Bleach Fan Fiction / One Piece Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Dimensional Warriors: Assorted Stories ❯ The people versus the door ( Chapter 6 )

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

This is a quick side note, from here on out I'm not going to run the Shadow story any longer. Instead I will be using this as the main story-line and primarily follow Akane; but I do hold liberty to jump to other characters for extended periods of time. (This will be noted with the character's name in bold text). Thank you to everyone who has enjoyed my work so far, this will hopefully streamline things and make the whole story more enjoyable for all.

Naruto
There was only a week left before the attack, everyone was feeling the pressure, and in no one was it better represented than by Kakashi-sensei, right now.

“Naruto, you have to help me here.” His visible eye was teared up and glossy. “Tech borrowed something from me, something extremely important, and he's locked his door and won't give it back. I need it Naruto, badly!”

“A-Alright I'll help!” I said, a little unnerved by his display.

“Thank you Naruto-san!” He gripped my hand in both of his and dragged me down several floors to the front of a large metal door. “Now, use a Tailed Beast Bomb. We'll go in and...”

“Wait, I think a Beast Bomb is a bit much here, wouldn't it cause a cave in?” He hesitated for a moment. “It doesn't look that tough, why don't you just break it down?”

“Its some sort of new metal, any damage I do just seals back up; so we need something big.” I nodded.

“Alright. One Big Ball Rasengan!” I said, summoning up the two clones to stabilize the technique.

“That won't!” It was too late, my arm plunged into the metal as if it wasn't there; and almost immediately the metal began trying to pull back together around my arm.

With a little force I managed to pull myself free. “I think we need a specialist here. Let's go find Thorium, he's probably the one that made this metal.”

“Or you could blow the whole door off with a Beast Bomb.”

“Yeah and probably collapse the whole base, we're not doing that.”

“What's this about collapsing the base?” I turned to the new voice, seeing Goku-san.

“Oh nothing, we're just trying to get something important back from Tech.” I said cautiously.

“Something important huh...” He seemed to contemplate the door, but I got a bad feeling as I saw a thin trail of drool run down his cheek.

“It's alright, we've got it under control, we're going to find Thorium now.” He barely waved at us as we left.

We did find Thorium a few rooms down playing with a small inanimate metal hedgehog.

“Oh hey guys, you here for armor too?” His eyes didn't leave the toy, almost like he was expecting it to move.

“Not really, we need to get into Tech's lab, he's locked himself behind that big metal door.”

“Wait, since when did he have that?” Thorium said, suddenly getting up and walking past us.

“Well that's unnerving.”

Luffy

“So you think he's hiding meat behind there!” I asked Goku, already drooling a little. There hadn't been much in the way of meat since no animals had been found outside yet; and what little we had, was found dried and packaged. Still, I could not doubt Goku's information. Nothing else I could think of would be important enough to put behind such powerful doors.

“Gomu Gomu no Gatling!” I called my attack and swung a flurry of punches; but the door still stood. Goku was right, there was definitely meat here. But this door was a tough opponent.

“Hmm... Let me try.” I moved to give Goku a clear shot.

“Ka-Me-Ha-Me-Ha!” A blue beam!

“Are you a robot!” His beam cut out as he thought.

“I don't think so...” I waited patiently for him to think about it. “Unless Saiyans are robots... I should ask Vegeta.” I nodded and watched him leave before focusing again on the real problem. This door was tough, so I'd need to step things up a notch.

“Gear Third!” I said as I bit down on my thumb and blew air into my bones, inflating them to gargantuan size.

“Luffy! What are you doing!” Crap. I turned to see Nami heading towards me.

“Tech's hiding something important in here, so I'm gonna get it.” I said, hoping the truth would work best in this situation. Her eyes flickered for a moment.

“Third gear won't be enough. You better use Haki.” Those beli marks on her eyes were kind of scary, but she had a point.

“Busoshoku Koka!” I focused my willpower as my enlarged arm took on a black coloration. “Elephant Pistol!” I launched my strike, feeling the walls of the cave shiver from the blow. As I pulled my arm back I could see the door reappearing as if it had always been there. I sat down, trying to think of how to break this door. Nami also seemed to be contemplating it.

“I'm going to go see if I can find someone who knows how to open this.” She said suddenly, walking off. Suddenly an idea hit me. If punching wasn't working maybe cutting would.

“Zoro!” I yelled, as I ran off to find him.

InuYasha
“Alright, remember you can try to break this thing, but no Meidou. I don't think the cave could handle it.” I nodded as Kagome talked behind me. Nami had been talking about this strange door, and after hearing about it I thought it might be something I could use.

“I know I know. Now let's see what this door is made of.” I said, drawing Tessaiga and stabbing it. The blade sank in, but when I pulled it back out the door just sealed back up. “Huh. That's interesting. Well I guess I'll have to break it down then!” I decided to start with the Barrier Breaking Tessaiga as my blade took on the necessary red coloration. I drew back and dealt a solid blow. Once again the door just rebuilt.

“Fine then. Kongosoha!” I summoned spears along the length of my blade and fired those. The cavern shook at the force of the attack, but still the door held. It seemed to be eating the spears as they vanished, leaving a perfectly smooth surface behind.

“You asked for it. Meidou...”

“InuYasha Sit!” I tried to yell, but all that came out was a muffled gurgle.

“Are you guys here for something?” I looked up to see Tech, at the same time realizing we had gathered a bit of a crowd.

“Yes! My book! You thief!” Kakashi yelled suddenly, jumping out of the crowd. Tech looked at him for a moment, then typed something on his arm. The door beeped a few times before fading from sight; revealing the tech labs. He calmly walked in and came back out a few seconds later with a green book with a large title Icha Icha on it.

“This? I thought it was something important, or coded. Here.” Tech threw it over to Kakashi who greedily snatched it out of the air before turning to the rest of us. “Now what about the rest of you?” A nervous look ran through the small crowd as some of the people in the back began to break away.

“What about the meat!” Luffy suddenly yelled.

“There is none.”

“Liar!”

“If there was any meat it would be in the kitchen.”

“But I'm not allowed in the kitchen.”

“Precisely.” With that Tech turned around and walked back into his lab, a new door appearing in front of it.

Akane
“Hey, Ichigo. I just heard about Urahara.” I said, knocking on his door. It had been a few hours since the report on our last mission out was released. My chest hurt when I read those words, even though I had already guessed at it. I had talked to Yoruichi about it, and while distant, she did ask me to check on Ichigo. “I know he was your teacher, and I just want to say, I'm sorry.” The door opened suddenly, and he was towering over me. His face was practically a mask, but I could see a little red under his eyes.

“Don't blame yourself. He died protecting others. He wouldn't want us to be upset. None of the people who have died here would.” I could feel tears starting as he talked. He sounded so cold, almost hollow.

“I-I know. But if I had been stronger than maybe...”

“Don't start that. You were the reason the rest of your team got away.” I nodded slowly; choking a bit as I did. Suddenly I felt his arms around me, and I let go. He just silently stood there, taking my tears.

As I calmed down I began to realize my hair was suddenly wet, noticing I was almost done Ichigo let me go quickly and began sweeping at his own eyes.

“You should go, I've got... work to do.” He said, obviously not looking directly at me. I nodded and left.

The day had seemed like a haze and evening found me wandering back towards my own room. I lightly undid the sash holding my gi closed and laid down in bed.

I couldn't seem to get comfortable, maybe it was still too early, or maybe it was just the events of the past few hours; but I was upset, and wishing for the comforts of my old life; a proper house, pajamas, a good bath.

Slipping back on my gi, I decided a bath did sound nice, even if it was a public one. As I slipped out I came face to face with Ranma; who froze mid-step like a child caught with his hand in the jar.

“A-Akane. I uh... I heard about the mission.” I looked away, I don't know why I didn't want him to see me cry, but I couldn't help it. “H-Hey, you want to um... I dunno go grab something to eat? I heard the kitchen just made a batch of chocolate.” I considered for a moment, and nodded. He let a small grin escape across his face. “Alright, I'll be right back. Oh and if you see Shampoo, tell her I'm headed to the labs. That should get rid of her.” With that he slipped down the hall towards his room. Soon enough Shampoo scampered past, wearing close to nothing and asking around about him. I passed the message along and watched her run off.

I slipped back into my room and looked in the small poorly made closet for some clothing. All I really had was my gi, I managed to scavenge a few decent dresses from a few of my missions out, but it was fairly dangerous to dress nicely around here since at any given time there was at least one fight breaking out in the hallways. Sadly Ranma contributed quite a bit to said fights. I contemplated just wearing my gi, which was made to take abuse, but decided to take a nicer dress. It was a light blue in color, which offset my hair well and had a modest skirt that billowed down around my ankles. It looked similar to a previous dress I had owned which, in retrospect, was probably why I had grabbed it.

No sooner had I dressed than there was a knock on the door. Ranma was huddled along one of the walls.

“I think she went to the labs looking for you about ten minutes ago.” I said plainly, he let out a heavy sigh.

“You ready for some grub!” He said, smiling broadly. I managed to return the smile and let him lead me off to the dining halls.

I couldn't help but sigh when Ranma dumped a small glass of water over himself as we approached the cafeteria.

“Ranma, do you have to do that?”

“What? I've already eaten my male rations for today.”

“Ah! Ladies!” Oh God, Sanji was on duty. “What do the two lovely flowers want today?”

“We heard the coco beans were ready...” Ranma began, slanting her face away to give a perfect wistful look.

“Of course! I'll have my special Love Love Chocolate Explosion ready in an instant!” With that he whirled into the back.

“This is cruel.” I said bluntly.

“What its the only way to get a decent meal around here.”

“Except stopping by when Ukyo is cooking.”

“I can't help it if she gives me a little extra on the top.”

“You do know if Luffy or even Vegeta finds out about this I can't save you right?” A look of sheer terror crossed the redhead's face.

“It's alright, it's alright. They won't figure it out.”

“Ranma!” I heard a heavily accented voice call out and turned to see Shampoo running over to us.

“Ranma?” Sanji had returned with a platter that did indeed look like chocolate had exploded all over it, but more importantly he was very studiously looking down at Ranma.

“Ranma! What you doing with Akane? Should be dating Shampoo.”

“T-This isn't a date!” He said reflexively. I don't know why that hurt; but suddenly Sanji planted his hands firmly on Ranma's shoulders.

“Don't waste your beauty on these other girls.” He grinned, patted Ranma on the head and handed the dish to her. She just stood there stunned.

“How dare you!” Another familiar voice; Ryoga was charging up the hall. “How dare you use your curse to get an extra meal!” Now heads were turning as he dropped his ever present pack and readied a punch. Ranma was skillfully maneuvering herself to protect the food and then, nothing.

Where Ryoga had been was only a black clothed leg. Sanji drew himself back over the counter as if nothing had happened; and Ryoga was no longer anywhere to be seen. Still the damage had been done, and whispers were running through the dinning crowd. Ranma nervously turned to me.

“Say, Akane. How would you like to go eat somewhere else...” Seeing no alternative I nodded slowly and allowed Ranma to drag me off before questions could be asked.
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