He was used to waking up with Rei attached to his side, but normally it was a single Rei while two others stood watch. Today there was three identical blue-haired cat-girls vying for snuggle space while a full nine other cat-girls were on guard duty. It was going to be an important day after all.
Of course, day in the Makai demon realm was actually a subjective thing. This particular area tended to stay a murky reddish twilight that seemed to breed shadows, so the time really didn’t matter.
As he gently tried to disentangle himself from the cat-girls, they woke up, alerted by the copies of Rei on guard. One Rei as usual stayed by his side, while one went to fetch fresh water and the other placed slices of cured meat on Asuka’s stomach.
For Ranma, it was still a comical sight to see meat cook on the fiery red-head’s stomach. Creating a fire wasn’t very practical in the Makai, but Asuka could let off a natural aura of heat capable of cooking dinner and keeping everyone warm.
It might seem demeaning, but it gave Asuka an excuse when Misato teased her about cuddling up to Ranma with Rei.
The Ashura’s nose twitched at the smell of cooking meat. With a calm poise born of practice, she daintily picked a piece of meat off of her stomach and gave the Cat-girl kneeling beside her a flat stare. “Don’t over-cook it berry-girl, not all of us like it well done you know.”
The vegetarian cat-girl stared back at the red-head blankly. She hadn’t burned it since they taught her how to cook years ago, but almost every morning Asuka said the same thing, while Ranma simply enjoyed her cooking.
Rei had a simply answer. Girls were weird and Ranma was nice.
Misato grinned at her young companion and favorite squeeze toy. He looked so dashing with his armor enhancements. The raised angular scar-like ridges on his forehead that formed a celtic styled circlet with a silvery pearl set in the middle. Similar markings could be found on his clavicles, while on his shoulders were a network of blue veins forming an intricate tatoo. Otherwise he looked just like a human child in his black silk pants and shirt.
Giving the boy a warm smile, she knelt by him and got her morning hug. Used to the hugs but wary of being smothered in cleavage, Ranma gave her one despite the threat of embarrassment. This time however, Misato kept it to a simple hug, getting a brief burst of energy that would keep her going. After a few moments she managed to repress the goofy smile the warm and fuzzy feelings infused her with. “Hehe. Well, it’s the big day. You ready kiddo?”
Blush rapidly fading, the young warrior nodded his head seriously. In his mind, he felt Setsuna’s warm murmur, but she didn’t question if he was ready, because she already knew.
“Alright, let’s go.”
The lovely purple haired succubus tapped the young Ashura on the shoulder playfully. “Well Asuka, care to start off the party?”
The young Ashura smirked confidently and floated up into the air, letting an aura of flame shimmer into existence. Closing her eyes, she placed one pair of hands before her in prayer, while her other four arms grasped above her head as if holding a large sphere up.
“Dark flame that burns souls, dark flame that devours all.” Without opening her eyes, she shifted her hands clasped in prayer to catch the spark that appeared, holding it clasped in her hands.
“Burning away the light with the cold of hungry shadows.” Purplish rays of light began to seep through her fingers as she brought a second pair of hands down to clasp over the first pair, holding them firm. Starting her next chant she winced and let out a gasp, having to bring her third pair of hands in to contain the spell before completing the third verse. Gritting her teeth tightly, she tried to continue, before simply deciding to finish the spell early.
Opening all six hands in a pattern like a blossoming flower, she shoved forward, sending the bright magenta spark of light shooting forward. “Megiddo Flare!”
The spark of light drifted through the air, eventually touching the side of one of the massive stone buildings. A sphere of darkness expanded from the impact point before collapsing inwards, disintegrating part of the building.
Missing a large chunk of structure, the building crumpled in on itself.
Then the collapsed sphere of darkness exploded into a massive shockwave of purple flames. The crumbling building was blasted into the air while nearby building fractured and toppled over. After the shockwave washed over the and the dust settled, a shallow crater filled with rubble was all that remained of a section of the upper fortress of the Geofront.
Panting slightly, she turned to Misato, masking the fight she was barely able to float with a cocky grin. “Well, how was that.”
Misato smirked and shook her head, forgoing commenting how foolish Asuka had been trying such a high level spell. Instead she prepared to demonstrate the right way to do it. “Heh, just watch this kiddo.”
Misato thrust both arms straight forward, hands closed into fists. Then her wings wrapped around her arms and flowed, creating two smooth, twisting multi-pronged ‘magic guns’.
Then she waited. Asuka didn’t look too impressed, and used the time to get her breath back.
Finally, Misato spotted what she was looking for, a stream of demons exiting a building. Misato turned a smirk to Asuka while keeping most of her attention on her new targets. “I call this, ‘Duet of Tortured Souls.’”
Asuka stared at the succubus and mouthed the words ‘Duet of Tortured Souls?’.
Bright blue light gathered at the ends of Misato’s arms turned cannons. As the light brightened, the demons below spotted them, which brought a new more satisfied grin to Misato’s lovely lips. Then the two motes of brilliant energy lengthened into beams, which wiggled and began to twist around each other. Before hitting the building, the binary attack collapsed on itself, detonating into a bright blue fireball that destroyed the barracks.
Asuka frowned, finding the blast a lot less spectacular than hers. “Feh, that wasn’t so impressive.”
Misato smirked, and then threw out a few more regular Soul Fists from her hands. “Heh, yeah, but I can do it again if I want. I’d hate to look like an idiot before Ranma later because I knocked myself out.”
The Ashura growled and let loose a flurry of fireballs herself. There was no way she was going to let that winged slut upstage her!
Far underground, a small dark figure surrounding by a comet like aura of blue energy slammed through multiple walls and occasionally floors as he tried to shake off any pursuers. Right behind him was a small pack of blue haired cat-girls going at a full lope on all fours.
Inside the faceplate of his armor, Ranma grimaced to himself. He really hated using Rei this way, but he had to agree it was the best plan.
Misato and Asuka were outside, operating in a mix between a diversion and full-out assault. Having buildings blown apart was probably distracting.
As for Ranma, he was heading directly to where he felt the priestess was, plowing through walls and avoiding confrontations. He wanted to get there before they could do anything to her or really interfere. That lead to why he was worried about Rei.
Every time a demon or group of demons got onto his trail, a cat-girl or two stopped to hold them off. The trick to the tactic was Rei could make any of her bodies disappear with little effort, then recreate her with the pack, effectively teleporting the cat-girl back into the lead. If one of the cat-girls got killed, Rei wouldn’t be able to recreate her until tomorrow most likely if not longer. On the plus side, Rei could really only die if every one of her bodies was destroyed. The bad side as far as Ranma was concerned was that had to be painful, like having his arm ripped off, even though his armor would regenerate it.
The sooner he finished this, the better off they all would be.
See other episodes by Valor Phoenix
(Posted Wed, 11 Jun 2003 05:32)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.