Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ A Different Type of Visitor ❯ Chapter 05 ( Chapter 5 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: enlu_tarsonis 
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Sci-fi | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 08.08.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 6.8K | Visits: 235 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Sci-fi | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 08.08.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 6.8K | Visits: 235 | Status: Completed
A Different Type of Visitor
Well, I'm finally onto Chapter 04. Guess I'll make it to Chapter 5 as well. This one looks a bit longer than the prior ones. I hope that everyone enjoys it.
Standard disclaimer, don't own Ranma 1/2, or Rifts. Wish I had some stock or shares but I don't. I'm doing this for my enjoyment and for the enjoyment of any of my readers. May they continue reading my works after they read this.
Chapter 05
Ranma-chan looked at her opponent. She was dressed in a violet silk fighting pantsuit with no sleeves and buttoned up the side. The print on the top was of slightly darker violet blossoms with the flower petals flying off towards the opening in the shirt. The pants continued the motif until they stopped at mid calf. The only difference in this outfit and many others in the village was the fact that it was tailored to allow for a second set of arms set below where a normal persons arms would be.
“So where did you learn that style?” Ranma-chan asked of her four-armed opponent.
“From my parents.” Shakeera answered while using an outward parry with her lower left arm. “They had to modify a form of Karate for their bodies.” She then jumped up and used both lower arms to halt Ranma-chans snap kick. Shakeera used her upward momentum and upper two arms placed on Ranma-chans shoulders to flip over her opponent. She landed on the other side and quickly turned around only to catch a mule kick in the gut. She grunted out some air and backed up a second to regain her breath.
“So your parents are like you?” Ranma-chan asked as she let her foe catch her breath.
“Yes.” Shakeera said wheezily. “Four arms and all.”
“So, how did that happen?”
“Not really sure, all I know” She started then jumped forward into a leap kick directed at Ranma-chans shoulder. “is that my race” Ranma-chan ducked her kick but she tagged the other red head on the head and the shoulder with her left arms as she passed. “is a hybrid between Rahu-man and Elf.” She finished as she landed.
“What’s a Rahu-man?” Ranma-chan asked and continued their spar.
“Well, they look like me.” Shakeera started to answer as she blocked Ranma-chans attacks. “Except that they stand three times my height.”
“That’s tall. So how come you’re so short?” The red head asked insensitively.
Shakeera blushed a little bit in embarrassment. “I’m not actually. This is the average height for a woman of my tribe. I said we’re crossed with elves.” She said as she pulled back some of her own flame colored locks to show her ear. “I guess you have some of my traits as well now.” She said and pointed to Ranma-chans own pointed ears.
Ranma-chan dropped out of her stance then to feel her left ear. She seemed lost in thought for a minute then looked back up at Shakeera. “So what else can I expect? I already see in that weird light.”
Shakeera thought on that for a second then grinned. “I might be able to train you to do something like this then.” She said still smirking as she held out her upper right hand and flexed her hand a little. Ranma-chan was about to ask what she was doing when a small glow formed below the down turned palm then started to elongate on one side. The shape slowly formed and flowed until Shakeera was holding what appeared to be a long sword made out of pure light. “This is a Psi-Sword. It is a manifestation of The Arts of Offense of a Psi-Warrior.”
Ranma-chan watched in awe as she felt the pure inner strength of her companion manifested in a physical form.
The two of them were interrupted by Cologne then before they could discuss anything further. “I’d advise you against using those powers in the village student.” The Elder said seemingly appearing beside them. “Come with me, I think I can tell both of you a bit more of what happened.” Cologne then pogoed off towards her hut.
Ranma-chan shrugged and turned to follow as Shakeera released her Psi-Sword back into herself and walked after her friend.
Scene Break
The inside of the Elders hut was slightly dusty with small motes of the material floating in the sunbeam coming in from the open window shades. The dirt floor was freshly packed and had been hardened into an almost stone like feel. Her wooden furniture glowed with fresh oil, and her woven mats were freshly cleaned. Ranma-chan looked into the room with a sense of pride as she was one of the main reasons for it. A week ago Cologne had challenged her with it saying that even a lazy American could turn daily chores around a run down household into intense martial arts training.
Ranma-chan was brought out of her reverie by Cologne. “I believe that you’re spell combined with Jusenkyo’s magic.” She said while looking at Shakeera. “And that coupled with your own magical nature caused the pools to shift into something else than they were intended for.”
“So wha’cha saying?” Ranma-chan said as she slipped back into her bad grammar in her confusion.
Shakeera hit her on the back of the head lightly. “Grammar Ranma, grammar.”
“Sorry” The red head said apologetically. “So what are you saying Elder?” She corrected herself to both Colognes nod of approval and Shakeera’s grin.
“That you have gained some of her genetic traits. And some of her inborn abilities, like her infravision.”
Ranma-chan looked blankly at Cologne for a second the looked over at Shakeera and then at her second set of arms. “You mean that I could grow an extra set of arms?” She asked.
Cologne chuckled at Ranma-chans expression. “No, I don’t think so student. You would probably already have them then. But you probably have an innate talent for magic and your Ki and Chi abilities have probably been increased exponentially.” Cologne then hopped over to the wooden counter and stood on it as she started to prepare some tea. “Shakeera, I would recommend teaching young Ranma about the ways of your warrior art and the magic that you posses. As if left unchecked Ranma may be a danger to herself.”Shakeera nodded her head. “I was thinking of that anyways Elder. I’ve wanted a student of my own for a long time now.” She telekinetically pulls Colognes staff from its place resting on the table and holds it in a commanding posture. “Student! Back Strait! Legs Together! Look Forward!” She barked in a commanding voice much to the amusement of Cologne and the chagrin of Ranma-chan who just groaned and slapped her palm over her face.
“As much fun as this is, please give me back my staff youngling.” Cologne said. Shakeera complied and gave the staff a light telekinetic push back towards the table she had retrieved it from.
“Also I believe that is why you were comatose for almost a week.” Cologne said as she continued her earlier line of conversation. “You were recovering your core energies at that time.”
“So, what am I now?” Ranma-chan asked hesitantly. “I mean, I’m obviously not human anymore, not even in my male form. What do I do?” She said sounding very uncertain of herself and her path in life.
“I don’t know student, but I would hazard to guess that you are now part of the race that Shakeera belongs to as well as part dragon.”“Part Dragon?” Shakeera asks. “Then why don’t I sense him?” She continues.
“What do you mean ‘Sense’?” Cologne asked as she poured some tea into the cups she had finished laying out.
“Sense, it was part of my training as a Psi-Warrior. To sense the Supernatural. Dragons have a very particular feel to them. I can’t tell what type of dragon they are, but I can tell from their power level and feel that they are something draconic.” She explained.
“I might be because the spring of drowned dragon is of a different dragon than you are used to sensing.” Cologne continued.
“So I’m part Dragon, part Rahu-man, and part Elf now?” Ranma-chan asked curiously.
“Elf? My goodness where’d you come up with that part?” Cologne asked with a raised eyebrow as she sipped her tea.
Shakeera grabbed her own cup and took a sip. “Me, my race is a hybrid between Rahu-men and Elf.” She said matter of factly. “We’re weaker and much smaller than regular Rahu-men, but we’re more adept at magic and live longer.”“My goodness, how did that come about?” Cologne asked.
“Not in the way you’re imagining it I think.” The four-armed girl said. “Good tea by the way.” She stated as she took another sip before expounding on her earlier statement. “Some time ago, bout the time of my great grandparents I guess, a race of scientists took it upon themselves to try to create a race of beings to aid them in their works. So they took the genetic coding of the giant Rahu-Man and combined it with the coding of a captured Asgardian Elf. What they came up with is the race that I come from. There are only a couple hundred of us right now, and since we propagate as slowly as elves we’re probably going to remain small in number for many years to come. We don’t believe that we can cross breed with any other races. We haven’t even tried with Rahu-men yet, and nothing has come about with elves from any dimension.”
“Why hasn’t anyone tried with a Rahu-Man?” Ranma-chan asked naively.
Shakeera laughed at this a placed down her cup as she went over to her pack and pulled out a small rectangular object about 20 centimeters by 15 centimeters. She touched a couple buttons on the top and muttered something to herself before touching a couple more buttons. A small picture came to life above the box, it looked like a male version of Shakeera and was very finely detailed looking almost life like. “This is an adult Rahu-man, not actual size of course.” She pressed a couple more buttons. “This is a picture of me, at the correct scale by the way.” She said as a much smaller figure appeared next to the Rahu-man. The figure didn’t even come up past the larger beings mid thigh. “As you can see, our two races can’t exactly procreate normally, it’d either be kind of painful or more than mildly insulting.”
Ranma-chan completely missed her jibe at Shakeera’s interspeciel capabilities, but Cologne didn’t. She just sat there on the table groaning at the bad joke with her face in one of her palms. However Ranma-chan did finally pick up on something of this conversation. “So that’s why my guy side has been changed as well?” She said.
Cologne nods her head and starts to put her tea supplies away.
“I’m part dragon, part Rahu-man, and part elf in both forms?” She said. “Dang, now I know why I lost so badly to Shampoo.”“And why is that student?” Cologne asked.
“Because my skills are all out of whack there too. My reflexes are skewed, my reaction times all messed up. And my strength and flexibility are completely different than before.” She said as if in a lucid moment of thought. She then grabbed the last cup of tea and dashed out of the house. “See ya, I’ve gotta see something for myself.”
Scene Break
Later that evening Shakeera was typing in her hand held computer looking over some of the ship schematics that she had downloaded before leaving it in search of information on this planet. After a few moments of looking at the technical documents she stood up and ruffled her hair with her upper right hand. “Arggh! I’ll never get things fixed at this rate.” She grumbled as she stretched out her entire body. “I need to find a city, there’s no way I can get any replacement tech out here.”
Shakeera got up and walked out of the hut in search of Cologne. After a bit of wandering she came upon the strange sight of a man with long black hair and white robes talking to a bush next to Shampoo. Shampoo also appeared to be very annoyed with him for some reason. Shakeera just shrugged her shoulders and continued on her search for the Elder.
After almost a half hour of walking she found Cologne coming back into the village out of the forest behind the village and set up into the mountains. Shakeera jumped up into a tree and rebounded off of the branch to land near the Elder.
“Can I help you Shakeera?” Cologne said as she pogoed into the village with a small bundle of what appeared to be roots.
“Yes, I need to know where the nearest large city is.”Cologne raises her eyebrow but doesn’t say anything.
“I need to get my ship fixed.”
“And why would you be so far inland away from your ship? Hong Kong is a great harbor and has lots of black market technology that you may need. So why are you in the mountains?”
“For my starship.” Shakeera said in an exasperated tone. “You didn’t think I was from this planet did you?” She asked Cologne.
“Heaven forbid. I just wanted to make sure that was how you got here.” Cologne answered. “I saw you fly over the village a couple of weeks ago. It was quite a light show. But please don’t let the other villagers know about your powers or about your ship.”
Shakeera had already agreed to the above request but nodded her head in agreement anyway.
“Are you planning on leaving soon?” Cologne asked of her transient guest.
“Maybe, I’m not sure yet. This is a very nice retreat from the politics of Dweomer and the responsibilities to my Master.” She said.
Cologne blinked a bit at what Shakeera had said. “You have a Master?”
“Yes, he’s a kindly Temporal Raider that sponsored me into Dweomer and is training me in the arts of the Temporal Wizard. I don’t really know that much yet, but I know enough to get by.”“If he’s a Raider, how can he be kindly?” Cologne asked.
“Oh, that’s what his race is called. I don’t know their actual name as they are very cautious about it. But he’s an abhorration according to his race.” Shakeera saw Colognes confused expression so she continued. “He likes other races and likes to teach them without corrupting them. Most Temporal Raiders are kind of miscreant or diabolic in their world view.”Cologne just looked at her for a few minutes as if trying to decide whether or not her four-armed visitor was joking. “Well, why don’t you wait here a while. I’ve got some things to teach young Ranma before he leaves and I think that you two should travel together for a bit. Besides you can have a lot of fun teaching him new tricks.” The old Elder said with a trace of mirth in her voice.
Scene Break
The crewman of the ship looked towards the strange sight that had been present the last few days on their transit between China and Japan. Of course the sight that he was watching was not really aware that it was being watched.
“So what’s going on with the Panda now?” Another crewman asked coming up alongside the first crewman.
“Dunno. Probably seasick again.”
“Didn’t one of our passengers say it was trained?”
“I guess so. But whoever heard of a Panda being trained to walk around on its hind legs. Besides, it’s kind of courteous.”
“How so?”
“Well, how many animals have we transported that try to get to the edge of the boat before hurling out their lunch?”
“You got me there.”
Of course the Panda in question wasn’t just seasick, something that it wasn’t used to in the least, it was also Genma Saotome and he was on a mission to help out his benefactor. Who was currently locked in his cursed form, that of a willowy and slight pink and purple haired girl. Course if anyone was to call her a girl she would have her wrath on them. Case in point, Genma currently in his cursed form. He had made the mistake of telling her to quit complaining about being a girl, in return she splashed him with some water from her ladle. And thus he was stuck with the group until Herb-chan could find the open water kettle she mentioned. After all, being a panda part of the time might have been alright. Being a panda full time was really getting on his nerves.
Also Herb-chan promised that after they had found the kettle that she would return them to their original forms, and beyond that she would aid Genma however needed in securing him his son.
But until then, “BARF” one seasick panda needed to deal with the realities that Panda bears weren’t meant to travel on the open ocean on a fishing trawler.
Scene Break
Ranma-kun was enjoying his short time as a male again. In front of him was his friend Shakeera. After Cologne had figured out a bit more about the cursed springs effect on Shakeera and himself they had returned to the village. As well, Ranma now knew a bit more about the Amazon customs and was very intent on not tripping over any of them by accident.
As for Shakeera, she was happy being in a non-combat zone for the first time in her life. The stockade run she had attempted a few weeks ago seemed to be the best failure that she had ever encountered. Since she had no idea how to return to her home dimension, or even her prior dimension that she had made a home in for a few years, Shakeera decided to enjoy this one for a bit before moving on. Of course she had no intention of sitting idle the whole time. She had a ship to fix, and what appeared to be a new apprentice to teach in the ways of the Psi-Warrior, and maybe even the basics of Temporal Magic. Though, even with Ranma’s steep learning curve he had many years to go before he’d be able to do everything she could.
Currently the two of them were sparring as Ranma needed to learn more about both of his forms. That was one of the reasons he was male right now, even with the threat of one of the unwed Amazon warriors making a play at him. He needed to risk it, because before his transformation into what ever he was now he should’ve been able to take on Shampoo the prior week with no problems. It was only because of his lack of control over his strength and speed that she had won. As such he made sure to spend at least one hour a day sparring with the only ‘safe’ person he knew that he could spar with. Of course the ‘safe’ person was also as strong, and as fast as him. And had lived her whole life with her strength and speed, so of course even though she wasn’t as skilled as him she still could win in a fight. Besides she had four arms, how the hell do you attack someone with four arms that’s just as fast as you are.
Luckily for Ranma however, Shakeera wasn’t training him in the ways of Magic or Psychics. As he always ended those lessons with a bad headache. Or with some bruises or burns. Like the time she tried to show him how to telekinetically push things. That was a lesson in control for the dark haired youth. He, she at the time, had been in the center of a glade and was trying to hold a rock off of the ground with just his mind. Then she told him to push it away from himself. What he managed though was to push himself, herself at the time, away from the rock with far to much force and inner strength. As such he had drained himself and bruised himself on the tree behind where he had sat. Luckily for Ranma his new body could withstand much more force than he’s ever been able to do before, even his female form could do so. Unluckily he had drained his inner strength so far that even his Chi and Ki flows were weakened. Shakeera was surprised that he had remained conscious, and congratulated him. She had also told him that with practice that he’d only get better with more practice.
A few dozen meters away, sitting in a tree over looking the glade that they sat in was Shampoo. She was watching the two dual in the strange hand-to-hand fighting styles that they were both very well versed in. As well the violet haired lass could tell that the boy was much more skilled than she had thought. She had seen it when they had traveled to Jusenkyo, and she was even further insulted to learn that the boy was the same person as the cursed girl that she had been sparing with the last few weeks. It had shamed her to make that type of mistake in her Great Grandmothers presence. It had shamed her further to see the arrogant male fighting with so much more power than she had, and to have the knowledge that she had won their battle when he could probably have killed her with one well placed punch. The Amazon warrior held very few delusions about her own battle prowess, though many viewed her as dense or bull headed Shampoo did know where she stood in terms of skill power and capability. And now that she was able to see this outsider’s skill for what it really was she could only berate herself for her actions. Though she had won their encounter last time, Shampoo knew that it was because she had attacked him when he was weak. Something that she felt was not the way that a warrior should behave.
After a bit more watching the young warrior waltzed into the clearing and shouted in broken Japanese. “You, warrior. Why you no fight well when you fight with Shampoo!” She hollered towards Ranma.
Ranma yelled back in the limited Chinese that he was learning from Cologne. “This one well enough fight time before! What mean you this one fight no well?” He said in anger.
Shampoo got right in front of him and slashed forward in a sneak attack with her bonbori. Ranma held up his arm and effortlessly blocked the heavy iron maces head on his unguarded forearm. The mace dented inwards and Shampoo could feel the reverberations in the handle as if she had hit something stronger than the hardest metal.
“Shampoo mean like this. Why you no fight this good stupid boy. Why you preÉ preÉ” The violet haired girl switched to Chinese for a second. “Why did you pretend not to be able to fight you coward. Did you think that I could not handle the likes of you?”
Ranma of course could only pick out the basics of what she had said as he was still only fluent enough to keep up with a first grader in China. But he did pick up her use of Coward. And that was enough for him to bristle at the accusation. “What mean coward. This one no coward!” He yelled back in Chinese.
Shakeera watched on the sidelines and groaned. She started to cast her language spell, but right before finishing it she held the spell matrix in her mind and stepped between the two bickering youths and places her index and middle finger of her two upper arms over the lips of each of them. They both sat there for a second stunned by the odd action. Shakeera took this peace to back off slightly.
Ranma was the first to speak, and he spoke in Japanese. “Look here you crazy chick. I said I didn’t think you were weaker than me.”
Shampoo’s eyes widened as what she had heard was perfect Chinese. So she responded in kind. “Then why did you not attack me last week with the skill and power that you used today?” She asked her hands on her hips. “It is insulting to a warrior to win because their opponent is holding back.”
Ranma didn’t even bat an eyelash at hearing Shampoo speak perfect Japanese as he’s been around Shakeera and her spells. In fact Shakeera had already learned Japanese and was working on Chinese using a modified spell and talking a great length with Ranma in the evenings.
“I’ve tried to tell you before Shampoo. I-“ Ranma started but was interrupted by the violet haired girl.
“You dare call me by name outsider? YOU DARE?!” She said getting very angry for the first time. “Who said you could be so familiar with me male! First you mock me by acting weaker than you are. And now you take a presumptuous attitude with me.” Shampoo said in feminine outrage.
The argument might have continued much longer, or even come to blows, if someone else had not entered the clearing. “Xian Pu! Ranma Saotome! Stand Down this instant!” Cologne barked out in Chinese.
The two youths stopped and turned to face the Elder, standing at each of their styles version of attention. For Shampoo this was feet shoulder width apart, head straight forward, and hands clasped in front of her with her dominant hand over her off hand. For Ranma this was closer to a military pose of attention with heals together and hands at his side and eyes front. Both had looks of embarrassment on their faces.
“Since the two of you are so intent on proving which one of you was either holding back, or misinterpreting the other. Then I have no choice but to have the two of you fight each other to determine your standing with one another.”
Cologne hopped over to a rock and perched on top of it with her cane held in her hand above her. “You can use any move but lethality. Xian Pu! Outsider laws do not apply, none of them. You may not kill, enslave, torture, marry, copulate, belittle, or anything else as a punishment or otherwise of this challenge.”“Ranma! You will cease competition with Xian Pu if she is the victor, and you will cease competition with her if you are the victor. And you will not antagonize her further.”
“Do I Make Myself Clear!” She barked out in an authoritative tone.
“Yes Sensei!” Ranma hollered out.
“Yes Elder!” Shampoo followed immediately.
The two youths then turned and got into their ready position. Shampoo drew out an undamaged Bonbori while Ranma accepted a Bo staff thrown at him by Shakeera.
As the two of them prepared to face off Cologne leaned towards Shakeera who had walked over to stand next to the stone the Elder was perched on. “When did Ranma learn such good Chinese?” She asked the four-armed girl.
“He didn’t, it’s my language spell.” She replied.
“Oh.” The Elder then turned back to the two fighters that were standing at the ready. “READY! FIGHT!”
Scene Break
Nabiki looked over the school courtyard below the window of her classroom. She saw a large group of boys laid out on the ground as if they had been taken down by a tank or large riot squad. Of course that would not have been too far from the truth as the boys on the ground outside were the Hentai Horde as they were known, and they had been taken out by hurricane Akane on her way in to school.
The middle Tendo daughter thought back on how they had been told about an engagement earlier that week. She had been a little bit excited at first, that is until she found out that no one knew what type of man Genma’s son was. She had also been willing to go along with it as long as it was an engagement and not marriage. After all she didn’t want to be tied to the family Dojo for the rest of her life.
Of course the results of the announcement was that Kasumi was even more withdrawn than normal, though her father was much happier than he had been in ages. The unfortunate one was Akane. She had turned up her ‘I Hate Boys’ routine by several notches. So much that even a few of Akane’s own friends were starting to ask the enraged teen if her actions were truly merited. The sad thing was that Nabiki was sure that Akane really did like boys. And even wanted to date and hang out with them. But with Kuno and his proclamation of ‘To Date her, you must beat her!’ there was no way to get Akane to like boys until the Hentai Horde was taken out of the equation.
However Nabiki was not about run interference, or even intelligence for her sister until Akane asked and learned a bit of humility. The mercenary girl didn’t think that besides Kuno there was anyone with as big a chip on her shoulder than her younger sister.
Nabiki winced as one boy got up only to crouch back down and hold his gut from internal pain. “Ok, maybe it would be better to take the engagement with Saotome’s son rather than let Akane have him.” She thought to herself.
Scene Break
A couple of days had passed since Ranma’s fight with Shampoo. In that time Ranma had finally gotten a good grasp on his two forms strengths. Right now only one of the two youths were present, as Ranma was off being trained by Shakeera in the use of ranged weaponry.
In Ranma’s absence Shampoo made her argument to her clans Matriarch.
“Great Grandmother.” She began once she had entered the clearing where Cologne was preparing some type of herbal poultice.
“Yes Granddaughter?” The Elder said as she stirred the small pot filled with freshly picked roots, leaves, and barks.
“This humble one would like to request knowledge of why this one has been forbidden from a marriage challenge with the honorable visitor.” Shampoo asked while kneeling in supposition behind her Elder.
“Goodness child. There is no need to be so formal.” Cologne said while she damped her fire so as not to burn her poultice that she was making. “Stand up and face me like my student, and not a sniveling government bean counter.”
“Yes Great Grandmother.” Shampoo said as she came to a sitting position before standing and politely facing Cologne. “I wanted to know why you forbade me from a marriage challenge.”
“Because youngling. Ranma Saotome will soon be of a new clan of our tribe. If you were to challenge him and he declined you would lose face in both our family and our tribe.” Cologne answered.
“He would not turn me down.” The lavender tressed girl said confidently.
Cologne just looked at her for a moment before answering. “And what makes you so sure?”
“Because Ranma does not back down from challenges. Besides he would make a perfect addition to the tribe.” The girl said then got a dreamy look in her eyes. “And he’d be a good father of my children.” To which she gained a knock to her noggin from the heavy end of Colognes staff. “What did you do that for Great Grandmother.”
“You’re only interested in him because he’s not chasing after you for marriage like some other young fools I could mention.”
“That’s not true, he’s strong and capable.”
“Yes he is, and he’s probably the only one to defeat you in a few years that isn’t an Elder or War Master themselves. But that does not change my decision.” Cologne then turned back to her pot and continued making her concoction. “Also I have been lax in your training this last month. Go back to the village and pack a travel bag. Include your weighted armor and weapons.”
Shampoo groaned at her last order then turns and heads back into the village.
Scene Break
“Ok, now feel the cold rock in front of you. Good, now gently push away from it.” Shakeera said as she sat in a meditative pose next to Ranma-chan who had her eyes closed and hands on her knees in her own meditative posture.
In front of the two red heads were several large stones about the size of a person’s head. They didn’t look like they were there normally, but as if they had been brought into the clearing from a stream or another place that such large stones would be commonplace.
Shakeera watched over Ranma-chan in her meditation, but kept an eye out for any villagers that may come near as the two of them had been requested not to show off the magic or powers of the mind that were natural to Shakeera and were now natural to Ranma-chan. While the cursed red head was concentrating, the four-armed red head felt Cologne come near to where they were practicing.
When the Elder hopped into the clearing Shakeera held up one hand to halt Colognes progression and motioned with another towards the still concentrating Ranma-chan.
While the two of them watched, Ranma-chan seemed to intensify her aura somehow and then a small yellow glow could be seen seeping out from beneath her eyelids. The neo-girl opened her eyes and the other two could see that her eyes were the color of the golden yellow light and seemed to be solid orbs of the light rather than the normal gray blue eyes. As soon as Ranma-chan’s eyes had opened, several of the stones in front of her shot away from her as if shot from a cannon.
Cologne knocked one up into the air with a deflection move from her staff that would have hit her in the shoulder had she not moved. Then the old woman stared in awe at the display of mental powers. “I have not seen a true Mind Mage in many generations.” She said to herself, but was amazingly loud enough to bring Ranma-chan out of her trance.
“Huh, wha..?” The red head said in confusion for a second as she brought her focus back to reality. As she did so her eyes stopped glowing and reverted to their normal color.
“That was great Ranma,” Shakeera said as she stood up and offered a hand down to her student in Magic and the Mind. “But you need to concentrate not to manifest you spirit when you use psionics. Otherwise you’ll drain yourself of your inner strength in a wasteful show of flashy lights.”
“Is that why I feel so tired right now?” Ranma-chan asked as she took the offered hand and struggled to get up.
“Yup, it’ll drain you three to ten times faster than just using your powers by themselves. But it sure can be intimidating.” Shakeera said as she helped Ranma-chan, and then held the other girl as the neo-girl stumbled after standing up. Shakeera then looked at Cologne. “And we’re not Mind Mages. We’re Psionisists. Mind Mages cast magic with their mind. Psionisists tap into their internal strength in order to affect the world around them.”
Cologne chuckled at the young dimensional travelers comment. “My apologies, however I didn’t come to discuss the differences of magic and mental powers. I came to inform you that I was going to take a month long sojourn away from here.”
Ranma-chan finally had enough strength to stand on her own so she took a small step back from Shakeera before saying her own piece. “So why ya leaving Elder? I haven’t had as good a training session in martial arts for years.”
“I have found that my training of Shampoo to be very lax this last month. She needs to get back on the ball as it were.” Cologne turned to leave but stopped before she left the clearing. “Shakeera, this might be a good time for you to take young Ranma to his homeland and help him to discover his roots.”
The two red heads looked at each other and shrugged. “Ranma, lets talk about that after Cologne leaves. Okay?” Shakeera said and Ranma-chan nodded.
“Oh and one more thing. I have requested permission of the Council of Elders of the Jokentetsu to adopt both of you into the tribe as a new clan. They have accepted, from here on out you are both of the Clan Fire of the Jokentetsu. In your possessions at my hut is a codex of our laws, read them well.” Cologne then did leave the clearing.
“Amazons huh?” Ranma-chan said.
“That’s interesting, so why do you think that she did that?”
“Dunno. Hey, how did you do that sword thingy again?”
End Chapter
Authors Notes:Thanks for all the reviews. This will be a very long running fanfiction if my story board holds true. There should be about 15 chapters in this which is book one. Book two is just starting its story layout right now, and so far has 10 chapters plotted. I’m hoping to get at least 5 books before writers block or worse sets in.
Wish me luck.
Oh yeah, and does anyone have any requests for this fic? Though it’s already storyboarded out I can change things around if someone has a really good suggestion. You know, like timeline suggestions, such as Ranma meets up with his mother before the Tendo’s. Or Ryoga comes very early, or even not at all. Saffron Attacks in person two weeks after they reach wherever they get to.
I’m writing this for my readers as well as for personal enjoyment. I would like to see this story reach 150,000 words plus, but want my readers to enjoy it more than I want to produce a heavy unwieldy piece of work that no one likes.
TTFN
Well, I'm finally onto Chapter 04. Guess I'll make it to Chapter 5 as well. This one looks a bit longer than the prior ones. I hope that everyone enjoys it.
Standard disclaimer, don't own Ranma 1/2, or Rifts. Wish I had some stock or shares but I don't. I'm doing this for my enjoyment and for the enjoyment of any of my readers. May they continue reading my works after they read this.
Chapter 05
Ranma-chan looked at her opponent. She was dressed in a violet silk fighting pantsuit with no sleeves and buttoned up the side. The print on the top was of slightly darker violet blossoms with the flower petals flying off towards the opening in the shirt. The pants continued the motif until they stopped at mid calf. The only difference in this outfit and many others in the village was the fact that it was tailored to allow for a second set of arms set below where a normal persons arms would be.
“So where did you learn that style?” Ranma-chan asked of her four-armed opponent.
“From my parents.” Shakeera answered while using an outward parry with her lower left arm. “They had to modify a form of Karate for their bodies.” She then jumped up and used both lower arms to halt Ranma-chans snap kick. Shakeera used her upward momentum and upper two arms placed on Ranma-chans shoulders to flip over her opponent. She landed on the other side and quickly turned around only to catch a mule kick in the gut. She grunted out some air and backed up a second to regain her breath.
“So your parents are like you?” Ranma-chan asked as she let her foe catch her breath.
“Yes.” Shakeera said wheezily. “Four arms and all.”
“So, how did that happen?”
“Not really sure, all I know” She started then jumped forward into a leap kick directed at Ranma-chans shoulder. “is that my race” Ranma-chan ducked her kick but she tagged the other red head on the head and the shoulder with her left arms as she passed. “is a hybrid between Rahu-man and Elf.” She finished as she landed.
“What’s a Rahu-man?” Ranma-chan asked and continued their spar.
“Well, they look like me.” Shakeera started to answer as she blocked Ranma-chans attacks. “Except that they stand three times my height.”
“That’s tall. So how come you’re so short?” The red head asked insensitively.
Shakeera blushed a little bit in embarrassment. “I’m not actually. This is the average height for a woman of my tribe. I said we’re crossed with elves.” She said as she pulled back some of her own flame colored locks to show her ear. “I guess you have some of my traits as well now.” She said and pointed to Ranma-chans own pointed ears.
Ranma-chan dropped out of her stance then to feel her left ear. She seemed lost in thought for a minute then looked back up at Shakeera. “So what else can I expect? I already see in that weird light.”
Shakeera thought on that for a second then grinned. “I might be able to train you to do something like this then.” She said still smirking as she held out her upper right hand and flexed her hand a little. Ranma-chan was about to ask what she was doing when a small glow formed below the down turned palm then started to elongate on one side. The shape slowly formed and flowed until Shakeera was holding what appeared to be a long sword made out of pure light. “This is a Psi-Sword. It is a manifestation of The Arts of Offense of a Psi-Warrior.”
Ranma-chan watched in awe as she felt the pure inner strength of her companion manifested in a physical form.
The two of them were interrupted by Cologne then before they could discuss anything further. “I’d advise you against using those powers in the village student.” The Elder said seemingly appearing beside them. “Come with me, I think I can tell both of you a bit more of what happened.” Cologne then pogoed off towards her hut.
Ranma-chan shrugged and turned to follow as Shakeera released her Psi-Sword back into herself and walked after her friend.
Scene Break
The inside of the Elders hut was slightly dusty with small motes of the material floating in the sunbeam coming in from the open window shades. The dirt floor was freshly packed and had been hardened into an almost stone like feel. Her wooden furniture glowed with fresh oil, and her woven mats were freshly cleaned. Ranma-chan looked into the room with a sense of pride as she was one of the main reasons for it. A week ago Cologne had challenged her with it saying that even a lazy American could turn daily chores around a run down household into intense martial arts training.
Ranma-chan was brought out of her reverie by Cologne. “I believe that you’re spell combined with Jusenkyo’s magic.” She said while looking at Shakeera. “And that coupled with your own magical nature caused the pools to shift into something else than they were intended for.”
“So wha’cha saying?” Ranma-chan said as she slipped back into her bad grammar in her confusion.
Shakeera hit her on the back of the head lightly. “Grammar Ranma, grammar.”
“Sorry” The red head said apologetically. “So what are you saying Elder?” She corrected herself to both Colognes nod of approval and Shakeera’s grin.
“That you have gained some of her genetic traits. And some of her inborn abilities, like her infravision.”
Ranma-chan looked blankly at Cologne for a second the looked over at Shakeera and then at her second set of arms. “You mean that I could grow an extra set of arms?” She asked.
Cologne chuckled at Ranma-chans expression. “No, I don’t think so student. You would probably already have them then. But you probably have an innate talent for magic and your Ki and Chi abilities have probably been increased exponentially.” Cologne then hopped over to the wooden counter and stood on it as she started to prepare some tea. “Shakeera, I would recommend teaching young Ranma about the ways of your warrior art and the magic that you posses. As if left unchecked Ranma may be a danger to herself.”Shakeera nodded her head. “I was thinking of that anyways Elder. I’ve wanted a student of my own for a long time now.” She telekinetically pulls Colognes staff from its place resting on the table and holds it in a commanding posture. “Student! Back Strait! Legs Together! Look Forward!” She barked in a commanding voice much to the amusement of Cologne and the chagrin of Ranma-chan who just groaned and slapped her palm over her face.
“As much fun as this is, please give me back my staff youngling.” Cologne said. Shakeera complied and gave the staff a light telekinetic push back towards the table she had retrieved it from.
“Also I believe that is why you were comatose for almost a week.” Cologne said as she continued her earlier line of conversation. “You were recovering your core energies at that time.”
“So, what am I now?” Ranma-chan asked hesitantly. “I mean, I’m obviously not human anymore, not even in my male form. What do I do?” She said sounding very uncertain of herself and her path in life.
“I don’t know student, but I would hazard to guess that you are now part of the race that Shakeera belongs to as well as part dragon.”“Part Dragon?” Shakeera asks. “Then why don’t I sense him?” She continues.
“What do you mean ‘Sense’?” Cologne asked as she poured some tea into the cups she had finished laying out.
“Sense, it was part of my training as a Psi-Warrior. To sense the Supernatural. Dragons have a very particular feel to them. I can’t tell what type of dragon they are, but I can tell from their power level and feel that they are something draconic.” She explained.
“I might be because the spring of drowned dragon is of a different dragon than you are used to sensing.” Cologne continued.
“So I’m part Dragon, part Rahu-man, and part Elf now?” Ranma-chan asked curiously.
“Elf? My goodness where’d you come up with that part?” Cologne asked with a raised eyebrow as she sipped her tea.
Shakeera grabbed her own cup and took a sip. “Me, my race is a hybrid between Rahu-men and Elf.” She said matter of factly. “We’re weaker and much smaller than regular Rahu-men, but we’re more adept at magic and live longer.”“My goodness, how did that come about?” Cologne asked.
“Not in the way you’re imagining it I think.” The four-armed girl said. “Good tea by the way.” She stated as she took another sip before expounding on her earlier statement. “Some time ago, bout the time of my great grandparents I guess, a race of scientists took it upon themselves to try to create a race of beings to aid them in their works. So they took the genetic coding of the giant Rahu-Man and combined it with the coding of a captured Asgardian Elf. What they came up with is the race that I come from. There are only a couple hundred of us right now, and since we propagate as slowly as elves we’re probably going to remain small in number for many years to come. We don’t believe that we can cross breed with any other races. We haven’t even tried with Rahu-men yet, and nothing has come about with elves from any dimension.”
“Why hasn’t anyone tried with a Rahu-Man?” Ranma-chan asked naively.
Shakeera laughed at this a placed down her cup as she went over to her pack and pulled out a small rectangular object about 20 centimeters by 15 centimeters. She touched a couple buttons on the top and muttered something to herself before touching a couple more buttons. A small picture came to life above the box, it looked like a male version of Shakeera and was very finely detailed looking almost life like. “This is an adult Rahu-man, not actual size of course.” She pressed a couple more buttons. “This is a picture of me, at the correct scale by the way.” She said as a much smaller figure appeared next to the Rahu-man. The figure didn’t even come up past the larger beings mid thigh. “As you can see, our two races can’t exactly procreate normally, it’d either be kind of painful or more than mildly insulting.”
Ranma-chan completely missed her jibe at Shakeera’s interspeciel capabilities, but Cologne didn’t. She just sat there on the table groaning at the bad joke with her face in one of her palms. However Ranma-chan did finally pick up on something of this conversation. “So that’s why my guy side has been changed as well?” She said.
Cologne nods her head and starts to put her tea supplies away.
“I’m part dragon, part Rahu-man, and part elf in both forms?” She said. “Dang, now I know why I lost so badly to Shampoo.”“And why is that student?” Cologne asked.
“Because my skills are all out of whack there too. My reflexes are skewed, my reaction times all messed up. And my strength and flexibility are completely different than before.” She said as if in a lucid moment of thought. She then grabbed the last cup of tea and dashed out of the house. “See ya, I’ve gotta see something for myself.”
Scene Break
Later that evening Shakeera was typing in her hand held computer looking over some of the ship schematics that she had downloaded before leaving it in search of information on this planet. After a few moments of looking at the technical documents she stood up and ruffled her hair with her upper right hand. “Arggh! I’ll never get things fixed at this rate.” She grumbled as she stretched out her entire body. “I need to find a city, there’s no way I can get any replacement tech out here.”
Shakeera got up and walked out of the hut in search of Cologne. After a bit of wandering she came upon the strange sight of a man with long black hair and white robes talking to a bush next to Shampoo. Shampoo also appeared to be very annoyed with him for some reason. Shakeera just shrugged her shoulders and continued on her search for the Elder.
After almost a half hour of walking she found Cologne coming back into the village out of the forest behind the village and set up into the mountains. Shakeera jumped up into a tree and rebounded off of the branch to land near the Elder.
“Can I help you Shakeera?” Cologne said as she pogoed into the village with a small bundle of what appeared to be roots.
“Yes, I need to know where the nearest large city is.”Cologne raises her eyebrow but doesn’t say anything.
“I need to get my ship fixed.”
“And why would you be so far inland away from your ship? Hong Kong is a great harbor and has lots of black market technology that you may need. So why are you in the mountains?”
“For my starship.” Shakeera said in an exasperated tone. “You didn’t think I was from this planet did you?” She asked Cologne.
“Heaven forbid. I just wanted to make sure that was how you got here.” Cologne answered. “I saw you fly over the village a couple of weeks ago. It was quite a light show. But please don’t let the other villagers know about your powers or about your ship.”
Shakeera had already agreed to the above request but nodded her head in agreement anyway.
“Are you planning on leaving soon?” Cologne asked of her transient guest.
“Maybe, I’m not sure yet. This is a very nice retreat from the politics of Dweomer and the responsibilities to my Master.” She said.
Cologne blinked a bit at what Shakeera had said. “You have a Master?”
“Yes, he’s a kindly Temporal Raider that sponsored me into Dweomer and is training me in the arts of the Temporal Wizard. I don’t really know that much yet, but I know enough to get by.”“If he’s a Raider, how can he be kindly?” Cologne asked.
“Oh, that’s what his race is called. I don’t know their actual name as they are very cautious about it. But he’s an abhorration according to his race.” Shakeera saw Colognes confused expression so she continued. “He likes other races and likes to teach them without corrupting them. Most Temporal Raiders are kind of miscreant or diabolic in their world view.”Cologne just looked at her for a few minutes as if trying to decide whether or not her four-armed visitor was joking. “Well, why don’t you wait here a while. I’ve got some things to teach young Ranma before he leaves and I think that you two should travel together for a bit. Besides you can have a lot of fun teaching him new tricks.” The old Elder said with a trace of mirth in her voice.
Scene Break
The crewman of the ship looked towards the strange sight that had been present the last few days on their transit between China and Japan. Of course the sight that he was watching was not really aware that it was being watched.
“So what’s going on with the Panda now?” Another crewman asked coming up alongside the first crewman.
“Dunno. Probably seasick again.”
“Didn’t one of our passengers say it was trained?”
“I guess so. But whoever heard of a Panda being trained to walk around on its hind legs. Besides, it’s kind of courteous.”
“How so?”
“Well, how many animals have we transported that try to get to the edge of the boat before hurling out their lunch?”
“You got me there.”
Of course the Panda in question wasn’t just seasick, something that it wasn’t used to in the least, it was also Genma Saotome and he was on a mission to help out his benefactor. Who was currently locked in his cursed form, that of a willowy and slight pink and purple haired girl. Course if anyone was to call her a girl she would have her wrath on them. Case in point, Genma currently in his cursed form. He had made the mistake of telling her to quit complaining about being a girl, in return she splashed him with some water from her ladle. And thus he was stuck with the group until Herb-chan could find the open water kettle she mentioned. After all, being a panda part of the time might have been alright. Being a panda full time was really getting on his nerves.
Also Herb-chan promised that after they had found the kettle that she would return them to their original forms, and beyond that she would aid Genma however needed in securing him his son.
But until then, “BARF” one seasick panda needed to deal with the realities that Panda bears weren’t meant to travel on the open ocean on a fishing trawler.
Scene Break
Ranma-kun was enjoying his short time as a male again. In front of him was his friend Shakeera. After Cologne had figured out a bit more about the cursed springs effect on Shakeera and himself they had returned to the village. As well, Ranma now knew a bit more about the Amazon customs and was very intent on not tripping over any of them by accident.
As for Shakeera, she was happy being in a non-combat zone for the first time in her life. The stockade run she had attempted a few weeks ago seemed to be the best failure that she had ever encountered. Since she had no idea how to return to her home dimension, or even her prior dimension that she had made a home in for a few years, Shakeera decided to enjoy this one for a bit before moving on. Of course she had no intention of sitting idle the whole time. She had a ship to fix, and what appeared to be a new apprentice to teach in the ways of the Psi-Warrior, and maybe even the basics of Temporal Magic. Though, even with Ranma’s steep learning curve he had many years to go before he’d be able to do everything she could.
Currently the two of them were sparring as Ranma needed to learn more about both of his forms. That was one of the reasons he was male right now, even with the threat of one of the unwed Amazon warriors making a play at him. He needed to risk it, because before his transformation into what ever he was now he should’ve been able to take on Shampoo the prior week with no problems. It was only because of his lack of control over his strength and speed that she had won. As such he made sure to spend at least one hour a day sparring with the only ‘safe’ person he knew that he could spar with. Of course the ‘safe’ person was also as strong, and as fast as him. And had lived her whole life with her strength and speed, so of course even though she wasn’t as skilled as him she still could win in a fight. Besides she had four arms, how the hell do you attack someone with four arms that’s just as fast as you are.
Luckily for Ranma however, Shakeera wasn’t training him in the ways of Magic or Psychics. As he always ended those lessons with a bad headache. Or with some bruises or burns. Like the time she tried to show him how to telekinetically push things. That was a lesson in control for the dark haired youth. He, she at the time, had been in the center of a glade and was trying to hold a rock off of the ground with just his mind. Then she told him to push it away from himself. What he managed though was to push himself, herself at the time, away from the rock with far to much force and inner strength. As such he had drained himself and bruised himself on the tree behind where he had sat. Luckily for Ranma his new body could withstand much more force than he’s ever been able to do before, even his female form could do so. Unluckily he had drained his inner strength so far that even his Chi and Ki flows were weakened. Shakeera was surprised that he had remained conscious, and congratulated him. She had also told him that with practice that he’d only get better with more practice.
A few dozen meters away, sitting in a tree over looking the glade that they sat in was Shampoo. She was watching the two dual in the strange hand-to-hand fighting styles that they were both very well versed in. As well the violet haired lass could tell that the boy was much more skilled than she had thought. She had seen it when they had traveled to Jusenkyo, and she was even further insulted to learn that the boy was the same person as the cursed girl that she had been sparing with the last few weeks. It had shamed her to make that type of mistake in her Great Grandmothers presence. It had shamed her further to see the arrogant male fighting with so much more power than she had, and to have the knowledge that she had won their battle when he could probably have killed her with one well placed punch. The Amazon warrior held very few delusions about her own battle prowess, though many viewed her as dense or bull headed Shampoo did know where she stood in terms of skill power and capability. And now that she was able to see this outsider’s skill for what it really was she could only berate herself for her actions. Though she had won their encounter last time, Shampoo knew that it was because she had attacked him when he was weak. Something that she felt was not the way that a warrior should behave.
After a bit more watching the young warrior waltzed into the clearing and shouted in broken Japanese. “You, warrior. Why you no fight well when you fight with Shampoo!” She hollered towards Ranma.
Ranma yelled back in the limited Chinese that he was learning from Cologne. “This one well enough fight time before! What mean you this one fight no well?” He said in anger.
Shampoo got right in front of him and slashed forward in a sneak attack with her bonbori. Ranma held up his arm and effortlessly blocked the heavy iron maces head on his unguarded forearm. The mace dented inwards and Shampoo could feel the reverberations in the handle as if she had hit something stronger than the hardest metal.
“Shampoo mean like this. Why you no fight this good stupid boy. Why you preÉ preÉ” The violet haired girl switched to Chinese for a second. “Why did you pretend not to be able to fight you coward. Did you think that I could not handle the likes of you?”
Ranma of course could only pick out the basics of what she had said as he was still only fluent enough to keep up with a first grader in China. But he did pick up her use of Coward. And that was enough for him to bristle at the accusation. “What mean coward. This one no coward!” He yelled back in Chinese.
Shakeera watched on the sidelines and groaned. She started to cast her language spell, but right before finishing it she held the spell matrix in her mind and stepped between the two bickering youths and places her index and middle finger of her two upper arms over the lips of each of them. They both sat there for a second stunned by the odd action. Shakeera took this peace to back off slightly.
Ranma was the first to speak, and he spoke in Japanese. “Look here you crazy chick. I said I didn’t think you were weaker than me.”
Shampoo’s eyes widened as what she had heard was perfect Chinese. So she responded in kind. “Then why did you not attack me last week with the skill and power that you used today?” She asked her hands on her hips. “It is insulting to a warrior to win because their opponent is holding back.”
Ranma didn’t even bat an eyelash at hearing Shampoo speak perfect Japanese as he’s been around Shakeera and her spells. In fact Shakeera had already learned Japanese and was working on Chinese using a modified spell and talking a great length with Ranma in the evenings.
“I’ve tried to tell you before Shampoo. I-“ Ranma started but was interrupted by the violet haired girl.
“You dare call me by name outsider? YOU DARE?!” She said getting very angry for the first time. “Who said you could be so familiar with me male! First you mock me by acting weaker than you are. And now you take a presumptuous attitude with me.” Shampoo said in feminine outrage.
The argument might have continued much longer, or even come to blows, if someone else had not entered the clearing. “Xian Pu! Ranma Saotome! Stand Down this instant!” Cologne barked out in Chinese.
The two youths stopped and turned to face the Elder, standing at each of their styles version of attention. For Shampoo this was feet shoulder width apart, head straight forward, and hands clasped in front of her with her dominant hand over her off hand. For Ranma this was closer to a military pose of attention with heals together and hands at his side and eyes front. Both had looks of embarrassment on their faces.
“Since the two of you are so intent on proving which one of you was either holding back, or misinterpreting the other. Then I have no choice but to have the two of you fight each other to determine your standing with one another.”
Cologne hopped over to a rock and perched on top of it with her cane held in her hand above her. “You can use any move but lethality. Xian Pu! Outsider laws do not apply, none of them. You may not kill, enslave, torture, marry, copulate, belittle, or anything else as a punishment or otherwise of this challenge.”“Ranma! You will cease competition with Xian Pu if she is the victor, and you will cease competition with her if you are the victor. And you will not antagonize her further.”
“Do I Make Myself Clear!” She barked out in an authoritative tone.
“Yes Sensei!” Ranma hollered out.
“Yes Elder!” Shampoo followed immediately.
The two youths then turned and got into their ready position. Shampoo drew out an undamaged Bonbori while Ranma accepted a Bo staff thrown at him by Shakeera.
As the two of them prepared to face off Cologne leaned towards Shakeera who had walked over to stand next to the stone the Elder was perched on. “When did Ranma learn such good Chinese?” She asked the four-armed girl.
“He didn’t, it’s my language spell.” She replied.
“Oh.” The Elder then turned back to the two fighters that were standing at the ready. “READY! FIGHT!”
Scene Break
Nabiki looked over the school courtyard below the window of her classroom. She saw a large group of boys laid out on the ground as if they had been taken down by a tank or large riot squad. Of course that would not have been too far from the truth as the boys on the ground outside were the Hentai Horde as they were known, and they had been taken out by hurricane Akane on her way in to school.
The middle Tendo daughter thought back on how they had been told about an engagement earlier that week. She had been a little bit excited at first, that is until she found out that no one knew what type of man Genma’s son was. She had also been willing to go along with it as long as it was an engagement and not marriage. After all she didn’t want to be tied to the family Dojo for the rest of her life.
Of course the results of the announcement was that Kasumi was even more withdrawn than normal, though her father was much happier than he had been in ages. The unfortunate one was Akane. She had turned up her ‘I Hate Boys’ routine by several notches. So much that even a few of Akane’s own friends were starting to ask the enraged teen if her actions were truly merited. The sad thing was that Nabiki was sure that Akane really did like boys. And even wanted to date and hang out with them. But with Kuno and his proclamation of ‘To Date her, you must beat her!’ there was no way to get Akane to like boys until the Hentai Horde was taken out of the equation.
However Nabiki was not about run interference, or even intelligence for her sister until Akane asked and learned a bit of humility. The mercenary girl didn’t think that besides Kuno there was anyone with as big a chip on her shoulder than her younger sister.
Nabiki winced as one boy got up only to crouch back down and hold his gut from internal pain. “Ok, maybe it would be better to take the engagement with Saotome’s son rather than let Akane have him.” She thought to herself.
Scene Break
A couple of days had passed since Ranma’s fight with Shampoo. In that time Ranma had finally gotten a good grasp on his two forms strengths. Right now only one of the two youths were present, as Ranma was off being trained by Shakeera in the use of ranged weaponry.
In Ranma’s absence Shampoo made her argument to her clans Matriarch.
“Great Grandmother.” She began once she had entered the clearing where Cologne was preparing some type of herbal poultice.
“Yes Granddaughter?” The Elder said as she stirred the small pot filled with freshly picked roots, leaves, and barks.
“This humble one would like to request knowledge of why this one has been forbidden from a marriage challenge with the honorable visitor.” Shampoo asked while kneeling in supposition behind her Elder.
“Goodness child. There is no need to be so formal.” Cologne said while she damped her fire so as not to burn her poultice that she was making. “Stand up and face me like my student, and not a sniveling government bean counter.”
“Yes Great Grandmother.” Shampoo said as she came to a sitting position before standing and politely facing Cologne. “I wanted to know why you forbade me from a marriage challenge.”
“Because youngling. Ranma Saotome will soon be of a new clan of our tribe. If you were to challenge him and he declined you would lose face in both our family and our tribe.” Cologne answered.
“He would not turn me down.” The lavender tressed girl said confidently.
Cologne just looked at her for a moment before answering. “And what makes you so sure?”
“Because Ranma does not back down from challenges. Besides he would make a perfect addition to the tribe.” The girl said then got a dreamy look in her eyes. “And he’d be a good father of my children.” To which she gained a knock to her noggin from the heavy end of Colognes staff. “What did you do that for Great Grandmother.”
“You’re only interested in him because he’s not chasing after you for marriage like some other young fools I could mention.”
“That’s not true, he’s strong and capable.”
“Yes he is, and he’s probably the only one to defeat you in a few years that isn’t an Elder or War Master themselves. But that does not change my decision.” Cologne then turned back to her pot and continued making her concoction. “Also I have been lax in your training this last month. Go back to the village and pack a travel bag. Include your weighted armor and weapons.”
Shampoo groaned at her last order then turns and heads back into the village.
Scene Break
“Ok, now feel the cold rock in front of you. Good, now gently push away from it.” Shakeera said as she sat in a meditative pose next to Ranma-chan who had her eyes closed and hands on her knees in her own meditative posture.
In front of the two red heads were several large stones about the size of a person’s head. They didn’t look like they were there normally, but as if they had been brought into the clearing from a stream or another place that such large stones would be commonplace.
Shakeera watched over Ranma-chan in her meditation, but kept an eye out for any villagers that may come near as the two of them had been requested not to show off the magic or powers of the mind that were natural to Shakeera and were now natural to Ranma-chan. While the cursed red head was concentrating, the four-armed red head felt Cologne come near to where they were practicing.
When the Elder hopped into the clearing Shakeera held up one hand to halt Colognes progression and motioned with another towards the still concentrating Ranma-chan.
While the two of them watched, Ranma-chan seemed to intensify her aura somehow and then a small yellow glow could be seen seeping out from beneath her eyelids. The neo-girl opened her eyes and the other two could see that her eyes were the color of the golden yellow light and seemed to be solid orbs of the light rather than the normal gray blue eyes. As soon as Ranma-chan’s eyes had opened, several of the stones in front of her shot away from her as if shot from a cannon.
Cologne knocked one up into the air with a deflection move from her staff that would have hit her in the shoulder had she not moved. Then the old woman stared in awe at the display of mental powers. “I have not seen a true Mind Mage in many generations.” She said to herself, but was amazingly loud enough to bring Ranma-chan out of her trance.
“Huh, wha..?” The red head said in confusion for a second as she brought her focus back to reality. As she did so her eyes stopped glowing and reverted to their normal color.
“That was great Ranma,” Shakeera said as she stood up and offered a hand down to her student in Magic and the Mind. “But you need to concentrate not to manifest you spirit when you use psionics. Otherwise you’ll drain yourself of your inner strength in a wasteful show of flashy lights.”
“Is that why I feel so tired right now?” Ranma-chan asked as she took the offered hand and struggled to get up.
“Yup, it’ll drain you three to ten times faster than just using your powers by themselves. But it sure can be intimidating.” Shakeera said as she helped Ranma-chan, and then held the other girl as the neo-girl stumbled after standing up. Shakeera then looked at Cologne. “And we’re not Mind Mages. We’re Psionisists. Mind Mages cast magic with their mind. Psionisists tap into their internal strength in order to affect the world around them.”
Cologne chuckled at the young dimensional travelers comment. “My apologies, however I didn’t come to discuss the differences of magic and mental powers. I came to inform you that I was going to take a month long sojourn away from here.”
Ranma-chan finally had enough strength to stand on her own so she took a small step back from Shakeera before saying her own piece. “So why ya leaving Elder? I haven’t had as good a training session in martial arts for years.”
“I have found that my training of Shampoo to be very lax this last month. She needs to get back on the ball as it were.” Cologne turned to leave but stopped before she left the clearing. “Shakeera, this might be a good time for you to take young Ranma to his homeland and help him to discover his roots.”
The two red heads looked at each other and shrugged. “Ranma, lets talk about that after Cologne leaves. Okay?” Shakeera said and Ranma-chan nodded.
“Oh and one more thing. I have requested permission of the Council of Elders of the Jokentetsu to adopt both of you into the tribe as a new clan. They have accepted, from here on out you are both of the Clan Fire of the Jokentetsu. In your possessions at my hut is a codex of our laws, read them well.” Cologne then did leave the clearing.
“Amazons huh?” Ranma-chan said.
“That’s interesting, so why do you think that she did that?”
“Dunno. Hey, how did you do that sword thingy again?”
End Chapter
Authors Notes:Thanks for all the reviews. This will be a very long running fanfiction if my story board holds true. There should be about 15 chapters in this which is book one. Book two is just starting its story layout right now, and so far has 10 chapters plotted. I’m hoping to get at least 5 books before writers block or worse sets in.
Wish me luck.
Oh yeah, and does anyone have any requests for this fic? Though it’s already storyboarded out I can change things around if someone has a really good suggestion. You know, like timeline suggestions, such as Ranma meets up with his mother before the Tendo’s. Or Ryoga comes very early, or even not at all. Saffron Attacks in person two weeks after they reach wherever they get to.
I’m writing this for my readers as well as for personal enjoyment. I would like to see this story reach 150,000 words plus, but want my readers to enjoy it more than I want to produce a heavy unwieldy piece of work that no one likes.
TTFN