Permanent 14, The Black Rose strikes!
Gosunkugi sat in his room in his bedclothes. He was
sitting at a small and cluttered desk reading a large tome
Ranma had given him for study. His eyes were beginning to
drop as sleep threatened to overtake him. He yawned and
turned off the lamp he had been using to read and climbed
into his bed. He didn't notice the window open seemingly on
it's own.
Sasuke snuck silently through the shadows and tried
to think of what to do next. "Mistress Kodachi only said to
bring him, did she mean by force? Oh, well," thought the
ninja as he emerged from the shadows and walked over to the
bed. He reached up and shook the form under the covers. He
frowned as he realized that the boy's body gave way a
little too much. He flung aside the covers to reveal a pile
of pillows. He froze as a light came from behind him.
"Who are you? What do you want?" asked Gosunkugi as
he stood over in the other corner of the room.
Sasuke turned and positioned himself offensively,
surely a boy would be no match for his skills. He froze in
fear as he saw the glowing orange ball in the boy's hands.
"I suggest you back down! This won't feel very good
if it connects, if your lucky you might be able to put the
flames out in time..." said the boy from his corner weakly.
"How? How could you know?" stammered the ninja.
"Easy, you stood in the corner thinking out loud
fool," said Gosunkugi with a small smirk. "N-now don't
move!"
"I bring a message for you, Mistress Kuno wishes to
speak with you," said Sasuke as he relaxed a little.
"Why would she want to talk to me?" said the boy in
surprise.
"It doesn't matter, My orders are to bring you
using any means necessary," said the small ninja as he
reached back behind his back.
Gosunkugi swallowed. "H-how dare you speak to such
a powerful mage like me like that?!" he stammered lamely.
Sasuke smiled as he realized that the boy was posing. He
jumped and flung a wire net at him.
Gosunkugi reacted quickly and shoved lightly at the
air. The net flew upwards ripping a hole in the ceiling as
it exited the room. Sasuke froze in shock at this. "What
the?"
"Oops, I guess that was too much..." said the boy
as he looked at his hand.
The ninja backed away and tossed a small gas ball
on the ground. He frowned and placed a mask around his face
as he did so. "This is more difficult than I imagined," he
muttered as the cloud enveloped him and began to spread
towards the gothic boy.
"Life within the air I summon your power, come into
my hands!" murmured Gosunkugi as he uttered a passage from
the book he had been reading. A small breeze could be felt
in the room as he cupped his hands together, a ball of gas
and air filled them. Suddenly he remembered exactly which
spell he had just muttered. "Oh, shit! Wrong spell.
Tornado blast!" with that a huge gust of wind shot from
his palms and slammed everything in the room into the
opposite wall. He almost cried as a few pencils, a dresser,
and his bed smashed through the wall and into the
hallway. "Oops."
Sasuke just sat in the crater his own impact had
made in the wall and looked at the boy in shock. The bed
had almost taken his head off. "Such power! I must defeat
this sorcerer to honor my ninja heritage!" he cried almost
with tears of joy in his eyes. He seemed to vanish and
Gosunkugi frowned as he realized that his opponent was
probably much more experienced at this sort of thing than
he was. Now was a good time to run. He turned for the door
just as a few throwing knives and shiruken embedded
themselves in the floor where he had been standing moments
before. Gosunkugi almost passed out, he stumbled through
the dark and barely avoided the multiple projectiles that
were being sent his way. Somehow none of them connected,
mostly because he was stumbling about and falling as he ran
through the darkened room. He often tripped or painfully
ran into various objects that were strewn around in the
room in his mad scramble for escape.
Sasuke finally ran out of things to throw. "Such
skill! To think that he would avoid all my shiruken!" he
gasped in awe.
Gosunkugi stopped when he began to realize that
nothing was being thrown anymore. He turned and put his
hands over his head. A ball of light formed in them and he
glanced around trying to spot the ninja in the shadows. He
finally looked upwards and saw him clinging to the ceiling;
Sasuke laughed nervously and fell on his face in the middle
of the floor.
Gosunkugi backed away from him in terror; Right
into a pair of long white legs. He turned and looked
upwards to see Kodachi standing on the remains of his desk
twirling her ribbon in the air lazily. Under her arm was
the book he had been reading. "Hey! That's not mine! Give
it back!" he whined as he tried to grab the book.
"Really treating a lady so, you should be ashamed,"
said Kodachi as she wrapped him tightly in her ribbon. He
panicked almost immediately and began to struggle. "It
seems there is some merit to this...magic after all."
"Mistress, I..." started Sasuke, but he was cut off
by a glare from Kodachi's dark eyes. He hung his head in
submission and growled. His honor would not be fulfilled
now until the battle with the young sorcerer was finished.
Kodachi pulled the boy up close to her face and
smiled at him. "I may need this one, he has experience in
such things as this," she said to Sasuke as she held up the
book.
"Yes, mistress," said the ninja simply.
"A bit boring isn't he?" she said as she gazed into
the petrified Hikaru's eyes. He made a whimpering noise and
passed out.
"Ah, surely I am cursed with this humble beauty. I
do hope he has the courage to speak to one as fair as
myself," she said as she dropped him and tried to look
demure. "Sasuke, bring him."
"Yes, mistress Kuno."
+++++++++
Ryoga Hibiki looked at the gates of the Tendo dojo.
He frowned and looked at the map in his hands. "This is it,
I'm back," he muttered to himself. He entered the gates and
half expected to find himself in some strange yard in some
other ward. It wasn't though, the Koi jumped in the pond
and he smiled lightly. The dojo stood in the back where it
had always been. Kasumi was in the kitchen cleaning and
humming to herself. He opened the door and smiled a little
more as he walked in and kicked off his shoes.
"Oh my, We have visitors," said Kasumi as she
walked out to greet him. Soun looked around his paper with
slight interest.
"Ah, Ryoga! We weren't expecting you back for some
time," he said cheerfully. His opinion of the boy was still
uncertain. He had seemed honorable and a nice enough, but
his relationship with Ranma was questionable to him at best.
"I need to speak with Ranma," he said with a large
grin on his face.
"Oh dear, Ranma is in school right now," said
Kasumi looking worried.
"That's all right, I can wait," said Ryoga as he
sat down at his usual spot at the end of the table. Soun
glanced at him one last time before settling. Accept for
the large stupid grin on the boy's face, everything seemed
to be falling back into the usual pattern. Soun liked
predictability, but that seemed a distant memory since the
young sorceress and her strange family had moved in.
+++++++++++
Akane sat at her usual place at lunch with Ranma.
Yuka, and Sayuri. New today, however, were the two newest
students of Furinkan, Ko-li and Talcum. Neither of them had
moved very far from Ranma. They seemed to cling to her for
protection from the strange culture around them. However
close to Ranma they sat they always held their heads up in
almost pride, most of the boys had started to drool
immediately. The two girls took it in stride and ignored
them as they should as Amazon warriors. The boys didn't
exactly make them want to socialize, most of the girls
didn't appear to interested either. Ranma at least could
speak their language.
Ranma and the two girls had become pretty close
since she had started working for Cologne a few months ago.
Ranma had even succumbed to calling them sisters. They had
always called her that and made an extra effort to make her
feel welcome to the Amazon tribe. Ranma was wary at first,
mostly because of the nature of her induction into the
tribe. Eventually she realized that they did not blame her
for Shampoo's condition directly. In fact they seemed to
think she deserved it. Ranma had spent more and more time
outside work with them as the weeks drug on.
Akane was a little jealous of the closeness the
three had shown in such a short time. She had known Ranma
for much longer than either of the two Amazons and they had
a sort of bond that she just didn't understand. Ranma was
still closer to her than either of the two girls but it
still made her feel a little awkward when trying to talk to
them. It was as if they really were sisters, and she
was...She didn't really know. Sometimes she felt like a
twin sister, other times she felt like they were dating.
Ranma was very protective of her at times. She didn't
really understand their relationship, but that was probably
why she liked being around her so much.
Ranma stopped eating, "Ryoga's back," she said
simply.
"Huh? How did you..." Akane started to say when she
remembered Ranma's strange hobby.
"Is boy friend?" asked Talcum.
"More like brother," said Ranma with a mouthfull
of food.
"Ah," said Ko-li with seemingly instant
understanding. The other girls looked at her and Ranma in
confusion.
"It's like that with Mousse. I still understand him
like no one else, even with the way he is now," she said
simply.
"You know Mousse well?" asked Ranma in Chinese
stopping her meal.
"We grew up together if that's what you mean. I
always seemed to understand him, I don't see what was wrong
with him. Shampoo would have been lucky to have him back
then. She was more blind than he ever was, I suppose that's
why I forgave you for her so quickly."
Akane and her friends just looked at them blankly.
"Sorry, it's kind of personal," explained Ranma in Japanese.
"It's OK, I sort of understand," said Akane with a
shrug.
"Both of them give me the creeps," said Ranma with
a shudder.
"Well he stays with her most of the time, he has to
really. We keep them upstairs when you work. They have free
run of the restaurant when your off though," said Ko-li
with a friendly smile, she leaned on Ranma playfully and
Ranma shrugged her off.
"Cut that out, you know I hate hearing about those
two," muttered Ranma.
"Oooh, Is Ranma scared?" chimed Talcum as she
leaned on the other side of Ranma's back.
"Hey! I ain't scared of nothing!" cried Ranma
angrily.
Akane and her friends giggled, Ranma saw this and
blushed.
"Meow!" said Talcum in Ranma's ear. The girl froze
and shivered.
Akane looked at her queerly for a moment and
smiled. "Is something wrong Ranma?" she said as she leaned
closer to her. She had a mischievous look in her eyes that
Ranma didn't like.
"No, why would...there be?" stammered the girl
pathetically. Luckily Akane backed away and Ranma sighed in
relief.
++++++++++++
"Well, if it isn't the lazy school girls," said
Cologne with a sour glare at Ranma and her two sisters as
they entered the Cat Cafe' and tied their aprons around
their waists.
"Sorry Ghoul, we sorta had to stay late for some
paperwork," said Ranma with a quick smile.
"And they needed you there?" said Cologne with her
eyes narrowing as she gazed at Ranma.
Ranma laughed a little nervously and backed away.
As much as she liked the other two girls, she had no real
love for Cologne.
"Need Ranma read Katakana Hirigana," chirped Talcum
peppilly as she entered the floor with a tray and headed
for a customer.
"She's right, I still can't read all of them," said
Ko-li as she followed.
Cologne snorted, "Just don't let it happen again."
That was when a familiar scream came from directly
behind her. She turned to see Ranma standing on a table
with a look of complete terror in her eyes. A small white
cat sat and bat at her with it's paw playfully. It jumped
for the chair in an attempt to chase her and missed by
about two inches to the right. It's ears perked up and it
jumped again. Ranma shrieked and jumped back further onto
the table.
Cologne's staff came down on the animal's head and
it passed out. "How did you get out? I told you to stay in
you room with your wife you blind fool," said Cologne as
she picked Mousse up by the scruff of his neck. She pogoed
up the stairs and tossed him into the room before closing
the door.
Ko-li was trying her best not to laugh. "You make
sure Shampoo is not running loose as well. I'd hate to have
Ranma freeze up in the middle of the rush."
"Is not funny," snorted Talcum as she helped the
still shaking Ranma down off the table.
"I'm sorry sister Ranma, I just...you should have
seen the look..." Ko-li fell into yet another fit of
laughter.
"Jerk," muttered Ranma as she stormed off and
calmed down a bit more.
Talcum walked over and hit Ko-li on her head. "You
be nice to sister Ranma," she growled.
++++++++++++
Kodachi sat in her chambers with the book open
before her. Gosunkugi was bound by chains hanging from the
wall and had long since given up struggling. He simply hung
there and waited. Kodachi snorted as she closed her hand
and smiled at the smoking remains of one of her brother's
practice dolls. "Interesting," she muttered as she tried to
find some formula or explanation for what had just
happened. Nothing came to mind.
Gosunkugi noticed her look and frowned. "You c-
can't calculate it, Th-that's why its called m-m-magic," he
stuttered. Kodachi had not bothered to change her leotard
and the boy was not accustomed to seeing quite so much.
"Quite," snorted Kodachi as she realized that there
was some truth to what the boy had said.
"Oh, look a demon summon spell!" she said in
excitement as she flipped and stopped on a page.
"NO!" cried Gosunkugi in shock. "You can't!"
"Can't I?" she said smugly.
Gosunkugi almost gave up. "If you can't be sure if
you can control or kill it when it comes we could all die,"
he said weakly.
"Perhaps your right, I suppose we'll have to come
back to that one," Somehow Hikaru Gosunkugi was not
reassured by that.
"Some one had better figure out what happened quick
or we are all in a lot of trouble." He hung his head and
struggled weakly against the chains that bound him to the
dungeon like wall of Kodachi Kuno's laboratory.
TBC...
