Blood and Darkness
A crossover fanfic by jimra
I didn't come up with most of the characters in this fic, and would be a complete fool if I tried to claim them. Also, the timelines of these animes are a little mixed up, but of course, this is necessary to make the different animes mesh properly for my purposes.
Chapter Two
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Artemis paced quietly on Aino Minako's bed. The small white cat was worried, and when he was worried, he talked to himself. "Where the heck are you, Mina-chan…? You should have been home hours ago. Damn it, I'm gonna kill that girl!"
The cat's tenor voice varied between worry and anger in a way worthy of a concerned parent; this had been going on for some time. Finally, Artemis stopped mumbling and slumped to the comforter. The small moon cat sighed; he was getting too old to deal with this.
After a few moments more of self-pity, he stood and started to pace once again. He was just into his third lap of Minako's bed when a quiet sound on the roof claimed his attention. Artemis raced to the window just in time to see a dirty white blur drop from the roof to the ground, resolving itself into a gi-clad man. However, the instant the man came into view, the white cat's fur bristled, because under one of his arms he held an unconscious Sailor V.
"If that guy hurt my Mina-chan…" the cat growled, letting the sentence trail off. But as he watched, V's eyes slowly opened. Artemis was mildly relieved by this, but he still kept his eyes trained on the man holding the small heroine.
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For a little while, V was dreaming that she could fly. It was such a wonderful dream; even though she was an honest to God magical girl super hero, she still couldn't fly. And, like most children, she had always wanted to. Regardless of the fact that she knew flying was outside the realm of her abilities as Sailor V, Minako relaxed and enjoyed the sensation. That is, she enjoyed it until she opened her eyes briefly.
The little girl gasped, shutting her eyes tightly; looking down twelve stories to the street is not a good way to wake up. Slowly, she became aware that she was being carried, and her fright receded a bit, only to come back in full force as she remembered the battle with the hell spawn earlier that night.
'What if that…thing…is carrying me?' the little girl thought fearfully, but she couldn't seem to force her eyes to open again.
Abruptly, the feeling of motion, of flying uncontrolled through the air far above the streets, came to a halt, and V slightly opened one eye to see just how much trouble she was in. Through that one eye, she finally saw who had been carrying her, and she relaxed visibly. It was the man who had helped her kill the creature, and as she opened the other eye, she spotted the boy lying slumped over the man's shoulder. But just as V began to relax, she finally noticed the location of their odd trio. It was her house.
A small 'eep' escaped her lips, and she immediately tried to get down. This had the effect of making her carrier lose his grip and drop the panicking girl. Lying on the ground after the slightly painful fall, a fresh wave of fear ran over her as the front light of her house flicked on. The little heroine was on her feet in a flash, and since she was panicking, she spoke to her savior in her native Japanese. "SorryforallthetroublethankyouforsavingmeI'vegottagobye!"
And with that, V was off. If she had looked back, she would have seen a very confused man in the dirty white gi and her father watching her until she was out of sight.
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Saotome Genma watched the little girl he'd inadvertently given a ride speak very rapidly in Japanese and then take off like a shot around the corner of the house just as his old friend Shinji answered the door. Shrugging at the odd display, Genma turned to his friend with a smile. "Aino-kun, it's been so long!"
Aino Shinji could only stare at the man before him for a moment. Genma's white gi, already dirty from swimming the Channel, was now stained with black ichor and a bit of blood. The man had lost his bandanna sometime during the fight, and his bald head shown in the street lamps. Lastly, a black and red bundle thrown across his shoulder slowly resolved itself into a boy of about ten or eleven years, also dirty and covered in blood and ichor, completing the disturbing vision.
"S—Saotome-kun?" Shinji managed to stutter out before regaining his wits. Finally, the man greeted his friend. "Saotome-kun, what on earth happened to you? You look terrible! Please, come in, but I would ask that you wash up before we talk about old times."
Grinning slightly at the thought of a hot bath, Genma happily accepted his friend's demand. With that, Shinji motioned for the two Saotomes to enter his home.
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Artemis had just lost sight of V and the man in the semi-white gi when another noise from outside, a slight tapping, caught his attention. He looked up and literally jumped three feet into the air. Sailor V was standing on the ledge outside the window.
"Don't DO that!" he yelled at V as he opened the window, but his tone immediately became soothing as he watched his young charge burst into tears after coming in the window and collapsing on her bed.
"Mina," the white moon cat said. "Mina-chan, what happened? Why are you crying?"
In a brief flash of light, V's sailor fuku vanished revealing Aino Minako. The girl, still crying, reached out and pulled Artemis into a hug, petting the small white cat.
"There there, Mina-chan," said Artemis as he nuzzled the girl. "I'm sure everything will be alright, but you have to tell me what happened."
It took a few more minutes of petting and hugging for Minako to get her emotions under control, but as with all cats, Artemis couldn't help but love the attention, purring loudly. When the girl finally sat up, Artemis slipped out of her embrace and sat facing his young charge.
"It'll be alright, Minako," said Artemis, quietly. "What happened?"
"It…it was te—terrible." Minako slowly told the venusian guardian about the night's events in a small, tremulous voice. She almost burst into tears again when she talked about the monster and the thief, but Artemis, picking up on Minako's emotions, quickly climbed into the girl's lap to comfort her. Petting her kawaii little kitty (at least, that's what he would like to think), the blonde managed to finish the story.
By the time Minako finished her story, Artemis had a very serious expression on his face, not that it was particularly apparent on a feline. Intent on telling his charge what he knew of the new threat, the small cat turned to face Minako…and bit his tongue. The exhausted look on the blonde's face was all he needed to see.
"Minako," Artemis said in a gentle voice. "You should get some sleep."
"But I ne—" Minako tried to argue, but a yawn cut her off.
Artemis did his best impression of a smile and said, "See, you're exhausted. We can't have Sailor V go to work baggy-eyed tomorrow, now can we?"
The little cat had to avoid a quick pillow swipe, but other than that, Minako complied with his request. Curling up at the small girl's side, Artemis tried to join her in blissful sleep, but her story kept Morpheus away for quite a while, due both to its horrifying, disturbing visage and its implication
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Genma stood under the relaxing, hot blast of a western-style shower. Living in England, Shinji didn't have access to more civilized ways of bathing, like a proper furo or bathhouse, but in his current state, the elder Saotome didn't care. After waking his son, Genma had allowed him the first shower, and now his son was waiting in the Aino guest bedroom.
'It's happening again.' Genma's thoughts returned to the creature he had fought earlier that night and to the difficulty he'd had in defeating it. 'If it weren't for the boy and that little girl, I couldn't have gotten close enough to beat it. If that police girl hadn't gotten Ranma, I wouldn't have a son now.'
Thinking that he probably shouldn't wait too long before joining his son, the bald martial artist quickly finished scrubbing the last traces of hell spawn ichor from his skin before turning off the water. After drying and dressing in a clean gi from his pack, Genma walked to the Aino guest bedroom. There he found that his boy wouldn't be asked any awkward questions. Father grinned at son, as the child lay sprawled across the western-style bed, sound asleep.
'Ah well, the boy has every right to be tired,' Genma thought, with similar sentiments. 'But, I really should go properly greet Aino-kun.'
Genma switched out the light and quietly closed the door. Then the Saotome patriarch walked down the stairs and hall, looking for his friend.
The Aino home was a town house, one of five all built in a row, near downtown London. The old structure had three levels: the first contained the common living areas, the second, bedrooms for the Ainos and the guest bedroom plus another room they used as a library, and the third was a finished attic changed into little Minako's bedroom.
Genma didn't intrude into the other bedroom on the second floor; he didn't want to disturb Shinji's wife. Instead, the man walked to the first floor.
The first floor was divided into a foyer, sitting room, dining room, and kitchen. The main stairs ended in the foyer, while there was also a servant staircase that went through the kitchen. Genma walked down the main stairs into the foyer and began looking for his friend. In the end, after searching every other room, Genma finally found Shinji in the kitchen, the other man sitting at the table with a steaming mug in hand.
"Saotome-kun," said Shinji with a smile. "It's been quite a while. Would you care for some tea? I apologize that we don't have a real tea set, but ours is staying with Achika's parents back in Japan."
Pulling up a chair, Genma sat down. "Thank you, Aino-kun. I would very much enjoy some tea…although, sake would probably be better after the night I've had."
Shinji picked up a teapot sitting on the table and poured a second mug of tea. Handing the mug to his friend, the Aino patriarch walked over to the refrigerator and extracted a bottle of sake.
"Actually," he said, setting the bottle on the table. "I thought you might, the way you looked when you showed up, so I ran to an all-night market and picked some up while you and your son were getting cleaned up."
"Thank you, Aino-kun," replied the elder Saotome. As he spoke, Shinji poured some hot water into a bowl to heat the sake. For a short while, neither man spoke. Finally, Aino poured some sake into two small ceramic cups and offered one to his friend.
"Thank you again, Aino-kun," said Genma as he took the cup, downing the rice wine in a long sip. "Not as good as back home, but still, it's been a long time since I've had any sake."
Shinji took the Genma's cup and refilled it. "That is certainly true. Saotome-kun, what happened tonight? What could have possibly left you in such a state?"
"Well, Aino-kun," Genma began. "First, we didn't look too good after swimming the channel, but that isn't the worst of it. Ranma and I ran into a daemon on the way here."
The Saotome patriarch continued by telling Shinji of the night's events, and Shinji was left gaping when Genma said that he and his son had swam across the English Channel. After the bald man finished his monologue regarding the hell spawn, Shinji's eyes were wide and his mouth agape.
Downing his fourth cup of sake, Genma finished his story with, "But enough about us. How is your family doing?"
It took a moment for the Aino patriarch to gather his wits after Genma's story. Shinji knew that Genma would lie and exaggerate to get his way with strangers or during some game, but the other man had never lied to Shinji when it regarded anything important. In any case, a run in with a daemon was about the only thing that could account for all the blood and ichor on the two Saotomes when they arrived.
In the end, Shinji simply sighed. "I guess you're tired from your journey, Saotome-kun. Maybe we should finish catching up tomorrow."
"That sounds like a good plan, Aino-kun," Genma replied. "I thank you for your hospitality, my friend."
"Its no trouble," Shinji said, waving his friend off to bed. The elder Saotome, looking very tired, wasted no time in leaving Shinji alone in the kitchen.
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Once Genma had left, Shinji sat for a short while, sipping his tea and thinking. 'I don't like this. Every time Saotome-kun told me something like that, it only got worse.'
Thinking back to their high school days, Shinji remembered the first time Genma told him that a daemon was in the area. Shortly there after, a rash of killings had struck Juuban, but the authorities never found the killer. Supposedly, the culprit in those crimes was still at large, but the Aino patriarch knew better. He'd been in the old warehouse to see the master of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, along with his recent disciples Saotome Genma and Tendo Soun, battle the monster responsible for so many deaths.
Later in life, just after Shinji had married Achiko, Genma had visited once again, and again, in an eerie parallel with the last time, a rash of killings descended on Juuban. This time, Genma defeated the hell spawn himself, and Shinji could only admire the prowess his friend showed in killing these creatures of the night.
Now, after the Aino family had left Japan, Genma visited once more, and again, a new daemon showed itself. 'At least this time,' thought Shinji, 'Genma killed it before it could kill more that one or two people.'
Still, as Shinji put away the tea and sake sets and made his way to the bedroom he shared with his wife, he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that had come over him when Genma told his story. 'Something is going to happen,' he thought. 'Something bad….'
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Genma left Shinji in the kitchen and walked slowly up the stairs to the guest room he would be sharing with his son. Since fighting the hell spawn earlier, he'd felt it.
'There are more daemons in this city,' Genma thought as he opened the door to the guest room and saw his son still sleeping on the western-style bed. 'I've fought too many not to know this feeling. This is going to get worse…much worse.'
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Author's Notes:
Just a minor revision, so enjoy. Ja minna.