Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ An American Dragon in Nerima ❯ Chapter the Third ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer:  Ain't mine, don't own 'em.  Wish I did though.  Flames will be extinguished.

Again, appreciation goes to John Tannius for letting this poor fanfic writer borrow some of his ideas from Dragon's Destiny

The following afternoon, Marx pulled up to the Dojo in a government-owned sedan from the base.  The only thing that distinguished it from the rest of the fleet sitting on Yokota was the strobe lights on the dash and rear deck.  Dressed in his blue Class-A's he walked in the gate, and looked at his watch-ten minutes to six.  Other than Kasumi and the fathers, this was the first time the Tendo daughters and Ranma saw Marx in any type of duty uniform.  "Marx-san," Soun said formally, "You will show Kasumi a good time and not do anything…inappropriate, will you?"

"Tendo-san," Marx replied just as formally, "you have my word as an officer and a gentleman that nothing untoward will happen to your daughter.  But, you must remember, sir, she is legally an adult."

Soun was about to answer, when Nabiki cleared her throat.  "For those of you interested, here comes Kasumi."  All eyes turned on the second floor landing.  Standing there, nervous as a filly her first time in heat, was Kasumi.  She'd never worn stiletto heels before, but Ranma had shown her, albeit a little unsteadily at first, how to wear them.  Regardless, she was still hesitant as she walked down the stairs.

Marx looked at his date for the evening.  One word went through his mind, and he vocalized accidentally.  "Kawaii."

Kasumi blushed as red as the outfit she was wearing.  "Thank you, Christopher-kun.  You look quite dashing as well."  Marx nodded with a smile, and held his arm out.  Kasumi took it.  "Don't worry, Father.  I'll be fine."

Soun nodded, the tears starting to well up in his eyes.  "My little Kasumi's growing up.  I'm so happy," he said, as the Tendo Waterworks opened up for business again.  The couple dodged nimbly, not wanting their clothes to get soaked, as they headed out the door.

Marx opened the passenger door of the GSA car, and let Kasumi slide in, before walking around and climbing in as well.  He started the Oldsmobile up and pulled off the curb.  "Christopher-kun, how come you have a car tonight?  And why are you all dressed up?"

"I'm the duty officer tonight for the squadron.  So I signed out a vehicle.  Besides, I wouldn't want you on the subway tonight."  Marx navigated the cruiser on to the highway towards Yokota.

"You still haven't answered my second question.  Why are you all dressed up?"

"Base Armed Forces Day dinner-dance.  All officers are required to attend in dress uniforms."

Kasumi looked at him, a suspicious glint in her eye.  "You knew about this last night when you asked me out."

Marx pursed his lips.  "Yes I did.  I won't apologize for that.  But, before you get any angrier at me, it's not my fault."

"And how is this not your fault?"  The hurt look on Kasumi's face tore at the draconic Air Force officer.

"I was planning to blow the entire thing off for tonight's date. But sitting on my desk was both a reminder that I had duty officer, and that the base commander made tonight's function mandatory for all officers."

"Well…" she said.  "I give you the benefit of the doubt this time."  There was a hint of a smile in her voice.  "I'm sure that I'll have a good time."

The drive was continued in companionable silence.  Marx was trying to figure out how to break his secret to Kasumi, even as he navigated his way through the streets of Tachikawa to the former Imperial Army Air Force base.  The cops at the gate recognized the car, and just waved it through.

They arrived at the officers club, with the party was in full swing already.  "Marx," his squadron commander called, "who's the young lady with you?"

"Sir, this is Kasumi Tendo.  Kasumi, Captain Marc Schuler."  Kasumi bowed, as Captain Schuler put his hand out.  All three chuckled, at the usual East meets West confusion of protocol.

"Marx, why don't you and your date join our table?  We still have space."

"Thank you sir, that would be most kind." 

The night progressed, and light conversation was interspersed with the meals.  At one point, the DJ began playing a classic Glenn Miller tune, as a request from the 30th Airlift Squadron commander.  Marx smiled, and looked at Kasumi, when the opening notes of In the Mood came through the loudspeakers.  "Would you care to dance?"

Kasumi nodded, slightly apprehensive, as her date took her hand and led her out to the dance floor.  The last time she danced was her last date, five years ago.  Marx led her through the dance, his feet remembering the steps.  Kasumi started to relax in his arms, her earlier anger about not being told why or where they were going melting away.  She could feel an inner strength about him, something that made her feel safe around him-that he would never harm her. 

She was saddened when the song ended, much to quickly in her opinion.  Leaning up, she impulsively gave her father's tenant a kiss on the cheek, then blushed a bright red when she realized what she did.  "Thank you for the dance, Christopher-kun.  It was wonderful."

"You're quite welcome.  I enjoyed it as well."  He replied as they walked back to the table.  The fact that it was hand-in-hand wasn't exactly lost on Marx's squadron commander or his wife.

"Marx, you've done your bit for the base commander.  If you and your date want to bug out, I have no problem with that."

"It is rather late, and I do hope Akane hadn't taken it in her head to cook dinner for the family."

"Thank you, sir" Marx said.  The couple walked away, arm in arm.

"They make such a cute couple," Mrs. Schuler said.  "I hope they stay together."

"So do I, Marge.  She looks like a good complement for the lieutenant."

On the road back to Nerima, Marx made his decision.  "Kasumi, I have something to tell you.  It's about my time in China."

"Oh," was all his passenger said.  Oh dear, she thought, he's going to tell me that he's been to Jusenkyo, has a curse and an Amazon wife, because he beat her in some martial arts competition.  But that's been pretty much the norm since Ranma and his father arrived.

Marx took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  "When my time was finished as an observer to the Chinese Air Force, I went on leave.  I went to Jusenkyo…"

-------

With an accompanying crunch of gravel, the Chinese Army jeep that Marx had signed out from the motor pool slid to a stop.  He climbed out and looked around.  "So, this is the fabled 'Cursed Training Grounds of Jusenkyo'.  Doesn't look like much."  He lit up a Cuban Montecristo acquired at the PX.

The Guide came out of his hut and looked at the visitor.  "Oh, Mr. Customer, be very careful.  Springs too, too dangerous."  He called in pidgin English.

Marx walked over to the guide.  "I'm from the base nearby, but I'd like to know more about Jusenkyo."

The Guide's eyes went wide.  Here was someone who just wanted to know more about the springs.  "Springs created when Dai Ryuujin no Nishi die in first spring, creating Valley of Sorrows…" Both men walked among the springs, with the guide explaining the legends of each one.

When they reached the large spring in the center of Jusenkyo, the Guide told the story of the Dai Ryuujin no Nishi, of how the Valley of Jusenkyo was prosperous and peaceful while he lived there with his human wife, until the warriors from the West arrived.  The guide explained that his family had been holding the position since the cursing of the springs, to warn travelers about their evil, and the story might have been embellished over time.  But he also pointed out a mountain, backlit by the setting sun where the peak was a jagged stump.  "It is said, Mr. Customer, that that mountain is where Ryuujin found his wife slain by the invaders from the west.  Ryuujin went mad with grief, and erupted in anger, bringing down the mountain.

"He fought the invaders, and when he realized he was dying, with his last breath, he dove into the Spring."

Marx knelt there, entranced by the Guide's tale.  The Guide, positive that Marx wouldn't do anything stupid after having heard all one hundred tragic tales, left him there to prepare dinner for three.  As the valley was darkening, Marx stood and began walking back towards the Guide's hut.  He didn't make it two steps when the ground beneath him crumbled, and into the pool of water he went.

Plum heard the splash and came running out of the hut.  "Father," she called, "the Yankee fell in the Spring."

"And I thought Mr. Customer was smarter than that."  Grabbing a lantern he walked towards the central spring.

For the Lieutenant in the Spring, there was a sense of peace enveloping him, even as the his mind fought the magics trying to curse him.  Opening his eyes underwater, Marx saw a golden key glimmering in the twilight, hit by the sun's dying rays.  He swam down and reached for it.  As his fingers touched the object, all the springs began glowing.  One by one, starting with the newest springs first, they began to darken, as their magic leached back into the one being that created them in the first place. 

Marx's body began to shift and change as his body and mind merged into the being that was the Dai Ryuujin no Nishi.  The central spring began glowing, more brilliantly than the sun, before it was over.  The Guide and his daughter had to shield their eyes from the actinic brilliance coming from the central spring

Near Jusendo, near the Amazon village, from a window in the Musk Citadel, and near the source of the brilliance itself, five minds all thought the same thing: Oh, my!  As quickly as it appeared, the light faded out.  The Guide and Plum had to stop where they were, lest they fall into one of the springs, because of their sudden blindness.  After their eyes adjusted to the night again, they saw a silvery form standing next to the pool…

-------

"I spent a few weeks extra in the province learning how to walk again, how to use my innate magic, how to fly.  As I'm sure he did with Ranma and Genma, the Guide tried to reverse my curse with hot water.  But it wasn't to be.  I retained my own identity, but I've also become the Dai Ryuujin no Nishi."

They were sitting in the car on the side of the Dojo.  The whole drive up from Yokota had kept the eldest Tendo daughter captivated, listening to the story.  "So now you are actually a dragon, hiding among the population as a human.  I find that somewhat hard to believe."

"Believe what you like, Kasumi-san, but I would only trust you with my secret.  You are a lot like my…his late wife.  Calm and gentle, but with a core of solid steel."

Kasumi looked him, a sympathetic look on her face.  "You almost said 'my late wife'."

"Sometimes, I can't differentiate whose memories I'm remembering."  Marx sighed.  "We both lost our wives to acts of violence.  Dai Ryuujin no Nishi's to the invaders from the west, which I think are the Amazons, but I'm not sure.  My wife…well that requires a little background.

"I joined the American Air Force, the first time, when I graduated high school.  It was something I always wanted to do-fly.  Well, I got assigned as a cop, which I didn't want to do, but I did anyway, although I opted for an early out at my previous active duty base.  I had planned on going into the Air National Guard…the Air Force's militia component, but my commander decided to terminate any potential for a continued career in the Air Force with my discharge.

"So I joined the Army National Guard…again, the Army's militia.  I served out eight years in a green uniform.  I liked some of the personnel in my unit, but I was never an soldier.  My heart was still in the Air Force.  But I was able to finish off my degree in history, all set to become a high school teacher.

"As a Guardsman, you have to serve two weeks a year, as annual training.  We had come back from our training up in Fort Drum, New York-a 14-hour drive in convoy from our home station in Teaneck, New Jersey.  When I got home, it was late, my cell phone was dead so I never got the call.  There was barrier tape, and police cars all in front of our house.

"From what the cops told me, there was a break in, and my wife was murdered.  They never found the bastard that did it.

"My wife…she was a fireball, but I loved her.  I spent a night at a hotel, and the next day, which was my last official day of Annual Training, I showed up late.  The unit understood.  But I had been talking to the Air Force recruiters.  I handed my commanding officer a request for release to active duty back with the Air Force, and was on a plane for the Security Forces Academy to relearn everything that had changed since my last stint as a cop.  And go to officer's training school, and get my commission."

"And you got your position at Yokota, because they had an opening?"

"Yeah.  Usually most overseas Air Force bases don't always have lieutenants in charge of flights, but Pacific Air Forces wanted to try something different at Yokota.  It's a pilot program, to see if officers in charge of flights would cut down on the number of military-civilian incidents.  And I've told my flight I have a no-holds barred policy when it comes to that.  You screw up and get caught, you will pay the piper.  Because, as I was taught at my first assignment the first time around, we are ambassadors for our country.  We are the ones the populace sees, not some political appointed ambassador living behind the Marines and a gated compound, only meeting with governmental officials."

Kasumi smiled at that.  "I hope you continue that policy."  She opened the door of the car and got out.  "Oh my, its two am!  You need to be getting up in an hour."

Marx shook his head.  "I took today off, although if they need me, I have to be available."  He hid a smile when Kasumi barely stifled a yawn.  "And you'll be getting up when, in two, three hours?"

Nodding, she replied, "Yes.  I don't think I'll be any rested in the morning."

Opening his service jacket and taking off his bowtie, "Duty officer's orders.  Sleep in.  Get a good night's rest, and we'll worry about it later."

"Christopher-kun," she said, "I would very much like to see what has become the real you."

"Your sisters and Ranma have school tomor…today, yes?"  Kasumi nodded.  "And we can send your father and his friend on a wild goose chase.  I'll show you when we're all alone.  This is something that I'd rather not let the general public know about."

"Hai, I understand."  She kissed him lightly on the cheek.  "Good night Christopher-kun."

"Good night, Kasumi-chan."