Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Why Sailor Pluto Hates The Bet ❯ Episode 9: Martial Arts Cross-Country Sprinting ( Chapter 10 )

key:

Ryouga = native Ryouga

Ryoga = the Ryouga from 'Sailor Ranko'

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is the property of Takeuichi Naoko. Ranma belongs to Takahashi Rumiko. Evangelion belongs to Gainax. The Bet concept and the accompanying cast and background of Mimir's Well belong to Metroanime.

------------------------------------------

Cthulhu gazed into Mimir's well, watching the goings on in the world that his interferance has created. More specifically, it was watching the activities of Sailor Pluto, and despite its lack of the appropriate features to do so, was giving every impression of frowning.

*PERHAPS THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE ME IN THIS WORLD TO AWAKEN. THINGS ARE BEGINNING TO ACHIEVE NORMALCY, AND NORMAL IS BORING. LET'S SEE NOW...*

Cthulhu's frown deepened (so to speak).

*OH. RIGHT. THERE ISN'T A ME IN THIS WORLD. WHAT DO I HAVE TO WORK WITH, THEN?*

...

*GOD DAMNIT. FINE. I GUESS THAT WILL HAVE TO DO.*

Cthulhu brushed the surface of the well with a tentacle. At that moment, in the nethermost reaches of the ocean, the cutest little sanity-shredding warble you've ever heard echoed through the depths...

--------------------------------------------------

Ranma 1/2: WHY SAILOR PLUTO HATES THE BET

by P.H. Wise

Episode 9: Martial Arts Cross-Country Sprinting

--------------------------------------------------

********

"GENMA SAOTOME, PREPARE TO DIE!"

The cry split the night like an axe, shattering the stillness of the evening into a thousand tiny pieces, most of which Genma proceeded to step on as he ran in a panic. In close pursuit came a dark figure wielding a giant spatula. There wasn't much room to run in the Tendo yard, but run Genma did.

The guest-room window slid open, and Ranma stuck her head out, looking both bleary-eyed and extremely annoyed.

"HEY POP, KEEP IT DOWN OUT THERE, WOULD YA?"

"FOOLISH BOY!" cried Genma as he dodged a swing of the razor-sharp spatula. "GET DOWN HERE AND DEFEND YOUR FATHER!!"

Ranma yawned. "Yeah, whatever. Damnit, whoever you are, kill him more quietly. People are tryin' ta sleep." With that, she shut the window.

The next morning found Genma, bruised and beaten, lying facedown in the Tendo yard.

Nobody really noticed.

As the others sat down for breakfast, Kasumi presented Ranma with a letter. "Ranma-kun," said she with a smile, "That nice boy who mangled your father last night left this for you. He said it was a challenge."

Ranma blinked. "A challenge?" She took the letter and opened it. "Let's see... `Ranma Saotome, you and your father have ruined my life...' Sounds pretty standard so far. `... challenge you to a martial arts cross-country sprinting match...'" She lowered the letter. "Thanks, Kasumi."

"Martial Arts cross-country sprinting?" Akane asked incredulously.

Ranma shrugged. "I ain't never heard of it either, but if it's got martial arts in it, I can do it."

"Whatever."

"Now now, Akane, you should be more supportive of your fiancee."

Akane directed a withering look in her father's direction. He had used the english word - fiancee, and not `iinazuke.' "She is NOT my fiance. She's a girl!"

Soun laughed. "Of course she's not your fiance. She's your fiancee!"

Akane ground her teeth, suddenly understanding the full horror of the play on words that her father had spoken. "That's not funny," she said, glaring at Ranma.

"Hey, why are you looking at ME like that? It ain't MY fault."

"Ah, young love," said Soun, trying his best to look exceedingly wise. "Book a flight to Hawaii, Nabiki! They can be married today!"

"LOVE!?" Ranma sputtered. "Who'd want to marry a flat-chested tomboy like her!?"

Akane's chopsticks snapped in her hands as her battle-aura flared into the visible spectrum. "Flat-chested tomboy, am I!? I'll show you a flat-chested tomboy! DIE, Ranma!" And with that, she punted him through the wall and into low earth orbit.

Nabiki frowned and spoke up then for the first time that morning. "Sis, can you aim for the door next time? They're easier to replace than walls."

"Sorry, Nabiki."

"Not a problem."

"Akane-chan," said Kasumi as she brushed a few bits of stray debris off of the breakfast table, "Don't you have your secret Sailor Senshi meeting today?"

Akane's eye began to twitch.

********

At the Nekohanten, business was booming. It had taken some work to get it up and running in such a short amount of time, but with the way things were going now, Cologne was sure that she was well on her way towards turning a profit. It amused her to do this from time to time - to livee among the mortals, to run a restaurant, or teach at a dojo, or rule a land. As she carefully tasted the soup that she was cooking, a smile flitted across her old and withered face. Things were moving in an interesting direction these days. For the first time in centuries, she was actually curious! Curious to see how it would all turn out!

Chuckling softly to herself, she dished up a bowl of soup. "Shampoo, table two's order is ready."

Shampoo bounced into the kitchen. "Hai, great-grandmother!" she said cheerfully as she scooped up the bowl. She paused at the door a moment. "How long we staying here with the lillim, great grandmother?"

"You're a lillim yourself, child."

"Shampoo different kind of lillim. You know what Shampoo mean. The humans."

Cologne cackled. "Calm yourself, child. We're staying here until my daughter decides to come home with us. Now take table two its' order."

"Yes great-grandmother."

As Shampoo departed, Cologne gave a dark corner of the room a sidelong glance. "And how long are you going to hide there, Adam?"

The shadows seemed to writhe for a moment before Happosai stepped into the light. "Hello, Lillith."

"If this is about convincing my daughter to merge with you, you can forget it. I'll not have my own flesh and blood becoming one with a creature like you."

Happosai frowned. "I already tried that, actually. She wasn't terribly interested in the idea."

"Wasn't terribly interested?"

"... I had to swim back from Antarctica."

Cologne cackled. "Serves you right. I've got a lot invested in that one."

Happosai shook his withered head. "You never were willing to let me have my way. Things would have been much easier if you had."

"Let's not start THAT argument again, Happi." She paused, looking at him very carefully before saying, "Happi, why are you here?"

Happosai did his best to look like a wise sage as he spoke. "In the course of my journeys, I happened upon a small village being terrorized by bandits. I arrived just as the bandits were about to kill the daughter of the mayor - a beautiful girl if there ever was one. After I saved her, in gratitude, they gave me a gift: a kettle with the power to return those splashed with its water to their true form."

Cologne cocked an eyebrow. Her interest was piqued.

"I hid the kettle in the mountains nearby, but I have here a map of its location." He produced the map and handed it to Cologne, who took it and gave it a skeptical glance.

"Adam," said she, "You can't fool me. How did you REALLY get the kettle?"

Happosai frowned. "Why can't an old man have his fun!? Fine. It was several hundred years ago, and I was freeing a set of silky darlings from the Musk. This was back when women were still a part of their tribe, of course. They left the kettle out, and I stole it."

Cologne laughed. "That's more like it. Stole it from the Musk, did you? This isn't going to get you back in my good graces, Adam."

Happosai's frown deepened. "Can't an old man give a gift to his ex-wife without her suspecting that he's up to something?"

"An old man may, but not you."

Happosai harrumphed.

********

Flames billowed before her as the fire crackled and roared like a living thing, straining at the confines that had been imposed upon it. Heat and light blazed forth with dazzling intensity. She chanted.

"Concentrate, Asuka," Luna said as she watched Asuka in the midst of her fire reading. "You have to find out why the Dark Kingdom has been so quiet lately. Concentrate!"

"Is this going to take long?" Akane asked. "I'm supposed to be home for dinner."

"SHUT UP AND LET ME CONCENTRATE ALREADY!" Asuka shouted, directing a withering glare at the two. Unfortunately, with her concentration broken, all of the chi that she had been using suddenly surged into the flame. The fire BLAZED for a moment, and then, an image began to form.

"NOW look what you made me do! DUMMKOPFS!" she took a deep breath. "... I guess we should at least see what we got."

Artemis padded into the room, then, just as the images of Miaka and Tamahome appeared in the fire, the two of them locked in a passionate kiss.

Akane blinked. "Hey, I know this episode!"

Artemis blinked. "I didn't know the sacred fire could do that. Wouldn't it be easier just to get cable, though?"

"Mind your own business, cat," snapped Asuka. She glanced at the anime playing on the fire. "... and pass me the popcorn."

Luna sweatdropped heavily. That signalled the end of THIS meeting.

********

The day was just this side of too hot to be comfortable. The sky was emtpy of clouds, and the air was still. It was a day for lazying about around the house, sleeping in hammocks, and lounging by the pool-side. Ranma was doing none of those things. Rather, the pig-tailed girl was getting off the Tokyo subway (and doing her level best to refrain from killing the man she had been squashed painfully against on the too-crowded train). She departed from the subway station alone, and alone she continued into the small park on the very outskirts of the city, where a small crowd had gathered. Strung between two great trees, a banner read: The Martial Arts Cross Country Sprinting Challenge!

"Saotome!" a voice called from nearby.

Ranma turned to look, and saw standing near the starting line a drop-dead gorgeous teenaged girl clad in shorts and a white t-shirt. She had long brown hair, and there was an oversized spatula strapped to her back. Something about her tugged at Ranma's memory, but she couldn't identify what it was. She could feel heat rising in her cheeks as she stared at the girl. She stammered a bit. At length, she managed to ask, "Are you Ukyou Kuonji?"

Ukyou smiled. "I am, and thanks."

"For what?"

"Your reaction. I think you're very attractive as well."

Ranma turned completely red at that. "Um... yeah. I, uh..." she stammered.

Ukyou approached the pig-tailed girl with a predatory look in her eyes. "I paint, you know. Do you think you could model for me sometime?"

Bleeding slightly from the nose, Ranma continued to stammer, quite obviously VERY uncomfortable, and also quite obviously at a complete loss for what to do. Her smile widening slightly, Ukyou leaned in so close to the pig-tailed girl that their lips nearly touched. "Think about it," she whispered.

Within Ranma's brain, the following protocols began to run:

** Analysis of situation: Inexplicable female attention. **

** Further analysis: Very attractive female attention. **

** Activate foot-in-mouth defense. **

"I... uh... that is..."

** Unable to activate foot-in-mouth defense. Commencing with complete neurological shutdown. **

And with that, Ranma's mind snapped. Into a daze she went, staring off into space with a slight nosebleed and just a little bit of drool coming out of her mouth.

Smiling triumphantly, Ukyou walked back to the starting line just in time. At that moment, the announcer held up his pistol. "On your mark. Get set..." There was a faint shuffling as everyone took their positions. With a deafening crack, the pistol went off, and instantly the runners sprang into motion, tearing off across the park and towards the open country-side.

The pistol-shot jolted Ranma out of her daze. "What the... what happened?" And then it occured to her exactly what had happened. Her eyes narrowed. "Of all the dirty tricks..." she shook her head. "No time for that now, I gotta get running!"

And run she did. Though she had lost a good twenty seconds (the distance from her starting point to the actual starting line), she quickly caught up with the few straggling martial artists who, while possessing great strength and endurance, did not excell in the speed department. Ranma flipped up and over a sumo wrestler's head to avoid his attempt to stomp her into the ground, and quickly attempted to sweep his legs out from under him when she landed on the other side. Attempted being the operating word here. Her leg collided with his with a meaty thud, and he budged not at all. Grimacing, she propelled herself into the air and away from him, avoiding yet another stomp attempt. She landed on the trunk of a tree. Yes, ON the trunk, standing sideways. Using the tree as a springboard, she jumpkicked the sumo wrestler in the face, and down he went. And off SHE went.

Ducking beneath sword blows, weaving to avoid a spray of razor-sharp chopsticks, and even jumping to dodge a stray kitchen sink, Ranma made her way towards the leaders of the race. She could see Ukyou now, some ten yards ahead of any of the other runners. Ranma ran on, and as she ran, she heard a voice whisper in her ear: "I am the wind."

She blinked, glancing this way and that for the source of the voice. Finding it not, she ran on. The finish-line was fast approaching. Ukyou lobbed a few explosive okonomiyakis behind her, and the main pack of runners was sent flying in all directions. Legs pumping, the wind blasting through her hair, Ranma had the most peculiar sensation of flight - that she was hovering off the ground and not running at all. Again the voice whispered: "I am the wind."

"Well, whoever you are," said Ranma, this time not bothering to look about for the voice's source, "if you're not gonna get in my way, then I don't care what you do."

The a sigil flared into existance on Ranma's forehead, and her running speed suddenly doubled. She was even with Ukyou now. No, she was PASSING Ukyou. Ukyou stared at her with wide eyes as she blazed past, mouthing the word, "Masaka..."

The finish line was only ten meters away. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three.

Suddenly, an explosion of rock and dirt erupted just in front of the racing pig-tailed girl, and she was flung to the side, coming skidding to a halt a mere three inches from the finish line. Ukyou crossed the finish line, and from out of the center of the newly revealed tunnel from whence the explosion had come, Ryouga hopped out.

"Now where am I!?" cried the Eternal Lost Boy.

"Ryouga!?"

"RANMA! You... because of you, I'VE SEEN HELL!"

Ranma snorted, flipping to her feet and tossing her pigtail back behind her head (it had fallen in front of her eyes). "Whatever, Ryouga. I don't got time for this." Ranma turned and headed after Ukyou.

Ukyou glanced over her shoulder at the pig-tailed girl. "Something you wanted, sugar?"

"That was a dirty trick. It didn't count! I want a rematch!"

"Ara, was it a trick?" asked Ukyou with a smile.

It took a moment, but when Ranma finally understood the implication of that, she flushed beet red. "Uh... that is... um... so why the change of heart, anyways? You were really hostile in the challenge letter. And it DID say a man-to-man challenge, and you're, uh..."

"HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME, RANMA! PREPARE TO DIE!"

Ukyou shrugged. "I decided that if my fiance is really a girl, then I can be a girl too."

"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!"

Ranma whirled around just in time to leap out of the way of Ryouga's strike. When Ryouga's finger connected with the ground that Ranma had been standing on, there came a tremendous explosion of earth and stone. Ranma's eyes narrowed, and with a moment's concentration, errected an AT barrier to deflect the shrapnel.

Trying to move quickly enough as to not allow Ranma time to recover, Ryouga cried out, "BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" and once again struck at the ground beneath Ranma's feet.

His hand never actually touched the dirt. Before it could do so, Ranma's eyes flared red, and a strangely geometrical yellow barrier field formed around her right hand. She swung it at Ryouga, and the barrier propelled itself into him, knocking him into the air... up... up... up... and the lost boy vanished into the distance.

Ukyou clapped, and Ranma blushed.

"You really are beautiful, Ranchan. I'm serious about the modelling thing, you know."

At a loss for words, Ranma stood and watched as the brown-haired girl turned and walked away.

And then...

"Wait a minute... FIANCE!?"

At the tendo residence, Genma sneezed.

*********

*** The Next Day ***

"Wait... you have ANOTHER fiancee!?"

Ranma blinked. "That's what I said, ain't it?"

"How did THIS happen?"

"How am I supposed to know!? I didn't even know about YOU until my pop knocked me out and dragged me to your house!"

"I'm NOT your fiancee anymore, Ranma. I'm not going to marry another girl."

The two of them were on their way to school, and so far as Ranma could tell, Akane was not terribly pleased with this news of another fiancee. By `not terribly pleased,' of course, I mean she was seeing red and ready to kill the first thing that happened to cross her path. It didn't help much that Ukyou was waiting at the gate to the school. Still, clad as she was in the male school uniform and having her breasts bound as she did, Ranma didn't clue in immediately to who it was.

"Hey Ranchan!"

Ranma and Akane both looked up at that. Ranma looked at Ukyou for a long moment. Something seemed familiar about this `guy'... wait... "You! You're...! ... Wait, you fell into a cursed spring, too?"

Akane's eyes narrowed, and Ukyou blinked. "Say what?" they asked simultaneously - Akane with rising anger and (though she would never admit it) jealousy, Ukyou with confusion.

Suddenly, Ranma's eyes widened.

*FLASH*

A little girl and a little boy fight in front of the Kuonji okonomiyaki stand. The boy wins, and receives an okonomiyaki.

*FLASH*

"Ucchan...?"

Ukyou nodded, a smile lighting up her face. "You remember?"

"... you're a girl?"

Akane's eye began to twitch.

"Last time I checked."

"When did that happen?"

Ukyou looked at Ranma very strangely. "I was born this way, sugar. I guess we both thought wrong, didn't we?"

Ranma went bugeyed at that. "Both thought wrong?"

Ukyou nodded. "I always thought you were a guy up until just recently."

"... I was."

Ukyou blinked.

"Who's this, Ranma?" asked Akane, finally gaining enough control of her temper to trust herself to speak.

Ukyou grinned. "I'm Ukyou. Ranma's fiancee."

Ranma cringed, and Akane's battle aura became visible. The tension in the air between the three was so intense as to come very close to being a visible thing in that moment. The moment passed. "FINE. SEE IF I CARE, YOU MISERABLE PERVERT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as she stormed off.

Ukyou blinked.

Ranma blinked.

*********

Ryouga nearly shook with rage as he spoke, his fist clenched, and that little vein on his forehead bulging so much that it looked like it might pop at any moment. "Ranma Saotome, damn you...!" he glanced at his cross-temporal twin. "You said that new technique would let me beat him, but he's gotten more powerful somehow! He swatted me aside like I was nothing more than a bug! I... I've never been so depressed in my LIFE!"

Ryoga nodded. "I can't allow Ranma to smack MY cross-temporal twin around like that. Treat a RYOUGA like a bug, will he!? Watch closely, Ryouga. I'm going to show you a technique so powerful, it'll blast Ranma into a thousand pieces!"

His interest piqued, Ryouga watched.

*********

Within the throne room of the Dark Kingdom palace, a newly tanned Queen Beryl sat upon her throne, a smirk on her face.

"Roseite, I command you to come forth!"

"Yes, your highness?"

"We've been away far too long, Roseite. It's high time we get back into the business of bringing about Third Impact... or was it Second? Nevermind. Tell me your plan."

Roseite laughed (OOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!), and Beryl (along with most of the court) winced.

"My plan is simply GENIUS, my Queen! I intend simply to kidnap a human, plug them into our power supply, and drain their energy direct..." she trailed off as a curious creature materialized next to her.

It looked much like a Pikachu, save that instead of the standard mouth, it had a mass of slimy tendrils, and it had the most adorable chibi membranous wings. A courtier screamed, and another cried out, "IT'S A PIKATHULHU! RUN! IF YOU LOOK AT IT IT WILL DRIVE YOU COMPLETELY MAD... oh shit."

Pandemonium broke out in the court as the majority of the courteseans were driven completely mad. Gibbering, they fled from the throne room, leaving Beryl and Roseite alone.

"So you don't have any kind of immunities to that kind of thing, do you?" Roseite asked.

"Nope."

"So I guess we're both totally insane now."

"I suppose so."

Roseite paused a moment, seeming to consider her next question carefully. "... do you feel any different?"

"No. Do you?"

"No."

The Pikathulhu chose that moment to speak up. "Pika! Pika!"

Beryl folded her hand in front of her mouth and smirked. "Roseite, I believe this young Pikathulhu is offering us its services."

"Pika! Pika*warble*!"

Roseite promptly glomped the creature. "Kawaii!"

"Roseite, I command you to refrain from glomping the insufferably cute Thing Which Man Was Not Meant To Know."

*********

"... so then he drags me off to China, even though he doesn't speak a WORD of Chinese. It wasn't so bad at first, but then we reach this `secret training ground' that he's been talking about. Jusenkyou. There's these cursed springs there, and anyone who falls in turns into whatever the last thing was that drowned there." Ranma clenched her fist, obviously very angry. "I fell into a spring called `Ayanami-nichuan.' I came out like this. Normally hot water will reverse the curse until ya get splashed with cold again, and for a while, I could go back to being a guy whenever I could get my hands on hot water. It doesn't work anymore, though."

Ukyou wasn't quite sure what to think of that. She shook her head in wonder. "You're not joking, are you." A statement, not a question.

"Wish I was."

It was lunch time, and the two were sitting together beneath a tree some distance removed from the general crowd.

"I don't know what to say. I'm sorry, Ranchan. It must be rough."

Ranma looked vaguely uncomfortable at that, not really used to getting sympathy. At length, she nodded. "Yeah."

There was a silence between them for a few moments, and then Ukyou asked, "Ranchan, why did you leave me behind, back then?" There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. "I'll bet the whole trip wouldn't have been so bad if you'd had someone with you besides your jackass of a father."

Ranma quirked an eyebrow. "Whaddya mean, `leave you behind?' What're ya talkin about?"

*FLASH*

A chibi-Ranma sits on top of the yatten as Genma runs away, dragging it along behind him. Chibi-Ukyou chases after them. Ranma waves to Ukyou. "Bye, Ucchan!"

Ukyou shouts for them to wait, but Ranma doesn't hear. Ukyou stumbles and falls, and there on the ground, she begins to cry.

*FLASH*

"I remember you ran after us, but wasn't that just because ya didn't want to see us leave?"

Ukyou blinked. "Wait... you don't even KNOW?

"Know what?"

"I wasn't running after you because I didn't want you to leave, Ranchan. I was running after you because your idiot father had left me behind!" Ukyou grew angry as she continued. "My father and your father made an agreement that the two of us should get married. The yattai was the dowry, and your father took it and ran off!"

Shock rippled through Ranma's system. Her best friend from her childhood was really her fiancee. Not that they could get married at this point anyways, seeing as how she was kinda stuck as a girl at the moment. "Fiancee..." Ranma whispered.

Ukyou nodded. "When you left, my father decided that he had no daughter, and tried to raise me as a son until such a time as our honour was avenged. He tried to make me give up everything I loved, and concentrate ONLY on training." Her anger subsided a little, replaced by sadness. "Did you know that I used to play the violin? I don't remember how anymore, but I used to be really good. The only thing I managed to continue doing that I had done before was painting."

Ranma shook her head. "Damnit, pop," he whispered, "Why'd you do that to Ucchan...?" She found herself unable to look Ukyou in the eye. "This is ridiculous. I've got TWO fiancees, BOTH arranged by my father, and I can't marry EITHER of them!"

Ukyou raised an eyebrow. "Why can't you marry... wait, TWO fiancees!? Ranchan..." And that's as far as she got before the bloodcurdling screams began.

Ranma bolted to her feet and darted off towards the source of the screams, Ukyou close behind. Through both of their minds flashed the thought: `The duty of the martial artist is to protect the weak.'

They reached the center of the schoolyard, and came upon a horrific sight. A crowd of gibbering students, spouting nonsense phrases, each one of them trying to tear every other one limb from limb with his or her bare hands.

"... Seems normal enough..."

Ukyou sweatdropped. "THIS is normal?"

"Well, yeah."

Suddenly, the sound of battle echoed across the schoolyard. Ranma and Ukyou exchanged glances. Ukyou produced her spatula from subspace.

There! On the roof, Tuxedo-Mallet and an insanely cute Thing Which Man Was Not Meant To Know were locked in fierce combat, while Roseite stood close at hand, shouting instructions to her Pikathulhu.

"I'm not going to let you get away with driving MY classmates mad!" Akane shouted as she flung her hammer at the creature.

"Pikathulhu! Come flapping in on vast, membranous wings!"

"Pika! Pika!"

The creature jumped into the air, over the hammer, and soared on its kawaii little wings towards Akane. Another hammer appeared in Akane's hand, which she quickly swung at the creature.

"Pikathulhu! Rise of the old ones, now!"

"PIKA!"

The creature dropped to the ground below Akane's hammer strike, and then did a spinning uppercut which knocks her to the ground.

Ranma sweatdropped. "... You have GOT to be kidding me."

Ukyou leaped up to the roof in a single terrific leap. "Come on, Ranchan!" she called. Ranma shrugged helplessly before following her up, and so the battle was joined. Ukyou whacked the creature over the head with her combat-spatula. Momentarily dazed, the Pikathulhu took a hammer straight to the face, followed up by a jumpkick from Ranma. As she connected with the creature, Ranma shuddered. It felt like kicking a giant sponge. A surge of power came from the creature, and the three of them were flung backwards.

"PIKATHULHU! FINISH THEM OFF! END OF THE WORLD WARBLE!"

Pikathulhu waaaarbled, and the sound echoed, growing louder and SHARPER with each rebound until it had transformed into a tremendous blast of pure sonic force, aimed directly at the three humans.

"FIRE... SOUL!"

A blast of flame lashed out from somewhere off to the left of the group. It collided with the sonic blast in midair and, and both attacks exploded spectacularly. Everyone whirled around.

"Terrorizing girls on the rooftop of the school is unforgivable! I am Sailor Mars, and in the name of Mars and with high heels, I'll chastize you!"

Ranma was somewhat nonplused. "Huh?" she asked, echoed a moment later by Ukyou's, "What?"

...

"... I was in a rush, and it was all I could think of, OK!?"

"SUUUURE."

Sailor Mars shook her head. "Less talk, more monster-killing!"

Roseite laughed triumphantly, and everyone winced. "OOOOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Pikathulhu! End of the World Warble!"

Once more a sonic blast lanced forth. Ranma, Ukyou and Sailor Mars leaped clear. Tuxedo Mallet, however... took it head on and was blasted into unconsciousness.

"AKANE!" Ranma cried. Her eyes began to glow an undying red as a matching deadly red aura flared into existance, writhing madly around her.

Ranma leaped at the Pikathulhu, and not a moment too soon, its aura sprung into existance around it. Their auras met with a flash of light, and the very air seemed to crackle with power. Ukyou threw a few throwing spatulas at the Thing even as Sailor Mars tossed another fireball its way. Both attacks broke upon the creature's aura, both the fireball and the spatulas disintigrating almost instantly. The attacks were not totally without an effect, however: they did serve to distract the creature. Its concentration broken, the Pikathulhu's AT-field crumbled before Ranma's. "PIKAPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!" it cried as it disintigrated.

Breathing heavily, Ranma fell to her knees. A laugh (OOOOHOHOHOHOHOHO!) sounded out from behind her, and she winced. Ranma, Ukyou, and Sailor Mars all turned around, only to see Roseite hovering in the air with Tuxedo Mallet slung over her shoulder.

"This one, at least, will trouble the Dark Kingdom no longer! I take my leave of you, harridans!" cried the Black Rose of the Dark Kingdom as she vanished in a hail of (black) rose petals.

"AKANE!"

END EPISODE 9

-------------------------------

Comments? Criticisms? Do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Let me know!

Let's keep it civil, please. Flames will be laughed at. MSTies will

also be laughed at, but in an entirely different manner than flames. 8)

stillwell_phw@hotmail.com

www.geocities.com/stillwell_phw/wisefics.html