Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Reluctant Bet (2nd Labor) ❯ Hell to pay ( Chapter 9 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Reluctant Bet, segment 9

"Hell to pay"

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

Still not on the Target Timeline:

"AAaaaaah"

GRAB! GRAB!

Kiyone looked up to where the guy had grabbed her belt and Sasami's belt. "Uhm, thanks..."

Grey looked to where the D-hopper was still falling. "Hang on, i'll have to land and get that. Good thing this is my cyborg form, if i'd turned into Ranma we'd be stuck trying to transport before we hit bottom."

Sasami finally unclenched her eyes to look. Deserts, volcanoes, and a single unpleasant looking black river. "I don't think I like this place."

Grey continued a slow descent to the ground. "I think you're right. I extended my forcefield automatically, and the environment outside the bubble is reading downright toxic."

Kiyone tried not to shift, also not to think about how undignified this looked. "Any idea where we are?"

"Can't be exact without accessing my Planewalker's Guide. Offhand, i'd say we're in one of the Earth timelines where some ecological disaster like a meteor strike scoured the planet of life. That would also account for the volcanoes."

"THAT'S Earth?!"

"Altitude 1000 feet. Yeah, Pretty sure, this is one of the Dead Earths. i was on one where the Ice Age that started in the Middle Ages continued to get worse. It was a Ranma timeline, but because of the diminishing resources and advancing ice sheets, the setting was a bit different." Grey shuddered

"What happened there?" Sasami asked but wasn't sure she wanted to hear. Still, it wasn't like they could do much else at the moment.

Grey paused for awhile, deciding how to tell them. "800 feet. Well, cannibalism was pretty widespread, and the Tendos had control of these hot springs. Made them pretty wealthy by the standards of that world. Kasumi was a good cook, i'm sure, but watching Akane butcher Ranma for the cookpot..."

Sasami turned a bit green. "Oh dear."

"And what were you doing on THAT world?" Kiyone was feeling a bit queasy herself.

"Actually i was there for the Yamani family. They were hunters who worked in the area under Lord Tendo. They had a wish registered that someone would find something better for them to hunt than rats and deer."

Kiyone blinked. "Okay... so what did you do?"

"Brought in a variety of conifer, planted some groves. Also a variety of grass that can survive in very little soil. For the short term, i put in a form of wild ox but in a different area. 700 feet."

"So the grass and the trees could spread and provide forage for later," Kiyone nodded to show she understood. "Not bad."

"Yeah, didn't do the Yamani much good though. Neighboring tribe wiped 'em out during a seasonal conflict with the Tendos..." Grey turned eyes heavenward. "And people wonder why i tend to get depressed."

"Hey, I think I see that rod thing."

"Yeah, that's it. Hang on..."

Kiyone waited briefly as the ground slowly approached. "Can't you go any faster?"

"Nope. Not without lowering power to the forcefield. 400 feet. The air just beyond the forcefield has got a lot of particulates, dang little oxygen, and registers as one hundred fifty on the Celsius scale. Some of the trace gases are also coming up as poisonous."

"Oh my." Sasami looked up at the figure carrying them. "You're not getting tired, are you?"

"Nah. Internal fusion microplant. Limbs are bionic. i don't tire that easy, except for mental fatigue." Grey went quiet as the bubble around them shuddered under a sudden wind change. "Hmmmmm. Looks like... The ground is coming back as mainly being volcanic ash. Old enough that it's compacted some."

"Well, the Rod didn't sink into it, so that's a good sign." Kiyone looked around at the hellish landscape as they got closer. "Definitely not the sort of place I'd want to stay."

All three remained silent until they contacted the ground. Grey, weighing the most, sunk past his ankles into the ash.

"Look, there's someone over there!" Sasami pointed off past a dune.

Marller stepped out of a swirling gate, middle finger upraised as she shouted something at the threesome. Then got a very startled expression as the gate closed behind her and she tried to breathe.

"Bad guy?" Kiyone asked as Marller went to her knees, holding her throat and baring slight fangs as she gasped for breath.

"Yup," Grey agreed. "Tangled with her before. That's Marller, a Demon First Class."

"Wow! A Demon! Really?" Sasami had only seen Ryoko before.

"Yup. Vicious, mean, and nasty." Grey watched Marller struggle a bit more. "Well, i guess i better go rescue her. No telling what'll happen if the Doublet System activates."

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

Wander Inn:

"AAAAAHHHH!" Mina felt herself wake as if from a long dream. Then she realized what she was doing, and who she was doing it with. Amy had a nearly identical reaction.

So did the pair of Rei and Lita.

"What happened?!"

"I- I- I-" Amy managed, blushing furiously and trying to hide herself.

"Other than the obvious?" Rei checked, found a small shower and immersed herself without hesitation. One didn't need psychic powers to see a rush for it a little later. "Okay, we left robot-boy back at the table. I got this sudden crush on Lita that went beyond the usual affection I have for all of you. SOMETHING cut through that bloodbond spell and..."

"But I? We?"

"It's a good thing Chad didn't see that, he'd have had a heart attack." Rei chuckled and finished rinsing herself off, then left so that the patiently waiting Lita could enter the shower stall. There simply wasn't room for more than one.

"So what do we do?" Amy said, covering herself with a sheet while she waited for her turn in the shower.

Rei opened the door and left the room, suddenly famished again.

"We'll just go back and excuse ourselves to Grey. He strikes me as the understanding type. Then we can part company when we get to a world where we can fit in." Lita said as she relinquished the shower to Mina.

Rei re-entered the room, waving a note. "Guys, we need to hitch a ride out of here. Dig this:

"Dear Amy, Lita, Mina, Rei,
As you have apparently decided on some 'quality time' and have no further use for me, i am leaving this nexus point and continuing my journey. The bloodbond is still active, but i know some people who should be able to cut through it, especially as it was done without the assent of one of the parties. Have fun and i wish you all the best. Ask the waitress for directions to exit into one of the timelines you're bordering. Grey aka Ranma"

"He's dumped us here?!" Mina called from the shower.

Lita dried her hair as best she could with a towel. "Sounds to me like he thinks we were dumping him."

"We did," said Amy with a wince.

"Well, I can't see where that bloodbond is doing ANY of that stuff he was talking about."

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

Morisato Residence:

"Well, you're the original, so YOU should have Keiichi," Belldandy said deferentially to Belldandy.

"I still think we could all share him," said Belldandy hopefully.

Keiichi, watching three of four Belldandy discuss sharing him, excused himself to go get a cold shower.

"How sweet," said Belldandy, "but don't you think it would intimidate Kei-chan. He seems a bit intimidated by just one of us."

"How could he be intimidated by me?" Belldandy blinked and tried to consider such a thing.

"I just spoke with Astrild on the phone," Belldandy said as she entered the room. "She came up with an explanation. There were some merging timelines over on spoke 327. The spell Urd was casting misfired and summoned some of those others at the moment of re-merger. Apparently that's why we all detect as real and stable."

"And so when we attempted to discharge the energies of the spell-cloud, we formed a 'ground' but were caught in the effect. I see..." Belldandy finished, her face troubled.

"And with those Kei-chan being merged, I suppose that he's still with a Belldandy himself?"

"Yes," Belldandy said to herself with a saddened look.

"So, did Father say anything?" Belldandy asked herself, handing herself a cup of tea. That was something Belldandy and Kasumi had in common. No matter how bad the situation, it could be made a little better with a nice hot cup of tea.

"No comment from him directly. Astrild and Keefer both were checking Yggdrasil for proper protocols. Obviously having four goddesses of the present is too many. Not to mention two Megumi's and two Urds."

"Three," said Urd, coming in from the hall. "One of us was passed out under the bed."

"So, three of us and two Urd have to leave this timeline? Oh dear," Belldandy said with a slight pout. She'd thought the idea of surrounding Keiichi with herself was amusing. Which would have shocked at least one of the other Belldandy if she'd known.

"Hey, Urd," said an Urd now standing in the doorway. "I figured out what to do about Grey!"

"Grey?" Belldandy asked in an odd chorus.

"Yeah," Urd said, turning her attention to the Belldandy convention. "We were trying to slip him a love potion so as to get him involved with this really nice nature spirit."

"But someone fed ME a love potion and I got this enormous crush on Edema." Urd frowned slightly.

"Yeah," repeated Urd. "Anyway it was a simple matter to go to the Dead Millenium universe, get the stuff they used to cast that bloodbond. Now all we have to do is cast a love spell strong enough to snare all of 'em THROUGH the bloodbond."

"Urd!" Belldandy frowned disapprovingly. "Compelled love doesn't last!"

"It does if one of the parties doesn't abuse the other. And out of that group at least ONE should remain after the others are done. The tricky part will be having them love him and not each other considering that last effort. I think I've got it though, and I'm working on it right now."

"Oh dear," chorused Belldandy.

"I better see what happened to Kei-chan. The rest of you?" Belldandy got up, suiting actions to words and left to check on poor Keiichi.

"I'll check their spell," volunteered a second Belldandy. "It's really not right to do this."

"Even if everyone is happier WITH such an arrangement?" queried the third Belldandy.

"Come on, Bell," said the fourth to the third. "Let's check in with Heaven and see what's going on."

"You go ahead," said the third Belldandy to the fourth. "One of the Megumi is out in the yard and looks like she could use someone to talk to."

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

Rival Relief Office, Asgard:

Grey finished typing. "Okay, Kiyone, you can get off the scanner. Sasami, are you sure about this?"

"Yup!" Sasami nodded her head and gave a thumb's up.

"Okay, get up on the scanning platform. Kiyone, there's your entry."

Kiyone looked over the screen, commenting that their computer system looked like it had been cobbled together from several different obsolete computers. Which was accurate.

>Name: Mambo Jack
>Designation: God Of Male Potency, Second Class, Limited
>Area Of Expertise: Drinking, Partying, Sexual Performance
>Special Notes: Thirty Seven Conduct Violations pending review
>Assignment: Currently working in MK211"41, expansion of Kama
>Sutra involving Limbic Kai techniques.
>
>Name: Kiyone
>Designation: Mortal Agent Trainee, Galaxy Police Officer
>Area Of Expertise: Marksman, Investigation, Police work
>Special Notes: Gamma level martial artist, comes from near-Earth
>human stock- world of origin has artificially enhanced by primitive
>genetic engineering template.
>Assignment: Currently unassigned. Suggest equipping as soon as is
>possible.
>WARNING: Traces of High Level Enchantment.
>

"What do you mean 'primitive'?" Kiyone scowled at the screen.

"It's just a computer, it's not even an artificial intelligence. That's just its evaluation from the scan. Now i input your data and Sasami's so her own entry ought to be coming up about now..."

>
>Name: Sasami Jurai
>Designation: Mortal Agent, Schoolgirl
>Area Of Expertise: Cooking, Domestic Chores, Jurai based technology
>Special Notes: Tsunami entry pending special conditions.
>Assignment: Currently unassigned. Suggest equipping as soon as is
>possible.
>WARNING: High level Enchantment noted.
>

Grey raised an eyebrow (thankful that his cyborg body had been upgraded to allow him such gestures) at the Special Notes entry. Then the entry above Mambo Jack caught his eye. "Hey, is this a joke? Oh, you can get down now, Sasami."

>Name: Ranma Saotome
>Designation: Agent, Temporary License.
>Area of Expertise: World Class Martial Artist, Mage, Veritech Pilot,
>Surgeon, more
>Special Notes: Currently on mission in RN287143.
>Assignment: Current mission: Divine Intervention, attempt to steer
>corrupted individual back into a more positive role
>

Grey blinked as this was a fairly typical mission. "Uhm, let me see if I can find out what that Enchantment is." He walked over to a set of cheap aluminum shelves and began going through odd gadgets.

Kiyone and Sasami watched with some amusement as Grey produced a small hand drum adorned with feathers, an odd three-sided mirror, a Faberge style egg, and what looked like a ping-pong ball gun.

"Here we go," Grey finally said as he pulled out something like a jeweler's loupe attatched by a set of mechanical arms to a massive book. "Thane's Codex Of Enchantments, Charms, and Curses."

Kiyone watched as Grey fit the loupe over one eye and stared at her. The mechanical arms flipped through the book until they finally pointed at one page. Grey then removed the loupe to examine the passage framed by the hands.

Kiyone was curious enough to read over the cyborg's shoulder. "A LOVE SPELL?!"

Grey's face was flat as he briefly regarded Kiyone. "Okay. Let's see about Sasami." Again using the loupe, Grey regarded Sasami. The arms merely moved slightly this time.

"Oh my," said Sasami, blushing. "So that's why..."

Grey sighed, obviously saddened by something. "Don't worry. i won't take advantage of you. These things are usually just temporary in nature anyway. Besides, if the alarm there is any indication, the rescue party to bring both of you back is already getting close."

"Eeep. Mihoshi?" Kiyone could see it now, she'd be dragged back. Back to Mihoshi. Back to no chance for promotion. Back away from what she saw as an opportunity. "Can we leave? NOW?!"

"They'll just come for you again..." Grey sighed. He had hoped that the interest he'd been sensing from Kiyone had been someone actually attracted to him, and he could see where her career might have been furthered. Obviously, it had been too good to be true.

"But..." Kiyone's eye caught the screen. "We're members of the Rival Relief Office now. You HAVE to help us."

"i suppose." Grey grabbed a satchel, a small box, a number of unidentifiable objects, and a cute little backpack off shelves. "Here, you'll need these. Hang on while we cross planes again."

When the door was knocked off its hinges (Ryoko didn't check or she would have found it was unlocked) the room was empty.

Naturally, Mihoshi had no idea how dangerous the little drum she was playing with was.

Just as naturally, Washu said a few disparaging things about the computer, but read the contents and clicked on the various menus. Then noticed the book that had been left open.

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

Target Timeline:

In a place that still had plastic over a number of fixtures, a room was lit by a television.

"It was terrifying, Tendo..." Genma's voice stopped as his eyes caught up with what they were seeing. He wasn't thinking about stealing, he wasn't thinking about eating, he wasn't thinking about the Art.

"What?" Soun's eyes tracked to the TV. "REWIND IT!"

Shampoo smirked (it was only natural for womans of Amazon tribe to have control over remote) and hit the rewind, followed by the play button.

Black screen, a sparkle resolves quickly into a mirror.

"One, two, three, four"

With each number, a different Ranma Saotome appeared in the mirror. The first was the one they had met, the second would be recognized by Ukyo as Parn from "Record Of Lodoss Wars", the third wore the armor of a samurai, the fourth a blonde gaijin that most of the girls recognized from the "Supersoldier" series they'd seen earlier.

"Can I have a little more? Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten..."

Ranmas continued to appear, wearing some sort of pilot's outfit, wearing fantasy swashbuckler clothing, a Ranko in a nurse's outfit, as Sailor Earth, in an Evangelion plugsuit, and in surgical scrubs.

"I love you."

Kasumi stared and considered fainting as she watched a brief image of herself resting her head on Ranma's shoulder and obviously relaxing.

"A, B, C, D Can I bring my friend to tea?"

Ukyo giggled in glee as the scene came up again where she and her Ranchan were obviously sharing a happy moment IN THAT VERY RESTAURANT over tea.

"E, F, G, H, I, J, K I love you."

Nabiki wondered who the girl in the red fuku was. Some sort of cheerleader?

"Sail the ship (bompabom), jump the tree (bompabom), skip the rope (bompabom),"

Image of a veritech fighter slides to the right showing Ranma leaping up over a tree. This image shifts to the left and the new image is of Ranma walking a rope over a chasm.

"Look at meeeeee! All together now...."

As the chorus goes on, dozens of different Ranmas pass by the screen, all singing. Several are carrying a sign with the series title "Mirrors Multiplied"

"Black, white, blue, red,"

Nabiki had been waiting for this, the standard "villain cast" frame shot. She didn't recognize most of those present, but then she hadn't expected to. Tatewaki Kuno, though obviously enhanced with cyborg parts, being one of the villains DID surprise her. That SHE was in the villains section was cause for concern.

"Can I take my friend to bed?"

Kasumi DID faint as the image showed her all but dragging Ranma into her bedroom.

"Pink, brown, yellow orange blue, I love you..."

Several of the viewers stared at the number of women filling the screen. No two alike. Nabiki was confused by her own inclusion in that cast. Was she a villain or romantic lead or had she somehow managed to be BOTH. Shampoo and Ukyo high-fived each other when they noticed their own inclusion.

"All togetheeeer nooooowww...."

"That... that was Ranma..." Genma said in a disbelieving voice.

"In last weeks episode, Ranma's father Genma had pulled yet another bonehead manuever and..."

Genma gulped as the screen-Genma went up to the front gate of the mansion and demanded that Ranma come home with him and marry Akane as honor demanded.

"MARS FIRE SOUL!"

"MANNA BOLT!"

"Blue Iczelion GRAVITON BEAM!"

"Razor Hoop!"

"Oh my!"

"Veritechs Seven and Eight target that man with dummy warheads."

"Dummy warheads, ma'am?"

"Sweets for the sweet, lieutenant."

Genma winced as his on-screen likeness started dodging attacks but was getting pummelled anyway.

"And now episode XXI: Ask not for whom the Wedding Bell Tolls... or Ranma No Kekkon?"

"Kasumi, you look like you were born to wear that..."

"Thank you, Nabiki. Oh, how's father doing?"

"Dehydrated actually."

"Ah, Rae-chan! Is that a Mars Wedding Dress?"

The wise and benevolent patriarch of clan Saotome stared at the screen. He focussed in on the relevant details. That was... Ranma preparing for a wedding with some girl who was NOT one of Soun's daughters. "RANMA! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?! You break your father's heart!"

"Saotome, what kind of loose morals did you instill upon your son!"

Nabiki decided all the fuss was interfering with her watching the program. "Did you notice that Kasumi is ALSO wearing a wedding dress, Uncle?"

"Ah, and so our plan to unite the Houses WILL prove successful!" Soun's emotions proved capable of doing a high speed "U" turn.

Kasumi moaned softly in her sleep.

"Proving our wisdom in making that agreement, Tendo!" Genma wasn't a slouch in the "take any chance to prove how great you are" department either.

"It's decided then. Ranma will marry Kasumi!" Soun wiped tears from his face. "Oh happy day!"

"I still think Akane would be a better choice," hemmed Genma, "after all, Akane IS a martial artist."

"Look at who's getting married..." Nabiki pointed at the screen.

"Oh my."

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

A knock at the door brought Nodoka to politely bow as she answered it. Then she saw the woman's face, her eyes, and KNEW who this was. She didn't know how she knew. She simply knew. That the late evening of the rest of Tokyo had been replaced in her doorway by noon was just further confirmation.

Nodoka was a traditional woman in many ways. When one of your kami shows up on your doorstep, there are only a few reactions which are really appropriate. Fainting was one of them, but might be considered impolite.

"Saotome-san, may one speak to you regarding the individual you know as your son?"

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

Elsewhere:

Grey sneezed. He wasn't Japanese, but he was associating with anime characters and that made it close enough.

"So where's our client?" Sasami asked, blinking as she looked over the seated cyborg's shoulder at the computer he was working with.

"Scanning. Looks like one of the pokemon worlds. Kiyone, could you go to my bag? There should be six red-and-white spheres in there." Grey continued to set up the search routine.

"These?" Kiyone held one of the devices up.

"That's them. There's also a device that looks kind of like a Game Boy with an outer lid. Get that out and give two spheres to Sasami, take two spheres yourself, and leave two behind for me."

"What do they do?" Kiyone looked over the bi-color cueball curiously.

"Pokeballs, sort of. These aren't GENUINE pokeballs. They're something Rafe worked out that do basically the same thing. These use modified transporter and extradimensional storage technology. One of these days i'll have to get him a REAL pokeball so he can take it apart."

"'Rafe'?"

"Raphael, one of the archangels. Likes to slum with the Rival Relief Office because we tend to be scavengers. The other agencies have raw power to do things, WE have to rely on whatever we can find and add to our own personal equipment. Which is what we're doing here." Seeing that Kiyone hadn't found it yet, Grey went over to his sack and pulled out a box that he handed to Sasami, then gathered a set of objects which he slapped together into a "gun" shape.

"What's that?" Kiyone was interested. Guns she could handle.

"Something i haven't perfected yet. i HOPE it works..."

"Let me repeat myself. What is that?"

"An element gun. IF it works."

Sasami blinked. Kiyone blinked.

Something moved through the underbrush.

"Okay, Kiyone. When i yell 'now' throw the pokeball at whatever it is and say 'pokeball go' - it's an activation phrase." Grey readied his odd carbine-looking gun.

"Mag?" A creature that looked kind of like an aardvark with a flaming mohawk moved out of the brush, causing a small fire as it moved. "Ash?"

"Open the pokedex, Sasami."

Sasami did, noting that a picture of the creature appeared in the display.

"MAGMARASHI. The final stage of Hinoarashi. This flame pokemon is considered dangerous. No further data."

Grey clicked a switch and pulled the trigger on his device.

Thousands of gallons of water swept over the flaming creature. "MAG?! MAGMAAAAAAA!"

"Stop, you're hurting it!" Sasami couldn't believe that Grey could be that mean.

Grey stopped. "Now, Kiyone!"

"Yeah, right. Pokeball go!" Kiyone bounced the sphere off the creature. The sphere opened up and the creature seemed to get stuck inside.

"You-you killed it!" Sasami stepped back, looking properly horrified.

"No, it's in an extradimensional pocket. See the blinking light? If it stops struggling, the light will go out and the creature is essentially yours. Treat it well and it will do well for you. If it breaks free, then that's it - it's free." Grey watched the blinking light briefly. Then it faded. "Okay, Kiyone, pick it up and the pokeball will register you as its owner. You now have a pet magmarashi."

"What if I pick it up?" Sasami was still concerned about the creature.

"Then it will be YOUR Magmarashi."

Sasami didn't wait any longer but went and got the sphere. "Is it okay?"

"Push the stud on the side or throw it and say something to indicate your desire to let the Magmarashi out."

"Magmarashi! Come out!" Sasami threw the pokeball and Magmarashi appeared.

"MAG!"

"Oh, poor thing!" Sasami hugged the beastie, not noticing that she wasn't being burned.

"What can it do?" Kiyone eyed the creature uncertainly.

"Flame attacks, more than that i don't know." Grey checked the Planewalkers Guide then his RRO laptop. "Sasami, one of the things you'll learn in this line of work is you can't always judge based on the terms of your own culture and you can't right every wrong. It's something i still have trouble with myself. In some ways it's like cockfighting or Arena pit fighting, and the morality of the whole thing bothers me. But in these worlds there's usually a reason the system developed and continues to work."

"But why?" Sasami's pink eyes stared at Grey.

Quite aware that both Kiyone and Sasami were hanging on every word, Grey frowned as he tried to find a way to put it in reasonable terms. "OK. In one of the pokemon type worlds i visited, the whole Trainer thing was because of an ancient pact between the native species (the pokemon) and the colonists (the humans). The wild pokemon weren't as well cared for as the ones with a trainer, and the trained ones also tended to be stronger. It also turned out that the pokemon who didn't want a Trainer knew how to avoid them. The initial capture then became a matter of determining if the Trainer was good enough for the pokemon's standards."

"So the relationship is symbiotic in those worlds," Kiyone caught on quickly. "If the ones under a Trainer prospered more than the wild ones, and the Trainer benefitted from having strong pokemon, then the arrangement was mutually beneficial."

Grey nodded. "For the most part. i *still* don't care for it, but if the pokemon doesn't like the arrangement they've been known to go rogue or choose another trainer so it isn't QUITE as bad as i had originally thought."

"Oh..." Sasami looked at the fiery creature in her arms. "Do you want to be my pokemon?"

"MAG!" The aardvark grinned and nodded his head.

"What about this one?" Kiyone held up a blinking pokeball of a different design than the others.

"Oh, i just stuffed Marller in there while she recovered. She'll be fine." Grey dismissed the topic. "Besides, she's a Demon, so i used an experimental ball on her. We'll just release her when we're in the process of leaving some world, that way she can't attack us that easily."

"Oh," Kiyone stuffed the ball back in the sack. No point in borrowing trouble.

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

Target Timeline:

A knock on the door caused the group to go silent from their discussion of the big wedding scene. Kasumi had just groggily awoken to find that somehow she'd been dressed in a wedding kimono. Fortunately for her peace of mind, she found she was still wearing her normal clothes underneath or her quick shucking of the heavy garb would have been embarrassing.

"The doors downstairs are locked," said Ukyo in an apprehensive tone as the knock repeated.

"Maybe it Ranma!" Shan exclaimed, bouncing up. She opened the door but was disappointed.

"Good evening," the woman swept in, briefly looking over the group before fixing on Genma. "YOU!"

"Heh..." said Genma, looking wildly about for an avenue of escape.

"...and you." The woman's eyes swiveled to Soun.

"Uhm, do I know you?" Soun looked over the woman. Formal kimono, tied with an obi, the two swords of the samurai thrust through the sash. Very old and well-used looking swords, Soun noted. Then his eyes went up to the woman's face, the odd red circles on forehead and both cheeks were curious. It was when he saw her eyes that Soun began to sweat.

"Oh my kami." Kasumi breathed upon seeing the fiery orbs that looked over everyone in the room.

"So nice to be recognized," said the woman with a slight smile.

============================

Ideas from this one:

Why would pokemon WANT an arrangement like this when it has been demonstrated that they can go rogue? (Marowak did this in an episode i recently saw, then decided to return.)

That not all Alternate Earths are the sort of place you'd want to vacation in.

The Mirrors Multiplied season one opening animation. (Whatta ya think, Skysaber-san?)

A bit of a look into the RRO and how it operates while being overshadowed by the big guns like the Goddess Relief Office and Earth Assistance Hotline. Sort of like a small mom-and-pop convenience store two blocks from a K-mart and a Wal-mart, ie: forever on the verge of bankruptcy.

Magmarashi is one of the new pokemon, it hasn't made it to the anime series that i'm aware of.