Chapter Two
Arrogantly presented by Vex The Warlord
- -
The screen focuses on Vex once more, who is holding his back against an enormous, square metal door. Behind which roars, slams and crashes were emanating. It opens slightly before slamming closed again by the avatar with a heavy shove.
He grips the door tightly and keeps forcing it closed.
"Yo! Boss! Second chapter!" A slightly bizarre sounding voice sounds from behind the current point of observation.
"This is so not the right time you idiot!" He yells as an incredible roar shrieks out from behind the gigantic gate, and tries to open it once more before being forced back. The black armored man groans and digs his heels into the floor to keep the door closed.
"Come on boss! Where's your sense of fun?!" The weird voice responds, sounding slightly insane.
"Trapped behind the god damn gate!" He shouts and forces the gate closed once more with a mighty thud.
"We gotta wrap it up! We need a teaser for the chapter!" The weird voice whines.
Vex growls with his eyes flaring. "Here's a fucking teaser for you! If you don't help me keep this thing locked up! I'm going to throw you in with it!" He snarls, his left hand light up in flames and he hurls a fireball at the screen, blacking it out.
"Oh! And by the way, you readers, the first chapter got re-done!"
- -
The door to the classroom opened up, and a middle aged man walked in. He was short, balding, and wore a set of glasses over his eyes. He walked straight over to the desk, putting the book he was carrying down onto its surface.
"Okay class, today we will be covering two handed swords that were made across Europe and Asia. Does anyone here know what a Zweihänder is?" He asked, his voice somewhat heavy, and tired.
"It's a long sword, designed for two hands, being one point eight meters long, it's blade being roughly one point two to one point five meters of that. It's an incredibly light sword being roughly two to three point two kilograms in weight. The forte is blunted so it is possible to wield it, effectively reducing the length of the hilt. The cross guard measures up to thirty five centimeters across." Ranma said, just loudly enough to be heard.
The teacher blinked once, then twice, "That... Is correct." he said slowly and carefully. "Claymore?"
"Somewhat smaller than most two handed swords, its distinctive cross guard sloops downward toward the point of the blade. It's measured one hundred and forty centimeters in length, with a one hundred and seven centimeter blade, and a weight of roughly two point five kilograms." Ranma answered.
"What about the history behind them?" The teacher asked nervously, which Ranma stayed silent upon.
"Well, urm, I'll get on with it." The teacher stumbled over his own thoughts and words. He began to elaborate upon the histories of the Zweihänder, then the Claymore, followed by many other enormous swords. Ranma quipped in with some information occasionally, especially when they covered the Zanbato and similar swords.
"Ranma seems... Smarter..." Sayuri whispered to Yuka as she leaned out of her desk.
"Or he could just know a lot about weapons," a boy in a seat behind them muttered having overheard them. Of course, he was completely ignored.
"Yeah, he's acting really different, maybe something happened?" Yuka responded quietly.
"Maybe we should ask Akane?" Sayuri queried of her friend.
"Yeah, let's ask her during lunch." Yuka agreed, both of them nodded at that.
"Hey you two! Pay attention!" The balding teacher ordered, both jumped slightly and nodded, apologising.
On the other side of class, two complete idiots were having a conversation.
"I wonder if Alien-Ranma is going to try and take over the world, or just blow it up?" Hiroshi whispered over to Daisuke.
Daisuke replied with an equally ridiculous remark, "Maybe he'll give us some cute girls as gifts if he does conquer the world?"
Both drooled at that thought for a moment before Hiroshi replied again, "We'll have to remember to make good with the Alien." He said before being hit on the head by an eraser.
"Pay attention! The next person who ignores my lecture will be thrown out the window!" The balding teacher yelled out, clearly irritated as a vein bulged in his forehead.
Moments later Gosunkugi was ejected through a window.
Ranma let loose a powerful yawn as he sat down under his usual tree, pulling out his Bento lunch pail and setting it on his lap. He slowly ate from the overstuffed box for a few moments before Ukyo approached him, holding a Bento of her own in front of her.
"Hey Ranchan." Ukyo smiled at him, reminding him of Kasumi for some reason as she sat down next to him. She started to eat, and a moment later Ranma smiled lightly and resumed his lunch. They didn't notice as Ukyo leaned against Ranma, and he wrapped his free arm around her shoulders, protectively.
Akane watched on, her left eye twitching, but the peculiars of the day still ran through her head, keeping her from simply storming up to them and whacking Ranma. She clenched her teeth and turned around with a huff, noticing that her two friends were there, presumably for a few minutes trying to get her attention.
"Akane? We wanted to ask, has anything happened to Ranma?" Sayuri asked, noticing they now had their friend's attention.
"Uh, I don't know?" Akane admitted, rubbing the back of her head with a sigh.
"Are you sure no one has used some kind of weird magic thing on him?" Yuka questioned, "Like the Amazons, or Ryoga, or someone else?"
"Uh..." Was Akane's eloquently phrased response, "I gotta go." she replied after a moment, then dashed away, heading off to find Nabiki.
It took a few minutes to locate the middle Tendo sister, who was sitting out of the way in the cafeteria. She was not doing anything of suspicious nature, apart from eating her lunch, which was still suspicious enough for Nabiki.
"Nabiki!" Akane shouted out, drawing her sister's attentions as she came up to her.
"Hm? What is it Akane?" Nabiki asked of her sister, mildly curious as to what she wanted.
"Have you seen Ranma today?" Akane asked, concern showing on her face.
"Yeah, at breakfast, like we do every day." Nabiki answered, causing Akane to become slightly irritated as a bead of sweat appeared on her forehead.
"That's not what I meant!" Akane yelled out before continuing calmly, "He's acting really weird today, it's bizarre. Do you have any idea what happened?"
Nabiki chewed on the end of her chopsticks for a moment before replying, "Nope."
Akane fell over with a small thud. She got back up and looked at her sister, irritated. "Nabiki! I need help!" Akane bemoaned.
"I'll find out what's happening, and I'll give you a family discount." Nabiki said as she returned her attention to her lunch.
Akane grew more sweat along her forehead, "Your so generous..." She said sarcastically. Nabiki only waved her off.
"Ranchan?" Ukyo asked of her fiancé, looking up with a peaceful, yet curious expression on her face.
"Hm?" Ranma replied, looking over at Ukyo while chewing a bit of food.
"Will... Will you protect me? If anyone wants to hurt me?" She asked, a slight, almost unnoticeable quiver in her voice.
He smiled at Ukyo. "Sure Ucchan, I'll be your bodyguard," Ranma promised her.
Just as those words rolled off his tongue, his eyes widened and dilated unblinkingly for just a moment before screwing tightly shut as he clutched his head. Next to him, Ukyo was experiencing the exact same effects.
He felt himself crashing through wooden boards, noticing it was a roof he fell through. He landed with a crash around the debris.
After a moment he let a groan escape his lips, he gripped the ground, feeling it give to his fingers... It was dirt, and grass... Inside a building? He pulled himself upright, and around him were flowers, quite a lot of them in fact.
They were all growing in a large opening in the floorboards of a building, it was fairly run down but it was recognizable as a church.
"Are you okay?" he heard a soft, feminine voice say. The sudden sound startled him and he quickly pulled himself onto his feet, taking a battle ready stance.
Upon noticing it was merely a young woman, he relaxed as she watched him curiously. She had brown hair, curled into a ponytail that reached her mid back. And wore a long pink dress, and in her arm was a basket filled with flowers.
He relaxed. She was just a flower girl, nothing to worry about. He nodded as he picked up his giant sword, and slipped it into the sheath on his back, the familiar weight allowing him to relax his guard completely.
"I'm fine." He said calmly as he brushed off some debris from his clothing. He adjusted his shoulder guard, which had been knocked slightly lopsided.
"What happened to you?" The woman asked curiously, looking up at the destroyed roof of the church, as she stood up.
He looked upward, as the flower girl did. "I fell." He responded after a moment. This elicited a smile from his companion, at the obviousness of his answer.
"My name is..." The woman said to him, as she turned her gaze to meet his. "Who are you?"
The answer from his blonde haired self he couldn't hear, but the woman heard it loud and clear.
"My, my, a member of avalanche, and the girl that the boss wants. Must be our lucky day." came a smooth voice, causing him to quickly swing around to face the church's entrance, to see two men in suits at the doorway.
He placed his hand on the hilt of his unusually large sword, and took a ready position. The front most agent smirked and put his hand under his vest, and pulled out a gun he leveled at His head.
He swung around and grabbed the girl as he pushed off with his feet at the signal of the first shot. He danced ahead of the bullets by mere inches before reaching the cover of one of the church columns. The blond man placed the girl down onto her feet, leaping out and pulling his sword out in mid air, and ran toward the two Turks.
He dodged and weaved rapidly, managing to dodge the bullets, and jumped up, closing the last few feet and bringing his weapon down, cleaving a bullet in half, and then slicing his blade into the agent's head. He let loose a pained grunt as three bullets hit him in the back. The agent let loose a final gurgle as he ripped his sword clean out, leaving a large gash as the agent fell over, dead.
He brought his sword around at the second Turk, severing his head clean off from his neck. The head fell backward to the ground as the neck let loose a small spurt of blood before the body followed.
He panted, and groaned from the pain of his injury, not noticing as the flower girl approached him.
"Your hurt." She said softly, placing her hand on his shoulder. She took her other hand and retrieved a staff with a large green sphere in a slot on the top, the sphere glowed oddly with energy flowing through it constantly.
She moved the tip of the quarterstaff near his wounds and closed her eyes, the sphere glowing brightly. The blood stopped from the wounds as the three bullets were ejected, landing on the ground with three distinct clicks, then the wounds pulled back together, sealing up leaving unmarred skin.
The blond man rubbed the now healed wounds tentatively and turned to her, "Why were they after you?"
"I don't know." She admitted, looking at the bodies sadly, "Thanks for protecting me."
"Don't worry about them, I'll be your bodyguard." He promised her.