Subject: [FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma/WoT] Differing Powers 1
From: Louis-Philippe Giroux
Date: 6/10/1998, 4:24 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com

   Okay, kiddies!  Lemme know what you think!  Half the content in this
part had never been planned in the first place.  It just... popped out.
Scary.  Very scary.  DP 1 alone is longer than LoD parts 1-5...

   I downpowered the Nerimians slightly, especially in term of
over-exaggerated leaping ability and strength (in Ranma's case).  Ryouga is
still very strong and tough, but at a more "believable" level.

Phoenix
*********************************************

   Differing Powers - Chapter 1

   A Ranma/Wheel Of Time Crossover

   By Louis-Philippe Giroux
   <Phoenix@upc.qc.ca>

   Let me know what you think of this!
   C&C /MST welcome!!!

   The Wheel Of Time is a series created by Robert Jordan.  Read it at any
cost!  Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.  Suing me would be pointless,
as I have no money whatsoever.  I do this for fun, not profit!


   The Wheel Of Time - 7 books so far and still going! (Published by Tor Books)

 1 - The Eye of the World
 2 - The Great Hunt
 3 - The Dragon Reborn
 4 - The Shadow Rising
 5 - The Fires Of Heaven
 6 - The Lord Of Chaos
 7 - A Crown Of Swords
 8 - (Planned release: Fall 98 - The Path Of Daggers)


   I have to thank/blame John Walter Biles for writing "Parallel Lives," as
that's what gave me the idea for it.  Also thanks/blame to John (again) and
Jeremy Blackman for writing Ta'varen 1/12.  I recently heard that Jeremy
will continue work on T1/2.  Praise the Lord!

   Big thanks also go to Sachs for helping me weigh the pros and cons of
about three dozen different scenarios for the beginning of the story and
also for helping me lots of little details.  He's been a really big help!


   Chapter 1

 "The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that
become legend.  Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when
the Age that gave it birth returns again."


   As he approached the Tendo Dojo on his way back from school, Ranma
snickered about the latest insanity that had plagued Nerima.  He could
still recall how Akari Unryuu, a pig farmer, had been ecstatic when she'd
found out that her "Ryouga-sama" had managed to best her giant pet sumo pig.
   *For once, it's Ryouga who gets saddled with a fiancee,* he thought
gleefully.
   On his way to his room, he noticed that the door to Happosai's room was
slightly open.  Ranma decided to look inside out of curiosity, since the
old pervert usually never left his door open.  The room was filled with
neat piles of underwear, but Happosai didn't seem to be around.  *Probably
on a panty raid,* Ranma thought.  As he scanned the room, though, he
noticed something lying on the corner of Happosai's desk.  Walking over to
it, Ranma recognized what the object was: a fragment of the Nanban Mirror.
This fragment of the Mirror was still attached to part of the metal frame.
  Ranma took the piece in his hands and examined it.  Had the Mirror still
been whole, he could have wished himself to Jusenkyou and cured his curse
right away.  He sighed and pocketed the piece; maybe he could get Cologne
to make this little fragment work on its own.  Looking over the room, he
saw a stack of what appeared to be old scrolls beside a pile of panties.
   Carefully making sure not to touch the panties, he took the scrolls and
opened them.  The first one was gibberish.  It was some kind of text, but
Ranma couldn't even make out the characters.  He couldn't even tell if it
was because it was written in a different language or because of poor
penmanship.  He moved to the second, and his eyes widened when he saw what
was written on top of the scroll:  Nozomi e no Tobira - The Doorway To
Wishes.
   He quickly scanned the text and saw they were directions to this
doorway.  His eyes widened when he realized that this doorway was located
just outside Tokyo.
   "I could go there tomorrow..." he whispered.  "I can get cured!"
   "What are you doing in my room?" said a voice behind him.
   Ranma spun around and saw Happosai standing in the doorway, a bag slung
over his shoulder.  Impossibly fast, the old martial arts master jumped and
snatched the scrolls from Ranma's grasp.  "Those are mine!" he snapped.  He
quickly looked at which scrolls he was holding.  He then looked up at
Ranma, who had taken a defensive stance.
   "Forget about these, Ranma.  They're not worth the price.  Especially
the Doorway To Wishes," Happosai said, unusually solemn.
   "Sure," Ranma shot back.  "You just don't want anyone else to have
access to it.  You want the wishes for yourself!"
   Happosai shook his head.  Ranma was surprised to see something like...
regret in Happosai's eyes?  "I already went there once, boy.  Trust me.
You don't want to go.  They grant wishes all right, but the price they ask
is always something you'll regret later.  I know I did."
   *Price?* Ranma wondered.  "So what did you wish for?" he asked out loud.
*Probably lots of panties,* Ranma thought.
   "Skill and power," Happy answered in a faraway voice.  "And they granted
my wish.  They gave me the skill and power I had always wanted, but at a
price.  A very high price."
   "What was the price?" Ranma asked, now curious.
   Suddenly, Happosai's demeanor changed completely.  He produced a bucket
out of nowhere and splashed Ranma with it.
   "Enough boring talk!" cried Happosai happily.  "Put these on for me, my
darling Ranma-chan!" he said, whipping out a set of very pink and very
frilly underthings.
   Ranma stared in horror at the garments.  "No way, freak!  Not even Akane
would wear something like that!"
   A loud sneeze was heard a few rooms away.
   Happosai jumped at Ranma, obviously going for a grope, but Ranma managed
to punt him out the window, showering pieces of underwear all over the
neighborhood in the process.
   Ranma cursed when she realized that Happosai still had the scrolls in
his hands when she'd kicked him.  *Oh well,* she thought.  *I remember the
directions to the cave anyway, so it doesn't really matter.*  As she was
leaving Happosai's room, though, she started having second thoughts.  The
old pervert's behavior had changed dramatically when he'd warned her about
the Doorway.  He'd seemed unusually serious.  *Was he telling the truth?*
she wondered silently.  *Is the Doorway too dangerous to use?*
   She shook her head.  Maybe she could try asking Happosai again when he
returned?...  Nahhh.
   Kasumi's voice rang out.  "Everyone!  Dinner's ready!"
   Ranma quickly bounded downstairs, putting her worries to rest.  Things
weren't so bad right now.  She could always wait a few more days before
deciding.

   The following afternoon, Ranma came back from school depressed.  He
could have sworn that somewhere, a kami, or maybe a dozen of them, were
conspiring behind his back.
   The day's misadventures had all started in the morning, when his father
had decided to wake him with a pail of cold water.  That in itself wouldn't
have been so bad, but he hadn't even managed to get his old man wet during
their morning sparring session, which hadn't sat well at all with Ranma.
Then, at breakfast, Akane had insisted on cooking him breakfast, with
predictable results.
   Of course, Akane was particularly angry at Ranma for faking food
poisoning (which he hadn't been, at least not by much), so she punted him
out of the house, straight into the Nekohanten.
   Shampoo had been overjoyed that her airen had literally dropped by, but
sadly, the same couldn't be said for Mousse, who promptly tried to turn
Ranma into shishkebab.  After knocking Mousse out and losing Shampoo (which
had, of course, been more difficult than usual), Ranma had finally made it
to school, arriving late and getting splashed in the process.
   Again, he wouldn't have minded too much if it hadn't been for
Hinako-sensei trying to drain her for being late in class.
   At lunch, Kunou had spotted Ranma, who had not yet gotten the chance to
change back.  Using a previously unknown degree of stealth (well, either
that or Ranma had really not been paying attention), the kendoist had
managed to glomp Ranma, which had ended up in Kunou earning a boot to the
head.
   Ranma had then tried to apologize to Akane for the incident that
morning, but was unable to do so during lunch because of the Principal
spent the entire time trying to shave her bald again.
   Ranma had spent the afternoon cursing herself for forgetting to ask
Cologne about the Nanban Mirror fragment when she'd landed in the
Nekohanten.

   Ranma, now male again, sighed as he neared the Tendo Dojo.  Sometimes,
he wished his life could be a bit more normal.  Looking back on his day it
seemed the only thing that hadn't happened yet was Ryouga showing up to
challenge him for some idiotic reason.
   As soon as he thought that, he tensed and looked around wearily.  After
a minute, he breathed a sigh of relief.  He'd half-expected Ryouga to
suddenly show up out of nowhere.  He shook his head and trudged inside.
   "Tadaima," he said half-heartedly.
   "Ranma-kun!  Did you have a good day at school?" asked Kasumi, coming
out of the kitchen.
   Ranma was half-tempted to tell Kasumi how his day had gone in
excruciatingly painful detail, but thought better of it.  He shouldn't
burden Kasumi with his problems.  That wasn't the way of a martial artist.
   Besides, the odds of Kasumi answering with something else than "Oh my!"
were ridiculously low.
   "Everything was okay, Kasumi," he answered finally.  "Just... perfectly
normal."
   As he walked up to his room, he decided to peek in Happosai's room
again.  Everything was the same as the day before.  Happosai obviously
hadn't come back yet.
   *Maybe...* he thought at last.  *Maybe I'll try the Doorway after all.
My life can't possibly get any worse than it is right now.*
   He went into his room and started making plans.  He couldn't tell any of
his fiancees about this.  Kami-sama only knew what would happen if they all
got a wish.

   The following morning, Ranma bounded downstairs early.  As he reached
the kitchen, he found Kasumi preparing breakfast.  Kasumi turned around
from the counter, her eyes widening slightly in surprise.
   "Ranma-kun?  What are you doing up so early today?  I thought you liked
to sleep in on Sundays."
   Ranma grinned.  "I've got a very good day ahead of me, Kasumi."
   "Oh really?  What do you plan on doing?"
   Ranma decided that with proper precautions, Kasumi would never tell the
others if he asked her not to.  "Before I tell you, you have to promise you
won't tell anyone in the family or any of my fiancees.  I want this to be a
surprise."
   Kasumi smiled.  "All right, I promise.  Now what will you do today?"
   Ranma told her about the Doorway To Wishes that was just outside Tokyo
and how he planned to use it to remove his curse.
   Kasumi hugged him.  "That's wonderful!  I'm sure Akane will be so happy
about it!"
   "Err... well... uh..." said Ranma intelligently, a slightly panicked
look on his face.  "Just... remember not to tell the family or my fiancees,
okay Kasumi?  _Especially_ not Nabiki or Akane.  I wanna surprise them
tonight."
   Kasumi nodded.  "I won't tell them."
   Ranma smiled.  "Thanks Kasumi!"

   When breakfast was finally served, Akane was slightly irritated.
   Although this was nothing new, Akane was angry because Ranma still
hadn't apologized for being so mean the day before and now, he seemed to be
ignoring her.  "He could've at least _tried_ to apologize," she muttered
half to herself.
   "What did you say, Akane?" asked Ranma.
   "Nothing a sex-changing baka like you would ever understand," she
snapped back.
   To everyone's surprise, Ranma let the insult slide without as much as a
caustic remark.  Kasumi just smiled, while Genma was silently praising his
son for shutting up for once.
   Finishing quickly (even for him), Ranma thanked Kasumi for the meal and
went back to his room, where he took a small backpack and then left the
Dojo at a fairly rapid pace.
   Akane, who had silently watched all of this became suspicious, as usual.
*He sure is in a hurry.  He must be up to something.  Probably nothing
good, I'll bet.  That's the only reason why he'd be so eager to get out of
here.*  She decided to follow him.  "Kasumi, I'm leaving for a while,
okay?" she called out to the kitchen.
   "All right.  Will you be back for lunch?"
   "I don't know."
   "Be careful, Akane!"
   When she got outside, Ranma was already far ahead of her.  All she could
make out is that he was going roughly towards Ucchan's.  She started
running as fast as she could.

   Kuonji Ukyou was outside her restaurant, sweeping the sidewalk on this
bright morning.  As usual, she was thinking about what life would be like
when Ranma finally came to his senses and married her.  So intent was she
on her musings that she nearly missed Ranma hopping like mad a few roofs
away.   She blinked.
   *Where's he going in such a hurry?* she wondered.  Looking back, she
didn't spot another roof-hopper, so it wasn't likely he was being pursued.
   "Ukyou!" came a shout behind her.
   The okonomiyaki chef turned around and saw her sometimes friend,
sometimes rival in love, Akane.  "What's wrong, Akane-chan?"
   Akane stopped and looked around.  "Ranma isn't here?" she asked.
   Ukyou frowned ever so slightly.  So what if Ranma _had_ decided to come
here?  She was his fiancee after all.  "I just saw him hopping away a few
seconds ago."  She paused.  "Did you two fight again?" she asked hopefully.
   Akane shook her head.  "No, and that's the strange part.  He's been
acting weirder than usual this morning."
   "How so?"
   "He got up early, he smiled throughout breakfast and he refused to
insult me, even when I baited him..." Akane trailed off when she saw Ukyou
rush inside the restaurant and come out with her assortment of battle
spatulas.
   "Let's go," said the okonomiyaki chef.  "We gotta catch up to him!"
   "Do you think he might be going to the Nekohanten?" asked Akane, as they
started running.
   "I don't think so," answered Ukyou.  "The Nekohanten's almost the
opposite way he was going when I saw him."
   "Do you have any idea where he might be going?"
   "No."

   Ranma was roof-hopping, happy that the events this morning had gone on
without a hitch.  The old lech hadn't shown his face since he'd punted him
out two days ago.  *Probably better that way,* thought Ranma.  *He might
have told the others about the Doorway if he'd come back.*
   Ranma hopped down from the house whose roof he was standing on and went
to a bus stop.  He remembered that there was a bus line heading exactly
where he needed to go.  Besides, taking the bus was a bit less conspicuous
than roof-hopping, not to mention that he would run out of roofs long
before he ever got to his destination.
   "Ranma!  What are you doing here?" asked an annoyed voice behind him.
   Ranma froze.  *What's _she_ doing here?*  he wondered.  He slowly turned
around to see an out-of-breath Akane and a slightly puffed out Ukyou
glaring at him.  "A... Akane, Ucchan," he stuttered, "What are you two
doing here?"
   Akane didn't miss the stuttering.  To her, it was a clear indication
that Ranma was on his way to do something she wouldn't approve of.  "I
followed you since you left the dojo," she said, trying to control her
anger.  "You were acting way too strangely this morning and I just knew
you'd be up to something."
   "You didn't even stop to say hello when you passed by my shop," added
Ukyou, sounding hurt.
   Ranma looked around for a solution and sighed when he realized there
wasn't one in plain sight.  He was faced with the prospect of trying to
lose his two fiancees, which he doubted would help, since they would
probably end up rounding every martial artist in a ten mile area (he didn't
even want to _think_ about what would happen if every deviant in Nerima got
a wish), or he could tell them the truth.
   Of course, it never occurred to him to try and make up a lie (not that
it would have worked, given Ranma's notoriously poor talent for deception).
   As the bus got closer, he sighed and inclined his head towards the
vehicle. "Come on then.  I'll explain on the way there."  Moments later all
three martial artists were sitting in the bus.
   "If you must know, Akane, the reason I left this morning is that I may
finally have found something to cure my curse."
   Akane started to calm down.  "What _is_ the cure you found?"
   "Something called 'The Doorway to Wishes'.  I saw it on one of
Happosai's scrolls yesterday.  Apparently, they can grant any wish there.
That's why I took the bus.  I don't want everyone following me there;
especially not people like Shampoo, Kuno or Kodachi."
   Akane's eyes widened.  "Any wish?" she said in wonder.  She didn't
notice that Ukyou had echoed her perfectly.
   "Yeah," said Ranma.  "I'll be able to wish myself cured in no time.  I
won't even need to go back to China!"
   Akane didn't seem to notice Ranma's reply.  *I could learn to cook
perfectly, I could be as good as Ranma in martial arts, I could get him to
treat me with respect...  I could wish that Mother had never died!*
   *Ranchan and I can finally be married,* thought Ukyou, a smile blooming
on her features.  *I could get rid of the other fiancees...  I can wish
he'd never left me when I was young!*
   Ranma noticed that Akane and Ukyou seemed a little spaced out and
couldn't help but feel nervous.  On the other hand, he reasoned, they were
also quiet and weren't fighting, so he decided not to disturb them.  If
only he could stop shivering, though...

   When they reached the desired stop, Ranma, Akane and Ukyou got out of
the bus and started walking in silence towards their destination.
  An hour later, they were standing in the outskirts of Tokyo, in front of
what appeared to be a solid rockface.
   Akane looked up at the small cliff.  "So where's this 'Doorway' supposed
to be anyway?" she asked.
   Ranma was busy examing the surface of the rock.  "I couldn't get too
good a look at the scroll, but it said something about the Doorway being
hidden in a secret cave at the bottom of this cliff," he said.  "I wish I
could do  the Bakusai Tenketsu.  I'd be able to easily blow all the rock
away and find the entrance."
   Akane sighed.  "Well, I'm going to go take a look around.  Tell me if
you find the entrance."  Ranma grunted an affirmative.
   "You go take a look around," Ukyou said.  "I'll stay here and keep _my_
wonderful fiance company."  Akane scowled at Ukyou and left, tracing back
her steps on the beaten path they had taken to get there.  As she neared
the dirt road nearby, she heard a familiar voice:
   "Can you direct me to the Tendo Dojo?"
   She turned around, looking for the voice.  She ran ahead a short way and
saw Ryouga asking directions from a cyclist.
   "Ryouga-kun!  Over here!" she said out loud.
   Ryouga's head snapped around, recognizing the voice immediately.
"Akane-san!" he cried, forgetting the cyclist.  He quickly ran up to her.
"I've been looking everywhere for you," he said.  He then blinked and
looked around.  "This doesn't look like the Tendo Dojo, though."
   Akane laughed.  "This isn't the Dojo, Ryouga-kun.  We're in the
outskirts of Tokyo."
   "What are you doing here alone?  Did that honorless coward Ranma abandon
you again?" he asked, a plan to kill Ranma already forming in the back of
his head (along with all the other ones already present).
   Akane shook her head.  "He didn't abandon me, in fact, he's back there,"
she said, pointing behind her.  *Alone with Ukyou!* a small part of her
mind added.  She quickly malleted the offending thought.  Suddenly, an idea
bloomed in Akane's mind.  "Ryouga-kun!  Your timing couldn't have been
better!" she said enthusiastically.
   "Really?" asked Ryouga, perking up.  *She's happy to see me!*
   "Yes, Ranma could really use your help!"
   Ryouga tried to school his features as best as he could at the mention
of his dreaded enemy.  Ranma, that no good coward needed his help?  Never!
But looking at Akane, he could already feel his resolve crumbling.  He
could never say no to Akane.  "What does he need my help for?" asked Ryouga
at long last.
   "Ranma's trying to find the secret entrance to a doorway that grants
wishes.  The problem is, the doorway's hidden in a rockface and Ranma can't
easily find it.  He said that if he could do the Bakusai Tenketsu, he'd
find it in no time.  You could go help him since you're such good friends!"
Akane was pleased to see Ryouga starting to smile.  *I'll show Ukyou how
useful I can be!* thought Akane.
   She might not have been so happy had she known exactly what Ryouga was
thinking.

   "Ranmaaaa!"
   Ranma jerked around, surprised at the voice he'd just heard.  He found
himself face to face with Ryouga, who was glaring at him, as usual.
"Ryouga," he said, annoyed.  "What are you doing here, P-Chan?  Got lost
again?"
   Ryouga would have attacked Ranma if Akane hadn't been holding his hand.
"How dare you insult me, Saotome!"
   "Stop it, both of you!" Akane snapped.  She turned to Ranma.  "Look
here, I just found him and I brought him here because you said you needed
his technique to find the doorway!"
   Ranma felt like crawling into a hole and die.  *Of all the people Akane
had to tell about the Doorway, she had to tell Ryouga!* he thought
despairingly.  *He'll try to wish me dead if he ever gets the chance!*
   Akane, seeing that Ranma wasn't saying anything, directed Ryouga to the
rocky cliff.  "The entrance to the doorway is hidden somewhere around here.
You can just blast off the rocks until you find it."
   Ryouga nodded.  As he passed by Ranma to get to the cliff, he hissed in
a low voice: "Just wait 'till I make my wish, Saotome!"
   Ranma glared at him and almost moved in to pound him, but relented when
he saw Akane glaring balefully at him.
   "Don't even think about picking on poor Ryouga-kun!" she said ominously.
   "Whose side are you on?" snapped Ranma.
   Just as Akane was about to answer, a loud cry of "Bakusai Tenketsu!"
broke their argument.  They turned around just in time to see Ryouga taking
a huge chunk out of the cliff with his right index finger.  Their dispute
was suddenly forgotten as they watched the Lost Boy methodically tear the
rockface apart.
   Behind them, Ukyou could be seen, glaring at Ryouga and Akane.  *Why did
she have to being that jackass here _now_ of all times?  He's going to want
to try to wish Ranchan dead and I can't allow that...*
   When Ryouga used the Bakusai Tenketsu for the fifth time, the shrapnel
flew _inside_ the cliff instead of outward.  Ranma, realizing that Ryouga
had found the cave entrance, tried to make a dash for it, but was tripped
by Ryouga before he could get to the entrance.
   "Forget it, Ranma.  _I'm_ going in first," said Ryouga, already moving
towards the entrance.
   Ranma suddenly sprang up on one hand and spun around, kicking Ryouga in
the face several times.  Ryouga countered with a leg sweep of his own,
trying to knock Ranma down.  Neither of them heard Akane ordering them to
stop.

   Akane was starting to get angry again.  Ryouga had just found the
entrance, and Ranma had managed to pick a fight with him over who would get
in first.  She was about to knock both of them out with her mallet when she
saw Ukyou dashing towards the entrance.  Forgetting about the other two
dueling martial artists, she ran after Ukyou inside the cave.
   Ranma and Ryouga, who had so far been busy trying to beat each other's
brains out, noticed this.  They stopped in mid-punch and mid-kick
respectively and looked towards the cave entrance.  They both blinked and
ran for the entrance, their own fight forgotten.
   "Akane, Ucchan, wait!" shouted Ranma.
   "I won't let you get there before, me, Ranma!" snarled Ryouga.

   Ukyou was dashing down the tunnel, aware that Akane was pursuing her.
*It doesn't matter,* she thought to herself.  *I'll get my wish long before
she gets hers.*  Suddenly, she realized a bit too late that the tunnel was
turning and smacked into a wall.  *Owie...* she thought dizzily.  *The
things I do for my Ranchan...  I do wish there was more light down here,
though.*  She quickly looked around, trying to get her bearings, when she
found what she was looking for.
   The Doorway To Wishes.
   At least, that's what Ukyou assumed it was.  There wasn't much light
left at this depth, so she had some trouble seeing clearly.  It looked like
a rectangular doorway, carved out of a dark, reddish stone.  There was
something wrong about it, though.  Even with almost no light whatsoever at
this depth, Ukyou found she couldn't quite follow the edges of the doorway.
They seemed... wrong to the eye.  Leaning closer, she saw three lines of
triangles running down each side.
   "Oh no you don't!!" came the sudden shout behind her.
   Ukyou swore.  She should've gone straight in, instead of gaping at it.
Now, Akane was standing, a glowing mallet at the ready just a few feet
away.  "Why would you stop me, Akane? I only want to make sure Ranma and I
are safely married!" said Ukyou, while unlimbering her battle spatula.
   "Ranma won't marry you!" snapped Akane, waving her mallet threateningly.
   "Oh, and why's that?" taunted Ukyou.  "You spend you days saying you
don't want to be engaged to Ranchan.  Now's the perfect time to make that
statement come true."
   Akane flinched.  She was saved from answering when Ranma and Ryouga
finally made their way down.
   Ranma was a few feet away from the door when Ryouga managed to trip him.
As Ranma fell flat on the floor, Ryouga jumped over Ranma.
   He was about to cross through the door, something hit him on the head
and he was suddenly pushed sideways.  Turning, he saw Ukyou, glowing blue
and holding her spatula as if she had just swung it.
   "I won't let you wish Ranchan dead!" screamed Ukyou.
   "Step aside, Ukyou!" snarled Ryouga.  "I can finally have my revenge!"
   By that time, Ranma had recovered and he again made a dash for the
Doorway.  He was stopped by Ryouga, who started struggling with him.  Ukyou
quickly joined the fray.
   Of course, this incensed Akane, who stomped towards them.  "Can't you
idiots do anything without figh...  Waaahhh!" she finished awkwardly, as
she tripped on the rocky floor.  She crashed in the trio of martial
artists, her momentum enough to fling them all through the Doorway at the
same time.

   It was then that something happened.  The Doorway To Wishes, a
ter'angreal that was a few thousands of years old, had been designed so
that only one person could pass through at a time.  The shock of having
four at a time was bound to have ill-effect.

   Ranma couldn't tell what was happening.  Last thing he knew, he and
Ryouga were each trying to reach the Doorway To Wishes first.  Then, a
detached part of him had noticed Ukyou joining the fight and Akane shouting
at them.  Next thing he knew, they were all falling towards the Doorway.
   Everything became blindingly white.  Or was everything going completely
dark?  He couldn't tell.  He felt as if his body was being pulled in a
thousand different directions at a time.  He tried to scream, but no sound
came out, or maybe he could not hear them.  He felt thousands of alien
words, each a white-hot needle, filling his mind, shaping it to accommodate
some unknown language.  Sights blinded him.  Sounds deafened him.  It was
madness...
   Everything suddenly stopped and he fell face first on the ground.  The
pain in his head vanished.  He tried to get up, but his muscles wouldn't
obey, so he settled for rolling on his back.  It was as if someone had run
an electrical cable through him.  Blinking, he tried to check his
surroundings and noticed that something was _very_ wrong.  For one thing,
he wasn't in the cave anymore.  He could easily tell because it was far too
bright for one thing.  Also, the air wasn't anywhere as stale as it had
been inside the cave.
   The second thing he noticed was that _something_ was getting
increasingly hot in his left pocket.  Scrambling wildly despite the
stiffness, he managed to extract the offending item out of his pocket and
threw it on the ground besides him.  He waited a few more seconds before
rolling over he getting up on his knees.  He blinked again, trying to get
rid of the dizziness, when he got a good look at what had been in his pant
pocket.
   Lying on the ground, smoking as if it had been overheated, was the
fragment of the Nanban Mirror he had taken from Happosai's room the
previous day.
   Ranma looked at it, not understanding what had happened.  He turned
around and stared at his surroundings.  He was indeed no longer at the
Doorway.  He wasn't even outside the cave.  He was standing in the middle
of a wild forest, and from what he could tell, he was nowhere near Tokyo
since most of the trees he was surrounded with didn't grow near Tokyo.  The
weather was also a lot cooler than it should be.
   He spun around, surprised, when he heard a moan coming from one of the
nearby bushes.  He rushed over and saw Akane sprawled on the ground,
clawing her way back to consciousness.  Ranma quickly kneeled by her.
   "Akane!  Are you all right?" he asked, frantic.
   "Augh...  yeah, I'm all right," she mumbled weakly.  "I think.  What
happened?"
   "I'm not sure yet...  But I don't think we're in Tokyo anymore, though."
   Akane looked around, blinking.  "Where _are_ we?"
   "I have no idea," replied Ranma, frowning.
   Movement from behind another tree caught their attention.  Turning
around, they saw Ukyou and Ryouga getting to their feet, none too steadily.
   "Ucchan!  Are you all right?" asked Ranma, moving over towards her.
Behind him, Akane began to fume silently.
   "Where... where are we?" asked Ryouga, looking around him.
   "As if knowing would help you?" said Ranma sarcastically.  As the words
left his mouth, he saw Ryouga's expression darken.
   "Why you..." growled Ryouga, taking out his umbrella.
   "Ryouga-kun, stop!  Please!" said Akane, from where she was sitting.
"Don't make fun of Ryouga-kun!" she snapped, turning towards Ranma.
   "Fine," the pig-tailed martial artist said, annoyed.  After making sure
Ukyou was all right, he took one last look around.  "I'm gonna try to find
out where the hell we are."
   With that, he started jumping up the surrounding trees to get a better
view of where they were.
   "Whatever happened in there, it sure didn't _feel_ like a wish..."
mumbled Ukyou, coming over to where Akane and Ryouga were now standing.
"Did you guys feel as if you brain was going to explode?"
   "Yeah, but I don't know why.  I don't think I _want_ to know why.  That
didn't feel good at all," said Akane, shivering slightly.
   "Don't worry, Akane-san.  Everything will be all right," said Ryouga,
trying to show as much confidence as he could.
   Akane smiled at him.  "Thanks, Ryouga-kun" she said.
   Ryouga's heart nearly stopped.
   Ukyou looked up the tree Ranma was now standing on top of.  "Find
anything, Ranchan?" she called out.
   The pig-tailed martial artist didn't answer right away.  He turned
around a few times and then jumped down the tree.  He took a breath.
"Well, we're definitely not in Tokyo anymore, that's for sure," he finally
said.
   "Are you sure?" asked Ukyou.
   "Yeah," Ranma answered, passing a hand through his hair.  "I looked
around and there's nothing but forest around, except for what looks like a
small village that way," he pointed in a direction.  "I also don't remember
ever seeing a forest like this one anywhere in Japan."  He looked at Ryouga
sideways, but continued before the Lost Boy could pick up on the innuendo.
"There are other things, too," he added.  "Wherever we are, it's a lot
colder than it should be at this time of year in Tokyo.  Look around," he
said waving his hands.
   As they did so, Akane was the first to realize what Ranma meant.  "The
trees..." she said slowly.
   "Exactly," said Ranma.  "It's supposed to be almost summer, yet
everything looks half-dead, like the end of winter or maybe autumn."
   Ukyou had an idea.  "Wait a minute.  I remember the geography teacher at
school saying that seasons are reversed, depending on which hemisphere you
live in.  Is it possible that the Doorway sent us elsewhere on the globe?"
   "I hope not," said Akane.  "Father might already be getting hysterical
at my disappearance.  He'll never get over it if he learns I've ended up
somewhere else on Earth."
   "Where _is_ the Doorway, anyway?" asked Ryouga.  "If it dumped us here,
it should be around, no?  All we have to do is walk back through it again."
   "You... have a point," agreed Ranma, somewhat reluctantly.  "Let's look
around," he said.  "Then again," he said, glancing at Ryouga, "Let's split
up in pairs.  Less chance of getting lost that way."
   Ryouga snarled, but Ukyou was quicker to react.
   "I'll go with Ranchan!" she said brightly and with that, she dragged a
stuttering Ranma away.
   Akane shot a daggered look at Ranma.  "Fine!" she huffed.  "Take the
pervert.  I'll go with Ryouga-kun!"  With that, she took the Lost Boy's
hand, whose expression turned almost instantly from anger to bliss.

   After searching around for more than 20 minutes (during which time Ranma
retrieved both his pack and the Nanban Mirror fragment), the four martial
artists had to come to grips with the fact that the Doorway, wherever it
might be, was _not_ close by.
   Since it appeared that they would not have daylight for long, Ranma
suggested that they should move towards the small village he had seen
earlier so they would not to be caught without a shelter for the night.

   As they got nearer to the village, the Nerimians began hearing the
sounds of a crowd milling.  Getting closer, delicious smells also began
wafting in their direction.
   They had just gotten past the first few houses when Ranma stopped to
take a deep breath.
   "Man!" he said, "I don't know what they're cookin' here, but it sure
smells great."  Without thinking, he added "Smells a whole lot better then
Akane's cooking, at any rate.  Probably safer to eat, too."
   Akane's eyes narrowed in anger.  "RANMA NO BAKA!"  Before anyone could
blink, the youngest Tendo daughter punched her fiancee through a wooden
wall.  The thick logs of the wall smashed inwards, causing a thick dust
cloud to form in the air, as years of accumulated dirt was shaken off by
the force of the blow.  Ranma ended up on the floor of a fortunately empty
storage room, a few splinters sticking out of his clothes at odd angles.

***

   In Emond's Field, Perrin Aybara and Matrim Cauthon were standing near
one of the houses at the edge of the village, watching the retreating form
of their friend Rand who had just left towards the farm where he lived.
   "Well," said Mat, "I guess I'll head back to the house.  Winternight or
not, my da will probably want me to milk the cows before the sun sets."
   "I guess I'll head back to the forge as well," said Perrin.  "Master
Luhhan says people always need last-minute repairs on their things before
Winternight."  He was about to leave when he heard a girl's angry voice cry
out "RANMA NO BAKA!"
   Mat and Perrin automatically turned their heads towards the noise, just
in time to witness an oddly-dressed short-haired girl punch a young man
straight through the old Dowtry shed's walls.
   "What the!?..." they both exclaimed.  They had time to share a horrified
look before Mat found his voice again.
   "Is... Is he dead?" he croaked.
   Perrin was watching the proceedings with a sick fascination.  He'd never
thought a girl, of all people, could punch someone straight through a wall
that thick.  The young blacksmith knew that the shed had walls made of logs
that were several inches thick.  He thought about the strength necessary to
push someone all the way through them...
   He gasped when he saw the legs move again.  "Light!  He's not dead,
Mat!" he exclaimed.  They both started running towards the young man to
help him.
   Mat and Perrin could only stare in mute fascination as they saw the
young man pull himself to his feet, looking none the worse for wear.  The
first thing they noticed was how strangely he was dressed.  The young man
was wearing a red, long-sleeved shirt, tied with small wooden straps.  He
had loose-fitting black breeches tied to his ankles.  Mat absently blinked
when he noticed the young man was not wearing boots, but rather what looked
like... black slippers?
   They were shaken from their stupor when the black-haired youth dusted
himself off and started berating the girl who had put him through the
shed's wall.
   "Geez, Akane!  Do you _have_ to snap at the smallest thing?"
   "You insulted me again, Ranma!  You deserved it!"
   "Kawaikunee!"
   "Baka!"
   Perrin and Mat looked at each other uneasily.  Not only had they no idea
what the last words really meant, but neither of them really had any idea
on how to handle this.  The young man, who looked younger than they were,
was acting as if nothing had happened.
   *That's just not possible!* Perrin thought.  *No one can be shoved
through a wall that thick and have no injury whatsoever!*  Unfortunately,
his eyes seemed so be saying otherwise.
   Coincidentally, the two Emond Fielders thought the same thing at the
same time.  *At least they're not wearing black cloaks.*

   Ukyou had known Akane would lose it as soon as Ranma had begun
commenting on the food.  *Ranchan,* she thought almost resignedly, *You may
be one of the greatest martial artists alive, but you don't know when to
keep your mouth shut.*  When the inevitable bashing occurred, she glared as
best she could, but it was pointless, as Akane wasn't even looking at her.
She then turned around to see Ryouga looking at the hole in the wall with a
satisfied smirk.  She frowned.  *I don't get it,* she thought, depressed.
*If Akane hates Ranchan so much, why doesn't she just give him up?  I'd be
happy, She'd be happy, Ranchan would be happy... heck, even Ryouga would be
happy!*  Looking around, she saw that two tall village youths, older than
themselves, were currently gaping at them.  They were both quite a bit
taller than she was.  One was lanky while the other had curly hair and was
heavily muscled, more so than any of them.
   "Don't mind them," she told the two young men.  "They're always like
that."
   Speaking seemed to jar the lanky one back to reality.  "What..  What do
you mean?"
   "Don't worry about them arguing like that, they always do."
   "But...  He was...  She punched him through the wall!" the lanky one
said in a strangled voice.
   Ukyou blinked.  She looked at the broken wall, and at the youth again.
"Oh.  That," she said a bit sheepishly.  "We'll repair the wall if that's
what you want."
   The shaggy-haired youth blinked at her.  "The shed?  It was an old
thing, but... The point is... Isn't he _hurt_?"
   "Ohhh...  that!"  Ukyou smiled.  "Don't worry, he gets hit a lot worse
on normal days."  The look the two youths shared told her they didn't quite
believe that, so she decided to change the subject.  "Say, can you tell me
what's the name of this village?  We kinda got lost while traveling."
   "This is Emond's Field," a young woman's angry voice rang out in the
air.  "And I'd like to know just what happened here!"
   The tone of the voice was enough to stop even Ranma and Akane's
bickering.  The Nerimians all looked up to see a young woman with a long
dark braid looking at them with narrowed eyes.  She carried a stick in one
hand and she looked as if she was about to use it.
   "Wisdom!" the two youths exclaimed nervously.

   Nynaeve al'Meara, Wisdom of Emond's Field, was not in a good mood (not
that she often was in the first place anyway, but that's not the point).
She had just finished dispersing the wool-headed crowd that had followed
the peddler's arrival at the Winespring Inn.  *Why did that fool man tell
everyone about that fool war in Ghealdan?* she thought angrily.  *Now,
everyone will be gossiping about that war for weeks to come.*
   She was briskly walking back to her house when she heard a loud crack
coming from a house at the edge of the village.  Her eyes narrowed when she
heard the angry shouting that followed.  She fingered the switch in her
left hand.  *Just what happened over there?* she wondered, frowning.  She
set out towards the voices, already running through  mental list of people
who could have produced such a racket.  *It better not be another of
Matrim's pranks or I'll dose him with enough dogweed tea to make him weep
for a year!*  As she got closer, though, she realized she couldn't
recognize the voices that were arguing.  When she finally turned around the
last house, she blinked.
   The first thing she noticed was the number of people present.  She
quickly recognized Perrin and Matrim, but couldn't recognize the other four
children.  Two of them were arguing rather loudly, a black-haired youth
wearing strange black breeches and a bright red shirt and a young girl with
a blue blouse and a bright yellow dress.  Nynaeve blinked in confusion when
she noticed that the young man was sporting a short braid.  *What is that
boy doing with a braid!?* she wondered.
   Her eyes then fell on another boy was standing behind the girl, wearing
a yellow shirt and dark green breeches.  He was shouldering a huge
traveling pack.  The last one was a young girl who was talking with Matrim
and Perrin.  Nynaeve frowned when she saw how the girl was dressed.
Instead of wearing a normal dress as all young women should, she was
wearing _very_ tight black breeches that left nothing to the imagination,
and her top garment wasn't exactly any better.  She had a small traveling
pack in her hands and there was a large, metallic object strapped on her
back, although Nynaeve couldn't tell what it was.  Also strange is that
neither girl had her hair in a braid.  *Who are they?  Are they from a
nearby village?* she wondered.  It was then that she heard the girl's
question.
   "This is Emond's Field," she said, her voice ringing out in the air.
"And I'd like to know just what happened here!"  She had the satisfaction
of seeing the two bickering ones stop.  She saw Perrin and Matrim blanch
slightly.
   "Wisdom!" they chorused nervously.
   Nynaeve rounded on Matrim, whom she suspected of having started all of
this, as usual.  "All right Matrim Cauthon, I want to know what's going on.
Now."  Her tone brooked no arguments.
   Mat put up his hands in defense.  "I didn't do anything!" he protested
loudly.  "Perrin and I were just talking when we saw that girl," he said,
pointing to Akane, "punch him," pointing now to Ranma, "through the
Dowtrys' old shed!"
   Nynaeve raised an eyebrow incredulously and turned to Perrin for
confirmation or denial.
   "It's true," Perrin said, nodding vigorously.
   Nynaeve was about to answer when she heard the girl with the dress
mutter something along the lines of the baka deserving it.  She frowned at
the girl.  "Who are you children and where are you from?"
   "Children?!" the red-shirted boy said, outraged.  "We ain't children,
miss."
   No one noticed Perrin and Mat taking a step back.
   "You will address me as Wisdom!" Nynaeve snapped.  "Now what are your
names and where are you from?!"
   The boy was obviously about to fire an angry retort when the girl with
the tight breeches put a hand on his shoulder and spoke soothingly.
   "Don't, Ranchan.  She doesn't know who we are and we don't know who she
is, so don't do something you'll regret later."
   *Well,* thought Nynaeve.  *She may not dress decently, but she seems to
have more wits than the boy, not that this surprises me...*
   The girl turned to face her.  "I might as well start the introductions.
I'm Ukyou Kuonji."
   The boy with the braid spoke next, his tone filled with quiet arrogance.
"My name is Ranma Saotome"
   "I'm Akane Tendo," said the girl in the yellow dress.  Nynaeve was a bit
surprised when the girl bowed slightly while presenting herself.
   "I am Ryouga Hibiki," said the boy with the huge traveling pack.
   Nynaeve suppressed a small shiver when she heard the last boy speak.
The last boy's voice sounded strangely... bleak.
   "And as for where we're from," the now-identified Ukyou continued, "We
all live in Tokyo."  She glanced at Ryouga.  "Well, most of the time,
anyway."
   Nynaeve blinked in confusion.  *What strange names...*  She couldn't
make anything out of what they had said.  "Where is this... Tokyo village?
Did you come to Emond's Field alone?  Where are your parents?"  She
gestured towards the hole in the wall.  "And what _did_ happen to that
wall?"
   Ranma put up his hands.  "Hey, one question at a time, please?"
   Mat and Perrin winced at that.  Saying something like that to Nynaeve
was akin to looking for a tongue-lashing.
   "I told you to address me as Wisdom!" Nynaeve said, the rope on her
anger fraying with every remark.
   "All right!  _Wisdom_!" he snapped, filling the word with contempt.
"You happy now?" Ranma shot back.
   Nynaeve gave her braid a mighty tug while her face became an interesting
shade of red.  Mat began to back away.
   "Well, ah, Wisdom, you see...  My da wants to see me right away, cows to
be milked and everything..."
   He almost got away, but Nynaeve rounded on him before he could leave.
"You stay right here, Matrim!" she said ominously.  "I'm not finished with
you!"  Mat sighed in defeat and returned besides Perrin, who rolled his
eyes.  They decided to watch the confrontation, instead.
   "Tokyo is not a village, it's the capital of Japan," said Ranma, a bit
calmer than before.  Mat's escape attempt had given him the opportunity to
collect himself.
   Nynaeve frowned.  "I've never heard of a city called Tokyo before."
   Ranma shrugged.  "I'll show you on a map if you have one."  He looked at
the darkening sky for a second before continuing.  "As for the rest," he
shrugged, "We were investigating a certain doorway which was rumored to
grant wishes when you stepped through it.  Unfortunately, due to an...
accident," he quickly glanced at Akane, "We all happened to go through at
the same time.  Everything became dark and next thing we knew, we were
standing in the middle of a forest not far from here.  _Anyway_, we'd
really appreciate it if you had some way for us to contact our folks, like,
say, a <phone>?"
   Ryouga suddenly looked oddly at Ranma.  He glanced at Akane and Ukyou,
but they didn't look as if they had realized anything was wrong.
   Meanwhile, Nynaeve was staring at Ranma.  So were Mat and Perrin for
that matter.
   "Wishes?" said Mat, frowning slightly, "Is this like the story of Bili
Under The Hill?"
   "Actually, the doorway wasn't under a hill.  It was buried in a cave,"
supplied Ranma.
   Mat blinked.
   "Don't tell me made-up stories, boy!" Nynaeve said, seemingly coming
back to her senses.
   "He's not lying!" piped up Akane, who was beginning to get a little
angry herself.  "This village doesn't look like it's anywhere near where we
live.  If the stupid doorway wasn't what sent us here, then what did?  How
come our clothes look so different than yours?  How about our looks?"
   Nynaeve was taken aback by the girl... no, Akane's outburst.  She had
raised good points, though, about their clothes and looks.  They clearly
indicated that they weren't from anywhere nearby.  Especially the Ukyou
girl's clothing.  No Two Rivers woman would ever be caught wearing
something like that.
   "I'd like to add something," said Ryouga, before Nynaeve could return to
her tirade.  He turned to the other Nerimians.  "Haven't *any* of you
noticed we aren't speaking Japanese right now?"
   There was a collective blink among the Nerimians.
   "Wait a second..." said Ukyou slowly.  "You're right!"  She stopped for
a moment.  "The Doorway!" she exclaimed.  "Remember guys?  While we were
floating in the... that void, I felt as if my head had become a pincushion.
It must've been the whole language being crammed in my skull.  It was the
same for you guys, yes?"  The others chimed their agreement.  She turned to
Ryouga.  "You're a genius when you want to be, Ryouga!" she said, giving a
quick hug to the Lost Boy, whose face reddened from the contact.  "How did
you guess, anyway?  If you hadn't told me, I probably wouldn't have figured
it out by myself."
   Ryouga shrugged.  "Ranma asked them if there was a <phone> nearby.  I
noticed the changes in languages, but you didn't seem to notice it at all.
Maybe it's because I travel more than you; I have more exposure to foreign
languages."
   Ranma frowned for a second and concentrated.  <Wait a minute.  Can you
guys still understand me?> he slowly asked in Japanese.  Everyone nodded
affirmatively.  <Good,> he said, relieved.  <At least, whatever happened
didn't mess with our original memories.>
   The three Emond Fielders watched the last exchange completely puzzled.
   "Um... What did you just say?" asked Perrin, blinking.
   "Mmh?" Ranma turned around to face the apprentice.  "Sorry.  I was just
making sure we hadn't forgotten how to speak Japanese."
   "Japanese?  What's that?  It sounded like goose gabble to me," observed Mat.
   "Be that as it may," said Nynaeve coolly, regaining her poise, "None of
this explains what happened to that wall," she said, pointing to the old
shed.
   "Oh, that?" Ranma waved a hand dismissively.  "I got punched through it."
   Nynaeve's left eye twitched.  "You expect me to believe you were thrown
_through_ the wall and you don't have a mark?"
   "But he did get punched through it," protested Mat.  "Perrin saw it too!"
   Nynaeve turned on them with a scowl.  "None of these children look
strong enough to do what you just said.  And besides, if the boy _had_
broken through the wall, I doubt he would be standing without a single
scrape or cut on him."
   "That's because I'm a martial artist," interrupted Ranma.
   "You already said that," said Nynaeve impatiently, tugging her braid
again.  "And it doesn't make sense.  What kind of artist practices... war
anyway?"
   Ranma paused to pick a few splinters of wood out of his hair.  "Not war,
not exactly anyway.  Martial artists practice fighting, or in my case,
barehanded fighting.  My training allows me to stand more pain than average
people can."
   Nynaeve snorted.  "Fighting?  You don't look like a soldier and you're
too young to be one at any rate.  How can you prove any of what you've just
said?"
   Ranma shrugged.  "Well...  If you really want to."  He turned to the old
shed and reared his fist when something occurred to him.  "Ehhh...  Is it
all right if I use what's left of the wall?"
   Nynaeve blinked at the request.  She looked uncertainly at Mat and Perrin.
   Perrin shrugged.  "I heard from Master Dowtry that he was planning to
have it torn down within the next few days.  He says it's too small for his
needs and he can't get rid of the smell inside."
   "Good enough," said Ranma.  Not waiting for Nynaeve's say so, he walked
to the shed and yanked one of the remaining logs out of the wall.  Ranma
quickly examined the piece he held.  It was about four feet long and five
inches wide.  Unaware of the stares he was getting from the Emond Fielders,
he gave the log to Akane.  "Here, go ahead," he told her.
   Akane looked puzzled.  "You actually _want_ me to hit you with it?" she
asked incredulously.  Ranma nodded.  Akane started sweating.  She didn't
mind hitting him when he insulted her, but out of the blue like that?...
   "Ranchan!" protested Ukyou.  "You don't have to prove it to her like that!"'
   Ryouga resolved the issue by taking the log out of Akane's hands.
"Don't worry, Akane-san," he said.  "I'll pound him for you."  This said,
he took the log and proceeded to bash a surprised Ranma in the head with it.
   Once it made contact with its objective, the log splintered in two with
a loud crack, sending wood chips flying everywhere.  Unshielding her eyes,
Nynaeve couldn't help staring in mute fascination, while the other two were
gaping disbelievingly at the look on the two martial artists' faces.
   Ranma was currently glaring at Ryouga, who had a smirk on his face.  A
thin strip of bark being the only thing that kept the log together on the
pig-tailed martial artist's head.
   "You didn't have to hit so hard, P-Chan!" yelled Ranma.
   Amazingly, Ryouga ignored the barb.  "What's the matter, Ranma?" he
taunted.  "Whining like a girl again?  Maybe you should show them your
better half!"
   "Not unless you want them to see yours as well, bacon-boy!" growled
Ranma, flicking the broken log off his head.
   "Enough!" snapped Nynaeve, startling everyone.  Before Ranma could
react, the Wisdom flowed towards him and began examining his head for
injuries.  She was flabbergasted when she found none.  Becoming irritated
again, she shook Ranma by the shoulders.  "All right!  How did you do
that!?" she hissed.
   "I told you, Wisdom," Ranma said, prying Nynaeve's hands off his
shoulders, annoyed.  "I'm a martial artist!"
   Nynaeve closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  *This isn't happening,*
she thought.  *I did _not_ see a scruffy boy hit another one with a blow
that would fell grown men.*
   "Did you see that, Perrin?" she heard Mat whisper behind her.  "Not even
Master Luhhan would be able to stand a hit like that without being hurt!"
   "But the kid with the headband doesn't even _look_ strong enough to
break the log in half," replied Perrin in the same whisper.  "What in the
Light are they?"
   "He said he fights barehanded," whispered Mat.  "Maybe he's an Aiel?"
   Nynaeve had to resist the sudden urge to slap both youths.  She forced
herself to school her features so she could at least _appear_ calm.  No one
had made her lose control so badly in a long time.  Well, maybe Matrim had,
but still...  She tried to remembered what the foursome's original goal was
by coming here.  Ah, yes.  They wanted to go home.  She could do that.  The
sooner they were out of Emond's Field, the better.  "All right.  You four,"
she said, indicating the Nerimians "Will come with me to the Winespring
Inn.  There are probably a map or two in there you can use to find your way
home."  She turned to Mat and Perrin.  "You two great bullcalves are going
to keep quiet about all this.  I _don't_ want the village in a uproar!  I
also want you to find Master Dowtry and explain to him what just happened
to his shed."
   "But..." Mat stuttered.  "How are we supposed to convince him when you
didn't believe yourself when we told you?" he asked.  *Not that I really
believe any of it myself,* thought Mat to himself.
   Nynaeve fixed him with a stare that would freeze flames solid.
   Mat gulped.  "Yes, Wisdom!" he said hastily.  He began to retreat,
pulling Perrin by his shirt.  "Come on," he hissed to the muscled
apprentice.  "I don't want to be in yelling distance of the inn when she
gets there!"
   Nynaeve pretended she hadn't heard the last bit.
   More loudly, Mat turned towards the Nerimians and knuckled his forehead.
"The Light shine on you all," he said hurriedly, before turning away.
   Nynaeve looked at the two boys leave.  She didn't harbor much hope that
they would keep quiet about all this, but sometimes, miracles happened.
Sometimes.  She turned to the Nerimians.  "All right.  You four come with
me.  The sooner this is over, the better I'll feel about it all."
   "You and me both," muttered Ranma.
   Nynaeve yanked her braid yet again and glared at the pig-tailed boy, who
returned the look smugly.  She thought about boxing his ears, but seeing as
the boy seemed to have abnormal tolerance for pain, it probably wouldn't
have any effect.

   Minutes later, the Nerimians, led by Nynaeve, finally arrived at the
inn.  Before Nynaeve could open the door, though, Ryouga voiced a question
that had been bugging him since they had begun following the Wisdom around.
   "Excuse me, Wisdom, but why does everyone in this village keep looking
strangely at us ?"
   Nynaeve stopped turned towards him.  "Because you're outlanders," she
said.  "We don't get many strangers in Emond's Field."  With that, she
opened the door to the Winespring Inn, leaving Ryouga with even more
questions.
   Once inside, a stout, graying man wearing an apron walked up to them.
"Wisdom?" he said inquisitively.  "Is there something wrong?"
   *Yes!* Nynaeve wanted to shout.  "I don't know," she said, "But I hope not."
   The man blinked in confusion, then took a peek at the troop behind
Nynaeve.  "And who are these young folks?"
  The Nerimians introduced themselves again, as they had when Nynaeve had
asked the same question.
   "... I see..." said the man, after hearing the introductions.  "I'm Bran
al'Vere, the Mayor of Emond's Field."  He looked at the Nerimians, unsure
of what to do.  "So what's the problem?" he asked Nynaeve.
   Nynaeve decided to skip their arrival.  It was bad enough Mat and Perrin
would likely spread stories, she didn't want the Village Council to meddle
as well.  She wanted those children out of Emond's Field as fast as
possible.  "Apparently," she said, "They're lost and they need to find
their way back home, but I've never heard of villages called either Nerima
or Tokyo.  Perhaps they can find it on one of your maps?" she said shortly.
   Bran looked at the four Nerimians again.  He frowned curiously and
pointed over Ukyou's shoulder.  "Child, what is that thing on your back?"
   Ukyou blinked and turned around.  A few seconds, she realized he was
talking about her battle spatula.  "Oh, that?" she said, fingering the
giant combat cooking utensil.  "It's my combat spatula."
   Bran shared an incredulous look with Nynaeve.  He shook his head and
frowned slightly.  "Going back to what we were saying, I only have one map
Wisdom, and it's old," he said.  He looked at the Nerimians.  "How long has
it been since you left this... Nerima?"
   Ranma looked at the others with a 'what-do-we-tell-him?' look.  Ukyou
and Akane shrugged faintly while Ryouga was busy looking at the rest of the
inn and frowning (as usual).
   "Well," Ranma started, "You see, there was this doorway we found..."  He
stopped when he heard the door behind them open.
   The Nerimians all turned as one and saw a woman and a man come in.  The
woman was dressed in a dark blue velvet dress and a sky-blue cloak.  She
had dark hair and moved with fluid grace.  She radiated command and
confidence, her steps sure and swift.  The man, on the other hand, had the
look and air of a hardened warrior.  He wore armor and a sword, the latter
looking like as if it was a part of the man.  He wore an odd cloak; its
color seemed to shift when they looked at it, as if it was trying to blend
with its surroundings.
   Looking at the two newcomers, Ryouga couldn't help but frown internally.
The village, the way these people dressed, the way they behaved...
everything seemed wrong somehow.  There was something very odd about where
the Doorway to Wishes had left them.
   "Mistress Moiraine!" said Master al'Vere, temporarily forgetting all
about the Nerimians.  "What can I do for you?"
   Moiraine acknowledged the man's greeting with a nod of the head.
"Master al'Vere," she began, "I was wondering if you knew where I could
find..." she trailed off as she finally took in the Nerimians.  She frowned
for an almost imperceptible moment, then looked curiously at the group.
"I'm sorry, I don't think I've met you four before," she said pleasantly.
"And if I am not mistaken, your looks say that you are not from this
village, are you not?"
   Ranma was frowning warily at the man behind Moiraine  when he heard the
question.  *That guy is dangerous...* he thought absently.  He turned to
Moiraine and gave a slight bow.  "No, we're not from this village.  As a
matter of fact, we're trying to find our way back."
   "What village are you from?" asked Moiraine, curious.
   Ranma shook his head.  "It's not a village.  We're from Tokyo, in Japan."
   Ryouga's suspicions began confirming themselves when he carefully
observed the woman's reaction.  She didn't have the slightest idea where
Tokyo was, or even what Japan was, if he read her appropriately.
   "I'm afraid I do not recognize any of those names," Moiraine said,
confirming Ryouga's suspicions.
   "I thought as much," said Nynaeve, cutting off Moiraine.  She turned to
Master al'Vere.  "Could you go get that map of yours, please?"
   Master al'Vere blinked.  "Yes, yes...  I'll go get it," he said,
shuffling towards the back of the inn, glancing occasionally at the
Nerimians.
   Once he was gone, Moiraine spoke again.  "I am Moiraine.  I am a
collector of stories.  Who might you be?"
   The Nerimians introduced themselves, although it only seemed to puzzle
Moiraine further.  Before she could begin asking the same questions as
Nynaeve had, Master al'Vere came back with a tattered piece of paper.
   "Here it is," he said. "But I wouldn't wager on its accuracy.  I bought
it from a peddler a long time ago."
   The Nerimians all crowded over the map.  There was a silence for a
while, then Ukyou spoke up.  "Um, guys?  I don't recognize _anything_ on
that map," she said.  "It's surprising enough that I can read it in the
first place..." she muttered.
   Akane was next.  "I don't recognize anything either.  I've never heard
of any places called Andor, Cairhien, Tear or Illian."
   Ranma and Ryouga were silent.  Finally, Ranma turned to Master al'Vere.
He pointed at something on the map.  "Excuse me, but where are we right now
on this map?"
   Master al'Vere pointed at a spot on the map.  "About here," he said.
   "And these are countries?" Ranma asked, poking the map.
   Master al'Vere glanced at what Ranma was pointing and nodded.  "Yes they
are."
   Ranma shook his head.  "I've never heard of _any_ of these countries,"
he said.  "Do you have a bigger map?"
   Master al'Vere shook his head.  "No, it's the only one I have.  You say
you don't recognize anything?"
   Ranma shook his head.  He looked at Ryouga.  It was a long shot, but...
"Ryouga?  Recognize anything?" he asked hopefully.  The bandannaed martial
artist, who was frowning at the map, didn't answer.  Ranma frowned
slightly.  "Hey, Ryouga!"  Ryouga grunted non-committally, which Ranma
decided meant that he didn't know.  He threw his hands up in the air.
"Great!  We're stuck in the middle of nowhere and we don't know how to go
back.  What else could go wrong?" he asked wearily.  "Stupid doorway," he
muttered in a sotto voice.  "Should've known not to trust anything I found
in Happosai's room..."
   To say that Moiraine's interest was piqued by that time would have been
a _very_ gross understatement.
   "Excuse me," she said.  When she saw that she had their attention, she
continued.  "How exactly _did_ you arrive in this village?"
   Nynaeve yanked her braid and made a strangled noise, but no one noticed her.
   Ranma sighed and looked at Akane and Ukyou.  "Any of you wanna tell her?
I don't feel like having another person think that what we did was
impossible."  The pig-tailed martial artist was lucky that he hadn't been
looking in Nynaeve's direction at that moment, or he might have been
careful about what he had been about to say.
   Then again, maybe not.
   "I've seen and heard many things, I assure you," Moiraine said smoothly.
"I am quite open-minded."
   Ranma looked once more at Akane and Ukyou.  "You were there from the
beginning, Ranchan.  Personally, I think this whole thing is really weird."
She paused for a moment.  "Well, weirder than what we usually go through,
anyway."
   Akane shrugged helplessly.  "Go ahead and tell her.  Maybe she has an
idea on how we can get back."
   Ranma shrugged.  "Okay, then."  He turned to Moiraine.  "But if the
Wisdom didn't believe us, you won't either."
   Nynaeve sniffed from where she was standing.
   "Two days ago, I came across a scroll that described the location of a
certain doorway which was rumored to grant wishes when you stepped through
it..."  he was interrupted by the other three Nerimians.
   "Two days ago?!" chorused Akane, Ukyou and Ryouga.
   "You mean you've had that scroll for two days and you didn't tell me?"
asked Akane angrily.
   Ranma backed a step or two.  "It wasn't on purpose, Akane!  I found the
scroll in Happosai's room by accident!  I wanted to go the same day, but
that old lech gave me some obscure warning about the Doorway To Wishes.  He
said something about 'the price they asked always being too high' or
something like that.  I wasn't sure whether he was telling the truth or not
and... and maybe I wouldn't have gone if yesterday hadn't been such a lousy
day," he finished with a sigh.
   "But why didn't you tell us, Ranchan?" Ukyou asked.
   "Yeah," Ryouga added darkly.  "You were going to use the wishes for
yourself, weren't you?"
   A pained expression crossed Ranma's face for a brief moment.  "Well...
I admit all I wanted to do at the beginning was to get my curse lifted, but
I probably would have tried to get _all_ the curses lifted once I got
there."
   "Yeah, right," said Ryouga sarcastically.  He began popping his knuckles
loudly and advanced towards Ranma, who subconsciously adopted a defensive
stance.  Before their battle auras could appear, however...
   "No fighting in the inn!" a voice barked, bringing them out of their stupor.
   The two martial artists blinked and and looked at Master al'Vere, who
had a stern expression.
   "You heard me," the innkeeper said.  "I'll no have fighting in my inn.
If you children want to fight, do it outside."
   Ryouga kept glaring at Ranma.  "We'll settle this later, Saotome,"
growled the Lost Boy.
   "Anyway," continued Ranma, ignoring the slightly disbelieving expression
on Moiraine's face, "When I finally decided to go there, these two,"  he
said, pointing to Akane and Ukyou, "decided to follow me because they were
suspicious and we picked up Lost Boy over here along the way," he said, now
pointing at  Ryouga who growled softly.  Ranma then took a deep breath.
"Then, well...  we got to the Doorway all right, but we all started
fighting and...  well...  we all fell through the Doorway at the same
time," he said.  "We felt as if we were falling in darkness for a while and
we woke up not far from here in the forest, but we couldn't find the damn
Doorway anymore, no matter how much we looked around, so we came here,
hoping we could figure out where we were... which we obviously can't," he
finished sarcastically, looking at the map on the table.  He turned once
more to Moiraine and added, with a wide smile plastered on his face: "So,
wanna help?"
   There was a very deep silence in the room for a long moment.  Ranma
looked around and blinked when he noticed there were quite a few more
people in the room now.  Five more, as a matter of fact.  Three men, one of
whom had a colorful cloak seemingly made up of many colored patches.  He
had white hair and an equally white bushy mustache.  The second man was
tall and lean, and bore a bewildered expression. The third man was huge.
He was even even more heavily muscled than Perrin, Ranma noticed, and he
looked just as puzzled as the second man.  The last two people were women,
each wearing a braid.  The young one was probably the older one's daughter,
if her looks were any indication.  The way the older woman was dressed
suggested she had been working in a kitchen.
   "Do you seriously expect us to believe that?" finally said Nynaeve,
tugging at her braid angrily.
   Ranma snorted.  "I don't really care whether you believe it or not
because I know that's what happened."
   "It sounds even stranger than what Matrim told me," said the tall man.
   Nynaeve almost eeked when she heard the voice behind her.  She whirled
around angrily when she noticed, much to her dismay, that Egwene, Mistress
al'Vere, the gleeman, Haral Luhhan and Abell Cauthon had all been standing
behind her.  She almost wanted to shout when she saw how much damage
control she would have to do, but she settled for chewing Abell out instead.
   "What do you mean, Matrim told you?" she asked, tugging her braid again.
"I specifically told him to talk about this to no one!"  She settled her
glare on Haral before Abell could form a response.  "And I suppose Perrin
told you?" she said acidly.
   The blacksmith shrugged, his massive frame making the gesture even more
imposing than it was meant to.  "Perrin was troubled when he came back to
the forge.  The lad nearly burned himself twice on the forge.  When I asked
him what was going on to make him lose his wits like that, he started
muttering about young, indestructible outlanders in Emond's Field.  I
wanted to know what was going on, but he didn't talk, so I came here."  He
looked over to the Nerimians.  "Their story is... unusual to say the least."
   Nynaeve stared at Haral.  "You're not actually believing them, are you?"
She sniffed disdainfully.  "I thought you had more sense than that."
  "Matrim told me they destroyed the Dowtrys' old shed with their bare
hands," put in Abell quietly.  "I did not believe the lad, but I saw the
truth of what he said when I looked at what's left of it.  He kept
muttering about Aiel, too."
   Nynaeve scowled again.  She threw an angry stare at the Nerimians, who
pointedly ignored it, since they were all looking at Moiraine.  In the
meantime, the three members of the al'Vere family were discussing
animatedly in their little corner, while the gleeman was staring at the
Nerimians as though they were some kind of puzzle.
   "So, can you help us?" repeated Ranma.  He ignored all the comments that
were beginning to buzz around the room.
   Moiraine seemed to come out of a slight trance at that moment.  "Can you
describe this... Doorway?" she asked.
   Ranma couldn't tell if she thought he had made the story up or not.  "I
didn't get a really good look at it.  It was in a cave and I was kind of
busy fighting with Ryouga."
   "I saw it," interjected Ukyou.  "It was made out of a dark, reddish
stone.  It looked like a doorway, except that the edges were all wrong.  I
couldn't follow them quite right."  She paused.  "It was also standing
against a wall, so I was very surprised when we actually fell _through_ it."
   Moiraine seemed to consider what to say next.  She looked at each of the
Nerimians, taking a little more time when she reached Ukyou.  She tilted
her head slightly, smiling faintly.  When her gaze reached the last member
of the group, Akane, a smile seemed to cross her features at that point,
more pronounced than the first, but it was gone almost too fast for anyone
to notice it.  She shook her head slightly.  "I am not sure I have ever
seen, or heard anything that sounds like this... Doorway To Wishes, but I
know of a place where you might get your answers."
   Ranma sighed.  "I guess a lead is better than nothing.  So what is that
place you're talking about?"
   Moiraine smiled just a bit more.  "Tar Valon," was all she said.
   The Nerimians, of course, didn't display the slightest hint of
recognition at the name, but some of the Emond Fielders were a bit more
vocal.
   "Tar Valon!" hooted Abell at the same time Haral snorted.  "Mistress
Moiraine!  Do you mean to send these children to look for answers at the
very heart of Aes Sedai power?  What can you be thinking?  Aes Sedai would
not even listen to their tale anyway!"
   "Would they not?" asked Moiraine, her smile never wavering.  "I have
heard that the White Tower holds many secrets.  Perhaps they could find
what they seek there."
   Everyone was about to add in their grain of salt to the discussion when
Akane asked a perfectly innocent question: "Excuse me, Mistress Moiraine,
but what are Aes Sedai?"
   Everyone blinked. Twice.
   "Please tell me that was a joke, child," finally said the man with the
white hair.
   Akane blinked and looked at her fellow Nerimians in turn.  Each of them
shook their head.  She turned to the man.  "I'm sorry?..." she trailed off,
fishing for a name.
   The old man suddenly grinned.  "I'm sorry young lady, I must be
forgetting my manners!  My name is Thom Merrilin," he said, giving his
patch-colored cloak a flourish, "And I am a gleeman."  His voice boomed,
sounding as if he had announced himself in a hall.
   Akane found herself smiling at the old man's antics.  "It's nice to meet
you, Master Merrilin," said Akane, bowing slightly.  "But I _was_ speaking
the truth when I asked my question."
   The gleeman's eyebrows twitched.  "How can you not know about Aes Sedai,
child?  Everyone knows about them.  How else do you call channelers in your
land?"
   Akane gave him a puzzled look.  "Channelers?" she said, clearly not
understanding.  "What's a channeler?"
   This time, even Moiraine was beginning to look nervous.  The gleeman
looked at Akane as if trying to decide whether she was laughing at him or
not.
   Akane blinked and turned to Ranma.  "Do you know what he's talking
about?" she whispered quietly.
   Ranma, equally confused, shrugged.  "I don't have the slightest idea,"
he whispered back.
   Ryouga suddenly spoke up.  "Look, all we really need to know anyway is
the road to Tar Valon and we'll be on our way with apologies for bothering
you."
   Moiraine raised an eyebrow at him.  "And how do you plan to go there?
You do not have horses and you seem to have little in the way of supplies,"
she said.  "Add to all this that wandering the roads alone at your age is
not safe at all..."  Moiraine trailed off when the four Nerimians started
sniggering, even Ryouga.
   "Us...  In danger?..." gasped Ranma.  "Now that's a real joke..."
   Moiraine gave him an icy look.  "What is so amusing about what I just said?"
   "We're martial artists," answered Ryouga.  "If someone attacks us, we
can always beat them up."
   "You've no more wits than a sheep!" snapped Nynaeve, tugging her braid
yet again.  "Beat people up?  Have you no common sense?"
   Ryouga was about to retort when the main door opened.  A woman came
inside, bearing a tray filled with what looked like small yellow cakes.
"Marin," said the woman, "I brought you some some honeycaaaakes!..."  The
last word was almost shouted as the woman tripped on one of the straps of
Ryouga's pack, which was carelessly lying near the door.
   The cakes, of course, went flying towards Ranma, who, for a fraction of
a second, was reminded of his training at the Nekohanten, when Cologne used
to fling several bowls of ramen at a time towards Ranma.  Reflexes took
over and he dove to catch all the cakes and the plate, although, to prevent
dropping any of the cakes, he was forced to adopt a pose that did not look
comfortable at all.
   Ranma was now lying backwards, being held up only by his left leg and
his head.  His arms and right foot were in twisted positions, with cakes
lying all over them.  The plate was sitting precariously on top of the
right knee and one cake, in particular, was sitting right over his nose.
   "Wow, that's great, Ranchan!" exclaimed Ukyou.  All the Emond Fielders
were gaping at Ranma, amazed at the display of speed and dexterity.  Even
Moiraine and Lan looked impressed.
   The cake on top of Ranma's nose began to tickle him and the martial
artist began to emit pre-sneezing sounds.
   "Maybe I spoke too soon..." muttered Ukyou.
   Ranma sneezed loudly and everything became a blur.  The physical seizure
from the sneeze was enough to fling all the cakes back up in the air, and
Ranma sprang into action.  Seizing the plate from the air, Ranma then
managed to use it to catch all the cakes without touching them with his
hands, except the cake that had been standing on his nose, which he caught
in his mouth.
   Everybody was staring at Ranma.
   "Show-off," Ryouga muttered.
   Ranma glanced at Ryouga  "Hey, she tripped on _your_ pack, so don't go
blaming me."  The pig-tailed martial artist turned towards the newcomer and
handed her the plate.  "Here you go," he said.  "Sorry about the last cake,
though," he added as he finished chewing, "But I don't think anyone would
have eaten it once I sneezed on it."  Seeing as the lady still wasn't
saying anything, he swallowed the cake and looked at the plate.  "Those are
really good, by the way.  Do you mind if I have another one?"
   That seemed to shake the woman out of trance.  "Ah... No...  Go right
ahead young man," she said, blinking and looking  repeatedly from Ranma to
the cake plate.
   "Thanks!" said Ranma enthusiastically.
   "That was... very impressive, boy," said Thom slowly.  He tilted his
head and crinkled his eyes ever so lightly.  "Have you ever considered
becoming an acrobat, boy?  I could use someone like you in my act."
   "I'll say," added Abell.  "I've never seen anyone bend like that or move
so fast."
   Ranma shrugged.  "I've been doing stuff like that all my life," he said.
The Emond Fielders began murmuring among themselves.
   "They could stay in Emond's Field for tonight," piped in Egwene.  "After
all, it's Bel Tine and I'm sure lots of other people would like to hear
their stories or even see them do more feats like that. "
   Nynaeve shot Egwene a dismayed look.  "Egwene, not you too?"
   Egwene's cheeks reddened and she began toying with her new braid nervously.
   Ranma was about to speak when Ryouga put a hand on his arm.  The
bandanna-sporting martial artist whispered a few words in Ranma's ear, who
then looked at Ryouga with a considering expression.  He then nodded.  He
turned towards Egwene.  "Sure," he said.  "I guess it won't hurt if we wait
until tomorrow to leave."
   A smile suddenly bloomed on Moiraine's face, although the Nerimians
would have shivered had they noticed it.  It was the kind of smile a cat
gave a mouse that had nowhere left to run.
   "Ranchan?" said Ukyou questioningly.  Akane was also looking oddly at
Ranma.
   "Come on," he said. " Maybe a bit of fresh air will do us good."  With
that, Ranma turned towards the rest of the room.  "If you'll excuse us?"
Without waiting for an answer, he and Ryouga took Akane and Ukyou and
gently, but firmly, led them outside the inn, leaving many confused people
standing inside.
   "What was that all about?" demanded Akane, once they were far enough
from the building.  Everywhere around them, people were talking and
laughing, but people didn't seem to be noticing them for the moment.
   Ranma shrugged.  "Ryouga came up with a good idea, surprisingly enough."
   Ryouga glowered briefly, but cleared his throat when he noticed Akane
and Ukyou's gazes upon him.  "Well, they were offering us food and shelter
for the night.  We might as well make the most of it if we're going to
travel all the way to this Tar Valon city.  Maybe they might even pay us if
we do a few chores for them."
   "Ryouga, you sound as if you've done that before," observed Ukyou.
   The Lost Boy nodded.  "That's one of the ways I keep going when I
travel.  Sometimes, I work for someone for a day and they either give me a
meal or some money for the day's work."
   "We don't have to worry about money, Ryouga-kun," said Akane
reassuringly.  "I've got enough yen to get by for a while."
   Ryouga shook his head.  "We're not speaking Japanese right now,
remember?  I'd say that there's a pretty good chance that it means that
we're not in Japan anymore.  They may not accept yen as payment."
   "So we find a bank," said Ukyou.
   Ryouga was silent for a few seconds and sighed.  "I just think we may be
in bigger trouble than we thought."
   "What do you mean, Ryouga-kun?" asked Akane, becoming a bit worried.
   Ryouga looked at them.  "Have any of you considered the possibility that
this... well... might not be our world?"
   There was sudden silence.
   "What are you talking about, Ryouga?" asked Ukyou, frowning.
   Ryouga shook his head.  "I'm not sure, but...  Ever since we woke up in
that forest, something's been bugging me.  The weather and the language
were only the first hint.  Look at this village: the way the houses are
built, the way people are dressed... Remember the Moiraine woman's
bodyguard?  Why would a woman need a bodyguard in a village like this?  And
if she did, why only one?  The guy even carries a sword!  How many
bodyguards do you know dress in old-fashioned armor and carry swords around
these days, now that weapons like guns are available?  That armor wouldn't
stop a serious criminal, even if the guy's a martial artist."
   "Kuno carries his bokken everywhere," countered Ukyou.  "And so do
people like the Musk and the bozos on Toma's floating island."  She paused.
"Let's not forget Shampoo's sword either."
   Ryouga relented slightly.  "Okay, maybe the sword isn't so much out of
place, but what about the guy's armor and the people's clothes, then?  It
just feels wrong..."
   "It still doesn't mean anything," said Akane nervously.  "We could just
be in an isolated corner of the world, that's all!"
   "Akane, I've traveled all around the world and I've never see anything
quite like this.  I really don't think we're on Earth anymore."  Ryouga
sighed and turned to Ranma, who hadn't moved an inch since Ryouga had begun
speaking.  "What about you, Ranma?  You haven't said a word so far."
Ryouga stood there, waiting for the smart-ass remark his rival would
undoubtedly say.
   Ranma took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.  "That, as surprising as
this sounds, is because I pretty much agree with what you just said,
Ryouga."
   Ryouga blinked.  Ranma had agreed with him.  Ranma never agreed with
him...  What was going on?  Was he trying to confuse him again?
   While the Lost Boy was trying to figure out Ranma's latest ploy, Ranma
turned to the two girls.  "I think he's right about us not being on our
world.  Look at all of the strange stuff: we learn to speak and read a
whole language just like that," he snapped his fingers, "That ain't normal.
We should've at least noticed we were speaking a different language right
away, but we didn't."  He waved his hands.  "No one here knows what or
where Japan is, we can't recognize a single place on that map..." he passed
a hand through his hair.  "What the Moiraine woman said about us going to
Tar Valon on _horses_?"  He shook his head and sighed.  "Ryouga's right.
Something very strange is going on here."  He shrugged.  "As for staying
here for the night, Ryouga had a good idea.  I've traveled long enough with
Pop to know when not to refuse hospitality when someone offers it."  He
showed his pack to Akane and Ukyou.  "There's also the fact that we really
don't have much in the way of supplies and besides, if we're going to be
stuck here for a while, we might as well learn as much as we can about this
place before we go on the road.  We might learn some useful stuff."
   Akane and Ukyou looked at each other worriedly.  Ranma and Ryouga seemed
convinced of what they were talking about.  Were they really in another
world?

   Back inside the inn, Moiraine looked at Lan.
   "What do you think, Lan?" asked Moiraine.
   The Warder frowned ever so slightly, making his face even more
dangerous.  "I don't know that I trust their story, but they all know how
to fight.  I could tell that much by looking at them.  The boys in
particular probably fought several times.  They move far too efficiently
for common village boys." He paused for a moment.  "When the two boys
threatened each other, the Saotome boy used an unarmed fighting stance.  He
also... weighed me when I came in."  He paused again for a few moments.
"They called themselves martial artists.  It might have something to do
with that, although I've never heard anyone being referred to as an 'artist
of war', or whatever it means."  His eyes became puzzled for a fraction of
a second.  "I don't know what is the metal object on the Kuonji girl's
back, though."  His eyes swung to Moiraine.  "What did _you_ find out?"
   Moiraine smiled secretively.  "They intrigue me very much.  I was not
expecting to meet children like them here."  The smile faded slightly.  "It
is how they arrived here that worries me, Lan.  I can only think of two
things that resemble what the girl described."
   Lan didn't move a muscle, but Moiraine still felt the question.
   "The first possibility is a ter'angreal I heard about, once, but it's
not anywhere near here.  It is hidden away in the Stone of Tear, and it
does not do what the boys says it did."  She took a deep breath.  "The
other possibility is much more serious.  They might have been able to use a
Waygate."
   Lan looked at Moiraine sharply.  "A Waygate?  I thought only Ogier could
use Waygates..."
   Moiraine made a vexed sound.  "They might have found a way to enter
accidentally, Lan.  But I cannot let this affect my reason for being here.
I already found the ones I was looking for and there is no chance that
these children might be them.  The are too young."  She looked at the
ground absently.  "Maybe it's another ter'angreal I do not know about."
She shook her head and looked at the inn's door.  "Most curious is also the
fact that they did not seem to know anything about channelers or Aes Sedai.
They did not show any reaction at all when I mentioned Tar Valon either.
Very strange."  She moved towards the door, Lan following smoothly behind
her.  "Very strange indeed," she murmured.

   Outside the inn, more and more people were talking with the Nerimians.
Since their exit of the crowd, many people had taken notice of them, and
while most of the adults only looked at them strangely, a small group of
children of all ages had gathered around the strange visitors, some
surprised to see outlanders of their own age, something which did not
happen very often, if ever.  Some of the younger children were fascinated
by the Nerimians' looks and clothes, while others wanted to know tales
about their homeland.  In short, they were being kept busy by the crowd,
especially Ukyou who attracted attention not only because of her mode of
dress, but also because of her accessories.
   A girl, slightly younger than Ukyou, approached the chef.  "Why do you
dress like that?" she asked timidly.
   Ukyou blinked.  "What do you mean, 'like that'?"
   The girl reddened slightly.  "Your breeches.  Why don't you wear a
dress?  It's not proper for girls to wear breeches."
   "Says who?" countered Ukyou.  "I wear these clothes because they're
comfortable and they're practical to fight in."
   The other girl gaped at her.  "You fight?"
   "Sure," Ukyou nodded.  "Where we live, we get attacked almost every day.
You have to learn how to defend yourself or you get clobbered.  A dress
really isn't all that good to fight in."
   While the other girl was trying to process that, Ukyou heard a whispered
conversation behind her.
   "Would you look at the one with the tight shirt and breeches?  I
wouldn't mind dancing with her tonight."
   Ukyou swiftly unlimbered her combat spatula and rapped the boy on the
head.
   "Hey!  That hurt!" yelped the boy, putting a hand on his head.
   "Oh, stop whining, you big baby!" said Ukyou.  "I didn't even hit hard."
   The boy stared at her, embarrassed by her reply.  "What did I do,
anyway?" he muttered crossly.
   "There's only one person I would ever dance with," Ukyou said happily,
"And that's my Ranchan!" she finished, glomping Ranma to illustrate her
point.
   Akane's reaction was immediate.  "Ukyou!  Ranma is _not_ your fiance!"
She began tugging Ranma in the opposite direction.
   Murmurs began circulating through the crowd.
   Ryouga's expression darkened.  He slowly took his umbrella out of his
pack and pointed it at Ranma.  "Have you no shame, Ranma?  How dare you
flirt with Ukyou and ignore poor Akane's feelings!"
   Ranma started to sweat.  Not only did he feel like a wishbone with Ukyou
and Akane pulling him in different directions, but Ryouga was about to try
and tear him apart again.  This could get messy, so he tried reasoning with
the Lost Boy.  "Lay off, P-Chan!  I didn't ask for this!"
   Ryouga snarled.
   *That didn't come out quite right,* a detached part of Ranma's mind
commented.
   "DON'T... CALL ME... P-CHAN!!!" howled Ryouga.  "You... you... HALF-MAN!"
   By now, most of the crowd had pulled back, fully expecting a fistfight.
   They didn't get one.
   "I wouldn't use such an insult, boy.  It could get you in a _lot_ of
trouble," a voice cut out around them.  They turned around to see Thom
Merrilin standing just a few steps away from them.
   Awed whispers of "Master Gleeman" floated through the evening air.
   Strangely enough, the gleeman's remark had been enough to momentarily
stop Ryouga's advance.
  "Stay out of this, old man," Ryouga told him contemptuously.  "This has
nothing to do with you."
  The gleeman shrugged.  "You can beat on each other as much as you want,
as I think it would be quite a show, and for a gleeman, that's saying a
lot, but as I said, I wouldn't use the word 'halfman', even as an insult if
I were you."
   Ryouga frowned.  "Why not?"
   "The word 'Halfman' is another name for Myrddraals in the Borderlands.
They call them Fades here, I think."
   "Everyone knows that Fades don't exist!  They're just tales," piped up a
village youth.
   "Are they?" the gleeman said mysteriously, toying with his mustache.
   Ryouga snorted.  "I don't know what a Myrddraal is and I don't really
care."  He turned to Ranma, who was still being pulled by Akane and Ukyou.
"What I _do_ know is that this... _lecher_ is going to get the beating of
his life!"
   "I'm not a lecher!" protested Ranma.
   "Excuse me?" interrupted a familiar voice.  Ranma, Ryouga and Thom
turned to see Moiraine and Lan looking at them.  Oblivious to the
forthcoming carnage, the undercover Aes Sedai continued: "If it were not a
bother, I would like to speak with young Ranma for a moment."
   Ukyou and Akane suddenly became aware of her presence.  "What about?"
they both asked ominously, neither releasing her hold on Ranma.
   Moiraine's serenity was unruffled by the two girls' expressions.  "I
would like to question him about the trip he is planning to undertake,
among other things."
   Ranma sighed in relief.  An opening!  "Ah, sure, Lady Moiraine!  I'd be
uh... glad to talk with you," Ranma said a bit nervously, as he untangled
himself from Akane and Ukyou, who had lessened their grips to glare at
Moiraine.
   "Ranma!"  "Ranchan!" came the twin protests.
   "It'll only be a moment!" Ranma tried to explain.
   "On the other hand," Moiraine interrupted again, "she should come as
well," she said, pointing at Akane.
   Akane blinked and looked at Ukyou in confusion, but walked to rejoin
Ranma besides Moiraine.
   Ryouga and Ukyou watched them leave suspiciously.
   "That woman's up to something," Ukyou muttered.
   Ryouga nodded absently, still in the mood for hitting something.

   "So what do you want to talk about exactly?" asked Ranma as they walked
away from the crowd.
   "I have questions for both of you."  Moiraine paused, choosing her
words.  Lan stood quietly, a few paces behind her, eyeing both Nerimians
while checking the surroundings.  Moiraine turned to Akane.  "You said you
did not know what a channeler was.  Did you speak the truth?" she said, the
last words coming out like sharp ice.
   "Yes I did!" said Akane forcefully.  "I don't know what you mean by that
word.  Channelers.  What do they channel anyway?"
   "The One Power, of course," answered Moiraine, carefully watching their
reactions.
   Akane looked again towards Ranma, who gave a helpless shrug.  She turned
back towards Moiraine.  "I'm sorry, Lady Moiraine, but that doesn't mean
anything to us."
   Moiraine looked at Akane, as though trying to figure out a puzzle.
   Ranma's expression suddenly brightened.  "Hey!  Is this One Power
anything like Chi?" he asked.
   Moiraine's expression became curious.  "Chi?" she said, tasting the
unfamiliar word.
   "Yeah," Ranma nodded.  "Kinda like..." he trailed off and frowned,
looking around him.
   "Ranma?" Akane questioned.  "What's wrong?"
   "Not sure," he said, still frowning.  "I get the feeling someone's about
to attack me."  He began taking a defensive stance.
   By that time, the Warder had already half-way drawn his sword.
Suddenly, cold blue eyes widened.  "Moiraine!  There are Trollocs nearby!"
he growled.
   Moiraine's eyes widened in total surprise.  "What?!  Here?"
  "What's wrong?" Akane asked.  "What are Trollocs?"
   The ground started to shake slightly and sounds of a stampede began to
make themselves heard.
   "They're creatures of the Dark One," growled Lan.  "They live only to
kill people."  He took a few steps towards the forest, a odd gleam in his
eyes.
   Moiraine's stern voice stopped him cold.  "No, Lan!  We have to warn the
villagers first!"
   Ranma had fully expected the grizzled man to ignore the orders, so it
came as a surprise to him when he nodded and dashed back to the village,
barely a step behind the woman.  He looked at Akane.  "C'mon, Let's follow
them!  Something tells me we're going to have a fight on our hands."
   For once, Akane didn't feel inclined to argue.
   When they got back to the village, they found Lan and Moiraine trying to
warn people that Trollocs were coming, although it didn't seem to have much
effect.  Those who weren't simply too drunk to notice thought the two were
making a joke.
   Ranma and Akane suddenly saw Ukyou and Ryouga running towards them.
   "What's going on?" asked Ukyou, nodding at Lan and Moiraine.  "What's
their problem?"
   "Yeah," said Ryouga.  "What's a 'Trolloc', anyway?"
   Ryouga got his answer when wild animal cries were heard.  The Nerimians'
heads all turned towards the noise and were faced with huge figures running
into the village.
  Automatically shifting to defensive stances despite their shock, the
Nerimians watched the huge creatures, which averaged between seven and ten
feet in height.  They wore armor and helmets of some kind, often protruding
with spikes and most were waving curved, scythe-like swords while shouting
wild battle cries.
   Chaos suddenly seized the village.  Villagers, who moments ago, had been
laughing off Lan and Moiraine's warnings, were now running away in fear.
Women were screaming their children's names and some men were desperately
trying to find weapons of some kind.
   Ranma was about to engage one of them when several fireballs suddenly
hit the Trollocs in front of him.  He watched, shocked, as the huge shape
burst into flame and howled in agony.  Letting his gaze wander back towards
the source of the blasts, he saw Moiraine almost systematically incinerate
every Trollocs that came close to her.  He stared  in sick fascination as
the man, Lan, flowed smoothly to run Trollocs through with his sword, one
after another, never slowing down, a dancer of death.
   "They... they kill them?" he said softly, incredulously.  He had never
seen someone so casual or expedient about killing before and it was very
disturbing.  He shared a quick glance with the other Nerimians only to see
the same expression on their faces.
   It was only when a Trolloc slashed at a villager, nearly splitting him
in half, that Ranma reacted out of his dazed state.  He rushed at the
Trolloc and kicked it solidly in its midsection.  The Trolloc bent in half
and Ranma hammered it with a few dozen, Amaguriken-speed punches to the
face, finishing with a spin kick which laid out the Trolloc out cold.  He
looked at his fallen foe, only to realize for the first time that it wasn't
human.  A wolf's muzzle was pointing from under the helmet.
     He quickly turned to the other Nerimians.  "Protect the villagers!" he
yelled to them.  "Take those damn things down!"  He noted that Ryouga was
already fighting the Trollocs by himself, wielding his trusted umbrella.

   Akane and Ukyou looked at each other and nodded nervously.  Behind them,
a woman screamed and the two girls turned around to see a mother and her
child backed against a wall, a eight-foot tall, eagle-faced Trolloc slowly
advancing on them.  Akane quickly rushed and kicked the Trolloc behind the
knee.  It gave a surprised shriek and stared falling backwards when Ukyou
jumped from above and slammed it on the face with her combat spatula with
all her strength.  The Trolloc slumped, out cold.
   Akane looked at Ukyou and gave her a slight smile.  "Looks like we make
a good team."
   Ukyou shared the smile.  "C'mon!  Can't let Ranchan and Ryouga have
_all_ the fun, now can we?"  She paused to look at her spatula, which was
sporting a faint impression of the Trolloc's beak.  "I hope my spatula can
handle it.  Those things are tougher than they look!"
   Akane turned to the huddling woman.  "You'd better get to safety.  We'll
handle this."
   The woman stared at Akane.  "You're just a child!" she managed to say.
   "Akane!" yelled Ukyou.  "Heads up!"
   Akane's head swung back just in time to duck in order to avoid
decapitation by Trolloc blade.  "Gyaaahh!"  She jumped backwards, only to
realize that two Trollocs had sneaked up on them and Ukyou was now battling
one by herself.  The second one was taking an unhealthy interest in Akane
herself.  She took a ready stance and lashed out with a rising kick, which
struck the Trolloc on the chin.  It staggered a step back, but quickly
recovered and slashed at Akane, who dodged and punched the Trolloc several
times in the gut.  She cursed she she realized she was mostly hitting
metal.  The thing was wearing chain mail!  Recovering quickly, the Trolloc
tried to split Akane in half with a clumsy overhead strike, which Akane
evaded easily.  As soon as the blade passed clear of her, the youngest
Tendo daughter jumped and performed a spinning kick that took the
goat-snouted beast completely by surprise.  Akane stood over the fallen
Trolloc for a few moments, panting slightly.  *Kuso!* she thought.
*They're a whole lot bigger and stronger than normal people.  And they wear
armor, too!*  Suddenly she whirled around, remembering Ukyou.

   The okonomiyaki chef had almost been taken by surprise.  She barely had
time to yell a quick warning to Akane when a wolf-snouted Trolloc swiped at
her with its sword.  She blocked the strike with the haft of her combat
spatula, but was stuck in a deadlock, as she couldn't move the spatula
without getting cut in half.  Suddenly, an idea came to her.  Her spatula
pointing to the upper left, Ukyou decided to kick the flat end with a
reverse kick.  This caused the Trolloc's sword to begin sliding down to the
right, and Ukyou smoothly spun around, continuing the movement, thus
letting the Trolloc slice at nothing and finished by slamming her spatula
in the back of the beast's head.  The Trolloc staggered forward and Ukyou
rendered it unconscious it by hitting it again in the back of its head.
   She turned around just in time to see Akane finish off her opponent.
When she turned around towards her, Ukyou gave her a slight wink.
   "See?" the okonomiyaki chef said.  "Nothing to it!"
   Akane raised an eyebrow and smiled.  "Absolutely!" she said solemnly.
   They then turned at the same time to face even more Trollocs.

   Ryouga was plowing with abandon through the Trollocs, swinging his
umbrella left and right.  No enemy lasted long against his superior
strength and skill.  Glancing towards one of the houses that wasn't burning
yet, he saw a group of people trying to get inside, oblivious to the fact
that a few Trollocs were stalking up to them.
   Suddenly, the door opened and the villagers rushed inside, closing the
door behind them.  Seconds later, the Trollocs were trying to ram the door
down.  Ryouga quickly rushed towards them.
   "Leave them alone!" he yelled, hoping to divert the Trollocs' attention
somewhere else, namely on him.  It worked.  As the beasts turned, Ryouga
dove to the ground, his index finger extended, yelling: "Bakusai Tenketsu!"
   The ground exploded around him and he heard cries of pain coming from
the Trollocs.  He shut them out.  He had seen the Moiraine woman and Lan
kill the Trollocs without the slightest apparent regret.  He had seen
Trollocs trying to kill without any justification.  He could not, however,
bring himself to kill the Trollocs, although it would be easy for him.  He
would not kill if he could avoid it.  *I'm not a killer,* he told himself.
*Oh really?* asked his conscience.  *Then what about all your threats to
kill Ranma once and for all?  Won't you be doing exactly that?*  Ryouga
desperately shut out the voice.  *It's not like that!!!* he protested to
himself.  *Isn't it?*
   His awareness returned to the fight at hand.  He needed to finish this
while they were disoriented by the pain.  He used a spin kick to take out
the first Trolloc and his umbrella to smash the snout of the second one.
He took out a bandanna and snaked it around another Trolloc's ram horns,
bringing its head down and smashing it against his knee.  He took the last
Trolloc by the scruff of the neck and rammed it through the house's wall.
   He grimaced when he heard screaming from inside the house.  *Maybe I
should've watched where I was throwing it, first,* he thought.  He pulled
the Trolloc out of the wall and peered inside.  He saw a dozen figures,
mostly children and women, huddled against the far wall.  The younger
children were wailing in fear.
   "Sorry about that," he called out.  "Don't worry about the Trolloc, it's
out cold."
   A young boy suddenly pointed behind him.  "Look out!  Behind you!"
   Ryouga whirled around only to be tackled through the hole in the wall by
two Trollocs, their vast bulk tearing an even bigger hole through the wall.
He fell on his back, the two huge, mishappen shapes clawing at him.  Using
his strength to keep the Trollocs from biting him, he was about to backflip
his enemies into the rear wall, but he quickly realized he would be
throwing the Trollocs right into the knot of people behind him.
   "Everyone, get out of here," he yelled.  Unfortunately, the villagers
were entranced by the sight before them.  One of the older boys, maybe
thirteen, rushed to the dinner table and took a wooden chair in his hands.
Running back towards one of the two Trollocs, he brought down the chair as
hard as he could on top of its head.
   "Leave him alone!" the boy yelled.
   The boy had been trying to knock one of the Trollocs out, but all he
managed was to make one of them mad.  It ceased its struggle with the
bandanna-wearing martial artist and started moving towards the boy.  Ryouga
quickly used both of his arms to hold the remaining Trolloc's head while he
headbutted it, rendering it unconscious.  Turning his head around, he saw
the other Trolloc raising his sword at the boy.  Ryouga's hand flashed.
Taking out his belt, he used it like a whip, the cloth coiling around the
Trolloc's left ankle.  He yanked it back with all his strength, which
caused the Trolloc to lose its footing and fall flat on its chin, mere
centimeters from its intended victim.  Ryouga then lifted the Trolloc by
its chain mail and swung a right cross across its face.  The Trolloc
slumped, its face bloodied.
   Ryouga quickly went to retrieved his umbrella, tossing both Trollocs out
of the house at the same time.  He then turned towards the boy who had used
the chair, who was looking at him with an expression of wonder.
   "You're strong..." the boy started, but Ryouga interrupted him.
   "That was stupid," he told the boy harshly.  "I was strong enough to
hold them both at bay.  I've been training all my life.  You nearly got
yourself killed distracting it.  Next time, when I say leave, you leave,
understand?!"
   The boy shied away from him with a hurt expression.  Ryouga winced for a
moment, realizing how harsh he had just sounded.  "Look, thanks for the
assist, but just... just leave fighting to those who know it, okay?"  He
looked up to the women, some of whom nodded slightly.  Ryouga felt just a
bit better.  It looks like they, at least, understood why he had berated
the boy.  Interfering without training could cost you your life.
  He walked out of the hole, surveying the surroundings.  There were still
Trollocs about, but a lot less than a few minutes ago.  His gaze was drawn
to two figures huddling near the ground.  His eyes widened when he realized
they were Akane and Ukyou.  They were on their knees, looking at something
on the ground.  They also weren't taking notice of the ten-foot tall
Trolloc stalking up to them.
   He began glowing a vivid shade of green.

   Ranma felt the heat of battle through his veins.  He often fought people
in Nerima, far more often than he sometimes wished, but this was different.
Instead of fighting for his own life or simply beating up on people, he was
fighting to protect others.
  *This is what I should be doing,* he thought.  *Much better to use the
Art this way.*
   A Trolloc came towards him and he slipped by its defenses, hammering it
with dozens, if not hundreds of punches, his arms blurring with the speed
of the Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken training.  The Trolloc fell, alive but
broken.  *I may not kill, but I sure don't have anything against _hurting_
those things.*
   Doing his best to ignore the lightning strikes that were coming down
from a clear sky, Ranma made his way to the center of the village.  *Who is
that Moiraine woman?* he wondered.  *She some sort of sorceress?*  Looking
towards Moiraine, he saw that the Trollocs were obviously trying to
overwhelm her, but Lan was systematically slaughtering every Trolloc that
came too close.  He moved in to help, easily evading the clumsy strikes
directed his way.
   One of the creatures made the mistake of turning its back on him.  He
smiled coldly and moved his index fingers at each side of his mouth.  "Roga
Shuhai Tai!" he yelled, making deep gashes in the Trolloc's back with his
fingers, easily tearing through the chain mail.  Said Trolloc turned
around, howling and ready to do murder, only to find Ranma smirking at him.
"Ignore me will you?" said Ranma, who then executed a handstand and
axe-kicked the Trolloc, who fell bonelessly to the ground.  He flipped back
on his feet to see Moiraine staring at him.
   "How did you do that?" she asked, wide-eyed, looking at the gashes on
the Trolloc.
   Ranma shrugged.  "I fight barehanded," he replied.  He spotted another
Trolloc coming his way.  "S'cuse me," he said, rushing the hawk-faced
creature. He remembered what he had done weeks ago when Ryuu Kumon had come
to challenge him.  This was almost the same.  A few feet away from it, he
yelled "Shichuu Rakuchi Sei!", while flipping on his hands and catching the
Trolloc's outstretched arms with his feet.  He then pushed the Trolloc's
feet apart and slid under them, his feet dragging the Trolloc into a
forward fall.  Ranma came up behind the Trolloc and punched it a dozen
times while shouting " Haku Dato Shin Sho!"  The Trolloc squawked and
slumped to the ground.
   Moiraine rushed towards him.  Giving him a quick glance, she realized
that he wasn't hurt in the slightest.  *How...?" she wondered.  She
suddenly narrowed her eyes.  "Child, does the word 'Aiel' mean anything to
you?" she asked briskly.  Behind her, Lan came up, his sword slick with
blood.  He kneeled down to the Trolloc, frowning.
   Meanwhile, Ranma blinked, not expecting Moiraine's question.  "Aiel?" he
said, puzzled.  "What's that?"
   Moiraine frowned, obviously not liking the answer.  She pointed to the
Trolloc.  "Where did you learn to fight like this?" she demanded.
   Ranma raised an eyebrow.  "My father trained me."  He frowned, curious.
"From your reaction, I take it people here don't exactly fight barehanded,
do they?"
   Before Moiraine could answer, Lan got up.  "Very impressive," he said.
"The damage from those back strikes went right through the body and through
the front armour."  He frowned and took out his sword, plunging it in the
Trolloc's throat, killing it.  "It was also still very much alive, boy!"
Lan growled, turning to Ranma.
   The pig-tailed martial artist took an involuntary step back when Lan
dispatched the Trolloc.  "I don't kill," he replied quietly.  "I never have
before, and I don't see the reason to now."
   The Warder's face became angry thunderclouds.  "What do you mean, you
don't see a reason to?  What kind of reason could you possibly have for
leaving Trollocs alive?"  His deep voice rumbled like thunder.  "Tell me!"
   Looking at the Warder's expression, Ranma felt he had the final proof
that they were no longer on Earth.  He could not see this situation
happening anywhere on Earth.  "Trollocs don't exist where we come from,"
Ranma snapped.  "We have no reason to go around killing people!"
  Lan looked about ready to bite Ranma's head off when Moiraine put a hand
on his arm.  Moiraine looked at the pig-tailed boy oddly again and shook
her head.  "We will speak of this later."  She turned to her Warder.
"There are still some Trollocs loose and we must take care of them."  Her
eyes slid towards Ranma for a moment.  "You would do well to kill those
creatures, boy," she said, her voice like steel.  "They will not hesitate
to kill you."
   Ranma almost backed away before he caught himself.  "Feh.  They can't
even touch me."  He looked at her.  "You wanna kill so badly?" he said to
Moiraine quietly.  "Do your own killing then."
   He then proceeded to vault over the pair, rushing to meet other Trollocs.
   Moiraine and Lan gawked for a moment before they picked themselves up.
The glanced at each other and resumed killing Trollocs, all the while
keeping an eye on Ranma and  making sure to kill every Trolloc he had
knocked out.
   Moving near the inn, Ranma angrily took a Trolloc down, thinking about
Lan and Moiraine's words.  *Should I kill them?* he thought.  They had done
nothing to him, but they had hurt villagers.  Was not physical harm enough?
Most of the Trollocs he had taken down tonight were alive, but would likely
never be able to fight again.  He suddenly heard a cry behind him and
turned around to see Master al'Vere fall to the ground, clutching the side
of his head.  Behind him, the girl Ranma thought was his daughter was
backed against the stone wall.  A Trolloc was raising its sword, obviously
going for the finishing blow.
   Ranma blurred.  He ran as fast as he could, and jumped in the air a
dozen feet away from the Trolloc.  "Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken Revised!" he
shouted, bearing down on the Trolloc.  "RYUUSEIU GERI!!!"
   Ranma's right foot blurred almost into invisibility, striking the
Trolloc everywhere.  The head, the neck, the arms, the torso, the legs...
Nothing was spared.  Only when Ranma realized what he was doing did he stop
the attack.  The Trolloc fell, nearly all of its bones broken by the
awesome force of Ranma's blows.  Ranma stared in horror at the broken form.
*Did I...?*  He saw the Trolloc's chest rise weakly.  *I didn't...* he
thought, oddly relieved.  His temper had nearly gotten the best of him.  He
had never killed.  He had come close during his final battle with Herb, but
he had not.  If he began killing, where would it stop?  He shook his head
to stop the thoughts.
   He turned around to take a look at the Mayor and the girl.  Master
al'Vere was watching him, wide-eyed, leaning slightly on the girl's arms.
The girl was also staring at him, but she had an odd expression on her
face.  One Ranma couldn't place.  If anything, it looked like a cross
between excitement, fear and gratitude.  A very odd expression.
   "Are you okay, Master al'Vere?" asked Ranma.
   "How...?" said the girl weakly.  She seemed to be struggling to know
what to say.
   The stout, graying man waved his hands.  "I'm... all right, lad," he
said between shaking breaths.  "It's only a small blow to the head.  I'll
survive."  He looked at the fallen Trolloc, then at Ranma again. He
blinked, as if to clear his thoughts and turned to the girl.  "Egwene, go
inside and stay with your mother.  It's safer that way."
   "But father..." the girl protested weakly.
   Master al'Vere's voice grew hard.  "Now, Egwene!"
   The girl squeaked.  "Yes father," she said, heading back inside the inn,
leaving her father alone with Ranma.  She looked one last time at Ranma
before closing the door, a look of apprehension on her face.  The door
closed.
   The Mayor finally spoke.  "I don't know how you did that, lad, and I'm
not sure I want to know, but you saved my life and I'm grateful for that,
at least."
   Ranma frowned.  "Why does everyone around here act like this anyway?
Haven't you ever seen people fight without swords?" he asked.
   Master al'Vere looked at him oddly, tilting his head slightly and
wincing when the pain from the wound on his head flared up because of the
movement.  "Lad, I don't know how to say it, but..."
   "AKANE!!!" they heard Ryouga scream.  Ranma snapped around, horrified,
fearing the worst.  He saw Akane and Ukyou, kneeling on the ground, looking
at something.  They didn't seem to be aware of the monstrously tall Trolloc
stalking up to them.  How could he have left them alone?!
   Ranma then saw Ryouga powering up for the Shishi Houkoudan.  Looking at
the giant Trolloc, Ranma began powering up for the Mouko Takabisha as well,
a strong blue aura surrounding him.  He didn't see the innkeeper back away,
a terrified expression on his face.

   Moiraine and Lan watched in sick fascination as Ranma executed the
Meteor Shower Kick.
   "A channeler?" asked Lan, almost worriedly.  Almost.
   Moiraine's thoughts were racing.  *A channeler...?  No, he cannot be the
one!  He is too young!*  She looked up to Lan.  "Come quickly!" was all she
said.  They began running towards Ranma, a dozen scenarios running through
the Aes Sedai's head at the same time.
   She was about to call out to him when she jerked to a stop, unable to
believe what her senses were telling her.
   The boy was glowing blue.
   He was drawing saidar.
   "What?... Saidar?  This isn't possible..." she said weakly.  She
received another shock when she realized that the other boy, Ryouga, was
doing the same thing, only he was glowing green.  Wait a moment...  Green!?
"What in the Creator's name is going on here?" she whispered disbelievingly
   "Moiraine?..."  Lan's voice.
   The tone of her Warder's voice should have warned the Aes Sedai that
something was very wrong.
   "Moiraine, I can see them glow," said Lan, shocked.
   Moiraine's head snapped around almost instantly.  "What?"
   The Warder pointed to Ranma.  "He's glowing blue," he said and then
pointed to Ryouga, "and he's glowing green."
   Moiraine barely had time to register the comment when she and her Warder
heard the battle cries.
   "MOUKO TAKABISHA!!!" yelled Ranma.
   "SHISHI HOUKOUDAN!!!" howled Ryouga.
   When she saw the two vengeful beams lance forward, Moiraine Damodred,
Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah, became scared for the first time in a long time.

   Akane and Ukyou had been having more trouble than either Ranma or
Ryouga.  Not being as fast or as strong as the them, they had to spend more
energy knocking down the Trollocs.  It was also a bitter realization that
it would simply be much easier to kill Trollocs than send them into La-La
land.  After all, why spend so much energy on punches, kicks and swings
when you could just simply break your opponent's neck with a precise punch
or kick?
   The problem was that the two girls shared the same feelings as their
male counterparts, as in they didn't want to kill.
   That decision would give all the Nerimians, but more specially Akane
Tendo and Ukyou Kuonji, nightmares for years to come.
   The two female martial artists had found themselves protecting a house
full of children against the onslaught of Trollocs.  Both had been faring
rather well when tragedy struck.
   Akane and Ukyou were fighting another Trolloc together when one of the
beasts that had been knocked out earlier began to stir again.  Staggering
to its knees, it considered attacking Akane and Ukyou, but Trollocs being
what they were, that one decided to try and find an easy way out.
Unfortunately, a young girl chose this moment to peek from behind the door.
   Ukyou slammed her combat spatula on top of the Trolloc's head at the
same time Akane gave it a fierce kick to its midsection.  And yet another
Trolloc slumped, defeated.  They whirled around when they heard a shrill
scream coming from the house.  Their breaths caught in their throats when
they saw that one of the Trollocs they had knocked out was now standing and
holding a little girl by her dress.
   It also had a sword.
   Everything went into slow motion.  Akane and Ukyou came flying at the
Trolloc, hoping to snatch the little girl away.
   They didn't succeed.
   The Trolloc's curved sword flashed, and there was blood.
   It was the last thing the Trolloc would ever see or do.  Akane's punch
nearly broke its spine in half while one of Ukyou's spatula shuriken lodged
itself in its neck.
   "No!" Akane breathed.  She knelt down to the little girl, not believing
what had happened.  She was joined by Ukyou, who looked horror at the wound
in the girl's chest.  Akane quickly tore off a length of her dress to use
as a bandages to staunch the flow of blood.  The blood soaked through
immediately.
   "No... no... no..." repeated Akane mindlessly, cradling the young girl's
shaking body.  "No one was supposed to die, especially not a little one
like you."
   Ukyou just felt numb.  The worst thing is that it was their fault.  Had
they killed the beast instead of knocking it down, it never would have
gotten up...  It was their fault.
   So absorbed in their grief were they that they never saw the massive
Trolloc moving up from behind them.
   "MOUKO TAKABISHA!!!"
   "SHISHI HOUKOUDAN!!!"
   The two battle cries were enough to cause the two girls to look behind
them.  They saw the Trolloc, a massive beast with armored spikes covering
its body.  The two girls stood there, frozen by the sight when two massive
beams of Chi slammed into the Trolloc, a green one and a blue one, both
coming from different directions behind the Trolloc.  It screamed in pain
and fell face first in the ground.
   Seconds later, Ranma and Ryouga had rejoined the two girls, ignoring the
villagers who were now running away from _them_.
   "Akane-san!  Are you all right?!" asked Ryouga as soon as he was in
shouting range.
   "Akane!  Ucchan!  What's going... on...?" trailed Ranma, as soon as he
saw the little girl's body.  "Oh no..." he whispered.  He knelt behind
Akane, looking at the girl's chest wound.  "What happened?" he asked, a
cold lump forming in his stomach.
   "A Trolloc..." answered Akane mechanically.
   "It was our fault," said Ukyou, trembling.
   Ranma and Ryouga stared at her.
   "What?..." croaked Ranma.
   Ukyou nodded absently.  "It was...  We only knocked it out, instead of
killing it... It woke up and...  Ranchan, that girl is dying because of
us..." she trailed off.
   The Warder's words came back to Ranma.  -They live only to kill
people...  What kind of reason could you possibly have for leaving Trollocs
alive?-
   He looked at the dying child, and then at the inhumanly tall Trolloc he
and Ryouga had shot down.
   -They live only to kill people...-
   -What kind of reason could you possibly have for leaving Trollocs alive?-
   What reason indeed?
   If they did not kill, the Trollocs, how many times would the girl's fate
be repeated?
   If Trollocs only lived to kill people, then were not people justified in
killing Trollocs in order to save themselves?  It's not as if the beasts
were human, no?
   None of the Nerimians noticed that the door was opening up once more.
Another girl peeked out the door.  "Lia?" the girl asked "Lia?  Where are
you?"  She saw the body cradled by Akane and screamed, closing back the
door.
   The scream seemed to wake up Ranma and Ryouga at least.  The looked at
each other, a silent understanding on their faces.  Ranma guessed his
fellow martial artist had come to the same decision as he:  No Trolloc
would leave the village alive.
   They looked up to see Lan and Moiraine running up to them.  Moiraine
alternated between staring at the boys and looking at the girls.
   The Warder didn't speak, but his expression was such that he might as
well have screamed.  -Do you understand now?-
   The pig-tailed martial artist's expression tightened, sending the
answer.  -Yes-
   And they leapt away.
   Moiraine was about to use saidar to stop them when Lan put a hand on her
shoulder.
   "Don't" he said quietly.  "They've seen the result of their
unwillingness to kill and now they'll make amends for their behavior."  He
looked at the two martial artists.  "I could _almost_ pity the Trollocs
that will cross their paths," he said softly.  "I could... but I won't."
   Moiraine looked at Lan, frowning.  She tsked and turned to the two girls
who were still huddling around the girl.  "Let me see the child," she
ordered.
   Blank faces looked up at her.
   Moiraine's patience was wearing thin.  "I may be able to heal her if the
damage is not too severe."
   "You could?..." Ukyou stuttered.  "But how?"
   "I am Aes Sedai," she said.  "Watch and learn, children, and one day,
perhaps you will both be able to do the same."
   Akane and Ukyou looked at each other questioningly for a moment and
handed the young girl to Moiraine.  The Aes Sedai put her hand over the
wound and concentrated.  Flows of Water, Air and Spirit coursed through the
girl's body, straining to mend broken tissue.
   The two martial artists looked on as the young girl gasped, eyes going
wide.  The saw the wound gradually shrink, until it was only a nasty cut.
The girl slumped, her breathing weak, but steady.
   Akane blinked.  "Why don't you heal her completely?"
   "Because, child," said Moiraine, getting up, "If I try to heal her
completely now, she will die from the Healing."  She looked at the young
girl.  "This child still needs help, but she is no longer in direct danger
of losing her life.  She will need food and rest, for several days, at
least."
   Akane and Ukyou blinked several times.  How could anyone die from being
healed, anyway?
   "She'll live?" finally asked Akane, looking at the Aes Sedai.
   "Yes," said Moiraine.  "Providing someone bandages and disinfects the
wound soon."  She turned around.  "Now, I have to take care of an
impossibility.  It is bad enough I was unable to kill the Myrddraal that
led those Trollocs, but this...  Come, Lan!"
   The Aes Sedai swept away, the Warder following behind her, not making a
single sound.  They left behind two very confused, but also very grateful
young women.

   Ranma and Ryouga were grimly moving through piles of downed Trollocs,
snapping necks whenever they found a live one.  As far as they wer
concerned, the Trollocs has forfeited any chances they might have had for
survival by killing that young girl.
   Ryouga was getting up from killing another one when he happened to see a
Trolloc getting away from the village.  "Oh no you don't!" he growled.  He
turned to grab hold of the nearest object.
   The Spring Pole.
   It was a bit blackened and sooty, yes, but it also made a beautiful, if
blunt, javelin.  Ryouga hefted the Pole and threw it at the Trolloc.  The
ten-foot tall fir trunk arced somewhat gracefully, ending its flight on the
Trolloc's head, pinning it to the ground.
   "Nice throw," remarked Ranma from behind Ryouga.
   "Nel!  Daysa!" came an anguished voice.
   The two martial artists whipped around, looking for the source of the
shout.  They saw a man and a woman just outside a burning house.  Flames
were licking the walls and there was billowing smoke coming from the
windows.  Running over to them, they realized that the man was trying to
get inside the house.
   "What's going on?" asked Ranma.
   The woman turned to him, panic written all over her features.  "My
children are in there!" she babbled.
   Ranma looked at Ryouga.
   "You go," said the bandanna-wearing martial artist.  "I might get lost
inside."
   Ranma hid his surprise at Ryouga's admission.  The Lost Boy usually
hated acknowledging his directional curse.  But that was for later.  He
shook the man, who was still trying to get inside, by the shoulders.  The
man turned around, in shock.
   "How many and where are they inside?" he shouted in the man's face.
   "T-Two... a boy and a girl...  They're probably in their rooms, on the
upper floor," he replied, dazed.  "But everything's burning!  Bili went to
get some water, but..."
   Ranma stopped listening and rushed in the inferno.  Once inside, he was
immediately assaulted by the thick smoke and the incredible heat.
   *Kuso!* he thought.  *At this rate, those kids might already be dead!*
He looked around, and managed to spot the stairs at the far end of the
room.  He moved closer only to realize that it was caught on fire.  He
glanced at the ceiling.  It still looked okay, though it probably wouldn't
stay that way for long.  He shot a small Chi-blast at the ceiling, making
himself a hole.  He quickly jumped through, smoke wafting through the newly
made opening.
   *This is taking too much time!* he thought frantically.  Ranma looked
around, noticing that one of the doors was closed.  He quickly kicked it
down and saw two small shapes on the ground.  He took them in his arms and
was rushing out of the room when he heard a deep, crackling sound.
   Timbers were breaking.  The house was collapsing.
   He searched for a quick exit, but found none.  *Time to make my own,
then!"  He concentrated and blew one of the walls with a Mouko Takabisha.

   Outside, Ryouga was looking nervously at the burning house.  Ranma was
taking too much time.  He thought about following him inside, but dismissed
the idea.  He had told Ranma the truth.  He would probably only get lost.
   He noticed that the man was still trying to go inside.  He casually
reached out and pulled the man back to a safer position.
   "Let me go!" the man yelled.  "I have to save my children!"
   Ryouga squeezed the man's arm to get his attention.  "You can't even get
inside because of the heat," he told him.  "If your kids are in there,
Ranma will find them."  He paused.  "If he doesn't, I'll personally pound
his brains out," he added, growling slightly.
   A loud, cracking sound made everyone's heads turn towards the house.
They saw the base of the house collapsing.
   "NOOOO!!" screamed the man and the woman together.
   At the same time, a bright blue sphere burst through one of the walls
over where they were standing.  Ryouga quickly opened his umbrella to
shield the villagers from the flaming wooden shards headed their way.
Glancing at the doomed house's new hole, he saw Ranma leap outside,
carrying two figures in his arms.
   *Thank the kami, he got them,* thought Ryouga.

   Upon landing, the first thing Ranma did was check the state of the two
children he had carried out.  Neither was breathing.
   "Ryouga!" he barked.  "Over here!  Quick!"
   The Lost Boy quickly came over.  "What?"
   "You know CPR?" asked Ranma in a rush.
   "Yeah?..."
   Ranma pointed at the young boy.  "Do it.  They've both stopped
breathing."  Ryouga nodded and they both immediately began the
resuscitation technique on their respective charges.
   The farmer's ran over to Ranma.  "Daysa!" she said raggedly.  "What are
you doing to her?" she demanded.
   "I'm trying to get her to breathe again," he answered curtly, not
looking at the woman.
   A few tense moments passed.  Ranma heard several coughs behind him.  A
child crying.  A man's joyous shout.  "Nel!  You're alive!"
   *Good, Ryouga got him breathing again.*  As soon as he finished the
thought, the young girl started coughing.  She opened her eyes and started
crying for her mother.  Ranma stepped back, letting the woman take the
child in her arms.
   "Daysa!  Oh I'm so glad you're alive!" said the woman, cradling the
child.  She was weeping uncontrollably.  She turned to Ranma.  "I can't
thank you enough.  We owe you more than you will ever know," she said
profusely.
   The farmer, holding his boy in his arms, was giving similar thanks to
Ryouga.  He looked at both martial artists.  "My name is Teven al'Dai.  You
have my deepest thanks.  Without you both, our children would be dead."  He
tilted his head slightly.  "I don't know if many outlanders would have done
the same.  What are your names?"
   "Ranma Saotome."
   "Ryouga Hibiki."
   "We will remember your names," said Master al'Dai's wife.  "Thank you
for saving our children's lives."
   Ranma tried to dust himself off when he realized he was only spreading
soot all over himself.  He tried to shrug nonchalantly.  "We did what we
could," he said simply.  His expression wilted slightly.  "But sometimes
it's not enough," he said in a soft voice, thinking of the dead girl.
   "And sometimes it is," said a voice behind them.
   The two martial artists, recognizing the voice, turned around
simultaneously, only to see Moiraine was watching them, a puzzled look on
her face.  At her side, Lan was watching them warily, as if trying to
decide whether they were friend or foe.
   "Coming to gloat, Moiraine?" said Ranma icily.
   Moiraine raised an eyebrow.  "Gloat?"
  "About the girl."
   She shrugged dismissively.  "That one is still alive.  She will heal."
   Ranma shared an incredulous look with Ryouga.
   "No little girl can heal from a wound like that one," said Ryouga
irritably.  "Not without medical help at any rate."
   Moiraine frowned at the unfamiliar word, but her considering expression
soon came back.  "I healed her."
   "How?..." came the incredulous reply in stereo.
   "I am Aes Sedai."
   They heard Master al'Dai and his wife gasp behind them.  "Aes Sedai?"
   Ranma didn't hear the exclamation.  He was staring at Moiraine, and so
was Ryouga for that matter.  It wasn't however, because she had revealed
her true identity. "You're not lying?  You... you healed her?  She didn't
die?"
   Moiraine gave him a frosty look.  "I most certainly did not lie.  Aes
Sedai cannot lie."
   Ranma and Ryouga stood there, blinking.
   The Aes Sedai saw her opportunity.  There was no way in the Light she
could let those two out of her sight.  They might be, in some way she did
not understand, every bit as important as the one she had come here looking
for.  Once those two set foot in the White Tower, they would not step out
anytime soon.  Men channeling saidar?  The very idea gave her shivers.  "As
soon as I am finished here, we will be leaving for Tar Valon.  Since you
were initially headed in the same direction, will you ride with us?"
   "I guess so..." Ranma said slowly.  He didn't like the tone she used.
She'd asked a question, but in a way that said that she didn't expect them
to say otherwise.
   Moiraine turned around.  "Now come, both of you.  We must dispose of the
Trollocs.  I have a great many questions for you both, as well as for the
other two girls with you."   She swept away, fully expecting them to follow.
   The two martial artists stood there for a moment.
   "Bossy, ain't she?" commented Ryouga.
   "Yeah," agreed Ranma.  "If she did save that little girl, though, maybe
we can let it pass this time."
   Ryouga nodded soberly.
  They began walking to catch up to the Aes Sedai and Lan when Master
al'Dai grabbed one of Ranma's sleeves.  "I heard rumors about you young
outlanders.  Is it true you do not know what an Aes Sedai is?"
   Ranma and Ryouga shook their heads regretfully.
   "The word means nothing to us," said Ryouga.
   Master al'Dai frowned thoughtfully.  "I don't know whether that's good
or bad," he told them, "But be careful around her if she is indeed Aes
Sedai.  The stories say that Aes Sedai broke the world 3000 years ago, and
they've manipulated it ever since.  The stories also say that Aes Sedai
cannot lie, but the truth they tell you isn't always the one you think it
is.  And last, but not least, remember that an Aes Sedai's gift always has
a hook it it."
   Ranma and Ryouga looked at each other, eyebrows raised.
   "We'll remember that," promised Ranma.  "Thanks for telling us."
   "It's the very least I can do," said Master al'Dai, shaking his head
slightly in wonder.  "You saved our children."
   Ranma and Ryouga both bowed slightly, at Master al'Dai's surprise,
before heading in Moiraine's direction.  Before they did anything, they had
to check whether the girl truly _had_ been saved.

 [End Chapter 1]

 Next chapter:  Rand meets the Nerimians, and the journey to Baerlon!


   Author's notes :


- Does this please the Deputy Bastard Taskmasters From Hell (DBTFH)?  I
heard you guys were gunning for me...

 - Mail Phoenix@upc.qc.ca for comments!  (I'm not directly subscribed to
the FFML, though I happen to dig up the gzipped archive at times...)  Tell
me if I should continue this!

 - The quote at the beginning is from "The World of Robert Jordan's The
Wheel Of Time," by Robert Jordan and Teresa Patterson.  An excellent book
if you're a fanatic of the series!

 - I know the Randlanders don't speak Japanese (actually, we don't know
what language they *do* speak), but the first draft of this story had the
group dealing with the language barrier, which in turn gave me no *end* of
troubles.  I know the language acquisition scene during transport may seem
weak, but thanks to an unwitting suggestion from Sachs, I'll actually have
have a decent explanation for it later on (it also explains how they know
the proper forms of address).  I still kept some elements of the language
(insults, attacks, etc.) to show that there are still some partially
unresolved linguistic differences.

 - All questions regarding the differences between Chi and OP will be
discussed in later chapters.  All you need to know is that Chi is *not* the
One Power.

 - For those who really want or need to know, the Akari storyline only
occurred in the manga (Vol. 30), whereas the Nanban Mirror storyline was
anime-only...

 - "Wasn't the Fox Doorway destroyed in Cairhien at the end of TFoH," you
ask?  Yes, but I chose to theorize that the Age Of Legends wasn't the only
Age that could have produced ter'angreals.  Especially one that connects
"Randland" to the world of the Snakes and Foxes.  Who knows?  Maybe the
'Finn somehow incited people from other Ages and places to build gateways
to their world.  There's also no telling how long the "Nerima Version" of
the Doorway might have existed in the Age where R1/2 occurs.

 - What's a ter'angreal?  Well if you don't know, you really should go read
the series...  Trust me, you'll like it!


   Japanese words:

 Tadaima: I'm home
 -sensei: teacher (usually)
 baka: fool, idiot...
 hentai: pervert
 kawaikunee: "uncute"

**********************
* The Phoenix Reborn *              Jordanite and Mystical
**********************                  Freak at Large

Louis-Philippe Giroux

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Dragon@anime.usacomputers.net

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  - Woodchuck, Records Of Lodoss War