SMST: Samurai Jill! – By DS Wynne

Disclaimer: "SM", "R1/2", "ST" and other genres belong to their respective owners.

Note: This is a multi-genre story.

Part 11

In the Beginning, there were four practitioners of the "Fist of the North Star", or simply "The Big Dipper God Fist":

There was Kenshiro the Bearer, who carried the legacy that was the "God Fist" while protecting the innocent.

There was Taki the Healer, who stressed the intrinsic nature of the "God Fist", while comforting the people in their time of need.

There was Raoh the Dragon, who pushed the power of the extrinsic nature of the "God Fist", in his quest to conquer the known world.

And there was Jagi the Traitor, who perfected the dark aspects of the family Art—known as "The Devil Fist" to corrupt what Raoh did not destroy or conquer.

And for a while, there was balance amongst the four, at least for a little while.

However, their stories did not end there.

The legendary "Sun Prince" and the "Moon Princess" discovered an injured Kenshiro, who had been betrayed by a childhood friend. On Kenshiro's direction, they found his older brother Taki, who used his prowess to heal his younger brother. In repayment of the life debt Kenshiro had accrued, the practitioners of the God Fist broke tradition, and shared their Art to these strangers. The result was the creation of the branch school known as "The Little Dipper God Fist". Unlike the Big Dipper arts, the Little Dipper arts were designed for those practitioners who were either agile, female or both, and possessed a natural affinity for speed. To be sure, both arts employ pressure point attacks as well, but only Kenshiro knew the secret techniques that were a pre-requisite in being the 64th Grandmaster of the God Fist.

Nevertheless, the Sun Prince and Moon Princess grew stronger because of their respective training. However, it was the Moon Princess who caught the eye of Raoh, who sought to use her to explore the true potential of the God Fist. Thus, after being captured, Raoh transformed her into a living weapon. Worse, thanks to Raoh's twisted sense of duty to the ethos of his martial arts style, the Moon Princess has been conditioned to kill the Sun Prince… least said prince becomes a thorn in Raoh's plan…

The next day, the people of Cassandra lined up in the city square, as Julia was tied onto a cross, before being hefted high into the air.

Urghur, Raoh's general, steps forth while Raoh watched the crowd. Standing off to the side was a masked woman whose face and identity was totally covered up. Her leather body suit hugged her form like a second skin. She, too, watched the crowd.

"People of Cassandra!" Urghur called out. "Last night, two of our prisoners escaped captivity. And in a display of utter audacity to the rule of our king, they left a flower. For that, this woman, Julia, will pay the price…and that is death by the lash!"

"No!" Lynn called out, only to be held back by Bart.

"However, the woman may live…if you volunteer to take her place."

"We got to do something!" Bart says.

Ray looks over to Ranma.

"Your call," Ray says.

Earlier, Bart and Lynn had sneaked back into town without anyone noticing. So with Hoshi and T'Pol safe, Ray and Ranma went searching for the kids…and it looks like it was a good thing that they did go looking for them.

"It isn't Urghur that I'm concerned," Ranma says. "It's Raoh."

Pause.

"Oh, well," says Ranma with a smile. "I didn't learn martial arts just for the exercise…"

Ray nods his head. He then turns to the kids.

"You two stay out of trouble," Ray says, as he places a hand on Bart's left shoulder.

"But Ray-" Lynn begins.

"Be good, okay?" Ray says.

Lynn only nodded her head.

Ranma and Ray take a look at each other, and then moved forward through the crowd, and into the open.

"You!" Ranma called out.

All heads turns to Ranma and Ray.

"I gave the flower to Julia!"

"And I helped," Ray says.

Raoh merely smirked, while the leather latex-wearing, muscular female turns to face the pigtailed young man.

"Grrrr!" Urghur (or simply "Ogre") growled, as he cracks his whip. "You shall pay for that!"

Raoh (or "Raul") motions his head towards Ranma, causing the female to move forward.

"Huh, figures," Ranma smirked, as he cracked his knuckles. "I always have to get the chick."

"You two will pay for interfering with destiny," Raul says. "Ogre? Bunny? KILL."

'Bunny?' Ranma thought, as 'Bunny' moved faster than he had anticipated, and had seemingly glided across the ground.

FIST!

Bunny immediately used her fists in a "downward punch" motion. Although Ranma dodged the attack, the force of the attack had caused the ground to split open…and cuts to form on Ranma's face and skin.

'This is going to be problematic,' Ranma thought to himself. And then he thought about the innocents amongst the crowd…

Ranma stands back, as he waits to see 'Bunny' make her next move. But first-

"Sharingan," Ranma says, as his eyes changes to a red color with three tomoe marks within. Although Ranma can read auras, he wanted to make sure that the person he was fighting was not-

"USAGI?" Ranma exclaimed.

In his mind's eye, Ranma could see the enhanced version of his long time friend, her true appearance and Raoh's aura. In fact, that aura seems to dominate Usagi somehow…

"Usagi, what are you doing?"

Bunny pulls off her mask. She still had the same wide grin and glassy stare. Her 'Moon Mark" was exposed.

"Lord Raoh told me to kill you," Usagi says. "Therefore, I must kill you."

Ranma quickly formulated a plan.

"Ray, I need to move my fight elsewhere!" Ranma called out. "Don't do anything rash before I get back!"

"Just do what you have to do!" Ray says, as he prepares to fight Ogre.

Ranma then focused his thoughts on Usagi.

"If you want to kill me…come and get me!"

And with that, Ranma took off and ran, with Usagi in hot-pursuit.

TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA-!
As Ranma "zigzags" through the ruined portion of Cassandra at "invisible speed" (so fast that no one would be able to see him), his mind was a whirl with questions. The last time he had seen her, her aura was never this intense. Worse, Usagi looked like she had abused steroids, but did not sacrifice her beauty. Furthermore, Ranma noticed that she had an increase height, from her normal 5 feet, 3 inches, to at least 6 feet, 1 inch.

"I got it," Ranma says to himself. "Somehow, that jerk Raoh used pressure points and 'chi' to enhance Usagi, as well as manipulate her. I'll just undue what HE did-"

Thoom! Thoom! Thoom! Thoom! THOOM!

Usagi had gone through several buildings as if they were not even present. She skidded to a stop.

"You have to fight me, Ranma Saotome," Usagi says, as her aura crackled. "That is the way of the God Fist."

Ranma thinks for a moment, as a strategy popped into his head…

"As you wish," Ranma says, as he gets into a loose stands.

Usagi cocks her head, and then gets into a fighting stance.

For a long time, there was nothing but silence…save the rumbles in distance…

Suddenly, Usagi attacked Ranma again, and began to rein a deadly combination of punches and kicks. And with each successful blow struck, Ranma countered with a poke at Usagi's pressure points around her arms and upper torso…some of which rubbed her the wrong way.

SLAP!

Ranma careened straight into a building, cause it to collapse.

"PERVERT!" Usagi screamed, as she used her arms to protect her chest.

Ranma sits up from the rubble he had inadvertently made.

"I apologize for that, but it's for your good. And I will have to do touch you like that again."

Ranma gets up, and charges forward, read to attack.

"Oh, no you don't!" Usagi says, as she cocks her legs. At least minute, she began to snap-kick the very hair, causing direct pressure with enough force to destroy several buildings in the process.

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM-!

Guessing that Usagi was too embarrassed to wage an effective attack, Ranma easily dodges the attack. And, at the last minute, Ranma moves underneath her to poke her some more, around her legs and lower torso.

POKE! POKE! POKE-!

"AH!" Usagi yelps, as she collapses unto the ground.

Quickly, Ranma gets behind her, and began to press several points on her back-

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Usagi screamed, as she flashed her aura, knocking Ranma backwards.

Ranma gritted his teeth, as he gets up. He then pulls out an old yen piece.

"Good thing these things are worthless," Ranma says, as he focused his thoughts to perform a special tecnhnique…

"Happo Fifty-Yen Shiatsu!"

Moments later, Ranma began to draw out Usagi's energy. However, part of her aura took the form of-

"Raoh?" Ranma yelled, as the invasive energy began attacking Ranma.

"Argh!" Ranma says, as he crumbled a bit.

The aura roared, and was just about to attack again when-

"Moon Power…Transform!"

The aura turns to realize that it being dislodged, even slightly, was enough to get Usagi lucid enough to re-establish control of herself.

Sailor Moon stands, though she still felt the affects of Ranma's actions somewhat. She then places the palms of her hands together.

"Moon Aura…ASCENSION!"

Sailor Moon began to flush the alien aura from her system. In the process, it was dying.

"Noooo," says the Shadow Raoh. "I only wanted to make you stronger. Don't kill me…"

In spite of the violence, in spite of what had been done to her, Sailor Moon could not bring herself to kill the intruder.

"Alright, but I'M in charge, okay?" Sailor Moon says.

"Of course," Shadow Raoh says. "You have proven yourself strong…"

And with that, Shadow Raoh returns to its dormant state within Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon sighs, wondering if she did the right thing. Then again, she did get stronger-

Suddenly, she remembers something.

"Ranma!" Sailor Moon says, as she rushes to her friend's side. She immediately hugs Ranma.

"Oh, Ranma, I'm SO sorry."

"Mmmph!" Ranma tried to say, as his face was buried in his friend's chest.

"Oh," Sailor Moon says, as she released her friend. "Sorry…"

"So," Ranma says, as he wipes the dirt off of him.

"So," Sailor Moon says.

"You're looking…well."

"Oh. Okay…"

BOOM!

Sailor Moon and Ranma turns to see the near-apocalyptic disaster that was occurring back where Ray was fighter Ogre.

"We better hurry!" Ranma says. "Are you…up to it?"

"Please," Sailor Moon says. "Roah doesn't own me. Although, I do like that leather outfit with stiletto heels that he had given me."

"…"

Later…

With the destruction of Cassandra, and the disappearance of Raoh, life was returning to normal, such as it was.

"Thank you for saving me…and for saving Ken," Julia says, as she hugged Ranma and Usagi, with Ken standing there.

"No problem," Usagi says. "Ranma and I owe it to Ken…and to his brother Toki."

"Any time you need my help, let me know," Ken says.

"Same here…Grandmaster."

And with that, Usagi and Ranma bows.

A short while later…

"Well, we better be off," Ray says, as he loads his pack into the vehicle.

"Where are you off too?" Usagi asks.

"I…I decide to return home and settle-down with my sweetheart."

"Heh," Ranma says, as he rubbed the back of his head. "That's…good to know."

"Take care!" Bart says.

"Good-bye!" Lynn says.

And with that, they, too, disappear as well.

"Well, we better get back to camp," Ranma began. "The others are waiting for us-"

"No," Usagi says.

Ranma turns around. That's when he sees her gear in hand.

"Usagi…?"

"I still have to find 'Jack', and this is something I have to do alone."

Usagi then moves in to kiss Ranma intimately.

"What's that for?" Ranma asks.

"A down payment for a future date," Usagi says with a nod and a wink. "And tell Hoshi and T'Pol that I will be fine."

"But-"

"Don't worry," Usagi says, as she reveals four talismans attached to leather ropes. "I got these out of Roah's stash of treasures. We'll be able to keep in touch at least three times a day."

Usagi hands three of the talismans to Ranma.

"I got them when I went searching for Jack's sword."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ranma asked.

"I do, Ranma. I need to know my own limits, and I DID give my word."

Ranma nods his head.

"Take care of yourself, Usagi," Ranma says.

And with that, Ranma leaves.

A tear fell from Usagi's eyes as she wraps her cloak around her body, before putting on her ladies Stetson hat (i.e. cowboy/girl). She slings her pack, then her guitar…and then Jack's sword.

And, with that, Usagi continues her journey…

Tbc.

Next time: "The End of A Story"