Gold Digger Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Grave's New Life ❯ Chapter 28

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 28: 26

Grave's New Life

Chapter 26

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2, Gold Digger, or Ninja High School. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sama, High Lord Fred Perry and Godfather Ben Dunn respectively.
“So, that’s it, is it?” A wizened voice said softly as she and her young charge watched what happened from a nearby tree. It wasn't everyday that she saw someone from those cursed grounds this far away from them.

The Matriarch of the Amazons narrowed her eyes as she watched the short Werecheetah lead away the impressive fighter. Oh yes, she knew about Lycanthropes. Having dealt with a few of them in her life-time, she knew a lot more about them than most people would ever have privy to in their entire lives. Still, she had thought that they had been wiped out years ago, as none had been seen in a good while. 'Guess they really did just leave this world for another.' She mused to herself as she observed what was happening.

Next to her, her granddaughter frowned as she looked at the wanton destruction in the construction yard. She didn't doubt her own prowess for even an instant, but seeing most of that fight had made her nervous about her chances of actually winning a fight against either that pigtailed fighter or the other one. Not having seen such skill from people outside of her village, she was surprised, to put it mildly. She knew that her great-grandmother could easily handle the both of them, but she actually doubted how well she'd do in such a fight. She knew she could put up a good fight, barring tricky hits and slips under her guard. She wondered why her great-grandmother had wanted to watch that fight. Granted, it had been really, really good and she could still feel the rush of such excitement flowing through her veins at that moment. "Great-grandma, why did you want to watch?" She asked in Mandarin.

The older of the two didn't answer right away. She was still focused on the short Werecheetah, it was hard to believe, but she found what she had been searching for the whole time she was here. “You’ll see.” She said softly. “Come, we have work to do.” She said as they jumped from their tree and bounded to the skyline of the city. It wouldn’t do to be caught after all.

(---)

"Brianna, calm down!" Britanny practically hissed as she held her sister back from doing something potentially stupid and dangerous, not to mention possibly suicidal. Though, she had a vague idea what her younger sister was going through at that moment, since it took a lot of her willpower to not rush down there and do the same thing herself. Still, a construction zone

that was completely demolished wasn't something that they could ignore. Practically everything in that lot was utterly destroyed, and as far as she could tell, the kid with Grave Digger wasn't too badly hurt, just severely exhausted and roughed up a bit. If he could survive something like that,

she shuddered to think just how much he could really do if pushed. "Don't just go rushing down there?" She whispered, still feeling slightly tense.

Squeezing his wife's shoulder in a comforting manner, Stryyp looked down at the wreckage site. Having caught the tail-end of the fight, he wasn't sure exactly what happened, all he knew was that what had happened was caused by something far more dangerous than he had imagined. Steel beams that were made to hold up a skyscraper were durable by nature, and there were several bent, warped, crushed and broken beams scattered all around on the ground. Some actually looked slightly melted from where he was. He may not have had his wife's eyes, but when the ends looked similar to dripping liquid cheese on the end of a wire wisp, then something was wrong. If he was a betting man, he would've bet that there was still steam coming off some of that metal.

Taking several deep breaths to calm down, the Lycanthropoid in question nodded. As much as she hated to admit it, going off half-cocked was a sure way to get blown to hell and back. Flashes of memories of what happened in Seer's Hamlet bombarded her mind. Even if people on Earth weren't technophiles like the people on Jade were, it would still be one hell of a problem if massive explosions and damage occurred while she was trying to stop her other self from doing crazy things.

“What do you want to do now?” Stryyp asked, though he had a feeling that he knew what was going to happen. To be honest, he was curious about what was going on. How was it that Brianna’s inner self was able to stay alive like that? He would have thought that someone split like that wouldn’t be able to function properly, or at the very least, cause some serious problems.

“Well, we could follow them and find out where they’re going.” Genn spoke softly from behind. To be honest, she was slightly shocked by the way that Brianna’s other half was acting. If she didn’t know any better, she would have honestly said that the short Werecheetah was actually worried about that boy. ‘Then again…’ Her thoughts trailed off as the others were looking at her. “What?”

“You kind of drifted off there, Genn, you okay?”

Shaking her head, the Rakshasa nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine, Bri. Just something was on my mind.” To be honest, she was wondering how the heck Britanny could be so danged calm at that moment. She had half-expected the Werecheetah, or Brianna, to rush down there and make a tense situation even worse than it already was.

"There's a lot on all our minds, Genn..." the Lycanthropoid responded to the Rakshasa as she looked towards her other half, the smaller petite Werecheetah... she saw as Grave tried to lift the boy and had no trouble of it... and then the girl started floating.

"We better decide something..." Brianna clucked her tongue. "She's going to get away and we'll lose her again..." and she wanted to make sure that little potential trouble-maker stayed within viewing distance.

"I could follow," Britanny told her younger sister/semi-daughter. "I am full Werecheetah and I got speed that surpasses yours... no offense, Bri," she added that last part quickly as to not damage her younger sibling's ego any worse than it already had been.

"Brit, we're only fast directionally, we can't turn for shit..." Brianna grumbled as she saw Grave starting to take to the sky. "And with how crowded and narrow streets here are..."

That made Britanny wince, as the Werecheetah realized that, yes, with magic on her side, (and therefore levitation) it would have been easy for the small furry woman to lose them in an areas such as this.

But then an answer came to the fore. "I'll go," Stryyp said seriously.

"MUFFIN!" Britanny screeched. "You can't just go and put yourself in dan-MUFFIN!!!!" The Werecheetah cried as her husband started to take to the air as well.

No, it wasn't that her husband, the former prince of El Dorado was a magician of any sort. With the Artifacts of the Kryn embedded within his body, he was allowed numerous powers and abilities, including numerous forms of telekinesis... and that included levitation.

The Kryn felt bad as he could hear his wife's shouting and cries from down below, but he knew at this point, he'd have the best chance of tracking where Grave Digger was heading to. And so, catching side of Grave heading Southeast, the Kryn started to take off in that direction as well, intent on finding where she landed, and then returning back to his group. After all, his teleportation depended on familiarity with surrounding, but hopefully, he could focus on a person for it as well... someone he had a deep connection to...

Like his wife.

(---)

"Great-grandma, look."

"Hmm?" The ancient Amazon wondered and looked to where her great granddaughter was pointing. Raising an eyebrow, she thought she was seeing things at first, but then quickly realized that, yes, there was indeed a flying orange and black furred man not too far from where they were, and able to keep up with them was even more impressive, in her book at least. She didn’t believe in coincidence, though the idea of a large Tiger-man following the same person that they were certainly was weird. “Interesting…” She muttered, wondering if maybe the small Werecheetah had broken some law within the magical community. It wouldn’t have been the first time that a mage had done so, whether willingly or unwillingly, although the timing of the Tiger-man was suspect at best.

But that made Cologne consider something that didn’t occur to her before. A Tiger-Man? She knew it wasn't a weretiger, there was nothing magical about him that screamed 'Lycanthrope' to her, so that was out... but the power he was radiating, as if it was from an outside source... mayhaps from magical tools or artifacts.

And when it came to magical items and relics, it was something that not only her people, but the Phoenix and the MUSK strove to collect. Her eyes narrowing, Cologne was coming to a possible conclusion. "Xian-Pu."

The younger Amazon warrior blinked her eyes as she turned to her elder. "Yes, great-grandmother?"

“We best follow that one..." Cologne said solemnly as her eyes narrowed. "We need to make sure it's not the Musk taking interest in this as well." Left unsaid was the fact that the last thing they needed was the Musk in the area. While she could easily handle anything short of the Royal Family’s personal guards without any problems, the more Musk in the area, the more likely that they could over-power her heir. As good as Xian-Pu was, Ku Lon was skeptical of her ability to handle more than one Musk warrior.

The younger Amazon nodded and frowned lightly. She didn’t think that the Musk would be this far out without a reason, but taking another look at the flying Tiger-man, who was starting to pull ahead of them, she decided that just maybe there was something to her relative’s worries about the Musk being in Japan. “Right.” She muttered as they continued on, staying out of sight of the flying Tiger-man.

(---)

Looking to his right, Stryyp blinked, he thought he had seen a flash of purple and white there for a moment, but now it was gone. ‘What was that?’ He wondered to himself before turning back and watching as Grave Digger helped her exhausted acquaintance, he didn’t know what that person was to her exactly and he hesitated to call the person her friend, as far as he knew, he was just helping her with a place to live at the moment. He paused for a moment and landed on an outstretched pole, before kneeling down to grip the bar as he watched them walk down the street. What was amazing, in his opinion, was that most people didn’t seem to be afraid, nervous or seemed to find the scene weird. Were people that used to seeing weird and unusual things that a Werecheetah and an exhausted human with her was common-place?

Stryyp sweat-dropped as he remembered just where he lived, incidents of weird and unusual events were commonplace there, so why not elsewhere in the world? He was about to fly down to the street when someone poked him on the shoulder. “Huh?” He asked as he turned, blinking as he saw a girl, most likely in her late teens or early adulthood, with green hair, he blinked and blinked again as he noticed that all she was wearing were tiger striped yellow boots with a matching bikini top and bottom and nothing else. “Can I help you?” He asked, wondering if he saw horns peeking out from on top of her hair.

“Yes.” The girl nodded. “You wouldn’t happen to have seen my darling, would you?”

“Excuse me?” He blinked, wondering who she was talking about.

At those words, the girl looked crestfallen. “Oh, you must not be from around here. Sorry about that.” She said, flying off shortly afterwards.

“What was that about?” Asked a very confused Kryn, who blinked in confusion.

(---)

Grave looked at Ranma, who was slumping against her slightly, his arm was over her shoulder, but she could tell he was getting a bit tired, though she wondered if maybe he was leaning on her to conserve energy. “You okay?” She was a bit worried though. What if he was actually really hurt?

“Huh?” Ranma blinked at her, before turning away, his face reddening when he realized just how close her face was to his. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Really?” She asked softly.

Blinking, he turned his head to look at her in confusion. “Huh? What’s with that?”

“What’s with what?” Grave asked, frowning lightly.

“Nothing.” He muttered softly before waving off Grave’s concerns about him.. His mind was already several miles away.

(---)

Groaning as he pulled himself out of a huge crater in the ground, the Eternally Lost Boy shook his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind. “Damn you, Ranma.” He growled.

‘Who the heck is Ranma, Benji?’ A voice suddenly spoke up from nowhere.

”What the? Who’s there?! Show yourself, you coward!!” Ryoga yelled while looking around frantically. He couldn’t feel anyone nearby, nor did he see anything out of place, but he knew something was wrong.

‘You know who I am, Benji. How could you forget about me so easily? I’m hurt.’ The voice said in a slightly whiny tone of voice.

“I don’t know who you are and I’m not Benji!!” He bellowed, growling angrily as he moved to where he thought the voice was coming from. “Now get out here and show yourself, you coward!!” He screamed before jumping at a bush, ripping it out of the ground to see if the person talking to him was behind it. He growled as he saw nothing there. “WHERE ARE YOU?!”

‘Shut up, Benji. I’m in your head. Although I thought that I was the one in charge.’ The voice sighed lightly before clearing its throat, though, from what Ryoga could hear, the sound was right next to his ears. ‘I guess you must’ve forgotten, you fool. It is I, Dr. Alfred Steiner Peachbody, your master and trainer.’

“WHAT?!” Ryoga yelled incredulously as he looked around the area with a wild look in his eyes. “You… You’re in my head?!” He hollered, sounding slightly crazy. ‘Dammit, first Ranma humiliates me and now this?! This isn’t fair!!’ He wailed inside his head.

‘Do you have to be so loud? I can hear you just fine!’ The voice complained to him. ‘Wait a second here…’ The voice said, seemingly contemplating something.

“What now?” Ryoga groaned in dismay. He really, REALLY didn’t need this. Why couldn’t Ranma get a horrible curse like this? All he got was turned into a girl; people didn’t look at him, run away in fear and then scream because he started to sound like more than one person. It was probably for the best that Ryoga’s mind was blocking out all the times he lashed out in anger in his cursed form and turned several small villages and towns into ruins in only a few moments.

‘You… Don’t sound like Benji, now that I think about it. Who are you?! Where’s Benji?!’ The voice snarled and started growling, or at least it sounded like it was growling.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you! I don’t know who the hell this Benji person is! My name’s Ryoga Hibiki.” He practically snarled out as he sat down on the ground. He wasn’t the best at meditation, but he needed to do something while he tried to figure out what to do about this evil creature that possessed him.

‘We need to talk.’ The voice said gravely, causing Ryoga to gulp despite himself.

(---)

Rubbing her forehead, Genn wondered what she did in a past life to have so much bad karma now. That was the only explanation that she could figure out. Then again, considering who her mother was… ‘Great, sins of my “mother” pass onto me as bad karma.’ The Raksasha groaned in dismay as she watched Brianna try and stop Britanny from rushing out after her husband.

“Brit, calm down, will ya?!” Brianna yelled at her sister, who looked like she was about to tear down the street after her husband. “Rushing after him will do nothing, alright?!” She hated yelling like she was, mostly because she was pretty sure that she sounded as worried as she felt, which wasn’t helping the situation in the slightest.

Growling lightly, the Werecheetah in question took several deep breaths before shaking her head. "But, Bri... Muffin's out there chasing down a lunatic by himself." True, she could have chased after him, but, like Bri said, she had horrible turning abilities.

Rubbing her temples, Brianna muttered something that sounded suspitiously like "calm down, stupid", but Britanny couldn't tell for sure, it was too muttered and quiet for her to understand completely, and she had super-sharp hearing. "I know that! You think I want to sit here?!" Hell, it was taking all her willpower to not just rush after Stryyp and that little manifestation of evil that he was following.

Genn frowned lightly as she sensed the anxiety in the air increase as her two friends got more and more agitated with each passing moment. 'This sucks almost as bad as when Brianna and her other half tore up Seer's Hamlet.' She groused. "Hey, Brianna..."

"Yeah?"

"How come you didn't just tear after her?" That was bothering Genn for awhile now. The way Brianna was acting, something had changed, but what? She just had to know. She blinked as Brianna went silent and looked down for several minutes, her features seemingly cast in shadow. "Brianna?"

"It's just... I dunno." She said softly, causing both Genn and Britanny to stare at her in shock. "I... I'm worried, I can't deny that. But... For some reason, I... I can't hurt her, as much as I want to, I just, I just can't." She said softly. "But, I don't know why, I just... I don't know." Sighing as her shoulders slumped, Brianna shook her head. "I... I just can't. I look at her, and... As much as I want to, something's stopping me from doing anything to her."

"Bri..." Her sister said softly and reached out, squeezing her youngest sister's shoulder reasurringly.

"I'll... I'll be fine, Brit, really." She said, looking up and smiling. "But, thanks for being there."
Preview of next chapter

"Hey, Grave here! Look, Ranma, we're home."
"Goodie... Zzzzz..."
"Hey! Don't fall asleep on me! Grr! I swear!"

(1) I can’t get Lum’s inflictions correct, sorry if I messed that up.

Okay, so this chapter was shorter by several pages than what I was originally planning on doing. My appologies. Hope you all enjoy it. And, hey, it's faster than my last update.