The Sound of Thunder
a Ranma 1/2 Drama/Adventure/Crossover fic
by Dianna "Chinangel" Machen
Authors Note: This idea has been kicking around in my head for about three years now, so needless to say I have a lot of the characters fleshed out in my head. This is going to be a Ranma 1/2 and Diablo II with a bit of Sailor Moon thrown into the mix. Though originally intended as three books, I may only do the first one. I'll decide if I'm going to do the others based on responses
Also, I don't like Akane, but that being said: I am NOT going to demonize her. She is not a monster, a bitch definitelybut she is not a monster. But neither is she an angel. She is a person with severe anger management problems. I am going to try and stay as true to her character as possible.
Please Review as constructivecriticism and comments are always welcomed, but flames will be fought with flames. I'm a nice person, but I don't like to be insulted. Mind your manners, and we will all get along.
This Story takes place after Jusendo but before the Failed Wedding. It also assumes that there was a gap between the time of Jusendo and the Failed Wedding.
Chapter 1: To Hell...
"I've seen Hell. Now I 'aint talkin' about 'had a crappy day' hell, or 'you pissed me off' hell. No I'm talkin' about Hell, y'know the Underworld. The place with all the fire and stuff, that's the place I went ta. I've seen Hell, and it's all the Ol' Ghoul's fault. She better hope that I don't see her when I get back, 'cause I'll prob'ly kill her. Too bad I'm lookin' for her, eh?"
-Personal Journal of Ranma
Kuh-Lon considered herself a patient woman. Why not? After all, she had weathered three hundred years of time on the Earth. She had been taught and taught in turn, had defeated a lot of opponents and had been defeated. She had seen innumerable conflicts over that accursed valley of Jusenkyo, had engaged the Musk and Phoenix alike in battle (though she would sooner do battle with the Musk).
Yes, Kuh-Lon was patient, but not foolish. She was clever, and she was old. Too old. Too old for son-in-law and his tiring stubborness. Before Jusendo the wizened Amazon held sincere doubts as to obtaining son-in-law, after Jusendo she knew she would never have him. Now she didn't WANT to have him.
Having a male that could perform such feats was a dangerous thing; it might give the other males strange ideas, such as "equality". No it wouldn't do to have such powerful male in the tribe, but a female...
She cackled dangerously. Yes this plan had merit, but it needed work. It was a dangerous plan, one that could easily back-fire if her manipulations weren't exact.
Alone in her study, she hopped over to a desk and retrieved an old, worn leather bound tome. The book was one of many similar battered and used tomes, and were quite possibly her most treasured possessions. Not due to their magical properties, for there were none, but rather their strategic value. For within these books, lay three hundred years of schemes, plans and manipulations. They would be her gift to her heir, should one ever arise. If one did not, then she would destroy the tomes before her death, and take her dark secrets with her to oblivion.
She flipped to a blank page, and hastily scribbled down the rough outline of the plan; outlining first her goal, then next to it, a list of all the points when the plan could go awry. Next to each point was a two or three word contingency plan, words such as "Formula 101" or "Obstacle" were ever present throughout the list.
She then dropped her pen and pogoed over to her shelf of magical goodies. It was overflowing with trinkets, potions, artifacts and scrolls.
She ignored most of the magical items and artifacts at first, instead sifting through the ill organized scrolls, looking for one in particular. There were many interesting and unusual scrolls there to be found as well, some were merely martial arts instructions, others were maps and still others were written in arcane letters clouding their usage in mystery.
Cologne's talon-like hands pushed piles and piles of scrolls around, each scroll was tied with a different coloured ribbon, indicating itsusage. Blue for history, red for techniques, green for maps, and black for magic. It was the pile of scrolls bound together with a black ribbonthat she brought with her to the desk and began unwrapping.
She unwrapped each scroll justenough to read the title, before replacing the ribbon and tossing to scroll to the floor. She repeated this process, as she dug her way through the pile of black ribboned scrolls.
Open, read, close, drop. Open, read, close, drop. Open read, close, drop. Open read, close, pause.
She reopened the scroll and reread the title. A grim smile came to her face. She had found the first important piece of the puzzle,and next she would look for the second.
She placed the scroll on her notebook and pogoed back towards her shelf, ignoring the mess of rolled parchmentit would be cleaned up later. She began to carefully scan the artifacts. Most of them were held in labeled boxes, tubes or some other method of confinement, and all were powerful in the right situation. But she was looking for a very old artifact.
Older than the Amazons. Older than the decaying matriarchs and the books of history, and even older than Jusenkyoitself. A small artifact that should never have left the old Amazonian matriarch's storerooms, but her need was great and asthe artifact was a powerful tool. She managed to find what she was looking for: Located at the very back, nestled between an accursed sword and a mystical girdle, was a small ring box.
She carefully extracted the box and moved back towards the desk, cradling the box as if it were as precious as life itself. Or as volatile as a bomb. She had no idea what had possessed her to take the Ring with her, but yet here it was, a powerful little object. Too powerful in fact. There was no trust when it came to the Ring, and still she found herself in the position of allowing it to leave her sight.
Now to find the proper scapegoat. Someone to take the fall and suffer the consequences. Someone like...a malevolent smile formed on her ancient lips and she snatched the scroll with one ancient and withered hand and balanced the box on the tip of her staff, mindful not to touch it, and then pogoed out of the room.
"Mu-Tzu!" she shouted in Mandarin as she left her study, "MU-TZU!"
12345678987654321
Kasumi Tendo smiled serenely as she prepared supper. She checked the oven's temperature, then the stove and found everything to be satisfactory, and their contents were cooking nicely. She closed the oven, and headed towards the cupboards to fetch the bowls and chopsticks.
She reached in and retrieved the proper bowls and chopsticks, then headed to the table to place them down.
Father's bowl was a simple green and went with brown chopsticks. It went at the head of the table. Next came Uncle Saotome's equally plain white bowl and itsblue chopsticks. Next to him, and closest to the kitchen, sat Kasumi. Herbowl was white with blue butterflies, and her chopsticks matched, being as both were the last pieces in Mother's set. Across from her sat Akane; yellow bowl with small pigs, and yellow black and yellow chopsticks. Then next to her sat Ranma.
Just then Ranma's bowl shattered. Kasumi shrieked in surprise and stepped back as pieces of the bowl smashed against the ground.
"Kasumi what's wrong?" Akane demanded as she ran into the room. She found Kasumi on her knees, staring stunned at the remains of Ranma's bowl. It had been red and black, in a yin-yang pattern. A joke from Nabiki. But now, the bowl had been reduced to pieces no larger than the jagged chunk that she held in her hand.
"Oh my God! Kasumi what happened?" Akane asked again as she helped her stunned sister up.
"The bowl...," the middle eldest Tendo girl whispered, "It just...it..." her voice trailed off. Akane had grabbed a broom and was sweeping it away from her sister.
"Are you alright? Did the glass cut you?" Akane asked fearfully and she moved to help her sister. Much to her relief, Kasumi nodded.
"Ah...yes. Yes Akane I am fine." she gazed down at the remnants of the bowl in her hand, "But Ranma's bowl..." Akane rolled her eyes.
"Kasumi you take that crap way to seriously. It's not a bad omen at all, the bowl just broke okay? Let's just give him another one."
Kasumi looked uncertainly at her sister. Kasumi had always believed in omens, especially since the arrival of a pig-tailed girl. Kasumi had long since learned not to discount anything as being impossible, because Ranma had done the impossible many times before.
Hesitantly she nodded.
"Ah...alright little sister." She pocketed the red piece of ceramic, took another bowl (an unadorned blue one), and headed back towards the living room.
Outside the thunder rolled.
12345678987654321
Mousse bounded towards the Tendo dojo, a scroll gripped tightly in his palm and a box tucked into his robes. His mind alive with the words of the ancient matriarch.
"Take this to Ranma," she had ordered holding up the scroll and the box, "Tell him it's a cure. One that will only work in his cursed form."
"What?!" Mousse roared, "You have a cure and you didn't give it to me!?" he lunged forward, only to be met by the business end of her staff, before she caught the box back on the top of her staff.
"It's not a cure you blind idiot!" she snapped.
Mousse stopped, and regarded her carefully.
"Then why give it to Ranma?" he demanded. He couldn't see her smirk, but her voice chilled his heart.
"It's a punishment for making me waste so much time in Japan. He is not suitable to marry Shampoo, but we cannot leave while he is still here." Cologne looked behind her and saw Shampoo's shadow still moving in the kitchen. Still cleaning up from the day.
"Good," she thought, "It wouldn't do to have her hear this plan."
Mousse's heart leapt They were getting rid of Saotome, and going back to China! Oh happiest of days!
"I will do as you ask honored elder!" he crowed and moved towards the box and scroll only to have her raise her hand and stop him.
"Not so fast Mr. Part Timetime. This has to be done right or else the consequences will be disastrous!" this got Mousse's attention. He ignored the insult and listened. Then after confirming the orders, he received the materials and ran as fast as he could towards the Tendo Dojo.
"Tonight Saotome," he thought savagely, "You pay!"
12345678987654321
"Oh my! It seems we have guests." Kasumi said pleasantly, heralding the entrance of Mousse. Ranma groaned and hung his head.
"Mousse, can't it wait 'till after supper. I'm eatin' here." He groaned. Mousse snorted.
"I haven't come to fight Saotome, butto give you," he brought out the ring box, "this!" he finished theatrically. Ranma's eye twitched.
"I'm a guy you moron!" he yelled, "I ain't into guys! Go talk to Kuno!" he snapped. Mousse blinked then scowled.
"No Saotome! This isn't...that! It's a magic ring, for your curse." Genma perked up, and slowed in his stealing of Ranma's food.
"Don't even think about it Pops," Ranma growled at his father.Genma returned a hurt expression.
"Whatever do you mean son? I only have your best interest in mind." Ranma glared at him but turned back to Mousse.
"So how does this thing work?" he asked suspiciously.
"You put the ring on in your cursed form, then take the scroll and read it. Then the magic will cure your curse."
Genma lunged across the table, only to be met half-way by Ranma's spin-kick. The overweightmartial artist flew backwards and crashed into the shogi board, scattering the pieces across the room.
"Ha!" Ranma crowed, "I knew you were gonna do somethin' ya greedy bastard." Genma gave his head a couple of shakes and then shot a death-glare at his son.
"Insolent boy!" he snarled, falling into his old verbal stance. "After all I've done for you! This is how you repay me!?" But Ranma would have nothing of it.
"All you've...don't be so full of yerself! All you've done is made me the world's biggest target! I gotten your butt out of the fire too many times old man." Genma and Ranma shared a withering glare, and Genma rose to meet the challenge.
Mousse for his part, was starting to panic. When Ranma fought, things broke. The Tendos instinctively knew this and had scurried out of the way, though Akane's glare promised pain for the younger Saotome.
He had to put an end to this.
"Th...," he then remembered what Cologne had told him. "The cure only works on the spring of drowned girl!" he yelled.
Genma froze and Ranma smirked at the words.
"That's right," Mousse continued in a more relaxed tone, "It only works on victims of that spring; else I would've used it myself."
The Tendos had returned to the table and Genma had slumped to the floor, a defeated expression on his face.
"Not gonna be a girl no more, not gonna be a girl no more, not gonna be a girl no more!" Ranma repeated as he danced around the room. Mousse suppressed a malicious grin and forced an angry scowl onto his face.
"Do you want the cure or not!?" he growled angrily. Ranma quit dancing and hopped over to the Chinese boy.
"Right, so what do I hafta do?" he asked eagerly.
"First go into your girl form." Ranma grabbed a glass of water and dumped it on his, now her, head.
"Then, put the ring on your right finger." Mousse offered the ring box up. Ranma quickly opened the box and produced the ring.
The ring was absolutely exquisite. A thin silver band covered in strange markings, and topped with a carefully cut yellow gem. The gem seemed to hum with an inner power, and the hairs on the back of Ranma's neck stood on end.
Her danger sense was screaming at her, but she wrote it off as a knee jerk reaction to something magical. Still though, she had learned to trust her instincts, they had saved her butt more times than she cared to count.
"Ummm...yeah." she said as she slipped it on, it fit her finger perfectly. As if it was customized just for her.
"Now what?" she asked, her enthusiasm dulled due to her nervousness. There was something wrong with this situation; she just couldn't put her finger on what!
"Now take the scroll and read it." Mousse offered her the scroll. She stared at it for a moment, a heavy feeling in her stomach. She shook it off and reached for the scroll with her ringed hand.
12345678987654321
Kasumi watched as first Mousse appeared, and she greeted him in her own pleasant fashion. Then a roller coaster of emotions as Mousse produced the ring, Uncle Saotome and Ranma had a brief but heated argument. Finally Mousse's declaration about the ring.
Her hand had unconsciously slipped into her apron pocket and was rolling the red ceramic fragment in her palm as she watched the redhead slip on the ring, then reach for the scroll.
The room was suddenlyfilled with a brilliant red flash and the air was heavy with the horrid smell of fire and ash. Kasumi instinctively turned away, shielding her eyes with her open palm. Her heart broke as she heard Ranma's distinctive voice scream in pain and then...was gone.
Leaving a set of cracked glasses, and a single, black bracer amongst two piles of ash.
In her palm, blood trickled down her fingers from where she had been gripping the ceramic fragment.
End of Chapter 1
A very special thank you to Dumbledork for saving this from being a total disaster!
Also thank you to MShrieken and deathgeonous for ensuring my spelling and for allowing me to bounce idea's off of them.
Please make sure to thank them in your reviews okay?
