Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Mist ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 11 )

Started 12/02/2007 Completed 12/02/2007

Chapter 10

Setsunna stared with a blank look in her eyes. At the moment she was viewing a picture of the hunk that was supposed to strip for them. After leaving Nerima Ward and arriving at Usagi's house, the blonde had taken the girls to her room to view some images Umino had sent her.

“What's wrong, Puu-chan?” Chibi-Usa questioned, not liking the look on her close friend's face.

“The Emperor,” she whispered in a ghostly voice.

“Emperor?” came the unified reply to Setsunna's shocking statement.

Setsunna reigned in her shock and shook away the lingering emotions in her head. “Everyone here remembers that Usagi is the Princess right?” The girls nodded affirmation; that had not been a question in nearly a year. “Well, every child requires two parents right?”

Ami stepped up, seeing where this was headed. “Are you saying that this Ranma guy is the reincarnated Emperor of the Moon Kingdom?”

Setsunna shook her head. “You girls had better sit down for this, it's a doozy…”

 

Ranma exited the rip in Time/Space, towing his tree behind him. It had taken him two million years to get out of Timerealm, and another seven thousand years to find the right method to reenter the realm for his tree. In that amount of time, Jurai was a literal planet, lush with vegetation and springs of water.

It had turned out that Ranma had created a few people, but they were exactly human. The people of Jurai had been tainted by three things: Time, causing the people to age at a faster rate than most humans; Chaos Life energy, which came from the energies he had mixed to make to make them and Jurai's Time, Order Life, causing the people to be able to make advancements in technology (such as tree structures without the need to chop the great tree into lumber).

Ranma stretched languidly as he drifted in the Void of space, trying to decide where he wanted to place his planet/tree. Earth was most certainly out of the question. As for the solar system…

 

Ranma arrived in the Sol system in time to watch an epic battle, not meant for Mortals to ever witness.

Where vacuum was usual transparent, giving the shade of black when you peer into the distance, this time it was not. Space was tinged crimson as flames spread through an area supposed to be impossible for it.

Ranma tracked the path of melted worlds all the way from the planet that absorbs Light to Jupiter's atmosphere. There he saw the cause of the destruction and had t do a few double takes.

There, hovering just outside of the atmosphere of Jupiter was Saffron, clad in a warrior's skirt and brass chest armor. His grieves and bracers had seen better days, but that was attributed to the battle he was currently involved in.

Saffron thrust his arms forward, palms aimed at his obscured adversary. Jets of white-blue flame ripped through the vacuum, and engulfed the shadow-covered person.

Ranma wasn't quite sure what to make of the battle. The one thing he did know was that, he had to move Jurai somewhere safe, lest a forest fire break out. So, with a gentle shove, Ranma pushed Jurai back into Timerealm and moved towards the dueling superpowers.

 

Saffron gripped the Elder god, Selene, by the ankle as she tried to return to her realm, not wishing to have Death visit upon her any time soon. “Release me Mortal, or I will remove you from existence!” Selene threatened.

Saffron's countenance did not change to fear as she had hoped, instead he sneered cruelly at her. “For murdering my tribe and making demands of me, your enemy for eternity, I will have your head roll!” Saffron pulled Selene back into his realm and held her by the neck, squeezing hard enough to cause bones to pop.

Selene watched in slow motion as Saffron, an ascended Mortal, drew back a fist in preparation to end her life. When space began to distort - caused by the incredible heat of Saffron's most lethal attack, one he had once used to maim a Chi Dragon and kill her two Elder god partners - Selene knew fear for the first time since the sealing of the One Being. Then she saw him…

Ranma wasn't sure what was going on, but was sure Saffron planned to kill the woman in his hands. He had decided he would remain out of their duel seeing as it wasn't his place to interfere anyway.

“So now you kill me, after slaughtering my family…?” Selene gasped out weakly. While she didn't need to breathe nor was she weak, she had to play the part to get the Mortal who had just arrived to be her distraction. “Tell me, Saffron, destroyer of worlds, have you done this horrible thing? We, the kind Humans of Atlantis have never acted aggressively towards you!” Crocodile tears ran down her cheeks.

Saffron was too enraged to speak back at her. `Mock me, will she?!' “I'm going to enjoy the feel of running my fist through your entrails, Bitch!”

Ranma had been placed in a real fix when he had heard the woman's sob story, he wasn't sure if she were telling the truth or not, as Saffron had been an honorable figure, even while they fought a game of live or die. To hear someone he thought he knew say something so cruel, he wasn't going to hold back.

Saffron found his arm was no longer there when he tried to send his arm through his most hated foe. He gazed over his shoulder at a flash of red cloth, set over an all body covering black suit. The man's mask obscured his face and the hood brought his opponent's visible skin to just his eyes and the bridge of his nose.

Saffron's brief lapse in attention, gave Selene the opportunity to slip back into Outside, the realm of the Elder gods.

Saffron howled in impotent fury. “You! You took away my only chance at ripping the serpent wench's head off!”

Ranma narrowed his eyes. “I can't stand by idle while you kill an innocent woman,” Ranma told the Phoenix-god as the two continued descending towards the planet's surface, neither being affected by the roaring winds, extreme heat or the speed they approached the ground.

With a flare of heat, Saffron's arm was renewed. “I am Saffron, the last Phoenix of the Atlantis Guard.” Saffron took a strong offensive stance, his feet placed shoulder-width apart, arms bent at the sides and in preparation to lash out with an attack with little warning.

Ranma found it peculiar that Saffron would claim to be the `last' Phoenix as well as claiming to be from Atlantis, the legendary sunken city. Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Ranma immersed as far as he could into the Soul of Ice, far surpassing any levels he had reached when fighting Sub-Zero in the past. Millions of years had done great things for Ranma's training. “I am Mist, greatest assassin of Shao Kahn's ninja-elites.”

Saffron raised an eyebrow, wondering at the credulity of his foe's story. “I feel you command Ice, Human, do you think you can win against the never-dying force of Fire?” Saffron taunted. He had faced Cryomancers and Ice Elementals that put out far greater battle auras, why would he be concerned of a Human boy? Even if the boy had learned to levitate…

 

Mist ran circles around Saffron, giving the image that thousands of ninja were circling the Phoenix. Saffron wasn't concerned; he had seen far faster and overcome them with very little problem. Of course he had relied on incinerating them, something the boy running around him didn't seem to be able to do. “This game grows boring. Are you going to run in circles for the rest of eternity, hoping to catch me asleep? I should warn you, Mist, the Phoenix need no sleep.”

Mist grit his teeth. While it was true that he had hoped to catch the Phoenix-god off guard, that didn't seem possible this time around. “I can keep this up until the end of Time, Saffron.”

Saffron yawned, feeling quite bored. This had degenerated from a brawl to spectator's sport, which wasn't his cup of tea, if you know what I mean. He ignited, burning from wingtip to head to toe, lighting up the sky of Jupiter with a blue hue. “This ends now, Human!”

Mist swallowed, his every pore screaming at him to become colder and very quickly. Mist sought out his focus and dropped further into the Soul of Ice, reaching depths that made him colder than the vacuum of space. And not a moment too soon, as Saffron went Nova…

 

 

LWH (laarcae@laarcae.com)