hello everyone,
here's the first part of chapter 11. Hope you all like
it.
SMARTALECK PRODUCTIONS

Destiny

            By arun<arundude1@yahoo.com>
                   <arun2110@sancharnet.in>

            Chapter11 <Originally completed on
01/26/2002> <REVISION
#1>

            This is a Ranma 1/2 - Sailor Moon
crossover with certain
aspects of Ramayana.

            Guys:

            "..." Normal Japanese speech.

            *...* Thoughts.

            ((...)) Daemon language.

            //...// Tamil as it is spoken.

Author's notes:

	Here's the eleventh chapter, all fried and crisp. :)
Hope everyone likes it. Parts of it... the Ranma vs.
the Daemon part were not as well executed as I would
have liked, but here is the chapter all the same. This
chapter will definitely solve a few mysteries and add
a few others... so, please don't pick up that chainsaw
you have in your garage and come knockin' on my door.
I got a really big pea-shooter and it I do not want to
hurt you all. :)

	This chapter is about decisions, fights, treachery
and it is dark in places... I think.

	Anyways, hope all of you like it.

Dedication:

	This chapter is dedicated to the freedom, which my
ancestors fought so hard to win and which is now being
slowly eroded by the politicians of my country. Today
is my country's Republic Day and I salute all who
sacrificed their lives and loves for the freedoms
which we so treasure.

	May God bless them all! And may God bless my country!

	Now, on with the story...

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

People who knew Hashimoto Kenji always thought that he
was a worthless and foolish buffoon.

	They were right.

	Once he had a bright future ahead of him. He was at
the top of his profession and he was respected and
admired by all. He spent eighteen, nineteen and on the
odd day, twenty hours working hard for his company's
as well as his own future. He had been the paragon of
hard work.

	However, his body was human and it had not been able
to take the strain. Hashimoto, in one of the most
foolish decisions he had ever made in his life,
decided to ignore his body's signals that he was
overworking himself and putting it under a lot of
strain. He was so focused on meeting the goals set by
his employers that he ignored it and paid it no heed.

	Slowly, his performance levels had fallen and one
day, while working late at the office, he had suffered
a nervous breakdown. Hashimoto's employers had
recognized his value to the company and had taken care
of his medical bills. They had assured him a place in
the company when he recovered from his illness.

	Hashimoto, like the loyal employee that he was, had
followed the regimen the doctors had set out for him
and in no time at all, he had recovered. And his
employers, true to their word, took him back.

	Once again, Hashimoto pushed his body to the limits,
working his ass off for his employers. This time
however, he had several secret allies by his side -
Doriden and Dexamyl. Doriden, a sleeping pill, made
him drowsy and euphoric in the evening and Dexamyl, a
diet control pill, gave him energy and made him
euphoric during the day.

	At the beginning, Hashimoto took only one of each
everyday, but soon, he was taking one and a half, two
and then three pills everyday. Soon, he began to
simply skip the evening meal and his weight began to
drop. He stopped taking supper because he needed the
high of the Doriden to work and eating supper ruined
the high.

	Then one day, just after a company meeting, a
concerned executive asked Hashimoto whether everything
was all right. He had delivered the speech so fast
that people who had attended the meeting had trouble
following it and were worried about his health.

	The news somehow fell on his wife's ears and she
asked him about it. He brushed her fears aside saying
everything was all right with him and things couldn't
have been better.

	Everything was going well until one day, when
Hashimoto's doctor called him to his office and
enquired about the high number of diet and sleeping
pill prescriptions that he was getting. Hashimoto once
again assured the doctor as he had assured his wife.
Everything was all right with him, why couldn't people
understand, he asked himself. He went so far as to say
that; he could lay off the pills anytime he wanted.
Nevertheless, the doctor wanted Hashimoto to check
himself into a hospital and put him under observation
for drug dependency.

	Hashimoto took the doctor's advice, though he feared
what the news of his hospitalization would do to his
career in the company. In the hospital, Hashimoto was
pronounced as suffering from anorexia as well as
dependence on Doriden and Dexamyl. Afraid yet
unbelieving, Hashimoto decided to stay in the hospital
under observation for sometime just to prove to
himself and to the world that everything was all right
with him.

	The next day, he woke complaining about noises and
such when there was little or none to be heard or
complained about. After a week, his doctor came by to
visit him and Hashimoto confided in the doctor that he
was miserable. However, he refused to accept the fact
that he was addicted. He checked himself out that very
day; angry with the doctors for trying to convince him
that he was something he was not.

	That very day, he took an oath to stay away from the
pills, but their allure proved too much for him and
soon, he was back to his old self taking more pills a
day than he had ever before. For a time, all went
well, his job in the company was progressing well, his
wife and children were doing great, but it did not
last. For quite some time, his wife had known of his
addiction and she had kept it within wraps, hoping
that he would rid himself of the curse that plagued
him. Such did not happen and if anything, Hashimoto's
craving for the pills actually increased until they
were the almost the only things that mattered in his
life. His wife, realizing that things would never
change, left him and filed for divorce citing his
addiction to the drugs as the cause. His company, his
beloved company, got news of his misgivings and they
fired him. His wife got her divorce and took away her
children.

	And in little more than a week, Hashimoto lost
everything that he had ever held dear to him.

	Broken, Hashimoto vowed to get rid of the demon in
his life and checked himself into a hospital. There he
spent the next six months, the days and nights but
hazes to him and when it was all over, he was free of
the demon. Although he was no longer dependent on the
demented pills, he still paid a price. He had been far
too long under their control, the doctors told him.
They also said that there would always be side effects
on his person, which would pop up from time to time.
He had been out of the hospital for less than a
fortnight when the magnitude of all that had
transpired in his life hit him. He had lost his wife,
his children, his friends and his beloved company...
He had lost everything.

	Too depressed to work and too far gone into
depression to care, Hashimoto had moved about the
streets like a possessed man, drinking from dawn till
dusk and then some more.

	Such was his path from success to failure.

	Now, homeless and penniless, Hashimoto spent his time
begging and drinking. He begged to get the money to
buy a drink and he drank to forget the garbage of a
life he was left with.

	His home was the dark alleys of Tokyo and his life
smelled and tasted the same as a rotten egg. Hashimoto
did not care about all of that. He was too busy
drinking himself to death. Maybe he thought that he
could find the peace, which had been lacking in this
life when he commenced his journey into the life
beyond.

	Hashimoto burped unceremoniously as the stale beer
that he had drunk in the morning made his stomach
protest loudly. In his drunken stupor, he let the half
filled bottle of cheap whisky drop from his hands and
toll on the floor until it came to rest against his
prostrate body.

	He was about to drift off into the inviting and
comforting embrace of slumber when a cold breeze
picked up in the alley. Hashimoto shivered a little
and rolled his head to the side to puke on the floor.
He heaved a couple of times before he felt an
unnatural light on him. He looked up and saw an uneven
glow in the air a couple of feet in front and above
him.

	Before his inebriated brain could process this new
data and make a decision, the first of the daemons
stepped through. Hashimoto's eyes widened in surprise
at the sight of the almost human looking thing with
glowing red oval eyes.

	"Wha..." he managed in his drunken daze.

	Unfortunately, this had the effect of attracting the
daemon's attention. It looked at him with its fearful
eyes and licked its lips in the same manner one licks
his lips when presented with a wonderful meal.

	((I wonder if you will taste as bad as you look,)) it
said in a strange tongue. ((Of course my body and soul
has ached for the taste of tender human flesh between
my teeth for so long that how you taste makes no
difference. Is that not so, my friends?)) it asked its
companions.

	The other two daemons having stepped through the gate
during the course of the speech, nodded.

	On the other hand, Hashimoto did not understand what
the daemon was speaking about. And he did not need to
understand since the look that it was giving him made
him fear that he was being invited for dinner and he
was on the menu.

	"Hel..." Hashimoto yelled in genuine fright.

	"Silence, wretched thing," the first daemon said and
slashed at his neck with its talons.

	Crimson blood blossomed in a flowery shower from
Hashimoto's neck and his scream for help died in his
throat. Absolute terror showed in his eyes for a
couple of seconds before he closed them forever.

	"Noisy fool," the first daemon cursed.

	The smallest of the other two snorted.

	"They always are, Mora."

	"Yes, I suppose. Still..." Mora, for that was the
first daemon's name, said wistfully.

	"One can always hope," the third daemon, which had
been silent until then finished.

	"Yes, indeed, Toga."

	"They are a weak race and they will always cry as
weak things tend to do," the second one added.

	"There is an unshakeable truth in your words,
Felecia."

	"Thank you, brother."

	"You are welcome, Felecia."

	"Shall we begin the hunt then?" Toga asked.

	"Of course, dear brother. We live but for the hunt,"
Mora said.

	The other two nodded. Felecia sniffed and pointed
towards the wall to her left.

	"I sense a great many prey in that direction,
brothers."

	"Then there we shall proceed," Toga replied.

	"Yes, there we shall," Mora acquiesced.

	With that, the trio of daemons leaped onto the roof
of the building and made their way, hopping across
rooftops, to their destination.

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

	It was a pleasant evening... The sunset had been
perfect, the warmth of the stars was shining upon the
ground and the moon had revealed its presence over the
one or two cloud formations that were scattered here
and there, high up in the sky.

	People went about their evening business, uncaring
and unknowing of that which was about to befall them.
There was a certain tenseness in the air; after all,
scarcely a week had passed since the last supernatural
attack. Still, they felt safe enough to wander out in
the evenings.

	They were in for a rude awakening, the people, but
they did not realize that.

	With a thunderous roar, the three upper-level daemons
landed in the middle of the road. They did not even
wait until they got their bearings before they
attacked.

	Think of a busy street. With cars crammed in tight
spaces and the sidewalks filled with people who were
either rushing home from a hard day's work at the
office or going shopping or going on a date or going
on a nice little walk. There will be no room to
maneuver even in the best of times and should the
people panic a mass stampede would ensue.

	That is what happened in the cluttered street. There
were screams, heart-rending in their intensity, as
people tried to run away from the denizens of hell.
They bumped into one another and as a result, the weak
- namely, the children and the elders, were pushed
down hard onto the ground. Mothers bent to help their
children and they too were pushed down. Many a child
screamed in agony and horror as foot after foot, high
heel after heel pressed upon their body tearing flesh
and bone alike.

	There stood a child in the corner, his mouth bloodied
and his hands outstretched towards his mother, who was
caught in the middle of the sidewalk. Through the nigh
impenetrable wall of feet, shoes, shopping bags and
sandals, she could see his face and he could see hers,
and both of them could see the pain in the others
face. She reached out with a hand to touch her baby
one last time, for she was not sure whether she could
live through the day, and he reached out to hers. The
people who were running away did not care though, and
somehow his hands ended up caught between the legs of
an adult. The man, for the adult was a he, did not and
could not stop for he was being pushed by many behind
and the little boy's hand dislocated at the elbow and
broke in three different places. All the fractures
were multiple and the tragedy did not end there. The
child, he was less than five years old, was pulled
into the stampeding crowd and in the space of a couple
of seconds, had received several sharp kicks to his
face, had fallen down hard and had a shoe step on his
neck. The boy's mother could only watch in horror,
silent tears streaming down her face, as his neck
first bent at an unnatural angle and then broke. The
crowd did not see and it did not care. Soon, she too
joined her son in the world beyond.

	Then there was the old woman, a poor darling of
eighty-five. She was sitting in one of those outdoors
cafes that people seem to frequent, when all hell
broke lose. Before her senses reported and her deduced
what was going on, she had been bowled over by another
patron to the very same cafe and tea, piping hot and
scalding to the touch, spilled on her face. She
screamed in agony, but her screams fell on deaf ears,
if indeed they fell on any ear at all. Just before she
lost consciousness, a high-heeled lady stepped on her
hip as she ran away, breaking it on contact and
piercing her flesh. Her common iliac artery was
pierced and she died soundlessly shortly thereafter.

	The people in the vehicles did not fare well either.
The cars were traveling at less than twenty-five miles
an hour, but the road was cramped and as soon as the
daemons landed, people begun to filter into the
oncoming traffic willing to risk their lives in the
roads rather than place it in the hands of the daemons
and the stampeding crowd.

	A woman, she was not more than thirty-three, dressed
in the bluest evening gown and out on a romantic date
with her husband - they were trying to ignite the
passion of old - ran straight into the path of a
Toyota. The driver slammed his breaks and spun the
steering wheel as fast as he could, but it was of no
use. The car careened and slammed door-first into the
woman, who looked on at the whole scene with wide-open
eyes as the accident unfolded. Her eyes were focused
entirely on the car and the driver. The driver saw her
look and as much as his soul went out to her, he could
not do anything. He would remember the horror filled
eyes for years, though and he would never get a good
night's sleep for the rest of his life. His concern
and horror notwithstanding, one of the basic laws of
physics took over and the woman's head slammed with a
deafening 'thunk' on the car roof. The impact was
enough to create a nice huge dent in the roof. Blood
splattered all over and just then, the car trailing
behind hit the other side with maximum force. The
woman, she was already dead from a broken skull
fragment that had shot into her brain, was sent flying
forward, her body spinning slowly, spraying blood all
over. Her head hit the concrete surface on the next
lane and was immediately run over by a truck,
splattering brain, blood and whatnot all around.

	A block back, a lovely couple traveling in a red
convertible engaged the brake to prevent a
fender-bender and their car was promptly run over by
the 8-wheeler behind it, whose tire's just ran over
the car, pulverizing the metal and decapitating the
two before they realized what was going on. The car's
alarm went off and...

	Toga smiled gleefully as one of the decapitated heads
bounced onto the middle of the street. Somehow, the
scene looked remarkably funny. He turned towards the
screaming mass on the side of the road and raised his
hand at them. A ball of energy, golden with a black
tinge, formed in his hands and he threw it with a mere
flick of his fingers, watching it speed towards the
lambs emitting a scream much like a siren and ram into
the back of an unlucky soul. The ball vaporized its
way through the flesh, severing and cauterizing the
spinal card, a major portion of the heart, the sides
of both the lungs, the diaphragm not to mention the
liver, spleen and finally the oesophagus. It emerged
and exploded with scorching heat just outside the
man's body.

	People, severed limbs, heads and whatnot, and more
people were thrown about as the concussive blast of
superheated air hit them. The whole thing lasted under
a second, but at the end of it, thirty lay dead,
twenty more were dying, three were in a coma and fifty
more were seriously injured.

	Toga's smile never disappeared, but rather grew
exponentially. He leapt over the car, which was on a
collision course with him and fired a thin stream of
white-hot energy at it. The car was cleaved neatly in
half and exploded when the gasoline tank was pierced,
spraying the fuel into the air, which caught fire,
killing all inside instantly.

	"This is fun," Toga said unabashedly.

	"And as usual, you are the one who is having all of
it," Felecia replied. She glared at him and extended
her claws, all eight inches of them, before jumping
into the crowd at the other end of the street.

	"Humph!" Toga snorted and turned towards the lambs.
It had been a long time since he and his brethren -
they were not family, though they belonged to the same
caste in the daemon hierarchy - had been free among
the humans. Therefore, they meant to enjoy every
single minute of it.

	Toga glanced at a girl in the midst of her puberty,
across the street, and smiled happily. He jumped to
her, extending the claws in his middle and index
finger in mid-flight. The girl was horrified and
managed only to whimper before he was on her.

	The mauling that followed was not pretty. He sliced
her up, paying a great deal of attention to her chest
and thus, her breasts. Blood dripped, splattered and
gushed in a never-ending river and the girl's screams
of pain went on and on. Pieces of flesh, mostly from
her breasts and her stomach fell with a sickeningly
dull thud to the floor and her entrails followed soon
after. In seconds, Toga was done and in seconds, the
girl was dismembered beyond recognition, a gory mass
of flesh, blood and bones, the only evidence that she
had ever been there.

	Mora could not help but smile at Toga's antics. He
had always preferred the more subtler and less messy
methods such as vaporizing an opponent or a victim
with a powerful blast of ki, but he had to admit
Toga's method was very effective from a psychological
point of view. Even now, as the lambs ran or tried to
run away, he could feel the revulsion, hatred and fear
rolling in thick layers from them.

	He liked the taste of fear and hatred, of course.
Though he and the others were not ki vampires, they
did enjoy a morsel or two of horror-filled ki.

	((Toga, herd them over there. We can pick them off
one by one if we get them cornered,)) Mora signaled
with a complex mixture or whistles and aura
projections.

	Toga and Felecia nodded imperceptibly and begun to
throw random balls of ki towards the lambs, blocking
their escape routes and herding them for the massacre.

	It took a couple of minutes, but it was done in the
end. The children and the adults huddled together in a
mass several tens of meters in diameter.

	The three daemons surrounded the group and raised
their arms in preparation for firing ki blasts.

	There was an unearthly silence in the atmosphere.
Time seemed to slow. The mob paled with fear.

	A little boy towards the center whimpered for his
mommy.

	A gentle breeze rustled in the background.

	The daemons smiled.

	Someone prayed quite audibly.

	Energy begun to crackle and coalesce into balls in
the outstretched arms of the daemons.

	The sky seemed to darken and the Earth seemed to
hush. Silence fell on the world.

	Felecia released her ball...

	And all hell broke lose...

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

	The inners ran as fast as their legs could carry
them. The buildings and the lights blurred as they ran
towards the daemons. They knew they had to hurry if
they wanted to save innocent lives from being lost.

	As they ran, Ami briefed them through the
communicator.

	"I think we have three very powerful daemons
rampaging a few kilometers south of here," Ami said
into the communicator.

	"Only three?" Rei asked. She had thought there was a
lot more when she had heard the panicked tone in Ami's
voice at the shrine.

	"Yes."

	"Then why the panic? Those things were always too
stupid anyway," Rei asked.

	Ami eyed Rei through the corner of her eyes as they
hopped over the roofs.

	"They are very powerful, Rei. More powerful than all
four of the Negaverse generals combined."

	"Oh!"

	"If you do not have anymore questions, I want tell
you guys something. Keep running. I will point to a
new direction if the daemons move. Got that?"

	Everyone acquiesced over the communicator.

	"Good. We want to avoid a repeat of the last time at
any means possible. You will all keep on moving
around... We do not want to provide those things a
stationary target... That is what did us in, so early
in the last fight.

	"Each of you will cover the other's back. If
something attacks you, dodge and distract it. Buy some
time for the rest of us to blow the daemons to kingdom
come. Do not hesitate to take a shot should you have
one and do not make an entrance speech. We can use the
element of surprise."

	"Unhuh!" Came the reply from all four of the sailors.

	"Remember what I told you and we should do well in
the fig..."

	Ami's speech was interrupted by several small
explosions just ahead of them. There were several
columns of blackish smoke, which were bellowing out
from the street and there were screams for mercy. The
scouts quickened their pace at the sound of the cries
for help.

	Just as they reached the scene, one of the daemons
released the ball of energy it had in its arm.

	"No," Rei shouted and threw out her arm in
desperation. A ball of fire, bigger than the one the
daemon had fired and faster too, streaked across the
evening sky, intercepting the daemon's blast midway.

	Rei's blast became the immovable object against which
Felecia's ball collided against. Felecia's ball
bounded off, high into the night sky.

	Toga and Mora, realizing that bigger prey had
arrived, immediately fired their blasts towards the
ill-prepared senshi.

	Mora's blast, the strongest amongst the two, had an
angry reddish hue, as though it was reflecting the
emotion, its master felt towards the scouts for
interrupting the massacre.

	"Run," Makoto shouted and jumped into the sky.

	Ami and the others needed no invitation and followed
suit, just in time to avoid the twin explosions that
transformed the top of the building into so many
smoldering pieces of reddish hot, slag metal. The
sailor senshi landed heavily on the road braced
themselves with their hands on impact and bent their
knees to absorb the energy.

	"Nice jump," Mora commented wryly. "But it will only
delay the inevitable."

	"And what would that be?" Rei asked, summoning energy
into her body for a pre-emptive strike.

	"Your deaths, of course," Mora replied.

	"We are full of ourselves," aren't we?" Rei asked.

	"Spread yourselves," Ami whispered into her
communicator from the back. "Makoto, I think you can
take care of yourself. You take on the one to the
left. Minako, the two of us will take that thing to
the right. Usagi and Rei can take the one in the
center. Keep moving and watch the other's back."

	The girls nodded and circled the daemons.

	"Are you the famous sailor scouts?" Felecia asked in
a sensuous tone. "You are disappointing in person. I
was expecting... more!"

	"Sure of ourselves, aren't we?" Ami asked and moved
back.

	Before Felecia could answer, Rei fired her blast and
moved to the left in an effort to outflank the female
daemon. Felecia, ill prepared for the surprise attack,
jumped into the air and executed an elegant pirouette
to evade the blast.

	"You are going to die," she snarled angrily at the
fire senshi.

	"You wish," replied Rei and ran once more to the
left.

	As Felecia tracked Rei and prepared a blast, Ami
struck her from behind with one of her own.

	"Mercury Aqua Magic," she whispered with her head
bent down and her harp pointing at Felecia's back.

	Felecia was caught by surprise by the sneak attack
and lost control of the blast she had been preparing.
Before she could maneuver, the particles of ice
condensed and crystallized around her body and
exploded, bathing the area in a shower of razor sharp
icicles. Several of the civilians were injured and
their screams of pain sent the rest into action. And
once again, they tried to run away.

	Felecia, bleeding from countless cuts on her body,
snarled in anger and pain. She extended her claw,
which had been at rest so far and swiped at a civilian
who came too close to her. The woman did not even have
time to scream before her neck was sliced into four
pieces. The headless body was carried forward for a
couple of steps by sheer momentum before it fell down.
Her head continued to roll for a couple of meters
before coming to rest.

	"You will wish you had never been born," Felecia
seethed through her teeth.

	"Wonderful," Rei said snidely and formed another
attack. "Phoenix Flare."

	A vortex of searing hot flames formed in her hand and
coalesced into a ball, approximately the size of an
apple. The entire process took less than a second and
Rei ran sideways, the entire time. When it was fully
formed, she did not even bother throwing it at
Felecia. Rather, the ball shot forward by itself and
though Felecia tried to somersault over it, it
followed her as a smart bomb would and hit her in her
center of mass.

	There was no explosion nor was there any sound when
the attack hit Felecia. There was just a huge wall of
white-hot flame, which cocooned around Felecia and
burnt her body to crisp in less than two seconds.

	"Rei, help Makoto. I will join up with Usagi and
Minako. They seem to be having trouble with that
thing," Ami said without wasting a second.

	Rei nodded, even as she ran towards Makoto, her eyes
and face set in grim determination.

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

	Makoto eyed her opponent warily. She got into a
tiger-fu stance and focused energy inside her body for
a blast.

	"And who are you, sweetie?" Toga asked.

	"I am death to you," Makoto replied.

	Toga grinned maliciously.

	"My! Such a fiery spirit! I think, I will enjoy
tearing your heart out."

	"We will see who ends up dead in the end, won't we?"
Makoto replied.

	"Yes, I suppose. But then, I know you are not
powerful enough to strong enough to fight me. I will
end up killing you in the end," Toga answered merrily.

	"Less talk, more fight," Makoto said in return.

	"Of course!" Toga said and unsheathed his claws.

	Makoto's eyes widened at the size of the wicked
looking things, but she quickly masked her surprise.

	"Are you afraid of my claws?" Toga asked with a sad
look. "I am disappointed. I thought you would like
them. The two of you are going to in close contact,
after all."

	Makoto did not reply, opting to summon a small
portion of the energy into her palm and firing it at
the daemon. Toga dodged to his right to avoid the
blast and realized too late that it was a fake. A
bigger and more powerful blast of pure electricity
struck him in his chest and threw him back into a
lamppost and through it.

	"Like I said, less talk, more fight," Makoto replied
and made a beeline for Toga, her hands extended to her
sides.

	She had covered half the distance in the wink of an
eye, when Toga slid to rest by leaning forwards and
using his left leg as a break. As soon as inertia had
lost its hold on him, he jumped high into the air,
ignoring the black char mark on his chest and came
down upon Makoto, his hands and thus, his claws,
swinging downwards like a berserk bear's paw.

	Makoto back-flipped out of the way at the last
possible second and bounded off a light pole to punch
Toga in his face. Toga grunted at the power behind the
blow and retreated a couple of steps back.

	"Very nice, girl. Now, playtime is over," He snarled
as he wiped the green droplets of blood from his lips.

	"Oh, I am so afraid," Makoto said in fake voice.
"Bring it on, bastard."

	Toga nodded and attacked at a frenzied pace. Makoto,
for her part, ducked under the first swipe, brought
her right arm to bear on Toga's elbow to kill the
momentum of his follow through strike and slid her
head back out. She kicked him in his groin and bent
backwards to evade a swipe at her chest. Toga brought
his left arm into play and struck Makoto's knee joint,
killing the momentum behind her kick. As soon as she
had evaded his attack, Toga brought his right arm to
guard his chest and bent, executing a high-powered
kick to her midsection. Makoto moved a couple of steps
back to evade the blow and assumed her former
position.

	"Not bad at all, girl," Toga said.

	"I am more than enough for you, demon," Makoto
replied and feigned a swivel kick with her left leg.

	Toga brought his left arm to block and cushion the
attack and swiped at where he assumed her legs would
end up with the claws in his right hand.	Makoto fired
another blast of electricity at point blank range and
retreated back.

	The force of the blast threw Toga away. Unlike the
last time, there was nothing he could do to break his
flight and he flew through the air to be struck
against a building. Numerous glass windows, already
weakened by earlier explosions, shattered in the
building, sending a rain of glass, cascading into the
street. Makoto brought up her arm to protect her eyes
and head from the glass, and took a few steps back.

	With her head lowered, she did not see a huge slab of
glass falling straight towards her and would have been
impaled were it not for Rei who tackled her out of the
way. The glass slab hit the road with a metallic clang
and sunk nearly a dozen centimeters into the ground,
missing Rei by a few scant centimeters.

	Makoto and Rei rolled, clutching each other in a
fashion vaguely similar to a lover's embrace and came
to a stop a couple of foot from the point of impact.
They got up and saw Toga summon a huge ball of energy
in his hands.

	Just then, the civilians, who had until then kept
their distance out of fear of injury to their person
because of the falling glass, realized that freedom
was just a couple of dozen meters away and ran into
the melee.

	Toga took the opportunity given by that moment to
release the ball of ki he had in his hands, at his
adversaries.

	Makoto and Rei, ill prepared for such a powerful
attack, threw their arms forward and summoned their
most powerful attacks. They could have jumped out of
the way, but then they would have put innocent lives
at risk.

	They knew their effort was suicidal. Though they knew
that better than anyone did, they still tried. To
anyone else the decision might have seemed like a hard
one, but to them, it was not a hard decision at all.
It was their sworn duty to protect the innocent at
risk to their lives and they did, firing two balls of
mana at the night colored sphere of death heading
towards them.

	Time seemed to slow down and their senses seemed to
heighten as the three balls raced towards each other.
The moment seemed to stretch to an eternity and yet,
it was all over in less than a second. Makoto's attack
hit Toga's attack first and sent it on a slightly
upward course while Makoto's attack dissipated
harmlessly. Rei's attack hit Toga's attack on the
lower edge and deflected it even more. It was not
completely absorbed and hit the ground just before
Toga, sending innumerable shards of glass into his
body.

	Toga's attack buzzed through the air and hit the top
floor of the three-story building behind Rei and
Makoto. Though the ball had been significantly
weakened by the senshis efforts, it was still powerful
enough to blow up the last two floors. The fireball
and the concussion wave were impressive to say the
least, shattering glass for blocks around and could be
heard as far as three kilometers back. Luckily, most
of the blast was directed away from the street and out
into the evening sky, thus, sparing the lives of the
two senshi and most of the civilians trapped in the
street.

	Toga, for his part, was a mess. He had numerous
wounds bleeding all over his body and a thin sliver of
glass glittered, part of it in the middle of his crown
and part of it on the back of his head, where it had
broken through. He dropped to the ground without a
sound.

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

	"More lamb to the slaughter," Mora muttered to
himself as he eyed the two blondes in front of him. He
was almost tempted to say, 'Are you kidding me?', but
decided against it. They were his opponents and it was
not right to humiliate them so, though others in his
race would have thought otherwise. The sailors were
bloody murderers and to see them reduced to such a
pitiful plight was quite funny.

	One had a ridiculous hairstyle and the other looked
like she was the embodiment of klutz-hood. The first
one, he recognized as the Sailor Moon, which was
really surprising since she did not look like any of
the mana howitzers he had come across over the years.
The second one, he deduced as Sailor Venus and he was
disappointed there too. Both of them were nowhere as
powerful as their counterparts during the age of the
Silver Millennium of times past and though this Sailor
Moon was weaker than the one he remembered, she was
not far behind. Sailor Venus was another story,
however. She was very weak compared to the one he had
known in the past.

	And therefore, faced with such weak opponents, Mora
did not look forward to cherishing this battle at all.
He was one of the top three at the head of the daemon
hierarchy and here he was, face to face with weak
reincarnations of a kingdom long dead and gone. Unlike
the other two, who were weaklings and just a couple of
thousand years old, he was more than capable of taking
care of himself and kicking sailor senshi ass while
doing so.

	"So, shall we dance the dance?" Mora asked
sardonically, knowing he will not enjoy the upcoming
massacre at all. In fact, he wanted to make it as
painless as possible. Their position was pitiful
indeed, without him adding to it.

	Minako nodded and attacked first. She cupped her arms
in front of her chest in a manner vaguely reminiscent
of a Hindu's praying gesture and launched her attack.

	"Crescent Beam Shower."

	The patterns in the mana flows above Mora changed
almost visibly and begun spewing out vast amounts of
mana at the daemon lord. Mora for his part, stood
where he was and waved his arm in an arc to form a
shield, which glowed an actinic yellow with arcs of
black in it. Minako's mana hit the barrier and there
was an impressive series of explosions concentrated in
the area around Mora. When the mana barrage stopped,
the dust thrown up by the explosions took several
seconds to disperse revealing Mora, who was completely
unaffected by the attack.

	Usagi seeing that Minako's attack had not even phased
the daemon, struck out her arm in front of her chest
and without wasting time spouting preliminaries, threw
a powerful blast of Dragon's Fire at him.

	This time, Mora was hard pressed to shield himself
against the attack. Unlike the other attacks that the
senshi used, this one did not have a construct, but
was rather composed of pure mana, which was difficult
to block even at the best of times. He poured as much
ki into his shield as he could and jumped into the
air, though he was too slow to avoid the attack
completely. The mana hit the lower part of his shield,
bounced off towards the ground and exploded, spewing
rock and fire in massive quantities into the air. The
shield held, barely, and Mora jumped out of the cloud
of smoke and dust to stand within ten meters of the
two senshi.

	"Quite impressive for one so young," he said to
Usagi. "I might enjoy this battle, after all... Earth
Shatter," he shouted and placed his hand on the
ground.

	The ground around him exploded into a million pieces
and was thrown out at high velocities into the air.
Usagi and Minako took a couple of steps back and
formed their own attacks in retaliation.

	"Phoenix Flare Bomb!" Mora shouted from midair where
he hung as though there was no gravity acting upon him
and pulling him down to the Earth.

	The two sailors threw themselves into the ground as a
huge ball of blazing hot ki exploded towards them. The
ball missed them by a couple of feet, but the heat it
emitted was enough to singe most of Minako's hair. The
blast hit the center of the piled up cars in the road
and vaporized them, leaving a fifteen-foot deep crater
of molten slag, where once there had been cars.

	Minako rolled to the side and threw a Venus Love-me
Chain at Mora, who skillfully avoided it and fired a
smaller ki blast at her in return, before...

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

	On a busy street, on the other side of Juuban...

	Ranma walked through the streets in almost a daze
thinking things over.

	It seemed like he had a lot of things to think about
the last couple of weeks - much more than he usually
had to deal with. He had his hands tucked in his pant
pockets and was looking forlorn. He did not pay
attention to the people in front of him either as he
pushed his way through the crowd. Normally, he would
not be so rude to people, but he was caught up in his
thoughts and did not realize what he was doing even
though people were glaring at him left and right.

	He had solved one of the major mysteries of his life
and was once again reunited with his parents. The
occasion was supposed to be a happy one, but he did
not feel happy. His mother... His very own mother had
wanted to kill his brother because of some stupid
paint smear on a worthless piece of paper. He had made
her see some sense in the end, but the cost had been
terrible: He had most certainly driven her away and
made sure she would never look at him with the
unconditional love with which all mothers look at
their children. And now, the love of a mother he had
always longed for throughout his life would forever
remain just outside his reach.

	Even though the day had been shot to hell because of
that incident, which was definitely big enough to
warrant it a place among the worst days in his life,
he had made it worse scarcely half an hour later. And
what would have been the third best day in his life
had become the second worst day in his life with the
first being the day Xas Min died.

	He had kissed one of the sweetest and most wonderful
girls he had ever met, and by doing so, he had made
her sadder than she had been before. He had ruined her
day, broken her heart and now, he realized that he was
in love with her. He was absolutely, freaking
completely, head over heels in love with her. There
was no other answer. He had felt the kindling's of
love's fire when he had first met her and foolishly,
he had let it grow in his as well as her heart, though
he had known he would never allow himself to fall in
love with another woman. He did not want to dishonor
Xas Min's memory and he did not want to associate
closely with a woman only to end up losing her in the
end once again. Though immortality was a great thing,
it sucked since you essentially outlived and outlasted
everyone and everything that you ever cared for.

	"What am I going to do?" Ranma muttered to himself.
"I can't go either way. What am I going to do?"

	Brooding over his life, Ranma almost missed the shock
and feel of a huge ki induced explosion. Shaken out of
his stupor, he stared into the evening sky and cursed
the kami. He definitely did not want to help those
scouts after what they tried to do to him last time,
but it looked as if they were buried deep under seven
feet of trouble once again.

	But then, he had always been a sucker when it came to
helping the weak and he wasn't about to stray from his
path just because of some little upstart, snot nosed
bitches, who did not know between a friend and an
enemy.

	Having made his decision, Ranma jumped onto the
rooftops and made his way to the battle scene. He was
not going to let those girls do whatever they wanted
and get away with it, however, and therefore, he ran
at a mere fraction of his normal speed.

	*Maybe the ass-kicking they are sure to receive at
the hands of whatever or whomever it is they are
fighting against can help set their minds right or
something.*

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

	The Qin residence...

	There are obligations and then, there are
obligations. The first ones are the ones you need to
perform because you are forced to and the ones that
belong to the later category are the ones you need to
perform because it is the only thing to right thing to
do, and honor demands that you do it.

	Ryuuken Saotome, fledging martial artist of the
Matsubetu Katuto Ryuu was doing a little of both as he
sat with his mother, trying to console her quivering
mass of sobs and tears.

	"Mom, please stop crying," Ryuu tried for the
umpteenth time. He had never been comfortable around
people who were crying and he was even more
uncomfortable than he normal was, since the crying
figure was his mother.

	And for the hundredth time in less than half an hour,
he cursed himself and his father's foolishness. His
father had shooed him into the room 'to console his
mother' as he put it and had even disturbed his wife's
peaceful slumber to get Ryuu to forgive her.
Unfortunately, Nodoka had gone into complete crying
mode at the sight of him and Ryuu had been left alone
with her to do whatever he was supposed to do.

	"I am sure big brother would forgive you, mom. I, for
one, ain't angry with you or anything," Ryuu said
placing his hand on his mother's shoulders.

	Sniffle.

	"You know me, mom, I could never stay angry with
you..." Ryuu said hesitantly.

	On hearing the last sentence, Nodoka removed her head
from the pillow into which she had been crying all
along and looked hopefully into Ryuu's eyes.

	"Do you really mean that, Ryuu-chan?"

	"Of course, mom, I could never be angry with you...
I... I... I love you, mom."

	Nodoka's face immediately became joyous and when she
had met him at last, she had done the worst possible
thing she could have done. She had despaired of ever
being forgiven, but here was her dear Ryuu-chan,
saying that he had forgiven her. She was so happy to
be forgiven and to be reunited with him that she
decided a hug was necessary. And so, Nodoka gathered
Ryuu in a bear hug. She had missed her son so much
through the years and she wanted to make it all up in
a huge bear hug.

	Unfortunately, Ryuu's air supply was cut off and
after holding his breath for one and a quarter
minutes, he was getting nauseous and gray all over. He
had hoped Nodoka would release him by herself, but it
was not happening and he would not be able to survive
another minute trapped in her bosom.

	"Mom, I cannot breathe," he squeaked into her
breasts.

	Nodoka realized that her son was trying to say
something and let him go.

	"What did you say, Ryuu-chan?"

	"I said, you were hugging me too tight and I cannot
breathe, mom."

	"Oh," Nodoka's tiny voice quivered. Had she nearly
killed her own son, her own flesh and blood? "I am
sorry, Ryuu-chan," Nodoka continued in the same voice
and sniffled.

	"It's alright, mom. I know you did not mean too...
And I wanted to hug you too."

	"Oh, my son, I missed you so," Nodoka said, gathering
Ryuu into a hug once again.

	"I love you too, mom," Ryuu whispered into Nodoka's
ears while snuggling closer to his mother.

	Nodoka smiled beatifically. The glow that a mother
always has returned to her face and she sighed in
contentment. Time passed and still, mother and son
maintained the hug.

	"Ryuu-chan?" Nodoka spoke at last.

	There was no reply.

	"Ryuu-chan?" Nodoka asked a little louder.

	Again, there was no reply.

	Nodoka released her son from the hug and looked at
him. He was asleep and looked so peaceful in his
slumber.

	"My poor baby, you must have been very tired," Nodoka
said and laid him on the bed. She lay beside him and
stroked his hair. *Things are going to be right, after
all,* she thought happily.

	Knock. Knock.

	Nodoka stroked Ryuu's hair one last time and turned
her attention to the door.

	"Who is it?"

	"It is me, No-chan," Genma said from the other side
of the door. "But I need Ryuu for something."

	Nodoka got up and opened the door.

	"He's asleep, Genma-kun," Nodoka said.

	Genma cast an eye at Ryuu's sleeping frame before
answering Nodoka.

	"It appears so, No-chan. Nevertheless, the matter I
need him for cannot wait. It is very urgent and is of
the utmost importance."

	Nodoka gave Genma a long look and saw that he was
sincere.

	"Alright, Genma-kun, I will wake him up." She went to
the bed and shook Ryuu by his shoulders. "Ryuu-chan,
wake up."

	"I don't want to," Ryuu murmured.

	"But you have to, Ryuu-chan. It is important."

	"Oh, alright," Ryuu mumbled. "Let me sleep for a
couple of minutes."

	"C'mon, Ryuu-chan, don't be a sleepyhead. You will
get lots of sleep tonight, I promise. Now, wake up."

	Ryuu opened his eyes and sat up.

	"Mom, what do you want?"

	"C'mon, boy, we have a duty to attend to. Have you
forgotten it already?" Genma said hastily.

	"Huh?" Ryuu said sleepily.

	"We don't have time to waste, boy. Get up."

	Ryuu glared at his father before what his father was
saying dawned to him. Immediately, he bolted out of
the bed and hugged his mother one last time.

	"I gotta go, mom. See ya later," Ryuu said hurriedly.

	With that, the two men left the room, leaving behind
a very puzzled Nodoka.

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

	"Another attack?" Ryuu said unbelieving as he walked
beside his father. "But it has scarcely been a week
and..."

	"I know, boy, but I will be damned if I knew the
reason behind their attacks. Anyways, all of us sensed
a huge disturbance a couple of minutes ago and we have
to get there as soon as we can."

	"Who do you think it is, this time?" Ryuu asked.

	"I don't know. Probably one of those six-handed
things you told us about. Whatever it is, I am pretty
sure those girls cannot handle it. It is up there with
the thing they last fought with and we are afraid that
Ranma might already be there, fighting it," Genma
said, his voice dripping with concern.

	"Then we better get going there and help him."

	"We will, Ryuu," Cologne said from the middle of the
dojo. She and Happousai had transformed into their
alter egos and were having a quiet conversation. She
indicated through hand signals that Ryuu and Genma
should transform. They nodded and did so as they
walked up to her.

	"Shall we?" Ryuu said in a cool voice, trying to keep
his nervousness out of it.

	"Let's get going," Happousai nodded. The expression
on his face was serious, which was rather
disconcerting to see as the grandmaster of Matsubetu
Katuto Ryuu was never serious.

	"Ummm... How do you get there?" Ryuu asked. They were
six or seven miles from the attack site from what his
primitive senses could discern and it would take ten
or more minutes to get there... time, which they did
not have.

	"We teleport there," Cologne said with a straight
face.

	"Huh?"

	"I don't know how to explain this, but trust me. We
will get there," Cologne said and closed her eyes. Her
bracelet begun to hum and the foursome disappeared.

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

	"Dragon's Fire," Usagi shouted, cupping her hands and
forming the largest ball of mana she could focus.
Without a thought she let it loose at Mora, the act
itself propelling her three feet back as the
incredible energies pushed her behind.

	The blast was deflected with an equally big one from
Mora and both of them disappeared into the sky.

	The battle was going badly for the sailors. The
daemon easily matched whatever they threw at it and
was quick, extraordinarily quick, to retaliate with a
blast of its own. The only think that was keeping the
sailors from having their asses handed over to them
was the daemon, for one reason or another, did not use
physical attacks. It seemed to be content to use
energy attacks and left the physical part of its
arsenal alone.

	"Nice try, princess," Mora said condescendingly. "But
you have exhausted all but yourself with that blast
and have rendered yourself useless for the rest of the
fight."

	"Jupiter Oak Evolution," Makoto shouted, taking the
opening Mora gave while making his speech and
attacking Mora from behind.

	The attack did nothing to Mora, strengthened as he
was by his ki shields. In retaliation, he sent a beach
ball sized blast, which Makoto had to avoid by
throwing herself onto the ground. Mora was immediately
upon her, trying to kick her into oblivion as she
rolled across the street.

	"You attacks are useless," Mora said. "Only one among
you had the power to break through my shields and now,
through plain stupidity, she is out of the fight. You
will all die."

	"Happo dai karin."

	Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

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

	Ryuu felt a wave of giddiness hit him as they
materialized on a roof. Whatever Cologne had just did,
he wanted it and he hated it at the same time. It made
him want to puke his innards out and it would give him
a tactical advantage in any battle... Something he
would love to get his hands on.

	"Are you alright?" Cologne asked everyone.

	"Yep, I am fine."

	"I am fine elder."

	"You know how I feel, Cologne-chan."

	Shudder. It looked as though Happousai had never
given up on her, though he had been the one to run
away at the first sign of trouble.

	"The question is, great granddaughter, are you
alright? Teleportation's are a pain in the ass."

	All four turned to see Ranma smiling at them.

	"Great grandfather..."

	"So, this is how your alter egos look like. I thought
it would be something similar from the flows I could
discern from your braces... And all of your ki and
mana potentials seems to have skyrocketed."

	"You can see our braces?" Cologne and Happousai asked
in unbelieving tones.

	"Of course. I was not looking for it, the first time
around... So, it escaped my attention. But surely, you
did not think you can keep your alter egos a secret
once you told me about your run in with the big guy
upstairs."

	"But... But..." Happousai stuttered.

	"It is quite visible once you learn how to look for
it, grandmaster. You just don't have the skills now,"
Ranma said. *And not for long. If you are going to
mess around with Ashura's and such, you are going to
need all the help and all the skills you can get.*

	"Oh!"

	"Now, if you will excuse me, I... we have business to
attend to and I do not think it will wait for us."

	Everyone acquiesced.

	"Good. It is nice to see that all of you agree on
something. Cologne, you take that building over there
and when I give the signal initiate a Daichi Ryuu
Geikirin. Grandmaster, you will remain here and
provide cover and distraction. Ryuu, you get to that
aqua-haired girl with that visor and tell her to
freeze that thing just as it focuses its attention on
the grandmaster here. Father, I want you to use your
cloaking technique and get that wounded girl out of
there. She is in no condition for a battle."

	Four simultaneous hai's echoed and Ranma jumped off
the roof and onto the street.

	Happousai waited until Cologne was in position and
then prepared his attack. He had an inkling of what
Ranma was up to and there was every chance that it
would work out the way Ranma wanted it too. He brought
his aura to a maximum and then summoned four large
Happo Dai Karins from his robe and launched them at
the thing. The heat from his aura ignited the ends of
the fuses and the bombs hit the thing on its back,
throwing it a couple of meters forward. As he had
guessed, the projectiles went undetected by the thing
since it was not made of ki or mana.

	Mora got onto his feet cursing. He cast a eye at the
most powerful aura in the area and prepared to fire a
huge blast at the fool who had attacked him from
behind.

	"You will regret what you just did, fool," Mora
shouted as the ball in his hands grew.

	Just as Mora finished his speech, Cologne initiated
the Daichi Ryuu Geikirin. The ground around Mora
exploded in twenty different locations as the most
advanced variation of the Bakusai Tenketsu was
executed. Mora was thrown into the air
unceremoniously.

	"Now!" Ryuu shouted at Ami, realizing that they would
not get a better chance than this one.

	"Shabon Spray Freezing!" Ami announced at the top of
her lungs.

	Mora, caught in the explosion created by Cologne's
attack, could not evade nor could he turn his ki to
hot. As a result, he was encased in a block of ice
nearly ten feet high in mid-flight.

	"See you in hell," Ranma said from the top of the
building right in front of Mora and released his
blast, which formed in his hands, in the blink of an
eye. The beam of energy sliced through the ice as
though it were butter and cleaved Mora in half.

	All eyes turned towards Ranma. The sailors for their
part recognized the amount of energy that was required
to execute such a powerful attack. They had fought
with the daemon and they knew that the amount of power
required to defeat it would have to be astronomical.
He dusted his hands, a gesture which was visible even
though he was encased in his dark aura and sighed in
contentment.

	"Just the way I like your kind, fried and cleaved,"
he announced with a smirk.

	All the girls looked at Ranma, at the dead daemon in
shock and again at Ranma in shock. They had heard of
their mysterious rescuer from Ami, but this was the
first time they were seeing him in person and there
was the mysterious allure about him, just as Ami had
said there would be. The evidence they had made it
clear that he was extremely powerful and the sailors
were happy to have such a powerful ally on their
side... for once.

	Seeking to build a working relationship of sorts,
Usagi was the first to approach him.

	"Who are you?" she asked.

	"I am no one, Miss..."

	"Sailor Moon."

	"I am no one, Sailor Moon. I was passing by when I
noticed that you and your friends were in trouble and
I decided to help out."

	"Oh!"

	"Now, if you will please forgive us, I and my friends
have other things to attend to."

	Usagi nodded. *This is the man the outers call an
enemy? He seems to be an nice enough sort.*

	"Thank you, Sailor Moon. It was a pleasure meeting
you in person."

	Usagi extended her arms to Ranma as a token of
friendship. "Thank you..."

	Unfortunately, she never got to finish.

	"Get your hands off her," Haruka shouted at the top
of her lungs. "Demon. Uranus World Shaking."

	Ranma acted even as Haruka was speaking. He pushed
Usagi to the side and got in between her and Haruka.
As Haruka attacked Ranma, he simply crossed his hands
in front of his face and let his aura blossom around
him. Usagi was pushed back several feet by the sheer
power that radiated from his aura and by the time
Uranus's World Shaking struck him, his aura strength
had grown too strong to be affected by her attack. In
fact, it did not even flicker as one of the most
powerful of the attacks in the sailor's arsenal hit
him head on.

	Haruka was not disheartened in the least and prepared
another World Shaking to blast him with. Ranma sensing
another attack, was upon Usagi in the blink of an eye.
He took her in his arms and jumped out of the way,
just as the second blast hit the spot where he had
been standing upon.

	Uranus was in the process of preparing a third blast
to hit Ranma with when Ryuu's voice stopped her.

	"Try that again and you die!" he warned in a cold
voice from where he stood beside Rei.

	To Uranus, he was another unknown and quite possibly
another threat. His position near Rei put him in a
position to attack the Princess of Mars and she did
the only logical thing. She did the only thing that
any other soldier would do given the situation - she
attacked him.

	"World Shaking!"

	Ryuu was moving even as she turned to fire her attack
at him. He stretched his arms for balance, cupped his
right hand and concentrated mana instinctively into
it. He jumped into the air and fired the ball at
Haruka's.

	The ball met Haruka's midway and both of them
detonated with a tremendous clash. The shockwave was
powerful enough to lift a car, which had been parked
nearby, into the air, where it spun around and hit the
ground with a thud. The car slid on the tarmac,
creaking all the way, and came to rest on its roof.

	Ryuu folded into himself and somersaulted in midair,
gaining altitude and thus, minimizing the effects of
the shockwave. When the shockwave had passed by him,
he stretched his arms and body, seemingly gliding
through the air for just the tiniest fraction of a
second, before leveling off and landing softly on his
toes. He was off the ground immediately, using the
energy absorbed from the landing and stored in his
tendons to bounce at great speed towards a building.

	Haruka fired another blast, which hit the building
moments after Ryuu had jumped off it. Even though
Haruka had anticipated his jump and fired it right
where he would have ended up, Ryuu bent himself at an
impossible angle in midair and glided out of the way,
missing the blast by a comfortable distance. The
building bore the brunt of the attack and collapsed,
spewing a cloud of dust and fine particles of glass,
concrete, iron and paint into the air.

	Ryuu hit a lamppost with his legs, bent them at his
knees to absorb the impact and then rocketed forward,
his movements a blur to the eye.

	Haruka waited until he was almost in her face before
firing another World Shaking at point blank range.
Ryuu somersaulted and avoided the blast meant for his
chest by the barest of margins. He landed on his
hands, pent them to absorb and store the energy of his
jump, and then pushed back, straightening his body and
tensing his legs.

	Haruka, overcome by disbelief on seeing such a move,
did not even have time to bring her sword to block the
blow to her chin. Ryuu's legs proceeded unerring in
their path and connected with a meaty thump with
Haruka's chin. Haruka's neck snapped back at the force
of the blow. Her brain connected with the inside of
her skull and she faded into unconsciousness. The
vertebrae in her spinal column were pulled out of
their sockets for the tiniest fraction of a second and
the only thing that saved her from instant death was
her 'magic'.

	Ryuu, for his part, landed lightly on his toes and
went into a offensive stance.

	"Anyone else wants to have a go?" he asked icily.

	No one, not even the other outers, dared to answer
his challenge. Nevertheless, Ryuu remained in his
stance for a few seconds with a emotionless mask on
his face.

	"Brother," Ranma said, breaking the silence and thus,
dispersing the explosive atmosphere. "Come, let's go."

	Ryuu nodded imperceptibly and backed away from the
sailors, his body tense and ready for action. At the
edge, he let his guard down and nodded once to Rei.

	"Till next time then," said Ryuu and followed his
friends into the evening sky.

	No one dared to speak for a couple of minutes.

	"What the..." Rei blurted, breaking the silence at
last.

	"Yeah, me too," Makoto agreed.

	"Saturn, you better help Uranus," Usagi said to the
young princess, without turning her head away from
Haruka's prone form. *And see whether she is alive or
not,* she added mentally to herself. The assault the
boy had carried out reminded her very much of the one
she had suffered at the hands of the Ashura. It was
unerring in its precision and the skill behind it
staggered her imagination. How could anyone bend their
body at such angles and not dislocate a bone or two?

	Hotaru nodded dumbly and walked up to Haruka. Michiru
was already there, cradling Haruka's head in her lap
and checking for a pulse. Her pale face brightened a
little when she found Haruka's pulse. Hotaru smiled at
her adopted mother and knelt by Michiru's side. She
placed her healing hand on Haruka's head and just for
a couple of seconds, her arms glowed white as healing
energy filtered into Haruka's body.

	"Wha..." Haruka moaned, returning from her trip into
unconsciousness. "What happened?" she said and
clutched her head as blackness threatened to overcome
her senses. It looked like she had a very bad
concussion.

	Having healed her adopted 'father', Hotaru collapsed
from the strain. Her eyes rolled back into her head
and she became unconscious. Michiru, knowing this
would be the case, adjusted herself so as to make her
bosom more comfortable for her daughter. Having done
so, she looked at Haruka and stroked her hair.

	"Shhh!" she said. "You have a nasty concussion.
Better keep still for a couple of minutes while you
recover from it."

	Haruka looked as though she was about to protest, but
held her tongue when she saw the look on Michiru's
face. You never argued with Michiru when she had that
motherly 'I-know-better-than-you' look on her face. It
simply was not done!

	"Hai," she nodded and turned green as felt another
wave of nausea hit her like a pile driver. "I will do
as you say, 'mom'. What's with Hotaru? That bastard
did not attack her, did he?"

	"She is unconscious because she is drained from
trying to heal you. I would have stopped her, but I
thought you were not going to make it and..."

	"It was that bad, huh?" Haruka asked with genuine
surprise. *I cannot believe it. That little kid had
enough strength to nearly kill me with a single kick
in my sailor form.*

	"Yeah! Why did you attack him, anyway?"

	"Huh?"

	"That's what we would like to know too. Why did you
attack him?" Makoto asked in a neutral tone. She had
seen the boy and his friends save Rei. *Why would
Haruka want to attack him since he is obviously a
friend? Then again, I have never understood the outers
and their 'shoot them all to kingdom come and then ask
questions' thingy.*

	"I saw him by Rei... He was a danger to her... to all
of you and so, I attacked."

	Ami and Rei, not to mention Usagi, immediately saw
red.

	"You saw him by her side and therefore you attacked
him," Usagi repeated unbelievingly.

	"Yeah!" Haruka nodded, painfully. "He could have been
an enemy for all I knew and I decided not to take any
chances. Besides that thing, which was standing near
you was our enemy, and the boy was obviously with it.
So, I thought, he was fair game."

	"You though... Do you know what you have done?
That... That enemy of yours saved our asses for the
second time in less than a week. You had the guts to
attack him and now, you are justifying it. What if
that boy had been an innocent civilian. He could have
ended up dead!"

	Haruka shrugged.

	"His mistake. If, and I mean if, he was a civilian,
then he should have known better than to stand in the
line of fire. I am a soldier. My job is to protect you
and the others. In order to execute my job, I have to
make tough decisions. If I have to choose between a
poor, innocent soul and you, then I will choose you
every goddamn time. I will do it a thousand times over
if I had to, but I am not taking chances with the
future or with your life."

	"An innocent life is an innocent life. I cannot
believe you are willing to make such sacrifices.
Surely, my life is not worth more than any other."

	"You are wrong, princess," Haruka replied hotly.
"Your life is worth more than anyone else's on the
planet.

	"Look, we have all made sacrifices for the future. I
think it is only right that the others do the same. If
one of them has to sacrifice his life for a peaceful
future, I will gladly let them or cajole them even,
into doing it through fair means or foul."

	"But..."

	"You will not change my mind, princess," Haruka
stated firmly.

	"Sailor Moon, leave Miss. 'I-am-holier-than-thou'
alone. You saw the way she acted today with careless
disregard for life and now, you have her words to show
she meant it. She did not take into consideration
Mars, who was near that boy nor did she take into
consideration, your life, when she used her attack on
him. I think she needs to be taught a lesson," Ami
said to Usagi, glaring at Haruka during the last part
of her speech.

	The other inners nodded in approval. They were the
sailors, protectors of life and love. Haruka's ideas
might lead to the same goal, but like in most of the
important things in life, the goal is only half as
important as the path taken to reach it.

	"Shut up, cunt. I did not hear anyone asking for your
opinion," Haruka said.

	"And we did not ask for yours, Uranus," Rei answered
in Ami's position. "What you did today was wrong and
that is the bottom line."

	"I think the world would be a better place if you
keep your opinion to yourself, Mars."

	"What did you say?" Rei growled.

	"She said, the world would be a better place if you
keep your opinion to yourself and I must agree with
her. That boy and that thing attacked us and nearly
decapitated Uranus. And here you are defending them.
Whatever happened to sticking together and all that?"
Michiru said in defense of Haruka.

	"Oh, we haven't forgotten that, Miss. Slut. It seems
that only you and your whore of a girlfriend here have
forgotten it," Ami said.

	"You keep that mouth of yours closed, snotty nosed,
cum sucking bitch" Haruka warned.

	"Rabid whore," Ami replied.

	"Take that back, bitch."

	"Or, what? Are you going to spread my legs and lick
me until I take it back. Oh, I am so afraid," Ami
replied grinning nastily from ear to ear.

	"Why you..."

	"Alright, that's enough. Uranus, we will discuss this
later in friendlier surroundings. Mercury, shut your
mouth. You are behaving like a tramp," Usagi said,
interrupting the fight before it got out of hand once
more.

	"But..." Ami started.

	"But nothing. Mars and Venus, check if any of those
people can be saved. If not..." Usagi left the words
hanging. Usagi felt ashamed of the whole business. Her
friends were so intent on fighting that they did not
even care about helping the people who were hurt.

	"Fine. We will leave, princess. But hear this, this
fight is not over... not by a long shot. There will be
a reckoning and I will get that bitch to apologize
even if I have to make a bloody smear out of her,"
Haruka said and lifted Hotaru in her arms. She nodded
to Michiru and both of them teleported out to their
home.

	"Well, that went well," Makoto said, gazing at the
spot where the three outers had stood a couple of
seconds before.

	Usagi gave her the look and Makoto grimaced. It was
definitely not a good occasion to make wise-ass
comments and here she was making them.

	"Ami, we will have a talk about your anger tomorrow.
I expect you to be there at Rei's house," Usagi said.

	"Hai."

	"Excellent. Now, come, let us see if there anyone had
survived the attack..."

	"Hai."

	Usagi nodded and dismissed Ami. She then walked
briskly to Rei, who seemed to be frowning about
something.

	"What is it, Mars?"

	"This man is alive, though I do not know how long he
will be. Most of his ribs have been splintered and his
lungs seem to be punctured," Rei replied.

	Rei was correct in her prediction. The man was
bleeding profusely from several points in his body
where his bones had broken through his skin, and the
left side of his ribcage was soft and yielding to the
touch, which was definitely not a good sign. There was
a huge gash over his right eye and a huge flap of his
skin had come off and was hiding his eyes. Patches of
bone were visible and his breathing was labored. He
would not survive another half an hour without medical
or 'magical' attention.

	"We better help him then," Usagi replied and
proceeded to heal the man with her Ginzishou. She had
scarcely recovered her breath from the exertion when
they found another just as close to death as the first
one. It was going to be a very long nigh, Usagi
realized with a sigh.

	She was not disheartened by the sight of blood and
despair, however and she proceeded to direct the
sailors as best as she could, trying to save the ones
they could and taking care of the ones they could not
with a heavy heart. They may not be able to save all
the people, but they had it in their power to make the
wounded, the dying and the dead comfortable and they
meant to do just that.

	The five-some helped those they could, and comforted
those who were alive and yet had no hope for survival,
keeping them calm and peaceful in the final minutes of
their lives. As the first of the ambulances rounded
the far corner of the street, they took it as their
cue and left the scene.

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

	Meanwhile, on the other end of the street, inside an
abandoned building...

	Two figures stood with their hands clasped behind
their back, looking into the devastation that had been
created by the fight.

	"The scouts have grown weak since last we fought
them."

	"It would appear so, Dravid, though I do not remember
those new ones..."

	"They are new alright. They are brand new and they
have still to grow into their powers. Shankara's job
will not be an easy one, after all."

	"Do you think he would need assistance?"

	"No, I do not think so. He is a good thinker and a
smart warrior. He will figure out a trap for the
target." Pause. "Come, Srinivasa, let us not waste any
further time here. We have yet to observe the
general's progress with his mission."

	The second one nodded and the duo slid back into the
darkness offered by the advancing shadows and
disappeared.

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



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