[SM/Xover][FanFic] A Soldier's Duty, chapter 15

[metro...@mindspring.com]

A Soldier's Duty, chapter 15
4th Labor
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." Mark
Twain

In revenge and in love, woman is more barbarous than man. -Friedrich
Nietzsche

DISCLAIMER: Elements of this story come from other people. Notably Naoko
Takeuchi, Bill Hart, Kosuke Fujishima, Go Nagai, and whoever did Nuku Nuku.
Rest of it by Metro...@mindspring.com

-------

Eudial had heard about the computer file and had leapt on the concept. As a
gadget oriented girl, she'd taken over much of the computer duties with data
entry and had arranged for other things.

The groups had been lured off, having been told that they would be getting
interviewed by Grey later. The love potion, poured into a small decanter in
the interview rooms and mixed liberally with water. She'd requested they try
the salted peanuts, and as it was a hot day, most of the groups had started
sipping before she'd even left the room.

Eudial smiled and checked her watch. Four minutes had to pass while the
potion's affects built to the critical threshold within the human body. Then
this would remove more than half of the other fiancees.

Eudial smirked. ~Three minutes, thirty seconds for the first group. Nothing
can go wrong! Any moment now, the others among the fiancees will arrive,
enter the exam rooms, and there will be ten less obstacles in my way!~

"Oh hey, Eudial, sorry I'm late, I just heard about it!" Grey said, running
by to the first room. "Somebody really should have cleared it with me first
you know!"

Eudial blinked. Grey had just gone into the first interview room? (beep
beep)

Eudial shut down her timer as Grey emerged from the room, looking puzzled,
then entered the next one. And repeated this in each of the five exam rooms
they'd reserved at the high school. She figured the most he spent in any
single room was three minutes, at most.

Then slowly walked up to Eudial and asked if there was an exit nearby.

Eudial blinked. Not understanding the question. She was about to ask again
when she noticed the boy was escaping out a window.

Five seconds later doors started exploding.

-----------

A few minutes previously:

Haruka Ten'ou had sat there with Michiru Kaioh, laughing at the silly pop
psych questions on the form they'd been handed. How typical of young high
school boy to try these tactics to weed out the incompatibles.

"Oh, here's one," said Michiru, reading to the pacing Haruka. "I think I
read this one in a journal. 'You find yourself in a white room with no
windows or doors. Name three emotions you are feeling.'"

"How big is the room?" Haruka asked thoughtfully. Answering wrong on a psych
test would be... inelegant. Or something like that.

"That's all it says," responded Michiru, rolling her eyes.

"If there are no windows or doors, how did I get in?"

"Haruka..." Michiru let the name trail off she felt strange all of a sudden.
It was like...

The door opened and the boy in question walked in. "Good morning."

"It's afternoon. You're supposed to use 'konnichi wa' not 'ohayo'," pointed
out Michiru while she studied the boy's face. There was something
*different* about him this afternoon. More mature and actually quite cute.

Haruka stopped considering the stupid questions. This boy. There was
something *very* different about him. His obviously male qualities were not
as annoying as she'd first thought. And Michiru. Michiru was even more
attractive than ever this afternoon.

Michiru blinked, her head momentarily whipping between Haruka and Grey.
~Haruka? Haruka has never appeared more... more... studly? Attractive! And
the Americajin? How handsome!~

"First question," said Grey, looking at his hastily scribbled notes. "Why
should I choose you as fiancee?"

"Because..." Haruka's voice trailed off. What had she been thinking a moment
ago?

"We're sophisticated and far more worldly than the others, right Haruka?"
Michiru sounded a little unsure of herself, but this was such an obvious
question that they had rehearsed this answer.

Haruka felt that click into place. "That's right, we're clearly more
sophisticated and worldly than those young girls. We're a much better choice
as fiancees."

Grey scratched his head, wondering if he was misunderstanding something. His
Japanese was still pretty bad but he *had* discovered that Japanese didn't
have plural forms, but something in the way that had been said...

Michiru nodded, Haruka's statement reassuring her. They might still have to
kill him, but there was no reason they couldn't get to know each other
better.

"I thought you two were, ah, lovers? You know, girls that, uhm, love other
girls." Grey *really* wondered where this conversation was going, but he
*had* been curious. Unsurprisingly, he hadn't found a word for 'lesbian' in
his phrasebooks.

Haruka considered this then turned to Michiru.

"Uhm, you two is OK?" Grey discovered that even with Nebula gone, he had a
danger sense going off all of a sudden.

"Michiru!" "Haruka!" *GLOMP!*

Grey was nervous about the situation, especially considering what was going
on *now*. Being a fifteen year old boy without a lot of self confidence and
a libido *not* set on Extreme he naturally fled.

His hopes that something weird was *not* going on dashed on entering the
next room.

Nuku Nuku looked up at him, from where she'd been doodling on the
questionnaire. Her ear-sensors shot up and quivered. "..."

"Oh, Nuku-chan. Uhm, you not believe what going on next door." Grey tried to
laugh. Also tried to get the vision out of his head, and imagination
involved in some other activity than the stuff occurring in Room #1.

Nuku nodded. People could be weird sometimes. She wouldn't be at all
surprised if she was unable to believe what was going on next door.

"Uhm," Grey reached for the questionnaire. "Oh good, it not in kanji."
Privately he admitted that it didn't help much. Especially with Nuku Nuku's
handwriting.

Nuku Nuku nodded again, studying the boy. He sure had been handsome when he
was a catboy.

"Uhm, Nuku-san?" Grey spent a moment staring at the odd protrubrances
framing the girl's head. "You're a cyborg, I'm told."

Nuku nodded, hoping it wouldn't be a problem.

"That's kinda cool," said Grey, thinking about reruns of the Six Million
Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, and similar series he'd seen on reruns.

Nuku Nuku nodded some more, adding a meow for effect. It *was* kind of cool.

"So, why you want marry me? It not just be family honor, yes?" Grey still
couldn't believe all this fuss about family honor. He couldn't see what else
there was about him to attract anyone, and he *sure* hadn't gotten any
flicker of interest back home.

Nuku paused in thought. Family honor wasn't the only reason she wanted to be
engaged? She didn't completely understand this marriage/engagement thing,
just that it had something to do with making kittens. Nuku brightened. That
meant if she was engaged to Grey-san, it was because she wanted to make
kittens with him!

"Oops, seeyalater gottarun, besuretofillthe restofthat form out. bye!"
*THWAM!* Seeing Nuku's change of expression (and picturing for some reason a
cat about to pounce on a mouse) Grey went straight to the next room. He only
knew that five of the fiancees were supposed to be interviewed by him. Which
ones, he had no idea. He'd heard this had been Setsuna's idea, modified by
Honey, so it should be okay - it just sounded weird.

The next room's occupant was perfectly acceptable. He'd met Honey Kisaragi
only a couple of times, but she'd struck him as being solid and reliable.
This would be simple, besides, he'd wanted to speak with her anyway. Despite
that Ami was cuter, and that Honey was more top heavy than he preferred,
there was something definitely attractive about the girl. She also looked
half-asleep.

"So, Honey-san," began Grey, hoping that neither of the occupants of the
first two rooms would look here.

"Honey-chan," corrected Honey Kisaragi, massaging her head as if she
suddenly had a headache. "I'm your fiancee, a certain amount of familiarity
is dictated..."

--------

Honey Kisaragi was, unlike the cyborg Nuku Nuku, a machine at the core.
Organic, each part built in form and function as duplicate of a human body,
but a machine nonetheless. A Turing capable AI who could function as a sweet
protective woman. Her mind was composed of a gestalt of human templates
recorded and edited by her "father."

Nuku and Honey *did* share some features. They could eat and drink normally,
for the most part. Their artificial skin and artificial tissues performed
much the same functions as their human equivelant. In Nuku's case, the brain
and spinal column that remained of her original form were nourished by those
artificial systems. Honey had no such purely organic systems, though her
nanites broke minerals up to effect internal repairs in similar manner to
human digestion.

Honey could change her surface appearance with little effort, her internal
mechanisms sufficient that odd things like hair color and style could be
altered as long as she had scanned the pattern. Even her uppermost skin
layer could be altered in hue and texture at need. Not nearly as strong as
Nuku, nor as fast or durable. But much more versatile.

The Love Potion Of Obsession that Eudial had used wasn't able to work as
planned. There were enough similarities in Nuku Nuku to a normal human that
it had been able to affect the catgirl cyborg to some degree. However Honey
Kisaragi was completely different. The magical virus was unable to find a
template for "ideal mate" and erase it. The feelings of giddiness and love
were reacted to by programs and feedback mechanisms meant to keep everything
running smoothly. The rebuilding of her self-image, likewise mainly foiled.

In the brief period the Potion was active, it managed a few minor file
corruptions, then expired in a brief flash of magical energy.

All of which served a single purpose.

Honey Kisaragi looked up at Greylle Shard and *knew* what was going on. She
was in a simulated timeline, fighting some villain in a VR world, but the
real task before Grey was to be that he would choose a single fiancee among
the group of well wishers. She herself was one, a version of Honey Kisaragi
who had defeated Panther Zora for the final time with this boy's help.
Without his Teleport Block, Zora would have escaped yet again.

She owed him. And had followed him when their paths had crossed again,
intent on finding a way to pay him back. And had found something that had
rocked even *her* world.

There was Good and Evil. Beyond the scales of her world, her vs Panther Zora
and whatever other monster-of-the-week beckoned. And there were those who
were convinced they were Good, and who still spread Evil, and those who
confused the two, and more who insisted that there really was neither Good
nor Evil - merely conflicting viewpoints.

She'd joined the number of fiancees then, at first seeing it merely as a way
to pay the boy back. Even though he'd been an incubus the first time they'd
met, then a dragon playing the part of some martial artist, he'd attracted a
few followers at the time. Then other things came to her attention.

They had things in common. Duty, compassion, doing the right thing in a
world that rarely recognized it unless that recognition was posthumous.
She'd been approached too. Valkyrie training, if she wanted it. New
equipment, the chance to take part in a battle of Good Vs Evil on a scale
that embraced not only worlds and galaxies, but universes. And more.
Children. If she actually embraced this reluctant warrior, she'd be able to
do more than protect children. She'd be able to be a mother.

Honey looked at her ignorant fiancee. If she betrayed her knowledge of this
scenario, she'd be pulled out. If she didn't, she'd be guilty of pulling one
over on her allies. Well, she'd done it before.

Grey wasn't sure what Honey's expression said, other than tears brimming in
her eyes. "Uhm, sorry, Honey-chan. I'll come back later when you're feeling
better."

Honey nodded and turned back to the questionnaire, questioning herself
whether she wanted to win this contest. She could possibly return to her
homeplane, memories wiped of her little adventure, and be completely content
there. But a family of her own...

--------

Rei awoke from a pleasant doze, realizing that she'd drifted off somehow
while considering the possible psychological ramifications of Silly Question
#18. ("If you could be stranded on a desert island, what color would the
beach be?") (Well, OK, Rei wasn't using phrases like 'psychological
ramifications' - she was just worrying about what might be revealed.)

"Ah, excuse me, Hino-san, if you want to go back sleep then me speak later
you with."

Rei growled a little under her breath. Ami still hadn't taught proper
sentence structure to Grey had she? Though the boy sounded stressed out.

Rei looked up.

She was dimly aware of the drifting sakura petals in the foreground, floral
background and rosy light all around them. She was not at all aware that
Eudial had planned for Usagi to be in the room, Usagi's usual tardiness
actually working in her favor for once.

Rei's eyes were staring and shimmering with unshed tears. "Be- beautiful."

"Hah?" Grey wondered if it were the heat. Though he was still getting a
curve ball every time he thought he'd figured out something about the
Japanese. Why the heck did you spell "wa" as "wa" except when you were
identifying yourself, and then you spelled it "ma"?! And Usagi complained
about English!

The shrine maiden cleared her throat. She'd run here after school, had been
thirsty, had drank the provided water (which had been deliciously cool) and
had started filling out her paperwork. Odd that she still felt all hot and
prickly, even after her nap. "Uhm, yes, Shard-san. I'm just filling out this
paperwork. Very busy. Do you need something?"

"Uhm, no. Excuse me."

Rei nodded. She would certainly excuse him. He was a foreigner after all. He
could not be expected to understand the intricacies of being Japanese. "If
you intend to give something to Ami for White Day, you'd better get it
before your date tonight."

"White Day?" Grey blinked. They had days named after colors?

"You should ask Minako. She speaks English." After a moment, Rei relented
and explained that White Day was a Japanese day marking one month after
Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day, a girl who was interested in a boy gave
him chocolate. One month later on White Day, if the boy were also interested
in the girl, the boy gave the girl something colored white to indicate that
interest. Often the girl would make a number of statements indicating she
had simply found some leftover chocolate or she was on a diet, something to
indicate that even though it was chocolate on Valentine's Day - it wasn't
really *that* - even though it *was*. Then the girl was basically stuck
waiting anxiously for that month to see if the boy responded appropriately
and not merely politely.

Grey scratched his head, trying to make sense of both Rei's Japanese and the
custom. He'd missed Valentine's Day, so nobody had given him chocolate. Now
it was White Day and he had to buy something white for a girl that was
interesting to him? Dang, he needed to get shopping. He didn't want to
insult anyone! "Okay. Well, thank you for being so nice to me, Rei-chan."

The blush racing up from Rei's neckline caused her throat to tighten. Yes,
she *was* nice to him, wasn't she? But 'Rei-chan'?! He was so forward! He
must really like her.

The American transfer student puzzled over Rei's reaction. Why was she
twiddling her fingers like that? Well, it *was* a hot day and these little
cubicle rooms were kind of stuffy. With a quick glance at his phrasebook,
Grey decided he'd better check that last room. "Well, Rei. These rooms kinda
small are. Making you hot i am. See you a bit later." He didn't realize that
he'd used the wrong word for hot and was actually looking at one of the
books the nurses at the hospital had gotten him. ("Making Out In Japanese")

Rei gasped. Not only because once again one of her Grey-chan's phrasebooks
had proven to have downright inaccurate portions, but because he had used
the phrase for sexual desire. Rei twitched. Rei twitched a lot. The
questionnaire was completely forgotten as Rei struggled with an internal
battle.

-------

She looked up as Grey-san entered the room. Nothing unusual. "Ah, Grey-san."

"Ah, Makoto? What you do here?" Why was she drooling? It *had* to be some
Japanese thing.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Ami's voice came from the doorway. "Uhm, did I miss
anything?"

"...sempai..." Makoto said, still staring at Grey.

"Tell you what Ami, you cram school soon." Grey said, looking at his
breathless fiancee, then back to Makoto. "Why you not go cram school now?
There much strange going on and i think not easy find out what."

Makoto idly wondered what was going on that was strange. Other than she'd
just noticed that Grey-san looked *just* *like* her sempai!

"It not usual Mako-chan for drool, is it?"

Ami firmed her decision to teach her fiancee sentence structure. He was
getting better. Until he started getting stressed at least. Then his
language skills "went in the toilet" as the Americans said. ~Hmmm. It is
unusual for Makoto to look that way, unless there were a cute guy around.
Must have just been here and then left before I arrived.~

"Well, Ami-chan, you Doctor-trainee. Maybe you should check her? Fever,
maybe?" Grey was wondering what exactly was going around. Maybe it was the
air in the building?

Ami checked. Then noticed the way Makoto was watching Grey. "Oh dear. She
does feel feverish. But she acts like this around guys she thinks are
cute..." Ami's voice trailed off. She didn't want to connect the two
concepts.

"She turn red and eyes glaze like that? If she really like guy, what she
do?" Grey considered Makoto's expression, the behavior in two rooms, and
their original meeting. "Beat them up and rip their clothes off?"

Makoto grinned and shrugged aside Ami's hands. Sounded good to her.

----------

Return to the present:

FIVE doors exploded off their hinges. Two managed to hit Eudial and knock
her to the floor. Underneath them.

"Ouch," mumbled Eudial.

*LEAP!* *THUD!* "owie"

Haruka and Michiru leapt to the top of the small pile of doors. "We can't
let him get away, Michiru! We're too close to victory!"

The two leapt off, considering whether as shift to Sailor Uranus and Sailor
Neptune would be advisable.

*TRAMPLE!*

"Sempai?! Sempai? Sempai! Come back for your Mako-chan!"

"Mako-chan?" Ami ran over the small pile of broken doors and refuse as she
followed Makoto, wondering again what was going on. She'd grabbed the small
bottle of water because, well, it *was* a hot day.

*THWAM!* "ow"

Nuku Nuku leapt to the top of the small pile of garbage, sniffed the air,
then leapt out the window to follow everyone else.

A wild eyed shrine priestess stepped on something and almost lost one of her
high heels, but quickly took after Nuku and the others.

Honey wandered out, noticed that everyone else had stepped on Eudial, and
figured why should she buck fate? She stepped on the broken doors covering
the witch, went back into the room, and tipped a bottle of the "water" she
suspected responsible for this ordeal so that it would leak down. Then added
a nice little picture of Grey-san where Eudial would be sure to see it.
"What's good for the goose, after all," said Honey in a bare whisper before
running out to join the crowd. They might need her for damage control, if
worse came to worse.

-----------

*Zoom!*

Maya Tono blinked and considered. That was her fiancee, Grey-san, running
*out* of the building with a fairly puzzled if panicked look.

"There he goes!" "We'll get him!"

Maya blinked. There went those two odd girls. Maybe this was the
assassination attempt Rei had thrown out as a possibility? Maya immediately
forgot about being summoned to room #4 and started giving chase.

She was passed by Nuku san?

----------

Morrigan, who was definitely not a morning person, had gotten up after noon.
Then gotten a nap about three.

She was rather surprised to see the procession going down the street.

In the lead, having grabbed a stray bicycle that was a couple of sizes too
small, was Grey.

He was followed closely by those two odd girls who had struck Morrigan as
being a pair of mercenaries. After that came the catgirl Nuku, then the
little drummer girl, then the shrine maiden. Morrigan admired the girl's
ability to run at those speeds in high heels. Then was that tall girl,
Makoto, followed by the bookworm, followed by that android girl, followed by
Usagi, followed by reporters, followed by the "No Gaijin Brides" group that
protested the whole concept of mixed marriages - particularly where national
treasures like Ami Mizuno were concerned.

As she watched, groups of Japanese citizens joined the chase simply because
it was a long involved chase sequence and they didn't want to feel left out.
Japanese seemed to want to do *everything* in large groups.

There was Sakura Shinguchi getting involved, riding a bicycle and catching
up. There was that girl Eudial who smelled of black magic, driving a car and
attempting to get ahead of everyone else.

Morrigan hovered momentarily in midair. "And he wondered what about all this
was sufficiently odd that it would attract *my* attention? Heh!"

With that, Morrigan Aenslad threw her own flight into the pattern.

---------

At some point, Grey (who could not ever remember having seen a Takahashi
anime) found himself glancing back and determining that he was at the very
forefront of the sort of chase sequence one would expect in an old Buster
Keaton serial or perhaps at the end of Benny Hill.

Unfortunately, looking backwards while going forwards is not always a safe
move.

*THWAM!*

Grey's eyes widened as he found his borrowed bicycle's front tire dropping
through a storm drain grating. As the front end of the vehicle went down and
his forward momentum halted, the seat moved up and translated his momentum
to a slightly different direction.

"WAAAAGGHHHH!" While flipping end over end in the air, Grey had enough time
to realize that his time in Japan had definitely some ups and downs. He'd
have never believed prior to his coming here that being pursued by a fair
number of attractive girls would be one of the "downs."

*THWASH!*

Slamming into the top of a police car was definitely one of the "downs" as
well. Sliding off the car and heading for the street wasn't a good thing
either. Waitaminute. What were those orange street flags...

*WHOOSH!*

Street repairs. They had a section of road removed while they were working
on pipes or something. In a way it was a pity he was facing up as he was
going down, he was a little curious as to what he'd be landing on.

*CRASH!*

Wedged into the trench, looking up at the walls of dirt, Grey wondered
exactly what he had done in some previous life to deserve this sort of
thing.

There came the sound of a police car being struck by Eudial's "mini".

The earthen walls began to crumble as the front wheels of the police car
ledged into the trench.

Grey frowned. He was stuck. Panicking wouldn't help. It just didn't seem too
bad. After all, Nebula had died. It took a thousand years but he got better.
Why couldn't Grey do the same?

He just wished he could have met Ami under better circumstances. Or Minako.
Or Setsuna. Or... heck *any* of them. Just not all at once, thank you.

*ZOOOM!*

~Well, now, *this* is unexpected.~

---------

Everyone stared into the collapsing trench, the policecar letting out a
plaintive whoop as it fell within.

"Grey-chan?" Ami stepped forward, staring at where she could easily
calculate her fiancee's flight trajectory ending.

Even the police officer, okonomiyaki forgotten for the moment, stopped
writing up Eudial.

"Waaaaaaah," began Usagi.

A silhouette dramatically posed on a rooftop.

"Where injustice and trouble prevail,
Where criminals and delinquents gather,
The former Sailor V shows her mask!
Sailor Cheetah! Miya!
Warm and fuzzy beautiful warrior of
lotsa cuddling and free catnip!"

Things had gotten silent with the presumed death of Grey. Things had gotten
even more quiet as the catgirl chained sentai poses together.

"*THAT* is Sailor V?!" One newshound exclaimed. Sailor V was cute, a leggy
blonde who didn't look particularly dangerous. Sailor Cheetah was...

Morrigan frowned, unused to being upstaged in the category of Raw Sexiness.

Sailor Cheetah, aka Minako Aino, adjusted her mask, then lifted Grey and put
him over a shoulder.

He made a guess at what his line was supposed to be. "Sailor Cheetah-chan!
How i ever repay you is!"

Sailor Cheetah considered all the cameras for a moment. "With great power
comes great rewards!"

"That's 'responsibilities'," muttered a number of girls watching this,
though relieved that the boy had been rescued.

Sailor Cheetah posed again, Grey beginning to struggle as he realized that
he wasn't being let go. She then said something that sounded suspiciously
like "onward to the love hotel!" *Zoom!*

Things again went completely still for several heartbeats.

Then came screams, cellphone calls, and a continuation of the chase scene.

--------

Kids saw him coming. One started whistling Piccolo's theme from "Dragonball
Z". Another was more familiar with Western music and had the lyrics from
"Bad to the Bone" echoing in his head.

Morgan Wright, aka Obsidian, the Knight Of Fear, walked the streets of
Tokyo.

Okay, he wasn't that tall. He wasn't that muscular. He wasn't carrying a
visible weapon.

He *was* carrying a major attitude.

"Where is Furinkan High School... oh dear." Ryoga Hibiki backed away. He
liked danger as much as the next crazed ridiculously powerful martial
artist. He knew from just a look though, this black clad guy not only wasn't
on the same page as him, he was in a whole different section of the library.
The section that had all the dark shadows and books whose titles seemed to
squirm around in their leather bindings.

The Shade Knight inclined his head briefly towards the Lost Boy as he walked
past.

A small group of Japanese bikers fell silent at his approach. Then, feeling
his authority would be undermined if he didn't do something (stupid and
reckless) about the scary fellow, the leader attacked Morgan. His men
followed suit.

Obsidian stopped walking as the pack surrounded him and moved in. Then he
did something that further terrified the already frightened more observant
members of the pack.

The Knight Of Fear smiled.

------

"Uhm, Minako-chan?"

"Grey-chan?"

"i'm going to get motion sick if you continue to do those leaping roll
thingies."

"oh..." Minako slowed. "Well, I guess we lost them."

Grey groaned in relief. The speed wasn't so bad. It was the rollercoaster
ride with all the twists and turns and spins and... he wouldn't have eaten
that shrimp roll after school if he'd known he was going on this trip.
"Yeah, i think they kinda got left behind when you ran through that house
then did that rooftop leap, then dove through that love hotel."

"Actually, I'd meant to stop there," confessed Minako.

"Uhm, not that i don't like you, Minako-chan, but..." Grey started looking
embarassed, though as he was still pinned to the girl's shoulder it was hard
for her to tell. Speaking of which. "Can you please put me down now?"

Minako seemed to hesitate briefly before she did so. "Grey-chan. I died once
in the fight with Beryl. Sailor Venus died by edict of the Queen. I died
again when fighting the vampire. I don't want to die again before I've
sampled what there is of *life*!"

The American winced. "Okay, i can see your point. But you're only sixteen.
i'm only fifteen!"

"Exactly," responded the furry girl. "Oh, and better call me Mineko or
Sailor Cheetah when I'm like this. You said yourself. I'm sixteen. And I've
died twice. Usagi brought me back once, and you've brought me back the last
time."

"i don't remember anything about the vampire fight," complained Grey.

"...besides, what's that bad about a massage?"

Grey stopped. "Massage?"

"Yeah. I saw that book you were reading earlier." Mineko grinned, showing
sharp fangs.

"'Shiatsu & Massage For The Beginner'?" Grey blinked. Well, he *had* wanted
to learn this sort of thing. He thought it had all sorts of possibilities
for use. And he'd seen that sad wince in Ami's eyes and concluded that she
got tension headaches. "Well, if that's all."

"What did you think I meant?" Mineko asked, projecting innocence.

Grey felt relief. Also disappointment. Then ashamed because he was
disappointed. Finally settled for relieved. "Oh well. In that case, let's
go." He *did* owe her, after all.

When his back was turned, Mineko pumped a fist and gave a "V" sign. Then
hurried up to get her fiance to the right place.

---------

Parking his new motorcycle, Morgan Wright checked the sign. "Hikawa Shrine?"

Eyes quickly checked the shadows and facilities. Three ninja, who were not
in plain sight but were detectable as being in exactly the sort of places
that the Knight himself would have chosen to lurk in. One girl, that samurai
chick, was apparently sweeping the steps.

Other than a twinge of katana-envy, Morgan paid little attention to the
samurai. In a fair fight, she'd probably be a challenge. Of course, he
rarely fought fair.

Seeing she was eyeing him uncertainly, Morgan jerked a thumb briefly at
himself. "Friend of Grey. Ally. No speakee Japanesee. Much."

That brought a nod in return, though she wasn't lowering her guard. Good for
her. The presence of the ninja and some signboard with odds posted and
girls' pictures attached (some of the girls he'd met last night) confirmed
that this was the right place.

Then, with those eyes watching him, Morgan went down and retrieved the
motorcycle. He grunted a bit getting it up the stairs, but he was used to
living in areas of America where the prevailing philosophy was "if it ain't
nailed down it's mine, and anything I can pry up - ain't nailed down."

Not that anyone stole from him.

Twice, at least.

-------

There was a temporary truce. The group snuck closer, following the trail.

"Is this the room?" Makoto whispered.

Ami checked her computer again and replied just as softly. "Yes."

"OOOOooooooOOOOO! Yes! Yes! Right there!"

Minako's voice coming through the door caused several reactions.

Setsuna turned her head and supressed a laugh. Ami's fur popped up as she
got depressed, turning her blue in more than one sense. Rei turned red.
Makoto's eyes glittered green with envy.

"Slowly now. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh YEAH."

Many of the young girls looked completely scandalized and outraged.

"It's too late," mumbled Ami. Then noticed Setsuna almost falling over from
the effort of suppressing laughter. Which immediately clicked as *terribly*
OOC. If...

"Up a little, and deeper now," Minako's voice practically purred.

"AAAAAGHHHHH!" The door crashed open as several girls felt this intolerable.
They would have to punish these two for...

Grey looked up from where he was standing next to the reclined Minako (back
in human form, except for a tail that had slipped out). "Oh. Did someone
else want to go next?"

"AAGHHHHHH! YOU PERVERT!" *WHAM!*

Everyone looked at where Makoto had decked Grey.

"ouch" said Grey from his position on the floor.

Makoto's mind started playing catchup. Grey had all his clothes on. Minako
was wearing a towel, mainly, and lying facedown on the bed while a book was
opened in front of her.

Minako reared back. "Guys? Wait your turn, will ya!"

Ami glanced at the book, wondering about that odd feeling of relief.
"Massage therapy?"

Groans and moans followed, as well as a few speculative gleams.

The token male at this gathering decided not to bother getting up right now.
Or maybe he was just still seeing stars. "-That's it. i'm going back to
America. Girls just ignore me there. They don't generally... on second
thought, maybe they do. Maybe i should just become a monk.-"

Speculative gleams were replaced by winces.

-------

Morgan parked his motorcycle, and ignored those gathering behind him.

"That's MY bike," yelled the leader of the gang, now wearing bandages on
various portions of his anatomy and with an eye blackened and swelling shut.

The Knight didn't look at them. "Spoils of war."

"You got lucky," said the leader. "I brought insurance this time."

"You pull that gun, and I'll feed it to you." Morgan clucked over the dirty
air filter as he checked his new acquisition more thoroughly. "Man, how many
years has it been since you changed the filters?"

Shinde hesitated, but pulled the gun anyway. "I'd like to see you try and
stop me."

Morgan whirled, his arm sweeping out briefly as he did so. Then straightened
his duster, and started walking forward.

"You asked for it!" The Biker held the revolver as if it were a cross to
keep a vampire away. Then blinked. There was something stuck in the barrel
of his gun? A knife wedged into the muzzle? He pulled the trigger anyway,
figuring it would clear the barrel.

*BLAM!*

There's a reason in most Westerns, that if the barrel is plugged, the
villain does not try to shoot with that particular gun.

---------

"Hmmm." Serafita flitted about. "You missed one."

Celeste brought up the file. "Only about 10% was used to create the merged
Aspect that's now Grey's powerup."

NAME OF ASPECT: Noa
REALITY ORIGIN: Pokemon Timeline 024107, Stone City
OCCUPATION: Pokemon Tamer, Specialist in cute pokemon such as Eevee and
Vulpix. At time of death had six pokemon: Eevee, Ponyta, Vulpix, Caterpie,
Clefairy, and Totodile.

"At time of death?" Serafita noted. "He has worse luck in a female
lifetime?"

"Sometimes," agreed Celeste.

DREAM: To be a major rock and pop musician.
SPECIAL SKILLS: guitar playing, knowledge of pokemon and their abilities,
cooking.
SPECIAL DISADVANTAGES: even her best friends described her as a ditz outside
of her special skills. Nice, but still a ditz.
OTHER NOTES: Deceased. Killed by Butch & Cassidy of Team Rocket during a
theft of her pokemon.

"I think all that copied over were the musical skills," said Celeste,
crossing her fingers.

"We can hope," said Serafita. "Hey, what's with this name in the betting
pools? She's not in the simulation, not any more at least. And she's not
interested."

"According to Freya, she *is* still interested despite that love arrow being
dispelled awhile back." Celeste tweaked controls. "Actually, there's some
bets that she'll get tired of the whole thing, insert herself into the
scenario, and proceed to rock his world. Especially since Susano-ou can't
get used to the Valkyrie-trained, newly assertive, version."

Serafita shrugged and went back to the part that interested him. "Nice
character design."

---------

Grey excused himself and went shopping. Even though he now had serious
doubts about staying in Japan.

He had several fiancees he liked. Nebula had been fond of a few of them
himself. They weren't as attracted to *him* obviously. Only Minako and
Setsuna seemed really interested.

Still, he was a stubborn cuss, and determined to give the best showing he
could. Now he needed to respect their customs.

It took awhile, but he thought he had the ideal gifts (at least what he
could manage within his budget) for the ones he was most interested
in/grateful to.

He had trouble with the translations, but he *thought* the gifts were
suitable. They were predominantly white after all, and it was 'White Day' so
it ought to be OK.

There were some weird looks directed his way, and people pointing and
whispering, so maybe this wasn't going on quite as well as he'd hoped. Just
smile back and act confident, faking it with as much sincerity as he could
scrape together.

A few of the one group he'd dubbed the "Keepers of Genetic Purity" were
gathering to protest his dating Ami. They didn't have a set uniform, but the
various expressions and shouted comments were enough indication.

Grey clutched his bags of purchases, wondering what the heck he was going to
do if it crossed the line into violence.

Doing his best to ignore them, Grey turned and started walking away. The
little muscles along his spine started twitching, and there was some stomach
upset, but he was hoping this would be the most effective way of getting out
of a bad situation. Maybe they wouldn't try anything.

The crowd gathered, then a stone was thrown that struck Grey in the head.
The reaction caused the protesters to consider backing off.

Grey was momentarily stunned, and metamorphosed for several seconds. A
golden winged figure who looked about as if uncertain where he was. The glow
intensified, a single thought remaining that the gifts must be protected and
the feeling that these gifts *must* somehow make up for his lack of sterling
qualities.

The glow faded again, leaving a nervous boy and a crowd that was wondering
if they'd imagined the whole thing. Maybe a repeat of the experiment was
needed.

He'd almost made it to the shrine when rocks started getting thrown.

The crowd, having whipped themselves up to deal with this enemy of all
women, this foreigner who would dare sully the precious cream of Japanese
girlhood, this pint-sized Casanova, surged forward to the attack.

Several throwing darts imbedded themselves in the cement between the crowd
and the boy, Kasumi not being quite the casual killer that Ayane could be.

The mob was still moving forward anyway when HE stepped out.

People can be intelligent, mature, and reasonable. A mob, which combines a
pack instinct with the lowest common denominators of human behavior, lacks
these qualities. Hence a group of unarmed if outraged civilians ignoring the
warning from the throwing knives.

The blond youth snugging his fingerless, metal-knuckled, black leather
gloves into place somehow cut straight down to the animal instinct portion
of the mob. Like the yellow-and-black of certain venomous insects, there was
something basic about the boy that screamed "Danger" in loud block letters.
Something that spoke not only of death (which was a concept that most of the
crowd, being teenagers, were convinced wouldn't affect them personally
anyway), but of lots and lots and lots of pain.

The lead youths came to a halt and then stumbled as the ones behind them
briefly pushed forward.

And then the gaijin did something. Something so horrible and terrible that
those viewing it would have it haunt them for months thereafter.

With one finger, Morgan Wright slid his sunglasses down so that he could
look at them directly.

At the sight of those horrible horrible glacial blue eyes upon them, staring
deep into the very depths of their soul, and silently promising that they
would get hurt so badly that playing tag with trains would be less painful,
several of the youths immediately experienced a need to change underwear.

Morgan smirked as the mob dispersed. "Wimps," he pronounced.

--------

Grey had gone straight from the temple (after a quick handing of gifts to
Rei, Minako, and Hotaru as well as storage of the remainder of the gifts) to
where he was supposed to meet Ami.

Ami was sitting on the stairs in front of her apartment building, wearing a
peasant blouse, short skirt and hiking boots. This last caused Grey some
puzzlement, as he was hoping to get a clue from Ami as to where she wanted
to go. Hiking? Walking somewhere far away? Well, the Japanese *did* seem to
do a lot of walking, just to get to the various train stations. But those
shoes weren't walking shoes, like were typically worn to and from school.
And she looked pensive?

This did not bode well. Maybe the gift would help.

"-Ami-chan, here's a gift for you. i'm sorry, it was a rush, but i hope you
like it!-"

Ami took the gift and stared at it.

Grey immediately had that "oh crap i screwed up" sensation.

Ami continued to stare at the book.

"-It's a study guide for the high school exams.-" Grey added, hoping that
the bookstore hadn't exchanged it for another book. One of those "let's play
a trick on the dumb gaijin" sort of things.

Ami's lower lip trembled ever so slightly.

Grey noticed and started mentally kicking himself. Though he still hadn't a
clue *how*, it was obvious it was SNAFU (to borrow the military term). Maybe
giving a book for White Day had some horrible significance known only to the
Japanese?

"Shard-san," began Ami.

Grey noticed that he was back to being 'Shard-san' and winced.

"Shard-san, what do you think is left of me if you took away studying?"

The American started puzzling that out in his still "had holes in it large
enough to drive a Federation Warp-shuttle through them" Japanese. Trying to
put the panic off to the side for now. "-Uhm.-"

"I'm sorry, I've asked you a strange question."

The fifteen year old was still trying to figure out the question. ~Obenkyo
is 'study' right? And 'atashi' refers to herself. Nani ga means 'what is'.
What was the rest of that?!~ "-Since this is obviously an important
question, can you try that in English?-"

"My mother is a doctor, and I decided to become a doctor when I was very
young."

~AUGHHHHH!~ "Dozo, Ami-chan, mo ichido yukuri kudasai." (Please repeat this
slower, Ami-chan.)

Ami (mercifully in English) continued. "-When person has real dream, they
become radiant, unlike me. Usagi, for sample, have many dream. So I am
uncertain about I about being Doctor.-"

Grey sat down next to her. "-Uhm, Ami-chan. We're teenagers. We're
*supposed* to question who we are and what we're about. We're supposed to be
discovering who we really are as we put away the childish things of youth or
however that quote goes.-"

Ami looked up, slightly confused. ~Was that supposed to be comforting, a
sincere assessment, or merely parroting some Americajin philosopher?~

Seeing confusion, and that he hadn't helped, Grey tried again. "-Ami, you
are cute and attractive, and very intelligent. You are already radiant, i
think. You could do or be whatever you set your mind to. But i do not know
you well enough to advise you in this.-"

Somewhere during this reply, Ami grew more thoughtful. ~Setsuna-san said
that he's 'smitten' with me. Does this mean that he sees me as something
other than a 'study-freak'? He says I'm cute? Then this means... but exams
are coming up. On the other hand, isn't that focus only on studying the
reason for my reputation as a 'no fun Ami only wants to study' person? But
then...~

Wincing at the expression on Ami's face, Grey decided to see if he could fit
the other foot in his mouth as well. "-Ami-chan. i've watched you for
several days now. You're a beautiful princess. If you decide to continue and
become a doctor, you will become a great doctor.-"

The girl continued to look off in the distance as her thoughts continued in
a spiral.

With a wince towards thoughts of his budget, Grey decided maybe a
distraction would be best. "-Well, doctor, you're suffering from teenage
anxiety with a sideorder of angst. i prescribe that you accompany me to your
apartment, we fix a couple of quick sandwiches, and then we plot out the
rest of our evening. You are to have a good time tonight with no studying.-"

Ami cocked her head, glancing briefly to the sides to notice what seemed to
be Minako ducking out of sight around a corner. "Yes. That sounds
reasonable, but I have plans already for our... date. Shall we go?"

While that had been too fast for him to completely grasp, Grey caught the
slightly more upbeat mood and the 'ikimasho' at the end. He nodded, stood
and held out his hand for Ami.

Naturally, she missed that gesture. Which caused Minako to groan.

She didn't want Ami to get hurt, after all. She was a friend.

---------

Rei grumbled and tossed her "gift" onto her bed. Silly Americajin. He
obviously had *no* clue as to Japan, Japanese customs, or the way things
worked over here.

Hotaru had gotten some fairly large white fuzzy plush puppy dog. Front legs
crouched, back legs extended, tail up as if wagging, ridiculous little
floppy felt tongue sticking out the side of its mouth. A silly, useless,
inappropriate gift for a fourteen year old girl who had recently lost her
home and viewed Grey as sort of her adopted older brother.

Rei doubted the girl had put that dog down for a minute. Or stopped
grinning. Silly.

As for *her* gift. Worthless. She hoped he hadn't spent too much on it, it
wasn't like he had access to that supply of money he won in that lottery
until he reached 18.

The white teddy bear looked back at Rei from where she had thrown it, little
red silk heart on his chest sagging a little.

Eyes cast heavenward, Rei let out a growl. She did *not* have feelings for
the Americajin, after all. He could be the greatest threat this group had
ever faced. He wasn't tall or handsome or anything special. He sure as heck
wasn't Shinto. "What does he think he's doing? And what am I supposed to do
with a *teddy bear*?! Does he think I'm a kid or something?"

*I think he's just a nice person. Not necessarily the brightest bulb in the
pack, but a nice guy.*

"Yeah, that's true," agreed Rei. Then came completely to a stop. Blinked.
Blinked again. "Who just said that?"

*Me.*

Rei made a point of looking around, her eyebrow twitching slightly. It
sounded like a little girl? Some neighborhood kid playing a prank? "ALL
RIGHT WHOEVER YOU ARE, COME OUT RIGHT NOW!"

*I'm right here.*

Rei spent several moments checking every crevice and nook where some child
could be hidden, getting rapidly more frustrated as she did so.

Then, all at once, the frustration flipped off and Rei Hino considered
something. A comment that Ami had relayed once as a joke, something that
Shard-san had said. How Ami had commented that she wasn't sure she believed
in ghosts, and Shard-san had commented that he wouldn't have been too
surprised, next to reincarnated princesses and vampiric otherdimensional
entities, if Santa Claus were to show up.

Rei swallowed and slowly stood up. Then turned to consider the bed. More
correctly, she considered the little white fuzzy teddy bear with the silk
red heart. "No. It can't be. What was I thinking?" Rei laughed to herself,
maybe she was spending too much time with Usagi.

*I'm not sure. But then, I haven't been a shikigami very long.*

Rei twitched, staring at the teddy bear.

*Is something wrong?*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

==============

i actually used magical teddy bears in my Aramar campaign. Lijra made them.
Typical enchantments on them gave them radius effects like: Protection From
Evil 10' radius (or to anything in contact with them), Protection From
Dimensional Gatings & Teleports, Protection From Bad Dreams, and the like.
There was one that was a Protection From Ravenloft 60' radius that the PCs
carried with them for quite some time after escaping from that realm.

-----------
"I wish the real world would just stop hassling me." -Rainmaker, Matchbox20

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