THIRD LABOR: Chapter Three (prologue)
A Tale of Two Akanes?
Disclaimer: i don't own the people/situations, and as this
deals with multiversal jaunts and alternate universes, some
of these have been altered pretty significantly.
--------------
"Hey ojiisan, you ought to take it easy in this weather..."
The young man put a mug of green tea in front of the old
geezer, who gratefully breathed in the steam and warmed his
hands around it.
Ignoring the rattle in his lungs, Grey tried to focus his
failing eyesight on the fellow in front of him. "Otaru
Mamiya? Then, i'm in Japonesse on Terra Two?"
Otaru waited for the old man to stop his coughing fit and
the following gasp for air. "Ojiisan, you're from New Texas,
ain't ya? What were ya in such a hurry for? Ya ain't exactly
dressed for Japonesse in March, ya know."
"i'm a mechanic, a fixer of sorts, and i'm looking to learn
about the Otome Kairo," replied Grey. ~Especially if what i
think happened, happened.~
"Hmmm. Doctor Lorelei's up at Castle Japonesse, but I think
that they're not letting people in right now." Otaru
blinked. "Hey old man, you're not looking so good. I mean,
you're looking even worse."
"Unnnn," Grey winced at the pain in his chest. "My name is
Grey, Otaru. You wouldn't happen to have a quiet corner an
old man could catch some sleep in?"
Grey, nearly doubled over from the pain, and Otaru,
concerned about the old guy maybe dying in their kissaten,
missed Cherry's reaction to the name. Her hair sticking
briefly up and eyes going as wide as system parameters
allowed.
"Bloodberry," whispered Cherry to the marionette who had
been waiting tables. "Let Lime handle that, you need to take
a message to Lorelei immediately."
"Are you sure?" Bloodberry replied with a frown and a glance
at the steady drizzle of rain outside. "You know how she
gets the orders mixed up."
"Yes. Tell Lorelei that 'Grey has returned' though it may
not be the same Grey... If it *is* then it's very
important!" Cherry continued to whisper, knowing
Bloodberry's hearing sufficient to catch it.
Bloodberry didn't bother whispering, subtlety not being her
strong suit. "Gotcha. Be right back."
---------
In a sense it was intelligent. In a sense it was powerless.
In other meanings it was rather like a glorified computer
program and extremely powerful.
It had puzzled about there being three of the Host. There
was a female-child version over there. There was a
mechanical female version over here. And then there was...
The variable one, whom the Widdershins curse had just pulled
a nasty on. As it was now interfering directly with the
Binding's directive, the Binding settled on it for the time
being.
The Widdershins curse was nasty and tricky, and been
reinforced by an ancient goddess known as Eris, Greek
goddess of discord, and who was capable of particularly
nasty and powerful curses.
The Binding slowly began ripping the Widdershins curse
apart.
--------
"Damn, he passed out," Otaru said of the old man breathing
heavily in the corner.
"Wai!" Lime said, beginning to doodle on the old man.
"Lime, no..." Otaru groaned.
Cherry groaned as well, and got out the bottle of spray
cleaner.
--------
"Vixxen, I choose you!" *SHOOM*
Grey didn't want to open his eyes. He *hurt* and felt weak
and sluggish. It was so difficult to move, to stir oneself,
but there was Duty to consider.
"Heeheehee, your Vixxen is no match for my Dominatrix."
*SHHOOM! "Now we shall see who truly is the best PokeWoman
Trainer, Ash!"
"We'll see about THAT, Moroboshi! Vixxen, Fire Spin!"
Hearing this, Grey was *very* reluctant to open his eyes.
When he saw that it was just Lynx and Panther watching some
anime on TV, he felt enormously grateful. Though why his
face was so stiff, as if someone had coated it with wax or
something...
The dimension traveller couldn't help but groan as he got
up. While sitting at the booth, he was aching and tired,
actually moving increased the pain level and weariness. It
also brought a coughing fit that left him dizzy and gasping.
"Hey, old-timer, don't go dying in our cafe, it'd be bad for
business." Panther hadn't apparently had any success
learning tact.
"Not on my 'List of Things To Do Today' strangely enough,"
agreed Grey. "i need to get to Castle Japonesse, i guess.
Has it at least stopped raining?"
"About an hour ago, though it'll be off-and-on all day."
Cherry informed the decrepit fellow as she cleaned glasses
and tried to ignore the perverted crap the other marionettes
were watching.
"...just great..." Grey took quiet stock of himself. Thin to
the point of being almost a walking skeleton, this image
further enhanced by the pale thin skin. He was singularly
ill prepared to do any sort of rescue mission.
"High incidence of plasma today too." Bloodberry offered as
she found a seat in front of the television. "Who's
winning?"
"Vixxen, of course," Lynx answered Bloodberry. "She's *so*
take-charge in a battle or with her Master!"
"Hmmmm," said Cherry and Bloodberry thoughtfully.
Otaru, hearing this, also heard an alarm bell going off. He
glanced towards the TV to see some cartoon fox-woman
dragging her "Master" off... "Uhm, what's she doing now?"
"Dragging her Master off so that he can reward her..."
Bloodberry's voice continued to be thoughtful.
"Hmmm," hmmmed Cherry.
"Hmmm," agreed Lynx and Panther, "somehow I don't think that
would work with Faust-sama. But..."
"WELL," Otaru said, almost teleporting from behind the bar
to where Grey leaned against a wall. "Guess I'll help you
get to Castle Japoness! I wanted to see how Lorelei was
doing anyway! Yup! Yup! Yup!"
Grey found himself being hustled out the door, almost
dragged by Otaru. "Uhm, i ..."
"You don't understand, look, those marionettes have Otome
Kairo - maiden circuits, and they can make you feel really
special or make your life a living Hell." Otaru walked
briskly noting the old man couldn't keep up. "Last time
something like that happened... it was bad. Really really
BAD. They kept trying to do something weird and..."
"Otaru. As a favor to you, let me explain something about
*what* they were trying to do. There are male and female
birds and such, right?" On seeing Otaru's puzzled nod, Grey
continued. "Now this is based on the historical records of
human behavior..."
--------------
Lorelei heard the squeal of a radio and clicked the button
on the side. "Yes, Cherry?"
"How'd you know it was me?" Cherry wondered briefly (not for
the first time) if human women had some special sense.
"It was either you or one of the other national powers, and
on this frequency it was unlikely to be one of them.
Besides, I gave Bloodberry that radio to give to you. Just
be sure not to use it when there's a plasma cloud." Lorelei
shook her long hair to the side. "I take it he's coming?"
"Yes. Otaru's with him. Is Otaru-sama in any danger?"
"No, I think not. The first time he came here, it was
involuntary. If Bloodberry's description of a 'pain-ridden
old man who stumbled in out of the rain' is accurate, it
seems likely that this time was involuntary as well."
"He said something about being here to learn about Otome
Kairo."
"The technology is something I developed, but even I'm
having trouble understanding how and why they work, or why
so many fail," admitted Lorelei. "The only person who likely
understands them better is Lubentz, and he's still in hiding
somewhere."
---------
Otaru's normally tan complexion was pale, and his eyes were
wide. His hands twitched in synch with a facial tic. "You...
you're kidding."
"Nope," Grey watched Otaru carefully (as much as his
degrading vision allowed him). If the concept of kissing,
snuggling, and cuddling had this much of a reaction, what
would actually telling him about sex produce? Well, it was
about time *someone* told the boy, and he seemed to have
been elected somehow. "That's not all..."
---------
Lorelei checked a few displays and frowned. "What?! This
can't be right."
Gennai checked himself. "I don't think it's the scanners,
Otaru is registering as normal and the readings on him are
consistent."
Lorelei tapped her foot rapidly, and continued to frown.
"But here, look at the readings. It's as if he's..."
Gennai pointed to indicators on the monitors. "Well, I'd say
we don't have anything to worry about. Keep him waiting to
see you for a couple of hours and he'll have died of old
age."
Lorelei stared at a video pickup. "Did he just cough up a
tooth?!"
"It's obvious that he hasn't aged as gracefully as myself,"
agreed Gennai, "but then I *am* exceptional for my age!
Heheheh!"
"Plus, you're only seventy, judging from these readings,
he's one-hundred-five." Lorelei tapped a nail on a display.
"If these readings remain consistent. Otherwise he's aging a
year every half hour."
----------
Grey stared at where he'd just coughed up *another* tooth.
"i've said it before, i'll say it again. Getting old
*sucks!*"
"..." Otaru would have said one of the stock responses like
"Yeah but it beats the alternative." He would have except
that he was just staring off into space as what Grey had
just told him penetrated.
"Stomach cramps, i'd forgotten what it was like to have to
deal with that, and allergies, and palsy, and..." Grey bit
the gripe session back. He had a job to do, but he wasn't
sure he could make it long enough. This body was falling
apart faster than a politician's promises.
"..." Otaru blinked, indicating he was getting better.
Wheezing again, Grey leaned against a wall and otherwise
ignored the stare of the locals.
"...did you notice that you're bleeding from your ears..."
Otaru broke his silence to point out what might have been an
important observation.
"Do tell," Grey winced and forced himself to start moving
again. "i really think i need a quick lie down before i meet
Doctor Lorelei, but i..."
---------
Doctor Lorelei looked at the monitor briefly, then closed
her eyes and turned away.
"Oh, look at that, the aging factor is actually
accelerating. Imagine that." Gennai watched the displays,
not the video feed. "Though his life signs appear to have...
oh dear."
---------
"Great," said Grey, exulting in the lack of pain but rather
put off in that he was looking at his rapidly decaying body
from the outside. "i'm dead. Again. No Binding. No ties to
anyone else holding me here. Also i'm not being dragged off
to Hell, and i ain't in Heaven. So... NOW WHAT?!"
Otaru ignored him, as Grey had expected. He'd watched the
kind old man collapse, then his body sort of decomposed in
fast action, collapsing in on itself, becoming a skeleton,
then the bones browning and crumbling away while he watched.
"What the?!"
"Getting old sucks," Grey repeated, then added, "and dying
ain't too great either."
Other than Otaru freaking at the old man now bone dust
blowing away on the breeze, there wasn't much answer.
Grey sighed and looked at the little wisps of himself
evaporating. "Oh great! Oblivion, huh? Well, i can't say
this was completely unexp..."
---------
The Binding finished off the last bit of the Widdershins
curse and looked around. There was the Host, or one of them,
but already dead and gone. Another had been blown up but had
been rebuilt. Still there was a spark missing from the
marionette Ginseng II. Ranko was a Host, but was also the
native Ranko of that line, and so was unsuitable.
The Binding wasn't intelligent in the manner of a human,
more in the manner of some fairly sophisticated program. It
evolved its own parameters in order to more effectively
achieve its desired goal. In this case, the Binding had no
clear directive.
---------
Lorelei had fainted, Gennai had caught her but he wasn't
feeling too well himself. Readings on the blowing bone dust
faithfully tracked by the scanners carbon dated it as
predating man's arrival on Terra Two by a significant
margin.
Watching the old man's body dissolve had been rather
sickening.
Ginseng, the second marionette to be created with a backup
of Grey's memories, watched impassively. Most virgin
circuits looked fine, but for some reason failed to work.
This was the case with Ginseng II. Ginseng was about on a
level with Tamasaburo or Baiko, cold and efficient but
capable of some complex independent action, unlike the more
simple automatons at the lower end of the marionette market.
Ginseng monitored the changes and noted when the Doctor
seemed to be recovering. "Doctor Lorelei. Observation: My
prior incarnation was requesting to speak with you.
Observation: facial and body language indicated hurry.
Observation: prior incarnation is now deceased in such a way
that neither further brain tapes nor chemical analysis will
be possible. Historical data: prior incarnation had a number
of enemies of great power. Historical data: subject Jared
Saotome stated many powerful enemies could be drawn to this
continuua for purposes of mass destruction. Conclusion:
prior incarnation attempted to come here to warn you of
powerful enemies that have been drawn ot this continuua for
purposes of mass destruction."
Lorelei fainted again.
Ginseng considered this behavior and wondered if she ought
to make an emulation subroutine. It did not seem to have a
logical purpose.
---------
Ami and Minako nodded at each other then leapt through the
archway, ignoring Celeste yelling at them that they were
being idiots.
"He's dead. Gone." Celeste tried arguing with those
remaining. "I'm running a trace routine, but all evidence is
that he's been eliminated. Not in Heaven, not in Hell. That
leaves Oblivion, Reincarnation, or being snagged and put in
a Rune Weapon."
"Not Oblivion, not a Rune Weapon, possibly captured and put
into a prison by an enemy," Sailor Pluto noted.
"Huh?" More than one of those present offered.
"Akane's PokeBall vanished." The sometimes-Senshi pointed
out. "So his identity may have dissolved, but his existence
has not."
"Oh dear. With so many dimensions, how are we going to find
him?" The djinni named Kasumi was a bit put off by all this.
"How many pyrolion Pokemon named Akane can there be? We can
track her easier than him."
---------
Ginseng waited for the Doctor to recover enough to be
coherent. "Doctor Lorelei. Observation: Transdimensional
aperatures opened during your period of unconsciousness.
Number: Three. Action: Bringing up locations on map of
Japonesse. Query: Further actions required?"
"Hmmm" Otaru hmmmed, looking over the map. "That's the old
abandoned house where those marionette otaku had all those
stolen marionettes. Didn't someone recover them?"
"Statement: the offworld unit Sakyo Kuonji is reported to
have done so, excepting fourteen units whose previous owners
could be located, and six units currently in storage at
Gennai's workshop."
Gennai shrugged. "When I can afford to, I'll replace the
parts that were taken by the otaku to disable them. For now,
I've been relying on Gemini-chan."
"Ah," said Otaru, shooting a concerned glance towards
Lorelei.
Lorelei broke her silence. "That's the factory that Sakyo
built there. And that..."
"It looks to be the complex under the Japonesse Historical
Museum where I found Lime," interrupted Otaru as he studied
the map a little further.
"Query: As this unit is more disposable than human units,
would it be advisable for this unit to investigate?"
"Yes, Ginseng," said Lorelei, still trying to get used to
the odd voice and manner of speaking of the marionette. "I
think that would be advisable."
-----------
The Binding had worked to move Grey away from the source of
trouble, and as its last certain interpretation of the Host
had been in the Second Labor (Reluctant Bet) it used those
parameters. This was not at all what the Host would have
wished for, but then he rarely got what he wanted anyway.
"Unnnggghhh," a little boy of five said, lying on the
ground.
A pudgy man looked from the impromptu grave of his son, to
the living (though thin) child nearby. "Thank you kami, this
is all the proof I needed that I walk the path of Martial
Righteousness!" Genma gestured to the Heavens.
He was hit by lightning immediately after, so perhaps that
wasn't quite the right interpretation.
----------
Genma grumbled. His son didn't eat much at all. His son
didn't want to practice martial arts. His son was fond of
reading! Not very manly at all.
Ranma was playing with a ball he'd found at his belt when he
released...
*SHOOM!*
"A-ka? NE?!" The lionlike creature looked puzzled, then
sniffed the startled child. "A ne." (What the heck? Where?!)
(You're... a kid now?)
Genma took one look at the mountain lion with the fiery tail
and fled, only returning when he realized that his "son"
hadn't been turned into catfood.
"Giyyup!" The boy in question was sitting on the pyrolion's
back and playing as if he were riding a bucking bronco. That
the pyrolion was lying down and had a long-suffering
expression on its face was not of any concern to the child.
"It's tame?" Genma slowly approached the beast. Maybe he
could sell it for large amounts of money?
Akane watched the big fellow approach, then spat a stream of
fire that came within inches of assuring that there would be
no further Heirs of the Saotome School of Anything Goes. "A!
Ka! Ne!" She warned him in a tone that brooked no argument.
"I see..." Genma said after using a speed technique to climb
up into a tree. "Wouldn't you like to be sold to a nice zoo?
It would be so nice and..."
*FWOOOM!* Akane minced no words in letting Genma know what
she thought of that idea.
Genma coughed a bit weakly as the Ember attack left him
singed but otherwise okay.
"Wowwww!" Little Ranma watched the flames go past. "Do it
again!"
"NO!" Genma protested, not wanting to have to steal a new
gi. At least not yet. "All right, all right, I won't sell
you!" ~for now.~
The little boy reached behind an ear and started scratching.
"Oooooo," said Akane, leaning into it. ~Damn, that feels
good!~
"You're pretty!" The little boy said, pleased with his new
pet.
"Aka!" The lion agreed, smiling, her eyes half closed as the
boy's fingers delicately scratched along the folds of her
right ear. ~Kids say the darndest things.~
"What's your name?" Ranma chirped, redoubling his efforts as
the cat pressed into his fingers.
"Akane!"
"Okay, Akane!" Ranma nodded happily. "i'm Ranma. Or that's
what Daddy says anyway."
"A! ka!" (Actually you smell like Grey, you look a bit like
him, and you're way too scrawny to be the real Ranma. But
damn you're good with your fingers.) "AH!"
Noting that his pet had some bunched up muscles along the
shoulders, Ranma had started rubbing those to loosen them
up. The cat had seemed startled at first but was now
*purring* hard enough to vibrate clear through to his
shoulders. "Hang on, Akane, let me get this..."
Genma approached warily. The evil cat-thing opened one eye
to watch him but seemed mainly satisfied to let his son
massage its shoulders. "Son, you can't possibly keep that.
Look how big it is, we'd never be able to feed it!"
Akane, feeling considerably looser and acting on feline
instincts, rolled over so the boy could scratch her belly.
"ooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrr."
Ranma and Akane continued to ignore Genma as the boy and his
pet got to know each other.
-------
"RANMA! How dare you..." The little boy paused. "You're not
Ranma."
"That's what Pop calls me, who're you?" Ranma watched the
boy approaching and frowned. Was this why his father had
been reluctant to come here? Or was it just another plot to
seperate him and Akane?
"I am the child you and your father stole the life from!"
The little boy brandished a spatula and prepared to smite
the child in front of him.
"Oh? Yeah, Pops is good at that sorta thing. Sorry, but he
says i gots some head injury and that's why i can't 'member
nothin from wakin' up in the mountains. Ya wanna be
friends?"
"How can I..." Ukyo stopped glaring. "What you mean you
can't remember anything?"
"Can't." Ranma looked momentarily depressed then offered a
box of Pocky to the other boy. "So ya wanna be friends? Ya
can get even with the old man when he gets back!"
Ukyo blinked, still uncertain that this could be the right
Ranma. "Okay." ~For now!~
"Great! Wanna see my pet lion?!" Ranma loved showing off his
pet to people. He couldn't help it if a lot of people seemed
to react with blind panic.
Ukyo thoughtfully munched on a Pocky stick. "Pet lion? Yeah,
right."
*SHOOOM!*
"Aaaaaaa!"
"Wow, you jumped almost as high as Pop when she does that!"
Akane sniffed. Ukyo. Not an efreet. Interesting.
----------
Some people panicked, some people stared, some people
fainted.
Two kids riding a fiery lion shape tried to ignore the
reactions briefly.
"It's a monster!" A man in Shinto robes began preparing a
spirit dispelling ward.
Ranma snorted. "What's a matter, you never saw a shikigami
before?"
The priest watched the ward fail to produce any more
reaction on Akane than a sneeze. "Oh yes, a 'guardian
spirit' - I see!" It was better than admitting his wards
were powerless against a monster. "Your shikigami, is it?"
"Unnn," happily nodded Ranma.
"That's right!" Ukyo flipped off. "And as Akane is a holy
fire spirit, we'll be selling sacred okonomiyaki later
today! Prepared using sacred flames!"
"Flames?" The priest sounded doubtful. "You mean that little
flame from the tail?"
*FOOOOOMMMMMMM!*
The priest tried to look casual, difficult when your hair is
sticking out in all directions. "Oh *that* sacred flame! I
see."
Akane smirked. This wasn't a bad way to earn a living.
---------
Akane snarled from within the confines of the net. Two sets
of screams echoed from within the confines of the pit.
"It's for the best," said Genma with a nod towards the
firelion, "I must make Ranma a man among men, and the best
of his generation. Ukyo now, thanks to you, refuses to part
from him. So they will be trained in this technique- one
that will make them invincible!"
Akane growled and snapped.
"They're after my eyes!"
"Ucchan! Get under me, i'll shield you!"
"Your sacrifice will allow us travel to distant places where
Ranma may learn secrets of the Art he could never learn in
Japan," Genma said while counting money.
"Try another drug dart," one of the zookeepers advised a
handler.
Akane roared and twisted as best she could, unsheathing her
claws.
"You should be happy that they would learn the Catfist!
You're just a big cat, after all." Genma said, full of
parental wisdom. "I would have done it when he was younger,
but you've interfered for the last time."
Akane had been transformed into a pokemon. Pokemon were
egglaying creatures who could reproduce through
parthenogenesis. Often they had an elemental affiliation
such as Poison or Water. Oh, and a lot of them did something
else- they evolved under special circumstances or under
stress.
Akane roared in outrage and betrayal. She was angry. She was
stressed. She evolved.
--------
"Geez, Pop is a real idiot, ain't he?" A seven year old
griped to his only friends.
"Ya think I'm gonna argue with THAT, sugar?"
"Inferna!" Akane snarled at the thought of someone trying to
SELL her! Again! And she'd evolved last year during THAT
attempt.
"Yup, an idiot," translated Ranma.
"So," Ukyo ventured, "why are we still sticking with him?"
All three came to a halt.
"He's my Pop, i know dumping Ucchan was dumb and wrong, and
that Catfist stuff was just plain stupid..." Ranma's voice
trailed off. "But he's still..."
"Where's your Mom?" Ukyo asked Ranma.
"In! Fer! Na aka ne!" At times like this, Akane would have
gladly traded the raw power for a better vocabulary, not to
mention hands.
"Juuban? Why Juuban?"
Akane and Ukyo stared at Ranma.
"What?" Ranma stepped back.
"Inferna Akane!"
"Hey, how come ya understood her?" Ukyo was jealous.
Ranma looked embarassed and rubbed the back of his head.
"Well, i just... if ya kind of listen without thinking of
it, sometimes some of what she means comes through what she
says."
"NE?!" Akane would have facefaulted but that would probably
hurt, so she just rolled her eyes. "Akane ne nene aka..."
Ukyo squealed. "I understood that! She just called you..."
"i know, Ucchan, i KNOW."
----------
"AAAHHH!" The little girl was not so quietly freaking after
turning a street corner and finding herself face to face
with a massive red-and-orange furred lion.
"What's a matter?" Ranma looked to see the little (she
couldn't have been more than five whereas he was looking
down from the lofty height of a seven year old)girl
paralyzed from fright. "Aw, don't go doing that. Ya might
hurt Akane's feelings."
The little girl looked up to see a boy riding the lion. This
changed the encounter (to a five year old at least) from
"Ah! I'm gonna die!" to "Wow! Neat! Can I ride?"
Makoto Kino would forever remember that day, when she met
her sempai and rode a lion.
-----------
The woman opened the door to behold a little boy in tattered
and worn clothing. Behind him was another little boy, a
rather large lioness that was tolerating being played with
by a little girl...
Nodoka's eyes widened a little bit at the tuft of flame
burning on the end of the lion's tail. "Oh my."
"My name is Ranma Saotome, and i'm..." The rest of the
rehearsed speech vanished into the hug.
"I'm his fiancee! Ukyo Kuonji. Pleased to meet ya!" The
dirty little boy(?) curtseyed.
"That's my sempai!" The little girl with a ponytail proudly
proclaimed. "And this is Akane, ain't she NEAT!"
Akane looked embarassed and grinned.
Nodoka calmed herself. "That's a..."
"Shikigami," supplied Makoto and Ukyo in unison.
"Oh my," repeated Nodoka.
---------
Nodoka refrained from continued staring at the lion-like
creature sitting on the porch watching them. It wasn't
polite to stare, after all.
She listened carefully to the tales of all three. Ranma
telling of waking up in the mountains without any previous
memories near a grave that had *his* name on it (this gave
Nodoka a nagging suspicion) and of travelling for a year
with his Pop training in the martial arts.
Ukyo related meeting her Ranchan again, though he looked
very different (Nodoka's nagging suspicion grew a bit) and
didn't act nearly the same. Ukyo had later put it off to the
head injury. Ukyo had stuck like glue to Ranma's side, and
the two had been training together in the Saotome School.
Ukyo had further been cooking okonomiyaki so that they could
eat better and Akane had helped with the business end of
things.
As Akane nodded and repeated her name, Nodoka asked if she
could understand Japanese. When Akane nodded again and then
put her forepaws over her mouth, Nodoka translated that as
understood but couldn't speak. A shikigami being a
supernatural beast, this wasn't too unexpected.
Then came mention of the training with a pit of cats, Akane
evolving to Inferna Akane, and another year of training.
Then meeting this little cherub, who had apparently been a
friend and tour guide to the little group. (Her parents were
apparently away on business frequently.) Which brought them,
three days before Ranma's eighth birthday, here. As they had
snuck away from her husband to come here, Nodoka suspected
that Genma was in the area if not watching the house right
now.
Nodoka looked at Ranma's fiancee, and the other little girl
who was obviously very interested in her sempai. Manly. He
had decided to be headstrong and independent and gotten away
from his father to go stir up trouble elsewhere. Manly. He
had come home to his Mother. Not manly. He had come with a
fiancee, a girlfriend, and a guardian spirit-beast. Manly,
manly, and... she wasn't quite sure what to make of this
last but magical legendary heroes sometimes had these sort
of things so... qualified manly.
A creak on the roof brought Nodoka's attention upwards.
Akane growled, bared teeth, and focussed her attention
likewise. Ignoring her husband's return for the moment,
Nodoka continued to work out the scenario. It *had* been
over three years. She was reunited with her son, though she
had her doubts about his actual lineage - was this actually
a son that Genma had fathered elsewhere? Nodoka thought
about it and nodded, thinking this likely. The child's eyes
were hazel - green/brown that seemed to change color
slightly depending on the light. Add the shikigami
associating with him, and you came up with an illegitimate
child that Genma was hoping to foist off as his son after
the death of the original.
Nodoka smiled and nodded at the three children. "Ranma, your
room is down the hall and to the right. Please go there with
your friends. I have some things to 'discuss' with your
father. Oh, and Akane, could you help by cutting off escape
routes?"
"AKA!" Akane nodded and grinned.
A few minutes later, Genma used a secret technique of the
Saotome School upon his wife. Amazing how effective the
"Crouch of the wild tiger" could be in certain
circumstances.
-----------
"Ruh Roh, Ranma!" Akane had been practicing and with some
effort had learned to speak in the year since she'd started
living at the Saotome home. Sort of. If she had ever seen an
American series called "Scooby Doo" she would have been
properly mortified.
"Whatta ya mean, 'Uh oh', you heard Mom!" Ranma frowned at
the cat. "We gotta find out if there's anything a shikigami
needs that you ain't gettin'."
Akane hung her head. She'd tried to explain that she wasn't
a shikigami, but...
"Oh WOW!" A little girl who was wearing a red and white
Maiden's clothes exclaimed on seeing the cat. "Grandpa!
There's..."
Ranma looked up, to realize the girl was staring now at HIM.
"...my husband..." The girl's voice was a bare whisper but
it still carried. It carried to arriving Grandfather, who
stared, it carried to the also-staring Ranma, and it carried
to the shaking-her-head-at-it-all Inferna.
Akane grimaced. "Rat's rut rI rean. Roh roy."
"You said it, A-chan," agreed Ranma when he got over his
initial shock.
-----------
"Hey Akane!"
"Good afternoon, Akane, waiting for Ranma?"
Akane nodded to the little schoolgirl who'd asked the
question. "Rat's right!"
"Hi, Akane! Bye, Akane!"
Akane nodded to each of the kids as they filed past. Some
reaching over to give the school mascot, guardian spirit, or
sacred lion a quick pat. She tolerated the attention
good-naturedly, it was certainly better than the panic she'd
gotten the first time she'd shown up.
Finally she spotted Ranma, flanked as usual by Ukyo. As Ukyo
was carefully *not* looking at Ranma, Akane assumed that
Ranma had said something thoughtless again. Or (just as
likely in Akane's opinion) Ukyo had misinterpreted something
Ranma had said/done.
"Hey, Akane, what's up?"
"Raining rip," reminded Akane, still trying to speak with
mouth parts that weren't really designed for Japanese.
"Oh, right," Ranma agreed. "You might check with Rei-chan
and Mako-chan, they're students of the Saotome School too,
you know."
Akane snorted with barely suppressed laughter. So *that* was
it. Ukyo had learned that Ranma wanted to take the other two
students of the School on a training trip that *she* had
thought would just be the two of them with some parental
supervision. She'd have to have a talk with Ukyo and the
other two *without* Ranma, they were only ten years old
(Makoto and Rei were eight) and still way too young for the
sort of war she could see coming.
Ranma and Ukyo watched Akane leap off and begin running down
the street so quickly that her tail left a brief trail of
flame in the air behind her.
"You know, i sometimes get the feeling something's going on,
and i'm the only one around here who doesn't get it." Ranma
scratched the back of his head, looking puzzled.
Ukyo glared as she smoothed the pleated skirt of her school
uniform. "Well, whatta ya know. He *can* get a clue."
"Huh?"
Ukyo sighed. "Never mind, Ranchan."
------------
Heaven:
"We've got a lock on. It's on one of the high rate timelines
that split off in Nexus SM-RN 250." Setsuna frowned. "Looks
like Akane's there. Trying to see if Grey is there."
"So what's that timeline like? Silver Millenium and Ryu
Mishima, so you've got the Senshi or at least the various
girls and likely the Tendo and Saotome families, also
Happosai or something close." Belle wasn't that familiar
with some of the other sections, before she split off from
the original Belldandy she'd been mainly been concerned with
mainlines. Well, that and Keiichi. "The 200k sets are
nonstandard for both mainlines, right?"
"Not as far out as an X00k line or prone to darkness as a
400k but pretty odd usually." Celeste clicked over the
scanners. "Yeah, it's one of the high temporal rate ones.
Months have gone by there just since it was found."
"Oh dear," Belle said. "Should we try to pull Akane out?"
"Her aging rate in the pyrolion form is much less than a
human's." Setsuna noted. "It's interesting, though, she's
still a Pokemon. Amaterasu should have given her the option
to transform back by now..."
"Not," Amaterasu announced, teleporting in, "if I didn't
know where she was... As it is I've contacted my counterpart
there."
-----------
Timeline SM-RN 204117
Akane sniffed the air and turned, growling a warning to her
family. A stranger was walking up to the door, having
mysteriously appeared in their backyard.
The woman walked up, unconcerned by the fiery lioness, or
the four children. Nor the woman who had drawn a sword, or
the portly but skilled martial artist standing at her side.
"Akane, you have learned much. I am here to remove the
curse."
"Reah right!" (Yeah, right.)
"No, seriously."
"Infer NA." (Try again, I'm not even sure why I'm in this
form, other than it having something to do with a previous
incarnation.) Akane grimaced as she realized she'd lapsed
back into the nearly incomprehensible speaking. Japanese was
so *hard* though.
Amaterasu's smile dropped slightly. She raised a hand. It
went from being a balmy afternoon in July to midday with a
jump in temperature that left everyone but Akane gasping.
"Aka nene aka a. Inferna aka." (Okay, okay! Turn it back
before poor Mako-chan faints!)
Amaterasu lowered her hand and the temperature returned to
normal. "So, have you decided to be cured or would you
prefer to remain a pokemon?"
"Rust a rinnet." (Just a minute.)
"Akane, if you're under a curse you should have it cured,"
advised Ranma.
Akane looked around, her tail drooping. She was accepted,
loved, appreciated here. She'd been there for the kids,
she'd been useful around the place. Was it really time to
move on? It was so *comfortable* to be an Inferna. Powerful,
fast, but to be human again...
Nodoka watched the lioness fretting, and guessed.
"Akane-chan, no matter what the problem, know that you have
a home here..."
Tears welled up unbidden in Akane's eyes as she walked out
into the yard to stand before the oddly dressed woman.
"Rokay. Rooo rit!"
Amaterasu raised her hands again and light surrounded the
cat. Her form glowed as if she was evolving again and she
floated up off the ground. When she settled down again...
"WOW!" Ranma said, openly staring at Akane. Nodoka went to
fetch the girl something that might fit.
Akane stared down at herself, then fell down, not being used
to moving on two legs anymore.
"Goodbye, Akane. Keep the lessons you've learned close to
heart." The woman faded away.
Four kids instantly surrounded the slightly older one in
their midst. "Wow! Akane, you're so..."
Akane flinched. Had she come out scarred or had she only
partially transformed?
"Young lady, we will talk." Nodoka put the robe around
Akane's shoulders and guided her towards the bath. "After
you've had a chance to rest. And perhaps learned to walk..."
Genma's eyes were still wide and staring towards where Akane
had transformed.
------------
Akane whistled as she got ready for school. She was on top
of the world, or close enough. She missed being the powerful
lioness. She missed the superior senses and being able to
throw flames about with hardly any effort. It had taken
three days to relearn walking and moving about in human
form. She was still clumsy and felt relatively weak.
On the other hand, she had gained...
"Akane-chan, your bento. And take it easy, you still don't
quite have your balance."
"Thanks... mom..." Akane was almost ready to break down
again. She had a mom. Okay, not her birth parent mom, but
she had a *mother* again. Mrs Saotome had said that after
she had gotten used to the talking cat she'd begun thinking
of her as more of a daughter than anything else... and now.
Now she was really her daughter, legally at least.
She felt all warm and fuzzy, in a different way then she'd
been as a pokemon. Her little brother Ranma, her little
sister-in-law-to-be Ukyo, their little friends Rei and
Makoto. It was a family! Not at all what she had been born
to.
The family Akane remembered had been the Tendo household,
where her father had had children from two other mothers
before her own human mother. Kasumi had been born of a
djinni, or genie of air. Nabiki had been born of a dao, or
genie of earth. Akane had resented the two for years, before
finally understanding that they really hadn't had anything
to do with her natural mother dying. By that time the
hostility, distrust, and lack of cooperation had become
ingrained into their lives. Their mutual father hadn't
defused any of the situations either, if anything his
insistence that only Akane was his TRUE daughter had ensured
the hostility would remain.
Here, the father was an idiot, but worked hard (especially
with his wife riding herd on him as much as she did) and
certainly knew quite a bit of the martial arts. The mother
also knew the martial arts, and was a dignified lady most of
the time. She kept the wa of the house in balance, and might
have had some weird ideas about Ranma bathing with the girls
and such, but had a warm heart and caring manner. Her
"little brother" Ranma was showing many of the kind and
gentle qualities she had appreciated in Ranko - her first
love. His fiancee, Ukyo, was the sort of girl who
encompassed loyalty as a primary attribute. So did Makoto
and Rei to some extent.
Akane would have done a quick pirouette as soon as she got
out the door, if such an activity wouldn't have had her
eating dirt again. She'd watched the kids practicing and
soon she'd be learning the martial arts again.
She'd miss the raw power, but she thought she had gained
more. And it wasn't being able to wear clothes again that
she considered the important part.
-------
Heaven:
Several hours had passed before finally Celeste sat back and
brushed her unruly bangs out of her eyes. "Got it! Grey is
definitely reincarnated into a Ranma-substitute role. He
still doesn't have his memories, and the experiences have
altered his aura and astral patterns, but there's a 92%
match on the akashic."
"How nice," Belle said. "I've already confirmed that the Rei
living at the Hikawa temple and training in the Saotome
School of martial arts is actually the merged Rei that
married him. *She* remembers, having come into contact with
him, even if he does not."
"What will happen if we recall him without his Awakening?"
Setsuna stretched from where she'd been catching a quick
nap.
"Same thing if he tried leaving a timeline with physical
wounds. He'd have 'em as part of his pattern until they
healed." Celeste considered briefly. "We can try waiting for
something to trigger the memories though with that time rate
it might be tricky."
"'Might be', she says," drily commented Setsuna.
---------
an SMJ timeline
"Lime, leave that alone..." Otaru shook his head at the
antics of the child-seeming marionette.
Lime poked her finger against the nose of the "sleeping"
marionette. "Is she broken?"
"She just hasn't found the right one to awaken her, Lime,"
said the Shogun. Everyone looked down to the little fellow,
who'd been about a foot tall ever since the Pheonix Mage had
reincarnated him... as a smurf.
"We've *got* to find a way to fix this..." Otaru said, not
for the first time.
"Believe me," Shogun Smurf (formerly named Ieyasu) grumped,
"it's not something I'm particularly fond of either."
Ginseng walked in. "Declaration: Shogun-sama, all three
marionettes check out. Declaration: Only these three out of
the six special units bear energy signatures associated with
extradimensional transport."
"Could these be the three elite marionettes that Sakyo's
records spoke of?" The Shogun tried to summon some degree of
dignity. Difficult when Lime tended to view him as a
playtoy.
"Assessment: Less than 5% chance. Observation: Indications
left behind were sufficient to indicate that the three were
not part of a greater group." Ginseng shook her head.
"Extrapolation: based on available data, the three units
determined that their security had been compromised and
relocated to a secondary location."
"You do realize you're talking about when your previous self
died." Otaru sounded uncertain. This was like talking to
Baiko or Tamasaburo. Not quite the automaton of the common
marionette, but not nearly the range of emotions or drive of
Lime or the others with Maiden Circuits.
"Affirmative," answered Ginseng, not understanding the
other's point.
---------
Timeline SM-RN 204117
The nineteen year old girl who threaded her hair back into a
"scrunchie" would have been recognizable to a number of
people, though sufficient differences were there to make
those looks a double or triple take.
"Big sister!" A fifteen year old boy came running up,
holding a scrap of cloth in his hands. "You forgot your
headband!"
Akane smiled at her little brother and ruffled his hair as
she took the proferred item. "Think Pops is right about this
place, Ran-chan?"
Ranma pouted at her. "Well, the odds say he's gonna get
something right sooner or later."
Akane laughed, not scornfully or hurtfully, but a gentle
sound of amusement. "Bets? Yeah, well, something about this
training ground bothers me. I don't think I could learn
anything here anyway. Just a balance exercise."
"True," Ranma agreed. "Ya do that gym stuff so well, after
all. But ya gotta give yerself a break from the Art every so
often, oneechan, or you're gonna get as lost as Oyaji
outside'a that stuff."
Akane ruffled the boy's hair again, bringing a squall of
protest. "Who do you think told you that in the first place?
Go on, don't keep Ukyo and the others alone too long or
they'll just get in a fight again!"
"You take that back!" *WHAACK!* *CLANG!*
Ranma and Akane shared a glance. "Too late," they said in
unison.
Genma came moving quickly. "Ranma! Follow me! Your form has
been unbearably sloppy lately!"
Ranma grumped at his stupid old man. "i had to take the High
School Entrance Exams! Those were tough, y'know! It wasn't
like i was just goofing off like you!"
"All the more reason to train harder and regain the edge you
have lost!" Genma flipped up to the top of a bamboo pole.
"All that book-learning has made you soft and weak, like
a..." The word "girl" was bitten off as Genma was subjected
to glares from Akane, and the newly arrived Nodoka, Ukyo,
Rei, and Makoto. Mumbling how he had *wanted* this to be a
private training trip with just Ranma and him, Genma tried
to ignore those glares.
Ranma heard the word anyway and flinched. He had his mother
pressuring him to wait until Rei and Makoto reached the
Japanese age of consent- 14. Then he was to "do" all three
interested girls. Between the mixed messages he was getting
from his mother, the three girls in question, his big
sister's amused commentary, and the talk at school... he had
doubts about his own sexuality, his role in any of this, and
whether or not he was some sort of monster for liking three
different girls. That each of the three could be so really
incredibly nice that it felt like his heart would stop one
minute, then call him an idiot and tell him to be a man the
next... it was confusing! "Stupid old man, i'll show ya!"
"Go get him, Ranchan!" Ukyo would show that she, the True
Fiancee, could be kind and supporting!
"You can do it, Ranma-sempai!" Makoto was no slouch in the
cute supportive fiancee department either.
"Kick his butt for me, my love!" Rei was sure she could win
this battle. She knew full well that the other two were
merely native copies. SHE was his wife. Even if he couldn't
remember that.
Glares were exchanged. Only the knowledge of how much Ranma
disliked them fighting kept the war from being renewed right
there. That and Nodoka's presence. As it was, little sparks
seemed to form in midair between the three.
Akane sighed. Ranma was going to have to make a choice soon
or blood would likely be drawn. From Rei's comments over the
past few years, she was the one who Akane remembered from
their previous meetings. On the other hand, Ukyo had a clear
claim. Makoto, on the other hand, clearly had some definite
connection between the two.
Ranma glared at his father. High School entry exams weren't
easy. He didn't have too much trouble with them, except the
extra kanji and algebra, and when the heck in Real Life were
you ever gonna have to figure out the surface area of a
cone? He knew darn well that 9/10th of what was required of
him on those tests would turn out to have no practical
day-to-day use, but it was required of the society at large
that you learn them.
"Ranma! I'm not holding back!" Genma went into a "ready"
pose.
"So who asked ya to?" Ranma went into his own ready pose.
"Oy toh shou!" Genma launched an attack.
Ranma flipped out of the way, bounced across two poles, and
flipped up and around in attack that barely missed his
father.
Nodoka noted the sign on the door.
On Trip To Nearby Village Of Nichieju.
Please Do Not Fall In Spring
Terrible Tragic Story If You Do.
-Jusenkyo Guide
Rei spoke up finally, having felt more and more uneasy as
she got closer to the pools of water. "There's something sad
about this place. Ancient sorrows, old pain, tragedy and
horror."
Ranma dodged another attack, spinning and legsweeping the
larger man into a pool of water. "All right! Akane, you were
right, that gymnastics stuff *does* come in handy."
Backflip, spin, pose.
There is, in Ranma universes, a certain tendency for things
to follow patterns of the mainline. Some would say because
of some karma, others because the spirits of the spring were
drawn to make a statement of their victims, and others might
say it was because it was easiest for the reader/viewer if
some things remained the same. What it came down to was: if
Genma fell into a pool at Jusenkyo, nine times out of ten it
would be the Spring Of Drowned Panda.
A panda leapt out of the pool and aimed a vicious attack at
a very surprised Ranma. If this had been really Ranma: nine
times out of ten he would land in Spring Of Drowned Girl.
*SPLASH!* "ROAARRRRRRRR!"
The Amazon Village was a good distance away. Another valley
linked by trails to the Jusenkyo Valley. Traveling by foot
took over two hours (unless you knew of a secret trail),
though if one could fly the time could be cut to ten
minutes. Bypassing chasms, the Inn Of The Dragon's Whisker,
and other problems with navigation. The roar of an enraged
dragon managed to echo through those chasms, pass the Inn,
and resound in a certain village within scant moments.
There, a gnarled old troll (thwack) err, a mature Amazon
Elder listened briefly, then gathered her
Great-Granddaughter and two other Amazons to investigate
this.
Meanwhile, back at Jusenkyo, a 54 foot long gleaming silver
shape had picked up a panda and slammed it into a cliffside
with sufficient force that the cliffside collapsed.
Unnoticed in the avalanche was a young man with a yellow
shirt and large backpack who was wondering "why me?" and had
merely been standing at the wrong place at the wrong time.
He was used to being lost, it was just that he was *very*
lost today.
"Ranma. That is enough." Nodoka strode up to her son and
allowed her voice to rise ever so slightly. "Dig your father
out of the rubble."
Ranma quickly did, moving the stone until the panda was
found.
"Oh sirs, terrible tragic story!" The Guide worried about
this. If they'd found out that he was off seeing an elderly
Amazon lady of his acquaintance during business hours, it
could be plenty bad trouble for him. He went on about how
there were all these springs and each had a terrible tragic
story, and how hot water cured the curse but only until cold
water transformed them again. He was just getting to the
point where he got to tell them about how the various
villages locally used the waters when the Musk Dynasty
proved that they didn't like people blowing up sections of
their "sacred" springs.
When the Amazons arrived, it was to find a number of people
flattened and five warriors fighting a dragon. Then it
became obvious that some of the people fighting were
fighting *alongside* the dragon, not against it. Then
Shampoo gave an involuntary gasp as the dragon became
something else.
"Which ones are the bad guys?" Sugar asked Spice. "They are
all outsiders."
"Watch, wait, observe. Act when we know," counseled Spice.
"You don't want to just go out and kick butt?" Shampoo asked
the two.
A bonk on Shampoo's head indicated that her grandmother had
arrived.
---------
Ranma was tired. He wasn't used to this body at all, though
it felt oddly familiar. Akane had already thrashed one of
the attackers into unconsciousness. Makoto and Rei had held
one's attention long enough for Ukyo to bash it. This last
one though, was proving quite troublesome. Already his
father and mother had been knocked aside, almost casually by
this bishonen guy. The same bishonen fellow who pounded on
him until Ranma fell half in and half out of a pool.
The boy said something that the dazed Ranma put down as
being in Chinese, then casually leaned to shove Ranma in
with a foot. Makoto and Ukyo leapt from the sides,
distracting him long enough for Rei to throw an "Akuryo
Taisan" and Akane to recover from her own battles. Ranma
recovered enough to get out of the pool even as Makoto went
flying through two of the poles and impacted heavily into a
cliffside. Ukyo, having practiced her own martial arts style
as well as the Saotome Ryuu, lasted a little longer but she
ended up following her own spatula into a segment of cliff
alongside Makoto.
Then Akane arrived as Rei scrambled backwards. Akane chained
movements together rapidly, battering down the white-haired
guy's defenses. Ranma ended the fight by blindsiding the
bishonen, not realizing until after this last attacker had
fallen that he'd actually struck with claws! And then the
other changes caught up with him...
"AAAAaaaaaaaaa!"
-------------
Rei waved her hand in front of the girl's face. "Still out
of it."
Makoto blew an errant hair out of her face. "Poor Ranma..."
"I think his mother going on about wanting him, er, her, I
mean HIM to walk more like a lady is what pushed him over
the edge," commented Ukyo. "Ya gotta admit the wings are
pretty..."
"Somehow I don't think 'pretty' would reassure him," said
Makoto. "Where's Akane and the adults, anyway?"
"Akane's got that 'blood sister' rite with the Amazons. You
gonna go?" Ukyo stretched, Ranma was *no* fun at this stage,
just locked into some private horror.
"Might as well. That old woman explained it easy enough."
Makoto shrugged. "If the Village is in trouble and we can,
we help. If we're in trouble, and they can help, they do.
Not a big deal, as long as they don't expect me to take a
plane."
Rei nodded. "Doesn't seem too bad. If some of 'em come out
and want to work at the Temple while staying there, as long
as it's not too many at the same time, it could work."
Ukyo sighed. "And another place I can sell 'yaki. Can you
believe they've never heard of it here?"
Ranma continued staring at something only she could see.
----------
Akane listened with half an ear, the ceremony being largely
in Chinese, and Akane's Chinese was restricted to a few
dozen handy phrases like "where's the bathroom" and "if you
don't remove that hand it will proceed you into the next
life" or the ever so frequently used "this doesn't have dog
or cat in it, does it?"
The Heir to the Saotome School (Ranma just not having quite
the same level of dedication)nodded and bared her palm at
the appropriate time. The slice was quick and clean, the
shared blood between the Champion of the Nichieju and the
Heir of the Saotome School forging a bond. Now Akane could
learn the Amazon techniques, the Amazons could learn the
Saotome techniques that weren't "sealed" or completely
ridiculous, and both could strengthen from it.
She was a bit distracted by little brother's plight. She
remembered over ten years previously, hearing about his
misadventures and seeing the gleaming dragonform. Now it had
briefly appeared, but his karma had apparently tangled with
the original Ranma's and that form had been corrupted.
Dragon-girl. She'd be amused if he hadn't been so
devastated. That tail looked to be a real pain, not to
mention the wings and horns and fangs and eyes.
Akane caught the look from her bond-sister as the ceremony
was completed. She'd impressed them, particularly the old
woman, but tomorrow she'd have to prove to the rest of the
tribe that she was strong. They respected strength here, and
as a member of the tribe they'd give respect to another
member based on that strength. So tomorrow she'd be fighting
Shampoo, full power, nothing held back. On either side.
It would at least be interesting.
------------
Akane leapt back, taking the measure of the Amazon Champion
as those bonbori were quickly seperated from her. Then, as
it wouldn't do any good to humiliate someone she'd rather
have as an ally, proceeded to take a beating. She wanted to
win, yes, but to go flat out against Shampoo would have
caused resentment among many.
Shampoo looked puzzled, then angry, as the expected block
didn't occur. She went in for a grapple and hissed her
comment just loud enough for Akane. "Elders watch. You not
hold back!"
Akane winced. True, the Elders probably would be experienced
enough to realize that she was holding back a lot. "Okay..."
Akane still held back, her opponent was good. Damn good.
Better than most of the sensei and students she'd run into
back in Japan. Akane, on the other hand, had become human
and had dedicated herself to the Art with a vengeance in
order to regain her motor skills and because she saw a need
to be beyond good with the sort of things she'd heard about
in that Asgard place.
The fighting turned up a notch, then another, then another.
Shampoo was now desperately on the defensive, unable to
spare anything for an attack. Akane judged this to be the
absolute limit she could use against Shampoo without taking
the chance of seriously hurting the Amazon, and not just in
the pride department. Finally exhaustion began to show and
Shampoo missed a block. A kick slammed into her chin,
flipping her off the Challenge Log and down to the sands
below.
Akane made a show of wiping sweat off her forehead as the
crowd went silent. Had she misjudged this?
Finally the Amazons cheered by thumping weapons against the
ground, though a few turned away in disgust. Those couldn't
have been helped unless Akane had deliberately lost, and
with the Elders in attendence she didn't think that she
could have gotten away with that.
"Child," Cologne said, startling Akane who hadn't sensed the
old woman's approach, "you've done well, though I suspect
you took it easy on Shampoo because you didn't want to hurt
her. Care to try me, instead?"
Akane smiled. "Perhaps another time, now, what was this
about a technique for shattering boulders with a touch?"
--------
Heaven:
"Got it." Celeste got up and stretched. "It's set, next time
something happens that gives him a plausible 'out' - he'll
be yanked out of that timeline and end up at Archway Two.
Rei will continue on for a few days, but will get yanked
herself when she's alone or when in a similar situation -
whichever comes first. Akane seems comfortable in her new
life, so we can leave her there. Now, if you'll excuse me, I
have to get my backups done."
Setsuna frowned at Celeste's retreating back. "Leaving
personnel behind? No. I'll have to copy the 'pull' routine
on Rei over to Akane. THIS one has done nothing wrong."
"Matter of time, it is," mumbled Mambo Jack, being as
pessimistic as ever.
"Oh, look, on Ranma's sixteenth birthday, Genma remembers
the arrangement with the Tendos." Belle brought it up,
sensing that this would be different somehow.
---------
Timeline SM-RN 204117
"Stupid Oyaji..." Ranma grumped as he slumped into the tub.
"Some birthday *this* is."
First it had been that he had to take Ranma someplace
"special" and then his father had dropped this little
bombshell. An engagement? Ukyo was going to be *ticked*!
Makoto and Rei would be most unhappy. He'd snuck a quick
phone call to his mother but was uncertain about her
reaction, he'd pointed out that his idiot father was trying
to have a priest show up *that night* and was trying to push
this through without the approval of any of the three girls
or him.
Well, that last was no surprise. When had his stupid father
ever been anything but disappointed in him? Always yelling,
always putting him down. It wasn't *his* fault that he
lagged behind Akane's skill level. Heck the Amazons had
nicknamed her "Little Mountain" because when she wanted to -
that's what her fist felt like. Like you'd just been hit
with mountain. Makoto and Rei were also pretty good at
Anything Goes, better at some things than he was, not as
good in others.
His mother had hung up on the call abruptly, maybe that
meant this whole thing had her approval but Ranma had
thought Ukyo had met her approval. (Though she also seemed
to approve of Rei and Makoto in some odd way, which always
confused each of those involved.)
Of course, arriving he had gotten splashed, dragged in by
the panda. He'd tried to explain but things had not gone
well. Somehow or other, the youngest girl had gotten pushed
forward by the other two as the candidate for the
engagement. "He's half girl, after all."
Things had rapidly gone downhill. Whatshername. Oh yeah,
Akane, same as big sister. This Akane had yelled and
insulted, and the two had exchanged a few unpleasantries.
Ranma had gone off to work it out of his system, making the
phone call to home, but then Akane had entered the dojo with
apparently the same idea. Ranma had walked off, angry, and
the oldest girl had suggested a nice soak in their furo to c
alm down.
Bringing him here. Let's see, the oldest girl was on happy
drugs. The middle girl kept asking questions about his
finances, and seemed a bit shifty. The youngest was
apparently a lesbian. An angry lesbian. An angry
chip-on-her-shoulder, boys-should-be-eliminated-at-birth,
lesbian. Or maybe they'd all just made lousy first
impressions? Well, he hadn't done too well at that himself.
A bit calmer, Ranma got up out of the furo. Time to face the
music and see if he could just get the heck home. He already
had a fiancee, thank you very much, and while he and Ukyo
had their little spats, they at least knew each other, cared
about each other, and could spend time enjoying each other's
company.
The door slid open, Akane stepped in, and stopped.
Ranma stopped, surprised, and dropped his towel. "I *know* I
put the 'occupied' sign up there..."
Akane frowned, stepped closer and swung.
*SLAP!*
Ranma frowned and considered the slap to his cheek for just
a moment.
*SLAP!*
Akane blinked, her own head spun to the side from the force
of the slap. Surprise was quickly replaced by thoroughly
ticked.
*SLAP! SLAP!*
Ranma glared at the girl who had just slapped him, then
slapped him again as she retracted her striking hand.
*SLAP! SLAP!*
Akane growled at this jerk who DARED to strike her. *IN HER
OWN BATHROOM!* "You...."
*KICK!*
Ranma winced and nearly folded as the girl's kick connected
just enough to send a major spasm of pain. He viewed this as
confirmation that this was one of those man hating lesbians.
Therefore, treating her as a lady was out.
-----------
"Yes, Saotome, a fine match." Genma laughed aloud.
There was the sound of porcelain fixtures breaking from
elsewhere in the House.
Soun grinned. "Yes, Saotome! Now our plans to join the
Schools will be fulfilled!"
Sound of breaking glass followed by the sound of someone's
head being forcefed into a toilet.
"Ah, it sounds like the sparks are heating up! Our futures
are assured!" Genma nodded at his old friend.
Sound of fighting with what sounded like a number of bits of
porcelain being smashed to smaller and smaller pieces.
"I don't understand, Saotome, what were these complications
you spoke of earlier?" Soun was puzzled about his friend's
hesitance in bringing the boy over. Hadn't this been their
lifelong dream?
There was the sound of a wall breaking apart, in fact, it
sounded remarkably like someone had used someone else's face
to batter a hole in said wall.
"Nothing to worry about, Tendo." Genma sighed contentedly.
"Hey, is that a shogi board?"
There was a loud thump as one teenager pulled another
teenager out the hole in the wall, then the second teenager
managed to shift position enough that the first teenager hit
first.
"Why, yes. Brings back old times, doesn't it, Saotome?"
Akane ran by, hefted a stone lantern, and lifted it over her
head with a yell before throwing the massive object at her
tormentor.
"So true, Tendo. I wonder what's keeping that priest?"
A dumbbell, followed by another dumbbell, followed by the
barbell and a whole lot of free weights were dodged by
Akane.
"Well, they don't generally allow cars in the neighborhood.
An ordinance passed some time ago." Soun waved it off.
Akane leapt at Ranma, Ranma leapt at Akane. There was a loud
splash as both fell into the koi pond. Ranma came out with
dragon wings, a change of gender, tail, and temper.
"So, your girl seems to know a bit of the Art."
Screaming in incoherent rage, two teenagers continued to try
to reduce each other to bloody pulp by ripping up the
clothesline poles and using them as clubs.
"So does your boy. Nice they're hitting it off that well."
Ranma ran past the shogi board. Akane, holding a katana, ran
past less than two seconds later.
"Kind of reminds me of when I met Nodoka," said Genma
approvingly.
"HEY! NOT IN MY KITCHEN! AKANE! NO! DON'T!"
There came from the kitchen the sound of a katana being
wielded indiscriminately and various pieces of cookware
being thrown at the katana wielder.
"It must be love," agreed Soun.
"NOW I'VE GOT YOU!"
"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire!
Ah-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-TA!"
"Hah! You missed.... YOU PERVERT! HOW DARE YOU HIT ME
THERE!"
"...my kitchen..."
"ICK! i think i could clean my fist for a week and it still
wouldn't feel clean. This never happens to big sister."
"Well if your hand offends me, I'll just CUT IT OFF! AND
YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO!"
"Ahhhh!" Sound of someone running up stairs.
Genma nodded. "We are such wise parents to have made this
match."
"what?! HEY, THIS IS MY ROOM! GET OUT!"
"You're trapped now, pervert!"
"Breaking point!" *BOOOM!*
"...my room..."
"DIE!"
"SHINNEI!"
"Yes, Saotome, I quite agree," said Soun with a nod. "Oh,
it's my move."
"Breaking point combined with the Chestnut Fist!
A-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-TA!"
There came a sound of most of the second floor of the Tendo
household exploding.
Kasumi's plaintive voice came from what was left of the
stairwell. "My kitchen...my room?!"
Nabiki walked down the stairs, shock and horror mixed on her
features. "...my room?! My stuff... my camera... all go
boomy..."
"COME BACK HERE YOU PERVERT!" Sound of unidentifiable items
being thrown.
"Like anyone would want to look at THAT face? Ug-ly!"
"Still, shouldn't the priest be here soon? We can have the
wedding on the instant!" Genma nodded at his own thought.
After all, the sooner the boy was married, the sooner he
could present Nodoka with a fait accompli.
"Of course, Saotome." Soun pointed. "Isn't that him there?"
When Genma looked, Soun started moving pieces.
"No, that's just Nabiki. Odd hairstyle she's got." Genma
frowned, not having remembered the board being in this bad a
position.
One wall of the dojo exploded as Ranma was forced through
it. Akane, her towel long forgotten, snarled as she
confronted the dragongirl. "DIE!"
Genma and Soun stopped playing shoji as a less
comprehensible sound entered their gameplay.
Akane dropped the bloody sword, anger forgotten as she
realized exactly what she had done. "Oh... I... but...
he..."
Genma looked out into the lawn and frowned. "Ranma? Boy, you
disappoint your father, what do you think you're..."
Soun dropped the shogi piece he had just palmed.
---------
Heaven:
"We got him, we got him, we... don't got him? What the
heck?" Fleece checked her boards. This was going to screw
her bets up royally. "Something interfered. Trying to
trace."
"How about Akane and Rei? Do we recall them now?" Mambo Jack
was slightly more concerned about the girls. Grey, he
figured Oblivion would almost be something desirable at this
point.
"Negative. They'll pop over in time. We need to isolate
whatever grabbed him before they go."
---------
Timeline SM-RN 204117
Nodoka was coming, quietly, dignified, slowly, stoic.
Ukyo, Makoto, and Rei were also coming. Not quietly. Lacking
dignity. Neither stoic nor slow.
Two fourteen year old girls had managed to get, over the
years, some degree of maternal approval of their choice of
future boyfriend/husband. Ukyo was the tried and true
fiancee, the one that had been with Ranma through thick and
thin. All three had their moments where they argued with
him, and/or wanted to shake some sense into that fool head.
All three had their moments where they just wanted to cuddle
up with Ranma for a few hours, or do any number of other
things that might have been thoroughly improper but which
might have been quite satisfying.
One sixteen year old girl planned on making a panda
okonomiyaki. Rei and Makoto, for once, were of one mind on
this and thought Ukyo had a wonderful idea.
Far, far ahead of them, however, was the Heir to the Saotome
School. The adopted daughter of Nodoka and Genma. She was
just hoping that Ranma hadn't lost his temper, something
he'd been developing lately. Akane thought it likely that
Genma's little experiment with an "improvement" on the
Breaking Point training had produced some form of internal
injury. Ranma had even been complaining of frequent
headaches and light sensitivity since then.
Now this.
Akane leapt the compound wall and was struck with how
familiar it all looked. There was the dojo and the house,
there was a version of Kasumi and Nabiki. Except it looked
as though a war had gone on. Sections of the second floor
had been blown apart, there was smoke rising from the
kitchen area, water was spraying from what was likely the
bathroom, the dojo had a major hole in one side, and there
was... herself. Younger, not as refined or tall or strong, a
bloody sword at her feet, staring at what was just past the
old man...
Akane leapt again, to land and check the figure whose eyes
stared sightlessly upward. With a deep sigh, she placed the
head closer to the rest of the body. "Who wants to explain
this?"
Her younger version seemed to stir herself out of shock.
"It's HIS fault, not my fault. Notmyfault, notmyfault,
notmyfault."
There was a cracking sound and a section of the Tendo house
collapsed.
Akane listened to babbled explanations, she watched, and she
casually shut off the gas lines. Finally, as three young
girls finally caught up, Akane thought she had the gist of
it. "So, what you're saying is that *all* of you are at
fault."
There were denials from the ones who had been here, shrieks
from the newly arrived, and the crash and tinkle of yet
something else falling and shattering within the Tendo home.
Kasumi brought her younger sister a gi, which the native
Akane practically jumped into when she realized she still
naked.
Noting that Nodoka-okaasan was finally within earshot, Akane
Saotome decided to summarize what she'd learned. "Okay, what
happened was that Baka-oyaji got it into his head that the
old verbal agreement between the Tendo and Saotome families
took precedence over taking Ukyo's dowry and HER engagement
to Ranma."
"That's right, it's a matter of honor," agreed Soun Tendo,
earning him a look of utter contempt from Ukyo among others.
"Then," Akane continued, "discovering that their fiance was
not especially wealthy and was young, the two other
daughters decided to foist this problem off on their
youngest sister despite the two getting into a yelling match
almost from the beginning."
"But... doesn't the fact that they immediately tried to hurt
each other prove they love each other?" Three girls stared
at Kasumi as if she'd just said something ridiculously
stupid.
Akane revised her opinion of this Kasumi down. Her OWN
Kasumi had been a djinn, but had never been a ditz. Or a
raving lunatic. "Then the two REALLY started blowing up at
each other, and you two called a priest and started
pressuring to have the wedding done tonight before anyone
else could protest."
"...not my fault... I'm a nice girl, everyone knows that.
Why can't they all leave me alone?"
Ignoring the native Akane, the one nicknamed "Little
Mountain" by the Amazons continued. "Then, when Ranma got in
from the dojo, Kasumi here sent him in to bathe and try to
calm down. THEN you, Nabiki, sent Akane in to bathe. Living
with me and Ukyo, I know Ranma would have put the occupied
sign out. So, Akane goes in to bathe, Ranma's in the nude,
and another fight goes down."
"...hey. HEY! I'm the victim here!" Akane finally shook off
her shock. "I'm..." Akane got her first good look at her
older self's face. "EEEEEEPP!"
Everyone else started getting out of their shock as they
noticed the resemblence between the two Akanes. One was the
long haired Akane Tendo, a girl of sixteen with traces of a
chubby baby still showing in her face. The other was the
lean twenty year old, her black hair lightened slightly by
long exposure to sun and the elements.
Akane Saotome had been a Pyrolion then had evolved into
Inferna. Some of the evolution had carried over to her
transformation back to human. She was taller, leaner, and
had a taut figure that would have earned a plastic surgeon
worldwide fame. Intensive consuming practice in the Anything
Goes style had hardened her figure a bit, gotten that
exposure to sun and rain, and given her a dangerous air. Aka
ne Tendo was a cute little kitten, Akane Saotome the sensual
and fully developed tigress. There was a similar look to the
two in their faces and they shared a similar "feel" about
them but that was about where the similarities ended.
"So that's what he meant by saying little sister wasn't a
tenth of what HIS Akane was like." Nabiki finally broke the
silence.
"Oh my."
"You're... me?!" Akane Tendo blinked then shook her head.
"No! You're like THAT monster. A demon! I'll..."
Akane Saotome effortlessly lifted Akane Tendo up with one
hand in the collar of her gi. "That's it. First you kill my
little brother. Then you continue to insult his memory. I
can't believe there is *any* of me in you, so... in full
view of the Heads of both Clans, I call a bloodfeud."
"LET GO OF ME! It's not my fault! Help, Father!"
A spatula blocked the Tendo patriarch's progress.
"Bloodfeud has been called," Nodoka said, stepping forward.
"I decline to make this a feud of clans. You may declare a
personal vendetta, but no more."
"Please don't kill her. Akane's a very nice girl, she's just
a violent maniac." Kasumi bit her lip. That hadn't come out
quite as she intended.
"So be it," Akane held her younger self out at arm's length
and pressed the younger version's back against the wall.
"Akane Tendo, I challenge you. If I win, I shall use a
technique I learned from the Amazons to seal your knowledge
of the Art. If you win, you shall never see nor hear from me
again. Do you accept the challenge?"
---------------
well, i wanted to do a different version of the "Ranma meets
the Tendos" and avoid going over the same old stuff again.
Did i succeed?
A chance for the more typical Akane to go up against the
version that the various Akane-fans rave about (though in
the Ranma Project i see little evidence of this, well,
everyone's entitled to an opinion, ne?) - Akane Saotome is
the "best martial artist", "nicest, most well rounded girl
in anime", "honest", "straightforward", "intelligent",
"conquering spirit", "most perfect girl" "the virgin
goddess", etc. Hmmm. A near-perfect Akane vs regular Akane.
Who would win?
====================
"Don't forget that for the acorn to
become the mighty oak, it starts with a
little nut that decides to stand its ground."
-Anonymous
metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/