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Kodachi, the Black Rose

      Akane grumbled as she lumbered out of her bed,
the sound of someone banging on the gates having woken
her up.  She wearily put on some simple clothes and
proceeded out into the hallway still half awake.  Her
first stop she paused at the guest room in order to
prove to herself that Ranma wasn't in bed and this was
his fault somehow.  Surprisingly enough, she found
both Ranma and Genma sleeping soundly in their room.
She blinked, the confusion making her a little more
awake, she shrugged and closed the door yawning as the
pounding continued.
       "How could anyone sleep through this noise,"
Akane wondered as she shuffled downstairs toward the
noise.
       Akane was getting more cautious as she
continued towards the banging sound.  By the time she
exited the main building she was wide awake and
considering whether or not she should go back and wake
up Ranma.  That thought got her more than a little
riled up.
       "Why do I need that idiot?" Akane demanded
irritably.  She paused a moment to say a prayer to
Ryoko for protection.  The divine incantation was
answered with phenomenal speed as a field of
protection surrounded her.  Akane briefly wondered at
how fast the request had been answered and then shook
it off as she proceeded to the gate.
       Akane stopped at the gate and growled, the
fingers of her hammer hand itched to summon her weapon
upon the fool that had dared interrupt her sleep.  She
ripped open the gate and looked beyond, shouting as
she did so.  A strong flash of red power formed into
her hammer and it was pulled back prepared to land a
mighty blow.
       "WHAT DO YOU--acck!!!" Akane's hammer
dissipated instantly as her words caught in her
throat.  Her eyes bugged out and she stood there,
concentration split between getting her breathing
started again and trying to assimilate the evidence
her senses were providing her.
       Sitting, in midair, outside her gate was a
woman with long silver hair a black swishing tail.
Her head was nodded forward and she was loudly
snoring.  Her hand was still repeating the action of
knocking on the now absent gate.
       Akane managed a breath at about the time she
was starting to turn blue and was now trying to get
sound out of her mouth.  The woman continued knocking.
       "Ry...Ry...Ry..." Akane stuttered, then she
took a deep breath and at least superficially calmed
down.  "Lady Ryoko?!"  The woman's head snapped up and
she looked around blinking.
       "Oh..." Ryoko yawned, stopping her knocking as
she stretched out.  She blinked a few more times and
turned to Akane.  "Couch?"  Akane, shocked speechless
pointed back towards the main building.  "Thanks."
Ryoko breezed past Akane and quickly found the main
shared rooms.  She hunted down one of the long
comfortable couches Nabiki had acquired and plopped
down, falling instantly asleep.

********

       Kasumi strode quietly towards the kitchen and
paused a moment to regard the visitor sprawled out on
the crouch and contentedly snoring away.  Kneeling in
front of the couch, Akane was still wide-eyed and
apparently in shock.  Abruptly the silver haired woman
gave a low, mischievous giggle.
       "Tennnchi," Ryoko muttered, before rolling over
and curling up on the couch.  The goddess then smirked
and growled low, "Ayeka."  She flailed out her arms
and then started snoring again.  Kasumi turned beet
red as she recognized the implications of the
mutterings, but Akane was fortunately still enough out
of it that she completely missed everything.
       "I think I shall have to put a great deal of
extra effort into breakfast," Kasumi commented calmly
as she walked into the kitchen.  Akane nodded and
continued attending her goddess as Ryoko slept on.

********

       Genma woke up and prepared to wake up his son
in the traditional manner of punting him outside and
then attacking at full force, eventually getting
tossed into a pool.  He hesistated and glanced around
warily.
       "I sense a presence," he muttered.  "Of one I
have not felt since....It's probably nothing."  He
waved it off stood up, reared back his foot and kicked
forward.
       "Wha--?!" Ranma was out the window before he
was even aware of the strike, he came to his senses
quickly and whirled about to glare angrily at where
his father would be coming from.  He suddenly
hesitated in his motion, looked towards the living
room, and was unprepared when Genma attacked.  A dazed
Ranma stood up and looked down at her soaking self
irritably.
       "You're slacking off boy!" Genma snapped
proudly.
       Ranma got to his feet and hit the air in one
motion, Genma started to respond when Ranma reached
him.  Unsurprisngly there was soon a panda in the
pond.  Genma rose up and launched another attack on
Ranma and soon the sparring was on in full gear, Ranma
forgetting what had distracted her in the first place
as she made the effort to teach her father a lesson.
       The morning sparring ranged a little further
than normal as Ranma decided to bring retribution in
spades on her father for catching her off guard
earlier.  Both martial artists took a leap over the
walls and took the battle into the town.  If it had
been a normal day Akane would have been returning from
her jogging about now, and wondering why she couldn't
hear the sparring.

********

       Nabiki stretched awake and yawned as she
stepped off her bed.  She sauntered over to her desk
and prepared to do some morning scrying.  Nabiki
yawned again as she assembled her scrying brazier.
She pulled out a set of flint and steel, not wanting
to waste magic just to start a small fire.  As the
flint and steel refused to spark she began to get a
little irritated, which woke her up a little.
       "I guess I have to use a little magic today,"
she finally muttered, nearly tossing the flint and
steel away.  She shook herself fully awake and
incanted a small fire spell...and nothing happened.
She glared at the obstinate brazier.  "I know I cast
that correctly."
       Nabiki stood up from her chair and looked down
at the brazier angrily.  She picked up the brazier and
examined as she decided whether or not to pray to
Xellos for a small fire.  Then a small fire seemed to
spontaneously start in the brazier.  Nabiki narrowed
her eyes supiciously and leaned in toward it to make a
closer examination of the brazier.

********

       Kasumi halted the practice of making breakfast
and rushed towards the sound of the explosion mixxed
with her sister's scream.  As she passed through the
common room she briefly saw Akane standing up, knocked
out of her deity inspired daze when a threat to her
family appeared.  As they pounded up the stairs to see
what happened, Ryoko blinked awake and sat up looking
around.
       "What went boom?"  She looked around for a
couple moments, shrugged upon deciding that there was
nothing that required her avatar's attention and laid
back down on the couch.

********

       The Tendos stopped dead at the smoke trailing
out of Nabiki's room, then continued forward, crowding
into the door.  They coughed as they fought through
the smoke to find Nabiki's room covered in soot.  As
for Nabiki.
       The priestess of Xellos was staring at the
twisted remains of a brazier, covered, head to toe, in
thick black soot.  Where exactly the soot came from no
one could tell, only the brazier seemed to be damaged.
       "Nabiki!" Soun called out desperately.  "What
happened in here?!  What attacked you daughter?"
       "Yeah, Nabiki," Akane said.  "What happened?"
       "Sister?" Kasumi asked.  Nabiki blinked and
rolled her eyes before shaking her head clear and
turning to them.
       "I think I may have annoyed Lina," she said.
Akane lost her balance and planted her face into the
floor.

********

       "What the--?" Ranma's eyes were drawn away from
her retreating father to a group of three people in
light tunics, wrapped head to toe in bandages.  They
were surrounding a woman in priestess robes in an
empty lot.  It was easy to identify who she was a
priestess of.  Only Jurains wore robes that intricate.
 "What's with the guys in the banda...arrgg!  Damn
it!"  Ranma stopped dead as she realized that her
father had vanished while she was distracted.
       "Pardon me," the priestess said politely.  "But
you are from Furinkan Hall are you not?"  The woman
had a cultured accent, with a taste of viciousness
laced under the surface.  It was no surprise that she
was accepted as a priestess by Ayeka.
       Ranma turned her attention to the situation and
sat down irritably.  She considered helping the
priestess, but a quick survey of all involved showed
there was little need.  She settled down to watch the
show just in case, however.  One of the bandaged
attackers might get lucky, even against a priestess
favored enough to use magic.
       "Please," the priestess continued, still
standing still.  "No need to hurry on my account.  If
I am not mistaken, the competition is not for a week."
       "No more talk!" one of the bandaged attackers
shouted.
       "We've got you," another added.  "At last!
We're finishing you off here and now!"
       "Prepare to die!"  The attackers launched
forward, each weilding a pair of light, colorful
clubs.  The priestess finally moved in response to the
attack, producing an acrobat's ribbon from her robes.
       "Forgive me, please," the priestess said more
firmly.  "If I've failed to convey my message!"  The
viciousness was no longer vieled as the ribbon whipped
in a cricle about the woman, disarming all three
attackers and putting an end to their charge.
       "Huh?" Ranma said, mildly impressed.  Ayeka's
priesthood preferred the whip, but they weren't
commonly regarded as warriors of exceptional ability.
       "If I may restate it," the woman almost growled
now as the ribbon surrounded her .  "...perhaps this!
Or this!  Or this!  Will be clearer!"  With each shout
the ribbon came down on her attackers.  Then the
ribbon came to a halt, wrapped around a slim hand.
The priestess stared in shock at the person that had
stopped her whip.
       "Dontcha' think that's enough?" Ranma asked
honestly.  "I mean ya already beat em, now ya just
gotta call the constable, right?"
       "You stopped that ribbon as if it were
nothing," the priestess said quietly.  She was
sweating a little as the level of tension rose, but
she still held the ribbon tight against Ranma's grip.
"If you'll forgive me, you seem to be no ordinary
girl."  Ranma swallowed nervously.
       "Uhh, yeah," Ranma admitted, the priestess's
eyes narrowed as she examined the girl.  "I'm not."
       "Good," she said.  Ranma prepared to move as
the priestess spoke.  "Because I prefer not to treat
girls with ordinary courtesy!!"   The ribbon in
Ranma's hands faded to nothing as the priestess's
hands shifted quickly.
       A host of thorny vines erupted under Ranma
trying wrap about her, but found nothing but an after
image.  The priestess kicked up one of the dropped
clubs, catching it and swinging outward towards a
blurry shape moving away from her spell.  The blur
coalesced into Ranma as she split her legs, dodging
under the clubs and taking the priestess's feet out
from under her.
       The priestess rolled into a handspring that
revealed a little more than Ayeka would have been
comfortable showing of herself in public.  The
priestess landed and looked back over her shoulder to
see Ranma already prepared for another round, and not
looking at all worried.
       "Well, you are very good," she said with a
smile.  She relaxed her stance, one hand twisting as
she summoned magic to produce one rose, black as the
night.  "Remember, I am called the Black Rose of
Hebereke Temple.  Kodachi, the Black Rose.  Please
don't forget it."  Then the woman leaped away cackling
shrilly as Ranma looked on, cringing at the similarity
to the woman's goddess.
       "Oh, how humiliating!" one of the attackers
moaned, bandaged face in her hands.  Ranma rolled her
eyes and turned toward them.
       "What's with the crying?" Ranma demanded.  "You
attacked her."  The attacker whirled on Ranma tearing
the bandages off and revealing a young woman's face.
       "She attacked us first!" the woman snapped.
       "We're the Furinkan acrobatic troop!" they
declared.
       ~Hey, I know these girls,~ Ranma thought
nervously.

********

       Ryoko finally stretched awake and popped her
spine, standing up.  She yawned and looked around
wearily.  She finally caught sight of Akane kneeling
in front of her and smiled.
       "Hey, what's going on?" she asked pleasantly.
Akane blinked and leaned forward in confusion.
       "Lady Ryoko..." Akane started.
       "Ooo...say that again," Ryoko asked cheerfully.
       "Uhhh," Akane blinked.  "Lady Ryoko?"
       "Yeah!" Ryoko slammed her fist down
triumphantly.  "Lady Ryoko.  LADY Ryoko.  Lady RYOKO
her divine grace."  She sighed.  "I never get tired of
that."  Akane's jaw had dropped, and she hadn't picked
it up yet.  Nabiki walked in, head wrapped in damp,
soot soaked towel, and Ryoko blinked.  "What happened
to you?"
       "How much do you want to know?"  Nabiki asked,
without dropping a beat.  Ryoko smirked teleported
behind Nabiki, slapping the woman on the back
companionably.  Nabiki went sprawling several feet
forward, catching her balance with Akane's help.
       "You got guts, girl," Ryoko said approvingly.
       "Yeah," Nabiki said cautiously, drawling it
out.  She caught a glimpse of Akane's face and started
for the door.  "I'm going to try another bath."  She
spoke irritably as she strode out of the room.
       "So Akane, what's going on?" Ryoko asked again
with a smirk.
       "Uhh..." Akane paused as she considered the
question.  "I...going on?"
       "You're not freaking out on me, are you?" Ryoko
asked, arching an eyebrow.
       "No!No!No!" Akane said waving her hands.  "I'm
fine."
       "Good," Ryoko said, nodding.  "You know, I like
you.  I think you've got potential."
       "Thank you, Lady Ryoko," Akane said
breathlessly, bowing deeply.  "I can't begin to tell
you how much it.." She stopped and swallowed as Ryoko
leaned forward into her face, eyes narrowed.
       "That's why I'm giving you a little warning,"
the silver haired goddess said.
       "Warning..?" Akane swallowed.
       "I'm not the goddess of mindless violence,"
Ryoko said solemnly, arms crossed.  "Whatever your
sister says."
       "Uhhh..."
       "Akane Tendo!" someone called out.  Ryoko put
her face into her hand as three people rushed past her
towards Akane.
       "We've been so humiliated!" One of the girls
asked.  Akane was still looking at Ryoko nervously.
In the entrance to the room, Ranma saw her Auntie in
lecture mod and "eeped," freezing in mid step.
       "Excuse me," Ryoko said.  "Can't you recognize
a goddess lecturing her priestess?"  The three
acrobats froze and blinked before turning slowly
around.
       "Uhhh..." their eyes popped wide as they
recognized the being that they had just brushed past.
Ranma was meanwhile trying to sneak out.
       "Ranma," Ryoko said without turning aound.
Ranma froze and slumped in resignation.  "Aren't you
going to say hello?"  Akane and the three acrobats
leveled surprised stares at the red head.
       "Uhh.." she swallowed, and turned to face her
Aunt.  ~Auntie she doesn't know what I am!~  Ryoko
arched an eyebrow and smirked, but continued to look
in Akane's direction.
       "It isn't everyday you meet your fiancee's
goddess," she said.  Ranma released a deep sigh of
relief as the mortals all nodded, certain that nothing
else was going on.
       "Hello...uhh...Lady Ryoko," Ranma hesitantly
spoke to Ryoko's obvious amusment.  Ranma had no
problem imitating a nervous attitude.  This being
because the nervous attitude was real.  And perhaps
Ryoko might know something about where her mother.
       "Now, why were you three screaming for
Akane-chan here?" Ryoko asked.
       "Contest...injured....cheating Jurain bit..."
one of them stuttered.
       "Did you say 'cheating Jurain'?" Ryoko asked.
They nodded fervently.  Ryoko turned toward Akane.
"You were here to ask Akane to take your place I
guess?"
       "Yes," one of them said.
       ~She's good,~ Ranma thought.  ~Better fighter
than most of them.~  Ryoko chuckled and rubbed her
hands together.  Ranma shuffled nervously, this could
get very bad.
       "Akane, feel like humiliating a Jurain?" Ryoko
asked.  Akane blinked and gave a determined look.
       "I'll do it!" Akane declared.  "I won't
embarrass you!"

********

       "Ohh," Ayeka said looking down into the still
pool.  "She's going to humiliate one of my servants,
is she?"  She smiled and cackled evily.  Elsewhere in
the great forest of trees that encompassed the
combined realms of the Masaki powers, Tenchi looked up
and gave a resigned sigh.

********

       After the three acrobats had left Ryoko made a
play of looking Ranma over carefully.  Her smirk faded
soon after she saw the scar on Ranma's cheek.
       "That's a neat little battle scar, kiddo," she
said.  ~Had to be good, are they dead?~
       ~A jerk of a celestial,~ Ranma muttered.  Ryoko
arched an eyebrow at the half-formed thought.  Ranma's
eyes popped wide as she felt Ryoko gathering power.
~Wait.~
       "Hmm," Ryoko said outloud.  "I guess that means
you can fight."  ~You don't want me to heal it?~
Ryoko stood upright and smirked as a memory of Akane
calling the scar cute flashed through Ranma's mind.
Akane looked on at Ranma's facial expressions and bit
her lip.  It looked like there was another level to
the discussion almost.
       "Yeah, I can fight a little," Ranma said dryly.
 She turned to Ryoko and saw the goddess's face turn
suddenly solemn.  "What?"
       ~Have you been talking to devils?` Ryoko asked.
       "Wha.." Ranma stopped herself.  ~I mean, WHAT!?
 Do I look stupid?~  Ryoko stared at him for a moment
longer
       "Don't worry, its probably nothing," Ryoko said
waving off Ranma's concern.  "Well, you're a fine
choice by me."  Akane slumped in surprise.
       "You accept he...I mean him?" Akane gasped,
then quickly added, "Lady Ryoko."
       "Yeah," Ryoko smirked, amused at Akane's
self-denial.  "I couldn't like him better if we were
related."  Ranma sweated.
       "Uhh," Ranma said.  "Shouldn't Akane be
practicing for this competition?"
       "Acrobatic Martial Arts?" Akane asked
disparagingly.
       "Against one of Ayeka's?" Ryoko added.
       "Yeah," Ranma scratched the back of her head.
"How hard could it be?"

=====
"Caffeinated Kender?  What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my
father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to
be psuedo-evil." - my brother

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