OBLIGATORY LEGAL DISCLAIMER : None of these guys are mine. The Sailor 
Senshi belong to DIC and Kodansha, while the Yoroiden are owned by 
Sunrise and Graz Entertainment. Okay? So don't bother suing me. 

                       RONIN SUMMER 2 : HOMECOMINGS 
            
         A Sailor Moon / Yoroiden Samurai Troopers cross-over

             by Morgan Hudson (dataraven_659@excite.com)


Part 1 : Stealing the Light

	The train station was filled, as usual, with dozens of people, 
all of whom were very busy going from one place to another place. This 
was a common affair for people during the summer, and as such was 
something few people paid attention to. Bells rang, trains hissed, and 
great clouds of steam blasted out onto the walkway, where one person 
in particular yelled in surprise and fell over, losing his precarious 
grip on more luggage than one person could expect to carry. 

	Seiji Date groaned and tried to clear his head. Sometimes, he 
reflected, having the reflexes of a cat weren't good, especially when 
a mountain of bags were making you top-heavy. "Stupid train," he said, 
and sat up. His grey slacks were coated with grime, and his olive 
green blazer wasn't much better off. 

	"Need a hand, Seiji?" Minako Aino leaned over, her long blond 
hair practically forming a curtain around them as she smiled at the 
downed man. "I can carry my own bags, you know. I'm not helpless..."

	"Minako, if ANYBODY knows how helpless you aren't, it's me." 
Seiji wasn't kidding : three weeks ago, they had been battling the 
forces of evil as Sailor Venus and Seiji no Korin, respectively. As if 
seeing her blast her way through youma hadn't been enough, he still 
had some interesting bruises from the soccer game they had held later 
to remind him of how tough she was. 

	Minako shrugged and laughed cheerily. She was stunning, he 
decided, decked out in a lovely red skirt and white blouse with a 
string of pearls around her neck. He just hoped she looked good 
enough... his family didn't impress easily. 

**********

	Seiji sighed and folded his blazer up on the seat beside him. 
Fortunately, he could get it cleaned when he got home. If any had 
gotten on the black silk shirt his mother had given him, though... 
well, seppuku wasn't such a bad way to go. Drumming his fingers on 
one knee, he began to fiddle with the necklace he wore. It was a 
simple affair ; a silver chain with a gleaming emerald orb hanging on 
it. The kanji for "Wisdom" seemed to glow from the depths of the 
gem, but most observers assumed it was an optical illusion. 

	"Seiji, it's your family we're going to be meeting! I don't 
think you'll need the Korin." Minako reached over and gently patted 
his undrummed knee. "They're not youma, right?"

	Seiji looked uncomforetable and mumbled something under his 
breath. 

**********

	Back in Tokyo, Usagi Tsukino was in heaven. The rumours had 
been true! A new ice cream parlour had just opened its doors for 
business, and on the hottest, driest day of the entire year! Needless 
to say, a mass of the hungriest, hottest, and most sweet-toothed teens 
and children in all of Japan were mobbing the place, and Usagi was 
one of them. 

	"Hey, out of the way! Coming through! Pardon me, ma'am!" Usagi 
moved through the milling crowd with the deftness and surety of 
someone who, as Sailor Moon, had spent her fair share of time pushing 
through crowds of much larger, meaner things than mere hungry 
schoolchildren. 

	"Usagi! Over here!" The speaker was a tall, handsome boy 
with jagged blue hair and elfin features. He was wearing a white dress 
shirt with the collar open and a pair of blue jeans. More importantly 
to Usagi, he was carrying two VERY well-stacked ice cream cones. 

	"Touma Hashiba! What are you doing here?" 

	The Yoroiden Samurai Trooper of Tenku looked at her strangely. 
"Uhm... I'm getting ice cream, Usagi. Want a cone?" He offered her one 
of his, and watched in stunned amazement as it rapidly disappeared 
from his hand into the blond girl's mouth. Smiling at the unspoken 
challenge, he managed to finish his nearly as quickly. 

	"MMMM! Thanks for the treat, Touma!" Usagi grinned at him. "So,
how have you and the guys been lately?" She looked thirstily at the 
cans of pop under his arm. Touma chuckled and pointed at an empty 
table. Once they sat, he gave her one of the cans. 

	"Well, Seiji's going home to Sendai to visit with his family 
for a while..." 
	
	"Oh, YEAH! He's taking Minako... she told me all about it." 

	Touma shook his head and ignored her interruption. "Ryo is 
still going through that remedial computers class with Ami Mizuno, 
which is pretty brave of them considering how the last class turned 
out, Shin's around here somewhere, and Shuu is still helping out at 
his family's Chinese restaurant."

	Usagi finished her drink and looked over at the young man in 
concern. "But that's it, right? No monsters or demons, or youma or 
ghosts or anything?" 

	Touma smiled and opened his can. "No, it's been pretty quiet 
ever since we took out that Dark One..."

**********

	Elsewhere in Tokyo, things were preparing to get a lot less 
quiet. In the secluded penthouse office of a very high-placed 
corporation, a well-dressed man sat behind his desk and watched some 
jittery camera footage on the giant wallscreen in front of him. 

	A figure in black armour with a large scythe swung at a man 
in a tuxedo, who struck back with his walking stick. Then, another 
man in armour leapt forward and struck the other figure with what 
looked like a bow. The footage stopped, then rewound and started again.

	The massive oak doors opened, and a man with a beard and a lab 
coat entered the office. "You summoned me, Mr. Xavier?" 

	"Yes... look at this footage, doctor. What do you see?" 

	The scientist lifted his glasses and squinted. "Well, the 
angle is bad, but I would assume it to be some sort of movie being 
filmed."

	"Actually, it's not." The well-dressed man leaned back in his 
massive leather chair. "That... is how my business dinner at the 
Golden Dragon ended last month. Those gentlemen are not actors, and 
this footage was shot by one of my own men." Rings sparkled in the 
lamplight as he gestured towards a massive pile of books, scrolls, 
and other musty smelling scraps of cloth and paper. "I've been 
researching these men, doctor : they intrigue me. Their armour matches 
no design ever used in recorded history, and yet it can't possibly have 
been constructed today. They were a mystery, and I enjoy such things."

	"And have you solved this mystery, sir?" The scientist tugged 
self-consciously at his beard. He really couldn't see how he fit into 
this... he was beginning to wish he had never accepted the job as this 
nut's head of R&D. 

	"I believe I have. Are you familiar with the legend of Arago 
and the yoroi?"

**********

	Seiji barely made it off of the platform before the horror 
began. 

	"Welcome home, brother. It's been so... BORING without you 
here." His older sister Yayoi laughed wickedly and rested her bokken 
on one shoulder. "Of course, now that you're back, we'll have SO much 
fun... yes..." 

	Seiji tried to force a weak smile. "Yayoi! I had no idea you 
were coming home, too, dear sister!" If he had known, he added 
silently, he would have hopped the first plane to Canada. "How is 
medical school?" 

	"Distressingly easy, baby brother, distressingly easy. I'm 
just going out of my mind with boredom." 

	Probably because they won't let you cut people open, you 
sadistic bitch, Seiji thought to himself. I hate you. "How awful for 
you," he answered her. 

	Minako got off the train and looked over at the older woman 
dressed in an expensive business suit and carrying a wooden sword for 
some reason. "Hello! I'm Minako Aino..."

	"Well! It seems my baby brother has some taste after all." 
Yayoi snickered and circled around Minako, looking at her apprasingly. 
"Hmmm... not bad, Seiji, not bad. A bit flat-chested perhaps, but I'm 
sure she'll fill out nicely, eh?"

	Minako flushed and Seiji made a noise like a strangled 
squirrel. He was in hell, he decided, that had to be it. He was in 
hell.

**********

	The drive home was even worse. Yayoi had obviously decided 
to make up for lost time, and so had regaled Minako with every 
embarassing story she could remember from Seiji's youth. She probably 
had a list somewhere, the young man thought. Not that she needed one : 
she had been personally responsible for most of those stories. 

	For her part, Minako was trying not to look too stunned. She 
had known that Seiji was a bit well off, but the fact they had been 
picked up in a Rolls Royce put "well off" into a whole new category. 
So did the rather large estate they were pulling into, complete with 
personal training dojo, swimming pools, rock gardens, and apparently 
servants, all of whom were smiling and waving at "The Young Master".

	After the driver pulled up in front of the house, a young girl 
of about twelve raced down the stairs from the front porch. Seiji had 
barely opened the door when she hit him like a ballastic missile in 
a frilly pink dress. "NI-CHAN! NI-CHAN!"

	"Hey, Satsuki!" Seiji swept the giggling girl up into a giant 
hug, laughing cheerfully. "How's my favorite little sister?" 

	"Pining for her long gone big brother." One of the most 
beautiful women Minako had ever seen stepped regally down the front 
steps of the dojo. She wore a formal silk kimono, and had her hair 
pinned up in the classical style. "Give your mother a kiss, dear." 

	Seiji dutifully set down his little sister, who immediately 
latched herself onto his waist, and gave his mother a quick peck on 
the cheek. "I'm sorry I took so long, mother. Yoroiden duty, and all."

	Minako blinked. Seiji's family knew he was a Yoroiden Samurai 
Trooper? As if in answer, his mother nodded sadly. 

	"Yes, the demands of Korin must be heeded, regardless of one's 
own desires. I shall assume that since the world is still turning that 
I should be proud of my son?" 

	Seiji blushed sheepishly. "Well... we did okay, I guess..."

	"MY GRANDSON!" A tall and muscular man strode down to greet 
Seiji next. His grey hair was the only hint that he might be a day 
over forty as he stretched his arms wide. "Truly, thou hast made this 
a great day indeed! The entire family shall honour your return, Seiji 
no Korin, Warrior of Halo, Destroyer of Demons!" Pausing, the hearty 
old man winked. "So, who is the fair young maiden, grandson? Save her 
from some monsters or something?"

	"Hai. I am Minako Aino, sir, and..." 

	"Say no more!" Grandpa Date clapped his hands together, and 
two servants appeared. "Kintaro, Hiroshi, arrangements must be made 
immediately for our guest! Place her next to Seiji's old room..."

**********

	Seiji had roughly five seconds to change, and he knew it. 
Every time he came home, it was the same affair. Racing to his 
room, he changed quickly into his gi jacket and hakama, and retrieved 
his bokken from the oaken chest in his room. Pausing in front of a 
hall mirror to check his appearance ("True samurai must be meticulous 
in appearance as well as style, Seiji. I will have no sloppy 
grandsons!"), he adjusted his jacket and entered the dojo. 

	"You have been gone too long, my grandson. Your bonzai trees 
are in desperate need of your touch." The old man was still dressed in 
the hakama and gi he had worn earlier, and also carried a bokken. 

	"The fate of the realm was also in desperate need of my touch, 
oh sensei." Seiji brought his feet together and bowed deeply. 

	"And did you bring honour to your ancestors, Date? To your 
mother and myself, and to Masamune Date, the great One-Eyed Dragon 
of legend?" 

	Seiji nodded. "Hai, sensei. The battle was fierce, but my 
friends and I prevailed." He knew better than to go further ("A true 
samurai boasts not of his accomplishments, grandson! I will raise no 
braggarts!"), but felt something more needed to be said. "The forces 
which threatened our realm have been defeated."

	"Really?" Seiji's grandfather smiled and shifted his weight 
slightly. "Show me how!" And the fight was on. 

	Seiji was actually surprised he managed to block the first 
strike. His bokken swung around as if it had a mind of its own, and 
there was a nostalgic *crack* of wood on wood. 

	"Impressive," conceded his grandfather, "MOST impressive. Tell 
me, grandson, what does Sun Tzu say about attacking?" He swung again 
and Seiji blocked, precisely matching his stroke with another.

	"To ensure you take what you attack, attack what the enemy 
does not defend!" Seiji winced as his grandfather's bokken managed 
to strike his knuckles. Only years of training kept him from losing 
his grip on his sword. 

	"And... ?" Another strike, which Seiji just barely parried. 

	"Uhm... If your enemy's force is lesser than yours, attack!" 
Seiji ducked under a slashing blade, then tumbled left and raised his 
bokken to block an overhead strike. 

	"And what if his force is equal or greater than yours?" The 
old man tried not to smile as he pressed the attack. Seiji was even 
better than when he had left! It made an old sensei proud to see his 
student reach such pinnacles of the Art. 

	"If his force is equal, outmaneuver him! If it is greater, 
avoid him and attack another day!" Seiji struck again, and his sword 
broke as it came into contact with the mat where his sensei used to be 
standing. A blow from behind struck him in the back of the head, and 
brought tears to his eyes. 

	"You have shown much improvement, my student. Your skills 
are admirable." Grandfather Date paused for a second. "However, your 
strikes are wild, your recovery slow, and your parries weak. Come. 
One more time!"

**********

	 Minako smiled at the younger girl. "So, Satsuke, you really 
like your brother?" She had never had any siblings, and Usagi's little 
brother NEVER treated her the way Satsuke treated Seiji. 

	"Yup! My brother Seiji is a hero who helped save the whole 
world from demons!" Satsuke beamed triumphantly. "He's cooler than 
anyone but Sailor V!" 

	"Sailor V?" Minako felt her smile stretch an extra inch. 
"Really? How do you know about Sailor V?" 

	"My dad says she's a reckless vigilante who just makes life 
harder for honest cops like him, but I know better. She's a hero like 
Seiji, and she fights monsters in the name of love and justice!" 

	"Yeah, Sailor V sure is cool, I guess." Minako chuckled. "But 
I don't know... I've heard the other Senshi are pretty neat too."

	"Aw, please! Sailor Moon is a ditz, and Sailor Mercury is a 
sissy, and Sailor Jupiter's a tomboy, and Sailor Mars isn't NEARLY 
as cool as Sailor V! Sailor V is the BEST!" 

	Minako, or rather Sailor Venus, shrugged. Hey, the kid had 
good taste... 

**********

	Genichirou Hashiba muttered to himself as he returned to his 
lab, alternately tugging on his beard and pulling his hair. His lab 
coat billowed as he stormed down the hallway and several of the more 
experienced lab assistants began to head for the nearest door. Not 
that he was a dangerous man ; just that the last time he was so 
distracted some of them took weeks to grow back their eyebrows. 

	"Are the latest prototypes on the XR-71 Cyberdroid ready?" 

	"Yes, Doctor Hashiba. Synchronization began three minutes ago."

	Genichirou grabbed the report from his nervous assistant and 
threw it in the air, spilling papers everywhere. "Well forget it! 
Forget it all! Our esteemed employer wants us to waste our time chasing 
after fairy tales!" He began pacing the lab, coming dangerously close 
to upsetting a number of dangerous chemicals and delicate equipment 
with each frantic gesture. "We are trying to develop a machine that 
will REVOLUTIONIZE law enforcement, and he wants us to put everything 
on hold to go track down a suit of magic armour! I'm surprised he 
doesn't want some magic beans to go with it!" 

	"Magic armour?" The assistant looked slightly puzzled, to say 
the least. 

	"Yes, the fool has come up with a list of families who are 
supposed to have had access to mystic armour once upon a time. He 
wants us to track down these families and ROB them!" Suddenly, 
Genichirou looked up from his tirade, an expression of shock on his 
face. "OF COURSE! We can use this to test the XR-71! What better way 
to program criminal profiles into a machine then to turn it into a 
criminal? Ken!" 

	"Yes, Dr. Hashiba?"

	"Power up the latest prototypes. They're going for a field 
test in..." Genichirou checked the papers in his hand. "SENDAI!"

**********

	Minako sighed as she lay down in the bed. It was about 
the size of Usagi's entire bedroom, and there was even a fireplace 
against the far wall. She blushed as she remembered Seiji's mother 
demonstrating the secret passage behind that fireplace... the one 
that led to Seiji's bedroom. 'Just in case', the woman had said, 'you 
get... cold'. What kind of family WAS this? 

	Someone knocked on her fireplace, and Minako felt her 
blood run cold. On the one hand, it might be Seiji, but on the 
other hand... IT MIGHT BE SEIJI. Wrapping a housecoat over her 
nightgown, she padded across the floor and pulled a candlabra on the 
mantle. The entire fireplace suddenly turned in its axis and Seiji 
Date poked his head into her room. He was still dressed in the gi and 
hakama he had worn to dinner, and had a bokken propped against his 
shoulder.

	"Komban wa, Minako Aino. I just wished to ensure that my family
had left you in one piece." Seiji smiled weakly and brushed back his 
hair. "My mother is a bit overinterested in my love life, and Yayoi...
well, I'm pretty sure she's the Devil." 

	Minako grinned back and shrugged. "No, I'm fine... but your 
sister may want my autograph before we go back to Tokyo tomorrow. 
She's a pretty big fan of Sailor Venus."

	"Yeah, well she can hang your autograph next to mine." Seiji 
finally let himself grin. "Satsuke is great, she really is." After a 
long pause, he began to realise the situation they were in. "You know, 
right about now would be a pretty bad time for one of my sisters to 
drop by and say good-night. I'd better get out of here before I get 
caught." Reaching over, he opened the window and let himself out of it.
"Sleep well, Minako Aino! I have some bonzai that need tending." 

**********

	Minako's next visitor was Seiji's mother, who smiled sweetly 
and wished Minako a good night's rest. As she left, the woman looked 
over her shoulder and smiled again. 

	"Minako? Could you please make sure my son gets his bokken 
back? Father will be most upset if he loses it." Sure enough, Seiji 
had accidently left the wooden sword in the corner, and Minako hadn't 
noticed it. With a rather unladylike curse, the blond girl grabbed the 
stick and jumped out the window. 

	In the bushes, Yayoi Date grinned wickedly. So! The little 
minx was chasing after Seiji in a nightgown? And with a bokken, too... 
she was glad she had put fresh film in her camera...

**********

	Seiji was minding his own business when everything went 
straight to hell. This, however, was usually the way his life worked, 
so at least he wasn't surprised. One second he had been carefully 
pruning the miniature bonzai tree his grandfather had planted for him 
years ago, and the next, he was flying backwards with shards of 
flaming kindling around him. 

	Fortunately, this was not the first time he had been in such 
a predicament. In mid-air, he grabbed at his clothes and tore them off, 
revealing a covering of green and grey armour that hadn't been there a 
second ago. Somersauting, he landed on his feet and lifted his hands 
to defend himself. 

	"Okay, what is it? Arago, or Anubis? The Dark One?" His 
opponent merely glared at him with glowing yellow eyes. Seiji shrugged.
"Did I spit in your coffee? Give me SOMETHING to work with, here!"

	The creature in question moved forward and swiped at him. It 
was too clumsy to be a youja, he decided as he jumped over its arm, 
and too fast to be a youma. Some kind of robot? That didn't make 
sense... 

	"BUSSO, KORIN!"

**********

	"Fascinating!" Dr. Hashiba leaned over the controls and 
stared intently at a series of monitors. "The boy is actually 
generating some form of energy from his own body! His biorythms are 
like nothing I've ever seen! Perhaps there really IS some form of 
power to these Yoroiden... we MUST bring him in for further study..."

**********

	Seiji no Korin, Ronin of Halo and bearer of the Korin Ken, 
spun his massive six foot long blade and disarmed the machine : 
literally. It flopped onto the ground and spat some kind of steel 
cable around him, which he also cut through. The device was really 
rather pathetic, he decided. He'd fought youma a thousand times 
tougher and stronger then this piece of tin!

	With surprising silence, two more of the silver monsters 
leapt over the bushes and fired some kind of arm cannons at him. 
Foolish, considering that his armour gained power from light. He let 
the waves of energy wash over him and smiled as he turned to 
face his new opponents. 

**********

	"How did he generate armour from thin air? Perhaps some form 
of dimensional rift, or teleportation effect?" Doctor Hashiba 
began to get a glazed look in his eyes as he started cataloguing the 
possibilities. "If we could find some way to simulate this effect, 
imagine the possibilities! Check the scanners, Ken! Where is that 
energy field originating from?"

	"Somewhere in the chest region, doctor. And doctor?"

	"What IS it, Ken? I'm busy here..."

	"Well, we found the frequency of his energy signature, doctor."

	"EXCELLENT! Ken, I want you to jam that frequency with an 
inverse sine wave... cancel it out! Let's see what effect that has on 
our young subject..."

**********

	Seiji Date easily blocked one blow and beheaded the offending 
creature with his return swing. Just once, he thought, it would be 
nice for someone to TELL him why he was being attacked by 
Kami-only-knew what! Sometimes, it felt like things like this ALWAYS 
happened to him... 

	The armless robot from earlier began to emit an odd subsonic 
hum. At first it was simply annoying, but suddenly the hum changed its 
frequency, and Seiji screamed as someone drove flaming steel drills 
through his head. Or at least, that was what it felt like... every 
pore of his body howled in agony as he fell to his knees. Korin! 
Somehow, they were trying to seperate him from Korin! 

	The last thing Seiji Date felt as the darkness claimed him was 
a set of cold metal fingers grabbing the gem around his neck and 
snapping the chain that held it in place. For a moment, he thought he 
was going to die. For a second, he almost hoped he would. 

*********

	Minako leapt over a hedge as if it wasn't even there, her wand 
sliding easily into her hands. "VENUS STAR POWER!" 

	Sailor Venus soared forward, kicking back the metal monstrosity 
that had been holding Seiji by the neck. As soon as she arrived, the 
mechanoid left in a flaring blast of jet exhaust. She fired a Crescent 
Beam, but missed. For some strange reason, Seiji hadn't moved, simply 
moaning softly on the grass. Minako cursed and knelt by him. 

	He looked like hell. There was a green mark on his head, 
glowing feebly and pouring smoke into the cool night air. Smoke or 
mist of some kind was pouring from his body as well, and it curled 
around her as she lifted his listless body into her arms. 

	"S-sailor V..." Seiji was barely even able to whisper, his 
eyes staring blearily into the distance. "You have to warn them... 
warn the Yoroi... someone... stole Korin. They... they TOOK Korin 
from me, Sailor V... Someone has to warn... warn the others..." 

	Sailor V didn't know what to say.

TO BE CONTINUED...