Kyra - Well, if you're still wondering about Ken and Oz's relationship,
no worries; that gets explained soon enough. *grins* They have their
own book, dealing with how and why they know each other (and why Ken is
trying to avoid being caught alone with Oz)
Well, of course Yuki is really psychotic, Ran-- she's like a female
version of Farfello ^____^ Besides, you haven't seen the little AU
ficlets Mei Neko was working on. I'm planning on putting them up on the
site, but I didn't really want to put them up before everyone found out
who Yuki was, because they had some pretty major spoilers. ^-^
Beth - Patience my childe, everything will make sense... in the third
book, in other words.
True Identity
Chapter Twenty - Snowballing
Li Xiang
When they returned to the House, they found themselves entering an
unknown environment. Ranma's ki senses tingled as he-- he had shifted
back during their travel across the rooftops-- sensed an overflow of
power. It was not the familiar hum of ki, but the odd pulse and ebb of
powerful magic. An unfamiliar ki signature was woven into the mana, but
it was not a negative signature.
He soon understood "why" as when he pushed open the door, the quartet
found themselves in halls of gleaming metal, each plate of it only a
few inches wide, and a few inches tall, and all were a different color.
It looked like some strange mixture of a scientific government
laboratory, and an ancient, European castle.
And it almost _sung_ with the unfamiliar swirl of mana and ki.
Apparently, the entire building had been sound proofed, as once they
had stepped inside, the sound of certain band's playing was _very_
loud.
"They having a party, or something?" Ranma wondered aloud. The other
two shrugged, while Yohji frowned slightly.
"I guess one of Nodoka's guests is a Sorceress."
"Guests? What guests?"
"Didn't I mention that?" Yohji pondered with an innocent grin, before
pushing the trio down the hall, "C'mon, let's find out what in the
world is going on."
As they came closer, a horribly flat and cracking female voice came
into hearing. Being the professional singer that he was, Ranma winced
at each wrong note, which was most of them-- and then he realized it
was one of _his_ songs. An ever-so-slight shift, and Xue Shi stood
there, ready to kill whoever was mangling "Points of Authority".
Yohji and Aya barely restrained her, being dragged down the hall to the
living room by the snarling redhead, while Jei padded along behind
them, snickering.
Ranma-onna _kicked_ the door open, and the music and singing came to an
abrupt halt as she _glared_ at the them, "Who the _hell_ was
screeching?!"
"You weren't kidding when you said she was high-strung," mumbled an
ebony haired, brown eyes nineteen year old, to a less-than-impressed
Nodoka. The older woman crossed her arms angrily, turning her "unless
you do as I say I'll force you to commit seppuku" glare on her
son-turned-daughter.
"Saotome Ranma, that was uncalled for!"
"But mom," whined the girl, "They were mangling my song!"
"I couldn't care if they were strangling your favorite pet! Apologize
for calling your sister's singing 'screeching'!"
There was approximately thirty seconds of pure silence, before Ranma,
Yohji, Aya and Jei shouted, "Sister?!"
"Yes," Nodoka had produced a handkerchief from somewhere, and was
dabbing at her eyes, "Oh, how said it was! Not even out of the hospital
yet, and already sold by your father!" she sniffled, "I thought my
darling little Yuki-chan had been kidnaped, and I spent three years in
depression!"
She had leapt to her feet at some point, gathering her currently female
son into her arms, "But then, my Little Ranma-chan came into my life! I
was happy! I tried, once again, to search for Yuki, but alas... she was
gone, gone from Japan!"
Everyone in the room, minus Yuki, Ranma and Farfello, wondered if
instability was genetic. It sure seemed like it, the way Nodoka was
acting. Yuki was bobbing her head in confirmation of the story,
although her eyes kept moving to the entrance of the kitchen.
No one noticed.
"Then, you too, were gone, my son! Depression clouded in and it was
horrible, oh so horrible! But what was this? Several years had gone by,
and I heard about someone who matched my own teenaged description--
minus hair color-- and I knew! I knew Yuki was still alive! I--"
"Are you telling that sob story again, Saotome-san?"
Everything screeched a halt, eyes snapping to the slight form standing
in the kitchen-side entrance to the room. While everyone _else_ froze,
Yuki had leapt forwards, hugging the girl.
"Aya-chan! Well, did you walk all the way, or did you have to rest? I
know you were in the coma for a long time but--"
"Aya-chan...?"
The whisper caught even the bubbly Yuki's attention. Heads turned to
watch the redheaded Abyssian take a few steps closer, to get a better
look. Aya-chan's eyes grew wide.
"Ran-niichan!" she flew across the room, only stumbling once, and
grabbed the older male in a somewhat weak bear-hug. Automatically, his
arms came up, clasping her in a warm embrace.
After a few moments, the elder Fujimiya withdrew, "How...? When did you
wake up?"
"A few days ago," a suddenly serious Yuki offered, "Only after I got
her out of Kritiker's crack-pot idea of a hospital, and she needed a
week to flush the drugs out of her system."
"What?" Ran's whisper was icy, lethal in its' intensity.
Yuki crossed her arms, cold brown eyes meeting frosty violet over the
sixteen year old's head, "You heard me. Kritiker-- Manx in particular--
was pumping Aya-chan full of narcotics to keep her under. I rescued
her, and had to let the majority of the drugs come out naturally," her
lips quirked, "Then I starting casting all the healing spells I knew.
One can never be to sure what needs to be healed."
"She's telling the truth, Ran," Aya-chan whispered. A covert glance to
Schuldich rewarded him with a nod. Everything checked out.
Now, Kritiker needed pay back. How dare they try to force Aya-chan to
remain unconscious! The institution would understand what is means to
have Abyssian-- no, can't use that code name anymore-- to have _Osiris_
as their enemy. They wouldn't know what hit them.
After all, their last trump card was awake. She was with him, and
Osiris was not about to let her go again.
---
Yuki grinned evilly.
She _loved_ mornings.
Especially the morning after a party where booze was present. Hey, she
had been raised in America, booze was an essential part of the American
life style. And not sake either, but good, hard liquor. She was pretty
sure that was the best reason to live in the United States.
Well, that and the fact that guns were legal. Stupid Japanese gun laws.
Any ways, back to the fact that it was morning. A sunny, cheerful,
brilliant blue-sky type morning, where the birds sung, the cherry tree
Omi had planted on the roof for some unfeasible reason, and God was
happy-go-lucky, because his two most prominent advocates that he needed
to be kicked off his celestial thrown were asleep.
With hangovers.
Oh, sure, Yuki was positive Jei could hold his liquor-- he _was_ Irish,
and they had some good brew up there-- but Ranma was Japanese. A
Japanese who _rarely_ drank rice wine. Therefore, he would have a
hangover today. And therefore, Farfello would want to stay with his
pet.
It was one of those "daimyo" things, Yuki supposed, remembering what
her mother had told her.
In any case, she had heard movement-- rapid movement-- a few minutes
ago. Movement that went from Ranma's room to the lavatory. Ouuuuuu,
this would be _fun_.
Yuki pressed a quick kiss to Aya-chan's forehead, quietly passing on
one of her pain-killer spells to help with the sixteen year old's own
soon to be hangover headache. She would brew up some hangover cure
potions later. Right now, she had something better to do, and breezed
through the House, heedless of the fact that she was wearing little
more than her bra, panties, and a white bath robe that hung open.
When you are insane, you don't give a _damn_ about modesty.
Ranma was leaning over the toilet, obvious wishing he had not gotten a
hair cut, if only so that he did not have to hold his hair out of his
face.
"Hey-ya Ranma!"
He winced, then sent her a scathing glare. She smirked at his hang-over
pains, "What do you want, Yuki?"
She ignored his question, padding over to his side, all the while
smiling sweetly, "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?!" he snapped, before whirling back to the
toilet and purging his stomach once more, "Man... how much did I drink
last night...?"
His sister shrugged, "Beats me, although I do recall you falling flat
on your face in the middle of a poor attempt to sing your own songs. I
think it was somewhere between my fifth bottle of whiskey, and those
shots of vodka Jei was randomly handing out."
The younger Saotome wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then
leaned forwards to press his forehead into the cool porcelain, "How the
hell are you so... so... non-hang-over-like!" he finally growled,
annoyed at not having been able to find a suitable word. Not like it
was a first with Ranma.
"You forget, my dear brother, that _I_ am a Sorceress!" she shot him a
sly grin, "So... how does it feel to have a hang-over?"
"...I'm going to keel over from the pain in my skull and you're
happy-go-lucky?!" This was completely not fair. If it was not for the
said pain in his skull, Ranma was sure he would have creamed his evil,
evil, evil Sorceress Sister for making light of his agony! He took a
second to blink in confusion. Greeeeat, I sound like Kunou when I have
a hang-over. Just for good measure, he smacked his head solidly against
the toilet, then moaned with pain. That had been a stupid idea.
"Does the little baby want his Sissy to fix his boo-boo?" cooed the
Sorceress, gleefully patting his head, and ignoring the vicious glare
she was getting in return. This was just to much fun!
"Give me your damned cure, and give it to Jei-sama, too!"
A nasty little gleam entered the Sorceress' eyes, and she grabbed her
brother's hair to yank his face up to meet hers, "Under one condition,
dearest brother of mine," she licked her lips, the nasty gleam turning
to a down right sadistic glow.
"And what," he growled, already knowing he would refuse if she said
some dumbass thing like sleeping with _his_ Jei-sama, or with his Ayan.
His master and his best friend were officially off limits to everyone,
and Ranma would go beyond his normal level of violence to keep it that
way, "condition is that, oh beloved elder sister?" his voice was
perfectly sarcastic, too.
Her lips curled into a smirk, and her chocolate eyes danced gleefully,
"Why, brother-dear! I didn't know you cared so much! And since you
do... this should be quite a simple task. I want in."
"'In'?" he quoted in confusion, "'In' on what?"
"In on your little game," her smirk widened, "I want to play with the
Sailor Senshi, myself. I want to feel the blood of those wanna-be
witches splashing over my hands. I want to show them what a _real_
Sorceress can do!"
"We've got Rache to do that," Ranma rolled his eyes, then winced. Was
there anything he could do without making his headache worse? Smacking
his head against the john really had not helped all that much; only
made it worse.
"Well, if you want to keep that hang-over of yours..." she started to
get up, although she did not release her brother's hair.
"No! Wait!" he barked, "If the rest of the group says you can join, you
can. Just give me that damned cure already!"
But Yuki was not listening. She had let go of his hair to do a victory
dance around the bathroom, leaving him to plant his face into the
floor. It's official, he decided. I've known her for less than twenty
four hours. I'd like to go back to being an only child.
---
Their target was the eldest, the most mysterious, the most
_frustratingly_ hard to track down Senshi. Sailor Pluto.
They were positive she would come out of hiding, now. Half her team was
missing, there was no way she could have missed that. None
what-so-ever.
They attacked in a flurry that week. Monsters fell left and right, but
no Sailor Pluto. The mystery Senshi refused to show.
Yuki was getting annoyed. She wanted to fight the Senshi!
However, the plan had been explained-- repeatedly-- and she had to
wait. She was not allowed to appear unless Pluto was around. She was to
be Pluto's "opposite".
The Senshi were struggling against the sea snake that Horus had sent,
and the tincha Bastet had gleefully set upon them.
Moon, Mars, Venus and Uranus were taking on the snake, leaving Charon
and Neptune to deal with the Tincha. Charon was desperate for ways to
prolong the fight without seeming like she was, as she bungled one
attack after another.
Where the _hell_ was that damned--
"Dead Scream."
There she was! Yuki crowed mentally at the whispered attack of the
guardian of time. She crept closer to the scene of the battle, as the
Senshi of time's attack hit the snake, at the same time Venus' and
Uranus' own attacks hit.
The snake exploded into dust from an overload of power.
Sailor Pluto had arrived.
---
End Chapter
Ah, cliff hangers, how I love to write thee.
no worries; that gets explained soon enough. *grins* They have their
own book, dealing with how and why they know each other (and why Ken is
trying to avoid being caught alone with Oz)
Well, of course Yuki is really psychotic, Ran-- she's like a female
version of Farfello ^____^ Besides, you haven't seen the little AU
ficlets Mei Neko was working on. I'm planning on putting them up on the
site, but I didn't really want to put them up before everyone found out
who Yuki was, because they had some pretty major spoilers. ^-^
Beth - Patience my childe, everything will make sense... in the third
book, in other words.
True Identity
Chapter Twenty - Snowballing
Li Xiang
When they returned to the House, they found themselves entering an
unknown environment. Ranma's ki senses tingled as he-- he had shifted
back during their travel across the rooftops-- sensed an overflow of
power. It was not the familiar hum of ki, but the odd pulse and ebb of
powerful magic. An unfamiliar ki signature was woven into the mana, but
it was not a negative signature.
He soon understood "why" as when he pushed open the door, the quartet
found themselves in halls of gleaming metal, each plate of it only a
few inches wide, and a few inches tall, and all were a different color.
It looked like some strange mixture of a scientific government
laboratory, and an ancient, European castle.
And it almost _sung_ with the unfamiliar swirl of mana and ki.
Apparently, the entire building had been sound proofed, as once they
had stepped inside, the sound of certain band's playing was _very_
loud.
"They having a party, or something?" Ranma wondered aloud. The other
two shrugged, while Yohji frowned slightly.
"I guess one of Nodoka's guests is a Sorceress."
"Guests? What guests?"
"Didn't I mention that?" Yohji pondered with an innocent grin, before
pushing the trio down the hall, "C'mon, let's find out what in the
world is going on."
As they came closer, a horribly flat and cracking female voice came
into hearing. Being the professional singer that he was, Ranma winced
at each wrong note, which was most of them-- and then he realized it
was one of _his_ songs. An ever-so-slight shift, and Xue Shi stood
there, ready to kill whoever was mangling "Points of Authority".
Yohji and Aya barely restrained her, being dragged down the hall to the
living room by the snarling redhead, while Jei padded along behind
them, snickering.
Ranma-onna _kicked_ the door open, and the music and singing came to an
abrupt halt as she _glared_ at the them, "Who the _hell_ was
screeching?!"
"You weren't kidding when you said she was high-strung," mumbled an
ebony haired, brown eyes nineteen year old, to a less-than-impressed
Nodoka. The older woman crossed her arms angrily, turning her "unless
you do as I say I'll force you to commit seppuku" glare on her
son-turned-daughter.
"Saotome Ranma, that was uncalled for!"
"But mom," whined the girl, "They were mangling my song!"
"I couldn't care if they were strangling your favorite pet! Apologize
for calling your sister's singing 'screeching'!"
There was approximately thirty seconds of pure silence, before Ranma,
Yohji, Aya and Jei shouted, "Sister?!"
"Yes," Nodoka had produced a handkerchief from somewhere, and was
dabbing at her eyes, "Oh, how said it was! Not even out of the hospital
yet, and already sold by your father!" she sniffled, "I thought my
darling little Yuki-chan had been kidnaped, and I spent three years in
depression!"
She had leapt to her feet at some point, gathering her currently female
son into her arms, "But then, my Little Ranma-chan came into my life! I
was happy! I tried, once again, to search for Yuki, but alas... she was
gone, gone from Japan!"
Everyone in the room, minus Yuki, Ranma and Farfello, wondered if
instability was genetic. It sure seemed like it, the way Nodoka was
acting. Yuki was bobbing her head in confirmation of the story,
although her eyes kept moving to the entrance of the kitchen.
No one noticed.
"Then, you too, were gone, my son! Depression clouded in and it was
horrible, oh so horrible! But what was this? Several years had gone by,
and I heard about someone who matched my own teenaged description--
minus hair color-- and I knew! I knew Yuki was still alive! I--"
"Are you telling that sob story again, Saotome-san?"
Everything screeched a halt, eyes snapping to the slight form standing
in the kitchen-side entrance to the room. While everyone _else_ froze,
Yuki had leapt forwards, hugging the girl.
"Aya-chan! Well, did you walk all the way, or did you have to rest? I
know you were in the coma for a long time but--"
"Aya-chan...?"
The whisper caught even the bubbly Yuki's attention. Heads turned to
watch the redheaded Abyssian take a few steps closer, to get a better
look. Aya-chan's eyes grew wide.
"Ran-niichan!" she flew across the room, only stumbling once, and
grabbed the older male in a somewhat weak bear-hug. Automatically, his
arms came up, clasping her in a warm embrace.
After a few moments, the elder Fujimiya withdrew, "How...? When did you
wake up?"
"A few days ago," a suddenly serious Yuki offered, "Only after I got
her out of Kritiker's crack-pot idea of a hospital, and she needed a
week to flush the drugs out of her system."
"What?" Ran's whisper was icy, lethal in its' intensity.
Yuki crossed her arms, cold brown eyes meeting frosty violet over the
sixteen year old's head, "You heard me. Kritiker-- Manx in particular--
was pumping Aya-chan full of narcotics to keep her under. I rescued
her, and had to let the majority of the drugs come out naturally," her
lips quirked, "Then I starting casting all the healing spells I knew.
One can never be to sure what needs to be healed."
"She's telling the truth, Ran," Aya-chan whispered. A covert glance to
Schuldich rewarded him with a nod. Everything checked out.
Now, Kritiker needed pay back. How dare they try to force Aya-chan to
remain unconscious! The institution would understand what is means to
have Abyssian-- no, can't use that code name anymore-- to have _Osiris_
as their enemy. They wouldn't know what hit them.
After all, their last trump card was awake. She was with him, and
Osiris was not about to let her go again.
---
Yuki grinned evilly.
She _loved_ mornings.
Especially the morning after a party where booze was present. Hey, she
had been raised in America, booze was an essential part of the American
life style. And not sake either, but good, hard liquor. She was pretty
sure that was the best reason to live in the United States.
Well, that and the fact that guns were legal. Stupid Japanese gun laws.
Any ways, back to the fact that it was morning. A sunny, cheerful,
brilliant blue-sky type morning, where the birds sung, the cherry tree
Omi had planted on the roof for some unfeasible reason, and God was
happy-go-lucky, because his two most prominent advocates that he needed
to be kicked off his celestial thrown were asleep.
With hangovers.
Oh, sure, Yuki was positive Jei could hold his liquor-- he _was_ Irish,
and they had some good brew up there-- but Ranma was Japanese. A
Japanese who _rarely_ drank rice wine. Therefore, he would have a
hangover today. And therefore, Farfello would want to stay with his
pet.
It was one of those "daimyo" things, Yuki supposed, remembering what
her mother had told her.
In any case, she had heard movement-- rapid movement-- a few minutes
ago. Movement that went from Ranma's room to the lavatory. Ouuuuuu,
this would be _fun_.
Yuki pressed a quick kiss to Aya-chan's forehead, quietly passing on
one of her pain-killer spells to help with the sixteen year old's own
soon to be hangover headache. She would brew up some hangover cure
potions later. Right now, she had something better to do, and breezed
through the House, heedless of the fact that she was wearing little
more than her bra, panties, and a white bath robe that hung open.
When you are insane, you don't give a _damn_ about modesty.
Ranma was leaning over the toilet, obvious wishing he had not gotten a
hair cut, if only so that he did not have to hold his hair out of his
face.
"Hey-ya Ranma!"
He winced, then sent her a scathing glare. She smirked at his hang-over
pains, "What do you want, Yuki?"
She ignored his question, padding over to his side, all the while
smiling sweetly, "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?!" he snapped, before whirling back to the
toilet and purging his stomach once more, "Man... how much did I drink
last night...?"
His sister shrugged, "Beats me, although I do recall you falling flat
on your face in the middle of a poor attempt to sing your own songs. I
think it was somewhere between my fifth bottle of whiskey, and those
shots of vodka Jei was randomly handing out."
The younger Saotome wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then
leaned forwards to press his forehead into the cool porcelain, "How the
hell are you so... so... non-hang-over-like!" he finally growled,
annoyed at not having been able to find a suitable word. Not like it
was a first with Ranma.
"You forget, my dear brother, that _I_ am a Sorceress!" she shot him a
sly grin, "So... how does it feel to have a hang-over?"
"...I'm going to keel over from the pain in my skull and you're
happy-go-lucky?!" This was completely not fair. If it was not for the
said pain in his skull, Ranma was sure he would have creamed his evil,
evil, evil Sorceress Sister for making light of his agony! He took a
second to blink in confusion. Greeeeat, I sound like Kunou when I have
a hang-over. Just for good measure, he smacked his head solidly against
the toilet, then moaned with pain. That had been a stupid idea.
"Does the little baby want his Sissy to fix his boo-boo?" cooed the
Sorceress, gleefully patting his head, and ignoring the vicious glare
she was getting in return. This was just to much fun!
"Give me your damned cure, and give it to Jei-sama, too!"
A nasty little gleam entered the Sorceress' eyes, and she grabbed her
brother's hair to yank his face up to meet hers, "Under one condition,
dearest brother of mine," she licked her lips, the nasty gleam turning
to a down right sadistic glow.
"And what," he growled, already knowing he would refuse if she said
some dumbass thing like sleeping with _his_ Jei-sama, or with his Ayan.
His master and his best friend were officially off limits to everyone,
and Ranma would go beyond his normal level of violence to keep it that
way, "condition is that, oh beloved elder sister?" his voice was
perfectly sarcastic, too.
Her lips curled into a smirk, and her chocolate eyes danced gleefully,
"Why, brother-dear! I didn't know you cared so much! And since you
do... this should be quite a simple task. I want in."
"'In'?" he quoted in confusion, "'In' on what?"
"In on your little game," her smirk widened, "I want to play with the
Sailor Senshi, myself. I want to feel the blood of those wanna-be
witches splashing over my hands. I want to show them what a _real_
Sorceress can do!"
"We've got Rache to do that," Ranma rolled his eyes, then winced. Was
there anything he could do without making his headache worse? Smacking
his head against the john really had not helped all that much; only
made it worse.
"Well, if you want to keep that hang-over of yours..." she started to
get up, although she did not release her brother's hair.
"No! Wait!" he barked, "If the rest of the group says you can join, you
can. Just give me that damned cure already!"
But Yuki was not listening. She had let go of his hair to do a victory
dance around the bathroom, leaving him to plant his face into the
floor. It's official, he decided. I've known her for less than twenty
four hours. I'd like to go back to being an only child.
---
Their target was the eldest, the most mysterious, the most
_frustratingly_ hard to track down Senshi. Sailor Pluto.
They were positive she would come out of hiding, now. Half her team was
missing, there was no way she could have missed that. None
what-so-ever.
They attacked in a flurry that week. Monsters fell left and right, but
no Sailor Pluto. The mystery Senshi refused to show.
Yuki was getting annoyed. She wanted to fight the Senshi!
However, the plan had been explained-- repeatedly-- and she had to
wait. She was not allowed to appear unless Pluto was around. She was to
be Pluto's "opposite".
The Senshi were struggling against the sea snake that Horus had sent,
and the tincha Bastet had gleefully set upon them.
Moon, Mars, Venus and Uranus were taking on the snake, leaving Charon
and Neptune to deal with the Tincha. Charon was desperate for ways to
prolong the fight without seeming like she was, as she bungled one
attack after another.
Where the _hell_ was that damned--
"Dead Scream."
There she was! Yuki crowed mentally at the whispered attack of the
guardian of time. She crept closer to the scene of the battle, as the
Senshi of time's attack hit the snake, at the same time Venus' and
Uranus' own attacks hit.
The snake exploded into dust from an overload of power.
Sailor Pluto had arrived.
---
End Chapter
Ah, cliff hangers, how I love to write thee.