Mimette grimaced. "I'm sorry I can't stay to chat. A guardian monster is waiting for me."
"I won't let you leave!" Rodan Mars shouted.
Priest Hino shook his head. It was difficult to focus on the more important matters if there were two such scantily clad beauties present.
"I can't tell you about the hidden entrance to Lord Shisa's cave," he told Mimette. "If he gets loose, he will vent his anger on the whole city."
The witch smirked. "Why, that's just what we want... under our control, of course. A hidden entrance, you say? How interesting..."
"Nice going, gramps!" Rei grumbled. "Why don't you just let her in?"
Hino chuckled sheepishly. "Well, what can I say... it's hard to concentrate when you're surrounded by such beauty..."
"Either way, I don't have the time to deal with you, girly!" Mimette told Rei. "And if the old coot doesn't want to show me the way, I'll just have to reduce the whole temple to a heap of rubble until I found him."
"You can't do that!" Hino exclaimed in shock.
Mimette gritted her teeth. Curse that stubborn old man. She had no idea if she'd be able to find the hidden cave without his help. Then she suddenly had an idea.
"Why, my dear priest... I'm sure we can come to an agreement. After all, you wouldn't want to chase a poor, defenseless girl like me, would you?" And she flirtatiously sauntered over to him. Then she bent over, giving him a nice view of her cleavage. "You're such a sweet old man... are you suuure you don't want to tell me where the hidden cave is?"
Hino couldn't keep his eyes off the leather-clad, heaving orbs that were dangling in front of his eyes. Almost hypnotically, they were swaying from side to side. As if he was in trance, the old priest reached out with his hands. Mimette smirked and took a step back.
"Noooo... gimme..." Hino muttered.
"I can't believe you!" Rei almost screamed. "Do you know what she's going to do when King Caesar is freed?"
Hino shook his head again. "Yes... Lord Shisa... no, no, can't let her dazzle me... I can't tell you..."
Realizing that drastic measures had to be taken, Mimette swooped the gnomish man up and pressed his wrinkly face into her soft bosom. She was appalled by allowing such an ancient pervert to touch her in such a way, but the end justifies the means, as they always say.
Hino's eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of their sockets. His whole head gleamed red until it looked like a wrinkled tomato, and two spurts of blood were coming out of his nostrils. His whole body became limp in the delightful hug of the blonde goddess.
"A... a trap door... in the room of the sacred fire..." he murmured breathlessly.
Mimette grinned. "Thank you... old coot!" And she shoved him away from her, until he stumbled against the temple wall, where he slid to the ground.
"I won't let you do this!" Rei yelled. Without thinking about what she was doing, she shouted: "BURNING MANDALA!"
The fire she breathed took the shape of burning rings of fire that surrounded her body. With a single flap of her wings, the rings were flung at the blonde witch.
"Eep!" Mimette yelped as she leapt aside. "Don't do that! You know how expensive this outfit was?"
"You're gonna worry about more than just your outfit when I'm finished with you!" Rei screeched. "No one gets away from Rodan!"
"Oooh, just leave me alone... you big, scaled chicken!"
There were a couple of things that made Rei angry, even back when she was a mere kaiju called Rodan. Being called a chicken was one of these things. She let out a roar of fury, spread her wings and leapt at Mimette.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU BLONDE B..."
Mimette smirked as she simply stepped to the side.
CLOONNNGGGGGGG! The small stone statue of King Caesar actually got a few cracks where Rei's skull had collided with it.
"...itch..." Rei muttered as she fell to the floor. For a moment, she was lying there dizzily, and little Rodans were circling her head.
When she came around, Mimette wasn't there anymore. "Oh no," Rei groaned. "She must have gone to the hidden cave."
She was right. Right after having tricked Rei into jumping against the statue, Mimette had run into the chamber of the sacred fire, where she had found the hidden trap door. Beneath it, she found a ladder that lead down into a dark tunnel. And this short tunnel ended in a massive cave that was illuminated by dozens of stone candelabras.
In front of her, the ginormous form of King Caesar, the Shisa kaiju, was snoozing peacefully.
Mimette giggled as she approached the colossal dog-beast. "Your beauty sleep is over, King Caesar," she smirked. "Time to wake up... and serve the Death-Busters as a daimon!"
Out of nowhere, she produced a daimon egg. "Merge with our sleeping kaiju, my pretty," she whispered. "Turn him into our servant!"
In the meantime, Rei had found the trap door as well. She climbed down the ladder, ran through the tunnel and into the cave, only to witness how the daimon egg was slowly floating towards King Caesar's furry chest.
"NO!" she shouted. "FIRE SOUL!"
A single fireball came jetting out of her beak-like mouth. But Rei had miscalculated its flight path... it only hit the cavern floor behind Mimette.
The witch gasped when the sudden explosion of the fireball threw her forward, against the furry body of King Caesar... and her fingers touched his arm the same moment in which the daimon egg was embedding itself into his chest.
"Oh noes..." she weakly muttered when a soft glow surround her and the kaiju.
Rei grimaced and shielded her eyes from the sudden light. "What the...? What's happening?"
The light became brighter and brighter, until King Caesar's features became unrecognizable. And then... the massive form of the guardian beast began to shrink. And at the same time, his features grew softer, rounder and more petite.
Mimette blinked. The bright light had vanished. Rei lowered her hands... and let out a gasp when she saw what had happened to Mimette and King Caesar.
Instead of one large dog kaiju and a blonde witch, there was a furry hybrid kaiju lying on the cavern floor, similar in appearance to the Kaiju Senshi... but this time, it was a humanoid, female shisa with the facial features and blonde hair of Mimette from the Witches 5.
The new creature then grinned. "I did it!" it shouted in Mimette's voice. "I suppressed his mind completely... and now only Mimette remains. But not the same, old Mimette, oh no... I'm stronger, faster, superior!" She jumped to her feet and flexed her arms. "This feeling of power... so exhilarating! I certainly didn't plan on this, but I like it."
"You... what have you done?" Rei mumbled dumbfoundedly. "King Caesar? Where is he?"
"Don't you get it, you silly girl?" the shisa-girl laughed. "I am King Caesar now... whatever remained of him. His body and mine merged, and my brilliant mind suppressed his own. Now this temple will have to do without his loyal pet guardian... because I am siding with our beloved Mistress Nine!"
"You think I'm gonna let you leave this easily?" Rei snarled, spreading her wings. "If you want to get out of here, you'll have to get past me!"
Mimette smirked. "Piece of cake." And with one giant leap, she crossed half the distance between where she had been standing and where Rei was guarding the exit. Rei was so taken aback by the sudden display of power and agility that she had no time to react when Mimette made another jump, landed directly in front of her and attacked her with a swift kick that took the air out of her lungs.
"See ya later, loser Rodan!" the kaiju witch laughed as she made her exit.
"S-stop..." Rei stuttered. "Come back here, you coward... damn..."
When she regained her breath, Mimette was gone. Rei lowered her head in shame. This was the second time she had let the witch trick her. That King Caesar was gone was her own fault.
She climbed back up and went outside. Priest Hino was sitting next to the door. He was looking up to the sky, shame in his eyes.
"How could I have let this happen?" he muttered to himself. "The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak... forgive the weakness of an old man... great guardian!" And he threw himself to the floor, in front of a bewildered Rei.
Rei had been ready to give him a piece of her mind, but this certainly surprised her. "Wh-what?"
"You are the kaiju Rodan, guardian of Earth, are you not?" Hino asked as he looked up at her. "I recognized you the moment I saw you transform. But my lust clouded my judgement... you must have come to defend this temple and its guardian from this evil woman... and I let you down. But..." His eyes were glimmering with hope. "Not all is lost yet. This temple still needs a guardian... but that's what you are here for, right?"
"Whaaaaaa...? Are you serious?" Rei blurted out.
"Please don't say no," Hino pleaded, folding his hands. It was a pitiful sight, how he was kneeling there, in front of the kaiju that looked like she could be his granddaughter. "I'm so old and weak... I don't know if I can care for this temple on my own. I've wanted to appoint a young heir for some time now... but none of the youngsters coming to the temple were interested. And now that Lord Shisa is gone... I don't know what to do..."
Rei wanted to say no. But then, she thought about it. Wasn't this what she wanted? Wasn't she jealous of Usagi that her sister had found her a human family? That she had a place to stay? And the old man really wasn't so bad... if you disregard the fact that he's a lech.
"Oh, what the heck..." she finally sighed. "I guess I can stay and help..."
"Oh, thank you, noble guardian Rodan!" Hino gleefully shouted. He jumped up to his feet and hugged her scaly waist. "You don't know what this means to me."
"Gah! Let go of me, okay? First of all, don't call me Rodan! I've taken a new name... call me Rei, okay? Second, I think we need to lay down a few rules here. First rule: No groping, touching, fondling, ogling, staring or anything like that! Is that clear?"
"Oh, right, of course..." Hino chuckled and let go of her. "But if you continue to wander about like this, I don't know for how long I can keep control over my urges..."
Rei groaned and turned back into her human, clothed appearance. "There, is this better?"
Hino just stared. He couldn't believe the beautiful, raven-haired girl in front of him was really the Earth guardian Rodan.
"Say, you'd look cute in the robe of a shrine maiden," he grinned.
Rei facepalmed.