Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, Sailor Moon, Ronin Warriors, or Yugioh, as much as I would like to. Nor do I own Street Fighter.
Author's Note: Happy Halloween! Even if it is a little late for that holiday! Sit back and relax, pop some candy into your mouth, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Its got fighting, comedy, romance, and a lot of dressing up!
Ch11: Trick or Treat!
School had started. The usual flurries of getting schedules, finding classrooms, and having to deal with the first papers being assigned was done, and everyone was settling in to the college experience. Nabiki of course was in her second year of college, and while Ranma had gone to Furikin High through 12th grade, since he'd already been taking college courses on the sly he was also placed in Sophomore year with her. He went to the Freshmen Orientation with everyone else though, this being the first year he was attending college while actually at the campus.
Rhea was also registered, as Ranma had registered for college back when he still had the water curse and Rhea hadn't woken up and split yet. So both his sides had been registered, taking the same classes of course, and all that Ranma had to do was find the registration office and inform them of his name change from Saotome to Ono. Luckily, he hadn't signed up for any classes in which the instructors actually cared about attendance. Ranma just hoped they'd be able to bring Rhea back from whoever had brainwashed her.
Now it was the end of October, and time for Halloween.
"Come on Kaiba baby, you've just got to come!" Mai pleaded.
The university was holding its annual Halloween Party, obligatory Monster Mash music and costume competition and all. The group had decided to all dress up and go, the official couples doing their best to dress in themes, and some spending days – even weeks! – on their costumes for the competition. Mai, who wanted to be a fashion designer, had helped design and make a lot of their costumes. The only problem they had left was Seto Kaiba, who had continued to refuse to dress up and go right up to the evening of the dance.
So here they all were, crowded into his and Yugi's apartment living room, begging him. He started to think that maybe he should go, just so they'd all shut up and leave him alone.
The whole group lived in the same apartment complex, so it was no problem for them to stay and bug Seto all day long, going off in ones or twos to get dressed, and slipping back in to relieve someone else who needed to get dressed, By now everyone was in costume. Except Seto.
Ranma had asked Nabiki to go with him, and they had spent several weeks making (or purchasing the pieces of) their costumes. Ranma wore a white gi with the sleeves torn off, a black belt, a red strip of cloth tried as a headband, and red fingerless gloves. Nabiki had a gold-trimmed blue Chinese top that came down to her knees in the front and back, with the sides split all the way up to her waist. It belted with a wide white sash, and she also wore red skin-tight pants and white boots, and had managed to twist her short hair up into two buns, covered with white cloths, leaving some bangs to fall over one eye. A spiked leather dog-collar-esque band braceleted each of her wrists. Yup, that's right folks! They are going as Ryu the street fighter and Chun-Li the Interpol agent from the Street Fighter animated movies!
Yugi had washed the gel out of his hair and tied his normally spiky gold-streaked-black-and-vermillion hair into a short low tale. Only the gold bangs were still spiky around his deep purple eyes, and served to accent the gold crown her wore. He had rich-looking medieval-style clothing and a cape on, and a plastic sword strapped to his side. Serena had on a floor-length, white satin, off-the-shoulder medieval-style gown with long sleeves that flared out at the wrist, and a silver silk cord around her waist. Her hair was loose in ringlets to her waist and she wore a silver crown. They were going as "King Arthur and Queen Guinevere."
Sage was an elven lord straight from Lord of the Rings in emerald and forest green, with an oak staff, dark green cape, and a small real red rosebud pinned to his breast. Lita had been deliriously happy when he asked her to be his date, and was going as his dryad consort in a flowing, layered green and brown dress, with brown sandles on her feet, red roses in her hair, and a belt of ivy and red and pink roses.
Mina was in white ancient Greek clothing with orange and gold ribbons tied at the shoulders and white sandles on her feet. She had piled her hair on top of her head in a Greek style. She was, of course, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty. (What else would she be?) Mina had roped Kento into going as her date, and he'd grabbed a quaterstaff and three boxes of tinfoil and went as her knight in shining armor.
Ami had blushed when Cye asked her to go with him, but quickly agreed, The couple went in shades of blue, Ami with fairy wings and Cye with a plastic trident. They had decided to go as the Blue Fairy and King Neptune.
Rowan, for his costume, had dressed in forest green and tights. Sage had joked that he looked good in green and had great legs, and Rowan had promptly bashed him with a pillow until he apologized and begged forgiveness. In fact, both Rowan and Kayura wore pretty much the same costume, and both had yew longbows and quivers of arrows hung on their backs, for they were going as Robin Hood and Maid Marion.
Hotaru had made the comment that Ryoga could be a vampire with his "cute little fangs" which had sparked the idea for him going as Dracula. And since he couldn't get past the blushing and stammering phase Hotaru had asked him to be her date for the dance, and was going as Dracula's Bride. Both were in black and deep red, with bat-wing-like capes, Hotaru also wearing a lot of black fishnet and black lipstick with deep red eye-shadow. She of course, needed the fake fangs.
Raye still refused to admit she liked Ryo, but had given in far too easily and quickly to fool anyone when he asked her to go with him. Ryo was going as a white tiger, and Raye as a black cat. Serena teased her that the themed costumes meant they were a couple, and Mina and Lita congratulated her at scoring such a fine man. Ryo laughed as Raye blushed and sputtered, and tried in vain to protest.
Bakura was going as a cowboy in mostly dark colors, with a black stetson and a (fake) pistol holstered on each hip. When they saw him, Joey and Tristan began to sing the Wild Wild West Theme. Tea was going as the Dark Magician Girl, still hoping to catch Yugi's eye. Failing miserably at this and more than a little stung that he was falling all over a girl he'd only just met (in her eyes anyway), and since she didn't have a partner for the dance (she grumbled about that, shooting envious looks at Serena, still having that crush on Yami – rather Yugi now), Tea roped in the gunslinger. Bakura got teased about his curious lack of resistance and bright red face.
Tristan, Duke, and Marik didn't have dates, or even any free girls to ask, so they got together as the Three Musketeers and planned on asking any dateless girls they saw at the party to dance with them.
Joey, in some great lack of thought towards the consequences of his costume, had decided to go as a werewolf. So far, Seto had refrained from making any of the usual "mutt" comments, but wondered just how long he could resist such an open invitation. Yugi was silently applauding Seto for his at-times almost-visible restraint. Mai, being Joey's girlfriend, decided they needed some sort of theme. But as she didn't want to go as a puppy, had decided that theme was "humanoid animals" and was currently in a sexy white bunny outfit that would have had Playboy calling her to model for them if any scouts had seen her.
And now all that was left was to convince Seto Kaiba to get into the spirit of the holiday, get into costume, and get into that car of his and go to the Halloween bash.
"Come on Kaiba, we're begging you." Tea said.
"Yeah, ya need ta get outa dat funk and go out an' have some fun!" Joey said.
"Forget it Mutt, I'm not going as some stupid monster out of a B movie horror film!" Seto snapped back at Joey, finally loosing the struggle not to take the opening the blonde boy's costume gave him. Oh well, Yugi thought, I guess it was inevitable, what with Joey's choice of costume. "What do you expect me to do?" Seto continued, "become a fourth wheel of those Three Amigos?"
"That's Three Musketeers!" Marik shouted
"And you can always go as D'Artagnan!" Tristan continued, "In fact, I think we may have an extra costume laying around somewhere..."
"Yeah, why did they name it "The Three Musketeers" anyway?" Duke asked, "I mean, the main character guy is the fourth Musketeer dude!"
Duke was ignored as Seto adamantly refused to dress up in a matching costume with "those three womanizing imbeciles." Finally Mai said, "Look Kaiba, all we ask is that you come to the Halloween party with us. You need to get out of this apartment and get a social life! And maybe find a girlfriend! ust go grab something and put it on, and make up the first thing that comes to your mind as a costume idea."
Grumbling, Seto finally gave in, if only to relive the headache he was getting. "Fine, bunny girl. I'll go throw something together." Seto all but ran into his room, shutting the door behind him with a sigh of relief. Now what? He took a moment to compose himself, then did a cursory glance around his room. Shedding his long white trademark jacket, he paced to the closet and looked inside. Hm... What would make a fast and simple costume? Ah, that'll do.
Seto grabbed a jacket out of the closet, taking off the buckles on his shirt sleeves before putting it on. Now he was dressed entirely in black, the coat as long as his white one but with full length sleeves. He put on a pair of mirrored sunglasses, grabbed his cell phone for good measure, and went back out to face the music.
"Lead the way, O White Rabbit." He smirked at Mai.
Her mouthed dropped open and Yugi started laughing. "That's perfect Seto. Quick, easy, and computer related fits your personality just right! I should have known you'd seen The Matrix!"
Finally in costume, Seto "Neo" Kaiba followed the White Rabbit – and the rest of the group – out and to the party.
The party had been going strong for almost an hour now. The judges had been moving through the crowds, writing down names and costumes of everyone the came across and discussing said costumes amongst themselves. Duke asked various girls in dresses, capes, and tutus, if they wanted to be his date and Marik scored a beautiful French waitress as a dancing partner. People of various masks, makeup, gender, and species conversed in groups, got punch and snacks from the snack bar, or danced out on the dance floor. Duke asked more girls if they wanted to be his date and Tristan found a biker chick to be his dance partner. Everyone was having a blast. Duke asked more women to dance, narrowly dodging a free jealous boyfriends when he chose the wrong women to ask and Kaiba turned down dance offers, preferring to stand in the back near the payphone and watch. Slow dances started, the couples moving closer to each other, and Tea dragging Bakura out onto the floor. Duke got chased away by a group of angry women, and barely got away by ducking into the men's restroom.
Ranma was finally having a good time around women. Or rather, a woman. Nabiki hadn't hit him, refused to listen to his explanations, walked in on him in the furo, glomped him, taken indecent pictures of him and scammed him out of his money (this one was surprising), or cooked him a toxic meal. And now she was quite happy to dance with him and not call him a pervert for touching her or liking to slow dance. In fact, she had agreed to be his girlfriend. Ranma was ecstatic. Although it was still hard for him to express or even admit to feelings much of the time, he knew he liked her. A lot. And Nabiki liked him just as much back. Another plus was the two didn't have Soun and Genma standing over them insisting they get married that instant! They could take it as slow as they wanted.
Suddenly at the end of the slow song there was a loud crash. Most people ignored it, thinking it was only the start of the next song. Some people, especially Ranma, didn't have that choice.
"SAOTOME! I will get Shampoo back from you at any cost! DIE!" Ranma could ignore this one as Mousse began attacking the potted plants in the corner, and at least it gave him some warning to what was coming next.
Ah yes, enter the Nerima Wrecking Crew. And at their head: "I have found you, Foul Sorcerer! I, Tatewaki Kuno, age nineteen, Blue Thunder of Nerima, greatest samurai warrior of the realm, shall defeat you!" He charged, bokken held high over his head, and "MORTAL KOMBAAAAAT!!!" rang out as the DJ in the back began playing the Mortal Kombat theme.
"OHOHOHOHOHO! There you are you despicable man! To think I, Kodachi Kuno, the Black Rose, have wasted so many years pursuing such a foul sorcerer who with his black arts had entrapped my mind! But no more! My wonderful, beloved master has cleared my mind of your foul sorcery, and I join my brother in his righteous fight against you! Die Ranma!"
Both attacked him at once, and the dance floor was almost magically immediately cleared to become a fighting arena, as most of the Halloween Bash's participants (minus Nabiki and Ranma's new group of friends) thought this was some wonderful new Halloween entertainment. True to form, Nabiki began taking bets for the outcome (old habits die hard, and these people were fresh meat who wouldn't bet on Ranma every time). Ranma may have been teaching her the basics of The Art, and Nabiki was surprisingly fast and a good kicker for one who hadn't practiced since her mother died, but she unlike her younger sister knew when she was outclassed. Which didn't stop her from stepping up to the very side of the ring and giving the blind duck-boy a few good high kicks, Chun-Li style, as he blunderered by. Much to the delight of the audience. The Ronins, the Sailors, Ryoga, and Yugi and his fellow Summoners pushed to the front of the crowd to see if they could help.
Ranma had knocked out the idiot samurai by this time, and was now defending himself against the suddenly improved skills of the Black Rose, courtesy of her as-yet-unnamed master. Kuno, groaned, staggered to his feet, yelled "I fight on!" and started to stagger over to where he thought Ranma was. Nabiki saw him swaying drunkenly toward the edge of the crowd and decided to make sure he didn't get close enough to the non-combatants to do anything in his stupified state. Dashing to the front of the crowd, the Chun-Li costumed student of Anything Goes gave him a good kick or ten in the chest. She'd found she was really good with those high kicks, and like the character she was dressed as, pretty fast (for a beginner anyway). Kuno found himself thrown back several feet. "I fight - erk!" was all he had time for before one of Ryoga's stray bandana's crashed into his head and knocked him out again. All of this happened in the space of thirty seconds.
In short order Ranma and Ryoga found they needed the Juuban Vigilante Crew's help, as more party crashers appeared.
"Ranchan! Where are you? You must come and marry me, I mean it! And if you don't, this time I swear I'll kill you!" Ukyo headed for Ranma but was intercepted by Ryoga, and the two started to fight; Ukyo wanted to get past to "her Ranchan" and Ryoga refused to let her by, especially while his friend was being double-teamed by the Kunos.
"Miss Ukyo, wait for me!" Konatsu, attired in his red female ninja outfit, fists full of throwing stars and sword strapped to his side, came a little way into the impromptu arena and stopped, watching his beloved. He really did love the fry cook, but didn't want to get caught up in any more of these battles.
"Airen! Come to Shampoo! Come back to China like good male and marry Shampoo!" Shampoo rushed forward, ignoring Mousse who was now taking on some evil chairs in the supply closet, and was stopped by Mina, and Lita. Luckily, Ranma had taught the Sailors the basics of Ki and Chi manipulation and they had all taken to it like a bunch of fish to water. Ranma had noted how they had been using strange Ki for their attacks, and had theorized they used Ki from their respective planets, and their experience of using it in their Sailor uniforms had given them all the boost they needed to start using their attacks while still in their street clothes. And thank goodness he'd warned them all about Amazon laws! The blonde and tall brunette began to manuver Shampoo into Ukyo's line of fire, to see if they could get her knocked out with a flying spatula and not rack up any Kisses on themselves. However, before the love goddess and the dryad could do much of anything, there was a shout of "I'LL SAVE YOU SHAMPOO! DIE SAOTOME!" and chains shot of nowhere to wrap around the Amazon and knock her out. Mousse had finally gotten what he wanted, but it would take him several more minutes to find his glasses and discover this.
Someone finally commented to the DJ about certain costume themes, and he began playing Street Fighters theme songs to blend better with Ranma and Co's "Street Fighter Tournament Cosplay."
The "cosplay" didn't stop there – after all only half the NWC had joined in so far. "Messing up a party? You are all delinquents!" Miss Hinako started fishing in her pocket for her coin, but seeing one of Shampoo's lost bonbouri flying at her, shrieked and ducked behind an upturned table for cover (she was a young girl at this point). The bonbouri flew over the table and hit her anyway, taking her out of the fight.
"What a haul! What a haul!" There were shrieks of outrage from women in the crowd as Happosai bounced around stealing their underwear and bras. Unfortunately, he glomped Mai who was a Summoner. As many people in Domino had discovered and recently more and more in Tokyo were discovering, the newly dubbed "Sommoners" could summon Ka Monsters to battle the Shadow Monsters that had recently began to ravage the cities. The main difference was that Shadow Monsters sought to kill and destroy, while the Ka Monsters were the monsters that the Summoners called to fight. Usually, Summoners could only call one personal Ka Monster, but some of the stronger ones could summon multiple monsters. Mai herself could summon up to three Harpies Ladies, or one Harpies Lady and Harpies Pet Dragon.
So when the pervert Grand Master glomped her, she immediately summoned her three Harpies Ladies, and the Ka Monsters promptly snatched the troll and carried him off. There was a spattering of enthusiastic applause from the female half of the crowd.
Akane was sulking. She'd yelled at her ex-fiance for being a pervert and going around with this huge harem of hussies, gotten ignored by him and yelled at by several of said hussies, and then written off as "not a threat" by everyone. She'd then yelled about being a martial artist too, and the tall brunette girl in green with flowers in her hair had given her one uppercut that had knocked her out for five minutes. So here she was in a corner, nursing her bruised jaw and bruised pride, watching her sister get rich off of bets. Sulking.
During all this the judges had lost all their sense of self-preservation, and could be seen ducking and dodging around in the fighting ring, trying to get the names and "costumes" of all the new comers. One had to bear Kuno's ten minute soliloquies when asked who and what he was after waking him up, but no one was inclined to feel sorry for him. After all, he asked for it.
"Miss? Excuse me miss? Name please?" Kontsu looked around in surprise, to find a jumpy judge looking questioningly at him. "What? Oh – Kontsu." The judge scribbled this down on his clipboard. "Costume?" The ninja looked confused. "Err... kunoichi?"
And yet another judge looked down on Shampoo, drooling a little. "Er, does anyone know who this is and what she's dressed as?" he asked. Mousse, who had finally found his glasses and was crying happily that he'd won Shampoo, said impatiently "That's Shampoo, a Chinese Amazon warrior and the village champion, and" he puffed up his chest proudly "I'm her new husband!" The judge looked a little askance at the ecstatic but obviously insane boy, decided the husband part must be part of some cosplay, and wrote this all down on his clipboard.
Unnoticed by the fighters, more gatecrashers had arrived. The Dark Kingdom Generals; Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoicite, and Malachite had all appeared, as had the Dark Warlords; Cale, Sekhmet, and Dias. They had all shown up in their uniforms and armors, and attempted to terrorize the party goers.
The party goers just thought they all had great costumes, much to the chagrin of the would-be terrorists.
Mia Koji arrived out of breath, the Ancient Staff in her hands, wearing traditional a priestess kimono. Anubis, in full armor, was right behind her, as he was the Keeper's Guardian after all, and Mia was the Keeper. They also received comments on their great costumes as they made their way towards the would-be terrorists. Mia raised the staff, said several sharp, resonant words of power, the staff lit up and chimed, and the seven men melted into puddles of greenish goo. Most of the witnesses said "Eeeeeeeeeewwww!" though a few said "Cool!"
"Are you sure that was the right thing to do, my lady?" Anubis asked her. "Of course it was right, 'Nubis. You were raised from the dead, and given your own body and soul back as a reward for your good deeds and loyalty to me, after you were killed in my defense before your time had come. These men were not. They were all clones, only able to follow their orders and barely able to think for themselves. The souls of all seven are still in the Realms of the Dead. They rest in peace still, and these zombies will not annoy us again." Anubis nodded in understanding, and Mia jumped as her audience of party goers applauded her for her speech and the whole "act," especially those neat special effects!
Ranma was having trouble. He'd thrown Kuno away from him once again, but he had to focus on Kodachi, who was actually a challenge, so the Kendoist kept coming back. At least by now his bokkon was broken, so he was trying to use a ladle from the punch bowl. People had sensibly cleared out of the way, but he was indoors and surrounded by civilians. He couldn't use any Ki blasted for fear of hitting people, or for that matter destroying the floor, and was reduced to hand to hand combat. He had to keep dodging to avoid Kodachi's ribbon, and deflecting the spiked gymnastic clubs she threw at him as best he could.
Kuno picked himself up from another throw. He was battered and bruised but had surprisingly lasted a long time for a fight against Ranma, as the martial artist wasn't really paying attention to him. Kuno mistakingly thought he had become a far better fighter than the "foul sorcerer." As he got up he proclaimed "I fight on!" and raised the ladle triumphantly. Then one of his sister's clubs came flying through the air, cracked him on the head, and he was out like a light.
Another club went flying in the opposite direction and knocked Duke out cold. There was loud spontaneous cheering from most of the women in the room.
Finally, Ranma managed to knock Kodachi out. Ryoga had long since taken Ukyo out of the fight and dragged her out of the arena, Kuno was ignored completely, and Mousse had found his glasses, briefly rejoiced, and carried off his new Amazon wife.
The preliminaries over, the final player stepped onto the stage.
"So scum, still alive?"
Ranma looked around, wondering who else wanted him dead and why the voice seemed familiar. He was surprised to find that the person had directed her comment to Seto, instead of him for once. He was even more surprised to see who it was.
Sailor Eclipse. Rhea Ono. Lotus of Atlantis.
This murmer ran through the Sailors, and hence into the crowd and the judges. "Sailor Eclipse! Not her again..." The judges scribbled furiously in their clipboards, and began to compare notes.
"Let's take this outside, why don't we." the black-and-silver-clad Senshi said. Ranma nodded mutely, and followed her out the doors. Seto, frozen at the sight of her, had to be dragged by Yugi. The whole group trooped outside. Then only Nabiki was left behind, doing cover-up and collecting bets. As Ranma left he could hear her shouting to the crowd "That's it, everyone! Thank you all for watching, we hope you enjoyed the show." Good for her, he thought, no one will think this was anything but a cosplay, appropriate for Halloween, and no one will follow us out here where they could get seriously hurt. "Don't forget to collect your bets and pay them, thank you very much! Form a line please!" she continued. Ranma cracked a grin. In other ways, Nabiki had changed a lot. But some things never change!