Ranma Aqua-Isekai'd, by Chaos Orchid
Chapter 24: Coincidences!
…so many destinies. Too many destinies!? He was feeling overwhelmed. And they were only what had come After the worst he had to deal with…
…Monstrous plants causes mountains to collapse into landslides, causing tidal waves wiping out those that lived along two of the greatest rivers on Earth…
…A horde of beasts against humanity set out to conquer Asia and the world…
…The Immortal Phoenix being reborn inside the Source: The magic Junsenkyo layer…
…Winning a dragon's whisker…
…Cologne and the Elders-
"-What are you doin'!?" Ranma cried shoving Cologne's hands away with all her reflex speed.
"Why, I am only giving you a shampoo," the beautiful woman said too innocently. Written on the ceramic jar she was holding was "101 401 110".
She had: Lather Was oozing down from his hair. "There was no reason to do it now!"
"There was! Now let me finish the shiatsu treatment!"
"No! You want me to forget my destiny!" Ranma was on his feet, ready to battle! He didn't care if she were Elder in name and abilities! (Damn the distraction of the dripping lather!)
"By remembering, you change it. Destiny is not Fate," she said, rising with feminine grace. "With the Quantum Uncertainty of the Chaos Seed you can be above that. Preknowledge can eat away at your uncertainty. It won't take away the uncertainty others have! Think of the Luck of the Desperate."
Ranma wiped the lather away from his eyes. "I remember you(!) sayin' you know your destiny," he said, suspicious.
"Only because it is my burden as an Elder. From terrible experience, I know what I know can be go wrong. Not be wrong, but go(!) wrong. And it increases the pain and the guilt. They can haunt you for years before they happen. Then you analyze you why it had to happen…for longer.
"I ask you Ranma, while the memories are still fresh: How many will die? …How many that you know personally? …How will I die?"
And Ranma did remember how! His guard was dropped. Cologne rushed in with all her speed to complete the shiatsu treatment!
But he didn't let her. He held her off! Then…Ranma held her tight against himself.
"I will care as deeply for you, too," she said, hugging him back. "I vow."
"Are you ready?"
"Why…why did you show me my destiny?" he choked.
"Coincidence. You life is now entangled with your Destiny. You will now be drawn to where you need to be to fulfill it. As if by coincidence."
She gently pushed them apart. "Are you ready for Destiny to become Adventure?"
He hesitated. But only for a moment. He bowed his head.
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"Ranma! The Treatment is not complete until you become the redhead!"
"I'm not lettin' you near my head again!" the ponytailed boy with shiny hair said, entering the shop again. It was empty of people, now. And a falcon. "I shoulda known better 'n to trust you."
"Trust takes time." And she smiled and said to herself, "I'm glad to know I have the time."
"I ain't given' you my time, too! There's one part of my Destiny you didn't steal away from me knowin': I am goin' back to Japan!
"And don't follow me!" he spun around, now out in the street. He wasn't really noticed until the several passers-by saw he was talking to one of their Elders.
"I can't follow. I have a showdown with Elder Scent. If I lose, I will have to remain in the Roof Valleys for what remains of my life. This has been my Destiny."
"Good!"
"Go! I'll catch up with you if my Destiny is changed." And she joined the others going toward the center of the Village.
"Aw, man! I'm gonna be wonderin' and lookin' back over my shoulder to see if she is comin'."
"That's the only thing you'll be thinking about, Ranma!? That's stupid!" It was Ryōga. There was also a falcon on his bare arm. Or more accurately, the falcon had him under her talons. It was being careful not to gouge him, but would moved them to remind him how sharp they were. "Do you understand what it will be like to be completely homeless with only the clothes on your back!?"
"Yes, I do."
"But I lose my pack all of the time! And, now, I can't even count on having clothes-And it's all because-Ow!" The falcon had chosen to remind him of its talons. But there was no blood drawn. Not much, anyway.
Ranma walked up to the bird and stuck his nose to its beak. "Our packs were left behind back by the springs on That-side. Is there a way to get packs out of our weapon-spaces?"
It turned its eyes away from him.
He reached into his weapon-space. Out came a jar of cold water. "So you don't wanna be human, right now. *Heh, heh* Birds don't like water, do they?"
It drew its wings up to take flight. A splash and a preteen had her arms up. She was about to fall off Ryōga's arm, but he held her on it. "Now she's digging her toenails into me!"
She was set down. "I'm not telling! Then you won't need Gramma and me! She'll have to stay here and be ordered around by everybody older than her! And Everybody's going to be older than her!"
"She had no problem ordin' other people around, right!? What goes around. Ow!" She kicked him in the shin and ran away.
"Hmph! We don't need her. There're other people we can find the answer from." But, frustratingly, they would have to hang around until they got the answer.
"We?"
"Aw, man!" Why had he said that? "Look! It ain't 'cuz I don't mind you goin' after me: I do! But I ain't gonna be rid of you by you sufferin' and dyin' of exposure, you hear!"
"Same here! If you die, it's going to be because you ranaway and I had to chase you all the way to…Wherever this is!?"
"This is one of your "Legendary places nobody knows about"."
"Don't mock me, Ranma!"
"Geez! That's what you said."
"But I didn't say it the Way you said it! I'm going to have to teach you consideration of others!" he yelled as he attacked.
Ranma already knew he was outmatched in strength. He used his agility to stay a tempting target just out of his reach. His tactic was to let him burn off some anger and wear himself down. He thought it may have been the wrong tactic when Ryōga broke the stucco and cracked the stone underneath a building. "You said I don't got consideration!? You gonna pay for that?"
"I'll have my revenge first, then I'll pay my debt!"
"You'll get your revenge somewhere else," a deep, booming voice told him, coming around the corner of the building.
Ryōga was impressed by the sheer bulk of the tall, buzzcut man. "Who are you…to tell me what I can do!?"
"This is Powder. She's a guard," Ranma told him.
"I'm not a she now!' he glared. "Now, are you going to come quietly…," and he cracked his large knuckles, "...or not."
"Good idea! If you're in jail, you can't get lost, Ryōga."
"I've gotten lost from jails!"
"An escaped prisoner!" Powder snarled.
"I am not an escaped prisoner! I just got lost!" And Ryōga raised his fist and charged!
Ranma ran faster and lifted him up from behind. Before Ryōga had time to yell, he set him down away from the much larger man-who had raised his fist and charging! "I'm doin' this for your own good, Stupid!" Ranma kept the Lost Boy on the move ahead of the Bulldozer by shifting where he pushed against Ryōga's back, butt or thigh to keep him from effectively digging his heels in and resisting, lifting him if he stumbled.
"Keep going, New Guard!" Powder told him. "You're headed in the right direction!"
"I tell you I wasn't a criminal! I was a lost child, then I was a suspicious stranger!" Ryōga tried to explain at the top of his voice.
"I believe you, Ryōga!" Ranma told him. "You're certainly a suspicious stranger to Powder!" And he himself could fall back into being one again if the Cursed guard thought Ranma wasn't being a guard.
"Turn left!" Powder ordered, less than nine meters away.
"Right!" Ranma was just thinking of getting away from the musclebound lummox by taking to the rooftops when the street ended with a crowd of people blocking their way.
He saw Ryōga react by warning them to "Get out of the way! and trying to shove people out of their way before they had come to any. So, Ranma then had him cry out from the surprised wedgie he was giving him as he lifted him by his pants and shirt while jumping over the people!
They were able to land without hitting any of them. Only then did they see they were in a large town square. The crowd was an audience. The center of their attention being a massive log suspended suspended by rope cables from a frame rising over each end.
"Ranma! How dare you!" Ryōga squealed, yanking away from his grip and turning to
see the massive man gently but firmly moving people out of his way. He closed his fists and gritted his teeth.
"Hey, we can't fight in this crowd!" Ranma told him and Powder.
"Or in the street!" Powder commanded. "You have already caused property damage!"
"Only because Ranma wouldn't stand still and take a beating like a man! He owes me! I will get my revenge!"
"Then this is the official place to get it! Get up there on the Log of Judgment before I make You take a beating like a man!"
Ranma leaped on to it. "Come on, Ryōga, this sounds like your chance for a decisive fight in front of witnesses!"
"That's what I've been wanting since Middle School ended!" And he rushed forward.
Only he couldn't leap as well as Ranma. "Uh, um, how do I get up there?"
"Here!" Ranma reached down, offering his hand.
"Not yet," said a voice he knew too well. Looking, he saw Cologne standing on the log with him.
"Hey! This is only between me and Ryōga!"
"And so it shall be, Ranma. But not yet. You see, before anybody can mete out justice on the Log of Judgment the trial has to be made as fair as possible. You and your opponent have to be handicapped."
"Okay. That's the idea behind the different rankings in martial arts. And I'd like to know how much I'm gonna hafta hold back with Ryōga. But who's gonna judge our ranking?! You!?"
"She is going to tell you she cannot." On the other side of him was now Scent. "She was about to announce to the gathered jury that You are her champion!"
"Why, thank you, Scent. I had not planned to make the announcement, but you have made it official," Cologne smirked.
"And you think to insult me by making me battle one far weaker than myself? He is, after all, not the official Airen you claimed, a rightful champion. You have not kissed him in public. Are you going to do that now?"
"I do not have to," she shook her head, chuckling in amusement. "Since, as you said, I cannot handicap my favorite's abilities, You have to!" And she gestured to the spectators, "Or be judged by the Jury." And with that she jumped, joining them on the ground.
"The cunning calculator!" Scent swore. "This is one of her most intricate traps." And she looked near his feet. "The shortening shadows say that it is indeed almost noon: The time set for Cologne's and my Official Judgment Battle.
"You!"
"Ranma. I'm Ranma Saotome of the School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts!" he said proudly.
From the reaction of the crowd, he should not have proudly declared that. Words like "thief", "freeloader", "spy", "vandal" and, more common, words that described a "pervert".
"Hey! I ain't none of those! Not really! It was my pop doin' those things!
"The Sins of Your Master will be visited on you!' Scent pointed her staff at him. "Cologne's Shame has made Happosai famous through the generations!"
"I don't know no Happosai! You're judgin' me for…! Judgin'?
"Okay, tell me! Does me defeatin' you on your Log of Judgment mean I'm free of your judgment?! You won't condemn and bother me with it?!"
Scent swung her staff around and down at Cologne as if she were wished to smite her. She snarled, "So this(!) is your plan on how to be relieved of your guilt and the burden that goes with it!"
The word raced among the crowd, the reactions being different for each person.
"I had no plan." Cologne was on the verge of tearing over a mouth that could not yet be allowed to smile. "It is just coincidence."
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NOTES:
The Plants of Doom are inspired by Manga Chapters 303-307 and the bizarre things Pink and Link can do with them.
The Horde of Beasts are inspired by the Manga Chapters 246-258 and the Musk.
The Log of Judgment is, of course, inspired by the log on which Ranma first defeated Shampoo.