Bleach Fan Fiction / One Piece Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Dimensional Warriors: Assorted Stories ❯ Gathering ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

“You don't have your Zanpakuto?” Ichigo said, I looked from one to the other, they mirrored each others shocked look.

“Can someone explain this to me?” I finally asked; causing Rukia to look around Ichigo and see me.

“She can see me?” She asked. Ichigo seemed equally confused; but eventually sighed and sat down. I followed suit.

“Alright, I guess I should start from the beginning. Rukia is what is called a Shinigami, or Soul Reaper. Her job is to go around destroying creatures called Hollows and passing dead souls on to the next world. Somewhere along the lines I was granted the same power, but in order to use it I basically had to separate my soul from my body.”

“Right” Rukia cut in. “And thus why I'm confused, my Zanpakuto, my sword, is a piece of my soul. It should never be separated from the rest of me.”

“Are we going to do this training or not? 'Cause I could use a nap.” Zoro called in from the doorway.

“Training?”

“Yeah, I think I might be able to reawaken my powers by facing death. You know, not unlike the last three times it worked.” Rukia sighed.

“Maybe I should watch, we might find out why my Zanpakuto vanished.” The three of them headed down into the training chambers, I decided so long as someone was watching I didn't necessarily need to be there and headed up to the observation deck.

Night had fully fallen, Ryoga was snoring from a hunched position. I found a blanket and wrapped it around him before looking back out into the darkness. I hoped for his sake that Akari was still alive.

I heard something, and began circling around. In the distance I saw some trees shiver and fall. There was a whirlwind approaching us. I shook Odin awake and we watched as a person seemed to appear inside of it.

A few minutes later though we were able to tell the person wasn't inside the whirlwind, but in front of it. As they reached the base of the mountain he stopped dead and began leaping up the rock face. As he approached I could make out a somewhat thin frame and tanned skin before he stopped dead in front of me.

“Kagome?” The young man asked, his nose twitching rapidly. “No, you don't smell like her.” His long pointed ears twitched a couple of times, at this distance I could see the tips of his canine teeth poking out from under his lip. As well his hands and feet were both topped with long curved nails. One hand even had a gauntlet on it, with golden claws extending over his hand. He wasn't wearing much in the ways of clothing, but his torso and important bits were covered what looked like fur.

“Sorry I wasn't who you were looking for.” I started carefully. “But if you'll...” I hesitated and saw he had a bag on his back. “What's in there?”

“Oh, a couple of layabouts I found on my way here. I thought I had smelled Kagome, guess I was wrong.” He opened the pack and gently laid out a couple of sleeping people. They also had pointed ears and fangs. Next to them he laid out a pack of what seemed to be food. “Can you look after these guys? I'm gonna go look for Kagome or Ayame some more.”

“If you wait here, most likely they'll be heading this way.” Odin said. The young man paused, considering.

“I'd really rather keep moving. I'm kind of worried; but if I find some more people I'll be sure to drop them by here. Thanks!” He yelled, leaping off the side.

“Thank you for the Food!” I called after him. Inside the final pack had been several pounds of dried and salted meats.

No one else arrived on my shift, but apparently a few people meandered in while I was asleep; I woke up to find a man leaning on the edge of the overlook. One of his eyes was covered by a headband, and his stark white hair stuck out to one side. He never looked up at me though, and even after he told me his name was Kakashi he simply leaned there, reading what looked like an ero book.

After eating I went back up to stand watch again. It was quiet up there, Kakashi was still leaning along the opposite side; but I was starting to feel upset. In a day the base had filled up with so many strong people, I felt outclassed and useless. Worse there were even stronger people who had just turned around and headed back out. Two of which had returned in the night with even more unconscious people.

There was a noise below, gunfire. I saw one of the Armors fly out of the woods and shatter into pieces against the mountain. A woman bolted out into the clearing, two Armors following close to either side. In a single move she kicked both of them far out of sight, her dark skin glistening in the early sun. Without almost a second thought she stopped at the foot and bounded straight up like most everyone else. As she reached the top I found myself wondering why we even felt safe putting the overlook at this height, when obviously no one seems to care about gravity.

“Hey.” She said; snapping me out of my thoughts. “Kurosaki's here right?”

“Who?”

“Kid with short orange hair? Usually wears a black robe?”

“Oh, Ichigo. Yeah he's here.” She paused for a moment, sizing me up. “You look pretty tough.” She said, I couldn't tell if she was belittling me or not.

“I'm a martial artist of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.” I said proudly, deciding not to just give up and be steamrolled. “Of course I'm tough.” She eyed me with surprise. Then laughed.

“I like you kid, name's Yoruichi Shihoin.” She said, extending her hand.

“Tendo Akane.” I said taking it.

“Why don't you show me around?” I nodded and nudged Ryoga who was sleeping, telling him to keep watch.

“So, do you want training?” I was shocked at her proposal; and while I felt a little insulted at how she put it, I knew what she meant. She was on a totally different level than I was.

“Y-Yeah! I. I'm not going to loose to these guys!” I said rapidly swallowing my pride.

“Good answer. Let me get set up in one of the training rooms. I can start you on the basics immediately.” I was hesitant to ask why she wanted to train me, but when I did she just shrugged and went off into the training rooms.

The first thing she did was explain energy to me, how everything has some level of energy and power to it. The trick is controlling and focusing it. Apparently one of the easiest ways to become aware of one's energy is through a strong emotion. We seemed to get stuck on that, so we took a break.

A few of the people that had arrived last night had left a decent stock of food behind, so we were eating a fair sized chunk of dried beef when I heard someone yelling, as well as a cat mewling. The voice made my heart jump in my chest.

“Gyahh! No! Shampoo gettoffame!” My hand clenched re-actively; crushing the beef into pulp.

“There! That's it!” I heard Yoruichi say behind me, however I could care less. My reactive anger had faded rapidly. I hurried towards the sound. As I rounded the corner I collided with something solid. We both went tumbling to the ground. I sat up immediately looking over the dazed young man, his pigtailed black hair laying out to one side, his favorite red shirt torn a little. Also dazed and laying a little above him was a white cat.

“Ranma! Shampoo!” I helped Ranma to his feet. He got up and blushed a little at the help. Then his eyes focused on me.

“A-Akane! I thought well... I thought the worst.” I let myself be pulled into him and reveled in the warmth being provided. Yoruichi caught up to us soon after.

“Did you feel it?” As she rounded the corner, the two of us separated quickly. She didn't even seem to notice. “You had quite the aura, if you can control that you'll be capable of amazing things.” I had pretty much tuned her out at this point. I was still embarrassed at being caught letting him hold me.

“Come on, lets start the training.” I felt myself being dragged off, Ranma seemed a little stunned but swiftly decided to follow me.

He watched with interest as Yoruichi began lecturing on bringing out energy. I focused my attentions more thoroughly now. Ranma was back, but it was only a matter of time before he got involved in what was going on. I didn't want him to leave me behind.

“Alright, what you need to do is remember the emotion on a consistent basis. That will draw out its power. Once you can do that you can start to control it.” This proved to be a problem, as I was too flustered to really focus.

“Shampoo! Put your clothes back on!” My attention snapped to Ranma, but he was just staring at me. I could feel energy flowing around me; my mind gripped at it desperately. Eventually I could still feel a little of it gathered in my palms. It was a start.

Gathering more energy, and gaining control of it was a slow process, and occurred over the next few days. Yoruichi wasn't the last one to try and teach me. Ranma helped out a lot since he had particular talents in emotional control; and as more people gathered here, many of them saw what I was doing and lent a hand.

Three days in, and I could actually accumulate enough energy to throw it. I couldn't list all of the people that arrived, after the first day they came in droves. Now most of them staying, either to wait for others or because friends were already here. A few still went back out to retrieve people. Like Goku, Sonic, Koga (the man who had arrived the first night with food), A young man with short blonde hair name Naruto, and an odd guy who wore a straw hat and whose limbs stretched like rubber named Luffy. These were the folks that kept returning with supplies and people.

It was now the third day, and as much as people had been arriving we had also been having some of the sleeping people wake up. I was surprised the first day Tatewaki Kuno tried to grab me from behind. Apparently I hadn't noticed the delusional young man among the unconscious. More importantly, by midday of the third day my father and sisters woke up; along with Ranma's parents.

I was less surprised about Happosai surviving than annoyed. Then again he seemed to have unmatched resilience to death. There were other familiar faces that woke up as well, Ukyo had arrived at some point in time. Konatsu arrived soon after. Mousse showed up eventually as well as Shampoo's grandmother Cologne. The Kuno family had also somehow survived, as had our teacher Mrs. Ninomiya. Ryoga's girlfriend, Akari has also turned up, but her faithful giant pig was not with her. Dr. Tofu also had managed to arrive.

The base felt full now, there were people everywhere, whether I knew them or not. Every day more refugees seemed to pour in now that the third day was over.

I was now training with some of the strongest people in the base. In particular one young man with long red hair seemed particularly intent on teaching everyone. His name was Kurama, and he would often watch over individuals, particularly the weakest. I didn't feel as ashamed to be marked as one of the weakest in this group, mostly because Ranma also ended up having tons of sessions with Kurama.
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