One Last Chance ch.10
**** A Time to Rest ****
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all it's characters were created by Rumiko Takahashi I in no way take credit for them, don't sue, this is just a story for entertainment purposes and I am making no money off it.
AN: Quick personal disclaimer, I am writing this for fun, I do not enjoy flames, I welcome constructive criticisms and thoughtful advice.
"Speech"
Thoughts
~~~~Scene change/flashback~~~~~~
{Signs}
Ranma and Akane died thanks to Happosai, rather than let them die they were sent back in time thanks to Ranma's wish for another chance. Both retain their memories and feelings they accumulated; now they have to survive. In the last chapter the couple went on a training trip together to get themselves up to speed. In the process, they got closer together and trained. Ryoga and his traveling partner managed to get further and further away from their target, all the way to Tibet before turning around to go the right way. Loki, god of chaos himself introduced himself to his two chosen, namely Ranma and Akane. He then talked with them for a while about the situation the two were in. He began a spell that would slowly return the bodies the two fiancées had before they died back to them. We also saw the introduction of an Amazon warrior who was hunting the two. Now, on with the story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Outside Tokyo, in the wilderness, evening ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We find our two heroes sitting at their campsite together. Neither had done much training that day; both were still absorbing what they had learnt from the chaos god Loki.
Ranma is sitting with Akane by his side. The fire in front of them was burning warmly so as to keep off the chill of the encroaching night.
"So Loki has been watching over us since we were born?" Akane recapped.
"Yeah, that's the way it seems, and you thought I was overprotective."
"Hey, I think it's rather nice to have someone watching over me."
"You're just saying that aren't you."
"Yeah, I guess I am, but Loki did help us out quite a few times, we wouldn't have made it without him so I'm not as mad as I probably should be." Ranma said with a chuckle.
"What I'm wondering is how we got selected to be his chosen, and then us coming together like we have, it is a little bit too much of a coincidence even for us."
A third voice broke in on the conversation.
"Would you like me to answer that question or are you two just going to talk?"
Loki was acting as a backrest for the two chosen warriors of chaos.
"After all, I know more about you two than anyone else, especially when it comes to metaphysical destiny and the like. So if you two have any questions why not just ask, I'll be more than happy"
"Sorry about that Loki, we sort of forgot you were there." Ranma apologized.
"Mmmhhh, comfy," was all the response Akane gave.
"What am I going to do with you children?"
"Hey, we never asked to be your chosen, you dumped the job on the us now live with the consequences, we've had to." Ranma's tone held no anger, only humour; being round his patron deity was having a good effect on him and his fiancée.
"Do you really think I wanted to be a god of chaos, do you think I wouldn't give it up for a normal life?"
Ranma thought for a moment before answering, "No, you wouldn't."
Loki laughed
"True, but would you give up being a chosen so easily?"
"No, if I had lived a different life I'd never have met or fallen in love with Akane."
"Oh Ranma you say the sweetest things." Akane replied, giving Ranma a warm smile.
Ranma blushed slightly at the praise.
"Well anyway, back to the question at hand, do you two really want to know how and why you became chosen?"
Both of the martial artists responded in the affirmative.
"Well, as for the how, it was in your destiny. When you were born you both bore the mark of a chosen on your very essence."
"So we were your chosen from the start?"
"Well yes and no. Ranma had a very special mark in him; he had the mark of a godslayer. One out of every million has the potential to be a chosen of the gods. Of those chosen one every hundred generations has the mark of a godslayer. These children are highly contested for among the gods and even demons. The sheer potential as a chosen in him made Ranma a very valued person even though he was a mere baby."
Loki shifted a little to get more comfortable before continuing.
"A godslayer has something special in him or her that allows the godslayer, a mortal, the power to end the life of even an immortal being. That power is something a lot of gods feared, many wanted him dead before he could do any harm, others wanted him as a tool to be used in their intrigues. The pantheon of war was practically drooling over his potential as a battle master. The powers of death saw him as a kindred spirit. The creators of life saw him as an abomination. The entities of chaos saw him as a maelstrom of disaster. In the end it came down to every different deity or set of deities seeing him as nothing but a tool for their own purposes. The fates would not or could not read Ranma's life thread which meant that he would be a perfect chosen for any deity or demon that claimed him for their own."
"What did you see him as?" Akane asked.
Loki chuckled.
"To me Ranma was a way to piss of the other gods, at first I had no real interest in him except for something to taunt and hold over the heads of the other deities. Just think of what great big daddy of all Odin would say if I walked through Asgard with a godslayer with me. I'm sure he'd even catch the eye of a few valkyries and I know how hard they are to seduce."
"So I meant nothing to you?"
"Most mortals mean very little to divine or demonic entities except as amusement pieces or tools. I'm not really much better than the rest of them, but while your fate still hung in the balance, I did something most of the other gods would never even have thought of, I looked into your soul to see what you were going to be like. I was awed; inside of you there was such potential for destruction yet at the same time so many other possibilities. I had never seen anything like it before in any mortal and at that point, I knew I had to have you before any of the other gods could twist or change you into something to fit them. I wanted you to grow up and let your natural spirit take its own course with as little interference as possible."
"So how did you get me when there were so many other gods after me, was there some huge free-for-all?"
"No, although that would have been amusing to watch, but if that had happened you would more than likely belong to either a battle god or a death god right now. There were so many after you that it was left to Tyche, you'd know her as lady luck, to decide your fate."
"And you just happened to be picked to be the one who got Ranma?"
"Not quite, when I knew that was going to happen, I sort of seduced her to rule the verdict in my favor, unsurprisingly it worked and I got Ranma."
"Well that explains Ranma, but what about me, if I don't have the mark of a godslayer and am just a plain chosen I imagine it was a lot easier to get me."
"Easier, yes, but not by much. In Akane's case she was originally promised to be the chosen of Hure, goddess of anger and hatred. She is the one who originally claimed Akane at her birth."
"That would explain her temper then." Ranma reasoned. Akane moved her arm over and elbowed him in the stomach as her reply.
"Actually Hure never got to work on her, Akane is just naturally aggressive."
"Then if I was her chosen, how did I become your chosen?"
"Well I got her drunk and made a bet with her over you. I put Ranma up as my end of the bargain and she had to put Akane up in return."
"You gambled with my very fate with the goddess of anger! What would have happened to me if she had won?"
"Well I imagine that with both you and Akane as her chosen she would of had the perfect berserkers. The two of you would have always been angry at something and it would be next to impossible for anyone but Hure or another of Hure's chosen to calm you down. You would have become dependent on her for peace of mind."
Ranma and Akane shuddered at the mental images that such an occurrence brought to mind. Ranma shuddered at the thought of a constantly angry Akane. Akane shuddered at the thought of a truly angry Ranma.
In all the years she had known him Akane had trouble thinking of Ranma angry any time. She had seen him pissed off and irritated, but never truly angry. It was a very scary to picture what Ranma might would be capable of doing if the was angry. Besides having the ability to level most of Tokyo and probably a good part of any army sent after him.
"Of course, I'd never of let that happen, I won't bore you with the unimportant details, but lets just say that I had the odds in my favor."
"You cheated again?" Ranma's voice was tinged with both relief and disgust.
"Nope, I just got her roaring drunk before our little competition." Loki chuckled brightly at a memory only he and one other shared, and the other one didn't look back on the occasion with near the joy that the chaos god did.
Ranma and Akane both shared a relieved laugh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ France, Palace at Versailles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where are we now?"
"I was about to ask you the same question."
"How should I know, I can't see past all these hedges, why would anyone want their hedges this high."
"I'm more curious as to how we got into this garden in the first place. I've never seen anything like it."
The two were stopped and looking around the huge gardens, they had been in them for more than an hour and still hadn't found a way out.
"Well why don't we ask that couple where we are?"
"Fine, but I'm sure that way is the right direction." The bandana clad figure pointed off in a direction.
"Umm, I hate to tell you that, but there's a wall right there."
Ryoga rubbed his hand against the back of his head.
"Woops, well I meant that was the right direction, but of course we have to either go over or get around the wall."
Ryoga's companion was nonplussed at the lost boy's attempt at covering his mistake.
"Once we get back to somewhere in Japan I'll take over leading us to Saotome."
"Umm excuse me sir, but can you tell me the way to Tokyo."
The pair had soon learnt to stop asking for directions to Nerima, they seemed to get much better results when asking for Tokyo. Especially seeing as that was often the only word the people they encountered understood.
"Excuse moi monsure, parlevous Frances?"
"Sorry, I don't understand what you are saying, would it be possible to direct us to Tokyo, Tokyo!" Ryoga's partner stepped forwards, standing in between Ryoga and this person. Whenever Ryoga was left to his own devices while they tried to get directions, he had a tendency to resort to directly threatening the poor innocent bystander, which they happened to catch.
"Qui?"
"Tokyo, do you know where Tokyo is? T-O-K-Y-O."
The man pointed to the east.
"Thank you"
The duo headed off in the direction the man pointed, slowly drifting off course a little at a time till they were headed for Britain.
"Ranma Saotome this is all your fault." The standard phrase was taken up by two voices. "I really wish you'd stop doing that." Ryoga quipped.
"I'll tell you what, I'll only say it when you say it."
"That's the only time you say it anyway."
"Then you should have no problem with me putting in that condition."
"Gah you're almost as bad as Ranma."
"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Outside Tokyo, in the wilderness, evening ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Just curious, but since you know so much, you wouldn't happen to know what my mother saw in my pops would you. I mean how would an honourable, nice, and beautiful woman like mom fall in love with a dishonourable, lazy slob like pops? Let me guess it was an arranged marriage wasn't it?"
"Actually no, it wasn't an arranged marriage, as a matter of fact they were in love. There was a small amount of divine intervention involved however, but I am not allowed to tell you just how it came about. What I can tell you is that your mother knows a lot more than she ever let on to either of you. You might try getting to know her better as long as you don't try that whole stupid Ranko and Mr. Panda thing again."
"Yeah that was pretty dumb wasn't it, I mean she's my mother, she wouldn't . . . won't make me commit Seppuku over the curse, she is my mother after all. This time round, no pretending or deceiving her. She'll accept me as I am, I'm sure of it right Akane?"
Ranma's voice was pleading. He desperately needed the reassurance that his life wouldn't end so soon after he got it back. Akane understood this and smiled at her fiancée.
"I don't think there is any chance that any mother could bring herself to kill her son. As long as you're not an evil murderer or someone who delights in pain I don't think she'd even consider the possibility. You aren't those things and so you have nothing to worry about love."
"I'll never get tired of that."
"Tired of what Ranma?"
"Hearing you call me love."
Akane blushed fiercely while Loki and Ranma chuckled.
"Ten out of ten for that one kiddo, I guess being around me really is good for the two of you. Sometimes I even impress myself."
"Now let's see, who does that remind me of?" Akane joked.
"Technically it would be him reminding you of me since I was here first, but who am I to quibble?"
"Umm a god" Ranma answered, missing both the implications and the rhetorical part of the rhetorical question.
"Ranma, you're a beautiful person. Promise me you won't change."
"He will change, if you think for a second you're going to keep those table manners after we marry you have another thing coming mister I don't care what your father says, but I won't have my husband or my children eating like animals."
"Yes dear."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Osaka ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She had been through here, the Amazon hunter knew it. She had overheard the word Tokyo in the outsider girls ranting several times. Why the outsider held such conversations with a panda she'd never come to understand. The red-haired fool had held what seemed to be real and intense conversations with the panda albeit one-sided; she even acted like the panda talked back, of course that was impossible.
Honestly, she talked to that panda pet of hers like it was a person. Even if it was a really well trained panda the girl obviously had something wrong with her.
The warrior almost felt sorry for the outsider girl, there was obviously something not right with her. She acted more like an Amazon warrior then many of the women at the village, but she was an outsider and not an Amazon. Then there was the way she'd talk to animals, clearly she was not completely in her right state of mind, but then again quite a few Amazons back in the village weren't in their correct state of mind either.
It was too bad she had to kill this outsider; under different conditions she would have been quite the Amazon warrior, all they'd have to do was use the Memory Shiatsu Shampoo and the girl would wake up suffering from amnesia. After seeing her with the panda, she knew that the girl would have made an excellent animal handler. The village hadn't had a truly skillful one in quite some time. If the fluke on the challenge log that caused this whole incident hadn't really been the fluke it was, the girl might be quite a fighter.
During the outsider's flight from justice the girl had been amazing in the way she continually escaped from her hunter. The redhead must have at least some skill the way she managed to dodge her pursuer.
Eventually the fugitive from the law would be caught and regrettably she'd have to be killed.
If there were some way, any way out of killing the girl, I'd leap at the chance. She really doesn't deserve this, she wasn't aware of the law when she challenged me and would have no way of knowing the consequences. Of course she shouldn't have eaten my prize in the first place, but I just expected her to lose easily and be in servitude to the tribe, then she could have become a valuable part of the tribe, and they could have been friends, and maybe.
No, she couldn't let her thoughts travel down that particular line. It was true she didn't have that many friends, in fact, if you didn't count that blind fool who was always pursuing her then she really didn't have any friends, plenty of rivals, competition, and even a few supporters, but she didn't have any real friends.
Part of the reason that she had so willingly given the outsider the kiss of death, it was somewhat extreme after all, had been the fact that she felt betrayed. In the few moments she had known the outsider, she had briefly hoped that this outsider could be her friend. Coming from outside the tribe, not knowing anybody, possibly even being a training partner. She had promised herself to go easy on the girl and try not to hurt her too badly, just knock her out.
When the outsider beat her she was so angry she carried out the most extreme option she had available. Now after a month tracking the outsider she saw how wrong she had been in her hasty decision, fueled by betrayal and anger. She could have tried to get the girl adopted into the tribe, but once she had given the kiss of death there was no backing out and no second thoughts.
She wished great-grandmother had been there in the village at the time, but she was away somewhere on tribe business. There was no way to contact her or ask her for advice on the issue or a way out of it.
She barely had the rest of the day to pack and equip herself from the armoury for her hunt. Now she couldn't even return to ask her grandmother if there was a way out of the kiss of death, to return to the village before her task had been carried out would result in punishment and most likely loss of her status as the champion of the village.
She wished she could go back and change things; she didn't want to hunt this brave and skilled outsider girl who had done nothing worse than accidentally beating an Amazon. She desperately wanted to make things right and have this girl as a friend, but that wasn't possible, the girl had to die. Sometimes life just wasn't fair, all she could do was catch the girl and make her death as quick and painless as possible.
The hunter set up camp after she got to some woods outside the city, she'd rest here for a while and get her fighting skills back up after she slipped out of her tracking mode. The intense concentration tracking this outsider had taken helped her to not think about her situation. Here she would rest and hone her skills back up so as to deliver the final blow as mercifully as possible.
As she settled down for the night to sleep, she thought to herself that she was didn't know whether to be happy or sad that those two wandering martial artists had pointed out the direction to her, they seemed ok for men, but there was something strange about the way that the one with fangs and a bandana kept looking around as if he was lost, but he had pointed out the way to her and seemed pretty confident and since he was Japanese himself he must have known the way. They had then wandered off a different way heading for parts unknown. It was too bad; she could have used some company. She quickly shrugged those thoughts out of her mind, she was a proud Amazon warrior and she had to complete her duty no matter how much she didn't want to.
She wanted another chance to do things right, another chance to make things right, another chance to avoid her foolishness. However, Shampoo knew the truth, there were no second chances.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Outside Tokyo, in the wilderness, morning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well you two ready to go home?" Loki's question greeted the two as they stumbled out of their shared tent. The pair had offered to share the tent with Loki, somehow the two didn't seem to mind the god and actually trusted him an amazingly large amount for the short amount of time that they had known him.
Loki had bowed out, claiming he needed no sleep and that while he had matters to attend to, he would be back when the two of them awoke.
"We were planning on spending today training, but thanks to you there isn't really much need to do that." Ranma replied, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
Even though they could have slept in that day since they weren't doing anything, but training Ranma had wanted to head home early so that . . . well he didn't know why he wanted to head home early, but he had a nagging feeling that it was going to be necessary.
When you were attacked as often as Ranma was, often with no warning whatsoever, you learned to trust your instincts and gut feelings, this time was no different. Well actually Ranma perfected his gut instinct by learning to predict when Akane was going to cook.
Ranma didn't want to let Akane in on the premonition of trouble he was having, but he knew he would have to warn her on their way back to Nerima that something was going to happen and it was going to happen soon.
"Are you sure about this Ranma, we could stay till tomorrow?" Akane's tone was slightly pleading as she made the request.
"Sorry Akane, we need to get home, I have a feeling something is going to happen and that we will be needed back in Nerima."
"Will we ever get any peace and quiet?"
"Somehow I doubt it."
Akane shot the god a glare.
"Did I ask you?"
"Well it seemed to be an open question to which I had an answer, so I thought I might as well answer it."
"That satisfy you Akane," Ranma asked.
"Argggh, men."
Ranma splashed himself with his canteen changing into a girl.
"Whose a man," she asked Akane.
Akane turned to Loki and began to say something.
The giant serpent she was about to point at beat her to words.
"Nobody here but us gods, you see any guys round here Ranko?"
"No Loki, I see no guys here just a cute girl, big snake, and a tomboy."
"See Akane, no guys here."
The two 'eeped' at Akane's flaring battle aura.
"CHAOS NO BAKA," Akane yelled as she advanced on the two.
~~~~~~~~ A few minutes of pain and Akane style violence later ~~~~~~
"You know something Ranma?"
"What's that Loki?"
"Akane's temper really isn't as funny when you're on the receiving end."
"No really, maybe you should get some other gods to volunteer, I'll take a week off and let you supreme beings have a chance to see what it's like first hand."
"Ahhh, come on you two it's not that bad . . . Well actually I guess it's ok if you want to complain, its not like there are any men around here, just a girl, snake, and a tomboy."
The other two might have agreed with her, but neither particularly felt like agreeing with her.
Their reason for not agreeing was obvious to most people; most meaning the Kunos might have had trouble understanding the reason, but besides that most people who had double digit IQ would understand.
Ranma was tied to a rather thick branch of a nearby tree that was close to camp, during her and Loki's beating. The rope that tied her wasn't that thick and she could probably break it by flexing her muscles enough. She knew this, but didn't want to do it yet.
The reason she didn't want to break the rope was that Akane might still be angry with her and the chaos god, Ranma thought it might be best to give her fiancée another couple of minutes to calm down. She was sure Akane would give her some unspoken signal when she had calmed down enough. Already Ranma could tell her breathing had calmed down and her pulse was returning to normal. She'd be ready to let him go soon.
Another reason, but not nearly as important, the rope holding him just happened to be Loki. It was amazing how flexible and stretchy Loki was when he was a snake. He really didn't feel like tearing Loki in two, so for now he would just wait until Akane was ready to let the two down.
Loki for his part was impressed that Akane had twisted him into such a quality square knot.
"Umm Ranma, do you think she'll let us down soon, my spine, well actually my entire body is starting to hurt."
"Just starting, guess she didn't do a thorough enough job."
"I can't believe she used me as a rope."
"Listen it's not my fault if you ignored rule number 34."
"Yeah, yeah, but do you think she'll let us down anytime soon?"
"Sure, she's almost calmed down enough to let us out on her own. If we had a good enough reason she'd let us down right now, but I can't think of any reason good enough, so I guess we'll just hang around for now. Pardon the pun."
Loki groaned, but then acting on an idea called over to Akane, who had begun to disassemble camp.
"Akane my child, I have something for you, actually it's a present for both you and Ranma, would you mind letting us down and I'll give it to you."
Akane seemed to consider it for a while, "ok, but it had better be a nice present or else it'll be a sheepshank next time."
Akane went over and with a couple of skillful pulls she had the two of them freed. Unfortunately she wasn't very gentle as the two fell to the ground in an undignified heap, Ranma landing on top of Loki with the other half of Loki falling onto Ranma.
A moment later the two had sorted themselves out, Loki returned to his human form and with a little water Loki flash heated, Ranma also joined him in his male form.
"So what is this present?"
"Just a little something for the two of you to seal your love."
Loki smiled as he produced two small circular objects.
Akane gasped, in his hand Loki held two beautiful silver rings.
"Now hold still a moment, this will take just a second, you might feel a moment's discomfort."
The two rings floated into the air for a moment before they began to glow.
Akane gasped and fell to her hands and knees.
Ranma saw this and took a step towards her, but he staggered and barely managed to stay on his feet.
They both felt as if a part of them was being taken away, like something was sucking their very essence from them. Needless to say this wasn't a very pleasant feeling, but strangely enough it didn't hurt, it just had a very real sense of wrongness to it.
Akane looked up to see an evil gleam in the god's eyes. Ranma was fighting to stay on his feet and failed to notice it. It dawned on Akane that they had been a little too trusting of this god.
A skeptical person by nature Akane hadn't given thought to why she had trusted this being so fully. This would have been strange behavior for her had she paused to think about it, but for some reason she hadn't.
Ranma, Ranma was also a paranoid person out of necessity, but he had accepted this chaos god, Loki, without a second thought, hell, Ranma had even hugged this god, something he had never shown that much affection to even his father in public.
Those clues should have been more than enough for her to realize there was something wrong with the situation, but no, and now it was too late.
Akane gasped again as a small glowing ball of energy separated from her body, coming right out of her chest to hover in front of her. The red ball began to move towards one of the rings, only now the rings weren't floating in the air; Loki was wearing them on his fingers.
She turned to see Ranma, still standing, but fighting to stay so. A similar ball of blue energy had just come from his chest. As it separated from him, he fell to his knees, but didn't go down any further. Ranma had his eyes squeezed shut as he fought for breath and strength.
Akane herself was now doing everything she could just to keep from sprawling on the ground.
The balls of energy began to drift away from the two whom they were stolen from and towards Loki's rings.
A tear slipped down Akane's cheek as she struggled. Finally aware of just how great the blunder the two of them had made and the ease at which they had been deceived. She shed the tear also for the betrayal she felt by this god, which she had trusted so deeply and blindly.
As the tear fell the energy drew closer to the rings.
Ranma finally opened his eyes and saw what was happening. Despite the struggle against gravity he was fighting as his body felt like it was being forced down, he gasped out one word.
"No."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somewhere else ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So what do you think Loki is up to with those two?"
The armoured figure pounded one fist against a wall at the hooded figure's words.
"Thank you for reminding me of that detail. I do believe that I had forgotten that Loki was with the godslayer and his mate right now," a gauntleted hand pointed towards a wall screen that showed nothing but a chaotic swirling of colours and shapes where once was the image of Ranma and Akane's camp, "that wasn't enough of a reminder for me to know he was with them."
The armoured figure was practically glowing with barely restrained anger and frustration.
"Calm down, its not like Loki is going to do anything drastic."
The armoured figure sighed and slumped into its seat and if anything sounded more tired than angry this time.
"That's the point, Loki is a chaos god, considered by many to be the chaos god. Even Lolth is considered second to him due to her predisposition towards evil tendencies over anything good. Loki is just that, chaotic, we have no idea what he may or may not do with or to them."
"They are his chosen, I doubt he'll do anything to them that isn't in their best interests."
"Not true, if they are in his interests over theirs' I'm sure he'd be more than willing to do something possibly damaging to the two of them. Besides they shouldn't be his in the first place. He shouldn't even have Akane, let alone the godslayer, he got her through trickery and he got the godslayer through cheating. They should not be his chosen."
"Would you rather them be your chosen?"
"I'd rather them be Mars' chosen then Loki's chosen."
"Don't worry, this should be the last full day of the training trip, one way or another, they will be heading home and Loki won't be able to go with them."
"Then we can get back to interfering right?"
That brought a smile to the face of the cloaked figure, or at least it might have, light just didn't want to pierce the darkness of the cloak's hood and as such there wasn't much way of seeing the cloaked figure's face.
"Yes we can, but your right, I hope Loki doesn't do anything too drastic to them while we're blinded like this."
An uneasy feeling had settled on both of the figures, both thinking that the old phrase, 'what you don't know can't hurt you' and just how wrong it was.
Neither of the two figures felt like laughing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TBC, END OF CHAPTER 10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AN: This chapter came along faster than many of the others despite the fact that it is one of the longer ones. I'm happy to have this chapter done. I get the feeling that the training trip idea for this story is beginning to wear thin, and people want the story to continue on past this.
In addition, I just moved back to university today and decided as a treat to put this chapter up for everybody, before class starts tomorrow, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
When Ranma mentions to Loki about rule number 34, this is taken from the Evil overlord list at www.eviloverlord.com Rule number 34 is: 'I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.' There are more than 200 rules for prospective evil overlords, and it's always good for a laugh.
Next chapter the story really begins to progress onwards, hopefully.
If anyone has any comments on the story I would love to hear about them, advice and compliments are also welcome. In case anyone wonders, I read all the reviews I get about the story and if requested I am more than willing to respond or communicate with anyone so interested.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, if you want to contact me and have me respond, E-mail me at rhuobhe26@hotmail.com and I'll try to get back in touch with you as soon as possible. Thanks.
-Rhuobhe26
**** A Time to Rest ****
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all it's characters were created by Rumiko Takahashi I in no way take credit for them, don't sue, this is just a story for entertainment purposes and I am making no money off it.
AN: Quick personal disclaimer, I am writing this for fun, I do not enjoy flames, I welcome constructive criticisms and thoughtful advice.
"Speech"
Thoughts
~~~~Scene change/flashback~~~~~~
{Signs}
Ranma and Akane died thanks to Happosai, rather than let them die they were sent back in time thanks to Ranma's wish for another chance. Both retain their memories and feelings they accumulated; now they have to survive. In the last chapter the couple went on a training trip together to get themselves up to speed. In the process, they got closer together and trained. Ryoga and his traveling partner managed to get further and further away from their target, all the way to Tibet before turning around to go the right way. Loki, god of chaos himself introduced himself to his two chosen, namely Ranma and Akane. He then talked with them for a while about the situation the two were in. He began a spell that would slowly return the bodies the two fiancées had before they died back to them. We also saw the introduction of an Amazon warrior who was hunting the two. Now, on with the story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Outside Tokyo, in the wilderness, evening ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We find our two heroes sitting at their campsite together. Neither had done much training that day; both were still absorbing what they had learnt from the chaos god Loki.
Ranma is sitting with Akane by his side. The fire in front of them was burning warmly so as to keep off the chill of the encroaching night.
"So Loki has been watching over us since we were born?" Akane recapped.
"Yeah, that's the way it seems, and you thought I was overprotective."
"Hey, I think it's rather nice to have someone watching over me."
"You're just saying that aren't you."
"Yeah, I guess I am, but Loki did help us out quite a few times, we wouldn't have made it without him so I'm not as mad as I probably should be." Ranma said with a chuckle.
"What I'm wondering is how we got selected to be his chosen, and then us coming together like we have, it is a little bit too much of a coincidence even for us."
A third voice broke in on the conversation.
"Would you like me to answer that question or are you two just going to talk?"
Loki was acting as a backrest for the two chosen warriors of chaos.
"After all, I know more about you two than anyone else, especially when it comes to metaphysical destiny and the like. So if you two have any questions why not just ask, I'll be more than happy"
"Sorry about that Loki, we sort of forgot you were there." Ranma apologized.
"Mmmhhh, comfy," was all the response Akane gave.
"What am I going to do with you children?"
"Hey, we never asked to be your chosen, you dumped the job on the us now live with the consequences, we've had to." Ranma's tone held no anger, only humour; being round his patron deity was having a good effect on him and his fiancée.
"Do you really think I wanted to be a god of chaos, do you think I wouldn't give it up for a normal life?"
Ranma thought for a moment before answering, "No, you wouldn't."
Loki laughed
"True, but would you give up being a chosen so easily?"
"No, if I had lived a different life I'd never have met or fallen in love with Akane."
"Oh Ranma you say the sweetest things." Akane replied, giving Ranma a warm smile.
Ranma blushed slightly at the praise.
"Well anyway, back to the question at hand, do you two really want to know how and why you became chosen?"
Both of the martial artists responded in the affirmative.
"Well, as for the how, it was in your destiny. When you were born you both bore the mark of a chosen on your very essence."
"So we were your chosen from the start?"
"Well yes and no. Ranma had a very special mark in him; he had the mark of a godslayer. One out of every million has the potential to be a chosen of the gods. Of those chosen one every hundred generations has the mark of a godslayer. These children are highly contested for among the gods and even demons. The sheer potential as a chosen in him made Ranma a very valued person even though he was a mere baby."
Loki shifted a little to get more comfortable before continuing.
"A godslayer has something special in him or her that allows the godslayer, a mortal, the power to end the life of even an immortal being. That power is something a lot of gods feared, many wanted him dead before he could do any harm, others wanted him as a tool to be used in their intrigues. The pantheon of war was practically drooling over his potential as a battle master. The powers of death saw him as a kindred spirit. The creators of life saw him as an abomination. The entities of chaos saw him as a maelstrom of disaster. In the end it came down to every different deity or set of deities seeing him as nothing but a tool for their own purposes. The fates would not or could not read Ranma's life thread which meant that he would be a perfect chosen for any deity or demon that claimed him for their own."
"What did you see him as?" Akane asked.
Loki chuckled.
"To me Ranma was a way to piss of the other gods, at first I had no real interest in him except for something to taunt and hold over the heads of the other deities. Just think of what great big daddy of all Odin would say if I walked through Asgard with a godslayer with me. I'm sure he'd even catch the eye of a few valkyries and I know how hard they are to seduce."
"So I meant nothing to you?"
"Most mortals mean very little to divine or demonic entities except as amusement pieces or tools. I'm not really much better than the rest of them, but while your fate still hung in the balance, I did something most of the other gods would never even have thought of, I looked into your soul to see what you were going to be like. I was awed; inside of you there was such potential for destruction yet at the same time so many other possibilities. I had never seen anything like it before in any mortal and at that point, I knew I had to have you before any of the other gods could twist or change you into something to fit them. I wanted you to grow up and let your natural spirit take its own course with as little interference as possible."
"So how did you get me when there were so many other gods after me, was there some huge free-for-all?"
"No, although that would have been amusing to watch, but if that had happened you would more than likely belong to either a battle god or a death god right now. There were so many after you that it was left to Tyche, you'd know her as lady luck, to decide your fate."
"And you just happened to be picked to be the one who got Ranma?"
"Not quite, when I knew that was going to happen, I sort of seduced her to rule the verdict in my favor, unsurprisingly it worked and I got Ranma."
"Well that explains Ranma, but what about me, if I don't have the mark of a godslayer and am just a plain chosen I imagine it was a lot easier to get me."
"Easier, yes, but not by much. In Akane's case she was originally promised to be the chosen of Hure, goddess of anger and hatred. She is the one who originally claimed Akane at her birth."
"That would explain her temper then." Ranma reasoned. Akane moved her arm over and elbowed him in the stomach as her reply.
"Actually Hure never got to work on her, Akane is just naturally aggressive."
"Then if I was her chosen, how did I become your chosen?"
"Well I got her drunk and made a bet with her over you. I put Ranma up as my end of the bargain and she had to put Akane up in return."
"You gambled with my very fate with the goddess of anger! What would have happened to me if she had won?"
"Well I imagine that with both you and Akane as her chosen she would of had the perfect berserkers. The two of you would have always been angry at something and it would be next to impossible for anyone but Hure or another of Hure's chosen to calm you down. You would have become dependent on her for peace of mind."
Ranma and Akane shuddered at the mental images that such an occurrence brought to mind. Ranma shuddered at the thought of a constantly angry Akane. Akane shuddered at the thought of a truly angry Ranma.
In all the years she had known him Akane had trouble thinking of Ranma angry any time. She had seen him pissed off and irritated, but never truly angry. It was a very scary to picture what Ranma might would be capable of doing if the was angry. Besides having the ability to level most of Tokyo and probably a good part of any army sent after him.
"Of course, I'd never of let that happen, I won't bore you with the unimportant details, but lets just say that I had the odds in my favor."
"You cheated again?" Ranma's voice was tinged with both relief and disgust.
"Nope, I just got her roaring drunk before our little competition." Loki chuckled brightly at a memory only he and one other shared, and the other one didn't look back on the occasion with near the joy that the chaos god did.
Ranma and Akane both shared a relieved laugh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ France, Palace at Versailles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where are we now?"
"I was about to ask you the same question."
"How should I know, I can't see past all these hedges, why would anyone want their hedges this high."
"I'm more curious as to how we got into this garden in the first place. I've never seen anything like it."
The two were stopped and looking around the huge gardens, they had been in them for more than an hour and still hadn't found a way out.
"Well why don't we ask that couple where we are?"
"Fine, but I'm sure that way is the right direction." The bandana clad figure pointed off in a direction.
"Umm, I hate to tell you that, but there's a wall right there."
Ryoga rubbed his hand against the back of his head.
"Woops, well I meant that was the right direction, but of course we have to either go over or get around the wall."
Ryoga's companion was nonplussed at the lost boy's attempt at covering his mistake.
"Once we get back to somewhere in Japan I'll take over leading us to Saotome."
"Umm excuse me sir, but can you tell me the way to Tokyo."
The pair had soon learnt to stop asking for directions to Nerima, they seemed to get much better results when asking for Tokyo. Especially seeing as that was often the only word the people they encountered understood.
"Excuse moi monsure, parlevous Frances?"
"Sorry, I don't understand what you are saying, would it be possible to direct us to Tokyo, Tokyo!" Ryoga's partner stepped forwards, standing in between Ryoga and this person. Whenever Ryoga was left to his own devices while they tried to get directions, he had a tendency to resort to directly threatening the poor innocent bystander, which they happened to catch.
"Qui?"
"Tokyo, do you know where Tokyo is? T-O-K-Y-O."
The man pointed to the east.
"Thank you"
The duo headed off in the direction the man pointed, slowly drifting off course a little at a time till they were headed for Britain.
"Ranma Saotome this is all your fault." The standard phrase was taken up by two voices. "I really wish you'd stop doing that." Ryoga quipped.
"I'll tell you what, I'll only say it when you say it."
"That's the only time you say it anyway."
"Then you should have no problem with me putting in that condition."
"Gah you're almost as bad as Ranma."
"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Outside Tokyo, in the wilderness, evening ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Just curious, but since you know so much, you wouldn't happen to know what my mother saw in my pops would you. I mean how would an honourable, nice, and beautiful woman like mom fall in love with a dishonourable, lazy slob like pops? Let me guess it was an arranged marriage wasn't it?"
"Actually no, it wasn't an arranged marriage, as a matter of fact they were in love. There was a small amount of divine intervention involved however, but I am not allowed to tell you just how it came about. What I can tell you is that your mother knows a lot more than she ever let on to either of you. You might try getting to know her better as long as you don't try that whole stupid Ranko and Mr. Panda thing again."
"Yeah that was pretty dumb wasn't it, I mean she's my mother, she wouldn't . . . won't make me commit Seppuku over the curse, she is my mother after all. This time round, no pretending or deceiving her. She'll accept me as I am, I'm sure of it right Akane?"
Ranma's voice was pleading. He desperately needed the reassurance that his life wouldn't end so soon after he got it back. Akane understood this and smiled at her fiancée.
"I don't think there is any chance that any mother could bring herself to kill her son. As long as you're not an evil murderer or someone who delights in pain I don't think she'd even consider the possibility. You aren't those things and so you have nothing to worry about love."
"I'll never get tired of that."
"Tired of what Ranma?"
"Hearing you call me love."
Akane blushed fiercely while Loki and Ranma chuckled.
"Ten out of ten for that one kiddo, I guess being around me really is good for the two of you. Sometimes I even impress myself."
"Now let's see, who does that remind me of?" Akane joked.
"Technically it would be him reminding you of me since I was here first, but who am I to quibble?"
"Umm a god" Ranma answered, missing both the implications and the rhetorical part of the rhetorical question.
"Ranma, you're a beautiful person. Promise me you won't change."
"He will change, if you think for a second you're going to keep those table manners after we marry you have another thing coming mister I don't care what your father says, but I won't have my husband or my children eating like animals."
"Yes dear."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Osaka ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She had been through here, the Amazon hunter knew it. She had overheard the word Tokyo in the outsider girls ranting several times. Why the outsider held such conversations with a panda she'd never come to understand. The red-haired fool had held what seemed to be real and intense conversations with the panda albeit one-sided; she even acted like the panda talked back, of course that was impossible.
Honestly, she talked to that panda pet of hers like it was a person. Even if it was a really well trained panda the girl obviously had something wrong with her.
The warrior almost felt sorry for the outsider girl, there was obviously something not right with her. She acted more like an Amazon warrior then many of the women at the village, but she was an outsider and not an Amazon. Then there was the way she'd talk to animals, clearly she was not completely in her right state of mind, but then again quite a few Amazons back in the village weren't in their correct state of mind either.
It was too bad she had to kill this outsider; under different conditions she would have been quite the Amazon warrior, all they'd have to do was use the Memory Shiatsu Shampoo and the girl would wake up suffering from amnesia. After seeing her with the panda, she knew that the girl would have made an excellent animal handler. The village hadn't had a truly skillful one in quite some time. If the fluke on the challenge log that caused this whole incident hadn't really been the fluke it was, the girl might be quite a fighter.
During the outsider's flight from justice the girl had been amazing in the way she continually escaped from her hunter. The redhead must have at least some skill the way she managed to dodge her pursuer.
Eventually the fugitive from the law would be caught and regrettably she'd have to be killed.
If there were some way, any way out of killing the girl, I'd leap at the chance. She really doesn't deserve this, she wasn't aware of the law when she challenged me and would have no way of knowing the consequences. Of course she shouldn't have eaten my prize in the first place, but I just expected her to lose easily and be in servitude to the tribe, then she could have become a valuable part of the tribe, and they could have been friends, and maybe.
No, she couldn't let her thoughts travel down that particular line. It was true she didn't have that many friends, in fact, if you didn't count that blind fool who was always pursuing her then she really didn't have any friends, plenty of rivals, competition, and even a few supporters, but she didn't have any real friends.
Part of the reason that she had so willingly given the outsider the kiss of death, it was somewhat extreme after all, had been the fact that she felt betrayed. In the few moments she had known the outsider, she had briefly hoped that this outsider could be her friend. Coming from outside the tribe, not knowing anybody, possibly even being a training partner. She had promised herself to go easy on the girl and try not to hurt her too badly, just knock her out.
When the outsider beat her she was so angry she carried out the most extreme option she had available. Now after a month tracking the outsider she saw how wrong she had been in her hasty decision, fueled by betrayal and anger. She could have tried to get the girl adopted into the tribe, but once she had given the kiss of death there was no backing out and no second thoughts.
She wished great-grandmother had been there in the village at the time, but she was away somewhere on tribe business. There was no way to contact her or ask her for advice on the issue or a way out of it.
She barely had the rest of the day to pack and equip herself from the armoury for her hunt. Now she couldn't even return to ask her grandmother if there was a way out of the kiss of death, to return to the village before her task had been carried out would result in punishment and most likely loss of her status as the champion of the village.
She wished she could go back and change things; she didn't want to hunt this brave and skilled outsider girl who had done nothing worse than accidentally beating an Amazon. She desperately wanted to make things right and have this girl as a friend, but that wasn't possible, the girl had to die. Sometimes life just wasn't fair, all she could do was catch the girl and make her death as quick and painless as possible.
The hunter set up camp after she got to some woods outside the city, she'd rest here for a while and get her fighting skills back up after she slipped out of her tracking mode. The intense concentration tracking this outsider had taken helped her to not think about her situation. Here she would rest and hone her skills back up so as to deliver the final blow as mercifully as possible.
As she settled down for the night to sleep, she thought to herself that she was didn't know whether to be happy or sad that those two wandering martial artists had pointed out the direction to her, they seemed ok for men, but there was something strange about the way that the one with fangs and a bandana kept looking around as if he was lost, but he had pointed out the way to her and seemed pretty confident and since he was Japanese himself he must have known the way. They had then wandered off a different way heading for parts unknown. It was too bad; she could have used some company. She quickly shrugged those thoughts out of her mind, she was a proud Amazon warrior and she had to complete her duty no matter how much she didn't want to.
She wanted another chance to do things right, another chance to make things right, another chance to avoid her foolishness. However, Shampoo knew the truth, there were no second chances.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Outside Tokyo, in the wilderness, morning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well you two ready to go home?" Loki's question greeted the two as they stumbled out of their shared tent. The pair had offered to share the tent with Loki, somehow the two didn't seem to mind the god and actually trusted him an amazingly large amount for the short amount of time that they had known him.
Loki had bowed out, claiming he needed no sleep and that while he had matters to attend to, he would be back when the two of them awoke.
"We were planning on spending today training, but thanks to you there isn't really much need to do that." Ranma replied, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
Even though they could have slept in that day since they weren't doing anything, but training Ranma had wanted to head home early so that . . . well he didn't know why he wanted to head home early, but he had a nagging feeling that it was going to be necessary.
When you were attacked as often as Ranma was, often with no warning whatsoever, you learned to trust your instincts and gut feelings, this time was no different. Well actually Ranma perfected his gut instinct by learning to predict when Akane was going to cook.
Ranma didn't want to let Akane in on the premonition of trouble he was having, but he knew he would have to warn her on their way back to Nerima that something was going to happen and it was going to happen soon.
"Are you sure about this Ranma, we could stay till tomorrow?" Akane's tone was slightly pleading as she made the request.
"Sorry Akane, we need to get home, I have a feeling something is going to happen and that we will be needed back in Nerima."
"Will we ever get any peace and quiet?"
"Somehow I doubt it."
Akane shot the god a glare.
"Did I ask you?"
"Well it seemed to be an open question to which I had an answer, so I thought I might as well answer it."
"That satisfy you Akane," Ranma asked.
"Argggh, men."
Ranma splashed himself with his canteen changing into a girl.
"Whose a man," she asked Akane.
Akane turned to Loki and began to say something.
The giant serpent she was about to point at beat her to words.
"Nobody here but us gods, you see any guys round here Ranko?"
"No Loki, I see no guys here just a cute girl, big snake, and a tomboy."
"See Akane, no guys here."
The two 'eeped' at Akane's flaring battle aura.
"CHAOS NO BAKA," Akane yelled as she advanced on the two.
~~~~~~~~ A few minutes of pain and Akane style violence later ~~~~~~
"You know something Ranma?"
"What's that Loki?"
"Akane's temper really isn't as funny when you're on the receiving end."
"No really, maybe you should get some other gods to volunteer, I'll take a week off and let you supreme beings have a chance to see what it's like first hand."
"Ahhh, come on you two it's not that bad . . . Well actually I guess it's ok if you want to complain, its not like there are any men around here, just a girl, snake, and a tomboy."
The other two might have agreed with her, but neither particularly felt like agreeing with her.
Their reason for not agreeing was obvious to most people; most meaning the Kunos might have had trouble understanding the reason, but besides that most people who had double digit IQ would understand.
Ranma was tied to a rather thick branch of a nearby tree that was close to camp, during her and Loki's beating. The rope that tied her wasn't that thick and she could probably break it by flexing her muscles enough. She knew this, but didn't want to do it yet.
The reason she didn't want to break the rope was that Akane might still be angry with her and the chaos god, Ranma thought it might be best to give her fiancée another couple of minutes to calm down. She was sure Akane would give her some unspoken signal when she had calmed down enough. Already Ranma could tell her breathing had calmed down and her pulse was returning to normal. She'd be ready to let him go soon.
Another reason, but not nearly as important, the rope holding him just happened to be Loki. It was amazing how flexible and stretchy Loki was when he was a snake. He really didn't feel like tearing Loki in two, so for now he would just wait until Akane was ready to let the two down.
Loki for his part was impressed that Akane had twisted him into such a quality square knot.
"Umm Ranma, do you think she'll let us down soon, my spine, well actually my entire body is starting to hurt."
"Just starting, guess she didn't do a thorough enough job."
"I can't believe she used me as a rope."
"Listen it's not my fault if you ignored rule number 34."
"Yeah, yeah, but do you think she'll let us down anytime soon?"
"Sure, she's almost calmed down enough to let us out on her own. If we had a good enough reason she'd let us down right now, but I can't think of any reason good enough, so I guess we'll just hang around for now. Pardon the pun."
Loki groaned, but then acting on an idea called over to Akane, who had begun to disassemble camp.
"Akane my child, I have something for you, actually it's a present for both you and Ranma, would you mind letting us down and I'll give it to you."
Akane seemed to consider it for a while, "ok, but it had better be a nice present or else it'll be a sheepshank next time."
Akane went over and with a couple of skillful pulls she had the two of them freed. Unfortunately she wasn't very gentle as the two fell to the ground in an undignified heap, Ranma landing on top of Loki with the other half of Loki falling onto Ranma.
A moment later the two had sorted themselves out, Loki returned to his human form and with a little water Loki flash heated, Ranma also joined him in his male form.
"So what is this present?"
"Just a little something for the two of you to seal your love."
Loki smiled as he produced two small circular objects.
Akane gasped, in his hand Loki held two beautiful silver rings.
"Now hold still a moment, this will take just a second, you might feel a moment's discomfort."
The two rings floated into the air for a moment before they began to glow.
Akane gasped and fell to her hands and knees.
Ranma saw this and took a step towards her, but he staggered and barely managed to stay on his feet.
They both felt as if a part of them was being taken away, like something was sucking their very essence from them. Needless to say this wasn't a very pleasant feeling, but strangely enough it didn't hurt, it just had a very real sense of wrongness to it.
Akane looked up to see an evil gleam in the god's eyes. Ranma was fighting to stay on his feet and failed to notice it. It dawned on Akane that they had been a little too trusting of this god.
A skeptical person by nature Akane hadn't given thought to why she had trusted this being so fully. This would have been strange behavior for her had she paused to think about it, but for some reason she hadn't.
Ranma, Ranma was also a paranoid person out of necessity, but he had accepted this chaos god, Loki, without a second thought, hell, Ranma had even hugged this god, something he had never shown that much affection to even his father in public.
Those clues should have been more than enough for her to realize there was something wrong with the situation, but no, and now it was too late.
Akane gasped again as a small glowing ball of energy separated from her body, coming right out of her chest to hover in front of her. The red ball began to move towards one of the rings, only now the rings weren't floating in the air; Loki was wearing them on his fingers.
She turned to see Ranma, still standing, but fighting to stay so. A similar ball of blue energy had just come from his chest. As it separated from him, he fell to his knees, but didn't go down any further. Ranma had his eyes squeezed shut as he fought for breath and strength.
Akane herself was now doing everything she could just to keep from sprawling on the ground.
The balls of energy began to drift away from the two whom they were stolen from and towards Loki's rings.
A tear slipped down Akane's cheek as she struggled. Finally aware of just how great the blunder the two of them had made and the ease at which they had been deceived. She shed the tear also for the betrayal she felt by this god, which she had trusted so deeply and blindly.
As the tear fell the energy drew closer to the rings.
Ranma finally opened his eyes and saw what was happening. Despite the struggle against gravity he was fighting as his body felt like it was being forced down, he gasped out one word.
"No."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somewhere else ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So what do you think Loki is up to with those two?"
The armoured figure pounded one fist against a wall at the hooded figure's words.
"Thank you for reminding me of that detail. I do believe that I had forgotten that Loki was with the godslayer and his mate right now," a gauntleted hand pointed towards a wall screen that showed nothing but a chaotic swirling of colours and shapes where once was the image of Ranma and Akane's camp, "that wasn't enough of a reminder for me to know he was with them."
The armoured figure was practically glowing with barely restrained anger and frustration.
"Calm down, its not like Loki is going to do anything drastic."
The armoured figure sighed and slumped into its seat and if anything sounded more tired than angry this time.
"That's the point, Loki is a chaos god, considered by many to be the chaos god. Even Lolth is considered second to him due to her predisposition towards evil tendencies over anything good. Loki is just that, chaotic, we have no idea what he may or may not do with or to them."
"They are his chosen, I doubt he'll do anything to them that isn't in their best interests."
"Not true, if they are in his interests over theirs' I'm sure he'd be more than willing to do something possibly damaging to the two of them. Besides they shouldn't be his in the first place. He shouldn't even have Akane, let alone the godslayer, he got her through trickery and he got the godslayer through cheating. They should not be his chosen."
"Would you rather them be your chosen?"
"I'd rather them be Mars' chosen then Loki's chosen."
"Don't worry, this should be the last full day of the training trip, one way or another, they will be heading home and Loki won't be able to go with them."
"Then we can get back to interfering right?"
That brought a smile to the face of the cloaked figure, or at least it might have, light just didn't want to pierce the darkness of the cloak's hood and as such there wasn't much way of seeing the cloaked figure's face.
"Yes we can, but your right, I hope Loki doesn't do anything too drastic to them while we're blinded like this."
An uneasy feeling had settled on both of the figures, both thinking that the old phrase, 'what you don't know can't hurt you' and just how wrong it was.
Neither of the two figures felt like laughing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TBC, END OF CHAPTER 10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AN: This chapter came along faster than many of the others despite the fact that it is one of the longer ones. I'm happy to have this chapter done. I get the feeling that the training trip idea for this story is beginning to wear thin, and people want the story to continue on past this.
In addition, I just moved back to university today and decided as a treat to put this chapter up for everybody, before class starts tomorrow, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
When Ranma mentions to Loki about rule number 34, this is taken from the Evil overlord list at www.eviloverlord.com Rule number 34 is: 'I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.' There are more than 200 rules for prospective evil overlords, and it's always good for a laugh.
Next chapter the story really begins to progress onwards, hopefully.
If anyone has any comments on the story I would love to hear about them, advice and compliments are also welcome. In case anyone wonders, I read all the reviews I get about the story and if requested I am more than willing to respond or communicate with anyone so interested.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, if you want to contact me and have me respond, E-mail me at rhuobhe26@hotmail.com and I'll try to get back in touch with you as soon as possible. Thanks.
-Rhuobhe26