"Who are you?" asked Sailor Saturn in reply. "Are you... Ranma?"
Ranma had trouble putting everything together. It felt as if he were circling some massive drain. He knew he had to prove who he was to Hotaru though. He put everything he had into re-establishing a contact and forcing his Gate open. Maybe he could heal himself if...
For a moment or so the Gate blazed forth and everyone present could see that this WAS a mortally wounded Ranma Saotome. A brief glittering image of a key-shaped staff, a shadowy image of someone with long hair in a seifuku, and then they could all see the life and light fading away.
Hotaru screamed something inarticulate and threw everything SHE had into trying to heal the broken body before her. Again and again she tried, not aware of her largely incoherent pleas for him to come back.
Finally some of the AEGIS personnel pulled the despondent and exhausted girl off the corpse.
It was obvious to those who knew her and of Ranma, as well as to those present that whatever those other seifuku-clad villains had done Hotaru was not a part of it.
As it was, they had a few clues and parts of the puzzle, and it was up to them to fill the gaps in.
"What the HELL was that?" asked Pluto.
"My plans working to perfection," said an amused voice.
Sailor Pluto whipped around, her staff coming out to channel a Dead Scream.
Count Devil stood behind Ranko Tenjin, a smile on his face as he ran a hand over the prone body. Which faded away as she watched?! "HOW?"
"Please," said Count Devil. "Who do you think arranged so much? Did you honestly think that you could maintain two discrete quantum versions of the same individual in the same timeline? You know better than that. I have to admit that I never thought things would work out so well."
"What are you talking about?" asked Pluto. She couldn't have been manipulated herself, could she?
"This was all televised," said Count Devil. "They'll ask those whose abilities include information gathering and they'll learn the vision was correct - that a Sailor Senshi WAS responsible for the death of their beloved Lightwings. I've manipulated both sides here. Your arrogance has made it easy. Senshi are just as corruptible as a Gatekeeper, both can be turned to darkness after all. It just requires a little push here and there. Since the lifeforce was split, the Gate weakened to near-nothing, only one of the two survived - and that one was severely weakened and made more pliable to my own powers."
Sailor Pluto sent her Dead Scream at Count Devil who merely faded away like mist around it.
"When next we meet she will be a Dark Senshi," said Count Devil's voice. "Plus she'll have the Minus Gate version of the Gate Of Light. It should be quite interesting, don't you think? A glorious darkness indeed."
Sailor Pluto considered that, glancing back at the scene at Jusenkyo and noting the various scanning equipment and recording devices that AEGIS had in place.
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(Posted Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:22)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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