Ranma and the Defender of the Light
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Author's notes: Yes, this can be considered an SI series. For
information concerning the Defender of the Light, see the introduction
entitled "The Defender of the Light: An interview", which was posted on
the same day that this was.
If my web page still existed, I would have created a section for this
series there. I hope to correct this problem before I return to college
on the 10th of January.
Any and all C&C is welcome, though if you must flame me, please do it
privately.
<thoughts>
*emphasis*
--
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 was created by Rumiko Takahashi and is published
in the United States by Viz. I am not associated with either Takahashi
or Viz, and have no legal right to use their material.
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The Meeting
The Defender of the Light has asked me to edit and publish this
manuscript. Well, here goes....
It was a fairly standard attack by the Dark Alliance. Twelve mages,
each about master-class, teleported to surround me. My normal response
to this form of attack was to teleport away, and, when they followed,
kill the first one to drop out of the fourth dimension after me, then
repeat the process until I'd gotten all of them.
After killing the third one, I remembered a report I had received
recently from one of my agents about a recently-discovered universe. It
was known that this was an E-type universe [editor's note: a universe
based around a planet with the physical characteristics of Earth] and
contained human life. It was not yet known whether the universe was
based on magic, technology, or both. I figured that the Bad Guys
following me would be unable to teleport to this universe, since they
did not know it existed. So, upon reaching my fourth landing point, I
did not prepare my standard attack, but instead felt my way through the
fourth dimension to this universe. Picking a time and place at random,
I ended up somewhere in China near the end of the 20th century.
Since I was not completely sure that they would not be able to follow
me, I kept my awareness in the fourth dimension. Scanning back along
the path I had taken to get here, I discovered no followers. After
about 30 seconds [ed. note: the average teleport takes 3], I decided
that they would not be following me.
Well, here I was in a virtually-unknown universe with nothing important
to do, so I decided to look around, and possibly answer some of the
questions we like to know about universes. I was on a cliff-top. Out
of curiosity, I walked over to edge of the cliff and looked down. The
valley below was dotted with hundreds of little pools. I did not
remember there being such a feature in this part of China (or any other
part) [ed. note: Except in rare cases, all explainable by an aspect of
that universe's magic, E-type universes share the exact same physical
features. The works of intelligent life, however, can vastly alter
terrain], so I reached into the fourth dimension for a computer I had
stored there [ed. note: one of several]. The one I was reaching for was
dedicated to mapping functions, and contained atlases of numerous
universes and the characteristics common to them.
Upon scanning the fourth dimension for that computer, I discovered nine
human-sized masses passing through it to my current location. <Oh
shit.> I did not have time to feel my way through a teleport out of
this universe, so I did the only thing I could. First, I triggered the
mage-shield stored in my ring [ed. note: that ring contains several
other interesting enchantments--including a fire-protection spell]. I
don't like relying on fixed shields, but, being sourced in an artifact,
this one would cost me nothing to maintain, and would block a few
mage-bolts before failing. Then, I readied the attack that I normally
used on these guys as they exit the fourth dimension after me.
Basically, it's a method of blasting something back up through the
higher dimensions as it attempts to drop into the third. This attack
can only be used if you know exactly where the target would appear as it
returns to normal space. The most likely outcome is that the item will
be ripped to shreds as it rapidly traverses eight dimensions. In
theory, a human who had this done to them would be dead before feeling
any pain. Of course, I always throw an incineration spell behind it so
random body parts aren't scattered among random universes. Even if
someone was prepared for this and managed to remain intact and alive, he
or she would be so lost that they would never manage to find their way
back. After all, one would enter the eleventh dimension, and, as far as
we know, none past the seventh have been successfully penetrated by
humans, and it has not been explored.
I successfully targeted one of my enemies with this attack. However,
eight against one is still not very good odds. I honestly did not
expect to survive, but I refused to give up. The other eight dropped
out of the fourth dimension in a rough circle, surrounding me. I
reacted defensively, actively blocking each of their attacks, but I was
unable to even attempt to strike at them. <This is not the way to win a
fight>, a voice seemed to say to me. I knew that, but I didn't have
much choice. I kept blocking them, desperately praying to think of
something to get out of this situation.
"Pop, we've got to help him." The voice was female and fairly young,
speaking an Oriental language, but I automatically heard the thought
behind her words. A teenage girl burst into sight from around the
corner and dropped the backpack she was wearing. Following her more
slowly were a middle-aged man in some sort of green uniform and a
panda!!! What the-! The panda was walking upright and also wearing a
backpack. I had no time to consider this oddity, as I was still busy
fighting for my life. I did briefly consider the possibility that these
new-comers would turn the odds in my favor, but decided that there was
little that they could do.
As I thought, the guy in the green cowered back in obvious fear, and the
panda glanced at our fight, sat down (!!) and began to munch on some
nearby plants. The girl, however, ran toward us and leaped into the
air. She must have risen a good forty feet, then did a somersault at
the apex of her jump, and, extending one fist, angled herself to smash
into one of my enemies. Said Bad Guy (actually she was female, but you
get the idea) calmly turned and raised both palms to the girl. It would
seem that this was an exceptionally feeble defense, but mage-sight
showed me a shield against physical attacks spreading between her hands.
<Well, so much my "helpers"> I thought. It was obvious that the girl
would smash into the shield and instantly be out of the fight. She
surprised me, however, by opening both hands and using the shield as a
springboard to launch a flying kick at another of my enemies. He was
not prepared for this, and the kick caught him behind one ear, rendering
him unconscious. The woman simply gaped at the girl. I, too, was
shocked, but not too much to take advantage of the situation and drill a
hole through her head with a mage-bolt. Two down, six to go. Things
are definitely looking up. I was still, however, not out of the woods.
Now that the Bad Guys were aware that this girl was helping they
would--and they did. A mage-bolt flashed from behind me, but headed
toward her, not me. Having just cast a bolt of my own, and blocking two
others simultaneously, I was unable to deflect it. She saw it coming,
and tried to twist out of the way (remember, she was still in midair
from the flying kick she used on that other guy). It almost worked, but
the edge of the bolt caught her and flung her into a tree. <The force
of the impact alone must have broken every bone in her body.> I had
learned--the hard way--not to underestimate female enemies, and, by the
same token, not to reject them as allies. However, it still bothered me
that this stranger should have sacrificed herself for me.
I was practical enough not to stand around moping, though. I made use
of the fairly large break in the circle surrounding me that had just
been created, dashed toward the edge of the cliff, and vaulted over. On
the way down, I sent a quick telepathic burst of thought as a cry for
help, something I had been unable to do while blocking so many
mage-bolts. When I was only a few feet from the valley floor, I quickly
killed my velocity with telekinesis, landing on both feet with very
little sensation of impact. I was between about three of the little
pools I had commented on earlier.
Of course, the Bad Guys followed me down. They, however, were not as
daring as I, and used telekinesis to control their descent the entire
way. This meant that it would take about five minutes for them to make
the same drop I had done in thirty seconds. I decided to see what I
could do to make that drop more difficult for them. There was plenty of
loose gravel on the cliff side that I could, and did, telekinetically
throw at them. That, of course, was a mere nuisance that they dealt
with easily, but I wasn't finished. Next, I cast a wall of fire that
they would have to pass through. Unfortunately, they all shielded
against it. I was hoping to get at least one with that trick.
By this time, my chief ally, the only other elite mage, had arrived. As
I had suggested when I contacted her, she teleported to the top of the
cliff. She was able to kill two of the Bad Guys falling toward me
before they even knew they had to guard themselves from the top as well
as the bottom. Meanwhile, the one closest to the ground had drifted
over one of the pools. He was only a few feet above it. Seeing this, I
immediately let off two strings of mini-fireballs into the pool. [ed.
note: Mini-fireballs are about an inch in diameter. One, of course,
does very little, but they are usually cast in strings of 81 each.]
Ever have a steam burn? Don't think that's so bad? Well, ever have a
steam burn over your entire body and then fall into a pool of boiling
water? [1] I thought not. His screams indicated that it wasn't exactly
pleasant. I put him out of his misery with a mage-bolt. <Three of them
to two of us, and all the terrain advantages on our side. Now that's a
lot better.> We quickly finished them off. Of course, coordinating by
telepathy was also a major advantage for us. The Bad Guys tend not to
trust each other enough to do that. If they did, I doubt I'd have
lasted the first two minutes of this fight.
I began to incinerate the bodies down here. Normally, being killed or
incapacitated activates an automatic teleport that sends them back to
their home base. Since their auto-teleport did not recognize this
universe, it was unable to do so.
"Hey, this guy's still alive."
She must have been referring to the one that girl had kicked. "Well,
stop his heart first then. He's unconscious, so I doubt he'd feel any
pain from the incineration, but...."
"Right, not a problem."
"Lift me back up there, will you?" While it was possible to use
telekinesis to push yourself off the ground--what's usually referred to
as levitation--it's much more work than lifting an equivalent mass to
the same height.
"Sure." I felt her power surround me as I began to drift upward. When
I reached the top, I saw the guy in the green and, inexplicably, the
panda, kneeling over the girl who had helped me before. Then I heard
her groan. <What, she's still alive!?!> I caught a telepathic query
from my ally, who had sensed my thought. "She helped me at the
beginning of the fight and bought me the time I needed to call you," I
said. "One of them caught her with the edge of a mage bolt, and she
slammed into that tree. I can't imagine how she survived." Approaching
the trio on the ground, I muttered a spell to translate my words to
their language, and said, "I also have some healing abilities. Would
you like me to look at her?"
"Dammit, I'm A GUY," the girl practically shouted. Truth-sense (a form
of telepathy) told me that she believed what she said, but....
"Be that as it may." There was no point in arguing with her. Perhaps
the knock on her head had caused her to have delusions. If so, I could
heal a concussion. "You still hit that tree pretty hard. There's bound
to be some damage. Do you want me to heal you, or not?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
I knelt beside her and extended my senses and examined her. "Well
there's no concussion, and no other severe injuries. Lots of bruising,
but no broken bones. That's...simply amazing. I can't understand how
it's possible. I can heal your bruises, but the healing process itself
is fairly painful. Or, of course, I can just leave them to heal
naturally."
"We have a lot of hiking to do over the next several days. I think
bruises would be a bad thing to leave. I can handle a little pain."
"Well, it's more than a little, but, if it's what you want...."
"Yeah, do it."
I closed my eyes and extended my power through her body, healing every
bruise. She did not cry out at all during the process, which is rare
for a fairly extensive healing, especially mine. Healing,
unfortunately, is not a skill I practice often, and I'm definitely not
the best healer in the multi-verse. When I was finished, I felt a hand
on my shoulder, and heard from behind me "I really need to get back."
I turned my head upward to receive her kiss. "I love you," I told her
after we had broken apart.
"We're still meeting later, right?"
"Unless I get attacked again. Or you do."
"Right, see you then. I love you too," she replied, and teleported
away. The two people still sitting before me were giving me puzzled
looks, having understood me because of the language spell, but not
having understood her.
"Before coming over here, I cast a language spell so you could
understand me," I told them. "She had not done so, and so you could not
understand her. We communicate at least as much by telepathy as by
speech, and understood each other that way." They both nodded as if
they accepted my explanation, but I could sense that they were still
puzzled. Then again, I'm not entirely sure how my language spell would
translate "telepathy".
Addressing the girl who had helped me before, I asked, "You said you
were a guy?"
She looked exasperated. "Do you have any hot water?"
"I can get some."
"Please do. And you better hit him with it as well." She gestured
toward the panda.
I reached into the fourth dimension for the thousand gallons of water I
have stored there. I pulled about a gallon away, heated it to a little
bit above the temperature of bath water (she had said hot), and sprayed
the two of them with it. She transformed to a male of about the same
age, and the panda to an older, bald, man. "That's...really strange.
I've never seen a magic that works like that before."
The two looked at each other--I could now see that they were father and
son--and the father answered, "It's a curse. A long time ago, an animal
of some sort drowned in each of the springs in the valley below. Now,
whoever falls into a spring is cursed to take on the form of the animal
that drowned there. My son fell in the spring of drowned girl, and I in
the spring of drowned panda. And now he'll never be a real man." The
old guy almost started crying.
I gestured to the son. "May I talk to you for a moment please?" I
walked across the cliff-top and stopped by a different tree.
"Yeah, sure what do you need?" he replied as he followed me.
"Well, you did save my life. I feel that I owe you something for that.
We mages--at least those of us who follow the Light--always do
everything we can to keep things in balance and pay our debts."
"How did my getting knocked out at the very beginning save your life?
>From what I saw of the end, it was that girl you were talking to who did
that."
"You took one of them out and distracted another enough for me to deal
with her. That bought me the time I needed to call for help."
"I see. Well, there is this curse of mine.... Is there any way you
could get rid of it?"
"I don't know. I'd have to do a little bit of research.... I suppose I
can get back to you in a few weeks?"
"I guess. I was hoping you could do something now...."
"Unfortunately, I'm not all that familiar with curses.... I know how to
deflect one as it's being cast, but that's about it. I don't think that
will do you any good right now."
"No, I guess not. Well, assuming that you do return, we'll count it
even."
"Oh, don't worry, I'll be back. I'll look up un-curse spells, find the
one that seems most appropriate to your case, cast it on you, and we'll
call it even. Okay?"
"And how likely is this to work?"
"Well, we're dealing with a type of curse I've never even heard of....
I can't make any promises, but I'll do everything within my power to
remove it. Good enough, or is there some other favor you would rather
have me do for you?"
"No, that will do it."
"Just one more question.... Where do you normally live? I'll need to
find you when I have a spell to use."
"Well, my dad and I will be traveling for a while.... I really don't
have a fixed address right now."
"Obviously you don't have any objections to my casting magic on you,
since I'd need to do so to even attempt to remove your curse. I could
cast a tracking spell on you now, and use it to find you later."
"Alright, go ahead." Casting the spell was but a moment's work. "Okay,
is there anything else we need to discuss?"
"Not as long you come back."
"Right, like I said, it'll be a few weeks."
"Don't make it too long."
"Learning a new class of spells takes more than a few minutes. And that
assumes I don't get attacked by any more of those bastards."
"Yeah, whatever."
"By the way, I should probably have your name...."
"Ranma. Soatome Ranma."
"And you can call me Erik." We walked back over the other two.
"What did you have to say to my son for so long anyway?" the old guy
asked me accusingly.
"Pop!!" It was Ranma. "Leave him alone. He felt he owed me something
for saving my life, and offered to attempt to remove my curse!"
"Just yours?!?" the old guy shouted in return.
"Did you help to save his life?? I don't think so!!! In fact, I seem
to remember you just sitting there and eating the whole time!"
"Guys, guys, calm down." Well, I tried.
"Ranma. That is no way to talk to your father!! Don't you remember any
of your training!" He leaped into the air and Ranma leaped to meet him.
I decided to put a stop to this. Before they'd gotten about halfway
toward each other, I halted them with telekinesis. They had to have
seen my ascent back up the cliff (well, maybe not), but the fact that I
could do that to others didn't seem to have occurred to them. They
certainly knew once they found themselves hovering in midair with no
visible support.
"I just healed you, and you seem bent on accumulating further injuries?
And as for you, *sir*, if you want to know my intentions concerning your
curse, why didn't ask me? Yelling at your son certainly won't give you
the answer, as we didn't discuss it. Now, have you two calmed down
enough for me to let you down?" I looked at Ranma, who nodded. His
father did the same, so I dropped them both. I admit, it was petty, but
I wasn't too impressed with their attitudes right then. They both
rolled with the fall and stood up uninjured, glaring at me. "Okay, I
suppose I shouldn't have done that, but you did want down."
Ranma laughed, and replied, "Yeah, I suppose we did at that. Pop, you
gotta handit to this guy, he does have style."
"Yeah, I suppose you do at that."
"Ranma, I have just one more question."
"Go ahead." He sounded resigned.
"You must have seen the shield that you bounced off, and you almost
avoided the mage-bolt that slammed you into that tree. That would
indicate that you can use magic yourself, but you didn't in the fight at
all. It's puzzling."
"I haven't yet learned any chi attacks, but can recognize its effects."
The Japanese concept of chi is not quite the same as magic. However, it
is close enough that the language spell I had used would probably
translate it that way. I interpreted his response to mean that he had
the mage-gift, but did not know how to use his magic. Since I would be
returning in an attempt to cure his curse, I could test him for magical
aptitude, and, if necessary, see to his training.
I looked to his father. "Sir-"
"Call me Genma."
"Genma then. Should the attempt to remove Ranma's curse be successful,
I will be happy to do the same for you. Of course, you would owe me an
equivalent favor that I could collect later. I have sworn to fight
evil, but a curse acquired by a random dip in a spring does not usually
qualify as evil."
He nodded. "We can discuss it then."
"If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now."
Ranma and Genma looked at each and shook their heads, so I teleported
away. I had learned a few things about this universe from this
encounter. The first was that magic was used here. The curses, and
Ranma's acceptance of magic, were proof enough of that, though not an
indication of how common it was. Also, their backpacks had been made of
a synthetic material, probably nylon, and had an aluminum frame. This
indicated a certain level of technology, probably about the same level
as the universe I had been born in. A lot more exploration would be
necessary, and my agents would be carrying it out soon. In fact, now
that I had an obligation here, the priority on that exploration would be
increased somewhat.
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[1] Author's note: Yes, the mage that fell into a spring would have been
cursed. However, the pool was composed of very hot water at the time,
so he immediately returned to his normal form. He was killed before
ever finding out about the curse.
--
Erik
"If you see my mind out wandering, be sure to send it back."
-Marion Zimmer Bradley, _Witchlight_
http://www.cs.transy.edu/ejessup/homepage.html
--
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