You can guess the crossover. Ranma won't wear a fuku, and also no tuxedo. He won't be some re-incarnation. He is just... Ranma. I want to avoid numerous stuff that became the norm in these crossovers but that actually is pretty stupid. I also will make it clear that while Ranma and the Senshi learn new techniques, I won't sink to the insane levels of the canon, where it became an absurd arms race in the later parts of both series. It's a common weakness in anime series that the power level increases to ridiculous levels. (In my opinion, DBZ is the worst offender in that regard in the anime world) I will try to stay on Earth and try to give everything a bit more realistic feeling (as much as it as it is possible) but don't worry... hilarity will still ensure!
Needless to say that I will slaughter the canon of both series, but I guess you expected this. Also I don't have any rights to both series, but I guess you know that, too.
MAN, that took really LONG! I'm really sorry that I kept you all hanging for almost half a year, but it was a really stressful time; trying to get a job and then getting used to it. Thankfully, it is now all done and my life is back in order, thus I can finally present you the next chapter, the last of the "vacation" arc.
The chapter itself also grew far larger than intended, I was not satisfied with the first result and added significant content to make it better.
I do have a page for the story at TV Tropes, the link is found in my bio. Please help to contribute to it if you feel like it.
As always, I try to answer all reviews and I'm always happy for reviews.
Note that specific notes are at the end of the chapter, to avoid spoilers.
Chapter 25: The Pervert, the Minotaur and Trouble
It already was well into the afternoon and the heat of the day had caused all current inhabitants of the Tendo house to flee into the shadowed family room, enjoying the cool-down the wind from two ventilators gave them. The heat had ramped up significantly over the day, bringing any kind of physical activity to a halt. Worse, the forecast held little hope that it could get better over the next few days.
Genma and Soun were brooding over a Shogi board, trying to discern their opponent's next move. Nodoka and Saeko were reading books, while Kaizo was dozing off. Kasumi was preparing some cold drinks, while Akane was trying her luck at an English-language crossword puzzle. Nabiki was still upstairs, not wanting to be disturbed. Even Ranma, normally a very active person, was becoming lethargic due to the heat, finding it impossible to to get himself to do anything.
He was wondering if he should ask Ami if they could do some sunbathing later. Wearing that bikini as a girl while swimming hadn't been as bad as he had thought it would be. After some angry looks - and in one case a kick into the nuts - she had not gotten any lecherous gazes from guys anymore. Ami had also looked very nice in her own bikini and in the end the afternoon had been lots of fun. Everything considered, it hadn't bothered Ranma to wear female swimwear, as long as he stayed a girl of course.
Ami for her part felt that up to now it had been a great vacation. That, and Ranma in a bikini looked simply hot. She would not have believed half a year ago that she would actually develop such a lusting for the female body. Thankfully, it was just limited to Ranma, her reactions to other girls staying at zero. She did feel the temptations of a teenage girl and honestly wondered how long until they would no longer wait. Ever since their vacation started, they had become even closer, so it now only was a matter of time.
Yes, this was what a vacation should be. It was peaceful and they were all able to relax.
-sklam!- "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!" -skliiiiir-
The sudden noise from the kitchen and Kasumi's scream of terror removed all lethargy from the room. The martial artists jumped up and were ready for everything. About to storm into the kitchen, they were stopped when the sliding door opened and Kasumi stumbled out. They were shocked at the seeing the state she was in.
Kasumi was very pale and shivering, like something had scared her to no end. Her eyes were wide with fear and she looked ready to cry. Most shocking was the condition of her shirt, or what was left of it. It was ripped apart and Kasumi was clearly missing her bra, holding the remains of her shirt to her front on order to cover her breasts. She was unable to utter a word, before running upstairs. Her door then was slammed shut.
No one moved, shocked at what they had just witnessed. Then there was a voice from the kitchen.
"Not bad at all. A little on the conservative side. Still a worthy addition to my new collection. Though no girl has ever reacted that badly to me."
"No... It can't be..." Genma gasped, all color leaving him.
Someone then walked through the open door. It was an old man, shrunken with age and his hair nearly all gone, wearing something that looked like brown robes. Normally a sight that wouldn't cause alarm. However, one look at his eyes revealed nothing but coldness and even those who had no training at all could feel the sheer malevolence he radiated. The women also felt alarmed at his presence; feeling they were especially in danger.
The old man then gave Genma and Soun a hard, dangerous look. "There you two losses are. Thought you can get rid of me, do you?"
"All right, who the hell are you?" Ranma growled, pushing aside his feelings of danger.
The old man gave him a look. "Doesn't look very impressive. Good that I won't teach any longer; got boring anyway... So I guess these two never two never told you, eh? I'm Happosai, grandmaster of the school these two are following."
Ranma avoided taking a step back, but nonetheless now felt nervous. The little he did know about the man who taught his old man - most of which he had learned second-hand from his mother - hinted that this guy was incredibly skilled and dangerous. That, and he was a horrible person, as Genma had mostly talked about his cruelty. He had only briefly dared to use his skill to look at his life-force. It was, shockingly enough, black. A clear sign of simple, pure evil. Not driven by rage, but simply by enjoying being evil.
His mother did look pale at being confronted with the man, but the fathers were much worse off. Both of them looked ready to die from fear. Not that Ranma could fault them.
"So what? Don't expect me to worship you after what you just did," Ranma threatened him, feeling that the old goat couldn't be that hard to beat up, even if he was totally evil. After all, he was really old.
"Such insolence..." Happosai then gave him a frightening look. "Looks like I have to teach you a lesson." Before anyone could react... -BLAM- A small explosion blasted Ranma against the wall. His clothes looked burnt and he was shaking his head to get the ringing out of his head. "Never talk back to me, boy."
Damn! The old goat didn't even need to move fast to do whatever he just did to me, Ranma thought, while trying to ignore the sound coming from his pained ears.
Happosai then looked to Genma and Soun, who looked frightened at the mere prospect of getting his attention. "You two had the nerve to think you could kill me. Ha! Both of you will now pay the ultimate price for denying me."
"You're gonna kill us?" Soun stammered, the damage done by Happosai re-surfacing.
"No, that would be too easy and not enough of a punishment." Happosai then looked around. "You see... I spent almost twenty years in that cave and it gave me time to think. In my advanced age I should stop wandering around and think about the future. A future for which you will provide..."
"What's this ruckus? I heard that even through the headphones!"
They did see Nabiki walking down the stairs, looking pretty annoyed that she was disturbed in her leisure time. She then took one look at Happosai, seeing that he was a total stranger, and recoiled in disgust at the sight. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing in our house?"
"Feisty... for now. Soun, I have to congratulate you that you have not one or two, but three daughters for me." He then gave Nabiki a predatory look. "I already sampled the goods of the oldest. Let's see how the younger version compares."
"Wha..." -scccrrriiiiiaaatttcchhh- Nabiki was frozen when one move from Happosai turned her clothes into tiny shreds, while leaving no mark on her skin, leaving her... well, in nothing at all. For a moment she was frozen in surprise, which quickly turned to terror when she felt the old man's dirty hands on her very private places.
"YYYAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Get off! Get off!" Nabiki screamed, trying to shake off Happosai.
For her, who was used to being in control, the whole situation was a huge nightmare. Stripped naked in front of everyone else, groped and molested in unspeakable places by this old pervert and unable to shake him off. To make matters worse, she could feel the sheer repulsiveness and perverse lust he was radiating. It sparked fears she had long thought conquered, dragging bad memories of being utterly helpless back to the surface.
He finally let go when Ranma and Akane were about to try and ply him off her. Happosai of course answered by attacking both of them, blasting them to the far side of the room with two more explosions. Nabiki however did find herself utterly drained of energy, so she only managed to curl up in the far corner, hiding her face from the others.
Happosai gave Ranma and Akane hard looks. "I'll make sure both of you pay properly; you, girl, will also learn your place once you have to service me regularly." He then looked around and saw to his satisfaction that everyone looked terrified. "I know you are the wife of this loss Genma. You'll do well; I like mature women. Also no house-guests, although it's a pity considering these two beauties..."
Ami hid behind her mother in fear, while Saeko felt equal parts fearful and angry.
"Oh, but were was I?" Happosai said as if he had not just committed something truly disgusting. "Ah yes. My well-deserved retirement. It's a really nice house and it provides everything I need. Better clean out the master bedroom, Soun. Oh, these will be wonderful years, with these three beauties servicing me."
Soun was filled with fear. This man had made his life hell for years and ruined his very youth; years that he had lost forever. And now this monster was about to move into his house and oppress him once more. Even worse, his daughters now would pay a horrible price for his past and he didn't even want to imagine what Happosai would do to them.
He remembered Kasumi, looking scared out of her mind and traumatised right after the first time meeting the man. Never before had he seen his eldest this scared and vulnerable. He then looked to where Nabiki was cowering in the corner; his normally very confident daughter being utterly humiliated and scared out of her mind. He looked to Akane, who was still nursing the bruises from Happosai's single attack, trembling from fear and barely held back rage.
This is my fault... And to think I promised Kimko at her deathbed to take care of our children...
This simple realization changed everything. Had he and Genma not been cowards all these years ago and made sure the old man would be dead, they wouldn't be in this situation now. His daughters wouldn't have gotten hurt. While he had already failed his promise, what had just happened hammered it home. Not doing what should have been done all these years ago due to being cowards was finally biting them big time. While still afraid, Soun felt the guilt becoming stronger. With the guilt came shame and then something changed.
"No."
Happosai stopped his laughing, all humor having fled him in an instant. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means... I won't allow you to sully my daughters, darken my house or treat me like a slave again. You are not welcome here." It was a testament to his resolve that Soun managed to get out all of it without stuttering, though it took him every ounce of strength.
"You don't have the courage. You're as spineless as it can be," Happosai said, while giving Soun a hostile stare.
"He's not alone." Genma was still pale, but hearing how Happosai was planning to sexually abuse Nodoka had given him more strength than he had felt was possible. "Never again..."
Happosai looked annoyed, obviously not used to defiance. "Anyone else joining these two?"
Ranma didn't hesitate to stand beside his father. Beside all the other things Happosai had done, him giving Ami this... greedy look which promised he'd do something to her had turned him even more hostile against the old man. Akane was more uncertain, still feeling the pain from that single attack, but in the end stood beside her father. After what this monster had done to her sisters, he had to pay.
"Ha ha, that's a good joke," Happosai laughed humorlessly. "I'm back with my stuff in two hours. If you still insist on your little rebellion then, I'll teach you manners. You'll be happy to be allowed to kiss my feet once I'm done with you."
That said, Happosai left through the open doors to the garden, jumping over the perimeter wall and out of sight.
As soon as he was gone, the women rushed to help the sobbing Nabiki, while Akane couldn't help but to hug her father. "Oh, Daddy..."
While she was proud of him having found the courage to actually stand against Happosai despite his sheer terror at seeing him again, she was not blind to how badly this was affecting him. His sheer terror at the mere sight of his old master and the haunted look he was now sporting explained quite a bit about his ten-year long breakdown. She simply couldn't stay angry at him.
While Ranma would never hug his father - after all he did have his pride - he put a hand on his shoulder. "Pop? Are you... all right?"
"No... Not yet."
Ranma had experienced some really horrible things on his training journey. However, seeing his father this scared made him wonder how much worse it could have been. While Genma's methods partially had been downright insane or criminal, it for all he knew could have been tame compared to Happosai's methods. Truth to be told, he didn't even want to know.
That moment, Khu-Lon and Mu-Tsu had finally reached the Tendo house after trying to get through Tokyo traffic.
They were taken aback when they saw two grown men looking like they had seen death itself, the women wrapping a sobbing and very naked girl into a blanket and everyone else in different states of fear or anger. Khu-Lon knew right away what this meant.
"We are too late."
...half an hour later...
"Both of them have calmed down a bit. Thank goodness I didn't have to resort to drugs. They are still both badly shaken by it," Dr. Tofu Ono said, while walking down the stairs.
On the outside he was calm and collected. On the inside things looked quite different. Deep inside him was a raging volcano of anger that couldn't wait to get his hands onto this Happosai character and turn him into bloody shreds. Not only that he had threatened and hurt the family of the woman he would marry. Happosai had broken the big taboo by hurting and molesting the very woman whom his heart belonged to. Ever since he got cured of his problem and acted on his feelings, he had also discovered his darker side.
He wasn't a bad person or even evil. However, he found that he had little tolerance for anyone who would dare to make Kasumi's life difficult. After what Happosai did, everything in him screamed to kill the little monster right away. Thank all goodness he had good discipline and was easily able to control this more primitive part of his very being, although the temptation was huge this time.
"How... how are they?" Soun's fear had made room for worry. Worry over what could have happened to his daughters was overriding his fear of Happosai.
Tofu pushed his glasses up his nose. "Physically there's nothing wrong with them, apart from the serious stress they've went through. Psychologically however..."
He needed a moment to find the words. "I'm no psychologist, but got a pretty good idea. Kasumi told me that it had felt so dark and vile that it had been a huge shock to her system. Her very being is so much light-aligned, that it had multiplied the reaction. She's recovering, but it will take some time. Nabiki... You seriously need to talk with that girl. Between the crying she sobbed that she 'never wanted to feel like this again'."
Soun sighed. "I feared this would happen one day."
Anymore explanation was stopped when with a -Crash- something huge landed in the garden. Startled, everyone took one look and froze when seeing the strange creature standing there. It looked like a huge minotaur with comically small wings and the lower half of an eel as a tail. For the people from Minato, this sight was not the strangest thing they had seen, not after Youma. For the Nerimeans however, unused to this, it was a frightening sight.
"Mooooooouuurgh!" the minotaur growled, while not looking very friendly.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Akane growled. As if the day had not become bad enough!
"Now I'm getting seriously pissed off!" Ranma growled when seeing the minotaur approach, looking ready for violence.
"Not only you..." Genma growled, the stress having taken its toll.
"I guess he does want to make trouble..." Mu-Tsu said, while pulling out two really mean looking flails.
Soun's eyes hardened. After everything, this was enough. "Trouble? Not in my house!"
Enough was enough and all the fighters finally had to vent the pent-up emotions from that day. The minotaur had no idea what hit him, when five seriously pissed-off martial artists attacked him. Then the brawl was on.
"All right, I think I should be scared... but after being captured by a whole horde of monsters, I feel strangely clam due to it being just one monster," Kaizo said, while watching the ongoing brawl.
"Too bad my swords are back home, or this thing would have learned a painful lesson," Nodoka said, feeling the urge to come to their defense. Ever since having been held hostage by the Dark Kingdom, she was now was determined to defend her family and their friends.
Saeko shook her head. "What's more important is the question what this thing is doing here."
"There's something strange about this... thing," Tofu said, concentrating on the minotaur. "I'm really good at reading the signatures of living beings, and this one is really confusing."
"How exactly?" Nodoka wondered, while watching the minotaur getting the beating of his life.
"It's like there are two signatures overlapping... Now that I'm checking, Ranma and Mr. Saotome also have traces of this," Tofu observed, wondering what it could be.
Hmm, could it be? I have to make sure, Ami thought, having a sudden insight.
Standing a bit apart from the others, Ami pulled out the Mercury Computer and quickly scanned the huge minotaur. She looked at the result of the scan and after cross-referencing, her eyes widened. "I knew it! Now, this is very interesting."
"What is interesting, child?" Khu-Lon asked, unable to understand what the screen said.
Ami looked at the results. "This is no monster. According to the energy signature, he does have a curse like Ranma. Only, instead of turning him into a girl, it turns him into... whatever this is supposed to be."
"Well, this makes it easy then."
Khu-Lon slipped into the kitchen, filled a cup with water and then used a little trick to heat it up. When she returned the brawl was still on, but the minotaur looked rather worse for the wear now. As much fun as it was to see the cursed moron (and what else could you call him, considering the first thing he did was to threaten them?) getting beaten up, they were on a time limit.
"Here you go!" She called, then splashed him with the hot water.
The effect set in right away, as usual with these kind of curses. He turned back into a man looking to be about 18 years old. To Akane's dismay however, it unlike Genma did not include a set of clothes. After a moment of shock, she let out a cry of female mortification, before hitting him hard into the head, felling him like a sack of potatoes. They wasted no time in covering him with a blanket - no need to see this any longer than needed - before they tied him up with some rope.
Saeko gave the unconscious man a hard look. "I have no idea what his story is, but we'll find out soon enough once he wakes up."
"What is it with jerks attacking us for no reason?" Ranma grumbled.
"We can deal with him later. Right now we do have a more pressing problem," Nodoka reminded everyone.
Khu-Lon sighed at hearing this reminder. "Well... you can guess that I know more about Happosai, since I'm here. Needless to say, Happosai and my tribe do have history between them. Not very nice things, which I don't like to remember..."
Right now she did look every bit as old as she was. "Many years ago, Happosai encountered my tribe. Back then I had been a naive girl of barely seventeen years. It was quite a ruckus when this dashing young man entered the village. In the following match he defeated me and as per the customs back then, I was to be wed to him. This young man was Happosai. He seemed everything you could want: good-looking, strong, polite..."
"Several days later, everything blew up. Someone broke into out vault one night, stealing many riches and several dangerous artifacts, which in the wrong hands can cause havoc. The six guards had been beaten up and then the intruder had violated them..."
"You mean, they...?" Saeko couldn't finish the thought.
Khu-Lon sighed. "Yes, they were raped... brutally. One of them was able to tell that it had been Happosai, my so-called 'husband'. Shamed as I was, I went after him to bring him to justice. I was stupid and our next encounter predictably went bad for me. After beating me up, he told me that I had been 'fun' for him, but now that he got what he wanted, he would leave for his homeland. He however first wanted to get one final taste."
"He should not have tried. There was something I learned from my mother, which I used against him just as he was about to violate me: a nerve-strike that destroyed important connections and made him totally impotent for the rest of his life. Him never getting it up again is perhaps the best punishment for his kind. Of course he did beat me senseless for it but had to flee from pursuing warriors before he could kill me."
"That explains a lot," Genma said, looking thoughtful. "While he was the most disgusting pervert imaginable, his sexual abuse of women never included raping them in classic way. His impotency must have fueled his rage and made him seek alternatives to satisfy his lust."
"Oh yes, from what I have heard over the years it has driven him into sheer depravity." She then looked sad. "Four of his victims committed suicide shortly later, unable to live with the shame, while the other two become loners. Since I had let this monster touch me, I needed years before I found a husband - especially one I did trust... Which now leaves one question: how did he escape?"
"To be honest, I have no idea..." Soun paled a little when remembering these days. "Back then he was down and ready to kill us. He obviously saw us as failures, since he had been unable to turn us into monsters like himself. We had found something to live for during one of his longer absences, so we knew we had to get rid of him once and for all."
Ganma remembered the despair of these days. "We gave him drugged sake and left him in the cave where he had taken shelter. We then used explosives to blow up the entire cave mouth to bury him alive. How could he have survived all these years?"
"Well, how he survived I do know. It's his secret, which I have puzzled together during the years and which he clearly kept away from you. All his molesting of women has another purpose besides satisfying his lower desires. He has discovered a a way to drain life energy out of women and store it within himself, thus turning himself into a living battery. He had clearly waited on a low burn until he saw a way to escape," Khu-Lon explained.
He sounds like a Youma, Ami thought, disturbed by the idea.
"Sleeping beauty is waking up," Akane remarked when seeing the unknown man stir.
#"What the hell did hit me?"# he wondered in Chinese, before noticing that he was tied up. #"Damn it!"#
"Let me do the talking," Khu-Lon said, before giving him a sharp hit with her staff. #"All right, listen up and listen good. You have ten seconds to start explaining why you violated the peace of this house."#
He seemed surprised that someone used his native language, before his face twisted in rage. #"Let me go! Where are you hiding him?!"#
Khu-Lon hit him with her staff a second time. #"You won't go anywhere. Better talk what your connection to Happosai is. And switch to Japanese. No one here has much patience with you."#
He only now noticed the unfriendly looks. "I want Happosai. I need him to undo the crap he did to me. So tell me where he's hiding."
Nodoka was sorely tempted to hit him in the back of the head, relieved that Ranma was far more polite than this. "Better change your tone quickly, young man. And to your information, we are not hiding Happosai. We are trying to get rid of him."
"Anyway, what's you beef with him?" Akane asked, not liking the guy either. "You know, if he gave you that curse, he can't undo it."
"It... it's not only that, even though the curse already gave me enough grief," he said, suddenly defensive.
"Then you better explain fast, as violating the peace of my house is a serious offense," Soun said, giving the young man a look that promised big trouble otherwise.
He finally deflated. "All right, I'll keep it short. That old monster was present when my mother gave birth to me near the pools of sorrow. The old bastard bathed me in one of the pools shortly later, turning me into... this. I seriously have no idea how this spring came into being."
"That must have happened during one of the times he left us for a longer time," Genma concluded, the timeline fitting. "It certainly fits with Happosai to do something like this just for kicks, but I have a feeling there is more."
The man grimaced. "For some reason, my mother felt that since he was present at my birth, he was the only one allowed to name me. Crap that did."
"What did he name you?" Ranma wondered, having a feeling it would not be a name to be proud of.
"Pantyhose Taro." Taro then let the implications of what this did to his social life sink in. "You can imagine what this did to my standing in my village. When I heard he has turned up again, I set off to force him to change my name."
"Why do you need him to change your name?" Mu-Tsu wondered, seeing no reason for this.
Taro looked down. "You don't understand! He's the guy who named me! He's the only one allowed to change it!"
"On a guess... your mother told you that?" Khu-Lon asked.
"Yeah, countless times. She always waxed how I should be proud of the name..."
"Let me guess, she spread word about it around the village right away?" Saeko asked and when getting confirmation, shook her head. "No offense, but your mother clearly is a total idiot and not right in the head."
"Hey, what gives you the right...!"
"Let's see. She let a total stranger turn you into a monster and found nothing wrong with it and even let the guy name you. She found nothing wrong with the name and spread it like there's nothing else in the world, ignoring everything that came with it. She told you only this monster can change your name as well. You tell me: do you really think she's sane?"
Taro was taken aback, then thought about it for a moment. In context it actually made a disturbing amount of sense and painted a very unflattering picture of his mother. "Yeah... maybe she's an idiot. Explains why no one wants to associate with her. What's that about the name change?"
Kaizo snorted. "Boy, I might not know much of the laws, but I do know that even in China you can simply go to the responsible government office and ask for a name change. Maybe you need to grease them a little, but considering your name it's very unlikely that they deny you."
Taro didn't say anything for a moment, feeling like a huge idiot, then cursed out loud. "Shit... Well, I still want to rip that bastard apart! Where can I find him? Please tell me!"
Dr. Tofu, having stayed silent all the time, held up his hand. "After gathering all this, I do have a plan I think will work against someone like that. If everything goes in our way, you'll get your revenge on him as well."
...the two hours are over...
Returning with his backpack, and having made a detour to check out the goods of some girls in the public baths, Happosai jumped over the wall of the Tendo property, fully expecting that these fools had seen reason. There after all was nothing they could do to stop him from enjoying his retirement, together with several beautiful girls and women ready for him to be subjected to all of the perverse ideas his sick mind could conjure, while these two idiots would be his servants.
However, looking around the garden, he became seriously disappointed.
There was no female in sight and he could also not feel one - apart from who he knew was the woman he had once boinked - on the property. The Amazon Khu-Lon. However, just looking at her he would not even touch her with a ten-feet pole now. After all, he did have his standards. Yep, no girls... Instead all of the men, with exception of that weakling Happosai had totally ignored, and three newcomers were gathered in the garden, giving him dark looks.
"I guess you are foolish enough to actually want a fight?" Happosai snorted, while slipping off his backpack, feeling that this was a huge waste of his time.
The men said nothing and Khu-Lon stepped forward. "Happosai. I'll say this only one time. Hand over what you have stolen from my tribe, or the fact that you can't get it up again will be the least of your troubles."
Happosai growled, this still being a huge sore spot for him. "Even you can't take them from me. All of you together won't be able to defeat me."
"Perhaps not," Khu-Lon admitted, feeling no shame in the fact. "But we will try anyway."
Nothing more was said when the battle was on.
To Happosai's extreme frustration however, his opponents didn't even try to hit him. All they did was evading his blasts and strikes, which at best damaged the garden but nothing more than that. After almost ten minutes of this, and the garden starting to look like a battlefield, Happosai growled, becoming more and more annoyed.
"Stop ... running ... away!"
Of course no one listened to him. His powerful techniques were not very useful if his opponents were just concentrating on letting all and every of his attacks miss them. In his frustration, Happosai started hurling explosive blasts left and right, cratering the garden and damaging the house. Happosai was many things, but smart was not one of them, or he would have realized that he was walking into a trap.
"YHAH!" A vacuum blade barely missed Ranma, shaving off a centimeter or two of his ponytail.
Happosai started to get tunnel vision. he was used to the fact that his opponents were actually attacking him, thus making it easy for him to hit them. His whole personal fighting style was geared towards him exploiting his superior abilities and power reserves to overwhelm his opponents as quickly as possible. Unlike all the other fighters present, he had never seriously considered the fact that someone could just avoid him over a longer time, thus forcing him to waste his reserves.
It went on like this for a while, before Happosai felt his body reminding him about his advanced age.
Damn them all, I'm starting to run low! he cursed. If he wanted to defeat these insolent youngsters, he needed to find a woman with lots of energy to get a recharge.
At least he had gotten some information before acting, so he knew a possible solution. The boy's curse would now come in handy. "HAYAH!"
A broad attack made it impossible for Ranma to get out of the way. Thrown backwards... -splash- he landed in the koi pond. Happosai was preparing to glomp him - or better, her - but got a big surprise when a clearly male Ranma jumped out of the pond.
"What?" Happosai hadn't expected this. His information was correct after all, he'd seen pictures.
"Surprise!" Ranma said with a smirk. "We expected you to try this. Running low on steam, aren't you? Now it's our turn."
The pain then started for Happosai.
All of a sudden his opponents stopped evading him and in turn began hammering at him with all they got. In his weakened state, it was him who now was on the defense, something he was not good at due to never having faced any real opposition in his life.
Genma and Soun had become more and more brave the longer the fight went on, and now were releasing years of fear in brutal attacks against the very man who had made their lives hell and had threatened their families. It was like therapy for them to finally get violent against the very source of their deeply rooted trauma. What Happosai had done to his daughters gave Soun extra motivation to be especially brutal.
After having been humiliated by this old monster twice before, Ranma now was finally able to get revenge. He did not feel any guilt, since Happosai had proven beyond any doubt that he was irredeemable and had enjoyed every single of his many crimes. Although Ami had been spared from getting touched by this monster, how the old basterd had looked at her was motivation enough to take him apart. Good thing Ami was not present to see him becoming this violent.
Tofu was feeling no conflict. He had sworn to use his skills to help people, not to hurt them. However, the monster deep inside him had suggested making an exception for Happosai, and Tofu had gladly accepted. After what this monster had done to Kasumi, he felt unable to forgive him. Kasumi reacted very poorly to sources of negative energy, thus Happosai groping her had given her spiritual pain, due to how full he was of negative energy. He could not even think of him as human, not after all he'd heard Happosai had done and especially not after hurting and violating his beloved.
Mu-Tsu had no personal reason to dislike Happosai. However, he was completely disgusted at him over the sheer monstrousness he embodied. To see someone following his lower desires and gleefully hurting anyone in his way was quite shocking. Mu-Tsu just needed to imagine this monster running free and almost right away saw him molest Makoto before his mind's eye. Happosai couldn't be left alive - he was too dangerous.
All of them had one thing in common. Normally, they would never take a life, but knowing what kind of monster Happosai was, they, despite it being a difficult choice, would make an exception.
Khu-Lon looked at Happosai with contempt, while almost breaking his hand with a strike of her staff. "You brought this onto yourself. Now all your crimes are catching up with you."
"Stop... talking!" Happosai screamed. He already was quite bloodied and started to feel his years, as his remaining reserves became dangerously drained.
"You turn in battle?" Ranma shouted, before letting loose several hundred strikes in mere seconds. He now was so glad he'd learned this skill as it was music in his ears when hearing the sickening -crack- when the bones in Happosai's right arm shattered under this assault.
"YYYAAARRRGH!" Happosai screamed and barely avoided a chain with razor wire from wrapping itself around his throat. Instead, it wrapped itself around his left leg and tore deep wounds.
Tofu had waited for this moment. With several quick strikes of his fingers, he hit Happosai at various points. Normally, this would not do much, at most making someone feel unwell. However, knowing what Happosai had been doing all these years by sucking the energy out of others, it now was far from harmless.
"Waarrghhhh..." Happosai felt like his insides were on fire and needed a few moments before he understood what had happened. Somehow this man had managed to infuse his own energy into several areas of his ki-pathways. However, instead of just merging with the flow, it was burning through the pathways, destroying them from the inside out and crippling his very ability to drain others of energy.
"No, you can't do this to me!" he shouted, while trying to flush out the destructive energy, although horrible damage was already done.
"Remember me?"
Happosai saw the unknown man jump into the koi pond... only to explode into a huge, winged minotaur. Happosai did remember the incident. He'd thought of his two acts, curse and name, as just a very good practical joke. To now be confronted with his huge cursed form while he was obviously pissed off was frightening in his weakened state.
"Oh shit... Don't do anything ra-a-ahhhhhhhgghh!" Happosai's plea was drowned out when the minotaur charged him head-on, running one of his sharp horns through him. He had little time before Taro smashed him against the perimeter wall, then ripped him off the horn, before trampling on him repeatedly.
Now Happosai didn't care any longer.
He knew he was going to die, so he would take them all with him, no longer caring what his actions would do to his own body. "RAAAGGGHHH!" Screaming like mad, he tore into his own essence to blast off Taro, now burning with rage. "I'm dying... But before I go, I'll kill you all!"
"Stand back!" Khu-Lon shouted, knowing what to do when she saw Happosai approach, the grass burning away in a circle around him. "Leave him to me!"
Happosai was blind with range and pain, thus he was incapable of seeing how he was lured into a trap. In his tunnel vision, he was trying to hit Khu-Lon, not seeing how she was making them run in circles, while emitting a cold aura. He only wanted to ill her, something he had neglected to do all these years ago.
"Stand still!"
"If you wish so..." She came to a stop. "HAAAAA!"
Everything around them exploded! A roaring miniature tornado formed, with Khu-Lon at its center, holding a fist into the air while she was struggling to maintain the strong winds. Happosai was less fortunate. He was at once swept into the raging tornado, the massive winds tearing at him, threatening to rip him apart. His numerous wounds were ripped open much further, turning the tornado red with his blood. Finally, the tornado blasted upwards, catapulting Happosai away, until he had vanished from sight in the bright sky.
Everyone looked astounded at the old woman, who stood panting in the middle of the battlefield. "Regardless where he crashes down. Either he's dead on the spot, or will die of his wounds very soon. Either way... he will never return."
"So, that's what you are baiting me with?" Ranma finally asked, still awed by what had happened.
Khu-Lon knew she had the young man hooked. "You got it, sonny. Master forming your emotions into destructive energy, and I'll teach you how to do this."
Ranma felt like Christmas had come early.
Some kilometers away meanwhile, Happosai's flight had ended harshly.
Is this what dying feels like? Happosai wondered.
He had not expected this to happen. It should have been paradise: freeloading in the house of his spineless student with the man's three daughters to be used as he pleased and doing whatever he wanted without anyone ever being able to punish him for his crimes. After all, everyone would have been afraid of him. It was supposed to be a nice retirement where he could live out his depravity.
Now things had gone very different.
He prided himself of being the strongest and most skilled martial artist - thus being able to bully everyone into submission. He had not expected Soun, who had been weak and scared in his youth, to actually develop a spine. He did not count on his old flame Khu-Lon to show up, although the years had made her utterly repulsive to him. He had expected the fight to be easy, but instead his foes had used endless trickery to make him waste his reserves, while denyng him access to a recharge. Then the pain had started. His former students went downright savage on him, their terror transformed into fury. Genma's brat managed to shatter the bones in one of his arms and one leg got seriously injured when a chain with razor while had wrapped around it, while Taro had given him a serious mauling and that other man systematically destroyed his energy pathways. The killing blow had been the tornado the old bat had used.
Happosai felt that half his ki-pathways were burnt out, unable to ever recover and thus destroying his ability to drain life energy to sustain himself. He was a bloody mess and numerous bones had shattered when the way down he had slammed hard enough into a concrete wall to crack it. And now here he was; in a heap below the impact site in a dirty side alley between some dumpsters.
What a way to go.
"Are you sure about this, Kunzite? That could just have been a glitch."
"No, I'm sure, that's why I decided to come with you. The source of the recent turbulence is here. Just a little further."
Happosai had no way to respond, his broken body unable to talk with a shattered jaw. From his point of view he only saw the legs of two people, wearing boots and grey uniform pants. Considering that he was bleeding out, Happosai couldn't care less about who they were.
"You mean this mess there is the source? Is that even human? Looks more like a cat that was put into a blender."
"No doubt about it, Zoisite. The sheer hatred and depravity radiating from this one are truly massive. No wonder we detected it. Right now that one is a broken mess, but we can change that."
Happosai felt dark energies surround him; lifting him off the ground. He did no longer care what happened to him. The only thing he knew was hatred. Hatred for his former students, for the old bat, and especially for Genma's brat. His hatred gave him the strength to not give in to death right now.
Even though was a dead man walking, being given the chance to be whatever they were talking about would give him a chance to get revenge. It at least couldn't be worse than dying.
Little did he know.
o
Now that everything was done, everyone tried to get through the aftermath.
It had been a very good idea to let all the women stay at Dr. Tofu's closed clinic, so that they would be far away from Happosai. This had not only denied him a chance to recharge during battle and thus possibly outlast them, but also protected them from his depravity. Kasumi and Nabiki were already shell-shocked, no need to risk making it worse for them or risk another one getting hurt. Kaizo also knew when he could not help, due to not being a fighter, and had offered to stay with them.
It had worked and thus Happosai had been cut off from a refill. This of course had left Ranma's curse. They knew Happosai had probably gotten information first - how otherwise could he have known where Sound lived - so him knowing of Ranma's curse had been very likely. Cue in Khu-Lon pulling a bar of soap out of her pocket, saying if he washed himself with it, it should prevent him changing.
Of course she had added that it only worked for some hours and was no permanent solution, as producing that soap was very time-intesive and expensive. Interestingly, Ranma had not been terribly disappointed. While he had hated his curse at the start, he had learned to live with it by now and the magic seemed satisfied with his acceptance and no longer was out to humiliate him.
Now everyone was caring for their loved ones, while Taro had already taken his leave. It was understandable, since he no longer had anything left to do in Japan and clearly was itching to get his name changed as soon as possible. Not that anyone could fault him for his wish.
Khu-Lon and Mu-Tsu had taken their leave after getting Happosai's backpack. The old woman had said after looking into it, that the artifacts were all in there, but that some of them would have to be destroyed, as they were too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands. Thankfully, Happosai had not been smart enough to use them. She had looked at one mirror in particular, muttering she would have to give this into the right hands.
Of course all the ruckus had alarmed the authorities. Since they could hardly say they were killing someone (even with a complete monster like Happosai that would have been bad), they just told them about Happosai and theat they had to use serious force to throw him out. Turned out that even in his short time of freedom he had already commited a long list of crimes and the police was now out, searching the surrounding districts in the hope of finding him.
It already was evening when Ranma and Ami sat outside, taking a look at the sheer destruction caused by the fight.
"At first I didn't believe you when you said she created a mini-tornado. But after seeing this..." Ami took a closer look at the circular area where all of the grass was missing. "And she said it's just mixing hot and cold energy?"
"Basically. She was unwilling to say anymore on the details, since she added it's really dangerous. I'll only learn it once I managed to weaponize my own energy. She said I could accidentally blow up myself without the previous training."
"Interesting..." Taking out the Mercury Computer, Ami scanned the energy remnants. "This gives me an idea... What if you use cold energy from me and hot energy from Rei..."
Ranma's eyes widened at the suggestion. "Whoa... Let's not get ahead of ourselves, OK? I won't mess with magic until I got the whole tornado thing down perfectly."
Ami shook her head, while letting the computer disappear. "The others probably won't believe us that even on vacation we get into trouble. Have we really turned into trouble magnets?"
"Guess it comes with the job," Ranma replied.
"Ranma, can you hold me?" Ami suddenly asked.
"Again?" Ranma asked. That already was the fourth time Ami wanted him to hold her close.
"I know it's stupid... but after today, every time you hold me I feel like you're washing off some of the lingering impression this monster left with his mere presence. It made me feel dirty."
"If you put it this way." Ranma embraced her and she again felt like his closeness was removing the remaining darkness and perverseness that Happosai had radiated in her presence. It felt like Ranma was giving her soul a sponge bath and she enjoyed it a lot.
She didn't exactly care if this was a result of Ranma's powers as the Hunter, or the bond they shared. She just was glad that Ranma was making her feel better.
...several days later, unknown place...
Pouring the fresh core from the test tube into the beaker with the growth solution, he then waited for the expected reaction to happen. He watched in fascination how the core quickly grew to the size of a walnut, its outer shell turning into hardened crystal. A small shockwave then shattered the beaker, leaving the now complete seed to float over the tabletop, glowing with an eerie light.
"Yes, yes! I did it! This is the correct formula!" the Professor laughed while inspecting the floating seed. "Kaolinite! Take a look at this."
Kaolinite looked up from where she was busy with mixing chemicals, before looking in awe at the seed and walking closer to inspect it. "This is it? The seed of a new Daimon?" she wondered, looking at it from all sides.
"Yes, I did it and created new life! This creature is capable of merging with any imaginable object and then come fully to life. However, unlike the... originals, they are only of limited intelligence. They are just servants to do our bidding and search for heart crystals that could contain an artifact," the Professor explained, clearly enjoying the lecture.
"Impressive..." Kaolinite was in awe that the Professor had managed to create new life like this. "It's a perfect blend of science and magic."
"Oh, you really flatter me, Kaolinite." The Professor's glasses then reflected sinisterly in the darkness. "However, this is just a prototype. We will observe the gauges during the test run to see if all parameters work as expected. Then I can go into mass production. Too bad that the last step is very complicated and has to be done by hand, otherwise all we get is just a mass of goo at our command. So much for creating an army."
"Yes, too bad. Maybe you can put finished seeds into storage until we need them?" Kaolinite suggested.
"Hmm, this has merit. I need to look into this further," the Professor mused.
They did watch the seed hover away through a pipe. It would go on its way to seek out a pure heart and then fulfill its purpose. They didn't expect it to have actual success; it was just being a prototype doing a test run. After it had vanished, there was some silence in the lab, until suddenly they heard an argument echoning from the corridor at the far end of the room.
Kaolinite facepalmed. "Oh, great. They are again at it. Professor, why do we even keep these five backstabbers? They are of questionable worth and did not even do the biggest step to show their worth to our Pharaoh, like I did."
The Professor chuckled. "Oh, their worth is, that they do all the mundane work for us. We can get rid of them once they no longer are of any worth for us. Even if they do survive, our great Pharaoh will give them exactly what they deserve, like everyone else, while we watch."
"Oh, I can't wait for it," Kaolinite chuckled.
"Oh, our great Pharaoh, it will be beautiful! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the Professor laughed. His demented laughter silencing the argument from down the corridor.
...in the garden of the Tendo home...
After the whole thing with Happosai, things had calmed down significantly, though the aftershocks were still visible.
Most of the house's inhabitants were trying to relax in the newly restored garden. After Kasumi had managed to gather herself, she had put all her energy in restoring the garden and commanding the others in helping her. It seemed to be her form of therapy. Having something to do seemed to make her feel better and Tofu made sure she wouldn't try to ignore what happened. He even took off time from his job - apart from emergencies - in order to be there for his fiancée.
Since Happosai had not returned, they felt he was dead and they tried to no longer think of him. Kasumi still shivered when he was mentioned and Nabiki was still not her usual self. The girl was unusually quiet and mostly stayed in the house, although she no longer hid herself away. Interestingly enough, she now seemed to seek the company of her sisters. Everyone knew something was wrong with her, but she had not said anything yet.
Everyone else had recovered more or less, although the women for two days had washed themselves extra thoroughly in order to remove the dirty feeling Happosai's mere presence had given them. There were only a few days left before most of them would return to Minato ward shortly before school started again. Despite the recent ugliness it had been a good vacation all in all.
Little did they know what was about to happen.
High above them, the Daimon seed stopped when detecting a pure heart, something its programming was tasked with finding. The numbers on the pure heart were very high, so it decided right then that it would fulfill its purpose and descended into the garden below. An ordinary broom was in the right place, so it merged with it, waiting for the source of the pure heart to come closer.
Kasumi looked around. After that harrowing experience some days ago, she now was back to normal. She had even been annoyed that the others had walked on eggshells around her, until she had told them to stop it. Nabiki was a different matter. Her sister had not taken the events of some days ago well. Happosai's taint and her utter humiliation had put deep cracks into her armor of cynism and laid bare how vulnerable she really was.
I wish Akane could stay longer to help me with approaching her, she thought, but knew that in a few days Akane would have to return to Minato ward for school.
She was about to take hold of her broom, when suddenly...
-fssshhhhhhh- "AAAHHHH!"
Everyone jumped up when they heard Kasumi scream. Before their eyes, the broom was engulfed in a dark aura, transforming into humanoid shape. It looked vaguely female, but that was it. It more looked like a wood golem with broom bristles for her hair, her eyes glowing a sickly green color. There was nothing even remotely funny about this monster. Her expression was that of a greedy animal when she looked at Kasumi.
"You... have a very pure heart," she hissed, her voice like sandpaper. A black star appeared on her forehead. "And now... it's MINE!"
A black beam shot out of the star, hitting Kasumi exactly were her heart was. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Kasumi screamed in pain, feeling like all the strength in her body was pulled out. It was tremendously painful, like an integral part of her very being was ripped out with brute force.
"YOU BEAST!"
The martial artists went to attack the monster, before whatever it was doing was done. However, they didn't expect roots shooting out of the ground and holding them by their ankles. They had enough strength to break them, but it did cost them precious time. Too much time, as suddenly, everything became back before Kasumi's eyes.
"A-A-Aaaaa-hhh-hhh-h..." She fell silent and collapsed to the ground, unmoving, while a crystal appeared, hovering in the air and shining so bright it hurt to look at it.
The monster claimed the crystal, looking at it. "That's incredibly bright! Brighter than it should be!... Alas, no talisman. No matter, this is quite the catch anyway."
"Kasumi!.. Kasumi!" Running to Kasumi's side, Tofu held her in his arms. She was deathly pale and her eyes devoid of any sign of life. Worse, he could see right away that she was starting to fade, her very life force, which kept her body running, removed outright.
"Give that back!" Akane shouted. Despite having no idea what was going on, she could guess that whatever that crystal was, it was essential for her sister.
"No way... Don't come any closer!" the monster threatened, showing them the crystal in her fist. "Try anything funny and I'll crush this, dooming your friend there to death!"
No one dared to move, afraid that the monster would make her threat true.
Crap! if I try going invisible, she'll crush the crystal right away, Ranma cursed.
He had recently gotten the hang of turning invisible after Genma had trained him mercilessly. It was not yet useful, as it took too long and was not as good as his father's invisibility, since he could still be spotted. That was of little use right now. His old man seemed to know that even his perfect technique would mean certain death to Kasumi, since the monster would crush the crystal at the first sight of something being wrong.
"No! You can't do this to her... Take, take me instead!" Nabiki offered, scared at the prospect of losing her older sister.
The monster snorted. "That would be a very bad trade. This is a pure heart; one of the purest. I can sense that your heart and soul have stains on it that make it undesirable to me."
"W-what?" Nabiki stammered, not having expected this.
"I'll put it in more simple way: You would hardly be even considered at the search for a good heart. Too much dirt on it."
This silenced her.
Ami meanwhile was twitchy. She would have loved nothing more than to transform and destroy this monster, but it was difficult enough to get to some unseen place to transform. Even scanning the monster was right now out of the question, as it would be noticed right away and she had no idea how this thing would react to it. Her thoughts were interrupted violently when suddenly something wrapped around her neck, causing her to choke from the lack of air.
"Tried to sneak away, eh?" the monster gloated, while watching Ami's face become deep red from the lack of air due to the root that had wrapped itself around her neck. "Don't worry, you won't suffocate. Just one quick snap..."
"NO!" -wwwwwooooouuuuuusshhhhh-
It had happened very fast.
As soon as Ranma had screamed he had been bathed in a pink aura for a short moment, before a massive energy ball of the same color erupted from his palm, blasting through the monster's head. The monster had no time to react, before her whole head became vaporised in an instant. Dropping Ami and the crystal - thankfully Akane caught it before it shattered on the ground - the monster tried in vain to feel her head with her hands, before it became obvious to her that she couldn't exist this way.
Bright cracks appeared on the monster, before she shattered like glass in a flash of light. When the light went down, only a broken broom was left. A small, crystalline seed fell out of it, breaking open. A black shadow emerged from it, twisting in agony, before vanishing.
Ranma didn't care how he had done it; holding Ami while she was coughing and trying to get the air circulation in her burning lungs back to normal. He was shaking a lot in terror. He had almost lost her - something that had come out of nowhere - and now he couldn't help but to hold onto her to reassure himself that she was going to be alright.
"Ranma.. I... Thanks..." Ami right now felt that Ranma was her knight in shining armor.
Ranma held her close. "To be honest... it just happened. I couldn't let this thing hurt you."
"Kasumi... oh Kasumi..."
Their attention was finally drawn to Tofu still holding the deathly still Kasumi. Now that the danger was over, everyone gathered around her, while Akane held the crystal, looking at it in wonder. "This is what Kasumi represents? It's so bright... How do we give it back to her?"
"It emerged where her heart is located. Hold it there," Saeko suggested.
Akane did that and to their wonder, the crystal sunk into Kasumi's chest. She convulsed for a moment, gasping loudly, before her breathing stabilized. Tofu let out a sigh of relief when feeling her wrist. Her pulse, which had barely been there before, now again was strong. She also no longer was pale. However, to everyone's surprise, there also for some moments was a faint glow in form of a crescent moon on her forehead.
Ami did remember what she had learned some weeks ago. "Of all the possibilities..."
"What's going on here? All alarms went off!"
Those in the know knew that Setsuna would not be very amused that another headache would await her. Those who didn't know her gave her a look as if she was an alien from planet Mork, feeling that their day had become even more strange
o
"Too bad," the Professor said when the graph flatlined. "Seems our prototype did meet resistance and got destroyed."
"Indeed. However, the readout is impressive. You have created a monster, Professor," Kaolinite observed.
The Professor chuckled. "Well, I do have to hold true to the image of the mad scientist, don't I?" He then took a look at the formula he had written onto a blackboard. "Everything worked as intended. Soon... soon our search will begin! Kaolinite, call the witches bureau! Tell them to start implementing the measures as soon as school is back in session. The Mugen school will leave a mark on the world no one will forget. Well, at least for the little time which will be left then."
While Kaolinite walked to the phone to give out the new orders, the Professor chuckled to himself, seemingly without any reason. No one would have guessed that he was amused at an argument raging inside him. It always amused him when he became upset. Of course that was nothing compared to whenever the brat was involved.
Laughing, he started to mix the required chemicals to create many more servants.
o
Pluto felt like she was getting gray hairs.
It had been a nightmare to explain to complete strangers - even though they were Akane's family, they had never had any contact with the Senshi - what had happened and why there had been a crescent moon of the forehead of the oldest Tendo daughter. She had to do all of this without revealing that their guests and the youngest daughter were all pretty much in the know. At least the others were stressed by having to keep their connection to her silent as well.
Soun was already on his second cup of sake, not that anyone would fault him for drinking after what had happened, and now was trying to repeat the information that had been dumped on them. "So, let me get this straight. You tell me that my oldest daughter's soul is actually that of a queen that ruled 10.000 years ago and who got re-incarnated countless times until she became my daughter, right?"
"Precisely," Pluto said, while giving the still recovering Kasumi a look. Apart from being a little weak on her legs, she didn't seem to have suffered any lasting harm, although Tofu clearly wanted to make sure.
"Don't tell me you want to draw Kasumi in this conflict of yours. I know it is a noble cause, but she is no fighter. Due to her gentle nature she had always refused to learn anything beyond self-defense," Soun warned her, having a suspicion.
Pluto had expected this. "Don't worry. While young Kasumi here is the re-incarnation of Queen Serenity, the many re-incarnations by now have changed her soul so much, that only the core of goodness and generosity is left of the Queen. She can no longer use the Silver Crystal due to this."
"Good... Daughter, what do you think about this?" Soun asked his eldest.
Kasumi held her hand over her heart. "I honestly don't feel any different. While it's humbling to know that I got my good heart from an ancient queen, it honestly doesn't change my life. In a way I'm also relieved that I won't be drawn into this struggle, even though I know it's about the future of the world. I fear I would be of little help in that."
"So... we should just try to forget the whole thing?" Nabiki asked, her head still spinning due to information overload, while the monster's words how her soul had stains on it made it difficult for her to recover. She honestly felt very lost.
"There's nothing you can do anyway, so better leave the whole worry about the world to us," Pluto told them, then took her leave. She walked into the garden, then around the house until she was behind the dojo.
"I know you two have questions, so don't even bother hiding. And Ranma, while you now know how to become invisible, you were breathing too loudly and the rippling effect is quite obvious," she remarked, then watched Ami appear from behind the corner, while Ranma faded in.
"Damn, looks like I need to practice a lot to get this one down," Ranma cursed.
Ami right away got to the point. "I think you were not entirely honest. There's something about Kasumi you haven't said."
Pluto again saw why Ami was the smartest of the Senshi. "I was truthful in that she no longer has the power to use the crystal. However, it is still connected to her, otherwise my alarms wouldn't have gone off. Should Usagi be out of commission for some reason, it is very likely that if Kasumi holds the crystal, it would trigger its protection system, which only activates when it's held by one of the royal family. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. This had never happened before..."
Ranma and Ami both knew that failure of Pluto's knowledge of the previous timeline was a bad thing, although the woman freely admitted that she had forgotten many details, simply because the human brain was incapable of storing this much information.
"There's something else..." Ami pulled out her computer and the broken crystal seed. "I picked that up and analyzed it. The perfect blend of magic and science. Whoever did this was either a genius, totally mad, or both. I guess you know what this is?"
Pluto sighed. "Sadly, yes. This comes far earlier than expected. In the old timeline, there would have been months before this, but all the changes must have cause an unstoppable chain of changes. I'll explain it to you, once you are all gathered. The situation has just become a lot more complicated."
They both knew they had to accept this answer for now.
"One last thing: that move you used to destroy the monster," Pluto said, giving Ranma a look.
Ranma sighed. "I trained a lot to do it. It... all clicked when this thing tried to hurt Ami," Ranma tried to explain, finding it difficult to put into words.
"You said it was pink energy. Isn't that love?" Pluto observed.
Ranma blushed a little at the implication and the color of his attack. "There's nothing wrong about my love for Ami... I still need to work on it and I really don't want to use just one emotion. Confidence and courage also look good."
"Good. Once you are back, gather everyone and I'll explain what's going on."
That said, Pluto teleported away.
...in the dojo, at night...
Ami woke up in the middle of the night.
Normally, waking up in the middle of the night was attributed to having dreams bad enough that they broke the sleep cycle. However, despite that day's events, Ami's sleep had been free of nightmares. She instead had dreamed of being shipwrecked with Ranma on a tropical island. The dream had been innocent until they had found a waterfall. Her dream had unraveled and when waking up she felt right away why her body had done so. The waterfall had been a clear sign.
Urgh... Far too much tea! Ami groaned in silence when she felt her bladder protesting harshly.
It was in the middle of the night and it was warm, so Ami didn't bother with putting on anything over her underwear before she made a dash for the house. In her haste to reach the bathroom, she did not notice that Ranma was not sleeping on the other futon, nor did she notice the faint light coming from under the sliding door of the kitchen.
Of course she did take her time on the way back of few minutes later with the pressure and urgency now gone. To her surprise, she found Ranma sitting on the steps of the dojo in his birth form. A kettle beside him answered the question of how he had accomplished this feat. He seemed to be deep in thought, so Ami sat down beside him and waited for him to break his silence. After all what had happened today, being in their underwear didn't seem such a big problem anymore.
"Why does even our vacation has to turn out to be some kind of life-or-death struggle?" Ranma finally said, giving Ami a sad look. "I had looked forward to some time with you; no crap happening to us... At least it was a nice dream."
"I think this is the price we have to pay for having our powers and saving the world. Let's hope it's just a phase." Ami couldn't help however to feel around her neck.
Ranma noticed it. "Ami, this thing almost broke your neck just because it felt like it. That I almost lost you today made it impossible for me to sleep."
"I admit, I was scared to no end. It came out of nowhere... However, I don't think this is why you have that kettle here and used it," Ami observed.
Ranma looked at the kettle. "Nah, I used that because I look kind of stupid brooding as a girl. Wanted to use the cold water to change back. I hadn't expected you to wake up."
Ami shook her head. "You are not the brooding type, Ranma. Can you honestly imagine questioning yourself on a regular basis?"
Ranma thought about it for a moment. "Nah... Life's too short to do that."
"You are simply not someone who's angsting over things... At least not since your little gender crisis." Ami then noticed that Ranma was starting to sit a little strange, as if he was trying to hide something from her. "Ranma, is something wrong?"
"No, I... Oh, why do I even try? You've seen it before." Ranma blushed a little while showing what he was trying to hide.
"Oh my!" Ami now understood when seeing the big tent in Ranma's boxers. Sure, she had seen his private parts before, but it was still exciting. "Did I do that?"
"I've seen more than this of you, but it's still exciting. Good thing I'm a girl when we get ready for bed. It's far easier to hide that way." Ranma then noticed her rubbing her legs together. "Ami?"
Ami couldn't help it. The whole thing was exciting her, despite being really harmless compared to some of her dreams. Turning a bit, she revealed the growing wet spot on her panties. "You do have an effect on me as well and it's not as easy to hide as you think."
"Oh, wow." Ranma felt very warm at the idea that his mere presence excited Ami this much.
"Ranma, I have a little confession to make." Ami had wanted to not speak of it, but after all that had happened, she wanted to come clean. "The first night here I woke up. You crawled to me, still asleep, and you..."
"What, I did that as well?" Ranma blurted out, before he realized what he'd said. "Oh!"
"What? You mean, I did...?" Ami blushed when she put the pieces together. She was a smart girl and thus she quickly understood the situation. "Oh dear. This.. eh... this can't be coincidence. Could this be our bond telling us that we are wasting time?"
"Well, right now I feel like doing stuff with you I had no idea about some months ago," Ranma admitted, then noticed what he had said. "I guess we do need it. It's just that I was unsure how to ask for it. After all, it's not a regular topic."
Both of them had inched closer to each other, until their faces were almost touching. There was a moment of understanding where no words were needed. Their mouths claimed each other and their bodies pressed together. Their tongues wrestled for control while their hands explored each other shamelessly. Both of them felt a primal need deep inside them that wanted to be satisfied. There no longer was any embarrassment and when their mouths separated, each of them had slipped a hand into the other's underwear, gently exploring the unknown regions.
"Oh man..." Ranma breathed, still overwhelmed that not only was Ami touching his manhood, but that he also had found the courage to return the favor to Ami. "Ami... you want to...?" He let it hanging, although it was clear anyway.
"I would love nothing more." Sure, she had touched him down there before, but this time it was an intimate thing. She also couldn't help but to fell that his fingers were reeeeeally good at exploring her female area. "There's a small problem, however."
With her free hand, Ami fished the Mercury Computer out of subspace and opened it to show Ranma an outline of her body, with the reproductive system highlighted. "The computer can tell me precisely what's going on in my body. I scan myself regularly with it. It's perfect at telling me when my fertile period is. Sadly my next one starts tomorrow."
Ranma sighed. "I can guess you don't want to risk getting pregnant."
"Yes. As much as I want you... inside me, I can't risk it right now." She made the computer disappear back into subspace. "Ranma, would you be all right with making love with me as a girl?"
Ranma looked a little disappointed "I don't mind. It's just that I thought my real first time would be different."
Ami knew Ranma felt hurt in his male pride that his girl-side would get her first. She however knew how to fix this and gave his manhood a gentle squeeze. "Ranma, I know you feel disappointed, but don't think you won't prove your... ahem... manliness to me. While we won't make love like that, I want to explore you as you are now."
"You mean... before we do...?" Ranma felt moved at how considerate Ami was.
Ami couldn't believe that she was saying all these things. It showed how far she had come. "Yes, before we make love as girls. I want to explore Ranma Saotome, man amongst men... and him to explore me."
Ranma picked up Ami birdial style, eying the kettle for a moment, deciding to leave it there until they would need it, before he carried her back into the dojo. Both of them were glowing with anticipation, now that they were no longer avoiding this big step. After all the life-threatening things that happened to them, they deserved this happiness.
They didn't know that two pairs of parents had watched them, having noticed the voices through the open windows. Both pairs of parents totally bare due to their earlier activities.
"Our Ami has really grown up. I remember how shy and reclusive she was. I never thought I would actually approve of her having a boyfriend and them doing this," Kaizo observed, still astonished.
"I think we accepted that she is growing up and that this doesn't mean we're losing her. As long as she is happy, we are happy, too." Saeko then pulled her husband away from the window. "Come, all this has suddenly given me a second wind."
Kaizo laughed. His wife was recently putting much energy into releasing Ami from being a single child. It would not make him wonder if she would wind up pregnant after how much effort they had put into it. "Oh, trust me. You'll not regret this!"
From the other window, Nodoka and Genma had watched everything as well.
"Oh, our son is such an understanding young man. He's ignoring his own pride to make Ami happy," Nodoka said with pride. "They will be a very happy pair."
"Well, he has proven that he does have the courage for it. I'm only a bit disappointed it's like that," Genma observed, making no secret that he was a bit uncomfortable at the idea of Ranma making love as a girl.
Nodoka shook her head. "As long as they are happy, we should be happy, too. Also, I have no doubt he will prove his manliness to her at a later date." She then took his hand. "Come, we still have to make up for all these years. I expect you to do your best."
Genma could almost believe that his wife was trying to have another child. However, he knew this was impossible. After all, even Ranma was almost a miracle considering that it was next to impossible for her to conceive due to medical reasons. Only another miracle could repair her body and allow her to fulfill her heart's desire.
Well, no miracle then. Still, at least I can make this worth her time, he thought.
He never considered that a miracle had already happened some time ago.
to be continued...
Next Episode:
"Enter the Death Busters"
Notes:
Here the notes.
At first you might think that this chapter is mostly filler. However, there are a number of developments hidden in it, that will become relevant later on. Can you find them all in this big chapter?
After looking at Happosai in canon, I saw that he was very good at counterattacking someone who attacked him. I concluded that since he's used to overwhelm his enemies quickly, he's bad at defense or hitting someone who always evades. Also, as you can see, I brought his character to its logical conclusion. Happosai actually is a total monster, who does as he likes in order to get what he wants and satisfy his perverse needs.
Also in case you worry: Ami and Ranma are sixteen, they both love each other, want it and would never hurt each other. They also are horny teenagers. So there's nothing wrong with them doing the deed (well, not completely, they'll do that later). It's all natural. It also shows how much Ranma has come that he does not mind making love with Ami while being a girl.