[Ranma/MKR][FanFic] A Duet of Pigtails, Part 4

[Libby Thomas]

A Duet of Pigtails By Libby Thomas

Based on the characters and storylines of Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi
and Magic Knight Rayearth by CLAMP Additional: Gegege no Kitaro and
The Legends of Yokai by Shigeru Mizuki. Fujikyu Highland is owned
by the Fujikyu Group.

Part Four: Mit Brennender Sorge

So far the day had gone well. A little after Hikaru had left,
Satoru had called to let them know that he would not be able to go
shopping for Hikaru's gift with them; Ranma and Ukyo had left about
an hour ago. A little while after that, both Tatewaki and Satoru had
called to explain that they would be delayed, or in Satoru's case,
further delayed. As Ranma's 10:00 self-defense for women course
came in, Hibiki had focused on the situation at hand; namely teaching
housewives who took the self-defense course for fear of the slightly
increasing crime in Tokyo.

Now, as the last of the students exited the dojo, Ryoga wiped an errant
bead of sweat of his brow in relative peace. Ranma's students were
a vast change from the lifestyle that he was accustomed to on the
Unryu farm. He could see why Ranma preferred a life of teaching
rather than making tons of money in tournaments. This life was
simpler, more satisfying. It was a world that perhaps Ryoga might
consider as a sideline to the farm. ((After all,)) he thought,
((I don't think there are many dojos in the Five Lakes area, and no
one wants to travel all the way to Tachikawa for training. I think
I'll have to ask Akari her opinion on this one.))

As he picked up a broom, he heard a voice calling to him. "Hail,
friend Hibiki," a calm voice said in Shakespearean tones.

Without looking up, Ryoga continued to sweep and answered, "Hiya,
Tatewaki. How goes it?"

Kuno Tatewaki looked at his old friend and gave an appreciative nod for
a man who'd once been a bitter rival. "It goes well, for is it not
that we should train for this day the students of my brother-in-law
Ranma and his dear wife, the beloved Pigtailed girl?" At the
moment, he stood in a business suit, carrying a bag that contained,
undoubtedly, his kendo clothing. He offered to train Hikaru's classes
for the day while Ranma and Ukyo attended to their part of the plan.

"Um...yeah. Sure," he said blandly, while inwardly groaning,
((He still doesn't get it.)) After all these years, Tatewaki had
finally found the identity of the woman he thought to be the legendary
pigtailed girl--namely, Hikaru. While it was a relative comfort to
Ranma, it was bizarre for Hikaru, when first dating Ranma, to wonder
why his sister's fiancée was paying so much attention to her. Add to
the outbreaks of fights between Ranma and Tatewaki over her, and things
were rough for a few weeks--the only period that Ranma and Hikaru had
difficulties in their flourishing relationship. Nabiki had finally
sat Hikaru down one night and explained the whole mess, clearing things
up for the redhead. Since then, Hikaru had put up with it with charm
and grace, and Tatewaki accepted that Ranma truly did have the heart
of the pigtailed girl. "What do you plan to do today with the class?"

"Oh, that's quite simple, Ryoga," another voice commented, as Shidou
Satoru entered into the room. "My students will be here in about ten
minutes. I thought that it would be interesting to have my sister's
students spar against mine for training purposes, topped off with
a match between me and Tatewaki--just to show the students how the
masters handle things, of course." Turning to Tatewaki, he commented,
"Sorry I had to change it to this afternoon, but I had to tend to a
few other last-minute things before I could arrive."

"Never a problem that shall be," Tatewaki coolly replied, "for it is
I that am late as well. I had a trifle of a business meeting that
went well over the allotted time frame, so it is fortunate that both
of us were tardy to our endeavors, correct?"

Ryoga chuckled at that one; since the two kendo masters had met at the
Saotome wedding, they shared a friendship/rivalry that was very much
the equal to that of he and Ranma. "Ah...I think I may have to stick
around to watch that one. But first, I think I could use a shower.
I've been working up a sweat all day, and Kasumi might use some help."
With that, he stepped into the house.

Once in, he passed by the television on the way to the downstairs
guestroom. Sure enough, perched in front of the TV, watching her
nephew and niece as they slept, was Kasumi. The eldest Tendo daughter
had never changed, and though she now lived with her husband Tofu, this
was still very much her home and for the most part he couldn't picture
the house without her. Sitting there on a pillow with her nephew and
niece at her side and her son Hiro on her lap as they watched some
sort of monster movie, she apparently belonged, ever a part of this
house as much as anything else. Noticing him, she whispered, "Oh,
hello, Ryoga. The babies, as you can see, are asleep, and Hiro-chan
and I are watching one of those monster movies." With a strange,
wistful tone in her voice, she said, "It reminds me of the old days,
for some reason."

Ryoga didn't know how to answer that, so he added, "Tatewaki and
Satoru have arrived, and'll be starting their classes in a few minutes.
I came in to see if you needed a hand with anything."

"Oh, that's very sweet of you!" she said, her smile as sweet as sunny
as ever. "But I hadn't planned on working on anything until an hour
from now, when Ranma and Ukyo get home." Nodding her head towards
her child, she added, "Besides, Hiro wanted to me to watch terebi
with him, and I love spending time with my son."

Ryoga stared a little more intently at the screen. "Nnn..._Musabetsu
Sentai Bushiranger_. I used to watch that when I was his age. I see
he's got class." Ryoga bent down to sit with the pair, when without
warning, the screen changed to a Fuji TV Special Report. The report
showed the aftermath of a horrific, mindless massacre that had occurred
at an amusement park an hour ago. It really didn't catch the attention
of either, until the words "Fujikyu Highland" were uttered by the
anchorwoman, then confirmed as the video switched to an on-camera
scene of the carnage. As the pair watched in shock, the park looked
absolutely destroyed, and there were still monsters running around,
some apparently in combat with people who could defend themselves.
The video cameras showed the grounds, awash in a red, which could
only be one thing.

So stunned were they by the grisly display, Kasumi blurted an
expletive, despite her intentions not to curse in front of children:
"Oh, my." She then turned her eyes instinctively towards the sleeping
children, then towards Ryoga. Those eyes, once used to anything that
had happened in this household, had been taken down a few pegs by the
death of just about every member of her family. Those eyes, looking
at Ryoga's, now registered an immediate fear of what the television
had just portended.

Without a second to spare, Ryoga leapt to his feet and scrambled in to
the dojo. As the two classes of kendo students were there, watching
Tatewaki and Satoru demonstrate combat maneuvers. Although this
was a demonstration, and not the promised match, it looked a little
too real for Ryoga. Screaming out "Bunretsu!" to the teachers,
he foolheartedly leapt into the center of the pair, snapping each
combatant's bokken with a pinpoint Bakusai Tenkestu.

"What is the meaning of this, Hibiki?" an annoyed Tatewaki snarled.

"Stow it, Tatewaki," Ryoga replied. "Both of you, get in the
house, now." Then, in a calmer, more restrained voice, he said,
"Nabiki and Hikaru may be in trouble. Something bad just happened
at the park they were at."

~*~

In another part of Tokyo, Ranma looked nervously at Ukyo. "So,
do you think she'll like it?"

"Ranchan, she'll like anything you get for her," Ukyo assured him.
"She'll especially like this. Haven't you been saying that she's
wanted one of these for her very own for a while now?"

"Yeah, but it is a little more expensive than the regular one."
Ranma looked up from the car, trying to put up with the sticker shock.
"I mean, I know Hikaru's been wanting a car for a while now, and I
know she wants this particular one, but considering that I have to
pay 80 thousand yen more for this one than the other...I just don't
understand, Ucchan." He stopped looking at the car, then turned
to her. "I'm paying 80 thousand just for a name and transmission
difference."

"It's a girl thing, Ranchan," Ukyo replied. "You'd have to be a
girl to understand. A *real* girl," she added in a playful tone.
"Honestly, If I was your wife--" To her credit, she did not sigh as
she said that, "--I would be touched that you even went this far."

"Yeah, I s'pose," he admitted, "but then again, Hikaru is, y'know,
special." Ranma and Ukyo continued to look around in the Mazda
showroom, continuing to look at the car that fit Hikaru's bill.
Since their honeymoon in Hawaii years back, Hikaru had fallen in love
with the type of the type of car they'd rented, the Mazda Roadster.
Normally, that would be easy enough, but there were complications
involved--not a surprise, when dealing with the Saotome family.
The type that Hikaru had been hinting at wasn't exactly the *Roadster*,
but the *Miata*, the faster, more powerful American version with the
funny name (the name *sounded* Japanese, but the dealer had told him
that the name was actually German for "gift"). What made it worse was
that the color that she wanted it in (cherry red) was only available
on the American models. Fortunately, they had recently imported some
models for specialty purchases, and one happened to be in that red
she so wanted. *Un*fortunately, this drove the price of the car up,
from an already straining 2.4 million yen to a staggering 3.2 million.
And unlike what they'd heard about American dealerships, there was
no price haggling here in Japan.

For the most part, the dealership was empty. The majority of the
sales clerks were sitting around in the rest area, watching something
on the terebi. ((I wasn't aware that there was a basho going on,
he thought. Maybe the Giants are playing.)) Turning his attention
back to Ukyo, he commented, "Well, it is for my wife, and I do love
her, so I guess that it would be for the best."

"You betcha, Ranchan," Ukyo piped in. "'Sides, with the kids,
it'll be easier for her to get around in the long run with a car.
While tolls may be more expensive than a JR pass, it'll make up in
the long run. Besides, you want your children to be safe, right?"
Ranma merely nodded his agreement.

As they stared at the car long enough, one of the dealers, a slick
elderly man, came back to talk to them. "So, have you and your wife
settled upon this fancy little number?"

"Oh, she's not my wife," Ranma replied out of habit as Ukyo rolled
her eyes out of *her* habit of hearing that, "just my best friend.
She's just here to help my choose a car for my wife's birthday."

"That's obviously sweet of you, miss," the dealer replied, his eyes
twinkling in professional smoothness. "Such devotion to your friend
is to be commended."

((You have *NO* idea how devoted I am to my Ranchan,)) she thought,
though she instead voiced, "I guess. Hikaru seems to prefer your
Miata models to the Roadster model, so I guess that's the one you're
getting her, Ranma?"

"Yeah," he replied, his mind made up. "It is for her, and I do want
to make her happy. I just can't wait to see the look on her face
when she and Nabiki get home from Fujikyu tonight and--"

The dealer's face blanched. "Y-y-you wouldn't happen to mean Fujikyu
Highland, would you, sir?"

Ranma's innate sense of danger kicked in. Eyes narrowing dangerously,
he bit his words. "Yes, yes I do. Why?" Although he hadn't seen it,
Ukyo sensed upon his change in attitude and knew, from experience,
that the world had just gone hellishly wrong.

The man, now somber, said, "You'd best come with me, sir. I believe I
have something to show you that you may not like." Ranma's discomfort
went higher as the man pointed to the lounge area, where the dealers
were all looking at the terebi.

A second later, the showroom split into a cacophony of rage as Ranma
screamed out a cry of anguish. Watching him as he raced towards the
exit of the showroom, Ukyo watched her friend in despair, thinking,
((Not again, please, not again. Sweet kami in the earth, don't let
this happen to him again....)) Knowing that her friend needed her
more than ever, Ukyo bolted outside, hoping to catch up with Ranma
before he went out of control.

~*~

The first thing that Saotome Hikaru noticed as she landed was the
mindless slaughter going on. There were dozens of creatures of
the ancient legends of Yokai bouncing around, and all of them were
killing dozens of people. A few minutes ago, this had been nothing
more than a happy, jolly amusement park. Now, this was a graveyard,
a killing field.

The second thing she noticed, was the pain that blasted up her legs
as she impacted on the ground. ((That's what I get for being out of
shape,)) she mentally snarled. She heard a scream, and looked towards
her left. About five meters from her, over by the Angler ride,
was an unidentifiable monster, terrorizing a pair of schoolgirls.
The beast swatted his hand at the nearest one, decapitating her,
and splashing her blood on the remaining girl, who froze in terror
and shock. Knowing that she was the only one who save that poor child,
Hikaru put the pain to the back of her mind and charged.

As she raced forward, she thought about the pluses and minuses of
the situation. The minuses were that she was out of shape, and
since her Pillar magic didn't operate on Earth, she couldn't call
upon her armor and sword. The pluses were that being out of shape
for Saotome Hikaru simply meant that she was in good enough shape to
practice martial arts, just not at the blackbelt-plus level that she
was used to; additionally, she still had her fire magic.

And she certainly still knew how to use that. Screaming, *"HONO NO
YA!"* she loosed her firebeam, the massive gout of flame knocking
the furry creature away from the remaining girl. As she reached the
girl, she moved her body in between her and her charge, yelling,
*"GET OUT OF HERE! YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING MORE FOR YOUR FRIEND!
SAVE YOURSELF!"* As the terrified girl took the clue and bounded
up the steps, Hikaru snarled at the creature, "It's just you and me,
buddy-boy. Let's dance! *HI NO YA!*" Her sniper arrow blasted forth,
slamming into the creature's shoulder and knocking him for a loop.
Taking advantage of that distraction, she raced towards him, leapt up,
and delivered a reverse slice kick to the creature's face, breaking
off one of his massive fangs.

The creature recovered quickly, however, and swiped at the young woman,
but she danced out of the way. Ignoring the pain as she moved at an
angle that would not have normally elicited complaints from her body,
she resorted to a variation of one of her kendo moves. Crying out,
"Hyakujikoryuken!" she moved forward and launched a high-speed palm
strike attack, her hands glowing with the flame of her pyromancy.
Each spot she connected with scorched fur and skin, and made the beast
roar in anguish. As the creature finally backed up, she finished off
her move, a rising backhand that knocked the creature flat on its ass.

As Hikaru alighted on the ground, the creature bounded towards her,
and she barely managed to avoid its teeth. The beast then lashed out
with a paw, and nearly managed to tangle one of its massive claws
in her braid. As a result, she landed off-kilter, and the monster
was able to backpaw her back, sending her flying back a few feet,
to crash up against a soda machine.

As the creature charged in, Hikaru saw that she had no other
way to take it down. A few years back, she wailed against every
life she'd ever taken in the course of her duties. A dozen years
later, she still felt the internal anguish, but sheathed it in a
confidence and inner strength that was reminiscent of her husband's.
Pulling her hands back, she summoned a sphere of flame into them.
The ball changed from a fiery red to a strobing, pulsating crimson.
As soon as the creature got close enough, she bellowed, *"TAKE THIS,
YOU BASTARD! AKAI INAZUMA!"*

The blast of plasma that she released from her hands was the Scarlet
Lighting, her most damaging spell. The slash of force slammed into
the creature, and with a roaring clap of thunder, the creature burst
apart like a melon, body parts and such casting to the four winds.
Hikaru, thinking quickly, held out her hands and muttered, "Hotarubi
Reikizhoheki!" As the splash of dark blood splashed harmlessly against
her light shield, all Hikaru could see was a wash of blood...another,
though very necessary, life she'd have to take. A "monster-san,"
as Fuu so often referred to them, was no longer a part of this world.

((Fuu, I'm so sorry. I was wrong. I was so, so wrong. Your signal
wasn't a plea for help, it was a warning to me, and I ignored it.))
Hikaru then shelved her sorrow; there would be plenty of time for
brooding after she'd taken down her would-be assassins. As the blood
cleared away, she dissipated her shield, and idly noted she stood
in a fairly deep puddle of crimson. Sitting in front of her was the
charred, smoking remnants of the creature, filling the air with its
stink of deep grilled flesh and burnt hair. The entire front section
of the body had been blown away, and there was a massive hole that
could be seen through the chest of the creature where the blast of
lightning had made its exit wound. The blast had also tore deep into
the Angler's external dome, leaving molten steel where the bolt of
plasma had drilled through.

Faced with the sight, initial adrenaline drop, and the nauseous
stench around her, Hikaru turned and threw up. Still feeling woozy,
she turned and heard a roar. Suddenly bursting from the Angler's dome
as if the metal were nothing more than tinfoil and tissue paper, was
the Kraken-like animatronic beast that was the "villain" of that ride.
As it stood, its beak was bloody, and in two of its tentacles, it held
the corpse of a person that it had just been munching on. Throwing its
carrion away, the denizen of the deep stared at Hikaru with a mindless,
animal demonism that was somehow more than the simple fury of a shark.

Hikaru returned that baleful stare, sure and confident as a Saotome,
as a Shidou. With a sloppy grin, a mannerism that she'd picked up
from Ranma, she looked back at the Kraken and drawled, "Oooh...ika.
I could use a little seafood." She then dropped her smile, adopting
a determined look and motioned towards the behemoth before her.
"You think you can take me? Let's see you try."

As the Kraken leapt from its perch down to ground level, Hikaru
charged up her power. The smell of carrion was still in the air,
and she was about to add a new, rubbery scent to the grisly aroma
already pervasive.

~*~

Just as Shiki was about to bolt away from the table, a huge, wet
stinking monster exploded out from the Marina ride in front of them,
looking at the pair with baleful eyes. It was dark green and slimy,
with a hard shell covering and a body that was reminiscent of the
creature in the old movie _The Creature from the Black Lagoon_.
It focused on Shiki instantly, and sucked in a mighty breath.
As it sucked in, a small sphere of light converged just in front of
its maw. Michael, knowing instinctively that there was no time,
leapt forward and tackled her just as the creature shot its head
forward and breathed.

The ball of energy erupted into a wave of energy, boring through the
place that the pair had been just a second before. The beam cored the
building, vaporizing a couple of innocents in its wake and causing a
grease fire to erupt in the kitchen. That, combined with a few other
things, caused the entire backside of the building to shatter in a
fiery conflagration as people who'd hid in the building for safety
began to flee for their lives.

Getting back to his feet, Michael wasted no time attacking what
was clearly--though inexplicably--a Gyodai-gappa, a heavily mutated
form of the kappa that had featured in that anime series from when
he was younger--_Mermaid Forest_. Fortunately, he was an expert
on it because of Theresa's fondness for Stephen King-style horror;
she took the time to learn Japanese from him just so she could read
the classic horror tales of Mizuki Shigeru. He knew its traditional
strengths and weaknesses, and was surely bent on exploiting them.

Bounding into the air, he brought his hands towards himself, then
thrust them at the kappa. The result was a hailstorm of knives that
blasted out from his hands like so much grapeshot from a cannon.
The blades impacted, slashing away at some parts of the creature,
some bouncing harmlessly off its shell, but having the objective of
backing him away from the immediate vicinity of Shiki. As the freak
of nature staggered back, Michael snapped his fingers and brought
out the item that would surely take the creature down.

As the .44 bullets ripped away from his Magnum, each hollow-point
round boring into the creature and leaving considerably larger exit
holes, he looked to his side to note that Shiki had not recovered.
((Poor thing; she's in shock.)) Not every person in this world had
the strength of will to fight things like this; he'd even met some
"combat-hardened warriors" who paled when the real thing dropped in
their laps. Well, Michael had to protect this girl, and the only
way to do that was to pull the trigger...

...and watch as the last round in the clip bored into the kappa's
brain, leaving a trace of red in between its eyes.

"Shiki!" Michael shouted as he pulled her to her feet. "Get out
of here!" In a smooth motion, he emptied the clip and slapped a
new one into it, pulled back the slide, chambering a fresh round.
"Leave, before you're in any more danger!"

"No!" she retorted. "I can fight! My mom taught me some martial arts
as I grew up, and I'm very good at it. I'm not leaving your side!"

Before he could answer, the floor exploded beneath them, knocking
Shiki back to the floor and Michael over the corpse of the kappa, into
the water. As she stood back up and looked at what had just knocked
her on her ass, she looked up...and up...and up, straight into the
face of a nightmare. As her eyes widened in surprise, she blurted,
"You-you-can't be real!"

Before her stood the Japanese version of the Greek Gorgon, the
Kiyohime, and it stared at her with eyes of pure hatred. With the
body of a snake and the upper portion of a woman, its body was entirely
covered in scales, though the scales in the human portion were at least
the golden brown skin of an Japanese girl. Girl, however was nothing
that could describe that hag-like face, the fangs, the reptilian eyes,
that meter-long tongue, or the oni's horns that were at the top of
the creature's skull.

The creature reared back to strike, even as Shiki composed herself,
dropping into a low combat stance. Giving it her fiercest glare,
she snorted, "C'mon, ugly! They don't call me 'The Fist of Kawagishi
High' for nothing! Do your worst!" However, as the Kiyohime was about
to attack, it screamed in pain as though something had attacked it.
It whipped around, turning to face an opponent. As it turned, Shiki
noticed that its back was covered in a series of shuriken that seemed
to have come out of nowhere.

"Michael?" she called out, grateful that he had saved her. ((Yep,))
she thought, ((couldn't have timed it better. We're *definitely*
made for each other.)) It was to her surprise, then, that she heard a
raucous series of quacks as a white duck took to the air, heading in
the opposite direction, almost as it was trying to lead the Kiyohime
away from her. However, there were no complaints, because the thing
decided to follow the bird.

*"TASUKETE!"*

The scream caught Shiki's attention as the Kiyohime inexplicably
chased that duck that came out of nowhere. The scream came from
over by the carousel, and Shiki noticed, with horror, that a bunch
of strange creatures were advancing on the carousel, bearing down on
their victims--none other than two of her friends, and one of them
injured! Calling out, "I'm coming, Michiko!" she bolted towards them,
concentrating. Those things were fast, and Shiki only had a limited
amount of time left to save her friends. As she bolted on, she said
a whispered prayer of thanks to the innocent duck that inadvertently
saved her, and a hope that Michael and she would survive, so she could
be with him again... ...not to mention ask where the hell he'd gotten
such a powerful handgun in a country where they were clearly illegal.

~*~

"Kuu," Nabiki said, as she put her in what appeared to be an undamaged
portion of the Souvenir shop, "you'll be safe here. Akama, I want you
to stay here and protect Hououji-san and the other woman, understand?
I have to go help your mother."

"Hai, Aunt Nabiki," the young boy said, as he climbed into the dark
room with the other two women.

As Nabiki shut the door, she heard Kuu's whisper for Nabiki to
remain safe, all the while trying to prevent that high school girl
from going into hysterics. As she bolted from the nearly demolished
building so no one would see where she came from, she mentally snarled,
((Someone's going to have to explain this. Hikaru's a goddess, there
are tons of mythical beasts running around turning this place into
a killing zone, and here I am, rushing into the middle of thi--))
Her words were cut off in mid-stride as she tripped over a body.
Quickly gnashing her teeth to bite off the relapse of pain that
flared from earlier, she kippuped back to her feet, and did a quick
look-around to ensure that she was not under attack. Only then did
she look at the obstacle she tripped over.

With dread, Nabiki noted that it was the remains of the woman who'd
they'd been in the _Kitaro_ ride with, earlier. Her face and a good
portion of her front had been ripped away, and it looked as though
someone had chewed off one of her arms. Not a person familiar with
such sights, Nabiki turned and threw up lunch. As she did, she heard
an unearthly voice waft towards her, the whisper of leaves tumbling
over gravestones: "Ahhh...fresh meat. And how long I have hungered
for such."

Something triggered the danger instinct in Nabiki and she cart-wheeled
out of the way, as a blast of sharp wooden spears lanced through
the space where she'd been a second ago. She turned and faced a
monstrous creature, potentially worse than the one she faced earlier.
It was a semi-solid ghost with demonic eyes, a hideous leer, and black
teeth that was currently chewing on a head. A second later, Nabiki
inwardly flinched as she realized it was the head of the young boy.
Something in the back of her mind, from the darkest recesses of her
childhood memories, gave the ghoul a name: Kubikajiri.

The Kubikajiri looked at her with its sinister eyes, and spoke,
"Are you ready to give yourself up as carrion, girl?"

Nabiki narrowed her eyes as she snarled, "Only one of us is walking
away from this, demon. I'm the one with feet. Get a clue."
As she concentrated, the flicker of a crimson aura came around
her...then guttered out just as quickly. She'd yet to learn how to
use ki-strikes--it was apparent that the Tendo family was not that
great with ki attacks--and if she survived this, she was going to
make sure that her little brother was going to teach her. However,
now was not the time to have to worry about that.

Screaming the banshee wail of the undead, the spirit raced towards
Nabiki. As it approached her, she ducked under the bloody claws of
its hand, and rolled away. Springing back to her feet, she took the
advantage and slugged the thing in the back of the head, feeling a
squishy sensation as her fist connected with the back of its pate.
As the thing lashed out with its tail, she leapt back and dropped
back into a combat stance once again, only pausing in it long enough
to regain her balance before moving into attack.

The creature merely pointed at her, and from its finger blasted a shaft
of wood, a spear that aimed straight for her heart. Instinct took
over Nabiki, and she quickly bent over backwards, just managing to
duck under the shaft in time--

--but then screamed in anguish as the Kubukajiri sank its teeth into
her shoulder blade. She threw a punch in its face, and it backed
off, but not without having drawn some blood and spitting out cloth
and flesh. She managed to leap back a few meters or so, but nowhere
near what she was used to as clearing distance. In the interim,
the creature licked its lips, rasping, "Ah, yes--such sweet flesh.
You'll be glad to know that when I bit you, my teeth injected a toxin
in your veins. You'll be paralyzed in a second, and I'll have the
honor of eating your brains from your skull as I rip out your eyes
so you can watch." It moved slowly, sure of its intent and eager in
its next meal.

Nabiki felt her veins turning to ice, her body not moving, not
responding, even as the creature slowly approached her, as leisurely
as a cat playing with its food. ((I could use some help now,))
she thought, ((some chance of surviving! In her mind, she railed.
Tatewaki! Ranma! Hikaru! Somebody, help! *TASUKETE!*)) She
failed to complete her next thought as a clawed hand slapped her back
viciously, raking her cheeks and spilling her blood even as she was
knocked back a few feet into a nearby trash can, knocking it over.

As she stood there, trying to use every bit of her flagging strength
to move, the oddest thing popped into her head, something that Ranma
had once said to Akane, during the days she trained before her fatal
encounter with Shampoo. (("Akane, you can't do ki attacks because you
never focus. You're always so angry, you never search for your inner
sense. You never take the time to look. If you do one thing in your
life, look at what fuels you.")) Those words rung in her ears now,
as though it were a mystic talisman: (("look at what fuels you."))
So, taking a chance, she ignored the creature slowly bearing down on
her and focused.

She began to focus, closing her eyes, going deeper within, searching
for her inner self, what truly was at the core of her being. Within her
mind's eye, it was as though she were walking through a deep forest,
hearing faint music, seeing faint light.

She thought about it for a second. ((I always wanted to be successful,
to make a bundle of cash, to be rich and famous.)) Those were the
goals that any person wanted, but why were they so important to Nabiki?
As though a symphony of light and sound erupted around her, she was
hit with the revelation, something that she knew in a sense, a truth
that she'd practiced for years, though she never quite admitted it.

A tingling sensation began to alight throughout every cell in her soul,
turning it into a bonfire of light. And in that bonfire was the Truth,
the Maxim. ((I've wanted money, so I could take care of my family--so
the medicine that we couldn't afford for my mother would never happen
again. So the years we lived in near-poverty would never happen again.
But even now that I have money, it's not the cash that's important.
It's the love. It's the love that my husband and I share. It's the
love that Kasumi and Ranma have for me, and I for them. It's the love
for my nephews and niece.)) Angels sang in her ear, a joyful chorus,
and she felt giddy with a power that she'd never felt before. ((Ranma
was right...he was right all along, and his attacks have proved it.
His and Ryoga's. We all *knew*, yet we never *realized*.))

Her eyes snapped open. She stared at the creature, just mere
centimeters from her face, slavering like a man about to taste the
world's finest meal. She smiled, and whispered, "Thank you, little
brother." She then glared at the creature, then brought her hands
back as a dark pink sphere of energy coalesced in her hands.

"You are mine," the Kubikajiri whispered in orgasmic delight as it
opened its mouth far wider than the norm, as though it planned to
swallow her head whole.

"I don't think so," she whispered, her voice as dry as a tomb, as
unsettling a hiss as his own. Then, her voice rose to thunder as
she thrust her hands forward and roared, *"TENKA ATSURYOKUHA!"*

The world exploded in a blast of ki.

~*~

From her perch above, Citroen watched, directing the battle, examining
the situation with a clinical eye. Most of the spirits that she'd
summoned apparently were of the bloodthirsty type--not what she'd
planned for, but that was life. However, one of her little surprises
that she'd brought with her from Cephiro had yet to infest a nearby
life form. One already had, and had subsequently been destroyed by
the Pillar. Unfortunately, Citroen had not seen that, and thus missed
who the identity of the Pillar was. However, she'd narrowed it down
to three: the small redhead with the attitude that was currently
fighting the Kraken, the brunette who blew apart the ghoul, or the
girl currently racing towards the carousel and fighting the creatures
along the way. She knew the Pillar was female, and those were the
only three females fighting, the remainder of the combatants being men.

She decided to sit there and wait. Sooner or later, one of them
would use the powers of the Pillar, and that would expose her.
Once that was the case, then Citroen herself could either attack,
or she could notion her little familiar towards attacking, assuming
that it infested a body. It would be perfect; the Pillar would die,
and the Vanden Plaz would once again have its foothold back on Earth.
Hopefully, there were still descendants of the followers of the Leader,
and so they would rally them.

All in good time, however. There were more important things at
hand...like killing a goddess. And a second later she noted that her
second familiar had infested a creature after all, and was in combat
with the Pillar--the redhead. The Pillar confirmed her identity a
second later, when the goddess used a fire spell in a method that
Citroen had never seen before. Certain of her victory, the sorceress
called the power into her hands, and blasted massive lighting bolt
down on her opponent. It would not fail, and death would rain down
from above, like the owl swooping down on the mouse.

The goddess was as good as dead.

~*~

Shiki knew that she had little time left to save her friends.
Strange creatures, a bizarre cross between a bird and an alligator,
scuttled their way towards the carousel, and Michiko, who was holding
a bloody and whimpering Mariko. Both looked seriously injured, and in
almost in shock as the Itsumaden began to come closer and closer to
the pair, their feathered jaws snapping, their sharp teeth showing,
their reptilian eyes cold and unthinking. As Shiki approached,
the nearest three turned with an extremely fast gait and pounced
towards her. While their bodies were not ideal for flight, their
winged forearms, similar to that of a flying squirrel, allowed them
to gain extra distance. The raptors opened their jaws, ready to eat.

Shiki began to glow with a light green energy and called out,
"Gurenken!" Her hands blurred into a flurry of motion as she executed
a rapid-punch attack that scattered the Istumaden to the four winds.
Then, still having to catch the attention of the others racing towards
her friends, she shouted, "Unsanmushodama!" There was a blast of
green energy from her palms that quickly disappeared into nothing...
...only to detonate right in the center of the creatures, blasting
them away like a stick of dynamite thrown into a pond of barracuda.

Michiko looked up through her tears and fright, saw that although
the Istumaden were still advancing on them but then had to turn
away as an unexpected explosion of light threw the monsters away
as though they were rag dolls. When she turned her eyes back to
the scene, she saw Shiki charging in, as strong as brave as ever.
Despite her generally soft demeanor and quiet nature, Shiki's mother,
the owner of a Chinese martial arts dojo in Tokyo, taught the girl how
to be a martial arts monolith. Shiki always commented that she was
probably the best martial artist in the Japanese high school system,
and probably all of Japan. "Shiki! Help!" the girl screamed, her
voice belting out a desperate cry of panic and all encompassing fear.

Unfortunately, Michiko caught the attention of the next group of
Itsumaden. Worse, although many of the creatures had been removed by
Shiki, the others continued to approach the girl, jaws ready to rip
the life out of the pair, even as they might already have with Mariko.
A scream of "Dokyogyaku!" in the distance, alerted Michiko that her
friend would be arriving shortly, but would shortly mean the same
thing as in time? Already the creatures were advancing, and it didn't
appear that they were going to give up their pursuit any time soon.
In short, things were looking bad... ...and it didn't improve any as
Shiki abruptly changed plans and ran towards the back of the carousel,
apparently either in retreat, or more likely seeking some assistance
of some kind. In any event, it was the wrong thing to do as the
Istumaden that were stalking her retrained on the two helpless girls,
now apparently consigned to their deaths... ...only to see Shiki
run around the other side of the carousel, shouting, "Michiko-chan!
Hold on to something! Do it! *NOW!*"

Michiko screamed out, "But if I do, Mariko will die!"

With what was probably the last of her strength, Mariko painfully
looked up and said, "Please...do it, Michiko. I don't want you
to...die, too."

Before Michiko could answer, Shiki shouted, "Neither of you are
going to die, but only if you hold onto something! Crawl into the
carousel and hang onto one of the horses! *NOW!!!!!!*" With that,
Shiki began to murmur something in Chinese, as a soft emerald halo
of light began to envelop her. "Hope I remember what my mom taught
me about this trick...."

With no time left, Michiko pulled Mariko out of the range of the
snapping jaws of the Itsumaden, crawling up alongside one of the
horses and grabbed on for dear life. The Itsumaden, noting the rise
in the elevation, tensed their powerful back legs, ready to spring
up to the carousel and feast on the girls.

Thirty of the half-bird, half-alligator mutations leapt.

Their mistake.

The leap was exactly what Shiki had been waiting for. Focusing all
of her concentration on the creatures, she roared out, "Time for
you guys to *really* hurt! Nijirono School of Martial Arts Ultimate
Mystery Attack! *HIRYU--*"

...a breeze began to coalesce as it built within less than a second
into a dust devil, then filled with angry verdant energy...

*"--SHOTEN--"*

...tendrils of energy in the building cyclic gale slammed into the
Itsumaden, who were rendered helpless as the energy either bored
right through them or blasted them into so much feathers and gore...

*"--HA!"* Shiki stood, her fist in the air, controlling the Dragon
Ascension Wave, an ultimate attack so powerful, it was limited only
to her family and her family alone--no one else could hope to master
it, much less use it at will. It was Shiki's hope that someday
she would be able to be powerful enough to not only use it at will,
but to refine it to the point where she could just summon the force,
and not have to prime it by running in circles. But, she admitted,
she had an awful lot to learn still about the Art, and though she
was the best, there was always something she could stand to learn.

As the creatures were tossed about in the whirlwind like nothing more
than extravagant toys, Shiki broke her concentration and raced towards
her friends, hoping that they would be alright. If they weren't,
every monster than that reared its head at the moment would have to
face the mighty fury of the Fist of Kawagishi High.

~*~

((I'm either really out of shape,)) Hikaru mentally moaned, ((or this
thing's tougher than I expected.)) So far, the Kraken had taken
a dozen of her shots, and was still standing. True, it had burn
marks and carbon scoring all over it, and even one of its tentacles
had been vaporized by an Akai Inazuma blast, but it still stood.
Hikaru reflected on this as she bolted at full speed towards the
Fujiyama rollercoaster, hoping to hell that she'd think of something
to do to the thing before it did something to her.

She looked at her options. The thing was huge, about the size of
an oil tank. She was throwing as many shots as she could without
worrying about harm coming to what few innocent bystanders there were,
and if she cut loose with some of her better attacks, there was a good
chance that someone was going to get really hurt--as it was, she'd
limited her Akai Inazuma attacks to as much as she could. However,
it was looking as if she was going to have to go all out and use some
of the most powerful spells she had. But that presented problems,
and that would have to be dealt with.

Using the advantage of space, she raced up a set of stairs, darted
into the food court building on the farthest end, over by the Moon
Shot rollercoaster, then while inside the building, bolted like a
rabbit for the far side of the building, went down the stairs, and
double-backed toward the first floor exit. Noting idly that her trick
had momentarily bought her time, she continued on her path, hoping to
reach Fujiyama. If she were able to get to the top of the coaster,
she might be able to rain multiple fire spells down on the monsters,
picking them off one by one as easily as--

Her thoughts were cut off as the floor exploded underneath her.
Propelled into the air with minimal preparation, she could only turn
to minimize the impact as she painfully slammed into the metal fence
that covered the perimeter of the rollercoaster's range. As flesh and
cloth met metal and paint, the air was knocked out of her lungs, and
she whimpered in pain as she landed in a clump on the hard pavement.
Pulling herself back to her feet and ignoring the scimitars of pain
that were lancing up and down her body, she wondered how it could
get any worse than fighting an enemy that didn't know when to quit.

To her side, she heard multiple howls. As she turned, she noted a
bunch of indescribable, inhuman things shuffling for her. She didn't
study myths and legends when she was younger, but they looked like
something that would have easily been immigrants from the Forest
of Silence or the Lovers' Cave that Ranma had once told her about.
They were primal evil, and worse, they were coming her way. Her only
fortune at this point was that the Kraken had not been able to operate
in confined quarters, and would have to slowly lumber around the
building that she had raced through in order to make it to what she
thought was the safety of Fujiyama.

Without warning, the creatures stopped. With an instinct for danger
that had stayed somewhat sharp despite the years, Hikaru leapt to
the side as a powerful blast of lightning turned the space she was
into so much heated concrete and slagged metal. Knowing that multiple
opponents were in the area, and more than she'd dealt with in a number
of years, she didn't let go of her defenses for a second. Once, she
and Umi had faced down several dozen monsters over a decade past.
If anything, time had taught Saotome Hikaru a few new tricks and a
nastier disposition from years of association with her husband.

((Umi....)) Hikaru shook off her memories, and fast. Now was not
the time to get maudlin about someone she still hadn't resolved her
feelings for, and to do that now would probably be a bad thing.
Snarling, "Looks like I'm gonna hafta get a little tough," she
thrust her hands forward and released a Shimbinotama. The fireball
blasted forward, slamming into the body of one of the creatures
and shattering it like it was so much glass. Not letting up, she
called up a second one, hoping that she would be able to take out
enough to clear a pathway to the entrance of the amusement park.
After all, they were all lumbering towards her, waves of them that
stood between her and the path to the inside of the rollercoaster.
She had to get through, or there would be no chance, no chance at all.

Her concentration was further interrupted by the peal of laughter
that came from above, as sharp and staggering as a bell ringing out
a death knell. A voice from above rang out, "This is your twilight
hour, Pillar, your finest moment! You will die in a blaze of glory!"

((Well, that voice spoke in Cephiran,)) Hikaru thought glumly. ((I
guess that confirms where the problem's coming from.)) Without looking
up, Hikaru screamed back, "I don't know who you are, but if you think I
will easily fall, then you are sorely mistaken! I am Saotome Hikaru,
a master of Anything Goes and my family's school of Kendo. I am the
Fire Knight, the Knight Commander, and the Pillar of Cephiro! If you
think you have any chance of beating me, *YOU'RE SADLY MISTAKEN*!"

((Time to prove it,)) she realized. Whispering to herself, "Ranma,
I love you," she then called up her fire aura, but did not charge
up a projectile, instead readying for hand-to-hand combat. "C'mon,
boys," she seethed to the monsters that opposed her. "I've beaten
better than you, and I'm not losing to a bunch of second-rate beasts
such as yourselves." As if runners released from a gate, they swarmed
in on the young woman en masse.

Like a wolf on the hunt, Saotome Hikaru swung into action. Leaping
towards the nearest two ghouls, she grabbed a head each and slammed
them together, crushing the two heads as though they were melons.
Not bothering to wait for them to fall to the floor, she sidestepped
and engaged a third, throwing an elbow to its chest, then bringing
her hand up in a backhand smash, and completing it with an uppercut.
Three were taken out of the issue, but three were a minimal number
when one was dealing with a menagerie of inhuman beasts and undead
creatures.

Despite the ferocity of her attack, the creatures decided to move
towards her en masse. She bolted forward, a blur of red, black and
blue launching out against her foes. Unabated in her fear, she moved
onto a pair of molding, half-deteriorated skeletons. One of the
bone brothers came close to impaling her with a sharpened bone spur.
However, she dropped into a crouch, then executed her flying backfist,
taking the thing out. Not wanting to lose her momentary advantage,
she grasped the skull and threw it at the second cadaver she'd fought.
The skull moved like a bullet, hitting the osseous framework square
in the chest and blasting it apart as though it were no more than a
3D jigsaw puzzle.

The next creature--a Heike ghost--moved in quickly for the kill,
but Hikaru was much faster. She spun as he struck, feeling as the
metal blade tore through the back of her shirt and drawing blood.
Leaning forward, she hit the floor and rolled away before he could
recover for a second strike. As he pulled back, she raced forward.
As the Heike thrust, she caught the shaft in mid-stride, ripped it
from his hands, then used it on him as a bo staff. Still swinging
the staff, she used it on her next three opponents before breaking
it upon the rock-hard pate of a fourth, a yamagami. Although the
golem-like creature was merely stunned, she flung the remains at
him as a distraction, and as he ducked, she executed a footsweep,
knocking him in the air for a second long enough to execute a vicious
flurry of high-speed kicks that pulverized him before she charged up
her roundhouse, setting him ablaze with a vicious swipe to the jaw.

As Hikaru dropped back into a defensive position, she took a second
to relax. At the moment, she was holding her own, having defeated
several of the monsters without sword or serious martial arts exertion,
but they kept on coming, and frankly, things weren't looking too good.
Her body, now being taxed to its current limits, screamed for her to
take a furo and a nap--the longer, the better. While she was still in
very good shape, pregnancy had taken its toll on her, and she hadn't
expected to exert herself this hard this soon. Worst of all she was
taking on numbers far greater than the power that she was willing to
expend at the moment. No matter what, the prognosis for Hikaru did
not look too optimistic.

((No time for that now,)) the redhead berated herself as she took
a breath of air and crouched low, tensing her body and readying to
spring. ((I can't allow anything to cloud my thinking, or I'll die,
and my family could be next.)) She looked at the location where she
was aiming for, and with a literal leap of faith, made a long-distance
jump that would have been her chance to make it away from the growing
horde bent on killing her, her only hope to catch her breath long
enough to regain some kind of offensive.

That hope was lost when a piercing whistle rent the air, as if
signaling incoming objects. Without warning, a machine gun effect of
small black ki spheres tore into the air, catching her in a crossfire
that she hadn't expected. A series of the dark orbs ripped the ledge
she was aiming for apart, giving her no chance to complete her jump.
With her escape route cut off, all she could do was ricochet of the
wall, and hope for a decent landing with minimal pain. She hit the
ground hard, but managed to stay on her feet and turned to face the
second wave.

In the lead of the second wave were ten amorphous, barely homonid
shapes that were as inky black as night, save for glowing red eyes that
burned like the stars of hell. Something primal triggered in Hikaru,
and she didn't even take the time to announce her attack, instead
opting to incinerate all ten with a massive burst of her Hono no Ya
firebeam. Unfortunately, her safety turned to become a ruse, as four
more of the beings leapt at her, their arms turning into solid spears,
maws appearing on their featureless heads with sharp teeth ready to
gnash the flesh of the living creature that dared to oppose them.
Knowing she had no other choice to oppose them, Hikaru waited until
they were in striking position, then shouted out, "Hono Maryoku
Dankyaku!" as she began to execute the Ring of Fire Slash Kick attack.

If it were it only so easy.

"Don't forget me!" the voice from above rang out as another slash
of deep crimson slammed down hard onto the pavement, taking out a
much larger chunk of the floor. Both Hikaru and a quartet of the
monsters that she'd been fighting had been tossed aside by the blast.
Hikaru picked herself off the ground, and noted that all four of her
opponents had been turned into so much goo. Hikaru noted that the
creatures of hell were standing off again, reassessing their attack
plan, so she chanced a look at her new attacker. She looked up,
and saw a woman who looked like a native of Cephiro, but without
the kind demeanor that was instinctive of the native citizenry.
"Excellent work, Pillar," the woman called down. "I see you are a
master of more than just the mystic arts. Is that karate that you
were using, or some other form of Oriental fighting?"

"Why don't you come down here and find out?" Hikaru snarled back in
Cephiran, using the language for the first time in years and in the
back of her mind surprised that it came back to her so easily.

"My, my, what a temper. It's bound to get you in trouble if you're
not careful," the woman said. Looking at her creation, she called out,
"Take care of her, my pets! Kill the Pillar!"

The response that Hikaru heard was the sound of a mosquito buzzing
followed by the sound of a muffled firecracker. A split second later,
the rapport of a rifle went off. A meter or so in front of her, one
of the shadowy creatures teetered and fell, its head now featuring
a gaping entry wound caused by a bullet. Another few microseconds
went by before three more were felled in the same manner. A voice
called out in Japanese, "Looks like you could use some help," and
then everything went into the deafening sound of an automatic rifle
screaming at full bore, releasing multiple rounds into the small army
of creatures below. As Hikaru followed the path of a tracer round back
to its source, she noticed a man dressed in a black T-shirt, jeans,
and loafers, carrying a military-style automatic rifle. Calling out
to Hikaru he cheerfully responded, "Now, don't go anywhere. I'll be
down in a second, miss." With that, he leapt into the air, still
firing the rifle in a sweeping pattern, the metal slugs raining down
on the creatures, tearing them apart like a buzzsaw that had just
snapped its support.

~*~

Michael looked back at the still, slightly stinking corpse of the
Kiyohime, lying there with several puncture marks in her body,
the result of multiple rounds fired into her. Not that far away,
a burst pipe steamed as hot water came out of it, a lucky break that
had allowed him to change back and retake the offensive from the
monster at the cost of her life. As Michael took to the air again to
land beside Saotome Hikaru, he came to a threefold conclusion: one,
he couldn't kill Saotome Ranma. Mousse had been a blind, idiotic fool
bent on revenge against a man whose wife was merely defending himself
from a "Fatal Attraction"-esque spurned would-be lover. Michael Tseng,
however, was a man who believed in his ideals, and in the end, murder
was not one of them, especially since it was unfounded. Mousse died
the day that he accepted Donovan's offer of a new life and identity.
Michael had no intention of resurrecting such a pathetic soul.

The other fact, he now realized, was that Murphy's Law, that grand
controller of the universe, had blessed the Saotome household once
more. This Hikaru woman was a dead ringer for Ranma's female half,
until you stared into those sienna eyes of hers; until you listened
to her voice. This person was born a woman, had always been one.
The chances of their being another redhead in the Tendo dojo had
been played, and Michael had ended up hunting the wrong person.
Said person was now in dire straits, and he now felt honor-bound to
help Ranma's wife out of her spot, lest these things kill her.

Which brought up reason number three: why would someone send an army
of undead after what apparently what was nothing more than a fair
martial artist? Michael remembered that while the battles between
their small group of "friends" had lasted roughly for four years, no
one had ever got to the point to raise the dead to kill one of them.
True, there had been Gosunkugi, but he was useless anyway. But this
was different, and it not only repulsed him but also felt it was
pretty dishonorable to let creatures do your killing for you.

So, he did the only thing he could: broke out the Kalashinkov Bizon-2
autorifle he borrowed from Martin, and let the rounds fly. Even in
mid-air he was basically turning them into so much sushi, a dilapidated
mess of gore and bone that spread in larger pools of ichor and blood,
he knew that this mess was not only not anywhere near over, but that
the redhead would have to end it. As he alighted upon the ground,
he got his first real good look at the current wife of Saotome Ranma.

As Michael stared, there was only one thought that entered his mind:
((Angelic.)) True, she was a dead ringer for Ranma's cursed form, but
where Ranma's cuteness had an undertone of sexiness to it, this woman's
had the tone of something else, something not immediately describable.
In a sense, it was like trying to describe an angel or a kami--how
would one describe a moment of perfect beauty? Additionally, there
was an ageless quality in her sienna eyes, as though the secrets of
a universe were locked in those reddish-brown jewels of hers.

Then she spoke. Looking at him, she ventured, "You okay?"

Michael snapped out of his reverie. "Yes, why?"

She took her eyes off him, refocused them on the army of the undead
that had begun to regroup. "You've been staring at me long enough
that I thought something was wrong."

Michael hit the trigger again, and was rewarded with a dry click.
"There is. I'm out of ammo."

She smiled in a rakish manner, a look more suited to another redhead
he once knew. "So much for the rescue, ne? It worked anyway; you
managed to give me my second wind." She placed her hands in close
proximity to one another, and a ball of pulsating ki sparked into life
and danced in the space between. "Well, it's us or them," she sighed.

Michael noted her tone as he snapped his finger, producing an Uzi
this time. Reaching behind him to place Martin's rifle back into
subspace, he then commented, "What's that tone for? Surely you don't
feel pity for those things, do you?" His old familiar rifle in his
hands, he depressed the trigger, the muzzle flash nearly as bright
as her fireball, the depleted rounds nearly as hot as her ki as they
bored into their targets.

"No--they're evil and deserve what they get. I'm afraid of any
innocents who may get caught in what I'm about to do." The ball
between her hands instantly got brighter and whiter, a sign of the
immense power poured into it. "May the kami forgive me if I hurt
an innocent." Thrusting her hands forward, she roared to the undead,
"Not nice to piss off a Saotome! Eat this! Saotome Special Attack!
*SHIMBONO NO YA!!!!!!!!!!!!!*" At that point, her attack initiated.

Michael nearly dropped his rifle, stunned at what he saw. From what
little he had seen earlier, this woman was a capable fighter, but
other than minor level ki attacks, nothing more than what he dealt
with when he was a teenager. Hikaru's next attack had changed his
mind about that in a heartbeat. A tremendous torrent of energy lanced
from her outstretched palms, an attack that easily rivaled anything
that he'd seen Ranma or Ryoga throw at the worst of their rivalry.
Furthermore, he realized as the creatures were either incinerated
or turned into so much flaming chunks, that all her attacks had not
been ki--it was magic. Magic flame was blasting from her palms,
turning the grounds into a virtual outdoor kiln.

Above her, the voice laughed. "For all your worth, Pillar, you're only
delaying your inevitable death!" Out of the huge wall of flame, the
silhouette of the Kraken appeared, charred and scorched, but still on
its tentacles and lurking menacingly. "And as you can see, my pet is
still around!" Citroen, noting the look of barely controlled rage on
the redhead's face, laughed all that much more. To prove her point,
she casually loosed another bolt of energy that came crashing down
to the ground, nearly hitting both Michael and Hikaru. Only a quick
leap backwards saved them from becoming as charred as the creatures
Hikaru had just dispatched.

"I have no idea what she's screaming, but she'll have to do the rest
of her screaming six feet under!" Michael drew a bead on the mage,
but was stopped short by Hikaru.

Before he could comment, the redhead snarled under her breath,
"She's *mine*." The snarl turned into a scream as the redhead
roared into the air in the language Michael failed to comprehend,
"Just you and me, whoever you are! *No more innocents! NO MORE!*"

"Come and get me," her challenger dared.

"Damn straight!" the redhead yelled. As she readied to move, she
grunted quietly in Japanese, "Wish I had a katana or something...."

A snap of the fingers, and one was being held out to her by her
erstwhile partner. "This what you're looking for?"

"How did you...?" she asked as she grabbed the scabbard like a child
handed a favorite plaything.

"Too long to explain," he replied. "Now, don't you have something
more important to do? I have crowd control to attend to."

Nothing further to be said, she fastened the katana on and began to
race towards the entryway to the roller coaster, ignoring all the
aches and pains her body was screaming at her. Her opponent above
noted this and began the gauntlet for her, raining down bolts of
lighting after repeated bolts of lightning. Chunks of wood, plastic
and metal exploded or caught aflame around her, pelting her with small
bits and pieces. The air became warm--too warm. She felt something
bite into her legs. But Hikaru continued her charge up the walkway,
knowing that the woman had to be stopped and now.

The minute she entered the lobby section of the waiting area, there
was a massive explosion, as the area behind her disintegrated in a
shower of plasma. Hikaru was thrown forward, off her feet and into
a pile of what were once living, breathing people, now nothing more
than body parts. As Hikaru recovered, she stared straight into the
lifeless, unblinking eyes of a little redhaired girl, a girl that
would never see another day.

"No...." Rather than tears, something snapped inside the soul of
Saotome Hikaru. Something from deep within her howled, screamed
at what was happening. She didn't understand any of it, save that
people all around were dying, because of her, because of what she was.
It was the worst thing that could ever be thrown in front of her.
A goddess of another world, and here she was on her own, not able to
do much of anything other than stare at the child, utterly powerless
to do anything other than wonder how the fates could be so cruel to
her to make her possibly omnipotent in one universe, yet so weak and
frail in this one.

Words flashed like neon in her mind: ((A Martial Artist must protect
those in need, must use the Art for more than mere personal gain,
lest he becomes nothing more than a well-trained bully.)) Those were
words her father had taught her the first day she began her training,
and the words now rung like hot metal, searing in her mind.

Some one was going to pay for all of this. And as Hikaru brought
herself back to her feet, absently wiping a rivulet of her blood from
her brow, she decided that the idiot throwing the lighting bolts,
for better or for worse, had been elected. With a soundless scream
of rage, she leapt over the safety rails and straight onto the coaster
tracks, more than eager to fight.

However, as soon as she leapt onto the entry track, she was met by a
huge column of lightning streaking her way. Having no time to move,
it rammed into her with enough force to fling her forward, slamming
her against the front of the unmoving car train. She felt like
a rib or two snapped, and her spine was being remodeled by Dali.
Plopping onto the track again, sparks showered around her as the
melting fiberglass of the coastercar began to splatter against the
electric rail. She vaguely smelled something burning, felt something
hot against her skin, could barely see past the red beginning to
smolder in her eyes. The only sense that seemed to be working was
the faint laughter of a woman hell-bent on killing her and as many
innocents that got in the way.

Automatically, mechanically, Hikaru ripped off the scorched tang,
fortunate that the black T-shirt underneath had not been ruined.
Stoically getting back up to her feet, she made a fist and screamed,
"I"VE HAD ENOUGH! NOW WE PLAY MY WAY!" She raced towards the access
stairway, so enraged that she ignored the blasts of energy coming
her way, a rainstorm of plasma pain and death directed towards her.
However, she was a woman that had been pushed quite a ways past her
limits, and so she neither cared or worried about what was coming
her way anymore.

As soon as she hit the accessway that led to the 80-meter plateau
where the idiot was raining destruction, Hikaru moved into action.
Ignoring the screaming sensations that said her body was no longer
conditioned for this type of punishment, feeling herself weighted
down with the alphabet of debilitations from A scored leg to a doZen
lacerations, she called a ball of fire magic into her hand, and made
an insane gamble. Once upon a time, back in the innocence of her teen
years, she had taken gymnastics in addition to her kendo practice.
A *much* better kendo artist than a gymnast, she was still fairly
good at that, even though she knew that she would never be able--then
or now--to compete against an Olympic-level gymnast like Suzuki Nae,
Kagayaku Ikuko, or Kuno Kodachi.

Still, it was that skill level, combined with a hefty dose of her
husband's stupidity-cum-bravado that she loved about him that led her
to attempt the deranged. Still racing up the gangway while building up
the courage to commit to the deed, she screamed, *"MOEAGARUDENKYUMURE
SHUKKA!"* and released a swarm of baseball-sized fireballs in a
shotgun pattern, straight at her opponent. At the same time, she
leapt to her left, off the coaster framework and into boundless air.

Counting on the same Saotome knack for insane stunts that her husband
had, the minute she cleared the safety rail, she spun and twisted her
body to hopefully catch the rail that would vault her into phase two
of this demented scheme of hers. She remembered that she was usually
prided on not being exactly the overkill member of the Knights,
but that was the better part of a lifetime ago. This was the here
and now, however, and if she didn't make the catch she was going to
hit the pavement 70-plus feet below and end up like one of Ukyo's
dinner specials--

((--*YES!*)) Barely able to grasp the metal structural pole, she
nearly ripped her arms out of their sockets as several aerodynamic
forces protested her creativity in this. Still, she was able to
hold on, and using her momentum, launch herself towards the other
end of the ziggurat, grab the matching pole on the other side and
launch herself back into the air, doing the same on two more bracing
poles and picking up speed. If she timed it right, and luck was on
her side, she'd be in business. And as she noted that she was now
approaching striking distance of her quarry, she smiled a feral grin.

This woman was expecting a Hikaru that always played fair, that was
right and just and believed in what was right. Well, she was going
to get that Hikaru...

...and all the bad habits and attitude she'd picked up since she lost
her innocence.

~*~

Shiki stood there, bloodied and bruised, but still moving on willpower.
Although she'd handily defeated the Istumaden, they'd been replaced by
Toragumo, creatures with the size and heads of tigers, but the bodies
of spiders. These things were faster, a lot more agile, and a *lot*
more lethal. She was giving them all that she was worth, but they
kept on swarming, and being the size of tigers, they weren't exactly
easy to squish. But she kept fighting, even though her strength
was now flagging and the chances of her not surviving was becoming
more and more apparent. But while she was willing to live with the
honorable death of a Martial Artist, Mariko and Michiko were next,
and their deaths were *not* an option. So, she fought on, despite
the mounting odds. But, as she turned and caved in the thorax of
one Toragumo with a well-placed snap, an unnoticed one to her side
decreed her fate.

Slamming into her with the speed of a Nissan, she felt the wind knocked
out of her as she crumpled to the pavement, gasping for breath. In the
corner of her eye, she could see a trio of the creatures leaping into
the air, on a clear trajectory for her throat. Despite the fact that
her life was about to end, she didn't have the strength to do more
than watch as they came closer to her.

*"SEIFUKUSHA TENKYUSHO!"* The air around Shiki exploded in crimson
energy as a woman moved into range, her fist glowing with a radiant
power as she reached the apex of her flying uppercut. Upon reaching
that zenith, she roared, *"TENDO SCHOOL OF ANYTHING-GOES MARTIAL ARTS
SPECIAL ATTACK: SENSUIFU HADOKYAKU!"* Her body became electrified with
waves of ki, and she slammed into the pavement scattering chunks of
concrete and mythical animal alike upon impact. Upon that foolhardy
maneuver, the attitude of the beasts changed from brave to fearful as
the woman got up and snarled, "Lunchmeat." She maneuvered in front
of Shiki, her aura set somewhere between fluorescent and searchlight,
and clearly in the mode of a martial artist with extreme talent--if
not as good as her, that was.

Inexplicably, the creatures, so hell bent on killing a second ago,
seemed to sense the woman as a larger predator, one *they* should fear;
their wolf pack tactics having proven useless on her. Slowly, the
creatures began to slowly back up as the woman called up a fireball
into her hands, and as they began to turn around, she yelled, *"TOO
SLOW!"* She released the fireball, roaring, *"TENKA ATSURYOKUHA!"*
and the crimson ball of energy leapt from her hands, blasting into
the hurriedly departing throng of creatures. The ball impacted on the
second one, charbroiling it on impact and scattering the others like
tenpins. As the others continued their flight, she turned to Shiki.

Shiki got a good look at her rescuer. An older woman, she looked like
she'd been through hell. Her shirt was in tatters, and her pants were
scored and shredded to the point that with a couple more adjustments,
they could probably be turned into decent cutoffs. She was bloodied
and bruised, and probably was on the same last reserves of inner will
that Shiki was on. But she stood there, with a viperous look in her
eyes that she would have normally associated with the Emperor than
with a woman.

Then her face softened as she smiled, offering Shiki a hand up.
"Are you okay, miss? You were able to handle half of them pretty well,
but not all of them. Still, not bad for an amateur." Nodding her
head, the woman continued. "By the by, I'm Kuno Nabiki of the Tendo
Musabetsu Kokuto Ryu. And you are...?"

Shiki was about to give the woman a snarling response--(("Not bad?"
Who does this woman think she is?))--when she heard the outbreak
of hysterical crying and screaming. Kuno-san forgotten, Shiki
raced towards the inside of the carousel' boundaries, fearing
the worst--the inevitable. When she arrived, she saw the worst.
Hunched over Mariko, Michiko was a heartbroken, despondent soul.
It was clear from Mariko's closed eyes that she wasn't merely asleep,
and that what should have been her happiest day of the year had turned
out to be the worst of all.

"I...Shiki...I tried...." the look in Michiko's eyes was that haunted
look that would never leave, the sort of look that she would wake up
screaming from nightmares a dozen years from now. The tears began
to run down Shiki's face, even as Michiko grasped the deceased girl
closer to herself, sobbing, "I'm so sorry, Mariko, I'm so sorry...."

Shiki slumped to her knees in defeat. To have fought all this time,
and to have failed her best friend, to have allowed Mariko to suffer
and die on her birthday was unconscionable. She failed. She. Failed.

From her perspective, Nabiki didn't know what to do. While the
fighting, the combat and pain had become what been somewhat de rigeur
in her life since she met Ranma--and more so, when she took up the
mantle of the Tendo family martial artist--this was above and beyond
what she was accustomed to, what she could live with. A tear traced
its way down her cheek as she moved instinctively to Shiki's side,
wondering if this was what Ranma felt when he beheld Akane's body,
her soul having moved on. There was nothing that could be done here,
except to help these girls as much as she could. And once that was
done, she had to find the others, and fast. Her mind began racing
again--if she was in this kind of mess, what about Hikaru?

~*~

Kuu and the girl she was with looked at the man with fear. Akama had
the defiant look on him that he'd mastered from his father, and
was going to protect Hououji-san and the other woman with what ever
it took. The man was dangerous, clearly, and anyone running around
with a pump shotgun in Japan during whatever the hell was happening,
had to be someone obviously not worth messing with.

As for the guy with the shotgun, Michael pointed it at them, unsure of
whether they were going to turn into some melting creature, or grow
wings and fangs or something of the like. While attempting to hunt
down some of the quarry that he and Saotome rounded up, his instincts
told him to head into what appeared to be the center of the maelstrom,
despite the fact that he would be at ground zero. Not that this
would have been a first; that sobriquet went to his assassination
missions in a dozen places. But his ammunition was close to gone,
he gave his katana to Saotome, and although he could go hand to hand
if the situation called for it, he'd already decided the best place
to keep these horror movie-rejects was at least past arm's length.
With that thought in mind, When he stood there for a few minutes,
awaiting a transformation that did not come, he lowered the gun.
"Come with me," he motioned. "Let's get you out of here. There's a
big, bad, nasty looking thing the size of a building that's going to
be on us in a second, and--"

A wet, slurpy sort of shriek sounded behind Michael; at the same time,
the brunette screamed "Look out!" More annoyed than enraged, he took
care of it in the easiest way he could. Not even bothering to look,
he pointed the shotgun behind him and fired. As the shotgun rocked
him due to the recoil, he used the momentum to spin on his heels and,
pumping the shotgun again halfway through the motion, fired again as
soon as he completed the motion. He felt hot, wet blood splashing
on his back, slightly acidic, but it only stung rather than burned,
so he could live with it, though he was going to have a problem
explaining this mess to the hotel's laundry service.

As he moved into position and reloaded, he absently noted two things:
one, that what he had cut in half with the shotgun was a half-woman,
half-butterfly, and not of the pretty fairy variety, either. From what
he could tell of what was left of its upper torso she would have been
cute if the head had been human. The other thing he noted was that
there was a group of them coming right at him, and at least one of
them was almost fully human insofar as these butterfly women--again,
the term "fairies" just didn't seem to apply--were. As he backed up
to protect his new charges, the Queen B-fly stared at him imperiously
through a pair of translucent, faceted eyes.

"I am the Kocho-denkyo," the creature announced with a voice that
sounded like the swarming of wasps, "and you have killed one of my
followers. For that, I should kill you, but I think that I might
have other plans for you." She licked her lips invitingly, with a
tongue that extended to the length of a proboscis. "Be honored--not
every man is offered this sort of choice, to rule at my side and be
the father of a race that will take over the world."

Michael stared at her with a cool demeanor. "What of the women?
And the boy?"

"They are carrion, as far as I am concerned," the Kocho-denkyo
responded, with an offish manner. "The boy will be allowed to grow to
adulthood, and will make a fine mate for any female offspring I bear."

"Hmm, I see. Give me a second to explain things to these folks, if
you will." He turned around, facing the fully human group once more.
As an aside to the one woman seemingly in control of the trio, he
offered the shotgun, saying, "Take this. If what I have doesn't work,
you have two rounds left in it to get yourself clear."

Kuu took the shotgun like it was a live cobra, but looked at him with
a grim understanding. "Wish this was a bow and arrow," she murmured.
"At least my sister and I were in our school's archery club."

He grinned at her. "Sorry, but I left them in my jacket back at
the hotel." No lie, that; he had no idea that he was going to need
this much armament for such an occasion. ((I'll have to plan better
next time,)) he thought, then added, ((if there is a next time.))

Kuu saw the look in his eyes, and knew it instantly. It was the
combative look on the face of the man before her, a look that was found
on many a person she knew. From the times when she saw Fuu with that
look on her face, to most recently Hikaru and Nabiki, she knew what
it meant and what it heralded. "What do you have in mind, sir?"

"Two words: feather grapeshot." His eyes steeled, and for a second,
it seemed as though he was about to rage at her, though she knew
that wasn't the case; still, the level of focus was so deep, so
entrenched in his eyes, that she subconsciously stepped back, and
slowly aimed the shotgun at him. Still either he hadn't noticed,
or he was extremely focused, because he said nothing about that,
instead ignoring her and the unintended threat she represented.

"You are taking too long," the Kocho-denkyo said in that buzzing
voice of hers. "I will have your answer now, male, and I will have
their heads."

"Shoo fly, don't bother me," he said, turning and giving her a defiant,
go-to-hell glance. "Personally, I prefer my significant others less
flighty, and frankly, you just don't fit the bill."

Despite the inhuman eyes, the face of the Kocho-denkyo was a mask
of rage, the visage of death coming from on nigh. Trembling with an
uncontrollable rage, the creature roared, *"DIE!"*

*"SORRY TO DISAPPOINT YOU!"* he shouted. *"QUILL FLECHETTE!"* He
pointed his hands forward, and the world got gunmetal gray as every
weapon in his arsenal slammed full force into the Kocho-denkyo and
her court. His entire inventory, from throwing knives to cyanide vials
and everything in-between, pounded into the butterfly-women with the
force of a tsunami. His hands were an untraceable blur as he loosed
everything he had, throwing things with an incalculable speed that
rivaled the best that Ranma could throw. The veritable fog of metal
and iron ripped through the Kocho-denkyo and her henchwomen, boring
into her and out the other side, cutting them apart as though they
were caught in a sandstorm in the middle of the Sahara. The metallic
rain continued, unabated, and the abrading zephyr of blades gnawed
into and through the exposed flesh and bored through the exoskeleton
that was present, through gossamer wings and compound eyes, through
silken fabric and bits of hair, and sent them to the four winds,
a sanguineous spray of chunks and horror as the creatures screamed
from being flayed while alive.

When Michael stopped, there wasn't even enough of the creatures
together to bury one being whole much less the baker's half-dozen
that clumped on the floor. His whole front was covered in a dark
blood that wasn't that of a normal full-human. His clothing was
soaked and stained, and behind him, he heard someone turn and vomit.

Turning back to him, he saw the brunette leveling the shotgun at him,
fear embedded in her eyes, her hands shaking like the Tokyo fault-line
as she tried to point it at the beast who had just casually killed, who
had just done so without batting an eye. Despite the intent to protect
her and the others, she was terrified of him, and had to protect Akama
and this innocent woman from this.... "You-you're...a monster!" she
gasped, her voice filled with at the tremor of terror. "You...you...."

Michael gave her the most sad, genuine look he could. "Miss, I won't
even begin to tell you how many lives I've taken in defense of my
country or of others." Reaching out and taking the shotgun from her
trembling hands, he said, "And every time I have to do that, I feel
less and less human." Hefting it with one hand, he said in a somber
tone, "Be glad you'll never have to pull this trigger. Every time you
do, it takes away from your humanity, just as much as it saves you.
Don't let yourself be caught by this. Never let yourself be caught
by this." He turned away from them, lest they see the sorrow in his
eyes, though the neutral mask that was his face hid that sorrow well.

As he turned, however, something new caught his eye: the monolith
Kraken, headed straight for the giant purple coaster. Not only
that, but the two people engaged in the middle of a sword fight.
Spitting out a foul-mouthed expletive, he turned to the three he
was with, and knew the choice had to be clear. He had to get these
three innocents out of harm's way, even though it left the redhead
at the top of the coaster without backup. As Michael told the trio
to follow him to safety, he thought that he'd failed in his vows to
protect the innocent. Worse, that Mousse, if he'd still existed,
would have gotten his so-called "revenge" against Saotome. And deep
within Michael Tseng, that thought chilled him most of all.

~*~

Thanks to the benefits of luck and Newton's Laws of Physics, Hikaru
was launched into the air, and above her opponent, getting a clear
glimpse of her for the first time. Not bothering to call out her
attack while at the zenith of her arc, she launched a fireball straight
at the monster--human or not, anyone cruel enough to slaughter dozens
of innocents for no reason other than attacking one person, didn't
rate treatment in the human factor.

However, the sorceress proved to be fast, as she whipped out a nasty
looking serrated scimitar and easily swatted away the pyrotechnic
as though it were nothing. However, this left her open to a second,
attack, which Hikaru was only too eager to initiate. As the end of
her arc brought her close to the woman, she lashed out with her right
foot, slamming the calico-haired woman across the chops and sending
her spinning back. As the arc ended, threatening to take her over
the railing again, Hikaru grabbed the safety rail, twisted, and hopped
onto the metal platform. Her feet hadn't even touched the ground as
she unsheathed the katana and went into an offensive position.

Getting off the floor and rubbing her jaw, Citroen looked at her
opponent, eye to eye. "Well, if it isn't the all-too-mortal Pillar
of Cephiro." She raised her sword into an attack stance. "Are you
ready to die, 'Goddess'?" she asked, her voice dripping with challenge.

"Hajime," Hikaru snarled between clenched teeth.

They began to size up each other, readying for a conflict that would
end in the death of one, maybe both of them. The pair circled each
other, sensing the other's moves, probing for weaknesses, observing the
other's strengths. Save for the fact that Hikaru had already received
numerous injuries, both women were ready for a fight to the finish,
and neither one expected or would grant the slightest bit of quarter.

They continued this for a minute or two then stopped, long enough to
look at each other in the eyes, expressions of hatred and disgust in
their faces. The whole world seemed to quiet with the sounds of only
feet softly padding on metal deck plating, of soft breathing, of a
bird chirping, of a multitude waiting as a goddess and a sorceress
prepared to wage conflict against one another.

The world charged back in to fast forward as Citroen leapt in for
the attack, screaming, *"PREPARE TO ENTER YOUR HEAVEN, OH GODDESS OF
CEPHIRO!"* The sorceress slammed the blade home with such force that
it rang against the metal of the second sword, a high crescendo that
could be heard at the very top of Fujisan itself.

However, Hikaru had expected that move and parried, then brought the
blade down, slashing into the cape of the sorceress, and eventually
into the metal armor underneath. The blade glanced off it even as at
Citroen leapt back. She tapped her shoulders and the cloak fell free,
wrapping around Hikaru, obscuring her vision. Citroen took advantage
of the distraction and raced in, stabbing as she went. Hikaru moved
by luck as she freed herself from the cloak, and Citroen's blade
missed her side by inches. With the other so close, the redhead made
a counterattack, initiating a rapid sword thrust almost as fast as
Kuno's Tembatsu Da.

To counter, Citroen dived on the floor, rolled free of the area
then commenced a lightning attack, sending a great blast of energy
towards Hikaru. Hikaru leapt to the side, however, and channeling
her fire magic into the katana, executed a wide slash that sent a
wave of flame towards the sorceress. The stream of flame slammed
Citroen and flung her to the floor. As Hikaru raised her sword
for a downward slash, Citroen countered with a lightning blast.
The jagged tendrils of plasma nailed Hikaru squarely in the chest,
flinging her back several feet, and giving the sorceress the time she
needed to recover. With that split-second past, the pair leapt at
each other again. This time, the redhead executed a rising slash in
mid-air while Citroen followed suit. The two attacks countered each
other, and the force of the blows threw the two apart like rag dolls;
Citroen was pounded into the safety railing and almost knocked over,
while Hikaru crumpled to the floor, her head impacting against the
metal with a loud clang.

She got up, ignoring the stars in her head that were currently doing
a swing revival and all her body parts that were begging for mercy.
Her left arm was heavily abraded, and she was bleeding from a nasty
little gash on her right cheek. ((Oh Kamisama, does this hurt,))
she mentally moaned, suppressing a wave of nerve-pinching pain.
This was quite different than anything she'd dealt with in quite
a while. Although she'd kept up in her kendo skills over the years,
and picked up the School of Anything Goes along the way, she was
more of a practitioner than an actual combatant. It had easily been
years since the last time she'd gotten into combat of any serious
degree, and this "day at the park" was not turning out as planned.
Bringing herself back to her feet, she knew it was crunch time,
and that more than just her life at stake, more than just that of
the thousands in jeopardy; the lives of her son, best friend, and
sister-in-law were at stake--and there was no way in hell that Hikaru
was going to allow that one more second. Dashing towards her enemy,
sword down low and ready for another special attack, and aura blazing,
she screamed an incoherent curse of fury.

Citroen clambered back over the railing, lucky that she was able to
grab it before her momentum carried her to a tragic end. She ignored
the ringing headache and the nasty scorch on her arm, instead using
the support of the railing to stabilize herself. ((So the Pillar has
some skill with a sword. Interesting, I suppose--she is not one of
those all-peaceful goddesses that so many of these lessers believe in.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this "deity" is pretty new at
her job, as though the mantle of the Pillar were some job title,
rather than a name for a god.)) Reconciling her strength once more,
she saw as the redhead began to get back to her feet. ((There has to
be a way to counter her. Whatever she may be, she's better at the
sword than I am.)) Looking out of the corner of her eye, she noted
a familiar tan shape slowly moving towards the coaster, as though it
were a lapdog, awaiting the response of the master.

((I can kill this Pillar, if I play my cards right,)) Citroen mused.
((But it's going to take a little more subterfuge that I'm not one
for using. Best give myself a tactical advantage--true that it is
unfair to this cretin, but it is just so.)) Slowly, surely, she
pumped small, barely noticeable magic into her scimitar, hoping that
the redhead wouldn't notice. Her opponent leapt into the air for a
strike, and the Vanden Plaz mage followed suit.

The pair clashed again in mid-air, Hikaru putting her strength
behind a power strike while Citroen loosed a small lightning blast.
The plasma scorched Hikaru's already injured arm, but her strike rang
true, slashing her target across the chest, just enough to bit through
the metal and draw a gout of blood. Both, however, got back up and
went at it once more. This time, however, Hikaru did a flying kick
and nailed Citroen in the head, but unfortunately jarred her ankle on
landing and bit off a scream. Citroen snapped to rapidly enough that
she caught the redhead off-guard, landing a vicious slash to her back.
Hikaru screamed as she stumbled forward, but managed to turn in time
to block what would have been a fatal blow. Hikaru moved from that
parry into a nasty slash that cut open both Citroen's forearm gauntlet
and the flesh underneath. With Citroen springing back, both women
dropped into defensive positions once more. The two stared at each
other for the longest time, both wondering: were they charging up
their magic for another set of mystic attacks, or resting for another
fierce round at each other?

Citroen laughed, the sound of contempt clear in her voice. "Ah,
the brave Pillar. The all-too-human Pillar, it seems. Or, the about
to die Pillar, as I should say. All those people died, just because
they were in the way of me killing you, did you know that?"

Hikaru tried to hide the sick shock and shame clearly on her face.
"How...how could you? All these innocent children...." Hikaru
winced as fought off the wave of anguish at the sense, holding onto
her rage, not saying anything--her actions would speak for her.
The pair stared at each other between the meters that separated them,
and from the staggering gulfs that made up the souls of each other.
((It's now or never, Hikaru.)) The all-consuming thought was the only
thing running through her mind at the moment, the only thing that
pushed her on despite the pain. She did have to admit that she'd
had better days, those being the kind where she wasn't saddled with
a grocery's list worth of injuries: bleeding profusely via a ton
of lacerations, a black eye, burns on a couple parts of her body,
and enough sweat and blood to make the wounds sting like a regiment
of knives being stabbed into her as she took every painful step.
Her clothing was bloodstained, ripped, or burnt in various places,
and she didn't quite look the kawaii redhead that everyone was used to.

Noticing that her opponent was awaiting another strike, Hikaru slowly
moved her blade into position. Hikaru wasn't sure how long she stood
there, but all she remembered was Ranma and their children, living
a mournful life without her, and she knew that such an event would
never happen while she still had breath to draw. ((Love will see me
through--it has to.)) She tensed once more, ready to race in, when
the odds changed. The framework rattled for a second, and without
even taking the time to guess, she knew instantly what it was, and
what it would spell. Simply put, she would have to win decisively
if she were ever going to see her husband and children again.

Focusing on one last strike, her plans became twofold. Springing once
more into the fray, she swung the blade in a feint, at the same time,
allowing the momentum of her attack to carry her low. As Citroen
counterswung to meet the attack, Hikaru rolled under the strike,
the mage's blade splitting the air with a high-tone whistle as it
almost sliced off her pigtail. Twisting herself despite the pain,
Hikaru swiftly changed tactics as she jabbed Citroen in the stomach
with her elbow, then leapt for the nearest rail, ricocheted off it with
a perfect bound, and shouted, "Shidou-ryu Special Attack! Shinzakura
Kazezan!" while launching herself straight at Citroen.

Hikaru's blade slammed into Citroen's with a force that she hadn't
expected. Oddly enough, the world went literally silent and dark,
as though the force of sound no longer existed, and an instant
eclipse occurred. As though willed into being by the force of the
connection between the katana and the odd scimitar, a soft spray of
sakura petals fluttered by, spraying outward in a conical fount,
carried on by a slight breeze that seemed both to come out of and
go nowhere. As time slowed to nothingness, the pair of combatants
passed each other and moved on, as though nothing was happening.
The pair eventually reached the range of their movements, turned and
faced each other.

Hikaru stopped at the platform, closest from the center of the
rollercoaster. She could feel the vibrations getting stronger as the
Kraken made its way up. Soon, it would be time to execute stage two
of her plan, and she'd only have one chance at that. Anything else
would mean never seeing her family again.

"Nice floral display, Pillar," Citroen sneered.

Hikaru nodded with her head. "Look at your blade," she replied in
the same tone. Citroen looked at her scimitar, noticing with a shock
that all she held was the handle. "The Shinzakura Kazezan is an old
Shidou family move that is rarely used, but I thought in your case
it would be ni--"

A vibration shook the platform, cutting off her words and strong
enough to nearly knock her off her feet; Citroen braced for the
shock, clearly indicating that she expected the event. Another wave
rattled the coaster's frame, and a whiny roar came out of nowhere.
((Almost time.)) Still facing her enemy as though nothing was wrong,
she said, "Give up. The police will be here soon, and they can take
you into custody." Hikaru looked at Citroen and said in a tight,
controlled voice, "Please don't force me to have to kill you."

Citroen's eyes narrowed as she commented, "I don't think it is me who
will die today, Pillar." Right on cue, the Kraken appeared over the
ledge, just behind its master, towering over the sorceress as though
it were a dangerous, menacing mountain, as though it were a demonic
Daibutsu, tensing to strike down the redhead. Knowing that Hikaru's
hand was played, the woman said, her voice dripping with acidic
sarcasm, "I'm terribly, terribly sorry it had to end this way, Pillar.
You're very formidable, and perhaps in another life, maybe we could
have been allies. But you belong to a group that needs to be wiped
off the face of the earth." Citroen raised her fist, and a blur of
energy appeared in it, shimmering an aura of doom upon Saotome Hikaru.
Grinning like a person who'd accomplished one of life's major goals,
she said, "Prepare to meet *your* gods, O Goddess of Cephiro."
Without turning her head to her murderous pet, she cooed, "Kill her."

Inexplicably, Hikaru sang out a siren's call of her own: "You lose."
Feeling the edges of exhaustion and unconsciousness crushing in on her,
she nevertheless closed her eyes, calling to the absolute last iota
of strength, stamina, and willpower she had. She had no choice but to
command the remaining stores of her deepest well of pyromancy for this,
something that she knew would pretty much be suicide if she screwed up.
There was the sound of a roaring fire, and her whole body began to glow
with a fiery blaze as she called out, *"SAOTOME FINAL ATTACK, STEP ONE!
HIKARIMUSUME!"* Flame burst out from her, incinerating her clothing,
but not burning her; rather becoming a part of her, merging flesh and
flame into one. The katana she held melted into slag in her hand, but
she didn't feel the splatter on her, merely feeling as slight wetness
as the blade incinerated. The ground began to warp and woof with
the heat she was generating, but she remained standing, glowing eyes
focused on Citroen, who was apparently unimpressed by the light show.
Hikaru stood there, transfigured into what almost was a living ball
of flame, and whispered in a voice that sounded like the crackle of
a bonfire, "And now you die." Without explanation, reason or rhyme,
she fell backwards towards her death.

Citroen giggled with a child's glee--she not only won, but had
also made the Pillar so humiliated, she chose to take her own life!
Racing to the edge of where the redhead had been, she peered over
the artificial precipice, grinning at her handiwork, and knowing that
nothing stopped the Vanden Plaz from conquering Cephiro now.

However...

...the smirk on Citroen's face turned to a puzzled look of confusion,
then blanched into a mask of fear as she suddenly realized what
the other woman had done. She stood there for a second, unmoving
and frozen in time as though the Daguerreotype of fate hadn't quite
finished her yet; she couldn't act, duck, or even talk as she finally
realized the Pillar's attack.

Finally, as the flames rose, melting everything, she screamed out a
teleportation spell, hoping that it would save her. It would be the
last thing she would ever do.

~*~

Stepping off the platform, Hikaru arced into a dive, a human torch
that torpedoed towards the ground below. She had one chance and once
chance only to make this work. This was insane, and something that
under the best circumstances, even Ranma wouldn't do. Then again,
he had been the one who had told her about it. Long ago, when he was
a teenage, he'd fought an opponent more powerful than he. With the
threat of being forever trapped in his female form, he'd attacked with
the Hiryu Shoten Ha, but Herb (or whatever his name was) took control
of the move. However, Ranma had expected this and revised his move,
riding the ki-typhoon up to the top, then coming down on the Dragon
Prince with a mammoth blast of ki. He'd called the move the Hiryu
Korin Dan, and had only used it once or twice, as it was an extremely
dangerous move, similar to a controlled nuclear detonation.

Well, this wasn't exactly the same thing, but if she played it
right....

As more and more of her willpower and life-force was changed into
her fire magic, it flowed within her, making her begin to feel giddy.
She opened her eyes briefly, and noticed the ground rushing towards
her at an obscene speed. Her body drunk from a level of power that
she'd hadn't channeled quite some time, and exhilarated from pulling
off a stunt that her husband would be furious at her for, she idly
wondered at the back of her mind if this was, quite possibly, the
most stupid thing she'd ever done.

Oh well, too late for that now.

Cocking her arm as far back as she could, she could, she screamed a
roar that shook the heavens, her voice echoing like the commandment
of the very goddess that she was: *"SAOTOME FINAL ATTACK, STEP TWO!
HIRYU KORIN DAN, REVISED--MEGAMI NO KYOUKAIIKI!!!"* She slammed her
hand into the ground, and an immense donation of flame occurred,
an unstoppable explosion of magic that rippled outwards like a
fiery shockwave that burned all. The world seemed to explode in an
incandescent flash as Hikaru's powers streamed out through her hands,
the onslaught boring through everything in its path as though it were
an unstoppable juggernaut on speed, a power that should not have been
unleashed on an unsuspecting world. She was certain that she screamed,
because the output of power felt like she was literally being ripped
in half, molecule by molecule.

A blast of red engulfed the mighty violet rollercoaster, incinerating
it in a flash. The blast wave rolled outwards, flattening buildings
and attractions, and anything in its path. Monsters and creatures
from hell burned in a pure, holy flame that couldn't be described.
Innocents felt a soft, caressing warmth, even as they saw the world
around them turning into a blazing patch of hell. A few hundred feet
away, the JR train that passed by derailed, slamming into the nearby
7-11. The ground rattled shook, and a good portion of the town of
Kawaguchiko shook from the tremblor of what as first thought to be an
earthquake, until they looked in the direction of the amusement park.

The expansive wall of flame that rushed out from where the impact had
occurred grew more intense, and the mystical flames seemed to howl
with the banshee shrieks of a young woman and mother, executing a final
attack she felt was the last chance to survive. The flaming shockwave
eviscerated each monster it alighted upon, incinerated each demon it
came into contact with, but pretty much left untouched the innocents
and harmless. The raging inferno continued, unabated, rushing outwards
like a voracious pack of wolves hunting prey. The blasting, searing
flames grew into a dome of fire, slowly consuming the entirety of
the park. The penumbra burned into everything, an unstoppable,
all-conquering force that could not, would not be denied.

Just when it seemed as though the blast had reached critical mass,
the dome of flame burst like a bubble, and a shockwave strong enough to
kick off the Richter scale pummeled the area, ripping apart everything
in the blast radius, oddly still sparing the innocents, as though the
flame were still controlled by a force of will. Finally, as though
it signaled that it was complete, the explosion reached into the sky,
an angry red mushroom cloud of the like that had not been seen in
Japan for decades, and no one hoped they would have, since. The roar
echoed throughout the Five Lakes area until it died out, and as the
deafening onslaught died away, a nation knew that something climactic
had occurred, but that the answers would probably never be known.

~*~

Nighttime fell on the town and the majority of the National Police,
as well as every local law enforcement agency and a company of troops
from the JGSDF, stood over the remnants of the park. Overhead, a wing
of police choppers flew overhead, bathing the ashen, sooty remains of
the location in an odd, eerie light. Search teams had gone in and out
several times into the blast crater that was once Fujikyu Highland,
and although a few people had been pulled out safely, most of those
recovered from what little wreckage there was were mostly bodies,
some of them grossly and bizarrely maimed. The deduction was clear
that the monsters had slaughtered most of the people at the park,
but no one knew where the volcano-strength detonation of flame had
come from, or why so many people were spared, when the should by all
rights have been turned into so much charcoal.

Kuno Nabiki was one of those lucky enough to have survived what the
news agencies were calling "The Fujikyu Firestorm". Right now, she
was leaning against a police cruiser, a blanket around her shoulders
and holding onto her nephew Akama for dear life, as though she would
be damned if she would let anyone or thing come to harm him. Both he
and Hououji Kuu (currently asleep in the backseat of the cruiser)
had survived the turmoil, thanks to an American who was currently
under questioning by authorities, probably filling out a statement.
The girl that was with them was taken to the hospital for shock, and
Nabiki absently wished that she would be fine. Of Hikaru, search teams
had recovered nothing so far, and Nabiki was hard-pressed to fight back
a terrified and sick fear of what was the fate of her sister-in-law.

Akama looked up and said, "Aunt Nabiki, where's Okaasan?" He hadn't
asked where she was earlier, as he knew that his mother was a fighter,
almost as brave and strong as his father, but as the hours had passed,
even he realized something was wrong. It took Nabiki all of her inner
will to face him and lie--at least she hoped it wasn't a lie--that
she would be here soon, that Hikaru was probably helping the police
search for people. The truth was, she was very afraid. Despite what
Hikaru had commented about being a goddess of another world, this was
reality, a place where things like that didn't happen. Did Hikaru
mean what she'd said about being a goddess? Was that possible? In a
world where people changed forms by water, blew apart landscapes with
their bare hands, and lived a nightmarish teenhood, was it possible
for Nabiki to have a deity as a sister-in-law? And if so, was it
possible for a deity to die? Nabiki wasn't sure that she wanted to
know the answer to the former question, and she sure as hell dreaded
the answer to the latter.

Vaguely, she noted the sleek black helicopter landing, its side
emblazoned with the Kuno Industries K.K. logo. She did take note of
the five people that had hopped out of it the moment the aircraft had
touched down on the ground, and as calmly and stately as she could,
she and Akama walked over to join Ranma and the rest. Automatically,
Nabiki reached out for her husband and grasped onto him for support,
unashamedly breaking into tears in front of everyone.

Meanwhile, Ranma grabbed a hold of his son. "Akama, where's your
mother?" When young Akama had answered in the negative, Ranma
immediately turned to Nabiki, his eyes showing a complete and utter
terror that was not at home in his eyes. Nabiki couldn't answer
him, couldn't say a world. As she watched her brother crumple to
the ground in a dazed shock, she let go of her husband and held onto
Ranma, feeling guiltier and dirtier than any other time in her life.
She'd failed her brother, her nephew, her family. What good was she?

Meanwhile, Ryoga did his best to do what he could for Satoru.
While Nabiki and Ukyo could intercede on Ranma's behalf, there wasn't
anyone really there to comfort Satoru for the loss of his only sister.
The martial artist patted the kendo master on the shoulder, looking
for signs of deep, black depression. If there was one person in
the world who had been to the deepest pit of the darkest expanse of
melancholia and returned unscathed, it was Hibiki Ryoga. He'd been
there and found in the end, he didn't care for it. He'd be damned
before he allowed any of his friends or family to suffer the same fate.
At his side, Ukyo simply stared into space, refusing to believe that
history was playing itself before her eyes again, that she and Ryoga,
witness to Akane's death, should have to bear witness to the end of
Saotome Hikaru; worse, to have to watch Ranma go through that torture
once more.

As for Ranma, he slowly slid into shock, barely feeling anything as
Nabiki's arms slid around him. ((Hikaru, gone?)) He felt a part
of him ripped out, as though he wanted to die. This was worse than
Akane's.... No! There was no need to think that way, no need to
think that way at all! She had to be alive! There was no way she
would abandon him and their family like that! "She's *not* dead,"
he mumbled into Nabiki's shoulder. "She can't be...." he mumbled
as his eyes watered and stung. He felt like he would die--and with
Hikaru gone, perhaps a part of him had died already. He was part
of the living dead, no longer one with this world. Fate had taken
two of the women he loved most in this world, and cast nothing but
emptiness at the martial artist.

Around him, people began to feel the weight of what had happened.
Akama looked confused, and was starting to get a little frightened.
Ukyo turned and tried to blink away the tears, even as she gave Ryoga
a stare that he knew he'd understand in a heartbeat. Ryoga saw it,
nodded mournfully, then inclined his head towards the fallen martial
artist.

And in the arms of sorrow, miracles can be borne. Tuning himself off,
shutting himself deep within his own soul, away from the spaces of
the world, Ranma heard something at the barest corner of his mind,
something that he didn't quite realize in a conscious manner. Was it
whispering, or was it clairvoyance, he neither knew nor cared to
bother. He only knew that he heard the voices of people drifting over
the ill-breeze that spread like a blanket over the slaughterfields:

"Yeah, Kasugano. No one can explain it. Ground Zero's
still so hot, no one can step near it. And I don't mean
radiation-hot, I mean fire-hot!"

"Fire? But there's nothing left to burn, Fujimori! Are
you sure?"

"I'm telling you, there's one area there still flaming!
Like the flames of hell itself, I tell ya!"

Fujimori was about to reply to his colleague when he suddenly
found a man half his age gripping him as though he was a lifeline.
"Where?" the man rasped, his eyes a mixture of pain, despair,
anticipation, and hope, his voice signaling as though the firefighter
were the last thing in the world holding him onto sanity. Looking into
the blue eyes of the tense blue eyes of the man, Fujimori was so struck
to his core, he couldn't elaborate. Finally, after managing to tear
himself away from the baleful eyes of the pigtailed man before him, he
turned and pointed to an angry red blip in the distance. "Th-there."

Ranma needed no further encouragement. Letting go of the man, he
turned and bolted like a shot into the distance, racing deep into
the dust and desolation, ignoring the stench of burnt everything.
With the exception of Akama, who stayed with Kuu, the rest raced after
the martial artist, hoping to catch him before he did something rash
in his grief. Kicking up ashen dust as he bolted, Ranma raced for
the center of the conflict, sidestepping or bypassing the destroyed
debris, approaching the red glow in what was deemed to be the center
of the explosion.

As Ranma approached the center of the blast, he saw what was apparently
a geodesic made out of flame. Sparks showered throughout the vicinity
of the crater, though there was nothing in any danger of being set
ablaze. A firetruck stood by, with a team of firefighters blasting
the dome with everything they had. Someone shouted that despite
the water, the flames and heat were getting stronger, and that if
they didn't stop it soon, the heat would reach a critical mass,
threatening the entire town of Kawaguchiko. Should the dome burst,
a heatwave could lash out that could be worse than the first blast.

Odd, Ranma noted idly, because he didn't feel any of the heat that
the others mentioned. And clearly it was there, because even through
the moonlight, heatwaves were warping the appearance of the air,
running reality through a sort of stained glass. Then it hit him.

He wasn't feeling what must be obscene levels of heat. There was a
dome of fire that the firefighters were attacking, which seemed to
get stronger, as though by magic.

Hotarubi Reikizhoheki.

((*HIKARU!*))

Without stopping, Ranma relied on hope and love and leapt over
the heads of the firefighters, who only realized that someone was
approaching, even as he cleared their heads in the leap. Without even
thinking twice, he plunged headfirst into the fiery dome, into what
could be certain death, even as the firefighters leapt back in shock,
even as the rest of his friends rushed towards the scene, even as
Nabiki and Ukyo screamed in fright over Ranma's apparent suicide.

There was a flash as the huge firedome flickered, then guttered out
like a candle in the wind. There was a slight heated breeze, and then
the dome dispersed. What was revealed was either truly horrifying,
or very touching.

In the center of a secondary crater created by the firedome, stood an
apparently dead squid-like thing that looked like one of the monsters
from one of the rides. Standing just away from it was Ranma, who held
a seriously injured Hikaru. She looked like she'd been through hell.
First and second degree burns, cuts, gashes and bruises littered her
very much nude body, but at the moment, she didn't care. She was
cradled in her husband's arms, kissing him with what strength she had.

Breaking off the kiss for breath, she opened up the one eye that wasn't
swollen shut, gently caressing his cheek. "A-are...A...kama...and--"

Ranma gently kissed her again, silencing her. "They're safe, Hikaru."

She rasped, "They...they came to kill me, Ranma." As the firefighters
set up a stretcher, she said, "They...came from Cephiro. Did all
this...just to kill me."

As he gently set his wife on the stretcher, then took the blanket
and set it over her, he said, "I won't let them, love."

*"LOOK OUT!"*

There was a burst of movement behind them as the Kraken got up and
pounced towards the group, its bloody and murderous eyes seriously
intent on killing the Pillar of Cephiro if it was the last thing it
would do in its unearthly life.

Ranma spun on his heel, faster than humanly possible, it seemed.
*"KACCHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!"* A wall of high-speed punches met the
Kraken head on, rebounding it from its attack. Ranma ducked low and
roared, *"AKANE BAKUDAN!"* A short range, intense burst of ki met the
monster head on, tearing it to complete and utter shreds, spreading
the ashes of the creature for the one-meter range of the attack.

Hikaru weakly smiled as she saw what Ranma had done. Seeing Satoru
standing beside her, she said, "See, oniisama? He was definitely
a find." Finally, her energy spent, the redhead drifted off to a
well-deserved unconsciousness.

Satoru bent over and kissed his sister gently on the forehead. "Yes he
is, imouto-chan." Satoru then looked to his brother-in-law and said,
"Ranma, we've got to get going to the hospital."

Without looking back, Ranma replied, "You go on ahead, Satoru.
I'm going to stay here for a few more and find out who it was that
attacked Hikaru. The bastards that did this." He turned and his
eyes narrowed in rage. "They hurt her, Satoru. They were trying to
kill my Hikaru."

Satoru nodded; he would probably do the same in his place. "I'll go
with her to the hospital, and you can just meet us there, Ranma.
Be careful, because they could be hunting you, too." With nothing
further to say at the moment, Satoru and Kuno accompanied the injured
redhead as she was carried to the ambulance. Ukyo, Ryoga, and Nabiki
chose to remain with Ranma.

"Whatever you need, I'm with you, Ranma," Ryoga said in earnest.

"You can count on me, Ranchan," Ukyo answered as well.

Moving to his side, Nabiki said, "That's three of us, then--no one
hurts my family and gets away with it. What's the plan, little
brother?"

Ranma turned to her. "That's easy, guys. We hunt them down. Where
they've run off to, they haven't run far enough." Screaming to the
nocturne sky, Ranma bellowed, *"GET THAT? YOU'D BETTER KEEP RUNNING,
'CAUSE IF I FIND YOU, I'M GOING TO PUT YOUR SORRY ASS IN A COFFIN,
D'YA HEAR ME?"*

~*~

Daimler sat in his personal chambers, brooding, staring at the one item
that Citroen brought back from her mission. It had been a failure,
strictly speaking, but Citroen had brought back critical information
that they needed to know about the Pillar and her secrets: namely
that the so-called "Goddess of Cephiro" was as human as he, though
a traitorous, sniveling strumpet of a Japanese. But the Pillar was
from Earth, and that meant that she had weaknesses, fatal weaknesses.

Citroen had been given a hero's burial two days ago. Between the
heavy amount of burns she had sustained, the amount of blood lost, and
the shock of an unprepared transdimensional teleport, it had proven
too much for her. She had died in the arms of her brother Sharan,
who was now personally holding the Cephiran nobility responsible,
due to their link to the Pillar. Already Daimler had to keep him
away from the Water Knight Ryuzaki, for fear of killing her before
her usefulness to them was done.

"My Lord, " a voice said, interrupting his meditation.

Without looking, he replied, "Yes, Sharan?"

"Everything has been set, Lord Daimler," the man said. "Our forces are
in place, and Barina has now officially taken over as our guru-mage."
The last sentence was hard for the tech-mage of the VP to say, Daimler
noted. Sharan had loved his sister dearly, and with her gone, the
emptiness inside him would only turn into a deeper hatred, one that
would be advantageous, but hard to rein in if they were not careful.
"The city of Mondeo has been razed off the face of the planet."

"Good, good," he said, turning to face Sharan. "Dacia and his forces
left nothing alive? None of those flying vermin?"

Not in the town, no, Daimler, though there's been a complication that
shall soon be corrected," he said. "In fact, he asked me to give
you this." From within the folds of his robe, he pulled out a small
display box, wrapped in a red satin cloth. He looked at Daimler,
his face appearing calm and serene, even though Daimler in truth knew
of the seething rage just underneath. Looking very similar to--and
only slightly more male than--Citroen, Sharan excelled in technology.
Very skilled even back before they'd begun the Cephiro campaign,
his skills leapt into multitude upon multitudes when they'd come
across the remains of a crashed Autozamian ship--which was now the
newly-restored OPEL. Sharan would have been the perfect soldier,
if it were not for certain...peculiarities that could not be proven
about him.

No matter. "Where is Dacia and his assistants at the moment?" Daimler
asked.

"Why, paying their respects to the lady Knight Umi as gentlemen should,
of course," Sharan said in a neutral tone. Again, another change.
With the war now in full swing, the torture of the Water Knight,
the only female prisoner, had begun. Some of what Daimler's men
were capable of could be...messy, but as long as they did not kill or
seriously injure her, he was accepting what they were doing to such an
inhuman traitor. Originally, they had made the male prisoners watch,
but that little entertainment ended when the archer, Cabrio, managed
to break out of his cell and attack one of the soldiers involved with
Lady Umi at the time. It was a shame, as the VP soldier, a true hero
of the homeland, had been killed by the Cephiran before he was taken
down and beaten to death by Private Panoz' compatriots. Since then,
they were no longer allowed to watch in person, but Sharan, always
the thoughtful one, arranged to have the entertainment shown to them
through monitors placed in the cells of the prisoners.

Soon, the Water Knight would be nothing more than a half-dead husk. In
fact, with the constant amount of "entertainment" that she was being
made to provide for the men, it was a miracle that she was still alive
as it was. Daimler idly wondered who would be the next one to be a
comfort woman for his troops. Perhaps Lady Caldina, or General Presea.
Maybe even Queen Fuu herself. He smiled at that. If he were to make
her the comfort woman for his entire army, it would still be better
treatment than she deserved.

"What is this complication?"

"There was one escapee from Mondeo, the spawn of the village leader,
a female named Minica. We have a patrol after her, and we do not
believe that she will make it to Cephiro Palace alive."

"See that she doesn't. Mondeo is an important town to them. If one
has survived, then a small hope survives for them. I want that
hope crushed."

"As you wish." With that, Sharan departed, leaving Daimler to his
thoughts once more. Daimler sat for a second, then reached over for
the nearby bottle of wine and a glass, pouring himself one. It was not
as good a vintage as that of his homeland, but then again, nothing was.
With that, he unwrapped the box, and decided to look for himself.
Ah, perfect. Not only proof that Dacia had carried out his orders
to the fullest, but with his usual artist flair as well.

In the box were the earthly remains of the leader of the village of
Mondeo, the village of fairies. Pinned and mounted like a butterfly
inside the box was their now-deceased leader, Primera. The look in
those now-still eyes of hers was one of pain and shock, as though she
never expected to be killed by being impaled by a nail, and mounted
onto a display box. What disturbed Daimler about this display case
was the features of the...creature. She looked human, and if she had
been, instead of some thing, Daimler would have found her attractive.
It scared him that a world as beautiful as this could be populated
by demons and monsters--and worse, such as this lesser.

This world needed to be cleansed, to be made pure for its own sake
and survival.

Whispering to the dead fairy inside the box, Daimler cooed, "I'm glad
the box was large enough for two. Soon, your daughter shall be pinned
right beside you, Primera, and if I have my way, all of the Cephiran
royalty, and all of the lesser races as well." He made a toast to
that bright future, one that he would soon see in his grasp.

NEXT: Part Five: Shock to the System

AUTHOR'S NOTES: For those of you who don't know that little fact of
Mazda trivia, believe it or not, it's true. It is called the Miata in
most of the world because, Mazda wanted a name that sounded Japanese,
but they couldn't think of a name. One of the members of the marketing
department came across the old German word for "gift"--Miata--and the
rest, as they say, is history. The reason it is called the Roadster
in Japan, however, is because the syllables mi-a-ta was found in only
one word: miataru (to find), which at the time of the car's inception
was a term used by Japanese criminals (yes, Virginia, they do exist)
for theft/carjacking. Due to the obviously negative connotations,
the Roadster name (the code name for the car prototype) was retained.
This information was obtained from an article that I once read,
and if the above is wrong, well, it's not my fault. ^_~

For those of you who are curious, K. K. is the Japanese equivalent
of Co. or Corp.

I would like to thank Rob Barba for his exhaustive information on
both Fujikyu Highlands amusement park (a real park at the foot of
Mount Fuji, listed in the Guinness Book of World's Records for the
World's Tallest Rollercoaster and the more obscure Park with the
highest concentration of Horror-based amusement--three haunted houses,
one haunted rollercoaster, and one haunted log ride), and on Japanese
monster mythology as a whole.

I'd also like to thank the Eternal Lost Lurker for pre-reading me
through some pretty rough spots. Life has been difficult for me as
of late, and sometimes I just feel like I'm not quite myself. ^_^;;