Dreams of Destiny
Chapter 6
"Wow, I didn't really believe you when you told us about his curse," Makoto said as she watched Rei lead Ranma into the temple. "Who would have though that such things exist?"
"Yeah, it ranks right up there with magical school girls,' Ami bit off sarcastically, causing Makoto to stare at her in surprise.
"Are you okay, Ami-chan." Makoto asked. "You seem very tense and upset."
"Sorry, Mako-chan," Ami replied, her shoulders slumping a little as she sat down on the porch. "It's just been a bit stressful and I've never dealt with personal stress very well."
"I know it can get tough, Ami-chan," Mako-chan told her as she sat down next to her and placed an arm around Ami. "But that's what your friends are for. We're here for you. Whenever you need to vent, whenever you need a shoulder to cry on, whenever you just need some quiet time, we'll help however we can."
"Thanks, Mako-chan," Ami replied as she leaned her head into her taller friends shoulder, not noticing Makoto tense slightly at the contact. "I feel awful imposing on you guys like this, but my life's turned upside down in the last day."
"Yeah, I know that life can be a real bitch sometimes, Ami-chan, Makoto replied staring off into space. "But I-we'll be there when you need us."
"Um," Ami replied as she looked out at the sky as birds flew over the city, her head still resting against Makoto's shoulder.
* * *
"The bathroom's in here, Ranma," Rei said stopping in front of a door and sliding it open.
"Thanks," Ranma replied, trying to figure out why the shrine seemed so familiar.
"Rei, are you finished sweeping the front yet," came an aged male's voice as a short older man came down the hall.
"Not yet, Grandpa," Rei replied. "Ranma needed to get some water."
Ranma, once again male stepped out of the bathroom and stared at the diminuative priest in shock. "Mr. Hino, is that you," he asked.
"You look familiar, my boy, but I can't quite place you," the priest replied.
"I'm Ranma Saotome," Ranma said. "I stayed here with you for a couple of months about ten years ago."
"Ranma, my lad," Grandfather Hino exclaimed. "Why I haven't seen you since that worthless excuse of a father of yours stole you away in the middle of the night. My sister was devistated."
"How is she, sir," Ranma asked eagerly. "I really missed her when I was on the road. She was one of the nicest people I ever met."
"Sadly, she passed away a year after you left," Grandfather Hino replied, his face becoming somber. "It broke her heart to know that you were back with that waste of human flesh."
"I wasn't too happy about leaving either, Mr. Hino," Ranma replied. "I tried to come back, but Oyaji took us far enough away that I couldn't remember how to get here anymore."
"You know Ranma, Grandpa," Rei asked from the sidelines, where she had been listening to their conversation..
"Yes, I do, Rei," Grandfather Hino replied. "Ranma stayed here for a couple of months a long time ago. It was about two years before you came to live with me, Rei. He had been taken to the hospitals with serious injuries, including broken bones and the doctors believed that his father was abusive, so they placed him to live here with Haruka and myself. They felt that he would be safe here."
"I like it here," Ranma interjected, "but they didn't count on how desperate Oyaji was to get me back. I still don't know why."
"Well, Haruka, who was your great-aunt, Rei, was heart-broken when Ranma was taken. She fell ill and died within the year," Grandfather Hino said. "She never had any children of her own, so she became very attached to Ranma. So, how did you come to find your way back here, Ranma?"
"He's Ami-chan's cousin, grandpa," Rei answered.
"You're related to that wonderful young lady," Grandfather Hino asked in surprise. "I wouldn't have imagined that someone that intelligent would be related to Genma Saotome."
"She's not," Ranma replied. "I'm related to her on my Mom's side."
"So what happened to Genma," Grandfather Hino asked as Rei slipped away, leaving Ranma and her grandfather to catch up.
* * *
"Ami-chan," Rei called out as she walked down the hall, causing the blue-haired girl and the brunette to jump apart, both flustered and blushing. Rei looked at them oddly for a moment, then continued, "We need to talk about your cousin."
"Where is he," Ami asked, the slight flush on her cheeks fading.
"He's in talking with grandpa," Rei replied. "Apparently they knew each other years ago."
"That makes sense," Ami replied. "He told me that he'd stayed at a shrine when he was younger, but that he couldn't remember which one it was. What are the odds that it would be your shrine, Rei-chan?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Ami-chan," Rei said, her face serious. "There's something not quite right about Ranma and I'm not just talking about his curse. He seems to bend probability wherever he goes. A case in point is that little rain shower that hit when he was out here. The sky was perfectly clear, so where did the rain come from? And why was he attacked on his first day in Juuban. According to the pattern you found, Ami-chan, they've been going after well-publicized people, not just random people off the street."
"Whoa, slow down, Rei-chan," Makoto interjected. "We have no real reason to think that there's anything wrong with Ranma, okay? Remember, we fight for love and justice, so let's assume they're innocent until proven guilty, alright?"
"Besides, Rei-chan," Ami said, "He wasn't the daimon's target. It was after the art teacher at his school. Ranma just got in the daimon's way and gave the teacher the time he needed to get away. According to him, his crystal was pulled because he was close by. And I think I have an explanation for the rain."
"Really," Rei asked surprised.
"Um hm," Ami replied as she pulled the Mercury computer out of it's subspace pocket. "According to the computer, a Jusenkyo curse contains powerful Chaos magic. Chaos magic acts in unpredictable ways and it reacts badly to other types of magic. The computer said that under no circumstances is anyone with healing magic, like Usagi-chan, supposed to try and remove the curse. It said that the magics tend to react…explosively. I think the magic of the curse also serves to make Ranma a water magnet. It has an intelligence of sorts and it wants him in his cursed form as much as possible. I don't know why, but he's been splashed a great deal over the past day and almost always in unusual ways."
"Ok, I see your point," Rei admitted, "but there's something off about his aura too. It's slippery. I can usually feel things about a person, but my senses just seem to slide off him."
"That's not a good reason to dislike him, Rei-chan," Makoto said. "It might have something to do with his martial arts training. I've heard stories about martial artists who were able to do things like we can in Senshi form. They're supposed to have some kind of tournament once a year, where all the really powerful ones fight each other. I'm not sure how much is fact and how much fiction, but I've heard that some of them have even fought demons before."
"I swear, Mako-chan," Rei said in an exasperated tone, "sometimes you hear the weirdest stories. How could any normal person match the powers we get as Senshi? I just can't see any normal human fighting off a youma, much less a daimon."
"Anything's possible, Mako-chan," Ami said hesitantly, "but I have to agree with Rei-chan. I don't think a normal person could re4ally do much against some of the things we fight."
"I'm not saying they're actually true," Makoto protested, "but I think that there are a lot of things we don't know enough about to judge and that Ranma may be one of them."
"I guess you're right, Mako-chan," Rei conceded. "He seems like a nice enough guy. I just get worried when I meet strange people. We haven't exactly had a very good track record there, have we?"
"I don't know about that, Rei," Ami said mischieviously. "After all, everyone said you were really weird and I think you turned out okay."
"Why you…" Rei said, swatting at Ami with her broom half-heartedly as she and Makoto laughed.
* * *
"So your father passed on and left you with a Jusenkyo curse, did he, Ranma," Grandfather Hino asked, tapping his hand thoughtfully on his chin.
"Yeah, then I cam here to find my mom and Aunt Mieko told me that she died years ago," Ranma replied. "I'm just lucky that she was willing to take me in. I didn't have anywhere else to go."
"What kind of curse did you get, Ranma," Grandfather Hino asked.
"I fell in Spring of Drowned Girl," Ranma replied, his face downcast.
"Interesting," Grandfather Hino said thoughtfully. "I hope you do realize that spring was quite possibly the best one you could have fallen into there?"
"What are you talking about Mr. Hino," Ranma shouted. "I'm a guy. I hate that I turn into a girl whenever I get splashed."
"I didn't say that you should like the curse, Ranma," Grandfather Hino replied calmly. "Just that it may have been a fortuitous happening. Your curse is just that, a curse. But at least you still turn into a human and it doesn't seem to have affected your mind."
"What do you mean," Ranma asked, cooling down.
"Most of the springs at Jusenkyo are animal or monster springs," Grandfather Hino said in a lecturing tone. "There are very few that are human springs and most of those are personality springs. And those are quite possibly the worst. How would you have liked falling into Spring of Drowned Pervert, or Spring of Drowned Murderer. Both of those springs are recorded as still existing, you know."
Ranma shivered as he imagined changing into a perverted mindset every time he got splashed with cold water. He'd probably be stealing women's underwear and groping them given the opportunity.
* * *
Somewhere in Tomobiki, a young man sneezed as he was sneaking up on a cute girl with intent to pounce. Immediately a scene of carnage ensued with a cry of "Darling no baka, da cha!"
Somewhere in the mountains of Japan, a shriveled figure sneezed abruptly and rubbed the pair of panties in his hand as he considered how to escape the cave he'd been trapped in.
* * *
"How do you know so much about Jusenkyo, Mr. Hino," Ranma asked.
"Well, my boy, this shrine was famous for removing curses back in the day and the priests kept careful records," Grandfather Hino replied. "Several victims of Jusenkyo came here for help, so several priests were sent there to investigate the curses. They mapped the valley and tested on small animals to see if the springs could cure the curse, but the curses added together."
"You mean, if I tried to jump in the Spring of Drowned man…" Ranma said, trailing off.
"You would turn into a half-man, half-woman being," Grandfather Hino replied. 'I believe they call them hermaphrodites these days. No Ranma, the only cure for the curse lies within. There was only one or two cases of the curse being cured. Well not cured so much as it was controlled. Some people, martial artists mostly, learned to control the curse so that they only changed shape when they wanted to."
Ranma looked a little green at the idea of turning into a hermaphrodite. Man, if people think I'm a freak now, what would they think of me like that, Ranma asked himself, shivering at the thought. "So how'd they learn to control it," Ranma asked.
"They had to learn how to control their ki," Grandfather Hino replied. "I don't know if you've realized it yet, but the curse has magnified your ki. The larger your cursed form, the more powerful your ki, at least until you match your normal form. There's no record of anyone with one of the larger cursed forms being any stronger than someone with a human form."
"It made my ki stronger," Ranma asked, surprised.
"Yes, I can feel it boiling about you," Grandfather Hino replied. "You have enough crude control not to form an unconscious battle aura, but you'll need to be taught. I'm sad to say that most of the ki masters I've known have passed on. Not many left heirs, but I'll see if I can track down someone for you to learn from."
"That'd be great, Mr. Hino," Ranma replied enthusiastically.
"Now, Ranma," Grandfather Hino started, "Haruka and I were very fond of you when you lived with us, and I'd be proud if you'd honor me by calling me grandpa, like Rei does."
"Sure thing, Grandpa," Ranma replied with a cocky smile on his face. "I really oughta get back to Ami. She's probably wondering what happened to me."
"Very well, Ranma," Grandfather Hino replied with a smile. "I'll let you get going now and I'll let you know if I can find a teacher for you."
"Thanks, Grandpa," Ranma said, shaking Grandfather Hino's hand firmly before bounding down the hallway.
"The fates have not been kind to you, Ranma my boy," Grandfather Hino mused as the boy dashed down the hallway, "and I have a strong feeling that they're not finished with you either."
AN: Wow, two chapters posted in one day. I guess the writing bug bit me hard. I'd like to thank everyone who's read and responded to this story. I'm very happy at how popular this story has become and I wanted to answer a few points. The Ranma characters won't show up for a bit, as I feel I still need to develop Ranma and the Senshi a bit more as characters before they get involved. Also, I feel these are moving a bit slow, but deeper, meaningful conversations always seem that way to me and I'm trying to have more of them than the average fanfic. I'm going to be putting more action in and someone who'll take over teaching Ranma things will be showing up soon. I wonder if anyone can guess who it'll be?
Chapter 6
"Wow, I didn't really believe you when you told us about his curse," Makoto said as she watched Rei lead Ranma into the temple. "Who would have though that such things exist?"
"Yeah, it ranks right up there with magical school girls,' Ami bit off sarcastically, causing Makoto to stare at her in surprise.
"Are you okay, Ami-chan." Makoto asked. "You seem very tense and upset."
"Sorry, Mako-chan," Ami replied, her shoulders slumping a little as she sat down on the porch. "It's just been a bit stressful and I've never dealt with personal stress very well."
"I know it can get tough, Ami-chan," Mako-chan told her as she sat down next to her and placed an arm around Ami. "But that's what your friends are for. We're here for you. Whenever you need to vent, whenever you need a shoulder to cry on, whenever you just need some quiet time, we'll help however we can."
"Thanks, Mako-chan," Ami replied as she leaned her head into her taller friends shoulder, not noticing Makoto tense slightly at the contact. "I feel awful imposing on you guys like this, but my life's turned upside down in the last day."
"Yeah, I know that life can be a real bitch sometimes, Ami-chan, Makoto replied staring off into space. "But I-we'll be there when you need us."
"Um," Ami replied as she looked out at the sky as birds flew over the city, her head still resting against Makoto's shoulder.
* * *
"The bathroom's in here, Ranma," Rei said stopping in front of a door and sliding it open.
"Thanks," Ranma replied, trying to figure out why the shrine seemed so familiar.
"Rei, are you finished sweeping the front yet," came an aged male's voice as a short older man came down the hall.
"Not yet, Grandpa," Rei replied. "Ranma needed to get some water."
Ranma, once again male stepped out of the bathroom and stared at the diminuative priest in shock. "Mr. Hino, is that you," he asked.
"You look familiar, my boy, but I can't quite place you," the priest replied.
"I'm Ranma Saotome," Ranma said. "I stayed here with you for a couple of months about ten years ago."
"Ranma, my lad," Grandfather Hino exclaimed. "Why I haven't seen you since that worthless excuse of a father of yours stole you away in the middle of the night. My sister was devistated."
"How is she, sir," Ranma asked eagerly. "I really missed her when I was on the road. She was one of the nicest people I ever met."
"Sadly, she passed away a year after you left," Grandfather Hino replied, his face becoming somber. "It broke her heart to know that you were back with that waste of human flesh."
"I wasn't too happy about leaving either, Mr. Hino," Ranma replied. "I tried to come back, but Oyaji took us far enough away that I couldn't remember how to get here anymore."
"You know Ranma, Grandpa," Rei asked from the sidelines, where she had been listening to their conversation..
"Yes, I do, Rei," Grandfather Hino replied. "Ranma stayed here for a couple of months a long time ago. It was about two years before you came to live with me, Rei. He had been taken to the hospitals with serious injuries, including broken bones and the doctors believed that his father was abusive, so they placed him to live here with Haruka and myself. They felt that he would be safe here."
"I like it here," Ranma interjected, "but they didn't count on how desperate Oyaji was to get me back. I still don't know why."
"Well, Haruka, who was your great-aunt, Rei, was heart-broken when Ranma was taken. She fell ill and died within the year," Grandfather Hino said. "She never had any children of her own, so she became very attached to Ranma. So, how did you come to find your way back here, Ranma?"
"He's Ami-chan's cousin, grandpa," Rei answered.
"You're related to that wonderful young lady," Grandfather Hino asked in surprise. "I wouldn't have imagined that someone that intelligent would be related to Genma Saotome."
"She's not," Ranma replied. "I'm related to her on my Mom's side."
"So what happened to Genma," Grandfather Hino asked as Rei slipped away, leaving Ranma and her grandfather to catch up.
* * *
"Ami-chan," Rei called out as she walked down the hall, causing the blue-haired girl and the brunette to jump apart, both flustered and blushing. Rei looked at them oddly for a moment, then continued, "We need to talk about your cousin."
"Where is he," Ami asked, the slight flush on her cheeks fading.
"He's in talking with grandpa," Rei replied. "Apparently they knew each other years ago."
"That makes sense," Ami replied. "He told me that he'd stayed at a shrine when he was younger, but that he couldn't remember which one it was. What are the odds that it would be your shrine, Rei-chan?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Ami-chan," Rei said, her face serious. "There's something not quite right about Ranma and I'm not just talking about his curse. He seems to bend probability wherever he goes. A case in point is that little rain shower that hit when he was out here. The sky was perfectly clear, so where did the rain come from? And why was he attacked on his first day in Juuban. According to the pattern you found, Ami-chan, they've been going after well-publicized people, not just random people off the street."
"Whoa, slow down, Rei-chan," Makoto interjected. "We have no real reason to think that there's anything wrong with Ranma, okay? Remember, we fight for love and justice, so let's assume they're innocent until proven guilty, alright?"
"Besides, Rei-chan," Ami said, "He wasn't the daimon's target. It was after the art teacher at his school. Ranma just got in the daimon's way and gave the teacher the time he needed to get away. According to him, his crystal was pulled because he was close by. And I think I have an explanation for the rain."
"Really," Rei asked surprised.
"Um hm," Ami replied as she pulled the Mercury computer out of it's subspace pocket. "According to the computer, a Jusenkyo curse contains powerful Chaos magic. Chaos magic acts in unpredictable ways and it reacts badly to other types of magic. The computer said that under no circumstances is anyone with healing magic, like Usagi-chan, supposed to try and remove the curse. It said that the magics tend to react…explosively. I think the magic of the curse also serves to make Ranma a water magnet. It has an intelligence of sorts and it wants him in his cursed form as much as possible. I don't know why, but he's been splashed a great deal over the past day and almost always in unusual ways."
"Ok, I see your point," Rei admitted, "but there's something off about his aura too. It's slippery. I can usually feel things about a person, but my senses just seem to slide off him."
"That's not a good reason to dislike him, Rei-chan," Makoto said. "It might have something to do with his martial arts training. I've heard stories about martial artists who were able to do things like we can in Senshi form. They're supposed to have some kind of tournament once a year, where all the really powerful ones fight each other. I'm not sure how much is fact and how much fiction, but I've heard that some of them have even fought demons before."
"I swear, Mako-chan," Rei said in an exasperated tone, "sometimes you hear the weirdest stories. How could any normal person match the powers we get as Senshi? I just can't see any normal human fighting off a youma, much less a daimon."
"Anything's possible, Mako-chan," Ami said hesitantly, "but I have to agree with Rei-chan. I don't think a normal person could re4ally do much against some of the things we fight."
"I'm not saying they're actually true," Makoto protested, "but I think that there are a lot of things we don't know enough about to judge and that Ranma may be one of them."
"I guess you're right, Mako-chan," Rei conceded. "He seems like a nice enough guy. I just get worried when I meet strange people. We haven't exactly had a very good track record there, have we?"
"I don't know about that, Rei," Ami said mischieviously. "After all, everyone said you were really weird and I think you turned out okay."
"Why you…" Rei said, swatting at Ami with her broom half-heartedly as she and Makoto laughed.
* * *
"So your father passed on and left you with a Jusenkyo curse, did he, Ranma," Grandfather Hino asked, tapping his hand thoughtfully on his chin.
"Yeah, then I cam here to find my mom and Aunt Mieko told me that she died years ago," Ranma replied. "I'm just lucky that she was willing to take me in. I didn't have anywhere else to go."
"What kind of curse did you get, Ranma," Grandfather Hino asked.
"I fell in Spring of Drowned Girl," Ranma replied, his face downcast.
"Interesting," Grandfather Hino said thoughtfully. "I hope you do realize that spring was quite possibly the best one you could have fallen into there?"
"What are you talking about Mr. Hino," Ranma shouted. "I'm a guy. I hate that I turn into a girl whenever I get splashed."
"I didn't say that you should like the curse, Ranma," Grandfather Hino replied calmly. "Just that it may have been a fortuitous happening. Your curse is just that, a curse. But at least you still turn into a human and it doesn't seem to have affected your mind."
"What do you mean," Ranma asked, cooling down.
"Most of the springs at Jusenkyo are animal or monster springs," Grandfather Hino said in a lecturing tone. "There are very few that are human springs and most of those are personality springs. And those are quite possibly the worst. How would you have liked falling into Spring of Drowned Pervert, or Spring of Drowned Murderer. Both of those springs are recorded as still existing, you know."
Ranma shivered as he imagined changing into a perverted mindset every time he got splashed with cold water. He'd probably be stealing women's underwear and groping them given the opportunity.
* * *
Somewhere in Tomobiki, a young man sneezed as he was sneaking up on a cute girl with intent to pounce. Immediately a scene of carnage ensued with a cry of "Darling no baka, da cha!"
Somewhere in the mountains of Japan, a shriveled figure sneezed abruptly and rubbed the pair of panties in his hand as he considered how to escape the cave he'd been trapped in.
* * *
"How do you know so much about Jusenkyo, Mr. Hino," Ranma asked.
"Well, my boy, this shrine was famous for removing curses back in the day and the priests kept careful records," Grandfather Hino replied. "Several victims of Jusenkyo came here for help, so several priests were sent there to investigate the curses. They mapped the valley and tested on small animals to see if the springs could cure the curse, but the curses added together."
"You mean, if I tried to jump in the Spring of Drowned man…" Ranma said, trailing off.
"You would turn into a half-man, half-woman being," Grandfather Hino replied. 'I believe they call them hermaphrodites these days. No Ranma, the only cure for the curse lies within. There was only one or two cases of the curse being cured. Well not cured so much as it was controlled. Some people, martial artists mostly, learned to control the curse so that they only changed shape when they wanted to."
Ranma looked a little green at the idea of turning into a hermaphrodite. Man, if people think I'm a freak now, what would they think of me like that, Ranma asked himself, shivering at the thought. "So how'd they learn to control it," Ranma asked.
"They had to learn how to control their ki," Grandfather Hino replied. "I don't know if you've realized it yet, but the curse has magnified your ki. The larger your cursed form, the more powerful your ki, at least until you match your normal form. There's no record of anyone with one of the larger cursed forms being any stronger than someone with a human form."
"It made my ki stronger," Ranma asked, surprised.
"Yes, I can feel it boiling about you," Grandfather Hino replied. "You have enough crude control not to form an unconscious battle aura, but you'll need to be taught. I'm sad to say that most of the ki masters I've known have passed on. Not many left heirs, but I'll see if I can track down someone for you to learn from."
"That'd be great, Mr. Hino," Ranma replied enthusiastically.
"Now, Ranma," Grandfather Hino started, "Haruka and I were very fond of you when you lived with us, and I'd be proud if you'd honor me by calling me grandpa, like Rei does."
"Sure thing, Grandpa," Ranma replied with a cocky smile on his face. "I really oughta get back to Ami. She's probably wondering what happened to me."
"Very well, Ranma," Grandfather Hino replied with a smile. "I'll let you get going now and I'll let you know if I can find a teacher for you."
"Thanks, Grandpa," Ranma said, shaking Grandfather Hino's hand firmly before bounding down the hallway.
"The fates have not been kind to you, Ranma my boy," Grandfather Hino mused as the boy dashed down the hallway, "and I have a strong feeling that they're not finished with you either."
AN: Wow, two chapters posted in one day. I guess the writing bug bit me hard. I'd like to thank everyone who's read and responded to this story. I'm very happy at how popular this story has become and I wanted to answer a few points. The Ranma characters won't show up for a bit, as I feel I still need to develop Ranma and the Senshi a bit more as characters before they get involved. Also, I feel these are moving a bit slow, but deeper, meaningful conversations always seem that way to me and I'm trying to have more of them than the average fanfic. I'm going to be putting more action in and someone who'll take over teaching Ranma things will be showing up soon. I wonder if anyone can guess who it'll be?