Chapter 2: Amazons

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

" " - Japanese

"% %" - Chinese

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There was some kind of festival going on at the village. Most of the residents were gathered in the central area watching a suspended-log fight. Ranma had done a few of these; good balance training at one time, though his skills were far beyond that level now.

One of the combatants was a girl about his age in silks and breastplate wielding a couple of maces. The other had a polearm bristling with spikes. They were striking and parrying with what Ranma considered good speed. Anyone else looking on would have considered it superhuman.

It was midday. Lunch had been set up on a table to one side. Ranma and his father automatically started to eat: easier to get forgiveness than permission, in their experience, especially if the rest of the village were about to eat as well. They settled in and watched the fight.

The girl on the log won with an impressive blow that sent her opponent flying into the crowd. "Winning martial art show is good honor," the guide said.

"That girl's got some serious power," Ranma conceded, munching on some fruit.

The guide noticed them eating. "Mister customers? What you eat here?"

A mace suddenly smashed the table. Ranma found himself facing a very angry tournament winner. She spoke in her local dialect. "You there!" the guide translated. "Woman! Why do you steal my prize? She say."

"Prize?"

"Every year this day is martial art show. This year special prize. I am now champion, she say."

"Then if I defeat you, you've got no problem, right?" Ranma said. This he could deal with: win the tournament and the prize was his. Piece of cake.

The girl yelled something that sounded like a battle cry. "She KILL!" the guide warned as the girl charged.

Ranma jumped back, easily avoiding the first blow. The second he intercepted on the downswing, breaking off the mace head and sending it spinning through the air. It came down on the girl's head, knocking her out.

Ranma felt himself grabbed by a large furry paw. His father had decided it was time to make themselves scarce, as usual. They ran for their lives as the villagers screamed for blood.

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As Shampoo awoke, she found her great-grandmother balancing on her walking staff nearby. Cursing her carelessness, she got up, dusted herself off, and ran off in the direction the other villagers were all looking. She didn't get twenty strides before getting tripped.

"%Child!" Cologne chastised. "Where do you think you are going?%"

"%To kill her! She stole the Prize! The only way to -%"

BONK. "%Think, child! How will you kill a Prophetess? How could she even BE the Prophetess if the Lady did not allow it?%"

Shampoo rubbed her head. "%She tricked the Lady?%"

Cologne sighed. "%With all my years even I couldn't do such a thing. No. The Lady chooses who She wills. We hold these tournaments to decide who to offer her, and thus far she has always accepted our champions. But she always has the right to choose someone else, even an outsider. She must have her reasons. Some purpose to be pursued in the outside world. And we must find what that purpose is.%" She gestured toward the village. "%Pack our things for a long trip...%"

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The village was unfamiliar to Ranma; they had taken a different road on their way in. They had gotten far enough back to civilization that there were truck stops; they went into a restroom and changed into their normal genders.

Ranma was relieved to be male again. The girl-form, perhaps woman-form - it seemed older than him - beyond just being what he wasn't, and leading people to expect things that he wasn't used to, threw him off physically. It had a higher center of gravity, and he was constantly aware of parts that shouldn't have been there that were, and what should have been but wasn't. It was weaker and had less stamina: even now he was exhausted, when he should have been full of energy from a brisk walk in the countryside.

There were some men playing cards. One of the ways they had financed their training, though Genma was not a particularly good gambler and usually ended up stealing the pot and running. Ranma assumed that would happen here and prepared for a fight.

Three bulky men stood behind the card sharks. Ranma looked them over. They were doing their best to look intimidating. It wasn't working. Ranma had dealt with worse odds.

Predictably, Genma started to lose and accused the men of cheating. Both sides were, of course, and neither was much good at it. They left a room full of unconscious men and resumed resumed their normal training pace, running as if their lives depended on it. Which they didn't this time, a refreshing change of pace from those crazy women.

Their normal forms, unfortunately, didn't last. Hours later, the rain came. Ranma grumbled. He HATED being a girl.

They made it to a town near sundown. They slept under a bridge, not bothering to change for the night; there seemed no point. Ranma didn't like the looks he was getting from some of the men they had passed.

He REALLY hated being a girl.

They came in the night. They thought they were being silent. They had nets and bags and clubs. They got a full dose of Anything-Goes Martial Arts.

Ranma looked at their would-be captors. Same men who had been giving him those creepy looks. Women were scarce in China these days. No doubt they thought some zoo or private collector would pay big for a panda, too.

More running. More fighting. More training.

And then Ranma woke up.

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One more worry, Ranma thought. He should have known it was a dream. It wasn't like his waking life, when he was full of thought.

In the three days since they had fled the village full of crazy women Ranma had gotten growing feelings of familiarity with everything he saw, of deja vu at everything that happened. He KNEW that flock of birds would fly overhead just so; he knew they woud get pelted with droppings - he managed to avoid them after the first time. He KNEW that truck would be coming up the road just now. He KNEW it was going to rain around this time of day.

So he should feel familiar with any town or truck stop they came to. Like the one they were approaching now. The one from the dream.

Genma led them into the restroom. They washed up, changing to man and boy. They joined a card game.

Ranma looked around the room. The card sharks and tough guys were the same as in the dream.

"Pop..."

"Quiet, boy! I'm trying to think!"

Ranma stood back and watched the scene unfold, exactly as before. The toughs were just as easy to deal with. As they ran, Ranma felt giddy. He had known what was going to happen! What had the guide called this? Spring of Drowned Prophetess? Now he wished they hadn't gotten the Amazons angry enough to kill them. They could tell him more about this.

"Pop! I knew it! I knew what was going to happen!"

"OF course you did! That ALWAYS happens!"

"No, I mean - I knew who those guys were! I knew their faces! I saw them before!"

If anything, Genma actually picked up speed. "We met them somewhere else? But we haven't cheated at cards since we got here!"

"I SAW IT! In a dream! Last night!"

"Don't be ridiculous! You've never believed in that stuff before!"

Ranma wanted to press the issue but something held him back. Some errant instinct, a suspicion that it would be better to leave it. He knew his father would be a hard sell on this; it could wait.

They eventually slowed down to walking pace. Why can't I see anything now? Ranma thought. He tried to summon a vision for several minutes with no success. Finally he relaxed, resting his brain. It soon hit him: Obviously he would see nothing - the cursed form had the power.

Later that day the rain came and proved him right. As soon as he changed he tried to see the rest of the day - it came in clearly. They were still going to have to deal with slavers and panda-poachers that night. Ranma informed his father. The panda's grunt sounded almost like a "so what?"

That evening, on the run from the slavers, Ranma got in an "I told you so!"

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Shampoo stood on a roof, looking down at the city below. There they were, in a marketplace. She jumped a few blocks over to where her great-grandmother was drinking tea.

"They're here. Down in the market," she reported.

Cologne nodded. "Let us arrange an accident." She picked up the kettle from over the fire and pogoed across the rooftops.

She surveyed the market, as panda and Prophetess haggled for food. She worked her way around the market to a side street closer to them. They finished haggling and moved down a different side street. Cologne moved over and into position, then dumped the hot water over the side of the roof.

The panda turned into a man. The Prophetess turned into a boy. "Interesting. She has actually chosen a male," she mused.

Cologne watched them head off through the city, then went down to the restaurant herself and, having finished her tea, filled the cup with cold water in the restroom. She didn't spill a drop as she hopped along rooftops following her marks for several blocks. Finally she took an opportunity to dump the water on the boy. The Prophetess returned.

Cologne and Shampoo quickly retreated. "He knows the powers of the Prophetess, but not their limitations," she said. "Or just doesn't use the Gift consistently. We will have to train him in that."

"We take them now?" Shampoo asked.

"When we see where they are going. Returning to Japan, I should think. Exactly where should tell us much about the Lady's purpose."

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Ranma was using the power almost constantly now, except during training sessions. The occasional meditation training was especially helpful. He was learning to summon up very clear images and sequences, and how to manipulate them.

By concentrating on an image of something he had already seen with a specific intent to change something, he found he could see a new sequence, showing him the result of his intent. He could try variations on a theme, exhaustively study different approaches to problems. He was not surprised that he could win most future battles without knowing anything beforehand, but was a bit taken aback by how many fights proved avoidable or could be won much more easily than his usual approach would.

Several of these battles included images of strangers he sensed were a common presence in his life. Why would he suddenly have companions? Why was he seeming to return constantly to one house? His father had never wanted to put up with such burdens before.

Ranma went to sleep one night, determined to see who these people were.

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"Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this..."

"I'm Akane. You want to be friends?"

"You're pretty good. Well, I'm just glad you're a girl."

"AAAAAAAAAA!"

"The legendary ground of accursed springs...its true horror has always been shrouded in mystery. But now..."

"My daughter Kasumi. Nineteen. And Nabiki, seventeen. And Akane, sixteen. Pick the one you want. She's your fiancee."

"Oh, he wants Akane!"

"Oh, definitely!"

"Me? Marry that pervert? No way!"

"...and I'm better built, to boot!"

"She's really a very sweet girl. She's just a violent maniac."

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Ranma considered the dream. That whole business would take some work.

A marriage contract... that would be just like his father, not telling him about something as important as that. The old man wouldn't want him getting distracted with outside concerns or long-term situations. Several marriage contracts for trivial prices... that was par for the course too. They had been cheating people to sustain their lifestyle for as long as he could remember. But they had always been able to run away before. Now it seemed like their past would catch up with them.