Greetings.
This is a smallish one piece fic that I wrote a while ago.
The Ranma 1/2 characters and the settings in this fic are the versions from
Daigakusei no Ranma (http://www.dkcomm.net/). I got permission from Paul
Gallegos to use the DnR setting for this, but that was... ummm... I guess
about 2 years ago. I hope he remembers. :-)
I do not own the characters from Ranma 1/2 or El-Hazard. I suppose that
technically this contains spoilers for El-Hazard OAV and DnR.
C&C welcome.
===========
The Searchers
by Jim Miller
Two voices drifted up the stairs of Maison Sabaku in the still summer
evening air. The call of the cicadas drowned out the sounds of the city
completely. The hallway glowed gold from the glow of the setting sun.
It had rained earlier in the week and it would rain again in a few days,
but the Thursday that was drawing into evening had been warm and sunny.
"Boy, I guess my cooking *has* improved if you'd rather eat it than cook
yourself," a slightly sarcastic feminine voice stated.
"I told ya, I've got a big test tomorrow that I need to study for,"
countered a deeper, masculine tone. "Besides," he added playfully, "I
thought you liked cooking for your hubby."
Akane and Ranma Saotome appeared at the top of the stairs and approached
the door to Number 4. Akane stopped at the door, key in hand, and
turned around to face Ranma. "Okay," she said, tapping his chest with
the key, "but it'll cost you a 'wish' this weekend," looking up at him
with a sly smirk, "I have a quiz tomorrow too."
Ranma grinned back at her. He was well familiar with that euphemism
now. "Your 'wish' is my command, m'lady," he said as he bowed with a
flourish. Sometimes helping Akane learn lines gives me a good line too,
he thought.
Akane grinned and blushed slightly as she turned back to the door. Then
she spoke in a gravelly, deep voice, "So what do you want on your
Tombstone?" she asked as she turned the key with one hand and the
knob with the other.
Ranma groaned. "I could make that just as easy."
Akane smiled as she opened the door into the apartment and the liquid
rays of the evening sunset washed over them from inside in a blinding
golden wave.
* * *
Two figures stepped noiselessly into the room. He, closing the door
behind them softly; she, crossing the room and slumping limply on the
couch. He joined her and they sat together, arms just touching, until
the last rays of sunset had crept across the room and the cooler evening
breezes began swaying the curtains.
"Wow. And I thought *we* had a rough time with relationships," he said
quietly.
She only nodded mutely, still lost in thought.
Makoto Saotome stood and, swaying slightly, walked into the small
bathroom to stand before the mirror over the sink. He had his own face
this time he saw, but with thick black hair and a braided pony tail. He
pulled the braid around to the front for a moment to inspect the fine
fiber binding it and shivered slightly. He turned on the cold water
tap, filled a glass and raised it over his head. Looking into his own
eyes he lowered the glass and drank some before pouring the rest down
the drain.
He looked at his fine, strong hands, flipping them over to inspect the
other side and then grinned at his own reflection as he flexed a bicep.
Leaving the grin in place, Makoto stepped back out to check on his
partner.
Nanami Saotome was having more trouble adjusting to the transition, but
Makoto wasn't worried yet. She usually took more time to orient
herself. As Makoto reappeared, she turned to him with tears brimming in
her eyes, "How did these people ever live through high school?"
Makoto was at her side in an instant, holding her tightly. "It's okay,"
he murmured soothingly, "Everything has worked out for them now. They're
-- no," he said with a wry grin, "*we're* together now."
Nanami sniffed as he stroked her hair for a moment and then she shook
her head gently as if to clear it. Makoto released her and she stood.
She sniffed again, removed her hair band, shook out the black hair that
was both her own and different, and replaced it again. "Thanks," she
said, "It's always so overwhelming at first."
He nodded, "It affects you more because you're a very sensitive person."
She stuck out her tongue briefly. Dropping her chin to her chest, she
asked in as low and menacing a tone as she could muster, "Now, what *do*
you want on your Tombstone, *Saotome*?"
* * *
...research now leads me to believe that the Eye of God was originally
intended to be a type of interdimensional transporter and was only
converted to be a weapon late in construction. I'll have to complete
the transporter control system before it will be able to accurately
target our home dimension -- assuming that I can find our dimension...
...while the Eye of God can be used to send objects to, and even
exchange objects for things, in other dimensions, it cannot be used to
*see* into other dimensions, nor can it be used to *accurately* retrieve
objects from other dimensions...
-- From the research notes of Makoto Mizuhara.
* * *
"Ms. Tendo," Aiyawa-sensei always made a point of using Ms. Saotome's
stage name, and her diction was always crisp and precise. "Your score
on today's quiz is abominable. If it weren't for the fact that I've
*seen* you here I would have to assume that you'd never *been* to this
class before."
Nanami hung her head and said nothing.
"Perhaps, Ms. Tendo, you are not feeling well today?" Aiyawa-sensei
hated to see one of her better pupils suddenly do so poorly, "And
perhaps that is why you are so... distracted today?"
Nanami saw the straw and lunged for it with both hands. "Oh yes,
Sensei, <hack> <hack>, I've been just miserable <hack>."
Aiyawa-sensei's eyes narrowed. She expected that students would play
sick from time to time, but she at least expected her drama students to
do it *well*. She sniffed, "Then you may re-take the quiz Monday for
75% credit."
Nanami bounced a quick bow saying, "Thank you, Sensei, thank you!" and
scurried for the door before the puzzled woman could change her mind.
* * *
The light reflected ominously off her glasses, hiding the young
associate professor's eyes. "Let's go over this one more time."
Makoto sighed to himself. One little slip up and he'd already spent
twenty minutes trying to get off the hook with his introductory
"physics-for-phys-ed-and-other-lesser-majors" teacher, Sansahi-sensei.
"Are you, or are you not Makoto Saotome?" Sansahi-sensei demanded for
about the eighth time.
"I am."
"Have you, or have you not been failing -- spectacularly I might add --
every section of this class except basic levers and projectiles?"
Makoto felt a grin inside, but he kept a straight face. He hadn't
figured that out until the third time around. A martial artist had to
have an instinctive understanding of leverage and the Saotome school
specialized in aerial techniques. "If you say so, Sensei, I haven't
looked at the class grades lately."
Sansahi-sensei sighed, removed her glasses for a moment to rub her eyes,
then replaced them. "And then did you or did you not waltz in here and
achieve an unprecedented perfect score on the nuclear physics section
test? *Nobody* in this course has *ever* gotten over seventy percent on
this section before." Hell, she thought to herself, even the physics
majors wouldn't get perfect scores on this one. She'd deliberately made
it too hard to pull the class curve down some.
Makoto decided that reasoning his way out of this was futile and allowed
his body's instincts free rein. Putting one hand to the back of his
head, he said, "What can I say, Sensei? We all get lucky sometimes."
As soon as he said it, Makoto could tell it was a mistake. The big clue
was the way the vain on her forehead seemed about the lunge at him.
Sansahi-sensei even seemed to be steaming slightly. "Maybe you can get
lucky on a multiple choice test, but you do *not* work out *all* of the
known possible decay paths of neptunium-239 by *luck*!"
She calmed herself with a noticeable effort. "However, as I cannot
*prove* that you cheated in anyway, I will have to let this grade stand.
But I'm going to have my eye on you, Saotome..."
* * *
"Did you bring lunch?"
The large commons room was almost empty, most students choosing to study
and eat outside on such a nice day. Nanami giggled, "When have I *ever*
forgotten your lunch, Makoto-chan?"
She handed him a bento box from her bag before placing her own on the
table.
"That'll be 1000 yen, please."
"What?!"
Nanami laughed, "Only kidding. It just feels so much like our school
days, I had to say it."
Makoto glanced around nervously and let out a sigh of relieve when he
saw no one within easy ear shot. "Nanami," he began, opening the box
lunch and taking up his chop sticks, "You know we have to be careful to
stay in character..."
He popped a large piece of vaguely mauve octopus from the box into his
mouth. For a moment nothing happened, then Makoto's face cycled through
several interesting colors before settling on a particularly fetching
shade of blue.
"Now *this*," he wheezed, pointing at his lunch, "*This*, is in
character."
* * *
"I just don't get it," Nanami Saotome said for about the eleventh time,
"It was just a standard Shinanome Bento Number 5," she said, adding in a
slightly pouty voice, "Your favorite."
Makoto was almost able to walk fully upright again as they left campus.
His color was better also. In so far as beet red causes less comment
than blue. "Were you concentrating on making lunches, or were you
trusting to habit?" His voice had almost lost that trauma room wheeze.
Almost.
Nanami frowned, "I've made that lunch a million times, I don't *need* to
concentrate on it."
Makoto sighed, "At least it was in character."
"Baka!"
"That too."
* * *
...found a strange device that somehow allows telepathy. The only clue
to its origin is the red crab logo on it -- which is even more
mysterious because there aren't any crabs in El-Hazard...
...by combining the technologies from the Eye of God and the telepathy
machine, I believe that I can develop a way to look into other
dimensions by making contact, telepathically, with people who live
there. With the ability to 'look' into other dimensions and the Power
Key Staff to guide me, I believe that I will be able to find our home
dimension...
-- From the research notes of Makoto Mizuhara.
* * *
"So where are we going to get the equipment this time?"
Makoto grinned, stirring a pan of pork and greens. The smell of it
filled the small apartment. After lunch, they had unanimously voted it
Makoto's turn to cook.
"Leave that to me," he stated smugly.
"You don't mean-"
"Yep."
"Wow. I'll be sure to bring the first aid kit," Nanami sipped from her
glass of ice water.
"Hey, you know what young Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes
Martial Arts is capable of! It'll be no problem," he said confidently,
flipping the spatula up to spin a dozen times before plucking it back
out of the air gracefully by the handle.
"Well, you're certainly *in character*," Nanami responded tartly. Then a
mischievous smile appeared on her face, "Since we're being sooo in
character, maybe we should try out the cold water thing, you know, just
for practice, so we know how it works first hand." She swirled around
the water in her glass, making the ice cubes clink faintly.
Makoto had never thought of ice on glass as a menacing sound -- until
now. "Umm, I'd really rather not," he said in a voice that bordered on
pleading. The corner of Pleading Street and Terror Drive, to be
specific.
Obviously trying to change the subject, he said, "You know, I have a
good feeling about this one."
"Like the good feeling you had last time -- just before you jack
hammered into a gas main?" she asked, exasperated.
"Umm-Hmm!" he answered, the happy horse-shoe eyes of mirth fully
deployed.
Nanami sighed as she looked out the window into the darkening evening
twilight. "Our Makoto-chan, the eternal optimist."
* * *
The Saturday noon sky was blue and clear with only occasional white
tufts of clouds. There were sounds of young voices in the exercise
yard, but otherwise the high school was quiet. Some of the students who
lived nearby had come over to play basketball, but none of the school
clubs were meeting that particular Saturday.
Makoto and Nanami Saotome wandered casually through the gates and up to
the main building. There they stopped and gazed at the sign over the
door that read "Shinanome High School." A smaller, cardboard placard on
the door proclaimed, "All Visitors Must Sign-in at the Office".
"How many will this make?" Nanami asked quietly.
"Fourteen Shinanomes since the failed first attempt. Plus three schools
on this site with different names."
They mounted the few steps to the doors and, finding one on the end that
wasn't locked, stepped in to the cool shadows of the building. Most of
the lights were off and the institutional concrete made the building
feel cool and almost dank after the warmth of the sun outside.
The pair moved quietly down the hallway, barely glancing at the notices
and posters on the walls. They reached the stairs and were about to
descend when a shockingly familiar voice reached their ears.
"Hey, where do you two think you're going?"
Makoto heard Nanami take a sharp breath as he felt himself go numb. That
tone and that voice still commanded their instant attention. They
turned together with eyes like saucers to see... A tall, wiry man with
lazy looking eyes, well groomed hair, a perfect shave and an immaculate
suit. He looked somewhat like Fujisawa-sensei, but not as much as his
voice had suggested. His voice was an absolutely perfect match for
their old teacher and friend.
Both Makoto and Nanami let out a sigh, somehow mixing both relief and
disappointment.
The tall man looked surprised, "I'm sorry, I thought you were students,"
he bowed slightly, "I am Masasawa Fujimichi, the teacher on duty here,
may I help you?"
Makoto gaped, thinking to himself, Masa-*sawa* Fuji-*michi*?
Nanami recovered first, bowing in response she said, "Good afternoon,
Fujisa--I mean Fujimichi-sensei, we were just looking around the school
a bit."
Fujimichi frowned slightly, "You two look too old to be going to high
school, besides," he smiled slightly, "I believe you're married," he
added, nodding towards Makoto's left hand. Makoto looked down at his
left arm. Bereft of instructions during the crisis, it had wandered off
and was gripping the banister tightly. His hand was high lighted by a
beam of sun light from some window up stairs and his wedding band
gleamed dully.
Makoto's brain finally found first gear and he tried to divert the
conversation, "Er, does Shinanome have a mountain climbing club?"
Fujimichi brightened considerably, "Yes! Shinanome has a first rate
mountaineering club. I have the honor of serving as its humble
advisor," the resemblance to Fujisawa suddenly waxed, "And, I also have
the privilege of serving as adviser to the nutrition and fashion clubs
as well!" and waned just as quickly.
Makoto's brain missed second with a painful grind, "Nutrition?"
"And fashion?" chimed in Nanami. They looked at each other with
disbelief.
Nanami realized first that Fujimichi was speaking again. "I'm sorry,
sensei, what did you say?" she asked.
"I was asking again what may I help you with?" he repeated patiently,
"Since you are obviously a bit too old yourselves, are you looking at
high schools for a child?"
Nanami, dove for it, "Yes! We're here looking at schools for our
children!" Makoto's sudden "ERK!" made her quickly amend, "Er, our
future children that is!"
Makoto gave her a look of disbelief. There was no way that this guy was
going to buy--
"Excellent idea!" Fujimichi declared hardily. "Good education is the
foundation of society," his voice became thick with emotion, "I wish
that all parents were as far sighted and wise as you." He paused to
wipe a tear from his eye.
Makoto decided to make a get away before it got any worse. Grabbing
Nanami's hand, he started for the door, calling over his shoulder,
"Well, it's a wonderful school, bye!"
"But wait," Fujimichi called back, "You haven't registered yet!"
"We've, er," he faltered for an instant and then gave a devil-may-care
grin. After all, he thought, the damage is already done. "We've got to
go get started on those kids!"
The young Saotomes were down the front stairs and picking up speed
across the bright lit yard in an instant. Fujimichi shouted after them
from the stairs, in a voice rich with approval, "Young people like you
are the future of Japan!"
* * *
The first attempt at telepathic dimensional travel was a shocking
experience. Shayla-Shayla and Nanami insisted that I couldn't go alone
and Shayla won the coin toss. The process began just as I had
predicted, but the results were nothing I could have imagined. Instead
of simply being in touch with someone in another dimension, we each
found ourselves *merged* with a person from the other dimension, both
physically and mentally. I was suddenly Makoto Ikari, with all the
memories of both Makoto Mizuhara and Shinji Ikari and with some of the
physical characteristics of each. Even more surprising, everyone seemed
to know me as Makoto Ikari. Shayla couldn't handle being Shayla Langley
Sohryu, however. Afura was monitoring both of us back in El-Hazard and
pulled Shayla out early when her heart rate became erratic. Asuka
Langley Sohryu was instantly back as if there had never been a change --
physically, at least. I didn't stay long enough to see the long term
effects, but...
-- From the research notes of Makoto Mizuhara.
* * *
Makoto and Nanami were sitting in a booth at Chez Funsui. The dinner
rush was in full swing and the two leaned far over the table towards
each other to speak in an under tone.
"That was *so* weird," Nanami said, "I'm still shaky."
"It was definitely a new one," Makoto agreed, "We've never run across
such a close match for any of us before."
"He was just like what Fujisawa-sensei would be on health food and with
a fashion sense transplant."
Makoto smiled, "I know we're close this time!"
"Close to what?" Hitomi whispered. She was wearing her work uniform
and carrying a small pad. She stood at the end of the table and had
leaned over to join the small conspiracy.
Nanami and Makoto jumped back in their seats. "Er, ah, close to
figuring out a-a-a-" Makoto began, but quickly floundered.
Nanami came to the rescue. "We're playing a puzzle game on the computer
and we're getting close to the end."
"Really? Like Myst? I didn't know you two played computer games."
Hitomi straightened up again. "Actually, I didn't even know you had a
computer."
"We don't, but Nabiki is letting us use hers," Nanami explained quickly.
"Well, good luck. Now, what can I get you?" After taking their orders,
Hitomi left with a cheery smile..
"That was close," Nanami hissed at Makoto.
Makoto nodded. "We have to be more careful, the more out of character
we get, the more likely that there will be memory leakage when we leave.
Especially with people so--"
"Messed up?" she prompted.
"No--"
"Normality challenged?"
"No--"
"Oddity enriched?"
"No--"
"Messed up?"
"You said that already. Forget it." He sighed. "If only we'd gotten
her the first time..."
"Makoto-chan, there's no point beating yourself up over that
again. What's done is done. We just have to keep looking. Besides,"
she said with a smirk, "Didn't you say you had a good feeling about this
one?"
Makoto smiled slightly. "So I did."
Hitomi returned with dinner and chatted for only a moment before being
called away to another table. "You know," Nanami watched Hitomi
thoughtful, "I happen to know that *somebody* at this table is an
incredibly fast waitress..."
"Don't even think it. You don't need the money," Makoto growled, "Stay
in character, remember?"
"You're no fun."
* * *
...decided not to allow Shayla to try going with me again. She must
have been more traumatized than I thought -- she didn't even argue.
Nanami still insists that I can't go alone. I know it's wrong to be
*using* other people this way, but there's literally no other way. All
we have to do is find our own world and then I can use the Eye of God to
take the Power Key Staff to her and she can return us both to
El-Hazard...
-- From the research notes of Makoto Mizuhara.
* * *
Twilight had passed and the cool of the evening was again descending.
The concrete of the high school building that had resisted the heat all
day, now shed its heat, warming the two figures pressed against its side
in the darkness.
Rather than chancing the front door again, they made their way to one
end. There they found that, just as at their own Shinanome, the service
door to the gym had been wedged open by some thoughtful student.
Once inside, the layout of the building was familiar enough that they
quickly made their way to the basement. The pair stopped and regarded
the blank wall before them. There was enough light from the stairs to
see the smooth, blank wall. Nearer the stairs bulletin boards covered
the plaster, but here there were none. Experience told them that
beneath the plaster was the building's concrete foundation. And maybe
more.
"This is the spot, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yes."
A long moment's pause.
"Are you going to do anything about it?"
"Yes."
Another pause.
"Today?"
A sigh. "Yes."
The gloom lightened as a bright aura flared into life around Makoto.
Nanami made an little "Eep!" noise and backed away quickly. The tension
in the young man's form was evident. For a moment he simply let the
aura grow. Then, raising both hands, wrists together, palms towards the
wall, he shouted... "Mouko Takabisha!"
After the darkness, the light was blinding. A thunderous crash and the
sound of concrete chunks large and small bouncing down the hall in
either direction seemed to indicate success. A minute passed before
either's night vision had recovered enough to see.
Coughing at the dust, Nanami asked, "Can you see anything?"
"Just dust so far."
After another moment, the dust settled allowing a clear view through the
hole in the wall into...
An empty cavern in the earth. The blast had definitely opened a passage
into a previously existing cave, perhaps 30 feet across, but it was just
as definitely barren. Only rock, dirt and now broken bits of concrete
and plaster occupied it. Makoto and Nanami stood looking for several
long minutes; the disappointment clear in their faces.
Their peaceful dejection was rudely interrupted by the simultaneous wail
of the fire alarm and the cold burst of water from the fire sprinklers
overhead. "WaaaaaAAAGH!" Makato's initial shocked exclamation
lengthened into a scream that suddenly shifted up several octaves as the
change hit him.
Nanami looked on in awe, "That's incredible! You look *exactly* like
Fatora did when she dyed her red and tried to dress up as Shayla-Shayla!"
Makato was in shock. Nanami grabbed her by the shoulders and started
pushing her down the hall as yelling voices came from the nearby stairs.
Nanami steered Makoto up the far stairs and into the women's locker
room. Hiding there through all the commotion, they were able to slip
out finally just before dawn.
* * *
Two wet and dejected figures entered Maison Sabaku in the pale pre-dawn
light. Most of the dust had been washed away by the sprinklers and the
rest by the sudden, but mercifully short rain that had caught them half
way home.
"How are you doing?" Nanami asked, concerned.
"How-" Makoto stopped. "How-" She cleared her throat before launching a
final attempt, which even as a whisper still came out in a much higher
tone than she was comfortable with, "How do you think I feel? I'm
suddenly a *girl*. For real! And the part that bugs me most is that my
voice is just *wrong*." She paused, then barely breathed, "And we
failed. Again."
Nanami followed Makoto silently up the stairs to the second floor. As
Makoto fumbled for the key to Number 4, she softly spoke. "Makoto, you
told me yourself that it might take years. She waited for you ten
thousand years, a couple more will fly right by."
Makoto stopped, but didn't turn. "There was even a cavern. She *was*
there, if only-"
"I know, if only we could've gotten to her at our Shinanome. But
Ifurita knows you'll find her. We all do."
Makoto sighed, but she lifted her head and squared her shoulders. She
turned first the key and then the knob. "Someday..." she murmured as
the door swung open bathing them both in the first, bright, golden light
of dawn.
* * *
...wondered about the colossal physical size of the Eye of God. I had
assumed that it had to do with the volume of space effected. Now I know
better. The vast size and mass of the Eye are needed primarily to keep
the action-reaction down to something the buffer circuits can handle.
If I could, I'd laugh over the fact that some perverse version of
Newton's Third Law applies to dimensional travel. Sending something
across dimensions somehow *pushes* the sender the other way, not across,
but more *through* dimensions in the other 'direction'. Going through
dimensions and existing, however briefly, in each one seems to use up
more of the 'force', so we have no idea where Ifurita may have ended up.
Only Nanami's insistence that we scout out our home dimension to be sure
before I went with the staff saved me from being lost forever in some
unknown dimension...
-- From the research notes of Makoto Mizuhara.
* * *
Two figures stepped noiselessly into the room. The first dropped
bonelessly on the couch. The second took the time to close the door
softly before also dropping onto the couch. Several minutes passed.
Akane Saotome, her blue-black hair and clothes still wet, stood and
walked slowly into the kitchen. From the kitchen came sound of running
water. It ran for a long time before the sound changed to the rising
tone of some container being filled.
Akane returned and without ceremony poured the large measuring cup of
hot tap water over her husband, who had not moved. The change came over
him and with the ease of long practice he loosened his now too tight
belt and fastened it again. Akane plopped back down beside him. The
empty plastic cup fell from her hand and plunked to the floor.
"Thanks," he said softly.
"You're welcome," she whispered.
They stared into space until the noises of the other residents running
water, going up and down the stairs, opening and closing doors, brought
them back to reality.
"I have to re-take my quiz Monday...?" Akane's tone was questioning.
Ranma nodded. "And I aced my physics test." He wasn't going to
question it. Who was he to argue with divine intervention?
"Next time we both need to study, you're cooking," she stated.
Ranma nodded dumbly. Then he frowned, "'The future of Japan'?"