Disclaimer: The following is a fan-written fiction, the views and opinions in this story are not intended to be viewed as those of the author. Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha, and Five Pound Gospel are the creations of Rumiko Takahashi, property of their respective rights holders and publishers. Please support the official releases.

CW: This story will contain violence, strong language, sexual humor and situations, drug use, Moroboshi Ataru, and Happosai. You've been warned.

|Exploitation|

The ox-pulled Mendō cart traveled through the day and into the evening through empty streets. The delinquents and ruffians that were an everyday occurrence in the Special Administration District were as absent in the daylight as they were after sundown, leaving the procession to travel with impunity. In fact, aside from the eccentric procession, and the contract workers from beyond the wall streaming home after a busy afternoon's work renovating the temporary barricaded Furinkan High School, there were hardly any souls out on the streets.

This gravely worried Dr. Ono Tofu as he did his nightly round of the Furinkan neighborhood.

It was quiet, too quiet. With the Sickle Gang marauding the tranquility felt ominous.

"Another night with nothing going on," he murmured as he walked down the street in front of the fenced-off school.

Slumping his shoulders, he sighed. "It couldn't hurt if there were more reliable adults–and I didn't have to call on schoolchildren…"

The moment he came around the corner of the school, however, Dr. Tofu was immediately set upon by men shining bright flashlights in his face. Raising his hand to shield his eyes, he peered out at the wielders of the lights.

"… What…?"

One of the four men stepped closer, and Dr. Tofu stepped back in surprise when he realized the man a soldier armed with a rifle. "Uh… sir?!"

The soldier holding the rifle to him keyed his radio and made a call. "This is Security Team Octo Alpha-One Lead to Octo-Command, we have an unidentified individual, male. Subject appears to be in his mid-to-late twenties–"

Dr. Tofu took offense to that. "… I'm only twenty-one… who are you people?"

Ignoring him, the soldier continued describing him. "Subject is wearing a kimono and armed with a quarterstaff. Subject is also wearing glasses."

The radio crackled back. "Octo-Command to Octo Alpha-Lead, is he wearing leather? I repeat, does he have any leather on?"

Octo Alpha-One Lead scrutinized Dr. Tofu. "Negative. I see no sign of any leather."

"If he is a civilian, then send him on his way. If he refuses to vacate the premises, you are clear to engage and detain."

Dr. Tofu's eyes adjusted, and he looked around at the other three soldiers surrounding him in a half-circle. "Octo… are you men with the Mendō family, by any chance?"

Octo Alpha-One Lead cut his radio and finally addressed Dr. Tofu. "Civilian, you are trespassing on a controlled site. We're under orders from Mendō Shūtaro-sama to keep all individuals from entering the Furinkan High School grounds."

Recoiling, Dr. Tofu looked at the school, and then around. "Hold on a moment! How many of you are there?!"

"That is none of your concern, civilian, we're going to need you to leave the site, or we will be forced to detain you."

Raising his free hand, Dr. Tofu stepped back from the men, off the sidewalk and onto the street. "I have no interest in starting a scuffle, gentlemen, so I will carry on. However, why are you looking specifically for men in leather?"

"Intelligence reports give us reason to believe that a gang of perverts are operating in this area, and that Furinkan High School may be a target for their activities," Octo Alpha-One Lead replied. "Our presence is to deter any such activity."

Dr. Tofu understood but didn't have a good feeling about this. "Aren't you being a bit aggressive? It's obvious that I'm not a member of the Sickle Gang."

"Civilian, we were ordered to approach any possible threat with the highest aggression. Mend–this school and this neighborhood will not feel safe until the threat of the Sickle Gang is neutralized. Therefore, we will aggressively apprehend every possible threat, none shall get past our notice."

While Octo Alpha Team were still pointing their weapons and lights at Dr. Tofu, right over the wall of the school a group of the Sickle Gang–Madame Kamenbell and Kamaitachi among them–walked from the school's main building to enter the under-renovation girl's locker room.

They went completely unnoticed.

Octo Alpha-One Lead spoke in a tone that invoked narrowing his eyes unseen behind his helmet's visor. "Now, back away from the school or you will be detained."

Letting go of his quarterstaff, Dr. Tofu raised both his hands now and took another step back. "No need to be pushy, I'll go back the way I came."

One of the other men holding a weapon on Dr. Tofu, Octo Alpha-Two, suddenly called out. "HE'S DEESCALATING!"

Octo Alpha-Three raised his rifle higher to aim. "Take him down!"

Octo Alpha-Four roared out. "FIRE FOR EFFECT!"

Before any of them could so much as squeeze their triggers, Katie, Akane, and Kaori unceremoniously fell on all three overzealous security personnel, their respective knee, punch, and kick laying Octo Alpha-Two through Four unconscious. As he turned to bring his weapon to bear on the nearest of the girls, Octo Alpha-Lead was abruptly tapped on the back of the neck and he crumpled unconscious, babbling incoherently as he fell.

Dr. Tofu lowered his hand and knelt down to pick up his staff. "Thank you, girls."

"Weren't no thing," Katie said as she came up.

Kaori, in no good mood, kicked the man she took down a second time, this time in his right side. "What's this crap?"

Akane looked at her with a neutral expression. "Do you have to ask?"

"It was rhetorical," Kaori shot back. "These guys are dumb enough to come from only one place."

Turning to Dr. Tofu, Akane approached him with concern. "Are you okay, Dr. Tofu?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine. In fact, I feel great now that you're here to help with the watch."

Akane was immensely pleased, enough even to override her anger at the men who had threatened her family physician. "Thank goodness."

Dr. Tofu looked at the men laid out around them. "I fear these may be Mendō Shūtaro's security. They didn't divulge who employed them, but all things considered…"

Katie groaned. "Of course." Roughly she grabbed up the man she took down and shook him. "Hey, dipshit. Is Mendō your boss?"

"Octo Alpha-Two groaned in pain. "Octo Alpha-Two… to Octo-Command… compromised…"

Octo-Command replied on the radio. "Was it the enemy?"

"No… young women… count three…"

There was a pause.

"Are they cute?"

Akane's anger overrode her contentment at Dr. Tofu's safety. "It's Mendō…"

Katie leaned close to the radio as Octo Alpha-Two keyed it. "HEY! YOU BETTER SHOW YOURSELF BEFORE WE COME FIND YOU, MENDŌ!"

There was another silence. "… Octo Alpha-Two, please direct the young ladies to the Command Center at the faculty parking lot of the school, thank you."

Katie turned to Akane. "You know what? You gotta give him credit for respecting your threat."

Akane looked back at her. "No, I don't."

Dr. Tofu took the lead and began walking back in the direction he came from, towards the other side of the school's front. "Let's go sort this out."

One hundred paces from the Fox Statue, in the girl's locker room of Furinkan High School, the cordon barring entry was moved aside, the benches and lockers that furnished the homely locker room were torn asunder, and the floor itself was ripped open to reveal a dark tunnel. Lit by lighters, candles, and cellphone flashlights carried by the Sickle Gang, Madame Kamenbell's procession walked through a narrow and winding tunnel with smooth stone floors and earthen walls.

In spite of the narrow quarters, the air was fresh, and Kamaitachi could even feel it moving the deeper they descended–like there was some kind of airflow whose source they could not detect from further ahead. Glancing at Madame Kamenbell, he could even see it disturbing the feathers of his boa as they walked against it.

After several descending turns, they came to a pair of old sliding wood paneled doors, with the faded relief of foxes dancing stenciled into the right door, and men in Edo Period style clothes dancing and frolicking on the left.

With a grunt of exertion, Madame Kamenbell stepped up and pushed the doors open, and gasped at the sight of an old shrine with more fox reliefs on the walls, and a high stony ceiling a dozen meters above held up by six large wooden support pillars that flanked the room. The stone floor was smooth, with numerous channels carved into it, all leading to a large empty pool in the middle of the room, and on the other end a bronze statue of a rosy-cheeked man with his lips puckered as if to whistle sat in a wooden crate.

"Lights, lights…!" Madame Kamenbell murmured, before commanding with excitement in his voice. "I need lights! Light torches, hurry!"

Kamaitachi gestured around, indicating long unused torches that lined the walls. "Go! Light them!"

While their underlings scattered to follow the order, Madame Kamenbell brought his hands to his face, and he let out a shuddered sigh of anticipation. "Kamaitachi… we're here… after so long, we've made it to this place…!"

Kamaitachi nodded and bit his lip in anticipation as Madame Kamenbell swept around the empty pool and over to the crate containing the statue. Reaching it and looking at the puckered-up mouth of the figure, Madame Kamenbell draped himself over it and let out a contented croon.

"You have no idea, Kamaitachi… how long I have waited for this."

When Kamaitachi answered him, his voice cracked slightly, filled with emotion. "It feels like it's been all of my life, Madame Kamenbell." He joined his master's side. "This is truly it, the source of the spring?"

Kamenbell turned to him. "Yes, look here!"

With a sweep of his right arm, he smashed the crate, and flung the remnants aside. He pointed, with urgent flourish, at the ofuda tag on the forehead of the statue. "Source of the Spring of Drowned Young Man!"

He turned to his second in command. "It is here! In our grasp! The power to create a world of Beautiful Men!"

Kamaitachi's breath caught in his chest, excitement fluttering in it as he clasped his hands together. "Please, Madame, start it now! Let the water flow so we can begin…!"

Turning back to the statue, he snatched the tag away and found a circular indentation with a crescent moon on the left side. Thinking it a button, Madame Kamenbell tried to push it.

Nothing happened.

"Hm?" Confused, Madame Kamenbell tried pressing the alleged button again, but when met with no result, he began to search the statue over, his open palms roaming over for any sort of switch or button. "I do not understand… how does it turn on?"

Staring at the statue, Kamaitachi wondered. "Wait, wait!" He took Madame Kamenbell by his shoulders. "Maybe it needs a key of some kind!"

The masked Madame turned to his trusted subordinate, before both looked at the so-called button that the former tried to press. On closer inspection, it looked like something that fit a very specific key in the shape of a crescent moon with a circle in the middle.

Both men realized it at once. "Ah."

Immediately Madame Kamenbell turned on Kamaitachi, howling in anger. "NO ONE SAID ANYTHING ABOUT A KEY!"

Recoiling, his subordinate spoke quickly. "No! Suzuki did not! He must not have known, or…!"

He stopped. No, he couldn't have known, but he already had an idea. "Wait, Madame Kamenbell! The Tendo Dojo! It may still be there!"

"Quickly! To the surface! My world is so close, we cannot waste a moment more!" Madame Kamenbell turned and roared to the rest of their men. "MY BEAUTIFUL MEN, HURRY!"

On the other side of Furinkan High School, in the faculty lot, Mendō Shūtaro stepped out of the command center and faced Katie, Akane, Kaori, and Dr. Tofu. A spring evening breeze caught his cloak, billowing it to his left as he eyed first the doctor with contemptuous suspicion, and then regarded the young women with a more gentlemanly gaze.

He did not speak, however, because he wasn't particularly hungry for asphalt.

The silence lingered for a little longer than was necessary, before Katie leaned over and said to Akane. "Um, hon? Give him permission to talk."

With a roll of her eyes, Akane complied. "Hey, you can talk now. I won't beat you up."

Mendō visibly relaxed. "Thank you, my–"

"Don't."

He quickly cut to the heart of the matter. "I understand that you're wondering what's going on."

"Oh, we've got a pretty good idea what's happening around here with all this nonsense you're pullin'," Katie said, "But I reckon Kodachi don't."

Mendō brought a hand to his chest. "That's correct, she does not. But I'm not doing anything she would not approve–I am taking the initiative against the enemy, so we are not caught flat-footed against them."

"I'm pretty sure the right hand not knowin' what the left is doin' has historical precedents in bein' a disastrous sorta thing," Katie pointed out.

Mendō saw it otherwise. "I am only taking necessary and reasonable precautions. The nature of the enemy and the threat it poses requires constant vigilance and a readiness to act. While you ladies are extremely formidable, the enemy is many, and you could use any help you could get."

"While that's not untrue…" Katie began.

"Those men of yours are too aggressive," Dr. Tofu said.

Akane drove the point further. "And you didn't ask my sister or Kodachi for permission to have these guys around!"

"In times of crisis, asking for forgiveness is more expedient than permission," Mendō argued back.

Katie walked up to Mendō and flicked him in the nose, hard.

"Ow!"

"Sorry."

Mendō was about to complain, when he realized what she'd done. "… Ah."

"Understand, now?"

Mendō cleared his throat. "Yes, I see."

Akane sighed. "So, call these guys off, and get to calling Kodachi or my sister about all of this."

"At the very least," Mendō argued as he led them inside to the radio, "Let my men stay at their posts, so that they may protect the school."

Katie shook her head. "No dice; after meeting them, I have my doubts."

"Same," Kaori chimed in.

"I experienced it first-hand myself," Dr. Tofu reminded them.

"Yeah," Akane seethed, promising pain to Mendō for that in particular.

Mendō swallowed anxiously and made the call. "Octo Teams, report."

How many days has it been since he was bought here? Unable to see the sun or the moon, let alone the true sky, had robbed Suzuki of his sense of time and awareness of life beyond his current whereabouts. The Sickle Gang had wrung him of everything he could possibly offer regarding the Fox Temple and the keeper of its secrets, and with no further use to him in that regard they had consigned him to a truly dreadful fate.

The once beautiful Suzuki, a splendid and dazzling man who stood above his peers with his glittering brilliance, now stood huddled amongst dozens of leather-clad men with a studded domino mask glued to his face and a leather cap atop his head. He wore the rest of the humiliating ensemble of leather hot pants, sleeveless tops, boots, and knee and elbow pads as well.

He had been reduced to a mere mob of the Sickle Gang. Pressed into its ranks like the dozens of other men cloistered uncomfortably close around him in the stifling artificial jungle.

At the end of day, for all their posturing and dramatics, Host Club Martial Artists were pretenders to the craft. Their flashy moves with long reach, like Suzuki's in his skirmish with Sōban, were designed to keep them clear of any retaliatory strikes or counter attacks–effectively protecting their faces from scarring or bruising. Because a Host Club Martial Artist's skills were meant to dazzle and intimidate, while their handsome faces kept their customers coming in.

Condemned to wear such brutish and tacky attire, to hide his face like the rest of these worthless mobs, Suzuki would much rather have been cut down like that street vendor who'd barged in on his first meeting of Madame Kamenbell.

"Kukuku…" Someone from the side of Suzuki chuckled under his breath, a bit of an undertone to his laugh that wasn't mere mirth. "Still traumatized, Suzaku-kun?"

"It's Suzuki!" He snapped back before he scrutinized the blond leaning against the back of another larger, broadly built man like he was the coolest motherfucker in the tightly packed crowd. "… Wait… you're Kodaira, from Furinkan's Shining Killers!"

"Guilty!" Kodaira replied. "Though, we go by 'The Golden Lovers' now, because Shining Killers wasn't particularly 'beautiful.'"

Suzuki made a face. "Why would anyone associate with anything Golden?"

Kodaira chuckled again. "Well, it's not like we had a choice–and I don't think Madame Kamenbell or Kamaitachi really give a crap about optics. I mean, look at us."

The other blonde gestured around the group of men. "The single largest gathering of leather aficionados outside of an American Biker Rally! Or a cattle ranch–same thing, really."

More chuckles radiated from around Kodaira, and indeed Suzuki realized that the rest of the Shining Killers he'd seen fight at Furinkan High School were present with him.

"What happened? How'd you end up in this outfit?"

"Same as a good chunk of the idiots here. We were hanging out, nursing our wounds, when we got jumped by these guys and given an offer: Either we join their beautiful revolution, or they dump us in the river to block the grate." Kodaira shrugged his shoulders. "We've been on board since. Better than getting stomped by leather guys, right"

He leaned in a bit close to Suzuki. "You'd know a thing or two about that, huh?"

Suzuki scowled at him in turn. "They haven't laid a finger on me."

"Sure," Kodaira said, extending it to drive home his skepticism. "And I bet you can leave anytime, too. Go back to pretending like you're the King of Taian."

Sneering, Suzuki turned away from him. "Well, I'm certainly not submitting to Madame Kamenbell or any of you freaks."

"You may as well just go with it. All this whole thing is, are dudes who prance around acting hard gay and beating up people."

With that, Suzuki wondered if Kodaira knew the full implication of what was happening. "That's all you think this is?"

The other blonde shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "What else is there to it? It's the biggest growing gang in the city–even those zombie losers from our school have shown up, look."

He gestured to more than a handful of other young men, their shoulders dropped, their heads bowed, and their expressions–even with the mask over them–devoid of any feeling beyond despair and self-loathing. The same hopeless Furinkan students, Suzuki realized, that he and Sōban's gang had ruthlessly mocked for being emasculated by a couple girls.

That he was now lumped in with them of all people offended Suzuki even more.

"… What are they doing here?"

Kodaira was happy to explain. "Well, they were just milling around, it wasn't even hard to round them up. Shove a bunch into a truck and then dump them down here in the hole with the rest. They did everything asked of them, without even raising a fuss… they're that broken."

The delinquent gave the Host a side-eye look. "It's the first time that anyone's given a shit about them in a minute, since Furinkan turned into a girls' school."

"That or they don't have the spirit in them to resist."

"Does it even matter? Just like you and I, they're down here. If anything, being a hard gay gimp is a step up"

Suzuki bristled. "Hey, I like women!"

And his protest was quickly brushed off. "Whatever. We're in the boys' club, now, and it is in no small part thanks to uppity bitches who think they can throw hands."

The ball abruptly landed in his court; Suzuki decided to ball. "Think? I was there; they could, and they did throw hands. But you would know that better than me, since you caught them."

Kodaira's façade disappeared as anger flashed over. "Screw you, bottom bitch!"

The darkness of the man-made jungle was pierced by bright lights in shades of red, all shining down on a platform with the same symbol of the Sickle Gang he'd seen painted on the table of Ikeman Teitoku standing directly behind it: A handsome man striding atop a city skyline, bearing the flag with the crossed sickles of the Sickle Gang, surrounded by similarly drawn men with their fists raised to the heavens with him.

In front of the symbol, Madame Kamenbell stood elegantly on the platform. Holding his scythe in one hand, with a microphone stand set up in front of him. Scanning his audience, he cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone.

"Chin-pon-pon-pon-pon~? Do you hear me, my lovely men? This is your leader, Madame Kamenbell speaking," he announced to the cheers of numerous Sickle Gang members amidst the crowd while many others murmured awkwardly or said nothing at all.

Suzuki of course one of them, wondering what this maniac was on about now.

"It has been so long, but I have finally returned to you," Madame Kamenbell continued. "And I return in the darkest hour of humankind, the darkest hour of man…"

Right away, someone shouted back. "What the hell do you mean returned to us?! I didn't even want to be in this stupid gang, you freak!"

Suzuki flinched and looked back, wondering what fool was audaciously stupid enough to say something like that.

Seated on the earthy ground, between his fellow Stormtroopers, was a seething Megane. Like everyone else, he was barely dressed in leather and wearing one of the Sickle Gang's masks. "I like women, you hear! Especially the greatest of women, Lum Invader! You hear that?! I! LOVE! WOMEN!"

Madame Kamenbell looked towards Megane's direction; his lips turned downward in a deep scowl. He nodded towards him, and for his protests, Megane's was driven face first into the dirt by another member of the Sickle Gang. Another knelt and held a sickle to his neck, prompting the defiant young man to yelp in fear.

"As I was saying," Madame Kamenbell continued, "When I look across you huddled masses, heads hung low, eyes drooped, gazes burning into the dirt… I see what damage society has done to you. You have been demeaned and dismissed, as delinquents, as perverts, as cogs in a machine that does not care for you or how much work you put in it."

Given a pause, Suzuki didn't expect to hear the deranged Madame Kamenbell say something like this. "… What?"

"For too long, too many of you have been forced to endure an unsightly existence. Stripped of your country, your identity, relegated to an ill-spoken afterthought outside these walls… and to even worse within them. You have been branded and beaten with every vile name under the sun, but not once have any of you been acknowledged for what you are… men."

Madame Kamenbell walked to the edge of the stage. "Men… who built this country, who maintain it, who keep it running. Men who have fought for it, suffered for it, and held it upon your shoulders. Men who are taught to stand on your own feet and hold fast against the tides of horror and evil in the world. The history of Japan, the history of the world, the history of humanity… is a true man's romance."

Without warning, Madame Kamenbell erupted into a fury slamming his scythe into the stage to stand alone as he threw up his and screamed.

"IT IS A DISGRACE!"

He clenched his hands into fists and spoke with fervor and fury. "That you must bow your heads to those who look down on you from below! Those who hide behind wealth, behind weapons, behind weakness! To justify why YOU belong beneath them! When this city… this world… this race is one of MEN!"

Pointing fanatically, Madame Kamenbell kept going. "What did you do wrong? What crime did you commit? What misfortune of birth labeled you as inferior? As ostracized? As less than the other?!"

He looked around at the silent crowd. "For being men, and nothing more. For daring to love, for daring to want, for daring to be as men. That is your only mark, that is why society fears you, despises you, and tears you down."

With a deep breath, Madame Kamenbell lowered his head, then looked up at his now quietly captivated audience with a fearsome resolve. "That is why I have returned to you all. My Sickle Gang who wore the mask then, and those who wear the mask now. The time for men's subordination to a diseased and hideous society must end."

He brought his hands to his mask and brushed his fingertips across it. "This mask, it is not meant to hide our shame… but to represent true freedom. When it is on your face, you have no name, you have no rank, you are but a man… free to be a man and embrace the true beauty of men."

Bringing his hand out, he brought it in with the fabulous flourish of the Sickle Gang's salute and held a presenting palm to them. "You, my Sickle Gang, are all men–radiant, pure, the distillation of manhood worthy to wield the levers that control the world. And as men, we shall have our revolution."

He held that upturned hand higher. "A beautiful world is within our grasp. A world where the wretched filth of society is washed away, leaving men like you where you belong! At the beginning and end, at the center of everything! My lovely men, my strong men, my men who rightfully hold this world! Are you with me, to seize destiny and a glorious future?!"

In front of the stage a single hand reached up and out in the beginning of the Sickle Gang's salute. It was Kamaitachi's, the second in command of the Sickle Gang openly weeping as HG and RG, at his flanks, held their hands up in the same motion.

Suzuki shook his head in disbelief. "There's no way this insane idiot's going to win everyone over with that fluffed up, fascist garbage…!"

He stopped when he noticed hands go up, and looked around to see the unmistakably broken young men of Furinkan High School were finding the life and spirit that had been lost the day Kuno Tatewaki fell. Looking to his left, Suzuki's left eyebrow twitched when he saw Kodaira reaching up, along with the rest of the former Shining Killers, turned Golden Lovers.

Suzuki looked back, in disbelief, and then horror as he saw more hands rise up. Masked men holding back tears or openly letting them flow as the validation and encouragement that life in the SAD–the lives they led before they were pressed to wear the mask–had deprived them.

Quickly, Suzuki sought out the irate young man who protested before and found Megane also holding his hand aloft while he clumsily wiped his eyes with his free hand.

"… He… he speaks to us… he understands why being a man is so important," Megane all but sobbed.

Scanning the crowd and finding not a dry eye or unraised hand beside his own, Suzuki looked back as Kamaitachi led them all through the motion of the salute. The rest followed, bringing their hands down then up to a presenting gesture to their great leader, and all responded as once.

"Yes, Madame Kamenbell!"

The twitch in his left eye returned, stronger, as Suzuki struggled with this sudden submission. They had no idea what insanity Madame Kamenbell was asking for, they had been snatched off the street, beaten into these ridiculous clothes, and forced to wear masks. Where was their dignity? Their self-respect? Their common sense?!

He could've shouted this all himself, but when he looked at Madame Kamenbell, he realized that the leader of the Sickle Gang was looking directly at him. The only man in a crowd of hundreds who did not have his hand up in praise to what every other man here saw as their savior.

Beside him, he heard Kodaira whisper out the corner of his mouth. "Hey there, bottom bitch, how much longer are you going to pretend you're better than us? You're in the boys' club now, get on with it."

Suzuki grimaced and raised up his hand to perform the salute.

"Y-yes, Madame Kamenbell."

This was insane. How had he gone from wanting to rule the Host Club scene to this, pledging fealty to an idiot who thinks he can turn women into men with some water?

Satisfied, Madame Kamenbell called to his audience.

"Then let us march to our beautiful destiny."

When you start the war, fight with sickles, masks, and hordes.