Chapter Nine

Rai was annoyed. That was one thing that she had forgotten about earth in the three months since her last assignment – they didn’t like you going places when they thought you shouldn’t. It was definitely irritating, but they could hardly stop her from simply walking out. She wouldn’t be the one to have to explain later. She could have waited, but despite her claims to the contrary she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life there, at least not yet. That was a last resort, or one to consider years in the future. 

She walked to her target, wishing heartily that there was a faster method available that wouldn’t alert the local authorities, but she couldn’t think of anything off the top of her head other than auto theft, which had proven before to be more of a nuisance than it was worth. She made a good decision – the police in Nerima were some of the most vigilant in all of Japan, simply because they were usually bored out of their minds. Regular criminals steered clear of Nerima in general. It just wasn’t worth it. 

So she walked, and was actually rather glad she did – after a while at least, when the lingering headache from her transfer had faded and she could enjoy herself a little. The air in this place smelled good – vaguely sweet, with the faint tang of ozone and enough humidity so that it wasn’t stifling but she could clearly smell the water nearby. She sniffed. Canals. 

People avoided her as she walked, an intent expression on her face. That was one blessing, at least; it was always the worst when they wouldn’t leave her alone. 

The two bright pinpoints of consciousness that she was following were close together, so close they blurred into one at even this close distance. She wondered about that – these two didn’t exactly get along. But no matter. It just made her job easier.

***

Cei wasn’t happy about being woken up, but Ryouga didn’t exactly feel like letting him ‘re’gain his – that is, Ryouga’s – strength. 

Cei cracked one eye open. Why the hell does the sun on this planet have to be so damn *bright*?

He yawned, and promptly got kicked in the side for the effort. “Ow!” he protested. It hadn’t hurt much, but he was just feeling so weak right now… this body had a lot of energy to generate before it would be at its full strength, and it didn’t like having an intruder occupy it. He didn’t feel like revealing /that/ little weakness to his ‘captors’ quite yet. Maybe later, so he could gloat… he was still amazed that they had believed that ludicrous lie of his. At least, they didn’t claim to disbelieve him, and that amounted to the same thing with these two not-too-bright specimens of earthlife. 

Then *he* came closer. Cei wasn’t afraid of Ranma, but he could feel /her/… he was amazed, and yet not really surprised. If anyone could gain power, even with such drastic disadvantages, it would be her. If he hadn’t been so frightened he would have rejoiced. As it was, he prayed to whatever gods he could think of, be they real, fictional, or spur-of-the-moment inventions of his imagination, that she would be more pissed at their jailers than at him… 

He was kicked again. This time he could see who it was – that little girl, who was somehow also the original inhabitant of this body. He would have to find out how he had done that later. His lips curled involuntarily as he thought of all the fun ways he could get information from them.

He decided to speak, at least to avoid being kicked again. “What the hell do you *want*?” he asked grumpily.

“How stupid do you think we are?”

Cei chose not to answer that, but his mind spouted off several good responses to the question. He snickered mentally.

Ranma continued on, seemingly oblivious to his prisoner’s contempt. “You’re trying to regain strength by sleeping. As if we’d let you do that.”

“I told you, I’m not the threat!” he protested, exaggerating the weakness in his voice. He coughed also, although that wasn’t faked. Damn! This body almost has a will of it’s own! How can something without a mind resist me so much…? But it didn’t matter, he decided. Unwillingly or not, the body was gaining strength, faster and faster every second although still agonizingly slowly. “If Elrii gets free she’ll kill everyone in this stinking place! Or worse! Can’t you feel her? You earth-beings are so blind… stupid…” he cut himself off with another cough. “I can help you if you’ll just let me rest. Look,” he tried in a more reasonable tone, “I didn’t choose to be here. Believe me, I wish I wasn’t just as much as you, if not more. Just help me get free, and your friend can have this pathetic body back since he seems to like it so much. Then they’ll come and take care of her again.”

“They? Who?”

Cei was honestly confused. “Them. How am I supposed to know what they call themselves? Most people don’t even know they exist. We call them the Jailers, but since this prison is what you consider to be the real world that term doesn’t really apply for you. You’d probably think of them as…” he thought for a moment. “The Guardians, or some nonsense like that. Keeping your world safe – as a side effect of keeping us out of ours, though.” 

Then he sensed it, and cursed aloud. “They’re here! Two of them? I didn’t even know that there /were/ two of them. We have to get out of here now!” 

“Why? You said they’d get rid of you. Sounds like a plan to me, get this mess over with.”

Cei glared at Ranma. “You really are stupid, if you haven’t figured out the most likely way that they’ll get rid of us.”

Ryouga tilted her head, confused. “I thought they would lock you guys away again. Not something I particularly want, but…”

“You idiots! If we’ve gotten free once we’re a danger to them. They’ll just kill us. By killing the bodies that we’re in. No fuss, no muss, just dead. Get it?”

Ranma and Ryouga both looked shocked as they absorbed that information. They exchanged a glance.

Cei was taken aback when the little girl suddenly sprouted upward like a flower blooming on a still-motion film, ageing in the course of seconds to adulthood. He was equally surprised by the sudden vanishing – no, just diminishing – of Ryouga’s consciousness as another spirit took control. She wasn’t as stupid as the other two, he could tell immediately. 

“Now,” she said smoothly, flipping her hair back arrogantly, “Why don’t we try telling the truth this time? You may be able to fool them, but I am not in the habit of being gullible, and I know that you haven’t told us more than a shred of half-truth since you first opened your mouth.”

Cei blinked. This was unexpected. He didn’t even know who this person was… he had some knowledge of Ranma and Ryouga, but this person was a total mystery. He chose to play it safe; after all, he hadn’t been lying about one thing. “They’re coming,” he told her as frankly as he could manage. “I’m not sure about the killing part, but it seems damn likely to me. I don’t think that there’s any other way to get rid of us at this point, to be honest.”

The woman examined his eyes closely, probing into the depths of his soul, it seemed. He found himself actually intimidated by her. Who *is* she? he wondered, impressed. She had a strength that he couldn’t remember ever sensing before… Ryouga was strong, but it was all brute power; Ranma may have had that special quality but Cei could barely sense his sprit anymore, with Elrii’s aura overwhelming Ranma’s to Cei’s senses. 

“Very well,” Hinako finally agreed. Involuntarily, he let out a sigh of relief. “We’ll go to my apartment, for now.”

He nodded in relief. “We can’t stay there for long, though. They can sense us, just like I know vaguely where they are, although distance does have an effect.” There was a response to that, but he didn’t hear as he concentrated for a moment. They were approaching from slightly different directions, he detected. One from the south, slowly, the other from the southwest at a considerably higher speed. He pointed northeast. “We’ll have to circle that way to avoid them.”

***

They followed Cei out of the park. Ranma had a nagging worry about something. He just didn’t trust the newcomer, he supposed; it was probably a reasonable suspicion. Ranma wondered just /what/ he had been lying about.

“Ranma! There you are!”

He looked up. They had crossed paths with Akane, it seemed, and she didn’t look pleased. In fact, she looked downright cross. “Where have you *been*?”

Ranma didn’t know quite what to answer to that question. “Ummm…” 

Maybe Miss Hinako started to intervene at that point, but Ranma didn’t notice; all he saw was Akane reaching behind her back. He winced and tried to remove himself from mallet range, but Akane was faster, as she usually managed to be.

It wasn’t a mallet that she held pointed at his head, however, but a large, futuristic, and rather deadly-looking gun. 

***

~Mordain

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