Hi!
After some thought, I've revised chapter two, and split it into two parralel parts.
This is the Ranma part.
The Tenchi part is on its way.
Oh, and previous parts, and minor revisions can now be found on
http://www.geocities.com/curator_ami/fanfic.html
As well as tannim.anifics.com (when I get around to submitting them)
Anyhoo...
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No Need for a Dragon/Slayer Half
(Ryu/Satsujinha'nin Nibunoichi Muyo)
By Alex Timiney, 12/08/2002 to 05/09/2002
curator@discordia.connectfree.co.uk
Revision 1.1.1 (05/09/2002)
(Wordwrapped MS-DOS text version)
Modified in light of C&C by Michael Feltmate
Thanks!
A Ranma 1/2 (Manga) / Dragon Half (sort of) / Tenchi Muyo (OAV) /
Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover
Insert standard disclaimer here.
Additional Disclaimer -
Warning: May contain spoilers for dinner. Read after a large meal.
Caution: Not strictly cannon.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No Need for a Dragon/Slayer Half
Act One, Part Two-R;
"I Hate Girls, Even Though I Am One!"
(This chapter occurs simultaneously with Part 2-T
and may be read in either order)
"There's always sit down and friendly,
Sitting in a life hotel,
The heart's filthy lesson,
With her hundred miles to hell,
Oh Ramona - If there was only something between us,
Oh Ramona - If there was only something between us,
Other than our clothes...
Something in our skies,
Something in our skies,
Something in our blood,
Something in our skies,"
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, as
luck would have it, 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 rate, 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 to 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.
* * *
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 normally 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 thought 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.
Putting 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 made sure the examination room's door was properly
closed and led Ranma back to sit on the bench. 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 can 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 trying to deny 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. Damn.
"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 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. She stealthily opened
the door and snuck in, hiding amongst the screen that littered the
room.
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
villagers 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 complete 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 supported
the tale. But, though he had little experience with soul-searching
spells or magery on the whole, he was... concerned...
It was obvious that whatever was keeping Ranma's cursed form
fully human was collapsing. Eventually, he supposed, the boy would
turn into a Dragon Half completely. This almost certainly would have
a very bad effect on his life in one way or another, in terms of how
others would behave towards him, not to mention the psychological
impact of dealing with yet another curse... again.
There was the reason why the seal on the second curse was
degrading. Tofu didn't know what that might be and frankly, given the
chaos that seemed to follow Ranma about, it could be anything. If it
was 'anything', if there was an external influence, or perhaps even
if this was due to a flaw in the spell, might there not be
consequences? An unforeseen side effect - maybe the second curse
would slowly take over completely, wiping out the effect of the
nyaniichuan, turning Ranma into a complete dragon? Or perhaps one
curse would take over his original form, so that hot and cold water
switched him between dragon and girl? There were so many unknowns, so
many possibilities! Tofu was simply out of his league - the occult
was not his forte. He was a chiropractor, not a warlock!
However, the doctor did know a couple of people who were wise
in the ways of magic. One of them would not be easy to contact. The
other, however, was a cyber-witch. She was just an email away.
Assuming he could find her address...
"Ranma, this could be quite serious," he said finally, filling
the thoughtful silence that had settled after Ranma had finished his
story, "Without know exactly what is happening to your female form,
or why, I can't really advise you as your doctor. I'm worried,
though, that there may be some unpleasant consequences that could
have a dramatic effect on your life." Anxiety spread across Ranma's
features like some sort of skin disease as he spoke. "I'm going to
make some enquiries and see if I can find someone more knowledgeable
about magery to give you a second opinion. Or even someone who could
help you more directly.
"In the meantime, I suggest you go home, stay in your male form
as much as possible, and avoid eating anymore of Akane's cooking," he
joked, though the humour was lost on Ranma. "I'm going to start
calling up favours now. Whatever is happening to you, it's not likely
to wait for me to come up with an answer."
"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, phone and laptop. 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!"
* * *
"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!' She followed after Ranma into the lounge area.
The other girl sat down on the couch with a huff. She grabbed
the TV remote and switched the box on, while Akane stood off to one
side, looking distinctly nonplussed. Ranma for her part just flipped
through the various channels, eventually settling on a news program
(not the most interesting of viewing in her opinion, but she wasn't
really paying any attention). Idly she fingered the tip of her
coppery red pigtail where it had come to rest over her shoulder.
Noticing what she was doing she looked disgusted for a moment and
flicked the braid away.
Akane watched the brief display of hidden feeling with some
concern. Her expression softened somewhat as she came to the
conclusion that there must have been something disturbing her
fiancee.
"What's wrong, Ranma?" she asked in a more kindly tone of voice than usual.
"S'nothin'... it's just... just nothin."
"Fine. Well, if you don't want to talk about it." Akane
scowled, though the irritation in her voice was insincere. She
started to move away, presumably to her bedroom, when Ranma spoke up
again.
"Akane... I just want you to know that... uh... err, never
mind," faltering, she glanced away and stood, turning the television
off somewhere in the process, "I'm gonna have a bath."
Akane watched the diminutive redhead stalk off in the direction
of the furo. Realising that she was almost starting to feel sympathy
for the jerk, she shook the pity from her eyes and continued on her
way. If he didn't want to tell her then that was just fine, but if it
was another secret like P-Chan, she was going to kill him! And it
probably was... she just couldn't trust him any more. Not that she
ever should have.
A muffled thump and a yell of "Stupid Panda!" greeted her ears
just as she reached her bedroom door.
* * *
Tofu was surprised to get a response so quickly, especially as
it would be either very late at night, or very early in the morning
in America at the moment. Eagerly he opened the email in his
computer's mail client, and started to read the response from his
distant friend.
The doctor didn't get very far into the message before a tear
welled up in his eye. Hearing of the death of a friend, no matter how
tenuous the relationship, was not something he enjoyed. Especially
when the cause of death was so... unnatural... so violent...
Remembering exactly why he'd sent the message in the first
place, he put aside his little piece of grief for Jenny's passing for
the moment, and moved onto the remainder of the message. There was a
phone number for a man who was apparently well versed in myth, magic,
prophecy and the like, and had an impressive personal library of
ancient texts on those subjects. There was a note to say that he
could ring right now if he received the mail when it was sent, as the
contact was likely still up. Willow, the witch who had responded in
Jenny's stead, also offered her own services as a magic user, in case
was spell casting was needed, though she admitted that for research
and occult investigations, Mr. Giles was of far superior skill.
Concern for his patient and curiosity about the whole affair
warred with politeness and the obvious rudeness of ringing a stranger
at whatever ungodly hour it would be in California at the moment.
Concern and curiosity won out. Well, he had been invited to ring,
hadn't he?
Tofu picked up his phone and started dialling the number. His
phone bill was likely going to be huge this month... but then, it
would still be nothing compared to the repair bill.
* * *
When Ranma didn't show for the evening meal, Akane was sent to
find him. After a quick search of the house, she found the 'boy'
sitting cross-legged in the dojo, facing the family shrine and the
kanji-art painting, which read 'The Basics'. For some reason she was
in girl form, and had a small hand mirror and a torch by her side.
Her head was bowed and she wasn't moving or making a sound. 'Probably
sleeping, the lazy pervert...' Akane thought.
Walking up behind the sitting girl, Akane spoke rather more
loudly than was necessary, "Ranma, dinner is ready."
When she received no reply she tried again, louder again.
"Ranma! Dinner is ready."
Still nothing. "Feh. Fine then, go ahead and starve. See if I
care." She moved as if she were going to leave, but stopped after a
couple of steps, her frustration at Ranma overriding her common
sense, and any concern she may have felt.
"But if you think you can get away with ignoring me..." still
Ranma just sat there in eerie silence.
"Ranma you baka, listen to me!" she shouted at the smaller
girl. She grabbed the nearest blunt instrument, in this case it was a
practice sword. When Ranma still didn't respond, she swung the lead
weighted bamboo rod in a large, overhead arc, aiming to swat the
object of her ire into the ground.
Unfortunately for Akane, Ranma was not asleep. She was in deep
thought, reliving her secret trip to Jusenkyo, and the first time she
noticed her second curse reasserting itself. She was in such deep
thought that she had slipped into a meditative state, and was
filtering out unimportant sights and sounds, like nagging girls. An
attack, however clumsy it might have been, was enough to trigger her
danger sense and elicit a response; counter attack - something that
was ingrained deeply into muscle memory and reflexes.
Even more unfortunate was that recognition of the fiancee-
anger-strike nature of the attack was delegate to Ranma's conscious
mind and sense of ethics. Ranma was not in a state that could be
accurately described as 'conscious'. As such she was unable to
override her desire to fight back against a person she obviously had
no right to hit, and get the inevitable pounding instead. Without her
mind and moral principals 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.
Akane was taken completely by surprise - Ranma had never fought
back before. By the time she had started to react to being flung into
the air, it was too late. Unable to do anything about her imminent
engagement with the dojo floor, she let out a scream of horror. This
was going to hurt.
It didn't. Ranma snapped out with an open palmed strike to her
sternum, when she had fully swung over the other's head, and was
inverted. The punch, though not particularly damaging in itself, was
enough to send her flying into the wall, smashing the wooden wall and
crushing the sign. The beaten girl fell to the floor with a thump and
a crash, as the altar lost its hold on the damaged wall.
Ranma's mind started to take in what her body had just done.
She looked at the bokken in her hands. The sizable dent in the
floorboards. The still form of her iinazuke, lying on the broken
painting at base of the wall, with the family altar collapsed upon
her head.
"Damnit, Akane. I said not now. Uh, or meant to... you
shouldn't disturb me like that, when I'm..." Akane wasn't answering
back. Ranma dropped the practice sword and hopped over to the fallen
girl.
"Come on, Akane. Quit fooling around." She said, somewhat
shakily, to the prone Akane. She wasn't dead. Of course not. She was
a tough Tomboy, as strong as an ox. Not even a couple of hundred
kicks would faze her. She had all that out of place fat and muscle
for a reason, right? Obviously she was just playing around, trying to
make Ranma feel bad. And he'd be in for it anyone saw them like this.
That thought must have been fate's calling card. The dojo door
opened, and five heads popped through.
The hard look on Nabiki's face, Soun's rapidly forming demon
head, and the clatter-splash of a falling saucepan from where Kasumi
was standing, the faint disapproving scowl on her mother's face, and
the noise of a panda scribbling some disapproving comment on a
sign... somehow Ranma became convinced that the other residents felt
differently about Akane's current health. And they didn't look too
happy about how she got that way.
"Eeep!" she squeaked. Those inclined to do so would have
imagined a meadow's worth of the sweetest 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, the picture reeked of guilt and betrayal. Ranma knew it. Before
anyone could say a thing (apart from Nodoka, who managed to get out
something about unmanly behaviour), she changed tactics.
"Saotome Secret Technique revised: RUN AWAY!" and with that,
she was gone.
* * *
Standing by the telephone in his apartment, Giles cradled the
handset under his chin and scrawled notes on a pad of paper. A
telephone call from a stranger in Japan was about the last thing he
was expecting after a hard night's research. He made a mental note to
have a word with Willow in the morning about this.
"Yes... yes... that's right. I see." It wasn't possible for the
casual observer to understand the garbled sounds from the phone's
poor quality speaker, but the voice seemed to be describing some sort
of problem, at considerable length. Giles made affirmative noises at
the appropriate intervals, indicating that he was paying attention.
"A Dragon Half? I'm sorry, but that's the most ridiculous
thing I've heard since... Oh... I see. How unfortunate." The watcher
pondered as he listened to the distorted voice. "Well, that would
certainly be worthy of study...oh, yes. Of course."
Another lengthy explanation reduced the watcher's verbal
contribution to indistinct noises again. "Jusenkyo... that does sound
rather familiar... mm hmm. Tell me more about this 'scrying spell'."
Yet another long sequence of indistinguishable words could be
heard from the handset. Whatever was being said took quite some time
and must have been very informative or important. The Englishman's
face slowly transformed from its 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.
"That is most... intriguing. There is something that concerns
me about that story. I think I may very well be able to help him,
though I would have to meet him here. In fact, it may be essential
that I meet him - he could be in danger from certain...
organisations..." The voice interrupted for a moment.
"No, unfortunately this is not a good time. If he were to come
here now, I would be unable to guarantee his safety. There is... ah,
an unpleasant chain of events unravelling here, which it would be
unwise for him to become entangled in. It would have to wait until
perhaps mid summer, or early autumn." More words from the speaker.
"Well, this could be much more important than the boy's
academic plans. Even if he were to come now, it may be some time
before he could return... if at all.
"Besides, there is a university here in Sunnydale, perhaps he
could enrol there?"
* * *
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. She had no idea if a boy
could become the slayer. Just because slayer-hood was something
normally one was born with, it didn't mean there couldn't be
exceptions. "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 develop her
somewhat lacklustre intellect 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 mind 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 normal
village laws and instead be required to fulfil a single role. What a
waste that would be. Shampoo would be so disappointed.
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 now
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
and compare.
* * *
"Crap, crap, crap, crappy crap, CRAP, CUH-RAP!" Onna-Ranma, as
most passer-bys could tell by the continuous stream of cuss words she
was yelling, was not especially happy at the moment. The way that she
smashed, bent, pulverised or mangled anything which got within a few
feet of her as she ran past at blistering speeds was a dead give
away, too.
She was in for a world of pain, and she knew it. Everyday,
every single day, some idiot or another attacked her for some crazy
reason or imagined slight. Quite often that so called reason had
something to do with hurting, or humiliating, or taking advantage of
Akane. Of course, that was never the case, like the first time she'd
gone cat in Nerima, and had apparently given the other girl a cattish
kiss. Within a few hours, Kuno, Ryoga and a fair few others came
along and beat on him, as if he were some sort of evil animal that
had to be put down.
This time, she really had hurt Akane, even though it was
basically an accident (and she deserved it, anyway, for all those
mallet strikes and the like). Akane must have been hurt pretty badly,
too, for her to have been knocked out like that, barely moving except
to take deathly shallow breaths.
Ranma stopped carving a path of destruction for a moment to
pray to whatever kami might be listening for the tomboy to be ok -
she might be an annoying, perverted macho chick, built like a brick,
legs are too thick, and who can't even kick, but that didn't mean
Ranma would ever wish harm on her.
Now that she had actually genuinely hurt her fiancee, the
response from the local lunatics was likely to be severe. Severely
severe. She'd been beaten within an inch of her life (only because
the jerks ganged up on her, of course) for doing little more than
teasing the other girl. That extra inch would be nothing now. Not to
mention that there would be much more people involved, not all of
them trying to beat him up; the 'fiancee brigade' would no doubt take
this as a sign that he had finally given up on the Tendo girl, and
would see this as their opportunity to capture his heart... probably
by ripping it out of his chest. Complete chaos would reign very
shortly, once enough people had found out.
The number of people who found out was generally proportional
to the seriousness of the 'crime'. This was pretty serious. Hell, it
was the first time she could remember laying a finger on Akane (aside
from light prods, when she was off guard). Ranma was not looking at
being attacked by every nutcase in Nerima. She was looking at being
attacked by every nutcase in the whole of Japan!
She was going to need a plan, or else death would be certain.
The most obvious first step would be to stay female, doctors orders
be damned - that way the truly crazy, like the Kunos, who were
actively unaware of her curse, would likely leave her alone. She
might even be able to recruit Tatewaki to defend her.
Thinking about what to do about the situation, rather than
cursing the situation for existing at all, allowed the little redhead
to calm down. Much to the relief of the town council and insurance
companies, who would have to sort out the repairs to the streets
she'd pretty much levelled on her way through.
The second step... hmm... either she needed a good place to
hide, or she needed to keep running, so that no one would find her,
until the whole thing blew over. Unfortunately it was not likely to
blow over for some time, and if she kept running she'd probably bump
into half the people she was trying to avoid.
Coming up to a busy road, Ranma decided to switch
transportation means. Using a telegraph pole to transfer her momentum
upwards, she quickly transferred to the ward's roofs. It would make
her slightly more visible to other martial artists, but would require
less thought to navigate, making it easier to think about what must
be done.
The second step would have to be hide. But where? If she was
found, a lot of collateral damage would be done, so she probably
shouldn't go to a friend's house... hang on... what friends? Everyone
who knew her either loved her or hated her... or both, depending on
her current gender.
Wherever she went, it would have to be so unobvious that even
Nabiki wouldn't think of it, and Ryoga would have difficulty in
accidentally finding himself there. Not many places suited those
criteria.
Lets see... could she go back to ground zero - the Tendo's
place? No, it was too risky. Almost everyone after her would start
there, and if she got caught there'd be one less aquatransexual in
the world.
How about Kuno's mansion? All of Kodachi's traps and plants to
keep her safe, plus Tatewaki's protection, if she could avoid hot
water... What the hell was she thinking! No way was she gonna hide in
/that/ death trap.
Where else could she go? How about... "GYAH!" The familiar tap
of a certain wooden cane on her shoulder shocked Ranma out of her
thoughts.
"Ah, there you are, Groom. I was looking for you."
Ranma spun round to face the shrunken Amazon Matriarch.
"Damnit, you old ghoul, how'd you find out so quick? Well, it don't
matter - it didn't mean nothin' and there's no way I'm gonna marry
Shampoo, you hear?"
Sitting casually on the kettle of water she'd plonked on the
tiled rooftop (and resisting the urge to yell "Who's an old
ghoul!?"), Cologne merely quirked an eyebrow, wondering exactly what
it was she was not supposed to have found out so quickly.
"Well, it may very well be that you don't have to marry her,
after all."
"Huh?" Ranma looked dumbstruck. That wasn't quite what she was
expecting from the old ghoul - she was expecting the unexpected, but
his was beyond that... unless there was a hook on that bait...
"It will be difficult to determine, but there is a chance that
you may be exempt from some of our laws..." Cologne stared right into
Ranma's eyes and managed to persuade the young girl/boy with a look
that she was being serious. Her demeanour was still nonchalant, of
course.
"Well, gee, that's great," the situation was making her
nervous. That dried up old mummy was actually suggesting that she
needn't marry Shampoo? That couldn't be good. Whatever the
alternative was, it must be far, far worse... And the way the elder
woman was staring so intently into her eyes was giving her the
creeps. "It'll have to wait, though, 'cos I'm about to get trounced
on by every nut in Japan, an' I need a place t' hide while this all
blows over."
"Oh dear, that is a shame," Cologne's tone was humorous rather
than sarcastic, "Perhaps you would like to stay at my abode while you
wait, then perhaps you could tell me what on earth you have done to
bring such an unpleasant fate upon yourself?"
At first eyeing her former foe sceptically, Ranma looked
thoughtful for a moment, while she considered the Amazon's not quite
so temporary home in Nerima as a possible hide out. On reflection,
assuming neither Shampoo nor the old ghoul tried anything, it was
perfect. No one would ever expect to find her there, and if Ryoga
accidentally turned up, well a quick disguise would easily fool the
moron, especially if he worked out where he was. There was something
else nagging at her mind, though...
"Ok, you're on... but first I wanna go over to Tofu-sensei's
place, and see if Akane has turned up there. I wanna check that she's
ok."
"Very well. Perhaps you can fill me in on what has happened on
the way there." She hopped off the kettle and snagged it on the tip
of her cane, "Humph, I didn't need this after all."
"Whatever," Ranma said, glancing suspiciously at the amazon
elder as she set off towards the doctor's clinic. Cologne's bouncing
synchronised with her own and she told her story, or the middle of
it, anyway.
"We're going to see if Akane is all right 'cos I hit her." The
redhead said, after a couple of roof-hops.
"Good. It's about time you stood up to that girl."
"No, it ain't good." She glanced away from the other,
shamefacedly, for a moment. "She was gonna hit me, put I wasn't
paying attention, so when I blocked it I hit back..." the two bounced
off another roof, "I got her clean in the chest, 'n sent her into the
wall before I realised what I was doin'." Bounce. "She may be a
stupid tomboy, but I never wanted to hurt her..."
"I see." Cologne refrained from making snide remarks about
Akane's reluctance to take the same viewpoint. "But why are you about
to be 'trounced on'?"
"Aww, come on! You know how it is - if I even look at Akane the
wrong way, Kuno or Ryoga'll come along 'n' blame me for hurtin' her
feelin's or somthin', and then do their merry be to do me in."
Bounce.
"And so you think that because you did actually do some harm
this time that the repercussions will be that much greater."
"Bingo! An' you know I'm right. You know how chaotic my life
is. Hell, you're parta' the chaos."
"Indeed, but can you honestly say that your encounters with me
have not improved your skill level beyond anything that you could
have hoped to achieve otherwise? For that matter, could you say that
about any other of your rivals or enemies?"
Ranma thought about that over the next couple of roofs. "Maybe
not... but... sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. Maybe if they
weren't all so crazy, or hell bent on revenge for somthin' I didn't
even do..."
Cologne made no comment and nothing but the silence of rushing
air passed between the two roof-hoppers for a minute or two. Ranma
spoke up when the elder's earlier words filtered through her
thoughts.
"So what about you?" she asked, "What's suddenly changed that I
can get out of this stupid marriage thing?"
"That I cannot tell you yet. If I were to tell you, and you
failed the test, I would likely have to kill you." The matriarch's
voice was steady and deadly serious, something Ranma picked up on,
making her gulp impulsively. The boy-turned girl had enough
experience to know that Cologne would not fail as easily as Shampoo
had, if they were to become mortal enemies.
Again, the two travellers fell into silence, and remained so
for the rest of the journey.
*
Nodoka and Akane were most surprised to find the leader of the
Chinese Amazons waiting patiently in the hallway of Tofu's clinic.
They exchanged pleasantries, Akane somewhat more brusquely and
distrustfully than the other two, but otherwise avoided starting
conversation. When they found that the examination room was empty,
Cologne told them that he was speaking with Ranma in the small
secretary's office.
Akane's response was an explosion of fiery anger aura and the
most contorted look of hate she had ever achieved. Nodoka simply said
"Oh dear." She didn't even try to prevent the furious girl from
barging forcefully into the office.
"RANMA! I'M GOING TO... To... ooh..." Such a powerful aura was
easily detected by Tofu and Ranma. They could have sensed it from
several miles away, in fact. Unsurprisingly they were prepared for
Akane's unwelcome forced entry. Ranma, not really wanting to deal
with a super angry tomboy, had hid in a locker. Tofu, on the other
hand, with a crack of his knuckles, set him self up to jab a shiatsu
point as soon as the girl came in. The pressure point he used
quickly, though very temporarily brought about sleep.
Catching the unconscious girl as she started to slump to the
floor, the young doctor carried her into the examination room and
laid her down on one of the two medical beds. He politely shook off
Nodoka's apologies for Akane's actions, and diplomatically ignored
the mirth that was practically oozing out of the elderly Amazon. He
called into the office and advised Ranma to stay put for the moment.
With Nodoka standing at one side of the bed and Tofu sitting on
a stool at the other side, it was not long before Akane woke up. At
first she was all set to get up, find Ranma and beat the living
daylights out of him for what he had done to her. However, this time
Nodoka helped restrain her, while Tofu admonished her les than
acceptable behaviour.
"I was conducting a private interview with a patient in an
awkward situation, Akane. You had no right to barge in like that. I'm
very disappointed in you." He said, keeping a calm voice, but
frowning slightly.
"Yes, it was most rude of you to interrupt like that, young
lady," Nodoka chimed in.
"I'm sorry, Tofu-sensei. Its just that... well, you see...
Ranma and I..." Akane stuttered sheepishly after gathering herself up
onto her elbows.
Tofu chuckled at her discomfort, knowing what it was that she
was trying to say. "I know. She told me what happened." Nodoka
flinched, almost imperceptibly, when the doctor referred to her son
in the feminine form.
"You mean he /is/ here!?" Akane growled and propped herself up
fully, ready to stalk off and inflict retribution.
"That isn't what I said, Akane," Tofu reply, but without
loosing any patience. "I said that I was with a patient. The identity
of that patient is confidential, and unimportant." Switching to a
less intense tone of voice, he continued, "Now, Ranma said you might
have gotten a little hurt."
"That's right, doctor. She and Ranma had a little bit of a fall
out earlier..." confirmed the elder woman.
"It was nothing. I'm fine, really..." Akane tried to wave off
the concern.
Tofu seemed to ignore Akane. "Well, then, lets have a look at
you. We'll have you fixed up in a jiffy." Akane looked distinctly
nonplussed as the examination began.
*
The sound of Ranma's fear induced heavy breathing filled the
enclosed space of the locker. The muffled sounds of speech could be
heard, but she was concentrating her awareness on the location Akane,
a.k.a. Impending Doom. She was concentrating so hard on the other
girl's presence that she failed to notice the signs that someone else
was approaching her. She almost yelled out in surprise when the
cabinet's door swung open to reveal her to the outside world. And the
shrunken form of Cologne.
"Well, groom, I don't think you have to worry about being
beaten to death by Ryoga or that idiotic Kuno. I think the Tendo girl
will do just fine by herself!" The wizened old woman gave out a
sinister cackle. "You really know how to pick 'em, boy!"
"Aww, shaddup!" Ranma huffed angrily from the top of the
locker, where she had clamped her self in with her arms and legs.
"It's my stupid panda of a father who got me into all these stupid
engagements, anyhow."
"Yes, but you're the one who invoked her wrath! Perhaps you
should apologise to her..." she suggested, mischief shining in her
ancient eyes.
"Yeah, right. That way I can save her the trouble of hunting me
down," she responded with stinging sarcasm... or at least her best
attempt at stinging sarcasm, though Cologne didn't appear to be
particularly stung.
The girl's face softened, though, and became introspective. "It
is what I ought to do though. I owe her that much." She jumped out of
her hiding place and walked past the stunned looking Amazon. The
elder had not expected the boy to accept such a flippant, and
suicidal, idea so readily. But still, she followed after the boy-
girl. It would be interesting to see what would happen...
*
"Oh, you really are a good doctor!" Nodoka commented,
admiringly, as Tofu skilfully completed the short treatment shiatsu
and acupuncture he had deemed necessary to help Akane over the little
physical trauma she had received. "I'm so glad that you're about to
help Akane and my son..." she trailed off, distracted by a female
figure standing in the doorway.
Akane growled from where she sat on the bed, glaring daggers at
her iinazuke. Tofu turned on his stool and glanced at the pigtailed
girl with a slightly disapproving gaze. Ranma, for her part,
scratched the pack of her head and took a sheepish step forward.
She was about to start a heartfelt apology, perhaps her first
ever, and break the tense impasse. Her mother stole the opportunity,
however.
"Let me get you some hot water dear," she offered, and stood to
make for the stove.
"No thanks, mom, I'm just fine."
Akane looked shocked. Nodoka looked confused, and perhaps a
little disappointed. Tofu maintained his slight disapproving frown.
Nodoka made no further comment, but had that 'I'll be having a talk
with you later' look, which any errant child would recognise.
"Do you /feel/ all right, Ranma?" the Tendo girl asked, her
voice dripping with condescension (or perhaps condensation? =). Tofu
made his own thoughts known, before Ranma could respond to Akane.
"Ranma, I really must insist that you change back."
Ranma gave the doctor her own stern look. "We talked about this
already. If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen, so I may 's well
stay like this while... uh..." She glanced at Akane and her mother,
and then looked over her shoulder, seeing Cologne standing in the
vacated doorway.
"Don't mind me, child, I already know." The elder said with a
grin.
"Excuse me, Cologne, but just how would you know something that
has only been discussed in private?" Tofu asked the shrunken woman.
Ranma's exasperated groan replaced any answer that might have
been given. "Shampoo... she told you, didn't she?" Cologne gave the
most imperceptible of nods. "Is this why I could get outta the stupid
marriage thing?"
Akane, who had been following the conversation only in the
sense of keeping her eyes on whoever was speaking, had grown
frustrated at the totally ambiguity of each comment, question, and
answer. Getting 'outta the stupid marriage thing' marked the end of
her tolerance for being in the dark.
"Hey, other people do exist, you know!" she yelled angrily. The
other four turned to stare at her, and she slowly started to shrink
under their collective gaze.
"Now, now, Akane. That wasn't very ladylike," Nodoka admonished
her almost-daughter-in-law. "But I must admit that you do have a
point." She turned her attention to her son-turned-daughter. "Ranma,
could you please tell Akane and myself what you are talking about?
What is it that is going to happen, which would make you want to be a
girl, and would excuse you of your requirement to marry Shampoo,
under Amazon law?"
The twice-cursed martial artist gave Tofu a questioning, almost
pleading, look.
"It's up to you if you want to tell them... and how much," he
said with a shrug.
Ranma looked back at the Amazon elder, but with a slightly more
stern expression.
"It's not in my interests to spread this about," Cologne
commented indifferently. "I do wonder why it is that you want to stay
as a girl, though. I would have thought the opposite would be true."
"Fine, then," Ranma said in a sombre tone, after a little
internal contemplation. She closed the door, Cologne hopping inside
as she did so, and found somewhere to sit and consider exactly what
to say... and what to keep quiet. "Let me put it like this...
"Mom, you probably didn't know this, 'cos I'd been here a while
before I met you. As for the others... I don't know why no one else
has noticed..." She paused slightly, ignoring the doctor as he
quietly went to brew some tea. "When I first got cursed, my hair was
normal. It was black in both forms." Akane's eyes suddenly widened,
as if noticing something for the first time. Ranma grabbed the end of
her pigtail and yanked it to her front to emphasise her next point.
"It isn't black any more. And the reason why... is because a mistake
I made after first going to Jusenkyo is coming back to haunt me..."
"What... what did you do?" Akane asked, her curiosity
overcoming her earlier anger and irritation. The slight tinge of
concern in her voice gave hint her inner feelings.
"Yes, son. Please enlighten us." Nodoka added calmly when Ranma
hesitated.
"I... went back to Jusenkyo." She was so quiet that the
admission was almost whispered. She turned away, staring at the floor
to avoid making eye contact.
"You baka. Bet you got yourself cursed again, didn't you? Well
it serves you right." The impulse to insult Ranma had become
reflexive for Akane. She hadn't really wanted to attack her
sometimes-female iinazuke like that. Ranma, to her credit, managed to
avoid making an equally vicious comeback before her mother chided
Akane.
"Heh. The curse was nothing." Ranma glared at Akane, but it was
a relatively soft glare. "Hell, I kinda liked it at the time... but
when I left for the nearest village to try and get somethin' to
eat... that's when the true curse became apparent." Again she turned
away, not wanting to look into another's eyes while she recalled
those painful memories.
"But, son, what spring did you fall into? And why should it
turn your hair red now?"
"Spring of drowned Baby Red Dragon," Ranma said flatly. Nodoka
barely managed to contain her surprise. Akane face-faulted onto the
floor. "The two curses merged, and I turned into a Dragon Half."
The elder Saotome struggled to recover herself. Tofu returned
at that point and served tea, which help Nodoka digest the
revelation. After all, compared to all the insanity that had occurred
in Ranma's life, this wasn't all that surprising.
"But, dear, why aren't you a Dragon Half now?"
"Found some mage who cured me. He didn't do much 'f a good job,
though, 'cos it's wearing off." She fingered her braid to emphasise
her point. She hopped off the perch she had found and helped herself
to a cup of tea.
"So, if you're slowly turning becoming half dragon... why do
you want to stay a girl?" Ranma blushed slightly at the question and
sipped her tea to hide her face.
Akane got up off the floor and made her own observation.
"Because he's a pervert, that's why!"
"Akane!" Nodoka scolded. The errant girl quietly apologised.
"I'm sure his reasons are quite manly." Ranma almost choked at that,
spraying tea all over the place. Somehow little enough of the hot
liquid ended up on herself to trigger the curse.
"Well... y'know I'm gonna have to hide my curse if I change
completely back t' how I was," wiping the tea from her face, she
blushed even more and scratched the back of her head in embarrassment
of the admission she was about to make, "and... well, I've kinda
gotten used to this body. I'm gonna miss it when I can't be seen in
public like this. So I wanna spend some time as a girl, while I still
can."
Akane muttered something about being right all along. Nodoka,
however, beamed at her son, misunderstanding in the way that mothers
will. It was ironic, really, as both women were thinking more or less
the same thing. Nodoka had long ago come to the conclusion that it
was more than manly for Ranma to use his unique position to... uh,
learn how to better please a girl. Dr. Tofu, having already discussed
this to some extent, knew more precisely why Ranma wanted to make the
most of his time as a fully human girl. For her sake, though, he kept
quiet. Cologne also maintained her silence for the time being,
despite not having come to any particular conclusion as to what
exactly Ranma had meant. However, once a few moments had past, and
the subject of Ranma's refusal of hot water past, her sense of
mischief caught up with her. She spoke out.
"There's more though, isn't there?" she observed quietly, an
evil glint in her eye.
"Huh? There is?" Ranma seemed bemused, "Whaddya talkin' about,
old ghoul?"
"Yes, there is," the doctor confirmed. Casting his gaze at
Akane, he continued, "but we were rudely interrupted before I could
get that far." The girl shrank and wilted like a water-starved
flower. "It is something better discussed in private."
"Anything you can tell my son, you can tell me," Nodoka
proclaimed calmly, but sternly. She would not back down on this
point, and her expression made it clear from the outset.
"And I already know," Cologne pointed out. All heads turned to
Akane.
"Fine!" she barked out, "I'm going home." She stomped out.
Cologne was close on the young Tendo's heels. "I have no need
to hear this talk. I'll speak to you about it later, Ranma," she
said, by way of explanation of her departure, "And my offer of a safe
house still stands, if you can remember where I live." With that she
pogo-ed out, taking her unused, and now cold, kettle, and closing the
door behind her.
"Safe house?" Nodoka asked, not quite understanding what the
Amazon had meant.
"Yeah. Y'know, somewhere to hide out until all the nutcases in
Nerima come out of the woodwork looking to kill me for /actually/
hitting her this time. I don't think they'd let me live this time...
Oh, hell! I forgot to apologize to Akane!" She smacked her forehead
with the palm of her hand in frustration at her forgetfulness, and
adopted a pained expression. "I guess that's another thing she's
never gonna forgive me for." The look on her face became despondent
and she sat down heavily on the medical bed just vacated, between her
mother and the doctor.
"Don't be silly dear, of course she'll forgive you," Nodoka
said supportively, still seeing the spark of love in her son's beaten
heart, "And you can't apologize when you get home tonight.
Ranma smiled at her mother, but it was a fake smile. Deep down
she knew that this incident would be yet another nail in the coffin
of the engagement, and their relationship in general. It would be
marked down with their first meeting in the bathroom, his continued
refusal to fight her, and more recently... P-chan...
"So what was the old ghoul talking about, doc?" she asked.
"Well, I don't have all the details, and it may be nothing
anyway... But according to an expert in America, it may be that you
have somehow inherited some supernatural powers, which have been
sealed away by the mage who cured you..."
*
Kuh Lon had not become Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku and head of
the village council by being trusting and helpful. No, it had been by
living through a century of war, and besting her contemporaries in
single combat. However, though she was a responsible and honourable
person, she was not averse to using a bit of subterfuge and intrigue
to help along her cause, or to grease the wheels of politics.
To anyone who knew her well enough in this manner, then, it
would not have been surprising to find that, instead of going home as
she had indicated, she was hiding in such a position to be able to
listen in on what was being said inside the practice. She had also
made sure she could get away easily, too.
What she heard inside was not to her liking, though to begin
with it seemed there was nothing new. Tofu had not heard of the
legends, but he had managed to contact a man who had, a Watcher by
the sounds of it, who had identified the Slayer element of the boy's
magical vision. However, it had been decided that Ranma should go to
America to be seen by this 'expert', to determine if he really was a
slayer.
It was this detail that Kuh Lon was unhappy about. If the
Watcher's council got their hands on a Slayer, her cause would be
lost... But if Ranma /was/ a Slayer, and his, or rather, her powers
had been sealed by a sorcerer of some sort, then it may be that he
was useless to the tribe until the seal was fully broken. Despite
the tribe's considerable exposure to the witchcraft, and occult
artefacts of many sorts, she doubted they would have the ability to
counter such strong magic.
If this watcher could be used to determine Ranma's true nature,
/and/ break the seal on her powers as a Slayer, then that would save
her people a great deal of effort. All they would have to do then
would be to sweep in, Take the boy-girl... and do what they had to
do...
So for now, the Amazon elder decided as she left the area for
home, she would not oppose the doctor's plan to send Ranma away. For
now...
* * *
TBC
C&C to curator@discordia.connectfree.co.uk
Any and all flavours are welcome. But remember, you can comment on
the good bits, as well as the bad (no, really!).
Lyrics are from 'The Hearts Filthy Lesson' (reproduced as accurately
as I can hear) by David Bowie.
If you're wondering why I use 'mom' instead of 'mum', even though I'm
British... well, the basic reason is that Viz use 'mom' so I'm used
to 'hearing' Ranma say that. I just consider it to be part of his
accent/dialect. Maybe if there was a character with a notably
different dialect, I'd use 'mum' instead, even if it had no basis in
the way the Japanese dialects vary.
But anyhow...
Don't forget to read this part's sister story... uh... when I finish writing it.
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