AN: Well it seems some people liked the direction this is now going in. Thanks. I had a planed meeting and then rest of the day's plans after that meeting fall through, so I had time enough to write this.

And it seems that GunerRyuu has gotten his computer back from the hell that is being so infected with viruses that if it were an organic being, it would be put down and then incinerated. So I have a beta again. I really do hope to keep this one, for I seem to lose track of mine like your washer drier combo makes you lose track of your socks.

THE MERGER

CHAPTER TEN

THINGS FALL INTO PLACE

Ranma's Penthouse suite, in the Neko-Yasha Hotel, seconds latter

Ranma had been having a tough time sleeping over the past few days, for it was during her sleep that she integrated more with what was left of Hild. Yes, she still had some time before her merger with the old ruler of Hell was complete. It wasn't even a quarter done in truth. During the day, while Ranma was awake, she integrated better physically with the remnants of Hild. And that was over half done. But it was at night, during her sleep, that Ranma absorbed the mental and emotional properties of Hild. That was less then five percent done. And the merging that was taking place at this moment was going to be interrupted tonight.

For above the bed, from the ceiling, came a squeak, then a groan, then a crack, then two scantily clad defenders of Love and Justice and a lot of the ceiling came crashing down onto Ranma and her bed.

One of the girls, one in a primarily red colored outfit, landed on Ranma in such a way as to make it seem to a casual onlooker who had just entered, that she was trying to reenact the act of breastfeeding from Ranma. The other slightly older looking woman landed in a position that trapped her head in Ranma's lower regions.

Needless to say, this was a very surprising thing for Ranma to awaken to, and she knew, she just knew that soon everyone would be in and see her in, this, position. Her life was to be measured in the amount of time it takes Akane to…

As if thinking of her true love's name was enough summon the girl, Akane had just smashed open the door with her foot and was just staring at this scene in shock. Ranma prepared for Akane to lose her temper, which she of course did, and to have to defend herself from Akane, for she had decided not to be Akane's mallet practice anymore.

Imagine everyone's complete shock, for almost everyone else had come in behind Akane, when Akane actually got what was happening right for the first time ever! She screamed "What are you hussies doing to MY Ranma! Get off her now, before I turn you into hussy paste!" Akane shouted, summoning the Great Grandmother of the Grandmother of the Mother of all mallets. Needless to say, this was an extremely old and very powerful mallet that she had pulled out of the ether.

As all otherworldly beings and Ki adapts present stared in awe at the weapon currently residing in Akane Tendo's hands, the two strange and scantily clad young woman jumped off Ranma looking very embarrassed.

It was Nabiki who broke the silence first. Mostly since she was not a Ki adapt nor an otherworldly being, so she wasn't that impressed with a giant glowing red hammer. Looking at the three Goddesses, she asked while waving her left hand at Akane "Ok, which Deity is responsible for this miracle?"

"What miracle?" Skuld asked in puzzlement, while salivating at the mere sight of the mallet casually resting like it only belonged there, only in Akane Tendo's hands. Skuld was weeping silently at the thought of that. The most perfect mallet ever belonging to someone else.

"Oh, just the one where my sister got it correct that Ranma's not cheating on her and it was these girls fault!" Nabiki yelled.

"Nabiki." Akane said dangerously calm while staring at the two girls in the short fuku's like a hawk watching a field mouse, "I am NOT blind. There's a hole in the ceiling, and bits and pieces of said ceiling all over the bed. They obviously were spying on Ranma, and wound up in that obscene position. Now what I want to know is… WHY WERE YOU SPYING ON MY RANMA!" Akane shouted, making the walls themselves shake with the noise.

The red clad girl shouted at the green glad woman "You explain it Pluto! I was against the whole thing if you care to remember!"

Then it clicked for Nabiki "Ah! The ridiculously indecent fuku's, the planetary codenames, you must be some of the famous Sailor Senshi of Jubban, am I correct?"

"Sailor Senshi? Who are they?" Ranma asked, speaking for the first time in this engagement now that she can see that all of her fiancée's ire was for once correctly directed towards the two new comers, thank Kami-Sama.

"Ah, just Jubban's local magical girl slash Demon hunting team." Nabiki said offhandedly.

"Oh, some of those." Mara said with venom in her voice and fire in her eyes.

"Did you come here hunting for Mother?" Urd asked in a dangerously low tone of voice while lighting went between hands.

"NO! NO, NO, NO!" The red clad one said while waving her hands in front of her.

"No." The one called Pluto said while shaking her head much more calmly. "We know what's out of our league, so to speak."

"Then why were you in the vents above Ranma's bed?" Belldandy asked in her serene voice.

Sighing the one identified only as Pluto said "I recently became aware of Hild's rebirth. Now normally, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near her, but when instead of going back to Hell and ruling it, she moved into a dojo in Nerima, I got concerned that there was something big on the way. Something that we would have a lot of trouble dealing with. So we went to, and I'll admit it, spy on you all, to see if we could learn if my suspicions were correct and we were in for yet more trouble. After your last place of residence got attacked by those creatures, we followed you here, where we convinced Mars to guide me to one of you to observe you better, so we could covertly find out what the problem is, thus be prepared for it when it hits."

"Did it ever occur to you to just ask us?" Ranma asked sighing knowing the answer.

"Um, no." Pluto said in reply while looking down at the floor.

"Of course not." Ranma said while shaking her head. "Why doesn't any one just ask me?" Ranma asked in a long suffering tone of voice.

"So, um, where is Hild?" Mars asked while looking around "I took Pluto to the highest spiritual power level in the building, and there are a lot of them here, and she's not Hild." Mars told them while waving her right hand at Ranma. "So is Hild out or something?" Mars then asked the gathered group.

"Actually, I am Hild, more or less." Ranma said embarrassed.

"Then why do they keep calling you Ranma?" Mars asked with a raised eyebrow and puzzlement evident in her voice.

It came to Pluto microseconds later. Looking at the gathered group, she asked "I take it the rebirth did not go completely smoothly?"

Sighing Mara said, "Why don't we go to the lounge and talk this over."

"Thank you." Pluto said. "The rest of our team is on the roof of the building across the street, do mind if they join us?" She asked.

Turning around, Mara said, "They might as well." And then she headed for the lounge, followed by everyone else, while Pluto was contacting the other Senshi while walking slowly.

The ground floor lounge, in the Neko-Yasha Hotel, a little while later

It had taken the other Sailor Senshi a few minutes to get off the roof from across the street and into the hotel. And then it had taken even longer to get every one comfortable and even more for some more cooks to be awoken, as it was one AM there were only two cooks on duty, not nearly enough in this case, and even longer for a massive amount of snack food to be placed in front of the group.

After the snackage had arrived, things actually could get started. If not for Mara's outburst.

Mara had been, for the whole time the food was being prepared and served, stewing at the thought of magical girl Demon hunters anywhere near her or her Mother. In her opinion, they were the lowest of the lowest form of bacterial life on the planet. Lower even then all the used car salesman on the planet put together, and even Hell didn't think highly of that group of pond scum.

What did Mara have against magical girl Demon hunters? Well other then the fact that some really stupid ones were attacking her almost every time she appeared on the mortal plane, she found them laughable. For they could only go after the lowest of the lowest Demons, if you could truly call them such. For while yes, the 'Demons' that all magical girl Demon hunters attacked were not native to this reality, they were in no way from Hell. They were just from another reality that wished to threaten this one. And when any magical girl Demon hunter took on a true Demon, thinking it was their usual pray, they were in for a nasty surprise that was usually, but not always, a total defeat for them, and in the case of a defeat it was almost a certain fatality for them as well.

Mara's utter contempt for magical girl Demon hunters finally sprang forth, and she told the assembled group of such beings just what she had just been thinking.

She just started to blurt out in a scalding tone while the others just had started to reach for their snacks "I really hope you girls are prepared for what you will learn here. You do know you've never faced a true Demon before, right?" She asked snidely. Continuing immediately with "All your so called Demonic opponents have in truth been extra-dimensional beings with not to nice goals for this world. When girls in your profession make the mistake of attacking a true Demon thinking they are your standard opponents, it doesn't end prettily for you. In fact it's usually a fatal mistake for one of your profession." Mara said while staring at the gathered girls with a hard and cold fiery glare.

Now Ranma may be new to being a Mother, oh yeah, and Hild may have been rusty at the time of her demise, true, but this was lighting up Ranma's Motherly alert system that something was truly troubling her daughter, and it wasn't these girls them selves, but something they represent. Having it finally click in her brain, Ranma asked "How many times have you been attacked by magical girl Demon hunters over the years?"

"Almost every single time I come to this plane!" Mara shouted in anger.

Ranma didn't want to ask the next question, but had to. "And how many did you have to kill?" She asked, knowing what was troubling her daughter.

Now you may think, Mara's a Demon. Thus she would have no problems in killing a mortal or a billon of them. You'd be dead wrong. Most Demons have trouble with the act of truly killing something. Fighting the Gods, maiming and torturing and just plain punishing the souls of the wicked, they were fine with. It's what they do. But when a God or Demon truly kills something, they just don't die, they cease to exsist. Most Gods and a lot of Demons do not wish to cause the eraser of something from reality as we know it. That is not only why Kami-Sama set up the Doublet system with Hild's help, it's why most Gods and Demons chose follow it.

That is also why it was such a relief to most who cared for her that Hild was drowned in Jusenkyo instead of being killed directly by the Demons who attacked her. As she had been killed via a magical place's curse, instead of directly by a Demon, she was not erased from existence, only trapped within the spring.

This was also why Oblivion wanted to use an ambitious Demon to kill Hild. Oblivion needed to erase her from reality to erase Kami-Sama from reality as well to end this reality. And Oblivion did not want to reveal it's presence to this reality if it was truly not needed. The less Oblivion did things it's self, the less its mission was compromised.

Thus we return to Mara and her answer, which truly does trouble her greatly, for she had erased many beings from existence in doing this. And each one was truly regrettable in her eyes. "Too many. Just way too many." Mara said while looking down with her hair covering her face.

As Ranma comforted Mara, and Belldandy and Skuld absorbed this information, Urd told the assembled group just why this news was so troubling. There was a lot of nervous swallowing at that moment.

After Mara got herself together, the true meeting then started.

AN: Ok, this is up way sooner then I thought I could get it up. But don't expect things like this to happen often over the next few weeks to months. On another note, how was it? I think I'll be moving on to another one of my fics to update next, but I hope to come back to this one soon.