The day had brought several confrontations but not much in the way of resolutions. When Ami had finally awakened, it had already been close to dinnertime.
Ami simply observed, her head hurting too much for more.
There was a sentry system in place, and her mother had apparently taken time from her exhausting hospital schedule to take a 'chaperone' role.
Tuxedo Kamen was demonstrating the pinpoint accuracy of his rose-throwing to Ranma, who apparently had some admiration for that accuracy. None at all for the missile being hurled, but skill was another thing altogether. He was arguing, unsuccessfully apparently, for Tuxedo Kamen to include kunai and explosive devices among his arsenal. Which properly horrified Sailor Moon who didn't like the idea of Tuxedo Kamen interrupting a yoma attack with anything that went boom. It looked like the idea of smoke pellets to effect a strategic withdrawal until they could properly retaliate - THAT was going over a little better.
WHY there were ninja, some sort of Sailor V fangirl, and an onmyoji sorceress in this training ground was less certain and a topic of discussion between the various factors.
There had also, from comments given, been a yoma in the area. A particularly pathetic yoma who had been trying to hide from them, and when confronted had apparently broken?
Oh, meaning that it had begged and pleaded and groveled not to be killed into less than dust. Gee, that WAS a pretty pathetic yoma. They hadn't even had the heart to go killing it, just told it to keep to its river and not bother anyone or they WOULD come back and turn it to moondust. That the yoma had apparently not moved from that spot since then was, as Rei commented, just more evidence that even a yoma could be so horribly incompetent that its enemies hesitated to destroy it.
For some reason, that comment had been directed towards Usagi. Usagi certainly took it as such.
The evening seemed to be going to just plain quiet.
Maybe the morning would come and her headache would go away and she could make sense of things with a clear head.
Ami had the feeling she was missing something.
It was the third night his dreams had taken an unexpected turn.
Ranma stood on a battlefield. That was the only way to really describe it. It was an old battlefield, centuries old at least. Equipment collapsed in heaps with skeletal remains. Which was odd, because as dry and desolate as it was - he would have expected mummification to occur instead.
The sky, as before, was black. Not the black of night but a cold barren black without a single star to mar it. The light was of a late twilight but no discernable source.
It was also cold. Bone chillingly cold. With air that felt as if all the life and moisture had been sucked from it so thoroughly that not even a memory of it remained.
More details were visible from the previous night. There was now a large and elaborate castle to the side. There was also some feeling of presence. Not quite there, but stirring as if woken from a deep sleep.
"who calls me from the void?" whispered the wind in a voice filled with despair.
"Ranma Mizuno," said Ranma, without a hint of shyness. "Who are you?"
The wind didn't answer, swirling a little harder for a brief moment seeming to be the only reply.
Ranma picked his way through battlefield, noting that there were mainly two sorts of combatants from the remains. Huge figures, some as 'short' as twelve feet in height with others of darn near Godzilla size. Their equipment tended to be crudely made, without much ornamentation, and sized to fit them. Cloth that had survived on that side showed red or black, sometimes with different colored trim. Uniforms of some kind?
The other size was still BIG, but roughly on a scale with his Thor form. Which was to say while bigger than normally found among humans, relatively human-scale. These guys would be able to get in and out of Japanese trains without too much problem. THEIR equipment was often decorated with odd lettering and they didn't have a unifying color scheme.
There were men and women among both sides. All had fallen and from the rents and tears and broken armor and weapons - it had been a hell of a fight.
He had read up on things after finding the wooden cane which was now a jo stick. He had a pretty good suspicion of what he was looking at and striding through.
"Where is this?" asked a voice that lacked the quality of the wind-voice he'd heard earlier.
The woman who stood there was clearly similar to the various Sailor Senshi he knew. Or at least wore a similar uniform. Standing there with her staff, looking confused.
"Well, you're new," summed up Ranma. "Did you get pulled in here during your dreams too?"
"Not quite," said the woman, indicating the top of her staff. "I was investigating something with you. The Garnet Orb allows for the linking of thoughts."
"Investigating ME?" asked Ranma.
"Well, you ARE associating with the Senshi," said the woman. "I hadn't expected to find THIS. Whatever this is."
"I'm reasonably sure this is Ragnarok, the Twilight Of The Gods," said Ranma. "Or at least the aftermath of it. See that line of mountains over there?"
"Yes, unusually regular," said the woman.
"Defocus your eyes a bit," advised Ranma.
"THAT is a big snake," said the woman when she managed to put aside the sheer scale of the rocky looking mountain range and figure out what she was looking at.
"Midgard Serpent," identified Ranma. "The mist cleared up some on the second night."
"So I'm here because I sensed something odd happening with you, and I used the Garnet Orb," said the woman. "Why are YOU here?"
"We're not alone," said Ranma. "Mind you - this is just a guess. I'm guessing that it's Asgard itself."
"That could be," said the woman thoughtfully before fading out.
"Hmph," hmphed Ranma. "She could have left me with HER name since she obviously knew me. I wonder if she's a good witch or a bad witch. I mean Senshi."
After Ranma faded from the battlefield in his own turn, the silence returned broken briefly only by the wind.
"...ranma mizuno?"
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(Posted Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:15)
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