Nabiki, invisible to the naked eye and senses, flew towards the Juuban Ward. The very moment she crossed into the Juuban Ward of Tokyo, she was hit by a powerful magical mind-blast. The mind-blast, literally, knocked her to the ground. Recovering, she attempted to return to the air and was knocked down again.
For her second attempt, seeing that magical flight was too dangerous, she tried walking into the Ward, but was mind-blasted again, but not to the same degree as before. Although, comparing the three mind-blasts was like comparing a hundred-and-one-ton wrecking ball to a hundred-ton wrecking ball.
Her mental shields and the psionic disciple that Ranma insisted she learn were the only things that allowed her to stand upright from the magical mind assault. Even with all that, she could barely think under the pressure. But that did not matter to her... What mattered was that there was some kind of mind-magic getting in her way of being at her Master's feet, where she belonged. And no stupid magic of any kind would get between her and her Master. Nabiki Saotome did not lose!
Thinking of her Master strengthen her, and through their bond, she could feel Him strengthening her mental shields with His kid. She sighed in relief. Mana, the most basic form of magical energy, could be liken to a cake. As it was composed of several ingedients: chi, spiritual energy, intent, and elemental energy; and, had to be processed in some manner, just as baking was needed for an actual cake, for it to be usable/edible. For mana to be used in a spell, a mage had to cut a slice of the cake, the size of the slice dependent upon the ability and power-level of the mage. It was this slicing of the cake, or drawing of the mana in actuality, that made one a mage. And in using magic, this slicing and eating of cake, left crumbs. These crumbs were free-floating mana, that anyone could use, mage or chi sorcerer, like Ranma. And then there was ki/chi, the basic form of life energy, ki being personal/individual life-force, and chi being planetary/group life-force. If mana could be liken to a cake, then ki/chi was the flour, which only needed to be refined, and could be used in many things, from cakes, breads, paste, and other items. Thus anything magic was a composite item, and was only as strong as its weakest ingredient, whereas, ki/chi was homogeneous and as solid as its construct. While Ranma had taught some ki/chi techniques to Nabiki, her abilities were nowhere near Ranma's. Thus, while her mental shield, composed of magic and ki, were strained, Ranma's ki mental shield was solid and protected her mind with little to no strain.
Sighing in relief, she removed her flight spell and invisibility spell and walked as a normal person through the streets.
She absently noted that her sorceress outfit, which drew second and third looks in Nerima, passed without comment in Juuban. The exhibitionist in her frowned at that, and unconsciously, she transfigured her outfit, slightly, to show more skin and show off her assets better. After which, she did get a few stares, mostly from old men, but it made her happy, and took her mind off the pressure the mind-magic was trying to put on her.
She came upon a youma while searching for her Master, and she blasted it with an 'Elmekia Lanceos' spell, easily taking care of it. She noted that the use of her magic increased the magical mind attack, so she let her magic go dormant, and the assault stopped.
With that insight, she realized that someone or group of some ones, had set up some overly powerful 'magical girl'-repellent spell over the area. Any 'magical girl' without her training and Ranma's ki mental shields would be quickly driven out of Juuban.
Using just their bond, it took her a bit of time to find her Master. She found Him in a shrine that was close to the center of Juuban, talking to the head priest of the shrine, looking over something.
That something was a highly detailed map of the area. And it was not just a simple representation of the area as the infamous Marauder's Map, but an actual model of reality. Any directed action towards the map would affect reality as well, if not protected. The map was, currently, centered on Juuban, and showed the various magical and chi flows of the area.
A silver mist covered all of Juuban, being contained to its borders. What the silver meant, Nabiki was not sure, but the mist, itself, represented magic.
She also noted there were patches of black mist, demonic magic, in various areas in Juuban as well. Those black mist patches were, mostly, surrounded by white mist, holy magic, thus indicating trapped demons imprisoned in various shrines, although, the map indicated that those few demons were still able, if indirectly, affect the local area.
She saw several spots of various colored-mist. Green represented Earth/Metal/Wood-aligned mages, blue meant Water-aligned mages, red for Fire-alignment, and Light-Grey for Wind-alignment. The stronger the mage and his or her alignment, the dark the mist was that represented them. She noted that there were nine dark misty spots on the map, but she knew that one of the nine spots was her, since there was nothing she could do to hide herself from her Master's sorcery, even with her magic dormant as it was.
She was a bit alarmed to see that the Dragonlines, the life-blood of the planet, represented by solid yellow lines had some silver mist among them. Also was the fact that some of the lesser Dragonlines, Ley Lines, had converged at several spots forming nodes that were filled with silver mist. Several Adept-Mages could boost themselves by tapping directly into the Dragonlines, but that was extremely dangerous. The Dragonlines had flows and currents to them, that could easily burn even an experience mage out, thus, most mages, if they could tap the Dragonlines, did not, rather, they would reach for the nodes that the lesser Dragonlines made. Since a node, a lake of energy, was relatively more stable and calmer then the flowing Dragonlines, mighty rivers, themselves.
Knowing about the magical girl repellent spell, she was not surprised that the map showed a lack of human magic. She did realized that several shrines and temples did harbor a few devil hunters, indicated by a solid green dots with green, or greenish-white, mists. But the silver mist was very concentrated around those shrines, and probably, trapped them to the shrines and immediate areas.
She noticed her Master's dress as that of an Unsui, a wandering Zen monk, who dressed in traditional white full robe with a bluish vest, which gave the monk the 'cloud-water' look that gave the clothes and the monks their name, 'un-sui'. The large, straw hat that completed the outfit rested on a bench to the right of Him. The Onikirimaru was placed against the bench next to the straw hat, and was depicted on the map as a dark-grey mist in the shape of a sword. Interesting of note, the Saotome Family Blade was shown as a white, light-grey-ish mist sword-shape on the family.
The Unsui was His usual 'work' clothes when he was demon-slaying, having adopted it from his Sensei, the Ancient. Her Master, of course, was studying the map in great detail, but she knew that He knew that she was there. Next to her Master was the head shrine priest, dressed purely in white. On the map, the priest was a solid white dot with a white mist surrounding him. As the creator of the map, her Master was One with it, thus He did not show up in it, since He was apart of it, just as the map itself was not represented on itself.
A smile came to her face as she saw two young shrine-maidens trying to hide, unobserved, in the hallway. Their focus was, obviously, upon her Master, and their interested was also obvious from the lusty feelings that radiated from them.
Her Master pointed his finger at certain points causing the map to 'zoom in' for greater detail. In these views, the silver mist was elevated, showing a brownish mist underneath and a metallic-green mist as well.
It was the same in the various spots the map focused on.
"I was wrong," Ranma spoke breaking the silence. "The Dragonlines have been affected. Even the Greater Dragonlines are infected. And the Ley lines have been forced to form two nodes of considerable size. The sheer magnitude of power to do that..."
The priest looked startled at her Master's statement and paled. For it was easier to move the Moon and the Heavens then to move one ley line, let alone a Dragonline.
"Can you cleanse them, Master?" she asked a bit worried. The Priest was startled as he was not aware of her presence there.
Ranma frowned in concentration. After a short moment, he said, "The infection does not seem to be too wide-spread... Flaring the Dragonlines should wash out the infection..."
The priest looked a bit worried and asked, "And what if that, instead, spreads the infection further?"
"The backlash," Ranma began and stopped. He pondered the situation for a moment, "The poisoning of the Earth has to stop... The flaring just has to be guide from both sides then... and we must hope the kamis can minimize the backlash."
The priest nodded reluctantly. There was no other option. Any additional magic, regardless of intent, would simply worsen the situation. And no person or group of people had enough ki to remove the infection either. Only the Dragonlines, themselves, could heal themselves. Of course, flaring the Dragonlines had their own consequences, the least of which was controlling such an action. A flood from the Dragonlines would be just as damaging as an actual river's surging and over-flowing. The priest mentioned eight names of other priests that would be able to help, all outside of Juuban, and would take a week or so to be contacted and arrive there.
Ranma frowned at the delay, but it was best to have the nine priests support when they did this.
"What of the silver mist? I don't recognize its feel," Nabiki inquired. The priest looked at her, puzzled, and finally noted her outfit. She did not need her senses and empathy to know his disapproval of her sorceress outfit; it was clearly shown on his face.
A flash of blue-lightgrey-red mist on the map, and her outfit was changed to black Kung Fu pants and a tan, Chinese silk shirt that went with her brown eyes. Her high-heels were replaced with Kung Fu slippers.
On the map the flash from Nabiki's magic was immediately flooded with silver mist, and when the flash was over, the silver mist left as well. Ranma noted this, and nodded at some thought. The priest's eyes were upon Nabiki and had missed it.
"Interesting," Ranma remarked on his observation. "Whoever is behind the silver mist does not wish to have any other magic around..."
The priest turned to Ranma questionably. To which, Ranma replayed the event on the map for him to see. The priest was a bit embarrassed that Nabiki's outfit had distracted him, but Nabiki just smirked at that, enjoying that fact.
The three of them checked the map several times looking for foundation points, which they identified five of those.
Ranma growled in annoyance, and stated, "Where's the nexus point?"
Neither the priest nor Nabiki had the answer.
"We'll just have to take out the five foundation points, re-enforce some of the demon's prisons, and just deal with the nexus point of this silver mist when we can," Ranma continued after searching for an hour or so.
Ranma gathered Onikirimaru, the Saotome Honor Blade, and his hat, and with Nabiki and the priest headed out.
The shrine was quiet, as Ranma, Nabiki, the priest, and two Shrine Maidens entered. Ranma's soft voice could be heard in the silence, "Too quiet..."
The others agreed.
With his hand on Onikirimaru, which was on his hip in battioujustu style, Ranma moved into the shrine itself towards where the demon was imprisoned. The others followed him, ready for anything.
Ranma placed his hand on the knob to the door that lead to were the demon was held, only to be stopped by a female voice, "What do you think you're doing?"
The priest began to explain what was happening and the need to check the demon's prison. At least, the shrine maiden tried to blow off the idea of an actual demon existing at her shrine, but none of them accepted that. Then she tried to say that it was the head priest's job and they should wait for him.
Ranma frowned as he listed to the shrine maiden, something was wrong. She was trying to delay them, for some reason. Reaching out with his senses, he checked the area.... Shocked, he exclaimed, "Hannya!"
The shrine maiden looked shocked and nervous. Her face took on a painful expression and her body transformed before their eyes. Gone was the beautiful form of a maiden, replaced by a three meter tall, female Oni of monstrous visage.
The priest and his accompanying shrine maiden could only stare in shock at the Hannya in front of them.
Nabiki stood before them, casting a shield to protect them, while Ranma ran towards the Hannya.
Just before reaching the Hannya, he called out, "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, Sou Ryu Sen!" The Onikirimaru flashed out of its sheath, which he held to use if he initial strike failed, struck with the power and speed of a battoujutsu strike, slicing the hannya in two. The hannya looked surprised, then smiled as her suffering came to an end, and turned to dust. He stood over the dust for a moment, spoke a prayer, and left a small prayer scroll on top of the dust pile.
Before Ranma finished, the doors to the demon's prison burst open... Debris flew into the room. Nabiki's shield protected her, the priest and the two shrine maiden, while used the Onikirimaru to deflect any debris that came his way.
The demon, for that was what it was, was as tall as the ceiling and as wider then the double-doorway, thus it demolished what remained of the doorway as it burst into the hallway. The demon had claws and a tail.
The priest was not sure, but he thought he saw Ranma's eyes turn a golden color as he looked at the demon.
The demon threw a magical sphere of power at Nabiki's shield, which barely held in her surprise at the magnitude of the attack and its suddenness. She quickly re-enforced her shield, and sent an 'Elmekia Lanceos' towards the demon. The demon dodged out of the way.
Ranma charged at the demon, to distract it from Nabiki and whose she was protecting. The demon, barely, managed to block most of Ranma's quick-thrusts; yet, he was still able to cut the demon in several places, to the surprise of the demon, itself, and the priest watching behind Nabiki's shield.
The demon roared in pain and anger at Ranma, and charged at him.
As the demon concentrated on Ranma, Nabiki began to chant, "Source of all souls which dwell in eternal and infinite."
Ranma dodged several claw-strikes, and returned several of his own with Onikirimaru.
Nabiki continued to chant, "Everlasting flame of blue, let the power hidden in my soul be called forth from the Infinite..."
Ranma pulled back a bit and charged at the demon, calling out, "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, Ku Zu Ryu Sen!" Onikirimaru seem to blur and become nine blades, which stuck the all of demon's nine vital points.
At the same time, Nabiki shouted, "RA-TILT!" A blue-white beam leapt out of her cupped hands and stuck the demon in its back, at the same time; seemly nine Onikirimaru struck the demon. The demon seemed to absorb the 'Ra-Tilt,' until it was stuck by Onikirimaru. It let out a roar and then turned to dust.
Nabiki held her shield and a second 'Ra-Tilt' at the ready, while Ranma poked at the dust pile with Onikirimaru. Nodding his head, Ranma pulled out a prayer scroll from his subspace pocket and placed it upon the dust pile. The scroll, somehow, absorbed all the demon dust. Ranma picked up the scroll, examined it, and placed it back into his subspace pocket.
At Ranma's nod, Nabiki ended the shield spell and allowed the second 'Ra-Tilt' to harmless dissolve back into her.
"That's that," Ranma commented to no one in particular, breaking the silence.
The priest swallowed and nodded. The two shrine maiden's eyes were glazed over, in hero-worship and awe as they looked at Ranma. Nabiki saw their look and smirked, while Ranma merely groaned.
The priest began to mention, to no one in particular just give a sense of normalcy, about how the shrine would need to be cleansed and purified.
Nabiki smirked at the priest and said, "No need. My Master can do it."
"Nabs," Ranma warned in annoyance. But the priest was looking at him, challengely, as if waiting to see if Nabiki was wrong. He signed, put Onikirimaru away, and bent his knees so he was closer to the ground. He rested his palm on the ground, concentrated and said, "Holy Disenchant."
Ranma's palm took on a blue-white glow, which quick spread to the floor, and throughout the shrine. From the floor and grounds, the blue-white glow shot out enveloping everything within. The priest and the two shrine maidens felt a calm over take them as the blue-white glow passed through them.
When the spell finished, it was obvious that the demon or someone else had taken over the shrine some time in the past months or so and had used black magic to cover up the fact. With all the black magic now gone, that fact was obvious. They found the actual priest and shrine maiden imprisoned in one of the back rooms. They were in a bad shape, but a few potion-vials from Nabiki returned them both to good health. They were greatly appreciated in being rescued and the demon's destruction.
Ranma, not wanting the hero-worship or the awed looks, mentioned something about taking care of the foundation nodes, and dragged a pouting Nabiki out with him.
Once outside, Ranma took to the air, until he saw that Nabiki was not following him. He looked at her and asked, "What?"
"Have you forgotten about that anti-magical girl spell that's around here?" Nabiki inquired.
Sheepishly, Ranma nodded his head. He had. He floated over to his wife, picked her up, and set out, once again, for the closest foundation point.
Which wasn't that far, it took them, flying, only a few moments to get within a few meters of the first foundation point. After a bit of search, they found a dark crystal, half-buried in the ground.
When Nabiki tried a 'Ra-Tilt' on the dark crystal, it glowed a dark-silver and remained unaffected. Nabiki, on the other hand, was hit with some magical feedback that, literally, knocked her off her feet. Before her unconscious body could hit the ground, Ranma caught her. He gently set her down, and performed a few health-diagnostic ki-techniques. After giving her a bit of his ki, he looked at the dark crystal with an angry look on his face.
Angered that it had hurt his wife, he punched it using the 'Futae no Kiwami' technique, which shattered the dark crystal. The pieces faded out of existence too quickly for him analyze. He growled in annoyance.
He performed another 'Holy Disenchant' on the area, and set up a chi-web to alert him if another such crystal tried to form there.
With that, he picked up his wife, and headed to next foundation point.
While he would not admit it to others, no matter how much Ranma had matured, he was not comfortable talking about his emotions or personal issues. But he enjoyed taking care of his wife. It was not something he had the opportunity to do too often. Which was good in one way, but not in the other way. Plus, Nabiki had gotten into her head that it was her job to take care of him. Which annoyed him, he was the Master, he could take of himself, but she was the slave that needed him. Either way, he enjoyed just holding her in his arms.
After a bit of flying, he found the second crystal. He landed, and set Nabiki down as comfortably as he could, using a few wind-chi techniques to make a few cushions of air for her to rest on. And he examined the crystal up close.
Unlike the previous crystal, this one was pure silver. He went to touch it, to get a 'reading' on it. But his mere touch disintegrated it. He felt a release of energy, similar to what he felt from the silver mist on the map. After the flash of power, nothing of the crystal remained.
He sighed in disappointment, picked his wife up, and set off into the air for the next crystal.
At some point in the air, Nabiki awoken in her Master's strong arms, she purred in pleasure. In response, Ranma started to caress her as he could while holding her.
Reluctantly, Ranma set his wife down and landed himself.
The third crystal was also pure silver, and Ranma warned his wife about touching it. They examined it together, but could only conclude that it was some kind of crystalline object with the silver magic within it.
Nabiki casted a protection spell over herself as well as an analyses spell on her finger, to which she touched to the crystal.
And nothing happened.
Puzzled, Ranma motioned for his wife to step back.
Making sure that his ki was confide to himself, Ranma touched the crystal, thinking maybe it was his ki that had disintegrated the one before. Yet again, his mere touch did, in fact, cause the silver crystal's disintegration.
A gasp from his wife caused him to look at her. He saw she had a surprised, almost nervous look upon her face. Curious, since he sensed no danger in the area, he asked, "Was' up?"
Nabiki blinked and asked, "You didn't feel that?"
Confusion in his voice, he inquired, "Feel what? There was just a flash of power and nothing else...."
"It wasn't a flash of power, Ran-kun," Nabiki answered softly. "Your body absorbed the silver magic..."
Ranma looked nervous... Magic and him did not mix, period. End of story. The only thing worse then magic was a magical-girl -- oh wait -- he married one. No wonder his life was so... interesting.
"As the silver magic entered your body," Nabiki continued. "There was this golden flow, very similar to the silver magic, flashed out and seem to overcome the silver... then fade back into you."
Ranma frowned. He recapped, "So we have this unknown silver magic that's taken over Juuban... And now, this unknown golden magic that's somehow hiding within me? That we've never before seen or heard of?"
Not likely it either, Nabiki could only nodded.
Ranma sat down in a meditative stance and looked within himself, but could not find anything different about himself, nor any trace of silver or golden magic. If anything, the only magic within him was the bit of magic he stored for Nabiki and powered the few magical items he had with him.
After a half an hours of soul searching, Ranma shook his head and shrugged. He looked to Nabiki, who had been searching from without and through their bond, but she shook her head negative as well.
"No matter," Ranma said.
He let Nabiki the ki to allow her to fly with him, and they set off for the fourth crystal.
The fourth crystal was pure silver as well. Nabiki tried several spells, without any results, save magical feedback that would have hurt her again, if she and Ranma weren't prepared this time. Onikirimaru simply passed completely through the silver crystal with no damage to either. Ranma tired some distance ki techniques on the crystal, but they had no effect on it. If anything, the silver crystal seemed to glow with additional power afterward.
Once again, Ranma's mere touch shattered the silver crystal. This time, he could see the silver magic being released by the silver crystal and racing up his arm, only to be stopped and overcome by a golden magic around his elbow. During the entire incident, he did not feel any difference in his body or surrounding area, save the flash of silver magic that flashed through everything.
Once again, they took to the air and searched for the fifth and last crystal, which made up the foundation points of the spell-web over Juuban.
The fifth crystal took several hours to find. When they did, they noticed that this crystal was dark as the first one, but had little in common with the other crystals, for they were thin cylindrical shaped that were made of some transparent material, even the first crystal, dark as it was, was still transparent. But this one, it was spherical, black as midnight, and seemed to absorb any light, magic or ki near it.
Ranma returned Onikirimaru back to its storage place, and pulled out a metal cylinder.
Nabiki noted that with his lightsaber in hand, a mask of serenity had overcome her Master and he was in his Jedi Master mode. She also noted with some amusement that his Unsui outfit had been altered through his ki/chi manipulation into a set of earth-tone Jedi robes. Of course, he started to talk in riddles like his Jedi Master did, she would just have to show him how much of her Sith Assassin training she remembered. Both her Master and his Master knew how much it had annoyed her, which was probably why they did it so much. //Jedi seeks only enlightenment, haha,// she thought to herself. In her mind, she heard her Master's humor at her thought.
As the last crystal, Ranma was taking precautions. Up until now, the crystals had been taken care of a little too easily for his liking. The darkness of the crystal and the silver-ness suggested, at least, two forces at work. The silver magic was tremendous is scope and power, but lacking in forethought and complexity, all brute strength, no brains. The darkness, probably corruption of the silver magic, was more subtle, but relatively weak in power. But the relativity scope was comparing a large buffet meal for over a hundred guests to an individual quick snack.
Nabiki quickly thought of overloading the dark crystal, but Ranma mentioned that would take a vast amount of energy, and the resulting explosion would level most of Tokyo, if not more.
Ranma came up with a plan. He put away his lightsaber, and told his wife his plan. She did not like it, but she could not think of an alternative.
Nabiki took eleven paces away from her Master and the dark crystal, she summoned her staff, and used it to cast the "Shield of Seraphim" spell over Ranma, the dark crystal and the very immediate area around them. A blue-white dome of pure holy magic of the archangels enclosed them.
Ranma cupped his hands in front of him and began to chant, "I call to Order... to Chaos... grant thy powers... unleash the sword of light and darkness into my hands... freezing nothingness... burning everything; let us walk as one along the path of Balance..."
Black and white light appeared as he chanted, swirling around; he squeezed his hand around the lights, forming a long tube of black and white energy. He then shouted, "RAGUNA BLADE!"
A solid bar of black energy, pure Order, glowed in the center of the long tube, green flames engulfed the black tube, and a white mist, pure Chaos, surrounded the flames.
Ranma held the Raguna Blade like a lightsaber, and make a chopping motion with it. The Raguna Blade cut the very air as it moved, as well as the dark crystal neatly in half. For a moment, nothing happened.
Then Ranma collapsed, exhausted, face-first into the ground.
And then the dark crystal exploded, releasing its captured energy, only to be withheld by Nabiki's shield, barely.
After several moments, the energy backlash died down, and, Nabiki was leaning heavily on her staff. Using the staff to keep her up, she slowly made her way towards Ranma.
The entire blast area was completely black and smoking, including Ranma's body. All of his hair was gone, burnt to ash, as was his clothing.
Nabiki looked down upon her Master's form and recalled his words he had used to paraphrase the Jedi Code, "We are illuminative beings, not this crude matter that most don't look past."
She smiled; she knew that was true, especially in her Master's case. Although, he would never admit it, even to himself, he was now more a being of pure ki then human of flesh. As long as but a single thought of Him existed, anywhere, so He existed and could 'reform' his body as he wished. He was a kami, she knew, if for no other reason then that. By morning, he would be as good as new, which is why he had done as he did. Not to mention the fact that she could not have casted the Laguna Blade without access to the Dark Golden Lord of the Four Worlds, none of which where their world. But Ranma could, and just did, modified the spell (and its name a bit), used primordial chi instead of mana, and accomplished the same result.
Still the strain to maintain the shield in such a magical backlash exhausted her as well. She noted that the silver magic and its magical-girl repellant wards were gone, if only for a moment, so she called out, "Deesy."
With a pop, the female House-elf appeared. She gasped at the state of Lord Ranma-sama, and the exhausted appearance of Lady Nabiki-sama.
Smirking, Nabiki said, "It looks a hell of a worse then actually is, Deesy-chan."
Deesy could only nodded her head, both the Saotomes were powerful mages in their own rights, she knew.
"Deesy-chan," Nabiki began. "Could you pick up Lord Ranma-sama, without magic for me."
Deesy immediately did so with a great easy that showed, although, she was under a meter tall, she was a lot stronger, physically, then her thin, small frame would suggest.
Nabiki winced, slightly, as she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a spellcard. She slowly placed the spellcard, on its edge, widthwise on the ground, whispered the trigger word, and stepped back. The spellcard expanded into a double doorway. She whispered another word, the doors opened, and Nabiki and Deesy, carrying Ranma, walked in.
Past the doors, which closed behind them, held a long, stone, Traditional Japanese hallway that sloped down for a bit, then sloped back up. Nabiki's heels made a clicking sound against the stone floor. At the end of the hallway was a Traditional gate room, as they had been walking through a passageway through the walls of a Traditional courtyard with trees, plants, and gardens. Towards the back of the courtyard, sat a Traditional castle, which would have belonged to a Shogun back in the nine century that had been in the family for many, many generations.
The lack of people, even now, unsettled Nabiki and Deesy a bit. Deesy because of the lack of magic, and Nabiki, because she knew if her Master wished, the castle and its grounds could be filled with nubile, young maidens, who would be more then eager to wish their Lord and Kami's slight whim with all her being. They made their way to the master suite.
There, Deesy set Ranma's body upon the master bed, with its handcrafted silk sheets, a gift from a goddess, who had wished to give tribute to her Lord, as well as a hope they would use them together.
Nabiki took one of her own potions, which helped her, and with Deesy's help, made several herbs, which she spread over Ranma's body that would promote natural healing. At the moment, Ranma was very sensitive to magic. So they had to keep it to a minimum. Of course, being a sorceress and a magical creature made things a bit harder for Nabiki and Deesy.
The two walked out of the castle, through the courtyard, through a different passageway and came out in her Master's room at the Tendo-ke. There was a soft pop, in front of and to the side of Nabiki, where the original spellcard that she had used in Juuban appeared, and she placed back in her subspace storage pocket.
Deesy informed her that everyone else had eaten their dinners, the fathers were playing shogi, Kasumi and Nodoka were watching some teevee show, and Akane was breaking bricks in the Dojo.
Nabiki asked the house-elf to get her a bit to eat, and Deesy returned with a feast, which she set up on a conjured table.
Nabiki logged onto the computer that her Master had set up; she smiled at the fact that her Master had known what her favorite user name and password was. When her Master had first arrived, she would have been scared and fearful that someone knew her so well, but now, she took comfort and security in that fact. She was slave, and He is Master, and all was right with the World.
She noted that the computer system was a blend of the various technologies of the worlds they have been to, with a few components of their home world. They had, in all likelihood, the most powerful computer system on the planet, And even spread out into components, it was still took no more room then a two-thirds of the desk's top surface.
She enjoyed that she had influenced her Master enough that He was running several Internet searches for information on the state of their world and any impact to their return might cause. He also had a few blueprints for the construction of independent information-gathering droids that were no larger then a golf ball, as well as a few business plans to see about starting up His own software company.
She entered in the all the information they had gathered on Juuban as well as the data they had on the Tokyo-based devil hunter clans. With that information, they should be able to analyze and organize everything in a scientific manner.
Before she knew it, the data had been finish, as well as her meal, and it was dark outside her window. All that completed, she moved towards the bed. Slightly amused, she noted that she was naked; having magical removed her clothes at some point, unconsciously.
She tired to sleep on the bed by herself, but found she could not. Ranma's scent and presence was missing in the bed, although, she still felt his essence through their bond.
Tired, but unable to sleep on the bed alone, she took the linens and her pillow and settled down on the floor. While on the floor, she could fall asleep, but her dreams were troubled, until she felt her Master's essence in her mind, comforting her and chasing away her inner-demons.
Usagi Tsukino was tired, and she did not know why. She and her friends had been battling a youma that appeared the same way they had always been. But something about this time was different...
She began her "finishing move" letting it fly to the youma, as usual, only this time; she saw her "Moon Healing Escalation" faded into nothingness. She, dimly, heard her friends shouting her name as her tiredness overcame her.
At the same time, the youma seemed to swell up, the youma screamed in pain, and exploded in smelly youma-bits that got over all the Senshi and the area.
Sailor Mars was the first to express her disgust and went "Eeeeuuu..."
The other Senshi turned towards Sailor Moon, to check on her, only to note she was unconscious and back in her civilian identity.
Sailor Mercury tried to wake her up by calling her name, but she got no response. She used her magic visor to see if she could tell what was wrong with her friend, but could not.
The Senshi untransformed themselves, and carried Usagi to Rei's shrine. There, they cleaned Usagi and themselves up. Ami and Makoto brought Usagi home, and told her mother that she had fallen asleep while they were studying. The three of them put Usagi to bed, and Ami and Makoto left, to check on her first thing next morning.
Somewhere in Europe, a grey mist rose out of nowhere, and began to spin, creating a vortex. Out of the vortex, someone stepped out into the field.
The figure, obviously female, was a sight to behold. She had a perfect hourglass-figure, midnight black hair, high-heels that showed off her perfect, long legs. Her skin was pearl-white without a single blemish. Her long fingernails were painted blood-red. Her clothing, if it could be called that, was looked wet and sprayed on, only covered the 'essentials', and even in that, it actual highlighted her assets, rather then concealed them. Her figure was built for sex, and she was proud of it.
She smelled the air and smiled. As she smiled, fangs could be seen. She looked around and frown slightly at the empty field before her.
After a few moments, her pearl-white skin started to blacken and smoke could be seen coming off her. She moaned in pain, transformed herself into a wolf, and headed into the relative safety of the distant, shadowy woods that were behind her.
Somewhere in Japan, a blue circular vortex appeared in the sky in an open field. Out of the vortex, ten metal spheres fell gently in the wind, as if they weighed no more then a feather.
The ten spheres gently landed on the grass, and rolled so that there was a row of three by three with the tenth in 'front' of them.
Two panels on the upper hemisphere opened, one from the right, and the other from the left, revealing two sensor devices. A red light moved in a three-by-three grid, surrounded by grey, giving the impression of an eye. Centered above the two eyes was the letter 'L' followed by numbers, numbering the spheres from Zero One to One Zero.
Sphere numbered El Zero One was in front of the nine other spheres. On either side of the El Zero One, in the same spacing, were three strips parallel to the ground and each other. In a female voice, the sphere spoke, "Atten Hut!"
The other nine spheres, whose eyes were roaming over the landscape, all rotated as they needed to so that their eyes were upon the tenth sphere.
"Ladies," Sergeant Alita began. "Our creator has finally given us a mission! A chance to show my father, the great Sergeant Major Zero, and our fellow Zeroids, that we female Zeroids are just as good as our male counterparts! If not better! The enemy Android Zela has sent an assassin to kill Commander Saotome and his mate. It is our Duty to stop this assassin, or assassins, at all cost!"
Nine other female voices cheered and shouted, "Yes, Ma'am!"
"Oh Two through Oh Five," Sergeant Alita called out. "Your mission is to secure raw material and put the special abilities that our Maker has given us. We will need a battletank and two Megazeroids to operate it. If nothing else, we can use the battletank as mobile base of operation. The rest of you ladies, you're with me. We need to find and secure Commander Saotome and his mate, before the enemy does."
With orders given out, Sergeant Alita said, "Roll out!"
All twenty eye-portals closed, and the Lady Zeroids rolled out of the field and went about their missions.
In an abandoned temple somewhere in Tokyo, a mist covered the grounds and reached up to two meters in height. Just as quickly as the mist came, it left, leaving a figure behind.
The figure, very obviously female, naked and covered in blood, some of it fresh, some of it dried. She wore high-heals and nothing else. In her hand was a sword, also covered in blood. A tail grew out of her backside, and moved in a side-to-side manner. Her hair was midnight-black and reached passed her tail. Two, pointy horns protruded out of her forehead.
She stood tall and proud, and her arousal was obvious given her state of undress. She smelled the air and grinned. Two feathery wings sprouted out of her shoulder blades areas on her back. She gave them a flap or two to test them, and then took off to the night sky.
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