Staring in disgust at the pile of happy kids, Genma resolved himself to fixing this problem immediately. Not only were the accursed girls cuddling his son, but worse, they had taken over his own bedroll as well.
Pondering the possibilities of grabbing Ranma and making a run for it, the bald man toyed with one of the red and white spheres that had contained the girls. Feeling a button click he was gratified to see a strange red beam lance out and hit the strange mechanical girl, making her disappear.
Holding the now fuller feeling ball up, he idly considered selling it. Unfortunately such a thing would be hard to fence, likely not worth much, and might take too long. Coming up with a second plan, Genma hauled back as far as possible and threw the ball off into the darkened forest with all his might.
One girl down, he rapidly repeated the process five more times, unfortunately missing the one that sprouted bat-wings in mid flight
Problem solved, Genma set about reclaiming his bedroll.
Mallet jauntily perched on one shoulder, Skuld looked down at the smashed remnants of the Class G5 containment device. Whatever it was had been suppressing her memories, allowing her to focus solely on her relationship with Ranma to the exclusion of remembering her duties.
Finally finding a puddle, the young goddess paused for a moment, summoning her angel forth. With a gesture, the childish angel streaked off to find Ranma and watch over him, allowing Skuld to return to Yggdrassil with a clear conscience.
The red and white ball shaking furiously on the ground suddenly tore apart, a short haired cyborg with an enraged almost animalistic expression on her face crouching over the remains. Looking around and finding herself in a peaceful forest, Alita casually extinguished her plasma claws and relaxed into a somewhat neutral stance. That device had reminded her far too much of Desty Nova's damned Ouroboros Program and Karma Theory.
As far as she could tell she was still in the Imaginos body, despite it being in the form of a young girl. She couldn't recall what had happened after going up the Ladder, but this stunk of a Desty Nova double-cross experiment. Unfortunately all she knew of in this world was Ranma, which left her little choice about what to do.
Sasami curiously looked down at the device that had contained her, surmising it had only been meant to contain her once and being used again had stressed it too much. Connecting momentarily with Tsunami, she learned what she needed to know about where Ranma and the other girls were.
Course set, the young girl stepped into a nearby tree.
Hitting a rock and gaining a fatalistic crack, the fourth pokeball broke apart soon after landing. In it's place was a young Usagi Tsukino, looking around wildly with both short ponytails whipping about. All too soon she realized she was all alone in a dark scary forest without Ranma or the other girls she'd gotten to know. Then remembering her family and missing them too, the young girl started bawling.
Hearing someone step up to her, the blond looked up to spot the cyan-haired girl with a similar hairstyle, holding her plushy out while speaking with a cheerful face. "It's okay Usagi-chan. Here, you wanna hold Ryo-ohki?"
Hesitantly accepting the stuffed rabbit-like creature, Usagi hugged it gratefully to her chest, bringing her tears to a sniffling stop. Then accepting Sasami's help to stand up, she allowed the other girl to lead her through the dark forest. "Don't worry, we're not far. We'll find Ranma and the others soon."
Activating her Fly card, Sakura took off for Tokyo.
Turning back from setting up his bed, Genma was dumbfounded to find Ranma gone. Even the boy's bedroll and small pack was gone, which should have made it impossible for Ranma to wake up and sneak away in so little time.
Grinning to herself, Lillith watched Ranma sleep under the random tree she'd chosen. Long used to being summoned for fights and demonic tournaments, Lillith wasn't the least bit concerned about being pulled away from the Makai realm. She was a little disappointed that her Master was so young, but he and the other girls promised to be a lot of fun.
Unfortunately she'd have to go settle things in the Makai and maybe get big sister to make Genma's life extra miserable before she could settle down to having fun. She didn't have to leave immediately though, so she could at least wait until dawn.
Hearing a sound approaching, she looked up to spy two of the girl's approaching, the pair with the twin ponytail hairstyles. With a little small talk they got the emotional blond tucked in beside Ranma, giving her something more comforting to squeeze to death.
Satisfied that everything was okay for the moment, Sasami reclaimed Ryo-ohki, then turned cheerfully to her left. "It's okay Alita, come on out. Skuld and Sakura already left, so it's just us."
Hopping down from a distant tree, the combat cyborg approached with an air of distrust. "And how do you know that?"
Seeing that Sasami wasn't supplying an answer, Lillith spoke up. "As far as I can tell, she's some type of nature spirit, so she can probably sense everything in this forest."
Pouncing on someone finally having some answers, Alita failed to keep her voice down, waking Ranma and scaring Usagi. "So, do you know what the hell is going on here?"
Looking around idly, the lolita succubus was unconcerned with the impending threat of violence. "Well, I'm a succubus from the Makai demon realm, you're some sort of machine, she's a nature spirit, the other is like a Gate of Light, the other was a Goddess and the last one was some kind of tarot card witch. Going by the fact we were in binding artifacts and don't have anything in common, we were likely taken from various worlds for some reason."
Seeing that she had their full attention including Ranma's, the petite succubus continued. "See, this happens to me all the time, being summoned for demon fighting tournaments or being summoned as a demon. My guess is some pervert wanted a group of magical lolita sex-slaves and Ranma ended up freeing us. I'd say he just wished for some friends or something, but the binding artifacts don't fit with that."
Gritting her teeth, Alita was really wishing Nova was around so she could kill him, again, for about the sixth time. It would be just like him to turn perverted and try and break her mind after his failed dream in the Ouroboros. "I'm no one's slave!"
Rolling her eyes, Lillith surmised they had a serious hot-head in their group. "Since you're obviously your old self, you probably broke your containment sphere, so there's nothing controlling you. If you want to leave you can. Personally I think Ranma is going to be fun, so I'm going to keep him as my Master."
Considering what she was talking about brought up a new issue for the succubus. "Speaking of which, who's staying? I need to return to the Makai soon and settle things there or Ranma might end up hurt by a demon coming after me."
Nodding her head, Sasami kept up her cheer. "That's okay, I'll make sure Ranma is okay."
Looking at the other two, Usagi shied away, but the black-haired cyborg spoke up reluctantly. "I'll stay with him for now, I don't really know where I am, so I have no where else to go."
Satisfied for the moment, the succubus turned a wide grin to the young wide-eyed boy still in Usagi's deathgrip. "Now then young Master, I'll be going for a while, but as soon as I confirm our contract I'll be back. Promise."
Seeing the oddly dressed pink-haired girl dissolve into a riot of darkness shaped like a swarm of bats caused Usagi to tighten her grip up to the point where Ranma was seriously trying to pry her off so he could breath.
Alita in turn merely raised an eyebrow, wondering what kind of strange world she was in now.
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(Posted Thu, 06 Jul 2006 02:11)
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