DYNASTY - CHAPTER FOUR - PART A
By Sydney Kyle <jantzen77@hotmail.com>
=========================
* * * DYNASTY * * *
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
=========================
* * * * * *
=========================
CHAPTER FOUR:
Part A
Retaliation
=========================
It was extremely noisy at the Tendo Dojo later that night.
The reason for the noise was the fact that things had been restored
to more-or-less normal. Genma, Shampoo, Mousse, Ryouga, and Ranma were
back, and there was no holding back the inevitable.
"A-Akane! Y-You c-cooked?!"
"Yup! Now eat up, Ranma!"
"Ehhh...lissen, Akane, I just came back from the dead. I don't wanna
go back, okay...?"
*WHAM*
"RANMAAA! How DARE you speak that way to Akane!"
"Oh? Why's that, Ryouga-sama?"
"A-A-Akari! I--ah, aheheheh..."
"You are SUCH a jackass, Ryouga."
"Stupid crazy Akane, you no hit Ranma that way!"
"Buh-buh-but Shampoo--"
"Keep your hands off my Ranma-darling, you seducer!!"
"EX-CUUUSE ME?!"
"Silence! Speak not of the fair Akane Tendo in such desecrating
terms, little sister! And as for thou, my love, allow me to demonstrate
_my_ affections--"
*WHAM*
"Oh my."
"Must you hit Kuno-baby so hard, Akane?"
"Hey, if _you_ want him, he's all yours!"
"Oh, I don't want _him_--just his wallet."
"You know, Saotome, I think I'm beginning to think that I have too
much hospitality."
"Indeed, Tendo, indeed. In fact, if you don't watch out, you just
might find yourselves with a couple of freeloaders."
"Ehhh, Saotome...never mind."
They were all sprawled around the somewhat crowded dining room.
Genma and Soun were seated at the dining room table, with Genma
devouring bowl after bowl of soba. Ranma was at the other end of the
table, also gobbling up food like there was no tomorrow, with Shampoo
and Kodachi on each side of him, and Akane glaring at him from the
right side, beside Shampoo. Ukyou sat across from Akane, on the left
side. Beside her was Ryouga, who was helping himself to platters of
teriyaki--which, thankfully, was made of beef, and on his other side
was Akari, watching him in fascination. Katsunishiki snorted beside her,
and across the table was Mousse, squatting next to Shampoo, who in turn
seemed oblivious to him. Kuno, who had been unable to snag a place next
to his beloved Akane, had been relegated to a seat next to Mousse, much
to his displeasure. Nabiki sat beside Kuno, immersed in her scheme to
elicit some serious yen from him in exchange for a seat next to Akane.
Kasumi, was, as usual, busy in the kitchen as she prepared second and
third helpings for the guests' insatiable appetites. Cologne had
isolated herself in a corner of the room, seemingly absorbed in her own
ruminations.
"Hey," Ranma mumbled between mouthfuls of noodles, "haven't I seen
ya around b'fore?" He gestured at Akari with his chopsticks.
"Yes, it's me. Akari Unryuu. Nice to see you again, Ranma. Ryouga-
sama's told me so much about you." Akari smiled sweetly and draped her
arms around a flabbergasted Ryouga, who promptly began to cough.
"Oh, really?" Ranma cocked an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Oh, like how you're a dishonorable, arrogant jerk, and the terrible
way you treat Akane all the time and--"
"I think I get the point," Ranma remarked dryly.
"Well, that's the truth," snapped Ryouga.
Ranma studied Akari inquiringly. "So...you're good friends with
Ryouga now, huh?"
Akari beamed. "Well, actually, we've been dating."
Ryouga nearly choked on a piece of meat. His face was burning as he
shot a furtive look at an intently listening Akane.
Ranma leaned closer to Akari, appraising her from head to toe.
"Whoa. You're aren't really serious, are you? You sure ya ain't sick or
somethin'?"
Akari shook her head.
Ranma let out a small whistle. "Oh, man. She's serious." He grinned
mischievously at a thoroughly embarrassed-looking Ryouga. "Nice goin'.
Didn't think you had it in you, pig-boy."
Ryouga glared at him, chopstick poised in midair. "Don't call me
that, you half-girl hentai!"
Shampoo retaliated for Ranma by glowering back at Ryouga. "You dare
no talk like that to Ranma!"
"Yes," declared Kodachi, "you leave my husband alone!"
Ukyou pinned her with a smoldering stare. "_Your_ husband, sugar?
I think your brain's gone off-duty." She tossed Ranma a bright smile.
"You're _my_ fiance, right, Ranchan?"
Ranma only managed an unintelligible mumble as he dug into the
teriyaki platter.
Shampoo objected. "You have brain many times smaller than your head!
Ranma _Shampoo's_ husband!"
"I can't believe you sometimes, Ranma," Akane hissed at him.
"Honestly, this scene's really getting old."
Ranma shrugged. "Lighten up, Akane. I can't help it if I'm more
popular than a kawaiikune tomboy like you now, can I? I mean--*urk*"
He barely managed to scramble away as Akane whipped out a gigantic
mallet out of nowhere and brought it down hard on the spot he'd been
sitting, birthing a small crater on the bamboo floor.
The entire party jumped to their feet in anticipation of a good
Tendo dojo free-for-all. Soun and Genma automatically retreated to the
patio.
"So, Tendo," began Genma, very solemnly, "have you found an
insurance company that'll accept you yet?"
Back inside, the players were getting ready to rumble.
"How DARE you try and harm my Ranma-darling!" shrieked Kodachi,
whisking out her gymnastic ribbon. "Akane Tendo, prepare to die!"
"Wait a minute, Ranma's MY fiance!" yelled Ukyou, unstrapping the
assault spatula from her back. "If anyone's gonna beat him up, it's
me!"
"Aaai-yah!" Shampoo fished out a pair of bonbori from behind her.
"None of you no hurt Ranma, or Shampoo KILL!"
"Worry not, fair goddess, and stand aside," said Kuno grandly. "For
I, the great Tatewaki Kuno, shall defend thee from that wretched
infidel Saotome!"
"Oh, no, rich boy," Ryouga muttered, cracking his knuckles. "I got
first dibs."
"No, _I_ do!" put in Mousse, blades dangling from his sleeves.
"This's for poisoning Shampoo's mind, you coward!"
"Aw, gimme a break!" Ranma exclaimed as they ganged up on him.
"After all I've been through today, don't I deserve some kind of rest
or somethin'?"
"NO!" Mousse, Kuno, Ryouga, and Akane yelled at him.
"Oh, for cryin' out loud--"
Without warning, Soun and Genma tore through the shoji and tumbled
to the floor in a tangled, squirming heap.
"Dad?" Akane burst out.
"Pop?" Ranma seconded.
The two adults turned toward them, and the expressions on their
faces were enough to silence the entire room. Then Soun raised a
shaking finger to point to the hole they'd inflicted on the shoji.
Outside, starkly outlined in the light of the silver moon, standing
steadfast on top of the wall that surrounded the Tendo dojo, was a
single figure garbed in the unmistakable armor of the Dragon clan.
For one tense, charged moment, the figure remained motionless as he
surveyed the now-silent domicile, watching, waiting.
Then he leaped down from the wall and vanished into the night.
* * * * * *
"I don't _believe_ this!" Ranma paced back and forth in agitation.
"Are you sayin' that they HAVEN'T given up yet? You mean they're gonna
follow us for as long as we live??"
"Basically, yes," Cologne responded, seemingly unruffled.
A growl of consternation rose from Ranma's throat, while Shampoo,
Mousse, Ryouga, and Genma looked stricken at the revelation.
"WAIT A MINUTE!" Akane commanded, penetrating through their fog of
shock like a knife through butter. "This doesn't make sense! They let
you guys go free--why'd they bother doing that when they were just
gonna keep on tracking you down anyway?"
"Ah, mayhaps they retreated at the sight of I, Tatewaki Kuno, the
invincible Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!"
They all ignored him.
"That was no retreat, nor was it any accident," murmured Cologne as
she relinquished her cushion at last and shuffled to the middle of the
room where she could apprehend everybody's attention. "Surely you saw
the way they were charging at us--they had no intention of retreating
or disappearing. Whatever happened, I am certain that they were brought
back to wherever they came from _without_ their permission."
Shampoo trained her startled gaze on the old woman. "You know about
all this, great-grandmother?"
Cologne gave her a tired replica of a smile. "Perhaps I do, great-
granddaughter. Perhaps I do."
"Then answer me this, old woman." Genma adjusted his spectacles, his
visage austere. "Why did they come after _us_?"
"Yeah, what did _we_ ever do to them?" asked Ryouga, crestfallen. He
was totally oblivious to the questioning glances that Akane was
throwing his way.
Cologne shook her silver-crowned head. "Nothing. Absolutely
nothing." She paused. "Except maybe falling into certain cursed
springs..."
"But why do they persist on chasing us?" Mousse clamped his fists on
his folded knees, straining forward. "I know what our connection is--
why we five were taken--but I still don't understand why that fact is
so important to those people--"
"Believe me, boy, that fact is _extremely_ important to them,"
hissed Cologne. "I was not even surprised when one of the Dragon Clan
showed up outside waiting. In fact, I was expecting him to come." She
stared at her hushed audience, her tarsieresque eyes narrowing into
slivers. "Did you really expect that the Dynasty would leave you be
after going to all that trouble to kidnap you and usurp you all of your
individual souls?"
Ranma laid his plate of teriyaki down on the table with an audible
clang. He studied the corner of the table like it was suddenly the most
interesting object in the room. "How did ya know that?" he said at last,
sounding strangled. "How'd ya know that they were after our souls...?"
"_Our_ souls..." Genma repeated, as if in awe.
"It was the only thing I could think of," retorted Cologne,
searching through the pockets of her robes. "After all, I _did_ find
your soul's supposed 'vessel'."
And with that, she let a tiny object clatter onto the table.
Ranma gawked at it for several minutes, then picked it up with
slightly trembling hands.
It was a little box--specifically, a little lacquer box of
haunting exquisiteness, adorned with odd unfamiliar-looking stones
and tassels of red silk. Around it was an unfastened ivory-colored
silken cord.
It was the last thing Ranma saw before he'd felt himself drift away.
"You all might be interested to know that when the Dragon clan
vanished, they also took four more like it," Cologne informed them.
"What is it?" ventured Ukyou softly.
"It is the Tama-Tebako--jewel hand-box."
Akari spoke suddenly. "It looks like something out of a storybook,"
she mused, hesitantly stroking the tips of the tassels with her
fingertips. "The Tama-Tebako...the vessel of one's soul..."
Cologne appraised her, looking pleased. "Very good, child. I assume
that you're referring to the story of Urashima Taro, whose very soul
was nestled within a box of this sort."
"Since when do fairy-tales have to do with anything?" said Kodachi.
"You may call them fairy-tales at first," boomed the old crone,
wagging her stick admonishingly at her, "but if you will bother to
inspect them more closely, you will find that these 'fairy tales' are
actually ancient chronicles, preserved over time, which are then
interpreted into nothing more than little concoctions of our ancestors'
flights of fancy. Fairy-tales indeed. Had Happosai been alive a hundred
centuries before, I have no doubt that there would be a 'fairy-tale'
devoted to him--the Lord Stealer-Of-Women's-
Underthings." She glared at all of them, jabbing her stick at each one
in turn. "You are all dealing with a force here that you cannot possibly
begin to comprehend--a force that has been alive long before your
ancestors even existed. If they single you out for one reason or the
other, then you cannot escape them. Do you understand me? You _cannot_
escape them. If they decide that they are yours, then there they will
follow you anywhere, everywhere, even to the very ends of the earth,
until the day you die."
There was a brief pause as the gravity and despair of the current
situation settled on the group.
"Then...isn't there anything we _can_ do?" Ranma asked miserably.
"You know there is something," Mousse stated. "I don't know how you
know, but there has to be something we can do."
"Shampoo no want to live life being stalked," moaned Shampoo.
"They'll get us _before_ we even know that we're being stalked,"
said Genma, on the verge of hysteria.
"They're right," conceded Ryouga, nervously pulling at his black
wrist guards. "There's no way we can fight them--it's like they know
how to counter our best moves. We can't even touch them." He gestured
carelessly at a befuddled Ranma. "I mean, even Ranma couldn't handle
them."
Ranma glared at him. "Oh, yeah? If they didn't catch me off-guard--"
Cologne hopped from the table, her countenance even more wrinkled
than usual as she immersed herself in thought. "I must leave."
"--I'd have turned them inta--" Ranma stopped his monologue and
gaped, with the rest of the room, at a departing Cologne. "H-hey! Where
d'you think you're goin', old ghoul?"
The matriarch turned. "To consult with the elders, son-in-law," she
replied matter-of-factly. "There are some issues that I must clear up
first before I can explain to all of you just what exactly went on
today. I shall return tomorrow with the answers. But until then, wait
for me."
Shampoo blinked. "Tomorrow, great-grandmother?"
Cologne rewarded her with a fond smile. "Yes, granddaughter. I shall
close the Nekohantan for a day. You do not have to deliver anything or
serve as waitress tomorrow."
"But what about _me_?" Ranma wanted to know. "I got school tomorrow,
remember?"
"Then skip it, son-in-law," said Cologne indifferently.
Genma scrambled up. "Now hold on here! I'm not depriving my son of
his meager dosage of education just because of this nonsense!"
Cologne shot him a peeved look. "Fine. Would you rather that the
clan just kidnap your son again and suck the very soul out of him?"
"Hmmm," said Genma, thinking over the prospect of not having his
smart-mouthed, impudent son around. Ranma felt obliged to smack him.
"The rest of you can assume your everyday activities tomorrow. The
clan will be sure to leave you unmolested," continued Cologne.
She must have seen the skeptical looks on their faces, because she
followed it with a serious, "Trust me. They _will_ not go after anyone
else other than the Jusenkyo-cursed. Not even if they thought that you
would be the only ones who could bring these five willingly to them."
Then she shifted her gaze toward Ranma, Ryouga, Genma, Mousse, and
Shampoo. "As for the five of you, you will all have to be confined
_here_ in the meantime. It would be foolish to tempt danger by going
your separate ways tonight."
Continued in Part B
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com