Hi!
Not actually finished yet, but this chapter is getting stupidly big.
Hell, I hit the 100kb overall total mark sometime last night, which is more than all my
previous attempts over the last two years put together! And it's barely
gotten going yet!
I just hope I can keep this up, and produce one heck of a story =)
again, fan art at http://www.geocities.com/curator_ami/fanart.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
No Need for a Dragon/Slayer Half
(Ryu/Satsujinha'nin Nibunoichi Muyo)
By Alex Timiney, 12/08/2002 to .
curator@discordia.connectfree.co.uk
Revision 0.5
(Wordwrapped MS-DOS text version)
A Ranma � (Manga) / Dragon Half (sort of) / Tenchi Muyo (OAV) / Buffy
the Vampire Slayer crossover
Insert standard disclaimer here.
Additional Disclaimer -
Warning: May contain spoilers for Real Life.
Caution: Not strictly canon (well, duh!)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No Need for a Dragon/Slayer Half
Act One, Part Two;
(first half)
"I Hate Girls!"
"It's the heart's filthy lesson,
It's the heart's filthy lesson,
It's the heart's filthy lesson,
Falls upon deaf ears,
Falls upon dead years,
Oh Ramona - If there was only some kind of future,
Oh Ramona - If there was only some kind of future,
In these cerulean skies,
Something in our skies,
Something in our skies,
Something in our blood,
Something in our skies,"
'N.W.C. STRIKES AGAIN!' Claimed the story at the bottom of the
newspaper's front page. 'Damages estimated to be 200 million yen,' was
the smaller caption.
Tenchi sighed and put the newspaper down on the table. which was
promptly blown away by one of Ryoko's attacks on Ayeka, but that had
become so much of the part and parcel of living in the Masaki household,
these days, that the explosion didn't even make him flinch. He sighed
again. He had been going to read that story later, but he was going to
have to go out and get a new paper now. Standing quietly, Tenchi exited
the house, unnoticed by the warring girls.
"Are you going out?" Sasami asked from the kitchen when she saw
the boy through the back door.
"Mm hmm," Tenchi nodded, his affirmation punctuated by a scream
and the sound of a collapsing wall.
"Great! Can you get some things for me?"
"Sure thing, Sasami. What do you need?" The younger girl either
failed to notice, or ignored his tired and exasperated tone of voice.
Sasami rattled off a short list of random grocery items. The list
was completed with a large, wet sounding, explosion, followed by the
pitter-patter of unnatural rain.
"Ok, I won't be long. Oh, and if they're done before I get back,"
he gestured towards the source of the screams, yells, insults and
explosions, "Can you go and get Washu-chan to tidy up?"
"Alright, Tenchi. I'll see you later, bye!"
Walking to the nearest shops gave Tenchi some time to think. He
had plenty to think about, and most of it related to the direction his
life was talking. at least, the normal bits.
Once he graduated from high school, he'd been planning on moving
to Tokyo to attend college. This was partly because he wanted to get as
far away from the craziness of his home life as he could. But the
recent, and increasingly intense reports of strangeness in Nerima were.
discouraging.
Tenchi was convinced that he was a weirdness magnet. How many
other boys his age could claim to have five beautiful alien girls, each
with super powers, or super technology, living in their home? Hell, how
many other people of any age or gender had actually come into contact
with alien races at all? How many were the descendants of an alien
prince, and had only recently in his life discovered that he was next in
line to the throne of a powerful galactic empire? Probably not many, if
any.
So it was unsurprising that the boy would believe that any
weirdness not related directly to him would hurl itself at him as soon
as he got close enough. Tenchi saw the so-called 'Nerima Wrecking Crew'
as exactly that sort of magnetic strangeness. If he even visited the
country's Capital, those super-powered martial artists (or whatever they
might be, though Tenchi suspected that they were yet more aliens) would
immediately bump into him, and stick like glue.
It was not something he was looking forward to. His life was
complicated enough as it was. He just wanted some peace. There /had/ to
be solution, something other than running to Tokyo and into yet more
chaos. If he could just look at the problem from a different angle, or
analyse the situation more thoroughly.
He needed to get away. Away from the crazy scientists, the ditzy
galaxy police officers and the super-powered girls, fighting for his
love. Didn't they understand that they had his love already? He cared
for them, all of them, more than he cared for himself - isn't that what
love is? Had he not told Kagato that he would forsake himself before
allowing harm to come to any of the girls?
But they wanted more. At least, Ayeka, Ryoko and maybe Mihoshi
did. Washu. well, she wanted more of something, that was for sure.
Sasami was a little too young to think in those terms, wasn't she? But
she would grow up into Tsunami, and she. well that was a different type
of relationship altogether. wasn't it?
Tenchi wanted to fall for someone normal, someone who he could
understand as a fellow human being, and someone who could sympathise
with his situation. Someone who he was most definitely not going to meet
for as long as Ryoko and Ayeka kept fighting a battle they had both
already lost, just by letting the romantic intentions be known
So he had to get away, as far away as possible. Hokkaido? Okinawa?
No, he wasn't thinking big enough.
Ah hah! Of course, Jurai! Yes!
NO! NO! NO! He was thinking too big, now! Not to mention it'd be
going from a strange situation on a normal world to an even stranger
situation on a truly alien world.
'Got to keep my feet on the earth. literally' the boy thought,
'Got to pay attention to what I'm doing too.' he'd completed the
shopping list and picked up a replacement newspaper without really
noticing what he was doing, so lost in though as he was.
The furthest he could possibly go would be. hmmm. in the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean, just off the east coast of South America, if he
recalled his geography lessons correctly. There weren't many good
universities in that part of the globe, and they almost certainly
wouldn't speak Japanese, or English. Factoring in academic and
linguistic requirements left the US and the UK, oh, and Australia.
He was going to have to talk with grandpa about this, as well as
do some research into foreign colleges. Just how were you supposed to
apply for entry into a faculty that wasn't in the same country, anyway?
* * *
A ceiling.
Who's ceiling?
Tofu-sensei's ceiling.
Why was he staring at it?
Because Akane had malleted him into the stratosphere. again.
Uh. make that 'malleted /her/'.
Ranma-chan propped herself up on the patient's bed and glanced
groggily around the all too familiar room. Unfortunately the movement
caused her stomach to rebel, and she retched into a conveniently placed
bucket at the bedside.
The foul smell triggered Ranma's memory of exactly why she was
unconscious, and why she felt so sick. She hadn't just been malleted;
she'd been forced to eat some of Akane's cooking. It had been a
particularly bad example of the tomboy's culinary skills. It was
supposed to have been miso soup. maybe. but it had looked more like the
droppings of a seriously ill pig, and had smelt distinctly like
industrial oven cleaner. Y'know, the stuff which you have to wear a
hazmat-suit during use. Just the attempt of trying to recall its taste
brought on a bout of dry retching.
Once the poisoned redhead brought herself under control, she had a
visitor. A visitor whose arrival was announced by the crashing sound of
a collapsing concrete wall, and the cry of "Now where am I? Ranma, this
is all your fault!"
Ryoga stood in the centre of the room, glancing about, trying to
gather his permanently scattered bearings. In the corner of his eye, he
spotted the scarlet pigtail of his nemesis. His rage at whatever slight
he'd imagined this time prevented him from thinking about why said
nemesis was lying prone on a bed with her head drooped over a foul
smelling bucket. Drawing his lead weighted umbrella from the top of his
back, he called out his trademark challenge.
"Ranma, PREPARE TO DIE!" The crazed boy's target barely had time
to roll out of the way before the medical bed was smashed in two by the
super heavy umbrella.
Ranma dispelled his self pity as he tumbled to his feet, somewhat
unsteadily, and anger began to fill her heart.
"I'm sick, man! Leave me alone!" she was sorely tempted to empty
the contents of the sick-bucket over her rival's head to prove it.
"Hah! A cowardly excuse, if ever I heard one," the lost boy yelled
back, "Now quit moaning and fight!"
This was infuriating! Why did no one ever listen to her? Why did
no one stop to consider her point of view, or how she felt? The heat in
onna-Ranma's heart boiled into a raging inferno as the her tolerance for
abuse began to break, like the spine of a camel with one too many straws
on it's back.
Fighting against a pounding headache and an almost overwhelming
feeling of nausea, Ranma attempted to adopt a defensive stance, wobbling
on her feet. A dull red aura sprang to life around her, growing stronger
by the second.
"I SAID NOT NOW!" the red head all but screamed. Involuntarily,
her mind was reeling with all the slights and injustices she'd received
at the hands of the pig-boy, and her other rivals and suitors. Her aura
swelled and burst into a life of it's own, animated by rippling flames.
She watched with unthinking rage as Ryoga's expression turned from
fierce hatred to that of. well, she wasn't quite sure what that
expression was supposed to be, but it seemed to be a combination of
surprise, confusion and. worry?
"Ranma. you. you're." the lost boy stuttered and pointed at the
sick girl.
"What!?" she responded acidly. Was he going just stand there and
gape all day? She wiped a little sweat from her brow and rubbed her
eyes. It didn't stop the fuzziness from slowly creeping into her vision.
Hearing a crash and a shout from the small room where Ranma was
resting, Ono Tofu made efforts to finish up with his current patient at
a faster rat, and see what the fuss was about. Deftly snapping the mal-
aligned joint back into place, he excused himself for a moment to check
up on the pigtailed martial artist.
What he found in the back room was strange enough to make one of
his eyebrows quirk up of its own accord. One of Ranma's rivals was
facing off against the sickly boy turned girl, whose angry red aura was.
well. shaped oddly. Recovering from the curious sight, he set about
resolving the confrontation, and noted to himself to have a little chat
with Ranma later on.
"Ranma, you're really not well enough to be out of bed yet." He
said calmly from the doorway. His voiced must have been like a calming
balm to Ranma's mind, for her malformed aura of fire began to dissipate.
He then walked up the other boy, and placed a hand on his shoulder to
gather his attention, "Ryoga, could you visit some other time, please.
Ranma's had a nasty shock to his system, and he's going to need more
rest than usual to recover."
"You mean he really is sick?" the news seemed to distract Ryoga
from his earlier shock at Ranma's aura.
As if to corroborate the doctor's words, the redhead's knees gave
way, just as her blurring vision began to fade away completely. Weak,
and further exhausted from her exertions, she blacked out and collapsed
to the floor.
* * *
In the office of the Masaki Shinto shrine, the head priest sat
down with a tray of tea making implements and faced his grandson, who
had approached him after completing his chores for the day.
"So, you are thinking of studying abroad?" Katsuhito asked.
"Yes, grandpa. I." Tenchi struggled for a moment, trying to work
out what to say, and why to say it.
The elder Masaki sipped his tea, letting his grandson stew for a
moment, before helping him out, "You want to get away from the situation
with the girls?"
"Hai."
"And you don't think Tokyo is far away enough?"
"Its not that. its just that. well," Tenchi took out the rolled up
paper from his back pocket and showed one of the articles to the priest,
"There's this weird group of people in Tokyo. Nobody seems to know much
about them, but they've been known to cause huge amounts of damage in
their fights. They destroy buildings with their bare hands and shoot out
blasts of energy. The only other people I know of who can cause that
much damage like that are Ryoko and Ayeka. Neither of them are from
Earth, so I really don't think this group is, either."
"Hmmm."Katsuhito sipped his tea and looked over the article
regarding the activities of the so-called 'Nerima Wrecking Crew', while
his grandson continued his pent up rant.
"It's not just that I want to get away from the girls here. I want
to get away from Japan! Its full of crazy aliens everywhere I go!" he
stopped for a moment to sigh and catch his breath. He continued when
Katsuhito let the opportunity to interrupt go past, "Until a few years
ago, I had a normal life, grandpa. Then I released Ryoko and all hell
broke loose. Its not that I regret anything I've done. but I've had
enough excitement and strangeness to last me a lifetime, and I want to
go back to having a normal life again."
The elder man finished scanning the article and took another sip
of tea. It wasn't anything new - he'd been keeping track of this group
since they first started appearing in the news, and had determined that
they were in fact ordinary humans. ordinary being a relative term, of
course. who had somehow been trained to extraordinary levels, and taught
techniques he had though to be lost, centuries before.
Keeping his expression calm and neutral, he turned his thoughts
back to what Tenchi had been saying. It was a shame - he'd rather been
hoping to find out more about this groups of super powered martial
artists, by proxy of his grandson - but the boy had clearly already made
up his mind, and was merely seeking the obtuse support of a some one
playing the Old Wise Sensei act.
"And while you're gone, leading your idyllic normal life, what
will happen to the girls?" As an Old Wise Sensei, it was his duty to
pick on such minor details, so the boy could vocalise his reasons and,
in the face of such wisdom, be sure his logic was sound.
"Well. uh." that's assuming, of course, that it is a minor detail,
and that the boy has even thought about it.
"After all, you are their reason for being here on Earth. You are
also the reason why they have not all been killed while fighting Kagato,
or Doctor Clay. How do you think they would react to your absence, or
defend them selves, should another extra terrestrial emergency arise?"
He took the last sip of tea and refilled his cup, his attitude still as
stoic as if he had not just riddled his grandson's grand-scheme with
bullet holes.
Tenchi some of his earlier angst, and his shoulders drooped
slightly as he considered this new though. Silently he chastised himself
for not thinking about the girl's perspective earlier. but wait, he'd
been nothing if not kind and considerate towards his houseguests, always
putting their needs before his own, and look where that got him! While
he would never wish for any harm to come to any of his various alien
friends, it was time for him to think about himself for once, and choose
what he wanted, consequences be damned! He tensed his shoulders again,
in preparation for another rant, and contemplated his response.
"If any of them have any respect for me, they'll keep away from
where ever I go, unless I invite them. It might upset them, but if any
of them really do love me, then surely they'd be more concerned about my
own happiness than their own? In which case they should be happy that
I'm doing something that makes me happy, for as long as I know that they
aren't unhappy at what I'm doing. which they won't be. uh. I think." He
had to stop and think about that one for a few moments, checking that it
did actually make sense, before addressing the other problem that his
grandpa had brought up.
"And if some crazy loon with even more super super-powers shows
up, bent on destroying the world, or capturing Tsunami, or kidnapping
Washu, or enslaving Ryoko, or marrying Ayeka, then. I'm sure that Washu
could provide me with a transport solution, so I can get back here in
time to save the day." Tenchi struggled to keep the sarcasm out of his
voice when he said that, "Maybe some sort of warp portal thing, or
another Ryo-Ohki, then I'd be only minutes, or even seconds away, but
still far enough away to keep out of the day to day craziness, which is
driving me. well, crazy!"
"It sounds like you have already convinced yourself that this is
the right thing to do. As far as your training is concerned, where you
study for the next few years will have little impact as you would likely
be far from home anyway." Katsuhito quietly thought about things for a
moment. Maybe he take a vacation a visit Tokyo himself. Oh. hang on, he
was supposed to be thinking about Tenchi's plans. "Hmmm. If you can find
a good university, which is accepting overseas students at this late
date," Now, who could he get to look after the temple while he was away?
"And you can organise the trip yourself." with Tenchi away he'd have to
hire someone. unless. no, it would be unfair to have the boy look after
the shrine while he's also organising his life, even if only for a week
(which probably wouldn't bee long enough to conduct an investigation,
anyway) "then you may have my blessing. Until then. you still have your
chores to do."
On the other hand, he'd be needed to deal with the aftermath of
Tenchi's leaving, so he had to go before Tenchi did. but he had to keep
his eyes on the boy, too. Damn. Nerima would just have to wait.
*
Having grown tired of bickering with Ayeka (what was the point
when the object of their conflict wasn't about?), Ryoko had decided to
discreetly find out what exactly Tenchi was doing. and maybe get some
'quality time' with him, if he wasn't doing anything as such. When the
alternatives were helping Washu tidy up, or re-reading last week's
Weekly Jump, playing with Tenchi alone was definitely first choice by a
long way. Checking with Sasami, the younger princess directed her
towards the shrine.
Teleporting to the courtyard, she glanced about and saw that the
place was empty. A broom was propped up by the entrance to one building,
a pile of debris rustling gently in the evening breeze to one side. The
sounds of the rapidly approaching summer filled the air, but the chirps
and squawks of the forest animals were subdued enough for the gentle
murmur of conversation to be heard from the office.
Curious, Ryoko got as close as she dared to the inhabited
structure, and then phased into the ground, out of sight. She moved into
position, just in time to hear an outburst that made her heart ache.
Resisting the urge to bolt, or charge in and confront Tenchi, she stood
her ground (or rather, hovered under it) and listened to the remainder
of the interview.
* * *
Shining an ophthalmoscope into the redheaded girl's eyes, Doctor
Tofu watched with concerned interest through the device's optics as
Onna-Ranma's irises contracted, making her pupils into thin, reptilian
slits. He repeated the action a couple of times with each eye, checking
that he wasn't imagining it, nor was it some trick of the light. Finally
satisfied, he put the clunky, pen like tool down and hefted a kettle of
hot water.
"Is there somethin' wrong, doc?" the girl asked, a slight trace of
worry in her voice.
"Possibly," the doctor replied, somewhat stoically, as he poured
just enough hot water onto his patient to trigger the transformation-
inducing curse.
Ranma, now male, simply blinked before Tofu shone the light stick
in his eyes again.
"Hmm." this time, when he examined Ranma's male form's eyes,
Doctor Tofu saw what he would normal have expected - perfectly round
pupils, no matter how dilated or contracted the blue-grey irises were.
"Ranma, have you noticed any changes to your female form's body
recently?"
"Well, my breasts have been getting larger."
"Not that sort of change, Ranma,"
"Uh... you mean, the once-a-month thing? I though I didn't have to
worry about that because of..."
"Not that, either, Ranma,"
Damn, Ranma thought silently to himself. He'd had a good idea what
the doc had been getting at to begin with, but he definitely didn't want
to have to worry about that right now. But his sweet-and-innocent act
hadn't gotten him free and clear. Double damn! Talking about his breasts
just sounded /too/ weird when he was a boy. What if someone overheard?
They'd think he was a pervert, or something.
But what had been wrong with his, or rather, her eyes?
"Well, I can't really think of anything, aside from that." Maybe
he could get out of this yet.
Tofu put the instrument away, Tofu crossed his arms and regarded
the boy, "What about your hair, Ranma? It wasn't bright red when you
first arrived back here from China, and if you'd been dying it, you'd
still have red hair in your natural form."
Triple damn! Ranma was slowly being backed into a corner, where
he'd have to spill the beans, or depart rather rapidly, and he knew it.
Still, he scrabbled at whatever possible ways out he could see. He was
not going to let anyone find out about /that/ incident, one of only a
few mess-ups in his life he could truly claim as his own.
"Well, maybe it's just an aspect of the girl who drowned in the
nyaniichuan, which has just started to show its self, or somethin', I
dunno!" he spluttered, now clearly loosing his cool as he tested the
last avenue of escape. Sweat gathered on his brow and he fidgeted as his
body prepared for the subconscious desire to flee.
"Ranma, is there something you're not telling me?"
The pigtailed martial artist hopped up to his feet from where he
had been perched on an examination bench, his vigorous action an
momentum almost taking him up to the ceiling.
"Well, I feel just fine now. I'll just be going now. Look" he
pointed in the opposite direction to where he was planning to escape,
"Its Kasumi!"
Tofu's glasses immediately fogged up and he glanced round to stare
at the blank wall that Ranma had pointed at. He quickly recovered,
though, having expected some foul trick of the sort, and also having
mellowed out somewhat around Kasumi in the past few years - he hadn't
seriously injured anyone while in the young woman's presence for nearly
four months! Returning to sanity and reacting quickly, he caught his
reluctant patient's arm before he could make good his escape.
"Ranma, don't you remember what happened yesterday evening?" That
caught the boy's attention, and halted his mad dash out the door. What
had happened? Why had Ryoga freaked out? And how had he let himself
loose his temper like that?
"Ryoga freaked out when I lost my temper. it's not like him to
scare so easily. D'you know what happened?"
The doctor quietly closed the small examination room's door and
led Ranma back to sit on the couch. Putting a hand to his temples, he
tried to think of the best way to describe what he had witnessed the
previous day.
"Did you know there are people who take photographs of the auras
of living things, even when their aura is not being manifested?" The boy
gently shook his head. Tofu continued non the less, "What these people
take pictures of is actually slightly different to the battle auras that
you and I are familiar with, but they share some of the same
properties," Ranma paid close attention, even if the relevance of any of
this was unobvious to him, "One of those properties is that when a limb
or body part has been removed, there is often an aura where that part
used to be. This happens especially in lizards that can regenerate lost
limbs, and cases where a patient claims to be able to feel the missing
part of his or her body, as if it were still there."
Ranma gulped, having made the connection in the deep recesses of
his mind. "What're ya tryin' to say, doc?" he asked, hoping against hope
that his seal was still sound.
"Ranma, when you manifested you aura last night, it had phantom
body parts, just like in those photographs."
"But I don't have any missing limbs, or nothin'," he stated the
obvious, still in denial about the whole affair, even as yet another
mistake long past came tumbling down around him.
"Well, no, not as such. But these phantom limbs weren't human.
they were more, erm, draconic in nature. Now. are you sure there is
nothing you want to tell me? Nothing that could shed some light on this
new phenomenon?"
The cursed boy looked down dejectedly at the floor. Well, that was
it, then - confirmation that his miserable excuse for a violent and
chaotic life would shortly be descending into the nether regions of
hell. Just when he thought that things couldn't get any worse, the kami
threw a spanner in the already twisted works. The seal on his second
curse was breaking down, and with no way to stop it, his cursed form was
slowly returning to its dragon half state.
"It's a long story," he muttered with a sigh, "A story I only
started remembering recently, when the whole affair started haunting my
dreams." Tofu gave a gentle nod when the boy looked up, encouraging him
to continue. "I still don't remember what happened, or why Pop's never
said anything about it, but basically it started a few days after we ran
into the Amazons. With Shampoo chasing us around all over the place, I
figured if I could change back for good, she wouldn't recognise me, and
wouldn't keep at me all the time.
"It was the second or third day of being hunted, an' I was
thinking about the curse, and I thought. well, if there's a spring o'
drowned girl, then maybe there'd be a spring o' drowned boy, too, an' I
figured that if I could jump in that, I'd be back to normal. So after
Pops went to sleep, I sneaked off back to Jusenkyo."
*
The Nerima grape vine was a short one where Ranma Saotome was
concerned. So it was little surprise that Xian Pu had found out about
her dream-boy's hospitalisation at the hands of the 'Kitchen Destroyer's
culinary attempts before the day was up. In her shallow, one track mind,
the beautiful great-granddaughter of the Joketsuzoku matriarch saw this
as just another attempt to win over her Airen. Naturally she completely
ignored the Lost Boy's other mutterings about demonic auras, and long-
term possessions. Instead she started to prepare her usual, and
predictable, plans.
With a ring-ring, the purple haired amazon neatly landed her
bicycle inside Tofu-sensei's clinic. Through the wall. Thankfully for
the martial medical practitioner, she entered through the pre-existing
hole, which had been created by a vengeful Ryoga Hibiki the previous
day. Food delivery box in hand, she trotted into the reception area,
looking for her no-doubt hungry airen (who wouldn't be hungry after
having the Kitchen Destroyer's foul creations pumped from their
stomach?).
Hearing her favourite voice from the closed off area in the
doctor's office, she stopped just outside the door, listening vaguely to
what was being said. Though the discussion of phantom bodies, or
somesuch, piqued her interest, she prepared to make her entrance in her
usual style. After all, it wouldn't do for her to be serving cold food,
just so she could eavesdrop on her husband, now, would it? Or would it?
The lovely hot ramen she had prepared wouldn't be at an eatable
temperature for a few more minutes yet.
Very quickly, she became enthralled by the story that was being
told. A story that explained why she had been unable to track Ranma for
over a week after he had first defeated her as a girl in her village. A
story that also explained a few other things besides, but also raised a
few questions about Ranma's relationship with herself and the
Joketsuzoku.
*
"... and that's when I ran into the Dragons Whisker." Ranma
concluded his story, or as much as he could remember - it was still
pretty hazy, but he definitely got the main points across; getting
recursed at Jusenkyo, scavenging for food for a week, while the villages
drove him away and sent demon hunters after him, meeting the ugly mage
who was descended from the original crafters of the cursed springs, and
the scrying spell. which for some reason he could remember with absolute
clarity, especially the parts about that strange feral girl that the
mage seemed to know as some sort of slayer. The details of the seal
spell were beyond him, though.
With chin resting in one hand and elbow resting in the other hand,
Tofu thought very carefully about what he heard. There was no doubt that
Ranma had been telling the truth - evidence he'd seen with his own eyes
both earlier this morning and later last night corroborated the tale.
But, though he had little experience with soul-searching spells or
magery on the whole, he was. concerned. about the appearance of the
Slayer in the magically induced vision.
Having several friends, or rather, having /had/ several friends on
the Watchers council, he was well versed in the prophesies and legends
regarding the Slayer, vampires and the like, and the Hellmouth. It made
sense that only someone born to be the slayer would see the original
slayer in that sort of deep, probing spell. So why had she appeared in
Ranma's vision? Could someone drowned in the Nyaniichuan become the
slayer? Perhaps the drowning itself was some sort of rebirth? Realising
that he was in no position to answer such questions, Tofu decided he was
going to have to have a little chat with the last active Watcher, his
old friend Giles-san.
"This may be more serious than is seems, Ranma, not the draconic
aspect of your curse, but about this slayer girl you say you saw. I'm
going to have to contact a friend who knows about this sort of thing,
and see what he has to say about it." he stood and made to leave for his
desk, on the other side of the partition.
"Wait, doc. Just one thing - what was up with my eyes?"
"See for your self." He gestured to the ophthalmoscope, a mirror
and a bucket of water, and then drew back the partition to admit himself
to his desk and phone. Grabbing the indicated items, Ranma moved to the
mirror, both curiosity and dread filling his heart.
Looking into the mirror after a cursory examination of the
illuminating instrument to see how it worked, Ranma saw the last thing
expected to find in a mirror's reflection. It was shampoo, half hidden
in the folds of a medical screen, and she looked like she'd been crying.
Spinning around to face the amazon girl, he tried to expect the
unexpected. Was she going to glomp him? Was she going to attack him, or
maybe. hold on, just what was she doing here anyway? Had she overheard
his story?
"Shampoo." he started, taking a step forward, not entirely sure
what had happened, or what was going to happen. With a sob, the
distressed girl darted out of the practice without a word. "Oh crap."
Well, at least she'd left the ramen delivery box behind. Grabbing a
bowl, he returned his attention to the mirror, eating with one hand and
shining the light in his eyes with the other. A few moments (and a bowl
ramen) later, he emptied the bucket over his head. Upon re-examining her
eyes, she almost dropped the second bowl of noodles. "Ohhhh. CRAP!"
* * *
After having spoken with his grandfather, Tenchi had taken the
first opportunity he had to collect some pamphlets and the like from his
school's careers department. They were mostly about overseas university
applications, and some information on popular foreign colleges for
examination at home.
Hefting an atlas, a large pile of prospectuses, and an English-
Japanese dictionary, Tenchi set down to study his option in the one
place he could expect a little peace and quiet - the library. It was
most often deserted, for it's shelves contained nothing but vast
archives of shojo-manga and trashy romance novels. Who wants to read
that kind of thing? Well, apart from his father who collected the stuff
in the first place, and the girls (though strangely only in the spring
time). Actually, come to think of it, he and his grandfather were the
only people who didn't have an interest in the most flammable room in
the house. Never the less, it was almost always deserted, and no one
would think to look for him here.
Laying the various booklets out on a table, the first thing he did
was to plot in the atlas exactly where each collage was and determine
how far they were from Japan. He discarded those that were closer than
5500 miles - those not quite half a world away. Of the dozen or so
places left, most were in the UK or along the east coast of America.
The next step he took was to examine the details of the courses
available. Having no specific idea of what he'd like to study, or any
particular career path in mind, he rejected various universities on the
basis of having to narrow a field of study. This left him with a few
faculties, one in the south west peninsular of the UK, one on the west
coast of the US, and a couple in the north east.
At this point he stopped for a break. All that research stuff was
surprisingly hard work, and he been sat in quiet contemplation of the
possible choices for several hours. He supposed that he could call it a
day, and apply for all four courses, then attend his first choice out of
the places he was accepted. but he needed to work out which was his
first choice, of course, and there may be other factors further limiting
his options. He stopped himself from thinking more about it - he was
going to have a break, even if it killed him (or whatever foul
concoction may have been brewed up by Ayeka or Ryoko).
*
While Tenchi had been going about his extra curricular homework,
the rest of the household had been remarkably quiet. In fact things had
been a little less intense for quite some time, though Ryoko had been
somewhat sullen. Ayeka was dealing with a few chores around the house,
Sasami was (as ever) preparing for the next meal, Washu had kept to
herself in her lab, and Mihoshi and Ryoko were slacking off in front of
the TV, watching the most inane soap opera they could find on the
galactic broadcasts. Noboyuki was absent, as he was working late on an
important project.
After finishing the small amount of cleaning she had set about
doing, Ayeka noticed that Tenchi hadn't been about since he got home.
Curious (and also not particularly willing to sit down and watch TV with
that monster woman), she went to look for him. After checking finding
the young prince's usual haunts vacant (or otherwise occupied), she went
to the kitchen.
"Sasami, have you seen Lord Tenchi?" she asked her younger sister.
"Nuh huh, not since he got back," she replied as she chopped
through a pile of vegetables, and slipping a carrot to the humanoid Ryo-
Ohki, who had been overseeing a more mundane task. "I thought he was in
his room doing homework."
"He's not there. I checked already. Do you think he might have
gone up to the shrine?"
"Well, he had a lot of. Aah! That's too much, Ryo-Ohki!" she
dashed to the other side of the kitchen to prevent the cabbitoid from
ruining some element of the upcoming meal, ".There, that's better,"
Turning back to the chopping board she picked up where she left off,
both with the vegetables and her observations. "He had a lot of books
and things when he got back, so I though he must have had lost of work
to do and he'd be spending most of the evening doing it. But if he's not
in his room, then maybe he decided to work in the library, since it's
usually pretty quiet in there."
"Thank you, Sasami, I had not thought of looking in there." She
turned to leave.
"Oh, Ayeka, if you find him can you tell him that dinner will be
ready in about half an hour? I wouldn't want him to get so bogged down
with work that he's late for the meal."
"Of course."
Ayeka opened the ground floor door to the library and took a step
in. straight into Tenchi. The two teenagers recoiled, struggling to
avoid falling over. Looking sheepishly at each other, they both
apologised at the same time.
"I'm sorry."
"Oh, excuse me."
They blinked at each other, and then laughed with embarrassment
for a moment. Ayeka was the first to speak again.
"I was just looking for you, Lord Tenchi. I had not seen you since
you arrived home," she stated in a formal fashion, though with a tinge
of concern, "Were you doing your homework?"
"Uh, yeah, homework. I guess that what I must have been doing, hah
hah," he laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck, "I was just
stopping for a break - it's really hard work."
"I see. As a matter of fact, Sasami asked me to tell you that
dinner would be ready in about half an hour. Perhaps I could help you
until then. After all, they do say a problem shared is a problem halved,
do they not?"
"Well, heh heh, it's really nice of you to offer, Ayeka, but I'm
not really sure it's something you could help me with," the neck
scratching became more vigorous for a moment, and the attentive observer
would had noticed the odd bead of sweat gathering on his brow. "Besides,
it really has drained me, and I'd just like to watch TV for a while."
"I understand, but if you are having a hard time with it, I must
insist that I help you, perhaps after dinner is completed, if Sasami
would excuse me from helping with the dishes. I am quite a scholar, you
know," the princess said with a smile.
"Uh, sure, ok. After dinner." Tenchi barely managed to get that
out coherently, without his actual thoughts of '.oh crap oh crap oh
crap.' getting through. That out of the way, he slinked past Ayeka and
into the lounge, completely forgetting to close the library door behind
him.
With a sigh he sunk into an armchair, glad that Ayeka hadn't found
out his plans. Of course, he'd have to invent some homework for them to
do later, and that would set his work back. He sighed again, almost a
resigned groan, when he felt Ryoko teleport into his lap and slink
around him. Thinking that the space pirate's bitter rival was close behind him, visions of catastrophe filled his mind. Again. 'Here we go again. just hope they don't destroy the kitchen until after dinner this time.'
Ayeka, however, did not immediately follow Tenchi into the lounge
as he had expected. This was partly because she already knew that what
was being shown held little interest for her (she much preferred 'Brook
System' to 'Red Starsiders' because the actors and script writers were
clearly of a higher calibre), it was also partly because she wanted to
know just what sort of homework would be beyond her.
Seeing Tenchi enter the lounge, out of sight, she crept silently
into the library and found the small reading table at which Tenchi's
work was laid out. She glanced over the atlas, the pamphlets and the
like, and the small notepad with assorted nonsensical scribbles.
At first, from the points plotted on one of the larger scaled maps
in the atlas, she assumed that the work must have been for a geography
class, perhaps some large piece of coursework, which would contribute to
his overall grade. Silently she chided the boy for thinking of so little
of her - she had been living here for a year or so; it would have been
rude not to have learnt something about the makeup of her host's home
planet.
Glancing over the pamphlets, searching for some clue as to what
the task might be, however, she realised that her first impression must
have been wrong. Almost all of the glossy booklets were written in an
Earth native language that she recognised as being called 'English'. It
was not a language that had found much use in the galaxy, the preferred
tongue being Jurai-go, primarily because it had evolved exclusively in
the northwest hemisphere of this planet, and had not really been exposed
to the rest of the universe.
Thinking that she now knew the reason for Tenchi's hesitation to
accept help (beyond the shy boy's natural tendencies), she put the small
workspace back to how it was when she found it. As a result, she
completely missed the small Japanese leaflet entitled 'Applying to
Overseas Colleges For Dummies'.
Exiting the small library, she joined the others in the lounge to
partake in the joys of poor quality galactic soap operas. Approximately
fifteen minutes later, the room (and later, the house) erupted in a
predictable ball of explosive violence. Again.
* * *
"And so you think this boy could be the next slayer?" Giles
asked, somewhat incredulously. He was standing by the phone in his
apartment, cradling the handset under his chin while he made notes on a
pad of paper. The distorted sound of speech could be heard through the
handset, though compressed frequencies and physical obstacles mad
understanding the words impossible to the casual eavesdropper.
"A Dragon Half? That's preposterous! There have been thousands of
spirits, demons and all sorts of occult creatures of the night recorded
in detail over the millennia, but there has never been any solid
evidence of dragons. It is known to have been a commonly used excuse for
the inadequacies of medieval scribes and map makers."
A distorted chuckle, followed by more unintelligible speech.
"Oh. I see. How unfortunate." The ex-watcher pondered on the
unheard revelation for a moment. "Tell me more about this 'scrying
spell'."
More indistinguishable words could be heard from the handset's
small speaker. Whatever was being said took quite some time and must
have been very informative or important, for the Englishman's face
slowly transformed from it's normal indifferent appearance to a deep,
thoughtful scowl over the numerous minutes of the telling. Finally, the
remote voice finished and Giles formed a response.
"Well, this is most unorthodox. But then, that would rather
accurately sum up the past few years." he was briefly interrupted by the
telephone voice, "Yes, yes. That would probably be in his best
interests, and I would certainly be interested in meeting such a
strangely fated boy, but Tofu-san, this really isn't the best of times
to for me to be entertaining a visitor. There's rather a lot going on
here, at the moment, and I can't guarantee Ranma's safety. Could this
matter wait until after the summer, perhaps?"
Yet more distorted speech, though from the tone it could be
construed that the voice was concerned about something.
"Well, this could be much more important than his academic plans.
And there is a university here in Sunnydale, perhaps he could enrol
there?"
* * *
"And just where have you been for the past day?" Akane demanded
angrily when Ranma-chan entered the Tendo's front gate.
"At Tofu-sensei's," was the redhead's halfhearted reply, "You
should know - you sent me there."
"Humph, I suppose that means that hussy amazon has started working
there again," she crossed her arms and scowled indignantly, "Why else
would you spend so much time there when you're clearly perfectly fine?"
Ranma sighed. Normally he'd have a crude insulting comeback,
despite knowing in the back of her mind where it would eventually lead -
'blunt-instrument-ville' - but right now she was weary with the
knowledge of what was happening to her, and the possible reasons why.
So it was with some surprise to Akane that her iinazuke simply
muttered "Whatever, Akane," and walked past her.
Surprise gave way to concern. 'That's not like Ranma at all - he's
Mr. Joy-In-Life; he never gets depressed, or ignores me.' the youngest
Tendo thought.
Concern gave way to anger. 'He ignored me! How dare he! What a
jerk!'
"Ranma you BAKA! Get back here!" she shouted and chased after the
smaller girl. after gabbing the nearest blunt weapon, of course, which
in this case was a bokken, propped up against the front door. Quickly
catching up, she swung the lead weighted bamboo rod in a large, overhead
arc, aiming to swat the object of her ire into the ground.
Unfortunately Ranma was still in deep thought. Of course, she's
had been trained to a level where she could fight in her sleep (and had,
after a fashion), so no thought was require to counter the clumsy
attack. However, thought was required to recognise the fianc�e-anger-
strike nature of the attack, so that she could override her desire to
fight back against a person she had no right to hit, and get the
inevitable pounding instead.
Without her conscious mind actively guarding against such a gaffe,
Ranma's body moved almost of it's own accord. Snatching the end of the
bamboo blade with one hand, and using the other arm as a pivot, she
shifted the practice weapon's enhanced momentum along its ki-
strengthened length. The wooden tip stopped and the handle suddenly shot
into the air, taking Akane with it.
The counter offence didn't stop there, though. With Akane now
launched into a parabolic path over Ranma's head, she shifted her weight
onto her left foot and kicked straight up with her right. Akane, shocked
and unable to put up a defence, was hit squarely in the chest on
vulnerable spots, a hundred times or so, and was slammed into the
ceiling.
When the beaten girl fell to the floor with a thump, Ranma's
senses came back to her. She looked at the bokken in her hands. The
sizable dent in the ceiling. The still form of her iinazuke, lying at
her feet. 'Dear kami, what have I done!?'
"Come on, Akane. Quit fooling around." She said, somewhat shakily,
to the prone girl. She wasn't dead. Of course not. She was a tough
Tomboy, as strong as an ox. A couple of hundred kicks shouldn't even
phase her. Obviously she was just playing around, trying to make Ranma
feel bad.
The shocked look on Nabiki's face, Soun's rapidly forming demon
head, and the clatter-splash of a falling saucepan, from where Kasumi
was standing in the kitchen doorway, however, convinced Ranma that they
thought differently.
"Eeep!" she squeaked. Those inclined to do so would have imagined
a meadow's worth of flower heads drifting about her, as she drew her
arms to her chest and put on her 'sweet and innocent' look. Normally she
would indeed have been the very picture of sweetness and innocence. But
with an apparently dead body at her feet, it picture reeked of hidden
guilt. Ranma knew it. Before anyone could say a thing, she changed
tactics.
"Saotome Secret Technique, revised: RUN AWAY!" and with that, she
was gone.
*
Kuh Lon listened attentively to the tale her great granddaughter
recited. It was. interesting, to say the least. She kept her curiosity,
and her conclusions to herself, however. Outwardly, once Xian Pu had
finished her story of a story, she calmed the girl down.
"Shampoo, do not be upset," she consoled, "If son-in-law's cursed
from really is turning into some sort half dragon, then that would only
make him a stronger fighter, and make it even more important that you
marry him into the tribe.
"As for the wild girl you saw he saw in that vision of his. even
if it were the slayer, it could not possibly be his calling, for he was
born a boy. That is his true form, and you should know from the village
lore that only true women can become the slayer." She was, of course,
lying through her teeth. "Perhaps, if the vision was true, it simply
means that he is destined to marry you and enter the tribe."
"You really think so, Great Grandmother?" Xian Pu seemed delighted
at the idea and the tears that had marred her face were quickly wiped
away. When Kuh Lon nodded her confirmation, Shampoo stood from her seat,
a look of joyous determination adorning her features. "Then it even more
important that Shampoo get Airen's heart and marry him." She dashed to
the kitchen area and began preparing bowls of ramen for her beloved.
Kuh Lon sighed. Perhaps one day Xian Pu would grow a brain, and
she would find a way of capturing Ranma's heart, but until then, they
would be exiled in Japan. Unfortunately, though, not even her own grand
intellect had succeeded in accosting the accursed boy. It probably
didn't matter now, though. If Ranma was the next slayer, then he would
be exempt from the village laws, and automatically become an honorary
member of the tribe.
Now her primary task was to determine if he really was the slayer,
or perhaps a slayer- to-be. Normally it would be a fairly simple task,
but with Ranma's curse, and the matter of it's changing nature, not to
mention his original strength and skill, finding out what his destiny
was would be highly challenging.
If only there were some vampires in Tokyo. there probably were,
but it would take some time to find them. In the mean time, she would
just have to test the strength of Ranma's male and female forms.
*
Not the end, but the middle.
Sort of a hiatus.
Remember the eleventh commandment (or the sixth, if you're a discordian)-
Thou Shalt Send C&C
.---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
| Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
| Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
| Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject |
`---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'