Saint Ranma 1: News From Sanctuary
by Gregg Sharp

   most characters are (c) somebody else. i forget who
did Saint Saeya, but Rumiko Takahashi created the Ranma
1/2 universe, Kosuke Fujishima is responsible for the
Oh My Goddess char & situations, Naoko Takeuchi came up
with the Sailor Moon stuff, Fred Perry for the char
and conventions borrowed from his Gold Digger series,
and etc, etc. if i had any money i'd be busy doing 
something besides writing stuff nobody ever reads 
anyway
-------------------------
	"Shampoo, come here." Cologne punctuated her
statement by slamming Moose in the head with her cane.
The loud cracking noise cut through the rattle of the
air conditioner.

	"What is it, great grandmama?" Shampoo looked
around but this wasn't a busy customer period. Early
morning Sundays weren't the busiest times at the Cat
Cafe.

	Cologne pointed at the television, which was
showing scenes of destruction as if a full scale war
had erupted in some kind of village. Smouldering 
craters, patches of land that were apparently fused to
glass, houses that had been ripped asunder.

	"More fighting in Middle East?" Shampoo didn't
see the big deal. They were _always_ fighting in that
area. Shampoo felt that the dependence on modern 
weapons ensured that no one could win a war there.

	"No." Cologne looked sadly at the picture. "Tell
me, child, do you remember Master Lochi? Sanctuary? How
about the exiled child Shiryu?"

	Shampoo shook her head at each.

	"Ah child," Cologne flipped the closed sign into
place on the door. "Then I need to tell you about this.

	"Many years ago a woman was exiled from our
village, an outsider had defeated her in combat and
she refused to kill the woman. There were extenuating
circumstances, though, so she was given the choice of
exile. She bore a child two years later from a liason
with a member of the Musk Dynasty. That child, orphaned
when he was three years of age, was named Shiryu.

	"Back in 1989, I heard of Shiryu again. He had
spent twelve years training in the martial arts at the
hands of a master of chi, named Master Lochi. Master 
Lochi himself is over 500 years old and is an exile from
the Musk Dynasty himself.

	"Shiryu was trained to be the a Bronze Saint, a
martial artist who had bonded to a totem spirit of some
constellation, in Shiryu's case the constellation of the
Dragon. Shiryu gained his clothu, the symbol of his 
union with the totem, by executing a chi attack called
the Dragon Shozen Ha. I was present at the time, as I
had business with that old fool Lochi.

	"Shiryu and some other Saints learned that there
was a Cycle Of The Heavens, and that the Greek gods had
returned- born into mortal form. These Bronze Saints
served a woman named Saori, who was actually the reborn
goddess Athena. Opposing them were all the other Saints
who were informed that Saori was actually an imposter,
that Athena was dead, and that they were serving the
champion of Athena. Actually they were serving Ares,
the mortal enemy of their own patron.

	"This was back in, oh, I think it was '92. Not
too long before you returned from your trip to kill the
female Ranma. I was visiting Lochi again when I found
out that the heroes were finally triumphant and Athena
was once again in her throne, in a place called 
Sanctuary."

	"Ahhh," Shampoo wasn't sure to make of this. If
Great Grandma said so, it was so. Certainly they'd been
involved in the supernatural before. "So, this is..."

	"Exactly, child. That cratered land is 
Sanctuary." Cologne didn't need to say that something
was very, very, wrong. Shampoo was NOT an idiot, even
if she refused to learn perfect Japanese.
--------------------------------
9:45pm, THREE DAYS LATER:


Cologne glanced up at the figure entering the door and
immediately hissed at her great grand-daughter in 
Mandarin. <"Get everything ready to close early, child,
put out the closed sign and dim the lights, but also
show THAT man to the corner table.">

Shampoo did as she was told, only glancing a few times
at the man in the corner. He was missing a leg, using
crutches, and had a swath of bandages over one side of
his face. From the look of him, he was Chinese and had
been quite handsome once.

It took over a half hour for the cafe to close, but the
man sat quietly at the booth, waiting. Mousse glanced
over at the man a few times, but a warning tap from
Cologne set him back to his duties in short order. 
Finally the last patron exited and Shampoo shut the 
door behind him.

<"So, the student of good master Lochi has survived,">
Cologne said as she hopped to a point in front of the
quiet man. <"When I saw the news reports I had feared
the worst. I take it that was not some terrorist attack
that destroyed the Seat Of Athena?">

<"No,"> the man replied in slightly accented Mandarin.
He had obviously not used his native language in some
time. <"It was Something Else, but I'm not sure who
the villain was. You know why I'm here, then?">

<"Not precisely, Shiryu, but I'm sure you'll tell me.">

<"They're dead, Cologne, all of the bronzes, most of the
silvers, five of the gold. We fought well, we fought
hard."> Shiryu shuddered. <"Sometimes that is NOT
enough.">

<"So many."> Cologne sighed and shook her head. <"You
say you don't KNOW who, but you suspect no doubt. And
what of Athena?">

<"Suspicions and theories, I and Shun Rei have thrown
around many such with no resolve. As for Athena, after
Apollo nearly slew her, she took precautions against
a similar event.">

<"Well, she IS the goddess of wisdom."> Cologne almost
chuckled. <"And of course, you won't tell me YET until
you know more about what I've been up to since Master
Lochi's days. How IS Libra Saint Lochi, is he...">

<"No, Master Lochi is one of the survivors. Cancer,
Aquarius, Gemini, Capricorn, and Pisces were all slain 
years ago during the resolution of Ares' little coup. 
Sagittarius was and is Saeya, having finally made gold 
status after all his years as a bronze saint. He's 
among the dead from this latest attack as is Taurus, 
Leo, Scorpio, and Virgo. Doesn't leave us with much,
does it?">

<"Don't discount Libra too quickly. He only survived
due to being away from the battle most likely."> 
Cologne looked at Shiryu with a cold gaze. <"Much as
I'd like to believe that you're here to swap tales
with a former neighbor, even though your mother was 
cast from the tribe, I know that isn't it. Besides you
might as well let your friends in.">

<"Ah, you're as sharp as ever, honored Matriarch."> 
Shiryu nodded and called out a phrase in English. The
door lock turned, as if by itself, and the door swung
open a heartbeat later.

<"My apologies, but while Shun Rei speaks dozens of 
languages, our companion only speaks a smattering of
Japanese, being far better with Greek, and English. 
The latter, I suspect, because of its wide use as an
engineering language.">

A diminuitive Chinese woman entered and smiled, bowing
to both Shampoo and Cologne before moving to Shiryu's
table. She was clearly not an amazon from the deference
she showed to the two warriors.

The other entered and Shampoo blinked. <"He uglier 
than Happosai."> 

The man glared at her, obviously understanding that he'd
been insulted if not what the insult was. A gnarled 
little dwarf with a cane and some sort of brace covering
his right leg, though his arms showed thick corded 
muscles that were covered with tiny burn scars.

Shampoo felt a sudden whack to her head, and turned a 
confused glance to Cologne. <"Why did you do that? 
Shiryu said that this man can't understand Chinese.">

Cologne gave a deep sigh, shook her head, then shrugged
as she looked at the dwarf. She spoke slowly in a dialect
of ancient Greek that was only used in some of the more
ancient texts that the amazons had collected over the
years. "<Kids. You think you've trained them properly.>"

The dwarf smiled a little and spoke in heavily accented
Japanese. "I'm sure. You recognize me, then." It was
not a question.

Shampoo glanced back and forth between the dwarf and her
great-grandmother. "Great Grandmama, you know him?"

"Of him, child, of him. I recognize him by his aura. He
has been neither foe nor ally of the Amazons, though I
suspect that is about to change." Cologne watched to
see if her heir had figured it out yet.

Shampoo still hadn't made any connections.

"Child, I'd like you to meet the current incarnation of
Hephaestus, god of smithcraft and the forge."

Hephaestus smiled slightly as he watched Shampoo's 
reaction as it slowly penetrated that her great-
grandmother was serious.
--------------------------------------
5:45p next day
"Training in ancient secret techniques," Ranma
repeated. "You're serious?"

"Quite serious," replied Cologne. "You have 
been invited to partake in this training. You have
the opportunity to learn techniques that even I
haven't mastered."

"What's the catch, there's gotta be a pricetag." Nabiki
looked up from her ledger books.

"The catch," Cologne said with an exasperated sigh, "is
that end of the training you'll have the chance to join
an elite set of warriors, NOT the Amazons (unfortunately)
but a group of warriors who fight for a higher cause.
More than that, I can't really say until we're at the
training site."

"Can't or won't?" Nabiki was curious about this now. She
rather enjoyed watching a good martial arts show, 
especially if spectacular special manuevers were 
involved. Just as long as she wasn't anywhere near
ground zero.

"I wasn't inviting you, you know." Cologne didn't really
want to spend the next several hours bargaining over the
details. 

"If Ranma goes, I'm coming too." Akane tightened the
belt on her gi. "I'm a martial artist too, you know."

A door slid open behind her and Cologne knew that any
control over the situation had just slid over a cliff.
"If Ranchan's going, then I'm going! Someone's got to
do the cooking!"

Cologne muttered something under her breath that sounded
like a curse.

"I think I'll tag along this time," Nabiki smirked. "As
I've got a little time before I start college, this may
prove to be amusing."

"This isn't just another attempt to get Shampoo and 
Ranma together, is it?"

"Akane, as hard as it may be for you to believe, there
ARE more important things than who marries Ranma, or
even my own great granddaughter's happiness. The 
survival of the Amazon Village is one of those things,
and there is a chance of Ranma saving the Village
among other places if he succeeds." 

For a moment the mask came down and everyone present 
could see something that they didn't expect to see. 
Cologne took this unspecified threat seriously. She
was afraid.

They arranged for the trip the next day.
--------------------
redone slightly.

Ja ne, 
Gregg Sharp


Never trust a smiling DM