Mu Tse slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Okay, he was in his room, as normal, but the weight on his arm wasn’t normal at all, and he glanced down fondly at the thicket of purple hair covering his shoulder. Finally, his dream had come true! Then, remembering the chaos he’d been surrounded by the previous day, his mind started racing, thinking hard for ways to keep his dream from becoming a nightmare as soon as his love woke up — she was not going to be happy at all that it had been him instead of Ranma last night....
Then his time was up as the naked girl pressed up against him (causing a perfectly natural reaction that he vainly did his best to suppress before the light of his life noticed) started to stir. Then, he shook Xian Pu completely awake when he jerked at the sound of a voice from the corner of the room — a young girl’s voice: “Oh, good, somebody’s awake. Could one of you please untie me?”
The two Amazons on the bed sat up and looked toward the corner to find a slight, frail-looking dark-haired girl in a school uniform they didn’t recognize liberally bound by some of Mu Tse’s chains. “What little girl do here?” Xian Pu asked, confused. Then, remembering the previous night, she whirled on Mu Tse. “Duck Boy no happy with Shampoo, go and grab little girl after Shampoo fall asleep!”
Mu Tse pushed himself backwards as he started gabbling denials that Xian Pu was clearly ignoring, when the girl’s voice interrupted the budding argument. “Actually, I was here the entire time. Now, please untied me? I’m really uncomfortable and I need to pee really bad.”
Xian Pu froze, then with a huff walked over to the dark-haired child without a hint of concern for her lack of clothes and quickly untied her. “Bathroom to right of door, down hall on left. Come back when done?”
“Right!” the strange girl said, and practically ran out the door. With their guest taken care of, Xian Pu turned back and stalked toward Mu Tse. <So you had her before I arrived? How could you!? Surely out of all the women throwing themselves at men yesterday you could have picked someone older!> she yelled in their native dialect.
<But I didn’t pick her, she picked me!> the long-haired boy insisted, backing up to against the wall as Xian Pu approached. <And it wasn’t for sex, either! Just when everything started getting wild, she ran up to me asking for help. She gave me a strange-looking stick and asked me to hold onto it for her, and to keep her from jumping me, or any other man—that’s why I tied her up, to keep her here and away from me!>
At that, Xian Pu paused and frowned. <Where’s the stick?> she asked, and Mu Tse pulled a short purple stick topped by a small faceted ball made of some sort of crystal over a gold star out of his weapon space and handed it to Xian Pu. The purple-haired Amazon examined it closely and frowned. <What is it?> she asked, and Mu Tse shrugged.
<No idea,> he replied, <but the girl thought it was important.>
“Oh you have my henshin wand,” their guest said from the doorway. “Thank you so much for keeping it safe. Can I have it back now?”
“Of course girl can have wand back,” Xian Pu said, handing it to the girl, then noticed that the girl was carefully looking at her face and sighed. “Wait here while Shampoo get dressed,” Xian Pu ordered, and headed for the door. “Stupid Duck Boy get clothes on!” drifted back over her shoulder, and Mu Tse blushed and shooed the schoolgirl out the door so he could dress in private.
“So, child, what is your name?” Ku Lon gently asked their frail-looking guest after introducing the three Amazons while the four sat at one of the Cat Café’s dining room tables sipping tea.
“And why girl tied up?” asked Xian Pu.
The girl blushed bright red. “My name’s Hotaru,” she said softly. “My class was on a field trip yesterday to Nerima’s martial arts museum, when everything ... got strange. I started feeling warm and tingly, and ... and the boys started looking, well, good ... and everyone started taking off their clothes, and the g-g-girls and b-boys started t-t-t-t-t —” she stuttered to a halt, and Ku Lon laid a hand on her arm.
“The same thing happened here, child, no need to describe it,” the Amazon elder said, and Hotaru nodded gratefully and took a moment to compose herself.
‘W-well, a part of me wanted to ... well, to join in,” she eventually continued in a barely audible tone, faintly blushing again and looking down at her teacup. “But it might be dangerous, I couldn’t know. So I looked around and saw a boy that didn’t look like he was affected the same way and asked him to help — Mousse, here. He said he would and picked me up and started running down the road. But I got warmer and ... and I .... started undoing his top, and he stopped and made a bunch of chains appear out of nowhere and tied me up. Then he brought me here.”
“And nothing happen?” Xian Pu demanded, and Hotaru shook her head, though her blush went from red to blazing scarlet.
Noticing Xian Pu’s suspicious look, Hotaru hastily said, “No, nothing happened. But I wanted it to. I begged him to untie me and he ignored me until you jumped through the window, and then the two of you were too ... busy to listen to me.”
Ku Lon quirked an eyebrow. “So, Mu Tse, no urge to sleep with Hotaru but no resistance to Xian Pu?”
Xian Pu froze, and Mu Tse quickly blurted out, “No, it wasn’t like that! I didn’t lose control, it was just ... I could run away and leave Hotaru behind, or fight Xian Pu, or give her what she wanted! And I had promised Hotaru I’d protect her, and I’ll never fight Xian Pu, so ...” his voice trailed off, and Ku Lon nodded and turned to Xian Pu.
“I would have expected you to seek out your Airen, rather than Mu Tse, child,” the matriarch said reprovingly.
“But Shampoo seek out Airen!” the purple-haired girl responded. “And Airen very good ... Shampoo think. Memory hazy, and when Shampoo wake up Airen gone. So Shampoo come home and find Mousse.”
Ku Lon sighed. “I see. Well, perhaps if we are lucky you will be pregnant with his child and we can go home.”
Hotaru looked from one face to another uncomprehendingly, then hesitantly asked, “Can I use your telephone? I lost my cell phone and my parents will be worried.”
Of course, child,” Ku Lon said. “I’ll show you where it is, while these two” — looking sharply at the two Amazon teenagers — “get cleaned up. They smell.”
Setsuna slowly stirred as a ringing telephone shook her out of some very pleasant dreams. Raising up on one arm, she looked around at the crowded bed — very crowded with two other women and one man, all naked and tangled up in its sheets. Sighing, she got up and without concern for her nude state walked over to the phone while the rest of the bed’s occupants started to stir. Yawning, the emerald-haired woman picked up the phone and without waiting, said, “Good morning, Hotaru. I hope you aren’t too stiff from your rather uncomfortable night. I’ll get Haruka-papa up and as soon as she’s grabbed a quick shower she’ll be out to pick you up.” She hung up the phone and turned back to the bed.
At the mention of Hotaru’s name, the two women still on the bed had bolted upright. “Hotaru! Is she all right!?” the woman with long, tangled green hair shouted, and Setsuna made a calming gesture.
“She’s fine,” the Senshi of Time assured the two. “I made sure of it before joining you here. When the Lemon Flu started affecting everyone, she found a protector to keep her safe and, well, restrained.”
“You could have told us earlier!” the other woman with short blond hair insisted. “I searched as long as I could before whatever hit us got too much ... I tried to find her, I really did, but I couldn’t and I barely made it back here before —”
Setsuna had walked over as Haruka babbled, and quieted her with a soft touch to her lips. “I know you did,” she said, “no need to feel guilty—you tried your best, fought the flu better than most, and no harm’s done, Hotaru’s fine. She’s at the Cat Café in Nerima, so get cleaned up and go pick her up.”
Haruka nodded and bolted from the room, quickly followed by Michiru, and Setsuna turned back to the bed, deliberately putting herself on full display for the now furiously blushing slim, dark-haired man still on the bed. “Well, Endymion, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to wait until after me and the girls get done before you get a chance at the shower. But at least you transformed before we tore your clothes off you, so you’ll still have something to wear to the Senshi meeting this afternoon.”
“Usagi!” Endymion exclaimed, starting to leap out of bed before remembering his unclothed state and hastily wrapping a stained sheet around his waist. “Is she all right?”
“Physically, she’s fine, but emotionally ...” Setsuna said sadly, “... well, she should be the one to tell you about it. That’ll be cathartic, and she’ll need that badly. Once you get showered, head over to the Crown Arcade, you’ll find her in the back room.” Then, hearing Haruka rush past the room headed for the front door and her car, followed by Michiru headed for the kitchen at a more sedate pace, Setsuna said, “That was certainly quick. Sounds like the shower’s free. You go ahead first, Usagi needs you more than I need to get cleaned first.”
Endymion nodded his thanks and hurried from the bedroom for the shower.
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(Posted Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:56)
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