Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon in any way, shape or form. All associated characters, trademarks, etc. are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi. I'm just telling some stories about them.
Chapter Four: Turning Tables
Ryouga's jaw dropped a little, as he stared at the pigtailed newcomer. Then, at last, he found his voice. "Ranma?" he demanded incredulously. "What are you doing in China?"
His rival only rolled his eyes, then pointed wordlessly across the street. Ryouga's gaze followed the gesture—and only then did he finally recognize the building he had been fighting directly in front of. What the...? That's the Tendo dojo!
The lost boy blinked twice—before the sound of menacing growls dragged his thoughts abruptly back to the matter at hand. The creatures had begun to regroup from the surprise attack, and were circling the three of them with predatory looks in their eyes.
"So..." Ranma said conversationally, shifting his weight into a fighting stance while keeping a careful eye on the surrounding animals. "What's the deal with these things?"
At first, Ryouga's only reply was to grind his teeth. Saved... by Ranma! Ranma! How would he ever live this down? Horrible, mortifying visions danced through the lost boy's mind, as he imagined his rival smugly lording this moment over him for the rest of his life.
Still, in the end, even he had to admit that accepting Ranma's help was better than gruesome dismemberment. Only slightly better... but better nonetheless.
"They're some kind of tracking animal," Ryouga finally answered, albeit grudgingly. "They're very fast when they come at you straight, but they don't handle turns as well. Also, their attacks don't have much variety once you get used to them."
Ranma listened to the lost boy's rundown of the situation, then nodded. "Got it," he said. Then he glanced down at Beneda, raising his eyebrows a little in curiosity. "And who's she?"
Ryouga glanced down at her as well, then smiled. "A friend," he replied warmly.
Then suddenly, his danger sense was screaming at him. He whirled around, shrugging the massive backpack from his shoulders, and swung it into the creature that was trying to attack him from behind.
The blow knocked the animal away, but already more were swarming in behind it. In response, Ryouga reached into his pack and grabbed hold of his umbrella, relishing its familiar heft.
With one savage motion, he ripped the weapon out of the backpack and into the neck of the nearest creature. Then he ducked under the leap of another—only to stab upward with the umbrella's tip into the thing's stomach. Its broken body went flying clear over the three defenders. From that upraised position, he swung the umbrella back down like an axe onto the skull of the next animal.
Behind him, he could hear similar sounds of combat, and a quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that Ranma too was under fierce attack. The Anything-Goes heir had moved to stand on the opposite side of Beneda, so that she was sandwiched tightly between the two boys. From there, he was lashing out at any of the beasts that came within his reach, his legs striking several times a second, his hands blurring almost to invisibility.
Despite himself, the lost boy gave a tiny smirk at the sight. Now, they each had to fight only half the enemy's number. Now, the things could no longer attack him from every direction at once. Now, he no longer had to tie up his hands keeping Beneda out of harm's way.
Now, they just might be able to pull this off.
Ranma slipped underneath a claw slash, then grabbed hold of the limb before the creature could retract it. Gritting his teeth, he wrenched the animal over him in a shoulder throw, tossing it straight into a second one. At the same time, his leg shot out several times behind him, sending a third reeling back as well.
Before it could recover, he darted in close and savaged it with an Amaguriken barrage. Then he jumped back, just in time to knock away a fourth with an elbow to the side of its head. Just how many of these things are there? he wondered.
He glanced over his shoulder, checking on his rival. The lost boy, for his part, was looking a little ragged around the edges. He had already been in pretty bad shape even before Ranma had shown up to lend a hand, and it looked like he'd taken a couple more hits since then. His breath was coming heavy, and he seemed to be favoring his left side.
The pigtailed fighter gave a lopsided smirk. "Not slowing down on me, are you P-chan?" he called back, while driving his foot into a creature's face. "Y'know, if you want to rest and let me handle things, I can cover for you easy..."
The effect of the taunt was something akin to jabbing Ryouga with live current. His back went ramrod-straight in an instant, weariness completely forgotten. "Like hell, Ranma!" he shouted back over his shoulder, his umbrella strikes taking on renewed vigor. "Once these things are done with, I'll show you how tired I am!"
Ranma hopped over a creature's charge, then slammed both feet down like pistons to drive it face-first into the street. "Yeah, sure..." he retorted, rolling his eyes—even as he launched another withering storm of punches. "Just like you show me every time we fight..."
The lost boy growled at that, his battle aura rising along with his rage. "Just enjoy it while it lasts..." he seethed furiously. "Because someday soon, I'm going to give you the thrashing you deserve!" With an angry snap, he opened his umbrella and sent it spinning like a buzz-saw toward a group of the beasts, slashing into the unlucky ones that couldn't scatter fast enough.
Ranma only laughed. "Dream on, porkchop," he said, punctuating the comment by deftly catching two creatures by their heads and slamming them together, then kicking them both away. "You know you've never had a prayer of actually beating me..."
"What was that you said, you rotten, womanizing bastard?" The anger in the lost boy's voice now sounded like it was approaching apoplectic levels.
"Heh. And here I thought it was just your sense of direction that was bad—not your hearing too!"
"Why you—!" Abruptly, the pigtailed fighter found himself wrenched around, Ryouga hoisting him into the air by the front of his shirt.
"Idiot!" shouted Ranma, as one of the creatures lunged at Ryouga's now-unprotected back. He quickly planted his hands on the lost boy's shoulders, twisting himself over his rival's head to kick the animal away. In reply, Ryouga dove underneath his rival's attack, slamming his fist into the creature that had been about to attack Ranma from behind. The two landed back to back once more, with Beneda still huddled on the ground between them, their positions now reversed.
Ranma noticed that Ryouga's umbrella was now spinning back on its return path. He caught it, snapping it shut and flipping it back through the air in one smooth move. "Here ya go... moron," he said.
Ryouga caught it in mid-flip, and then swung it straight into another one of the creatures. "Thank you... cretin."
And with that, both boys returned their attention to the business of plowing through their foes.
The Keeper sprinted through the streets, flanked on either side by a Hound. Together, they rushed to reinforce the main group that had brought their quarry to bay. The Keeper's eyes were wide and frenzied. She could feel that things were going badly for her pets, could feel each of their deaths echo within her, and she was desperate to reach them as quickly as possible.
She knew she was nearly there, the din of battle growing more audible with each step. Crashes, howls, battle cries, one particularly loud crunching sound—and then the body of a Hound came flying into view from around the corner of a building.
It hit the concrete hard, rolling end over end until at last it came to a stop in front of them. The other Hounds rushed around it to join in the fray, but the Keeper herself skidded to a halt, dropping anxiously to her knees to look at the animal's injuries.
She could see almost at once that it was hopeless. Its body was a broken ruin, barely clinging to life. One eye swiveled weakly in its socket, somehow managing to look up at the Keeper. The Hound made a small, wet noise in the back of its throat, imploring its mistress to help it.
The Keeper's hands clenched into fists, trembling at her helplessness. At last she reached out, giving the animal's cheek a gentle stroke, murmuring softly to it. It gurgled happily despite the pain it was in, its gaze following the movement of her fingers across its face.
Then the youma struck with her other hand, instantly snapping the Hound's neck. It slumped, the look of agony in its face relaxing into a blank nothingness. A single, dry sob shook the Keeper's frame.
Then she raised her head, looking up to where the battle was still raging. And there was murder in her eyes.
Beneda watched, awestruck, as the two fighters beat back wave after wave of the creatures. They were an astonishing study in contrasts. Agility and speed. Durability and power. Between the two of them, the ground was now littered with bodies.
And yet the attacks continued relentlessly. She could see that the constant onslaught was pushing the two humans hard. Even the blindingly-fast Ranma had taken a couple gashes, and Ryouga was looking even more chewed up. Still, they were slowly whittling down the beasts' numbers, and victory seemed to be in sight.
It was then that she heard the rage-filled scream.
She froze for an instant, her blood chilled by the raw hatred that the cry contained. Then she jerked her head around, searching for its source.
There! Dashing headlong toward the three defenders was a hunched youma, with countless scars crisscrossing her grey skin. The beasts parted around her as she ran at them, pulling back a short distance. Beneda started to wonder why they had paused in their attack—but before she could even complete the thought, she heard Ranma raise his voice in a shout. "Move!"
Even as he yelled his warning, the attacking youma was reaching behind her back. She grabbed hold of something, then swung her arm forward faster than Beneda could follow. There was a loud crack—
—and suddenly, Beneda was clutched in Ranma's arms, several feet away. The next instant, something ripped through the air to their left, smashing into the street where they had just been standing. The entire area was showered with concrete shrapnel, but Ranma twisted to shield her with his body.
Looking to her left, across the smoking gash that had been carved by the attack, Beneda saw that Ryouga had mirrored his faster companion's dodge. Then, as the dust cleared, she caught her first glimpse of what the other youma had struck with.
It was a whip. Long, thick and sinuous, it lay on the ground, trailing back over twenty feet to its wielder. The weapon crackled with dark energy, running up and down its length, occasionally arcing to the ground. Beneda swallowed, hard. That was not something she wanted getting anywhere near her.
Seeing that her attack had failed, the grey-skinned youma snarled and yanked her weapon back. "I'll kill you all..." she hissed at them. "You miserable pieces of filth!" With that she swung at them again, the whip slashing around sideways in a wide arc.
Still keeping a tight grip on Beneda, Ranma dove forward in a roll that carried them underneath the attack. Undeterred, the youma launched into a rapid-fire barrage of whip strikes. Ranma dodged furiously, juking left and right, ducking and jumping. The countless missed attacks tore up the street around them, shattering concrete with each blow.
To their left, Ryouga charged toward the new attacker, but before he had taken three steps he was swarmed by the remaining creatures. For a moment, Beneda was afraid he would be overrun.
Just before the beasts hit him, however, the lost boy snapped open his umbrella. What had once been a club was now a shield. He twisted it back and forth around himself, warding off their attacks while retaliating with vicious kicks.
None of the creatures were attacking her or Ranma, though. None could get near, as the youma's assault rained down carnage all around them. But somehow, the pigtailed boy always managed to be somewhere her weapon wasn't. It was uncanny, the way he moved. More than just speed, he flowed with every twist of the whip, as though he had been told each strike was coming ahead of time.
And yet, strangely enough, their attacker didn't seem distressed by her inability to hit them. In fact, Beneda could see the faintest shadow of a smirk pulling at the other youma's mouth. The whip slashed at them once more. Once more, Ranma dodged it easily—
—and then, in an absolutely impossible movement, the whip reversed direction in mid-swing.
There was no warning, no movement on the youma's part that could have redirected the weapon's path. In that moment, the whip ceased moving as a whip and instead moved as a living thing. Ranma, caught by surprise, was unable to dodge. The most he could do was twist his body, taking the attack on his shoulder instead of his head.
There was a blinding discharge of energy, followed by a sizzle and a scream. The world spun in crazy circles around Beneda, as they were flung through the air by the blow. Then they hit the concrete, hard, the youma tumbling out of the human's grip on impact.
Beneda lifted her head as quickly as she could, and saw that Ranma was already on his feet in a crouch. He was wincing in pain, and while his left arm was raised in a fighting stance, his right arm hung useless at his side, twitching spasmodically.
Then their attacker struck again—this time abandoning all pretense that her whip was a normal one. The weapon stabbed, slashed and swung at Ranma from every conceivable angle, a whirling, twisting maelstrom of deadly coils. Between the speed of the motion and the showers of flying debris, Beneda couldn't see either the whip or Ranma distinctly. But she could tell that the human was being forced to backpedal, trying to keep one step ahead of the unnatural lash.
Then, without warning, the grey-skinned youma's head snapped violently back.
Their enemy staggered, her whip barrage abruptly halting as she fought to maintain her balance. "What—? How—?" she managed to croak out, even as she clutched at her forehead in pain.
Beneda turned to look back at Ranma, who was standing amidst the wrecked road, a smirk on his face. By way of an answer, he lifted his foot behind him, then drove it downward, kicking the ground.
The impact sent three broken chunks of concrete—conveniently left lying around by all the youma's attacks—spinning into the air. Immediately, Ranma's leg lashed out three more times, almost vanishing from Beneda's sight. Each kick sent one of the improvised projectiles hurtling bullet-like toward the attacking youma.
Even wobbly as she was, the youma managed to duck the first of them. But the second one caught her directly in her center of mass, and the third hit her in her shoulder, spinning her around and dropping her on her face. Ranma watched her, massaging his right arm at the same time, working the feeling back into it.
Slowly, the grey-skinned youma pulled herself to her hands and knees, looking wildly around. Her gaze went from Ranma, to Beneda, to where Ryouga stood—and her eyes widened in horror at the last.
Beneda turned as well, and saw how the human had fared. He stood there, gasping for breath, leaning heavily on his umbrella—but with a feral smile on his face—surrounded by a ring of beast corpses. There were little more than a half-dozen of the creatures left now. And even those survivors were starting to cringe away from him.
"You're through, lady," Ranma's voice interjected, drawing Beneda's attention back to him and the other youma. "Give it up. It's over."
"Over?" rasped the youma, her voice almost breaking, her hands trembling with fury as they closed around the handle of her whip. "Over? This is not over! This is not over!" With a scream, she swung her weapon around in another attack.
This time, it was aimed at Beneda.
Her eyes barely had the chance to widen in fear before the living weapon coiled around her wrist. Its dark lightning burned all along her arm, causing her to cry out in agony. Then she was yanked headlong toward the other youma.
The whip dragged her roughly across the road, until at last a vise-like grip clamped around her neck, hauling her to her feet. The grey-skinned youma flexed the fingers of her other hand, and long serrated claws burst from them—eerily reminiscent of the creatures' own. She pressed them up against Beneda's neck, holding her as a shield. "Surrender!" she screeched at them, a crazed note in her voice. "Surrender, or I rip out her throat!"
Pain from the whip's energy wracked Beneda, mixing with the cold terror filling her stomach. Her eyes were locked helplessly, pleadingly, on the two humans. At the same time, her memory flickered back, unbidden, to her own escape from the Sailor Senshi, where she had used just this tactic. But she knew with terrifying certainty that there was no way it could work this time. This time, obedience to the youma's demands would mean Ranma and Ryouga's certain deaths.
Ranma raised his hands, showing her his open palms. "Hey, c'mon..." he said, while walking slowly toward her at an oblique angle. "Let's talk about this..."
"Not another step!" the youma shouted. Then she turned to Ryouga. "You! Throw down your weapon! Now, or she dies!"
Ryouga glanced over at Ranma, their eyes meeting for a long moment. Then, to Beneda's utter disbelief, the human tossed his umbrella off to the side, where it landed with a heavy crash. "All right," he said. "Just... don't hurt her."
The grey-skinned youma laughed triumphantly. "Yes, you don't want any harm to come to this little wretch, do you? For her sake, you defy the Dark Kingdom. For her sake you kill and mutilate my precious pets!" She laughed, then, a low, nasty laugh. "I wonder... is she precious to you as well? Would it hurt you, to see her body broken and shredded?"
Ranma's eyes narrowed, and a cold look entered them. "Not gonna happen," he stated firmly, taking a couple more steps while he spoke. He barely got any closer to the youma, though—circling her clockwise instead. "Look. Why don't you just let her go, take your dogs... or whatever... and get out of here? Trust me, you ain't gonna like the other choices."
The human paused for a moment—then continued to speak. "Heck... we might even need to sic Akane's barber on you." At those words, Ryouga jerked as though stung, then narrowed his eyes, an unreadable expression clouding his face.
"No!" the youma shouted back. "Threaten all you want! I will have blood for what you've done!"
The human shrugged, flashing a mocking smile. "Well, Ryouga is doing a lot of bleeding over there..." he said helpfully, jerking his thumb back over his shoulder to his left—as he continued to circle. "You even nicked me up a bit. Sure that's not enough? I mean, c'mon, they're just a bunch of mutts..."
The grey-skinned youma howled in blind, animalistic rage, and Beneda felt the grip around her throat tighten until she could no longer breathe. Why? Why is he making her angrier? she wondered desperately.
"On your knees!" the youma screamed, and Beneda could feel spittle striking her cheek. "Get on your knees! My Hounds will tear off your limbs, and then we will see how much you can bleed!"
Ranma continued to circle, looking his enemy directly in the eye. "Last chance, lady," he said. "Walk away."
"On your knees!"
The human closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then nodded. "All right," he said. "All right, you win. I'll just kneel dow—"
And in that exact moment, Ranma casually took the final step in the arc he had been walking. The step where he crossed in front of Ryouga. The step that—for just the briefest instant—obscured the other human from their enemy's view.
What happened next, Beneda was only able to piece together afterward. A blur, long and thin, shot through the air between them with blinding speed. Ranma didn't flinch as it sliced a shallow cut across his right cheek. It hurtled onward, hissing past Beneda's ear before she was even consciously aware of it.
The next thing she knew, the grip on her neck was gone.
She crumpled to her hands and knees, gasping for breath. Instantly, Ranma was by her side, taking up a defensive stance over her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ryouga dive for his discarded umbrella, then roll back to his feet facing the surviving creatures.
Shakily, she turned to see what had happened to her captor. The grey-skinned youma was flat on her back, her neck at a crooked angle, with something long and thin embedded squarely between her eyes. It took her a few seconds to recognize the object as Ryouga's belt. Only now it was no longer flexible, but as straight and as hard as a rod. Or a spear.
Then Beneda caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She whirled back toward it, forming a shuriken on her arm reflexively.
Her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw. The remaining creatures were indeed advancing. But they were doing so slowly, and not toward any of their prey. The beasts filed silently past the three defenders, taking up positions in a circle around the body of their mistress.
As all of them looked on, the youma gave a final twitch. Then, slowly, her body began to crumble into dust. At this, the creatures all raised their heads, and the night was pierced by long, echoing howls of grief and anguish.
It continued until the body had finished disintegrating. Then, one by one, the creatures approached the mound of dust and used their claws—poorly suited for such a task though they were—to slowly scrape up the remains. Each animal took a portion, and Beneda realized with a start that they were each expending a portion of their own life energy to keep the dust from dissipating completely. One of them picked up their mistress' fallen whip between its teeth.
The three defenders continued to watch, without speaking or moving, as the creatures then walked silently away. Soon they were lost to the night, and all was still.
A few moments later, Ranma turned to the other two. "C'mon," he said, pointing to the building across the street. "You guys better get inside. No telling if those things'll be back or not."
Beneda stumbled through the outer gates of the compound, across the yard, and through the doorway of the building at its center, following numbly in Ranma's steps all the way. Her close brush with death was beginning to catch up with her; she was feeling light-headed, and she couldn't quite stop her hands from shaking.
Behind her followed Ryouga, also stumbling a little, but for different reasons. Glancing back over her shoulder at him, she shook her head in amazement. Only now, with the better lighting that the building provided, did she really see just how clawed up the human had been. He was limping a little, and his shirt no longer resembled clothing so much as a torn mass of bloody scraps. He was fighting in that condition? she thought, in silent wonderment.
Ranma, however, was not silent by any stretch of the imagination. "You look like hell, man," he said. "Did those things really mess you up that bad?"
"Shut up, Ranma." Ryouga's voice was tired, as he dragged himself through the door. "You didn't have to fight all of them at once."
Ranma made an unconvinced noise, at which Ryouga lifted his head in annoyance. "Besides!" he snapped. "Most of these aren't even all that deep..."
"Sure, sure, whatever you say..." replied Ranma with a flippant shrug—prompting an angry growl from Ryouga. But anything the other boy might have said was interrupted by the sound of running feet. Then, a moment later, several more humans came hurrying up to them.
In the lead was a short-haired girl, wearing a yellow uniform of some kind, and holding what looked like a bamboo sword. She was followed closely by two men. One was wearing a strange, ancient-looking suit of armor and carrying a bow, while the other was wearing a white version of the girl's uniform, and had no weapon. Bringing up the rear were two more girls, one with short hair, the other with long. The latter was holding a frying pan tentatively in front of her.
"Ranma!" shouted the girl in the lead, anxiously. "Ryouga! Are you—?" She broke off with a gasp when she saw the condition that Ryouga was in.
"A-A-Akane!" stuttered Ryouga, who for his part turned a little red, and began to twiddle his fingers anxiously. "How n-n-nice to b-bump into y-you like this... I r-really..."
"You're bleeding all over!" the girl—Akane—interrupted, hurrying over to him. Then she turned back to the armor-clad man in a mixture of distress and anger. "See, daddy? I told you that you should have let me go help them!"
The statement elicited a derisive snort from Ranma. Akane immediately rounded on him. "And what's that supposed to mean, Ranma?" she asked dangerously.
"It means you'd only have gotten in the way," responded the pigtailed boy. "Ryouga'd probably have gotten himself even more beat up trying to look after you."
The girl's eyes were blazing now. "I can take care of myself!" she shouted, emphasizing her point by swinging at him with her bamboo sword.
But it was a futile attempt, as the boy only dodged her blows, laughing as he did so. "Doesn't look like it to me!" he shot back, sticking out his tongue at her.
Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention to Ryouga as he dodged—and as a result, he didn't see the other boy surreptitiously stick out his leg. Ranma backpedaled right into it, tripping onto his rear. Which, in turn, allowed the bamboo sword to finally connect with his skull, driving him the rest of the way to the floor.
With a satisfied huff, Akane turned back to Ryouga. "Come on," she said. "I'll get the first aid kit and bandage you up."
Ryouga's eyes bulged. "Um... I... T-That is..." he babbled incoherently, staring hard at the floor. "I would... an honor... b-by your h-h-hands... I mean..."
Behind them, Ranma sat back up again, glaring at Ryouga while rubbing his head and muttering something under his breath about "uncute tomboys." Nevertheless, he went with the rest of the group as they walked into the main room of the house.
Beneda kept her distance, trying her best to remain in the background while she tried to think through this new development. These people were evidently friends of Ryouga, and she thought she recognized some of them from the stories he had told her. But how they would fit into this situation was something she had no idea yet.
Aside from Akane, who had been preoccupied with Ryouga's wounds, most of the others had been taking curious, guarded glances at her throughout the unfolding squabble. Beneda tried hard not to meet any of their eyes, keeping her gaze low and trying to appear non-threatening. As yet, none of them had gone so far as to address her directly, but she knew it was only a matter of time. She needed to have her story straight in her head before then.
Upon reaching the main room, Akane dashed off, and soon came back with a small white box. From it, she pulled a roll of bandages, and a container of liquid—probably some kind of disinfectant—then promptly set to work on Ryouga. A few moments later, the other, longer-haired girl slipped quietly in beside Ranma and began to do the same to him, treating the handful of cuts he had received.
Beneda noticed that, strangely enough, even though the other girl seemed a far more skilled nurse than Akane, it was Ranma who seemed to be sneaking jealous glares over at Ryouga, rather than the reverse. Odd.
They sat there in strained silence for a little while, before the long-haired man finally spoke up. "So Ryouga..." he said, his voice carefully neutral. "You haven't yet introduced us to your companion."
Ryouga looked up, a little startled. "Oh! I apologize," he said. "This is my friend, Beneda. I met her when I was in Hokkaido, and we've been traveling together since then." That statement made Beneda cock her head a little. She knew next to nothing about the geography of the human world, but even she was pretty sure they had been nowhere near there when they met.
Before she could decide what to make of that, Ryouga was moving on. "Beneda, this is the Tendo family—Soun, Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane." He indicated each one in turn as he spoke. Then he gestured to the bald man with the white bandana. "And this is Saotome Genma, father of Saotome Ranma—" a small growl entered his voice at the last name "—who you've already met."
Beneda hesitated for a moment, trying to recall everything she'd ever heard about human greeting customs... which wasn't much. So, not knowing what else to do—and considering her situation—she decided to simply go for broke. She moved to a kneeling position, and then bowed her head to the ground in a universal gesture of abasement. "Thank you, all of you, for sheltering me like this," she said. "I owe you my life."
"Think nothing of it!" replied the heavyset man—Genma, she reminded herself. "It's a martial artist's duty to protect those in need, right Tendo?"
"Yes, yes..." agreed Soun, nodding. Then he hesitated. "Er... what exactly was it that you needed protection from?"
"Unfortunately, a lot of things," interjected Ryouga, his voice grim. "Those creatures we fought tonight were from a group called the Dark Kingdom. Also there's a bunch of overzealous monster hunters that are after her as well, called the Sailor Senshi." For her part, Beneda wished he hadn't put the matter quite so bluntly.
"Sailor Senshi..." Genma muttered, frowning in thought. "Monster hunters, you say? I don't think I've heard of them before."
"That's because they're new." The small group turned as one to look at the new speaker—the girl called Nabiki. She stood in one of the far corners of the room, her arms crossed. "They've only been on the scene for the last month or two—depending on how many of the stories you believe."
Akane looked up from trying to bandage Ryouga—which at this point was looking more like a hopelessly tangled attempt at mummification than anything else. "You know about these... Senshi, Nabiki?" she asked, sounding a little surprised.
Nabiki's eyes glinted. "I do have a... tiny interest in them," she said, giving Beneda a long, calculating look. Then she glanced idly away, and said no more.
Suddenly, Ranma snapped his fingers. "Yeah..." he said. "Yeah! I remember now! Hiroshi and Daisuke were talking about them in school just a week ago! Daisuke was sure they were just some kind of urban legend floating around Minato ward, but Hiroshi swore he knew a guy whose cousin's friend had seen them herself."
"Believe me," said Beneda. "They're very real. And they're very deadly to my kind. They can't be reasoned with, and they won't be satisfied until they've wiped out every last one of us."
That statement elicited a small gasp from Akane, and a startled "Oh my!" from the one called Kasumi. Beneda turned to look at Nabiki, who only gazed back with an unreadable expression on her face... then raised one eyebrow ever so slightly. The youma felt a small chill run down the length of her back.
"Well I don't know what their deal is," announced Ranma. "But as long as you're staying here, you don't have to worry about any Sailor Senshi or Dark Whatevers getting to you, right Mr. Tendo?"
Soun nodded, while Genma slapped Ranma heartily on the back. "That's the spirit, boy!" he said. "There's no way some two-bit gang of monsters or greenhorn monster hunters can stand up to the heir of the Saotome style!"
Ranma snorted. "Thanks, pop," he said dryly. "And what about the founder of the Saotome stlye? What's he gonna be doing while all this is going on?"
Immediately, Genma assumed an air of wounded dignity. "What are you saying, boy?" he asked. "I have every confidence you'll be able to handle this. It'll be good training for you!" Ranma only rolled his eyes in response.
Beneda felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see Akane standing next to her. The "bandaging" of Ryouga had evidently been completed. "Hey," she said, giving the youma a warm smile. "Why don't you come upstairs and I'll show you around? You can spend the night in my room, if you want. Trust me, you don't want to share the guest room with a pervert like Ranma." The last few words were very clearly aimed in the direction of the pigtailed martial artist, who simply scoffed and looked away.
Ryouga looked up at that. "Wait a minute," he said. "What about the room that the old letch used to stay in? She could use that one."
A strained silence fell on the group, causing Ryouga to look back and forth in confusion. Finally, Ranma spoke up. "Well... you see..." he began, looking a little uncomfortable. "The thing is... There was this town that we went to help a couple days ago. They said they were having problems with a 'living octopus trap', but what it actually turned out to be was..."
As Ranma continued to relate the story, Ryouga's eyes grew wider and wider. Then, at the story's conclusion, he exploded into a burst of rage. "You let him come back with you?"
"Well..."
"I don't believe this! After all the hell we went through to have Pantyhose Taro drag him off, you just let him come back with you?" With a roar, Ryouga lunged at the other boy, and soon the two of them were locked in fierce combat.
Akane sighed, shaking her head. "Come on, let's go upstairs," she said resignedly to Beneda. "Those two idiots are probably going to be at this all night."
So... thought Beneda, as she looked curiously around the room. This is how a human lives.
Of course, she had no idea whatsoever if Akane's room was representative of a normal one. Bed, desk, chair, some shelves with books and other knickknacks on them—she took them all in for a moment. Then she turned back to the girl herself. "Thank you for letting me sleep here," she told her. It seemed the proper thing to say.
"Oh, don't worry about it," said Akane. "Any friend of Ryouga's is a friend of mine. Besides—" here she leaned a little closer to Beneda, almost conspiratorially "—it'll be nice to have another girl around here to talk to. I mean, Kasumi is wonderful, but she always acts so grown up, and Nabiki is, well... Nabiki."
Beneda raised her eyebrows at that, unsure of what to say. This human seemed to consider their shared gender to be a stronger unifying factor than the difference in their species—something that rather boggled the youma. Not that she would turn down a chance to ingratiate herself with her hosts, of course.
And really, it wasn't just this girl. None of these new humans seemed to consider the idea of chatting with a youma to be much stranger than Ryouga himself had. There had been some amount of guarded caution, but for all the reaction they gave, one would think that this kind of thing was a commonplace occurrence around here!
Beneda walked over to the bed, then sat down on one of the corners as she tried to collect her thoughts. All these twists of fate and circumstance... they were fortunate, without question. But they were also more confusing than anything Beneda had ever encountered before.
When Ryouga had rescued her, she had assumed that he must have had some hidden motive for doing so, some use that he intended to make of her. That assumption, however, was becoming increasingly implausible with every passing moment. Now there were all these other humans, also ready to jump in and protect her—a total stranger. It didn't make any sense.
The youma looked up at Akane. "Can I... ask you something?" she said, on sudden impulse.
"Sure. What is it?"
Beneda hesitated. "Why are you doing this?" she finally blurted out. "All of you, helping me. Why?"
Akane looked a little puzzled at the question. "Well, you needed the help, right?" she asked. "I mean, I know I wouldn't like to be ripped apart by those dog-things... and I really wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else either."
The youma frowned and looked away, her confusion no less than before. Just like that? she thought to herself. Just that simple?
It was all crazy, of course. Completely, totally idiotic. If humans actually thought that way, then it was a wonder they had lasted this long. And no wonder at all that they would soon be conquered by her kind. Survival was a question of looking out for yourself; anything less would get you trampled by those all too ready to exploit such a weakness.
But even so... looking over at Akane's smiling face, Beneda had to admit that it was pleasant enough to be on the receiving end of such foolishness. The idea that these humans really, truly wanted her to be alive, to be safe... it was a strange, unfamiliar feeling.
A tiny part of her wondered if she would miss it, once she had succeeded in all her plans.
The fight ended up drifting into the dojo before its eventual conclusion, but contrary to Akane's predictions it had taken less than ten minutes to resolve. Most of the reason, Ranma had to admit, was due to how spent Ryouga already was, and he privately resolved not to tease his rival about the speedy defeat. Too much.
Currently, Ryouga was lying flat on his face on the dojo floor, while Ranma leaned against one of the dojo walls. The lost boy's bandages had come undone early in the fight—considering the dubious quality of Akane's work, there had been little Ranma could have done to prevent it. As Ranma watched, Ryouga picked himself up to a sitting position and began to use what scraps still clung to him to re-bandage himself, grumbling all the while.
"I still can't believe you just let him back..." he muttered, for what seemed like the thousandth time. "An old man like that, in the same house as Akane! Don't you have any concern for her at all?"
"Aw, shut up P-chan..." shot back Ranma, irately. "Like you have any right to complain about perverts getting their hooves on her."
Ryouga glowered at him in silence for a while. Then, with a tired sigh he hung his head. "Ranma..." he said at last. "I... I wasn't trying to get here, you know. Not this time. I didn't mean to involve the Tendos in this."
Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, well..." he said. "What's done is done. It ain't like we could hide all that mess out in the street now anyway. If those Dark Kingdom guys are that determined to follow your trail, they're going to be poking their noses around here one way or the other."
The lost boy seemed to consider this for a while, then nodded his head. "I suppose..." he agreed reluctantly. "But we have to be careful, Ranma. This thing... it's much more serious than anything we've faced so far. I'm sure of it."
That drew a chuckle from Ranma. "Don't worry," the pigtailed boy said. "I already got an angle. First thing tomorrow, I'm gonna drop by the Nekohanten and pay the old ghoul a visit."
"Cologne?" asked the lost boy, surprised. "You're going to ask her for help?"
"Why not?" was Ranma's reply. "If anyone'd know how to handle something like this, it'd be her, right?"
Ryouga didn't reply immediately, but Ranma could tell that his brilliant idea had had a suitable impact on his rival. At length, the lost boy nodded. "You're right," he said. "If we had her help... as powerful as she is... that might do it. I think that might really do it."
"See?" said Ranma, grinning. "What'd I tell you? Just leave the thinking to me, and we'll send these guys packing in no time."
Outside the Tendo dojo, looking down from their perch on one of the nearby rooftops, stood the iron-masked figures of the two Inquisitors. The silence stretched on, until at last one of them spoke. "So. It seems we were right to let the situation play out and see what would come of it."
The other nodded, then turned to face the east. "It will be dawn soon," she said. "We must make our report."
As one, the two turned and moved away from the edge of the roof. One of the Inquisitors opened her hand, an eerie, blood-colored flame springing to life in her palm. The other knelt down in front of her partner, placed her hand on her own flickering shadow, and closed her eyes.
There was a delay of several seconds. Then, suddenly, her shadow changed—darkening until it no longer flickered, and warping into a silhouette that no longer matched that of the youma.
The Inquisitor opened her eyes. "Darkmistress," she said.
"What have you found?" The demand emanated up from the shadow, a low, distorted rasp. "Tell me."
The kneeling Inquisitor spoke. "We tracked the defector and her human ally as ordered, mistress. But one of the Hounds was killed in the process, and the Keeper grew... unstable. She tried to take revenge on her own."
"You stopped her, I trust? There are many questions I wish to ask this human. I will be most displeased if I lose the opportunity."
"We... did not stop her immediately, mistress," answered the standing youma. "At the time, she was the only one who knew the targets' location—the only one who could use the Hounds to follow them. And we knew that the human was formidable as well. We decided to simply follow the Keeper to their location, let the Hounds wear the targets down, and then intervene only at the last moment."
"I see... So what went wrong?" came the reply from the shadow, the words full of threat.
"It was a trap," the kneeling youma stated bluntly. "The human had allies in reserve, and they were waiting for us. He led the Hounds right into their clutches while pretending to flee. By the time we reached the scene of the battle ourselves most of our forces had been killed, and the Keeper followed shortly after."
"Describe these... allies."
"We saw only one of them," said the standing youma. "Also human, but also with powers far beyond that of a normal man. He was at least the equal of the first in combat, if not greater. And there were others as well. My spells detected at least five more inside their lair."
There was a long pause, before the shadow spoke again. "This... changes matters," the voice said. "A single interloper is one thing, but an organized cabal of enemy sorcerers is not a threat we can afford to take lightly."
"What would you have us do, mistress?"
"We must look deeper into this. I will not show our hand any more than necessary—not while we are still ignorant of what we are dealing with. Watch them. And report everything they do to me. I will pursue my own investigations.
"And then, when the time is right, we will teach them what it truly means to trifle with the Dark Kingdom."
