Note: This is one of my older stories before, I know a
lot more about the series now than I did then.
Also...this is sort of a self-insert...Thrythlind is
my amtgard persona, its hard to make a live-action RPG
persona that doesn't look like you especially when you
lack the materials and skill for disguise....anyway is
only purpose was to bring Reiko to the area...this all
started out as a fic to see how the Nerima crew would
react to a cat-girl with water powers....will post
part 2 later when I'm not so tired...
One year before the story
Nabiki, Kasumi and Ukyou were sitting in the
hospital waiting room, with a thoroughly unhappy
Shampoo glaring at them from across a table. Ukyou's
clothing was a little singed and there was an ash mark
on her face, but otherwise she was untouched. Shampoo
was similarly ashy, but not so much as Ukyou.
"What are you glaring at?" Ukyou asked irritably.
"H�We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you."
"You both in way all the time!" Shampoo retorted
angrily. Chef and Amazon had stood up and were
glaring at each other full of hostility. Battle aura
had started to fill the room.
"I'm sure he's fine Ukyou," Nabiki asserted. "He's
pretty resilient." The potential fight dissolved at
those words.
"You think I'm worried about that idiot," Ukyou
snapped. "Of course he's going to be fine, he's
always fine! He's damn near indestructible." Nabiki
made a quick attempt to calm the ever-more hysterical
Ukyou down. Ranma walked into the room in the middle
of this conversation. He was completely untouched,
but appearing more than a little angry.
"Woda Airen," Shampoo said cheerfully and rushed
towards Ranma. Ukyou merely continued pacing, Ranma's
appearance just didn't seem to produce the same effect
she was used to. Ranma's outstretched hand
interrupted Shampoo's motion.
"Get away from me," he didn't shout, and that was
worse. Shampoo flinched. Ukyou was also alarmed by
his manner.
"Ryouga's okay," she stated hesitantly. Of course
she was more worried about Ryouga than she was
interested in chasing after Ranma. The fool had
gotten her out of Shampoo's trap after all. "�isn't
he?"
"Ryouga's fine," Ranma asserted. "I've given him
worse myself, I guess he's usually just gone before
the ambulance gets there. He's not awake yet, but
otherwise nothing more than a few broken bones."
Ukyou breathed a sigh of relief.
"Excuse me," Ukyou said. "I guess I'd better go tell
the idiot thank you." She'd never been worried, no.
She hadn't asked Ryouga to get between her and that
beam. She was just mad that she'd have to rebuild
Ucchan's again.
"If he okay why mad at Shampoo?" Shampoo asked
nervously.
"Shampoo," Ranma said tightly, Shampoo shouldn't have
gone back to trying to kill his friends. And it
wasn't even a duel this time, but a bomb. "Why don't
you just go away? I don't want to marry you, date
you, at the moment I don't even want to see you. Your
even worse than Kodachi, at least she's got insanity
as an excuse." Then he added the final blow. "If I
marry anybody it'll be Akane." He paused in surprise,
realizing that he meant it. "Got that?" Shampoo
burst into tears and ran crying from the building.
"Ranma," Nabiki said, disbelieving that he had
suddenly found the nerve to tell Shampoo off. Still
she wasn't certain all of it was called for. "She's
always schemed, what's different about this time?"
"It is different now because the boy wasn't part of
this," an old voice said at Nabiki's elbow. They both
turned and saw Cologne. "Shampoo, much as I hate to
say it, has disgraced herself by this attack. If she
had fought them, or else limited her strike to only
the other woman, she could be excused. But this is
intolerable, a bomb could have threatened people not
at all connected. I guess its back to China for me."
"What you're just going to leave," Ranma said
suspiciously.
"Yes," Cologne promised. "And I'll make sure she
leaves too." Cologne pogoed after her grand-daughter
then. "Oh well, you would have made a fine
son-in-law."
Outside Mousse watched as Shampoo left, tears in her
eyes, with his glasses on he could even see her. He
had seen her come to, or rather brought, to this
hospital by Tendo Nabiki and an angry Ukyou, they had
apparently been following an ambulance. Ranma and
Akane arrived soon after.
"Shampoo what's wrong?" he said landing in front of
her. "What has that villain Saotome done to you now?"
"Leave me alone," she said in Chinese. "Or I'll give
you the Kiss of Death."
"That's enough of that!" Cologne shouted. "You've
already disgraced yourself and us enough tonight.
Your claim on Ranma is ended by your own hand. You
are hereby exiled from the village until you have
redeemed yourself." Shampoo flinched, words having
stricken her for the third time tonight.
"Fine I'll go back to China," Shampoo yelled. "And
none of you will ever see me again! That's what you
want, isn't it?" She leaped off into the night
leaving a bewildered Mousse and angry Cologne behind.
"What are you waiting for boy?" Cologne yelled to
Mousse. "Go with her, if she's going to redeem
herself she'll need someone to look out for her, and
it might as well be another outcast." Mousse looked
at her strangely before following Shampoo.
Back in the Hospital, Ukyou was coming to Ryouga's
room. She looked in and saw Akane sitting at his
bedside, watching the unconcious Ryouga with concern.
Ukyou paused outside the door unsure how to continue.
Part of her was still scheming. After all, if Ryouga
came to consciousness feverishly declaring his love
for Akane then there was still hope that Akane would
leave Ranma. The funny thing was the prospect just
didn't excite her as much as she thought it should
anymore.
She had heard Ranma's declaration, and to her
surprise she found she didn't care. Ucchan's burned
down, Ryouga, her long-time partner in crime, in the
hospital, after all of that Ranma's declaration was
just one more blow to a dazed woman. At least that's
what she told herself, besides, some part of her knew
it was coming anyway.
Ukyou's breath caught as Ryouga began moving.
"Ukyou, look out!!" he shouted, snapping awake.
Ukyou discounted the slight skip of her heart of those
words as relief and nothing more.
"It's okay," Akane said comforting him, gently
pushing him back down on the bed. She had been
surprised that Ranma had left her alone with him,
usually he was insanely jealous. "Ukyou's fine, she's
in the lobby right now."
"Akane, what are you doing here?" Ryouga asked,
shyly. Ukyou sighed again, not out of disappointment,
no way. She should have known that Ryouga wouldn't
forget his Akane.
"We were worried about you," Akane said.
"Worried?" Ryouga asked. "About me?"
"Yes, you'd never had to go the hospital before,"
Akane smiled. "Now, just wait here and I'll tell them
you're awake."
"Okay," Ryouga said hesitantly, as Akane stood up and
walked out of the room.
"Oh, Ukyou," she said quietly upon finding her
outside. "Why don't you go inside?"
"It's my fault he's here," Ukyou whispered,
suddenly aware that she was indeed reluctant to go
inside. "Why would he want to see me?" She knew she
was right, if Ryouga wasn't always helping her,
Shampoo would have just targeted her.
"Oh, just keep him company until the rest of us get
back," Akane said, before walking down the hallway.
Ukyou reluctantly walked into the room after Akane was
gone.
"Hey, Sugar," she said sheepishly. "How're things
going?" She sat down where Akane had been sitting.
"Ucchan!" Ukyou was surprised that Ryouga used the
nickname. "What was that anyway?"
"Shampoo decided we were competition," Ukyou told
him, her voice cracking. She leaned over hugged him
and started crying. Surprising and embarrassing
Ryouga immensely "Its all my fault!" There was more,
but it degenerated into illegible sobs from there.
Outside the room Ranma saw this, closed the door, and
turned to intercept the two sisters coming up behind
him.
"Ranma," Akane started angrily. "What are you
doing?"
"I don't think we should bother them right now,"
Ranma said. He escorted them both back to lobby.
"Really," Nabiki smelled money here. "Is that so?"
"Um, Nabiki," Akane asked. "How much would it take
to help rebuild Ucchan's? I think we should do
something to help with this."
"Oh, I think I can provide that," Nabiki said, if her
suspicions were correct she'd make a lot more money
than it would cost. "On the house, my charitable deed
of the day." Ranma and Akane were surprised, both by
the uncharacteristic generosity, and Nabiki's
admission of actually having those kind of funds.
Akane waved it aside quickly, according to Nabiki she
and Ranma had some talking to do.
Now our story begins
Thrythlind was preoccupied, bored, and more than a
little stressed, which was to say, he was feeling
normal. There was something disturbingly familiar
about the world he was in now. He ignored the strange
looks the rural folk were giving him as he walked
through the small Japanese town. Well it would be
more appropriate to say that he didn't notice the
looks, or the people, it would be a question as to
whether or not he knew he was in a town. You see,
Thrythlind was reading, and he tended to lose track of
the outside world while doing that.
The peasant's examination of the strange gaijin was
interrupted by the sound of a ringing bell.
"Wild Boar!" someone shouted. "A wild boar is
coming!!!"
"Now why didn't I think of that," Thrythlind
muttered as he continued reading his book, inside was
a diagram of a circle filled with arcane symbols.
"This symbol should have been over here." He
continued flipping through the book. He had gotten
the book from some girl after an unintentional
dimension hop. It was titled, Everything you wanted
to know about Dimensional Travel but were afraid to
ask. That girl had been familiar too, but he couldn't
remember why, except for maybe their similar career
paths, demon-hunters. The huntress seemed desperate
to keep it out of her apprentice's hands for some
reason.
As Thrythlind's conscious mind concentrated on the
problem of what happened to his travelling partner,
other parts of his mind were running rampant. His
survival instinct was screaming out about the giant
and crazed boar rampaging through the small town
around him. The threat identification part of his
brain compared the pig to other things he had fought
and dismissed it as an unlikely threat. Thrythlind's
subconcious could have been heard to be snoring, until
a ranting survival instinct half woke it up. His
subconcious analyzed the situation and redirected the
problem to his directional sense, then it went back to
sleep. Sleep being what Thrythlind sort of wanted to
be doing at the moment.
Giant boar coming from behind, left turn.
"Now that would explain why Reiko and I landed in
different parts of this world." Thrythlind took a
quick left turn, half-noticing a brown blur pass by
his side. Then he straightened out and continued
walking in his original direction.
Hmm, large metal pole, possible solution.
"Now maybe, if I made THIS circle, I'll be able to
see where I'm going." Thrythlind started walking
towards a large metal pole that was in the middle of
the town for some unknown reason. Possibly so
absent-minded demon hunters could elude giant boars
without really thinking about it.
Six inches from the pole, quick right turn.
"But first I'll have to find Reiko." Thrythlind
turned right as a large brown blur charged up behind
him. There was a loud ringing clang as the boar ran
into the pole and toppled over, leaving a boar shaped
dent in the metal rod. The various parts of
Thrythlind's mind gave a collective sigh of relief as
the boar hit the ground. It was during this that
Thrythlind walked into a rail, flipped over it,
landing head first into the concrete on the other
side. This forced him to stop reading, which meant he
suddenly realized where he was.
"Wait a minute," Thrythlind said in English,
rubbing his head and checking his glasses. "Where'd
that rail come from?" He stood up, brushed off his
dark green overcoat, replaced his battered leather
hat, and collected his five foot tall staff. It was
maybe half a foot shorter than him. He looked around
and saw the giant boar knocked silly on the ground,
and the town surrounding it. "Um�this looks
familiar."
"Whoa," said one of the villagers. "How'd you do
that? Are you some sort of a martial artist."
Thrythlind took stock of his situation for a
moment. He suddenly had a very chilling list of
possible places that Reiko could be. His eye began
twitching as he began muttering in English about
infinite dimensions and cartoons.
"Excuse me," Thrythlind began in Japanese. "Are you
frequently visited by a young martial artist with a
very heavy bamboo umbrella, who gets lost easily and
years a yellow and black bandana." The people looked
confused.
"Yes, actually, why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason," Thrythlind answered. "Um�which way
to Nerima." One of the villagers pointed in the
appropriate direction and Thrythlind thanked him
before continuing on that direction. About twenty
feet into his walk he placed the dimensional travel
book in his shoulder bag and pulled out another
notebook sized occult guide book, cradling his staff
in the crook of his arm.
"Let me get this straight?" Ranma said. "You sent
Ryouga to the post office with the invitations."
"Was that a good idea?" Akane added. "I mean he does
get lost all the time."
"Exactly," Ukyou answered cheerfully. "Considering
where the invitations are being sent he might get
there before the mail can."
"I never thought of that," Ranma said, impressed.
"So who did you invite?" Akane asked curiously.
Ranma and Akane face-faulted as the scroll list rolled
out from Ukyou's hand across the room.
"You two, Genma, Soun, Nabiki, Kasumi, Dr. Tofu�"
Ukyou started.
"That might be another bad idea," Ranma noted.
"Natsumi, Kurumi�"
"Huh?" Akane said.
"�Ryuu Kumon, Shinnosuke, Toma�"
"How�?"
"�Kirin, Raichi, been wanting to meet them, missed
that adventure,�." The list went on and on and on.
Finally, it came to the last two names on the list.
"Shampoo and Mousse." Ukyou said the last hesitantly.
"You're inviting them?!" Ranma was shocked.
"Yeah, Ukyou, she tried to kill you and Ryouga last
time she was here."
"It's been a year," Ukyou said. "She's tried to kill
me befor�uh�graduating just wouldn't be
right�.oh�.Ryouga suggested it, something about too
many grudges already." She sounded irritated. "But
no one knows where they are anymore, and I'll bet she
and Mousse are a happy couple by now, so what's the
problem?"
"If you say so Ukyou," Ranma shrugged. "But one
question."
"What is it?"
"How do you know if Ryouga will be back in time for
the party?"
"Because if he tries to skip out on the work I'll
kill him, and he knows it," Ukyou asserted.
This place was familiar, Ryouga knew that much for
certain. He looked about and saw pond after pond
after pond. All of them with tall poles sticking out
of the ground. In addition to having the worlds worst
direction sense, Ryouga also was virtually incapable
of identifying places without somebody telling him
where he was. People he had no problem with, usually.
"Welcome Cursed Training Grounds of Jusenkyo," a
small man in a black suit said in choppy Japanese.
Ryouga turned to look at him, his eyes wide and filled
with hope.
"Did you say Jusenkyo!!!!" Ryouga grabbed the man,
finally recognizing the Jusenkyo guide. "At last I
can be rid of this cursed state!!!!" Then he paused
remembering recent events. "Why didn't this happen a
year ago?!!?!"
Things just weren't the same back home, Ukyou
hadn't come up with a plan to break up Ranma and Akane
since the hospital. Ryouga didn't know why,
suspecting it probably related to why she had broken
down crying in his room. She wasn't telling him why,
and he didn't feel it was appropriate to ask. Ryouga,
on the other hand, had been spending his unlost time
dodging Azusa, Kodachi and spatulas. The Kodachi
situation deserved a little more reminiscing.
"Excuse me, but the last time one of Ranma's
girlfriends showed up here I woke in the hospital with
a hysterical Ukyou. Is there anybody else you can go
bother?"
The thoughts going through Kodachi's mind as she was
held suspended in midair by one hand were such that
Ryouga would soon wish he hadn't done anything.
"What a man, why he's even stronger than my darling
Ranma," out loud she said. "Excuse me, kind sir, but
what is your name?" At this point Ryouga should have
realized that this is how Ranma got in trouble, but he
suddenly became aware of how close he was to a rather
scantily clad young woman. His nose started to bleed
as he set Kodachi down on the roof, creating the worst
possible impression.
"Hysterical!!" came the shout behind him, the
clanging spatula narrowly beat Ryouga's self-shut down
routine. "You think I was worried about a
directionally challenged idiot like you Hibi�" The
rest occurred beyond the realms of Ryouga's
consciousness, but Kodachi had been chasing both him
and Ranma ever since.
Thinking up ways to keep a semi-obsessing Ukyou from
trying to track down Shampoo took some time as well.
Not that he was worried about her or anything. It was
just that he didn't want to see someone else's life
ruined like his. Ukyou was still insulted that the
Amazon had used a bomb. She had been on the verge of
closing down Ucchan's twice in the last year.
Hopefully that would be over with soon though.
"Oh you already visited Jusenkyo?" the guide asked in
a strangled voice. "Perhaps you want find Spring of
Drowned Man?"
"YES!!!" Ryouga shouted. "Where is it?!?!" The
guide pointed toward one of the springs, with the sign
"Spring of Drowned Man." Then he dropped the guide
and started running towards the spring now in plain
sight. He glanced at the sign labeling it and saw a
faded symbol that he thought read "man." Then he
jumped into the water as the guide caught up with him.
"Wait," the guide said, apologetically. "This ink
faded, that not Spring Drowned Man."
"Finally," a high pitched voice shouted. "I'm not a
pig, I'm a�.I'm a�girl!! You said this was the Spring
of Drowned Man!" Ryouga suddenly looked like a near
twin of Ranma's girl form. About the only difference
being fangs and hair length.
"No, I wrong, that Spring of Drowned Man over
there," the guide pointed towards another spring about
twenty feet away. Ryouga-Chan looked at the sign to
the Spring next to him and watched the guide repaint
the warning sign with horror. "That Spring Drowned
Woman, oh well, too bad."
"No problem," Ryouga-Chan said, somewhat calmer. "I
just go walk into that spring over there then, right."
By some miracle Ryouga-Chan went the right direction
and jumped into the spring of drowned man. "Yes
finally, I'm�I'm�still a girl! What's wrong here!!"
"Only get two dips in cursed springs," the guide
said. Ryouga-Chan's pupils shrunk and her mouth sort
of twitched.
"YOU MEAN IT ONLY WORKS TWICE!!!!" Ryouga-Chan
shouted. "AAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!"
"Well," the guide said. Ryouga-Chan looked
suddenly hopeful. "If you dunked in hot Jusenkyo
water you can change other form."
"WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT!!!!!!"
Shampoo sat and stared at the wall wistfully
watching Mousse stumble about the front room. She had
grown fond of watching Mousse go about the daily
chores recently. She guessed that she had finally
gotten over Ranma's rather blatant dismissal, and
Grandmothers exile declaration. Somewhere her exile
had become nice place to live, and a convenient source
of income too. Maybe, the work to get the place ready
to open is what snapped her out of the funk. At least
Cat Springs would soon be ready too open to the
public.
Mousse meanwhile tripped over the obligatory bucket
of water while trying to keep order in the little
cabin. The quacking amused her somwhat, and she had
to admit that Mousse was truly devoted to her, even if
he wasn't the all-powerful Ranma. Her mood was
interrupted as a girl walked in the office, she
thought for a moment that it was Ranma-Chan. This
girl's hair was shorter and maybe a little darker, but
the cute fangs were the biggest give away that it
wasn't Ranma.
"Excuse me?" the girl started. "Do you know where
the post office is."
"No post office for miles," Shampoo answered in
Japanese. "Why you dress like pig-boy?"
"Shampoo?" the girl asked then held out a letter she
fished from her backpack. "Nevermind, here, which way
is Nerima?" Shampoo irritatingly pointed a random
direction and watched as the girl left the cabin after
saying. "Thanks, later."
"Quack! Quack!" Mousse yelled.
"Mousse," Shampoo turned to the duck, speaking
Chinese now. "Do you think that girl is pig-boy?"
"Quack!" the duck answered. She opened the letter.
"So do I, that's why I didn't care where I
pointed."
"Quack, Quack?" the duck answered.
"If that's so why didn't I tell her about hot
spring?" Shampoo asked.
"Quack!"
"Why bother, if she couldn't find it anyway?
Spatula girl has invited us to a party," Shampoo said.
"Maybe we should go and apologize to her and pig-boy."
"Quack?"
"Well, if it was just a girl it would be silly to
apologize to her now wouldn't it?"
"Quack, Quack!"
"We're not open for another month," then she
started whispering. "Besides that girl didn't pay."
"Quack!"
"You take that back," Shampoo said. "I am not Tendo
Nabiki's cousin!"
Ryouga came to a small lake, after a couple of days
in this odd store with rounded metal walls. He would
have thought it was a boat except that he didn't
remember getting on one. He took the opportunity to
boil himself some water. He poured it over himself
resignedly, and then went back to the lake to draw
some more water just in case. This being able to
change himself back was new to him. He tried
comforting himself that at least he was better off as
a girl than a pig.
Satomi Reiko was annoyed, she had let herself take a
brief nap in the lake, and now she was regretting it.
If she had arms and legs at the moment she would be
drumming her fingers or tapping her foot. At the
moment she didn't even have her clothes or equipment.,
it was probably all a permanent part of the lake.
Since her mind was trapped in this kettle, they had
probably lost all cohesion.
Unfortunately she was trapped in this container,
waiting for someone to pour out whatever it was she
was in. She didn't think she'd have to wait long,
after all, she wasn't sure about how long she had been
asleep before waking up in this pot or whatever. Who
would draw water before they actually needed it after
all?
The first distinct sound she heard outside her
temporary prison was the owner of the pot.
"Excuse me," the speaker was a young man, speaking in
Japanese, maybe in his late teens. "Do you know how
to get to Furinkan High?"
"Furinkan High?" An older man said. "Isn't that
where all those martial artists are from."
"Yes," answered the first speaker, a little
irritated. "Where is it?"
"Nerima, I think," the older man said. "That way."
"Thank you." They started moving again.
"Excuse me," the older man said. "What's the
kettle for?"
"Hmm," the first speaker said. "That's in case it
rains." Reiko's eyes would have narrowed in
annoyance, again, IF she had eyes at the moment. What
would someone do with a kettle of water in the rain.
Three hours later her carrier started talking again.
"Where'd they put that road?" he yelled, in a
somewhat angry tone. Reiko's prison began moving,
very, very fast. The sound of several thwacks, thuds
and crashes echoed through at quick, irregular
intervals. Then all sounds stopped and all she heard
was the person carrying her screaming, following the
sensation of a fall. Then there was a loud splash,
and the young man's voice was replaced by the sound of
a young woman's.
Fifteen minutes later she heard the sounds of camp
being set and soon thereafter the crackle of a fire.
Reiko suddenly had a very intimidating feeling. A
feeling that was confirmed as she suddenly felt her
prison begin to heat up. Had Reiko had a mouth at the
time she'd have been yelling "bloody murder" to borrow
one of Thrythlind's curses. She didn't have a mouth
so she was left to mere silent prayer that they
weren't going to boil her away.
"Damn, there was something I was supposed to do
today," the girl said again. Reiko didn't really care
at the moment, but a part of her was wondering what
happened to the guy. "Whatever it was, Ukyou's going
to kill me." She sounded a little despondent.
Then the increasing heat stopped and Reiko thanked
every good power she'd ever heard named. Even better,
that girl was tipping over the prison, apparently
about to pour her out. A small piece of her came out
of the kettle and immediately she began soaking up
loose water particles in the air and converting them
into flesh. She didn't get a look at the owner of
kettle, being more concerned with running for the lake
she saw as soon as she realized that she had enough
mass to regain her hum�er�.normal form. She felt some
of her liquid form pass over whoever it was pouring
her out.
Ryouga didn't bother too look up as he started
pouring the hot water over him. When he was thwacked
in the head by something he was confused. He turned
around quick enough to catch a glimpse of someone
diving into the lake he had just pulled herself out
of. Ryouga thought that the girl was wearing some
sort of jaguar-patterned swimsuit, complete with a cat
tail.
"Ranma would just love that outfit," he snickered to
himself. He walked over to the edge of the lake and
watched as a girl raised her head out of the water.
His hair was yellow and black streaked, with thick
spotted sideburns, she had golden cat's eyes, and a
set of short fangs. Her face also seemed to be a
painful shade of red at the moment. "Who are you?"
"Do you have any spare clothes?" she responded
irritably.
"Uh, yes," Ryouga answered, he walked over to her
backpack and fished around for some spare clothes.
These he carried to the edge of the lake and put them
down, he then went and stood behind a bush while the
girl got out of the water and changed. "What happened
to your clothes?"
"I left them at that last lake before I ended up in
your kettle," the girl responded. "Hmm, there's no
opening for my tail, this might not be the most
comfortable attire. Can't expect much though, most
people don't have tails."
"You were in my kettle?" he commented, confused.
"Who are you?"
"Reiko Satomi," she answered American style.
"Oops, I mean Satomi Reiko, been American too long."
Reiko sat down on the other side of the fire,
gingerly, she was still covered head to toe in minor
burns.
"Do you practice Anything-Goes-Martial-Arts?"
Ryouga asked. Looking now he realized the girl
actually had fur, and that the yellow and black
spotted triangle of material on her back had actually
been her naked back.
Ryouga almost fainted from sensory overload as the
image replayed in his mind. Luckily, Reiko was now
thoroughly covered in one of Ryouga-Chan's long
sleeved yellow shirts, and his brain quickly shoved
aside the other image. A cat tail was twitching
behind her, probably due to an alteration Reiko had
made in the pants. Ryouga saw the claws on one of her
furred hands flex out and back in.
"Anything-Goes-Martial-Arts?" Reiko responded.
"What's that? I practice� uh�wu shu."
"Like Chun Li, right?" Reiko reacted immediately to
Ryouga's statement.
"Yeah! Most people don't know that!"
"I get around a lot," Ryouga answered. "Are you
related to Saotome Ranma in anyway?"
"Who?" she asked.
"Uh, huh," Ryouga answered. In his head he was
thinking, boy I hope this one doesn't fall for me too.
I could do without whacks about the head when I
finally get back to Nerima. "Ever been to Jusenkyo?"
"Where?"
"How'd you end up in the kettle?" Ryouga asked, then
realized he had been heating the water. "Sorry about
the burns." He added sheepishly after seeing her red
skin.
"Oh, don't worry, nothing more than a sunburn
really," Reiko seemed somewhat embarrased. "As for
the kettle, I can change into a pool of water, and I
was�er�.taking a nap in the lake."
"You change�." Ryouga began nervously. "�.into
water?"
"Uh huh, watch." She pointed at a nearby tree,
oblivious to Ryouga's terrified expression, and her
arm partially became water and rocketed forth, ramming
the tree. The water blast splintered the tree and
then vanished leaving only Reiko's arm. Ryouga had
spent most of his Jusenkyo cursed life turning into a
pig, and despite the fact he no longer changed into a
small edible animal, he was still cursed. As such it
was natural that there was still that little
nervousness around water. To be sitting, talking to
someone that could become water at will was somewhat
humbling.
"Please don't point that at me," Ryouga said
meekly.
"What's wrong," Reiko asked, an impish glint in her
eyes. She looked at Ryouga and concentrated on
condensing the water vapor around him. "Its just wa�
oh�um�I'm sorry."
"Just let me boil another kettle of water,"
Ryouga-Chan said, embarrassed.
Somewhere else in Japan.
Twenty minutes, thirty miles, and five books after
the wild boar incident, Thrythlind had finally cracked
the problems with his spell or so he hoped. Through
his books he had managed to find a detect martial
artist spell, a detect curse spell, and a detect water
spell. He didn't even bother trying to form a spell
to find Reiko. He suspected that the cat-girl's ninja
clan included anti-scrying rituals in their training.
It wasn't like she was a blank spot or smudge or
obscured in anyway. That he would notice, nope, Reiko
just didn't seem to exist.
At any rate, it was a fourth book that he looked to
for notes on combining spells into a new effect. He
entered several variations of the new spell idea in
his book, but kept finding small details that made the
spell unworkable. Now, finally he had a spell that
could be cast, whether it would work or not was
another question.
He stopped and put his book up, in order to see how
far down the road he was.
"Wait a minute," he said in English, scanning the
forest about him.
"So where are we going?" Reiko asked Ryouga. The boy
was still staying a good five feet away from her.
"Well it�s a bit too late to make it in time for
school," Ryouga said, watching the sun. "So I guess
its Ucchan's, should be�." Ryouga's pupils shrunk
dramatically and he was struck with a look of
incredible fear.
"I take it you just remembered what you were
supposed to do," Reiko asked.
"Ukyou is going to kill me," he sounded very sure of
that fact.
"Is Ukyou your sister?" Reiko asked politely.
"No she's a friend," Ryouga said. "We live in her
restaurant."
"A friend, eh," Reiko teased. Ryouga, being
Ryouga, missed the inflection. "And you live
together."
"We had invited a lot friends over tonight," Ryouga
explained. "I just delivered most of the invitations.
A Private party."
"You're supposed to help out, right," Reiko smiled at
the suddenly depressed boy. "Where is this Ucchan's
anyway?" She walked up the small rise and looked
through the trees to see a line of shops. "Is that it
there?" Ryouga's head snapped up and he rushed to the
top of the hill and saw what Reiko was pointing at.
Now, Ryouga can be described as having the world's
worst sense of direction, but he also has a tendency
to show up at the most inappropriate times as well.
And what could be more inappropriate than showing up
at a party involving multiple Jusenkyo cursed
martial-artists, one of whom has a severe phobia of
cats, not to mention a certain spatula happy
okonomiyaki chef, accompanied by an attractive
cat-girl who can change into water and also happens to
be wearing a spare set of your clothes?
"It's a miracle," Ryouga shouted. "It only took me a
week to get here from Shampoo�s!"
"Where is Shampoo�s?" Reiko asked.
"Hey, Ryouga," voice from behind them shouted.
"You made it, who's your friend."
"Hello, Ranma," Ryouga sounded a little annoyed, then
he smiled. "Ranma, this is Reiko. She's looking for
her partner." Reiko stepped into the sunlight and
extended a furred hand to the red-shirted teen now
talking to them.
"And who's yo�YAH!" Ranma yelled in panic and
plastered his back to the first tree in his way.
"Sh-sh-sh-ee's a c-c-cat!"
"What's his problem?" Reiko asked.
"He's afraid of cats." Ryouga said smiling.
Ranma, mind beginning to convince him that this wasn't
a cat, it was just a person that looked like a cat,
tried to calm down. It was like a mask, yeah a
costume, not real at all.
"Oh," Reiko turned to Ranma, who had made a heroic
attempt to calm down.
"Who's idea was the costume?" Ranma asked shakily.
"Costume?" Reiko asked. "Oh, yes, sorry, I was like
this when he found me. I'll, uh, take it off as soon
as I can. Glues and such you know."
"Ranma, why are you doing doddling?" another voice
shouted. This one was female. "We're going to be
late for this�.oh�who are you?"
"Satomi Reiko," Reiko answered for herself this time.
"I'm looking for a friend of mine, I met Ryouga
earlier today and he offered to lead me to Nerima."
"And he got you here in less than a day?" Ranma
sounded surprised. Reiko watched with a slight amount
of anxiety as the girl pounded Ranma into the ground
with a mallet. Ryouga snickered a little, then the
girl turned to him, embarrassed by her boyfriend's,
Reiko assumed they were a couple, behaivor.
"Hey Ryouga," she asked. "What's Ukyou going to do
when she sees Reiko here in one of your shirts."
There was that sudden pupil shrinking effect again as
Ryouga remembered various encounters involving
clanging spatulas. He didn't have long to puzzle over
the matter, Reiko watched as another teenaged martial
artist was hammered into the ground, this time by
giant spatula. Reiko glanced cautiously at the
weilder and considered turning herself into a pool of
water before the weapon was turned on her. A quickly
recovered Ranma and the girl watched in embarrassed
silence as the scene continued.
"Why should I care what he does with his clothes!"
the blue clad girl said before stomping away. She
grabbed the senseless Ryouga by the collar and began
dragging him to the restaurant. "Its his time I need,
trying to get off tonight by getting lost again!
Shampoo and Mousse called from the airport. They're
almost here already, and he's off romancing another
girlfriend instead of helping me get ready!"
"Deja vu," Ranma said.
"Do you think they spent too much time watching us?"
the girl asked.
"Well, Akane," Ranma started. "It certainly seems
like it. She even forgot that she planned on Ryouga
getting lost."
"Hold on, your name is Satomi?" Ranma asked Reiko.
The three started following the Ukyou and Ryouga pair.
Reiko nodded. "Do you know if it is at all related
to the Saotome name?" Reiko crimped her eyebrows and
shook her head.
"So how did you meet Ryouga," Akane asked. Ranma was
sliding ever so slightly away from Reiko, Akane
whispered to him "Really, Ranma, it's not like she has
the plague or something."
"Well, he tried to boil me," Reiko said. Ranma and
Akane stopped and turned toward each other before
looking back at her. "But he didn't know it at the
time."
"Have you ever been to Jusenkyo?" Akane and Ranma
asked at the same time.
"What is this Jusenkyo place people keep asking me
about." Reiko asked curiously.
"Never mind," the couple responded.
"Anyway, I borrowed some clothes from him, since mine
were lost, and explained to him that me and my friend
were seperated when he miscast a spell. Now I have to
find him so we can try to get to where we going in the
first place."
"You might want to tell Ukyou that your friend is a
he," Ranma suggested.
"It might be easier for Ryouga." At this point they
walked into the restaurant. Inside the building was
an oddball collection of young martial artists of
varying types. Reiko knew they were martial artists
by their motions but some were fairly odd. She saw
two older men in karateka gis playing shogi at one
table. A rather blank faced man with a broom sitting
by himself. A collection of animal-men were sitting
at one table. Two couples were sitting at another
table, a pair of girls that were obviously sisters,
one older than the other, someone Reiko almost thought
was Ryouga, but he smelled a little different, and the
other boy was about fourteen carrying around an ornate
sword. Also in the room was a girl in simple school
girl's uniform with a self-confidant look on her face.
Reiko immediately thought she was the most dangerous
there, and noted a near resemblance to Akane. There
were others, about twenty martial artists in all,
Reiko was happy. Thrythlind would eventually show up
here with all this activity.
As Ranma and Akane started making the rounds of old
rivals and friends another couple entered. A chinese
couple, one a purple haired bombshell and the other a
guy with long black hair and thick glasses, entered
bickering a little in Chinese. Reiko saw neither hide
nor hair of Ryouga or Ukyou until they came from the
kitchen along with what seemed to be another sister of
Akane's. Ryouga didn't look particularly happy, he
seemed more like he was fearing sudden and instant
pain.
Ranma and Akane came to the front again as the
latest couple showed up.
"So how have you two been," Akane asked politely,
trying to keep the caution out of her voice.
"We're doing fine," Mousse said.
"Since when Mousse talk for Shampoo," Shampoo asked
sarcastically. Then she agreed with him. "We busy,
but no problems."
"Busy doing what?" Ranma asked, he had remained aloof
so far.
"New business," Shampoo said. "Shampoo start all
over. No more care if Ranma want pervert-girl."
"Gee, thanks," Akane said flatly, Shampoo never had
understood such things as manners.
"Who is the charming young woman with you," Mousse
asked, after cleaning his glasses for perhaps the
twelfth time. He either ignored or didn't notice the
annoyed look directed at him by Shampoo.
"This is a friend of Ryouga's," Ranma said.
"Satomi Reiko, no relation apparently."
"Oh wait," Akane turned to Reiko. "You never did say
how Ryouga almost boiled you." Before Reiko could say
anything the newest couple turned to her.
"Have you ever been to Jusenkyo?" they asked.
Reiko was beginning to wonder if this had anything to
do with Ryouga's water triggered transformation.
"NO!" she shouted. "WHY DO YOU KEEP ASKING ME
THAT?"
"No need for hairy girl to yell," the purple haired
bombshell said with an ultra sweet voice.
"Anyway," Akane asked giving the two former menaces a
glare. "How did Ryouga almost boil you?"
"Oh, I took a nap in this lake," she said. "And
ended up in his kettle�."
"Hold on here," Ranma interrupted. "How'd you get
from the lake to the kettle without him noticing?"
"Oh, well," Reiko was still embarrassed by this, she
would have thought that she could have woken up a
little easier than this. "I can turn into a pool of
water." Ranma, Akane, and the new couple stared at
her in near shock.
"You turn�" began Mousse.
"�into a�" Ranma followed.
"�a pool of�." Akane said.
"�.water?" Shampoo finished.
"Yes," she answered. "I can do other things too,
want to see?"
"NO!" came the collective answer, as three martial
artists took very large steps back from Reiko.
"Are you all like Ryouga?" she guessed. Ranma
looked sick suddenly and glanced nervously at Akane.
Elsewhere
Thrythlind wasn't happy, it took a lot to keep him
from reading. Getting lost three times tended to do
that. Realizing that he had been failing to keep
attention of what was going on made him not happy.
Being not happy, he wasn't exactly a safe target for
wandering demons.
"WRACKING CIRCLE!!!!" Thrythlind shouted as a wave of
energy radiated out from him and electrified the three
demons surrounding him for a full ten minutes while
Thrythlind walked on.
Thrythlind decided he must be getting somewhat
close to Nerima by now, he had faced ten oddball
creatures by this point. Perhaps he was even close
enough to cast that spell now. He sat down and
started drawing a large circle in the ground. It
didn�t take him long to finish.
"Reveal," Thrythlind said, resignedly, while
reaching out to the forest. A malformed demon faded
into view.
"Very good mage, but now I shall�" the echoing
voice began threatening him.
"Fire of Narya," a pillar of flame fell from the sky
and engulfed the demon. The somewhat charred creature
wobbled as it tried to clear its head.
"�fool�ish�mor..taaal�I cannot..be�" its voice was
still deep and echoing, but sounded no where near as
powerful.
"Spirit Wrack," The demon suddenly seemed to be
dancing inside a series of energy rings as it
screamed, a sound almost like laughter, in pain. Then
the spell stopped and the demon took a step forward
laughing.
"�that hurt�but�.I�.will�.nev�er�be�" Thrythlind
turned to look at it and rose an eyebrow.
"I banish thee�" the demon�s bulging eyes widened as
he heard the mage begin uttering the most horrible of
spells.
"�no�anything�but that!!" it pleaded.
"�to Cleveland." Thrythlind finished. The demon
wailed an eternal vow of vengence on the mage as it
whirled away carried by currents of magic to that
realm of oh so dreaded normalcy. You have no idea how
many demons have been sentenced to eternity as mail
room attendants or janitors ever since Thrythlind
Hardwulf learned that spell. Inhuman monsters just
didn�t seem to know how to avoid getting trapped in
meaningless dead-end jobs.
"Now back to work." He raised his hands
dramatically and shouted the spells incantation.
"Jusenkyo Radar!"
Suddenly the circle of earth rose up and seemed to
become a giant digital radar screen. On the side of
the plastic monstrosity was the phrase "copyright of
Capsule Corporation." Thrythlind face faulted as he
saw the number of blips on his screen. There had to
be ten Jusenkyo cursed, well water cursed anyway,
martial artists within the range of the spell.
"How many people go to Jusenkyo anyway?" he asked no
one in particular.
"What do you mean like Ryouga?" Akane asked,
innocently. Ukyou walked up behind them dragging
along the lost boy. "Oh do you mean he changes into
something too?"
"Ryouga-Honey," Ukyou started, somewhat annoyed.
"You haven't been to Jusenkyo have you?"
"I don't know what she's talking about?" Ranma
interrupted. "I mean I've known Ryouga longer than
any of you, I'd know if he'd been to Jusenkyo,
wouldn't I?"
"Who Ranma kidding hiding pig-boy?" Shampoo asked
irritated.
"Pig-boy," Ukyou said, suddenly she considered a
number of other previous events and did some quick
calculating, while a nervous Ryouga giggled. "Hey,
Akane."
"What is it?"
"Have you seen P-Chan around recently?" Ukyou
focused on Ryouga, not because she was jealous or
anything, she just didn't want to talk to Shampoo yet.
"No, actually," she had no idea what was going on.
"Why do you ask?"
"Actually," Mousse adjusted his glasses and
interrupted. "We believe that Ryouga may have made a
very recent visit to Jusenkyo." Ryouga looked very
sick.
"What makes you think that?" Ryouga asked
nervously.
"By the way," Reiko extended her hand to Ukyou. "I'm
Satomi Reiko. Your boyfriend was helping me find a
friend of mine." It had the desired effect.
"Boyfriend," Ukyou jerked her attention away from the
topic of Ryouga's cursed state. "He's not my
boyfriend, why would I want a directionally
challenged, obsessive idiot like him for a boyfriend."
"Oh, yeah!" Ryouga retorted angrily. "You think I
want a cross-dressing, violent, girlfriend with a
okonomiyaki fixation?" People dispersed from Ryouga's
general area, the spatula appeared in Ukyou's hand,
reared back to strike, and stopped cold suddenly as
something blonde and disturbingly high-pitched glomped
to Ryouga.
"Oh! Charlotte," Azusa laughed. "You came back to
your Azusa."
"Who are you calling Charlotte!" then he started
pleading "Get off of me! Get off of me!" Everybody
excepting Ukyou and Reiko began mingling.
"I'm going back to the cooking Ukyou," the other
woman Reiko thought was related to Akane said.
"I told you she wasn't invited!" Ukyou growled.
Suddenly she reversed her grip on the spatula, swung
around and batted the pair across the room. "Thank
you Kasumi," Ukyou called to calmly leaving woman. "I
didn't mean for you to have to work at all."
"It's no problem," Kasumi called back sweetly,
blithely unaware that there was anything strange going
on.
Then Ukyou turned sweetly to Reiko, who was eyeing
the spatula warily. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to
ignore you. I just wasn't expecting Ryouga to bring a
new friend to this party. Now, how did you meet him?"
Reiko paused, held up one finger to say wait, took a
big breath and started talking.
"HetriedtoboilmenoIdon'tknowwhatJusenkyoisI'mnot
relatedtotheSaotomefamilyIturnintoapoolofwater." Then
she took another breath. "Any question I miss?"
"Not that I could tell," Ukyou said tightly, a
little nervous herself now. "Oh, except what are you
doing here?"
"Well that's fairly easy," Reiko said, finally
coming to a question she was used to answering. "My
friend and I were separated when he miscast a spell,
and I was hoping to find him here." The word "him"
caused Ukyou to brighten considerably.
"Spell�?" Ukyou started to ask then waved aside the
question as too wide a topic. "Why here?"
"With all the martial artists and oddball people
around here I thought he'd be sure to show up
eventually."
"Makes sense in a way," Ukyou admitted. "Well I have
to peel Lost Boy off the wall and get him to help me
and Kasumi. Entertain yourself if you can." Reiko
nervously waved goodbye to the spatula happy girl and
moved off to join the crowd. She was almost
immediately set upon by that second girl she thought
was related to Akane.
"So," the girl began in a dry voice. "You are
Satomi Reiko." Reiko nodded, the girl�s eyes
glittered. "And you turn into water." Reiko nodded
again, she could almost see the girl plotting now.
"I�m Akane�s sister, Nabiki, if you need anything just
come to me, I�m always willing to lend a helping
hand."
"As long as you get an arm in return, Nabiki?"
Akane appeared seemingly out of nowhere. "Come on
Reiko, you can sit with Ranma and me."
"A girl�s got to make a living," she smiled
happily, unfazed by her sister. She immediately began
tallying up odds on which Jusenkyo victim would run
afoul of the girl first.
"Why does she have to sit with us," Ranma asked
irritably. As Reiko sat down he backed away from her
a little, she wasn�t sure whether it was the fur and
tail or the possibility of suddenly becoming wet.
"Oh Ranma, get over it," Akane insisted. "The
least we can do is make her comfortable. So what�s
your friend like?"
"Oh, he reads a lot."
Thrythlind was walking again, in the direction of the
closest large grouping of blips on the radar he had
cast. Most of the other blips appeared to be
individuals with no connection to each other. They
might not even have been Jusenkyo cursed, after all
his spell looked for water-cursed martial artists, he
just called it Jusenkyo Radar. At any rate he gambled
on the possibility that Nerima would attract most of
the Jusenkyo cursed martial artists. He would
probably have been fine, except by now he had gotten
bored again. It had to happen sooner or later,
Thrythlind started reading.
"A little absent minded."
Thrythlind eventually managed to leave the
wilderness and enter Nerima. Unfortunately, he didn�t
quite notice. The traffic on the street, however, did
notice him. And the calmly walking and reading mage
left quite a wake of chaos and destruction in his
wake.
"But he at least he doesn�t get mad like..." Reiko
paused, glanced at the couple she was talking to and
continued. "�Ryouga and Ukyou do."
"Fyodor didn�t know what thoughts sweetened her
sleep, but�" then the book in his hands was split in
half by something Thrythlind registered as a wooden
sword. Thrythlind stared silently at the shards of
paper left in his hands, mouth twitching, expression
flat. Mentally he added the situation to just one
more way in which that book had been destroyed. The
amount that story had cost him was about to go up from
fifty hours, sixty dollars and half a dozen near death
experiences. He was getting a little touchy about it.
"Gaijin dog!" someone yelled at him. "How dare you
sully the grounds of my estate! Your presence here is
forcing me to be late for my darling Akane�s
graduation party! I Tatewaki Kuno of the great and
noble house of Kuno shall punish your barbarian hide
for this foul defilement of my status!"
"AAAAAAARRRRRGGHHHH!!!!! DIE FIENDISH MORTAL!!!!!
DIE!!!!"
"Unless you destroy one of his books anyway," she
added. "He can be somewhat hostile then, but it's
usually not a problem unless he thinks you're really
threatening him."
"He gets mad if break his books?" Akane repeated
disbelievingly. "Sounds a little odd to me."
"Why? Look at Ryouga," Ranma indicated the renewed
shouting followed by a loud clang and a muffled "oh
dear" from the kitchen. "He gets mad for no reason
all the time."
"Yeah," Reiko hadn't witnessed that but she agreed
anyway. "But when he gets mad does he level small
buildings?"
"No," Akane started. "He's done some large ones
though."
The sight of Tatewaki Kuno being carried into low
earth orbit by a large explosion was not an unusual
sight to the citizens of Nerima. The sight of a staff
wielding gaijin following the would-be samurai into
the sky was certainly new, however. No one had ever
felt the need to follow the jerk before, rocketing him
across town usually was enough. They didn't really
think much of it though, if any one deserved pain, a
Kuno did.
"What is this Jusenkyo place I keep hearing about?"
Reiko asked.
"Oh why talk about Jusenkyo at a time like this," one
of the older men who had been playing Shogi said. He
was the one in the black gi. Reiko was becoming
thoroughly irritated at the way people appeared out of
nowhere around here. Ranma and Akane looked surprised
and shocked as well. "This is a time when young men
and women cross a threshold into adulthood. Isn�t
that right Genma?"
"Yes, Ranma, Akane, listen to Soun" the larger man in
the white gi said. "You should be spending this time
alone, not talking to strange hairy class mates."
Reiko was somewhat annoyed at that description of her.
"Is it safe to do anything to him?" she asked Ranma
and Akane politely. The couple�s faces had fallen
flat as their parents continued the spiel and they
merely turned to Reiko and said, almost in one
resigned, irritated voice.
"Go ahead."
"And what is this�growf!!?" the man in the white gi
said as a stream of water splashed into his face and
he became a panda. Reiko looked on in amazement, and
more than a little embarrassment.
"I knew it!" a girl�s voice shouted elsewhere in the
restaurant. "I won! I won!"
"Kurumi," another voice said. "You shouldn�t be
gambling." Ranma�s and Akane�s faces remained flat as
they and Reiko watched a smiling Nabiki hand out a
small wad of bills to the younger of the two sisters
Reiko had noticed earlier. Needless to say, with only
one winner, Nabiki came out on top.
"But Natsumi, you bet on Shampoo, didn�t you?" the
Ryouga look alike at the table noted. A purple-haired
Amazon glared at the table.
"That�s not the point!" The older sister thwacked
the Ryouga look alike with her rug beater as Kurumi�s
glum face brightened.
"She�s gotten faster," Soun commented.
"Natsumi�.?" Ranma asked, doubtfully.
At the sound of the undeniable evidence of Neriman
feminine martial artist's affection about five people
across the room shouted variations of "Jackpot" or
"Bingo." A still smirking Nabiki sauntered off to pay
her winners.
"Nabiki," all four commented at once, the panda
talking through a sign.
Thrythlind was trying to decide which direction he
was walking in when that idiot swordsman had attacked
him. He wasn't entirely sure because, after all he
had been reading at the time. Then that Kuno had
destroyed his book and now here he was in yet another
part of this bloody forest. Perhaps he shouldn't have
followed the guy in flight and just stayed where the
fight had first taken place. He suddenly shifted
position and looked up towards the quickly setting
sun, as he started to realize something about his last
fight.
"Wait a minute. Didn't he say his name was Kuno?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" the high-pitched, lunatic laugh
carried across the wind and into the restaurant. From
her vantage point Reiko saw both Ryouga and Ranma go
pale. Ryouga turned and ran for the back storage room
for some reason.
"Excuse me, Akane," Ranma said, getting up. "I�m
going to see if they need any help carrying the food.
Besides I'm supposed to help with the entertainment
later anyway, Ukyou said something about a surprise."
"Hey, I�ll go with you," Akane suggested. "Then I
can help with the food while you get Ryouga back where
he�s supposed to be. If anything Ranma got paler, so
did about half the people within earshot of the
comment.
"That�s okay, Akane," Ranma talked fast now. "You
need to stay here and maybe introduce Reiko to some
people."
"I guess," Akane sat back down, Ranma, and much of
the restaurant, breathed a sigh of relief and he ran
to collect Ryouga and hide in the kitchen, just in
time to avoid being seen by a laughing hysterical dark
haired girl dressed in a brown school girl's outfit.
Black flower petals filled the room as the girl
twirled a ribbon about.
"Behold it is I," she declared. "Kuno Kodachi, The
Black Rose of St Hebereke High Martial Arts Rythmic
Gymnastics, escaped from that wretched den of
delusion, and on the eve of leaving her adolescence
behind and pursue her darlings Ranma and Ryouga with
all the fervor of a mature and loving woman."
"Is she serious?" Reiko asked Akane.
"Unfortunately so," Akane said flatly. "Anybody call
the sanitarium yet?"
"Crazy girl worse even than Shampoo," Reiko heard the
purple-haired girl, who was now suddenly at her
shoulder. She sat down next to the Panda in the seat
Ranma had vacated. "Ranma still not know what
surprise entertainment mean?"
"He's rather dense about things like that," Akane
said grudgingly.
Mousse walked passed the table, with his glasses on
his forehead and sat down next to a woozy Azusa.
Kodachi was bouncing around the room and spreading
petals everywhere.
"Don't sweat it Shampoo," he said to the dizzy
blonde, it was hard to tell whether or not that was
her normal state of being. "Your much prettier than
her, saner too."
"Charlotte?" Azusa asked, head still not cleared from
Ukyou's bashing earlier. "Is that you?"
"Water-girl do Shampoo favor?" the Chinese girl
asked.
"Splash the poor dumb blind boy?" Reiko asked.
"Please, no have water bucket right now," Shampoo
requested.
"You not Charlotte," Azusa said finally seeing the
guy she was talking to. "Leave Azusa alone!"
"Shampoo, why are you saying this," Mousse asked
questioningly. Reiko shrugged, by this point she
decided it wasn't all that bad either way. Mousse
suddenly felt the water around him and tried to
continue his speech. "Quack! Quack! Quack!" Shampoo
walked over and snatched the duck up by his neck
before returning to the table.
"Silly duck-boy," Shampoo snickered. "That not
Shampoo."
"Oh that duck is SOOO cute," Azusa shouted and
suddenly began laying siege to Shampoo. "Caroline!
Caroline! Give Azusa her Caroline!" Azusa's antics
were answered by the impact of a bonbori into her
skull.
"Stupid blonde girl go bother someone else,"
Shampoo shouted as she Nerima orbit kicked Azusa
through the roof.
"So, Shampoo," Akane said, cautiously ignoring the
hole in the ceiling. "Where have you been?"
"Shampoo and Mousse run hot spring resort," Shampoo
answered. "Is Mousse idea." She added the last with
some amount of pride, the duck preened.
"Oh, that's interesting," Akane said. "Can you
afford to shut it down for this?"
"No customers yet anyway," Shampoo said. "Working on
advertisement now." She handed them a brochure.
"'Cat Springs," Soun read, seriously, as he always
sounded when reading something. "For when you want to
relax, whatever your curse.' Very clever ending
there."
"Can we get discounts," read a sign in Genma-
Panda's hands.
"Do you change into something too," Reiko asked.
Wondering if that might be why they ran a hot spring.
"Yes, why you think I sit where I see you?" Shampoo
sounded like as if that was a silly question.
"So, Ryouga," Ranma started while helping Ryouga get
some ingredients for Ukyou. They planned to take the
more awkward route in order to avoid Kodachi for a
little while longer. "What did Mousse mean that he
thought you had been to Jusenkyo recently?"
"I don't know what he's talking about," Ryouga
said, and then negated the statement. "At least I
don't have to worry about becoming a snack anymore
though."
"So you were there," Ranma accused.
"Leave me alone Ranma," Ryouga warned.
"Come on man," Ranma said. "You found the Spring of
Drowned Man didn't you?"
"Well�."
"I knew it!" Ranma was somewhat excited. "At least
one of us got away from that damn curse."
"Well�."
"Boy we really dodged the bullet on that mess
earlier too, Akane and Ukyou would have belted us into
next�" Ranma's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean
'well?'"
They reached the kitchen and all talk of Jusenkyo
curses was halted. "Ucchan, how're things going back
here." Ranma didn't notice Ryouga glaring at the back
of his head when he used the familiar term.
"Oh hello, Ranma," Kasumi said. "Did you come to
help with the party?"
"More like he and Lost-Boy are hiding from
Kodachi?" Ukyou accused without turning around.
"Don't call me that!" Ryouga protested, loudly, too
loudly for Ranma's liking.
"Shh," he covered Ryouga's mouth. "She'll hear us.
Anyway, you said something about a surprise."
"Yeah, and you know what, sugar?" Ukyou answered, if
they could have seen it they would have noticed an
impish smile on Ukyou's face.
"What," Ranma asked impatiently, hands locked
behind his head.
"This might even answer a question I have," Ukyou
turned quickly about and tossed a bucket of water
across both boys while Kasumi just stood and watched
cheerfully.
"Ah, Ukyou, what did you do�" Ranma-Chan and Ukyou
both went into the
what-in-the-world-is-that-one-foot-double-spider-man-thwip
stance.
"Oh my," Kasumi said quietly.
"Dummy! I thought you found the Spring of Drowned
Man why are you a girl?" Ukyou seemed to miss the
fact that this meant that Ryouga used to turn into
something else. Hey, compared to Akane she was doing
good to figure out he changed into anything at all.
"The springs only work twice," Ryouga-Chan answered
sheepishly.
"Let me guess," Ranma-Chan was irritated. "You got
lost and fell in the wrong spring."
"No, I did not get lost!" Ryouga-Chan shouted back.
"The ink on the sign was faded and the guide made a
mistake!"
"So, Charlotte," Ukyou started, trying to keep a
straight face. "Do you want to help Ranko with the
entertainment too?"
"Ukyou," Nabiki's voice called out. "I'm almost
ready, have you talked to�oh dear." The woman smirked,
quickly recovering from the Kasumism. "This is almost
too much." Ukyou couldn't contain herself anymore and
started laughing. Neither Ranma-Chan, nor Ryouga-Chan
thought there was much to be funny about.
"You won't tell anybody will you?" Ryouga-Chan
pleaded.
"My, you two look almost like sisters," Kasumi said
sweetly as she came too look at the red-headed pair.
"You're right, they could almost be twins," Ukyou
said bending down to examine them as well, both were
quite a bit shorter than their guy forms, or even than
the three other girls in the room.
"Hey, could you quit looking at us like we were
horses already," Ranma-Chan protested. There was a
sudden smell of something burning in the air.
"Yeah, I don't look anything like him�uh, her,"
Ryouga-Chan insisted. "My hair looks better."
"At least I don't have fangs," Ranma retorted, and he
biihed at the other redhead.
"Whatever," Nabiki said dryly, coming away from the
line of grills and stoves. "Kasumi your Teriyaki is
almost done."
"Oh my, you're right," Kasumi said. "Excuse me."
She politely excused herself and returned to cooking.
Ukyou and Ryouga felt odd about something other than
Okonomiyaki being cooked at Ucchan's but Ukyou had
needed the help when Ryouga was late again.
"And Ranma you need to go get changed," Nabiki
added.
"Yeah, yeah I know, give me a moment," he muttered as
he walked away.
"Come on, Ranchan," Ukyou called out after him. "How
many times have you done this now?"
"Um, Ukyou," Nabiki said. "Is that your
Okonomiyaki burning?" Ukyou sniffed the air and
suddenly forgot everything else.
"Oh no!! You're right!" she rushed to the back
accompanied by an equally panicked Ryouga-Chan, until
Nabiki grabbed him by the shoulder and slightly
pinched a small pressure point. Ryouga-Chan didn't
notice but he was suddenly weak enough for Nabiki to
drag away. It only lasted a moment, but that was all
the Tendo girl needed. "Ah! Who turned the grills up
this high?"
"Let me go! It'll be ruined!"
"Not so fast, Charlotte. You've been living with
Ukyou too long."
"Don't call me that!!"
"Perhaps, Ryouga," she was sounding sweet again
suddenly, usually that's when one should be most
careful around her. "You should join Ranma in
introducing Ukyou's new attraction."
"And parade as a girl in front of everyone,"
Ryouga-Chan was shocked. "Are you nuts?!?"
"Do you think you'll be able to hide it very long?"
Nabiki asked. "I'm only thinking of you here, after
all, it would be much better to get over with now,
than let it drag on like with the P-Chan thing."
"Y-you know about that?" Ryouga-Chan was suddenly
very nervous.
"Oh, please," Nabiki said. "I'm not my sisters, of
course I knew. Of course, now, with you changing into
a girl you don't ever have to worry about Uk�"she
paused, Ryouga wouldn't admit caring about her yet,
but maybe. "...Akane finding out." It was a less
direct threat since he seemed to have given up on
Akane.
Nabiki didn't mention that she stood to make a lot of
money off of this. Nabiki had been running a "how
much more like Akane and Ranma can they get?" pool on
Ukyou and Ryouga for a long time now, since before
they finally gave up on Ranma and Akane actually. A
lot of people had actively bet against this
possibility, and Nabiki could be very persuasive when
she wanted to be.
"What do I need to do?" Ryouga-Chan asked,
resigned.
"That's my girl."
"There's a lot of noise coming from the kitchen,"
Reiko noted.
"Oh they're convincing Ranma to do a karaoke number
with Nabiki," Akane waved it aside.
"Ranma get very annoyed when you make him girl,"
Shampoo asserted.
"Yes, you'd think he'd have learned about these
parties by now," Soun added. Genma-Panda added a sign
to the conversation.
"Never fails to draw a crowd though."
"I�Tatewaki�Kuno�have�ar..rived," came a tired
voice at the door. As the second Kuno entered
Ucchan's, already brimming with people, his sister
continued to bounce around the room looking for her
"darlings."
"Great, crazy-girl's stupid brother here too,"
Shampoo said. "He already meet Ranma or something?"
Shampoo asked as Tatewaki Kuno limped over to their
table.
"Oh�beauteous A..ka..ne..Ten�do," Kuno groggily began
his normal speil. "I�the�great Tatewaki�Kuno�hath
van�quished a terrible�worker of barbarian magics this
day."
"That's great Kuno," Akane said, annoyed. "Can you
leave now?"
"Barbarian magician," Reiko commented. "What did he
look like?"
"The fiend�.was so�bundled up in�his Arcane attire
that I�could not see his features," Kuno said, nearly
catching his breath. "But I managed to stop
him�.before he managed to finish casting his evil
spell�.from this foul book of sorcery."
"Isn't that English?" Soun asked, looking at the
ripped cover of the book.
"Tangled Webs, by Elaine Cunningham," Reiko
identified the book readily, translating the title as
into Japanese. She laughed at the little shred of
paper in the man's hand. "Boy does that explain why
you look like that, and he was almost finished too?
That's great!"
"You dare mock the great Tatewaki Kuno," the
samurai was incensed. "Who are you to laugh at me,
you
inhuman throwback. What are you some demon seductress
in the service of that foul barbarian?" Reiko's good
cheer vanished at the phrase "inhuman throwback."
"You want to try to take me on," Reiko asked.
"You're welcome to try, outside."
"Stupid sword-boy finally flip lid and fight girls
now?" Shampoo asked stepping between an almost hissing
Reiko and the bokken toting delusional.
"Come on, calm down," Akane said holding down their
visitor's shoulders. "You don't want to do that."
Then the lights went on facing the impromptu stage,
this fizzled the building conflict again.
"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen," Ukyou said. "I
think the best way we can finally get this party
really started is to open up the newest addition to
Ucchan's Okonomiyaki. Welcome people, to karaoke
night, and our first victims�I mean participants are�"
she gestured behind her and lights moved to reveal two
almost identical red-heads, one with a pig tail and
the other with fangs. Standing with them was Akane's
sister Nabiki.
"I knew that girl was pig-boy," Shampoo declared as
Akane took the appropriate stance as well.
"Ah I am so smitten by my beloveds that I am seeing
double," Kuno shouted and charged the stage. Half a
dozen attacks of various types nailed him to the
ground before he got too far.
Thrythlind's second casting of his Jusenkyo Radar had
placed him somewhere south and east of that large
gathering. He started walking again, it wasn't long
before he encountered another problem. Something
inhumanly fast rushed at him covered by the shadows of
the trees, he had no time for anything but defense.
His attacker was even faster than Reiko, and he was
only barely able to get attacks in with her. He could
only defend and hope his opponent made some kind of
mistake.
"There is no way I'm letting you get back to
Nerima, gaijin," his opponent said in a feminine
voice. "If I can't copy it I don't need it! Katsu
Tenshin Amaguriken!!" A flurry of high-speed punches
struck Thrythlind, throwing him back.
Thrythlind rolled back to his feet, trying to keep an
eye on his opponent as he did so. A stray beam of
sunlight caught the girl and he saw a small red-head
bounding towards him. He stood up and rolled
backwards setting the tip of his staff into the ground
as he did. He was gambling that his opponent would be
over commited to the charge and slam into the staff.
The heavy thud told him he planned correctly.
Thrythlind took his feet and immediately started
channeling mana. His opponent was still standing, but
not exactly feeling the best. Still she apparently
recovered quickly pulling a large black cloth past her
body. When it disappeared again a tall dark-haired
young man in a yellow shirt stood in front of him.
Thrythlind stamped his staff into the ground and
released the mana he had managed to acquire into a
minor effect. Suddenly twelve Thrythlinds appeared
and began scattering in all directions.
"Oh nice trick," his now male opponent called.
"But I can deal with that. Baksai Ten-Ketsu!" The
warrior stuck a finger into the ground, there was an
explosion and the various Thrythlinds were all
showered by shrapnel. All of them vanished but one,
the shapechanger smiled and faced his foe in time to
see the staff strike the earth again.
"Reveal!" suddenly the yellow-shirted fighter was
gone and a boy in a white t-shirt, red bandana and
suspenders remained. "Wrack!" electrical current ran
up the shapechanger's body. Lack of mana meant it
wasn't very strong, but it was enough of distraction
for Thrythlind to bring his staff in and smack his
opponent over the head. Thrythlind caught his breath
over the senseless fighter, he had been lucky, real
lucky.
He sat down and rested a moment while he gathered the
mana necessary to heal the damage this warrior had
done to him. Then he tied up the doppleganger and
waited for him to wake up, he had a suspicion that the
doppleganger could lead him to Nerima.
"Wow," Akane said. "That's weird, they look so much
alike, must be something to do with the curse." Reiko
was still glowering at the impacted Kuno.
"Sing alike too," Shampoo noted. "Good thing Akane
sister do most of singing." Ryouga-Chan and
Ranma-Chan were indeed performing mostly a back-up
position next to Nabiki masterfully singing the main
melody.
"Really," Akane noted. "I might need to give him
some singing lessons, if he's going to keep getting
caught in these things he might as well know what he's
doing."
With the first number over an annoyed Ranma-Chan
walked over to where Akane was sitting, while Ukyou
directed a dejected Ryouga-Chan back to the kitchen.
"Oh my love!" a suddenly recovered Kuno leaped up in
front of Ranma. "It is I, he whose mere presence
brings you to swoon!"
"Out of my face!" Ranma-Chan kicked the fanatic away,
and he landed on Ryouga-Chan's head. A dazed Kuno
managed to stand up and then saw an annoyed
Ryouga-Chan, her head was a little to hard to sustain
serious damage from Kuno landing on her, and entered
into another spiel.
"Oh my love, how quickly you move," Kuno ranted.
"Like the wind out of the North you pass without being
seen."
"What kind of idiot are you?" Ryouga-Chan asked as he
smashed Kuno into the ground. To Ukyou she turned and
whispered, "How'd I get myself into this?"
"Do you owe Nabiki money or something?"
"No," Ryouga said fervently. "Nothing at all."
"Right," Ukyou said. "Come on, time to get the food
out to everybody, and try not to get lost okay,
Sugar?"
"Why can't I copy your techniques!?" the awake, but
restrained doppleganger demanded upon awakening.
Thrythlind set down his book and turned to him,
annoyed. "I can copy every martial artist I've met
but when I copied you all I got was some basic
knowledge of how to use the staff!"
"Gee," Thrythlind responded. "Could that be
because I'm not a martial artist?"
"Then how do you do all those things?" the fighter
said, some knew him as Copycat Ken.
"Most would call me a magician, a rather archaic term
that is not quite appropriate." Thrythlind explained.
He smiled "For example�" what followed was something
that sounded like either a mathematical formula or a
discussion of physics and biology, but it lasted for
about five minutes so Ken wasn't certain. "�and
that's how a simple spell like Mirror Image works. Of
course it's not all science�" and Thrythlind went into
another five minute dissertation comparing the uniform
minor effects and the art of crafting unique spells of
true power. "You know, I was going to ask you
something when you woke up�don't worry it'll come to
me." Copycat Ken groaned as his captor continued to
speak in something similar to a foreign language and
yet sounded like Japanese.
"Won't that idiot ever give up?" Ranma asked as he
sat down next to Akane. He glanced cautiously at
Shampoo as he sat down.
"Spatula girl not want talk to me?" Shampoo asked,
the food was coming out now and Ukyou seemed to be
avoiding their table. Ryouga-Chan was walking in
apparently random directions leaving okonomiyaki and
Kasumi's cooking behind her, and then attempting to
make it back to the kitchen.
"I wonder why?" Akane said dryly, sounding
disturbingly like Nabiki at the moment.
"Shampoo no can apologize if spatula girl no talk to
Shampoo." Ranma and Akane didn't feel overly sorry
for her.
"Well you could always go to her," Reiko suggested.
"What did you do anyway?"
"Had minor argument with spatula girl and pig-boy,"
Shampoo said. Reiko wondered why Shampoo kept
referring to Ryouga as Pig-Boy, but she'd caused
enough problems as it was.
"You put a bomb in their kitchen," Ranma corrected.
Reiko was impressed at their ability to forgive such
an act even this much. Of course, considering what
she had seen so far the insult was probably the bomb
not the attempt.
"Here you go, Ranchan, Akane," Ukyou said at coming
to there table. She nodded to the older man and the
Panda, "Mr. Saotome, Mr. Tendo. I hope you and Mousse
are having a good time too, Reiko."
"Spatula girl make excellent okonomiyaki," Shampoo
said as Ukyou went back to work, ignoring her.
"She really is mad at you," Akane noted. Mousse
quacked an affirmative.
"It is good though," Soun said, working on his
Okonomiyaki.
"And free too," Genma-panda's sign read. Akane and
Ranma glared at Genma.
"Excuse me," Shampoo said, she stood up and walked to
the kitchen. "Mousse you stay here. You right, I go
say sorry."
"Ow!" Ryouga gasped. "That's scalding!!" Kasumi was
outside still serving food.
"Oh don't be a baby," Ukyou said, still irritable
from dealing with Shampoo. "And why did you want to
invite Shampoo?" Ryouga isn't particularly stupid,
dense yes, but stupid no.
"You might as well finish it now than later,"
Ryouga shrugged. "All my problems have been caused by
the bread feud, why would I want to see you go the
same way?"
"Ryouga, I didn't�" Unfortunately Ryouga also had a
tendency to go one step too far in his explanations.
"Then I'd be out a job and home." This maneuver is
generally known as the Nerima Suicide Declaration. In
this instance it could more specifically be called the
Instant Spatula Incantation.
"Oh is that all you think of me!" Ukyou yelled at the
flatted Ryouga.
"Excuse please."
"What do you want?!" Ukyou snapped at the oddly
contrite Shampoo.
"Shampoo wish to apologize for�." She paused.
"For what?" Ukyou yelled. "For blowing up my
restaurant? Trying to kill me and Ryouga?" She was
still wielding the spatula and approached Shampoo
threateningly.
"Shampoo wrong," Shampoo said. Ukyou looked
surprised that the purple haired amazon didn't make
any move to attack. Shampoo handed over a scroll to
Ukyou, who took it. "Owe spatula girl much debt."
"You own a hot spring?" Ukyou asked,
disbelievingly.
"Own half, Mousse own other half," Shampoo
explained. Ryouga watched Ukyou very carefully, he
was prepared to step in and stop a fight if he had to.
This was his responsibility after all.
"And you would give me your half," Ukyou was
confused. Shampoo was a very proud woman, and she was
willing to put herself in the position of an employee
to settle this. Ukyou suddenly had a view of herself
in the future, spending all her time bitterly ordering
around Shampoo, and an empty room in Ucchan's
residential area. Permanently empty this time. She
stopped following that line of thought, why should she
care if Ryouga left for good, he wasn't around most of
the time anyway.
"I couldn't stand you as an employee, Shampoo," Ukyou
said out loud, Ryouga breathed in relief. "But
perhaps you could allow me the option of opening a
restaurant at your resort."
"You move to China?" Shampoo seemed nervous.
"No, but if I ever get a chain started it would be
good for me and you." Shampoo thought about it.
"I accept, then we alright?" she asked.
"Sure, Sugar," Ukyou shrugged. She glanced back at
Ryouga. "Can't spend my entire life hating you can
I?"
"Hiya!" Shampoo shouted. "Thank you." Then she left
the kitchen to return to Akane and Ranma's table
cheerfully. Outside the party was really getting
started with people intermingling and reminiscing on
old times.
"How'd someone as devious as you let himself by
tricked into embarrassing himself by Nabiki?" Ukyou
asked Ryouga suspiciously. This was the opening for
more inter-couple bickering.
"She didn't trick me!" Ryouga retorted, good humor
and relaxation gone now that she brought that out
again.
"So she does have something on you then," Ukyou said.
"Oh well, I'll find out eventually, Sugar."
"You're just jealous," Ryouga said, unwisely.
"Oh, so I'm jealous!" Ukyou snapped. "That means
it's about a girl doesn't it, maybe Nabiki? Why
should I care if you did like her? You're no catch!"
"Oh yeah," Ryouga shouted back. "Who'd want to date
a girl who thinks her okonomiyaki is worth more than
she is!" At the point Ryouga began to demean Ukyou's
love for okonomiyaki the spatula came out and stopped
short of Ryouga's cringing head.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ukyou was confused
as to whether that was an insult or concerned
statement.
"How can someone like you think the only thing
she's good for is making okonomiyaki?" Ryouga was
still shouting, then he realized the implications of
what he had just said. He blinked and glanced at the
spatula thinking it would come down for sure now.
"Someone like what?" the spatula was lowered now.
This was worse from Ryouga's view, he was on the spot
now, and there was that look in her eyes.
"uh..Smart�strong�" Ryouga said hesitantly, Ukyou
leaned forward waiting for him to continue. He could
only think of one word to follow with, he was trapped.
"�c.."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Kasumi said from the doorway. Ukyou
and Ryouga face faulted, and then retreated to neutral
corners. "I didn't mean to be interrupting."
"Oh, you weren't interrupting anything," Ryouga said,
laughing nervously.
"Yeah," Ukyou agreed. "We were just having a
friendly conversation, that's all."
"Oh, I see," Kasumi noted. "Well everybody seems to
be served, so I think I'll join my family." She
politely excused herself.
Ranma 1/2 Page
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail � Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/