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Chapter Three: Fire Burning Brightly
Section Third: Ignition
As soon as classes were released for the day, both Rei and Ranma could be found headed towards the park. No particular esoteric reason behind the action. They were just two friends, who happened to also be cousins, spending some time together. Nothing unusual about that, right?
Well, nothing unusual if one did not realize the reason behind their choice of destination.
The two had chosen the park because of the unlikelyhood of anyone actually interfering with their training.
Normally, they most likely would have chosen to train at the shrine. However, that particular day their mutual grandfather had chosen to engage in some kind of ritualistic cleansing, and they didn’t wish to get in the way. Personally, Rei would have much preferred to be at the shrine, but there was still that nagging task that kept dragging itself to the forefront of her mind.
It was the day. Finally it was time.
Today, Ranma would burn.
**********
They reached the rather small grotto that had housed the weeks earlier battle between Onna-Ranma and the other four members of the Inner Senshi. That tiny fact, and the rather ironic additional one of him rather awkwardly preparing to spar with the fiery Sailor Mars, caused him to chuckle a bit, rather nervously.
Saotome Ranma didn’t hit girls. It was an integral part of his very being, of his personality. He didn’t hit girls. It was something that was NOT DONE. Or rather, it was something that should be avoided at all costs. It wasn’t that he didn’t think girls could fight or anything. After all, he turned into one, didn’t he? No, the reason was quite simply that Ranma Saotome was an egotistical, sexist bigot. It wasn’t his fault. It was just how he was raised. He didn’t really have anything to do with it. It was just a sad fact that his father was an egotistical, sexist, larcenistic bigot who raised his son to be in his image. Somehow, Ranma fortunately missed the larceny part, but he definitely got large helpings of the other.
Not that he WOULDN’T fight girls. Rather it was that he didn’t like it. He would fight. He just wouldn’t be happy about it.
Which meant that he wasn’t happy about fighting, or even sparring, with someone like Rei, or rather Sailor Mars, since Rei wasn’t all that spectacular as her mundane self. It wasn’t so much that she was a girl, though that definitely caused a good portion of the distress, but rather that she was a girl who was RELATED to him. And that meant that Nodoka would probably kill him if he hurt her. Which meant that Ranma was very focused on her defense and not so much on his own.
And this was Saotome Ranma. So, that wouldn’t be so bad.
It was just that today was different.
It was just that Sailor Mars wasn’t focusing on his defense so much.
It was just... just...
Never mind what was said earlier.
It was bad.
**********
Rei pulled her guise of Sailor Mars about her. No fancy light show, no yelling, and no nudie show. Nothing like that. Just one moment she was the shrine maiden, Hino Rei, and the next the pretty sailor-suited soldier of love and justice, Sailor Mars.
Ranma just kind of stared. "Hey, didn’t you say that when you first changed there was a big light show and stuff?" He asked, referring to a comment she had made once during their time on the steeple.
Mars just watched him for a moment before deciding that he was truly ignorant, not stupid. "Yeah, during the first time I changed. I’ve learned a bit since then. Besides, how do you think I manage to get around in a busy city like this without showing everyone who I am with a fancy light and sound show? Hmmm?"
"But didn’t you say the other girls still use the light show?"
"The other girls think it’s neat. They all have their reasons. Jupiter once said she liked the feel, the formality or something like that. Mercury’s just a closet exhibitionist. And Moon probably uses it as a distraction."
"Ok, but what about the other one?"
"Other one?"
"Yeah, you only mentioned three. But you said there was four others."
"Oh. Venus. She probably thinks its neat cause its magic. She’s one of those Society freaks."
"Society freaks?" Ranma deadpanned.
"Yeah. Society of Creative Anachronisms or something or other. She’s a reenactor. Though I’ve heard some people refer to her as a ‘Stick–jock’ though I really don’t know what that is."
Ranma stared at Mars. Mars stared at Ranma. Finally they both shrugged.
"Weird."
"Yeah, well, let’s get to sparring shall we?"
Ranma gulped slightly, then settled himself and smirked. "I’ve been waiting all day to hear that."
"You asked for it!" Mars replied, charging at him with a nervous grin.
**********
They sparred for some time, the day progressing eventually into night and their attacks lighting the Juuban skyline. Neither giving, nor expecting much in the way of quarter from either side.
Ranma, for his part, was slowly loosing up and showing more of his signature style. His blocks got flashier. His kicks and punches, though still light, were much faster and unpredictable. He was finally leaving the more traditional styles and advancing rapidly into the esoteric realm of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.
Mars, on the other hand, was slowly growing from just tired to out and out right exhausted. She wasn’t exactly used to the speed, skill, or power available to her as Sailor Mars being called upon and actually used for such an extended period of time. It was a fatiguing task that she had set for herself, and yet there was still something about it that was unfinished.
It took her a moment to compose herself. Then she leapt back from the battle, leaving Ranma standing in the center with a look of surprise on his face.
Perhaps he thought that she was asking for a break in the battle. Perhaps he was trying to figure out what she was doing. Perhaps he just didn’t know the truth behind her actions.
Whatever it was, he didn’t move as, with tears streaking down her delicate features, she yelled out three words followed by a battle cry.
"Ranma! I’m sorry!" she screamed, through a throat hoarse with tears. "Fire... Soul... BIRD!!"
The powerful attack based upon the Sacred Bird that Ranma, no, Shima had trained her in so long ago smashed into the raven-haired man who stood in the center of the clearing staring up at her with eyes full of betrayal.
She collapsed to her knees at the first sounds of his piercing screams.
Sobs wracked her form and tears poured down her face. Nothing like Usagi’s waterworks, but simple honest tears of a cousin who had just killed the man who was possibly the reincarnation of her brother who was dead these many years gone and past.
How could he ever forgive her betrayal?
**********
Across Tokyo, in the nearby district of Nerima, the youngest daughter of Tendo Soun awoke with a scream. Tears trickled down her soft face at the nightmare. It had seemed so real. Her dearest Ranma encased in flames and her helpless to protect him, having given her sworn word not to interfere. The tears just came faster and the sobs harder knowing that at least part of the terrifying dream was true in that she couldn’t be with Ranma. The only consolation she could find to give herself was the fact that it was just a nightmare, and that Ranma was probably safe at his home, sleeping in his bed with no worries at all.
It was for the best that she never learned the true horror of that out of body experience. That alone would have destroyed Tendo Akane then and there.
**********
Ranma screamed as the Fire seared away the impurities of flesh from his soul and bore it away.
**********
He moved down the marble hall, his golden armor casting odd reflections off of the wall, as it seemed to glow under its own power. It wasn’t that he walked down the hall. No, nothing so simple as that. He was the living embodiment of confidence. He was a Warrior and Warleader of great renown. He was Golden Death with a Firesword on horseback. He was the Phoenix’s Champion Among Mortals, his very Prince. He was Shima of Mars. The Man who had Turned Down the Throne of War for the Phoenix. All this and more was said in his stride. He smirked at the few servants he saw in the hall. It only served to enhance the image he was creating for himself as the newly returned Phoenix Prince.
All of that was ruined by a young girl, barely even into her womanhood, crashing headlong into his aureate chestplate and smearing blood all over it.
Reacting purely out of instincts, he caught the girl, scooping her up into his arms as he stooped down on one knee. He glared down at her, fully intending to scold the foolish child. Then he recognized the pained features as those of his younger sibling, Reiki. He shook his head ruefully for a moment before she opened her eyes.
His sable braid slipped down over his shoulder as he smirked down at her. Setting her back upon her feet, he straightened.
It was not to last. As soon as she could, she flung herself at him, somehow managing to glomp his waist before he could react.
"Onii-san! You’re here!" the girl cried, not even bothering to attempt to stop the flow of blood down her face and onto her dress and his armor.
"Yeah, seems like I am." ‘Though sometimes I seriously wonder why I even bother, with this kind of reception...’ "Did you know you were bleeding on your dress?" ‘And my armor.’
As she didn’t react, or release him, he scooped her up in his arms and continued moving down the hall. "We should go and take care of that, don’t ya think?" ‘As you obviously don’t plan on doing it on your own...’ "Can’t have the prettiest princess on Mars dying on us now, can we?" ‘The ONLY princess on Mars...’ He rumbled as he moved down the hall.
The ‘prettiest princess on Mars’ just chuckled and pinched at her nose, before proceeding to smear even MORE blood on his armor. "I’m not gonna die from a nose bleed, Shima-onii! I’ve gotten lots of nose bleeds in training!"
"Training?!" ‘What kind of idiot gave this klutz a weapon??’ "For what, Reiki-imoto?"
**********
The flames leapt and danced around the strange man in his father’s Hall, but Shima wasn’t worried about that. He was much more worried about the people that this strange golden man might harm.
So, he sat amidst the heat of the flames and pulled the freezing cold aura that he had recently learned to create around him. As he did he stared into the black, flaming orbs of the creature before him.
For a long time, that was all that happened. Then he dropped the aura and just sat there amidst the searing heat and smirked. The being smiled back at a fellow soul.
"I am the Phoenix." The voice that emerged from the fiery
man's throat sounded like a child singing. "Every five hundred years, I die and am again reborn. This has continued for eons of your time. Always I have stayed away from your kind. Yet suddenly, I find my existence interrupted. One of your kind, on the sphere called Earth, a king by the name of Solomon sought to confine me within a vessel as he had done to my fellow spirits so that he could draw from my powers as he does from theirs. I alone am now free. As this assault was from your kind, I come to your kind for justice. I seek one to be my Champion Amongst Mortals. One of your kind who shall have the ability to draw from me in his time of need. My Champion need not be of Royal blood, but as my Champion, he shall be a true Prince. He shall be known as the Phoenix Prince."
Shima stood from his seat and stepped more fully into the Phoenix's flames.
"I shall go." His voice steady, firm.
"You? You are but a boy! There must still be much for you to learn, is there not? Surely there is some other more worthy here, on the Sphere of War?"
"Perhaps there is some other more worthy, but I'll take their place. Your flames are hot and burn very brightly. I'd not have any suffer when I could possibly take that risk in their stead. No, I shall go."
"This is your true wish, mortal? Realize that you can never go back once you have accepted. You can never return to what you are now. The Fires shall burn you and change you, until perhaps not even you yourself could recognize the result."
"That is not of matter, Phoenix. I cannot desert my people in their hour of need. I shall not. I shall go with you, and so, preserve them."
"Very well, mortal. Bid you your farewells, for in the morn, I shall take you away to become the Phoenix Prince."
**********
"Amilia, is it not?" Shima asked, coming up behind the young azure headed girl reading in the peaceful grotto. He had doffed his armor in favor of a slightly more civilized ensemble of cloth of gold with an embroidered symbol of the Phoenix on the back of his tunic.
She did not startle, as many others did. She merely looked up at him and smiled her soft and gentle smile before answering quietly. "Yes, Shima-sama. That is correct. You must be looking for my sister, though. You can find her down that path there. She is probably practicing." The girl answered, before returning her eyes to her book. Surely such a handsome and obviously active man as the Phoenix Prince would not bother to deign to speak with someone as quite and bookish as her. Like every other man, he was most likely looking for Akai. No one ever really wanted to be around Akai’s shy twin sister.
"Actually," Shima replied, settling down at her side, a book in his hand. "I wasn’t." He held up the thin tome in his hand as evidence. "I was just looking for a quite place to read, and you looked like you’d be the perfect partner."
Amilia blushed at the compliment. She wasn’t used to people like Shima. But, nonetheless, she looked back up from her book and smiled at him again. "T-t-thank you, Shima-sama... I would be honored..."
"Don’t bother with the sama stuff. I’m no grand high lord to be called such."
"But you are the Phoenix Prince are you not?"
"I am. But I don’t truly care much for titles, besides, you’re a Princess yourself if I remember right. So, you can call me just plain Shima. I’m not gonna burst into flames or nothing if you do. At least I don’t think I will..." he stood up and spun around, leaving the book sitting on the bench.
Amilia smiled again. "O-o-ok, Shima-s.. Shima."
He immediately burst into flames, much to Amilia’s horror. He just looked at his flaming self, then looked back up at her. Then he shrugged. Causing her to be one very puzzled Mercurian Princess.
"Well, maybe I will burst into flames." He shrugged again, then held out a hand. "Give me your hand, Amilia."
She just stared at the flaming palm being offered to her.
"Come on, Amilia-chan. I haven’t got all day."
Tentatively, she reached out and clasped the burning appendage after setting her book on the bench.
Pulling her to her feet and into his arms, he smirked down at her. "Tell me something, Amilia. Have you ever flown before?"
She shook her head quickly. Her eyes round with surprise at not having been burnt.
"Well, I guess there’s always a first, isn’t there?" He smirked and with a great leap into the air, the pair soared away on broad wings of flame.
**********
"You always this brutish, or you just practicing in order to be brutish towards me in particular? Hmm, Firebrand?" Shima asked the cobalt headed girl who was methodically destroying rather large chunks of masonry as he leaned against the doorway.
In response, Akai stopped long enough to glare, then sent her fist crashing into another brick.
"Geez, what’s your problem, Firebrand?" He asked, pushing off the door frame and walking into the room.
She pulled a pair of books out of her dogi, along with a small burnt rose. He inspected the offerings and then looked back up at her with a puzzled look on his face.
"So?"
"So?! So?! I found these in a grotto where I THOUGHT I left my SISTER! I come back to tell her its time to come in for lunch, and what do I find?"
"Hey! I made sure she ate lunch!" Shima interrupted indignantly.
"THAT IS NOT THE POINT!! The point is my sister vanished and it’s YOUR FAULT!" Akai roared in response, her face turning Martian Red.
"So, I took your sister flying. What’re you getting so upset about? It’s not like I’ve EVER seen anyone being nice to her before!"
"SO?! So, you involved MY sister in something so dangerous as FLYING with a BOY??" Akai continued on her rampage, completely oblivious to Shima’s replies.
"Oh."
"Oh, WHAT?"
"You’re jealous!"
"I’m WHAT?!"
"Jealous. Your shy, rather unpopular sister got to do something that you didn’t. You’re jealous."
"I AM NOT!"
"You are too. Besides, I’m not a boy. I’m at least 6 years older than you."
"I AM NOT AND YOU ARE TOO!"
"Interesting idea. Tell you what, how about you meet me in the grotto and I’ll take you out to dinner?"
Akai just stared at him.
**********
The dinner had been nice. A bit formal but nice. Now, they were enjoying a rather leisurely walk through the rose gardens. Which was also nice. Mainly because Akai wasn’t being a brute.
She was actually quite beautiful. What with the way the earthlight was reflecting off of her ivory complexion and that rather nice silvery blue dress. In fact, he could seriously think that she was his type of girl. A beautiful spitfire. A girl, no, a woman that could keep up with him. Take his best shots and fire right back.
‘What am I thinking?! Falling for one of my BABY sister’s friends?! By the Phoenix! She’s just a child!’
Nearby, the mildly telepathic Minanoai hid in the bushes and giggled at the rather loud thought.
He noticed. He just deigned to actually do anything to ruin the moment.
**********
The royal ballroom. Nice. Wasn’t exactly what he was expecting though. Maybe he thought it was bigger.
Well, that was unexpected.
There, moving slowly around the marble floor was the blonde heir to the Lunar Throne. Serenity-hime. Dancing with no partner to no music.
That simply would not do.
Stepping over to her, Shima bowed deeply, as befitted her status, despite the fact that he was technically her equal because of his association with the Phoenix. Serenity-hime startled out of her reverie at the sudden courtly interruption.
"Y-y-yes, Shima-san?" She asked, a delicate blush beginning to color her cheeks.
"I noticed you in here dancing, Serenity-hime. Yet, I failed to notice your partner."
"O-oh... is that all?"
"Of course not, Serenity-hime! It is a terrible thing that you should have no partner, nor may I add, music which does befit your graceful semblance!"
Serenity-hime blushed even deeper. "no one ever wants to dance with me. I tend to trod heavily upon their toes."
"Then, I shall welcome any and all discomfort caused by your most delicate feet if I should have the distinct pleasure of having this dance with you, your highness?" Shima bowed again, offering out his hand.
Serenity-hime giggled slightly, but took the out stretched hand.
From somewhere, Shima produced a cassette player and turned it on, causing a sweet waltz to waft into the air. With a smirk, he took Serenity-hime’s hands and the pair drifted off into a complex Lunar Waltz.
**********
"Alright, Imoto. Let your consciousness flow into the Sacred Fire here."
Reiki sat and stared at the fire. Then she stared some more. Finally, she gave up.
"I can't, Oniisan! I just can't!"
"You can, Reiki-imoto. I believe in you. All you have to do is relax. Trust the Flames. They will guide you as you learn to walk through the Fire. In time, you will learn to guide them, as is your rightful place as the Senshi of Fire." Shima smirked at his rather frustrated little sister who was glaring at the Sacred Fire he had taught her to build.
Reiki just growled.
Shima sighed slightly and shook his head.
"Listen. You want to be able to talk to me when I'm away, don't you?" He asked.
Reiki frowned in puzzlement, but nodded her agreement with the idea.
"Okay. Well, the only way that you are going to be able to do that is by sending your thoughts through the Sacred Fire. That way, no matter where I am, I can hear you."
Reiki nodded again, then sat down in sezia before the Sacred Fire. She took a deep breath, let it out, then took in another and closed her eyes. By the time she let out the second breath, she was deep into a trance state.
She reached out gently with a tendril of thought towards the Fire. In return, the Fire reached out and caressed her thought with a gentle warmth. Shima had been right! The Fire would be her guide!
She smiled in the trance, and Shima just shook his head with a grin. He knew she could do it, he just had to convince her that she could.
**********
"Careful, Kina. Don’t overextend yourself." Shima murmured softly as he watched the younger girl sparring.
He winced as her body smacked hard into the mats. Her opponent, a Jupiter Knight, snorted and walked off. Not even bothering to help her up.
Shima stepped in then. He strode over, glaring at the back of the departing Knight the entire time. Leaning down, he offered her a hand and pulled her up. Finally getting her on her feet, he dusted off her back.
"You okay, Kina-chan?"
"I’ll be fine, Shima." She replied, staring wistfully at the departing form.
Shima noticed the direction of her gaze. "Why are you staring at him like that, Kina?"
"Because he’s so good and handsome, and I can never even hope to be that good." She sighed in reply.
"He’s not that good." ‘Or that handsome...’ "Why do you think you couldn’t be at least as good as him, if not even better?"
"I can’t learn. He’s so fast and good, that I can never hope to learn."
"Well, first off, he’s an awful person. I mean, anyone with a shred of decency in him would have helped anyone as pretty as you up. Especially if he was the reason you were on the floor. Second, he’s not a particularly good fighter and he’s an even worse teacher. You can learn, Kina. I’ve seen you pick up things so fast, it makes my head boggle. He just doesn’t want to take the time to teach you."
"But he’s the only one willing to teach me, Shima!" Kina looked like she was about to cry.
"No. I’ll teach you, Kina-chan."
"Y-y-you’ll teach me? B-but you’re the Phoenix Prince, Shima!"
"That doesn’t matter. You’re my friend, Kina. And I won’t let you down."
"You’re my friend? I don’t have many friends. Only the girls. You’re the first boy I’ve ever been friends with. Does that make you my boyfriend?"
Shima smirked. "I guess, Kina. I guess."
**********
"Hurry, girls! Hurry!" Shima roared from the point, his Firesword cleaving the life from the Youma surrounding him as he cleared a path for the five girls behind him.
At his side, Akai the firebrand sent gout after gout of hot water blasting into the attacking creatures. To his other side, Kina doomed the beasts to death with her electrifying attacks, willing to die to help her 'old boyfriend', as she jokingly called Shima. Next to Kina, Reiki incinerated fiends to the left and right. Over by Akai, Minanoai was shooting down daemons overhead with the accuracy of a trained sniper. In the center of their informal arrowhead formation, Amilia used her computer to locate weak points and used her powers to provide defensive shielding.
It would have been a great battle. One for the history books. Only one problem. The person that they were fighting so hard to get to was already dead with her beloved. It was over before it had even really began.
One by one they fell, and were sent forward by Queen Serenity. First, Kina fell, impaled upon a beast's claw, she took out more than a hundred more with the explosive release of all of her powers at once. Next Minanoai. A lucky hit knocked her off balance and she went down to be trampled underfoot, but not before letting off the most powerful Shower that anyone had seen. It was Amilia that was laid low next. A flying daemon came down and picked her off the ground. Minutes later, its and others' frozen carcasses came thudding down.
For a while, it looked as though they were going to win. Akai and Reiki and Shima. All three fighting for each other. The Youma were thinning faster and faster, until there were almost no more.
It was one of the last that got Akai. It came up behind her and raked its claws down her back. She never even had a chance to wreak her vengeance. Shima did that for her. With a wild, unforgiving roar, he leapt into the fray, Reiki at his side. His Firesword left huge swaths of destruction in his path, his fists and feet, glowing with power, did no less. Finally, it seemed all were gone.
Shima made his way slowly back over to Akai's still form. Unlike the other's she had not vanished. He knew why. It was because only one could be sent from each royal family. He fell to his knees and gathered Akai's cooling body to him as tears ran down his face.
"Phoenix! I call!" Shima screamed, his voice thin. "I have need of your powers! Send Akai and I into the future! Find us a place where we can be together and send us there!"
The flames were blinding. They leapt up and consumed Shima and Akai, taking them away from Reiki and the moon forever.
**********
Back in the present, the flames finally charred a hole in the ground and Ranma fell into the hole formed, a grinning skeleton of his former self.
The loose dirt fell down upon him and hardened into glass as it did.
**********
End Section Third
End Chapter Three
End Book One
Author’s notes: Lots of little hints in here! And boy is this chapter HUGE! I mean, THREE SECTIONS! Gosh. Anyways, this marks the end of Book One. Which means that you have to wait for Book Two! That’s right! Book TWO! I’ve got 10 books and an epilogue planned for the Saga. So, don’t worry, more’s on the way!
As for the Society mention, it’s because quite a few SM fans seem to be Society members. This was a bow in their direction. And to those who know what a stick-jock is... MUHAHAHAHAHA! I have made Minako into a stick-jock! If enough people like it, I’ll write a side story with Minako and Ranma/Shima at a Ren. Faire... Depends on the response...