Interesting Times

By socchan

Chapter Nine: The Tale of Greg

Nabiki was smiling when she walked into Carmella's store that afternoon. "Hey, Carmella!" she called, glancing up briefly at the Norse bells as they twinkled with her entrance.

"There you are, Nabiki," Carmella said, dusting off her hands and walking up to her, smiling warmly. "What are you so happy about today? If you'll pardon the expression, you look like the cat that ate the canary. Did you have another date with Kuno?"

Nabiki made a face at her friend. "For your information, I just sent Ranma and my sister on a world-wide training trip, and I am very pleased with how well it went."

Carmella raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised Kasumi agreed to something like that."

Nabiki whapped her lightly on the arm. "Jeez, Carmella, even with such a cute couple as Ranma and Akane, you're never serious."

"There are lots of couples cuter than Ranma and Akane! Take you and Kuno for example." Nabiki glared, and Carmella laughed. "Okay, okay, you win, Ranma and Akane are cuter together. Especially with you glaring at me like that."

Nabiki threw up her arms with a sound of annoyance. "Some days you are just impossible!"

Carmella only laughed at this. Then she turned serious. "Nabiki…" she said, quietly, "Why didn't you tell me you wanted to know more about the Wishes?"

Nabiki was silent for a moment. "I didn't know for certain until Ryonen mentioned it to me, and afterwards, it seemed a little awkward to ask. She sends her regards, by the way."

"Who?"

"Ryonen. Sorry it's a bit late, but it completely slipped my mind. Who was she, anyway? I can tell by now you've had some history with her."

Carmella regarded Nabiki evenly, then sighed and walked to the door, flipping the 'open' sign over. She turned again, and beckoned Nabiki to the back room, where she put on a pot for tea, which was ready shortly. They sat for a moment in the silence, sipping tea, neither one saying anything. "I suppose I owe you an explanation." Carmella said at last. "After all, I've pretty much invaded your whole life, so you deserve a bit of background information." Nabiki didn't say anything, only staring into her cup, as if trying to divine the missing answers from it. Carmella sighed. "Right then. I'll get started.

"About fifteen hundred years ago, a fairly powerful sorcerer named Toryu Shen created a small shop designed to seek out people who needed a touch of magic in their lives. Now what I mean by the shop seeking people out is that no one would be able to find it unless they needed to, and they would always be able to when they did. The people visiting for the first time would be oddly compelled to travel a different route than usual. You can still find it every day because you expect to be able to, and now that I've officially accepted you as my apprentice you can't be locked out. There's a lot more to it than that, but I'm not going to get into it now. You don't know quite enough magic theory yet.

"In any case, throughout the years, Toryu helped many people realize and achieve their potential, and many of them fighting with huge power for the side that you might consider 'good'. As you can imagine, this made a lot of people on other sides rather annoyed, but they could never find the shop to do anything about it. Then, one day, a sorcerer with the tastes of a mercenary found out about the store. His name was—is—Greg, and he dabbled in whatever Arts he felt could help him, particularly Necromancy, the magic of the dead. He was working to create an army so he could take over the planes of existence—or whatever ones he could, anyway. Not only did the store have a lot of powerful items, but it had the reputation of turning out strong fighters that ended up indebted to the store and its owner, to be called on at a moment's notice. Greg approached Toryu with an offer to buy the store, but was turned down. Greg swore that he would be back to claim it some day.

"Things became more dangerous from that point on. Toryu called in a lot of former customers to help re-enforce the spells already in place. One of them who couldn't make it sent Tora to guard the store in her stead. Tora went through seven of his lives doing just that before Toryu divined his own approaching death. So he set the spells on the shop to call an apprentice. For twenty-seven years the call was in place, and Tora lost another life in that time, but at last it was answered with Ryonen. That was roughly a thousand years ago.

"You've heard how Tora lost his ninth life, so I won't repeat the story. Eventually, after training Ryonen to the best of his ability, Toryu passed on. Ryonen was a lot quieter in her business for a few years after his death, but all that changed.

"One day, though she knew not how, Ryonen got another visit from Greg. He made her the same offer he'd made Toryu, and faced the same rejection, with a vengeance. Suddenly it came to Ryonen that every item in that store that became fulfilled with the help of someone else was striking a blow against Greg. She set to work with the spells immediately, and started the shop up again, but she couldn't do everything she needed to without help, so she set up the call spell again and around five hundred years ago, I visited the store on one of its trips to Spain.

"The spells were mostly her doing, and they were an ingenious work, but what it boils down to is this: every time one of the objects that passes through this store is fulfilled, another piece of Greg's army is shut down. Anything connected in Tora had double potency, usually taking out more people, or more important ones, either by nullifying their powers, showing them something that would make them change their minds about who they served, or, when all else failed, sucking the remaining life from them. Ryonen worked like a madwoman, trying to get as much done as she could.

"About seventy years ago she left the store in my charge. She needed a break, too. She set off to see the world outside of the shop, freed of its influences. Twenty years later, I was doing pretty well with the shop, when I got my first little visit from Greg.

"We both know what he was there for. He offered me anything I could ever want if I would just work for him—riches, power, magic, a small piece of the world to call my own, but I turned him down. By then, he had figured out what we were up to, so he tried the same offer and more just to get me to close the store. I still refused. Then, he had the audacity to offer a third time for copies of the spell that made the store work the way it did, but I didn't know them, and neither did Ryonen. We'd both thought Toryu had taken them with him to the grave. I accidentally let that slip, and Greg left with the intent of finding out the spells from the master himself.

"When I realized what he was up to, I panicked. I contacted a medium I had once helped, and together we warned Toryu of the approaching danger. Toryu was as prepared in death as he was in life—or maybe he just thought fast, I don't know, but either way, he had a spell ready within minutes. He relayed it to me through the medium, and I carried it out with the help of one of Tora's eyes, crystallized and spelled to amplify magic. The spell took all of Toryu's knowledge of magical workings, and locked them in a book somewhere. Confident that Greg would never find it, we left Toryu to his afterlife. The medium left, and I passed the news on to Ryonen.

"We didn't anticipate how good Greg's network was, though. One of his spies in the other world passed the information on to him, and he started the search for the book. With news of his new quest, Ryonen turned her wanderings in search of her master's knowledge as well, and I worked every spell I knew to try and find the book, but we all came up with nothing. Toryu kept the book well hidden. He was truly as great a sorcerer in death as he was in life, even if he couldn't carry out the spells himself. Still, Greg did not halt his search, so Ryonen was forced to keep up hers. As a last ditch effort, I tied a spell into the already existing ones connected to the shop and all the items handled through it. Amazingly enough, it worked. Now, every time something here finds and achieves its purpose, we get a hint to where the book is hidden." Carmella finished.

"Lord…" Nabiki said, softly. "Now I really need to fulfill those Wishes…" She stared at Carmella. "I never would have guessed that you were five hundred years old, never in a million years. Well, maybe by then. But still, you've aged beautifully!" Carmella laughed, and allowed the atmosphere in the room to become more cheerful.

=^-,-^=

Well, there it is. Another chapter relating past history, and a relatively short chapter at that. Sorry I didn't introduce the villain until now, but at least you now know how old Carmella is. I sincerely hope I haven't scared all of my reviewers away with my continued requests for harsh as well as gentle. If that is the case, I'm sorry. If not, I can certainly live with what I have (it's better than what some fics get), but I will miss the considerable ego boost receiving several reviews per chapter gave me. Ah, well. Till next time, I suppose.

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is property of Rumiko Takahashi, and therefore, not mine. I make no claim of it, and this piece of fan fiction is written purely for entertainment, not for money. The Cat's Wishes and Cursed Whisker powder are my concepts, and Carmella is my character, so you'd better ask before using them—or at least give me some credit. Thanks much!

--socchan