"Akane, what are we going to do?"
She pulled out a tank top and gave him a puzzled
glance, "Do? About what?"
He played with a crease in her blanket, "You
know, about Lina and everything."
Akane sighed and sat gingerly on the edge of her
bed, making sure to keep a safe distance between
Ranma and herself. "I don't know Ranma. We'll
manage, we always do."
She looked down at his face and he smiled softly
up at her. It was such a sweet, warm smile that she
couldn't help but smile back at him. She stood and
shooed him out the door.
"Go on, Ranma, get out. I have to get ready.
We'll be leaving pretty soon."
He smirked and disappeared, leaving Akane
shaking her head. She closed the door and changed
quickly into some durable traveling clothes. She
was running a brush through her hair when there was
a knock on the door.
"C'mon in, it's open!"
Lina poked her red head in as Akane was putting
the brush down. Her purplish eyes lit on the brush
and she grinned, "Hey, Akane, can I use your
hairbrush?"
Akane nodded and tossed said brush to the other
girl. "Come on in. I'm packing a few things."
Akane continued throwing necessities into her
backpack as Lina sat on the bed and began
contentedly pulling the brush through her long red
hair. "Lina, do you think this will work?"
Lina shrugged, "Well, I think the real question
is whether or not it really matters. This priest
knows things about our world that we didn't even
tell you and the others. He has to be from our
planet. Since he obviously can cast powerful magic,
it is easy to believe that he could know a way
home." Lina smiled and put the brush down, "I know
an awful lot about magic, but I don't know
everything. I can't prove that there is or is not a
way home."
Akane frowned slightly and closed her bag,
setting it by the door. "But what if it's some kind
of trick?"
Lina laughed, "What would he be doing if he
isn't trying to get us back? If he wanted us
killed, he could easily have just attacked us."
Akane nodded, "I suppose so. Well, we're
leaving pretty soon, so we'd better head down
stairs."
Lina nodded and jumped up off of the bed. The
two girls started down the stairs, Lina leading.
She was contemplating the wonders that that Kasumi
girl would be serving at this meal when she sensed
something. Her head jerked up, but it was too late.
Some monstrous growth had suddenly sprung into being
on her chest.
Eep! She began to alternate between screaming
and cursing as she frantically began prying at the
odd little lump. She looked angrily up to see Ranma
running toward her, sheer fury on his face as he
grasped the thing.
He pulled it off and up to his face, glaring at
it. "Happosai, will you ever stop?"
Lina blinked and realized that it was a tiny old
man, and he seemed highly disappointed. "Don't
worry, my boy, that little girl isn't even worth the
effort."
There were twin streams of smoke erupting from
her ears as her eyes began to glow red. In a quiet
and extremely violent voice she asked, "What did you
say!"
The miniature pervert rolled his eyes over to
frown at her, "Why, your chest is so small I could
barely find purchase!"
"Grr! That's it! Darkness beyond twilight—"
A hand covered her mouth and she bit it, turning
to glare at the odd little priest floating beside
her on the stairway. "Now, now, we don't want you
wasting your magical reserves do we? If you're
going to help cast the gating spell to get us all
home, you're going to have to quit throwing Dragon
Slaves around."
She glared coldly at him, "Fine, then I won't
use a spell on the little fiend." She turned her
glare back to Happosai and a very confused Ranma.
With a maniacal smirk, she drew her sword and
lunged. Happosai took advantage of Ranma's
confusion to pull free and took off down the
hallway. Lina took off after him, swinging her
sword at his hopping figure.
Happosai glared at the party leaving the Tendo
property from beneath the ropes, gags, and chains
they'd used to keep him here. He'd get his revenge,
er, respect he deserved from those youths! Now, all
he had to do was get free . . .
"Do you need a little help?"
Happy jerked his head up and instantly began to
drool at the blonde girl standing over him, playing
with the incredibly long braid. She giggled at his
dazed expression.
"I want to make a deal with you, Happosai. The
girl that's got you so angered, Lina Inverse, is
making my already tedious job nearly impossible! I
need to get her out of the way. I'm sure you can
help me manage this."
His lustful daze was replaced with a mercenary
gleam, "How can I help you, pretty lady?"
She smiled and held a hand out, palm up, and a
tattered scroll appeared in it. "There is a very
angry demon that has some unfinished business with
Miss Inverse, and I would like for you to arrange
for the two of them to meet up again."
"And what will I gain from this?"
She smiled sweetly down at him, "Why, if I
happen to arrange it so that you are the one that
strikes the killing blow, would you not gain quite a
bit of the respect you so desire?"
He chuckled for a moment, "That is promising . .
."
Zelgadis was his usual quiet self on the train
ride to the airport. Did he really want to return?
He cast a sideways glance to the eldest Tendo girl.
Not only were there very nice people here, but he
had found his cure. He wasn't sure whether or not
his old body would return when he went home.
He looked down at his soft pink skin and smiled.
He was normal again. He'd combed his hair that
morning. He'd cut himself getting Lina's sword out
of her hand to keep her from killing that strange
little man an hour ago. He sighed in content and
leaned back. He was cursed at home, but it was his
home.
"Would you like a sandwich, mister Zelgadis?"
He looked up at the smiling Kasumi and smiled warmly
at her. She had insisted on coming along to see
their guests off; deeply saddened that she would
never see their new friends again, she wanted to
make sure their last minutes on this planet were
spent in well-fed comfort.
"Yes, please."
He ate the sandwich with a light heart, as he
did everything now. He'd come to his conclusion.
"Ranma, tell me about this Jusenkyo. We don't
want to go there and have all the men turning into
women when they get splashed."
Ranma chuckled, "It's not that simple, Zel.
There are different pools, and each has a different
curse. Pop turns into a panda, Mousse is a duck
half of the time, Ry—well, there are different
curses."
A thought suddenly came to Zelgadis and he
looked thoughtfully at the young man. "Ranma, is
there a pool with a curse that turns you into a
man?"
Ranma blinked. "Hey, probably but I'm not
sure."
Zelgadis shot a grin toward Lina, who bit her
lip thoughtfully. "Hey, Zel, if you took some of
that water with you when we went home, we wouldn't
have to worry about whether or not you'll still be a
normal human being when we get there."
Zelgadis leaned back in his seat thoughtfully,
the sandwich forgotten.
The green world that Destiny so favored was
getting perilously close to the combined worlds of
Lina and Ranma. She snarled and not-so-subtly
plucked the green world from the red pulsing grasp
of the other two.
"Are we having a bad day, sister dear?"
Destiny finished her work before turning her
head to glare at Fate. "What do you want?"
She played with the lock of red hair and smiled,
"I know what you're playing at with that Happosai
creature. It actually plays into my plans rather
well."
Giving into their infinity-long competitive
natures, Destiny frowned at the thought of helping
her sister. "How exactly does summoning that evil
being help you?"
With a confident smirk Fate muttered, "Didn't I
tell you that I had business here in the next couple
of days? I'm not leaving this up to either of my
hands. The time has come for a certain Changeling
to leave the Web."
Ranma grumbled from his seat beside Kuno in the
first class section of the commercial airplane on
its way to China. Akane was steaming from both ears
and growling deep in her throat from her seat beside
Kuno. Tatewaki was spouting the wonders of both
'girls' and promising to protect their lives and
honor on this noble quest etc., etc.
Sitting behind the reluctant love triangle,
Xellos was sipping another cup of tea as he
discussed the specifics of the gating spell with Zel
and Lina. They'd decided it would be a little too
obvious that something was up if Ranma turned female
while Lina was standing right there, so they'd dyed
her black and made Ranma pose as the 'pigtailed
girl' once more.
Lina was amazed at the simplistic barbarism of
the spell they were about to cast. Even if they
were fully charged up with personal mana, they would
need to draw mana from the surrounding area as well
due to the massive amounts of energy required for
the spell.
Zel frowned slightly. "Isn't that a little
dangerous?"
Xellos chuckled, "Oh my, no of course not!
You'll be awfully tired when we arrive home, but
we'll be perfectly safe."
Lina's expression was skeptical, but she pointed
to one of the drawings piled on the fold-down
airliner tray. "Alright, but there are five points
on this star. Maybe I'm crazy, but Zel, You,
Gourry, and yours truly only add up four. Who's the
fifth point going to be?"
Xellos chuckled and half stood, wrapping an arm
around the pigtailed martial artist (currently a
female, but sometimes a male) sitting in the seat in
front of him. If Kuno hadn't been staring into
Akane's eyes in pure rapture at the moment, surely a
fight would have ensued. "Why, the only other
member of the group with any form of magic
permanently surrounding him. Or, should I say her?"
Ranma removed the arm with a glare, "I'm a guy!
How can I help with a spell if I don't know a thing
about magic?"
Lina smiled encouragingly and handed the flight
attendant her stack of empty plates. "Aw, don't
worry Ranma. We'll be the ones actually casting the
spell. You just have to loan us some of the magical
energies that your curse gives off."
Ranma shrugged, "If you say so, but don't
complain if I mess it up."
Xellos brought out yet another drawing, this one
complete with little cartoon characters that vaguely
resembled the five people directly involved in the
spell. "Now, you Zelgadis will begin by wrapping
everyone actually going through the gate in
Shamanistic magic that will identify us all to our
home plane. Then . . ."
Happosai poked his head out of a bursting
suitcase, frowning his indignation. "Aren't there
any pretty ladies on this plane? I've only found
men's luggage! No matter, soon I'll have the proper
respect that I deserve from Ranma, Akane, Ukyo, and
all the other girls!"
He chuckled evilly and patted the scroll safely
tucked into his pocket. He'd begin the summoning as
soon as they got close enough to Jusenkyo.
Apparently, that was the proper place to cast magic
spells. He continued to chuckle and made his way
through the dark luggage compartment to the next
suitcase.
Ranma, still female unfortunately, jumped into
the plane's aisle as soon as he could. Akane was
fidgeting and her eye was twitching as Kuno detailed
once more why her fiery spirit so attracted him.
She swayed through the other passengers and made her
way to the smiling flight attendants that were
helping everyone off of the plane. Their smiles
became much more forced as Akane ran up to them.
"Thanks!" she shot at them, shooting herself
down the passageway to the lobby. She settled into
one of the plastic chairs with a sigh of relief,
waiting for the rest of the group. She heard
another exhale beside her and looked up in surprise
to see Ranma sitting next to her.
"We're free at last!" He smiled and slouched
down into the chair. Akane blinked at him for a
moment before smiling up at him.
"I know, isn't it wonderful? It's a pity he
won't be gone for long, but these precious moments
away from him are well worth it."
They had nearly three whole minutes before the
faces coming off of the plane belonged to their
friends. The group reformed and left the airport,
heading off into the wild toward Jusenkyo.
Ukyo was not happy. There was Kuno hanging off
of Ranma, and she couldn't run up and beat him until
they were all safely back in Japan. She had been
sitting beside Nabiki and Kasumi on the plane,
behind Lina and the other two magic users. She
hadn't even spoken to Ranma since the plane took
off, and he'd taken off with Akane as soon as the
passengers were permitted off of the plane.
She didn't blame them. If she'd had Kuno
hanging all over her, she'd want a few minutes away
if she could get them, too. With a sigh she stepped
out into the aisle, directly in front of Kuno as he
attempted to get to his two loves. She'd seen Lina
and Zel do the same thing, and they all smiled at
each other as their small conspiracy managed to
frustrate the boy.
"Confound you peons! Move thyselves from my
path so that I might return to my loves' sides!"
He thrust his bokken into the air and Ukyo
wondered how he'd managed to get it past security as
she smiled sweetly up at him, "Oh, I'm sorry Sugar,
did I step out in front of you? If you'll just hold
on a sec, I'll be out of your way in a moment."
After shooting him another smile (Which he was
too busy fuming to really notice.) she carefully
placed herself in the exact center of the aisle as
she bent to retrieve her bag from 'beneath the seat
in front of her' as slowly as she could without
being overly obvious.
She stood and turned to apologize again, but he
grabbed her shoulders and lightly pushed her just
enough off of her balance that she had to take a
step or fall. Standing between the seats once more,
she smirked as Kuno was delayed once more, this time
by a smirking Nabiki.
They'd traveled all day, and had finally stopped
just in time for Kasumi to start dinner while
everyone else set up camp. Ranma was holding a tent
pole as his father drove the stake into the ground.
Lina and Xellos were standing at the edge of camp,
staring intently off in the general direction of
Jusenkyo.
Zelgadis carried a load of firewood over to the
fire, smiling faintly at Kasumi as he stacked it
neatly beside her. She smiled at him and stirred
the pot.
"Oh! Thank you Mr. Zelgadis!"
He looked up at her as he placed the last piece
on top of the small pile. He opened his mouth to
speak, but instead hissed in pain. He brought his
hand up to his stunned face, staring intently at a
finger.
"Oh, what's wrong Mr. Zelgadis?"
"Uh, I think I got a splinter."
She bent her worried but smiling face (a feat
only Kasumi Tendo could manage) over his finger.
"Why, it appears you do indeed have a splinter.
Hold still, Mr. Zelgadis, and I'll get it out. See,
all better."
He smiled at her from across the wood pile.
"Thank you, Miss Kasumi."
"Oh, you're welcome." She released his hand and
turned back to stir the stew. Everyone but
Kasumi noticed that Zel did not rise from his seat
by the fire, nor did he move his hand from the
woodpile. He stayed like that for nearly an hour as
the rest of the group hid their smiles and gathered
around the fire as well, each taking a tin cup
filled with the hearty stew. There were great
cheers at Kasumi's prowess with simple camp fare and
her ability to transform it.
She was smiling and blushing slightly when a
voice called out to her. "May I have a bit of stew
as well? I've had the most horrid day!"
They all turned as one as Fate strolled calmly
into the camp and sat on a log next to Ranma. She
smilingly accepted the stew from Kasumi and blew
softly on it for a moment before taking a sip.
"Ah, yes, this is excellent stew. Thank you
very much Kasumi."
They watched her silently as she consumed the
dinner with the same gusto that everyone else had
used. She handed the cup back to Kasumi, who stood
and headed off to the stream to clean the dishes.
Ranma edged slightly away from her, "Uh, can we
help you?"
She smiled and shrugged, "Oh, I'm just checking
in on you guys. I thought I should warn you that my
dear sister is getting quite restless. As soon as
she straightens out the mess her Hands made of the
Web, she'll be dropping in to check on you guys as
well. Of course, you'll have a harder time trying
to survive her visit."
She stretched and stood. "What are you guys
doing in China?"
Lina glared coldly at the girl, "We're going to
the place with the most magic so that we can cast a
spell to take us home."
Fate nodded slowly, thinking this through.
"That's good. Of course, you realize that there
will be two Changelings on that planet then?"
Fate actually flinched a tiny bit as Xellos
appeared floating behind her shoulder, cross-legged
and sipping tea. "Oh my, I'm not that foolish! The
spell will also remove all traces of her special
birth."
Fate was fairly beaming now. "Oh that's
wonderful! Well, I have business elsewhere, but
I'll try and drop in to keep my sister out of your
business."
Nabiki's dry, "Gee, thanks . . ." was lost as
the girl disappeared in a flash of light.
Happosai had passed the rest of the group up
after they stopped to make camp. He continued on
tirelessly until he found the small cave he'd been
sent to. It overlooked Jusenkyo as it stood in the
light of a full moon. He grinned and made his way
deep into the cave. He sat down and meditated for
several very long minutes before breaking the wax
seal on the scroll.
Down in the valley of cursed springs, a certain
guide looked out his window in surprise at a bright
flash of light coming from one of several caves in
the area. It died to a soft glow, but did not
further diminish. He was more than a little
worried, but did not wish to leave the security of
his hut.
Finally, after several hours of staring in fear
at the glow from the cave's entrance, he ran in fear
to the only place he could think of: The Amazon
village.
The travelers broke camp and were on their way
up the trail before the sun was fully over the
horizon. After several hours of fighting yawns and
trudging on in determination, they came to the sight
that they all feared. The late morning sun was
surprisingly cheerful for a place that held so many
dark feelings and actions.
They kept plenty of space between themselves and
the nearest pools as Ranma walked up to the guide's
hut and knocked. He waited for several moments
before trying again. He turned and shrugged at the
group.
"I guess he's not home."
Zel frowned, "Then how am I supposed to get
water from the spring of drowned man?"
Xellos chuckled and pulled out a piece of chalk.
He began chanting and drawing a pentagram on the
ground between the hut and the pools. Everyone else
gathered silently and watched the star form. As
each point of the star was completed and flashed
brightly thanks to Xellos's chants and murmurs, one
of the five directly involved in the spell was to
take their place on the line of glowing chalk.
The first corner formed, and Lina positioned
Gourry carefully onto it. He stepped warily onto
the glowing line, flinching as he began to glow as
well.
Happosai grinned as he finished the instructions
written on the scroll. It had taken most of last
night as well as the entire morning. He backed out
to the entrance to the cave as it filled with both
blinding light and obscuring mists. His eyes
widened in fear, however, as the dark evil continued
to grow to a much higher level than he had expected.
"Uh oh . . ."
He felt more than heard a dark chuckle just
before he felt something insinuating itself into
him.
Then, Happosai was gone.
Xellos continued to chant and draw, finishing
the second point of the star. Zelgadis stepped into
his spot without any obvious signs of hesitation.
He began to glow as Gourry had, but did not seem to
notice. He immediately began to chant the words
that Xellos had been helping him with. Just as
Xellos was finishing the third point of the star,
Zel pointed at Gourry, who began to pulse instead of
glowing steadily. The third point began to glow,
and Lina began to step onto it.
Just before her foot fell onto the glowing chalk
dust, there was a rumble of thunder and the sky grew
instantly dark. Lina felt a wave of familiarity and
looked up in surprise, freezing when she saw the
familiar form of Happosai rolling toward Jusenkyo,
and the transluscent image of something even more
familiar taking shape above the head of the tiny
martial artist.
"Shabranigdo . . ."
Ranma ran up to her, and Zel glanced up at her
from his muttering. "No!" she screamed, "Keep
casting the spells. There's no going back!"
She took a step back from the pentagram as
Xellos redoubled his efforts. Ranma rested a hand
on her shoulder. He studied the glowing white eyes
of Happosai as the man walked slowly toward them,
chuckling evily. Ranma's eyes, however, were drawn
to the dark from taking shape above the tiny
pervert.
"Lina, what is that . . . monster?"
Her face was pale and she was drawing back from
him. "That, Ranma, appears to be Shabranigdo."
"Close, but actually it's a fragment of him.
You defeated one fragment of him, using the giga
slave if I'm not mistaken."
Ranma and Lina glanced at Fate as she stepped up
beside them, Destiny appearing on their other side.
"Oh, yes, just a fragment."
Lina glared at Destiny. "Just a fragment, she
says! The first fragment nearly killed us! What
kind of idiot would summon Shabranigdo?"
Fate frowned in thought for a moment before
pointing to the miniscule martial artist, "I believe
you know him. I think his name is Happosai."
Ranma snarled, "Leave it to the old pervert to
cause trouble."
"Son-in-law, you shouldn't have left without
us."
Ranma rolled his eyes as Cologne appeared with
Mousse and Shampoo, as well as what appeared to be
half of their village.
"What do you want, Old Ghoul?"
"We came to stop you fools from coming here, but
apparently there are other matters of greater
importance."
All eyes were on the menacing force rolling
toward them. It would be here in a few minutes.
"What do we do, Lina? You've fought this
before."
Her eyes were very cold, "We throw everything we
can at it. I have to warn you though, it probably
won't be enough. I'll have to use the giga slave."
Akane had walked silently up behind them.
Placing a hand on the other girl's shoulder she
said, "But if you cast such a large spell, who will
cast your part of the gating spell?"
Lina dropped her eyes. "Nobody else can do it.
I have the power, but there isn't enough left to
cast the giga slave as well. The most I could
manage would be one small dragon slave."
They all turned once more as the thing
approached. "Lina, only cast that spell as a last
resort. We'll give that monster a good fight."
Ranma turned to Cologne, who nodded in agreement.
"Yes, son-in-law, I'm sure we can manage." She
began ordering her amazons into positions. Most of
them she simply sent back to the village, and they
went reluctantly. The ones remaining were obviously
the older and stronger ones.
Ranma turned to Akane, "You need to get your
family out of here." She started to argue, and he
held up a stern hand. "No, listen to me Akane!
Close combat isn't going to be very effective and
you have to get your sisters out of here!"
She turned and saw the worried expression of her
father as he held an arm over each of his elder
daughter's shoulders. "What about Dad?"
"Akane, you know as well as I do that he won't
be as good protection as you would be."
She turned and looked at him in surprise at the
unexpected compliment. With a determined nod she
ran off and grabbed Kasumi and her father's hands.
Seeing them heading to safety, Ranma turned back
around to face the oncoming evil. Lina was standing
next to him, studying the piece of paper that Xellos
had written the spell she was to perform on.
She looked up with a determined glint in her
eyes. She casually tossed the paper to the side and
started walking to a spot between the diagram and
the martial artists. Ranma caught the paper,
thinking it might be needed later, and tucked it
into his waistband before walking over to Cologne.
Zelgadis was continuing with his spell. He'd
finished putting the magical identification tag on
Gourry, and was working on Lina. It would take a
little more work and concentration since she was
moving, but he was nearly done. He could only spare
a very small amount of concentration on his dilemma.
Was he going to go home and risk continuing to
live with his curse, or stay here and lose his best
friends?
He looked up with renewed focus at the thought
of all they'd done for him. With magic much more
readily available on his home world, surely he could
find a cure there. He couldn't leave Lina and
Gourry alone after all they'd been through together.
He felt a momentary twinge of guilt at the thought
of a certain Tendo girl, but shoved it aside to
concentrate on the spell.
He smirked as he completed the tag on Lina. She
looked up at him, her body pulsing softly in a warm
glow. When she saw that he was not glowing, she
gave him a worried expression. He smiled back
reassuringly and began the tag for himself.
All of those who would be fighting this
Shabranigdo thing were squaring off between him and
the gradually forming pentagram. He would be here
soon. Cologne stood a little in front of the group.
She held up a hand and the martial artists tensed.
She dropped the arm and everyone gathered their
energy.
Nearly two dozen powerful ki blasts hit the
approaching monster at once. It snarled and opened
its gaping, toothy mouth in a frightening screech.
Ranma didn't have room to spiral around the thing,
so he was using the Mouko Takabishi. He noted
proudly that his blasts were larger than all but
Cologne's and seemed to be doing the most damage.
Cologne called a temporary halt so that the
gasping amazons and Ranma could rest. Ranma was
glaring intently at the beast, who had slowed his
approach noticeably.
"Ranma, this isn't going to work."
He shot an emotionless glance at the petite
sorceress. He almost agreed, then remembered what
powered his ki blast. He thought of all the things
he'd accomplished, all of the times he'd saved Akane
and the girls. What was one little demon? It
wasn't even an entire demon, just a fragment of one.
Grinning, he said, "Give me a break. One little
demon isn't going to stop Ranma Soatome." He saw
Cologne raising her hand once more, so he shot Lina
one last, quick smile before preparing his energy.
With this fresh renewal of his confidence, his blast
was very easily on par with Cologne's this time.
This only helped him raise his confidence level.
Shabranigdo paused for several seconds,
snarling. Happosai, his glowing eyes blank, seemed
to reel with pain before standing once more and
taking another halting step toward the group. Ranma
just smirked and waited for the next signal from
Cologne. They continued for several more blasts
before several amazons fell to their knees in
exhaustion.
Cologne spared them a glance. Ranma did not.
"Girls, if you are too weak to continue, remove
yourselves. Return to the village. You'll be more
useful there." One of the girls made it back to her
feet. Four others stumbled into the trees to their
home.
Cologne raised her hand and they all tensed.
Akane caught up with a lagging amazon and
quickly told her father and sisters to follow the
fleeing women. They nodded mutely in shock and
shakily followed the overgrown trail. Turning her
feet in the direction of the flashing lights and
explosions of ki, Akane redoubled her speed.
Now, Ranma was fighting for his life instead of
hers. No, strike that, he was fighting for
everyone's lives. This demon was bad news, and
Akane couldn't bear for him to face it alone. The
fact that he was surrounded by several other martial
artists of a higher caliber than she did not yet hit
her.
As she got closer and closer to Jusenkyo, she
passed several faltering young amzon warriors that
were barely strong enough to walk. Now even more
worried, Akane pulled up extra reserves and shot
off. It took her all of three minutes to realize
that she'd left the overgrown trail and was lost in
the woods.
With a frustrated snarl, she set off
determinedly in what she thought to be the right
direction.
Several minutes later, they were down to three
amazons still standing, plus Ranma and Cologne. For
the first time in quite awhile, Ranma was wishing
for Ryoga. He saw Lina shoot him a glance and step
onto her point of the star. Xellos was finishing up
the fourth point. Lina had told him that he would
still be able to cast his 'spells' from his part of
the pentagram, but that he wouldn't be able to do
anything hand to hand.
He didn't need to step onto the diagram until
just before the second spell was finished. He had
about five minutes from what Lina had told him. He
could do anything except leave the boundaries of his
point of the star.
He saw Xellos glow softly and step onto his
point of the star. Then the odd priest turned to
the fifth point (where Ranma would be standing soon)
and begin to chant once more. Zelgadis seemed to be
finished wrapping the travelers in magic, for he was
now staring at the approaching demon.
Lina was staring extremely intently at Xellos,
waiting for her cue to begin the final spell. The
last spell was the one that would actually transport
them all to their world, as well as strip Ranma and
Lina of their powers as Changelings. Hers was the
hardest of the three spells, and required extreme
amounts of power and skill. Ranma tensed and
prepared to loose another blast. He paused as the
demon's hand began to glow.
Ranma's blood turned to ice and he grabbed the
amazon directly to his right. "Duck, it's
attacking!"
A blast of black nothingness sped toward them,
singing the leg of one amazon. Everyone else
escaped unmarked, however, and took their places to
resume their attacks. They let their attacks speed
toward the demon, who was actually showing very
obvious signs of pain and injuries.
"Arg, I can't stand it anymore!" All eyes flew
to Lina in her space on the diagram. She closed her
eyes and drew her hands together before herself.
Ranma didn't quite here the words she was mumbling,
but he had an idea.
"Everyone, get ready! When she screams out her
attack, we do too!"
Everyone nodded in determination and gathered
their ki once more. Lina's eyes shot open and she
screamed in the still air of the battle zone.
"Dragon Slave!"
The blast seemed extremely impressive to anyone
from earth, but Lina's friends from her home world
knew that Lina had held back as much as she could to
save much-needed energy for the spell to come. As
her attack left her fingertips, the martial artists
yelled out their attacks as well. The blasts
striking the demon at once seemed to work.
Through the cloud of smoke and debris, they saw
Shabranigdo scream in pain and begin to shrink.
Ranma smirked and jumped onto his place in the
pentagram. He looked across the star and smiled at
his new friends.
"Good luck, guys."
They smiled back at him and Xellos turned to
Lina. He smiled at her and nodded for her to begin
her spell. She began muttering nonsense about
gateways and paths of light through lives of
darkness or something. Ranma closed his eyes,
hoping that now his life would return to what could
be considered normal in Nerima.
"Look out!"
He wasn't sure who yelled the warning, but Ranma
turned to glance over his shoulder to see Happosai
glowing with a sickly black aura. Then he saw
movement from the corner of his eye and Akane
stepped into view. He cursed. What was she doing
back here?
Happosai/Shabranigdo chuckled and pounced toward
Ranma. At a distinct disadvantage since he could
only move within four or five square feet, Ranma
dodged the first couple of punches before he could
launch his own attacks. A funny thought struck him.
Happy wasn't using anything close to his usual
amount of skill.
Ranma wasn't fighting Happy; he was fighting
Shabranigdo. With a smirk, Ranma began steering
Happosai into a tight circle. It wasn't the best for defense, and he immediately took a nasty scratch to his forehead. A moment later and he took a deep cut to his torso. Ranma frowned at that, since it felt like he'd been clawed. Happosai didn't have claws, did he? After several
rotations, Ranma screamed out, much to the surprise
of many.
"Hiro Shoten Ha!"
Shabranigdo went flying in the tornado that
Ranma was surprised he had managed to create. He
fell to his knees as everyone present stared at the
inky aura fading away from the lifeless body of
Happosai.
The voices of the spell casters came to him and
he smiled softly as an odd, intangible weight seemed
to shift from his shoulders. So, he was no longer a
Changeling. The two figures of Fate and Destiny
exchanged glances and frowns before blinking out of
existence. He closed his eyes, reveling in the fact
that he was one step closer to being back to the
normal Ranma Soatome.
He opened his eyes and turned to smile at Akane
as she studied him from across the clearing, her
expression worried as she bit her lip. She studied
him for a moment before grinning foolishly and
rushing toward him, arms outstretched to him. He
held his arms out as well and took a step toward her
as well. As he and Akane neared each other, he
could only thank the kami that things had worked out
so well.
He heard the voices of Lina, Xellos, and
Zelgadis raising as they neared the completion of
the spell. Akane was nearly twenty feet away before
she slowed to give the spell time to finish. Ranma
could take one more step and still be within the
chalky lines of the pentagram.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light between
Ranma and his fiancée. Lina snapped around, horror
on her face.
"Ranma, Akane, get away from it!" It was too
late, however, and Ranma felt a powerful tugging at
his clothes and skin. The odd swirling portal of
blue light had appeared no more than two or three
inches in front of him. Akane was much further
away, and should be safe. He was thankful for that
small mercy as his foot slipped into the blue
vortex.
He looked up at Akane through the translucent
portal, seeing Cologne holding her back as Lina and
Zel turned their spellcasting toward him. Ranma
smiled his thanks to the Amazon matriarch as his
lower body was enveloped by the portal. He closed
his eyes and braced himself as his head slipped
through an oddly icy layer of . . . something.
The End
Web of Worlds,
Part 1
She pulled out a tank top and gave him a puzzled
glance, "Do? About what?"
He played with a crease in her blanket, "You
know, about Lina and everything."
Akane sighed and sat gingerly on the edge of her
bed, making sure to keep a safe distance between
Ranma and herself. "I don't know Ranma. We'll
manage, we always do."
She looked down at his face and he smiled softly
up at her. It was such a sweet, warm smile that she
couldn't help but smile back at him. She stood and
shooed him out the door.
"Go on, Ranma, get out. I have to get ready.
We'll be leaving pretty soon."
He smirked and disappeared, leaving Akane
shaking her head. She closed the door and changed
quickly into some durable traveling clothes. She
was running a brush through her hair when there was
a knock on the door.
"C'mon in, it's open!"
Lina poked her red head in as Akane was putting
the brush down. Her purplish eyes lit on the brush
and she grinned, "Hey, Akane, can I use your
hairbrush?"
Akane nodded and tossed said brush to the other
girl. "Come on in. I'm packing a few things."
Akane continued throwing necessities into her
backpack as Lina sat on the bed and began
contentedly pulling the brush through her long red
hair. "Lina, do you think this will work?"
Lina shrugged, "Well, I think the real question
is whether or not it really matters. This priest
knows things about our world that we didn't even
tell you and the others. He has to be from our
planet. Since he obviously can cast powerful magic,
it is easy to believe that he could know a way
home." Lina smiled and put the brush down, "I know
an awful lot about magic, but I don't know
everything. I can't prove that there is or is not a
way home."
Akane frowned slightly and closed her bag,
setting it by the door. "But what if it's some kind
of trick?"
Lina laughed, "What would he be doing if he
isn't trying to get us back? If he wanted us
killed, he could easily have just attacked us."
Akane nodded, "I suppose so. Well, we're
leaving pretty soon, so we'd better head down
stairs."
Lina nodded and jumped up off of the bed. The
two girls started down the stairs, Lina leading.
She was contemplating the wonders that that Kasumi
girl would be serving at this meal when she sensed
something. Her head jerked up, but it was too late.
Some monstrous growth had suddenly sprung into being
on her chest.
Eep! She began to alternate between screaming
and cursing as she frantically began prying at the
odd little lump. She looked angrily up to see Ranma
running toward her, sheer fury on his face as he
grasped the thing.
He pulled it off and up to his face, glaring at
it. "Happosai, will you ever stop?"
Lina blinked and realized that it was a tiny old
man, and he seemed highly disappointed. "Don't
worry, my boy, that little girl isn't even worth the
effort."
There were twin streams of smoke erupting from
her ears as her eyes began to glow red. In a quiet
and extremely violent voice she asked, "What did you
say!"
The miniature pervert rolled his eyes over to
frown at her, "Why, your chest is so small I could
barely find purchase!"
"Grr! That's it! Darkness beyond twilight—"
A hand covered her mouth and she bit it, turning
to glare at the odd little priest floating beside
her on the stairway. "Now, now, we don't want you
wasting your magical reserves do we? If you're
going to help cast the gating spell to get us all
home, you're going to have to quit throwing Dragon
Slaves around."
She glared coldly at him, "Fine, then I won't
use a spell on the little fiend." She turned her
glare back to Happosai and a very confused Ranma.
With a maniacal smirk, she drew her sword and
lunged. Happosai took advantage of Ranma's
confusion to pull free and took off down the
hallway. Lina took off after him, swinging her
sword at his hopping figure.
Happosai glared at the party leaving the Tendo
property from beneath the ropes, gags, and chains
they'd used to keep him here. He'd get his revenge,
er, respect he deserved from those youths! Now, all
he had to do was get free . . .
"Do you need a little help?"
Happy jerked his head up and instantly began to
drool at the blonde girl standing over him, playing
with the incredibly long braid. She giggled at his
dazed expression.
"I want to make a deal with you, Happosai. The
girl that's got you so angered, Lina Inverse, is
making my already tedious job nearly impossible! I
need to get her out of the way. I'm sure you can
help me manage this."
His lustful daze was replaced with a mercenary
gleam, "How can I help you, pretty lady?"
She smiled and held a hand out, palm up, and a
tattered scroll appeared in it. "There is a very
angry demon that has some unfinished business with
Miss Inverse, and I would like for you to arrange
for the two of them to meet up again."
"And what will I gain from this?"
She smiled sweetly down at him, "Why, if I
happen to arrange it so that you are the one that
strikes the killing blow, would you not gain quite a
bit of the respect you so desire?"
He chuckled for a moment, "That is promising . .
."
Zelgadis was his usual quiet self on the train
ride to the airport. Did he really want to return?
He cast a sideways glance to the eldest Tendo girl.
Not only were there very nice people here, but he
had found his cure. He wasn't sure whether or not
his old body would return when he went home.
He looked down at his soft pink skin and smiled.
He was normal again. He'd combed his hair that
morning. He'd cut himself getting Lina's sword out
of her hand to keep her from killing that strange
little man an hour ago. He sighed in content and
leaned back. He was cursed at home, but it was his
home.
"Would you like a sandwich, mister Zelgadis?"
He looked up at the smiling Kasumi and smiled warmly
at her. She had insisted on coming along to see
their guests off; deeply saddened that she would
never see their new friends again, she wanted to
make sure their last minutes on this planet were
spent in well-fed comfort.
"Yes, please."
He ate the sandwich with a light heart, as he
did everything now. He'd come to his conclusion.
"Ranma, tell me about this Jusenkyo. We don't
want to go there and have all the men turning into
women when they get splashed."
Ranma chuckled, "It's not that simple, Zel.
There are different pools, and each has a different
curse. Pop turns into a panda, Mousse is a duck
half of the time, Ry—well, there are different
curses."
A thought suddenly came to Zelgadis and he
looked thoughtfully at the young man. "Ranma, is
there a pool with a curse that turns you into a
man?"
Ranma blinked. "Hey, probably but I'm not
sure."
Zelgadis shot a grin toward Lina, who bit her
lip thoughtfully. "Hey, Zel, if you took some of
that water with you when we went home, we wouldn't
have to worry about whether or not you'll still be a
normal human being when we get there."
Zelgadis leaned back in his seat thoughtfully,
the sandwich forgotten.
The green world that Destiny so favored was
getting perilously close to the combined worlds of
Lina and Ranma. She snarled and not-so-subtly
plucked the green world from the red pulsing grasp
of the other two.
"Are we having a bad day, sister dear?"
Destiny finished her work before turning her
head to glare at Fate. "What do you want?"
She played with the lock of red hair and smiled,
"I know what you're playing at with that Happosai
creature. It actually plays into my plans rather
well."
Giving into their infinity-long competitive
natures, Destiny frowned at the thought of helping
her sister. "How exactly does summoning that evil
being help you?"
With a confident smirk Fate muttered, "Didn't I
tell you that I had business here in the next couple
of days? I'm not leaving this up to either of my
hands. The time has come for a certain Changeling
to leave the Web."
Ranma grumbled from his seat beside Kuno in the
first class section of the commercial airplane on
its way to China. Akane was steaming from both ears
and growling deep in her throat from her seat beside
Kuno. Tatewaki was spouting the wonders of both
'girls' and promising to protect their lives and
honor on this noble quest etc., etc.
Sitting behind the reluctant love triangle,
Xellos was sipping another cup of tea as he
discussed the specifics of the gating spell with Zel
and Lina. They'd decided it would be a little too
obvious that something was up if Ranma turned female
while Lina was standing right there, so they'd dyed
her black and made Ranma pose as the 'pigtailed
girl' once more.
Lina was amazed at the simplistic barbarism of
the spell they were about to cast. Even if they
were fully charged up with personal mana, they would
need to draw mana from the surrounding area as well
due to the massive amounts of energy required for
the spell.
Zel frowned slightly. "Isn't that a little
dangerous?"
Xellos chuckled, "Oh my, no of course not!
You'll be awfully tired when we arrive home, but
we'll be perfectly safe."
Lina's expression was skeptical, but she pointed
to one of the drawings piled on the fold-down
airliner tray. "Alright, but there are five points
on this star. Maybe I'm crazy, but Zel, You,
Gourry, and yours truly only add up four. Who's the
fifth point going to be?"
Xellos chuckled and half stood, wrapping an arm
around the pigtailed martial artist (currently a
female, but sometimes a male) sitting in the seat in
front of him. If Kuno hadn't been staring into
Akane's eyes in pure rapture at the moment, surely a
fight would have ensued. "Why, the only other
member of the group with any form of magic
permanently surrounding him. Or, should I say her?"
Ranma removed the arm with a glare, "I'm a guy!
How can I help with a spell if I don't know a thing
about magic?"
Lina smiled encouragingly and handed the flight
attendant her stack of empty plates. "Aw, don't
worry Ranma. We'll be the ones actually casting the
spell. You just have to loan us some of the magical
energies that your curse gives off."
Ranma shrugged, "If you say so, but don't
complain if I mess it up."
Xellos brought out yet another drawing, this one
complete with little cartoon characters that vaguely
resembled the five people directly involved in the
spell. "Now, you Zelgadis will begin by wrapping
everyone actually going through the gate in
Shamanistic magic that will identify us all to our
home plane. Then . . ."
Happosai poked his head out of a bursting
suitcase, frowning his indignation. "Aren't there
any pretty ladies on this plane? I've only found
men's luggage! No matter, soon I'll have the proper
respect that I deserve from Ranma, Akane, Ukyo, and
all the other girls!"
He chuckled evilly and patted the scroll safely
tucked into his pocket. He'd begin the summoning as
soon as they got close enough to Jusenkyo.
Apparently, that was the proper place to cast magic
spells. He continued to chuckle and made his way
through the dark luggage compartment to the next
suitcase.
Ranma, still female unfortunately, jumped into
the plane's aisle as soon as he could. Akane was
fidgeting and her eye was twitching as Kuno detailed
once more why her fiery spirit so attracted him.
She swayed through the other passengers and made her
way to the smiling flight attendants that were
helping everyone off of the plane. Their smiles
became much more forced as Akane ran up to them.
"Thanks!" she shot at them, shooting herself
down the passageway to the lobby. She settled into
one of the plastic chairs with a sigh of relief,
waiting for the rest of the group. She heard
another exhale beside her and looked up in surprise
to see Ranma sitting next to her.
"We're free at last!" He smiled and slouched
down into the chair. Akane blinked at him for a
moment before smiling up at him.
"I know, isn't it wonderful? It's a pity he
won't be gone for long, but these precious moments
away from him are well worth it."
They had nearly three whole minutes before the
faces coming off of the plane belonged to their
friends. The group reformed and left the airport,
heading off into the wild toward Jusenkyo.
Ukyo was not happy. There was Kuno hanging off
of Ranma, and she couldn't run up and beat him until
they were all safely back in Japan. She had been
sitting beside Nabiki and Kasumi on the plane,
behind Lina and the other two magic users. She
hadn't even spoken to Ranma since the plane took
off, and he'd taken off with Akane as soon as the
passengers were permitted off of the plane.
She didn't blame them. If she'd had Kuno
hanging all over her, she'd want a few minutes away
if she could get them, too. With a sigh she stepped
out into the aisle, directly in front of Kuno as he
attempted to get to his two loves. She'd seen Lina
and Zel do the same thing, and they all smiled at
each other as their small conspiracy managed to
frustrate the boy.
"Confound you peons! Move thyselves from my
path so that I might return to my loves' sides!"
He thrust his bokken into the air and Ukyo
wondered how he'd managed to get it past security as
she smiled sweetly up at him, "Oh, I'm sorry Sugar,
did I step out in front of you? If you'll just hold
on a sec, I'll be out of your way in a moment."
After shooting him another smile (Which he was
too busy fuming to really notice.) she carefully
placed herself in the exact center of the aisle as
she bent to retrieve her bag from 'beneath the seat
in front of her' as slowly as she could without
being overly obvious.
She stood and turned to apologize again, but he
grabbed her shoulders and lightly pushed her just
enough off of her balance that she had to take a
step or fall. Standing between the seats once more,
she smirked as Kuno was delayed once more, this time
by a smirking Nabiki.
They'd traveled all day, and had finally stopped
just in time for Kasumi to start dinner while
everyone else set up camp. Ranma was holding a tent
pole as his father drove the stake into the ground.
Lina and Xellos were standing at the edge of camp,
staring intently off in the general direction of
Jusenkyo.
Zelgadis carried a load of firewood over to the
fire, smiling faintly at Kasumi as he stacked it
neatly beside her. She smiled at him and stirred
the pot.
"Oh! Thank you Mr. Zelgadis!"
He looked up at her as he placed the last piece
on top of the small pile. He opened his mouth to
speak, but instead hissed in pain. He brought his
hand up to his stunned face, staring intently at a
finger.
"Oh, what's wrong Mr. Zelgadis?"
"Uh, I think I got a splinter."
She bent her worried but smiling face (a feat
only Kasumi Tendo could manage) over his finger.
"Why, it appears you do indeed have a splinter.
Hold still, Mr. Zelgadis, and I'll get it out. See,
all better."
He smiled at her from across the wood pile.
"Thank you, Miss Kasumi."
"Oh, you're welcome." She released his hand and
turned back to stir the stew. Everyone but
Kasumi noticed that Zel did not rise from his seat
by the fire, nor did he move his hand from the
woodpile. He stayed like that for nearly an hour as
the rest of the group hid their smiles and gathered
around the fire as well, each taking a tin cup
filled with the hearty stew. There were great
cheers at Kasumi's prowess with simple camp fare and
her ability to transform it.
She was smiling and blushing slightly when a
voice called out to her. "May I have a bit of stew
as well? I've had the most horrid day!"
They all turned as one as Fate strolled calmly
into the camp and sat on a log next to Ranma. She
smilingly accepted the stew from Kasumi and blew
softly on it for a moment before taking a sip.
"Ah, yes, this is excellent stew. Thank you
very much Kasumi."
They watched her silently as she consumed the
dinner with the same gusto that everyone else had
used. She handed the cup back to Kasumi, who stood
and headed off to the stream to clean the dishes.
Ranma edged slightly away from her, "Uh, can we
help you?"
She smiled and shrugged, "Oh, I'm just checking
in on you guys. I thought I should warn you that my
dear sister is getting quite restless. As soon as
she straightens out the mess her Hands made of the
Web, she'll be dropping in to check on you guys as
well. Of course, you'll have a harder time trying
to survive her visit."
She stretched and stood. "What are you guys
doing in China?"
Lina glared coldly at the girl, "We're going to
the place with the most magic so that we can cast a
spell to take us home."
Fate nodded slowly, thinking this through.
"That's good. Of course, you realize that there
will be two Changelings on that planet then?"
Fate actually flinched a tiny bit as Xellos
appeared floating behind her shoulder, cross-legged
and sipping tea. "Oh my, I'm not that foolish! The
spell will also remove all traces of her special
birth."
Fate was fairly beaming now. "Oh that's
wonderful! Well, I have business elsewhere, but
I'll try and drop in to keep my sister out of your
business."
Nabiki's dry, "Gee, thanks . . ." was lost as
the girl disappeared in a flash of light.
Happosai had passed the rest of the group up
after they stopped to make camp. He continued on
tirelessly until he found the small cave he'd been
sent to. It overlooked Jusenkyo as it stood in the
light of a full moon. He grinned and made his way
deep into the cave. He sat down and meditated for
several very long minutes before breaking the wax
seal on the scroll.
Down in the valley of cursed springs, a certain
guide looked out his window in surprise at a bright
flash of light coming from one of several caves in
the area. It died to a soft glow, but did not
further diminish. He was more than a little
worried, but did not wish to leave the security of
his hut.
Finally, after several hours of staring in fear
at the glow from the cave's entrance, he ran in fear
to the only place he could think of: The Amazon
village.
The travelers broke camp and were on their way
up the trail before the sun was fully over the
horizon. After several hours of fighting yawns and
trudging on in determination, they came to the sight
that they all feared. The late morning sun was
surprisingly cheerful for a place that held so many
dark feelings and actions.
They kept plenty of space between themselves and
the nearest pools as Ranma walked up to the guide's
hut and knocked. He waited for several moments
before trying again. He turned and shrugged at the
group.
"I guess he's not home."
Zel frowned, "Then how am I supposed to get
water from the spring of drowned man?"
Xellos chuckled and pulled out a piece of chalk.
He began chanting and drawing a pentagram on the
ground between the hut and the pools. Everyone else
gathered silently and watched the star form. As
each point of the star was completed and flashed
brightly thanks to Xellos's chants and murmurs, one
of the five directly involved in the spell was to
take their place on the line of glowing chalk.
The first corner formed, and Lina positioned
Gourry carefully onto it. He stepped warily onto
the glowing line, flinching as he began to glow as
well.
Happosai grinned as he finished the instructions
written on the scroll. It had taken most of last
night as well as the entire morning. He backed out
to the entrance to the cave as it filled with both
blinding light and obscuring mists. His eyes
widened in fear, however, as the dark evil continued
to grow to a much higher level than he had expected.
"Uh oh . . ."
He felt more than heard a dark chuckle just
before he felt something insinuating itself into
him.
Then, Happosai was gone.
Xellos continued to chant and draw, finishing
the second point of the star. Zelgadis stepped into
his spot without any obvious signs of hesitation.
He began to glow as Gourry had, but did not seem to
notice. He immediately began to chant the words
that Xellos had been helping him with. Just as
Xellos was finishing the third point of the star,
Zel pointed at Gourry, who began to pulse instead of
glowing steadily. The third point began to glow,
and Lina began to step onto it.
Just before her foot fell onto the glowing chalk
dust, there was a rumble of thunder and the sky grew
instantly dark. Lina felt a wave of familiarity and
looked up in surprise, freezing when she saw the
familiar form of Happosai rolling toward Jusenkyo,
and the transluscent image of something even more
familiar taking shape above the head of the tiny
martial artist.
"Shabranigdo . . ."
Ranma ran up to her, and Zel glanced up at her
from his muttering. "No!" she screamed, "Keep
casting the spells. There's no going back!"
She took a step back from the pentagram as
Xellos redoubled his efforts. Ranma rested a hand
on her shoulder. He studied the glowing white eyes
of Happosai as the man walked slowly toward them,
chuckling evily. Ranma's eyes, however, were drawn
to the dark from taking shape above the tiny
pervert.
"Lina, what is that . . . monster?"
Her face was pale and she was drawing back from
him. "That, Ranma, appears to be Shabranigdo."
"Close, but actually it's a fragment of him.
You defeated one fragment of him, using the giga
slave if I'm not mistaken."
Ranma and Lina glanced at Fate as she stepped up
beside them, Destiny appearing on their other side.
"Oh, yes, just a fragment."
Lina glared at Destiny. "Just a fragment, she
says! The first fragment nearly killed us! What
kind of idiot would summon Shabranigdo?"
Fate frowned in thought for a moment before
pointing to the miniscule martial artist, "I believe
you know him. I think his name is Happosai."
Ranma snarled, "Leave it to the old pervert to
cause trouble."
"Son-in-law, you shouldn't have left without
us."
Ranma rolled his eyes as Cologne appeared with
Mousse and Shampoo, as well as what appeared to be
half of their village.
"What do you want, Old Ghoul?"
"We came to stop you fools from coming here, but
apparently there are other matters of greater
importance."
All eyes were on the menacing force rolling
toward them. It would be here in a few minutes.
"What do we do, Lina? You've fought this
before."
Her eyes were very cold, "We throw everything we
can at it. I have to warn you though, it probably
won't be enough. I'll have to use the giga slave."
Akane had walked silently up behind them.
Placing a hand on the other girl's shoulder she
said, "But if you cast such a large spell, who will
cast your part of the gating spell?"
Lina dropped her eyes. "Nobody else can do it.
I have the power, but there isn't enough left to
cast the giga slave as well. The most I could
manage would be one small dragon slave."
They all turned once more as the thing
approached. "Lina, only cast that spell as a last
resort. We'll give that monster a good fight."
Ranma turned to Cologne, who nodded in agreement.
"Yes, son-in-law, I'm sure we can manage." She
began ordering her amazons into positions. Most of
them she simply sent back to the village, and they
went reluctantly. The ones remaining were obviously
the older and stronger ones.
Ranma turned to Akane, "You need to get your
family out of here." She started to argue, and he
held up a stern hand. "No, listen to me Akane!
Close combat isn't going to be very effective and
you have to get your sisters out of here!"
She turned and saw the worried expression of her
father as he held an arm over each of his elder
daughter's shoulders. "What about Dad?"
"Akane, you know as well as I do that he won't
be as good protection as you would be."
She turned and looked at him in surprise at the
unexpected compliment. With a determined nod she
ran off and grabbed Kasumi and her father's hands.
Seeing them heading to safety, Ranma turned back
around to face the oncoming evil. Lina was standing
next to him, studying the piece of paper that Xellos
had written the spell she was to perform on.
She looked up with a determined glint in her
eyes. She casually tossed the paper to the side and
started walking to a spot between the diagram and
the martial artists. Ranma caught the paper,
thinking it might be needed later, and tucked it
into his waistband before walking over to Cologne.
Zelgadis was continuing with his spell. He'd
finished putting the magical identification tag on
Gourry, and was working on Lina. It would take a
little more work and concentration since she was
moving, but he was nearly done. He could only spare
a very small amount of concentration on his dilemma.
Was he going to go home and risk continuing to
live with his curse, or stay here and lose his best
friends?
He looked up with renewed focus at the thought
of all they'd done for him. With magic much more
readily available on his home world, surely he could
find a cure there. He couldn't leave Lina and
Gourry alone after all they'd been through together.
He felt a momentary twinge of guilt at the thought
of a certain Tendo girl, but shoved it aside to
concentrate on the spell.
He smirked as he completed the tag on Lina. She
looked up at him, her body pulsing softly in a warm
glow. When she saw that he was not glowing, she
gave him a worried expression. He smiled back
reassuringly and began the tag for himself.
All of those who would be fighting this
Shabranigdo thing were squaring off between him and
the gradually forming pentagram. He would be here
soon. Cologne stood a little in front of the group.
She held up a hand and the martial artists tensed.
She dropped the arm and everyone gathered their
energy.
Nearly two dozen powerful ki blasts hit the
approaching monster at once. It snarled and opened
its gaping, toothy mouth in a frightening screech.
Ranma didn't have room to spiral around the thing,
so he was using the Mouko Takabishi. He noted
proudly that his blasts were larger than all but
Cologne's and seemed to be doing the most damage.
Cologne called a temporary halt so that the
gasping amazons and Ranma could rest. Ranma was
glaring intently at the beast, who had slowed his
approach noticeably.
"Ranma, this isn't going to work."
He shot an emotionless glance at the petite
sorceress. He almost agreed, then remembered what
powered his ki blast. He thought of all the things
he'd accomplished, all of the times he'd saved Akane
and the girls. What was one little demon? It
wasn't even an entire demon, just a fragment of one.
Grinning, he said, "Give me a break. One little
demon isn't going to stop Ranma Soatome." He saw
Cologne raising her hand once more, so he shot Lina
one last, quick smile before preparing his energy.
With this fresh renewal of his confidence, his blast
was very easily on par with Cologne's this time.
This only helped him raise his confidence level.
Shabranigdo paused for several seconds,
snarling. Happosai, his glowing eyes blank, seemed
to reel with pain before standing once more and
taking another halting step toward the group. Ranma
just smirked and waited for the next signal from
Cologne. They continued for several more blasts
before several amazons fell to their knees in
exhaustion.
Cologne spared them a glance. Ranma did not.
"Girls, if you are too weak to continue, remove
yourselves. Return to the village. You'll be more
useful there." One of the girls made it back to her
feet. Four others stumbled into the trees to their
home.
Cologne raised her hand and they all tensed.
Akane caught up with a lagging amazon and
quickly told her father and sisters to follow the
fleeing women. They nodded mutely in shock and
shakily followed the overgrown trail. Turning her
feet in the direction of the flashing lights and
explosions of ki, Akane redoubled her speed.
Now, Ranma was fighting for his life instead of
hers. No, strike that, he was fighting for
everyone's lives. This demon was bad news, and
Akane couldn't bear for him to face it alone. The
fact that he was surrounded by several other martial
artists of a higher caliber than she did not yet hit
her.
As she got closer and closer to Jusenkyo, she
passed several faltering young amzon warriors that
were barely strong enough to walk. Now even more
worried, Akane pulled up extra reserves and shot
off. It took her all of three minutes to realize
that she'd left the overgrown trail and was lost in
the woods.
With a frustrated snarl, she set off
determinedly in what she thought to be the right
direction.
Several minutes later, they were down to three
amazons still standing, plus Ranma and Cologne. For
the first time in quite awhile, Ranma was wishing
for Ryoga. He saw Lina shoot him a glance and step
onto her point of the star. Xellos was finishing up
the fourth point. Lina had told him that he would
still be able to cast his 'spells' from his part of
the pentagram, but that he wouldn't be able to do
anything hand to hand.
He didn't need to step onto the diagram until
just before the second spell was finished. He had
about five minutes from what Lina had told him. He
could do anything except leave the boundaries of his
point of the star.
He saw Xellos glow softly and step onto his
point of the star. Then the odd priest turned to
the fifth point (where Ranma would be standing soon)
and begin to chant once more. Zelgadis seemed to be
finished wrapping the travelers in magic, for he was
now staring at the approaching demon.
Lina was staring extremely intently at Xellos,
waiting for her cue to begin the final spell. The
last spell was the one that would actually transport
them all to their world, as well as strip Ranma and
Lina of their powers as Changelings. Hers was the
hardest of the three spells, and required extreme
amounts of power and skill. Ranma tensed and
prepared to loose another blast. He paused as the
demon's hand began to glow.
Ranma's blood turned to ice and he grabbed the
amazon directly to his right. "Duck, it's
attacking!"
A blast of black nothingness sped toward them,
singing the leg of one amazon. Everyone else
escaped unmarked, however, and took their places to
resume their attacks. They let their attacks speed
toward the demon, who was actually showing very
obvious signs of pain and injuries.
"Arg, I can't stand it anymore!" All eyes flew
to Lina in her space on the diagram. She closed her
eyes and drew her hands together before herself.
Ranma didn't quite here the words she was mumbling,
but he had an idea.
"Everyone, get ready! When she screams out her
attack, we do too!"
Everyone nodded in determination and gathered
their ki once more. Lina's eyes shot open and she
screamed in the still air of the battle zone.
"Dragon Slave!"
The blast seemed extremely impressive to anyone
from earth, but Lina's friends from her home world
knew that Lina had held back as much as she could to
save much-needed energy for the spell to come. As
her attack left her fingertips, the martial artists
yelled out their attacks as well. The blasts
striking the demon at once seemed to work.
Through the cloud of smoke and debris, they saw
Shabranigdo scream in pain and begin to shrink.
Ranma smirked and jumped onto his place in the
pentagram. He looked across the star and smiled at
his new friends.
"Good luck, guys."
They smiled back at him and Xellos turned to
Lina. He smiled at her and nodded for her to begin
her spell. She began muttering nonsense about
gateways and paths of light through lives of
darkness or something. Ranma closed his eyes,
hoping that now his life would return to what could
be considered normal in Nerima.
"Look out!"
He wasn't sure who yelled the warning, but Ranma
turned to glance over his shoulder to see Happosai
glowing with a sickly black aura. Then he saw
movement from the corner of his eye and Akane
stepped into view. He cursed. What was she doing
back here?
Happosai/Shabranigdo chuckled and pounced toward
Ranma. At a distinct disadvantage since he could
only move within four or five square feet, Ranma
dodged the first couple of punches before he could
launch his own attacks. A funny thought struck him.
Happy wasn't using anything close to his usual
amount of skill.
Ranma wasn't fighting Happy; he was fighting
Shabranigdo. With a smirk, Ranma began steering
Happosai into a tight circle. It wasn't the best for defense, and he immediately took a nasty scratch to his forehead. A moment later and he took a deep cut to his torso. Ranma frowned at that, since it felt like he'd been clawed. Happosai didn't have claws, did he? After several
rotations, Ranma screamed out, much to the surprise
of many.
"Hiro Shoten Ha!"
Shabranigdo went flying in the tornado that
Ranma was surprised he had managed to create. He
fell to his knees as everyone present stared at the
inky aura fading away from the lifeless body of
Happosai.
The voices of the spell casters came to him and
he smiled softly as an odd, intangible weight seemed
to shift from his shoulders. So, he was no longer a
Changeling. The two figures of Fate and Destiny
exchanged glances and frowns before blinking out of
existence. He closed his eyes, reveling in the fact
that he was one step closer to being back to the
normal Ranma Soatome.
He opened his eyes and turned to smile at Akane
as she studied him from across the clearing, her
expression worried as she bit her lip. She studied
him for a moment before grinning foolishly and
rushing toward him, arms outstretched to him. He
held his arms out as well and took a step toward her
as well. As he and Akane neared each other, he
could only thank the kami that things had worked out
so well.
He heard the voices of Lina, Xellos, and
Zelgadis raising as they neared the completion of
the spell. Akane was nearly twenty feet away before
she slowed to give the spell time to finish. Ranma
could take one more step and still be within the
chalky lines of the pentagram.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light between
Ranma and his fiancée. Lina snapped around, horror
on her face.
"Ranma, Akane, get away from it!" It was too
late, however, and Ranma felt a powerful tugging at
his clothes and skin. The odd swirling portal of
blue light had appeared no more than two or three
inches in front of him. Akane was much further
away, and should be safe. He was thankful for that
small mercy as his foot slipped into the blue
vortex.
He looked up at Akane through the translucent
portal, seeing Cologne holding her back as Lina and
Zel turned their spellcasting toward him. Ranma
smiled his thanks to the Amazon matriarch as his
lower body was enveloped by the portal. He closed
his eyes and braced himself as his head slipped
through an oddly icy layer of . . . something.
The End
Web of Worlds,
Part 1