The temple had been the site of many Senshi meetings over the years. It had seen them at their best and their worst.
This wasn't quite the worst, but you could see it from here.
The only senshi present were Hotaru, who was fidgeting quite a bit, and Michiru, who was restraining herself by pure force of will at this point. Tuxedo Kamen, Moon, Mars, and Jupiter were off at D-Point; Mercury, Venus, and Uranus were off hunting were-rats; and Pluto was supposedly checking up on the time gates but had been gone longer than expected.
She wanted to be doing something, as though the rather necessary ‘something’ of guarding the temple grounds wasn't enough. Even though Setsuna had maddeningly pointed out that she was the most sensitive to some things, and probably the best suited to notice if someone tried to corrupt the ritual other than Mars. About the only thing she could do now would be to take out the Neptune Mirror and look for signs of what was happening to the others, and that would mean taking her attention off of this place…
If Grandpa Hino noticed the slight shaking of her hand as she drank from the teacup he had just refilled, he didn't mention it.
The two of them snapped their heads up at the same time as a flicker of magic rapidly spread out into a portal just behind the temple, followed by a slight relaxation as the others started to come through.
First through was Mars in feral tigress form, slinking through to keep her back steady as she carried Tuxedo Kamen in hybrid werewolf form on her back. There were a few gasps as people saw the blood on his clothing, and Hotaru ran up to help.
Following right behind was Ranma in feral jaguar form, trotting out with a comatose human-form Sheila on his back. As Ranma dashed off to the side away from most of the other people, Jupiter came out in hybrid werewolf form, an unconscious hybrid lioness Moon slung over her shoulders.
While the Outers were busy checking over the Inners, Sam Fisher stepped through in werepanther form, and looked around curiously, trying to figure out where he was.
Dr. Diggers came through a second later, carrying Brianna, and let the portal close behind him. He looked around, then looking at Sam, he said, “We're in Tokyo, in the Azabu-Jūban District.”
Sam groaned. “I'd better check in.” Catching the elderly priest as he came by with some bandages, he held up a hand to one ear, and said, “Telephone?”
Grandpa Hino grinned at him, and beckoned him inside, where he went to call one of his contact numbers. Dr. Diggers looked out at the way Ranma was hiding from most of the others, and called after them, “Let me know when you're done. I've got a call to make myself.”
After setting Brianna down on a futon that had been provided, he then turned back to Neptune. “We have the Chromatic Orb, at least, and nobody's dead, though none of them are going to be in any positions to cast major rituals for a few hours at best. Possibly longer; I'm not that familiar with Miss Moon's power source, but she drew on it quite heavily back there. She's lucky to be alive, filtering that much power through herself.”
Michiru smiled, still watching Hotaru fussing over Usagi now that Tuxedo Kamen was stabilized. “She's tougher than she looks, and as strong-willed as any of us. Which some of us have found out the hard way. Uranus tends to treat the idea of somebody being more stubborn than her as some form of challenge to be met.”
Dr. Diggers said, “From personal and familial experience, I can tell you that heroes have an unfortunate tendency to burn themselves out from burning so brightly.”
Michiru said, “And she does shine ever so bright. Fortunately, the rest of us are all there for her when necessary. We would do anything for her, and she for us. She takes her responsibilities seriously even as she wishes to be normal, and as you may have noticed, she's a difficult person to actively dislike.” She turned, and gave him a calm, certain look. “We will be here. And she will be ready.” Turning her head back to the group, she added, “But for now, I should make certain Saturn doesn't exhaust herself trying to speed things up.”
Dr. Diggers nodded, and looked around the group. Brianna may not have had a full lycanthrope's healing factor, but her hair was already starting to grow back in, so she would be fine, if rather sore for a while. The Senshi seemed to be in good shape aside from Moon; Tuxedo Kamen's wound was magical in nature, so he was having trouble healing around it, though the younger girl they called ‘Saturn’ did seem to have helped.
No, what really worried him were the other two, who had been inside the slime demon for a while. Sheila appeared to be completely catatonic, while Ranma…
Well, Ranma was currently bouncing around outside, very cat-like, as if trying to get Sheila to sit up and play with him.
“Here you go.”
Dr. Diggers reached out for the phone as Agent Fisher handed it to him. “Heading back to the U.S. to check in?”
“At this point, no.” Sam shook his head. “Things are already stirred up like a hornets' nest over there. New York is going crazy. Nobody's really got much time for me right now, though at least they've recalled the planes that were heading over the Arctic to try and pin down my signal. Right now I expect the Company figures I'm more useful here as a liaison.”
Dr. Diggers chuckled. “Ah, yes, the classic ‘Wait here until we figure out what to do with you.’ Been through that enough times.“ He lifted up the phone. “Thanks for this.”
Taking the hint, Sam stepped back, to where the priest of the shrine offered him something to drink in rather broken English.
Dr. Diggers quickly dialed the phone, and waited for the other end to pick up.
A somewhat harried sounding voice came over the phone. “Tendō Dojo.”
“Ahh, Nabiki, did I call at a bad time?”
There was a bit of shuffling at the other end; Dr. Diggers imagined he could hear a hand running up through short hair. “A bit. Akane tried to commit suicide, and ran when we caught her. She's apparently sleeping over at the Kunō place under Kodachi's care at the moment. And while Kodachi seems a lot saner than she used to be, I'm still not entirely comfortable with leaving the two of them alone.” She sighed. “But you wouldn't have called if it wasn't important. What's happening?”
“It's about Ranma.”
There was a mirthless chuckle from the other end. “Isn't it always?”
Deciding not to touch that line, Dr. Diggers continued, “He's acting oddly; he hasn't spoken, and he's stalking around on all fours…”
A groan from the other end interrupted him. “Like a cat.”
“Yes.” After a second or so of silence, he added, “I take it you have some idea of what is going on?”
“Is your wife around by any chance?”
Dr. Diggers looked at the phone curiously. “No… Why?”
“Because she seemed more likely to go off and try to kill Saotome Genma for what I'm about to tell you, and Ranma still seems to care about his father, God knows why.”
“Okay…”
Nabiki took a deep breath on the other end. “There is an ancient martial arts technique his father found out about called the Neko-ken, that is supposed to instill a cat-like grace and danger to the participant. The training involves tying up a child with bits of fish and dropping him into a pit of hungry cats.”
At the shocked silence on the other end, she continued, “The training gave Ranma an understandable fear of cats. In the admittedly unlikely event that he was cornered and couldn't get away, he would eventually start acting like a cat himself, with claws made of ki that could slice through almost anything.” She sighed. “It didn't seem necessary to mention it before; he was working just fine with Sheila and the others, and it's been so long since he had an episode, I'd thought he was past that.”
Dr. Digger rubbed his forehead. “Given that Sheila is currently catatonic, it seems likely that the demon we ran into actively tried to use their own fears against them.” He sighed as well. “How do we snap him out of it?
Nabiki said, “Well, there's the quick way, and the safe way.”
“The safe way?”
“The safe way involves letting him fall asleep with someone he trusts, usually curled up in their lap. When he wakes up he should be back to normal.”
Dr. Diggers looked up to where Ranma was standing guard over Sheila and growling at most of the people who tried to get close. “Let's assume that he's not likely to be relaxed enough to fall asleep anytime soon. What's the quick way?”
Nabiki chuckled drily. “Splash him with water to activate the Jusenkyō curse. The body switch seems to shock him out of it.”
Dr. Diggers rubbed his forehead again. “Thank you, I'll try that. Good luck with your sister.”
“Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes.” Nabiki sighed again. “Akane never did deal well with change or being told what to do, and the last several weeks have turned her world and everybody else's completely upside-down. We'll just have to be there for her, and hope things settle down. Even Kodachi might be helpful at this point; it's not quite so obviously personal for her. Anyhow, good luck with Ranma, and talk to you later.”
Dr. Diggers hung up the phone and looked back outside. Ranma was still standing guard over Sheila, and the only one that had been able to get at all close was Jupiter, and even she wasn't pushing her luck. He went back inside, filled up a bucket of water, then came back outside with it, sitting a safe distance away. “Nobody be alarmed, I'm going to try something here.”
As everybody watched, he cast a spell, binding a bit of his life force up with the water, and lifting it up out of the bucket until it hung in the air in a rough floating glob a little bigger than his head, looking like an unusually thick soap bubble. Then he sent that wafting over towards Ranma, bobbing and floating slowly as if carried by the wind.
Ranma looked up at it, snarling at it at first, then tilting his head as it just kept floating, wobbling oddly about. He tried to get closer to sniff at it, and it lifted up out of the way. He backed up onto his haunches and casually tried to swipe at it, and it rolled to the side, spinning as a brush of Ranma's ki claws almost caught it. Ignoring the reactions of the girls who obviously thought this was as cute as all get out, Ranma backed up a couple of steps, tensing back, then leapt upward in a flurry of motion and swung his paws together, trying to snag the ball of water in the middle.
There was a loud sploosh noise as water went everywhere, followed by a loud ‘Yip!’ from Jupiter as she got a good bit of it as well.
A somewhat stunned Ranma, wet fur plastered back, still managed to land with all four paws on the ground. The jagwere was slightly smaller, with a bit of a rusty tint to the fur that wasn't there before, and a growling but female voice came from her: “What the heck just happened?”
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(Posted Fri, 03 May 2013 00:10)
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