Insertion
 Part 46
 The Hunted
++++++++++++++
 "What are we going to do today, Carrot?" asked Ranma as they watched the
sun rise in the distance.
 "The same thing we do every day, Ranma," replied the costume calmly.
 "Huh? What's that?" muttered the undead thing in confusion.
 "Try to take over the world!" said Carrot as he stood up and pointed at
the sky dramatically.
 "We do that ever day?" muttered Ranma as he thought about it.
 "Never mind, come on," grumbled Carrot as he started moving them towards
the village again.
 "Where are we going? Why back this way?"
 "I want to keep an eye on this place," said Carrot calmly.
 "We're gonna go see Usagi?" asked Ranma.
 "No, we're going to avoid her. She can sense us. I want to do a little
spying," said Carrot.
 "Oh," said the undead thing with a small shrug. "Okay."
+++++++++++++
 Just outside the village, they looked down at themselves for a moment
and frowned. "We need a disguise. People will notice us like this."
 "Well duh," grumbled Ranma.
 "Shut up, I'm going to try and disguise us," said Carrot. They shimmered
for a moment and shifted forms.  They now appeared to be a rather wimpy
looking black man in a dirty cloak.
 "Asian! I want to look like an Asian!" grumbled Carrot. "Damn. I can't
turn into anything but this."
 "Huh?" muttered Ranma as he looked at their hands for a moment. "Well,
it's still better than before."
 "Not by much, we'll still stick out like a sore thumb. We're taller than
everyone else is, even if not as much as before. Plus, there probably
aren't a whole lot of non-Japanese nationals left."
 "Most of the foreigners would have been military," said Ranma, as he
seemed to understand. 
 "Right, the first ones to be killed," agreed Carrot. "It should do if we
don't try and speak to anyone. Just sort of linger around, and see what
we can hear. Don't forget this won't hide us from Usagi. It's only
superficial."
 "Right," grumbled Ranma.
++++++++++++++
 The inside of the village was surprisingly busy. There were more than a
few hundred people wandering around in the early morning. It wasn't that
difficult for them to stay out of sight for the most part. None of the
rubble or decimated buildings were cleared away. They could still hide in
the shadows and be near the people in most cases, but still had to move
through the streets a little in order to navigate. Most of the people
didn't notice them; those that did gave them a small frown and ignored
them. It probably wasn't unusual to have drifters pass through.
 The information they had managed to get was mostly useless banter
between talkative women. Some of the relationships within the village,
love and rivalries between people he'd never heard of. One group of women
were talking about how nice it was to be safe in times like these. The
conversation drifted to how brave the new senshi were. Ranma discovered
that there were now four of them left. Usagi seemed to be some sort of
political figure as well, judging by the few times he'd heard her name
dropped in various conversations.
 The oddest thing was, the village didn't appear to be in hiding at all.
The senshi were spoken of openly, no one seemed very fearful of attack of
any kind. "This is strange," muttered Carrot to himself.
 "What?" whispered Ranma.
 "If I was a spy for you know who, I'd know about the senshi, Usagi, and
probably a lot more before I went back and reported," said Carrot calmly.
"I'm betting he knows about this place, and who's here."
 "So?" grumbled Ranma.
 "This place is dangerous to him. Four Senshi, one we haven't seen yet.
Usagi, who to his credit is blind and not Sailor Moon anymore...but
still..."
 "Maybe he just doesn't care," said Ranma with a small shrug. "He beat or
killed everyone else right?" There was a hint of anger in his voice as he
said this.
 "Maybe, or maybe there's a reason he doesn't have to fear them," said
Carrot carefully.
 "You think they're working for him?" muttered Ranma dumbly.
 "No. I think that he's got his hands on something that keeps them in
line," said Carrot. 
 "What?" said Ranma as he blinked and tried to think about it.
 "Probably the Silver Imperium Crystal," said Carrot with a small sigh.
"More bad news for us."
 "So...what do we do now?" asked Ranma.
 "Time to see if we can find the boss now," said Carrot as he backed into
an alleyway and vanished into the darkness, or more precisely, he tried
to. 
 A beam of light shined on him and he shielded his face from it.
 "Why would you be looking for me?" said a stern sounding female voice.
 "Who?" muttered Ranma as he backed into the wall and slowly lowered his
hands, allowing his eyes to adjust. "Well, well. Who have we here?"
++++++++++++++
 A figure appeared in a flash of light in the middle of an unoccupied
area of Tokyo. It was a woman with long red hair, she was dressed in
dirty looking clothes and wore an old looking brown cloak on her body.
She glanced around and smirked. "Back on Earth again." Angela, the
angelic warrior stood proudly, overlooking the sunrise and simply watched
it for a moment.
 She looked down at her feet and smiled at the assortment of weapons that
was there. Various guns and a few hand grenades. "Using my powers would
be a bad idea this time, at least until I can find this thing," she
reminded herself absently as she kneeled down and began to put them on.
She smirked as she did so, loading each gun as she strapped it onto her
body somewhere, either on the holsters at her hips, or using the arm
slings on them.
"Dakishimeta kokoro no KOSUMO
atsuku moyase kiseki wo okose
kizutsuita mama ja inai to
chikai atta haruka na ginga."
She began putting shells into a shotgun and continued to sing cheerfully.
"PEGASASU FANTAJI- sou sa yume dake wa
daremo mo ubaenai kokoro no tsubasa dakara
SEINTO Seiya shounen wa minna
SEINTO Seiya ashita no yuusha oh yeah
SEINTO Seiya PEGASASU no you ni
SEINTO Seiya ima koso habatake."
 Twirling the weapon skillfully on her finger, she flipped it onto a
holster that hung from her back and put on two bandoleers of shotgun
shells and the hand grenades while humming the instrumental to the song
to herself.
"Doko made mo kagayaku sora ni
omae dake no seiza wo mezase
sono hi made makerarenai sa
inochi kakete idonda BATORU."
Finally, she stood up and dusted off her pants lazily, walking into the
city with a dark smirk on her face, singing as she went.
"PEGASASU FANTAJI- daremo ga yume miru
jiyuu to iu tsubasa hiroge kakete yuke
SEINTO Seiya shounen wa minna
SEINTO Seiya kodoku na senshi oh yeah
SEINTO Seiya PEGASASU no you ni
SEINTO Seiya ima koso habatake..."
 She paused and looked up in alarm, something zoomed over her head. She
dove to the ground rolling on her back with a handgun in her grip as it
sailed overhead. "Shit! Did they spot me?"
 A woman in a black leather fuku blasted by, ignoring her completely as
he continued on her way.
 "Saturn," muttered Angela as she stood up again and watched her fade
into the city. "Apparently my friend has attracted some attention of its
own." She frowned a little at the thought of it. She was hoping to avoid
any entanglements with the new rulers of the planet. It wasn't her job to
deal with them after all, at least, not yet. Shrugging her shoulders she
continued to walk towards her target.
"PEGASASU FANTAJI- sou sa yume dake wa
daremo mo ubaenai kokoro no tsubasa dakara
SEINTO Seiya shounen wa minna
SEINTO Seiya ashita no yuusha oh yeah
SEINTO Seiya PEGASASU no you ni
SEINTO Seiya ima koso habatake..."
++++++++++++
 "Well, if it isn't Akane Tendo," said Ranma as he eyed the woman
standing in front of him. She was in her early thirties, and had grown
her hair out again. She didn't have any visible scars, and was wearing a
white shirt with black slacks. Her shoes were worn out and scuffed, but
still had a little polish on them.
 "Who are you?" snapped the woman as she raised a handgun up to his face
and frowned.
 Ranma smiled at her. "That's a secret."
 "I don't have the patience for games. Who are you, why have you been
sneaking around," she snapped angrily as she edged a bit closer.
 "I haven't seen you in more than twenty years," said Ranma as he looked
her up and down and ignored the threats.
 "I know you?" she asked firmly.
 "I know you," he replied cryptically. "I go by Spawn. You may call me
that."
 "Take off that mask," snapped Akane.
 "You wouldn't recognize me if I did," he replied simply.
 "Oh?" she said as she backed away from him. He did seem familiar, but
she couldn't place it.
 "My face was burned off, as well as most of the rest of me," he said
simply. "In any case, I'm surprised to see you around still. I would have
thought he'd kill you."
 Akane slowly lowered her gun and scowled at him. "I'm no threat to him,
he made a deal with my sister to keep me alive."
 "Oh? Did he?" said Ranma calmly as he turned his back to her and looked
at his surroundings again. "Nabiki could be a very useful tool to someone
like him."
 "I do know you...but..."
 "Don't think too hard on it," he replied without looking back. "I'm not
really all that interested really. I've been gone for a long time, I
wanted to see what happened to everyone I knew since I've been gone."
 "Gone?" she asked as she aimed the weapon at him again.
 "Yes, I've been away for the past twenty years. I've just returned to
Japan after a long journey," he replied. 
 "Where are you from?" she asked.
 "Really! Hitting on me already?" asked Spawn playfully.
 "We'd be willing to offer you a lot for information about anywhere else
in the world," said Akane as she lowered the weapon again.
 "Oh? Well, there's nothing you have that I want," he said with a small
shrug.
 Akane frowned at this, but seemed to accept it.
 "I'm curious about a few things, I thought I might be able to pick
something up by wandering around a bit and listening," said Ranma with
another shrug.
 "Looking for information. A spy maybe?" ventured Akane.
 "If I was, what would you do?" he asked her calmly.
 "Nothing. He doesn't bother us, and we don't bother him," said Akane
with hatred very clear in her voice.
 "You mean, he doesn't kill you, and you pray that he never gets it in
his head that he might want to," said Ranma with a small snort.
 Akane growled at this, but didn't argue with him.
 "Not much of a resistance," snorted Ranma casually.
 "Resistances don't last long. Most of the leaders here tried more than
once, they only got their followers killed," said Akane.
 "Yourself included?" asked Ranma as he arched his eyebrow at her a
little.
 Once again, the weapon was trained on him. "Shut up," she snapped
painfully.
 "Broken, completely," muttered the thing to himself as he looked away
from her. 
 "What?" she growled.
 "Nothing. Answer one question for me," he said as he turned to look at
her again, a small frown on his face. "What happened to Usagi? She's not
Sailor Moon anymore, and seemed upset when I mentioned it."
 "You're not willing to tell me anything, why should I tell you?" asked
Akane.
 "Because you don't know how far I'm willing to go to find out," said
Ranma calmly. The chains that hung from his waist lashed out, knocking
the gun from her grip and snatching it off the ground. He was holding it
and flipping it over curiously before she could react.
 Akane growled and backed away. She paused and looked at the ground.
"Around twenty years ago, he captured her and used her."
 "Used her?" said Ranma as he arched his eyebrow slightly.
 "Raped her, so that his daughter would be born," said Akane coldly. She
was glaring at him hatefully. "She kept trying to escape, and we tried to
help her...but he was too strong. After one of the more successful
attempts, he blinded her. She got pregnant a few months later. After she
had the child, he kicked her out and threw her into the streets."
 "Disgusting thing," growled Ranma under his breath.
 "Why are you so interested in my wife's past?" said a male voice from
behind him.
 Ranma turned to see a man landing on the ground behind him, having
jumped from the rooftop.
 "Mamoru," said Ranma calmly as he looked the man up and down. "I can't
imagine him allowing you to live."
 "Allowing me?" said the man as he crossed his arms in front of his
chest. "It isn't from lack of trying."
 Ranma snorted and looked back at Akane. "He wasn't trying very hard
then."
 "What would you know?" snapped Akane.
 Ranma snorted again and pulled off his mask. "Because he is the one who
caused this. Because of that bastard, I have seen hell."
 Both of them backed away from the scarred dead thing that stared at
Akane. 
 "Now. Why I want to know about anyone's past is my own business. You
have been quite helpful though, even though you don't realize it."
 "You're trying to take on Ranma and his goons?" snorted Mamoru.
 "He's got the Silver Imperium Crystal, that's why the Senshi won't
attack him isn't it?" asked Ranma as he put his mask back on.
 "How would you know about that?" gasped Mamoru.
 "It would have to be something big to keep those hotheaded chicks at
bay. I figured it would be something like that. Until now, I wasn't
sure."
 "What good does this information do you?" asked Usagi as she appeared
from the street and stared at the thing.
 "Well. Hello again," said Ranma as he looked at her. "Nice seeing you
again...err...sorry..."
 Usagi smirked at this, while Akane and Mamoru both looked at him
angrily.
 "I did apologize," he said to them.
 "You didn't mean it," said Usagi as she walked up to him.
 "Don't!" cried Mamoru as he rushed over to her and tried to hold her
back and get between her and Ranma.
 "If he wanted me dead, he would have killed me last night," said Usagi
calmly. 
 "How and why I kill Ranma are my own business," said Spawn as he stepped
back away from the pair a little. "I didn't come here to ask for help, I
just want to know what it is I'm facing."
 "It is a good thing, because I would not help you," replied Usagi
calmly. "Our survival depends on our remaining quiet and out of the way."
 "Pathetic, I find it hard to believe that he could have broken you all
so easily," said Ranma coldly.
 "How dare you!" snarled Mamoru.
 "I thought you'd fight to the death," said Ranma as he ignored the man
and stared directly at Usagi.
 "My own death, but not to the death of all humanity," she replied with
an equal amount of calm.
 "That makes sense I suppose," replied the thing with a small nod.
"You've certainly grown wiser, Meatball Head."
 "I'm not going to stand here and take this!" snapped Akane as she
started forward towards him.
 "Stop!" snapped Usagi.
 "Still has a temper I see, that always was her biggest fault," said
Ranma. "In any case, I'm more interested in information than manpower at
the moment. I didn't come here expecting help. Finding all of you alive
is a surprise I'll admit."
 
 "You can't do anything in return for our helping you," said Usagi.
"You'll die alone when you try to fight Ranma. That is all I can hope
for."
 "I might beat him," said Ranma with an annoyed looking frown.
 "I cannot even spare enough hope for that," said the woman curtly. "If
you do fail, I do not wish this place to be connected with you."
 "I'll leave if you tell me what I want to know," said Ranma with a smirk
on his face.
 "You'll leave now," said Mamoru angrily.
 Ranma lashed out with his chains, pinning the man to the wall easily. He
looked at the women and frowned. "He's not hurt."
 Mamoru struggled for a moment and growled. He did appear to be unharmed
though, the women stepped back cautiously, both looking for a place to
strike.
 "Calm down, I'll release him when we're finished talking," said Ranma
calmly. 
 "Let him go. Now," demanded Akane as she moved forward and punched out
at him.
 This time the long red cloak lashed out and pinned her to the opposite
wall, holding her quite firmly.
 "Want to try your luck?" asked Ranma as he glared at Usagi.
 "No," said Usagi.
 "Good," replied the thing casually. "Now down to business. Where are the
other Senshi?"
 "Dead," said Usagi almost mechanically.
 "You said Nabiki was working for Ranma, that's why this one is still
alive..."
 "She's alive, because she escaped after Ranma killed Nabiki," said Usagi
coldly.
 "She got a little to hot to handle?" said the thing with a confused
looking frown on his face.
 "She grew ambitious, but had no real power. She started dealing under
him, and got manipulative," said Usagi with a shrug. 
 "He killed her when she got annoying," spat Akane from her place on the
wall. "That bastard."
 Ranma looked thoughtful. "I can see that I've got more planning to do
than I'd thought." He paused when he noticed Usagi backing away with a
horrified look on her face.
 "Well, it's too bad you'll never get the chance to carry out your
plans," said a new voice from above them.
 Ranma slowly turned to see a dangerously familiar figure floating above
them just over the rooftop. "Mistress Nine."
 Hotaru frowned at this. "You've been talking." She was looking at Usagi
as she said this.
 "I...never told him that..." stammered the woman.
 "I knew who you were before I came here. You aren't very good at hiding
your aura," said Ranma as he released Akane and Mamoru from the wall.
 Nine raised her eyebrow at this. "I have no need to hide my power."
 "No, but I do," he replied as he floated up to the same level as her.
 "Well, what a surprise. You can fly," said Nine as she smirked at him.
It was obvious she was far from impressed. 
 "Are you going to try and kill me, or are you going to float there and
talk about it all day?" asked Ranma calmly.
 "I'll do more than try!" snarled Nine as she blasted forward and punched
at him. 
 Ranma avoided the strike easily and shot back through the air over the
village, moving away from it a fair distance before stopping.
 "That was impressive," commented Nine before she followed after him.
 They met in the air again, Nine lashing out with a kick aimed at his
temple. The wildly flailing chains that hung from the thing's waist
blocked it. 
 "You're gonna have to do better than that!" snapped Ranma.
 "I'll destroy you yet!" snapped Nine angrily as she continued to attack.

 "Ha! You're too slow!" snapped Ranma.
 Nine's limbs were a blur, but her opponent was clearly faster.
 "Damn you!" snarled the woman angrily.
 "Who could have guessed that little Hotaru would grow up so cute,"
taunted Ranma. "Too bad she has a bad personality, or I might have been
interested."
 "I'm too much for you to handle!" retorted the woman. She didn't look
even slightly worried, despite her anger.
 "Try harder," said Ranma as he dodged another kick with ease.
 "Fine then!" growled Nine. "Silence Glave Surprise!"
 "Oh shi-" Ranma was engulfed by the wave of energy. He was pushed into
the ground and impacted hard. A shockwave of energy draining power spread
out across the ground for a few hundred yards, completely destroying any
matter it touched along the surface of the ground. When it was over,
there was nothing left but a level patch of dirt.
 "Weakling," snorted Nine as she turned back towards the village. "Now to
deal with you."
+++++++++++++
 Usagi frowned as her two companions watched the rather spectacular end
of Spawn.
 "He didn't last long," commented Mamoru as he touched his wife's
shoulder. 
 "Did you expect better?" commented Akane with a snort. 
 "She's coming back," said Usagi as she looked up at the sky.
 "What?! Why?" gasped Akane in horror.
 "Telling him all we did was a breach of the treaty," said Usagi with a
heavy sigh. "This is the end of this place."
 "I'll get the girls, we need to leave," said Akane as she turned away.
 "What about the villagers?" snapped Mamoru.
 "I will spread the warning," said Usagi as she turned out of the alley.
 "I'll help," said Mamoru firmly.
 "You'll both die," said Akane coldly as she looked back at them for a
moment from over her shoulder.
 "Then we will," said Usagi with a disturbing calm.
 "Goodbye," said Akane with tears filling her eyes as she rushed away.
 "Wait!" cried Usagi with a shocked look on her face. "It's not over
yet!"
 "Then we have a chance!" said Mamoru. "Work quickly, if he's still
fighting, we may have time to evacuate!"
 "There is something different about this one," muttered Usagi.
"Something familiar..." She ignored the other two as they rushed off to
spread the word around within the village and merely watched a point in
the sky nearby.
+++++++++++++
 Nine frowned as she spun around in the air and gasped. "What?!"
 Ranma was floating in the air with his arms crossed in front of his
chest. "That was a mistake."
 "How can you still be alive?!" she snapped.
 "Alive?" he chuckled. "Whoever said I was alive?" He didn't even look
scratched from the attack, and she saw it hit dead on.
 "This can't be!" growled Nine in frustration. 
 Ranma spread his arms out and his cape and chains shot forward, wrapping
around her arms and legs, holding her firmly in place. "Ha. I'm afraid
it's going to take more than that to beat me."
 Nine growled angrily as her energy began to build rapidly. She screamed
in anger as a golden aura formed around her. "Fine then! I'll destroy
you!"
 The chains did not weaken, and the cape did not tear.
 "You think you're the only one who can do that?" said Spawn as his eyes
began to grow brighter. His entire body bulked up a little and a
disturbing gold and green aura burned around him.
 "Impossible!" cried Nine in shock.
 Carrot ignored her struggles and spoke to Ranma. "I want you to focus on
what I'm going to try Ranma."
 "Huh?" 
 "Just do it, you'll understand if it works," said Carrot angrily as he
focused his glare on Nine.
 The woman began to scream in pain, thrashing her arms wildly against the
chains that held them. She was desperately trying to clutch her head.
 "Where are you?" growled Ranma as he stared at her.
 "What are you doing? What are you..." Nine's eyes went wide. "No! How
did you get in here! This can't be!"
+++++++++++++
 Inside Hotaru's head, an intimidating demonic figure stood over the
cowering dark figure that now cowered back. "You can't do this!"
 Spawn smirked at her, his mask splitting into a fanged grin as his
chains lashed out. Rather than moving to hold her, they now had spikes on
the ends of them that thrust into its body. "You've been a very bad girl.
It's time I introduced you to some friends of mine from back home. They'd
love to meet you."
 "What?!" screamed the thing through the pain of it's wounds. The spikes
worked like barbs, catching in her astral body. 
 "We're going on a little trip you and I," said Ranma coldly. A flash of
green light formed, and they vanished.
+++++++++++
 Nine found herself sitting on her knees clutching at her head. She
realized that the pain had stopped and that she was now surrounded by a
bright orange glow. "Where am I? What happened? How..."
 "Welcome to my world," said Ranma as he looked down at her. He was
standing over her with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "You're
going to be here a while."
 "Welcome back my child," said a booming voice from all around them.
 "Who is that? Where have you brought me?" snarled Nine as she stood up
and glared at him hatefully.
 "I brought you a present," said Ranma as he looked down at the cowering
thing and smirked. 
 "How nice, we've been expecting this one for some time now," said Hild
with a light sounding laugh.
 "Who are you! Show yourself! I'll destroy you!" cried Mistress Nine as
she stood up. A large shadow engulfed figure appeared in front of her.
She backed away, suddenly realizing that she was in way over her head.
 "Welcome to Hell, enjoy it," said Ranma as he vanished in a flash of
green light.
+++++++++++
 When they appeared again, they were holding Hotaru's body in the same
manner as before, still floating above the Earth. She was out cold, and
had a painful frown on her face.
 "Well. Should we go back?" asked Carrot with a small chuckle.
 "That felt really good," said Ranma.
++++++++++++
 They landed in front of a large group of evacuating citizens and
smirked. "You can go home now. She's not going to be destroying anything
for a while."
 Akane pushed out from behind the crowd and her jaw dropped. "You beat
her?"
 Mamoru jogged up from the rear as well. "What's the hold up? I...No
way..." He looked sort of awed as he looked at the scene in front of him.
 Ranma was holding Hotaru in his arms like a sleeping child. 
 Akane paused when she saw that the woman was still breathing. "She's
still alive!"
 "So?" asked Ranma calmly.
 "Idiot! When she wakes up, she'll..." said Mamoru angrily.
 "Probably start crying, because of all the horrible things Mistress Nine
made her do," said Ranma as he looked down at the girl for a moment.
 "What?" muttered Akane dumbly.
"She was possessed," said Ranma with a light smirk on his face. "This is
the Senshi of Saturn."
 "What are you talking about? If she's possessed..." mumbled Mamoru.
 "No, she was possessed," said Ranma as he brushed by the pair and walked
through the crowd. It parted for him and he carried the girl back into
the village. "She is fine now."
 Usagi was standing at the back of the crowd, blocking his way. "If what
you say is true..."
 "Don't bother me. My friend needs help," said Ranma as he shoved her
aside and continued towards one of the buildings.
 Usagi didn't try to stop him. "If what he says is true, then that woman
is anything but fine," she muttered to herself.
 A young girl with long black hair walked up beside her. "What's
happening?"
 "Return home Mars, take the others with you. We'll meet with you later.
I have much to do right now," said Usagi as she turned to the crowd.
"Return to your homes. This is over for now. I will keep you informed."
+++++++++
 Ranma knelt over Hotaru as she lay on a futon inside one of the homes.
No one had dared enter yet and he smirked down at her.
 Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him for a moment. "Ranma?"
 He put his finger to her lips and shushed her. "Quiet. That's a secret,"
he said gently. "Are you two all right?"
 "Yes..." stammered the familiar mannerism of Saturn. "We..."
 It was quickly destroyed as she burst into tears and grabbed him around
his neck. "I knew it! I knew he couldn't really be you!"
 He froze awkwardly and gently pulled her away. "Shh. No one can know who
I really am, for obvious reasons."
 "How? Why? Where have you been?" gasped the woman.
 "I dunno, I dunno, and Hell," he said.
 She blinked at him. "Hell?"
 "I pissed off some goddesses or something," he replied with a small
shrug.
 "Oh," muttered the girl as she shifted uncomfortably. "You've come
back...to kill him?"
 "Yes," he said as he smirked at her for a moment. "But that means I have
to get by everyone else too. Not easy."
 "You have no idea," said Saturn with a frown on her face.
 "I was hoping you could tell me, but not just yet. You need rest," he
said calmly.
 She nodded and lay back on the futon. "I'll help however I can."
 "Don't worry. I always win in the end," he said as he smirked at her.
With that, he stood up and walked out of the room to wait. Soon Usagi and
his old friends would show up. He sat down and listened to the woman cry
herself to sleep.
+++++++++
 Akane stood outside the home impatiently as Usagi barred her way.
 "Why can't we go in?" she snapped.
 "Give them a moment, I don't think they are going anywhere," said Usagi.
"We need to collect ourselves as well. If this wasn't some sort of trick,
then we just watched someone take down one of Ranma's strongest
soldiers."
 Akane frowned at this, it seemed too good to be true.
 "I've put the family somewhere else," said Mamoru as he walked up to
them. "Rather rude of him to just take over someone's house."
 "They will get over it," said Usagi calmly. "The important thing is what
we do now."
 "Right," said Mamoru with a slightly cynical edge to his voice. "We'll
just storm the castle right behind this yahoo, is that it."
 "I doubt if he's stupid enough to try," said Usagi as she looked at the
door to the home for a moment. 
 "I don't trust him," said Akane coldly.
 "Neither do I," said Usagi. "We must wait and see."
+++++++++++++++
 In the distance, a well muscled figure stood on top of a building
watching. He said nothing, but clenched the Katana in his grip tightly
for a moment. "It seems they were wise indeed to send me out on this
mission. Hotaru has failed, and only the might of the Blue Thunder may
prevail in this battle. Such a foul demon must be eliminated posthaste."
 Tatewaki Kuno smirked to himself as he turned back onto the roof and
moved towards the stairwell. "A battle worthy of my prowess I hope. We
shall see."
++++++++++++++
 Something is up with Kuno, but what is it? And what about Angela? You'll
have to wait! BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAA!
 A little short this time I know, but if I write more, the rest will be
crappy, cause I'm so tired.
 TBC...
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