Permanent

Part 32

End game.

++++++++++

Ryoga Hibiki stood with his back to Akane Tendo on the roof of a
business in the middle of Tokyo. From what he could tell every angel was
blocked from escape. To put it bluntly, they had no where to go but
through their opponents.

"Any ideas?" said Akane tensely.

"Not off the top of my head, you know these girls?" said Ryoga
calmly. Standing around them was a group of girls dressed in sailor
fukus.

"Evil which knows no love for man, I shall defeat you!" cried the
lead girl, she had long flowing pigtails that blew dramatically in the
wind behind her.

Ryoga paused and stepped towards her. "You mind telling me what
this is about? Why are you attacking us?"

"Because you're evil demons of course. Don't try and fool us, we
know better!" cried another one of the girls. She had short cut brown hair
that matched her leader in dramatic billowing easily.

"Take this! Star power fire chain!" cried the girl next to her,
her hair was long and dark.

Ryoga crossed his arms in front of his body and took the impact of
the blast full on. The girls stepped back in shock when nothing happened.

The former lost boy smiled at them. "I don't have any magical
energy for your techniques to attack."

Akane growled but kept still waiting for the next move.

++++++++++

On a nearby rooftop the white cloaked figure watched the exchange
carefully. "A familiar? That could be troublesome..."

"Should I interrupt?" asked Ukyo as he landed beside him.

"No, let them be for now. We would only complicate things at the
moment," replied the man calmly.

The boy nodded and turned his attention back to the battle.

+++++++++

"Sailor Sol! What are we going to do?" snapped the short haired
senshi as she moved next to her leader. The battle had been a stale mate.
The girls threw their best attacks out, but the boy kept moving between
them and the still unmoving demon.

"Looks like we have to fight hand to hand. There's only two of
them..." replied the blonde with an uncertain look on her face.

Ryoga smiled as the blasts stopped pelting him. The spells where
mostly warding magic. No real attack spells seemed to be in these girls'
arsenal. They seemed to specialize in exorcisms. He smiled as he realized
that he was lucky, warding spells and exorcisms fell under the
jurisdiction of curses. The Saint Pill's effects kept him protected.
"Stop wasting our time, you've got no reason to attack us!"

The girls charged forward and Ryoga took up a defensive stance.
Akane's eyes started to glow also as she joined him. The sailor team's
fast paced run slowed slightly at the sight of this.

Sailor Sol was the first to reach them. Ryoga snapped out in a
punch that slammed into her chest and sent her away into a wall crushing
it to dust. The other girls caught up at that moment and the two martial
artist moved at speeds they could barely see.

Akane seemed to snap as her eyes shot out a bright yellow light.
She roared in anger and lifted the first senshi to reach her over her head
taking a hard blow to the chest without blinking in exchange. She threw
the poor girl into her two companions sending them to the ground in a
painful looking pile. Ryoga performed a leg sweep that took out the other
girl quite quickly.
The pair was about to take advantage of the momentary daze of
their attackers, but the girls recovered a little too quickly and formed a
tight circle around them again.

"Damn!" muttered the girl with long dark hair as she wiped her
chin.

"Power up girls," said Sailor Sol as a bright aura started to form
around her.

Akane and Ryoga paused; this did not look good. The girls seemed
to vanish into a blur in front of them. The martial artists braced
themselves for impact when a voice cut through the air.

"That's enough!"

All present froze and turned towards the voice. A very angry
looking woman was floating in the air glaring at them with a red aura
burning around her.

"Ranma!" cried Akane as she recognized her savior.

The sorceress smirked slightly and noticed how close one of the
senshi's fists was to her friend's face. "First of all we have to do away
with this..." Ranma extended her arm and blasted a concentrated beam of
energy into Akane's chest.

All present gawked in shock as the girl fell to the ground with a
look of hurt confusion on her face.

Ryoga bent down and lifted her off the ground slightly by her
shoulders with a numb expression on his face. He blinked in surprise when
no injury was present. Only the charred remains of the protection amulet
remained.

The senshi whirled around in battle positions towards the new
threat when the short haired girl stopped them. "Don't attack her!"

"What?" said Sol with a shocked look on her face.

"Stella says we can't hurt her," said the girl dejectedly.

"And why not?" snapped the long haired girl in shock.

"Because she created the amulets we use for our powers," replied
the girl simply.

This caught the group by surprise. The senshi paused and looked at
her in confusion.

"What?" said the senshi with long blonde hair. She paused and
turned towards her friends. "Come to think of it, they didn't attack until
we did! What the hell is going on? We never have to take initiative this
way!"

Akane stepped forward and frowned at them. "Why won't you leave me
alone? Every night you crazy psychos attack me for no reason. I'm getting
a little tired of it."

"What do you mean?" asked the lead magical girl.

"Akane isn't a demon!" snapped Ranma calmly. "She's half human."

"What?" said a tiny voice over the headset the short haired senshi
wore.

"Half human?" said Sol with a look of complete shock on her face.

"I was cursed when fighting a demon," replied Akane coolly. More
than a little disgusted anger showed on her face. "I told you about this already."

Ranma ignored them and turned towards Ryoga. "You did good Mr. P.
I never would have known it was this bad if you hadn't come along and let
me keep an eye on things."

"What are you talking about?" said the boy with an even more
confused look.

"Well, if I was here, Akane wouldn't have been attacked until I
was gone. Whoever is doing this knew about me. He tried to put a spell on
me that would keep me in the dark about what was going on. Unfortunately I
figured out what was happening and took care of that."

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't they attack with you here?" said
Ryoga as he attempted to understand the situation.

"Whoever pulled this little stunt knew about me. He knew I was too
powerful to risk my interference. I'm on to him though," Ranma smirked
confidently and turned towards the group of girls. "You had better check
your sources more carefully. Where did you get this information Stella?"

A small pink rodent scurried onto the rooftop and huffed angrily.
"A very reliable source! Or so I thought, he upgraded the team's powers
and supported the magic you gave us. He was a seraphim."

Ranma turned and looked at Akane for a moment. "I see."


Another new voice broke the silence. "Well, it seems my
distraction did not make it in time Ranma Saotome." A figure floated down
from the sky and lit up the rooftop as he descended from above. Two large
white wings that let off a huge amount of light folded behind his back as
he landed, the pure white cloak fell back into place covering his body as
he walked towards them. "No worries, you'll deal with it soon enough."

"Ranma, what's going on here?" said Akane as she calmed visibly
and turned towards the newcomer.

"You're a combination of demon and human Akane. There are certain
places that would see that as a threat," replied the red haired girl
simply.

"Certain places indeed," muttered the man calmly. He kept his head
low and smirked to himself allowing his golden locks to fall from the hood
that covered his head.

"Whatever your reasons. I won't let you hurt Akane. I know who you
are," snarled Ranma defiantly.

The man looked up slightly and smiled even wider.

"Only one man had access to the kind of knowledge you needed to
cover your tracks from me the way you did..." Ranma smiled and stood
between the angel and Akane carefully. "The faulty amulet just clenches
it!"

The angel lifted his arm, three glowing claws brushed through his
bangs as he chuckled to himself. "My dear, you have no idea."

The senshi stepped back away from the conflict towards the edge of
the rooftop. They waited patiently for some sort of clear enemy to appear.

"What's going on Stella?" asked Sol quietly.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think it involves us any longer. We'd
best leave, things could become very dangerous here." The rodent scurried
away with the girls following nervously behind. "We'll find out the
outcome and plan from there."

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself Hikaru?" snapped Ranma
angrily as she pointed at the man.

The white clad figure merely removed his hood and smirked. Hikaru
Gosunkugi smiled at his mentor from underneath his wild golden locks and
flexed his new arm impatiently. The appendage seemed to be made out of
magical energy. "Nothing really Sensei. I didn't have much choice in the
matter. You made those amulets? An excellent job..."

"I assume Keiko was your doing?" said Ranma as she calmed visibly.

"One of my early experiments under your tutelage, actually her
power levels were a complete accident. The talking rat was your idea?"

Ranma smiled slightly and nodded. "The spell called for a
c...c...cat actually. I had to improvise a bit, the unusual color was a
result of that."

"These demon hunters are your fault?" snapped Akane in shock. She
looked at her friend in disbelief.

"Only those five that just left. It's not something you tell
people about, they have secret identities for a reason Akane."

Both of the teen's jaws dropped like lead weights.

"So Gosunkugi, tell me how you got possessed by that?" Ranma
pointed to the wings that poked under the cloak, and the now familiar
golden shadow.

"Fell asleep on a white magic book. It kind of opened the doorway
so to speak," replied the boy with a shrug.

"You realize that if you keep attacking Akane I'm going to have to
stop you," said Ranma coolly.

"You don't stand a chance. I have the power of the gods backing
me," snorted the possessed boy in reply.

Ranma merely smiled, "That demon would have said something similar
you know..."

The reply caught Gosunkugi by surprise and he sneered at her. "You
don't know what you're dealing with boy."

"I think I've got some idea," said Ranma calmly.

Gosunkugi charged forward screaming in rage. Ranma kicked straight
back from the spot she was standing on and completed the rune she was
drawing in the ground with her foot. The angel's eyes went wide with shock
as he realized what had happened.

A red light blasted up from the ground and enveloped him from the
intricately drawn rune. "No! Damn you! Do you have any idea what you've
done?"

Ranma nodded. "Nothing evil really. I'm just putting you back
where you belong angel."

"If I'm not here, she'll..." the thing screamed in pain as it
attempted to claw it's way out of the light.

"Nooo! You've doomed your world fool!"

Ranma raised her eyebrow as a ball of light formed on Hikaru's
chest. It shot upwards into the sky and parted the clouds as it rocketed
away from Nerima. "That did not sound promising."

"Is it over?" said Akane timidly as she stepped forward and poked
at Hikaru's passed out body on the ground.

"For now, we won't be hearing from him again in this life time.
They can only come down every couple of hundred years or so." Ranma turned
and lifted Hikaru over her shoulder.

"I'm going to get him home. I'll see you at school tomorrow Akane.
I'll tell Stella to put the word out about you in the magical girl circles
around town. You shouldn't be bothered much any more."

With that said Ranma jumped off the roof and into the night.

Ryoga blinked and looked around in confusion. "So...now what?"

Akane smiled at him with a relieved look on her face. "Come on,
I'll buy you some Ramen."

Ryoga turned slightly green. "Akane, is there somewhere else? I
kind of eat a lot of Ramen you know?"

The girl blinked and snickered to herself. "Oh, I forgot where you
work! Come on, there's an all night Thai place near here."

+++++++++++++

About an hour later Ranma walked into the Cat Cafe with her head
hung low. Words like that coming from a demon would be nothing to worry
about, but an angel was something completely different. "I have to look
into this, it can't be ignored..." she muttered the sentence to herself
when a bundle of energy flew into her arms and kissed her full on the lips
as she walked into the restaurant.

"Aiyah! Is home Ranma! Come, Having guest for you!" squealed the
girl cheerfully.

"I was afraid you'd be angry with me for leaving that way,"
muttered the red head sheepishly.

"Why Talcum be angry with Airen?" asked the girl in confusion.

"No reason. I have a guest you say?"

Ranma walked into the room and stopped cold as something sharp and
cold pointed against her neck.

A beautiful woman in her late thirties stood pointing a katana at
her neck with a strangely calm, but very angry look on her face. "Who are
you? What have you done with my son?"

"Son?" muttered Ranma out loud as her eyes went wide.

On the other side of the room Cologne and Ko li stood watching the
scene in complete shock.

+++++++++++

Tatewaki Kuno stared at the moon again and ruffled his wings
behind his back in agitation. "Another bad moon? I'm certainly glad these
things seem to not involve me these days." He frowned and turned back into
his home, not noticing the ominous dark cloud forming over his home.

TBC...