The Neon Knight Sabers
(A NGE / Oh My Goddess! / Sailor Moon / Tenchi Muyo / Ranma
One Half / Gunsmith Cats / El-Hazard / Bubblegum Crisis /
kitchen sink Crossover)
By Ammadeau
Roy.Fokker@UNSpacy.org
http://Ammadeau.tripod.com/fanfiction.htm
***
[Ayanami Rei: The leader of the Knight Sabers, whose mission is
to stop the misuse of EVA-based technology by Genom and
prevent a probable Fourth Impact. Founded sixteen years after the
Third Impact, in which the Tokyo-3 Geofront was destroyed. It left
only three survivors: Shinji Ikari, Asuka Soyu, and Rei Ayanami.
Despite being in her early thirties, Rei looks to be around twenty,
and catches the attention of most people with her short blue hair
and pale skin. She wears blue tinted contacts to hide her red eyes.]
Rei moved about her lingerie shop, attempting to smile at
the customers. She was still in practice even after nearly two
decades, since most people didn't even notice when she was
smiling or not. No one suspected that she was the leader of the
Knight Sabers.
[Ayanami Keiichi: Saved by Rei when both of his parents were
killed by boomers. She also adopted him, but is considered by
him to be an older sister. The boy turned out to be a mechanical
prodigy and has been a critical asset in building and maintaining
the hardsuits. Special note: Due to the onset of puberty he has
recently developed some perverted tendencies.]
Rei's 'brother' Keiichi was down at Washu's garage,
working on Ranko's motorcycle and daydreaming about his blonde
and red-haired goddesses (I must have them both!!). When would
they ever notice that he wasn't just a kid?
[Mizuno Ami: A true wiz at computers. Provides inside
information by working as a dispatcher for the AD Police. Also a
fully trained medical doctor who abandoned her chosen profession
for unknown reasons. Has a penchant for silly poses and catch
phrases in combat. Overall, the weakest fighter of the group, but a
superior tactician. Obvious prior combat experience, source
unknown.]
Ami was diligently working the phones at AD Police,
occasionally glancing at the old Sailor V episode playing on the
terminal next to her and shaking her head. Was it really ever like
that?
[Masaki Mihoshi: Obviously a foreigner, being a six foot tall,
blue-eyed blonde. Strange lack of coordination for an aerobics
instructor. A fierce fighter, but sometimes panics in the heat of
battle. Claims to be a former detective, but can find no records of
her working in any law enforcement agency in the world.]
Mihoshi was trying to teach aerobics without tripping over
her own feet and doing surprisingly well to people who knew her.
This would last up until the moment someone tried to get her
attention.
[Tenno Ranko: Most skilled fighter of the group. However, has
an abrasive and macho personality. Strong possibility that she was
raised as a boy. Powerful phobia of cats and hot water, probably
due to childhood trauma. Name assumed to be an alias since no
real records found. Lead singer of the band Ranko and the
Replicants.]
Ranma ducked into the alley behind the Hot Legs, and with
a quick splash of cold water, Ranko stepped into her dressing
room. She knew it was risky going out male, but she just couldn't
spend all of her time female. Besides, she doubted that his various
fiancees would look for her in Mega-Tokyo.
Program 1: Knight Sabers, Go!
Detective Rally Vincent was relaxing in the Hot Legs,
listening to the music of Ranko and the Replicants. The hard rock
rhythms were making her homesick for old Chicago, when she had
been a simple bounty hunter chasing down thugs, thieves, and
other assorted low lives. Then her partner wound up married and
the whole business just lost its charm for Rally. So she hopped in
her custom Griffin and drove. Hell if she knew how she had
wound up in Mega-Tokyo. Probably shouldn't have picked up that
bandanna-wearing hitchhiker. Definitively shouldn't have let him
drive while she took a nap. When the heck did they cross the
ocean? It was a good thing that she could speak Japanese.
While it wasn't all wine and roses, working for the AD
Police beat doing nothing. For one, you had to be a cop to carry a
gun in this town and Rally would've felt naked without one. There
was the added bonus that she could shoot down the boomers
without worrying about damages, though she never did much
damage to them. You'd think that they would arm the AD Police
with weapons that could actually scratch the boomers they were
supposed to stop.
Of course her beeper just had to go off when she was just
getting into the music. Damn.
Dialing up work, she saw the face of her new partner,
Alielle. A complete perv, but a good cop, and Rally had learned
how to deal with her going after anything female, including Rally
herself. She wouldn't stay in the same hotel room with her ever
again through. Her last partner had been a former prostitute so she
really wasn't one to judge. Still, Rally had never met a lesbian that
was that aggressive before.
"Party time, babe," Alielle said and winked. Rally groaned
and hung up the phone. Time to get to work.
Ami quickly sent a coded message to Rei about the new
boomer on the rampage, adding that she'd do her best to get away
from work. Chief Goto was determined to boost up the falling rep
of the AD Police by nailing this boomer. Ami wasn't worried.
Even with the hardsuit she wasn't much of an asset in a fight,
without her senshi powers that is. And those she had given up to
save the world nine years ago. Still, it felt good to her to be on the
side of justice once again.
Ranko had just finished her gig when her watch went off,
the secret signal that the Knight Sabers had a job to do. Cool, she'd
get to beat something up. Day was looking better already. She
immediately called up Rei.
"There's a boomer on the rampage," Rei said to the rock
singer without preamble and without blinking. Ranko, however,
had grown used to her boss's terseness. She knew that Rei wasn't
cold or emotionless, just very, very subtle.
"There's something different about this one. I'll need to
take a sample in for analysis. You'll also have to be careful, this
new boomer could be more than you could handle."
"What? No way! I'll kick that tin can!"
"Your bike is still in the shop, correct?"
"Yeah, so?" Since her driver's license was actually a
forgery, Ranko had never taken a driver's test. Still, she was
starting to get the hang of it. She only crashed, what, three times
last week? Rei's little brother was always eager to fix it up again
anyway.
"Good, I'll have Mihoshi come by and pick you up."
"No!!!!" In Ranko's book, Mihoshi's driving was just under
cats in sheer terror value. Why she never got any tickets was a
mystery. But it was too late, the phone was already dead.
Mihoshi was really getting into the set when she started to
hear a noise. It was a sort of beeping and seemed close by. Maybe
it was part of the music? She couldn't let herself get distracted
again in the middle of a session, so she ignored it. However, it
really did clash with the music and started to throw her timing off.
In Mihoshi's case, this was like a snowball that started an
avalanche. When it was over, the TV and half the people there had
been knocked over.
"Mihoshi, there's a phone call for you," her fellow
instructor told her.
Mihoshi nodded and sprinted for the phone, only managing
to knock over two people who were about to get back on their feet.
Arisa and Kyoko swore to get their revenge on that
annoying blonde cat-like girl, just as soon as they recovered.
Rally parked her patrol car and watched the fight as it
played out on the street below. A single boomer versus an entire
squad of AD Police and the boomer was winning. While she knew
that the AD Police weren't as well-equipped or well-trained as they
could be, one squad should have been more than enough to take
out a single boomer. There was also the strange thing that Alielle
had mentioned, which she hadn't believed until she saw it herself.
This new boomer really did look like some sort of humanoid bug.
Weird. Still, she wondered why her partner had called them
'Bugrom.'
*Just what is Genom up to?*
Somewhere, Katsuhiko Jinnai laughed and laughed.
Everyone within hearing distance shivered, even the boomers.
Only Quincy, sitting in his darkened office, smiled. By the dim
light, it was almost impossible to see that he was wearing earplugs.
One by one, the Knight Sabers filtered into their secret base
under Washu's Garage while a catchy J-pop tune drifted in from
somewhere outside. For some reason it was always the same song
whenever they suited up, but none of them really noticed it.
Ami, still in her AD Police uniform, took off her scooter
helmet, running her fingers through her short black hair. She was
starting to run out of sick relatives to use as excuses. Chief Goto
did accept them all in his usual deadpanned tone, however.
Mihoshi practically bounced in with Ranko following
behind unsteadily, her face a little green. Ami sympathized; she
had rode with Mihoshi once before and it made roller coasters
seem mild by comparison. She didn't want to know how her
blonde teammate had gotten a license in the first place.
Rei nodded to each of them and they all started to get into
their plug suits. Rei was Saber-Blue, in Unit-00. Ami was Saber-
Purple, in Unit-01. Ranko was Saber-Red, in Unit-02. Mihoshi
was Saber-Black, in Unit-03.
When Ranko had once asked about the names and colors,
Rei had replied, "I like them that way." Rei was never one for
elaboration.
It didn't take them long to find the rampaging boomer.
"I am Sailor Purple!" announced Ami to the boomer,
posing dramatically, like a figure skater at the end of her set. The
boomer didn't seem too impressed, but it was hard to read the
expression of a giant robotic ant.
"That's Saber Purple," Rei corrected her, and not for the
first time either. Rei believed that her teammate had watched far
too much anime as a child.
"Oh, right. I am Saber Purple and in the name of the
Knight Sabers, I'll punish you!"
Mihoshi struggled to come up with a catch phrase of her
own. They just sounded so cool! Posing dramatically, she
declared, "And I am Saber Black. In the name eating snacks and
daytime TV, I'm going to blast you!"
Rei and Ranko groaned in embarrassment as the other
Knight Sabers charged after the bewildered boomer. Ranko
believed that Mihoshi had been dropped on her head far too often
as a child.
"And just why did you choose them again?" Ranko asked
Rei on a private channel.
Mihoshi tripped on a rock as she ran up to the boomer,
triggered her jump jets, and accidentally executing a powerful
rolling jump-kick that knocked the boomer's head off like a kicker
on an American football team. The boomer crashed to the ground,
but despite now being headless, managed to get back up again.
"That's why," Rei replied to Ranko's earlier question,
punctuating her sentence by embedding the boomer to the wall
with a lance that shot out of her suit's forearm.
When the boomer finally tore itself free, Ranko shouted,
"Kashu Tenchin Amaguriken," hitting the boomer enough times to
completely destroy the thing's chest. This time when the boomer
fell, it didn't get up.
"And she complains about my speeches," Ami said to
herself. She had hacked into the comm channels in an effort to find
out a little more about their mysterious leader and so had heard
Ranko's comment. "At least I don't go on about roasting
chestnuts!"
"So these are the Knight Sabers," Rally said to herself as
she watched the fight. They certainly were impressive and better
armed than the AD Police. Their suits had to be about twice as
powerful as the police's AV-32s. "I wonder where you sign up to
become one of them?"
Keiichi was sitting in the monitoring room, watching over
his big sister and the rest of the Knight Sabers. Normally, he'd be
out there with them in one of the two trucks they often used to
transport the hardsuits and motoroids, but this time big sister had
decided it was a little too dangerous for him. More likely, it was
his punishment for peeping on them while they got changed again.
Not that the plug suits they wore under the hardsuits left much to
the imagination, thankfully. At least she didn't threaten to make
him Dr. Washu's guinea pig again. Shudder.
Man he was hungry. He'd spent so much time on fixing up
Ranko's bike that he'd forgotten to eat. He could have had Dr.
Washu help him, but she had a habit of adding little improvements
that usually just made Ranko mad. She still hadn't gotten over the
whole 'ejector seat' incident. Keiichi didn't know how Ranko was
able to throw those fireball things, but they hurt like hell.
Big sister would probably be angry if he snuck out to get a
bite to eat, so he reached for the phone book and decided to order
up some take-out.
A few minutes later he hung up the phone. Hunger must be
making him delusional. What the heck was a 'Goddess Helpline'
anyway? Some kind of '900' number? Rei would kill him if one of
those showed up on their phone bill. Now Ranko, there was a
goddess. He'd done everything he could to get her to notice him,
but she still treated him like a kid. He was only two years younger
than her and she was as short as he was. What was her problem?
Needless to say, when a beautiful young goddess appeared
out of nowhere to grant his heart's desire, he wasn't thinking too
clearly.
"I wish that I had a girlfriend like you."
And then there was a burst of light.
"Ranko, please collect a sample," Rei said in her flat voice.
Ranko took one look at the oozing semi-organic mess and
shook her head violently. "No way, get one of the others to do it.
If you want it so badly, collect it yourself."
Rei turned to face Saber-Black. "Mihoshi, collect a
sample."
"Kay," Mihoshi responded and hopped over to where the
boomer lay. Unfortunately, she tripped once again in her metallic
high heels, desperately windmilling her arms in a futile attempt to
stay up. One of those arms just happened to catch Ranko in the
stomach and sent her to land dead center in the boomer's remains.
"Ranko, please collect a sample," Rei repeated, and after
glancing around, added, "Ami, help Mihoshi to stand up."
Two Knight Sabers groaned and set about their tasks.
"So how was that boomer?" Keiichi asked nervously as the
Knight Sabers filed into the Ayanamis' apartment. Luckily, they
were all too tired to notice his very forced nonchalance or that he
was leaning heavily on the door to his room.
"My computer's initial readings indicate that it was a
different type of boomer entirely," Ami told him as she made her
way to Rei's room. "We'll know more once your sister examines
the samples that we saved."
"It was pretty tough," Ranko admitted, following Ami. "No
match for me of course, but it did last longer against us than any
previous model. Might be a good thing, you know? I get more of
a workout this way."
"It was funny!" Mihoshi added her half a cent and giggled,
stopping so close to Keiichi that their noses were only inches apart.
"It had really thin arms and these weird things on its head, like it
was some big old bug!"
Mihoshi put her hands on top of her head and wiggled her
fingers in a crude imitation of antennae while puffing up her
cheeks and opening her eyes wide. She looked like a person trying
to do a very bad imitation of an ant.
"Where's sis?" he asked, turning away from Mihoshi and
her embarrassing (and somewhat frightening) playacting.
"Oh, she's dropping off the samples in the lab," Ami told
him. "She should be up shortly."
"Ah, good. When she comes up, can you tell her that I need
to talk to her? It's real important."
Ami nodded.
"Okay, I'll be in my room." And then he opened the door a
crack, slid in and shut the door behind him with a slam.
Ami shook her head. "That was weird."
"Huh?" Mihoshi asked, turning to face Ami, her fingers
still acting like antennae.
Ami shook her head. *What isn't weird around this place?*
"I don't see why I have to go."
"It's your turn, Ranko," Ami reasoned with her, though she
didn't have high hopes of reason getting though to the red-headed
Knight Saber. "I went last time and Mihoshi went the time before
that."
"What about Rei?"
"She took us out for steaks, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. But I can't go, my bike's busted."
Instead to replying, Ami turned towards Keiichi's room and
shouted, "Keiichi, is Ranko's bike fixed?"
"Yep," he shouted back, "I put it in the apartment's garage.
The keys are by the door."
*Damn,* Ranko thought, *no way out.* They were all
sitting around Rei's room for the traditional dinner and debriefing.
They usually had fast food, but sometimes Rei splurged and they
all went to a fancy restaurant together. That night Rei would be
too busy examining samples to go out. Besides, it was Ranko's
turn.
The redhead grabbed her keys and left.
Mihoshi, unable to wait until dinner arrived, was off in the
search of snacks. Rei had told her it was okay before to raid the
refrigerator whenever she felt like, but for some reason Mihoshi
was having an unusually hard time finding the kitchen at the
moment. The room she actually ended up in was Keiichi's. At
least she assumed from looking around at the schematics mixed
with bikini posters scattered on the wall. She'd never been there
before, though she was often in Rei's room, and occasionally slept
over using one of the guest rooms.
The strangest thing about the room, however, was the
young girl in it, who was folding up scattered clothes and
otherwise straightening up the place. She had long brown hair and
funny markings on her face. Looking to be about the same age as
Keiichi, Mihoshi guessed this to be a friend of his.
"Hi there," Mihoshi said to the girl in a friendly tone. "My
name is Mihoshi. Who are you?"
Belldandy was only startled for a moment, then she turned
and smiled as the blonde Knight Saber. "Pleased to meet you,
Mihoshi-san. I am Belldandy."
"So are you a friend of Keiichi's?"
"Actually, I'm a goddess who came down from heaven in
order to grant his wish," Belldandy explained, and then blushed
suddenly. "He could have wished for anything, but instead he
proposed that I become his girlfriend."
"That's sweet," Mihoshi said with a big smile, not
completely understanding what she had just been told, but getting
the general gist of it.
Belldandy's blush deepened.
"So why aren't you with Keiichi now?"
"Oh, he went to ask his sister if it would be all right if I
stayed here. I do hope it won't be too much trouble. I was just
tidying up while I waited."
"No, no, no," Mihoshi told her, waggling her finger for
emphasis. "You should spend every minute you can together
because you never know when you'll have to be apart. I'll go get
him!"
"No, you don't have to..." Belldandy started to say and
stopped when she realized that Mihoshi had already left.
Rally and Alielle were lounging in front of an all-night fast-
food joint, having a little late supper and discussing what they had
just seen. Both had heard rumors for a while, but neither had
watched the Knight Sabers in action before.
"Well, I did notice something important," Alielle stated,
chomping down on a burger with a feral appetite. Rally had no
idea how the girl could eat like that and never gain a gram. Asking
her, however, would give entirely the wrong impression. Rally
didn't want Alielle to think that she was checking her out. "The
way those suits were shaped, they all had to be women."
"How is that important?" Rally asked, bewildered.
Alielle wasn't even listening, off in a little world of her
own. "I wonder what they look like without those suits on."
While Alielle was indulging in fantasies, Rally noticed
someone familiar step out of the place that they were parked in
front of, a big bag of burgers under one arm.
Ranko took no notice of the police car as she made her way
to her bike, grumbling under her breath about why she had to be
the one they sent out to pick up dinner.
"You're Ranko, right?" Rally called out to her, "Of Ranko
and the Replicants?"
"Yeah," Ranko answered cautiously, not really wanting to
talk to anyone at the moment, especially not a member of the AD
Police. If her cover as a Knight Saber was blown, it'd be all over
Japan. 'Her' fiancees would be sure to find her then.
"I caught most of your show before I had to go on duty,"
Rally told her. "You're really good. It's a wonder that you're not
signed to any label."
Ranko rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. The
main reason that they weren't signed was she didn't want all of the
added publicity that it would bring. Becoming a popular singer
wasn't a good way of hiding from people. The money wasn't bad
though.
During their conversation, Alielle had snapped out of her
dream world. With a cry of "red hair!" she jumped over Rally and
dove out of the open window to latch herself onto Ranko.
"Aaarrrgghh!!!" Ranko screamed in terror as the purple-
haired girl glomped onto her. "Shampoo!!" Ranko jumped right
out of Alielle's grip, leapt onto her bike, and drove away with the
sounds of squealing tires and burning rubber.
Rally thought the girl's reaction was understandable, all
except shouting about hair-care products. That was a bit odd.
Well, rock stars were supposed to be eccentric types.
Alielle picked herself up, dusted herself off, and grinned in
absolute delight. She would meet Ranko again, no force on Earth
could keep her from her new love.
"Ah, sis?" Keiichi, now very nervous, called down the
stairs to where his sister's lab was located. As far as he knew, Rei
hadn't come out of her lab since they'd gotten back from the fight.
Keiichi might have wondered what was so odd about these new
boomers that would fascinate her so much, but he had other things
on his mind at the moment. Other things that he knew he wouldn't
be able to hide in his room forever. "Ranko's back with the food
already."
"I'll be there in a few minutes. Make sure that Ranko
doesn't eat any of my food this time."
"Yeah . . . Ah, sis?"
"Yes?"
"There's something I've got to talk to you about privately."
"Come down to the lab then. I'm almost done here."
"Ah, okay."
Rei could tell immediately that this was a little more than
some prank that had gone sour. Keiichi was acting very nervous,
looking ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble. Rei smiled slightly
at her brother. He, even more than her work or her crusade, had
filled the void in her life after the Third Impact.
"Sit and tell me what's wrong," Rei told him.
"What makes you think that anything is wrong?" Keiichi
countered, laughing nervously.
Rei raised an eyebrow. This had to be bad.
Just then Mihoshi burst into the room, grabbed Keiichi, and
said, "Come on, you shouldn't leave your girlfriend waiting like
that."
"Girlfriend?" asked Rei. Her tone was still level, but her
left eyebrow twitched slightly.
"I mean, if she's going to be living here, you really should
show her around."
"Living here?" Eyebrow twitching even more, though her
tone remained the same.
"Yeah," Mihoshi said, finally addressing Rei. "I found her
waiting in his room, getting ready to move in. Belldandy said that
when Keiichi proposed to her it was like a wish come true, or
something like that."
"Proposed?" Rei's voice went up an octave and she began
to advance towards Keiichi, who was frantically trying to loosen
Mihoshi's iron grip. He had a feeling that this was going to be
worse when Rei had caught him with one of her panties.
"Please explain what Mihoshi meant by 'proposed',
Keiichi." Someone else might not have been able to tell, but
Keiichi noticed a slight edge to his sister's voice. He also saw that
Rei had taken out her contacts. Red eyes staring unblinking can be
very intimidating. He swallowed the last remnants of his courage
and sat down. "Actually, it's a pretty funny story . . ."
"Ano?" Belldandy asked as she peered into Rei's room.
That nice blonde lady had gone looking for Keiichi, but she hadn't
come back yet. It shouldn't have taken her that long to find him,
even in this large apartment. She couldn't wait to meet Keiichi's
sister, though she hoped that she wouldn't be seeing her own sisters
for a little while at least. Belldandy loved her siblings, but they
had a tendency to cause trouble wherever they went.
Ami watched in surprise as Ranko jumped in the air and
somehow clung to the ceiling, despite there being nothing to cling
to. All because of a strange woman who now stood in the doorway
had spoken.
"Look, Kasumi, it's not what you think, really," Ranko
began to babble. "I just needed some time away, that's all. I mean,
everything was so crazy that I just had to get some time for myself.
So, it's not what it looks like. Not even close."
"Do you have any idea what she's talking about?" Ami
asked the woman, who looked to be about sixteen and had odd
marks on her face. She sort of reminded Ami of Usagi the times
she'd become Serenity. It was a feeling that went deeper than
general appearance though.
The woman shook her head and stared up at the ceiling
where Ranko was still busy babbling and defying gravity.
"Are you this Kasumi that she's keeps mentioning?" Ami
asked.
The woman shook her head again. "No, my name is
Belldandy. I've never seen him before."
"Don't you mean her?"
Belldandy looked a bit embarrassed. "Oh yes, I'm sorry, I
did mean her. I guess its hard for me to tell the gender of someone
who's clinging to the ceiling."
"Forgive me for being rude," Ami told her, starting to
recover from Ranko's spectacle. "I've never seen you before. How
did you get in here?"
"Oh, Keiichi brought me here. He called me on the
telephone and I came right over. You see, I'm his girlfriend."
Ami blink-blinked in surprise. *Keiichi was hiding a secret
girlfriend in his room? Dirty magazines? Sure. Used underwear?
Maybe. But a whole woman?* It was the last thing Ami had
expected from a ecchi, but terminally shy, kid like Keiichi.
It was at that moment that Ranko's grip finally gave out and
she fell to the floor with a thump. Belldandy watched in surprise
as Ranko stood and dusted herself off as if nothing had happened.
The goddess hadn't known that there were mortals who could so
easily brush off such a fall.
Ranko looked over the new girl and said, "Hey, you're not
Kasumi."
"No, my name is Belldandy. Pleased to meet you Ranko-
san," the young woman said to her, bowing.
"Ah, yeah, nice to meet you too." Ranko stage-whispered
to Ami, "Who is she?"
"She's Keiichi's girlfriend," Ami whispered back with a
smile.
Ranko was even more surprised than Ami.
Belldandy sat next to Keiichi, offering support, as he
recounted their story for the rest of the Knight Sabers. To his
surprise, they really didn't have a hard time accepting it.
Ranko snorted. "Stranger things happen to me all the
time."
Ami nodded in agreement. She'd been dead before,
multiple times. How could anything top that?
"It's just sooo romantic!" Mihoshi enthused, earning a blush
from the new couple.
Rei really didn't know what to think about this. She was
happy for her brother for having a girlfriend, even if it was in an
unusual manner, but thought he really was too young to be living
with her. Shinji and Asuka had started living together at a young
age and ended up having to get married sooner then they had
planned. Rei didn't even know if that particular concern would
apply to a goddess, but she still didn't think it was right. There was
no hope for it however, Belldandy simply didn't have anywhere
else to stay. Ranko lived in an old trailer, Ami's apartment was
barely large enough for her, and Mihoshi, well, Rei wouldn't wish
living with Mihoshi on anyone.
Maybe looking over the boomer samples again would help
her think.
"So you're a goddess," Ranko said to Belldandy.
The goddess in question simply nodded.
"And you have a bunch of powers?"
"I do, but after granting a wish, my powers are extremely
limited in the mortal world."
"Could you cure a curse?"
Belldandy shook her head. "Curing your curse would take
much more power than I have available. I'm sorry."
Ranko hung her head.
"Wow Ranko, you have a curse?" Mihoshi asked, sounding
very interested. "That's so neat!"
Ranko was suddenly defensive, doing the 'scratching the
back of the head' thing. "It's nothing really, hehehe."
"What is it? Tell me! Tell me!"
"No!" Ranko shouted and bolted from the room, with
Mihoshi in hot pursuit.
When Ami noticed that Belldandy was looking with
concern at the pair running all over the apartment, she told her,
"Don't worry about it. Things like that happen all the time around
here. You'll get used to it."
Belldandy didn't know to be reassured or even more
worried.
(A NGE / Oh My Goddess! / Sailor Moon / Tenchi Muyo / Ranma
One Half / Gunsmith Cats / El-Hazard / Bubblegum Crisis /
kitchen sink Crossover)
By Ammadeau
Roy.Fokker@UNSpacy.org
http://Ammadeau.tripod.com/fanfiction.htm
***
[Ayanami Rei: The leader of the Knight Sabers, whose mission is
to stop the misuse of EVA-based technology by Genom and
prevent a probable Fourth Impact. Founded sixteen years after the
Third Impact, in which the Tokyo-3 Geofront was destroyed. It left
only three survivors: Shinji Ikari, Asuka Soyu, and Rei Ayanami.
Despite being in her early thirties, Rei looks to be around twenty,
and catches the attention of most people with her short blue hair
and pale skin. She wears blue tinted contacts to hide her red eyes.]
Rei moved about her lingerie shop, attempting to smile at
the customers. She was still in practice even after nearly two
decades, since most people didn't even notice when she was
smiling or not. No one suspected that she was the leader of the
Knight Sabers.
[Ayanami Keiichi: Saved by Rei when both of his parents were
killed by boomers. She also adopted him, but is considered by
him to be an older sister. The boy turned out to be a mechanical
prodigy and has been a critical asset in building and maintaining
the hardsuits. Special note: Due to the onset of puberty he has
recently developed some perverted tendencies.]
Rei's 'brother' Keiichi was down at Washu's garage,
working on Ranko's motorcycle and daydreaming about his blonde
and red-haired goddesses (I must have them both!!). When would
they ever notice that he wasn't just a kid?
[Mizuno Ami: A true wiz at computers. Provides inside
information by working as a dispatcher for the AD Police. Also a
fully trained medical doctor who abandoned her chosen profession
for unknown reasons. Has a penchant for silly poses and catch
phrases in combat. Overall, the weakest fighter of the group, but a
superior tactician. Obvious prior combat experience, source
unknown.]
Ami was diligently working the phones at AD Police,
occasionally glancing at the old Sailor V episode playing on the
terminal next to her and shaking her head. Was it really ever like
that?
[Masaki Mihoshi: Obviously a foreigner, being a six foot tall,
blue-eyed blonde. Strange lack of coordination for an aerobics
instructor. A fierce fighter, but sometimes panics in the heat of
battle. Claims to be a former detective, but can find no records of
her working in any law enforcement agency in the world.]
Mihoshi was trying to teach aerobics without tripping over
her own feet and doing surprisingly well to people who knew her.
This would last up until the moment someone tried to get her
attention.
[Tenno Ranko: Most skilled fighter of the group. However, has
an abrasive and macho personality. Strong possibility that she was
raised as a boy. Powerful phobia of cats and hot water, probably
due to childhood trauma. Name assumed to be an alias since no
real records found. Lead singer of the band Ranko and the
Replicants.]
Ranma ducked into the alley behind the Hot Legs, and with
a quick splash of cold water, Ranko stepped into her dressing
room. She knew it was risky going out male, but she just couldn't
spend all of her time female. Besides, she doubted that his various
fiancees would look for her in Mega-Tokyo.
Program 1: Knight Sabers, Go!
Detective Rally Vincent was relaxing in the Hot Legs,
listening to the music of Ranko and the Replicants. The hard rock
rhythms were making her homesick for old Chicago, when she had
been a simple bounty hunter chasing down thugs, thieves, and
other assorted low lives. Then her partner wound up married and
the whole business just lost its charm for Rally. So she hopped in
her custom Griffin and drove. Hell if she knew how she had
wound up in Mega-Tokyo. Probably shouldn't have picked up that
bandanna-wearing hitchhiker. Definitively shouldn't have let him
drive while she took a nap. When the heck did they cross the
ocean? It was a good thing that she could speak Japanese.
While it wasn't all wine and roses, working for the AD
Police beat doing nothing. For one, you had to be a cop to carry a
gun in this town and Rally would've felt naked without one. There
was the added bonus that she could shoot down the boomers
without worrying about damages, though she never did much
damage to them. You'd think that they would arm the AD Police
with weapons that could actually scratch the boomers they were
supposed to stop.
Of course her beeper just had to go off when she was just
getting into the music. Damn.
Dialing up work, she saw the face of her new partner,
Alielle. A complete perv, but a good cop, and Rally had learned
how to deal with her going after anything female, including Rally
herself. She wouldn't stay in the same hotel room with her ever
again through. Her last partner had been a former prostitute so she
really wasn't one to judge. Still, Rally had never met a lesbian that
was that aggressive before.
"Party time, babe," Alielle said and winked. Rally groaned
and hung up the phone. Time to get to work.
Ami quickly sent a coded message to Rei about the new
boomer on the rampage, adding that she'd do her best to get away
from work. Chief Goto was determined to boost up the falling rep
of the AD Police by nailing this boomer. Ami wasn't worried.
Even with the hardsuit she wasn't much of an asset in a fight,
without her senshi powers that is. And those she had given up to
save the world nine years ago. Still, it felt good to her to be on the
side of justice once again.
Ranko had just finished her gig when her watch went off,
the secret signal that the Knight Sabers had a job to do. Cool, she'd
get to beat something up. Day was looking better already. She
immediately called up Rei.
"There's a boomer on the rampage," Rei said to the rock
singer without preamble and without blinking. Ranko, however,
had grown used to her boss's terseness. She knew that Rei wasn't
cold or emotionless, just very, very subtle.
"There's something different about this one. I'll need to
take a sample in for analysis. You'll also have to be careful, this
new boomer could be more than you could handle."
"What? No way! I'll kick that tin can!"
"Your bike is still in the shop, correct?"
"Yeah, so?" Since her driver's license was actually a
forgery, Ranko had never taken a driver's test. Still, she was
starting to get the hang of it. She only crashed, what, three times
last week? Rei's little brother was always eager to fix it up again
anyway.
"Good, I'll have Mihoshi come by and pick you up."
"No!!!!" In Ranko's book, Mihoshi's driving was just under
cats in sheer terror value. Why she never got any tickets was a
mystery. But it was too late, the phone was already dead.
Mihoshi was really getting into the set when she started to
hear a noise. It was a sort of beeping and seemed close by. Maybe
it was part of the music? She couldn't let herself get distracted
again in the middle of a session, so she ignored it. However, it
really did clash with the music and started to throw her timing off.
In Mihoshi's case, this was like a snowball that started an
avalanche. When it was over, the TV and half the people there had
been knocked over.
"Mihoshi, there's a phone call for you," her fellow
instructor told her.
Mihoshi nodded and sprinted for the phone, only managing
to knock over two people who were about to get back on their feet.
Arisa and Kyoko swore to get their revenge on that
annoying blonde cat-like girl, just as soon as they recovered.
Rally parked her patrol car and watched the fight as it
played out on the street below. A single boomer versus an entire
squad of AD Police and the boomer was winning. While she knew
that the AD Police weren't as well-equipped or well-trained as they
could be, one squad should have been more than enough to take
out a single boomer. There was also the strange thing that Alielle
had mentioned, which she hadn't believed until she saw it herself.
This new boomer really did look like some sort of humanoid bug.
Weird. Still, she wondered why her partner had called them
'Bugrom.'
*Just what is Genom up to?*
Somewhere, Katsuhiko Jinnai laughed and laughed.
Everyone within hearing distance shivered, even the boomers.
Only Quincy, sitting in his darkened office, smiled. By the dim
light, it was almost impossible to see that he was wearing earplugs.
One by one, the Knight Sabers filtered into their secret base
under Washu's Garage while a catchy J-pop tune drifted in from
somewhere outside. For some reason it was always the same song
whenever they suited up, but none of them really noticed it.
Ami, still in her AD Police uniform, took off her scooter
helmet, running her fingers through her short black hair. She was
starting to run out of sick relatives to use as excuses. Chief Goto
did accept them all in his usual deadpanned tone, however.
Mihoshi practically bounced in with Ranko following
behind unsteadily, her face a little green. Ami sympathized; she
had rode with Mihoshi once before and it made roller coasters
seem mild by comparison. She didn't want to know how her
blonde teammate had gotten a license in the first place.
Rei nodded to each of them and they all started to get into
their plug suits. Rei was Saber-Blue, in Unit-00. Ami was Saber-
Purple, in Unit-01. Ranko was Saber-Red, in Unit-02. Mihoshi
was Saber-Black, in Unit-03.
When Ranko had once asked about the names and colors,
Rei had replied, "I like them that way." Rei was never one for
elaboration.
It didn't take them long to find the rampaging boomer.
"I am Sailor Purple!" announced Ami to the boomer,
posing dramatically, like a figure skater at the end of her set. The
boomer didn't seem too impressed, but it was hard to read the
expression of a giant robotic ant.
"That's Saber Purple," Rei corrected her, and not for the
first time either. Rei believed that her teammate had watched far
too much anime as a child.
"Oh, right. I am Saber Purple and in the name of the
Knight Sabers, I'll punish you!"
Mihoshi struggled to come up with a catch phrase of her
own. They just sounded so cool! Posing dramatically, she
declared, "And I am Saber Black. In the name eating snacks and
daytime TV, I'm going to blast you!"
Rei and Ranko groaned in embarrassment as the other
Knight Sabers charged after the bewildered boomer. Ranko
believed that Mihoshi had been dropped on her head far too often
as a child.
"And just why did you choose them again?" Ranko asked
Rei on a private channel.
Mihoshi tripped on a rock as she ran up to the boomer,
triggered her jump jets, and accidentally executing a powerful
rolling jump-kick that knocked the boomer's head off like a kicker
on an American football team. The boomer crashed to the ground,
but despite now being headless, managed to get back up again.
"That's why," Rei replied to Ranko's earlier question,
punctuating her sentence by embedding the boomer to the wall
with a lance that shot out of her suit's forearm.
When the boomer finally tore itself free, Ranko shouted,
"Kashu Tenchin Amaguriken," hitting the boomer enough times to
completely destroy the thing's chest. This time when the boomer
fell, it didn't get up.
"And she complains about my speeches," Ami said to
herself. She had hacked into the comm channels in an effort to find
out a little more about their mysterious leader and so had heard
Ranko's comment. "At least I don't go on about roasting
chestnuts!"
"So these are the Knight Sabers," Rally said to herself as
she watched the fight. They certainly were impressive and better
armed than the AD Police. Their suits had to be about twice as
powerful as the police's AV-32s. "I wonder where you sign up to
become one of them?"
Keiichi was sitting in the monitoring room, watching over
his big sister and the rest of the Knight Sabers. Normally, he'd be
out there with them in one of the two trucks they often used to
transport the hardsuits and motoroids, but this time big sister had
decided it was a little too dangerous for him. More likely, it was
his punishment for peeping on them while they got changed again.
Not that the plug suits they wore under the hardsuits left much to
the imagination, thankfully. At least she didn't threaten to make
him Dr. Washu's guinea pig again. Shudder.
Man he was hungry. He'd spent so much time on fixing up
Ranko's bike that he'd forgotten to eat. He could have had Dr.
Washu help him, but she had a habit of adding little improvements
that usually just made Ranko mad. She still hadn't gotten over the
whole 'ejector seat' incident. Keiichi didn't know how Ranko was
able to throw those fireball things, but they hurt like hell.
Big sister would probably be angry if he snuck out to get a
bite to eat, so he reached for the phone book and decided to order
up some take-out.
A few minutes later he hung up the phone. Hunger must be
making him delusional. What the heck was a 'Goddess Helpline'
anyway? Some kind of '900' number? Rei would kill him if one of
those showed up on their phone bill. Now Ranko, there was a
goddess. He'd done everything he could to get her to notice him,
but she still treated him like a kid. He was only two years younger
than her and she was as short as he was. What was her problem?
Needless to say, when a beautiful young goddess appeared
out of nowhere to grant his heart's desire, he wasn't thinking too
clearly.
"I wish that I had a girlfriend like you."
And then there was a burst of light.
"Ranko, please collect a sample," Rei said in her flat voice.
Ranko took one look at the oozing semi-organic mess and
shook her head violently. "No way, get one of the others to do it.
If you want it so badly, collect it yourself."
Rei turned to face Saber-Black. "Mihoshi, collect a
sample."
"Kay," Mihoshi responded and hopped over to where the
boomer lay. Unfortunately, she tripped once again in her metallic
high heels, desperately windmilling her arms in a futile attempt to
stay up. One of those arms just happened to catch Ranko in the
stomach and sent her to land dead center in the boomer's remains.
"Ranko, please collect a sample," Rei repeated, and after
glancing around, added, "Ami, help Mihoshi to stand up."
Two Knight Sabers groaned and set about their tasks.
"So how was that boomer?" Keiichi asked nervously as the
Knight Sabers filed into the Ayanamis' apartment. Luckily, they
were all too tired to notice his very forced nonchalance or that he
was leaning heavily on the door to his room.
"My computer's initial readings indicate that it was a
different type of boomer entirely," Ami told him as she made her
way to Rei's room. "We'll know more once your sister examines
the samples that we saved."
"It was pretty tough," Ranko admitted, following Ami. "No
match for me of course, but it did last longer against us than any
previous model. Might be a good thing, you know? I get more of
a workout this way."
"It was funny!" Mihoshi added her half a cent and giggled,
stopping so close to Keiichi that their noses were only inches apart.
"It had really thin arms and these weird things on its head, like it
was some big old bug!"
Mihoshi put her hands on top of her head and wiggled her
fingers in a crude imitation of antennae while puffing up her
cheeks and opening her eyes wide. She looked like a person trying
to do a very bad imitation of an ant.
"Where's sis?" he asked, turning away from Mihoshi and
her embarrassing (and somewhat frightening) playacting.
"Oh, she's dropping off the samples in the lab," Ami told
him. "She should be up shortly."
"Ah, good. When she comes up, can you tell her that I need
to talk to her? It's real important."
Ami nodded.
"Okay, I'll be in my room." And then he opened the door a
crack, slid in and shut the door behind him with a slam.
Ami shook her head. "That was weird."
"Huh?" Mihoshi asked, turning to face Ami, her fingers
still acting like antennae.
Ami shook her head. *What isn't weird around this place?*
"I don't see why I have to go."
"It's your turn, Ranko," Ami reasoned with her, though she
didn't have high hopes of reason getting though to the red-headed
Knight Saber. "I went last time and Mihoshi went the time before
that."
"What about Rei?"
"She took us out for steaks, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. But I can't go, my bike's busted."
Instead to replying, Ami turned towards Keiichi's room and
shouted, "Keiichi, is Ranko's bike fixed?"
"Yep," he shouted back, "I put it in the apartment's garage.
The keys are by the door."
*Damn,* Ranko thought, *no way out.* They were all
sitting around Rei's room for the traditional dinner and debriefing.
They usually had fast food, but sometimes Rei splurged and they
all went to a fancy restaurant together. That night Rei would be
too busy examining samples to go out. Besides, it was Ranko's
turn.
The redhead grabbed her keys and left.
Mihoshi, unable to wait until dinner arrived, was off in the
search of snacks. Rei had told her it was okay before to raid the
refrigerator whenever she felt like, but for some reason Mihoshi
was having an unusually hard time finding the kitchen at the
moment. The room she actually ended up in was Keiichi's. At
least she assumed from looking around at the schematics mixed
with bikini posters scattered on the wall. She'd never been there
before, though she was often in Rei's room, and occasionally slept
over using one of the guest rooms.
The strangest thing about the room, however, was the
young girl in it, who was folding up scattered clothes and
otherwise straightening up the place. She had long brown hair and
funny markings on her face. Looking to be about the same age as
Keiichi, Mihoshi guessed this to be a friend of his.
"Hi there," Mihoshi said to the girl in a friendly tone. "My
name is Mihoshi. Who are you?"
Belldandy was only startled for a moment, then she turned
and smiled as the blonde Knight Saber. "Pleased to meet you,
Mihoshi-san. I am Belldandy."
"So are you a friend of Keiichi's?"
"Actually, I'm a goddess who came down from heaven in
order to grant his wish," Belldandy explained, and then blushed
suddenly. "He could have wished for anything, but instead he
proposed that I become his girlfriend."
"That's sweet," Mihoshi said with a big smile, not
completely understanding what she had just been told, but getting
the general gist of it.
Belldandy's blush deepened.
"So why aren't you with Keiichi now?"
"Oh, he went to ask his sister if it would be all right if I
stayed here. I do hope it won't be too much trouble. I was just
tidying up while I waited."
"No, no, no," Mihoshi told her, waggling her finger for
emphasis. "You should spend every minute you can together
because you never know when you'll have to be apart. I'll go get
him!"
"No, you don't have to..." Belldandy started to say and
stopped when she realized that Mihoshi had already left.
Rally and Alielle were lounging in front of an all-night fast-
food joint, having a little late supper and discussing what they had
just seen. Both had heard rumors for a while, but neither had
watched the Knight Sabers in action before.
"Well, I did notice something important," Alielle stated,
chomping down on a burger with a feral appetite. Rally had no
idea how the girl could eat like that and never gain a gram. Asking
her, however, would give entirely the wrong impression. Rally
didn't want Alielle to think that she was checking her out. "The
way those suits were shaped, they all had to be women."
"How is that important?" Rally asked, bewildered.
Alielle wasn't even listening, off in a little world of her
own. "I wonder what they look like without those suits on."
While Alielle was indulging in fantasies, Rally noticed
someone familiar step out of the place that they were parked in
front of, a big bag of burgers under one arm.
Ranko took no notice of the police car as she made her way
to her bike, grumbling under her breath about why she had to be
the one they sent out to pick up dinner.
"You're Ranko, right?" Rally called out to her, "Of Ranko
and the Replicants?"
"Yeah," Ranko answered cautiously, not really wanting to
talk to anyone at the moment, especially not a member of the AD
Police. If her cover as a Knight Saber was blown, it'd be all over
Japan. 'Her' fiancees would be sure to find her then.
"I caught most of your show before I had to go on duty,"
Rally told her. "You're really good. It's a wonder that you're not
signed to any label."
Ranko rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. The
main reason that they weren't signed was she didn't want all of the
added publicity that it would bring. Becoming a popular singer
wasn't a good way of hiding from people. The money wasn't bad
though.
During their conversation, Alielle had snapped out of her
dream world. With a cry of "red hair!" she jumped over Rally and
dove out of the open window to latch herself onto Ranko.
"Aaarrrgghh!!!" Ranko screamed in terror as the purple-
haired girl glomped onto her. "Shampoo!!" Ranko jumped right
out of Alielle's grip, leapt onto her bike, and drove away with the
sounds of squealing tires and burning rubber.
Rally thought the girl's reaction was understandable, all
except shouting about hair-care products. That was a bit odd.
Well, rock stars were supposed to be eccentric types.
Alielle picked herself up, dusted herself off, and grinned in
absolute delight. She would meet Ranko again, no force on Earth
could keep her from her new love.
"Ah, sis?" Keiichi, now very nervous, called down the
stairs to where his sister's lab was located. As far as he knew, Rei
hadn't come out of her lab since they'd gotten back from the fight.
Keiichi might have wondered what was so odd about these new
boomers that would fascinate her so much, but he had other things
on his mind at the moment. Other things that he knew he wouldn't
be able to hide in his room forever. "Ranko's back with the food
already."
"I'll be there in a few minutes. Make sure that Ranko
doesn't eat any of my food this time."
"Yeah . . . Ah, sis?"
"Yes?"
"There's something I've got to talk to you about privately."
"Come down to the lab then. I'm almost done here."
"Ah, okay."
Rei could tell immediately that this was a little more than
some prank that had gone sour. Keiichi was acting very nervous,
looking ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble. Rei smiled slightly
at her brother. He, even more than her work or her crusade, had
filled the void in her life after the Third Impact.
"Sit and tell me what's wrong," Rei told him.
"What makes you think that anything is wrong?" Keiichi
countered, laughing nervously.
Rei raised an eyebrow. This had to be bad.
Just then Mihoshi burst into the room, grabbed Keiichi, and
said, "Come on, you shouldn't leave your girlfriend waiting like
that."
"Girlfriend?" asked Rei. Her tone was still level, but her
left eyebrow twitched slightly.
"I mean, if she's going to be living here, you really should
show her around."
"Living here?" Eyebrow twitching even more, though her
tone remained the same.
"Yeah," Mihoshi said, finally addressing Rei. "I found her
waiting in his room, getting ready to move in. Belldandy said that
when Keiichi proposed to her it was like a wish come true, or
something like that."
"Proposed?" Rei's voice went up an octave and she began
to advance towards Keiichi, who was frantically trying to loosen
Mihoshi's iron grip. He had a feeling that this was going to be
worse when Rei had caught him with one of her panties.
"Please explain what Mihoshi meant by 'proposed',
Keiichi." Someone else might not have been able to tell, but
Keiichi noticed a slight edge to his sister's voice. He also saw that
Rei had taken out her contacts. Red eyes staring unblinking can be
very intimidating. He swallowed the last remnants of his courage
and sat down. "Actually, it's a pretty funny story . . ."
"Ano?" Belldandy asked as she peered into Rei's room.
That nice blonde lady had gone looking for Keiichi, but she hadn't
come back yet. It shouldn't have taken her that long to find him,
even in this large apartment. She couldn't wait to meet Keiichi's
sister, though she hoped that she wouldn't be seeing her own sisters
for a little while at least. Belldandy loved her siblings, but they
had a tendency to cause trouble wherever they went.
Ami watched in surprise as Ranko jumped in the air and
somehow clung to the ceiling, despite there being nothing to cling
to. All because of a strange woman who now stood in the doorway
had spoken.
"Look, Kasumi, it's not what you think, really," Ranko
began to babble. "I just needed some time away, that's all. I mean,
everything was so crazy that I just had to get some time for myself.
So, it's not what it looks like. Not even close."
"Do you have any idea what she's talking about?" Ami
asked the woman, who looked to be about sixteen and had odd
marks on her face. She sort of reminded Ami of Usagi the times
she'd become Serenity. It was a feeling that went deeper than
general appearance though.
The woman shook her head and stared up at the ceiling
where Ranko was still busy babbling and defying gravity.
"Are you this Kasumi that she's keeps mentioning?" Ami
asked.
The woman shook her head again. "No, my name is
Belldandy. I've never seen him before."
"Don't you mean her?"
Belldandy looked a bit embarrassed. "Oh yes, I'm sorry, I
did mean her. I guess its hard for me to tell the gender of someone
who's clinging to the ceiling."
"Forgive me for being rude," Ami told her, starting to
recover from Ranko's spectacle. "I've never seen you before. How
did you get in here?"
"Oh, Keiichi brought me here. He called me on the
telephone and I came right over. You see, I'm his girlfriend."
Ami blink-blinked in surprise. *Keiichi was hiding a secret
girlfriend in his room? Dirty magazines? Sure. Used underwear?
Maybe. But a whole woman?* It was the last thing Ami had
expected from a ecchi, but terminally shy, kid like Keiichi.
It was at that moment that Ranko's grip finally gave out and
she fell to the floor with a thump. Belldandy watched in surprise
as Ranko stood and dusted herself off as if nothing had happened.
The goddess hadn't known that there were mortals who could so
easily brush off such a fall.
Ranko looked over the new girl and said, "Hey, you're not
Kasumi."
"No, my name is Belldandy. Pleased to meet you Ranko-
san," the young woman said to her, bowing.
"Ah, yeah, nice to meet you too." Ranko stage-whispered
to Ami, "Who is she?"
"She's Keiichi's girlfriend," Ami whispered back with a
smile.
Ranko was even more surprised than Ami.
Belldandy sat next to Keiichi, offering support, as he
recounted their story for the rest of the Knight Sabers. To his
surprise, they really didn't have a hard time accepting it.
Ranko snorted. "Stranger things happen to me all the
time."
Ami nodded in agreement. She'd been dead before,
multiple times. How could anything top that?
"It's just sooo romantic!" Mihoshi enthused, earning a blush
from the new couple.
Rei really didn't know what to think about this. She was
happy for her brother for having a girlfriend, even if it was in an
unusual manner, but thought he really was too young to be living
with her. Shinji and Asuka had started living together at a young
age and ended up having to get married sooner then they had
planned. Rei didn't even know if that particular concern would
apply to a goddess, but she still didn't think it was right. There was
no hope for it however, Belldandy simply didn't have anywhere
else to stay. Ranko lived in an old trailer, Ami's apartment was
barely large enough for her, and Mihoshi, well, Rei wouldn't wish
living with Mihoshi on anyone.
Maybe looking over the boomer samples again would help
her think.
"So you're a goddess," Ranko said to Belldandy.
The goddess in question simply nodded.
"And you have a bunch of powers?"
"I do, but after granting a wish, my powers are extremely
limited in the mortal world."
"Could you cure a curse?"
Belldandy shook her head. "Curing your curse would take
much more power than I have available. I'm sorry."
Ranko hung her head.
"Wow Ranko, you have a curse?" Mihoshi asked, sounding
very interested. "That's so neat!"
Ranko was suddenly defensive, doing the 'scratching the
back of the head' thing. "It's nothing really, hehehe."
"What is it? Tell me! Tell me!"
"No!" Ranko shouted and bolted from the room, with
Mihoshi in hot pursuit.
When Ami noticed that Belldandy was looking with
concern at the pair running all over the apartment, she told her,
"Don't worry about it. Things like that happen all the time around
here. You'll get used to it."
Belldandy didn't know to be reassured or even more
worried.