This is the last chapter of set-up. Next chapter is the
beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, depending
on how you would look at it.
Thanks again go to my prereaders. And this fic now is being
hosted at two sites, www.sofaspud.org and
home.earthlink.net/~tannim/index.html (described as
"everyone (and their uncles) crossover").
Disclaimer: All if favor of this fic continuing, say 'aye.'
All who are opposed, you don't count.
The Warrior's Path
by Andrew Wilson(templar@softcom.net)
Chapter 8: Arcane Knowledge or "Teacher's Nightmare."
Pirotess shook her head at the scene unfolding in the
garden. Ranma and Deedlit faced off, each holding a small
globe of pale light. What was surprising was that Deedlit
had only begun to teach Ranma magic a week before. The fact
that he had already learned three spells was a tribute to
his ability. Of course, the three were just variations of
one another. The first was a flash of light that would
blind any in a given area. Another was a globe the produced
light equal to the sun. The final one, which they were
practicing at the moment, was a longer lasting globe with
adjustable brightness.
The color of Deedlit's globe changed to blue, and Ranma's
began to follow suit. Suddenly, Ranma's globe developed
streaks of red. Before he could react, it shot off to the
side. The red streaks become flames as it impacted the
stone fence, creating a large, charred dent.
Pirotess laughed. "Would someone like to tell me when
Lantern Light became Fireball?"
Ranma flushed in embarrassment, while Deedlit simply
sighed. "We're working on it," she said.
"Let me guess," Pirotess continued, addressing Ranma, "you
were attempting to command the sphere, and a stray thought
came into your head. Since you were concentrating on the
spell, the thought became part of the commands to the
spell."
"Uh, I guess. That's what happened."
Now it was Deedlit's turn to sigh. "Ranma, you're dealing
with forces that are more destructive than nuclear weapons.
You have to have the utmost concentration or you'll end up
destroying yourself, and others around you."
"Oh, sorry." Ranma had the good sense to be embarrassed.
"Don't be sorry, just do it right. Now, let's try again."
*******
<Nerima>
Reactions to the tale told by the
young-woman-who-claims-to-be-Cologne were mixed around the
Tendo table.
Akane and Ukyo wore looks of shock. Both had lost a friend
(Ranma for Ukyo, Ryoga for Akane). A very small portion of
their minds informed them that Kuno would no longer be a
problem, but that was overridden by the shock.
Kasumi seemed sad. After all, that Ryoga boy had been nice,
and that Kuno person and his charms, and of course she would
miss Ranma.
Nabiki lamented so many opportunities for making money. Oh,
those boys had been cute, but that was beside the point.
Shampoo began to understand why her great-grandmother
stopped her from jumping through that portal. That world
was no place for an Amazon, or anyone.
Soun did the only thing he could in such a situation, flood
the room with tears.
Genma contemplated becoming panda-kabobs.
Cologne saw her initial prediction had come true, and
reached for the bottle of sake.
*******
<The other Earth>
A feline roar toward the city gates interrupted the lesson
later that day. Drizzt and Catti-brie rushed out of the
house in time to see Guenhwyvar leap over the fence. Ranma
began backing away very quickly.
Pirotess walked over to Deedlit. The blond had a look of
worry on her face.
"What wrong this time?"
Deedlit pointed to the reunion of friends. "The cat is an
astral being. We're on the Astral Plane, more or less.
Ranma is afraid of cats. Does that sum it up?"
"You're right. The cat can be here all the time now."
"Exactly."
"Uh-oh."
"Big uh-oh."
*******
Ryoga didn't even bother asking the insect-men for
directions. He never got the chance, they had just
attacked. For some odd reason, they didn't seem to want to
hurt him much, just grab him.
>From the tree's, a green-shelled bug watched the human walk
away from twenty dead hive-kin. The Hunter's senses told it
that the human would provide much nourishment to the hive,
but it was much to powerful. It contemplated spraying the
human with the "destroy" chemical marker, but the human
seemed to vanish before the Hunter could take any action.
*******
After Deedlit explained to the militia, who had chased the
cat from the gate, who and what Guenhwyvar was, the friends
left for a small park nearby. The reason they gave was to
spend time with the cat, but everyone could tell that they
had left to be nice to Ranma.
Teacher and student sat in the center of a ring of rose
bushes, facing each other across a small table. Deedlit was
watching Ranma, who's gaze appeared glazed over. Pirotess
watched from a short distance, ready to erect a magical
barrier if something went wrong.
Ranma's gaze suddenly focused, and he spoke a few short
syllables.
Nothing happened.
Deedlit reached over to take his hand, to soothe the
disappointment forming on his face. Her hand never made it,
it was stopped less than an inch from his skin.
"How could you do an armor spell? That wasn't what we were
studying."
Ranma shrugged. "It just came to me."
Deedlit turned to Pirotess. "I think this is more your
department."
Pirotess nodded. "I figured it would be. He operates too
much on instinct to be anything else."
"Will someone please explain what you're talking about?"
Ranma looked a little annoyed.
"Simple," Deedlit said. "There are two ways people learn
magic. One is to study books and scrolls, being taught how
to focus the power. The other way is through meditation,
where the spells are formed through your mind and spirit.
One uses the words to create the effects, the other starts
with the effects, and then makes the words to focus them."
"And I'm that second category?"
Pirotess smirked. "Catches on quick."
"So," Deedlit asked her, "can you do it?"
"There isn't much more that needs to be done. Give me a few
more days, and he'll be ready."
*******
"And what happens when Ryoga show's up in that timeframe?"
Jade was startled by Zaranth's voice. The spirits had been
watching the proceedings in silence for a while.
Ranger just shot the were-panther a incredulous look.
"Guess."
*******
<Nerima>
Cologne stood outside a small building in Nerima. The task
she had been dreading ever since she had arrived in Japan
was now unavoidable. She thought back two hundred years,
when a child was subject to the age slowing ritual as a form
of punishment. His blood was tainted, sired by the spawn of
a demon. His quest was to hunt the demon-man and take it's
life. When the child reached the age of sixteen, and the
age slowing magic's took effect, he was cast out of the
village, only allowed to return once his cursed father was
dead.
Needless to say, the child was bitter, rejecting his
mother's offer of aid and training. He had fled. When no
word came about him or his quest, he was presumed dead.
When she arrived in Nerima, Cologne discovered that the
presumption was incorrect. Not only that, the father had
appeared, and none of the locals were doing anything about
it. Two of them were even taught by the hell-spawned freak.
She entered the building, moving toward the office in the
back. She entered without knocking, and regarded the man
sitting behind the desk within.
"Hello, Tou Phu," she said, "it is good to see you again."
Tofu Ono nearly choked on his tea. "Mother?" he gasped.
*******
Akane and Ukyo were staring listlessly at the food Kasumi
had set out after Cologne had left when a demented laugh
echoed through the air.
"What have you peasants done with my darling Ranma!" Kodachi
Kuno screeched.
Akane and Ukyo met each others gaze.
"Fight?" Akane asked.
"Fight," Ukyo replied, a hint of a smile appearing.
"Good exercise," Akane commented, a smile also forming on
her lips.
"And great stress relief," Ukyo concurred.
Both girls walked outside, cracking their knuckles.
*******
<Chaos central... I mean, Rifts Earth>
Ryoga was pissed.
No other way around it. He knew that he had a bad sense of
direction. Mostly it meant that when he was given a choice
of directions to take, it was like fate rolling some dice to
decide which way he would go. And no matter which way it
way, it always felt like the right direction. Wandering all
over Japan in order to reach his backyard was natural.
But this place, this place was horrible. It took his bad
direction sense and magnified it. Unless he could see his
destination, he would suddenly find himself somewhere else.
>From snow capped mountains to dense forest to sandy beaches
in less than an hour.
He looked around. Just a minute ago he was in a dense
jungle, now there was only flat plains stretching in each
direction, with some hills to the south. Ryoga was near
panic. He could survive in almost any environment for any
amount of time (1), so that was not the problem. The
problem was his imagination. In his mind he saw Ashram, and
his demon allies fighting Pirotess, and winning. He saw the
dark knight causing pain to the woman he loved, and he was
not there to protect her. He had failed her. His
desperation was born of those visions. He had to find her,
to be by her side in the fight he knew was coming.
A faint, high pitched humming drew his attention to the
north. At the base of a small cloud of dust, a large
motorcycle carried two people. The cycle looked a little
bazaar, more advanced and sleeker than Ryoga had seen
before. It color was mostly dark blue, with black trim.
It was also faster than Ryoga was used to seeing. Before he
had totally registered it's appearance, the rider was
pulling up a few yards away.
The man at the controls was wearing armor that matched his
cycle's color's. His head was uncovered, revealing dark
hair and eyes, which contrasted his fair skin. His features
were that of a man just entering his third decade of life,
but his eyes seemed much older.
While the man could have blended into almost any crowd, the
woman he was with would stand out anywhere. She was wearing
a red and black jumpsuit with a white scarf wrapped around
her neck. Ryoga's eyes were drawn to her hair, which was an
emerald green. By contrast, her skin was dark, as though
tanned, and with her red eyes that gave her an exotic
beauty. Strangely, Ryoga could not put an age to her. Part
of him though she was only a few years older than himself,
yet, as with her companion, her eyes seemed much, much
older. (2)
"Greetings," the man said, his voice a low tenor. "You look
a little lost."
*******
"Understatement of the year."
"No kidding."
*******
Ryoga laughed bitterly. "You don't know the half of it.
I'm trying to reach Psyscape, but..."
"But," the man said, "only people who have spent time there
know where it is, and there are very few of them out here."
"Yes," Ryoga sighed, "I guess I should keep moving."
A look passed between the two companions, then the man
nodded to the cycles sidecar. It was some kind of cargo
container, but it had a couple of handles on the outside.
"How strong's your grip?"
Ryoga laughed. "Very."
"Grab on," the woman said, her voice sounding strange to
Ryoga, "we go."
"Huh?"
The man laughed. "Grab on. We're about fifty miles north of
Psyscape's location in this dimension. We can be there in
twenty minutes with a passenger. That is, if you can hold
on tight."
Ryoga smiled. "Perfect." He grabbed the handholds, and
balanced himself on the pod. "By the way, my names Ryoga,
Ryoga Hibiki."
The man tossed him a salute. "Well met, Mr. Hibiki. I'm
Lieutenant Conner Hamilton, and the beautiful woman behind
me," he broke off as she placed a hand on his shoulder,
"prefers to remain anonymous. No offense."
"None tak-" Ryoga had to break off as Conner gunned the
engine and the cycle accelerated. Ryoga was then introduced
to the sensation of hanging on to a small platform as the
ground rushed by at over one hundred miles per hour.
*******
Conner and his companion dropped Ryoga off the address he
recalled (since his directions were useless). Relief was
dominant among his emotions as he entered the main room.
The house was relatively small, it was assumed that it was
designed that way to allow a large garden in the back. The
door to the street and the door to the garden were on
opposite sides of the main room. Off to the left, was the
kitchen, as well as the dining and storage rooms. Off to
the right, were the bedrooms. Both curved around like arms
encircling the garden out back. If looked at from above,
the entire residence resembled an oval with a crescent
shaped building taking up part of one end.
At the moment, it was mid afternoon. Ryoga was a little
surprised to find the garden deserted. He knew the elves,
especially Deedlit, spent most of their time out there. He
heard faint voices coming from the dining room, and moved to
investigate.
The door was shut, but he could hear the voices clearly.
One was Pirotess, and the other was... Ranma? *What are
they doing together?* Ryoga asked himself as he listened.
"I'm not sure I can do it."
"Come on Ranma, I know you have it in you."
*No, it couldn't be.*
"I've never done this before."
"You'll do fine. Trust me."
"Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, it is rather
soon."
"Not really. I know you can do it. You know you want to."
"Okay, here goes." Ranma's voice was replaced by
incomprehensible murmuring.
Ryoga felt his rage build. *It is.* "Ranma!" He bellowed,
kicking in the door.
*******
Ranma heard the cry just as he finished his spell. He
jumped in surprise, and the ball of light that has just
appeared above his hand stayed in the same relative
location. He was about to counter attack when Pirotess
interposed herself between the two boys.
"Ryoga, what is going on here."
Ryoga looked confused. "But... Wha... Huh?"
Pirotess shook her head. "On second thought, I don't want
to know what was going through your mind." She turned to
Ranma. "Congratulations. I wanted some kind of stress to
test your control, but this was better than anything I had
planned."
"Test?" Ryoga asked.
"Yes. Ranma felt threatened by your hammer-"
"Hey!"
"-So he wanted to learn magic. Deedlit tried, but a week
ago discovered that I would be better at teaching him than
she would. I was testing him to make sure he could keep in
control of a spell when under stress."
"Oh," Ryoga blushed, "with what you were saying, I
though..."
Pirotess chuckled. "You thought Ranma and I were doing the
'the deed,' as people in your time put it." She moved over
and kissed him on the cheek, ignoring the slight trickle of
blood from his nose. "You are the only one for me."
"Well, I... Uh..." Ranma stammered. "I think I'll be going
now."
"Don't forget to practice," Pirotess said as he left, "and
try not to blow anything up."
*******
That night, Deedlit found Ranma on the roof. He appeared to
be sulking. Of course, he could also be watching the sky.
The night sky in Psyscape is rather interesting. Being on
the border of the Astral plane, the sky is almost normal,
though a little cloudier than usual. Night, on the other
hand, is something else entirely. The sky was filled with
multi-colored pinpoints of light, spanning the visible
spectrum (and others for those that can see them). The
pinpoints formed different patterns for all who see them.
Not like optical illusions, where one person would see a
vase and another would see two faces in profile, but more
like one person seeing an empty circle and another seeing a
faint X among a solid sea of lights. It was unnerving to
someone who did not know what to expect, and even to a few
that did. (3)
"What's wrong?" she asked, landing beside him.
Ranma jumped. "Don't do that Deed."
"Do what?"
"Sneak up on me."
"I wasn't sneaking up on you."
"Yes you were, otherwise I would have heard you."
"Are you sure? I think you were just too caught up in
whatever eating you. And you still haven't answered my
question."
Ranma lay back down. "You found something, didn't you."
"Well, we have a general idea of where they might be. We'll
probably leave in a couple more days. That should give us a
chance to find out anything else, and for you to practice."
Ranma expression became even more glum with that statement.
"I'm not sure I'm going."
Deedlit looked like she had been slapped. "What?"
"I mean it, I don't think either of us should be going."
If looks could kill, Ranma would have been reduced to his
component atoms. Fortunately, his eyes were closed, and
Deedlit managed to keep all but a trace of anger out of her
voice. "What makes you say that."
"Simple. This Errtu character is here because of Drizzt.
Ashram is Ryoga's problem, the guy couldn't even keep his
mind in one piece. I guess that guy who was stabbed was
going to marry Catti-brie or something, and Pirotess is
going because of Ryoga. It's not out problem. We don't
have to get involved, we don't have to risk getting killed."
A thousand remarks were at the tip of Deedlit's tongue, but
she simply stood up. "Come on, Ranma, you need to see
something." With that she leaped across the rooftops. With
a shrug, Ranma followed.
After a few minutes, they arrived on top of a building at
the edge of a large park. Below them, perhaps a dozen
children of mixed heritage were playing on a jungle gym.
"You see them, Ranma? Not a care in the world. No worries
about whether or not they'll live to see tomorrow. No
monsters reaching out of the night to take them away. There
are less than a dozen places on this entire planet where
that is true. That is why I have to make sure Ashram and
Errtu don't become too powerful. Do you understand?"
Ranma seemed on the verge of speaking, then suddenly
deflated. "I don't want you to go."
"Why not?"
"Because it's wrong for women to fight."
"You can't lie to me, Ranma, try again."
Ranma sighed, and mumbled something.
"What was that?"
"idonwanlosyou."
"Speak up."
"I don't want to lose you, okay? You're the best thing that
has ever happened to me, and I don't want to see you killed
in some fight that isn't ours."
Deedlit smiled, and put her arms around her companion. "You
know how long I've waited to hear you say that?"
Ranma blushed. "Um... Well..."
"Besides, nothing will happen to me as long as you're here.
Isn't that right?"
Ranma just stammered some more. Deedlit silenced him with a
finger to his lips.
"You aren't supposed to answer that," she said. Removing
her finger, she silenced further stutters with a kiss.
End chapter 8.
Notes:
1: I think he might be able to give *Drizzt* some pointers
on survival in the wilderness. Some environments anyway.
2: Unless I'm mistaken, that description could also fit a
character that is rather popular in other stories. So I
will say this right now, there will never, ever, be any SM
characters or references (besides this note) in this story
(or any other I write). Now you can feel free to guess who
this is.
3: Those who play Rifts will see the artistic license here.
Okay, about the end of the chapter. Before, I've removed
Ranma's ego, and reliance upon his "Anything Goes"
training. Here, I wanted to remove his selfishness. For
those of you who are wondering why the same wasn't done with
Ryoga, that was "behind the scenes." I didn't feel like
writing two sets of almost identical scenes. Also, IMNSHO,
I felt that Ranma had farther to go, so it would be more
interesting.