The Best of Times…
By Ozzallos
A Fukufics (dotcom) Production
Part Three
“Oh my..”
Never in history had two words been responsible for conveying
so much information as when uttered by Kasumi Tendo, matriarch of the Tendo
household. For most people, these words were a subdued exclamation of concern.
But to the eldest Tendo sister, they were so much more. She was the keeper of
those words and they literally held hundreds of meanings. “Oh my” when voiced
by Kasumi could mean anything from “Oh my, the cooking needs a dash of salt” to
“Oh my, body snatching aliens have just landed in the yard and are about to
employ large quantities of anti-matter weaponry to annihilate the last vestiges
of human life from the face of the earth…”
No doubt Ranma Saotome would be responsible for the latter one
way or the other, but that was beside the point.
The reality of the situation concerning Kasumi and her “Oh my’s “ was that she was a lot like Lassy,
in that only the trained ear could accurately discern her actual meaning. Where
as the casual listener might only hear “Woof! Woof!” Kasumi’s sisters would
hear “Two divisions of mutant aliens have landed at 12403.51 north
by 34011.88 east with heavy tacheon cannons and the
insatiable need for human flesh, send help!” This particular “Oh my” however,
was midrange, falling somewhere between a mild expression of concern and a call
to attention. As such, Nabiki, looked up from the
tabloid she had been flipping through on the living room couch and Akane Tendo
paused in her aerobic dumbbell workout to stare at the TV. Even Ranma paused on
his way up to his room in curiosity. Kasumi turned the TV up slightly as she
sipped her tea.
“Tonight’s top story is the continuation of Youma attacks centered in the suburb of
The scene cut from the news anchor to a video clip of said
magical girls in the process of annihilating a particularly rampant youma outbreak centered on a crowded market place. Magical
attacks lashed out as the scampering demons where eliminated one by one before
they could cause too much damage. “Too much damage” was, of course, a relative
term when concerning the Senshi given the destructive nature of their
intervention, but the cure was normally more acceptable than the disease
itself… Which just happened to be unidentifiable demonic aliens that stole peoples souls and rend them limb from limb.
Kasumi sighed. “Maybe I’ll be able to get Sailor Moon’s
autograph one of these days.” Akane smirked. Kasumi was a closet Senshi addict
with a dresser nearly filled with every publication concerning the heroines of
Love and Justice.
“I don’t see what’s so special about Moon,” Akane commented,
gaining Kasumi’s attention. “Now if you happen stumble across Sailor Mercury’s
autograph…” While she wasn’t the otaku her sister was, there was just something
just plain exciting about transforming into a magical girl and fighting demons…
As if getting kidnapped by the villain of the month wasn’t enough for her. That, and she felt a certain affinity to the Senshi and her
short crop of cobalt blue hair.
“Feh.” Ranma sniffed. “Sailor
Uranus is the best one of the bunch skill wise.”
Nabiki arched an eyebrow with an “Oh?” inviting him to
continue. He now had the attention of all three sisters.
“Sure, “ Ranma continued, heedless of
the darkened waters he was wading into. “I mean, everything I’ve seen says
she’s at least a dan in Kempo.”
“Hmmm…” Kasumi considered throughtfully.
“What about Jupiter-san? She seems to know martial arts, and her Supreme
thunder attack is quite formidable.’
Ranma shook his head. “True, but Akane could kick her butt , no problem. Besides, what’s a bit of lightening
compared to a World Shaker?”
“There’s her space sword too…” Akane commented, beaming with pride over the fact that Ranma had classified
her skill level as better than that of a Sailor Senshi. With that in mind,
Jupiter was obviously not a respectable teenage idol.
“’Cides,” Ranma continued in a
conspiratorial whisper. “Rumor has it that she and
Kasumi blinked and Akane gasped. “You mean she’s… a Pervert?”
The martial artist nodded.
“Oh my.” Kasumi blinked again. “Where did you hear this,
Ranma-kun?”
He shrugged. “It was an article in last week’s ‘Tokyo Candy
Teen’.” Conversation stopped and an uneasy silence hung in the air as three
sisters stared at Akane’s fiancée and future brother
in law. Ranma’s eyes flicked from one sister to the next as he began to comprehend
the grievous fax pause he had just committed. “…Not that I’d know
anything about stupid magical girls.”
“Or teen girls magazines?” Nabiki pointed out
helpfully.
“Er… Yeah. Those
too.” Ranma’s face was now glowing red from embarrassment. Akane’s mouth was hanging wide open at the prospect of
Ranma, manly-man martial artist, being a Sailor Senshi otaku as big as her
sister and collecting teen girl tabloids. Either way, it spelled
“Pervert’ with a capital ‘P’.
Kasumi considered the boy in front of her thoughtfully. “Would
you mind if I borrowed that issue, Ranma-kun?”
Ranma Saotome, heir to the Anything
goes
Nabiki could only grin as the pigtailed boy existed
the house post haste. Ah, it’s the simple pleasures in life…
Ranma blew through another kata
on a hillside some distance away from his usual stomping grounds. The purpose
was two fold, in reality-- First, it provided and outlet for the terminal case
of embarrassment he had just suffered only an hour ago. Second, he needed the
practice. The martial artist flipped around and the cresent
blade of the Gekkaja cut through the air. In the
opposite hand was the Kinjakan, its lethal ring tip
flashing in the sunlight as he snapped it toward a boulder. The ring sliced
through the air, missed the boulder and behead several trees before returning
to it station on the staff tip with a snap.
Damn.
The martial artist sighed. He was definitely going to have to
put in overtime if he was going to be able to competently wield both staves simuaneously. Using one at a time would undoubtably
be easier, he realized, but the potential both held when used in tandem was
simply to great to ignore. In his hands he held the
powers of fire and ice, two elements with which he had been well schooled in
over the past two and a half years. The potential these two weapons held alone
was enormous, but if he could build a style that used them together… Be that as
it may, it wasn’t the primary reason he had pulled the staves out of storage.
His plan concerning the Pluto was simple—Infiltrate the Sailor Senshi and cause
her grief to no end until she either confront him or backed off. For that, his
girl-type needed a costume. Ranma Saotome really wasn’t looking forward to that
particular aspect of his plan, but posing as a female Senshi constituted a
formidable tactical advantage that he simply couldn’t pass up, especially when
he could do so without The Meddler’s knowledge.
As horrid as it was, the costume was the easy part, but she
also needed a prop to go with it. Every magical girl carried around a magical
weapon, and for the deception to work, he’d have to as well. Or she’d have to,
rather. He’d already considered buying a length of iron piping, spray painting
it and call it a magical staff, but decided against the idea. No, Ranma needed
the real thing, or at least something similar. Saffron’s Keys of Ascention were the only things he had that would even come
close to fitting the bill, and the only question now would be which one would
he choose? Either way, he’d keep practicing the dual wield method. Maybe whip
both out in an emergency… Or to lay some smackdown
on a certain green-haired Senshi if it came to that.
Ranma launched into another kata,
attempting to refine his flowing ring striking technique when the decision of
which staff to use was made for him. Ranma flicked the Kinjakan
outward and the ring whistled away at high speed, carving a piece out of the
targeted boulder with something less than a direct hit. Even as Ranma tumbled,
slicing forward with the Gekkaja, the ring arced on
back to its owner. His arms crossed in a final lunge forward and the ring
snapped back into place as both staves now pointed off to his sides, poised to
cleave the rock directly in front of the pigtailed boy. Ranma powered up with
determination, preparing to obliterate the offending boulder when it happened--
Something in both staves felt the power and one recognized the other through
the link that was Ranma’s ki. The keys were the polar
opposites to one another, yet less than a handful of
people in existance knew their true form. The keys
activated and Ranma ‘s cross-cleave was superceded as the staves pulled toward one another. His
eyes widened as the power coursed through him and between the weapons, while it
was all he could do to follow through with the chop and keep the ends from
joining. The attraction was too great and Ranma ‘s
cross-grip failed to keep the staves from snapping together in a blinding flash
that sent him tumbling off balance. The martial artist pushed himself back off
the ground and waited for his vision to clear. What he found in his hands after
it did, however, defied belief.
The staves plural were no more. In their place was a meter long
silver staff with elements of each key imbedded at either end. On one end sat
the Kinjakan’s lethal ring..
At the other was the Gekkaja’s crescent blade. Ranma
cocked his head, considering the transformed weapon resting in his hands. Now
THIS is more like it, Ranma thought and twirled the staff easily. He set up for
another kata, determined to carve up the countryside
with his new toy.
It was late in the day when Ranma finally stumbled
through the door. The groan that escaped his lips ensured all eyes were riveted
to his person. It helped that his clothing was in complete shambles.
“What the hell happened to you, boy?” Genma asked as he watched
his son trudged by.
“New technique.” The boy in question
winced, pausing before the family. Akane was thinking about malleting him for being a Senshi Otaku girlie Magazine
loving freak, but noticed that particular job had already been
self-inflicted.
“Some move,” She snorted, observing the numerous cuts and
lacerations across her fiancee’s body. “Remind me not
to learn that one.”
Ranma favored her with a dry look and turned to trudge up
stairs when a slight cough caused him to pause once more. “Ranma-kun, I was
wondering if I could also borrow issue #132 of ‘Sakura Go! Now!’?”
Akane twitched, a scowl spreading across her face. Genma’s eyes narrowed onto him sharply. “What’s this, Boy?”
Ranma’s eyes widened suddenly as he focused on the eldest Tendo
sister. “Um, Kasumi…?”
“”I must say, your Senshi collection is almost as big as mine.”
Kasumi mentioned with an oblivious smile. “We might have to start trading off.”
“How did you…?”
“Cleaning your room.” She replied happily. Truth
be told, she had to engaged in some ‘deep’ cleaning in order to find out where
he was storing his collection and just how big it actually was. Kasumi was
pleasantly surprised by her find.
“As in the Sailor Senshi?” His father growled, and
took a step forward. Nodoka pursed her lips thoughtfully, trying to decide
whether his Senshi obsession was good in the fact that he was attracted to the
harem of magical girls or bad as pertaining to his concering
purchase of teen girls publications.
Ranma hung his head, now thoroughly depressed. “Sure. Why not. After my bath.” Kasumi
nodded and he struggled to ignore the remaining family’s staring as he walked
up stairs, sliding open the guest room door. He took a step in and froze,
locking onto the dozens upon dozens of glittering eyes.
“Meow.”
“AHHHHARAaaaAAARR!” Ranma scampered back as a
small black and white cat hopped forward from the masses, eager to make his
acquaintance. The pigtailed boy hit the wall and began to run down the hall
where Nuku Nuku had just
stepped out of the bathroom in little more than a towel, curious as to the
sudden commotion. Her face lit up in a smile as she saw Ranma practically
leaping towards her, the towel falling away as she reached out to embrace him
“Husband Ranma-kun!” He plowed strait into the cat girl, knocking her nude body
over and landing both in a very compromising position, where upon the remaining
contingent of cats poured out of the room and swarmed over the pair.
“GET EM OFF! GET EM OFF! CAAAaaaAAAATTTSSS!”
Half a dimension away, Setsuno
Meiou was laughing hysterically as the scene played out in front of her. The
cats alone were great, but even she couldn’t have planned him running strait
into the nude cat-girl! The Guardian of Time broke out into another roun fit of laughter, clutching her side in pain.
God, payback wasn’t simply a bitch, it was therapeutic as well!
“Home plate, this is Outfield… We have the target.”
“Roger Outfield,” Kyouko keyed the mic in response. “Which one is it?”
“Both. Awaiting instructions.” Officer
Kyouko considered the reply carefully. Teams two and
five were in position, but she had only been expecting the new type android, not
pink-haired one as well.
“Alright,” she decided. “Team one, move to
five’s flank for fire support.” The blonde switched channels. “Ready Ris-chan?”
Two blocks away, Arisa steadied the
fifty caliber anti-vehical sniper rifle along the
rooftop ledge. The salary woman squinted through the scope, focusing its
crosshairs down on the pigtailed android walking along a fence top. Below him
was a girl with shorter, cobalt blue hair and beside her, the NK 1124,
otherwise known as Nuku Nuku.
She tilted the rifle slightly and the crosshairs now came to rest on Nuku. Choices, choices… “Ready Sa-chan.”
There was a slight pause over the com. “Remember, incapacitate
only… NO headshots.”
Arisa grumbled and nudged the crosshairs off the
cat-girl's head. “Fine, fine! Ruin my fun…”
Back in the nondescript plain white van sitting just outside Fruikan High, Kyouko keyed the
general channel once more. “All units, go, no go?”
“Armor one, go.”
“Armor two, go.”
“Heavy weapons five, go.”
“Sniper, go.”
Kyouko nodded, glancing at a tech manning the
console beside her. He gave her the thumbs up and she smiled. “Fire teams, lock
and load.”
“Relinquish thy hold on the pigtailed goddess, evil
sorcerer!” Tatewake Kuno demanded of Ranma with the
point of his bokken.
“Look, baka, I’ve had a super bad
weekend, so why don’t you—“
“What’s this!” The upper classman
interrupted and rushed to the girl at Ranma’s side. “How has thee been so
blessed as to perceive the visage of a pink haired Goddess! What is your given
name, fair maiden?”
Ranma rolled his eyes and the girl flashed a look of
uncertainty. “Nuku Nuku?”
“AH!” The deranged student exclaimed. “I shall date thee, my
pink goddess!” Ranma bit his retort back. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea
after all. The less time spent around cat girl, the better, and Kuno would
surely occupy—
“No.”
Ranma and Kuno’s head rolled on a
swivel to face the girl in question. “No?”
“I date my husband, Ranma!” She chirped happily. Ranma’s twitch like reflexes around cat-grils
were not fast enough to compensate for the robotic cat-girl’s glomp. He ground his teeth together, biting back the fear.
“HUSBAND?” Kuno raged. “Is there no end to your
wickedness, Saotome!” The body of students around them
rippled in agreement and the hentai horde stepped
forward menacingly. Normally the mob wouldn’t think to challenge Nerima’s
premier martial artist, but one can only take the usurping of so many beautiful
women from their ranks. “I shall NOT allow this, Fien--!”
BOOOOoooMMM!
The far wall disintegrated in a massive fireball, and three
suits of red power armor stepped through the smoldering ruins. “Not again…”
Ranma groused as all eyes turned on the newcomers. If those corporate freaks-
and Setsuna by proxy -kept this up, they’d drive him insane. Or…
Ranma’s thought process cut into overdrive. “You got it wrong, Kuno!” The
upperclassman tore his attention away from the advancing suits. “I’m trying to
protect her… From THOSE GUYS!”
Kuno blinked. “Verily…? What foul designs have they upon my
pink goddess?”
“They uh…” Ranma stumbled through the explanation, making it up
as he went. “They plan to, um, clone her and use her to pilot a, um, a giant
robot against hideous super-powered monsters! She’ll be a slave!”
“No…!”
“Yes! And if she’s killed, they’ll simply clone her again…”
Ranma sure hoped his look of mock horror did the trick. He needn’t have
worried.
“…Thereby sentencing the fair pink-haired maiden to a life of
un-death and servitude!” Kuno finished, fire flashing in his eyes. He strode to
the front of the horde, pointing his sword high. “I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!”
Akane, Nabiki and Ranma stared at one another in total
disbelief, the same thought running through their brains simultaneously: “Oh my
God, I can’t believe he actually fell for that.”
“Your trespasses shall not stand, foul mechanized demons!” Kuno
fumed and took an attack stance. The horde stood at the ready, tennis rackets,
hockey sticks, baseball bats and other assorted sports equipment in hand. “Furikan shall not abide by your presence! CHARGE!”
Ranma’s mouth fell open. He wasn’t alone as the Tendo’s
witnessed what amounted to a good old-fashioned infantry charge against the
three suits of power armor. Ranma would have loved to sit and watch the
inevitable attrition take place, but soon found his hands full with other
matters. Another wall exploded and three more suits appeared out of nowhere,
walking towards them. Ranma cracked his knuckles with a smile, and both Akane
and Nuku took their own battle stances on his flank.
“Trust me, this’ll hurt you more than
it will…”
A massive thud shook the ground, interrupting Ranma’s
monologue. The front gate into the school had just been crushed by a Mishima Heavy Industries Madcat
battle mech, which now stepped halfway onto the
school grounds. The torso swung around, allowing Ranma and company to clearly
see the business ends three pulse lasers hanging from each arm, while two boxes
of forty short range missiles rode high upon shoulder mounts. The ground shook
once more as the massive construct took another step forward.
“…me?” Ranma sighed and began to seriously reconsider that oath
as a martial artist, especially concerning one Sailor Pluto. One of the mech’s arms raised to fire and Nuku Nuku was already gone,
leaping high into the air and down heavily onto the arm, knocking it’s first
round of energy fire away. The errant blast torched a portion of the soccer
field and Nuku continued her assault on the machine.
Ranma shrugged, turning back to the trio of power armor. The first suit raised
its own weapon, a wrist mounted particle cannon, and the martial artists
blurred in under the arm to unleashing nearly five hundred strikes into it
armored midsection in under three seconds. The plating
cracked and the suit was blown back and through an undamaged section of wall.
Ranma recovered from the strike and a blue glow began to form in his hand. The
second suit desperately tried to wheel around, but there was no way he would
intercept the attack in time….
A blonde woman watched her display in shock as suit
three from team two suddenly went yellow with damage. The shock deepened as the
computer reported the Madcat’s left weapons arm
critically damaged, followed by several sections of armor. Team
one looked to be faring better, but the helmet cam Kyouko
pulled up showed them wading through a mob of hostile bodies. Dammit, they shouldn’t be encountering this much resistance
at a school!
Kyouko keyed the mic.
“Snipers free! Take the androids out!” her command was followed by a sharp
crack, shortly followed by another. And another. Five
shots later, a giant sweat drop rolled down her head. “I said sniping, not
suppression fire!”
Arisa was not a happy camper as she cracked
another fifty caliber bullet downrange and into the afterimage of her pigtailed
target. Again. “WHAT THE HELL?” Nothing should
be able to move that damn fast! The rifle clicked empty and she released the
clip, slapping another home automatically. She began to line up the mark once
more as it wove between the three powered suits that made up Team two. The
android’s first victim had rejoined the battle, slightly worse for the wear and
luckily the odds were still in their fav—Another flash of light and one of the suits was blown into a
crater twenty feet away. The smoke cleared and it became evident that either
the pilot or his suit were out. Arisa
sneered and decided to Nuku was probably the better-
read: easier -target. The pink haired robot wasn’t much better as it flipped
around and over the massive frame of the Madcat,
denying it any sort of targeting opportunity against herself or her cohorts.
The cat-girl landed on the arm once more and Arisa
took her shot. Or shots, rather. All three missed and
dug into the weapons arm, which promptly fell to the ground and onto a
nondescript white van with a crunch.
“Oh no, I did not just do that…”
An hour later, the grounds had finally gone silent,
save the occasional moan of wounded here and there. Ranma gave the suit of
power armor at his feet and the occupant inside a kick before turning his
attention elsewhere. It had been a true battle royal, he observed, scanning the
carnage. He had dispatched two suits of armor himself while the third had
strayed too close to Akane. Nearly everything the girl threw at the suit
missed, but it only took one hit from the enraged girl to put the thing out of
commission. Nuka Nuka had
done quite well on her own, severely damaging the giant robot before Ryoga
stumbled into the battle, saw Akane in danger and finished the thing off with
his Breaking Point technique.
The Kuno infantry charge didn’t fare quite so well, though the Hentai Horde came away victorious none the less. It wasn’t
the horde’s speed or skill that finally won the skirmish, but their staying
power. After a few years of being beaten down by Akane Tendo, their ‘never say
die’ attitude finally wore the suits out, completely depleting them of power
cells before the last student collapsed.
Their valiant leader was struck down in the first five minutes,
however.
The school itself was a disaster area. Any building not reduced
to component rumble were undoubtedly on fire or had a large hole in them as the
paramedics circled around to treat the wounded. Given the amount of firepower
employed by their unknown opponents, casualties were surprisingly nonexistent.
This was probably due to the hardened nature of both the structures themselves
and the students. Besides, what better place to stage an all out land war then
at a school who saw similar events on a regular basis?
Any student that couldn’t handle the punishment already had the brains or
experience to get the hell out of Dodge before everything hit the fan. Word had
already spread that The Battle of Kuno had succeeded in putting the school out
of commission for at least two months, which was fine with Ranma.
After all, the pigtailed martial artist had things to do, places to go and people to see. Especially
people to see.
The Box.
The shape was one to be feared as Ranma stared at the object
lying on his futon. Truth be told, it wasn’t necessarily the box that was to be
feared, but what was inside the box. Inside the box was a man’s worst nightmare
beyond those of feline origin… Femininity. Pure, undistilled feminity
in the form of a Sailor Senshi fuku. It was
manly kryptonite to be sure, but Ranma had few choices left available at the
moment. It was obvious that Pluto was stepping up her operations against him,
and at the pace she was setting, Ranma had no doubts
that he would go insane inside six months. He took another sweep of the house
to make sure everybody had well and truly departed for the beach and tore open
the dark pink paper wrapping.
Even as he lifted the top off, Ranma addressed the other issues
that would need taken care of, like that of a code name. All the Senshi had a
magical girl name, so his alter ego was going to have to have one as well. Not
only that, but if he was going to interact with them normally, his girl-type
was going to have to need a new name as well. No way would he risk dropping “Ranko” around ol’ Pluto either.
No reason to give her a link back to the Tendos or
potentially jar her memory suddenly. Ranma unfolded the dark red and white fuku from the box and clinically admired the tailoring job.
Better that then dwell on the fact that he was about to try the damn thing on,
right? Also in the box were white and red trimmed elbow length gloves with
almost knee-high boots to match. The final item was a white gold tiara with a
polished imitation ruby set in the center. All in all, worth every penny he
paid for the outfit… If he were actually into that
sort of thing to begin with. As it was, the fact that he was even
holding the outfit in his hands was just this side of disturbing, so he
rectified that problem with a quick trip to the bathroom and returned as a she.
Ranma picked the fuku back up and shook her head. Nope, still disturbing as hell. She really wasn’t looking
forward to this. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time either. At least this
time it would be for the greater good, as opposed to being blackmailed into
playing dressup.
Steeling herself, Ranma slipped out of her Chinese silks and
into the frilly costume, noting it was a lot like a leotard. Not that the fact
made her feel any better, especially when this particular leotard was quite
frilly and quite revealing. It was also horribly sad that she knew what a
leotard felt like in the first place.The seemstress even had the foresight to build in a bra. Yay.
She slid the boots on first, then the gloves, noting that it was all horribly
tight. Obviously the suits had originally been designed by a child molester or
somebody with a similarly perverted hang-up. Lastly came
the tiara. Ranma stepped in front of the mirror and blinked.
“Wow... I make this look good…” she mumbled and spun
around, viewing herself from every angle. The skirt itself was a dark crimson
red with the upper body being pure white, while orange bow straddling her
breasts. The girl in the mirror still looked too much like Ranma though, so the
pigtail had to go. She untied the dragon whisker and her hair floated down to
her shoulders, totally altering her appearance. Ranma nodded. That’ll do. Now a name to go with the face. Tough one, that. The Senshi
had already taken all of the planets and she sure as hell wasn’t going to
settle for a mere moon…. Hmmm… Sailor
Nebula? Nah. Comet?
Nope. Meteor? Uh-uh. Dammit…
Sailor Sun? Weak. Ranma
struck a pose in front of the mirror as she mulled over the question. Something
that represents massive, overwhelming power… Sailor Death Star? Ehhh… Overwhelming power… Overwhelming power…
“Sailor Nova.”
Ranma smiled as she said the name aloud, then
pulled the fused Key of Ascension from weapons space so that she could view the
entire package. Her mouth hung open slightly. She was an honest to goodness
goddamn magical girl! She brought a knuckle to her lips. Now her alter ego
would need a name. 'Ranko' was too hot to touch with
a ten-foot pole for this operation, so she would need something else. After a
few shots in the dark and a magazine later, she pieced together the name Yumei Ikari, if only because she
liked how it rolled off the tongue.
Ranma’s ki sense pinged and she knew
somebody familiar was coming home. Her maximum range was about two miles for
general detection, which gave her several minutes before anybody hit the front
door. Now the last part—Transforming. She had given
the matter considerable thought and there was no way she could duplicate a
magical girl transformation outright. Nor would she want to, given their
propensity towards gratuitous nudity. But that’s where the Anything Goes School
of Martial Arts Speed Dressing came into play. When combined with a flash of
blinding ki generated light, Ranma was back in her
Chinese garb less than two seconds later while the Sailor Nova uniform and
Ascension Staff were neatly tucked away in weapons space. The front door
clicked open and Ranma knew the Tendo’s day at the beach had concluded. Ranma
bound her hair with the whisker as footsteps serperated
from the downstairs chatter. Ranma poked his head out of his room to see who
was coming up stairs.
“Oh hey, Ranma.” Nabiki greeted easily and
turned toward her room. “Did you hear…” She stopped in
front of her door, voice suddenly trailing off. She turned toward the redhead
with a queer expression on her face and walked back over, holding out her hand.
“Two thousand yen.”
Ranma studied the sister for a moment and decided that the
expression she wore was so unusual that she had to bite, slapping a couple
bills into her hand. Nabiki blinked and reached up to the girl’s forehead,
pulling off a white gold tiara. Ranma’s eyes widened suddenly and she snatched
the prop back, stammering desperately.
Nabiki shook her head. “Forget it, Saotome. I really don’t even
want to know this time.” With that, she returned to her room mumbling something
to herself.
“Burning Mandala!”
A burning line of flame trailed from Sailor Mars’ fingers as
she whipped around, creating eight balls of fire that pulsed around her before
collapsing into a waiting hand. The energy then condensed, incinerating the
wayward youma via magical burning rings of death. Rei
Hino allowed herself a slight smile, but the joy was short lived. One down, seven more to go.
“Where the heck did they all come from, Mercury?!” Sailor Venus
cried out as she was being double teamed by two of the unengaged monstrosities.
The orange and white clad blonde called forth her attack, and the glowing chain
of hearts tore into one of her opponents. It wasn’t a lethal blow, but creature
was far less eager to press its advantage in numbers. Like most youma, these vaguely resembled something female, but their
appendages seemed to be long and stringy, while their arms ended in sharp,
boney sword points. The skin rippled a sickly grayish-pink and what would have
been hair jetted along their backs in a spikey mane
that was as solid as the bone-tips. Venus’ more eager opponent happily rushed
in to skewer the Senshi, who hopped back outside engagement range. She whipped
the Love Me Chain outward once more and convinced the second beast to give her
some breathing room.
The wounded one reconsidered its options and charged, only to
be impaled by some Moon Tiara Action courtesy of Sailor Moon. Its victim
tumbled to the ground and evaporated on the spot. Venus gave her a nod and
re-engaged her second opponent.
Mercury sent a pillar of water crashing into a lone youma and pulled out her link to the Mercury computer. It
was good question she decided and began to scan for anything unusual. Beyond
the fact that youma were apparently being bred like
jackrabbits in this particular area of town, that is. “I’ve got traces of the
porthole they rode in on, but it’s too decayed to know where it came from…”
By the time Sailor Mercury looked up from the link, three youma had managed break past Usagi and Minako to close on
her position. She frowned. “Uh oh… Um, guys…?”
The attack was simultaneous and she knew there was nowhere near
the time needed to power up a Shabon Spray. Mercury
prepared to roll away when a flaming incandescent ring whistled out of the blue
sky, neatly decapitating all three youma as it
continued through a tight arc. “What the…?!” That was
definitely not a Moon Tiara! Her eyes tracked the disk through the sky
and over to a nearby roof top where it was recovered by Sailor…
“Who the heck is that?!” Mercury exclaimed at the sight. The
other three Senshi disengaged and took a good look at the girl on high, who had just dispatched three youma
in a single attack. The stranger then proceed to flip
through the air and land lightly next to Inners, who could only stare at the
newcomer.
“Su-Su-Sugoi…” Mercury stammered, and
for once, Moon was able to produce a more intelligent question than her
counterpart.
“Who… Who are you?”
A lopsided grin found its way to the redhead’s face. “I’m here
to get this party started.” Nova twirled the exotic staff expertly in her hand,
walking past the group and over to the remaining youma,
who were still somewhat stunned that they had lost 1/3rd of their total
strength in a single attack. “Who wants some?” The monster’s beady little eyes
began to flick back and forth. Escape was looking like a mighty good option at
the moment. The volatile stellar anomaly got tired of waiting. “You.” She pointed the crescent blade at the tallest
creature. “You want some.”
Before the youma could in some way
deny that it wanted any, Ranma gave it to her, blurring forward in burst
of speed that left an after image in her wake. The Sailors at her back gaped
collectively. The crescent imbedded itself into the youma’s
torso point three seconds later, turning its chest cavity into a solid block of
ice. Sailor Nova reversed the staff in distorted arc, cleaving the mass in two
with the bladed ring. The ice crumbled and what remained of the youma promply disintegrated,
sending its essence back to monster hell. The strike continued into the monster
on her right, causing it to burst into flames. Two chops later, nothing
remained of Nova’s victim save a pile of ash.
The third youma actually had the
common sense to work on its strategic withdraw, and the new Senshi brought her
staff back, ready to introduce it to ringed death. She never got the chance as
her target was suddenly interdicted by a sizable amount of firepower. The four
Inners cut loose at once, vaporizing it and a large chunk of the realestate the youma had been
running across. Sailor Nova blinked at the smoldering crater and shrugged,
turning back toward the Senshi.
This time, Mercury had a better handle on what she wanted to
ask the new Senshi. “WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?” She blurted and the redhead
produced a mischievous smile.
“I'm Sailor Nova. Sorry about this.” She answered, and abruptly
disappeared before their very eyes.
Author’s Notes-
I’m telling you, this is getting more and more fun to write with each chapter
in. it's all I can do to keep from cackling maniacally as I type. Not much
here, so strait to the notes.
Key of Ascension, Ascension Staff, etc- These are my working
names for the fusion that occured between the Kinjakan and Gekkaja, if only
because it accurately describes the function of both concerning their late
owner, Saffron. This fusion maintains the original abilities of both keys.
Special Thanks to pretty much anybody in the Fukufics
(dotcom) IRC chatroom in the clast
24 hours. I owe 'em for the help with some of the
people places and things I was unsure of, as well as inspiration. Thanks, peeps!