A Shift in the Stream
Same Warning and Disclaimer: I don't own any of this
stuff...and don't take this fic too seriously.
Last Episode: Leaf and Ryouga get annoyed with Jiro
Hibiki. The Slayers crew shows up at the Tendo
household looking for Sylphiel. Ranma's curse is
revealed to the Tenchi crew. The fiancees arrive.
Leaf, Jiro and Ryouga arrive at the Tendo houshold.
Kasumi and Amelia discuss Xellos. Jiro tries to kill
Genma. Kiyone plans to direct her mother to the
shrine and discusses Mihoshi's family.
*******************************************************
Most people would approach a war zone with the
utmost of caution. In fact, most people would not
even bother to approach. They would turn around and
run at the first sight of an impact crater Partially
destroyed structures and still smoking energy blast
burns tended to have that effect on people. Kiyone
and Mihoshi barely noticed the damage at all.
"Hmm, Ryoko and Ayeka REALLY got into it didn't
they, Kiyone?" Mihoshi asked. Kiyone paused to pull
something out of a tree.
"A spatula?" Kiyone blinked, and looked around. A
brown haired girl stepped out of the trees then and
snatched it from her. Kiyone noted the huge spatula
strapped to her back.
"Thanks, I was looking for those," the girl said,
unconcerned about Kiyone's presence. "Seen any more
of these? I'm missing like three still."
"Excuse me," Kiyone said calmly. "Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Ukyou Kuonji," the girl said cheerfully.
"Who are you two, more of that Tenchi's girlfriends?"
"What?!" Kiyone sputtered. "Whatever gave you that
idea?"
"Tenchi's girlfriend," Mihoshi laughed. "What
a...oh hello Ryoko and Ayeka." Mihoshi waved
cheerfully to the angry girls.
~Oh no.~ Kiyone sighed and turned to face a fuming
Ayeka.
"Detective Kiyone," she said tightly. "What is she
talking about?"
"And what do you think about Tenchi?" Ryoko growled
at Mihoshi. Mihoshi, being Mihoshi, took the question
on face value.
"Well, let's see, he's cute, nice, polite, calm..."
She looked up and the subject left her head. "Ooo,
look at how pretty the stars are tonight!!"
"Grrr! You two know I don't feel anything for
Tenchi," Kiyone growled. "Now, why are you here?"
"I'm here to save my Ranchan from that witch
Nabiki," Ukyou said cheerfully. Her next movement was
a swift dodge to the side, without changing her basic
stance or expression. Where she had been standing a
gymnast's club smashed into a tree.
"Why you peasant!" The speaker was a pale-skinned
gymnast. "How dare you presume to chase my
Ranma-darling! There is no way that he would even
consider such a commoner as yourself. Not when he has
Kodachi Kuno, the Black Rose of St. Hebereke, ready to
give herself to him. OHHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Everybody
excepting Ayeka cringed.
"Is there something wrong with that laugh," she
asked curiously.
Kiyone face faulted as somebody tried to smash the
dark-haired, pale girl with a bon bori. The gymnast
leaped out of the way and
"Neither of you marry Airen," the blue haired girl
declared. "Amazon law say, he Shampoo groom, so
Shampoo marry!"
"Nobody invited you three," a fourth voice nearly
growled as another girl walked out of the trees. She
tossed Ukyou the missing three spatulas. "There's
your spatulas Ukyou."
"Hey, thanks Akane," Ukyou said cheerfully.
"Why you play nice-nice with pathetic violent-girl
when she try steal Airen!"
"Why would I want that baka freak!?" Akane shouted.
"By the way, Auntie Saotome was sharpening her sword,
something about truce-breakers."
"Shampoo behave."
~Just wait until I figure out the manner in which
this little beauty operates,~ Kodachi smirked as she
fiddled with a bracelet. "Excuse me, I have to find
the rest of my clubs."
"Shampoo go set up tent." Both girls vanished into
the trees again.
"Okay this is weird," Kiyone growled. "What's
going on?"
"Oh, sorry," Akane said politely. "That Baka idiot
my dad has me engaged to is Katsuhito's grandson,
we're visiting for a little while, these three
followed us."
~More descendants of the Jurai? Hmm, maybe I
shouldn't ask Mom to come here just now.~ Kiyone
looked hard at Akane. "There's something familiar
about you."
"You know, I was thinking the same thing about
you," Akane said curiously.
"Hey, everybody!" Mihoshi shouted. "Kiyone's
parents are coming to visit too!"
~Great, so much for not asking mom to come here."
"Is that so?" Ayeka arched an eyebrow. "Who are
your parents Detective Makibi? And why can they not
find their own lodgings?"
"Yeah, we don't need more freeloaders," Ryoko
agreed.
"Be, careful about accusing people of freeloading,
Ryoko!"
"If freeloading is all my father gets up to it'll
be a miracle," Kiyone muttered.
"Is it just me," Akane asked. "Or is this getting
weird?"
"Weird? around us?" Ukyou said dryly. "You've got
to be kidding suger."
*******************************************************
In the Nerima, in a similar scene of battle scars
and smoking ruin, another group of people were quietly
have tea. Aside from the panda and spatula weilding
martial artist lying unconscious in pile outside.
"We should apologize for the state of your house,
Kasumi-san," Amelia said politely. "Lina can get
quite active at times."
"Oh, its no problem at all," Kasumi said as she
filled her pot of tea. "Ranma's fiancees and rivals
destroy the house on a regular basis. Isn't that
right father?" The man nodded from behind is paper.
~Just pretend nothing's happening,~ he thought as
he scanned the paper, not noticing it was upside down.
"Will you be staying for the night?" Kasumi asked.
"In this mess?" Gourry asked surprised.
"Jellyfish-brains!" Lina whacked him upside the
head. "We made the mess, so don't go complaining
about it!"
"Oh this will be fixed in little while," Kasumi
said.
"How is that...?" Zelgadis was interrupted by what
seemed to be a flash of red light that whipped through
the damaged portions of the house. Somebody seemed to
step out of the flashing light for a moment, a slim
man in a red jumpsuit with lightning bolts on it. He
seemed to flicker off and on while the red blur
continued zipping about the house.
"What happened here?" he asked Kasumi. "I don't
see any of the normal sources of damage, oh wait,
there's Ryouga." The bandanna wearing boy absently
waved from where he was comparing methods of
depression with Zelgadis.
"Some friends of my mother's are visiting," Kasumi
said sweetly. "And there was an argument over some
spilt food. Thank you for coming, I wasn't certain
you'd come out this hour." The man in the red suit
nodded momentarily, flickering again, as if saying, oh
I see.
"Hey, this is good exercise," the man said before
vanishing into the blur again. "I'll have this
finished in a moment." The last sentence seemed to
come from everywhere, then suddenly the blur just
vanished and the house was in perfect condition again.
"What was that?"
"The contractor," Kasumi said simply. "Will you be
staying the night then?"
"Not me," Leaf said standing up, after blinking
away the surprise from the rapid fix up job. "I don't
have the time to be sitting around here much longer.
As soon as my husband wakes up we're out of here."
She blinked in surprise. "Oh by the Gods, I sound
like SPARK!"
"And I'm going with you!" Ryouga shouted. "Its my
only chance to get to Ranma before he does something
terrible to Akane!"
"Whatever," Leaf waved the comment aside. They had
all been variously breifed on the fiancee/rival
situation. Leaf would have felt sorry for the poor
boy if it weren't the fact that one of the fiancees
was her daughter. "Wait a minute, that gives me an
idea."
"Huh?" Ryouga looked nervous as the half-elf
smirked, recognizing Ukyou's "I've got a plan" smile.
*******************************************************
"See who's at the gate, Sasuke," Kuno ordered. "I
must prepare for my trek to face the evil sorcerer
Ranma."
"Yes, master," the ninja strolled to the front of
the estate and out to the gate. Outside he saw a pair
of nearly identical girls. Both wearing long, double
pony tails coming out of a braided loop. One was
dressed in tight, dark-colored clothes and had a
rather venomous look on her face.
The other was fidgeting and appeared rather
irritated and anger. The tight discipline in other
seemed to not at all be present in the second girl.
This one was wearing sweats and a t-shirt that showed
more skin but revealed less than the other girl's
apparel.
"Is this the Kuno estate?" the fidgety one asked
irritably.
"Yes it is," Sasuke said. "How may I help.."
"Who is it Sasuke?" Kuno stepped out into the
estate's yard.
~Oh...what a BABE!~ Yohko thought practically
drooling, and ignoring Iako's palpable irritation.
~What a ditz,~ Iako thought shaking her head.
~When is she going to learn to apply discipline
outside of combat?~
"Two young women, I think they're sisters," Sasuke
said. The the solemn girl arched an eyebrow at that.
Yohko's latest crush didn't survive Kuno opening his
mouth again.
"Ah, doubtless they have come to seek the
incomparable grace and majesty of Tatewaki Kuno, the
Blue Thunder of Furinkan High. Alas but my heart
already belongs to the pig-tailed goddes and the
virtuous Akane Tendo. Still such persistance should
be rewarded," Sasuke stepped back from the open
entrance as the two girls looked at each other for a
moment. "Very well I shall....ACCK!!! ARGGH!! EEEK!
AEIIII! OW!! OW!! OW!!"
"It seems the rumors of insanity were correct,"
Iako said cooly.
"Hey, where do you think you're going, toad?!"
Yohko shouted, a small blast of magical armor passed
in front of the ninja. "We have some questions to
ask." Iako's whip flashed out and caught the ninja,
bringing him back towards them.
"We are looking for one Kodachi Kuno," Iako said.
"What a coincidence," a new voice said. They
turned around to see a woman in her late twenties with
long red hair and sparkling red eyes. She was dressed
in a manner similar to Iako, but with much brighter
colors. "So am I."
"And who are you?" the woman handed her a card.
"You-gen-kai-sya? Ayaka Kisaragi?"
"Oh I've heard of you," Iako sneered, holding the
ninja out at arm's length. "Mystical investigations,
you work for money."
"Family talents for swordsmanship and magic," she
shrugged. "Might as well use it to make a living.
And you two I guess are Manos, lack of battle dress
notwithstanding."
"Yeah, so what are you doing here?" Yohko asked.
"The musuem hired me to recover a supposedly
mystical item," she shrugged. "Thanks for going
through the gymnast's ahead of me, made it easy to get
information."
"Speaking of information," Iako said levelly. All
three looked to a nervous Sasuke.
*******************************************************
"This is starting to turn into a family reunion
weekend," Nabiki said cooly. Behind her Akane and
Nodoka were going through family photo albums. Ranma
was supposedly doing the same, but it looked more like
he was sleeping. "How long has it been anyway?"
"You remember the hell brat?" Kiyone asked.
"Yep," Nabiki nodded. "That's right, didn't see
the whole thing though."*
"Think we should warn him?" Kiyone asked, glaring
at the younger girl. Both thought about it for a
moment.
"Nah."
*******************************************************
Xellos glanced about nervously, that sense of
impending doom had just deepened.
"Xellos, what is it this time?" Amelia demanded
irritably. He had been on the verge of "convincing"
her not to be mad anymore when suddenly he's looking
for threats again. ~Hmm, wonder if we need a new
game.~
"Must be my imagination, Ame-chan," he smiled
cheerfully.
*******************************************************
"Ooo, Shampoo get see Airen's family!" Shampoo
plopped down on the table, oddly enough it fell rather
round under her feet, and snatched up the book.
"Hey, what do you think your doing?" Akane
demanded.
"That certainly wasn't polite," Nodoka agreed.
"Grrr."
"What that noise?" Shampoo asked then shrugging.
"Excuse miss...Shampoo," Sasami said quietly,
pointing down.
"Oh, Shampoo land on Airen head," she giggled.
"Sorry." She flipped off, driving Ranma's head back
into the table again, and landed on a couch with the
book. She flipped through several places and stopped.
"Shampoo, we were looking at that," Akane yelled.
"Now give it back and go off and cook up some Ramen or
something."
"Who's that?" Shampoo asked turning the book
towards Nodoka with a pale expression. She was
pointing to a slim angry looking young man standing
between a younger Nodoka and some other girl.
"Oh him?" Nodoka said. "That's my brother Wu Fei,
we haven't heard from him since he went to China
several years ago."
"Airen's uncle name Wu Fei?" Shampoo asked quietly
looking at Ranma.
"Why you asking me?" he responded. "I just found
out about all this stuff." The amazon looked at the
picture and turned a lovely shade of green.
"Excuse me, Shampoo go be very sick now," and with
that the amazon vanished through the hole in the wall.
Well, Washu, HAD just fixed it, but Shampoo solved
that problem easily enough.
"ARG!!! Ryoko and Ayeka are bad enough!" the pink
scientist shouted. "I haven't seen this much damage
since my ex was learning black magic. Grrr, a blind
man practicing attack spells indeed."
Back to Family Trees