Jupiter was confused... four rings, but only three warriors. Then she got a good look at the fourth genie. She was a young ifrit, and unusually subdued and unsure for one of those hot-headed genies.
Suddenly, Jupiter put two and two together. Something had happened to the Mars she knew for so long, and another had taken her place. "Wh... what happened to Mars?" she asked softly.
Ryuu stiffened. Since finding the Ring, Jupiter had told him many stories about her previous adventures, and Mars had been a figure in a lot of those, seeing as the two were probably the two most active of the Genie Warriors. How would she react to the death of her friend?
Of course, the others were aware that it wasn't a death, but something much worse. However, as field commander of the Genie Warriors, Venus wasn't going to pass this duty off. "You might want to sit down, Jupiter. You aren't going to like this story..."
***
Jupiter didn't know what was worse, the fact that for the first time since they had been formed, a Genie Warrior had become corrupt... or the fact that she wasn't surprised that it was Mars who fell from grace. "I wish this was more of a shock, but I can see that, all too easily."
"What do you mean?" Mercury asked, and she was echoed by most of the others.
Jupiter sighed. "Mars and I were close, by necessity. Most of the times, if some evil showed up that warranted our attention, but didn't need the entire group, it was the two of us who would do the job. Moon couldn't be risked, Venus you have your own duties, as does Pluto. Mercury, no offense, your not aggressive enough, and mostly possess defensive powers. Saturn, you would have been overkill, and Neptune and Uranus tended to be... excessive in their actions. And, of course, the last can only show up when the rest of us are together.
"Mars is... was an Ifrit, too. She usually didn't act like it, but she was. She had more discipline than any ten other ifrits I know, but she still had that fiery, violent temper with her. And somehow, she had the worst luck in getting masters." She pointed at Mercury, still in Snow Leopard mode. "That is downright TAME to some of the things her last few masters did to her. I honestly don't think she had a decent master since Yuuichiro, her first master, passed on.
"I'm sorry, but I can easily see that it wouldn't have taken too much to throw her over the edge." She turned to the new ifrit. "I'm only sorry you had to suffer from this. What is your name?"
"I... I was Ranma Saotome." This declaration was met with shock from the entire group. For those who knew Ranma, referring to herself like that was not a good sign. Ranma might not have been nearly as recovered as she had appeared.
For Jupiter and Ryuu, the reason was much different. "If you're Ranma Saotome..." Ryuu said, standing up, "Then you must know the Umisenken!"
Ranma blinked. "The what?"
Ryuu fell over. "The Umisenken! The sister school to the Yamasenken! Your father created those schools... you MUST know them!"
Ranma thought hard. "Nope, never heard of either of them. You sure you got the right person?" She was nervous, she still didn't know how to fight in this body, and this Ryuu guy looked ready for a fight.
"Then where is your father?!"
"I don't know, I left him with a buncha amazons or something..." Ranma started backing up, while Saturn was moving to defend HER this time.
However, before anything more happened, Jupiter brought her foot down on Ryuu's toes. "OW!! Jeez, what was that for?!" Ryuu screamed at his genie, only to have her give him a cross look. Grabbing one of his ears, she dragged Ryuu away, and began apparently lecturing him in a low voice.
Ranma and Saturn began to relax, while Mercury and Venus sighed. To let a genie get away with that kind of thing... it looked like Jupiter had lucked out and found another inherently decent master.
Mercury winced. If only Mars hadn't...
The rest just waited for Keiichi and his friends to return from hunting the Demoness card...
(Posted Fri, 11 Oct 2002 23:55)
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