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 Ten: Shell Game

The next day, immediately after school, Usagi, Ami, Rei and Luna made their way to the subway station as planned, and took the first train to Nerima. Upon arriving, their first order of business was to find a quiet, out of the way cul-de-sac... and a few moments later they were leaping from rooftop to rooftop, clad in their Senshi forms, following the map that the Gosunkugi boy had given them.

Nobody spoke much. Probably, Luna guessed, because they were each wrapped up in their own private thoughts about what they would encounter when they arrived. Sailor Moon, in particular, was glancing furtively around, as though she expected one of the rumored underwear thieves to jump out at any minute and accost her in person.

Eventually, Sailor Mercury spoke up. "We're almost there. It should be that building, there on the left." She pointed at the one she meant. And, in almost no time at all, the Senshi had alighted on the outer wall surrounding the house in question.

There was a moment of surprised silence at the sight that met their eyes. Eventually, Sailor Moon spoke up. "Um... this wasn't what we expected to find, was it?"

The moon cat shook her head slowly. In truth, she wasn't quite sure what she had expected to find. It hadn't been this, however.

Sailor Mercury hit a few keys on the Mercury Computer, frowning slightly at the result. Then she looked up and shook her head. "I'm not detecting any youma," she informed them. "In fact, I'm not detecting a single living thing anywhere in the building. The only thing I am picking up is residual dark energy... but there's a very large amount of it. A terrible battle must have taken place here."

Luna looked around, nodding. She certainly didn't need the Mercury Computer to tell her that. The building had countless gaping holes blasted through its structure, and she herself could taste the lingering taint of foul energy that still permeated the surroundings.

"But who was fighting who?" asked Sailor Moon.

Sailor Mercury looked down at her computer again. "I don't think that the youma we faced would have been capable of generating this kind of power," she said. "Which suggests that there is at least one other dark entity at work here..."

"Multiple factions? " murmured Luna thoughtfully. "But what are their goals? Who is on whose side? And who won here?"

Sailor Mercury shrugged helplessly, pressing a few more keys on her computer. "I can't say. There isn't even any indication whether..." Her voice trailed off, staring at her computer screen, then suddenly her eyes went wide. "Wait! I'm picking up thirteen youma readings converging on this place from the southeast! And one of them has a power level I've never seen in a youma before!"

The Darkmistress alighted on the wall surrounding the Tendo compound, the dozen black-robed Inquisitors taking up flanking positions a moment later.

They were not disguised; many of the Inquisitors didn't have transformation abilities of their own. The Darkmistress had used her powers of illusion to make them all appear human for the first leg of their journey, but once they had traveled far enough from the Dark Kingdom portal that there was no risk of compromising its position, she hadn't bothered. Speed had become more valuable than subtlety at that point.

And it wasn't as though she planned for this confrontation to be particularly subtle in the first place.

Her lip curled as she surveyed the deserted structure, then gestured for some of her Inquisitors to begin searching it. They complied immediately, moving with an eerie silence as they darted into the building and began to scour its rooms and corridors.

She didn't expect that they would find anything. If their foes were planning on making another stand here, she doubted that they would have allowed their perimeter to be breached like this. No, she was confident that they had fled.

Eventually the youma returned from their search, empty-handed as expected. Fortunately, she had prepared for this possibility. "Scanners out!" she barked. "Break into teams of two, and search for youma energy. As long as they have the renegade, we'll be able to pick them out wherever they hide. Sweep this ward from top to bottom. Sweep all Tokyo if that is what it takes! But find them!"

The Inquisitors nodded in assent, each of them pulling a somewhat bulky handheld device from underneath their robes. It was a second-rate solution; the scanners had a notoriously short range, and the Darkmistress would have vastly preferred to use the Hounds as was her normal practice.

But that was no longer an option. The few specimens that had survived the previous attempt had become completely uncontrollable, utterly resisting all attempts to bind them to a new master. In fact, they would attack any youma who tried to take them from their kennel... and from the remains of their Keeper, which they stood vigil over.

Still, even what the Darkmistress had at her disposal would be more than sufficient. She would hunt her enemies to the very depths of hell if that was what it took... but she would crush them herself, no matter the cost.

Peeking timidly around the corner of a house, Sailor Moon watched the mass of cloaked figures standing on the wall around the building that they had just been examining themselves. She shuddered. Normal youma were scary enough, but she got a really bad feeling from these ones. And their leader... Sailor Moon didn't even want to look at their leader's horrifying face.

"It appears they've finished their search of the building..." whispered Sailor Mercury. She was further back behind the wall, monitoring the situation through the Mercury Computer. "Now they seem to be talking."

"Well, I think we've found our attackers..." murmured Sailor Mars, peering around the corner herself for a better look.

Sailor Mercury nodded. "Yes, there's a good chance that... wait. It looks like they're moving out now." Indeed, pairs of masked youma were beginning to head out in every direction, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

The Senshi pressed themselves tight against the wall, keeping themselves hidden under the roof's overhang as two of the youma passed right over the house they were hidden behind. As they went by, Sailor Moon noticed that one youma held an odd-looking device in her hand, which the monster was watching intently.

After a few breathless moments had passed, Sailor Mercury took another look at her computer, scrutinizing the display. Then she looked up. "They're doing a search pattern over the whole area now," she stated.

"Trying to find whoever used to be in that building," Sailor Mars guessed. "The question is... what should we do about it?"

"Ummm..." Sailor Moon glanced back and forth between the other two Senshi and Luna. "Don't you think we should try and look for them too? I mean... if they're the enemies of the bad guys, then maybe they could help us out!"

"Just because they're on different sides doesn't necessarily mean that any of them are on our side," cautioned Luna. "We don't know anything about their motives for any of what they've done. And if the wreckage we saw was any indication, they survived a youma attack of immense power. These are no ordinary beings we're dealing with."

"Still, I agree with meatball-head," put in Sailor Mars. "We should check it out. And if it does turn out that they're pursuing evil goals, we'll have to face them sooner or later, won't we?"

Sailor Moon blanched a little at that prospect. Luna, however, was nodding. "But how do we find them?" the moon cat asked. "We can't cover as much ground as all those youma."

"No... but we do have some advantages," Sailor Mercury spoke up. "For one thing, look at their movements."

She held up her screen for them to see, displaying a map of the nearby city, with red dots moving rapidly across it, sweeping back and forth in arcs that expanded outward from the nearby building. "They seem to be scanning the area with those devices they were holding... but they don't seem to have anywhere near the range of the Mercury computer's sensors. Look, they can only move so far forward before they have to come back for another pass."

"But we only have one Mercury Computer," countered Luna. "Even with a much greater range, we'll still have to pick a direction to search in."

"Then I think we should try to increase our chances even more," said Sailor Mars. "Quick, let's find a phone book. I want to see how many families named 'Gosunkugi' are living in this area..."

Sitting bent over his desk, Gosunkugi Hikaru worked feverishly on his latest voodoo doll. His brief encounter with the Senshi had infused him with renewed drive to pursue his own magical endeavors. Perhaps he could even assist them in their efforts, if he were able to call down some kind of curse on Saotome's head!

So engrossed was he in binding together the straw figurine that he barely heard the soft rap on his window. A few seconds moments later it was repeated, a little louder this time, registering enough that he glanced distractedly up to see what was making the noise.

Immediately his eyes bulged, and he toppled back out of his chair, gasping for breath. Sailor Mercury was perched on the roof outside his window, flanked by Sailor Mars and... and that had to be Sailor Moon!

His jaw hung open, vague noises emerging, as he tried to process this sudden turn of events. Why were they here? And how had they known where he lived?

Then the young man chastised himself. The answer to the last question was obvious—these were the Sailor Senshi! No doubt they had invoked some amazing locator magic to track him down. But as for why they had done so...

He managed to push himself off the floor, and walk over to the window. Hand trembling slightly, he undid the latch and opened it. "H- hello?" he ventured.

"We're sorry to bother you like this, Hikaru," the blue-haired Senshi said. "But we were hoping you could give us some more information. We investigated the place you told us about... but it had been attacked, and there was no one there."

Gosunkugi felt something cold settle in his stomach. "Attacked?" he echoed, shocked. "By who?"

"More youma, we think. We don't know all the details," Sailor Mercury told him. "But it appears that the attackers are searching the ward now, so we think the ones who were in the building escaped somewhere. Do you have any idea where they might have gone?"

The young man tried to think, wracking his brain for everything he could remember on where the pigtailed martial artist might have fled with his youma. "There's... a ramen place called the Nekohanten..." he said at last. "One of the girls that Saotome keeps stringing along lives there. He might have gone to her." Then he snapped his fingers. "Oh, and there's another restaurant he might try to hole up in as well. It's called Ucchan's..."

One high-speed run later, the three girls and the moon cat stood in an alleyway, in the privacy of which they had returned to their civilian forms.

Usagi looked up. "Are you sure it's a good idea to go in there not transformed?" she asked, a nervous expression on her face. "What if they attack us?"

"But we still don't even know what's going on here," replied Ami. "We need to investigate, and doing it this way will be much less suspicious."

"Besides," said Rei. "Even if any of them are in there, I don't think they'll attack us if they don't know that we're the Sailor Senshi. There's no reason for us not to be there. It is a restaurant, after all."

With that, the dark-haired girl stepped out of the alley, and began striding assuredly toward her destination. Ami and Luna followed in her wake, with Usagi taking up the rear, chewing her lip anxiously.

In a few seconds, Rei had reached the door. Taking hold of it, she slid it open and walked inside.

"Nihao!" The cheerful voice cut across the bustle of the busy restaurant, coming from the exotically-dressed girl behind the counter. "Welcome to Nekohanten!"

Rei made her way over to where the girl stood. Everyone else seemed to be just a customer; the one to pump for information was obvious. "Hello," the Senshi of fire replied, her voice friendly.

"What is you order?" the girl asked, her broken grammar accompanied by an extremely thick Chinese accent. "Special today is beef curry ramen."

Perfect, Rei thought, hiding a smile. From the way she talked, this girl obviously wasn't very bright; they could hardly have asked for a better opportunity. I don't sense any evil energy nearby, so the youma probably isn't here right now... but I might be able to find out something about where she is.

"Actually... we're not here to eat," Rei said. "We were just looking for a friend of ours. His name is Saotome Ranma. Do you know where we could find him?"

The girl cocked her head slightly. "You is all friends of Ranma?" she asked. "Shampoo never see you before."

"Oh, we're from out of town," supplied Ami, without batting an eyelash.

Rei put on a worried expression. "Yes! We thought we would come and visit him today... but when we got there, the house had been completely wrecked, and we couldn't find anyone anywhere! Please, if there's anything you can tell us...!"

Shampoo frowned a little, looking at each of them in turn. Rei held her breath, wondering if their hasty little deception would be convincing enough.

Then, at last, the Chinese girl smiled. "Shampoo believe you," she told them. "Out-of-town girls must know Ranma well... since they is bringing cat with when visit him."

Relief flooded the Senshi of fire. The girl had bought their story. "Oh, yes," she said, picking up the black cat for added emphasis. "Ranma always enjoys playing with you, doesn't he Luna?" Luna meowed supportively.

Shampoo's friendly smile widened. "Is too, too true," she said, nodding. "Shampoo know very well how much Ranma love cats."

Then the Chinese girl leaned in conspiratorially. "Shampoo... not supposed to tell anyone... but since you is such good friends of Ranma, am thinking is okay. Shampoo know where is secret hiding place Ranma use. Maybe Ranma there now."

Rei leaned in closer as well, fighting to keep a triumphant grin off her face as Shampoo continued. "Place is old abandoned building, all way on other side of ward..."

The incognito Senshi listened carefully, until they had a good grasp of where they were going. Then they thanked the Chinese girl profusely, agreed to greet Ranma for her when they saw him, and quickly made their exit.

As they walked through the doorway, Rei glanced back over her shoulder at Shampoo, who was smiling and waving. And, despite the fact that it had been necessary, she couldn't help feeling a pang of guilt over taking advantage of the poor foreigner's trust and gullibility like that.

Shampoo continued waving, smile plastered across her face, as the three girls and their cat left the restaurant, the door finally sliding shut behind them.

It was only then that her beaming smile began to harden, very slowly, into something with sharp edges. A gleam crept into her eyes that hadn't quite been visible during the previous conversation. Turning away from the counter, she hurried over to where the phone sat, and dialed a number with swift, precise movements.

After a few rings, it was picked up on the other end. "Hello, this is Ucchan's!"

"Spatula girl," said Shampoo tersely. "Listen good. Shampoo is thinking we have new problem..."

Rubbing her eyes tiredly from the lack of sleep she had gotten the previous night, Beneda glanced up as Ukyo returned to the upstairs room that was serving as the impromptu headquarters of the dispossessed defenders. The chef had left several minutes prior in response to a ringing noise, which Beneda understood was part of the human communications system.

At any rate, her expression on her return looked much more grim than it had on her departure. Akane broke off the conversation she had been having with Ryouga and looked over at her, frowning worriedly.

"What is it, Ucchan?" asked Ranma, clearly noticing the shift in her mood as well.

"Trouble," replied Ukyo. "That was Shampoo who just called. She said that there were three girls and a cat that just showed up at the Nekohanten. Looking for us."

The words sent an electric current through Beneda's entire body, dispelling any weariness she might have felt in an instant. Her eyes went wide. Three girls and a cat? Was it...? Could it be...? No, no it had to be! It was the only explanation!

Ranma had, for some reason, turned a little pale at Ukyo's description, but Ryouga spoke up. "Could they have been more youma? In disguise, like before?"

Ukyo shook her head. "Shampoo didn't think so," she replied. "She said she couldn't sense anything off in their aura like Mousse had described feeling, but—"

"It's them," Beneda broke in. She was staring off into the distance, her voice laden with emotions that even she could not identify. "The Sailor Senshi. They've come for me."

Akane looked over at her. "Don't worry," she said in a reassuring tone of voice. "We won't let them get to you."

An utterly humorless laugh threatened to bubble out of Beneda, but she managed to keep it bottled up. Instead, she spoke. "Um... Where are they now?"

"Shampoo said that she sent them off on a wild goose chase to the old abandoned hotel on the other side of the ward," Ukyo said. "But she doesn't know how long that will buy us. They knew about the Nekohanten, somehow, and they might know about my place as well."

The youma's throat had gone completely dry. This was it. The crucial moment, when she truly began to put her plan, her last hope, into action. "Can I... see a map?" she asked urgently, trying to think of the closest scenario to this that she had envisioned the previous night. "Something that shows where they're going? And where the Nekohanten is?"

Ukyo's expression became puzzled for a moment, but then she shrugged. "Sure," she said, running back downstairs. There was the distant sound of rummaging, and soon enough she returned with the requested map, which she spread out across the floor. Then she pointed. "There. That's where the Nekohanten is, and over there is where Shampoo sent them. We're right here."

Furiously, Beneda tried to commit it all to memory, repeating the street names over and over to herself in her head. Out loud, she began to give the ostensible reason for her request. "Good, they won't be passing too close to us. At least... not yet, anyway."

Akane frowned. "Too close? What do you mean?"

Beneda took a deep breath, mostly to buy time while she made sure she had everything she needed to say straight in her head. The first part of it was even mostly true. "The Senshi can track us in many different ways. Some of their devices can scan for youma energy. If they get too close to an unshielded youma, they can detect her that way."

"Huh," Ranma said thoughtfully. "Yeah, that'll be a problem if they start showing up around here." Then he looked over at her. "But... you said it could be shielded, though?"

"Oh! " replied Beneda, acting as though the question had come as a surprise to her, while preparing to lie her ass off. "Well... yes... But the only ones who have it..." She let her voice trail off. In actual fact, the Dark Kingdom didn't have the faintest idea how to effectively jam the Senshi's equipment, but that was irrelevant.

After spending a few more moments in thoughtful silence, she spoke up again. "Actually... yes. Yes, I think I could get one of the shields. There's another youma stationed in the area named Cyrene, and we're old friends. She might be willing to slip me one of her spares."

Of course, in reality she and Cyrene had hated each other with a burning passion. But Beneda doubted that the other youma would show up to contradict her story, since the Senshi had killed her weeks ago.

"Great!" said Ryouga. "Let's go see her as fast as we can; there's no time to lose!" He matched action to words by leaping to his feet and hurrying in the direction of the nearest closet.

Sighing, Ranma walked over and dragged him back out by his collar. "The moron is right, though," he said. "We oughta do this right away."

Beneda nodded. "Yes, we should," she said. "But... I have to go alone. Cyrene doesn't trust humans. At all. She'd never forgive me if I led any of you to where she's hiding."

"But the Senshi are out there!" protested Ryouga. "It's too dangerous!"

"I'll be careful," said Beneda. Then sudden inspiration struck her. "And... if they do find me, I'll explain things to them and plead for mercy. Maybe if they know I'm not even with the Dark Kingdom anymore, they'll let me live."

Everyone still looked unconvinced, but Beneda pressed on. "Please! This is something we need to do!"

Eventually, Ranma let out a deep breath. "All right," he said. "I still don't like it, but... if you think it's that important... then okay."

Knowing that every last second was precious, Beneda made her goodbyes quickly, then rushed out the door of Ucchan's. She hurried down the street... then glanced back over her shoulder for a moment, to see Ryouga standing in the doorway of the restaurant, anxiously watching her go. A stabbing pain lanced through her chest at the sight, but she steeled herself and began to run.

It was time to find the Senshi.

Mousse gazed out across Tokyo, musing idly to himself that even now, seen from atop Ucchan's rather than the Tendo dojo... it all still seemed the same to him. All soulless brick and concrete, crushing all the city-dwellers into their pre-packaged lives. The thought made him ache for the natural beauty of his true home, in the wilds of the Bayankala mountain range.

But immediately he chastised himself. You're here with Shampoo! he thought harshly. That's the most important thing! That's the only thing that really matters. Everything else is just... weakness trying to get in the way.

So caught up was he in his thoughts that he almost missed the sight of Beneda disappearing around a street corner a ways off. He frowned, sitting up straighter. Now where was she going?

This, he realized, might be just exactly what Cologne had put him here for. And yet, by terrible luck, he was on guard. If he abandoned his post to follow after her, he might end up tipping his hand to everyone. Was it worth the risk? She could be doing something innocent, theoretically...

He spent a few seconds wrestling with the question, before deciding that his best course was to learn more about what was going on. Accordingly, he swung himself down off the roof and walked into the restaurant below. "Saotome!" he called out. "Where's that youma of yours running off to?"

The pigtailed fighter glanced over at him. "She's doing us a favor," he said. "We think those Sailor Senshi are onto us, and she's gone to get something that'll help keep Ucchan's place secret from them."

Mousse paused, allowing this new information to sink in. Was this all legitimate, or just some youma trick? "Have we seen these 'Sailor Senshi'? How do we know they're actually here?"

"Well, I ain't seen them, but they showed up over at the Nekohanten a little while ago, and they were definitely looking for us."

Immediately, any thought of youma or missions from Cologne vacated Mousse's mind. "They were at the Nekohanten?" he asked desperately, running over to where Ranma sat and dragging him out of the chair by the front of his shirt. "What did they do? Was there an attack? Is Shampoo safe?"

"Hey, take it easy!" exclaimed Ranma. "Of course she's all right, idiot! You think we'd be just sitting around if she was in trouble? Heck, she's got the old ghoul over there with her; it's us you oughta be worrying about."

Mousse ground his teeth. Intellectually, he knew Saotome was right, but all the same he was nearly frantic at the thought that Shampoo might be exposed to such unknown danger without him there. What if the Senshi came back? "I... I should go check on her. Just to be sure."

"Oh, come on!" Ranma gave an exasperated sigh. "Look, she was the one who called us about it! She sent them off somewhere to keep 'em busy while we figured out what to do. There's nothing to worry about, so just get back up on guard, okay?"

The hidden weapons master wavered for a moment, then wordlessly dropped Saotome back in his seat. He proceeded to turn on his heel and stalk toward the door, mind churning. He had come down to get a clearer understanding of what to do, but instead it had just become more muddled.

Should he go check on Shampoo? Or try to follow the youma? Or stay here and hold the post he had promised Saotome and the others he would? He jumped back up to the roof, looking back and forth between the two different directions he could go in.

It was as he looked that a tiny flicker of movement caught his eye. Frowning, he squinted and adjusted his glasses, trying to get a clearer view, cursing his eyesight all the while.

Then, suddenly, he realized what he was looking at. Two distant figures, clad in black robes, leaping across the rooftops as they swept back and forth across the city—drawing slowly but steadily closer to the restaurant.

Beneda ran for all she was worth, pushing herself to go faster and faster. The buildings shot by on either side as she ran along sidewalks, across intersections. With each passing street name, she tried to match it to what she had seen on the map... but she was quickly realizing that her brief period of studying it had been far from sufficient.

Still she ran on, her breath coming in gasps, trying desperately to recall enough of the map to guide her on a rough intercept course with the route the Senshi would take. This was her one chance. If she missed this...

The youma shook herself, trying to focus on the run instead. But the exertion did little to block out her fears that this would all blow up in her face. Worse, neither did it block out the gnawing reluctance that seized her at the thought of what she was trying to accomplish.

All of it swirled inside her—the fear, the apprehension, the uncertainty. And the further she went, the less confident she felt about where she even was.

Have I gone far enough? Have I gone too far? Have I crossed the Senshi's route yet? I don't know! Her frantic thoughts echoed in her mind, arguing back and forth, repeating over and over. Maybe... Maybe this was a mistake... Maybe I should have waited... Maybe...

Then, suddenly, a huge burst of flame cut across her path.

She skidded to a stop, her breath catching in her throat. She had managed to find them after all! With a choked little chuckle, she realized that she had never been so relieved to be confronted with a deadly attack.

And then came the moment of truth, as she turned toward where the blast had been fired from. "So..." she said, trying to force all traces of nervousness from her voice and expression. "We meet again, Sailor Sen—"

Her voice abruptly broke off into an expression of shock and horror, as she saw not the expected Sailor Mars and her friends, but rather a youma clad in a black robe and a demonic iron mask. The youma's hands were both blazing, with long sheaths of hungry fire rising up from them.

Beneda whirled, trying to run, only to find that a second Inquisitor was already blocking the way behind her. This one clenched her fists, and with a snap, long metallic spikes extended out from her elbows, her knees, her shoulders, her feet and her forearms. "Oh, don't leave yet," she said, her voice silky. "Our Mistress so dearly desires to have a word with you."

With that, she lifted her hand, and Beneda saw that it had a Dark Kingdom scanning device. Then the youma pressed the signal button, and spoke into it. "All units converge on our position. We've found the renegade."

Mousse flattened himself out against the building wall, peering around the corner at the two robed figures as they passed over the rooftops close by. Behind him, he could feel Ryouga tense. But the youma simply continued on, and a few seconds later Mousse crept after them, beckoning Ryouga to do so as well.

Together, the two humans followed the two youma as the latter swept across the city. Neither boy spoke much; stealth was too great a concern in their minds, all their attention focused on keeping hidden from their prey. A brittle, tense silence reigned.

So they nearly jumped out of their skins when Ranma snuck up behind them and greeted them with a whispered "Hey!" Mousse could tell that Ryouga was struggling not to try and wring the pigtailed fighter's neck for that kind of stunt. Indeed, Mousse was half-tempted to give it a go himself, youma threat or no.

Ranma, for his part, just kept on talking, addressing his words to Mousse. "You were right," he said softly. "There's another group of 'em doing the same kind of thing over in that direction. Looks like they're searching the whole ward, probably with those gizmos they're holding."

"This is bad," Ryouga whispered urgently. "Not just the Senshi out there, but these guys as well? Beneda could be in serious danger! We need to do something!"

Ranma shrugged helplessly, although Mousse could tell he was distressed as well. "If you've got any suggestions on how to find her, I'd love to hear them!" he told his agitated rival quietly. "She didn't exactly tell us where she was going, or which way she was going to take!"

The lost boy opened his mouth to reply—then froze, staring over at the two youma they were trailing. Puzzled, Mousse turned his attention there as well.

The pair of monsters had stopped, and one had raised her device to her ear, as though listening to it. Then, abruptly, they began running in a completely different direction. "They're... breaking off the search pattern..." Mousse murmured.

Ranma's face had gone very grim. "One of them must have found something," he said. And it was obvious who it was their enemies had most likely found.

The pigtailed fighter whirled to Mousse. "Get back to Ucchan's!" he said, speaking quickly. "Me an' Ryouga will follow those two and get Beneda out of there. But whatever happens... you keep the girls safe!"

The two boys locked gazes for a moment, then Mousse gave a curt nod. With that, Ranma and Ryouga turned and shot off in a blur of speed after the two youma.

Whirling back and forth between the two Inquisitors, Beneda tried to come up with a plan, but her conscious thought was beginning to erode into sheer, blind panic. "L- look..." she managed to plead. "Look, just... please, no!"

But the Inquisitors only laughed at her. "But we've already prepared a special torture chamber just for you..." the youma with the spikes said mockingly. "You don't want all our hard work to go to waste, do you?"

Desperately, Beneda formed a shuriken on each hand, even though she knew she stood little chance against a youma of this level—let alone two. Not daunted in the slightest, they began to slowly close in on her, the one with spikes laughing as she did so. It's not fair! Beneda thought hopelessly. Not like this! Not after everything that's happened! I was so close!

"Stop!"

The voice cut through the air, causing the Inquisitors to spin and look up to the rooftops where it had come from. Astonished, Beneda did so as well. And there, looking down at them from above, were the familiar figures of the Sailor Senshi.

Beneda's breath caught in her throat at the sight, an unbelievable number of conflicting emotions assaulting her. Sailor Mars was on the left side, her arms crossed, a severe expression on her face. Sailor Mercury was on the other side, holding a small computer-like device. And between the two of them stood Sailor Moon, a small black cat at her feet.

"Doing such things in broad daylight is something you should be ashamed of!" announced the blonde warrior. "For love and justice, I won't allow you to... uh..." The girl faltered, then glanced down at the cat, looking puzzled. "Um... Luna? What do I say when it's one youma attacking another?"

At that point, however, the Inquisitors decided to make it a moot question. The one with the burning hands thrust them out at the Senshi, hurling a wave of fire in their direction. Sailor Moon gave a short scream, and all of the Senshi leaped away, plummeting to the street below. The youma's attack crashed across the roof they had just vacated, blasting away a large section of it and causing the rest of it to burst into raging flame.

Even as the Senshi fell, the youma with the spikes was charging toward where they would land. Sailor Mars clamped her hands together in midair, a point of her own flame forming at her fingertips. "Fire Soul!"

The Senshi's fireball snaked through the air toward the running youma, but the instant before it hit, the target jumped sideways in a blur of motion, then kicked off the nearby building wall to hurtle back at Sailor Mars.

The human's foot touched ground just in the nick of time, and she leapt out of the youma's path. The Inquisitor shot by the Senshi, swinging one her arm-spikes in a slash that managed to nick a shallow cut across Sailor Mars' cheek.

Further down the street, Beneda saw blasts of fire tearing into the surrounding buildings, accompanied by the frantic yelps of Sailor Moon as she tried to keep out of their way. The youma fighting her wasn't allowing her a moment's respite, keeping her on the defensive. The girl's dodges were shockingly awkward, and she always seemed moments away from incineration, but somehow she always managed to twist or stumble out of harm's way.

Sailor Mars, however, was in trouble. The spike-youma was still going after her, lashing out over and over again, as the Senshi fought to avoid being skewered. The Inquisitor lunged, forcing Sailor Mars to duck under her wicked swipe, then followed that up with a kick using the spike on her foot. The fire Senshi threw herself away, tumbling backward along the ground, just barely keeping ahead of the youma's strikes as they ripped up the street in her wake.

The chase went on until Sailor Mars ran out of room, her back hitting the wall of a building. With nowhere left for her prey to retreat, the youma let out a cackle of glee, raised her forearm spike high, and stabbed it down at the girl.

Then, out of nowhere, a crimson rose shot through the air, hitting the descending spike. The impact redirected the blow, causing it to plunge—and stick—into the ground right next to Sailor Mars, instead of plunging into her chest.

It would have only taken a moment for the youma to extricate herself... but it was a moment she didn't have. Already, from her position on the ground, Sailor Mars was aiming her fingers upward, calling on her power. "Fire Soul!"

The blast of flame roared toward the heavens, completely immolating the youma in its path. When the pillar of fire dissipated, there were only a few traces of dust left drifting in the air, before fading into nothingness. A second later something spun through the air, landing at Beneda's feet with a clank. Glancing down, she saw that it was the Inquisitor's iron mask, scorched and deformed by Mars' flames.

Looking back up, she tried to see how the other Inquisitor was faring... only to find that she couldn't. That whole area of the street was now blanketed by a strange, localized fog that was completely impenetrable to her eyes. She squinted, trying to make out what was happening inside it—

"Moon Tiara Action!"

—then she heard the Inquisitor scream, and a glowing disc flew out of the mist, youma dust trailing behind it. It immediately cut a tight arc through the air, slicing back the way it had come. A few seconds later the fog dissipated, revealing only Sailor Mercury and Sailor Moon remaining.

The blonde Senshi let out a deep breath, obviously relieved. Behind her, Beneda could see that Sailor Mercury was hurriedly focusing her powers once more, calling on streams of magical mist, which she directed toward the burning buildings. They washed over the flames, gradually thickening and thickening until it had finally choked them out.

Sailor Mars, meanwhile was scrambling back to her feet, even as Tuxedo Kamen dropped down from the rooftops to stand on the street, a little bit removed from the Senshi.

And then they all turned to look at Beneda.

The youma's throat went dry, as at long last she was faced with the confrontation she had been working toward all this time. The Senshi stood before her, watching her warily. It called back memories of their first encounter, back in the library. Had it really been only three days ago? It felt like three lifetimes.

Sailor Mars was the first one to speak up. "All right, youma. We want to know what's going on here," she demanded, her eyes flashing with intensity. "What's your game? Why were you fighting with those other youma?"

"Because..." Beneda began. She knew exactly what she needed to do, exactly what she needed to say in order to push events in the direction she had planned. And yet now that the moment had come, she found herself dragging her heels, trying to put it off. "Because I'm no longer serving the Dark Kingdom..."

The reactions to that statement were varied. Tuxedo Kamen's face—what could be seen of it—remained unreadable, while Sailor Mercury's brow furrowed in thought. Sailor Mars, for her part, fixed her with a suspicious gaze.

But it was Sailor Moon whose response was the most shocking: her face immediately brightened, taking on a hopeful look. "Really?" she asked eagerly, her blue eyes meeting the youma's. "You mean you're not fighting for the bad guys any more?"

Beneda opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat. She looked back and forth between the Senshi, trying to get a handle on herself. But in a strange way, even the Senshi seemed... different to her, somehow, than they had at their first meeting. Back then, her mind had just filed them away in a generic slot, as "humans." Yet now she saw each of them, noting details and differences that she would never have picked up on before.

It was most profoundly unsettling when she looked at Sailor Mercury. She... looks so much like Akane... Beneda realized.

Meanwhile, Sailor Mars was continuing the interrogation. "How do we know you're telling the truth?" she asked. "What proof do we have that you've really left the Dark Kingdom?"

"I have!" insisted Beneda, not looking the Senshi in the eyes, even as she cursed herself for her hesitancy. This shouldn't be so hard! "I'm... I'm really not serving General Jadeite anymore..."

And then her shifting gaze happened to catch on the Inquisitor mask that had fallen at her feet, its empty eye sockets leering up at her. And she heard, echoing in the back of her mind, the words that the youma had spoken. "We've already prepared a special torture chamber just for you..."

Sucking in a deep breath, she snapped her head back up. "...and why should I serve such a weak fool as Jadeite... when my new masters are so much stronger?" she sneered. "Dark Kingdom? Moon Kingdom? Nothing but a bunch of has-beens, all of you! I've joined the real power now, and this whole world had better bow before us, or else we'll crush you all under our feet!"

"Never!" shouted back Sailor Mars defiantly. "We'd rather die than submit ourselves to the likes of you!"

"Oh, I'm sure that can be arranged..." Now that she had begun, the words just kept tumbling from Beneda's lips. "Our plans are already well underway. If you think you can get in the way of them, then you obviously have no idea of my masters' true strength!"

"That makes no difference," was Sailor Mercury's firm response. "No matter who you've allied yourself with, we will never allow evil forces to—" Her speech was abruptly cut off as Beneda snapped both arms up without warning, forming shuriken on each, and firing them as fast as she could.

The Senshi's eyes widened in shock, scattering for cover under the sudden attack. Beneda knew they would regroup in moments, but taking the element of surprise like that had given her a precious head start.

Whirling around, Beneda began to run back toward Ucchan's.

As he ran, Ryouga kept his eyes locked firmly on the youma he was following, not once looking away. They couldn't afford any delays due to his veering off course, and his only prayer for avoiding that was to stay absolutely focused on their unwitting guides.

Beside him ran Ranma, a grim, focused look on the pigtailed fighter's face. They raced along, always careful to stay in the blind spot of the youma running across the rooftops above. Ryouga's mind was wracked with questions and worries, and he angrily wished that their two enemies would run faster. But there was nothing for it. He had to match their pace, agonizing all the while over what might even now be happening to Beneda.

Suddenly, from up ahead, he sensed danger, battle, deadly intent on the edges of his awareness. A quick glance confirmed that the youma were indeed heading right toward it. He looked over at Ranma, who nodded once in reply.

As one, the two boys sped up, shooting forward toward the youma in front of them. Ryouga launched himself into the air at the nearest enemy, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Ranma do the same.

The youma must have sensed something at the last moment. She looked back over her shoulder... just in time for the lost boy's foot to slam directly into her iron mask. The force of the blow sent her spinning uncontrollably through the air, setting up Ryouga's next three punches perfectly.

The last punch hurled her off the edge of the building, and Ryouga followed her out into space. He grabbed her and swung her around as they fell, using the drop as a two-story shoulder slam into the ground below. The youma groaned in pain from the impact, then slumped unconscious.

Ryouga got back to his feet and glanced across the road, in time to see Ranma extricate his youma's head from the brick wall he had just driven it through. The Anything-Goes heir followed that up with a final, surgical chop to the back of the neck that knocked her out as well. Then he turned to Ryouga. "Come on, let's go!"

The lost boy needed no second bidding. He followed his rival as they both took to the rooftops, racing the remaining distance at top speed. Reaching the last building, they skidded to a halt, processing the scene before them.

Beneda was running headlong down the street below, dodging and weaving, cutting around corners and behind obstacles, firing her shuriken wildly behind her as she fled. Dogging her steps where her relentless pursuers—three colorfully dressed girls, and a masked man wearing a tuxedo.

Even as he took all this in, Ryouga saw one of the girls—blonde, with long twin pigtails—pull her golden circlet off her head. It quickly transformed into a glowing disc, which she hurled at Beneda with a cry of "Moon Tiara Action!"

Gasping for breath, springing for all she was worth, Beneda tried with all her might to keep far enough ahead of her pursuers... but she could tell that it wasn't working. They were gaining on her, moving to hem her in. She hadn't expected them to be this fast!

It was then that she heard Sailor Moon call out her attack. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the weapon shooting toward her with fearsome velocity. Beneda tried to dodge out of the way, but the Moon Tiara corrected in mid-flight, homing relentlessly in on her. The youma's heart caught in her throat, as she realized that she would be unable to avoid it—

—and then, with the tiara just inches away from her face, a red-and-black blur crashed down like a thunderbolt from above, its foot driving the weapon down into the street with a force that shattered the asphalt and knocked Beneda onto her back.

Breathing hard, Ranma glanced up at her and flashed a quick, reassuring smile, even as Ryouga jumped down from the rooftops to land beside him. Then, both their faces shifting into a much angrier expression, they turned to face the Sailor Senshi.

Ryouga clenched his fists, glaring daggers at these new enemies. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been quite so furious—even as his heart was still hammering from what a close call that had just been. If he and Ranma had been even one second later, Beneda would have been...

He cut off that line of thought with a short growl. Better to focus on the problem in front of him. His gaze swept over the attackers who had been trying to kill Beneda, and it didn't take much guesswork to figure out who they were. Beneda had warned them, of course, about the Senshi's murderous attitude toward youma, but actually seeing it played out in front of his very eyes brought a whole new level of impact to it.

And not just going around attacking youma without any provocation... but attacking her four on one? he thought disgustedly. Clearly, these girls were a bunch of brats long overdue for a good spanking. And as for their friend in the tuxedo... Ryouga cracked his knuckles menacingly.

The Senshi, for their part, had skidded to an abrupt stop at the sudden change of events, looking back and forth between the two new arrivals with wide eyes. At length, the blonde Senshi spoke up. "I... I am Sailor Moon..." she said, sounding a little unnerved. "In the name of love and justice, we're here to—"

"Save it!" barked Ryouga. He was in no mood to listen to any self-righteous explanations. As angry as he was, he was more interested in simpler forms of communication. Like connecting his fist with that masked man's face. Repeatedly. "We know who you are."

"And you made a big mistake coming here..." added Ranma. "Beneda is with us now. And trust me, you don't want to mess with us."

"Your scare tactics won't work!" the red-clad Senshi shot back—although the blonde looked as though she might beg to differ. "We would have come after you two anyway! Your youma told us all about what you've been doing, and there's no way we'd stand by and allow it!"

Ryouga glanced back at Beneda. So she had actually gotten the chance to explain the situation to them... and they had still attacked her after hearing it? Worse, they'd been planning to attack him and Ranma just because they'd been sheltering a youma? Even Beneda's description hadn't done justice to how genocidal these maniacs were.

Ranma had evidently come to a similar conclusion. "Feh. I guess you all live up to your reputation, then," he said contemptuously. "You make me sick just looking at you."

And for once, Ryogua actually found himself in perfect agreement with his rival. "We'll put a stop to your little mission right here and now!" he said ominously. "I can't stand people with your kind of ideals!"

"I would expect nothing else from the forces of evil," proclaimed the masked man. "And I, Tuxedo Kamen, will do everything in my power to ensure your downfall. The guardians of righteousness will never lose to foes such as yourselves!"

And that, for Ryouga, was the final straw. "Well let's see about that!" he shouted, launching himself into a headlong charge at the man. And as he closed, he delivered a very familiar—if slightly modified—challenge.

"Tuxedo Kamen, prepare to die!"

It didn't have quite the same... ring to it, without Ranma's name, Ryouga decided. But it was good enough.

She had done it.

That was the one thought that filled Beneda's mind, as she watched the lost boy hurtle toward Tuxedo Kamen. She had done it. The crazy, last-chance plan that she had come up with all the way back when Ryouga had saved her from Crusath had actually been carried out. She had put the Senshi at odds with her protectors, and now they were fighting to "save" her from a fate that had been her own engineering to bring about.

She had done it. The words kept echoing hollowly in the sick emptiness where she should have felt exultation.

Ryouga covered the distance between himself and Tuxedo Kamen at blinding speed, even as his opponent ran to meet him at a similar velocity. The lost boy swung his fist, but Tuxedo Kamen slipped around the punch, the two shooting past each other. Immediately the masked man spun, bringing his cane around to slam into the base of Ryouga's neck, propelling the boy even further forward.

But if Tuxedo Kamen had expected Ryouga to be fazed by the hit, he was disappointed. The lost boy spun as well, managing to grab his foe's wrist before the man could withdraw it. Ryouga used the grip as a fulcrum, wrenching his opponent back toward him while at the same time swinging his leg around in a jump kick scything in at the side of the man's head.

Tuxedo Kamen tossed his cane to his free hand with a flick of the wrist, and brought it around to block the attack, bracing it against his shoulder. Ryouga's kick slammed into the weapon with a resounding crash, sending the black-clad man flying away, his feet skidding backward across the pavement. Even behind the mask, Beneda caught a wince of pain from him.

"Tuxedo Kamen!" wailed Sailor Moon, her hands shooting up toward her forehead. "Moon Tiara—" She broke off abruptly as her hands found nothing there... then looked back over to where Ranma stood, the Moon Tiara still trapped under his foot. He raised an eyebrow, then used his heel to grind it a little deeper into the concrete for emphasis.

Meanwhile, Tuxedo Kamen was whipping out his enchanted roses and hurling them at Ryouga as fast as he could. The lost boy charged straight into the assault, dodging around some flowers, while snatching others out of the air and tossing them aside. Soon Ryouga was within striking distance again, lunging in with another punch, even as Tuxedo Kamen tried to dodge and counter with his cane—

—but just before they collided, both of them leaped back away from each other. The next instant, two bursts of crimson lightning shot down from the rooftops, blasting twin furrows into the road right where the two combatants would have been.

Every head whipped around to stare at where the attacks had come from. Beneda's eyes widened. There, looking down at them, stood the deformed figure of the Darkmistress, flanked on either side by a row of Inquisitors.

For a long moment, all was silence. The members of the three sides all looked back and forth between each other, each sizing the others up.

Then the Darkmistress smiled. "Such good fortune..." she ground out. "The two greatest annoyances to the Dark Kingdom, both showing themselves to be crushed in one day..."

Sailor Moon set her jaw at the words. "That's not going to happen!" she said, in a slightly quavering voice. "No matter how many different enemies appear, the power of truth and love will always win in the end! In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

Ranma laughed, and started to crack his knuckles one by one. "I wouldn't have this any other way..." he announced. "You're all going down!"