[Episode 180653] [Episode 180653]Kasumi smiled as she saw the party returning from the trip up the mountains. It had been four days since they started the trip up into the lower flanks of the mountain, much less time than Megumi had been suggesting would be needed. Perhaps they'd already found something worth reporting.
Everything had been going so well, that Kasumi could almost forget the sequence of events that had led them to this point. Transformed into strange forms, rounded up like lepers and sanctioned for execution before awaking on some alien landscape filled with monsters.
Then she saw that the front of the party was carrying something between them.
A humanoid something.
Somebody'd been hurt. Kasumi stood up from where she was working and ran forward to see if there was anything she could do to help. The downcast faces and weary motion she saw in their expressions slowed her down and then brought her to a stop long before she was close enough to ascertain what she knew.
The unmoving form between the silent party was not merely injured, she was dead and hideously deformed from the last time she had seen the woman. It looked like a swarm of radioactive bees had attacked her.
"Oh my," Kasumi said quietly as a small crowd developed around her.
Others in the party looked to have been attacked by the same swarm, though not so severely it seemed.
"What happened?" somebody asked in a subdued whisper.
The exploration party looked up toward the mountains grimmly before answering.
"More dead spiders," Ranma said.
****
The funeral was the first since the kumojin had come to this world. It was somber and silent, with the whole new colony standing about the pyre upon which lay the silk-wrapped body of Officer Sei Ishida.
Ranma had made certain to learn her name when they came back and how she died. He made a note to make sure to train every Arachne warrior he could in the Baksai Tenketsu Block.
Absurdly, the thought that he'd have to rename filtered through his mind. As if that was important enough to compete with what has just happened.
As those closest to Sei let the blessed torch fall and fire consume the fallen warrior, Ranma promised the fallen one that they would cleanse the monsters from the hills.
****
"This is the entrance we found," Kaiyo said softly, pointing to a spot on the map she had just drawn out for the leaders that had emerged from this event.
She was older than most of the people here, excepting Nodoka or Cologne, but still they seemed to be doing the most to get things together. She even trusted the humans in the group, some of the few humans she still trusted in fact.
She wasn't the only visitor to this unofficial Council either. Megumi, Ranma and the older two of the Norn sisters were all there. She and the other two kumojin were there as witnesses and advisors, again an unspoken agreement, but she didn't know what the two extra humans were there for.
Looking back over her shoulder, she noted the gaijin sisters, watching but keeping outside of affairs, and felt comforted. Sometimes she wondered why they took no active part in the way things were going. If Belldandy decided to lead them, Kaiyo would have leaped at the chance to follow, even if she was a human. On the other hand, a part of her was grateful for the independence. It was something instinctive and she didn't understand it completely. She just let it run.
"They use insects as weapons," Ranma said. "Kumo fare okay, and I did with the Wasp Swarm Block, but Arachne, Driders and Kali? It would be just more like Ishida-san."
"Then we shall hold them back for now," Cologne said. "In time we can teach your 'Wasp Swarm Block' to others." The crone smirked at the renaming, but moved on. "For now, we shall simply have to limit actions."
"Must we attack?" Kasumi asked, sensing more death to come.
"I doubt that we can count on undead monsters to stay in their own home," Nodoka said. "Not when they call themselves 'the Scourge.'"
"But perhaps they were here first," Kasumi said. "Maybe we can come to an agreement."
"No," Ranma said. "They're a corruption, their very presence is killing the earth, you can feel it as you go up there."
"We don't have a choice here," Keiichi said sadly. "Even were we not in danger, such creatures must be put to rest, too many will suffer otherwise."
"First," Cologne said. "We prepare defenses. They will come before we are ready to make the first assaults."
"Whatever you all want," Ranma said. "I talk to people about it."
"We can build some watchouts," Megumi suggested.
"I think," Cologne said. "You might actually want to discuss things with Kodachi and the other driders."
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(Posted Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:11)
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