Half Demon Swordsman
Chapter Forty Four: The Second Crystal

Asagi

Zoycite used her crystal to snatch the Rainbow Crystal, but before I could grab it, it flew away. Orange smoke surrounded the girl. When it cleared, she declared herself to be 'Mobile the Vulture, champion of the Negaverse' or something like that.

A boxing monster. I thought with a groan. I probably groaned aloud, although I was too busy dodging punches to notice whether I groaned aloud or in my head. Oh swell. The one art I haven't practiced since starting torture.

"Too bad there's no one in your corner, Moonlight Dweeb." Dark Zoycite taunted.

I shrugged. "I would have thought you knew my name by now, because I am the half demon swordsman who defends the innocent. When darkness falls and evil preys upon my home, I will be there, poised to strike. I will defend my home and everyone in it. I am the Moonlight Swordsman, the leader of the Seven Swordsmen of the Moon, and I'll destroy you because that's a promise by the moon. Believe it!" I added, pumping a fist.

Jedite, who I sensed approaching, smirked as he came up to me. "So I have been rubbing off on you imouto!" He cried delightedly.

I rolled my eyes. "Jedite Jedite go away, bother me some other day." I retorted. "Can't you see we have your sister's dark half to deal with?"

He scratched his head. "Oh yeah."

I slapped my head and lifted my bow off my back before nocking an arrow. "Go! Arrow of the Moon!" I called, letting the rest of the team know to get out of the way. Didn't seem to do much, or even phase Mobile the Vulture-teme at all.

A girl with pointed ears and pink hair with a few licks of green wearing a pink Sailor Scout uniform dropped from the sky and launched an attack of some sort. "Wasn't expecting to land here," I heard her mutter. "But I may as well make the best of it."

She fired a blast of energy at the monster. Although it hit dead center (it seemed to me that she had practiced her accuracy with that attack day in and day seven days a week, no exceptions, out like InuYasha-sensei always had us do), it didn't seem to do much. The monster, Mobile the Vulture, threw a punch at the newest Sailor Scout (where did she come from anyway? It was so weird) and she went flying into one of the headstones.

That had to hurt. Was my last thought before Monster-teme threw a similar, but harder it seemed to me, punch and I went flying into the top of another headstone/tower/thing. "Ow." I groaned as I picked myself up. "Okay, maybe Jedite's idea about trading the tunic for spandex and miniskirt for morpher has some merit after all." He'd been bugging us, especially the Scouts, about it for weeks on end. He seemed to think it would make us better fighters or something. Or maybe he just wanted us to share his love (coughs obsession coughs) with the 'best thing since TV.' Taking a moment to roll my eyes at my brother's antics, I drew my sword and slashed it at Dark Zoycite and Mobile the Vulture both, figuring that maybe if I could hit them both, I'd have a better chance of coming away uninjured (Mom and Dad were starting to get awfully suspicious of where we kept disappearing to all the time with almost no explanation). "Shadow Slash!"

Still, Monster-teme managed to come out unaffected and this time, shot a punch at Serena. "Thank you O Log for InuYasha-sensei's torture." She muttered.

"I'll say Amen to that." Jedite agreed. "Call to the beast inside— free the Tiger!" A transparent ghostly red tiger appeared and lunged at Mobile the Vulture. However, like before, it didn't seem to work. I was really getting frustrated.

A new ranger appeared on the scene, a Red like Jedite. "Time to monkey around!" He yelled. Oh yes, it was Joe alright. Ever since he discovered his animal spirit was an Ape a couple days ago (Jedite was training his Ikimonogan, or animal eye, which like the name implied, allowed Jedite to see animal spirits) he'd been making cracks about monkeying around left right and center to no end. "Starting with the boxer-teme." He drew a sword from his back and charged the monster at breakneck speeds. I'd make a comment about typical Red Rangers, but I knew I was no better and did just like they did all the time.

The pair of them and Sammy often liked to joke that I was practically a Red myself when I got onto them about doing stupid stuff. True enough. I charged, intending to stab my sword right through the teme's heart (it wouldn't defeat her, but it might buy me enough time to change her back to normal). However, she blocked me.

I groaned. "Log damn it!" I cursed. "Where's Ai when you need her?"

"I can help." The new girl told me as she picked herself up and dusted herself off. "I can use Chakra chains since Aunt— er, a very good friend of mine who also has that ability taught me to use them after I became a Scout."

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay then. Let's see it."

The pink haired girl nodded, then bent her arm at a ninety degree angle, then jerked it upwards like Ai always did when she used that ability. "Chakra Chains!" She declared, holding Mobile the Vulture-teme in place. "Asagi, go!" I idly wondered how in Log's name she knew my name, especially because I never told her. I'd think on it later.

I nodded. "Right." I twirled the wand above my head a few times to get the dust covering everything before I pointed it at the girl-turned-monster. "Moon Healing Escalation!"

Slowly, the monster turned back into a girl. I could have sworn that just before she passed out I saw the Reaper Death Seal appear on her stomach (I recognized it from Jedite's Naruto mangas), but maybe I was just imagining it and I had just been reading too much Naruto for my own good lately, even if Jedite would claim that was impossible. I'd ask Sensei to check on it once the girl came to the Dojo (there absolutely was no way she was gonna get away with not coming to the Dojo) and go from there.

"Are you okay?" The pink haired Serena look alike asked the former monster.

The former monster girl nodded. "Yeah I'm okay. Sorry that monster hurt you. I really didn't mean to do any of that stuff, but I just couldn't stop myself! I'm Riddle Dove by the way. Who are you guys? You're obviously the Swordsman and the Rangers, right?"

Jedite grinned. "So you do keep up with the news!" He exclaimed delightedly.

Dove rolled her eyes. "Kind of hard not to, seeing as I live alone."

I raised an eyebrow. "You live alone huh? By the way, I have a question for you—"

"If you're going to ask if I'd come to your sensei's dojo, I'll come." She said, surprising me. "What? I have super-senses. I hear you guys talking about it all the time. Torture with a purpose, right? And the O Dreaded Patience Training?"

I grinned. "Yup. He'd probably—"

"Force me to come if I didn't willingly or somehow persuade me to?" Dove finished. "Super senses again. Like I said, I can hear you guys talking about it."

Jedite held out a hand. "Welcome to the team Riddle Dove-san. However, we have more important matters to take care of right now, namely finding out who our mysterious visitor is. Care to explain, Mini Moon-san?" Why Jedite called her that, I had no idea.

"Um . . ." The pink haired girl stalled.

"You're stalling." Jedite warned. "Now tell me who you are."

When she refused, we set Mica on her (the wonders of Genjutsu). We then learned that her name was Serenity, or Rini for short, and she was from the future. Apparently, she was Serena's future daughter, though who her father was she couldn't say as that might mess up the timeline. A friend of hers, Pluto she called her, was testing out a time machine and used it to send her back in time to where she figured Rini would be of the most use, which was a few months after this adventure ended and another one began. However, it appeared that something went wrong, and Rini got sent farther back than she meant to. Then she shocked us all by requesting to join the team and go to the dojo.

I sighed. "Well I have a feeling that things just got a lot more complicated, but nonetheless, I'll be the first to welcome our new members. Welcome to the team, Riddle Dove, Tsukino Rini. May Selene-sama smile upon you and grant you fortune."