Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. Buffy the Vampire Slayer were created by and belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy Productions and FOX.
Notes: This story commences approximately ten months after the Ranma ½ manga ends, and approx fourteen months after the end of BtVS. Knowledge of BtVS is not essential to enjoy this fic.
Attention: Political incorrectness and some swearing within. You have been warned.
.Prologue - Theophany
If there is any laud one can attest to when describing a void from within, as contradictory as the premise may be, it is that it is not especially distressing. Not especially anything.
Could be worse, she almost pondered mutely.
She drifted; without opinion or will… The kind of contentment that only exists beyond the threshold of full sensory deprivation, beyond any capability of experience.
Kodachi was wrong.
Death, she could have observed silently, wasn't all that disagreeable.
Certainly, while she had been alive, she would have been the first to admit that she had hoped for a life after death. How she had prayed to be reunited with her mother and grandmother. But, she saw no tunnel of light, felt no divine presence. She heard no voices.
… Kasumi…
Well, there was that… Strange, she hadn't imagined that the almighty would sound that shrill.
Shi-Huizhe… farseer.
That wasn't shrill… Oh, God…
Kasumi, please wake up!
No, Shi-Huizhe.
…Shimi-Gami?
Not quite.
Amusement? Then who? What?
An internuncio.
Inter..nuncio?
Yes.
Wake up! Please, god…
Why?
Time, as always, is short.
For me? An epistle… for me?
And Lin-Baorui.
… Tell me.
Oversoon, the vanguard will conquer the horizon.
But… we killed them… dead…
Merely cat's-paws.
They… Grandmother nearly…
Add she who will be Li-Kainu to your ranks, and others; kindred.
Can't have them…
She won't breathe!
We won't let…
Knocking on your sanctuary's door…
Light. Hurts.
Kasumi.
…pariahs will come…
Let me be. Safe. Light.
Kasumi.
Light. Akane… Don't want to know.
Kasumi!
W-who?
Kasumi, please…
Akane? Akane!
…on a night of dawn.
o-o-o
"Kasumi! Oh thank god! You're awake!"
Cracked eyelids? Effort? Racking coughs? Metallic taste on her tongue? Vision swimming?
Damn. They all led to the same conclusion.
She was alive.
Damn.
She tried to focus on the blurry form that hovered protectively above her. Blinking fresh tears, Kasumi achingly reached out with a leaden arm. Let her be real.
Kasumi cupped her guardian's face with her raised hand. Her sight cleared as she gently wiped away a rolling tear from the lightly freckled skin. Akane? …No.
"Y…Yuka?" croaked the Tendo sister. Akane's friend nodded shakily, her voice coming tremulously. The girl appeared to be restraining herself from hugging her own body.
"I thought you were…" With a groan that Yuka sensed wasn't entirely due to physical pain – she had heard Kasumi's whispers – the prone girl abruptly reached for the back of her head with her free hand. Her probing fingers halted in their advance when a familiar voice interjected.
"Don't, Kaz. You have a concussion." The voice's attention seemed to shift, sharpening in the process. "I told you she'd be okay."
Grimacing at the effort, Kasumi shifted her line of sight to spy a balaclava-clad Nabiki, the hood tucked back to reveal a thickly bleeding lip. Her darkly dressed sister was crouched over an equally familiar figure. One Kasumi listlessly noted was motionless. The still girl's raven hued bangs were matted messily to her brow. The oldest Tendo sister's eyes widened in distress, as she realized it wasn't sweat that was adhering hair to flesh.
"Its not all hers," intensely noted Nabiki as she wiped the blood from Akane's forehead. Kasumi eyes followed her sister's eyes to Nabiki's second crimson-stained hand, desperately trying to abate the ceaseless red flow from the hematic wound between Akane's breasts. "It's not all hers."
o-o-o
Hanging Stars
A Ranma ½/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover by Ace A
Part 1:
On a night of dawn
o-o-o
Let us alone. What pleasure can we have
To war with evil? Is there any peace
In ever climbing up the climbing wave?
- from 'Choric Songof the Lotos-Eaters' by Lord Tennyson.
o-o-o
Thirty-two hours earlier
Sunday, September 5th, 10.45am
o-o-o
"Its not as though you obey the damn book implicitly, is it?"
"Well no…"
"So what's the problem?"
The taller figure sighed in resignation, and acceded to other's wish.
"Alright."
"Really? If I ever get Alzheimer's, you'll kill me?"
"No. If you ever lose your mind beyond all hope, I'll finish you. If that's what you want."
"It is. Seeing that formula 411 in action just makes the prospect even scarier."
"Euthanasia it then."
"Fuck that. I want you to murder me. It'll be cool! You can go on the run and shit!"
"Très drôle… someone's coming."
"Out the window with you before our secret tryst is uncovered! Make haste!"
"Oh, shut up."
o-o-o
11.03am
"So you'll... wait a minute! What'ya mean, 'no'?
"Just that. No money for you. Now run along."
"But…" Nabiki sighed as Ranma adopted an expression usually worn by a certain kendo practitioner when presented with evidence that his 'twin goddesses' weren't as enamoured of him as he of they: utter incomprehension. "But," repeated Ranma. She exhaled tiredly.
"But what?" she asked, boredom dripping from her tone.
"But just last month, you loaned me twice that much, no questions asked."
"Which you've yet to repay in full," she noted dryly. Wincing, her sister's fiancé managed to surprise her with his reply.
"But you always carry at least three times that in your purse."
Ranma bit his lip as Nabiki turned her previously divided attention entirely toward him. What had possessed him to say that?
"And just how," she smiled with all the generosity of a hyena, "would you know that, oh 'brother-in-law' of mine?" Frozen in place, Ranma sweat as his eyes and thoughts searched the room and his mind respectively for an avenue of escape. Reluctantly, he acknowledged the lazily outstretched hand before him.
"How much?" he asked, unbidden. She held up five digits. "But I ain't got that much. Can I…?" he questioned miserably as he deposited three thousand yen into the waiting palm. She grinned unpleasantly.
"We'll just add the other two thousand to your tab. Usual interest rate. Compound, of course." He nodded,
"Of course." Without another word, he left the room.
Hearing Ranma's light footfalls pad down the corridor, Nabiki's smile disappeared. She looked forlornly at the slips of paper she held in her right hand. She forcibly jerked her gaze from the money. "Sorry, Ranma…."
o-o-o
Akane glanced absently to the porch while she waited for the line to pick up. Her father and Mr. Saotome were engaged in their perpetual shogi tournament. The receiver chimed, "Moshi moshi?"
"Eri-chan? It's Akane…"
Soun contemplated the situation before him. His position was a favourable one. A single legal move and a couple of… distractions, and he'd have old Genma in check. Not taking his eyes from the board, the Master of the Tendo branch of Anything Goes Martial Arts grasped his playing piece, and in a very deliberate motion, moved it forward one space. His hand still on the tile, he smiled to himself. He prepared to unleash his ace-in-the-hole. The old 'hundred yen coin' play got Saotome every time.
"Say, Saotome," he began nonchalantly, "isn't that -" His words were interrupted by a loud 'growf' from across the board. Huh? Where on earth had Saotome gotten the water? And since when had he been in check? Perhaps a new strategy was in order…
"Yep. No, you won't have to miss English club. Please, Eri-chan," whined Akane down the line. "Yuka has archery club and I have drama club, so we can go together… Everybody's going to be there…Really? Okay, great! Don't forget your stuff." Akane made a 'bidaah' noise at some unheard comment. "See you in school tomorrow. Ja ne.
"Dad?"
"Yes, Akane?" replied Soun, not moving his eyes from the game. The youngest Tendo mouthed 'honestly', frowning half-heartedly at her father's inattention.
"Do you know where Kasumi is? She's been gone a while…" she trailed off.
Deciding on a different piece, Soun appraised Genma's reaction with a raised eyebrow. Still in full 'shogi-mode', the moustached man answered,
"Your sister mentioned something about attending that book club of hers. Isn't that right, Saotome?" he asked, ostensibly for confirmation, but actually in hopes of a slip-up. Genma was always more difficult to play as a panda, what with Soun having to raise his eyes from the board to Saotome's signs in order to maintain conversation.
Yep, agreed the sign produced by the oversized raccoon. Book club. Or was it cook club? Or cookbook club? Y'know, the sign flipped, Women's stuff, his eyes never leaving the game.
Steaming a little at Mr. Saotome's misogyny, Akane granted that he had brought up a good point.
"Well," she began evenly seeing neither man… martial artist, was paying her much attention, "if Kasumi's not here, I guess it's up to me to prepare dinner," she concluded, already rolling up her sleeves.
Screw shogi! This was big picture stuff.
"Now, there's no need to be hasty, Akane, dear," blubbered Soun, valiantly battling not to make warding gestures as his daughter's features darkened.
What he said! Signed the panda emphatically
"Harsh conditions and hardships – such as fasting," continued Soun, stressing the word, "Teach a martial artist to be strong; hardy. That's how we learn strength in the face of adversity." Adversity at that moment being Akane's writhing battle aura. "I-isn't that right, Saotome?" Quickly concealing a sign which Akane could have sworn read I want my mommy, Genma 'growfed', evidently in agreement.
Nostrils flaring in indignation, the youngest Tendo fought down her temper, but couldn't keep a trace of hurt from her voice as she spoke.
"I can't believe you two! All I did was to offer to help you and you act like…like…" She seemed ready to name her traditional culprit of such infractions. But as fate would have it, Akane's inner monologue was disrupted by the ever-casual entrance of the middle Tendo daughter. Nabiki wore the baggy grey sweats and loose t-shirt she had made her own look the past year. Sparing the two family patriarchs a withering glance, the short haired girl informed the other three that Kasumi would be back within the hour, and was likely picking up some extra groceries for dinner.
Both shogi players relaxed visibly at this announcement. Soun quickly amended,
"Of course Akane, fasting isn't essential to be a truly great martial artist. Isn't that right, Sao…to...me...?" He trailed off at the ominous sound of his youngest audibly grinding her teeth. Genma's 'mommy' sign made another appearance.
With a snort of lukewarm derision, Nabiki left the pair to their fate.
o-o-o
1.39pm
"Goodbye, dear," waved the Amazon matriarch affectionately. "I'll see you later, child." As the subject of Cologne's farewell turned a corner with a parting smile, another oft time student of the ancient woman entered her line of sight. Ancient eyes twinkling mischievously, she asked, "Why, son-in-law. What brings you all the way to my humble establishment?" She chuckled as Ranma instantly recoiled in horror. "I'm kidding, Ranma," she sighed mirthfully. "My boy, sometimes you're too highly strung for your own good."
Head quirking at Cologne's odd behaviour, Ranma allowed his shoulders to sag in relief. The old Amazon had given up her tribe's claim on Ranma in reparations for Shampoo's involvement in the failed wedding fiasco; and not the one immediately after Jusendo, but rather the more expensive church ceremony they had attempted two months afterward. The maroon-eyed girl's interest in the pig-tailed martial artist was now purely a personal affair as far as the Joketsuzoku were concerned.
With no further hold on him, Ranma often wondered why it was that the Elder had opted to remain in Nerima. Shampoo had obviously stayed for him, and Mousse for her. But the remarkably accomplished, yet still young warrior couldn't discern what kept the wizened old crone here.
It certainly wasn't Shampoo. She'd had a 'falling out' with her great grandmother after the matriarch had declared their engagement void.
In what could only be dubbed a marvellous display of Kuno-level stupidity, a livid Shampoo had publicly challenged her ancestor for the right to reinstate her claim on Ranma. While disappointed at her charge's actions, Cologne held no animosity toward the girl, simply instructing her to leave the Amazons out of her dealings with Ranma.
Said 'advice' taken into consideration, Shampoo loudly cursing the Joketsuzoku and Cologne herself after she quite emphatically lost the duel, had not been the wisest path to follow.
Ranma still wondered what had got into the young Amazon to make her act that. Because act she did. He had sensed that the girl was feigning her feelings for some unknown or perhaps unknowable reason. Shampoo's denouncement of her heritage had seemed too well rehearsed, too specific and most critically, passionless. Having noticed such a change in Shampoo's behaviour, Ranma felt no doubt that Cologne had also perceived the distinctly workmanlike fashion in which her great-granddaughter had proceeded in severing ties to her roots. Her methods were distinctly 'unShampoo'-like.
Apparently, as far as the Amazon Council was concerned, Cologne would have been well within her rights to exile, or even execute her young descendant for her behaviour, local laws be damned. She had chosen however, to disown Shampoo – which, while not robbing the cursed girl of her status as an Amazon, took from her future position of matriarch – until such a time as she had 'redeemed' herself in Cologne's eyes.
Which brought Ranma back to the present. Although it didn't especially irk her, Cologne had to admit in the capacity of a restaurateur, Shampoo's absence as a waitress/delivery girl at the Nekohanten had been detrimental to the establishment's turnover. While the old woman employed a small troupe of part-time staff none could hold a candle to Shampoo's serving ability or looks. Or drawing power. Few in the Orient, hell, the world, could. And of these few was a certain redhead, who was in need of cash.
This explains why Ranma now found herself reminiscing the whole Phoenix Pill incident, dressed snugly as she was in her pink and yellow floral Chinese pantsuit. At least Cologne wasn't making an exhibition out of her this time.
Oh, wait.
"Order up for table six," cried the smiling old woman, as the café found itself busier than it had been in months. Ranma grumbled distractedly as she balanced eight different dishes on what appeared thin air, as she whisked her way to the table in question. She allowed herself a reluctant grin. Ranma wasn't learning the Chestnut Fist this time, she was mastering it. Taking the technique beyond a level that she had never thought feasible.
The redhead smirked cockily as Cologne's eyes opened even wider than usual, genuine surprise on her withered features. Heh! WasRanma ever enjoying this!
Happy to see a smug grin appear on her waitress' face, but deciding the cocky girl could stand to be taken down a peg or two, Cologne tossed Ranma her next order. "Three beef ramens for table four…son-in-law."
"Urk!"
The loud smash of cutlery could be heard from outside the restaurant.
The customers gleefully applauded Cologne's expert distraction as they had Ranma's exhibitionist displays, seemingly as in on the little game as the two participants. Cackling, the Matriarch set Mousse to cleaning up the mess, the reeling redhead's hands already full with another order.
"Oh, my goodness! You are just too easy, Ranma," giggled the ancient Amazon. This nearly caused said waitress to topple over a second time. What the heck had gotten into Cologne? Not that Ranma was complaining. With a sunny yelp, the redhead gracefully leapt over several tables to intercept another order in midair.
She could get used to this.
o-o-o
o-o-o
o-o-o
More coming.
