Roughly the first half of the chapter. I can't write anymore tonight.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: ranmazokuch3.txt
Ranmazoku Chapter 3 - Lions, Tigers, and Mazoku, Oh My!
By PansutoTarou5925
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
DISCLAIMER - I do not own the rights to Slayers nor do I own the rights
to Ranma �. Long live the rightful owners of these two fine anime. This
work is non-commercial and is done only in imitation of Rumiko Takahashi
and Hajime Kanzaka. Imitation is the sincerest flattery, no? US rights
owned by Viz and Software Sculptors. If I mention the Senshi, Sailor
Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi(Sp, anyone?) and.. and.. I dunno who
has the US rights, but it's there's not mine. (I'm drawing a blank)
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Author's note - This story originated from an idea on Nighthawk's page
and is some guy named NesTea's fault. If he's reading this, I'm curious to
know what he thinks of all this. Questioning me would be like questioning
Xellos if you ask when the next section comes out, because it's a secret.
ALTAVERSE WARNING - This is an ALTAVERSE. Events, characters
and the like may not resemble canon. People who are rabid canon-thumpers
beware! (and eat a Dragon Slave while you're at it)
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
"So, Ryouga, you finally bothered to show up." I said, stretching. I had
been coming to this vacant lot every day after school. "It only took you
what, five days this time?" I drawled.
"Shut up, Saotome. I wasn't just out taking a stroll through the park -"
"-no, you also went through half of Asia_"
"-shut up! I've been through hell to get to this fight!"
I yawned ostentatiously. "You know, stupid, you could have just taken the
train." Ryouga did a good impression of a fish at that point.
"Well.. I. uh..." he babbled, trying to parry this one. "I couldn't find a train
station, so there!"
"Whatever. Let's get this fight started before the peanut gallery gets
bored." I said, sticking a thumb at the crowd that surrounded us. As usual,
the crowd was placing bets, mostly on Ryouga because of his 'new move'.
Of course, Nabiki was going to clean up, as Ryouga's new move might as
well be renamed the Mazoku Treat: a blast of pure depression. It was like a
whiff of paradise. I would be very disappointed if Ryouga hadn't improved
the move since the last time I met him. "So, have you perfected this move,
or are you just going to introduce me to the same pitiful version you had
last time?"
Ryouga gave a gallows grin. "How depressing. But you've signed your
own death warrant, Saotome." He cupped his hands at his waist and
gathered his sickly green little aura, then thrust them forward. "SHISHI
HOKODAN!" he yelled, focusing his depression into a ball of energy and
pushing it away. I merely crossed my arms and grunted as it hit me,
absorbing the energy. In reality, it didn't hurt at all, but I had to keep up
appearances, after all. No human could take that blast and remain standing.
"Is that all?" I taunted. "Come on, you loser, you can do better than that!"
Ryouga's expression darkened, and he tried it again. "OK, P-chan, yeah,
try it again." I said, gesturing for him to give me his best shot. This time, he
was losing control of his depression as angry blue seeped into his aura. This
would be funny. "C'mon, porky, I haven't got all day."
That set him off. His aura switched to blue, and he fired another blast -
"SHISHI HOKODAN!" - but he hadn't trained on how to use his anger to
focus the blast. Instead, it just blew up in place and knocked him down.
"That's truly pitiful, Ryouga. You've actually gotten worse." I laughed.
"You beat yourself up now." There, he's back to depression. He really
needs to learn how to just stay depressed.. I mean, I have Akane for anger.
I need some variety.
"Damn you!" he whispered, then cut loose with a much more powerful
Shishi hokodan. This one I let throw me back as I blocked it; it was
significantly more powerful than the original. It was time to start the fight
for real.
"Nice, P-chan, but no cigar." I rushed forward. His shishi hokodan steered
right into me, but I just absorbed it and hammered him with a few hundred
punches courtesy of the amaguriken. Ryouga, realizing that he couldn't use
the shishi hokodan in close quarters, whipped his leg back and tried to blast
me with a kick to the gut. I grabbed his leg and kicked him across the chin
as I hopped it. The next punch he threw I took right in the chin and didn't
move. "Hah!" Ryouga winced and shook his hand. "Just like a baby's!"
That made Ryouga suddenly look at me. I could feel the eyes of several in
the crowd on me, too.
"You.. you did the Bakusai Tenketsu training!" he said accusingly. I
laughed.
"Come on. Even you would have felt that punch. No, I did something a lot
harder." That was true: I had managed to get people to eat lots of Akane's
cooking willingly. My endurance was merely my being a mazoku, but let
everyone think something else.
"Something.. harder..?" You could see the gears turning in Ryouga's head.
I have no idea what he was thinking of - getting smashed by wrecking balls
or run over by steamrollers, maybe - but he actually winced for a second.
Then his expression grew harder. "So you might be tougher. I'll still kill
you, Saotome!"
"Promises, promises." I said, weaving around his punches and taking a few.
The problem for Ryouga was that I was landing lots more than usual. And
for that matter, I was attacking more viciously than ever before, hammering
Ryouga with blows enhanced by monstrous strength. One of the best things
about being a mazoku was that my body was just a puppet of black magic.
As a result, what looked like light blows were actually hitting with the
force of cannonballs. Still, Bakusai Tenketsu training made fighting Ryouga
like trying to smash a mountain with your fists.
Ryouga in fact let me punch him away on that last blow, to buy some
room. I suppose the fight was getting to him, so.. "SHISHI HOKODAN!"
This blast was even more powerful than the last, actually, "SHISHI
HOKODAN! SHISHI HOKODAN! SHIShi hoko..." And with that, he
collapsed, his chi completely run out. Probably the hardest thing in that
fight was making sure I looked sufficiently bedraggled from those tasty
blasts.
"Feh. What a maroon." I said, as I walked away from the fight. Hopefully
Ryouga would redouble his efforts. After all, he hadn't yet perfected the
move.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
I was in the back yard pretending to have trouble figuring out how to do
the shishi hokodan. In reality, my biggest problem would be faking the
shishi hokodan. My innate black magic was fine, but no one would mistake
it for the shishi hokodan. I experimentally fired a sphere of gold energy at
the wall, burning a hole in it. Maybe I should just make up an attack of my
own and use it.
"Hey, Ranma." Nabiki said, running into the dojo. She noticed the hole in
the wall. "Figured out the Shishi Hokodan yet?"
"Well, I know it works off of depression. I'm just not depressed enough."
"Anyhow, I've got these posters printed up. Ryouga's staying in town until
the fight, in fact, he hasn't even left the lot yet, so we know he'll be there
on time. I'm paying to have people bring him food and stuff until then." I
nodded. "Anyhow, I'm going to be setting up some big signs advertising
the fight and put up some stands. So try not to kill the spectators, alright?"
"Yeah, sure. Whatever."
"Heh. So you think you can beat his 'perfect' Shishi Hokodan?"
"Of course. I never lose."
"Overconfident, aren't we? Anyhow, how do you like this poster? Do you
think it's flattering to you?" The poster in question had my girl side in a bra
and had the caption "Legendary Crossdresser Ranma Saotome! Live at
vacant lot, three blocks from Tendo Dojo" I snorted.
"Put that up and die."
Nabiki giggled and unrolled another poster. This one showed me
apparently facing off against Ryouga, with a huge lion forming the
background.
"Not bad." I allowed. "How's your revenge against Kodachi coming?"
Nabiki got a sour face. "Not well?"
"No. Not at all. They have money to burn, so merely hitting them in the
wallet doesn't hurt. Everyone already hates her, and she won't care if I
stage something embarrassing involving her. She's a Kuno, trapped in their
own little world." she finished.
"So, what if you were to shatter that private little world?" I asked, smiling.
"Like how?" she aksed. "And why would you care?"
I grimaced. "Look, this is Kodachi we're talking about. Anything you do to
her is an improvement. I've got some Instant Nannichuan left over from
that Dojo Destroyer mess a few months back. I'm sure you can find a way
to get it placed in her bath. And a way to disable their hot water. Am I
right?" Nabiki's eyes shone as she got a happy little smile, one I mirrored
with my own sunny smile.
"Of course! Where's that packet?" I held out my hand, which she
inspected. "What?"
"1000 yen." There are few things more incongruous than the Ice Queen of
Furinkan growing a sweatdrop.
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
My next stop was in Juuban, to see how Granny and Pop were doing in
their new and hopefully temporary home. While I would normally worry
about getting tailed by one of my seemingly dozens of fiancees, enemies,
and assorted hangers on, it's not to hard to just hide for a second and just
teleport or go astral.
To be honest, I have no idea of what Grandmother Zelas is posing as, and I
really don't care. All I know is she's pretending to be rich, the better to sit
in the lap of luxury. Pop was pretending to be her chauffeur/butler/general
errand boy, which actually wasn't too far off the truth, come to think of it.
I filled them in on my activities over the past week, and then heard their
story. "Ranma, darling," she said, a sure sign she's been drinking since
dawn, "there's this FABULOUS Italian restaurant nearby. It has the most
sumptuous delicacies.. and a nightclub next door with frequent fights." She
laughed lightly in that sort of socialite way she has, not at all what you'd
expect from a demon lord, and lit up a cigarette in her holder. "It is a most
wonderful place to eat, a place made for the enjoyment of mazoku." She
brushed her hair back over her shoulder. "If Hellmaster doesn't succeed in
destroying our world, why, I don't wonder why we don't kidnap the staff
and have them work for us!" Pop and I gave her a pained look.
"Because they'd be terrified and try to escape, and not give you the refined
dining experience you crave?" Pop answered, only half sarcastically. Zelas
seemed to think that over for a second.
"Oh. Nevermind, then." she waved her hands dismissively. "I could always
just drop by when visiting Ranma, then. Your strength has shot up recently.
Have you been draining those strange Daimon creatures? This most
unusual redheaded woman summoned a few in the restaurant last night and
was searching for 'pure heart crystals', I believe. Anyhow," she said,
resting her head on her chin and watching her cigarette curl smoke to the
ceiling, "it was so very boring until she decided to try for our crystals.
Well, I put an end to that fast!" she giggled.
"Yes, a Zelas Brid does wonders in blasting apart such weak little
creatures. They make Brass Demons look strong." Pop said, grinning. We
all laughed at that. That was like using a Dragon Slave on a few measly
bandits.
"You should have seen the look on her face." Granny added. "But that
wasn't the best part. We phased out to the astral plane because we didn't
want to have to explain why we weren't affected when the authorities
came. After all, everyone had either fled or been victimized. These girls
come in... dressed in the most ridiculous costumes..."
"Like the ones Lina and Amelia wore that I told you about. Nene and
Mimi, the two girls you ran across, had them too - that costume." Pop
clarified. I laughed.
Zelas giggled again, which is just disturbing. "Quite. They run into the
restaurant with these ridiculous costumes and just stop and gawk.
Everything was torn up by my attacks. So they just stood around and
stared for a while. Oh, it was obvious they could somehow pick us up, or
something, that girl in the blue skirt said she was picking up all kinds of
residual energies. But they just milled around like little lost sheep until
these two older girls came and hustled them out." We all had another
round of laughter at that. "I suppose that Eudial person will consider
herself lucky to run into those underdressed sorceresses next time." she
said. "Fortunately the restaurant has already been repaired. It seems the
repair companies in Nerima are quite familiar with repairing battle
damage." She smirked at me. "Would you care to join us for dinner,
grandson?"
"Heh. I'd love to. But, y'know, I can't be seen in public with you guys, or
too many questions will be asked. Tell you what though. ou know the guy
I've been talking about, that tries to use depression as an attack?" Nods all
around. "He and I are having a fight in a few days. If you can delay going
back home, if it still exists, you'll probably see the most intense focus of
despair you've ever seen in a single human."
"Really." Zelas remarked drily. I gulped. I forgot she ha thousands of years
of experience at watching human suffering.
"Well, I think so, anyhow. I'll be very disappointed if he doesn't perfect his
move. In that case, he'd hae nothing but despair left."
"Really." this time, both Zelas and Pop's eyes shone hungrily. Grandmother
even licked her lips. "That's a treat not to be missed, then. I'll make the
time." I handed her a poster.
"Just so you're there."
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
** * * * * * * * * * * * * **
Wow, am I on a roll or what?
I had a big burst of inspiration and I've been going strong ever since. This
is about half of chapter 3 or so, probably a little less. My fight scene is a
little weak, I think, but I don't usually write fight scenes; I have a real
problem writing them to keep the action moving, I think.
I have to thank everyone for all the mail. Keep on firing your questions at
me, the C&C, even flames, random comments, whatever. It's all fun.
Oh, and wild guesses are always welcome if you feel like predicting
Ranma's actions. I always try to respond promptly - I'm on the computer
most of the day, so I generally respond fast and often.
it's on Nighthawk's page
www.geocities.com/NighthawkTM/index.html
and Crossover Corner
www.geocities.com/animecrossovers