Sanjouin Masato; also known as Nephrite, stood outside the school entrance, wondering where he might find the girl his Dark Lord had sent him to study.
Make no mistake, he was no fool. In truth, he doubted that if his divinations by the stars proclaimed he could win, he still would not challenge his new lord. Someone capable of dealing with both Queen Beryl and Metallia was not someone you wanted to challenge.
After all, he had caught a few glimpses of what Lord Ranma had done to Kunzite during that battle. And if those three fell, what were his chances?
Besides, so far, Lord Ranma had yet to prove himself a failure as a leader, and that would be needed to galvanize any support to depose him. Sure, he was a little harsh, but he also didn’t set outlandish goals in energy collection, and then punish those who failed to meet them. He targeted places where large gatherings of humans formed; mostly sports stadiums, which provided a large amount of energy while not attracting attention. Then there were the locales where one would expect to be drained by circumstances or activity, and thus would not give suspicion that the Senshi would follow up on.
Though he himself did wonder what speech Sailor Moon would give when busting an operation at a prostitution house.
And it did make plenty of sense to placate the Senshi and local devil hunters for now, sending them after other threats that may one day try and intrude on their territory; also a maneuver that Beryl would not have considered. Oh, there was definitely a difference between a powerful ruler and a smart ruler.
But now, he needed to find this Hinako Ninomiya that he was supposed to study. After all, he didn’t want to fail what was supposed to be both a simple mission and something that would use his great talents.
“Hmm,” he said, spotting a small girl who was stalking over to a group of boys who appeared to be ready to fall into a brawl, “isn’t she a bit young to be going here?” Was it a trap? Was he in the wrong place?
“Only delinquents fight during school time! Happo Five-Yen Satsu!”
He could only stare as the girl seemed to absorb the life energy of the students in question, causing her to surprisingly grow into a well formed woman, as the group collapsed to the ground, looking like husks of their former selves ... but alive. “Very interesting, I can see now why he felt this would be worth studying.” After all, with such an attack, you could drain multiple targets with one move, instead of the slow standard attack that most youma had, and even those required physical contact or a conduit of sorts.
Nodding his head, he went to introduce himself to the now adult teacher as her new pupil, a young man learning her ways of dealing with ... rowdy students. It wasn’t the best cover, but for some odd reason, the local school systems never did a good background check.
Whatever worked...
Ranma sat on the roof of a building near the school that two of the three Senshi attended. Hmm, I wonder how long before Mako-chan ... I mean Makoto arrives?
He silently cursed himself for calling her that. Those were emotions and memories connected to a life he didn’t have anymore thanks to the meddling of Pluto. The supposed Guardian of Time had done several serious numbers on him in attempts to remove him from the time stream, of which he was working on paying her back. Sure, he was a lot better off now than before in any of those three former histories, but it wasn’t good business to leave such assaults unanswered.
Smirking, he wondered if he should introduce the Senshi to Hotaru soon, before Pluto managed to find a way around that little spell he left behind for her. It was designed to keep her at the former location of the Gates for a few days, ten at the most, assuming she used her intellect or give into her rage at what he had pulled off. After all, he doubted she would be too happy when she returned to try and rally the Senshi against him, only to find the Keeper of the Silence now working with them.
It was a dangerous move to be sure, but it would also add to his credibility. After all, why would he just hand them someone as powerful as Saturn if he was a threat?
Then he had the Rainbow Crystals to find. After all, he needed the ginzuishou dealt with as well. From what he could gather from his memories, it was a Class-1 artifact, which put it up there with tools usually left behind or used by deities. “Would explain why it killed the user sometimes,” he muttered. From what he remembered of a certain Phoenix, death was not a weakness deities had ... well, Metallia had it, but she was far from full power when he slew her.
Plus, from what he had uncovered, each Crystal was supposed to have a powerful youma in it, and he either needed them under his control or ... dealt with. After all, he did need to consolidate his forces before the next enemy showed up, wanting his Kingdom.
“Now what do we have here?” he wondered, as he observed the two Senshi who attended the school slowly coming to the entrance, their eyes showing signs of lack of sleep.
He found himself chuckling a bit at that. “Well, I guess someone needs more proof I’m not the enemy ... for the moment.”
Smirking, he decided to...
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(Posted Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:46)
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