Fission
By HomerNet
Disclaimer: Ranma and Sailor Moon are properties of their respective owners who are not me. This is an original work by the author and any resemblance to the works it derives from is totally intentional and meant as a form of praise and flattery. No money is being made off of this in any way.
Author's Notes: This story is confusing the hell outa people...PERFECT!
Chapter 6: Gamma Burst
Ranma stood on the pinnacle of the wasted remains of Beryl's fortress, her Moon Crescent Wand held forth and tears streaming down her face. Her friends were dead, she knew that. One by one, they had sacrificed themselves so she could make it here in a last ditch effort to save the whole of the Earth. Rei, Ami, Makoto, Minako...this is for you! Summoning up every last ounce of power she had, forcing every bit of will in her tiny, teenaged frame into the beam of light that arced between her and the horribly mutated form of the would-be Queen Beryl, she somehow felt that, even though there was no possible way for it to be true, that her friends were by her side.
As Ranma felt the last of her life slip away into the cleansing fire from her wand, she saw Beryl's body fragment, then disintegrate into youma-dust. She collapsed to her knees, then dimly felt her body, still clad in her princess dress, thud against the rock of her lone precipice. As consciousness slipped away, one thought flitted through Ranma's head, I wish that my friends were still alive, and that everything were normal again...
She didn't notice as her Ginzuishou began to sparkle...
o0o0o
Ranma snapped awake. Sitting up quickly, he scanned the room he found himself in, he was...home. It was just a dream, he realized. He wasn't totally sure why he dreamt he was a princess from the moon, or why he should know four other girls that were somehow helping him, although he was sure the evil witch queen was symbolic of all the women in his life in some way.
He just prayed his mother never heard of the dream, though. Imagine how unmanly she'd find a white, lacy dress?
o0o0o
Usagi cradled the limp form of his fiancé in his lap. She looked so peaceful, so beautiful... "Why aren't her eyes open?"
Usagi heard Ryoga stepping closer to him. A friendly hand on his shoulder got no response from the sometimes-female martial artist.
"C'mon, ya stupid tomboy..." trailing off, Usagi hit himself in the head. He forced back tears and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I meant to say, you know, thanks. For helping me."
"I know I'm no good at this feelings stuff. I just couldn't tell you how much I love you." he realized that one of the droplets of water on Akane's face wasn't from the dragon spring. Another joined it as Usagi lost the battle with his tears. "C'mon, Akane, get up." There was still no response, "Akane?"
He couldn't even tell if she was breathing.
"AKANE!!!"
o0o0o
Usagi found herself sitting upright in bed, sweat pouring down her face, her heart pounding like a hummingbird was trapped in her chest.
"Usagi?" came the voice of her feline advisor, "Are you all right?"
Realizing she was indeed all right and once again fully FEMALE, the young girl nodded. "Nightmare." she stuttered.
"Must have been," replied Luna, "I haven't heard you shout like that in your sleep since...well, it's been a while." Usagi nodded, knowing exactly when the Moon Cat was talking about. "Was it...Beryl?"
Although the girl's face couldn't really get more ashen, the slightly confused yet pained look was replaced by one of deep emotional ache. "No. No, it wasn't about Beryl."
They sat in silence for a while, Usagi getting her breathing under control, Luna letting her charge recollect herself.
"Usagi?" Luna querried. She waited for the girl to respond with a 'Hmm?' before continuing with, "Who's Akane?"
"I..." Usagi's face returned to the confused and pained look, "I don't know."
o0o0o
Nabiki heard her alarm clock go off and slapped her hand down on the end table. Having missed the clock entirely, the morning tormentor continued to blare at her. Finally opening her eyes with a groan, she turned her head in an economy of motion that reduced energy expenditure to an absolute minimum. Fixing her gaze on the fuzzy blob that was making the noise, she lifted her arm, steered it like a drunkard over the blob, and let it drop. Mercifully, this ended the noise that was piercing her brain at the ungodly hour of...What time is it, anyway?
She blinked, rubbed her eyes with the hand not presently on the clock, and squinted in an effort to focus through the foggy blur that persisted whenever she opened her eyes first thing in the morning. 6:00 AM, she read, I don't care if the rest of the world gets up at this hour; this is cruel and unusual! Sighing, she plopped her head back on her pillow and merciful unconsciousness played tag with her. Her little game with Morpheus was interrupted by Akane's door opening and shutting, indicating her little sister was on her way out for her morning run. Dimly, she realized that the male (or mostly male) Saotome's would soon be awake and sparring right outside her WINDOW! Sighing and biting back the urge to just storm into their room and give them a good preemptive chewing out (for two reasons. One, Mrs. Saotome didn't spar in the morning, so it would be rude to wake her, and two, that was Akane's shtick.), Nabiki reached up to pull the covers off her chest, with the eventual goal of also kicking them off her legs.
It was about that time she realized she had something cool and metallic on her chest. Forgoing the covers for a moment, she grasped the metal item and lifted it to her eyes. What the...? she thought. Why do I have a key on my chest?
Suddenly, her morning fog was clearing much, much faster.
o0o0o
Rei sighed, leaning forward slightly on her broom and gazing wistfully in the direction of the school her friends were attending. While she certainly didn't miss the homework, her priestess duties kept her from being in the one place where all her best friends gathered every single day.
Not that she cared for the Meatball Head, certainly not. Little manga thief…
Also, there had been times when she was at the shrine while everyone else was at the school, or she was at her private school her grandpa had arranged for her and her communicator would go off, and she'd have to stay put, unable to protect her friends.
Of course, a certain pony-tailed ditz didn't make things easy on that count…
Sighing once again, she grabbed her broom and began to sweep when she saw something down on the street near the temple gates. She almost didn't think anything of it at first, but then it went by the gates again. The temple wall obstructed most of her view of the street, but what looked like an odd assortment of vehicles was heading down the street…right towards the school.
Hopefully Usagi would be late again and not have to face whatever this was, especially if it was a new threat.
Not that Rei cared about Usagi, of course not.
o0o0o
Nabiki normally ate breakfast with her family. Today, a mystery had presented itself that was so unusual that she felt forgoing the luxury of the early morning soap opera that was Ranma and Akane's relationship was very much worth it. She sat in her room at her desk, her laptop open and in front of her, the mystery key sitting on a piece of paper next to it on the left, her bowl of soup on the right. She picked up the bowl and slurped down a bit of it, not standing on manners since she wasn't at the dinner table. Let's see...symbol for 'woman'...nothing, she moused back to the search box and typed another string, 'Female' 'brass' and 'unlock', no...feminine key...EW! Quickly hitting back to remove the offensive and highly pornographic search results from her web browser, she decided to take another tack. Hmmm...the symbol for 'woman' comes from the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite, she typed in a few keywords and hit 'enter.' Damn, still nothing! Well, nothing relevant.
Sighing, she sipped at her coffee. "OK," she muttered, "Nothing for 'woman,' or 'Aphrodite' as relates to a brass key..."
Why would someone have dropped a brass key on her bed, and how did they defeat the security measures she had in place, let alone getting into a house of martial artists completely undetected? Sighing, Nabiki gulped down more soup and began to gather some of her schoolbooks and other, less reputable books on wagers and numbers keeping. There was a light tap at her door, followed by Kasumi's gentle voice, "Nabiki, you should be getting ready for school."
Nabiki tensed up. She hadn't told anyone about the key, for some reason she had this incredible desire to keep it's existence secret. "I am, sis. I'll bring my dishes down on the way out, okay?"
"Very well, let me know if you need anything. Your bento will be on the kitchen counter."
"Thanks, sis."
As Kasumi's footfalls faded behind the closed door, Nabiki's eyes fell back on the key again. Aphrodite, goddess of...
Sudden inspiration hit and Nabiki and she did another search for 'goddess of love greek.' Aside from one very odd entry for a shrine in a neighboring ward for a Norse goddess of love, nearly every entry except the Wikipedia result came up as "Venus." Gulping down the rest of her coffee and soup almost absently, Nabiki tossed in a search string of, 'venus key.'
While no results came up with anything fitting the description of the key now in her possession, there was a couple of interesting articles from several of the various boards and clubs devoted to the Sailor Senshi. It seemed that one of their members was named 'Sailor Venus' and some theories about their abilities and where they came from. Not having time to do serious study, Nabiki bookmarked the search results and powered down her computer.
Almost as an afterthought, she shoved the brass key in her uniform pocket before leaving her room.
o0o0o
Usagi trudged into the gates leading to her school, not really ready to face the day. She had, for once, managed to get there on time, but at the price of her much-cherished beauty sleep. A couple of her classmates called out greetings, which she returned sleepily. As she was waving to Makoto, who was chatting with the only other tall girl in school, she noticed a girl in school uniform who would have nicely qualified as a member of The Ministry of Silly Walks. She was holding her book bag up to shield her face, making exaggerated 'tip-toe' steps, and occasionally bouncing off a tree as she aimed, only somewhat accurately, toward the front door of the school.
While Usagi's namesake was never very curious, her advisor's earthen counterparts were notorious for it. Disregarding the native lagomorphic tendencies ascribed to her zodiac animal and embracing the propensity Luna rarely practiced but Artemis did with startling regularity, Usagi altered her course and went straight for the strangely stepping girl.
While high school is a time when most people learn to become adults, complete with the acclimation to what some refer to as the 'social contract' of behaving more mature than one really is, there are some people who just never grow out of the child-like tendency of asking questions in a direct manner. Usagi, as you may have guessed, is one of these people.
"What are you doing?" she asked in a straight-forward, non-aggressive manner.
The other girl tensed up for a moment, then thrust her arms to her side, taking the book bag along with them. She faced Usagi and said, "It's no business of yours what I'm doing, Tsukino!"
Usagi's eyes bugged out, "Mia?!"
Mia's face was now turning red, "Yes, it's me."
"What happened to your armor?" fell out of Usagi's mouth. It registered to the part-time magical girl that she had never seen Mia outside of the armor since the girl had transferred in.
Mia started to growl a response, "It...what is that?" she interrupted herself and looked over Usagi's shoulder.
o0o0o
"Sorry, Usa-chan's usually not here on time, just wanted to say hi. Where was I?" Makoto said after waiving at Usagi.
"The American, Paul?" replied Kita.
"Oh, right. Well, he was cute, but he really didn't look all that good. I just don't remember what I saw in him..."
Kita grinned, "You mean other than the fact that he looks 'just like your old sempai?'"
"Hey," snapped Makoto with a smile on her face, "You take that back!" She proceeded to put the other girl in a headlock. They began laughing, until they both saw...
"What is that?!" burst Kita from under Makoto's arm.
o0o0o
"...and I'm like, 'Oh, my god!'" said Minako, "And she's like, 'Oh, my god! And I'm all, 'Totally!'"
The cheerleaders that were gathered around the star volleyball player of the school simply giggled in the way that young girls do the world over as Minako's stunning use of vocabulary resonated with them.
Before Mina could continue, one of the girls pointed in the direction of the school gate and said, "Like, what is that?"
o0o0o
Ami was in the library, happily immersed in a book about higher functions of calculus, and so missed the whole thing entirely.
o0o0o
By the time the respective Sailor Senshi's attention had been drawn to the school gates (sans Ami and Rei), the entirety of the school's populous that hadn't yet gone inside stood gawking at a sight that was quite unusual for...well, just about anywhere.
A strange, somewhat futuristic vehicle that resembled a cross between a bus and a shuttlecraft from Star Trek: The Next Generation had pulled into the main courtyard of the school. Not in any sort of proper manner, following any of the proscribed paths, but straight in through the gates and right in the middle of the grassy lawn. Behind that were two smaller vehicles, rather like motorcycles but completely covered and with rather large cannon-style weapons on the sides, both bearing banners with a strange assortment of symbols that none of the students could really read. Behind them was a more platform like vehicle, with a large stage-like surface in front of the main cabin, which was actually positioned toward the back of the vehicle. Behind that was another vehicle, and another, and so on stretching for pretty much as far as anyone could see, all of them looking in some form or another very much like something one would find in a sci-fi series.
As the strange procession pulled into a parking position, a man in some sort of uniform hopped out of the lead vehicle and climbed up onto the platform vehicle. He slowly, seemingly reluctantly, grabbed a device from a compartment near the cab of the vehicle and shuffled out to the center of the platform. Sighing, he activated the device, which proved to be a microphone as feedback shot through the ears of everyone in the courtyard. It quickly died down, and the man began to speak.
"Sorry, that was unintentional. Atmospheric changes and all that. I…" he leaned away from the microphone and toward the lead vehicle, which had the head of another man sticking out of the driver's side door. While only those closest to the vehicles could hear what the driver was saying, the microphone was still on, so everybody heard, if somewhat faintly, the speaker's half of the conversation, "Listen, this is stupid…yes, I know it's orders, but the speech is ancient…it's downright archaic and you know it!" he waved vigorously in negation of whatever the driver said in response, "OK fine, whatever." He sighed and put the microphone back up to his mouth. "I bring the Court of the Moon Kingdom a message from the Mighty and Majestic Realms of the Riginium Empire, all hail the Emperor, may he continue to rule for time and all eternity. The message from the Emperor is this; We bring you greetings and good wishes, Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom. We wish to formalize the arrangements between our two states using the Anciente and Noble Practice of joining our two houses through matrimony."
At the mention of "Moon Kingdom," three faces in the courtyard went totally white, and they all thought at once, Oh, please don't mention Senshi!
As for the rest of the people, students and teachers alike, they were suddenly abuzz with newfound rumor. Some Emperor, from some far off country, wanted his child to marry someone from their school! They had royalty attending and didn't even know it! Suddenly the sight was less an oddity and more like entertainment.
The speaker continued, "And so, We present the heir to the Empire, the…" the speaker fought to keep revulsion from showing on his face, "The seed of Our loins, the hope and crowning jewel of all Our peoples, the Lord Prince Xavier Ba'heedan the Magnificent, the First."
As the speaker turn on his heal and fled the stage as quickly as possible, trumpets began to sound, or a very acoustically advanced sound system began to sound, there wasn't a single square inch of brass in sight. The next vehicle in line, the one behind the stage, trundled forward. It looked like a sort of futuristic mini-bus, but with tank-like treads instead of wheels. The front split open with a hiss and voluminous amounts of steam as the music blared to a crescendo and a ramp lowered down to the grass. As the vapor cleared, a teenaged boy could be seen walking down the ramp.
Older women would have called him handsome. Younger women would have called him hot. Teenage girls would have called him (and were calling him) bishonen. Men would bowed to him, boys would have glared at him in jealousy. He was good looking. Every single girl on the lawn was suddenly love-struck. They knew that no matter what guy came along, his looks would always be a distant second to this paragon of masculinity. Calmly, casually, he descended the ramp. He held up a small device, panned it across the crowd, looked up and nodded in satisfaction, then clipped it to his belt. Then he walked. Girls began to swoon as their fantasies suddenly took them away to a thousand private islands with the gorgeous hunk passing through their midst.
Usagi was frozen in panic. She didn't know who the Riginium Empire was, she didn't care. She did know that as long as she, her friends, her family, and her school hoped to have a chance in hell of never being the direct recipients of a youma attack, their identities COULD NOT be revealed as Sailor Senshi. And here was this guy, who not only knew about the Silver Millennium, but had referred to her ancient mother by name, and was talking about some 'matrimony' thing that her brain was giving her all sorts of alarms for but she couldn't quite figure out why, and looked like he was headed straight for…
"Ah," he began in a silky smooth voice, "You would no doubt be Princess Serenity. Yes, you look just like your pictures. I am surprised to find you here, of all places, but no matter." He reached out, took her hand, and kissed the back in a gentlemanly manner. What girls watching the scene that weren't smoldering with jealousy sighed heavily, a couple even fainting. "I am Prince Xavier. I look forward to a long and joyous betrothal."
…her. Crap! "Uh…" she began to stammer, "That's nice and all, but I think you're mistake…WAIT A MINUTE, BETROTHAL? MATRIMONY?"
The prince was obviously surprised, "Why, of course. Did your mother not explain these things to you? It has certainly been long enough…"
"MY MOM DID NO SUCH THING! MY MOM LIKES MY BOYFRIEND! I…" it suddenly occurred to Usagi that he wasn't talking about her Mom, the one who made her bunny shaped pancakes, but her Mom, the one who'd been dead for a thousand plus years.
The prince took her sudden stop as an opportunity to speak, "Oh, is Queen Serenity here? We didn't detect her when we came…"
Suddenly, a technique came to Usagi, one that was perfect for dealing with just this sort of situation. It was cunning, it would be unexpected, and it would win her at least enough time to find her friends, who had conveniently disappeared, and it would remove her from the presence of Mia, who was looking far too smug. She didn't know where she came up with the idea, but she made a mental note to thank whoever gave it to her.
"TSUKINO SECRET TECHNIQUE!!!"
Prince Xavier stood blinking at the spot where Usagi used to be just a moment prior. "Hmph!" he sniffed, "That was hardly proper."
o0o0o
Nabiki sat casually, one hand in her pocket under the desk, idly turning the key while her lieutenants briefed her on their respective spheres of influence. She was running mostly on automatic, the mystery of the key consuming a good portion of her thoughts. She still hadn't revealed it to anyone, but she had an idea on how she might get more information.
"OK," she said as the last girl spoke, "It sounds like business as usual. For now I'd like to keep it that way." As a few girls groaned, she spoke up, "Hey, not only could the school use a break, but I think we all deserve some downtime unless there's a special project." The group reluctantly acknowledged Nabiki's decision, having grown rather accustomed to the rather steady influx of money that the general chaos they stirred up could provide.
The other girls had already started gathering their books. "Junko," the older girl looked up, "You follow the Sailor Senshi pretty closely, right?"
Junko blushed slightly as the other girls began teasing her. It was rather well known among Nabiki's lieutenants that Junko was a closet Sailor Moon fangirl. "Yeah, I do..."
"Great, hang out for a bit, would you? I've got some questions about them, my little sister's birthday is coming up soon, I want to make sure I get her something nice." This wasn't a total fabrication. Akane's birthday was coming up soon, and she did have a good sized collection of Sailor Senshi manga and other assorted materials, but that wasn't the point of Nabiki's query.
Once the others got out of earshot, Nabiki leaned forward. "So," began Nabiki, "What can you tell me about the blond girl? The one that's not Sailor Moon, that's Mars, right?"
Junko giggled, "Nope, wrong on that count boss! Sailor Mars has black hair. It's Sailor Venus that has the blond hair."
Nabiki knew that from her brief research that morning, but holding one's cards close to the chest was all important in information gathering. "Right, I don't pay much attention to them myself, this is for Akane, you understand."
"Sure thing, boss! Sailor Venus is the Senshi of Love, and she can kick some real butt too!" she scrambled in her bookbag for a moment and pulled out a magazine called Senshi Beat. She took a moment to flip open to a page, then pushed the magazine over to Nabiki, "See? That's a photo spread someone did of Sailor Venus last month." Indeed, it showed the fetching blond not just in a press conference, but also doing a bit of posing and even a few shots of her in active battle. Nabiki recognized that the girl had a little fighting skill, but only street brawler ability magnified by whatever powered her Senshi abilities. Nabiki didn't grow up in a martial artist's home for nothing, and she had retained her ability to gauge the fighting form, if for no other reason than to be able to set odds in a wager.
"That's great!" Nabiki said with false enthusiasm, "Do you mind if I borrow this?" she said, already slipping the magazine into her bag.
"Oh, sure," said Junko, "The next issue is coming out this afternoon anyway."
"Thanks, Junko." said Nabiki as she stood, "Talk to you later."
o0o0o
Ami was casting confused glances to the other students in the hall. When she had left the library at the appropriate time to go to class, the halls were mostly empty, but they filled up quickly and with a greater amount of chatter than usual. Not one to pay much attention to that sort of thing, she generally tuned it out. The first mention of, "Moon Kingdom" was enough to cause her to stumble, but most people ignored the nerdy girl when she stumbled. She began listening closer, but the reports weren't making much sense. Something about a prince and a bunch of strange cars and trucks and a few mentions of a funny man on a stage all blended together in a very confused jumble of references that Ami couldn't make heads or tails of.
Being more focused on attempting to cobble all these various thoughts together, she was taken by surprise when a hand reached out from the girl's bathroom and yanked her in. Her startled yelp was cut off when she saw Usagi's face.
"Usagi, don't do that! You frightened me!"
Usagi ignored Ami's statement, "Is he out there?"
Ami's bewilderment simply increased. "Is who out there?"
Now Usagi looked confused, "You know...him!"
Ami simply glared at Usagi, "Is this one of those conversations where I should find Mina to translate through Makoto?"
"Grrr!" Usagi actually growled, "Lousy traitors! They just disappeared..."
Ami grabbed Usagi's shoulders and shook her, "Usagi! Make some sense!"
The blond blinked at Ami, "Didn't you see what happened in the courtyard?"
Ami thought back to the very little she had glimpsed of the usual morning crowd on her way to the library. "When, exactly, was I supposed to see anything?"
Just then, the bell rang. "Aaah! I'm going to be late!" Usagi yelped. She charged out the bathroom door, leaving a very confused Ami behind.
o0o0o
Nabiki was putting her books away to head out to lunch. Sure, she didn't have anyone to meet today, given that she'd dismissed all her lieutenants before morning study hall, but she didn't really like sitting in a closed classroom when the entire lunch hour was available for her to enjoy the lawns and courtyards of the school, one of the few things that their pineapple-for-brains principle had done well and in a pleasing way. Perhaps there was something of good report in that be-cursed island Kocho Kuno always rambled on about.
Besides, it got her away from Tatewaki Kuno for a while.
This led to her enjoying her noon repast beneath a rather well tended shade tree as a light breeze cooled her face. She realized that she just hadn't had the time lately to just enjoy pleasant lunches anymore. Perhaps she should find a way to do her usual lunchtime business in another way, or maybe delegate a bit more. It was her final year of high-school, about time to find a local replacement anyway, someone she could hand the reigns of her rather well established little high school empire...for a 15 per annum partial ownership fee, of course.
Nabiki's pleasant thoughts were interrupted by a shadow crossing over her. She looked up to see an older boy, very likely a 19 year old, standing in her sunlight. "Is there something I can do for you?" she said slightly frostily. Her lunchtime was going so well...
"Ah, Nabiki. Still as cool as ever. I have a business proposition for you."
Nabiki furled her brow. She was hoping to dedicate time to the mystery key, not business. Still, business is business... "Before I deal with you, I really must know who you are."
"I graduated from this school at the end of last term. I heard quite a bit about your exploits before I did so, however, and I know you will be interested in what I have to offer."
Nabiki noticed he didn't actually answer her question, but decided to play his game. "I see, so what did you have in mind?"
"I have come to learn of a shipment that went astray," began the young man, "The company that was supposed to take ownership went bankrupt, and so the shipment is simply sitting in a warehouse."
The cash register bells in Nabiki's head overrode the alarm bells briefly. "What's the shipment?"
"I can't say that here, the materials in question are in rather high demand."
"OK," said Nabiki, "Why come to me?" She had dealt with mystery shipments before, including finding some rather well placed recipients that were very...generous to her for her efforts, but this mystery former student wasn't like any of her previous contacts, who she was very familiar with.
"Quite simply," said the stranger, "My associates wanted to avoid the more...heavily monitored sources of contacts. Your name happened to come up, and I knew how to contact you."
Curious, thought Nabiki, "I assume you want me to meet your contacts somewhere?"
The man simply nodded and relayed the location of a warehouse nearby.
"Fine, I have school to finish, I'll meet your associates later on, say, five o'clock?"
"Very well, I shall tell them to expect your arrival."
o0o0o
Ranma lay stretched out under a tree on the other side of the school. He had his bento napkin spread out over his eyes, his hands behind his head, and one ankle resting on the other knee, lightly dozing.
Akane looked up from her English homework, "It's rather quiet today, isn't it?" she observed.
Ukyo scratched down an answer for her math homework, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, sugar. I'm getting more work done today than I usually get done in a week."
Ranma merely grunted in agreement.
o0o0o
Ami was growing increasingly frustrated by the chatter going on around her. AP English was supposed to be one of her few refuges in the school from the constant chattering and nattering of the rumor crowd, yet today's favorite topic, the mysterious happenings that she had somehow completely missed that morning, was being endlessly debated by the others in her class.
"I just haven't ever heard of any 'Riginium Empire,' even anciently."
She now had a choice to make. Did she swallow her pride and show all the other geeks in her class that she out-geeked them by several orders of magnitude and thereby alienate yet another social group, or keep silent and have the unsolved mystery of just what the hell everyone was talking about plague her waking moments?
"Maybe they just changed the name of an older country? It's happened before, especially with revolutions..."
She at least had a better idea of what had happened based on the conversation. Apparently, some prince had walked onto school grounds with great fanfare and proposed to another student, one the other intellectuals in her class didn't like to much.
"That isn't the case here, if we can rely on the lackey's comments on the microphone. The speech he gave is apparently a very old one."
Her increased knowledge was obviously still not giving her the whole story. Why would Usagi have acted the way she did before class?
"I still say it's a hoax. After all, even if the Riginium Empire is real, the Moon Kingdom is obviously not."
Ami stiffened in her seat, her eyes suddenly as big as saucers. She had just added 2 and 2 and gotten 48. Without a word, she scrambled all of her supplies, papers, and books together, threw them into her bag, and ran out the door.
The rest of the class sat in stunned silence for a moment, including the teacher.
Ami poked her head back into the room, "Sorry, sensei. I...uh...need to do some research on...a sociology project." She was gone again before the stunned sensei could merely nod.
o0o0o
Usagi was doing her best effort to hide under her desk without actually leaving her chair. Pretty much the instant she had stepped into her classroom, her classmates were pestering her with questions, asking who the mysterious stranger was, and (the teenager rumor mill being what it was) whether she had gotten "romantic" with him or not, all conveniently ignoring her initial reaction and current vehement denials.
Just as she was about to burst into tears, two things happened.
The first and most welcome was Ami bursting through the doors and breaking very quickly into an impromptu speech in a vain attempt to get the teacher to let Usagi out of class for a bit. It was a vain attempt not due to the usual and expected reasons that no, other students could not just haul students out of class for poor excuses and Usagi's grades were slumping...again, but due to the second thing that happened.
Said second thing was presently swaying, for such a paragon of masculinity did not dangle or hang, on a well crafted tether, his foot through a loop at the end of the tether and one hand gripping the tether at shoulder height. Said tether was swaying just outside Usagi's classroom window, and a low humming noise could be heard, indicating the presence of some sort of craft holding the tether aloft. Every girl in the class was instantly up against the windows in effort to get a better look and (perhaps, just maybe) get their object of amore's attention. Even Ms. Haruna was stunned speechless.
"Fairest princess, I was hoping to...oh, dear..." the combined females of the class were devastated by the disappointed look on Prince Xavier's face. They turned to look to see what had upset their paragon of manliness, only to see Usagi's empty desk and the door to the classroom closing.
o0o0o
Nabiki sat in study hall, quietly soaking up information she considered vital. Said information had nothing to do with math, or science, or any of the other many subjects taught at the school, but more to do with the subject of the key still residing in her pocket. She was carefully paging through the copy of Senshi Beat she had received from Junko, earmarking pages with mentions of Sailor Venus. The teacher in charge had almost threatened to take the magazine away from Nabiki, but the mercenary girl had merely glared menacingly at the man, who quickly backed down without saying a word. Nabiki went back to her magazine with a secretive smile, making a mental note to give a bonus to whoever had dirt on the man. Or just give a bonus to whoever could dig up the dirt.
During the course of her research, she had learned what little Sailor Venus' fans could dig up. There was a strong suspicion that Sailor Venus was also Sailor V, who's crowning achievement was crushing The Syndicate, a crime organization in Europe with suspected ties to the occult. Since Sailor Venus' surfacing in Japan, Sailor V had simply vanished, and their costumes were remarkably similar, based on the few crime artist's sketches that existed from Sailor V's assault on crime and the photos taken since the first youma invasion four years ago. Nabiki had to admit that with the evidence at hand, it was quite likely true. Of course, rumors that Sailor V was still operating in Europe kept the crime activity low, so neither Interpol nor the Senshi were eager to make the connection.
Nabiki paused in her perusal of the magazine and stared hard at one of the images of Sailor Venus. Some fool cameraman with a death wish had gotten close enough to a battle between Sailor Venus and a youma as Venus was using one of her special attacks. The cameraman had to have been one of the pros, as the picture quality was high enough to clearly show each link in the chain Venus was summoning, the last link was actually in the process of forming from whatever the Senshi used to make their attacks. (Nabiki doubted it was Qi, they just didn't seem to be that good as martial artists) The chain wasn't what caught her interest. What she focused on instead was just above the Senshi's hands, hovering in space near Venus' ear.
It was a symbol, made of light, probably five inches across and six inches high. It somewhat resembled an ankh, though the bottom leg was straight down, and the top loop was shaped like a circle.
It exactly matched the symbol on her key.
o0o0o
The library was a place of studious learning. A place where the willing student could go and find portals to the unknown, adventures from long ago, knowledge never seen by minds so young in the history of the world. School libraries represent the greatest achievements of mankind from the earliest dawn of the species, condensed down to several thousand tomes and written in such a way that anyone of average intelligence or higher could, with a few hours of concentrated effort, gain insight into the secrets of the universe.
Consequently, it was the ideal place for Usagi to hide from her teachers and fellow students with inquiring minds, as it was the last place the bunny-haired girl would be caught dead in. She just wished she'd thought of it sooner. Or thought of it at all, as it was Ami who had dragged her into the library.
Usagi was presently fidgeting with her pencil case, trying to keep from making too much noise and getting them kicked out of the library. She had finally landed on a game of "balance the pencil," wherein she displayed some decidedly un-Usagi-like, totally not clumsy behavior of balancing four pencils, two pens, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, and two paperclips on all ten of her fingers, when Ami said, "Ah-ha!" in a definitive tone. This startled Usagi, who promptly dropped all ten implements, making a clattering noise that earned her a sharp glare from Ami. This was fine with Usagi, as Ami hadn't taken her eyes off her computer screen since they had sat down.
Ami dismissed her irritation with her Princess and turned her computer to face Usagi. "This is what I've been looking for."
Usagi felt her brain seize up at the screenfull of legalese. "Uh..."
Ami had apparently anticipated Usagi's lack of comprehension and continued speaking without a beat, "It's a treaty. More specifically it's a contract." Ami turned the computer back around, her eyes flitting over the text as she re-read the salient parts. "The contract is a mutual peace accord, where the Riginium Empire and the Moon Kingdom, who apparently shared a border when we had a functional space fleet..."
"We had a space fleet? Like with X-wing fighters and stuff?"
Ami rolled her eyes, "You watch too much science fiction. There's no such thing as an X-wing fighter." Ami ignored the disappointed look on Usagi's face and continued, "The peace accord says that the two kingdoms are to exist side by side, neither making any moves into the other's space without permission, so long as both sides remain loyal to the contract."
Usagi's brow furrowed, "So what does that have to do with this prince?"
"I'm getting to that," Ami said, "Apparently, it's traditional in the Riginium Empire to include in all treaties with other nations a clause that the Champion Prince of the Riginium Empire, who upon defeating all challengers on their home planet should..."
Ami never got to finish her sentence, because just then the library doors burst open. Framed in the doorway was Makoto and Minako, looking a bit henpecked. "Usagi!" Makoto burst out.
"No shouting in the library!" snapped the librarian, who had immediately come running when she heard the door open.
"No time for that now!" said Mina, "We've got a situation!"
Usagi stood up indignantly, "You...you guys just LEFT me out there!"
Makoto rushed to Usagi's side, "Yeah, sorry, I kinda panicked..."
"Me too!" interjected Mina.
"...but we've got to get you out of here! That prince guy has got some sort of device that he's using to track you. Right now the hall monitors've got him stopped at the end of the hallway..."
With that statement, all earlier infractions were forgotten. Usagi clung to Makoto's arm, "Get me out of here! Hide me!"
"Uhm..." began Ami, "If you'd just sit down with him..."
"That's why we're here." said Mina, plowing right over Ami's words, "I've got the cheerleading squad on standby outside the gates. They volunteered to provide a distraction while we get you home."
Ami spoke up again, "We really don't need to do this..."
"Great!" said Usagi, completely ignoring Ami as she raced for the door, "Let's get out of here!"
Makoto and Minako moved like a coordinated pair of guardians, which is technically what they were, and ushered Usagi out of the library and out of sight. As the doors clapped shut, a slightly frazzled Ami held her gaze forlornly on the spot she had last seen her friends. "...you all really need to hear about the rest of this contract..." she said to the air.
The librarian blinked at Ami, then at the doors. She sighed, muttered something about disrespectful students, and went back to her reshelving duties.
o0o0o
Nabiki stepped out of the school gates to find the mystery man waiting for her. "I hope this doesn't take too long," said Nabiki, "I don't want to miss my sister Akane's cooking."
"Ah, yes. That would be a shame, now, wouldn't it." replied the man.
Damn! thought Nabiki, I'd hoped he'd say something definitive. It was a rather obvious bait to anyone who knew of Akane's cooking, and even in her first year of Home Ec. class was infamous for the culinary disasters that she produced. I guess I'll have to find some other line of questioning. I know this guy wasn't in Furinkan last year, but I can't prove it without more information. Nabiki hid her frustration as she began walking next to the man.
Some time later, with Nabiki attempting several different lines of questioning to try and pull some tidbit about the enigma she was following and getting nowhere except further away from home, they arrived at the entrance to a warehouse building. It was now late enough that the sun was beginning to set. The windows, what few she could see, were dark. She glanced questioningly at her guide. "We keep them covered from the inside," he said, "This particular shipment is rather valuable, after all."
Nabiki simply nodded speculatively as he opened the door for her. Keeping her composure took quite a bit of effort, as some sixth sense was screaming at her that this situation was extremely bad news.
o0o0o
"No, she won't be doing an interview," said Makoto into the phone. There was a pause as she listened to the voice on the other end of the conversation, then, "I don't care if you're from Asahi Shimbun, you're not gonna interview her!" she slammed down the phone. Before she could even take her hand off it, it rang again. Makoto lifted the receiver, quickly tapped the switch hook, checked to make sure the dial tone came on, then set the phone on the table, leaving it off the hook. She sighed and walked over to the front door to help Minako.
"Listen," said Minako, "I understand you've got questions, we all do, but we really don't know anything about this prince character and what he's doing in Juuban looking for our friend."
"But if we could just ask her directly..." asked a student with a badge pinned to his uniform shirt that said, 'Student paper.'
Makoto gently pushed Minako aside, "Are you hearing impaired?" growled the tall brunette, "She aint talkin', not now, not later, not ever!" She used her height and every ounce of intimidation she could summon to loom over the student reporter. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"
The boy, knees knocking, nodded, babbled something in agreement, and took off running.
Luna watched it all from the stairs, "My goodness," she said under her breath to Usagi, "What caused all this?"
Usagi sulked in her bedroom doorway, feeling like a prisoner in her own house. "Some prince showed up today. He knew about the Moon Kingdom and everything."
"A prince?" restated Luna in confusion.
Usagi nodded. "Some sort of empire. 'Rejonium' or something like that." Unseen by Luna, Usagi began absentmindedly flipping a coin through her fingers, once again casually displaying a level of dexterity the Moon Princess had never before possessed.
Luna blinked, looked back to Usagi from her vantage point at the top of the stairs, "Riginium?" she clarified. At Usagi's nod, she gasped, "Good heavens! I didn't even know the Empire still existed!"
Usagi, having her attention distracted again, dropped the coin clumsily, "You know about these people?"
"Oh, yes," said Luna, "It's a bit hazy..." they both shared an annoyed look, as Luna's and Artimis' swiss cheese memories were a continual bane to the Sailor Senshi, "But they were a neighboring kingdom. Very warrior-like, always issuing challenges and taking it as a personal affront if you didn't accept."
"They're barbarians?!" gaped Usagi.
"No, no," said Luna, "They were very well bred, with great knowledge of science and history being a large part of their education, along with training. No, it's more like the old dueling code here on Earth. A sort of 'gentleman's duel' to determine honor. To turn down a dual was considered a tremendous insult that could result in wars if the participants were in the right families."
"Great!" said Usagi, "And now I've got their prince wanting to marry me!"
Luna blinked at Usagi for a moment, then shouted, "WHAT?!"
Unfortunately, Ikoku Tsukino, Usagi's Earthly mother, came through the door at that moment, "I'm home from shopping! Oh, hello girls." she said with a smile as she saw Makoto and Minako. Usagi rolled her eyes and shrugged at Luna, who couldn't talk now without blowing her cover in front of Usagi's mom. The younger Tsukino padded down the stairs and said, "Hi, mom!"
As Ikoku went into the kitchen, Makoto automatically following to help put away the shopping, she said, "I had the most interesting encounter today. A small gaggle of girls came up to me and asked if I had betrothed you to a prince!"
Usagi, Makoto, and Minako plastered smiles on their faces, cringing inside as they forced out a giggle to join Usagi's mom in her laughter.
o0o0o
Nabiki followed her guide to the center of the warehouse, her hand in her pocket and firmly gripping the key bearing the Venus emblem. Not that it would provide a whole lot of protection, but a poke in the eye with a large brass key would have to hurt enough for her to get out of a bad situation if it came down to it. "So when do your associates arrive?" said Nabiki.
"They should be here right about..." they heard a door open on the other side of the warehouse and some male voices floated over to them. Nabiki struggled to see the newcomers through the dark of the warehouse. She saw them as mere shadows as they approached, but she could hear them as they came further in.
"...I just want to get this over with. I don't like dealing with unknowns."
Reasonable, Nabiki thought. One does not become a successful business person without wanting to know all the facts.
"Listen, the boss says that this guy can deliver, and you've seen him in action. You want to tell the boss he's wrong?"
Finally, the two newcomers stepped into the light of the single bulb that was lit in the warehouse. The both wore long sleeved shirts with high collars, clean, pressed pants and sport coats, and seemingly matching ties. Nabiki's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Sure, they could be just well dressed businessmen, but they could also be well dressed thugs.
The first voice, the man on the right, didn't answer his collegues question but turned to face the mystery man that brought Nabiki. "This kid is the one we're waiting for?"
The man nodded, and the other two men simply nodded and backed away. The alarm bells were suddenly screaming at her, and one thought began to echo in her mind. It was odd, as she had never heard the particular phrase before in her life.
The mystery man turned to face her as the shadows seem to darken around him, "You have succumbed to your greed. The path to your destruction has been chosen." His form seemed to twist, his clothes shredded as his skin took on a monstrous color. The man...no, the youma (for Nabiki had now recognized what she was facing) began to grow and shift, it's torso stretching obscenely into a twisted mockery of the female form. It's arms bulked up, shadowy tattoos slithering across the skin of it's arms until it resembled a dark parody of Yakuza markings. It's face stretched into something resembling a lizard, and it's tongue flicked own, showing that it was silvery and forked.
Nabiki had already began to step backward, trying to keep her eye on the creature and evacuate at the same time. The two men, she noticed, did not make a move to assist her or the youma, but neither did they act surprised. The creature took a lumbering step toward her on cloven-hooves and hissed at her. With that, Nabiki turned on her heal and ran, hoping to make it to the doorway and out onto the streets of Nerima, where some over-powered martial artist was bound to be wandering by.
She didn't make it two steps before a massive, clawed hand slammed her against some nearby crates, pinning her face first.
o0o0o
Sailor Moon ran like a woman possessed, anger etched all over her face. Jupiter and Venus kept pace a few steps behind, keeping a concerned eye on their leader as they leaped from rooftop to rooftop.
When it was just her mom asking questions, Usagi could laugh at the whole thing and almost pretend the whole bad day had been some sort of silly story she and her friends had made up. When the first reporter, followed by another inquisitive group of girls, showed up at the door, it went from silly to irritating. When Mrs. Tsukino noticed the phone was off the hook and placed it back on the cradle before Makoto could warn her off, it went from irritation to nightmare as the phone once again started ringing with call after inquiring call from newspapers, TV stations, friends, associates, dubious relations, relatives, and even a few wedding planners who all wanted to get in on the action.
Ikoku had finally taken the same route as Makoto and just left the phone off the hook.
Soon thereafter the press started camping out on their street, followed shortly by star-struck girls who wanted to inveigle their way into the inner circle of a girl who would soon be a princess of some sort. About an hour earlier, the Tokyo PD had finally been summoned to evict the paparazzi and fangirls, but the police efforts weren't entirely effective, and the occasional fangirl or really stubborn cameraman would sneak through the police line.
After the fifth incident (Usagi finding a fangirl with a camera in her shower, Makoto physically tossing the girl out the front door, Minako destroying the camera and the film), the once and future Princess of the Moon decided she couldn't take it any longer, gave her mom a flimsy excuse for staying with Makoto (which her mother, too frazzled by the situation to argue, agreed to), got to a secluded spot between houses she had used for transforming in the past, activated her Sailor suit, and ran off into the night, her fellow Senshi just a few steps behind her.
Sailor Jupiter could hear Venus on the communicator with Mars and Mercury. As there was no youma present, there was no reason to do an all-call, but that didn't stop them from calling in some friends to get together to find a way to get out of the situation, or at least cheer up Sailor Moon.
Abruptly, Sailor Moon came to a stop. Jupiter and Venus stumbled into each other, trying to brake their momentum. Moon stood silently for a moment, then slumped to her knees, weakly punching the roofing tiles beneath her. "Stupid prince..."
It was at that moment Sailor Mars arrived. "I came as quickly as I could..." she trailed off when she saw Sailor Moon, and was by her friend's side in a heartbeat. The raven-haired girl draped her arm over her friend's shoulders, "Hey, meatball head, what's with the long face?"
o0o0o
Nabiki could feel her ribs begin to creak as the youma held her pinned against the crate. Her feet were kicking ineffectually six inches off the floor while her left arm was pinned between her stomach and the crate, and her right arm was stretched out and had somehow managed to remain unpunctured by the creature's talons. Her head was turned to the right, where she could see the key she'd been holding with a death grip glint in the low light of the warehouse.
Abruptly, she felt a tugging sensation. Having spent enough time around Ranma, Happosai, Cologne, Miss Hinako, and other Qi adepts, she knew automatically that she was experiencing her first ever Qi drainage.
It wasn't pleasant.
Her face twisted in a rictus of pain and a strangled noise escaped her throat. Were she of a mind to objectively examine the experience, she would have supposed it was rather akin to having one's brain, eyes, throat, heart, stomach, reproductive organs, and digestive tract all being pulled out of one's body through the small of one's back.
Finally, through the fog of pain and withering, smothering darkness that began to envelope her consciousness, she cried out the words that had been rolling in her mind since she had entered the warehouse.
"VENUS PLANET POWER, ACTIVATE!"
o0o0o
Sailor Moon was crying into Sailor Mars' shoulder as Mars uttered soothing noises to their princess and leader. Mars wasn't able to make a whole lot of sense of what Moon said, but she did gather that it had been a very, very rough day and it all involved a prince that had showed up at their school.
Mars kept the boiling fury she felt toward anyone who would do this to her friend in check as she attended to Moon. "Tell you what," she said comfortingly, "If I ever see this prince guy, I'll Burning Mandala him, OK?"
Moon giggled weakly through her sobbing, and the crying was greatly reduced. Venus and Jupiter, who had sat down nearby, smiled encouragingly at Mars, knowing that sometimes all any of them needed was a good shoulder to cry on. At this rate, maybe they could go over to Jupiter's place and stay the night and let this whole thing just blow...
"Ah, Princess. There you are. That power suit certainly does give you quite the speed boost." Prince Xavier said as he stepped off what looked to be a hovering motorcycle. "Once we had pinpointed you on our scopes I must say even the captain was impressed by how quickly you were moving."
...up. Naturally, the prince once again showed his incredible sense of bad timing, right when they had almost calmed Sailor Moon down.
Sailor Mars flinched back in surprise when Sailor Moon growled. "YOU!" spat the Defender of Love and Justice. She shrugged off Sailor Mars and stood, spinning to face the prince. "This ends right now!"
Inexplicably, Xavier's face lit up in a grin. "Oh, excellent! We are going to do it the right way!"
Sailor Moon, enraged at the apparent disregard this stranger had for her personal distress, simply howled and charged at him.
o0o0o
The youma was thrown back, smashing into some crates and boxes. Blinding light pierced the warehouse as the echo from Nabiki's phrase faded away.
Nabiki found herself floating above the floor, spinning slowly as her clothes seemed to evaporate. She felt ribbons of light and color swirl around her body, gently caressing her curves until they took the pattern of a jumper around her torso and then abruptly solidified into a sort of fabric. More ribbons fluttered about her wrists, then became metal wrist bracers. A bit more of the magic swirled through her hands and fingers, finally forming fingerless gloves. She instinctively gripped down, making fists with her hands. She felt a caress of magic around her feet, almost tickling her as the sensation traveled up her ankles, finally collapsing to form boots. The energy billowed around her waist and suddenly formed up a skirt. She felt rather than saw the gem form on her head and the magic spread out to create a tiara.
After a moment of blinding light and change, Nabiki found her feet settling on the floor. She felt a power surging through her like she had never experienced before. She felt like she could lift a truck...no, a building! She felt like she could jump over a building!
Nabiki wondered briefly if this was what Ranma felt like all the time.
o0o0o
Ranma, grateful for the brief break he seemed to be enjoying, actually smiled as he punted Tatewaki Kuno a block and a half back to the Kuno mansion. A sudden sneeze distracted him briefly, but he blithely shook it off and sauntered off to the market to pick up the greens Kasumi asked for at the last minute. He decided to whistle a tune he'd heard once.
Three minutes later, Ryoga wandered by the same spot, face buried in a map of Kenya and completely missing the fact that he was in Nerima before disappearing around a nearby corner.
o0o0o
Nabiki was suddenly brought back to her surroundings when she was launched into a pile of boxes by the large fist of the youma. Pushing herself up and dusting off her fuku, she realized that she had taken a blow which should have shattered at least a few bones and was able to hop back up unscathed. Another phrase tagged her mind, coupled with some gestures that seemed a bit silly. Dodging a clawing blow, she realized that it didn't really matter if it was silly or not, the last goofy phrase that went through her mind worked out pretty good, so this one might work out as well.
"VENUS ONE YEN COIN SHOWER!" she shouted. From literally nowhere one-yen coins formed in the air, already flying at terminal velocity, and peppered the youma's body. The attack lasted a second, but to Nabiki's very well trained eye, it appeared that more than 4,000 coins had struck the youma, all at very high speed.
With a hideous gurgling noise, the monster shuddered on the floor, then collapsed into a pile of quickly dissipating dust.
Nabiki stood over her foe and basked in the victory. This spot belonged to Ranma, or Akane, or any one of the martial artists that crossed her life's path. Nabiki had never understood the thrill they got from pummeling their opponents to dust until now.
A scuffling noise interrupted her thoughts. She realized the two men that were part of this little trap were still around. She smiled ferally and turned toward them slowly.
o0o0o
Sailors Mars, Venus, and Jupiter watched in awe as their normally clumsy leader performed martial arts combat like a seasoned pro. Sailor Moon dodged, counterpunched, slid, flipped, and kicked with all the precision of a world class martial artist, at least first-dan ranking, if not higher. To Jupiter's slightly-more-trained-eye-than-the-others, it looked like the fight would be over soon, with The Moon Princess emerging triumphant.
Sailor Mercury skidded to a stop next to Jupiter, clearly out of breath. "What's going on...MOON, STOP!"
While Sailor Moon ignored Mercury in order to dole out a Royal ass-kicking, Jupiter held Mercury back from jumping in. "Hold it there, Water-lily, she needs to blow off some steam."
Mercury struggled to get free, "But you don't understand! If she beats him..." she trailed off and Jupiter turned to see why.
The scene seemed to freeze in time for a moment as Jupiter took it all in. Sailor Moon had her right leg extended upward in a quite vicious snap-kick, her face contorted in an angry, "Kia!" her arms in balancing positions and poised in the follow-through from her last punching combination, and her left leg slightly bent at the knee, her left boot planted firmly on the roofing tiles. Prince Xavier had two swords that Jupiter didn't remember him bringing to the battle stretched out, as though both arms had been swatted aside (which they probably were), his feet were inches off the roof, his legs bent as though interrupted in a jump, back arched, head tossed back and chin pointing at the sky.
An instant later, the tableau was broken and the Prince flipped through the air, slamming down on his back, swords clattering across the roof, clearly knocked out cold.
Sailor Moon finished the follow-through for the kick, resumed a stance, then realized the fight was over. She began jumping for joy, ecstatic that not only did she win a fight without her Senshi magic, she also creamed the guy that turned her day into a living nightmare.
Mars and Venus promptly began cheering as Moon began dancing around the roof with joy. Jupiter was about to join in their festivities when she heard Mercury's quiet, "Oh, dear..." She glanced at the blue haired Senshi and saw a great deal of concern etched on the other girl's face.
o0o0o
Kaneda hid in the shadows behind a dumpster. The chick the demon guy had brought had to be a Senshi, that was the only explanation for the light show and subsequent total defeat of their demonic contact. How in the world someone so powerful would land in a trap like that Kaneda would never know.
The senshi had already taken out Daiki. When the demon guy had gone down, the two had made a break for it, hoping to escape while the senshi cleaned up the mess. They didn't expect her speed, however, and Kaneda once again proved that you don't need to outrun the bear, you just need to outrun the other guy.
This led him to the aforementioned dumpster and hiding. He struggled to get his breath under control, hoping that he had somehow ditched the senshi.
He realized he'd have no such luck when a fingerless glove grabbed his shirt collar. His world became a blur as the senshi effortlessly jumped like a reverse pachinko ball up the sides of two buildings, quickly landing on the rooftop of one of them and standing on the edge, casually holding Kaneda at arms length. He looked down and nearly lost the contents of his bowels as he realized he was now seven stories up and the only thing keeping him from dying was a very pissed senshi.
"So," she said, "I've already talked to your pal. He seems to believe that you'll know more about your youma friend than him." She gave him an evil smile, "You can understand how I'm rather interested in more...information."
Kaneda had heard about this sort of situation. He now had a choice of death by falling or death by hitman when his bosses found out about him turning stoolpidgin. He really wished he hadn't gotten out of bed this morning. "I...I don't know..."
"Bzzzt! Wrong answer!" she let go with the hand that was holding him aloft. Before he could scream in panic, her other hand shot out and grabbed his shirt. "So, let's try again. What do you know about the youma?"
Death by falling was suddenly a much more immediate threat. "OK, OK! The boss has been in contact with these guys, I don't know a whole lot more than that."
Nabiki smirked. This was so much more fun than simple extortion. "So, you know nothing more? Let's say I remove my fingers one by one," she demonstrated by pulling her index finger from the fist gripping his shirt. The sudden slack caused Kaneda to drop a quarter inch, "Until we get to the point where my hand just doesn't hold you up anymore?"
Kaneda panicked and gripped the bracer around the senshi's wrist, hoping to avoid a nasty destiny as a road pizza. "'Retribution!' They call themselves Retribution! They're trying to form a syndicate with a bunch of the Yakuza families!"
Police sirens could be heard from down the street. For the first time since he joined the clan, he was glad to hear the sirens. Maybe the cops could talk this crazy lady out of dropping him.
"Retribution...forming a syndicate...that's it?" said the senshi casually, pulling her middle finger out of the fist.
"YES, YES! I SWEAR, THAT'S ALL I KNOW!"
Nabiki nodded, satisfied that the hoodlum was revealing all the information he had. She pulled some bungee cable from her belt that she had picked up at a nearby sporting goods store after she'd taken care of the other thug. 'Taken care of,' of course, meant that she had tied up said thug with a display case of cargo netting after throwing the thug through the window of the sporting goods store, setting off the alarm and summoning the police. "Next time you meet your bosses or this 'Retribution' they're so fond of, I want you to tell them that I'm going to be all over them like feathers on a duck from now on." She tossed the loop she already tied on the cord around a metal fixture on the roof top.
Kaneda scrambled to maintain his grip on the senshi's bracer, "Who...who are you?"
She yanked him close, so their noses were almost touching, "I'm Sailor V."
She abruptly shook him off her hand, and he screamed as he began to plummet to the ground. Sailor V was right behind him, having leapt off the building right after dropping him. She lopped the cord around his ankles and used her senshi enhanced speed to tie a secure knot in the cable. She flipped mid-air and pushed away from the building face, letting Kaneda fall to the extent of the rope, slam against the building, and get yanked back up. Sailor V flipped again, landed in the street right in front of the incoming police car, bounced up against the building on the opposite side of the street, ping-ponged back and forth back up to the rooftops, and roof-hopped away from the scene.
o0o0o
Sailor Jupiter gripped Mercury's shoulder, "What's wrong? She kicked his butt."
"That's precisely what's wrong." said Sailor Mercury. "It's part of the standard treaty that the Riginium Empire signs with all it's trading partners and allies. It means that..."
She was interrupted by a groan from the now stirring prince. He sat up, shook his head to clear it, then boosted himself up to his feet. "Excellent!" he began, "I shall have the captain begin the arrangements immediately."
Sailor Moon stopped her victory dance and glared at the prince, "What preparations?" she snapped.
"Why, our marriage, of course."
"What are you talking about? I just kicked your butt like a youma!"
The prince let the Earth-bound reference slide, "That's it exactly. Surely your advisors have explained the ceremony to you."
Sailor Moon turned to Mercury, "Do you know what he's talking about?"
Mercury sighed and pulled out her computer again, "As I was trying to tell you, by agreeing to the ceremonial battle and proving your worth by defeating the Riginium representative in combat, you...er, provide full consent to the, um...matrimony ceremony to..." she lost her nerve toward the end of her 'explanation' and just waved vaguely at the prince.
Sailor Moon blinked in confusion at Mercury, trying to piece together what the other girl said.
Jupiter managed to decipher Mercury's words. The blue haired girl always tended to use large vocabulary when she didn't want to deliver bad news. "You're kidding!" Jupiter blurted out.
Sailor Moon looked frantic, "What are you saying, what's going on?!" She turned in panic to look at Prince Xavier.
He simply shrugged in that annoyingly handsome way he had, "Why, we're to be married tomorrow now that you've given your consent in the traditional combat ceremony."
Moon turned to Mercury to translate. The young genius looked down at the roofing tile, "He proposed, you said yes."
It was the punctuation mark to a very, very bad day. Moon's mind was overwhelmed, and she fainted. Her last conscious thought was, Please, please don't let it be the prince that catches me!
o0o0o
Sailor V flew into her bedroom through her open window and landed nimbly on her feet. She had a huge grin on her face, her breathing was deep, as if she had finished a particularly good jog, but she felt more like she had just deboarded the most intense roller coaster ever.
She flopped down on her bed face up, enjoying the exhileration and afterglow. She was going to have to get more information about the senshi, possibly by going straight to the source. The magazines were good, but there was only so much they could actually dig up on the secretive super-group.
Sailor V reached up idly and ran her fingertip over the tiara that had formed on her forhead. She touched the gem in the center and was startled when her fuku suddenly collapsed, leaving her clutching her transformation key in the same hand that was caressing the tiara. "Well," Nabiki muttered to herself, "That solves that problem before I thought of it."
She suddenly heard the latch of her door opening and dropped the key behind her pillow. The door opened to reveal Kasumi, who did a double-take and gasped, "Nabiki? I didn't know you were home."
The younger sister propped herself up on her elbows, "Oh, sorry 'bout that. I had some unexpected business that kept me late and I didn't want to cause a fuss when I came home. I snuck in just a few moments ago."
Kasumi blinked and processed what her sister said. Were Nabiki the type to sweat under preasure, she'd be drenched. She knew Kasumi was smarter than everyone gave her credit for, but she was also nice and polite to a fault. "Well, OK," began Kasumi, "I can warm up some dinner for you if you like."
"That'd be great, sis," said Nabiki, "I haven't eaten since lunch and I've still got studying to do."
Kasumi nodded and closed the door.
Nabiki retrieved her key from behind her pillow, gazed at it lovingly, and clutched it to her chest. "All this time I never knew...WOW it feels good to be one of the power-players!" Grinning broadly, she began to change out of her school uniform and into something more casual to go enjoy her sister's excellent cooking.
