Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VI or Ranma 1/2, nor do I pretend to. Even if I did, the army of lawyers that would come after me would make me change my mind.^_^
The Nerima Returners
A Final Fantasy VI and Ranma 1/2 Crossover
By Jade Dixon
Chapter 1- Plans Revealed
Last Revised: August 20, 2003
When Nabiki had first seen Ranma, elation had filled her, mixed with disappointment. She had been hoping for a cute fiancé, and wound up finding a sullen girl. On the brighter side of things, the girl had the most powerful magical aura she had ever seen, excluding Terra. She hoped that this meant that Ranma was the Key to Terra's spell, and that Kasumi would be left alone soon. However, before she could confer with the mage, the Jusenkyo curses had been revealed, and Nabiki had realized that it had most likely been the curse she had been sensing.
The disappointment was extremely bitter. Before Ranma, she had never seen anyone with a magical aura strong enough to even /possibly/ be the Key. Nevertheless, that night she brought her suspicions to Terra.
A sad gaze was what Nabiki received after her report. Terra looked down at her hands, which were clasped in her lap as she sat on the bed in Nabiki's room.
"I understand what you mean, Nabiki. But you were right. The signature does come from their curses. I was watching as well, through Kasumi's eyes. You probably didn't stay near the 'panda' long enough to notice, but it had just as strong an aura as Ranma did. And it doesn't change when they're in their natural forms either." A sigh escaped the girl's lips, and they twisted into a bitter parody of a smile. "I'm afraid that I got my hopes up just as much as you did."
"So what do we do now?" Nabiki asked irritably.
"We keep watching, and hope for success. What other choice do we have?" They stared at each other grimly. As much as they had come to enjoy each other's company, Terra wanted to go home, and Nabiki wanted Kasumi to be able to lead a normal life.
"We keep watching, then."
And after that there was nothing more to be said.
Of course, Ranma seemed to attract trouble like a magnet, and many had strong magical signatures. But disappointment came again and again as explanations for each and every one materialized. Ryoga was their best candidate thus far, but Terra had dismissed him shortly after they started considering that he could be the one. The frustrating thing was that she wouldn't explain why she had dismissed him. All she would say is, "You'll either figure it out, or you won't. It's not my place to reveal his secrets, though."
So Nabiki continued to search, and she always kept Ryoga as a candidate in the back of her mind, despite Terra's dismissal.
********************
When Genma and Soun called their children down for a 'family discussion', it was a beautiful day, if a bit chilly. It was a Sunday, meaning no school for the kids, and they had all meandered off to pursue various activities around the house. Ranma had headed towards the dojo to train, so Akane had gone up to her room to work on some homework. She would just have to train later. She was in no mood to but up with her fiancé's taunts. Kasumi went to the kitchen to begin cleaning up after breakfast, and Nabiki had gone up to her room to go over her accounts. The two men had settled themselves at the Go board to finalize their plans before revealing them to the children. Once that was done, the job of herding them together was necessary. Kasumi, humming cheerfully to herself in the kitchen, was easy to find. She gave her father one of her patented smiles and assured him that she'd be out in just a minute. Nabiki, while just as easy to find, wasn't quite as easy to pass the message along to.
"Family discussion?" she asked in a disbelieving tone, eyebrow quirked. "Now where does this sound vaguely familiar from?" she questioned idly, her eyebrow rising a fraction higher and a smirk forming on her face. She stood up, closing the ledger she had been going over at her desk, and enjoyed her father's flustered expression. "Well, Akane will be relieved that she doesn't have anything to worry about this time, at least," she teased as she left the room. "If it's all the same though, you can be the one to break the news to her." She wandered down the hallway, heading downstairs towards the family room.
Akane, contrary to Nabiki's prediction, didn't get upset, or even connect the meeting to the one where she had wound up engaged to Ranma. She was just relieved it was the whole family, and not just herself and Ranma. Who knew what it would be about otherwise?
By the time all of the Tendo's had made it to the family room, Genma had finally managed to get the Go board arranged to his liking. Of course, this meant that he hadn't gone to get Ranma. Knowing that if he left now, Soun would have a chance to rearrange the board to his own advantage, Genma made a quick tactical decision.
"Would you terribly mind going to get Ranma, Akane? I couldn't find him in the house, but I think he might have gone out to the dojo for a bit."
Soun, who hadn't noticed the Go board manipulations, thought this was a superb idea. Anything to get his daughter and Ranma closer together, no matter in how small a way, was a step closer to his baby girl getting married and uniting the two schools. "Yes, yes! Excellent suggestion, Saotome. And while we're waiting we can finish the game we were having..."
Akane growled something under her breath about meddling parents, but got up and stalked out to the dojo. It wasn't that she was jealous of how much better than her Ranma was, but did he have to rub it in so much?
Okay, so maybe she was jealous. But just a /little/ bit.
Luckily for her, she didn't have to actually watch Ranma do things that right now she could only dream of. She was halfway along the path to the dojo, when Ranma came out on his own, still wearing his training gi, and obviously headed up towards the bath.
"Dojo's free if you want to train," he called out as they approached each other. Akane paused where she stood. He didn't /know/ that she didn't want to train with, and be overshadowed by, him, did he? She immediately became defensive.
"And what's /that/ supposed to mean, Ranma?" she asked crossly. "Am I not allowed to train while you're in there?"
Even Ranma could sense the dangerous hint in her voice, and understood he had offended her somehow. Frantically, he tried to fix it.
"Of course not! I just thought that you might want to train alone or something."
"And why would that be? Are you implying that I should be too ashamed to train with someone of /your/ calibre, Mister Hot-Shot?" She seethed. 'Does he know? Does he know? Does he know?' ran desperately through her head.
"I never said that!" he yelled at her. "You just haven't trained yet today, so I thought maybe you wanted to be alone for some reason. You workin' on a secret move or somethin'?" he tried desperately, really hoping that he wouldn't be sent airborne that morning.
Akane turned her head and sniffed disdainfully. "Unlike you, /some/ of us actually put some effort into our schoolwork and have to do homework. Anyways, our parents want to talk to all of us, so come on already." She turned on her heel and walked away, not even bothering to see if he was following. Inside she was filled with relief. 'He doesn't know.' They walked the rest of the way in silence.
********************
When they arrived at the family room, Akane pointedly waited for Ranma to sit down first, and then sat down on the opposite side of the table from him. Soun's eyes teared up a bit as he noted their arrival. Not any closer to a wedding today.
"How was your work-out, Ranma?" Kasumi asked in the silence that followed.
"Oh, er... fine I guess, Kasumi," he replied, sending confused glances towards Akane as he tried to figure out what he'd done to upset her.
"That's good," she said with a smile.
"Yeah, great," Nabiki added in, unenthusiastically. "Now, can we please get on with this?" she asked. In her life, things fit into three categories: Money, Terra's Spell, and Not Worth My Time. The 'discussion' was currently in the third category, although if it would get started, it could possibly have its status upgraded to the first. She somehow doubted that it had anything to do with Terra's spell, although she wouldn't complain if the solution to /that/ problem spontaneously revealed itself.
"Ah, yes. I'm glad you brought that up, Nabiki," Soun began a bit nervously. It's not that he didn't agree with the plan, it was just that he wasn't sure how his daughters would take it. And so he explained to them. Each of them reacted differently. Kasumi set down her teacup, gasped and went, "Oh my!", her now free hand going up to cover her mouth.
Akane's eyes bulged, and spluttering sounds began to emerge from her mouth that, if left untended, could explode into a full rant.
Ranma just leaned an arm on the table and yawned into his hand. What was the big deal anyways?
Nabiki frowned and leaned across the table to look at her father. "Let me get this straight; you intend to leave four teenagers, only one out of school, unsupervised, while the two of you go off on some sort of training trip? How long did you say you intended to be gone for again?" she asked incredulously.
"Er... when you put it like that..." Soun stuttered. Luckily for him, Genma broke in.
"Nonsense!" he bellowed. "It's only for two months, at the absolute longest! Kasumi can watch over the household on her own for that short period of time. And Ranma can protect you should anything happen!" Nabiki gave him her most contemptuous glare.
"I bet this was your idea, wasn't it?"
"That's enough, Nabiki!" Akane spoke up suddenly. After the initial shock had worn off, she had thought closer on the situation. Their father hadn't done much in the way of training since their mother had died, and perhaps this was a sign of his returning interest in practicing the Art. She was willing to put up with any amount of foolishness if it meant her father got some life back in his eyes. Well, except for marrying Ranma. That was just /too/ foolish. "If this is something they want to do that badly, we should let them. Like Mr. Saotome said, it's only for a couple of months." She paused, then gulped inaudibly. Now that she mentioned it, two months did seem like an awfully long time. Who knew what could happen?
'Oh joyous day!' Soun thought. 'Maybe Saotome's plan will work after all!' The plan was to leave the children on their own, and maybe without the imposing presence of their parents Ranma and Akane would finally begin to confess their feelings for each other!
"I have a bad feeling about this," Nabiki muttered under her breath.
*******************
The next week passed with a flurry of preparations, not so much for the sake of their fathers, who could probably pack in mere minutes, but for those being left behind. The school had to be informed that Kasumi would be the one to contact in case of an emergency, and any financial matters had to be clued up for the duration of the time Soun would be away. The few classes that Soun did teach had to be put on hiatus, and their lesson plan had to be extended to cover the missing time. In order to soothe any worries that the students would fall out of practice, the dojo would be left open for the use of all current students during specific periods of time each day, which would be supervised by Ranma or Akane. Nabiki groaned that they would still lose some of the precious few students they had to this hiatus, despite those precautions, but Soun and Genma would not be swayed.
And so, one week later they were saying their good-byes.
"You're certain about this, Father?" Kasumi queried gently, still unsure about being in charge.
"You'll do fine, Kasumi," he encouraged her, tears pouring down his face at the separation. "We'll be back before you know it. We may not even stay out there for the full two-months."
"It's not too late to change your mind," Nabiki argued, still seeing the students leaving. "You can call them all right now, tell them you're staying, that they don't need to find somewhere else to study!" Her voice trailed off into what was a pleading note for Nabiki.
The tears in Soun's eyes became heavier. His lower lip began to tremble. Steadfastly, he held the sobs back. "It'll be alright, Nabiki."
She sighed in resignation. Akane had been /way/ too supportive of this, otherwise she was /sure/ that she could have persuaded him to back out at this point. Speaking of Akane...
"Have fun, Dad," she cheered him. "Take care of yourself!"
"Akane!" he sobbed, and finally lost his battle, crying flat-out as he hugged his youngest daughter good-bye.
The parting between Ranma and Genma was understandably less emotional.
"Don't sell Mr. Tendo for a bowl of rice and two fish if you get hungry," he advised, with a rebellious glare.
"Impudent whelp!" Genma retorted. Soon the two were locked in a fight, a dust cloud encompassing them as they said good-bye in their own fashion.
When the dust finally settled, and the good-byes had been finished, the two men shouldered their packs, and walked off into the sunset, leaving their families behind.
"Y'know," Nabiki spoke up finally, as the men got further away, "They really should have picked a better time to leave. I mean, that /has/ to be bad for the eyes."
"I hope they remembered to bring sunglasses," Kasumi joined in worriedly.
When they were finally out of site, the teenagers headed back into the house.
*******************
That night, as Kasumi got ready for bed, Terra gently took control. It was just for a few minutes, and wasn't /really/ disrupting Kasumi's life. She rarely even noticed the passing of a few unaccounted minutes. Terra found her senses were too muted when she watched through the eldest Tendo's eyes, so every now and again she liked to take control, just to get a feel for the air. She moved to the window, and gazed out into the night sky. Taking a deep breath she revelled in the sensations that flooded her mind. Even this little intrusion she rarely allowed herself, and it was a joy to have a body for a few moments.
Something didn't feel right, however. She wasn't sure if it was Kasumi's unease at her father's departure she was feeling, or something else. There was a heavy feel to the air.
Kasumi's face hardened into a frown. Not the concerned frown she occasionally wore, but Terra's frown from when she considered how she was going to support her children in a ruined world. The frown of someone who had seen hard times, and sees more in the future.
"Something's wrong," she muttered. "But what?"
She received no answer.
She sighed and moved away from the window, back to where Kasumi had been when she'd taken control. It was time for her to go back to being a passenger again.
She silently wished Kasumi pleasant dreams.
And she prayed that whatever was coming would not be too disastrous.
********************
Author's Notes:
Well, that's the first chapter finished. The next chapter will begin getting into the more serious plot. I'd like to thank Kell Shock and Dan Inverse for reviewing! I really appreciate it! On a side note, I'm actively looking for pre-readers (sometimes known as beta-readers) to help me proof-read this! My current ones are too busy at the moment, which I can understand since real life takes precedence over anything else. So if anyone's interested, drop me a line!
The Nerima Returners
A Final Fantasy VI and Ranma 1/2 Crossover
By Jade Dixon
Chapter 1- Plans Revealed
Last Revised: August 20, 2003
When Nabiki had first seen Ranma, elation had filled her, mixed with disappointment. She had been hoping for a cute fiancé, and wound up finding a sullen girl. On the brighter side of things, the girl had the most powerful magical aura she had ever seen, excluding Terra. She hoped that this meant that Ranma was the Key to Terra's spell, and that Kasumi would be left alone soon. However, before she could confer with the mage, the Jusenkyo curses had been revealed, and Nabiki had realized that it had most likely been the curse she had been sensing.
The disappointment was extremely bitter. Before Ranma, she had never seen anyone with a magical aura strong enough to even /possibly/ be the Key. Nevertheless, that night she brought her suspicions to Terra.
A sad gaze was what Nabiki received after her report. Terra looked down at her hands, which were clasped in her lap as she sat on the bed in Nabiki's room.
"I understand what you mean, Nabiki. But you were right. The signature does come from their curses. I was watching as well, through Kasumi's eyes. You probably didn't stay near the 'panda' long enough to notice, but it had just as strong an aura as Ranma did. And it doesn't change when they're in their natural forms either." A sigh escaped the girl's lips, and they twisted into a bitter parody of a smile. "I'm afraid that I got my hopes up just as much as you did."
"So what do we do now?" Nabiki asked irritably.
"We keep watching, and hope for success. What other choice do we have?" They stared at each other grimly. As much as they had come to enjoy each other's company, Terra wanted to go home, and Nabiki wanted Kasumi to be able to lead a normal life.
"We keep watching, then."
And after that there was nothing more to be said.
Of course, Ranma seemed to attract trouble like a magnet, and many had strong magical signatures. But disappointment came again and again as explanations for each and every one materialized. Ryoga was their best candidate thus far, but Terra had dismissed him shortly after they started considering that he could be the one. The frustrating thing was that she wouldn't explain why she had dismissed him. All she would say is, "You'll either figure it out, or you won't. It's not my place to reveal his secrets, though."
So Nabiki continued to search, and she always kept Ryoga as a candidate in the back of her mind, despite Terra's dismissal.
********************
When Genma and Soun called their children down for a 'family discussion', it was a beautiful day, if a bit chilly. It was a Sunday, meaning no school for the kids, and they had all meandered off to pursue various activities around the house. Ranma had headed towards the dojo to train, so Akane had gone up to her room to work on some homework. She would just have to train later. She was in no mood to but up with her fiancé's taunts. Kasumi went to the kitchen to begin cleaning up after breakfast, and Nabiki had gone up to her room to go over her accounts. The two men had settled themselves at the Go board to finalize their plans before revealing them to the children. Once that was done, the job of herding them together was necessary. Kasumi, humming cheerfully to herself in the kitchen, was easy to find. She gave her father one of her patented smiles and assured him that she'd be out in just a minute. Nabiki, while just as easy to find, wasn't quite as easy to pass the message along to.
"Family discussion?" she asked in a disbelieving tone, eyebrow quirked. "Now where does this sound vaguely familiar from?" she questioned idly, her eyebrow rising a fraction higher and a smirk forming on her face. She stood up, closing the ledger she had been going over at her desk, and enjoyed her father's flustered expression. "Well, Akane will be relieved that she doesn't have anything to worry about this time, at least," she teased as she left the room. "If it's all the same though, you can be the one to break the news to her." She wandered down the hallway, heading downstairs towards the family room.
Akane, contrary to Nabiki's prediction, didn't get upset, or even connect the meeting to the one where she had wound up engaged to Ranma. She was just relieved it was the whole family, and not just herself and Ranma. Who knew what it would be about otherwise?
By the time all of the Tendo's had made it to the family room, Genma had finally managed to get the Go board arranged to his liking. Of course, this meant that he hadn't gone to get Ranma. Knowing that if he left now, Soun would have a chance to rearrange the board to his own advantage, Genma made a quick tactical decision.
"Would you terribly mind going to get Ranma, Akane? I couldn't find him in the house, but I think he might have gone out to the dojo for a bit."
Soun, who hadn't noticed the Go board manipulations, thought this was a superb idea. Anything to get his daughter and Ranma closer together, no matter in how small a way, was a step closer to his baby girl getting married and uniting the two schools. "Yes, yes! Excellent suggestion, Saotome. And while we're waiting we can finish the game we were having..."
Akane growled something under her breath about meddling parents, but got up and stalked out to the dojo. It wasn't that she was jealous of how much better than her Ranma was, but did he have to rub it in so much?
Okay, so maybe she was jealous. But just a /little/ bit.
Luckily for her, she didn't have to actually watch Ranma do things that right now she could only dream of. She was halfway along the path to the dojo, when Ranma came out on his own, still wearing his training gi, and obviously headed up towards the bath.
"Dojo's free if you want to train," he called out as they approached each other. Akane paused where she stood. He didn't /know/ that she didn't want to train with, and be overshadowed by, him, did he? She immediately became defensive.
"And what's /that/ supposed to mean, Ranma?" she asked crossly. "Am I not allowed to train while you're in there?"
Even Ranma could sense the dangerous hint in her voice, and understood he had offended her somehow. Frantically, he tried to fix it.
"Of course not! I just thought that you might want to train alone or something."
"And why would that be? Are you implying that I should be too ashamed to train with someone of /your/ calibre, Mister Hot-Shot?" She seethed. 'Does he know? Does he know? Does he know?' ran desperately through her head.
"I never said that!" he yelled at her. "You just haven't trained yet today, so I thought maybe you wanted to be alone for some reason. You workin' on a secret move or somethin'?" he tried desperately, really hoping that he wouldn't be sent airborne that morning.
Akane turned her head and sniffed disdainfully. "Unlike you, /some/ of us actually put some effort into our schoolwork and have to do homework. Anyways, our parents want to talk to all of us, so come on already." She turned on her heel and walked away, not even bothering to see if he was following. Inside she was filled with relief. 'He doesn't know.' They walked the rest of the way in silence.
********************
When they arrived at the family room, Akane pointedly waited for Ranma to sit down first, and then sat down on the opposite side of the table from him. Soun's eyes teared up a bit as he noted their arrival. Not any closer to a wedding today.
"How was your work-out, Ranma?" Kasumi asked in the silence that followed.
"Oh, er... fine I guess, Kasumi," he replied, sending confused glances towards Akane as he tried to figure out what he'd done to upset her.
"That's good," she said with a smile.
"Yeah, great," Nabiki added in, unenthusiastically. "Now, can we please get on with this?" she asked. In her life, things fit into three categories: Money, Terra's Spell, and Not Worth My Time. The 'discussion' was currently in the third category, although if it would get started, it could possibly have its status upgraded to the first. She somehow doubted that it had anything to do with Terra's spell, although she wouldn't complain if the solution to /that/ problem spontaneously revealed itself.
"Ah, yes. I'm glad you brought that up, Nabiki," Soun began a bit nervously. It's not that he didn't agree with the plan, it was just that he wasn't sure how his daughters would take it. And so he explained to them. Each of them reacted differently. Kasumi set down her teacup, gasped and went, "Oh my!", her now free hand going up to cover her mouth.
Akane's eyes bulged, and spluttering sounds began to emerge from her mouth that, if left untended, could explode into a full rant.
Ranma just leaned an arm on the table and yawned into his hand. What was the big deal anyways?
Nabiki frowned and leaned across the table to look at her father. "Let me get this straight; you intend to leave four teenagers, only one out of school, unsupervised, while the two of you go off on some sort of training trip? How long did you say you intended to be gone for again?" she asked incredulously.
"Er... when you put it like that..." Soun stuttered. Luckily for him, Genma broke in.
"Nonsense!" he bellowed. "It's only for two months, at the absolute longest! Kasumi can watch over the household on her own for that short period of time. And Ranma can protect you should anything happen!" Nabiki gave him her most contemptuous glare.
"I bet this was your idea, wasn't it?"
"That's enough, Nabiki!" Akane spoke up suddenly. After the initial shock had worn off, she had thought closer on the situation. Their father hadn't done much in the way of training since their mother had died, and perhaps this was a sign of his returning interest in practicing the Art. She was willing to put up with any amount of foolishness if it meant her father got some life back in his eyes. Well, except for marrying Ranma. That was just /too/ foolish. "If this is something they want to do that badly, we should let them. Like Mr. Saotome said, it's only for a couple of months." She paused, then gulped inaudibly. Now that she mentioned it, two months did seem like an awfully long time. Who knew what could happen?
'Oh joyous day!' Soun thought. 'Maybe Saotome's plan will work after all!' The plan was to leave the children on their own, and maybe without the imposing presence of their parents Ranma and Akane would finally begin to confess their feelings for each other!
"I have a bad feeling about this," Nabiki muttered under her breath.
*******************
The next week passed with a flurry of preparations, not so much for the sake of their fathers, who could probably pack in mere minutes, but for those being left behind. The school had to be informed that Kasumi would be the one to contact in case of an emergency, and any financial matters had to be clued up for the duration of the time Soun would be away. The few classes that Soun did teach had to be put on hiatus, and their lesson plan had to be extended to cover the missing time. In order to soothe any worries that the students would fall out of practice, the dojo would be left open for the use of all current students during specific periods of time each day, which would be supervised by Ranma or Akane. Nabiki groaned that they would still lose some of the precious few students they had to this hiatus, despite those precautions, but Soun and Genma would not be swayed.
And so, one week later they were saying their good-byes.
"You're certain about this, Father?" Kasumi queried gently, still unsure about being in charge.
"You'll do fine, Kasumi," he encouraged her, tears pouring down his face at the separation. "We'll be back before you know it. We may not even stay out there for the full two-months."
"It's not too late to change your mind," Nabiki argued, still seeing the students leaving. "You can call them all right now, tell them you're staying, that they don't need to find somewhere else to study!" Her voice trailed off into what was a pleading note for Nabiki.
The tears in Soun's eyes became heavier. His lower lip began to tremble. Steadfastly, he held the sobs back. "It'll be alright, Nabiki."
She sighed in resignation. Akane had been /way/ too supportive of this, otherwise she was /sure/ that she could have persuaded him to back out at this point. Speaking of Akane...
"Have fun, Dad," she cheered him. "Take care of yourself!"
"Akane!" he sobbed, and finally lost his battle, crying flat-out as he hugged his youngest daughter good-bye.
The parting between Ranma and Genma was understandably less emotional.
"Don't sell Mr. Tendo for a bowl of rice and two fish if you get hungry," he advised, with a rebellious glare.
"Impudent whelp!" Genma retorted. Soon the two were locked in a fight, a dust cloud encompassing them as they said good-bye in their own fashion.
When the dust finally settled, and the good-byes had been finished, the two men shouldered their packs, and walked off into the sunset, leaving their families behind.
"Y'know," Nabiki spoke up finally, as the men got further away, "They really should have picked a better time to leave. I mean, that /has/ to be bad for the eyes."
"I hope they remembered to bring sunglasses," Kasumi joined in worriedly.
When they were finally out of site, the teenagers headed back into the house.
*******************
That night, as Kasumi got ready for bed, Terra gently took control. It was just for a few minutes, and wasn't /really/ disrupting Kasumi's life. She rarely even noticed the passing of a few unaccounted minutes. Terra found her senses were too muted when she watched through the eldest Tendo's eyes, so every now and again she liked to take control, just to get a feel for the air. She moved to the window, and gazed out into the night sky. Taking a deep breath she revelled in the sensations that flooded her mind. Even this little intrusion she rarely allowed herself, and it was a joy to have a body for a few moments.
Something didn't feel right, however. She wasn't sure if it was Kasumi's unease at her father's departure she was feeling, or something else. There was a heavy feel to the air.
Kasumi's face hardened into a frown. Not the concerned frown she occasionally wore, but Terra's frown from when she considered how she was going to support her children in a ruined world. The frown of someone who had seen hard times, and sees more in the future.
"Something's wrong," she muttered. "But what?"
She received no answer.
She sighed and moved away from the window, back to where Kasumi had been when she'd taken control. It was time for her to go back to being a passenger again.
She silently wished Kasumi pleasant dreams.
And she prayed that whatever was coming would not be too disastrous.
********************
Author's Notes:
Well, that's the first chapter finished. The next chapter will begin getting into the more serious plot. I'd like to thank Kell Shock and Dan Inverse for reviewing! I really appreciate it! On a side note, I'm actively looking for pre-readers (sometimes known as beta-readers) to help me proof-read this! My current ones are too busy at the moment, which I can understand since real life takes precedence over anything else. So if anyone's interested, drop me a line!