Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ In the Shadow of the Moon ❯ Chapter 28 Walking a Wire ( Chapter 28 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

After some thought I realize that of all the inner senshi, I have been a bit unfair to Minako in pairings. So she gets a gift this chapter.

disclaimer - I don't own Ranma 1/2, Sailor moon, Ruroni Kenshin, Negima, et all. this work is purely for entertainment and not for profit

single quotes (' ') denote thoughts or telepathy

forward slashes (/ /) denote translated speech

Chapter 28 - Walking a Wire

Noriko smiles at the happily chatting pair and turns to Akane. "So did you enjoy your first day as a senior Akane-chan?"

"Well getting included in giving a tour was fun Obaa-san." Akane winks. "I will follow Ran-chan's lead about classwork."

Noriko was nodding at this, only to look past Akane's shoulder and have to stifle laughter. Akane turns her head to see what is so funny and has to keep from laughing herself. Kenji was happily eating an ice cream cone that a girl with twin pigtails was helping him hold on to, with two other girls looking on and giggling.

"Kenji-kun could be quite the charmer when he grows up." Akane observed. "I am curious though Obaa-san, you seem to let him go around on his own a lot."

"Only when we are out with people I can trust." Noriko responds sadly. "I made a mistake when his father died. I held onto Kenji and protected him like he was a precious and fragile treasure. The results of sheltering him so much you have already heard. I was thinking this time around, I would give him every opportunity to socialize, and hopefully understand the feelings of others better"

Noriko stands up as Kenji starts to nod off and nearly face plants the ice cream cone. "I thank you girls for letting Kenji play with you, but if he is getting sleepy, I better collect him now."

Noriko picks Kenji up and puts the dozing boy on her shoulder. Looking at the girl's smiling faces she asks, "So will you girls and Ako-chan be performing at the festival again this year? I enjoy listening to the Dekopin Rocket CD that the headmaster sent to me." The girls grin and insist they will definitely play again this year. Shiina, the twin tailed brunet, happily offers her services if Kenji should need a baby sitter.

When Noriko returns to the table, Kaede takes the dosing child with a smile. Ranko has a similarly affected Akiri in her lap, but is looking around to collect Inhoshi. Noriko grins an tells the children not to worry, and that she will find where the cabbits have gathered.

The other four cabbits are found passed out on the floor around a tray that shows some remains of a large supply of carrots. Negi and Kotaro are looking at them in awe. "I would never have imagined that they could really eat that much." Negi breathes.

"Where's it go," Kotaro exclaims with wide eyes."That's the seventh pile of carrots the kitchen brought."

"I am afraid that is a trade secret Kotaro-kun" Noriko says while peaking over his shoulder, causing the boy to jump. "I believe Kaede-chan could teach you a technique to do something similar with weapons if you ask nicely." Noriko finishes innocently.

"Noriko-sensei," Negi starts with a bow. "I fear I must decline your offer of a cabbit of my own for the time being. Konoka plans to keep Shugotenshi in our suite, and I don't believe we could manage to keep enough food for two of them in our kitchen."

"I would just get mine to go after Ayaka-nee's stash of sweets, that could feed an army." Kotaro snickers,"Seriously though nee-san, I am going to have to pass on a cabbit for a while too. I get mothered enough by Chizuru-nee, I'm not sure wha' she'd do if a girl version of me showed up."

Noriko nods and gathers up Inhoshi. She gets back to the table just in time for her cell phone to go off. Noriko places Inhoshi on the table, and quickly moves to silence the offending device before the little ones are disturbed.

"Moshi moshi Noriko-desu" She says into her phone before laughing at the response.

"I am glad to hear your friends can join us Yuko-chan" Noriko talks for a while longer before hanging up the phone.

"Who was that Obaa-san?" Ranko asks quietly.

Noriko replies with a mischievous grin. "Just a friend who owes me a few favors."

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Rei finds herself praying the other senshi can arrive quickly. She and Hotaru currently facing off against a nine foot tall onyx shelled scorpion. The beast seems to just shrug off her Burning Mandala. Saturn is unable to find time to charge the Silence Glaive Surprise, instead having to use every skill she has with the weapon to block the pincers and tail.

Weaponless, Mars is unable to block the pincer that sends her flying into a wall. Hotaru jumps in front of her and activates the silence wall, hoping the senshi of Mars can recover quickly.

Mars, on the other hand, is barely conscious. She wonders if she has a concussion and hearing voices when a deep male voice calls out, "Shiroi Manju, Where the hell are we now."

A lighter male voice returns. "Now settle down Kuro-pon."

A young woman's voice calls out. "Those girls are about to be hurt."

Another young male voice shouts. "No help for it then 'Raitei Shourai'."

A wave of lightning blasts in front of the two senshi, stunning the creature. A black and silver blur passes across Rei's fading vision. The larger black blur disappears shortly there after. The last thing Rei sees before losing consciousness is a young woman's smile that somehow reminds her of queen serenity.

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The four couples from the teacher's reception arrive at the restraunt and are greeted warmly. Asuna and Akane share a sad sigh, even if it is for different reasons.

Akane asks Kazumi to get plenty of pictures of Happosai unsuccessfully trying to discreetly extract his arm from Shizuna's grip. Kazumi laughs when the older man finally gives up and starts talking with his companion over their meals.

Kazumi shows off the pictures of the happy couples to Paru. "I wonder if we can interest any of them in posing for the cosplay website. With a little temporary color in his hair Takahata-sensei would make a great Auron."

"Only if we can convince Nodoka Oba-san to dress up as Lulu." Paru replies with a giggle. "So you want to come with Oka-san and I to the Hanami this weekend?"

"It isn't often that I get the opportunity to see all of those sakura trees in bloom along the Asuwa river." Kazumi replies with a smile. "Besides I figure if the adults get in a celebratory mood they will be easier to convince to play along with posing for the website."

"Uh huh," Paru gives her a knowing grin. "Well you are welcome to come along, but I can't be sure you will get closer to your goal."

Back at the table with Nodoka, Happosai and the two teachers. "So what are your plans for the weekend Shizuna-sensei." Nodoka asks innocently, with a barely concealed grin at Happosai.

"I did not have any plans Nodoka-san, other than going to the sakura festival at the school shrine." The blond woman replies politely.

"Well we are going to my family shrine in Fukui this weekend." Nodoka says while pointing to Happosai and herself. "It is always wonderful to have new friends there as well." With a smile for Takamichi she continues. "I would be happy if the both of you could join us as well." Happosai blushes at the enthusiasm with which Shizuna expresses her acceptance. Nodoka holds off her impulse to squeal like a school girl when Takamichi also agrees.

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Minako is silently cursing having ever listened to Haruka's suggestions for videos to watch. The demons she is currently in a solo running battle with would be easily classified as Shikima, by their choice of clothing and what it does not cover.

Of the original eight demons that appeared and started trying to harass civilians, three were now dust. That only left five for her to finish off. The fact that her fuku seemed to latch their attention on her was a mixed blessing. 'At least they are ignoring civilians, Where are the others?'.

The senshi of Venus turned towards the demons determined to try and destroy them all with a last Crescent Beam shower. Minako collapsed to her knees after firing off the attack. Two more demons had been destroyed by the attack. The remaining three were leering at her hungrily as they approached.

The monsters sudden stop shocked Minako nearly as much as it did them. Blades that looked to be made of living shadows emerged from their chests. the blades slashed down through all of the creatures turning them to dust.

When the cloud cleared a tall dark haired man was revealed. The man smiled as the three blades shortened and reformed into a single sword in his hand. The shadow sword vanished as the man removed his sun glasses, and placed them in a inner pocket of his tan duster.

"Well now, when the witch promised me a "get out of hell free" card for this errand, I never suspected I would meet an angel quite this quickly." The man says in a very deep almost musical voice.

Minako wanted to thank Kami-sama at the beautiful man's words. After he helps her up and she straightens her uniform, she smiles at the bishonen man. "I am Sailor Venus, and you are?"

"Lady of love, I am called Fuma."

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Kari and Nabiki wrapped up their project for the night. It needed more work but it could be ready to give to Kasumi by the weekend. Kari called Eva to find out if the group were still at the restaurant only to find everyone had already left.

Kari made arrangements to meet Eva at her home later that night and treated Nabiki to a quick dinner before the younger girl returned home. Kari next called Ranko to make sure her charges knew she would be out late and not to worry.

Chachamaru greeted Kari at the door to Eva's cottage. Kari spent a few minutes exchanging pleasantries while they waited on Eva to escort her to the resort dioramas in the basement

"I would like to enter the resort tonight so I can create a remote access link to take to my home for the others to use." Kari announces as they look at the resort setup. "I can key it so those who enter through the link exit through it as well."

"So Noriko has taught you about time and space distortions then?" Eva asks mildly.

"I know something of them," Kari obliges as she studies the connected globes. "but I don't believe I am ready to create something of this complexity yet. I was thinking since we would rather not have the others learn of the special guest you have here the remote link would keep them from observing areas they don't need to."

Eva activates the gate and teleports the three of them to the palace within the resort. "I admit I was quite impressed by the teleport seal you put on that tracking bracelet. It was quite inventive." Eva say with an evil smile. "What did you use as the key to its activation?"

"I made it so it was active the moment the two halves of the bracelet were locked together." Kari says with an equally evil smile. "The trigger was if the bracelet was broken or removed with anything other than the specially made key. Which the magistrates would have needed to ask me for."

Eva leads them to a special observation room where a cackling Chacha-zero is watching an observation globe. "Good day to you little one. I am glad to see you are enjoying your work." Kari offers the animated puppet.

Kari looks into the globe showing a green forest scene that is quickly gaining splashes of red. "Hmm, Demon Wolves a very nice touch." Kari watches as a man sized wolf creature takes a very large bite, and starts wretching on the ground.

"The poor thing has indigestion," Kari looks back at Eva. "Would you mind terribly if I do something nice for these poor creatures once they finish. I know a charm or two that would help them attract mates back on their home planes."

"Feel free to do so, child." Eva says with a smile. "I do have a question though. I know my reasons for participating in this, but why are you?"

"That creature used my sister, and put my nephew through tortures I can barely even imagine." Kari says in a voice barely above a snarl. "I fear they are both still too forgiving to that monster. I do not share that quality any more."

In a calmer tone Kari continues. "If you would like to critique my technique I will be glad for your company. I can set up the link through my remote point so anyone who uses it will not be able to go to the area where the special guest is. If they can not see the dioramas they can not tell who is there. I will just tell them there are experiments you are running in those areas that you do not want disturbed Evangeline-san."

The Dark Evangel's return smile would have filled Genma with even more fear.

notes:

Dekopin Rocket - band made up of the Mahora Cheerleaders: Kakizaki Misa, Kugimiya Madoka, and Sakurako Shiina, as well as Izumi Ako. Several chapters during the festival arc dealt with this group in the manga.

Moshi moshi - phone greeting in Japan

shiroi - white

manju - meat bun

Raitei Shourai - lightning attack of a chinese magic system similar to Onmyodo.

Auron - Taciturn swordsman from Final Fantasy X.

Lulu - black mage from the same game.

Shikima - if you have never heard of this type of demon you probably don't need to know either.

Kami-sama - lord of the gods.

bishonen - beautiful youth.

After some research, I discovered there is a depressing lack of male demon hunters of any real merit. No one and nothing trumps Vampire Hunter D, but his story is set in a bad timeframe to use. So I fall back on....can you guess yet?