled in glee and
slapped Tuxedo Kamen on his face. Little drops of blood splattered all
around from his broken nose and he regained consciousness. It grabbed
him his other arm and kicked his legs from underneath him. Mamoru hit
the ground and screamed in agony.
***********************************************************************
Indra was besides himself with joy. He had not had that
much fun in ages. The mortal was weak but he seemed to be able to
withstand huge quantities of punishment. *Lets see how much pain he can
take and still cling to his life.* Thought Indra.
He grabbed the mortal by his hair and pulled him up. The
mortal's spirit burned as bright as it had been before the fight and he
continued to glare in defiance at him through the mask of pain that his
face portrayed. The mortal spat on his face and Indra calmly removed
the spit with one of his free arms. He tightened his hold on the
mortals hair and applied pressure on his chest. The mortal screamed
into his face as the broken ribs were dislodged.
Indra laughed and brought the blunt end of one of his
sickles to bear on the mortals fingers. The bones snapped and the blood
dripped from them. In his bliss Indra had failed to notice that the
mortal had lost his consciousness once again and therefore he did not
scream when Indra broke his arms. Indra howled in fury and slapped the
mortal pretty hard on his face. The mortal regained consciousness and
opened his eyes. Indra let go of his hair and punched him in his face.
Blood splattered from the new wound to his cheek.
***********************************************************************
Tuxedo Kamen fell on his back and moaned in pain. His right
eye was shutting up as the muscles swelled. He coughed up some more
blood and tried to crawl away from the thing. His entire body hurt like
hell and his difficulty in breathing was increasing by the minute. Even
though his healing 'magic' had mended the tear in the lung the gases
that had escaped was still trapped inside his chest cavity and the last
blow to the chest had not helped. It had again injured his lung and he
could feel a new air bubble growing in size inside him.
Like a child he crawled, his bones and muscles screaming in
protest. The seconds seemed like an eternity and he was constantly
fighting waves of dizziness. *I am sorry I failed you Usako.* He
thought just before a kick landed on his midsection. Mamoru fell to the
ground and groaned. Another kick was planted in the abdomen followed by
another. He coughed up some more blood and tried to get up but
collapsed.
He heard someone crying in the background but was too dizzy
to identify who it was. He lay there waiting for the beating to
continue. "Usako, I am sorry I failed you." he murmured before he lost
consciousness.
***********************************************************************
Usagi sat where Mamoru had seated her. From where her
battered body leaned against the concrete pillar she was able to look
out through the hole in the wall and witness Mamoru's torture. His
screams of pain were heartbreaking in their intensity and her heart was
filled with hatred and revulsion towards the beast. Even the infamous
Beryl, the one who had destroyed everything in the Silver Millennium
and killed her mother had not been the cause of such hatred in the Moon
Princess's mind.
She tried to get up and join the fight but she was too weak
to do so. Her muscles screamed in protest and refused to contract and
push her fragile body up. For the first time in her life Usagi truly
cursed her weak and inept body and cried in utter anguish. The man whom
she loved more than her life itself was being beaten to death right in
front of her eyes and she could do nothing about it. True she had seen
her friends die before but they had not suffered even a fraction of
what Mamoru was going through. The thing was just beating up Mamoru and
it seemed to be enjoying every single moment of the torture.
Tears of frustration flowed freely down her cheeks as she
watched the inhumane treatment meted out to Mamoru. The tears flowed
over the bruises that adorned her beautiful face and they stung but she
did not care. Weak battered and disheveled as she was she cared for
only one person and that person was Mamoru.
"Aahhh!" she cried as pushed herself off the pillar. Her
body hit the ground and pain shot through her side. She grit her teeth
in order to bear the pain and crawled towards the hole in the wall.
Soft breeze blew over her body and tried to move the blood caked
strands of hair on her head to no avail. Sharp pieces of concrete
scraped against her body and drew blood whenever they dug too deep into
her soft flesh. The ten foot crawl to the hole seemed to take an
eternity. The stench of death combined with the smoke from the small
conflagrations that raged across the battlefield was over powering to
her senses.
She pulled herself to a sitting position using the jagged
edges of the concrete for support and raised her blood caked arm. She
tried to use her 'magic' but her body refused to channel mana. She was
in too weak a condition to channel any significant amount of mana
without risking her own life. She focused within herself and found her
center and once again tried to use her 'magic'. This time her entire
being seemed to hum with the small amount of mana that flowed through
her body. She collected the mana in a basketball sized ball that
pulsated in a range of colors and swirled around itself.
"Dragon's fire!" announced Usagi and threw the ball of
energy at the beast. Her aim was poor and the blast missed the beast by
a good ten yards but it did grab the beast's attention. It stopped
kicking Mamoru, turned its head toward her and growled with
unmistakable malice.
***********************************************************************
Indra looked down upon the mortal who lay twitching and
grunting on the ground. The mortal had ceased trying to get to his feet
after the first kick for even a mana enhanced body can take only that
much level of pain and get back for more. He tried to get up one last
time but coughed up some more blood and collapsed onto the cold and
unrelenting asphalt where he lay groaning. Drops of blood mixed with
saliva flowed out of his mouth and collected underneath his face. His
eyes were glazed and his breathing was labored. The kicks seemed to
have ruptured his spleen if the rapidly spreading red bruise on the
mortal's abdomen were any indication of the internal injuries he had
inflicted upon the weakling.
Indra was about to launch another kick to his midsection
when his ki senses flared. Someone was forming a ball of pure mana.
Before he could turn around the blast was released and the ground floor
of the building by his side went up in flames. If the blast had been to
the mark he would not have survived the attack. Indra's face paled a
little at the thought. He cursed himself for his inattentiveness and
turned towards the source of the blast.
There sat the leader whore of the sailors her hair matted
together and her eyes brimming with tears. Her arm dropped to her side
even as he looked at her. Her face was contorted with hatred and she
glared at the Ashura general. Her ki was laden with hatred the likes of
which even he had never encountered in his entire life. Indra realized
that the whore was in love with the mortal and an evil grin appeared to
his face. He knelt down and grabbed the mortal and told him to witness
his lovers torture but the weakling was unresponsive.
He snorted in disgust and released the weakling. He walked
slowly towards the whore. Her eyes maintained contact with hers through
the walk and if looks could kill Indra certainly would have died a
thousand times over under her glare. "Kitten, you know not who you are
playing with." said Indra and drew back his hand. His fist opened and
the arm came down to meet the whore's face with a resounding clap. The
whore's lips split and her face reddened but her glare did not waver in
the least.
"My! My! Can the Moon Princess possess such hatred and
skill?" he wondered aloud and drew back his hand once more. Only a few
of the more powerful Gods were able to create blasts of pure mana and
for a mortal to do it was quite astonishing. Most manipulators simply
converted the mana into one form or the other and then used it to
perform the task.
***********************************************************************
Usagi was surprised at the power of the blast. It seemed so
natural when she had first summoned it. It was as if the energy that
coursed through her body was tailor made for her. Her hatred and
despair faded momentarily as the raw energy coursed through her body
but returned full force when the she ended the attack. The beast too
looked surprised at the blast and it showed clearly on its face. She
also saw another expression painted all over its face as it turned
towards her. The expression of pure fear quickly faded away though and
was replaced by a smirk when it saw her battered body.
It closed the distance between the two of them with its
eyes focused on her. She maintained the eye contact and glared back
with an intensity that frightened her to the core. She was surprised
that she could feel such hatred towards another being even though it
was a monster. Her hatred had its roots in the very core of her being
and it made her want to rip its heart out. Her body lacked the strength
to put these thoughts into action however, and she found herself
cursing her weakness repeatedly. The thing was upon her in what seemed
like an instant and said "Kitten, you know not who you are playing
with." before it slapped her hard.
Her teeth rattled under the force of the blow but she
refused to break eye contact and glared back at it. It pulled back its
hand again and slapped her much harder than before. Her cheeks stung
under the blow and her neck muscles screamed in protest but she
maintained the glare. The beast said something before it slapped her
but her ears were still ringing from the first blow and she could not
discern what it had said. The beast grabbed her by her hair and pulled
her body up. They stood with their faces inches apart glaring at each
other. The thing laughed and then punched her in the midsection.
Usagi fell to the ground and gasped for air. She heard a
cruel laugh just before her world disappeared in a haze of red as the
beast kicked her savagely in the head.
***********************************************************************
Ami stood paralyzed with fear. The speed and efficiency
with which the other sailors had been removed from the battle struck
terror into the very heart of her being. When they had first put their
plan into action she had thought that the plan would work and the thing
would be defeated. The minutes that followed seemed to lend strength to
that belief. She had been so sure of victory when one of her attacks
had hit the monster. The thing had gotten back on to its feet after the
attack. That was to be expected. Anything that powerful would probably
keep on coming back for a lot more. It had spat some words at them and
then it did something. She was not sure what it had done but suddenly
it's energy readings shot sky high and had gone off scale. The
situation had deteriorated steadily after that.
The thing had gone through Rei and Makoto, the two most
powerful fighters amongst the inner's sensei as though they were walls
made of paper. Those two were the most powerful besides Usagi and that
thing had defeated them with impunity. Her mind was overwhelmed with
the amount of power that was needed to put those two out of commission.
If that thing could defeat those two so easily she did not even want to
think of how easily that thing would defeat her. Ami's role amongst the
inner's sensei had been as the thinktank much as Pluto served the
outer's. She knew without a shadow of doubt that in a pitched battle
she could not take on the thing and live to tell about the experience.
Ami had never been consciously afraid of death. She had
wondered about it and had spent hours at a time pondering about what
death really was but she had never been afraid of it. Before she joined
the inner's she had thought that death was but the ceasation of
electrical impulses in the body. After they had become a team she had
laid aside her scientific mind and had began to accept that science as
she knew it had its holes. She had slowly accepted that there was such
a thing as the soul. She had realized for the first time that death
meant peace till the next cycle of rebirth was initiated. The most
convincing evidence to this new found belief had been her resurrection
after she had been killed in the last battle against the Negaverse.
Usagi had used the power of the Ginzishou to bring their souls back
into their bodies. Though her memory of what had happened after her
death was sketchy she remembered a sense of true peace and a soul
warming presence, which had literally oozed love. Since that experience
she had even started to secretly worship the kami. She was afraid that
her friends would tease her if they ever found out. Even the great Ami
Mizuno feared peer pressure and therefore she had kept her it a secret.
Her new found faith grew by the day and unknown to even the inner's she
had made several visits to the shinto shrines in the area.
Now for the first time after she had donned the mantle of
Sailor Mercury, the great Ami Mizuno, the brains of the inner's sailors
was afraid. Not because she feared death but because she knew at an
unconscious level that the thing that they were facing was worse than
death ever could be. It was not unnatural like the various daemons and
youma that they had faced before. It was a part of nature, her
instruments told her and her brain inferred the same from the facts
that lay before her eyes. There simply was no way an unnatural creature
could ever be in harmony with nature. Her mind knew without a shadow of
doubt that the thing was the dark side of nature, a side not normally
visible to human eyes. Her analytical brain had worked feverishly
during the course of the fight and had come up with several possible
theories. The most probable one was that the creature was some kind of
anti-God. The idea seemed outlandish but the Yang was always
counteracted by the Yin. The Gods with all their love must have
something that counter balanced them and this creature seemed like the
perfect explanation for it.
It was this realization combined with the ferocity of the
thing's attacks that struck fear in her heart. Ami was sure that the
thing would kill them if things went its way. Even though she did not
fear death she very much wanted to stay alive and live a long and happy
life. Survival is a basic instinct found in all living things and
everyone wants to live life to the fullest. It was the fear of a
premature death at the hands of an anti-god that rendered Ami Mizuno
AKA Sailor Mercury paralyzed. She knew that Usagi was able to bring
back the dead. She herself was living proof of that fact. However, as
things stood all of them were about to have an early appointment with
their maker. Even if Usagi survived the fight through some miracle, Ami
knew without a shadow of a doubt that Usagi would fail this time
around. Even Usagi's powers paled in comparison to a God's.
Ami steeled herself and got rid of her fears. She was a
sailor first and foremost and as such she cannot be afraid of a monster
or of death itself. The fear returned with a vengeance and she shook
her body to banish those thoughts. *I am a sailor and if I have to die
I will die like one fighting to the last breath.* She thought and then
it struck her - a way to survive and possibly kill that thing.
"Take your best shot." she shouted at the thing.
***********************************************************************
Surya floated in midair with wind howling all around him.
The wind was a direct result of the huge amounts of ki that he was
manifesting. It buffeted his shoulder length mane of curly hair as it
blew. It picked up dust particles and once in a while these particles
would collide with his supersensitive skin sending waves of unbearable
pain through his body. It was his superior constitution that kept him
from screaming aloud everytime a fleck of dust hit him. Small streams
of blood flowed from these wounds as his sweat glands in the injured
areas pumped blood out of the body. The amount of blood that he had
lost would have killed even the sturdiest Ashura but Surya's ki kept
him alive for the time being.
The cowardly one's ki turned more and more chaotic as he
maintained eye contact with her. It was a sure sign of her fear and
Surya would have snorted in disgust if his body was in any other
condition than the one he was presently in.
The least movement on his part resulted in a ridiculously
large amount of pain and he was loathe to move his body unless he had a
good reason for it. Then suddenly her ki became slightly organized
though the action seemed to be strained. He appreciated that. It would
have dishonored him if he were to kill a sniveling coward. Even better
the sailor spoke defiantly against him. "Take your best shot." she said
and he got ready to do just that.
Surya decided to address the cowardly one then.
Disregarding the pain that shot up through every nook and corner of his
body Surya spoke. "I am death sailor and you will not escape me." More
blood spilled from his mouth as the capillaries inside his mouth burst
when his tongue pressed against them. The blood flowed across his bare
chest but he was beyond caring. His body's was failing faster by the
minute and the only thing that mattered now was the death of the
sailors. The level of pain that he was enduring would have killed a
mortal or even an Ashura many times over but Surya focused above it and
onto the job at hand.
"I have died once and I live now beast. Death has never
scared me and you do not scare me now." she shouted in reply. The last
flickers of chaos in her aura was gone now. To his sensitive eyes her
ki was shining brighter by the second. Surya revised his earlier
judgment on the girl. She was obviously a strong one at heart though
the strength had taken a while to shine through.
"Thou art truly a gifted one sailor. Under any other
circumstance I would have let thee and your friends live for the five
of you shine like beacons for the rest of the mortals to follow but nay
I cannot let thee live. My Lord has commanded me to kill thee all and I
will obey my Lord's command." Surya coughed some more blood as he spoke
in archaic Japanese. His hair fell in patches and drifted off into the
wind.
He summoned several large balls of ki. He could not afford
to delay the fight any longer. He could feel his death approaching and
he wanted to execute his duties before it took him into its embrace.
The sailor shouted "Shabon spray!" and disappeared from view behind a
veil of soap bubbles.
*Maybe the girl is just plain stupid. It didn't work before
what makes her think it will work now?" Thought Surya as the ki balls
rapidly grew in size.
***********************************************************************
Mercury smiled to herself. It seemed that the thing had
fallen for her ruse. She decloaked the mana that she had gathered and
shot it at the thing. No matter how many opponents she had faced their
foolishness and lack of forward thinking never failed to astonish her.
A warrior was supposed to think through an opponents strategy and find
a way to defeat them. If you had the wrong strategy your skills and
power would fail to make a difference and you would most probably
perish in the battle. With a wrong strategy you would simply get
squished by an inferior enemy. One of the best examples was the
Scottish charge - they simply get on top of a mountain and charged. The
speed of their attack simply overwhelmed their opponents before they
knew what hit them. The strategy was so effective that the English had
a hard time with it until one of their commanders came up with a
brilliant counter strategy. This counter strategy as well the English
army's own version of the highlander charge was to make the English
army one of the most feared in the world. It also helped a lot in
winning them an empire where as they proudly said in the height of
their power 'the sun never set'.
For a warrior to take attacks at face value and just
counter them was the stupidest thing that he could ever do in his life.
A battle can be compared to a chess game in which you pit your brains
against your opponents, only in this version of chess there's a lot of
real blood and gore. In fact chess was but a battle simulation in which
one could sharpen one's thinking and planning prowess. The Indian
version of the game was created solely for the above mentioned purpose
and it was aptly named chatranga. After she had gotten over her initial
shock and fear Mercury's mind had gone back to working at its peak
efficiency. She had come to the conclusion that though her opponent was
very powerful an excellent tactic might bring about his downfall. It
would buy some time for her friends and delay the inevitable until
rescue arrived in the form of the outer's. She had seen the blood on
its body and her sharp mind had made the connections. The thing was
apparently dying and the technique that it was using seemed to be
quickening its demise. Naturally it would be in a hurry to defeat them
and it would naturally make mistakes. She planned to capitalize on them
as much as possible in her last ditch effort to save her friends.
Mercury was not the brains of the outfit simply because she
had a super computer literally under her finger tips. She was the
brains of the outfit because she was the shrewdest and most capable one
amongst the sailors. She may not have the raw power that the others
possessed but her brains more than made up for that fact. In a fair
fight Mercury may even be able to defeat Sailor Moon simply because the
courageous leader of the senshi rarely used her brains. After she had
become one of the inner's Mercury had spent many an hour reading and
researching about the great military minds. She especially admired
Erwin Rommel, Frederick the Great, Hannibal and Horatio Nelson. She had
learnt during her research that brute power need not always guarantee
victory in war. Shrewd strategy's played as big a role as any of the
other factors if not the biggest one in winning a battle.
Her train of thought had led Mercury to reason that the
thing would not be on the alert if she used the 'Shabon spray' again.
If that were the case it might be fooled into leaving itself open for
an attack. Frederick the great had used a vaguely similar strategy
during the battle of Leuthen to secure a resounding victory for the
Prussians. Like him she had gathered a lot of mana and then used a
little of it in the 'Shabon Spray'. When the thing fell for her ruse
she would launch her main attack and hopefully, that would secure some
time for them. She knew that the power and skill gap was too big for
her to win in the long run but she was sure that she would be able to
delay the thing long enough for the outer's to arrive and save the day.
"Mercury Magical Rhapsody!" she shouted and channeled the
huge amount of mana through her body. The attack combined the Mercury
Aqua Rhapsody and the Mercury Aqua Magic into a far more deadlier
version. Every cell in her body was flooded with mana as it flowed
through her. Mercury survived the huge influx of energy only because
she did not try to control the magnitude of the mana that flowed
through her. The attack still left her weakened physically though as
channeling a large amount of power took its toll on her body.
Almost a dozen balls of ice coalesced and exploded around
the thing and then exploded spreading a fine mist all over the area.
Huge chunks of ice, some the size of a sedan ripped through road and
building alike. The concussion wave left a three meter deep crater
directly under the explosion and all the glass windows in the block
that had survived till then shattered and sent a deadly rain of glass
to the streets below.
Mercury did not even pause to see the destruction that her
attack had caused. She ran for cover as fast as she could. She hoped
that the pain of the new injuries the thing _must_ have suffered
combined together with the pain it was already suffering from would
dampen the things super-senses. If that were not the case she and the
others would die in a short while.
***********************************************************************
Surya howled in pain and raw fury. He could not believe
that he had fallen for such a simple ruse. He, the heir apparent to the
post of supreme commander of His Majesty Raja Chola's army had been
fooled quite easily by a young mortal woman. The affront to his pride
was immeasurable. He raised one of his left arms to shake at the
heaven's at the injustice of it all and send her to hell when he
noticed that he couldn't see his left hand. He then noticed something
warm flowing on his cheek.
He brought his arm to his cheek and felt the liquid. It was
more blood and it came from a puncture wound to his left eye. He was
bleeding profusely though the bleeding seemed to be slowing down. *I
must have lost almost all my blood.* He thought to himself with a
shrug. Neither the injury nor the revelation about his blood surprised
him. Though he had pumped as much ki into the ki barrier as he could he
had known that it wouldn't be enough to keep the debris out. By his
count three huge and very sharp pieces of ice had headed in a direct
collision course towards him along with a number of smaller ones.
The heat from his ki had vaporized almost all the icicles
but it appeared that several of them had gotten through the barrier.
Almost all that had crossed the barrier had missed him. However, two
had scored a hit and he was bleeding profusely from the wounds. The one
that he was now probing with his fingers was the spot where his
eyeballs had been previously. Now there was a two inch hole gouged out
by the ice and blood gushed from it like water from a fountain. The
other wound, which he could sense was in his right thigh. The part of
the icicle that had not penetrated his flesh had long since melted. The
part that had penetrated was still lodged inside his fragile flesh and
the pain that it was inflicting upon him was mind numbing in its
intensity.
With one of his eyes gone he had lost depth perception and
with it his honor for it would be nigh impossible to kill them now. He
howled louder in fury and let loose a volley of ki balls aimed at her.
Though he could see the girl he had no idea how far she was and
naturally the balls ended up hitting everything but her. Chunks of
concrete, asphalt and metal pieces flew through the air. They did not
hit Mercury and only ended up creating more rubble for the city
administrators to get rid off.
A large volume of dust and dirt was kicked up and small
fires burned at the site of the explosions. Surya clenched his fists
and shook them against the heaven. He had been so close to victory only
to have it stolen from him.
The girl, who had now earned his utmost respect stopped and
turned around. She had the biggest smile on her face and it grew bigger
when she saw his gouged out left eye. "You can't judge distances now,
can you?" she shouted and then ran once more, snickering to herself all
the while.
***********************************************************************
The mist hit Ami as she ran and she heard a howl of fury
followed by another louder one. Against her better judgment she turned
around and looked at the thing. A smile came to her face when she heard
that cry. Hearing it suffer after all it had put had friends through
brought a perverted sense of joy to her heart. Its face was now
disfigured and there was a hole where its left eye should have been.
*It can't judge distances now!* She thought excitedly to
herself and her smiled grew in proportion. "You can't judge distances
now, can you?" she shouted. She chided herself as soon as she had
uttered those words and ran. Its depth perception maybe gone but for
all she knew it could judge distances with its hearing alone.
The thing sent a hail of energy blasts at her but they were
nowhere near the mark. Ami turned around and stood her ground.
Gathering mana into her body she channeled it with a resounding
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
The thing brought its hands before it and crossed them as
the blast hit it. Its barrier countered the icicles and they
disappeared in a cloud of water vapor.
She was about to ready another attack when she caught some
motion to her side. She focused on it and saw...
***********************************************************************
Mamoru heard Usagi's sharp cry and his heart faltered. With
all his might he pushed his body up. The pain was excruciating but he
managed it somehow. He turned his head and watched the thing plant kick
after kick on Usagi's body. Desperately he tired to think of something
that might take the thing's attention off Usagi.
"Bastard!" he croaked once.
"Bastard!" he tried again. This time it was spoken a little
louder.
The thing turned towards him and bared its fangs.
"Yeah! I am talking to you. Why don't you pick on someone
your own size?" he managed to shout before the pain overwhelmed him
once more. His arms failed and he collapsed to the ground. The thing
smiled and turned its back to him.
"Bastard!" Mamoru shouted in frustration and coughed up
some blood. "Your mother must have slept with everyone in the whole
damn world to produce a bastard like you!" he said. His strength was
failing him and the pain from his chest and right abdomen was enough to
blind him.
The thing turned and growled menacingly. It walked slowly
towards him with death in its eyes.
The beast bent down and grabbed him by his cape. It hauled
him off the ground and pulled him to its face. Mamoru though
disoriented by the pain heard it snarl something in some strange tongue
and then it produced a...
***********************************************************************
Indra was mad. The mortal had called him a bastard. No one
had ever dared to address him by that title. It was a great insult but
he recognized it for what it was. He was not going to ignore the whore
that lay underneath him. He bared his teeth towards the mortal to warn
him off.
The mortal collapsed from the exertion and he turned
towards the whore. *Now that the weakling is awake, I can rub salt on
his wounds by raping the whore right before his eyes.* Thought Indra as
he extended his arm towards the whore.
The weakling had then said something that made his blood
boil. No one got away with such an insult. His honor demanded that he
kill the mortal and take the weakling's heart to his mother and feed
her with it. He had wanted to play with the weakling some more before
he finally ended his sorry excuse of a life but now things had changed.
Indra clenched his fists tightly and walked up to the
weakling bastard. The affront to his mother was unforgivable. He pulled
the weakling to his face and gave him some advice in the old tongue.
\Yagawa raayenum nagaka kavakaal Sogapar sollinukum pattu.\
snarled the Ashura general. He was sure that the weakling would not
understand the verse though it did not matter whether the mortal
understood him. He would not need the advice where he was going anyway.
The demons in the void neither understood nor would they respect the
golden words of Valluvan when they heard it.
He reached behind him and produced his families honor
sickle. Tradition and honor demanded that he use that sickle and no
other. The blade was wicked looking and the surface of the alloy
reflected the light from the fading sun with a wicked gleam.
The mortal's eyes widened when he saw the thing. His ki
became very chaotic and then focused itself again. It seemed that the
mortal had accepted his fate.
Indra growled in anger. He had wanted to see the mortal
struggle and squirm under his hold but it seemed that he would have to
make do with what he had. *Bastard! He defies me even now.*
Indra grinned maniacally into the bastards face and pricked
his abdomen with the sickle. The weakling grimaced a little when the
sickle pierced the skin but that was all he did. He continued to glare
back at him with pure and unadulterated hatred written all over his
face.
***********************************************************************
There was another beast and it was walking towards the
battered body of Tuxedo Kamen. Ami had wondered during the course of
the battle about Tuxedo Kamen's failure to show up and now she had the
answer. She briefly considered helping him but decided against it. She
could not turn her back on that thing or everyone would die.
She turned back to face her antagonist. She caught a glint
of sunlight as she did and turned towards Tuxedo Kamen once more. The
thing now had Tuxedo Kamen by his cape and it had a wicked looking
sickle in its hand.
A grin of pure bliss came to its face as it inched the
deadly instrument closer to her comrade in arms.
The two of them were very close to each other for her to
attack with one of her 'magical' attacks she realized. *If I run fast
enough I may be able to rescue him.* She thought and ran.
***********************************************************************
The warrior attacked him with another of her mana based
attacks. It was too weak, Surya realized but he still crossed his hands
before him to protect his face. With the amount of pain that he was
suffering he knew that he could not trust his ki to save him as his
focus faltered.
Surya braced himself for another attack, the one, which
never came. He relaxed his guard and peeped over his hands. She was
looking at something other than him altogether.
Surya felt insulted by that act. Why was she ignoring him?
Was he not warrior enough to face her in battle? The answer came soon
enough when he looked in the direction her gaze was focused.
His blood boiled when he saw Indra busy torturing a
weakling mortal. He had wondered where his cohort had been all through
the fight. Now, he had the answer in his hands and he was not pleased
with it. Of course Indra would abandon his post and forsake his duty so
that he may get some petty thrill out of torturing some poor soul.
Surya cursed under his breath and focused on her. She too
was turning towards him and he felt thankful. If nothing else his death
would be an honorable one. He had done all he could to defeat the
sailors but she had fought back and had defeated him. All that was
needed now was for her to kill him. He would not submit to her and she
would have to kill him. He was pretty sure that she could accomplish
that before the technique did away with him.
Then to his disbelief she turned back towards the mortal
and this time she ran off towards the weakling. Surya realized that it
was dishonorable but in the face of his Lord's commands honor was to be
forsaken for duty and honor were almost always at odds against each
other. He asked for her forgiveness in his heart and summoned ki into
his arms.
***********************************************************************
Ranma jerked back in surprise when he heard those words. It
had been nearly eighteen hundred years since he had last heard anyone
speak that language and they struck a chord in his mind. With this new
revelation, memories of a time long gone came flooding back to him.
He remembered his training under the legendary master
Parthiban and the flirtatious Malligai. He remembered his friends
Geetha and Pradeepan and the fun times that they had shared together.
Then came the sad ones. Images of Pradeepan's last few minutes on earth
came back to haunt him once more. He remembered the anguish that he
felt as his sworn blood brother died from that horrendous wound to his
abdomen. He had sworn that he would protect Pradeepan from his would be
executioner, Hariharan but had failed in that duty.
His mind drifted onto a time almost two millennia ago...
***********************************************************************
A roar of a river flowing along its banks can be heard in
the background. A peacock was pecking at something near the foot of a
huge banyan tree. The roots from the tree stretched to the grounds
below and swayed in the air in the gentle breeze that provided some
comfort from the heat of the unrelenting sun tropical sun. Around the
tree there were paddy fields, with each clump of the grass bent down
under the strain of the grains that they proudly bore for all the world
to see. Water trickled by in a small canal that supplied the water to
the fields. The rays of the sun reflected back from these ripples and
was glare was bright enough to blind any observer temporarily.
The lush green clumps of rice swayed gently in the breeze,
their movement attracting everyone that passed by them. Leaves that had
long since yellowed and fallen off the tree and are now brown in colour
drifted with the breeze rustling almost inaudibly as they went along.
Presently, a faint voice became audible and it grew louder
by the second. The voice called out the same name again and again as
whoever was behind it approached the vicinity of the banyan tree.
A bloody hand appeared from behind the massive trunk of the
banyan tree and grabbed onto it for support. A pale face emerged
followed by the blood soaked body of a man with blood matted black
hair. His grip failed and he fell to the ground. His once handsome face
was contorted with pain and had several deep lacerations on it. Blood
ran from these wounds and soaked the brown earth of the land. The man
looked twenty-ish and his face looked quite young not having yet
assumed the characteristics of a fully grown man.
\\Ranma...\\ the young man managed to croak as he clutched
onto a clump of grass before him in agony.
He lay there gasping for breath as his body began to give
into the terrible injury on his abdomen. The sound of feet rushing
towards him caused the young man to look up.
He saw the man and his face lighted up with a slight smile
before going back to its previous expression. The new arrival knelt by
his side and cradled the young man in his lap.
\\Pradeepa...\\ the new arrival whispered as he wiped the
matted black hair from Pradeepan's face.
\\Brother, I am so glad you are here now. I was afraid that
I would die all alone with no one by my side.\\ Pradeepan whispered
back without opening his eyes.
\\Don't speak like that little brother. Everything's going
to be all right.\\ soothed Ranma.
Pradeepan opened his eyes and looked into his brother's
eyes. Seeing the truth written in it, he smiled. He brought his hands
to Ranma's cheek and caressed them. \\Liar! I know I am dying brother.
I can feel my vision growing dimmer by the second.\\ he replied.
Tears flowed from Ranma's eyes and dripped onto Pradeepan's
forehead. \\Don't speak like that brother. Everything is going to be
fine and we will go to Ooty and you will marry Geetha as you had
planned.\\ sobbed Ranma.
\\Don't cry brother. If anything you must be happy for me.
After all I am going to meet both mother and father in heaven.\\ said
Pradeepan as he swiped away the tears from Ranma's cheeks.
Ranma put on a forced smile, which faltered as he looked
into Pradeepan's eyes. \\I am sorry brother...\\ he said.
\\Don't be... We both knew that it would come to this in
the end with Hariharan on our tail day and night.\\ replied Pradeepan.
\\Yes, he was... I... I should have killed him the very
second he took that oath. If I had done that you would be okay now.\\
Ranma mentally kicked himself for not having done that when he had the
chance. Pradeepan was a scholar and had had no chance of protecting
himself from Hariharan's skilled hands. As a result of that mistake his
brother now lay dying in his lap.
\\And someone else would have taken his place big brother.
What would you have done then... Kill them too.\\
Ranma hung his head and remained silent. If he had his way,
he would have kept on killing them as they came until they stopped
coming after Pradeepan.
\\The moment the king decreed that my life was forfeit I
was as good as dead.\\ Pradeepan whispered.
Ranma remained silent.
\\Hold me big brother...\\
Ranma gently took Pradeepan's hand in his and applied
pressure to comfort him.
\\Tell her that my lost thoughts were of her. You will do
that, won't you?\\ asked Pradeepan in a pleading tone. His eyes watered
and glistened with tears.
\\I will little brother. I will...\\
Ranma never got to finish his sentence. Pradeepan's body
shuddered and his breathing became much more labored than before. His
hold on Ranma's arms tightened and his back arched once before falling
back onto the ground. His eye's glazed and Ranma felt his ki flicker
and then disappear altogether.
\\Goodbye forever, little brother.\\ said Ranma as he slid
Pradeepan's eyelids over his lifeless eyes with his fingers.
He laid Pradeepan's lifeless body softly on the ground and
looked at the heavens. A single drop of tear slid gracefully across his
cheek. It dripped down to the ground below, its surface glittering
under the sunlight in midair as it fell down.
In less than a second Ranma drifted back to reality. He
wiped the tear that had found its way onto his cheeks and addressed
Ryuu.
***********************************************************************
Ryuu looked on with fascination as the last sailor over
turned the tables on the monster. She had used a stunning 'rope a dope'
and brought it to its knees.
Ryuu smiled to himself at that phrase. During his stay at
the amazon village a westerner had come to do some research about the
Amazon's. The elders had agreed and Ryuu had made friends with Jack
Travis. He had learnt that Jack was doing his thesis for a Ph.D. on
ancient Chinese tribal history. During his free time Ryuu had learnt
some English and boxing from his gaijin friend. He had learnt the
slang's that came with the game and his English had become passable
unlike most of the Japanese who learned the language in the Japanese
language and thus knew not how to speak in English.
Lost in his thoughts he almost failed to notice the tear
that his sensei shed. For a moment he wondered that his sensei must
have been overcome by the inhumane cruelty of the battle but then he
noticed the far away look on Ranma's face. The look went away as
suddenly as it had arrived and Ranma wiped the tears from his eyes.
"Ryuu, drag those wounded girls to that building over there
and keep them warm till I get to you. Whatever happens, don't attack
those things and if the sailors fight you defend yourself but don't
attack them. They are the good guys."
"What..." exclaimed Ryuu. He was surprised by the sudden
decision to intervene in the battle.
Ranma did not reply. He performed some hand motions and his
body became blurred. Ryuu was astonished that anyone could accomplish
such a thing. He had seen his father do the vanishing trick with the
Umisenken but he doubted verily whether Ranma knew that technique.
"How did you do that sensei?" he asked in absolute wonder.
"I will tell you later when this is over. Now wait until I
have those things' attention before you reveal yourself." said Ranma
and jumped with the least bit of effort onto the roof of the building
by their side. The jump was no mean feat when you considered that the
building was nearly a hundred feet tall and Ryuu's admiration of his
sensei just grew a little more.
***********************************************************************
The sickle pierced into his skin and drew blood. He cringed
involuntarily before his conscious mind took control once more. Mamoru
tensed his body and glared at the thing. He was not going to give it
the joy of seeing him suffer and cry. He would not be broken until the
moment of his death.
Blood dripped from the wound as the sickle went deeper into
his body. He felt it rip his diaphragm and into his chest cavity. He
heard someone shout and turned towards them. It was Ami and she was
running at her top speed towards him.
*She's trying to save me.* He realized. He tried to say
don't mind me, help Usagi but the words came out in the form of
indecipherable gurgles. His vision began to dim and he thought of Usagi
one last time before he drifted into death's cold embrace.
***********************************************************************
Ami ran forward as fast as her legs could carry her. She
saw the sickle dig deeper into Tuxedo Kamen's flesh and realized that
she could not get to him in time. The thing that she had blinded seemed
to have gone berserk and was firing blasts everywhere.
Those very same blasts ripped up the concrete as she
zigzagged through the rubble sending pieces of concrete, metal, smoke
and dust into the air. She was about a hundred yards away when she
shouted out Tuxedo Kamen's name and told him to hang in there for just
a second.
To her relief he turned towards her. The red patch on his
coat grew in size even as he turned. He opened his mouth but only blood
came out. *He is choking under his own blood.* She thought as she
quickened her pace by just that much.
Tuxedo Kamen's eyes closed and a little smile came onto his
face. Then his head fell back and he remained still.
"No!" she shouted even as she covered the last few yards
between the three of them. She reached him and spun around in her best
imitation of a martial artists kick. She had not fought alongside
Makoto without learning a few pointers here and there.
***********************************************************************
Surya watched with but little satisfaction as the bastard
died. The bastard had not uttered a single cry of pain and suffering in
the final moments of his life. He cursed the bastard and the God's for
providing him with such a strong will. Though he had died in the end,
the bastard had not broken and had thus deprived him of such a simple
pleasure as the pure joy one had from seeing another suffer.
However, he had had his revenge. By punturing the bastard's
heart and those three pressure points with his ki enhanced sickle he
had shattered the bastard's heart crystal. Without it no one would be
able to bring him back to life and his soul would be lost forever in
the void as the link between heaven and the bastard had been broken
when the crystal had shattered. The demons in the void would take care
of him and his banishment to the void would be punishment enough the
affront on his mother and on himself.
Just as the bastard's ki and mana flickered out of
existence, Indra sensed the girl's attack. Acting on pure reflex honed
through thousands of years of training he grabbed the bastard's body
and jumped out of the way. He still needed to rip out the bastards
heart to give to his mother. According to tradition his mother's honor
would remain blemished until she ate the one who had wuestioned her
virtues.
He dropped the body out of the girl's reach and produced
his sickles. He was about to attack her when he sensed a powerful ki
manipulator in the area. He looked up at the roof of third building to
his left and saw...
***********************************************************************
As soon as Ranma got onto the roof, he relaxed his hold on
his ki just a little. He did not want to vaporize the entire ward by
relaxing all holds on his ki. He then summoned a ki blast of
considerable power and aimed it at the one eyed Ashura.
When the Ashura had quoted the verse the mental block that
had prevented him from recalling the identity of the beasts had
disappeared and he had remembered the old legends about the anti-gods.
The priest who had instructed him about the creatures had said that the
Ashura's represented everything that the God's did not. They were the
embodiment of the Yin aspect of the universe whereas the God's
represented the Yang aspect of the universe. Though some of the
Ashura's were as benevolent as the Gods, which just went showed that
everything was made of both the aspects of the force, most of them
weren't and they were to be avoided on sight.
Ranma had reasoned that since one of the Ashura was
torturing the caped guy the duo of them must belong to the later
category. Having come to that conclusion he had decided to help the
senshi as anyone who fought the Ashura's had to fight for the forces of
love and justice and all the other blah blah nonsense that the super
heroes of the era normally spouted.
With the course of action decided he had informed Ryuu of
his plans and had jumped onto the roof. Since the one-eyed one was the
most powerful he had decided to take him out as quickly as possible.
The Ashura possessed a large amount of ki and if it were to let loose
all that ki than the entire ward might be vaporized.
Ranma brought his hands together and cupped his arms and
focused his ki. The ki ball when it first came into existence was the
size of a basketball but it rapidly decreased in size even as Ranma
pumped a large amount of pure ki into it. When he was done, it had
attained the size of a ten yen coin. Energy crackled around it and it
was almost blinding to look it. The light from the ball lit up the
entire area in an iridescent glow. He aimed the ball at the one-eyed
one and let it loose.
***********************************************************************
Surya hurled ki balls at the girl even as she ran. He did
it in the vain hope that one of them might hit her and kill her or they
might turn her attention back to him. He prayed fervently for the
former for then he would be able to kill the rest of the senshi and
regain his and his clan's honor. A small insignificant part of his mind
wanted the blasts to miss her however. Though he would not have
discharged his duties, the honor one attained from fighting to the
death such a worthy opponent was more honorable than the one got from
discharging his duties alone. Neither did and he felt the flames of
anger licking at his heart and soul.
Surya cursed Indra as he watched the sadistic bastard jump
nimbly and evade her kick. Then Indra took out his sickles and got into
a stance. Surya cursed the sadistic bastard once more. Even if the girl
was able to defeat and kill the bastard it would take sometime and
Surya did not have a lot of it in his hands. He could not fire at her
now since his aim and depth perception were shot to hell. He could hit
the bastard and his family would be dishonored for generations to come
if he were to kill the bastard accidentally in his attempts to kill the
girl.
He could kill the fallen sailors but that idea did not
appeal to him. He wanted to kill _her_ first in the field of combat and
then kill the others. Killing them while her back was turned to him
seemed like something that bastard Indra would do and therefore the
idea repulsed him. He would never stoop to the level of that bastard.
Surya hung his head in despair. It seemed that he would have to die a
honorless death after all he had done. Just as he was giving into
depression he felt a new and very powerful ki manipulator in the area.
He could sense that the new arrival was showing as much power as he
himself did at the moment though it was clear to his experienced senses
that the mortal was barely showing the tip of the iceberg.
Surya looked into the mortal's eyes through the three
hundred or so yards that separated them. The mortal produced a
concentrated ball of ki and aimed it at him. The energy the new comer
was focusing was far more than the girl had focused in her most
powerful attack and there was no doubt in Surya's mind about what would
happen if the ball hit him.
***********************************************************************
Indra looked at the new arrival and gawked. Not even the
most powerful of His majesty Raja Chola's general's could produce such
a ball of ki with such impunity.
The mortal looked straight into Surya's eyes seemingly
oblivious to everything else around him. For an instant Indra wondered
whether he could attack the mortal but abandoned the idea. He then
sensed the mortal's almost undetectable probing the area. With a start
Indra realized that he was able to detect the probing only because the
mortal had allowed him to.
Indra's next thought was to run and put as much distance
between the mortal and him as he possibly could. He quickly abandoned
that idea too. If his majesty ever got wind of that he would make him
suffer for such an act of cowardice. Raja Chola ruled with an iron fist
and punishments were severe for even the smallest of offenses. There
were fates worse than death and Indra did not want to inflict them upon
himself or his family and clan.
The only option left open was to fight the mortal and hope
that death would be quick and painless. For the first time in his
fifteen millennia of existence Indra felt afraid of a mortal. He waited
his turn until the mortal focused his attention on him. It was clear
from the mortal's actions that he wanted to fight in a one on one
battle with Surya. It was also clear that the mortal would take any
interruptions as an affront and Indra did not want to think of what
such a powerful being would do when he was pissed off.
***********************************************************************
As soon as the stranger showed himself, Ami's computer went
haywire. The amount of power that it was picking up from the stranger
was off scale. She suspected that the stranger was more powerful than
the one-eyed monster itself.
And if the way that the two monsters were acting was any
indication her assumptions were perfectly right. The blind one looked
at the stranger with utter respect and seemed to be waiting. The other
one, the one that had executed Mamoru looked like it was about to wet
its pants from fear.
She herself was awestruck. She felt no fear towards him and
she actually felt comforted in his presence. She knew from the bottom
of her heart that the man was there to save them from the monsters. She
thanked the kami for sending him to her though a part of her wished
that the help had arrived a little earlier.
With a start she shook herself out of her stupor and rushed
to Mamoru. The second monster did not even move when she rushed by it.
It seemed that it was too caught up in its own world of nightmares to
care about the rest of the world.
She lifted Mamoru's heavy body onto her back and dragged
him to the side of the road. Then she ran to get the others to safety
before the battle began.
The whole area lit up and then the stranger let loose the
blast. Ami dove for cover admist the rubble and prayed that she would
live through the experience.
***********************************************************************
The ball of energy zeroed in on its target. Surya crossed
his arms but did not move. It would not have any difference whatsoever
even if he did. His aura brightened involuntarily and formed a barrier
around him to ward off the blast.
Indra watched mesmerized as the ball of energy tore its way
towards Surya. He had hoped that Surya would do battle with the mortal
and buy him some time but that did not transpire. Surya just
strengthened his barrier and waited for the blast to hit him. He
realized that Surya had given up hope and was committing suicide. With
his experience Surya must have known that the barrier was inadequate
for he crossed his arms to protect his face. There was a small chance
that Surya really believed that he could be able to repel the attack
but Indra knew that was not the case.
The ball hit and for just the smallest fraction of a second
everything seemed to stand still. The stars in the evening sky
glittered peacefully and the cool eveniing air was very still. Then
there was a blinding flash of light.
A fireball almost a hundred foot in diameter mushroomed
into the sky. Again there was silence for the smallest fraction of a
second. The silence was shattered by the deafening roar of the blast.
The blast was directed away from them and most of the destructive power
of the blast was directed away from them. Even so the heat was almost
unbearable. The immediate area around the blast in the shape of a rough
spearhead was completely destroyed. Where there had one been buildings
standing proud and tall there now stood piles of rubble with jagged
pieces of metal jutting out into the evening sky here and there.
Ami, who had prostrated herself on the ground as soon as
Ranma had fired the blast picked herself off the ground. She surveyed
the blast and looked at him with sheer wonder in her eyes. Not even
Usagi would have been able to throw such a powerful blast.
"Who are you?" asked Indra. A warrior had the right to know
his opponents name before they engaged in a battle to the death.
Ranma looked at him with the same emotionless mask he had
worn before. His mouth remained unmoving. It seemed that he did not
want to answer the question.
Indra felt his temper rising. It was a sign of disrespect
when one refused to reveal his name.
He repeated the question albeit in a louder voice.
\Naan dhan dragon!\ replied Ranma.
"Huh!" *He knows the ancient tongue. How is that possible?
We are so far away from the ancient land.* Thought Indra.
Ranma leapt off the roof and landed lightly on his feet. He
assumed a stance and addressed the Ashura again.
"Are you ready to die Ashura?" he asked in a cold
emotionless voice.
Indra did not have the time to even formulate a reply.
Ranma attacked as soon as he had uttered those words. Indra barely
ducked under the punch to his face only to get himself kneed in his
face.
Indra flew back and landed roughly on the hard concrete
surface of the road. Ranma stood still eyeing him with his hands
dangling limply by his sides.
Indra wiped the blood from his face and got up. Ranma was
on top of him again as soon as he stood up. A punch to his solar plexus
and a open handed palm strike later Indra flew once more. This time he
righted himself in midair and landed on his feet.
Deciding to take the fight to Ranma's camp he attacked.
Ranma met his assault head on. He ducked and rolled sideways to avoid
the sharp edge of the sickle. Even as it passed him, he spun around and
applied his leg to Indra's mid section and then to his face. Both the
kicks had enough power behind them to send a truck into orbit and Indra
flew and impacted violently against a building.
The building shuddered and collapsed over him. Even as the
dust rose into the air the Ashura general emerged his aura blazing like
a black inferno. His sickles had been dislodged from his hands when the
building collapsed and were now buried somewhere inside the mound of
rubble that remained of the building.
His black aura cast a shadow around him. In his six arms
had basketball sized balls of ki in them. He jumped into the air and
let loose the blasts.
Ranma jumped to meet him in midair and evaded the blasts as
they rushed towards him. Just as Indra reached the apex of his jump
Ranma intercepted him. Indra's head snapped back as Ranma executed a
savage uppercut to his chin. The Ashura general began to fly higher
into the air but Ranma had other ideas. He grabbed Indra's legs just as
they passed him and jerked him back.
Indra momentarily blacked out as the g-forces sent blood
gushing to his brain. Ranma simply swung Indra around a couple of times
as he hovered in midair. He then threw the Ashura general to the
ground.
Indra hit the ground and dug a meter deep crater in it. He
moaned and reached up with his arms. He grabbed the concrete edge and
hauled himself out of the crater. He stumbled and fell down. He got up
with some effort and stood wobbling on his feet.
Ranma landed a few yards in front of Indra. The emotionless
expression did not change a little bit. He simply summoned some ki and
fired the ki charged vacuum blade at point blank range into the Ashura
general's chest.
Indra raised his ki barrier faster than he had ever before.
The blade sliced neatly through the ki barrier. It vanished out of
existence a few millimeters from Indra's body. The ki stored in it was
released and it exploded.
Indra's body just blew apart under the force of the
explosion. Pieces of flesh and gore rained down all over the area as
gravity applied its hold on them.
***********************************************************************
Author's rants:
It wasn't me, I swear!
The story is hosted at the following sites:
1. Mine (http://samrtaleck.anifics.com)
2. Lady cosmos (http://www.crosswinds.net/~ladycosmos/)
3. Rakhal's Penultimate Ranma Fanfic index
(http://www.rakhal.com/FFIndex/lstmain.html)
4. FFML archives
(http://miniarchive.dyndns.org:123/cgi-bin/MiniArchive.exe)
5. Mediaminer fanfic archives (www.mediaminer.org/fanfic)
I would like to take this oppurtunity to
prostrate myself in front of my pre-readers. Thank you, guys! This
couldn't have been possible without all of you:
jakub [jpilecki@poczta.onet.pl]
Kaz [kazblah945@aol.com]
Madcat [madcat08@hotmail.com]
Brain [bmccullough@nucles.com]
James Merritt [j.merritt1@home.com]
Philip Penty [plainswaker@hotmail.com]
Nathan Shuker [rezantis@hotmail.com]
Zero [shinzero@home.com]
Hints for you readers from the author:
Hint #1: Arun does not write to a schedule, he really has
to spend a lot of time with his psychiatrist.
Hint #2: (for those out standing critics out there[;)])Call
Arun anything you want in your mail provided (though he won't) he has
the right to call you by these same names. Arun appreciates
constructive negative comments and he really loves the positive
comments. Its the 'Go to hell you mother F***ing Freak of nature' and
such that he hates. Please send me your negative comments though I
would be most grateful if you would tone down the I hate you part a
little.
Hint #3: The truth is out there, hey, don't ask me where
but is out there since Fox 'spooky' Mulder says so.
Hint #4: There is no hint #4.
Hint #5: Read the author's rants section if there is one.
It would clear some of yer questions as well as create some totally
unrelated ones.
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