DISCLAIMER: Relatively standard stuff. Existing characters are properties of the people who made them up. Mitsuki, and several other characters are mine, and so's the story, hence ownership and copyright of them belongs to me. Contact me at misato_98@yahoo.com if you want permission to use anything I've written for whatnot purposes.
LOVE
By
Raymond Cooper
Chapter 12
** Small Beginnings Lead To Big Endings **
Luna saw a shadow flit down the hallway, and duck into Hotaru's room. The girl was quick, much quicker than she let on, and the door shut before even Luna's feline speed could get her to the door. Behind her, in the kitchen, she could hear things go quiet as Mitsuki and Ami discussed bids on this internet auction site. Perhaps things were calming down in there. And then Usagi exploded yet again over her date.
And here Luna thought she'd grown up. Some things were more important than occasional bouts of romance and sex.
And this whole thing about their identities being revealed... well... Luna was worried.
She could hear Ranma about, moving in his room, tidying up by the sounds of things. Or looking for something.
But that didn't help solve the fact that Hotaru's door was still shut. She pressed an ear to the door, and could hear a wooden wind chime Hotaru had on her window frame, tinkling in the breeze outside. So that meant the window was open. Luna zapped outside and headed around the side of the dorm before Hotaru could think about shutting that.
She leapt up onto the sill, and peered inside. "Hotaru?"
Luna could make out a figure, sitting in the darkened room, on the bed folded into herself. She stepped into the room, found a place to sit at Hotaru's feet on the bed, and merely sat and waited.
After a time, Hotaru's hand reached out, nuzzled Luna under her chin. "No matter what Ranma says... I was bad," she said.
"Ranma forgave you. And you know Usagi and the others do, too."
"I know. And I... I like that they all forgave me, Luna, but I did bad things. And I can't forget it. And I can't allow myself to forgive me."
"Why not?"
"Ranma doesn't understand... he... he doesn't feel guilt like I do."
"Guilt's normal in this situation. You did bad things, but you weren't responsible for them. Remember that." Luna turned her cheek so Hotaru could stroke her other side. "You've been possessed before. You know that you're not responsible for what other people do to you."
"But I didn't stop him! All I had to do was listen to Ranma -"
"Child, did he tell you that the man who took you over was an evil person?"
"Not... in so many words, no, but he warned me to stay away from him." Hotaru would have sobbed right about now, Luna thought, but instead the young woman sighed and pulled her hand back. "And I didn't listen to the hint."
"He does seem to think people should understand him," Luna remarked.
"I think... that's because mostly we do. And I don't think that's happened to him before. He's done a lot of growing up from the guy we first met."
"That's true," Luna replied. "But you still can't be expected to understand his cryptic comments."
"He's my sempai! And my sensei! I *should* be listening to those parts of him, damnit," Hotaru looked away as the chime made another sound. "He says its okay, and I think the other senshi'll forgive me and accept this has happened again... but I... I really hurt him, I think, even if he doesn't let on about it, and I think I need to be this way. For now. Until I've been... punished somehow."
Luna looked up sharply. "How do you mean, 'punished'?"
"I don't know," Hotaru sighed again. "Maybe, I don't know. Break up with him. Or making him lunches for work. Or... I don't really know what I can do to make it up. It's hard. I hurt him and I can't think of anything else but how that felt, sitting inside myself and watching him shrink back from me."
"He didn't do much shrinking," Luna remarked idly, somewhat impressed.
"I know him a bit better than you, Luna, he was pulling back."
A pause while Luna cleaned her tail, thinking of Hotaru's predicament. Then: "You're not thinking of getting hurt yourself, are you?"
"It might be punishment enough to get beaten up, but I can heal myself." She shrugs. "That'd mean I either had to not heal myself, or not get hurt. And physical pain only goes so far towards making up for what I've caused."
"A tough decision," Luna commented dryly. "Have you thought about just being yourself and trusting to Ranma to deal with the situation?"
"That works with us senshi. We know what we're getting into. Ranma doesn't know what he's gotten into, doesn't know the history of the Moon Kingdom or Dark Kingdom or anything, doesn't know about anything bar what we've told him. And if I've been reticent about telling him certain things about my life... I'm guessing none of the others have been exactly forward." Hotaru gave Luna a pointed glance. "And then there's his whole cat-phobia thing that stops you or Artemis talkiong to him, naturally..."
"Naturally," Luna repeated. "I think he's getting suspicious of the whole talking boxes thing, too," she added wryly.
Hotaru shot Luna a suffering look from the corner of her eyes. "I'm serious."
"Strangely enough, so am I." Luna laid a paw on Hotaru's hand. "Trust in him. Don't alienate him. Let him work through whatever problems he may have, but let him work out what to do. Don't jump in half-cocked, ready to make what could be a disasterous decision."
"I won't," Hotaru promised. And she didn't even have her fingers crossed behind her back.
Luna flicked her tail, stood, then leapt out the window again.
******
Later that night, Ranma opened the door, and trudged inside, Ami and Makoto following. The other girls, minus Hotaru, sat arranged around the room. Usagi was in a mood, pouting still over her aborted date. She had a mobile phone resting on her stomach as she watched television with one eye, the door with the other.
Far as she knew, Ranma didn't know about her and Ami being senshi, and she wanted to keep it that way.
Ranma walked past, then dropped a hand on her shoulder. Bright and early tomorrow, princess," he said. "I want to see you outside in something you can train in at dawn."
"What?" Usagi spluttered. She glanced at Ami, who shrugged. "Princess?"
"Uh?" Ranma asked, turning back. Usagi saw he'd merely used the term because of her occasional attitude towards him, and not because he knew anything particular. So she relaxed. "Yeah. Training, tomorrow. You, Ami, everyone else. Dawn. Transformed, too," he added, almost as an afterthought. He turned again and wandered into his room, the door shutting behind him.
Mitsuki cocked an eyebrow at Ami. "Must have been an interesting night. It's a shame I missed it. I think."
Ami shook her head. "You didn't miss much."
"It was that Nabiki woman, from Nerima," Makoto added. "She was selling our identities for money to repair the walls and rooms Hotaru and Ranma totalled."
"She was what?" Usagi asked, horrified. "She promised she wouldn't -"
Ami shook her head. "What's done is done. She thought Ranma would find out about it and pay the money himself... I think. I can't say for sure what was happening. But Ranma had obviously expected something like that, because he'd had the money ready, everything."
Usagi's eyes shifed to Ranma's closed door. "Does he know everything?"
Ami shook her head. "A bright young man, smart as well, and he sees a lot that even I miss - but he can be slow on the uptake. I think he's never really had to use his head much before, apart from surviving in a fight."
"And we've seen how good his survival instincts are," Mitsuki witted from her corner. "Remember how he dodged Usagi's last batch of cookies? That's more than a learned skill, that's pure instinct."
"What?" Usagi shrieked, turning around on Mitsuki. "That's the last time I give you any of my cooking!"
"I chipped teeth! What did you put into those cookies?"
"Girls!" Rei said, in a calm, quiet tone that brooked no argument. "Let's have a nice quiet discussion, shall we? Ami, does he know... about you and -"
"Usagi? Yes. I don't know how, we haven't given him any evidence or anything that would penetrate our... our masks."
"So then how -"
"I don't know." Ami sighed. It had been weighing on her mind all night, too. While she didn't exactly mind, it did brook some questions, like were their masks breaking down? Would others soon recognise the women in their transformed forms? Were their powers weakening? Or had something happened to Ranma?
"What do you suggest?" Usagi asked.
Ami gave her a tired look. "I suggest we go to bed, get some sleep. We need to be up before dawn."
Usagi's howl of anguish and despair echoed through the dorm's corridors.
******
But, just before the sun rose above the distant ocean, glittering off the jewel of the horizon that was Tokyo's central business district, the door to the Ai Sou opened and Usagi trudged out. Her eyes were open far enough to stop her from doing any damage from walking into objects or off cliff faces, but not much further. Ranma had his back turned to the assembled girls, but could feel Usagi join them. It wasn't that she was particularly noisy, Ranma was just, for the first time in a long time, trying to become the martial artist he'd always thought he was.
Lack of intelligence, arrogance, ignorance, for now these would have to go by the wayside. He had students to teach, and if he taught them wrong... they could die.
The fact they could die anyway didn't really occur to him at this point: a speeding car is just as fatal as a bakusai tenketsu'd katchu tenshin amaguriken in a volcano.
He'd done some growing up since he'd been here, that was true. Being away from the constant bickering, fighting and backstabbing rampant in Nerima had been good. And his recent trip back had confirmed to him he had done the right thing. He'd have had to have left at one point or another; and regardless of how much he loved Akane, Ranma really did NOT want to become like his father.
He loved his mother dearly, but Genma's personality around his mother was embarrassing. Understandable, but embarrassing. Ranma didn't want to marry someone only to live in fear for his life, he wanted someone he could grow old with, someone he could raise children with, teach them martial arts, and... and maybe have a garden. Somewhere he could relax outside of practising in the dojo he'd build.
It was these thoughts of the future that occupied Ranma's mind for the moment. He waited until Usagi had taken her place next to Makoto, hesitantly. When he turned around, his students were standing loosely at attention. He gave a bow, held it for a second, then straightened. The others reciprocated, then also moved into the more casual attentive stance.
"We have two new students this morning," Ranma started. "I promised a while ago that I would train you all, and train you well. We have many dangerous monsters to face, and physically, I'm not as strong as you women. But I am more skilled, and I think that's what's letting me stay at your side. If you could learn even some of my techniques, with your power, we should have no problem stopping these monsters."
He clasped his hands behind his back, and started pacing a little. "For the next few days, I'll be concentrating on Usagi and Ami, bringing them up to speed. But I'll also be pairing each up with one of my more senior students: Rei, you'll take Usagi, Makoto, you'll take Ami. Your old sparring partners can spar with each other for now. In addition to learning techniques and moves, which we'll do for a good hour first with our warm-up, we'll also be continuing with our sparring. And by the end of the week, I'll split the sparring teams up again. My aim is to shift you around to each other every few days, so you'll get experience with a wide range of fighting styles, as you all find what form of attack and defence suits you personally."
Rei's hand went up. "Sensei? Will we be training with weapons?"
Ranma nodded. "Once I'm satisfied with your hand-to-hand skills, I'll begin training each of you with weapons. At first, a wide selection." He stopped pacing for a moment, turned to face Rei fully. "I want to see what each of ya has in ya first before we make a final choice on what yas use."
Hotaru, at the back, making herself small and unnoticed next to Mitsuki, smiled slightly at Ranma's accent. He'd been at great pains lately to stop using slang so much, but was slipping whenever he was stressed. Obviously, the thought of some of the senshi armed with weapons worried Ranma. She also guessed a padded suit wouldn't help him much from some of the strikes he might catch in that training.
But he was talking again, and she returned her attention to his words. "This morning, I want all but Usagi and Ami to take a run to warm up. Meet back here in ten, go through your second set of stretches, and begin your katas. I'll show you guys a few moves, and you can practise those while I work with Usagi and Ami some more. Go!"
Ranma clapped his hands together, and the training session started.
Amiw asn't hard to teach: while Ranma saw she wouldn't be a strong attacker, she had more of a stregnth in defence and direction. While Usagi might be the leader of the senshi, he reflected, Ami was definitely the brains. Usagi, on the other hand, was fairly average. She wasn't the klutz it was so obvious she'd once been, but even so, her moves lacked confidence and strength, both very important elements in martial arts of any kind. Ranma walked around her as he showed her stances, moving arms and legs and shifting her body and head around to get her into the right posture. Once she had it, she could return to it easily enough, but there would be a pause while she tried to recall what was to be her next move. It was almost painful watching her decide whether she should punch, kick or block; the only thing worse was that she flinched whenever a punch came at her.
Ami watched Usagi's mistakes: Ranma taught Ami by teaching Usagi. Ami watched, waited, and imitated as she could beside the two as they sparred in slow motion. At least, Ranma thought to himself, Usagi wasn't going to be as much of a problem as he'd thought she would be.
They sparred in slow motion for a while longer, and once the other senshi came back and began sparring, Usagi slowly got better.
******
The next few days saw quiet in Japan. No monsters, no big crimes, nothing happening down in Nerima. Ranma took advantage of the quietness, and trained the senshi as hard as he could without breaking them. By Sunday, Ranma had Usagi not flinching at punches, and moving somewhat faster. Ami routinely worked with Hotaru or Makoto, bringing up her speed and confidence as fast as she could. Usagi's speed had improved, but Ranma found her confidence was still lacking. Not one for physical combat, Ranma knew, Usagi was out of her element here. She was the heart and soul of the team, the mother figure that the others looked up to. The senshi-proper, as Ranma thought of them, were the soldiers, Usagi was the queen.
And queen's didn't sully their hands with the dirty work.
It was difficult, but Ranma had a sense of urgency about this. Something was... coming. Almost like... a sense of power growing behind his eyes. And something pulling him somewhere. He couldn't explain it any better than that.
A sense of impending doom did wonders with his training sessions.
******
And on Monday, the sense of impending doom changed from footsteps in a distant corridor to a raging bull.
******
The day started off fine enough. Ranma had taken to helping Makoto fixing lunches for everyone's day - since they were now training longer, Makoto had less time to get lunches and breakfasts ready, so Ranma helped out where he could.
He wasn't anything good in the kitchen, Makoto had reflected early on in this arrangement, but then his food was edible, unlike some others she could name.
But Monday morning, Mitsuki was also in the room, perched on the benches opposite the sink and main bench, where Makoto and Ranma cut lunches, boiled rice and folded sashimi slices into packs. She kicked her legs back and forth occasionally, head cocked, watching. Ranma looked out the window in front of him at the dark clouds in the distance. "I think it's going to snow today," he remarked, conversationally.
Mitsuki continued to stare and kick her feet about. Finally, Makoto could take it no more, turned and let the older senshi have it.
Mitsuki continued to flick her legs at the knees, waited until Makoto had finished as Ranma kept working on the lunch packs, and then said, "I'm waiting to get into the cupboard. I need my pills."
"Don't you have them in your room?"
"I'm alllll out. And, shush, shush! And I've got more in the cupboard over there, with the headache pills and sinus tablets and stuff."
Ranma was standing in front of the cupboard, and didn't notice Mitsuki's finger pointing at him. She flicked up off the bench and headed over towards him. A hand went either side of his hips, and Ranma's eyes opened wide with sudden shock.
"What?" he yelped, nearly jumping straight up.
Mitsuki leaned in close to his ear. ""Relax, Ranma, I'm just getting something down..." She shifted him to the side, and opened the cupboard. She crouched down and looked up at him with a playful smile on her lips. "Here," she finished. She grabbed her pill bottle, and headed out of the kitchen, tossing a "Bye bye!" over her shoulder as she left for the lounge. Makoto glared after her retreating form, arms folded.
"That girl just pisses me off!"
Ranma shrugged. "She's had a hard life."
"That excuses everything?"
"No. But it's udnerstandable why she's the way she is if you look at it that way."
"She's a fllll..." Makoto started to say, then trailed off, realising suddenly that Ranma really hadn't noticed. Mitsuki was flirting with him. This wasn't the only time, either - she'd been competing with Hotaru earlier on for Ranma's affection, and it looked like she hadn't yet admitted the game was over.
"A what, Makoto?" Ranma asked, distractedly.
"Nothing," she finished, looking away, feeling saddened somewhat. It seemed a lot of the senshi had a thing for Ranma, in some respect. With Makoto, she was impressed with his strength and fighting skill. Rei... wel, Makoto really didn't know what was going through Rei's mind, but she guessed it was something to do with the sheltered life of a shrine maiden. Ami's eyes were elsewhere - although elsewhere wasn't single anymore. Usagi still had Mamoru, who she'd rarely seen this last year. Hotaru felt something within Ranma that appealed to her greatly, and had stuck to him like glue when they'd arrived. Makoto just thought that perhaps that was the reason Ranma had fallen for her: she'd gone after him, not stopping for breath, not taking no for an answer until she got a yes. Makoto smiled, somewhat sadly.
Minako was interested in Ranma because... well, because he still breathed.
And Mitsuki just wanted Ranma for reasons of her own, but she did seem to know him previously. Ranma didn't make much of it, so Makoto didn't know if he remembered or not.
He went back to working with lunches, and Makoto joined him. They were silent for a while, barring the occasional "Excuse me," or "Can you pass me...?". Until Makoto thought that she'd have to tell Ranma how she felt. She didn't want to break Hotaru and Ranma up, hell, she knew she wouldn't be able to come between them, but this was on her mind too much. She needed to tell him, to clear her head, get over him and move on. She opened her mouth, but the words that came out sounded nothing like "Ranma, I want to have your babies."
No, it sounded more like "Ranma, Makoto, there's something on television! Hurry!"
And weirdly enough, Makoto had just sounded exactly like Minako. Wow, cool, she could do impressions.
Her body, like Ranma's, acted entirely on instinct and headed for the lounge to see what the problem was before her head caught up to the fact she hadn't told Ranma, and there likely wouldn't be another chance. Damn. Upon reaching the lounge, it was quite obvious as to why they'd been called. On the television, early morning game shows had been interupted by a news broadcast. Out in the bay right now, according to the studio anchor, whatever it was was heading for Tokyo. They cut to an on-the-spot reporter, Akira Tonomoto.
"The swell of the ocean is getting larger, and soon we'll have to evacuate to higher ground. Tokyo Police are directing an evacuation of the central business district already, and have been wanting to move us on for some time now. Already, out to sea, you can see the bow wave created by this thing as it comes into shallower waters! And..." The camera, already shakey, got shakier as it lifted from the view of the reporter out to the sea. The water indeed was lifting.
"What's going on?" Makoto asked.
"Seismic and sonar readings have detected something large heading into Tokyo from the ocean," Ami replied, a towel around her neck as she'd been called from the bath a few minutes earlier.
"I thought it was a cartoon," Mitsuki remarked from her couch.
Akira continued as the camera showed the sea lifting up in the harbour. "The JSDF have been called in, and are vectoring home defence jets into the region, ready to launch an attack on whatever this thing is." he held a hand up to his earpiece. "And I've just been told the US aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk is being redirected to approach in a gesture of support. The 13th Armoured... wait... what's happening?" Around Akira, the howl of warning sirens increased in intensity, and twin horns poked up from the water. Bow waves formed around them as they moved inwards towards the shore, around where Akira was standing, and judging by the reporter's voice, he realised they were headed directly for the jetty he was standing on.
"Come on!" he screetched. He'd seen this movie before, and ran like nothing else on Earth. His cameraman followed behind, racing for the network's truck, parked at the edge of the jetty. About halfway down, the jetty started exploding into matchsticks, and the cameraman turned again, running backwards to film the oncoming wall of water and bone. Near the edge of the water, though, the jetty didn't just explode as it had been. It exploded up and out as something huge stood up underneath it.
"Gojira!" someone yelled from the television, and Ranma had to admit the thing looked somewhat like the American version of the classic monster. But he saw on the television, and felt with his bones, something different.
A Dark Kingdom monster. And it was huge.
"My god," Ami said, a hand raising to her mouth, "It's headed for the city!"
To be continued...
SAILOR MOON SAYS:
Hmm. This one took a while. Forgot that I hadn't posted one of these in a while, and so finished it off today. A little short, but it launches into the second half of this arc, metaphorically speaking. We've finished the introspective parts (although they'll continue somewhat in the background) and back into the action, ramping up the power of the bad guys. Course, this guy's probably my big guns and I won't be able to deliver after this, but hey, that's the fun in writing :)
Next chapter: c'mon, like you CAN'T guess? Lots of action. And lots of cameos and stuff. Come on, Tokyo's being destroyed!quite obvious
LOVE
By
Raymond Cooper
Chapter 12
** Small Beginnings Lead To Big Endings **
Luna saw a shadow flit down the hallway, and duck into Hotaru's room. The girl was quick, much quicker than she let on, and the door shut before even Luna's feline speed could get her to the door. Behind her, in the kitchen, she could hear things go quiet as Mitsuki and Ami discussed bids on this internet auction site. Perhaps things were calming down in there. And then Usagi exploded yet again over her date.
And here Luna thought she'd grown up. Some things were more important than occasional bouts of romance and sex.
And this whole thing about their identities being revealed... well... Luna was worried.
She could hear Ranma about, moving in his room, tidying up by the sounds of things. Or looking for something.
But that didn't help solve the fact that Hotaru's door was still shut. She pressed an ear to the door, and could hear a wooden wind chime Hotaru had on her window frame, tinkling in the breeze outside. So that meant the window was open. Luna zapped outside and headed around the side of the dorm before Hotaru could think about shutting that.
She leapt up onto the sill, and peered inside. "Hotaru?"
Luna could make out a figure, sitting in the darkened room, on the bed folded into herself. She stepped into the room, found a place to sit at Hotaru's feet on the bed, and merely sat and waited.
After a time, Hotaru's hand reached out, nuzzled Luna under her chin. "No matter what Ranma says... I was bad," she said.
"Ranma forgave you. And you know Usagi and the others do, too."
"I know. And I... I like that they all forgave me, Luna, but I did bad things. And I can't forget it. And I can't allow myself to forgive me."
"Why not?"
"Ranma doesn't understand... he... he doesn't feel guilt like I do."
"Guilt's normal in this situation. You did bad things, but you weren't responsible for them. Remember that." Luna turned her cheek so Hotaru could stroke her other side. "You've been possessed before. You know that you're not responsible for what other people do to you."
"But I didn't stop him! All I had to do was listen to Ranma -"
"Child, did he tell you that the man who took you over was an evil person?"
"Not... in so many words, no, but he warned me to stay away from him." Hotaru would have sobbed right about now, Luna thought, but instead the young woman sighed and pulled her hand back. "And I didn't listen to the hint."
"He does seem to think people should understand him," Luna remarked.
"I think... that's because mostly we do. And I don't think that's happened to him before. He's done a lot of growing up from the guy we first met."
"That's true," Luna replied. "But you still can't be expected to understand his cryptic comments."
"He's my sempai! And my sensei! I *should* be listening to those parts of him, damnit," Hotaru looked away as the chime made another sound. "He says its okay, and I think the other senshi'll forgive me and accept this has happened again... but I... I really hurt him, I think, even if he doesn't let on about it, and I think I need to be this way. For now. Until I've been... punished somehow."
Luna looked up sharply. "How do you mean, 'punished'?"
"I don't know," Hotaru sighed again. "Maybe, I don't know. Break up with him. Or making him lunches for work. Or... I don't really know what I can do to make it up. It's hard. I hurt him and I can't think of anything else but how that felt, sitting inside myself and watching him shrink back from me."
"He didn't do much shrinking," Luna remarked idly, somewhat impressed.
"I know him a bit better than you, Luna, he was pulling back."
A pause while Luna cleaned her tail, thinking of Hotaru's predicament. Then: "You're not thinking of getting hurt yourself, are you?"
"It might be punishment enough to get beaten up, but I can heal myself." She shrugs. "That'd mean I either had to not heal myself, or not get hurt. And physical pain only goes so far towards making up for what I've caused."
"A tough decision," Luna commented dryly. "Have you thought about just being yourself and trusting to Ranma to deal with the situation?"
"That works with us senshi. We know what we're getting into. Ranma doesn't know what he's gotten into, doesn't know the history of the Moon Kingdom or Dark Kingdom or anything, doesn't know about anything bar what we've told him. And if I've been reticent about telling him certain things about my life... I'm guessing none of the others have been exactly forward." Hotaru gave Luna a pointed glance. "And then there's his whole cat-phobia thing that stops you or Artemis talkiong to him, naturally..."
"Naturally," Luna repeated. "I think he's getting suspicious of the whole talking boxes thing, too," she added wryly.
Hotaru shot Luna a suffering look from the corner of her eyes. "I'm serious."
"Strangely enough, so am I." Luna laid a paw on Hotaru's hand. "Trust in him. Don't alienate him. Let him work through whatever problems he may have, but let him work out what to do. Don't jump in half-cocked, ready to make what could be a disasterous decision."
"I won't," Hotaru promised. And she didn't even have her fingers crossed behind her back.
Luna flicked her tail, stood, then leapt out the window again.
******
Later that night, Ranma opened the door, and trudged inside, Ami and Makoto following. The other girls, minus Hotaru, sat arranged around the room. Usagi was in a mood, pouting still over her aborted date. She had a mobile phone resting on her stomach as she watched television with one eye, the door with the other.
Far as she knew, Ranma didn't know about her and Ami being senshi, and she wanted to keep it that way.
Ranma walked past, then dropped a hand on her shoulder. Bright and early tomorrow, princess," he said. "I want to see you outside in something you can train in at dawn."
"What?" Usagi spluttered. She glanced at Ami, who shrugged. "Princess?"
"Uh?" Ranma asked, turning back. Usagi saw he'd merely used the term because of her occasional attitude towards him, and not because he knew anything particular. So she relaxed. "Yeah. Training, tomorrow. You, Ami, everyone else. Dawn. Transformed, too," he added, almost as an afterthought. He turned again and wandered into his room, the door shutting behind him.
Mitsuki cocked an eyebrow at Ami. "Must have been an interesting night. It's a shame I missed it. I think."
Ami shook her head. "You didn't miss much."
"It was that Nabiki woman, from Nerima," Makoto added. "She was selling our identities for money to repair the walls and rooms Hotaru and Ranma totalled."
"She was what?" Usagi asked, horrified. "She promised she wouldn't -"
Ami shook her head. "What's done is done. She thought Ranma would find out about it and pay the money himself... I think. I can't say for sure what was happening. But Ranma had obviously expected something like that, because he'd had the money ready, everything."
Usagi's eyes shifed to Ranma's closed door. "Does he know everything?"
Ami shook her head. "A bright young man, smart as well, and he sees a lot that even I miss - but he can be slow on the uptake. I think he's never really had to use his head much before, apart from surviving in a fight."
"And we've seen how good his survival instincts are," Mitsuki witted from her corner. "Remember how he dodged Usagi's last batch of cookies? That's more than a learned skill, that's pure instinct."
"What?" Usagi shrieked, turning around on Mitsuki. "That's the last time I give you any of my cooking!"
"I chipped teeth! What did you put into those cookies?"
"Girls!" Rei said, in a calm, quiet tone that brooked no argument. "Let's have a nice quiet discussion, shall we? Ami, does he know... about you and -"
"Usagi? Yes. I don't know how, we haven't given him any evidence or anything that would penetrate our... our masks."
"So then how -"
"I don't know." Ami sighed. It had been weighing on her mind all night, too. While she didn't exactly mind, it did brook some questions, like were their masks breaking down? Would others soon recognise the women in their transformed forms? Were their powers weakening? Or had something happened to Ranma?
"What do you suggest?" Usagi asked.
Ami gave her a tired look. "I suggest we go to bed, get some sleep. We need to be up before dawn."
Usagi's howl of anguish and despair echoed through the dorm's corridors.
******
But, just before the sun rose above the distant ocean, glittering off the jewel of the horizon that was Tokyo's central business district, the door to the Ai Sou opened and Usagi trudged out. Her eyes were open far enough to stop her from doing any damage from walking into objects or off cliff faces, but not much further. Ranma had his back turned to the assembled girls, but could feel Usagi join them. It wasn't that she was particularly noisy, Ranma was just, for the first time in a long time, trying to become the martial artist he'd always thought he was.
Lack of intelligence, arrogance, ignorance, for now these would have to go by the wayside. He had students to teach, and if he taught them wrong... they could die.
The fact they could die anyway didn't really occur to him at this point: a speeding car is just as fatal as a bakusai tenketsu'd katchu tenshin amaguriken in a volcano.
He'd done some growing up since he'd been here, that was true. Being away from the constant bickering, fighting and backstabbing rampant in Nerima had been good. And his recent trip back had confirmed to him he had done the right thing. He'd have had to have left at one point or another; and regardless of how much he loved Akane, Ranma really did NOT want to become like his father.
He loved his mother dearly, but Genma's personality around his mother was embarrassing. Understandable, but embarrassing. Ranma didn't want to marry someone only to live in fear for his life, he wanted someone he could grow old with, someone he could raise children with, teach them martial arts, and... and maybe have a garden. Somewhere he could relax outside of practising in the dojo he'd build.
It was these thoughts of the future that occupied Ranma's mind for the moment. He waited until Usagi had taken her place next to Makoto, hesitantly. When he turned around, his students were standing loosely at attention. He gave a bow, held it for a second, then straightened. The others reciprocated, then also moved into the more casual attentive stance.
"We have two new students this morning," Ranma started. "I promised a while ago that I would train you all, and train you well. We have many dangerous monsters to face, and physically, I'm not as strong as you women. But I am more skilled, and I think that's what's letting me stay at your side. If you could learn even some of my techniques, with your power, we should have no problem stopping these monsters."
He clasped his hands behind his back, and started pacing a little. "For the next few days, I'll be concentrating on Usagi and Ami, bringing them up to speed. But I'll also be pairing each up with one of my more senior students: Rei, you'll take Usagi, Makoto, you'll take Ami. Your old sparring partners can spar with each other for now. In addition to learning techniques and moves, which we'll do for a good hour first with our warm-up, we'll also be continuing with our sparring. And by the end of the week, I'll split the sparring teams up again. My aim is to shift you around to each other every few days, so you'll get experience with a wide range of fighting styles, as you all find what form of attack and defence suits you personally."
Rei's hand went up. "Sensei? Will we be training with weapons?"
Ranma nodded. "Once I'm satisfied with your hand-to-hand skills, I'll begin training each of you with weapons. At first, a wide selection." He stopped pacing for a moment, turned to face Rei fully. "I want to see what each of ya has in ya first before we make a final choice on what yas use."
Hotaru, at the back, making herself small and unnoticed next to Mitsuki, smiled slightly at Ranma's accent. He'd been at great pains lately to stop using slang so much, but was slipping whenever he was stressed. Obviously, the thought of some of the senshi armed with weapons worried Ranma. She also guessed a padded suit wouldn't help him much from some of the strikes he might catch in that training.
But he was talking again, and she returned her attention to his words. "This morning, I want all but Usagi and Ami to take a run to warm up. Meet back here in ten, go through your second set of stretches, and begin your katas. I'll show you guys a few moves, and you can practise those while I work with Usagi and Ami some more. Go!"
Ranma clapped his hands together, and the training session started.
Amiw asn't hard to teach: while Ranma saw she wouldn't be a strong attacker, she had more of a stregnth in defence and direction. While Usagi might be the leader of the senshi, he reflected, Ami was definitely the brains. Usagi, on the other hand, was fairly average. She wasn't the klutz it was so obvious she'd once been, but even so, her moves lacked confidence and strength, both very important elements in martial arts of any kind. Ranma walked around her as he showed her stances, moving arms and legs and shifting her body and head around to get her into the right posture. Once she had it, she could return to it easily enough, but there would be a pause while she tried to recall what was to be her next move. It was almost painful watching her decide whether she should punch, kick or block; the only thing worse was that she flinched whenever a punch came at her.
Ami watched Usagi's mistakes: Ranma taught Ami by teaching Usagi. Ami watched, waited, and imitated as she could beside the two as they sparred in slow motion. At least, Ranma thought to himself, Usagi wasn't going to be as much of a problem as he'd thought she would be.
They sparred in slow motion for a while longer, and once the other senshi came back and began sparring, Usagi slowly got better.
******
The next few days saw quiet in Japan. No monsters, no big crimes, nothing happening down in Nerima. Ranma took advantage of the quietness, and trained the senshi as hard as he could without breaking them. By Sunday, Ranma had Usagi not flinching at punches, and moving somewhat faster. Ami routinely worked with Hotaru or Makoto, bringing up her speed and confidence as fast as she could. Usagi's speed had improved, but Ranma found her confidence was still lacking. Not one for physical combat, Ranma knew, Usagi was out of her element here. She was the heart and soul of the team, the mother figure that the others looked up to. The senshi-proper, as Ranma thought of them, were the soldiers, Usagi was the queen.
And queen's didn't sully their hands with the dirty work.
It was difficult, but Ranma had a sense of urgency about this. Something was... coming. Almost like... a sense of power growing behind his eyes. And something pulling him somewhere. He couldn't explain it any better than that.
A sense of impending doom did wonders with his training sessions.
******
And on Monday, the sense of impending doom changed from footsteps in a distant corridor to a raging bull.
******
The day started off fine enough. Ranma had taken to helping Makoto fixing lunches for everyone's day - since they were now training longer, Makoto had less time to get lunches and breakfasts ready, so Ranma helped out where he could.
He wasn't anything good in the kitchen, Makoto had reflected early on in this arrangement, but then his food was edible, unlike some others she could name.
But Monday morning, Mitsuki was also in the room, perched on the benches opposite the sink and main bench, where Makoto and Ranma cut lunches, boiled rice and folded sashimi slices into packs. She kicked her legs back and forth occasionally, head cocked, watching. Ranma looked out the window in front of him at the dark clouds in the distance. "I think it's going to snow today," he remarked, conversationally.
Mitsuki continued to stare and kick her feet about. Finally, Makoto could take it no more, turned and let the older senshi have it.
Mitsuki continued to flick her legs at the knees, waited until Makoto had finished as Ranma kept working on the lunch packs, and then said, "I'm waiting to get into the cupboard. I need my pills."
"Don't you have them in your room?"
"I'm alllll out. And, shush, shush! And I've got more in the cupboard over there, with the headache pills and sinus tablets and stuff."
Ranma was standing in front of the cupboard, and didn't notice Mitsuki's finger pointing at him. She flicked up off the bench and headed over towards him. A hand went either side of his hips, and Ranma's eyes opened wide with sudden shock.
"What?" he yelped, nearly jumping straight up.
Mitsuki leaned in close to his ear. ""Relax, Ranma, I'm just getting something down..." She shifted him to the side, and opened the cupboard. She crouched down and looked up at him with a playful smile on her lips. "Here," she finished. She grabbed her pill bottle, and headed out of the kitchen, tossing a "Bye bye!" over her shoulder as she left for the lounge. Makoto glared after her retreating form, arms folded.
"That girl just pisses me off!"
Ranma shrugged. "She's had a hard life."
"That excuses everything?"
"No. But it's udnerstandable why she's the way she is if you look at it that way."
"She's a fllll..." Makoto started to say, then trailed off, realising suddenly that Ranma really hadn't noticed. Mitsuki was flirting with him. This wasn't the only time, either - she'd been competing with Hotaru earlier on for Ranma's affection, and it looked like she hadn't yet admitted the game was over.
"A what, Makoto?" Ranma asked, distractedly.
"Nothing," she finished, looking away, feeling saddened somewhat. It seemed a lot of the senshi had a thing for Ranma, in some respect. With Makoto, she was impressed with his strength and fighting skill. Rei... wel, Makoto really didn't know what was going through Rei's mind, but she guessed it was something to do with the sheltered life of a shrine maiden. Ami's eyes were elsewhere - although elsewhere wasn't single anymore. Usagi still had Mamoru, who she'd rarely seen this last year. Hotaru felt something within Ranma that appealed to her greatly, and had stuck to him like glue when they'd arrived. Makoto just thought that perhaps that was the reason Ranma had fallen for her: she'd gone after him, not stopping for breath, not taking no for an answer until she got a yes. Makoto smiled, somewhat sadly.
Minako was interested in Ranma because... well, because he still breathed.
And Mitsuki just wanted Ranma for reasons of her own, but she did seem to know him previously. Ranma didn't make much of it, so Makoto didn't know if he remembered or not.
He went back to working with lunches, and Makoto joined him. They were silent for a while, barring the occasional "Excuse me," or "Can you pass me...?". Until Makoto thought that she'd have to tell Ranma how she felt. She didn't want to break Hotaru and Ranma up, hell, she knew she wouldn't be able to come between them, but this was on her mind too much. She needed to tell him, to clear her head, get over him and move on. She opened her mouth, but the words that came out sounded nothing like "Ranma, I want to have your babies."
No, it sounded more like "Ranma, Makoto, there's something on television! Hurry!"
And weirdly enough, Makoto had just sounded exactly like Minako. Wow, cool, she could do impressions.
Her body, like Ranma's, acted entirely on instinct and headed for the lounge to see what the problem was before her head caught up to the fact she hadn't told Ranma, and there likely wouldn't be another chance. Damn. Upon reaching the lounge, it was quite obvious as to why they'd been called. On the television, early morning game shows had been interupted by a news broadcast. Out in the bay right now, according to the studio anchor, whatever it was was heading for Tokyo. They cut to an on-the-spot reporter, Akira Tonomoto.
"The swell of the ocean is getting larger, and soon we'll have to evacuate to higher ground. Tokyo Police are directing an evacuation of the central business district already, and have been wanting to move us on for some time now. Already, out to sea, you can see the bow wave created by this thing as it comes into shallower waters! And..." The camera, already shakey, got shakier as it lifted from the view of the reporter out to the sea. The water indeed was lifting.
"What's going on?" Makoto asked.
"Seismic and sonar readings have detected something large heading into Tokyo from the ocean," Ami replied, a towel around her neck as she'd been called from the bath a few minutes earlier.
"I thought it was a cartoon," Mitsuki remarked from her couch.
Akira continued as the camera showed the sea lifting up in the harbour. "The JSDF have been called in, and are vectoring home defence jets into the region, ready to launch an attack on whatever this thing is." he held a hand up to his earpiece. "And I've just been told the US aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk is being redirected to approach in a gesture of support. The 13th Armoured... wait... what's happening?" Around Akira, the howl of warning sirens increased in intensity, and twin horns poked up from the water. Bow waves formed around them as they moved inwards towards the shore, around where Akira was standing, and judging by the reporter's voice, he realised they were headed directly for the jetty he was standing on.
"Come on!" he screetched. He'd seen this movie before, and ran like nothing else on Earth. His cameraman followed behind, racing for the network's truck, parked at the edge of the jetty. About halfway down, the jetty started exploding into matchsticks, and the cameraman turned again, running backwards to film the oncoming wall of water and bone. Near the edge of the water, though, the jetty didn't just explode as it had been. It exploded up and out as something huge stood up underneath it.
"Gojira!" someone yelled from the television, and Ranma had to admit the thing looked somewhat like the American version of the classic monster. But he saw on the television, and felt with his bones, something different.
A Dark Kingdom monster. And it was huge.
"My god," Ami said, a hand raising to her mouth, "It's headed for the city!"
To be continued...
SAILOR MOON SAYS:
Hmm. This one took a while. Forgot that I hadn't posted one of these in a while, and so finished it off today. A little short, but it launches into the second half of this arc, metaphorically speaking. We've finished the introspective parts (although they'll continue somewhat in the background) and back into the action, ramping up the power of the bad guys. Course, this guy's probably my big guns and I won't be able to deliver after this, but hey, that's the fun in writing :)
Next chapter: c'mon, like you CAN'T guess? Lots of action. And lots of cameos and stuff. Come on, Tokyo's being destroyed!quite obvious