The Darkness Before the Light
"And this class is the new exhibit that we came to see." The woman said looking at the clipboard she carried as the group entered a large, spacious room with several exhibition cases filled with jewelry, ceremonial daggers and other assorted relics from some age long gone. "You are the first public group to see this room as we are still working on cataloguing everything here. Most of it is dated over three centuries old and was found in a new dig in the Sahara Desert."
"This is so boring." Ranma groaned to Akane as she stood next to him holding a small water bottle she bought from a vending machine a few minutes ago as they walked quietly along the rest of their class following the tour guide whose name Ranma couldn't remember and Ms. Hinako, the woman who set this up.
"Oh, so pretty." Said woman, more like child at the moment, cooed as she stood on tiptoes staring through the glass of one case.
"What's so special about a bunch of old junk?" Ranma huffed crossing his arms.
"A pervert like you wouldn't understand!" Akane snapped dumping the contents of her bottle over Ranma's head triggering his curse changing him from a dark haired teenage boy to a curvy crimson haired teenage girl.
"Damn it Akane, what did you do that for?" Ranma growled, a little of her battle aura manifesting around her.
"Are you two being delinquents again?" Ms. Hinako asked pulling out a five yen coin with a hole in the middle of it and held it between two fingers pointing it toward Akane and Ranma.
"No, not us!" Ranma and Akane said at the same time jumping away from each other.
"Good, but maybe you two should keep your distance." Ms. Hinako said reluctantly returning the coin to her yellow dress. "I don't want any risk of damaging my friend's new exhibit. He worked very hard at it and is very proud."
"O-Of course, teach, no problem at all." Ranma said hurrying away from his seemingly eternal angry fiancé and ki vampire teacher. She crossed her arms and decided to get a closer look at the junk when she heard something calling her name in a quiet voice. Looking around her she didn't see anyone who was calling her, in fact no one was even paying attention to her.
'RRRRaaannnmmmaaaaaaa.' The voice called again, the voice having an almost ghostlike property to it. Looking again she didn't see anybody but when the voice called a third time she could have sworn that it was coming from inside the case. Scanning the case she ticked off everything as junk until she came to a bracelet that for some reason didn't seem to belong in the case with everything else. In fact it almost seemed to have a life force to it but that was impossible wasn't it? Then again knowing her life it probably was alive and had some kind of ultra powered demon trapped in it and it wanted to marry Akane and kill him…Or marry Ranma's girl side which made her wince in disgust. That's all she needed was another pervert after her. She already had enough people after her one way or another.
"Ranma, because of you I've seen hell!" Speaking of people who were out to get her.
"Hey P-chan, long time no see." Ranma said regretting it immediately as she sensed Ryouga tensing, getting ready to attack. "Look Ryouga, we can't fight here, this is a museum."
"Hold delinquents!" Ms. Hinako demanded drawing her coin and aiming it at Ryouga and Ranma.
"Always trying to hide behind someone or something Ranma!" Ryouga growled, "You truly are a coward!"
"At least I'm not some hypocrite!" Ranma snapped growing a little angry, she was growing tired of everything that had been happening the last month after the failed wedding. She had her sixteenth birthday just a week before this field trip and no one had ever wished her a happy birthday much less do something nice for her yet and seriously doubted it was going to happen.
Then there was Akane starting to accuse Ranma of being a mutant ever since stories of mutants started filling the media lately after some strange happening in New York in the United States. While Ranma wasn't prejudiced against anyone, except for maybe the Amazons though the vote on them was still out, she refused to admit to being a mutant since she wasn't. She worked her entire life to become the martial artist she was today and it was the first thing that really angered her about her fiancé. Akane, though Ranma reluctantly admitted, was someone Ranma really cared for and it hurt for her to accuse Ranma of something like that just because she refused to put in the work it required to become as skilled s martial artist as the rest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew.
On top of that, the accusations seemed to spread out to Ryouga and Kuno who started actually fighting much more seriously using all of it as an excuse which just seemed to make Akane all the more mallet happy.
"How dare you!" Ryouga growled launching a punch at Ranma's gut catching her off guard from her thoughts. She cursed herself for dropping her guard as she was launched crashing through the case of relics launching them everywhere around her.
"Happo Five Yen Satsu!" Ms. Hinako cried launching her attack just as Ranma rolled as she hit the ground just managing to dodge feeling something slither around her wrist. Looking at it she saw the bracelet now tightly wrapped around her arm and was almost distracted enough again to drop her guard but was able to bring her arms up to block the punch thrown from Ryouga though the force still sent Ranma flying through the wall and out on the street with Ryouga following closely behind.
"Catch me if you can!" Ranma said jumping on top a wall then to the roof soaring over two strange looking people watching in awe. One was a tall, muscular foreign man with blonde hair and an almost feral look to him while the other was obviously female despite the green cloak hiding her features.
"Get back here Ranma!" Ryouga screamed in rage following Ranma's lead. Ranma turned to roof hop to the empty lot that Ranma saw on the bus ride to the museum. She wanted to lead Ryouga away from everyone else since he had been even worse lately about bystanders. She was getting afraid that if he kept this up he was seriously going to hurt someone and then end up blaming her.
"Where are you, Ranma!" Came Ryouga's roar in the distance causing Ranma to stop looking behind her to notice Ryouga was now gone. She sighed in relief and annoyance, if anyone around here was a mutant it was pigboy always disappearing without much of a warning or an explanation.
"Damn it." Ranma sighed turning to head back to the museum but saw the bus leaving and cursed. She would have to make her way back to Nerima on foot thanks to Habiki.
"Do you think he is a mutant Mr. Creed?" Clarice asked pulling her cloak around her tighter.
"What did I tell you about calling me that kid?" The man said, sighing. "Anyways, its none of our business we're just here to do a job. Until then we need to lay low."
"Okay, Mr. Creed." Clarice said causing the man to groan in annoyance.