Hild's son
Chapter 8: Old friend
Disclaimer: You all know the drill
Ranma spent the night in Nifelheim after sorting something out with his mother and getting the gear that he needed and was now ready to go back to Midgard to get ready for a showdown with the Amazons and appeared through a window armed with a longbow and a quiver of black arrows and a sword that he named Hadafang after reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy strapped to his waist.
"You'll be needing these Mara." Ranma told her before putting the longbow down.
"Hey Ranma, what's with the sword?" Nabiki asked and Ranma took the sword out of its scabbard "what do you think will happen Nabiki?" Ranma replied as he put Hadafang away and sat down.
"How is mother?" Urd asked.
"She's fine. Oh Mara, guess who's dropping by later?" Ranma said making Mara look at him.
"Not her anything except her!" Mara shouted at Ranma before jumping up and going to find a place to hide, "what's wrong with Mara?" Nabiki asked.
"Someone Mara doesn't like is going to help us." Ranma told the demon in training as he took the belt holding Hadafang off and propped it against the nearest wall and went to sit down on a chair and waited for some more company to arrive and Nabiki went to find Mara.
"So, when's she coming here?" Urd asked.
"I bumped into her last night and boy has she got one hell of a choke hold now." Ranma added and looked at the time on his watch.
Nabiki managed to find Mara hiding in a cupboard in her mini Mara form and held out her hand for mini Mara to jump on which she does "why don't you like this person?" Nabiki asked.
"Her name's Sakura, she's really obsessive about me and Ranma." Mara told her student.
"How obsessive?" Nabiki asked.
"Very" Mara replied.
Meanwhile at the Outers Setsuna was going over her plans mentally when Hotaru walked past where she was sat whistling to herself (AN: you know when someone knows something you don't know and they won't stop it, it's one of those) "what are you so happy about?" Setsuna asked.
"No reason." Hotaru replied before heading to her room with a skip in her step and Setsuna sighed and went back to her plans.
Back at Ranma's apartment said person looks around making his sister looks at him "what's wrong?" Urd asked.
"Someone's talking about me, and I've got a very good idea who it is." Ranma replied and took off his watch and placed it on the floor and watched as a demon came out of the watch and looked at Ranma before she glomped him.
"Ranma, it's so good to see you again." Sakura said.
"Hey Sakura, can you get off me so I can tell you what's going on." Ranma told her and she let go of him and Urd looked at the red haired demon and sighed, "Now calm down Sakura, think before you react… there are some people out there somewhere that are trying to kill me and Mara." Ranma told the red haired demon.
"Oh is that it, for a second I thought it was serious." Sakura replied and Ranma waited for what he said to sink in "WHAT!" came the reply, Mara and Nabiki winced in fear as they heard Sakura shouting and Ranma smiled and rubbed his hands together.
"Excellent." Ranma said.
"Where is Mara anyway?" Sakura asked and Ranma looked at her and lied "Mara is away at the moment doing an errand." He lied to Sakura and Urd looked at him and sighed.
Later
Ranma was walking through town with Sakura telling her about the things that he had done when he was posing as a mortal on Midgard "I'LL KILL 'EM!" Sakura shouted.
"Sakura calm down, you can kill the panda if you want though." Ranma told her and she latched onto him like a proverbial leech and Ranma attempts to prize her off of him making people look at them.
Back at the apartment Mara had now come out of hiding from Sakura and sat down beginning to relax and sighs in boredom "why don't you go bug Keiichi?" Urd asked and Mara looked at her.
"I can't I've got orders to protect Ranma." Mara replied.
"Let me guess, mother told you?" Urd asked and Mara nodded back in response just as Ranma and Sakura returned and Mara looked at Sakura and Ranma could see the fear in Mara's eyes as Sakura let go of Ranma and jumped onto Mara and quickly latched onto her.
"Mara, it's good to see you again." Sakura said as Mara was reaching for Hadafang.
"Mara, you know a demon can't kill another demon." Ranma said and Mara cursed that rule and whoever came up with that rule.
"Sakura, would you please get off of me?" Mara asked.
"Wow, Mara actually said please." Urd said as Ranma went into the kitchen to make something to eat and came back half an hour later after having something to eat and passed a bottle of sake to Mara who looked like she desperately needed it.
"Thanks." Mara replied.
"Hey, it's nothing." Ranma replied and put a hand on her shoulder and Mara looked up at him and smiled at him and Ranma smiled back at her before he took his hand off her shoulder.
"Where's this one going to sleep?" Urd asked pointing at Sakura who glared at Urd.
"Well, there's a futon around here somewhere." Ranma said.
"I can always share with Mara or Ranma." Sakura said and Mara and Ranma looked at each other then at Sakura.
"You are not sharing a bed with me." Mara told Sakura before Sakura looked at Ranma shook his head "I'll tell you what Sakura, I'll have the futon and you can have the sofa." Ranma said and Sakura nodded in response as Mara finished off the bottle of sake and was going to use it to hit Sakura over the head repeatedly but decided against it.
"So, what's the plan now?" Nabiki asked.
"We let them make the first move." Ranma told them.
Authors note: Sakura is basically the opposite of Skuld, way too cheerful for Ranma and Mara to handle… now onto the A.O.G vote, Team Wolf II, Mirai 12 and myself redid this and the winner is… Rind who will appear in the next chapter.
Pairings so far:
Megumi: 4
Hotaru: 33
Setsuna: 3
Mara: 2
All: 10
Setsuna, Mara & Hotaru: 35
Hotaru & Mara: 2
A.O.G: 1
Megumi & Hotaru: 4
Nabiki: 2
Usagi, Setsuna & Hotaru: 1
Nabiki: Kasumi, Hotaru & Setsuna: 2
Usagi, Setsuna, Mara & Hotaru: 3
Nabiki & Kasumi: 1
Usagi, Urd & Mara: 2