*** Earth  +4.112,+3.066  (-3,882.14761 Years)

A mirage sparkled in the distance across the sea of sand, a simple 
trick of light caused by reflections from the rising heat waves in the 
air.  A wind blew gently across the sun-scorched sands, rippling the 
silvery image as it would have across a pond of still water.  Then, 
briefly, the illusion was briefly disturbed by a robed figure suddenly 
cresting a high dune, garbed in typical desert nomad fashion, to 
protect the flesh hidden beneath from the effects of the desiccating 
orb slowly lowering in the western sky.  A single waterskin of sturdy 
leather swung at the figure's waist, and a simple wooden staff was held 
clutched in a firm grip, the skin on the hand holding it the color of 
sun-ripened wheat.

The wind suddenly died, and the figure paused, sensing something else 
rising like a storm even as the air fell silent.  A faint upwelling of 
power could be sensed nearby, a unique enough occurrence to cause the 
figure to tarry briefly on its journey to parts unknown.

                   ******************************

*** Earth  +4.612,+4.509  (-3,882.14760 Years)

Taking a drink of water from the skin, the hood of the robe fell back 
to partially reveal the face of a man of Asian descent.  The strange 
emanations of power in the nearby air had faded away to nothingness 
mere moments after first being detected, the disturbing sensation of 
feeling something pressing against the skin of reality from outside 
vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.  But he had waited and cast 
out his senses to see if a clue as to its nature could be determined.

Letting the waterskin drop back to his side, the man shrugged once and 
continued on towards his destination, feeling that he had wasted his 
time in pointless delay.

                   ******************************

*** Earth  +4.112,+3.066  (-3,882.14760 Years)

There was a lingering smell of ozone in the oddly still air, a mute 
counterpoint to the heat of the day scorching the sands.  A smoking 
corpse lay sprawled out across a rolling dune, appearing to have been 
quite recently struck by lightning despite the cloudless sky above.  A 
few faintly lingering wisps of vapor still trailed upwards into the 
air.  Next to it was a second body, this one the naked form of a man 
lying facedown in the sand, still alive, if only just barely.

The second figure suddenly stirred spasmodically, coughing to clear the 
grit and sand from his throat.  He was a man of Asian descent, tall and 
muscled like an athlete, with his skin lightly darkened from the sun 
and wind.  A look of confusion suddenly marred his face when the spasms 
finally ceased, and he gazed upon the features of the corpse, a corpse 
whose features were identical to his own.

Still coughing occasionally, feeling random bits of rough sand continue 
to grate against the soft tissues within his throat and mouth, he spat 
out phlegmy grit and quickly wiped his face with his forearm.  Standing 
up on unsteady legs, he moved closer to the corpse, its eyes wide open 
and staring.  A few insects had already begun to emerge from the sands 
to investigate this new development in their midst, and it would not be 
long before other sorts of scavengers emerged as well.

Closing his eyes, the man concentrated for a moment on his breathing, 
feeling the dry air filling and evacuating from his lungs.  Before this 
moment, his last clear memories were of pain and fear, and a beautiful 
girl wielding a naginata seemingly made of energy and light.  But that 
was all he could recall for the moment, feeling that blade cleaving 
through him, and knowing death was coming to claim him.  Then he had 
found himself here, in a desert somewhere, standing next to a body that 
looked like his own.  Memories of what had happened between those two 
instances were vague and blurry right now.

He looked around, but only the shifting sands and the slowly rising 
winds met his gaze.  Lifting a hand, he began incanting a spell that 
would clothe him, and suddenly his skull was filled with white-hot 
knives of stabbing pain.  Collapsing to his knees upon the hot sand, 
his body was consumed with dry heaves for several agonizing moments.

When the pains and convulsions had finally passed, he shakily rose back 
to his feet and eyed the corpse.  Shrugging his shoulders, he began to 
strip the body of its clothing and other accoutrements as he took stock 
of the situation he now found himself in, as his fragmented memories 
gradually coalesced.  Once he had been far more than this, a being able 
to span time and space as easily as one could step from street to curb, 
an entity of such raw destructive power that its very name was a hiss 
and a byword across a galaxy.

Kain.

Desperation had driven him to attempt something he had never attempted 
before, separating a portion of his essence from his body at the brink 
of his own destruction and blindly casting it out across time and space 
to escape his own impending death.  He had succeeded, but at a terrible 
price, losing most of his powers and accidentally destroying his other 
self in this time in the process, forcing him to seek out a suitable 
vessel that would be able to contain his remaining might.  His essence 
had scanned this miserable rimworld in the span between moments for any 
being of sufficient strength to suit his purposes, but he could find 
only one, a human who would someday title himself as the Shogun of the 
Dark.

Even as he felt his essence losing its remaining cohesion and beginning 
to dissipate, he had attempted to possess and assimilate this human, 
who had been travelling by foot across the edge of a vast desert 
wasteland.  In an instant, he had absorbed and experienced the temporal 
lifepath of the Shogun, from its auspicious beginning all the way to 
its ignominious end, snuffed out beneath the wheels of a common city 
bus.  But the backlash caused by the commingling of their powers had 
proven to be too much for his chosen vessel.  The Shogun of the Dark 
was killed almost instantly, and even more of his own precious energies 
had been lost.

His memories were clearer now, and he could now recall more of what had 
happened afterwards.  Having tried and failed to possess the body of 
the Shogun, a daring attempt to cheat death of its victories over them 
both in the future, he had now become a phantom haunting his own past.  
The journey here had been a huge gamble, one he knew his essence would 
not survive a second time.  The chances were too great that he would 
lose cohesion completely if he attempted another timejump to a point 
even further back within his own existence.

However, a singularly fortunate side-effect of his commingling with the 
spirit of this human had been the reaping of a rich harvest of energies 
from its dying body that the Shogun had been slowly accumulating over 
centuries.  These energies granted him a more attractive alternative to 
submitting meekly to death.  Even as the final portions of his essence 
had begun dissipating away into nothingness, he had used the entirety 
of that stolen storehouse of power to conjure a special sort of tulpa, 
a simulacrum vessel constructed of magic in a close resemblance to the 
flesh and blood form he had sought to inhabit, capable of housing and 
sustaining him.  But this action had rendered him into being something 
not quite dead but also not quite alive.

However, having done this thing, he had burned out the remainder of his 
energy reserves, possibly permanently, but perhaps the fullness of his 
powers would restore themselves in time.  Still, being here in the past 
gave him a most rare opportunity.  He no longer cared about revenge 
against the hated Juraians.  Survival was all that mattered now to him.  
Despite the many annoying gaps existing in their combined memories, 
Kain knew he had usurped a most useful identity to exploit in regaining 
his once-godlike powers.  It would allow him to move unseen through the 
shadows of history, a law unto himself alone.

Yes, that was what he would become, a shadow law, stalking down through 
the ages and slowly shaping the world into one more to his liking.  But 
until he deemed the time to be right, he would refrain from altering 
any significant historical events, instead quietly profiting from his 
foreknowledge of them, amassing wealth, political influence, and a 
secret army of loyal followers, even as he worked behind the scenes of 
history to ensure his future place in it.  He would raise up kings and 
nations and see them cast down at their proper moments, so that the 
timeline he remembered would remain relatively unaltered.  And while he 
did so, he would use his foreknowledge of this world's future to build 
his forces throughout the many hidden corners of unrecorded history.

Then, when he deemed it to be the proper time, he could begin slowly 
consolidating his control of this world under one nation to form an 
empire.  And when its hold over the globe was nearly complete, aided by 
his efforts from the shadows, he could then quietly step in and assume 
absolute control, enjoying the final steps to the final domination of 
this tiny rimworld, beginning an immortal reign that would eventually 
reach out across the galaxy and would last for an eternity.  He would 
also find a means to regain what he had sacrificed here this day, by 
whatever instrumentality was necessary, to once again have a body that 
was more suitable to his needs, one that was real and alive, not this 
pathetic ectoplasmic puppet he was now forced to inhabit to survive.

He would become emperor of the galaxy.

No.  Not merely an emperor.  He would become something greater than he 
had ever aspired to before, a power that none would ever overcome.

He would ascend from this modest beginning amidst the mire and detritus 
of a forgotten rimworld, and he would become God.  And once he had done 
that, he would gather together the infinite reaches of eternity into 
his hand and render them all into nothingness, clearing the way for him 
to rebuild reality into his own image.

After rising back to his feet, he paused a moment and turned back to 
briefly gaze at the corpse.  A cold smile lit his features.

The Shogun of the Dark was dead.  Long live the Shogun of the Dark.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Quantum Destinies
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
By Steven Thesken (quantumdestinies@cox.net)

Ranma 1/2 and its characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi.  This story 
is inspired by her works and the stories from some of my fellow fanfic 
authors.  Among these are DB Sommer's "Shampoo 1/2", Jim Bader's "A 
Very Scary Thought -aka- Nabiki 1/2", and John Biles' Elseworlds 
series.  All C&C is welcome.

Other chapters of this story may be found at this website, or you can 
email the author for them:

The Quantum Destinies Homepage
http://members.cox.net/quantumdestinies/


The list of worlds reoccurring in this chapter:
Earth  0.000,0.000 - The world of Scholar-Ranma (Baseline cluster)
Earth  +4.112,+3.066 - The world of Astronaut-Ranma (Holocaust cluster)
Earth  +4.612,+4.509 - The world of Shampoo 1/2 (Ranma 1/2 cluster)


What has gone before in this story (or at least what will help you 
understand what is going on):

On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over 
five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world 
and has done so for almost a century.  Theorizing that one could travel 
to alternate timelines by possessing counterparts in them, a young 
scientist named Ranma Saotome, through use of a device of his own 
invention, accidentally obtained the skills and memories of a martial 
artist version of himself.  Further changes came to the 'Shampoo 1/2' 
variant timeline that was created by Ranma's first visit, instigated by 
an unexpected visitor who was just passing through.  Secrets of Project 
Phoenix were unveiled, as well as some of the ties that bind together 
the diverse group coming together in Imperial Earth's version of 
familiar Nerima.  Finally, this world's version of Shampoo made her 
appearance, proving herself an extremely formidable foe in the process.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 17 - That Old Black Magic

     When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.

                              - Oscar Wilde

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


*** Netherworld  0.000,0.000

Hell has been described as a place where hope is dead.

Waiting rooms can also conjure up that sensation.

One can only imagine what a waiting room in Hell would be like.

A sense of despair filled the plain room.  It was a place quite devoid 
of any sort of creature comforts, even one so little as some raggedy, 
old magazines.  Bare wooden benches sat pushed against the walls.  They 
hid a few of the mangy-looking, peeled away patches of the otherwise 
monotonous lime-green enamel.  A single bulb hung from the ceiling on a 
slender wire, casting out a harsh light across the room and its sole 
occupant.  It swayed gently in the uncomfortably warm air gusting out 
from a crusted grate, the rusty metal noisome with the accumulated funk 
of millennia.

Mara, Demoness First Class, waited pensively on one of the benches, a 
seething resentment quietly filling her.  It was practically an open 
insult to one of her rank to make her tarry like this while waiting to 
be briefed on her next assignment.  To make matters worse, her current 
overseer enjoyed any and all chances she was given to lord her superior 
position over her and could leave her here to wait for a very long 
time.  Mara could complain about it, but her rank was presently on thin 
ice after her last few, less than successful, missions.  The shadowy 
overlords of this place did not tolerate failures in their minions very 
well, so it was better to just quietly take all the petty abuses and 
strive to remain unnoticed by the higher-ups until her luck improved.

Tugging slightly on the front of her tight minidress, she absently felt 
the skin-warmed leather slide across her flesh, an almost erotically 
sensuous sensation that went all but unnoticed by Mara.  Her long legs 
uncrossed and then recrossed the other way, as she made another futile 
attempt to shift her position on the bench to a more comfortable one.  
That goal still eluded her, but at least her derriere was now finally 
growing numb from the wait.

At that moment, the door leading into the inner office regions came 
open with a loud bang.

"Mara!  Front and center!" barked the voice of her supervisor.

Almost lazily, the platinum-blonde demoness gracefully uncoiled herself 
from her seated position and rose to her feet.  Her perpetual sneer of 
disdain was muted somewhat as she attempted to appear more obsequious.

Hel, a beautiful princess of these nether realms, eyed her subordinate 
with a jaundiced eye.  Her own pale lavender locks bobbed gently in the 
fetid breezes emanating from one of the nearby vents, even as her gray 
cloak  billowed out slightly behind her.  She waited while the other 
demoness sauntered over, outwardly calm but simmering within, somehow 
managing to hold down the urge to rip out Mara's spine and vital organs 
by sheer willpower.

"Come with me," commanded Hel with an almost unfeminine growl.

"Right behind you, Milady."  Mara's face held a tight smile.  All the 
better to plunge a blade into your back, she continued in the privacy 
of her thoughts.  It was a most pleasant fantasy of hers that recurred 
from time to time.

With a gesture from the lavender-tressed demoness, the scenery around 
them shifted to that of Hel's private office.  She could have summoned 
Mara there without leaving it, but she preferred a more personal touch 
in dealing with her assigned lackeys, even one as insufferable as the 
present one constantly was.  She flipped her cloak behind her with a 
sweep of her arm as she walked over and gracefully seated herself in 
the comfortable-looking chair behind the large desk.  She settled 
herself into the supple, black leather covering it, composed of skin 
flayed from the soulstuff of the damned.

Mara dropped into a much less comfortable chair on the other side of 
the desk.  She was a bit tempted to put her feet up on Hel's desk but 
held off.  She was still on probation, after all.  But it would have 
almost been worth it to see the reaction on the other's face.

"There is a new development now brewing in the mortal realm," Hel began 
without any preamble, perfunctorily flipping open a file folder.  "Our 
latest scryings into Elysium revealed they are monitoring something, a 
gestating change of some sort that is gradually emerging in the mortal 
world, apparently initiated by the appearance of two new probability 
nodes.  Our own agents in the region in which they appeared have 
confirmed this fact, reporting that a vortex of spiritual energies is 
slowly building in power around them, a worrisome sign of a critical 
paradigm shift in the makings.  Senior management is very concerned by 
this, and it is a concern I share with them.  If we lose control of 
events at this juncture point, it could force a profound delay in our 
timetable, or even manage to totally derail many centuries of work."

"Why not simply destroy them?" came Mara's calm reply.  The solution 
seemed obvious to her.  If something bothered you, kill it.  After all, 
none of these mortal vermin could ever become a concern.  The human 
animal was a weak-willed, pathetic creature of barely-controlled lusts 
and passions from the time of its birth into the world, when it first 
began loudly squalling its desires.  Each one of the miserable beings 
was practically begging to finally yield to the dark potential that lay 
buried within them all.

Hel paused thoughtfully for a moment before replying.  "Such an act was 
considered, but simply killing them could yield undesirable results."  
She swiveled her chair around, to face outwards into the great abyss 
that her office overlooked, the tips of her fingertips gently tapping 
against each other.  Beyond the glass, flying creatures combining both 
human and bestial forms maneuvered through darkened depths lit only by 
vast gouts of flame that rose up from somewhere far below, a rather 
soothing image to her eyes.

While the demoness mused, Mara grew more and more impatient.  Even so, 
her outward appearance remained calm.

After a time, Hel swiveled back to face Mara, her eyes stern as she 
studied the other demoness.  "Your next assignment is to obtain more 
detailed reconnaissance concerning these two mortals, to learn their 
strengths and their weaknesses.  Then, when you feel you have learned 
enough about them, you are to try turning them to our cause.  They 
would make useful allies."  She paused a moment, before continuing in a 
more thoughtful tone.  "However, if they will not be turned, then they 
must be neutralized."  A casual gesture caused a three-dimensional 
image of Ranma and Nabiki to form in mid-air over the desk, slowly 
rotating counter-clockwise.

"They don't look like much," commented Mara disdainfully, looking at 
the pair.  "They're just a couple of stupid brats."  This assignment 
was looking more and more to be a waste of her abilities.

Hel leaned back in her chair and smirked.  "Hardly.  Events have 
already begun moving around them in strange ways, like ripples on a 
pond.  This is only a precautionary move on our part.  After all, 
despite the potential influence of these two children upon future 
events, they're still only mortals, with all of the weaknesses and 
foibles inherent to their kind."  A smile lit her face.  "And, at the 
very least, your new assignment promises to not be boring."

Mara could almost smell the change in her fortunes, but caution rose up 
within her.  "Why me?" she asked suspiciously.

"Because Elysium will be sending at least one emissary of their own to 
monitor events up close," replied Hel coolly.  She calmly snapped her 
fingers and a faintly translucent image of Belldandy appeared in mid-
air.  "One that you are quite familiar with, I'm sure."

Mara stared hatefully at the still image of the Goddess of the Present, 
as an evil smile curled her lips.  She nodded.  "I'm your demoness."

"Excellent," said Hel, leaning back in her chair and steepling her 
fingers.  "But I warn you, Mara.  I want you to prepare yourself for 
any contingencies.  This is your last chance.  Screw this one up, and 
there won't be anyplace in the universe for you to hide."

"I won't fail," Mara coldly replied.  "I will destroy Belldandy, once 
and for all.  And as for these new probability nodes, I will deal with 
them in my own way.  I can be very creative when I try."

                   ******************************

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

The ringing of the telephone disturbed the peace of the after-dinner 
quiet in the Saotome household.  Hurrying slightly, Nodoka emerged from 
the kitchen, her slippered feet making soft, shuffling sounds against 
the wooden floor of the hallway.  She grunted once as the pains of her 
still healing injuries briefly made themselves known, and then put it 
out of her mind once again.  She and Genma were alone in the house, 
since Ranma had not yet returned from the Kunos.  Perhaps it was just 
as well.  Things had been somewhat tense around the house lately, 
whenever both Saotome men were present.

The situation simmering between Genma and Ranma perplexed Nodoka, and 
she was becoming worried it would never end.  After such a brief time 
of joy at having them back in her life, it was like two strangers had 
suddenly replaced her beloved family.  She still had no idea what had 
caused the rift to spring up between the two most important men in her 
life, but she wanted it to end.  It hurt her deeply to see the tension 
that existed between them now, remembering how happy they had been 
together just a few weeks ago.  What had changed?  Neither one would 
speak to her about it, and her son became especially evasive whenever 
she broached the subject.

She picked up the telephone, stilling the shrill ringing sound.  She 
paused less than a moment to calm herself before speaking.  "Hello?  
This is the Saotome residence."

"Saotome-san, this is Ono," came the voice from the other end of the 
line.  There were muffled sounds of some sort of activity nearby.  "I'm 
afraid I don't have much time to talk, but I wanted to pass on the 
results of the tests I ran.  They just came back."

Nodoka caught her breath.  In all the excitement at having Ranma back 
after his week away training, she had forgotten all about her blood 
test that nice doctor had made her take.  The nausea had reoccurred 
only once since causing her abysmal showing against Kenseiko the other 
day.  She quickly banished away the memory of her speedy defeat, before 
it could cause further erosion to her already precarious mood.

"Saotome-san?"

"I'm here."  Nodoka took a deep, quiet breath and calmed herself.

Tofu said, in his best, most professional voice, "As I first suspected 
from hearing your symptoms, one of the tests came back positive and 
confirmed, Saotome-san.  So let me be the very first person to offer my 
congratulations to you on what I hope is pleasant news to you.  You're 
pregnant."

Blinking several times at hearing those words, Nodoka suddenly felt 
faint.  She mumbled some inane response she would not later recall and 
set the telephone back into its cradle.  Her eyes suddenly began 
filling with tears of happiness as she absorbed the thought of having 
another child.  Pregnant.  Hearing that had been a shock, but she was 
certain this joyous news would be just what was needed to bring her 
family back together.  She should have suspected something like this 
when she missed her last period, but she had missed them on occasion 
before during times of high stress in her life.  In fact, shortly after 
beginning her marriage to Genma, she had missed one, falsely leading 
her to conclude she was with child.

Now she was pregnant again.  Perhaps it would be another son, but she 
found herself hoping it was a daughter.  She had always wanted a little 
girl of her own, a daughter to treasure and to teach how to be a proper 
Japanese woman.  And any daughter of hers would be a proper girl, she 
silently vowed, remembering with dismay her own rambunctious youth.  
No, her daughter would be different, and she would grow up to be a 
paragon of demure and gentle femininity.

She hurried to tell her husband the good news.

                   ******************************

Tofu slipped his cellular telephone back into his jacket pocket and 
sighed.  The commotion behind him involved two paramedics finishing up 
attaching an IV bag of artificial blood replacement to the youth lying 
on the gurney, as well as sensors to monitor brain and cardiovascular 
functions.  With only a portion of his attention, he listened to them 
listing off the vital signs of Ryu Kumon, whose presence was the reason 
why he had been on standby here at the Arena.

Most of his attention was occupied by the two sets of blood tests he 
held in his hands: one from Nodoka Saotome, and the other from his own 
wife, Kasumi.  Informing the Saotome woman of her pregnancy had only 
deepened and exacerbated his own disappointment that his wife's was 
negative once again.  It was becoming obvious that he had been wrong 
about the eldest Tendo daughter's genetic suitability, and he would 
never be able to father children upon her.  It was a pity.  His mother 
had always held such high hopes for the girl, especially with two of 
her sisters having been accepted by the Project, and her family having 
such an excellent political placement in the Empire.

He had chosen her for those reasons willingly, as she was also quite 
lovely and as properly demure as a woman could be.  Her two sisters 
would have been superior choices, if he had chosen a bride purely on 
the terms of their genetic compatibility, but neither of them could be 
described as demure or properly obsequious to a man's superior station 
in the world.  And there was also the centuries-old tradition that the 
eldest daughter should wed first.  So he had gambled and lost, and now 
he had to figure out a way to somehow extricate himself from the 
current situation while still retaining his honor.  It was a shame, for 
in all other ways Kasumi was a paragon of what was considered a proper 
wife in a Japanese woman.  But the Ono line had to continue on, and for 
that to happen would require a wife who could give him an heir.

If only his father had not exposed him to one of the early batches of 
the serum.  If only he had not kept it a secret.  If only he had not 
sworn upon his honor to keep his father's secret.  So many 'if only's.'

"Sensei?" said one of the paramedics.  "The patient is ready."

Crumpling the paperwork in his hands and thrusting it within a pocket, 
he took a moment to replace the mask of compassion he normally wore 
upon his features.  He then turned around and resumed the role that 
life had crafted for him.

                   ******************************

Akane not so gently shoved and elbowed her way through the press of 
people that were queuing up to try and get autographs from tonight's 
batch of fighters.  In her hand she tightly clutched her own precious 
autograph book, hoping to finally get the signature of the one Arena 
fighter that she most admired in the world, Shampoo.  The violet-haired 
amazon was her hero, exploding onto the Arena landscape with a strength 
and fighting skill that the youngest Tendo had not so secretly envied 
for months.  The Chinese girl personified the martial artist that the 
youngest Tendo had always aspired to be, and she was an icon of female 
strength that still remained undefeated to this day, despite well over 
a hundred Arena-sanctioned matches under her belt.

She had been left to her own devices for the time being, Sakura having 
gone off in pursuit of her fallen Ryu-senpai.  So the youngest Tendo 
had decided to make the most of it, joining a small throng of Arena 
fans at what was commonly known as 'Signature Row.'  There, fighters 
were separated from fans by bars wide enough to permit autograph books 
and small gifts to pass, and numerous peaceforcers stationed nearby in 
the area kept the crowds in relatively good order.  Akane, through 
judicious use of her knees and elbows, had managed to get up to the 
bars, just in time to see the first of tonight's combatants pass by on 
their way to the locker rooms and baths.

Keeping her eyes open for her idol, she kept a small amount of space 
around her clear through judicious use of force.  One girl with bright 
blue-dyed hair had received a tooth-jarring elbow to the face when she 
had tried to get between Akane and her staked out position at the bars, 
but a single cold glance from the youngest Tendo's eyes had quelled any 
interest the other girl had in fighting back.

"There she is!" suddenly came a shout from her right.  "Shampoo!  It's 
Shampoo!"  And those words set off a chain-reaction through the crowd, 
which immediately took up chanting the amazon's name, Akane's voice one 
among many.

Catching a glimpse of her hero walking with another one of the female 
Arena fighters, she gazed in adoration.  When the amazon passed nearby, 
Akane thrust her arm through the bars, her hand still tightly clutching 
the autograph book.  "Shampoo!  Can I have your autograph?  I'm your 
biggest fan!"

The amazon paused amidst the flurry of shouts for her attention, and 
she saw a short-haired Japanese girl holding out an autograph book and 
looking quite desperate.  She had heard such things said to her before, 
finding it amusing that the conquerors of her people were so enamored 
of her own fighting exploits in the Arena.  What set this girl off from 
so many other fans, Shampoo could not say.  With a smile, she nodded 
and reached out for it, setting off a feeding frenzy on the other side 
of the bars.

"Back off!" shouted Akane, using her free arm to elbow the ribs of an 
older boy who tried to shove her out of place.  "She's signing my book 
first!"  When that did not dissuade him, she stomped down on his instep 
and shouldered him back bodily, where he vanished behind her into the 
tight press of fans.

Shampoo took the proffered book from the Tendo girl and scribbled her 
name into it, handing it back quickly as even more autograph books were 
being thrust in her direction, trying in vain to keep up with the 
demand, even as camera flashes nearly blinded her.  Beside her, Running 
Deer was doing a brisk business as well, signing autograph books and 
even posing for the occasional camera shot from her own small crowd of 
fans.  A little ways down the line, Mina Li was practically holding 
court, signing books, posing seductively for pictures, blowing kisses 
at the crowd, and generally basking in the raw adulation of her fans.

Receiving back her book from the amazon, Akane's eyes shone brightly as 
she pulled it in and held it clutched tightly to her chest.  She had 
finally gotten her idol's autograph.  And Shampoo had even smiled at 
her!  There had even been a moment, when their hands brushed against 
each other, that the youngest Tendo had felt an odd sort of recognition 
towards the Chinese girl, something she had only felt a very few times 
before, such as with Sakura or those three tramps foolishly pursuing 
her Ranma.  It was an odd sensation, but it also gave her the feeling 
of being a kindred spirit with the amazon.  And that thought made her 
feel happy.

                   ******************************

Out of the corner of her eye, Ryoko studied her travelling companion of 
the past few days, currently seated on a flat rock on the other side of 
the campfire and consuming his meal with gusto.  They had been making 
good time hitchhiking, much better than she had been anticipating.  And  
today had been a good match for them both, their last before the pair 
finally reached Tokyo city proper.  Ryoko felt a surprising pang of 
regret that their journey together was ending.  The Hibiki boy had 
grown on her quite a bit, ever since he had first stumbled into her 
camp, and she was starting to realize that she would miss him when 
their trek together was over.  But only as a good friend, she quickly 
amended, startled to discover a blush briefly rising on her cheeks.

It was fortunate for him that he was too engrossed in eating his meal 
to spot her momentary discomfiture, or she would have had to pound on 
him out of general principles.  For one thing, her travelling companion 
was almost a full year younger than she was, nearer to her brother's 
age.  She had been a bit surprised to find herself feeling attracted to 
a younger guy, but the innocence and naivete he had sometimes displayed 
during their time on the road together were oddly appealing.

His physical strength also rivaled hers, which was a very attractive 
quality on its own merits.  One of the reasons she had so far resisted 
her mother's will about accepting an arranged marriage was that she was 
a little afraid of her own freakish strength.  How could she ever be 
intimate with a guy when she could unintentionally break his spine with 
a hug, let alone anything more passionate?  But she quickly banished 
that particular thought to the back recesses of her mind, before it 
could cause her to blush again.

Ryoga's skills were marginally less than hers, and his combat style 
still favored a more brute force approach, but he was proving to be an 
adequate sparring partner despite these flaws.  She absently traced a 
finger along a particularly livid bruise on her jaw as she paused in 
her own eating, a thoughtful look on her face.  She found herself at 
random moments to be oddly envious of his rather intense rivalry with 
this Ukyo guy he constantly ranted about.  It gave him a clear focus 
for improving himself that she herself had never had.  By striving to 
defeat a strong rival, she could ascend even higher in her mastery of 
the martial arts, but there was no one around who could really offer 
her much of a challenge.

Noticing him glance up at her, she looked more openly at him and said, 
"I thought we might trade stories tonight."

"I don't know any stories."  He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, 
after swallowing a large mouthful of food.

"Well, have you ever heard the story of my ancestors, Hibiki-kun?"

Ryoga shook his head in negation.

Blinking in surprise, she hadn't expected that.  "You're serious?  
You've never heard the story?  But it's almost mythical!  A tale of 
great heroism and the power of true love!"  She shook her head when she 
saw the blank look remain on his face, unable to believe that her 
companion was unfamiliar with the story of two of the Masakis' greatest 
heroes.  After all, as far as she knew, it really was a legend in the 
region they both came from.

"Well, then allow me to change that," said Ryoko with a smile, warming 
to the opportunity of playing teacher.  She tossed another log on the 
fire, its flickering light enhancing the otherworldly features she had 
inherited from her namesake ancestress.  When that was done, she looked 
over at him and smiled, revealing her slight fangs.  "It all began some 
seven centuries past...."

And so she began telling the tale, of a time long ago, when a mighty 
demon and a valiant samurai came together in savage battle.  She saw 
the interested look appear in his eyes.  It reminded her of the first 
time she herself had heard this epic tale from her elderly grandfather, 
Katsuhito Masaki.  He always told it as if he had lived it himself, the 
meeting of the original Ryoko, and her samurai foe, Yosho.

The campfire burned brightly between them as the green-haired girl told 
the tale in grand fashion, of her namesake's first appearance on Earth 
from the realms beyond the sky, the demoness possessed of vast powers 
capable of shattering mountains.  And pursuing her came a great samurai 
hailing from a far-off land, a clean-limbed warrior of noblest bearing, 
his features as handsome as a demigod, and whose sword skill was the 
very stuff of legends.  Within moments of their mutual arrival, the 
demoness turned to face her enemy, and they clashed together in fierce 
and blood-soaked battle.  But, armed with the power of his holy blade, 
Tenshi-ken, Yosho proved an equal match for her fearsome might.

They battled for three days and three nights, neither combatant able to 
attain a clear advantage.  Quarter was neither asked for, nor offered.  
Strange fires and curious lightnings raged between them.  It seemed as 
if their struggle would never end, but, for a single instant, his blade 
came quite near to impaling her savage heart.  However, that precious 
chance for victory was lost when the samurai hesitated at the very last 
moment to deliver the killing blow, to strike the demoness down.  That 
twinkling of doubt nearly cost him his life, and her blade came within 
millimeters of severing his head from his neck.  And so their struggle 
continued, as fierce and unyielding as before.

However, their battle had attracted the attention of the spirit realms, 
and an entity appeared amidst them in a globe of green fire.  He was a 
most cold-hearted and vile beast, a Yama King, possessing strength 
enough to rend the entire earth into rubble in his hands.

His name was Kagato.

The fire snapped at that moment, and Ryoga twitched in surprise.  He 
bit back an angry retort at the gleam of amusement in his companion's 
eyes, and he gestured for her to continue her story.

With a smile, she picked up right where she had left off, with Kagato 
the dark god appearing amidst the two struggling foes.

Kagato spoke with Yosho, engaging the samurai in conversation and even 
plying him with taunts and jibes.  While doing so, the dark god snapped 
his fingers to summon Ryoko to his side, and she obeyed him like some 
kind of a faithful hound.  And that act was the beginning of the Yama 
King's downfall.  Her eyes blazed green in the god's presence like the 
fading fires of his first appearance as she went to his side, and Yosho 
came to a most startling realization.

His beautiful adversary was not a demon at all, but a lady samurai, a 
samurai-ko, her very will stolen by foul magics and her body forced to 
serve this evil creature against her desires.  This sudden realization 
set Yosho into a rage, and he attacked Kagato with all of his fury and 
skill.  But his body was still weakened from days spent fighting Ryoko 
without rest, and the dark god slapped him aside with a contemptuous 
gesture.  The pair left him in that fallen state, Kagato summoning 
another globe of green fire to carry himself and her away.

Yosho lay still, his strength all but depleted, but his will remained 
undaunted.  After a time, he slowly managed to regain his feet and 
stumble to a nearby stream, almost falling into it.  He knelt down, 
allowing the coolness of the icy water to slake the terrible thirst 
racking his body.  And even as he drank his fill and rested there, he 
plotted a grievous revenge upon Kagato for his crimes.  He swore a 
mighty oath upon Tenshi-ken, the great sword of his ancestors that he 
carried, that he would destroy his enemy and redeem the beautiful girl 
from her hellish bondage.

The heavens themselves were moved by his vow, and the sparkling veils 
of the spirit realms parted once again to reveal the eldritch form of a 
goddess, whose beauty was unmatched throughout both heaven and earth.  
With wondering awe, the battered warrior stood up from where he had 
been kneeling and slowly approached the now beckoning goddess.  He knew 
who she was to the very core of his being without asking, and he 
addressed her by name.

"Tsunami-dono," he cried, his soul aching to destroy the demon lord.  
"Give me the power to vanquish Kagato.  I beg of you this boon, with 
all my heart and with all my soul."

The goddess Tsunami was greatly moved by the passions of this valiant 
samurai, and so she granted his wish.  She touched him with only the 
tip of one finger, for so great was her power that to do the same with 
her full hand would have burned him to ashes.  He felt an answering 
power suddenly bloom within him at her touch, and so great was his 
sense of wonder at this gift that he failed to notice the shadow of 
sadness that crossed her features.  Later on, he would come to know the 
reason why.

Filled with power, he single-handedly stormed the ramparts of the demon 
lord's castle.  He slew his enemy's soulless guardians by the score, 
making his way inward to the festering heart of the fortress, where his 
true enemy lay.  His heart was filled with only two desires: to avenge 
himself upon Kagato, and to rescue the beautiful Ryoko.

Fearing Yosho's new strength, the villain sent Ryoko to fight against 
her would-be paramour, her mind still clouded by his power.  Desperate, 
the samurai loudly proclaimed his newfound love for the girl, to try 
and snap her out of her trance.  Never having heard such words directed 
at herself before, she broke off her attack and stumbled back in great 
confusion, her mind going to war with itself as it began struggling 
against Kagato's iron control.  Deep within her soul, she felt an 
answering passion for the samurai kindle, but her will was far too 
weakened by years of enforced servitude to the dark god to break free.

Kagato laughed cruelly as Ryoko's will was beaten down, and her body 
became a puppet once again to the dark god's desires.  Her blade met 
Yosho's in clash after ringing clash as the two fought from one side of 
the dark god's throne room to the other.  Yet despite his unyielding 
hold on her mind, tears began to trickle from the corner's of her eyes, 
even though they appeared to hold nothing but animalistic fury against 
her master's enemy.

It was at this time that a second goddess chose to act, a trickster and 
mischief-maker, imprisoned by the Yama King long ago through treachery.  
Her name was Washuu.  Using what little power still remained to her, 
she summoned the girl's spirit form into the prison which bound her.  
Bereft of her soul, Ryoko's body collapsed into unconsciousness.  And 
having been cheated of his game, Kagato raged against the imprisoned 
goddess, and his fury was awe-inspiring.

The dark god drew forth his mighty blade and attacked Yosho, to strike 
down this warrior who had caused such frustration to his schemes.  So 
it was that the two came together in mortal combat, blade against 
blade, and both knew that one of them would not walk away from this 
encounter.  A storm of lightnings and fires blew throughout Kagato's 
throne room, a hurricane of elemental destruction centering on the two 
struggling beings.  The heroic samurai gave it his all, but his great 
skill and desire to win were not enough.

A slash of the dark god's blade relieved Yosho of his weapon, and even 
came near to ending his life.  The demon lord then struck him hard in 
the face, downing him with a contemptuous blow of his fist, but in his 
arrogance could not resist taunting his fallen foe further.

"You are beaten," said Kagato with scorn.  "It is useless to resist me, 
Yosho.  The fair Ryoko is my creature, my property, to do with as I 
please.  She will never be more than she is now, a tool of destruction 
that I control.  You were a fool to believe otherwise.  Your feelings 
for her, your feeble proclamations of love, have no place within her 
existence.  This useless thing you call love has made an otherwise 
capable warrior into something weak and stupid, for she can never 
return this feeling you profess.  She is simply not capable of it."

Watching from within the trickster-goddess' prison, Ryoko saw the 
hero's will to resist begin faltering.  Heedless of the potential 
consequences to herself, she fell upon the trickster-goddess, grasping 
Washuu up and shaking her with all her strength, demanding that she 
help Yosho.  She did not know what this feeling was within her that his 
words had awakened, but she knew she could not have him die.  She cried 
his name loudly even as her hands tightened their grip and continued 
their throttling of the trickster-goddess, and somehow her words wended 
their way beyond the prison to the samurai.  And her words were heard.

Kagato raised his blade over Yosho's head, holding onto it with both 
hands, his lips twisted into an expression of mockery for the samurai's 
broken appearance.  "So much for the power of love."

At that moment, a miracle happened.

Hearing the girl's voice encouraging him to not give up, as if coming 
from across a vast gulf of space, Yosho's right hand tightened into a 
fist as the dark god's sword reached the apex of its ascent, and within 
its grip a sparkling of incandescent energy suddenly coalesced into a 
new blade.  In the blink of an eye it was fully formed, and Yosho moved 
without thought, his body reacting purely on instinct alone as his 
foe's blade began to come down.  An upsweeping slash of the samurai's 
weapon opened the dark god's midsection from hip to opposing shoulder, 
almost bisecting him.

"I-impossible," murmured Kagato, the sword falling from his grip as he 
stumbled back.  "I had defeated you.  You had no power.  This can't be 
happening."  And his form began to dissolve as he spoke, from the path 
of Yosho's strike and spreading outwards.  The Yama King's eyes settled 
on his foe's for one last instant, and no one can say what passed 
between them.  And then Kagato was gone, as if he never was.

"With Kagato's death, the dark god's power over the trickster-goddess 
was ended," said Ryoko with a smile.  "Ryoko was forever freed of her 
geas, and she wasted no time in making her own desires known to her 
savior.  Despite setbacks, the samurai eventually fell victim to her 
feminine wiles.  They lived together and had many other adventures 
together."

Ryoga blinked, surprised to find that he had been caught up in the 
story.  He shrugged his shoulders, posturing a bit as he grunted, "So, 
whatever finally happened to Yosho and Ryoko?"

"Well," said the green-haired girl, staring upwards at the heavens for 
several moments as she paused.  "One of the setbacks that Ryoko had to 
deal with was a young priestess named Mie Masaki, the daughter of an 
influential priest and quite beautiful by all accounts.  She had been 
offered to Yosho, along with the guardianship of the Masaki Shrine, as 
a reward for ending the threat to the region.  In my grandfather's 
tales, Mie and Ryoko took a strong disliking to each other from the 
very beginning, perpetuating a rivalry with each other for Yosho's 
affections.

Despite this, Ryoko settled down with him for a time.  And, although 
they never married, Yosho eventually fathered a child upon her, and the 
former demoness gave birth to a girl with hair and eyes like her own.  
But a settled sort of life was not her way, for she was a proud warrior 
and possessed of a strong wanderlust.  So she left the young infant in 
her lover's care and departed for realms unknown, promising to return 
someday."

"Sounds kind of sad," commented Ryoga, unsure what else to say, his 
gaze watching the fire as it continued to die.

Ryoko nodded a moment and said, "Yosho eventually married Mie and 
adopted the young infant as a Masaki, but a piece of his heart was 
forever Ryoko's.  When his wife died of old age, he left the shrine in 
the care of his children and grandchildren and went away, vanishing 
into legend.  But it is said that his spirit returns to the shrine from 
time to time, waiting for the return of his beloved."  Sighing rather 
wistfully, she crossed her arms over her breasts and hugged herself.

Watching the normally much tougher-acting girl he had been travelling 
with go all teary-eyed just from thinking about some old story, Ryoga 
shook his head.  He would never, even if he lived to be a century, 
understand girls.  They were a complete mystery to him.  Not one of 
them thought like a guy did.

After several moments had passed, he looked up at the stars, his hands 
tightening into fists.  He was finally almost to Tokyo, finally nearing 
his goal, thanks to Ryoko's help.  A day or two of travelling left, and 
his enemy would finally pay for making him endure the cruel hardships 
and torments he had suffered on his journey to find the other boy.  
Nothing could be more aggravating than having a girl beat him up, and 
every bruise she had dealt to him during their sparring sessions he 
intended to pay back upon Ukyo with immense interest.  The ninja boy 
would know who the better man was when he lay bruised and bleeding at 
Ryoga's feet.  Laying back on his bedroll, he began to smile wolfishly.

Nothing could keep him from exacting his righteous vengeance now.

                   ******************************

Ukyo felt an irrepressible sneeze suddenly assault her nose, a small 
explosion of air erupting from her lungs that distracted her at a 
critical moment.  There came the distinctive clang of flattened steel 
impacting against the bones of her skull, knocking her to the ground.  
She got up a moment later, rubbing the back of her head.

"What's the big idea of hitting me like that when I wasn't ready?" she 
grumbled.  She could already feel a large lump appearing on the back of 
her skull.

A grinning Yumi was quick to admonish her niece.  "You've been acting 
cocky all afternoon, thinking those other girls don't hold a candle to 
your fighting skills.  But it's a mistake to underestimate an opponent 
before facing them.  If you truly think Ranma is a prize worth fighting 
for, then I want you to show these other girls that they have no chance 
against you.  You are a Kuonji, the heir to our clan's teachings and 
techniques, and I will help you as best I can.  Arrogance could prove 
to be your undoing, but the fight is ultimately yours to win."

"I'm not going to lose my fiancé to any of those city-bred girls," Ukyo 
stated defiantly.  "He's mine, and I've never lost a fight in my life 
when it really counted.  Ever.  I'll show those tramps that I'm going 
to be the one that Ranchan is going to marry, and nobody better stand 
in my way!"  To punctuate her point, Ukyo formed a tight fist with her 
hand, causing the tendons to crack and pop menacingly.

Yumi nodded.  She had come up during a brief break after the initial 
dinner rush to see how her niece was doing.  The girl had been up here 
training all day, practicing on her techniques with the Kuonji's 
preferred weapon.  She had given her niece the week off to train, 
wanting the girl to arrive at her first day of classes at the Academy 
ready for any trouble.  She had quietly snuck upstairs to test her 
young niece's ability at reacting to a surprise attack.

Admittedly, striking an opponent from behind in the midst of a sneeze 
had been a sneaky thing to do, but Ukyo had to be prepared to deal with 
any and all eventualities that could happen in a fight.  It was amusing 
in a way that her niece was just like she had been at that age, full of 
confidence that she could take on the world.  She only hoped that the 
girl found the happiness that she never had.

Yumi shook her head.  She was not normally this introspective.  Maybe 
that was because she was finding herself in the unfamiliar role of a 
mother figure.  She patted Ukyo on the head, pointed out a few of the 
potential weaknesses in her niece's technique that a crafty enemy could 
exploit, and went back downstairs with a wry grin on her face.

                   ******************************

A staccato pattern of heavy thudding sounds resounded from one of the 
exercise rooms in Furinkan's gymnasium.  The sound occasionally sped up 
in its rhythm and then slowed back down, but it never stopped.  And on 
the lower edge of audibility was a single muttered word, like a mantra.

Shampoo.

Within the exercise room, Sakura powered another series of kicks and 
punches into the heavy leather bag.  Each time she slowed down, the 
memory of her Ryu-senpai's brutal defeat at the amazon's hands blazed 
within her memories, reigniting her fury.  She had been at this ever 
since her return from the Arena, holding the rage within her during the 
ride back on the bus with Akane.  She had only half-listened to her 
friend's happy babbling about how much fun it had been to visit the 
Arena during the long trip back, contributing the occasional grunt now 
and then for her portion of the conversation.  Her thoughts had been 
elsewhere, plotting the downfall of a certain purple-haired Chinese 
girl.

"Shampoo."  Picturing it as the other girl's face, she drove her fists 
hard into the punching bag with all of her strength, again and again, 
trying in vain to distract herself from the ache filling her heart.  
Her hands, toughened over the years from her training, were starting to 
go numb from her efforts, but Sakura didn't care.

Her beloved Ryu-senpai would be fighting in the Arena for the next six 
months, unless he had been crippled during his fight with that Chinese 
bimbo.  Nobody would tell her anything when she had left Akane to try 
and find out how he was, and she had been tempted to start breaking 
heads until someone did.  And it was all that damned amazon's fault!

If she hadn't run across that nice doctor who had been treating her 
Ryu-senpai, she was not sure what she might have done.  He had calmed 
her down enough to allow her to reclaim her focus enough to continue 
calming on her own, or she might have gotten herself into some real 
trouble.  Unlike Akane, she did not have any family to pull strings if 
she had given into her impulses and started trouble.  She was grateful 
to Tofu-sensei for his kindness.  Her Ryu-senpai had not been injured 
seriously, but he had lost some blood from some of his injuries and was 
now sleeping and recovering.

Sakura growled the amazon's name, low in her throat like an animal.  
Her feet slammed into the bag, rocking it back and forth on its chain 
as she spun back and forth to add power.  She would start by smashing 
into pulp that Chinese bimbo's pretty features, so that no man would 
ever desire her again.  She would break every one of the amazon's limbs 
into so many places that she would never be able to fight again.  When 
Sakura was through, that damned Shampoo would be lucky if she could 
still eat through a tube.

Blows continued to rain into the bag as a young girl fantasized about 
destroying the object of her wrath.

                   ******************************

Ryu Kumon's return to consciousness was a slow process, and he blinked 
his eyes open to behold a plain ceiling overhead, in a room dimly lit 
by light leaking under a door.  The mattress under his back was a very 
firm one, feeling so much like his regulation-issue cot in his room at 
Furinkan's dorms that he thought he was there at first.  But, moving 
his gaze around, the illusion of familiarity was quickly dispelled.  He 
was in a hospital?  It was hard to think as his brain gradually lurched 
back into activity.

Moving very slowly, he sat up, and his vision swam as he felt a moment 
or two of vertigo, almost causing him to throw up.  His thoughts felt 
fuzzy and disjointed, like his brain was wrapped in cotton batting or 
something.  His face also felt oddly numb, and his nose appeared to be 
plugged up, as he quickly discovered when he made an attempt to take a 
shallow breath.  Feeling a throbbing pain in his ribs, experience told 
him that a deeper one would be a definite mistake.  Various areas of 
his body were bandaged, an intravenous tube was hooked to one of his 
arms, and he was attached to a monitoring device by several wires.  It 
gave off a gentle beeping sound in time with his heart rate.

The memory of his fight with Shampoo suddenly blossomed in his brain, 
and he hung his head in angry dismay, almost gnashing his teeth.  He 
had failed!  The amazon bitch had beaten him soundly, mercilessly, and 
he clenched his fists tightly in utter shame at the thought of that 
humiliating loss.  The Kumon School of Martial Arts was all that he had 
left of his family legacy, and he had now dishonored it by his absolute 
failure to defeat her, a loss that had been seen by countless millions 
of people across the globe.  He could feel his father's spirit staring 
down at him disapprovingly from the shadows, adding to his tremendous 
feelings of grief.

Why had he failed?  Why had he weakened in his resolve?  The answer was 
galling to him when it came.  Having finally come face to face with the 
famed amazon, after studying numerous tapes of her fights for weeks in 
search of the slightest flaws to exploit, he had discovered in himself 
an unexpectedly strong desire for her, and his carefully cultivated 
focus had been lost.  All of his many sparring matches against Sakura, 
in order to inure himself against any sort of hesitations when fighting 
against a girl, had apparently been for nothing.  He had felt similar 
pangs of desire for his sparring partner, but nothing as strong as 
those he had felt for Shampoo on the floor of the Arena.  Simple lust 
for the barbarian girl had cost him his victory, as well as his chance 
to glorify his family's name, and he found himself hating her for that, 
with a level of passion that he had never before felt for any opponent.
 
"Shampoo," he whispered into the quiet darkness of his room, his voice 
dripping with barely-suppressed rage.  "I will see you defeated for 
what you have done to me, as utterly humbled as you have left me, and 
then, when I have attained that revenge, the barbaric customs of your 
own tribe will make you my bride."  He laughed softly at that pleasant 
thought, salving his wounded ego with thoughts of the amazon's ultimate 
fate at his hands.  He would redeem the honor of his ancestors using 
the beautiful Chinese girl's beaten body as the coin, and, as an added 
bonus, she would then be his to possess for his own.  The thoughts of 
what would take place upon their marriage bed were nearly as pleasant 
as those of his hoped for revenge against the girl.

He lapsed once more into silence, his mood darkening even further for 
several moments.  Then a wolfish smile crossed his face.  The challenge 
of defeating a strong opponent was all that he had ever lived for, an 
attitude that his father had gone to great lengths to beat into him 
over their many years of wandering the Empire together, while his sire 
trained him to be the greatest martial artist that the world had ever 
known.  And he would show everyone that he was the best, or all of that 
pain and effort would have been for nothing.  So if the amazon desired 
a man to conquer her, then he would be that conqueror, and force her to 
submit to him in single combat.  Then, she would be the sweet spoils of 
his victory.

The door suddenly opened while Ryu was still brooding, and he blinked 
his eyes rapidly for a few moments at the change in brightness before 
they quickly adjusted.  Thoughts of his revenge upon the amazon were 
temporarily set aside as he glanced at the man now standing in the 
doorway.  He did not recognize him, and his face took on a guarded 
expression when the man casually reached up and adjusted his glasses, 
but the friendly smile on the stranger's face was putting him more at 
ease.

"I'm pleased to see that you're already awake, Kumon-san," said the man 
cheerfully as he walked closer, setting aside a clipboard.  "I'm Tofu 
Ono, the doctor who treated you after your match.  I was on duty here 
when they brought you in."  He set down his clipboard and pulled a 
small penlight from his pocket and flicked it on.  "Follow this with 
your eyes, please."  He waved the penlight in front of Ryu's gaze, 
moving it from one side to the other.  When he was done, he flicked it 
off and returned it to his pocket.  "Good."

"I'm all right, Ono-sensei?" Ryu asked, curious.

Tofu smiled again.  "Well, I wouldn't say you're all right.  When they 
brought you in, you had a moderate concussion and some deep contusion 
damage, not to mention quite a few bruised and cracked ribs."  He 
paused for a moment, and then he pressed several points on Ryu's torso 
in rapid succession.  He then began removing the IV drip and cardiac 
sensors.  "However, your concussion's already faded after only a couple 
of hours of rest, which is very impressive, and I've done what I can to 
relieve your pain and speed healing of your other wounds.  But you're 
still going to be injured for some time yet."  He suddenly paused a 
moment, as if sensing something.

"I guess the amazon proved to be a bit too much for you, eh, new meat?" 
suddenly said a coolly sardonic voice from the doorway.  Both Ryu and 
Tofu glanced over to see an athletically-built Chinese youth with 
handsome features casually standing there in the opening, leaning one 
shoulder against the door frame as he stood posed with arms folded and 
hip half-cocked.  He was dressed well, in black silken pants and shoes, 
and a silver leather vest of costly material.  Small golden loops of 
earrings adorned each of his ears, and a mocking smirk seemed to be a 
permanent fixture upon his face.

Ryu definitely did not like the looks of this new arrival.  Never the 
most diplomatic person even at his best, he snapped, "Who the hell are 
you?"

"I'm sort of the welcome wagon around here, new meat," casually sneered 
the stranger.  "The name's Tarou, and it's a name you'd be well-advised 
to remember from now on with respect.  After all, in just a few months 
I'm going to be the crowned champion at the upcoming annual tournament, 
so consider yourself pretty lucky to be meeting me, especially outside 
of an Arena match.  But for now, I'm here to introduce you to your new 
home, since it looks like you'll be staying with us for awhile."  As he 
spoke, the mocking smile never left his face.  His gaze slid over to 
meet Tofu's.  "The Arena Director wants to see the new arrival."

The doctor's expression was calm, but his usual smile was momentarily 
absent as he met the boy's gaze levelly.  "I understand.  Please give 
my regards to the Director."  He turned back to face Ryu.  "Take care 
of yourself, Kumon-san."  With that, he gathered up his clipboard and 
walked out past the Chinese boy as if he wasn't even there.

Tarou disdainfully puffed out a brief burst of air after Tofu had gone 
past him.  He glared intently at the doctor's departing form, incensed 
that anyone would ever try and ignore him.  But he quickly calmed 
himself by casually slipping a hand inside one of his pants pockets, 
his fingers fondling the sheer silk of one of his latest acquisitions.  
The touch of pantyhose was his secret pleasure, even though it was one 
that no one could ever discover or reveal.  After all, he was known in 
the Arena rolls as Ikasu Tarou (Cool Guy Tarou).  He had carefully 
chosen that name for himself when he had first started out in the dog 
pits, where every Arena legend had begun.  It reflected the image he 
wished to present to the world, not to mention his extreme confidence 
in eventually winning the prize of citizenship.  But if his secret was 
ever discovered, he was certain he would very quickly become known as 
'Pantyhose' Tarou, for the world of the Arena was an unforgiving one, 
and nicknames had a way of sticking.

When Ryu did not join him quickly enough for his tastes, the Chinese 
boy smiled coldly and went into the room.  Ryu glanced up just as Tarou 
came near, and he was surprised when the other boy suddenly grasped him 
by the front of his shirt and hauled him to his feet.  His ribs flared 
with pain at the sudden movement.

"When I tell someone to move, new meat," said the Chinese youth in a 
conversational tone of voice, "I expect them to be quicker."  Seeing 
the defiant look in the other boy's eyes, Tarou smiled even more.  "I'd 
teach you some proper respect for your betters, Citizen Boy, but the 
Director's waiting for you.  So get going!"  Shifting his grip, he 
shoved Ryu in the direction of the open doorway.

Sullenly, after quickly regaining his sense of balance, Ryu obeyed the 
other boy's instructions and headed out into the hallway.  The pair 
walked to the nearby elevator and waited for it to arrive.  He ignored 
the Chinese youth as best he could.

When they arrived at the outer office of the Arena Director, Tarou had 
Ryu sit in a chair by the simple expedience of shoving him down into 
it.  He went over to the secretary, an attractive woman with red hair 
pulled back into a ponytail, dressed in a conservative business suit.  
The name on the desk plaque read "Mai Shiranui."

"Hey there, Mai-chan," said the Chinese boy with a lecherous grin.  
"I've brought the new guy here to see the Director.  He's expecting 
us."

"Go right in, Tarou-san."  She nodded primly at the set of double doors 
leading into the inner office.  "You know how the Director hates to be 
kept waiting."  She then turned her head back to her work with a sniff, 
pointedly ignoring the Chinese boy.

Grinning, Tarou stood up straight and glanced at Ryu.  "Follow me," he 
commanded.  He glanced back at Mai briefly.  "When I'm done in there, 
how about you and I going out for some tea, gorgeous?"

"I don't think so, Tarou-san," she replied coolly, as if it was a line 
she had delivered often enough to have grown tired of it.  Noting Ryu's 
regard of her, she added, "You know I don't date younger men."

"Your loss, Mai-chan."  Tarou grabbed his charge by the back of his 
collar to hurry him along and opened the door to the Arena Director's 
office.  "She wants me," he whispered so that only Ryu heard.  "It's 
only a matter of time until I break down her resistance."

Stepping into the office, the first thing that caught Ryu's attention 
was the decor.  It was simple, almost spartan in many ways, which made 
the few items of ornamentation stand out in stark contrast.  Classical 
ink brush sketches adorned the walls at several key points, and a few 
sculptures of both eastern and western design rested at each corner.  
There were even flowers and other decorative plants set in the room.  
And everything was placed in such a way to give a sense of good feng 
shui permeating the room.

The second thing that caught his attention was the matching pair of 
statuesque women standing to either side of the figure seated behind 
the large desk on the far side of the room.  They were near identical 
liliths, both Puma-class security models, each of them standing a bit 
less than two meters in height.  Both were impressively built, broad of 
shoulder, lithely muscular, and well-endowed.  They each wore their 
long manes of hair pulled back into a single thick braid that ran down 
almost to the small of their back.  The single distinctive feature 
between them, aside from their catlike ears, were their catlike eyes, 
specifically the coloring.  Both of them had mismatched eye colors, one 
eye blue and the other green, but one had a blue left eye and the other 
had a green left eye.

Dressed in short-sleeved dark-green uniforms similar to those worn by 
the Arena's security forces, they stood with arms folded beneath their 
breasts, rather solemn expressions on their faces.  From where he was 
standing, Ryu could just barely make out the names stenciled into 
patches on the right-front breasts of their uniforms, "Ana" and "Uni."

In comparison to the woman, the figure seated behind the desk was not 
quite as imposing, but he carried an air of quiet menace nonetheless.  
He was a pale-skinned, somewhat corpulent figure of a man, apparently a 
half-breed, with the locks of his blond hair worn straight and curling 
outwards at his collar, dressed in a well-tailored business suit.  He 
looked up and eyed the two arrivals, spending most of his attention on 
the new arrival.

"Come in, Kumon-san," said the man with gruff affability.  "I'm sure 
that you've guessed who I am by now.  I am Kakedo Sasaki, the Director 
of this facility.  Please, come in and have a seat.  You and I have a 
few items to discuss regarding your fulfillment of the specified terms 
of your contract.  Tarou, you're dismissed."

At a nod from the Director, both Ana and Uni broke ranks and strolled 
over to the door, one Puma less than gently shoving a surprised Tarou 
back out the door before closing it in his face, and the other grabbing 
Ryu up by the back of his collar and almost frog-marching him towards 
the chair in front of the desk.  She then shoved him down into the 
seat.  Through it all, the only change of the Director's expression had 
been the brief appearance of a slight smirk on his face.

As the two bodyguard's returned to their original positions, Director 
Sasaki smiled blandly at Ryu and said, "Now, shall we begin?"

                   ******************************

A week passed.

Ranma carefully placed the quantum flux coil into its designated spot 
upon the main circuitboard and affixed it with a couple of small daubs 
of solder.  When that was finally done, he released the breath he had 
been unconsciously holding and set down the soldering iron into its 
rack.  A smile lit his face, and he turned to see how Kodachi was doing 
with the control unit's programming.  Nabiki had lacked the skills to 
help them with any of the technical work, but she had seemed content to 
simply watch, even though he was certain she spent most of her time 
studying him.

Her hair pulled back tightly into a single ponytail to keep it out of 
her way, the young noblewoman typed away on the keyboard in front of 
her and frowned slightly at the results she was getting on the screen.  
She brushed back a stray lock of her hair absently, unaware of his 
regard.  The program was giving her errors, and it was very irritating 
to a programmer of her abilities.  Still, she had been pleased to 
discover she was able to contribute something useful to their task, and 
her prior efforts with Ranma's otherworld analog had given her a very 
in-depth understanding of the mathematics involved and the underlying 
software controlling the transceiver.

She had spent the past several days refining the subroutines from the 
surprisingly snarled piece of coding work that he had used with his 
prototype unit's setup.  The changes he had since added to try and 
correct the memory backwash problem during the retrieval cycle had made 
smoothing the software code even more challenging, but her own skills 
had risen to the challenge.  She was even adding a few elegant touches 
of her own here and there to augment his rather brute force solutions.  
They improved the measure of safety only slightly, but every little bit 
helped.  Even so, one of the very worst things that could happen would 
be for the control software to freeze or crash, a potentially fatal 
risk to the user that was simply unacceptable, so she was working hard 
to render it into a flawlessly stable program.

Turning away from looking at Kodachi, Ranma was again struck by the 
vast differences between this version of the noblewoman and her analogs 
in other timelines that he was familiar with.  She was far gentler and 
kinder by nature, a very different sort of girl from the mean-spirited 
and incredibly spoiled brats that those other versions of her had each 
become.  Still, it was sometimes a bit difficult to look at her without 
overlaying those images, especially with the memory of nearly being 
killed by a plant monster while he had been inhabiting one of his 
analogs still so fresh in his mind.  But she was not a violent, 
borderline sociopath, far from it.  She was a beautiful girl, rather 
intelligent and introspective, and his fiancée due to a strange set of 
circumstances.  And while she was someone he also felt a strong 
attraction for, attraction was not love.

That brought him to the other half of his current dilemma: Nabiki.  The 
middle Tendo daughter also raised ambivalent feelings within him.  Yes, 
she was undeniably attractive and shapely, but even before her download 
of that martial artist version of herself she had been the source of 
numerous verbal taunts and repartee at his expense.  Now that she was 
possessed of fighting skills roughly equivalent to his own, an entirely 
new dimension of complexity had been added to their already weird 
relationship, especially since that useless excuse for a human being 
now inhabiting his father's brain had gotten him engaged to her.

She had become both his rival and his fiancée practically overnight, 
and now the two of them played a rather strange game of dominance and 
seduction between themselves.  He refused to humbly submit and be like 
the Ranma her analog's memories were used to, and that was the source 
of the conflict that continuously simmered between them.  Both of them 
possessed the downloaded skills and memories of lives where their other 
selves had been highly-trained fighting machines par excellence, the 
heirs to the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts of their respective 
worlds, and also the stubborn pride that went with that title.  But 
here, in this world, both of them had an arguably equal claim to that 
title, since the Anything-Goes School did not appear to exist as far as 
he knew.

He had defeated her in a closely-fought duel, their only real fight so 
far with each other, but he knew that could not be the end of it.  It 
bothered him now and then, when he thought about it, how much he had 
relished the fierce battle at times, enjoying dominating her as he had 
proven his might to be superior to hers.  It was an unexpected aspect 
of himself that he sometimes worried about, albeit less and less as 
time went on, this awakened desire within him to prove he was the alpha 
male.  So far, he had proven himself able to meet any challenge that 
had come his way, from the Wolf Pack to Utena Tenjou.

Recalling Utena raised another problem rapidly developing in his life.  
The list of girls complicating his previously quiet existence seemed to 
keep growing by leaps and bounds ever since his first mnemonic download 
through the resonator.  At first there had been only Akane and Nabiki 
Tendo involved in his life, but then Kodachi Kuno, Ukyo Kuonji, and 
Utena Tenjou had quickly entered into his orbit.  However, out of the 
entire group, the last two girls were the ones he felt most comfortable 
with.  And he felt a surprisingly strong physical attraction to all of 
them, even Akane.

Then there was the enigmatic Tiger.  The redheaded catgirl had been 
assigned to him in order to prepare him for his rematch last week 
against Utena.  She was a product of genetic science at a level unknown 
on his analogs' worlds, a synthetic human, a replicant, commonly called 
a lilith.  She had tested his martial arts abilities to their previous 
limits, beating him up mercilessly for days, forcing him to improve in 
the fiery crucible of battle.  And in the end he had triumphed over 
her, although the memories of his victory were vague, a victim of the 
amnesia caused by giving himself up to the Nekoken.  She had been long 
gone when he had awakened several hours later on that last day of his 
training, like a beautiful, terrifying dream.

The memories from his other selves were of little help when it came to 
dealing with girls, since those troubled analogs of himself were far 
and away even more stunted in their awareness of the concepts of sex 
and romance than he was, and he adamantly refused to explore whatever 
help Ranko's memories might have to offer him.  It still disturbed him 
a bit that there was a complete female psyche lurking within some dimly 
lit corner of his consciousness.  Maybe that was why he felt so much 
more comfortable with Ukyo and Utena.  Since they tended to act like 
guys, it was easier to relate to them and talk to them.

Ukyo raised another question as well.  Was he engaged to her too?  It 
was a delicate question to ask the ninja girl, and he did not want to 
give her the wrong impression.  That sort of misunderstanding would 
likely end up with him getting beaten up, the way his luck had been 
running recently, and there had been far too much of that going on 
already.  No, it was best to just ignore the whole situation for now 
and concentrate on rescuing his father.  With that in mind, he pulled 
out a circuit tester and began going over every connection carefully.

Having spent the last several days playing fetch and carry for Ranma, 
Nabiki was more than a little irked that Kodachi had proven more useful 
than she was.  Once he had been made aware of the young noblewoman's 
abilities with a computer, he had placed her in charge of the software, 
and he had begun assembling and testing the hardware over the past 
week.  That had left Nabiki with little to do other than grabbing 
components from boxes and bringing them over to him, and she had filled 
her idle moments by casting resentful glances at the other girl.

Closing her hands briefly into fists and then relaxing them back open, 
she mused about the future.  Her secret training in the Amaguriken 
technique was now complete, adding a powerful new weapon to her arsenal 
that she was looking forward to surprising Ranma with.  She had even 
spent some time practicing her calligraphy, composing a formal letter 
of challenge that she was planning to give him when he walked with her 
to school.  It was a little out of her way, but she didn't trust the 
noblewoman to keep from pressing her claim.  Picking him up in her 
family's limousine and chauffeuring him to the Academy would be just 
the sort of thing that the Kuno girl would do to try and impress him.

"I'm finished," announced Ranma, startling the Tendo girl out of her 
reverie.  She glanced over to see him closing up the case to the 
resonator unit.

Kodachi glanced up from her screen.  "Give me but a moment to finish 
compiling my last program build, and I shall be finished as well.  I 
think you'll be pleased with my efforts, Saotome-kun."  She flashed a 
brief smirk at a suddenly scowling Nabiki, an exchange of looks that 
the pigtailed boy did not appear to notice, caught up as he was in 
putting the last screws into the case.

At that moment there was a brief knock at the door.  One of the many  
household servants entered, bowed deeply, and announced primly, "Dinner 
is now being served in the main hall, Kuno-dono.  His Lordship has 
extended an invitation to both of your guests to join the family at 
dinner."  He turned to look at Ranma.  "Saotome-san, your parents have 
already been notified that you have been invited, and your mother has 
offered her permission."  And turning briefly to face Nabiki, he said, 
"Tendo-san, your father has also been notified, and he has extended his 
permission for you as well."  After bowing once more, he waited at the 
door, the picture of the perfect houseservant.

"Oh, I had no idea that it had grown so late already," Kodachi stated 
in surprise.  She got up from her workstation and smiled at Ranma.  "I 
would be most honored if you would join me and be my escort to table, 
Saotome-kun."  Pointedly ignoring the simmering Tendo girl, she offered 
her arm to Ranma. 

Taking it by reflex, he stammered out, "Uh, y-yeah.  O-of course.  I'd 
be honored.  We can finish this tomorrow after classes."

"With your permission then, Milady.  If you would all follow me?"

Ranma and Kodachi exited the room arm in arm, and behind them came a 
wrath-filled female figure, her true state of emotions barely concealed 
behind a cool-eyed mask.  And so the trio went to join the rest of the 
Kunos at dinner.

                   ******************************

Gosunkugi closed the book on the last of his assigned homework and set 
the text aside, glad to finally be free from dealing with such dull 
material.  He crossed his forearms and rested them on the desk before 
lowering his chin atop them, gazing out at the rising moon.  The window 
to his room was open, and he could hear the neighbors involved with 
their respective dinners.  His own dinner had been take-out from the 
corner noodle shop.

He turned his head to gaze at the single photograph near his small 
shrine to Akane.  It was a framed picture taken many years ago, of his 
father holding a toddler in his arms and smiling.  The infant was 
himself, and the picture had been taken less than a year before the 
man's last mission for the Mobius Institute, the one that resulted in 
his disappearance.  His mother had simply fallen apart at the loss of 
her husband, and he had been sent away to live with relatives for a 
time.  But she had recovered, and he had returned to live with her less 
than a year later.  They now lived on a modest stipend from the Empire.

The awakening of his esper powers was due to his sire.  His father had 
been an artifact hunter for the Institute, one of many such individuals 
whose job it was to find lost objects of antiquity and mystic power 
from around the globe.  One such minor relic had brought his esper 
powers to life, although it had taken a few years for them to manifest 
enough to alert the Institute.  He had promptly been taken from school 
and enrolled in classes there, meeting the girl who would become his 
closest friend and nemesis, Manami Minami.  She had both bullied him 
and looked out for him ever since, for reasons she kept to herself.  
Once, when they were ten, he had wondered out loud why she kept hanging 
around him, and she had slugged him hard enough to knock him down, one 
of many mysteries concerning her he knew he would never solve.

Now she was nearing the final phase of being a ghost sweeper trainee, 
and he was coming to the end of his own training as an esper-enhanced 
information gatherer for the Empire.  Unfortunately, his abilities were 
so weak that it was entirely likely that he would be spending all of 
his future career telepathically receiving and sifting through piles of 
information gathered by agents in the field with stronger abilities.  
He would likely never see Minami again after graduation in a couple of 
years, and that thought filled him with a mixture of both relief and 
sadness.  She had been such a fixture in his life that he found it 
difficult to even imagine existence without her being nearby to boss 
him around.  But they had already started drifting apart, the young 
ghost sweeper now spending her time with her new friends and dating as 
many different boys as she could seem to fit into her schedule.  It was 
pretty obvious she had no need for him.

His gaze drifted to land on one of the many pictures he had of Akane, 
his beautiful dream girl.  He sighed wistfully once, as he studied her 
exquisite features intently, feeling a powerful sense of longing for 
her fill his being.  She looked so strong and capable, an intoxicating 
mixture of indomitable beauty and sheer physical might.  Until that 
miserable villain and his pet noblewoman thug had brutally beaten his 
beloved goddess, she had seemed to be invincible.

Poor Akane.

Reluctantly tearing his gaze away from a picture of one of her private 
training routines, the youngest Tendo's image forever frozen in time, 
caught split-legged in a kick, her foot impacting hard into a dummy, he 
noticed the tome he had removed from the Institute seeming to beckon to 
him once again.  He had studied the writings contained within its pages 
from cover to cover for many days now, detailing a ritual that would 
unlock abilities within himself that would propel him down the road to 
becoming a true mage.  The stars and planets would all be in their 
proper alignments tonight.  After all of his waiting and preparations, 
tonight would finally see the beginning of the end for that miserable 
pair: Ranma Saotome and Kodachi Kuno.

A short burst of psychotic-sounding laughter erupted from his throat, 
cut off at the end by coughing.

                   ******************************

"More tea, Tendo-san?"

Nabiki nodded in reply to Kenseiko's primly polite question from her 
place at the dinner table, seated directly across from Kuno and next to 
a simmering Kodachi.  Taking a brief break from eating the sumptuous 
meal that had been set out before her, she observed one of the Kuno's 
servants quickly hurrying to pour more tea for her.  Having been rather 
unexpectedly invited along with Ranma to dine with the Kunos had been 
testing her diplomatic skills a bit, especially since she could not 
manage to ignore the unmistakable vibes of hostility that she was 
getting from both Kodachi and her mother, hidden beneath their polite 
manners.  As to the lust-filled glances she was getting from the young 
heir to the Kuno name, even less needed to be said about how disturbed 
they made her feel.

At his own place at the table, across from Kodachi and seated next to a 
coldly-polite Kuno, Ranma's thoughts were kept busy studying several 
quantum dynamics theorems in his mind.  He was gamely trying to use the 
mathematical puzzles to distract him from the doe-eyed glances he was 
getting from the young noblewoman, who had spent the entire meal gazing 
at him just barely within the bounds of politeness.  Each one of her 
smoldering glances kept causing him to make errors now and then in his 
mental calculations and forcing him to start over.  At the same time, 
he was also quickly consuming plate after plate of the delicious meal 
set before him with polite gusto, restraining himself with effort at 
times to keep from simply guzzling it down like one of his counterparts 
would.

Kodachi noticed that Ranma was looking at her again, and she shifted 
her gaze away from him shyly.  Having him here at her home for dinner 
was causing nervous butterflies to spout up within her, distracting her 
terribly.  She had not been troubled by such nervousness while she had 
been focused on her work, but now she was.  She quickly shifted her 
attention, only to arrive at the wholly unwelcome sight of the middle 
Tendo girl seated next to her, causing her fingers to whiten slightly 
as their grip on her chopsticks tightened.

Distracted from eating by their table guests, Kuno struggled hard to 
maintain the stoicism of a true samurai lord, but it was difficult when 
he was seated so near his true beloved.  One of them, he very quickly 
amended, not wishing to slight the fair yet high-spirited Akane even in 
the privacy of his own thoughts.  It had been a week since his match 
with Nabiki, but he was not yet ready to battle her again.  He wanted 
to make their next match unforgettable, but it was difficult to hold 
himself restrained from embracing her.

How could both Tendo girls, not to mention his shy and foolishly naive 
younger sister, have become so captivated by the lowly knave now seated 
to his right?  What madness possessed such wonderful members of the 
fairer sex, that all of them would set their sights on such a vile, 
ill-mannered peasant as Ranma Saotome?  It was utterly inconceivable.

Kenseiko spared her only daughter a sympathetic glance.  Watching her 
precious Dachi-chan act so shyly around the Saotome boy, it was quite 
obvious that she had fallen in love with him.  And they made quite a 
nice-looking couple together, which made the odd telephone call she had 
received from the Kaoru matriarch even more puzzling.  The woman had 
somehow become even more vacuous over the years, and she had gone on 
for some time about inanities before finally coming to the point.  Even 
talking with Nodoka had been less irritating, but that was beside the 
point.

The Kaorus were officially requesting that Kodachi attend a formal 
dance with Miki, to take place at Ohtori Academy.  Due to the complex 
web of fragile alliances that were always a factor in the dealings 
among the nobility, she had found herself unable to simply say no.  To 
do so would be to risk alienating a useful ally, and that she was not 
prepared to do.

What was puzzling about the request was the indication that the two had 
already been spending time together, and the boy desired to spend some 
more with Kodachi.  It was all being done according to protocol, but 
there had also been an undercurrent of threat to the matter.  Since her 
daughter was not officially engaged yet, it would not be considered a 
breach of decorum for her to attend a function with another young man, 
so she had eventually given her permission.  It was possible that the 
Kaorus were seeking to formalize their alliance with the Kunos through 
marriage, but the timing was inconvenient.

Shifting her gaze to Ranma, she mused at how the passage of time could 
change so many things.  It was quite an ironic twist of fate that the 
daughter of her own womb was now involved with the offspring of her 
arch-rival, but she found it difficult to dislike the boy.  Despite his 
humbler origins and rather coarser manners, he had impressed her with 
the way he treated her Dachi-chan, and she knew he would make a fine 
addition to the family as a future Kuno.

She could also tell that he would defend Kodachi if need be, and that 
was a great comfort to a mother who loved her daughter like she did her 
precious child.  But it was still astonishing how such a one as this 
boy could have ever sprung from the likes of the ill-mannered thug that 
Nodoka had been in her youth, and most likely still was.  But he 
carried a great deal of her in his facial features and the structure of 
his frame.

She had been noticing the looks being exchanged by her daughter and the 
Tendo girl, and she found it a pity that a daughter born of grace and 
blue-blooded nobility should have to put up with interference to her 
desires from such a one.  Still, in her own youthful follies, when she 
had carried a different family name, dealing with such annoyances had 
motivated her to grow far stronger than she otherwise would have been 
capable.  She mused with a slight smile on the memories of her three 
greatest nemeses in those past, gloriously misspent days of their 
youth: Nodoka Himura, Achika Masaki, and Kimiko Nakakami.  How she had 
despised Nodoka and Achika, and still did.  Only the soldier cadet, 
Kimiko, had been an occasional ally at times, in innumerable doomed 
plots seeking to finally crush Nodoka, schemes that always seemed to 
unravel at the very brink of victory.

It was perhaps ironic that Kimiko's ghost was still frustrating her 
plans from beyond the grave, in the personages of her daughters.  Her 
old ally was having one last laugh at her expense, but Kenseiko would 
turn the tables if she had any say in the matter.  The boy would marry 
her beloved Dachi-chan, completing her revenge against Nodoka by taking 
his names from the Saotome register when he became a Kuno.  And as for 
Nabiki, she would be wise to leave Ranma to Kodachi.

She studied the pigtailed boy speculatively between bites of her meal, 
her thoughts on her daughter's recent request.  The Kunos owned and 
maintained a fairly sizable pineapple plantation in the prefecture of 
Hawaii, and Kodachi had asked if she could take Ranma there on a 
vacation during the upcoming class break in a month or so.  A romantic 
getaway in an island paradise would give her daughter time to cement 
her hold on the Saotome boy, likely by Kodachi seducing him into her 
bed.  It was a bold scheme, and she was secretly proud of Kodachi for 
having come up with it.

"OHHOHOHOHO!"

Ranma came near to swallowing his chopsticks when the woman suddenly 
burst out into a loud gale of evil, feminine laughter.  He glanced at 
Kodachi, thinking it was her at first, but she was eating her food as 
if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  A glance at Kuno and his 
father showed the same calmness.  Shrugging, he went back to eating his 
meal, grateful once again that this version of Kodachi did not seem 
prone to laughing like that.

Looking down the table, Daisho smiled at his wife affectionately.  It 
was always nice to hear her laughing like that, and it usually meant 
she was plotting something fun.  That boded well for him tonight, since 
his beloved was always far more amorous when one of her plans was 
coming together.

                   ******************************

Godai sighed tiredly as he fumbled with his keys for a moment, before 
finally finding the right one for the lock.  He could hear the sounds 
of a raucous party drifting over from across the hall, and he was a 
little tempted to join in the festivities.  After his interview with 
Furinkan's new headmaster, he had spent a week immersed in the history 
section of the academy's library.  He was determined to do his best by 
his students, to instill within them a pride in the great undertaking 
that the Empire represented, to unify humanity under one leadership, 
guided by the divine mandate of the Emperor.

Besides, if he did well, it would likely mean a promotion.  A higher 
rank would bring with it the opportunity to move into a much larger 
apartment by means of a greater subsidy allowance, and it would finally 
enable him to satisfy his parents' urgings for him to settle down with 
a good woman.  As things stood now, he had little to offer a woman, 
other than an embarrassingly small apartment in a dumpy little rooming 
house, with a shared bath down the hall.

As he tiredly pushed open the door to his room, Godai heard the sounds 
of carousing across the hall suddenly grow much louder as the door to 
his neighbor's apartment suddenly flew open.  With a long-suffering 
sigh, he turned to see a drunken Akemi smiling at him in a rather 
sultry fashion, her body standing poised in the open doorway as she 
took a quick swig from a small bottle of sake in her hand.  Her dark 
blue yukata was an attractive counterpoint to her hair, dyed a deep red 
ever since he had first met her.  Both were somewhat disheveled.

"Godai-kun," she purred with a slight hiccup.  "You missed most of the 
party.  Where have you been, you naughty boy?"  She leaned back against 
the open doorway and sighed dramatically.  "I missed you, Little Tin 
Soldier."

He grimaced slightly at the nickname.  Seeing his reaction, she smiled 
with even more smoldering sensuality in her gaze.  He knew she enjoyed 
teasing him.  Everyone in the rooming house did.  They saw him as a 
fake soldier, a man who wore the uniform of an Imperial officer, but 
one who would likely never see actual combat.  He nodded slightly to 
her and continued on into his room, shutting out her pursuing laugh.

Slumping up against the inside of the door, he smiled in a self-
deprecating fashion.  Maybe he really was only a tin soldier, but he 
was also a man of dreams and ambitions.  Someday, he would realize 
them.

As he began walking deeper into the light gloom of his apartment, he 
turned on the lights with an absent flick of his finger against the 
wall switch.  He pulled off his jacket and carefully hung it up in his 
closet, briefly recalling the proud look in his father's eyes when a 
not much younger Godai had first returned home, dressed in the uniform 
of an Imperial officer.

Noticing the blinking light on his answering machine, he walked over 
and tapped the button to play back his messages.  The first one was 
from his mother, wondering if he was going to be paying them a visit 
during the upcoming spring break.  Knowing her as he did, she already 
undoubtedly had a number of girls picked out for him to meet.  That 
sort of pressure he really did not need when he was supposed to be on 
vacation.

The other one sounded like a recorded announcement, or perhaps that of 
a well-practiced telemarketer, since it lacked the pauses that a live 
speaker normally had.  He listened to it, wondering what the catch was 
going to be.

"Congratulations, Godai-san," said the anonymous female voice.  "You 
have been selected to receive a wondrous gift, and I am authorized to 
bestow it upon you at your earliest convenience, should you choose to 
accept it.  You can be assured that there is no obligation involved, 
and I will be available at any hour of the day to deliver your gift in 
person."  The voice went on to recite a fourteen-digit telephone code 
that he could use to reply to this message, before wishing him a good 
evening and hanging up.

Shrugging his shoulders, figuring he had nothing to lose, he played the 
message back a second time and quickly scribbled down the telephone 
code.  He idly wondered who the voice represented, not to mention why 
they were going to give him a gift, but maybe it was a sign that his 
luck was about to change.  He carefully dialed in the telephone number 
and waited while the line connected.  He heard it ring twice before 
being picked up.

"Good evening, Godai-san," said the same pleasant, female voice that 
had left the message on his machine.  "You have reached the Goddess 
Relief Office, and a representative will be there shortly to deliver 
your gift."  A moment later, the other end hung up, leaving him to 
stand there and look puzzled.

He was still staring at the telephone in his hand when there suddenly 
came a faint glimmering from within the mirror on his closet door.  
Godai stared at the startling sight, hardly daring to blink as the 
glimmering quickly brightened, and a beautiful girl with light-colored 
hair and complexion, not to mention the deepest blue eyes that he had 
ever seen, suddenly appeared from within the depths of the looking 
glass.  Odd tattoos of some sort adorned each of her cheeks, and her 
forehead as well.  Her slender form was swathed in an elaborate outfit 
of semi-diaphanous silks and a flaring skirt of strange materials, and 
her tresses were held in place by a scarf.  She poked her head clear of 
the surface of the mirror and smiled innocently at him.  Ripplings of 
light rolled outward across the surface of the looking glass as more 
and more of her body emerged.

                   ******************************

Deep within the demesne of the Mobius Institute, Setsuna Meioh suddenly 
blinked her eyes open and stared outwards into the silent darkness of 
her room.  A brief smile curved her lips slightly as the whirling chaos 
of her mind almost stilled, and she knew a brief moment of peace.

"And the fates of both Heaven and Earth shall become intertwined," she 
whispered, ever so softly.

Then the moment ended, and her mind once more dissolved into the vast 
sea of possibilities constantly washing against her consciousness.  Her 
smile faded away, and she returned again to a troubled sleep.

                   ******************************

Godai stared for several moments at the unexpected vision that had so 
suddenly appeared in his room, but then his training took over.  His 
hand dropped to close on the butt of his sidearm, still holstered at 
his waist, even as he felt an odd reluctance to draw it.  He gazed in 
awed rapture at the vision of demure femininity laid before his eyes, 
before slowly removing his hand from the weapon.  A sensation of peace 
filled his soul as he beheld the beautiful girl finally emerge fully 
from the glass to hover in mid-air before him, her feet suspended 
several centimeters above the floor.

"Wh-who are you?" he asked, finally finding his voice.  "What are you?"  
Even as he spoke, he felt himself held captivated by her beauty and the 
sense of innocence she projected.

The vision before him smiled gently, bowed her head slightly, and she 
replied, "Good evening, Godai-san.  My name is Belldandy, and I am a 
goddess.  You have been chosen from among all other mortals to receive 
a great gift, a wish for anything that your heart might desire."

His brain came close to stalling out for several moments as it futilely 
attempted to process that particular input.  A wish?  For anything he 
desired?  Anything at all?  Instantly, fantasies of fame, power and 
wealth, not to mention crowds of adoring women, washed across his mind 
for a brief moment.  The entire world had just been offered to him, and 
his imagination savored the possibilities.  But then he quickly shook 
his head.  This could not be real.  He was just an ordinary man living 
an ordinary life in an ordinary world, and such things as goddesses 
appearing and offering wishes did not happen to men like himself.

"You're wrong, Godai-san," she reproved gently, still smiling her sweet 
smile.  "Any of your desires could be met.  You have been offered this 
gift as a reward for having a good heart and a kind nature.  All you 
have to do is ask for it, and whatever you desire shall be yours."

"A-are you reading my mind?" he stammered out.  A thought suddenly 
occurred to him.  Perhaps the woman was an agent sent from the Mobius 
Institute for some obscure purpose.  That could explain her abilities.  
Perhaps this was some sort of Security Directorate test.  He saw a look 
of mild consternation lightly brush across her beautiful features, and 
he smiled suddenly.  He was certain he knew just how to turn this 
situation around and show this woman from the Institute just what he 
was made of.

He pointed at her and said with a smile, "I know what I want for my 
wish.  I wish that a beautiful girl like you would fall in love with me 
and stay with me forever."  He lowered his pointing finger and waited 
for the strange woman's act to end.

After looking quite startled for a moment, Belldandy's smile returned, 
but now with an added element of shyness added into it.  The marks on 
her face flared brightly, and an aura of divine power suddenly surged 
up around her.  Godai quickly averted his gaze from the intense burst 
of brilliance, trying to shield his face from the light with upraised 
hands.  What was happening now?

She closed her eyes and spread her arms wide, a ball of energy quickly 
forming before her, and her entire body became almost suffused with a 
beatific glow.  She held that rapturous pose for a moment, feeling her 
spirit link up with the Yggdrasil main system as she prepared to upload 
the specified request.  A coruscating column of blue iridescent energy 
suddenly roared up through the ceiling, yet there was no damage left in 
its wake in even the slightest way.

                   ******************************

Within the Mobius Institute, a young woman with pale hair, barely more 
than a girl really, blinked her eyes open suddenly and looked around.  
She sat up in her bed, her slender form lit only by the silvery light 
of the moon shining upon her.  Dropping her bare feet to the floor, she 
stood up gracefully, her white, sheer silk nightgown hiding little of a 
trim and finely-formed figure.

After calmly striding over to the window, she threw it open and looked 
outwards across the city, her gaze absent of any hint of emotion other 
than mild curiosity.  Something was happening, she could sense it, a 
sudden surge of magical power.  A wintry half-smile briefly crossed her 
features as she felt the energies fading away.

The sorceress known as Frost would know what it was, and if it was a 
threat to the Empire she had sworn upon her honor to serve.

                   ******************************

Ayaka Kisaragi blinked in pain at the sudden headache exploding behind 
her eyes, abruptly halting her drifting off into sleep.  She cursed out 
loud from the pain, immediately regretting having spent another weekend 
of drinking and partying with her three best friends in the world: Yui 
Ikari, Natsumi Tsujimoto, and Miyuki Kobayakawa.  It had been wonderful 
fun, but she had to be up early tomorrow, to begin another week spent 
at her current assignment at the Imperial Academy.

As the pain in her head gradually receded, she sensed that the brief 
surge in the local ambient ethereal energies was already beginning to 
fade away.  She lurched out of her bed and came to her feet, weaving 
only slightly, her body presently clothed in one of her favorite silk 
nightgowns.  Something major had just happened, and it was nearby.  She 
stumbled over to her window just as her cellular telephone rang quite 
shrilly.  She snatched it up quickly, even as her other arm swept back 
the curtain over her window.

"Kisaragi here," she said, her eyes studying the Tokyo skyline for any 
visible sign of the source of that etheric surge.  But she saw nothing.

"I've just received a report that some sort of immense energy pulse has 
taken place in your vicinity," said the voice of Director Kasuga over 
the phone.  "Did you sense it?  The power levels went off the top of 
the scale."

She grimaced, but kept most of the sarcasm out of her voice.  "Sense 
it?  Yeah, I felt it all right.  Very powerful."  Her voice trailed off 
as she cast her senses out into the nearby vicinity.  She felt a fading 
echo of the surge still resounding in the area.  If she was very lucky, 
she would be able to find the source before it faded completely.

"Find out what you can, Kisaragi.  I'm counting on you."

"Yes, Sir."  She heard an acknowledging grunt from the other end of the 
phone and then it was abruptly hung up.  She clicked off the telephone 
with her thumb, her senses still probing outwards into the surrounding 
night.  She would discover the source of that odd energy and determine 
if it was malevolent or not.  If it was, then she would destroy it.  It 
was part of her job, after all.

Going over to her nightstand, Ayaka opened the drawer and pulled out 
several items: a small bottle of pills, a gun, and a metal cylinder.  
She gingerly popped open the bottle and quickly shook out a couple of 
pills from within.  She dry-swallowed them and braced herself.  As the 
chemical concoction abruptly hit her system, she snapped fully upright, 
feeling her body burning off the alcoholic haze remaining within her.  
The experience quickly passed, leaving her mind clear and her body 
ready for action.  Combat drugs were a wonderful invention, but she 
knew in the back of her mind that she was going to regret this later.  
Still, for an hour or so, she would be at the top of her abilities.

She continued her preparations, feeling her stomach burble once or 
twice in complaint.  She ignored it.  The pistol she picked up was a 
short-barreled 9mm automatic in blued steel, standard Institute-issue 
for an undercover operative like herself.  However, the cylinder was a 
family heirloom, her Red Dragon Spirit Capture Star Sword.  After 
quickly ejecting the magazine currently in the gun, she reached into 
the drawer and pulled out a different one.  The bullets contained in 
this magazine were special-issue ammunition made by the Institute, the 
tips composed of orichalcum.  Very faint runic traceries added to their 
lethality to supernatural beings.  Each round was extremely expensive 
to create and only meant to be used in emergencies.  However, the 
current situation seemed to warrant it.

Slapping the magazine into her pistol and working the slide, she easily 
chambered a round.  Flicking the safety on with her thumb, she set it 
down on her bed with the sword pommel and went over to her closet to 
find something more appropriate to wear.  She had a very general sense 
now as to where her quarry was located, the echoes of the energy pulse 
leaving an afterimage on her senses like a flashbulb on a retina.

                   ******************************

Minami blinked and gasped suddenly, her attention yanked away from the 
textbook spread open in front of her.  Something big had just happened 
nearby, and that spelled an opportunity in her eyes.  Other than 
Kisaragi-sensei, she was the only ghost sweeper (albeit still just a 
trainee) in the local area.  So it was her duty to investigate whatever 
had caused such a disturbance, and she hoped that it was something a 
little bit challenging.

So far, she had been a bit disappointed at the level of supernatural 
activity in the area.  It was going to take her forever to upgrade her 
license from trainee-level at the rate she had been going, and beating 
up on low-level ghosts and minor spirits was getting boring.  Where was 
the adventure in that, let alone the glory?

Still, recalling how powerful that disturbance had felt, it was better 
to play it safe.  She picked up her telephone and dialed, waiting a bit 
impatiently as it rang four times before finally being picked up.

"Uh, hello?  Mano residence," came the distracted-sounding voice of 
Yohko.

"Yohko, this is Minami.  Get dressed and bring your stuff.  I'll be 
waiting at the corner near your house.  We've got a case."

                   ******************************

Godai dropped his arms slowly when the bright light in his room faded 
away.  Hearing the sounds of the party across the hall still going on 
strong made his present situation feel even more surreal.  Still, he 
was not very surprised that the commotion in his room had not disturbed 
the party in the slightest.

"Your wish has been accepted by Yggdrasil, Godai-san," said Belldandy 
pleasantly.  "I knew you would make a good wish."

He blinked rapidly for several moments.  "It was?  You did?"

She nodded, smiling even more brightly.  Her feet dropped down to touch 
the ground, revealing that she was actually somewhat shorter than his 
own height.

"So, uh, what happens now?" he asked.  He had expected the girl to 
reveal that he had passed and then leave, but he was becoming more and 
more certain with each passing moment that this was not some sort of 
Security Directorate test.  He noticed her looking around his room with 
interest, and he was suddenly embarrassed at the mess.

The girl suddenly looked uncertain when she turned back to face him.  
"I'm not sure, Godai-san.  You asked for a beautiful girl like me to 
fall in love with you and stay with you forever."  For a brief moment, 
she blushed.  "Do you really think I'm beautiful?"

"Yes!  Yes, of course!" he quickly blurted out.  He suddenly looked 
embarrassed and continued in a softer tone.  "I think you're the most 
beautiful girl I've ever met."

Belldandy smiled her shy smile again.  At that moment, the telephone 
suddenly rang, startling the pair, and Godai laughed briefly.  The 
juxtaposition of normal and abnormal events taking place seemed to 
justify it.

"I think that might be for me," said Belldandy thoughtfully.  She went 
over to the telephone and picked it up.  "Hello?"

While he waited and listened, Godai tried to figure out who she could 
be talking to, but no answer came to mind.  Her end of the conversation 
mainly consisted of brief statements like "Yes" and "I understand."

After a minute or two, she hung up the telephone and turned to look at 
him with an enigmatic expression on her face.

"So, who was that?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity any 
longer.

"That was Kami-sama," she replied in a matter of fact tone.  "He had 
some instructions for me, so that I might best fulfill your wish and 
also take care of another task he wishes for me to do while I am here 
on Earth."

Godai gaped.  "K-kami-s-sama?"  He stared at Belldandy for several 
moments as the enormity of this situation finally sank in.  His mind 
decided to take a brief break from things, and the world spun for a 
moment before going dark.

                   ******************************

Ayaka paused on a street corner and looked around.  The night air was  
cool against her face, typical for spring weather, and she was grateful 
that she had dressed more warmly than was her usual wont.  She belted 
her trenchcoat shut for a little more warmth and grunted.  Wearing a 
low-cut evening dress was her preferred outfit when the weather was 
warmer, but she was glad she had opted for practicality over style in 
her present situation.  That was also why she was presently wearing a 
light suit of skintight body armor under her coat, just in case.  Not 
only was it quite comfortably warm on such a cool night, but she would 
be the first to admit that she struck an attractive figure in it.

The source of the etheric disturbance had been nearby, of that much she 
was certain.  However, the trail she had been following, the dwindling 
echoes of the initial immense pulse of energy, had finally faded away 
almost completely.  She had gotten here as quickly as she could, but 
still too late.  Her quarry was proving to be more elusive than she had 
been expecting.  Still, if she was lucky, perhaps it would give itself 
away again.

It was at that moment that something else suddenly tingled against her 
spiritual senses, another disturbance in the local energies.  After 
quickly unbelting and opening her overcoat, she drew her gun from her 
shoulder holster.  She thumbed the safety off even as she glanced 
around at the surrounding buildings, trying to get a more precise fix 
on the source.  She was in a residential district, surrounded by a 
number of apartment complexes and rooming houses.  For several long 
moments, she cast her senses about, finally locking on to what seemed 
to be the origin point of this new disruption.  With a wolfish smile, 
Ayaka headed off towards the source at a run.

                   ******************************

Alighting softly on a rooftop, Frost paused to cast her senses about.  
The white silken robes she wore billowed slightly in the faint breeze, 
giving her a ghostly appearance.  The glowing staff she held in one 
dainty fist faded slightly in the moonlight, until only the odd runes 
inscribed in metal along its length gave off any light.  Flying here 
from the Institute had taken her much longer than she had anticipated, 
and she had lost the scent.

The normally bland expression she wore on her face took on the faintest 
note of perturbance as she looked back and forth without sensing her 
target.  Her etheric senses were not as well refined as her mastery of 
other magics, but she would begin working harder to overcome that flaw 
at her earliest opportunity.  Luckily, she had the resources of the 
Institute to draw upon, adding to her already impressive capabilities 
as a sorceress.  With only perhaps one or two exceptions, she was far 
superior to anyone else near her age when it came to the mystic arts.

Still sensing nothing, she pursed her lips slightly.  Growing up in the 
care of the Institute had taught her to be patient.  She was very near 
her target, so it was only a matter of time before something led her to 
it.

                   ******************************

Minami gazed in mild surprise at the unexpected figure walking up with 
a battle-ready Yohko and blinked.  "Uh, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, Kasuga-kun was at my house when you called," quickly declared 
Yohko in explanation, indicating her companion.  She then looked a 
little nervous when the other girl adjusted her glasses and studied the 
pair a bit more closely.  A light blush appeared on the young devil 
hunter's cheeks as she suddenly realized how bad this could look.  The 
blush deepened when she recalled what she and Kyosuke had been involved 
in at the time her friend called, especially since she had been the 
first one to initiate things.

Kyosuke nodded and put one hand behind his head, also looking somewhat 
flustered at Yohko's statement.  He smiled at the robed ghost sweeper.  
"Yes, that's right.  I was studying with Mano-san.  She and I have a 
big test tomorrow."  However, the fact that he and Yohko had not been 
studying right at the moment she called went unspoken.  It had just 
been a brief break from the books, but one innocent kiss had quickly 
led to more passionate ones.  If duty had not called in the form of 
Minami, who knew what might have happened between himself and Yohko?

It was a rare night that he had been able to visit the beautiful devil 
hunter without her old dragon of a grandmother being around to glare at 
him balefully.  Glancing briefly at Yohko, and trying hard not to stare 
at how well she filled out her battle uniform, he still wondered why 
his thoughts had kept drifting to fantasies about another girl, namely 
Madoka Ayukawa, even while he was kissing with her.  The devil hunter 
would have surely decked him, or worse, cried, had she known where his 
thoughts had been.  But it was almost as if the street-tough Madoka had 
cast a spell over his feelings of late.

For her part, Minami was a little put out to see the esper boy there, 
even if he was her senpai at the Academy.  Having someone else around 
from the Institute on a case would lower the points she could earn, one 
reason why Yohko had proven almost ideal to have as a partner.  The 
young devil hunter had proven quite useful on the few cases they had 
worked on together so far, with her soulsword and fighting skills 
backing up Minami's magics.  But what had been a surprise to the ghost 
sweeper was that the older girl was also becoming a good friend.

"Anyway, Kasuga-kun volunteered to come along and help."  Yohko wrapped 
her arm around his rather possessively and smiled at Minami.

"Well, all right."  A hint of peevishness was in the ghost sweeper's 
voice.  She took a quick scan of their surroundings and then headed off 
towards where she had sensed the disturbance.

Yohko yawned in boredom, even as her longer legs easily kept pace with 
Minami's stride, regretting having been interrupted from her quality 
time with her boyfriend.  She eyed the redhead and wondered how much 
longer this was going to take.

Pausing, Minami felt a sudden etheric disturbance brush against her 
spiritual senses.  "We're close," she announced.

"Yes," Kyosuke agreed.  He had felt something as well.

"Well, it's about time," grumbled Yohko.  The sooner this was taken 
care of, the sooner she and Kyosuke could get back to more important 
matters, like some serious snuggling time.  A girl her age had certain 
needs, but she would settle for a little exercise to work off some of 
her tensions in the meantime.  She waited for Minami to point her in 
the direction of their target, musing about her relationship with the 
ghost sweeper.  Despite her grandmother's initial misgivings about her 
spending any of her time with a "glory-seeking pawn of the Mobius 
Institute," she enjoyed being friends with a girl who understood what 
it was like to hunt the night's creatures.  Even though she viewed 
Nabiki as her best friend in the world, Minami was quickly becoming a 
close second.

The ghost sweeper paused dramatically.  "A powerful presence disturbs 
the ether."  As she looked around, she was quite surprised to see 
Kisaragi-sensei going into one of the buildings, the very same one that 
she could sense spiritual emanations coming from!  Seeing her, the girl 
abruptly cursed in her thoughts in an un-ladylike fashion.  "Quick!  
This way!"  She grabbed Yohko by the arm and took off running as fast 
as she could, almost dragging the taller devil hunter.  Kyosuke kept up 
as best he could.

                   ******************************

Frost happened to glance down and spotted Minami and her little posse 
as they made their way down the street towards one specific building.  
She cocked her head slightly to one side as she considered her options 
with this new development.  The ghost sweeper trainee was fairly well-
known in the Institute as a glory-hound and something of a hothead, her 
personality far from having the emotional reserve that a true mistress 
of spellcasting should have, like Frost herself had in abundance.

For that reason, Minami would always be second-best to Frost.  The 
other girl's magics were fueled by her passions, and that made her 
weaker in the sorceress' eyes.  Still, she mused, another wintry smile 
appearing upon her face, the ghost sweeper and her party made a most 
excellent decoy to flush the prey out of hiding.  She settled down to 
wait for the inevitable blast of fireworks that the other girl was sure 
to bring forth any minute now.

                   ******************************

Lazily blinking his eyes open, Godai felt a pleasant warmth suffusing 
his body.  He glanced upwards and realized that his head had been 
resting in Belldandy's lap, a soft glow emanating from her hand.  At 
that moment, she looked so kind and maternal that he could not bring 
himself to move from this position.  It was a perfect moment.

The sounds of a wild party drifted around the corner as Ayaka paused on 
the landing.  She could hear a woman laughing drunkenly, and muted 
comments from other individuals, but that was not the source of what 
she sensed.  While creeping forward as silently as she could, she 
cocked her gun, feeling ready for anything, adrenaline and the combat 
drugs in her system giving her an intoxicating rush.

She paused outside the door across the hallway from the party.  From 
the sounds of things, a bomb could go off and no one in there would 
even notice.  She took several deep breaths, trying to prepare herself 
for a possible life and death struggle with some horrific netherworld 
abomination.  Taking one last swallow of air, she whirled her body 
around in a spin kick and drove one booted foot against the door.  The 
lock splintered open with a sharp cracking sound, and she threw open 
the door the rest of the way with her shoulder.

"Freeze!  Mobius Institute!"  She immediately pointed her gun at the 
oddly-dressed woman currently kneeling on the floor, her thighs forming 
a sort of pillow for the man laying back against her, a washcloth still 
draped across his forehead.

Godai stared at the striking figure framed in his doorway, surprised, 
for a moment thinking it was Akemi.  But he heard the party still going 
strong across the hallway, and a laugh he recognized as the redhead's.  
Had he been right all along?  Was this some sort of loyalty test being 
proctored by agents of the Mobius Institute?

While gazing at the stranger standing in the doorway, Belldandy was a 
bit perplexed.  So far, her current wish-giving assignment had been 
more complex than most, but she did not mind.  She smiled innocently at 
the woman now pointing a weapon at her, uncertain what to do or say.

Ayaka watched the strange woman with an outward expression of control, 
but her spiritual senses were already going berserk.  She had rarely 
felt such incredible levels of power before, a Class One preternatural 
entity for certain, and never combined with such innocent purity as she 
could detect in the other.  This was no demon or astral horror.

This was a goddess before her, and the Institute agent was not sure how 
to act now.

                   ******************************

"We're too late," Minami groaned, pausing on the stairway leading to 
the second floor.  Behind her was Yohko, lightly bouncing on the balls 
of her feet, and a somewhat winded Kyosuke.  The trio heard the older 
woman make her dramatic entrance.

"Let's just go in there and kick demonic butt anyway."  Yohko started 
up the remainder of the stairs, her soulsword at the ready.  With a 
shrug, Kyosuke followed her.  He glanced at Minami.

The ghost sweeper was debating the matter when she sensed something 
else suddenly make its presence known.  What was going on here?

                   ******************************

Not too far away from the apartment building, in a quiet section of a 
nearby park, a glowing sphere of energy swelled up and then just as 
quickly dissipated, revealing Mara, Demoness First Class.  She took a 
deep breath of the crisp air, doing impressive things for her figure, 
if anyone else had been around to notice.  An evil smile lit her face.

"First order of business is to destroy Belldandy before she can get 
settled," she commented out loud to herself.  Her body rose into the 
air as she took a brief sniff of the air, sensing the faintly lingering 
traces of a recent etheric energy discharge.  Her skills at tracking 
prey had always been among the best of her kind, comparable to those of 
a shark sensing blood.

Only it was not blood she was sensing.  At least, the demoness amended 
with a harsh chuckling sound burbling up from her throat, not yet.

                   ******************************

"Uh, can I get up?" Godai asked the strange redhead, wondering if this 
utterly bizarre evening was going to end with him getting shot in his 
own apartment.

Ayaka glanced at him, suddenly feeling even more uncertain about her 
present circumstances.  She was in a strange man's apartment, holding a 
gun pointed at a goddess.  Life as an agent of the Mobius Institute 
certainly had its moments.

"So, do we go in?" Kyosuke asked Yohko, the pair standing right outside 
the open doorway to Godai's room.  He began raising his energies up, 
just in case, feeling the Power swelling within him.  He heard Minami 
come up behind him.

"On my signal," whispered Yohko, carefully peeking around the edge of 
the doorway.  "We go on three."

The ghost sweeper kept casting her senses about.  Something was wrong, 
but she could not figure out what.  All she was detecting now was a 
Class One entity within the room, and that was bad news.  But there had 
been a second source of roughly equal power for a few moments.  Where 
was it?

Meanwhile, hovering in the air outside the rooming house, Mara could 
sense her target within.  She had carefully cloaked her presence as she 
made her approach, to prevent the simpering, weakling goddess from 
being forewarned as to her approaching doom.  Now, it was all going to 
be so easy.  With a laugh, she quickly began forming a ball of energy 
between her hands, feeling the power surging in strength within it as 
she fed all of her rage and hatred into it.

"Damn!" cried Minami suddenly, sensing the power building up outside.

Fortunately, prepared for combat as she had been, Ayaka's own senses 
gave her a moment's worth of warning that there was any danger, but a 
moment was all she needed.  She could detect a sudden flaring of power 
outside, and the heirloom of her ancestors was in her free hand, drawn 
by reflex alone from the sheath at her hip.  Her overcoat billowed 
dramatically open behind her as she leaped forward to stand between the 
pair on the floor and what was outside.

"Red Dragon Spirit Capture Star Sword!" she shouted, the blade of the 
weapon immediately igniting in response.  She desperately wove it in a 
pattern that erected a defensive rune in midair, praying it would be 
powerful enough to deal with what she sensed was coming.

"Die, Belldandy!"  Mara released the blast she had been preparing, the 
ball of crackling energy launching out from between her hands like a 
torpedo.  It streaked across the short distance towards Godai's room, 
filled with all of the hatred and rage that she could fuel it with.  
The demoness watched with satisfaction as it burst through the window 
she had been aiming at, just before detonating with a powerful blast, 
one that scattered glass and wood debris outwards over a large radius.

Ayaka was lifted off her feet by the concussive force of the blast, her 
hastily-erected defensive spell shredding from the sheer magnitude of 
the power used against it, but fortunately it had managed to deflect 
enough of the energy away so that she and the other occupants of the 
room were not killed outright.  She impacted hard with a now standing 
and gaping Godai, and the two of them tumbled together across the floor 
of his room.

Out in the hall, Kyosuke yanked Yohko back and shielded the three of 
them with the Power, straining his abilities to the limits to cover 
them all.  He hugged the devil hunter to him as the muted blast licked 
at his shielding.  He was dimly aware of Minami huddled up behind him.

Belldandy had been caught by surprise by Mara's merciless assault, and 
she could see the grinning demoness hovering in the air outside when 
the smoke quickly began to clear.  She cast a brief glance at Godai, 
grateful to see that he was only stunned.  She also noted that both of 
his arms were half-wrapped around the strange redhead.  Could this 
woman be the one to fulfill his wish?  But now was not the time to 
dwell upon such things.

                   ******************************

Frost contemplated the explosion that had just engulfed a portion of 
the building she had been watching, outwardly calm and collected, but 
inside she was startled.  A globe of energy surrounded the entity that 
was hovering outside, a defensive shield invisible to normal senses.  
Things were becoming more serious, and the region could be severely 
damaged if the situation was not contained quickly.  The ghost sweeper 
was in way over her head, along with the Director's grandson and the 
devil hunter, so it looked like it was up to her to rescue Minami from 
her own arrogance.

The first thing that needed to be done was to get closer to the action, 
where she would be more effective.  She began to incant, and her body 
lifted from the rooftop.

                   ******************************

As the smoke cleared, Mara was dumbfounded to see that her enemy and 
the two human vermin with the young goddess had somehow managed to 
survive her assault.  It was simply inconceivable!  Belldandy couldn't 
have had enough time to erect any sort of barrier!

Quickly, the goddess began an incantation.  "Spirits of light and air, 
to my aid and defense I appeal.  Let your power be with me, and protect 
us with thy seal."  Twinkling lights began forming a glowing shield of 
energy across the opening.

"No!" shouted the demoness.  She quickly began her own incantation.  
"Spirits of darkness and hatred, heed my call!  Gather the energies of 
death and destruction into my hands!  Let me be the agent of my enemy's 
fall!"  A second sphere of wild lightnings and festering darkness 
quickly formed between her hands once again, one even more powerful 
than the first had been.  She released it at Belldandy with a look of 
glee, sensing that the goddess's shield would not be strong enough to 
fully deflect the damage of this attack.

There was a clash of powerful energies, of forces holy and unholy, and 
the young goddess poured all of her power into maintaining the shield.  
But it was not going to be enough against the strength of Mara's 
attack.  With a crackling and then a roaring, the barrier suddenly 
shattered, and the demoness' energy strike rushed though to impact 
against Belldandy's form.  She managed to utter a single, brief cry of 
pain, before her body launched backwards to crash into the rear wall 
with enough force to knock her senseless.

During the momentary lull, Yohko and Kyosuke charged into the room, 
standing shoulder to shoulder together.  Behind them, readying one of 
the wands from her kit was Minami.  All three had serious looks on 
their faces.

The young devil hunter stepped forward and brandished her soulsword 
dramatically.  "I hold no enmity against those coerced into evil.  But 
to those vile beings who toy with the hearts and souls of men, since 
the time of the Ancient Gods, we have been your destroyers!  Now, the 
109th Devil Hunter, Yohko, is here.  Beware!"

"Oh, how cute," taunted Mara.  "One of you human vermin still wishes to 
play.  Killing you will be an added bonus for this trip.  Ordinarily, 
I'd make this last for a bit, but I have to destroy Belldandy quickly 
so I'm afraid that I'll have to kill you fast.  So, if you don't mind, 
kindly die."  With that, she unleashed a beam of hellfire directly at 
Yohko.

The devil hunter grunted from the effort, speedily swinging her weapon 
around and managing to deflect the bolt of energy.  It rebounded off 
the blade of her soulsword to incinerate a small car parked across the 
street, blasting the unfortunate vehicle into numerous fragments.  But, 
even as she hurriedly brought the blade back into a guard position, the 
demoness was already launching another assault.  Yohko knew she only 
had to miss once, and it was all over.

                   ******************************

Frost hovered outside, a spell of invisibility concealing her presence 
from both sides of the combat.  There was a second entity inside the 
building, apparently defending itself against the one hovering outside.  
She studied the situation, coolly analyzing her options.

                   ******************************

Quickly moving to protect the three people laying on the floor, a 
shield of Power flaring to life in front of Kyosuke.  His two female 
companions were better suited to take the battle to the enemy, but his 
prayers went with them.

"You ignore me at your peril, hellspawn!" shouted Minami, unleashing a 
blast of lightning from the wand she was carrying.  Mara danced lightly 
to one side in mid-air with a gleeful laugh, deflecting the lightning 
away with one outstretched hand.  The young ghost sweeper winced as her 
attack spell lanced downwards and blew up a second parked car.  Then 
she had her hands full dealing with some of the demoness' blasts as 
well, trading energies with her as the two tried their best to utterly 
obliterate each other.

Having just recovered from Mara's surprise attack, Ayaka quickly became 
aware of her surroundings once again, hearing sounds of battle going 
on, and she found herself underneath the man who had been in this room.  
He appeared to be dazed, which was fortunate for him, since one of his 
hands had come to rest firmly upon one of her breasts.  She scrambled 
free of him, snatching up her Red Dragon Spirit Capture Star Sword, and 
it flared to life in her hands once again.  She stepped back into the 
battle just as Yohko missed a parry with her soulsword, and a blast of 
lightning knocked the devil hunter out of the fight.

"Yohko!" cried Kyosuke.  He ran forward to pick up the girl tenderly, 
noting her injuries.  Luckily, her devil hunter form seemed to add to 
her natural resiliency, and she did not appear seriously harmed, only 
knocked unconscious.  Sensing sudden danger, he redoubled the strength 
of his shield, a mere moment before another of Mara's blasts would have 
rendered the couple into ashes.

Minami's look became grim.  This creature had harmed her best friend 
and tried to do the same thing to her senpai!  She quickly unleashed a 
withering array of attack spells at Mara.  Lightnings, fire, and ice 
lanced at the demoness, but the ghost sweeper was dismayed to see her 
best efforts deflected.  She glanced at Ayaka, seeking guidance from 
someone more experienced, and she noted the look on the other woman's 
face.  But her moment of inattention proved to be her downfall, and a 
blast of wind knocked her into a wall, stunning her.

Brandishing her weapon, the red glow of the blade lit Ayaka's face 
eerily.  "If you're done fighting with children, then you and I have 
some unfinished business."  With that, she attacked.

                   ******************************

Frost had finished her analysis of the situation, and things did not 
look promising if she did not enter the battle.  She began a spell that 
would weaken the entity's defensive barrier before she launched into 
her own repertoire of attack spells.

                   ******************************

"Belldandy?" whispered Godai, still hearing a loud ringing within his 
skull as he slowly crawled over to the still-stunned goddess.  Behind 
him, he could hear the strange redhead from the Mobius Institute waging 
a desperate solo struggle against the demoness hovering just outside.  
He quickly laid his ear down against Belldandy's chest and, after a 
brief moment of fright at not hearing anything other than the ringing 
in his head, was quite relieved to discover that her heart still beat 
quite strongly.

Mara was rapidly growing tired of these irritating humans with magic 
swords.  It was looking like it was time to get up close and personal 
in this battle, if she was going to be able to finish it anytime soon.  
She knew she could not afford to waste any more time and risk her enemy 
coming awake again, even as amusing as it had been so far.  She had to 
finish this now.

Expecting a fresh round of fire from their enemy, Ayaka was surprised 
to see the demoness suddenly disappear from where she had been hovering 
outside, only to blink back into reality less than a meter from where 
the tall redhead was standing.  A lightning-fast swipe of her foe's 
hand removed Ayaka's weapon from her grip, and she watched it spinning 
away with dismay.

"You and your friends have delayed me long enough, bitch," said Mara 
with a grin.  "But I have a goddess to kill now."  Firing off a burst 
of power from her hand, she sent the other woman tumbling to one side.  
"But I'll be back for you soon enough.  And I promise to make all of 
your deaths last.  Your cries of suffering shall be a symphony to my 
ears."

At that moment, there was the distinctive sound of a pistol chambering 
a round.  Mara looked over at Godai with evident bemusement.  

"You're not hurting anyone!" he cried.  He quickly drew a bead on her 
center of mass, aiming right at her chest.

"What is it with you mortals and these grand heroic gestures?" Mara 
asked, shaking her head.  "Go ahead and shoot, if you think you've got 
the balls for it."

Angered by her taunt, he squeezed the trigger three times in rapid 
succession.  However, each bullet was deflected away from Mara's body 
at the last instant, bouncing off of some sort of invisible shield 
around the demoness.  He fired twice more, still not believing that 
such a thing was even possible.

"Now it's my turn," she said calmly.  She fired off a blast of energy 
that forced him to dodge.  Smiling, she brought her aim closer with 
each succeeding blast.

"Somebody!  Anyone!  Help!" cried Godai, certain that his life was soon 
to be over.  The demoness' blasts had quickly backed him up across the 
room, and he was dangerously near the blasted out opening to the 
outside.

Outside, Frost unleashed the spell she had been crafting.  With any 
luck, the demoness would not notice her shield's power levels dipping 
for several moments.  She was confident that her next spell would be 
able to finish the creature.

"Hey, demon wench," Mara suddenly heard from right behind her.  It was 
that redheaded bitch again.  She half-turned and saw Ayaka laying on 
the floor by one wall, a pistol propped up in both of her hands.  But 
the redhead looked slightly concussed, her eyes tending to unfocus and 
her hands to waver.  Mara smiled very coldly.  Didn't these mortals 
ever learn?

"Deflect this."  Ayaka pulled the trigger.  She had sensed Mara's 
shields weaken, and the silver and orichalcum-tipped slug ripped 
through what remained like it wasn't even there.  Only a couple of 
centimeters further over to one side, and it would have taken a good 
portion of the demoness' head with it.  As it was, it only managed to 
graze a shallow furrow across one side of her skull.  A second shot 
quickly rang out from Ayaka's gun before the echoes of the first had 
faded, narrowly missing her foe's chest as the first shot spun her 
around.

Mara's body jerked involuntarily from the pain, her senses reeling from 
the injury.  However, before her enemy could pull the trigger a third 
time, she recovered with inhuman speed and teleported across the room.  
She lashed out with a blast of energy at point-blank range, taking the 
redhead by surprise and knocking her back hard against the wall.  The 
gun flew from her hands and away into a corner.

The demoness was astonished once again.  One of these lowly mortal 
vermin had severely injured her!  And her shields had somehow fallen!  
She could already feel the cold numbness of shock filling her system as 
blood dripped into her hair and one eye, and she reluctantly realized 
that Belldandy's human companions had cost her victory here.  Someone 
would pay for this!

"Another time," she promised with a hiss, her body vanishing in a flash 
of flame and power as she departed.  All that remained of her presence 
was the destruction left behind in her wake.

                   ******************************

Frost hovered in the air outside, still invisible, allowing the attack 
spell she had been holding to dissipate.  Her first spell had weakened 
the demoness' shield without her presence being noticed, allowing the 
others to deal with it more effectively.  But the creature had escaped, 
and she was the only one with sufficient mobility to follow.  Her body 
streaked away into the night.

                   ******************************

In the aftermath, Godai sat a bit stunned, staring at the remnants of 
what had once been his apartment.  Belldandy sat next to him, looking 
quite exhausted as she slept.  She had managed to heal everyone, even a 
suspicious Minami and Yohko, before passing out.  It was a shame that 
she could not have done the same for his room.  He saw Ayaka talking 
with someone on her cellphone, but the trio of teenagers had already 
left.  A sigh escaped his lips.  Where was he going to live now?  Why 
was this all happening to him?

"Wow, Godai-kun," came Akemi's slurred voice from the doorway.  "No 
wonder you didn't want to come to my party."

                   ******************************

Reappearing in an alleyway located in a somewhat disreputable section 
of Tokyo, Mara cursed the recent turn of events.  She sagged against a 
grimy wall as the pain in her head threatened to overwhelm her, and 
blood began leaking again from her wound.  Grimacing painfully, she 
began chanting a healing spell.  Feeling her knees involuntarily 
buckle, she struggled to stave off shock and forced herself to remain 
conscious by sheer will.  Her mind slowly cleared as her magics took 
hold, beginning the torturous process of knitting her tattered flesh 
back together.

"I would have won, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids," she 
muttered, weariness filling her as she slumped against the filthy wall.  
Before she passed out, she burned the memory of all three firmly into 
her mind.  They would all pay, in blood and pain.

As her consciousness faded, she was only dimly aware of a dark figure 
suddenly looming out of the shadows.  She struggled to rise, refusing 
to believe that a demoness of her lofty stature would meet her end in 
some puke-fouled alleyway in the mortal world.  But her knees quickly 
buckled beneath her once again.  Despite the spell still mending her 
broken body, she was still too exhausted to offer up any resistance.  
The unfairness of her fortunes grated at her.  She should not have 
lost!  She should not be here!  She was Mara, Demoness First Cl-

The figure was silent as it stared at her, gazing dispassionately from 
out of the shadows as the last of her reserves finally gave out, her 
eyes rolled back in their sockets, and the demoness quietly slumped 
down unconscious against the wall.

                   ******************************

The last syllables of the incantation rolled off of Gosunkugi's tongue, 
the tome he had been reading from laying spread out before him on his 
desk.  He was surprised when a sudden wave of weariness overcame him, 
for such a thing was not supposed to happen as the spell took hold of 
him.  Even as his eyelids drooped, he somehow managed to stand up and 
take two faltering steps towards the door before falling unconscious.  
His last thought was oddly of Minami, certain that the redheaded ghost 
sweeper would have berated him harshly for attempting something so 
risky.

As his body collapsed limply to the floor of his room, it was silent 
for several moments, then a robed and cowled figure emerged soundlessly 
from the wall, translucent silver in coloring, its ethereal shape 
hovering in the air.  Without any delay, the ghostly apparition dove 
into the boy's slumbering body, vanishing within and causing it to jerk 
once slightly before it fell still once again.  For several moments, 
the only movement was the steady rise and fall of the unconscious boy's 
chest.

The tome resting on the desk shimmered slightly, swiftly transforming 
itself back into its true appearance, that of a more ordinary-looking 
book, the words on the open page reforming into a dry dissertation on 
the history of gnosticism.

                   ******************************

Frost had come up empty on her search of the nearby Tokyo area.  It was 
as if the demonic entity she was seeking had somehow been swallowed up 
by the city, but the white-haired sorceress vowed to keep a watch for 
its return as she wended her way back to her room at the Institute.

                   ******************************

The still figure on the bedroom floor suddenly began to move, blinking 
open his eyes.  Then, a throaty chuckling emerged from the throat as 
hands shifted to beneath the chest, slowly levering the body up from 
the floor.  Standing up shakily, the figure gazed about the room, a 
smirk adorning his face.  A faint glimmering could be discerned in the 
irises of Gosunkugi's eyes, like minute electrical storms, fading 
quickly.

"At last," said the figure, an almost rapturous expression on his face 
as he moved about the room, somewhat clumsily at first.  He held one 
hand up before his face, sparkles of energy dancing from fingertip to 
fingertip.  "I know that you can't hear me right now in your slumbering 
state, Hikaru Gosunkugi, but I thank you for the loan of this body.  It 
will do nicely for my needs.  My apologies for the subterfuge, but even 
your will was too strong for me to overcome in my current state.  And I 
need the access that your body will give me to the Mobius Institute, 
for this is a matter of life and death, Gosunkugi-san.  Mine, to be 
more precise.  So know that you have the gratitude of Simon Magus, the 
greatest wizard who ever lived.  Using your body, I will finally obtain 
the key to my long-sought victory, the Nanban Mirror."

The figure paused, and Simon Magus felt his spirit becoming accustomed 
to its newly-occupied vessel.  It had become a familiar sensation to 
him, one experienced time and again as he leaped from stolen body to 
stolen body, eluding his enemies, and desperately searching for a means 
to save himself.  Only a few more moments of uninterrupted peace, and 
this body would be his to command, the last one he would ever need.

                   ******************************

Frost paused on her way back to the Institute, suddenly sensing a surge 
in etheric energies nearby.  Banking sharply, she circled the building 
she had just passed, an apartment complex.  She quickly zeroed in on 
one window in particular and swooped up to peak inside.  She hovered 
just outside the glass, holding her staff across her body to render it 
less visible, only her head rising high enough to see inside.

                   ******************************

It was at that moment that Simon Magus chose to fling open the window 
to Gosunkugi's room for some fresh air.  He was quite astonished to see 
a white-robed albino girl with pretty Chinese features and white-blonde 
hair hovering just outside the window.  He blinked several times in 
rapid succession.  Had the Mobius Institute found him out already?  It 
wasn't fair!  He had planned so carefully!  He was so close!

Frost was startled to see Hikaru Gosunkugi staring at her, realizing 
that he was the being radiating the faint etheric energies that she had 
sensed.  But he was no wizard.  What was happening here?  Had this boy 
managed to hide his true talents all this time?

Despite the risk, Simon Magus decided to take the initiative, hoping to 
deal quickly with this encounter.  He had to be careful though, too 
much use of power could disrupt his still tenuous hold on the Gosunkugi 
boy's mind and body.  But he was confident that a wizard of his vast 
experience could deal with a mere slip of a girl.  Besides, it had been 
far too long since he had engaged in a duel of sorceries.  It would be 
good to make sure that he had not lost any of his edge.  He teleported 
outside, not wishing to damage his new home.

Frost backed away from the window when Gosunkugi suddenly vanished from 
before her eyes, even as she raised a defensive screen.  She could not 
tell if he had gone invisible or teleported.  But, either way, seeing 
the esper boy do such a thing had caught her off guard.  Her eyes 
scanned the air around her, seeking her foe.

After appearing in the air over the albino girl, Frost was the name he 
pulled from the boy's memories, having finally begun to gain access to 
them, Simon Magus cloaked himself with a veil of invisibility and then 
allowed himself to drop down.  Using his powers at such a minimal level 
made it that much more difficult for the girl to detect his presence.

Frost was caught by surprise when her foe hit her from above, his knees 
slamming into her shoulders and nearly causing her to bite her tongue.  
Now angry, she shot away quickly from her previous position, an attack 
spell on her lips.  The wintry look she normally wore on her face had 
been replaced by one of annoyance.  He was making her look like a fool, 
and she did not care for it.

Appearing behind the girl, Simon Magus saw the bright globe of energies 
forming on the tip of her staff.  Good.  The albino girl still had some 
fight in her after all.  Casting a quick spell, he smirked and whistled 
to get her attention, waving when she turned his way.  But despite his 
cocky look, he could feel his energies beginning to lose cohesion.  He 
had to finish this quickly.

Her wintry smile back, the young sorceress released the globe of 
freezing energy at her target.  She had noticed that Gosunkugi was not 
using any actual attack spells of his own, wondering if he was simply 
toying with her.  That was his mistake.  She was an amazon sorceress, 
and she would not be mocked.  She was gratified to see the globe engulf 
her target, ice forming on his body, freezing him into place.  She 
allowed herself a cool grin, seeing the globe of ice floating in the 
air, her target cocooned inside.

"Nice spell," remarked a familiar voice right behind her.  "You must be 
an elemental wizard."

Reacting by reflex, she amped up her defensive barriers into a full 
globe, but she was a fraction of a second too late.  A hand touched her 
shoulder, and electrical energy surged through her body.

"I win.  You lose," he remarked jauntily.  He had a moment to enjoy his 
victory, and then Frost's shields collapsed, discharging their energies 
into him.  The unexpected surge of power into his system disrupted his 
astral form, and he could feel his soul coming apart at the seams.  The 
ground began rushing up, a moment of terrifying deja vu that enabled 
him to focus enough to teleport himself and the girl back to his room.

Even as she slipped into unconsciousness, having been defeated through 
the basest of magical trickery, the girl still had the satisfaction of 
hearing her foe gasp as her defensive screens discharged into him, a 
special modification she had made to her shield spells long ago, just 
in case someone ever tried to engage her in melee combat.  Her body 
went limp in the arms of her conqueror as her staff went spinning away 
into the darkness to drive half of its length into the ground far 
below.  The finest amazon sorceress in generations, bested by an 
outsider!  As her thoughts fell into darkness, she vaguely recalled 
that there was something important she should remember about that.

Moments after reappearing in Gosunkugi's bedroom, Simon Magus clasped 
his hands to his borrowed skull, feeling an insistent tugging that was 
rapidly growing stronger.  It wasn't fair!  He had won!  But his mental 
cries went unheeded by the universe, and he could already feel his 
astral form beginning to be pulled back through the millennia, to when 
history had recorded his death in the marbled streets of Rome, his 
original body smashing against the unyielding cobblestones, having 
tried and failed to defeat the magics of Simon Peter, the Apostle.  He 
fought with all of his strength and will, latching every ounce of his 
immense magical powers into this body, struggling to hang on against 
the tides of history that relentlessly pulled against him.  But that 
proved to be a mistake, and he felt his powers brutally torn free of 
his astral form to lodge within the body he had sought to inhabit.

With a fear-filled cry worthy of the damned, the illusionist known as 
Simon Magus was whisked back through the millennia, his astral form 
finally reuniting with his physical body to fulfill his destined place 
in history.

                   ******************************

"Are you sure this is going to be all right?" Godai asked the redhead 
currently driving the vehicle he was riding in, a taxicab that had been 
commandeered for this trip.  Next to him in a small suitcase were the 
few pathetic remnants of his life that he had managed to salvage from 
his shattered apartment.  Luckily, his spare uniform had survived.

Belldandy was still slumped unconsciously but apparently comfortably 
against his shoulder.  However, after seeing what the slumbering deity 
sleeping next to him had been capable of, her nearness was making him 
nervous, like sitting next to an armed nuclear warhead or something.  
She snored softly and occasionally snuggled against him, and she had so 
far ignored all efforts at awakening her.  He turned his head back to 
face Ayaka.  "Why don't you just take me to a hotel or something?  I 
won't say anything."

"Look, stop worrying, will you?" snapped Ayaka, glancing at the pair in 
the car's rear view mirror.  She smirked as she watched the hapless 
Godai, finding it hard to believe that he was a soldier of the Empire, 
even though he had been very brave in facing down that demoness with 
only an ordinary sidearm.  "I already explained it, but you don't seem 
to be hearing me very well as to how things are going to be handled 
from this point on, Lieutenant Godai.  My boss has arranged for some 
semi-permanent lodgings in the area for you and your companion, and 
that's all you should be concerned about.  In a way, she's a visiting 
dignitary of sorts, and she's going to be treated as a special guest of 
the Mobius Institute."

Realizing he wasn't going to win this argument, Godai settled back into 
his seat and waited to arrive at his destination.  He watched the 
streetlights going by, musing at how quickly his life had been turned 
upside down.  Why was this happening to him?

Glancing back briefly at him in the rearview mirror once again, Ayaka 
mused about her passenger.  He seemed to be about as ordinary a man as 
she had ever met.  So why had he been granted a wish by the higher 
powers?  It just did not make any sense.  And what did he wish for?  
Fame?  Power?  Wealth?

No, he had asked for none of these things.  All Yusaku Godai had wished 
for was for a woman to fall in love with him and stay with him forever.  
It had been a surprise to her to hear those words come out of a man's 
mouth.  Based on her experiences with men, that would have been about 
the very last thing she would have expected one to want above all other 
things in the world.

Dropping her gaze back to the road in front of the car, she shook her 
head.  Maybe it had all been as the guy had claimed, that he thought 
this was some sort of scam being run by the Institute.  Even if it had 
been some sort of loyalty test (and Ayaka found it hard to believe that 
the Mobius Institute did not have better uses for its resources), he 
could have asked for something else equally innocuous.  But all he had 
asked for was the love of a woman.  As she continued driving, she kept 
wondering why his asking for that kept nagging at her.

                   ******************************

"Tendo-san?  Ono-san?  Would either of you care for some more tea?"

Soun glanced up from the paperwork he was studying, and nodded almost 
brusquely before returning his attention to it.  In truth, none of it 
was really very important, but he was using it to keep his mind off of 
wondering about the change coming to his household.  A special request 
from the Mobius Institute was difficult to refuse.

Looking up from her place across the table from her father, Kasumi 
smiled at Kyoko.  "I would love some more tea."  She moved the thick 
textbook on cytology in front of her aside, welcoming the interruption.  
She had been reading the same page five times now.  She looked at her 
sire.  "Father, I appreciate your letting me remain tonight.  I did not 
know that you would be expecting guests."  She did not like being home 
alone, so when her husband had called saying he would be working a 
shift at the Arena tonight, she knew that he would not return until 
morning, unless he used one of the cots at the hospital as he had been 
doing more often of late.

"You are always welcome in this house, Daughter," replied Soun with a 
warmth that would have astonished the agents under his command.  His 
other girls had already gone to sleep, Akane looking happy and Nabiki 
looking irritated about something, and he and Kasumi had been keeping 
each other company for the last little while.  He could tell that there 
was something troubling his eldest daughter, but he trusted her to tell 
him on her own in time.

Kyoko, dressed in a kimono, quietly poured tea into their cups as she 
knelt next to the table.  She left the pot behind as she stood up and 
withdrew from the room, leaving her employer and his daughter to their 
conversation.  She still had to make up the remaining unused bedrooms 
for their unexpected guests.  She had been told little as to what to 
expect, only that there would be a young man and woman.  The man would 
be staying for a time, but the woman would only be spending the night 
before moving on to other lodgings in the morning.

It was odd that the Tendo household would be taking in a boarder on 
such short notice, but apparently it had something to do with some sort 
of Security Directorate business.  She found herself wondering what the 
young man who would be staying with them was like.  Perhaps he was some 
dashingly handsome agent of the Directorate, and the woman was some 
kind of foreign spy defecting to the Empire.  She smiled at her brief 
fantasy as she gathered up the bedding materials.

Whoever he was, he would be someone new to talk to in the household, 
and that would be good.  The girls did not usually talk with her much, 
although Akane had started to open up a bit lately and begun asking for 
advice on attracting the attentions of a man and being a good wife.  In 
fact, the youngest Tendo had even expressed a desire in learning how to 
cook.  She was looking forward to teaching the girl, since it would 
give her something different to do for an hour or so each day other 
than her usual chores.

While she was finishing up the second room, she heard the sounds of the 
front gate opening and closing.  Kyoko hurried out into the hallway and 
down the stairs in order to meet their new guests properly.  Pausing a 
moment before the hallway mirror, she checked her appearance.  A good 
first impression was important.

                   ******************************

Godai walked alongside Belldandy as they approached the front door of 
the Tendo household, and Ayaka led the way.  The combat drugs had faded 
from her system, and their absence left her feeling lethargic and a bit 
irritable.  She would drop her charges off quickly, make her report to 
her boss, and then go home to collapse for a few hours of needed sleep.

"Your guests are here, Father," said Kasumi, hearing footsteps on the 
front walk.  Kyoko was still upstairs working on getting the bedrooms 
ready, so she stood up.  "I'll go let them in, if that's all right."

Soun nodded.  "Thank you, Kasumi-chan.  Please greet them and bring 
them in here while I put this away."  He began stuffing the paperwork 
he had been perusing into his briefcase.

After standing up from her kneeling position, Kasumi made her way to 
the main door, just as there was a knock.  She slid open the door, a 
smile on her face, ready to greet these guests to her father's house 
with all of the grace and decorum she had within her.

Godai shifted the small suitcase he was carrying to his other hand, 
worried about his first meeting with Assistant Director Soun Tendo.  He 
struggled to hide his nervousness, and a brief touch on his arm from 
Belldandy was surprisingly calming.  If only he could meet a mortal 
woman who was as kind and sweet.

That thought had barely registered when the door slid open and an angel 
stood there.  For a moment, he felt a sort of electric shock seem to 
surge through his entire body, and an odd half-smile appeared on his 
face.

The vision of immaculate loveliness then spoke, while smiling gently.  
"Welcome to the Tendo household.  My name is Kasumi.  Please, come 
inside and be welcome in my father's home."

                   ******************************

*** Earth  +4.112,+3.066  (-0.11105 Years)

The Shogun of the Dark stood atop Mount Fuji, sheathed in his power as 
nuclear fire rampaged across Tokyo.  He had come so close, billions of 
lives so recently destroyed because of a slight error in judgment on 
his part.  At least the energies held at Jusenkyo had become his, their 
power invigorating him.  He would not make the same mistake again.

He drew upon his energies, felt the gateway back across through the 
centuries yawn open, the destination unknown.  Unfortunately, with the 
loss of his greater powers, this was the best he could do.  Still, it 
was better than nothing.

Time to try again.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Thanks to my readers for all of their help and advice:

Michael Chase
DB Sommer

A special thanks goes out to DB Sommer, whose writings on side-stories 
set in this universe are one of the reasons I kept writing.  Kudos!