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 THIRTEEN: (LIME WARNING: Lame lime though - don't
get your hopes up...)
Kei Murphy pulled her car, an unremarkable plain white compact
city car, up to the police barricade, and presented her badge and
papers to the officer in charge. By preference, she would have
rather had her red and black sports model, or perhaps a motorcycle,
but she understood the principles for flying underneath general
notice. She also understood the value of not having to use her own
vehicles in a potentially hazardous situation. Thus she drove a
nondescript, commonplace vehicle, to offset her own exotic
appearance and save on her insurance premiums. Being a
half-gaijin Japanese woman with red hair, caramel skin, green
eyes, and generous... assets... drew enough attention to her
without compounding the problem by having a memorable mode
of transportation as well.
The police officer manning the barrier on this end of the street
inspected the ID and the papers, compared the photo to the woman
driving the car, and called it in for confirmation. A casual
inspection while comparing her to her photo and description would
have left him guessing that she was actually a teenager with a fake
ID and papers if it weren't for the fact that he had been advised in
advance that the woman would look younger than she was. She
was dressed more suited to her actual age though, in a black
business pantsuit, with matching blazer over a cream vest, which
displayed only an acceptable amount of cleavage (as opposed to
the scandalous amount his own daughter kept trying to get away
with). After getting confirmation back from his radio, he gave the
ID and papers back to the woman.
"Here you go, Miss Murphy."
"Thank you, Officer. I'll be on my way then," Kei responded and
then drove on into the disaster area which encompassed several
city blocks worth of Nerima. From what she saw, the only saving
grace of yesterday's incident was that there were so few injuries
and only one missing person reported. Even the few untouched
buildings only raised questions about the local media's initial spin
of freak weather conditions. Unfortunately, that spin was cast
aside as soon as video tapes and photographs hit the TV and
radio stations with proof of a demon attack and the magical girls
who responded to it. Which was about mid afternoon today, well
before even the police could possibly talk to even those whom
they were positive had witnessed the incident, let alone everyone
who might have. On top of that, there was the footage from the
traffic news copter that had diverted itself when the crew noticed
the dust plumes, which showed most of the fight between the
creature and the second magical girl, with a few interruptions as
the copter maneuvered to see around buildings.
On the plus side, Nerima Neighborhood News hadn't shown their
footage until other channels started showing the photos and
amateur video clips sent in to them, which showed that they had
initially intended to be discrete about it. In fact, they had been in
the process of digitally enhancing a copy of the original for the
police when one of their managers discovered that they were being
scooped by other channels and ordered the tape run in a "special
report". Naturally, since there was a copy made, the assistant who
had been sent to retrieve it assumed that it had been censored for
public viewing, so the special report showed far more than NNN
ever really intended to show, including the detransformation of the
two girls with digitally enhanced close ups. The actual end of the
fight was missing, as the copter had to maneuver around another
building to keep the fight in sight without drawing attention to
itself, but the smoldering pile of gravel with the tentacled carbon
shadow said enough for the news crew.
Which meant, as far as Kei knew, that only the police, the
government, and the two magical girls knew how the fight really
ended. The private security footage from the gravel lot, initially set
up because of the unusual number of martial arts duels that
happened in and around Nerima, showed that it wasn't actually the
girl the media dubbed as "Inferno" who killed the creature and
saved her partner "Tsunami".
It was their so-called mascot...
O O O
In due course, the Tendo and Saotome families settled down for
dinner in the family room.
After, of course, Ranma replaced the table he had crushed.
Most of the meal passed without anyone talking. While it wasn't
one of Kasumi's best efforts considering the interruption, the pork
cutlets with tonkatsu sauce had turned out well enough, and no
one said a word until they had finished their second helping (or
in Genma's case, thirds).
"Nice Ranma, this is very nice," Nabiki commented as she touched
the table her fingers tracing the elegant carvings and caressing the
highly polished sandstone surfaces. The table appeared to be the
master work of a great craftsman and yet she had watched Ranma
draw the sand from the ground "growing" the table from the Earth
itself scant minutes before dinner had been served. Granted, the
table itself was heavy enough to make the floor groan with its
weight, but Ranma also solved that problem with some stone pilings
under the floor beams of the house.
"Well, I did sorta break the table Kasumi and Mr. Tendo bought
to replace the one Akane's first transformation destroyed..."
"Please feel free to break anything you like, Ranma!" Nabiki stated
with a barely controlled smirk. "If this is the quality of replacement
materials you put up..."
"Nabiki," Akane interrupted sharply with half-lidded eyes, "I'm
sure that Sensei has better things to do than wrecking our house
just so he can replace it with better stuff"
Nodoka looked over at the redhead with the painted-on orange
and yellow outfit, "As much as I appreciate the sentiment, who are
you again?"
"Not this again," Nabiki grumbled, putting her face in her palm in
exasperation while Akane looked at the older woman with a blank
expression.
"Oh, right," Ranma chirped from his position on the new table.
"You guys activated your identity protection enchantments earlier.
I'll just add Mom to the... what was it called? Exemption list?" The
largish blue rodent tilted his head, then shook it as if to clear it.
"There, done. Whatever it's called, Mom's on it just like Pops,
Mr. Tendo, Kasumi, and the Nichieju of Joketsuzoku."
Nodoka sighed in relief as the migraine that had spiked again
disappeared just as suddenly. Now she had no problems
connecting the two Tendo sisters with the two costumed magical
girls. Genma also relaxed after a tense moment when he was
concerned that Nodoka would collapse again. Instead, he quietly
reached over and touched her arm in a reassuring manner, and was
rewarded with a gentle smile.
"Nichieju?" Nabiki asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Chinese Amazons," Ranma replied. "Shampoo's people. She's
proud of the fact that she could draw an element and become a
demon hunting warrior, so she wants her whole village to know
who she is. She apparently doesn't care who else knows though,
because she never activated her identity protection."
"So..." Nabiki started her next question slowly. "Can you tell us
why we don't seem to care about physical modesty while we're
powered-up? I transformed back with our fathers in the room,
even though I knew my clothes wouldn't appear on me. That's
not something I'd care to repeat, especially in public."
"The Magic Eight Ball says: Not a clue, sorry," Ranma responded,
wondering about that himself now that she brought it up. He didn't
even know why didn't he have a problem with those costumes
himself. As it was, at the moment he was more concerned about
his mother. She seemed to be fine with him now, but her initial
reaction still had him feeling disturbed.
"Why didn't that little screen show up?" Akane asked, remembering
the nifty projection that popped up when they got home.
As light shot forth from the sapphire resting on the table by
Nabiki's spot, the middle Tendo daughter immediately thought
of at least a dozen or so interface protocols that would be better
than the haphazard ones that were apparently already in place
for the holographic terminal.
QUERY: REASON FOR INTERMITTENT SERVICE WITH USER
INTERFACE.
QUERANT: WARRIOR OF FIRE
AUTHORIZATION: GRANTED
ACCESS LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE
ANSWER: THE PER...
INTERRUPTION...
COMMAND IMPLEMENTED: INTERFACE REFORMAT
INITIATED BY: WARRIOR OF WATER
QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS: CURRENT CHOSEN
CHAMPION OF RANMA
AUTHORIZATION: GRANTED
REFORMATTING...
Everyone looked over at Nabiki, who blinked in shock as she read
the floating screen. After a moment, the screen blanked out, then
disappeared.
When her younger sister leveled an exasperated look at her,
Nabiki's only immediate response was, "Oops?"
O O O
R'hul was busy preparing his next report for transmission.
He had been quite pleased with his minions when they tuned the
oracle cube to a heralds' guild dedicated to disseminating local
events to the masses earlier. H'rys had encountered and fought
two elementally empowered females shortly after it started its
probing attack on the local population. Inferno and Tsunami were
apparently new to their powers and previously unknown to the
local heralds' guild. Inferno was the one to actually kill H'rys if the
evidence was any indication, but the first battle was nearly a
disaster for the two females. No other allies had shown up, and
they had not battled H'rys simultaneously, indicating that they
hadn't been trained enough to work together yet.
The real prize had been the images of Inferno and Tsunami reverting
to their unpowered states. There had been no disguise field
enchantment, and several of his minions immediately identified one
of the two elemental warriors as a popular female at their educational
cr�che. This had been cause for a minor celebration and R'hul had
sent his minions out to buy ketchup and soy sauce while he started
his report.
Empowered Defenders: Check (at least two; female; inexperienced;
element based - fire and water; power levels low; likely total set of
four - Fire, Water, Earth, and Air)
Guardian Beast: Check (mascot/mentor; small size; apparently
noncombatant advisor)
Incidental Enchantments: None noted
R'hul pondered what else to put down in his report as the oracle
cube droned on...
"In related news, One prominent local resident had this to say:"
"I, Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, do hereby
extend my noble invitation to the twin goddesses Inferno and
Tsunami, in order that they may celebrate their first glorious
victory! The affair will be held at Furinkan High, after school
tomorrow, and the entire student body is invited!"
R'hul blinked as he turned his head towards the oracle cube.
Then he grinned. Summoning his minions so that he could plumb
them for information of the designated educational cr�che, the
scout began to plan the next probing attack based on the
information at hand.
Better bait at this point of time simply could not be had, so this
opportunity had to be seized now before the local defenders
gained too much experience...
O O O
Kei Murphy slapped a hand to her face as she turned off the news.
It was bad enough that the incident had taken place in broad
daylight, contrary to every other demon or youma attack in the
past half century that she knew of. It was worse that the invading
demon didn't match anything out of local myth, resembling
something more akin to a horror from a Lovecraft novel than any
oni or youma of Japanese, or even Asian legend. So much so that
the agency was already calling them C'thulhoids. No, the absolute
worst thing that could happen at this point was just broadcast on
local television.
The date, time, and bait for a trap that was sure to be planned for
the neophyte magical girls and their guardian beast.
Right now, there were only two of what would probably end up
being a set of five elemental magic based defenders, plus heavy
fire support from their guardian beast. Fire and Water, with Earth,
Wind, and Wood yet to come forward. That, however wasn't the
main problem. The main problem was that whether the two girls
showed up or not, there was a high probability of a demon attack
at Furinkan High sometime tomorrow, and the agency did not
currently have the authority to shut any school down for even one
day because until now all known demon attacks had been at night.
Kei sat down hard at the desk provided for her as she envisioned
the relatively care free days of the agency supplying quiet support
to small, discrete devil hunting operations going up in smoke...
She looked up as a man half her size dressed in a black business
suit opened the door of the agency's brand new local office in Nerima.
"What have we got, Kei?" the man asked as she hastily stood up.
"Trouble, Saito" Kei informed her partner. "Demon incursion of a
previously unknown type in broad daylight. Two of what is probably
going to end up as a team of five elementally empowered senshi who
currently have little or no experience in devil hunting. A pint sized
shikagami with Godzilla breath. Local media coverage that is probably
going to turn national. And the food I ordered for us is twenty minutes
late."
"You ordered food when the area's been cordoned off?" the short
man sounded irritated.
"Of course not," Kei waived off the apparent disapproval. "There's
instant ramen and a kettle waiting in the back room. I seriously
recommend that you eat now - you aren't going to have an appetite
after the tour..."
O O O
With the dishes done, thanks in part to Aunty Saotome, whom the
eldest Tendo daughter had not been successful in dissuading this
time, Kasumi went upstairs to confront Nabiki as she did her
homework.
General Custer would have been proud of the way Kasumi seized
the initiative and entered her sister's room after a brief knock,
complete with opening salvo.
"Nabiki, we have to talk about appropriate dress when we have
company over."
"Fine," Nabiki responded dryly as she turned around in her chair,
revealing a largish azure kangaroo rat sitting on her lap. "We also
need to talk about your treating Ranma like a teddy bear at night."
"Er..." Kasumi would undoubtedly have the fallen general's
sympathy for having stepped into an unexpected ambush...
O O O
Saito Mizura was suitably impressed with the facility the agency
had just opened in Nerima. Or, more properly, had just activated,
as it had been built well ahead of time, along with sister facilities in
Juban and other districts in and around the greater Tokyo
metropolitan area. On the surface, all the public ever saw of this
particular facility was a small factory/warehouse on a moderately
sized industrial lot. Granted, this being Nerima, the security footage
for the warehouse and open lot portions already had a spurious
record of various martial arts duels. There was also some tags from
gang related graffiti, but those were comparatively few given the
fact that the relatively high local martial artist population tended to
keep gang related activities in Nerima low.
The fact that the warehouse portion now had a gaping hole from
when the creature had been hit clear through the structure from one
of Tsunami's punches was just luck. The security footage of the
demon's impromptu flight and Tsunami's absorption of the water
from the broken sprinkler system as she followed her adversary
was a huge bonus for the agency. And that was just the good
news that Kei Murphy had opened with as she lead him down the
hall towards the elevator.
Inside the elevator, Kei inserted a security key, turned it clockwise,
and pressed all three floor buttons in rapid succession from top to
bottom. Moments later, they were heading down into a basement
that only showed on certain civil authority maps. She handed a
folder to her diminutive partner after they started moving.
"The bug-boys put together a composite description from the news
footage, video clips, photos, and eye witness accounts," the woman
began as she stared resolutely forward, facing the doors. "Whatever
it was, it was roughly humanoid, with a head, torso, arms and legs.
The hands and feet have five digits each but end in talons instead
of nails, and the feet are shaped like those of an ape or monkey
despite the upright posture and leg proportions more suitable for a
body builder than a primate. Two eyes, dark and glistening with
moisture, color indeterminate for the moment as we don't know if they
are all pupil or if the iris is exceptionally dark. Two ear membranes.
Odd cranial ridges extending the 'brows' to meet behind the head.
Separated lower mandibles on the jaw, which is surrounded by eight
to ten tentacles which are normally an inch thick and a foot and a half
in length, but can extend to a much thinner eight foot reach. Three
pubic tentacles capable of waving around, and which can apparently...
ah... insert themselves into openings but weren't shown doing much
else - they are definitely phallic in appearance and thus far the
assumption is that at least these three are sexual organs, but the
bug-boys could be wrong."
The elevator stopped, and the two agents proceeded down a long
hallway with cinderblock walls painted a stark hospital white, and lit
with neon lights hanging from a cement ceiling. Their steps echoed
on the hard tiled floor. There were a handful of doors on either side,
and after thirty feet or so, there was a 'T' intersection. Traffic was
intermittent, consisting of the occasional man or woman in lab coats
going from one room to another with no more than a glance sent their
way just to be sure who they were. Six young shrine maidens in miko
robes followed an old priest in a slow procession across the
intersection before passing out of view again. From what Kei and
Saito heard of their chanting, they were in the middle of sealing this
facility against intrusion and scrying from outsiders.
After a moment's pause during which her partner didn't say anything,
Kei continued. "Six major tentacles located on the torso, three under
each arm, apparently anchored to the ribcage, if there is one. Upper
most and thickest are the most squid-like, Seven feet long, capable
of extending to about twice that length, with suckers along one side
and ending with paddle-like pads. These pads have each have an
opening slit from which a prehensile tongue can extend. The set below
that is just as long, but without suckers, and can extend about three
times their initial length. Like the smaller tentacles, they are phallic in
appearance, but it turns out that the heads are just sheaths for more
fragile sensory organs. We lucked out there: the end of one of them
was found right in our warehouse, and we have it secured in a warded
lab right now. The remaining pair, located behind the first two sets, are
thin, whip-like appendages that can extend about twice as far as the
other two sets. While they are prehensile, they seem to be used more
for attacking, grappling, and swinging than for manipulation. Not
that we have much footage on them or any of the smaller tentacles
on the back because they were all burnt away in Akane's initial attack
on the creature."
"Akane?" Saito asked, although like his partner, his gaze was fixed
resolutely ahead.
"We got a confirmed sound bite of the other girl calling out her name
when it looked like the creature killed her," Kei explained. "We're
considering keeping the media tags though, and even came up with
codenames for the next three members of this magical girl sentai team
if there are any more: Avalanche, Hurricane, and Wilderness."
"I see... And if the proposed fifth one is based on our neighbors'
elemental variation instead of ours?"
Kei sighed. "I missed that possibility, sorry. The boys will come up
with something."
"In any case, continue," the short man instructed.
"Okay, wrapping up the physical description, the creature had well
developed abdominal muscles in a classic 'six-pack', but no navel.
Pectoral development is equally progressed, but not initially
apparent due to the presence of what is apparently an impressive
set of breasts, with another, smaller set located below and to the
outside of the first set. These were shown to produce a caustic milky
acid capable of dissolving a metal street sign or part of a car, but
these organs are apparently quite flammable as they exploded with
Inferno's initial attack."
"Damage to the creature itself?"
"Negligible, with visible signs of regeneration as the battle
progressed."
"And the sample in the lab?"
"Dead tissue, but signs of limited regrowth before it ran out of
resources and expired."
"Would local law enforcement be sufficient if we cleared the use
of fire arms for general issue in Nerima?"
"Maybe," Kei snorted in disgust. "I doubt small arms would make
the grade though, with the kind of hits that thing endured from
Tsunami. They'll need high calibers and armor piercing rounds, and
only special units can get those."
"That will take time we might not have. Did they at least clear your
spirit gun for use in Nerima?"
"Done even before they called me in from wrapping up a small
incursion in Kyoto."
"A regular operation, I take it?"
Kei snorted derisively. "A five oni gang attacking people in one
of the parks at night, cleaned out in three nights by a local devil
hunter. All I did was cover expenses for lost outfits and signed
waivers clearing the poor guy from responsibility for collateral
damages to the area. No deaths, few witnesses, and the victims
are arguing over who gets to date their hero."
"Speaking of victims, I understand we have one here?"
Kei stopped at a door, and held the handle for a moment. "She'd be
dead by now if the police hadn't thought to call us in instead of a
hospital. For the moment she has... unusual life support
requirements." So saying, she opened the door, revealing a dimly
lit lab with featuring various equipment with blinking lights and
readouts. Dominating the room was an internally lit clear tube filled
with what Saito assumed to be water, with various tubes and hoses
leading to a very unfortunate nude woman supported gently in the
middle of it all by a harness. Another shrine maiden sat before the
contraption, chanting quietly. The four parallel scars on one of her
cheeks was actually the least disturbing thing about the poor
woman, as she appeared to have no joints and an extremely flexible
body.
"Good gods! What happened to her?" Saito exclaimed in a harsh
whisper.
"As near as the bug-boys can tell, nearly every bone in her body
was transformed into either soft cartilage or hard sponge."
END CHAPTER THIRTEEN
OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: First Report...
(Contributed by Philip Jacobs)
R'hul was busy preparing his next report for transmission.
He had been quite pleased with his minions when they tuned the
oracle cube to a heralds' guild dedicated to disseminating local
events to the masses earlier. H'rys had encountered and fought
two elementally empowered females shortly after it started its
probing attack on the local population. Inferno and Tsunami were
apparently new to their powers and previously unknown to the
local heralds' guild. Inferno was the one to actually kill H'rys if the
evidence was any indication, but the first battle was nearly a
disaster for the two females. No other allies had shown up, and
they had not battled H'rys simultaneously, indicating that they
hadn't been trained enough to work together yet.
The real prize had been the images of Inferno and Tsunami
reverting to their unpowered states. There had been no disguise
field enchantment, and several of his minions immediately identified
one of the two elemental warriors as a popular female at their
educational cr�che. This had been cause for a minor celebration
and R'hul had sent his minions out to buy ketchup and soy sauce
while he started his report.
Empowered Defenders: Check (at least two; female; inexperienced;
element based - fire and water; power levels low; likely total set of
four - Fire, Water, Earth, and Air)
Guardian Beast: Check (mascot/mentor; small size; noncombatant)
Incidental Enchantments: None noted
R'hul pondered what else to put down in his report as the oracle
cube droned on...
Should he mention ketchup in the first report, or save that for a
later time, when he had samples to submit to support his observations?
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