C&C time again? I guess so.
Morgan Hudson wrote:
REVAMPED LEGAL DISCLAIMER: the Sailor Senshi belong to Kodansha and
Cloverway, and the Samurai Troopers are the legal property of Sunrise and
Bandai Entertainment. I am only borrowing them for a few chapters, and I
intend no harm.
Standard C&C Disclaimer: All the below is my only occasionally useful
humble opinion, my only occasionally correct grammatical and spelling
corrections, and/or my only occasionally funny humor.
Radanthus the Unconquered did not sit in the throne room of the
Crimson Nadir: he *brooded* in it. Brooding had become a second nature to
him, recently, and one that he was loathe to give up easily.
I'm thinking the commas around recently aren't needed, but could always
be wrong.
That plan would have been perfect, if Badamon had just been able
to get Jadeite from one room of the castle to another without losing him.
The twisted old priest had been making a lot of convenient mistakes like
that lately, and Radanthus was beginning to seriously doubt their
accidental nature. The more he thought about it, the better an idea it
seemed for him to just eat Badamon at the earliest possible opportunity
and save himself the headache of dealing with the vile little creature.
I'm thinking it would be a good thing for Mr. Unconquered to stop
thinking at this point and follow through on this before he has a chance
to talk himself out of it.
It wasn't as though Radanthus was stupid enough to think this his
head priest was in any way loyal to him, but the fact remained that
Badamon and his Ankoku Priests were simply too useful for him to
destroy.
Ah, well. And he was doing so well until the second half of that sentence.
If the priest was to be believed, they were already working on a way
to weaken Sailor Moon's connection to the ginzuisho, and that was a
goal too important for him to interfere with.
Ayup. He's definitely doomed.
Radanthus sighed deeply, a sound that caused the entire room to
tremble. Speaking of people who ate things, he had rather expected that
Xiang Yao would have managed to fit at least one or two of the Senshi
down her gullet by now. He just could not understand why so many of his
troops were having trouble beating those girls. There were only five of
them, after all, unless one counted Tuxedo Kamen.
Uh-huh. He's going to have some nasty surprises coming his way. Even
setting aside the obvious numbers issue.
I'm a bit fuzzy on exactly how you set up the hierarchy of your Dark
Kingdom and other various demonic-type places, but shouldn't Radanthus
have a least a little bit more respect for the people who took out Beryl
and Metallia and have only gotten stronger since?
And I admit I never watched SuperS, but from what I saw of her in Sailor
Stars, Queen Neherenia might indeed have been foolish, but her personal
power was worthy of some note (didn't she go toe-to-toe with Sailor
Saturn?), and you've explicitly said that Radanthus was watching those
fights. Then again, I'm quite willing to believe that SuperS-Neherenia
was much less impressive on that front.
"Keep talking," she said, taking another pull from her cigarette
and trying to look uninterested, but Radanthus could tell from the way her
eyes had gleamed at the word 'alone' that he had her where he wanted her.
Xiang Yao was the sort who would chafe under any kind of supervision, no
matter how inobtrusive.
unobtrusive
"I have one condition, though," Radanthus warned her. "Do whatever
you like to Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury, but the Moon Princess is not
to be harmed. She is too powerful for us to confront directly at this
time."
Surprising, given that a few paragraphs back he was annoyed the Sailor
Moon wasn't already defeated.
Seiji made a mental note to contact the family accontant and have him
start buying up stock while people's confidence in the company was
still low.
accountant
Opening one eye slightly, Seiji glanced over at the blonde girl
sitting six seats down from him. Now that he thought about it, maybe it
wouldn't be a bad idea for him to talk to her a little bit and try to get
a better idea about what the Sailor Senshi could offer against whoever
this new enemy was. Just comparing notes couldn't end too badly, right?
It wasn't like he was going to proposition her, or anything. He was just
trying to form a plan. Totally professional. He was sure that she would
understand.
Uh-huh. We believe you Seiji. Honest.
"Hi," he said, brushing the thick shag of blond hair out of his
eyes for a few seconds before his bangs stubbornly tumbled back over his
face as usual. "Sorry for the intrusion, but I was just thinking that
since we're going to working together for a while, maybe we should get to
know each other better."
...
"Well," the girl mused, tapping her finger against her lips in a
thoughtful manner, "I don't *usually* go out on dates with random boys
when the world is in danger. On the other hand, since you did come all
the way over here, it's only fair of me to accept...."
...Minako _doesn't_ go out on dates with random boys when the world is
in danger? Since when?
Well, actually, I guess it technically is the truth, but it's never
stopped her from _trying_. :)
At the end of the car stood a young Chinese woman, dressed in a
dazzling red silk dress with golden scale patterns. Her long purple hair
stirred slightly in the breeze, and Seiji scowled as he realised that they
were both indoors. There was something about that woman that was setting
his armour off like a fire alarm, and mysterious breezes from nowhere
were not doing anything to make him more comfortable.
*snort*
"Yeah, why not? Worst case, at least we got out of the house and
saw a decent ball game. Ryo can hold down the fort while we're gone, and
it's not like we're going to miss anything important."
Famous last words.
"How can you be so blase about this whole thing?" Rei asked.
"Aren't you even a little bit bothered by any of it?"
"Not really," Shin said. "But then again, I've got an evil demon
twin running around trying to destroy me, so I've been a bit distracted
lately. Can I refill that coffee for you?"
Heh. That would kind of put things into perspective.
Actually, come to think of it I'm kind of surprised that Sailor Moon
never used the "evil duplicate" plot that I can recall, even for a
monster of the week or something.
"Usagi Tsukino's Romantic Master Plan, Day One," Xiang Yao read
out loud, raising one eyebrow. "Seven o'clock, breakfast in the dining
room. Eight o'clock, clothes shopping with Ami-chan at Renga Park. Note
to self, don't let her buy anything nerdy. Twelve o'clock, lunch...."
Lowering the paper, Xiang Yao grinned. It was starting to look
like it was going to be a good day, after all.
*snort* How quickly do we forget the "Do Not Mess With the Moon
Princess" warning.
Usagi grinned again and went back to picking through some of the
clothes that had passed initial inspection. If Ryo Sanada did not sweep
Ami off her feet the second he saw her in one of these ensembles, Usagi
was going to punch him right in the back of the head. If dealing with
Mamoru had taught her one thing, it was that boys were utterly clueless
when it came to the hearts of women. You just had to keep chiselling away
at the brick until one day you actually managed to get them to realise how
they already felt about you. Which reminded her: she might want to pick
up some coloured markers, in case Ryo proved especially dense. Phase four
involved diagrams.
Heh.
Many romantic story arcs could be made much shorter and simpler with the
presence of a person with colored markers, paper for drawing diagrams
on, and the willingness to use them.
The youma roared in response and exhaled a gout of fire from both
of his mouths, blasting the two girls out of the window and following
after them with an eager growl. Unnoticed by any of them, Sailor Mercury's
communicator lay where it had fallen.
And, softly, it began to chime.
Hmph. Evil place to end it. :)
Not much in the way of general comments to say beyond that I enjoyed the
chapter, and am looking forward to the next!