If he’d known anything about the Earth’s chi pathways, Ranma could easily have connected to the Earth itself and made himself into a virtual demi-god. Normally it required the sacrifice of a great deal of human lives for someone to initiate the state he was in(1) and that would still leave them at a small fraction of his current power level, but then past a certain point power becomes more dangerous to the wielder then to the target, as sailor Saturn could attest, so maybe it’s for the best that he didn’t know the proper procedure and instead spent his efforts on trying not to become one with Tokyo.
(1)And the necromancer attempting it would require that they all be virgins of course, which really complicates the collection process let me tell you, as there are many ways to prove someone isn’t a virgin (including correcting the unfortunate condition), but there really isn’t a whole lot of ways to prove one is a virgin, although the invention of pocket protectors and home gaming systems at least provides a reasonable indication of sexual inexperience. The use of virgins as human sacrifices to contract with major powers is not only inefficient, but it’s also wrong on several levels, as all deities that would actually entreat with man are far more likely to share their base desires and would much rather be given souls that knew what they were doing, rather than inexperienced virgins that would fumble around and didn’t even know about the whole ‘breath through your nose’ deal. The amount of time spent training concubines in their various duties actually worsens exponentially, as their inexperience tends to re-infect each other, due to the slight blending effects of human souls grouped together for sacrifice on the higher and lower planes, with their increase in number and a popular curse among the kami is ‘may you receive over seventy virgins’ as it guarantees an eternity of teeth scraping and awkwardly positioned bodyparts when you are just trying to relax and enjoy yourself.
Kasumi stopped in the middle of the video store and looked around. She could have sworn Ranma was nearby. Shrugging to herself she continued browsing the anime section for dubs. The American’s really made a hash of things when trying to write new scripts to match the lip synch, but they were pretty funny.
‘Iori Yagami voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.’ The eldest Tendo girl giggled to herself, ‘I’ll have to show this to Ranma tonight. He’ll get such a kick out of it.’
Giving the young girl next to her, who reminded her a lot of her younger sister, a brilliant smile, Kasumi remarked, “I can’t believe I never came in here before. It has lots of titles I’ve never seen and all the newest releases. Thanks again for showing it to me.”
Skuld smiled back at her. “Yeah, most people overlook it, but I thought it’d be perfect for you. It’s much easier to find once someone has shown you where they hide the entrance.”
Kasumi paused and stared at a Ranma ½ Skysaber crossover tape. ‘That looks just like Ranma!’ Examining it closely she was shocked at how closely it resembled her favorite houseguest’s life. ‘Has Nabiki sold his life’s story? Darn, they only have part one.’
“Ohhh, they have Robotech!” Skuld skipped down the aisle happily, her left arm dumping a massive amount of tapes in her basket.
Kasumi examined the row for more Ranma ½ videos and found one in black with only the title, director’s name, and an Unrated warning on it. “Oh, My! Directed by Jim Bader.” Deciding it was probably just a small budget production she put it in her basket.
The circus (aka the NWC) had returned to Nerima and scattered back to their (ab)normal lives.
Shampoo was artfully posed on the street corner next to the Neko Hanten. Leaning against the building she had casually brushed her long purple hair over her shoulder and was toying with the end of it, as if checking for split ends.
Akane, not to be outdone, had assumed a similar position on an opposing street corner and lacking the same fullness in her shorter hair decided instead to carefully file her nails with long smooth strokes with the occasional pause to show them off, while pretending to examine them.
Ukyou was posed on the street corner across from Shampoo, seeming to be completely relaxed and had the hair to one up both of them, but instead had polished one of her throwing spatulas to a mirror finish and was using it to ‘accidentally’ reflect the sun into Shampoo and Akane’s eyes, on and off, while she ran a whetstone along the edge.
Kodachi had possession of the final corner across from both Akane and Ukyou and was using it to perform a series of languid stretches.
A large group of Furinkan students had gathered in the street and were watching with rapt gazes.
“I thought Martial Arts Catfighting would be more energetic,” a boy muttered, only to be shushed by all nearby.
One of the girls in his class took pity on him. “Most Martial Arts styles were developed by watching the way animals moved and fought. Female cats often show their ranking by the way they pose and groom themselves. It’s subtle, but deadly in the social arena, as each pose and movement symbolizes a feminine trait. Shampoo is showing off her bust and hair, while assuming a physical superiority to the others by the casual way she’s standing. Akane is sharpening her claws and showing off her legs, trying for a subtle air of strength and menace. Ukyou is sharpening her claws, and really pounding the others with her show of being able to reach them without moving. Demonstrates a brilliant tactical mind on that girl, as well as showing off her beauty by how she’s hidden it. Kinda, a casual cute. Kodachi is demonstrating her flexibility and grace, but she really loses points because of the amount of effort she’s showing. That move should only be done when the male is present anyway, but than, she is new to the sport.”
The boy stared as Akane began slapping herself and cursing. “What does that symbolize?”
The girl focused in on Akane with her binoculars and groaned. “That she’s standing on an anthill.”
Mercury stared at her computer screen intently. “Her wall isn’t going to last much longer. Venus and Jupiter, she’ll be launched out with some force. I need you both to be ready to catch her. Moon, do whatever it is you do to get in a healing state of mind, because this is going to break some bones if we’re lucky and do far worse if we aren’t.”
“Where do we stand?” Venus asked, worrying about getting to the right spot in time when they had a large area to cover.
Mercury quickly came up with the solution. “Middle of the street with Jupiter about fifteen feet back, ready to catch you both. She’ll come out hard and fast about eight feet above the ground. As soon as they get back, I'll have Uranus cover the right side, about eight feet back and Neptune will have the left the same, just in case I’m wrong. I’d say no more than three minutes before her wall falls.”
Everyone rushed into position, while the cats did their best to keep from getting underfoot and ran over to the sidelines with Moon, who was praying for her friend’s safety.
Uranus and Neptune collapsed to their knees, one after another on their respective sides of the park, exhausted from channeling that much power that quickly, their only hope being that they had managed to help their adopted daughter get far enough to make a difference.
Rising as one, their close connection letting them guess what the other would do without planning things out in advance, they both stumbled back towards the other senshi, to see what Mercury could tell them about the current situation and their daughter’s condition.
Saturn passed the wake of Uranus’ final attack and groaned, as she felt her wall finally fade away into nothing. ‘It’s like trying to hold sand together!’ she thought, as her wall finally vanished and the storm’s fury leapt at her.
A panicked Saturn wrenched her glaive around in front of her, in a futile effort to block the main thrust of the energy pouring in on her from all sides. While she had the wall up, even just a sliver of it, she had been covered in a teardrop shaped void, but with the wall gone the energy was pouring in from all sides. Closing her eyes she braced herself and felt... nothing?
Cautiously she opened one eye, then another and looked around. The storm still raged and the energy still roared, but it faded to nothing more than a gentle warmth and a light breeze within a few feet of her. A few careful steps forward assured her that the circle of silence would follow her as she started moving towards her goal once more, her flagging energies refreshed and growing stronger by the second.
Ranma’s mind was going in several different directions; one piece was wondering if wearing a bra would be that bad or if maybe the breaking point training would get rid of that nagging lower back pain that always sprang up after fighting while female, after all Shampoo never seemed to have that problem and they were about the same size, another piece was wondering if they served hotdogs at the movie theater, as he had ran across a great stand that served them steamed in the bun with plenty of toppings, another section was wondering how much meat was on a pigeon and if they tasted like chicken.
Telepaths are a rare breed, not because the genes for it are recessive, they aren’t, but because each mind is like a snowflake, unique and beautiful, and a telepath looking at someone else’s and comparing it to their own mind/snowflake would naturally conclude that everyone, but themselves, is completely insane and incompatible.
‘Heh, at least I have a good size rack. Being flatchested would suck, I’d look like that damn tomboy.’
‘Ketchup is good and maybe some spicy mustard, skip the onions, add some relish...’
‘Would ketchup go well with pigeon or would it need a honey mustard like chicken does?’
At times that view isn’t wholly incorrect.
“Anything?” Pluto asked, taking a break from her own meditations. In her opinion, four hours gate-time was more than enough time to get a reading and if it wasn’t, then a new approach was called for.
“Something about horses and butterflies. I’m not really sure what it was about and a scene involving a very large black man with a high pitched voice and red padded gloves knocking out another man with a single blow. Does that help any?” Mars asked, as she stretched and took a sip of tea.
“Indeed it does.” Pluto smiled and relaxed a bit. Her own vision was a confusing tangle of naked limbs and grinning faces, that truthfully seemed like it actually was porn, but Mars’ reading gave her hope that she knew what was going on and as an added bonus let her know to place a rather large bet on Tyson in his next match.
“Let’s do a little word association to make sure. I want you to say the first thing that comes to mind. Ready?”
Mars nodded.
Pluto began, “Pig.”
“Boy.”
“Boy.” Pluto repeated back.
“Girl.”
“Tomboy.” Pluto leaned forward.
“Uncute.” Mars frowned, feeling a bit upset and not sure why.
“K.O.”
“Third Round.”
Pluto smirked. “That’s enough for now. Let’s go back and see if we can help the others.”
“Wait, why did you need me? I’d think the gate would allow you to see the future far better than any vision of mine.”
“The gate’s ability to see the future is down and I needed to know why.”
“Was I of any help?”
“Oh, yes. You’ve told me everything I needed to know.”
“And are you going to tell me how this all fits together?” Mars ground out, visibly annoyed.
“I’d like to,” Pluto said apologetically, “but I can’t, it’s against the rules. How about I buy you some dango and we hit the manga store to make up for it?”
Mars smiled wistfully as she nodded. She remembered her grandmother taking her out for dango and buying her manga when she was a little girl.
Pluto wrapped an arm around Mars’ shoulder and teleported them back down to Earth, completely missing Mars’ shocked expression.
The senshi were spread out like a baseball team waiting for a fly ball.
“Shouldn’t she have come out by now,” ventured Venus after a minute or so from the pitcher’s mound.
Mercury rechecked her readings in the dugout with Moon, Mask, and the cats. “Oh.”
“What do you mean ‘oh’,” Uranus asked tersely from deep right field.
“I mean, Saturn’s wall has fallen but she’s using the Silence to absorb the energy around her. I didn’t know she could do that.”
“But I thought the Silence was the exact opposite of the energy she was fighting through and the worst thing to use against it,” Moon complained, really hating to find out she hadn’t understood what was going on when she thought she had.
“The Silent Wall is the worst thing to use against it, because the wall is up against something that erodes it, but using the Silence directly against it is fine, because she’s not trying to keep it out, she’s absorbing it, which the Silence is perfect for.” Mercury explained.
“Why do you think I wasn’t worried about her,” Pluto asked, from directly behind Moon, who then stumbled into Mask and managed to grab a hold of Mars, taking all three of them down in a jumble of limbs.
“Ack!!” “Whoa!” “Oopsie!”
Artemis looked down at the three. “You really should save that for your private times together,” the mooncat muttered, trying to subtly plant the idea of the three of them together in their heads, since he did have all of next week in the betting pool.
The senshi gathered around but made no move to separate the three on the ground, who found it a bit difficult to get untangled with Moon clumsily pulling the other two back down.
“She’ll actually draw strength from the abundant chi, allowing her to draw on the Silence more easily and with less strain,” Pluto explained, side stepping a questing hand from the Big pile O’senshi.
“So the Knight of Silence will be OK too,” Jupiter asked hopefully.
“What are you talking about, there’s no such thing as a Knight of Silence.” Pluto said firmly, leaving all the senshi to stare at her in alarm.
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(Posted Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:48)
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