Magical Guardian Ranma: Beta Edition Chapter 3, a ranma fanfic

MAGICAL GUARDIAN RANMA: BETA EDITION

MGR: Director's Cut

PREREADING AND EDITING ASSISTANCE BY:

Golden Arms

And the return of some guy named Steve.

DISCLAIMER: 'Ranma ½' and all characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. This fanfic has been produced for my own enjoyment and to pass on without profit. Other characters that come into play in this fanfic may or may not be pulled from other sources (including other fanfics, RPGs, manga, anime, literature, or possibly even gasp American comic books!).

TAGS: Gothic Horror Romantic Sex Comedy Adventure Drama Alternaverse

Look! An obvious distraction!

CHAPTER THREE:

Akane slogged across the sodden mass of mud and gravel, carrying Nabiki towards a relatively dry - or at least clean - patch of grass. Setting the elder girl down, she checked her sister over.

"Nabiki?" Akane prompted, as she gently poked and prodded her practically nude sister here and there, exploring for possible injuries. In the process of doing that, she plucked off the odd triangle that was all that remained of her sister's costume. Seeing as how there weren't any apparent injuries in that location, she decided to study the piece directly, and plucked off her own to compare them.

Both cups were made of some firm but pliable material that was translucent when held up to the light. Her own was ruby red trimmed with what looked like (but couldn't actually be) brass, while Nabiki's was sapphire blue bordered with a lighter blue. And each had the kanji for their respective elements displayed prominently across them. They were actually kind of pretty, in her opinion, and she now had two of them assuming that the one she woke up with was still in her room.

Returning her attention to Nabiki, Akane noted that her sister's hair was still blue, and that her eyes were still bright green, if unfocused, indicating that Nabiki remained in her empowered state…

Just then, the odd colors seemed to drain away, leaving Nabiki with her natural hues. Akane cocked an eyebrow as her sister's pubic hair returned over previously smooth skin, but the red haired warrior of fire didn't consider this relevant to her sister's health and thus chose to ignore it for the moment.

"Hey, Sparky," Ranma called out as he hopped over. "How's Squirt doing? I just felt her power drop - not that there was much left anywayyyyups!"

Akane looked at the largish blue kangaroo-rat curiously as he spun around and avoided looking directly at Nabiki. "Nabiki doesn't seem to be hurt, Sensei. Not physically at least, but she's exhausted, and I think she's in shock."

"I'll get your packs. She'll probably feel better once she's wearing something."

"If you say so. She didn't seem to be bothered about being nude last night."

"Whoa… You girls weren't kidding when you said that you didn't seem to care about clothes while you were powered up!"

"Why should we? It's not like we actually need them. Besides, from what you told us earlier, you basically see us in the nude anyway, when we're powered up. I bet you can't even tell that my shirt has a hole in it."

"It does?" Despite his misgivings, Ranma couldn't help turning to look over his shoulder.

"Right here," Akane cupped her left breast in demonstration. "Boob's been hanging out since I got skewered. Sensei?"

Akane watched as the oversized blue kangaroo-rat stiffened up and keeled over.

"Honestly, Sensei," she huffed, "you've got to get over this sometime. It's just skin."

O O O

Kei poked her head out of the manhole and noted that the sounds of high impact combat seemed to have died off, although there was plenty of other activity in the battle zone. Taking the opportunity presented by the presumably momentary peace, she dismissed her powers, causing her garish costume to fade out of existence, to be replaced a few seconds later by the clothes she had started out in. And incidentally leaving her clean of the muck from the storm drain she had just crawled out of.

Being a magical girl definitely had its perks.

O O O

After poking Ranma a couple of times to see if he'd respond, Akane set her sensei on a convenient set of cushions and stood up, looking for the packs. Deciding that it didn't make sense to remain powered up while her sister wasn't, particularly if they wanted to maintain secret identities, the Warrior of Fire released her power and allowed it to flicker out.

And immediately regretted it as she not only found herself nude, but also doubly embarrassed for having been so blasé about such things only moments ago. Her blush deepened and spread further as she realized that she had just treated her sister's bare breasts as a couple of pillows to rest Sensei on. Not to mention having thought nothing at all about removing the only pieces of so-called clothing that either of them seemed to keep on whenever they powered down.

Quickly replacing the stringless briefs, Akane was relieved to see that they actually stayed in place. While they were far from being even remotely modest, they were quite literally better than wearing nothing at all. If only barely so.

The flustered girl looked about frantically for the packs containing their spare clothes, but she didn't see them anywhere. Covering herself as best as she could with only her hands and arms, Akane trudged back out into the mire of mud and gravel, searching for any sign of the missing articles. After a moment's thought, she remembered that they had been near the back of the lot, a bit to the left, so she turned slightly and continued trudging along, wishing that her sister hadn't shed several tons of water all over the place.

A short while later, her eyes were drawn to the still steaming pile of scorched and glassy rocks that marked the spot where Sensei had killed the youma. The ground there had been baked dry, and was still smoldering in places, but it was easier to walk on. And for some reason her feet didn't seem to register the residual heat.

On the other side of the pile of glazed gravel Akane finally spotted where she and her sister had started from and stopped short. She didn't see any sign of either pack, but she did see an odd dual blast mark. Half of which was burnt out, while the other had large shards of ice imbedded in a radius in and around it. On closer inspection, she spotted what looked like a couple of twisted wires laying on the ground roughly between them.

Curious, Akane carefully navigated around the sharp ice fragments and reached down to pull one of the wires free to see what it was. Growing pale, she realized that the so-called wire was actually the zipper to one of their packs, fused solid…

O O O

Kei sighed in resignation as she came to the realization that it would be nearly impossible to find either of the two combatants she had been chasing without the sounds of battle guiding her. One would think that a fifty foot tall naked girl made of water would be easy to spot, especially with the racket she had been making while fighting the squid youma, but an eerie silence had fallen over the battle zone.

Now that the initial incident seemed to be over, more and more people had started to come out of the woodwork (occasionally quite literally in the case of some of the partially collapsed buildings). A few were engaging in clean-up activities, or first-aid, or were making an effort to dig others out of the rubble, but most were wandering around aimlessly in a state of dazed shock.

From the sheer number of naked people scattered among everyone else, Kei deduced that a bath-house had been yet another casualty of the fight. Sure enough, as she followed the trail of wreckage, she found a demolished building with shattered bathing fixtures.

Sighing again, Kei Murphy wondered just how she was going to write this one up in her report. There was simply no way to convince this many people to be discrete about what happened…

O O O

"Oh well," Akane muttered to herself. "I guess there's no other choice, unless I want to try to make it back to the house in the nude."

Smirking, she once again posed dramatically and shouted: "BISHOJO MAGICAL FIRE HENSHIN!"

Akane held her pose for a few moments as embers swirled briefly around her body before realizing that nothing else happened.

Blinking, and filling a little silly, she changed her pose and tried again, with less certainty: "Bishojo Magical Fire Henshin?"

This time, there were only a few sparks, and they flickered out almost as soon as they popped up.

"Um… I'd like to transform now, please?"

Akane waited hopefully for a moment, but there wasn't even a spark this time.

"Dammit!"

Somewhat dispirited, Akane made her way back to where she had left Nabiki and Sensei.

O O O

"Husband," Nodoka began formally, once Genma had finished his tale. "You have come to me, bearing a tremendous burden of guilt for your actions against our son, Ranma. You have done deeds, both petty and grave, that have put the honor of both our son and our family at risk. And you have led our son to a training ground where his very humanity was stolen from him. For any of this I could condemn you, and possibly our son as well, and either have you thrown out of the clan or called upon to fulfill your pledge to its fullest extent. And yet..."

Nodoka's tone grew gentler, but no less formal. "And yet, there was much good in what you have told me as well. Yes, you have led our son time and time again into danger, and time and time again he has overcome the challenges you have placed before him, thus he grew in the Art of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. Yes, you have accepted tasks and quests in our son's name for the sake of petty greed, but he has thus come to learn to aid people in need and has come to be a better person for it. And yes, you did lead our son to Jusenkyo, but I can find no honor in requiring either of you to pay for what an accidental encounter with magic has done.

"Genma, even if had Ranma not been found worthy and had been left with the original effect you say this Nyanniichuan, Spring of Drowned Girl, would have had - I could not have been able to justify calling either of you to commit seppuku for something that magic and the whims of the kami have done. And you say that the locals told you that Ranma has been found worthy to be called to serve a higher destiny. For that I can find no fault in Ranma that I would deem unmanly at this point.

"Finally, Genma, even though you perceive yourself to have failed our son," Nodoka's voice was gentler still, almost a whisper in the still air of the Saotome residence. "Even with the burden you have placed on your own soul, you have come to me alone, to bear the full weight of my judgement, asking only that I spare, and even aid, our son Ranma. That showed a rare courage, my husband, a courage I have not seen from you in many years, since about a year or so after Happosai had taken over your training from your father. Once again, you have become the man I had married all those years ago. A fine man, who may stumble on occasion, but one of courage who can rise to meet the challenges placed before him."

With that, Nodoka stood and turned to leave the room, pausing at the door to look back. "Come, Genma, I wish to reacquaint myself with the man I married away from these grim trappings."

Genma stood, spirits soaring high with renewed hope within his heart. Soon he caught up with Nodoka as she headed for their room.

And then he received a bop on the head with the hilt of the Saotome Family Sword.

"And you'll get much more than that if I find out that this multiple fiancée thing is some sort of perverted tradition of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts! Don't think that I've forgotten about Atsuko, Genma!"

"Yes, Dear... I mean NO, Dear, it's not a tradition of the School..."

"Or Kiyoko!"

"I keep telling you, I just walked her home because she was my neighbor! Nothing ever happened!"

"OR Hitomi!"

"But Nodoka, Sweetie, that was years ago! Decades even!"

O O O

Slogging her way back to where she had left Sensei and Nabiki, Akane noticed that the magic rat was still laying on her sister's chest, both equally dazed. Deciding that Sensei would probably recover from his dazed state sooner if he wasn't sprawled across a couple of boobs, she picked him up and set him on the damp grass instead. Just to the right, she spotted Sensei's magic blue rock, so she picked it up and set it on his chest…

Voip!

Akane stared in wide-eyed shock as Sensei puffed into a small cloud of blue smoke, which flowed into the sapphire lens.

"Sensei?"

Akane picked up the blue lens and poked it. "Sensei?"

She then shook it a little. "Sensei? Are you in there?"

The shaking became vigorous, accompanied by heavy patting. "Sensei! Come out here! We need you!"

An incandescent spark arced from the lens, forcing the frustrated girl to drop the stone as she fell back on her ass. A moment later, it emitted a small beam of light which projected a holographic 'screen' in mid-air at Akane's eye level.

[The User Interface Peripheral is off-line for memory integration and alignment.]

"User what?"

[The User Interface Peripheral is Magical Guardian Ranma's projected avatar.]

"I don't understand."

[Clearly.]

"Hey!" Akane bopped the lens, only to be laid flat by another spark of electricity.

O O O

R'hul pondered his new appearance in the bathroom mirror. He had a gender now, and had selected a more or less bishonen appearance based on his chief minion's opinion that many of the local females liked that look and would thus be disarmed by his new form. He missed his tentacles though. Which, he supposed, was why he had chosen to be male, given the similarity that their one appendage had to his race's probing tentacles, even if it was far too short and had an entirely different function.

Getting dressed in some of the better clothing of his chief minion's sire, making sure that the attire was clean first to be sure, R'hul swept his long wavy black hair back and attempted to scry H'rys' location in order to see what the local defenders brought to bear...

Oh dear...

This could not possibly be any good...

R'hul stared into the mirror, viewing an image that should have been H'rys and its immediate environment. Especially since the scrying spell was specifically cast to focus on the other agent, and should have located him either in this world or back in the staging area of the previous one. Instead, he continued to gaze upon his own reflection as he pondered what had happened to H'rys. The possibilities were various but rather low, ranging from being lost in transfer due to irregularities in the interdimensional barriers all the way to instant death upon arrival due to efficient local defenses.

R'hul dismissed the later out of hand, given the evidence of his own continued existence, and while the first was possible, weak zones in interdimensional barriers tended to diffuse over a relatively large area. Thus, it was rather unlikely that any of his local minions had placed a tag far enough away for that to be a problem. This left the answer as being somewhere in the middle. Time to back off for a bit, have his minions quietly gather information that might relate to what had happened to H'rys, and try to plan out the next probing action.

Dismissing the ineffective scrying spell, R'hul returned to the family room of his current domicile and sat down heavily on a recliner to consider how best to prepare his first report...

O O O

Akane woke up to someone tentatively shaking her shoulder. At her eyes fluttered open, her bleary gaze focused on the tear-filled face of her sister, who pulled her up into a fierce hug and began wailing: "WAAAAAAHHH! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! WAAAAAAHHH!"

Akane's hair toinged out of place here and there as her sister produced a fountain of tears that rivaled any of those performed by their father.

"Umm… There there?" Akane tried to comfort Nabiki, but couldn't seem to get her arms free enough to pat her sister's back.

"WAAAAAAHHH! YOU WERE STABBED THROUGH THE HEART WITH A SIGN POST! WAAAAAAHHH!"

"I'm all right, really…" Akane's discomfort grew as she realized that her bare breasts were mashed up against those of her sister.

"WAAAAAAHHH!"

"Need… air…"

"WAAAAAAHHH!"

"help…. please?"

An arc of electricity sparked from the nearby sapphire lens and played across the two sisters.

"Ow…"

"Thanks… I think…"

[Happy to be of service.]

"I'm beginning to dislike you…"

[Your gratitude is not required.]

"Uhg… Akane?" Nabiki groaned from where she lay staring at the sky. "Who are you talking too?"

"The magic screen thingy coming from Sensei's rock."

Nabiki sat up and looked at the floating holographic screen being projected before her sister's face. She cocked an eyebrow as it obligingly moved to where both of them could read the screen. "Ranma?"

[Magical Guardian Ranma is offline for memory defragmentation and compilation.]

"And you are?"

"A jerk!"

ZAP!

"OW! Stop zapping me already!"

[I am the Help Service.]

"Not very helpful if you ask me."

ZAP!

"OW! Quit it already!"

"Okay…" Nabiki said, giving the disc a healthy, respective distance. "Why is Ranma 'off-line' and why does he need his memory defragmented and compiled?"

[Magical Guardian Ranma's user interface avatar peripheral has been projected for an extended period. While this is ultimately to the Guardian's benefit, as it brings in new experiences and allows him to directly aid his champions, the peripheral still needs to be realigned with his core persona from time to time.]

"So you're not Ranma then."

[That is correct.]

"That's good. I don't think I could stand Sensei being a jerk."

ZAP!

"OW! Quit it!"

"So, you're here to help us while Ranma is out, huh?"

[If it is within my capabilities and limitations, yes.]

Nabiki looked at her sister, and then down at herself. "Can we have some clothes, please?"

[Certainly. You are free to dress yourself in any attire you can find.]

"What kind of defective advisor are you, anyway?"

ZAP!

"OW! Dammit!"

"Could you please stop zapping my sister?"

[I'll think about it.]

O O O

Under the afternoon sun, Shampoo frowned as she crossed a mountain clearing. For some reason, she was beginning to tire out, even with her having stayed in continuous contact with the ground since the night before. Her trackless steps had carried her for league upon league towards her goal, and she was starting to wonder just how far away her token had been taken by that thief of a panda.

Sand poured off of her body as Shampoo continued on for a few more steps before having to drop the now oppressive weight of her pack. She didn't feel so much physically exhausted as much as suddenly mentally weary. In fact, she began to experience some interesting hallucinations particular to the kind of fatigue brought about by sleep deprivation.

"Argh! What now? I've stayed powered up longer than this before," Shampoo grumbled irritably as she gathered up the clothing that was reforming on the ground from the scattered sand. "Unless it has something to do with using my Earth powers to recharge myself continuously since last night…"

Without bothering to get dressed, Shampoo tiredly set up her tent and bed roll near a mountain stream, and (after a few false starts) had a modest campfire going, complete with a grill supporting a small pot of vegetable stew.

As she wearily stirred the pot, Shampoo wondered just how long it would be before she could power up again. If it took too long, she'd have to lighten her load considerably so she could continue making good time when not the Earth Warrior.

O O O

"So, let me get this straight: We're stuck on the outskirts of Nerima with no clothes, no powers, and no Ranma."

[That is not entirely correct. You still have your elemental resistances. Neither of you are particularly susceptible to simple environmental exposure such as sunburns and hypothermia, and you both retain your immunities to your own elements. For example: You cannot drown, nor can your sister be burned. Also, you do have clothes, as you are still wearing your V-cup briefs.]

"I don't thing these things count as clothes," Akane grumbled. "They barely cover anything at all!"

[The V-cups cover what they are supposed to cover. Nothing more, and nothing less. They are listed as garments in my database. That you seem to have issues with them is your own problem.]

"Stop arguing with Help-chan, Akane," Nabiki sighed. "It's not getting either of us anywhere, and we're both still practically naked. How do these things stay on when we're not powered up anyway?"

[Magic.]

Nabiki leveled half-lidded eyes at the screen. "Okay, so I walked right into that one. Fair enough. Now… Do they actually do anything besides preserve just that little bit of modesty?"

[The V-cup stringless briefs you are wearing provide a limited amount of protection against conventional weapons even when you are not empowered. Also, they cannot be removed by those harboring malicious intentions towards you.]

"Well, that's something at least," the elder sister nodded. So they had some protection against rape. A very important consideration if they were going to end up fighting more of those… things. "Any idea how long Ranma will be down?"

[Unknown: This is the first time Magical Guardian Ranma has been permitted to use his avatar for such an extended period of time.]

"No use sitting around here any longer then." Nabiki picked up the sapphire lens as she stood up. "Come on, Akane, we may as well try to get home."

Nabiki froze as she caught sight of the end of a large gun barrel next to her head.

"You owe me a new car…" the girl in the day-glow outfit snarled.

Before Nabiki could blink, Akane had the stranger. After a brutal disarming, the younger sister flung the interloper over her shoulder by her weapon arm, slamming the stranger face down hard. With a sharp twist, Akane pinned the same arm behind the girl's back, and rapped her on the back of her skull, knocking her out.

"Thanks, Akane," Nabiki said as the two girls watched the other girl's eye-straining costume vanished, leaving her as naked as they were. The hand-cannon thingy disappeared at roughly the same time.

"No problem. I can't believe she snuck up on us."

"I can't believe there are other magical girls besides us."

"At least our costumes are better."

"No argument there," Nabiki agreed. "Let's get going - Ow! How can you walk in this stuff in bare feet?"

"You get used to it eventually."

"Carry me?"

"Alright," Akane sighed. "But only to the sidewalk."

O O O

R'hul, intent on keeping his current local domicile discrete for at least a while yet, had restored his chief minion's father and had proceeded to do some mnemonic editing to keep the man's behavior at work from arousing too many suspicions too soon. This had, naturally, required that he transform at least part of the way back into his true form, enough so that his smaller probing tentacles were both accessible and functional.

With the level of mental and behavioral editing required to force the older human to go through the motions of daily life in the local hive without giving anything away, R'hul didn't expect to get much more than an emotionless husk back by the time all was said and done. He was only a scout after all, hardly an expert at mental manipulation, so he couldn't be expected to maintain the integrity of his subject's persona as well as a dominator or governor could in his place.

The feral humans R'hul was using were a different story. They had only required a minimal amount of mental editing to place them under his control, so they still retained much of their core persona and would thus be able to interact with others within acceptable risk parameters without further interference on his part.

The fact that they were often deliberately absent from their instructional crèche provided a good enough cover for him to keep them away from their peers for a while. He'd eventually have to do something about the other parents as well, but for the moment R'hul knew that the social dynamics that generally produced feral humans would keep their suspicion levels low. At least as far as the matter of their offspring having been sublimated to the will of a superior entity. In any event, he would have all of his local minions over tonight, in order to find out more about this world and to see what sort of information gathering capabilities existed in the local hive.

O O O

Nabiki stared, stunned, at the sheer amount of damage she had caused in her battle with the tentacled rape demon, dropping her arms to her side as she completely forgot about her near nudity.

"And you say I have a temper," Akane chided. She decidedly did not follow her sister's example, and kept her arms and hands where they could cover as much of her exposed bits as possible, thank you very much.

"You do. Apparently I have one too. Where did all the naked people come from?"

"You went through the bath-house."

"Oh…"

"At least no one seems to be seriously hurt."

"How can you say that? There's people wearing splints and bandages all over the place!"

"Maybe so, but everyone we can see is at least awake, if not exactly alert."

"I can't believe I did all of this…"

"Sis, you were going to town Godzilla-style against Squid-face. To be honest, I can't believe you didn't cause more damage." Akane looked at her sister and noticed that Nabiki was now walking normally, with her arms at her sides instead of trying to hide her naughty-bits. "You do realize that we're still naked, right?"

"We still have those V-cup briefs."

"Like those even count! We can't let anybody see those or they might guess who we are!"

"They might guess that we're ourselves?" the elder girl chided dryly. "I would think our faces would be a better clue than that, Akane."

"Argh! No! I meant that these V-cup thingies are color coded pieces of our sentai team costumes! Anybody who sees them might make the connection between us and our empowered forms!"

"That's actually a good point," Nabiki conceded. And then plucked off her own V-cup and tossed it into a public trash barrel, causing her shocked sister to face fault.

"Why did you throw it out!" Akane hissed. "Now you really are naked! And why did you stop covering yourself!"

"What's the point? With this many naked people wandering around, what difference does a couple more nude girls trying to get home make?"

"That's… but… The point is… Argh! Not everyone in the streets is naked you know!"

"And your point is?"

"I still can't believe you're comfortable doing that."

"Hey, how often can I be naked in public and not get in trouble for it?"

"You are an exhibitionist and a flirt!"

"Hey, if you've got it, you may as well flaunt it."

"Pervert…"

O O O

Kei woke up and pushed herself carefully into a sitting position rubbing the back of her head. After a moment, she realized that she was naked and summoned her gun once again to trigger her costume, and then released the effect.

Which worked out well enough except that her original clothes still didn't return.

"Dammit! I was out too long."

Looking around, she failed to spot either of the two presumably new magical girls anywhere nearby.

Sighing at the lost opportunity, and realizing that she mishandled the situation pretty badly, Kei wondered if it was too late to pretend to be one of the bath-house refugees, or if she should just give up and summon her horrible costume again…

O O O

Eventually, the two Tendo sisters noticed that more and more people seemed to be heading in one direction as opposed to wandering around randomly. One of the rescue workers spotted them and approached them.

"Ah… More bath-house refugees, I take it?"

"Yes, sir," Nabiki lied easily, as her sister blushed and tried harder to cover herself. Nabiki herself didn't bother, and merely wrapped her arms under her breasts as if nothing was wrong.

The man raised an eyebrow at the one girls cool demeanor in this situation. "Are either of you hurt?"

"No."

"I'm fine."

"Okay then. If you head over that way for three blocks and turn left, and then right at the next block over, you should see a bunch of tents. Since you don't seem to be hurt, you'll most likely be directed to registration first, and then to distribution for blankets and basic supplies if you haven't been handed any by that time."

"Oh thank God, you have no idea just how mortifying it is being-"

Nabiki placed a quick hand over Akane's mouth to shut her up.

"You better hurry if you want to get a blanket. I don't think anyone was prepared for so many bath-house refugees, and between you guys and the medical personnel, they're going pretty fast!"

"We'll head right over."

"Thanks again!"

The two girls stepped up their pace to a brisk walk as they followed the man's directions. Akane was impatient and wanted to go faster, but knew that her sister was not conditioned to be able to jog on hard surfaces with bare feet. Not to mention the fact that areas of the streets were still scattered with random debris, requiring that they pay attention to where they were stepping.

Sure enough, they arrived at the perimeter of the disaster zone, where several tents were still being set up in a parking lot by emergency service personnel and volunteers. Doctors and paramedics were already sorting through and treating a crowd of injured refugees, aided by those volunteers who knew first-aid. Fire fighters and rescue workers were coordinating efforts to search ruined buildings in hopes of locating and digging out any survivors that may have become trapped, while other rescue workers and volunteers attempted to distribute supplies as fairly as possible. The police were working crowd control and trying to keep things organized with some difficulty, and there was an atmosphere of general chaos as more and more refugees made it to the temporary relief site.

Unfortunately, no-one seemed to be handing out blankets by the time they got there, and they even saw some people being sent on there way out of the area while still nude.

"Dammit."

"We'll just have to deal with it, Akane."

A somewhat flustered woman spotted the two girls and made her way over to them bowed briefly in apology. "I'm sorry, but we're out of blankets already. No one was prepared for an occupied bath-house to be hit during a disaster."

"Why are those people being sent on their way?" Akane asked, bobbing her head to indicate who she was talking about. "Couldn't we wait in one of the tents for more blankets to arrive?"

"I'm not sure. I think most of the tents are being set up to take care of the injured first."

"Oh…" Nabiki looked downcast as yet another reminder of the consequences of her unbridled rampage was driven home.

"It'll be alright, you'll see," Akane tried to comfort her sister who had been alternating between forced nonchalance and obvious depression. At least she thought the nonchalance was forced. With Nabiki, it could be really hard to tell sometimes…

"Well, if you could just head over to that tent over there and register with the officers inside…"

"Sure," Nabiki shrugged.

"Okay." Akane agreed. Even if they weren't in the tent for very long, fewer people would be able to see them.

After waiting in line for what seemed like forever, the two girls walked into the indicated tent and approached a police officer sitting behind a folding table. His partner was standing off to one side, and both of them maintained strictly professional expressions.

"We're out of blankets," the officer sitting behind the table began. "It will probably be a while before we get more. We weren't prepared for a bath-house to be hit."

"We heard," Nabiki responded dryly as her sister's frustration mounted.

"Just checking. Names?"

"Nabiki Tendo."

"Akane Tendo."

"Related?"

"We're sisters," Nabiki supplied.

"Got it," The sitting officer jotted down a note. "Any injuries?"

"No," both girls responded in tandem.

"Well, if you could just sign these forms and fill in the contact information, you can be on your way."

"Can't we just wait in a tent?" Akane asked as she and her sister filled out the forms.

"Sorry, but we're going to need the tents to shelter the injured," the sitting officer explained. "If you aren't hurt and can make it home on your own, we'll have to send you on your way."

"But we're naked!"

"I'm sorry, but you aren't the first people we've had to send home like this."

"Pervert!"

"Let it go, Akane."

"Don't worry about it," the other officer interjected. "I can understand where she's coming from. I'm just surprised that you're taking it so well yourself."

"She's a pervert too!"

"Hey!"

"None of that now," the standing officer admonished the nude girls. "Now before we send you on your way, I'll have to ask to see what's in your hand."

"This was an engagement gift from my fiancé," Nabiki explained calmly, showing the police officers the two inch wide sapphire lens.

"Right," The first officer stood up as his partner moved behind the short-haired girl. "Hand it over and place your hands on the table. We don't take kindly to looters in emergency situations."

Nabiki placed the gem on the table and followed the instructions, spreading her legs as the officer behind her tapped her inner heels with the toes of his shoes.

"And I suppose you know the name of this supposed fiancé and how we can contact him?"

"Ranma Saotome," Nabiki supplied readily, hoping to keep the situation under control. "He's not available, but his father is staying at our dojo," Nabiki explained as she tried to think of a way out of this situation.

Thinking it over, the officer behind the desk noted that the girl's answer was prompt and seemed sincere. The other girl was understandably nervous, but that might just be due to the situation they had found themselves in. "We'll have to take you both into custody and hold onto your stone until your story checks out."

Nabiki sighed as her hands were zip-tied behind her back. This was not at all good.

Feeling mortified, Akane followed her sisters lead, respecting the authority of the officers, and hoping that Daddy and Mr. Saotome would be able to clear up the misunderstanding soon. Her blush deepened further as she realized that both officered were cocking an eyebrow as they finally saw what she was wearing.

"Those have got to be the skimpiest panties I've ever seen," stated one officer, shaking his head.

"And you call your sister a pervert," his partner chided.

With both girls wrists secured behind their backs, the lead officer reached for the sapphire lens.

"I wouldn't do that if I were…" Akane stopped as an electric arc shot out of the gem and sent the officer flat on his back.

"Oh, you're in for it now, girly!" The fallen man's partner grabbed the short-haired perp by the hair on the back of her head and introduced her face to the table - hard.

"Ow!"

"Hey! You can't treat my sister like that!" Akane performed a crouching leg-sweep, knocking the legs out from under the man who had just hurt her sister. She then assumed a ready stance suitable for making quick use of her feet.

"A martial artist, huh?" the officer commented as he rolled to his feet, spotting his partner getting back up with his peripheral vision. Drawing his tonfa, he assumed a guarded combat stance of his own and continued: "You think we don't have training to deal with amateurs, girly?"

"I'm not an amateur, you bastard! I'll have you kno-" Akane found herself engaged in direct combat as she dodged one tonfa strike, and then deflected the follow-up strike with a counter kick that sent the man staggering back.

The officer fighting her soon switched tactics from direct attacks, which were proving to be frustratingly ineffective against a slip of a girl who was literally taking him on with both hands behind her back - and winning - to probing feints intended to keep her attention focused on him while his partner lined up a shot with a taser…

ZAP!

Akane twitched as she hit the pavement painfully. That had hurt a lot, stealing her muscle control away in a way that the zaps from the rock had not.

Before she could recover, one officer had her in a choke-hold, as his partner zip-tied her ankles together, and then zip-tied her ankles to her wrists behind her back to rob her of any leverage she might be able to use to break her bonds. The girl had indeed proven that she was no amateur, and warranted being treated as a threat even while subdued.

Nabiki, dazed and bleeding lightly from her nose, tried to stand straight only to find herself pressed breasts flat onto the table as one of the officers returned his attention to her. "And where do you think you're going, girly? You think it's funny to use a shock-pack on my partner, huh? That's assaulting an officer! You know what's going to happen now, girly? Do you? Do you!"

Nabiki and Akane were both scared out of their minds at this point, and each squeaked out in surprise as the table suddenly collapsed under the weight of a quarter ton of blue furred saber-toothed feline. And an instant later, the officer who had been threatening Nabiki found himself batted into the side of the tent, collapsing it and incidentally wrapping himself up into a tangled heap with it as he rolled another fifteen feet further down the street and into another tent.

The officer standing over Akane then found himself face to face with the very large, and obviously hostile saber-toothed cat. Which let out a roar which rattled windows for blocks around. The poor man's eyes rolled up as he collapsed into an unconscious heap.

The surrounding crowd took in this scene in stunned silence for a moment before screaming and general panic set in as everyone tried to put as much space and obstacles between them and the giant, stripe-less, blue tiger as possible.

The two sisters watched wide-eyed as the large blue predator, who was currently, inexplicably, totally feline without even the slightest hint of kangaroo-rat or any other kind of animal, turned his attention to them.

"Ranma?" Nabiki asked nervously, as the big cat started sniffing at her.

[Magical Guardian Ranma's core persona is still off-line. This appears to be an undocumented emergency persona. Please be advised that it seems quite feral.]

"Umm… Nice kitty?" Nabiki greeted the beast hesitantly as it started licking her clean.

O O O

"What channel are you watching, Kasumi?" Soun asked from where he was sitting, with his attention still focused mainly on the Sunday edition of the newspaper.

Kasumi looked up from where she was sitting, and blinked a few times. "The television is still out on the veranda, Father. Don't you remember? It was one of the items that got burned when Akane became a magical girl."

"Then that wasn't a nature show?"

"No, Father."

"Or a Godzilla movie?"

"Now you're being silly!" Kasumi giggled.

Soun actually lowered the paper as he processed this. Suddenly, wide-eyed, he stood up, scattering his forgotten paper, and shouted: "MY BABIES!" Smacking his right fist into the palm of his left hand, he focused his will for a moment.

"Oh my!" Kasumi could only stare in shock as her father's gi vanished, only to be replaced with samurai armor that appeared piecemeal and fastened itself on his strong virile body, complete with a great bow, quiver (with arrows), and a nodachi.

"Don't worry, daughters! Daddy's coming!"

Kasumi finally looked away as her father ran off. Then she looked down at the blue plushy she had been working on and began to sew faster.

"Must make the bad thoughts go away…"

Kasumi blushed as she pondered over the total unfairness of the fact that the first hottie she got to see naked was her own father…

"Must make the bad thoughts go away!"

O O O

"Oh, Genma! You animal, you!" Nodoka pulled her husband back down from where he had just sat up.

Genma figured that he'd just have to remember to make sure that the TV was off beforehand next time…

O O O

"This is Yuri Hayabusa, of Nerima Neighborhood News, reporting live from downtown Nerima, where a battle between a tentacled demon and a giant girl made of water wreaked untold devastation only an hour ago. In a bizarre twist on an already bizarre event, police officers and rescue workers are now at an impasse as they are trying to deal with a raiju that appears to be guarding a couple of female bath-house refugees."

Tatewaki and Kodachi Kuno stared at their television in mute shock as the camera panned from the female reporter to cover a huge blue thunder beast that was alternating between indiscriminately licking a pair of indignant girls and snarling at anyone else who tried to get too close.

"What a magnificent beast!" Kodachi continued to stare in awe as the wondrous animal lovingly protected the two girls and showed it's affection by cleaning them.

"That's Akane Tendo! Sasuke, bring me my bokken! I must rescue my beloved from the devil-cat that dares dishonor her maidenhood!"

"Brother dear…"

"Not now, dear sister," Tatewaki began as he turned to face his sister, only to become paralyzed as she blew powder from a bit of folded paper into his face.

"I… hate… you…"

"Oh, don't be like that, dear brother. I just can't stand idly by as you go off to harm that magnificent raiju. Oohohohohohohoho!" Twirling a ribbon and tossing her over clothes aside to reveal her leotard, Kodachi Kuno leapt off to claim her new pet…

O O O

"Well, isn't this precious," Kei chuckled to herself as she observed the raiju guarding the two girls from a nearby rooftop. She had opted to power-up once again after hearing the first roar, but decided to hold off and observe the situation once she reached a good vantage point.

Her gun was floating 'holstered' at her right hip, where she kept her hands well away from it. This was due to the fact that the beast would inexplicably turn it's head to glare at her with a snarl every time her hand got close to her weapon with the thought of shooting the large blue cat. "Definitely shows sign of awareness of hostile intent."

Still, as happy as she was with the predicament the two girls were in, things were definitely not looking good from her point of view as an Agent. The dark blue and chrome armored personnel carrier that belonged to the local news service was a sign that the days of keeping mystical incidents discreet were well and truly over. Not only was this situation inexplicably occurring during daylight hours, counter to generations of nocturnal encounters, the youma that had been involved initially was of a completely unknown type.

Adding to that was a pair of obviously new magical girls (they had to be new if they were still drained enough to be unable to transform at this point - she certainly would have transformed by this point if she was in their position), who were remarkably powerful element-based devil hunters with a guardian raiju and a gemstone advisor.

Kei wished that she had a gemstone advisor. That thing had to be better than Koko, her own perverted ferret advisor. And the guardian raiju was nice too, if obviously not particularly intelligent. Or at least disinclined to show any ability to speak, Kei revised herself, not wishing to make further unwarranted assumptions.

"Woo! So this is the new guy!" a tiny voice squeaked from the edge of the roof. "Nice couple of babes, too - hey! Watch the feet, Kei!" The talking ferret demanded as he dodged away from his partner's stomp.

"You're lucky I stopped shooting at you years ago, Koko. So, what's the deal with the raiju?"

"Well, other than the fact that there isn't supposed to be a raiju involved, word on the vine has it that a boy by the name of Ranma Saotome got tagged by the spirits of some place called Jusenkyo to be a new magical guardian charged to empower an entire team of magical girls."

"That's not a boy."

"Shows what you know. That kitty's as male as they come."

"You know what I mean!"

"Heh… Still, I'm betting that beast is Ranma Saotome. Poor guy's in a bit of a bind as he essentially got saddled with leftover committee scraps as a power-base. There wasn't any direct divine involvement when Jusenkyo pumped it all into him."

"Seems awfully powerful for scraps."

"Scraps of the Gods, Kei. A whole bunch of protocols and themes set aside incase something came down the pike after they stepped further back to allow the people of your world to learn to stand on your own."

"And that explains generational devil-hunter lines, how?"

"Hey, Babe, those were set in place for existing periodic threats. Your line just skipped a few generations, and the fact that you were empowered in America allowed me to update your outfit to the new funky-fresh coolness it is toda-squeak!"

Kei shook the struggling ferret in a tight grip. "I knew it! It's your fault I have this hideous eye-sore of a costume!"

Koko opted for the better part of valor and popped out of existence while he was still among the living…

O O O

"Stop it, Ranma!" Nabiki complained as the huge saber-toothed cat started licking her again. "I'm clean enough already!" And oddly enough, she did feel remarkably clean after being tongue-bathed three times by the giant blue fur-ball. Unfortunately, this 'emergency persona' (and just what was the deal with that, anyway?) had no sense of propriety. Or privacy for that matter.

Being licked all over her body by a blue furred prehistoric kitty-cat on live TV was going to do wonders for her reputation. She could tell.

Nabiki wondered if she would be taken seriously by anyone after today…

"I just wish Ranma was still smart enough to, oh say… cut these damn zip-ties," Akane grumbled. She wasn't angry with Sensei, as from what she understood this kitty wasn't actually Sensei and was more like… a pet or guard animal or something. One didn't go about blaming animals for behaving like animals after all. That didn't mean she was particularly happy though.

"So his name is Ranma…" Both girls turned their heads to look at the possibly deranged girl wearing a black, rose-print, leotard and twirling a ribbon who had just announced her sudden presence behind them.

Kodachi was nonplussed when the raiju swiftly shifted his position, nearly instantly pinning her ribbon beneath one massive paw and started sniffing her suspiciously.

"Umm… aheh… I have a treat for you?" Kodachi offered a slab of raw steak to the beast, unable to shake the feeling that it was far far more dangerous than she had been inclined to believe at first. Perhaps it had something to do with her actually being next to a great cat tall enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with a horse, as opposed to just seeing it on TV…

The saber-toothed feline happily snapped it up and swallowed it in one gulp. Feeling relieved, Kodachi offered up another slab of meat, which disappeared just as fast.

Kodachi waited expectantly for a few moments, but began to fidget nervously when the great cat failed to show any signs of sudden drowsiness. She became even more nervous when the raiju began sniffing her body intently.

"Oh dear… Umm… I don't have anymore steak on me," Kodachi tried to tell the quite alarmingly large beast.

"He probably smells the meat on you," Akane pointed out helpfully. Then a thought occurred to her: "Say… If you can see a blue stone lying anywhere around here, Ranma might settle down if it touches him."

Nabiki rolled her eyes at this, but figured her sister thought of it as a win-win situation. Either the giant kitty would get absorbed back into the sapphire lens or the lens would zap the girl unconscious, causing Ranma to leave her alone. After all, he had ignored the one cop after he had fainted, and hadn't bothered the man once he woke up and hurriedly crawled away either. For her part, considering their previous experiences with Ranma's token, Nabiki was laying odd that the girl would either be shocked or…

Kodachi spotted the sapphire almost immediately, and carefully moved to follow the advice the one girl had given her. However, as soon as she touched the sapphire, it emitted a flash of blue light, and the gymnast was startled to find her leotard transformed into a mass of loose leaves which swirled into the blue gemstone.

Nabiki stepped towards the now green-haired and green-eyed girl undergo a costuming sequence very similar to her own. Sure enough, the zip-tie that had bound her wrists behind her back turned into a little vine which followed the leaves into the glowing blue stone. She gave the floating girl a gentle shove through the air towards her sister even as a green costume with a leaf theme and sandalwood trim was still 'growing' on the startled recruit.

"Thanks, Nabiki," Akane said gratefully as she uncurled and began stretching out her kinks from having been bound in such an odd position. It was too bad the pervert who had tied her ankles behind her head had woken up and managed to scrabble away earlier, or she's have given the officer a cathartic beat-down at this point.

Nabiki picked up Ranma's token, then carefully climbed onto the back of Ranma himself.

"You two coming or what?"

"Right behind you, Sis!" Akane got onto the back of the giant saber-toothed kitty as well.

"What's going on?" asked a rather confused Kodachi as she joined them.

"Welcome to the team!" Nabiki greeted the girl as Ranma got up and bounded off away from all the noisy pests, taking his charges with him.

"I'm Akane, she's my sister Nabiki, and the big kitty here is her fiancé, Ranma."

"Way to summarize, Akane," Nabiki glanced back at her sister, who stuck her tongue out at her.

"I am Kodachi. I take it that you two are the two magical girls who were mentioned on the news earlier?"

"That would most likely be us, yes," Nabiki confirmed. "We have another teammate in China, and there's another magical girl in the neighborhood somewhere, but she's not with us."

"If I may ask, what happened to your costumes?"

"We overextended out powers. We'll get our outfits back the next time we're able to power-up."

"Where's Ranma taking us, anyway?" Akane wanted to know. "Our house is over that way."

"Who knows. Just about anywhere has to be better than where we were for the past hour or so."

"It would seem that we are heading for the park."

"Ah. Your 'element' then. Say… When we get there, would you mind if I guided you through your new abilities?"

"That would be appreciated, thank you."

"Why would you need to do that, Nabiki?"

"She controls plants. She should be able to make us some clothes."

"I shall endeavor to do my best."

O O O

Kei tried to keep up with the escaping magical girls as best she could while roof-hopping, but the blue great-cat they were riding was too fast, and they were soon out of sight.

Still, her suspicions that the two girls were indeed the ones from the beginning of the incident seemed to be confirmed, given the similarity in designs the costume of the latest one had. She knew that two of their names were Akane and Nabiki, and that the cat was actually a boy named Ranma Saotome. And she knew what they all looked like in and out of costume.

Given that she was no longer able to keep the new team under surveillance, it was now time to head for the Agency and write up her report.

Sssssssssssshhhhhhfffff*POP*thunk!

Kei blinked as she felt her gun disappear at roughly the same time that an arrow inexplicably buried it's head deep into the metal light pole ahead and across the street from her.

"And just why, may I ask, were you chasing my daughters?"

Turning around slowly with her hands raised in what she hoped was a placating manner, Kei found herself confronted by a tall man wearing dark samurai armor as he let go of a large bow, which then floated behind his back as he drew a great blade.

Oh crap! Angry father! I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadie! Is that Sephiroth's sword? I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadie! I. Am. Going. To. Fucking. DIE!

Kei subconsciously dismissed her costume as she quite literally had no desire to be caught dead wearing it.

She then blinked as the man stiffened up and then keeled over backwards, spurting blood out his nose.

I'm going to live? Hey, he's a hottie! Aw… No fair! How come his normal clothes get to come back while he's unconscious!

Lowering herself to the fire escape, Kei Murphy decided to put as much distance as possible between herself and the old-line devil hunter as possible before he woke up.

There's an old adage that states that the most dangerous thing in the world is a mother defending her young. Kei wasn't sure if that was true or not, but she suspected that it might apply equally well when it came to fathers and daughters…

O O O

Settling down in the shelter of a small grove of trees, a large blue saber-toothed tiger crouched down to let his charges off of his back. Once all three were on the ground, he turned around, fully intending to greet the new kitten with a thorough tongue bath.

The great blue fuzz ball was taken totally by surprise when Nabiki tapped him on the nose with the sapphire lens.

Voip!

"Sorry, Ranma-baby, but I much prefer your other 'self.'"

"Yeah, no kidding," Akane agreed. "T-chan is nice and all, but I'd much rather be dealing with Sensei."

Nabiki looked at her sister oddly and mouthed the word 'T-chan' as she tried to wrap her mind around the concept that her sister found the car-sized prehistoric feline cute.

"So Ranma has more than one manifestation?" Kodachi asked the two nude girls she had rescued. Not that it had been her original intention to do so, but it seemed fortuitous in retrospect as she had become inducted into their team.

"Yeah," Nabiki confirmed, turning her attention to the new girl. "Anyway, I'm Nabiki Tendo, the blue fuzz-ball's fiancée when he's being more intelligent. I drew the water element."

"Hi! I'm Akane Tendo, Warrior of Fire," the long-haired girl supplied, happy to be out of public view once again.

"I am Kodachi Kuno," the green-haired girl replied. She sighed inwardly as she noticed Akane's grin falter slightly at the revelation of her family name.

"Are you related to Tatewaki Kuno?" Akane asked hesitantly.

"Unfortunately, I am indeed your would-be paramour's younger sister."

"He's not anywhere around here, is he?" the long-haired girl asked as she once again tried to cover herself, looking about worriedly.

"You don't have to worry about the great lummox showing up," Kodachi assured the nervous girl. Then she looked down for a moment and started poking her index fingers together shyly.

"So what kept Kuno-baby from showing up to this shindig?" Nabiki prompted.

"I… ah… drugged him and left him on the couch under the care of one of our servants." Kodachi admitted reluctantly, just knowing that she had lost any chance of friendship with her new teammates. Normally, she wouldn't care, but this… this… this was Special, with a capital S and everything! This was something that made her feel alive, and unique, and worthwhile the way rhythmic gymnastics and her family's fortune never really had.

And, once again, as had been the case with every other opportunity for a 'fresh start' she had ever had, it was all going to end before it even began. Kodachi wondered at the fact that she wasn't cackling like a madwoman behind the haughty veneer she used to defend herself from such torment.

Kodachi was surprised to find the subject of her brother's misplaced affection pumping her hands up and down in a western style double handed handshake.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Kodachi blinked.

"Ko-chan," Nabiki started, draping an arm around the new girl's shoulders casually, "this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship."

The green-haired girl stood stunned at the prospect that she was actually being accepted by her new teammates. They liked her. They really liked her! Even before they knew she was a Kuno, and in fact, despite it once they knew.

Sparkles glinted off of brimming tears of joy as Kodachi's heart soared.

This was going to be Glorious!

O O O

END CHAPTER THREE

O O O

OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: Technologically Challenged…

"What a magnificent beast!" Kodachi continued to stare in awe as the wondrous animal lovingly protected the two girls and showed it's affection by cleaning them.

"That's Akane Tendo! Quick, Sasuke, set up the VCR! I must record this event for posterity!"

"But, Master Kuno! I still haven't figured out how to get the clock to stop flashing 12:00!"

O O O

OMAKE INFORMATION BOOTH:

Odd Fact: While I have Soun wielding a nodachi (essentially a katana with a really long blade), in canon the melee weapon he is occasionally shown with is a naginata (in which a katana-like blade is affixed to a pole arm) instead.