Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ The Shadow Senshi ❯ Chapter 5: Battles and Travels ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: Well, this chapter features the first battle with the forces of the currently unknown enemy that the Senshi have to face. I'm not sure how it'll go yet, I never really do anyway.

 

The Bishoujo Sailor Senshi are the propriety of a person with much more money than I. Kuai Bo, The Shadow Senshi, Kuai Bo's troops, colleagues and other related creature from beyond are mostly my own although you might spot a few inspirations left and right.

 

I plan to cross this over with anything I think I can get away with. Everything not mine is propriety of whoever owns them at present. If you see any mistakes, I'd love to hear about them. You can get me at Gabriel.Pelletier@Sogetel.net

 

_Emphasis_

 

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The Shadow Senshi

Chapter 5

By The Hunterminator

 

Kuai Bo had NOT fallen asleep from boredom. He was definitely NOT snoring. He was just… resting his eyes really. He didn't have much to do really and after one too many times caught looking outside, Rei was stuck in detention. Well, she was until the feeling of her aura rushing under him woke Kuai Bo up. A quick glance at the sun revealed that she was supposed to still be in detention and he really had to wonder what could make her rush out of it.

 

Which is why Rei suddenly jumped in fright when a demon hit the ground in front of her. She growled angrily at Kuai Bo, "Damnit, now's not the time. I'm in a hurry." And then she quickly ran around the Chinese biker from hell and kept going.

 

Kuai Bo simply started running alongside her, "What's the matter? I thought you'd be the kind to dutifully stay in detention, not sneak away like this."

 

Rei looked irritably at the Bellumbra running beside her, "I've been called by the others, there's another monster at the mall straight that way." And so saying, she pointed the way she was running.

 

Kuai Bo looked the way she was pointing and grinned, "You mean that it's finally time for a fight? Woohoo!" And with this final exclamation, he jumped to the roof of a close by building and started running at hellish speeds towards the battle. Rei just sniffed indignantly at that and, passing through an empty alley along the way, turned to Sailor Mars.

 

When she finally reached what could only be described as a battle field, she saw a battle that was definitely not going their way. The monster was, like all the others, vaguely plant like but this one had large white pulsing veins along its body. On her side of the battle, Venus, Mercury and Neptune were knocked out, Moon seemed fine but had a dazed look on her face and the way she was moving, you'd think she was blind.

 

As for Jupiter and Uranus, they were currently pestering the monster at close range and did not so bad; the monster seemed clumsy at close range. But that's when the pulsing in the veins grew in cadence until a brilliant flash erupted. When Mars turned her eyes back to the battle, she could see Jupiter and Uranus acting much the same way as moon was, well, until the monster started beating them into the ground anyway.

 

Mars was wondering where Kuai Bo was while powering up a spell when suddenly, all ambient light, including the monster's vanished except for a circle of light not unlike the moon. Everyone still conscious, including those dazed by the monsters light, as they had recovered sight when touched by the spreading shadows, turned to the light and saw, highlighted into it a figure.

 

Mars gasped when she saw it for, except for the lack of gold, a somewhat smaller stature and that the Battle axe was instead a scythe, it was the exact same as the shadow she had seen into her dream.

 

And then, the demonic shadow spoke, "When the light has failed, and that good has forsaken the world, it is time for the shadows of evil. When goodwill and generosity are no longer sufficient, it is time for anger and brutality. The moon is not enough and thus I arise for I am, the Eclipse. Oh and, by the way, I'm only an illusion."

 

At those last words, everyone heard a slashing sound and, whirling around, saw the monster falling to the ground in two pieces and fading away into dark light while the same shadow as the illusion stood behind it in a posture that positively radiated amusement, "Heh, I never said I'd be fair did I?"

 

Sailor Moon slowly approached the figure, "Er… Kuai Bo, is that you."

 

The figure turned to Moon, finally releasing the artificial darkness, "Yeah it's me. You're looking at my uniform actually." As he was going to say more, something attracted his attention. It felt like auras vanishing, one by one. As if… When comprehension came, he quickly turned around and ran towards a nearby alley, "People getting kidnapped!" was all he could spare for explanation as he rushed to get there as fast as he could.

 

When he looked into the alley, he saw what looked like three men collaring various people through a portal that floated in the air. A closer look revealed that the three men had no aura at all. The two closest ones turned to the intruder and their arms opened, revealing firearms. As they fired, Kuai Bo simply raised his arm and a wall of shadow appeared in front of him.

 

Except that the bullets didn't even slow down and impacted into him, causing him to collapse to the ground. As soon as the surprise had faded enough for him to think, the Demon quickly rolled to the side and out of the sight of the two drones. The Sailors were getting ready to rush into the alley but Kuai Bo silently motioned for them to stop. They were going to inquire why he didn't want them to go into the alley but he jumped to the roof of the building he was standing beside. Before they could even wonder what he was doing, the self dubbed Eclipse had already dropped onto the two drones from above and cut them to pieces with a few precise swings of his scythe.

 

When he turned to look at the third drone, he saw that he alley was, by now, empty, "Well damn."

 

Jupiter, Uranus, Mars and Moon chose this moment to walk into the alley to find pieces of flesh covered robots all over the place and a complete lack of rescued people, and quickly understood just why they had just heard the demon curse. Now that there was light (And in Mars's case, that the view was not clouded by a dream) they could see that what looked like a shadow was actually a suit of pitch black coloured armour built to look like a traditional demon.

 

The gauntlets had claws extending from the fingers, horns extended from the helmet that had a T shaped opening on it that magically prevented any light from escaping it this giving the illusion of eternal darkness being all that was into the helmet.

 

The wings extending from his back were functional though, as they could see them sway slowly to help with balance. Those wings too had armour strategically placed to protect while keeping full mobility. They didn't look leathery though, they looked almost immaterial actually. Sort of like wing shaped shadows that had a physical presence that felt much like regular skin. (Moon had decided to touch them to test and the others quickly followed suit)

 

Apart from that, the large Scythe he was holding attracted the eye. It didn't look like a regular scythe though. Firstly, the handle was perfectly straight, the blade was not quite as curved as usual, the large counter weight at the other hand was another addition but the most easily seen difference was the additional blade coming out straight at the end much like a mix between a spear's blade in shape and a Naginata's blade in size.

 

Any lingering doubt about the identity of the being they had summoned died right there for those four, it was hard to doubt that he was a demon when you could touch the wings and horns that were traditionally associated with them. When they finally stopped prodding him (Hey, you gotta admit, it can be pretty annoying) Kuai Bo reverted to his "human" appearance, the armour and wings fading away like shadows in the light.

 

The four of them managed to carry Venus, Neptune and Mercury to the Shrine where rest quickly brought them all to consciousness. When they heard of Kuai Bo's uniform, they asked to see it. Well, Mercury asked for curiosity and the others quickly followed her lead and thus was there another session of poking and prodding that the demon reluctantly let happen, but then again, it is somewhat hard to resist when Moon decides to ask you to do something.

 

That was when something that had been lingering in Mars's mind came back to her, "Hey, how come you arrived to the fight after I did, you seemed ready to get there way before I did."

 

Kuai Bo, looked sheepish, "Well, after I started running, I remembered that I was supposed to protect you so I turned around and ran back to you."

 

Rei (She had just detransformed) started chuckling at the demon's distraction and eagerness.

 

***At the same time, in Hell***

 

Trainer and Warrior were sitting together and sharing their opinions of The Shadow Senshi when Warrior suddenly thought of something, "You know, the style of the martial artist of the group," "Hatsuyo" interrupted Trainer, "Right, anyway, her style reminds me of Ruan Ma's style when he had just arrived."

 

Trainer's brows furrowed in thought, "You know, you're right. Actually, I think I'll go ask her right now, her bed just informed me that she's woken up."

 

Hatsuyo was hardly thrilled when Trainer rushed in her room while she was getting clothed, but the total lack of reaction from him reminded her that he didn't wear any clothes either anyway and didn't seem to care. This doesn't mean that she didn't hurry up though.

 

Anyway, when she was done and that Trainer asked her where she had learnt, she answered, "Well, I was trained by Ranma Saotome in Nerima in the Saotome School of Anything Goes."

 

Trainer nodded, "I have been told by Servant that you have been taught about the multiple universes, but did you know that there was one of those where a Ranma Saotome ended up being a demon? I could probably ask him to teach you the variant he made that uses magic and demonic powers in conjunction with Martial Arts _if_ you want me to."

 

At her eager nod, he kept talking, "Alright then, I'll ask Warrior to bring you to him then, they're pretty good friends. His name's Ruan Ma by the way, and he hates the name Ranma and especially the name Saotome so watch out what you call him." Almost as an after thought, he added, "Oh, that fridge pacing around you room contains breakfast in case you're hungry."

 

And then, he left. A few hours later, and after quite a walk across fiery fields, dark marshes and other unpleasant locales that could be found in hell, Hatsuyo and Warrior found a stone house with an attached dojo that almost looked traditionally Japanese, except for the previously mentioned stone which is pretty much the only material that can last in hell.

 

Warrior knocked on the heavy stone door, his huge fist making a deep resounding sound, and then, the door silently opened and, with a silence that people usually associate with spectres, a shadow walked out. Well, not quite a shadow but the clothing gave that impression.

 

Pitch black floating clothing that was tightened at the hands, feet and neck to prevent it from being encumbering; the feet were clad in small boots that hugged the feet. The hands had gloves over them and the face was hidden behind a featureless mask. There was absolutely no skin visible, only the pitch black of standard demonic materials.

 

Warrior grinned at the figure and saluted him, and the figure saluted back, though not audibly. Instead, he held up a strip of cotton on which was written his own salutation. Warrior and the one that had introduced himself as Ruan Ma to Hatsuyo exchanged a few words about Hatsuyo's training, Ruan Ma never speaking and instead flipping the strip of cotton around with his answer written on the side that was shown.

 

Finally, Hatsuyo couldn't hold it in and asked Ruan Ma why he didn't speak. Silently, Ruan ma flipped his mask up a bit and pulled the neck of his shirt down to reveal the skin of his neck that was filled with scars, one in particular that looked very deep and went across the position of the vocal chords.

 

After that, training begun in the dojo and Hatsuyo understood why Trainer had asked her if she wanted to train with Ruan Ma first, he was an even worse task master than Trainer, but he gave result too, teaching her brutal manoeuvres that used demonic magic and the anger that came from using it as fuel.

 

Such as a powerful knife hand that came back with the hand closed, thus usually pulling something from the opponent's body in a positively gruesome matter. And considering that they were in hell and thus couldn't die, they were hitting each other a full power, only restraining from using their soul weapons which would have caused almost permanent wounds.

 

Thus it was that she stayed there a few weeks to train and learn, continuing to improve her magical skill but in a way emphasized her combat style. During that time, the other three kept training under Trainer, and without Hatsuyo, they could focus more on the magical aspect of combat without being slowed down.

 

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Author Notes: Yet again, a chapter done. Another one of the crossover elements added and a small fight.

 

Version 1.2: This is the last of the chapters with excessively long paragraphs, the main issue of formatting that I took care of. Not much changed besides that for the same reason as last chapter.