Chapter 21: Killing Ground
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
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"We now have five Rainbow Crystals," Beryl said. "The Sailor Senshi have two. Zoicite, how do you propose to get them?"
"We have the advantage this time," Zoicite said. "The Sailor Senshi could lie in wait for us when they had to protect the carriers of the Rainbow Crystals. Now that all of the crystals are in play, we can concentrate on defeating the Senshi. Once that is done, the remaining Rainbow Crystals will be ours."
"And how will you do this?"
"I have modified the Dark Crystal," Zoicite said. He held the crystal up. "With this crystal, I can turn humans into youma. The Sailor Senshi will not be able to kill them, and so their attacks will be weak."
"How many humans can you change at once?" Magnetite asked.
"I will change as many as it takes."
"I would recommend adding some of our own youma," Magnetite said to Beryl. "There are only two Sailor Senshi with the ability to kill youma outright, and they cannot kill one of us. If we use even three youma separated by several miles at the same time, we can be assured that one will be confronted only by the lesser Senshi and their worthless allies. We will be able to thin their ranks."
*Even that mysterious prophetic Senshi will not be able to save her teammates,* he thought to himself. *She will be in an impossible position - she can face Zoicite, or a youma she can kill, but whichever she chooses the Senshi or allies facing the other one will die. And she cannot leave one to roam free. Humans can be so weak...*
"I will use some of my youma for this," Kunzite said.
"If more youma are involved, the Sailor Senshi will be spread thinner," Magnetite proposed.
"You will all work together," Beryl ordered. "Draw the Sailor Senshi out and kill them!"
Magnetite gave a smug look to his peers. At last he would have a chance to gain some glory. And with Zoicite himself managing things in the field, there was some chance the Sailor Senshi would defeat him as well.
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"This one is going to be tough," Ranma-chan said. "They'll start using more youma now. They want to draw us out, draw us APART, and kill us where we're weak."
"But we can still kill them like we did before?" Usagi asked.
Ranma indicated several points on the map of Tokyo. "Here, here, here, here, here, here. Six points to defend. I can take one, you can take another. Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter can kill a third. Shampoo and Ukyo can take a fourth. Ryoga can take a fifth, if he stays where he's told."
"Good luck with that," Rei said, rolling her eyes.
"That leaves one point where the youma will be loose. And that's just what Zoicite brings with him. He can now use the Dark Crystal to change humans into youma. Guess who he wants to change first." He looked Usagi in the eyes.
"Not Naru-chan? Oh no! Poor Naru-chan! Will they ever leave her alone?"
"They know she's connected with us, Usagi," Ami said. "It's logical Zoicite would want her."
"Well, they can't have her!" Usagi said. "We have to stop him at all costs!"
"Which means more people are going to be hurt!" Makoto protested. "They're going to get a lot of energy as it is from this!"
"It can't be helped," Cologne said gravely. "They are finally giving us more targets than we can handle. We have to prioritize. Defeat the most important ones first."
"So who goes where?" Makoto asked.
"I'm going with Naru-chan!" Usagi insisted. "I have to protect her!"
"I suppose that means you go with her to, Mamoru?" Rei asked.
Mamoru was a keen study. "Would that be best?" he asked Ranma.
"Actually, yes. Not next to her, though... shadow them. Naru and Umino will be with Usagi, you hang back and wait for Zoicite to strike. I'll check the time to the second..."
They spent some hours hashing out the best timeline. They noticed Ranma having some difficulty telling them about certain points, but assumed that was stress.
Cologne knew better. After the Senshi and Ukyo had left, she addressed the point. "This battle is going to be different, isn't it? People aren't just going to get drained. They're going to die."
Ranma nodded sadly. "I can't see any other way. It feels like... like I'm failing somehow."
"Can not save everyone," Shampoo said. "Save who we can."
"Even the greatest martial artists have their limits," Cologne said. "I'm sure you've heard the stories. It takes a toll on you."
"It's more than that," Ranma said. "I've been feeling... like I'm not myself lately. I mean... that dosen't make sense, does it? If I'm not me, who am I?"
"What do you mean, not like yourself? What's different?"
"Like... I used to want to play around, mess with people. Now I don't want to bother anymore. I just want to get things done. Even Akane... it just doesn't seem worth it to tease her. I used to do that as if it would change her, but I see that it doesn't." He looked suddenly alarmed. "I'm not... turning into HER, am I? There isn't some personality component to the curse?"
Cologne chuckled. "Maybe you're just growing up." She began to look almost wistful. "Growing up, and growing older for that matter, is largely about learning to look beyond the present, to live in longer time frames. As young children we get lost in the world around us, the here-and-now, and don't look at the future - because the world is so new to us. The present is all we have. As we get older, we have more of a past, and can see more of the future - weeks, months, years. When you're six years old, every year, every hour, is a lifetime in itself. Ten years in the future - an unimaginable world. When you're sixty, you lose whole weeks and wonder where they've gone. You know ten years in the future will be much like today. The sun will still shine, the grass will still grow, the wind still blow."
"That's what it is? Living beyond the present?"
"All of the Lady's hosts have ended up much the same. We think the Lady herself must have been shaped by her power. Seeing all things, knowing all ends... she must have had a hard time dealing with people, because to some part of her mind they were already dying."
Ranma shuddered. "I've got to finish this. I've got to lift this curse. I'm a GUY, dammit. Guys defend what's theirs. They fight to be who they're SUPPOSED to be."
He stalked out, burning determination in his eyes.
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Shortly before noon, Zoicite gave the signal. He was tracking Naru through the city, heading for a crowded amusement park - an excellent place to transform her into a youma.
Magnetite appeared on top of a high-rise apartment, miles from the park. His team of youma was appearing on the streets at this time, attacking immediately. "Let's see how you deal with this, mystery Senshi," he said with a laugh. "You can see where they all will be, but can you reach them all? I think not."
Beryl would be looking at this battle through Zoicite's eyes, careful to note what happened. If the mystery Senshi did anything too anticipatory, she would not fail to see it. But he would have to report his suspicions to her soon enough.
He would just have to keep at his efforts to attune himself to the mystery Senshi's staff. Then, he was certain, they would be on an equal playing field.
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A beautiful day at the amusement park. Naru and Umino were entering about noon. Usagi was close behind, looking every which way, trying to find Zoicite.
Unnoticed nearby a brown-haired woman, Western tourist by the look of her, moved easily through the crowd. There she was, Naru Osaka, soon to be first human to become a youma! The Sailor Senshi had no idea, or else they would have attacked by now. Zoicite chuckled to himself. *These humans are so foolish! No one sees through my disguise. The Senshi will never see this coming.*
He had almost gotten to her last night, teleporting straight into her home. But Tuxedo Mask had boldly confronted him. He had reflexively retreated rather than get caught in yet another ambush. Now, in the middle of a crowd, he felt as safe as he had in weeks: the youma tasked to be his guards were also in human disguise throughout the area, and Magnetite's contingent, intended to divide the Senshi, had begun operating a short while ago.
Not far away, a young athletic couple were watching from a bench. "There," Ranma-chan said. "That woman in the white dress. That's him in disguise."
"How stupid do you think I am, Ranma?" Ryoga asked. "I know a woman when I see one!"
"Hey, you gotta admit, it's a good disguise."
"Do you expect me to believe an evil general doesn't even have pride in himself as a MAN?"
"He's not even human!" Ranma was getting exasperated. "I don't know what kind of weird stuff is going on with him."
Ryoga turned away. "Forget it. I'm not hitting a woman."
Ranma sighed. "Fine. I'll show you." He got up and headed toward the 'woman'. "Just don't hold back. I bet you can't beat him even now."
Naru and her boyfriend moved through the park, their attention being drawn to some sort of stage show with a sentai hero in full-cover costume fighting mock battles against other humans in monster suits. Zoicite boarded a merry-go-round horse behind them. With his attention fixed on Naru, he didn't notice Ranma taking the horse just behind him.
Ranma checked to be sure everyone was in position. Usagi coming up from behind. Rei, Mamrou, Shampoo... check. All was ready.
Zoicite held out his hand, showing the Dark Crystal, floating it above his fingers - then hurriedly gripping it again and darting his hand back into his dress. No knives came out. No energy blasts. The Senshi truly were not here! He held the crystal out again, this time summoning power to charge through it. Naru was standing there, right next to her boyfriend, unsuspecting...
"Thaaaank-you." A hand reached over from the inside horse, placing thumb and forefinger together to flick the Dark Crystal some yards away to the pavement. Zoicite sat stunned for an instant, then dove after it. The instant was fatal: a hand gripped the back of his dress and held tight. The dive tore the dress off, revealing his manly chest.
He ignored that, reaching for the Dark Crystal - only to see Sailor Moon wielding a pair of heavy maces coming down faster. "HIII- YAAA!" She gave it a mighty overhead smash, turning it to powder and leaving a ten-foot crater. Zoicite was thrown back up to the merry-go-round.
"Sailor Moon!" Zoicite recovered himself and levitated into the air, materializing his uniform. He looked around quickly, trying to find her allies. There was chanting at his back...
"Akuryou Taisan!" A magical charge struck him from behind, disrupting his powers. Roses flew from out of the crowd, further weakening him. He tried to teleport away and found himself bound.
Ryoga pushed his way through the crowd, facing Zoicite. "So it was true... Have you no pride as a MAN? Dressing up that way? Couldn't you at least wear a jacket or something?"
"Another one of the Senshi's allies? You should know there are youma here, ready to kill. How will you stop them all, I wonder...?" Zoicite backed away, trying to summon enough power to overcome the seal on his teleportation. It should only take a few seconds... "
Seconds he would not have. "Fight me!" Ryoga demanded, lunging at Zoicite. Normally it would be an easy dodge, even without teleporting, but with the Mark of the Battling God augmenting his strength and speed Ryoga was able to get a solid hit. His shields were overwhelmed and he went flying backward in a daze, over Naru's head and into the stage.
By this time Ranma and Usagi had transformed. The real Sailor Moon and Sailor Pluto were now on the scene. Both now attacked the prone Zoicite. "DEAD SCREAM!" "MOON TIARA ACTION!"
The general was pushed further back into a wooded area between the stage and a roller-coaster. Shampoo made her way behind Zoicite, picking up the weapon she had placed there. She waited as Ryoga arrived and began pummeling Zoicite into the ground.
Screams were now heard from other parts of the park. "The other youma!" Moon exclaimed. "We have to stop them!"
"Tuxedo Mask is holding that side," Pluto said, indicating the side to the right of the entrance. "Go help him. I've got this side." They split up, looking for their targets and leaving Ryoga and Shampoo to deal with Zoicite.
Pluto had not mentioned the youma stationed near the roller coaster and now coming to its master's aid. Shampoo dodged the bombs it fired; Ryoga staggered back, giving Zoicite time to recover.
"Damn you and your Sailor Senshi friends," Zoicite said. "You will be the first to fall! Do not worry - they will all join you before this day is done! ZOI!"
Ryoga held up his arm as the petals tried to cut him to pieces. They were much less effective than Zoicite had hoped; the extra toughness from the Breaking Point training told. "This... is... NOTHING to me!" he laughed. "DIE, MONSTER!"
The punch caught him in the cheek, spinning him around and sending him flying backward. A normal human's neck would have been snapped. But it was not the punch that killed him.
He flew backward, finding himself heading straight for what looked to be Sailor Moon. It was actually Shampoo, but the distinction would have been lost on him. What was not lost on him was the sight of her weapon: a monk's spade, razor-sharp inner edge of the crescent end level with his neck.
THAT was what killed him.
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"ZOICITE!"
Kunzite stared in shock at Beryl's crystal ball. It had gone black as the blade had passed through Zoicite's neck. Moreover, Kunzite had felt the shock through their shared bond. He was dead. Truly dead. Killed by mere humans.
Beryl was shocked herself. "Zoicite... killed by humans... such power they have! As much as any of our youma!"
"My queen, I will defeat this human," Kunzite said. "Let me go."
Beryl knew he would stay if she ordered it, but this human was too powerful to leave as an ally of the Senshi. She would have to let Kunzite go. "Very well. Kill the human."
Kunzite disappeared.
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Ryoga looked on in shock. The enemy was not supposed to be human, but he looked human enough; seeing his severed head lying on the ground was just too disconcerting. He turned away in disgust.
This allowed him to notice the youma behind Shampoo was still active. "YOU!" it said to Shampoo. "You'll pay for that!" It charged, lashing out with fists, forcing Shampoo back.
As it was still feminine in appearance, Ryoga didn't want to attack, but he could easily defend. He interposed himself and blocked the youma's strikes. "Back off!" he said. "You're not hurting anyone."
They youma seemed ready to charge him when purple energy ball came flying in from the left, striking the youma in the abdomen. It screamed and turned to dust. "You shouldn't let them fool you," Ranma said. "They may look like women, but they're not."
"Ah. What about this guy? Is he really dead?"
"Technically. They might be able to reassemble him..." She walked up to within a staff-length. "DEAD SCREAM!"
The shot hit the head squarely. It was blasted into a blackened mass. Another shot at the body and both began to emit sparks and fade from sight.
"NOW he's dead." Pluto began to head toward Sailor Moon's side of the park.
"Wait a minute," Ryoga protested. "He didn't beat me!" He raised his shirt. The mark was still there. "The mark! It's still there! How am I going to get rid of it now?"
"Heh. Look like Zoicite wasn't so tough. Don't worry - there's another tough guy in Ota. Follow me."
Shampoo and Ryoga fell in behind Sailor Pluto as she met up with Sailors Moon and Mars before leaving the park. "Mars, you can take him to Ota. He can soften up the youma there so you can kill it in one shot. Sailor Moon, you head north an meet up with Mercury. I'll clear the way back to Nerima."
"Right! Let's go!" They split up, heading their separate ways.
Pluto looked back at Mars and Ryoga. He would get lost on the way to Ota, of course, and she would have to bail Mars out. But there was someone else in Shinjuku she needed to see.
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The reporter sounded suitably frantic. "We have people unconscious all over the street here... police have confirmed five dead at this hour across the city, that number is expected to rise..."
Kasumi and Nabiki were going pale. They had been warned by Ranma to stay home; today was no day to be out on the street. Their father and Mr. Saotome, of course, had gone to assist the police. Soun had ordered Akane to stay home as well, but one had to wonder if that was a mere formality; she had left minutes after he did.
"Oh my," Kasumi said. "I hope they're safe out there. Those things are taking a lot of energy."
"They don't look so tough," Nabiki said. "Ranma says a good martial artist - well, a ridiculous one like him or his father - can't really be hurt by them. And Daddy has been getting sharper since Happosai came back..."
"Even so... I worry about them. And Akane... she isn't as good as she likes to think she is." She got up and began to pace frantically.
"Worrying won't do anything," Nabiki said. "I don't like it any more than you do, but we have to trust Ranma on this. Everyone who can do something about this is out there. There's really nothing WE can do."
"There is one thing..." Kasumi headed toward the family shrine.
Nabiki followed. As Kasumi began to pray, Nabiki found herself looking at the framed photo of their mother. She found it easier than Kasumi to believe that their father was in no danger, and that perhaps Akane would come back with no worse than the usual scrapes and sprains. But looking at the picture of her mother sent her thoughts on a tangent: What of Ranma's mother?
She had asked Genma about his wife; he hadn't wanted to talk. Ranma had only said she wasn't ready to meet him yet. Not that HE wasn't ready to meet HER, though that might also be the case, but that SHE wasn't ready to meet HIM. It sounded like something he had seen in one of his visions.
She decided she would want to know what he was doing, ready or not. At the least, Nabiki could find her and find out WHY she wasn't ready. Not everything was a matter of profit for her; she did have her curiosities as well.
She made a note to make a few calls in the morning.
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On a street in Nerima, Akane was trying to fight a youma. She had been warned about its abilities. It had, of course, done no good. She was now entangled in what looked like spaghetti. "Can anyone help me get this stuff off?"
Ukyo swiped her giant spatula in an arc down her middle, the edge just missing her clothes. "Honestly, Akane, for someone so good at handling Kuno's boys, I don't see how you can be so clumsy."
"It happens to everyone once in a while!"
"It happens to you all the time," she said as she threw more flour on the youma. "Hmmm... maybe this thing needs some meatballs..."
"Akane!" Soun's voice came from the end of the street. He and Genma ran to them, adopting a stance to face the youma that was still ready to strike. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay home!"
"I can take care of myself, dad! And Ranma told Ukyo to handle this one. I'm just as good as her! If she can fight a youma, so can I!"
"He really shouldn't have," Genma said. "Risking his fiancee when he should be protecting her - I taught him better than that. It's a man's job to face risks like this."
"I'm not going to argue!" Akane said, as the youma moved again. She tried to hit it with a solid punch, but its resilient flesh simply reformed. Soun and Genma also hit it from several angles, but Ukyo's batter hampered it more.
"Go back home, young lady," Soun ordered when they had breathing room. "We'll talk about this later."
Akane scowled, but she could not disobey a direct order from her father. "Okay," she pouted. "Ukyo? Are you coming?"
"Give us a second. Sailor Mars is supposed to be this way in a few minutes."
Akane huffed. "Ranma had better not come crying to us if you get killed." She ran back toward home.
"What about the Master?" Genma asked. "I bet he can kill one of these things if he tried..."
"Ranchan said he's end up fighting one. Didn't sound like he was going to kill it..."
"I can see why," Genma said, noting the feminine form of the youma they were confronting. "Maybe we should check in on him..."
"Make sure it finishes him," Sound finished.
They nodded to each other, and left.
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Magnetite smiled to himself. The plan was working - teleporting around the city he had seen Sailors Mercury and Jupiter were both isolated, as were the known non-magical allies seen in some battles. Police and trained fighters were trying to handle the loose youma as best they could, but casualties were mounting.
Things were not as bright as they seemed, however. He would not have thought the prophetic Senshi would keep Mars and Moon close; this meant more humans would die early. But it was the correct strategic decision: it had eliminated Zoicite and the Dark Crystal, and now she and Moon had split up to finish off the other youma.
The loss of Zoicite, while a boon to him, was ill-timed for them overall; he had not taken even one Senshi with him. The Senshi were ahead for the moment.
He teleported to a rooftop overlooking Sailor Jupiter's fight. It looked like she and the youma were in a three-way fight with something else, a diminutive being with some amount of dark energy. "Another enemy of the Senshi?" he wondered. Perhaps some diplomacy was in order. He teleported down to the youma on the street. "Pull back," he ordered. "I will redeploy you." He teleported away with the youma, placing it a dozen blocks away.
He quickly returned to his command post on the high rooftop and summoned a spy. "Follow the small one fighting Sailor Jupiter," he ordered. "Find his lair."
"As you command," the spy said, bowing, and left.
If this was the same being reported by Zoicite last time, it looked to be a valuable possibility. Anything that could survive a battle with a Senshi was doing better than most youma.
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"Phooey," Happosai fumed. "Just when things were looking good. That lady was almost about to succumb to my charms..." He turned to Sailor Jupiter. "Well, at least I still have you to help. How about some of my special training?"
"SUPREME THUNDER!"
He lay in a daze on his back, watching helplessly as Jupiter fled as fast as her Senshi speed could carry her. "I guess she likes playing hard to get..."
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"Wait up, Ranma!" Ryoga called as Sailor Pluto turned a corner several yards ahead. He made it to the corner and looked in the direction Pluto had gone - only to find her nowhere in sight.
"Huh... well, he said Ota... it must be this way..." They had already made a number of confusing changes of direction, but he was sure he knew this part of town. He headed in the direction of Ota, hoping to catch up.
A dark laugh came from above as he was passing a line of shops. "So, you are the one who defeated Zoicite."
Ryoga looked up and behind him to see a man with long white hair, wearing an outfit much like Zoicite's but with a cape, floating a few meters above the street. His tone was contemptuous; the look on his face had a touch of anger.
"Who are you?" Ryoga asked. Was this the enemy Ranma had been taking him to? "Is this Ota?"
"This is where you die," the man said, and projected blasts of dark power from his hands. The first one caught Ryoga and knocked him back several feet. The second he blocked.
"Do your worst!" Ryoga said. "I can beat anyone like this!" He launched himself at the floating man, aiming to land a punch similar to the ones that had taken down Zoicite.
The new enemy was wary. He projected a wide wave of dark power that stopped Ryoga in flight, then held him in an invisible grip. "Brave, but foolish. Mere physical stength cannot hope to prevail against us. Meet your doom!"
The darkness crushed him, driving the wind from his lungs. He struggled with all his strength to break the invisible bonds, forcing his arms away from his sides. But the enemy was not using all of his strength to hold Ryoga: he was summoning a huge ball of dark energy.
The blast knocked him into a shop behind him, all the way through to the street on the other side. And it knocked him unconscious.
Kunzite looked on at the scene of destruction, presuming the human boy to be dead. "Zoicite... you are avenged..." He disappeared to make his own memorial.
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In a shopping center in Shunjuku, a brown-haired girl huddled behind a counter, certain she was about to die.
The youma was just outside, draining energy from everyone around, in some cases looking fatal. She had sought cover as soon as she saw it. Other people were also fleeing the area or falling unconscious. She prayed it would move on to another street rather than search the nearby stores.
Why hadn't she gone with them? It was the most sensible thing to do. She had known it at the time. She could be hurt - killed, for all she knew - if she stayed where she was. Was she hoping the youma went chasing after the crowds fleeing on the streets?
No. She had to face the truth. Face herself. She had always known she was not like other girls. She saw things no one else did. Knew things no one should know. She had a strength her parents and teachers would not think one such as her should possess. She stayed here because she didn't want to run. She wanted to fight. Like a soldier.
Like a Senshi.
She had followed them almost since the first media reports. Started checking the newspapers religiously, looking for news stories of battles. Bought magazines with articles on them. Listened to radio and television news for word, gossip, speculation, on who they were, where they lived, what their sizes were, their preferences, their boyfriends. As if anyone knew anything. For all they knew the girls were no more human than the monsters they fought.
But she knew. They had to be human. And the more she followed them, the more certain she was that she was one of them. That she had a special destiny.
She could not speak of these things to her parents. They found it suspicious enough that she was interested in the Sailor Senshi. They were kitsch, they said. Not her style at all, so elegant and refined. So compassionate. So caring. A soldier had to be strong, brutal, stoic. Had to be willing to make sacrifices.
She had struggled with herself. Surely she was too precious, to valuable, to risk her life against the youma. Gifted at academics. Proficient in several musical instruments - virtuoso on violin. Accomplished artist - works sold for year's salary of an average middle-management worker. Society talked about her, wondered what she would do next. Young men asked themselves if they were good enough for her. People said they would envy the man who caught her. Surely she had a great destiny before her.
That much was true. But she could not escape everything her dreams, her senses, her heart told her. That destiny was not what everyone thought it was. Only she knew what it was. And she knew it was facing her right now.
She summoned her courage and stood up, looked out into the street. There it was, starting to make off toward the fleeing crowds. Stepping over bodies of those already drained. Last chance to back out.
The youma paused at one unconscious form, raised a fist, prepared to administer a finishing blow. Possibly the first of many. She could not back out now. She had to be a hero. She grabbed a small clothing rack and threw it.
That got the thing's attention. "You... human... you DIE!" It rushed her, pinned her to a wall, grabbed her throat.
She couldn't breathe. Darkness started to cloud her vision. Was this it? Had she been wrong all this time? Was she just a silly, deluded girl with yearnings for a life more than her place and time offered? Would it all end here, her parents mourning their bad luck? Or her foolishness?
She felt something stir within her, some new resistance, a power she hadn't felt before. Power to push back the darkness. Power that erupted before her, pushing back the youma, blazing with light. Power that took solid form.
A stick, looking like some child's toy, a ball on one end, topped with a six-pointed star with a symbol. The ancient Greek symbol of the god Neptune, she realized. She felt a sensation on her forehead, and knew that same symbol blazed in light there.
She stood transfixed. It was impossible. Unreal. But what was real, anymore, in a world of monsters and magical girls? She reached out a hand, preparing to grasp the stick. She hesitated. Her life, her destiny, was bound up in this thing. Once she took it, she knew, her life would never be the same. She couldn't go back to being a mere girl.
In the end, she knew there was no choice. She had to embrace her destiny. She would not be only Michiru Kaioh. She would become complete, her true self.
The words came unbidden to her lips. She raised the stick and spoke.
"NEPTUNE PLANET POWER, MAKE UP!"
The power exploded all around her, crashed through her like the waves of the sea. For an instant she seemed naked, like a newborn child, and she was indeed born anew. Fabric forming around her, nail polish and mascara appearing on her, earrings and tiara materializing in their places. She was floating off her feet, settling back on the ground. She felt the power coursing through her, energizing her, making her more than a match for the thing that had just tried to kill her.
She reached a gloved hand toward it, spoke again, the words of power that would doom all evil: "DEEP SUBMERGE!" A green ball of energy formed, a tenuous ring around it, and flew toward the youma. It seemed engulfed by waters, and was simply... NOT.
She stood there in silence for a moment. She had done it. She had destroyed a youma. Saved the people lying on the ground all around. She looked down at herself.
A Senshi outfit, just like the others. She turned to look in a mirrored wall nearby, regarded her new self. No, her OLD self - ages old, a person from another world, another time.
It was her. Green hair, like some punk girl about to go to a nightclub, but she knew it wasn't just dye. This was what she had looked like, what her true form was. Her genetics might not be strictly human anymore.
"Strange, isn't it?" a voice said.
She turned to face its owner. A woman a little older than herself, also with green hair, a little darker, in a Senshi costume with different colors - no shoulders at all - leaning on a metal pole. A comrade in the fight against evil.
"Michiru Kaioh, age fifteen," the newcomer said. "Now also Sailor Neptune. I'm sorry things are so rushed. There's a lot of youma to take care of just now." She turned and started to walk away. "You'll want to follow me. There's someone else we need to find. Someone you know..."
She began to follow. "You... know me...?"
"Ranma Saotome, age sixteen. Sometimes Sailor Pluto. We can do more catching up when you meet the others. Come on. Your partner is waiting..."
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The rest of the day did not go very well for Magnetite. By the time he returned to face Beryl and make his final report, it seemed the entire force of youma used was dead, and no Senshi were confirmed killed. Needless to say, Beryl was not pleased.
"It seems your plan has failed," Kunzite said, sounding none too joyful himself. "None of the Senshi have been killed, and now we have lost Zoicite as well."
"Zoicite was a fool," Magnetite said, taking the chance to twist the knife. "He could have killed all the Senshi about him if he had been more aware. I certainly would have."
"Do not waste your time bickering!" Beryl ordered. "You would better use your time to find a new strategy. The Sailor Senshi still have two of the Rainbow Crystals. Find a way to get them!"
Magnetite and Kunzite both bowed. "As you command." They returned to their command centers to sift data on the battle.
Magnetite was pleased when, later that evening, his spy reported the strange small man that had given Sailor Jupiter some trouble seemed to be residing in a house in Nerima. "Excellent," he said. "Keep watch, and record his movements and habits. Perhaps he knows where the Senshi live. We can ambush them at our leisure."
His pleasure disappeared when he checked the news reports from the humans' television networks and found that two new Sailor Senshi seemed to have appeared. "Not only do our numbers shrink, theirs grow!" he raged. "How many of them are there?"
He cooled down to collect his thoughts. However many there were, Sailor Pluto would know them all and how best to awaken them. It seemed prudent to let the next gambit wait a while, and design it to draw out them out again, revealing their true numbers and resources. Intelligence was a key to warfare, and right now the Dark Kingdom was lacking in it. He would go far in Beryl's graces if he could remedy that.
And even farther if Kunzite were also eliminated. Which he was sure could be done if the new Senshi gave them a sufficient edge...
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Ryoga woke up and coughed. He was covered in dust and surrounded in wreckage. He remembered being in a fight - some dark energy being used -
He lifted his shirt. The mark was gone! A feeling of relief washed over him. He would miss the power the mark had given him, but didn't want to live with the embarrassment of it. He would be satisfied with power he attained on his own efforts.
He climbed out of the wreckage and looked around. "Ranma... someday I will beat you with real training... just you wait..."
He stalked off across the city, not caring for the moment where he ended up.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
After the last youma was confirmed dead, Pluto took the Outers to a ladies' room to transform back. Ranma-chan handed them pre-typed briefing papers. "Most of what you need to know is here," she said. "We're meeting tomorrow after school. You'll want to join us, and train with us next week. The last of the Inners arrives then, and we want to get to the invasion of the Dark Kingdom as soon as possible."
"Invasion?" Haruka said. "Why do I feel we're late to the party?"
"Sorry about that. This was as early as I could get you awakened." She turned on a hot water faucet and splashed herself.
Jaws dropped. "... and people call ME butch..." Haruka said.
"Long story," Ranma said. "Like I say. Read up, ask your questions tomorrow. There's families waiting on us right now. Let's not worry them, okay?"
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Genma, of course, was one to express his worry as anger. "Ranma! What are you doing letting your fiancee out on the streets like that! It's your job to protect her! You should at least be at her side!"
"I know what I'm SUPPOSED to do," Ranma said, not giving an inch. "And I also know what I HAVE to do. I know the difference better than you, old man."
"Ranchan knows what's safe for me to do," Ukyo said. "And Akane, and everyone else. I trust him with my life!"
"Can you?" Nabiki asked. "They're saying a couple dozen people died today. There didn't seem to be that many youma. I think you could have saved more of them."
Ranma was getting annoyed. "You guys just don't get it, do you? You THINK. You argue what's best. I can SEE. I KNOW."
"Awfully convenient to say that," Nabiki said, "when no one else can."
"Look, I won't lie to you. Today was tough on me. We might be hurt again. But nothing like this. After next week, we can take the fight to them. All the dying will be on their side."
"I'll have to go with you to make sure of that," Genma said.
"I expect that. Mr. Tendo? You got a choice here."
"I'd certainly like to go with you... but after today I think it's more important to make sure my daughters are safe." Akane glared unhappily at him, knowing what that meant: he did not want to leave her out of his sight.
Ranma nodded. All that should remain now was final preparations. Assuming Happosai was reasonably well behaved...
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
AN: The standard SM anime timeline is a bit wonky.
Usagi starts the first season at a nominal fourteen years old. No birthdays are mentioned during the season, but by the progression of seasons described in the episodes a full year passes, leaving her fifteen years old. The second season likewise takes a year, with no birthdays mentioned, which would leave her sixteen years old.
Now, I've seen indications that the Japanese do not reckon age as Westerners do; for them, the nominal age is not the number of birthdays that HAVE PASSED, but the birthday that IS IN THE CURRENT YEAR; thus, Usagi stating at the start of the first season that she is fourteen years old is to be interpreted as meaning her UPCOMING birthday sometime in the Nephrite arc, and by Western reckoning she would actually be 13 at the start of the first season and 15 going on 16 at the end of the second.
The simple plan of the timeline, then, is that as the guinzuishou goes wild and resurrects the fallen Senshi at the end of season one, only they are affected; they are raised with no memories of the previous year, which everyone else around them remembers, and they are given filler memories of an ordinary year. This leaves Usagi having celebrated her fifteenth birthday by the start of season three.
But her fifteenth birthday is explicitly celebrated in season three. Which forces us to conclude the first two seasons are crammed into one calendar year. They must overlap, and the guinzuishou going wild must have affected the entire world, erasing a year of history and forcing people to live the year again, with various butterflies changing their experience of the year as the Dark Kingdom is not also reset.
One wonders at how this works, how extensive the effect is. If the effect was limited to Earthspace, people would notice the Moon changing phases, and astrologers and astronomers would notice the planets out of their places. Pretty soon it would become clear the world had lost a year somewhere, and there would be speculations on alien intervention to cover up a disaster.
But the magic of the SM universe clearly supports time travel, so what clearly happened is the human world (but not the Dark Kingdom) was carried back through time. No doubt this causes Sailor Pluto some headaches.
Then again, this points to a problem that affects all long-running TV shows of this sort, with strange revelations and built-up cosmology: continuity maintenance. One has to be careful that the continuity established so far is not violated, which eventually limits storytelling possibilities. Some stories writers would love to tell just wouldn't work because characters, resources, or elements of the universe introduced earlier would deal with potential problems summarily, defusing dramatic tension.
As mentioned in an earlier note, one of the points of a fic like this, where protagonists are given foreknowledge of events in later seasons, is to allow them to deal with their problems in just this fashion, as well as give readers a chance to see them act as more functional and rational people than in canon. Most of Ranma's problems are eventually solved easily this way, and in SM terms one has to wonder what the Death Busters were doing while the Dark Kingdom was active - should they cross paths, the Witches 5 should easily stomp the DK generals.
Other once-popular crossovers, Tenchi Muyo! and Ah! Megami-sama!, have their own problems. For TM, we can imagine that as most of the DK activites take place in Tokyo there is no reason for the Okayama aliens to get involved; but if they threaten to actually win, the Juraians have every reason to intervene, or at least call the GP, which should deal with most of the problem. One wonders how they would deal with Galaxia...
For AMG, we can imagine that the goddesses would support the Senshi and the demons would support the Dark Kingdom, but the doublet system prevents open war, and so we have a proxy war. Crossing TM and AMG... well, incompatible cosmologies, to say the least.