Child of Love Children of Hate chapter two by jay f kominek Sailor Moon is the property of Takeuchi Naoko and some corporations. Ranma 1/2 is the property of Takashi Rumiko and some other corporations. I only claim ownership to the plot. It is not my intention to violate their copyrights, but instead to entertain. I can only hope to do so with a fraction of their skill. This story is meant to be distributed for free. Please do not change it, or stick your name on it. Pre-readers, to whom I am grateful: Lord Talon, Weeb, Tigress, roslyn, say-tan, elfman Comments and feedback in all forms are appreciated. Insults are not. This story takes place after the ends of both Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon. I mix and match the manga and anime continuities as I see fit. Minor details of the original series may go out the window in the face of artistic freedom. :) Past, present and future parts are available at: http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~kominek/fanfiction/ - - - - - - - - "I knew they were hiding something from the beginning." - Rei Hino In a small, dark hole on the outskirts of Tokyo, someone had just received some very good news. Being the most mentally unstable of her generation, Cassia had sort of twisted around the idea of not killing the bearer of bad news. She'd ended up with "kill the bearer of good news". Whatever, it was just that much more fun. "Dum de dum.. foop oop a doop.. What shall Cassia do.." mumbled Cassia as she twisted her unkempt black hair around in one hand. "Teehee," she giggled, "Cassia _thinks_ that _Cassia_ shall _go_ and, uh.. hmm." Pausing briefly to remember what she was supposed to be going to do, Cassia noticed a rat crawling into her hole. All semblance of coherent thought went out the window at the sight of a new toy. All that could be heard for the next few hours was the high pitched screeching of a rat. Without its tail. Then without its legs. Then without various organs. Then she found the lungs, and it got quiet again. * * * * * * * * Minako was the center of attention. And for once, she wished she wasn't. Minako felt embarassment encroaching as she looked back and forth between her parents on one side, and her friends Ami and Usagi sitting at the foot of her bed with the two moon cats. Oddly, Ami had closed the door as she walked in. Her father had started into another crying fit when she'd shifted her leg and said "ouch". After she'd spent a good 5 minutes calming him down, the room had been left in a rather pregnant silence. Getting nervous, Minako said the first thing that came to her. "Gee, I wish I could heal faster." Feeling the need to point out the obvious to her, Artemis informed Minako, "Well you can't transform into Sailor Venus until you're out of those casts." Minako turned deathly pale. Had a nurse been watching her about then, she probably wouldn't have bothered to do anything but start filling out the death certificate. Thinking quick, she tried to play it off like she didn't know that Artemis could talk. "Uhh, wow, did Artemis just talk? What a smart kitty!" That didn't help much. "Of course he can talk," sighed Luna "did you hurt your head, too?" Now Minako was sweating with worry. Her parents were here, and the moon cats were talking! *Oh man, oh man, what am I going to do? I hope Usagi will stuff the cats into her backpack!* While Minako continued to fret, Ami realized what the problem was, and informed Minako of it. "Mina, ah, your parents know Luna and Artemis can talk." *Hah, she expects me to believe that? They must just be trying to play some sort of big joke on me!* "Hah, and next you'll be telling me that I'm a Sailor Senshi and my parents know about it, too!" "Er, well, yes, they do know. We sort of thought your dad was possessed by a youma, so we transformed in front of him." * * * Akane had just finished smacking her forehead with her hand. After her daughter had fainted, Ranma had turned on the water-works again. Nothing they could do could convince him that Minako wasn't deathly ill, so with Ami's help, she'd tried to rouse Minako. Short term memory intact, Minako looked around, and in a fairly small voice addressed her parents "So.. does this mean that you, ah, know that I'm Sailor Venus?" "Yes, Minako. We also know that you got hurt like this while you were fighting a demon." "Are you mad, mom?" Akane was quiet. Ranma cut off the water-works once the conversation turned meaningful "No daughter. We're not mad at you. Your friends told us, about the Senshi, and the Silver Millennium. You couldn't be anything but Sailor Venus. We.. we wish you would've told us so that we could help you, though." "But, dad, what could you have done to help?" inquired a genuinely confused Minako. "We meant to tell you," began Ranma, his voice trailing off, "who we were when you were old enough, but it kept getting put off..." A further confused Minako asked "Tell me who you were? Huh? What do you mean?" No answer was forthcoming though, even when she looked back and forth between her parents. Finally see focused on Ami. * * * "Tell me who you were? Huh? What do you mean?" Ami watched Minako look at each of her parents once, and then repeat the process a few times, the look on her face nearing pleading. Finally, Ami felt Minako gaze fall on her. Ami cleared her throat. "Ah, well, you've heard of the Saotomes, right?" "Yeah.. Ranma is really cute!" Ami heard Mr Saotome sputter a little bit. "Yes, well, you see, your parents are the Saotomes." Minako sat in a state of confusion for a moment, before breaking into laughter which threatened to hurt her in her weakened state. "Haha! My dad and mom, Ranma and Akane Saotome? Haha, besides, my last name is Aino. Eye-Noh. Not Saotome." Seeing a pair of matching red/black blurs in the corners of her eyes, Ami smiled. "I think they might be ready to explain now." Carefully, Minako turned her head to her right, making sure not to move any more muscles than she needed. The sight greeting her eyes was not the one see expected. Instead of seeing her father, glasses and his cheap t-shirt, she saw a man who seemed to be in his mid 20s, without glasses, and wearing red and black chinese clothes. The shirt even had an embroidered dragon coiling up one arm and across the chest. Not only that, but this man exuded an air of confidence so strong and thick you could cut it with a knife. "..Mr Saotome?" "Dad, will do, daughter." Turning her head around the other way, Minako saw a woman in her mid 20s, wearing an outfit that matched.. her father's. "Mom?" "Yes, Minako?" As realization dawned, Minako began to smile. "Does this mean I get free tickets to the next Tenka-ichi-budokai[1]?" And everyone face faulted. * * * "..and thats pretty much the story of our lives." Ranma signed and slumped down into his seat, exhausted. Usagi was busy dreaming of Mamoru saving her like Ranma had saved Akane all those times. Ami was trying to fit the stories of magic, martial arts, monsters, curses and other Weirdness into her scientific view of the world. Luckily it wasn't as hard to do as it would've been if her view didn't already incorporate the magic of the Senshi and the Silver Millennium, but still, she was going to need something for her headache later. The two moon cats were both wishing that these two had been present to defend the Silver Millennium in its final days. If half of what they had claimed was true, either one of them would've been able to turn the tide against Beryl's forces, decisively. Akane was wondering why Ranma had only told them about the fairly normal stuff. * * * "Mom.. dad.. do I have family I've never met?" Akane smiled, "Actually, you did meet them when you were little, but you probably wouldn't remember." "Grandparents? Cousins? Aunts?" Ranma gave her the official count of, "Two grandfathers, a grandmother, two aunts, and three cousins. Akane's dad, both of my parents, Akane's two older sisters, and their children." "What about Auntie Ranko?" "Well.. about Auntie Ranko.." Ranma coughed, "you see, there isn't an Auntie Ranko." "Huh? What do you mean?" "Well, you must know about the stories about us, I've seen you watch those cheesy biographies on TV. Whats my curse?" Scratching her head thoughtfully, Minako tried to remember. "Umm. Lets see. You turn into something when you get splashed with water, right? What was it? A pig? Nono, that was Mr Hibiki.. uh. a cat? nooo, that was that Chinese woman.. I give up." "A woman," Ranma mumbled, "I turn into a woman, with red hair." "Red hair? Huh, just like Auntie Ranko.." "Thats because I am `Auntie Ranko'." "But Auntie Ranko is a woman!" "And I turn into a woman when I get splashed with cold water." "Oh yeah," Minako said thoughtfully. "So, er, why did you do it?" "So you wouldn't figure out who I was." "Oh. Okay. So, do I have 1 or 2 real aunts?" "Two." "Can we visit them?" Trying to look thoughtful, Ranma scratched his chin. "I don't see why not.. but you'll have to wait until you've recovered. Grandpa Tendo would flood the koi pond if he saw you hurt." They all sat in silence for a moment, until a look of utter dread passed over Akane's face. "Uh. Ranma. Do you remember how we were able to talk our parents into moving away with Minako?" "Sure, we told them.." Ranma blanched as he remembered just what he'd told them. Finally snapped out of her day dream by the heavy silence, Usagi looked up. "What? Huh? What did you tell them?" "Er, well, we sort of told them that we were going to take Minako on a training trip." "A training trip?" Minako was a tad confused "What kind of training trip?" "Martial arts." Minako managed an "Ah.." before realization sunk in. She didn't know any martial arts. Akane was thinking fast, looking for a solution. She may not have made a seppuku pact, but that might be favorable to going home without an heir to Anything Goes Martial Arts. "Sailor Venus would probably be strong and fast enough to pass for a martial artist, but you can't be Sailor Venus in front of them..." Ami smiled, "The Outer Senshi might be able to help with that. They're always able to use some of their power, apparently they do something slightly different when they return to their mundane forms. That is actually how Haruka has the reflexes to drive at the speeds she does these days. It is also a small part of why Hotaru is much healthier now. When you're out of the hospital, we'll go talk to them." In the Silver Millennium, speaking of Sailor Saturn, and to a lesser degree the rest of the Outer Senshi, was considered bad luck and likely to summon them (and trouble). Sadly, none of the Senshi had complete recollection of the Silver Millennium. So, when all the communicators in the room started to buzz, they hadn't the foggiest idea who it could be. "Usagi? Ami? You've got to come quickly! Some weird lady started attacking cars in traffic! Papa and mama are fighting it now, but they said to get the Saotomes quickly! Are the Saotomes really helping us? Papa was telling me about what they could do, but I thought she was trying to pull my leg until Mama agreed.. oh! I've got to go help! Come quickly!" The signal cut out as quickly as it had begun. "Who was that girl?" asked Akane as she closed the communicator and returned it to her pocket, already standing up. Usagi was trying to stand up, put her communicator away, and answer at the same time. It didn't work very well. After picking herself up off the floor, she answered. "That was Hotaru, she's Sailor Saturn!" "Come on, we've gotta get there!" exclaimed Ranma, who was fidgeting. Ami was again looking at her computer, with a worried look on her face. "They're quite far away, it will take some time to get there." Ranma shook his head, "If they're in Tokyo, we can get there in no time. Akane 'n I 'll have to carry the two of you. Won't be any room for the cats, though." Shrugging their consent, Usagi and Ami waited for the ride to begin. Ranma quickly went to pick up Ami, who he was closest to at the time, but Akane stepped in his way with something of a smiling cringe on her face. "I'll take Ami, you take Usagi. She is already taken." "Aww, don't you trust me?" Akane shook her head, "I trust you, and I trust your bad luck, too." Before Ranma picked up Usagi, he paused to inspect the two girls. "Hmm.. You two should probably transform first or something, we're gonna be running fast enough that these cloths might get sorta messed up." and in a nearly sub-vocalized voice "..last thing I need is Akane catchin me with a coupla teenage girls in torn cloths.." Simultaneous cries of "MERCURY CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!" and "MOON ETERNAL POWER, MAKE UP!" erupted from the young girls, bathing everyone in bright, flashing lights. Finished with their transformations, they waited briefly for Ranma and Akane to pick them up. Turning to his daughter, with the moon cats at her side, Ranma smiled and chirped "Wish us luck!" With a "Good luck, dad" Minako laid back down to rest. Dual cries of "I swear, I can fly!" and "This is not the door!" snapped her eyes back open. The door was still closed, and the curtains fluttered in the breeze. * * * * * * * * _*Whoosh*_ They passed another car. Sailor Moon never had been a big fan of roller-coasters. A ride like this was enough to make even the most die-hard roller-coaster fan forswear them for life. When Mr Saotome had picked her up, she hadn't really known what to expect. Thoughts of something like the Sailor Teleport had flickered through her mind, maybe flying. Not weaving through, over and around rush hour traffic at speeds that were putting the cars to shame. The worst part was when they had to take a turn, and momentum had conspired with city planners to deprive them of the space needed to turn on the ground. When that happened, Mr and Mrs Saotome jumped and sort of turned in mid air, and started running along the walls of buildings, parallel to the ground. Then, after a few seconds, they'd sort of drop back to the ground. It was really nerve-wracking. * * * * * * * * "_Hey!_ Get _back_ here!" Neptune was getting really tired of this.. person's sing song voice. Not only was she taunting her and Uranus, but she had to do it with that infuriating voice! At least she didn't consider Saturn good sport, and simply avoided her. Hopefully Mr and Mrs Saotome would arrive soon. She'd seen the tail end of their last fight. The level of power they'd demonstrated was beyond her experience, and it scared her. Uranus, too. They were the Outer Senshi, defenders of the Solar System, and here some of the people they were supposed to be defending wielded power that put theirs to shame. Not only was it scary, but it was sort of embarrassing. * * * * * * * * Akane flinched as an explosion vibrated the ground underneath her. Instinctively she shifted her path slightly to place a denser looking building between her and the source. "Ranma, that didn't sound good, lets hurry!" Without even looking at Ranma, she increased the rate at which she burned ki, and with it, the light she gave off. Zipping off, Akane felt Ranma increase the rate at which he burned ki to match her's. * * * * * * * * "SILENCE WALL!" Sailor Saturn hoped that the impromptu fortification would hold off the demon woman a bit longer. She could feel something coming, something powerful. Not many things seemed powerful to Sailor Saturn. But this did. Running as quickly as she could to check on Sailors Uranus and Neptune, Saturn stopped short of her destination. *What could that.. noise.. be? Its not a noise! Thats the ground!" Like all Japanese school children, Saturn had been taught what to do during an earthquake. She was trying really hard to remember, but all she could manage to do was freeze. Oddly, the earthquake stopped almost as soon as she noticed it. Looking around she saw two people setting down Sailors Moon and Mercury at the edge of the disaster zone. *Could these be the Saotomes? They look dressed right..* Staring at the male figure which was approaching at a slow pace, Saturn lost her concentration and the flow of magical energy to the Silence Wall ceased. "Ha_ha_ha! _Cassia_ has _you_ now!" The blood drained from her face, Saturn's attention came back like a whip crack. This demon woman was coming straight for her. She had no chance to bring the Silence Glaive to bear, let alone erect a Silence Wall or loose one of her attacks. *I'm dead.* She waited. *Am I dead yet? Everything is black and quiet..* Prying her eyelids open, Saturn surveyed the scene. The demon woman's fist was being held firmly in the man's right hand. He seemed to be straining to hold it there. "Are you all right, Miss Saturn?" Saturn searched briefly for her voice before finding it. "Yes.. I am. Mr Saotome?" The demon girl flinched. "Nah, just call me Ranma." He smiled, and Saturn just about fainted. At that, the demon woman hissed, and launched her other hand at Ranma in a poorly executed left hook. Ranma caught it, too. "Eager to get started, huh? Lets go, then." Ranma shoved the demon woman back, and brought himself up to his full height before beginning. "I am Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts." The older woman was now mysteriously at his side. "And I am Akane Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts!" By now the demon woman was nearly frothing at the mouth in apparent anger. "Cassia _does_ not _care_ about _announcements_! _You_ are _the_ Saotomes _and_ Cassia _will_ kill _you_!" Not waiting one more second than she had to, Cassia blurred into action. Only Akane and Ranma were able to see her hand as it came flew through the air, trailing an inky blackness reminiscent of the energy attacks used by the demon. But even Ranma couldn't dodge the attack. Instead he was forced to bring his arms in front of him to block the attack. The sheer force of the attack pushed him back until a conveniently located telephone pole stopped him and snapped like a toothpick in the process. Dusting himself, Ranma calmly proclaimed "Not bad." Before answering with his real response. As the burning column of ki erupted from his hands, he shouted "MOUKO TAKABISHA!" Instead of being smashed through the wall on the opposite side of the road like any good human should've been, Cassia simply grunted as she took the blast full in the chest. Ranma was muttering about impossibilities when the Senshi began their attack with Akane. "REKKA HOKAN!" "MERCURY AQUA RHAPSODY!" "WORLD SHAKING!" "DEEP SUBMERGE!" Ranma watched Cassia intently as anger-fuelled ki struck first, having little more effect than his own Mouko Takabisha had. Next the two water attacks struck. These succeeded in knocking Cassia off her feet and annoying her. When the final magical blast struck, it lifted Cassia off the ground and threw her end over end like a rag doll. Knowing he wasn't lucky enough for that to be the end of his opponent, Ranma didn't drop his guard while Cassia lay prone on the ground. Hence, he was able to dodge when Cassia quickly leaped to her feet and laid down a suppressing fire of that inky black magic. Akane's speed and distance allowed her to dodge, too, but the Senshi weren't as lucky, each one being struck at least once. Each blast was much more than sufficient to toss a Senshi 15 or 20 meters. "Hm_mm_mm..." mumbled Cassia to herself, "_We_ can't _have_ any _interference_ now _can_ we?" As Cassia lifted her hands over her head, they began to reek of Pure Evil and dark magic. The sound of her laughter became eerily unsynchronized with her mouth's movements. Just as soon as her hands had reached their apex, she brought them down out at her sides as though she was trying to make a broken snow angel. Her hands seemed to catch on something, and they began to drag through the air, leaving a bleeding black nothingness in their path. Then Reality screamed as it was sliced open. Thoughts flooded into the minds of everyone nearby as Reality itself begged to be helped. "helpstopfixrepairdefendheal" While the gathered Senshi and martial artists tried to figure out who was speaking in their heads, two forms coagulated on the other side of the holes. Arriving on the scene after the cry for help, Sailors Jupiter and Mars weren't distracted and so were able to form a pretty good guess as to what was on the other side of those holes. Demons. Two of them. But they didn't look truly whole yet. All the more reason to try attacking now. "MARS FLAME SNIPER!" "JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!" Each attack crossed the intervening distance with minimal fuss, but once they reached the hole in existence, they simply fizzled out. Hell was not interested in allowing good magic into its confines. "_Tee_hee! _More_ fun!" By now further attempts to stop the demons before entering this world were quite obviously futile. They were already here. One looked something like a sickly blue-green minotaur without a neck, the other an iguana on two legs, and more muscles than you should be able to fit on a body that size. Even if they were both 3 meters[2] tall. They looked around until their eyes settled on Cassia. "why you summon us have?" "_I_ want _you_ to _kill_ everyone _but_ the _man_. He _is_ mine." "what reward our is?" Angered by the demon's impudence, Cassia began screaming "I _won't_ kill _your_ worthless _****ing_ hides _where_ you _stand_!" Apparently this was more than enough to motivate the demons. Akane was looking the demons, with a mildly worried look on her face. "Ranma, were not limiting ourselves, right?" "Right," nodded Ranma, grimly, "do whatever you have to do win." "Okay. Listen.. with two of those demons, they're going to tear the Senshi apart. You go over to `Cassia', I'll help the Senshi stay alive. Good luck." "You too." * * * "..in the name of the moon, we will punish you!" Sailor Moon wasn't sure how she was going to punish two of those demons, but surely everything would work out all right. Then one of the demons was in her face, smelling really bad. With a small magical flutter her wings tried to lift her off the ground. She was too late, though. The creepy green lizard monster had grabbed her waist and was squeezing and she was screaming.. * * * Akane watched with grim determination as the iguana demon grabbed Sailor Moon. Not a good way for her to start out a defensive campaign. She'd need something to distract both demons while she communicated a battle plan to the Senshi. Mentally flipping through her vast mental catalog of powerful martial arts techniques, she settled on one that should do nicely, and, for the second time in as many days, she began weaving her ki into the needed patterns. "SPLITTING CAT HAIRS!" With the announcement of her technique, her image blurred and pulled apart into no less than 8 copies. Originally, the Splitting Cat Hairs technique only allowed you to mask your presence. However, by increasing ones speed in an Amaguriken-like fashion, Akane could switch her physical presence to anyone of the images without disturbing them. She was rather proud of that particular modification, it'd been one of her first to the School's style. And so most of the Akane-images ran into the midst of the Senshi and began running interference, while the real Akane ran at the iguana demon and one fake ran at the other demon. As she arrived at the demon, she split again. Now the demon was faced with apparently 3 Akanes, all circling it at tremendous speeds. Two Akanes synchronously launched ki blasts at its face and groin. They weren't the real ones. As the demon heard the words "Dokuja Tanketsu Sho[3]" an incredible pain dug into its back where Akane's glowing fingers had implanted themselves and then ripped a huge gash. Howling in rage, the demon dropped a bruised and whimpering Sailor Moon to the ground and whipped around, swinging a fist through a ki-illusion of Akane. Turning back around, it saw its previous target being sprinted in the direction of a tall man in black by the woman. Having safely deposited Sailor Moon, Akane placed one ki-illusion in front of the grouped Senshi, and put the rest of them to the task of running circles around the two demons. "I can't talk for long or else I'll lose my grip on the ki patterns I need to maintain this technique, so listen up." Akane's image was visibly distracted, her eyes not focusing on the Senshi. "I saw Saturn there use some sort of shield magic when we first got here. She'll use that to defend Mercury, Mars, and Uranus while they try to attack the iguana demon. I'll do my best to defend Moon, Jupiter and Neptune while they attack the minotaur-looking one. Got it? Good. I'm going to try and work them apart a bit, then go for it." With the end of her instructions, that ki-illusion flickered out of existence, and the others picked up in speed and complexity. True to her word, Akane began to weave a figure-eight around the two demons, which she rapidly elongated, pushing them apart. Once the two were separated, and she saw Saturn in place by the iguana demon, she cut the power to half of her ki-illusions, and gave her demon a good blast to the face to make sure she had its full attention before beginning. * * * *This is it. This is the summoner.. the.. girl responsible for Minako's suffering.* Ranma muttered "For you, Minako" before he took the figurative safety off of his ki. With that mental action, excess ki began to burn off across his skin, zigging and zagging across his skin and cloths like lightning. For effect, he channeled a little bit into his eyes to burn off harmlessly, given them the look of being on fire. "Come on then, girl." Even Cassia was a tad intimidated. She'd heard stories of Ranma Saotome. Oh yes, being raised to kill him, they'd been forced to study him. They'd seen recordings of him at tournaments with Nerima-class competitors, but it didn't do him justice. To see him standing not 15 meters away, angry and burning off excess ki was completely different from seeing him fighting Hibiki in an arena. Insanity however, prevented Cassia's mind from holding onto an idea, such as fear for long. Instead, it slipped right on to the next thought. He'd called her a girl. Snarling, she responded, "Never, _call_ me _a_ girl!" Evil so strong you could hear it whispering in your ear, tempting you, built as Cassia whipped her hands back, then, with a crack like a bull-whip, her hands came around and loosed dual bolts of crackling evilness at Ranma. Removing himself from the path of one bolt with ease, Ranma watched in a near-morbid fascination as the second one clipped his left shoulder spinning him, hard. Grinding a small trench in the side walk, Ranma regained control, and returned his gaze to Cassia. Smiling, Ranma began concentrating ki into his hands. Calmly he lifted both his hands and placed his palms outwards. "MOUKO TAKABISHA- DOUBLE!" Rapidly expelling the ki from his hands, two balls like hyper-inflated beach-balls formed and then rocketed off towards Cassia, Ranma trailing behind them at ki-enhanced speeds. Just as Ranma had planned, Cassia was distracted when he arrived in her face. Arms and legs lashing out at every sensitive part of Cassia's body he could reach, Ranma cranked up the ki burn as he felt his entire body blur and pass into Amaguriken-level speeds, his only remaining distinguishable features were his red shirt and blue aura. For nearly a full minute he kept it up, hammering Cassia's body with strikes numbering in the multiple thousands. When he finally finished, Cassia dropped to the ground like a used up toy, portions of her clothing evaporated and wafting off her body. "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken, Saotome Revision #5, Human Hurricane. Give up now, demon girl." Sparing a glance over to Akane, he saw that both demons were looking quite thrashed, and none of the Senshi were too bad off. Supposedly Sailor Moon should be able to finish a demon off if they can weaken it enough first. *Doesn't look like those things can get much weaker without fallin' apart, guess they'll be done soon.* "_Never_ _call_ _me_ _a_ _girl!_" Cassia was not about to stay down. In fact, she took flight, bringing herself a good 6 or 7 meters up in the air. A dark, evil ki that caused Ranma to shudder and close his mind off from it began to crackle over Cassia's body. It quickly snaked across her skin and clothes until it was crawling all over her hands. "_DIE_ _ALREADY!_" Her hands snapped down with afterimage-inducing speed and loosed their evil potential at Ranma already engaging in evasive dodging. *I can't shake this stuff, its trailing me! Only thing left is to block it.* "Garyuu Bouei![4]" Ki shot from Ranma's finger tips, taking on a solidity which only the recipients of a ki blast normally experience, and left a thick, gleaming viscous-like shield over his head.. Which the black, evil energy slipped right through before smashing into Ranma, and smashing Ranma through the street. And through the various piping underneath the street. And into the subway system, where he lay. * * * Akane was fairly happy with the situation. By employing the Splitting Cat Hairs technique, she was able to draw off almost all of the demon's attacks. It didn't leave her with much chance to attack, but that was okay. The Senshi were actually managing to hurt their demons now that 3 of them could blast it at once, and they weren't having to run for their lives while they attacked. Having her ki-illusions ripped apart was becoming mentally tiring. She wasn't concerned about running out of ki, she had plenty of that, but she was getting a nasty headache that was making holding onto the needed patterns harder. When she heard a teeth rattling explosion near the location of Ranma's fight, her head snapped around, and with it, part of the pattern. Two fewer ki illusions. Unconcerned, she began searching the scene of Ranma's fight. He wasn't there. She couldn't find his ki. Worry began to grip her. Another ki-illusion flickered out of existence. Only 4 and the real her remained. *Stupid, you've got to pay attention or else they're going to hit you, and then thrash these girls.* For the life of her, though, she couldn't regain the concentration she needed to weave another ki-illusion. * * * Ranma hurt. Bad. Who knew how many feet of concrete he'd been smashed through? It was the piping that'd really hurt, though. *Wonder if I hit a water main..* coherency flittered away with a final though, *I think I'll just take a nap here...* * * * "Ranma's been hurt!" Ranma. Hurt. His normally massive ki undetectable. The anger rose up in Akane, depression joining it, and intermingling. She tried to fight it off, launching a few attacks at the demon, but it didn't help. Time spent with Ranma flashed before her eyes. The ki patterns holding together her ki-illusions completely failed. It didn't matter. She screamed as a tear worked its way down her face. "SHISHI HOUKODAN TO REKKA HOKAN![5]" Dual globes of ki rocketed from Akane's hands, one red, and one green, they resembled Christmas ornaments gone awry. The demon couldn't have asked for a quicker death. The balls of ki were reacting strangely. Arcs of static electricity crisscrossed the air between them, like they were trying to tear each other apart. As they reached the demon and washed over its arched and agonized looking form, they left nothing but a fine mist of demon in their wake. Akane collapsed to her knees, drained of emotional energy. * * * Cringing, Sailor Jupiter thought back to her own experiences with being slammed through various walls. She could only figure that being knocked through the street was worse. *Poor Mrs Saotome seems crushed. Oh no! She stopped making those duplicates of herself!* Quickly looking around for her Princess, Jupiter found her at a relatively safe distance from the demon. Neptune was a tad on the close side, but she could take care of herself. Everyone accounted for, Jupiter upped the distance between herself and the demon. *Not gonna stick around to tangle with one of those things without something distracting it!* Quickly reaching a safer distance, Jupiter spun around to see Mrs Saotome's entire body wreathed in green and red like a neon Christmas display. Arcs of energy that resembled electricity bounced between the green and red, each one adding to the ozone smell that Jupiter was quite familiar with. After it built for a second, the green and red disappeared for a second, before reappearing, separate, and in front of Mrs Saotome's hands. Quickly they streaked towards the demon who had already decided that waiting for them to arrive would be a bad idea. Fascinated by the energy that appeared to be electricity bouncing around on the glob, Jupiter's eyes were open and staring when the glob impacted on the demon. Not quite able to avert her eyes, Jupiter began to feel ill as she watched the energy tear the demon apart front to back, leaving a fine mist in the air. *Oh man. Gross! I think I'm gonna be sick...* Not having had a big breakfast, all Jupiter was able to do was retch, while the fine mist settled down, leaving a bloody puddle. * * * *Ugh. I feel like I got slammed through a street.* Gently moving his head, Ranma found that he couldn't have been any closer to the truth. *Oh boy.. that felt like Akane and her Shishi no Haini. She must think I've been really hurt. Better drag myself out of his hole..* Lifting an arm to prop himself up, he found that that would be harder than he originally suspected. * * * Deprived of its partner, and now surrounded by 7 of the technicolor girls, one weirdo in a tuxedo, and the human woman who'd ripped a chunk off its back, the iguana demon was sort of worried. At least that woman who'd split herself up had stopped that and was sitting on the ground now. It really hoped that she didn't get up again, that red and green energy she had used was much too powerful for it. * * * "Come on Senshi, lets get this evil creepo!" cheered Usagi. Inspired by such a simplistic statement, the Inner Senshi began to attack anew. Various forms of energy whipped out and around, striking the demon which convulsed under the onslaught. Still alive, though, it began dragging itself towards Cassia, who was floating over the hole she'd created in the street, gloating like the madwoman she most obviously was. "Oh no you don't!" The concept of using less than their full power rarely occurs to the Senshi, and so Sailor Moon began the Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss attack. Complete overkill at this point, the attack wiped the demon out of existence with ease. * * * Sense and coherent thought slowly returned to Akane, but in a vague and abstract third person. She watched with detached interest as the girls harassed the remaining demon with their attacks, slowly weakening it. Next she observed as Usagi launched her final attack and wiped the demon out. The analytical part of her brain which was working noted that it seemed to be a bit more powerful than was needed, but she couldn't be sure since she was unable to feel magic like ki. *Move Akane.* *Move.* She leaned forwards to stand up. Her feet pulled forwards, readying themselves to support her weight. Akane felt slow, as though she were thinking and moving through molasses. All her preternatural speed of just a few minutes ago gone, but the adrenaline still there, her mind unconsciously expected to be faster, thinking itself still in the fight. One foot supporting her weight, the other hanging in midair, seeming motionless in its slowness, Akane heard a voice cry out which mere minutes ago she hadn't expected to hear ever again. "AUGH! KI-" * * * *Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. This really hurts.* Ranma tugged on his ki a bit harder to feed it into the healing process. He had to get out of wherever he was. *Where am I, anyways? Lets see, dark, sounds big, some metal on the ground and a really loud noise coming at me.* Blinking, Ranma focused in the direction of the sound, noting that it seemed to be particularly bright that way, sort of like a headlight. *Hmm. Metal rails on the ground, something loud, with a headlight, underground. Ah! The subway.* "The subway." "Oh damn." The train's horn echoed through the tunnel, sounding like the arrival of Armageddon and Ragnarok both rolled into one big bar brawl. Abandoning his attempts to heal himself for the time being, he quickly looked for an escape. *Guess I'm leaving the way I came.. No way I can jump that high, though. Havn't been roof hopping enough recently.* *Climbing is too slow. Argh! Think!* Remembering a video game he watched his daughter play once, inspiration hit him. Hands directed down, he hopped into the air and fired a Mouko Takabisha at the ground. *Hey, I'm flying!* Gravity took hold when his hands were mere centimeters out of reach of the opening. *Okay, I'm falling.* "Double Mouko Takabisha!" This time he flew past the opening, a bit of midair tumbling and he was on his feet, only to feel a shudder of pain pass up his legs and through his body on impact. *Akane'll have a field day with this.* Quickly surveying the battlefield/highway, Ranma realized that immediate action was required. The girls were congratulating themselves, Akane was halfway to standing up, and that demon girl Cassia was sneaking up behind her! Her dark energy was already gathering, wiggling around her outstretched right hand, trying to leap off. Ranma had been the target of a blast smaller than this one was going to be, and he had been prepared and blocking. Nobody but Ryouga would survive what Cassia was about to launch without preparation. She was too tough, she'd shrug off a Mouko Takabisha at this distance. In fact, she'd shrug off anything he could build up in the short time he had. Ranma shuddered at the thought of what he was going to have to do. Ki fed into his legs, Ranma pushed off the ground, leaving foot prints as his ran. Ranma screamed inarticulately, hoping to pull Cassia's attention to him before he got there. It didn't work. With a quesey feeling, Ranma launched his attack. "KIJIN RAISHU DAN!" The ki-charged vacuum blade whipped out from his arm, heading straight for Cassia's outstretched arm, and passed through it, halfway between the elbow and wrist. For a moment, nothing happened. Then her forearm separated from the rest of her arm with an explosion of dark power. Slowly, the energy which lingered in the air like a mist died down, leaving a shocked Cassia holding a stump of an arm with her left hand, and staring at her dissolving right forearm that lay on the street. Akane watched with a dead look in her eyes, the girls with a look of revulsion in theirs, as a thick reddish black ooze trickled from between Cassia's fingers. Reality seemed to take just as long to penetrate Cassia's mind as a ki blast did, for it was a good 10 seconds before Cassia opened her mouth. And screamed. And screamed. And screamed. And as the remains of her hand finally turned into a paste on the road, she turned and ran, still screaming. * * * * * * * * In a dark room in his large Juuban apartment, Ranma lay draped over a chair, muscles lax, sight unfocused, his arms hanging over the sides of the chair. The lights of the Tokyo skyline shone in, faintly illuminating his distraught features. When she entered, Akane casually flipped the light switch, further illuminating Ranma. "Ranma, you can't mope around like this, you'd be too caught between confidence and depression to fight properly. And besides, it isn't healthy." "Akane.. My old man was right.. the Yamasen-ken is just too violent to use.." "What are you talking about? You only used the Yamasen-ken once, and.. oh." "The Gods know, I've killed in self defense before.. but, this.. Akane.. I mutilated her.. even if she is a threat to our family and society.. I mutilated her. She isn't whole anymore.." Akane's head hung low, matching her voice. "Ranma, she would've killed me. And there wasn't anything else you could've done.." "We shouldn't have gone in so unprepared.. That girl is powerful.. even more powerful if she saw the Kijin Raishu Dan. Maybe the Umisen-ken should've been used from the start." Ranma sighed, "Wait.. I know. If we get a bit of help, we shouldn't need to use such violent techniques..." * * * * * * * * One must wonder what Mrs Mizuno would think if she knew just what her daughter discussed with her friends when all of them came over. With the Mercury Computer and its ability to detect humans at a distance, we'll never find out, though. Hence, the Mercury Computer was again engaged in watching for any intruders as all the Senshi save Pluto and Venus (and Mamoru) gathered in the living room of the Mizuno home again. For once, all of the Senshi were paying attention, except for young Hotaru, whose eyes were glazed over watching a mental movie only she could see. In it, Ranma was saving her from various forms of evil. In the real world, however, we find Usagi smiling cheerfully as she endeavored to see exactly how much food she could stuff into her mouth while still keeping her lips sealed. The answer, as she found out, was "quite a bit". Rei was mumbling something like "I still wanna know where they're getting all that ki from! It just isn't natural!" In the process of figuring out if her stomach was interested in keeping food down yet, was Makoto. The only one to get a clear view of Akane's destruction of the demon, she was still ill whenever she thought about it. Actually doing something useful, Ami was speaking with Haruka and Michiru about today's fight. Already having gone through the innanities of congratulating and complimenting each other on their success, they were actually to interesting conversation. After a pause, Haruka began, "So. Ami, do you know how Akane was making those copies of herself?" "That was quite interesting, actually. It seems she wasn't really copying herself. The copies were actually afterimages." "Uh.. Ami, afterimages fade." "Yes, well, I would venture to guess that Akane knows a way to keep them from fading." "Afterimages don't walk and talk, either." Sort of flustered, Ami's response was a tad quick, "If I knew how they did it, then I would've been using it to keep from being beat up, don't you think?" "What about their other attacks?" Michiru quickly asked to distract Ami. It worked. "Most of them were more of that same energy that I can't measure, so I don't really know anything about them." A look of disgust crossed Michiru's face before she asked, "And.. that final attack he used.. to, ah.. well, that he used on Cassia?" Ami shuddered at the thought of what Mr Saotome had done. She couldn't think of what else could've been done, but, cutting off someone's hand? "By dragging his arm through the air in a certian fashion, he was able to create a vacuum. He wasn't moving as fast as he has in the past, though, and he never created a vacuum before, so I would speculate that again, he was using some of that energy I can't measure." Part way through the last description, most of the girls had begun paying attention. But Makoto was still staring palely at the food, and Hotaru's eyes were still unfocused. "Ami, I keep telling you that they're using ki!" insisted Rei. A tired look crossed Ami's face. "But then you tell me that you don't think it is possible for it to be ki." Rei was taken back. "Yes, you see, its ki alright, I'm sure of that. But they can't possibly have as much as they use up. Like, today, when Mrs Saotome was making those illusions of herself, she was using ki. But! I could feel how much ki she was using up, and it just wasn't possible! She was feeding more ki into a single image every minute than I've ever used up in all my fire readings put together! I just can't figure it out." Usagi piped up, trying to be useful, "Weellll... What if they're not using their own, uh, key stuff. Maybe they're getting it from somewhere else?" Annoyed by Usagi's interruption, Rei lashed out, "Ooo! What would you know, meatball head! That isn't possible, anyways." Again, quick to prevent things from decaying, Michiru shook Hotaru out of her daze. "Hotaru dear, could you please tell everyone else what you were telling me about what the Saotomes have been doing the past 15 years?" Happy to prove herself as the biggest Ranma fan on the planet, Hotaru piped up, "Sure mama.. Hmm. Okay, 15 years ago, after Mina was born, Ranma and Akane disappeared. Lotsa people thought they'd been killed or something, but their family wasn't worried." Hotaru scrunched up her face as she thought. "Then, 10 years ago, Kuonji-Tendo Light Industries sponsored the first Tenka-ichi-budokai. Ranma and Akane both showed up, in that matching outfit you saw. Nobody expected Akane to be very good, because before she disappeared, she wasn't much better than Makoto is now. She fought really well, though, and got up to the finals. Ryouga Hibiki refused to fight her, and so she ended up taking second to Ranma." Scratching her head, Hotaru paused before beginning again. "Hmm. They weren't really popular after that, but 3 years later, at the next one, there was a big crowd waiting for them. Pretty much the same thing happened, except that some Chinese woman with a weird name refused to fight Ranma. Ryouga Hibiki disappeared towards the end, so he got 4th place to that woman." "All of the people who make it close to the finals use really strange attacks, some of them with energy like Ranma. Except for Ranma, Akane, Ryouga Hibiki and that funny Chinese woman.." Hotaru's voice trailed off in thought. "Hey. What if they're not using them on purpose?" Ami nodded, "They said something about having to decide to use their special attacks. Maybe they think they're so good that it would give them a completely unfair advantage over everyone else?" "We've seen what Ranma and Akane can do, but it sounds like that Hibiki person and the Chinese woman are holding back, too. Could there be _more_ people as powerful as the Saotomes?" questioned Haruka. "I think, Haruka," Michiru swirled her tea "that we're going to find out." * * * * * * * * The phone rang. A middle-aged woman with pink hair got up from her chair to answer it. "Hello?" *mumble* "Yes.. This is the Hibiki residence.." * * * * * * * * Mr Dantomo looked at the postcard he'd just removed from the mailbox. The Ainos always seemed like such normal people, but they kept sending mail to the strangest places. First Nerima, and now the outskirts of China. The card was apparently addressed to a personal hygiene product living in some out-of-the-way village. He felt something akin to sympathy pains for whatever fellow postman would have to deliver this card all the way out there. - - - - - - - - [1]: ``The World's Best Martial Artist Tournament'' borrowed from Dragonball [2]: Nearly 10 feet for the metric deprived. [3]: ``Poison Snake Deep Hole Blow'' ki-charged attack with ones fingers. A part of the Yama-sen-ken. [4]: ``Reclining Dragon Defense'' a lazy, resting dragon would be prone to simply do something to stop you, rather than obliterate you. [5]: ``to'' = ``and''. Hence, ``Raging Lion Bullet and Raging Fire Completion''