The Dark Lords of Nerima, Chapter Nine [Ranma/SM crossover]

[claymade]

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon in any way, shape or form. All associated characters, trademarks, etc. are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi. I'm just telling some stories about them.


(previous chapters can be found here)



Chapter Nine: Caught Between



Rooftop after rooftop shot by under Ranma's pounding feet as he hurtled across them in a barely-followable blur of red and black. He was breathing hard; he had started his run at an all-out sprint, and had not let up in the slightest since then.

His mind raced ahead of him, simultaneously calculating the most efficient route to his destination, and worrying about what he would find when he got there. If Beneda's description of the enemy's power had been accurate...

Just hang on, you moron! he thought fiercely, trying to come up with a way to shave a few more seconds off his time.

Ukyo, Akane, Beneda, and the injured Mousse were all somewhere behind him, following, but he had quickly outstripped them. As he drew nearer and nearer to his goal, he began to imagine dozens of different plans of attack, depending on what condition Ryouga was in when he arrived.

Soon, the Tendo dojo came into view. Ranma rocketed down to street level as soon as he had a straight shot to the building, his feet skidding slightly on the pavement. Seconds later, he had reached the exterior wall of the compound, and he vaulted over it without hesitation.

Landing on the other side, he looked around. The signs of battle were obvious. There were all manner of gaping holes blasted in the structure of the Tendo home, and through them Ranma could see that the interior had been even more thoroughly wrecked. But for all that, he could hear no sounds of combat, only a dead silence that sent a chill into his stomach. "Ryouga!" he yelled, hoping against hope that the quiet meant the lost boy had managed to defeat his foe. "Ryouga!"

No answer. Breaking into a run again, Ranma dashed into the house, racing up and down the hallways, searching through the ransacked rooms. He found no sign of anyone--only the damage left by what had clearly been a vicious battle.

His worry mounting, Ranma finished his search of the lower floor, then ran back out of the building. A quick leap carried him to the top of the house, and he used the vantage point to scan his surroundings, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He noticed that there seemed to be a bit of damage outside as well. Evidently, the fight had moved out there at some point. In fact...

Ranma looked closer. In fact... there was only one main scar carved in the earth, a scar that led directly into... Feeling a sudden surge of hope, the pigtailed fighter jumped back down from the roof, racing over to the remains of the Tendo koi pond.

And sure enough, there he was. A little black piglet, soaking wet and looking half-dead. It appeared that he hadn't even had the strength to climb fully out of the pond, floating semi-conscious at the edge, half-in, half-out, with the pond's koi swimming agitatedly around him.

Ranma let out a long, relieved sigh. "You really do live to make my life interesting, don't you P-chan?" he asked rhetorically, reaching down and plucking the small creature up by his bandanna collar.



**********



Beneda staggered to a halt at the gate in the Tendo compound wall, leaning on it for a moment while she gasped for breath. Ahead of her, Ukyo and Akane were running for the house itself. Mousse could be heard coming up somewhere behind her; somehow, he had managed to keep pace with them, despite the damage he had sustained.

Pushing off the gate, Beneda followed after the two human girls, looking everywhere for signs of the lost boy. She wasn't sure why--it seemed impossible to her that Ryouga could have survived a battle with one of the most terrifying forces in the Dark Kingdom short of the Generals themselves. But her protector had surprised her before, and she found that there was now a stubborn nugget of hope inside her that refused to give up entirely.

Up ahead, the two girls entered the house itself, and then Beneda heard twin cries of "Ryouga!" Fear gripped at the youma, and she increased her speed, bursting through the door herself. And stopped dead at the sight that greeted her.

She barely noticed Ranma standing off to one side; all her attention was focused on Ryouga. He sat there, propped up against one of the few walls that were still standing, as though its support was the only thing keeping him upright. But he was alive. Beneda gaped, relief washing over her. He was alive! He had done it! Somehow, the crazy human had done it again!

Exhaustedly, Ryouga raised his head, giving Beneda a wan smile. "I'm sorry if I worried you," he told her.

The youma laughed, a little unsteadily. "How... how did you do it?" she asked, still not quite processing the reality. "In all the Dark Kingdom, there's no more feared youma! How did you beat her?"

Ryouga glanced to the side nervously, raising his hand to scratch the back of his head a few times, before the effort wore him out and his hand flopped back down. "Well... I didn't exactly beat her..." he admitted. "I just fought her for a while, and then escaped when things started to get bad."

"Still, that's really amazing!" Akane said, sounding impressed. "How did you managed to get away form someone so powerful?"

"Yeah, P-chan, tell us!" interjected Ranma, his eyes wide and innocent. "How did you manage to get away?"

Ryouga shot the pigtailed boy a deadly glare. "That's not really important," he said through gritted teeth. "I just got lucky, that's all."

Akane frowned, puzzledly, and opened her mouth as though she might have inquired more--but Ranma cut her off. "Yeah, well, I ain't planning on running away if I cross paths with her," he said. "So spill. What kind of techniques does she use?"

"Yes, Hibiki, tell us..." Surprised, Beneda glanced behind her, to see that Mousse had quietly entered the room while her attention had been focused on Ryouga. He was now looking at the lost boy with smoldering intensity. "Did you find any vulnerabilities during your fight? Any weaknesses in her style that could be exploited? Anything we can use to kill her?"

Ryouga shook his head. "No. Not really. She's extremely skilled, and her power is... something incredible. She can shoot those lightning bolts at you, but she can also make it into some kind of... lightning armor around her arms. I couldn't figure out how to defeat it; she would just fry me with it whenever I tried to block one of her attacks, or whenever she blocked one of mine."

"She did get overconfident, though. She thought she had me. But I managed to catch her off-guard with my Bakusai Tenketsu, and I actually had her on the ropes for a little while. Then..." His face darkened, and his voice trailed off.

It was Ukyo who finally broke the silence. "Then what?"

"She used some kind of trick," Ryouga said. "Instead of seeing her, she made me see..." He looked down at the floor, flushing. "...s- someone special to me. I hesitated, and..." There was little need to say more.

Ranma's eyes flickered over toward Akane for just an instant, any good humor suddenly gone from his features. "How did the youma know to use... that person on you?" he demanded urgently.

"I don't know." Ryouga hung his head. "Maybe... it was just a guess."

"No." Everyone in the room turned to look at Beneda, who continued to speak. "No, she doesn't need to guess."

"What do you mean?" asked Ryouga, looking up with a frown.

"It's... one of the rumors they tell about her powers," Beneda responded. "They say that she can create illusions that reflect the soul of any living creature. No matter who she faces, she can always conjure the image of whatever they treasure most."

The five human warriors digested the information, exchanging glances as they looked uneasily from one to another. At length, Ranma crossed his arms. "Well now that I know about it, I'll be ready the next time she comes calling!"

Next time... The two words were like twin blocks of ice, swiftly crushing any sense of relief that Beneda might have felt. She cursed herself for a fool in the first place. What was wrong with her? She had been so... caught up in Ryouga's unexpected survival that she had lost sight of just how bad the situation still was!

Ryouga hadn't even won. He had escaped--and only barely, from the look of it. The Darkmistress would no doubt be enraged that her fun had been spoiled, and Beneda shuddered at the thought of the vengeance that the leader of the Black Section could call down. The next attack, the Darkmistress would certainly not be alone.

I didn't expect things to escalate this fast! she thought, trying to fight down the rising tide of panic. I'm running out of time! She still clung desperately to the hope that she could orchestrate the Senshi's downfall before they were overrun... but that hope was growing increasingly slim. She certainly didn't know how to find them; it had always been the Senshi that found the youma. Except they hadn't found her yet, and now it looked as though she would be dead before that happened.

Even as she tried to figure out what to do, the conversation around her was continuing. "We should head back to the school," Akane said. "I'm worried about Kasumi and our parents."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah... I don't like leaving them there, even with Kuno watching them. If that Darkmistress chick figures out where they went to and decides to pay a visit herself..." He shook his head. "We gotta get them somewhere safe."

Mousse raised an eyebrow. "And just where exactly is that, Saotome?" he asked. "Aside from the fact that our enemies will likely make another attack here, I would say that this building is itself a hazard to life and limb at this point." He punctuated his observation by delivering a solid punch to one of the remaining walls, and was rewarded by an ominous groan of timbers that caused everyone else to wince apprehensively.

"Well... what do you suggest?" shot back Ranma. "There's way too many people around the school, and there's no way in hell that we're going back to the Nekohanten."

A strained silence fell... broken suddenly when Ukyo spoke up. "What about my place?"

Everyone turned toward her, Beneda's eyes widening in surprise at the unexpected offer. Ranma's face, on the other hand, took on a concerned frown. "Are you sure?" he asked quietly. "If they do manage to track us there, they'll know where you live too. We'll be leading them right to your home."

Ukyo's reply was to flash a smile. "So what?" she asked. "You need a place to stay, and it might even throw this 'Darkmistress' off the trail for a while." She looked around at each of them in turn. "After all, we're all in this together, aren't we?"

Heads nodded in agreement all around the room. Beneda followed suit, hoping that her smile didn't look as forced as it felt.

Glancing uncomfortably around, she happened to meet Mousse's eyes. And, for just the briefest instant, she saw a surprisingly familiar flinch cross his features, as the two of them were included in that circle of trust. In that moment, she felt a bizarre sense of kinship with the hidden weapons master... made all the more perverse if her suspicions about his actual goals were correct.

"All right then," Ranma said. "Let's get moving before any more youma show up. Thanks, Ucchan."

Ukyo positively beamed at the words.



**********



Hours later, Saotome Genma dragged himself up stair after stair, toward the second floor of Ukyo's okonomiyaki shop. It was not easy going; each step he took sent a burst of pain across his chest, as the injuries he had sustained in the recent battle made their presence known. He grimaced, but continued onward.

Eventually he reached the upper level. Turning to one side, he quietly slid open the door that led to the room where they had set up camp, and for a moment simply looked in without speaking.

The sight sent memories of the "Gambling King" fiasco running through his mind. The Kuonji girl had taken them into her home back then as well... which in and of itself had been extremely crowded. This time they had three additional bodies to house, and from the way the bedrolls had been laid out, it looked as though they would be packed in like sardines.

But cramped living conditions were the least of his worries right now. And he looked back with yearning nostalgia on the days when his foremost concern had been a dimwitted hustler with a face like a playing card.

At the moment, the room before him only had one occupant: Ranma. That was why Genma had seized this chance; he needed to talk to his son in private. The rest of the defenders were downstairs, the sounds of their conversation jumbling together in an unintelligible murmur as it drifted up toward them. To all intents and purposes they would be alone.

And yet, now that he had come to it, the older man tried to put off announcing his presence for as long as he could. He watched Ranma, who was bent over the backpack that he had taken from the Tendo home. It contained what possessions and gear he'd thought worth bringing, and it looked as though he was doing a bit of unpacking.

Finally, Genma cleared his throat. Ranma glanced back over his shoulder at the noise. "Hey, pop," he said. "Didn't know you were up and around again."

Genma forced a smile--the con artist in him looking for a chance to shore up his credibility before he had to broach the actual subject. "Hah!" he laughed. "You should know better! It takes more than that to keep your old man down. I'll be back at full strength in no time. You just watch!" He accompanied the words by thumping his chest with his fist, and almost concealed the wince of pain that resulted.

"Uh huh." Ranma gave his father a measured look, and Genma knew that he had seen through the bravado for what it was. It had been worth a shot... but honestly Genma hadn't really expected it to work. Not with how many times the boy had seen it before. "All right, pop. What is it?"

The older man shrugged, trying his best to affect an air of nonchalance. The key here, he decided, would be to ease into things gradually. "Well, son... I just wanted to commend you on how well you've handled this situation with the youma. You've gone well above and beyond the call of duty, and I'm very proud of you for that. Truly, no one could ask for more of you. In fact..."

He would probably have gone on for much longer, but even as he spoke, he could see Ranma's face hardening. "You want us to abandon Beneda," the boy said bluntly.

Genma felt the nonchalant expression on his face crack, just a little. Still, he pressed on. "Son," he said, trying to make his voice sound as wise as he could. "I know you mean well, but really, I'm only thinking of what's best for her. After all, she'll never learn to stand on her own two feet if we keep sheltering her, will she? Just as the mother bird must drive her hatchlings from the nest, even though it pains her deeply to do so, we must also allow Beneda to--"

Ranma's jaw had dropped a little as he listened to his father's explanation. "I don't believe this..." he muttered. "So what happened to the responsibility of a marital artist to protect those in need? Huh?"

Genma felt his nonchalant expression crack even more. "Listen, boy," he snapped, his words speeding up. "You didn't see how powerful that... that thing was! If that's the kind of monster this 'Dark Kingdom' can send after us, then we're all in very serious trouble!"

"Yeah, and that's nothing compared to how much trouble Beneda'd be in without us!" shot back Ranma angrily, as he stepped in closer to Genma. "Weren't you listening when Ryouga told us what that monster said she was going to do to whoever she caught? There's no way in hell I'm going to hand Beneda over to someone as sick as that!"

A small flinch crossed Genma's face. "It's not that I don't feel sorry for the youma," he protested, holding up his hands. "It's just that we have to be practical. There are some things that you just can't fight against."

But even as he spoke, it was obvious to him that Ranma didn't understand... and that he wouldn't understand, no matter what Genma said. It wasn't something that could be taught with words. Not like it had been taught to him, all those years ago.

"Can't fight them?" asked the pigtailed fighter, his eyes blazing with determination. "Watch me. I'll find some way to kick their asses, no matter what they send after us! But we ain't giving them Beneda!"

The elder Saotome opened his mouth to reply... only to find that he could think of nothing to say. There was a tiny wrench in his heart as he looked at his son, standing there, radiating a defiance that had been all but crushed out of Genma's own soul.

No, he had never taught Ranma the most important lesson Happousai had taught him: that when you scoured away the philosophy from a man, and scoured away his fine-sounding morals, and scoured away his very pride itself... what lay under all of that was one simple question. Whether or not he would do what it took to survive.

And Saotome Genma had decided, sometime in those years of torture under their inescapable master... that he would.

He had never tried to bring Ranma to that place, not in all their training together. Instead he had filled the boy's head with platitudes about "the duties of a martial artist" that a small, flickering part of him still believed, but was too weak to act on himself.

And now, because of that, his son was most likely going to die.

"I..." Genma began, trying to find some way to make an angry Ranma see reason. But nothing was coming to him, and in the end, he fell back on a reflexively familiar tactic. Namely, putting the problem off. "Son, just... think it over, all right? We can talk more later, once you've had time to see this more clearly."

Ranma's only response was a snort that eloquently described what he thought the chances of that ever happening. With that, he turned back to the backpack he had been fishing through.

His father watched him for a few more moments. It wasn't that he didn't feel sorry for the youma, he repeated to himself. He would prefer that she get out of this alive. Just like he'd very much prefer that the Kuonji girl get out of this alive, and Tendo, and his daughters, and of course, Ranma.

But a man had to know his limits. There were some things you just couldn't fight against--some things that had to be fled, or hidden from, or appeased. He would have liked for as many people to survive as possible. But right now, the way things seemed to be going, it looked as though he might have trouble managing even himself.

He turned away, leaving Ranma to his unpacking. Which was, the older man reflected, the difference between them in a nutshell.

Genma's gear was still very much packed.



**********



Meanwhile, one floor below, the rest of the small defending force bustled around the large grill in the center of the room as Ukyo prepared dinner for them.

Beneda marveled as she watched the young human work. The chef was like a dynamo, keeping the nine meals cooking while at the same time keeping up a conversation with Akane and occasionally yelling over at Ryouga to "stop moving, jackass, you're injured!" whenever the lost boy tried to get out of his seat and do something. The order was usually accompanied by a threatening brandish of her giant spatula.

Off to the side, the youma could see Soun wailing incoherently over Kasumi, great rivers of tears streaming down his cheeks. Kasumi, for her part, was trying her best to reassure her father that she was all right, but the bandage tied around her forehead seemed to keep setting him off.

Beneda had, at first, been shocked to see that Kasumi had managed to survive the Darkmistress's attack... at least, until Ryouga had told them in more detail what their enemy's actual objective for the attack had been. The image of Kasumi in one of the Black Section's dreaded torture chambers appeared in Beneda's mind for a moment, and she shuddered at the thought.

In an effort to distract herself, she walked along the grill, passing by Mousse and Nabiki. The hidden weapons master was going on and on to the middle Tendo daughter about the undying love he had for her... although he seemed to be under the impression that he was talking to Shampoo. Nabiki, for her part, was mostly ignoring him, while the real Shampoo--just arrived from getting off work--was watching them both amusedly.

Beneda went by all three of them, not interrupting, and took a seat next to Ryouga. "Um, hello," she offered hesitantly. "How are you feeling?"

The lost boy gave her a tired, fanged smirk. "Don't worry," he said reassuringly. "It'll take more than a few magic blasts to put me down. I just... need to rest for a little while, and I'll be fine."

Beneda nodded, fidgeting slightly in her seat. Looking over to where Ukyo was cooking, she noticed that the chef was only preparing enough human food for the humans to eat--and she realized that Ranma or Ryouga must have told her what they themselves had guessed earlier about her eating habits. So that meant Ukyo, too, was now silently giving her space on her attempted deception.

A deception which she still hadn't had the courage to address openly with her protectors.

It's better this way, she thought, firmly. The less I explain, the less chance there is of making a mistake. I just need to keep it all up until the Senshi are dead. Then I can go back to the Dark Kingdom. Then things will go back to the way they used to be.

She focused on those thoughts as she looked around Ukyo's restaurant, trying not to think of why "things going back to the way they used to be" had somehow sent a tiny current of dismay seeping through her.



**********



Sitting atop a small hill, nestled amidst a grove of trees, the Hikawa Shrine was ordinarily a place of peace and tranquility. This was, however, a bit less so when the three girls who were the Sailor Senshi met there. And it was much less so when Tsukino Usagi, reluctantly drafted defender of love and justice, received news like she just had.

"What?" Ami's announcement had been enough to get the blonde-haired Senshi of the Moon to pull her head out of the manga she had "borrowed" from Rei. "You mean... that youma we fought is in Nerima now?"

"Yes, if this map is correct," answered Luna. The black moon cat was staring intently at the piece of paper. "Although I am worried about relying on this strange boy's information. It could still be a trap of some kind." She looked up at Ami and Rei, hoping that they could shed some more light onto the matter.

The two girls exchanged glances. "I didn't sense any dark energy from him," Rei offered first. "I don't think he was a youma--or even being controlled by one."

Ami nodded in agreement. "His behavior seemed very... unscripted. It would be difficult to fake something like that, I think. He was either an extremely skilled actor... or else who he said he was."

"Besides," continued Rei. "Don't we need to check it out one way or the other? And give that back!" She made a grab for Usagi's purloined manga... and Luna was slightly shocked when the raven-haired girl was able to snatch it away without any resistance.

That was probably because the thief in question was still staring wide-eyed at them. The black cat let out a long-suffering sigh, shaking her head for the hundredth time at the seemingly-impossible task she had been given of turning this girl into a warrior. "Usagi..." she said, exasperated. "You can't keep on letting your fear get the better of you all the time..."

Rei crossed her arms. "Yeah, and what's so scary about this, anyway?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "We've already beaten this monster before. She wasn't even that much of a challenge."

Usagi turned to look at the young shrine maiden. "But now she's in Nerima!" she protested frantically. "Don't you know what people say about that ward? There's always huge fights going on, and all kinds of magical curses, and monsters the size of buildings and underwear-stealing gnomes of pure evil and..."

"Usagi..." The blonde had finally paused to take a breath, allowing Ami to break in chidingly, her voice as close to reproachful as the blue-haired girl ever seemed to get. "Don't tell me you believe those kind of silly urban legends?"

"But they're true!" insisted Usagi. "Naru has a friend whose cousin knows a boy that goes to school there, so she's heard all about it!"

"Usagi, hundreds of people go to and from Nerima every day, and nothing like that happens to them," Ami patiently explained. "Rumors like these just... have a way of getting exaggerated. They start with some perfectly logical and rational event, like a gang fight, or a wild animal on the loose, or a normal underwear thief. But as people keep telling other people about them, the stories get... embellished, that's all."

The blonde Senshi still didn't look at all convinced by the explanation. However, she seemed to realize that there would be nothing more gained by arguing, and so elected to cross her arms in a slight sulk instead.

Sighing once more, Luna spoke up. "Rei is right. No matter what, this will need to be investigated. We can do it tomorrow, right after school. All of you should come up with an excuse for your parents. Even aside from the trip, we don't know how long this is going to take."

The three girls' heads nodded, their faces displaying emotions of passionate zeal, quiet determination, and miserable apprehension. But, one way or another, it was decided. The Senshi were going to Nerima.



**********



That night, the upper room of Ukyo's restaurant was packed to the brim with eight sleeping humans and one wide-awake youma.

Beneda lay on her side, eyes tracing the shadowed outlines of the other sleepers as her thoughts churned restlessly inside her head. She could hear the soft sounds of the humans' breathing, could even guess who was who in many cases, based on where the sounds seemed to be coming from. The only one absent was Ranma, and she knew where he was--out on the roof, taking his turn at the watch for any attacks that might come against them.

It felt... safe. Paradoxically, even though she was in more danger now than she had ever been before, she also felt a more profound, a more distinct feeling of protection than she had ever known in her previous, dog-eat-dog existence. Somehow, the humans' presences seemed to create a warm, reassuring cocoon around her--a comforting, reliable shield that she knew would defend her as she lay there in the dark, planning how she would betray them all.

The youma rolled over uncomfortably. She had already gone over dozens of hypothetical scenarios in her mind, envisioning dozens of ways that things could play out, and trying to figure out how she could twist them to accomplish her goal. It was a maddening exercise in guesswork and paranoia, trying to anticipate how--if ever!--the Senshi would make their appearance.

Eventually, her thoughts had begun to run themselves in circles. She kept going over the same situations again and again, with nothing new to show for it other than an increased sense of anxiety. And yet that anxiety kept her thinking about it desperate to come up with more ways that she could increase her chances.

And worst of all was that in the end, no outcome could put her at ease. Fear gnawed away at her each time she imagined a scenario in which she couldn't think of a way to sustain her deception, filling her mind with images of discovery and death. And yet... even in the cases where she could imagine pulling it off, where she could imagine tricking Ranma and Ryouga into defeating the girls who were, in truth, their allies in the fight for their species' survival...

She flinched, rolling over once more. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop her thoughts from envisioning when these humans surrounding her eventually realized what had actually happened. When they realized how she had deceived them. How she had used them.

It doesn't matter! she told herself angrily. I'm not really one of them, no matter what they think! Why should I care? But the protest sounded utterly hollow, even to herself.

Maybe... maybe I can keep them from finding out at all! Just slip away after it's done, so that they never even know! But that was even more absurd. And even if they somehow didn't put it together with her sudden flight, they would still be just as doomed when Queen Metallia finally awoke.

But... if they do end up defeating the Sailor Senshi... then couldn't that bring them into Jadeite's favor along with me? Beneda seized on the idea like a starving dog going after a bone. After all, humanity was doomed one way or another... so doing it this way was actually the one chance her protectors had to curry favor with the eventual victors!

Except that she knew full well, in her heart of hearts, that there was no way Ranma or Ryouga would ever actually go along with something like that.

The youma rolled over yet again. Well... that's not my fault! she thought agitatedly. If they're to stupid to see what has to be done, then... then it's not like there's anything I can do about it, is there?

Is there?

The darkened room gave her no answer.



**********



Deep within the recesses of the Devil's Keep, the Darkmistress lay on a bare, spartan bed in the middle of the fortress's medical ward. The bed was surrounded by about a dozen others, each one with an array of techno-magical devices beside it.

The leader of the Black Section stared up at the ceiling, as a small, rat-like youma nervously treated her damaged wrist. The medic kept running a hand-held Regenerator back and forth across the wound, and with each repetition, the Darkmistress felt another strand of her patience slowly fray.

Her soul burned with the desire--with the need--to get back to the human world and avenge herself on the scum that had dared shame her so. She kept replaying the battle over and over again in her mind, the memories eating away at her. Never before had she faced a humiliation of this magnitude... and every second that it went unanswered became harder to endure.

But she needed to heal first--thus the galling delay. The corpse-like youma snarled, baring her pointed, filthy teeth as she fought to rein in her murderous impulses for just a little while longer.

Suddenly she heard the sound of running footsteps, which distracted her momentarily from her thoughts of bloody retribution. A moment later, an Inquisitor raced around the corner into the room and immediately prostrated herself. "Mistress!" she said urgently. "We have an intruder! The detection wards indicate that someone has just teleported directly into the fortress itself... and we believe the endpoint was in your chambers!"

That news caused the Darkmistress to sit bolt upright, jerking her arm away from the medic. Her mind began working furiously... and it did not take long for her to realize what was happening. There were only five beings in all the Dark Kingdom who would dare violate her sanctum so casually. And she could guess which one of them had business with her.

"Leave me! Now!" she growled. "And order the patrols not to engage the intruder directly. He'll find his way here soon enough."

The Inquisitor wasted no time in complying, as did the medic youma. The Darkmistress, for her part, rolled off the bed and onto her feet. She would need to show as little weakness as possible in the coming confrontation.

For a while, there was silence. Then she heard footsteps approaching once more--but this time they were confident, unhurried. The Darkmistress braced herself. And then around the corner strode the grey-uniformed figure of General Jadeite.

The blond man's gaze swept across the room, his lip curling slightly as his eyes settled on her. For a few moments, the two of them stood locked in a staring contest, before the Darkmistress at last lowered her head. "General," she said through gritted teeth. "To what do I owe this honor?"

A humorless smile flickered across Jadeite's features. "I want to hear your progress in dealing with the rogue youma, of course," he told her. "I heard that you yourself had gone through the Juuban portal to attend to the matter personally... but strangely enough, I heard no reports of a glorious victory afterward. So I am curious as to just what happened."

At that, the Darkmistress's head snapped back up. "This is a Black Section hunt, sir!" she spat. "The method and timeframe in which I carry it out is at my discretion!"

"Perhaps..." was Jadeite's reply. "Then again, if these foes prove to be beyond your capabilities, you may find that it soon ceases to be a Black Section affair."

The youma clenched her fists in outrage. "No! These enemies are mine! You have no authority to interfere in this, Jadeite! In cases of treason I answer directly to Queen Beryl herself--not to you Army clods!"

Jadeite's cold blue eyes flashed, and in a corner of her mind that was not consumed by fury, the Darkmistress knew that she was treading on very dangerous ground. But the General kept talking, evidently choosing to ignore the insult. "Your jurisdiction, at best, only extends as far as the traitor herself," he said. "External threats, however, are the Army's responsibility."

"Threats? You mean the humans protecting her?" shot back the Darkmistress. "They are nothing but trash! Their luck allowed them to escape me once, but I will hunt them down wherever they hide!"

"Then I suggest you make good on those words, and quickly," said Jadeite. "I have allowed you to handle this matter precisely because I believed the external aspect of the threat was not worth my time. But if this pattern of failure on your part continues... I may be forced to reconsider." And with that, he turned to leave.

"Failure?" the Darkmistress choked out. Pure, molten fury surged through her. "You forget to whom you speak, Jadeite!" she shouted at his back. "Even for a Dark General, you forget to whom you speak!"

Jadeite didn't even dignify the protest with a response--merely kept walking away.

A haze of red clouded the Darkmistress's vision, and with an act of her will, she flared her diseased aura, projecting it at Jadeite. It choked the air with a feeling of spiritual decay, so profound and pestilence-ridden that it would have caused many youma to collapse on the spot.

The Dark General paused in mid-step. Slowly, he looked over his shoulder, fixing the youma with a cold glare. Then, extending his hand palm-up, he casually lifted two fingers.

Suddenly, an invisible force grabbed hold of the Darkmistress, wrenching her violently into midair. Then, before she could even react, Jadeite turned his hand to thrust his palm at her.

The youma was flung the entire length of the medical area, hurtling backward in a blur of motion. Her body crashed through several beds and medical devices, stopping only when she was slammed into the solid rock wall with enough force to send huge cracks spiderwebbing out from the point of impact. Her vision exploded into white for a few seconds, and a cry of pain tore itself from her throat.

Nor did Jadeite relent. He held her there, his power crushing her against the wall until it felt as though every bone in her body would snap. "I will give you one piece of advice, youma," he said, his voice openly contemptuous. "If you truly seek to challenge a Dark General... then you had best do it with more than parlor tricks!"

Desperately, the Darkmistress tried to come up with some way to fight back, but there was nothing she could do. She could not move. She could barely think. And she knew that she had only one chance to get out of this alive.

"I..." The words were almost impossible to force out. "I... apologize... sir. I... forgot my place. Please... forgive me." Each and every syllable tasted like the foulest bile on her tongue, but she spoke them nonetheless.

Jadeite let out a small snort. He kept up the pressure for another few seconds... then made a small flicking gesture with his fingers. The Darkmistress was flung off to the side, tumbling end over end until she hit another wall.

"Do not forget," he said, as she scrambled back to her feet. "Your involvement in this matter is only at my sufferance. And my patience is not unlimited. I will be watching you..." With that, his body dissolved into purplish light, as he teleported away.

And the Darkmistress was left alone. Alone, in the ruins of her medical area. Alone, with the inescapable memory of this latest humiliation playing over and over and over again through her mind.

A feral scream erupted from deep within her, a crazed howl of insane rage. She ran full-speed out of the medical area, looking wildly back and forth. Soon she came upon the medic youma--waiting nearby in the event that her Mistress needed more of her services.

Immediately, the Darkmistress unleashed her crimson lightning, engulfing the medic youma in a torrent of destructive energy. The youma screamed and screamed and screamed--until finally, with one last surge of power, her body exploded into a spray of youma dust.

Breathing heavily, but now slightly placated, the Darkmistress's thoughts turned toward the true objects of her wrath. She began to stalk through the hallways of her fortress, until she found an Inquisitor. "Mistress!" the masked youma said, prostrating herself.

The Darkmistress managed to suppress the urge to kill this one as well. Instead, she rasped out her orders. "Assemble a fire team--no, three fire teams--of Inquisitors. I want them ready to depart for the human world the moment I am fully healed."

Then the corpse-like youma paused, considering for a moment, before continuing. "And begin recalling my Demons from their current assignments. I may have need of them before this is over."

[PCHeintz72]

Reading it now. Sniggers, funniest line so far

"Usagi..." The blonde had finally paused to take a breath, allowing Ami to break in chidingly, her voice as close to reproachful as the blue-haired girl ever seemed to get. "Don't tell me you believe those kind of silly urban legends?"

"But they're true!" insisted Usagi. "Naru has a friend whose cousin knows a boy that goes to school there, so she's heard all about it!"

"Usagi, hundreds of people go to and from Nerima every day, and nothing like that happens to them," Ami patiently explained. "Rumors like these just... have a way of getting exaggerated. They start with some perfectly logical and rational event, like a gang fight, or a wild animal on the loose, or a normal underwear thief. But as people keep telling other people about them, the stories get... embellished, that's all."

Heh... urban legends not believing in urban legends.

[claymade]

Heh... urban legends not believing in urban legends.

Glad you liked it. I figured Ami would be particularly susceptible, since she's at this point only had weeks worth of divergence from her previous scientific outlook on life to this new magical one...

[juandelacruz]

"How did you managed to get away form someone so powerful?"

Aside from that, another great chapter; nice buildup for the next chapter. Now if I can only find a way to make you update this story faster. The waiting is killing me.

[claymade]

"How did you managed to get away form someone so powerful?"

Good catch! Ah, the things spell-check won't tell you...

Aside from that, another great chapter; nice buildup for the next chapter.

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it!

Now if I can only find a way to make you update this story faster. The waiting is killing me.

Heh heh. Well, actually, the next chapter should be out much faster than this one was. Part of the reason that this one took so long was that I was having trouble deciding where to put the chapter break. I ended up writing way into what became chapter ten before I had enough context to finally settle on where the end of chapter nine needed to be.

So the upshot is, not only is this chapter done, but well over half of the next one is as well. So, there should be nothing like this two-month wait business for that one.

[juandelacruz]

Heh heh. Well, actually, the next chapter should be out much faster than this one was. Part of the reason that this one took so long was that I was having trouble deciding where to put the chapter break. I ended up writing way into what became chapter ten before I had enough context to finally settle on where the end of chapter nine needed to be.

So the upshot is, not only is this chapter done, but well over half of the next one is as well. So, there should be nothing like this two-month wait business for that one.

That's good to know. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed to make sure.

[Sky]

Usagi turned to look at the young shrine maiden. "But now she's in Nerima!" she protested frantically. "Don't you know what people say about that ward? There's always huge fights going on, and all kinds of magical curses, and monsters the size of buildings and underwear-stealing gnomes of pure evil and..."

"Usagi..." The blonde had finally paused to take a breath, allowing Ami to break in chidingly, her voice as close to reproachful as the blue-haired girl ever seemed to get. "Don't tell me you believe those kind of silly urban legends?"

"But they're true!" insisted Usagi. "Naru has a friend whose cousin knows a boy that goes to school there, so she's heard all about it!"

But a friend of a friend of a friend of mine...

Underwear-stealing gnomes of pure evil...

That's a great exchange. I got a great laugh out of this.[/quote]

[claymade]

That's a great exchange. I got a great laugh out of this.

Thanks, glad you liked it!