Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Bless'ed Are We ❯ Chapter 02 ( Chapter 2 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: SoftRogue 
Ranma has so far lived his life constantly fighting one battle after another, but does he truly remember everything?
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Slayers Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 11.27.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.9K | Visits: 1.2K | Status: Completed
Ranma has so far lived his life constantly fighting one battle after another, but does he truly remember everything?
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Slayers Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 11.27.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.9K | Visits: 1.2K | Status: Completed
Bless'ed Are We
a Sailor Moon/Slayers/Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
by SoftRogue
whiteb100@hotmail.com
Disclaimer:
No seafood was harmed in the making of
this fanfiction.
**********
Chapter 02
**********
**********
Juuban
**********
^Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap^
The Senshi looked around in confusion as they heard the slow applause.
“Brava! Bra Va! Most impressive!” someone cheered.
Looking around some more, the Senshi looked up and saw someone sitting precariously on a nearby lamppost. He was wearing a pair of black slacks and dark green windbreaker over a tan turtleneck sweater. Tucked under one arm was an oddly shaped staff as he clapped politely as he smiled at them with a fox-like face that was framed with long purple hair.
“Who the hell are you?” Uranus demanded; tighten her grip on her Space Sword.
Without missing a beat, the man slipped off the lamppost and landed in front of the Senshi. “Why, my name is Xelloss.” He said as he bowed with a flourish, “I am but a humble wandering priest.”
“Oh...” the Senshi of Love said with hearts in her eyes.
Glancing around, Uranus saw Moon looking excited at the so-called ‘humble priest’ while Mercury was consulting her Computer with a perplexed look on her face. Both Jupiter and Saturn looked exhausted; the taller girl from the beating she had just gone through while the younger girl from healing the brunette’s injuries. The Senshi of the Sky wasn’t surprised to see Venus acting love struck...again; but what surprised her was the look that Mars had. The Senshi of Fire’s face was completely white and she was trembling slightly.
“‘Humble Priest’ my ass…” the shorthaired blonde said, narrowing her eyes at the stranger.
“You saw our fight?!” Moon exclaimed excitedly.
“Indeed. How you handled that Brass Demon was...innovative to say the least.” Xelloss said, without the slightest trace of sarcasm.
“You know what that thing was?” Mercury asked curiously.
“Oh yes. A Brass Demon is what you would call…oh, what was that phrase again? Oh yea, I remember; cannon fodder.”
“That’s it! Who are you! I want some answers, buddy!” Uranus exclaimed angrily, pointing her sword at Xelloss’s chest…
Only to find he was no longer there…
Looking around, she was surprised; and infuriated; to see him kneeling before Sailor Saturn. Bringing an arm across his chest, he bowed his head low. “Lady Saturn I presume? It is an honor and privilege to meet you.” He intoned with piety.
“Um...thank you...?” The young Senshi of Death and Rebirth said with embarrassment as she blushed and fumbled the Silence Glaive in her hands.
Rising, Xelloss smiled at her and reached out to ruffle her hair. “Cute kid.” He said.
Uranus growled softly and was about to launch herself at Xelloss, but someone beat her too it...with very different intentions.
“You know about those things?” Sailor Moon asked with a hopeful look. “What are they? Are their more of them? Will you tell us? Please? Pleasepleaseplease???”
Xelloss raised a finger and opened his mouth to speak. All of the Senshi, including Uranus who was still looking at him crossly, leaned close to listen.
“Well, you see...That’s a secret!”
“...ow...” Moon muttered; her face planted in the ground.
A slight movement off the side caught Uranus’s attention. Looking over at Mars, the shorthaired blonde saw that the pale faced Senshi of Fire had slowly removed another of her wards from her elbow length gloves and was holding it in trembling fingers. Xelloss also noticing Mars movement, he turned his head towards her as his ever present smile took on a slightly sinister cast as he looked at her with his purple eyes.
“Now Lady Mars, that’s not a very polite thing to do. After all, we’re all friends here, aren’t we? We wouldn’t want any…problems between friends, now would we?” he asked as he helped Moon to her feet, never talking his eyes off of Mars.
Reluctantly, Mars nodded and the ward slipped from her fingers. Only Moon and Venus seemed to have missed the interaction between Xelloss and Mars. Jupiter and Saturn tensely looked between the two with curiosity while both Uranus and Neptune glared at Xelloss with open hostility. Mercury, meanwhile, was furiously consulting her Computer with a perplexed look.
“That’s good.” Xelloss said, his face taking on a friendly cast again. Raising a hand, he glanced at his wrist...which was conspicuously lacking a watch. “Oh, look at the time. I’d better get going...”
With that, Xelloss quickly turned around and slipped down a nearby alley. “Oh, no you don’t! Come back here!” Uranus yelled as she charged after him.
“Ah...Xelloss-san...” Venus sighed, looking down the dark alley.
A moment later, a loud crashing noise was heard. Uranus shortly came out of the darkened alley covered in filth as she picked a banana peel off of her shoulder as she cursed softly under her breath.
“What happened?” Neptune asked worriedly as she moved forward to help the blonde.
“I don’t know...He just disappeared...” Uranus replied crossly.
“Let’s go...My place...Now!” Mars snapped, clinching her jaw as she looked around at the other Senshi.
“But Mars...” Moon started to whine, only to be cut off by a sharp look from the Senshi of Fire.
“Now!!” She said in a tone that promised a lot of pain if a certain pigtailed girl didn’t do what she said.
**********
Nerima
**********
“Gah!!” Ranma shouted as he bolted to his feet, landing easily in an offensive stance.
For several moments he stood there, breathing heavily as his heart raced, before he realized that there was no danger and relaxed. “It was another Dream...” he said quietly.
Looking around, Ranma realized that he was still on the roof of the school. “Must have dosed off...I wonder what time it is...”
With a deep breath, the pigtailed youth was about to head off to try to at least finish the school day and reflect on this new dream when he felt like something was off. No, not off...different. He looked down at himself and realized what was bothering him; it was his stance. It wasn’t ‘The Grouchy Bear Awakens’, one of the basic stances of the Musubetsu Kakuto Ryu that his Pops had literally beaten into him (like ‘The Swarming Locust Descends On Food’ or ‘The Crafty Crow Takes Shiny Object’). Instead, it was a stance obviously designed for a weapon...a sword. Slowly, Ranma looked down at his clenched fist; expecting to see the Sword that had been prominent in his Dreams only to see nothing but air.
“The Bless Blade...” he whispered as memories of his newest Dream surfaced.
With a sigh, Ranma stretched the kinks out of his muscles and rubbed the side of his face irritably, remembering more and more details of his Dream. He paused as he traced the nearly faded scar on his cheek where Ryouga had nicked him in their first fight here in Nerima. Frowning, he felt another scar, one much older, that ran nearly parallel to the one ‘P-chan’ had given him.
With an almost morbid curiosity, Ranma undid the drawstring of his pants and looked at his left thigh. He knew that his body was a ‘roadmap of pain’ (as he had once heard from some monk he had been left with by his Pops during his training trip) and was criss-crossed with scars from all the insane training the Panda had put him through...if you knew what you were looking for. Because of that same training his Pops had put him through, Ranma had learned at an extremely young age how to use his Ki to heal his wounds.
‘Of course the only reason he even taught me that was so I wouldn’t slow him down because I was hurt.’ Ranma thought bitterly.
Inspecting his thigh, Ranma saw the remains of what looked like what had once been a nasty looking gash. The problem was he had no idea where he could have gotten it from. It could have been from the time Pops had him leaping around slick rocks in the middle of white water rapids, or the time he had been dodging sharpen stakes that were thrown at him while standing on his hands, or the time he had hauled the Pops fat ass through a swamp filled with wolves and alligators, or it could have been from something...unnatural.
“Could it have all be real?” He asked himself, before a sharp noise interrupted his musings.
Turning around, Ranma looked behind him and saw Hinako-sensei in her adult form standing at the now opened entrance to the roof. “Ha! I have you now, you delinquent! Think that you can just skip my class; do you Sao...to...me...?”
Relaxing from his cringe at the Happo Tsurisen Gaeshi that failed to appear, Ranma looked at his teacher with concern. “Are you alright, Hinako-sensei? You don’t look so good; your face is kinda flush.” He asked, failing to notice that his pants were still down around his ankles.
“Ranma? Are you up here?” Another voice said from behind Hinako that revealed itself to be Akane’s as she stepped out of the stairway.
“Oh, hey Akane.” Ranma answered dispassionately as he noticed that one of her left arm was in a makeshift sling.
Akane was about to say something, but the words died in her throat as she took in the condition her ‘fiancé’ was in. Her face purpling in rage, she stormed forward. “You Pervert!” she yelled as she hit the hapless pigtailed boy with an uppercut.
“Uncute Tomboy!!” Ranma’s voice could be heard as he sailed off the roof.
**********
Juuban
**********
“Gee, Rei. You’ve been quiet ever since we’ve started walking. What’s wrong?” Usagi asks innocently as the eight girls make their way up the steps of the Hikawa Shrine.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong! Don’t you get it, meatball head! Those things were evil!” the Shrine Maiden snapped.
“Well...duh, Rei. I think we’ve already figured that out.” Usagi replied sarcastically.
“You don’t understand.” Rei said as she paused on the steps to look at the others. “They weren’t evil as in ‘they want to kill everyone and destroy the world evil’. They were evil as in Evil with capitol E! You got it!”
Everyone was silent for a moment before the black haired girl turned and started back up the stairs. “Rei?” Ami interjected, “You keep saying ‘they’. Do you mean that there was more than one of those creatures?”
Without looking back at the blue haired girl, Rei replied. “Couldn’t you tell? There was that Akuma that we dusted and...”
“Don’t say it...don’t say it...” Minako whispered loudly as she crossed her fingers.
“...and that ‘Xelloss’ creep.” Rei finished.
“Ha! I knew it!” Haruka exclaimed with vindication.
“No!! It’s not fair!” Minako cried. “Why is it that every cute guy I meet is either a bad guy, already taken, or gay?!”
“Rei? How were you able to tell?” Michiru asked curiously, ignoring the distraught blonde.
“You mean you couldn’t tell?” Rei asked surprised as she looked back over her shoulder.
All of the other girls, except Minako; who was still busy lamenting the seeming lack of good boys; shook their heads. Opening her Computer, Ami began to look through her data. “As for the Akuma or Brass Demon, the readings I kept getting didn’t show that it was that powerful and for some reason I couldn’t track him when ever he disappeared. And as for Xelloss, what I got on him was...strange to say the least.”
“What do you mean, Ami?” Makoto inquired.
“Well, one moment he seemed like a normal person, but then all of a sudden I couldn’t get a reading on him at all.” Ami replied with a perplexed look.
“Perhaps he isn’t bad?” Minako asked hopefully.
“Believe me. He’s evil.” Rei stated. “That Akuma ‘felt’ sickly and oily but it was nothing compared to that...that thing. It ‘felt’ at least a hundred times worse that Akuma was.” The priestess finished with a small shudder.
“What do you mean by ‘felt’, Rei?” Hotaru asked as they reached the top of the stairs and made their way across the courtyard of the Shrine.
“I don’t know how else to explain it. I could ‘feel’ the wrongness of those creatures.” Rei paused and looked at the young girl. “Ever since I was little, Grandpa taught me the way of our faith. One of the first things he taught me was how to know when one of those creatures were around a how to stop it. And...” she stopped and took a deep breath before saying in a quiet voice, “...and I don’t think I could have stopped that Xelloss creature.”
It was quiet as they approached the Shrine proper. “So...what are we going to do about what happened today?” Haruka asked as Rei slid open the screen and motioned everyone to go inside.
“Absolutely nothing.” A voice answered from inside.
Sharing a look of shock, the girls quickly entered and saw Setsuna sitting calmly by the Sacred Fire. “What do you think you’re doing here?” Rei demanded.
“Having some tea.” The emerald tressed woman replied calmly. “Would you like some? I have some cake as well.”
“Ohhh. Cake!” Usagi exclaimed as she pushed herself forward and sat next to Setsuna with a thump.
Ignoring the hyperactive blonde with the sweet tooth, Haruka shot her roommate an anger look. “What do you mean that we do ‘absolutely nothing’!?” she demanded.
With an enigmatic smile on her face, Setsuna simply motioned for the others to take a seat. After everyone had sat down, including a reluctant Haruka, the emerald tressed woman spoke.
“Well Haruka, I believe that I was being rather clear. If you encounter another creature like the one you fought today, you are to try to avoid fighting it at all costs.”
Only the sounds of the crackling fire could be heard as everyone stared at Setsuna as if she had grown a second head. “But Setsuna,” Usagi said, breaking the silence, “We can’t just let evil creatures rampage around without doing something.”
Look kindly at the pony tailed blonde girl; who happened to have two handfuls of cake; the older woman spoke. “With all do respect Princess, the creature that you fought is known as a Brass Demon. Brass Demons are the weakest of race of...creatures known as Mazoku. In case you’ve forgotten, it took the eight of you the defeat it.”
“But, Rei was able to stop it with one of her wards.” Ami interjected. “And it couldn’t get past Hotaru’s Silence Wall and it was definitely afraid of Usagi’s powers.”
Nodding her head, Setsuna conceded to the young genius’ points. “True, Mazoku feed off of the negative emotions of humans; so Sailor Moon’s attacks would be lethal to them. However, as you saw, they are quite fast and it would be difficult for her to hit one. And while it is true that Rei was able to use her Shinto training to sense and then incapacitate the Brass Demon, she currently lacks the skills to be effective against more powerful Mazoku. As for Hotaru...” Setsuna trailed off and gave her adoptive daughter a long look, causing the young girl to shrink back slightly. “Yes...she would be able to destroy even the most powerful Mazoku, but the risk would be too high for us all.”
“So, what are we suppose to do then, huh?” Makoto asked with a hint of frustration. “Just sit back and do nothing?”
“Yes.” Setsuna replied simply. “There are...others who are better equipped to handle this possible threat.”
“Excuse me, Setsuna?” Michiru asked softly. “What do you mean by ‘possible threat’?”
The older woman gave the aquamarine tressed girl a look of mind reproach before she finally said, “Mazoku are not effected by the passage of time; therefore, the Gates of Time are blind to them.”
“WHAT!!” several of the girls exclaimed.
“So...how do you know about them?” Ami asked curiously.
“I’ve had my share of...experiences with them in the past.” Setsuna replied, taking a sip of her tea. “None of those times were pleasant.”
“So...you’ve told us a lot of nothing about that Akuma or Brass Demon or whatever it was.” Rei stated, fuming slightly from the older woman’s causal dismissal of her abilities. “But you haven’t said anything about that Xelloss guy.”
^CRUNCH!^
All of the girls looked wide eyed at the teacup that Setsuna had just negligently crushed in her hand. “Excuse me?” she asked, her calm and cool demeanor ruined by the rapid twitching of her left eye. “Did you just say...Xelloss?”
“Yea, Xelloss.” Haruka said with a slight smirk, finally being able to enjoy seeing the ever composed and refined Senshi of Time apparently loose her cool. “You know; purple hair, annoying smile, smug attitude...”
“I know who Xelloss is!” Setsuna snapped, shocking everyone present. In a much calmer voice she continued, “I am quite aware of who he is and what he can do.”
“So...is he ‘evil evil’ or is he ‘evil bad’? I mean he is kinda cute...” Minako trailed off as everyone gave her a strange look. “Well, he is!” she protested.
“He...he was nice to me...” Hotaru said softly, instantly drawing everyone’s eyes to her.
Setsuna looked at the young girl for a long moment. “Yes. Yes he would be nice to you.” She said, her eyes showing a strange mix of kindness and sadness.
An awkward silence passed before finally the emerald tressed woman stood. “If you would excuse me, there are things I must see to.” She walked to the screen and paused after she slid it open. “Oh, one more thing. When, not if, you encounter Xelloss again; what ever you do, do not attack him.”
“Oh, why’s that?” Haruka asked crossly. “We might piss him off and he’ll attack us?”
“No.” Setsuna said slowly. “You might...amuse him; and that would be infinitely worse.”
**********
Nerima
**********
“Stupid uncute tomboy.”
A red headed girl muttered irritably as she walked slowly down the streets of Nerima.
“Stupid Panda.”
After he had been knocked off the building by a certain shorthaired fiancée, the pigtailed martial artist decided that the school day was a write off and walked around trying to think. After all, remembering the sling that Akane was wearing when she clocked him, Ranma knew for sure that skipping the rest of the school day would be the least of his problems when he got back to the Tendos.
“Stupid perverts.”
Ranma had wandered around for hours, ending up in Tomobiki he had been splashed by a random kid with a squirt gun, only to meet up with a certain resident of who was as synonymous with that Ward as Ranma was with Nerima.
“Stupid Panda.”
After escaping from another resident of that Ward who had an...electric personality, he had been fortunate to find some hot water and return to his natural form before heading back to Nerima.
“Stupid Kunos’.”
Once back in Nerima, he then spent nearly an hour dealing with an insane kendoist, a crazy gymnast, a practitioner of the Anything Goes Martial Arts Hot Water Heater Repair, and a fountain in the park.
“Stupid Panda.”
Finally, after leaving that entire mess behind, he decided to head back to the Dojo and face what ever was coming.
“Stupid blind duck.”
Unfortunately, he had encountered Mousse on the way and had to spend even more time dealing with that annoyance, before a blast of water from a broken hydrant activated both of their curses. After shoving ‘Mu Mu-chan’ in to one of the delivery boxes he was caring and kicking it in the general direction of the Nekohanten; Ranma continued on his way.
“Stupid Panda.”
So besides being wet, female, and no closer to the answer to the Dreams that have been plaguing him; Ranma approached the one place he really didn’t want to go...but had no choice.
“Stupid Panda.”
And as to why he kept muttering dark things about his father? Well, his father IS Genma Saotome after all.
“Here you go.” A voice suddenly said, breaking him out of his musings.
Looking up, Ranma saw a guy with long purple hair framing a curiously smiling fox-like face. What got his attention, though, was the teakettle he was holding.
“Thanks.” The cursed martial artist said, accepting the hot water and using in, changing back into a guy.
“No problem. No problem at all.” The stranger said.
Ranma looked at him closely, for some reason the stranger seemed familiar somehow. “Have we met before?”
The stranger’s smile became wider and he said, “That’s a secret!”
Ranma blinked twice, and then shrugged his shoulders. This was Nerima after all; he was used to much weirder things. “Yea, sure. Thanks for the water.”
Handing the teakettle back to the stranger, who seemed to be slightly disappointed, Ranma continued on the short distance to the Tendo Dojo. Arriving at the front gate, he paused to think about what he was going to do next. Frankly, he was getting tired of all the abuse that his Pops and Mr. Tendo and Akane kept piling on him about his duties to his fiancée. He was tired of constantly being the source of everyone’s problems. He was tired of being blamed for every little thing that happened. And he was just plain tired.
Nodding to himself, Ranma strode forward through the gate. Within seconds of entering the house, he was barraged by angry yells.
“Ranma! How could you let those hussies that hang around you attack my poor baby!”
“Ranma, you pervert! How could you go around flashing Hinako-Sensei?”
“Boy! It’s your duty to protect your fiancée! How dare you leave her alone?”
Ranma looked at the three angry faces surrounding him. Looking at Mr. Tendo, the pigtailed boy said, “Your daughter is a martial artist. She should be able to protect herself.”
“That’s not the point...” Mr. Tendo said furiously.
“So...you’re saying that she can’t protect herself?” Ranma asked, knowing full well what was about to happen. After all, he had been down this road before many times before.
“Daddy?!?” Akane turned to her father. “Are you saying that I’m not good enough to protect myself from those hussies?”
“But...but...but...” Mr. Tendo stuttered.
Ignoring Akane and her father, Ranma started heading towards the stairs to his room.
“Where do you think you’re going, boy?” his father demanded.
“To bed. You can have my dinner.”
“Oh, ok.” Genma said cheerfully. “Have a good night, son.”
Genma headed off to the dinner table as Ranma moved off to his futon. Part of the boy cursed to turn into a girl wish that he would be able to sleep with out any interruptions of any kind. But another part of him wished he would have another Dream just so he could see Her again.
Meanwhile, at the dinner table, Genma waited expectantly for dinner to be served. This time he would be able to get all the food he wanted without having to fight with the boy to get what he wanted! Nothing could be better!
“Where did Ranma go, Mr. Saotome?” a much calmer Akane asked as she entered the dining room.
“The boy wasn’t feeling well and went to bed.” Genma said, trying not to salivate at the thought of the coming feast.
“Oh...” Akane said dejectedly. “I wanted to apologize for to him for how I acted at lunch today.”
“There’s no need to apologize, I’m sure it all was the boys’ fault.” Genma absently tried to consol the girl while he wondered where Kasumi was.
“Well, I went to the trouble of making dinner for him.” Akane sighed. “I guess that you can have his serving as well as your own Mr. Saotome.”
“Uh...” Genma stammered, suddenly realizing he hadn’t seen either Kasumi or Nabiki for several hours. “You know, the boy might be onto something! I haven’t been feeling all to well either. I guess I’ll call it a night too; you know, early to bed, early to rise and all that!”
Genma quickly left the dining room as fast as he could, completely ignoring the look of disappointment of Akane’s face. With a sigh, she sat down and used a knife and fork to hack her off a piece of tempura she had made. A moment later, she was startled (but not surprised) to hear several loud thumps coming from upstairs.
A moment later, a flash of bluish-white light filled the yard outside the yard. Akane saw a badly singed middle-aged martial artist land in the Koi pond and become a badly singed, soggy Panda.
^Ah...that’s my boy!^ Akane read off the sign that ‘Mr. Panda’ held up from the center of the pond. *Flip* ^Always learning new things^ *Flip* ^But why name such a powerful attack something silly as ‘Bram Blazer’?^
**********
Authors Notes:
Here you go, Thermopyle. Are you
happy now? ^_-
Yes, I do realize that it has been nearly
10 months since I’ve updated this (or any
of my Ranma/SM fanfics) and to my fans I
thank you for your patience.
Incase any of you were wondering, the reason
I put all of my fanfics on hold was in part
do to the fact that I didn’t feel like I was
getting inside my characters heads; especially
with the SM cast. So, I took a break and ended
up deciding to a pure SM fic and explore their
characters. As a result, I came up with
‘A Meeting of Minds’; which definitely made me
get into their heads, since it is a Setsuna/Ami
match up, of which I know of only one other by
Shanejayell.
So, after exploring that for a while, I’m back to
working on my Ranma/SM fics (although, right now
‘A Meeting of Minds’ is currently on the top of
my list of ‘to do’s’) I hope to get another chapter
of this fic out before I turn my attention back to
‘Dark King Ascending’.
Anyway... If you want to send me flames or praise
or even suggestions, please e-mail me at
whiteb100@hotmail.com
This fic and others can be found at my FF.Net account,
which is www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=266642
Or you can link to my FF.Net account from Thermopyle's
website http://thermopyle.anifics.com
And (although I still need to get them updated) at
http://tannim.anifics.com
11/27/03
a Sailor Moon/Slayers/Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
by SoftRogue
whiteb100@hotmail.com
Disclaimer:
No seafood was harmed in the making of
this fanfiction.
**********
Chapter 02
**********
**********
Juuban
**********
^Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap^
The Senshi looked around in confusion as they heard the slow applause.
“Brava! Bra Va! Most impressive!” someone cheered.
Looking around some more, the Senshi looked up and saw someone sitting precariously on a nearby lamppost. He was wearing a pair of black slacks and dark green windbreaker over a tan turtleneck sweater. Tucked under one arm was an oddly shaped staff as he clapped politely as he smiled at them with a fox-like face that was framed with long purple hair.
“Who the hell are you?” Uranus demanded; tighten her grip on her Space Sword.
Without missing a beat, the man slipped off the lamppost and landed in front of the Senshi. “Why, my name is Xelloss.” He said as he bowed with a flourish, “I am but a humble wandering priest.”
“Oh...” the Senshi of Love said with hearts in her eyes.
Glancing around, Uranus saw Moon looking excited at the so-called ‘humble priest’ while Mercury was consulting her Computer with a perplexed look on her face. Both Jupiter and Saturn looked exhausted; the taller girl from the beating she had just gone through while the younger girl from healing the brunette’s injuries. The Senshi of the Sky wasn’t surprised to see Venus acting love struck...again; but what surprised her was the look that Mars had. The Senshi of Fire’s face was completely white and she was trembling slightly.
“‘Humble Priest’ my ass…” the shorthaired blonde said, narrowing her eyes at the stranger.
“You saw our fight?!” Moon exclaimed excitedly.
“Indeed. How you handled that Brass Demon was...innovative to say the least.” Xelloss said, without the slightest trace of sarcasm.
“You know what that thing was?” Mercury asked curiously.
“Oh yes. A Brass Demon is what you would call…oh, what was that phrase again? Oh yea, I remember; cannon fodder.”
“That’s it! Who are you! I want some answers, buddy!” Uranus exclaimed angrily, pointing her sword at Xelloss’s chest…
Only to find he was no longer there…
Looking around, she was surprised; and infuriated; to see him kneeling before Sailor Saturn. Bringing an arm across his chest, he bowed his head low. “Lady Saturn I presume? It is an honor and privilege to meet you.” He intoned with piety.
“Um...thank you...?” The young Senshi of Death and Rebirth said with embarrassment as she blushed and fumbled the Silence Glaive in her hands.
Rising, Xelloss smiled at her and reached out to ruffle her hair. “Cute kid.” He said.
Uranus growled softly and was about to launch herself at Xelloss, but someone beat her too it...with very different intentions.
“You know about those things?” Sailor Moon asked with a hopeful look. “What are they? Are their more of them? Will you tell us? Please? Pleasepleaseplease???”
Xelloss raised a finger and opened his mouth to speak. All of the Senshi, including Uranus who was still looking at him crossly, leaned close to listen.
“Well, you see...That’s a secret!”
“...ow...” Moon muttered; her face planted in the ground.
A slight movement off the side caught Uranus’s attention. Looking over at Mars, the shorthaired blonde saw that the pale faced Senshi of Fire had slowly removed another of her wards from her elbow length gloves and was holding it in trembling fingers. Xelloss also noticing Mars movement, he turned his head towards her as his ever present smile took on a slightly sinister cast as he looked at her with his purple eyes.
“Now Lady Mars, that’s not a very polite thing to do. After all, we’re all friends here, aren’t we? We wouldn’t want any…problems between friends, now would we?” he asked as he helped Moon to her feet, never talking his eyes off of Mars.
Reluctantly, Mars nodded and the ward slipped from her fingers. Only Moon and Venus seemed to have missed the interaction between Xelloss and Mars. Jupiter and Saturn tensely looked between the two with curiosity while both Uranus and Neptune glared at Xelloss with open hostility. Mercury, meanwhile, was furiously consulting her Computer with a perplexed look.
“That’s good.” Xelloss said, his face taking on a friendly cast again. Raising a hand, he glanced at his wrist...which was conspicuously lacking a watch. “Oh, look at the time. I’d better get going...”
With that, Xelloss quickly turned around and slipped down a nearby alley. “Oh, no you don’t! Come back here!” Uranus yelled as she charged after him.
“Ah...Xelloss-san...” Venus sighed, looking down the dark alley.
A moment later, a loud crashing noise was heard. Uranus shortly came out of the darkened alley covered in filth as she picked a banana peel off of her shoulder as she cursed softly under her breath.
“What happened?” Neptune asked worriedly as she moved forward to help the blonde.
“I don’t know...He just disappeared...” Uranus replied crossly.
“Let’s go...My place...Now!” Mars snapped, clinching her jaw as she looked around at the other Senshi.
“But Mars...” Moon started to whine, only to be cut off by a sharp look from the Senshi of Fire.
“Now!!” She said in a tone that promised a lot of pain if a certain pigtailed girl didn’t do what she said.
**********
Nerima
**********
“Gah!!” Ranma shouted as he bolted to his feet, landing easily in an offensive stance.
For several moments he stood there, breathing heavily as his heart raced, before he realized that there was no danger and relaxed. “It was another Dream...” he said quietly.
Looking around, Ranma realized that he was still on the roof of the school. “Must have dosed off...I wonder what time it is...”
With a deep breath, the pigtailed youth was about to head off to try to at least finish the school day and reflect on this new dream when he felt like something was off. No, not off...different. He looked down at himself and realized what was bothering him; it was his stance. It wasn’t ‘The Grouchy Bear Awakens’, one of the basic stances of the Musubetsu Kakuto Ryu that his Pops had literally beaten into him (like ‘The Swarming Locust Descends On Food’ or ‘The Crafty Crow Takes Shiny Object’). Instead, it was a stance obviously designed for a weapon...a sword. Slowly, Ranma looked down at his clenched fist; expecting to see the Sword that had been prominent in his Dreams only to see nothing but air.
“The Bless Blade...” he whispered as memories of his newest Dream surfaced.
With a sigh, Ranma stretched the kinks out of his muscles and rubbed the side of his face irritably, remembering more and more details of his Dream. He paused as he traced the nearly faded scar on his cheek where Ryouga had nicked him in their first fight here in Nerima. Frowning, he felt another scar, one much older, that ran nearly parallel to the one ‘P-chan’ had given him.
With an almost morbid curiosity, Ranma undid the drawstring of his pants and looked at his left thigh. He knew that his body was a ‘roadmap of pain’ (as he had once heard from some monk he had been left with by his Pops during his training trip) and was criss-crossed with scars from all the insane training the Panda had put him through...if you knew what you were looking for. Because of that same training his Pops had put him through, Ranma had learned at an extremely young age how to use his Ki to heal his wounds.
‘Of course the only reason he even taught me that was so I wouldn’t slow him down because I was hurt.’ Ranma thought bitterly.
Inspecting his thigh, Ranma saw the remains of what looked like what had once been a nasty looking gash. The problem was he had no idea where he could have gotten it from. It could have been from the time Pops had him leaping around slick rocks in the middle of white water rapids, or the time he had been dodging sharpen stakes that were thrown at him while standing on his hands, or the time he had hauled the Pops fat ass through a swamp filled with wolves and alligators, or it could have been from something...unnatural.
“Could it have all be real?” He asked himself, before a sharp noise interrupted his musings.
Turning around, Ranma looked behind him and saw Hinako-sensei in her adult form standing at the now opened entrance to the roof. “Ha! I have you now, you delinquent! Think that you can just skip my class; do you Sao...to...me...?”
Relaxing from his cringe at the Happo Tsurisen Gaeshi that failed to appear, Ranma looked at his teacher with concern. “Are you alright, Hinako-sensei? You don’t look so good; your face is kinda flush.” He asked, failing to notice that his pants were still down around his ankles.
“Ranma? Are you up here?” Another voice said from behind Hinako that revealed itself to be Akane’s as she stepped out of the stairway.
“Oh, hey Akane.” Ranma answered dispassionately as he noticed that one of her left arm was in a makeshift sling.
Akane was about to say something, but the words died in her throat as she took in the condition her ‘fiancé’ was in. Her face purpling in rage, she stormed forward. “You Pervert!” she yelled as she hit the hapless pigtailed boy with an uppercut.
“Uncute Tomboy!!” Ranma’s voice could be heard as he sailed off the roof.
**********
Juuban
**********
“Gee, Rei. You’ve been quiet ever since we’ve started walking. What’s wrong?” Usagi asks innocently as the eight girls make their way up the steps of the Hikawa Shrine.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong! Don’t you get it, meatball head! Those things were evil!” the Shrine Maiden snapped.
“Well...duh, Rei. I think we’ve already figured that out.” Usagi replied sarcastically.
“You don’t understand.” Rei said as she paused on the steps to look at the others. “They weren’t evil as in ‘they want to kill everyone and destroy the world evil’. They were evil as in Evil with capitol E! You got it!”
Everyone was silent for a moment before the black haired girl turned and started back up the stairs. “Rei?” Ami interjected, “You keep saying ‘they’. Do you mean that there was more than one of those creatures?”
Without looking back at the blue haired girl, Rei replied. “Couldn’t you tell? There was that Akuma that we dusted and...”
“Don’t say it...don’t say it...” Minako whispered loudly as she crossed her fingers.
“...and that ‘Xelloss’ creep.” Rei finished.
“Ha! I knew it!” Haruka exclaimed with vindication.
“No!! It’s not fair!” Minako cried. “Why is it that every cute guy I meet is either a bad guy, already taken, or gay?!”
“Rei? How were you able to tell?” Michiru asked curiously, ignoring the distraught blonde.
“You mean you couldn’t tell?” Rei asked surprised as she looked back over her shoulder.
All of the other girls, except Minako; who was still busy lamenting the seeming lack of good boys; shook their heads. Opening her Computer, Ami began to look through her data. “As for the Akuma or Brass Demon, the readings I kept getting didn’t show that it was that powerful and for some reason I couldn’t track him when ever he disappeared. And as for Xelloss, what I got on him was...strange to say the least.”
“What do you mean, Ami?” Makoto inquired.
“Well, one moment he seemed like a normal person, but then all of a sudden I couldn’t get a reading on him at all.” Ami replied with a perplexed look.
“Perhaps he isn’t bad?” Minako asked hopefully.
“Believe me. He’s evil.” Rei stated. “That Akuma ‘felt’ sickly and oily but it was nothing compared to that...that thing. It ‘felt’ at least a hundred times worse that Akuma was.” The priestess finished with a small shudder.
“What do you mean by ‘felt’, Rei?” Hotaru asked as they reached the top of the stairs and made their way across the courtyard of the Shrine.
“I don’t know how else to explain it. I could ‘feel’ the wrongness of those creatures.” Rei paused and looked at the young girl. “Ever since I was little, Grandpa taught me the way of our faith. One of the first things he taught me was how to know when one of those creatures were around a how to stop it. And...” she stopped and took a deep breath before saying in a quiet voice, “...and I don’t think I could have stopped that Xelloss creature.”
It was quiet as they approached the Shrine proper. “So...what are we going to do about what happened today?” Haruka asked as Rei slid open the screen and motioned everyone to go inside.
“Absolutely nothing.” A voice answered from inside.
Sharing a look of shock, the girls quickly entered and saw Setsuna sitting calmly by the Sacred Fire. “What do you think you’re doing here?” Rei demanded.
“Having some tea.” The emerald tressed woman replied calmly. “Would you like some? I have some cake as well.”
“Ohhh. Cake!” Usagi exclaimed as she pushed herself forward and sat next to Setsuna with a thump.
Ignoring the hyperactive blonde with the sweet tooth, Haruka shot her roommate an anger look. “What do you mean that we do ‘absolutely nothing’!?” she demanded.
With an enigmatic smile on her face, Setsuna simply motioned for the others to take a seat. After everyone had sat down, including a reluctant Haruka, the emerald tressed woman spoke.
“Well Haruka, I believe that I was being rather clear. If you encounter another creature like the one you fought today, you are to try to avoid fighting it at all costs.”
Only the sounds of the crackling fire could be heard as everyone stared at Setsuna as if she had grown a second head. “But Setsuna,” Usagi said, breaking the silence, “We can’t just let evil creatures rampage around without doing something.”
Look kindly at the pony tailed blonde girl; who happened to have two handfuls of cake; the older woman spoke. “With all do respect Princess, the creature that you fought is known as a Brass Demon. Brass Demons are the weakest of race of...creatures known as Mazoku. In case you’ve forgotten, it took the eight of you the defeat it.”
“But, Rei was able to stop it with one of her wards.” Ami interjected. “And it couldn’t get past Hotaru’s Silence Wall and it was definitely afraid of Usagi’s powers.”
Nodding her head, Setsuna conceded to the young genius’ points. “True, Mazoku feed off of the negative emotions of humans; so Sailor Moon’s attacks would be lethal to them. However, as you saw, they are quite fast and it would be difficult for her to hit one. And while it is true that Rei was able to use her Shinto training to sense and then incapacitate the Brass Demon, she currently lacks the skills to be effective against more powerful Mazoku. As for Hotaru...” Setsuna trailed off and gave her adoptive daughter a long look, causing the young girl to shrink back slightly. “Yes...she would be able to destroy even the most powerful Mazoku, but the risk would be too high for us all.”
“So, what are we suppose to do then, huh?” Makoto asked with a hint of frustration. “Just sit back and do nothing?”
“Yes.” Setsuna replied simply. “There are...others who are better equipped to handle this possible threat.”
“Excuse me, Setsuna?” Michiru asked softly. “What do you mean by ‘possible threat’?”
The older woman gave the aquamarine tressed girl a look of mind reproach before she finally said, “Mazoku are not effected by the passage of time; therefore, the Gates of Time are blind to them.”
“WHAT!!” several of the girls exclaimed.
“So...how do you know about them?” Ami asked curiously.
“I’ve had my share of...experiences with them in the past.” Setsuna replied, taking a sip of her tea. “None of those times were pleasant.”
“So...you’ve told us a lot of nothing about that Akuma or Brass Demon or whatever it was.” Rei stated, fuming slightly from the older woman’s causal dismissal of her abilities. “But you haven’t said anything about that Xelloss guy.”
^CRUNCH!^
All of the girls looked wide eyed at the teacup that Setsuna had just negligently crushed in her hand. “Excuse me?” she asked, her calm and cool demeanor ruined by the rapid twitching of her left eye. “Did you just say...Xelloss?”
“Yea, Xelloss.” Haruka said with a slight smirk, finally being able to enjoy seeing the ever composed and refined Senshi of Time apparently loose her cool. “You know; purple hair, annoying smile, smug attitude...”
“I know who Xelloss is!” Setsuna snapped, shocking everyone present. In a much calmer voice she continued, “I am quite aware of who he is and what he can do.”
“So...is he ‘evil evil’ or is he ‘evil bad’? I mean he is kinda cute...” Minako trailed off as everyone gave her a strange look. “Well, he is!” she protested.
“He...he was nice to me...” Hotaru said softly, instantly drawing everyone’s eyes to her.
Setsuna looked at the young girl for a long moment. “Yes. Yes he would be nice to you.” She said, her eyes showing a strange mix of kindness and sadness.
An awkward silence passed before finally the emerald tressed woman stood. “If you would excuse me, there are things I must see to.” She walked to the screen and paused after she slid it open. “Oh, one more thing. When, not if, you encounter Xelloss again; what ever you do, do not attack him.”
“Oh, why’s that?” Haruka asked crossly. “We might piss him off and he’ll attack us?”
“No.” Setsuna said slowly. “You might...amuse him; and that would be infinitely worse.”
**********
Nerima
**********
“Stupid uncute tomboy.”
A red headed girl muttered irritably as she walked slowly down the streets of Nerima.
“Stupid Panda.”
After he had been knocked off the building by a certain shorthaired fiancée, the pigtailed martial artist decided that the school day was a write off and walked around trying to think. After all, remembering the sling that Akane was wearing when she clocked him, Ranma knew for sure that skipping the rest of the school day would be the least of his problems when he got back to the Tendos.
“Stupid perverts.”
Ranma had wandered around for hours, ending up in Tomobiki he had been splashed by a random kid with a squirt gun, only to meet up with a certain resident of who was as synonymous with that Ward as Ranma was with Nerima.
“Stupid Panda.”
After escaping from another resident of that Ward who had an...electric personality, he had been fortunate to find some hot water and return to his natural form before heading back to Nerima.
“Stupid Kunos’.”
Once back in Nerima, he then spent nearly an hour dealing with an insane kendoist, a crazy gymnast, a practitioner of the Anything Goes Martial Arts Hot Water Heater Repair, and a fountain in the park.
“Stupid Panda.”
Finally, after leaving that entire mess behind, he decided to head back to the Dojo and face what ever was coming.
“Stupid blind duck.”
Unfortunately, he had encountered Mousse on the way and had to spend even more time dealing with that annoyance, before a blast of water from a broken hydrant activated both of their curses. After shoving ‘Mu Mu-chan’ in to one of the delivery boxes he was caring and kicking it in the general direction of the Nekohanten; Ranma continued on his way.
“Stupid Panda.”
So besides being wet, female, and no closer to the answer to the Dreams that have been plaguing him; Ranma approached the one place he really didn’t want to go...but had no choice.
“Stupid Panda.”
And as to why he kept muttering dark things about his father? Well, his father IS Genma Saotome after all.
“Here you go.” A voice suddenly said, breaking him out of his musings.
Looking up, Ranma saw a guy with long purple hair framing a curiously smiling fox-like face. What got his attention, though, was the teakettle he was holding.
“Thanks.” The cursed martial artist said, accepting the hot water and using in, changing back into a guy.
“No problem. No problem at all.” The stranger said.
Ranma looked at him closely, for some reason the stranger seemed familiar somehow. “Have we met before?”
The stranger’s smile became wider and he said, “That’s a secret!”
Ranma blinked twice, and then shrugged his shoulders. This was Nerima after all; he was used to much weirder things. “Yea, sure. Thanks for the water.”
Handing the teakettle back to the stranger, who seemed to be slightly disappointed, Ranma continued on the short distance to the Tendo Dojo. Arriving at the front gate, he paused to think about what he was going to do next. Frankly, he was getting tired of all the abuse that his Pops and Mr. Tendo and Akane kept piling on him about his duties to his fiancée. He was tired of constantly being the source of everyone’s problems. He was tired of being blamed for every little thing that happened. And he was just plain tired.
Nodding to himself, Ranma strode forward through the gate. Within seconds of entering the house, he was barraged by angry yells.
“Ranma! How could you let those hussies that hang around you attack my poor baby!”
“Ranma, you pervert! How could you go around flashing Hinako-Sensei?”
“Boy! It’s your duty to protect your fiancée! How dare you leave her alone?”
Ranma looked at the three angry faces surrounding him. Looking at Mr. Tendo, the pigtailed boy said, “Your daughter is a martial artist. She should be able to protect herself.”
“That’s not the point...” Mr. Tendo said furiously.
“So...you’re saying that she can’t protect herself?” Ranma asked, knowing full well what was about to happen. After all, he had been down this road before many times before.
“Daddy?!?” Akane turned to her father. “Are you saying that I’m not good enough to protect myself from those hussies?”
“But...but...but...” Mr. Tendo stuttered.
Ignoring Akane and her father, Ranma started heading towards the stairs to his room.
“Where do you think you’re going, boy?” his father demanded.
“To bed. You can have my dinner.”
“Oh, ok.” Genma said cheerfully. “Have a good night, son.”
Genma headed off to the dinner table as Ranma moved off to his futon. Part of the boy cursed to turn into a girl wish that he would be able to sleep with out any interruptions of any kind. But another part of him wished he would have another Dream just so he could see Her again.
Meanwhile, at the dinner table, Genma waited expectantly for dinner to be served. This time he would be able to get all the food he wanted without having to fight with the boy to get what he wanted! Nothing could be better!
“Where did Ranma go, Mr. Saotome?” a much calmer Akane asked as she entered the dining room.
“The boy wasn’t feeling well and went to bed.” Genma said, trying not to salivate at the thought of the coming feast.
“Oh...” Akane said dejectedly. “I wanted to apologize for to him for how I acted at lunch today.”
“There’s no need to apologize, I’m sure it all was the boys’ fault.” Genma absently tried to consol the girl while he wondered where Kasumi was.
“Well, I went to the trouble of making dinner for him.” Akane sighed. “I guess that you can have his serving as well as your own Mr. Saotome.”
“Uh...” Genma stammered, suddenly realizing he hadn’t seen either Kasumi or Nabiki for several hours. “You know, the boy might be onto something! I haven’t been feeling all to well either. I guess I’ll call it a night too; you know, early to bed, early to rise and all that!”
Genma quickly left the dining room as fast as he could, completely ignoring the look of disappointment of Akane’s face. With a sigh, she sat down and used a knife and fork to hack her off a piece of tempura she had made. A moment later, she was startled (but not surprised) to hear several loud thumps coming from upstairs.
A moment later, a flash of bluish-white light filled the yard outside the yard. Akane saw a badly singed middle-aged martial artist land in the Koi pond and become a badly singed, soggy Panda.
^Ah...that’s my boy!^ Akane read off the sign that ‘Mr. Panda’ held up from the center of the pond. *Flip* ^Always learning new things^ *Flip* ^But why name such a powerful attack something silly as ‘Bram Blazer’?^
**********
Authors Notes:
Here you go, Thermopyle. Are you
happy now? ^_-
Yes, I do realize that it has been nearly
10 months since I’ve updated this (or any
of my Ranma/SM fanfics) and to my fans I
thank you for your patience.
Incase any of you were wondering, the reason
I put all of my fanfics on hold was in part
do to the fact that I didn’t feel like I was
getting inside my characters heads; especially
with the SM cast. So, I took a break and ended
up deciding to a pure SM fic and explore their
characters. As a result, I came up with
‘A Meeting of Minds’; which definitely made me
get into their heads, since it is a Setsuna/Ami
match up, of which I know of only one other by
Shanejayell.
So, after exploring that for a while, I’m back to
working on my Ranma/SM fics (although, right now
‘A Meeting of Minds’ is currently on the top of
my list of ‘to do’s’) I hope to get another chapter
of this fic out before I turn my attention back to
‘Dark King Ascending’.
Anyway... If you want to send me flames or praise
or even suggestions, please e-mail me at
whiteb100@hotmail.com
This fic and others can be found at my FF.Net account,
which is www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=266642
Or you can link to my FF.Net account from Thermopyle's
website http://thermopyle.anifics.com
And (although I still need to get them updated) at
http://tannim.anifics.com
11/27/03