[Episode 146475] [Episode 146475]Ami winced. "Bad. The Aztecs were originally a nomadic group of barbarians that settled into the Toltec areas, subverting and then slaughtering the more peaceful civilization. They also assimilated and shifted their religious figures. Tezcatlipoca, aka Burning Water, aka Smoking Mirror, was the jaguar-god and he demanded some fairly nasty forms of sacrifice to his name."
"How nasty?" asked Usagi innocently, thinking about not giving Christmas presents to little kids or something.
"Well, maybe it's not that bad," suggested Ami.
"Check newspaper archives," said Setsuna abruptly. "Look for..."
Setsuna began naming off times and methods of death. Ami began finding things.
People whose hearts were cut out while they were still alive. People whose skins were flayed off their bodies and apparently worn as a cloak for three days before it was found. Children whose bodies were bound and then drowned in cisterns. People who had been burned half to death in one area, then ritually killed by cardioectomy and then set afire somewhere else. A trail that went
"So he's been active for four years," said Setsuna. "Gathering power and protected by the timestorm. Anything about a woman who weaves white clothing?"
"The 'Corn Woman'?" asked Ami, going through records. "Nothing yet."
"So he hasn't gone through the full cycle yet," mused Setsuna. "It may be possible to attack from ambush and destroy him by surprise."
"So a woman has to weave clothes of white herself, then the priest..." Rei read over Ami's shoulder. "What?! Then he... while she's still alive?!"
"They were big on pain making them stronger. Other people's pain. Symbolism," said Ami, her blue hair made starker by her own paling coloration.
"Why?" asked Usagi. How bad could it be?
Ami began telling them with Setsuna adding details as she went.
Usagi went to the bathroom and began throwing up about the time the Feast Of Tlaloc's sacrifice was described.
Rei had to settle for outside the shrine doors when her own stomach went into revolt when the Festival Of Xipe-Totec was about halfway through the description.
"So what do... Luna?! Artemis?!" Minako rushed outside herself.
"Yes, that's probably why they've been missing the past year," realized Ami. "They would be considered prime sacrifice material."
"So we don't have to go after him, he's going to come after us," said Haruka. Any moral ambiguity of going to kill someone who'd started out an innocent was put aside. All that was apparently left was a monster.
Setsuna nodded. "If there is anything remaining of Ranma Saotome, it has been locked away in a cold dark place. When he's gathered sufficient power he will eventually sacrifice himself and the entity will pass to another host - he's going to look for the most powerful individual he can and use the accumulated power to take over the one he's chosen."
"Usagi," said Ami as things clicked together. "He's going to go after Usagi once he feels he can attack."
"He'll try to subdue her or he'll try to find a crack in her psychic defenses to exploit," pointed out Setsuna. "Now you see why it's as bad as it is."
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(Posted Sun, 07 Aug 2005 01:06)
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