Author's notes….
As always, the original copyright holders retain their rights, and this is intended for the non-commercial enjoyment of the readers. Comments and reviews are always welcome, as long as they bear in mind that I am not a perfect typist, do not always get timelines right, muddle items from manga and anime without regard for canon, and have other personal quirks like my low sense of humour.
This is created for the enjoyment of the reader and is not intended for commercial use and cannot be distributed in any form by any means other than normal use of .
All characters names are non-canon, being amalgams of my memory as well as what reference materials I can refer to during the creation of this story. Don't complain to me if a character goes way off-canon or uses abilities that not usually performed by the originals.
As with many other writers, please review and comment. Helpful suggests are always appreciated. Anonymous reviews will be deleted, so trolls are going to have to use an account that will be reported to the web meisters.
Amazing how people comment on items that are not even part of the story line, like where Akane throws herself at Ranma (or anyone else). BTW, this was a "guest" review. Like I said in my AU (read above), guest reviews get deleted, regardless of content. Essentially, I got ripped over by one too many trolls.
For the two that had posted reviews asking if this was the end of the story, I do apologize (six months!) and will get at least one update in this week. Be warned that I have Pokemon Go installed on my cellphone here in Canada, and have reached Level Six in less than a week but we have server load issues (or a DDOS attack) going on in the afternoons.
RE the review by Aceina, Sorry but this story is in the context of the original series and living in Japan means that Japanese references take place, and sorry that you think that it is a stupid wish. If you see the original AMG mangas or aimes, Keichi's wish is pretty stupid but highly personal. Same for Akane - read the mangas and anime and pay attention to her cooking skills - one of the running gags and I'm willing to bet dollars-to-doughnuts that she'd be making the wish if gien the opportunity.
Tendo Residence and Dojo, Nerima Prefecture. Sometime in the second week of summer vacation. Actually, Saturday morning.
Akane sat back from the table, leaning on her arms behind her, looking out through the open shoji at the koi pond and beyond.
"Skuld," she whispered.
Skuld looked up from the Domestic Goddess book where she was laying out the day's menu and shopping list, plus itemizing the other activities that needed doing. "Nani?"
"Look over my shoulder and three streets over, the house with the grey tiles on the roof. There's something moving on the roof, right beside the T antenna. It looks like a head popping up and down and whoever it is, they're using binoculars or something like tath as I got a flash from the sun reflecting off of it. Another one just now."
Skuld stopped herself from nodding and whispered back. "Yeah, saw the flash. Anyone that you know would use ninja techniques and be incompetent enough to not think about reflections?"
"Only one, and that would be Sasuke, who's the Kuno family servant and ninja. Only he'd be a lot more discrete. Only reason that he'd do something like this would be if he's trying to discretely let us know. However, he's good enough that he'd be not be using this unless it was really bad. I also know that that's not likely because, he's at the beach along with my family - Kodachi was talking about accidentally running into Ranma when she was on her beach vacation. As if I'd react to that jibe. She only thinks that she's engaged to Ranma and I'd be more willing to bet that she's running a very distant third to Uyko and Shampoo. At least they have food with them when they run into Ranma. Anyone that you know would be the likely suspect before we go over there and have a little chat with them?"
Skuld snickered. "Marlier. I mean that she's the one that usually winds up being our comic foil. She was bigger sister Urd's childhood friends, at least until Urd decided that she wanted to go in for Goddess training. She works for Skuld's mother Hild in the Office of Demonic Affairs, which is puts her in much the same role as us but for the other side."
Akane nodded. "How dangerous is she?"
"Can be but her schemes usually wind up being a disaster. A disaster for her, that is. Which is one reason that Benpai is around, to beat up an Marlier. Turns out that Marlier is absolutely terrified of maneki-neko for some reason, probably being a token of good fortune. Which is why Marlier is so far away, as far as possible to be out of Benpai's range but close enough that she can see what we're up to."
Akane nodded and tapped her chin with her finger tips, looking in Marlier's direction and thinking. "Just how big are these maneki-neko?"
"The bigger, the better they are, but Marlier reacts when they're sprung on her, which limits how small we can go. Benpai gets the best range with ones about this big",holding her hands abut six inches apart, "about 200 grams in weight."
Akane's eyes closed to slits as she mentally calculated the distance and the available target. "you know we may only get one shot at this, Skuld? Can we frighten her away or have we got to do something... more?"
"If she's this circumspect, she has to be under Hild's orders in some form. I think that we're going to have to capture her and find out what the actual orders are."
Akane nodded and stood up. "Well, guess that we're going to have to do something. Your Kami-sama's notes say that we can't use Benpai, so that means it's up to you and me. How many maneki-neko does Benpai have, just in case we have to take multiple shots to force Marlier out into the open."
Benpai stepped to the doorway into the kitchen area and started quietly dropping a dozen nekos on the floor, then stepped back.
Akane looked at the pile then focused off into the distance. "It's going to take timing, and we've got to do it exactly right the first time. If she gets a glimpse of one of those in my hand, she'll bail and we'll be nowhere. Can you time when she pops up to take a look at us and then make it look like you're collecting the breakfast dishes and toss me one at the right moment? I'll take it from there. Marlier seems to keep a pretty consistent approach: pop up, take a quick peek and drop below the roofline, then follow up with a longer look, and then scoot down to hide. Ah, there she goes for a cycle. And there goes the longer look, and then she pops behind the roof. Time for you to pick up the dishes. Nice natural steps until you get over there by Benpai, then you put the dishes down and pick up two maneki-neko and have them ready to toss one to me on command. And she's dropped down behind the roofline and ... Here we go."
With those words, Akane started to glow with her battle aura, a deep red glow flickering over her skin, and she held out her right hand. Skuld reached down and grabbed the two nearest neko dolls and tossed one to Akane, who caught it without really glanding where the doll actually was, flipped it twice, and then started a pitcher's wind-up. growling from deep in her throat and getting louder and more of a scream as her arm roared up over her head and down while she strided foward as if she was on the mound and delivering a fastball low and centered on the plate. She realeased the neko and it roared off into the distance, aimed at where Marlier's head would reside over the roofline.
"Oh shit! She stood up! The other one!" Akane shot a quick glance at the other neko in Skuld's hand, and the doll was immediately tossed in Akane's general direction. Akane ramped up her battle aura even more and again roared her way through another pitch. This time, the neko not only roared off into the distance but there was a distance rumble of thunder, almost as it had broken the sound barrier.
"Oh, fuck!" Akane went.
Skuld scooted around and looked in the direction that Marlier had been observing them from, to find Marlier sprawled facedown across the roofline with the scattered remains of at least one neko scattered around her, and a trickle of blood running from under her head. She looked at Akane, and twitched an eyebrow.
"She must have caught a glimpse of me winding up, so she stood up just in time for the first one to hit her right between the knees, and that took out her legs. The second pitch hit her right on top of the head as she went down for a faceplant on the tiles. I think that I killed her because the second one was a whole heaping of more chi than I'd ever used before. "
"Un-hunh, Akane. Goddesses and demons are pretty robust, especially when you get to the First Class licenses. I've only got a Second Class license and I think that I'd be out for a week if you used those two pitches on me. What say we go over and collect Marlier if she's unconscious? In the unlikely event that you've managed to actually kill Marlier, we can get in touch with two of the best goddesses to handle that situation: Peorth and Lind. They didn't go on vacation with Kami-sama as someone had to keep an eye on me."
AN: Please review.
