Power and Responsibilty: Chapter 1
Ranma woke to a face full of water. He sat up, wiping sleep from
his eyes and glared at Akane. She, however, wasn't showing any of
her usual anger. Instead, her face showed absolute astonishment.
It was white, her eyes were huge, and her mouth gaped open.
"Y-you didn't c-ch-change," she stammered, pointing a trembling finger
at him.
"Huh?" Ranma asked dumbly. He looked down at his chest, expecting to
see the familiar appendages that he miraculously sprouted whenever
splashed with cold water. They weren't there. Come to think, his voice
did sound much lower than his cursed form's. Oh my god! He wasn't
cursed anymore! Ranma fainted.
When Ranma woke up again he was in the process of being repeatedly
dunked into the koi pond by his father. The man had a firm grip on
his pig-tail and was submerging his son completely on every attempt.
"Let go!" he shouted, punctuating his request with a heel to his
father's groin. His pig-tail slipped from boneless fingers as Genma
fell over onto the ground and began whimpering while clutching the
family jewels protectively.
"Ranma, you're cured!" Soun bellowed, rushing across the yard and
sweeping his future son-in-law into a crushing embrace.
Deftly, Ranma slipped through Soun's grip and found himself confronted
by Akane and her sisters."Ranma-kun, I'm so happy for you! However did
you get cured?"
"Yeah Saotome, how'd you do it?" asked Nabiki. Her eyes practically
gleamed as she went over profit potential in her head. With
Jusenkyo destroyed and all hopes of curing its curses gone with it, an
actual cure could be worth loads of yen.
"I don't know," he answered honestly. Chiron may have done something,
but Ranma didn't have a clue what it was."I just woke up and didn't
have the curse anymore," he confessed.
"Don't lie to us Ranma, spill it." Akane crossed her arms over her chest
and glared at him. She just knew that he had made a deal with the
amazons. How else could he have gotten a cure? Him and Shampoo
had probably..."You pervert! I know what you and that slut did! Die!!"
With no mallets or tables handy, Akane grabbed a nearby lamb, which
amazingly didn't break, and smashed Ranma through the wall.
There vision obscurred by dust and collapsing walls, no one saw Ranma
come to a halt inches before actually striking the outer wall of the
Tendo compound. Ranma chuckled to himself. He may not be able to fly,
but with a moderate control over gravity, he sure could come close.
When Akane didn't come back to continue his punishment, Ranma allowed
his muscles to relax. It occurred to him that he felt no pain from
her attack. Lifting his shirt, he saw that his flesh showed no bruises,
not even a little one. That could be a problem. If he suddenly gained
the ability to take more damage than Ryoga, people would become even
more suspiscous than they already were because of his curse being cured.
How was he supposed to fake being hurt? It went against who he was.
His pride wouldn't allow it. He rounded the corner as he walked around
the house and ran into Nabiki. He immediatley shelfed his previous
thoughts in preparation for more immediate trouble.
"Saotome, just who I was looking for," Nabiki said, smoothly slipping
up beside him and sliding her arm around his waist like she were
his friend."You don't have to lie to me. We could make a lot money
with this cure. Ryoga would probably sign his soul over to you to get
rid of his curse."
Ranma didn't even blink when she mentioned Ryoga's curse. She had to
know it by now. 'Everyone' except Akane knew. He ducked under her arm
and put some distance between them. Who knew what would happen if one
of the girls saw him that close to Nabiki. Their more civil nature only
came out when his mom was around. Any other time they were just as
blood thirsty as usual."Why doesn't anyone believe me? Why would I
lie? DOn't you think I'd give the cure to Piggy if I had it? Maybe
then he would stop trying to kill me."
Nabiki nodded slightly to herself. He really was telling the truth.
That didn't mean that all hope was lost. She had a handful of physicists
in her pocket and an upcoming bio-chemist at the university owed
her thousands. A few calls and she could have Ranma picked apart piece
by piece to determine why he was no longer cursed. But for now she
would go along with him."I believe you Ranma. for now." Then she left
him to inspect the damage done to the house.
Ranma, alone once again, decided to practice in the dojo for a while.
He had the knowledge of what he could do and what he couldn't, with
his... enhancements, but all of it was useless if he couldn't learn to
apply it to his repetoire. He really didn't want to destroy Nerima
by accident either.
****
Performing a simple kata Ranma's entire body moved at what would normally
be reserved for the amaguriken. He was amazed at how easy it was to adapt
to his new abilities and suspected Chiron may have had something to do
with it. He came to a stop and settled to the ground. The centimeter
that he was capable of floating above the ground while still moving saved
him from tearing up the dojo's flooring. Setting his feet to brace
himself, Ranma cried out,"Kacchu tenshin Amaguriken!" and let loose
with thousands of punches in the span of a single second. The
building shook, and the far wall which Ranma had been facing had a
toyota sized hole blown in it. Ranma stared down at his hands in
wonder. He'd never thought it possible to move that fast. Besides
that, standing three dozen feet from the wall, the air pressure from
his atack alone had destroyed it.
Ranma realized that he was going to have to make more adjustments to
his style than he had previously thought. Moving at what people thought
was his normal, albeit way above average, speed would be much more
straining than his now supersonic average. The amaguriken was pretty
much off limits against living things now. Even Ryoga would little more
than a puddle of gore if he used it on him. Ranma pushed the thought
aside. It would be better to think about the problem when he had a chance
to go undisturbed for long periods of time, like when he was at school.
What he did do, however, was decide to try out the more dangerous of
his powers. No one was likely to investigate the noise of his
latest endeavour, not in this part of Tokyo, so he still had a little
while until supper. There was no telling what would happen when
Nabiki managed to spread the word of his being cured. Hell on earth did
come to mind, though.
****
When Akane walked into the dojo she saw Ranma throwing solid black spheres
of something at a training dummy. When they struck it the part hit
would disappear. He also had a strange battle aura. It almost seemed
like the air around him was bending inward slightly. Despite the
unusual sight, Akane didn't question her fiance on his strange new attack
or the aura. She was still to mad at him to do anything more
than say,"Dinner's ready, before stomping back out. She never even
noticed the hole in the wall
Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. Akane hadn't questioned him about what
he was doing. If she had he didn't think he could come up with a
plausible enough lie for her to believe him. The reason he hadn't
stopped was because he couldn't. Whenever he manipulated space,
the generators made and stored however much of the distorted space he
needed until it was used. The problem was that he only had about a
minute before they lost containment and vented the distorted space.
The knowledge of what that would have done to him had made Ranma
very reluctant to even try out the ability, but he never backed down
from a challenge. Akane had walked in when he still had a sizable
charge built up. He could have gotten rid of it all at once, but that
would have done a lot more damage to the dojo, and the back yard than
the amaguriken from earlier.
The magnetic and gravitational force that he controlled had
similar drawbacks.Unless he was using a preprogrammed attack or function,
he had to use all the energy gathered ot there would be side-effects. With
the magnetic side of his power, after a few minutes without using
the gathered power his body would become highly magnetic. The
attraction could easily draw a bullet from several feet off its
original course. Gravity wasn't so bad. It wouldn't even effect him
if he let the gathered charge go. It would, however, have drawn a
lot of attention and been rather inconveient when when objects and
people began to randomly levitate or suddenly gain a few thousand
pounds.
Leaving the dojo, he almost went to take a bath, but he hadn't really
worked up a sweat so he headed straight to kitchen table. Nabiki was
already there, reading the stock report, and nibbling on a cookie.
"Hey Nabiki," he said as he took his usual seat,"you might want to take
a look at the dojo. By mistake I blew a whole in the wall, sorry."
Nabiki growled something under her breath that sounded like,
'Damned catastrophy,' but Ranma couldn't be sure. Then, stuffing a
cookie in her mouth, and throwing her paper down, she went to inspect
the damage and determine how much more money he would soon be owing
her. A few minutes later she returned and with a completely false
smile said,"Ranma, did I forget to tell you that some of your friends
should be dropping by after dinner? I couldn't get in touch with Ryoga,
but he'll show up eventually."
Almost graciously, Ranma said,"Thanks Nabiki, you saved me the trouble."
Kasumi chose this time to announce that the food was ready. Before
Nabiki could respond to Ranma's remark, the Tendo and Saotome
patriarchs charged into the room and jumped into their seats. Kasumi
began bringing out the dishes, and soon there was a free for all at
the dinner table.
****
Genma was gone with his mom, helping her to move their furniture back
into the newly repaired Saotome home and Ranma had the guest room to
himself. He was taking the opportunity to practice and was deftly
launching a small throwing dart from the palm of his silve-streaked
hand magnetically then stopping it and bringing it back before it
could puncture the wall. Cologne and the other amazons would be
arriving some time soon if what Nabiki said was true. This time, before
the dart hit the wall, Ranma changed its course and made it fly in a
figure eight pattern through the air.
He heard a knock on the downstairs door and let the dart drop to the
floor. Shampoo had actually used the door. No sooner had he had the
thought than he heard the familiar craching sound associated with the
amorous amazon's own version of the breaking point. Oh well. Before
they could get the drop on him, he left the room and walked downstairs.
Soun and his father had taken it easy on him about being cured, most
likely because they feared his mom, but he knew he was in store for a
more hearty response from the amazons.
He wasn't mistaken.
"Airen!" Shampoo launched herself at him, latching onto him as if he
were a life preserver and she were drowning."Shampoo don't believe
evil mercenary girl. Is it true, you cured?" she asked hopefully.
Ranma attempted to pry his suitor free from him, but had little luck as
she twisted herself from his grasp continually. He looked around for
some support. Kasumi wasn't present. Nabiki was grinning. Cologne
looked like her normal decrepit self. Mousse, Akane and Soun
were practically frothing at the mouth. Mousse, though, seemed able
to restrain from making any attempts on Ranma's life in Cologne's
prescence. Akane and Soun had no such disadvantages. Akane advanced
towards him and Shampoo, mallet in hand, while Soun brought up the rear,
his head already swelling in preparation for his demon head attack.
"Ranma you pervert! Let go of that Chinese Bimbo!" She swung at him with
and Shampoo with wrath painted on her face. Only thanks to Chiron was
Ranma able to move fast enough to avoid being splattered while Shampoo
held onto him.
"How dare you cheat on your fiance!" roared demon-Soun. Shampoo
actually sqeaked in fright and let go of Ranma, running over to stand
behind her great-grandmother.
Ranma finally managed to disarm Akane and jump across the room and out of
her reach.
"So son-in-law, I hear that you are no longer under the effects of
Jusenkyo's magic." Cologne's dry, corpsish voice cut through the air
like a knife.
"I guess so," he replied."I woke up this morning and it was gone. Like
I told the others, I don't know how or why, but I'm not complaining."
Cologne, more experienced than the vast majority of the human in all
things archaic and mystical, could tell by Ranma' aura that he was
being honest. She could also tell by that same aura that something
very profound had happened to Ranma. His aura had a whole new pattern,
the color was much darker, and in several points it pulsed
rythmically. Cologne couldn't tell what had happened to him, it could just
be what happens when the curse wears off, although that had never
happened before, but for now he didn't appear in any danger. She made a
show of looking him up and down, then nodded as if satisfied
with something."The magic is gone. Son-in-law is cured." Of course
she couldn't really tell. Magic didn't work that way, at least not the
kind she knew, but it never hurt to make others think you were more
dangerous than you really were.
Ranma turned to face the Tendos."You see. I told you."
Once again cutting off conversation, Cologne said,"Pardon the intrusion,"
as if smashing a whole in the wall hadn't happened,"we'll be going now.
We must prepare the restaurant for opening tomorrow." And with that
she bounced on her staff through Shampoo's hole and into the night.
Shampoo blew him a kiss, departing with a,"Shampoo see airen tomorrow.
Bye bye."
Mousse shot him a hete filled glare before following thw other
amazons. Ranma could see that Mousse's jaw was flexing impotently
and realized that Mousse's lips were glued shut by the way they
stretched when they should have opened. He laughed to himself at
Mousse's predicament. It'd be really funny if the glue was permanent.
****
Ranma and Akane, were on their way to school the next day when they both
saw a bright flash of light a few blocks away. Ranma leapt from the
fence onto a telephone pole to get a better view in hopes of finding
the light's source.
"Ranma, get down here or we'll be late," Akane snapped impatiently.
Ignoring her, Ranma held his hand up to block the sun from his eyes
and scanned the area for trouble. Finally, after Akane had shouted for
him to come down thre more times, he told her to go on wihtout him. Once
she stomped on toward school, Ranma, in a display of super-human strength
not at all related to his recent encounter with Chiron, jumped from his
perch traveling nearly a hundred feet into the air before he began
spinning and arching back towards the ground. His descent was
perfectly timed to set him on the wall of a newly erected construction
site.
The source of the light was then revealed to him. Sitting on a
small mountain of bags of concrete mix, a girl maybe a year or two
younger than him, was waving around a glowing rope of energy. Cracking
it like a whip she sent a pulse of light out that formed into a ball when
it reached the end of the rope. From there the ball shot across the lot
to impact against a large stack of steel I-beams. There was no explosion
on contact, but the beams did, within seconds become white hot,
before further heating caused them to liquify into a pool of molten
steel.
"Don't you think someone's going to be a little upset when they see what
a mess you've made?" Ranma asked her.
The girl spun around when she heard his question. Panicking, her
rope disappeared and she shot off in a blur. As fast as she was, Ranma
was faster. Years of training and a more pronounced flow of chi through
his body, he had surmised, would give him a bit of an edge over others
that had ran into Chiron's, for lack of a better term, brothers and
sister. The chase was short, for she didn't expect Ranma to follow her.
She had made the mistake of backing herself into a corner and there were
no routes of escape.
"I'm warning you, stay back, or I'll hurt you!" she screamed."I'm not
afraid of you!" Putting action to words, a white-hot globe of plasma
burst forth from each of her hands and hovered between her and Ranma.
Ranma made placating gestures with his hands, but at the same time summomed
a powerful magnetic field around each of the globes, giving him control
over their actions. The knowledge of how to do it had materialized in
his head almost before he had done it. With that knowledge he also knew
that the scared girl in front of him could produce and control
varying wavelengths of light and large amounts of superheated plasma.
"Calm down will you? I'm not going to hurt you."
She was staring at the bottled plasma floating between them."How did you
do that?" she asked, fright mostly gone from her voice. Her posture
changed, becoming simply wary, where before it had been hunched
and tense."You found one of them, didn't you?"
Ranma marvelled at how quickly the girl could change from frightened
to curious."Yeah, Chiron said that there were nine more, but I didn't think
I would run into any of them."
"Chiron? Isn't Chiron the...man who made them?"
"The voice in my head decided that it wanted to be called Chiron. I guess
it was out of respect or something." Ranma sat down on an overturned
trash barrel.
"Shara, that's what my voice calls herself, wants to know what color
Chiron is?" She sat on a small bench across from Ranma.
"Black. Hey, if your's is talking to you now, does that mean that
she's finished doing that personality thing that Chiron mentioned?"
For a moment the girl didn't say anything. Ranma guessed that she
was talking to Shara."I'm Satori. Shara said to say hello and she wants
to know how long Chiron has been activated."
"Since yesterday afternoon." Ranma stood up."I've got to go or I'll be
late for school." Before leaving he said,"I'm Ranma Saotome by the way."
Satori's eyes widened."Ranma Saotome. I've heard about you from the girls
at school. Is it true that you're the best martial artist ever?"
Something very close to adoration was floating around in her eyes.
Seriously, Ranma answered,"Best there'll ever be."
Satori called out to Ranma before he could leave the lot."Shara says to
tell Chiron to contact her when he comes back online."
Ranma nodded, then, after walking around the wall and out of sight,
folded space around himself. He reappeared on the roof of Furinkan
High. Ranma jumped over the edge and caught onto the window seal of
his classroom. He swung through the open window and landed in his
seat perfectly, only seconds before the late bell rang. He noticed
that Akane was nowhere to be found.
****
Fifteen minutes later, a wet and bedraggled Akane limped into the
school muttering about 'baka truck drivers' and 'stupid old ladies'.
****
Author's notes: I've gotten a *lot* of responses about this story so I
spent a good chunk of the day throwing this together. It isn't
completely final since I may need to change some things to get the story
how I want it, and it probably needs some proofreading, but I'll get
around to that later. As with the Prologue, I would greatly
appreciate reader responses. They really help and the encouragement
sure doesn't hurt.
dark_phoneix@hotmail.com
Ranma woke to a face full of water. He sat up, wiping sleep from
his eyes and glared at Akane. She, however, wasn't showing any of
her usual anger. Instead, her face showed absolute astonishment.
It was white, her eyes were huge, and her mouth gaped open.
"Y-you didn't c-ch-change," she stammered, pointing a trembling finger
at him.
"Huh?" Ranma asked dumbly. He looked down at his chest, expecting to
see the familiar appendages that he miraculously sprouted whenever
splashed with cold water. They weren't there. Come to think, his voice
did sound much lower than his cursed form's. Oh my god! He wasn't
cursed anymore! Ranma fainted.
When Ranma woke up again he was in the process of being repeatedly
dunked into the koi pond by his father. The man had a firm grip on
his pig-tail and was submerging his son completely on every attempt.
"Let go!" he shouted, punctuating his request with a heel to his
father's groin. His pig-tail slipped from boneless fingers as Genma
fell over onto the ground and began whimpering while clutching the
family jewels protectively.
"Ranma, you're cured!" Soun bellowed, rushing across the yard and
sweeping his future son-in-law into a crushing embrace.
Deftly, Ranma slipped through Soun's grip and found himself confronted
by Akane and her sisters."Ranma-kun, I'm so happy for you! However did
you get cured?"
"Yeah Saotome, how'd you do it?" asked Nabiki. Her eyes practically
gleamed as she went over profit potential in her head. With
Jusenkyo destroyed and all hopes of curing its curses gone with it, an
actual cure could be worth loads of yen.
"I don't know," he answered honestly. Chiron may have done something,
but Ranma didn't have a clue what it was."I just woke up and didn't
have the curse anymore," he confessed.
"Don't lie to us Ranma, spill it." Akane crossed her arms over her chest
and glared at him. She just knew that he had made a deal with the
amazons. How else could he have gotten a cure? Him and Shampoo
had probably..."You pervert! I know what you and that slut did! Die!!"
With no mallets or tables handy, Akane grabbed a nearby lamb, which
amazingly didn't break, and smashed Ranma through the wall.
There vision obscurred by dust and collapsing walls, no one saw Ranma
come to a halt inches before actually striking the outer wall of the
Tendo compound. Ranma chuckled to himself. He may not be able to fly,
but with a moderate control over gravity, he sure could come close.
When Akane didn't come back to continue his punishment, Ranma allowed
his muscles to relax. It occurred to him that he felt no pain from
her attack. Lifting his shirt, he saw that his flesh showed no bruises,
not even a little one. That could be a problem. If he suddenly gained
the ability to take more damage than Ryoga, people would become even
more suspiscous than they already were because of his curse being cured.
How was he supposed to fake being hurt? It went against who he was.
His pride wouldn't allow it. He rounded the corner as he walked around
the house and ran into Nabiki. He immediatley shelfed his previous
thoughts in preparation for more immediate trouble.
"Saotome, just who I was looking for," Nabiki said, smoothly slipping
up beside him and sliding her arm around his waist like she were
his friend."You don't have to lie to me. We could make a lot money
with this cure. Ryoga would probably sign his soul over to you to get
rid of his curse."
Ranma didn't even blink when she mentioned Ryoga's curse. She had to
know it by now. 'Everyone' except Akane knew. He ducked under her arm
and put some distance between them. Who knew what would happen if one
of the girls saw him that close to Nabiki. Their more civil nature only
came out when his mom was around. Any other time they were just as
blood thirsty as usual."Why doesn't anyone believe me? Why would I
lie? DOn't you think I'd give the cure to Piggy if I had it? Maybe
then he would stop trying to kill me."
Nabiki nodded slightly to herself. He really was telling the truth.
That didn't mean that all hope was lost. She had a handful of physicists
in her pocket and an upcoming bio-chemist at the university owed
her thousands. A few calls and she could have Ranma picked apart piece
by piece to determine why he was no longer cursed. But for now she
would go along with him."I believe you Ranma. for now." Then she left
him to inspect the damage done to the house.
Ranma, alone once again, decided to practice in the dojo for a while.
He had the knowledge of what he could do and what he couldn't, with
his... enhancements, but all of it was useless if he couldn't learn to
apply it to his repetoire. He really didn't want to destroy Nerima
by accident either.
****
Performing a simple kata Ranma's entire body moved at what would normally
be reserved for the amaguriken. He was amazed at how easy it was to adapt
to his new abilities and suspected Chiron may have had something to do
with it. He came to a stop and settled to the ground. The centimeter
that he was capable of floating above the ground while still moving saved
him from tearing up the dojo's flooring. Setting his feet to brace
himself, Ranma cried out,"Kacchu tenshin Amaguriken!" and let loose
with thousands of punches in the span of a single second. The
building shook, and the far wall which Ranma had been facing had a
toyota sized hole blown in it. Ranma stared down at his hands in
wonder. He'd never thought it possible to move that fast. Besides
that, standing three dozen feet from the wall, the air pressure from
his atack alone had destroyed it.
Ranma realized that he was going to have to make more adjustments to
his style than he had previously thought. Moving at what people thought
was his normal, albeit way above average, speed would be much more
straining than his now supersonic average. The amaguriken was pretty
much off limits against living things now. Even Ryoga would little more
than a puddle of gore if he used it on him. Ranma pushed the thought
aside. It would be better to think about the problem when he had a chance
to go undisturbed for long periods of time, like when he was at school.
What he did do, however, was decide to try out the more dangerous of
his powers. No one was likely to investigate the noise of his
latest endeavour, not in this part of Tokyo, so he still had a little
while until supper. There was no telling what would happen when
Nabiki managed to spread the word of his being cured. Hell on earth did
come to mind, though.
****
When Akane walked into the dojo she saw Ranma throwing solid black spheres
of something at a training dummy. When they struck it the part hit
would disappear. He also had a strange battle aura. It almost seemed
like the air around him was bending inward slightly. Despite the
unusual sight, Akane didn't question her fiance on his strange new attack
or the aura. She was still to mad at him to do anything more
than say,"Dinner's ready, before stomping back out. She never even
noticed the hole in the wall
Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. Akane hadn't questioned him about what
he was doing. If she had he didn't think he could come up with a
plausible enough lie for her to believe him. The reason he hadn't
stopped was because he couldn't. Whenever he manipulated space,
the generators made and stored however much of the distorted space he
needed until it was used. The problem was that he only had about a
minute before they lost containment and vented the distorted space.
The knowledge of what that would have done to him had made Ranma
very reluctant to even try out the ability, but he never backed down
from a challenge. Akane had walked in when he still had a sizable
charge built up. He could have gotten rid of it all at once, but that
would have done a lot more damage to the dojo, and the back yard than
the amaguriken from earlier.
The magnetic and gravitational force that he controlled had
similar drawbacks.Unless he was using a preprogrammed attack or function,
he had to use all the energy gathered ot there would be side-effects. With
the magnetic side of his power, after a few minutes without using
the gathered power his body would become highly magnetic. The
attraction could easily draw a bullet from several feet off its
original course. Gravity wasn't so bad. It wouldn't even effect him
if he let the gathered charge go. It would, however, have drawn a
lot of attention and been rather inconveient when when objects and
people began to randomly levitate or suddenly gain a few thousand
pounds.
Leaving the dojo, he almost went to take a bath, but he hadn't really
worked up a sweat so he headed straight to kitchen table. Nabiki was
already there, reading the stock report, and nibbling on a cookie.
"Hey Nabiki," he said as he took his usual seat,"you might want to take
a look at the dojo. By mistake I blew a whole in the wall, sorry."
Nabiki growled something under her breath that sounded like,
'Damned catastrophy,' but Ranma couldn't be sure. Then, stuffing a
cookie in her mouth, and throwing her paper down, she went to inspect
the damage and determine how much more money he would soon be owing
her. A few minutes later she returned and with a completely false
smile said,"Ranma, did I forget to tell you that some of your friends
should be dropping by after dinner? I couldn't get in touch with Ryoga,
but he'll show up eventually."
Almost graciously, Ranma said,"Thanks Nabiki, you saved me the trouble."
Kasumi chose this time to announce that the food was ready. Before
Nabiki could respond to Ranma's remark, the Tendo and Saotome
patriarchs charged into the room and jumped into their seats. Kasumi
began bringing out the dishes, and soon there was a free for all at
the dinner table.
****
Genma was gone with his mom, helping her to move their furniture back
into the newly repaired Saotome home and Ranma had the guest room to
himself. He was taking the opportunity to practice and was deftly
launching a small throwing dart from the palm of his silve-streaked
hand magnetically then stopping it and bringing it back before it
could puncture the wall. Cologne and the other amazons would be
arriving some time soon if what Nabiki said was true. This time, before
the dart hit the wall, Ranma changed its course and made it fly in a
figure eight pattern through the air.
He heard a knock on the downstairs door and let the dart drop to the
floor. Shampoo had actually used the door. No sooner had he had the
thought than he heard the familiar craching sound associated with the
amorous amazon's own version of the breaking point. Oh well. Before
they could get the drop on him, he left the room and walked downstairs.
Soun and his father had taken it easy on him about being cured, most
likely because they feared his mom, but he knew he was in store for a
more hearty response from the amazons.
He wasn't mistaken.
"Airen!" Shampoo launched herself at him, latching onto him as if he
were a life preserver and she were drowning."Shampoo don't believe
evil mercenary girl. Is it true, you cured?" she asked hopefully.
Ranma attempted to pry his suitor free from him, but had little luck as
she twisted herself from his grasp continually. He looked around for
some support. Kasumi wasn't present. Nabiki was grinning. Cologne
looked like her normal decrepit self. Mousse, Akane and Soun
were practically frothing at the mouth. Mousse, though, seemed able
to restrain from making any attempts on Ranma's life in Cologne's
prescence. Akane and Soun had no such disadvantages. Akane advanced
towards him and Shampoo, mallet in hand, while Soun brought up the rear,
his head already swelling in preparation for his demon head attack.
"Ranma you pervert! Let go of that Chinese Bimbo!" She swung at him with
and Shampoo with wrath painted on her face. Only thanks to Chiron was
Ranma able to move fast enough to avoid being splattered while Shampoo
held onto him.
"How dare you cheat on your fiance!" roared demon-Soun. Shampoo
actually sqeaked in fright and let go of Ranma, running over to stand
behind her great-grandmother.
Ranma finally managed to disarm Akane and jump across the room and out of
her reach.
"So son-in-law, I hear that you are no longer under the effects of
Jusenkyo's magic." Cologne's dry, corpsish voice cut through the air
like a knife.
"I guess so," he replied."I woke up this morning and it was gone. Like
I told the others, I don't know how or why, but I'm not complaining."
Cologne, more experienced than the vast majority of the human in all
things archaic and mystical, could tell by Ranma' aura that he was
being honest. She could also tell by that same aura that something
very profound had happened to Ranma. His aura had a whole new pattern,
the color was much darker, and in several points it pulsed
rythmically. Cologne couldn't tell what had happened to him, it could just
be what happens when the curse wears off, although that had never
happened before, but for now he didn't appear in any danger. She made a
show of looking him up and down, then nodded as if satisfied
with something."The magic is gone. Son-in-law is cured." Of course
she couldn't really tell. Magic didn't work that way, at least not the
kind she knew, but it never hurt to make others think you were more
dangerous than you really were.
Ranma turned to face the Tendos."You see. I told you."
Once again cutting off conversation, Cologne said,"Pardon the intrusion,"
as if smashing a whole in the wall hadn't happened,"we'll be going now.
We must prepare the restaurant for opening tomorrow." And with that
she bounced on her staff through Shampoo's hole and into the night.
Shampoo blew him a kiss, departing with a,"Shampoo see airen tomorrow.
Bye bye."
Mousse shot him a hete filled glare before following thw other
amazons. Ranma could see that Mousse's jaw was flexing impotently
and realized that Mousse's lips were glued shut by the way they
stretched when they should have opened. He laughed to himself at
Mousse's predicament. It'd be really funny if the glue was permanent.
****
Ranma and Akane, were on their way to school the next day when they both
saw a bright flash of light a few blocks away. Ranma leapt from the
fence onto a telephone pole to get a better view in hopes of finding
the light's source.
"Ranma, get down here or we'll be late," Akane snapped impatiently.
Ignoring her, Ranma held his hand up to block the sun from his eyes
and scanned the area for trouble. Finally, after Akane had shouted for
him to come down thre more times, he told her to go on wihtout him. Once
she stomped on toward school, Ranma, in a display of super-human strength
not at all related to his recent encounter with Chiron, jumped from his
perch traveling nearly a hundred feet into the air before he began
spinning and arching back towards the ground. His descent was
perfectly timed to set him on the wall of a newly erected construction
site.
The source of the light was then revealed to him. Sitting on a
small mountain of bags of concrete mix, a girl maybe a year or two
younger than him, was waving around a glowing rope of energy. Cracking
it like a whip she sent a pulse of light out that formed into a ball when
it reached the end of the rope. From there the ball shot across the lot
to impact against a large stack of steel I-beams. There was no explosion
on contact, but the beams did, within seconds become white hot,
before further heating caused them to liquify into a pool of molten
steel.
"Don't you think someone's going to be a little upset when they see what
a mess you've made?" Ranma asked her.
The girl spun around when she heard his question. Panicking, her
rope disappeared and she shot off in a blur. As fast as she was, Ranma
was faster. Years of training and a more pronounced flow of chi through
his body, he had surmised, would give him a bit of an edge over others
that had ran into Chiron's, for lack of a better term, brothers and
sister. The chase was short, for she didn't expect Ranma to follow her.
She had made the mistake of backing herself into a corner and there were
no routes of escape.
"I'm warning you, stay back, or I'll hurt you!" she screamed."I'm not
afraid of you!" Putting action to words, a white-hot globe of plasma
burst forth from each of her hands and hovered between her and Ranma.
Ranma made placating gestures with his hands, but at the same time summomed
a powerful magnetic field around each of the globes, giving him control
over their actions. The knowledge of how to do it had materialized in
his head almost before he had done it. With that knowledge he also knew
that the scared girl in front of him could produce and control
varying wavelengths of light and large amounts of superheated plasma.
"Calm down will you? I'm not going to hurt you."
She was staring at the bottled plasma floating between them."How did you
do that?" she asked, fright mostly gone from her voice. Her posture
changed, becoming simply wary, where before it had been hunched
and tense."You found one of them, didn't you?"
Ranma marvelled at how quickly the girl could change from frightened
to curious."Yeah, Chiron said that there were nine more, but I didn't think
I would run into any of them."
"Chiron? Isn't Chiron the...man who made them?"
"The voice in my head decided that it wanted to be called Chiron. I guess
it was out of respect or something." Ranma sat down on an overturned
trash barrel.
"Shara, that's what my voice calls herself, wants to know what color
Chiron is?" She sat on a small bench across from Ranma.
"Black. Hey, if your's is talking to you now, does that mean that
she's finished doing that personality thing that Chiron mentioned?"
For a moment the girl didn't say anything. Ranma guessed that she
was talking to Shara."I'm Satori. Shara said to say hello and she wants
to know how long Chiron has been activated."
"Since yesterday afternoon." Ranma stood up."I've got to go or I'll be
late for school." Before leaving he said,"I'm Ranma Saotome by the way."
Satori's eyes widened."Ranma Saotome. I've heard about you from the girls
at school. Is it true that you're the best martial artist ever?"
Something very close to adoration was floating around in her eyes.
Seriously, Ranma answered,"Best there'll ever be."
Satori called out to Ranma before he could leave the lot."Shara says to
tell Chiron to contact her when he comes back online."
Ranma nodded, then, after walking around the wall and out of sight,
folded space around himself. He reappeared on the roof of Furinkan
High. Ranma jumped over the edge and caught onto the window seal of
his classroom. He swung through the open window and landed in his
seat perfectly, only seconds before the late bell rang. He noticed
that Akane was nowhere to be found.
****
Fifteen minutes later, a wet and bedraggled Akane limped into the
school muttering about 'baka truck drivers' and 'stupid old ladies'.
****
Author's notes: I've gotten a *lot* of responses about this story so I
spent a good chunk of the day throwing this together. It isn't
completely final since I may need to change some things to get the story
how I want it, and it probably needs some proofreading, but I'll get
around to that later. As with the Prologue, I would greatly
appreciate reader responses. They really help and the encouragement
sure doesn't hurt.
dark_phoneix@hotmail.com