Jesus, I meant to send this out to my prereader, but I never got that far.
Far to busy a week. Once I send this off to Cosmos and FF.net, I've got to
finish the reviews for Pera-Fishy.
Oh, yeah... _Krypt_, I put up the chapters once a week, even if I have
written oh... three chapters ahead. I do this so that if I have a
way-to-busy week, I can actually give a good chapter. Like this week.
*grins* And the chapters were getting shorter, because I hadn't had any
chapters written a few weeks ahead. No worries, though, the chapters are
getting longer each time I write them.
Just to remind ya'll at FF.net, this goes up Saturday mornin's.
And it seems strange to me... Ranma didn't review last chapter. You have a
busy week or something?
True Identity
Chapter Eight- Taken
Li Xiang
Rache muttered something about memories that just wouldn't _die_ already,
and joined Ranma in the misery of trailing along after the Inner Senshi
while shopping. Now, normally, Rache was all for shopping trips, but this...
All the Inner Senshi were interested in was a bunch of too cute kiddie-type
clothing that only a pink-wearing preppie could ever possibly like in the
slightest, and ogling hot guys.
Rache was, discounting Ranma-onna-- since Ranma was normally male-- the only
female in a household of hot guys. What did she care about guys who were all
talk and no do? Besides, it wasn't like she'd even bother to try to catch a
date with any of these boys.
She liked Yohji, after all.
Which was another thing... if Usagi and Mamoru were as deeply in love as
they proclaimed to be, then they wouldn't even bother checking out other
people. Who were they trying to fool? Destined lovers indeed.
"So... Sushi--" Minako started, only to be cut off when Ranma-onna growled.
The blonde uttered a startled, "Huh?"
"Call me 'Sushi' again, and I will rip your spine out through your mouth."
"She hates it when her name is mispronounced," Rache informed them, "Her
name is Xue Shi."
"Oh, sorry, Xue Shi," Minako didn't really _look_ sorry, just kind of
vacant-- at least to someone no where near Ranma's skill level, like, say
Rache. He, or "she" at the moment, knew a soldier when she saw one. Minako
was most definitely a warrior, although one trying to fit in and be a
teenager after she'd long since given up that life.
Ranma frowned to herself. She knew-- like everyone else on the team-- that
Minako had once been Sailor V. A solo fighter. No one understood why V had
become Venus, and drop out of the spotlight seeing as how much Venus seemed
to like it, only that she had done so.
"Xue Shi?" Ranma came out of her thoughts as one of her names was called.
Minako was looking at her again, "How old are you?"
"Sixteen," she muttered, "Almost seventeen."
"Really?" Makoto jumped in, "You seem much older."
"Somethings will do that to a person."
The Inner Senshi plus Xue Shi and Rache whirled around. The senshi were
jumpy, worried that one of "Amun-Ra's" men had found them-- after all, if
Xue Shi had once been one of them, it was likely they knew her human
identity as well-- but the two Pseudo-Senshi relaxed almost instantly. Ranma
had forgotten how fast he could be.
"Hey Schuldich."
"Bruder! What are you doing here?"
The flame haired assassin smirked, and waved gallantly to the area Rache and
Ranma hadn't even deigned to notice. It was a flower shop-- hardly the
Koneko no Sumi Ie-- with several beautiful women tending to the plants.
Schuldich grinned wickedly.
Now, the senshi figured that Schuldich was going to hit on the women and
giggled to themselves--- they knew the ladies within, and not one of them
took well to being hit on; at least by men.
Ranma and Rache, however, could see the truth plain as day in Schuldich's
face. The jade-eyed man was still trying to woo Ken, and therefore Schuldich
was buying him one of the flowers-and-teddy bear specials-- not for the
flowers, for obvious reasons, but for the stuffed bear that came with them.
Via telepathy, Ranma wondered, /Would you mind saving the flowers? Jei-sama
would probably like ripping them apart./
/That's what I was thinking, Bishoujo./
"Good luck on your quest, Schuldich," Ranma grinned wickedly, "You'll need
it."
"I'm sure you'll get what you want," Rache snickered, "Eventually."
"You two have _such_ faith in me," he retorted with an easy-going grin,
"Though your friends look about to burst with questions. About magnificently
handsome me, of course."
"Aw, shut y'er trap,' Xue Shi muttered shoving him away. Under her breath,
she mumbled, "How much longer is this going to take?"
"It should work..." Rache grumbled back, then grinned as there was the sound
of screams down the block.
The inner senshi went running, wondering what was going on. Xue Shi and
Rache on the other hand went up. Schuldich had snagged his sister to boost
her up to the roof where the two striped out of their fairly baggy garments
to reveal their Sailor fuku. Xue Shi, now Apollo, withdrew her "tiara",
boots and gloves-- as well as Rache, Aa Charon's own-- from the subspace
created by the Hidden Weapon's technique. They were ready in moments.
A few blocks away stood Yohji decked out in his Horus outfit, laughing
gleefully. He'd never realized that destroying something was quite the
stress-reliever[1], as he directed his newest creature in destroying the
various vehicles laying abandoned in the road.
He knew he'd never go into full-scale city-wide mass destruction, but making
a few cars-- without their drivers, of course; he was an assassin, not a
psychopathic murderer-- into pulped boxes of metal, was fun.
"How dare you destroy public property!"
And there they were. The Sailorsenshi to save the day., Horus ignored the
Inner Senshi, silhouetted as they were against the sun. As Sailormoon's
speech dragged on for several minutes, Horus ignored her and went over the
plan in his head.
He was glad Nagi was hiding somewhere and watching the battle, when he felt
himself move without his own actions. His thoughts had gone on longer than
planned, and Mars had fired upon him. And while he knew from the flaming
debris who had thrown it, Horus played the fool. It was in the job
description, after all.
"Who _dares_?!" he roared, glaring at the senshi. Silently, he gave his
thanks to Schuldich as the telepath point out that Charon and Apollo had
arrived. As it had been planned, he ignored the two redheads, as though he
hadn't noticed either of them.
"Aren't such hot stuff without your partner around are you?" Mars taunted
with a boasting tone, eyes shining with a fierce glee, as she posed. Charon
and Apollo only just _barely_ concealed a groan as Mars gloated.
Horus scowled, silently wishing he had his own magical powers to fling about
haphazardly. But he didn't, so he'd just have to settle for the old
fashioned way.
He directed his latest little beastie after them.
"Punished Eagle! Attack!"
It was a huge bluish green eagle, with wickedly curved claws, and a razor
sharp beak. Blood red eyes peered out from beneath a few of the paler green
feathers that decorated it's face, while a red tattoo if some strange shape
was seemingly tattooed to the bird-beast's feathers. It screeched as it dove
out of the sky, swooping at the senshi.
Apollo shook her head in disgust as the Inner Senshi ran about screaming
their collective heads off. Charon wondered how such girls could be seen as
the saviors of the world time and time again.
Of course, all good bad guys have a back-up plan. One that was made up for
the "just in case our Unbeatable Youma is destroyed" instances-- which Yohji
and the rest of the Weiss/Schwartz-gumi pretty much expected. They were
setting a rather ingenious plan in motion, after all. But in any case,
neither Rache nor Ranma knew about this back-up plan.
Surprisingly, it had been Aya and Farfello who had cooked up this plan,
having "discussed" it during one of their more violent fights, before Kitty
had shown up to break them up. Aya had clued Yohji in on it just before he
had made the attack, which explained why it was a bit later.
Horus crept closer to the two Pseudo-Senshi. Charon gave him an odd look,
but could do no more as she got a mental shove from her brother. She had to
help the senshi take out Punished Eagle.
With their attention on the fight, Schuldich reached into Ranma's mind.
While the feral mind set of the boy-turned-girl was usually forwards, Xue
Shi had to shove it back in order to get along with the Inner Senshi. So her
mind was purely human at the moment, and therefore easy to navigate.
She passed out just as Punished Eagle was destroyed by the combined might of
Charon's long-handled scimitar, Venus' Wink Sword, and Moon's Moon Tier.
Horus caught her falling form even as the other senshi turned to face him.
"Apollo!"
Horus chuckled evilly-- he was surprising skilled at it-- "Looks like this
is one fight she couldn't win. I knew I was better than she was!"
He raised a hand as though to blast her out of existence with a point-blank
energy blast; which since this was Kudou Yohji, was impossible since he
couldn't throw force blasts... however, a low growl cut his moment, and he
froze, "Shit! Ptah..."
The pale haired assassin dressed in white slipped out of the shadows,
snatching the girl from the other man's arms, "Touch my Kitty again, and I
will enjoy spilling your blood."
"You would any ways," Horus muttered sourly, before vanishing-- supposedly
to lick his "wounds". Ptah turned, still carrying Apollo's inert form, and
started for the shadows.
"Oh no you don't!" Moon half screeched, whipping out her weapon once again,
"Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!"
Ptah _jumped_ over the blast, turned his single golden eye to her and
laughed his particular insane cackle, "Don't announce your attack," and then
he was gone, melting into the shadows in a way no one wearing that much
white should be capable of doing.
The Senshi turned to run away and talk, but found Charon staring blankly
into space.
"Charon-chan?" Moon wondered, stepping closer. Emerald eyes snapped to her
own blue.
"They have her," Charon whispered, "They-- _He_-- has her. Oh great gods...
Bastet is returning!"
---
End Chapter
Not as good as some of my other chapters, in this, False, Sands, Legend or
Shiva, but I liked it. And it's setting things up for a couple chapters down
the line. I just couldn't keep Ranma on the "good" side. It just seemed
_wrong_ for this time line.
---
[1] Most especially when what you're destroying is a computer. And you've
got baseball bats and golf clubs. And yes, I really have beaten a computer
to "death" like that. It was a so much fun that I did the same to three
telephones and a television, too.
Far to busy a week. Once I send this off to Cosmos and FF.net, I've got to
finish the reviews for Pera-Fishy.
Oh, yeah... _Krypt_, I put up the chapters once a week, even if I have
written oh... three chapters ahead. I do this so that if I have a
way-to-busy week, I can actually give a good chapter. Like this week.
*grins* And the chapters were getting shorter, because I hadn't had any
chapters written a few weeks ahead. No worries, though, the chapters are
getting longer each time I write them.
Just to remind ya'll at FF.net, this goes up Saturday mornin's.
And it seems strange to me... Ranma didn't review last chapter. You have a
busy week or something?
True Identity
Chapter Eight- Taken
Li Xiang
Rache muttered something about memories that just wouldn't _die_ already,
and joined Ranma in the misery of trailing along after the Inner Senshi
while shopping. Now, normally, Rache was all for shopping trips, but this...
All the Inner Senshi were interested in was a bunch of too cute kiddie-type
clothing that only a pink-wearing preppie could ever possibly like in the
slightest, and ogling hot guys.
Rache was, discounting Ranma-onna-- since Ranma was normally male-- the only
female in a household of hot guys. What did she care about guys who were all
talk and no do? Besides, it wasn't like she'd even bother to try to catch a
date with any of these boys.
She liked Yohji, after all.
Which was another thing... if Usagi and Mamoru were as deeply in love as
they proclaimed to be, then they wouldn't even bother checking out other
people. Who were they trying to fool? Destined lovers indeed.
"So... Sushi--" Minako started, only to be cut off when Ranma-onna growled.
The blonde uttered a startled, "Huh?"
"Call me 'Sushi' again, and I will rip your spine out through your mouth."
"She hates it when her name is mispronounced," Rache informed them, "Her
name is Xue Shi."
"Oh, sorry, Xue Shi," Minako didn't really _look_ sorry, just kind of
vacant-- at least to someone no where near Ranma's skill level, like, say
Rache. He, or "she" at the moment, knew a soldier when she saw one. Minako
was most definitely a warrior, although one trying to fit in and be a
teenager after she'd long since given up that life.
Ranma frowned to herself. She knew-- like everyone else on the team-- that
Minako had once been Sailor V. A solo fighter. No one understood why V had
become Venus, and drop out of the spotlight seeing as how much Venus seemed
to like it, only that she had done so.
"Xue Shi?" Ranma came out of her thoughts as one of her names was called.
Minako was looking at her again, "How old are you?"
"Sixteen," she muttered, "Almost seventeen."
"Really?" Makoto jumped in, "You seem much older."
"Somethings will do that to a person."
The Inner Senshi plus Xue Shi and Rache whirled around. The senshi were
jumpy, worried that one of "Amun-Ra's" men had found them-- after all, if
Xue Shi had once been one of them, it was likely they knew her human
identity as well-- but the two Pseudo-Senshi relaxed almost instantly. Ranma
had forgotten how fast he could be.
"Hey Schuldich."
"Bruder! What are you doing here?"
The flame haired assassin smirked, and waved gallantly to the area Rache and
Ranma hadn't even deigned to notice. It was a flower shop-- hardly the
Koneko no Sumi Ie-- with several beautiful women tending to the plants.
Schuldich grinned wickedly.
Now, the senshi figured that Schuldich was going to hit on the women and
giggled to themselves--- they knew the ladies within, and not one of them
took well to being hit on; at least by men.
Ranma and Rache, however, could see the truth plain as day in Schuldich's
face. The jade-eyed man was still trying to woo Ken, and therefore Schuldich
was buying him one of the flowers-and-teddy bear specials-- not for the
flowers, for obvious reasons, but for the stuffed bear that came with them.
Via telepathy, Ranma wondered, /Would you mind saving the flowers? Jei-sama
would probably like ripping them apart./
/That's what I was thinking, Bishoujo./
"Good luck on your quest, Schuldich," Ranma grinned wickedly, "You'll need
it."
"I'm sure you'll get what you want," Rache snickered, "Eventually."
"You two have _such_ faith in me," he retorted with an easy-going grin,
"Though your friends look about to burst with questions. About magnificently
handsome me, of course."
"Aw, shut y'er trap,' Xue Shi muttered shoving him away. Under her breath,
she mumbled, "How much longer is this going to take?"
"It should work..." Rache grumbled back, then grinned as there was the sound
of screams down the block.
The inner senshi went running, wondering what was going on. Xue Shi and
Rache on the other hand went up. Schuldich had snagged his sister to boost
her up to the roof where the two striped out of their fairly baggy garments
to reveal their Sailor fuku. Xue Shi, now Apollo, withdrew her "tiara",
boots and gloves-- as well as Rache, Aa Charon's own-- from the subspace
created by the Hidden Weapon's technique. They were ready in moments.
A few blocks away stood Yohji decked out in his Horus outfit, laughing
gleefully. He'd never realized that destroying something was quite the
stress-reliever[1], as he directed his newest creature in destroying the
various vehicles laying abandoned in the road.
He knew he'd never go into full-scale city-wide mass destruction, but making
a few cars-- without their drivers, of course; he was an assassin, not a
psychopathic murderer-- into pulped boxes of metal, was fun.
"How dare you destroy public property!"
And there they were. The Sailorsenshi to save the day., Horus ignored the
Inner Senshi, silhouetted as they were against the sun. As Sailormoon's
speech dragged on for several minutes, Horus ignored her and went over the
plan in his head.
He was glad Nagi was hiding somewhere and watching the battle, when he felt
himself move without his own actions. His thoughts had gone on longer than
planned, and Mars had fired upon him. And while he knew from the flaming
debris who had thrown it, Horus played the fool. It was in the job
description, after all.
"Who _dares_?!" he roared, glaring at the senshi. Silently, he gave his
thanks to Schuldich as the telepath point out that Charon and Apollo had
arrived. As it had been planned, he ignored the two redheads, as though he
hadn't noticed either of them.
"Aren't such hot stuff without your partner around are you?" Mars taunted
with a boasting tone, eyes shining with a fierce glee, as she posed. Charon
and Apollo only just _barely_ concealed a groan as Mars gloated.
Horus scowled, silently wishing he had his own magical powers to fling about
haphazardly. But he didn't, so he'd just have to settle for the old
fashioned way.
He directed his latest little beastie after them.
"Punished Eagle! Attack!"
It was a huge bluish green eagle, with wickedly curved claws, and a razor
sharp beak. Blood red eyes peered out from beneath a few of the paler green
feathers that decorated it's face, while a red tattoo if some strange shape
was seemingly tattooed to the bird-beast's feathers. It screeched as it dove
out of the sky, swooping at the senshi.
Apollo shook her head in disgust as the Inner Senshi ran about screaming
their collective heads off. Charon wondered how such girls could be seen as
the saviors of the world time and time again.
Of course, all good bad guys have a back-up plan. One that was made up for
the "just in case our Unbeatable Youma is destroyed" instances-- which Yohji
and the rest of the Weiss/Schwartz-gumi pretty much expected. They were
setting a rather ingenious plan in motion, after all. But in any case,
neither Rache nor Ranma knew about this back-up plan.
Surprisingly, it had been Aya and Farfello who had cooked up this plan,
having "discussed" it during one of their more violent fights, before Kitty
had shown up to break them up. Aya had clued Yohji in on it just before he
had made the attack, which explained why it was a bit later.
Horus crept closer to the two Pseudo-Senshi. Charon gave him an odd look,
but could do no more as she got a mental shove from her brother. She had to
help the senshi take out Punished Eagle.
With their attention on the fight, Schuldich reached into Ranma's mind.
While the feral mind set of the boy-turned-girl was usually forwards, Xue
Shi had to shove it back in order to get along with the Inner Senshi. So her
mind was purely human at the moment, and therefore easy to navigate.
She passed out just as Punished Eagle was destroyed by the combined might of
Charon's long-handled scimitar, Venus' Wink Sword, and Moon's Moon Tier.
Horus caught her falling form even as the other senshi turned to face him.
"Apollo!"
Horus chuckled evilly-- he was surprising skilled at it-- "Looks like this
is one fight she couldn't win. I knew I was better than she was!"
He raised a hand as though to blast her out of existence with a point-blank
energy blast; which since this was Kudou Yohji, was impossible since he
couldn't throw force blasts... however, a low growl cut his moment, and he
froze, "Shit! Ptah..."
The pale haired assassin dressed in white slipped out of the shadows,
snatching the girl from the other man's arms, "Touch my Kitty again, and I
will enjoy spilling your blood."
"You would any ways," Horus muttered sourly, before vanishing-- supposedly
to lick his "wounds". Ptah turned, still carrying Apollo's inert form, and
started for the shadows.
"Oh no you don't!" Moon half screeched, whipping out her weapon once again,
"Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!"
Ptah _jumped_ over the blast, turned his single golden eye to her and
laughed his particular insane cackle, "Don't announce your attack," and then
he was gone, melting into the shadows in a way no one wearing that much
white should be capable of doing.
The Senshi turned to run away and talk, but found Charon staring blankly
into space.
"Charon-chan?" Moon wondered, stepping closer. Emerald eyes snapped to her
own blue.
"They have her," Charon whispered, "They-- _He_-- has her. Oh great gods...
Bastet is returning!"
---
End Chapter
Not as good as some of my other chapters, in this, False, Sands, Legend or
Shiva, but I liked it. And it's setting things up for a couple chapters down
the line. I just couldn't keep Ranma on the "good" side. It just seemed
_wrong_ for this time line.
---
[1] Most especially when what you're destroying is a computer. And you've
got baseball bats and golf clubs. And yes, I really have beaten a computer
to "death" like that. It was a so much fun that I did the same to three
telephones and a television, too.