It was now 8 hours since the lone scientist was on the mysterious island. The ship had arrived at Honshu and the scientist had a destination in mind. They needed to rescue her comrades as well as research the temple. And she could only think of one group that could help her in her cause but first she needed some sleep.
-- -- --
Ranma yawned as she tried to stay awake in class. Sure she was interested in the material the only thing was that they were covering the one subject that she despised more than her father's training methods...Imps. She knew she needed to stay awake to get credit for being there this day but she wanted to also keep the info from getting to her. It was a lot of speculated info that Dr. Hibiki was informing the class based on books. But she knew the real reason why Imps were hated. They were like any other insect. They were no real problem, but damn it they were like locusts when they started to swarm. After the class reached it's half way mark Dr. Hibiki sighs and says, "Alright now. We'll take a break from Imps. Not much is known about them anyway as I said before. Now though I would like to talk about a Legend I recently came upon in my texts and source material."
At this Ranma became filled with a bit more energy as she was curious as to what this legend was about. But then her eyes widen like there was no tomorrow when Dr. Hibiki turned on a projection machine and showed a photo of a complete tablet. And Ranma could see where there were cracks and now knew that they only had a third of the complete tablet. Dr. Hibiki noticed the reaction and says, "Ms. Saotome would you like to share with the class what got you surprised about this picture?"
Ranma nods and says, "We have two pieces of that tablet where I work. We found them after two ghosts dropped them. We were trying to figure out what they were from as we couldn't find any pictures of a complete tablet."
Dr. Hibiki became surprised and says, "You have two pieces? That is not good."
Ranma having dealt with such things that feel into the "not good" category could only do one thing. "Why?" was the only word that came from her mouth as was now curious as to how dangerous this could be.
"This tablet is a key Ms Saotome. It is supposed to lock away a powerful entity every so many years. The last time it showed up in history was when the Amazon tribes in Europe disappeared and the fall of the Roman Empire. Both of which happened at the same time. Some believe that both people were battling something that was causing both societies to fall." Dr. Hibiki answers while looking at the class.
Ranma then immediately decided to ask Cologne about the Amazon bit but also decided to find more info on the tablet. But then Dr. Hibiki grabs Ranma's shoulders and says, "After class I am going to need to see those tablets. I will be able to give you and your friends more info on it then."
"Why not give me more info now?" Ranma asks.
"Would you remember it all?" Dr. Hibiki asks back.
Ranma sheepishly smiles rubbing the back of her head and says, "If I wrote it down."
Then Dr. Hibiki decided to end class then. He said that the rest of the class does not need to know what he needs to tell Ranma. Some of Ranma's classmates glare at her for getting to get to hear the full story while Sasami waves to her friend while leaving knowing fully where Ranma and her friends got the second piece.
-- -- --
"So you're saying that you want to hire us to protect you and to get your fellow scientists out of this haunted temple on some island that is hard to even get to. How much do you think that is going to be? We are not cheap by any means and for us to do that will be even more expensive." says Nabiki as the lone survivor of such ordeal explained to her what she wants to hire them for.
"Please say you'll do it. It's for scientific research and to save my friends." the scientist replies back.
Nabiki rubs her temple and says, "I don't know. What did you say your name was again?"
"My name is Dr. Briana Smith. I have been friends with everyone that was on this expedition since the time I met them all at various dig sites. Please I'll pay what ever your price is. Just say you'll do it." the lone scientist answers.
And about here is when Ranma and Dr. Hibiki walked into the temple. Ranma stretches her arms and says, "Doc this is Nabiki. Not sure who she is talking too, probably another client. Anyway I'm going to get changed and be right back. I'll get the others so that they can all hear this okay.?"
Dr. Hibiki nods as Ranma walks off to another part of the temple. He then looked towards Nabiki and says, "I have info on the tablet pieces that you all found."
Nabiki nods in understanding and informs him to find a seat. She then turns to Briana and says, "Dr. Smith I am going to be right back. Please excuse me."
Briana nods as Nabiki gets up and looks for Ranma. Meanwhile Briana and Dr. Hibiki then start talking about the tablet. Briana nods signaling that she knew about it and had recently found a temple. After what she saw there she believed it to be connected some how. She then goes and explains in further detail of what happened to explain her thesis as the good scientist she is.
Nabiki meanwhile smirks and says, "You're have been waiting for a chance to be on the job as a guy again for a while now. So I guess you decided to do so now.?"
Ranma nods as he zips up his uniform and says, "Doc has seen a lot of weird things. And probably knows of Jusenkyo so I thinks it's cool. Just as long as we get this job done then I guess he'll be able to tell us more on the tablet. We can't exactly bring him along. From what you said already it looks like this will be a long and dangerous one."
Nabiki nods and says, "True. So who should go? We should try to keep someone here incase things get bad. We could call them to inform them of any danger plus someone should be here incase there is another call that a normal team could handle."
Ranma thinks about it and says, "Why not have you, me and then Shampoo and Kurama come along. Shampoo could tell us if anything there looks like anything she had heard about from Cologne. You and me already have some back story on this and then of course Kurama can control plant life and has a lot of knowledge from his days as a demon. It would be the best bet for this one."
"That sounds reasonable. Alright then, I'll call Ukyo, Akane and Yusuke and put them on stand by. And maybe get one of them over here. While you call the others to come over here. We all know Hiei will probably stay close as it is anyway. So he isn't going anyway unless he was told to." Nabiki replies.
Ranma smirks and says, "Sure. I'll call them now." and then Ranma was off as he looked for the number book for the cell numbers of Kurama and Shampoo. Well mostly Kurama as he thought he should ask Cologne to come over as well and thus called the Cat Café to ask her to come over to speak with Dr. Hibiki and to possibly bring some food over for the long trip. While Nabiki simply takes out her cell phone and calls the others using the contact list on her phone.
(Here is the first part to chapter 3. Told you that a bigger chapter was on it's way.)