Hell is a Martial Artist

by Ozzallos

When the Grand Demoness of Hell finds a new play toy, she gets more than she bargained for with Ranma Saotome, gender cursed heir of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.

12. Chapter 11

Hell is a Martial Artist
Chapter 11
By Ozzallos

Soun Tendo's finger hovered above an ebony disk, contemplating its fate in relation to the other round white stones relative to its position. His tactical positioning in the upper left quadrant of the board was secure; his joseki had safely occupied the upper right and lower right corners of the board, and had been holding ground against his adversary's more aggressive tactics.

The Tendo patriarch glanced up at the stone faced man awaiting his turn at the board. If there was one person that knew his every trick and stratagem in go, it was Genma Saotome. Even now Soun was certain the man was layering contingencies upon contingencies within his own plans. It was one of his specialties. For every strategy the man initiated, there were layers to be peeled back like an onion. What looked to be his final gambit almost never was, while the execution of his plan was replete with false leads, feints and redirection.

Much like the man's very life.

It was, of course, what made Genma a Master of Anything Goes, but it also placed the man in some very unusual situations. Soun mentally cringed at some of the turmoil the man's maneuvering had wrought. It was also his best friend's single biggest flaw. When his plans worked, they achieved victory by overkill. When they didn't, they failed spectacularly. Soun glanced up at the man once again, who in turn attempted to look unconcerned through his spectacles. In the last two years, he oft wondered how their grand design concerning the children would end.

Soun set his finger down on the piece, rocking the stone along its curvature as he considered the likely outcome of their mutual family venture. The last time one of Genma's plans had gone bad, they had found themselves apprenticed to The Master. The mustachioed man suppressed a shiver with the remembrance.

"They've been getting along pretty well lately. Eh Tendo?"

Soun was jostled out of his reverie, finding Genma staring over his shoulder with a slight smirk, as if he had divined his thoughts via supernatural means. Soun glanced back to find Ranma and Akane sitting outside on the back porch chatting amicably with one another. He nodded in absent agreement with his friend's observation. The last week had been relatively rancor free for the pair; a marked difference from even just a week ago. They were talking. Without yelling.

It was amazing.

His first knee-jerk reaction to the unlikely wellspring of hope was to shore their odds up as much as possible, such as arrange an impromptu date night for the budding couple. Or possibly not. If Akane and Ranma's behavior was atypical, Genma's reaction was absolutely dumbfounding by refusing to buy in to the date night plan.

'Let them alone, Tendo-kun.' Soun remembered his best friend's' words at the time, staring at the man as if he had spoken a foreign language. Genma Saotome didn't leave things alone. He meddled. His character was marked by impatience. But to leave their children to their own devices when the very future of Anything Goes was at stake? It was boarder-line impossible. And yet every time Soun had tried to press his best friend into action over the last week, Genma resisted, insisting that the couple just needed time to themselves. Even more perplexing, it looked like the bald martial artist was actually right.

"Indeed they have, Saotome-kun," Soun murmured his reluctant agreement. A note of disbelief could still be heard in the Tendo patriarch's voice, but seeing was believing: Son and daughter were indeed getting along. The man turned back to his long time friend, allowing a smile to cross his face. "I guess we can finally relax and enjoy the good life."

"Don't tell me you had doubts, Tendo?" Genma smirked. Soun produced a weak smile for his benefit since they both knew how touch and go it had been with their two children for a while.

"Of course not, Saotome-kun." The mustachioed martial artist nodded agreeably to the rhetorical question. Someday they would look back on these last two years and laugh. Soun returned his attention to the board between them. His eyes widened in horror. "M-My positioning!"

The entire board had been rearranged. What had once been his strategic fortress in the upper left corner was now riddled with tactical faults only the blind could have missed... Or somebody who had been artfully distracted for several crucial minutes. Genma's smirk only widened with his best friend's sudden panic, but even this was old hat between them. Go was a simple game. Repeatedly placing one another in adverse tactical scenarios to be overcome, however, was a real challenge.

He chuckled as Soun's finger floated indecisively around the board as the man attempted to extricate himself from the truly horrible position he now found himself in. It gave the bald martial artist another moment to watch the couple on the porch as they got up and began to walk off into the beautiful day. Like Soun, he too wanted to hedge their odds of success as much as possible; to capitalize on this new found relationship. Unlike Soun, he couldn't do so, nor could he allow his best friend to do so in his stead.

Genma Saotome was being held hostage at proverbial gun point.

Even as the pair walked off, Ranma Saotome paused; looking into the house, across the living room and directly into his father's eyes with a cool stare, as if he too knew the man's very thoughts. The pigtailed teen held the cold look for another moment and Genma Saotome's smirk slipped from his face as the message was received loud and clear.

"Interfere and you'll never see a cure."

The boy broke off his stare and followed Akane out of sight. Genma held the breath he had been holding for another moment before letting it loosed with the slightest shiver.

---

"But I still don't understand why I have to come along." Akane glanced to her right and noticed Ranma's easy smile as the pair walked down the street under a blue sky. While she didn't know her fiancé's exact destination, but it was a nice day and she had nothing better to do. The girl smoothed out the yellow sundress she had chosen for the day while watching the boy next to her.

"'Cuz it's important." Ranma replied mysteriously, twirling the drab green hat that matched his mao shirt and pants. He turned a confident smirk her way. "Besides, you'll like it."

"Alright," She conceded reluctantly but still pressed for information while keeping pace with the martial artist. "But what will I like?"

Ranma's smirk gained another few centimeters as he savored stringing Akane along. "Well, y'know how you've been harpin' on me to deal with the other girls and crap?"

"Yes...?" Suddenly their path of travel became obvious to Akane and she considered the Saotome warily. This was the street that, after a quick left to cut through an alleyway, would only lead them to one of two places.

"Well I've been dealin' with the old men." Ranma stated, his smile slipping a fraction. "Wonder why they aren't botherin' us?"

The youngest Tendo simply nodded. As a matter of fact, she hadbeen wondering why her father and Mister Saotome weren't pressing them into ambush dating or some other insane and completely unnecessary match making bid. She turned a skeptical look on her fiancé now. "So you're saying that you...?"

"My old man, mainly." Ranma nodded as they took the predicted left at the alley, all but assuring Akane of their destination now. "Got him to back off for a bit."

"That's... never worked before." Akane wondered, following Ranma with slight amazement. "I mean, how?"

"That," The martial artist smiled with a lengthy pause. Akane hung on it until Ranma winked. "is a secret."

"Idiot." Akane rolled her eyes, but turned her attention to their destination. "And this?"

"Time to put the women and children to bed." Ranma answered confidently. "Still not so sure how to deal with Ucc-chan, so I'm hittin' Shamps first."

"You... You're actually going to do it?" Akane blinked, unsure if she had heard the words coming from her fiancée's mouth correctly. As if to answer, the alleyway came to an end and Ranma made a right turn onto the sidewalk, bringing the Neko Hanten into sight. Another thought suddenly sprang into her brain; one that filled the girl with anticipatory dread. "But Cologne. Isn't that a bit risky?"

The pigtailed teen stared at her worried gaze, dumbfounded by the statement. It's been risky since she got here and you're just realizin' that?He balked silently, but managed to suppress the rebuke with dry humor. "Well, she's only a few thousand years old. Shouldn't be that hard."

Akane continued to stare as they closed in on the restaurant. After a moment she nodded and her hand silently found Ranma's own. The boy looked down in surprise at the offer, but wasn't about to dismiss the show of affection or confidence. For once, everything seemed to be going right.

He only hoped the next few minutes would go that way as well.

Ranma gave his fiancée's hand a reassuring squeeze and they stepped into the breach known as the Cat Cafe. Immediately obvious was the lack of traffic, but that was easily explained by the time. The lunch rush wouldn't hit for another hour, and only three of the dozen or so tables were currently occupied. His sight immediately caught on a purple haired Amazonian teen servicing them cheerfully, at least until the lavender silk clad waitress noticed Ranma and Akane standing in the doorway.

Shampoo's face flashed a frown that was only visible for a fraction of a second before it was replaced by an all too bubbly facade aimed squarely at Ranma, ignoring Akane completely. He felt Akane's hand tense up in his, prompting him to squeeze back as if to will trust into her.

"Airen!" The Amazon bounced forward, now completely ignoring the table she had been serving. Ranma stepped back, though Shampoo appeared oblivious as she stepped lightly toward the pair. "Shampoo too-too happy to see! Thought Airen dump kitchen destroyer!"

Anger simmered in Akane and she opened her mouth to respond, only to feel another reassuring squeeze, reminding her that this was Ranma's game. The fiancée still simmered but she could abide. For now.

Shampoo launched into a smothering glomp, only to be brought to a halt by Ranma's next words. "Need to see the old ghoul about our arrangement."

The girl suddenly stopped, staring as if to piece together her husband's intentions. After a moment and a thoughtfully cocked head, she nodded, her ever so cheerful mask returning. "This one will get grandmother right away."

One of her customers put a hand up to gain the purple haired girl's attention, but she bounced right by, disappearing into the back kitchen. She returned moments later; her soft footsteps accompanied by a tapping sound as the Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku hopped behind her via cane. Both ignored the beckoning customer on their return trip.

"You have business with me, Son-in-law?" Cologne asked without preamble, already having noted the close proximity of Akane Tendo; hand in hand no less. She smiled, making it a point to notice it. "And I suspect with not so good news, hmmm?"

"Ya already knew what was comin' so I'm just here to make it official." Ranma stated conversationally. If he was worried about the outcome, it showed neither in his posture or demeanor.

"So you've finally seen reason and are going with my Shampoo." Cologne nodded sagely, as if the purpose of his visit had been a foregone conclusion. "Of course, my great grand daughter is thrilled."

"Now Airen and Shampoo can-"

"We're done, Old Ghoul." Ranma cut Shampoo off, ignoring her for Cologne before she could become a distraction. "There ain't gonna be anything between Shampoo and I."

"But Airen!" The lavender haired girl suddenly protested, but Cologne held up her hand in a bid to silence her heir.

The old woman's face took on a grim countenance. "I'm afraid that's impossible, Son-in-law. You know Amazon law."

"I also know that I ain't in China last I checked," Ranma folded his arms, seemingly impervious to the subtle threat. "I've decided and that's all there is to it."

"That is not 'all there is to it' boy," The gray haired elder hopped into the martial artist's personal space, her voice now filled with calm menace. "All the more irrelevant given that you acknowledged our law in a public proclamation to Shampoo herself; or are you so keen to forget the Reversal Jewel debacle? What of your word, Son-in-law? What of your-"

"-Honor? Bullshit." Ranma scoffed, taking his own step into Cologne's space. "If ya had any of your own I might actually care."

"You tread on dangerous ground, son-in-law." The elder's eyes narrowed menacingly. "I could easily inflict another pressure point on you if you insist-"

"And that's exactly the shit I'm talkin' about." Ranma shook his head, stepping away from the woman as if no longer taking her seriously. Inside, it was all he could do to contain the fear with the very technique she had taught him. "Funny how everybody wants me to take on impossible odds then throws honor in my face when I push back, huh?"

"Do not attempt to pass your own short-comings off on others, child." Cologne continued to cast a dour look upon the pair.

"Yeah, could say the same about you." Ranma shrugged uncaringly. "I thought this was all between Shampoo, Akane and me. Where do you come on this again?"

"I'm here to ensure a male doesn't shirk his responsibilities to my great-granddaughter." Cologne retorted coolly, losing patience.

"Because she can't hack it." Ranma finished, earning a leaded glare from the matriarch even as Shampoo sputtered denial but the martial artist continued without respite. "So here you are helpin' Shamps do the job she can't and you're gonna beat me with the honor card? Nah, don't think so."

"Shampoo can too hack!" The younger Amazon protested, but was largely ignored by the pair.

"Then let's explore the more unpleasant options available to us." Cologne brushed a lock of white hair back over her shoulder, readying for action.

"Yeah, let's." Ranma returned, his flippant demeanor suddenly vanishing. It was replaced by deadly seriousness as he uttered his next word. "Happosai?"

"Sweeto!"

There was a blur between the Amazon pair. Cologne snapped around to find a familiar face bounce up onto the nearest table, pipe in one hand and a pair of pastel blue panties in the other. Shampoo looked stunned as she patted around her hips, then looked to the pair of panties the old master was rubbing against his cheek. Even Akane gasped in disgust. Happosai turned back to Ranma. "Ah, that hits the spot, m'boy!"

"What is this?" Cologne hissed at her great-granddaughter's violation, her leaded gaze snapping from Ranma to Happosai and back, unsure of which was the greater threat.

"It's called evenin' the odds, ya Amazon mummy." Ranma stated, his emotionless glare never leaving the woman. "You made these rules, so it's about time I started playin' by them."

"Happi," Cologne turned back to the old master warily. The panties were tied to his belt now while the pipe occupied his left hand. "This doesn't concern you."

"Afraid it does, Cologne-chan." The pervert replied without concern, taking a puff from his pipe as if to express just how unconcerned he was.

"Then what would it take for this to be a private matterbetween the Saotome boy and I?" She inquired, seeking a way around the threat his very presence posed.

"I'm afraid you don't have the connections." Happosai stated cryptically, leaving Cologne without conversational recourse. He glanced over to Ranma. "What now, m'lad?"

"It's easy," Ranma returned his attention to the elder Amazon. "All you have to do is sit this out, Old Ghoul. If you don't, I give Happosai the word to make your life a living hell."

Cologne's eyes flicked back and forth between the pair. "And Shampoo?"

"Already told her I wasn't interested," Ranma shrugged, gaining a measure of flippancy back now that he was back on secure tactical ground. "But whatever happens, it's between us. Not you. Or we really start explorin' those unpleasant options."

"Ranma-"

The martial artist noted with some pride that it was the first time Cologne had called him something other than 'son-in-law', but ignored her nonetheless. He retook Akane's hand. "Let's go, Akane."

"See you soon, Cologne-chan!" The old master exclaimed as he bounced out the door behind them.

For the next fifty meters, Ranma was primed for some form of pursuit or last minute gamble by either woman. It wasn't until seventy five meters that Ranma finally relaxed, finding his fiancée staring at him.

"You really did it."

"I think I did." Ranma nodded, still somewhat surprised it had all gone so well.

"But Happosai?" She glanced up at the old gnome hopping the rooftops above them. "That's kind of cruel and unusual, even for you."

"Yeah, maybe." The martial artist shrugged. "But we're talkin' the 'obstacle is for killin'' people. Already brainwashed you once, remember?"

She did. It also made her feel a fraction less concerned about using Happosai against Cologne, allowing her to move on. "So what now?"

Unlike the last time, Ranma had an answer. "Ukyo, but that'll have to wait. I think one of these a day is the best I can do. Hate this crap and Ukyo's only gonna be harder."

"I see." Akane murmured with a slight nod. And she could. Almost. Ukyo was almost a friend; certainly more so than Shampoo in the competition for Ranma's hand. Her thoughts turned to a nagging question, however. "But how is it-"

SPLooOSH!

"Ack!" Ranma's exclamation was accompanied by the clang of a tin bucket bouncing at the now female martial artist's feet. 'Figures,' she thought, staring up at the several open windows in the stories above without a clue as to where it had come from. It had happened too quickly to force the transformational override and even if she had, would then have had to explain it to Akane. 'Once things are settled,' she promised herself.

Akane was found flattened against the wall and thus avoided most of the water, receiving only a few minor splashes for her trouble. Also obvious was the fact that Ranma, now a girl, was soaked. The sight produced a minor giggle as she focused on the redhead's perky anatomy. "One of these days you're going to have to think about a bra."

The comment tore Ranma away from her skyward search, prompting the martial artist to smile. She motioned down to her wet mao shirt and well developed charms with a mischievous smile. "Yeah, but why would I hide all this?"

"Pervert." Akane rolled her eyes, taking a shred of humor away from the obvious joke and resumed walking. Ranma matched her pace easily and retook her hand.

"Not now." The youngest Tendo whispered, pulling her hand back as if it were about to touch something hot. Ranma blinked, staring down at the hand, then Akane, who was pretending nothing had happened.

"Why not now?" The redhead asked, her tone bordering between curiosity and offense.

"Because you're a girl!"Akane whispered back in a scandalized tone while actually creating extra space between their persons.

"And what's wrong with two girls together?" Malcanthet asked lazily form her throne; a well padded seat replete with long razor spikes, strategically placed silk and leather woven together and worked into a frighteningly artistic form. Around her, several men lounged at her feet in various revealing black leather outfits. One served her grapes from a golden bowl, from which the succubus' barbed tail stabbed at delicately to be eaten.

"But its... That's... It's perverted!" Ranma rebuked from her own seat, which bore neither as many spikes or as much silk and leather. Still, it was comfortable and she had bigger things on her mind than infernal fashion and upholstery. A mental picture flashed through the redhead's brain. It featured herself and Akane in an advanced state of undress and a tangle of compromising positions.

Ranma's cheeks instantly pinked.

"Says who, hmmm?" The High Succubus challenged loftily. "Is love and desire such a small thing that it can be contained by mere gender?"

"I... I don't know." Ranma murmured after recovering from the rather explicit visual. It was a heavy talk with even heavier implications. For all her martial arts prowess, her life experience concerning matters of the heart and the libido were pitifully small and their conversation only highlighted the fact.

"I do, child." Malcanthet reassured her. "Love... lust... desire... It takes infinite form with as many outlets. I seriously doubt the small minds forcing this girl and that girl upon you can truly comprehend such a concept."

"But as girls? I mean how does that even work?" Ranma boggled, prompting a mischievous smile from the succubus.

"Quite well, actually." The woman showed a length of fang in her smile this time and Ranma swallowed hard. The demoness cocked her head, caressing the two meter long curvature of her horns thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should summon Morrigan and Vecca for a practical demonstration..."

"NO!" Ranma blurted suddenly, causing the Succubus Queen to blink, then frown as the martial artist continued to gibber. "I mean, ah, don't really ah... need a demonstration."

"A pity." Malcanthet stated simply, then smiled, rethinking the matter. "Then possibly two of my harem males will-"

"Nononononono!" Ranma shook her head violently now, all but ready for another round of mental bleach. She studiously ignored the hungry smiles from the harem males in question.

The High Succubus sighed. "I fear you shall never loosen up at this rate, child."

"I don't need demonstrations." Ranma crossed her arms, her body language firmly set in a defensive posture. Her face, however, was still a mask of uncertainty. "I just... I'm... I'm tired of bein' the pervert."

"You are less a pervert a more a slave to their ideals," Malcanthet shook her head, rising from her throne to accompany the girl beside her chair. Ranma watched her graceful movements, but it was her words that registered in her conscious mind. "Moreover, they simply don't understand your position. You are both. They are not. They expect you to conform to what they know, not what you are."

"I..." Ranma hesitated in confronting the existential dilemma that she had never known for the past two years, yet had always been there. She wasn't like the people she knew in both martial arts and the curse "I... what am I?"

"Whatever you want to be." The demoness smiled patiently, patting the girl on the head. "Moreover, however you desire to be it. Do you find women appealing?"

"Um, I guess." Ranma answered without too much in the way of deep thought. 'What guy doesn't like a cute girl? Unless they're homicidal nut-'

"Even now?"

Ranma's mental rant stalled as the woman to her right drilled the point home with ruthless efficiency. The martial artist's thoughts were once more force back to a rather ecchi scene featuring herself and Akane, forcing Ranma to gulp audibly. Malcanthet merely giggled.

"And there is the answer to your overly existential question, imouto." She smirked. Her tone became more serious with her next inquiry, however. "The flesh you wear is merely a means to an end. The question then becomes can the object of your affection reciprocate?"

Much like she had during her talk with Malcanthet, Ranma was forced to silently contemplate the dilemma. This time was different, however. This time she had the aforementioned object of her affection right beside her, doing her level best not to look embarrassed. The redhead frowned as the unintended slight sank in.

"So I'm a girl now." She pressed, her blue eyes staring at the youngest Tendo even as the girl did her best to ignore the attention. After a moment, the Tendo broke, her head snapping around on the martial artist impatiently

"Exactly, and girls don't hold hands like that." Akane's replied testily, finally stopping to confront the topic directly. Her face took on a suspicious look. "You're not planning anything perverted, are you?"

Ranma's mouth opened, torn indecisively between a diplomatic reply and a scathing rebuke for the assault on her ego. In the end, her mouth hung silent for a moment too long.

"I... Yuka and Sayuri asked me to go shopping." Akane sidestepped the issue all too obviously, starting off in another direction. Her tone of voice turned artificially chipper, as if to spare her fiancé any hard feelings. "See you this afternoon, okay?"

She didn't wait for a reply. Ranma watched her turn the corner, stunned into immobility and silence even as the girl walked out of sight.

Unseen from the building above, Happosai watched the scene play out on the rooftop edge. Beside him stood another bucket rippling with cold water and waiting for gravity to take hold of it. It would, of course, require a push, but there was no longer any need for that since the first had done its job. The old pervert simply took a puff from his pipe and shook his head in sympathy.

'Better you find out sooner than later, boy.'

---

"Bow before the demonic might of Xang the Devourer!"

The statement had been designed to inspire fear; effectively scattering the insects around him in order to incite large scale pandemonium. The demon would enjoy watching the terrified mammals run in a pathetic effort to escape, then summon his brethren to reap the harvest. There seemed to be minor wrinkle in that plan, however.

Nobody was running.

In fact, Xang noted with some irritation he had developed a crowed of curious onlookers, standing aside to watch what he did next. So be it, the demonic thrall of Hikaru Gosunkugi growled. "I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOULS AND FEAST ON YOUR CHILDREN!"

The junior classman thrust his hand out and conjured a two meter fireball composed of mana and hatred; his eyes began to glow menacingly. He snarled at the crowd and sent the fireball into the sky, where it promptly exploded in a sizable display of pyrotechnics. Xang returned his attention to the crowd, fully expecting to find chaos and panic. Instead, the onlookers looked amazed.

And clapped.

Xang the Devourer's cheek twitched, and a furious red aura erupted around the otherwise unassuming junior classman's form. Concrete began to blister and crackle with the heat transference and what had once been the body of Gosunkugi began to tremble violently. A pair of horns grew like burning embers off the side of his skull, curling like a wicked knife point even as two more smaller horns punched their way through the flesh of his forehead. Half meter long talons similarly grew from the teen's fingers and he finally turned his flame lit gaze on the crowd. Now they took an uncertain step back.

"Run, worms." Hikaru hissed. This time, the crowd had the good sense to panic. Screaming erupted from the general vicinity and the demon Xang began to cackle evilly, reveling in the mass of fear. Another fireball of roiling mana was conjured in the demon's left hand and he sent it streaking into a parked car nearby. It was immolated in a spectacular explosion, causing people to run for their lives. Behind it, a crepe stand was evacuated. It was all pink trim and cute advertising and offended Xang's sensibilities. The crepe storefront blew out violently as a new fireball impacted, erasing the dessert establishment from existence.

Much better, Xang decided and turned back to a large panicking mob. The evil grin returned to his face once more and he lit another sphere of immolation. Then he frowned. It was another one of those horribly, offensively styled crepe stands! The demon's aim vectored three degrees left and fired. The stand had few patrons left that hadn't already evacuated and those that saw the fireball swing to bear on them quickly did so as well. Pink siding and plaster cartoon mascots died by fire moments later, showering the area with flaming debris. The demon possessed Gosunkugi snarled, picking out another crepe shop across the street; this one marked by a veritable rainbow of colorful artwork.

A third dessert shack spontaneously detonated.

Had Xang the Devourer delved deeper into the memories of the student known as Hikaru Gosunkugi, he would have realized that the launch pad he had chosen for his invasion lay squarely in the Harajuku district of Tokyo; known for its exceedingly odd fashion, astronomical rent, and of course, quite possibly the highest concentration of crepe outlets in Japan. In short, it was a target rich environment and all the cheery colors with their promises of tasty sweets were pissing him off. Crepe stands four and five quickly followed the first three, sending plumes of fire into the air as he cackled manically at their destruction.

"But why is he destroying crepe stands?" Sailor Venus cocked her without a clue; unable to resolve why this particular demonic evil had chosen to target dessert hangouts on its road to world domination.

"Maybe he just doesn't like crepes." Sailor Jupiter shrugged, equally perplexed. Another boom shifted the air around them, but its potential had been muted by the time it reached their rooftop position three blocks away. It ruffled her brunette mane slightly as she looked on. "I mean, at least he's not hurting anybody."

"Maybe we should just leave him alone." Sailor Mars suggested reluctantly. "It's not like there isn't one on every-"

"STOP FIEND!"

"So much for that," Rei mumbled as Sailor Moon hopped the rooftop, landing twenty meters away to confront the demon directly. Sailor Venus, Jupiter and Mars reluctantly jumped in behind her. They almost wished they hadn't with their leader's next statement.

"Crepes are symbolic of the fruity crème fillings of friendship to be enjoyed by the people who love them, not destroyed for demonic amusement!" Usagi proclaimed, pointing her finger indignantly at the blinking demon thrall. "In the name of the Moon, you shall be punished!"

"I swear those speeches are getting worse," Makato whispered over to Rei, who nodded with brisk agreement.

"I HEARD THAT!" Usagi snapped back, ignoring the demon for the moment as she rounded on her friends. "Taking our enemies to task is crucial to the dispensation of love and justice!"

"Can we just fight him already?" Minako complained, gesturing to the fuming youma. "All work and no play makes for a bad moon on the rise."

"Don't you mean a black moon?" Mars tilted her head, considering the statement. The blond shook her head.

"No, I'm pretty sure it's a bad moon." Minako insisted.

"Well the black moon clan was bad," Makato inserted, weighing in on the conversation. "That would make them bad moons too, I guess."

"Okay, a bad, black moon on the rise." Venus decided with a nod.

"SILENCE!" The demon thrall Hikaru Gosunkugi roared, instantly earning the four guardians' undivided attention. The blaze of his fury died off once all eyes were on him and he favored the girls with a cruel, fanged smile. "So you are the infamous Sailor Senshi, hmmm?" He began pacing, eyeing the girls hungrily. "I do so hope you have got your things together, Guardians. In fact, I hope you are quite prepared to die."

"Like we don't hear that five times a day." Sailor Mars rolled her eyes in sarcasm, earning a dark chuckle from the possessed junior classman.

"Then I would submit to you that your previous adversaries were of inferior quality," Hikaru grinned, buffing his talons across the button up shirt he wore. "You may call me-"

"MOON TIARA ACTION!"

The initiation of hostilities caught everybody by surprise. Everybody. So much so that even Sailor Moon's entourage was caught flat footed, staring as the girl took advantage of her opponent's distracted state and sent the golden shining tiara down range. Her surprise had been so complete that less than a second of flight time remained between the disk and Xang's head before he recovered from the shock, jerking his head to the right just as the weapon flashed mere centimeters to the left of his skull and throughone of the curled horns it bore.

Xang was dodging even as his smoldering horn tumbled to the ground. Usagi was not. In fact, the entire setup bore more than a passing resemblance to her weeks of training: A high level threat. Food stuffs at risk. Automation ruthlessly drilled into her kicked in and she instinctively took the opening the demon presented. The infernal being dodged left off the sidewalk in order to evade her tiara. The blond however, was already charging up for her next attack.

The youma had barely recovered, then promptly received a solid pink beam of power straight to the chest. Hikaru Gosunkugi had only a moment to brace and the condensed beam of pink mana hammered Xang's natural magic shielding, blasting the demonic thrall into the ground and plowing fifteen meters of street before rolling to a stop in a cloud of dust.

Makato, Rei, and Minako could only stare, their eyes wide for the girl who now stood ready in a Teiji Dachi martial arts stance, ready to deploy another attack as necessary.

"That was..." Sailor Mars' stare snapped from the blond to the dust cloud and back, while her brain attempted to conjure a descriptive for what she had just witnessed.

"That was almost cool." Sailor Venus blinked, her eyes also wide in amazement.

"Whoa." Makoto agreed, her studied gaze noting the basic martial arts stance and how effectively the neo-princess had dispatched the demonic threat. It was a move that any competent martial artist could have countered, but their enemy wasn't exactly a martial artist. Two years ago, the girl would have struggled to deal with an opponent so efficiently...

...or so ruthlessly, the Senshi of Jupiter struggled for a sufficient adjective, surprised by the one she came up with.

"NOT SO FAST!" A male voice roared and the cloud exploded. The thrall Hikaru Gosunkugi burst forth from the amalgam of concrete dust and dirt. Three of the four Senshi turned into the renewed threat and braced to counterattack even as the demon blurred into point blank range; it's dagger claws bearing an angry fireball.

"Venus Love Me-!"
"Burning Mandal-!"
"Sparkling Wide-!"

Xang was inside their range within a heartbeat, his fireball bearing down on the same target that had already bested him before the other Senshi could even execute their attacks. Their intervention was also completely unnecessary. While it wasn't Anything Goes, Ranma had drilled the blond in basic hand to hand instruction hard over the last two months, and his methods insured that it stuck.

Usagi pivoted on the ball of her foot and stepped back to present her attacker with a minimum profile as he leaped in at high speed. The hand bearing the incandescent mana reached in and she sidestepped efficiently, snapping her own hand out to deflect Xang's arm along the inside of his wrist. The fireball went one way, destroying a post box for its trouble in a fiery blast. The demon tumbled wildly into an abandoned freight truck, demolishing it and its cargo.

Three Senshi continued to stare, their stupefied gazes alternating between the now crumpled truck and the teenaged princess that had wrought the destruction in the first place. They were all just about to utter their amazement when a yellow flash of intense light sudden lit up Usagi's frame, causing the girl to spontaneously detonate where she stood. Jupiter, Mars and Venus caught the periphery of the fireball as the blast wave took them in hand and slammed them to the ground. As the primary target, Sailor Moon wasn't so lucky and took the fireball's energy directly. The explosion ejected her from its radius violently, sending her into a fifteen meter tumble that ended with her plowing into a fashion storefront, collapsing the entrance with her impact.

Opposite of her, Xang had picked himself out from the ruins of the truck, his clawed hand smoldering from the retaliation.

"You girls still have no idea who you're dealing with, do you?" The thrall Hikaru sneered as the Senshi recovered their senses. Usagi was barely crawling out of her own pile of rubble as the demon continued his rant. "While I would certainly enjoy playing with you in this under powered body, world domination waits for neither man nor beast. It is time to summon my brethren."

Usagi fought through the coughing fits as she staggered upright, taking a lurching couple of steps while attempting to piece together what she was seeing through her temporarily blurred double vision. The fireball had hit her hard but she had been hit by worse over the last year and change. While not entirely debilitating, it was giving the youma the time it needed while Sailor Moon collected her wits, watched as an angry red aura began to boil off Xang.

The ground around the demon thrall came alive, glowing with a series of concentric circles pulsing with symbols around their radius. The debris at the demon's feet seemed to quiver slightly, then outright lifted themselves off the ground as if gravity had simply been turned off. Venus, Mars and Jupiter were all watching the same scene play out as they too picked themselves back off the battle scarred street. Xang clenched his fists defiantly and the angry aura around him seemed to intensify. Four more summoning rings flared to life around him: Left, right, front and back.

"That's a summoning field!" The priestess of their group realized as she and the other collected themselves. Sailor Jupiter took the urgency of her words to heart and thrust out her hands, bringing them to bear on the target.

"Supreme Thunder!"

Lightning was called down from the cloudless blue sky, using the guardian as a lightning rod. The magically guided electrical storm ripped through her body and coalesced into her white gloved hands where it leaped away, tearing through the intervening space and into Xang at the speed of light. Lightning danced around the demon, tearing angrily at the earth as it sought a point of entry through the array. A deafening boom marked the attack's limit as the electrical assault died off. The street around their opponent was utterly devastated. The opponent himself, on the other hand, was untouched and cackling madly.

The four girls would have definitely been a challenge in this weakened body,Xang admitted to himself as the summoning field ablated the attack in full. As it was, he could only channel a fraction of his own power through Hikaru Gosunkugi's frame and even that was beginning to take its toll. He had tried for five summons, only to find his skin starting to burn and flake away.

Four would have to do. For now.

Pathetic, he balked at the circumstances that had lent themselves to his possession of the teen's body, but beggars could hardly be choosers. He would summon those he could, establish a beachhead and continue to summon in waves. 'And then the domain of Midgaard shall be mine.' Xang grinned evilly as the field around him made its connection to the infernal plain. Hild-sama will have no choice but to appoint me as its overseer!

A fire based attack splashed against the screens of his ward, but he paid it little mind. There was little chance that they would disrupt a summon in progress since it was actually drawing on the power of the Nidhogg now and not just his own mana. The four arrays around him erupted into gouts of flame. Forms within began to take shape and the Senshi stepped back as a group, hoping for some opportunity to counter-attack. The cylindrical pillars of fire began to compress along organic lines that stood eight feet high and were only now taking on a vaguely humanoid shape.

"The hurricane gathers; the end shall come soon," Hikaru Gosunkugi chanted as the power of his own summoning circle built up around his person. The flames adjacent to him began to knit into fiery bones and organs. "The rivers of blood overflow! I call upon the voice of rage and ruin!"

Ambient power hung in the air heavily and the demon drew his own talons across his left hand. Blood dripped onto the summoning circle with warm splatter. "DEMONIC SUMMONING!"

The inferno around him flared up like a contained tornado as the gathered magic found its outlet and funneled into the summoning field. The sudden drop in pressure cooled the air around the Senshi, condensing the ambient moisture into an eerie light fog that enveloped the battlefield. The flames setting it a-glow died off, leaving their area suddenly cold and lifeless. The harsh sound of pavement crumbling beneath feet riveted the Senshi's attention to the figures stepping out of the fog... Horns. Teeth. Hooves.

"Oh shit." Minako whispered while some separate part of her brain noted that their gangling arms were dragging alongside them; their meter length talons scrapping at the earth as they advanced. Rei merely produced a terse nod, already knowing this wasn't going to be their normal run of the mill fight against canon fodder youma. These were the real thing.

Usagi's own wide eyed stare flicked from demon to demon as they came to a stop in a loose line, parting for the much smaller figure that had summoned them. All in all, they looked like terrifying reptilian minotaurs, not the possessed vending machines she was used to fighting. The girl fell into a loose tiger stance through sheer automation, even though fear gnawed at the periphery of her senses. Hikaru Gosunkugi's fanged smile favored them as he presented the teen guardians to his entourage.

"This is our opposition." He stated with no small measure of arrogance. One of the demonic minotaurs snorted.

"You called us... for this?" It's voice rumbled as it passed a doubtful judgment.

"They will make enjoyable playthings," The other off to the far right decided with slightly more, if twisted optimism.

"If they survive." A third grumbled, flexing its talons menacingly.

Xang was only mildly disappointed that not a single girl cowered before their number. Of course, he couldn't have known they had been down this road before, even if their previous opponents had been less menacing. Regardless, the threat was the same and each of the four took up their own attack stances. The demon mere smiled arrogantly at their defiance.

"Take them."

For the Senshi, words were largely unnecessary. Despite their teenage tendencies, all four knew how the other would react through actual battle experience. The four newly summoned demons charged in a wall of talons, fangs and horns. Fire and lightning met their advance, staggering one of the hoofed demons outright, while it partner on the right flank was knocked flat on its back by Sailor Moon's own Gorgeous Meditation. Gosunkugi watched the demon skid back by him in disgust while the remaining two closed into hand to hand combat range.

Venus whipped around and pointed a single index finger into the third demon, raking him with a solid beam of charged mana that was unfortunately the wrong tool for the job. The Crescent Beam had excellent penetration and punched through the infernal being's frame as if it were tissue, but apparently failed to hit anything vital. The demon winced in pain, but continued its barreling charge, head butting the blond brutally to send her tumbling across the street and into a car.

"VENU-OOF!" Rei's distraction and concern cost her as she took a fireball in the face courtesy of the forth demon, knocking her to the ground like a fiery sledge hammer. The concussion manhandled Makoto along side her, but the Senshi rolled with the kinetic wave of pressure being a martial artist herself and retaliated with her own bolt of lightning through the skid. The infernal youma was just about ready to curb-stomp the stunned, smoldering priestess further into the crumpled asphalt with a huge spiked hoof when the lightning bolt flashed across his scaled body. The damage was fair, but the neuro-muscular failure the attack created was priceless, allowing Sailor Moon to rush over and bodily pull the Senshi of Mars out from under the demon while it twitched uncontrollably.

Youma number three was hot on her heels. Usagi flicked her tiara out once more for a shot from the hip and golden disk arced in, checking the monster's advance as is cowered in a defensive crouch. The glowing scythe had been meant for the demon's head, but found a protective bicep instead, gouging a huge slice through flesh and muscle before executing its return arc.

"RAWWWAARRR!"

The beast bellowed in pain and was ready to renew its attack when a new line of condensed mana ripped through the same arm. The youma tried to turn toward the direction of the attack, only to be impaled by another golden white lance. Sailor Venus had extricated herself from the wrecked car and was found pirouetting around on the ball of her foot for another attack. A third Crescent Beam punched through its torso, then another through the leg as the girl continued her offensive. Five beams impaled the demon in the next eight seconds as Sailor Venus danced through her attack, forcing the creature to its knees as its healing ability fought for parity.

He was, unfortunately, only one of four youma. The demon electrified by Makoto was finally shaking off the effects of its shock and began to circle the trio of girls warily, while they in turn helped Rei to her feet. The demon was soon joined by the other two, while the fourth hung back in recovery. Behind them, the thrall Gosunkugi cackled madly.

"And to think this is merely the first wave you face." He sneered, shaking his horned head. "Soon I will have enough power to summon the next and you will be overwhelmed."

"Our friends are on the way!" Sailor Moon rebutted fiercely. "And when they arrive, love and justice will rain down to smite you... you bad, evil youma, you!"

"Then hopefully they are of better quality of opposition than yourselves," Xang merely tisked, as if mildly disappointed. "Though I'm afraid there will not be much left of you by the time they arrive."

"I'll give you one last chance to reconsider your evil-"

"Finish this," Xang rolled his eyes and walked off. One of the demons leaped forward through the air, his claws outstretched for the neo-princess while the others rushed in behind him. Time slowed for Usagi as the demon fell from it lunge, its shadow covering her even as she considered some desperate last minute evasion. She instinctively slid into a stance and watched his dagger claws fall upon her in slow motion. The timing would have to be perfect. Usagi brought an arm up...

BOOOM!

A bright blue flash exploded against her vision, followed by the harsh wash of overpressure as something crashed into the demon from the side, effectively removing it from combat like an airborn jackhammer. The flash was immediately followed by a black haired teen that rode the demon into the ground on its head, savaging it with three brutal kicks that beat the youma into a shattered crater. Sailor Moon stared incredulously at the pig tailed boy wearing an all too familiar green mao shirt as he flipped off the dazed monster's torso to land next to her.

"C'mon, Bunny. You're making me look bad here!" Ranma turned a smirk on her, causing Usagi to all but choke in panic.

"B-Bunny?" She squeaked in denial. "I don't know what Bunny you're talking about!"

"Yeah, and I'm just teachin' everybody a tae kwon do-kempo variant," He snorted, turning his attention to the remaining two creatures. The third was completely unconscious and the forth had barely recovered from its wounds enough to stand and stagger over to the brawl. Ranma jabbed a thumb back to the remaining three girls. "I'm bettin' they're your friends, but damned if I can make the connection by lookin' at em."

"You... You're completely mistaken." Mars stammered in a last ditch effort to maintain the facade.

"Hiiii, Ranma!" Sailor Venus' honeyed voice swooned, immediately shattering any hope of maintaining said facade. She waved at him and winked.

"And that's gotta be Minako-chan." Ranma laughed, prompting a defeated sweat drop from Mars. The martial artist then returned his attention to the now wary demons. He cracked his knuckles; his grin turning downright cold. "Let's wrap this up and then ya can tell me all about the magical girl thing."

"Ah, alright. I guess, um, Sensei." Sailor Moon hesitantly abandoned any pretense of deception and returned to her own stance.

"You presume far too much!" Somebody hollered and Ranma had to look around one of the demons to see the source. It was pale looking teen with bags under his eyes. The school uniform he wore looked like it had seen a battle, but it definitely look like a Furinkan uniform. Ranma blinked as the pieces fell into place.

'Remove the horns, subtract the fangs,' Ranma stared, and the conclusion dropped from his mouth with a slight edge of disbelief. "Gosunkugi?"

"So... you know this one?" The demon possession smirked, crossing his arms arrogantly. "A friend of yours, perchance?"

"Eh, not exactly," Ranma replied as he wondered what had happened to his anemic classmate. The near English accent was particularly grating. 'Probably more magical bullshit,' He surmised, a hypothesis quickly confirmed by the boasting demon.

"I borrowed his body," Xang stated almost apologetically. "But then it was only fair since he did offer it to me."

"Contract?" Ranma arched an eyebrow, trying to figure out the demon's angle. The question only prompted a wider fanged smile.

"Ah, a connoisseur of the arts. Fascinating." The thrall noted with amusement. "But alas, no. The boy was barely even a novice and failed to bind his seals properly. I gnaw on his frightened little soul as we speak."

"How could you inflict such torture on an innocent human being!" Sailor Moon balked only to find Ranma glancing back with a barely caring look.

"You wouldn't believe how many times he's tried this crap," The martial artist motioned to the boy across from them. "If it wasn't this, it was voodoo. Or spells or somethin'. Finally bit him in the ass."

Usagi frowned at her sensei's description of the boy's predicament, but couldn't necessarily argue with the logic if he had such a long track record of mystical malfeasance. Still, now that the Gosunkugi boy was clearly a possessed human, she had just the tool for the job. "Sensei, if you can hold him down, I can remove the demon from your friend."

"Got a better idea." Ranma's muscles tensed. "How about I just beat his ass until he lets go?"

Usagi blinked and opened her mouth to provide a counter argument, but the pigtailed teen was already gone in a blur. When she could finally track him clearly, his fist was buried in the stomach of the closest reptilian minotaur, sending the beast upwards with an audible 'oof!'. A hammer hand attempted to knock Ranma aside, but the martial artist intercepted the effort and leveraged it, throwing the demon to the ground. The second still mobile demon stepped in with a heavy downward stroke of its talons and Ranma simply batted them aside and unleashed a Moko Takabisha into his chest. The youma was blown up and back when the ki saturated sphere detonated.

His first opponent began to remove itself from the ground once more and this time it took a solid beam of golden light straight through its forehead just as Ranma was about to deliver a final punch. The demon staggered back and fell over anti-climatically, allowing the pig tailed teen a moment stare at the now disintegrating beast, then back down the vector of attack. Sailor Venus stood in place, her index finger pointed down range. She pulled back as if it were a gun and gave him a saucy wink for good measure.

Ranma couldn't help but to snort his amusement at her irreverent antics and turned back to the two remaining demons and their master, one Hikaru Gosunkugi. 'Time ta cut the head off this chicken,' He decided and glanced back at Sailor Moon. "Think you can handle these two?"

"Yes, Sensei!" The neo-princess was already powering up her attack with her sisters in arms following suit. Ranma nodded with the confirmation.

"Good," He decided, turning his attention fully on the demon Xang. "Cuz this asshole's mine."

"YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" The the possessed high schooler raged and conjured a fireball in hand. Ranma conjured a Moko Takabisha in his and the pair charged one another at high speed. Mana met Ki and detonated in a spectacular display of life force and magic even as the girls beyond concentrated their firepower on the two remaining mobile targets.

Blows were exchanged as the pair blurred across the battle torn streets, each exchanging either ki or mana as they did. Ranma kept in close and feinted, acting as if he were powering up another Moko Takabisha. Xang began to power up a fireball in turn, only to watch the teen's ki wink out of existence suddenly, leaving him overly committed with the spell. Ranma ducked around the fireball's intended launch in a burst of speed and pulverized the demon thrall's left flank with a fully uninterrupted volley of Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken enhanced punches.

Any buffer his spell armor may have provided instantly buckled under the three hundred punch assault, sending the fireball wildly away while opening the creature up to a more advanced combination like a can opener. Blow after blow tore into Hikaru as Ranma sent him tumbling down the street. The demon would try to get up and the martial artist would beat him down with damage that far outstripped his ability to heal. Xang took another roundhouse kick and tumbled across the street, barely remaining upright as his glowing opponent followed up.

"I won't... I won't be def-"

The backhand of all backhands ended Xang's resistance, sending the junior classman spinning through a bus stop billboard and into the store behind it with a crash. Saotome paused for a moment to check on the girls. The third demon had rejoined the battle and while they weren't exactly winning, they weren't losing either, which was good enough. He turned back to Xang's crash landing, walking around the mangled bus stop and through the ragged hole that served as the demon's entrance into the store. Ranma picked over the aluminum framework of the structure and climbed inside the shadowy darkness, finding the thrall crumpled against a shelving unit that used to house all manner of sporting goods. He kicked a hockey stick out of his path and stepped up to the ineffectually struggling creature.

Xang caught sight of him and thrust a claw out, creating an anemic fireball that only caused Ranma to favor him with a bland look that clearly communicated that the attack would hinder him in no way, shape, or form. Blue eyes leveled on the beaten demon. "Seriously now?"

There was something in the store particular susceptible to fires of any nature, however, and the outlet's sprinkler systems took particular offense to it. There was a hollow pop and the next thing Ranma knew, it was raining inside courtesy of half a dozen ceiling mounted nozzles. Ranma rolled his eyes as the cursed washed over him too fast to even think of overriding it. "Now see what ya did?"

Xang saw, alright. He now saw a shorter full figured redhead girl in translucent wet silks. More importantly, he saw whohe had done it to and the demon stiffened in spite of the pain wracking his possessed body. The fire in his hand fizzled and died as he scrambled to prostrate himself before her.

"Da-Daimakaichoko!"

Again with that weird name,Ranma puzzled, but prevented the curiosity from reaching her face. Instead, she affected an unamused countenance. "Yeah? And what of it?"

"I... We had no idea that you had claimed these grounds as your own!" It babbled, groveling before the martial artist pitifully. "Had we recognized your other form, we would have never-!"

"Ah, just shut up already." Ranma cut Xang off impatiently while trying to decide what exactly she was going to do with the creature now that her ass kicking had been derailed by the monster's suddenly pathetic nature. She flipped her wet pigtail back over her shoulder with her finger. "Ya really tore up the place, ya know that? And I really ain't particularly happy that you attacked my student."

"A thousand apologies, Daimakaichoko!" The demon whined, then was caught short upon realizing the magnitude of his trespass. "Your student?"

"Then again, it was pretty good training..." Ranma mused, tilting her head as another hearty crash echoed from outside.

Seeing a glimmer of hope that wouldn't end in a few hundred years of torture, Xang sought desperately to extricate himself from what was appearing to be a dire miscalculation. He had imposed on the Daimakaicho's favored and set foot upon her own field of culling. There was no good way that could possibly end well unless he seized the meager strand offered to him in her idle musing.

"Shall-Shall I release the thrall, Daimakaichoko-sama?"

Thrall? Ranma blinked. It took her a moment to realize what he was talking about since there was nobody else to release except his nuisance classmate. "You mean Gos?"

"Yes, Daimakaichoko!" The demon could barely keep his voice from quavering.

"I ain't so mad about that," Ranma shrugged. "Guy brought it upon himself. What were you gonna do with him anyway?"

"Consume him once our plans to take over the world had come to fruition." The infernal being answered carefully, only to have Ranma snort sarcastically at him.

"Yeah, that went real well, didn't it?" The redhead berated the idea even as the sprinkler system finally emptied of its reserve. The patter of water died off into lethargic drips. "I doubt you'd get past Yokosuka before stumbling upon somebody who'd kick your ass. I can name half a dozen people off the top of my head."

Are we that badly out-classed?Xang wondered soberly, but attempted to rise to his own defense. "This body can only channel so much power... It is truly pathetic."

"That's Gos for ya," The girl commented blandly. "Look, I ain't got time for ya now so get out of here." The demon began to slink off when her musings caught it anew. "On second thought, I may still want to keep ya around to help the girls spar though."

"You... You do?" No punishment? The demon blinked, surprised that he wouldn't be remanded to the lava pits. In fact, if he didn't know any better, he was being offered a position as her vassal... A position he'd be a fool not to take given her proximity to the Queen of the Damned. "Would you find it acceptable to use this 'Gos' to keep in contact?"

"You can do that?" Ranma arched an eyebrow in surprise as the demon carefully picked itself up from its groveling position.

"He is mine to consume," The thrall nodded, inclining his horned head respectfully. "Or not. Your convenience is mine."

"Alright, then let him stumble home or somethin'," The teen nodded amiably. "If I need ya I'll just...?"

"...Say my name in his presence, Master."

"Gotcha." Ranma nodded, somewhat pleased with the unlikely outcome. The redheaded girl glanced out the improvised entry way, cocking her hear to listen to the fighting still in progress. "Alright. I'm gonna kick your ass out and you're gonna order a showy retreat, got it? Girls ain't gonna learn much more from this so..."

Ranma grabbed Gosunkugi by the scruff of the collar, inciting a surprised squawk from her victim, then threw him back out the store the same way he came in. The demon bounced across the street and tumbled for a moment before the recovering his senses, cursing. He turned to the battle and a cursory glance appeared to favor his side. Alas,he grumbled but found it hard to insert too much animosity into the forced outcome. Not only was there a distinct lack of torture, but the Daimakaichoko herself had offered him a position within her power structure; a sign of favor if there ever was.

It made the decision even easier in the end.

"HELLSPAWN, RETREAT!"

His brethren stopped and stared as he had grown a second head. They were winning, after all. Xang's irritation began to grow. 'I will not lose favor because of these idiots!'"I said retreat, you morons! We have more pressing concerns to deal with than these girls!"

Three demons hesitated a moment longer before merely turning back to the guarded Senshi with a shrug, then severed their ethereal link to the prime material plane. The girls blinked surprise with the sudden cessation of hostilities and watched the infernal creatures spontaneously immolate themselves in separate angry pillars of fire. Xang held them with an angry glare for a final moment before snapping his fingers grandiosely through the air, disappearing in his own fires.

Ranma shifted back into his male aspect before stepping out, looking about as if trying to find his adversary. After a moment, he shrugged. "Well that was fun."

"But where did they go?" Jupiter likewise looked around just in case the teleportation by fire was simply a trick to lure them off guard.

"Where ever it is that evil demons go, I guess." Rei wondered, likewise glancing around and failing to find their adversaries as Ranma walked up to Usagi.

"Good moves. Gonna have to work on your footwork, maybe something a bit more advanced if you're gonna be playin' youma tag." He critiqued, looking the girl over, then smiled. "A bit too much reliance on the magical stuff, but we'll fix that too."

The neo-princess nodded with each point, playing the role of a surprisingly dutiful student in the eyes of the other girls as the pigtailed boy continued. "Anyway, we'll talk about it over ice cream." He gestured to the Mars, Venus and Jupiter. "You all too, once I find out who ya are."

"Maybe Mamoru can join us!" The blond effused, causing an almost imperceptible shadow to cross the martial artist's face. The girls likewise nodded with smiles at the promise of help. Ranma flashed them a weak one in return, but pulled Usagi subtly to the side.

"Sensei?" The girl inquired, puzzled and her teacher's voice dropped deliberately lower.

"And, um, when you get a chance I need to speak to you about somethin'." The martial artist hesitated, as if thinking something over as they threaded their way off the devastated street.

"About what, sensei?"

Her innocent tone almost made him want to call the entire thing off, but it was part in parcel to why he had to tell her in the first place. He twisted back around to glance at the other three, ensuring they were safely occupied in their chatter. "It's, um, private. About you and your boyfriend.."

Usagi's eyes widened, but she nodded her assent. Curiosity began to eat her alive.

---

The Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku looked out upon the streets of Nerima from the rooftop of the Neko Hanten; balanced perfectly atop a meter's length of gnarled wood as the orange rays of the setting sun traced through the modest skyline of the prefecture. It was, in her eyes, fitting symbolism representing their time in Tokyo and how the sun was also setting on the best laid plans. The Elder sighed as she reviewed the last two years and attempted to trace just where that plan had gone wrong.

Ranma Saotome had indeed proved to be the wild horse of his name sake, but even wild horses could be tamed. They merely required more patience and subtlety than the average male. Had he been that, Ranma's fate would have been sealed the moment Shampoo turned up naked in his futon; which she had already managed several times. She would have taken him with a few choice Amazonian pillow techniques and that would have been that.

But Ranma Saotome was not the average male. He was the premier martial artist of his generation. Worse, he knew it. Not only that, but fate had conspired against their operation at every turn. While Shampoo was a stunning example of womanhood, the martial artist was all but surrounded by prime specimens of physical beauty and most quite willing to bed him at the word 'go'. If that weren't enough, he himself harbored a curse that had done its best to strip the mysteries of womanhood from him and lay it all bare before him. His father had engaged him to females on end; most were formidable fighters in their own right. The child himself absorbed martial arts like a sponge, ensuring that there was no way for her great-granddaughter to catch up and potentially subdue him.

And now, it was looking like the time for subtlety was over.

Leading the martial artist around by the nose with techniques and undermining his confidence in those around him had worked well over the last two years, but something had happened in the last few months. Perhaps it was the encounter with Saffron. Perhaps the child had simply finally grown up and taken the blinders off. Perhaps... 'Perhaps many things,' the elder shook her head mentally with the admission. Too many things to count given the boy's life, but the use of Happosai this afternoon spoke of a marked shift in the Saotome dynamic. The pair had come to some accord and worse, the boy had the foresight to leverage that accord against her. In short, he was finally making his own decisions and after two years of keeping the child carefully reacting to fires and steering him in the direction that the Amazons chose, he had lit his own.

'Damn you, Happosai,' she cursed to the wind, hoping that it would somehow make its way to the singular force that had any hope of neutralizing her plans for the boy. Truthfully, it wasn't entirely his fault, but Cologne maintained a smoldering coal of anger in his name regardless. Happosai was merely her foil. It was Ranma who was finally deciding for himself and she could no longer play her game of shadows. 'At least not so brazenly,'Cologne thought. Her great-granddaughter was the sole remaining piece in play and she would have to be coached carefully to avoid forfeiting the martial artist entirely.

Cologne glanced back at the waiting Amazon and her lavender silks. "Tell me again what you saw last week. Leave no detail out."

"Airen was training a girl." Shampoo responded in mandarin. They were her first words in over a half hour as her great-grandmother meditated on their predicament. "Other girls were around but he only trained the one."

Cologne merely nodded and drove deeper. "Was he teaching Anything Goes?"

"No Great Grandmother," The purple haired girl recalled the day in question. "Basic martial arts. Tae Kwon Do and Kempo."

'No wedge to drive between him and Happosai, then,' the elder decided as she looked for tactical angles to play. "And his interactions with the girl?"

"Airen was a well behaved male," She reported, trying to keep her answers as detailed as possible for her grandmother's analysis. "He also refused the advances of the other women."

'Surrounded by yet more women, hmm, Son-in-law?' Cologne mused silently. It would have been more amusing if not for their current predicament. 'And can it be used to our advantage?'

The Amazonian elder thought deeply on the matter as the sun crawled slowly toward the horizon, sending a strand of clouds a-blaze in its final rays. 'His parents?' Cologne wondered but instantly discarded them. She had already done her level best to weaken what little respect the boy held for either his father or Soun Tendo. It was a well beaten horse in so far as leverage was concerned and one more whipping wouldn't produce the desired break.

'But there is one person we can always count on,'She smiled slightly. It would have been a disconcerting sight for those looking upon her in that moment, though only Shampoo bore witness and had but one question.

"What must be done, great-grandmother?"

"We will twist the knife one more time," Cologne began as a plan took shape. "Subtly, child. Your involvement must never come to light in this." She paused, ensuring she had the girl's full and complete attention. "You, of course, know whom I speak of?"

Shampoo nodded as her own pernicious smile took place. "I do, great-grandmother."

"Then go," Cologne ordered. "Allow her to learn what her fiancée has been up to. If she knows, we lose nothing. If she does not..."

"I have not seen her at any of the practice sessions." The younger Amazon confirmed. Cologne nodded, hoping their rival's absence from the practice indicated what she thought it did.

"...If she does not, then we may yet have the opportunity to watch their inane pact burn to the ground for good."

---

"He wouldn't do that." Usagi stated with certainty as she walked along side Ranma. The others had gone ahead to the Crown Arcade and now the pair took a longer route for their private discussion. Ranma merely nodded, already expecting the denial from his student and part time magical girl. "Mamoru is completely faithful."

"I know, I know," The pigtailed boy assuaged the odango'd blond as they turned the corner. A streetlight flickered to life; the result of the ever lengthening evening shadows falling across downtown Juuban. "I'm just tellin' ya what I saw."

"Then she must have been coming on to him." Usagi rationalized, prompting a sigh from Ranma.

"Wasn't like that," He shook his head, extracting a grumpy pout from the girl walking along side him. He attempted to explain his position further. I'm just lookin' out for my student and I ain't fond of Don Juans as it is. He was hittin' on her."

"But you never returned to get your books until a few days later." Usagi shook her head as if something didn't add up. "How could you have seen anything?"

"I was hiding, alright?" Ranma returned with a slightly testy edge to his voice then sighed as he realized his trespass. "It's not easy to explain."

Usagi nodded slightly, trying to rationalize her sensei's testimony with what she knew of her fiancé. Sure they had started out a bit rocky but that had changed over time, especially when they knew exactly who the other was. 'We were meant to be together,' The schoolgirl rationalized and turned her attention back to Mamoru's defense. "He's been nothing but a complete gentleman through our relationship, Sensei. I believe you, but I know him."

"Yeah, it's askin' a lot," Ranma admitted as he tried to find a way around their respective impasse. "Would it help if I knew the girl and vouched for her character?"

"Maybe she just likes him," Usagi winked. "My Mamoru is devastatingly handsome."

"I don't like him like that!" Ranma protested forcefully, then caught the girl's wide eyed stare and quickly back peddled. "I mean... That's not what I mean!" The staring continued and Ranma finally stopped on the sidewalk with a thoroughly defeated look. "Alright, Usagi-chan. I got somethin' to tell you. Somethin' I've been keeping from ya."

Usagi nodded slowly, taking in her teacher's antics and coming to her own conclusion. "Does... Does Akane know?"

"She knows," Ranma answered heavily and shook his head. "Look, this ain't the easiest for me."

Usagi's expression brightened suddenly and she wrapped the pigtailed boy in an unexpected hug. "It's okay, Sensei!"

Ranma blinked, looking down at the blond wrapped around him. "It... It is? But you don't even know..."

"Haruka and Michiru are the same way." Usagi gave him one more reassuring squeeze before releasing the befuddled martial artist. She tisked him with obvious playfulness. "But my Mamouru-kun is off the market, so you can look but not touch."

"Look but not..." Ranma mouthed the words, blinking several times before coming to the most obvious conclusion in horror. "IT AIN'T LIKE THAT!"

A couple of pedestrians stared as they walked by, ensuring they took a wider path around the pair and their disconcerting outburst. Usagi likewise stared and Ranma's brain fought for a coherent explanation, constructing it on the fly. "Look, you know how you're a magical girl and ya don't want everybody in the world to know it, right?"

The blond girl nodded slowly and Ranma continued. "It's kinda like that."

"Kind of like what?" The neo-princess pressed, seeking clarification.

"Like your magical girl thing." Ranma confirmed. Usagi's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"You're saying you're a magical girl?" She cocked her head, clearly confused now. Ranma frowned as his frustration mounted.

"No. I mean yes. Kinda." He temporized back and forth before settling on an explanation, heaving a labored sigh. "Alright, just watch and promise me you won't jump to some stupid idea, okay?"

Usagi nodded hesitantly as Ranma waited until another group of pedestrians had passed. Once they had done so the blond's eyes suddenly widened in disbelief as her teacher's physic suddenly melted; loosing height and gaining curves that could only belong to that of the opposite sex. A whispered gasp overtook her as she watched his hair brighten to a bright crimson and the clothing slacken along Ranma's new frame, prompting the newly formed girl to pull it taught. Even Ranma's eyes had gained a clearer shade of blue and they watched Usagi, waiting for a reaction from the girl. The pigtailed girl didn't have to wait long.

"You look just like-! But She's-! We-!" Usagi took a step back, her gaze flicking from head to toe and back, then snapped her mouth shut as her brain underwent a mental reboot. Her next question came with an uncertain note attached to it. "R-Ranma?"

"...Saotome," The martial artist finished for the befuddled magical girl, her serious expression gaining a slight edge of mischief. "Sorry about this."

"I wasn't expecting... That," Usagi finished with an unnatural pause, staring at the newly formed girl . She began to step around Ranma, as if officially inspecting her. "You... You're a Starlight?"

"No idea what that is, so probably not." Ranma shook her head and decided to tackle the more salient points of her transformation for her student. "I was born a guy and this all started off as a Chinese curse. Had it for two years before a friend of mine gave me some control over it."

"Chinese curse?" Usagi's head tilted, still staring. "So you're not a magical girl either?"

'Not unless you count McDowell-san's lessons,' Ranma snorted mentally, but kept that detail to herself. "Nah. Just regular 'ol me."

The blond nodded reluctantly as the shock wore off. Her silence hadn't gone unnoticed and Ranma's cheerful expression slipped into one of doubt. Usagi noticed and hastened to rectify any misunderstanding. "I mean... It's just that you look like somebody I know. Knew."

"Heh," Ranma's cheer began to return. "Another Japanese chick with red hair? That I've gotta see."

"Heh." Usagi mimicked, but without the same note of humor. In her mind, thoughts began to chain into one another with clarity born of shock. Pieces began to fall into place as they revisited the previous topic. "And you were there? With Mamoru?"

There was no missing the emphasis placed on the word you, assuring Ranma that her current gender identity was the focus. "Yeah, 'me' the redhead. I forgot which body I was wearin' and stopped by to get my books that day."

'Forgot what body you were wearing?' It sounded just as ridiculous when Usagi repeated it from the privacy of her thoughts, but set the oddity aside in favor of the more important matters. "And he came on to you?"

"Yeah, and trust me; I've had enough experience in guys comin' on to me." A look that mixed displeasure and pensiveness overtook the redhead's features. From anybody else, the girl's claim might have sounded like boasting, but this one actually was a guy and had a fiancée to boot. Setsuna had even recommended him, which at least implied the woman had known all of this ahead of time. The thought that Ranma wanted Mamoru for himself- herself-was briefly entertained before being discarded as ridiculous. Blue eyes once again waited for her to sort through her thoughts, this time all but predicting them. "Want me to to start again?"

"Um, yes. Please." The confused neo-princess confirmed and the pair began to walk once more.

Half an hour later, Ranma was on his own wondering if he had made the right decision as he walked home alone through the falling night. Usagi-chan's confusion had turned to dismay the more he told of her boyfriend's transgressions, but the girl hadn't quite dissolved into the heart broken mass that he was all but sure would result. His student had held herself together, quietly nodding with each damning piece of evidence that Ranma brought to bear.

Better than some of the chicks I know, he decided and honored her request for some time alone. That was for the best. It was shaping up to be another late night and by that point it was already well past time to get back to the dojo. Any later and he would be facing Nabiki's interrogation and subsequent extraction of funds from his person. The martial artist spared a moment to berate her interference as he turned the corner, catching sight of the dojo property wall and gates.

'And now if the old man doesn't give me a ration of shit, it'll be perfect,' the martial artist thought as he hopped over the gates, pausing a-top the wall itself to look for his father. Neither man nor panda was present, encouraging him further as he landed on the interior grass and walked up to the door. A quick sniff of the ambient atmosphere brought a smile to his face. 'Dumplings,' he guessed and his mouth began to water.

He clicked the door open and stepped into the hallway, sliding out of his shoes and then proceeded into the living room where he found his fiancée waiting. He favored her with a nod and she smiled back. Everything seemed alright, but the martial artist couldn't help but to wonder. There was food and by the sound in the dining room, it had obviously been served, so...

"Already eaten, 'Kane?"

The girl shook her head and the pleasant smile remained. "I was just waiting for you."

Ranma puzzled at the comment and the smile, but took both at face value with cheer. "Well here I am, so let's go eat."

His fiancée chose to flip through the magazine on her lap instead. "How was your day?"

"Ah, pretty good." Ranma answered thoughtlessly. The girl smiled amiably and flipped a page. The smile flickered for the briefest of moments and the pigtailed boy was wondering if he'd even seen it at all as her next question came.

"So where were you?"

The subtle hint of danger began to make its presence known as Ranma considered the question, then the now unusually smiling girl who had yet to move from the couch. Had he not been a martial artist or been in close proximity to the girl for the last two years, he wouldn't have noticed the trickle of hostility boiling beneath the crafted smile. As such his answer was carefully neutral. "Was out."

"Out where?" The question still harbored an innocent tone, but the smile had dropped from Akane's face, confirming what his senses had been telling him since stepping into the room.

"Out." He elaborated hesitantly. "With friends."

"What sort of friends?" She asked as the innocent facade was slowly stripped from her demeanor. Her gaze narrowed on him suspiciously and Ranma knew that somehow she knew and was going to rake him over the coals for it. A month ago, he might have let her. A month ago, he hadn't been ass deep in trying to make things work.

A month ago, it wasn't quite so old as it was at that very moment and the girl's demeanor reopened a wound that had been steadily ignored throughout the day.

"What, I ain't allowed to have friends now?" He retorted, unwilling to play the game of conversational insinuation any longer. He was rewarded as Akane's face took on an unpleasant countenance.

"Girl friends, Ranma!" She balked bolting up off the couch as if freed from the chains of acting. The magazine flopped to the floor and she nearly stepped on it. "You've been out with girlfriends!"

"And this why I didn't tell ya in the first place!" Ranma reacted to her tone, this time unwilling to back down. 'I'm not a pervert!' the thought screamed from his mind, hardening his resolve. "Why do ya always got to jump to the worst conclusion?"

"Because you're always proving me right!" The girl stomped around the living room table to confront her fiancé directly. Family began to lean into the dining room entryway to watch the commotion, but neither paid them any mind. "I'm tired of the fiancées, Ranma! I'm tired of competing for you! What were you doing with those floozies anyway?"

"They ain't floozies and I was only teachin' one of em martial arts!" Ranma snapped. He was done backing down and stepped fully into the offensive. "Got a problem with that?"

"Oh, so it's okay to teach some random slut martial arts, but not me?" Akane hissed back as her insecurities took a hit. Her eyes glinted dangerously now. "How many women do you plan on stringing along?"

"And how long are you gonna ignore the obvious, tomboy?" Ranma snarked back, causing the girl's jaw to clench in barely contained fury. "When have I ever touched any of 'em? Why the hell can't ya just trust me for once?"

"Trust you?" Akane all but shrieked now. "You're a pervert! A transvestite! God knows what you're doing when people aren't watching! You can'tbe trusted! You can't even be trusted with your own cure!"

Something about that statement sliced through Ranma's thoughts like a molecular knife, stalling out his anger and indignation to focus on it and it alone. "My own cure?"

"You destroyed the Nannichuan and the wedding, just like you destroy everything you touch!" Akane continued heedlessly, completely unaware of the cliff she was driving toward at full steam. "You probably would have destroyed it sooner if I had let you know about it!"

All thought stopped in the martial artist's brain with that single revelation. He stared at the girl as if she were now something to be wary of. "You... You knew?"

"And I was right!" Akane proclaimed as if her logic was the lynch pin to her victory. You and your fiancées destroyed everything!"

She struck her hands to her hips and waited for the martial artist's response. Ranma just stared as her words replayed over and over in her mind until they were replaced by a single statement laced with disbelief. "You knew."

"Of course I knew, idiot." Akane rolled her eyes. "And if-"

"You kept the cure... addressed to me... a secret?" Ranma's voice took on a harsher edge as the full import of what had actually happened during the wedding became crystal clear.

"It was for the best," Akane folded her arms imperviously, ignoring the dangerous note inherent in the pigtailed teen's voice. "Father was-"

"IT WASN'T YOUR GODDAMN CASK!" The dam of emotional betrayal suddenly burst as Akane's continued denial hammered the last conversational nail into the coffin. It didn't even matter that a cure was completely unnecessary by that point in the wedding. What did matter is that the girl before him had bent him over time and time again. If Hild hadn't already given him control of the curse, the girl before would have cost him another cure, this time on purpose. Akane's mouth opened up in rebuttal but the martial artist overrode her before she could get a word in edgewise.

"How many times, Akane?" Ranma leaned fully into her personally space, nearly nose to nose with the girl now. "How many times have I saved you from kidnappers? How many times have I saved this fuckin' dojo? How many times have I bailed all yas out from crap and you still don't trust me?"

"DON'T TALK LIKE THAT TO MY LITTLE-"

Soun's demonic visage roared to life and poured into the living room, only to meet a low powered Moko Takabisha in the face. The technique dispelled with a dull thump and Soun Tendo was sent staggering back, but Ranma never took his glacial gaze off the girl in front of him. "Well?"

"How can I trust you, you pervert?" Akane recovered from her shock and leaned back on the only form or reconciliation she knew. "I saw you kiss Ryoga! I saw how you wanted to buy that dress! You wanted to hold my hand as a girl! God knows what you're doing with that body while we're not looking!"

Pervert. Homosexual. Idiot. Moron.The names slapped him time and time again as they were recalled in their voice of origin. Each iteration killed of any feeling he had for the girl in front of him until it became a visible sneer on his face. "Yeah, well at least I ain't takin' piglet to bed every night."

The insinuation was clear, even if Akane never realized its fullest measure. A snarl overtook her features and she wound back a hand. "You bastard!"

The youngest Tendo put her full force behind what promised to be a brutal slap only to have it yanked to a stop by Ranma's own hand. Akane's eyes widened as she tried to force the blow, but found her wrist rooted in concrete. Ranma shook his head and stared into her own enraged expression without remorse. Another insult was making its rounds to his tongue when a single word stopped its formation.

"SON!"

Ranma blinked, his anger denied its heat by the single word from his mother. She stepped fully into the living room with a displeased look. He looked from his mother, to Akane and back, then let his fiancée go to confront her. "I ain't apologizing for it."

"Nor would I expect you to." Nodoka confirmed, causing Akane to all but gasp with betrayal. "A wife should know her place, something young Akane still needs to learn."

Ranma blinked in surprise. On one hand, his mother had just dealt him a decisive victory. On the other, her stern visage remained, all but assuring him she wasn't done yet. Her next question confirmed the fact. "But I would also expect her husband to behave as one. Is it true?"

"Is what true?" The pigtailed teen fought for understanding as his mental state attempted to reorganize itself after dealing with Akane.

"That you are engaging in unmanly activities with your curse?" The Saotome matriarch pressed in a tone that spoke of complete seriousness.

Ranma blinked then frowned, gesturing to Akane. "Not like princess there thinks."

"That's not an answer, Son." His mother drove straight to the point as both ignored Akane's sour look. "Dresses?"

"Ah, kinda." Ranma admitted. The unamused look across Nodoka's face became more serious and the martial artist hastened to shore up his answer. "But that was only for fun!"

"Flirting with other men?"

"Not like that!" Ranma protested. "I mean me and Hild-san only did it to-"

"Kissing?" This time Ranma could hear the direness in the question and it advertised her displeasure clearly.

"Ah, only on accident." He admitted, suddenly finding the carpeting far more interesting than his mother's unyielding gaze.

"I see." Nodoka's gaze continued to bore into her son. She studied his meek demeanor for another moment before passing judgment. "In other words, the curse appears to be corrupting your manly nature. This is unacceptable. Genma."

Ranma looked up, wondering where his mother was going with her condemnation as she turned toward her significant other. Genma began to watch his life flash before his eyes as his wife called him to task. She wasn't in a kimono, nor did she have a blade in hand, but the woman in a simple house dress was still a potent threat to the man.

"This is partially your responsibility, husband." She continued in a voice that would brook no interruption. "You and Ranma will set out on a mission to find a cure. You will not return until one is found, is that clear?"

"Mom?"
"Nodoka-chan!"

"You will ensure his behavior his manly," She ignored the protests of her husband and child, favoring both with a cool gaze. "Once a cure is found, you may return and your plans for the dojo may proceed." Akane was nearly grinning until Nodoka's gaze turned upon her. "In the mean time, I will ensure that Akane Tendo receives remedial education in the art of womanhood."

Genma Saotome stared at his wife in horror as he envisioned another ten year trip on the road searching for a cure. He had the good life here and now he was being forced out on what could potentially be a fruitless quest, especially when the boy- The bald martial artist's eyes widened and the words slipped from his mouth even as the desperate plan was formed.

"The boy has a cure!" Genma blurted. Ranma's wide eyed stare fixated on him as his father sandbagged him yet again, but the man continued regardless. "I can instruct him on manliness from home!"

Even Akane stared at Ranma now, clearly surprised that not only was there a cure, but her part time fiancée had declined to actually use it. Nodoka's interruption that tore Ranma's glare away from Genma Saotome. "Is this true, son?"

"Ah, yeah?" The martial artist admitted hesitantly. Nodoka nodded as a course of action solidified.

"Then you will use it." She state in no uncertain terms. "From this point forward, you will never be seen again in your cursed form. Genma-dear will instruct you on manly behavior from home and I will enroll you in an all boys school, do you understand?"

Ranma stared at the woman called his mother in complete silence as a torrent of thoughts waged a war for supremacy along the limited neural bandwidth available to his stunned intellect. "But... I..."

"Just say yes, boy!" Genma whispered in a hiss. Ranma continued to gaze upon her.

"Son?"

The heavy words slipped from his lips and his heart without thought. "What if... I... can't?"

Nodoka Saotome blinked, failing to understand the question he had posed. "Preposterous. You have a cure. You can and willuse it."

Technically she was right, some portion of Ranma's brain admitted. He had complete control over the curse thanks to Hild-san and could even lock it if he wanted to. It was also a technicality drowning in a sea of reality that wasn't so clear cut. The curse was fun thanks to a good friend. He had grown used to it. He had control over it. It was no longer the water born nuisance it once was. Ranma couldn't help but to think that sealing it now would be like cutting off an arm or a leg... He was thatused to it, and now his mother... What would she do if...

The pigtailed teen finally found focus, his voice regaining some measure of certainty. He recomposed the question he very nearly afraid to ask again. "But what if? What if the cure doesn't work? What if there isn't one out there?"

"You are my manly son." Nodoka confirmed and for that singular moment, Ranma Saotome found hope. It was crushed by her next statement. "Of course you will find a cure."

Ranma's mouth opened and closed as a dozen thoughts formed and reformed before settling into the same question. "But what if I can't? What if I won't?"

"The curse is unacceptable." She stated, missing the new component he had posed to her. "Your cure will work or you will find one."

It was like talking to a brick wall and Ranma realized there were no other possible alternatives according to his mother's logic. The martial artist stared at her for another lengthy moment of silence before his voice returned. He turned to the other occupants for any form of support.

"Kasumi?" She merely watched, completely willing to sit this one out. Her younger sister and father likewise watched. Genma was violently shaking his head in an effort to wave him off from his current course, but that was to be expected. Ranma turned to Akane. Her wide eyes made it clear she had understood the meaning of his last question, but wouldn't be offering up her assistance either. Pervert. Transvestite. Idiot. Another little piece of him died and Ranma finally turned back to his mother. "M...Mom?"

"Use your cure, dear." She returned in a motherly tone. It was a tone that insisted by its very nature that everything would be all right. "Then you can join us for dinner."

A cold feeling settled over Ranma's body; a numbness that seeped to his very core as the actual meaning of her words sank in. Sadness, regret, betrayal and anger roiled within the boy, all dissolving into absolute impotence. Again, Hild's words rang true.

There will come a day when there are no good choices left.

"Sure... I'll... I'll be right back." Ranma nodded weakly and turned to leave the room. The martial artist left their sight and a door clicked closed.

It wasn't until two minutes later that they realized that it was the front door.

---

An unfamiliar sound greeted the of Queen of the Damned as she stepped up to her office door, causing her slight pause as she considered what lay beyond. The wooden medium between herself and the space beyond muffled its auditory components slightly, but that didn't hinder her recognition in any way. Hild cast a concerned sidelong glance to her secretary, who merely nodded with her own concerned look. The Daimakaicho's glance flicked back to the door momentarily.

"How long?"

"Half an hour, Hild-sama." The demoness reported, glancing at the door herself. "I've ensured she hasn't been disturbed."

Hild simply nodded, the report meeting her satisfaction and the door opened with a mere thought. The white haired demoness stepped in while her lavender eyes carefully scanned the scene that met her. For the most part, it was still her office, left unmolested save the sole occupant there in.

Her normally unoccupied desk was occupied at the moment. Several large books lay opened to various pages, invariably surrounding a redhead girl engaged in the most unlikely of activities. In fact it was one she had never seen her charge engage in during their months of friendship. Another sob wracked the girl, whose face was buried in the protective curl of her arms. Hild frowned and crossed the plush carpet quietly, moving alongside the desk where she began to carefully close the large leather volumes one by one as the girl continued to sniffle oblivious to her activity. The last book was closed and a her richly tanned hand settled lightly on the girl's red mane and began to stroke it gently.

Another sob was choked back into a half sniffle as the girl realized another was present. Ranma raised her head from the desk and turned her gaze toward the only other person who could realistically be found in the same office. Hild's frown deepened as she found the girls' normally crystal blue eyes dulled, set in puffy red flesh that indicated just how long she had been crying. Her mouth opened but the Daimakaicho but a single finger to her lips and pulled her red head into the warmth of her body where the crying renewed in earnest. Pink and black lycra began to damen with the tears.

She let the child in her arms cry it out for several more minutes before speaking to her softly. "Loss is something I am well versed in Ranma-chan. There was a day long ago when I lost everything. My love, my station, my world; all gone."

Sniffling replaced the depressed sobbing as Ranma fought to concentrate on Hild's words. She slowly pulled herself away from the woman to look upon her directly, wiping away another line of tears that she had been unable to stop for well over thirty minutes now.

"My world was gone that day," She continued softly, brushing the bangs from Ranma's eyes. The pain and regret were clear in her voice, but she continued regardless. "Even my daughter had forsaken me."

Ranma could see it all in her eyes and she knew that the woman next to her knew. Her own testimony spilled forth in the presence of a kindred soul. "I... They... I ain't what they want... Not even Mom..."

"They cannot see you for who you are," Hild nodded knowingly. "The angry Tendo girl cannot see past her own myopic view of the world, while your father wallows in gluttony at the expense of everybody around him. Pride constricts your mother to any possibility beyond that what she expects of you."

"But... can't they see?" The girl shook her head and thumped her bosom. "I'm still Ranma in here! It's just a body! It's like they can't... they can't..."

"They cannot Ranma-chan," The Grand Demoness confirmed gently but firmly. "They are crippled by their sin and it colors their every action just as yours does you."

"M-Mine?" The redhead blinked, momentarily jarred from her depression by the observation.

"Pride, of course," She patted the girl's head with a smile. "Not unjustifiably so, but pride none the less. There is none without sin, child. Even the eldest Tendo girl."

The mere mention of her brought back the stinging memory of Kasumi and her complete reluctance to intervene at any point. She just watched! Part of her snarled, while another realized just how many times over the last two years she could have intervened, but hadn't.

"Envy." Hild correctly interpreted the flash of pain then anger across Ranma's face. "She plays the perfect home maker while secretly coveting the lives of others, yet fails to do what is required to break those chains. Apathy is now her sole comfort. If she cannot be bothered to lift a finger to help her sisters in any meaningful way, why would she do so for you?"

"Don't mind Akane... She's just a violent maniac."Kasumi's voice filtered through her mind and Ranma's head nodded slowly with the brutal analysis of the Tendo's condition. Understanding didn't lessen the pain however, and it all came back to the horrible reality that any illusion of a happy ending had been blown clean away, revealing the ugly reality beneath.

"I can't... can't be what they want me ta be..."

She had known that fact the moment she had stepped out of the Tendo household, but this was the first time she had dared to speak it aloud and it seemed to add some measure of finality to the heartbreak within. In that moment she knew she had changed... Changed too much to be truly be accepted within the household. 'Even by mom,' she thought bitterly. She would be tolerated yes, but accepted for who she was and who she had become? Glistening eyes turned back to Hild's soft lavender.

"I...I can't go back, can I?" The very admission nearly choked her up and she could feel her chest tighten as another round of sobbing threatened to take hold. Not even the denial that she was a man and men didn't cry held any weight in that moment. For her part, Hild held her with a solemn look, staring down at the frail girl for several long seconds.

This was the moment she had been waiting for since the beginning if she would have gone with the original plan to reshape the girl into a toy for her own amusement. Ranma as she was now was waiting to be broken, manipulated and reforged; to dance to the Daimakaicho's whim and enjoy every moment of it. Even Asgard expected such an outcome, generally believing that the martial artist had irrevocably fallen into her clutches.

And she had.

Just the Daimakaicho had fallen into Ranma's.

That scheme had ceased to exist months ago and now where an easily manipulated child now stood before her, Hild saw anything but. Her eyes drifted across the desk to a simple folded piece of paper sitting beneath a designer glass orb paperweight. The memory of its receipt prompted a fond smile to find its way to her face. The Queen of the Damned returned to the helpless girl and stroked her hair once more, then held out a waiting hand. The redhead looked at it with the slightest of uncertainty, but took it regardless and Hild's smile grew.

"Come with me, child," She stated and Ranma stood up, following the white haired woman out from behind the desk then the office door past Hild's demonic secretary. Amanda paused in her paperwork activities to watch the pair exit and Ranma soon found herself in a familiar demonic horse drawn carriage with Hild, who seemed to be humming pleasantly.

After a few minutes of travel down the major metropolis that represented the administrative district of Hell, curiosity finally overcame Ranma's sorrow and she asked the all too obvious question. "Ah, Where we going, Hild-san?"

The clack of the horses fiery hooves measured out time and Hild turned a patient, if amused look upon the redhead. "You'll see."

The horse drawn carriage turned a corner and Ranma did see; specifically she saw the curvature of a massive three pronged spire that stretched into the cavern's sky. Her blue eyes traced the dancing twine of green energy as it floated lethargically skyward and through a hole in the cavern's stone roof. The Nidd-somethin' Ranma remember from her last ride through the streets of Niflheim. Only this time, it wasn't some monument on the horizon. This time, they were taking what looked like a central road directly to it. The martial artist shot a questioning glance back to Hild, but the woman merely smiled as their forward progress continued unabated.

Their route took them under several over engineered arches, all featuring gothic scenes cut into their black stones, while the roadway itself was lined with gargoyle and angelic statues, seemingly locked in eternal combat. Ranma's head twisted on a swivel with each new sight, at least until she realized something important. She turned back to the silently amused Daimakaicho.

"You coulda just zapped us there." The martial artist observed, only to watch Hild snicker.

"Then would have been deprived of the pleasure in seeing all of the unusual expressions you have created between here and there." Ranma cast an exaggerated sniff at her humor, but returned to the sights none the less.

The Nidhogg now towered skyward, dwarfing them in its shadow as the clomping of hooves continued until they were brought to its very gates. Ranma's first impression as she hopped off the carriage was that of an elaborate temple from some action movie, while Hild took the lead. Scores of mostly humanoid demonic sentries snapped to rigid attention with her presence and Ranma followed as a pair of black obsidian doors opened soundlessly for her. After a short hallway, another pair of doors opened and Ranma was treated to the sight of a veritable army of demons engaged in a flurry of activity. Most were stationed at a myraid of holographic terminals, performing some operation that was undoubtedly important to... Somethin'Ranma guessed without a clue.

"The nerve center of Hell," Hild gestured for Ranma's benefit, prompting the girl to slow her pace in studied awe. "Here is where contracts are processed and the damned are assimilated. It is also our primary communications link to the Nidhogg's counterpart in Heaven."

"Heaven's got one of these too?" The redheaded girl blinked as she paused to stare, then shook her head. "Figures I guess."

"Indeed," Hild chuckled and continued the tour. Ranma watched as the demons prostrated themselves as their leader passed but the Daimakaicho paid them and their occasional groveling little mind as she lead her charge deeper into the complex. The path led to the center of the control room where Hild stepped on a two meter wide circular platform, then beckoned Ranma to join her.

Once on board, it shivered slightly then lifted skyward, leaving the control center below as platform ascended in a lazy spiral toward a balcony that oversaw the entire complex. The transport locked into place with a slight click even while Ranma stared off the edge, watching the activity that now looked like so many ants below. Hild stepped off onto the balcony and the click of her heels, drew the redhead's attention to her original reason for having accompanied the woman to begin with. She followed the Daimakaicho into an alcove, whose dominant feature was a blood red crystal nearly as tall as she. The artifact floated above the room's gold-tiled floor. Symbols etched into the tiles glowed bright blue, arranged in a circle around the crystal itself and Hild stepped within their circumference, beckoning Ranma to follow.

"This is the Nidhogg's Primary Interface Node accessible only by myself and no other." The grand demoness gestured to the faceted red crystal, then presented her to the crystal itself. "Nidhogg, meet Ranma Saotome."

An eerie hum filled the chamber and the crystal pulsed with a soft glow as Ranma stared. The air between her and the crystal suddenly shimmered and her own two dimensional image was conjured before her very eyes. Within the holographic image, a smaller picture of her male aspect sat and paragraphs of indecipherable text began to scroll out along right boarder.

Ranma arched an eyebrow as the text began to gain density and bulk. She stared, then glanced back to Hild. "It knows me?"

"The Nidhogg knows everybody." She explained, circling around the martial artist to step up next to her. She turned her attention to the crystal. "Command line."

Ranma's picture was instantly swept away and replaced by blank air holding a single blinking cursor. A holographic keyboard materialized at Hild's outstretched hands. The redhead next to her watched the woman began to type lines of nonsensical symbols into the air, to which the blinking prompt would occasionally produce its own similarly formatted responses.

After a solid minute of typing, Hild paused and turned back to Ranma looking down at the shorter girl. A maternal smile found its way to her face before speaking. "You asked me something back in the office and this is my answer."

Ranma stared without comprehension, though the Daimakaicho hadn't expected any as she continued. "Yes, you can go back. You can go back to the Tendos, to your mother and father and hope that things may yet change despite all evidence to the contrary. You can go back, but..."

Now Ranma was becoming concerned as emotion hung heavily in the woman's voice. "Hild-san?"

"...But I have grown quite fond of you." Hild admitted hesitantly, as if the very words had cost her something. A warm feeling began to replace the coldness that had seized Ranma's stomach for the better part of the night, but she still didn't know what the woman was driving at until her next words were spoken.

"You could go back, but I would rather you did not." Hild took Ranma's hand once more. "I would rather you stayed with me. As my own."

Ranma's eyes widened as Hild's meaning was fully realized in her consciousness, creating an impossible tangle of thoughts and words in the process. "But...That's... You... What about...!"

"Urd will always be flesh and blood, but like your family, she does not accept me for who and what I am," Hild shook her head with the sad reminiscence, but it faded with a look that spoke of hope. "But you have become the closest thing to a daughter, and a son, that I could ever hope for. If you are willing, I would like to formalize that bond."

"I... I don't know ta say," Ranma now had a look that roughly equated to that of a deer stuck in the headlights of an eighteen wheeled semi. She stared at the patiently waiting woman before his eyes wandered to the terminal she had been typing at. Sudden enlightenment struck her. 'The Nidhogg manages the Super Force,' she realized, remembering Hild's earlier explanation. 'The Force is a piece of reality.'

The scope of Hild's proposition almost cause Ranma's jaw to drop.

It also caused a swell of pride. Another emotion flooded in to replace the betrayal and it was one that Ranma hadn't felt in a verylong time, and she wondered if that was what Hild was feeling as well. Hild merely smiled as she watched the martial artist stare in awe. "Do you understand now? One press of his key will rewrite existence. You will become my son and daughter, and I your mother. Any evidence that you were born a Saotome will cease to exist. Those closest to you may remember your association to them, but as to the rest..."

Ranma's eyes traced down Hild's tan arm, to its jeweled hand and along the fingertip. Below it, the keyboard hovered and one key in particular blinked softly. The prospect of what she was suggesting was simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying; Somebody was willing to rewrite realityjust because they cared so much for her, not for who she was expected to be. Nobody had ever offered her so much. Not her friends. Not the Tendos. Not even her father or the very girl she was supposed to have married.

The redhead's hand reached out slowly for Hild's, captured it in her own and slowly pulled it away from the keyboard. Resolute acceptance began to form on the Daimakaicho's face until that same hand disengaged from hers and found the key for itself. The warm smile of acceptance upon Ranma's lips told her everything.

Beep.

Niidhogg Access Tier One: Hild
Command Line, record Ranma Saotome
...Pulling Geneology. Done.

Mother: Saotome, Nodoka
...Status - Read Only.
Father: Saotome, Genma
...Status - Contested.

Transfer Request Initiated.
...Ranma /mortal /true
...Hild /daimakaicho /true

Dual lockout in effect. Polling Dublet...
Nidhogg approves.
waiting...
waiting...
Yggdrasil approves.

[WARNING] Direct changes to root systems will update the Supreme Force in Real Time. This change cannot be undone or restored! Do you want to continue? Press command key to Commit, any other key to Abort.

Three hundred and eighty million files were processed the moment Ranma Saotome touched the Nidhogg's keyboard again as the super computer and its counterpart in heaven began to propagate the updates across their respective databases. The entire operation was complete in less than a fifth of a second, leaving Ranma to watch the red crystal glow in anticipation, then puzzle over its sudden cessation of activity. The girl cocked her head, then looked about the room for any other evidence of activity. She had felt the slightest of tingling, but beyond that...

"Ah, that's it?" Ranma looked up at Hild, who in turn smile mischievously for her benefit.

"You were perhaps expecting to sign a contract? Maybe to be drained of your ki, die and have it replace with mana or something similarly complex and completely unnecessary?" The woman snickered.

"Yeah?" Ranma admitted only to have Hild pull her into a warm embrace.

"Nonsense, my daughter." The Daimakaichō kissed the top of the girls red head. Ranma tensed momentarily, but relaxed into her embrace as she heard her new title spoken aloud, banishing any fears she harbored over the process. "Theatrics are unnecessary. I am your mother now, just as you are my child. Nothing else is required beyond formalizing the bond."

"Ah, gotcha, Hild-sa-" A single tanned finger found her lips, causing the martial artist to smile slightly with the correction. "Yeah, Mom. Got it."

"Of course you do." The white haired demoness smiled maternally, then paused. "There are still details to be taken care of here and there. I will summon Mara to guide you through them. I however, must take care of a few loose ends myself."

"Sounds doable." Ranma smiled. It was the first time in months that she could honestly say that the smile was genuine, not something laced with ego as a front for the world to see. It was a lightheartedness Hild shared for the first time in millennia. All was right with the world.

Almost.

---

The patter of rain danced across the Tendo household, causing Kasumi Tendo the slightest pause as she stared out the kitchen window and the sheets rain that raked the dojo beyond. The world flashed and a bassy rumble accompanied the peal of lightning seconds later. Its reverberation caused her dishes to tremble slightly and the Tendo was grateful that she had done all her shopping before the storm front rolled in. The falling water invariably brought her to thoughts of Ranma as she idly wondered where the martial artist wandered off to last night. He was undoubtedly a 'she' in that sort of downpour, Kasumi decided in a rare moment of humor and continued to wash the dish in hand.

Outside the gates of the Tendo property, there was another being considering Ranma's welfare with substantial more weight than those within and she prepared to exact retribution upon their household. Before her, three others attempted to sway her from her course. They were the Norns and they stood before the Daimakaicho in a last ditch effort to appeal to her conscience.

"But everybody deserves a chance at salvation, Hild-sama," Belldandy pleaded with the woman who stared impassively at the house just beyond her person. The Grand Demoness arched a skeptical eyebrow and focused on the woman barring her path.

"In that we are in agreement, Bell-chan," Hild nodded, surprising the Goddess. A grin took over her features, however, assuring Belldandy that they weren't at all on the same page. "Everybody does deserve a chance at salvation. She has had hers and now she is mine."

"And you think the gender jock is going to approve of this?" Urd pushed back at her mother's logic from a different angle. There was something going on between the pair. What it was she had no idea, but it might just make the difference in the here and now.

"Approve? Perhaps. Perhaps not." The Grand Demoness tilted her head thoughtfully. "But my daughter will certainly understand."

"I don't approve of this at all!" Urd shot back in frustration, unable to comprehend her mother's logic concerning her person. "I sure as heck don't understand this or you!"

Hild favored her biological daughter with a measure of mirth. "No, you wouldn't, would you?"

"Just leave them alone, Hild!" Skuld inserted for lack of a more substantial argument and the woman in question simply laughed.

"I will not 'just leave them alone'." Hild disagreed and the space around her steadily began to darken. Lightning cut through the sheets of rain, casting her in an evil light as she stared back down upon the Goddess of the Future. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, little goddess. I shall take all of these and more."

Skuld shivered with the sight and Urd pulled her sister back protectively. Hild held her sinister smile even as Belldandy renewed her own attempt at negotiations. "I would regard it as a personal favor if you simply gave her a few more years. Perhaps to grow up and out of this-"

"Much as I would so love having you owe me a favor, Bell-chan, the answer is no." Hild shook her head, declining the offer outright. "I have an open ended writ of seizure that was live the moment she broke our accord and now I fully intend to use it."

"Hild-sama-"

The Daimakaicho ignored the brunette and brushed past her. A gust of wind accompanied her passage and forced the gates, causing them to be ripped from their cast iron hinges. Wooden planks splintered around her as she passed onto the property itself. By the time she had crossed halfway to the household, the porch light clicked on and the door opened. Kasumi Tendo peeked outside to locate the source of the commotion, her eyes locking instantly on the white haired woman wearing a pink and black lycra body suit. More notable was the remains of the devastated gate strewn in her wake..

If that wasn't enough to warn the eldest Tendo of the Daimakaicho's intentions, the malicious smile was. Kasumi began to back away from the open door even as she called for a more appropriate greeter. "Oh- Oh my! Um, father? Akane? I think we have a visitor!"

Hild stepped through the doorway, completely ignoring the eldest sister as she continued to babble as Akane arrived on scene. The youngest Tendo instantly recognized the white hair and the tan skin, even if it was slightly misplaced. "Hey! You're that perverted woman!"

The woman in question ignored Akane and continued to move deeper into the house while making a path for the stairway, at least until sister tried to stop her. Akane grabbed Hild's arm and suddenly felt her strength evaporate. The girl's legs gave out as if no longer able to support her body. She tried to cry out in shock , but even that registered as nothing more than a barely audible gasp. Hild let youngest Tendo maintain her grip on her arm as the girl began to melt to the floor. The next thing Akane knew, a pair of predatory lavender eyes were smiling down at her.

"Oh, how I would so rather have you than your sister," The Daimakaichō mused while a terrified Akane desperately tried to regain control of her own body. Hild tisked her own fortune with a shrug. "I would have personally ensured your torment to be most exquisite for what you have put my daughter through. Perhaps next time, Akane-chan."

The girl wheezed again, but Hild was already moving along, flicking the girl's hand off her arm as if it were a piece of trash. Akane flopped fully to the floor and could suddenly breath again, if not actually move. Hild was continuing on when the daughter's name was screamed in the form of a battle cry.

"AKANE!"

Soun Tendo's first sight was his child lying in a heap and the intruder hovering over her. Instinct cut in and the Tendo patriarch flushed with adrenaline as he rushed into save his girl from what was obviously an evil witch of some sort. The evil witch in question merely snorted in contempt and gestured to the side. Soun Tendo was instantly pulverized by an invisible force and thrown through the living room wall, the empty guestroom and out into the drenched courtyard beyond.

Hild took to the stairs just as Nabiki Tendo had exited her room. She was removing her headphones when she suddenly caught sight of the ascending woman. The sharp edge to the woman's smile put her on edge immediately and she backed up a step while attempting to engage her verbally. "Just so you know, there are no refunds."

"I'm not here for a refund, Nabiki Tendo." Hild shook her head and continued up the stairway.

The senior schoolgirl retreated further until she was back to her bedroom door. "Then what are you here for?"

"She's coming for you, Nabiki!" A strained voice that she barely recognized as Akane screamed from down stairs, causing Nabiki's eyes to widen. More than that, her sister still hadn't come to stop the woman, nor had her father, both of which only indicated a dire situation.

"She's right, of course." The Queen of the Damned grinned evilly. "But I am not just here for you. I'm here for your soul."

The middle Tendo's eyes bulged and she instantly stepped back into her room and locked the door. Panic welled up from within as she bolted across her bed to the desk phone and dialed 119. Static hissed back at her and she slapped the bridge of the phone several times to reset the connection. By the time she was ready to dial again, the door abruptly fell off its hinges, thumping to the ground.

The grand demoness stood waiting.

"I, ah, I take it back!" Nabiki recanted shakily, backing away to the far wall. "A policy change just for you! How much do I owe you?"

"One soul." Hild smiled patiently. "No more. No less."

"You...You can't be serious!" The middle Tendo babbled as she recalled the terms of their original agreement, while something about this woman wanted to make her curl into a ball and scream in terror. The stranger stepped fully into Nabiki's room and she began to lean on her last resort.

"Ranma Saotome lives here, you know?" Nabiki's tone quavered with barely contained fear. "He's the best martial artist in Tokyo. Cross me and you'll cross him."

The Tendo girl was unsurprisingly dismayed by the sinister chuckle that drifted to her ears. Hild continued her advance on the girl, who was now backed in the far corner. "You mean the very martial artist you've betrayed time and time again? The same one that you sold nudes of internationally? The very same martial artist you had shackled and sold to Hong Kong pimps in order to cover your debt? The martial artist whose very virginity you sold to me?"

"I... he..." Each point the woman brought forth seemed to push the possibility of Ranma's last minute intervention further and further away, and the blowup with Akane certainly hadn't helped matters. She desperately attempted to rationalize her extortionist activities laid bare. "He... He had to pay for-"

Hild's grin widened as she reached into her personal space. Nabiki Tendo whimpered in terror as the jeweled hand approached. "And so do you, child. And so do you."

Nabiki's scream echoed through the house as her soul was ripped from her body.

---

Author's Notes- Okay, so this was a longer one, but I didn't want to divide it up. There has been a hard rule I have maintained throughout this fic and I'm finally happy to share it with you: Nabiki does not escape. At all. The next update my take a bit, but rest assured this is not the end yet. Thanks for sticking with me so far. You guys and girls are pwnsome :)

Mamoru OC; "OMG TUX ISN'T LIKE THAT!" ...And you'd be right.

Ranma!Sold; Nabiki selling handkerchiefs with Ranma's nude bust to pay for a ticket, Nabiki selling Ranma to pay for dinner the Ten Yen challenge dinner.

Dublet Lockout; Works under the theory that any large scale change affecting reality must pass checks from both the Yggdrasil and Nidhogg to be approved and enacted.

Vecca; A professional nod to CRose, who should write more of anything. :)

Bad, Black Moons; No member of CCR was harmed during the composition of this fiction.

Special Thanks to: DragonDagger, Materia Blade, Slade 13, Dumbledork and, of course, DCG.