-+- Standard Disclaimer -+-

The characters depicted in this story are not mine. Sue me and you get nada, cuz that's how much I own. Blah.

-+- End of Disclaimer -+-

Unlikely Companions

A fiction novella by Dave Zhang (dzhang@its.caltech.edu). Comments and criticisms welcomed. Copyright 2003.


[This text is in English.] "This text is spoken." 'This text is thought.'
Chapter 7: Dragon

When Ranma, Cherry, Miroku, and Lancelot returned to Cherry Hill Temple, they found their host fixed in front of the television, so they joined him in watching what appeared to be the news channel:

"Again, we are reporting live from the scene of action at the intersection of Easy Street and Luck Avenue, where a large multi-colored dragon has appeared out of seeming nowhere half an hour ago. Our heroes, the Sailor Scouts, have appeared fifteen minutes ago to battle this monstrosity, but..."

At this moment, the dragon breathed out ice shards, nullifying Sailor Mars's Flame arrow attack, and impaling Mars in several areas with the ice shards.

"...the tides of the battle seem to be against the Sailor Scouts. We have not seen a monster this tough since two months ago. We can only wonder when Tuxedo Kamen will arrive as reinforcement."

As if on cue, a metal rose flew from a nearby building directly towards the dragon's neck. Unfortunately, it bounced ineffectually off the dragon's thick metallic hide. It did serve as distraction though, as the dragon momentarily forgot about the Sailor Scouts to attack the new target.

Tuxedo Kamen jumped off the building just in time, narrowing dodging the dragon's darkness breath. The dragon, seeing an opportunity, immediately dashed forward with a speed that belies its hefty size, and clawed the masked hero.

"Ouch... looks like Tuxedo Kamen will need a new Tuxedo after this bout. Things are definitely looking glum, but from past experience we suspect that additional reinforcements may arrive in the forms of Sailor Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn, but they better arrive soon or else the Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus may be in trouble."

The image shifted to Mercury and Venus, each of whom had several large gashes that bled profusely.

"Ami-chan!" "Minako!"

Ranma turned to the Hino. "Hey, old man! How do you get to that place? Tell me fast!"

"You just go straight down Cherry Street, and it intersects Luck Avenue. Make a left, and you'll hit Easy Street pretty soon."

Ranma and Miroku dashed out the door. Lancelot, not really understanding anything, decided that he should follow, and ran after them.

Cherry smirked, and calmly asked his host for a map.

***

Cherry arrived on the scene first, with judicious use of a teleport spell, but decided he'd let the others handle the dragon if possible. After all, being a hero is conducive to having obsessive women after you, and that was something Cherry had learned over the years not to do.

Ranma arrived next, leaping over several roofs at a time. Surveying the scene, he quickly found the location of the fallen Sailor Mercury, and dashed to her side.

"Ami-chan! Ami-chan! Are you all right? Pull yourself together!"

"Ran..." Ami paused for a moment, before continuing in a whisper. "Ran-chan! You're not supposed to recognize me in this form. "

Ranma looked in horror as Ami coughed up some blood. Then he gently laid her down onto the ground again. There would be vengeance to pay for anyone who hurt his friend.

***

When Miroku arrived a couple minutes later, Ranma was already mixing it up with the multi-hued dragon. Most of the Scouts were already out of commision even before Ranma arrived, and only Jupiter was really strong enough to actually aid the battle, and even then not very much, as the dragon had very strong lightning resistance.

"Argh! I'm going to shove this rose up your ass when I'm done, Tux-boy!" screamed Ranma as a fourth steel rose hit him instead of the dragon. "Are you too dumb to realize you're not doing damage even if you hit the right target!?"

Ranma was doing damage to the dragon with his ki-blasts and chestnut-fist. The dragon was doing more damage to Ranma with its elemental breathes and claws. Ranma continued attacking, ignoring the wounds. Miroku leaped into action with his staff.

After fighting some minutes, Miroku realized that he and Ranma would probably be able to win, but with Ranma's suicidal attacks, Ranma may not live to enjoy the victory. Deciding that this outcome is not favorable, and that the present danger warranted use of Kazaana, Miroku leapt back and yelled for Ranma to do the same.

Ranma understood, and also backed off. But before Miroku could unleash his ultimate attack, Lancelot arrived on the scene, and charged straight toward the dragon, brandishing Joyeaux.

"No!! Come back Lancelot!" Miroku cursed to himself that neither he nor Ranma knew English, as he and Ranma rejoined the battle.

He and Ranma quickly noticed though, that the sword was very effective that deflecting the dragon's elemental attacks, and also seemed to be the only thing that actually was capable of piercing the dragon's metallic hide.

Ranma also realized that while he had been doing damage to the dragon, as seen from the stun following certain attacks, it was nowhere near as effective as Lancelot's strikes which were quickly tearing open large wounds in the dragon's skin, and causing its black blood to flow. And thus, though he was reluctant to play second fiddle, Ranma shouted to Miroku to divert the dragon's attention to allow Lancelot openings with which to deal critical hits.

The opportunity arose about a minute later, and Lancelot fiercely thrusted the length of Joyeaux's blade into the dragon's neck. After another few dying attempts at clawing his enemies, life left the thirty-foot long body of the dragon.

Immediately, the three heroes collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath and tending to their wounds. Ranma then suddenly remembered Ami, and sped to her side. "Ami-chan, are you hurt?"

Ami weakly nodded, "I'll be fine." The fact that she was massively bleeding from four large wounds served to undermine Ranma's belief in her words. 'Look at those wounds!! She can't possibly survive this...'

"Ami!" cried Ranma as he encircled his arms around her in a tight embrace. Normally, Ranma wouldn't be caught dead hugging a girl like this, but Ami was his friend, and now she was dying, or so Ranma thought. "I knew I should have followed you! Maybe if I was with you from the start, we could have beaten this monster together. Ami, don't die on me, please!"

Cherry, still watching this scene from a bit away, wondered if he should present himself at this point to heal the girl, but decided he could wait a little longer.

Ami blushed at Ranma's long-lasting hug, having never physically contact a member of the opposite sex in this way. Actually, none of the same either. Moments later, she shyly returned the embrace.

"Just let me hold you like this until you pass on..." whimpered Ranma as he shed tears freely.

Mars, who had recovered by now, walked up to Ranma and knocked him on the head, "As romantic as that sounds, you loonie, that's not gonna happen, because Mercury isn't going to die any time soon."

"Huh?" Ranma broke the hug to observe Ami's form. Indeed, the four large wounds were much smaller now, and with every passing moment Ami's strength seemed to be returning.

"Eep!" Ranma backpedalled at top speed until he had his back to a wall some fifteen feet away. "Ah, sorry about hugging you like that, Ami."

Sailor Jupiter groaned and lamented that the fact that she wasn't the one to get seriously hurt instead of Ami.

[Wow! That sword of yours is really something!] proclaimed Sailor Venus, as she leaned on the knight's shoulder.

[Indeed. Joyeaux is powerfully enchanted with many magics, and is especially strong against dragons, giants and the like.]

Venus was on Cloud Nine. 'Wow, he's not pushing me away right now, and he's so gorgeous, AND he's a much better ally than Mamoru. Truly a knight in shining armor. It's perfect!'

Miroku, in the meantime, was even more miffed that not only did Lancelot steal his glory by preventing his using Kazaana, this also led to Minako (whom only he recognized) idolizing Lancelot even more.

[Pray tell, fair maiden, what is thy name? Have we met before?]

[I'm Sailor Venus, pretty suited Defender of Love and Justice!] She then paused, and looked to Ami. "Ami, you already told them our civilian identities?"

Ami shook her head. "No, Ranma saw me transforming, that's why he knows. Should we...?"

"Maybe we should discuss this with Luna and Artemis?"

"Good call, Sailor Moon." Sailor Mars frowned. "Boy, I never thought I'd ever say that"

***

When it became apparent that Ranma, Lancelot, and Miroku were heading to the Cherry Hill Temple, the Sailor Senshi decided to meet at Minako's place.

"I'm in love!"

"Oh wow," said Artemis blandly. "I only hear that once a week."

"He's a knight in shining armor! And he helped us destroy that dragon monster."

That caught Luna's attention. "He helped you destroy a monster?"

"Well, actually Lancelot, Ranma, and Miroku did most of the destroying," Ami pointed out. "We were kinda useless this time."

The rest of the Senshi glared at her for downplaying their role, even if the assessment was fairly accurate.

"Oh? And what about Endymion?"

"That fool was less than useless, actually. He hit Ranma several times with the roses, and I think Ranma, at least, seriously dislikes him for that now."

"Wah! Rei, you're so mean! Mamo-chan is just trying to help."

"Emphasis on trying," noted Makoto, who still found herself unable to concede to Ami.

"What did they look like? Do any of you remember them from the Silver Milleneum?"

"Oh, I'm just sure that Lance-chan was my boyfriend back then!"

Since Ranma had told her last time his personal life story, including dimensional travel, Ami was pretty sure they weren't. However, she wisely decided not to mention it, remembering their feline advisors' normal reactions to 'outsiders' partaking in Sailor business.

"Careful," Luna remonstrated. "Even those who were closest to you back then may have been turned to evil by now." Ami was even more convinced her decision to keep quiet was correct.

"In any case, we should start having dreams about them soon, right? And then all will be clear, and Lance-chan and I can continue our love where we left off!"

"Anyway, onto the real problem. Ranma knows Ami's identity because he saw her change a while ago. I don't think he or any of the others know of the rest of our identities, but they may figure it out. What should we do?"

"Hm... well it would be best if he was part of the Silver Milleneum, and is on our side. If that's the case we don't have anything to worry about," said Luna, with a glint of darkness. "Otherwise... someone should go make sure he doesn't talk."

"Hey," said Rei. "Do any of you guys know Yuu? He seemed to be friends with Miroku and Lancelot and Ranma."

Makoto raised an eyebrow as she remembered the scene of Yuu frantically fleeing from the ice cream shop. "Yeah, he showed up as a new student today along with the others. Do you have a vendetta against him or something?"

"He's goes to Juuban High?" A plan started forming in Rei's mind.

***

Yuu, after noticing that the bane of his existence had stopped chasing him rather quickly, wandered the streets of Juuban to shop for a bit for himself and for his friends. After buying thirty sets of spare clothes and ten pairs of shoes, Yuu noticed a cell phone store, and bought five cell phones. Finally, remembering the reason he had fatefully encountered the drunk girl in the first place two months ago, he bought one last item--a set of earplugs so he can ignore Ranma's loud snoring. Over the course of the past two months in Camelot, Yuu had began to learn to tolerate that infernal noise, but he figured he should have the earplugs ready just in case.

Next, he went at bought personal hygiene products--toothbrushes, towels, etc. Lancelot really should shower.

With the shopping done, Yuu returned to the Cherry Hill Temple just as his companions were. Yuu duly noted that Ranma, Miroku, and Lancelot seem to be slightly wounded. Yuu quickly distributed the items, and explained how to use cell phones to everyone, before collecting reimbursement from each. He specifically noted to them that they shouldn't give out their cell phone number unless they wanted to be constantly pestered.

Yuu then asked for the story of why they were so battered, and Ranma told him. Miroku decided to add in the scene of Ranma hugging Ami that Ranma had consciously omitted. Then, by unanimous consent, the group trotted to the kitchen to fix up a meal. Ranma and Yuu were the best cooks, and thus did the main work in preparing the meal. On the other hand, Lancelot, who was used to eating raw pork from freshly slaughtered boars, was relegated the task of chopping vegetables.

Lancelot took his duty a little too seriously, as he turned carrots and potatoes and vegetables into fine powders with only a kitchen knife.

The meal still tasted good enough, and the companions ate with Grandpa Hino until they were stuffed, before the five went to their room. Ranma, Lancelot, and Miroku immediately collapsed and drifted into dreamland.

Cherry repeated the story of his experiences in Camelot in more detail to Yuu, and then asked if Yuu wished to learn.

"After all," Cherry chuckled, "I have to try all my spells at least once to see if the genie cheated me. I'll show you the spells ordered by school, and then you can tell me what you want to start with."

Yuu nodded, and the two headed out to the nearest abandoned lot, for Cherry demonstrate his hundreds of spells. Of course, Yuu didn't get to see the uber-powerful ones because Cherry didn't have enough mana to cast all of them once, but he got a good idea of the range of spells available.

"I'll go with the Life school, since between Miroku, Ranma, and Lancelot, they probably have the destruction parts all down. It'd be nice to have an extra healer when we need it though."

***

"Grandpa, I'm home!" shouted Rei as she walked into the temple. "Sorry I'm so late; you must be starved. I'll get cooking right away."

"Ah, Rei. I have five new lodgers," said Grandpa Hino. "They cooked already. We left some for you."

"Lodgers? Where are they?"

"They're sleeping in the guest room."

Rei quickly dashed there, to see snoozing forms of Ranma, Lancelot (still in his armor), and Miroku. "It's them!"

"Eh? You know them?"

"Er..." Rei thought quickly and came up with a plausible response. "I saw them on TV fighting the dragon monster."

"Indeed," Grandpa nodded. "I wonder where the other two went though."

"Anyway, Grandpa, I need to talk to you about something after I eat," said Rei as she walked back to the dining room.

After microwaving the leftovers, she took out a pair of chopsticks and hesitantly put some of the food in her mouth, expecting it to be at most barely edible. Her eyes widened as she tasted the first morsels. "Hey! This is pretty good!" Rei quickly finished the rest of her meal.

"Ok, Grandpa," said Rei as she wiped her mouth. "I want to transfer to Juuban High."

"Eh? Why? What's wrong with T&A girl's academy?"

"All of my friends go to Juuban High! I want to be around Ami and Usagi and Makoto and Minako."

"You've been good friends with them for several years now, but all this time you've still being going to T&A."

"Yes, and I hated it!"

The conversation carried on into the night.

***

Yuu groaned as he opened his eyes to see Ranma shaking him awake. "Hey, up and at 'em! We gotta train."

Yuu turned to look at the clock. Five in the morning. He had gotten all of four hours of sleep since he and Cherry returned. He knew better than try to convince Ranma he needed more sleep though--Ranma would return with a bucket of water as enforcer a minute later.

Ranma then turned to try to drag Cherry along as well, but Cherry insisted firmly, if somewhat groggily, that he wasn't a martial artist and thus morning training was unnecessary.

And so Yuu grudgingly got up and brushed his teeth, noting with some amusement that Miroku was trying to communicate to Lancelot how to shower using hand gestures. Yuu decided he'd spare Miroku the agony for today, and explained to Lancelot in English what Miroku was trying to explain.

After eating a hasty breakfast, the four of them then left for a local park to squeeze in two and a half hours of training. After the standard stretching and warmup exercises, the group paired up for sparring, with Ranma against Lancelot and Yuu against Miroku. Lancelot used a freshly chopped tree branch as his weapon instead of Joyeaux to fight Ranma, and soon found himself clearly outmatched by Ranma's superior speed and skill. The match between Miroku and Yuu was even more one-sided, as Ranma insisted that Yuu learn unarmed combat, and thus Miroku had a substantial advantantial advantage in reach, as well as the already present gap in skill.

***

"Go on ahead, guys. I'm going to go and pick up lunches for us," said Yuu.

The other nodded and jogged off. As soon as they left plain sight, Yuu collapsed to the floor. 'I'll just close my eyes and rest here for five minutes.'

When he woke up, Yuu realized he must have been asleep for half an hour at least, judging by the position of the sun in the sky.

'Well, I'm late already, so there's no need to rush.' Yuu calmly walked over to the closest fast-food place and ordered five take-out lunches. As he waited for the food to be prepared, he turned to the street and saw a wave of younger children dressed in school uniform walk by.

When his orders were finally completely, the wave of children had passed by, so that the street was mostly empty again. As he absentmindedly walked toward the high school, he considered the two different forms of training that his fellow travelers had imposed upon him. Magic and martial arts. Admittedly, he would be the most useless one of the five in a fight right now, but was there really any need for him to improve? After all, with Cherry's three hundred and seventy-seven wishes granted by the genie, Cherry should be able to handle any extenuating circumstances.

Fitness reasons? Possibly, but Yuu tended to suspect 'sparring' with Miroku tended to make him more tired rather than more energetic. But still, he gave Ranma his word that he'd train with him, and now he's being held to it.

What about magic though? Cherry just dragged him off last night and immediately began demonstrating spells and teaching him by rote the basic theories behind magic. It was interesting enough, but if Cherry was like Ranma at all, then Yuu could forgot about any chance of sleeping before 1am tonight as well. And the tomorrow. And for every day that Yuu is around Cherry.

'What have I gotten myself into?' Yuu sighed. 'Well, at least the healing stuff Cherry was teaching me isn't too bad.'

Yuu raised his free hand, palm up, near his face, and started concentrating on it, just as he was trained the night before. Slowly, a few tendrils of green energy hesitantly rose from his palm, only to dissipate a couple centimeters above it. The lowest level healing spell, but it definitely magic.

'I get the feeling he's going to want to teach me how to throw around fireballs soon though.' Yuu, for his part, for be perfectly happy to specialize in healing and Life magic, and let the other four dish out damage.

'Damn it, what the Hell possessed me to take up martial arts with Ranma anyway?' And then he remembered. 'Miki... I was trying to forget her...' Thinking back, Yuu realized quickly that it *had* worked... there was no time in Camelot when he wasn't eating, sleeping, or training, and consequently he didn't think of his half-sister at all.

Shouts and a muffled cry from a nearby alley brought Yuu out of his reverie. When he turned into the alley, Yuu saw several young boys dressed in elementary school uniforms brutally beating a similarly dressed girl. One of them even had a small baseball bat and was viciously slamming it to her chest.

Yuu quickly put down the food he was holding, and ran toward the group. He caught the bat as the boy swung it backward, held it still. "Shouldn't you boys be in school? A reform one perhaps?"

"Beat it! This girl is a FREAK! She deserves to be picked on!"

"You look a little freakish yourself. Maybe you should go before I decide you deserve to be picked on."

The boys, four in all, paused in their attacking the girl to gaze at the newcomer, and evaluated him. Yuu was much older than them, by five or six years at least, and much bigger too. He did, however, look a bit bishonen, and therefore weak. On the other hand, he did grasp the only weapon on the scene, and a big boy with a bat may be hazardous to their health. Finally, the boy holding the bat said, "Come on! Let's get out of here. We got her lunch money already, we can beat her up some other time!"

Yuu released his grip on the bat, and the four of them scurried away. Yuu then knelt down to check on the battered figure of the girl. She sported a bloody lip, a medium sized bruise across her cheek, several bruises on her thighs, and from the way Yuu watched the boys club her, probably also has subtantial damage in the torso area.

"Thank you," the girl whimpered as she tried to get up, before falling down again in pain.

"No, sit down, you're still hurt." said Yuu. 'I could take her to a hospital, but that might be pretty expensive. But Cherry did tell me not to use magic too openly... oh screw it! I'm healing her.'

After checking once to make sure that wasn't anyone staring at them, Yuu told the girl, "You're really hurt, so I'm going to try to help you. Don't be surprised, and don't move, all right?"

The girl nodded. Yuu closed his eyes as he brought both his hands, palms up, to the height of the girl's face level. Concentrating intensely, tendrils of green energy flowed upward to five centimeters above his hand before dissipating. Yuu heard the girl gasp, but continued.

Opening his eyes, he placed one hand over the girl's bruised cheek, and the other over the girl's mouth. After a bit, Yuu removed his hands, and was delighted to see that those wounds had faded away. The girl continued staring at him in awe.

"Ok, we're going to do the same thing for your legs now." Yuu casted the basic Heal basic again, and removed the bruises from her legs.

Yuu then put his hand to the girl's ribs, and she squealed in pain. Yuu frowned. "I think you may have a broken rib. I'm going to try like before, but it'll probably take longer, and it might hurt a little, OK?"

***

Out in the streets, Haruka Tenou was running by, after hearing from Michiru that Hotaru had been picked on several times recently. Upon not finding Hotaru on the street, Haruka was thinking that perhaps Michiru was exaggerating when she heard Hotaru's cry of pain from an alley not too far away. She rushed into the alley, to see an eighteen-year-old boy with both his hands on Hotaru's chest, and Hotaru looking pained.

Haruka immediately saw red, and backfisted the boy into the nearest wall. Before Yuu had a chance to recover, Haruka rushed up to him again, kicking his downed form, and stomping on his stomach. Seeing the boy go unconscious appeased Haruka somewhat, and she kicked him only about twenty more times after that, before returning to her adopted daughter.

"Haruka-papa, I..."

"Sh... Hotaru-chan, it's OK, don't say anything. Let's just go home. I'll call you in sick today."

"No, but that boy..." Hotaru wanted to cry. He was helping her, but Haruka-papa came in at just the wrong time.

Haruka, of course, misunderstood the tears forming in Hotaru's eyes. "Scum like him should die! If I ever see him again doing something like that, I'll pulling out the Space Sword!"

"But he was..."

"No more. Hotaru, I know you're upset, but I can't just kill him for that. Let's go home."

Hotaru was extremely frustrated. Haruka-papa wasn't being understanding. How could she let Haruka know that he was a nice boy trying to help her?

And then Hotaru froze in her thoughts. 'Maybe Haruka-papa knew. Maybe that's why she was beating up the boy so badly, because she saw him with the healing power? Everybody at my school picks on me and calls me a freak because of my powers, so maybe Haruka-papa was picking on the boy because of his powers? Haruka-papa is papa, so she doesn't pick on me, but she picks on other people with these powers?' Hotaru abruptly stopped trying to interrupt Haruka, and followed her home in silence.

--End Chapter 7--

// Yeesh, I don't like Tux-boy, if none of y'all's figured it out yet.

// Scorecard:
// Martial Arts Ranking:
// Ranma > Lancelot > Miroku > Senshi > Yuu


// Magic:
// Cherry > Senshi > Miroku > Lancelot > Ranma


// Specials:
// Miroku > Lancelot > Ranma