Permanent 14, The Black Rose strikes!
Gosunkugi sat in his room in his bedclothes. He was sitting at a small
and cluttered desk reading a large tome Ranma had given him for study.
His eyes were beginning to drop as sleep threatened to overtake him. He
yawned and turned off the lamp he had been using to read and climbed into
his bed. He didn't notice the window open seemingly on it's own.
Sasuke snuck silently through the shadows and tried to think of what to
do next. "Mistress Kodachi only said to bring him, did she mean by force?
Oh, well," thought the ninja as he emerged from the shadows and walked
over to the bed. He reached up and shook the form under the covers. He
frowned as he realized that the boy's body gave way a little too much. He
flung aside the covers to reveal a pile of pillows. He froze as a light
came from behind him.
"Who are you? What do you want?" asked Gosunkugi as he stood over in the
other corner of the room.
Sasuke turned and positioned himself offensively, surely a boy would be
no match for his skills. He froze in fear as he saw the glowing orange
ball in the boy's hands.
"I suggest you back down! This won't feel very good if it connects, if
your lucky you might be able to put the flames out in time..." said the
boy from his corner weakly.
"How? How could you know?" stammered the ninja.
"Easy, you stood in the corner thinking out loud fool," said Gosunkugi
with a small smirk. "N-now don't move!"
"I bring a message for you, Mistress Kuno wishes to speak with you,"
said Sasuke as he relaxed a little.
"Why would she want to talk to me?" said the boy in surprise.
"It doesn't matter, My orders are to bring you using any means
necessary," said the small ninja as he reached back behind his back.
Gosunkugi swallowed. "H-how dare you speak to such a powerful mage like
me like that?!" he stammered lamely. Sasuke smiled as he realized that
the boy was posing. He jumped and flung a wire net at him.
Gosunkugi reacted quickly and shoved lightly at the air. The net flew
upwards ripping a hole in the ceiling as it exited the room. Sasuke froze
in shock at this. "What the?"
"Ooops, I guess that was too much..." said the boy as he looked at his
hand.
The ninja backed away and tossed a small gas ball on the ground. He
frowned and placed a mask around his face as he did so. "This is more
difficult than I imagined," he muttered as the cloud enveloped him and
began to spread towards the gothic boy.
"Life within the air I summon your power, come into my hands!" murmured
Gosunkugi as he uttered a passage from the book he had been reading. A
small breeze could be felt in the room as he cupped his hands together, a
ball of gas and air filled them. Suddenly he remembered exactly which
spell he had just muttered. "Oh, shit! Wrong spell. -Tornado blast!-"
with that a huge gust of wind shot from his palms and slammed everything
in the room into the opposite wall. He almost cried as a few pencils, a
dresser, and his bed smashed through the wall and into the hallway.
"Ooops."
Sasuke just sat in the crater his own impact had made in the wall and
looked at the boy in shock. The bed had almost taken his head off. "Such
power! I must defeat this sorcerer to honor my ninja heritage!" he cried
almost with tears of joy in his eyes. He seemed to vanish and Gosunkugi
frowned as he realized that his opponent was probably much more
experienced at this sort of thing than he was. Now was a good time to
run. He turned for the door just as a few throwing knives and shiruken
embedded themselves in the floor where he had been standing moments
before. Gosunkugi almost passed out, he stumbled through the dark and
barely avoided the multiple projectiles that were being sent his way.
Somehow none of them connected, mostly because he was stumbling about and
falling as he ran through the darkened room. He often tripped or
painfully ran into various objects that were strewn around in the room in
his mad scramble for escape.
Sasuke finally ran out of things to throw. "Such skill! To think that he
would avoid all my shiruken!" he gasped in awe.
Gosunkugi stopped when he began to realize that nothing was being thrown
anymore. He turned and put his hands over his head. A ball of light
formed in them and he glanced around trying to spot the ninja in the
shadows. He finally looked upwards and saw him clinging to the ceiling;
Sasuke laughed nervously and fell on his face in the middle of the floor.
Gosunkugi backed away from him in terror; Right into a pair of long
white legs. He turned and looked upwards to see Kodachi standing on the
remains of his desk twirling her ribbon in the air lazily. Under her arm
was the book he had been reading. "Hey! That's not mine! Give it back!"
he whined as he tried to grab the book.
"Really treating a lady so, you should be ashamed," said Kodachi as she
wrapped him tightly in her ribbon. He panicked almost immediately and
began to struggle. "It seems there is some merit to this...magic after
all."
"Mistress, I..." started Sasuke, but he was cut off by a glare from
Kodachi's dark eyes. He hung his head in submission and growled. His
honor would not be fulfilled now until the battle with the young sorcerer
was finished.
Kodachi pulled the boy up close to her face and smiled at him. "I may
need this one, he has experience in such things as this," she said to
Sasuke as she held up the book.
"Yes, mistress," said the ninja simply.
"A bit boring isn't he?" she said as she gazed into the petrified
Hikaru's eyes. He made a whimpering noise and passed out.
"Ah, surely I am cursed with this humble beauty. I do hope he has the
courage to speak to one as fair as myself," she said as she dropped him
and tried to look demure. "Sasuke, bring him."
"Yes, mistress Kuno."
Ryoga Hibiki looked at the gates of the Tendo dojo. He frowned and
looked at the map in his hands. "This is it, I'm back," he muttered to
himself. He entered the gates and half expected to find himself in some
strange yard in some other ward. It wasn't though, the Koi jumped in the
pond and he smiled lightly. The dojo stood in the back where it had
always been. Kasumi was in the kitchen cleaning and humming to herself.
He opened the door and smiled a little more as he walked in and kicked
off his shoes.
"Oh my, We have visitors," said Kasumi as she walked out to greet him.
Soun looked around his paper with slight interest.
"Ah, Ryoga! We weren't expecting you back for some time," he said
cheerfully. His opinion of the boy was still uncertain. He had seemed
honorable and a nice enough, but his relationship with Ranma was
questionable to him at best.
"I need to speak with Ranma," he said with a large grin on his face.
"Oh dear, Ranma is in school right now," said Kasumi looking worried.
"That's all right, I can wait," said Ryoga as he sat down at his usual
spot at the end of the table. Soun glanced at him one last time before
settling. Accept for the large stupid grin on the boy's face, everything
seemed to be falling back into the usual pattern. Soun liked
predictability, but that seemed a distant memory since the young
sorceress and her strange family had moved in.
Akane sat at her usual place at lunch with Ranma. Yuka, and Sayuri. New
today, however, were the two newest students of Furinkan, Ko-li and
Talcum. Neither of them had moved very far from Ranma. They seemed to
cling to her for protection from the strange culture around them. However
close to Ranma they sat they always held their heads up in almost pride,
most of the boys had started to drool immediately. The two girls took it
in stride and ignored them as they should as Amazon warriors. The boys
didn't exactly make them want to socialize, most of the girls didn't
appear to interested either. Ranma at least could speak their language.
Ranma and the two girls had become pretty close since she had started
working for Cologne a few months ago. Ranma had even succumbed to calling
them sisters. They had always called her that and made an extra effort to
make her feel welcome to the Amazon tribe. Ranma was wary at first,
mostly because of the nature of her induction into the tribe. Eventually
she realized that they did not blame her for Shampoo's condition
directly. In fact they seemed to think she deserved it. Ranma had spent
more and more time outside work with them as the weeks drug on.
Akane was a little jealous of the closeness the three had shown in such
a short time. She had known Ranma for much longer than either of the two
Amazons and they had a sort of bond that she just didn't understand.
Ranma was still closer to her than either of the two girls but it still
made her feel a little awkward when trying to talk to them. It was as if
they really were sisters, and she was...She didn't really know. Sometimes
she felt like a twin sister, other times she felt like they were dating.
Ranma was very protective of her at times. She didn't really understand
their relationship, but that was probably why she liked being around her
so much.
Ranma stopped eating, "Ryoga's back," she said simply.
"Huh? How did you..." Akane started to say when she remembered Ranma's
strange hobby.
"Is boy friend?" asked Talcum.
"More like brother," said Ranma with a mouth full of food.
"Ah," said Ko-li with seemingly instant understanding. The other girls
looked at her and Ranma in confusion.
"It's like that with Mousse. I still understand him like no one else,
even with the way he is now," she said simply.
<You know Mousse well?> asked Ranma in Chinese stopping her meal.
<We grew up together if that's what you mean. I always seemed to
understand him, I don't see what was wrong with him. Shampoo would have
been lucky to have him back then. She was more blind than he ever was, I
suppose that's why I forgave you for her so quickly.>
Akane and her friends just looked at them blankly.
"Sorry, it's kind of personal," explained Ranma.
"It's OK, I sort of understand," said Akane with a shrug.
"Both of them give me the creeps," said Ranma with a shudder.
"Well he stays with her most of the time, he has to really. We keep them
upstairs when you work. They have free run of the restaurant when your
off though," said Ko-li with a friendly smile, she leaned on Ranma
playfully and Ranma shrugged her off.
"Cut that out, you know I hate hearing about those two," muttered Ranma.
"Oooh, Is Ranma scared?" chimed Talcum as she leaned on the other side
of Ranma's back.
"Hey! I ain't scared of nothing!" cried Ranma angrily.
Akane and her friends giggled, Ranma saw this and blushed.
"Meow!" said Talcum in Ranma's ear. The girl froze and shivered.
Akane looked at her queerly for a moment and smiled. "Is something wrong
Ranma?" she said as she leaned closer to her. She had a mischievous look
in her eyes that Ranma didn't like.
"No, why would...there be?" stammered the girl pathetically. Luckily
Akane backed away and Ranma sighed in relief.
"Well, if it isn't the lazy school girls," said Cologne with a sour
glare at Ranma and her two sisters as they entered the Cat Cafe' and tied
their aprons around their waists.
"Sorry Ghoul, we sorta had to stay late for some paperwork," said Ranma
with a quick smile.
"And they needed you there?" said Cologne with her eyes narrowing as she
gazed at Ranma.
Ranma laughed a little nervously and backed away. As much as she liked
the other two girls, she had no real love for Cologne.
"Need Ranma read Katakana Hirigana," chirped Talcum peppilly as she
entered the floor with a tray and headed for a customer.
"She's right, I still can't read all of them," said Ko-li as she
followed.
Cologne snorted, "Just don't let it happen again."
That was when a familiar scream came from directly behind her. She
turned to see Ranma standing on a table with a look of complete terror in
her eyes. A small white cat sat and bat at her with it's paw playfully.
It jumped for the chair in an attempt to chase her and missed by about
two inches to the right. It's ears perked up and it jumped again. Ranma
shrieked and jumped back further onto the table.
Cologne's staff came down on the animal's head and it passed out. "How
did you get out? I told you to stay in you room with your wife you blind
fool," said Cologne as she picked Mousse up by the scruff of his neck.
She pogoed up the stairs and tossed him into the room before closing the
door.
Ko-li was trying her best not to laugh. "You make sure Shampoo is not
running loose as well. I'd hate to have Ranma freeze up in the middle of
the rush."
"Is not funny," snorted Talcum as she helped the still shaking Ranma
down off the table.
"I'm sorry sister Ranma, I just...you should have seen the look..."
Ko-li fell into yet another fit of laughter.
"Jerk," muttered Ranma as she stormed off and calmed down a bit more.
Talcum walked over and hit Ko-li on her head. "You be nice to sister
Ranma," she growled.
Kodachi sat in her chambers with the book open before her. Gosunkugi was
bound by chains hanging from the wall and had long since given up
struggling. He simply hung there and waited. Kodachi snorted as she
closed her hand and smiled at the smoking remains of one of her brother's
practice dolls. "Interesting," she muttered as she tried to find some
formula or explanation for what had just happened. Nothing came to mind.
Gosunkugi noticed her look and frowned. "You c-can't calculate it,
Th-that's why its called m-m-magic," he stuttered. Kodachi had not
bothered to change her leotard and the boy was not accustomed to seeing
quite so much.
"Quite," snorted Kodachi as she realized that there was some truth to
what the boy had said.
"Oh, look a demon summon spell!" she said in excitement as she flipped
and stopped on a page.
"NO!" cried Gosunkugi in shock. "You can't!"
"Can't I?" she said smugly.
Gosunkugi almost gave up. "If you can't be sure if you can control or
kill it when it comes we could all die," he said weakly.
"Perhaps your right, I suppose we'll have to come back to that one,"
Somehow Hikaru Gosunkugi was not reassured by that.
"Some one had better figure out what happened quick or we are all in a
lot of trouble." He hung his head and struggled weakly against the chains
that bound him to the dungeon like wall of Kodachi Kuno's laboratory.
TBC...