Dance in Sin City

Disclaimer: I own nothing here, tis a shame, the only thing I own is the plot.

I am *SO* sorry about the delay on this chapter, I got distracted and forgot to post.


Chapter 8

"Mostly we're here for information." Sailor Neptune said as she looked at the obvious demon, who nodded. "Word on the street is that there's some illegal stuff happening here."

The smile never left the demon's face as he nodded. "Ah, of course, of course. Please, follow me. I do not wish to have everyone hear what we're about to say." When the two Senshi gave him a look that told him what they thought of that, he nodded. "Of course, I merely mean into the hallway, nothing more. Compared to either of you, I would crumple as easily as a sheet of wet paper in the hands of an infant." Both nodded and followed him into the hallway, where he closed the door. "Now, far be it for me to assume what you're here for, if you could explain why, I could assuage any worries you have."

"We heard that there were illegal fights involving humans and non-humans here." Sailor Uranus said and the demon nodded.

"Ah, certainly by human standards what's going on is illegal." The demon said with a nod. "After all, we're not officially registered as any fighting arena that people can join and participate in."

"So, what is going on?" Sailor Neptune asked and the demon nodded.

"A good question." The demon continued to smile and nod. "You see, Makai has in place some rulers that not everyone is happy with. But their strength cannot be denied. The Demon King recently said that in ten years time, a trifling amount of time for those of us who live in Makai, a tournament will be held for all Makai residents. The winner of the tournament will become the new ruler of Makai. Even the Demon King himself will participate in it."

"So this is..." Sailor Neptune began and looked at Sailor Uranus.

"...Merely training?"

The demon nodded. "Quite so. To keep it from attracting TOO much attention, we had to put a lot of wards to dampen magic around the building. A few rules, of course. No attacks other than what normal humans can do."

"So no magic or other energy attacks?" Sailor Uranus asked and the demon nodded. "And how do you enforce that?"

The demon simply reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin, round object. "A choker that goes around the neck. It doesn't remove a person's magical resistance, toughness or strength, it simply disrupts the magic that they can use for attacking. However, that's probably not why you think something illegal is happening here." He put the item back in his pocket as he continued to smile. "You see, sometimes humans enter into deals with the supernatural and cannot repay what they owe. We offer them a chance to get out of paying back what they owe. If they can win enough fights that is." He said and the two Senshi nodded. "However, should they lose, well... The punishment is whatever is agreed upon by the parties before the fight starts. Sometimes they become slaves, other times broodmares and some of our more twisted guests like to have statues and furniture from them." He held up his hands as they hissed. "Please, realize, that the person who lost agreed to those terms."

"And if they hadn't come here?" Sailor Neptune asked and the demon nodded.

"Well, they wouldn't be alive long enough to complain." The demon chuckled and rubbed his hands together. "Now, you have to understand, all agreements are not only completely voluntary, but we allow participants to change the terms of the agreement should they win enough. Like, for example," he nodded back at the door, "that werewolf that you saw fighting when you came in. He owed a great deal of money to a very wealthy being. I won't bore you with the details, but he won his freedom fifteen fights ago. After his debt had been paid, he started fighting to gain money so he can live freely without worry for the rest of his life. Not a bad deal, if I do say so."

"Disgusting." Sailor Neptune said as she looked at him. "To prey on people who are desperate like that."

"We do not prey on people." The demon rebutted and shook his head. "Non non," he held up his right hand and waggled a finger, "the people who you are worried about simply made bad decisions and we give them a way to get out of it."

"Throwing untrained people against demons?" Sailor Uranus narrowed her eyes as the demon started to sweat. "Give me one good reason..."

"We train them!" The demon waved his hands in front of him. "They won't win fights against the best, of course, but we demons like fights to be entertaining." He coughed into his hand. "Oooh, pardon me, dust in my throat. But what would be the point of having humans fight for the chance of their freedom if they are guaranteed to lose?"

Both Senshi gave him a flat stare and he laughed.

"Fair point, I suppose that we demons do have a reputation of enjoying torture of humans." The demon didn't stop smiling despite this set-back. "It's more fair to say that if we had these fights rigged to be impossible to win than we would never have any more entertainment."

"So it's completely legitimate and the ring is just used for fighting?" Sailor Uranus asked and the demon nodded.

"Well, the ring is sometimes moved to the stage when we have our more erotic displays." The demon said with a chuckle. "If you want, there's one scheduled for later today, so you could sit and enjoy a bit of a..."

"No thanks." Sailor Neptune said with her eye twitching. "So, fighting and sex?"

"Along with food and gambling, yes." The demon said with a nod. "Between the Demon King of Makai and his wife, the Deadly Sin of Avarice, most demons, such as myself, tend to behave. After all, someone who has one of the four Devil Kings as a wife and equal is no one you wish to anger."

"...He has multiple wives?" Sailor Uranus asked and openly gawked as the demon nodded. "...Okay, I don't need to know."

The demon flipped his wrist around and two small business cards appeared in it. "If either of you wish to come for dinner and show or even participate..." He handed them to Sailor Uranus. "Feel free. After all, plenty of people join the fights for the thrill of fighting against others with the only restrictions, other than just using hands and feet, are that you aren't allowed to kill your opponent."

Sailor Uranus looked at the card and then at him. "One final question, I hear some demons have skin you can't touch..."

"In that case, you are allowed to use a weapon to fight, but that's really rare." The demon said and looked at the watch on his left wrist. "Ooooh! A new fight is about to start. Would you like to watch?"

"No thanks." Sailor Neptune said as she turned to leave. "Realize this, demon, the only reason that we didn't come in trying to take you out is our employer would be upset at us."

"Of course." The demon said while still smiling. "Our doors are always open. I look forward to when you return."

After both Senshi left, the demon looked behind him at a succubus who wore tattered shorts and a tube top with an open vest over her shoulders. She had fair skin, long purple hair, large breasts that strained against her clothing, fairly wide hips, thick thighs and a rather thick tail. There was a tattoo that looked like fire on her left side. "Miss Alma Elma, I didn't expect to see you. What brings you out?"

"The Sailor Senshi..." The succubus said with a grin. "I'm sure that one of them will be back in the future." She turned and walked off. "I wonder how good of a fighter she is."

"Oh my." The demon chuckled and rubbed his hands together in glee. He didn't know why such a strong fighter like Alma was in Las Vegas, but he knew that she had good instincts when it came to fighters and he wasn't going to question it.

(-)

After leaving the hidden arena, the two took to the rooftops and jumped away, keeping quiet for more than a few blocks as they tried to get their thoughts in order.

"Michiru..." Sailor Uranus began as she looked at her lover.

"It feels like I should have done something to that place." Sailor Neptune said softly. "The thought of demons having a fighting arena like that..." She sighed and shook her head. "I just don't like it."

"You know..." Sailor Uranus trailed off. "I don't really trust that place myself." She looked back at where they had come from. "Might be a good idea to inform our boss about it."

Sailor Neptune nodded and the two Senshi quickly made their way back to the casino that they were using as a base of operations.

(-)

Later...

Nabiki raised an eyebrow as she heard what Uranus and Neptune told her. "Underground fight ring, huh?" She thought about it for a moment before her eyes widened. "Oh right! Ranma did say that there was going to be tournaments every decade in Makai to determine who was going to rule." Her eyes glowed for a moment and she grimaced as she realized something. "Lovely, that building and the others around it have to have that mineral, huh?" At their confused looks, she shook her head. "Ages ago, when Devils and Fallen Angels broke off from Heaven, the Fallen Angels created anti-scrying minerals and made structures out of them. Sometimes that stuff ends up in the human world and some buildings have natural anti-scrying protection simply because of it. Think of it like topaz or other fairly rare minerals ending up in a building's foundation."

"So what should we do?" Sailor Uranus asked and Nabiki shrugged helplessly. "Up to us?"

"You're big girls." Nabiki smiled at them. "If you want to scope it out and see how things play out, I won't stop you, but I need you to patrol the city when you're supposed to be on your shift. In fact," she shrugged and leaned back in her chair, "I don't have a problem with you girls doing whatever you want on your spare time, so long as it doesn't hurt anyone." Seeing the two looking at her expectantly, she sighed. "Look, what that demon said was true. At least about a Makai tournament in a few years to determine the next ruler. Some demons don't like how my husband is doing things."

"I wouldn't worry about that arena too much." Setsuna said as she walked into the office. "That said, it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep an eye on it."

"But just being there to watch the place, if there was something nefarious going on..." Sailor Neptune trailed off, knowing that there wasn't any reason to discuss how they would change their behaviors in that case.

"...What if I joined?" Sailor Uranus asked and the others all looked at her in surprise. "I can just say some line about want to test myself against demons or something."

"That's not a bad idea, but..." Nabiki paused for a moment. "You do realize that would leave us short-handed while you're doing that, right?"

Sailor Neptune sighed as Uranus nodded and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You just wanted to beat up some demons with your hands and feet, didn't you?"

Sailor Uranus smiled nervously. "I can't completely disagree."

"Do be careful," Setsuna told her friend, "I'd rather you not get into trouble and we can't help you."

"Give me a few days." Nabiki told her. "I'll contact some people I know who can make a device that you can wear, an armband or something, that can be easily overlooked and will let us find out what's going on."

"Thanks." Michiru said as she and Haruka released their transformations. "You'll have to forgive us for being jumpy about the thought of demons running around freely."

Nabiki waved her concerns off. "I'd be concerned if you weren't worried about it." Despite her seemingly nonchalant attitude about it, there was something gnawing at the back of her mind, that she was overlooking something and she wasn't sure what it was.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard Saito crying in the other room. Getting up, she went to check on her son and she knew that she would have to have him live with his father soon, since it would get too dangerous to be around here.

(-)

Elsewhere in Las Vegas...

Makoto took in a deep gasp of air as she broke through the surface of the public pool. She was wearing a green a light blue bikini that did nothing to hide her curves from anyone who was watching, which, she was quite giddy in noticing, were quite a few young men and older teenagers. She knew that laws involving intimacy between people were different in the United States and Japan and knew that she had to be careful not to trip over any landmines.

Nabiki had informed her a few days ago that if she wanted to have a boyfriend and have that kind of fun when not on the clock that the state of Nevada's age of consent was sixteen.

Not far away, Sakura, who was basically Makoto's partner for the foreseeable future, broke out of the water herself. She was wearing a single-piece swimsuit that did nothing to hide how toned and muscular the blonde was, not to mention how large her breasts were. "I have to admit, Makoto," Sakura said with a smile as she treaded water over to where the brunette was at, "I didn't expect you to be such a good swimmer."

"Compared to Ami or Michiru, I'm not that good." Makoto admitted as the two swam through the water. "What about you?"

"Part of my ninja training." Sakura said with a wink and then glanced up at the changing room area where a digital clock was telling the time. "Our shift starts in an hour."

Makoto nodded and the two swam to the edge of the pool and got out. After grabbing their towels, they went to the shower to wash the pool water off and Makoto couldn't help but look at Sakura as she pulled the top of her swimsuit down so she could wash her breasts off. "Now I understand why so many girls were jealous of me." Makoto muttered softly as Sakura looked at her in confusion. "Do you mind me asking how you..." She gestured to the ninja girl, "grew so healthy?"

"Proper eating, exercise and drugs." Sakura answered honestly and Makoto jerked in surprise. "The drugs were given to us as children so that our bodies could be more durable, stronger and faster than normal people for the purposes of fighting demons. It had a side effect as we grew up." She bounced on the balls of her feet, causing her breasts to move with a heavy bounce. "On the other hand, our back muscles are strong enough that I never have to worry about back pain."

Makoto blinked a few times and nodded. "I... See..."

"And no," the blonde shook her head as she pulled her swimsuit off completely and washed her body off, "I don't know why Yukikaze is flat-chested. She gets upset whenever anyone points it out."

"I can imagine." Makoto said with a flat expression on her face. She too stripped out of her swimsuit while washing off before turning off the shower and the two girls dried themselves off before getting dressed. "So, those drugs were supposed to help you fight demons?"

Sakura nodded as she pulled her panties up and put on her bra. "Yeah. The clan elders worried that using our Ki to enhance us wouldn't be enough against some demons that we could come across, so they came up with a drug to give us all the benefits of Ki boosts without the downside of wearing us out." As she finished putting on her shirt and pants, she smiled at Makoto. "None of us are going to be taking down beings like the four Devil Kings or anything like that, but against Ogres and other really tough monsters? It never hurts to have a helping hand."

Makoto nodded, knowing how her Senshi powers gave her an advantage against various monsters. "Agreed." Makoto didn't care if the ninja girls used drugs to enhance their bodies to fight against demons and other monsters. It really wasn't any different than using magic in her opinion.

Sakura's thoughts went to a dark place as she thought about the stories she heard about the various Taimanin that came before her and how many of them had been captured and experimented on by crazed mad scientists. She had seen the results of those experiments and couldn't help but wonder if that would happen to her in the future.

Seeing a woman being able to give birth to a horse demon had been so disturbing that Sakura had given serious contemplations bout committing suicide.

What had made it worse was how the woman, a fellow Taimanin, had begged to have her horse husband breed her again.

Sakura was shaken out of her thoughts when she felt Makoto shaking her. "Huh? What?"

"Sorry, you weren't responding." Makoto, now fully dressed, smiled nervously. "You've been zoned out for almost ten minutes."

"Crap!" Sakura quickly put her swimsuit into her bag and the two quickly made their way out of the swimming pool and found an alley so Makoto could transform. Sakura quickly changed again, this time into her ninja body suit and the two jumped out of the alley and onto the roof of the building before rushing to work. "Hey, Sailor Jupiter..." She trailed off as Jupiter looked at her, "is that a full-body leotard with a skirt on it or is the bottom panties?"

Jupiter laughed, though she blushed at the question. "Full leotard. Sorry if you're disappointed."

Sakura laughed and shook her head. "No, I just wanted to make sure."

It didn't take long for the two to get to the casino, slip inside, clock in, get their assignments and head out again.

Nabiki slapped her forehead. "I really need to teach them how to create communication screens." Ai gave her a confused look. "That way they don't have to come in to clock in."

"Yeah, but it might be turned against us if you did that." Ai pointed out and Nabiki nodded.

"Fair point." Nabiki wasn't sure if it would, but now that Ai had said it, she realized that there was a non-zero chance of that happening.

End Chapter 8


Yeah, the Taimanin world is messed up.