Can It Get Any Worse?: Chapter 3
"Rei told us why you wanted to meet so early, Ranma," Ami said. I
think she was the only one of the senshi capable of forming coherent
words right then.
"Good. She might have already told you, but from now on always travel
in at least pairs. That probably won't really help you if these
people are seriously interested in grabbing you, it will however give
one of you a chance to escape and tell me. You girls aren't my
favorite people, but I still have that deal to teach you magic and
you're all basically good at heart, despite your many many faults, so
I will come to the rescue." Ugh, I hate playing good semaritan. Not
that I would leave anyone to be experimented on by a bunch of
incompetent scientists.
Usagi sniffled in fear, I thought. Then she said,"Y-you really care!"
That diving glomp/bear hug of hers is pretty effective."Does that mean
you don't hate me? Would you like to come to dinner with me tonight?
The other senshi and me are going to the mall tomorrow, wanna come?"
Ami to the rescue. I saw the soft blue light of a spell form in her
hands and the next thing I know, Usagi is snoring on my shoulder. Ami
was too good to be stuck with this bunch. I started making plans to
begin giving her private lessons. She was far enough along to learn
from books without my help and if she improved as quickly as she had
so far, I would soon have a teaching assistant. Listen to me,
sounding like a real teacher. Setsuna will be getting that demonic
yeast infection I'd been saving for a special occassion.
"Nice work, might want to work on the amount of visible energy
produced by the casting," I told Ami. I didn't exactly drop Usagi.
It's not my fault that she lost muscle control when she fell asleep.
All that grass and mud broke her fall just fine.
"When she wakes up, tell her she was just dreaming, will ya?" I asked
no one in particular."We're going to go off the lesson plan today,"
damnit I just keep getting worse every day,"and I'm going to try to
teach you all a very minor shield spell that you can keep active all
day without draining your own energy. It'll give you a little
protection from the weapons the hunters are using. Don't worry about
waking Usagi, she won't be able to grasp this for at least another
month."
The senshi would be starting school again in a few days and out of the
kindness of my heart I had been giving them half days. I kept this in
effect even with the present threat. They wouldn't be very effective
if they were burnt out, afterall. They were piling out of the small
back yard to the shrine residence when I mentally impressed a desire
to talk to Ami on her mind. It's not mind control, especially on
someone as intelligent as the Senshi of Mercury, and she knew what it
was anyway.
She was still trying to stuff books into her backpack when she walked
over to me. That's something I don't understand about the girl.
She's smarter than me(really sucks to admit that), and I finished high
school when I was eleven, so she could have easily been through collge
and making lots of money somewhere by now."Sensei? Did you send me a
mental summons just now? I'm not sure if I wasn't just imagining it,"
she said as shyly as ever. Real confidence problem with her.
I made sure none of the others were in hearing range and said,"Ami, as
I'm sure you've noticed by now, you are making much better progress
than your friends. Rei and Makoto aren't bad, but honestly, you're
the only one of the senshi that I would have willingly chosen to
teach. You're a natural sorcerress. If you would be willing to take
the time, I could teach you at a much faster pace than the others.
That would help everybody. You could help me teach your friends in
the afternoons after school starts and I could teach you in the
evening."
Ami didn't take any time making her mind up, contrary to the hemming
and hawing I had expected. She nodded her head enthusiastically and
said,"That would be wonderful!"
It's not like I had anything better to do, so I said,"I don't have any
plans tonight. It would be as good a time to start as any."
"That's fine. My mother is carrying an extra shift tonight at the
hospital so she won't know if I stay out late."
She ran and caught up with the other senshi and told them something
along the lines of she was getting some extra tutoring or something.
I couldn't tell exactly with the traffic going by the sidewalk.
****
"Setsuna got it for me," I told Ami when I saw her staring at my huge
apartment in awe."Heh, I bet she wishes she had been a little more
forthcoming with me now."
Ami looked at me oddly and asked,"Why's that?"
It probably wouldn't be good to tell her what a mess I had made of her
semi-mentor."Oh...nothing. Complex magical stuff you wouldn't
understand." Well that was partially true."Make yourself at home. I'm
gonna fix a sandwhich, want one?"
"Sure, that'd be great." She sat down and began flipping through the
channels on my tv. She looked shocked. I understood the feeling. I
never would have believed there were three thousand channels.
We ate our sandwhiches and finished watching a news program on the
Sailor Senshi. I couldn't help but laugh at some of the ideas people
had about these girls. Secret government super soldiers was the best
though. I mean, super soldiers, it was too funny to believe. I had
to keep myself from falling over laughing because Ami appeared
flattered by the show and I didn't want to hurt her feelings.
"You're going to need an athame before we can go much further," I
commented when the program was finished.
"A what?" Ami asked.
"Ritual knife. It helps to focus energy into finer and more coherent
patterns. There are a lot of spells that can't be performed without
one until you have a lot of experience." I pulled mine from it's wrist
sheath."You've seen me use it to draw the spell patterns in the air?"
Ami nodded."I could have done it without the athame but it would have
taken more energy and the image wouldn't have remained legible for
nearly so long."
"Uh, where can I get an...athame?" she asked.
"I'm pretty sure there are at least a few shops in Tokyo that sell
them, but for now I have one you can borrow." It took a minute of
digging through my luggage to find the plain copper bladed
dagger."Copper doesn't draw and focus as much energy as iron," I told
her."It'll be easier to learn with it."
Ami took the proffered blade and tested the weight and feel. As she
stroked it through the air a blue spark leapt from the blade. It's
nice to be right all the time.
"What do you think about ice flame?"
****
Wouldn't you know it would be just like Usagi to decide to walk to the
store for a quick ice cream fix in the middle of the night? I knew I
should have put that mental block on her earlier. Ami, being the only
member of the senshi to know where I lived, arrived early, like 6
a.m., beating on my door frantically. It was their first day of
school and I was sleeping in late, content with the knowledge that I
didn't have to see the meatball head for an extra six or seven hours.
"All right, all right!" I shouted."I'm coming! Hold your horses!" I
threw open the door, an invisible blade of force gathered in my free
hand.
Ami rushed in, nearly knocking me over in my sleep fogged
mind."Usagi's missing," she informed me."We always get her up
especially early on the first day of school and the beginning of the
new semester so that she can find her way to her classes. It was my
turn today," she rambled on while I was getting dressed. One day I
was going to get caught without that damned ring on and there would be
a world of trouble for me. Thankfully she didn't see me in the
darkened apartment until I had activated its enchantment.
"Are you sure she didn't just go to school on her own?" Even I knew
that idea was a joke.
The look she shot me made me proud. It was my 'what kind of idiot are
you' stare.
I didn't waste any time. If Usagi felt sufficiently threatened and
was frightened enough she could start up the magical howitzer act
again. She still had more than enough control over that crystal.
They, whoever they were, would probably just kill her instead of
trying to subdue an energy and speech spouting weapon of
destruction."Where are the others?"
"They're waiting down in the lobby. Luna and Artemis are with them."
She knew that I didn't like the moon cats and that they didn't like
me. I think they could smell a similarity between my female form and
my natural male form.
I nodded and we headed out the door. The senshi were indeed waiting
in the lobby, already transformed into full battle armor with their
weapons drawn and a primed spell crackling in the free hand. Ami
activated the modified transformation sequence and within minutes I
was leading four pissed off senshi down the nearly abandoned street.
If it had been any of the other girls I would have had to perform a
spell to locate them, but Usagi and her crystal were easy enough to
track down that I could just follow my nose, figuratively, of course.
At the speed we were travelling we arrived in the warehouse district
within half an hour. That's quite an accomplishment when you consider
that it was on the other side of the city with all those big buildings
in the way.
"No mercy. You see someone in black, they die. If any of you have a
problem with that then go home now and leave the rescuing to me." I
thought that at least Minako and probably Ami would bale out. I was
wrong. If anything, they're expressions became more fierce and they
followed along right behind me. Damn, how can someone like Usagi
inspire such loyalty? Must have something to do with pity.
There wasn't much I could do about any surveilance cameras, not while
keeping myself wrapped in the equivalent of a magical nuclear
bombshelter, but the people set to keep watch were another story. I
dropped three of them before the senshi even knew they were being
watched. A man rose up from a pile of garbage to my left while I was
flinging silent blades of air into a building across the street that
had housed two lookouts. Before I could react, Makoto had roasted the
man alive and we were moving on.
I hung back and let the senshi work off a little steam on the next
dozen. They worked better than I would have thought. I choose to
believe much of that was due to my influence. I didn't spend any time
looking for a way into the windowless warehouse that my senses told me
was our destination. A flexing of magical muscles, you could say, and
I ripped the shorter wall off and threw it onto another warehouse.
Oh boy, what a slaugter! I had inadvertently freed a whole freakin
bunch of captured demons, super powerful martial artists, and devil
hunters. They were all in a bad mood. They were all much more
powerful than their captors. The senshi and I flowed through the
massacre, looking for Usagi before we let ourselves have any fun.
The girl in question was unconscious and strapped down to a metal
table with some kind of force field generator forming a bubble around
her. Technology may be improving, but it is certainly no match for
good old human ingenuity combined with lots and lots of power. I
would have used some of that power to destroy the bubble if Ami hadn't
found the power switch and flipped it off. Sigh, at least I got to
kill some people.
By now the various groups had gathered together. Demons of at least a
dozen varieties were feasting on dead and dying men and women. Devil
hunters, who I guess had been confined in the same kind of force field
Usagi had because they weren't holding back on their mystical
retribution, were taking turns blasting their captors. The martial
artists, some I actually recognized, were just beating the ever living
shit out of their victims. I saw a couple moderately powerful chi
based attacks in the melee.
Someone was going to learn a lesson not to mess with their betters. A
little technology just wasn't going to cut it.
With Usagi over my shoulder, I said,"We better get out of here before
the demons and devil hunters notice each other." Rei started to
protest."Remember the minding their own business rule? That's still
in effect. Some of those demons are children that were probably taken
right out of their beds in the middle of the night. Besides, the
cops, and very likely the government are going to be showing up soon.
I don't want to be here when they do."
I got silent and grim nods from the girls and we bean to cut out way
through the mob. Along the way I saw a pair of chaos demons trying to
get out through the hole I had made in the wall. One was injured and
being helped along by the other.
"Phil!" I called out."Is that you?" The demons turned around and
started waving to me. Yep, it was Phil and Cindy."Be on your best
behavior, girls. These are friends of mine."
"I can't believe she's friends with demons," I heard Rei mutter to one
of the other senshi.
"Ami said that she told her demons saved her life when she was a kid,"
Makoto responded. Good girl, Ami is.
We caught up with the pair of demons and I passed Usagi to Makoto,
throwing Phil's arm over my shoulder."When did they get you?" I asked.
Cindy answered,"Phil was having a craving for liver the night before
last and it'd been a while since I had any, so we went out and..." The
female demon finally seemed to notice the company I was keeping.
"Don't worry. They won't bother you," I assured her."Senshi, meet
Phil and Cindy. Phil is one of my oldest friends and Cindy is his
girlfriend." I still haven't figured out how Phil managed that."Phil
and Cindy, these are the Sailor Senshi. I'm still teaching them
magic."
"Hey," Cindy said awkwardly."Sorry we got off on the wrong foot last
time. I guess I can understand where you're coming from though."
Cindy must be one of those human rights demons.
"Yeah," Phil agreed, groaning through the pain of a smashed leg.
"Thanks, by the way, for getting us out of that hell hole." That got a
laugh from me and the girls.
The streets were slowly starting to feel with morning commuters and
people going about their business. We were already drawing more than
our fair share of strange looks. "Cindy, can you heal Phil up good
enough to hold him over until tonight?"
"No problem," she responded.
"Good. You two are going to have to hide out somewhere today. My
place is too far away and there are too many people out on the streets
already." I had already begun mentally going through likely places for
them to lay low.
"That alley over there," Phil pointed to the alley in
question."Someone must've dies there recently. It's still got a fair
amount of negative energy swirling around. Cindy'll be able to work
better there."
"Right," I agreed. The senshi stayed where they were as Cindy and I
helped Phil across the street. Once they were comfortable I spun a
kind of illusion that wasn't really an illusion, just a kind of
blurred after image of the buildings beside it that would encourage
people's eyes to skip over it. I couldn't do much better than that.
"They seemed pretty nice," Minako said when I returned. They had
changed back into cute little school girls, complete with uniforms and
school bags. Usagi was still out of it and in her pajamas. I sure as
hell wasn't going to volunteer to do the honors.
"They are. Most demons are like normal people. It's the screw ups
that give them all a bad name. I'm sure you all have plenty of time
before school starts, but she," I indicated Usagi,"isn't even
dressed..."
Ami spoke up."It is my turn to get her ready. If we hurry we won't be
late."
I left them to decide how to work out their arduous task of taking the
meatball head to school. Ami sure wouldn't ba able to carry her
across town, not without transforming. I wondered what they would
tell her parents. Sleepwalking, most likely.
****
I was sitting in one of those tiny little street corner cafes sipping
a cup of atrociously sweet coffee and watching an old episode of
Dragonball when the broadcast was interrupted by a special news
report. Turns out that those dead guys were government afterall.
They were claiming that a terrorist death cult that the guys had been
investigating had made a preemptive strike and slaughtered them all.
All the shredded and partially eaten, blown up, and burnt bodies leant
that story a lot of credit.
I was just hoping that they had kept whatever file they had on me in
that warehouse. Doubt it, though. Life had been getting a little
stagnant lately. A couple years of making the hunters into the prey
would be fun. I could even get the senshi and some demons in on it.
****
"What happened?" the Emperor demanded shrilly.
The older man dressed in a cliche black suit bowed repeatedly, finally
bringing himself to say,"The base was overwhelmed, sir. We have only
fragments of the remaining security tapes, but it appears that case #
54687, Ranma Saotome, led case #'s 34532 through 34535 on a rescue
mission for case # 34531. In the process they freed all captured
individuals."
"Fools, all fools," the Emperor snapped."You were specifically
instructed to enlist the aide of all supernaturally gifted citizens in
Japan, not to hunt them down like demonic scum! Now you and your
incompetents may have made an enemy of Our most potentially powerful
allies."
"Yes, your Highness. Whoever misconstrued your decree shall be
immediately dealt with," the man replied.
"Of course this fiasco was not your fault, correct? No, not your
fault at all. I want those who were held against their will contacted
and properly reimbursed with whatever they feel they are owed. The
time is coming when We will need them all to fight for Us willingly.
Now get out."
(I have no idea what Imperial protocol is in Japan. This will have to
do. Oh and I know that the Emperor is really just some kind of
figurehead, but this is my story so he could be a three headed monky
if I wanted him to.)
****
"Ami, I want you to take Rei, Makoto, and Minako through the first
spell I taught you last night. I'm going to try to get Usagi caught
up." Somehow.
"I still don't see why you get special lessons," Rei muttered. She
likes to do that a lot, talking about people behind their backs, I
mean. Enhanced senses can pick up all kinds of nice things.
"Ranma-sensei just thinks that I learn faster," Ami resonded to the
jab. That Ranma-sensei bit is pretty cool. Not too many people give
me much respect. I admit that not too many people who know me are
human, though. If I had been in Ami's position I would have just told
Rei the simple truth that I was ten time's the sorceress she would
ever be and for her to kiss my ass. Too bad there aren't more people
like me in the world.
"Now, Usagi, I'm going to draw this spell in very simple pieces. I
want you to tell me when you understand one so that I can add the next
part." At this rate she would be able to cast the spell in a week.
"Sure thing Ranma," she said cheerfully, showing no sign that she had
been kidnapped only hours earlier."Thanks for rescuing me. Those men
were going to dissect me. What does dissect mean? Would it have
hurt?"
I sighed. Another long day in a series of long days.
****
Author's Notes: I think I'm going to try to cross this over with The
Black Company by Glen Cook in a few chapters. Somewhere in the Shadow
Games book. If you haven't read the series I highly recommend it.
I've gotten lots of responses on this and some pretty good
suggestions. Keep them coming. C&C welcome at
dark_phoneix@hotmail.com