Damnit, I forgot the attachment the first time. Hopefully the blank message
didn't go through. If it did, then gomen nasai from the bottom of my heart.
If it didn't, then feel free to ignore my apology. ^_^
==========================================
Lord who controls all darkness of four worlds
I beseech thy fragments
By all of the power thou possesseth
Grant the heavens' wrath to my hand
Unleash the sword of dark freezing nothingness
By our power, our combined might
Let us walk as one along the path of destruction...
LAGUNA BLADE!
==========================================
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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: gok2.txt
Goku 1/2
Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Dragonball, Dragonball Z,
Ranma 1/2, or from any other series I might decide to throw in. If I did,
this wouldn't be a fanfic, but instead a real fic, and you would all pay to
read it like the fools that you are! Hahahahahahahaha! (The author backs
down from the gaze of many angry readers) I'm sorry. I'll be good. I
promise. Now on with the show.
The Jusenkyo guide finally caught up with the man and his sons, although at
the time they didn't appear to be related in any way, shape, or form. What
the guide actually saw was a red-haired girl and a namek beating a panda
into the ground. He was used to this kind of behaviour as cursed
individuals always blamed someone for their curse and wanted revenge. They
usually got that revenge by beating them into the ground, which seemed to be
as good as a method as any. The guide occasionally saw much more creative
methods used, but the ones who came to Jusenkyo were not very bright in the
first place. Thinking he probably should say something to save the senior
customer, he got the two boy's (well not right now) attention.
"Mr. Customers sirs! I accompany you until you leave the Jusenkyo Valley.
It guide job to help cursed customers deal with change."
Goku and Ranma looked up from their task of pounding Genma into the next
millennium. They paused, unsure of what to say or do. Even though they
were very angry, someone was being nice to them.
"Thank you." They managed to say after a moment.
"Well we go now. Have far to travel."
"Okay." The boys nodded.
Goku reached down and yanked Genma out of the ground. Huge clumps of dirt
came up with him as he had been beaten well into the earth. Seeing that the
panda was unconscious, Goku sighed and handed Ranma his pack. He then
hefted the huge panda onto his shoulders.
"All right, I'm ready." He said.
Ranma stared at the three packs he had to carry. Then he glanced at the
panda Goku had over his shoulders. Deciding that he'd rather carry the
packs, he slipped one on his back and picked up the other two.
"So am I."
"Good. Then we go." And with that the group departed.
Their pace wasn't very quick as everyone except the guide was loaded down
with heavy objects, but the rain stopped, so they didn't get completely
drenched. However, the clouds remained, so they decided that stopping to
heat water would probably be a waste of time. After several hours of
walking, Goku started complaining. Well, his stomach started complaining,
and he just reinforced its case.
"I'm hungry," He whined.
Ranma sighed. Goku was always hungry, and he had to eat a lot to not be
hungry. Maybe he ate even more than Ranma, but Ranma was confident that he
would never lose an eating contest to anyone, not even Goku. Besides, they
had eaten an hour before they reached the springs. Then again he hadn't
been carrying a panda for all those hours, and he was feeling a little bit
hungry. Beating up Genma took more energy than he thought.
"You no worry, Mr. Customer." The Guide said. "Soon we come to the
Joketsuzoku village. I sure you can buy food there."
Just as he finished, the group reached the top of a hill overlooking a
village. It looked like a typical village, the kind that Ranma and Goku had
seen all throughout their training trip in China. What set this town apart
from the others was there were a lot of people here. Much more than either
of the two boys had ever seen in one spot. The majority of the people
appeared to be women. There was a large commotion in the central square
that was apparent even at the distance they were.
"Ah Mr. Customers. You come here at very good moment. The village women
have fighting contest." The Guide said, walking down the hill towards the
village.
That perked up everyone's interest, even Genma's who had been just
pretending to be unconscious for an hour so he wouldn't have to walk. Not
that he'd tell anyone that of course. Ranma and Goku wondered if they could
participate, while Genma wondered if Ranma and Goku could participate.
"Every year the villagers have a contest to see who best fighter. It look
like final match is about to start. Hurry!"
They all ran down the hill into the village. The martial artists were in a
mixed emotional state. Because it was the final match, it would definitely
be interesting to watch. However, also because it was the final match, none
of them would be able to take part in the tournament after all.
Once there, they had to leap onto the rooftops of the huts to get closer to
the square. No one noticed that guide couldn't follow them, and they didn't
hear his shouts for them to wait. Reaching the centre of the village in a
matter of seconds, they spotted an empty spot to land near a buffet table.
Unfortunately, the delicious looking food on the table distracted them from
the match that was about to begin. The three dropped in front of the buffet
and began to devour every morsel of food they could grab. Ranma hadn't
realized how hungry she actually was as she found herself tearing into pork
bun after pork bun.
After stuffing their faces for about a minute, they turned their attention
to the centre of the square while eating at a more leisurely pace. In it
was a horizontal log attached by ropes to four smaller support logs. On one
end, there was a giant of a woman who wielding a huge poleaxe. On the other
was a young girl with purple hair using what resembled a beachball on a
stick. Ranma tried to remember the name of those weapons, but put that
thought aside when the referee signed for the battle to begin.
The purple-haired girl charged immediately and swung her mace in wide arcs
that forced the giant to go on the defensive. After deflecting the blows
the smaller warrior sent, the giant brought her weapon crashing down in
front of her. The girl had to jump back to avoid that attack, where she
paused to re-evaluate her opponent.
As if on some unwritten cue, the two warriors charged each other. A flurry
of blows ensued with minor hits taken by both combatants. Then the
purple-haired girl landed a solid blow with her mace to the skull of the
giant, who was sent tumbling off the log onto the ground below. Everyone
started cheering including Ranma and Goku. It had been a very good fight.
This is when the guide managed to finish pushing himself through the crowd
to reach them.
"Mr. Customers! Why you eat first prize of tournament?"
The entire village went quiet all of a sudden, and the group felt all eyes
upon them. The purple-haired girl stalked up to them looking very peeved
and started shouting in Chinese. The guide said something back to her and
then she spoke again in Japanese.
"You eat Shampoo prize. Shampoo must defend honour. You fight Shampoo."
Her rage was primarily directed at Ranma, probably because she was female.
Well the real reason was because Shampoo didn't see how getting yelling at a
panda would help, and the green skinned boy kinda freaked her out.
"A challenge, huh? I ain't never backed down from a challenge. I accept,"
Ranma said in her typical cocky manner.
Shampoo nodded to the referee, and the two combatants leapt onto the log and
faced each other. The referee signaled for the battle to begin, and Shampoo
immediately charged. Ranma jumped over her and delivered a single kick to
her back. It was a slightly modified version of her best technique to use
against Goku, but this time she wasn't trying to grab a tail.
Shampoo was knocked to her knees and winded a bit, but she was still in good
fighting condition. She got up and charged again. Expecting Ranma to jump
again, she was caught totally off guard when the red-haired girl grabbed her
arms and pulled her forward. Placing her foot into Shampoo's stomach, Ranma
rolled onto her back and propelled Shampoo through the air. She crashed
headfirst into one of the support poles, which shuddered from the impact,
and then fell to the ground.
"Hmmph. She wasn't that good after all," Ranma said as she rejoined her
group.
Although Ranma didn't like hurting girls, a challenge was a challenge and
she had her stomach to defend. The referee signaled that Ranma was the
winner, and the audience just sat there shocked into silence. An outsider
had just strolled in and had done the equivalent of winning the tournament.
A female outsider.
Rubbing her head, Shampoo got to her feet had stomped over to Ranma. She
turned Ranma's head sideways and kissed her on the cheek and then sat there
fuming. Ranma was now very confused.
'Is this how Amazons lose graciously? And why is the audience acting even
more shocked now?' "What's this all about?" He asked to no one in
particular.
"She gave you the kiss of death," an old woman perched precariously on a
stick said. "You have 24 hours to get away before she hunts you down and
kills you. It is an Amazon law that if one of us is defeated by a female
outsider, the one beaten must kill the one who has tarnished her honour.
She will hunt you to the ends of the earth to do it, so I suggest you get as
far away as possible as you can now."
"How does she expect to kill me if she can't beat me?"
The old woman fell off her stick. Picking herself off the ground, she
realized that in 3000 years of Amazon history, that point had never been
brought up. Having to maintain her reputation for knowing everything, she
quickly blurted out. "She will find a way." 'There, that oughta give her
something to think about.'
"Oh," was all Ranma really had to say. She really didn't want anyone out
to kill her. If this is what she got for hitting a girl, she vowed never to
do it again.
At this time Ranma noticed that someone was pulling on her arm. Turning her
head, she saw the guide pulling with what looked to be all his might.
"Come now, Mr. Customer. You must get away quickly." The guide knew that
the Amazons practiced guilt by association, and he had no intention of being
around the customers when the 24 hours ran out. He would quickly escort
them to the next village, and then return to the springs. There, he would
pray that the amazon wouldn't come after him.
"Come on, Boy. We should get going," Genma's sign said.
"But Pop! I ain't never run away from a fight."
"She doesn't want to fight you. She wants to kill you!" The next sign
read.
"So? She still can't beat me."
The next sign's message was easier to interpret than the others. Ranma
didn't have to read it, just get hit by it. The sign crashed down on his
head, knocking her out. Tossing the now broken sign away, Genma picked up
Ranma and started heading for the hills. The guide eagerly followed. Goku
sighed.
"Sorry we ruined your tournament, but the food was really tasty," he said
before running after Genma.
The Amazons continued to stand there stunned. A group of outsiders
consisting of the Jusenkyo guide, a panda, a red-haired girl, and a
green-skinned boy had came into the village and eaten the first prize. The
girl then defeated the winner of the tournament with ease, but then was
knocked out by the panda. Then the group just ran away as quickly as they
had come.
The only sound heard in the village for a good fifteen minutes was the sound
of Shampoo's sword being sharpened.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goku and Ranma woke up to a good swift kick in the rear. Genma stood over
them in his human form.
"Come on, boys. We've got to get going. There's hot water ready."
The boys were about to yell at Genma for not letting them sleep. He had set
a very fast pace away from the Amazon village. Everyone knew that he was
scared of the Amazon that was trying to kill Ranma even if Ranma himself
wasn't. The prospect of getting hot water changed their minds immediately.
They crawled out of the tent and saw the guide eating a modest breakfast.
Goku and Ranma both lunged for the kettle and poured over themselves.
Despite there being a lot of spilling between the tug of war between the two
brothers. They both managed to get enough hot water to turn them back into
two boys.
After everyone had finished eating, the guide spoke.
"I leave now, Mr. Customers. Next village is just over hill. You can get
direction there. I wish you luck against Amazon warrior."
They said farewell to the guide as he ran off back to Jusenkyo at a speed
that Ranma and Goku didn't know could be achieved.
"All right boys, we have time for a bit of exercise this morning, but we
won't spar. We have to make back to Japan very soon, and can't waste time
doing things like that."
'Since when has he thought that sparring was a waste of time?' Ranma mused
as he began his kata. Genma did some as well beside Ranma.
Goku went back to the time-honoured traditional exercise method taught to
him by his grandfather of picking up boulders and crushing them. Seeing a
nice round one, he jogged up to it and heaved. The rock came up out of the
ground, and Goku held it in front of him. He began to squeeze and cracks
formed throughout the boulder. A second later, the boulder shattered into a
million pieces.
Ranma and Genma just watched this while half concentrating on their katas.
No matter how often they saw Goku doing that, it always impressed them.
Goku ran to the next boulder and lifted it up. This time something was
wrong. The boulder was the same size as the one he had just crushed, but
for some reason, it was much lighter. It also had a interesting pattern on
it. The feel of the boulder was quite different than any other Goku had
felt. It also talked.
"Huhh?" The boulder managed to say.
Goku dropped it in surprise, and was amazed to see it land on its feet,
fins, appendages, whatever.
"Uhh...can you help me? I'm lost. I was trying to get back to the sea, but
I can't seem to find my way."
Hearing this, Ranma and Genma facefaulted in the middle of their kata. Yes,
they could ignore most distractions, but a talking turtle that was lost as
far inland as they were was too much.
"The sea is nowhere near here!" Ranma shouted.
"How come he can talk as a turtle, and I can't talk as a panda?" Genma
whined.
"The sea is nowhere near here? Then how am I going to get back home?" The
turtle broke down crying. Ranma chalked up yet another item to the list of
things that he never thought he would see but saw anyway.
"It's okay, Mr. Turtle. I'll take you there," Goku offered.
"You would? That's very kind of you."
"Goku! We're not taking that turtle to the sea!" Genma screamed. How
could his son think about saving a stupid turtle when a crazy Amazon was
after them?
"Why not Pop? We have to go to the sea to swim back to Japan anyway. We
might as well bring this turtle with us." Ranma supplied helpfully.
"But he'll slow us down!" Genma protested.
"Just think of it as a training exercise, Pops." Ranma countered with a
wide grin on his lips. 'This should teach him to call everything we do
training.'
"But that Amazon is trying to kill you, Ranma! If she catches us..." Genma
trailed off thinking that Ranma would be scared into submission by what was
let unsaid.
"If she catches us, I'll just beat her again like I did before. She might
be good, but either Goku or me can beat her with no problems."
"But you heard what that old woman said. She will find a way."
"She ain't gonna find a way. Besides, I'm a guy right now, and she's
looking for a girl."
"But it could rain anytime!"
"Pop, don't worry about it. I said I can handle...hey! Where's Goku?"
They turned and saw Goku in the distance carrying the turtle on his back.
He had left at the beginning of the argument, but neither Ranma nor Genma
noticed as they were too engrossed in arguing with each other. Grabbing
their packs, they rushed after him. The question as to what they were going
to do had apparently been solved.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shampoo inspected the tracks. This was very odd. The group with the girl
she was following had definitely camped here, but as far as she could tell,
they didn't leave. She had easily followed the tracks of the panda, girl,
guide, and boy to this spot as they had made no attempt to conceal
themselves.
The tracks leading away were the ones that confused her. The guide's tracks
went back towards the Jusenkyo springs, which made sense. He knew Amazon
laws and so realized that Shampoo would not hesitate to kill him if he was
with the group.
The other tracks were not what Shampoo had expected. One was the set of a
man. Where this man had come from was a mystery to her. There were no
other tracks leading to this spot besides the ones she had seen, so he must
have appeared out of nowhere. The girl's tracks had completely disappeared
and been replaced with the tracks that a young man might make. That also
didn't make sense. Where had the girl gone? The green-skinned boy's tracks
were visible leading a bit away from the campsite, but they changed into the
footprints of someone carrying something very heavy. The panda had vanished
completely.
Saying that there were no other tracks leading to the campsite was not quite
true. There was a set of the weirdest tracks Shampoo had ever seen. She
had absolutely no idea what made them. They resembled something that was
crawling on the ground, but there were no creatures around here that would
leave tracks like that. What added to the confusion was the fact that the
tracks stopped when they intersected the boy's. This was the spot where
those footprints turned into those of someone carrying something heavy, so
Shampoo guessed he had picked up whatever it was and carried it. Deciding
to follow the three men's tracks, she made a mental note to ask
Great-grandmother about everything that confused her here. The extinguished
fire told her that she was about 14 hours behind them, and so she had a lot
of ground to make up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A week passed. The group had made very good progress, and were only two
days away from the sea. The turtle proved to be quite a conversationalist,
telling Goku and Ranma about his life with his owner, a man named Master
Roshi.
"Master?" Ranma asked. "Does that mean he's a martial artist?"
"Oh yes. He's the best there is."
"Hmmph. I bet I can beat him. I don't lose to nobody," Ranma scoffed.
"Maybe he can teach us some new techniques when we drop off the turtle?"
Goku suggested.
"Oh no. Master Roshi hasn't taken any students in years. He's retired from
teaching and now lives on an island. That's where I'm trying to back to."
"How exactly did you get lost as far away from the sea as we were?" Ranma
asked, not believing anyone could have that bad a sense of direction.
"Well, I actually don't know. I was only a little ways inland when I think
I first got lost. I asked this nice fellow wearing a yellow shirt and
carrying an umbrella for directions. He said he'd be happy to show me the
way, and so I followed him. Then one morning he went to get some food and
never came back. I didn't realize how far inland I was until you found me
several days later."
Goku and Ranma really didn't know what to make of that. The boy might have
lured the turtle to someplace, but why would he have just abandoned it?
'Maybe that's he got his kicks.' The two boys mused. There were lots of
strange people in the world, and that boy could like getting turtles lost in
the forest.
Just then, it started to rain. Ranma and Genma transformed, but Goku
remained the same. He carried the turtle above his head, so didn't get wet.
The turtle didn't mind the rain, and he actually enjoyed the feeling of
the water, even if it wasn't salted.
The rounded a turn in the path and were confronted with the sight of a
village in front of them. Again it was a typical village-style village, but
this one had a man carrying a bowl of rice porridge running away from
another man. They were going in the general direction of the group. The
pursuer was dressed like a chef and appeared to be very angry. There wasn't
anything special about the pursuee except that he was bald. The bowl was
obviously stolen from the chef, who wanted it back.
"Stop thief!"
Thinking that he would do a good deed, Ranma snagged the porridge as the man
ran by. Then he decided he would do a good deed for his hungry stomach and
polished off the entire bowl in a matter of seconds.
"Hey!" The chef shouted.
"Hey!" Goku shouted. "You could have saved some for us!"
"You..." The chef stopped in front of Ranma. "You ate it."
"That I did," Ranma said, handing the empty bowl to the chef.
The chef opened the front of Ranma's shirt and stared. Then after picking
his head out of the ground, he spoke. "You're a girl. That's a lucky
break."
"Meaning?"
"Come to my restaurant, and I'll show you. But you must never tell anyone
about what you see. I'll also give you a free meal to keep quiet about it."
And as always, food was the incentive for the group to follow someone. Soon
they were all seated inside the chef's restaurant eating a good meal. There
was even some sea water for the turtle to drink.
"That rice porridge is this restaurant's secret item. The stock was made
with dragon's whisker." The chef pulled out a single strand of hair from an
envelope he was holding.
"Dragon whisker?" Genma asked, having transformed back into a human when
the chef wasn't looking. "That's a pretty powerful magical ingredient. I
didn't think there were any dragons around anymore."
"There isn't as far as I know. This whisker is close to its expiration date
of 4000 years. However, it still has all of its power for medicinal
cooking. This particular receipe has no effect on women, which why I'm so
glad it was your daughter who eat the porridge and not you or your son.
Many a bloody battle has been fought between men over that porridge in order
to gain its healing powers. It's truly lucky that a female drank it and not
a man..." Ranma had walked into the kitchen and doused himself with the
boiling water from a kettle. Upon seeing the transformation, the chef's
eyes bulged out of their sockets. "You...You're a man."
Ranma's world went dark as his hair grew to cover his eyes. Everyone else
stared at Ranma's head as it started to push out hair like there was no
tomorrow.
"Is this what you mean by healing powers?" Ranma screamed.
Thinking fast, the turtle spat some of his sea water onto Ranma, turning him
back into female form and stopping the hair growth.
"Thanks." Ranma said.
"Oh dear. I guess I do have to use this after all. Until the effects wear
off, you can use this as a seal for your hair. Tie it up with this and it
will stop growing, but if it should come loose, your hair will start to grow
again," the chef said as he handed the whisker to Ranma.
Nodding, Ranma complied. Once the whisker was securely wrapped around his
hair, he threw some hot water onto himself. Happily seeing that his hair
wasn't growing anymore, he cut off some large chunks of it to make it more
manageable.
Genma could only stare. His son had denied him the chance to be rid of his
baldness. Then again he didn't want to have as much hair as Ranma got, and
there was only one dragon's whisker left. Genma sighed as he realized that
if he used the whisker Ranma had, both of them would have incredibly long
hair. Incerdibly long, luscious hair. 'No, I must resist.'
Thanking the chef for his kindness, they continued the journey to the sea.
They paused right outside the village to give Ranma a more proper haircut.
Feeling the need to do something to take his mind off this whole hair mess,
Ranma offered to carry the turtle for awhile. Goku agreed, and they swapped
loads before moving on.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shampoo stopped again as the tracks changed. She had been following the
three men's tracks, when they suddenly changed into the panda's and girl's.
Every time this happened she sat there puzzled, trying to figure out what
could be going on. If she hadn't done this, she probably would have caught
them by now.
Shampoo got up and continued her quest. Those tracks were less than an hour
old. Soon she would find that red-haired girl and make her pay for what she
had done.
Reaching the next village, she decided she needed to keep her strength up if
she was going to beat that girl. Shampoo went to the local restaurant to
eat. After enjoying a good meal, she ask the chef if he had seen a foreign
girl pass by here recently.
"No, there havn't been any girls passing through here that I know about."
The chef said. He had taken Shampoo's comment quite literally. No girls
had passed through here. It was a man that had eaten the rice porridge and
taken the dragon whisker. Or so that man had insisted.
Cursing to herself, Shampoo hurried out of the restaurant. She had to get
back on the trail of the group. Finding the tracks of the three men on the
other side of the village, she was about to follow when she noticed several
large clumps of black hair lying on the path. Stopping to inspect them, she
found she couldn't recognize who it was from. The green-skinned boy had no
hair. The girl was a redhead, and the panda's hair wasn't this long.
It started to rain while Shampoo was still holding a clump in her hands.
She sat there in amazement as the black hair turned bright red. She
immediately recognized as the same colour her target's hair. Shampoo made
herself a very strong mental note to ask Great-grandmother about this when
she returned to the Joketsuzoku village. Then she realized she had been
sitting out in the rain for half an hour staring at a clump of hair.
Swearing at herself for her foolishness, she began stalking her quarry
again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day the group was sitting at a table in a restaurant enjoying
lunch. The food was delicious and the restaurant's prices were low enough
that Genma could afford to give his a two sons a decent meal. The turtle
was telling them more about Master Roshi. Ranma and Goku hung on his every
word, and even Genma was intrigued by this so-called turtle hermit. A
earlier shower had changed everyone to cursed form, but no one really minded
their present state as they planned to get hot water after they finished
their meal.
This pleasant scene was interrupted by the sound and sight of the wall
exploding. It was just sitting there minding its own business when all of a
sudden, it bulged inwards and then shattered. The group shielded themselves
from the flying debris and tried to see through the dust to find out what
happened.
As the dust settled, the cause of the explosion was obvious. A
purple-haired girl stood in the opening holding two bonbori in a combat
position.
"Shampoo?" Ranma asked.
"You I kill!" She shouted, launching herself at Ranma.
"Run, Boy! Run!" Genma screamed and dashed out the door.
Ranma dodged the blow, which carried on past where she was and smashed into
the table, snapping it in two. She landed on top of another table facing
the Amazon.
"Ranma, you get rid of Shampoo. I'll get Mr. Turtle to safety." Goku said.
He grabbed the reptile and hoisted her onto his back. "Catch up with us
when you're done." Goku then calmly walked out of the restaurant.
Shampoo stared after the departing namek for a second before renewing her
offensive against Ranma.
"Look Shampoo I don't know why you have that law, but it's stupid." Ranma
managed to work out between dodges. "You shouldn't have to kill someone
just because they beat you."
"KILL! You I Kill!"
Ranma sighed. He wasn't getting through to her at all. 'Time to use the
secret technique. It's my only chance to get out of here.'
Ranma jumped off the table he had been standing on towards Shampoo. He
ducked under her attack and turned his back to her.
"Saotome Secret Technique! FAST BREAK!"
And with that Ranma bolted out of the door and down the street. Shampoo
stood there with her arm extended in the middle of a blow. She blinked a
couple of times before realizing exactly what had happened. Growling, she
smashed a few tables and ran through another wall for good measure before
giving chase.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ah! Here we are at last! The Sea!" The turtle exclaimed.
And indeed they were at the sea. The blue water spanned the entire horizon
and glittered in the sunlight. Waves lapped at the shore, and seagulls flew
overhead searching for food. The past few days could be described as
harrowing at best. Shampoo had caught up to them multiple times, but they
had managed to avoid her each time. Right now they were certain they had
lost her if not for good than for at least a few hours.
"Wow! What a big river!" Goku said.
Everyone else facefaulted. How the turtle managed to do that will remain a
mystery.
"Goku, you idiot! That's not a river! That's the sea!" Ranma shouted in
Goku's ear.
"Oh! What's a sea?"
"That is!"
"Sure looks like a river to me."
Ranma sighed. He knew Goku's head was thick, but not this thick. 'Well, he
was dropped on his head as a child, so that's probably why.'
"Don't be stupid, Boy," read the sign that Genma used to smack Goku across
the head. This activity was not very healthy for the sign as it snapped in
two. Goku's head on the other hand was completely fine. Genma had missed
out on the hot water this morning after Goku pounded him when he left
himself wide open in a game of "Grab That Tail," so he remained a panda.
"I'll just go get Master Roshi now. Wait here. I'm sure he'll want to
reward you." The turtle crawled into the water and swam away straight out
from the shore. The three watched it until it disappeared over the horizon.
"Think he's coming back?" read Genma's sign.
"Of course he is," Ranma said. "He wouldn't lie to us after we carried him
all the way out here. Besides, I'd really like to meet this Master Roshi
guy."
"Yeah. He sounds like a great person," added Goku.
"Fine then we'll wait," read another sign, "But I'm not responsible if
Shampoo finds us again."
Half an hour later, Goku spotted the turtle coming back. He had what
appeared to be another turtle standing upright on the top of his shell. As
they got closer, the group was able to identify that the standing turtle was
actually a man who was wearing a giant turtle shell on his back. About ten
minutes later, Ranma could work out the details of the old man's appearance.
He was shorter than average height and had a pretty scrawny build. He was
completely bald and sported a white beard. The man was obviously old and
frail. He was wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt, white shorts, sandals, a
pair of sunglasses, and a strange piece of jewelry around his neck. He
grasped an old, gnarled stick in his hand that he probably used for walking.
'Feh. A man as old as him can't be much of a fighter,' thought Ranma.
Eventually, the turtle reached the shore and the odd looking man hopped off
her back. He sized each one of the group up. The expressions on his face
when he did this were difficult to read as they were obscured by his large
sunglasses.
"So these are the two who helped you?" The old man spoke after a minute.
"Uh huh. They carried me all the way here," the turtle replied.
"Oh. That's very kind of you folks."
"It was nothing. We were heading in this direction anyway," Goku said.
"Now don't be modest. You two deserve a reward, but first introductions are
in order. I'm Master Roshi, but I'm sure that you already know that. And
you two are?"
"My name is Goku."
"And I'm Ranma. Oh and that's our Pop." Ranma said jerking a thumb towards
Genma.
"Pleased to meet you both. Er...is your dad a panda?"
"Only sometimes."
"I see," Roshi nodded his head. "Now about that reward. Hmmm. What would
be good for you two? Ah ha! I have it! How about a flying carpet?"
"A flying carpet? Do those really exist?" Ranma asked.
"Yep. Let me just call it here. FLYING CARPET! COME HERE!" Roshi said as
he thrust his stick into the air. After nothing happened for a minute,
Roshi lowered his arm.
"Huh? Where's the carpet?" Goku asked.
"I knew they didn't exist." Ranma said.
"I knew the legends were too good to be true," Genma's sign read.
"No. They exist. I just don't know what happened to mine. It should have
come."
"Uh Master?" the turtle interrupted. "Didn't the flying carpet get eaten
by moths last week?"
"Oh, that's right! I had forgotten all about that. Well now let's see.
What else is there? I know! The Flying Nimbus!"
"Flying Nimbus?"
"It's a magical cloud that you can ride on. FLYING NIMBUS, TO ME!" Again
he stuck his stick into the air in a dramatic pose. Again nothing happened.
Ranma sighed. He knew it. 'This old fart wasn't a martial artist at all,
just some crazy old hermit.' "So now what?"
"Uhhhh...maybe it's over here. FLYING NIMBUS, TO ME!" Again the dramatic
pose. Again nothing happened. At least nothing happened at first. A speck
appeared in the sky in the direction Master Roshi was pointing. It soon
screeched to a halt in front of him. The object was a small yellow cloud
with a little trail coming out behind it. "See? I knew I still had the
Nimbus."
Ranma couldn't believe his eyes. The crazy old hermit had summoned a cloud.
An actual cloud. Well, clouds aren't normally yellow, but Ranma
overlooked that fact.
"Woah!" Goku exclaimed.
"Impressive, ain't it?" Roshi queried.
"So...umm...you...can...umm...ride this thing?" Ranma asked, still stunned
by the sight of the cloud.
"Yep. But it only will support those who are pure in heart. Anyone else
will simply fall through. Observe." And with that Master Roshi leapt into
the air. He came right down in the centre of the cloud. The material of
the Nimbus seemed to part to let Roshi continue his journey to the ground.
Groaning, the turtle hermit crawled out of the hole he had created.
"You shouldn't have cheated on that crossword puzzle, Master," the turtle
said as it shook its head.
"Oh, shut up!" Roshi snapped. "You two see if you can ride it."
"Ok! Here I go!" Goku jumped and landed on the Nimbus. The spongy surface
of the cloud supported his weight. "Hey! It worked! I'm standing on a
cloud." Goku then proceeded to do a little victory dance on the cloud.
Ranma got over his initial shock of seeing Goku standing on Nimbus and
sprang into the air. "Alright, my turn." His feet came down on the cloud
and didn't sink through. He poked his toe into Nimbus, and was amazed at
how it seemed to bounce his foot back up. "Woah! I'm actually standing on
a cloud."
"Take it out for a spin. You control its movements with your thoughts."
"Cool! Let's go, Goku!" The two boys sped off on top of Nimbus. They flew
around, skimming the surface of the water and performing loop-de-loops.
After five minutes, they returned with huge smiles are their faces. "That
was awesome, Master Roshi."
"Yeah! Thanks, Master Roshi!" Goku added.
"You're quite welcome, Goku. But I still don't think its enough. What else
can I give you? I know! You two are both martial artists, right? How
about if a train you for a month? That does sound good?"
"Yes, it does. I'd love to train under someone other than my father." Goku
said.
"I'd like to be trained as well." 'Who knows? This crazy old hermit
managed to summon a cloud, maybe he knows some decent martial arts moves
too.' Ranma said.
"Me too," read Genma's sign.
"Eh? What's this? Is your panda a martial artist as well?"
"Yeah, but he's not very good." Ranma answered.
"I'm good enough to beat you, Boy," read the sign that Genma used to swat
at Ranma, who effortlessly dodged away.
"You shouldn't give the panda anything, Master. He didn't want to help me
at all when they found me. In fact, he suggested eating me several times."
"Is this true?" Roshi said menacingly as he turned his head towards Genma.
He was met with the sight of a panda lying on its back playing with a beach
ball. A sign was hung over the panda saying, "I'm just a cute little
panda."
Roshi growled. "If you think that's going to fool me, you've got another
thing coming. I refuse to train your panda!"
"Works for me," Ranma replied. "Let's go now. We'll be back in a month,
Pop. Just stay around here until we get back. Oh, and try to keep out of
trouble. Bye."
Roshi climbed up on top of his turtle, and it crawled into the sea. It
slowly made its way away from the shore. Goku and Ranma blew by it on the
Nimbus as they flew towards their home for the next month.
Genma stood back on the shore watching them go while weeping. His two sons
had abandoned him to go train under a turtle hermit. What had he ever done
to deserve this? Well, there were all times he sold Ranma and Goku for
food. And the time he sold that strange ball of Goku's that he said
contained his grandfather's soul. And the time where he...all right maybe
he did deserve this. Genma walked back into the forest, looking for some
family to mooch off as a cute panda for a month.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shampoo followed the tracks down onto the beach. This set was very unusual.
What Shampoo began to expect was that she would follow the girl's,
panda's, and boy's tracks unless they weren't there. In that case she would
follow the man's and two boys' tracks, which were certain to appear when the
other set disappeared. The set she was following now was a combination of
the two. The panda's tracks were present, but so were those of the two
boy's. She didn't know what to make of it, but she did know that if she
followed them she was certain to find Ranma again.
The set she found at the shore brought her confusion to new levels. The
heavy object that the one boy carried looked like it was put down. Then
those strange tracks from before led it into sea. There were two more sets
of that print. One leaving from and the other arriving at the shore. Both
of these sets were deeper than the first one, which suggested that the heavy
object was carrying something itself. A completely new set of footprints
also threw Shampoo off. They started and ended right beside the heavy
object's, except for where they left the area of a fairly large crater in
the ground. The two boy's tracks simply disappeared into thin air. The
panda's led back into the forest.
Having no clue as to what happened here, Shampoo decided to ask the one
person who might have an idea of where Ranma was heading. She began her
journey back to the springs of Jusenkyo. The guide would most likely know
where his customers were heading.
End of Chapter