MAGICAL GUARDIAN RANMA!

PREREADING AND EDITING ASSISTANCE BY:

Howard Melton,
Philip Jacobs,
Jeff Denniston
Lord Talon,
And some guy named Steve.

DISCLAIMER: 'Ranma �' and all characters therein belong
to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. This
fanfic has been produced for my own enjoyment and to pass
on without profit. Other characters that come into play in this fanfic
 may or may not be pulled from other sources (including other
fanficts, RPGs, manga, anime, literature, or possibly even GASP
American comic books!).

CHAPTER SEVEN:

"Okay, we're here!" Akane announced, as she lead Nabiki and Ranma
into the gravel storage lot. It was fairly large, with a small building on
one end, several large piles of gravel in various grades, and even a few
hills of black asphalt. A simple chainlink fence surrounded the whole
lot, but the gate consisted solely of a chain hanging across the
driveway with a sign that said 'closed' hanging from the middle of it.
There did not seem to be anyone there at the moment.

"Looks good, and the gravel piles should keep the two of you from
being seen or heard unless you get too flashy," Ranma observed.

"Dad brought me here a couple of times to do some training outside
the Dojo," Akane explained as she stepped over the chain and started
through the yard. "We would spar for a bit on and around the gravel
piles near the far end of the lot. He said that the accoustics would
break up anything short of yells or screams, so we wouldn't have to
worry about disturbing anyone if we got too enthusiastic."

"Geeze, Akane," Nabiki commented. "If that was anyone but Dad,
that would've sounded suspiscious."

"I suppose so," Akane agreed.

"So, Ranma," Nabiki redirected her attention as Akane lead them
further into the lot amongst the gravel piles. "How many elements
can you support? Just the Western four, or our traditional five? Or
should that be the Chinese five, since you became a Guardian Beast
there?"

Ranma thought for a moment before responding. "Eight, I think.
Shampoo, Akane, and you have Earth, Fire, and Water already.
The others are: Air, Wood, Metal, Light, and Dark. I'm pretty sure
that that's it."

"That sounds like either an amalgamation of the various traditional
sets, or a standard videogame RPG set," Nabiki observed.

"Videogame RPG?" the furry blue kangaroo rat cocked his head to
the side, perplexed.

"You know," Nabiki tried to explain. "Role Playing, only as a
videogame instead of with pen and paper."

"Not a clue, sorry," Ranma admitted.

"Final Fantasy? Breath of Fire?" Nabiki prompted.

"Nabiki, the only video games I ever got to play were Pac-Man,
Zaxxon, and Gallaxian," Ranma explained. "Although I had gotten
rather good at Martial Arts Pinball before Pop made me quit. He
said that if I was getting so lazy as to let some blind boy beat me in
a tournament, I could be doing other things to improve my hand-eye
co-ordination. Too bad though, the kid was a really cool customer, a
regular pinball wizard! I'd have liked to challenge him again. Didn't
seem to be all there though..."

Akane and Nabiki just stared at the largish azure rodent ...

O O O

Shin ran as hard as he could. The Master had sent him a mission:
Activate one of the 'tags' he and the others had been spreading all
over the place since yesterday. All in all, he'd much rather have been
doing something else. Something saner. Such as walking into a police
station and spitting on any cops he could find before throwing
himself on their mercy. He was sure that his new boss was going to
suck his brains out.

Or at the very least, shove one of those tentacles up his nose and go
poking around in his head again. Shin knew that he did not want that
to happen again. As it was, he was already doing several things he
had no real desire to do, and rather strong reservations against. But
he did them anyway, somehow compelled beyond all reason to obey
R'hul's every whim.

Well, perhaps as long as he was useful, R'hul would go ahead and
eat other people's brains instead. Looking on the bright side, such
as it was,  Shin mentally prepaired himself for what he had to do.

Finally reaching a good spot, Shin suddenly raked his fingernails
across a random pedestrian's face, drawing blood, which he then
smeared on the tag he had placed on the back of a street sign.

The woman's screams were unimportant at this point. Shin had to
book least whatever showed up decided that he'd make a nice snack...

O O O

Akane and Nabiki had both set down their backpacks and moved
off a bit so that they could try powering up for the first time in the
lot when they heard a woman's scream. Sparing Ranma a quick
glance, the girls saw his quick nod, just before the large blue
kangaroo rat bounded off towards the source of the scream at
a considerable clip.

"Right," Nabiki stated seriously. "Let's do this!"

"BISHOJO MAGICAL FIRE HENSHIN!" Akane yelled, posing
dramaticly, triggering her transformation.

"Whatever," Nabiki responded, slapping a hand to her face in
embarrassment at her sister's antics, although she too transformed.

Regardless of their divergent methodology, both girls felt that the
problem was urgent. Perhaps, then, that is why they had BOTH
triggered the expediant rapid versions of their transformations.
Akane was once again shrouded by a brief, expaning pillar of
flames, while Nabiki was briefly encased in a fast growing collumn
of ice which promptly exploded into steam and ice shards.

The two magical girls hit the ground running, in costume and powers
ready to go.

O O O

H'rys eyed it's surroundings warily. R'hul would have gone to ground
almost imediately, but H'rys did not have that luxury. Its job was to
cause trouble and then see who or what responded. This was to be
the first of many such probes into the local defences. H'rys's personal
hope was that it would be able to acomplish this task without having
to be replaced. Being replaced would mean that it had most likely died
gloriously for cause and kin.

Oh look. R'hul's little local minion was running off. Probably still had a
sense of self preservation. Good sense on R'hul's part. Saved on having
to replace tools too often. The bleeding native was a nice touch. A
female human, if H'rys remembered its common stock animal anatomy
lessons correctly. Good for slaves, food, and general amusement, but
occasionally protected by various defenders from both within and
without their species. Hive dwelling humans at that, although H'rys
had personally seen bigger structures.

The youma decided to get on with the business of provoking whatever
local defenses the natives had. A few more injuries here and there
should do the job, then it would grab a bite to eat before hiding and
waiting to see what happened next...

O O O

Despite Ranma's best efforts, Akane was actually the first to reach
the scene. Although he supposed that the blazing trail she left in her
wake would be easy to follow. Good thing it was flickering out almost
as fast as it had been ignited, or Nabiki would lag even further behind
as she would have otherwise had to extinguish the flames. Not that
the elder sister was currently slow by any common measure, as the
pace she was setting would have been challenging for any olympic
runner. Ranma, on the other hand, was actually built for speed, as
nobody beat 'roos (even small ones) at the long fast haul.

Except flaming speedster apprentices...

"Ewww..." Akane focussed her attention first on the apparent cause
of the disturbance. In this case a ten foot tall squid-faced humanoid
youma that looked like it couldn't decide whether it was male or female.
It had features appropriate for both genders. Quite prominent features
at that, and rather more than simply numerous. Besides those
appendages, there was the usual assortment of limbs, having as it
did, arms and legs ending in talloned hands and feet. Actually, on
closer inspection, most of the far, FAR too many tentacles seemed to
be proper tentacles, just like those on a real squid or octopus. And
what Akane had first taken as more feminine features seemed to be
organs for spewing acidic inky liquid instead.

Okay, so it wasn't a tentacle rape demon. It was, however, causing
havok, terrorizing people, and very very slimey. As it was about to
lash out at another person trying desperately to get away, Akane
decided to take action!

FWOOM!

The creature's excresions turned out to be surprizingly flammable.

O O O

Nodoka stared at her husband incredulously. What Genma had told
her of the training trip so far was turning out to be hard to take. Oh,
to be sure, most of it was quite normal, consisting of a sensei
seeking ever more challenging obsticals for a promising student,
and much of that spoke rather well of her husband and son. It was
the other parts that were bothering Nodoka. How, in the names of all
the kami, was Genma expecting Ranma to fulfil the multiple marriage
promises he had made for his son?

At the very least, Nodoka would have expected Genma to stop home
from time to time in an effort to produce more heirs after making such
boneheaded mistakes. Or perhaps gone through the effort to adopt
more sons to fulfil the need.

Hearing about the horrors of the Neko-Ken from her husbands own
lips left Nodoka with an icey pit of fear in her stomach. Where was
Ranma? Why wasn't he here? What had happened to their only
child that Genma would come home alone to bear the sole weight of
her judgment on his vow to turn Ranma into a Man among Men?

Oh Kami-sama, what had happened to her little boy?

O O O

H'rys was only mildly irritated at this turn of events. Sure, the fire
elemental had seered away most of its thinner tentacles in its initial
attack, and it had been forced to draw its acidic poison glands back
into its body to prevent any more of them from exploding, but over
all, the situation didn't appear to be too bad. Fire elementals may be
strong in their particular field, but they also had some pretty severe
weeknesses.

And these humans, like those on so many other worlds, liked to keep
pleanty of water handy.

Noting that the little elemental seemed to have been summoned in
the form of a human female, and that it was trying to fight physically,
H'rys relaxed a bit. Whoever had summoned the elemental was either
inexperienced in utilizing such to their best effect or was worried
about collateral damage. Electing to have an elemental attack via
some form of fighting art was novel, but whoever was controlling
the fire elemental was obviously unused to the speed and
manueverability their creation had.

Distracting the dancing elemental with a few feignts of its own, H'rys
discretely reached a couple of largish tentacles back and grabbed
ahold of...

No, a waste receptical was not what it was reaching for. That just
added fuel to the little one. How had that gotten in the way anyway?

Glancing back for a moment to be sure that their was nothing else
between it and its target, H'rys once again turnned its attention
towards distracting the fire elemental while it reached back again...

Okay, something was amiss here. There was no paper container of
human foodstuffs anywhere in the vicinity of the water valve...

O O O

Ranma stayed hidden as he looked around for something else to stop
the large youma from grabbing the fire hydrant. Not that being exposed
to water would do much more than distract Akane, or perhaps dampen
her elemental powers a bit, but that was a distraction she couldn't
afford to have right now.

Damn her for a fool for running into combat without knowing what
even some of her abilities were. And damn him for a fool as well for
letting her. If he wasn't so sure that Akane would leave herself wide
open trying to 'protect' him, he'd leap out and face the monster directly.

Which wasn't a bad idea, actually, but Ranma was still trying to figure
out how he had gotten so big the previous day.

Hey, Nabiki showed up! And she's taking stock of the situation before
getting involved.

The largish azure kangaroo rat placed another bag of groceries
between the fire hydrant and the creature's seeking tentacles before
hopping off to help advise his other charge towards a suitable course
of action that wouldn't interfere with her sister...

O O O

Nabiki's mind realed. There was Akane, fighting a giant squidfaced
youma, as if she were some hyped up little superball bouncing here
there and everywhere as she attacked, dodged, and feinted. Nabiki
would have been really impressed if Akane didn't look like she was
half out of control for most of it.

"What is that thing?" Nabiki asked, noting that Ranma was bounding
towards her.

"Smarter than it looks, for one thing," Ranma replied. "Look, we
haven't gotten around to training the two of you for teamwork with
your powers, so I'm going to have to ask you to sit this one out until
I can get Akane to back off. I think it's mistaken her for an actual
elemental or something, and it's trying to put her out with water."

"Right. I don't need to be used against my little sister. Got it," the
blue haired girl readily agreed. "I'll just help get the civilians clear
of the area."

"Sounds good," Ranma agreed. "Now I'm going back to the fight
before Akane gets into more serious trouble."

O O O

Spotting the little blue creature intercepting the blue haired human
female, H'rys wondered if it might have made an error. The red haired
female might not actually be an elemental. Some sort of empowered
champion then? That would make sense if the tiny blue thing was
some sort of guardian spirit. There seemed to be just two defenders,
plus the guardian, so odds favored  the humans having been
empowered only recently.

Suspicious timing, that. Quite fortuitous though, if it were true. Time
to do a more direct examination.

Ripping a sign post out of the ground, H'rys revealed that it had gotten
the fire girl's measure by pinning her to the ground through her torso.

H'rys would have to have a look on the inside later, to see what had
made the little human elemental tick. Too bad she had burnt its thinner
tenacles away earlier, or it could do a mind probe by reaching up
through her nostrils and piercing the cranium through that cavity. It
would save that part for R'hul to do. Now how to provoke the other
one into attacking?

H'rys chuckled to itself evilly as it remembered some of the more
interesting misinterpretations humans from various worlds had
ascribed to the actions of its kind. Especially given the uncanny
simularity in appearance its probes had to anotomical parts that had
entirely different functions on humans.

Just a quick set of biological probes then. Holding the humans jaws
apart with a set of talons, H'rys prepared to insert one of the remaining
probing tentacles through that oraface while the remaining fleshy,
rope-like probes sought out other orafaces...

O O O

"AKANE!" Nabiki screamed in horror as she watched her younger
receive a stopsign post through her heart. "Akane..."

At first paralysed in grief for her fallen sister, Nabiki could only watch
in horror and disgust as the creature lurked over Akane's all too still
form. The fear gave way to disgust as it inserted THAT into her
sisters mouth and seemed about to go into full tentacle rape demon
mode.

Disgust rapidly became helpless anger, which turned to impotent fury...

Which gave way to to reckless rage!

With a roar not unlike the crashing of a tsunami during a coastal
monsoon, Nabiki charged into battle!

END CHAPTER SEVEN

OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: Gone far too long...

Nodoka stared at her husband incredulously. What Genma had told
her of the training trip so far was turning out to be hard to take. Oh, to
be sure, most of it was quite normal, consisting of a sensei seeking ever
more challenging obsiticals for a promising student, and much of that
spoke rather well of her husband and son. It was the other parts that
were bothering Nodoka. How, in the names of all the kami, was Genma
expecting their son to fulfil the multiple marriage promises he had made
for him?

At the very least, Nodoka would have expected Genma to stop home
from time to time in an effort to produce more heirs after making such
boneheaded mistakes. Or perhaps gone through the effort to adopt
more sons to fulfil the need.

Hearing about the horrors of the Neko-Ken from her husbands own
lips left Nodoka with an icey pit of fear in her stomach. Where was
their son? Why wasn't he here? What had happened to their only child
that Genma would come home alone to bear the sole weight of her
judgment on his vow to turn their son into a Man among Men?

Oh Kami-sama, what had happened to her little boy?

And who was this Ranma kid that Genma kept talking about? Their
son was named Tatawaki, wasn't he? Or was that Mikaido? Damn,
she'd have to look up the birth certificate again to be sure. Damn
Genma for staying away so long that she forgot her own son's name.
It couldn't be Ranma, of course.

Who in their right mind would agree to name their son Chaos Demon?
Unless Genma meant Wild Horse instead?

O O O

CHAPTER EIGHT:

Nabiki's first kick was easily blocked by the tentacle demon thing.
 Not that it helped the creature all that much considering that she
hit like a runaway freight train. The monster was knocked back
through the side of a building, and Nabiki followed through the
hole she had made without hesitation.

The thing had killed her baby sister and had been about to rape her
corpse

It wasn't going going to live another day if the enraged water
warrior could do anything about it!

O O O

Akane shook her head to clear it as she started to shift her legs and
elbows to get up. She was short of breath and pretty sure that she
had a cracked rib from that last blow with the chunk of concrete on
the bottom of the signpost, so she was grateful for whatever caused
the youma to move on.

"Yo, Sparky," that voice belonged to Sensei! "You feelin' okay?"

Shaking her head again, Akane blinked her eyes open and tried to
focus on Sensei's voice. He was standing on her torso for some
reason, just above the collar bones, leaning over her face and
blocking her view. He also appeared to be made out of flame now,
although he still had those pretty blue eyes. Eyes that radiated
concern for her welfare.

"Guess I bit off more than I could chew, Sensei," the fire warrior
said. "I think I have a cracked rib..."

"Yeah, well, it happens to the best of us," Sensei told her. "Still, I
shouldn't have let you run off ahead like that without any idea of
what your powers are, or how to use them."

Akane tried to sit up, but something was blocking her. "Sensei,
something is pinning me down."

"Oh,that," The blazing kangaroo rat tilted his head to the side then
looked back. "It probably has something to do with the stop sign
sticking through that flaming hole in your chest.  If you could turn
the rest of the way into fire for a moment you should be able to get
up."

"Sensei," Akane grumbled as she tried to figure out how to follow
the instructions, all the while wondering why she wasn't going into
shock. She didn't even feel particularly hurt other than being short
of breath for some reason, and rather tired. "Did anyone ever tell
you that you have a horrible bedside manner?"

"No," Ranma looked at Akane again. "Why do you ask?"

O O O

Okay, H'rys could admit to itself that perhaps it had made a mistake
in trying to provoke the other magical girl. Granted, even as
overpowered as the attacks were, they were barely under control,
had no finnesse to them, and were actually easy to dodge, block,
or parry. Granted, with as much unaccountable momentum as the
female was putting into her strikes, it preferred to dodge or parry,
saving the blocks for last resorts.

This human female didn't fight like either a magical girl OR an
elemental. She fought like a golem. Relentless, uncaring, untrained,
unthinking, and (regardless of the last two) apparently unstoppable.

There were times when H'rys really came to hate magic, even if it
was pretty much a fact of its life. For something that attacked like
a golem, hitting back was about as effective as punching water.
It only hoped that its opponent WAS a novice magical girl, with
the typical low reserves such usually had early in their careers.
And if that was the case, that it could hold out long enough for
its inexperienced adversary to wear herself out.

The concept of some human having figured out how to make an
actual water golem was just too depressing to contemplate...

O O O

Nabiki didn't even notice that her height had shot up ten, twenty,
then forty feet tall as the battle intercepted broken water pipes, or
that she was now more obviously made of her element of power.
Her tunnel vision only noted that her target, the creature that had
killed Akane, was now very vulnerable. A downward punch left a
rather large crater where the monster had just been scant seconds
before. Nabiki's follow up strikes were equally fruitless but
somewhat cathartic given her great need to lash out and break
something.

She was far too focussed on her quarry to care about the collateral
damage she was causing. It was unimportant, and thus ignored.

At least no one was going to tell her otherwise while she was still
obviously very big, very powerful, and beyond all reason.

O O O

Feeling mostly better now that the hole in her chest had closed
itself, Akane causiously followed her sister's trail of destruction,
with Ranma now riding on her shoulders. She was vaguely aware
that her shirt now had gaping hole in the front and back, and that
her left breast was thus bare, but it just didn't feel important at the
moment, so Akane ignored it. "Sensei... Why am I still alive? That
post had to have taken out my heart and left lung, not to mention
part of my spine as well..."

"Ever try to put out a fire by poking it with a stick, Sparky?" The
still flaming kangaroo rat asked in return. "It doesn't work that
way. While you aren't exactly a fire elemental, you aren't exactly
human anymore either, at least not when you're powered up.
When you need to, you can borrow traits from either side. For
example, tranforming part of yourself into fire to cover vital
functions."

"So we're immortal?" Akane asked the burning kangaroo rat on
her shoulder.

"Akane," Ranma's tone became dead serious as he tried to look
her straight in the eyse as best as he could from that angle. "Had
that creature had time to dowse the part of you that had turned
to fire, you'd be dead right now. You are not immortal. None of
you are. You are just very hard to hurt in any signifigant manner.
There is a big difference, and I want you to remember that."

"Yes, Sensei," Akane nodded sheepishly.

"Now lets go save Nerima from that rampage, okay?," Ranma
suggested. Then, with a smirk, he continued, "We might as
well stop Squidface from destroying Nerima too, while we're
at it."

"Yes, Sensei!" Akane agreed, picking up the pace. Then she
realized something. "Hey! Are you calling my sister a monster!?"

"No," Ranma stated, earning a sharp nod from Akane. "I'm
saying that she's on a rampage. Look around you, Sparky.
Does any of this damage look like it was caused by tall dark
and octopuss-like?"

Indeed, from what Akane could tell from looking at the damage
now that she was paying attention, it appeared that Nerima had
been hit with a localized typhoon rather than a tentacled monster...

O O O

"So, in the dead of the night, I used every technique I could
remember from the dread Master's teachings, and made my
way into Shampoo's house to take our son's token from her,"
Genma continued his long explanation. "There was no way
Ranma could be meant for someone who wouldn't let him out
of his damn token except for showing him off or when under
orders. Our son deserves better than that. If becoming a
guardian beast instead of being cursed is a sign of worthiness,
then by the kami that did this to him, let Ranma be worthy of
serving more considerate champions!"

Nodoka was startled when Genma's fist hit the tatami mat in
emphasis, but she understood and agreed with him on the
subject of Ranma deserving better than the treatment he was
getting from this Shampoo girl. Still, tears rolled down her face
from the knowledge that their little boy had his life ursurped by
a destiny that stole away his humanity.

"I am sad to say that it was only then that my eyes began to
open to the kind of man I had become,  Nodoka," Genma's
tone was full of self-recrimination and regret. "I decided to
return to Japan, to see if any of my friend Soun Tendo's
daughters could activate our son's token. I figured that if Ranma
must serve a female champion, let it be in partial fulfilment of at
least one of the pledges I had made. I also hoped that Soun's
daughters would give Ranma better treatment than he received
under his champion in Joketsuzoku. Much to my relief and delight,
TWO of Soun's daughters can activate Ranma's token!"

"Ranma is there then?" Nodoka asked. "At the Tendo's?"

"He will be staying there as I try to search for either a cure or for
the conditions under which he may be returned to his humanity,"
Genma confirmed. "Nabiki, who was able to draw the elemental
power of water from Ranma's token, treats our son as a person,
and seems to be his current chosen warrior. Akane, Nabiki's
younger sister, drew fire, and seems to consider our son to be her
sensei. Either one should make a fine wife for our son once he
regains his humanity."

"Would he be there now?" Nodoka asked, almost begging.

"Not at the moment, Dear," Genma shook his head negatively.
"Nabiki and Akane both need to be trained, so Ranma is starting
their training today. They should return to the Tendo home
around or shortly after supper. In the mean time, I had planned
on visiting some local shrines and temples after bearing your
judgement, should I still be able to."

Genma looked his wife straight in the eyes and then bowed low
from his sitting position, making what may be his final request.
"Nodoka, all I ask... All I can dare to ask... Is that I alone bear the
full weight of your judgement should you decide that I have
failed in my vow to raise our son, Ranma, to be a man among men.
That, should you find it impossible to forgive me, that you at least
forgive our son and continue my quest to find a cure, or the
conditions for his return to humanity after I am gone..."

O O O

H'rys continued to dodge the powerful blows of the giant water
girl, desperately wondering when she would run out of power.
After observing the female get bigger and more water-like with
every exposure to the broken pipes cause by their battle, H'rys
decided to try to lure its opponent away from any more of the
human hive structures. Some random searching had eventually
lead the battle to what appeared to be an area set aside for
gravel storage.

It was dry, had the advantage of loose earth material with which
might disrupt and weaken waterbased creatures like elementals
or this female hybrid, and at the very least, the huge piles of
gravel should rob its opponent of much of her momentum.

YES!

H'rys cheered internally as its oponent began to slow down
and show signs of tiring. The female hybrid was begining to
act disoriented and confused, obviously near the end of her
current limits.

When the hybrid suddenly shed her excess water and dropped
listlessly to her knees, H'rys decided that it was time move in for
the capture...

It was rather surprised when the fire hybrid  streaked in and
rescued her now naked and powerless partner, considering
that it had pinned her to the ground in what should have been
a fatal manner. If the local protectors had that kind of recovery
ability, it really couldn't afford to play games like this.

Weighing its options, H'rys decided to go for the kill and eliminate
both hybrids now while they were both still weak.

The sudden appearance of the guardian beast, now flaming,
between it and the hybrids gave H'rys only a moment's pause.
Such a tiny flame would be easy to extinguish. Oh, how cute! It
looked like it was about to attack. This should be amusin-

O O O

Akane turned arround at Sensei's roar, so much louder than his
small size would suggest was possible. As she stood stunned,
with her exhausted sister in her arms, Akane could only stare in
awe at the trailing end of Sensei's breath of fire. The only sign
of the youma was a dark carbon shadow on a now glassy and
smouldering pile of gravel...

"Sensei..."

"Let's go home, Sparky," Ranma stated as he quickly spotted
the two packs the girls had brought along. "This place is
probably going to get a lot of attention neither of you are
ready for yet pretty soon. Training's done for the day."

O O O

END CHAPTER EIGHT

OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: The $$ 60,000,000,000 Girl...

Meryl Streep and Millie Thompson looked over the damage in
New York. Most of it appeared to have been caused by a localized
monsoon, but reports had ascribed it all to one person, whom they
were now trying to locate. A person who was probably now the
most wanted person on the planet, described by many as a
permanent natural disaster, and the bearer of the largest price on
her head Meryl had ever heard about.

Rumors and tall tales had the origins of this person as being
close to a thousand years ago, at the start of the first demon
wars. The damage caused then by the woman and her team
mates was impressive even then, before the Chaos Demon that
was supposed to have been the source of their power was sealed
away with most of its warriors.

Only one had escaped that trap, and had been searching for a way
to free her companions ever after.

Her power had grown through the ages, as had her cunning and
resolve.

She had evaded many capture attempts, and even with the
apparent hatred that the rest of the humanity bore for her, she
openly fought the demon oppressors whenever she
encountered them.

Meryl and Millie's mission was to find her and try to find some
way to control the damage in the wake of her battles so as to cut
down on insurance priemiums paid out by their company.

The humanoid typhoon, Nabiki the Stampede, last remaining
servant of the Chaos Demon Ranma...

O O O

CHAPTER NINE:

After reverting  back to her unpowered state and getting dressed,
Akane managed to get her emotionally drained and physically
exhausted sister dressed as well. Sensei politely looked the other
way while she did so, keeping an eye out for for anyone who might
come across them. He had reverted from the blazing form to what
she had come to think of as his regular blue furred one. As Akane
prepared to pick up Nabiki to give her a piggyback ride home,
Akane thought of something.

"Sensei," she asked, "what should we do about our packs? It's
going to be awkward carrying them and my sister too."

"Carry them anyway," Sensei said. "It'll be good training for you."

Whatever response Akane was going to give was cut short when
Nakiki glomped onto her and began wailing. "WAAAAAAHHH!
I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! WAAAAAAHHH!"

Akane's hair toinged out of place here and there as her sister
produced a fountain of tears that rivaled any of those performed
by their father...

O O O

Kasumi was out shopping with her father. They were currently
visiting some shops that would have been unusual for either of
them to go to no more than two days ago.

"Oh! Wouldn't that be simply adorable on Ranma, Father?" Kasumi
asked, pointing out a sailor outfit for a doll.

"Ahem..." Soun coughed. "I'm not sure that Ranma would
appreciate that particular outfit, Kasumi. Why don't we order the
lumber first, and then try for some replacement furnishings before
getting into what clothes Ranma might want in his condition?"

"Well... I guess that would be more prudent..." Kasumi agreed,
slightly disappointed. Still, she had managed to find some fabric
and terrycloth  that were both just the right shade of blue, as
well as some bead eyes that were very close to looking like
sapphires, so this stop wasn't a complete bust for her.

O O O

R'hul pondered his new appearance in the bathroom mirror. He
had a gender now, and had selected a more or less bishonen
appearance based on his chief minion's opinion that many of
the local females liked that look and would thus be disarmed
by his new form. He missed his tentacles though. Which, he
supposed, was why he had chosen to be male, given the
simularity that their one appendage had to his race's probing
tentacles, even if it was far too short and had an entirely
different function.

Getting dressed in some of his chief minion's better clothing,
making sure that the attire was clean first to be sure, R'hul
swept his long wavy black hair back and attempted to scry
H'rys' location in order to see what the local defenders brought
to bear...

Oh dear....

This could not possibly be any good...

R'hul stared into the mirror, viewing an image that should have
been H'rys and its immediate environment. Especially since the
scrying spell was specifically cast to focus on the other agent,
and should have located him either in this world or back in the
staging area of the previous one. Instead, he continued to gaze
upon his own reflection as he pondered what had happened to
H'rys. The possibilities were various but  rather low, ranging
from being lost in transfer due to irregularities in the
interdimensional barriers all the way to instant death upon arrival
due to efficient local defences.

R'hul dismissed the later out of hand, given the evidence of his
own continued existance, and while the first was possible, weak
zones in interdimensional barriers tended to diffuse over a
relatively large area. Thus, it was rather unlikely that any of his
local minions had placed a tag far enough away for that to be a
problem. This left the answer as being somewhere in the middle.
Time to back off for a bit, have his minions quietly gather
information that might relate to what had happened to H'rys, and
try to plan out the next probing action.

Dismissing the ineffective scrying spell, R'hul returned to the
family room of his current domicile and sat down heavily on one
of the flesh-bags to consider how best to prepare his first report...

O O O

Nabiki, having cried herself out from her relief that her younger
sister was alive and well, rode Akane piggyback as they made
their way back home. No one spared them a second glance,
assuming that the two sisters were yet another pair of refugees
from the battle that had recently torn through this section of
Nerima. And there were plenty of other refugees walking around
too, both the walking wounded and others who just seemed to
be in a state of shock. The more Nabiki saw, the worse she felt
over all the lives and livelihoods she had disrupted with her
super powered tantrum. She had no idea how some of these
people would recover from the damages she inflicted on their
businesses alone, not to mention all of the physical injuries.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be any fatalities," Ranma stated
dryly from his perch on one of the small packs Akane was also
carrying. "That does not mean that this isn't still a bad thing
though. Losing control like that could have killed someone,
and nearly got you killed as well."

"And you say that I have a nasty temper, Nabiki," Akane
chided.

"I know," Nabiki grumbled. "And you DO have a nasty temper,
Akane. It's just that apparently I have one too."

"In that case, I want to see the two of you spar in the Dojo
after you've had time to recover a bit," Ranma stated. "If you
are going to be fighting these Outsiders, then I need to make
sure that you are both trained properly and can work as a team.
And the first step for that is for me to see where your standings
in our Families' School of Anything Goes Martial Arts are."

"Yes, Sensei," Akane agreed readily. Nabiki just groaned and
hit her head on Akane's left shoulder repeatedly...

O O O

"Husband," Nodoka began formally, once Genma had finished
his tale, stated his plans, and presented himself for judgement.
"You have come to me, bearing a tremendous burden of  guilt
for your actions against our son, Ranma. You have done deeds,
both petty and grave, that have put the honor of both our son
and our family at risk. And you have led our son to a training
ground where his very humanity was stolen from him. For any
of this I could condemn you, and possibly our son as well, and
either have you thrown out of the clan or called upon to fulfil
your pledge to its fullest extent. And yet..."

Nodoka's tone grew gentler, but no less formal. "And yet,
there was much good in what you have told me as well. Yes,
you have led our son time and time again into danger, and
time and time again he has overcome the challenges you have
placed before him, thus he grew in the Art of the Anything
Goes School of Martial Arts. Yes, you have accepted tasks
and quests in our son's name for the sake of petty greed, but
he has thus come to learn to aid people in need and has come
to be a better person for it. And yes, you did lead our son to
Jusenkyo, but I can find no honor in requiring either of you to
pay for what an accidental encounter with magic has done."

"Genma, even if had Ranma not been found worthy and had
been left with the original effect you say this Nyanniichuan,
Spring of Drowned Girl, would have had - I could not have
been able to justify calling either of you to commit seppuku
for something that magic and the whims of the kami have
done. And you say that the locals told you that Ranma has
been found worthy to be called to serve a higher destiny.
For that I can find no fault in Ranma that I would deem
unmanly at this point."

"Finally, Genma, even though you perceive yourself to have
failed our son," Nodoka's voice was gentler still, almost a
whisper in the still air of the Saotome residence. "Even with
the burden you have placed on your own soul, you have
come to me alone, to bear the full weight of my judgement,
asking only that I spare, and even aid, our son Ranma. That
showed a rare courage, my husband, a courage I have not
seen from you in many years, since about a year or so after
Happosai had taken over your training from your father. Once
again, you have become the man I had married all those years
ago. A fine man, who may stumble on occasion, but one of
courage who can rise to meet the challenges placed before him."

With that, Nodoka stood and turned to leave the room, pausing
at the door to look back. "Come, Genma, I wish to reaquaint
myself with the man I married away from these grim trappings."

Genma stood, spirits souring high with renewed hope within his
heart. Soon he caught up with Nodoka as she headed for their
room. And then he received a bop on the head with the hilt of
the Saotome Family Sword.

"And you'll get much more than that if I find out that this
multiple fiancee thing is some sort of perverted tradition of
the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts! Don't think that
I've forgotten about Otsuko, Genma!"

"Yes, Dear... I mean NO, Dear, it's not a tradition of the School..."

"OR Hitomi!"

"But Nodoka, Sweety, that was years ago! Decades even!"

O O O

Under the late afternoon sun, Shan Pu frowned as she crossed
a mountain clearing. For some reason, she was begining to tire
out, even with her having stayed in continuous contact with
the ground since the night before. Her trackless steps had
carried her for league upon league towards her goal, and she
was begining to wonder just how far away her token had been
taken by that thief of a panda.

Sand poured off of her body as Shan Pu continued on for a few
more steps before having to drop the now oppressive weight of
her pack. She didn't feel so much physically exhausted as much
as suddenly mentally weary. In fact, she began to experience
some interesting hallucinations particular to the kind of fatigue
brought about by sleep deprivation.

"Argh! What now? I've stayed powered up longer than this
before," Shan Pu grumpled irritably as she gathered up the
clothing that was reforming on the ground from the scattered
sand. "Unless it has something to do with having used my
Earth Powers to recharge myself continually since last night.
I had better set up camp and cook something to eat."

Without bothering to get dressed, Shan Pu tiredly set up her
tent and bed roll near a mountain stream, and (after a few false
starts) had a modest campfire going, complete with a grill
supporting a small pot of vegetable stew. As she wearily stirred
the pot, she wondered how long it would take before she could
power up again.

Because if she had to wait too long between periods when she
could use her Earth powers freely, then she'd have to lighten
her load considerably so she could continue to make time even
when not the Earth Warrior...

O O O

Under the evening sky, Soun Tendo sat before his game board,
across from Ranma, where the two were playing a serious game
of shogi. The Tendo Patriarch was finding the match interesting,
as Ranma's playing style was in sharp contrast to what Soun
remembered of the boy's father's favorite tactics.

"I'm given to understand that my girls saw a little action today,
Ranma," Soun stated in a calm but serious tone as he examined
the board after Ranma's latest move. The largish blue kangaroo
rat was playing a delaying tactic, trying to recover from his poor
position. Genma would surely have cheated by now, but his son
had yet to choose to do so. Soun could respect that, even if he
did enjoy the unorthodox games he and Genma used to indulge
themselves in. Playing against Ranma was more like facing a
younger player in the park, or like when Kasumi and Nabiki
were learning how to play shogi.

Ranma, for his part, sighed. "They weren't ready yet. Heck, we'd
just gotten to the gravel yard and were about to start simple
training in activating and deactivating their new powers when
we heard some woman's scream. I thought it was just a mugging
or something, not some demon popping up already."

"There was someone else in the gravel lot with you?" Soun
asked, surprised that they had heard anything given the way
the loose piles of stone and dust should have broken up any
nearby sounds from outside the lot. Soun pressed his advantage
on the board while Ranma's pieces were still in a poor attack
posture. The lad was definitely more patient in shogi than Akane
had been. He learned fast and was good at improvising moves too...

"No," Ranma shook his tiny head in the negative. "That was the
oddest thing. The scream was from several blocks away from the
lot, but we all heard it clear as a bell. Otherwise it was actually
pretty quiet in the lot, just like Akane had said it would be." The
fuzzy blue one moved another piece. Playing against his father's
friend was not very much like playing against his father. Not that
Ranma had ever played more than a few games of shogi or go with
Genma, as neither of them bothered to carry a board and pieces
with them. Soun obviously had more time to practice, and was
proving to be a challenging opponent. Ranma wondered if he had
been mistaken to decline Soun's offer to take a more serious
handicap as a superior player. Heck, even with the four piece
handicap Soun HAD taken, Ranma was hard pressed to hold
his own. Still, if he could lure the elder Tendo into making any
of a particular set of attacks...

"Yes, that does seem to be odd..." Soun agreed, preparing to make
his next move. Noting that his diminuative opponent seemed to
become eager as his hand approached one of his silver generals,
he reexamined the board and spotted a couple of traps that might
have cost him that piece. Ah, the boy was clever, but his body
language gave him away, even in this form. Soun casually moved
his hand over his pieces until he saw Ranma's tail and tiny shoulders
droop, then, double checking for traps in case the boy was faking
him out, he made his move.

"They need to learn to work together as a team," Ranma shook
his head in disappointment. His father would have fallen for at
least one of those traps...

"I agree. Nabiki needs to start training seriously again if she is
going to properly answer this call to duty." Soun commented
gravely as he waited for the boy to make his next move.

"Tell me something I don't know, Daddy," Nabiki commented
dryly from the sidelines. "You're taking this a lot better than
Akane or I thought you would. What with us having just fought
a demon and all."

Soun turned to look at his middle daughter. "I am not happy
with this situation, Nabiki. If I could do anything about it, none
of my little girls would ever have to risk their lives in a battle
against dark forces. At the same time though, you and Akane
HAVE been called to a unique duty, and the fact that a demon
has shown up here in Nerima shows that it is a serious duty
that does need to be carried out."

Soun's shoulder's slumped as he started to weep softly. "If I
thought it would do any good, I would banish Ranma from this
house and forbid either of you from ever contacting him again,
even knowing that this is no fault of his. We would move
somewhere else, away from any possible demon attacks. But
really, where would such a place be? Where could I take my
precious girls that would be totally safe from such dangers?
And I must ask myself if would either of you be alive today if
you had not been given your powers? Would you have been
safe here at home, with the nearest magical champion that Ranma
knows about all the way over in China?"

"Dad..." Akane started softly.

"Mr. Tendo..." Ranma started as well, then paused.

"No," Soun interupted. "I am not happy with this situation, but
at the same time, my babies are safer with these powers than
without them. I will pick up their training as much as I am able, but
I fear even now that I cannot bring myself to push my daughters
as hard as I must to see them through this crisis. Ranma, I trust
that you will train my daughters as well, both with their powers
and as well as you can without their powers. I want my girls to
be safe."

"I will do my best, Mr. Tendo," Ranma stood as straight as he
could, and then bowed as best as he was able. "I will not fail
your trust."



END CHAPTER NINE

OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: With advice like this...
Contributed by Philip Jacobs...

R'hul pondered his new appearance in the bathroom mirror. He
had a gender now, and had selected a more or less bishonen
appearance based on his chief minion's opinion that many of the
local females liked that look and would thus be disarmed by his
new form. He missed his tentacles though.  And despite the
assurances of his minion, he was not sure having multiple deep
purple gelled spikes projecting from his black hairdo was going
to "Get him all the chicks."

O O O

CHAPTER TEN:

R'hul, intent on keeping his current local domicile discrete for at least
a while yet, had transformed his chief minion's father back into his
regular human form and had proceeded to  do some mnemonic
editing to keep the man's behavior at work from arousing too many
suspicions too soon. This had, naturally, required that he transform
at least part of the way back into his true form, enough so that his
smaller probing tentacles were both accessible and functional. And
the emotional responses of the male humans, father and offspring
alike, were well worth the loss of a fine piece of furniture.

After all, with the level of mental and behavioral editing required to
force the older human to go through the motions of daily life in the
local hive without giving anything away, R'hul didn't expect to get
much more than an emotionless husk back by the time all was said
and done. Oh well, he could just slate that one for further
experimentation when this part of the mission was over and done
with. No sense in ruining more of his personal stock than required
by duty, no matter how recently he acquired them.

The feral humans R'hul was using were a different story. While he
had found out that they should be getting ready to report to their
instructional creche at this time, the fact that they were often
deliberately absent provided a good enough cover for him to keep
them away from their peers. He'd eventually have to do something
about their parents as well, but for the moment R'hul knew that the
social dynamics that generally produced feral humans would keep
their suspicion levels low. At least as far as the matter of their
offspring having been sublimated to the will of a superior entity.
In any event, he would have all of his local minions over today, in
order to find out more about this world and to see what sort of
information gathering capabilities existed in the local hive.

O O O

Ranma gradually woke up on his own once again, snuggled in
between two warm and soft pillows covered in silky fabric,
although he wondered at the cushioned brace holding him there.
Not that it wasn't comfortable, but he could have sworn that he'd
gone to sleep on a make-shift futon consisting of a couple of fluffy
towels, with a third one as a blanket, so where was he now?

And then the whole 'bed' shifted, and Ranma now found himself
held in place by the brace between the two mounds, with one
resting on him as he rested on the other. Shaking his head to clear
away the remaining early morning grogginess, the gerbil-sized blue
kangaroo rat opened his eyes and looked around...

Oh...

Oh my...

...

Kasumi woke up a bit later to find that Ranma was still asleep, so
she carefully set him on her bed as she got up. After getting dressed,
she gently carried him back to the guest room and placed him back
on his little futon, none the wiser for having helped her return to the
safe and carefree nights of her childhood.

O O O

Genma woke up to in the loving embrace of his wife for the first time
in ten long years. He and Nodoka had indeed gotten to know each
other all over again, and despite a brief argument about events long
past and best forgotten, one thing had lead to another and he never
had gotten around to visiting any temples yesterday.

Nodoka was still asleep, which he took as something of a
compliment for his performance, considering that she usually woke
up at the same time as he did. Smiling gently, he tucked her back in
and made his way quietly to the kitchen to surprise his wife with
breakfast in bed.

Preparations were completed in short order, and he had their plates
on a serving tray and had just left the kitchen when he was smacked
in the face with a blunt, rod-shaped object!

Nodoka looked at the resulting mess of spilled food and drink and
then at the welt across the face of her husband. "I'm so sorry, Dear!
I thought last night was a dream and woke up to noises in the kitchen!
I thought you were a burglar!"

"I'm just glad you kept the sheath on that thing," Genma grumbled
as he glared briefly at the Saotome Family Sword. "Oh well, the
damage is done. Why don't you get started on another breakfast,
while I clean this mess and wash up?"

O O O

Nabiki stalked into the kitchen as Akane returned from her morning
jog, and bapped her elder sister softly on her head. "You broke
Ranma again, didn't you?" She asked, presenting a dazed, somewhat
smaller than usual, blue furred kangaroo rat to her sisters.

"Oh dear," Kasumi responded in a slightly contrite and apologetic
tone. "I didn't think he had noticed. He didn't the night before..."

"What?" Akane asked, looking between her sisters, wondering what
was going on.

"Big sister's been borrowing Ranma at night for her cuddle-buddy,
just like a stuffed animal," Nabiki explained.  A tiny smirk worked its
way past her stern expression.  "And without his knowledge or
consent, either.  Sis, I'm surprised at you."

"Well, he makes me feel safe and warm and free of worries and cares,
just like when Mother was still with us." Kasumi explained in a more
contrite and less apologetic tone than before.

"If that's the case, I think I'll ask him if he'd mind doing that
particular favor for me some time," Nabiki retorted while Akane
began to poke her dazed and limp sensei...

"Hey! He twitched!" Akane exclaimed excitedly as she grabbed
Ranma and began shaking him with enthusiasm!

"Wha-a? Wha? I-I'm up! I'm u-up!" Ranma squeeked, voice
stuttering with each shake. "What's up, Sparky?" He asked as Akane
stopped shaking him and set him on the counter, where he expanded
back up to about the size of a cat.

"I was wondering what was on our training agenda for today" Akane
explained, smiling. "Are we going to learn our magic attacks today,
or practice our sentai team poses? Or perhaps..." Akane was stopped
short when Nabiki covered her mouth firmly with one hand.

"Enough, Akane," Nabiki stated tiredly. "Get ready for school, we
can't skip class just because we have powers now you know."

O O O

A short while later, Nabiki and Akane were walking down the street
from their home, on the way to Furinkan High. Nabiki had Ranma  in
her schoolbag, along with her notebooks and homework. Remarkably,
he was even smaller than when she had found him in the guestroom
earlier, as he had just discovered how to adjust his size a bit on his
own. Nabiki had left his sapphire token hidden back in her room, in
the same box she kept her ledger, cash box, and snacks in as she
didn't want to either explain it or lose it at school.

"Oh, I can't wait to get to school this morning!"  Akane grinned
fiercely, smacking a fist into her palm and unintentionally
interrupting her sister's train of thought.

"Akane, you better not be thinking of using your new powers on
the horde," Nabiki admonished seriously. "You could severely injure
someone, cripple them for life, or even kill them. Fire isn't a toy to
toss around casually."

"Pft. I know THAT, Nabiki," Akane acknowledged with a slight pout.
"I just feel more energetic, more alive, like I could take on twice as
many boys every morning. For once, I'm actually looking forward to
Kuno's little farce. I wasn't going to use my powers on anyone."

"Oh. Well, that's different," Nabiki admitted. "Enjoy yourself, then.
Just try not to hurt any of the idiots too badly, all right?"

"I won't hurt them any more than they deserve to be," Akane agreed,
nodding curtly. "You'd think they'd have learned by now, or that the
school would have done something about it."

"That gang of idiots?" Nabiki cocked an eye at her sister. "It'd
probably take some guy dating you who could defeat Kuno to make
them stop, and even then I'd give them a week or so before giving
up in the face of superior opposition." Nabiki cocked her head to
the side as she thought about the matter some more. "Or not. After
all, that pack of lemmings still confronts you every school day, and
they've yet to get anywhere besides hurt for their trouble. As for the
school doing something to stop it, dream on, little sister. Kuno's dad
is the principle. Countering any bit of lunacy his son does might call
him back from that trip of his. You haven't met him, Akane, he's more
loopy than Kuno-baby - 'The Shooting of the Stars' is."

Akane shuddered. "Now THAT's scary!"

Inside Nabiki's school bag, Ranma took note of the conversation
and decided to try to get details later. It sounded an awful lot like
this Kuno guy was trying to soften Akane up by wearing her skills
down with large numbers of unskilled opponents. And that whole
deal about defeating Akane in order to date her would be honorable
only if Akane herself had either set or agreed to the terms and if the
challengers fought her one on one rather than as a horde.

Shifting around just a bit as he thought the matter through, Ranma
touched something small, round, and smooth. He didn't even have
time to be startled as the sapphire token, which had somehow made
its way into Nabiki's bag, sucked him back into itself like so much
smoke being pulled through a window by a fan...

O O O

Kasumi got up from her sewing project to answer the door. "Oh,
Uncle Saotome! We were wondering when you would get back.
We thought that you had only gone out to check the local temples
and shrines yesterday." She wondered who the lady accompanying
Genma was. She seemed nice enough, and very proper, although
Kasumi wasn't sure how to take the wrapped katana the woman
carried.

"My apologies, Kasumi," Genma bowed briefly. "I had intended to
do so, but then I remembered another important matter that really
should have been taken care of first. This is my wife, Nodoka.
Nodoka, this is Soun Tendo's eldest daughter, Kasumi." The women
bowed briefly as well upon being introduced to each other. "Is
Ranma still out of his token? It's past time he was reacquainted
with his mother."

"Oh, you just missed him! He went to school with my sisters,"
Kasumi replied with a smile. "If you would care to wait inside, I'm
sure that they were planning on coming straight home after classes
let out."

"That would be fine, Kasumi," Nodoka nodded as she removed
her geta (wooden sandals) and placed them carefully in the
getabako (shoe cupboard) of the genkan (entranceway).

O O O

R'hul lounged on his remaining flesh-bag seat, absently sipping
from another bottle he had found in the kitchen. Soy sauce, this
time. Not quite as enticing as the ketchup had been, but his chief
minion's family had only the one bottle of that delightful substance.
He'd have to eat something more substantial sooner or later, but he
was good to go for a while yet, between having eaten well prior to
crossing over to this world and the fragments of emotional horror
and terror that his transformed seat was emitting. He could, of
course, eat what the humans ate if it came down to that, but there
was always something lacking in the essence of such creatures
flesh that more intelligent animals such as humans almost always
had. His kind could starve to death on full bellies if they limited
themselves to non-sapient prey. Something to do with the quality
of the souls and spirits involved he was sure.

And intelligent animals were more useful too, as they could be
trained as slaves, pets, or other entertainment as well as simply
raised as cattle. Under the proper conditions, they even raised
themselves quite nicely, and one need only take care not to
over-harvest the breeding stock. Sadly, such conditions never
seemed to last for more than a few of his kind's generations, so
sources of fresh stock were always welcome whenever they were
discovered.

Unfortunately, they were almost always defended somehow as
well, thanks to meddling gods and spirits, which was why R'hul
was approaching his task with as much caution as he was. This
was a new world, and from what little he had seen when poking
around in the blurry, barely coherent, memories of the poor
unenlightened animals that had become his local minions, it was
one teeming with humans to the point of overpopulation!

With such a find, R'hul was assured instant fame and a spot in his
race's history as a great explorer, even if his only role was to scout
and set up the initial probing actions. With any luck, he'd be
promoted, and possibly even granted a local command and maybe
even a grant over a new estate in this world once it had been properly
conquered.

In the meantime though, he had much to learn about the curious
innovations the local animals had come up with. Technology was
turning out to be a fascinating subject, but none of his minions
could explain how any of this new magic worked. He'd have to find
a technomancer and convince the mage to divulge the secrets of
this new spellcraft.

R'hul chuckled evilly as he mentally noted the new task on his list
of projects, and laughed out loud at how uncomfortable even this
simple expression of humor made his minions. Such tasty little
creatures, but no, he'd have to wait a while longer before properly
indulging his appetite. For now, he simply instructed them to show
him how to use this television scrying artifact once more. He had
been rather intrigued when he found out that it could divulge local
news reports as well as display stories...

O O O

Nabiki sat at her desk during class, absently listening to the teacher's
droning lesson with half an ear as she passed Ranma's sapphire
token over the pages of the textbook. Much to her surprise and
consternation, she had found the sapphire disc rather than Ranma
in her school bag as she had pulled out her notebooks and
assignments prior to  her first class. For the most part, it had
remained there during the majority of her classes. However, it had
inexplicably appeared in her gym locker while she was changing
into the standard t-shirt and bloomers required for girls during
physical education. And then, as she left the locker room to head
out onto the field with the rest of her class, the sapphire disc had
moved again, somehow getting into her snug shorts and against
a very personal area! Nabiki blushed at the memory, and wondered
if Ranma could tell where his token was.

Maybe the token had some way of staying near whichever girl
Ranma favored the most. Except that Genma had managed to steal
it from whoever Shampoo was, and the Chinese amazon was the
only magical girl Ranma had empowered at the time. On the other
hand, Ranma had expressed some serious reservations about how
Shampoo treated him while he was in her village. Perhaps he found
the treatment he received from the Tendo sisters better, although
Nabiki wasn't too sure that Ranma appreciated the fact that Kasumi
was using him as a plush cuddle-toy. Or maybe he did, considering
how close their costumes fit. She'd have to ask him about that later,
wherever he was.

Heck, Nabiki was surprised that Akane hadn't said anything about
their costumes yet, considering that nothing the Power Rangers
wore on their show fit like a second skin. Nabiki wasn't so sure
about Sailor Moon as she hadn't gotten as deeply into that anime
as either Kasumi or Akane had. Nabiki could feel somewhat
embarrassed about the costumes' painted-on fit now, but she
remembered that she had not felt that way while actually wearing it.
She had just been curious about her lack of embarassment and how
odd it had seemed that Akane had accepted the costumes without
any apparent objections.

On further reflection, Nabiki thought that her little sister had been
acting a bit different since gaining her fire powers from Ranma's
token. Nothing major so far, but her little sister seemed more
energetic and... alive than before. While Akane had always been
generally more passionate to begin with, she had always seemed
uncomfortable with that part of herself, and tended to repress it.
For now, she seemed to have cast aside her objections to her
tomboy nature, not so much embracing it yet as simply accepting
it and moving on with her life.

Indeed, Akane had been a little rougher than normal with the
horde, and Nabiki was positive that some would be dropping
out of that particular bit of idiocy due to whatever remaining
sense of self preservation they had left. Especially with the way
Akane kept smiling happily as she wrenched limbs and twisted
joints with just that much more enthusiasm than usual. Akane had
definitely shifted from prey to predator this morning, and Nabiki
thought that some of the less idiotic and or masochistic suitors
would now show some signs of intelligence. Kuno wouldn't give
up, of course, and neither would the more ardent of Akane's
suitors, but there should be some drop-off at least due to this
morning's disaster.

As Nabiki continued to absently scan Ranma's token across the
textbook pages, she failed to notice the pale blue glow being
emitted from the sapphire, nor how it briefly enveloped the whole
book before being drawn back into the lens...

O O O

END CHAPTER TEN.

OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: Oh my! Not you too!?
(Once again suggested by Philip Jacobs)

Nabiki stalked into the kitchen as Akane returned from her morning
jog, and bapped her elder sister softly on her head. "You broke
Ranma again, didn't you?" She asked, presenting a dazed, somewhat
smaller than usual, blue furred kangaroo rat to her sisters.

"Oh dear," Kasumi responded in a slightly contrite and apologetic
tone. "I didn't think he had noticed. He didn't the night before..."

"What?" Akane asked, looking between her sisters, wondering what
was going on.

"Big sister's been borrowing Ranma at night for her cuddle-buddy,
just like a stuffed animal," Nabiki explained.  A tiny smirk worked its
way past her stern expression.  "And without his knowledge or
consent, either.  Sis, I'm surprised at you."

"Well, he makes me feel safe and warm and free of worries and cares,
just like when Mother was still with us." Kasumi explained in a more
contrite and less appologetic tone than before.

"If that's the case, I think I'll ask him if he'd mind doing that particular
favor for me some time," Nabiki retorted while Akane began to poke
her  dazed and limp sensei...

"Hey! He twitched!" Akane exclaimed excitedly as she grabbed
Ranma and began shaking him with enthusiasm!

"Wha-a? Wha? I-I'm up! I'm u-up!" Ranma squeeked, voice stuttering
with each shake. "What's up, Sparky?" He asked as Akane stopped
shaking him and set him on the counter, where he expanded back up
to about the size of a cat.

"Kasumi's been hogging your bedtime, Sensei!  I want a turn, too!"

Ranma's eyes boggled as he stiffened up and fell over in a near
catatonic state...

Nabiki reached over and bapped her younger sister's head, "Now
YOU broke him!"

O O O

CHAPTER ELEVEN:

The walk home from Furinkan High was largely uneventful for Nabiki
and Akane. Nabiki was carrying Ranma's token in her book bag, as it
had a tendency to suddenly reposition itself to somewhere on her
person if the book bag got too far away from her. Holding it directly
was simply less disconcerting that having it suddenly appear in her
panties or in one of the cups of her bra, but might draw unwanted
attention if someone saw her holding a valuable gemstone disc larger
than most coins. Although, to be fair, it had picked enough other
places on her body to move to during the day that she was pretty
sure that those two places had only been picked out of random
chance as opposed to deliberate intent. Come to think of it, Nabiki
realized that most people would probably assume that she had
picked up a rather garish piece of costume jewelry somewhere, but
that was still an image of herself that she was uncomfortable
presenting to her friends and classmates.

The next mystery, after why the sapphire disc was doing this, was
where had Ranma gone off to.

Nabiki could only assume that he was stuck in his gemstone prison
again, although she was still at a loss as to how it had appeared in
her book bag earlier. Especially as she was fairly certain that she
had left it safely locked in the box with her account books, which
was itself in the bottom drawer of her desk back home. Then again,
with the way it moved from place to place whenever she got too
far from it and didn't have it in her sight, she supposed that it could
get just about anywhere it needed to. But why was it moving on its
own now, and not earlier?

Putting the problem aside to solve later, Nabiki entered the Tendo
home slightly ahead of Akane.

"We're Home!" the two called out together, not quite in sync with
each other as they removed their shoes. They noticed an extra pair
of well made but somewhat faded and worn wooden geta in the
getabako right as Kasumi came into the hallway from the kitchen
wearing a kimono.

"Welcome back, Nabiki, Akane! Please go up and get changed,
Uncle Genma brought Ranma's mother here to see him. Isn't that
nice?"

"Ranma's mother is here?" Nabiki asked, hoping that Ranma was
indeed in his token, and that she could get him out. Once again,
light shhone from the stone held in Nabiki's hand, a bright aura
that cast the hall in shades of blue. And again Nabiki's clothing
and make up flowed into the sapphire lens as if it were all water.

Kasumi and Akane, now more familiar with what was happening,
stepped smartly away from Nabiki so as to prevent any part of
their own attire from becoming part of their sister's transformation
process, but otherwise observed the event with rapt attention.

Nabiki herself was trying to memorize the sequence as it unfolded
around her. As before, she floated weightlessly in the hallway,
naked as the day she was born. What she could see of her hair
shifted to a deep blue hue, and she guessed (correctly) that her
eyes became a vibrant green at about this time. As the physical
transformation completed, she noted that she was now aware of
her affinity to water and that she definitely felt more alert, ready to
act, and yet calm at the same time. This time only some of the
ribbons of water poured forth from the gem while the rest either
condensed out of the air around her, or flowed from nearby sources
of water, such as the flower vase on the little table near the phone.
These ribbons of water slowly swirled around Nabiki's bare body,
several of which already spiraling in on Nabiki's hands and feet
forming snug gloves and boots, done in shades of blue, with
black trim and reinforced with silver and stainless steel. As those
were finishing up, several other ribbons began to paint a sleeveless
halter top and bicycle shorts combo on her that left her midriff bare
and fit like her own skin. There was a fitting in the steel and silver
plate on the back of the right glove that seemed to be just the right
size for the lens, and as before it popped out of her hand and flew
into the setting on its own. Nabiki settled gently to the floor as
gravity once again established it's hold on her, and one final thing
came out of the lens and settled on the floor next to her.

He was still small, about the size of a cat or rabbit, covered in blue
fur, and still looked kind of like a kangaroo rat.

"Um... How long was I in there this time?" Ranma asked. "I thought
you left my token in your desk, but it bumped into me on the way
to school and I got sucked into it like a bowl of udon!"

"That was this morning," Nabiki answered. "I didn't try to get you
out while we were in school, which is apparently a good thing as it
seems I would have blown our cover if I had," she continued,
indicating her costume with a gesture.

"Indeed," Kasumi observed, "not to mention how improper the
resulting display would be in mixed company."

"I'll say," Akane groused. "We'd never see the end of the perverts.
Who came up with the transformation sequence and the costumes
anyway?"

As if in response to the question, a screen of light was projected
from the sapphire token on the back of Nabiki's right hand and
suspended in mid air (as opposed to appearing on the wall like
any sensible projection of light).

QUERY: DESIGN SOURCE: EMPOWERMENT RITUAL; BATTLE
REGALIA

QUERANT: WARRIOR OF FIRE

AUTHORIZATION: GRANTED

ACCESS LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE

ANSWER ONE: EMPOWERMENT RITUAL SELECTED IN
ACCORDANCE TO CURRENT POPULAR MYTHOS KNOWN
TO MAGICAL GUARDIAN RANMA. REFERENCE: MAJOKKO
HENSHIN. INITIAL REFERENCE INCOMPLETE DUE TO
GUARDIAN RANMA'S LIMITED EXPOSURE TO THE SUBJECT
MATERIAL. ADDITIONAL REFERENCE INPUT MADE
AVAILABLE BY THE WARRIOR OF EARTH UPON INITIAL
EMPOWERMENT ATTEMPT. CROSS-REFERENCE OF
APPROPRIATE ELEMENTAL WARRIOR EMPOWERMENT
RITUALS (FEMALE SPECIFIC) RESULTED IN SELECTION OF
THE RITUAL SET WHICH MOST CLOSELY MATCHED THESE
CRITERIA.

ANSWER TWO: BATTLE REGALIA SELECTED FROM
SUBMISSIONS MADE BY VARIOUS KAMI FOR THE PURPOSE
OF DENOTING ELEMENTAL BASED WARRIORS, IN
ACCORDANCE TO MATCHES BASED ON EXPECTATIONS
AND DESIRES OF THE INITIAL WARRIOR TO UNDERGO THE
EMPOWERMENT RITUAL, THE WARRIOR OF EARTH.
CURRENTLY SELECTED BATTLE REGALIA SET IS THE 5th
SUBMISSION BY ARTEMIS (GODDESS OF THE HUNT), THE
4,438th SUBMISSION BY APHRODITE (GODDESS OF LOVE),
THE 7,821st SUBMISSION BY BASTET (GODDESS OF
PROTECTION), THE 50th SUBMISSION BY SUSANO-O NO
MIKOTO (GOD OF STORMS), AND THE 9,776th SUBMISSION
BY URD, (GODDESS OF THE PAST).

"I come with an instruction manual!?" the diminutive magical rodent
exclaimed in wide-eyed shock. "What am I? A freaking radio or
something?"

Nabiki bit back her initial sardonic response and knelt down to
look Ranma in the eyes. "Never, Ranma," she said carefully. "No
matter what happened to you, you are a person first and foremost."

"Nabiki's right, Sensei" Akane agreed.

"Umm..." Kasumi murmured, flustered that she'd been visualizing
Ranma in a doll house, wearing little outfits that she had already
started designing patterns for. Best to not bring up the idea now,
she decided. Maybe later, after Ranma was less upset...

Nabiki looked over the readout on the floating screen again.
"Artemis, Aphrodite, Bastet, Susano-O, and Urd?" She commented
with a cocked eyebrow. "Most of these don't even belong to the
same pantheon, and only Susano-O is Japanese. What gives?"

QUERY: REASON BEHIND MULTIPANTHEISTIC INVOLVEMENT
IN MAGICAL GUARDIAN BEAST PROJECT.

QUERANT: WARRIOR OF WATER

AUTHORIZATION: GRANTED

ACCESS LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE

ANSWER: CLASSIFIED BEYOND CURRENT ACCESS LEVEL
OF QUERANT.

This answer had Ranma and the three Tendo sisters looking at
each other in confusion.

"Ahem," Ranma coughed, and then straightened up, facing the
screen. "Why did I have ta become a guardian beast? Couldn't I
have done the same duties if I stayed human?" Much to the blue
rodent's consternation, their was no change on the hovering
display. "What? I'm not worthy of an answer? Is that it?"

"Why aren't you answering Ranma's questions?" Nabiki wondered.

QUERY: REASON BEHIND DENIAL OF RESPONSE TO
INQUIRIES INITIATED BY PERIPHERAL.

QUERANT: WARRIOR OF WATER

AUTHORIZATION: GRANTED

ACCESS LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE

ANSWER: PREVENTION OF CASCADING FEEDBACK LOOP
BETWEEN TOKEN AND PROJECTED PERIPHERAL AS BOTH
ARE ACTUALLY COMPONENTS OF THE SAME ENTITY.

Before anybody could ponder over the metaphysical implications
of this answer, Kasumi remembered the reason that started the
whole exchange.  "Oh my!  Ranma, Uncle Genma brought Auntie
Nodoka over to meet you all."  She looked to her sisters, continuing,
"I laid out a kimono for each of you on your beds, so go up and get
changed."  Her face fell a bit, and she bowed slightly to Ranma.
"I'm sorry, but I haven't had time to finish a kimono for you yet,
Ranma-san.  I only had a chance to shop for the materials this
morning.  Nabiki, you had best go out to the dojo first and transform
back before going upstairs.  I'll take Ranma in to see his mother."

"Got it," Nabiki said as Akane started up the stairs. Before she
could turn around to go outside though, Kasumi caught her eyes
with a glance.

"I got a good look at your closet while I was looking for your spare
kimonos, Nabiki," Kasumi admonished. "Please ask before borrowing
things from either Akane or myself. And remember to return them
when you are done."

Nabiki slumped her shoulders in defeat. "I'm sorry, Kasumi. I'll ask
from now on."

"That's all right then," The eldest Tendo sister smiled. "Now go out
and get changed so you can go up and get changed!"

"Er... Right!"

O O O

Shan Pu grinned as she gently placed her pack on the eastward
bound train by way of levitating the rocks she had stowed inside.
She then leaped gracefully in a high arc, landing on another freight
car several cars further back from where she had set her pack down.
All in all, she was pleased with her progress, and spotting this train
heading east was only going to speed the whole trip to find her
guardian even more. It was a long train, with a mixed load of lumber
and ore, with a few box cars thrown in, and as she made her way
forward, the young Nichieju counted herself exceptionally fortunate
to have found such a train. While any eastbound train would have
been a good find, a long train with a variety of cars such as this was
far more likely to be traveling longer distances than a shorter one with
just one or two types of cargo. It might even be heading all the way to
a coastal port if she was lucky, although it was far more likely to be
heading for a distribution center in the middle provinces first.

Still, every bit of travel she could get which allowed her to rest her
powers while still moving in the desired direction helped, so even if
the train stopped at the next town, it would have served its purpose
as far as she was concerned.

Collecting her pack, Shan Pu pondered over which type of car to
settle in. The ore cars were tempting, given her earth based powers,
but both coal and iron ore were likely to stain her normal clothing,
and she was planning to transform back for the bulk of the ride so
that she didn't do so unexpectedly later on. The box beds, while
invitingly private, were also too closed for her taste, as she wanted
to be able to have an unobstructed view if she had to leave the train
suddenly. That pretty much left the flat beds with the logs, so all she
really needed was to select a load of lumber that wasn't too rough or
sticky with sap.

Selecting a load of birch to settle on, mostly because she could easily
recognize the distinctive pale gray bark at a distance and knew that
the logs would be smooth and relatively comfortable to rest on, the
dauntless Amazon made her way forward over the next three cars.
Stopping midway along the top of the birch load, Shan Pu set her
pack down so that it's weight held it in place between two bundles
while leaving her access to the inside of her pack. Satisfied that the
pack wasn't going to go anywhere, she stood up, faced into the wind
to keep her hair out of her face, and allowed her power to disperse.

Her mystic uniform poured off of her body as it turned to sand. Too
late, Shan Pu realized her mistake as she whirled around and tried to
catch the tiny grains of sand as they were whipped away in the wind
even as her skin, eyes, and hair resumed their natural coloration. The
nude lavender haired girl stared helplessly as the sand reformed into
her regular silks in mid-air on either side of the train, already a half 
mile
back and receding rapidly as the train thundered on.

"Aiya!" the nubile naked Nichieju exclaimed in frustration. "That was
one of my favorite sets of traveling outfits! How could I be so stupid?
Next time I'll change back in a box car." Sighing in exasperation as the
watched her silk blouse, trousers and panties flutter to the ground on
either side of the tracks a mile or so back. She couldn't see her slippers
at all, wich didn't surprise her as they were dark and would have hit
ground already being heavier than the rest of the outfit. All and all, the
loss of the outfit was annoying, but not vital as she had other outfits
in her pack. The slippers were the big loss, as she only had one spare
pair, since she didn't expect to wear them out because she was doing
the bulk of her traveling in her mystical warrior state. And she could
always get new hair ornaments.

Although from the look of it, if she squinted her eyes...

"Lucky!" Shan Pu exclaimed, bouncing up and down with renewed
cheer! She had spotted light glinting off of her hair ornaments, one
only a few cars back  and caught in the branches of another load of
logs, and the other several more cars back resting on a load of coal.
Wasting no time, she made her way back carefully off of the birch
car and picked her way across a rough barked variety of oak logs for
a couple of cars, only to find that the next load of logs was composed
of chestnut trees. Which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the prickly
husks of the chestnut pods, of which she could be sure at least a few
remained in the load to catch unwary skin. Such as hers, considering
that she'd been in too much of a hurry to rescue her hair ornaments
to bother getting dressed first. On the other hand, she'd only get
minor scratches at worst, while losing another outfit to torn silk right
after losing the first to bad planning would have been a bit much, so
she shrugged it off and continued to make her way sans attire until
she reached the first hair ornament.

Carefully plucking the polished red beads from the chestnut branch
the ornament had caught on, Shan Pu took a moment to tie it in place
before continuing on past another flatbed of chestnut logs, and then
three more loads of logs from some tree she didn't immediately
identify that had rough bark and sticky sap, and... Okay, she
tentatively decided that it was some sort of fir or other evergreen
tree, fortunately of one of the blunt leafed varieties and opposed to
one of the sharp needled types. Yet another good reason to have left
her remaining silks in her pack, although she now had to admit to
herself that she had executed relatively poor planning so far on her
trip. If she had thought to pack some sturdy outfits made from courser
fabrics, she could be wearing one of them and not be worried about
ruining the material. As it was, the only thing saving her next outfit
from being ruined in her effort to retrieve her hair ornaments was her
own thoughtless haste.

Maybe Great Grandmother was right about her guardian beast
needing a champion capable of being more than just the best
warrior of her generation in the village...

Shan Pu shook away the thought, as yet unwilling to concede the
point, and she picked her footing across the first ore car until she
reached the next one back, both of which were loads of coal. Upon
reaching her prize, the young air-clad woman was pleasantly
surprised to find not just one, but both lost slippers not more than
ten feet away. Jubilant, she quickly donned the slippers then held
up the other pair of red beads like a hard won trophy as she stood
tall and proud of even this minor stroke of fortune!

The rising and fading sound of whoops, cheers, whistles, and cat
calls drew Shan Pu's attention to the fact that the train was currently
passing through a small settlement, of which a good portion of the
population was enjoying the momentary view of her bare body as
she stood like an idiot on top of a load of coal. Waving back at her
impromptu audience, Shan Pu made note to try not to pass through
this particular region when it came time to make her way back to
Joketsuzoku. Once the train was past the outermost parts of the
community she permitted her self to blush as she tied her other
hair ornament in place.

Sure, she had nothing to be ashamed of as far as her appearance,
and the Nichieju were hardly body shy, but there were limits. With
luck, her Great Grandmother would never hear of this incident...

Oh, who was she kidding. She was doomed. Either Ku Lon was
following her trail, or she had sent someone else to track where
her great granddaughter went. One way or another the village
was going to hear of this, and then her Father would have her
across his knees applying a paddle to her bare hindquarters
until Great Grandmother told him to stop. The only reason her
Great Grandmother wouldn't be doing it herself was the fact that
advanced age had reduced her stature and the Elder no longer
had either a suitable sized lap, nor leverage to wield the paddle
properly if Shan Pu tried to fit across what little lap her Great
Grandmother had remaining.

Honestly, the Elder sometimes treated her as if she were still a
child of twelve or fourteen and not a warrior of sixteen full years
of age. Shan Pu was no longer some flat-chested neophyte, she
was the village champion! She won the tournament and everything,
and was even able to summon the guardian out of its stone when
the fat fool brought it to Joketsuzoku! And her Great Grandmother
STILL treated her like she was a mere child. What else did she
need to become an adult in the eyes of the Elders?

Slumping her shoulders in defeat, Shan Pu turned around and
made her way forward across the freight cars again until she
reached her pack, then started rummaging through it for another
outfit.

O O O

Nodoka's outward calm belied her inner turmoil as she waited for
the two younger Tendo daughters to finish getting dressed so
that they could present themselves and her son to her. She had
heard them announce their return home, and the eldest sister
presumably greeted them at the door and gave them instructions
before returning to preparing tea and snacks for everyone. She
had some idea of what to expect when she saw Ranma, as Genma
had described his current appearance, which was confirmed by
Soun, with additional information from Kasumi who had mentioned
that Ranma could change his size and appearance somewhat.
Ranma could still speak, unlike the panda form of Genma's curse,
and from the account  of yesterday's encounter with the enemy
(as relayed to Nodoka from what Soun and Kasumi had been told
afterwards), he remained cunning, bold, and effective despite his
new form.

Kasumi quietly returned from the kitchen with the tea service tray.
She knelt to serve more tea and set out the rice crackers. "Ranma,
Nabiki, and Akane will be in shortly. I would have brought Ranma
in now, but he wanted to wait for my sisters to be ready."

"That's quite all right, Kasumi," Nodoka assured pleasantly,
keeping her stress from her voice. Soon, she would see her baby
boy for the first time in ten years. A son horribly fated to have his
humanity stolen from him by whatever spirits governed Jusenkyo.
A son deemed worthy of becoming a guardian beast by the gods.

A son to be proud of.

A son she feared would never lead a normal life.

A son who stood proudly on the right shoulder of a kimono-clad
girl with pageboy hair as the other two Tendo daughters entered
the family room from the hallway.

"Hi, Mom," Ranma waved casually at the woman seated by his father.

Despite all of her mental preparation for this very moment, Nodoka
fainted at the sight of the large blue mouse that was her son...

O O O

Nabiki turned her head and looked at Ranma as he stood statue-like
on her shoulders. Wait, forget statue-like. He WAS a statue now!
One apparently rough hewn from some blue-gray stone with a course
grain. His entire body expressed such dejection, such utter despair
and heartbreak...

"Ranma..." the middle Tendo sister carefully lifted the literally petrified
guardian off of her shoulder and held him to her bosom. "It's all right..."

"She hates me!" The stone rodent suddenly cried out. "Momma hates
me!" With only a brief struggle to get out of Nabiki's grip, Ranma dove
into his token.

"Oh my..."

"Well, that went well..."

"Akane," Nabiki cast an irritated glance at her younger sister, "shush!"

O O O

END CHAPTER ELEVEN.

OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: A Proud and Noble Heritage...
Contributed by Philip Jacobs...


"That's quite all right, Kasumi," Nodoka assured pleasantly, keeping
her stress from her voice. Soon, she would see her baby boy for the
first time in ten years. A son horribly fated to have his humanity stolen
from him by whatever spirits governed Jusenkyo. A son deemed
worthy of becoming a guardian beast by the gods.


A son to be proud of.


A son she feared would never lead a normal life.


A son who stood proudly on the right shoulder of a kimono-clad
girl with pageboy hair as the other two Tendo daughters entered
the family room from the hallway.


"Hi, Mom," Ranma waved casually at the woman seated by his father.


The tableau held for a long moment, as his mother gazed blankly in
his direction.  Then, she shuddered and seemed to collapse inward
on her navel as the deep bell-tone of a temple chime shivered the air
in the room.  Her body shimmered, shrunk, and was replaced by a
form that left everyone in the room staring in shock.  The dark
brown-furred creature had the body of a rabbit, a head vaguely
reminiscent of a cat with massive tufted sweeps of oversized ears
with a delicate shell-pink inner lining, limpid eyes of deepest
sapphire, and centered on the forehead was a diamond-shaped
jewel of ruby-red hue.


There was an indrawn sighing sound, as everyone in the room
drew a simultaneous breath in surprise, and then Kasumi broke
the tension with a quiet, "Oh my!"  Moving with a speed that left
everyone in the room wondering just _how_ the eldest Tendo
daughter managed it, she scooped up Nodoka and cuddled her.
With a happy smile, she looked at Nabiki.  "Ranma gets it from his
mother.  She feels just as good!"


Houses near the Tendo home shook briefly from the vibrations
caused by the near universal face-fault.


(Points  from Philip Jacobs for identifying the source of Nodoka's
Guardian Beast form.)

O O O

CHAPTER TWELVE:

Nodoka awakened to the sight of her husband and his friend
watching over her, while the three Tendo daughters were
apparently trying to coax Ranma out of hiding from something
on the back of one of the middle daughter's hands. Sitting up,
somewhat embarrassed to have fainted at the sight of her
transformed son, she took a closer look and saw the sapphire
lens Genma had told her about. Of the three sisters trying to
coax Ranma out of the token, only two were still wearing kimonos.
The third one was... apparently absent, replaced with a blue haired
girl with green eyes and similar features. It couldn't possibly be
Soun's middle daughter, they looked nothing alike!

Other than hair-styles... Except Nabiki was a brunette, not whatever
one called somebody who had blue hair.

And the facial features seemed to match up closely enough...
Except Nabiki had brown eyes, not green ones.

And surely a traditional man like Soun would never let one of his
daughters wear an outfit that was practically painted on... Except
that Genma had described the outfits that Nabiki, Akane, and that
Chinese girl Shampoo had when they were empowered, and other
than how tight it fit, the strange girl's outfit was a dead ringer for
what her husband had told her.

"OW!" both hands going to the growing knot on his head as
Genma asked "What you do that for?" Nodoka turned from
checking the sheath of the family honor blade (the travel wrapping
had been set aside earlier in the day, after lunch when she and
Genma were telling Kasumi a bit about the Saotome family history
and how they had been permitted to retain their sword after the
Meiji restoration) for damage and glared at her husband.

"You never told me how tight those outfits were, you letch!"
Nodoka gestured at Nabiki, who looked up at the older woman
with irritation. "And who is this girl, anyway? I thought you said
that Nabiki was the one in Blue? This girl looks nothing like her!"

"Um..." Soun tried to defend his friend (verbally, of course, he
wasn't stupid enough to try to interfere in a domestic dispute
physically) "Actually, Nabiki looks almost exactly the same as
she always does, other than her hair and eye colors." Soun was
a bit flustered at Nodoka's denial that Nabiki was, in fact, Nabiki.
Especially considering that he had spent the better part of the day
showing his friend's wife pictures of his little girls, and Nabiki's
empowered form really wasn't all that different from the one she
was born with. Sure, if you weren't familiar with her appearance,
you might not realize she was the same girl, but those photographs
were quite recent and they had spent much of the day looking at
them.

"How can you say that?" Nodoka asked incredulously. "She
doesn't look at all like Nabiki! She was brunette, with brown
eyes... And she was wearing a kimono! Not... Not that painted on
costume!"

"I transformed in an attempt to draw Ranma back out of his token,"
Nabiki pointed out in irritation as she glared at Nodoka. "He just
jumped right back into it after seeing you again. He thinks you hate
him."

"Yeah," Akane agreed worriedly. "Sensei seems to be very upset
about how you fainted like that. Maybe I should touch the token...
Maybe out in the yard or something."

"Oh, sure, and have the neighbors call the fire department on us
when they see the pillar of flame."

"Maybe I should try," Kasumi said, a bit uncertainly, bringing the
burgeoning argument to a halt as nearly everyone looked at her.
Nodoka just looked at each of them in confusion, wondering why
they all thought the blue haired girl was Nabiki. Even though she
did look kind of like her...

Nodoka's head began to hurt.

"Are you sure you want to try this, Kasumi?" Soun asked his eldest
daughter with great concern. "You might not be able to activate
Ranma's token, and if you do..."

"If you draw an Element, you'll be one of Ranma's Magical Girls,"
Genma added soberly. "There are five other elements yet to be drawn,
and if you have an affinity to one of them, Ranma will be obligated to
teach you how to fight."

"It won't be easy," Nabiki put in carefully, looking Kasumi straight in
the eyes. "You heard what happened to Akane when we fought that
youma. Sure, she got better, but that had to have hurt a lot, no matter
what little sister says."

"Don't listen to her," Akane waved off Nabiki's comment. "The
power-up is great, and I was more winded than anything else."

"Akane... You had a freaking stop sign rammed through your heart!"
Nabiki snapped, trying to keep tears from forming in her eyes at the
memory. "I thought... I thought you were dead..."

"Oh my..." Kasumi wavered hesitantly. "Maybe I'll try later." She was
seriously considering going ahead and making the attempt to see if
she would draw an elemental power, partly because she thought that
it would be neat to be a magical girl, even with the possibility of
having to fight youma, but mostly because that would give her a
better excuse to spend more time with the cute magical mascot.
Surely Ranma would stay home while Nabiki and Akane were at
school if he had to train her. Except that those particular reasons for
becoming a magical girl seemed to be far too selfish to Kasumi, so
perhaps she should hold off until she could be sure of her motives...

"Ahem," Nodoka coughed politely, drawing attention back to herself.
"I'm really sorry I overreacted. I don't hate Ranma... I couldn't hate
him! How could he even think that?"

Genma did not mention the seppuku pledge that he and Nodoka had
burned the previous night. Partly because neither Ranma nor the
Tendos ever knew about it, but mostly because he didn't want to be
hit with his wife's katana again.

"Well, he may have been putting up a good front," Nabiki relented
and proceeded to present her hypothesis, "but Ranma's been under
a lot of stress ever since the spirits of Jusenkyo turned him into a
Guardian Beast. Just a short while ago, he was wondering why he
couldn't do the same job as a human. When you fainted, I think the
stress caused him to mistake your reaction as rejection, and he was
already upset from earlier, and nervous about meeting you on top of
that."

"Well, I suppose that's reasonable," Nodoka admitted guiltily.
"Now... who are you again?"

"I'm Nabiki Tendo..." the blue haired girl responded with half-lidded
eyes and a tone of frustration.

O O O

Kasumi had eventually left to start preparing dinner. A task that
Nodoka tried to insist on helping with, except that she was dissuaded
from doing so in favor of being present when Ranma was finally
coaxed out of his token. Soun and Genma had migrated to the shogi
board long since, and Nabiki and Akane were alternately trying to
get Ranma to come out of his token, or to get Nodoka to believe that
Nabiki was actually Nabiki.

Oddly enough, the more they had Nodoka convinced of this fact,
the greater the Saotome Matriarch's headache grew, while allowing
the headache to recede seemed to cause her to forget who Nabiki
was. All in all, the matter was proving to be very frustrating for all
involved.

"Look," Nabiki stated, just short of snapping at Nodoka out of
sheer aggravation, "Why don't I just transform back and show
you that I'm Nabiki? Would that convince you?"

"If it's true, that should be satisfactory," Nodoka agreed primly,
still wondering who this blue haired floozy in the painted on
costume really was. There was no way that the girl could be one
of Soun's daughters. Happily, the headache she had been fighting
all afternoon seemed to be going into remission once again. Maybe
it would stay away this time.

Without another word, Nabiki let go of her power, allowing it to
drain away back into wherever it went when she wasn't an elemental
warrior. As the power faded, her costume turned into fine mist
which lifted off of her body and dispersed across an area about ten
feet across and centered on Nabiki. The sapphire token lens which
had been on the back of her right hand floated over to settle on the
table in front of her. While this was happening the odd hair and eye
colors seemed to flow away, to be replaced as they went with Nabiki's
natural colors. After a moment, the various pieces of Nabiki's spare
kimono and undergarments were reformed out of the mist.

In mid air...

In random locations throughout the ten foot radius dome the mist
had taken up, leaving Nabiki naked and her clothes scattered across
the room.

Nodoka blinked, reached up, and plucked a white tabi (split-toed
sock) off of her head, where it had apparently settled. She now
wondered what happened to the blue haired girl, and why did these
articles of clothing appear in mid-air as if formed out of the mist
effect she disappeared in? And what was Nabiki doing coming into
the family room completely naked? Nabiki couldn't have been the
woman with the blue hair and green eyes all along, could she?
Although Soun was right about one point, his daughter really did
look a lot like the other girl after all, other than hair and eye color.

Damn... Her headache was back, even worse than before...

"Are you all right?" Nabiki asked, concerned with the fact that
Ranma's mother had suddenly turned pale, and looked to be a bit
out of sorts. "Mrs. Saotome?"

Akane, who had moved to pick up articles of her sister's kimono,
glanced at Sensei's mother as she gathered the errant article from
where it lay, and noticed that the woman didn't look at all well.

"Mrs. Saotome!" Akane and Nabiki cried out together as Nodoka
groaned and passed out.

Again, Genma was there to stop his wife from hitting the floor,
accompanied by the patter of falling shogi tiles from an overturned
board.  Soun blinked.  He had barely managed to rise from his seat,
and Genma was all the way across the room.  The Tendo patriarch
wondered for a moment if he had actually fallen that far out of
practice since the days that he and his friend had trained together?
He, perhaps correctly, took the fact that Genma had overturned their
game board despite the fact that he was winning at the time as a sign
that something was seriously wrong.

O O O

Akane thought fast as her Sensei's father followed hers to the
downstairs guestroom, gently carrying his unconscious wife.
Nabiki had rushed straight into the kitchen to either tell Kasumi
or call for medical attention, or maybe both, leaving her alone in
the family room with Sensei's token. Akane moved back to the
table, positioned herself kneeling before Sensei's token, and
reached over to touch it.

"Please come out, Sensei! Something is wrong with your mother!"
Akane pleaded, bracing herself for the worst and hoping against
hope that she didn't burn down the house.

She was pleasantly surprised that there was no raging inferno.

Instead, she was lifted up and back, uncurling from her seated
position to floated weightlessly, as her kimono and the rest of her
garments, plus several pieces of Nabiki's kimono which she had
forgotten to put down, burnt away into glowing embers which
floated up for a moment before spiraling into the sapphire lens.
Her hair shifted to a bright red hue while her eyes became a burning
amber. Then ribbons of fire shot out of the gem, slowly swirling
around Akane's bare body. Several ribbons spiraled in on Akane's
hands and feet forming snug gloves and boots, done in shades of
orange and yellow, with red trim and reinforced with copper and
polished brass. As those were finishing up, several other ribbons
began to paint a sleeveless halter top and bicycle shorts combo on
her that left her midriff bare and fit like her own skin. There was the
empty fitting in the brass and copper plate on the back of the right
glove that still seemed to be just the right size for the lens.

Akane made no move to try to put in in place, and the token
remained on the table...

Which suddenly collapsed under the weight of several hundred
pounds of blue fur coated muscle as eight feet of giant saber-toothed
and gorilla-armed kangaroo rat came out of the token so fast that
Akane's eyes crossed trying to make sense of it.

"What happened, Sparky?" Ranma demanded, looming over Akane
and speaking with a deep and gravelly base voice that sent shudders
through her bones, so unlike the cute, high pitched one he normally
had. "Where's Mom? What's wrong with her?" The freshly repaired
floor groaned under the giant rodent's weight.

Akane, in the unenviable position of having what she estimated as
a quarter ton or more of agitated predator interrogating her, tried her
best not to squeak like something small and tasty as she responded.
"Our fathers t-took her into the downstairs guestroom where your
father is staying." She was very relieved when he moved away and
headed into the hall.

"Damn, Sensei's scary in that form!"

Taking a moment to calm down, Akane picked up her Sensei's token
and followed him out into the hall, diverting her course to enter the
kitchen even as he entered the downstairs guestroom. Kasumi
seemed to be in the process of wrapping ice cubes up in a cloth
napkin while Nabiki, still naked, took one look at Akane and hung
up the phone before anyone answered on the other end.

"Did Ranma come out of his token?" Nabiki asked as she looked
her sister over. "Should I be calling the fire department instead?"

"The family room is fine, Nabiki," Akane groused. "And Nezumi-'zilla..."

Akane was interrupted by her father's scream of terror, followed by
Genma's bellow of "Calm down, Tendo! That's just Ranma!"

"Is in the downstairs guestroom," Nabiki finished with a smirk,
shaking her head. Akane, remembering Aunty Nodoka's main
repeated objection to Nabiki's costume, compared her sister's bare
body with what she had been wearing moments ago. She honestly
didn't see what the big deal was, as it just didn't seem all that
important to her, although she objectively understood that she
was normally far more concerned about physical modesty than she
currently felt.

"Oh my," Kasumi paused for a moment, then handed the wrapped
ice to her youngest sister, who was at least dressed, even if much
of her costume looked to be as painted on as Nabiki's had been.
"Please take this in for Aunty Saotome, Akane. I'll be in in a moment
to see if we should still call for Dr. Tofu or not, but I really must get
back to dinner before it burns or starts a fire."

"Right," Akane responded with a nod. "Here's Sensei's token,
Nabiki," she continued, handing the sapphire lens to her sister
before turning to enter the hallway again.

Nabiki accepted the token, and was almost in the hallway herself
as she followed Akane, when she heard her elder sister cough
politely as if to gain her attention.

"Yes? You wanted something, Kasumi?" Nabiki asked, her bare
body framed by the doorway as she turned back.

"Nabiki..." Kasumi hesitated for a moment, then continued.
"Shouldn't you either power up or get some clothes from your room
 to wear before attending to Aunty Saotome?"

Nabiki blushed, realizing that she had completely forgotten that she
was naked in the confusion. "Um... I'll be right back down as soon as
I dress!" She bit out, flustered at her lapse. "I'll meet you in the
guestroom!" And thus, Nabiki turned again and ran down the hall!

O O O

For the second time, Nodoka Saotome found herself waking up in
the Tendo home. Thankfully, whatever had been causing her
headache seemed to be gone again, although she had thought so
before, and had been stricken down by its sudden resurgence mere
moments later, so perhaps it was time to see a doctor...

The very first things she saw upon opening her eyes were her
husband and a very large, very muscular, and absolutely adorable
(in a shaggy and somewhat monstrous kind of way) blue furred
shikagami, both of whom were looking worriedly down at her from
either side. Under their caring gaze, Nodoka felt safe and secure,
protected from the pain and worries of the world. In particular,
under the watchful eyes of the guardian beast she knew to be her
son, she knew she could be a mother again, reliving all those lost
years her child had been missing as if he had never gone away in
the first place. Her little boy, gone for so long, had returned to her
at long last. All of her worries and doubts about his loss of
humanity, and how she would get grandchildren when her son was
the wrong species left her for this pristine moment as she reached
up and touched one of Ranma's broad shoulders.

"Welcome home, my son..."

"Mom..." Ranma looked down at his mother, tension leaving him as
she appeared to be all right. Nabiki, now wearing a casual shorts and
halter combo, smiled up at him from where she was sitting with her
family around the resting Saotome matriarch. Kasumi, oddly, seemed
to be torn between smiling for the joy of Ranma's reunion with his
mother, and giving Nabiki dirty looks for taking the spot beside
Ranma. She rather strongly suspected that Nabiki had skipped some
rather essential items of apparel to have gotten back downstairs so
quickly, but mixed company wasn't the place to bring Nabiki's lack
of underwear up. Akane, still in her magical girl costume, was looking
at her father, who was crying tears of joy. All in all, she was more
relieved that he was showing signs of what amounted to normal
behavior for him than irritated at his regression to emotional mood
swings. Still, it had been nice while it lasted, and perhaps their father
would continue to grow past whatever was causing the problem.

Nodoka blinked as Ranma suddenly popped down to about the size
of a cat...

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" squealed the older woman with delight, as
she sat up and snatched the azure rodent out of the air before he
had a chance to hit the floor! "You are sooooooo cute! Yes you are!
Yes you are!"

Hair toinged out of place on the heads of the various Tendo family
members sitting around Nodoka as they watched an otherwise
mature and refined woman giggle, laugh, and cuddle the somewhat
alarmed looking blue kangaroo rat as she swayed back and forth.
Genma had, naturally, face-faulted rather painfully to one side, and
one of his legs was still twitching in the air.

"Bu...bu... but It's not fair!" Kasumi looked over the scene, tears
forming in her eyes moments before breaking into a torrent of sobs.
"I wanted to do that! WAAAAAAAAAAH!"

As everyone paused and looked at the eldest Tendo daughter,
Akane thought for a moment and came up with her own observation.

"That HAS to come from your side of the family, Dad. I don't
remember Mom ever doing that..."

O O O

END CHAPTER TWELVE

OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS:

"Mom..." Ranma looked down at his mother, tension leaving him
as she appeared to be all right. Nabiki, now wearing a casual shorts
and halter combo, smiled up at him from where she was sitting with
her family around the resting Saotome matriarch. Kasumi, oddly,
seemed to be torn between smiling for the joy of Ranma's reunion
with his mother, and giving Nabiki dirty looks for taking the spot
beside Ranma. She rather strongly suspected that Nabiki had
skipped some rather essential items of apparel to have gotten back
downstairs so quickly, but mixed company wasn't the place to bring
Nabiki's lack of underwear up. Akane, still in her magical girl costume,
was looking at her father, who was crying tears of joy. All in all, she
was more relieved that he was showing signs of what amounted to
normal behavior for him than irritated at his regression to emotional
mood swings. Still, it had been nice while it lasted, and perhaps their
father would continue to grow past whatever was causing the problem.

Nodoka blinked as Ranma suddenly popped down to about the size
of a cat...

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" squealed the older woman with delight, as
she sat up and snatched the azure rodent out of the air before he
had a chance to hit the floor! "You are sooooooo cute! Yes you are!
Yes you are!"

For a moment, nothing else happened other than a mother horribly
embarrassing her child...

Then Nodoka was tackled by Kasumi!

"MINE! He's MY cuddle-buddy! He gave me back MY childhood first!"

Sweat drops formed on the heads of Soun, Genma, Nabiki, and Akane
as they watched two grown woman engage in a cat-fight over a rodent...




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