Anime Addventure : Day and Night

by tutcat

Ranma and Nabiki changed into vampires via lamp of Mihoshi (all stories up for adoption)

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any other crossover characters. They are owned by their respective owners. Not out to make any money or fame on others work.

This is a collection of fic's I was able to save of a web archive that has shut down recently. Some had been edited so my text reader would work better. So original authors and extra stuff was removed from the fic .

On the ones that have not been edited I will be editing them so the original authors will get credited for their parts. Also if you have the parts that I'm missing let me know in a PM will edit them in. Same with other fic's if you have them will post for others to be able to read.

Day and Night

by Kender

One of the prime tenets of the Anything Goes School was self-preservation, otherwise looking out for one's own skin. Happosai had taught his students very well the ways that the might be able to get to safety. (Usually with a crowd of angry villagers at their backs.) Genma raised it to new levels with his... techniques and ways to get out of facing the consequences of his actions. And despite the fact that he had a spine, Ranma had enough experience to realize that having all four of the girls who had an interest in him being in one place could be hazardous to his health.

So he took the only option he could think of.

"Man, I'm outta here!" said Ranma just before he took to the rooftops to get away.

"Arien! You no run away!"

"Ranma-darling! Wait for your Kodachi!"

"Ranchan! Get your rear back here!"

"Ranma, you jerk!"

As the Fiancee Brigade leapt to follow the pigtailed boy, the two other Tendo daughters turned and looked at each other.

"Guess we might as well go home," said Nabiki.

"That might be best," agreed Kasumi."

Ranma congratulated himself on his thinking as he landed back on the street. He was sure that they would never think of his idea. It just was too simple for him to double back. And now he was standing where the chase had begun, finally relaxing for a bit.

'Looks like Nabiki and Kasumi went home,' thought the pigtailed boy. That the two older Tendo sisters had left hadn't been unexpected. But it did leave him on the street alone. Not that it really mattered. He'd be back at the Dojo soon enough.

Yet he stopped just as he was about to leave. something had caught his eye and he turned to get a better look. Whatever it was, it hadn't been there earlier, or, at the very least, he hadn't seen it.

"Yeah, right, like this'd work," Ranma said. That he'd taken the battered old brass lamp to the most secluded place he knew of (the top of the Flem building - where he kept his "favorite possessions that Akane and Nabiki and Oyaji must never ever never find").

With most teenage boys this would be a small box under the bed or concealed under the shelf where their futon was stored and would contain dojinshi and a skin mag, as well as items that had a special personal significance. In Ranma's case it included what little money he could accumulate, a few non-pornographic photographs, and a little item that he knew was important but had no idea what it was or where he'd gotten it from.

The little cigar box was still there. Ranma looked at the lamp then carefully checked around. Mainly he didn't want anyone seeing him and saying how stupid or gullible he was for trying to summon a genie out of an old Arabic style brass lamp.

Taking a deep breath, Ranma rubbed the lamp. He nearly dropped it as smoke started pouring out and coalescing into the shape of a genie?!

Some little voice in his head was saying when something is too good to be true, it's about to bite you in the tail. There was hope though too. Maybe just once something good had happened to him? Was that too much to hope for?

"What kinda genie are ya, anyway?" Ranma asked cautiously, hope and the beginnings of cynicism warring within him.

Smoke poured out and solidified into a curvaceous blonde girl clad in next to nothing. "Hello! I'm here to grant you a wish!"

Ranma blinked at the genie. "A wish? I thought it was supposed to be three wishes."

"Yes!" The bouncy blonde girl agreed. "It used to be three wishes but times change, you know? Too many people were just screwing themselves up with three wishes and there were some problems and - oh it was just a mess!"

"So... I could be rid of my curse?" Ranma had been disappointed a lot over the past few months, he wasn't getting his hope up.

"You have to say the magic word," said the genie, pointing at a chalkboard with the word "WISH" written in nice block letters in English, then in Arabic, Japanese, and Egyptian. "You only get the one wish and there are a few provisos and such."

"Huh?"

"Limits," explained the genie kindly.

"Oh. What kinda limits?" Ranma asked, understanding now.

"Okay, these are different from the ones we genies used to have, but like I said 'times change' - so:"

Poof!

The chalkboard changed so it now read:

Terms & Conditions of Use:

Genie Wish (1)

Rule #1: You can't simply wish for more wishes. Not permitted. Not gonna happen.

Rule #2: The power of Life & Death is not within the province of this particular genie. He'd have to contact an outside source - and if that's a no go - you'd have wasted your wish. So no killings, and no resurrections.

Rule #3: All wishes will comply with the Law Of Conservation Of Magick, least amount of magic required to reach the specified result.

Rule #4: No run-on wishes.

Rule #5: No intrinsic world-wide changes in personality allowed. World peace would require everyone in the world to either be dead or mellowed out to the point of near catatonia.

"Other than that, you got it," the genie said, waving a hand and causing the blackboard to vanish. She also overbalanced and fell on her perky little face. "Owie."

Ranma felt a chill. Every stinking time he found a way for the curse to be cured, something would go horribly wrong and he'd be back at square one. He just knew it. If he tried to word it correctly it would get screwed up. Heck, this could potentially solve all his problems if he got it right.

Now, how could he do this and not suffer for it?

by Ranma-mite

Nabiki stared at the offering. "How did you get this much money, Saotome?"

"Isn't it enough?" Ranma asked. "I thought this was your standard fee."

Nabiki considered demanding more, but getting even this much out of Saotome was more than she expected. "2500 yen - sufficient for simple advice. I merely wanted to know how you managed to come into some money."

Ranma looked embarrassed briefly. "Well, uhm. You know that story about some guys in animal masks shaking down people by that lot on Shinguchi Boulevard?"

Nabiki nodded. "Yes. Some delinquents from Kurachi High."

"I figured nobody would mind if they got what they been dishin' out," said Ranma with a shrug.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, satisfied by the explanation but surprised that Ranma had thought of it. Ah well, at least she didn't have to worry about offending Yakuza or some similar nightmare. "Well, what's the advice you need Ranma? If it's about the way you dress, well, I can only say it's about time."

Ranma looked blank for a moment, then shook his head. "Nah. That's not it. Mihoshi, could ya come in now?"

Nabiki raised her eyebrow again at the scantily clad blonde who seemed to solidify out of nowhere. Blonde ninjas? Where did Saotome get this sort of thing?

Ranma plowed ahead. "See, it's like this. Mihoshi here can give me one wish. So I could get rid of the curse, but I need help with the wording."

"Hmmm," Nabiki, slipping the coins into her pocket.

It was perhaps silly, but Nabiki tended to discount magical events such as had occurred with the evil curse doll that had possessed Akane.

Ranma+Scantily dressed blonde girl+Weird story dealing with wishes=bizarre. Ranma deciding he needed help instead of just putting his foot in his mouth and continuing to shove until he was biting himself in the ass? Couldn't be.

So this was either a scam pulled by the dumb-looking blonde on oh-so-gullible Ranma, some bizarre misunderstanding that had both of them pulling this lame story, or she was having one of those dreams again and had somehow eaten something Akane had made.

"Really, Ranma, how silly," Nabiki grabbed the lamp up and inspected the old battered-looking thing with an appraising eye, "if I were in your shoes, and I had a wish coming to me. It's simple, I'd simply say -"

by Rat Bastard

"It's simple, I'd simply say a wish for what I really desired, instead of wasting time asking around like this. Really, Ranma," Nabiki said sarcastically, "Why don't you just go ahead and wish for me to transform into a perfect little sex-slave slut for you?"

"Ooooh," said Mihoshi, "That's kinky. Granted!"

"What?" said Nabiki.

"What?!" said Ranma.

"But Master!" said Mihoshi. "You said that she should say what you should say as your wish, so I granted what she said you should say I should- er... Anyway, it's too late, the wish is granted. Gotta go!"

Poof

Ranma and Nabiki stared at each other for several seconds and blinked. Suddenly Nabiki gasped, as the wish started working upon her. It wasn't quite clear whether it would be Mihoshi's interpretation of the phrase "perfect little sex-slave slut" or Ranma's hidden, subconscious desires or Nabiki's mental picture of what Ranma might wish her into or perhaps a mixture of all three - but Nabiki was definitely changing to fit that mold

Nabiki's expression filled with terror, as she realized that she was changing in accordance with her careless, flippant wish. Her eyes pleaded desperately for Ranma to do something - anything - but he could only return her panicked gaze with the same helplessness.

by Thrythlind

Unfortunately, for both Ranma and Nabiki, Mihoshi had recently been reading certain comics, and, as a result, her idea of a sex toy went along with another transformation.

Both Ranma and Nabiki began to grow paler and grow sleepy. Nabiki felt herself growing more and more attracted to and loyal to Ranma, until she practically felt she was part of the martial artist.

In addition, Nabiki grew even more pale than Ranma, who had stopped at Kodachi's coloring. Nabiki was almost white in shade, with strangely darker hair and a much curvier figure.

Ranma could FEEL Nabiki's emotions in the back of his mind, her new loyalty to him, lust for him and the honest and forthright conviction that she would die for him if need be.

Neither noticed the pair of needle sharp fangs they had acquired.

Nor had they, in the wake of other emotions, noticed the new thirst they had acquired.

Meanwhile Ranma swallowed nervously as Nabiki pasted herself to him, and was finding he didn't mind that much. With his thoughts actually connected to hers, he actually was beginning to find her quite less of a threat than other girls, in fact was finding her quite attractive.

by Thrythlind

Now, despite Mihoshi's desire to follow the apparent wishes of her client as spoken by the girl that her client said she should listen too and as understood by a ditzy blonde with a vampire fetish, the genie was not allowed to kill people. Thus, she could not make them into the sort of vampire already existent within the world.

However, with nearly unlimited power at her hands she could do something else. She could come very close.

From the outside, Nabiki and Ranma bore many traits connected to the undead. Pale skin, retractable fangs, and longer nails tough as claws. Ranma's black hair seemed to turn darker still as Nabiki's brown hair darkened to a raven black. Both of their eyes had shifted to a scarlet hue.

Some of the changes, of course, came entirely from the sex slave part of the wish. Nabiki's breasts had swelled at least two cup sizes and an urge and a need was quickly washing over her. Terrified and aroused beyond her understanding, she drove herself forward and wrapped her arms about Ranma, clutching as if he were her lifeline.

"M...Master," Nabiki whispered, though she had intended to say Ranma. "I...I'm burning."

Ranma understood what was happening as history re-weaved about him.

Ranma had been split into two by Happosai's incense and nearly reduced into a fanged monster of mindless violence until his dark-side was forcefully rejoined to his yang. The brief happenstance had not been as completely undone as might they had thought.

Ranma kept quiet for a long time, mostly because even he hadn't realized the changes at first. And then a combination of things had happened.

First, was the sexual dependency drug that Happosai had slipped Ranma. Fortunately for Ranma, Happosai had not understood the directions and thus did not know that the potion would make Ranma's next partner devoted to him. It would not leave Ranma overwhelmed by lust.

This would normally not be a problem. Unfortunately, later that night Ranma happened upon a trio of thugs advancing on Nabiki. There was something very off about their chi and Ranma didn't hesitate to launch himself at them.

It was mere moments before the would-be muggers had turned tail and run before Ranma's martial arts talent. They had seemed much more incredulous at the defeat than the common ganger, however.

"Thanks Ranma," Nabiki had said feebly.

And Ranma had turned to see Nabiki struggling to stand, one hand to her throat where she had been bitten. A strange force was eating through her chi, killing her from the inside out and replacing her life force with something else. Ranma shouldn't have known what to do, but he did.

When Ranma's yin rejoined his yang, a new balance had been reached. And new instincts had come with it. Nabiki gasped with shock as Ranma quickly dove forward and latched onto her throat. Four sharpened canines sank into her throat and began to draw out Nabiki's life. And along withit, that strange force that had been killing her.

Before Nabiki fell into danger, Ranma had opened a vessel in his shoulder with a brief swipe of his nails. The middle Tendo girl's mind was swimming as she accepted the offered blood and drank deeply.

The diluted essence of the vampire that had been on the verge of turning Nabiki into a mindless ghoul, met with the essence of Ranma's vestigial chi-vampirism and combined into something completely new.

Living, breathing vampires in the manner of the chi vampire, but with the physical requirements of an undead vampire, that is what Nabiki and Ranma had become. And with a mish-mash of powers.

Nabiki and Ranma could walk through the daylight, though the sun burned them badly and they had to wear thick clothes. Nabiki became inhumanly quick and strong. Ranma might have become so if his chi-training and martial arts hadn't already enhanced him beyond that limit, but, as he was such an advanced martial artist, he gained no apparent increase in strength or speed.

They could both sense chi-auras now, in fact, their chi sight overwhelmed their normal sight.

The colors they saw weren't the same as they had once been, and they were now finding window as opaque as brick, while paper seemed almost a mere flimsy mist. She couldn't enjoy a movie very well any longer, nor television, it was like looking at a blank screen with the sound on.

And reading was a terribly difficult task. A thick slice of wood or some other solid object had to be placed under each page she wanted to read lest the now transparent paper jumble all the thankfully visible ink into a jumble of unreadable nonsense.

A small comfort was that the chi-sight was practically three-hundred and sixty degrees and operated regardless of the degree of light. Only a sharp accent in the highly visible chi-lines indicated the shift between night and day, for example. In addition, they were beginning to get adept at understanding what the auras about them said of their friends' and family's emotions were.

In addition, there were other powers that they had not yet learned. Such as teleporting along the chi-lines, ley-lines to the Europeans. There was also the ability to access chi that was external to them, including the chi of other living creatures, but neither had discovered that yet.

Silver was another problem

The main problem wasn't their new handicaps and powers. They were learning to cope with such things, and had even managed to hide their new natures from the majority of everybody else.

The main problem was that sexual dependence drug that Happosai had slipped Ranma. Apparently, the exchange of blood and mixing of souls was more than intimate enough without the sex to trigger the spell.

Nabiki now NEEDED Ranma, badly. She had held out bravely for a week since her near-death. But the spell was overpowering her. If she continued to fight then she'd do nothing but overload her own brain driving herself to eventual madness, or perhaps just a life as bimbo-ette sex-slave. Which wasn't much different from insanity.

Ranma frowned reluctantly, already forgetting the genie, and thanked the lucks that put both him and Nabiki at home alone.

He took the terrified girl gently by the shoulders and hesitantly leaned down to kiss her and direct her softly to the bed. Immediately some of Nabiki's distress seemed to fade as she moaned into the kiss, not protesting at all as her clothes were pulled off.

Nabiki, falling to Happosai's drug, was only aware of one thing, her master's inexperienced hands caressing her body and enthusiastically, if not skillfully, penetrating her virgin barrier.

Nabiki did not care about Ranma's lack of technique, she only cared that it was him, Ranma, taking her. And, what small part of her rational mind could see through the haze of lust, was almost driven to tears at the sight of Ranma's aura hanging over her, gentle and protective.

And then it was over, and Nabiki curled up against her master affectionately and slumbered.

Ranma watched her sleep with a load of hope and worry. Wondering if she'd been permanently damaged as Happosai had said was possible.

Finally, Nabiki woke up and...

"Are you okay, Nabiki?" Ranma asked hopefully. The girl turned toward the other vampire and nodded.

"I'll just have to ask you to make this a regular thing," she said, sighing.

Since gaining the ability to see auras, Nabiki was no longer very happy about herself. Her aura, compared to that of most of the people she knew, was a sickly and pale thing with only a glimmer of promise underneath the layers of unappealing chartreuse and brown. Knowing that Ranma saw the same thing, she couldn't imagine that Ranma would welcome her as a mate or servant.

She neglected to consider Ranma's compassionate side. Nor did she note that, since discovering her weak spirit, that it had been consistently strengthening.

"If you want to," Ranma said, reluctant and eager all at once. "We just gotta find a better place to do it."

"Getting caught in the act by Akane would not be good," Nabiki agreed. "Mas...Ranma, what shall we do for dinner tonight?"

Ranma blinked at the near slip of calling him "Master."

"Umm...maybe," Ranma fluttered. "I don't know."

Ferguson's replacement walked coolly to the podium, somewhat anxious to make a good image before the assembled new soldiers of the Helsing house. Soon after Sir Integral's release from prison when a trial declared her innocent, the Institute was up and running again. And the first order of business was to track down the source of the FREAK chips and shut it down for once and for all.

"This is a little out of our normal jurisdiction," the man said firmly. "But the incidents have occurred near the British Embassy and so we were able to convince the Japanese government to let us operate on a limited basis. Officially, we are sending a few experts to assist the newly formed APD in Japan. Unofficially...Sargeant Celes?"

Victoria nodded and stood up, a grim look in her eyes.

"I am ready, sir," she declared firmly.

"MI5 has some operatives in the area that will support your investigation," the commander said. "Try to avoid entangling yourself with the heathens if you can. That is what our official agent is therefore...of course...they're going to know that we sent someone."

"At least they're not papists," somebody muttered. Victoria rubbed her neck as she silently agreed with that.

"We think there are two groups of FREAKS here," the commander continued. "One of these break-ins was characteristically violent. The other set of criminals avoided any sort of permanent harm to the civilians."

"So we are looking for one set that is killing for fun and another that is stealing blood for need," Celes said, accepting that description.

"That is correct," the commander said. "Dismissed."

Meanwhile, a certain sword dancer was heading for the Land of the Rising Sun as well, if not for the FREAKS, then just for the chance that Helsing might send a force.

Alucard stood on top of the roof, following the FREAKS from a distance. They had just come from robbing a blood bank, if the container they were holding meant anything. He had already sent Police Girl to investigate where it had come from, and perhaps perform whatever damage control was necessary. After all, some things were best kept from public.

But he was brought out of his musings by a change within the group of FREAKS. To be more precise, it was the fact that several had just been reduced to a fine red mist.

Opening his senses as quickly as he could, he was astonished that whatever was attacking them was apparently beyond his current level to detect.

Pushing more power into it, he was finally able to make out what appeared to be a phantom of some sort, which seemed to be using a sword against the FREAKS, ending them quickly and with great finality. Looking closer still, he could make out a faint energy surrounding the sword, indicating it either had a silver coating, or was perhaps holding several runes to ensure the FREAKS did not regenerate.

Soon, much too quickly for Alucard's tastes, the slaughter ended. And then Alucard received yet another surprise, as the phantom seemed to fade back into existence, revealing itself to actually be a man.

The vampire smiled a bit, a smile that often made many members of Hellsing House whimper in fear. "It would appear we have a new player in town. Far be it from me not to ... introduce myself."

Seras Victoria came upon the blood bank that had been attacked, expecting as with most FREAK attacks, to find it a bloodbath of dead victims.

But there were no bodies on the floor. In fact, from her vantage point across the street, she could see people laying on the chair-like beds they used for people donating blood, several IVs stuck in them. The only person standing was a girl with short black hair, who wore a white trench coat.

One of the bedded humans, a woman, tried to sit up, moaning in pain. The white woman dashed over to her, easing the other back onto the bed. Seras was barely able to hear them speak, even with her enhanced hearing.

"Are you ... are you the Lady in White?"

"Yes," said the white clothed woman, as she drew a blanket over the woman. "Now rest, you need it after tonight. And don't worry; those punks are being dealt with."

She knew very little about the supposed Lady in White. From what the MI5 detail had been able to gather, she was seen often after attacks, assisting victims, many who said their injuries had been much worse before she had arrived, seeming to indicate she had a regeneration ability she could apply to others.

But what really got to her, was when the Lady in White looked directly at her, as if she wasn't hidden at all, and revealed her own deep red eyes.

Much to the British vampire's surprise, she was motioned to come into the bank, as the Lady in White began to clean up the place as best as she could.

Checking her side arm, Seras decided it was time to meet this vampire, and learn more of what was truly happening in Tokyo.

by The Demented Redhead

"You should be more careful," said the fabled Lady in White, as she went about cleaning up the place, trying to make it safer for when the injured awoke, or medical attention came for them.

"I didn't know I needed to," said Seras. "After all, FREAKS don't stay behind, and they take out usually everyone."

"FREAKS," muttered LiW. "Yes, that does suit them very well. I've heard of monsters in Juuban with more restraint than those things.

"No matter, Master Ranma will dispatch them. Creatures like them deserve no mercy."

"Ranma?"

She turned towards the blond vampire, wondering if she could have had the option to retain her old hair color. Nodding, she returned to her work. "My name is Nabiki."

"Okay," mumbled Seras, now at least having something to call the strange vampire other than 'Lady in White'. "Why are you here?"

"We were coming for blood," responded Nabiki, dumping some more stuff in the trash can, as she resumed straightening up. "Don't think us as trouble-makers," she added. "We merely came to quietly swipe what would be outdated tomorrow. These places usually hold it the extra day for just-in-case measures."

"And when you arrived..."

"Those FREAKS were running," said Nabiki. "Master Ranma went after them and left me to tend to the survivors. Luckily, the FREAKS were more in the mood for a 'dine and dash' as it were, so there were only injuries, no deaths."

Seras nodded, wondering how this Master of Nabiki's would fair against the FREAKS. Even she didn't take them on without heavy backup. It wasn't so much a question of skill, but the fact they were just hard-ass little problems to put down and keep down. "Why are you helping them?" she asked.

Nabiki turned towards the sleeping staff. "One of my Master's main tenets is to always protect the weak. And while we can understand the need for them to feed, to do so in such a violent manner is not something that will be tolerated."

Nabiki slowly stood up, checking the IV drips, as she continued. "Plus, it helps Master with one problem he used to have."

"And that is?" asked the blond vampire.

"To kill things that he must."

Ranma stared at the vampire across from him, his sword still in hand, and the case of blood beside him.

Only in Tokyo could I run across a vampire Carmen SanDiego.

Alucard had slowly faded into view after Ranma drew his sword, calling out 'whoever's there', which did surprise the old vampire that someone had been able to sense him.

"Quite some skills you have their, young one," said Alucard with a bow.

Ranma nodded slowly. "Are you here for trouble as well?"

Alucard smiled. "No, I merely come for ... the hunt that you've taken care of. Though I would have done better should the task have fallen to my hands."

"Well it didn't," said Ranma, continuing to keep an eye on the powerful vampire. "So why are you still here?"

"Why to meet you," said Alucard. "Your activities have caught the attention of some very powerful people."

"And I should care about that ... because?"

Alucard smirked, liking the young blood's attitude. "Because they have been slaying such beasts longer than you have been."

"Whatever," spat Ranma. "I got enough to deal with without some zealots with delusions of super-hero wet dreams coming after me."

"Then perhaps you would like to meet the lady I work for. She would be interested to meet someone as yourself."

For a moment, Alucard could have swore he heard the man mumble something about 'supernatural fiancées' and 'gutting pandas'; though why, he could not discern.

Ranma sighed, letting out frustration he had been building at the thought of a possible fiancée with supernatural ties. My old man probably did do something like that.

But Nabiki is right. We'll need allies sooner or later. Those blood banks are gonna be upping security after these attacks hit the news. And if they do, we'll need supplies of blood through other channels. "Why should I trust you?"

"I could have dispatched you easily if I so desired."

"Not likely," snarled Ranma. "I'm a lot better than I look, and unlike a lot of people, I didn't change much when I changed."

Alucard merely kept his smile going, remembering how much it sometimes infuriated Integra, but the boy seemed to almost be mirroring it. "Perhaps a dual one day to see?" he proposed, wondering if perhaps he had found an adversary aside from that mad monk with a bible fetish who perhaps could give him the thrill of combat.

Ranma's smirked changed, showing ... excitement. "Of course.

"But I do have to get going. Appointments to keep and all," muttered Ranma. School was starting to become a real pain. Ever since the change, Kuno had not let up on his attacks of the 'foul sorcerer', Kodachi had gone to goth, and some weird kid with sunken eyes was always trying to get something or another from him, usually blood.

"Very well," said Alucard. "Perhaps tomorrow night?"

Ranma nodded. "How am I supposed to get in contact with you if I want to meet your boss?"

"We'll find you," said the man in red, as he faded from sight.

Ranma could only sigh as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a small device that he could sense was releasing some signal. "Why do they always think no one will find these things? Like I wasn't going to see him tossing it at me."

"Remember when all we had to worry about was Ryoga walking in on us, or the Old Letch noticing we weren't all there?" asked Ranma, as he and Nabiki made their way back to the Tendo Dojo via rooftops. He had already dropped off the tracking device in an abandoned field, buried under a few rocks to keep anyone from finding it.

Nabiki nodded. "Of course, but I suppose we should be glad they weren't those Senshi from over in Juuban District of Minato Ward. I think they would have shot us dead before even asking if we were good guys."

Ranma nodded, glad once again he had begun to train Nabiki. After meeting that red-clothed vampire, he was most certainly not wanting to leave his student/girlfriend/mate defenseless. "What about this Seras?"

Nabiki shrugged as they stopped, wanting to make certain they hadn't been followed that far, or that someone was waiting for them at the Dojo. "She seems nice, kind of uncertain about herself. Not certain of her skills or abilities, but she did take the time to listen to me. Ran out quickly when she got a call."

Ranma nodded. "Too many outsiders in village, Ranma no like," he said, mimicking Shampoo's speech, eliciting a giggle from Nabiki. "Any suggestions?"

"We get home, put the blood away, get some sleep, and be prepared for more shit to hit this old fan tomorrow."

Ranma nodded. Sometimes it didn't pay to wake up.

"Let me get this straight," said Integra, looking at the two vampires via a video link. "You met the two vampires who were stealing just enough to survive, watched as one dispatched a group of FREAKS as if they were nothing, while the other took care of civilian casualties, and for once, you," she said, pointing at Alucard, "didn't start a fight?"

Alucard smiled. "I was feeling a bit generous. Besides, this new one ... interests me."

Integra sighed, rubbing her forehead. Things that tended to interest the ancient vampire tended to result in massive property damage.

"I believe they would work for us," suggested Seras. "The Lady in White, Nabiki, indicated they stole only for survival, which would be better than the FREAKS who seem to have no end to their thirsts."

Integra looked at them. She did wonder what had created these new vampires. "Very well, bring them in ... with their consent," she added, seeing Alucard's smile.

"Oh puu," he said. "You never let me have any fun."

Mr. Anderson looked over his small room that he had rented in the area.

This war, no, this whole city of Tokyo reeked of the energies of the fallen.

Smirking, he adjusted his glasses, as he turned towards his soul. "Then by the His will, I shall purify this land of all evils that befall it."

It was almost daylight soon. With the sun up, he could study the land, waiting and observing for the foul stenches of the figures of darkness to make themselves known.

And then ... he would send them back to the pits of damnation that had spawned them.

His first stop: Nerima.

Akane glared at her fiancé and sister. It had been a few weeks since some spell someone had performed had resulted in their new appearance.

But what was upsetting her most was the fact that her sister was getting so ... chummy ... with Ranma. He was even training her.

"So baka," she growled out, "when are you going to train me?"

"WAH!" entered in the TPW (Tendo Patriarch Waterworks, patent pending). "They're getting so close, now the school will be joined!"

"I'm not," said Ranma calmly as he continued to eat.

"Boy, you will teach your fiancée!" yelled Genma.

Ranma shook his head. "I don't have a Masters certificate. I can't teach her anything."

The two fathers looked at him, as if he had stated something beyond their comprehension.

"Then why are you teaching my sister, baka?"

Nabiki smiled. "One; I asked him to ... nicely. Two; I'm not the heir, so I don't need Daddy to finish teaching me."

"WAH! MY DAUGHTERS DON'T NEED ME ANYMORE!"

"Oh, Father," said Kasumi.

"And three, he isn't teaching my either Tendo or Saotome School of Anything Goes."

Ranma nodded. "I worked on a style that she can make her own. She's gotten quite good at it."

"Then you can do the same for me," stated Akane.

"Can't, you are your father's student first, and I don't steal students."

"That's okay, son," said Soun. "I give you permission to."

"Sorry, Daddy," said Nabiki in a sickenly sweet voice, "but you have to certify first that Akane has mastered the Tendo branch before she can take on another Sensei."

"Since when?" asked the fathers.

"Since I was five and wanted another Sensei," she replied. "Which you said I couldn't have one until I mastered the Tendo School first. Since I dropped out, that rule doesn't apply to me. But if Akane does, then she'll have to forfeit being your heir, which means we'll have no heir for our school."

"Um..." stated the two fathers and one daughter.

"But she could be taught by another Master of Anything Goes," answered Soun, looking at Genma.

"Oh, I wouldn't know how to teach her your School, Tendo old friend," said Genma, trying to shove responsibility off again.

"Didn't know how to teach his own damn school," muttered Ranma.

"And before you ask, Daddy," started Nabiki, "Ranma-kun can't teach her either unless he's certified to do so by the School's Grandmaster."

The two older men paled at that.

"I won't have a pervert teaching me!" yelled Akane.

"Then that just leaves our fathers," answered Ranma, not once looking up from his food, or from his plate, as he stole effortlessly from his father.

"Fine then," huffed Akane. "Daddy and Uncle Saotome can start teaching me after school today."

The two older men stared at her once again, as if she had stated something they couldn't understand.

"I can't believe that worked," said Ranma and Nabiki, Akane marching far enough ahead where she wouldn't be able to hear their whispers.

Nabiki nodded. "Aren't you glad I had us prepare for that, Ranma-kun?" she asked, still fighting hard not to call him 'Master' in public.

Ranma nodded. "We need to still play it careful though," he said, staring ahead, to ensure Akane didn't shorten her distance to try and overhear them. "Those new players last night; we haven't seen the last of them. And where one comes..."

"Others are sure to follow," answered Nabiki. "With our luck, it'll be someone with Kuno-baby today."

Ever since their ... changes, Tatewaki Kuno had been getting more and more intense in his efforts to 'defeat' Ranma and free the 'enslaved girls' under his control. Depending on the day and the number of shots to the head he received, Kuno would either include Nabiki or not, in those proclamations.

Eventually, they all did arrive at the school.

"At last, the foul demons have come to challenge me once more!" declared Kuno.

"To be honest, Kuno-baby," said Nabiki, looking at her nails, "we don't come here to challenge you. We come for the poor attempt of this school to give an education. You're just a reality challenged hack who can't take a girl not wanting him."

It should be noted that after Kuno's affection fell on her, Nabiki tended to grow very angry at him. It was only her own moral code and that of her Master that kept her from trying to see just how much pain Kuno could endure before he either passed out or passed away.

"Fear not, Nabiki Tendo, for I have acquired assistance from those who will assist the Mighty Blue Thunder of Furinkan High in his pursuit to remove the demon from you, and save not only you, but the fierce tigress and the pigtailed girl from the foul machinations of the demonic foul sorcerer!"

Ranma sighed. "Great, we get a side show today with our usual box of nuts."

"Behold, the..."

by The Demented Redhead

"Behold, the beauteous Sailor Senshi!" yelled Kuno, pointing his bokken to the school roof.

"Schools are for enriching our minds, not for demons to inhabit!" yelled Sailor Moon, the other Senshi and even Tuxedo Kamen standing beside her.

"Why?" yelled Nabiki, interrupting the speech.

"Excuse me?" asked Sailor Moon.

"Why can a demon not enrich their mind at school?" Nabiki asked.

"Because demons are evil!" yelled out Sailor Mars.

"So are some humans," commented Nabiki. "Are you saying that an evil human deserves more to go to school than a demon?"

"Demons cannot change!" yelled the Senshi of Fire once more. "They seek only death and destruction."

"So you're a racist," said Ranma.

"I believe the correct term would be xenophobic," said Nabiki. "They are fearful of other intelligent species other than humans."

Ranma nodded. "Okay, so they fear demons. Why? Not like I see any coming to take their jobs or anything."

"Excuse us," yelled Sailor Jupiter, "we were in the middle of our speech here!"

"Well it ain't like we can hear you that well from up there!" yelled Ranma.

"Fine then!" yelled Mars, hopping off the roof to the ground below. The other Senshi sighed, before they joined her on the ground. "Better?"

"Much," said Ranma. "Looking up there was putting a kink in my neck. Besides, it'll stop the guys around here from stairing up your skirts."

A quick look by the Senshi revealed that it had already been too late. Several boys were down on the ground, blood dripping from their noses, and a few more were standing with only minor nosebleeds. And still others were just drooling.

"Told you it was too high," muttered Sailor Saturn.

"You pervert!' yelled Akane, stomping up to Ranma. "How dare you look at that!"

"So I get yelled at for having no reaction," said Ranma. "But they go flashing everyone, and I'm the bad guy."

"We weren't flashing you!" yelled Sailor Uranus.

"You were wearing short skirts and standing on the edge of a roof, looking down at us," said Nabiki. "What did you think they were going to see?"

"I've been saying that for years," muttered Tuxedo Kamen.

"WAH! Everyone thinks we're perverts!" cried Sailor Moon.

"Enough I say!" yelled Kuno, leveling his bokken once again at Ranma, after having wiped the blood from his nose. "Verily, we must defeat the foul scourge so that my lady loves may be freed from his foul spell and shower me with deserved attentions."

Nabiki blinked, before facing the Senshi. "And you believed him when he said we were demons ... why?"

Sailor Venus scratched the back of her head. "Well, he was a lot better at it at the time."

"But there is something off about you," commented Sailor Mercury. "My computer says you aren't human."

"I knew it," said Sailor Venus. "He's a cute boy, so he has to be evil."

"So you're saying Kuno-baby isn't cute?" asked Nabiki.

"Not at all." "Nope." "No way." "I've seen better." "I'm not gay. And if I were, I could do way better than him." "Fuck no."

"That hurt you know," said Kuno.

"So once again you're just going to attack us because we aren't human, and if we aren't human, we have to be evil, right?" asked Ranma, ignoring the fuming Akane.

"Besides," said Nabiki, "the girls Kuno-baby is talking about want nothing to do with him. He's just deluding himself by saying the reason is because of Ranma-kun here."

"Lies! It isn't so!" yelled Kuno. "For why would they not love me, the fierce and undefeated Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!" he proclaimed, his bokken in the air, as thunder went off in the background.

"Don't look at me," said Sailor Jupiter. "I didn't do it."

"Come to me my fierce tigress," Kuno proclaimed, arms outstretched to Akane. "Come and let us prove our love."

"Dry up and die!" yelled Akane, finally having a safe target for her rage, as she punted the upperclassman into the wall.

"Perfectly normal day," said Nabiki with a smile.

Ranma sighed. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. At least she didn't attack me this time.

by Thrythlind

"Wait a minute," Akane said. "What do you mean by 'not human'?"

Nabiki flinched as Akane caught on to that particular fact and tried briefly and futilely to signal the Senshi not to say anything."

"Well," Sailor Mercury said hesitantly. "Their body temperatures are about ten degrees too cold and they're practically oozing necromantic magic. There are other things but from there it starts to get a bit technical."

Sailor Saturn looked up as if she'd been struck.

"Steeped in death and destruction," Sailor Mars said strongly, nodding.

"Oneesan," Sailor Saturn said plaintively, sniffing as she tugged at Sailor Mars' skirt.

"What is it? Don't you remember we're dealing with evil dealers of death and...OH!" Sailor Mars turned pale as she noticed the shine of tears developing in Sailor Saturn's eyes. "Well, I wasn't saying that all death-magic is evil, you know I don't think you're evil, don't you?"

Sailor Saturn sniffed again.

"What about..." Akane started to ask.

"What about," Nabiki interrupted, "we call this off now and schedule some time to deal with it later."

"Yeah," Ranma said. "We've got problems enough with homework and vampires and..."

"He said the V word," Nabiki mumbled as she rolled her eyes.

"Ah aha!" Kuno declared loudly. "Why could I not see it before, Saotome is obviously a prince of the undead,"

"Vampires don't have life-force," Sailor Mercury tried to interject over the sound of Sailor Saturn crying, Sailor Mars trying to apologize and Kuno ranting.

She wasn't really heard that well.

and Nabiki Tendo is his first victim. Or perhaps she went willingly?"

"Hey!" Nabiki said forgetting herself for a moment. "I never asked to have some freak jump out at me in the middle of the night!"

"Ranma!" Akane gasped. "How could you do that to my sister!"

"I ain't done nothing!" Ranma shouted.

"If they're vampires, then why don't they burn up in the sun?" Sailor Moon asked curiously.

"They're not vampires," Sailor Mercury tried to reiterate.

"In the name of Buddha," Kuno declared thrusting a string of prayer beads in Nabiki's face, "I demand that you leave defiled creature."

"I'm Catholic, Kuno," Nabiki said irritably, brandishing the small crucifix she'd recently taken up wearing again. "And Ranma's ignorant."

"Yeah, that's right!" Ranma said before pausing to consider what Nabiki had just said. "Wait a minute."

"Foul undead thing," Kuno growled low. "I shall take this and ram it through both your dark hearts."

"You want to touch Nabiki," Ranma said, instantly in Kuno's face. "You gotta go through me!"

"That is easy enough, cur!" Kuno declared.

"Rei-Oneesan thinks I'm evil!"

"Hey, watch the name, watch the name!"

"Don't worry, Nabiki, Dad will get an exorcist and you'll be fine!"

"They're vampire-like, not real vampires. Vampires don't have working internal organs."

"So they're not going poof in the sun because they're stomach is growling?"

A certain gymnast touched down on a nearby building and started checking over her costume and items. She was a bit stressed and was a bit overdue for some relaxation with her "friends".

Ranma and Akane never failed to brighten her day, they just behaved in such an amusing manner. She'd long gave up trying to win Ranma, but that didn't mean she couldn't play the game for fun.

And right now she...was going to turn right around and go find some other person to draw amusement from. Maybe that boy that turned into a pig.

Yep, anywhere but near the Senshi, one close-call was enough, thank you very much. Her brother apparently could stand around them unnoticed, but she knew they had a hair trigger.

"Uran You might still want to sit and watch, Countess," a voice said, drawing Kodachi's attention to a green-haired woman she could have sworn wasn't sitting there a moment ago.

"What do you mean Countess?" Kodachi asked, still keyed to break and run.

"It is a hereditary title, passed from generation to generation or by marriage," the woman said, standing up.

"I know what it is," Kodachi said. "But why'd you call me that?"

"Not like humans, not like us," the woman said. "Not like those two down there and not like the dead things that walk the night. What will history say about Kodachi Kuno? Will she be the demoness responsible for centuries of pain and torment, or will she just be one of many of a new race that will finally come forward to share the life of humanity? And do I risk the one in order to hope for the other?"

Kodachi was chilled as the woman seemed to be considering whether or not to kill her, at least that was how Kodachi translated the last comment.

"Or perhaps I just enjoy tormenting random people."

As the woman said that, she smiled and vanished before Kodachi's eyes.

The gymnast fled wildly, mind reeling with the mantra "Not helping the stress! Not helping the stress!

As the confusion started getting worse, Sailor Venus pulled from the mess and walked next to Nabiki.

"So, these vampires," she said. "What are they like? Do they wear military uniforms or red coats or anything."

"Umm just a bunch of street punks really," Nabiki said nervously. "Long tongues, but there was a woman in a uniform recently. I think she was an Australian, she had a big gun."

"This isn't Helsing's jurisdiction," Sailor Venus muttered. "But we haven't had FREAK problems here until now either...I'll have to ask some of my Interpol friends..."

Nabiki arched an eyebrow at the other girl.

"Let's just get out of here," Sailor Moon shouted. "False alarm! Venus, coming?"

"Yeah, just a moment," Venus said thinking to herself as she followed the other Sailor Senshi.

"Wait, you can't leave," Kuno said. "You have yet to smite the evil doers into dust."

"Akane, Ranma, we've got classes starting soon," Nabiki said wandering off.

"I still want to know what exactly happened," Akane said.

by The Demented Redhead

Nabiki sighed as she sat in her classroom, the teacher continuing to try and teach. Some of it appearing to actually get through, as Tatewaki Kuno was still chasing the Senshi, demanding they help him purify Furinkan of the vampire menace.

Of course, his rants had ended up spreading the 'V' word around campus, and had now caused several of her classmates to either shy away from her, stare, or whisper. In truth, she'd be surprised if at least three people today didn't try to either stake her or ask to be turned.

Could she turn people? Probably best not to find out until they understood themselves better. And her Master might be upset if she tried to turn anyone.

But then again, her Master was in another classroom, most likely facing even worse questioning than she had been when she entered her own. It was doubtful Akane would let the subject drop, probably convinced her Master had changed her.

But at least they didn't get blasted by the Senshi. That ... was unexpected. And it had generated a little more information about their situation than they had before.

Plus, she now knew at least the first name of one of the Senshi: Sailor Mars was named Rei.

And Sailor Venus knew about vampires. She knew about the FREAKS as well as something called Hellsing, which must have had something to do with combating them.

Did that mean Seras and the Carmen SanDiego wannabe work for them? Were there others? Were their enemies they had yet to meet?

Shaking her head, she concentrated once again on what the teacher was saying. After all, taking notes was hardly an option, since she didn't have much in the way of a thick piece of wood to put under a notebook.

Maybe they can at least tell us how to see normally.

I just hope the Master is all right after all of this.

"What the hell did you do to her, baka?" growled Akane.

"I didn't do anything to her," said Ranma, trying to stay in character. Since changing, he had been trying to play two roles, to further distance himself from what he had become. People expected the jock Ranma to be rough and kind. The phantom that slew FREAKS never hesitated to rip them apart.

Nabiki herself had roles; between the money extorting Ice Queen and the benevolent Lady in White; between the cold girl of Furinkan and the hot girl for her Master.

Sadly, there were times he wished he could drop the roles, be what he was now, and stop hiding.

But as long as they saw him as he was, they'd never suspect that he and Nabiki were what they were now. If they knew, she'd be a target before he could blink, the fathers would be forcing a wedding.

Akane ... she would demand answers he couldn't give, and favors he couldn't offer.

If they were ignorant, they were safe. If they knew, they were in danger. It was as simple as that.

Too bad she didn't get that.

"Then why won't you tell me what happened?" she demanded.

"Because if Nabiki ain't talking about it, why should I?" he asked.

"What's going on, Ranchan?" asked Ukyo, entering the class. She was running behind, but since the first period teacher was still missing—some said he had received a private meeting with the principal and then immediately checked into a mental health facility—class had still not started.

Second period was taught by Ms. Hinako, so many decided to enjoy their ability to move while they could.

"The baka turned Nabiki into a vampire and Kuno called the Senshi on them."

Ukyo blinked for a moment. Even for Nerima, that was ... weird. "Ranchan, explain?"

"Can't."

"Why not?" asked Ukyo.

"Because if Nabiki ain't wanting to talk about it, neither am I?"

"So are you or are you not a vampire?" yelled Akane, capturing the attention of the classroom, before she blushed in embarrassment.

"Gees, Akane," said Ranma sarcastically, "maybe you'd like to have every nutjob in the district coming here. Ya certainly yelled that out loud enough."

"Ranchan ain't a vampire," said Ukyo with a chuckle. "He ain't bursting into flames like a vampire would in sunlight."

"Yeah, but..."

"Drop it already, Akane," said Ranma. "Ya keep that up and people are gonna think you're crazy like Kuno."

"Okay you delinquents," said the adult Hinako as she entered the classroom, "take your seats so we can begin."

As much as Akane wanted to continue, she didn't want to be drained before lunch, and reluctantly sat down.

But she promised herself she wouldn't rest until she found out what was going on.

Deep within the temporary headquarters of the Hellsing operations in Tokyo, there were two vampires within a room, one male dressed in red and drinking blood from a glass like a fine wine, while the female leaned against a wall, an empty blood pack in the trashcan by her side.

"Quite an interesting discovery we've come across, Police Girl. Don't you agree?"

"Yes, Master," said Seras. "They seem to be unique."

"Unique indeed," he said, swirling the blood inside the glass. "I personally have never met a vampire like them. And I doubt you have as well."

"Why, Master?"

"Because, no other vampire I have met before has ever had a heartbeat."

Seras looked at him, eyes wide. "But they are like us."

"No, my dear Police Girl, they are not," he said, as he finished the glass. "But I do intend to find out how."

"You mean by fighting the man you met?"

"But of course," smiled Alucard. "He does so intrigue me. We shall have a most enjoyable time tonight when we meet.

"Until then, rest up, Police Girl. Tonight promises to be a most interesting hunt."

by Thrythlind

It had been a long time since Sailor V had contacted her old comrades in Interpol. It was generally assumed and agreed that the senshi had stumbled onto enemies a bit beyond the ability of most earthly organizations. Still, Minako, or at least Sailor V, still had a generally good relationship with the international law enforcement group.

As long as the subject of back pay was not brought up.

The agent she knew best in the Japanese branch office walked into his office and sat down well before he noticed the magical girl sitting on the window sill. When he finally caught her reflection in the glass, he spit out his coffee and almost choked.

"Gee, calm down Michaels," Venus said. "It hasn't been that long."

"Why don't you ever just give us a call?" he asked, recovering his voice.

"I don't like to be tracked back home, thank you," Venus said.

"What are you doing here anyway?" the agent asked. "Last we heard, you and your friends were dealing with things that were a planetary threat. We still have our hands full keeping Shadaloo under control."

"FREAKS," Venus said.

Michaels paused and looked up at her seriously.

"There was some activity in Hong Kong," Michaels said seriously. "But Helsing shut that down."

"Gah, I'm falling out of date," Venus said. "Last I heard, that stuff was limited to Europe."

"Springing up all over the place now," Michaels said. "And Helsing's taken some serious casualties of late and they're running into bureaucracy issues that keep them from acting in some places or following up some leads to the source."

"Not good," Venus said, calculating the ability of the senshi to help out this and still be ready for any cosmic-level threats. She didn't like what she was seeing. "What about the BPD?"

"America doesn't like trading information with us," Michaels said. "But the bit we're getting says that the BPD has the situation under control right now."

"Japan isn't in a position to handle this yet," Venus said. "APD out contracts to a psychic with some good skills and contacts in that biz, but they don't have any real agents themselves yet. And I really can't promise Senshi help. If anything big starts up, we have to focus all effort on that."

"Like I said," Michaels repeated. "Our paranormal agents have their hands full with Shadaloo."

"Arrggg!" Venus said. "This should be simpler! Now we have Helsing's pet vampires wandering around Japan. When the Outers run across one of them, it'll be a huge fiasco."

"Yeah," Michaels said while smirking. "I guess since you're the only member of your group with real professional experience, it makes loose cannons much more difficult to deal with."

"You haven't even heard the best part yet," Venus said, knowing that the information would get to the right ears. "We have a new type of vampire now."

"A variation on the FREAKS?" Michaels asked.

"No," Venus said. "Similar, but not the same. We talked to two of them so far. Broad daylight." She met his eyes for that information to let the significance sink in. "Body temperature, cool, but self-maintaining, not dependent on the surrounding air. Mercury said they had a life-force even. Even FREAKS are basically spirits bound into dead bodies, and true vamps are almost pure-death energy given the appearance of a human. There shouldn't be a life force in either. I couldn't pick up any sort of evil intent from either of them."

"Do you have a name on these two living vampires?" Michaels asked.

"Students at Furinkan High School in Nerima Ward," Venus said. "Ranma Saotome and Nabiki Tendo. Lovers, trying to hide it from everybody they know. Kids, one serious about her education and future, and one serious about his martial skills. Both serious about their loyalties."

"So, still the thought patterns of reasonable sentients. As I recall, Nerima has some other rumors right now," Michaels added. "The Lady in White and the Phantom, thought it was just some loonies fantasizing something off that Blade movie before you came here today."

"APD's mess," Venus said, shrugging. "Not ours." It was a way to shrug off their lack of awareness of the situation, but both knew it was a mere excuse.

"Well," Michaels said. "Maybe we can give APD a bit of a heads up."

by Thrythlind

Minako idly checked her bow as she walked into the senshi meeting and accepted the greetings of the others with a silly smile and absent-minded wave.

Inside she was a bit in a turmoil.

Minako had never really talked to the others about her life before meeting Usagi and Ami. As far as they knew, the ribbon she always wore was just a fashion statement and not a war memento.

Every senshi had their own little quirks and powers. Minako's telepathic abilities were hers, though she'd had to spent so much time shutting things out that she wasn't able to use it to full effect and made her read as (and remain effective as) more of a minor empath than what she really was.

Of course, they all had their secrets too, and the fact that Minako had officially worked for Interpol before the Senshi united was hers.

She was about to have to dig into some of that history. Hopefully it didn't change the way she was viewed.

The unexpected appearance of Setsuna did not put her at ease, especially as the inscrutable woman's thoughts were directed her way.

"Now that Minako has come back from her errands," Setsuna said cooly. "I believe we can get started."

"Okay, so I'm assuming that your being here means there's something major happening now," Makoto said in resignation.

"Let us ask Minako," Setsuna said, turning to the girl.

She bit her lip momentarily and sighed.

"I need to explain some things about the vampires in Nerima," she said.

"What would you know about it?" Haruka asked dismissively.

"I've had the misfortune of working with one of them," Minako said, meeting the other blonde's eyes.

"Wait, you worked with a vampire?" Usagi asked.

"An Interpol investigation crossed paths with a Hellsing operation," Minako said. "I was one of the people Interpol had on the..."

"Interpol?!" Ami asked.

"Sailor V had to get her money from somewhere," Minako said idly. "Can I get on with this?"

Setsuna didn't want to say anything. Sometime tonight, decisions would be made that possibly would have a big impact on their future. She'd seen a lot of possibilities with two major threads: on the one hand was chaos and battle, on the other was a period that wouldn't be marked as important for senshi history.

Setsuna vastly preferred the latter.

There were several paths to either result, so many that she wasn't certain what the exact details were or what actions would lead to what results. She hoped, as Minako gave her information, to be able to narrow down some of the variables with more information, but still there was too much.

Setsuna was tempted to advise stomping out the FREAK infestation that had sprung up in Japan, the better to get Hellsing out of the country and back on Millennium's path, but she couldn't be certain that the result wouldn't be sparking the unwanted chaos.

Likewise, inaction and letting the other powers handle things could mean letting things spiral out of control.

Too many variables still.

Minako had already set the stage for APD to recruit or at least investigate those new vampires, and she had given the future Countess Kodachi a bit of a warning, but even those two actions might have been rash.

The possibility of a fight between Alucard and Uranus was growing closer to a certainty as Minako gave some of her information. Setsuna didn't really worry about it, Alucard was a lot harder to kill than Uranus was likely to think. The almost certain fight would likely reach a standstill.

The psychopath would probably think it was "fun" and not take it as an insult, making such an event really a non-event.

Kodachi wasn't in Alucard's league, however.

Neither version of the "Countess" had vanished from the Time Gates yet. She still had potential to be either evil or good. The question was, what to tell others. Another brush with Uranus preemptive strategies might push Kodachi over to the otherside.

Decisions were as fun as always.

"That was a sailor senshi," Kodachi muttered as she paced in front of her mirror. "And she was talking about me. How could I become a demon? OR the first of a new race? I am human! And as great as my beauty and intellect is, am not anywhere in such a league as this."

Kodachi shivered and turned to her windows, deciding to try and take a late night roof-hop to clear her head.

"Let's get out of here, Master," Nabiki whispered to Ranma quietly. "The moonlight is so beautiful tonight."

Ranma shuffled nervously, hoping nobody else in the household was anywhere nearby. Sometimes, Nabiki's feelings toward him got in the way of her normally cautious nature. They couldn't have the other Tendos, or, worse, his father, knowing about what they were doing, or things were going to go berserk.

The best thing, when Nabiki was in one of these moods, was just to give in. It usually meant that Happosai's spell was trying to get ahold of her again. Besides, it was beautiful outside.

by The Demented Redhead

School itself had been a small bust that day, especially after Kuno's morning stupidity. Luckily, the deluded True Blunder didn't return with the Senshi, nor did he return with any other Devil Hunters.

He didn't return at all, indicating he was still at it, or been rendered out cold by a pissed Senshi he had decided was in love with him.

Of course, that did little to help during the day. Ranma had dealt with two attempts by students to stake him to see if that would free Akane for them, three attempts to see if his female form was a vampire as well, dozens of requests to find out if either he or Nabiki were succubae, and several requests about joining his undead army.

Really, what are these people reading? Does such a thing as an undead army even exist?

In a certain warehouse, a vampire sneezed.

Nabiki had dealt with a similar situation, just on a smaller level, most likely due to her attitude and reputation as the Ice Queen.

Well, that and the fact that she stated that if someone asked her about what had been said in the schoolyard, she would call in double their debts before answering, may have also had something to do with it.

But they both made it out of the school day alive and unharmed, despite Akane's constant nagging, and the rest of the local morons who attended school with the duo.

That is ... until now.

"HOW DARE YOU MAKE MY DAUGHTER AN UNDEAD CREATURE OF DARKNESS!" yelled Soun Tendo, in a full demon-head rant.

Ranma could only blink at that, having grown both used to the tactic, and having seen scarier stuff.

"Father," called Kasumi, "the priest said he would be here soon to begin an exorcism for Nabiki-chan!"

The middle Tendo sighed. "I really need to knock Akane around for this."

"Now tell us what happened, pervert!" demanded Akane, her rage at being kept in the dark having grown during the day.

Ranma merely waved it off to Nabiki. "I told ya already, ask her."

"Well," said Akane, glaring at her sister ... while holding a clove of garlic and a cross.

Nabiki could only sigh again, seeing her sister run with an idea once more and not take other things into account ... such as the fact she was still wearing the cross she had shown Kuno earlier that day. "It is really simple, little sister," she said, starting to glare at Akane. "I was attacked; Ranma took the monsters out, and kept me from being turned into a slave."

It was true; he did keep her from becoming a slave to some warped will like those creatures had been. She just didn't mention that he did it by unintentionally making her his slave.

"Then why are you like that?" accused the little sister.

"Because it was either this or death," growled Nabiki, stomping up to her sister. "Do you want me dead?"

"Of course not!" yelled Akane.

"Then shut up and leave it alone!" yelled Nabiki, tired of her sister's antics, and Akane's assaults on her Master. "We are dealing with this as best as we can, and the last thing we need is the usual crap from everyone. Now leave us alone!" she screamed, shoving her way past Kasumi, and heading up to her room, before her mental cool broke.

"Oh my," said Kasumi. "Does this mean I should call the priest back and cancel the exorcism?"

It went downhill from there. The priest had left quickly, after seeing Genma change into a panda, followed by Akane punching a new hole in the wall for Ranma disappearing (he had been in the attic, but she never really bothered to look beyond the Dojo and his room). Her temper had gone back up after his mother had made the comment about whether or not he was being 'manly' as a vampire.

Eventually, he got tired of the wait, and placed a dummy in his bed. He had no doubt Akane would be there soon to 'ensure he wasn't doing anything wrong' at night, most likely by either pounding the dummy, or watching through the door to ensure he didn't turn any of the remaining people in the house.

So he went to the roof, where his mate sat waiting for him.

"Let's get out of here, Master," Nabiki whispered to Ranma quietly. "The moonlight is so beautiful tonight."

Giving in once more, he held her hand as the leaped out into the night, waiting to find a safe place to change into the Phantom and the Lady in White, before they went on to find a place to ... enjoy themselves.

Lucky for them, their new forms didn't require much, if any sleep, the chi of the world constantly revitalizing them. Sleep seemed to only be necessary if they were extremely exhausted, like when they had first transformed and his first time with Nabiki.

It was still nice to get, but a few hours a night was all they really needed.

And right now, what Nabiki needed ... was him.

"Why did you work with a vampire, Mina-chan?" asked Usagi.

Minako sighed. "The Dark Syndicate wasn't the only thing I had to deal with. Those FREAK vampires were just starting to show up, and Interpol was looking for whatever help they could get, considering they knew they were in a little over their heads. So when the Hellsing organization showed up, we—"

"Hellsing?" asked Ami.

"Think of them as guys that fight what goes bump in the night, but not loudly enough for us to worry about," said Minako. "Well, the group that works mostly for Great Britain, most of the other major world powers have their own organizations like this."

"And you worked for a vampire?" asked Makoto.

Minako shook her head. "I worked for Interpol, I teamed up with a vampire at times. He was named Alucard."

"Who's he?" asked Hotaru.

"A very ancient one," said Setsuna, jumping into the conversation. "He is one of the oldest and most powerful of his type still around today, enjoys fighting, and is currently contracted to work for Hellsing."

"Why am I not surprised that you know what is going on and aren't letting us know?" asked Haruka.

"I do have some advice," said Minako. "This is an absolute: no matter what, you are not to fight with the Hellsing group."

"Why?" asked Ami.

"We may have power, but they have skill, and they aren't afraid to use it."

"Are you sure it just isn't because they never asked you to join?" smirked Haruka, before she received an elbow from Michiru.

"They did," said Minako. "But I turned them down."

"Why?" asked Michiru.

"Because I talked to some of their soldiers," said Minako, her face slightly pale. "And if I fought what they did, I would never be able to sleep without nightmares again."

Setsuna knew very well what those threats were. It had taken some well placed attacks of her own to keep said threats from pulling in the Senshi as well.

But with Minako's proclamation, for the moment, the threat of either of Hellsing's vampires showing up and fighting Uranus was down a bit. But it would take a lot more before it would be impossible. Haruka was a stubborn person, after all.

Add to that the fact Usagi would want to help and protect Japan from any menace, and there was still a good chance the Senshi would be drawn into this fight.

But there was still some stuff in the air, and she needed to make certain that one potential threat was already dealt with, one in which none of the Senshi were prepared to deal with.

She just hoped that the ones she pawned it off on would be up to the task.

"Thank you, Master," purred Nabiki.

After changing, the two had made their way to a large park, hoping to hide in the large wooded areas, and avoid being spied on by perverts and possible Nerima martial artists out for blood.

So they were lying on Ranma's black coat, Nabiki's white coat covering them slightly, as they lounged in the moonlight, fresh from a session of vigorous sex.

He lay there, rubbing her back, as she continued to moan slightly. He had little clue as to what was going on, other than what they knew, such as the names Hellsing, an apparent group who had dealt with the FREAKS before. This group also had two vampires already working for it, and one who had a fetish for dressing like computer game criminals, but also had a great amount of power at his disposal, just suppressed for some reason.

It seemed as if too many people were showing up all at once.

"When do we go out on patrol?" asked Nabiki, cuddling into his side, as Ranma seemed to be staring at the Moon, deep in thought.

"Here in a bit," he said, finding himself not quite ready to depart his current situation.

Nabiki nodded slightly, before nuzzling once again into his chest. If she could help it, she'd rather stay as they were for the moment, until they would have to return home, and return to ... that.

But she knew she had responsibilities now. Granted, they were from Ranma, but still, she felt she had somewhat of a duty to help. And after seeing what those FREAKS were doing, she had to admit ... helping had been the right thing. She didn't regret it, but then again, she wondered if it might be the possibility of a long lived life that was making her consider such things.

So, she took what time she could get. At least they could enjoy it in the moonlight.

Kodachi sighed as she walked down the path, enjoying the nighttime scent, and considering the words the Senshi had spoken to her. They still rattled her deeply, as she tried to figure out what meaning they held, at least for her.

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

She paused, looking up from her internal musings, to spot a foreigner before her, wearing glasses with short cut hair ... and a sword.

"And He has shown me another denizen of the Dark that I shall smite."

Kodachi growled, as she retrieved her ribbon. "And to think, I was wondering what I might be able to do to help with my stress," she said. "HO HOHOHOHO!"

Anderson cringed at hearing that laugh. Surely, she had to be a demon with such a laugh.

"Ah, this is a glorious night for a fight!"

The two turned, spotting a red clothed figure coming up the path that met their own.

"And I see you agree with me," smirked Alucard.

by Thrythlind

Kodachi was not the fool her brother. She knew there was something going on here that she didn't understand. There was more to this meeting than just another Neriman martial arts battle.

Still, she held onto the bravado, refusing to be marked as prey or weak. At least until she could break away and review the situation further.

"I see the Faithless dogs of Hellsing have sent thee, demon," Anderson said, brandishing the bayonet that Kodachi had first taken for a short sword. "Good, it is well-past the time that you should have been dealt with."

"I've told you before, Father Anderson," Alucard said, smiling broadly. "I have nothing to fear from a dog like you."

"I'm afraid both of you gaijin will have to move on," Kodachi said. "The Black Rose does not accept you being here and disturbing her peaceful domain."

"We'll make this quick, girl," Alucard said, smirking.

"Get thee behind me Satan!" Anderson yelled, throwing out a small flight of blessed bayonets at both Kodachi and Alucard.

The blessed knives failed to find their targets as both Alucard and Kodachi leaped out of the way.

The gymnast was fairly well confident of making a good show of herself as she grabbed one of the knives with her ribbon and sent it flying back toward the white-garbed blonde man, expecting to jump aside as most of her opponents did.

The sound of gunfire was a rude awakening for the aristocratic teenager. As was the fountain of blood that sprung up from the viciously smirking Anderson. The white-garbed gaijin collapsed momentarily to the ground amongst that blood in front of Kodachi's horrified eyes.

"What did you do?" Kodachi demanded as she landed near the body. "You killed him!"

"Don't be so sure girl," Alucard said, already leaping down towards ground level.

Kodachi barely heard the motion behind her before it was too late. Dodging aside she felt the burn of a deep cut slash across her side. Clutching the bleeding wound, and thankful that it was so small, Kodachi gaped as the blonde man started to pull himself back together.

Alucard charged in at the priest and a slash of steel severed the vampire's hand, which flew away, connected by a flimsy seeming band of black...something that eventually pulled the hand back to the body.

"M..monsters!" Kodachi stuttered fearfully as she brought her whip to bear. Then she remembered her samurai heritage and firmed her chin defiantly. "I...I can't let you roam free on these streets!"

She slashed out, only a bit hopelessly, at the two creatures before her, and leaped past aiming for the roof of a nearby building. Behind her, she lashed out with her own projectiles, scattering the scene with poisoned flower petals and a pair of clubs.

Kodachi was by far the most agile and acrobatic of Neriman's martial artists, even Ranma was a distant second in terms of pure acrobatic and gymnastic skill. It was due to this that she was able to alter her trajectory as the red-coated...thing used what appeared to be great strength to jump over and past her.

She impacted the wall, bending her knees to collect the kinetic energy instead of simply letting it dissipate away. A brief glance about her showed that her flower petals had little effect. Her gymnast clubs were just coming close to impact now, however.

"I shall not fear the terror of night!" Anderson shouted, laughing as the clubs just missed him and smashed into the ground. A flurry of bayonets had already been launched at the nimble gymnast.

A pair of fireballs lit up the night sky a moment later, but Kodachi knew better than to expect that was the end of the priest as she rebounded off the wall to catch a perch on top of a light pole.

Even if she didn't consider the blonde man-thing's regenerative capabilities, her clubs were not designed to kill. The fire was a weak and flashy addition that burned too swiftly to do more than singe eyebrows. All that remained was concussive force, and that wasn't likely to do more than stun her enemy.

She needed more deadly weapons to put a stop to these monsters, she determined as she watched the crazed priest's body fly wildly across the street from the impact of her explosions.

Thankfully, her enemies had provided her with some. It was a simple matter to snag one of the bayonets out of the terrain and carry it to her free hand. Simple, but time-consuming, and she was lucky that the first bullets did little more than graze across her skull.

Mind rattled from the impact, Kodachi fell to instinct to dodge the rest of the volley, using simple flips to pull herself out of the line of fire and force the red-cloaked gun-using monster to move out of whatever position he was in. There was plenty for her to use in the construction site she'd just pulled them toward, after all.

"I was originally more interested in that dog of a priest, girl," Alucard declared in a fit of terrifying psychotic glee. "But since you insist."

Twisting about a small pile of crates, Kodachi dodged around behind the red-cloaked vampire as he landed on top of her cover. A flick of her wrist sent the ribbon flying for a lever on a nearby crane and then pulled.

Alucard arched an eyebrow as he turned about to bring Kodachi back into his vision, and then the wrecking ball slammed into the vampire, sending him flying away from the girl, towards where she had seen the priest landing.

Kodachi didn't have time to catch her breath, already she needed to dodge another volley of bayonets, even as the "priest" behind them turned about to move on Alucard's prone form.

Rising up into the air after a few short hops, Kodachi felt the apex of her jump coming close and looked below to see the two monsters in hand-to-hand confrontation. She could leave while they fought each other, but there was no way that she would allow such monstrous killers on her streets.

She prepared herself to meet her ancestors for the stupidity she was about to perform.

The ribbon lashed out again, catching the arm of the priest as he lunged forward mightily, not yet aware that he had gained a bit of a fetter. Marvelling at the sheer power behind her newly acquired momentum, Kodachi aimed her flight perfectly.

The teenaged gymnast landed more solidly than she could ever remember doing before launching forward at an almost completely horizontal angle. Her procured bayonet slashed through the unaware priest's back and out through his ribs before slicing deep into and through the throat of the red-cloaked gun-user.

Kodachi herself bounded off the wall behind Alucard and back into the air, her momentum almost gone as she virtually hovered in the air above the two titans, hoping they were vanquished.

As Alucard's head refused to fall off his shoulders, but merely grew a new neck, and Anderson's wound was already closing, Kodachi whimpered meekly.

The Black Rose lashed out with her ribbon, desperate to acquire some more momentum, but a flying bayonet sliced through the ribbon, and now Kodachi was truly vulnerable, with no momentum available to change direction until gravity caught up with her.

The bullets and knives seemed to come in slow motion, just as slow as her own attempts at throwing her weight into a flip seemed to be. Then came the impacts and her carefully controlled leap turned into a ragdoll toss straight for the wire-wrapped fence surrounding the construction site.

Her mind caught the pole that was rising up to meet her, and then flashed back to her brush with that senshi earlier in the day.

She couldn't be a demon.

Not if she was about to die a samurai.

Closing her eyes, Kodachi calmed herself, emptying her mind for perhaps the first time in her life, and waited.

The fence pole slammed into Kodachi's chest and speared straight through, pushing out a mess of internal tissue out the now gaping hole in the back, but Kodachi made no sound at the terrible pain.

She merely waited to be freed of this existence.

It was several seconds before she realized that the pain was fading, but her senses were not. She could still hear the battle raging around her. The sounds of grinding metal, gunfire and the voices of her opponents came to her ears. The smell of blood and gunsmoke filled her nostrils.

She carefully opened her eyes and looked down to see the pole impaled through her chest and how she was hanging limply against it. Instinctively reaching for the item, she flinched as she saw her arms wrapped in some sort of vines with a small host of thorns growing out of them.

Gasping, she planted her feet and pushed herself up off the pole, landing lightly in front of a store with a huge mirror on display in front.

Kodachi gawked at what she saw.

In her chest, where her heart should have been, a gaping hole was all that there was. Yet she could feel no pain from the injury, only a memory of pain that had been. Green vines grew out of her shoulders and wrapped about her throat and arms like some gruesome mockery of a fashion show. Similar vines grew from the base of her spine and wrapped about her legs. Blood dripped out of the corner of her mouth and from her horrifically reddened eyes like tears.

As she gaped, the vines pulled away from her arms instinctively and snapped back, growing thin sub-branches outward, with a fine, semi-transparent membrane between them until a pair of thorny wings flapped and took her instinctively away from the visage before her.

Without further thought, the wings stopped flapping, bringing Kodachi firmly to the ground with a reactive grunt. Almost immediately, the vines were again wrapping about her arms.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she shrieked loudly, sending a chill through the bodies of every being that hard the sound.

Even Anderson and Alucard froze momentarily as the empowered scream washed over them, but only for a moment. They both looked toward the small form of the teenaged girl and just felt that something had changed before the girl turned to face them and reveal the wound in her chest.

"What have you done to me, monsters?!" she shrieked wildly.

Anderson grimaced and charged forward, ignoring Alucard for the moment so that he could remove this complication before the fight turned against him.

With an instinctive flinch, Kodachi's arm flew up and a flash of dark energy flew from her out toward Anderson, striking him in the chest and sending massive pain through his nervous system.

Alucard marvelled as a hole blasted through the regenerator's chest, removing the space that had once been his heart, and caught a glimpse as the priest's eyes filled with blood in mirror to the girl standing before him.

"Such an interesting island this place is," he chuckled, bringing Kodachi's attention to him.

"What did you fiends do to me?" she demanded angrily lashing out again.

Alucard watched as a wave of dark, thorny vines reached out toward him. Smirking he idly hopped away, realizing that the girl had just reactively spent all her power into this one attack, but was surprised as the energy tendrils bent in their path to wrap around him and encase him in their form.

Anderson clutched in disbelief at the unhealing hole in his chest and gasped for breath even as the demon-girl, obviously distraught, seemed to forget him and Alucard both. Her mind was obviously clouded by the almighty God for the protection of His servant, and perhaps the devil for the protection of his. In any case, vile, membranous things unwrapped themselves from her arms and flapped, carrying her up into the dark sky to spread whatever terror she would be bound to bring.

Pain and confusion wracked Anderson, as did revulsion and shame, radiating out from the gaping hole in his chest and flaming through his now bloody eyes. He glanced at the bond Alucard for a moment, but decided that now was not the time to risk dealing with the vampire. He had to deal with whatever the demon had done to him first. He stumbled away and hurried for his operational base, gasping and shuddering in ungainly manner.

It didn't take much longer for Alucard to tear out of Kodachi's dark bonds and emerge, smiling into the night. He smiled at the fading fragments of darkness around him and immediately noted that Anderson had vanished.

Thinking upon the girl and her cleverness in facing them before and her power now, Alucard smiled. She would be an interesting fight as well, especially when she grew more powerful.

His only regret this night was that he had not encountered these new vampires. He only hoped that Seras had had similar bad luck. He wanted to be able to get at least a bit of a spar in with the boy before they had their interview with Sir Integra.

Anderson finally felt the pain and confusing mass of emotions fade away about a minute or more after he'd first been struck. Obviously, it was some curse of the demon, to force her own injuries onto another for a brief time. He'd have to be careful with that next time.

Kodachi soared through the night in random, unthinking directions, trying to understand just what had happened to her. Eventually, she came to an abandoned warehouse and smashed through a skylight.

The shattering glass cut horrid rents in her body, but they healed almost as fast as they were made. Even the fragile seeming wings repaired holes in a mere blink of an eye. Setting down on a beam in the ceiling of the building. The vines about her legs unwrapped from her and latched solidly to the beam, anchoring her position securely and instinctively.

Huddling up into herself, Kodachi tried to calm down and convince herself it was all a dream.

by The Demented Redhead

Michaels made his way down the normal hallway, a small extension office to what would look like a simple government bureaucratic office, dedicated to multiple branches.

Sadly, the truth was that this was the APD: the Abnormal and Paranormal Defense, Japan's start to the growing crisis of the strange attempting to gather a foothold. Aside from a reputable psychic (that no one knew was one Senshi of Time who used the office to take care of threats to Crystal Tokyo on a local level) and a few pencil pushers who could send contracts and assignments out to known devil hunters (at least the ones that made themselves known, like the Mano clan and until recently, the Mido clan). Though the groups were under no legal standing to take the cases assigned to them, they were well paid.

For Japan, the current policy was: let the locals deal with it. But whatever officials either wanted it that way, or went that way on the basis of tradition and disbelief in the need, were slowly losing control, or so some reports to Interpol were stating.

But the question was whether or not there was time for them to realize that a serious reorganization was needed.

Knocking on a door to one particular office, he spotted a rather tall man sitting behind the desk, looking at him with bloodshot eyes.

"What the Hell do you want, Michaels?" growled the guy. "I have enough to deal with without your daily blend of shit."

"I take it the FREAKS are creating more trouble for you, Tai."

The man known as Tai merely glared at him. "I am low on sleep and caffeine, so I'll give you one minute to tell me what the Hell this little meeting of yours is really about.

Michaels smiled. "Well, I thought you would like these," he said, offering two folders.

"If it's the info on the FREAKS, we have that, including the fact that the Brits called in Hellsing."

"Nope," smirked Michaels, taking a seat in the one open chair, the other two in the cramped office on the side of the desk were filled with paperwork, files, and what looked like a half eaten plate of rice. "I got a tip from a local you may have your first two full time employees there."

Tai glared at him. "You better be shitting me, you know we don't have a budget for full timers, aside from the few they give us for the bureaucrats we have here. We had to practically beg for the funds for that damn psychic."

"Oh, these two, you'll want them on your team," he said. "Unless of course, you want them signing on to Hellsing. Hell, I'm pretty sure the BPD would snatch them in a moment, if they knew who they were."

"And they are?" asked Tai, looking at the files in question.

"The mysterious Phantom and the Lady in White," he replied.

"Those are just rumors."

"Nope, quite real," said Michaels. "And the real kicker, they're locals who are loyal to the good guys, and a new type of vamp that can walk in the daylight."

Tai's eyes shot wide open. "Michaels, if you're fucking with me here, I swear to whatever deity you worship, I will gut you and sell you in the cafeteria."

Michaels smirked. "Nope, got the info from a very reliable source.

"Granted, those files only carry their former human lives, before whatever changed them did," said Michaels. "But they are not your standard vamp. From what I hear, they've been taking care of your FREAK problem near Nerima. But guessing from the paperwork I see," he said, motioning to a stack that looked recent, if only because something else wasn't piled on top of it, "I think their actions are causing you other problems to investigate."

Tai nodded, looking over the file labeled 'Tendo, Nabiki'. "If what I heard about them is true, then this is something we need. Healing injured victims to where the local hospitals can patch them up, and at least fourteen different scenes where FREAKS were left to dry in the sun," he murmured. "Why isn't Interpol trying to get them?"

"We prefer to fight our own fight," he said. "Hellsing is what we have, and it serves its purpose quite well."

Tai nodded, before pausing at the name on the second folder. "It was this one that turned you off, wasn't it?"

"A little.

"Oh, and be discrete when you do approach them. I was told they're still trying to pass themselves off as normal."

"Trust me," said Tai, rubbing his forehead as the expected trouble this could cause popped up in his head, "there is nothing ever normal in Nerima, especially when it concerns Mr. Saotome."

Seras was not in a good mood, not at all.

"We found the tracking device, ma'am," said one soldier, hand outstretched, and holding the small device. "It was buried about a foot down and under several rocks. It looks like it's been there since yesterday."

She nodded. That means he found it almost immediately after Master placed it on him. That is truly amazing. "Any signs of the query?"

"None," said the soldier.

Seras nodded. "Damn, Master was hoping to meet them tonight."

"Oh?" said a disembodied male voice.

The group turned quickly, guns raised towards the source of the voice, before a quick blur passed them, slicing their guns apart.

"Not very friendly, as you Ms. Seras," said Nabiki, walking out from behind a retainer wall on the opposite side of the lot, her white trench coat blowing lightly in the wind.

"I would have to agree," said the voice, before Ranma faded into view, his sword slowly being lowered back into its sheath.

I never saw him, or even sensed him. Seras's eyes were opened wide, disbelief written on them.

"Well," snorted Ranma, "either say something or we're going. We don't have time to show you how stupid you guys are being."

She shook her head, clearing out the surprise she felt for what just happened. The male had just disabled her entire squad in under a second, with no loss of life. Beginning to see why this guy made her Master so excited about a fight, she began. "Our leader wishes to discuss with you the possibility of you working for Hellsing."

"Oh," said Nabiki.

Seras nodded.

"Where at?" asked Ranma. He didn't quite trust these people enough to let them take them somewhere for this meeting.

"At our current base of operations."

"Can you set up a web-chat?" asked Nabiki. "We'd rather not go somewhere that may be disadvantageous to our current situation of being alive and free."

"I will see," she said, heading back towards their van. "Will you wait here?"

"You have five minutes," said Ranma.

She nodded, before resuming her course to the van, wondering who would be more upset with her: Integra for being asked to make contact this way, or her Master, for not finding the two Japanese living vampires first.

by Thrythlind

As events proceeded in other parts of Nerima, a certain kleptomaniac figure-skater was irritably tapping her feet and pacing back and forth and tightening her grip on her skate-laces. This competition was due to begin any moment now and Mikki was off somewhere romancing some new girls.

"Azusa not happy at all," she said irritably, wishing that her partner would take their figure skating more seriously sometimes.

It wasn't that she minded him going after girls, as long as it wasn't her, but not while they had a competition to act in.

He was supposed to have been here an hour ago.

She stomped her foot down and directed herself towards Mikado's dressing room, not caring what she would find there. They had an audience to dazzle and wow, and they couldn't do that if he was gettin' busy.

Azusa's single-minded task carried her through the darkened halls and past the gaping open doorways. heading for her casanova partner's sanctuary. She had eyes for nothing but what lay ahead of her and didn't ask the question of why the school's hallways were dark during an event.

Her worst suspicions were confirmed as she heard the moanings and shrieks coming from with the room.

Getting herself ready for an embarrassing amount of naked flesh, Azusa gripped the door and pulled it open.

What was within was minimally like she thought it would be.

In Sanzenin's hands, the fashion club's student teacher, some older chick from college named Sainoko, writhed and moaned as he thrust into her and unabashedly licked at the soft flesh of her back. Her long hair clung wetly to her body and shimmered a disturbing red in the flickering light of the room.

Off to the side, the fashion club president crouched naked over the torn and violated body of one of her club members. Neyoko's dyed-blonde hair was still in its stylish ponytail even as she hungrily bit into the dying girl's thigh and crotch.

Everywhere in the room was splattered with blood, gore and bodies.

Azusa choked despite herself and stepped back away from the door, too late to avoid notice.

"Why hello," Sanzenin said. "We've been waiting for you, Azusa."

Before the little brown-haired skater could react, the feeding blonde was behind her and ripping pulling down the front of her costume. Sanzenin and Sainoko disengaged and started coming towards her, holding a small piece of metal with tiny flaying wires.

"You're going to love eternal life, Azusa-Chan," Neyoko said throatily as she groped Azusa's ample chest.

Whatever the little piece of metal did, Azusa didn't want any part of it. She ignored her uncovered chest momentarily, letting her body weight pull her out of Neyoko's unskilled hold before she whipped up into a somersault kick shattering whatever monstrous thing they wanted to put on her.

Immediately, she twisted into a spinning scissor kick, taking advantage of Mikki's surprise and the two girls' lack of training to knock all three of them off their feet. Then she was running out the door and pulling her top up as well as she could, not wanting to be thrown off balance by the movements of her chest.

"Guess you'll have to settle for being a mere ghoul then," Mikado shouted after her.

The girls were screaming in fury behind her and the sound echoed ahead and around her to the arena, but she ignored it. She had to find someone to help her. Someone had to be able to stop this.

Reaching the arena did not help her situation, because that's when she learned that not all the screaming was just an echo.

The competitors and audience alike were screaming as what looked like zombies shambled through the aisles, looking for prey. Even as Azusa watched, more were standing up from the remains of those fallen.

Crying, Azusa slipped her way into the locker room, avoiding a pair of ghoulish gym teachers, and tracked down her roller skates. It was a risk, but she didn't think she'd get out without them.

As a further addition, she grabbed her sweater and slipped it over her body, to further shore up her semi-unclothed nature.

Then it was time to get out.

There was one advantage she had over Mikado, he'd never demean himself by riding roller skates, not wanting to "corrupt" the "purity" of his art. Meanwhile, Azusa was as much of an artist on the streets as she was in the rink.

Rolling softly out of the locker room, Azusa barely ducked in time as she was faced with the Kolkholz hockey team. She'd decimated their forces time and time again before, but that was with Mikki and it was before they were dead.

Now, she didn't even try to face them, but shifted back, towards the rink, trying to get speed through the corridors as the ghouls cluttered the halls behind her. Looking back briefly, she saw with a pang that the hockey team had lost all their technique and skill now that they were dead.

Mikki had stolen their art from them, and now he wanted to do the same for her because she didn't want to accept whatever it was that made him monstrous.

The rink lay before her and Azusa did not stop, even on her roller skates, instead, she let herself slide across as a horde of ghouls slipped about gracelessly behind her.

Ahead of her, Azusa swallowed as the blood splattered college student appeared. Unlike Azusa, she hadn't yet bothered to get dressed.

Sainoko moved to the ice with a grace that she would have never credited the old lady before. Still, however, the girl-turned monster was an amateur and Azusa was not.

"Don't you look tasty, Azusa-chan," the girl said, mouth open wide to reveal long canine fangs.

On her roller blades, Azusa knew she didn't have full maneuverability on the ice, but the fanged specter in front of her gave her some new options.

As Sainoko approached, she tried to keep her mind clear of the sex and cannibalism she'd witnessed and focussed only on her task. Picking up on foot and twisting it about, her glide seemed to twist out of control, and so it would have done if Azusa's foot did not impact Sainoko's head.

A moment later, the vampire was rocketing across the rink and Azusa was flying up into the seating. Down below her, ghouls were slowly rising and pushing the remaining living victims forward as they shambled about to feed.

Azusa swallowed and gathered herself to land on the edge of a stair in the bleachers, projecting off it before any of the ghouls could reach her and heading back into the air aiming for the control box. She landed and came to a tight stop long enough to click a few buttons.

As the bleachers started to pull inward, the mindless ghouls were thrown off balance and the remaining people quickly fled away into the halls and out of the school.

The splattering footsteps behind her gave Azusa ample warning to get out of her spot and she leaped down to skid across the edge of the closing bleachers for an exit, glancing back to see Neyoko angrily smashing the machines before leaping after the figure skating martial artist.

Then Azusa was in the halls and gain momentum as she easily out maneuvered the few ghouls in the halls and listened to Neyoko and Sainoko shrieking out obscene comments at her that could have any of a number of meanings hinting at both pleasure and pain.

She burst out the halls and was sliding down the railing as she saw Mikado ahead of her.

He'd snatched a girl out of the running crowd and was getting ready to sink his teeth into her neck. Azusa reached the bottom of the railing and kicked up into an arc that would lead her to slam down on Mikado's skull with lethal force.

As she saw her partner's image approaching from beneath her, a single tear shed down her cheek and then came impact.

Instinct made her grab the near-victim and toss her ahead into a soft patch of grass that cushioned her fall without slowing her escape too much.

Looking back as she slid to an abrupt stop, Azusa saw Mikado standing up and the young man and suffered little to no damage. Behind him, Sainoko and Neyoko, now dressed in clothes that seemed to have been taken from slain bystanders, swayed out to his side. All three smiled large, fangy grins as the ghouls that had not been crushed in the bleachers shambled out behind them.

"You've caused us some trouble, Azusa-chan," Mikado said, his smile turning into an angry frown.

Azusa fled for her life down the street, and the undead pursued.

by Thrythlind

The revelation that Venus had official government contacts had had a definite impact on the Senshi. As did her discussion of vampires and FREAKs.

Then, of course, there was her comment of how she would have been facing nightmares for the rest of her life if she had joined Hellsing.

Setsuna knew a bit more than what Minako was saying. Minako had already had to live through killing someone she had fallen in love with once. The warriors at Hellsing always had to be prepared for that possibility, and Minako wanted nothing like a repeat of Danburite.

The meeting was breaking up now, however, it was getting late and there were no specific monster situations in Juuban yet, and they had already come to some decisions, both individual and public.

As a group, they decided to intervene only if the threat came directly at them, not wanting to risk a three way battle because they couldn't tell the difference between Hellsing and the FREAKs. Others, however were already thinking.

Michiru would be getting her mirror out soon enough, and Haruka would be gearing up to use her sword.

Hotaru wasn't really sure what to think and was just following her friend's leads. She wouldn't get involved in Haruka's actions yet, though, since Neptune and Uranus had asked if someone could look after Hotaru for them so they could have some privacy (one of the reasons that Setsuna knew they were up to something, those two didn't usually need much privacy to excuse themselves). Rei had taken up the offer right away, obviously eager to make up for her blunder of speech earlier.

Setsuna, though she couldn't see into the Time Gates from here and lacked Minako's empathic talents, guessed that Makoto would be doing some extra patrols tonight. She seemed to be cracking her fist every few seconds.

Ami appeared to just be interested in heading home, though Setsuna assumed that she'd be studying and hacking a bit tonight.

Moon looked serious and thoughtful, and Setsuna wished she could predict what that would entail. Her princess was very unpredictable at times, though in moods like this, she tended to come up with very wise thoughts.

In any case, Setsuna had her own errands to attend to, and she didn't need the others to know just yet.

As soon as she could, she faded from view back to the Time Gates and slowly reviewed the events of the night. In particular she viewed the sequence of events that had led to Kodachi's awakening and what followed.

Then it was a simple matter to appear quietly where Kodachi slept and teleport the both of them to her house. As the exhausted shapeshifter slept, seeming more like a corpse than a confused girl, Setsuna whispered soothingly into her ear about changing back.

Soon, the blood and wounds faded away and Kodachi remained behind, though her clothes had shifted into those of her rose-themed pajamas.

Setsuna frowned slightly. She wanted Kodachi to wake up human so that she wouldn't have as heavy a renewed trauma, but she'd also wanted to leave the bloody clothes hanging up to warn her that it was no dream.

Standing up from the more or less peacefully sleeping girl, she looked relieved as she noticed the blood stain underneath Kodachi. It would be enough to make the girl think, but not so obvious that she would shut down the instant she woke up.

At least Setsuna hoped so.

She nodded and let Kodachi lie upon the floor in the blood stain before teleporting away.

by The Demented Redhead

"They want what?" asked Integra.

"They want to meet in a public place, not at our base," said Seras.

"Hmm, smarter than I thought," mumbled the head of Hellsing. "Can we get a secure line at that location?"

"We'll need to use several scramblers, the new pattern Cyan should work."

Integra nodded; still upset at the reason just why those new scrambling systems were needed. "Then let us do this quickly, before Alucard decides to make himself known, and ruin our chances for a peaceful meeting."

Master is going to be so angry at me when he learns he missed them. "Understood, ma'am."

Akane grew tired of waiting at the door to the room the Saotome's stayed in, waiting for Ranma to make some move. She was all but certain there was more to the story than what Nabiki was telling her, her instincts said so.

And as a martial artist, she was supposed to trust her instincts.

Sadly, instincts were often hard to discern from ego, a common flaw of those of the Anything Goes style.

What hit her first was the quiet, no snoring, which told her something was wrong. She could see that Genma was a panda, which made some sense—pandas didn't snore and Nodoka got cranky when she didn't get enough sleep, sword wielding cranky.

This left Ranma, who snored no matter what form he was in. She just needed to get closer to his bed roll and figure out what he was hiding.

And she almost made it too.

"Akane, dear?"

The youngest Tendo paused, slowly turning to face the eyes of Auntie Saotome.

"While I understand the fact that you want to have some 'couples' time with my son," said the woman, "I ask that you wait until morning. I need my sleep, and will be upset if your attempts to get my vampire son to be manly with you interrupt it."

"Eep," she cried, before darting quickly out of the room, her footsteps being heard as she dashed into her room, and shut the door.

"Perhaps my son is too manly," Nodoka wondered, as she shut the door, and returned to her mat. "Really now, to interrupt my sleep so she can be with my son... Well, at least I know she's still interested. Hmm, now I have two girls in this house interested in my son. Maybe I should talk to Kasumi some in the morning and see if my manly son went three for three."

"You can't be serious," said one of the three Diet members who controlled the funding for the APD.

"Quite serious, sir," said Tai, who regretted not knowing the names of any of the three members. But then again, it was usually best if you didn't mention the name of who you were cursing inside a government building.

"We may need to take this seriously now," said the member on the right, scratching his chin. "Elections are approaching, and if word gets out that these incidents are increasing, the public may demand we ask for assistance from the Americans."

"Actually, sir," said Tai, "there system is mainly local. We'd have to ask for help from Hellsing."

"Hellsing!" yelled the middle member. "You want us to allow those war dogs on our soil?"

"They are already here, sir," said Tai, pushing several buttons, and sending files and photos to the three members. "They are allowed on a limited basis, mainly through the British Embassy, from what we were given. They are investigating the recent rise in FREAK activity here."

"I still say this is all nonsense," said the left member. "Magic girls, vampires, demons, flying bulls with tentacles... Next you'll be telling us that dragons exist."

Tai blinked. "Sir, I take it you never read the Nerima Files that are required for your position."

"That tabloid bullshit?" asked the Left.

"Then perhaps you would like to spend a week there," said the Middle. "Many of us grow tired of your attitude. Don't think your seniority will protect you if this keeps up."

Tai kept his eyes down. Looks like I know the guy who's keeping our funds low.

"I tell you it is nothing more than common street hoodlums," said Left.

"Regardless of your insanity, Lee," said Right, "we must take action now. If we fail at this task, we will be considered weak to the world. And do you want to continue to appear weak? I've even heard the Chinese have such an institute, and that pain in North Korea is even looking to gain influence over this type of power."

"If he's into it, then it just proves how stupid this all is," said Left.

"Enough," said Middle. "We will deal with your disbelief after this meeting.

"Tai, you are hereby authorized to offer those two a position. See what they would require. For the moment, we may need to forge ties with Hellsing, as distasteful as it is, to get a starter organization going, at least until we can make it independent."

"And the local devil hunters, sir?" asked Tai. "We don't want to alienate them, with all the work they already do for us."

Middle nodded, after glaring at Left enough to dispel any urge he may have had to speak. "First get these new vampires interested in working for their homeland. If we can get a pact with Hellsing, then we can work on a way to bring the devil hunters in together."

The link went dead, as Tai leaned back in his chair, enjoying the small victory.

That was, at least, until the chair's back broke off, spilling him to the floor. "First thing, we are requisitioning new chairs. I swear, these must be relics from the Meiji Restoration."

Alucard smiled, glad to have found something that was adding some more interest to the night.

The strange girl's scent had led him to a high school gymnasium, a shattered skylight and some blood splatters on the ground proving the strange plant girl had been this way.

But while no trace of the plant girl remained, much to his confusion, he did find a large trace of blood in the ice rink that the school also held.

And the trace turned out to be a large gathering of ghouls and other creatures, who were feasting on the remains of what had once been a school crowd.

Smirking, he pulled out his gun. "Ah, I love this type of school spirit."

Minutes earlier, right after Kodachi's change...

"You felt that?"

Ranma nodded, whispering with Nabiki, still not trusting the soldiers nearby. "Felt weird, like a warped chi field or something."

"Recognize the person who did it?"

"Felt a little like Kodachi, but it was way too strong to be her. If she could launch a blast like Porky, then maybe."

"We will have to check her out later then," said Nabiki, indicating that Seras had exited their vehicle. "Hopefully, it was nothing bad ... for us."

"Always was before, why stop now," he said.

"Our leader will speak with you now," said Seras. "I apologize, but I hope that the connection is acceptable."

Ranma nodded. "We're just glad we can do this in the open."

Nabiki nodded, decided it was probably best if this group didn't learn yet the problems they had with televisions and monitors. If they thought they could see the image, they'd be less inclined to try and send a signal to do something.

Of course, even her Master agreed that this was a weakness that needed to be dealt with.

And with that, Seras reopened the van doors, showing the screen that held the image of Sir Integra Hellsing.

by Thrythlind

Ranma and Nabiki were staring at a blank piece of glass that gave off the same sort of chi as pretty much any other electrical light and Nabiki's own, now functionally useless for her, computer.

"You're a bit younger than I expected," a polished and hard British voice came over the speakers.

"We're old enough," Ranma said huffing irritably. A brief flash of chi, unreadable to the others, and Nabiki reminded Ranma to keep his temper in check.

Neither could see Sir Integra arching an eyebrow on the screen.

"I'll be blunt," she said. "We are interested in what you are and in hiring you to deal with various supernatural threats."

"And what would you require of my Master and I?" Nabiki asked, flinching internally at the slip of the tongue.

"You would be expected to complete training and submit to testing," Sir Integra said honestly. "We will have to know what your capabilities are."

"Anything else?" Ranma asked. "You don't seem to be a local group."

"No," Integra admitted. "We are British. Is this a problem?"

Elsewhere, nightmares of darkness and storm flittered through Kodachi's mind.

Somehow, she was at the center of the storm, somehow, she'd made it, but she wasn't certain how. A crackling and writhing black whip of energy seemed to twist out of her hand as the rain and lightning surrounded her. Again, her heart was missing and her eyes and mouth were bleeding, and she wore her ruined and bloody school uniform like some sort of undead schoolgirl.

But she was neither dead nor undead, despite the hole in her chest.

In the darkness she was unseen and untouched by the mind or magic, a mere sliver of her wavered like a hologram out of a science-fiction movie or a phantom from a ghost story. Before her, lit by the flash of lightning around her, stood the Sailor Senshi.

Around her was a ruined city, but what she saw of it was far more advanced than anything she'd ever seen. Somehow, Kodachi thought herself the source of the ruin just as she was the source of the storm.

Behind her, a string of corpses strung out into the vastness of the past.

Then the storm started to lift, starting from her and spiraling outward, a calm star-filled night ranged over the place around her, and the ruined city rebuilt itself into a vision of greatness and people moving too and fro on the errands that never seemed to have an end, day or night, for a large city.

About her were all manners of creatures, humans, aliens and...things like her but looking different.

She still stood there in her tattered school-girl clothes, but few seemed to notice her as they passed. Only Sailor Senshi seemed to continue looking at her, and now they did not seem hostile.

Then the storm started to circle out from her and the first scene returned, followed by the calm again.

The two scenes flickered off and on unceasingly through her confused mind until she awoke the next morning.

by The Demented Redhead

"Not at all," said Ranma. "We just prefer not to go too far, at the moment."

"Other commitments and all," added Nabiki.

Integra nodded, not that the two saw her do so. "We will see what we can negotiate with the local government about us maintaining a presence there, but I cannot guarantee that all of your assignments will be in Japan."

Ranma nodded, looking towards Nabiki.

She took the hint. After all, she was the better negotiator of the two, and this was something he didn't want to screw up. "We are slightly concerned about these tests. Neither of us wishes to end up on a dissection table."

"Understood," said Integra. "I can assure you that none of the tests will endanger your ... lives," she said. "Nor will it alter you in any way. We simply wish to know what you are. You must understand that we have never run across vampires like yourselves in the long history that our organization has had."

Ranma nodded. Hell, he knew a little bit about how they came to be what they were. But beyond the basics, he was as in the dark as they were. He didn't know how or why the chi warped as it had, or why their chi sight was overwhelming their normal sight.

Hell, he was just beginning to tap into what they could be capable of. The sleep thing was a nice touch.

But he did know one thing: eventually, they were going to need a source of food. And unless Kasumi could get blood and make it both healthy for them and palatable—she probably would be the only person who could, and he didn't want to even think about what the tomboy would try and cook to 'impress him with her skills'—they were going to need someone who could provide that source, unless he wanted to risk feeding on people with the hope that it didn't do to them what it did to Nabiki. "Can we talk to her about her experiences?" asked Ranma, pointing to Seras.

"Why?"

"She's a newbie, isn't she?" stated Ranma. "She'd be a great source of info about how trustworthy you guys are, as well as working conditions, training, and such."

Nabiki nodded, smiling a bit. I always hoped Master would show some grey matter. "A simple sit-down," continued Nabiki. "We don't want to take too much of her time, but we also don't want to commit ourselves yet."

Integra nodded again. It appeared that the two new vampires were both cautious and a little paranoid. It wasn't that she could fault them for acting as such, given the other organizations that she knew were out there, many of which were not a pleasant bunch to deal with. "How long would you need to consider our offer?"

"Assuming she can give other details such as starting salary, workplace treatment, and possible benefits," said Nabiki, "a few days, week at most. We will still be around to assist you in the meantime, but this is a pretty big leap for us."

"Very well," said Integra, not showing her disappointment that they hadn't immediately signed on. She had no doubt that if the APD learned that they had very capable supernatural creatures at their own disposal, they would try and grab them up. Of course, it didn't mean that they couldn't run interference to keep them available. "Seras, give them a way to contact us with their decision."

"Yes, ma'am," said the blond, as she saluted.

She was about to sign off, when she noticed that the Phantom's eyes shot wide open, as he slowly turned around.

"Oh shit," he muttered.

She was about to inquire what was going on, or what he felt, when she saw it.

by Thrythlind

Azusa appeared seemingly from nowhere, and glomped onto Ranma, recognizing him as one of the only people she'd ever seen beat Mikado in a fight. Her torn figure-skating costume was pulling loose under her somewhat ripped and shredded sweater, giving something of a peep show to everybody there.

"Save little Azusa!" the scared girl pleaded piteously.

Ranma's and Nabiki's eyes weren't on the scantily clad figure-skater though. Instead, they were staring up at the bulging mass of bloated and corrupted negative chi held within the quick-rotting bodies of a small army of ghouls.

"Nabiki," Ranma said, turning toward the other vampire with a questioning look.

"I...I can't heal these, Master," she said helplessly.

Unseen to them, Integra cocked an eyebrow and leaned back in her seat. As the two Japanese vampires had their back's turned, she made a hand sign to Seras instructing her to keep the feed running. Seras, meanwhile, half-wished she hadn't dismissed her men to get new weapons.

She had REALLY bad memories about being outnumbered by ghouls.

"Right," Ranma said wearily. "Hey, brat, you're gonna need to let go"

"Little Azusa not leaving you!" Azusa said shaking her head firmly.

"Well, unless you want to go with me when I fight them..." Ranma started gruffly. He didn't have to continue.

Almost the instant he said that, she let go of Ranma and was hiding behind Nabiki.

Seras meanwhile was breaking out the Harkonnen and Ranma immediately discounted her as a meleer.

"Okay, Nabiki, stay safe," Ranma said.

"Yes, Master, I'll keep guard over Azusa," she said.

Ranma nodded and immediately leaped forward with incredible grace before he landed into the first rank of ghouls. His arm swung out wide as the sword he'd hidden with his moderate knowledge of Hidden Weapons style came out and slashed through the rotting corpses.

The silvery weapon was ancient, from a time before the traditional straight sword had been given the traditional katana bend, but Ranma was not a true kenjutsuka so didn't miss the familiar look and shape of the more modern katana. All he cared about was that the weapon killed his enemies.

The weapon, marked in ancient proto-Japanese symbols, itself seemed to naturally soak up yang chi whenever it was so exposed, and Ranma found that channelling his own chi into and over it did nothing to disrupt the effect.

The coating Ranma gave acted as a trojan horse of some kind, letting the blade and its chi slip past the shielding energies of his enemies. Then, once inside the sword's chi tore apart the undead without the sort of flash and attention getting show the blade alone was likely to cause.

With FREAKs the mildest cut brought the artificial vampires to screaming in angered pain, but with ghouls a touch was destruction. Seras, looking around her gun, whistled in surprise as the young man proceeded to plow through the front ranks, not bothering to do much in the way of advanced techniques as the ghouls had no technique to resist him effectively.

The first of the FREAKs didn't move to meet him, though, but leaped through the air by main force, looking to descend on Seras and Nabiki.

It was a dark-haired girl, a bit older than either he or Nabiki, and splattered in the characteristic blood they had grown used to seeing on FREAKs.

"Nabs!" Ranma shouted in shock as he saw the vampire move into the air, but the action almost immediately had him burdened by a mob of clutching zombie arms.

The Lady in White was not helpless though.

As the FREAK sailed through the air propelled purely by momentum, Nabiki leaped up into the chi of the air in imitation of Ranma. Where Ranma appeared to gracefully slide to where he wanted to be, Nabiki looked more like she was hopping between steps made from quicksand.

Nabiki hadn't learned the way Ranma had, before chi flows were so visible to him and he'd developed the instinct for it. Instead she'd watched as Ranma traversed areas of denser and lighter chi in his leaps and sought to emulate it.

The FREAK vampire saw Nabiki's hesitant ascension and snickered in humor, not realizing the implications it held. Not until Nabiki seemed to make a turn in air, stepping to a new invisible stair and then another to come around to the back of the gravity bound FREAK.

Nabiki had her own weapon against FREAKS, but she hadn't carried it with her, a fact that she was bound to get lectures about from Ranma later. However, she had a suspicion about something else she could do to fight at the moment, and reached out with her palm to touch the back of the transformed girl.

Nabiki had managed to stop ghoul transformations at early stages before, without transforming people into what she was. What she did now was the same thing, but the result was very different. When the cleansing chi flooded into the leaping FREAK, it screamed and a white light seemed to eat away at it until to withered to a brilliant burst of light and grey dust.

Giving a quick breath of relief, Nabiki let herself hop from chi-step to chi step down to the ground again, just as Ranma cleared himself of his problems.

As Nabiki was dusting herself off, she froze as she felt the encroaching chi of ghouls, then three shots reverberated through the scene and spiraling rainbow trails cut through the air around her, striking into the ghouls she had landed near.

Seras was already looking for a new target as Nabiki, embarrassed and a bit shamed into caution, returned to where the brit and the little slu...figure skater were.

"New at this game, love?" Seras asked innocently.

Nabiki blushed at the question and looked away, watching for other incoming foes.

As the sound of gunshots, almost missiles really, tore through the battlefield, Ranma had to acknowledge that Seras knew her weapon. She was unerringly precise with her shots, and had a good eye for where the weak spots where.

The fact that she could wield that massive gun like a regular rifle was also worthy of note.

The ghouls were almost done with, and Ranma still hadn't seen the one he suspected to be behind this.

If Azusa was here, then Mikado couldn't be far behind, and he wasn't far off the normal behavior of a FREAK to begin with. With the ghouls starting to hit a lull, he let his sword arm go to cruise mode as he searched about for Mikado.

Then a mottled, corrupted blot of chi moved faster than it should have, and a blonde FREAK girl burst from out of a ghoul's body, the ghoul dissipating to dust as she did.

Ranma cursed himself for his lack of caution as the untrained freak pushed him to the ground and sent his sword scattering across the ground for a moment.

"Master!" Nabiki gasped as she started to move to rip the undead hussy...save her master and lover. A side part of Nabiki made a note to remind her to watch that jealous streak.

"Wait, stop!" Seras shouted, before being shoved aside as the last FREAK moved in from behind her.

The younger vampire was sent sprawling to the ground, momentarily stunned and Azusa shrieked as tall, leering FREAK advanced on Nabiki, licking his lips.

"Not again!" Ranma muttered as he pulled his feet up to his chest and pushed out, sending himself into a twisting flip as the blonde-dyed vampire was thrown into an uncoordinated pile through the air in an arc that would have made Kodachi wince in recognition.

There was no pole at the end of Neyoko's flight, but she wasn't about to land either. Ranma's flip ceased as he gathered his hands back and approached the girl from above.

"Moko Takabisha!" he shouted as a bluish white sphere grew out of his extended hands and then blasted in a column that overwhelmed the FREAK and drilled into the few remaining ghouls about Ranma, leaving a cracked ring of asphalt where it had connected with the earth.

Nabiki meanwhile, turned to see what had happened to Seras and just barely avoided shrieking like a baby as Mikado descended on her with speed that made her every motion seem to be in molasses. She reacted in total instinct and lashed out as well as she could.

Then a shriek did move through the night as Mikado stumbled away from her and leaped away clutching at where a formerly vital piece of anatomy had once been attached.

"Ewww," Nabiki said shaking her hand as said anatomy turned to dust, leaving her with a bloodstained hand.

"I hope that bloke wasn't that small in life," Seras muttered.

"Azusa not so sure wasn't," the little figure skater said.

"You damn bitch!" Mikado shrieked. "I'll...oh shit!"

Then Mikado was running as looked back to see Ranma picking up his sword. He didn't get far as the sound of gunshot cracked through the night and the emperor of the ice rink shattered into dust before he could get far.

"We gotta go," Ranma said to Seras before giving Nabiki a scathing look that translated into bruises and torn muscles come next training session.

Nabiki was pretty certain her recklessness this battle had just gotten her firmly dumped into the "you want to be a badass? I'll train you like a badass" category.

Though Ranma was likely to say "martial artist" instead.

"Keep in touch," Seras said, handing the pair a cell phone meaningfully.

"Yeah," Ranma said as he leaped away, carrying Nabiki.

"Wait for Azusa!" Azusa shouted skating after the vampire couple and following them as best she could.

by The Demented Redhead

Seras watched the trio depart, letting out a deep breath of air. "That's it, no more being alone ... with anyone."

"You did handle yourself quite well," said Integra, her hands currently in the Gendo Ikari position, hiding her lips behind them. "And I must say our newest possible recruits are much better than I would have expected, given their ages."

Seras nodded, turning back to face the video screen. "I didn't recognize the attacks or the weapons used."

"Nor did I," admitted the smoking blond. "The air-walking stunt the female showed was extremely unique. Add to that her words which allude to a healing talent to reverse a ghoul change, an attack that can flash-fry a FREAK, and we have a very promising addition."

"And her Master?"

"Yes, that part does trouble me a bit," admitted Integra. "But I will reserve judgment until we learn of how they were changed into what they are now. Be certain to get that when you meet with them."

"Understood."

"Then pack up and return to base. I want your teams to go over the footage of tonight.

"And be certain you show the battle to Alucard," she finished, a smirk hidden behind her hands. "I'm sure it'll ... make up for his missing them."

Seras sighed. Sometimes, it didn't pay to survive.

"Damn," muttered the vampire in question, wiping his sleeve over his nose after a quick sneeze. "Their school spirit sucked."

Around him were the decaying forms and dust of the dead ghouls and occasional FREAK he had exterminated.

He felt a little sad. No new vampire, no plant girl, and what he did run into wasn't really a challenge for him.

But ... he did have a Zamboni to play with.

And he still either needed to secure the scene ... or eliminate it, whichever would be more fun to do.

"Not like I have anything else to do," he said. "But I was so looking forward to fighting that guy.

"Then again, I did get to see the Judas Priest get trampled by the new girl."

Ah yes, that memory put a smile on his face.

That was, until he felt a very familiar presence, one which he wanted to thank for his imprisonment by the Hellsing family.

"Hello, Pluto," he growled, as he grabbed his gun and leveled in the direction he felt the Senshi.

"What?" asked Pluto, walking onto the red-tinged ice. "I thought you would be thanking me."

"For sealing me away?"

"No, for guiding a young Ms. Hellsing so that she would awaken you to deal with her Uncle," smirked Pluto.

Alucard glared at her, not removing his hand from the trigger.

"Besides, my dear Vlad," said the only women who truly knew of Alucard's sorted past, "we have other things to discuss."

After securing the cell phone in the loft of an empty store—they weren't about to take a chance it had a tracer in it or some other way to track them—the duo made their way back to the Dojo on foot. After all, the last thing they needed was someone recognizing Nabiki roof-hopping, this close to the Dojo. Truthfully though, it was more for him to discuss Nabiki's performance that night with her.

"I'm sorry, Master," she muttered, her Lady in White clothes replaced with her house clothes.

"You should be," replied Ranma. "You were sloppy out there."

"I know."

"If it wasn't for Seras, you would have been injured or worse," he continued as they walked along. "And you forgot your weapons. I hope you remember what we had to do to get the money for those things so we would have a better chance at wiping those things out. I don't want to see you without them again. You know enough of the Hidden Weapons style never to be caught without them."

"I understand."

He paused a bit, before staring at her ... hard. "This isn't a game anymore, Nabiki. We can't afford to ever be caught like we were today. While I'm fighting, I need to know you are able to defend yourself. If you can't, then I get distracted, and I get caught.

"If you can't remember that, then we are as good as dead out there."

She nodded, trying not to show any sadness at how his words were stinging her. She knew she royally screwed up tonight. Worse, they had done so in front of a prospective employer, something that would be very difficult to gain now that they had changed. It wasn't like they could get a CEO job, or become legends in the business or movie world.

Well, they could, but this duty came before all of that. She didn't want to think of how many people would soon report their friends and family as missing, considering the size of what attacked them tonight. Luckily, if it involved Kolkhoz, then it was likely she didn't know any who were involved.

But that was beside the point. Tonight, a great many families had lost loved ones, and would never really know what had occurred.

If I had been stronger...

If I had had better control over my power...

If only...

"Stop thinking like that," said Ranma, snapping her out of her inner turmoil, as he looked into her eyes with care. "We would have saved them if we could. Don't blame yourself too much for not saving them. The real blame lies with the ones who changed them."

"The FREAKS," she muttered.

He nodded, hugging her. "Don't think this means I'll go any easier on you when we train. Think of the earlier training as a light practice for what's next." She cringed a bit in the hug.

That was ... before her Master was knocked out of her grasp by a happy and slightly winded rollerblader.

"YEAH! Little Azusa found you!"

Nabiki's open hands cracked a bit, as she struggled not to gut the klepto slut happy survivor.

"Get off me!" cried Ranma.

"No!" cried Azusa. "Little Azusa isn't leaving her savior again!"

"But I gotta go home!"

"Then Azusa is coming with you! She doesn't want to go to her home!"

Of all the times to forget my weapons, I had to do it today... Nabiki now had a very good incentive to keep her weapons on her.

"At least put on a shirt!" cried Ranma, quickly whipping out a spare shirt from his Hidden Weapons stash.

"Ooooo, Pierre!" cried Azusa, glomping onto the shirt now.

She paused in doing so, as she felt a strong hand grab the back of her sweater and what remained of her costume, and lift her up, before she was staring into the scarlet eyes of Nabiki.

"Listen here, little girl," growled the female vampire. "If you try this shit in our home, I swear to God I will cut those kleptomaniac hands off, understood."

"Eep," said the little girl, before she slipped out of her sweater, ripping the rest of her top, and running behind Ranma, who was currently trying not to blush at seeing how developed the only living member of the Golden Pair really was. "She's scary."

"You have no idea," said Ranma with a sigh. "And for the love of... PUT ON THE DAMN SHIRT I GAVE YOU!"

It was the early morning by the time the trio made it to the Tendo Dojo. It was still late enough where Ranma and Nabiki could get more than enough sleep to feel better in the morning and allow the others to believe everything was okay.

The fact that a third person was clutching Ranma's arm, wearing one of his silk shirts, was an added threat to their safety.

"Can you let go now?"

"No."

"He said to let him go," growled out Nabiki.

"Quiet," said Ranma. "Last thing we need is to wake up anyone.

"Azusa, you're staying with Nabiki tonight," he said, smirking at Nabiki, telling her subtly that this was also part of her punishment for her performance that night.

"But I wanna stay with you..." she whimpered.

"Can't," said Ranma. "So it's either with Nabiki, or I guess you can stay in the cold, open, dojo, where anyone could pop in and—"

"Um ... Azusa stay with Nicolette."

"My name is Nabiki."

"Can we just go to bed," said Ranma.

"I really need a bath," Nabiki said, flexing the hand that had 'bobbitized' Mikado.

Ranma nodded, wanting to smirk a bit at the end of the former Emperor of the Ice. "I'd tell you to cut off the hand and burn it, if we knew it would grow back."

"Well now," said a familiar female voice, "I guess I know why you weren't in your bed."

Ranma gulped, before turning back around, cursing himself for not having been on constant vigilance himself, and spotted his mother, wearing a robe, holding a glass of water, and looking at him through the open doors to the backyard, where the trio would have had to pass to get to the roof and sneak into their rooms.

"Dear," said Nodoka, looking at Azusa, "is that one of my son's shirts?"

"He gave it to Little Azusa," she said happily. "My other one was all torn up."

Smirking, Nodoka went to her son and hugged him. "Being manly with another girl, and ripping her shirt off. Yes, you are truly manly, my son."

"Can Azusa sleep with him tonight?"

"Gah!" cried Ranma, still in his mother's embrace, which tightened as she heard Azusa's request. I should have let them kill her first!

Nabiki glared at the girl, hand flexed, ready to hack the threat to pieces, witnesses be damned.

"You can both go to Nabiki's room," smiled the Saotome matriarch. "Just please keep it down, I do need to get some sleep."

Ranma groaned. I just can't win tonight!

by Thrythlind

The gun didn't track away from Pluto's head, but he doubted that firing it would do him much good.

"You helped them seal me away," Alucard noted. "And now you say you had me released only short decades later."

"You are different from most No-Life Kings and Queens, Alucard," Pluto said. "Most of your kind sit back out of view and quietly have blood delivered to them as you while away the years. You, on the other hand..."

"I get bored," Alucard said, smiling broadly.

"Exactly," Pluto agreed. "And then you cause trouble. Useful trouble when properly directed."

Alucard's grin broadened and he cocked his head to the side in amusement. If he could unseal some of his limiters, he might have a fun fight coming, but that would require Integra's permission, and she didn't know his situation at the moment.

"What do you have to do with this?" Alucard asked cautiously, Pluto was easily among the most dangerous creatures he'd ever met.

"Loose ends...Alucard," Pluto said, smirking at the name. "Loose ends from a host of old plots."

"Are you here to tie those ends off then?" Alucard asked, cocking back the hammer on his gun.

"Observe, mostly," Pluto said. "You have no threat from me Alucard."

"I still serve your purpose, you mean," Alucard corrected. "Does your young princess know about this?"

"We both have our Mistresses, Alucard," Pluto said. "And neither needs to be aware of everything we do to protect them."

"On that we agree," Alucard said harshly. "Though both our Masters have a way of getting that out from us, don't they?"

"Perhaps," Pluto began slowly, "that is why we serve them."

"Is there a point to this meeting?" Alucard asked.

"You may have some visitors soon," Pluto said. "Some comrades of mine, loose cannons."

"Little girls wanting to play with the big boys," Alucard muttered dangerously.

"Little girls that need to grow to join the big girls," Pluto countered. "I'd appreciate it if you avoided maiming or killing them now."

"Why would I do that?" Alucard asked. "It would steal a wonderful fight down the line."

"Quite," Pluto said. "One of these days, I suppose we'll have to engage in something along those lines ourselves."

"When we're no longer necessary, I suppose," Alucard chuckled like a growl.

Pluto's answer was a silent smile.

Rei stared up at the ceiling, too exhausted to sleep as Hotaru slept peacefully nearby. She somehow suspected that the girl had started running her ragged deliberately at some point. There was just something about that little satisfied smile that made her think that she'd been had somehow.

After blowing a good amount of money on candy and DVD rentals, of course.

by The Demented Redhead

"Why me?" asked Ranma, lying on Nabiki's bed, staring at her ceiling. Hmm, it looked different the last time I was in here. Did she paint or something? Maybe excess chi from her practices?

"Little Azusa just wants to sleep now," grumbled the figure skater, as she nestled into his side facing the window.

Nabiki just growled, trying to still overcome her need to slice the kleptomaniac for being anywhere near her Master.

Only her will, her belief in her Master to not take advantage of the skater, and the fact it would likely mean harder training, kept her from doing so.

Besides, her Master wasn't the type to sleep with other girls like that. If he were, then the others would have bedded him a long time ago.

Then again, he had never even known that sex could be a great thing, until their first time. But he didn't seem to get into it until the second round.

But then, something could be said for protecting your man. "Why are you cuddling him like that?" she growled out.

"He'll keep the bad people away," said Azusa, her voice not filled with sweetness, but more the frightened tone of a child who had seen a real monster.

Nabiki had to sigh at that, wondering once again exactly how grown up the little girl was in her own head.

"Can we get some sleep?" asked Ranma. "We have ... practice ... before school when we get up."

Nabiki cringed at that, glad that she had a fast recovery time. Of course, that just meant he could go farther in their spar.

"Can you teach Azusa to be a Vampire Slayer, like that American show?"

"..."

"Please tell me she didn't just say that, Master," pleaded Nabiki.

"Anything?" asked Uranus, as she and Neptune stood upon a rooftop at the edge of the Juuban District.

"Nothing yet," said Neptune, looking into her mirror. "I get only a glimpse of something, like a beast moving between shadows."

"Damn," muttered Uranus. "I was hoping we could try our luck tonight."

"They don't come here."

The Outers' eyes widened, spinning around to find Venus leaning against the other edge of the roof.

"They don't have a reason to come here," Venus continued. "They may doubt we can take them, but they know what even a near miss will do," she finished. "That's why they haven't come past Tokyo Proper yet. Depending on how bad things get on that side, it could be as early as next month before they try and expand into here, and that's assuming that Furinkan couple isn't going to keep them in check."

"Something you learned from this Hellsing?" asked Uranus.

"Yes and no, just something I learned from my training," said Venus. "They wanted their Interpol teammates to know the enemy, and trust me, they made sure we did."

"Why can I not scrye for them?" asked Neptune.

"Different powers, an unnatural power cannot be sensed by a natural one like your mirror?" she guessed. "Think of it like a fish trying to see a desert."

"So," started Uranus, "does that mean you'll show us where we can find them, and how?"

Venus sighed. "I was really hoping that you would have taken my advice, considering how your other plans had all worked out."

The two cringed at the reminder of their former battle plans, such as the search for the talismans, and the fight against Galaxia.

"But I suppose reality will have to do," she finished, stepping towards them. "We have two hours before we need to be back, or we will be missed. Mercury is probably trying to scan for the energies like what she found around the two at Furinkan, which also means she will be trying to make certain none of us pull something stupid.

"We look for two hours, and I'll start teaching you with what I know.

"But if I find out you went out without me, I'll have Moon strip you of your powers. These are not the types we can challenge openly. And I will not have my hometown turned into a local war zone to suit two overzealous fools. Understood?"

The two wanted to argue, forgetting that this was a Venus they had never seen.

But her eyes... They left no room for argument. They showed only coldness, and no care for what they wanted.

Uranus smirked. Now this type of Senshi, she could follow.

Pluto sighed as Alucard left ... with the Zamboni. "Why the Hell does he want with that?" she wondered.

"You know, it is probably best if I don't imagine that."

She looked around at the carnage before her. "So many senseless deaths... What a waste."

Shaking her head, she began to deploy several charges. The last thing she needed was the locals finding this scene. Better to have them think a freak accident took their loved ones away, than the fact that an invasion was already under way.

"Not like humans, not like us."

What did she mean?

"Not like those two down there and not like the dead things that walk the night."

Am I a thing, a creature?

"What will history say about Kodachi Kuno? Will she be the demoness responsible for centuries of pain and torment, or will she just be one of many of a new race that will finally come forward to share the life of humanity? And do I risk the one in order to hope for the other?"

If I am not a monster, then what am I?

Kodachi slowly opened her eyes, trying to figure out where she was, her hand going quickly to her chest. "No hole," she murmured, still remembering the feeling of her chest being pierced during the battle.

She didn't know what was going on, but she knew someone she would need to talk to. That green haired woman just made her head hurt.

As she put her hand down to push herself up, she felt a wet stickiness on the floor. Raising her hand to her face, she looked at it in the dim light, trying to identify it.

But when the odor hit her, she knew at a moment what it was.

And she screamed.

by Thrythlind

Akane's just been moving to give Nabiki her customary wake up call, her sister might not have slept as heavily as Ranma, but she took a lot longer to wake up than most anybody Akane had known.

Of course, when she opened the door, she didn't quite find what she expected.

To be precise, she found herself seeing two extra people.

Ranma, she wasn't all that surprised to see, but Azusa!?

She ignored the fact that Azusa's clinging was obviously not very appreciated, since there was something else that was more damning than that.

Ranma and Nabiki were cuddling, at least as well as they could with Azusa around. The familiarity with each other was so blatant and obvious that, for a moment, Akane simply slumped.

It was only after a released breath from the younger Tendo that brought the familiar growl that heralded the eruption of Mount Akane.

"What the HELL is going on in here?!" Akane demanded.

Kasumi looked up and wondered what had just piqued Akane's temper.

"What the hell? Ahck!"

THWACK!

She'd been doing a lot better, especially after the wedding attempt. They'd been back to square one, but then, it seemed that some of the recent situations were getting to her.

"MASTER?! Akane, are you crazy?!"

"Azusa savior!"

"Isn't my sister enough for you?"

The fathers were start of it, but then the disappearances started, including one Akane's acquaintances. She'd already been worried and stressed when Nabiki and Ranma started seeing each other. So far, Ranma and Nabiki had been very circumspect about their relationship, but it was hard for them to cover up everything when they lived in the same house.

"I ain't cheating on Nabs!"

"You're just brainwashing her then?"

Especially with Nabiki once in a while slipping and calling Ranma "Master."

Who knew Nabiki was into those sort of games?

"Not the computer!"

Kasumi opened the refrigerator and opened the door marked with the kanji that read "Kasumi's Special Ingredients" in colorful and cheerful kanji.

SHATTER!

She'd put some carrots and milk in there last night, but that wasn't what was in the drawer now. She took the bamboo out of the drawer first and set aside in anticipation of Genma's inevitable change before breakfast. The next item confirmed something of Akane's accusation of vampirism.

"Put the damn weights down!"

The gallon of milk was now a very familiar seeming red and it only took a brief sniff to identify that it was blood, which meant that it was a dietary requirement for someone in the house.

"You are so getting the wedgie of a life-time, little sister."

Kasumi turned the label towards her and checked the information there to see if there was anything she could do to spice it up without ruining whatever it was about the blood that they needed. She found a selection of possibilities, but really didn't know what sort of flavoring Ranma and Nabiki would prefer.

"Nabiki stay back, I'llEeeeEeEeeEEEeeeee!"

It would take a little bit of experimenting, she supposed. Granted, Ranma was likely very accepting of any sort of food, and she could try to judge based on Nabiki's past likes, plus, of course there was always the fact that they still seemed to eat normally.

"That looks...painful..."

"eeeee?"

Kasumi hummed to herself as the sounds of raised voices and destroyed walls echoed through the background. She retrieved some of her normal ingredients and turned to the counter as she started to prepare breakfast.

"Kolkholz High School in Nerima was destroyed last night as a consequence of a failure to update unsafe design flaws that were exaggerated by an accident the previous year," the news said in the background. "Survivor stories are unclear, but it seems that some of the participants at a figure skating competition may have gotten into some sort of brawl that precipitated the problem..."

"I told you not the computer. Thank go...errr...goodness for back-ups."

Kasumi paused and looked at the TV in shock and a little gasp.

"Oh my."

"Well," the battle-commander of the Senshi said as she watched the news. "That explains why we didn't see much vamp activity last night."

"So much the better," Artemis said, yawning. "We don't really need to be messing with vampires, why go looking for other people's trouble."

"It came looking for us," Minako said, sighing.

"Not yet, it hasn't," Artemis said. "You should be getting ready for whatever the next big galactic threat is, or at least relaxing while you can. Go start being silly or something again."

"That really makes sense coming from someone that's supposed to be my mentor," Minako said.

"All work and no play..." Artemis said shrugging. "What's Usagi saying?"

"You know her," Minako said. "She's got that Serenity look going, so when she makes her decision it'll probably the best course of action overall, but..."

"But she thinks like a queen, not a general," Artemis agreed.

by The Demented Redhead

Akane glared at the three people sitting across from her, as she was now in Nabiki's old spot, while the trio sat in the spot she used to occupy with Ranma. She wasn't about to give up the Tendo agreement to Nabiki—not with Auntie there who would take it for real, and not some ploy by the baka and her sister to make fun of her, like they had set her up for last night. She'd show Ranma who was the better Tendo.

Not that she wanted to marry him, no. She wasn't a pervert that slept with dead (Wait, they are still alive, aren't they?) um ... perverts.

First, she would find out why he had been in Nabiki's room, why he was cheating on her with Nabiki, and why Azusa was in the mix. Then ... payback.

The only good thing she could see so far today was that it was Sunday. So, it meant no school—and hopefully no annoying Kuno clan members causing trouble. She didn't want to see what he dragged to school to help him defeat Ranma this time.

It also meant that today was her first lesson with her father and Uncle Saotome.

But first... "So why were they in your room, Nabiki?" she growled out, glaring at Ranma, as Azusa cuddled a ... fork?

"Antoinette!"

Never mind.

"Auntie stuck them in there," she replied, munching on a pop-tart, while enjoying a beverage Kasumi had handed to her and Ranma a bit earlier, saying it was new 'juice' meant for them. Where did Kasumi get blood?

"Yes, they got back so late last night," said Nodoka, as she sat at the table, watching as Soun yelled at Genma in the backyard, as her husband was setting out ... rat traps? Why does he need so many rat traps?

"Out ... late?" growled Akane, a small red aura beginning to form.

"They saved Little Azusa from the bad people!" smiled the skater.

"Bad people?" asked Nodoka.

"Some ... troublemakers were hunting her down," said Ranma, trying to avoid spelling out exactly what they had been fighting. The less Akane knew, the less likely she would be to charge out there and get herself killed. "We dealt with them before they could harm anymore people."

"What, vampires?" asked Akane.

"Something like that," admitted Nabiki. "Just your normal roving gang. We helped some of the proper authorities handle it"

"What, you fought them?"

"I am pretty good, little sister," said Nabiki. "Or did my wedgie not prove that?"

Akane grumbled a bit. She had had to change her underwear after what Nabiki had done. She still could feel the phantom pains of the assault, even after she had pried the former pair of underwear loose.

"And no, you ain't ready to face things like them," said Ranma.

"Hey, I'm a martial artist too!" she challenged.

"They ain't," said Ranma, glaring at her. "They'll rip you apart without a second thought, so I don't want to hear this 'I can do whatever you can' bullshit."

"Ranma, watch your language," corrected Nodoka.

"Sorry."

"That's okay dear," she said, smiling at her manly vampire son. Though, maybe he wasn't a vampire. He didn't burst into fire like she heard they were supposed to when they were in the sun. But if he had already used his vampire allure to get two more girls to want him...

Nabiki just smirked, trying not to focus on the look Auntie Saotome was giving her. "Just so you know, Akane, one of the people after her was Mikado."

Akane paused in her glare at her fiancé. "What?"

"There will be no school tomorrow," said Kasumi, entering in with some food and a tray of bamboo. "There was an explosion at Kolkhoz High last night. They need time to redesign the district map and send supplies for the new students."

"Little Azusa glad it is gone," said the girl, paling a bit. "Too many bad memories..."

"Oh dear, is she okay?" asked Nodoka, as the girl started to hug herself.

Ranma sighed, as he decided to hug the girl. For some reason, she felt safe around him, and getting hugged by Nabiki never calmed her down. "They tried to take her with them. Let's just say it wasn't pretty."

"Will she be okay?" asked Kasumi.

"Little Azusa stay with Azusa's savior," she said with a small smile.

"What about me?" glared Nabiki.

"Azusa call you Spike."

"Oh hell no," growled Nabiki, as she prepared to give the skater a Super Wedgie.

"Saotome?"

"Yes, Tendo?"

"Should we move the engagement to Nabiki again?"

"Of course not, Tendo. Now that another daughter is showing trust and interest in my son, Akane will begin to fight for him ... instead of fighting him, I hope."

"Perhaps.

"Saotome?"

"Yes, Tendo?"

"What are all these rat traps for?"

"Simple, a training exercise in balance, jumping, and coordination."

"Huh?"

"We spar with Akane, barefoot, and avoid landing on a trap. Why, I've even made sure there isn't any room for a whole foot to land."

"You expect my fragile daughter to do something this dangerous?"

"Of course, she wanted training like the boy, so she'll get the exact training like I did for the boy."

"And ... the pit?"

"Well, I figured we could surely get it right this time. And then we can fix that worthless boy's fear of cats."

"I see..."

"Tendo?"

"HOW DARE YOU PLAN THAT FOR MY SWEET AND INNOCENT LITTLE GIRL!"

Genma jumped a bit at seeing the demon head, which was a bad move considering the two had trapped themselves in a corner of the yard.

"Tendo, why did you SNAP ouch! SNAP Yeow! SNAP Mommy! SNAP SPLASH Gwof?"

"So that is why Uncle Saotome wanted me to get those cats from the shelter," said Kasumi.

Akane paled a bit, seeing what her 'training' was going to be.

"Have fun, Little Sister," smirked Nabiki.

"Ooo," cooed Azusa. "That look like it hurt Little Diane."

The panda glared at her. "I am a guy!"

"Then why is that one mousetrap not holding on to anything now?" she asked with an innocent voice.

"Bwee?"

"Charlotte!" cried Azusa, seeing her beloved pig. "You returned to Little Azusa!"

"BWEE!" cried the Jusenkyo cursed Hibiki, as he took off down a hallway, hoping once again to get lost.

"Come back!"

"Leave P-chan alone!" cried Akane, as she chased the two.

"Less painful training says they end up in the rat trap minefield," said Nabiki, drinking her 'juice'.

"No way," said Ranma, beginning to eat his meal. "Even I wouldn't take that bet."

"So son," said Nodoka, "what exactly were you two doing out last night that led you to save Ms. Azusa.

The two paled a bit, even more than usual, and tried not to spit out their drink.

Pluto teleported back into her room, sighing as she sat on the bed. "Little bastard had the place already set to blow when I arrived. I owe him for that," she mumbled, as she checked once again to see if Alucard's little parting gift had resulted in any other damage than what she had spent the last few hours recovering from.

"What am I?"

She turned, seeing Kodachi in a corner, still in human form, and clutching her legs, shaking a bit.

Pluto nodded. She was ready now to hear the truth ... and maybe ... even deal with it.

by Thrythlind

Setsuna looked from Kodachi to the floor-length mirror leaning against her wall and back to the huddled girl.

"You came through the mirror, didn't you?" Setsuna asked. Stepping off her bed and standing in front of the mentioned item. It was the only way in, for what Kodachi was, that wouldn't trigger an alarm spell.

"I...fell through the glass," Kodachi said.

"That is how you travel between this realm and that one," Setsuna said. "Your kind. Nightbane."

"What is my kind? What is a nightbane?" Kodachi asked. "Am I dead? Some sort of ghost or undead creature?"

Setsuna considered what to say to Kodachi carefully.

"No, you're a shapechanger," Setsuna said. "You saw that other place?"

"All that's over there is dust and ruins," Kodachi said, rubbing at her arms and glancing to the mirror.

"Hmm, I'm neglecting my duties as host," Setsuna said, gesturing for Kodachi to stand. "Let's continue this discussion over some tea. I assume that the exertions you've taken to get here have left you wanting some refreshment."

Kodachi narrowed her eyes and wondered if this were a trap of some kind. After all, this was the same woman that had earlier seemed to be threatening to kill her. The benefit outweighed the threat, however, and, hesitantly, Kodachi stood up, accepting Pluto's hand up from the floor.

She followed the green-haired woman into the room beyond, where Kodachi had not dared to explore yet, and then to a table where she was directed to sit down with a gesture. Her host vanished into the kitchen for a moment and the samurai girl listened to the sound of running water.

Then Setsuna was back and sitting down as they waited for the kettle to whistle.

"The Nightlands were not always so barren," Setsuna said. "More than fifty thousand years ago, before humans had come to this world, there was a powerful and peaceful people that lived there."

"What happened to these people?" Kodachi asked levelly, waiting for the accusation.

"They died," Setsuna said simply. "But they are not what should concern you. There was also a race of shapechangers that kept mostly to themselves, even from each other. They came to the aid of the Lost Race near the end of their trials, but it was too little too late."

"Afterwards, the Formless Ones faded from view again, shamed by their failure to protect the Lost Race," Setsuna explained to Kodachi.

"And you think that I'm a Formless One?" Kodachi asked, cautiously.

"No," Setsuna said firmly. "Near as I can figure, the boundary between us and the Nightlands around your house is weaker than elsewhere, energies from over there bleed over."

"And what about my brother?" Kodachi demanded.

"He is human," Setsuna answered. "Probably was conceived and born before the leak grew large enough to have an effect."

The kettle whistled and Setsuna vanished into the kitchen for a brief moment before returning with the kettle and a fresh part of tea.

"You still have not said what I am," Kodachi said, insistently. "I did not come for a history lesson."

"You would be called a nightbane," Setsuna said. "That other form of yours, the wounded schoolgirl, it is formed by your fears and hopes. The trauma you faced in the fight obviously had a similar impact."

Kodachi thought of the gaping wound in her chest and shivered as she sipped her tea.

"No, the second form does not change," Setsuna said, expecting Kodachi's unspoken question. "You are now stuck with that second shape for the rest of your life."

Kodachi frowned and looked down, as if ashamed of what she was.

"It is an image of your mind at the instant when you awakened your power," Setsuna said. "Nothing more, nothing less. You are a creature of darkness Miss Kuno, but not necessarily evil."

"Have you seen one of my kind before?" Kodachi asked.

"No," Setsuna said calmly. "You are the only one."

"Then how can you know so much about what I am?"

"I see variations in time, Miss Kuno," Setsuna said. "I know many things."

by The Demented Redhead

"Variations?"

Pluto nodded. "Not only can I see what once was, or what is, but I can see the myriad of possibilities from any one decision if I so choose. I can see any frame that the future may form, no matter how improbable."

"I see..."

"When I warned you earlier, I saw two possible futures for you when you awoke your power. One was where you were a force for good, the other where you were a butcher of life, slaughtering people at a whim. Was that a future you wanted?"

"I am not a monster!" she screamed. "I am a samurai!"

"And what would people judge you as, if they only knew the Black Rose who attacked her opponents before the match?" Pluto asked.

Kodachi looked off to the side, refusing to answer that.

"Since I am entrusted with the heavy burden of foreknowledge, I have to act accordingly, to try and ensure that humanity continues beyond any possible end. Do you know I have acted hundreds of times to ensure humanity didn't wipe itself out to this point in time? I have had to keep countless monsters; both human and demon, from walking this world. I have had to stop things like the Cuban Missile Crisis in the West from leading to a nuclear war, slow Germany's rocket progress, but yet I have also had to let countless people die to ensure that lessons were learned, before it became too late."

"So?"

"Monster is a term that differs from situation to situation. Before you changed, before you met and understood one Ranma Saotome, many would have considered you a monster, some still do, and none of them know of your current change."

"So ... what now?" asked Kodachi, sipping her tea.

"That ... is up to you," answered Pluto. "I can explain more to you, help you come to terms with who and what you are. But only you can take that effort and make it a positive benefit for your world.

"Remember this, Kodachi: not all good comes from Heaven, not all evils come from Hell. There is no rule that states an Angel cannot fall, and there is no rule that states a demon cannot rise to Heaven. The question is: which side will you work with?"

Nabiki concentrated on her kata, made for her by Ranma that was supposed to help her learn to sense her surroundings, as well as increase her reaction times.

Of course, it would have been easier to do without all of the deep bruises and internal damage their 'spar' had visited upon her. But on the bright side, the damage from where he had dislocated both of her shoulders had healed itself. And given a few hours, the rest would be gone as well.

Currently, Ranma was working with Azusa, as the girl wanted her 'Angel to teach Little Azusa how to be a vampire slayer'. The girl was still relating things in terms of an American TV series. But she did learn one thing: in her skates; ice or rollerblades, Azusa was a formidable force. Remove them, and she was as helpless as Akane in the deep end of the pool.

"Little Azusa's bottom hurts!"

"Tough it out. You wanted to learn to fight them, and they won't always wait for you to have some skates on. Now come at me again!"

Well, at least the occasional glimpse of Azusa being tossed around by her Master was a comfort.

SNAP! "YEOW!"

That didn't include the sounds of Akane learning from Genma, who was still upset about Azusa's comment.

Well, at least her Master was worried about her safety as a student. That was more than she would have thought of any student of Uncle Saotome.

"WAAAAH!" THUD!

And of course, she got the nice show of Azusa hitting the wall. That helped ease her pain.

Usagi was yawning, as the others finished arriving at the home of the Outers. "Man, it is too early for meetings, especially on a Sunday."

"Usagi, it's noon," replied Ami.

"I still say it's too early."

"Whatever," said Haruka, before she too yawned.

"My tummy hurts," mumbled Hotaru.

"I warned you about eating that much junk food," said Rei quietly, before she opened her purse. I can't believe she broke me getting her that stuff...

"Where's Setsuna?" asked Makoto.

"She called earlier," said Michiru. "She has something else that she needs to attend to."

"Why is everyone so tired?" asked Minako, entering with Artemis, looking as fresh as ever.

"Why aren't you tired?" asked Haruka, glaring at her.

"I'm used to hours like that," answered Minako. "Why do you think I really limited last night to two hours?"

"You went hunting without me?" asked Makoto.

Minako shrugged. "I chose the pair most likely to pull a Darwin Award. And I knew you weren't missing enough golf balls to try something like them."

"Marbles, Minako-chan," said Ami, looking over the Mercury Computer again, still determined to understand what made up the two... entities ... they had met at Furinkan.

"We shouldn't be acting on our own," said Usagi, looking serious. "I would have thought Galaxia would have taught you that," she finished, glaring at the Outer couple.

"We will do whatever it takes to do our duty," said Haruka.

"Funny," smirked Minako, "that duty usually includes not acting like an idiot and getting yourselves killed ... again."

"You were with us!"

"Only because I had to ensure you didn't do something stupid," glared Minako. "These guys have no problem with simply killing people. I watched them somehow follow a team back to a temporary base, and slaughter half of them before Hellsing showed up. If they learned who we really are, you think they'll simply attack us straight on? No, they will also attack our families, or friends, anyone they can find connected with us. They find joy in sending your own converted family and friends to attack you. Do you want to be forced to kill your parents? Maybe you'd like to be faced with each other?"

"Minako-chan?" said Usagi, quietly, seeing her friend begin to get heated up in their discussion.

"We aren't weak," said Haruka.

"Neither were those that got slaughtered," said Minako. "And they had firepower that could drop a daimon at forty meters. Some of the invaders were some of the team's own children. These are the worst of the worst, sometimes they only care that you are hurt in ways you can never heal."

The Outers were awed, as Minako's face turned grim and pale.

"You never know the pain until you see the face of someone forced to kill their own transformed child."

"There are many such battles like that when Minako was in England," said Artemis. "When we came here, I encouraged her to live a more normal life, even as a Senshi, because of things like that."

Usagi stood up, and went over to Minako, taking the girl into a hug. "I'm sorry you had to see stuff like that, Mina-chan."

The blond slowly cried into that hug, before she finally released her pain, a loud wail was heard.

"That is what the enemy can do," said Artemis. "Your Senshi gifts may help make you stronger, faster. But on the inside, you're all still very much human. In the end, that is what these creatures attack.

"After Sailor V helped, a lot of lives were saved; many more spared ever having to deal with the torment she endured. But that joy doesn't keep the demons away that this creates in your psyche.

"Haruka, Michiru," he said, glaring at the Outers, "no matter how much you feel you can, you are not ready to deal with this. None of you are. You all who went to the future Crystal Tokyo complained about how cold your future selves were. This sort of thing will turn you that cold, maybe even kill you inside beyond even the Princess's ability to fix, the type of torment that follows you into the next life," he added, turning towards Usagi and the crying Minako, his remark reminding them of both Usagi's fear of thunder, from the assault on the Moon Palace when she was Serenity, and Minako's own distaste of swords, after Serenity had ended her own life with Sailor Venus's Crystal Sword, to follow Endymion into the next life.

"You expect us to let them run over the world?" asked Haruka, not giving up her fight.

"No," said Artemis. "But you shouldn't go looking for them. They may or may not come, depending on if those who fight their type for a living win or lose.

"The point is that you are all large scale fighters. You were meant for threats that would destroy everything. There are those meant to handle threats on the smaller scale that these things are.

"You cannot fight every battle, defeat every thing you feel is or may not be a threat. Sometimes, you are not the proper authorities to handle something.

"This is one of those times," he said, hoping his words made it through to Usagi.

As a Queen, one would insist they should try and fight every battle.

But as a General, one had to know what was best and how to use their forces the right way.

And if Usagi didn't learn the cost of not thinking like a General, then Minako's pains would soon be the pains of everyone.

by Thrythlind

Sir Integra turned around in her chair to look at the guest in her office. It wasn't often that foreign dignitaries saw fit to come visit her.

It wasn't often they knew about her branch of knighthood.

Given that, and the country that this particular man worked for, she didn't doubt that she knew what this pertained to.

"I must say that I find it interesting to finally meet the European sorcerer that Japan trusts for its Project Gaia, Mr. Liqueur," Integra said looking over the man.

"That is beside the point, Sir Hellsing," the young sorcerer said. "I've been asked to speak to you personally on behalf of the APD."

"My forces are only in Japan until we can ascertain that the FREAK outbreaks are not targetted at our Queen's embassy there," Integra assured him. "We are not going to intrude on your jurisdiction any more than necessary."

"With regards," Gigelf said. "The matter I was asked to discuss pertains to two magical beings that your people have been showing an interest in."

"Is APD also showing interest?" Integra asked, taking the meeting a bit more seriously now.

"They are," Gigelf said.

"And you are here to ask me to back off on our recruiting efforts?" Integra asked, taking the situation much more seriously now. The Japanese girls off-hand comment regarding an ability to stop the Ghoul transformation was much too valuable just to let go.

"For the moment, the proposal is an allegiance," Gigelf said. "A combined effort to eliminate the FREAK incursion."

"Why these two?" Sir Integra asked. "As I understand it, there are a number of mystical beings in your island. Sailor V, believe is active there under a new codename with a number of other similar girls."

"The senshi," Gigelf said tightly, "are powerful and morally minded, but they serve their Princess, not our Emperor."

"I understand that problem," Sir Integra said. "But they are not the only such force you have available."

"In the end," the sorcerer said. "It is their choice whether to accept either proposal. Right now you are already acting past the limited purview your invitation gave you. As it stands the Emperor could request your Queen to withdraw you and you would have to agree. Accepting this offer will give you more official room to act, and access to local information and files as well. The matter of these new vampires can be left until later."

Sir Integra frowned, not liking the political corner she was being painted into, but there wasn't much in the way of choice. Gigelf was correct, the battles last night and Alucard's choice for how to cover the situation left them in a precarious way. Not that the red-coated marauder had much of a choice in the manner, of course.

Giving the general populace knowledge of FREAKS would have been even more damaging over all.

"You are still in England to research our libraries, are you not?" Sir Integra asked.

"I am," Gigelf said hesitantly.

"We will accept your offer for now," Integra said finally. "But do consider what removing us from Japan would mean to your access to the occult information here."

"Indeed," Gigelf said, frowning.

by Thrythlind

"Think I shall leave for now," Kodachi said, standing up and walking to the mirror.

To her surprise, as she reached out to touch the item, nothing happened.

Behind her, Setsuna smiled silently and waited for Kodachi to turn around with a question ready.

"Your home is closer to the Nightlands," Setsuna explained simply. "To get there anywhere else, you will have to be in your other shape."

"I see," Kodachi said, grimacing and wondering just how she was supposed to change back.

The previous night's apparition flashed through her mind and she held it momentarily, feeling the change swing over her with an uncomfortable shiver. She only hesitantly opened her eyes from that and looked out into the world and the mirror to see that she had successfully changed.

Even her uniform had shifted to match the torn schoolgirl outfit she had been wearing the previous night.

"I shall tell you when I have decided on a side, Madame," she said over her shoulder.

"I'll hope you choose to side with us," Pluto agreed.

Then Kodachi was walking into the Nightlands.

Once out the otherside, Kodachi found herself in the near endless expanses of dust and ruin. She scanned her surroundings and tried to remember where her house was in relationship to Juuban before taking to the air.

As she grew higher into the air, she caught sight, again, of the far-off blue of water somewhere. She hoped that that was somehow an indication that this desolation did not go on forever, but she couldn't say for certain.

Not knowing just how terrible the Nightlands could be in another alternate dimension, Kodachi steeled herself for the lonely jaunt across the dry dust, occasionally reading the etchings in the wall, ancient graffiti that she should not have been able to read, but somehow could.

As she walked, she found mirrors, many many mirrors. Each mirror represented a connection to one on the other side of the barrier. Still, even with as many mirrors as she was seeing, there had to be a multitude more on Earth.

Pausing in front of one of the mirrors, Kodachi gripped the edges and looked out, letting the mirror's fluid surface shift to show her a view without forcing her to pass to the other side.

Ukyou flinched and looked toward the mirror in her bathroom. For a moment, out of the corner of her eye, she'd seen something...monstrous. A ghost or something, bloody and torn, and somewhat familiar.

Legends of fetches and doppelgangers came to her mind and she swallowed nervously before exiting the bathroom, after insuring that it was clean by her standards.

Business was not good at the moment.

People were scared, and they weren't going out of doors as often as they would usually. As a result, Ukyou's store was making enough to continue, but it wasn't enough to keep up with her savings the way she wanted.

All that and she was starting to get worried about security too.

And on top of all that, Ranma and Nabiki were floating through her mind.

"If Ranma were to become a vampire," Ukyou thought to herself. "Why couldn't he have picked me to be his first."

Ukyou paused and thought about what she had just said before shivering and shaking her head.

Vampires, the thought was chilling, and she hoped it was just another Neriman rumor blown out of proportion. Still, there were those blood bank robberies, and a few missing persons and given much of what she had seen, she couldn't just leave villains as something to just wave aside.

Which meant what?

She had to make a decision of some sort. At least she had to talk to Ranma, apologize for her part in the wedding, something.

Anything was better than just working day after day. Her cooking wasn't worth anything without somebody to share it with. She leaned against the counter in her momentarily empty restaurant, the rush of oncoming business men soon to begin, and collect herself.

"I can't just keep doing the same stuff over and over again," she said.

Kodachi let go of Ukyou's mirror and stepped away, considering what she had seen. She hadn't heard much, but it had been obvious that Ukyou was at least as confused about what to do with her life as she herself had been.

She walked on through the dust further, occasionally leaping and sometimes flying, but mostly walking. Mostly it was a sense of lethargy that kept her moving so slow, or maybe just a need to clear her mind, but that mattered little.

Shampoo shivered and looked over her shoulder as the definite feeling of being watched crept over her, but nothing could be seen save for the Nekohanten's decorative wall-mirror and their customers of the moment.

She was eager to be back after her husband to give up his pointless resistance and come back to her, like he was supposed to. Her patience was running thin, especially with even her great-grandmother telling her to wait it off.

Now she was hearing rumors that Ranma was doing something with Nabiki.

At first, she thought that was a good thing and she'd waited for the mercenary Tendo to call her up with prices for times to be with Ranma. When that never happened, she began to get worried. Especially about the idea of losing her husband to a worthless woman like Nabiki Tendo.

She moved to the wall mirror and checked her image briefly, trying her best to look cute. Then her face turned cold and bitter as she spoke to affirm what she demanded.

"Ranma must accept my right," she growled in Chinese. "There is no choice."

Then the cute charade was back and she turned to the customers.

Kodachi found herself shivering after encountering that cold stare of the Amazon's as she started walking again. As she stepped back, a flash of an image came to her mind of bloody sword, but then it was gone.

The wandering started again, but eventually, Kodachi grew tired of the landscape and the occasional flashes of other people's lives she could see standing behind their mirrors.

She came to her own mirror and, looking out to see that there would be no one there, she stepped out. Immediately, she let her other form fade, no longer needing it now that she was on the right side of the mirrors.

Sighing, and trying to avoid looking at the blood stain, she flopped down into her bed for a moment, before remembering that it was time to go feed the alligator.

by The Demented Redhead

It started with one person, a video camera in hand, and a dream: to have the most hits on their website than anyone else they knew.

This number was pretty small—the people they knew, not the hits desired—reserved for those who would talk to anyone on the posting boards the person frequented.

But he had what they wanted, a fight that would attract everyone's interest. They weren't thinking that that might include those who wouldn't want that video to see the light of day, or those who would voice their objections through brute and most likely lethal force. No, all they were concerned about was popularity.

They would have tried to sell the video to a news agency. After all, he knew (heard on the boards) of people who could make a nice little bonus by submitting film of a Senshi battle.

But then you never heard of the ones who got too close and if they were lucky, only lost the footage.

But in Nerima, such footage was easy to come by, but hardly newsworthy.

They jump five stories up? Seen it.

They can fire chi blasts? Been done.

They change genders and species with cold water? Used for a Sweeps Period.

Pervert gnome stealing women's underclothes? They have more film than the police.

Monster battles? The library has them cataloged.

Crazy battle royals? They are sold in the bargain bin.

A fight with real vampires and loaded weapons? Now that was new.

But it wasn't worthy enough for news.

So, it went to the public domain, to generate more hits, and perhaps earn him some revenue from his advertisement slots.

So as he uploaded it, and sent out some instant messages to spread the word around, his thoughts were not on the can of worms he was about to open.

The file spread as word of mouth did.

Now, if this had been Britain, then special software used by their agencies would have caught the video, flagged it, and then rendered the host of the website unusable—a DoS (Denial of Service) attack usually worked well, and could be blamed on a hacker who was causing trouble.

But it started on a Japanese server, which did not have the software—the Japanese more used to seeing strange and seemingly unbelievable things that many would lose their sanity over. As such, it wasn't caught for a while.

By then, the damage would be immense.

"How's this one, Ranma-kun?" asked Kasumi, offering another prepared 'drink' for the vampire martial artist.

Ranma sniffed the concoction, wondering exactly where Kasumi had gotten a cookbook on preparing blood for consumption, and tasted the new broth.

His favorite so far was the one that was almost like Hot Cocoa. "Mm, not bad, nice mint taste."

"Thank you, Ranma-kun," said Kasumi, setting off another cup to the side. That was the last she could make, while keeping enough for Nabiki to give her some feedback on, the girl being still in the Dojo sparring with Azusa.

"Spike will not defeat Little Azusa!"

"MY NAME IS NOT SPIKE, YOU SUGAR HIGH FREAK!"

It was so nice that Nabiki was making new friends, in Kasumi's opinion. "I hope they are about finished. I'm not really sure how long I should leave Nabiki's drinks out."

Ranma nodded. He knew she would need it, especially after last night's fight, as well as the training they had just done. Regenerating still took a bit out of you, even if you had perfect control. I wonder if Carmen has that problem? I'll have to go use that phone tonight and call Seras for a meeting.

Looking into the dining area, he could see Akane nursing her sore feet—he had warned her for a long time now that she needed to work on her balance and leg work. Across from her was an equally sore panda, the sad recipient of a beating from Akane—she didn't like being called a weak girl, even if she thought the training was stupid—and a very angry father—who couldn't bring himself to hurt his daughter, even if she was supposed to be the heir to his school and had yet to teach her any of the advanced techniques of it.

Hell, Nabiki sadly knew more about those moves, and that was only because she had been bored one day, and read then. She had even considered selling them to Ranma to learn, and later sell him the truth that by doing so, he had 'joined' the two schools.

"Oh, Azusa's butler called a while ago," said Kasumi. "He said he can have some of her stuff shipped here by about four."

"Her stuff?" he asked, a bit fearful. No, even I couldn't have that bad of luck.

"She will be staying here for a bit, until she feels she is ready to ... 'kick bad guy bootie', was the phrase she used, I believe."

"But her parents..."

"They're on vacation in the Greek Isles," said Kasumi.

"School?"

"Blew up."

"Matches?"

"Cancelled, seems her partner was lost in the explosion."

"Is she paying to stay here or did Mr. Tendo go with that 'guests don't need to pay' idea?"

"Oh yes, Father was so happy when she gave him that check. Why, it might even be enough to get those new water heaters I heard about."

"... Where will she be staying?"

"Oh, she seems to want to share a room with Nabiki. She initially wanted to stay with you, Ranma-kun, saying you made her feel so safe. But I told her that wasn't very proper, and she suggested Nabiki instead."

"Nabiki?"

"Well, she called her Spike, but I assume that was a nickname friends sometimes give each other."

"Oh..." Well, dodged that bullet.

"By the way," said Kasumi, handing him a note. "You received a call from a Mr. Ido. He said he would be by later on today to talk to you about a job opportunity."

Ranma blinked, before looking down at the paper. "APD?"

"I haven't heard of them either, but he said you came highly recommended, and he wanted to make a possible job offer to you."

Ranma could only blink. The only reason he had been able to even read the paper was because of the heavy wood used in the tabletop he was leaning against. It was one of the few places in the house where he or Nabiki could even read anything—provided they held only a single sheet and nothing was printed on the back of it.

Of course, this only helped for simple things; messages, warnings on a bottle, and sadly, certain kind of contracts.

And despite the fact he was still in High School for one more year, he doubted the latter would be a rarity anytime soon. And Mom was worried about what I would do if I didn't get into a good college.

Ukyo closed up her shop for the day, leaving Konatsu to finish cleaning up, and preparing for the next day. No class was a nice break, but for tonight, she was not going to be open. Ever since the newest strangeness had hit Nerima, night business had been nil.

Of course, she didn't want to be out at night either. She didn't doubt her skills, but she wasn't going to be foolish enough to expose herself to a situation where they might be needed if she could avoid it.

Even if it might mean her Ranchan escorting her back here, protecting her from what he might have become...

She had to smack herself hard to stop that little daydream.

First thing was first, apologize for the wedding fiasco, work on friendship, and then try to get him to see her as a woman, and not a brother.

"It'd be so much easier if Ranchan wasn't a virgin," she muttered. "That would show him the difference right there."

"Shampoo go now, Great-Grandmother?"

Cologne looked out the window a bit, puffing on her pipe that she used occasionally. She had a good idea what her heir was up to, but she also knew that her heir was still in the dark about the changes in Ranma as well as the middle Tendo child. Happi's potion may have shifted things beyond what even I would have thought.

She had known a good time about Happosai's little stunt. But sadly, her great-granddaughter hadn't been able to convince the boy to sleep with her. Not that she would, the girl still was too indoctrinated at times with Amazon dogma. She had yet to learn certain things about relationships, and that not all males could and would be made sheep. "One moment, child. I wish to tell you something."

And she decided it had to be today that she discussed a few things with her heir, while Mousse was busy in the back and unable to hear anything—got to love white noise machines, great to mess with spies.

If Shampoo didn't change her tactics very soon, not only might she lose any chance she had at bedding and winning the heart of Son-in-law, but she also might lose her life.

by Thrythlind

"Forgive me father, for I have sinned," Anderson intoned quietly as he sat in the confessional box.

"What is your worry, my son," the Iscariot priest on the other side of the divider inquired.

"I may have helped to unleash a new source of evil upon this world," Anderson said grimly.

"That is ill news indeed," the confessor said. "What is the nature of this new evil?"

"She appears as maimed girl with her heart ripped out," Anderson explained. "Covered in thorny vines that become horrid wings. Blasphemously tears of blood pour from her eyes in mockery of our Lord. She wields powers of some unknown dark magic that afflicted me with her injuries and bound Hellsing's pet demon thorny tendrils."

"Alucard was there?" the priest said, surprised.

"I believe it was injuries received in battle that awakened the changeling girl's demon nature," Anderson said. "She insisted on condemning us both as demons and set about to try to take us both down, but the Lord clouded her vision and drove her to leave without finishing the battle soon after her true self was revealed."

"You are certain that she was not a vampire?" the confessor said.

"No, there was no sense of death, only of darkness," Anderson said. "The creature seemed to have no knowledge of what she was and seems to be under the impression that we created her...perhaps she is correct in some ways."

"If she is uncertain of her powers and nature," the priest said. "She should be easy to track down. It isn't like a heartless demon-girl will have an easy time hiding among the humans of this city."

Kodachi Kuno walked semi-aimlessly down the street, looking for a location she had heard rumors about. She didn't really have any reason to be out and about, but her brother was engaging the services of another demon-hunter.

The senshi she had avoided out of previous experience, but something about the demon-hunter she heard her brother talking to made her skin crawl and sent a shiver of ice that felt almost real down her spine.

That had led her outside and now she was looking for something she had heard of only in legends whispered of in the halls of St. Hebereke and quickly hushed over as she approached.

Then, suddenly, there it was.

The arcade.

Kodachi walked into it and blinked owlishly at all of the assorted electronics. Blinking, she looked over a few of them and then started as she came upon a monolithic game blazoned as the House of the Dead III.

Children her age stood around it watching as two of them wielding plastic shotguns blasted at approaching zombies and monsters. She flinched away from it and backed into another popular game labeled Resident Evil.

Yet again, bloodthirsty zombies tore forward as the players sought to fight them back. And everyone of them momentarily seemed to bare her face and, as they fell she almost seemed to feel the hit.

Suddenly Kodachi couldn't see how anybody found entertainment with these things as she stumbled back away, looking hesitant and afraid of the bloodthirsty game players. Some part of her mind told her that she had a somewhat biased opinion, but that was currently only a small portion of her mind.

Eventually, she stumbled onto a slightly older game, judging by the frayed advertising. Turning around to look at the game, sort of hesitating in fear, she paused and took in the sight that was before.

The characters bouncing across the screen were drawn in a much less serious vein than the realistic House and Resident games. They were still supernatural creatures, but they weren't mere mindless monsters to shoot down. The spoke, taunted, leaped around like herself and her peers.

Checking her pockets, Kodachi brought the small handful of coins and small bills that represented what remained of her small allowance for the week. Finding the coins necessary, she started the game and read carefully through the instructions on the screen, double checked the buttons, and then cycled through the character selection.

She finally settled on a bluish looking girl named "Hsien-Ko" and the game started.

by The Demented Redhead

Kodachi had spent an hour playing the game, trying to find something within the characters to ... alleviate ... her own tensions about what she was. Even little children who were there filled her in on the characters of this 'Darkstalkers' arcade game, as well as the various animes made from it.

She had to admit, she could relate to the character of Hsien-Ko in some ways. Could she turn her curse into a weapon, a tool to fight the demons that had played their part in creating her?

Or would she be consumed by it? The game had two royal characters, one determined to rule his realm and who saw humans as vulgar trash, another who just wanted to enjoy life, with no regard for duties.

"To think a simple game could mimic true life in such a way," she said, as she completed yet another high level move, and defeated her current opponent; a twelve-year-old boy.

"Wow, lady, you're good," he said in awe.

"I owe it to my training as a Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics," admitted Kodachi. "It made my mind and skills sharp enough to figure out what would work to defeat my opponent."

The boy nodded, mentally deciding to bug his mother for lessons in that style when he got home. "I gotta go now; I promised my mom I'd be home by three. See ya, Lady."

Kodachi nodded, watching the boy go, before she turned back to the game. "Such an innocent child," she said.

She mentally wondered if she had ever been that innocent, the distraction ruining her perfect score for this round.

"But am I truly capable of protecting the innocent?" she wondered, as she began a mega-combo move.

"Oh, Azusa like that one!" cried the girl, as she looked on as Ranma and Nabiki went over their weapons, to see what would work for the hyperactive skater.

Ranma held the small curved blades along the side of Azusa's rollerblades. "So you think we should be a bit worried about these APD guys?"

"Does that come in pink?"

"Maybe," said Nabiki. "I'm more interested in how they could have found out about us."

"Has anyone seen Little Charlotte?"

"Senshi?"

"Can I paint the blades pink?"

Nabiki nodded towards Ranma. "Makes sense, they're the only ones who really know we aren't human, aside from everyone they blabbed to at school now. If not them, then someone else because they gave credence to Kuno's rantings. Otherwise, they would have come for you."

Ranma nodded, looking over some spiked gloves.

"Oh, Little Azusa will be a great Vampire Slayer!"

The two slightly undead sighed at her continued delusions.

"So if they only want me, then we assume they don't know about what the Senshi discovered," said Ranma. "And if they want both of us..."

"Then we might have to be very worried," finished Nabiki.

"Nabiki, phone!" yelled Kasumi out to the Dojo.

"I better get that," said Nabiki, standing up.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, we got about an hour before this APD guy shows up. Make it quick."

"Hello?"

"Boss, you got the TV on?" asked the voice of Yuki, one of her lieutenants.

"No. Why?"

"They have some footage on that they found on the net. Seems like someone got some primo battle footage of the Phantom and the Lady in White fighting some people.

"Boss? Hello?"

"RANMA!" yelled Nabiki.

Sir Integra Hellsing sat in a private jet, bound for the Land of the Rising Sun. The locals' interest in the new vampires had forced her hand, making a face-to-face interview necessary. If they did not literally roll out the red carpet for the two new vampires, they could and would lose a valuable asset.

She rarely liked to leave Hellsing nowadays, there were more than enough rivals and enemies who would and could take advantage of such a situation.

But the possible rewards were just as great.

Officially, she was going to help 'formally set up the joint operational task force between Hellsing and the APD to better provide for an effective counter-force against an arising threat.'

Unofficially, she was going there to offer a true voice in power to the fledgling vampires in the hopes they would sign with them. If not that, then at least a work out a program where she would also have access to them as field operatives. Of course, that might mean making deals with the APD and strengthening ties to the point where bureaucracy would begin to form.

And she so hated bureaucracy.

Plus, she had many unanswered questions that she needed to have answered.

Two new vampires with abilities never before seen or heard, a healing factor one had, but that her Master might also be able to use...

A girl that seemed to be a plant-based entity, changing after a fatal blow... Was she always like that, or had her near-death triggered a dormant ability?

The FREAK attack on Kolkhoz High... They didn't usually go for such big targets. Was there a reason, or were some of those changed thinking more of their own wants, and not the goals of those who normally ran the show.

And Anderson was there as well. That alone did not bode well, and the Japanese Government was already informing the Vatican that they did not want their 'demon hunters' running amok in their towns. Of course, whether this led to any changes in their tactics would be seen later on. The Vatican had been rather unpredictable in how they reacted to other countries and their borders.

And if the rabid priest found the new vampires or this plant girl...

No, that would not be a good scene. There were too many unknowns, too many variables that she didn't and couldn't control.

"Perhaps a united front wouldn't be so bad after all..." she muttered, as the jet sped over the land of Asia towards its destination.

But one thing was still bugging her: what the Hell was Alucard going to do with a stolen Zamboni machine?

And why did it generate images of him pulling pranks like she remembered from American cartoons?

by Thrythlind

The video was running on one of those shows that collected such random oddities. Nabiki at least assumed as much. She certainly hoped a news program wouldn't be using such slang-filled, unprofessional lines.

Azusa wasn't watching, or at least not closely. She was hanging back just outside the room and sort of peeking, while not looking too thrilled about it.

"And here we see the so-called Lady in White travel through the air like a wobbly mastodon," the voice coming from the video said.

Or making jokes like that. Totally of taste when dealing with a video where the zombies many formerly living people were being torn apart by a pair of teenagers.

It had nothing to do with the fact that Nabiki was nothing even close to a wobbly mastodon.

Of course, Nabiki could only get the sounds. Her visual information was limited, like that coming from her late-lamented computer, to a sheet of opaque grey with a touch of orange and pink left over from the heat used to shape the glass. She was trying not to reveal just how much trouble she had with the TV screen...but there was at least one difficulty with that.

"Hey, I kinda remember that," Ranma said chuckling. "Didn't look like you were walkin' through mud or some stuff?"

"It's right there on the screen, Ranma," Kasumi said blinking.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, momentarily confused. "Oh right, on the TV."

Each comment by her Master sent a twitch through Nabiki.

"Pay attention, Master," Nabiki said lecturing.

"But...how?" Ranma asked bluntly.

Nabiki smacked her hand into her face, she thought they were past this at least.

"Oh, you're not talking about the TV," Ranma noted finally, drawing a silent heaven-seeking plea for patience from the other non-human in the room.

"Boy!" Genma snapped. "What are you doing using that sword?"

Then the knock came on the door, drawing Kasumi away from the horrid video to answer the door.

"How...Nabiki?" Akane gasped as Nabiki destroyed one of the vampires by basically "healing" it.

"Umm...holy water?" Nabiki tried, finding herself floundering a bit once put on the spot.

"Ranma, Nabiki," Kasumi called out. "You have a visitor."

"I see you've seen the video," the man said.

Ranma started to talk and Nabiki cut in before he could.

"Yes, we have," Nabiki said snapping. "All hope of normal life...bye bye. Even now, some violent female psychopath that believes herself married to Ranma or whatever is sharpening her sword to come to kill me."

Shampoo sneezed and almost let her sword slip on the sharpening stone. She had to be more careful about that, especially if there were monsters that she was going to have to deal with.

by The Demented Redhead

The two priests continued to watch the video, the sound of the antics of the show's host muted, as they watched the battle before them.

"So, does Hellsing have more servants of the Devil at their beck and call?"

"Not likely," said his partner. "They seemed to be independent, possibly this Lady in White and the Phantom we have heard about."

"Truly odd behavior from their kind," said the first. "Perhaps they merely seek redemption in the Lord's eyes by acting as such."

"Should we have our disciple hold on sending them to their final judgment?"

"For the moment, perhaps. The Lord does work in mysterious ways, so this may be one possibility. It would describe their style, the Lord blessing two evils to show them the light. Besides, our warrior is having a personal crisis of faith. I believe he still feels somewhat to blame for the demon awaking in that girl."

"And we have the local government's cries against our cause," said the other, reading a memo from the Vatican.

"Our work need only be approved of by the Lord, the approval of corrupt heathens does not concern us."

"I can't believe I missed it," sulked Alucard, watching the video. "Though she is quite slow in the air."

"I believe she was trying to mimic the movements of her sire, Master," said Seras.

"But I missed it all," sighed the ancient vampire. "And I was hoping to have a go against him," he finished; smirking as his mind ran through images of such a possible fight.

"I thought our mission was to get them to join us?"

"Details, Police Girl, details," Alucard waved off. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a new toy to play with."

Seras watched him walk off, a bit of confusion on her face. What could he do to a Zamboni? And since when could he do anything with machines other than blow them up?

"My name is Tai Ito," said the business-dressed man, as he sat with Ranma, Nabiki, and a few other members of their families at the low table. "And I have come with a business proposal from the Emperor," he added, having only got said proposal before he had left his now spacious office to come here. It seemed even the Emperor himself had heard of those rumors, and was very interested in them.

"SAOTOME!" yelled Soun, glaring at his friend with his Demon-head technique, "DON'T TELL ME YOU SOLD YOUR SON AS A HUSBAND TO THE ROYAL FAMILY?"

"What sort of proposal, sir?" asked Nodoka, ignoring the panicked look of her husband as his best friend proceeded to yell at him. Soun had become so emotional ever since they had begun to train his daughter.

"We are quite interested in hiring young Saotome and Ms. Nabiki Tendo for an agency we are starting up, to deal with the threats much like you saw on that video."

The group could only blink; even Soun had stopped his technique.

"WAH! MY Emperor wants my daughter as a Ghostbuster!"

Well, he was quiet for a few seconds. He was growing quite emotional.

"We have great mental health plans," Tai said, glancing at Soun Tendo.

by Thrythlind

The man and woman standing in the middle of Kuno's receiving chamber looked about with a pair of appraising eyes. This potential client had resources to spare, and that almost brought an impure expression to their faces.

Whatever demon or monster, real or imagined, that this lunatic wanted to be eradicated, they would get it done and milk as much of this money as they could out of this fool.

The One and Ulysses were very skilled at playing themselves off as dedicated crusaders against supernatural forces, but they were anything but. The truth was that supernatural creatures were not often granted the same sort of societal protections that humans had. These were beings they could hunt and torture with near-impunity, and, what's better, get paid for it.

As a bonus, if any bystander got hurt, they could blame it on the monsters.

Dark-skinned Theone, whose ego truly deserved the name "Gift of God", was a near encyclopedia of monsters and their weaknesses, especially the most painful of them. After the last few years of hunting, she'd even learned to recognize the faint tingle that warned her of a nearby creature.

She wasn't a pushover in battle, but knew much better than to try and assault most of her targets head on. Traps and ambushes were her main choice of strategy and she tried to stay out of view until an enemy was helpless.

Ulysses more than matched the meaning of his name, wrathful, than he did the character of his namesake. Concealed in his admittedly handsome form were state-of-the art cybernetics that put him easily on the level of most foes, including a few surprise weapons, and his military trained-mind still lay at the back of it. Of course, the American military would have been interested to finally lay hold of the rogue that had slipped past their psych evals and then killed a number of personnel soon after he was enhanced.

Without Theone, he probably wouldn't have the patience to keep his "clients" comfortable, but, then again, this particular client didn't seem to on the ball.

What really disturbed the two, however, was the display on the TV. What they were seeing did not match anything they had experienced, or anything Theone had heard of.

This was something new.

Something...challenging.

The presence of Hellsing was also an interesting add in. They'd always wondered if the Impaler lived up to his reputation.

by The Demented Redhead

"Mental family health plans aside," said Nabiki, glaring at her crying father, "what else is there? I'm talking about other benefits, team and partner choices, bureaucracy problems, tests; pretty much anything and everything."

"Hey!" called out Akane. "What about me?"

"You have experience fighting the undead?" asked Tai.

"Well, a ghost cat," answered Akane, her voice disappearing into a whisper.

"I ... see," said Tai, turning to look at Ranma with an inquisitive stare. His head shook from side to side, answering the man's unspoken question. "Maybe later, after you've had more training."

"But why do they get hired?" asked Akane.

"We've got proven experience," replied Nabiki, looking at her nails, as Akane began to growl.

"If we could remain civil," interrupted Nodoka. While she didn't like the idea of her son taking on the manner of creature that she had seen on the video, she did have to admit that it certainly seemed manly. Girls did tend to flock to the roguish male lead in such endeavors. "If we could discuss a few things, I would like to hear your reply to Nabiki's earlier question."

"Yes, how much will the boy get paid?" asked Genma, already dreaming of how he could properly spend manage the boy's money. If Nabiki got her hands on it, he the boy would never see a Yen of it.

"Actually, their pay will be put into a special account, only accessible by them," said Tai. He knew it wasn't proper to say it, but his intent was clear: the government knew what would happen if the parents had access to those funds. And they'd rather not have employees with problems at home, or intense debt. It was simply bad for the company or government.

That ... and he simply didn't like Genma. He reminded him of that one council member who kept insisting everything be done his way.

"I have several contracts here, ready for your perusal," he said, handing them to Ranma and Nabiki, as the two soon had people looking over their shoulders.

"Ooo, Azusa like all those zeros."

"Um ... Nabiki?" asked Ranma, not being able to read any of it. Truthfully, he knew there was probably enough legal mumbo-jumbo to give him a Mallet-sama headache, even if he could read it.

Nabiki was busy appearing to look over the paper, but was doing anything but. Her hands were feeling the back of the pages, trying to determine if there was any print on the other side of each sheet. If not, she could go into the kitchen later on and use the thick counter to read it. "You do realize yours is not the first offer we've had," she said.

"Hellsing?" asked Tai.

"What's Hellsing?" asked Kasumi.

"A group from Great Britain which serves a similar purpose to what we are creating," said Tai, not wanting to divulge too much around here. Some of the characters struck him as loose lips. "Have they made an offer?"

"Not yet, we were supposed to meet them to discuss such," added Nabiki, flipping through the pages, and pretending to study them. "As with your offer, our main concern is that we'll end up on some sick doctor's operating table and dissected."

"HOW DARE YOU PLAN TO CUT UP MY DAUGHTER!" yelled Soun, demon heading Tai.

The man merely arched an eyebrow. "We have no intent to do such," said Tai. "And please refrain from doing that again. There is a current debate to arm our employees, and some may see your technique and shoot you first."

"Eep," said the now normal Soun.

"As to your question, Ms. Tendo, we are currently setting up a joint task force to help us form a better organization."

"So they're basically showing you how to do it quickly, because some moron kept putting this off," said Ranma in his usual uncensored tone.

"Son, it is not proper to say such disrespectful things about the government ... even if they are very true," said Nodoka.

"Who else will you be trying to enlist?" asked Nabiki.

"We have already received several confirmations from various devil hunters we subcontracted to before we expanded our purpose," said Tai.

"They ain't going to try and kill us at the first chance, are they?" asked Ranma. "Cause we ain't going to be too happy about that."

"They will be informed of such."

Ranma nodded. He didn't want to kill someone—well, someone living who thought they were doing the right thing—but that didn't mean he'd go easy on them.

"Is there anything else?" asked Tai.

by Thrythlind

Kodachi looked to her hand and what remained there.

She had, perhaps, enough money for some scraps of food (or a few more video games), but, after that her money would be gone. She supposed that she could do a bit of roof-hopping or see what the notables of Nerima were doing, without looking through a mirror this time.

Looking back toward the video game, the Black Rose reluctantly shrugged and stepped away, a dull ache in her stomach answering her question for her.

She was hungry and she didn't want to go home yet.

That meant going to a restaurant of some sort, or at least a market. She didn't really have any friends she could drop in on, after all.

As she walked out of the arcade, not really happy about the sort of food it offered, she pondered what seemed to be an odd sensation, but had always been with her.

Hunger.

She was hungry, and she wasn't staring at the people around her like they were fresh meat.

That had struck her right away, actually.

She'd expected her hunger to hit her with some sort of perverse need for human blood or flesh, or perhaps souls. When the common ordinary urges for good Italian cuisine came up, she had been more than a little surprised.

The only problem she was facing was that she couldn't afford good Italian cuisine at the moment.

There was absolutely no hiding of bodies necessary apparently.

Hence the long, slow release of a relieved breath.

Looking back at her remaining allowance, and realizing that her lunches at school for the rest of the week were going to be rather minimal, she sighed and looked up the side of the building to see if there were any food places other than the arcade in the same building.

All that she found were the signs of various fast food places, none of which she had much of a good opinion about. Though, then again, she'd never really tried any of them. Shrugging, she went back into the building and looked for the stairwell.

The Rose could have easily leapt up to the top of the building, much less the open windows on the sides, but, at the moment, she rather preferred not to attract any attention, which was something a lot of her peers didn't really seem to understand.

Not with the way that Amazon kept smashing through walls. Of course, Ranma had little to no concept of hiding most of his abilities. The others were more or less similar in how they thought about moving around town. Kodachi herself had only made the effort to move normally when she wanted to be sneaky...

...now, all she wanted was to figure things out.

So now she could sit down and eat her french fries in peace and quiet without being tempted to draw all attention to her.

She ate another french fry and chewed briefly.

So, no urge to rant at all then.

Fingernails tapped on the table irritably.

"Waiting," she muttered to herself.

She stared into space for a moment, fingers tapping a bit faster.

Then her eyes looked around the plastic bedecked surroundings and considered their easily substandard, by her understanding, construction.

"This unworthy hovel...something...not worthy, that was a repeated word...hmm...suitable for the...magnificient Black Rose of St..." she was interrupted by her own yawn, "...Hebereke High School."

She finished out another yawn and looked around at the other customers and their inattention to the school girl.

"Oh-ho ho ho?" she said, mocking her own normal laughter.

People continued to eat around her regardless.

"I suppose I don't truly feel up to a proper declaration," Kodachi deduced finally. "How unfortunate, I would have thought that the decidedly unexpected discovery that I still ate as a normal person would have evoked a great deal more emotion than this."

She took another couple of french fries and swallowed them after some chewing.

"Such a bother."

by The Demented Redhead

Shampoo looked over her sharpened sword. "Hope this pass Great-grandmother's inspection."

"Don't worry, Shampoo, my love," yelled Mousse, busting into the room. "I shall protect you from the evils of the night!"

WHAM! "Stupid Mousse, Shampoo no need your help!"

"She has a point, boy," said Cologne, hopping in after him. "While you may have some amount of skills, your poor eyesight would make you a hindrance in battle rather than an asset."

"There is nothing wrong with my eyesight, you old bat!"

WHAM! "That's the spare register you're yelling at, boy."

"I knew that, you Old Mummy! I'll show you my skills!"

WHAM! "Now you trying to attack Shampoo, stupid Mousse!"

"Shampoo my love!" he yelled, glomping onto who he thought was Shampoo.

WHAM! "I don't like you like that, boy," said Cologne.

"That, boy, is why you won't be helping. How can we depend on you to fight, when you have just as much chance of attacking us as you do an enemy? Creatures of the night don't exactly wait for you to hit the right target."

"My eyesight is fine!" he yelled, grabbing who he thought was Cologne.

"I'm just looking for the restroom, man!" cried the frightened customer.

WHAM! "We apologize. You're meal will be free, and the restroom is down the hall on your left."

"Um ... thanks," said the guy, departing quickly. He was beginning to suspect that the dangers of this place far outweighed the sight of the hot waitress hopping around.

"Stupid Mousse, you get eyes fixed, and maybe you help," said Shampoo in a harsh voice. She may have considered him a friend ... well, a little bit of the time when he wasn't awake, around, and focused on her, but she wasn't going to spare his feelings if it would get her killed because of his usual crap.

"Until you do, child, you will stay here and guard the Nekohanten, while Shampoo and I deal with this threat," said Cologne. The last thing she needed was undead punks trying to rob her store, let alone the stupid blind duck killing a civilian. Japan tended to look down on foreigners who did that, especially if there were some irregularities in their worker visa paperwork.

"But I must protect Shampoo!" he yelled, thinking if he proceeded to show enough loyalty and attitude, they might change their minds.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

He was wrong.

Ukyo made her way to the Tendo Dojo, looking around to ensure nothing sinister snuck up on her. The last thing she wanted was to be killed before she could talk to Ranma.

She was determined to get the reason he had turned Nabiki first, out of him. After all, shouldn't he have made her his undead bride?

Wait ... that seemed a bit wrong.

Well, she didn't really know if he was a vampire. The rumors said the Senshi said they weren't. "Maybe Ranchan turned into a sex demon. I mean, with his parents, it's possible." She could easily see his mother pulling a baka-panda, and having it done.

But then that meant he was satiating his needs on the middle Tendo sister. Or maybe she was the sex demon using her innocent Ranchan to feed off of?

A loud slap was heard as she quickly derailed that train of thought, rubbing her now red cheek.

"I really need to stop spending so much time with Auntie Saotome," she murmured

Though the idea of Ranma being a sex demon, stalking her in the bedroom, before he ripped off her clothes to feed, as he leaned over to...

Soon, her red cheek had an equally red companion on the other side of her face. "I really, really, need to stop hanging around her ... and stop reading Konatsu-honey's books."

by Thrythlind

"Well, we can't just say no to Hellsing without at least looking at their offer," Ranma said, shrugging. "Not when we promised to listen to what they had to say."

Nabiki looked up from her position at the table where she'd placed the contract and was starting to go over the pages. On the one hand she could definitely see Ranma's point of view, but on the other, this particular offer came straight from the Emperor apparently.

It was the ultimate in prestige.

Though, she had to admit that coming into this sort of work would make it a shadow prestige.

The ADP man smiled at the obvious uncertain manner of Ranma's speech, the addition of the Emperor's word was having a pretty heavy effect, it seemed. The girl, who had something of a reputation for being mercenary had even reacted in shock when Ranma made his suggestion of waiting on what to say.

"In any case, you'll be working with Hellsing for now anyway," Tai acknowledged. "So you will have the opportunity to consider what they can provide you."

"Tadaima," a cheerful voice called out from the hallway.

Nabiki's grimace and Ranma's nervous look made the government official aware that this was someone they'd rather not have to deal with at the moment. He gave his own internal response, but had to admit that doing business at the potential assets' house had always been prone to this sort of deal.

"Hey, Ran-chan," the girl walking into the building asked. "I haven't seen you in a bit, and now I'm hearing stuff about vampires. So what's...up?"

The last was asked as Ukyou came into the main room and into the view of all the other people there. It was also the first time Ukyou had gotten a real look at Nabiki since the rumors started, what she saw was a shock.

"Damn, when did that girl get so sexy?" Ukyou thought quietly to herself.

"Err, yeah, hello Ucchan," Ranma said.

"Well," Tai said, standing up. "I'm assuming that you'll be working with both Hellsing and us until such time as Hellsing returns to Britain. I'll leave these copies of the contracts with you and expect to hear back from you in short order. In the meantime, you seem to be having an extra amount of personal business to take care of."

by The Demented Redhead

Kodachi sat on the bench beside the road, watching as people passed by her on their way to do whatever it was they did on a Sunday. What really caught her attention were the passing children. Some were walking happily with their parents, others with friends, and even a few oblivious to the world, lost in whatever music they were listening to or games they were playing on their handheld systems.

A view of the world through different eyes...

She was still uncertain of herself. She didn't feel like her old self, not after finding no enthusiasm for the act at the mundane restaurant. Nor did she feel ... anything else. For the moment, it was like she had no particular desires for ... anything.

Well, other than Italian cooking. That hunger was still around. Maybe she would ask Sasuke to cook some tonight when he arrived to take her home.

She hadn't even felt like roof-hoping to return home. And she had more than enough funds to call the ninja retainer of the Kuno clan. Though ... it did take a while for her to remember her own phone number. It wasn't like she called it that often herself.

She rubbed her face a bit, trying to once again try and grasp some need, some desire, some semblance that she was not just a shadow anymore.

But once again, she found herself literally grasping at shadows, as if her existence was beyond her reach.

"Perhaps, all I need is a good rest," she muttered. Her sleep had been troubled last night, more with images of her first battle, the transformation, and perhaps whatever her new connection with that mirror world.

Yes, she would head home, have Sasuke prepare some Italian, or order out, she didn't care which at this point, and have a nice soak in her bath. And finally; a good night's sleep in her bed.

That would help her ... wouldn't it?

As Mr. Ito made a hasty retreat out of the Dojo—he had read many of the reports from the area, and knew enough to avoid prolonged exposure if he valued his health—Ukyo took his vacated position at the table.

She found herself once again drawn to the appearance of the middle Tendo. She had never caught a glimpse of the transformed Ice Queen, not since the day Ranma had changed. After all, why would she need to see Nabiki for? She had employees in her classroom if she needed photos and such.

But now ... she was beginning to wonder how many of the new rumors she had heard at school since the Senshi were perhaps true.

"What's ... going on, Ran-chan?"

"Um ... getting a few job offers," he said, trying to figure a way to keep the situation from perhaps getting out of hand.

"Excuse me for a bit," said Nabiki, standing up, as she took the contracts into the kitchen. She figured that the best she could do at the moment was go over the offer. If she stayed in there, she'd likely become involved in some battle.

"Azusa come too, Spike!" chimed in the perky skater.

Nabiki paused a bit, her left hand twitching, the burning need to do something ... painful ... to the skater, growing.

But she released a deep breath. "Why don't you go back to practicing in the dojo?"

"Oh, Azusa likes that idea. Little Azusa needs to work on decapitation!"

The twitch was nearly full-body at this point. As Azusa went out to practice her new moves, Nabiki began to chant a mantra to herself; that ripping the little slut apart was not what her Master would be happy with.

It would feel very good, but it would probably upset Ranma. And she was trying to not upset the provider of the great nookie ... even if that little bitch hadn't stayed out of her Master's sight for more than thirty minutes.

But if the whore interrupted the nookie time, her ass was dead.

Ukyo slowly watched Nabiki leave into the kitchen, as her focus slowly turned back to Ranma. "So what's this about a job offer?" she asked.

"My manly son has been asked by the Emperor himself to help save Japan from the forces of evil!" smiled Nodoka.

"Now if the boy will get rid of that sword," growled Genma.

"Ain't gonna happen, Old Man," snarled Ranma.

"What is wrong with our son using a sword against such creatures, husband?" asked Nodoka, her hand fingering the hilt of her sword.

"N-n-n-nothing, No-chan-dear," Genma quickly said. "But I taught the boy to fight without them."

"Well too bad you ain't taught me crap about dealing with the living dead," Ranma shot back. "Sword works, so I'm keeping it."

So, I need a sword now, thought Akane, as she rubbed P-chan's back. She was already coming up with a list of what she'd need to prove she could take on these things just as well as Ranma could, and her older fiancé-stealing sister.

Not that she wanted Ranma! Well, maybe...

"So then, mind giving your cute fiancée the whole story, Ran-chan?" asked Ukyo. "I mean, with Nabiki here, we can ask her if you can tell us everything about why you two are the way you are."

by Thrythlind

Usagi looked up with a pained expression on her face as she pondered the situation.

She did not like backing down from anything that threatened innocent people, but that seemed to be exactly what Minako was suggesting they do. Which wasn't like her at all.

The Sailor of Venus had always been rather serious, though she often hid under a veneer of being silly. It became easier to see the more often that veneer slipped. They'd all seen people die, sometimes people they knew, and they'd all sacrificed. Minako had been doing it longer than all of them save Setsuna, however.

Usagi had known that, sort of, but only in a sort of "oh yeah, that's right" manner. She certainly hadn't realized that Sailor V's London activities had been that official. They'd all decided to stay outside of the whole political mess.

Though, now that she thought about it, that would have been decided after Venus shed the Sailor V identity. A long time after.

So, on the one side, she had Haruka and Michiru's desire to go out and smite the enemy. On the other side, she had Minako lecturing her on what was appropriate or not for them to get involved in.

Emotionally, she sided with the Outers on this issue, but Minako brought up some very good points.

Potentially, she and the other senshi were among the most powerful beings on the planet. That potential was not always apparent, however. So far, only a couple of temporary effects had managed to bring it out in full, and then for only a short period of time. Otherwise, they weren't much more than any other devil hunter or mage.

Given the full potential of Queen Neo-Serenity, Usagi could easily obliterate nearly any demon, even resurrect the dead. Sailor Saturn, fully unleashed, could destroy at the least the planet, perhaps the whole system. The others had similar potentials in their own specialties.

They were like full-scale capital ships of one sort or another.

Well, when one considered that aforementioned problem with reaching their full potential, they were more like those new cutting-edge things in the anime. The ones that had a huge number of problems that always had to be tweaked, and could only really fire once in awhile.

Yeah, prototypes. Stuff you only pulled out when there was some big-baddy and nothing else was working.

In the Silver Millennium, the Princesses hadn't done all the fighting and grunt work like this. They'd had soldiers and servants and so on. Which left the princesses free to do things like govern, negotiate with outsiders and attend to the requirements of the people and the state.

Minako was insistent that Hellsing was equipped to deal with these vampires, and there were other things going on. She just wished she could get Setsuna nailed down to extract some more specific information from her.

Setsuna was probably the only one of them that had reached her potential, probably because the only time she'd died so far, she wasn't reincarnated but resurrected instead. Setsuna had all her centuries, millennia, of experience still with her.

Of course, then Usagi would have to confront Setsuna with how she was breaking the rules of her guardianship of the Time Gates, and encourage it. Using the Gates and the Key as she did, parsing out even the small snippets of information that she was willing to part with, these were things that had been forbidden in the past era for fear that playing with time in these ways would cause irreparable damage.

Usagi had to admit that the whole modern century was an emergency situation in the eyes of the Silver Millennium, which would allow for such use, but she still didn't want to encourage it. Or let people know that she thought over much about this kind of stuff.

She sighed and looked over the faces of those watching her and frowned slightly, wishing this was a decision she could put off with a simple bit of laughter and something stupid to say.

"We can't afford to stay out of this," Usagi said finally, noting the disappointed look on Minako's face and the triumphant one on Haruka's. "But that doesn't mean you can just go off and do things as you want, Haruka."

Usagi turned toward Minako.

"Sailor Venus," she said firmly. "You said Hellsing had its vampires here, right now?"

"Yes," Minako said, coming to attention instinctively.

"And are they related to the danger here?" Usagi asked.

"The FREAK vampires are artificial versions of what they are," Minako said.

"Okay, we need information on them," Usagi said. "Take Mercury to observe Hellsing. If you can find some of these fake vamps, even better. Observe only. The rest of us will continue to secure our word against entry. That includes any nest you find just outside the ward. Nobody takes these on one-on-one, okay?"

"Yes, your highness," several voices said automatically.

"Okay then, let's get done with this already," Usagi said, coming down, with relief, from her royal personality. "We're wasting the whole day with this."

"Meatball head," a certain miko muttered irritably.

by The Demented Redhead

"It's real simple," said Ranma. "I found some vamps attacking Nabiki that I thought were muggers, scared them off, and made sure she didn't change into some mindless drone. Anything else?"

"How'd you do it?" demanded Akane.

"Do what?" he asked, scratching the base of his pigtail.

Ukyo headed off Akane's growing violence by answering that question. "I think she wants to know how you stopped Nabiki from changing into a ghoul."

"Oh," said Ranma. "Then why didn't she just ask that?"

"Why you..."

"Anyway," said Ranma, stopping Akane's rant, "it all went back to when the Old Letch split me in two."

"He ... did ... what?" asked Nodoka, her face dark, her hand now gripping the hilt of the Saotome Family Sword, her eyes staring off to the side at her husband.

"Yeah, I was asleep at the time in the room with Pops, and he used this incense that he thought was only gonna split my forms. Instead, it sorta split my good side and evil side. And man, was my female side evil. Tried sucking the life right out of me."

"And where were you during this, husband?" asked Nodoka, pulling the sword out slightly.

"Um ... we shouldn't interrupt the boy's story," he said, sweating heavily. What could he say: he thought the boy could handle it? She'd want to know why he didn't jump in after the spell had worked.

"Well, anyway when she got put back in me, I sorta got all this dark knowledge as well, and I sorta used that to save Nabiki."

"So you turned my sister into your mindless puppet?" demanded Akane. "Ranma, you EeeeeeeEEEE!"

The group slowly looked where Akane had been sitting, seeing her hanging a foot off the ground, the back of her panties firmly in Nabiki's hand. "What was that about me being mindless, Little Sister?" she asked, punctuating each syllable of 'Little Sister' by a firm tug on the underwear.

P-chan, who would normally be trying to defend Akane, was passed out, having caught a glimpse up Akane's skirt from his landing spot. The shadow was hiding the blood stains from what had shot out his nose.

"Let me set you straight," said Nabiki, growling herself. "I am not a mindless drone, nor am I a plaything. I am working with Ranma because I want to, and because I don't want to be some thing's dinner out there. In saving me, Ranma took half of it into him. We're both damn lucky we aren't some undead thing's sex-toys at this moment."

Ukyo slowly nodded, making a mental note not to upset Nabiki for a while. That wedgie looked very painful.

"Now daughter," coughed Soun, "what have I told you about doing that to your sister?"

"If I rip 'em, I pay for 'em," said Nabiki without missing a beat. "I've become very good at not ripping them."

"Oh dear," said Kasumi. "I don't think they'll fit anymore after that."

"To finish Ranma's story, they had already bitten me. They didn't get the full effect they had intended, and Ranma was able to keep some sort of chi-virus they transmitted in their bite from turning me into the mindless drone my slow-learning sister had thought Ranma had changed me into," she said, trying to keep from calling him Master. If she kept calm, it didn't come out.

"Charlotte's dead!" cried Azusa, holding P-chan, as its head flopped to and fro.

"So ... you are a vampire?" asked Ukyo.

"Sort of," said Nabiki. "We don't burst into flames with sunlight, but it'll burn us if we are too exposed. Think of us as the palest redheads around, no offense Auntie."

"None taken, dear," smiled Nodoka. "Is my son always a manly vampire?"

A few of the people face-faulted at the question, minus Nabiki and her prisoner.

"Him save Little Azusa," proclaimed Azusa, as she was fitting her Charlotte with some special made clothes she had had brought over for him.

Nodoka began to smile. Even as a member of the undead—well, partial member—her son was still saving women in trouble. Very manly, in her opinion.

"And we're not going to attack you looking for blood," said Nabiki. "We still eat normal food; we only need a little blood from time to time. And Kasumi was kind enough to get a good source," she finished, remembering the apple-cinnamon blood drink Kasumi had left in the kitchen for her.

"WAH!" cried Soun. "MY DAUGHTER'S A BLOOD-HUNGRY MONSTER! DON'T WORRY, BABY! DADDY'LL GET YOU SOME MORE BLOOD!" he proclaimed, pulling out a small tanto. He held it to his arm for a moment, before pointing it at Genma. "SAOTOME, SPARE SOME BLOOD FOR MY DAUGHTER!"

SPLASH! [Panda blood is yucky to vampires,] said the sign.

"No thanks," said Ranma. "I like mine fat free."

Ukyo could only blink. Okay, this was not what she had been hoping for.

Though she did find the temptation for Ranma to ask to bite her starting to rise...

"Ucchan?" asked Ranma. "Why'd ya slap yourself?"

"No reason," she said, blushing a bit.

"So ... when do we go?" asked Ami, as she sat outside of the meeting with Minako.

"As soon as I make contact with a friend here in Japan and see if they know where Hellsing might have set up," said Minako, her voice solemn. "I just wish we could stay out of this."

"Well we can't," said Haruka, as she and Michiru walked out to join the girls. "Better we at least get the feel for what we are dealing with rather than waiting for it to find us."

"I must agree," said Michiru. "I know you would prefer us to stay as far from this as possible, but we cannot neglect our duties, even in such small matters as this."

"Whatever," said Minako, as she pulled her legs into herself, laying her head on them.

"Um ... guys," said Ami, a little louder than necessary, "you won't believe what I just found on the Net."

by Thrythlind

Sasuke looked nervously across the passenger seat to the unusually subdued younger Kuno sibling. It was not unusual for Kodachi to borrow small change from the ninja, given that she spent most of her allowance on St. Hebereke's tuition. However, he'd never before known Kodachi to call for a ride back into the ward. In many ways, she was much more mobile than any car.

The Kuno family had a limo, but no limo driver currently. Sasuke wasn't capable of actually driving it, and that had left the deluxe cabs. He'd fully expected Kodachi to complain loudly about being taken anywhere in a cab, even such an expensive, high end one.

Instead, he'd gotten something very confusing.

"Can you afford this expenditure?" Kodachi asked in concern as Sasuke stepped out of the passenger seat to pick her up. "I've heard these conveyances are far more expensive than their kin."

"Well," Sasuke had said, uncertainly. "I didn't think you'd want me to do anything more humble..."

"Ah, yes, yes," Kodachi said, rolling her eyes. "Such an unworthy cart of a vehicle to carry the magnificence of a true Kuno...understood."

Since then, she hadn't really said much of anything. Though she had occasionally looked to the driver and frowned about something. She seemed to be examining the fixtures of the cab, seemingly deciding whether it was worth the price she saw displayed on the meter.

"Is there something wrong, Mistress Kuno?" Sasuke finally ventured to ask.

"I..." Kodachi paused and gritted her teeth. "Much. Much is wrong."

"Perhaps if you could tell me, I could help you solve what is wrong," Sasuke suggested.

"I can't...really...describe the situation as it stands," Kodachi said. "It falls...outside my past experiences."

"Can you give me the gist at least," Sasuke prodded, concerned.

"I died...almost," Kodachi said softly. "I can't describe it better than that."

Sasuke looked closely at Kodachi, unaware of how exactly to respond.

The moment was interrupted as a glass partition raised between the two of them and the cab driver. The sound of whirring gears placing the piece of bulletproof glass into place attracted both of the passengers instantly.

The hissing sound of gas filling the passenger compartment came next, and the two sprung into action.

Both slipped the filter masks they always kept on their possession over their faces and started trying doors. Predictably the handles were locked tight somehow. It didn't take long for Sasuke, merely human to pass out, and Kodachi could feel it creeping in slowly on her as well.

The driver smirked as the rear of his cab, hidden from the outside by tinted windows, was obscured by a thickening mist. These two weren't the best catches he'd ever had, but they'd still be good to turn right back around on the streets, once they were implanted and changed.

They just had to keep Hellsing occupied a little longer, and things would continue going smoothly.

His smirk spread into a self-satisfied smile, the expression of a job well done.

Then the triple-strength, laminated bullet-proof glass partition shattered outward as a vine wrapped fist plunged through and grabbed him tightly.

Shocked nearly senseless, the driver veered aside and just barely managed to avoid slamming head-first into a brick wall.

As he slipped to a stop, he looked to the now limp hand that had so easily broke through his protection and saw only the hand of a normal highschool girl. Taking his view of vines from earlier as a moment of hysteria, he quickly vacated the wrecked cab and pulled out his cell-phone.

"Got some lab rats," he said. "But had a bit of an accident, need a pick up to take them to the nearest facility...think I'm near number 3...one of the prey broke my partition and almost made me crash, but she's out from the gas now."

"Keep that gas on her," a foggy voice said as Kodachi struggled to wake up. "We're just about...there, the chip is implanted."

Obviously, it had been something of a good idea to shift back into human form when she'd felt herself falling asleep. That meant she now had the advantage of surprise.

"Okay, apply the treatment," another voice indicated. "You should be able to slack off the gas now."

A moment later, Kodachi felt something enter her body and try to force itself into her veins, hoping to change and replace her. It was a passing feeling, quickly consumed by the darkness of her soul that sheltered her body and mind from transformations and control.

Slowly, the anesthetic faded away and Kodachi's mind and body were coming fully into her control.

"The treatment doesn't seem to be taking," one of the scientists said, confused. "I don't...is that the subject's hand moving?"

Kodachi's eyes snapped open, wide and bleeding as scientists flinched away from her. Before, she'd been naked, but now, as she stepped down from the cold table, almost absent mindedly snapping the restraints that had held her, she found herself again wearing the tattered school girl outfit.

"You idiots!" one of the scientists said. "This girl is already a vampire."

"Not a vampire," Kodachi said, a graceful ribbon of dark power appearing in her hand as she gestured. "I'm something else."

The dark whip slashed forward, barely passing over the dodging scientists and cutting deep into the wall, much to the horror of the unarmed scientists.

"You have overstepped yourself," Kodachi growled, blood dripping down to the floor. "Badly."

by The Demented Redhead

The Millennium Organization had spread out their work around Tokyo, making several bases from where they could continue their work, using the samples 'She' had generously provided for their work. They had bases in almost every ward, the exceptions being those that had strong devil hunter bases that would make establishment of a base there a possible loss compared to anything that might be gained. This included Minako Ward.

They employed locals to ferry supplies, and a few rogues that were deemed usable, to gather test subjects to continue the experimentation. Several had even been recruited and changed for the express purpose of finding, identifying, and capturing the new vampires known only as the Lady in White, and the Phantom, both of which had been taking huge tolls on any operations in or near Nerima Ward.

Those two were deemed very important, as it was said that the Doctor wanted them for experiments, and even 'She' was very interested in them.

There was even a rule: do not take any chances when 'converting' people from Nerima Ward. The stories coming out of that Ward had made them both prime targets, but also dangerous samples.

Kodachi however, was not in Nerima Ward when she had been captured.

Their mistake, because many guards were stationed in that Ward.

Therefore, there were none in this base.

The scientists had all been herded by Kodachi into a corner, as the Nightbane smirked. This ... this was something she craved, something she needed. Sure, it wasn't Italian cooking, but still... So, I still enjoy the thrill of the battle, at least.

"W-w-what are you?" cried on unnamed scientist.

Kodachi could only smirk, as more blood seemed to drip towards the floor. "I ... am upset. Can you guess why?"

One scientist, a recent recruit and convert, smirked, as he tossed the frightened man at the Nightbane, intending to use the victim as a distraction against the monster, as he lunged to killed it.

If Kodachi had been a normal girl, it might have worked.

If she had been her human self, he might have made a scratch against her.

As a Nightbane, she scowled at his slow movements. She backhanded the decoy, sending his now limp body into the wall, and causing an echo of his death to reach out.

For the attacker, her left hand was quickly covered in vines, which surged forward, impaling the vampire in the chest, and suspending him in the air, as blood began to both drip out of his mouth, and down the vines.

"I find myself curious as to whether or not wood through the heart would kill such monsters as yourself," she said, her eyes taking on a slightly innocent appearance.

The vampire barely had time to consider her words, before a wooden thorn grew from the vines buried in his chest, piercing through it, and protruding from his mouth.

"Hmm, looks like that legend is wrong," she murmured to herself. "A pity, your end would have been much less painful. Oh well, time to end this, monster."

A dozen huge thorns tore through him, scattering him, as the former flesh soon turned to dust.

"I see, like most mundane threats, you die when ripped apart," she said, as the thorns shifted to take on the appearance of a monstrous claw.

"Now then," she said, the claw now hanging over the cowering scientists, "I have a few questions. Answers I like, you live longer. Answers I hate, and you'll envy the vampire's death compared to your own."

Normally, she wouldn't be this cut-throat. But she did consider Sasuke to be family at the moment. They had kidnapped her, tried to destroy and remake her, and in her opinion, that made them as much monsters as those abominations that caused her to awaken as such. There was no telling what they had done to her faithful ninja retainer. And the fools had picked the possible worst day to mess with her.

Besides, she always liked the idea of being an anti-hero.

Ranma could feel ... something, on the edge of his perception, like a blinking light just outside of your peripheral view.

But it was both too far away for him to investigate, and he was currently busy with other things.

"EeeEEee?" continued Akane, wondering how she could escape her sister's attack without enduring more pain of her underwear going where it shouldn't be. It was always something she had hated about her slightly older sister, who took to attacks like this when they had both been practicing the family school.

"Little Charlotte looks perfect in his cute little sailor suit," smiled Azusa, as she applied to little hat to the outfit she had put onto P-chan.

Ukyo stayed silent. Okay, so Ranchan hadn't meant to change Nabiki. That meant he was still undecided.

It also meant he might have to change whoever he married. After all, if he was going to be immortal, surely he would want his love to be with him.

But something was still bugging her, something about vampire myths, about what the relationship was between the sire and the sired. Hmm, if she could just remember what that movie was about...

"Stop being a coward, Saotome, and give my daughter your blood!"

[You give yours, Tendo!] Flip. [No one's getting my blood!]

"But Father, I already found a source for Nabiki-chan and Ranma-kun to use," said Kasumi.

"WAH! MY OLDEST CHILD IS SACRIFICING HERSELF TO QUELL THE BLOODLUSTS OF MY FUTURE SON-IN-LAW!"

"I ain't feedin' on Kasumi!" growled Ranma.

"Son, have you converted any of your suitors into undead brides?" asked Nodoka.

"... What?" he said, eyes wide in fear.

"Well dear, surely you have considered that you might need to change whomever you marry," said Nodoka.

"Um ... I really ain't sure even if I could," said Ranma. Really, what more could drop on his lap today?

"Airen! Shampoo come to see husband!"

Nabiki dropped Akane on the floor, causing said girl to release a breath as her tailbone met the hard mats.

Ranma quickly turned, his mind already preparing to defend his new life as well as Nabiki from an over-amorous Amazon who tended to attack first. But he knew he could take her, as long as she didn't get changed into a cat, or have the—

"Well now, this is unexpected," said Cologne, standing beside her great-granddaughter. "Something you'd like to tell us, son-in-law?"

Ranma gulped. She had brought ... the Old Ghoul.

by Thrythlind

Anderson didn't know what to think as he stared at the video. There were a pair of vampires. He could easily identify them, even with the video quality, by their pale skin and dark hair. However, these vampires did not act in ways that he had been taught that vampires acted.

For one thing, a bit of lip-reading, developed by years of seeing the dying words of those with cut throats, told him what the girl, proudly wearing a beautiful crucifix about her throat, was telling her "master."

"I can't heal these."

Heal.

Now, the question was, were they touched by god?

Or were they false prophets of some sort?

Or perhaps the girl was the only one touched, and being held by the heathens and heretics for their use.

And, even if they were real prophets, what were they doing with Hellsing?

Integra frowned as she paused in front of one of the TVs in the international airport. Playing up there, fortunately in the manner of something amusing or made up, was the scene she'd played witness to twenty-four hours ago. It seemed that most of the onlookers were dismissing it, but Sir Integra knew, without a doubt, that certain people would realize that the video was genuine.

"This started as a mere skirmish with some FREAKs uncomfortably close to our Japanese Embassy," Sir Integra noted irritably, "I begin to understand how the Americans felt at Gettysburg."

"And would you be Lee or Meade?" Walter asked casually.

"That remains to be seen," Integra said bitterly.

"What the heck was that?" Makoto asked as Nabiki's touch destroyed one of the vampires the two were fighting.

"It is hard to tell just from the video," Mercury said with a slight sigh.

Soon thereafter came Ranma's Moko Takabisha and the advanced chi-blast obliterated the remains of the ghouls, and then finally...

"Oooo, I like her," Haruka said as Nabiki "disarmed" the male vampire.

"She has a boyfriend, Haruka," a cold voice said.

"Well, that can...oh, Michiru, heh," Haruka said turning about. "You know better than to think I'd go around your back, right?"

The cold, warning stare answered the blonde that she'd better not.

"I see," Cologne said, taking into account the changes to Ranma's and Nabiki's chi auras. "A side-effect of cleansing this supernatural infection, apparently."

"Umm, yeah," Ranma said, blinking.

Cologne wasn't sure of what this portended.

Neither Ranma nor Nabiki were technically human anymore. Cologne had to study them, quietly, to determine if they were still even capable of conceiving with a human being safely...if at all.

There was also the question of how Ranma had managed to even so partially purge the undead curse as he had. She didn't think it would be something easily transmitted. In fact she rather doubted that either Ranma and Nabiki would be able "turn" anyone.

Communicable creatures generally had auras that reached out towards uninfected individuals that came near. There was an instinct, an urge even, to "share." The infections almost had a mind of their own somehow.

Nabiki and Ranma had stable, fluid auras. They didn't move in human ways, and the colors were different, but they were still essentially natural creatures.

"We are planning to begin a hunt of our own," Cologne said. "These beasts are known to the Amazons, and we do not like to be near an infestation if we can help it."

"We're already heading out to help some others handle it," Nabiki said.

"You mean the fledgling No-Life-Queen that appeared on your video with you?" Cologne asked seriously, frowning.

No-Life-Kings weren't something to take lightly. Their most dangerous aspect being that they, unlike most undead, held a great respect for the living. It meant they were less likely to intrude upon the matters of the living unless necessary, but it also meant that they were less likely to underestimate those same humans.

"Seras seemed okay," Ranma said.

Of course Ranma would think that. He might even be right, it was hard to take No-Life-Kings as a whole, they were a host of individuals.

Just like dragons.

The lesser, more animalistic vampires, however, and especially these artificial, if the skater's story was to be believed, vampires were more predictable and more actively dangerous.

"We'll let you keep your appointment then," Cologne said cautiously, much to Shampoo's surprise.

"But Shampoo must go with airen!" Shampoo said in shock.

"Not for now, Granddaughter," Cologne said. "It would not be honorable to intrude on their arrangements."

As Cologne watched, Ranma and Nabiki's chi-auras fluctuated slightly, though their bodies stayed still. It took only a few seconds for the old woman to realize that they were communicating through those fluctuations. There were more changes inherent to the two than could easily be seen, it seemed.

It was basic communication, probably, because she soon saw a few questioning gestures and looks exchanged, but it was communication and deliberately initiated. Made Cologne wonder why they hadn't yet bothered to try and hide the lovers' traces on their auras.

by The Demented Redhead

It wasn't that much of a conversation, well, according to what Cologne may have surmised. Sure, given time, the pulses of their aura could become a silent form of communication, much like Morse Code.

At the moment, all that it could convey at the moment were feelings; and only if they knew what they were being caused by or directed at. It was more fear at being discovered, at what the Amazons might do, and how they should proceed.

Nabiki was a bit fearful that the Amazons were doing nothing. If they were in action, then their motives and attitudes could be gauged.

Yet they were doing nothing, and Nabiki was very fearful that Cologne may be able to tell that she and Ranma had been intimate. If so, then she knew Cologne would be taking things in a new direction.

And she for one did not like her chances against the Amazons. Sure, given her training and enhancements from becoming ... whatever they were—Ranma had once said they could be a type of chi vampire, given their obvious abilities and such—she might have a slight chance against Shampoo. Cologne was something else. Even Ranma was doubtful of his own chances against her.

And that was before they saw her aura, having avoided her since their change.

And it was quite obvious how powerful the ancient Amazon was. While she could hide it from others, she could not hide it from their eyes.

"So ... you're gonna let us go, just like that?" asked Ranma.

"Well, I would ask that after your meeting, you find us so that we may continue our hunt together," said Cologne, seeking both a way to calm her great-granddaughter's desire that Ranma join them now—she really needed to teach the child the finer points of Amazon Diplomacy—and time where she could observe the two new vampires to see if procreation was a possibility. In her opinion, it would truly be a loss if the two were now mules in that sense.

"That would be ... okay," said a cautious Nabiki, ready to bolt at a moment's notice if it looked like an attack was imminent.

"I take it you will not have any trouble finding us, son-in-law," said Cologne.

He shook his head slightly.

"Very well, we shall see you later on tonight. Try not to stay out too late," she said smiling. "It is a school night, you know," she finished, as she and Shampoo leapt off, cackling.

"Okay," said Nabiki, relaxing her guard slightly, "that was weird."

"What is this about a meeting?" asked Ukyo.

"And who's Seras?" asked Kasumi. "Oh, I need to prepare some thermoses for you tonight," she added, getting up and heading to the kitchen.

Ranma sighed as he stood up. "It'll have to wait till later, we gotta go as it is," he said. It would be a bit before they could go to where the phone was hidden."

"Can Azusa come too?" asked the happy skater, already cuddling P-chan into what would be a blood-inducing scene, had he recovered from Akane's panty-flash.

"Not tonight," said Nabiki, smiling at some good fortune. If she was going to go without tonight, at least she wouldn't have to deal with the slut for a few hours.

Ranma nodded. "Keep practicing what I taught ya. If ya improve enough, you can come with us tomorrow. But for now, stay here and ... ah ... guard the place."

Azusa sighed a bit about not being able to go out and kick some bad-vampire-butt and spend time with her Angel.

But on the other hand, she did have more time to practice and play with Little Charlotte. "Okay, Angel!"

"Angel?" asked Ukyo.

"It would appear the poor dear is relating to that strange American show about a blond vampire slayer," said Nodoka, shaking her head. Why the girl couldn't relate to a Japanese show was beyond her.

"Why Airen no come?" asked Shampoo, after the two were a few blocks from the Dojo.

"There is much of this world that you are still in the dark about, child," said Cologne, as she pulled out her pipe. "One of the things is that like Elders, discussions and meetings of the No-Life-Kings and Queens are not something to be intruded upon."

She turned towards her heir. Cologne supposed it was her own fault. She had been neglecting Shampoo's studies in favor of the relaxing lifestyle she had found here. "Also, things have changed here, and I am not certain where we stand in them. Until we do so, any actions you plan to take with son-in-law or your rivals will go through me."

"But he is Shampoo's husband!" the girl cried.

Whack!

"Hmm," said Cologne, looking at her staff instead of her heir, who was rubbing her now sore head. "I may need to check that after tonight. It would be pretty bad for me if this thing broke now. I was just finally starting to get it broke in the way I liked.

"Now child," said Cologne, directing a gaze at Shampoo that left no room for questions, "this is not a matter you can just go in and make demands. I would prefer not to make new enemies while we try and defeat old ones. Now do I make myself clear?"

Shampoo slowly nodded, pouting.

Whack!

Apparently, pouting was not allowed.

"And act your age!"

"Yes, great-grandmother," Shampoo said, rubbing the new lump on her head.

Cologne nodded. "Now come, we need to start a patrol route and see what we find. If we're lucky, we might find a small nest to start you off on and let out some of that energy."

Alucard looked over his new masterpiece. While he would have liked to get some paint for it, he had apparently chosen a time when many of the locals were closing shop. It was to be expected, as the recent 'disappearances' had taken a toll on the community.

Oh well, perhaps he could get his Mistress to authorize it.

Not that she would see it when she arrived; no, it would be ready first.

And with her here, perhaps he might even be allowed a bit more ... freedom ... on his hunt. After all, he did have one particular fledgling vampire to ... test.

Yes, tonight would be the night; he could feel it in his bones. Tonight, he would see if the newbie was worth his time.

And if nothing else, he would just follow Police Girl. She seemed to be able to come across the Lady in White. If they called for the interview, then the Lady's sire would not be far behind.

Oh yes, and with that video playing, it was bound to bring out so much more fun for him, such things tended to attract those like the Judas Priest and those that saw themselves as defenders of the innocent. Maybe ... he would even run across those Senshi Pluto had asked him not to kill.

A sound of the main garage door opening drew his attention, as he turned towards where it would be. "Ah, the Mistress has arrived."

The guy shut off his luxury cab, smirking as the garage door closed behind. "Hey!" he called out. "I got another one for you!"

"A pity it will be your last, cur."

"What—URK!" He had turned towards the voice, expecting to see one of his people.

What he found was the vine-covered appendage of a plant-like monster, now embedded in his chest.

"Since your services were so substandard, this is all you'll get for payment," smirked the creature, as the man's body erupted in thorns.

Kodachi smirked as the man who had brought her and Sasuke here collapsed to the ground, his life ended. "To sell innocents to that scum..."

She reformed her hand, retracting the vines, as she moved over to the car, opening the back door, and spotting an unconscious woman, a reporter of some type if she recalled.

Snorting in disdain, her mind recalling a very unflattering piece the woman had done on one of the Kuno clan's companies, as she gently placed her unconscious retainer beside the woman. The men had decided to experiment on her first, instead of her short ninja. In the front, she tossed what papers, disks, and hard drives she had found after dealing with the scientists. If anything, it would give her some clues as to the monsters she was dealing with, and where they might be found.

She ... yearned for another fight.

Before she got into the car, a bit difficult considering her form, she glanced over at the dead man who had brought her here. He had been human, probably either working for money or the promise of power.

And she had killed him, as she had done the scientists after she had learned of Sasuke's location and discovered he was safe, and not booby-trapped in some manner. It would do little for her to rescue him, only to end up killing him.

But what got her about all of this ... was that she didn't feel ... anything. She felt no remorse for killing any of them.

They were monsters, despite their forms. Why should I feel guilty for doing that?

But ... does that make me a monster as well?

No! I cared enough to retrieve Sasuke. I am... I am...

Growling a bit, Kodachi slipped into the driver's seat. Surely, driving a car couldn't be any more difficult than that video game she had tried today. Gas pedal, brake pedal, automatic whatever...

Looking over the car, she began to wonder if blowing the place up after she drove off was a good idea, or if she should just try and take the purloined goods, her retainer, and the stupid reporter through a mirror, as she realized she had no idea how to start the damn car.

by Thrythlind

Kodachi looked over the contraption in front of her and completely blanked as to the purposes of things. Something in her mind remembered that there were keys involved in this activity and she looked around for a moment for something that would foot the bill.

Not seeing something making an immediate appearance, she unbuckled her safety belt, opened the car and exited to pick about the remains of the cretin that had originally captured her. It didn't take long to find the sticky items she needed and then she was back in the car, checking her safety belt, looking in her rear view mirror to check her passengers.

It took a little more experimenting to get the engine on, after finding the keyhole and testing numerous bloodied keys to find the right one.

Now, as she sat in the driver's seat, a happily rumbling car thrumming beneath her in ways that did not feel so comfortable at the moment, she tried to remember what else to do.

"Let's see here..."

Moments later, the silence of the street was split by the screeching sound of a deluxe taxi speeding in reverse across the street and into a closed pawn shop.

Hands frozen to the wheel, bloody eyes wide, a certain nightbane waited calmly (as a caffeinated neurotic) until the engine finally ceased making noise (please God, make the horrid thing die!) before shakily, but primly, unbuckling her seatbelt and exiting the car with stiff and proper step.

Some would certainly have been amused to see what appeared to be the vine-wrapped corpse of a horrid accident victim respond with such obvious fear after a more or less unthreatening accident.

Kodachi was not among those people.

She didn't dwell on it much longer, however, but quickly grabbed the disks and her rescuees before pushing into the pawn store's bathroom and the mirror there. As she flowed through the mirror, the process no longer seemed so easy as it had been, instead it felt like she was trying to pull herself through a sieve as molasses instead of water.

Coming out the other side, Kodachi dropped to her knees in fatigue and let her charges settle softly into the dust. Apparently, bringing other people like that was very tiring.

"I think I might just rest her a moment," she said, out of breath.

She thought, for a moment, of switching back to her human form in case Sasuke or the reporter awoke, but something changed her mind.

In the distance, something was roaring.

Her last two trips, Kodachi hadn't encountered anything like wild animals in this place, but perhaps her travels to and from had attracted some attention from the desert.

"Best to stay on guard," she huffed reluctantly.

by The Demented Redhead

"You think leaving them alone was wise, Master?" asked Nabiki, as the two made their way to the location they had previously hid the phone Seras had given them.

"Can't be helped," he said, falling more in the Phantom personality, a habit he developed when they were starting patrols. "Besides, Azusa will make sure Akane and Ukyo don't try anything stupid."

"Stupid as in trying to do what we do?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

Ranma nodded. "You saw the look on 'Kane's face when that guy turned her down. And Ucchan will assume she has to ta keep being the 'cute fiancée'. At least with Azusa with them, they'll have some more firepower."

"That's if they stay together," said Nabiki, trying to shake the image of them having to rescue the skater once again. She'd probably try to steal more time with my Master, the skating slut!

"Anyway, let's get changed, and dial her up," said Ranma, as they diverted slightly, to where their costumes were hidden.

"And the Amazons," asked Nabiki.

"I think Cologne knows we talk like that," said Ranma.

"How?"

"She's pretty strong," he added. "I figure if I could read auras before this, then she can."

"You think she knows ... about us?" she asked, the 'us' meaning something intimate.

"Can't say, the Old Ghoul's kinda hard to read like that."

Nabiki nodded, rubbing her neck slightly. "I hope it does not end poorly for us."

Ranma nodded as well, as he fell back a bit and grabbed her hand. "I won't let anyone hurt you if I can," he said softly.

She could only smile at the tenderness in his voice, probably the only person on the planet who heard it.

And she couldn't help ... but feel a bit safer.

"Ms. Hellsing," said Tai, bowing as the woman entered the room he was currently waiting in, having come here directly after his visit from the Tendos.

Oddly, for some reason, he felt safer here, even with the red-garbed vampire following behind his Mistress.

"Mr. Ito," she said, bowing slightly. "I take it you are our new liaison with the APD?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said. "I'll also be responsible for eliminating any red tape the hardliners in the panels may try to impose on this partnership."

She nodded, taking a seat in the chair across from his, as Walter and Alucard stood behind her. "So, I assume you have seen this tape as well?"

He nodded. "I was meeting the two in question when it was being aired once again."

"Oh," smiled Alucard. He was very happy at the moment, meeting them implied the Japanese man knew where they lived. And if so, it would save him a lot of time trying to track down the new blood.

"You should expect a call from them later tonight," said Tai. "I gave them our pitch, but Ranma insisted that they listen to your offer as well."

Integra nodded. "Has the APD made any plans for the situation?"

"Mostly a wait-and-see attitude. Most of the public thinks that the scene was staged, or some ploy for an upcoming movie, choosing to live in ignorance about what is truly out there. We've already contacted what devil hunters we could who are connected with us, to ensure they do not see it as their duty to kill the two, but that sadly leaves a lot of freelance agents."

"And them?"

"We have attempted contact with those that we could identify through records and such. For the most part, they are still loyal to the Emperor, and will not pursue the matter since the two are still considered to be in good standing with him."

"So the Emperor has taken personal notice of this?"

"Has not your Queen done the same?"

Integra slowly nodded, having received that phone call while still en-route to Japan.

"I do hope this does not become a quagmire of trouble," said Tai. "Our agency is finally beginning to improve after all of the hardliner troubles and persecution. It would be nice if our first efforts as a real force did not end up being a national disaster."

"I too hope we can come to an understanding on the issue," said Integra. She could understand loyalty to the Crown, no matter what title the Crown took, but she also knew she couldn't let such abilities like those the female vampire had, go easily.

There was a small knock on the door, as the blond vampire poked her head in. "They've called."

Michaels was slowly rubbing his forehead, trying to relieve some tension from his day, and the fallout from that video. "I warned the idiots that our detection software was nowhere near strong enough..."

"Hello!"

"GAH!" he said, falling out of his chair, and spotting a certain blond. "Stop doing that!"

Venus smirked, finally starting to understand why Setsuna did that to Usagi all the time; it was kind of fun. "I take it you've been watching TV lately."

"Yeah, so have a lot of interested people," said Michaels, as he got back into his seat. It was then he noticed three more Senshi behind her. "Friends of yours?"

Venus nodded. "We need a bit of help for the moment."

Sighing, he leaned back into his chair. "So you're going into this as well?"

"Why wouldn't we?" asked Uranus.

Michaels waved her off. "Just that you guys are for planetary problems, otherwise we'd ask for Venus's help with Shadaloo."

"Not now," said Venus, glaring at Uranus before he could ask about who or what Shadaloo was.

"Also, it appears APD is getting the funding they need," he said, handing Venus some papers.

"Was the video the reason?" asked Mercury.

He shook his head. "Can't say for certain, but this had been brewing for a while, and there is more evidence coming to light that is making it too difficult for those that wanted to pretend that sort of thing didn't exist, to keep such measures of support down."

"They're looking at a lot of people," said Venus, going over the list, and showing no visual reaction to seeing Rei's name on the list.

"They're trying to build what they can as fast as they can, mikos, devil hunters, priests; you name it, they're trying to hire them."

She nodded, as she handed the papers to Mercury, knowing the girl wanted to quickly scan them into her computer for later review.

"But I take it you're here for something else."

She nodded. "We need to know where Hellsing is."

by Thrythlind

Theone looked through the binoculars into the Tendo Dojo and tapped an ebony finger along the side. Beside her, Ulysses was likewise surveilling the area, but using his cybernetic enhancements rather than any outside equipment.

"Well, the targets have already left," Theone said idly, "and I don't think there's anything supernatural down there just now."

"Should we attack now and prep the site?" Ulysses asked eagerly.

"Just a moment, partner," Theone said, smirking. "Just a moment. We've got some people leaving."

As she watched, three of the young girls seemed to be talking animatedly together in the backyard with furtive glances inside. Given the weapons carried by at least two of them, Theone assumed that they were organizing an impromptu hunt of their own.

"That's the skater from the video," Ulysses noted. "And I believe the unarmed one is one of the girls our client is focused on."

"Indeed," Theone said. "Let's take them. Make sure the brunette with spatula gets away and sees where we go."

"A trap needs bait," Ulysses agreed, smiling.

Sybil groaned as she came too, rubbing at her forehead and trying to put together her last memory. That changed as she took in what was around her.

She was sitting in a grey dust under a dark, featureless sky in a tumble of ruins that seemed to be lit by some sort of twilight illumination. Next to her was a tiny man in a ninja outfit, still unconscious and what seemed to be the mutilated body of a teenager.

Grotesquely, blood still dripped from the girl's body and vines seemed to have grown up and around her out of the ground, apparently leaving her anchored in that position.

A sudden thought, that the vines had attacked the girl, withdrew a gasp from Sybil as she stepped up and flinched away from the apparition.

Which turned to look at her, blinking bloody eyes.

"Oh...fuck," Sybil said nervously.

"Remain where you are," the bloody form insisted. "There is...something out there that I doubt is friendly."

"You're...what are you?" Sybil demanded.

"If I tell you, would I end up on some tabloid?" the ghoul demanded tersely, still in her seated position.

Groaning, the little ninja started to come to, finally. His eyes immediately came to Kodachi and he gasped in shock.

"OH! Mistress..." his mourning cry was stopped by a swift hand placed over his mouth.

The vines had swiftly let go of the ground as the...corpse? stood, turned and clapped her hand over the ninja's mouth before he could say anything more.

"I am fine, Sasuke," the thing said tightly, nodding meaningfully at Sybil. "This is Sybil Kolchak, a freelance reporter."

There was no attempt to hide the fact that Sybil was not to know certain pieces of information, like names. She could sympathize, but a zombie with a hole through the chest was news and she had to do something about it.

"Where are we mistress," Sasuke asked nervously, eyeing the form of the girl.

"I am still alive," the girl said reassuringly.

"Where are we?" Sybil demanded.

"It is called the Nightlands," was the answer. "It is a place that exists alongside our own Earth, I'm told it's people died a long time ago, so we're alone here...in a manner of speaking."

"Did you set up that taxi?" Sybil accused harshly.

"How dare you accuse Mistress Kodachi of such things!" Sasuke demanded as Kodachi snapped him a shocked look. "We are merely mutual captives by some crazed..."

"Sasuke," Kodachi said coldly. "Did you have to say my name in that manner?"

"Oh," Sasuke said, embarrassed as he remembered Sybil's occupation. "The reporter, that's right. My apologies mistress, but we must have some level of trust to escape whatever hell our enemies have put us in."

"We've already escaped," Kodachi said. "I brought us here from that...place. I just don't think it will be soon before I can carry you both back. Coming was very...tiring, mostly because of the two of you, I think."

"So you're saying that I'm stuck here until a zombie has a chance to get a rest?" Sybil asked, confused.

"I am no zombie," Kodachi said sharply. "Otherwise...yes."

"Then why aren't you resting?" Sybil asked, gathering an agreeing look from Sasuke.

The roaring sound that echoed from somewhere not too close yet, but not far enough either, answered the question for them.

"That's why," Kodachi said unnecessarily.

"You're going to take on Hellsing?" Michaels asked hesitantly.

"No, of course not," Venus said. "We're just observing. Our Princess doesn't want us to stay out of matters when they're so close to home, but we're not interfering directly."

It was pretty obvious that Venus was still doing more than she had really wanted them to, but at the same time couldn't argue against the wisdom of such preventive measures at least.

"Yet," Uranus said, drawing a stifling look from Venus.

Michaels suddenly realized that this short-haired blonde was the loose cannon Venus was often complaining about.

"You might find this interesting then," Michaels said handing Venus a printed memo. "We picked up some radio traffic about a car accident closer in towards Tokyo proper. ADP has already been advised on the situation. They'll probably be there, and since they're officially working with Hellsing. They should be there as well."

Venus read the preliminary findings in the building that had been across from the destroyed pawn shop and grimaced, recognizing the implications.

"Guess we have our target then," she said.

by The Demented Redhead

"Not exactly what we were expecting," said Ranma, seeing the scene below him. Several nondescript cars were strewn about, the area taped off, some signs showing that it was supposedly a chemical spill of some sort. He supposed it would be believable, if you said the car accident into what looked like a pawn shop was the result of being overcome by the chemicals.

"So what do we do now?" asked Nabiki. She had wanted to have a quiet meeting, not what was looking to be essentially a ride-along.

Ranma's eyes perked a bit, before he turned towards their side. "Maybe we should ask Carmen."

"See me, do you?" asked the vampire in question, as he walked out from behind a small wall.

"You did pretty well," said Ranma, smirking as well. "But I'm used to picking people out who don't want to be seen."

Alucard's grin grew even wider. Yes, the young blood will prove quite amusing. "My Mistress would like to meet with you, as well as the dog from APD."

"Damn, everyone's here," said Ranma, growling a bit.

"I do hope they aren't expecting an answer at the moment," said Nabiki, placing her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm her Master down.

"Still trying to decide which part to play in this drama?" asked Alucard.

"Stuff it, Carmen," glared Ranma.

"We merely wish to work for those that will best serve our goals," said Nabiki, "while retaining our principles."

"Very dangerous things in this type of fight," said Alucard. "Principles can get you killed much quicker."

"They can also keep you from being destroyed by the work," said Ranma. If not for his own principles, how far would he have gotten, how many of the rivals and fiancées would even be alive, let alone walking about. Hell, if not for his principles, he would have killed the Old Letch and his Father for everything that they did to him.

Hell, he didn't even want to think what the Nekoken would be like in his new form.

"Whatever," snorted Alucard. "As long as you don't become a dog, I really don't care which side you pick."

"You just wish to challenge my Master," said Nabiki.

"Of course," said Alucard, his mad smirk back in place. "I so do love a good fight."

"On that, we can agree," said Ranma. "Maybe when we have more free time..."

"Of course," said the red-clothed vampire. "Come, let us enjoy the new find."

"Is this about those FREAKS?" asked Ranma.

"Yes, it would seem some of their makers chose poorly," Alucard smiled, remembering the destruction he had seen, as well as the ways certain scientists had been killed. "I believe I know just the flower that did it too. A pity, I had hoped she would be here."

"Give me P-chan!" yelled Akane, as Azusa danced around the yard, holding the sailor-clad porker in her hands.

"No, little Charlotte is Azusa's mascot!"

Ukyo could only smile. True, she would normally be inclined to help Akane, if for nothing else than their small friendship or a little ego boost, but it was just too damn funny watching her try and get it away from the nimble skater.

"Here you go, Ukyo-chan," said a smiling Kasumi, handing the chef a small bag, containing several snacks and thermoses full of hot chocolate. "Now try and not get into too much trouble tonight."

"I will, Kasumi-chan," said Ukyo, wondering if she should have brought her portable grill with her.

"WAH!" cried Soun. "MY BABY IS OFF TO FIGHT THE EVILS OF THE NIGHT! SAOTOME, GO AND PROTECT MY BABY!"

[That's the boy's job!] Flip. [Pandas need their sleep.] Flip. [You do it!]

"But I have to protect innocent Kasumi!" he cried.

"Are you sure you wish to go on patrol, dear," said Nodoka, fretting over the youngest Tendo. After all, just because Akane's older sister was sleeping with her son, didn't mean they still wouldn't get married.

"I am still a martial artist, Auntie," said Akane, pausing a bit in her pursuit to retrieve her pet. "And I need to make sure the local area is safe from predators."

"Very well, dear," said the elder woman. "But be back before midnight, you do have school tomorrow. I just wish other martial artists were as devoted to their creed as you," she added, glaring at the two older males.

[I'm just a cute panda!]

[Give me back my sign, Tendo.]

"Looks like they won't have home-field advantage at least," said Ulysses, as the main gates shut on the Tendo compound. "How long should we follow before we move in?"

"Long enough so any chance of them escaping and getting help in time will be zero," said Theone. "A few blocks?"

"Perfect," he said, as he went over his gear. "Hmm, we want them alive, that'll be hard."

"Not like they need to be in perfect shape. A little injury will help speed our targets into action."

"I love the way you think, woman."

by Thrythlind

"Whatever came through here wasn't human," Nabiki said. "There's a kind of dark residue everywhere one of these cuts is."

"Carmen back there mentioned something about knowin' who did this," Ranma said as he looked over the slices and cuts. "Don't this stuff kinda feel familiar?"

That last he directed right toward Nabiki who nodded, the placement of the phenomena sitting in the back of her head not wanting to come out.

"Is this person a threat?" Integra asked.

"It's hard ta read," Ranma said. "There's lots of fear hangin about from the lab geeks, but considering what else is around here, I don't feel much sorry for them. Whatever this other thing was, it's harder to read her aura."

"Her?" the ADP officer asked.

"The aura is definitely female," Nabiki agreed. She bit her lip a bit.

"That is what I suspected," Alucard said, chuckling. "A certain little girl that developed an interesting change when she interfered in a battle between myself and the priest."

"Oh man," Ranma said suddenly as he traced the path of one of the cuts in the wall. "Nabiki, I know who did this."

"I think I just figured it out too," Nabiki said, thinking back a couple of nights to a certain burst of strange chi.

Kodachi's bloody eyes were the first to catch sight of the creature as it came into the view behind a small cloud of dust in the distance. Not nearly distant enough, and judging by how it was moving, it had seen them a long while before Kodachi had seen it.

"Oh...my...god," Kodachi said, swallowing as she stood up.

"What is it?" Sybil asked, looking for a camera of some sort as Kodachi seemed to be readying herself for some sort of confrontation.

"I want one," Kodachi muttered.

"What?" Sybil asked, not sure she'd heard that.

"Nothing of interest," Kodachi said.

"Mistress," Sasuke said hesitantly as the creature started coming into his view.

"Just stay back, Sasuke," Kodachi said, trying not to swallow. She grabbed her bag of pilfered files and tossed them to the ninja. "Keep the electronics safe."

Sybil could hear the thudding footsteps now, coming along at them like a steam engine. The dust at their feet was already shaking up into a small cloud that made the reporter a bit nostalgic for her recent freelance activity in the middle-east. At least the threats there were identifiable.

Then Kodachi took in a long breath just before Sybil finally saw the creature, first as just a long, lizard-like shape, but then it turned visible.

It looked like a monitor lizard or komodo dragon, only about five times the size, with a long, three-foot horn growing out of its forehead and two sets of three spines running down from its first shoulder to the middle of its body. The first set of spines were more than six feet tall rising up from the body, the second set was half that size, and the third half again that. A long whip-like tail swished along behind the creature as it charged toward them with a hateful gleam in its eye.

The creature's ancestors were probably komodos that had wandered into the Nightlands and been mutated by the more frequent interdimensional rifts that opened up in the mirror world. Now, they didn't feed so much on flesh, but rather the psychic death agonies of its prey. And as far as they were concerned everything was prey.

Sybil stumbled back on her legs as the creature seemed to pick up the pace now that it was within a charge distance.

"OHHH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" Kodachi laughed in a shrill, painful tone that made Sybil's ear-drums rattle and created an almost visible ripple in the air as it pushed aside the airborne dust in rings along the path toward the creature.

The monstrosity charging at them stumbled over its own feet as the laugh washed over it. It rolled to a painful looking stop more than fifty feet away from them as Kodachi pulled her hand back and the black gymnast's ribbon appeared in her hand again.

It was not merely a graceful, black ribbon this time. Arcs of darkness ran up and down the length, like negative lightning as Kodachi twirled it around and whipped out at the beast in series of slashing strikes that cut long bloody lines along the body.

The creature didn't stay stunned long, though, and it was quickly standing again and charging at the ribbon-wielding Nightbane.

"Run!" Kodachi snapped over her shoulder.

The distraction cost her as the huge horned head slammed into her and sent the Nightbane flying through the air. Sybil rolled aside as the bulk of the creature turned about to follow Kodachi's arc.

The reporter came up standing in time to see Kodachi's vines unfurling from her arms and legs to form a set of insectile, membranous wings. A black, misty substance wafted off the girl in several places.

Another slash of of the whip cut down along the lizard's head, shearing through the single, twisted horn on that forehead and cutting a deep gash over its eye.

The long tail slashed outward and Sybil barely ducked down as the ninja leaped over it, doing his best to avoid the situation just as much as she was. At the same time, the creature leaped up into the air and clamped down on Kodachi, like a dog leaping at a bee.

"AaiiiHHH!" Kodachi shrieked out with another ear-splitting cry that had the beast shaking its head and tearing her about like a rag doll. The empowered screaming devolved into mere screaming a moment later and then Kodachi's form seemed to fold into a slithering shadow that dropped harmlessly to the ground below the monster before reconstituting into Kodachi.

The zombie-plant girl limped to her feet, surrounded in a near fog of that black mist as she slashed outward again. Her mangled wings fluttered weakly as she stumbled back from the creature, which was now bleeding freely itself. Still, it was moving easily fast enough to slam into Kodachi again, throwing her several meters away.

"How can that girl take so much punishment?" Sybil wondered.

Sybil couldn't bring herself to do more than watch as Kodachi, again rose to her feet, almost failing this time and extended her hand outward. Instantly a swirl of ebony vines seemed to erupt out of the ground and grab at the monster, pulling it down to the ground.

The huge creature stumbled as Kodachi limped forward, her stride growing stronger with each step as some of the damage done to her was visibly healed. By the same token, however, each moment saw the monster working itself more free.

Kodachi paused, standing straight and whipping back the ribbon, a burst of energy passed from her into the weapon and the black arcs grew in violence and frequency. Then her hand whipped forward as the creature shrugged out of its bonds and the whip slashed through its throat bringing the lizard and its head down in two separate piles.

Sybil and Sasuke both quickly moved to Kodachi as she caught her breath. The black mist that had been surrounding the girl more and more during the fight poured out of terrible wounds in her bodies. Wounds that were closing visibly, but still looked extremely painful.

"Cursed thing was feeding on my pain," she hissed. "I FELT it. I take back what I said about wanting one. It would be hell to feed."

"You haven't been like this for long, I'm guessing," Sybil reiterated.

Kodachi shook her head, deciding not to waste her breath again.

"Where do we go from here, Mistress?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm going to..." Kodachi paused as she blinked. "Oh no."

"What's wrong now?" Sybil demanded. The sound of several roars in the distance explained matters for her. "We should get out of here now!"

Kodachi seemed to ignore her. She looked around and glanced over towards a mirror that had escaped the battle unshattered and walked weakly over there, as if she'd had too much exercise the night before.

"What's going on?" Sybil asked as Kodachi grabbed the edges of the mirror. "We've got more of these monsters on the way and she wants to look in the mirror!?"

"I'm not sure," Sasuke said. "Mistress Kodachi is on occasion..."

A hiss from Kodachi reminded him that he was talking to a reporter and he closed his mouth.

"My apologies, Miss Kolchak," Sasuke said. "I can't say much more."

As Kodachi looked into the mirror she spoke the name Ranma again, and then twisted about to gesture for the hands of her two passengers imperiously.

Sybil looked at the continuing swirl of black mist about the girl, even though a lot of was healed already, she still looked to be incredibly injured.

"Grab my hand," Kodachi insisted. "I might still have enough to get us through one more time."

"Is it safe over there?" Sybil asked.

"Safer than here," Kodachi snapped.

Sybil grabbed her hand and the world began to flow like water.

"Would you enlighten us as to who this person is?" Integra asked, standing in front of the two way mirror the scientists had used to observe operations and test subjects.

"She's a girl from our neighborhood, kinda crazy." Ranma said. "I didn't think she had near this much chi, but that must have been before she changed."

A shift in the mystical structure of the mirror called Nabiki and Ranma's attention to it as a bloody and dark image of Kodachi turned away from them to gesture toward someone they couldn't see.

Then something was flowing out of the mirror like thick water, pooling onto the floor and separating into three distinct pools, each developing into a humanoid form.

"Kodachi Kuno," Nabiki whispered as the transfer was complete and the injured, wiped out nightbane collapsed to her knees in front of them.

At first they thought she was dead, considering the huge hole in her chest, but as they watched the remaining injuries of her battle with the lizard king faded away leaving a panting, sweaty vine-wrapped zombie taking in everyone she could see.

The other two blobs of liquid coalesced into Sasuke and a woman that Ranma didn't recognize, but instantly brought to mind a number of news stories for Nabiki.

"Ranma-sama..." Kodachi sighed in relief until she caught sight of Alucard and tried, weakly to stand.

"Hey, stay down," Ranma said quickly. "You look beat."

Nabiki felt a mild rise of jealousy, but not so much as that skater evoked. Perhaps because she knew a lot more about Kodachi and knew, without a doubt that she was not a viable competitor.

"What are you doing here with that beast," Kodachi hissed, glaring at Alucard.

"I'm glad to see you remember me," Alucard said, smiling.

by The Demented Redhead

Kodachi could only glare at the red-cloaked vampire. "It is because of that foul wretch and his demented foe that this side of me awoke ... at least, as far as my source has informed me."

"And this source?" asked Sybil, not sure she wanted to know.

"Sleep," commanded Alucard, as she dropped, being caught by the quick hands of Nabiki. "It is such a bother when mundanes learn things they shouldn't."

Ranma glared at him. "And the purpose of that?"

"It will merely allow us to delete the memories of tonight," assured Integra. "Or would you prefer she remembered your faces, names, and ... places," she finished, glancing at the mirror Kodachi had come through.

"Sasuke," said Kodachi, turning slightly to the ninja retainer. "Do you wish to forget as well?"

"No, Mistress," said the ninja.

The Nightbane nodded, as she once again tried to stand up, only to be lightly pushed back down by Ranma. "I'll want to know what you meant by Carmen and some nut-job being part of this change," said Ranma.

She nodded as she explained the circumstances of her awakening, as well as the little reptilian surprise she had encountered in the Nightlands.

Integra took a small glance at Alucard, wondering if these tales had any meaning to the No-Life-King. But his expression remained neutral.

"And this nut?" asked Ranma.

"A Judas Priest, with a small amount of regeneration ability, and a fetish for bayonets," added Alucard. "Very troublesome at times, but always good for a fight; if you can stand the constant bible quotes."

Ranma slowly nodded. "As if I didn't have enough morons after my hide, now they're being imported."

"May I asked what is in the bag?" asked the APD rep.

"Souvenirs," said Kodachi. "I wanted a little token to remember this event, and perhaps, find a few more to offer my ... gratitude for being abducted."

"May we see them?" asked Walter.

"Only if you allow me the pleasure of ... dealing, with these fools when I feel my strength returned," Kodachi added.

"Hmm," said Mercury, as she continued to scan the location.

"What do you have?" asked Venus, her tone serious.

"Well, I have those semi-vampires in there, a group of humans, two normal vampires if these readings are correct, and ... something I am having trouble identifying," she finished.

"So how strong are they?" asked Uranus, flexing her fists.

"You had better not be preparing for a fight," said Venus. "We didn't come here for that, and we are not staying for that. And if you try, I'm sure Moon can get her former best friend to take your place," she added, making the not-too-subtle hint that Sailor Moon may have already planned for possible replacements for the Outers if they continued to act on their own.

"She wouldn't," said Neptune.

"In a heartbeat," said Venus. "In times like this, we need teamwork, and that is something you two sorely lack. So I would advise you to remember that you came along as a chance to prove yourselves as dependable and capable of following orders. Blow this, and I can assure you that this will be the last time you two are Sailor Senshi."

The two Outers gulped, still unsure about this new take charge Venus.

"I am also readying dead bodies, technology of unknown origin that seems to radiate necromantic magic, several dozen hard drives that I am copying, and large stores of sedatives and mild manufacturing equipment."

"... They found a FREAK lab," said Venus, rubbing her head.

"You know of some of this?" asked Mercury.

"That tech you're reading are chips these assholes use. They put the chip in you, and it basically wipes out your mind, and changes you into a FREAK; those stronger vamps we saw in the video that still looked vaguely human."

"Damn," muttered Uranus.

"I think the most powerful vamp you're reading would be Hellsing's servant," added Venus. "But if I have to take a guess on the anomaly, then I'd have to say we wait and see; it may be a neutral force like the semi-vamps we met."

"Can you make anything out of the data?" asked Neptune.

"Downloading it now, but this stuff is heavily encrypted. It'll be a while."

Venus nodded, as she looked over the scene. "As soon as you get your scans, we're gone. The last thing I want is someone thinking we might be a fun target to take out."

"Are you sure?" asked Seras, looking through her scope, at her rifle, hidden in a dark room within the compound.

"Yes, Police Girl," said Alucard, standing beside her, having phased to her location after she spotted 'unknown elements observing their location'. "They are not a threat ... for the moment. But ... they might be fun later on."

Seras sighed, before her radio picked up something. "We are preparing to move out. The APD is preparing a cover story to explain why the building will be destroyed."

Alucard sighed. He was so hoping for a fight with the New Blood, perhaps even the Flower Child. But it appeared that was not likely to happen tonight. "Oh well, back to my new surprise."

"Are you okay, ma'am?" asked Walter, seeing Integra shiver for a bit.

"Nothing," she waved off, as she continued to head out of the building. After all, she still had an interview to give.

by Thrythlind

A feminine cry trailed through the night-time streets eventually trailing to the ears of three girls out on a mission of ill-informed guardianship of the area.

"Someone's in danger," Akane declared loudly, turning toward the sound and running to what she was sure would be the rescue.

"Wait, Akane!" Ukyou called out to Akane, wanting to encourage her to get a look first.

"Azusa help!" Azusa declared, following Akane while cradling a reluctant "Charlotte" close.

"Damn, Sugar, you're gonna to get us killed like this," Ukyou muttered as the second of their group charged out to meet this new threat.

Hefting her spatula, Ukyou followed after Azusa, turning about the corner as soon after the skater vanished as she could. Instantly she saw what the situation was. A foreign woman was ahead of them, trying to avoid a serious of teasing attacks by a tall handsome man, also a foreigner.

There was something about this scene that set Ukyou's hair on end, not the least because she knew that under any normal circumstance, Akane would have been noticing it before she had. The uncute tomboy was not usually lacking in combat sense, and she had a very good eye for weaknesses and tricks.

Right now, however, she was acting like...

...like she was cooking.

She was driving forward, bull-rushing into the situation with all the gusto she could collect and pulling both Azusa and Ukyou along for the ride.

"Leave her alone, pervert!" Akane demanded loudly as Azusa strutted along beside them.

"Hey, something's..." Ukyou started to say as she looked about and caught sight of the trip wires just as Azusa's skates tripped over them about ten feet ahead of her.

Suddenly the world was bathed in light and thunder as Ukyou stumbled back on her feet, staring up at blinking lights and listening to the dull ringing thud of her clogged ears. Dizzily, the chef looked about, catching sight of shadowy shapes moving amongst each other and only slowly firming up into something Ukyou could identify.

Echoing, distorted sounds that reminded her of voices shrieked in and out as she sliced about ineffectual. Something solid slammed into her, pushing her down as a blast of heat passed over them both. Then whoever had brought her down moved onward, leaving Ukyou to stand up gingerly.

She could barely see now, but she could see as the huge man lumbered up to her and slammed his hands together. She felt the pressure wave before she heard it, and after it passed, her vision was still unaffected, but now even the distorted echoes of voices were gone as a play of nausea and vertigo washed over.

The large man leaped over her and she could only wonder why he hadn't bothered to kill her.

Akane sighed in relief as the American freak with the built in lasers simply knocked over the okonomiyaki chef somehow and then pass on, continuing to pursue her.

Maybe they weren't as serious as they seemed to be.

Akane took a quick turn, moving into the approaching man's path and ducking low in a Tendo-Ryu move that sent the man flying through the air past her. She didn't expect him to stay down long, however.

She ran past Ukyou, trying to shake her into getting back into the game.

"Ukyou, snap out of it!" Akane shouted loudly, though the chef didn't seem to be paying attention.

Akane thought it was just Ukyou still being surprised at the turn about, but then she noticed the little streams of blood dripping out of the chef's ears and winced, hoping that nothing permanent has been done to her friend by this battle.

Pushing Ukyou forward, Akane grimaced as the chef moved in a dizzy, uncertain pattern ending shortly on her knees and losing her lunch. Ukyou was out of the fight, without ever having gotten into it.

Elsewhere, Akane noticed the black woman was already moving to tie up the just about electrocuted Azusa and the sight brought a point of crisis to the girl. Complicated by the certain awareness that this had been her fault.

She should have known better than to fall for this trick, but the stress of the past weeks had gotten the better of her. She hadn't been thinking clearly at all tonight.

The young Tendo took too long to make her decision and the impact of the cyborg's fist into the small of her back pushed out all thought of which of her friends to help. A quick rap into her head following quickly sapped her consciousness.

Dizzily, Ukyou stood up, watching as each of their attackers took one of the girls and leaving her behind for one reason or another. With nothing left to do, Ukyou tried to quietly follow the two.

She had a lot of difficult and quickly found out that she couldn't do any leaps just at the moment, not the way her balance was shot for whatever reason.

In addition, she still couldn't hear and it made it difficult to gauge just what the two were going to do and when. She wasn't thinking about that lack of a sense just yet, however, not when she had something to do.

There was no way that Ukyou would be able to deal with this situation, certainly not as injured as she apparently was. However, she could and would trace the thugs to wherever they were taking Akane and Azusa. Then she could go for help.

It was really bothering her that she could follow them so easily, but she couldn't quite figure out why. Especially not as they came to a stop at an abandoned office building. Excitedly and urgently, Ukyou turned about and headed for the Tendo dojo, walking as straight as she could at the moment.

by The Demented Redhead

Ukyo stumbled forward, trying to keep her sight focused enough to find her way back to the Dojo; a hard notion to keep considering her field of vision was refusing to cooperate. Her head still ached from the initial attack, and even now, she just wanted to lay down and sleep until the pain stopped ... or at least till she could walk a few meters without having to pause and try to quell her rebellious stomach.

But it was a losing battle, the pain slowly feeding on the edge of her vision, slowly shrinking it as she stumbled forward, distinct shapes were beginning to blur, and she knew she was quickly approaching her limit.

Gotta keep going, Ranchan wouldn't give up! Even like this, he'd ... well, he'd go back and fight them and probably get his ass kicked.

But I gotta get help, even if it is those worthless morons at the Dojo, or even the Amazons...

She made out a blurred shape in her way, female if she could take a guess—but in Nerima where cross-dressing was an art (and a school of martial arts that she swore she would never tell Ranchan about for obvious reasons)—that meant squat.

She could only hope that they were locals and could help her, and not be the last sight she saw in this world.

"Please..." she croaked weakly, before she collapsed into them, their arms being the only thing keeping her standing. "They need ... help," she said, as welcomed unconsciousness came to her.

Ryoga had been very lucky when the trap had been sprung. With Azusa, he only received the electrocution. Only Ukyo had been unlucky enough to receive the combined nearly lethal assault on her eyes and hearing. And Akane had leapt into the battle to attack the large man, passing over the trip wires and their current, that Azusa had skated into.

Of course, the voltage that the attackers had used was more than enough to take down the hyperactive skater, and even produce a slight bacon odor from her chained piglet.

Fortunately, this chain was just as equally attached to Azusa as it had been to him, and with the little klepto long list of experience of keeping things that wanted to run from her, from doing so, it meant that neither attacker had been able to separate the piglet and leave it behind.

Although the male foreigner seemed to be smirking at him from time to time, flexing his weird arms, and occasionally pointing something weird at him, before the girl would yell at him.

Akane was down, after trying to save them all.

Azusa was out cold, mumbling occasionally about an angel and strange moans.

Which meant he would have to save them all.

Now, if he could just find some hot water...

"I said stop it," growled Theone, once again stalking over to Ulysses. "We can't risk you starting a fire by firing on it!"

"But the damn thing looks so damn annoying," growled the cyborg. "Besides, I'm in the mood for some fried pork," he smirked, licking his lips.

"And if you miss, you'll set off half the traps we've already put in here," she said, pushing his arm down. "Do it after we've dealt with the targets, that moron can buy a new pig if that ugly little porker is hers."

"Fine," he said. "But if that damn thing gets too annoying, I'm shooting it."

"Just let it go, we have a job to do. Save that energy for when those vamps come running."

"Fine, but they better get here soon, I'm starting to get borEEEEEED!" he screamed, as something bit him on the rear in one of the few non-cybernetic areas.

He knew he wasn't going to find water, so he tried to use his size to his advantage. So he tried the usual maneuver he used to make Ranma look bad in front of Akane.

He bit the guy.

The man danced about, trying to remove P-chan from his rear, and not wanting to risk injuring said rear with advanced weaponry in order to do it. The attacker female followed after him, trying to get the man to stay still so she could help him.

Ryoga knew not to let go, realizing that at the moment, this was pretty much the extent of what he could do to save Akane from these evil kidnappers. Usually, it was Ranma who did so.

Not today! Today was the day Akane's little P-chan would save her, not that flamboyant womanizer.

Click.

He came out of thoughts of what Akane might do to thank her beloved pet, to notice that the guy had stopped moving, and that the girl was holding a small gun ... very close to his equally small head.

"Now be very still," said The One, "I don't want to shoot you in the ass instead of putting a bullet through the little pain's head."

Ryoga could only pale, seeing that he was about to die.

He began begging, pleading, with any possible source of help that could hear his thoughts, for help. He couldn't die like this, he couldn't fail them now!

"Hey, what's that green light back there?" asked Ulysses, looking over his shoulder.

Ryoga felt his depression well up inside him, his mind quickly playing the worst-case scenario of events of what would occur when he was dead.

But then ... something woke inside of him, answering his call, and feeding on the depression-based aura around him, changing it into pitch black.

"ARRRGGGGHHHH!" yelled Ulysses, as the pain grew stronger.

Theone could only step back, fear and surprise etched on her face, as the small piglet in the sailor suit began to grow.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" she yelled.

by Thrythlind

The darkness burst outward in a swirling mass of shadowy crescents that slammed the mercs were hard-pressed to avoid. Then a mass of small animals that seemingly appeared from nowhere scattered out from the cloud and under their legs, unbalancing the two soldiers easily enough for both to be struck by whirling shadow bandanas.

Each impact was accompanied by a loud, thunderous burst as The One and Ulysses each reeled from the pain of the impact.

Hearing Theone's shriek of outrage, Ulysses wrapped his metallic body around her and dived out of the storm of shadows in time to see...someone (or something) pick up their hostages and dive into a second swirling mass of darkness. A blink later and the doorway was gone with their targets.

Immediately, the storm of shadowy crescents vanished along with it.

"Damn, I didn't feel that coming at all," Theone snapped angrily staring at the crater the cloud of shadows had cut into the floor. "Not until that green glow anyway."

"It took our hostages," Ulysses noted bitterly. "You should have let me kill it."

"Enough with it already, Ulysses," Theone snapped. "It doesn't matter."

"What do you mean?" the cyborg asked as he investigated the new dents in his body.

"The first part of our bait already escaped to spread the word," Theone said. "And unless whatever that is brings our friends to the Tendo Dojo, then we still have our trap in place for these vampires."

"So, we proceed as if this didn't happen?" Ulysses asked.

"Well, not quite," Theone said. "If they do know that we don't have the hostages, they'll come knowing it's a trap so we'll have to change a few things."

"You don't want me to heal her completely, Sailor Pluto?" Sailor Saturn asked in a bit of confusion. "Why?"

"Because we don't want our part in this known," Pluto said. "All you need is to heal the girl enough that her body will handle it eventually."

"Okay," Sailor Saturn said. "I've never tried limited healing before..."

As Saturn worked at ensuring that Ukyou's ear problems would be limited to a temporary situation, Pluto looked about the area. Somewhere, Ryouga was escaping the mercenaries with the two would be demon-hunters.

In and of themselves, these events were unimportant to her goals, but the players were people she could use to keep overall important individuals stable.

Or else people who would have to live to die another day.

"Okay," Saturn said finally. "I think it's healing okay now."

"Any idea how long it will be?" Pluto asked.

"I've never done it part-way before," Saturn reminded her. "I don't know."

Giving Ukyou Kuonji a perspective on weakened senses would prove useful later. Some time without hearing would work wonders for that. The adaptive girl should come out with a lot of insights into the way a person working around such a handicap thinks, depending on how long the situation remains with her.

Yes, that would prove very useful later.

Ryouga breathed a sigh of relief as they exited the summoned doorway and came to rest in a stretch of woods that Ryouga hoped was where it should be. They had escaped those foreigners and their trap.

And this time the rescue wasn't due to Ranma, but to Ryouga.

by The Demented Redhead

Ryoga slowly lowered the two girls down onto the ground, taking more care with Akane than he did the pink-colored nightmare that plagued his dreams as often as chefs looking to make him someone's meal.

"This power..." he grunted, flexing his hands. He had never felt so strong, as if he was still under the assistance of that God's strength tattoo he had had last year.

No ... this was different, a different type of power. Something that gave him abilities he had never before seen in his cursed form.

Cursed form? He was still in his cursed form, wasn't he?

He lumbered over to a small stream, hoping to use the moonlight to see what changes had happened to him, and if safe to, test and see if he was still in his cursed form.

What he saw was not what he was hoping for.

He looked human, if you discounted the boar-like head (and two large tusks). His hands were still hands, as were his feet. But they all looked ... thicker, as if the muscle density had tripled. Turning around, he found that yes; he still had his curly little tail.

"At least I'm still dressed," he growled, spotting that his former costume placed on him by the pink menace was partially still on him. Though how it had changed sizes was beyond him. He still had the little hat sitting on his head ... refusing to come off, no matter how hard he pulled. The sailor tie hung around his neck, though the shirt had ripped; now looking like a loose vest.

The pants were still there, but tattered from where his new muscle bulk had ripped them.

He didn't know what to say about all of this.

"RANMA, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

Okay, he did know what to say.

"ACHOO!"

"Are you okay, Master?" asked Nabiki, as a few members from Hellsing could only stare in amazement, at the spider crack that had formed in the wall Ranma had directed his sneeze at.

"I think someone is talking about me," he muttered.

"So that is true," said Alucard in amazement. "I thought that was one of those pesky myths they used in anime. Oh well, live and learn."

"The cover story has been set," said the APD rep. "Local gang was trying to turn this place into a drug lab, kidnapped our reporter here to make some quick money, and all expired when the chemicals they were trying to use to make some drugs ended up becoming a toxic mist. Our dear reporter was only lucky enough to survive because she was in a sealed room on a separate ventilation system."

"Sounds like it would hardly rate what appears to be outside," said Kodachi, glancing out the window. "I see no signs of chemical damage."

"We sent out an alert when we got here," said the APD rep. "Luckily, this area is pretty much labs and warehouses, so not really anyone around for when the 'gasses leaked out into the atmosphere'."

Kodachi slowly nodded, not wanting to know what such a cover-up might entail that they were not willing to release. "Um, Ranma-sama, would you perhaps have some clothes I could borrow?"

"Huh?" he asked.

"When I assume this form, the clothing you see appears. Sadly, when I return to my human form, what I had on returns as well."

"And the scientists stripped you," said Nabiki, seeing the plant Nightbane nod, her cheeks slightly flushed.

Ranma sighed, as he pulled out a spare set of clothes, handing them to the ninja, as Kodachi went to make use of a chemical burn shower. Sasuke quickly moved a partition screen over to give Kodachi some privacy.

"Neat trick," said Seras back from putting her gun away after finding out the spying girls were nothing to worry about. "Mind telling me how you just did that?"

"Hidden Weapons," said Ranma. "I learned it from watching a dumb duck use it constantly."

"A dumb duck?"

"Yep, had everything including a kitchen sink on him, too," said Ranma.

"But he prefers a child's training toilet as his main weapon," smirked Nabiki.

"You're fucking with me."

"Amazon?" asked Walter.

"Know of them?" asked Ranma.

The elderly man nodded. "Let us say I had a run-in and was very lucky to be defeated."

A few guys looked on in confusion, waiting for them to explain further.

"Wish I was," grumbled Ranma.

"You have my sympathies," said Walter, knowing all too well what that would mean.

"Care to fill the rest of us in?" asked Seras.

"Trust me," said the APD rep, "you don't want to know."

Cologne looked on as Shampoo continued to battle the small number of ghouls, dragging out the fight as much as she could, on orders from the Elder.

Cologne herself had already quickly dispatched the false vampire. But this was a perfect chance for Shampoo to get some more training.

Already, her mind was filled with questions and tests she could quietly do on the semi-vampires to see what she could learn. By themselves, and if such abilities could be hereditary to their offspring, both would offer a great boon to the Amazons.

Of course, that also depended on several factors; she was not about to sacrifice her heir if that meant she would die in childbirth.

No, they would have to step very carefully now. No-Life-Kings and Queens were difficult to destroy, if one was forced to. The best they could come up with was a special seal that would put the vampire to sleep.

Thankfully, they had never had a need to test such a tactic. They had so many possible attackers to deal with as it was, they did not need to invite the undead into the equation.

But it did offer a new opportunity.

She just didn't know what to make of it ... yet. I will need to set some time aside to meet with son-in-law and decide what my options are. Things have certainly changed here.

And to think I was complaining about how quiet it was lately. "Shampoo, stop playing with them and finish it."

"Hai, Great-grandmother," said Shampoo, as she swept her broadsword around quickly, decapitating the remaining ghouls, before she sped around, finishing off the ones who were still lying on the ground but not dead.

"We go find Airen now?" she asked, wiping off the grime from her sword that the battle had produced.

"No, my child," said Cologne. "We'll head back for tonight. Son-in-law did say he would seek us out, and I want to make sure Mr. Part-time doesn't do something rash."

Shampoo wanted to argue, but the look she received from Cologne told her not to. Sighing, she stowed her sword away in her Hidden Weapon's pocket, and followed her.

Well, my husband will certainly prefer me smelling better than dead corpses.

by Thrythlind

Ukyou blinked awake, finding herself in a clinic somewhere. Whoever she'd run into must have called an ambulance or something, but did they send anyone for Akane and Azusa?

Ukyou couldn't tell that at all as she sat up in the hospital bed and started looking around for something, one of those nurse-call buttons that was always in the TV shows. It took her a few seconds to find it and start pressing the button.

She didn't see or hear anything happen, but, then again that was the way it worked on the TV shows too, all the better for not disturbing anybody the patient was sharing a room with. After a couple of seconds though, she opened her mouth to call in another way.

She felt herself shouting "Hey!" but all she hard was continued silence.

That made her blink in confusion for a little bit, and before she could start to test it again, the was a nurse in her view opening and closing her mouth questioningly. Ukyou didn't bother to wait and try to figure out what the woman was saying.

"I was with friends," she tried to say, too loudly judging by the wince from the nurse. "Sorry...But the guys that hurt me took them you need to call the police." That last was apparently too loud again, Ukyou mentally grumbled at the difficulty.

Another woman came in the room then, carrying a notepad and pencil. The first thing she did was walk to Ukyou's bed-side, very calmly and show her the note-pad.

Confused, Ukyou took it and read what was there.

"Ms Meioh explained what you told her when she brought you in," the note-pad said. "Police have already been sent to help your friends."

Ukyou breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful that somebody at least would be going to Akane and Azusa's rescue. Which left one concern for her, however.

Ukyou looked up again, and read the name tag there and identified the woman as Dr. Mizuno.

"Why can't I hear things still?" she asked, letting her volume drop as she spoke.

Dr. Mizuno took the note-pad back and started writing again, then returning it to Ukyou, who glanced down at the paper to read.

"Perforated ear drums," the paper said. "They look like they should heal normally given a few weeks."

"But I have to run my restaurant!" Ukyou said. "How can I do that if I can't hear what people order."

When the paper came back, it simply read: "You'll have to try and get some help. Keeping your ears dry is important as well, so cooking might be out for sometime."

"What?" Ukyou demanded in shock. "But...bills..."

"An infection of the ear at this time could permanently damage your hearing, Miss Kuonji," Dr. Mizuno said. "I'm sure you'll find someone to help you."

by The Demented Redhead

"Ms. Kuno?"

Kodachi slowly turned, pausing in her steps to follow Ranma and Nabiki out of the lab. Sasuke took her pause in stride, placing himself between his Mistress and the man. "What do you wish of me?"

"I would like to formally ask you to join the APD," he said, bowing. True, the orders had not come down to specifically ask her. But the Emperor had made one allowance for him.

Should any of those in Nerima referred to as the Nerima Wrecking Crew in the APD dossier for that Ward, show an aptitude for dealing with supernatural menaces, but not be a threat to society in general, they should be asked to join.

"And this organization?"

"It is a new defense being organized on orders from the Diet and the Emperor himself, to combat and deal with supernatural threats to the Japanese people, and beyond." With that, he handed her a similar file like that which had been handed to Ranma and Nabiki earlier that day.

Kodachi looked at the papers, before folding them and handing them to Sasuke. "You understand I cannot offer you a reply at this moment. This night has been ... most trying."

"I understand," said the man. "We only ask that you consider it. Our contact number is on the documents provided."

Kodachi nodded her head. "Is there anything else? My retainer and I need to return to our home, before my imbecile sibling sells it for magic beans ... again."

"Ah yes," said the APD rep, remembering that particular case file. "Tell me, did he ever get that pseudophoenix off his rear?"

"Sadly, yes," said Kodachi turning around. "I did so enjoy that quiet month, watching my precious pet chase after him so."

The rep silently gulped. Maybe she wasn't completely safe for the public ... yet.

"I see, thank you," said Kasumi, talking on the phone. "I will inform her business to make arrangements."

"..."

"She wishes to stay here?" asked Kasumi.

"..."

"Well, I do see how that would pose a problem for her," said Kasumi. "And she has stayed here before."

It wasn't that she could deny the poor girl's request. And while they still were looking for Akane and Azusa (who had just received a new shipment of clothes for P-chan), she could not forget that the Tendo family did owe her a debt of honor for that.

"Very well, I shall also make arrangements for her," said Kasumi. "I'm sure Akane would be okay with a roommate."

Pluto stood on top of Tokyo Tower, looking around.

"Have you found him yet?" asked Sailor Saturn, still feeling off about not having completely healed the girl.

"Not yet," said Pluto. "He is most difficult to track. If not for the possible magical backlash, I would have asked Serenity to cure him of at least this one curse."

"Curse?"

"The boy's ancestors found a way to the Nightlands. It changed them a bit, not much, but it caused a sort of flux in their anchor points in space. As such, they have trouble negotiating what we would consider the simplest of directions. And it would appear his change may have given him control over the flux. Sadly, it also will make tracking him even more difficult to explain to him his new form."

"And he can't be healed by Sailor Moon because..."

"Because the Nightlands are themselves a chaotic domain. And there are some magics that you must never mix. A prime example of mixed magics, dear Saturn, would be what happened to that couple at Furinkan."

Pluto cringed. I should not have used that as an example...

"WAAAAAAH!" cried Saturn, recalling Mars's remark.

At least I dealt with one problem... she finished, smirking, despite Saturn's loud wails.

At the office building, a single man stood, wearing full samurai gear, and waving his family sword.

"Foul demons!" cried Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High. "I shall free my beloved from your clutches!"

by Thrythlind

While Ryouga paced about the clearing, trying to work out just how he'd ended up P-Chan the Sailor Pig, a certain individual was coming groaning awake as light from the full moon shone down from the sky into her eyes.

The first thing to greet her eyes was the huge form of the new Ryouga. Even the somewhat ridiculous sailor-suit and hat did not detract from the huge muscular shape and its long, sharp tusks.

The confused expression on its face resembling something malignant and potentially blood-curdling did not help the situation at all.

Akane looked cautiously to her sides and found Azusa sitting up dazedly, but thankfully still breathing.

Swallowing nervously, Akane took account of her own state of health and thankfully decided that she was fit for at least a bit of fighting, the question was, could she successfully get past this beast. She'd already screwed up in letting them get caught in a simple ruse by a couple of American freak shows.

Akane stood up quietly and decided on the better half of virtue. Quietly, she lifted up Azusa, looked around the woody clearing they were in and started to move.

As she did so, the giant pig thing turned around and saw her.

There was a brief moment of silence and then, Azusa was being put down again as Akane launched herself at the monster.

"Akane!" Ryoga growled urgently. "Wait!"

The younger Tendo slammed into the pig man with a solid jump kick, eliciting a bare "oof" from the bakusai tenketsu enhanced nightbane.

"You're not going to hurt anybody, monster!" Akane shouted, though at the same time she was quietly praying for the victory.

"Akane!" the creature said again. "Oww, hey!"

"I'm not going to let anything happen to any more of my friends!" Akane shouted again, launching another attack at the creature as it backed away from her some more.

"But I'm not!" the harsh voice said in a tone that was strangely pleading for a giant pig-demon in a sailor suit. "It's me...Ryouga!"

"You're not going to wi..." Akane paused. "Wait a minute...Ryouga?"

Ryouga uncovered his head and looked down at the confused looking Japanese schoolgirl.

"Yeah, I sorta...changed when those guys tried to..."

"Wait a minute," Akane said, drawing the words. "You're P-Chan aren't you?!"

"Ummm..."

"You pervert!"

"OWww!"

"You've been in my bed!"

"Hey!"

by The Demented Redhead

"Well, this was definitely a strange night," said Nabiki, as the two walked down the streets of Nerima. "We didn't get to talk to Seras like we wanted, and learned a few new things about our troubles."

A small light show began to appear a few blocks from where they were at, causing the two to turn and view it: not the light, but the fluctuations of chi it was also producing.

"I wonder what baka move Kuno-baby is up to now?" Nabiki asked in wonder.

"Who cares, as long as it'll give Kodachi some time to get used to her new ... style," said Ranma, as he resumed his walk. "Besides, we'll probably be blamed for it when we see him next. Um ... is there school tomorrow, I can't remember."

"The day after," answered Nabiki. "They're trying to figure the best way to redo the district until they can rebuild Kolkhoz."

"So more nuts in the tree for us," grumbled Ranma.

"Let's not forget those that will beg to be 'turned' by us, or try and kill us as payback or for some other stupid reason," mumbled Nabiki.

"More perverts," grumbled Ranma.

She shrugged, as they continued.

"So what now?" she asked.

"We think," he said.

"Any favorites at this point?"

"Not sure," said Ranma.

"I thought you would have favored a request from the Emperor over the Brits."

Ranma shrugged. "I was never that good with authority figures to really care. All I want to do is protect Japan and the world from these menaces."

Nabiki nodded.

"You?"

"Money doesn't mean as much to you when you can't really do much with it," she replied. "I mean, how can I rule the business world with our little ... problem," she said, hinting at one problem they still had trouble dealing with. "Hell, thanks to that video, who would hire us?"

"We do have two," answered Ranma.

"That wasn't what I meant and you know it."

Ranma paused, before he turned to face her, seeing her eyes had begun to become teary. He knew Nabiki had been hurt the worst by their changes, mentally more than physically. The tools of business: the contract, the computer, and such, were now outside her grasp. What was her future to be without that?

He had to wonder if that was also why she had been so wanting in her training, almost as possessed about it as he was.

He had changed as well. After all, his general day usually consisted of eating, sleeping, tomboy, rivals, fiancées, perverts, eating, training, eating, and repeating as necessary.

Now he was dealing with FREAKS, ghouls, creatures of darkness, devil hunters, brawl-happy vampires, jobs, sex with Nabiki, fan girls who thought his new look was cool, perverts who wanted to know if his girl form was a sex demon, and other such things.

Well, come to think of it, other than sex, his days hadn't really changed that much, unless you counted his thinking more as a major change.

Perhaps that had been why they had crafted the Lady in White and the Phantom, as ways to deal with the new levels they were expanding to, without losing themselves to it. He'd have to set aside some time to talk with her about it, some place where they could be themselves, and hopefully not be interrupted.

"We need to talk about that," said Ranma.

Nabiki opened her mouth to speak, but silenced her words. They were certainly not in the right frame of mind to talk about anything now, and it wasn't the 'we need to talk' tone someone took with a significant other right before they dumped them. "Tomorrow after breakfast?" she asked. "We could head over to where Tofu's clinic was. I don't think anyone else has moved in yet."

"They won't, Doc still has the lease," said Ranma, surprising Nabiki.

"He's going to come back?" she asked.

"He said he needed to figure out his problem around your older sister and deal with it. I think he said he'd be back in a month or so from now."

Nabiki felt a small smile at that, wondering what the funny chiropractor would do once he could talk to Kasumi. Probably go mad if she even kissed him on the cheek.

"Shit."

She paused in her little wonderings, to see Ranma palming his face. "Master?"

"I forgot," he said, changing directions from towards the Dojo towards the Nekohanten. "We need to go see what the Old Ghoul wants. She's back at the restaurant if my senses are correct."

Nabiki growled a bit, both at him remembering their appointment, and the Amazon whore who would cling to her Master like a bad smell. "Is it wise to venture into their den?" asked Nabiki. "It does give them an advantage if they decide to attack."

"The Old Ghoul doesn't want to attack," said Ranma.

Nabiki looked at him for a bit, before slowly nodding. "So, it would appear we have three groups interested in us."

"More by tomorrow," said Ranma. "I doubt we've seen the last of that damn video biting us in the ass."

She nodded, as she followed her Master to their new destination. Perhaps it was better that their search tonight had produced no lairs. She felt she would need her energy very soon. Especially if Shampoo found out that Ranma was already getting snuu-snuu from someone else.

by Thrythlind

The contingent of senshi arrived back at Rei's shrine for their normal meeting. Her mission that night was a bit more finite in nature than those of the others, but it was also further away. That brought her and her group back to their makeshift base about the same time people were coming off of patrol.

Saturn and Pluto were both absent. The first was strange, though the second wasn't. Still, Venus didn't think Pluto would do anything risky in the same way Uranus and Neptune would.

If Setsuna ever made a mistake, nobody would notice for a very long time. And then they'd all be facing something she didn't want to think about.

"Didja find anything?" Usagi asked, stretching out as the surveillance team settled in. She conveniently forgot to ask about Setsuna and Hotaru though.

"Yes," Ami said, leaning forward and typing on her computer to present a hologram. "Hellsing has more supernatural entities working for it than we thought."

Four figures displayed in the air. Two of them, they all recognized from the Furinkan high school, and one of the other...

"I recognize that daimon," Haruka said. "We almost had it once before, but it managed to escape somehow."

"Daimon?" Usagi said. "Looks more like a zombie or something to me, some other kind of vampire?"

"Not according to the Mercury computer," Ami said. "It's hard to identify, but she never shows any sign of needing to drain others. At some points she's pure energy, and at others, she's biologically human. The only logical guess is that she's somehow able to naturally shift between the two states."

"Is that like our transformations?" Rei asked.

"Doesn't seem to be, the energy is different for one thing," Ami answered. "But we also channel the energy of our Starseeds, at our peak forms we exist both physically and as energy, but the physical is always the primary mode of existence. I think this girl is balanced between the two states."

"So, if she's not a daimon?" Neptune asked. "What powers her? When we first encountered the girl, the mirror showed her stained black, like Pharaoh 90."

"I don't know what she's powered by," Ami said. "All I get is a reference link to the Pluto Infranet. Unfortunately, while the Time Gates went mostly untouched, Pluto's files are pretty much gone."

"Or at maybe just not connected any more," Usagi said.

"Why are you looking for these people, Setsuna-mama?" Saturn asked.

Setsuna hesitated a moment, but nodded. She'd probably have to mention this before too long anyway, besides, of them all Hotaru had the most at stake in that regard anyway.

"Responsibility," Setsuna said. "I thought I destroyed their race before it could be born."

Hotaru looked at her with mouth lying open.

"Not in the manner you're thinking, Hotaru-chan," Setsuna said. "They're a half-breed race in some ways. If not for the Time Gates and my Starseed, a collection of sorcerers would have made a deal with a...force to become something, monstrous. They would have virtually destroyed a race of shapechangers, the survivors of which would have come here and the resulting interaction would have been..."

"These people," Hotaru said, coming to the natural conclusion.

"Yes," Setsuna said. "These people have families that have long been exposed to the mirror world those shape-changers, the Formless Ones, still live...secretive as ever."

"So why wait til now to talk to them?" Hotaru asked.

"Because I didn't think there'd be anything coming of it," Setsuna returned. "My people came from the Nightlands, we never had Nightbane. There are humans there now, leftovers from the Bermuda Triangle and other such things, no Nightbane. These two, however, happened to have the right genetics to actual hold that energy."

"What genetics is that?" Hotaru asked.

"Senshi-potential, but no Starseed," Pluto said. "Usually would just result in nothing, but with these two. Everything at this point is to prevent them from turning against us."

"Why don't we just kill them?" Hotaru asked. "If they could be dangerous."

"I prefer not to if possible," Setsuna said. "At this point, doing such might just trigger the war I'm trying to stop. I have not seen Kodachi Kuno's death in any near time-line since twelve-hours ago."

"Oh," Hotaru said.

"Besides," Setsuna added. "They're inherently harmful to the Force that powered Pharaoh 90."

Hotaru blinked at that and considered it very carefully.

"We must make friends with them," she said enthusiastically.

by The Demented Redhead

Cologne sat at a table in the dining room of the Nekohanten, sipping some tea, as she waited for her son-in-law and his current friend with benefits to come see her.

That in itself was something that concerned her. For the past year or so, she had been concentrating on ways that perhaps Ranma could be teased over to her great-granddaughter, given his apparent fondness for the youngest Tendo, lack of social graces—even a Musk had more at times, in her opinion—and warped view of life.

She had never considered such a possibility that his desires for the girl might be changed, let alone focused on the middle Tendo.

No, that wasn't right; she had no defining proof one way or the other what his intentions were now for the young Akane. All she knew was that he seemed to be very passionate as well as in some sort of love with Nabiki. The middle Tendo even seemed to be controlling her aura a lot better than she had been, even with training.

No, there was more to this than she knew, and she wasn't going to operate on missing information. She needed that now. Especially if she was going to get them for the tribe.

It would be difficult, mainly in the aspect that she would not be able to take them back to China. Sure, the People's Army left them alone at the moment, seeing them as useless remnants of the past with no use or potential to them. Aside from a few resources—and a lot of special shampoo used at proper times by their spies in Beijing—there was nothing special in the area they cared about. After all, what could martial arts offer that a military weapon couldn't counter?

But if they learned or believed that the tribe had such 'samples' in their possession...

Well, the Shadaloo alone would be trouble. But the Chinese would stop at nothing to have No-Life samples to experiment with to 'better improve the quality of the People's Army'.

No, if she could get them into the tribe, staying was now the only option.

"We get better satellite reception here anyway," the old Elder murmured, remembering her favorite soaps.

A knock on the door attracted her attention, as she did a quick mental check to ensure she was ready for the meeting.

Food? Check, though it was a good thing that the new vampires didn't seem to need only blood. It would be such a bother finding it all the time.

Mousse? Locked in a cage. No, she didn't need him either learning about what the two were now for the moment, or his usual antics during this meeting.

Shampoo? Resting after receiving some special tea. She wouldn't be awake for a while, sooner if she was needed, a certain potion would wake her up rather quickly if an attack was imminent.

Pogo-ing over to the door, she opened it, seeing the two she had been waiting for. "Hello, children."

Yes, it was going to be a long meeting.

"ACK!" cried Ryoga, narrowly missing an assault to his 'P-chan'.

"Stay still and take your punishment like a man, pervert!" cried Akane, as she once again tried to direct a Tendo School Nutcracker Suite towards her target. Akari might be upset with her, but the pervert deserved some punishment for all he had done. "Girls' rooms are for innocent things, in the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

I always wanted to say that!

"Huh?" asked Ryoga, confused for a bit at that speech, recalling when he had heard it before. They just didn't believe him when he said it was Ranma's fault he had been forced to knock over that moved wall onto that weird guy in the tuxedo.

But it served its purpose, as Akane connected ... and Ryoga seemed to shatter into dozens of small P-chans.

Akane's eyes merely went wide, as she saw the small porkers seem to melt apart from where the former pig-man had stood, her rage giving into confusion, as they darted about.

"Wow, so many Charlottes for Little Azusa to cuddle with!"

"BWEE!" went the ringing cry from the piglets, as they dashed about, trying to get away from the klepto.

Akane just stayed where she was, foot still in the air from where she had hit Ryoga in the crotch, trying to make sense of it all.

"THIS IS ALL RANMA'S FAULT!" she yelled.

Hey, I didn't say she made the right sense out of it.

"You think Setsuna knows more about what is going on than she is telling us?" asked Makoto.

"When doesn't she?" snorted Rei.

Usagi slowly nodded.

"I'm afraid until I can get a hold of Setsuna, my research may not proceed too quickly," said Ami sadly.

"Please show them the dark chip," said Minako.

"Dark chip?" asked Rei.

Soon the holograms of the four people were replaced with a floating computer chip, wiring hanging off it.

"These are what create FREAKS," said Minako. "It is a computer chip that when placed inside a human host ... destroys the soul, and creates a vampire in its place."

The others all paled at that. "D-destroys their soul!" squeaked Usagi.

Minako nodded. "I don't have all the details, but this group known as Millennium is a group of occult humans and such who are trying to make perfect vampire soldiers or some such crap, and use these chips to do so."

"I think we might be immune to them," said Ami. "But I am not fully certain at this point. The only thing I am certain about is that anyone who is converted by these chips can't be saved."

"But ... what if I—" started Usagi.

"No," said Minako. "Trust me, there isn't anything human in there anymore to save when that chip is finished changing you. If there was, then you'd be doing them a favor by taking them out.

"They have the memories of those they replaced, maybe even a few mannerisms, but they are not those they replaced. Remember when I said some of them delighted in sending your own loved ones out to get you? These are those people."

The others could only pale, looking as the cursed chip full of dark and foreboding energy continued to spin before them.

by Thrythlind

"The two No-Life Kings are about what we expected," Mercury said. "They are spirits of death that walk in a human-seeming shell. Their energy patterns tend to be rather clingy and reach out toward others around them, but both seem to have more or less control over it. The one Venus calls Alucard seems to have collected the soulseeds of a large number of other beings. From what I gather, he can use those to summon duplicates of the person to serve him."

Ami didn't really want to think of the alternative, that the actual souls and minds of the people he'd killed where trapped inside him. She swallowed a bit at the thought. It wasn't really anything all that new, they'd encountered lots of enemies that stole souls like this, but it was never pleasant and this one wasn't supposed to be an enemy but an ally.

"The two we saw at the high school, by comparison," Mercury said, putting up the scans of Ranma and Nabiki next to those of Seras and Alucard. "They have the same sort of death energy as the vampires, but it seems to mix with the living aura and supplement it rather than replace or destroy it."

Immediately the differences were apparent.

Alucard's "aura" looked like a mass of writhing, black tentacles surrounding his physical body. Points of light inside him marked the presence of the starseeds he'd already devoured. In addition, the aura was constrained by something, somehow.

Seras, while having no starseeds, had a smaller, weaker aura that had the same writhing tentacles. Her aura was still fully black, however.

Next to them, Ranma and Akane had auras much more like human beings with slight differences. For one thing, they were dark, almost black in some cases, but were actually a sequence violet, crimson, blue, brown and green shades. Also, they weren't reaching out towards others.

"The only real anomaly," Mercury said, "Was that the girl seems to have picked up some sort of aura-disease somewhere. Parts of her aura are falling apart very, very slowly. It's either newly acquired or being treated, because otherwise she'd be nearly crippled in some way by now."

"Probably something to do with her boyfriend," Haruka said harshly.

"Those last two I can handle," Usagi said. "But the two vampires? No-Life Kings, or whatever?"

"He's also bound in a lot of magic," Mercury said "His full power is locked out of use."

"So's ours," Rei noted.

"We just haven't remembered everything yet," Ami said. "This is actually locked away."

"The enemy of my enemy, Usagi," Venus said helplessly, shrugging. "This problem has a spearhead already, they don't need us. At least not yet."

"Can we destroy them?" Neptune asked.

"Yes," Ami said. "The magical nature of our attacks makes that relatively easy, but I can't say whether it would be any more efficient than what Hellsing is using. And with all due respect, we've met evil senshi using the same powers we have. Why not the reverse."

by The Demented Redhead

"Come in," said Cologne, as she escorted the two in. "You need not worry about my charges; Mousse is in his cage and my Great-Granddaughter is currently sleeping deeper that your old father, Ranma."

"They better be," said Ranma, as he sat down beside Nabiki, eying the place carefully for hidden traps, and possible escape points.

"So, what can we do for you, Elder?" asked Nabiki, being as formal as possible. She had the general idea of what consisted of Amazon Diplomacy. And while she doubted that Cologne wanted this to be solved at the pointed end of a weapon, she knew that Cologne was more for negotiation than fighting, especially when it might get her more in the long run.

"I wish to discuss a bit more of your situation, children."

"Such as?" asked Ranma.

The change in attitude didn't escape her. While the changes in clothes could be explained as trying to remain anonymous, the attitude seemed to have changed as well, leaving her to wonder which mask was the real one now for the two neo-vampires. "Well, for starters, how about the fact you two are lovers?"

"W-what?" stuttered Nabiki.

"Fear not," said Cologne, seeing Ranma fall into a defensive position, a good one, considering he was sitting down. "I am not going to hold it against you. I was hoping you might explain it to me."

"You mean why we're doing it?" asked Ranma. "Or are you asking if we have been doing it before we changed?"

"Both."

Nabiki thought for a moment, but nodded to Ranma.

"The Old Perv," said Ranma. "He put some sort of drug in me, thinking it would give him control over my girl form so he could get his jollies. But it affected Nabiki instead when I tried to save her."

Cologne slowly nodded, already recalling three potions that could produce the result she was seeing. "A burning desire to continue with the one you first started with?" asked Cologne. "Followed by the almost drug-addicted like reaction if you don't?"

Nabiki slowly nodded.

"I see," she said.

This is bad. How the Hell did Happi get his hands on such a drug? She knew it was going to be very impossible at this point to stop the copulations of the new vampires. "Anything else you feel I should know before I start asking the questions that will embarrass the Hell out of you?"

"Huh?" asked Ranma.

"You know, the normalcy of her periods, whether your little horse delivers the goods as it should, appetites, stamina, everything and anything that will make you turn redder than the blood vampires drink."

The two blushed at that.

"That includes whether or not you have ... shrunk ... from the posters Shampoo has of your forms."

"Posters?" he asked, before turning to Nabiki.

"Well before I became changed, Master," said Nabiki.

"No," he said, continuing to glare at Nabiki, "no shrinkage. Nabs still has her monthlies," he added, using the nickname for her that he knew she hated. "And I still deliver."

"Good," she said. It looked like all signs so far pointed that both could still breed. The question was whether this was totally true, and whether it was safe for them to breed with normal humans. "Would you two consent to a quick chi-scan to see what if any other changes may have occurred?"

Ranma slowly nodded. It wasn't like her scans were going to show something that they didn't already see. The Old Ghoul was probably examining them to see if they could be brought into the tribe as some sort of breeding stock, and if so, with whom.

Wait, breeding stock... Maybe Nabiki and I better be careful. If we can have kids, it would probably be better not to have them now.

"Take your clothes off, Ranma. You haven't got anything I haven't seen in either three hundred years of life, or off the collectables Shampoo has bought off your charge."

Nabiki cringed as she felt his glare once more upon her. Well, looks like it'll be a while before I can get some more personal time with Master.

Sasuke sat with his Mistress at the Kuno Estate, watching as she ate the Italian food they had purchased before returning. "This is very good, Mistress," he said, enjoying the quiet opportunity he was being afforded by eating with her.

"It is," she said, very little emotion in her voice. Her mind was on many things, most of which had occurred in the last few hours. Was the vampire whom she had fought a friend, an enemy, or something else? Would Ranma-sama accept her as an ally against the darkness threatening their land?

She had also been approached by the APD on behalf of the Emperor himself. Could she say no to such an opportunity? Was it not her duty as one of the privileged class to do so and support her Emperor?

"Mistress?"

"Sasuke, if you could, please fill out the necessary papers for me to enroll in Furinkan High," she said. "I ... I tire of my current scholastic institute."

"But Mistress, you said you would never set foot in your Father's school."

She shook her head. "I fear I have relied on others far too often," she said. "And my ... Father," she said, nearly spitting the words out, "will just have to grow up and deal with these changes. I fear my old persona died the day my Nightbane self awoke. As such, clinging to those old tapestries I once adorned myself with will give me no pleasure, no satisfaction."

"I ... I see, Mistress."

"No, you do not," she said, smiling weakly at him. "But I do enjoy the sentiment. At the very least, I should be able to pay you back the monetary funds you have lent me over the years you have been with me."

He could only blink at that. He was going to get his funds back?

"I would also like you to choose a room within the main estate to make your own," she said. "I have been far too ... concerned with my own affairs, instead of those that serve me."

He was getting a room? A room inside the house, a real room? "But what of Master Kuno?"

Kodachi growled a bit, finding even less tolerance for her brother's antics now than before. "If that fool wishes to continue to make himself a laughing stock, than so be it. But I will no longer support his actions nor his drain on the family budget. He will need to be reeled in."

Sasuke quickly nodded, as his Mistress's eyes changed momentarily to those of her Nightbane form. It would appear that things would be changing soon.

by Thrythlind

"Ano, this is bad," a boy was saying as he replayed the video again and took it in.

"What, about it Mamoru-chan?" a bleary-eyed woman with a dizzily drunk grin on her face asked as she wobbled past, closing the door behind her.

"Ayaka-san," Mamoru said with a long suffering sigh. "That's Britain's Hellsing organization those two are chatting with before the fight happens, you can see the insignia on the girl's arm."

"So?" the redhead asked before hiccupping.

Mamoru sighed again.

"If Hellsing is here, then ADP will push to have more regular staff," he said.

His employer sat down heavily, lounging in a way that left her skimpy attire to almost reveal what it contained, causing the little boy to turn around in embarrassment. After a moment, she leaned forward, blinking.

"You mean," she said. "No more out-contracts from Karino-san?"

"Exactly," Mamoru said, turning to the safe view of his monitor. "I assume he'd either get shifted to ADP or else just folded back into regular case work at Shinjuku police. In either case, he's going to have less need of us. And given certain...expenditures..." he didn't mention specifically what, but various shoes, dresses, jewelry and drinking binges were on mind, "...we really can't afford a loss of revenue like...Ayaka-san, are you listening? Ayaka-san?"

Turning about, Mamoru found his employer passed out asleep in the chair she'd sat on.

"Ayaka-san," he said, sighing in irritation.

Anderson frowned as he came into the Nerima Ward again, being careful to watch out for any attackers, either the heretical Hellsing or their mutual foes.

He had to find these two from the video that had played on that show. And there was still another demon out here that he had to deal with as well. Something new and unheard of.

Something he was at least partially responsible for.

This part of Tokyo had the answers that he sought. Or at least he hoped they would. He needed to know whether to purge or let alone, and he hadn't seen any sign yet of what to do.

If he were lucky, he'd learn a name or two that would aid him in his hunt.

"Yeesh," Yohko said, watching the TV. "Tokyo has problems."

"That's a European pestilence," Madoka muttered. "The world is truly getting smaller."

"Yay for travel options," Yohko muttered sarcastically. "How does that work anyway? Demonic possession?"

"We've never had much problem with that kind," Madoka noted. "One of our ancestors heard a bit about them second hand from the Belmont family in Europe. Our family has no accurate information on it."

"That's great," Yohko said, sighing. "Did you know that ADP called today about making our understanding with them more official?"

"I didn't know that," Madoka said sharply. "Did they ask you about heading to Tokyo?"

"Yes," Yohko answered.

"Unfortunately," Madoka said. "We can't be traveling there to deal with it, we have our own responsibilities."

"I know," Yohko said. "That's why I called Ayako-chan."

"You called your cousin?" Madoka said. "You have her number?"

"Yes," Yohko said. "How else would we keep in contact? She said that she and Azusa 2 can get down there to talk to ADP so no problem."

"Yohko, haven't I forbidden you from interacting with that...person?" Madoka snapped. "You can't trust her given her background."

"Sheesh, grandma," Yohko said, sitting up. "We came to an agreement and decided that there was plenty of stuff going around for their to be at least two devil hunters. Why did the ancestors keep making different soul-weapons if we weren't supposed to work together."

"But..."

"Isn't it about time for training, Grandma?" Yohko asked, desperate to be off the subject. Given the hard look in her grandmother's eyes, however, she was going to guess that she was going to regret asking for training like that.

"So, what resources do you have, Mr. Ito," Integra asked as she came to the tactical table. "Given that neither that Flower Child, as Alucard refers to her, nor the other two have responded yet to either offer."

Tai was confident of receiving word back from at least some of them soon, but there was no reason to say that and strain their current cooperation.

"We have received word from the Mano family," he said. "They are empowered demon hunters. Two of them will be heading here, one journeywoman and her apprentice, I'm told."

"Are they capable of doing what is needed?" Integra asked.

"Yes," Tai answered. "They have no compunction about killing things that look like people they know. Especially the one coming. Aside from that, the Shinjuku Police Department has what they call U Division, and their Lt. Karino Kozo has some supernatural connections."

Integra nodded, but didn't sound too impressed. She looked to one of the men behind her, and gestured in his direction before speaking.

"Any word on Iscariot?" she asked.

"They don't seem to have increased their presence significantly," the man said. "But we don't have the best of information here."

"Iscariot is holding back for the moment," Tai said. "They seem to be waiting for something. However, a pair of freelance demon hunters have shown up on the boards. Ulysses and Theone, our people IDed them in the airport recently. We thought about contacting them."

"I wouldn't," Integra said warningly. "We've dealt with them in the past."

"Incompetent?" Tai asked.

"No," Integra said. "But their motives are highly suspect and they have difficulty with restraint. I have never heard of them finding any paranormal activity to be benign, and they tend to use the most painful means of exorcism and hunting available to them. You might find most of your potential staff getting caught in the crossfire."

"You mean there are creatures that Hellsing won't simply eliminate?" Tai asked with a bit of a smirk of his own.

"Some," she said shrugging.

"Somebody's coming," Ulysses said eagerly.

Theone instantly sat up from where she had seemed to be sleeping and put the binoculars to her eyes as she viewed an individual charging into the warehouse they had vacated.

"That's the client, isn't it?" she muttered. "Damn, somehow he must have misunderstood what we're doing."

Ulysses laughed a little at the misunderstood comment, but only quietly.

"This means we'll have to kill him so word doesn't get out," she noted.

by The Demented Redhead

He may be dense, slow-witted, egocentric, and a perverted fool.

But there were very few who would doubt his ability with any type of sword.

Tatewaki Kuno however, was very unused to fighting such enemies.

But never let it be said that he could never make a suitable story to explain it.

The Foul Sorcerer is very clever. He has devised such a ruse to keep me at bay. If not for my obviously superior skills, this trap would spell my doom. But as I am the Blue Thunder, such a defense is child's play for me to circumvent.

But what is this? Are those not the two assistants I have hired to help me rid this noble land of the foul taint of Saotome? Why do they seem to be commanding this attack against my personage?

Ah, it is clear to mine eyes! He has bewitched them as he has the pigtailed girl and my fierce tigress. They have been sent against me, as he knows I will be hard pressed to make an assault against those loyal to me.

Their skin has not changed tone, if these strange and painful lights doth not lie to me. Therefore, he has not changed them as he did the foul mercenary that assuredly shares his bed. Has he left these to dissuade me from stopping him from doing something similar to my two loves?

"The guy just won't die?" said Ulysses.

"Good," said Theone. "It means we have longer for the check to clear."

"Fear not, faithful followers!" yelled Kuno, as he sliced another laser turret. "I shall free you from the Foul Demon's control, before freeing my loves!"

The two mercenaries blinked. "He thinks we're being controlled?" muttered Theone.

Ulysses smirked. "Hey, why not. Means we can keep billing the sap, I'll play the captured pawn."

"So no more playing?"

"I didn't say that," amended the cyborg. "We'll at least know our weak points. I mean, if that fool can get through those traps, then our targets could as well."

"Ah, a live study session," said the fem-fatale. "So should we hope he survives or not?"

"I figure we had best get our stories straight for when he survives. Last thing we need is this dimwit discovering the truth."

"From what I've heard, he'd never see it even if we told him the truth," said Theone.

"Are you done yet?" asked the nude gender-cursed chi vampire. "It's getting a little cold in here?"

"Not from my point of view, child."

"GAH!"

"Please don't damage that," said Nabiki, looking on as Cologne continued to poke and prod her Master.

Cologne smirked, before continuing to exam the chi pathways. From her observations so far, there was not much that had changed in him, with the exception that the pathways had seemed to become a bit more ... sensitive. But to what degree, she wouldn't be able to say, until she examined Nabiki. And that would have to wait for tomorrow, as the hour was getting late. While they might not need to sleep, she still did. "I am curious, do you notice anything off about your eyesight?"

"My eyes?" asked Ranma.

"Yes, the chi pathways in that area seem very sensitive, amazingly so."

"... We have a bit of trouble making some things out."

"Anything we can do about that?" asked Nabiki.

Cologne nodded, her mind already cataloging the most likely reactions that they were not mentioning. "Over time, yes. Like how Ranma here keeps his aura from spilling out into the visible spectrum, you might be able to apply the same principles to your eyes. But I have never heard of it being done in such a way."

Ranma smirked. He'd have it figured out by the end of the week then, probably have it taught to Nabiki by next Thursday. She was pretty good at picking up techniques when she was properly motivated.

"But that is about all I can do tonight. Would it be possible for you both to come over tomorrow so I can perform a deeper scan on Nabiki and your female form for comparison?"

"Comparison?"

She nodded towards Nabiki. "Correct me if I am wrong, child, but you have changed much more than he has in terms of abilities. Unless of course, you could always hop in midair and didn't let anyone know."

"Can you keep Mousse and Shampoo out of our hair?" asked Ranma. The last thing he needed was the bubbly Amazon going psycho on Nabiki, while the blind duck attacked him. They were just lucky that neither one had taken to using silver weapons at the moment.

But he was determined to eventually deal with that weakness as well. It was just hard to find silver at the Dojo that Kasumi didn't clean everyday or have somewhere where people would notice it missing.

"I can," said Cologne. "She has needed some training lately, with these new threats in the area. And I'm sure I can convince Mr. Part-time to assist in that regard."

Nabiki shivered a bit. The distraction was to have them train to kill vampires? Yeah, nothing could go wrong there, could it?

Ranma nodded. "We'll call before we come over. We'll probably have to deal with whatever happened while we were out tonight."

"Very well," said Cologne, as she escorted them out. As she shut the door, she wondered one thing: would another day be enough to see if it was wise to bring their genes into the tribe?

by Thrythlind

"Hello?" Kasumi called out as she knocked on the door frame of Ucchan's and walked inside. "Konatsu-chat, are you here?"

The male kunoichi stepped out of the back room, rubbing his hands clean on a rag and looking toward Kasumi with a surprised and somewhat nervous expression.

"What is it, Kasumi?" Konatsu asked. "We don't often see you here."

"Well," Kasumi said gingerly. "I'm afraid I have some bad news."

Konatsu set the cleaning rag down and nervously brought her hands together as she waited for Kasumi to continue.

"Ukyou and Akane were patrolling with Azusa Shiratori and had a fight with some...people," she said slowly. "Ukyou was injured."

"Is she..." Konatsu pleaded, a chill running down her back.

"She's mostly fine," Kasumi said quickly.

"What does mostly fine mean?" Konatsu asked sharply.

"Her ear drums were ruptured," Kasumi said. "She can't hear right now and her balance is a little off."

"Do they think this will be a permanent condition?" Konatsu asked, eyes narrowed. "I don't think she can afford the corrective surgery if it doesn't repair itself."

"I suppose it depends on how well Ukyou follows instructions," Kasumi said. "She's already recovered most of her balance as it is."

"What are those instructions?" Konatsu asked.

"She has to keep her ears dry from what I understand," Kasumi said. "Probably regular check ups, but I don't know what else for certain."

Kasumi was a bit irritated at that. Since she wasn't Ukyou's family, the doctor's didn't feel the need to give her the full information on how to handle the situation. They gave it to Ukyou in the form of writing, and Ukyou "wasn't sure" what she did with the instructions.

"How did this happen exactly?" Konatsu asked.

"From what Ukyou reported," Kasumi said. "I'd say a series of flashbang grenades followed by a shockwave of some kind. I suppose her ears hadn't yet recovered from the flashbangs when the second happened."

"Grenades?" Konatsu said dangerously. She sighed and smiled at Kasumi a bit in relief. "Well, at least she's mostly healthy then. And don't worry about the doctor's instructions, I know how to find anything Ukyou tries to hide from me. How are Akane and the other girl?"

Kasumi stayed firm as she answered.

"Missing," she said simply.

"Oh dear," Konatsu said. He paused for a moment and looked to Kasumi. "I'm sure they're fine."

"As am I," Kasumi said confidently, back straight.

"This is a gold mine of information," Tai said as he looked over the shoulder of the tech specialists with Integra. "Most of this should have been erased as soon as the installation was compromised."

"They didn't have time to," Integra said. "I suspect they weren't expecting to be compromised from inside the lab. Most of the staff was killed in that room."

"I notice that you're not interested in hiring Miss Kuno," Mr. Ito noted.

"I'm mostly interested in the vampire-girl's ability to stop the ghoul infection from killing someone," Integra said. "I have a power-hitter already."

A man in an ADP uniform stepped in and bowed before reporting to Mr. Ito.

"The devil hunters have arrived," he said.

"Excellent timing, tell her to come in," Tai said enthusiastically. "I believe we have something for her. Can your Agent Victoria work with a partner?"

"She is a good team player," Integra noted, gesturing to one of her underlings he gave a crisp salute and turned to the intercom. "I hope this devil hunter of yours is."

"I've had past troubles," Ayako Mano said as she entered, Azusa 2 at her back. "But I've been adapting. What manner of warrior is my partner to be and what will we be doing?"

"You're going to be investigating the local branch of Deluxe Taxi," Tai Ito said. "With Hellsing's Seras Victoria."

"Undercover work," Seras said walking in the door. "Won't that be a bit dodgy right now?"

Ayako arched an eyebrow as she took in the undead woman before her. Nervously, Azusa 2 tugged on her jacket sleeve, drawing her attention.

"Undercover or infiltration," Integra said. "How you manage it is your concern, but we need addresses to go with these site identification numbers. It'll have to wait for tomorrow night I suppose, but you probably won't get a second chance."

"Ayako, isn't that person dead?" Azusa 2 whispered.

"Yes, I do believe she is," Ayako said in a calculating tone.

by The Demented Redhead

"I don't trust her."

He turned to the voice, seeing her face showing the anger he knew she was feeling. "And that should be a surprise?"

"She only wants to learn enough about us to see if we can be of use to her damned tribe," growled Nabiki.

"I don't trust her as well," said Ranma.

"You know she's trying to find out if we can pass our genes along."

"I know," he said quietly.

"And?"

"And wouldn't you like to know as well?" he asked. Seeing her pause, he turned to her. "I admit I'm not the brightest person in the world, but I know what it takes to make a kid."

"And you think I... We...?"

He nodded, seeing her aura change from anger to a bit fearful and confused. "I'd like to know that, and I'll admit that even with what we can do, I don't have all the answers."

"They said we were unique," said Nabiki.

Ranma nodded, as he took her into a tight hug. "It ain't going to change anything between us, Nabiki. I'll still protect you."

She nodded, wondering why this issue was affecting her so.

"Oh, you are out late?"

The two turned, still hugging each other, as they spotted Kasumi walking towards them. "Kasumi, why are you out?"

"It's not safe after dark, Kasumi," said Nabiki, wiping her eyes a bit.

"Oh, I had to deliver a message to Konatsu-chan," she replied, smiling. "But I only had the number for Ukyo's restaurant, and not her personal number."

"Um ... they're the same," said Ranma.

Kasumi could only blink. "Well that must get awkward when she receives personal calls."

"Why did you need to call Konatsu?" asked Ranma, not liking the idea that something would make Kasumi risk a dangerous walk. He also swore he would give both old men at home a personal beat-down for letting her go out unescorted.

Kasumi sighed, as she told him.

"Wow, so many cute little Charlottes for Little Azusa to play with!" cried the Kolkhoz skater as she darted around the forest, grabbing as many of the P-chans as she could.

Akane just panned around, trying to understand what was going on. How could a person break into a bunch of piglets like that? Was this all some strange dream? Had those attackers perhaps killed her, or was she hallucinating?

"Are you sure he's here?"

Quickly, she darted to the side, facing the voices, and falling into a defensive stance.

"I know so," said the woman Akane found herself hard-pressed to know. But the little woman beside her was a Senshi, Sailor Saturn.

"Huh?" was the only response the Tendo heir could manage.

Pluto tapped her staff on the ground. "Ryoga, you should be able to put yourself back together, by piling your separated forms into one pile."

The piglets all paused, looking at one another, before trying to move into a pile.

"Bwee?"

"Please let them go," said Pluto, turning to Azusa, who had several piglets in her hands.

"But they're so cute and they love Little Azusa!" cried the girl.

WHAP!

"Ow," said Azusa, as she rubbed the back of her head, as she dropped the piglets.

"Thank you, Saturn."

"You're welcome, Pluto," smiled the Senshi of Death and Destruction.

"Sailor Pluto?" asked Akane.

"Yes," said the green-haired Senshi, as she used her Garnet Staff like a sheep herder's staff to pull the piglets together. "Now, imagine yourself as melting together back into one being."

The piglets gave one last squeal, as they seemed to warp and slide into one another. The pile seemed to become a solid mass of black, as the glob took on definition, forming into the giant man-pig that had been Ryoga before Akane had rung his chime.

"At least he remembered to form clothes," muttered Pluto. Her staff quickly cut to the side, tripping Akane. "And no more quarrels for the moment. I need to explain some things that have happened, and it would be much easier for me if I didn't have to start searching the globe to find him ... again."

"Ooooo, stories!" cried Azusa, as she ran up to Pluto and sat before her. "Can you tell Azusa about the Three Bears?"

WHAP!

"Owie!"

"Thank you once again, Saturn," smiled Pluto.

Anderson continued his walk, trying to either find the plant girl or the possible redeemed vampire.

It had been a slow night, almost painfully slow. The Ward seemed to have taken greater precautions against the new threat that had appeared. There were few if any businesses currently open now, and those that were seemed to be prepared for a riot.

There were reports in a close-by Ward that a chemical leak had happened, resulting in a few deaths, and that government officials were containing it.

He knew the truth though, but he was not foolhardy enough to walk into the lion's den.

No, he would deal with the Hellsing heathens at another time.

The possible monster he had had a hand in creating was first known in this Ward. The two vampires who fit the descriptions of the fabled Lady in White and the Phantom were seemingly only dealing with this Ward. They might be going into other nearby Wards, but no tales had appeared of them as of yet.

His best chances of finding anything and getting some information were here in Nerima.

But his search was proving fruitless. The locals that were about were being very cautious, and he had no doubt that a stranger in their midst would elate further fear.

No, he would pray that the Lord would give him the signs he needed, and bless his course, to find what he needed.

He paused as he spotted three people out on the streets in the night, a very rare scene to him so far this day. Two appeared to be female, one male, who was holding one of the females in a tight embrace.

"By the Lord," he whispered, as he focused on the two embracing people. "My quest has been blessed indeed."

by Thrythlind

"Okay," Ranma said grimly. "As soon as we get you home, I'm going to go get Akane and Azusa."

"I can..." Kasumi started.

"No," Nabiki said. "There is too much going on, the Master is right, we should head home."

Anderson arched an eyebrow at Nabiki's use of the term master for the other vampire.

"If you insist," Kasumi said, sighing and trying to avoid showing her worry for the youngest Tendo and the skater girl.

As they walked along at a quick pace, she turned to the two vampires and decided to ask a question.

"Incidentally," she asked. "Why do you now call Ranma 'master'? Is that part of the transformation, or is it part of some game?"

Anderson edged forward, interested in this himself.

"Happosai," both vampires growled irritably.

"Oh dear," Kasumi said. "What does he have to do with this?"

"He apparently slipped some manner of drug or potion into Ma...Ranma's food in hopes being able to control his girl-side," Nabiki said. "Something to make a girl...addicted to her partner."

"And when I got into her chi to flush the gunk that was killing her," Ranma said. "It triggered on her."

"I resisted the...urge," Nabiki said. "For a good week or more, and got this compulsion to refer to Ranma as 'Master' for my troubles."

"More like she's the one doing the masterin' when there ain't fightin' to be done," Ranma muttered.

"Someone has to do the thinking," Nabiki said, smirking and hoping the little barb wasn't going to remind Ranma that he was mad at her for the moment. Still she just had to add a little fuel to the fire with one last smirk and the word: "Master."

"Wait," Kasumi said, pausing. "Does this mean that you and Ranma have been..."

She watched the two vampires fidget and blush in embarrassment.

"But this is terrible," Kasumi said. "You shouldn't be doing that!"

"But if we don't Nabiki goes insane," Ranma said quietly.

"You should have been married then," Kasumi retorted.

"And what would the other girls do?" Ranma asked. "The ones that think I belong to them? Nabiki ain't as tough as Akane. Not yet."

"You take her out against these creatures," Kasumi commented. "And insist Akane stay home."

"But if ya ain't noticed," Ranma said. "I ain't taking her against a couple living opponents now. And Nabs ain't supposed to get involved if she can avoid it. An she's supposed ta be carrying a weapon."

"I have it this time, Master," Nabiki said, sighing.

"Anyway," Ranma said. "Nabiki can do stuff I can't so she's gotta be there for fighting these dead things, cause I don't remember how I healed her, but she does and does it better."

"Different opponents, different strengths," Kasumi sighed. "Still, I expect you to be getting married, at least in secret, as soon as you can."

"But the other..." Ranma started to protest.

"The Tendo arrangement was made before any of us were born," Kasumi said. "There for it supersedes the arrangement your father made with Ukyou and I don't suppose any of us recognize the Amazons' claim. As for Kodachi..." Kasumi left that unsaid.

The two younger teens shuffled about nervously until they reached the step of the gate. Ranma looked up and nodded.

"Okay," he said. "You should be good now, I'm heading out to get Akane."

"Wait," Nabiki snapped quickly. "One suggestion, Master..."

"Ehh?" Ranma said, turning back to look at her in confusion. "What's that?"

"With that video going around, they might recognize you," she said.

"So, what can I do about..." Ranma started to say until he was interrupted by a spray of water.

"I don't think they've seen you like this," Nabiki said as she looked down at the small, busty girl with slick black hair and pale skin.

"Damn it!" Ranma snapped. "It's a curse, not a toy!"

"Ahh, Mistress, you're so cute like this, though," Nabiki teased.

"Don't call me 'Mistress'," Ranma said. "I'm a guy, damn it."

"Not right now, Mistress," Nabiki snickered. Then she turned serious. "Besides, this form wasn't on TV, you can get in a lot closer before they start reacting."

"Yeah, yeah," Ranma said. "Wasn't gonna let them see me in the first place, but yer right. Might as well get some use outta it. And Nabiki..."

"Yes...Master?" Nabiki asked, noting a glint in Ranma's eyes.

"Jump training," she said simply, drawing a wince from Nabiki. "Both legs."

A another, deeper flinch came out of the Tendo then. She sighed and nodded, wishing that her antics had made Ranma forget about the pictures.

"Yes, Sensei," she said, sighing.

Ranma nodded and then leaped out into the night.

"What was that about?" Kasumi asked.

"Ranma found out about some of the pictures I took of him and her before we were together," Nabiki said tightly.

"Oh. I'll go find the balls and chains," Kasumi said calmly. "They should still be in the dojo storage."

In the shadows, as he pondered what he'd heard Anderson had to make a quick decision:

by The Demented Redhead

As Kasumi was digging through the Dojo Storeroom, trying to locate the balls and chains for 'jump' training, Nabiki kept her eyes closed. Any worry that would appear on her face would look like it was about the training.

That was far from the truth, though she would have to remember to have a talk with her Mistress—she still liked the idea of that title to tease Master with—about what constitutes a distraction.

They knew they were being followed. Whoever it was, was powerful, of that that there was no doubt. His chi was tightly bound, and carried with it a ... taste? ... of magic, very powerful magic, if she was correct. They noticed when he had arrived, and were happy that he had stayed back while they talked with Kasumi.

But now the bastard knew where they lived. That was going to make things very difficult in the coming days, especially if whoever was creating those FREAKS decided that they needed to find out who was on the video destroying their work.

But the signature passed by, most likely going after Mistress, who was now leaving the area, after ensuring their tail hadn't decided to lounge around the Tendo Dojo. There was no way she was ready for someone like that.

I'm just glad that Carmen is more interested in fighting Master than me.

"Here we are," said Kasumi, lugging a small cart out filled with balls and chains. "Now, which amount of weight did Ranma-kun suggest you start out with?"

She gulped a bit, not seeing any on top of the pile that started at less than forty kilograms.

"Oh, we also need to talk with Auntie about setting up a proper wedding for you and Ranma-kun. I wonder what sort of wedding vampires have?" she mused, not noticing how much paler her sister started to look.

Ranma paused in her moves, keeping her attention on the chi signature that was following her ... badly. It was like the guy had no idea how to hide himself.

She had been worried that if she left, the target would attack the Dojo, which is in part why she and Nabiki had revealed so much to Kasumi. It was their hopes that whoever it was would target the Master more than the student.

It had paid off. But it also added a hitch in her plan to track down Akane and Azusa. After all, locating the two would prove problematic if the tagalong decided to strike. Hell, if this fool even knew enough to fight with silver, then her problems were magnified all the more.

And the mask, the line that separated Ranma Saotome from the Phantom wouldn't even offer any hidden strengths. This was most likely someone who had seen the video, and knew what he might be up against.

"Damn," she muttered, quietly enough so her pursuer wouldn't hear. She needed to either confront him or ditch him, and the latter wouldn't work. If she did, he might retreat and confront Nabiki at the Dojo.

No, it was time to be proactive.

Anderson paused as his query disappeared from sight. He had chosen to follow her, after seeing both the gender change and hearing the female healing vampire refer to her as both Master and Mistress.

One must always watch the head of the serpent. And if the words exchanged were true, this head was much more of a threat than the tail.

His thoughts were cut off however, as the female lead appeared three meters before him, sword in hand, and in a defensive position.

"Why are you following us?"

Anderson smiled a bit. If nothing else, at least this one was a little more ... friendly than the dog Hellsing had.

by Thrythlind

Pluto walked up to the giant pig-man and arched an eyebrow as she fingered the lower part of the seven foot tall creature's sailor collar. Looking up she smirked for a brief moment.

"A bit self-conscious over what you're wearing?" Pluto asked.

"What are you talking about?" Ryouga demanded, growling.

"I'm sure you all have questions," Pluto said. "And I think I'll answer some of them right now. Others, you'll have to answer yourself."

"So, what happened to me then?" Ryouga demanded.

"After a few centuries of absorbing the energies of the nightland, your family's bloodline reached a saturation point," Pluto said. "Which is why you were born as something not human."

"You mean, this isn't something that was changed in me?" Ryouga said in disbelief.

"That doesn't make sense," Akane said. "Ryoga's always been human, this has to be a spell, or change in a his...curse." She growled at Ryouga as she said that.

"Azusa want change too!" Azusa said. "But Azusa want to change into something cute and cuddly, not big and ugly and only having a cute outfit."

WHAP

"Thank you, Sailor Saturn," three voices said.

"No problem," Sailor Saturn said.

"Owww, widdle Azusa's head hurts," Azusa said.

"Is this something that happens a lot?" Ryouga asked.

"So far," Pluto said. "Only one other person has changed like this, I believe you know her."

"Does she have red-hair?" Ryouga said tightly.

"Ummm, no," Pluto said. "Ranma Saotome is not the same sort of creature you are."

"Who is it then?" Akane demanded.

Pluto seemed to stare into space for a moment, as if considering something.

"You'll see her tomorrow," Pluto said simply, straight to Ryouga and ignoring . "She'll be in battle against demons and monsters, some within and some without. And she'll be wanting someone to talk to."

"But who is it?" Akane demanded.

Pluto gave her a secretive smile and gestured to Sailor Saturn.

"The Dojo is that way," she said pointing in the general direction of town. "Try to go back to looking human before tomorrow."

"But I asked for a..." Akane started, but in the space of a blink both Pluto and Saturn were gone. "...name?"

"So, the Kodachi girl is going to be in a battle tomorrow?" Hotaru asked.

"One that costs one hundred yen per play," Setsuna said, smiling.

by The Demented Redhead

"Well, that was annoying," growled Akane.

"So we go this way?" asked Ryoga, surprisingly pointing in the right direction for once.

"Little Azusa's cute head hurts," muttered the skater, rubbing her multiple contusions on her head.

"Then quit being annoying!" yelled Akane.

"WAH! Why are you yelling at me? What did I ever do to you?" cried Azusa.

Akane just growled. "First, we are heading back to the Dojo, before Ukyo sends the others into a trap.

"Then," she growled, pointing at Ryoga, "we are going to have a long talk. Understood?"

"Yes," squeaked the pig-faced Nightbane.

"Whom do you serve, foul creature?" asked Anderson, staring at the dark creature who seemed to have sired the female, if he was correct.

"I protect the weak," said Ranma. "However, I heard that isn't what you do. I hear that you like to send innocent civilians onto a pike."

Anderson flinched at that. "And what would you know of that?"

"That young woman was a friend, and you have made her ... upset. I don't like it when people upset my friends in such ways."

"Believe it or not, abomination, I did not come here to attempt this sad battle of wits."

"Oh?"

"No, harlot," said Anderson, adjusting his glasses. "I came here to inquire ... about this so-called healing ability that your creation possesses."

Ranma tightened the grip on her sword, not blinking as she faced the priest. "I take it you are the infamous 'Judas Priest' Carmen was referring to."

Anderson narrowed his eyes at the name given to him. "I fear the name 'Carmen' does not ring a bell for me."

"Vampire, guy, likes to wear red and a wide-brimmed hat."

"You refer to the satanic dog of Hellsing."

"I call him Carmen, I don't really give a damn what the Hell you call him."

"I see," said Anderson. "But we are moving from the original point."

"You want to know how she can heal," said Ranma. "Why?"

"I wish to know if she is perhaps a being seeking redemption in the eyes of the Lord, and thus granted a boon, or if she is an abomination against the Lord, seeking to pull those who could fall prey to her false hopes."

Ranma growled a bit, ki flowing into the blade, making it seem to glow. "You seem to be very full of yourself, Old Man," growled Ranma. "Especially if you think I'd let you harm anymore people."

"So you would side with those against the Lord?"

"I side with only my code, and that says I protect the weak. You on the other hand, seem to just want to spout some shit and assume that makes you better. I ain't hearing it, and if you harm Nabiki or any other people I know, you ain't going to be staying around here. I'll send your pasty ass to this Lord you're spouting about."

Anderson smirked, as two bayonets slide out of his sleeves. "Then I shall dispatch you back to your dark lord in Hell, and judge her myself."

In the skies over the two, a dark shadow loomed, hidden by the clouded skies, as it watched the two prepare to fight. "Oh yes, a good fight always does wonders for my mood. How do you stand against someone like the Judas Priest, New Blood?"

"So what should we do, Auntie?" asked Kasumi, fidgeting with her apron, after revealing to the Tendo Matriarch about what she had learned. She was at least partially glad that the Fathers had gone out on patrol.

I just hope that none of those undead people are inside those bars. Father and Uncle Saotome seem to track a lot of people of the criminal element to those places.

Nodoka nodded silently. It was a serious matter, and one she would need to deal with. After all, she knew what her fool husband had done, as well as the Amazons, and their stakes in her son.

One does not have their house blown up without learning why, despite the poor efforts on the parts of the males of the family to hide such truths.

This would prove much trouble to her. Sure, if Nabiki could heal Ukyo, which would get her out of the house, but also beg the question of how the girl was healed from, what should have taken normal people weeks. Martial artist healing abilities just didn't cut it.

And she knew that this issue, was not something the Elder Tendo would drop. No, she was much for tradition, and would eventually broach the issue with the parents.

Even if it would break poor Akane's heart.

No, such issues would have to be addressed slowly, and carefully. It would be very poor to create another situation where those after her son's hand in marriage would destroy yet another house.

"We will need to move careful," said Nodoka, as she sipped her tea. "I'll consider what we can do tonight, but do not spread word of this around. The last thing we need is a repeat of the wedding disaster," she added, making sure Kasumi understood what could happen, honor aside.

"Very well, Auntie," said Kasumi. "But what about their ... moments?"

"I see little reason in stopping them, if it is as they say with Happosai's fouled attempt on my son," said Nodoka. "Or would you prefer your sister insane?"

Kasumi sighed. At least she could ask them not to do such things inside the house. At least then she could continue to pretend it wasn't happening.

by Thrythlind

Ranma watched the bayonets slip out and firmed her chin. She had several major advantage in this fight that this geek didn't know about.

First, she'd heard Kodachi describe her fight with him, right down to the healing sword wound.

Second, Ranma's fought people that used the same sort of shit.

This was lucky since Carmen was watching nearby. Ranma was glad nobody knew how her and Nabs' senses worked, otherwise they might actually figure out how to follow them without letting the living vamps know they were there.

Now was a time to measure just how good this so-called priest was.

There wasn't much technique as the priest charged forward with a berserk grin on his face. Ranma ducked aside, watching the razor edge of one bayonet slipped past her eyes, and she was already cocking her head aside to watch the second strike come in and twist her body into a simple cartwheel that dodged past the strike and placed herself behind the priest.

The dark-haired vampiress stepped into a forward stance, slashing down as she moved and drawing a line across the blond-man's back as she twisted her rear foot around to bring her into a new position.

"That was a shallow cut," Anderson said. "You see the Lord protects me."

"Nah," Ranma said, turning to face the man. "I just suck at swords."

The priest's second attack was less of a frenzied charge and Ranma had to pay a lot more attention to the play of long knives so that she could stay in a relatively good ground.

"This is better," Ranma said, sweating a bit as the chi-enhanced weapons seemed to press in from every angle.

Every hit rattled her frame a little bit as well, the guy had to be at least as strong as Ryouga, maybe even Tarou. Which meant it was no laughing matter in her current form.

She made the mistake of setting her weapon directly in Anderson's way and the strength of the strike sent Ranma staggering off balance long enough for Anderson's second bayonet to slash downward across Ranma's side.

The vampiress growled and leaped away from the next series of strikes, gripping the wound in her side. She focused a moment, not realizing as a pale glow covered her eyes and filled the wound. A blink passed and the wound was closed.

She'd have to be a bit careful, but it wouldn't stop her from getting a bit more serious, fortunately.

"Stop running, temptress," Anderson called out angrily.

"All right," Ranma said coldly, slipping the sword back in its sheath as she jumped down.

"Do you surrender to your fate then, demoness?" the paladin demanded, noting that red-head and put up her weapon.

"Like hell," Ranma said, holding out her hand to wave the gaijin over to her. "Come and get me."

Anderson snarled and leaped forward as Ranma appeared to meekly wait for him to come, not even standing in a recognizable stance. Then the Paladin's jump came to its terminus and Alexander saw the tiny smirk grow over Ranma's face just before the vampiresses stance shifted in a blink.

Anderson felt his right knee shatter, his groin explode, his abdomen cave in, heart stop and neck snap back all in what seemed to be a bare instant. The bayonets dropped out of his hands as the vampiress seemed to rise off the ground in slow motion, foot twirling and tracing a line to Anderson's abused chest.

The priest felt the wind rush past him just before slamming through the concrete wall into a large, empty abandoned building.

Standing was a slow process as his healing factor took care of the injuries. As he felt his wounds heal, he saw the vampiress following him into the building at a casual walk.

Smirking, Anderson flashed out his hands, sending a swarm of bayonets scattering across the scene and covering the walls in paper, handwritten pages of some sort. The vampiress looked about, blinking, mouth open wide in sheer surprise as she looked at the newly consecrated building.

"No help and no escape for you now demon," Anderson said. "You shall be cast out as Legion of old."

As he spoke a second swarm of bayonets launched outward at Ranma, who seemed to almost vanish into the air, so swift was the leap.

"I've seen that before!" Ranma shouted as she landed in front of Anderson.

Immediately, Anderson started pressing the attack on the tiny girl, pushing her back with every step. Drawing blood here and there from the demonic temptress. Still the thing showed no sign of fear or giving up. It just kept dodging and jabbing, while taking a step backwards and to the right.

Back and to the right.

Back and to the right.

Twisting onward into tighter and tighter circles.

Finally, she dropped back, feet planted into a solid stance, no room or readiness to retreat apparent as Alexander drilled down into her. The girl slipped past his initial strike, but he didn't fear her uppercut at all.

Alucard grumbled as the strong consecration about the building prevented him from getting a good look at what was going inside. He felt that he was missing the best part of the fight, as he'd missed most of the fights recently.

He started to sit down and wait just as the building the fight had moved to exploded in a whirling blast of air as a funnel ripped upward from the ground to the skies above carrying in it the familiar figure of tall blonde priest.

Slowly, the wind died away and then, the paladin crashed downward into the rubble that remained.

Alexander struggled to rise as he heard the footsteps, deliberately echoing through the scene, and the sound of drawing steel. He was healing far too slowly to make a good resistance, he knew that. So he was not surprised when the tiny foot pressed on his chest and the sword was laid across his neck.

"You ain't no phoneix, jerk," Ranma said simply. "I can kill you for good."

Ranma looked to the priest collar about the man's neck and snorted, slicing through the cloth and tossing the collar away.

"You ain't no priest either," Ranma said. "I seen enough priests to respect a good one. Yer just a murderer with a title."

A bayonet slashed downward then, slicing through Anderson's shoulder into the ground, followed by a second through the next shoulder.

Ranma stepped off the priest and walked through the rubble, moving to the edge of the debris before turning back.

"Ya really want to protect people," Ranma said. "Then don't judge 'em. That ain't our concern down here."

Then a burst of wind carried a cloth passed the vampiress and, when it passed she was gone.

Alucard blinked in surprise as the girl simply seemed to vanish from his sight. Then a smile graced his lips.

"Well, New Blood," he said. "Trickier than you seem."

When Ranma arrived at the place Ukyou had traced the people that had kidnapped Akane and Azusa to, she was disturbed to find it empty and abandoned. Someone had been there, he could tell by the ugly mess of traps they'd set off, but now, everything was gone.

There wasn't even anybody watching the place.

The good thing was that he couldn't feel any sign that someone had died here.

Grumbling and breathing hard, the vampiress leaned heavily against the wall as blood dripped from another re-opened wound.

"Damn," Ranma gasped. "He does use silver. Gonna have to be more careful next time."

"Ranma-sama?" a voice said.

Turning about, the dark-haired vampiress saw Konatsu standing there.

"Are you alright, Ranma-sama?" Konatsu asked uncertainly.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "Just a few scratches. You didn't do this, did ya? Looks more like something I'd foul up."

"It was like this when I got here, Ranma-sama," Konatsu said.

The pale girl the ninja was talking to fell to her knees then, much to Konatsu's shock.

"Ranma-sama!" Konatsu gasped, rushing to the girl's side. "I must get you to help somewhere."

"I can fix this with a little help," Ranma said.

"What sort of help?" Konatsu asked, eyeing Ranma's fangs.

"Not blood," Ranma said smiling. "Just get me home, Nabiki knows what to do about this."

"Okay," Konatsu said uncertainly.

by The Demented Redhead

"But it is such a well ... um ... defined outfit," offered Kasumi.

Nabiki just growled as she continued to practice her jumps, the weights on each leg near fifty-five kilograms. Then again, it wasn't so much the weight that she had to deal with in her jumps, but the attached balls of iron and steel the chains connected to. They threw off her balance, and she found herself hard-pressed to land right. After all, getting up was the easy part, even with her new limits. It was avoiding the balls that had a different momentum and center of gravity that was proving difficult.

Of course, having a sister and surrogate mother trying to plan a wedding you didn't want to occur, was not helping her concentration at this point.

"Kasumi," she said, as she landed, "I am not planning my wedding around what some wannabes who have nothing better to do than ignore reality and bitch about how much their lives suck, think it should be like" she growled out.

"I thought they pretended they were real vampires," said Nodoka, thinking about the Goths she often saw on television.

"Auntie, when you deal with the real thing on a daily basis, you have little patience for people living in such worlds of pretend." Besides, I have an idiot like that at school everyday that I go.

"What about a Satanic wedding?" asked Kasumi.

"I don't worship Satan, and neither does Ranma." She paused before her next jump. "Why did you even mention that?" asked Nabiki, wondering what screw might have finally broke inside her sister's mind.

"Well, I'm not quite certain what wedding ceremony and plans would be appropriate for you and Ranma-kun," Kasumi replied, setting down the magazine she had been looking at. "I mean, it would be very bad if during the ceremony, some item set you two on fire. That would ruin the honeymoon."

Her only response was to palm her face. "Of all the..."

"Nabiki-sama!"

"ACK!" cried the girl, as she fell back, the pseudo-kunoichi's scream piercing the air. The only reason she had not sensed his arrival had been her attempts to shut the world out, in hopes that Nodoka would take the hint and drop such discussions for the moment, and drag her sister away.

"My son!" cried Nodoka, spotting both Konatsu and a heavily bandaged figure in his arms, with many of those bandages as red as her hair had once been, as they cleared the outer wall.

"Master!" Nabiki cried, making her way over to the heavily injured living vampire, ripping the balls and chains off as she went, teasing names forgotten.

"Ran into a ... little trouble," smirked Ranma. "Bastard actually had silver. Not even safe ... to go for a walk anymore," she said, trying to end with a chuckle, before she passed out.

Ryoga could only try and stare forward; attempting to avoid the glares he was being sent by the angry Tendo he had rescued. Sure, he had planned to one day tell Akane that he was actually P-chan.

Well, maybe not. Akari knew, that was enough as far as he was concerned. If he could, he would get cured, and then maybe find a P-chan-like piglet and drop that off for Akane, and that would be that.

But I'm a monster now! he whined inside his head, wondering what Akari would do when she saw him.

"Achoo!" sneezed said girl, as she looked at her computer screen, showing an image vaguely similar to what Ryoga looked like now—if you stripped off the sailor clothes.

"Must be dusty," she said, rubbing her nose, as she typed her question. "Do pig-men count as furries?"

"Keep moving, Ryoga," growled Akane. "I'd like to be back in Tokyo before the trains stop. No telling how far we actually are from Nerima Ward."

"Little Azusa hopes we don't find an abandoned camp," said Azusa, remembering a weird American movie that Mikado had once made her watch. Sure, the people were stupid—others disappear or die, why the hell would you stay at the camp to have sex?—but the DVD had been so cute. She had instantly fallen in love for Pierre.

Akane slowly nodded. After all she had seen and heard in the years since Ranma had arrived on their doorstep, she didn't discount the possibility that a psycho killer could be lurking in these woods.

Then again, for Ryoga, said killer could be the short-haired girl next to him, which was currently muttering off names of dishes that needed ... pork. "Um ... we could ... talk?"

"Oh, now you want to talk," growled Akane. "You want to talk? Okay, how about we talk about you being a huge pervert who used his curse to peek on me?" she finished with a yell.

"NO!" cried Azusa. "Xander and Willow shouldn't fight!"

The two paused, before slowly facing the girl. "Um ... why are you looking at Little Azusa like that?"

Akane was cracking her knuckles. "First order of business, shut you the hell up!"

"AHHHHHHH!" cried Azusa, as the duo chased after her, and back towards Tokyo. It would be the only thing Akane and Ryoga would agree on for some time to come. "WOULD IT HELP IF LITTLE AZUSA SAID SHE WAS SORRY?"

by Thrythlind

Nabiki helped Ranma into the furo and immediately started to strip the smaller girl's ruined clothing so she could get at the wounds underneath. She immediately noticed that there were already some bandages in places.

"Konatsu," Ranma explained.

Nabiki nodded and located a bandage that seemed more blood-soaked than the others wrapped about Ranma's mid-section. All the others were just nicks and cuts that weren't really worrisome. This one here was the one that really bothered Nabiki.

Unwrapping the bandage slowly, she looked at the mess of mottled chi that lay knotted in the wound and winced.

"Eww, that doesn't look good," Ranma noted bluntly.

"Of course it doesn't look good, Mistress," Nabiki snapped. "Were you playing games again?"

"I was tryin' ta figure out how good the guy was," Ranma protested with a voice that was almost a whine.

"Is there anything I can do?" Kasumi asked, sticking her head in.

"When I get finished, you can bandage him," Nabiki said. "You're better at that than I." Kasumi nodded and left again.

Nabiki looked closely at the wound and the tangle of foreign chi that was keeping the wound from healing.

"This isn't silver," Nabiki said. "There's no burning. This is more like our weapons, a blessing of some kind."

She remembered when she'd cut her finger on one of her kamas once and it had just kept bleeding. Apparently, their natural chi was similar enough to an undead thing for the blessing to get a hold, but it wasn't able to do anything but keep the place it touched from repairing.

"Ehh, well he called himself a priest," Ranma said, shrugging.

Nabiki rolled her eyes and looked to the shower head and grabbing it. A moment later she was showering the wound in the cold water. As she pushed the water over the wound, the chi-poison lashed out to strike at the heavy chi Nabiki radiated to attract it. Between the covering of yin-filled cold water and the barrier of Nabiki's skin, however, it merely rolled off, down to the floor before swirling away into the drain below.

Immediately, Ranma's chi went to work to fix the damage. The blood started to clot, the wound started to heal normally.

Well, normally for Ranma at least.

With the most serious wound taken care of, Nabiki passed to the small ones here and there on Ranma's body. Several of their classmates would have assumed something perverted would be running through the mind of either Ranma and Nabiki at this point, but that was hardly the case.

Nabiki had an aesthetic (and financial) appreciation for Ranma's female form, but no more. Meanwhile, Ranma was not anywhere near interested in doing anything like that with his female form. Maybe a few years down the line, a bit of experimentation might have occurred, but currently, neither had even thought of it, much less tried it.

"Whew," Ranma said, as the last of the blessings was cleared. "That feels a lot better."

Nabiki took a deep breath and, face looking down with twitching eyebrows, she slammed the palm of her hand into Ranma's forehead.

"Be more careful with yourself!" Nabiki snapped before standing up and starting to walk out. She hesitantly paused and added something, an afterthought even obvious to Ranma. "Think about what happens to me!"

"Errr...thanks," Ranma called out after the departed vampiress, recognizing the veins of fear running through Nabiki, a little for herself, but mostly for Ranma. The part-time girl wisely chose not to respond to the rather light smack in the head in consideration of that.

"Now, hold still Ranma," Kasumi said as she came in with the first aid kit. "This won't take long."

She set down a bottle of blood. Ranma picked it up and stared at it, blinking in confusion.

"Since when does blood come in brands?" she asked, pointing to the colorful label that looked similar to a soda brand the martial artist liked to drink.

"Hmm, bit of creative labeling on my part," Kasumi said.

Ranma stared at her as she cut a bandage out of the cloth.

"By the way, Ranma," Kasumi said. "Will you be needing a cape for your wedding?"

"A what?" Ranma asked, blinking.

Alucard couldn't trace Ranma's path, unfortunately, which left him only one little avenue of entertainment.

"Well, well," Alucard said as he approached where the priest was nailed to the floor. "The vaunted paladin defeated by a slip of a girl."

by The Demented Redhead

Alucard smirked at the fallen paladin still impaled to the ground. It was at this distance that the No-Life King noticed a little something special that the New Blood had done, unseen by him, yet discovered soon by the Judas Priest himself when he tried to rise.

He was pretty much stuck. The blades used to impale him to the ground had been bent outward slightly, making it much more difficult to rise off them, and all but impossible unless you either removed them, or tore your body away from them.

Very painful, either way. Yes, the New Blood was proving quite enjoyable to watch, even after he s/he had finished.

Anderson merely glared at his arch nemesis, if such a word could be used to describe their interactions. "So, the harlot doth consort with the enemies of the Lord."

"Wrong again, Judas Priest," smirked Alucard, wishing that his Zamboni was nearby. After all, how often did he get such a prime opportunity to test his ... additions? "The New Blood and his woman are not part of Hellsing. Though I must admit, the fact he did this to you, humiliating you as if you were but a pup instead of a feared dog of your supposed God... Ah, he is truly impressive.

"Or is it a she now? Hmm, such an interesting specimen, this New Blood is."

Anderson merely growled, before failing once again to lift himself off his own bayonets, before collapsing back to the ground. "I shall see her dead for this!"

"Oh," smirked Alucard, walking over to the torn collar, picking it up. "I wonder which hurts more: the damaged pride for such a young one to have defeated you so easily, the fact that it was a she at the time, or that she showed more humanity in her state than you."

"She shall burn in the fiery pits of Hell for her acts, for her siding with the enemies of the Lord!"

Alucard's smile disappeared, as he stared at the enraged priest. "You're no fun when you're like this," he said, turning away, collar still in hand. "I think I'll take my piece and go," he smirked, waving the collar as he vanished.

"After all," said the disembodied voice, "you don't need it anymore."

Anderson screamed out in rage, before he began to viciously jerk, trying to tear himself loose from the blades. "The demoness will pay for this."

"About time you came back."

Setsuna sighed as she and Hotaru returned to their civilian forms. "I didn't think you would need me, Princess."

"We need information," glared Rei, "and we need it now!"

"And what would that be?" said Setsuna, as she took a seat, Hotaru sitting on the floor, between her legs. "Would you like to know of Hellsing, Iscariot, Millennium, the Nightbane, the new types, or the winning lottery numbers for tomorrow?"

"Lotto?" asked Usagi.

"Not now," growled Rei.

"Setsuna," said Mamoru, "we really need to know."

"All you need to know is that because of who and what we are, we are the farthest targets from the minds of those who seek ill will towards all," said Setsuna. "Several Wards in Tokyo were not used for bases, because of those like us, who would present a ... bad return on such investments."

"You act like they consider it a business," said Haruka.

"War is always a business to some," said Setsuna. "And while we may not approve of their allies, those like Hellsing serve a purpose. Sometimes, you must face an enemy as the enemy, fire against fire, and all that."

"Nightbane?" asked Ami, as the image on her computer switched to the plant-based semi-youma.

"A race far older than any of us," said Setsuna. "And must I remind you that not all allies will look completely human? I don't see you blasting Luna or Artemis because they aren't full humans."

"Tempted to sometimes," growled Minako, remembering a few mistakes her advisor had made.

"That doesn't explain who ... or what, they are," said Rei.

"Think mutants from the X-men movies, and you're very close," said Setsuna. "Though there is far more involved than some very mythical genes that grant such powers."

"You mean like Sailor Crystal?" asked Hotaru with a smirk.

Setsuna sighed. "Okay, you have me there."

"Did Setsuna admit ... a mistake?" asked Michiru.

"WAH!" cried Makoto. "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

Setsuna sighed. "I am capable of making mistakes."

"Like trying to kill me," said Hotaru, reading a magazine.

"Yeah, that was a big one," muttered Minako.

"So what do we do?" asked Haruka, trying to get everything back on track. She wanted to go kick some ass, not debate on how if Setsuna was wrong, the world had to end.

"A cape," said Kasumi. "I'm not really certain what vampires get married in, and Nabiki says Goths don't have it right."

Ranma continued to blink, even as Kasumi began to wrap her wounds. Not that they needed it now, but it was probably better to have it done this way, then somehow run across something that would open them back up. "And why am I getting married again?"

"Because it is improper for you and Nabiki to be ... intimate ... outside of marriage."

"Um..." started Ranma, trying to figure out what to say.

"It won't be anytime soon, my son," said Nodoka, entering the furo, and silencing Kasumi. "Unless of course the pitter-patter of little feet is on the way. Then it'll be the next minute after the tests come back."

Ranma baulked at that. "K-k-kids?"

"Yes, my son," smiled Nodoka, as Kasumi decided to stay quiet and finish up her bandaging. "I may relent on several issues of tradition, but I shall not have a bastard child born into our line when you can be married."

Kasumi sighed. She really wished Nodoka wasn't so ... liberal at times.

"Um ... okay," said Ranma, nodding silently, and promising to find out quickly what Cologne would tell her about the possibility of her and Nabiki having a child. No way in Hell am I ready for marriage! She thought there was some law Nabiki had mentioned, saying that he couldn't even legally wed until he was eighteen. But then again, that was before they had become ... semi-undead. So, she wasn't sure how reliable it was.

"Now drink your blood and get some sleep," said Nodoka, saying a line she had never once considered saying as 'motherly advice'. "Akane called while you were being helped by Nabiki. Apparently, they escaped with Ryoga, but they somehow ended up on the other side of Tokyo. They'll be here in an hour or so, depending on the train schedule. Apparently, there was a toxic leak at some lab close to the lines, and they have to divert a lot of the trains until they can clean it up."

Ranma sighed as she rubbed her head. "So I got cut up ... for nothing?"

"Well, you did find Konatsu-chan," said Kasumi. "And tomorrow, the two of you can go pick up Ukyo-san. She's requested to stay here for a bit. And we're hopeful that Nabiki can heal her too."

Ranma slowly nodded. Yeah, getting Ukyo out of here quickly was probably a good idea.

by Thrythlind

Setsuna sat down, clearing some space for her seat as she gathered herself to face the demand for knowledge put before her. Her simple answer of X-Men was not going to go over strong enough to satisfy the people that she had to admit she was supposed to answer to.

"You wish to know what I know about the situation," Setsuna said calmly, the silent looks she got were clear enough.

Sighing she started again with the explanation.

Setsuna explained, casually and with seemingly little concern, her own people's expulsion from their own dimension. How their allies, the Formless Ones had stayed out of the war until it was too late to help them.

How the leader of the time took them to this realm and further to the planet of Pluto, where the weak sun seemed most similar to their own homeland, bringing some of their most powerful artifacts with them.

Thus was the Pluto Kingdom established.

Some centuries later, Serenity united most of the Solar System under her rule and was about to bring the Earth Kingdom into the empire by marriage when the civil war broke it apart after a thousand years of peaceful imperialism.

Meanwhile, Setsuna had survived the battle and inherited the mantle of Sailor Pluto, princess of a now dead vassal kingdom to a dead empire.

As a much younger senshi, Setsuna was looking through the Time Gates and stumbled upon the likely future of some sorcerer kings that were doomed to become a great evil that served the same power that had ruined her homeland. They would further destroy what life remained in her people's ancient home, the home she had bare memories of.

Setsuna had reacted by assassinating all the future "Night Lords" she could find. As a result, she had prevented the event that would create the half-breed race known as the Nightbane. She had assumed she'd made it impossible for whatever empowered the Formless Ones to enter the human genome until she first discovered what Kodachi Kuno was.

The Senshi of Time kept the fact that, while she still considered it the correct decision, she did regret that she had not thought the choice through. She still thought that she would have chosen to do it, but the truth was that it had cut off a lot of future potentials.

"The important matter, for us," Setsuna clarified seriously. "Is not the vampires. The important matter is Kodachi Kuno."

"She's just one girl," Haruka said. "What's so important about her?"

"If she turns against us," Setsuna said. "We will be at war with her for more than eight hundred years before one side is shone to be the victor."

"More reason to kill her now before she gets powerful," Haruka said.

"On the other hand, she and her people could give us a lot of aid and be excellent fighters against certain destructive powers," Setsuna said.

Hotaru nodded enthusiastically at that, bringing to Venus's mind the youngest Senshi's close call with Pharaoh 90.

"Isn't it better to be safe than to be sorry?" Michiru asked.

"When did you two have your encounter with her?" Venus asked, a nasty suspicion forming in her mind.

"About three months ago," Haruka said. "Why?"

"That was about the same time she started showing up in the Time Gates when I decided to peek ahead on the future of the Senshi," Setsuna noted with a tired nod.

Michiru had the wherewithal to appear embarrassed, but Haruka looked as if she hadn't caught the implication.

"So, should we press this girl then?" Makoto asked.

"No, that might drive her away," Setsuna said. "I am handling the situation with due care."

by The Demented Redhead

Ranma slowly came to, cursing her lessened sleeping habits. It wasn't too bad, in the simple fact that by needing less sleep, she could both get more training done, and avoid waking up either in the air on the way to the koi pond, or by Akane being upset at having to wait for her to get up.

On the downside, it also meant that you had more free time to be bored. After all, reading Kasumi's school textbooks to figure out what she was missing from her education could be done quickly when one knew speed reading and had a very good memory.

And if you were sharing the bed with anyone—her mother had once again insisted that her and Nabiki share the same bed again—it often led to you not wanting to move for fear of waking up the one person of you who wasn't a morning person.

Said Tendo was currently cuddling against her side, hugging tightly enough to keep close, but not enough that it might aggravate any wounds that were still healing.

Ranma looked down at her formerly brown head, sighing more to herself than anyone else. It had taken her a while, but she finally understood what had frightened Nabiki so.

In everything, they were basically almost all that the other had. She taught her how to fight, how to survive...

How to stay sane...

To even consider losing that sort of lifeline, that couldn't have been pleasant; especially when Nabiki saw Konatsu helping her over the wall.

And to add insult, thanks to the Old Letch's stupid attempt to own Ranma, Nabiki was now very dependant on her to maintain her sanity. If she was dead, that was as good as a death sentence to the middle Tendo as well.

No, it was not good.

One to protect the other, the other to protect the one. That about summed it up. They had to protect each other. In the end, that was all they had.

And Kami-sama knew how long they would live barring unforeseen poetry-spouting idiots. Apparently, they were everywhere, if the false priest was any indication.

She flinched a bit, as someone seemed to hold her tighter. She was about to try and pry Nabiki loose, when she spotted ... a second pair of arms.

Oh Gods, no!

Sure enough, when she turned slightly, she spotted Azusa on the other side, holding tightly, and her face scrunched up, having a nightmare.

Why the hell won't she leave me alone?

She really had no clue why the little klepto insisted on staying with them; most likely out of fear from the attack, or simply because she had nowhere else to go.

Then again, the girl probably had more enemies than Genma Saotome, so there was a chance she was hiding from them.

And add to that the fact that she seemed to be relating to everyone now as if they were characters from some weird American show...

Yes, she was quickly wearing out her welcome.

But what could she do: toss her out on the street? Who knew who or more likely what was after her. No, she just couldn't do something like that.

Well... Maybe. Give it time. She grabbed anything on Ranma's body, she'd be out in a heartbeat.

"You know, Love," said Seras, as she put down her binoculars, "if you keep staring at me like that, you're face will freeze like that."

Ayako just continued to glare. "I don't trust the undead," she growled out, fingering the hilt to her sword.

"Believe it or not," said Seras, "it has been my experience that the real world doesn't always work the way we expect it to."

"You sure you won't suck our blood?" asked Azusa-2.

Seras sighed. "What part of 'no' didn't you get?" she asked. Really, was the girl that clueless? Did the Japanese hunt for such ill-educated girls to give powers to?

In the Tsukino home, a certain moon-cat sneezed.

"It has been my experience that demons of any sort are not to be trusted," said Ayako.

"Love, maybe you should read up on human history a bit more," commented Seras, picking up her binoculars, as they continued their surveillance on a possible FREAK factory. "Hell, pick up a bloody newspaper. The truth is that the difference between a human and a demon is ... nothing. Humans are just as capable of being cruel, evil, murderous, and every single crime you could accuse a demon of. And just like humans, there are good ones, and there are evil ones."

"You expect me to swallow that?"

"May I remind you that almost everyone working for Millennium was a human at first?" Seras turned back towards her. "Listen girl, I don't really care if you like me or not. Don't really care what you fucking do after this job. But you will work with me, or I'll have your ass sent back to your clan, and I guarantee they won't be happy when APD rejects their help because of your poor work ethic."

"Really?"

"Really, little girl," smirked Seras. "After all, what does it say about you when a supposed monster like me has more humanity than you?"

Azusa-2 stayed quiet, watching the interplay, and wishing that she hadn't forgotten her snacks. She was so hungry right now!

by Thrythlind

Kodachi yawned as she stepped out of her room, grabbing the T-shirt that she'd acquired the previous day and slipping it over her body before grabbing a pair of urban fatigues to go with them up over her legs and to her waist. For the moment, her long, black hair was undone, as she had not bothered to re-do her ponytail after washing up the night before.

That would come later, maybe not today. The Black Rose just wanted to relax today and, much as she liked her ponytail, she flat didn't want to deal with that today.

The Hellsing badge on the t-shirt was clear, standing over her heart. The British had given her a small handful of spare clothes. The blonde woman had frowned as she noticed Kodachi leaving with the small bundle, but hadn't made any comment.

Kodachi certainly understood that the woman wouldn't want these things out among the public. Kodachi herself didn't want to wear them much, afraid that they'd mark her as a target for people that would recognize the symbols. However, she didn't plan on being out today, and she didn't want to waste her nice clothes when no one would see them.

Not anymore at least.

It was ridiculous, she'd decided last night, to wear her kimonos, gowns, dresses and school uniforms everywhere and for every occasion. She'd done some quick accounting in her head and realized that she'd had to replace on average ten gorgeous and expensive outfits every year without anyone aside from Sasuke and her brother ever seeing her wear them.

That was just wasteful. Aesthetically and economically.

Even if the clothes did not come out of her allowance.

There was no harm, she thought, in wearing the T-shirt and fatigues around her own home if she stayed in her wing. All she had to do was make a quick dash across the general rooms to the kitchen for some breakfast and then back to her rooms.

There was no way at all that her brother would see her, busy, as he would always be at this time, with training. Which of course meant that there would be no intruders into the no-man's land where she and her brother pretended to be civil to each other.

So she thought as she descended into the main entry hall and started to skip ahead to the kitchens beyond.

Kodachi stopped as a tall, foreboding man stepped in front of her. She froze and watched as his eyes wandered to the Hellsing symbol on her modest chest. Blood like ice flowed through her veins as she stepped back from the man and the twisted smile that grew on his mouth as his eyes came up to hers.

The nightbane heard motion behind her and turned to see a black woman there, lounging disrespectfully atop the couch her mother had spent so much time in crafting and appraising Kodachi carefully and completely. The same crafty recognition and hungry gaze rested in the woman's eyes.

Kodachi felt that she was being sized up for a meal. Had she had more experience, she would have suspected an almost sexual lust behind the looks, but her only romantic experience aside from her pursuit of Ranma were cheap romantic mangas that rarely got beyond exaggerated poses of men dipping extravagantly clothed women to the ground before cutting to black.

In any case, despite her intellectual assertion that she should probably be able to handle the both of these two, Kodachi felt scared.

A flash of an image blinked through Kodachi's mind. An image of two black cobras circling around her.

These two were Nag and Nagaina.

No, worse, for the cobras of Kipling's tale had acted out of fear for their lives and these two didn't seem to understand what fear was.

It didn't matter.

They were snakes.

And she wasn't Rikki Tikki Tavi. That was as clear to her as anything else.

"You must be Kuno-san's sister," the black woman said, still approaching with a sway. "I didn't expect you to be so disheveled."

"I haven't had time for my morning toilet yet," Kodachi replied carefully.

"That must explain it," the woman said. "You must be wondering who we are."

"Not really," Kodachi said haughtily. "I knew my brother was hiring demon slayers."

"So you know what we are then," the large man said, inciting another step backwards from Kodachi. "Not who we are."

The woman was almost to her now, and Kodachi felt the rising sensation that she shouldn't let the black woman touched her. That if the woman reached her, then she wouldn't see daylight for a long, long time. But she was frozen in a combination of fear, stress and confusion: the result of the past few days building up without a fool and proper release.

She didn't hear what the woman was saying, only watched that hand get closer to her skin. It was in the last instant that she moved, snapping past the big man and making for the kitchen.

"Just stay out of my way," Kodachi snapped bitterly as she bullied her way to the kitchen. To herself she added quietly. "Maybe I'll go out after all today."

Behind her the two sociopaths came together and watched her leave.

"She's not human," Theone declared to her partner eagerly. "And I don't know that the client cares if she vanishes either."

by The Demented Redhead

In a dark area, nestled within the safety of cyberspace, a scene was playing out that eerily resembled the SEELE meetings within Neon Genesis: Evangelion. But unlike those scenes, within a center of the blank non-descript towers, stood a video image, currently playing Kodachi's destruction of the FREAK lab.

"These new entities, they are proving most ... intriguing."

"What are our designs for them?"

"Unknown, there are none resembling the plant-type female within the databases."

"And the ones with those of Hellsing?"

The screen switched again, showing two new vampires, going over the scene, before the video froze.

"This was the last video footage we were able to obtain before we were forced to severe our link to the lab, lest it be discovered."

"Alucard seems most interested with the male."

"The others seem very interested with the female."

"Opinions?"

"They need to be studied further."

"Samples must be obtained if possible."

"Agreed," said a female voice, more authoritative than the monotone voices from the other spires. "Capture of these two is a priority."

"Should we set up a base within Nerima?"

"Nerima?" asked the female voice.

"We have not placed any in that Ward."

"The possibility of profit in that area was deemed a negative."

"Risks were too high."

"We believe these two may be the rumored ones in that area that are eliminating any of the converted who encroach there."

"The fabled Lady in White and the Phantom that we have been hearing about."

"I see," said the female voice.

The screen changed once again, focusing on the new male vampire. "He is the sire of the new female. His capture is of high priority."

"The female?"

"She is also of high importance," said the female. "Hellsing and the revised APD are interested in her. We will learn why."

"And the new breed?"

"Capture if possible, terminate if necessary. She is ... a possible new interest we can use and study."

"Understood," rang out the reply, as the female's spire faded away.

"She has spoken."

"Her will must be done."

"Prepare to send the Doctor to Tokyo. His presence will soon be required."

"He will ask for a reason. He will not want to leave his current work."

"Show him this footage, and inform him of Her desires."

"He will only follow Her will."

"So let it be."

Konatsu sat in the lotus position inside the Tendo Dojo, having left Ryoga inside the Saotome bedroom with Genma earlier that night.

He had things to focus on; namely the two who had ... injured ... Ukyo-sama. No, such an affront to his Mistress could not be ignored.

They had attacked with intent to kill. He was certain of that much when he had happened upon the 'trap' they had set up to capture the three girls. Ukyo-sama was only alive by the good graces of the Kami. As a ninja, he had been well trained in what it took to eliminate a human life.

His anger was only further enlarged when he found the warehouse that the attackers had taken their victims. It was obviously a trap.

He would have to warn Ranma-sama about them. It would seem it had been set for him. As such, they would most likely try again. Perhaps attacking even here, when Ukyo-sama was recuperating, or even at her restaurant, should they deem a fiancée might make a suitable hostage.

He would have to inform Ranma-sama of this.

But first, he too had to prepare. Tonight, the hunters would be the hunted.

Unsheathing his sword, the pseudo-kunoichi looked at the gleam it made in the light of the moon. "They have drawn first blood and attacked. I must ensure that they learn of what folly they have created in attacking my Mistress and her associates.

"Her honor must be avenged," said the ninja, resheathing his sword. "Their time is limited."

by Thrythlind

Seras flinched as she caught the edge of the approaching dawn on the horizon, with a bit of reluctance she stepped backward into the doorway of the roof, leaving Ayako and her apprentice to continue the research.

Ayako paused for a moment, looking up from her binoculars to watch the vampire leaving the scene reluctantly. She glanced Azusa-2 then and gestured silently. The younger girl looked at Ayako in sheer disbelief as she virtually moped into the doorway to follow the vampire woman.

"What are you doing?" Seras asked suspiciously as the spear-wielding girl just about stumbled to a stop behind her.

"Mistress Ayako has ordered me to guard you while the sun remains up," Azusa-2 explained. "Don't worry, I give my word as a devil-hunter that I will do nothing while you rest other guard you."

"Uh huh," Seras said reluctantly before she continued to take the walk down the stairs toward the coffin they had secured for her in the basement of this building.

Up on the roof, Ayako continued to watch people come and go from the taxi company. Privately, Ayako was now wondering just why she had decided to listen to Yohko about coming down here. Yohko was the diplomat, not her, Yohko was the one that had peacefully dealt with non-humans, not her.

Yohko was the right one for this job.

Of course, that meant Yohko had to stay where she was, since this kind of situation hit regularly around her. In fact, a lot more Yohko's encounters had been more discussion of late and less battle. Not that it was dulling her edge from what Ayako had heard.

Still the devil-hunter wished she could just deal of this as any other supernatural enemy, kill it and move on, even if she knew that that wasn't the way to behave.

A frown crossed her face that would have had Seras briefly feeling sorry for anyone unfortunate enough to be around when the vengeful Mano was unleashed.

by The Demented Redhead

Kodachi entered her chambers, breath elevated, as she tried to deal with the mental images that the mercenaries her brother had hired, and their appearance before her.

No matter what, she knew that Kuno Estate was not going to be safe for her much longer. "Sasuke?"

"Yes, Mistress," said the faithful retainer, popping up from below the floor.

"Do you perchance know how much of my brother's monthly allowance has been spent on those ... people?" she growled out.

"I believe a little over half," said Sasuke.

"Inform the bank of what my brother's monthly limit is. I do not wish our family to be bankrupted by his obsession with what he fails to understand."

"Understood, Mistress."

Kodachi nodded. "Also, see if we own any empty properties closer to the Tendo Dojo, two bedrooms if possible."

"Seven."

She turned to look at him strangely. "My brother again?"

Sasuke nodded. "He was looking for places that he would nobly offer both Akane Tendo and the 'pigtailed girl' so that they could 'escape the vile presence of the demented sorcerer.'"

"Please tell me he doesn't own them outright."

"They are owned by the Kuno Corporation. I thought it would be better for a tax write-off," said Sasuke.

Kodachi sighed. They really would be lost without their faithful retainer. "Choose one that you feel would best serve our interests and needs, and begin having my things as well as your own moved there. I would not trust sleeping within these walls anymore."

"But what of your pet?" asked Sasuke.

"... The Tokyo Zoo has often asked to borrow my dear Mr. Turtle for their exhibits and breeding purposes. I believe now would be the best time to do so. I shall not allow my dear pet to remain here for those gaijin mercenaries to use for their own whims."

Sasuke nodded, as he disappeared to begin preparations.

Kodachi sighed as she prepared to get dressed, spotting her new daily allowance on her desk, more than she suspected.

"I must hurry if I am to arrive at the arcade in time to continue my research."

Nabiki slowly opened her eyes, finding her face currently resting on the wrapped chest of her Master/Mistress.

There was nothing sexual about it for the moment. And while she might want to try her Mistress's form later on—either much later or after much alcohol—this was not that time.

Ranma was safe, healed, and sufficiently rebuked for her carelessness last night.

And most likely going to ignore it and do it again if need be.

I wonder if this is what Ranma's feels when I'm fighting.

She closed her eyes, silently forcing back the dark possibilities of what could be the results of serious injuries, back into her mind.

"Time to get up, Nabiki," came the quiet voice of her Mistress. "We both need to get some practice in."

Sighing at the loss of not only more allowed cuddle time, but of practice that she knew was going to be tough, she slowly opened her eyes, removing her head from the quiet heart beat that had begun to lull her back to sleep. "Feeling better, are we?"

Ranma slowly nodded. "I think they're all healed. But I still want to get some katas out to see how bad things are now."

Nabiki nodded. "We also need to call in to APD and see if they require us for anything."

Ranma slowly nodded. She knew that Nabiki would likely need another 'fix' sometime today, and if she did, it would be best if business was out of the way.

Sadly, Ranma found herself unable to get up from the bed.

"Mmm, Angel," murmured Azusa, as she clung to, as her hands began to dip south.

Ranma's eyes shot wide. "PERVERT!" she cried, smacking Azusa's arms.

"Owie," muttered the girl, sitting up and rubbing the now forming bruise. "What happened?"

Nabiki's hands began to crack, as she fought the urge to simply rip the girl's throat out for trying to feel up her Mistress ... even if she didn't want to.

by Thrythlind

Only an hour or so earlier than the first time Ranma woke up, and Kodachi had her first run-in with her brother's mercenaries.

Kasumi came out of the furo clean, dressed and ready to begin her day, despite all the craziness that had been suffusing the area of late. As she reveled in the early morning silence of the Tendo household, Kasumi virtually skipped through the hallways.

Right until she found Akane in the hallway, not an unusual place for the other sister in early mornings, but Akane wasn't getting ready for her run like Kasumi would have expected her to be. Instead she was hanging outside Nabiki's room hesitantly.

Inside, Kasumi could hear the sound of the occupants within breathing quietly. There hadn't been any outcry yet, which meant that neither Ranma nor Nabiki had noticed that Azusa had snuck in the night before.

Kasumi sighed, whether at the skater's juvenile behavior or her sister's was not immediately obvious.

"Akane," Kasumi said reluctantly, looking to the door uncertainly and then back toward her younger sister. "Akane...we should...we should talk...before you talk to Ranma and Nabiki again."

"What's going on?" Akane asked helplessly. "Am I losing them too?"

by The Demented Redhead

Akane stood at the counter top, Kasumi beside her, as both nursed some fresh made hot chocolate.

"You still care for Ranma, don't you, Akane-chan," said Kasumi.

"That jerk," Akane growled out, but her anger seemed more forced than real.

Kasumi sighed. "Ranma-kun won't stay waiting forever for you to admit your feelings," said Kasumi, as she lowered her cup.

"Well, if he has any for me, why won't he just stop messing around with the other girls and just admit it?" Akane asked.

"Why must he admit it first?" asked Kasumi.

"Because ... because that's the way it is," said Akane. "Boys are supposed to admit it first, and then the girl does."

"But Ranma-kun isn't one to follow those types of rules," admitted Kasumi. "After all, who would have taught him those rules?"

Akane opened her mouth, but silently closed it, as no answer came forward. "Does that mean Nabiki did admit her feelings to him?" she asked sadly.

"I'm not really certain what they ... share ... is that deep," said Kasumi with a slight blush.

"So they're just getting their jollies and making me feel bad, all at once?" growled Akane.

"Not at all," quickly said Kasumi. "It is just that Nabiki needs to be ... intimate ... with Ranma-kun because of a mistake by Grandfather Happosai."

Akane blinked owlishly. "A mistake? How does the need to have sex equal a mistake?"

Kasumi sighed, as she explained what Ranma and Nabiki had informed her of on her way back from Ukyo's.

Akane could only stare with wide eyes as Kasumi wrapped up that story.

"So since Nabiki-chan doesn't want to end up with her mind warped even further, she needs to be ... intimate ... with Ranma-kun. Otherwise, the drug will drive her insane."

"I ... I didn't know that," quietly admitted Akane. As much as her ego wanted to say that Ranma had to have had some hand in it, her heart wouldn't let her.

Kasumi nodded. "Knowing this, do you still want to pursue Ranma-kun?" she asked. "After all, it is doubtful that this ... condition of Nabiki-chan's will disappear anytime soon."

Akane opened her mouth, but closed it once again, words that were waiting to be spoken, once again finding the will not enough to be heard. So, her mind seized onto one another burning issue, hoping to find some support in it. "But what about Azusa?"

"Oh," said Kasumi. "Well, I think she's just a little traumatized from her near-death experience at the hands of those ghouls we saw on the video. I think one was her former teammate, but the authorities said he died at the school. So I can't be sure.

"Anyway, she seems to have latched onto Ranma-kun, Nabiki-chan, and that American vampire show to deal with her fears about what she encountered. I'm sure that she'll work through it."

Akane slowly nodded. So maybe the pervert Ranma wasn't sleeping with that skater, nor was he sleeping with Nabiki because he really wanted to, but because it was sort of like medicine for her.

That meant ... if she had the cure for Nabiki, then he wouldn't need to sleep with her anymore. And without the sex, surely she could win him back. Right?

"Kasumi," said Akane, "when is Grandfather Happosai returning from his trip?"

Kasumi blinked. Oh, she must want to talk to Grandfather about what he did. That's nice of her. He should get such a stern talking to after that. "I think he's due back today. He said he needed to go to some convention in the south."

Akane nodded, her knuckles cracking already. I'll beat the cure out of him, and Ranma will be so grateful, he'll admit how he really feels about me! He'll even see that I'm not as weak as he thinks I am!

Kasumi smiled as she saw her sister's mood brighten. It was always so nice when she could help her family feel better.

Of course, she still needed to talk to her father when he woke up. Trying to cut Uncle Genma like that was just wrong. Doesn't he know how hard it is to get blood off the floors?

by Thrythlind

Azusa-2 shuffled about nervously as the object of her mistress's order yawned and lounged in the long, simple box that Hellsing had set up in the building for her.

The vampire was drinking blood out of a medical bag with a look on her face that suggested tolerance more than appreciation. Azusa-2 nervously wondered if live-blood was more to Seras' preference.

"You're a rookie," Seras noted casually.

"I...I'm sorry?" Azusa-2 asked, shuffling on her feet.

"Just making an observation," Seras said. "I was the same myself not long ago. Could barely bring myself to put bullet in the head of a FREAK that still looked human."

"Well, that was before you became a vampire, I guess," Azusa-2 said.

"Actually," Seras said. "It was about two weeks after. I do believe that the Lady was considering having me terminated as useless."

Azusa-2 paused before answering.

"I just wasn't trained for this," Azusa-2 commented. "Grammy Mano trained us to face other Devil Hunters mostly."

Seras perked at that.

"And why is that?" the young vampire asked.

"Because it...um...was my mistress's destiny to take the place of Yohko Mano as Devil Hunter and bearer of the devil-slaying sword," Azusa-2 said, embarrassed.

"Didn't I hear that this Yohko person sent you here?" Seras asked.

"My cousin and I have resolved our differences," Ayako said, entering the room with a cold glare at Azusa-2. "For the moment, she is the best suited to head the clan. More importantly, there is movement at the target and I'm going to try to pull some information out."

"You're going in early?" Seras asked, concerned and moving to exit the coffin.

"Don't concern yourself," Ayako said. "I have a few powers in my arsenal that my cousin would never deign to touch. I'm not going in. Azusa, you might want to take watch position upstairs for now, the vampire will have to fend for herself."

The sleek, odango-wearing woman smirked darkly at Azusa-2 and Seras as she walked out of the door.

"What's she talking about?" Seras asked.

Azusa-2 blushed and said nothing.

Toshio stretched as he left the building on his lunch break. There was something weird going on today, a lot of filing and refiling, checking computer memory and sorting. Some corporate efficiency expert was coming in to investigate the situation. It was probably going to mean some firings in the upper staff. Hopefully not much else, but the rank and file often ended up suffering in these things too.

They seemed especially interested in night shift, though, so he was safe, he thought.

"Excuse me, sir," a shadowy, sultry voice breathed from a shadow around the corner. "Can you help me out with something?"

Toshio turned about and met the eyes of a young temptress. Immediately, his will faded out of his eyes, replaced with a dazed look of longing that answered only to the girl before him and the unspoken promise her sleek and dark form promised.

"What do you want?" he asked, trying to avoid swallowing as he did so.

"Can you come with me somewhere?" she asked, smiling as the man was already nodding. "Good, this will be...fun."

The black-painted lips parted briefly as a tongue passed over them and the slim teenager led her enspelled victim along for a short question and answer session.

Ayako would get as much information as the man carried.

Ayako finally walked back into the building after Seras wasn't sure how long. There was a satisfied look on her face as she moved into the coffin room.

"They're trying to get rid of the files under cover of an efficiency expert," Ayako said. "We'll have to move as soon as you're ready."

"I can move now," Seras promised.

"Then I'll get Azusa, and we'll move," Ayako noted.

"How did you get this information?" Seras asked. "And why were you gone so long?"

"I'm sure you understand that some power comes with certain...urges," Ayako said, leaving anything else unsaid as she went upstairs to bring down Azusa-2.

by The Demented Redhead

After glaring at the grabby skater, the two neo-vampires made their way to the furo. Even if they would need a bath after their morning workout anyways, Nabiki wanted to ensure Ranma was healing well. And while it had taken a lot out of her to remove the blessing from the wounds, the long rest had done the both of them good.

The long rest had also allowed the Buffy-obsessed girl to sneak back into Nabiki's room and clutch back onto her gender-switching security blanket once again without either knowing. After all, it wasn't like Azusa's aura would leak killer intent while doing so.

Now, if she would just stop humming that damned song as she washed her hair. Little did they know she was constantly humming the theme to said show she was obsessed about.

Nabiki sighed as the earlier wounds that had only required a light covering from Kasumi were gone, Ranma's healing factor not only repairing the damage, but ensuring no marks or scars would blemish the skin either.

"So far so good," she said, as she continued to unwind the wrappings.

"I definitely feel better," said Ranma, stretching slightly. "At least it isn't tingling anymore." She paused as she looked across from her, glaring at the back of the skater. "Why is she in here again?"

"Little Azusa must protect her Little Angel from bad people!" said Azusa cheerfully.

Nabiki sighed, not really certain if she should feel sorry for the girl stuck in such a dream world, angry that she just wouldn't back off of Ranma, or confused that if she could understand that Ranma was cursed, why couldn't Tatewaki Kuno grasp it.

"When do we have to go pick up Ucchan?" asked Ranma, as another layer of bandage was removed slowly.

"After breakfast," said Nabiki. "The doctor said she requested you, and I'm not about to let you out of my sight today."

Ranma sighed. Sometimes, Nabiki could be such a mother hen. But then again, she was Nabiki's only way to stay sane. Well, that was true until the Old Ghoul came up with some way to shift it to Shampoo, making her the girl who needed Ranma, or found a way to negate it. "Then what?"

"We have her here for a day, wait till she sleeps, and then I heal her," said Nabiki.

Ranma nodded as the last bandage was removed. "Sounds good, since I doubt her with Akane in the same house will go any better than it did the last time." She felt it best not to mention that it was also likely that Shampoo would step up her visits as well.

"No more cuts," said Nabiki, checking where she remembered Ranma's injuries having been.

"Now Angel needs a bath!" smirked the soap-covered Azusa. "Need help washing your back?"

Ranma grimaced as Nabiki's hold tightened on her shoulder. Then again, things were dangerous enough as is. Wasn't like adding another powder keg to the bonfire would be a problem.

by The Demented Redhead

It wasn't like he wanted to be here ... well, here with them all.

Konatsu insisted on coming. And truthfully, Ranma doubted he could put the pseudo-kunoichi down long enough to do otherwise.

So, the four—Ranma, Nabiki, Konatsu, and Azusa—were on their way to Juuban Central Hospital, to pick up Ukyo.

Truthfully, he'd rather be facing a horde of ghouls, false vampires, and the pseudo-priest, than doing this.

Ukyo was hard to categorize for the semi-vampire. She was his friend, but a fiancée. Even then, it was hard to think of her in terms other than "blood brother".

But she persisted in chasing him. And to be honest, he couldn't just tell her off; more from guilt about what she had gone through because of him and his stupid father than anything else. Sure, she was still 'Ucchan', but the abuse of the gifts that came with that title had been increasing lately.

And if she learned about the 'extra curricular activities' he had to do with Nabiki, her reaction was not something that could be predicted.

He also had to now worry about Konatsu. Even though no one else could tell, Ranma was able to sense that the pseudo-kunoichi was prepared for battle. And while Ranma could understand Konatsu wanting to avenge Ukyo, he didn't want to see a decent gender-confused guy get caught in the crossfire by the fools that were trying to target the semi-vampires.

No, they needed to protect innocents. No matter what, he knew he was going to have to set Konatsu down and have a frank talk with him. Someone had already been hurt, nearly killed, by rushing out to face things they weren't ready for. They made foolish assumptions, and assumed one major mistake: that the world worked like it had before the trouble started.

Even he wasn't stupid enough before he became "The Phantom" to believe life outside of Nerima Ward was just like the inside. If anything, it was much darker than they were used to, and others out there played at Saffron's field: kill or be killed.

No, Konatsu might very well need to be brought into the fold, before he too became a casualty in this new war.

And then he had more news to deal with. Apparently, Ryoga had changed like Kodachi, adding yet another new shift into the Nerima dynamic. So now he had two unknowns that would likely be pressured into the APD. After all, if Japan was looking for their own version of Hellsing, those of the proclaimed "Nerima Wrecking Crew" would be the first tapped.

Of course, the fact it had seemed to cure him of his directional problems for a bit, and changed his Jusenkyo curse a bit, that alone made him a more appealing hire.

But he couldn't forget about Akane; the reason that he had left early to pick up Ukyo. She was fuming about how Ryoga was P-chan, and who knew. And as always, when she confronted the fathers about this, they pointed to him and said that he had known longer than anyone.

And he was not to stay and listen to that for a few hours, or until she tried to hit him. The only reason she was focused on them was because for some reason, Ryoga had disappeared that morning, having gone the entire night without getting lost.

No, he simply told her he had both given his word to Ryoga he wouldn't reveal his curse—since it was a weakness that could be used against him—and he had dropped more than enough clues to let her know. The fathers on the other hand, had no such thing to keep them quiet, no honor on the line.

Her attention diverted, he finished eating and darted away, as Akane began to lash out at the two older men, Nodoka beside her, waving a sword at the fathers' "complete lack of care for their innocent girl".

Azusa? She just wouldn't leave them alone, even after nearly being knocked unconscious by Nabiki when she had tried to feel up Ranma.

Now that was a talk he was not looking forward to. Maybe I can get Kasumi to talk to her. She was always better with talking to people than me.

"I wonder how Ukyo got to Minato Ward?" asked Nabiki.

"Perhaps Ukyo-sama may answer that, or the doctors who treated her," said Konatsu. He too had been wondering how Ukyo was taken to a hospital over two wards away, when the trap had been set on the other side of Nerima.

Azusa stayed quiet, sitting on the other side of Ranma, opposite of Nabiki, as she held onto his arm. She didn't like being out like this, so many people around her. It reminded her too much of the incident; scary people who might come after her. But as long as she stayed near her Angel, she'd be safe.

She just wished Spike wasn't so mean. Maybe Spike's just jealous that I touched Angel but I didn't touch Spike, she wondered, her thoughts trying to steer away from the fear of being among so many people.

Ukyo sat in her bed, waiting for the nurse to finish her exam so she could leave. From what that Doctor Mizuno had written, some people were coming to pick her up.

She just knew Ranchan was among them, probably Konatsu as well.

She still wasn't certain about what was going on with him, nor what had wandered into her life now. But if she was staying there until she healed, she would find out. After all, a quick call from Dr. Mizuno to her father had ensured that things would be okay at her restaurant. He was still upset about the Saotome's, but he did care for his lone child. More than likely, she'd either have him take care of her bills until she got better, or he'd send someone over from his restaurant—probably a new hire that he figured would be a good match for his girl.

Not that it mattered to her. Konatsu could show the new person around, and help her a bit at the Tendo Dojo should she need it. No way was she going to have him stay at her restaurant by himself, not with things wandering around.

I need to get some time with Ranchan, some time that none of those others will interfere with. I'm sure if we talk, he'll explain everything; like why he changed that Ice Queen first before his cute fiancée. Well, not like I want to be an undead ... or a semi-undead, but still...

She forced a smile as the nurse finished the exam, heading off to call the doctor to finish releasing the patient.

Ukyo got off the bed, stretching her back, as she began to pack her things. She'd have a lot to do when she got home with Ranchan.

And when she got better, she'd show those damn foreigners what it means when you attack someone like that. Her hand went to a mini-spatula in her clothes. Oh yes, she'd enjoy showing those fools just what happened when you pissed off a Kuonji.

by Thrythlind

Given the nature of their task here, Seras set aside her sniper cannon. It would be useful if they were found and a battle began, but since they all wanted to get in and out without being noticed, it would be more of a burden than a benefit. For a moment, the vampire glanced enviously towards the devil hunters and their magical bracelets and rings. They at least would be able to call up all of their abilities easily enough, she would have to be satisfied with some easily concealable small arms.

"Now," Seras said. "You say that some of the current employees seem to be civilians unaware of what is afoot."

"That's correct," Ayako said as she gathered herself together.

"We want to keep them unaware and unharmed then," Seras noted.

"Agreed," Ayako said, nodding. "Have we agreed on an access point?"

"The roof," Seras said, taking her turn to nod. "Are you sure we can make the jump?"

"We'll get there," Ayako promised her. "Azusa, do you know what to do?"

"Yes, Ayako-sama," Azusa said eagerly. "I'll keep a sharp eye out, don't worry."

"Then we're on the way," Ayako said as she started up the stairwell to the roof. Seras coming right behind her.

The people on the street did not look up to see the teenager passing over them with a blonde, undead Englishwoman in her hands to pass from building to building before lighting soundlessly on the roof of the deluxe taxi branch under investigation.

"You're stronger than you look," Seras noted as she was set to her feet again and moved to the roof door to check it for security.

"It is something of a requirement," Ayako said as the british woman took out a strange electronic device and attached it to the keypad beside the door.

The device beeped through several routines before the door popped open silently and the two girls walked through the new opening quietly. A quick investigation of the other side of the door proved there was no security measures to prevent anyone from getting out, just coming in.

"No wards," Ayako noted disparagingly. "You'd think an organization able to synthesize demons would place some up."

"Well, we can't always have deviously clever opposition, now can we?" Seras said. "Not everyone is Rommel."

"I suppose that is a good thing," Ayako said. "Now, my info says they've been filing and organizing all sorts of information and documents. I would assume they're gathering together all the pertinent information into one place. Though why they don't just leave it is beyond me."

"They waiting for their masters," Seras said. "They probably hope that they'll be able to trade obedience for immortality and these low FREAKS are very egotistical. They probably don't want anyone else taking over anything that might be even slightly sensitive."

"What you're saying is that this operation is being run by middlemen?" Ayako asked.

"About like that, yes," Seras said. "We've been trying to nail down the people behind this stuff for ages now."

Seras checked around a corner to see if anybody were there. Seeing nobody, Ayako moved past her to the next corner, watching that for Seras to move forward. By silent agreement, they ceased conversation as they proceeded through the building looking for the signs of activity.

It didn't take long for them to come upon a woman furtively sorting through a large stack of papers. The two infiltrators watched her through the large glass windows of the documents office. Behind the woman, on the wall, was a clipboard with papers that both could easily recognize as matching code numbers to location addresses.

Now the question was, should they just get the information originally requested, or try for the whole thing?

by The Demented Redhead

Anderson sat in his room, his shoulders rising and falling. It had been hours since he managed to free himself from the prison the redheaded harridan had placed him in ... with his own bayonets.

He was struggling to maintain control of himself. But after being defeated, humiliated, and finally taunted by the Dog of Hellsing, his nerves were very much frayed.

"Those who strike those delivering the message of the Lord, and carrying out his will, shall be stricken from the Earth," he said.

His mind was now solely focused on the new vampire. The one with healing abilities could wait. He had one he wanted to take down, almost as much as the foul creature that Hellsing had on their leash.

Yes, tonight, he would find his new prey, and show her the mistake of standing against God as he had done.

Akane paced in her room, trying to make a plan for what she needed to do.

She knew that she needed to grab Happosai. If anyone had any idea what he did to Nabiki and Ranma, it would be the letch that started this mess. After all, she wasn't about to go to Cologne and ask for some help. That Amazon would just demand that the Tendo agreement be voided, so Ranma could be taken by Shampoo.

No, she could do this on her own. After all, she was a martial artist.

The problem was how exactly to trap the pervert and keep him from fleeing, until she got the answers she wanted from him.

"I have my underclothes, some boxers from Dad and Uncle Genma, some guy-away patches, and about fifty meters of rope. I should be able to do something with this," she said.

Her mind drifted for a bit, imagining what Ranma would do when she cured him. After all, there would no longer be a need for him to do that with Nabiki after they were cured. And then, once she helped him before fully human once more...

She shook her head, trying to dislodge those dreams. "Can't be thinking like that; I'm still pissed at him for P-chan," she muttered.

Okay, first she would get his cure, then she'd kick his ass for not telling her about P-chan—she had felt pretty good after doing such to the fathers, thus proving she was a pretty good martial artist to defeat both Masters of Anything Goes—and then she'd take him back ... maybe.

She smiled sadly. How can I expect to get him if I can't even admit that I w-w-want him?

Cologne watched as Shampoo and Mousse sparred, preparing for the next hunt, but also preparing for a larger battle. After all, it was her experience that such troubles never ended in a small fight, but an epic battle where the better-prepared, better-experienced, and the better-trained prevailed.

Her results from her study last night also weighed heavily on her mind. While the apparent change that the two had granted them enhancements, those enhancements did not come with an inherent understanding of how they worked. At best, only someone who had trained like Ranma before the change, or trained by either him or a high-level teacher could make the most out of such a transformation.

She still had little in the way of results to tell her if Ranma might be able to change another, as he did the Tendo daughter. For vampires, it usually required the person bit to be a virgin, to make them a vampire, else they became a ghoul.

Did the same apply to Ranma and Nabiki?

She was certain that anyone 'changed' by the two would not be affected by Happi's little screw-up. That stuff only worked on the first partner after infection, and never afterwards. This was at least one blessing.

But it also offered a huge downside. Since the potion had been Amazon made, removing the effects was difficult at best. After all, it had been made to help ensure reluctant males stayed in the village, after they defeated an Amazon Warrior. As such, little if any research was done into negating those effects.

Shampoo may have to become used to the idea that her husband will always have the Tendo girl with him, she mused. After all, after receiving the potion once himself, Ranma would now be immune to it.

There were simply too many unknowns left with which to make a successful plan to ensure Ranma's acceptance of Shampoo. Conversion? Procreation? Allegiance? No, there were simply too many things she still needed to conduct tests for.

I'll call the Dojo after this practice session, and arrange for them to come over, she said, nodding that it was probably for the best that they had shut down this week due to 'needed improvements'. The quicker she got the results, the better off she would be.

WHAM!

The filing woman dropped, a punch to the back of her head sending her to unconsciousness.

"Kind of quick," said Ayako.

Seras nodded. "She'll be out for a while. I suggest we hurry, since they may be delivering another batch to her."

The devil hunter nodded, as she began to gather what sorted files she could find, and stuffed them into a military-style duffle bag.

Seras looked around. The girl had been human, so she had been forced to pull back a lot on that punch, unless she wanted to shatter the girl's head.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should stop such things, she thought.

She shook her head slightly at that. She had witnessed nothing. If anything, the other vampires might very well kill her for this.

Of course, that also meant they might change their structure if they thought they were compromised.

"Ready?" asked Ayako, as she buckled the duffle bag closed, the room stripped bare of most files, the clipboards bare.

"One moment, Love," Seras said, as she prepared some incendiary devices. After all, what could be considered stolen, when the room itself was burning. "We just got to make it look like the sprinkler system failed."

Azusa-2 watched nearby, as smoke began to pour out of a window, the loud fire alarm sounding, as the roof door opened quickly, allowing two female shapes to make it out, and quickly hop to the other buildings, wanting to be far enough away from the chaos, before they made their way back.

"I knew they'd make a great team," she said smiling. Now, if she could only get Ayako to work that well with Yohko.

by Thrythlind

"I can assure you," The One told Kuno. "That neither Ulysses nor myself are enchanted, if we ever were. We merely thought that the demon would come to secure one of his intended victims. We did not expect you to come against us."

"And the brutality of your acquisition of Akane Tendo?" Kuno demanded. "Was that truly of your own conception?"

"If she is truly under the evil one's spell, she would certainly resist," Theone explained. "This was the best way we could find to take her to safety with minimal harm to her."

Kuno appeared to think about this for a moment, the two Americans could almost hear the gears grinding against each other in the process.

"Indeed, such a foul trick it is of the wretched Saotome to insure that his victims seek no aid," Kuno finally decided. "But how is it that we were manipulated to come against each other in such away despite our shared virtuous desires?"

"We have our own theories about enchantment," Theone said.

"And what might these theories be?" Kuno asked.

"Have you noticed anything strange about your sister?" Ulysses asked finally.

Kodachi grimaced as her opponent countered her attack chain and turned the momentum of the fight against her. She took several punishing blows before she could pull a quick tripping sweep at the just the right moment and return the advantage to her own.

For once, she was evenly matched with her opponent and the gymnast was experiencing a slight thrill as she struggled and fought for the privilege of moving on to the next stage and facing the next opponent.

The gymnast stared fixedly at the screen, eyes flashing back and forth as fingers moved to the next command combination, keeping the windows of opportunity in her defense to a bare minimum. Time was almost out. It was her last yen, and, if she lost, her last match.

It didn't take much to tip the balance against her, just a feeling in the back of her mind as of something or someone she knew from another place. As it grew stronger, her offense and focus wavered from the video screen.

Still, all she had to do was hold it the ten seconds left in the match and her higher remaining health would win her the match, but she kept looking over her shoulder. Looking for the source of that feeling.

"You lose," the computer declared suddenly, and Kodachi looked down to see her fighter, still standing, but appearing dejected as her opponent celebrated his own win.

Kodachi folded her arms tightly and started to move around the machine to shake hands with whoever it may have been that defeated her. That is, until the winning fighter moved again and her own character was ruthlessly destroyed, blood and gore staining the field.

"Fatality," the game declared.

"The nerve," she growled. "There was no need to kill my character in such a fashion, I had already lost."

"Never a reason not to," her opponent declared, sticking out a tongue in arrogance before returning to the game to take over where Kodachi had been interrupted.

"Kodachi?" a voice said behind the fuming gymnast, a voice that carried with it that same feeling of familiarity that had distracted her in the first place.

Turning around bitterly, Kodachi fixed her eyes on the large form of one of Ranma-sama's more common rivals and sparring partners.

"Hibiki," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, umm," he said. "I felt something...weird and followed it, what about you?"

"That's odd, I've been feeling something...familiar," Kodachi noted.

by The Demented Redhead

The group sat in the hospital waiting room of Juuban General, waiting for Ukyo to finish up with the last of her release forms, trying to ignore the weird looks that Ranma and Nabiki were getting. Strangely enough, it was Konatsu who was receiving the least attention, looking perfectly normal in his formal kimono. Azusa had to be grabbed quickly on several occasions, to keep from chasing after a piece of medical equipment.

At least she wasn't calling out the name she had given to it now. For the most part, she seemed ... embarrassed ... when they stopped her.

"Are you alright?" asked one doctor, looking over at Ranma.

"I'm fine," said Ranma. "Just being careful about sunlight," he said quickly.

"We have a history of skin cancer in our families," added Nabiki.

"Oh dear, that's sad," said the female doctor. "Well, make sure you keep using sunscreen."

As the doctor walked away, Konatsu sighed. "That was the fifth doctor to inquire about your skin tone, Ranma-sama."

Ranma nodded. "Well, I doubt we look to healthy to them."

Nabiki nodded in agreement. "As long as they don't freak out and call us ... the v-word, we'll be fine. Though I wish Ukyo would hurry up." Truthfully, Nabiki just wanted to wait for the girl to take some medication and fall asleep, so she could try and heal her. That was assuming of course she was a bit of a ... peaceful sleeper, when compared to Ranma, a person trained in Sleep-fu.

Konatsu looked around, trying to remain inconspicuous, in case those who had attacked his Mistress before might try again.

"Kasumi wanted to know if you'd be staying the night," said Ranma, grabbing, Azusa once again, and putting her back in the chair between him and Nabiki, Konatsu to his right.

"I do not wish to be a bother," said the pseudo-kunoichi.

"You ain't," said Ranma with conviction. "Hell, I'd be dead last night if not for you, man. So stop being so troublesome when we're offering you stuff, okay."

Konatsu slowly nodded. "Still..."

"Listen man, you're staying the night at least," said Ranma, before he began whispering. "We just need her to be comfortable until Nabiki can heal her. If ya want, you can come out with us on patrol tonight."

Konatsu's face went emotionless. "I do wish that, Ranma-sama. But I cannot neglect my duties to Ukyo-sama."

"Azusa and Akane will watch her," said Ranma. "And I'll make sure the Old Men stay behind and work for once."

Nabiki snorted. "Are you sure you can keep them from checking out more bars tonight for threats?"

"They will be staying, even if I gotta put them in full-body casts to do it." Ranma felt a tug on his sleeve. "What?" he asked Azusa.

"She's coming," said the skater, pointing to a doctor, wheeling Ukyo along in a wheelchair.

Ranma nodded, as the group stood up. The sooner they got out of there, the better.

"Tell me Hibiki," said Kodachi, as she sat with him in a booth at the arcade, tired of watching him try and figure out which money inside his pouch could be used in Japan, "have you ever seen a world where night is day, the shadows stretch forever, and mirrors float about."

"Several," he said without thinking. Wait; this yen has English on it... No, wait, that's American money...

Kodachi blinked. "Have you ever heard of Nightbane?"

Ryoga paused, as he stared at her. "How...?"

"By a woman of green hair and infuriatingly short answers," said Kodachi, allowing her arm to partially transform before him, the booth providing them with enough privacy to do so.

Ryoga gulped, as he watched her hand resume a human appearance. "How did you...?"

"Practice," said Kodachi. "My change came about because I stepped into a battle I was ill prepared for, it would seem. And ... this," she said, motioning to her arm, "came about as a result. You?"

"Trying to protect Akane from some villains, gaijins, dark skin and lots of weapons," he said with anger in his voice.

Kodachi paled a bit, the description very familiar to the two vipers her brother was currently employing. "Do tell."

When he finished, she was very glad that her stuff would be moved into a new secure location by afternoon.

Akane looked over the traps she had set around the yard, as she prepared to remove her robe. It was a simple plan.

Step 1: remove robe and wear skimpy swimsuit into the yard to sunbathe.

Step 2: perverted letch sees this and tries to glomp, failing to notice guy-away patch.

Step 3: pervert, being rendered weakened by attack, is then covered in dirty boxer shorts from laundry.

Step 4: pummel old pervert until he gives cure for Nabiki.

Step 5: cure sister and take Ranma back.

It was the perfect plan. No matter where the old perverted founder of Anything Goes was, he could never resist the Tendo heir sunning herself in the yard. It would work perfectly.

"Father?"

"Yes, Kasumi," said Soun, trying to move a shogi piece as best as he could, considering that both he and Genma were recovering from the latest 'training' with the Tendo heir.

"That was Grandfather Happosai on the phone," said Kasumi, not noticing how both fathers shivered at hearing his name. "He said he'll be back from Nagasaki tomorrow. It seems they extended whatever he went to see."

The two men paled at that, remembering that photo shoot the Master had talked about before he left.

Akane just stared at the wall. "Of all the...

"DADDY!"

"Yes, dear?" asked Soun, jumping back a bit.

"I'm going to get ready; we're supposed to be sparring now."

"Yes, dear," said Soun Tendo quietly, as he grabbed Genma, before he could flee. "If I'm going to suffer Saotome, so are you."

[Pandas are protected.]

"That bucket was filled with sand, Old Friend."

"Oh, so it was."

by The Demented Redhead

Usagi nervously checked out the bathroom of her home, looking into every available corner. The lights worked, the radio still played music, and she had the necessary towels, washrags, and change of clothes.

Nodding slowly, she entered the western style shower, as she began to disrobe, the images of her dreams still fresh in her mind.

Usually, her dreams would warn her of an impending threat, something related to her past as Princess Serenity, or a romantic setting with Mamoru.

But what had occurred last night ... that was nothing like before. She could still feel the tingling in her body from what had occurred; the kisses on her neck, the caresses of her skin, the bite into her neck.

She shook her head, trying to force the visions away. Now was not the time to fall back into what she was rapidly assuring herself to be nothing more than a dream, even as she worryingly stuck her hand into the sunlight streaming into the room, sighing happily as it didn't burst into flames.

She had already spent fifteen minutes in her room earlier, making sure she still had a reflection.

"Nothing happened, it was just a stupid dream," she said. In her mind, she began to blame all the recent talk about vampires for what had hit her last night. It had happened before. They had once spent the day talking about ice cream, and she dreamt of being Sailor Strawberry Swirl.

Of course, that was a lot different than last night. She wasn't supposed to have sexy dreams about vampires seducing her, biting her. No, she was only supposed to have dreams about her Mamo-chan, not the boy from Furinkan.

Although his hands did feel so—

"Eep!" she cried, as her hand slipped from what it had been doing, and turned the shower onto full cold water.

There was no way anyone was going to hear about this.

Luna sighed from the bed as she listened to her charge in the shower. "I got to find someone else to sleep. Those vivid dreams of her and Mamoru are making her kick too much in her sleep. And those moans..."

The Mau knew Usagi was growing into her adulthood, but did she have to be so vocal about it?

Ukyo stared off into space as she sat in the wheelchair, slightly embarrassed that she had to leave the hospital in it. After all, she could walk fine. It was bad enough they were forcing her to stop her trade for a while, until her ears healed.

Still, it would get her back into the Tendo House, where she could not only watch Ranma, but spend more time with him. She still wasn't certain why he had chosen Nabiki to turn instead of her. Sure, she liked the ability to walk in sunlight and not burst into flames. But there was always the option of late-night restauranting. Her father had always mentioned how at any given night, plenty of college and high school students had the munchies.

But now he was engaged in some battle against people from outside Nerima, people who didn't hesitated for the kill. And she doubted that the brutes she had run into the previous night had been the vampires he had discussed briefly.

If nothing else, she would get those answers from him. After all, engaged couples should have no secrets.

He came to pick her up, which was very nice and loving of him. But as they turned a corner, she spotted three others with Ranma. She spotted the middle Tendo girl, and she was certain that the Ice Queen was pursuing him as well. She just didn't know for what reason, though. The klepto-skater was there as well. But she was relatively certain that she was only attached like a puppy to him, and not trying to steal Ranma for herself.

Hmm, she'd have to keep a close eye on him during her stay. No letting him out of her sight.

She shook her head slightly, as images of bathing entered her thoughts. Work to protect her love first, then loving the love. At least she could talk to Konatsu about what he might have discovered. He wouldn't hesitate to fill her in.

"Here she is," said the nurse. "We even gave her a notepad and pen so you can talk with her. Remember, she has to follow that list of things, and we'll see her next week to check on how her hearing is progressing."

by The Demented Redhead

Kohaku and Mariko stood their position, waiting for their target to come by. The White Sisters were patient, more so than their former rivals/teammates, the Valentine Brothers.

"This is some funny shit," mumbled Kohaku, as she continued to read the book she had brought with her.

"You found humor in the Christian Bible?" asked Mariko.

"Of course," smirked the Osaka accented woman. "Take the beginning for example; if God knows everything, how did he not know humans would eat the Fruit of Knowledge? If he made everything, then he made the snake that tempted souls who didn't and couldn't know better. Any first year law student could argue past any of these points, and yet a majority of people take them as gospel. Don't you find that funny?" she asked, giggling.

Mariko just shrugged. "Religion of fools is not a concern of mine. I prefer to think of reality, and not a bunch of what-ifs by a bunch of people who were each and every one a never-was."

"You're no fun," groused Kohaku.

"I am not here to have fun," admitted Mariko. "I am here for the same reason as you: to catch a train and ... recruit," she finished, a small smirk on her face.

"Ah yes," smiled Kohaku, closing the book with a loud thump, as she stared down the empty tracks that would soon bring a subway car. "Can't forget about our fast food."

It was a relatively simple plan: invade a moving train car during a time it was likely to be partially filled, remove any threat offered by the conductor, and feed on the passengers. With luck, it would net over a hundred or so ghouls—how many virgins would be on that train anyway, given Japan's attitude towards sex?

Do this in a long tunnel, with no escape, no chance for calling help, and assisted by vampire-speed? No, this train would not be making its next stop.

A small sound began to develop along the tracks, a sound their enhanced hearing could pick up.

"Ah," smiled Mariko. "I do so love when lunch is ready."