Blood and Darkness
A crossover fanfic by jimra
I didn't come up with most of the characters in this fic, and would be a complete fool if I tried to claim them. Also, the timelines of these animes are a little mixed up, but of course, this is necessary to make the different animes mesh properly for my purposes.
Chapter One
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It was a cold, foggy night in London, but that was to be expected in the capital of Britain in late fall. What was strange was the small, ten-year-old girl running in the streets. To make the situation even stranger, the girl, who was obviously of asian origin, was wearing an orange-yellow sailor fuku and a white mask. To top it off, several men were running away from the small girl, all looking very scared. In general, if one didn't keep track of the news in London, the entire scene would have been rather comical.
The girl raised her hands and fired a thin beam of yellow energy at the fleeing men. The beam impacted the leading man in the back of his left knee, and he fell to the ground, crying out in pain. His two compatriots, failing to react in time to their leader's fall, tripped over his prone form and fell to the ground as well.
Smiling prettily as she caught up with the impromptu dog pile, the small girl, in a very cute voice, said, "You didn't really think you could get away from Sailor V, did you?"
In reply, one of the men groaned and pulled a small pistol from under his shirt. However, before he could take aim, Sailor V kicked him hard in the face saying, "Now that isn't very nice!"
The man groaned one more time before joining his friends in unconsciousness. A moment later, the sound of whistles keened through the foggy streets announcing the arrival of the police. As they came into view, Sailor V winked, blew them a kiss, and leapt to the roof tops. After all, she had a mysterious image to maintain!
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While Sailor V was making her final getaway from the scene of her latest crime-fighting endeavor, two figures were pulling themselves from the dark waters of the Thymes River. One was a small, red-haired girl in Chinese clothes, and the other, as unlikely as it may sound, was a large panda. Upon reaching the relatively dry bank, the girl immediately unpacked a small camp stove and, filling a small kettle from the river, heated some water. Once the water was warm, the girl poured half of the liquid in the container over her head, and the other half onto the panda. If anyone had been watching, they would have seen the amazingly strange sight of a girl becoming a boy and a panda becoming a man.
"Okay, Oyaji," said the girl-turned-boy. "We swam the English Channel! Aren't you satisfied with my physical fitness yet?"
"I'm tired, boy," replied the panda-turned-man. "We'll talk about it in the morning. For now, let's just find a place to sleep."
The boy had to admit his father had a point, so he dropped the issue. Instead, he asked, "What on earth are we doing in England anyway? I mean, you can't seriously expect to find good training grounds in western countries!"
The man smiled at his son's question. "An old friend of mine, Aino Shinji, has been staying here for a few years, and I wanted to see him again."
The two Japanese martial artists began walking as the older continued. "I gave him a phone call while we were passing through France, and he said that he would be delighted to have us drop by."
The boy could hardly keep from smiling as he thought of sleeping in a futon, or perhaps even a bed, after walking and swimming across half the world, and that curse he and his father picked up in China didn't help. The eleven year old still blamed his father for getting them into the whole mess at Jusenkyo.
"Well, what are we waiting for, Oyaji?" asked the boy. "Let's get moving!"
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The small group of officers that arrived to pick up after Sailor V began to pull the unconscious men from their pile and cuff them.
"Hey Kitten," said one of the officers, a middle-aged, balding man.
The nineteen-year-old, deep-strawberry-blond-haired girl took a moment to register that she was being spoken to, but after a moment spent blinking her sparkling blue eyes, she replied, "Sir?"
"Call in and get a wagon out here."
"Yes sir," the girl replied. Speaking into her radio, she said, "This is Cadet-Officer Victoria. Send a wagon and some paramedics to our location."
The reply was brief and to the point, "Ten four, Cadet-Officer."
Suddenly, Victoria saw a giant plume of fire bloom several blocks away. Before anyone could say a word, she was off at a run.
"Victoria!" called the balding man. "Where are you going? Get back here, Victoria! Seras!!"
Seras Victoria was already out of earshot by the time her superior was calling her.
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Since the police would take care of the burglars she had knocked out, Sailor V decided to continue her patrol of the city streets. It wasn't long before she spotted a woman robbing a small convenience store at gun point, and of course, the pretty heroine of London swept into action once more. The woman, seeing the fuku-clad girl, immediately abandoned her crime and raced out of the door. She led Sailor V on a merry chase through the streets of London, managing to avoid the small girl's beam attacks.
Finally, the woman ducked into a very dark alley with the little heroine hot on her heels. Unfortunately for that same small heroine, the alley turned out to be a bad place to go. She skidded to a halt as she saw the daemon, but was too late to save the relatively innocent armed robber. The thing's tentacles tore the unfortunate woman apart, spraying blood and entrails into the air. Sailor V, having no experience with anything of true, complete evil, did what any ten-year-old girl would do when confronted with a gruesome hell spawn that had just begun to devour its human prey: she panicked.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, she began to throw her power at the creature, but in her hysteria, she missed. The beam lanced through the street and into a gas line. The resulting explosion was quite impressive, but the creature was only angered by the conflagration behind it.
Tears streaming from her eyes, the small Sailor V truly believed that this would probably be the end of her short career as a heroine.
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The boy and his father, who had recently been the girl and her panda, were jogging the streets of London on their way to the older man's friend's home when a huge explosion drew their attention.
"Kami-sama, what was that?" asked the boy in an astonished voice.
"I don't know boy," replied the man. "But you know our duty."
"Right," the boy said in a solemn voice. "It is the duty of a true martial artist to protect the weak."
Without another word, the pair changed direction and headed toward the fading fireball.
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As Cadet-Officer Seras Victoria approached the scene of the explosion, she pulled her club from its belt loop and again mentally cursed the British government regarding their total ban on firearms. Those curses became audible when she saw what was at the site: a small girl wearing a sailor fuku was dodging a tentacled horror while firing small beams of yellow energy into the creature. The fact that the beams didn't seem to do much more than anger the creature forced her to reevaluate her decision to rush into the fray; however, before she could think of a way to help the beleaguered Sailor V, a man and a boy rushed into the scene, the boy shouting something in Japanese. All Seras could do was watch and wait for an opportunity to help.
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"What the hell is that?" the boy yelled to his father as the scene came into view.
"I have no clue, Ranma," replied the man. "But this is what the Forbidden Techniques are for! You have my permission to use the Yamasenken in this fight."
A smirk somewhat too evil for an eleven-year-old boy blossomed on Ranma's face, and he called out, "Well, what are we waiting for? That girl could get killed out there!"
With the answering nod from his father, the pair raced into the battle.
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The battle was not going well for little Sailor V, and she had almost given up hope when she heard the cry from behind her.
"Kijin Raishuu Dan!"
The girl barely registered that the voice belonged to a boy before a distortion ripped through the air beside her head and separated a slime-covered tentacle from the monster's body. The creature cried out in pain as black ichor sprayed from the wound, covering the street in slime; however, Sailor V wasn't slow on the uptake. She actually had reinforcements, and they could do some serious damage! Capitalizing on the opportunity, the fuku clad girl fired a full-power beam into the gaping wound and was rewarded by another unearthly shriek of pain from the tentacled horror.
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Seras mouth hung open as the three redoubled their attacks on the hell spawn, and somewhere in her stunned mind, she wished she could do something to help. The three heroes were taking the creature apart, piece by piece, but that didn't mean that they weren't taking any hits themselves. After his first attack, the younger of the two reinforcements to Sailor V's battle rushed in close, only to be smashed mercilessly into the pavement by a tentacle. The boy was definitely unconscious, and he was definitely in trouble, as the other two were battling five tentacles each.
With a slight nod, Seras made her decision, and she rushed forward before her brain could bring small things like her self-preservation instinct to bear. Beating back a wounded tentacle with her club, she reached the unconscious boy and quickly tossed him over her shoulder. After securing her limp cargo, Seras beat a hasty retreat.
When she finally reached the end of the alley, the young Cadet-Officer collapsed to the rough pavement, careful to keep the boy from striking the ground. When she had finally caught her breath enough to look back at the fight, it was nearing its conclusion. Sailor V was down, but the older man was steadily defying reason with his attacks, and the tentacle-covered creature was barely moving. Finally, the man shouted something she couldn't understand and plunged his arm up to the elbow into the hell spawn's center. The thing convulsed one more time, allowing one more unearthly scream to rend the air before it finally lay still.
The creature's form then began to melt into a steaming puddle of black ichor, but the man had already turned away from it. When he reached the unconscious form of Sailor V, the man gently picked her up off the street, and cradling the limp girl in his arms, he made his way to were Seras was sitting with his son.
"Thank you for saving my son," said the man in passable, if heavily accented, English.
"J—just doing my job," Seras replied, breathlessly. "Thank you for helping to kill that thing, Mr…."
"Saotome," the man answered her question. "Sao—err, Genma Saotome."
Genma knelt down to examine his son's unconscious form, and apparently finding no serious injuries, he unceremoniously threw the small boy over his shoulder like a sack of flour. "Once again, thank you for your assistance, but I must be going."
"Wait!" Seras called to the departing man. "How did you do all of that?"
As Genma replied, Seras fell into step with him. "Those were martial arts techniques I invented myself." There was no small measure of pride in his voice.
"Unfortunately, Ms…" prompted Genma.
"Victoria," supplied Seras.
"Unfortunately, Ms. Victoria, I have a long way to go tonight, and I shall have to take my leave of you. Have a good evening."
With that, Genma leapt from the street onto a second-story roof and set off at a run. He didn't even look like he noticed that he still carried the unconscious form of Sailor V under one arm.
The young officer-in-training was left open-mouthed once more as she watched the elder Saotome jump from roof to roof until he was out of sight.
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Author's Notes:
Not much to say. It's just a minor revision, so enjoy. Ja, minna.