Boy in the Hand – Believe It!

Saturn squealed with joy as Ranma sped along flying over the streets as if he had wings on his ankles. Sure she'd done it herself before but it felt a lot different being carried like she was.

It seemed like no time at all had passed before they arrived at the park and Ranma reluctantly set her down.

Safely hidden in a small clearing surrounded by trees and bushes Saturn de-transformed, making sure to use the twirling naked lightshow version; his reaction just made her grin, she wasn't aware human eyes could get that big.

"Your turn," a blushing Hotaru said.

Ranma was thankful he had a cape to hide parts of himself with, fortunately with Hotaru back in her less developed form he found it a bit easier to regain control of himself.

Taking a deep breath he attempted to imitate her transformation sequence, slowly spinning and using his chi to imitate the light show she put on using careful applications of Happosai's clothes removal technique to remove his Silent Knight outfit piece by piece and replace it with his normal clothes. He'd learned to reverse Happosai's technique long ago, so the only difficulty he'd had was choosing the right poses while spinning.

He landed with a flourish, tucking a purple rose into the buttonhole on his shirt and noticed Hotaru was a bit tired by how red her face was but her smile let him know he'd done an acceptable job.

Wrapping an arm around her to help support her he was surprised when she pulled him into a hug.

"I'm glad you're my knight," Hotaru whispered.

Ranma's response, whatever it would have been would have probably involved a massive blush and a whole lot of stuttering was preempted by a water balloon hitting him in the back of the head.

0oOo0

Uranus and Neptune panted as they touched down on the edge of the park. Even at their top speed they'd barely managed to keep him in sight and they'd finally lost him altogether as he'd vanished into the trees.

"Think he was trying to ditch us?" Uranus asked as she panted, trying to catch her breath.

"No, I believe our daughter giggling the faster he went had something to do with that, besides I don't think he knew we were following him," Neptune replied.

Uranus smirked. "He knew, he detoured past several buildings with mirrored windows so he could see who was following him, but I missed the giggling."

"That's ok, I missed the mirrors, ironically enough, but what do we do now?"

"Use the mirror to scry them out?"

"If the Time Gates won't show him, my mirror isn't likely to either." Neptune sighed.

"Call Ami?" Uranus suggested.

"Good idea, hon." Neptune beamed and took out her Sailor Communicator.

"Ami, this is Neptune we lost them …"

0oOo0

Mercury nodded and tapped away on her laptop, accessing street names and business addresses. "Since timing was mentioned I can narrow it down quite a bit. Does she prefer anime or horror movies? Ok, then she will be heading to the Juuban Triplex to watch Naruto. Don't mention it, bye!"

Everyone looked at Mercury.

Knowing what incredible gossips her friends were she just sighed and gave in. "Hotaru is taking her date to see the next showing of Naruto at the Juuban Triplex."

"I'd say a Sailor Teleport is in order, wouldn't you?" Sailor Moon said with a grin.

"Who wants to bet her date is the Silent Knight?" Luna asked.

"No bet!" Everyone chorused, knowing how things tended to work out around them.

"I wonder if he talks when he's not in uniform?" Moon asked aloud.

Luna froze for a moment. "That is a very perceptive question," she said.

"Yeah, shocks me too," Artemis admitted, "especially as it never occurred to me."

Ignoring the moon cats, Sailor Moon turned and pressed herself up against Tuxedo Mask. "You'll pay for me and Rei, right?"

Tuxedo Mask nodded dumbly as Moon squealed and hugged him.

"And you'll be my date!" Jupiter declared, taking Venus by the hand who found herself blushing and not knowing why since she herself was usually quite forward.

"Everyone ready?" Luna asked.

"Are we really going to follow her on her date?" Mercury asked.

"I haven't seen the new Naruto movie," Moon said, "besides do you have anything better to do?"

"Good point," she admitted and joined hands with the others just as they all vanished in a burst of light.

0oOo0

Hikaru "Voodoo Spike" Gosunkugi grinned and rubbed his hands together; he'd finally gotten his hands on an actual book of magic.

Sure, the shop owner had warned him that it might devour his soul and unleash a plague of death and destruction upon the world – which of course the shop owner had said he didn't believe, but …

Actually… Gos paused as he looked at the trail of dead grass behind him, and the way the people walking their dogs in the park were being drug off by said animals. Including a tiny poodle who was dragging off a 600lb sumo wrestler and decided maybe, just maybe he should bury this book in the closet and buy that book on ley lines he'd seen.

Slapping a dozen demon wards he'd bought from Nabiki on the book he hurried off. The Necronomicon had seemed so promising too.

0oOo0

"Still glad I'm your knight?" Ranma asked nervously.

"Of course!" Hotaru declared brightly, surprised by the change but not that surprised after removing her head from between Ranma's breasts.

"This means you'll understand stuff about girls that guys will never get," she assured her remembering one of the reasons her mother had given her for her preference.

Ranma thought about that for a moment. "I'm not sure the curse works like that, although I turn into a girl I've never understood them."

Hotaru giggled. "You sound just like papa, she doesn't get some women either and thinks a lot of the stuff most women worry about is silly."

"Like clothes and makeup and junk?" Ranma asked cautiously as the two came out of the bushes holding hands.

"Exactly," Hotaru agreed. "I use a little makeup and jewelry for when I want to look my best. It makes me feel better about myself," she explained.

"Ah..." Ranma nodded. "It's like warpaint. It's declaring you're good looking and all the lesser females should bow before your beauty."

Hotaru giggled. "I don't know that I'd put it quite that way but I guess that's one way of looking at it."

0oOo0

Akane stared at the blank TV, unmoving and pale as a statue.

She'd overhead her two older sisters talking about something perverted, which had been a bit shocking – more for Kasumi's part than Nabiki's and seeing how close … unnaturally close, they seemed to be with one another...

The father's had been drug off by Happosai for training, and her older sisters had said something about eating out for a change and left, leaving Akane home alone.

Akane had immediately started searching for the tape they'd mentioned and had popped it into the VCR … And seen the twisted sexual fantasy they'd animated.

"Okay, my sisters are into some sort of perverted relationship and the only guy they like is Ranma, who I'm engaged to..." Akane froze in place again as she tried to come up with some way out of this.

'Maybe if Ranma was manly with them he could get them interested in guys again?' Akane thought to herself, wondering if her hogging Ranma was responsible for her sisters turning to each other.

Akane banished any trace of jealousy with a force of will that would have shocked anyone who knew her. "Ranma will fix it! He'll be perverted with them both," she declared, "even if it turns into a perverted threeway-thingy he can make it look like they're both just interested in him!"

0oOo0

Ranma shivered.

"Are you ok?" Hotaru asked, concerned.

"Yeah, just a feeling of impending doom. Don't worry about it, I get them all the time," Ranma assured her as they entered the lobby of the movie theatre.

"Hey baby!" a broad shouldered teen wearing a leather jacket and shades broke in, "Why not ditch your friend and go on a date with me?"

"I'm already on a date, she's my girlfriend," Ranma said proudly.

"Yeah, well I can cure your rugmunching fixation with just one date," he snorted, "you don't need some skinny little kid, you need a man!"

Ranma almost growled as she saw the hurt look in Hotaru's eyes, stepping forward she let her anger create a red swirling aura that everyone could see and feel. Holding up her right hand she called up her confidence, and deliberately made her normal Moko Takabisha spin.

"Demon!" the punk squealed and fled.

Ranma let her aura drop, her anger gone. "I was trying for something like Naruto's mom," she said, gaining applause from the crowd who thought it was a publicity stunt.

"A Rasengan?" Hotaru asked shocked.

Ranma shook her head. "Nah, but by spinning it I can make it look like one." She slowed down the rotation until it stopped. "You can touch it, it's safe."

Hotaru giggled as she touched the ball, feeling like she was sharing something special with Ranma.

As she withdrew her hand Ranma let the chi ball pop, sending a small wave of life energy through the room.

0oOo0

Michiru and Haruka dodged out of the way as a young punk ran out of the theatre.

"I wonder where he was going in such a rush?" Michiru asked rhetorically.

"His mom probably gave him a curfew," Haruka replied, holding the door open for her girlfriend. "Trust me, I know the type."

The pair instantly spotted Hotaru and her date and quickly got into line behind them, trying not to be noticed while Michiru rolled her eyes at how proud Haruka looked when she spotted Hotaru holding hands with a gorgeous redhead.

Unnoticed by the two a forgotten youma egg slowly began to hatch inside the popcorn machine.

0oOo0

"Aha! Prepare to face …" the youma formed out of a popcorn machine trailed off as she saw the mass of Sailor Scouts appear in a flash of light in front of her.

"Ahem!" the youma pretended it had something stuck in its throat and tried to play everything off, "Hot and buttered popcorn, get your free hot and buttered popcorn here!"

The Senshi saw they'd appeared in the lobby of the theatre and looked at the youma.

"And don't forget to watch next week's new movie, Theatre of Terror – I promise it's a scream?" the monster tried.

"Nice costume!" Moon said cheerfully while everyone else groaned.

The fact that its torso was made of glass and everyone could see popcorn popping in it seemed to pass Moon by.

"One small, light margarine and salt, please," Moon ordered.

"Uhhh Moon, the readings I'm getting say not only is this a youma but the popcorn removes as many calories as you consume of it," Mercury warned her.

Moon's eyes narrowed. "Theatres are for..." Moon stopped her speech right in the middle of it and looked thoughtful, "are you saying I can have a large soda and lots of candy and if I eat enough of her popcorn I won't gain any weight?"

"I suppose that's one way of looking at it," Mercury allowed.

"One large, extra butter and salt please!" Moon ordered enthusiastically.

The youma quickly delivered Moon's popcorn.

"I'll be back during the intermission for another tub!" Moon promised, dragging a protesting Mars and Mask off.

Venus shrugged. "I'll have the same."

"Ditto," Jupiter added.

"Aren't we supposed to destroy youma?" Luna asked sarcastically.

"Give it a rest, there's no Dark Kingdom to send energy to anymore and she's providing a useful service to society; snacks and weight control," Artemis replied.

Pluto nodded. "He has a point, as long as she's not attacking people we really have nothing to complain about."

"Fine!" Luna sighed. "Large extra butter, no salt, please."

0oOo0

"Look! There's Michiru and Haruka," Moon pointed out.

"They're watching Hotaru and … that redheaded girl," Mars finished, surprised as she'd expected a dark haired man.

"Huh, guess it's not the Silent Knight," Luna said.

"Not with breasts like that," Jupiter agreed, watching the two couples and noting how they were sitting before putting her arm around Venus, copying a blushing Ranko.

Venus smiled and leaned against Jupiter, feeling less alone than she'd felt since England and Danburite had cursed her.

Moon poked Mask and pointed at the other couples and Mars until he got a clue and put his arm around her as well, much to Mars' surprise. "We should do this more often," Moon said, smiling at her friend across Mask's chest.

"Uh, yeah," Mars agreed, feeling a bit confused.

Ami looked at all the happy couples surrounding her, or trio's counting Mars, Moon and Mask (hell even the Lunar cats were curled up together) and decided she really did need to find herself a boyfriend.

0oOo0

Ranko was enjoying the unfamiliar but welcome sensation of cuddling with someone and not having World War Three start when a bright flash made her blink. "What was that?"

"That's momma and poppa taking pictures," Hotaru said, blushing and embarrassed.

"You think maybe I can get a copy from them later?" Ranko asked hesitantly, not wanting to say the wrong thing but wanting a souvenir of their first date.

Apparently she'd said the right thing because Hotaru beamed at her and kissed her on the cheek, and something happened to Ranma that hadn't happened since she'd gained control of her chi; she lost control of her aura. Ranko's vision took on a pink tint and she couldn't stop smiling.

"You're glowing," Hotaru pointed out and Ranko forced herself to shake off the feeling but couldn't shake the smile.

0oOo0

"What the hell was that?" Haruka whispered urgently, glowing aura's being bad news in her experience.

Mercury leaned over the seat in front of her and quickly whispered, "I don't know but the readings match Moon's purifying attack by better than 90%."

"Hotaru kisses her and she radiates positive energy like a bonfire?" Haruka asked rhetorically. *sniff* "That's my girl I'm so proud of her!" she exclaimed with tears in her eyes, standing and watching the blushing couple.

Michiru pulled Haruka back down into her seat and whispered, "How can a normal human do that?"

"Who said she's normal?" Mercury whispered. "She's a bonfire of life energy and is fitter than an Olympic athlete. My guess is she's either related to the Silent Knight somehow, since her showing up out of the blue at the same time as him is very unlikely, or she's from a long line of demon hunters, probably the second one."

The movie started and everyone was quickly shushed by the rest of the audience, who didn't mind heroes going to the movies in between battles but still expected them to be quiet like everyone else.

Realizing they'd been spotted as Senshi from the comments of the audience around them Moon whipped out her rod of Moonly might (that's what she called it anyway) and cast a quick disguise spell on herself and her friends.

0oOo0

Ranko came out of the theatre with a smile on her face holding hands with her girlfriend and ignoring the group of trench coated, sunglass wearing, and fedora-ed Senshi trying to follow them inconspicuously with Haruka occasionally taking a photo.

Moon paused to get more popcorn from the confused but happy to be alive youma along with the rest of the Senshi while Ranko stopped to ask Hotaru, "So, what do we do now? Most of my dates usually end with a life or death battle long before I get to see a movie."

"Definitely a demon hunter," Mercury whispered to a chorus of nods.

"Now you walk me home," Hotaru said, "and then I give you a good night kiss."

"K-kiss?" Ranko stuttered, her blush extending half a foot from her skin while a giggling Hotaru grabbed her hand and led her home.

AN: Typing by Godogma who someone wrote to and he suggested I get off my ass and finish the chapter already!