[Episode 152495] [Episode 152495]It was an uneasy silence that greeted the night at the Hikawa Shrine.
For the past several hours, Chibi-Usa had related all she knew of the terrible Dragon to Usagi and the Inner Senshi. How he let various villages starve to death, when he could have easily gave them food. He abandoned various villages to bandits, grifters, and vagabonds to roam the country-side. Worse, he encouraged and sponsored various martial arts tournaments and street fights, which gave rise to various evil warlords and bullies. Thus, those outside of Crystal Tokyo had life spans measured in decades, if that. Death, suffering, and pain were the norms where ever the Dragon went.
It was beyond their comprehension.
To their minds, it seemed that the title of Chaos-bringer seemed to fit him.
For everywhere in the world he went, pain, suffering, heart-break, and evil followed.
All because of this Dragon.
Everywhere but Crystal Tokyo, the City of Light and Love.
Usagi, seeing how tired Chibi-Usa was, helped put her bed. It was too late to go back to the Tsukino Home. As each of the Inner Senshi and Usagi had spent so much time at the Shrine, that they got their own spot in one of the spare rooms to rest in. So Usagi helped Chibi-Usa to her spot on the bed, and then headed back to the others.
Ami was hugging herself. She noted several inconsistencies in Chibi-Usa's stories, which seemingly proved to her that this Ranma character was illogical and untrustworthy as Chibi-Usa made him out to be.
Makoto and Minako were hugging each other, seeking comfort and warmth from the other. Makoto, at first, thought it might be cool to have a full city of Martial Artists. Until she thought about it, and Chibi-Usa's stories pointed out the problem with such a lifestyle. All too often, those guys strong in the Art would turn into bullies and evil warlords. It was one thing to use the Art to keep in shape and handle minor troubles, but to live under the threat of martial challenges and death-threats, that was a bit much.
Minako feared for her friend Usagi. She and the others knew that Usagi was not strong enough to face such an evil head-on. All they could do would be to hold Crystal Tokyo against such an assault, and just wait such destructive forces out. Regardless of the type of storm, they all ran out of beans eventually.
Rei looked to where Usagi carried Chibi-Usa out, and off into space. In her training as a Miko, she had heard of demons that could feed off human misery and pain, but had just dismissed such as folklore. But now... Now, she wondered. He had to be a demon, she felt. No sane person would oppose Paradise on Earth that Crystal Tokyo was going to be.
Rei was the one that noticed Usagi's return. She could not help noting how pale Usagi was, and the unshed tears just waiting for a quiet time to fall. Rei's heart went out to her Princess. Trying to do so much, by herself...
The Inner Senshi had never told anyone, but there was a telepathic bond between themselves and Usagi. Usagi did not seem to be aware of this bond, or at least, had never truly used it in any but unconscious manner. Through this bond, each of the Senshi knew where Usagi was, and what state she was in. When Usagi was happy, they were happy. When she was sad, they were sad. This bond also allowed the cordination that existed between the Inners as well. Ami had wondered if the Outers had their own bond with Usagi, but Minako had dismissed the idea.
Thus all four Inners, lost in thought and nightmares, knew when Usagi returned to the room, and how she was on the verge of crying. Only they could see the hidden, unshed tears within her eyes for those the Chaosbringer would inflict with heart-break, pain and suffering, which she wished to shield everyone from.
Rei's heart went out to her Princess, and jumped up to give her a hug.
Once holding Usagi close, Rei began to whisper words of encouragement into Usagi's ear, and caress Usagi's lower back.
Seeing what Rei was doing, Minako whispered to the others, "Group hug!" Ami and Makoto nodded, and all four Inners where hugging Usagi.
Each of the Senshi whispered into Usagi's ears phrases such as: "You're not alone," "We're here for you," and "We love you, Usagi-sama."
The five young women cried together, seeking support and comfort from each other.
It was an easy silence that greeted the night within the Outer Senshi's apartment complex.
Each of the Outers had come from rich families, and where the only children of their respective parents. So when they got their apartment, they easily chipped in to purchase the entire building. Therefore, they did not have to deal with a landlord, nor have to worry about other tenants.
In fact, they had the first floor converted into a dance studio. The second floor, they converted into a music studio, an art room, and a recreational room. They left the third floor as it was, to be their bedrooms, kitchen, and living room.
They had gotten up that morning and headed down to the first floor. Within the dance studio, it was a sight many would pay heavily to see.
For Ranma Saotome, Setsuna Mei'oh, Haruka Ten'ou, Michiru Kaiou, and Hotaru Tomoe were all completely naked and going through several katas. Ranma was poetry in motion; Setsuna copied his movements almost prefectly, but it showned that she had not been practicing as long as Ranma had. Haruka was copying both Ranma and Setsuna, and following the kata that Ranma had made very well. Michiru had a full-body blush going, and was more interested in Ranma's anatomy then the kata. Hotaru was trying to please Ranma so much that she was not fully concentrating on the kata, and it showed.
Although, they were naked out of laziness and intimacy, Ranma could not help but recall that in many of the time loops Nabiki had come up with a gimmick to get students to come back to the Tendo Dojo.
The gimmick? Having "a la natural" martial arts classes.
The best compromise Ramna ever could get was that the students would be "la natural" as well. And that he would have final say in who could be in the class, and who could stay.
Technically, he was supposed to teach the male class, and Akane was to teach the female class.
Somehow, it never worked out that way.
In each and every time loop, Akane always found a way out to it, and stuck onna-Ranma with her class.
As could be expected, over half the class was male since Nabiki allowed other's yen to decide which class they would attend. Surprisingly, the girls in signed up for that class were worse. Those girl fell into two categories: perverted lesbians or smart girls. Fortunately, for onna-Ranma's sanity, the smart girls out numbered the lesbians. The smart girls where to check out the guys, who were busy checking out Ranko. After class, the smart girls would select a guy they liked and gave him sympathetic helping-hand to deal with a major cases of blue-balls they would develop during class.
And for icing on the cake, Ranma's class was all-female. There, either to check him out, or to learn from the infamous Ranma Saotome, Master of the Saotome Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu.
After the "la natural classes got under way, Akane would have a nervous breakdown: both about the classes themselves and when she realized that girls were bigger perverts then boys were. The aftermath of Akane's breakdown varied from time loop to time loop. She could become a female Happosai, a vamp, a hermit, a ninja, or something completely different. Either way, the resulting Akane was free of Serenity's curses.
Those that were there to learn from the great Ranma Saotome started off as the bane of his existance, and yet, soon thereafter proved to be his salvation.
These young ladies wished to learn the Higher Arts from him. But he was hesitant to teach ki/chi and other secret techniques to anyone.
To get out of it, he tried to scare them off with tales of how classic female ninjas were trained through brutal methods of rape, torture and conditioning, but that just made them more determined to learn.
Thus gave birth to what would be come known as Japanese Valkyries, just as the original where dedicated to Odin, so these Japanese Valkyries where dedicated to him. Ranma's Valkyries were as deadly as they were beautiful. They were Mistresses of the Battlefields, as well as mighty chi-sorceresses. His Valkyries were on par with the Sailor Senshi in terms of raw power and surpassed them in skill. Which was a good thing given that Crystal Tokyo was a city of Magic-Girls and their Chinese Amazon bodyguards.
In all the time loops, Ranma could always depend on his Valkyries. They, and they alone, never betrayed him, were always there for him, and willing to follow him where ever he needed them to go without question.
Ranma realized since he was thinking of his Valkyries, he had slipped into one of the katas he had created for them. He noted that Setsuna seemed to recall the kata perfectly, while Haruka was going through it as if she was rusty. Michiru and Hotaru did not seem to have any foreknowledge of the kata, but then, neither of those two had ever survived the Valkyrie's brutal regime.
Haruka had been a powerful Valkyrie. She had even got some of the other Valkyries together and in a single night, slayed everyone in Crystal Tokyo as they slept, after Neo-Queen Serenity had done something extremely humilating and near-fatal to him, that he did not recall.
It was from there that Ranma learned of the final failsafe that the House Serenity had. With Neo-Queen Serenity and Heir's death, the Ginzuishou went critical, taking a good portion of the Earth with it.
Definitely something to avoid.
Setsuna, and a few others, had gone beyond the Valkyrie training to become a class unto themselves, called Angels of Death. These Angels pushed themselves to level beyond even Ranma's in some areas. They also took it upon themselves to police their fellow Valkyries, checking for possible traitors or simple troublemakers. Some of these Angels were magic-girls or Senshi rescued from Crystal Tokyo, while others had no magic to them.
Yet every Angel had one thing in common, besides their gender, to a woman, they all had dedicated themselves so completely to him, personaly, that it scared the hell out of him.
He also realized that Setsuna's Valkyrie conditioning and training had stayed with her through the various time loops, slowly undoing all the gaeas that the House of Serenity had placed on her. With each loop, Setsuna would subconsciously help him, until she was completely free of all the gaeas.
After several hours of performing katas, Ranma had the Outers meditate and try to find their centers. Having never been a magic-girl, he was not sure if magic and chi-sorcery were the same, but its all he knew. Several of his Valkyries and Angels had tried to explain it to him, but what little he had gotten out of it, did give some support to chi-sorcery and magic being similar.
He did note that, at least, Senshi magic seemed to be limited, in that, a magic-girl could only use magic within a specific element. Sure, a magic-girl of the element of Fire was powerful, initially, but by no means unduplicatable with chi-sorcery, which did not have such limiting factor.
He had each of his Senshi sit at a cardinal point, with himself at the center. Setsuna knelt, in the position of a Valkyrie, in front of him, to the South. Haruka, also in a Valkyrie's kneeling position, was to to his right, or West. Michiru sat in a seiza-style behind him, to the North. While, Hotaru knelt, trying to copy the other three Outers as best she could, to his left, to the East.
All five meditated in silence, only a measured breath from each could be heard. After a timeless moment, a soft glow surrounded Ranma, ehich seemed to reach out from him and envelop the four young women. If an observer was to look upon the Outers, one would have to note how Setsuna's features to temporarily blur or seemingly become still, while Haruka's features had a wind-blown look to them. In Michiru's corner, there seemed to be the scent of the ocean and mist around her. There was a scent of fields of wheat and a feeling of goodness around Hotaru.
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(Posted Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:02)
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