Chapter 3
Well here is chapter 3 hope you enjoy, it will be the last for the next few days.
'Bell thinking/speaking'
'Birdy thinking/speaking'
'Ranma thinking/speaking'
"normal speech for anyone"
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Ranma got up groggily, rubbing his eyes as he stretched his back for a second, before thinking to Bell 'Morning'' rather sleepily. He got no reply so he assumed that she was still sleeping.
"Weird dream last night" he muttered, rolling up his futon and storing it in his bag. He quickly checked around the house to see if there was anything worth taking and finding nothing, went back to his room.
Moving around Ranma checked his bag to make sure he still had anything before hopping on to the window and jumping down from the third floor to the ground. While in the air he heard a startled yelp from his mind and assumed Bell was now awake.
"Well, another day of hiking, oh joy" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. 'Bell, you there?' he asked curiously to which he got the reply of snoring coming from the back of his head, causing him to sweat drop. Sighing, he shouted in to his mind 'BELL, WAKE UP! I thought you were already awake, we need to get going' his only response was yet another startled yelp.
'Err, Ranma… we need to talk, can you come in here for a second?' He heard Bell ask shakily. Curious, Ranma walked over to a tree and jumped up its trunk and sat down on one of the higher branches so that no-one would disturb him.
Entering his mind, Ranma walked towards Bell and leaned on the wall that appeared behind him as he did so.(AN: this bit will be in speech as he is speaking IN his mind, not thinking to Bell)
"What do you want?" Ranma asked, not unkindly.
"…I wanted to discuss her…" Bell replied, indicating the prone form of the girl from his 'dream'; Birdy on the 'floor'.
"Why is she here and why is she lying there?" he asked, looking from Bell to Birdy. Bellator looked a bit sheepish at the second question but answered none the less.
"Well, you remember last night right, and what happened?" she prompted. Now that she mentioned it, it all came back in a rush.
Flashback start:
Down below he could see a woman in armour similar to his/hers talking to a man in a suit. 'That's Birdy!' Bell exclaimed, pointing her mental finger at Birdy
Ranma watched as Geega transformed.
'You can watch how an Ixioran Altan fights.'
He arrived in time to see Geega throwing the boy at Birdy. Having no time to think, Ranma leapt in the way, protecting the boy with his body, before he felt pain explode across his back.
'…I take it back; you don't have any luck at all.'
Flashback end:
"Yes I remember" he said simply, albeit a bit shakily as his knees felt weak for a second as he remembered the pain in his back when he was almost ripped in half.
"Well basically, you died protecting that kid," she started before being interrupted by Ranma's exclamation of "What! Am I dead? Is this hell? No wait, too many pretty girls… Is this heaven?" he would have continued if not for the fact that Bell had covered his mouth with her hand which she then promptly wiped on his shoulder.
"As I was saying, you technically died, HOWEVER" she emphasised to forestall anymore yelling, "With the technology we have, they managed to save you, us, by merging you with the officer, Birdy. This is essentially what happened with the springs in China except you can be separated at the end, although the spring is suspiciously like the merging, might be some of the early technology fell to earth and did something to the springs…" she mumbled wistfully as she got lost in thought.
Ranma sweat dropped as she got a glazed look and stopped talking, he had been sweat dropping a lot lately, before snapping his fingers in front of her face. She snapped back to reality and blushed ever so slightly, making her look slightly more cute… wait, now was not the time to be thinking she was cute, he had work to do and a puzzle to solve.
"Ok so that's that question answered. Now, why is she lying there with a large bump on her head?" he asked kneeling down and poking her with a stick. Bell stared for a second before asking; "where'd you get the stick?" Ranma paused for a second before shrugging and continued poking Birdy on the head.
"anyway… when you yelled, I woke up and saw her sitting next to me, looking down at me so I… um… hit her in the face…" she said embarrassedly. Ranma just sighed and face palmed before cuffing her on the back of the head gently… ok, fairly gently.
"So I guess I should wake her up then Bell?" he asked looking to her to which she nodded.
Focusing, Ranma imagined a bucket of water to appear above her and dump all the water on her. A second later there was a 'pop' and the bucket appeared above Bell and poured on to her.
"Hey! Watch where you spawn those!" she yelled, waving her hand at him. He quickly nodded gesturing with his hands to placate her and formed another one over Birdy, splashing her on the head.
She woke with a splutter and immediately leapt up, looking left and right for the offender.
"Ok! Who did that and why does my head feel like I've been poked lots?!" she yelled, before spotting Bell and Ranma, who, at that point, was whistling and trying to seem innocent while hiding a stick behind his back.
She hit him on the head before she recognised him, "Hey! Your that guy I saved" she exclaimed, pointing at him before Bell piped in from behind her "Weren't you the one who almost killed him as well?" she growled, annoyed at her wording.
Birdy's answer to this was to turn bright red before she realised that there were three people in her/Ranma's mind when there should only be two.
"Why are there three people in here? And who are you?!" she asked confusedly, pointing at Bell, she swore she knew the girl from somewhere but she couldn't quite remember.
"Ahh come on Birdy, don't you remember little old me? I only grew up with you!" Bell taunted, grinning from ear to ear as she saw the cogs turning in Birdy's head.
Suddenly it clicked! "Bellie?" she asked hesitantly as Bell nodded her head.
"Yep, that's me!" she said cheerfully, Ranma all but forgotten in the background, nursing a bruised head, "how you doing Birdy?" she asked happily.
"I'M fine, but what about you? Why are you here? Did you kill this guy too?" she asked, only coming up with one way that she could be there too.
"I'm hurt Birdy! Thinking that I would kill a weak little human!" she exaggerated, clutching her heart.
"HEY!" Ranma shouted indignantly but was promptly ignored again.
"I'll have you know that it was the other way round, I crashed and drowned in a spring, but luckily they were cursed, and don't give me that look, I wouldn't believe it too, if I wasn't living, ish, proof of it. Anyway, when one falls in, they gain the genetics of the drowned thing. Luckily, Ranma here fell in and gained not only my body, but my mind as well, uncursing the spring." She finished her explanation and took a breath, watching as Birdy processed everything that she said.
"So there are cursed springs?" Birdy said slowly.
"Yep"
"And you fell in on?"
"Yep, again."
"And Ranma, the boy over there" pointing to Ranma who had got up and was pouting at being ignored, "fell in and gained your body and your mind with him, uncursing the spring?"
"That about sums it up!" she chirped happily.
Birdy was silent for a second before sighing and massaging her temples, "how do you get yourself in to these messes?!" she muttered, already feeling the onset of a migraine.
"Hey! I didn't want this to happen! It's not very fun drowning you know!" She exclaimed in a huff, expressing her displeasure at Birdy's comment.
Ignoring Bell in favour of looking Ranma up and down for a second, she bowed to him, and said "please forgive me for killing you?" she asked, her voice filled with hope. Bell could only sweat drop at how straight to the point she was. Ranma just ran his hand through his hair, before looking Birdy dead in the eye.
"Of course I forgive you Birdy; I knew that I would likely get harmed when I pushed the boy out of the way and I was prepared for the consequences, it's my job as a martial artist to protect people" He said, standing tall and puffing his chest out while Bell rolled her eyes. There was a moment's peace before Bell ruined the moment by squealing and tackling both of them down in a hug, exclaiming "Thank you!" at the top of her lungs.
Birdy giggled slightly before smiling at Ranma and standing up, offering her hand to help him up, which he grabbed.
"Now that's sorted, I think we should talk to my superior, Commander Magius" Birdy said, brushing the imaginary dust of her chest and dusting her hands.
Ranma nodded and willed himself out of his mind.
"Birdy, could you take over please, since I don't really know where to go right now" he said after standing still for a second and looking around.
'Ok, just a second Ranma' she said before transforming in to her body and assuming control before leaping off at great speed.
A few seconds later she crashed in to a tree after going too fast.
"Ow! Why did I go so fast?!" she complained, rubbing her head with a child like pout. Ranma and Bell muttered for a second in the back of her mind before Bell answered;
'We think it's a kind of feedback, you make him stronger and he makes you stronger' (1) she explained, pausing a second before continuing, 'He already was strong before he got me and that just tripled his strength so I'd say due to feedback, you about 60% stronger and faster, 20% from him and 40% from me, since I have the same gene code as you" By the end of the explanation, Birdy's eyes were spinning in confusion, and she took a clumsy step to the side, although that may have been due to the mild concussion that come with running full pelt at a tree, a very noticeably smaller tree at that.
"Ok, I'm just going to carry on now and try to adjust to the new speed, you guys keep talking all that gobbledegook" she muttered, to which Bell just sweat dropped. Birdy swore she heard her muttering in the back of her head about troublesome girls and not being able to take them anywhere.
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In another world, a certain Nara sneezed before moving a piece on the board in front of him. (1)
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Racing quickly through the woods, but not as quickly as before, Birdy leapt from branch to branch before coming to a clearing, with a small hut in it.
"Ah hah! I knew it was nearby!" she yelled, pumping her fist up and down. In her mind face planted, 'isn't this where I slept last night? You know, where we started this little expedition?' he asked, exasperatedly.
Birdy sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. Bell just sighed, muttering some more about idiots and circles.
Hearing this Birdy yelled, "How was I supposed to know we were already there?!" to which Bell replied rather snarkily, 'Maybe you should pay more attention to your surroundings!' Birdy blushed and looked away.
"Let's just go!" exclaimed Birdy, marching towards the house. Stopping outside a closet door, identical to the rest, Birdy opened the door and commanded the ship to open the gate.
Walking through the dark blue 'door' Birdy, Ranma and Bell found themselves in a large blue room.
Looking around, Ranma found nothing special about the room, with only a small terminal and a large pod in the room.
As Ranma's/Birdy's eyes roamed around the room, he noticed the terminal light up before a green blob appeared and quickly formed in to a weird cockroach…thing… Having seen him in Bell's memories, he wasn't to freaked out, key word being key; seeing memories is one thing, but seeing the real, if holographic, deal was still quite a shock.
"Ahh, Birdy, I see that you have returned, we should discuss what to do with your tenant for now" he said, not sounding worried in the least.
"Sir, I think my 'tenant' needs to talk to you" Birdy said before changing in to Ranma and giving him control, it was a side effect of the curse they discovered, once you gain control, you are the one in control of who gains control or the body.
"Hello Commander Magius" Ranma greeted, gaining a surprised look from Magius, although it was hard to tell, what with him being a cockroach.
"How do you know my name?!" Magius demanded a frown (?) on his face.
"Well, you see..." started Ranma, before launching in to his explanation, from a brief, but still graphic, story of his life - Birdy was quite surprised by what he went through as this was her first time hearing it as well - then on to the springs in China and finally about coming to Japan to escape his dad.
"… and then we came to Japan, hoping to find an Officer to help me join with you guys." He finished, watching as Magius thought for a minute.
After a while Magius finally replied, "Ok, for now we will give you a chance. Help Birdy complete this mission and we may let you in to the force. For now, you will co-operate with Birdy and help her live as 'Shion Arita' seeing as you want to lay low for a while to avoid your father, but Birdy must give you one day every few days to yourself, much like Bellator, as she is still responsible for your 'death'. There is no discussion on this matter, so good bye and remember to update me on your progress regularly," with that, the hologram disappeared.
'Well this is going to be interesting, now isn't it?' Bell said laughing in the background.
"it's going to be weird living with/as a girl!" Ranma complained before trudging out of a gate that just opened up and appeared in an unfamiliar house, which he assumed was Birdy's.
Giving Birdy control, Birdy walked in to the bed room, saying a brief "hi" to a confused Tuto and collapsed in bed, getting rid of her armour.
'This is going to be interesting alright'
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Done! Hope you like it since I got stuck near the end and I'm sorry if it showed.
Leave lots of reviews to tell me what you thought.
I won't post anymore for a few days as I will be on a school trip to Sheringham and will be unable to write anything for a while so expect the next release to be around Wednesday since I will be a bit unsure what to write from here on in, until I re-watch the series (Birdy).
References:
1: Shikamaru in Naruto is famous for being lazy, saying many things are 'troublesome' usually girls.
