Chapter 48.... damn, my beginning notes suck now-a-days, don't they?

On with the show.

Chapter 48, Firefly.

Ranma winced as his music teacher called his name, just as he was preparing to leave the room on Monday afternoon. Turning back, his violin case slung over his shoulder, he saw her hurrying towards him. “Yeah, Sensei?” He asked, trying to conceal the impatience in his voice.

“Ranma-san, I wanted to ask you if you’d like to try out for a position in the school band.” The woman asked, hurriedly.

“What?” Ranma asked, confused. “Look, um, I’m a little busy right now, I’ve got someone I gotta meet.”

“That’s fine, Ranma-san, I’d just like an answer so that I know if I should pencil you in for a tryout next week.” The teacher said, easily.

“Yeah, um, sure. Whatever.” Ranma replied, not really thinking, as he opened the door and hurried out. Knowing that he was eventually going to get into trouble for brushing the older woman off like that, he quickly walked down the hall, entering the elevator and pressing for a certain floor. When he’d offered to take Hotaru to Rei’s shrine to be looked at on Friday, he hadn’t thought much about the timing involved, and it had ended up so that he had to catch her exiting home room, on her way home, or he would have to wait until next Friday.

The latter wasn't even an option, as the little girl was currently harboring some sort of demonic entity, and any more delay than was absolutely necessary was a bad idea.

Stepping out on her floor, the pigtailed boy noticed the young girl standing at a locker, putting several small binders into it. “Hey, Hotaru-chan.” He said, walking up to her.

“Ranma-kun?” She asked, looking up at him in surprise. “I didn’t think you would actually be here.”

Ranma pretended to look offended. “Hey! I always keep my promises when I can, ya know.” He objected.

Hotaru nodded, smiling. “That’s good. I called my father and told him that I was going to go somewhere with friends, so he won’t be worried about me today.” In truth, her father had sounded abrupt, busy with something else in his lab, when she’d explained that, but she had still gotten an agreement, so she didn’t mind. “So, where do we have to go?”

“It’s a place in Juuban.” Ranma explained, starting to walk as Hotaru fell into step behind him. “Called the Hikawa shrine.”

“A shrine?” The girl asked, surprised. “I thought you knew a special doctor, or something.”

Ranma shook his head, then sighed. “Hotaru-chan, the thing that’s causing your blackouts isn’t somethin wrong with yer body.” He stopped, considering for a moment. “At least, that’s not the only problem.”

Hotaru looked up at him, curiosity shining in her eyes. “What’s really the matter?”

Ranma was about to answer, when the two heard someone calling his name. Turning, Ranma saw Haruka running towards them as they headed for the main entrance. “Hey, you’re not going to leave without me, are you?” The blonde huffed, trying to catch her breath.

“Oh, hey Haruka.” Ranma said. “You feeling all right?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just got out of gym, that’s all.” She responded, straightening up. Getting a look at the dark purple haired girl beside Ranma, her eyebrows rose. “Hmm, and who’s this?” She asked, kneeling down to get a better look at her. “Pretty cute, you trying to replace your girlfriend?”

“Hey, Haruka, that ain’t funny.” Ranma scowled. “This is Hotaru, a friend of mine. Hotaru, this is Haruka, she’s annoying.”

Hotaru nodded, blushing slightly from Haruka’s comment. “It’s nice to meet you, Haruka-san.” She offered, shyly, and then took a quick glance at the blonde. She’d heard Ranma call Haruka she, but Hotaru honestly couldn’t tell from how she dressed. Still, she seemed pretty nice.

“So, where’re we headed?” Haruka asked, falling into step with the two as they started for the door.

“Rei’s shrine.” Ranma replied, and the blonde nodded, then sent a confused look towards Hotaru.

“We’re taking her?” She asked, and then when she noticed that the statement made the girl look uncomfortable, she continued. “Not that I really mind.”

“I need ta show her ta Rei, and maybe her grandfather if things are really bad.” Ranma explained, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Haruka.

“What, you think she’s possessed?” The Senshi of Uranus asked, only to blink in shock at Ranma’s slow nod. “You… really think she’s possessed?”

This was quite a shock to Hotaru, as well, so she turned her head to hear Ranma’s explanation. “Yeah.” He said, frowning. “I scanned her aura last week. Didn’t really want to reveal it to her like this, woulda rather gotten the damned thing outta her without her even knowing what it was.” He stopped, favoring Hotaru with an apologetic expression, before continuing. “Whatever it is, it’s pretty dark and has been absorbing the life energy she generates, maybe for years.”

“A… a demon?” Hotaru stuttered, surprised. She wasn’t the type to dismiss them out of hand, after all she DID live near the Juuban district, but the thought of one living inside of her was… disturbing, to say the least.

Unfortunately, Haruka’s next sentence didn’t decrease her unease any. “So you want Rei to try and get it out of her.”

Ranma nodded. “Yeah, at least I’m hopin she can.” He shuddered. “I’ve gotten hit by a demon once, but that little bastard was a small fry compared ta what I felt in Hotaru’s aura.” A second later, as he saw Hotaru wince, he groaned. “Damn, I wish I hadn’t said that.”

“N… no, it’s all right, Ranma-kun.” Hotaru said. “At least now I know why I was blacking out, and why everyone hated me so much.” She looked down, and whispered to herself, “I… I really am a freak.”

Ranma stopped, and crouched down in front of her. “Hey, you ain’t a freak, just real unlucky.” He said, looking into her eyes sternly. “Yer gunna be fine soon, okay?” Hotaru nodded, the words actually managing to cheer her up a little.

From behind the two, where she was watching, Haruka smirked. “So, good with kids too, hmm?” She muttered, fortunately too softly for Ranma to hear.

Several minutes later, the three had reached the high arch of a Shinto shrine’s main gateway, at the bottom of a long flight of stairs. “Okay, so maybe I did take a wrong turn back there.” Ranma muttered, referring to his attempt to turn onto a different street three blocks earlier.

“I told you.” Haruka said, the smugness in her remark producing an irritated look as Ranma hopped the stairs in one jump. Smiling slightly to herself, she started to climb them more like a normal person, until she noticed that Hotaru wasn’t with them.

Looking back, she saw that the girl was looking rather sweaty, and was only a quarter of the way up to where she was. “Wow, this walk really winded you, didn’t it?” She asked, heading back down the stairs.

“I’m sorry, Haruka-san.” The little girl gasped.

“Don’t apologize, you should have told us.” Haruka said, grabbing Hotaru around the waist and hoisting her up. The girl cried out in surprise, until she was rested on the older woman’s back, with her arms around her neck. “Come on, and I’ll get you up there.” Haruka said, and then laughed. “Maybe I can convince Ranma it’s my strength training for the week.”

HR.

“Are you sure they said they’d be here?” Minako muttered, as she and the other Senshi waited in Rei’s room for the arrival of the Outer Senshi.

“That’s what Ranma told me.” Ami said, nodding. “He said that he and Haruka were busy on Sunday with something they couldn’t put off.”

“Yeah, well I had very important ice cream eating to do.” Usagi whined, pouting as she sat at the end of the table.

“I’m sure you could do without your afternoon snack for today, Usagi. It’s probably good for you.” Rei replied, teasingly smirking at the blonde.

As Usagi was about to go off about how mean Rei was being, Luna, in her human form because the outers were supposed to show up, raised one hand. “None of that for now please.”

Usagi and Rei both nodded, before the group heard the sound of someone knocking on the shrine’s front door. Rei was about to get up and answer it, when she heard her grandfather’s shuffling footsteps. “Please tell me they aren’t transformed this time.” She muttered, causing Makoto to laugh. “It’s not funny, that could have blown our identities wide open!”

“Sorry.” Makoto said. “I was just imagining your grandfather’s reactions to our Senshi Fuku.” Rei didn’t respond, merely grumbling incoherently, until she heard something she didn’t expect.

“Rei, come here please, I need you!” Her grandfather very rarely ever called her with that high a level of urgency, and she responded immediately, shooting up and running to the front of the shrine building. Behind her, the other Senshi had stood as well, following her in concern.

As they entered the main entrance, they saw that Ranma and Haruka were indeed in their untransformed states, but there was a third person with them. She was a young girl, perhaps twelve years old at the oldest, and Rei’s grandfather was studying her intently. “Hmm, this is serious.” The man grunted. “The possession looks old, too.”

All of the inners’ eyes widened, and Minako immediately started making some hand signals to the others that they eventually understood as ‘back off.’

Once they were out of easy hearing range of Rei’s grandfather, the Senshi of love frowned at the rest of the team, save Rei who was being ordered to prepare the sacred fire room by the old priest.

“What is it, Minako?” Usagi asked, confused.

“This sounds like trouble, we should probably transform.” The other blonde said. Ami and Makoto concurred, but as the others raised their transformation pens, Ami stopped them. “Not in the middle of the shrine!” She hissed, and the group quickly started to leave.

HR.

Ranma was surprised and rather impressed at Rei’s grandfather’s perception and professionalism as he conducted the pigtailed martial artist, Haruka and Hotaru into a large room in the center of the shrine. Rei was already waiting there, sitting in front of a massive flame in its middle that radiated spiritual power to such an extent that Ranma’s Chi sense, normally untrained to pick up that particular variance of life energy, could feel it strongly.

The man had wanted to take Hotaru into the room alone, but at the girl’s panicked reaction to the suggestion, the two older teens had insisted on going in with her. “So, do ya think you can help her?” The black haired boy asked, worriedly.

“I am not entirely sure.” The old man admitted. “This demon is hiding its true self rather well. I can see the taint in her soul quite easily, but not how powerful it is.” He glared at the two, causing them both to step back. “Which is why I wanted you out of the room.” Sighing, he shook his head. “Well, at least now I have shrine assistants, of a sort, even if only one of you is female.”

Haruka’s eyebrow twitched and Ranma added some more respect for the old man. “Anythin we can do to help? I’m more inta Chi than true spiritual power, but…”

Rei’s grandfather just shook his head. “Simply stand over there, and try not to make any noise. Rei, do you have the wards ready yet?”

“Yes, grandfather.” Rei said, then produced a small bundle of papers from an aluminum box near the base of the fire.

Her grandfather nodded, and began to lay the paper wards around the room, muttering as he did so, while Ranma and Haruka just stood on the sidelines, watching nervously.

HR.

In the blackness, she stirred again. This time, not to satiate her boredom by lashing out at this puny reality, or to give orders to her Daimons. This time, she awoke because something had impinged on her senses. There was a threat outside of her mortal form.

Insinuating herself into the girl’s senses, she slowly saw a large room taking shape. It was made of stone, mostly, and contained several humans. This confused her for a moment, until she detected that the room contained four pure heart crystals, two of them much closer than the other two.

Putting a minor suggestion into her host’s head, Mistress 9 got her to raise her eyes from the stone floor, to face the being closest to her. It was then that she began to get angry. This being was laying small strips of paper on the ground, strips that resonated with powerful energy and that hurt her just to look at. What was happening?

As she thought this last, the old man finished placing the papers, and began to concentrate on her host. She could feel his human aura entering her body, as his voice rose in a chant whose words she didn’t care to follow. This was an outrage! How dare this mortal human intrude into her host’s soul? Then she realized. The fool was trying to expel her.

If she had had control of Hotaru’s body at the moment, Mistress 9 would have laughed at the sheer absurdity of the thought of some random human pushing her from her place. As it was, it just annoyed her… until the pain began.

The foreign presence inside of her host seemed to be bolstered by something else, all of a sudden, and it was trying with all its might to tear her out. She struggled against it, noting with some satisfaction that the old man’s face was starting to become slick with sweat, but it felt as though he was tearing her essence to pieces somehow.

She flailed around for a moment, and then, desperate, she reached out and grabbed control of her host’s form. Normally, this was only done a few times in a month, as it was very energy consuming, but this was an emergency. Raising one delicate hand and growling in rage, Mistress 9 sent out a bolt of dark energy, meant to kill the foolish human who had dared attack her, to strip his heart crystal from his body.

The priest seemed to see the bolt coming, however, and it streaked past him as he threw himself to the side. Fortunately for her, the same could not be said of the human behind him, who crumpled to the ground as the bolt slammed square into her chest.

HR.

“No!” Ranma cried, shocked, as Haruka keeled forward, a bolt of dark energy that Hotaru had somehow cast having just slammed into her chest. As she fell, a glowing crystal flew from her back, hovering in mid-air where she had stood.

Ranma gasped, knowing what the crystal was, but not believing it. Reaching out for it, he watched in dawning horror as the crystal pulsed, grew, and solidified into an ornately decorated short sword, its hilt gold and its blade white, decorated with a gem stone in the middle of its length.

“The… that’s…” He stuttered, disbelieving. He was snapped out of his shock, however, when the thing that had been Haruka’s heart crystal flew from where it had been floating, and into Hotaru’s hand half way across the room. Turning, he saw that the little girl was glowing with dark energy, and there was a malicious grin on her face.

She laughed, the sound sending chills down his spine, before stepping out of the circle of wards Rei’s grandfather had made without even being slowed. “You fools!” She exclaimed, something seeming very, very off about her voice. ”Now I have one of the Talisman, and it’s all because of your meddling.”

“I won’t let you keep it.” Ranma growled, reaching for his transformation pen, but he was stopped as the being that had been Hotaru swept the hand holding the sword, a crescent-like blade of energy sending him flying back into the wall.

“Now, for you!” She cried, turning towards Rei’s grandfather, who had just managed to regain his feet from the dive that had kept him from having his heart crystal ripped out. “Do you know how much that hurt? It’s time I paid you back!”

“Sparkling Wide Pressure!” Hotaru spun, not having time to dodge as a coruscating ball of electrical energy hit her square in the stomach, picking her up and sending her flying across the room. Scrambling up from the place she’d found herself on the floor, she glared back to see four Sailor Senshi, all looking battle ready, standing in the door to the sacred fire room.

She growled in annoyance, and just as Sailor Moon was about to make a speech, stepped back, seeming to be swallowed by the shadow of the wall. “What, where’d she go?” The odangoed blonde asked, looking around in confusion.

Mercury snapped her visor down and began working frantically on her computer to try and answer that question, while the other Senshi milled around uselessly.

Ranma, on the other hand, had managed to scramble back to his feet when Hotaru vanished, and quickly made his way over to Haruka. Rolling her over from where she’d fallen on her face, he saw that she was still breathing. “Haruka, can ya hear me?” He asked, looking down at her worriedly.

Her eyes flickered for a moment, then seemed to heave themselves open. “I.. yeah, I’ll… be fine.” She managed to say, but both of them knew that it wasn’t true. They had both seen what happened to her heart crystal. “It… it was one of the Talisman, wasn’t it?” She asked, softly.

“We don’t know that!” Ranma snapped back, instantly. “It could just be something she can do with any heart crystal… it could…” At Haruka’s level look, he nodded. “It felt like a talisman.”

As he spoke, Moon, Jupiter and Venus gathered around him and Haruka, while Mercury continued to work frantically on her computer and Rei made sure her grandfather was all right.

“Good.” Haruka said, causing Ranma’s eyes to widen. Seeing the look, she smiled. “We’re one step closer, but you… you have to get it back.”

“I’ll get it back.” Ranma wispered, his eyes narrowing. “I promise you that.”

Haruka didn’t respond, only sighing once, before her eyes closed and she stopped moving. Ranma could still feel her pulse when he checked, but knew that her body would simply stop functioning within an hour from the loss of its heart crystal.

The pigtailed martial artist spent over a minute just looking down at Haruka’s still form, several tears dropping from his tightly closed eyes, before he was jerked out of his mourning by the sharp beep of the Mercury computer.

Looking up, he saw Mercury looking slightly shamefaced, but also excited. “The computer’s located the Daimon who took Haruka’s heart crystal. Apparently she couldn’t teleport far; she’s only a few blocks away.”

Ranma was up and looking into the Senshi of ice’s eyes in an instant, and the intensity in his expression actually scared her a bit. “Where?” He demanded, his voice clipped.

Mercury didn’t respond verbally, merely turning and pointing in the direction where her computer had detected the signal, and Ranma was off, actually smashing through the stone wall of the Shrine’s main room as he left.

“Well, let’s go.” Sailor Moon said, startling the other Senshi, most of whom were pretty well shell shocked, into jumping about two feet. “We’ve got to go retrieve Haruka-san’s heart crystal!”

“Yeah… right…” Jupiter said, shaking off her confusion and following her leader as she jumped through the hole Ranma had smashed in the wall. Mercury and Venus were next to go, but when Rei went to follow them, she looked back to her grandfather, realizing that he was still here, and very much aware of what was going on.

“Go, help your friends.” He said, simply.

Rei would have been more startled if she had the time. For now, she just pulled her transformation pen out of her pocket, quickly changing into Sailor Mars and following the others.

HR.

Sailor Neptune leapt from building top to building top, following in the rough direction that Mercury had pointed out, her heart seeming tight in her chest and an immense rage burning behind her eyes.

This situation reminded her very much of the time she’d fought Saffron to save Akane’s life, but this time there was one core difference. Haruka couldn’t be saved, not now that her heart crystal was a talisman, and it had been Neptune’s own actions that had brought this on them.

It was true, if she wanted to be rational, that this would have eventually had to happen at some point if they were to ever find the talisman, but she didn’t care. ‘Why couldn’t it have been later, damn it!’ she screamed within her head, what remained of her aura sense while she was a Senshi frantically searching out the thing that had been Hotaru.

She found it about ten blocks away from the Hikawa shrine, in the middle of a small empty lot. Letting herself skid to a halt on the roof of the building next to the lot, the Senshi of the sea cupped her hands in front of her body, taking aim. “Deep Submerge!” She cried, a large ball of water slamming into Hotaru’s petite frame and sending it flying across the lot.

When the young girl got to her feet, looking none the worse for wear, Neptune’s eyes narrowed. Hotaru shouldn’t have been able to survive that. In fact, after she’d fired the blast she’d desperately wanted to call it back, since it would likely have crushed the girl to a pulp.

“Another of the Senshi?” The demon asked, snarling at her. Neptune didn’t respond, leaping off of the roof and charging. Hotaru raised her sword, channeling power through the blade and sending it straight at the Senshi. Neptune neatly dodged the blasts, landing a kick to the girl’s hand that sent the sword flying into the air.

Hotaru made a frantic dive for it, but Neptune saw it coming, scooping up the blade in one hand. “So, ya want this, huh?” She asked, angrily.

The demon growled at her, but Neptune could see that it was weakening as it stood there, now that the talisman it had apparently been drawing power from was out of its hands. “Ya know, I should kill you.” She said, stepping forward, and grabbing Hotaru by the throat.

As if in answer, the blackness faded away from the girl’s eyes, revealing the frantic, scared purple orbs of the innocent girl she knew. “Hotaru?” She asked, surprised.

“Why… what’s happening?!” The girl gasped out, and Neptune released pressure on her neck, allowing her to sink to the ground. Stepping back, the Senshi glared at the scared, huddling being.

“Damn you… you coward!” She cried, knowing that she should kill the girl, if only because the demon was still there, and would be back. “Pathetic.” Turning away, she started to leave as she saw the other Senshi landing on the roof she’d recently jumped down from.

Her danger sense warned her of what was about to happen, and she really should have seen it coming in advance. Even so, Neptune was only fast enough to turn around and look shocked as Hotaru’s eyes turned dark again, her hand flashed out, and she found herself on the receiving end of the same attack that had felled Haruka.

She gasped as she felt something tear itself loose from her body, all of her Chi paths outlining themselves in fiery pain. Collapsing to her knees, she could see something glowing from behind her, and knew she’d failed… just as Sailor Venus dropped down and caught her, before she could hit the ground.

HR.

At the time gate, Sailor Pluto was calling herself ten different kinds of idiot. She should have seen this coming, even without her temporal foresight. Of course, maybe the fact that it was so obvious had been why she’d ended up missing it. Still, the fact remained that Neptune and Uranus were the talisman carriers, and she would have to deal with it. Raising her staff, she took a deep, calming breath before teleporting.

HR.

“Neptune, are you all right?” Sailor Venus asked, horrified.

“Get… the Talisman.” The redhead gasped, her world starting to go hazy around the edges. “T… tell Usagi to bring them to Pluto.”

Venus didn’t comment, merely placing one of her newest teammates gently onto the ground and standing to her full height. Nearby, she noted that Jupiter and Mercury had both grabbed one of the two objects, one of which Neptune had been carrying and the other that had materialized out of her heart crystal.

In front of them, Sailor Moon was facing off against Hotaru, who looked like a normal little girl again. As she was getting ready to try and cast one of her healing spells on the girl, a new voice came out of nowhere. “Daimons, attack!”

Sailor Moon looked away from Hotaru for a moment, seeing that a bunch of garbage at the edge of the empty lot had started growing, reforming into two separate Daimons. She gulped. The Senshi had only ever fought a few of these things, never really winning without the help of the outers, who were now both incapacitated, and now they’d need to deal with two at once.

“Um, guys, I think we’re in trouble.” She muttered, turning back to ensure Hotaru hadn’t moved. When she realized that the girl had disappeared, she actually found herself somewhat relieved, since they didn’t have to worry about fighting her too.

“Gee, you think?” Came Sailor Mars’s sarcastic voice, as she dropped in next to her friend, having just arrived.

“We have to get Neptune and Uranus’s heart crystals back into them, maybe they can help us fight these things, and they’ll die without them!” Moon exclaimed, but was met by a shake of the head from Venus and Mercury, who were kneeling near Neptune.

“We… don’t know how to return them.” Venus said, shamefaced. “They don’t just fall back in like normal ones.”

“Oh great….” Moon moaned, just as Mars shoved her to the ground, one of the garbage Daimons having finally decided to attack.

Only a minute later, the Senshi were finding themselves hard pressed. Much like the puzzle piece Daimon they’d fought at the old mansion, both of these new ones seemed to reform any time they were only partially destroyed, and the fact that there were two of them stopped Sailor Moon from using her Moon Spiral Heart Attack to destroy them.

Just as one of the beasts was about to cave Sailor Mercury’s head in, a new combatant burst into the battle, with a whisper of “Dead scream.”

The Daimon was knocked away from Mercury, and all of the Senshi took a moment to look over at the source of the attack. On the sidewalk in front of the vacant lot, Sailor Pluto stood with her time staff held in a defensive stance, her greenish black hair blowing behind her.

She didn’t speak, merely removing the small red orb from the heart shaped end of her staff, and releasing it in mid-air. Seemingly in response, the two talisman tore themselves from Ami and Makoto’s hands, forming the other two corners of a perfect triangle with the garnet orb.

Even the Daimons stopped for a minute to stare as the three were connected with beams of light, and the forms of the sailors of Neptune and Uranus faded into view behind their respective artifacts. Though they both looked confused, they reached out to grip the items by the handles, and a glow began to form in the center of the triangle.

When it faded, there was a strange red and gold cup, almost looking like some great sports trophy, floating in space there. “What… what’s happening?” Sailor Moon gasped, as Pluto grabbed her Garnet Orb out of the air, re-attaching it to the top of her staff.

“Take the grail, princess.” Pluto said, not quite willing to admit that she had no idea what was going on. Nearby, Neptune and Uranus looked at each other, having been released from whatever spell had held them before.

“You’re… alive?” The redhead asked, her eyes tearing up slightly.

“Um, I hate to interrupt this scene,” Sailor Jupiter grunted, as she interposed herself between the shocked outer Senshi and one of the Daimons, “But could we get a little help here?”

Uranus and Neptune looked at each other for a moment, before nodding. Their talisman faded into subspace almost instinctively as they jumped into battle, each firing their attacks to get one of the Daimons off of one of the Inner Senshi.

Meanwhile, Sailor Moon had walked up to the grail, reaching out and gripping it. Immediately, a new set of transformation words rushed into her head, and she raised the grail into the air. “Crisis, Make-up!” Almost immediately, her normal Sailor Moon uniform was replaced with a very similar one, only with two new hair ornaments, shoulder pads, and a white skirt with yellow and blue around the base.

She didn’t take any time to admire her new appearance, starting to chant her attack as the other Senshi, now including Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, held the Daimons off for her. “Rainbow Moon Heartache!” She exclaimed as she unleashed an energy wave that reduced the Daimons back to the trash they had been constructed out of.

HR.

Five minutes later, seven Senshi were standing in the middle of a vacant lot, not really sure what had just happened. The two outers were standing together, while the inners stood around Super Sailor Moon. “Wow, that was pretty powerful!” Jupiter exclaimed, referring to Sailor Moon’s last attack.

“Yeah.” Neptune nodded, and then frowned. “But I hope that’s not the only reason we need the grail.” Seeing the others looking at her oddly, she shook her head. “It’s just that with what’s coming…" Noticing the cheerful looks on the Inners' faces, she dropped her train of thought for now. "It’s not important.”

“Hey, don’t be so gloomy! We saved the day this time, didn’t we! All’s well that’s great, after all!” Minako chirped.

“We should probably check with Sailor Pluto, though, just to be sure.” Uranus contributed, smiling at Minako’s mangled phrase.

“Hey, yeah, where did she go?” Makoto asked. “It’s weird to see her show up at our fights at all, I mean I thought she was determined to guard the gate of time.”

“Hotaru’s gone, too.” Neptune muttered, frowning. "Did anyone see where she went?”

“I think I saw someone grab her and run off, right after the Daimons showed up.” Sailor Mercury offered, looking over to Moon for confirmation. Seeing that the odangoed girl was wavering on her feet, she laid a hand on her shoulder. “Sailor Moon, are you all right?” She asked, worriedly.

“Oh yeah, I’m just…” Sailor Moon started, before pitching forward, transforming back to Usagi in the process.

“Oh no!” The other inners gasped, clustering around her, as the outers looked on over their heads.

“Come on Usagi, are you all right? Jupiter asked, shaking the girl.

In response, she got a long, loud snore.

“She’s asleep?!” Mars screamed, outraged. “Why you… making me worry about you, and then you, why I aughta…..”

Everyone else laughed, watching Mars as she fumed. “Hmm, guess that new transformation takes it out of ‘er.” Neptune commented, smiling.

“I guess I can’t blame her, though, I mean she did a pretty good job.” Uranus said. “We can help you get her home, if you want.”

“No, its fine, I’ll get her woken up.” Mars said, with an evil grin.

Uranus and Neptune nodded, and started to walk off.

“Um, where are you going?” Mercury asked.

“The battle’s over, and we need to find Pluto.” Neptune said, simply. The others were about to object, but didn’t get a chance before the outers leapt away.

“You know… I really wish they'd stop doing that.” Makoto muttered, irritated.

HR.

“So, why did you really want to go so fast?” Haruka asked, as she and Ranma walked down the street, heading for their home.

“What, was it that easy to tell I was lying?” The redhead asked, sheepishly.

“We’ve got Pluto’s cell phone number, remember?” Haruka asked, smirking. “Now what’s up?”

Ranma grimaced. “Sorta wanted ta be a guy when I talked about this,” She muttered, but then shrugged. “Look… today, when yer heart crystal was taken out, I thought…” She stopped, looking down. “I thought ya were dead, ‘n it really hurt.”

Haruka didn’t respond, waiting for the redhead to put words together in her own time. “It’s like with Akane, only worse ‘cuz I really thought I couldn’t do nothin… ‘n… I don’t wanna lose you.” She whispered.

Haruka moved closer, wrapping an arm around the smaller girl’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, you won’t.” She said, confidently.

“Yeah, like I didn’t earlier? If it weren’t for whatever the hell Pluto did, we’d both be dead.” Ranma snapped. She tried to look away, but Haruka cupped her chin with one hand. “I… well, um,” She stuttered, blushing. “How would ya feel ‘bout actually settin a date for the wedding?” She asked, actually successful in looking down this time as Haruka had let go of her in shock.

“Wha…?” The blonde asked. She had definitely not expected this right now.

“If ya don’t want to, it’s fine, but I…” Ranma started, but was interrupted as Haruka grabbed her in a tight hug. When she looked up, surprised, she saw tears running down the blonde’s face. “I’m sor…mph!” She said, interrupted by a deep kiss.

She was shocked for a moment, but then began to join in, and the two stood there, not caring who saw them embracing in the middle of a sidewalk. The kiss lasted a full thirty seconds, and when they pulled back, they were both out of breath.

“So…um… that’s a yeah, then?” Ranma asked, her face dominated by a smile.

“Yes, you idiot.” Haruka said, still crying slightly, but Ranma could also hear laughter in her voice. “Now let’s get home.”

Ranma nodded, and the two walked off into the streets of Tokyo.

END.

THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY! If I get comments like that, I will start screaming at my walls, and they've been abused far too much already.

Having said that, this IS the end of Contrast Match's second book, and my god, what a long sucker it was. Pushing through to this point was the entire reason my damned muses wouldn't let me sleep for the past WEEK, and now that it's here, I think I'm gunna burn out goodstyle for the next few days.

I'd prefer reviews of actual chapter content to having this question answered, but here's a question for all you reviewers out there. Should I split contrast Match up by book? The Book system is in place so that if, some day, god forbid, I screw up epicly, I can cut off the part of the fic I've screwed up on without having to delete the whole thing. It's sort of a quarantine system for the story arcs, so that they stand mostly alone.

Having said that, re-posting the first two books as their own fics would be damned annoying, especially the corrections I'd feel morally obligated to do, but would allow me to wipe any book that screwed up completely out of existance, rather than just deleting its chapters and trying again.

Having said all that, I think I'm gunna... I'm gunna.... I...

(Weebee's head hits the keyboard with a loud thwack)

Misato(Sigh):Damn it, I knew this would happen! Ami, why''d you have to give him all those stimulants?

Ami:Well, it got the chapters done, didn't it? And besides, now I get to go on vacation. Ja Ne!

Misato:Yeah, and now he's crashed! What if he goes into a coma like Asuka did? I'm telling you, it's boring watching those people, and it's probably WORSE being stuck in one's head!

Ami:Oh, don't worry about it. Remember, your vacation starts as soon as you get him to sickbay, too.

Misato(Growls):Well, my co-muse here may have just driven our 'beloved' author off the edge, but I HOPE we'll be back soon, so please review.

(Misato grabs Weebee by the collar, and starts dragging him off.)

Misato:Damn, you're heavy...