Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Two Wallets ❯ Rise of the Seven Dragons ( Chapter 124 )

A Tale of Two Wallets

 

(An Altered Destiny)

 

Written by Jim Robert Bader

 

Proofread by Shiva Barnwell

 

 

 

“What in the name of the Unholy Frak is going on here?” Cybelle demanded, “Something is interfering with my spell, and I sense a very large disturbance in the force surrounding Nerima. Has that blasted mother-in-law of mine plagued me yet again by daring to thwart my ambitions? Gooooh! That really skunks me something awful!”

 

Master manipulator that she was, Cybelle was all too aware that her full Oni counterpart had the market cornered on sheer devious audacity and was several levels more advanced when it came to hatching out schemes of a perversely twisted nature. Though nominally “reformed” (meaning her alignment had changed from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Good with kinky tendencies) she still retained the same wicked sense of “fun” that had made her a force to reckon with in the old days when she was still allied with the forces of the Abyss. Though time had mellowed her out and lessened her taste for true skullduggery, Ganglot was still a dangerous and entirely too gifted opponent.

 

Given the Oni Princess's propensity to meddle in Cybelle's plans of late dealing with her decisively was rather high up Cybelle's overall “to-do” list. Ganglot's only real limitations were that she still had to restrain the use of her powers so that they did not create too great a disruption on the workings of Yggdrasil, so she had to work through contract with a mortal, and all her dealings had to have a twist to maintain the overall balance between Law and Chaos. Well, that and her Capstone, which was her biggest Achilles' heel, but after Cybelle's last attempt on that she had taken extra special care to guard it so that it did not become damaged, which would of course destroy the Oni's ability to remain upon the earthly plane.

 

And given what her Aunt Hild, the Queen of the Oni, must doubtlessly think about her rogue niece, it was doubtful that she would be given a very warm reception back on their hell plane. All the more reason for Ganglot to be wary of sticking her neck too far out, and so---as was typical with her---she always chose to work indirectly towards achieving her aims. You could never fathom exactly what she was up to unless you studied the effects and worked things out backwards, which always did give Cybelle a massive headache.

 

But this time it appeared as though Ganglot had caused a minor reality alteration spell with her dealings with the Saotomes, causing the people of Nerima to share the collective delusion that Saotome Nabiki was living abroad in America and was not actually married to Ranma, her lawful husband. Instead people believed that Saotome Ranma had taken a foreign bride and was living as a guest in the Tendo house rather than him being Tendo Soun's legal successor, which certainly was a peculiar means of deflecting criticism away from him for extra-legally being the husband of two very different women.

 

This really scotched Cybelle's latest plot to drive the Tendos and Saotomes off of their ancestral land and away into perdition through a systematic campaign of harassment and intimidation. And after all the time and energy Cybelle had invested into creating that infernal web-site…but the merest first stage of a larger plan aimed at driving a nail into the heart of a growing cancer who bore the name of Saotome Nabiki. Though Cybelle did not like to admit it, even to herself, she had very good reason to fear the nascent potential of the young Lore Master in training, for in a surprisingly brief time the girl had gone from a virtual nobody to being so adept with the Powers that she could even bring down a full-fledged goddess like Neferti, the daughter of Set and a colleague of long standing.

 

Obviously something was very wrong here if this Nabiki could threaten even a Goddess Second Class, albeit of evil alignment. If this was what the child could do at her relatively low level of experience, then there was no telling how dangerous she might become in the future. Indeed, she might well be on her way to rediscovering the Ancient powers long kept dormant in most humans, and if that should come to pass, then she might well turn out to be an even worse threat than Ganglot to Cybelle's long-term health plans.

 

A pity that Neferti's own schemes had fallen through, though. It would have amused Cybelle to no end if the girl had wound up getting eaten by those cannibals. She might even have ordered out for a helping of that stew that Nabiki was being boiled into just to see if humans really did taste just like chicken.

 

And speaking of which, where the heck did that infernal Nabiki get off to anyway? Despite her best efforts Cybelle could not find hide nor hair of the annoying girl with the pageboy haircut, not even when widening her search to include an area as big as the entire planet.

 

Had Ganglot somehow found a way to erase all trace of the girl, or to shield her against detection? Or…was it possible that Nabiki had gone off-plane to some other world…and if that were the case…then where in the name of perdition was she…and why did her absence make Cybelle feel such a disturbing sense of apprehension…?

 

 

Lylac's eyelids fluttered and she slowly came back to an awareness of herself as she hovered in a gray haze between darkness and the gray of morning twilight. Very slowly she started to take stock of her condition, reasoning that she was not in any pain and barely even noticed any discomfort. She discovered right away that she could not move and deduced from this that she was restrained in some manner and that the only parts of her that seemed to be functioning normally were her eyes and thought processes, everything else being maintained in a state of near-limbo.

 

The very second thing that she realized was that she was not alone in her condition, that two other tiny forms hovered near to her, and that they were her half-sister, Fragrance, and their bosom companion, Eileen, who were hovering beside her in a similar state of helpless suspension. The fact that there were no visible bonds holding them firm tended to confirm the hypothesis that their restraint was not physical but rather magical in nature.

 

“{Good, you are awake at last,}” Eileen said abruptly, using the coded “baby-speech” that they preferred to use around adults rather than to betray the fact that both young girls had very advanced linguistic skills far beyond the normal ken of regular children in their age group.

 

“{Where are we?}” Lylac asked, deciding to start things out with the basics.

 

“{I rather imagine that we are in the wizard's lair as his unwilling house guests,}” Eileen theorized, which seemed to Lylac to be a very reasonable conclusion, “{When he captured us he seemed to be in great haste to return to his home, and so the spell he used to immobilize us was less than fully effective on me and I managed to retain conscious retention of the transferal process.}”

 

“{Oh,}” Lylac replied, glancing around before murmuring, “{Is Fragrance…?}”

 

“{Your sister has yet to regain consciousness,}” Eileen revealed, “{And I see no haste in reviving her since her skills will only prove useful after we devise a means of liberating ourselves from the spell that currently holds us.}”

 

Lylac glanced down and saw that they were hovering directly over some manner of circular pit with only a long fall through infinite darkness awaiting them down there, and so she shuddered slightly before saying, “{Maybe we had better think that part through, because unless one of us learns how to fly, and soon, getting free by itself might not be to our advantage.}”

 

“{Believe that I am working on that part even as we speak, Ly-chan,}” Eileen reassured her companion, “{Obviously getting free by itself does not equate to actual freedom, another reason why I think Fragrance should sleep a bit longer before we awake her. You know how she gets around high places.}”

 

“{You mean she reacts like a cat and wants to climb even higher?} Lylac mused.

 

“{Exactly,}” Eileen said, motioning with her eyes and encouraging Lylac to look upwards, “{And what is it that you see awaiting us there?}”

 

Lylac stared upwards and found the source of the curious illumination throughout the chamber; a jewel-like faceted crystal object was hovering directly overhead and spinning in mid-air like a diamond-shaped top without an obvious source of suspension.

 

“Oh,” she said aloud, then shifted back to Baby talk and said, “{I see your point. No way Fragrance could ignore a thing like that. She'd look at it and think it was very pretty.}”

 

“{And then try to work loose in order to find some manner in which to reach it,}” Eileen concluded, “{Before we even have a chance to determine whether it is safe to touch or not…and for all we know it might be cursed, or negatively charged in some way. I have observed a very curious aspect to the aura it projects, and I am definitely of the opinion that direct contact with the thing would not be healthy.}”

 

Lylac understood this but was unable to nod her head in agreement. Instead she thought for a moment then said, “{Ekko-chan, do you have any idea how far away we are from our mommies?}”

 

“{Far enough that it might take them a while to find us,}” the self-named “Ekko” responded, “{But I'm sure our mothers are bending heaven and earth towards that end, and your father and mine will not rest until they reach this stronghold and give a good spanking to the wizard who kidnapped us.}”

 

“{Let's hope it's soon,}” Lylac averred, “{But I don't think we should count on them for a rescue.}”

 

“{I agree,}” Eileen murmured, “{But it will take me some moments to devise a means for our rescue, so let us hope that, whoever our captor is, he remains thoroughly distracted and does not properly rate us as worth monitoring too scrupulously or else a means of escape will be that much more complicated.}”

 

“{I know that you will do your best just the same, Ekko-chan,}” Lylac replied, “{I have every confidence in you. You're the smartest girl in all of Japan, and probably the world to boot, so if anyone can figure out a way for us to escape, it's definitely you.}”

 

“{But I am only a shadow of the genius that is my mother,}” Eileen remarked, giving her best friend a poignant look that was momentarily shadowed by…other emotions, “{It will be many years yet before I am developed and trained enough to match either of my parents in their particular fields of specialty. Though I resemble a child of eleven-point-two months of age and am actually only point-four-four six five…}”

 

“{Never mind rounding to percentages, or rationalizing the negatives,}” Lylac insisted, cutting off her friend's penchant for using big numbers, “{Just do what you do best, Ekko-chan, and we'll be out of this in no time…}”

 

A stretching of jaws followed a noisy yawn, and then Fragrance stirred to full consciousness with a cheerful, “{Is big-words doing it again? And where the heck are---OOOHHH! A shiny!}”

 

“{What did I tell you?}” Eileen remarked before she too stared up at the spinning jewel high above them, “{But still…perhaps there is a way of making use of Fra-chan's penchant to be fascinated by visual stimulation. If I can calculate the output of that stone, and work through the variables over what empowers it, and how it is controlled, and is controlling us for that matter, I might be able to…}”

 

Just then Lylac heard the rustle of fabric and said, “{Cool it guys…adult approaching.}”

 

All three girls at once fell silent and played “dumb,” taking advantage of the normal tendency of adults to expect nothing more from infant toddlers than some innocent cooing and gurgling noises. Besides, they had seen enough from the night before to realize that this fellow approaching them was dangerous with a capital “D” in Romanji, and he was obviously powerful enough to give ready challenge to their parents, so the best thing to do from their end was to encourage him to ignore them.

 

“<Ah,>” he said in Mandarin Chinese, “<You are awake it seems. Well, that is of little consequence as nobody is here to change your diapers, so you can forget about bawling for your parents.>”

 

Fragrance narrowed her eyes and murmured softly, “{I'm starting not to like this guy. What does he think we are, babies?}”

 

“Easy, Fra-chan,}” Lylac urged, “{Let the grown-up talk stupid and maybe he'll ignore us.}”

 

“{That definitely would appear to be the wisest of courses,}” Eileen concurred, then all three fell silent, aware of the curious way in which the mage was studying them, like insects.

 

“<Fascinating,>” he mused, “<One would almost believe that you are engaged in some manner of intelligible communication. Of course you are rather well developed for your chronological ages, just one of many things that has attracted me to you three prodigies. It is precisely why I needed to obtain your services for this evening, that I may use the various component elements of your unique natures in order to devise a spell that shall bestow unto me the godlike abilities that reside within you.>”

 

“{What did he just say?}” Fragrance asked, “{I could only follow about half of that…}”

 

“{It means trouble for us,}” Eileen revealed, her expression very serious as she studied the grown-up before them and privately measured his potential.

 

“<And to think that such incredible potential resides within the innocent seeming bodies of such young-seeming children,>” the man mused while giving them each a predatory regard that caused Lylac to suffer a momentary shudder of apprehension, “<Most particularly you…the child of one who was born in close proximity of a Nexus…only you are a Nexus yourself for the coming generation that you represent. A lynch-pin in the cosmic scheme of infinity…one whose very nature can cause a shifting in the tides of probability and reality, a twig in the Jango-stick pile of Fate itself…to pluck you would cause entire empires to collapse and be reborn. Yes, that is power indeed, and soon to be power that I wield to do with as I deep fit and proper.>”

 

“{Uh-oh,}” Lylac murmured, “{Whoever this guy is, I get the very odd feeling that he wants to eat me…}”

 

“{More like consume your energies…and our energies as well,}” Eileen shuddered, “{This is very bad, worse even than I imagined. He intends to absorb our essence and use it to make himself into a virtual god.}”

 

“{And that's bad?}” Fragrance asked.

 

“{Very,}” Lylac averred, “We gotta get out of here, and the heck with waiting to be rescued by our parents.}”

 

“{Agreed,}” Eileen said grimly, “{But let this fool prattle on…his talk is helping me to formulate an idea that may well prove to our advantage.}”

 

Fortunately for the young girls the man was speaking more to himself than to them as he waved his arms to indicate their immediate surroundings, his eyes drifting up towards the spinning gem as he said, “<And soon, once the cosmic alignment of the stars is ever-so-precise, the power to shape reality will be mine…and then let the name of Shang-Kwan be feared and respected the world over, for the day of reckoning is almost at hand…the day when over a century of preparation shall see fruition, and all thanks to the helpful knowledge provided to me by an ally who is colleague and rival…but may soon be more when I gain the power to impress even her with my glory!>”

 

“{What's he going on about?}” Fragrance asked, deeply puzzled by the grown-up's curious behavior.

 

“(He means to ascend to the level of near-divinity in order to impress a girl,}” Eileen said with a sigh that would have been followed by a shake of her head were she able to move other than her expression, “{Honestly…why do these power-mad types prattle on and boast about their self-appointed mission?}”

 

“{That's what villains do, didn't you know that?}” Lylac cringed inwardly, sensing the level of danger that they were in was well beyond her childish powers of imagination, “{Mommy…whatever you're gonna do, you'd better do it quickly…because we are in big trouble…and this guy really needs a royal spanking…}”

 

 

Nabiki's Journal Resumes:

 

I am told that my ways can be quite disturbing to the uninitiated, and that is certainly the case with anyone who knew me when I was just an ordinary girl living without a clue to my true potential. These days hardly anyone in Nerima is unaware of the “strange” girl living in the house of the Tendos, the prodigal daughter who seems to know everything and who can bend the forces of nature to do her bidding, a girl who thinks nothing of levitating while deep in meditation with her ass set half a meter above the floor, her mind attuned to cosmic places that for ordinary people are quite beyond imagining, let alone mere comprehension.

 

I tend to take these things in stride because the concerns of “normal” people are more of a distraction than a genuine concern to me at the current level of my training. One does what one is gifted to do, and not to use the abilities that I trained so hard to acquire would be a criminal waste of human potential. Thank the Kami that Ranma and Shampoo still accept me for what I am, because I'd be sad beyond measure if my abilities alienated them against me, much the way this strange parody of my family and friends currently surrounding me were giving me askance glances.

 

But I was following the lead of my Mentor's counterpart in this frame, letting her conduct affairs while I assumed the familiar role of an assistant. It was her prerogative to take the initiative in scanning the etheric channels surrounding the dojo in order to weed out the particular path that signified the transfer port used by the wizard in his travels. By seniority and ability she was the more gifted of the two of us, and so could be relied upon to follow the corridor to its source on the other side while I anchored her soul-tether and helped maintain her body with protective spells that warded off the presence of any evil.

 

To outward eyes it might have seemed no more than that the two of us were being suspended from invisible wires, much like in a special-effects movie, but between us the glow of energies that was pooled in the space created by our hands which the sensitive among our helpful onlookers took to mean that we were doing something incomprehensible with magic, a thought not too far removed from the reality of what we were in fact doing. I could sense confusion, impatience, curiosity and even dread in their minds, but mostly the hope that what we were doing would somehow prove useful.

 

Ultimately that is what our efforts achieved, for when I sensed Lotion was slipping back into her mortal shell I could feel the concern and apprehension within her, but knew that she was quite well, which lightened my spirit considerable as I was just as anxious about her as I was for the missing children.

 

Very slowly the two-hundred-year-old Lore Master opened her eyes and breathed deeply, then sighed as we both drifted back to the floor and set our bottoms on waiting mattresses, at which point she looked at me directly and said, “It is as I feared. He plans on slaughtering the children and drinking their souls dry before the twelfth hour of evening.”

 

I heard a gasp and several hushed voice expressing fear, dread and aversion, but mostly I felt the anger and rage these words produced in warrior hearts and found that my own feeling in the matter were considerably stronger than these emotions. I knew beyond thought what the Archmage planned on doing was purely evil, but I also sensed a familiar hand at work behind the scenes and knew at once that there was more going on here than anyone besides Lotion could even envision.

 

“The good news is that I have found the way into his stronghold,” Lotion continued, “It is a perilous journey, and one that is fraught with danger, but we have allies who will assist us in finding the way. The only real question is…who among us will brave the keep of an Archmage and face him in the place where his power is strongest?”

 

To their credit not a one among them blanched, and as one I felt their spirits rise with righteous fury as they immediately volunteered to do their part in facing down the villain of this evening.

 

“I shall lend my sword to the hand of my dearest friend, Saotome Ranma,” Tatewaki declared with typical heroic bravado…only this time I knew that he was both competent and sincere, as well as quite oblivious to the ironic look I gave him, still more than a bit bemused at the thought of a world where Ranma and Kuno had grown up as best-friends and childhood playmates.

 

“You think I'm holding back when my brother's kids need rescuing?” Ryoga declared to the sound of cracking knuckles.

 

“I'm with you all the way, Ryo-kun,” the redheaded girl named Keiko said with such confident bravado that I was reminded once again of how much she resembled a slightly taller version of Ranma-chan in his female aspect, “To save Nabiki's kids I'd swim naked through a lake of acid. Ah…that is if it is all right with you, Mistress.”

 

I turned to glance at the heavily pregnant Kodachi and found myself struck even more at the curious contrasts between this world and my own, most particularly with whom the “Black Rose” shared an acute fetish for bondage, “You know that I expect nothing less from you than total victory, my sweet, and to punish the blighter who would dare threaten the welfare of innocent children…”

 

“You know that you can count on Kurumi-chan and me to stand up for the welfare of our family,” the girl named Natsume said with quiet but unmistakable conviction.

 

“Yeah,” affirmed the fleet-footed young girl named Kurumi…a couple of months shy in age of Akane but easily her match as a martial artist, “Just bring it on and we'll show that bastard just what it means to mess with a Tendo…or a Saotome for that matter.”

 

“Oh my,” this strange otherworldly version of my big sister, Kasumi, said with some reluctance, “Must it end in violence? I would, of course, do my own part to insure the safety of my nieces…”

 

“But nothing,” the redheaded dynamo named Alison Kent-Kane-Managi-Daitokuji said gruffly, “Somebody threatens our kids, we plant them six feet under, face down, and no questions asked of the survivors.”

 

“Crudely put but accurate, Aiko-chan,” the silver-haired Beatrice Kane-Kent-Daitokuji-Managi agreed in a more elegant and refined tone of voice, “For the sake of our children no sacrifice is too great, nor will the penalty to the one behind this affront be less than swift and absolute.”

 

“You kids mean well,” said the walking man-mountain of a monster standing to the left of Kasumi, the legendary “Creature” forged of alchemy and science who laughingly had adopted the modern-day nom de guerre of “Franklin Nathaniel Steinberg,” as if anyone could doubt his real identity at a glance, “But this guy's in the big leagues, and as good as the lot of you are, none of you are a match for an Archmage. Better leave this to me, I've got experience dealing with this type of an asshole.”

 

“That may be true, old friend,” Lotion said as she turned to regard the man who had once been more dear to her than life itself, “But do not be so quick to count out these particular children. I sense more than just the willingness to do what is right in their resolve, and some here would have to be physically restrained rather than sit home quietly while their young ones are in danger.”

 

“Damn straight, old woman,” this world's version of Ranma said with a look that left no doubt that he was willing to face the very devil to rescue his wives' children, “Ain't nobody but me gonna put this guy in his place, and if anybody tries to stop me, they're gonna be hurting.”

 

“Crudely put, but eloquent, Husband,” Perfume said with evident pride in her regard of the man who had married her “Airen.” To emphasize her own point she flashed her twin double-bladed axes and said, “Anybody going to doubt that I'm game for this, Archmage or no Archmage?”

 

“You all are well gifted, and there is no denying your conviction,” Lotion averred as she turned to study each and every one of these volunteers, “But we cannot simply charge up to the gates of this Archmage's lair if we go as a disorganized mob. Nor can my otherworld apprentice and I maintain the gates between here and there for so great a number. Twelve of you would be too large and unwieldy a group to bring along all at once, nor would we be able to coordinate our different attack styles into an effective attack party. So…what I propose to do is to split your number into two halves and mount this assault in waves, the first part being the initial assault group, the second held in reserve just in case the first group bogs down into too much trouble.”

 

“That sounds logical,” my counterpart of this world agreed, “So, who do you have in mind? Obviously I'm in no shape to go myself…much as I want to be the one to smash in the face of this wizard,” she glanced down at her swollen belly, leaving none in any doubt of the reason for her forced abstention.

 

“If I wasn't a couple of months along myself I'd be right there with Ranchan kicking butt and taking numbers,” Ukyo fretted, giving an ironic side-glance at Shampoo, who smiled back at her as though sharing a private jest between them.

 

“Same here,” Akane agreed, “I think it's terrible that this guy just waltzed in here and took away my nieces without any thought on how that would affect the rest of us. He deserves whatever you give him, Ryo-chan, and I expect you to give him one for me just to show him a thing or two about messing with a Tendo!”

 

“That's a promise, Akane-chan,” this world's Ryoga told his pregnant wife, and once again I could not help but marvel at the contrast between the way this world and my own had developed, what with the Akane I knew having broken off her engagement to Ryoga in order to pursue an almost hopeless relationship with the Ukyo of my timeline.

 

“Very well,” Lotion said dramatically, rising from the floor to her not-too-considerable height, only to waver a bit as her ancient legs were not quite so spry as they once had been…but quick as thought the huge man named “Frank” moved to offer his support for her shoulders, and she briefly gave the man a fond look before steadying herself and refusing his hand, thus regaining the dignity and bearing of an Amazon elder.

 

“Perhaps you should think twice before offering your own services in this matter…old friend,” I heard the false-sounding elderly tones of one I knew well in my world, and turned with a start to see the wizened façade of an “old ghoul” approaching us with more ease in her bearing than that of my mentor, “Formidable as you are, it would be folly to pit your strength against that of an Archmage.”

 

“Matriarch?” for once this version of my Lotion evidenced surprise, “I had not anticipated your coming…”

 

“Have you forgotten that I have means for moving in stealth and silence beyond even your ability to detect, my old colleague and former apprentice?” the Cologne masquerading as an old woman remarked before taking her place at the center of the dojo and assuming immediate command over the situation, “But I'm still prime enough to handle even the likes of one as formidable as Shang-Kwan, or had you forgotten that I knew him when he was but a lad of tender years, in the days before power became his one and only obsession.”

 

“As if I could forget such a thing,” Lotion said pointedly, then added with a slight twist to her tone, “Oh…and I see you remember my old flame of long ago, the one you once thought would not amount to anything more than a handful of trouble.”

 

I caught a wince on Frank's face and a slight frown in the expression of Cologne, accompanied by a mildly puzzled look on the face of Kasumi, and a nonplussed expression on my own counterpart, as if everyone were sharing a private thought about something that happened long ago, even as my mind opened up to the memories and I saw some fleeting imagery of an angry exchange of words that once had taken place on the shores of Japan two centuries in the past.

 

“Words spoken in the past, long since regretted,” Cologne said in mild dismissal, “Sure you can see beyond that moment to appreciate the truth behind my words, and why I am the better choice to face this devil in his own hellish lair, rather than you.”

 

“Your words have logic, but the world is not an entirely logical place, my former teacher,” Lotion said, “Nevertheless, I bow to your age, wisdom and experience when it comes to battle situations, Matriarch, and if you wish to lead the first assault, then far be it from me to deny you.”

 

I saw the puzzlement briefly flash in the eyes of Cologne, as though she were surprised that Lotion had given in so easily, but then she shrugged her shoulders and said, “I am more familiar with this group and know their capabilities as well as anyone. And a War Master knows the fitness of her tools and weapons far better than a Lore Master, as even you must concede…my fellow elder.”

 

“As you say, I shall not dispute this,” Lotion replied, “Then choose your weapons well, for I can tell that they have been well honed for battle.”

 

“Ah,” I decided to speak up just then, a thought having occurred to me that I felt was worth bringing up at this crucial juncture, “Before we go breaching the gates of this particular enemy…don't you think it might be worth considering the inclusion of someone who has more experience with magic than the lot of us put together?”

 

“Meaning?” my counterpart asked with a sardonic look that almost made me flinch as it was so identical to one of my own trademark expressions.

 

“This guy is an Archmage…so why not call upon the services of an Archmage on our side?” I asked, “Is Siren available on this timeline? I don't sense that she's living here, like in my version of Japan, but…”

 

“Siren?” Ranma looked at me curiously.

 

“Wasn't she the tall blonde chick in the Arabian Knights costume?” Keiko asked, almost drooling at the memory this conjured.

 

“Down my pet,” Kodachi chided, “Yes…that is a logical point that this Nabiki is raising. An Amazon-born Archmage would certainly be an asset to our cause, and why not fight fire with fire? It is elemental logic.”

 

“Indeed, sister-dearest,” Tatewaki affirmed, “The Book of the Five Rings could not have more eloquently stated the matter.”

 

“Use a wizard to fight a wizard?” Natsume mused, “It does have a certain poetic quality about it.”

 

“Yeah, but you don't know her like I do,” Frank winced, “We might almost be better off not calling her in for all the way that dizzy blonde…”

 

“We will do this without her.”

 

Even I was a bit surprised at the vehemence with which Cologne had made this declaration…but then again, who better than me could appreciate the irony of summoning up an old girlfriend who still nursed a flame of unrequited desire for the Cologne hidden beneath the bitter folds of her ancient illusion? I still shake my head in memory of the way those two courted each other on my timeline, and for a while I'd have even laid bets against them finally coming together. But thanks to the whims of fate (and the persistence of the aptly named Siren) love had finally conquered all, and the two of them were now living together as wife-and-co-wife…a fate I rather doubted would be in store for their counterparts on this timeline.

 

“Are you certain that this is wisdom?” Lotion asked of her old teacher, “My counterpart's apprentice speaks wisdom in that the services of our most powerful mage would be well employed against her contemporary…and who has more cause to pay him back I dare ask you?”

 

“I will pay my respects to Shang-Kwan and demand an accounting of his many crimes,” Cologne said sternly, “We do not need the assistance of THAT WOMAN to achieve our ends. The price for her involvement would be too high, and I am satisfied enough with the tools on hand that I need not overload the deck in our favor.”

 

“Be it as you wish it, Matriarch,” Lotion waved the point aside, but I could tell just by looking at my Mentor's counterpart that she was far from convinced that this would be the last word on that particular matter.

 

“Very well then,” Cologne said as she turned with ruffled dignity to pay her regards in my direction, “You I do not know, but I can sense the power that is within you. You are much like my apprentice and heir, but different enough to be an unknown quality, and so I would suggest you remain behind with the second group and lend your assistance to Elder Lotion. I take it you have no strong objections?”

 

“Not particularly,” I say as I look directly at the “old woman” and easily penetrate her disguise in order to confirm for myself that she is the same woman in all other respects to the Cologne I know, who is trapped in her true form and unable to disguise her age with an illusion.

 

“Good,” Cologne then turned to the others and said, “Ranma will be assisting me at the lead of the assault party. Assisting him will be his brother, Ryoga, and his good friend Tatewaki Kuno.”

 

“All right,” Ryoga flexed an arm and smiled in anticipated triumph.

 

“Good to be fighting by your side once again, my brother-in-arms,” Tatewaki declared while placing a comradely arm upon Ranma's shoulder, which the latter did not flinch away from, leaving me to once more contrast images as I tried to picture the same thing happening on my world, and failing badly.

 

“Mousse, as the Master of Hidden Weapons and the Shadow Senken, you are a logical fifth choice for our group,” Cologne said firmly, “And as it would be rude to part you from your wife, Kurumi and her sister will, quite naturally, form the sixth and seventh members of our assault group.”

 

“You know better than any that I am ready for this, Baba,” Natsume declared as she stood beside “her man,” meaning Kuno Tatewaki.

 

“All right,” Kurumi grinned with anticipation while glancing up at Mousse, “Time again to go back into action.”

 

“With you are my side, Airen,” Mousse declared, “Our victory is all but assured, even against an Archmage.”

 

“But what about me, Great-grandmother?” Perfume asked, “Don't I get to come along and fight beside my husband?”

 

“Sadly no, Child,” Cologne said with obvious reluctance, “You will stay here and serve your great-grandmother as you would me or any elder of our village. As Enforcer your duty is her protection and welfare…and the same goes for you, Frank. I expect you to lend your not-inconsiderable strength to the cause should it be necessary to send the second wave to our rescue.”

 

“Hope it doesn't come to that,” Frank averred, “But you know I'm always ready to toast a wizard.”

 

“Hey wait!” Keiko protested, “Does this mean I've gotta stay behind and play second stringer?”

 

“I am afraid so, Arigami-san,” Cologne nodded simply, “Though you are as skilled as any warrior here present, we must keep our numbers down to a mere seven for this trip. Any more or less than this and we risk courting disaster.”

 

“Huh?” Ranma looked puzzled, “Why is that?”

 

“Because Seven is the Number of Magic,” I replied, “The Square and the Triangle, forming the pyramid…the third and fourth Continuums of reality overlapping…Astral and Physical, the best number to use when confronting an Archmage.”

 

“Well said,” Lotion noted, “Seven is the number you shall be, and the number of the second party shall remain as Seven. Seven is the color of the rainbow, the number of notes in the Pythagorean scale of music, A to G, the Aleph to the Scepter. You must rise to the moment and become as seven fingers striking with the same palm to penetrate into the lair of a dragon…and as dragons you must be…seven ascending dragons of heaven…”

 

“Seven fingers on one hand?” Alison said in askance, “And what the heck do you think I'm gonna do while the rest of you are out kicking butt? Stay here and play Shogi?”

 

“Easy my love,” Beatrice restrained the fiery beauty with a hand to her shoulder, “Your time will come, have no fear of that. Maybe not on this particular trip, but when Eileen is rescued and safely delivered back into our care…”

 

“That's just it, Beiko,” Alison complained, “I need to go! She's as much my kid as yours, and there ain't no way in hell that I'm gonna sit back and let some scumbag try and drain her!”

 

“As a certain ancient evil once attempted to do with your mutual friend?” I asked, and received some startled looks from the mismatched pair of brawn, brains and beauty, as though I had just dredged up a particularly painful subject for the both of them.

 

“You know,” my counterpart said with another sardonic look in my direction, “It really weirds me out whenever you do that.”

 

“Sorry,” I said with a shrug, “Force of habit. I can't help it sometimes, the images just pop into my head and I blurt them out without thinking…”

 

“Something else my counterpart appears yet to have taught you against it would seem,” Lotion remarked, “But let it go at that. For now…all that matters is finding the children and effecting their rescue.”

 

I held my piece this time, but if you think I was taking it on the chin and letting that comment go unchallenged, then you really don't know all that much about me and the relationship I share with my true Mentor. Sensei Lotion is often caustic and acerbic in her temperament, but that's just her way of distancing herself so that she doesn't get to maudlin and weepy by expressing too many emotions on the outside. Underneath the stern façade I could sense that she was really quite impressed with me, with the understandable qualifier that if I had been HER student I might have turned out even better.

 

Actually I have quite a lot of affection for the old biddy, and I put up with a lot of guff because, deep down, I know that she cares and is doing and saying these things for my benefit, so I don't get too cocky and overconfident over the progress that I have made and always keep in mind that I am a student, not yet a true master. To others I may seem quite formidable, but I am all too painfully aware that, next to her, I am just a stumbling amateur, and while I have the resilience and folly of youth on my side it would make for too easy an excuse to fall back on that all of the time. The reality is that I value our training sessions together and yearn for every scrap of wisdom that she can impart upon me. Through her eyes I have witnessed and performed a great many miracles, but as far as I have progressed in more than a year's time, I become all that much more aware of the vast mountain of knowledge that I have yet to ascend, such as the patience needed for careful and reasoned observation.

 

For example, I had been sizing up the difference so far between the people of this world and the ones I so well and fondly remembered, emphasizing the contrasts and making note of the perceived changes in the paths of their individual destinies that had brought about such changes. Now I sought to study them in terms of their combat potential to see if Cologne's choices really measured up to closer inspection.

 

Beginning, of course, with this world's version of my husband, Ranma, in whom I had already witnessed a great many differences from the cocky and self-contented guy I know and love so well on my own timeline. This Ranma had grown up in a house and a fairly stable family environment and was not so hardy and well conditioned to life in the world outside Nerima. He was a bit of a mamma's boy, and he tended to take orders from a woman out of habit, finding it comfortable to let his Nabiki do most of the thinking in their household. In some ways my counterpart had an easier time of it convincing him to see things her way, whereas I had frequently had to argue and cajole my Ranma, who could be pig-headed and stubborn about some things, and often I would have to fall back on my sex appeal to win him over, which was a lot of fun in a way, and I had grown quite used to our occasional tiffs as they almost always heralded some fun and kinky action that would be following on its heels very shortly.

 

This Ranma had the ability and the confidence in his martial arts that made him a ready and able helpmate, but he was not as much of a take-charge starter and lacked some of the confidence in his edge that so often marked my husband as a man who could almost never be intimidated. He also had mastered many skills unknown to the Ranma of my timeline, including the various Senken maneuvers (many of which he himself had created) that he had acquired in preparation for what they laughingly called a “love-match” with his Nabiki. Since she was the premier martial artist of this Nerima it had been quite a challenge for the “homeboy” to surmount her advantages and defeat her for an Amazon-style betrothal, but he had been set and determined to find a way of becoming her equal, and in doing so had branched off entirely from the art, taking on his elemental servants, which was steadily conditioning him to an entirely different mode of thinking, one more in line with a Magi as opposed to a strict martial artist.

 

That he was an ascending dragon was unquestionable, for the Dragons that he commanded were affecting his nature in ways both overt and subtle. His affinity for elemental forces, and his tendency to view the body as a house, were opening doorways in his mind that had formerly been closed off to him, and if he kept on the same pathway I had no doubt that he would eventually gravitate to the ways of a Mystic, which put him more in my area of specialty even though he yet lacked the training that I had as an observer and medium for the elemental forces of nature.

 

Color him a Red Dragon, representing both courage and chaos personified, energy in motion that could sweep away all opposition.

 

Cologne, of course, is a hardy and seasoned veteran of countless battles and has tricks up her proverbial sleeve that even Lotion has yet to reckon. To view her as a dragon was simplicity itself, even if she defies easy analysis with her contradictory personality and the contrast between what she is and what she projects before others. This Cologne still has the crutch of her disguise to convey the impression to others that she is a “weak and helpless elderly person,” which tends to make people underestimate how formidable she actually is…whereas the Cologne of my timeline is young and beautiful seeming and is often passed off as a “piece of fluff” by those who do not realize their peril.

 

Color her a purple dragon, most spiritual of entities with the “royal hue” that heralded the morning.

 

Ryoga here was also a Senken master, but he was also more settled in and domesticated, having a wife and a steady job as a construction worker, where he honed his mastery of the “Ko-Senken,” the discipline whereas he used his hands as tools as if they were made of metal. Not quite so shy and retiring as the Ryoga with whom I am familiar, he frequently gets roped into all sort of kinky sex games that he plays not only with Akane but also with Keiko and Kodachi, the four of them regular sex partners in what amounts to an “unofficial” harem. He's also never been Jusenkyo cursed and so lacks the hard discipline that is often brought about by the burden of the forbidden springs, which always marks its victims with a special destiny, prone to eternal trouble and hardship.

 

Color him a Gold or yellow dragon, the embodiment of the Solar Principle of renewal and rebirth, and of metal, ever renewable and firm, able to reshape himself in the cast of a whole new likeness.

 

This version of Kuno Tatewaki I found myself actually liking, rather than the “cold fish” of my world who is the willing helpmate of Cybelle and tends to spend his days running his father's empire with an iron bokken. Here he is actually the Samurai hero that he only once imagined himself to be, and the nobility of his spirit is so great that he actually won the affections of my cousin-turned-adoptive sister, who is also of a somewhat romantic temperament and tends to see the world in terms that are entirely on the same wavelength. They fit together so well that it was actually frightening, and yet he was just an ordinary guy who had studied the ways of Nampo and Kenjuitsu and had a long ways to progress before he could claim the title of a Master.

 

Color him a Blue Dragon, the Thunder of the heavens matched by intellect and the cool wind of a valiant spirit.

 

Natsume was a puzzle to me, a total enigma as she was not a part of the world that I remember, even though I knew without question that a version of her is wandering loose somewhere in Japan, seeking knowledge of a family that she and her sister have never known. I really must make it a point to seek my version of her out to determine the truth behind our relationship, and there is so much in common between us that I am actually quite intrigued to discover more of her background. Such as…who was this younger sister of my father that daddy's never bothered to mention to the rest of us, and how does her relationship with the brother of “Uncle Genma” affect my own relationship with Ranma? I had known in the past that Ranma and me were distant cousins, but the whole idea that our families were that blood related tended to add a special emphasis over why our fathers had been so insistent on our engagement.

 

In other ways I felt a real sense of sorrow and pity for the girl. Marked by birth as a “potential” Slayer, a quirk in fate's plans had bestowed upon her the full mantle of the ancient line of the Vampire Hunters, very few of whom had ever lived beyond their eighteenth birthday. Natsume was eighteen, roughly about the same age as me, and hardened by life on the road to a steely sense of iron pragmatism that tended to view things in strictly black and white terms. Her martial arts skills were already quite phenomenal, almost on a par with my Ranma, and backed by the considerable strength and constitution of a Slayer which meant she was a force to reckon with, even if she tended to rely a bit too much on her odd choice of a weapon.

 

I mean, seriously…a rug-beater for a bokken? She and Kuno-chan were well matched indeed, and as I sensed that he was teaching her the art of Kendo, she could well be on her way to giving Nodoka a few lessons in swordsmanship. Now if she could only work to better develop her unarmed skills she might even be dangerous on a level to match, say, Pantsaru Taro…whom I sensed was somewhere in this district yet lurking in the background.

 

Color her a Green Dragon, nature personified in its rarified and unrefined condition.

 

Kurumi was seriously kawaii and had a “cuteness” quotient far in excess of Akane. She was also the victim of some heavy-handed manipulation of her Chi-centers that had speeded up her metabolism to the point where she was perkier than a ferret. Talk about bottomless pits, her stomach literally vaporized whatever food she consumed and converted it to raw elements, giving her an explosive energy level that made her many times faster even than Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken training. She was also pretty handy with that ribbon she wore in her hair for more reasons than plain aesthetics, and by whirling it at speeds that would literally defy description she could channel her Chi into a “hot” weapon that was capable of taking down even foes many times her size. Just nailing her to the floor would be a difficult enough accomplishment as she literally had trouble standing still and would often fidget when excited, much though she had trained hard in meditative techniques in order to control this unfortunate condition.

 

I could mark the same heavy hand of Happosai in her that I had observed many times in Miss Hinako. The founder of our discipline of Musabetsu Kakutou fighting had often displayed a soft touch for the plight of children, but his remedy for their conditions was often a cure just as bad as the disease as he could twist their energy patterns into forms that made them living weapons but denied them any chance of a “normal” lifestyle. I had seen indications of the same effect upon Natsume, but not to the same degree as her little sister evidenced…although that might be more a matter of perception than reality since Nat-chan's ability to manifest “cold” Chi fit well with what I had observed of her lowered body temperature and indifference to the cold of whatever environment was around her. Perhaps she needed frequent contact with Kurumi in order to keep her body and spiritual temperature in balance, kind of a yin-yang equation that would fit in well with what I know about great-grandfather's techniques.

 

Color Kurumi as an Orange or Ochre dragon, warmth and sensuality set between the poles of fire and sunlight.

 

Lastly there was Mousse, and here was where I noticed some of the greatest contrasts of all, for while he seemed on the surface to have much in common with the Mousse that I remembered, his obsessive tendencies had for once been transferred to someone who actually returned them with genuine affection, and he had never been “hung up” about Shampoo, having instead formerly been fixated upon her adoptive cousin, of whom I will say more in another minute.

 

This Mousse had matured considerable in a year and was no longer quite so myopic and thickheaded. The change in Jusenkyo curses from Duck to Orangutan was another factor worth noting, as was his ability to listen and feel the pain of others. Such simple empathy was more than the Mousse of my world had ever managed to suffer, and with his dedication to a woman who actually loved him in kind had come a renewed moral and ethical sense of integrity quite beyond the Mousse that I remembered. His creation of the “Shadow Senken” had been as much an act in search of a means of gaining parity with Kurumi as it had been meant to hammer his opponents into submission, but ever since defeating her in an “Amazon Love Challenge” (however unwittingly given and accepted) he had used his abilities only to help others rather than for his own self-aggrandizement. Much to my considerable surprise I found myself liking him on principle, almost enough to forgive the Mousse of my world for his various attempts at harassing Shampoo and me, up to and including giving a Jusenkyo curse to my own little sister.

 

Color him as either a Turquoise or an Indigo dragon, on the one hand cool and clear as running water, on the other hand harboring a shadowy presence that could strike from concealment and without warning.

 

Hmm…perhaps I should make a note here about the ones being left out of the “rescue party.” After all, I had a very strong sense even then that things would not turn out quite as Cologne anticipated, and that before too very long the rest of us would be forming up our own rescue party. Since some of these are unknowns in my world I think I will begin first with the ones whom I estimated to be my strongest potential allies.

 

Perfume, of course, is Amazon trained and in some ways even surpasses Shampoo in terms of raw fighting potential, but because of a trick of nature in her birth she was born hypersensitive to pain, which prevents her from using all of her abilities to the max, particularly where it comes to unarmed fighting. Her reliance on weapons is a definite liability, but she compensates for that by a supernormal proficiency with both Axes and Tonfas, and her speed is quite phenomenal, almost on a par with Kurumi. She is highly intelligent and perceptive, able to devise and execute complex strategies on the fly, and knowledgeable in many of Cologne's most formidable techniques, including the Bakusai Tenketsu. She is strong and quite resilient, and---thanks to having been bestowed with the advantages of “nano-technology” care of the silver-haired Beatrice---her nervous system has been partially repaired and reinforced so that she no longer suffers a crippling handicap every time she is struck in battle. Add to that her cuddlesome and affectionate nature and you have one very formidable young lady, especially given that she has the hypersenses of a Sentinel, giving her a superior awareness of her environment, though not quite the equal of the perceptions of a Lore Master.

 

There is also her Jusenkyo curse to consider, which---ironically---is almost the same exact curse that Shampoo has on my timeline, and while it is unfortunate that she tends to get splashed with water quite frequently, experiencing life as a cat has given her a feline perspective about fighting…meaning that her claws are very sharp and that you should watch carefully that she does not “scratch” you with her axes.

 

Then there is Arigami Keiko, a real study in contrasts. Cocky, brash, hardy and well seasoned in the ways of the world, she is entirely sensualistic in nature and is quite open about her sexuality, having a strong preference for other women but being well disciplined and trained in the arts of giving and receiving pleasure even with a definite guy like Ryoga. An openly admitted “Sex-Slave” who takes great pride in being “owned” by Kodachi, some of her formative years had been spent being conditioned to that mode of thinking under the tutorage of the formidable Lao Kung, a woman I had yet to meet yet whose reputation in me was already growing the more I studied her reflection in my contemporaries. Keiko is both assertive and submissive, a real go-getter in some ways and yet able to turn on a dime into a meek and willing kitten whenever her metaphorical chain was given a yank by her current owner. Her resemblance to my Ranma-chan is so stark that I am almost tempted to believe that she and Ranma share some sort of resonant connection, and yet her Jusenkyo curse turns her into a vulture, one of the ugliest carrion eaters imaginable. Go figure!

 

Her mastery of various martial arts styles, primarily that of Kick-boxing, to which she has added the Shadowskills for a chaser, makes her one tough and deadly fighter, someone who has actually taken the lives of many opponents in both street brawls and cage fighting. Though the blood on her hands is quite unmistakable, she's basically life oriented and has a cheerfully optimistic view of the world that mingles cynicism with a “devil-may-care” defiance. Naturally I found myself liking her a great deal, though I could not help but notice how she pined with unrequited desire for my counterpart…and found me a bit too disturbing as an enigma.

 

And then there is Alison, AKA “A-ko” Managi, a living powerhouse who was a thousand times as strong as the rest of us put together. Not a great intellectual but full of brawn and bravado, which makes her just as formidable as my Ranma (even granted that her level of destructiveness puts his to shame by a good long measure), I sensed that she had a lot of underdeveloped potential of her own, and while her training in the martial arts was none too shabby (her mother being an Amazon from a branch of the line that was even more ancient than the one in China) I had the sense that she had powers and abilities yet to be fully explored and tested…and just how tough was she anyway? I had a feeling that many an army had learned the hard way not to underestimate her, and not just on our planet but among the stars, where her name was already a legend.

 

How curious that she should find herself paired off with someone her exact opposite in a great many senses, but looking upon Beatrice Kane (ne B-Ko Daitokuji) it was easy to see the reasons for their attraction. Each had qualities the other lacked, and both were stronger when united with the other than they were as separate entities. Beatrice was as intelligent as Alison was powerful, and her ability to work near magic with the tools of science meant that she was every bit as formidable in her own way. She also had the advantage of exposure to super-advanced off-world technology, not the least example of which were the Nanites that were crawling around like ants within her bloodstream, giving her perfect health and an ability to regenerate damage that no doubt came in handy with the active lifestyle that she and her “wife” experienced together.

 

I'm not sure how much at this point can be added about my counterpart, since I've already expounded at great length as to the rather large differences that exist between us. In a way looking at her was like looking into a funhouse mirror, the kind that distorts the image from what is to what might have been, and in her place I probably would behave and think just like her, which is a scary enough thought let me tell you!

 

But then again, how to measure the even greater contrast between the Kasumi I know and the one who was standing there before me. Tall and willowy as I remember but with a certain ethereal sweetness that hinted of greater things that only lurked as the potential hidden within my own beloved big sister. This Kasumi was a force to be reckoned with, an elemental being of light, fire and air who also manifested a very earthy sensuality that contrasted with her nominal “innocence,” and while she was unquestionably still a virgin, this Kasumi knew what she was lacking in terms of fulfillment. Rather a bit like how my Kasumi used to be a bit of an air-headed romantic, right before she started up a very passionate and physical relationship with my world's Kuno Kodachi.

 

How to measure the many contradictory things that I observed in this altered version of my own big sister? For one thing she was both a vampire and a goddess, and if that doesn't strike you as contradictory then I don't know what will! She had a thirst for blood and had tasted the neck of my own counterpart, and through that had gained the full knowledge of her martial arts skills, which were coupled with her vampiric abilities, which meant that she was most probably the toughest one among us, Frank and Alison notwithstanding. She disliked fighting and had formerly renounced her martial arts training before the events that had led my counterpart back into her life, and under conditions that brought about a very strange kind of incestuous fascination, most particularly centered upon this world's Nabiki's male aspect.

 

And yet she had turned instead to the homunculus of a man whose very name struck terror in the hearts of many a mortal. To see her standing beside the hulking giant was to marvel at how opposites could attract, for he was rough-hewn in manners and had a history of violence that belied the more cultured exterior that he attempted to project these days. Kasumi barely topped the level of his belly button, and yet the big man acted with great deference and respect towards her, acting as though he were afraid that he might unwittingly cause her injury if he moved too abruptly, which was odd considering how my big sister could probably have bent him in half if she ever had a mind to be less than gentle…or if, as I suspected, her long-repressed libido came to the fore and she let loose upon him with a tide of wanton sexuality, in which case he had my most sincere condolences and pity.

 

Yes indeed, a very odd assemblage of mismatched personalities, but still quite formidable and tightly knit as a family unit. The bonds between these people were strong and well tested, and there was not a one of them---including Mousse---who would shy away from taking injury on the behalf of another, and not just the ones with whom they were romantically and sexually involved at the present. And all of it centered around my counterpart, who either knowingly or unknowingly had become the glue holding everything together.

 

Perhaps I also ought to say a few words about those who were not present for this meeting, the undead trio of Lenore, Chloe and Kiima. They were here as official employees of Frank, who had commissioned them to keep close tabs on the movements of Kasumi, something Lenore was obliged to do anyway since my sister was her goddess.

 

Having spent enough time around them to get a sense of what they were actually like, I could see why Kasumi did not mind having them around as they were a non-intrusive presence around the household. Lenore was discrete and tended to lurk about the place, hiding in the shadows but always there when summoned or needed. In a way she was like a competent version of the Kuno manservant, Sasuke, and Chloe was as much like a pet as her girlfriend, always affectionate and eager to please, yet fiercely loyal and protective against anyone who threatened those under the werewolf's protection.

 

Kiima was a much more difficult one to nail down, being trapped as she was in a state between death and life due to an accident caused by her scientist father. The man had been attempting to contact the spirit of his dead wife, but the device he used had unwittingly caught their daughter within an etheric net that held her in a state of perpetual limbo, neither wholly of the flesh nor spirit, a living ghost who could walk through walls and manifest a physical presence where needed, and who could also control the etheric state of her own body as well as effect the same abilities as a Poltergeist, including such talents as telepathy and telekinesis.

 

She was, in some respects, a sad case of an innocent trapped in eternal purgatory, and yet she had adjusted to her current state of being and had long since made peace with the ghosts of her own past. It was through her friendship with Lenore and Chloe that she had renewed her interest in living, and through their involvement in other supernatural encounters the three of them had formed an unbreakable union that held them firm through over a decade of close and active association.

 

There was a lot more to their story than I am relating here, of course, but this is only the short version of my summary here as I am sure you, my gentle readers, want me to forge on ahead and get to the point where things took a more active role, and the heroes began their assault on the lair of the villain.

 

Oh yes, and you may ask, `What about the fathers? What about Aunt Nodoka?” Well, I don't want to drag things out by giving an account of their own involvement, it just seemed as if my father and “father-in-law” were spending much of their time angsting and fretting about the dangers posed to their beloved granddaughters. Other than that they were leaving the important stuff to us kids, while Aunt Nodoka was doing her level best to pacify their anxieties, providing lots of tea and hot sake while encouraging to take their minds off of our problems by playing a round or two of shogi.

 

At times such as this I really do miss having my other “aunts” around, especially Comb, Silk, Atsuko and even Ukyo's aunt Yumi. Heck, I'd especially have given a lot to have my other big sister around, but it seemed as though on this world the gang had yet to meet Kachu, and daddy was still in the dark about the existence of an older daughter who looked a lot like (but was totally the opposite of) Kasumi. Similarly there was neither Peorth nor Ganglot on hand to call upon for some semi-divine favors, nor did Ryoga have his formidable kinswomen on hand, particularly Kennou and Ryomi, or even his legendary grandfather, Razor, the founder of the current line of the Hibikis.

 

But then again you might as well call upon great-grandfather Happosai to lend his assistance, and that always entailed trouble of its own as the diminutive runt had a tendency to let himself be distracted from his mission by close contact with the ladies.

 

To cut to the chase of the matter, Lotion and I were called upon to perform a spell by linking our energies together, and by extending our senses into the great etheric field we found the opening to the “worm-hole” like tunnel that the wizard had used during his assault on our dojo. To the eyes of others it must have seemed as if a hole were opened up in the very ceiling of the chamber, and with Cologne directing the others the “first wave assault group” entered the vortex and vanished from the sight of normal eyes, embarking on their mission while the rest of us stayed behind looking up with a sense of shared longing.

 

I had the sense even then that things were would not go smoothly, but even given my precognitive abilities there was no way in hell for me to foresee all that was about to occur, or the steps that I would take to rectify the error in judgment of this world's Cologne in thinking herself better able to take on Shang-Kwan than her former pupil. Lotion had grown very far beyond even the understanding of the Matriarch in her skills and abilities and was a force of her own to be reckoned with, whereas I had been thinking long and hard about the way in which I myself had been defeated and had already devised several alternate strategies that would effect a different outcome in a second encounter. One should never try the same trick twice with even an apprenticed Lore Master…but that was a lesson Shan-Kwan had yet to comprehend as my turn in the battle would not occur for some hours yet.

 

There was also another even more potent lesson that I and my counterpart were about to teach him, namely that one should never underestimate either a Tendo…or a Saotome, because when you threaten the ones that we love we tend to become quite ruthless and nasty, to say nothing of terribly inventive in the pursuit of our heavenly retribution.

 

But I digress once again, for that is getting far ahead of myself in this story…for the rise of the Seven Dragons is the story that I would next relate, as best I am able to reconstruct things from the accounts of the survivors and my own intuitive perceptions…

 

 

Continued

 

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