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Ranmazoku Chapter 6 - The Right Blade For The Job
By PansutoTarou5925
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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 theirs 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)

PREVIOUSLY - Ranma discovers he's not Genma's son, that
Xellos is his father, that he's not even human, studies black
magic under Phibrizzo, yadda yadda yadda, gets in a fight with
Ryouga and curses a decent sized crowd to act like Kuno. Then
he corrupts Hotaru into becoming a mazoku and put a world of
hurt on some poor Daimon and Eudial. Afterwards he spied on
the Inners, took Nabiki, and got Kasumi angry! Read the
previous chapters, really, I'm not good at rehashing stuff.

NOTE - [...] indicates telepathic communication between
Ranma and Hotaru in the Astral plane.

        ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Ranma and Hotaru teleported to the edge of the town. "Now,
we heard that they're still travelling together for a bit after
destroying Phibrizzo. This sword is one of two that I know of
that is capable of doing what I need. So.. take your disguise." I
said, turning to Hotaru.

With a look of intense concentration Hotaru shifted her form,
growing shorter and... cuter. Her former short, dark blouse and
skirt transofrmed into an annoyingly cute white travelling outfit
complete with cape and pink trim. Little ornaments with star
degins completed the look. "I look... I look..."

"Kawaii." We both made faces at that. Getting a little water, I
splashed myself, then began altering myself.

"No.. no.. a bit shorter.. the eyes are more orange, you're red..
hmm.." Hotaru looked at me pensively. "Something seems to be
off."

I looked all over my (altered) female body. "What? What? I
don't see anything wrong with me.."

"I think you're a little too big." Hotaru answered.

"Too big?" I thought, looking down. "Hey! I am not
overweight!" 

After recovering from her facefault, Hotaru shook her head.
"No, your breasts are too big. Make them smaller." She smiled
evilly. "Akane sized, from what you've told me." I made the
necessary adjustments and noted that Hotaru's expected
devotion to her lord was a little less platonic than I hoped.

"Let's just hang out on the Astral plane until Lina and Amelia
are separate from the rest." I said, wondering why I was picking
up girls right or left. And Hotaru was a mazoku, she shouldn't
even be in love...

        ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Our targets were sitting in an inn. And doing a job of eating that
put would have put Genma or I to shame.

"Gourry! That one's mine!" the real Lina Inverse said, grabbing
a particularly choice portion of meat. Her blonde companion
managed to deflect her from taking most of his food, however,
and retaliated, swiping a salad form in front of Lina. Lina
attempted the difficult two-drumsticks-at once feat and
protected her plate with her elbow.

Only one who has long studied Anything-goes can appreciate
such artistry, such mastery.

"They're slobs." Hotaru said, distracting me from my learned
observation. "Look at all the food they're spilling." The two of
us had gotten bored spying on them from the Astral, and it was
possible that Lina might notice us if we stuck around too long
like that. So instead, we were hiding under robes in the corner
of the inn.

Granted, Genma and I were less messy than these two. But
there was a certain ferocity, a barbaric brutality not seen in my
own food duels. At this rate, the food would soon be finished,
even given the copious amounts they had ordered. I was ready
to cry. The sacrifices I had to make for my mission! I pulled my
hood down closer over my head. From where we were seated,
the companions couldn't see us. Our plan was simple. First, we
wait until Lina and Amelia separate from the others. Then, we
descend upon the small-brained swordsman and 'borrow' the
Sword of Light. The only problem was that the people in
question were finishing off a meal fit for fourty and showing no
signs of slowing down. "This is getting old. Wait right here." I
got up and walked into the kitchen nonchalantly. It was a
whirlwind of activity, chefs running all over the place to try to
keep ahead of the ravenous demand from one table. 

"Hey! What are you doing back here?" an annoyed waiter said,
bumping into me. I gave him an evil smile, and punched him. 

A waiter flying headfirst into a giant pot of soup will grab
anyone's attention. I worked fast, smashing as much of the
kitchen as I could while fending off the wild attacks of the
cooks. For a trained martial artist, defeating a horde of
untrained but highly motivated attackers is child's play. Even
Akane can do it. Defeating said horde while simultaneously
demolishing a room and devouring all the food (except for the
soup), that takes skill. I finished off the chefs and left through a
window. I didn't want Lina to catch me coming out of the
kitchen. There would be hell to pay if that happened.

I walked back in and sat back down with Hotaru just as Lina
got word of the untimely destruction of the kitchen. "WHAT?"
she screamed. The waiter was picked up and looked as if he
were about to piss his pants or something. Lina could have
taught Soun a thing or two about the demon head strike. Then
she collapsed and turned big teary eyes on the waiter. "Then..
no strawberry cheesecake?" The waiter shook his head stiffly.
"No ice cream parfait with cherries and whipped cream?"
Amelia was beginning to feel a little teary at this, too, as the
waiter shook his head. Lina dropped him back on his feet. "No
apple cobbler?" She was answered by a final shake of the head.

"No miss, our kitchen was destoyed by some.. er... what are
you doing?" he said, nervously looking down at the growling
Lina. He was quickly pulled back by a nervous Gourry and
Zelgadis.

"Look, you don't want to be near her when she hasn't had her
sugar fix for the day." Zelgadis said calmly.

"I beg your pardon?" the nervous waiter asked. Lina, on the
other hand, was marching across the inn to some scruffy types
at the bar. 

"Just watch. She has to let off steam somehow." Zelgadis said,
taking a sip of tea and keeping one eye on Lina. I elbowed
Hotaru. Lina and company weren't the only ones getting a good
meal at this inn, and we could tell the fun hadn't even started.

"Let's see what happens. We might be making some changes to
our plans." I said, standing up. It didn't require mazoku senses
to tell the shit was about to hit the fan. 

"ALL your plans seem to be redone on the fly." Hotaru
mumbled as she shifted in her chair. "Can't you ever commit to
one course of action?"

I loked wounded. "Don't be silly. Flexibility and adaptability are
my trademarks. And you get that by NEVER committing.
Especially this early in the game." I turned back to Lina. "I bet
those guys are bandits, or wannabe bandits, and she's going to
have them for dessert."

Sure enough, Lina walked up to the biggest and meanest of the
lot and poked him in the shoulder. "Hey. I've heard you boys
are thieves." she said conversationally. The big guy shifted
around in his chair to face her.

"So what if we are..URK!" he answered, then got a look at his
questioner. "It's LINA INVERSE!" he gasped. The rest of the
roughs got up in shock. Lina preened, assuaged by her
notoriety. "The natural enemy of all who live!" That made the
anger roll off of her in waves. Hotaru and I took a few steps
closer to the cornucopia. Most of the people had a slightly
different reaction.

"I dunno about that, Mr Bandit," she said, keeping her gaze
low. "But I'm sure as hell the enemy of YOU!" With that she
stretched out her arm. "FIIIIREBALL!"

The fight was predictably short and was all that could be
expected. Namely, that when confronted with a sorceress of
ridiculous power like Lina, they were lucky to survive at all. I
nudged Hotaru and slightly changed my costume. We wanted to
look like obsessed fans for this, not long lost twins. "Me Ranko.
You Jain." I said, smiling.

Hotaru stopped and rested a finger on her chin. "I don't like
that name. How about..." she trailed off, thinking. "Sharra!"

"Sharra?" I asked flatly.

"Well, it was my name back in the Silver Millenium. So why not
use it?" she answered. I shrugged and wove my way through
the crowd of onlookers. Hotaru started subtly changing her
own costume in a move away from Amelia's style (and with an
eye toward less kawaii overkill). Lina Inverse was currently
wiping her hands and smiling nastily as she walked away from
the still smoking bandits. The inn ownder was nowhere in sight.
He must have had an attack of brains and decided he needed to
be somewhere. Anywhere. Preferably away from Lina.

I poked the smiling sorceress. "Yeah, whaaaaa-?" she said as
she turned around. She looked me up and down for a few
seconds in confusion. "Did Mom have another GAAAH..." she
said, now noticing Hotaru. She then fainted.

I looked over at Hotaru. "I think the idea of two Amelias was
too much for her." We heard a few another thud behind us and
a large crash. Gourry and Zelgadis were both lying face down
on the ground too.

"Mr Gourry? Mr Zelgadis?" Amelia asked worriedly. She then
noticed Lina was out. "MISS LINA!" she said, running over to
the prone sorceress. Lina regained just enough consciousness to
see Amelia and Hotaru again, and passed out again.

"I think the concept of two Amelias is a little too much for
Lina." I looked at the two other prone victims. "Or anyone, for
that matter. Let's help them to their room." We quickly got up
and dragged Lina's friends up the stairs, following Amelia.

        ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

In the Slayer's room we finally got a chance to talk to Amelia.
Interestingly, she wasn't fazed by our resemblence to Lina or
herself. "Wow! You two are Lina and I's biggest fans? And the
only people I thought were after us were angry bandits,
townspeople and my older sister!"

"Yeah!" I said, wearing a mask of false cheerfulness. "There's a
whole town of people after us too!"

"Wow!" Amelia jumped onto a chair and assumed a suitably
dramatic pose. "Did you exchange brave words of how you
fought for justice and smite your foes?"

"Yeah, sort of." I said, thinking of the Senshi. "Mostly they're
after us for things we didn't do (yet) and stuff.. you know what
it's like."

"Yeah! Usually they're after us... well, usually they're after
Miss Lina for blowing up something, or setting things on fire, or
causing a famine, or... er.. come to think of it, why haven't I
shown Miss Lina the power of Justice!" Amelia stood over the
still-comatose Lina Inverse and dramatically pointed at her.
"Miss Lina! For your repeated crimes against justice, I demand
redress! You will -OW!" Amelia said, having been slapped.

"I save the world on a monthly basis. Cut me some slack." Lina
said, shaking her hand. She then noticed me. "ARRGH! It's a
clone!" 

Annoyed, I kicked a convenient pail of water on Lina. "Who's a
clone?"

"GAH! What did you do THAT for?" Lina fumed.

"Somehow that sounds familiar." Hoataru whispered giggling.

"Don't mock the mazoku." I whispered back, wagging my
finger. Lina grabbed it and pulled me over hard.

"I'm waiting for an apology. You can provide it promptly or
posthumously." she said, showing the fireball in her other hand.
Fortunately, I remembered how I was supposed to be acting
before I told her where she could stick that fireball. My face
went from annoyed to starstruck in a flash.

"It's LINA INVERSE!" I said, putting my hands together and
batting my eyes: kawaii factor 4. Hotaru matched my rapt
expression and cuteness-overload as fast as she could. "I'd
never think I would have gotten to meet you! I mean, you're
always on these great quests to save the world and everything!
Aren't you the most talented and beautiful sorceress in the
whole world?" I continued, laying it on thick.

"Yeah! I heard you killed a piece of Shabranigdo! And that you
killed Phibrizzo, the Hellmaster!" I shot Hotaru a dirty look for
a second. "And you can call upon the power of the Golden
Lord of Nightmares!" Lina beamed with pride, a huge smile
lighting up her face.

"Yeah, that's me all right." she said, ego continuing to inflate.
She then looked at me for a second. "Oh, apology accepted."
she said offhandedly. She then sat down on the edge of the bed,.
Gourry and Zelgadis, who had been wakened by all the noise,
flanked her. "we're always happy to talk to fans of.. oh, Amelia,
grow up." Said princess had been sniffling and giving Lina dirty
stares after she got slapped.

"You hit me, Miss Lina!" Amelia complained. I cringed for a
second, noticing Hotaru doing the same. Now that we were
actually paying attention to it, we could feel the anger rolling
off of the young princess. Except it was still tinged with that
nauseating sweetness. At least a spoonful of anger made the
sugar go down easier.

"Stuff it, Amelia." Lina turned back to us, a happy smile
adorning her face. "So, what brings you to this corner of the
world?"

"We're on a quest for a legendary sword!" I exclaimed. Hotaru
gave me a fishy look out of the corner of her eye, as if
wondering if I had lost my mind by telling them the truth. I had
to have a talk with that girl - the truth is always the greatest lie
of them all, since it can't be ddisproven. "It's.. ooooh, the
Sword of Light!" I bounced over to Gourry. "Can I see? Can I
see?"

Gourry, the quintessential dumb swordsman, scratched his head.
"No, miss, heh, I don't let redheaded sorceresses get their hands
on my sword. So, um, no."  I sighed.

"Come on, Gourry, it's not like they can just walk out of here
or something!" Lina said. "They can look at it." Gourry held his
sword protectively. I sighed. He was so stupid, he'd have to be
smarter to be able to be fooled here. Well, there was always the
Umi-Sen-Ken. I shook my head when I noticed Lina returning
her attention to me. "Hey, what's your name, anyhow?" I
opened my mouth, then remembered my alias.

"I'm Ranko. My family lived out in the Desert of Destruction."
Hotaru and I had made our plans for where we would be from.
Nothing that could be easily disproven. Heck, I'd even altered
my appearance to include a tan. "I got curious about the outside
world and left. I ran into Sharra here in southern Elmekia."

"Elmekia! Wow! Gourry's from there! Hey, what's your last
name - maybe Gourry's heard of them before." Lina asked,
turning to Hotaru.

Sweating, Hotaru answered with the first thing that leapt to
mind. "Er... I'm Sherra Saturn!" she said enthusiatically, trying
to cover her nervousness. I rolled my eyes. What a lame name.
At least there's no planet named Saturn here.

"Gourry, you remember any Saturns back in Elmekia?" Lina
asked Gourry.

Gourry scratched his head. "Um.. no?" Lina sighed in
resignation.

"Stupid Jellyfish brains... I should have expected that." Lina
turned back to us, having dropped the swordsman from her
thoughts. I could now see why L-sama took such an interest in
this human. She burned bright and with a storm of chaos in her
soul. She jumped from one thing to the other, yet still remained
focused. A paradox L-sama would treasure. "Do you guys need
any help with your quest? It's been pretty boring around here."
I had overheard that there were three separate forest fires
started by stray fireball barrages, an evil wizard waylaying
travelers had been killed, and a small crossroads villiage was
currently a lake after being ground zero for a Dragon Slave. All
in one week. Boring indeed.

"Not really. I mean, meeting you guys is a bonus, but we want
to do this one on our own." I could see that wasn't enough to
deter Lina, so I continued. "My magic is strong enough. Think
about the Desert of Destruction and the kind of magic you'd
need just to survive there. My father and his friends are
powerful mages, and I'm continuing in the family tradition."

"OK, if you say so." Lina said, still not sounding convinced but
willing to let it go for now. "Nice meeting you two." With that
we left the still trashed inn and began hiking north.

     ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

"Aren't you going to take the sword from them?" Hotaru asked
as we headed north. I looked at her incredulously.

"Are you nuts? That girl nuked a piece of Shabranigdo,
destroyed Rezo the Red Priest - twice, flattens cities for fun and
profit and most recently channeled the spirit of L-sama herself
to kill Hellmaster Phibrizzo. I am *not* mixing it up with her if
I can make the choice." I assumed a more neutral tone. "Look,
your friends are a matter of circumstance, your enemies,
however, are yours to choose. We don't want her as an enemy.
Our current crop of people out for our blood is problem
enough, even if they can't actually hurt us. Our strategy must be
to keep problems seperated so we can tackle them one at a
time."

Hotaru digested this, then asked another question after a little
while. "Then what is our goal?" I opened my mouth, then
closed it.

What WAS my goal? Power was nice and all, and it would
ensure that I'd never be bossed around like I had for so long. I
wouldn't be helpless in the face of society with my power. But
once I was free, what would I do then?

The solution seemed pretty obvious, put that way. The Senshi,
from all that Hotaru had told me and that I had read in
Phibrizzo's books, were hellbent on resurrecting some ancient
monarchy. They'd be after their so called 'good' ideals, but at
what cost to freedom? Same with the Amazons, always wanting
to enforce their repression on others, and the Musk...

"We're going to crush everyone. We're going to level the
playing field. We'll smash the world and spread anarchy. Let
people do what they want. Absolute freedom. It's what L-sama
would want." I said. "It's our obligation to spread chaos and
disorder. I can think of no better way to do this. No one will
ever step on us again."

Hotaru nodded. "There will be a lot of killing. A lot of death... a
lot of destruction. People rely on society for a lot of things.
What we'll do is like yanking the bottom floor off of a
skyscraper." A ghostly smile crossed her face and sent a shiver
up my spine. Even now I still shied from the idea of widespread
strife, but it struck a chord in her. No wonder she was the
Sneshi of Destruction. "First we'll have to bring the Senshi to
heel."

"We could present evidence of their plans to the Diet." I
mulled, "and let them do our dirty work for us. They won't like
the idea of some cheerleaders with magic taking over the world,
especially given the proof of their power." I smiled.

"You want to offer the government a counterbalancing force of
magic?" Hotaru asked, smiling.

"Heck no! I plan to offer a counterbalancing force of magic. I'll
find the dissatisfied, the angry, the ambitious. Those will be our
troops. I just want the government to fight the Senshi. After
everything is done, we'll be in charge by default, by virtue of
our power." I smiled. I had successfully identified my
opponent's weaknesses and successfully exploited them outside
of battle again. I was getting better at this.

"Speaking of the ambitious, what about Nabiki?" Hotaru asked.
I blinked. "Forgot about her, didn't you?" she said, laughing.

"Yes, I did. Should we check in on her? She should be fine. It's
only been one day, and it's getting dark. She should last at least
a few days, anyhow." 

"We should. I'm hungry." Hotaru replied.


"Oh, alright. It should be good for a meal. Let's go."




        ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Now, I'm making an announcement. After the first arc of
Ranmazoku is over, I'm switching off of the first-person
perspective, because too much is going on with Ranma. I'm
also going to devote more time to Garden Of Ranma, which is
currently on the back burner, and start another fic or two also
as 'pilots' to see if anyone's interested or not. So Ranmazoku
will be coming out slower. Though fear not, for I shall probably
speed up again, I think. Right? ::looks at schedule:: Yeah, for a
while. I really need to get away from this stuff that's eating all
my time up. I mean, apart from papers and studying. There's
not much I can do about that. Oh, and work too.

If Hotaru's character is off here, remember she's just been
turned into a mazoku, is actually strong now and not easily
winded and sickly, is slightly older looking, and has had her
Silver Millenium memories returned. And no, she doesn't look
back with much fondness; Saturn was shunned then too.

Anyhow... um..  Oh yeah. I'm currently having a little feud with
Tomas, so things are probably going to be delayed getting to his
page. Look first on Tannim's and Crossover Corner.


                                   

and Crossover Corner
www.geocities.com/animecrossovers
and Tannim's 
http://tannim.anifics.com/index.html

and also Phu's, which offhand I don't recall.

also
it's on Nighthawk's page
www.geocities.com/NighthawkTM/index.html




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