AN: A reminder, again, that this was originally posted on a forum. Some formatting oddities (such as possibly AN's in what is now 'mid-chapter') can be expected. I'd still like to hear about anything particularly egregious though, so that I can fix it.
((()))
"Damnation," Luna cursed, and Artemis winced.
The black moon cat was not one to curse casually, and had been noticeably more irritable in the two days since Jaeger had been abducted; Senshi Jupiter's continuing ill-will towards her hadn't helped her mood either. The vicar, whom Luna had been testing another extraction method on, simply raised an eyebrow at the Mau on his lap.
"I don't suppose whatever faith cats take part in practices confessional?" He asked wryly.
"Not usually," Artemis said hastily, not giving Luna's frayed temper an opportunity to respond, "But then, we were career political advisors, not experts in spirit magic or tacticians."
"'Spirit magic,'" The vicar said wryly, shaking his head, "That still rubs me the wrong way. I do hope it doesn't involve raising spirits of the dead?"
"I know people have tried it," Artemis said as Luna began working up a new spell, "But I've never heard of it succeeding, and it was forbidden by both local and Imperial law on every world in the Moon Kingdom."
"I'm glad to hear it," The vicar replied, "Enough of my brethren would call me a heretic for letting myself be involved with this much, even if the explicit text forbids what would be called 'necromancy' in the modern day."
"Your religion forbids magic?" Artemis asked, more than a little bewildered.
"My religion forbids consorting with demons," The vicar clarified, "It's generally been thought that 'magic' only came from trafficking with such beings, and thus the history of persecution of witches in the church."
"That's..." Artemis began, not entirely sure of what to say, "That seems kind of horrific. Magic pervaded the Moon Kingdom, culturally and technologically; when I woke up a year ago, the lack of magic in every day use was almost as shocking as the amazing things people have been able to build without it."
"Hah!" The vicar said with a grin, "If you'd showed up a hundred and fifty years ago, you probably would have been disgusted by how primitive everything is. How long ago did you say the Moon Kingdom existed?"
"About ten thousand years," Artemis said, "Long enough that nobody seems to remember it at all. I'm kind of surprised that neither of the moon landings found any of the ruins though."
"Well," The vicar replied, starting to lean forward before a scowling Luna pushed him back into place so that she could keep working, "How much of the moon was actually inhabited before the fall?"
"Not much," Artemis admitted, "It was much easier to maintain biospheres on other moons; if I recall my history correctly, the only reason it was the line of Serenity's seat of power, was because during the earlier years of the Moon Kingdom, it was the Moon Kingdom. The humans did all originally come from Earth after all, and it was only due to... I can't really remember the details just yet, but there was some reason that the Moon ended up settling the rest of the system after declaring independence, before the Earth Kingdom got around to it, in spite of being a much lesser power at the time."
"Probably political turmoil," The vicar said with a shrug, "Most great empires destroy themselves with moral rot. Speaking of which, nobody's explained to me what destroyed this Moon Kingdom that you and those girls are supposed to be from."
"Treachery," Luna snarled, leaping back off of the vicar's lap as her latest attempt at a spell failed, "And a demonic entity capable of mind-controlling its defeated foes."
"Ouch," The vicar said with a wince, "Is mind control magic actually real?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Artemis said, padding over to Luna to brush up against her reassuringly, "Part of the fall came when the four attendants of Endymion, the heir of the Earth Kingdom, were suborned by the enemy and turned against first the Earth Kingdom, then against us on the moon. All of them were powerful sorcerors, and also commanded significant portions of the Earth Kindgom's military. At a guess, I'd say they were instrumental in its destruction, and after that, Beryl," Artemis growled the name out, "Conducted some sort of ritual to allow mass-possession of the people of Earth, and then turned the Youma against us."
"So," The vicar said, an edge in his voice and his eye that had not been there before, "This 'Beryl' does track with demons and possession then?"
"Youma are certainly magical beasts," Artemis ground out, "But I don't know if they fit your religion's definition of 'demon' or not."
"Demons," The vicar said, his voice grim, "Creatures of destruction, corruption, shadow, and darkness, the twisted forms of fallen angels that exist only to drag down, spite, and destroy those who have not yet fallen. Also capable of possessing people."
"In that case," Luna growled, "They definitely fit the definition of demons. Youma are all of those things, and they also can change shape."
"Well then," The vicar said with a grimace, "I'm going to have to tell you to try some of the riskier methods you mentioned. I'm no soldier, but I'm willing to lay down my life to protect God's children in what ways I am able."
((()))
I don't know what Beryl was thinking when she put me in this cell, but she hasn't done herself any favors. Unsurprisingly, 'maximum security' for the dark kingdom also means 'anti-magic field,' and now, I'm thinking clearly for the first time in months.
And it's damn near terrifying.
You can make an entire muscle group completely useless by severing just the tendons that anchor them to the bones on one end; the muscles themselves are operating properly, the tendons on the other end are functioning just fine, but as a whole, the muscle group is rendered utterly incapable of serving its purpose. This is exactly the sort of thing that damn dragon did to my mind. The Dragon's curse (which was as much a geas as a curse) was laid out with the purpose of 'no magic,' and did not merely prevent me from using magic, but prevented me from devising ways to break the curse so that I could use magic then.
The level of power and control that's needed to affect a mind both so overwhelmingly and subtly without mashing it to paste is insane, but then, it was an Epic Dragon. They're kind of insane by definition.
Also, I really need to stop picking fights with opponents above my throw-weight. Hopefully, that'll be a feasible option some time soon. Unfortunately, while the cell's AMF was its most immediately noticeable feature, it most certainly was not its only supernatural security element, and I don't think I'm strong enough with Ki techniques yet to try. The counterpoint to that, of course, is the fact that between my confrontations with Beryl, the Dark Generals, and everything else that's happened, I've gained another level, and I can actually spend some Path to learn magic, even if I'll 'forget' how to use it as soon as I step out of my cell.
Another relevant point; the reason that raising my characteristics with my level hasn't even occurred to me, is because they could affect my magic/Psychic abilities, and the curses wouldn't allow that. The problem is that raising my mental stats won't matter much (except for saves) after I'm out of the AMF, and because of the way Anima runs bonuses, raising my physical stats will have no benefit until I can get them higher still, so raising the mental stats is kind of better anyways, since it would allow me to buff the physical stats to a greater degree.
On the other hand, just because I can't cast the spells, doesn't mean that others can't...
Tooling through the glowing 'HUD' I had (which thankfully still worked in the AMF), I put both of my increased attribute points into Intelligence, and then turned my attention towards the Creation and Essence paths. If I was to find the spells that were needed, I would find them in one of the two; Essence dealt with soul/spirit/life manipulation, and Creation dealt with exactly what the name of the path said. If I could find the spells I needed, and some how record them in a format the Senshi would be able to interpret, that would hopefully allow a (relatively) swift resolution to our 'Dark Kingdom' problems.
I could leave trying to break out of the cell until after I'd finished taking advantage of its features.
((()))
Makoto wasn't really used to having friends any more; and she certainly wasn't used to holding much smaller girls as they cried in her lap. She'd only properly met Jaeger briefly, having seen him laid out unconscious from a near-mortal wound much longer than she'd seen him awake and aware of the world around him. Still, it was clear that the bluenette in her lap had had much more time to bond with the cat, and had done so at considerable length. The cat having only just woke up less than a week before it was either killed or kidnapped probably only made it worse.
"Come on Ami-chan," Makoto said gently, looking for a way to distract the smaller girl, "Let's go check with Hino-san to see if she has been able to find anything."
Ami nodded miserably, and allowed the larger girl to help her to her feet, then lead her from the bedroom of the small apartment in the TMPD headquarters (normally for witness protection) that she was sharing with her mother, into the kitchen, where Rei was trying to use the gas stove as a poor substitute for the Sacred Fire of the Hino shrine, in order to focus her divination attempts. Makoto, judging by the frustration on the miko's face, decided that it probably wasn't going very well.
Ami picked up on the fire-priestess' foul mood as well, and the other two teen girls seated didn't interrupt her attempt to focus, seating themselves at the kitchen table instead, and quietly watching her attempt to work. After nearly ten minutes with no results, Rei cursed quietly under her breath, before turning to stare somewhat balefully at Makoto.
"My grandfather always said that I was unusually attuned to the sacred fire," Rei said, anger covering in her voice the other other emotions which were visible on her face, "I did not understand what he meant until I started trying to use other fires, such as this, to conduct divinations."
"Gomen Hino-san," Ami said, wiping tear streaks from around her eyes before looking up at the taller girl, "Y-your Senshi powers, they are aligned to fire?"
"Yes,"Rei said flatly, "You think that they may help somehow?"
"I-I d-do not know," Ami said hesitantly, "But the essence of the scientific method is experimentation to test hypothesis."
"Um, Ami-chan," Makoto said cautiously, "It's magic, not science."
"I-it doesn't matter," Ami said, shaking her head, and with it shaking off some of the hesitance that had been dominating her, "It must operate by some rules, otherwise there would be no point to training, practice, or education about it, all functions of magic would be both arbitrary and mutable, working or not working for no reason whatsoever. If this was the case, then our foes would not be so dangerous, because their magic would be utterly unreliable as well, but they have demonstrated a consistent ability to control it effectively, and thus magic must have rules, and we simply do not know them yet."
Rei and Makoto both stared at Ami for a long, long moment, which was interrupted by a small device materializing in Ami's lap, startling all three of them.
"They said you were extremely smart," Rei said, a thoughtful look on her face, "But you were so shy, that I hadn't really taken that to mean much of anything."
"Ami-chan," Makoto said, a smile spreading slowly over her face, "I think that's the most I've ever heard you say at once, I'm so happy to see you start coming out of your shell!"
A shy smile slowly crept across Ami's features, and Makoto impulsively hugged her.
"Very well then, Mizuno-san," Rei said, nodding respectfully towards the smaller girl, "We shall try things your way."
((()))
Fortunately, Essence and Creation had what I needed, but unfortunately, I didn't have enough path to get both. Transmigrate Soul, from the Essence path almost certainly would provide the necessary means for removing the 'Rainbow Jewels' from their hosts, and Recreate should be able to fuse them back together into the Ginzuisho. The problem was, both of them were Level 76 spells, and I had 150 Path. Two damn path short of the solution to all of our problems.
Well, two path and breaking out of the cell I'd been tucked away in and making my way back to Tokyo from the Arctic, all while avoiding recapture on the part of the Dark Generals, but hey, that was the easy stuff, right? Considering what I'd found when I looked into 'Improvised Combat Techniques,' that most likely was actually the case, especially considering that A: my cell was not guarded, and B: it did not block Ki abilities.
With some of the doors opened to me by using improvised ki techniques (such as teleportation and intangibility), making my escape would be... interesting. So, I made preparations for spell-availability outside of the cell, ran a last mental check of what I could/would need to do in order pull together the Ginzuisho once I reached Tokyo, then turned into a shadowy mist, and slipped out of the cell.
((()))
An alarm sounded throughout the folded dimension in which the last bastion of the Dark Kingdom existed, an alarm that most of Beryl had never thought she would hear, but a small part had been outright expecting. Specifically, it was the alarm keyed to the dungeon's maximum-security cell.
"Guards!" Beryl screamed, "Apprehend the prisoner immediately!"
((()))
It was easy to tell when they caught on to my escape; I'd only made it up a single level from the dungeon floor I'd been kept on, when Zoicite teleported in in front of me with a batch of Youma. I applied the Ki ability for 'area' to my claws, and swiped at them. They were no fragile infiltrator-types though, and my attack didn't so much as make them blink (that it was useless against Zoicite goes without saying), so I ran like hell.
Normal cats are Damn Fast. I'm at the physical limit of size for a 'housecat', and I have supernatural speed on top of that. According to my stat-spread, I can run 160 feet per turn, which is three seconds, which comes to 36 miles per hour. Granted, that's in a sprint, but with the Ki ability Elimination of Necessities, I can go ten times as long in a sprint, in a run, without eating, drinking, sleeping, or even shitting. Also, that speed means I can run 150 meters in 9 seconds; cats are faster on the ground than humans anyways, but I think that makes it pretty clear that I beat out Olympian sprinters handily.
I can keep that pace up for two and a half minutes before I even start tiring out; with a supernaturally strong constitution, I can go for a long damn time; it's most likely that the Dark Generals will run out of Zeon before they can catch me via teleport-and-snatch attempts. When I'd tried to flee from the three generals in Tokyo by exiting via the window, I'd made a mistake; dropping to the ground floor was certainly the fastest way to put distance between me and my assailants, but distance wasn't what mattered (at least not on that scale), line of sight was what mattered.
And even if the interior of the Dark Kingdom's underground was spacious for a dungeon, it was inherently more crowded than an open street in the middle of Tokyo; I was behind cover and out of sight before Zoicite could snap a spell off, and the Youma were left far, far behind.
Nephrite teleported in in front of me, anger clear on his face, and a spell already prepared for casting. I hurled myself out of his way, reinforcing my movements with Ki, and dodged mostly out of the way; the shot still nicked me, but I was gone before he could try again. If I'd had the time to accumulate a proper, complete enhancement to my dodge, he'd not have touched. I just had to hope the Beryl wouldn't get directly involved, because that would lead to trouble.
((()))
"Luna!" Rei half-shouted as she stalked into the room where the cat had been sleeping, "I've divined what the problem with your attempts to withdraw the jewels is!"
"What?" The cat snapped sharply, more than a little cranky about having her sleep interrupted, "What is it?"
"You've been trying to withdraw the jewels from their bodies without killing them, yes?" Rei said, and as Luna looked up at the fire Senshi, she saw that the Rei looked just as exhausted and bent out of shape as she felt.
"Yes," Luna said, forcing her voice to 'flat' rather than irritable, "Why?"
"The problem," Rei said, "Is that the jewel-bearers are the reincarnations of the seven great youma, and their souls are sealed within the jewels. Trying to extract the jewels means extracting their souls."
Silence reigned in the small room for nearly half a minute, until Makoto and Ami caught up with Rei and entered as well.
"Well, shit," Luna said flatly.
((()))
"You're blackmailing us?" Tsukino Ikkuko said incredulously from her seat beside her husband.
"I am doing nothing of the sort," Natsuna replied evenly as she stared across the small conference table at the Tsukino parents, "I have simply told you what your options are."
"Yes," Ikkuko half-shouted, "You've told us that if we don't have our daughter participate in your ridiculously dangerous plans, you'll leave us completely unprotected!"
"No," Natsuna said, if anything appearing even more calm as Ikkuko's temper worsened, "I am entirely willing to provide protection for your daughter, regardless of whether or not she participates in my planned operations against the Dark Kingdom."
"You'll just require her to paint a big target on herself, and sit in the middle of your headquarters!" Ikkuko shouted.
"Miss Tsukino," Natsuna said calmly, "Your daughter has what amounts to the ancient and magical form of, at the least, a main battle tank, and at the most, a nuclear weapon, grafted onto her soul. Luna, who freely admits she is at diminished capacity due to stasis-fogged memories, can readily sense the abilities of your daughter and the other Senshi. Our foes have already demonstrated that they are far more magically capable, and as such, it is all but inevitable that they will be able to find the Senshi again, because I will remind you, they already have once."
Natsuna paused to stand, leaning over the table to loom above the Tsukino parents.
"Further," She said, her tone harsh, "Your daughter has been reliably identified as the reincarnation of the heir to the throne of our foes ancient adversaries. Which means that she will be the priority target for our foes, once they find her. You are her parents and you do have the legal right to not put her under the protection that I can provide. I will be blunt though; if this whole mess did not involve magic, and I believed I could get a judge to back me up without revealing magic and critical intelligence to the public, and you refused to allow your daughter protection in spite of the immense personal threat she is under, you would lose custody of your children for neglect so fast they'd be gone before you could blink."
((()))
Kunzite was displeased. He did not make a habit of underestimating his enemies, and after his Queen's words regarding the human cursed into the form of a cat, he thought he'd understood the level of danger that the being did, and did not, represent. It was some form of elite warrior, possessing considerable skill at arms, and beyond that, it apparently was one of those exceedingly rare few who possessed not only the ability to utilize magic, but the powers of the mind as well. He was exceedingly thankful that it had been cursed into near-impotence, because he had vague memories of fighting a rogue nobleman roughly a decade before the Earth Kingdom's fall to Moon Kingdom treachery, a nobleman with Psychic gifts.
It had not been pleasant; while powers controlled by sheer force of will lacked the depth and breadth of magic's potency, the nobleman had displayed an endurance that exceeded that of all but the most powerful casters, and Kunzite had lost half of the strike team he had led to capture the man, including two mages. It had been a sobering day for the Shittenou, and Kunzite knew that he would not have been capable of defeating the man in a duel. Of course, he had also pressed his skills and magical endurance much farther since, but still, such was the threat that he remembered it, even ten thousand years gone.
As the infuriatingly elusive cat streaked past him again, taking only incidental damage from the bolt of coherent darkness that Kunzite launched at him, the Shittenou knew that whatever third source of power the wretched creature had tapped, it made him impossibly difficult to kill. It was unquestionably on the run; the way that it had not even attempted to engage the Dark Generals or their minions since its first attack had proven useless made it clear the creature by no means thought it could defeat them, but it had taken only light wounds from them at best.
And while the Dark Generals could bend the ambient magical energies around them into casting spells of modest power all day, the teleportation spells they required just to keep up with the cat, required steadily draining their own reserves.
Kunzite's eyes narrowed as he sensed the cat manage another evasion around one of Zoicite's assault, one level closer to the surface. Was it possible that the only reason the creature hadn't yet left their citadel altogether, was for exactly that reason?
((()))
Kunzite appeared in front of me again, and I damn well hoped they were getting near the bottom of their magical stamina, because I'd taken a pounding. Unfortunately, he also summoned around him a wall of ice; I twisted around, turning to flee in the other direction, but a second wall of ice blocked off the way I'd come. One of the limits of ki-based teleportation is that it's not 'proper' teleportation; it requires clear line-of-sight and line-of-effect, something that I no longer had. I could break down the walls, but it was pretty obvious that he could raise them faster than I'd be able to destroy him, and-
He teleported a small swarm of Youma into the room with us, and I snarled, my hand forced.
Committing my Ki reserves to attack, rather than defense, I lunged at the Dark General.
((()))
Kunzite saw the shift in the cat's posture, from defensive to aggressive, and immediately countered by moving on to the attack himself, something inside him, something deeply enraged and infuriated, drove him to a reckless offense, turning the wholeness of his attention to destroying the feline, with no thought left to defending himself from its attack.
A single lance of deadly shadow leapt from Kunzite's palm.
The cat twisted around it with (literally) inhuman agility, smoothly shifting into a predator's pounce as soon as its paws again touched the ground.
Kunzite threw his head back as he roared in rage, leaving his throat wholly exposed to the creature, his accumulated magical energies spent, unable to form a shield from what remained in time to defend himself.
Supernaturally strong jaws sank into the Dark General's throat, Jaeger's forepaws landing on his shoulders, followed by his rear, before the cat tore his jaw out while he leapt away, taking Kunzite's part of trachea, carotid, and spinal column with him as he left.
The sorcerer was dead before he hit the ground.
((()))
"Shit."
Luna had not been prone to cursing when she was a royal advisor. She really hadn't; and dealing with royalty and nobility on a daily basis had only served to reinforce that behavior pattern; she could not understand why now, associating with royalty again (the same royalty even), she found her patience constantly frayed to the point where she did.
Though in fairness to the princesses and the Princess, this time, it was honestly not their fault. In fact it was very much her fault, even if she wished it wasn't.
"I feel like shit," The vicar said in a gravelly voice, startlingly distinct from the pleasant tenor he'd possessed before.
Great, Luna thought to herself, Now I'm driving priests to swearing too. Wonderful.
"I have to say," The vicar continued, his voice grinding like rocks on boulders as he examined his altered form, "I don't think I'm going to be able to conduct a service this Sunday."
The man, a Brit by birth, appeared to have a penchant for understatement; his hair had turned orange, the shape of his entire face had changed (including his eyes turning a luminescent red), he'd gained about half a foot in height as well as at least a hundred pounds of muscle, his skin had become unnaturally pale, and he'd grown wings the same bright orange as his hair. There was also the matter of the brilliant orange gem imbedded in his chest, which glowed with a fierce light.
"You're not dead," Rei said harshly as she stared up at the transformed man, "The price you have paid for your gem to be extracted is less than that which my grandfather did. You can handle a little pain."
"Fair enough girl," The transformed vicar rumbled, a sliver of irritation throwing through the usual patience in his tone, "Fair enough."
((()))
Fortunately, once I'd taken Kunzite out of the picture (which should not have been that easy), the other two generals switched over to sending swarms of Youma after me, rather than engaging directly. The Youma were much less of a threat than the Dark Generals, but still not something I could afford to just ignore. I had a definite skill edge on the standard thug-types they sent after me, but my claws and fangs literally could not meaningfully wound them, something I found confusing given how 'easily' I'd downed Kunzite.
It became pretty clear after just a couple of minutes of trying to avoid a decisive engagement with them within the halls, that the Dark Generals were trying to turn my own strategy against me; wear me out. I was better than the Youma (except for actual ability to hurt them), but not that much better, and I was still burning Ki to avoid taking more damage. The Dark Generals had managed to wound me several times despite my ki-enhanced evasion, and it wouldn't take much more to effectively cripple me.
Turning around a final corner brought me to a massive chamber with a pair of immense, ornate doors at the far side; I blitzed across the chambers, Youma pouring in both behind me and from other entrances, then diffused into a mist and slipped through the doors' archaic keyhole. Beyond, I found myself in a cavern of ice, the temperature brutally cold. I dropped to a mere 'jog' through the ice-cavern in order to conserve my stamina, but less than half a minutes after I had passed through the keyhole, the door opened behind me, and Youma began to pursue. I was faster than the common forms, but the fliers were gaining on me, even after I increased my pace to a run again.
I did not want to risk death at the hands of an enraged Beryl if I was recaptured; I doubted she'd risk me escaping a second time. It was time to get creative.
((()))
"...Are those puppets?" Nephrite said in disbelief as he tracked the escapee running through their halls via scrying.
"Made of ice, it would appear," Zoicite said, his voice frigid with rage, "It would appear that this creature is of a vampiric nature itself."
"That would explain the vast array of abilities it possesses," Beryl said, her voice unusually thoughtful, "Magical potential appears in a mere one in ten thousand, and Pscychic potential is considerably more rare. You are both forbidden from engaging him in close until such time as we can ascertain how he has used this ability to circumvent the curses laid upon him."
"Curses most likely laid by a being that wished to avoid such a fate itself," Nephrite surmised.
The trio watched as the cat deftly carved another small figurine out of the ice sheet he was running across with his claws, blood from one of the wounds on his flank leaking onto the surprisingly well-formed mannequin. After pausing for less than a dozen seconds to shape the figure, the cat began to ran again; behind him, the miniature humanoid shivered, then took to the air behind him, rising up to join the half-dozen others in harrying a flying Youma as it attempted a fly-by attack on the oversized cat.
"That it struck Kunzite down was no mere happenstance," Beryl declared, the imperious note her subordinates were accustomed to returning to her voice, "Ice was his domain, and he would have been best suited to running the beast down. Zoicite!" She turned to face the named general, :"Continue to command the pursuit, directing all of our flying Youma to the task; they will either defeat it, or harry it until it drops of exhaustion. Nephrite!" She turned to her other surviving general, "Maintain your surveillance of the creature, and if it should survive to escape the domain it has stolen from my vassal Kunzite, strike it at once!"
An imperious flick of her fingers indicated that the two had been dismissed, and they hastily departed the throne room, glad that they had not taken the blame for the creature managing to bypass their every attempt to recapture it thus far.
((()))
"Excuse me, but you are Nishimura Reika, correct?" The police officer asked.
"Y-yes?" Said redhead, standing in the doorway of her apartment, said somewhat nervously.
"You're not in any kind of trouble with the law," The officer said, "However, have you heard of the recent bombing at the Hikawa Shrine?"
"I have," Reika said, nervousness fading but leaving a trace of fear behind, "Why do you ask?"
"We in the TMPD believe we have identified the intended target list of the organization behind the attack," The officer said sympathetically, "Unfortunately, you may be one of said targets."
"Wh-WHAT?" The young woman half-shrieked, "Why would anyone want to target me?"
"That would be a classified part of the ongoing investigation," The officer said, reaching out to lay a reassuring hand on the shocked woman's shoulder, "As it involves you, the TMPD is very much willing to fill you in on the details, but not in such a public venue. If you'd be willing to accompany me back to HQ, we are willing to brief you, and arrange for protection."
"Of course," Reika agreed immediately, reaching back into her apartment to grab her jacket.
((()))
Whichever element it was that I used to discourage pursuit, it worked. I'll likely never know if it was the Zeon-draining, the constant evasion tactics, or killing Kunzite (something about how easily he died still rubs me the wrong way), but it worked, and I'm relatively home-free. The flying Youma have been a small problem, but they backed off when my swarm was about halfway complete, and aside from reinforcements forming up with them, they haven't troubled me for several hours.
They're probably waiting for the cold to get to me; unfortunately for them, I could literally run for days, and while it was damn cold up here in Arctic, it was October, not January, so it wasn't that cold. Maine Coons have heavy, shaggy fur in the first place, and when you topped that off with me being considerably oversized for a cat, possessing a literally supernaturally strong constitution, and the heat my body generated on the run, the cold actually felt rather bracing. Night would change that though, the temperature would drop at least another twenty degrees Fahrenheit, and if the current temperature felt 'brisk' at a full run, I had few illusions about my ability to survive deeper cold for any duration.
I would need to stop and, at the very least, tunnel myself an enclosure in the ice to retain my body heat, which meant getting rid of the flying Youma, because even if they were nothing more than brute beasts, they would attack if I stopped, sensing weakness. I was making about twenty miles per hour now that I'd finished pausing every now and then to craft the puppet swarm, and judging by the movement of the sun, it would be about two and a half hours until the sun set; I needed to find a bolt-hole, and as soon as reasonably possible.
((()))
Nephrite was the Shittenou of the sky, the Lord of Thunder (a title he felt he had well-earned), and possibly due to his lofty demesne, he had also developed a fascination with the stars and divination. The pursuit had led him many places, and amongst them...
No, he needed to focus on the task at hand; the Queen's temper was bad enough due to the cat's escape; he couldn't afford to let it escape from his sight as well, lest she emasculate him. Fortunately, it appeared that things would finally take a turn for the interesting, as watching the feline lope across the icepack for months simply wasn't that interesting. The small figurines of ice that the cat had carved ameliorated things somewhat; like all members of the Earth Kingdom nobility (those worth knowing at any rate), Nephrite had an appreciation for the arts, and while he would not describe the combat-puppets that Jaeger used as 'exquisite,' they were certainly skilled pieces.
That he had somehow produced more than fifty in less than an hour made the quality of their crafting much more impressive; he would be interested in seeing what the creature could make when he had more time to handle things with care, and no need to turn them towards a militant purpose. Once he had submitted to the proper rulership of the Dark Kingdom, of course.
Nephrite's thoughts were interrupted by the ice abruptly caving in beneath Jaeger, sending the feline dropping down into an ice cave. Before he had fallen even a dozen feet, the puppet swarm that had been tailing him swooped in and took hold of him, arresting his fall, and carrying him swiftly and gracefully down to the cavern's snowy floor. It did not escape the Dark General's notice that the cat had not so much as flinched; Jaeger had not so much 'swiftly regained' his equilibrium, as never lost it in the first place.
Jaeger did react when the flying Youma that had been tracking him for some time dove in through the hole into the ice chamber, and began trying to strafe him. Their assault was impeded by the ice cave's complex internal structure; it was at least sixty feet high and double that across, the ceiling raising from the floor in a gradual arch-shape, with irregular and angled columns and arches of ice joining the ceiling to the floor. The internal structures were not so dense as to prevent the Youma from flying within the cave at all, but the creatures ability to maneuver was heavily inhibited.
Something that the large cat took ruthless of advantage, leaping up from the floor of the cave, onto the top of one of the arches just as the first Youma came slashing down at it, leaving its swarm of icy marionettes to intercept the creature instead. The swarm and the Youma slashed past each other, claws and icy blades slashing; the Youma came out the worse, its resistance to mundane weapons giving it no defense against the animated puppets' razor-sharp icy limbs. A second Youma tried to make a pass at the cat while it was 'distracted' by the first, but the cat evaded and countered its assault with almost contemptuous ease, its marionettes shredding the second beast's head.
That youma disintegrated into ashen dust, its inertia scattering a cloud of gray and black further into the cave, frightening the other Youma into breaking off their attacks as the cat contemptuously flicked its tail at themp.
Something within Nephrite's heart stirred as he watched the engagement, and wondered what Zoicite would direct the Youma to do next.
((()))
Too easy. Apparently the Dark Kingdom went with the 'budget option' when either creating or training their flying Youma, because they're neither as tough nor as skilled as their ground-bound forces. I didn't even manage to hurt any of those, though that may in part be due to the puppets being able to deal more damage than my claws and fangs. Either way, that was two Youma down, and I hadn't even touched my replenished Ki reserves yet; that'll be for the next round I think, and we'll see how that goes.
((()))
Nephrite had heard the phrase 'graceful as a cat' many times in his life, and as many of the nobility of the Earth Kingdom (particularly the ladies) favored them as pets, he'd also had plenty of opportunities to see why the phrase had been coined. As he watched the surviving winged Youma (less than a dozen) attempt to bring down the cat, he gained an understanding of why cats were also renowned as predators.
The third Youma to engage managed an exchange of blows as it flitted past, a fourth failed to engage as Jaeger ascended further into the internal icy structure of the cage, while the fifth Youma slammed head-on into the puppet swarm, and was torn to shreds. The cat hissed triumphantly, before ghosting off further into the three dimensional maze that the cave formed. Nephrite watched, as the cat danced about the cavern, and though the Youma were capable of true flight and Jaeger was not, the creature still proved itself the more mobile, the more agile, and most definitely, the most powerful.
The battle was not utterly one-sided; the Youma managed to destroy some of the cat's frigid minions, but none of them landed a hit directly on the cat himself. Whenever the cat struck, on the other hand, or rather its puppets struck for it, the creature itself directing them (as a general directs his forces, part of Nephrite's mind whispered), to devastating effect. Not every blow that it struck was immediately fatal, but after the fourth that was, leaving six (half of the original contingent) dead in total, the Youma finally turned to flee.
Not that Jaeger simply let them leave. It slew the two wounded Youma, as well as brutally shredding a third, before the survivors were able to retreat the way that they had come, rising out of the hole in the cavern roof that the cat had originally fallen through. As he watched the victorious feline retreat back into the cavern and begin moving into the lesser tunnels that it connected to, something within Nephrite stirred, an odd feeling, something that he was no longer as familiar with as he had once been.
Anticipation.
((()))
"I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today," Natsuna began as she addressed the five remaining jewel-bearers, "Or perhaps, how the Hikawa shrine bombing relates to you."
"It's because we're all the reincarnations of powerful warrior spirits in past lives," The youngest of the five said calmly, "And the kingdom our past selves were part of has returned to subjugate earth."
Every person present in the room, including the boy's parents seated on either side of him, turned and simply stared at the boy, Urawa Ryo, who was only fourteen years old.
"How did you know?" Natsuna asked neutrally, the first to recover from the boy's abrupt announcement.
"I'm precognitive," Ryo said, his voice just as calm as Natsuna's, though the sharper observers in the room noted that he was shaking slightly in his seat, "Because I'm such a reincarnation. You've gathered us here to attempt to reunite the jewel shards that were used to seal our past selves away, in order to restore something important to defeating the Dark Kingdom."
"'Something'?" Natsuna asked.
"I don't know what," Ryo said, shaking his head a touch frantically, "I-I don't see everything, and it's hard to focus on something I've caught glimpses of, unless it directly affects me in the next few days. Bigger things are easier to see, but the further out they are, the harder."
"That's quite a claim," Natsuna said, glancing at the boys parents, still too shocked for words, "How can I know you aren't an infiltrator from the Dark Kingdom? We already know they have shape-shifters."
"Send in the cats," Ryo said, his voice steady even as his face slowly paled, "If what I've seen is right, they should be able to tell you."
Natsuna gestured to one of her aides, who pressed a button on his pager, and a moment later the door to the secure conference room opened, and three of the Senshi, accompanied by Artemis and Luna, walked in.
"Luna, Artemis," Natsuna said, "If you would check out young Urawa for me?"
"Of course," Artemis said, and the pair of Mau hopped up onto the table as most of the room's occupants started in shock at seeing a cat speak, "What of the others?"
"Might as well check them too," Natsuna said with a casual shrug, "The other four at the table who aren't Urasawa's parents should be the other four clan champions."
"On it," Artemis said, hastily moving towards Ryo before Luna could, intent on saving him from the other Mau's bad mood.
"That cat just talked!" Reika burst out, staring at the black and white felines in shocked disbelief.
"You don't think that the Superintendent-general of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department would buy into a magical conspiracy theory on just a whim, did you?" Natsuna asked, raising a delicate eyebrow towards the younger woman.
Reika shook her head and turned away, blushing. Natsuna in turn smiled gently, before turning to meet the eyes of every other person in the room.
"Make no mistake," Natsuna said, her tone serious, but not unkind, "This threat is deadly serious, even if it fits outside of what most of you are willing to accept as 'real.' In order to drive the point home, in a few minutes, we will be adjourning to the firing range in this building's basement so that you can watch the Senshi here engage in target practice, and after that, I will be taking you all to the remnants of the Hikawa shrine, so you can see just how dangerous our foes are."
((()))
Level five. If I wasn't barred from both magic and psychic powers at this point, I would be powerful enough now to take on small armies by myself. Granted, it would take a lot of time, and depend on me having the initiative against an enemy's air and artillery assets, but it would be reasonably possible. As it is, I'm so crippled that I don't even know why I'm confident that I could do that, because the practical knowledge is barred my mind. The conscious practical knowledge, anyways.
And now I realize that even being aware that my mind is being messed with is something that has changed since I was in that cell. Ironically, this may mean that Beryl has done me a tremendous favor, something that yet remains to be seen. Still, even with my enforced power inhibition, there were possibilities.
Picking up Energy Armor, some low-mid level protection against energy attacks (such as the generals' darkness beams) was certainly one of them. Picking up characteristic augmentation, allowing to push my basic physical abilities even further, was also one of them. Being able to shapeshift to human form would have definite advantages, but then, so would picking up Energy Immunity: Cold right now, even if it's only a resistance, not an immunity. So many things to choose from, so little Martial Knowledge to spread around.
...Of course, the obvious answer was to just cheat the system. Since as a cat, I'd never picked a 'starting' weapon proficiency or martial art, my little cheaty-plan should work. I picked up Physical Change and Greater Physical Change, which would allow me to transform into literally anything up to about the size of a bear. With my intense Ki Recovery, I could even maintain the change indefinitely (though I didn't know if it would remain active while I slept); most importantly though, it would let me take on a human form.
So then I picked up both the Basic and Expert levels of Tai Chi, giving me back sixty percent of the MK I spent on Physical Change, allowing me to pick up lesser and greater Characteristic Augmentation, and the most basic form of Energy Armor. It wasn't ideal, but it would hopefully be sufficient. And it added breadth to my abilities, whereas just pumping my attack and defense regularly would add depth. Of course, keeping those cards hidden for as long as I reasonably could was also pretty damn important.
As a final tidbit, I pumped the DP I had remaining into Sleight of Hand and distributed my other miscellaneous skill bonuses. It left me with at very high perception ability, my puppet-making skill was tweaked a little further, and perhaps most importantly, I could now make a reasonable attempt at batting beams of magic out of the air with my bare paws.
Then I curled up for the night to rest.
((()))