Finishing what you start

Chapter 6.

If you've read this far, you've probably read the others.  Good for you.
I don't know which is more pathetic.  You wasting your live reading
this, or me wasting my life writing this.  With that thought, None of
these characters are mine.  Except He-Who-Remembers.


"It has something to do with a spiral doesn't it?" I ask Cologne,
studying the spiral I drew on the dirt.  She nods, looking pleased with
herself, like it was her teaching, and not my exceptional skills of
observation, responsible for me figuring that much out.

"Indeed, son-in-law," its all I can do not to leave or gag, "The
Imperial Dragon Ascension Blast is based on a spiral, utilizing hot and
cold chi.  When you became enraged and attacked me..."

I ignore whatever it is she says after that.  Idiot.  The technique.  A
spiral.  Auras.  Its no coincidence.  A second before Cologne had
launched her attack, I had seen it.

The technique is brilliant.  Cologne, the old woman teaching me, has no
idea just how brilliant.  She thinks it has to do with hot and cold, but
its more than that.  The spiral that she had led me in had resonated
with the spiral of her own aura, with the spiral of the auras of the
trees and rocks.  Her circle had been clockwise, and it had tapped into
the aura of the Earth itself, causing eddies in the natural flow of
things.  The final blow had involved a thrust into the pattern of
disharmony she had created.  The results had been natures assertion of
the natural order of things, ie the tornado.  Colognes explanation was
like saying that a key has magical powers, and when you turn it, it
starts the car on its own, completely bypassing the engine.

Now, if all it requires is a clockwise revolution, and my aura itself is
naturally clockwise...

"May I ask what you are thinking, Ranma?"

I turn and give Setsuna a grin.  "Sure, ask away," I cheerfully give her
the go ahead.

She levels a commanding, no nonsense, don't give me any of that crap
look that she seems really good at.  But I can tell from her aura that
she's really laughing inside.

"What are you thinking, Ranma," she deadpans.

"About an old technique I once learned.  Something you wouldn't really
understand if I told you."

"So.  Do you think I'm not smart enough, or something along those
lines?"  She puts a hand on her hip, and levels another of her patented
looks.

"Nah.  Its just that telling you about it would involve a lot of martial
arts jargon."

"Oh."  She seemed to take that in stride, but I could tell that she's
getting kind of curious.

Setsuna may not let much slide to the eye, but I have a feeling that
communication won't be that much of a problem in this relationship.  At
least not from my side.

I reach in to the bag of popcorn to get a handful.  The skin on my now
burn free arm is still tight, and I'll have at least another day before
I can move in my full range without the possibility of tearing.

Everyday for the last week, me and Setsuna had gone out at night.
Sometimes to different clubs, sometimes to different activities (roller
skating, spas, etc), and sometimes just out to the park.  When we went
to the clubs or activities, I would slowly drain away the auras of the
crowds as they moved by.  When we went to the park, I just enjoyed the
time with Setsuna.

Damn, she is a great gal to be with.

And every day when we got back, I had to put up with Haruka and Michiru,
circling like vultures.  I don't know what those perverts are thinking,
but they always wink at me when Setsuna and I get home, sweaty from the
dancing of skating, or whatever.  But considering the way those two go
at each other, I'm not surprised at all.  Setsuna usually manages to put
on an impervious air, and walk by them.  She apparently makes Michiru
and Haruka nervous.  But me on the other hand....

A plague of locusts descending on a crop is less thorough than those two
questioning me for news about the date.

But I wouldn't stop it for anything.  The more time I spend with
Setsuna, the more I realize something.

I like her.  More than her looks, more than her mind.  I like her.

I think she likes me back.

I take another handful of popcorn, and the two of us sit and wait for
the movie to start. I drain a bit of the aura from the audience, careful
to exclude Setsuna from the drain.  Only a bit now.  A little more
halfway through, and a final bit as we leave, and no one will ever know.

After doing this for almost a week, my stored power is monumental.  I
try to keep it strictly bundled up, locked away from use, but its still
there.  I don't know what the Scouts would make of this, so I better
just avoid them until this is all over.

"Ranma," Setsuna says from my side.  I draw my attention back to her.

"Yes?" I ask around a mouth full of popcorn.

As she's about to speak, the lights suddenly dim, and a loud hissing
followed by an advertisement marks the beginning of the movie.

"Never mind," she says, and turns to the movie.  I give her a curious
look, and than I focus myself on the screen as well.

When I had first asked Setsuna to a movie, she had seemed hesitant at
first.  She had asked me what kind of movie and I had answered.  My
first choice had been a martial arts flick, but I was pretty sure that
Setsuna wouldn't like that.  I had considered a comedy, but Setsuna has
always struck me as a serious person and I wasn't sure if she would like
that either.  So I suggested a drama for the two of us to go to.  She
had agreed, and we were off.

Of course, we traveled in style.  Namely, her in my arms.  It had taken
me a bit to convince Setsuna that this is the fastest way to travel, and
a bit more after that to convince her that its okay to wear pants (maybe
her parents were killed by pants when she was young, and now had an
unreasoning fear of them? Note to self: try not to be so stupid.).
Finally she had donned the jeans, and now we could cover half of Juuban
in less than a tenth of the time it takes to drive.  It also gave me an
excuse not to ask Haruka to drive us anywhere.  Aside from the insanity
she calls steering, it keeps her from giving me knowing looks.  What a
nosey girl.


It was a fairly good movie, with a slow plot, but excellent acting and
character development to make up for it.  It was halfway through, when I
was pausing for a mid-show energy drain, that Setsuna hesitantly reached
out in the dark theater, and took my hand.

I almost started, and spared a glance to my side without moving my head.
Setsuna was still looking at the screen, apparently engrossed in the
movie, but I could see her aura swirling, almost violently.  A fear of
rejection pulsed through her, and something else.  So many of her
emotions I can't recognize.  I wonder if even she is able to recognize
them half the time.  How can anyone be this uncertain about dating?
Especially someone as calm and in control as Setsuna?  Someone with the
poise and control Setsuna demonstrates most of the time cannot be shy.
But every time we get in a situation like this, she goes all to pieces.


Not for the first time I wonder what happened to her in her past.  It
might have been a really bad relationship, or maybe some event in her
childhood.  Whatever it is, I had never asked.  I had enough of that
forceful invasion of privacy when I was in Nerima.  If Setsuna wants to
tell me about her past, I'll let her bring it up.

I squeeze her hand gently, and am rewarded with a flush of relief
through her aura.  I turn my attention back to the movie.

I definitely like her.

***

"It was a good movie," I tell Setsuna as we leave the theater.  The
crowd around us is chattering away, agreeing with my statement, and
discussing the interplay between the actors.  A few of them are yawning,
though that might have to do with the time.  It was getting on to
midnight.

"Yes.  I rather enjoyed it," she responds.  She still hasn't let go of
my hand.  I think this is a big step for her.  It might not be sex or
marriage, but still a big step for her.

"Wanna call it quits for the night, or get a late dinner?  There's gotta
be a late-open ramen booth around here somewhere."  I always feel
strangely rotten after I drain on one of our dates, and I try to make it
up to her.  She doesn't realize that I have done anything to be ashamed
of, but that doesn't make me feel any less bad about it.

"Maybe some ramen," she agrees.  We stroll off, hand-in-hand down the
sidewalk in the commercial center of north Juuban.  The crowd from the
movie disperses, a few getting into cars, the most walking, a few in
bikes or waiting for mass transit to pick them up.  The night is clear,
and through the light screen made by street lamps stars twinkle in the
velvet night sky.

The kind of night that seems to stretch on forever.  We walk close to
each other, our hands brushing against our hips occasionally, sharing
warmth and company.  Setsuna is her usual quiet self, and I wouldn't
dare speak, for fear of breaking the peacefulness of the night.  I had
so very rarely had the opportunity to enjoy moments like these.
Something always shatters them.

And something shattered this one.

A bellow splits the night.

I move to dodge the strike I can suddenly feel coming at my back.  On my
own I could easily do it, but this is far more tricky when I'm entangled
with Setsuna.  Even as she's starting from the noise, I'm twisting and
jumping, putting my shoulder into her gut a little harder than I would
have liked to, and leaping with her thrown over my shoulder.  The
attack, liquid fire, splashes over where we were standing moments ago.
It melts the concrete beneath it.

I gain the roof and deposit Setsuna on the ground as gently as the
circumstances permit.  "Escape," I whisper to her as she lays, gasping
from where I had knocked her breath out.  "I'll try to lure them away.
Get back home, quickly."  I can feel them now.  At least two Firsts.
There might be more hiding out there, so I'll have to put some distance
between myself and Setsuna.  I have to keep her safe.

I move, wrapping myself in shadows as I do so.  When I gain the street,
I launch little shards of chi at the lights, drowning them out.  I could
easily escape, and just as easily take them out without fanfare.  I have
gathered a rather phenomenal amount of power over the last week.  But
now I was pissed.  These bastard Firsts had interrupted my time with
Setsuna.  They will pay.

Now, let me take a moment out of my soon to be gory vengeance to explain
a few things.  My kind, like almost all other kinds of species, has a
basic template with minor differences to mark the individuals.  While
humans have a similar appearance, most have a very distinct aural
pattern, the opposite could be said about my kind.  Why we may
physically appear to be vastly different from each other (some scaled,
some furred, some skinned, etc)  we mostly have minor differences in our
auras.  These minor differences display themselves in out talents.  Some
of us might be able to produce liquid fire, others might have phenomenal
strength, while another might be able to manipulate raw energy.  While I
am capable of creating liquid fire, it would require a lot more energy
then I'm willing to put into something.  My personal talent, is as I put
it earlier 'wrap myself in shadows'.  While its hard to explain how I do
this, I can tell you the end results.  My form blurs significantly, most
of my color drains out, and I can hide myself in dark areas that really
shouldn't be that hard to visually penetrate.

This done on a black street offers me a rather significant advantage.

I'm on the fire starter in a moment, a second later the fire starter is
trying to breathe through slits in his throat.  It fires off one last
wreath of flames, before he falls.  I recognize this one.  He's the one
that got away from the ambush.

The liquid fires ringing the square now provide enough illumination for
the other to make out my blurry form.  It's a mid-size insectoid First.
Vaguely preying-mantis shaped, it lowers its stance on four legs, and
wings spring out of its back.

Shit.  If I let it move, it'll probably either have a wind oriented
attack, or fly at extreme speeds.  I move as fast as I can, but it's a
close thing.  It was launching itself into the air when I manifested chi
claws that extended my reach just long enough to eviscerate the
creatures abdomen.  It flitters through the air crazily for a moment,
before enough energy drains and it loses control to collide into a flame
lit building.

I relax my stance for just a moment.  Good the two of them are dead.  I
extend my senses to look for Setsuna, when my mistake manifests itself.
As my senses expanded to five meters around me, I sensed the third
member of the party.  It can fly, and was dive bombing me from behind.
I might have enough time to avoid a killing strike, but this is going to
hurt.  I prepare to move, when it happens.

A magical strike split the air, and slammed into the creature,
evaporating portions of it in a gory explosion, the little pieces
splattering over the wall behind me.

What the hell was that?  I cross my fingers and hope that it just hadn't
decided to attack the dive bombing First (I never even got a chance to
see its physical shape) and turn around to see what had launched it.

My gaze takes in the boots, raises to the dark skirts, the colors
indistinguishable in the surreal lighting, the bow flapping in the
breeze, the heart tipped staff, and my heart freezes in my chest.

"Setsuna," I whisper slowly.

She shows no reaction physically, but I see her aura flinch slightly.
She leaps down from the building I had put her on, her skirt flaring,
her hair streaming out behind her.

I take a step back.  Setsuna was a Sailor Scout.  A member of the
fanatical magic-girl vigilantes, that were responsible for the
destruction of entire species.  The Youmas, the Daimons, and more.

I can only imagine what my expression must have looked like, but this
time Setsuna flinched physically as well.

"Ranma, I hope you can understand why I haven't told you about this..."
she continues, but I don't hear her.

The implications of this strike me like a physical blow.  She was a
Sailor Scout.  That must have been the position she spoke of that had
limited her life.  The coldness in my stomach that had almost
disappeared returns, and brings allies in my chest.  I've only seen five
of the nine Scouts before tonight.  That meant there were four left.  If
Setsuna was one of them...

Who were the other three?  I have a sudden sick feeling in my stomach.
There were three other women living with Setsuna...

I had been living, in all probability, with four women who would not
hesitate to destroy me if they ever found out what I was.  Wow, my life
sucks.  Good luck in bad luck that they despite my proximity, they
hadn't discovered me.

"Ranma," Setsuna asks.  "Please talk to me."  I hear the desperation in
her voice, and see her fear in her aura.  I had been shaking my head,
slowly at first but the movement was becoming faster and faster.

"..."  I open my mouth, to tell her something, anything, and nothing
gets out.  I can't let them stop me.  They might not know now, but they
could find out at any time.  I shudder to think what kind of clues I had
given them all ready.

I cloak myself in shadows.

I cloak myself in shadows and flee into the night.

Behind me I hear Setsuna cry out, and I do my best to ignore it.

It was time, I realized.  I had been procrastinating.  Putting it off
without even realizing it.  I could move my body almost perfectly now.
I had more than enough energy put aside for what I was planning.  In
fact, the less energy I had at this point, the better I would probably
do.

It was time to finish what I had started.

It was time to kill He-Who-Remembers.

And all I can feel is the coldness in my chest.

***

I had been considering this for some time now, and had my course of
action all planned out.  In order to do this, I would have to open a
very minor slit, in a portion with very few barrier points.  The best
place to do this was in a place where I had already destroyed all of the
barrier points.  I head back to Nerima.  To the Tendo Dojo.

Once I would have run quickly, leaping from one roof to another, like a
gazelle in the grass land.

I don't feel like leaping.

I walk.  Step.  Step.  Step.  Step.

The night around me is quiet and peaceful.

Step.  Step.  Step.

I would miss it.

Step.  Step.  Step.

The nights where I come from are never peaceful.  Lightning rains from
the sky, and clouds swirl, like auras, unendingly in the sky.

Step.  Step.  Step.

I think about what I'm going to do.  I'm going to turn on my people.
I'm going to try to strike a blow at the species that I belong to, a
blow that could in all possibility destroy them.

Its happened before.

As I walk I remember what my father had told me long ago.

***

"The people hated us because we were better them."  My father looked
over the plain in front of us.  I watch too, with the eyes of the
innocent.  "They hated us and feared us because of what we could do and
what we represented."

"What does represented mean, daddy?"  He stroked my fur with one slim
claw, his chitinous armor rasping softly with the movement.

"Represented means what we stood for.  What we were like," he said with
the infinite patience of a parent that loves his child.

"And what did we stand for, daddy?"

His eyes glimmer, the reflection of the lightning around us giving him
an eerie look.  "We stood for what they could have been.  If they had
just had different parents, they might have been us.  In a thousand
years, we might have bred ourselves into them, and they could have been
like us, but they struck out at us, and destroyed themselves."

***

I hadn't understood then.  I hadn't realized that we had once been human
too.  But if you were to kill off everyone in the world that had blue
eyes, there would be no more blue eyed people in the future.  Like that,
the potential in humans to grow had been weeded out.  Weeded out and
cast aside out of fear and ignorance.

I stand in front of the Dojo now.  With a leap I am over it and in the
back yard.  This would be the best place to do it.

I grab a hold of the extra power I had been draining for the last week.
It uncurls from where I had stored it and compressed it, and flares into
my aura.  I release the restraints I had enforced on myself, and now my
demonic powers are in there as well.  As I focus it into the figurative
blade to cut the figurative cloth of this plain, I can't stop myself
from thinking about Setsuna.

I'm going to miss her.

I really liked her.

A rip opens up in front of me.  I step through, and welcome myself back
home.


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