FIST OF ORION (wordsketch) 
part 4/5: Return of the Warrior
trademarks owned by a whole lotta OTHER people.
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/
email: metroanime@mindspring.com
       this is just an idea sketched out that (like way too many)
started taking off on its own. The idea was to come up with
a different approach to the "Saint Ranma" thing i'd done awhile
back as it had too many elements duplicated in other people's
works.
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Journal of Nabiki Tendo: April 16, 1992

 As this computer is a new little thing that
Ranko insisted I start working with, I'm just commiting
electrons to magnetic surface while I try to organize my
thoughts on the whole thing. 

 I find myself in serious need of organization
at present.

 It has been one month and three days since
I opened the door to our home and met two people who
seem as different as night and day, but are brother and
sister that were raised seperately. 

 Ranko is an eight year old girl who is 
alternately an angel, an Amazon, and the sort of 
businesswoman one can really admire. Being chewed
out by an eight year old for wasting one's talents with
"penny-ante stuff" was an interesting experience but
one I'd rather not re-experience.

 Ranma isn't an angel and doesn't seem to
think much about money at all. He's roughed it most of
his life and is into a Zen sort of minimalist existence. He
is, on the other hand, a Saint.

 Now THAT was a revelation. Not a saint 
such as the Catholics speak of, a paragon of virtue who
dies in service to their church. Ranma is a Saint, Silver
Saint Orion to be exact. He started out as Bronze Saint
Lynx but "graduated" when his previous girlfriend was
eradicated from existence and he tapped into his full
potential.

 The Bronze Saints, as I understand it, are one
step above common warriors. They typically do official
functions and duties and get sent on minor missions. The
important stuff gets the Silver Saints, the next level up in
the hierarchy. The Gold Saints guard the mortal incarnation
of Athena- a girl named Saori.

 It was interesting to see Akane as she started
yelling at Ranma for bringing by a "friend" without warning
only to realize that this newcomer was someone visiting Kasumi. 
Athena reincarnated and apparently quite a bit more mature 
than in a previous life. After this had been explained to her,
and that Ranma wasn't "two-timing" me and bringing a new
girlfriend by, she almost swallowed her tongue.

 We're all a bit grateful that this isn't the mythic
Athena who would turn a seamstress into a spider in a moment
of pique. Ranko had amused herself by reading some of those
old stories to Akane after the visit.

 Oh, that's right. Kasumi was trained for a 
month in aikido and pressure points. She's really really
good. There was some fallout from that little event too.

 Ranma had listened to Kasumi worrying about
how her family was doing, and how a certain chiropractor
was getting by. He asked Ranko to investigate, and the
child seized the moment.	

 The results of which have been many and 
varied. Ranma had taken the time to have a long talk 
with a Doctor Tofu Ono, regarding the frailty of life 
and the consequences of waiting entirely too long to 
speak of love. Kasumi is frequently out of the house 
now, having heard of poor Doctor Tofu's sudden inability 
to cook for himself from Ranko.

 Akane had been confident of Kasumi 
refusing to go along with that training nonsense, 
and then coming home when Kasumi realized how 
impossible this all was, and then because she was 
Kasumi she would of course refuse to fight, and then
she'd just do a token effort so that she wouldn't
dishonor her family or new sensei. She'd been so 
confident that Akane had made a few other bets at 
each stage of this. Now she's stuck learning flower 
arranging, tea ceremony, meditation techniques, and... 
Zen aestheticism and philosophies.

                   There's also the Contract that I signed
while I was still in shock about losing so much 
money on the Kasumi-Kuno fight. Ranko has
apparently learned how to be sneaky and tricky
from her father and easily surpasses him in the
art of Anything Goes finance.

 There's this honor agreement to link
the two families. Ranma is supposed to marry
one of the Tendo daughters (and some others,
but that's for a later entry.) As mentioned 
earlier, Kasumi already has someone else.

 Akane had hit it off rather badly with
Ranma to begin with. Even though Ranko pointed
out that Ranma was keeping his word to train little 
sister and increase her martial arts skills. (Choosing 
tutors for her in subjects that involve patience, control, 
and awareness of one's environment.) Akane, on the 
other hand, spends a lot of time railing against the 
unfairness of it all and muttering darksome oaths of 
what she will do to Ranma when she gets done with 
these "useless" studies.

 Anyway, back to the honor agreement.
Kasumi has her doctor, who still has the occasional
bout of silliness but as she spends time with him 
this gradually decreases. Akane is jealous of Ranma's
skill level, raw power, that he is STILL mooning over
his deceased first love, and that she feels that she was
humiliated in their first fight.

 So Ranko shows initiative and had made
up the Contract which I so foolishly signed. She got
me out of debt, and basically picked me up as an
acquisition. All of which I protest quite vocally and
point out has NO legal authority.

 So she suggests I wear certain things
and serve tea or something. I think she's just into
playing dressup, and she DID come to my rescue
when my finances had gone so far into the red that
bankruptcy looked imminent. I wear skimpy clothing
anyway and I'll admit Ranma is a major hunk and
spending time with the barbarian isn't bad. He's a
barbarian but a nice barbarian, I guess.

 Then there's this OTHER fiancee that
showed up. Her name is Shampoo. Don't laugh,
she's not that funny. When she first showed up two
weeks ago, I expected to be kicked to the curb. After
all, she's a cuddly and affectionate thing and a tribal 
champion. Everything I'm not.

 Ranko took the book of Amazon Law
that explained that Ranma had become her husband
by defeating her in combat, and read the thing. In
an obscure dialect of Chinese, front to back. Then
she went to the Library, scanned the internet, and
came back with four options that didn't involve
the termination of previous fiancees.

 I'm grateful, but sometimes the chirpy
little redhead scares me. "Anything Goes School
of Information Gathering" indeed.

 So I've got a new sister, having shared
blood and salt with Shampoo. Shampoo had to be
shown the requisite passages and walked through
the thing, as she's "a warrior not a lawyer" and 
never gotten into the fine details herself.

 Which is one reason that I'm here in 
my room, typing away at a keyboard. I'm too sore
to stand with Shampoo's attitude of "no sister of
mine is going to be less than a major force of
martial arts nature." I can't walk at present, the
muscles in my legs having gone to the apparent
consistency of limp spaghetti. Kasumi's massage
has given me some strength back, but the legs
took the brunt of the workout and have shut down.

 Ranko, another little force of nature,
has quite a day planned for us tomorrow. She's
taking me and Shampoo shopping. New clothes,
makeup, a few other stops.

 I think Ranko scares Shampoo a little
too.
-------------close file------------------------
 Ranko knew martial arts, she knew 
how to bake cookies, she knew a couple of 
languages. She also knew who to ask for info
on just about anything else.

 Such as the location of a little 
out of the way shop, set into the back alley
of a strip mall. It was a shop that bought and
sold good quality used clothing run by a 
little Chinese woman who was more than
delighted to have an Amazon shopping 
there.

 Nabiki sat back in one of the
chairs near the dressing rooms and tried
to catch her breath. Had she ever had that
much energy when she was Ranko's age?

 "Remind me of Great Grandmama.
Once she get going, she like flood- very 
hard to stand against." Shampoo slumped
against her own chair, absolutely SURE that
she'd never been that active when she had
been a young girl.

 "I'm not sure that I was ever
that young."

 The two glanced at each other,
identical smiles appearing.

 "Well, then. What ARE we going
to do, Shampoo?"

 "About Ranma? Not sure. You
now sister to Shampoo. Shampoo not know
about 'loopholes' but suppose if is Law then
is Law. Shampoo no can kill obstacle." She
didn't seem too disappointed in that.

 "Want to just marry him and
go back to your village, eh?"

 "No." Shampoo noted Nabiki's
expression and elaborated. "Ranma is special
warrior, trained by Lochi to step beyond chi
and tap into greater power. Ranma serve 
Athena, who has aided Amazons many 
year ago. Shampoo also never have sister
before. Think this bear investigating too."

 "Well, I'm glad you don't have
to kill me as some obstacle then. We'll see
who wins, though."

 "Is good to have challenge. Is
good not to have to kill this challenge."

 "Have you killed before, then?"

 "Can keep secret? Shampoo kill.
Shampoo kill rabbits, Shampoo kill pigs, 
Shampoo kill when on hunt. Shampoo never
kill peoples. Want to kill stupid Mousse many
many time but no do that. Shampoo is not
blooded warrior." Shampoo noted the fashion
magazine lying on another chair and began
thumbing through it. "Womans of Japan 
actually wear this stuff? Low armor value.
Some very restrictive of movement. You 
would freeze in Bayankala range you wear
this there..."

 Nabiki felt some amusement as
she watched the Amazon flipping through
the magazine. Makeup wasn't unknown to
the girl, but she'd never seen the range of 
shades and had much instruction in their
application.

 "Shampoo never see value of high
heels. Oh, Nabiki, what this?"

 Nabiki wearily cracked an eye back 
open to regard the page that Shampoo was holding
out. "Beyond our price range."

 "Shampoo serious. Not see value
of clothing. Text is unfamiliar."

 "It says it is a 'champagne teddy'
and it's lingerie. Something that you wear to
bed."

 Shampoo blinked. "That would be
very very cold on some nights."

 "If you or I wore that in front of 
Ranma, I would think he would get rather warm."

 Shampoo blinked and considered this.
"Think warm bath more stimulating."

 A few yards away, Ranko pretended
to look through another rack of clothing as the
two began discussing relative values of some
means of seduction, especially as regarded her
big brother. 

 She'd get him to stick around, even
with the father and mother they shared. Or better
yet, take his little sister along if he DID leave.

 She wasn't sure about this 'Catfist'
thing her father wanted to teach her. Now if big
brother would just show up "accidently" as she'd
arranged...
--------------------------------------------------
 Ranma stopped in mid stride and began
looking around. Shampoo looked a bit puzzled at
first, then her own expression turned to one of
intense concentration.

 Nabiki looked at the various people
around her, noted that Ranko was in the process
of flipping up into the branches of a tree. "Uhm,
guys, what's going on?"

 "An aura. It feels familiar somehow."

 "Is very powerful." Shampoo said 
after a few moments. "Someone flared their chi.
Is sort of a challenge. Shampoo see some Elders
do like this."

 Nabiki noted that Shampoo was 
nervous. "I take it that I should be worried."

 "Shampoo is worried. Very very good
fighter to do this."

 "You're not scared, though."

 "Fear keep you alive, Nabiki." Shampoo
was obviously quoting some old Amazon wisdom.
"To be ruled by fear is coward's way. To not feel
fear mean you not understand. Warrior knows fear
there for reason and know when to listen."

 A figure stepped out into the intersection
ahead, a woman wearing the heavily stylized armor of
a Saint and some sort of facemask.

 "U-Ucchan?"

 Nabiki and Shampoo noticed  how
pale Ranma had turned and how he had 
started trembling. They turned back towards
the girl standing a dozen yards ahead of them,
who was standing in a pose that screamed 
"threat."

 So did the reddish aura crackling
around her.

 "Ranma," said the woman's voice. 
"At last I can tell you of my feelings. DIE!
NOVA FLARE!"
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 this is called a Cliffhanger ending, btw.

everything gets wrapped up in chapter 5 until the
events in "Settling Bets" occur...

ja ne,
gregg