Chapter 1 – A Really Bad Day
Over the shrine, in fact it was several miles over the shrine, a ship waited in orbit, completely cloaked to all monitoring systems. Only another ship of its kind would be able to find it. Specifically, it was an Iwaman ship.
The Iwaman aboard was, well, an assassin. And a highly paid one at that. That was because this particular assassin was Iwaman royalty. He was a somewhat distant cousin, but he was royalty none the less.
His work as an assassin made him special, indispensable, because so few Iwamans plied that particular trade, and it was even rarer among the royalty. Ironically, this did not make him unpopular. He was one of the most desired men on the planet of Iwama, truth be known. Royal Iwaman parties were things of legend among his people. The games of politics were dangerous, and that was their stomping ground. Court was just the awards ceremony.
Jikei, the name of this particular Iwaman royal, always attended these parties with a contract in mind. Not only did he usually fulfill this contract, but he gained several others. The majority of which were carried out before the night was through. Poison is a wonderful thing.
On this job however, poison was not his weapon of choice. Not by itself, in any event. That was the back up. This was going to be fast, in and out, slit the throat and be done with it. Where as most other jobs required major slight of hand, this required major stealth skills. The skill sets were not too far apart, but still required a different way of doing things.
He checked his gear, standard dagger, a stealth suit, optical array, and –just in case- a smooth oblong object, widened at one end, with a hole there. The soft light coming from the hole seemed to pulsate in time the large rock behind him…
Tenchi woke, feeling decidedly uncomfortable. There were a number of reasons for this.
1) He was hog tied, and gagged no less, with some vines. The knots were good and so were their strength. Whoever did this to him had had experience with this sort of thing before.
2) He wasn't wearing any clothing. Given his attacker seemed to be nude when she attacked; she was probably wearing it herself. Well, that and he could see her doing so. That led to the third reason he was uncomfortable.
3) She was carrying him over her shoulder like a bag of rice while jumping from branch to branch at a pace usually compared to more mechanized means of conveyance, like say, a motorcycle, or a jet plane.
Said girl, complete with fire red hair, was muttering under her breath. He couldn't catch much of it, but the things he could catch were a) about him, and b) uncomplimentary.
In other words, she was cursing like a sailor about the 'pervert' she'd found. This did not bode well for our intrepid hero. When she sprinted at breakneck speed over a rickety wooden bridge, which in turn was over a deep canyon, he knew decisively that they were heading away from the shrine. This, too, did not bode well. What is she planning on doing with me?
Several perverted fantasies involving her whisking him away for a tryst formed, but he quickly shook it off. This was a time to be serious. Besides, given the reason she'd beaten the snot out of him they were highly unlikely anyways.
So, he reviewed the situation. He didn't have the leverage to break the vines. He didn't have clothing. Night was swiftly coming, so the previous problem was a bit more pressing than usual. He didn't have any form of access to the tenchi-ken, or his bokken.
So, in short, unless someone else did something, he was screwed. He started sweating.
"Eh? You awake back there?"
Oh boy… not good.
"Well? Say something, jerk."
"Mmmph!"
There was an embarrassed chuckle. "Oh, right. Forgot about that. I went a bit overboard, didn't I?" Then the tone of voice changed. "But you shouldn't have been looking at me you ass!" Then there was a muttering. Hopeful at first because it mentioned an apology, but not so in the end, largely because he didn't think he was the 'uncute tomboy' mentioned.
"MMMPHF!" Tenchi had tried to say something to get himself out of this mess, but the gag wasn't helping. But, luckily for him, it seemed to be enough.
"Oh, alright, already. Settle down a second!"
She stopped fast enough to make dust swirl up around them, and casually dumped him on the ground. She ripped the gag off casually, and leaned down into his face.
"Alright. Where's the nearest place where there's some other people?"
Tenchi gulped. The answer would probably not be pleasant- for either of them.
"Back the way we came."
The red head stared at him incredulously, then looked back that way, probably trying to see if she could see the shrine from here. Then she grumbled.
"I'm an idiot. If I'd been paying attention, I could've saved a lot of time. This is just my luck."
She continued grumbling to herself even as she hoisted Tenchi back up onto her shoulders, and started making a beeline for the shrine the moment they were back over the bridge.
Sensing his companion, such as she was, would not appreciate being bothered, Tenchi contemplated his fate. Then he wished he hadn't. In fact, he hoped they weren't found for some time. Hopefully long enough for him to find some clothes. The consequences of being found in this position were not good. No matter who showed up first.
He started sweating heavily.
Speaking of which, Ryoko had finally spotted Tenchi. The old man had come in saying he'd left Tenchi to think about things. Which meant that he'd knocked Tenchi out and left him in the grass. When he failed to return after several hours, she was immediately dispatched to look for him.
And just maybe we'll forget to come back for a bit, have some 'quality' time.
Ryoko was giggling to herself, just as she'd spotted him. And her. She was stealing Ryoko's Tenchi. She'd already stolen his clothes, and she was dragging the real thing off to who knows where. She had to die now. In fact, death was too good. She dive bombed.
She made a resounding slamming noise when she hit the ground. She looked up to see the red head blinking at her. "Who're you?"
Ryoko didn't answer, she just growled, and flew at the hated red head, throwing a punch. It never landed. Her face however, managed to make a crash landing as the weight of the girl plus Tenchi slammed into her head from above. The girl spoke again. "Can you at least tell me why you're attacking me?"
Ryoko growled, and phased through her opponent, coming up to a more or less standing position, if you don't count the fact that she was floating about a foot off the ground, anyways. Ranma landed softly, having adjusted instantly. She eyed Ryoko. "You wouldn't happen to know a guy named Herb, would you?"
Ryoko's voice was low and dangerous. "Give me Tenchi. Now."
Much to her surprise, the redhead only blinked. "Eh? Is that his name? I didn't catch it before I tied him up. Had to use a lot of vines too, he's stronger than he looks." A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Tenchi was very much awake, and sweating profusely.
"YAAH!"
Ryoko's battle cry filled the area as she charged once again. This time she slammed into a tree, breaking it in two. She shoved the rest of it absently off of herself as she looked around for her opponent.
She couldn't see the girl, but what was worse was her inability to sense her opponent. This wasn't good, especially if she was to get her Tenchi back soon enough to run off with him herself.
There came a noise from behind her, and Ryoko spun, launching a blast… right into the still naked, still tied up, still heavily sweating Tenchi.
Shocked at what she'd just done, namely the deep frying of her 'one true love', she failed to detect the ki infused fist before it impacted the back of her head and rendered her unconscious. There came a chuckling as Ranma faded back into view, smirking.
Then she sighed and, muttering to herself the whole way, put one of them over each shoulder, moving towards the strange ki signatures she felt in the distance.
Washu, self proclaimed greatest scientist in the universe, frowned as she felt her link to Ryoko cut off suddenly. She was about to look into it, when she was interrupted by blazing sirens.
Well, actually, they weren't sirens, so much as they were miniature versions of herself running around screaming 'Intruder alert! Intruder alert!'. Washu nodded a moment, then turned back to the computer. Then her hands started flying across her keyboard when the full significance of it hit her. Looking through out the house she found… nothing. It started up a basic math equation in her head.
Intruder alert No sign of intruder = Not Good
Not Good Ryoko's link cut off = Bad
Bad Tenchi missing = Really Bad
Then, something did appear on her monitors, out in the back yard. Four people. Ayeka, Yosho, Sasami, and Mr. Inruder. That was worse. The intruder was holding Sasami hostage.
While this was not usually too much of a problem, given that Yosho was armed with the Tenchi-ken and was better trained than Tenchi himself, this was still really bad, as Yosho lay on the ground bleeding to death.
Really bad Yosho down = Deep #&$!#&$ $#!%
Ayeka was sweating. Electrically charged, her guardians surrounding the man holding Sasami hostage, keeping him from going anywhere, they were at a standoff. If he moved, she and the logs would fry him. But if she moved, Sasami was dead. And there was no guarantee that anyone was coming to save them.
Of course, then someone yelled out from the front of the house.
"Hello?"
The distraction was all the assassin needed. The moment Ayeka's attention was diverted, he struck out, smashing both of her guardians into the house wall. Washu appeared then, and a dome appeared overhead. The man cursed. "Release the barrier, or she dies."
Washu glared at him. "Iwamans aren't known for mercy. She'll die either way, we both know it. The knife's poisoned."
The man shrugged and grinned. "Well, you're right. Might as well get it out of the way then." He raised the knife. Ayeka was up in an instant, rushing for her sister. She was far too late as the knife came down…
And slashed right through empty air and into his own stomach.
"Sasami!!"
Washu blinked. Sasami was right there, hugging Ayeka for all she was worth, bawling her eyes out. The assassin raised something to his lips, and drank. "The antidote!"
The antidote also disappeared, just as there was the sound of flesh cracking plastic, making the man slump forward, unconscious. A smirking red haired girl appeared off to the side, bouncing the vial with the antidote in one palm, casually holding the knife in the other. She arched an eyebrow. "So… someone mind telling me what's going on?"
Of course, that was when Ryoko showed up, saw Yosho, the girl, and the knife. She screamed, and launched a pair of energy blasts at her.
Washu blinked. And blinked again. Their red headed interloper seemed to be missing, and Ryoko was near the ground peering everywhere intently. Barely restraining her extreme irritation that Ryoko had scared off the person holding the antidote, Washu tried the diplomatic approach. She lost her control after the first word. "Ryoko, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"
Ryoko was a bit taken aback. "She was…"
"I don't care! She had the antidote to whatever the hell it was that guy in black used to poison Yosho with on her, and you almost vaporized her!"
Now Ryoko was confused. "What guy in black?"
"The one right over… huh?"
The man was gone. Washu's response was immediate. "Crap."
Ranma released the Umi-Sen Ken. He'd been using it since the crazy woman had started pelting energy blasts at him again. Hearing the talk of antidote, he'd decided to sneak into their house and leave the knife and the antidote where they'd be found by anyone with half a brain.
Then he'd gotten the hell out of dodge.
One thing he was convinced of now was that he was back in Japan. Somewhere. As he, and probably Ryoga, could attest to, very few people spoke Japanese outside Japan, so the fact that it came so naturally to all of them was a big clue. Well, I should probably try to find a city. There can't be one too distant from here. I need to find out where I am. And how long I've been out. Probably at least a couple of weeks given I'm back in Japan.
Ranma's musings were interrupted by a voice he'd never wanted to hear again.
"Hello landling."
Ranma turned to Saffron, wings holding him a few feet off the ground, smirking confidently at him. Ranma gulped unconsciously, but readied himself to fight.
I so do not need this right now.
Washu twitched.
She'd found the antidote and the knife on the table just inside.
That was good.
Her sensors hadn't detected the entry, and to her cameras, they'd simply materialized out of thin air.
That was bad.
Tenchi was back.
That was good.
He'd been bound and naked.
That might have been good, had she been allowed to escort him down to the lab (just to make sure he was okay, mind you), but Ayeka accused Ryoko of it, Ryoko accused the red-head from earlier, and the whole thing had ended in a fight.
That was mostly irritating, but still kinda bad.
But now, and she simply could not believe the horrific timing, now the fire-person/thing was back on her scanners, apparently blowing up sections of the forest just to the north.
That was bad.
The bad was outweighing the good at this point, and the sheer compression of it all into the space of a few hours was really starting to make her wig out.
She really didn't need Ryoko's whining right now. It was time to break out the 'mother knows best' card.
"Ryoko! Check it out! Now!"
"But…"
"I am your mother, and you will do as I say! Tenchi will be here for you to ogle later! GO!"
Ryoko went.
Ranma dodged back instinctively as Saffron tossed a fireball. He winced as the grass started to go up. He calmed, bringing up the soul of ice, and made it a bit colder than normal. Not what he'd used on Saffron last time, but it was more than cold enough to keep the flames down.
Several minutes later, Ranma barely skipped out of the way as he wiped the sweat off his brow. He was tired from running and using the Umi-Sen Ken all day, not to mention carrying the pervert and the crazy girl. At least it didn't look like Saffron was doing ay better though, as he was barely able to keep himself off the ground, and his blasts were coming less and less frequently.
Ranma swore silently as Saffron raised both of his hands over his head and gathered his flaming ki for yet another blast. Right then, Ranma got what he needed, a distraction. They both detected the new energy source, but Ranma didn't let himself be distracted by it. Ranma smirked as he gathered the cold ki in his hands with his confidence, even as Saffron swore and turned back.
"Die landling!"
"Mouko Takabisha!"
Ranma, however, lacked sufficient ki and confidence to power the blast properly, and the fireball smashed through it, hitting him, sending him flying back against a tree. As the source got closer, Saffron cursed.
"You're lucky today landling! I'll be back. And I'll destroy everything you hold dear!"
That was the last thing he remembered seeing before he blacked out.
Ryoko returned a short while later with an extremely burnt red-head. She was holding the girl as far away as possible, like she was something to be thrown in the garbage. Washu sighed, but Ryoko dumped the girl on an examination table without further complaint, before looking for (and finding) Tenchi, who was, much to her disappointment, now fully clothed.
Speaking of which, the clothing the red-head had 'borrowed' from Tenchi was burnt beyond repair. Only a few choice strings kept it on her, much to Tenchi's discomfort. Washu sighed and shooed them out. Yes, she'd call if she needed anything. Yes, she'd tell them when Yosho was capable of handling visitors. And YES, she'd inform them when her newest patient woke up.
She grumbled a bit, but soon settled as it appeared that Yosho would be recovering and that no new problems would be presenting themselves almost immediately. Being the greatest scientist in the universe was tiresome at times, but once things were well in hand they always seemed to go better.
Sometime later, the group, minus the still unconscious Yosho, was gathered around the now hospital gown clad girl. Washu grinned. "Would you guys get a grip already? She'll be up in ten seconds. Eight… Seven… Six… Fi-"
She was interrupted by a low groan from the girl. Her eyes wandered from face to face lazily, until she found Ryoko's.
The only reason the leaping kick missed was that Ryoko turned immaterial.
Landing lightly on her feet, she teetered a bit, then fell over. Washu shrugged. "Given the stories, I thought it best to keep her a little sedated." Then she frowned. "But I used enough to take out an elephant. Her metabolism must be something else…"
A bit later than this, with the misunderstandings sorted out, the girl laughed sheepishly, hand scratching the back of her head.
"I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this."
Well, it's been a while, but I had some issues to work out with the plot lines of all three fics. shudder
In any event, the next chapter I post on this series will be Bladed Honor. All you really need to know at this point is that Ranma is alive, so I could have left you hanging last chapter if I'd felt like it. But I didn't.
As far as the ending goes… I couldn't resist.
Reviews:
pspinler writes:
Well, this is a fun premise. Mostly good writing, too, especially in the second half of the chapter.
Obviously Ranma and Sauffron have merged in some way such that only one of them is dominant at a time. Ought to make Sauffron getting his revenge more interesting. :-)
The Tenchi xover bit is odd though. Why in the world are the Tenchi characters involved at all ?
-- Pat
An excellent question, Pat. Why Tenchi Muyo? I need Ranma to stay out of Nerima for a while, while Kenshin's thing goes down. I needed him out, but I didn't want him to be alone, I need characters interacting with eachother or I go nuts writing the thing.
Now, that being said, the cast of Tenchi provide a neat plot opportunity, namely for something besides the Ranma vs. Saffron grudge match. They provide a good place for him to stay, people to train with, and badies to fight. Until I'm ready for him to return to Nerima anyways.
Okay, that seems to be it. Remember, the next chapter I'm releasing for the series is a Bladed Honor chapter. Then, a chapter or two after, we start Dragonic Fate.
Over the shrine, in fact it was several miles over the shrine, a ship waited in orbit, completely cloaked to all monitoring systems. Only another ship of its kind would be able to find it. Specifically, it was an Iwaman ship.
The Iwaman aboard was, well, an assassin. And a highly paid one at that. That was because this particular assassin was Iwaman royalty. He was a somewhat distant cousin, but he was royalty none the less.
His work as an assassin made him special, indispensable, because so few Iwamans plied that particular trade, and it was even rarer among the royalty. Ironically, this did not make him unpopular. He was one of the most desired men on the planet of Iwama, truth be known. Royal Iwaman parties were things of legend among his people. The games of politics were dangerous, and that was their stomping ground. Court was just the awards ceremony.
Jikei, the name of this particular Iwaman royal, always attended these parties with a contract in mind. Not only did he usually fulfill this contract, but he gained several others. The majority of which were carried out before the night was through. Poison is a wonderful thing.
On this job however, poison was not his weapon of choice. Not by itself, in any event. That was the back up. This was going to be fast, in and out, slit the throat and be done with it. Where as most other jobs required major slight of hand, this required major stealth skills. The skill sets were not too far apart, but still required a different way of doing things.
He checked his gear, standard dagger, a stealth suit, optical array, and –just in case- a smooth oblong object, widened at one end, with a hole there. The soft light coming from the hole seemed to pulsate in time the large rock behind him…
Tenchi woke, feeling decidedly uncomfortable. There were a number of reasons for this.
1) He was hog tied, and gagged no less, with some vines. The knots were good and so were their strength. Whoever did this to him had had experience with this sort of thing before.
2) He wasn't wearing any clothing. Given his attacker seemed to be nude when she attacked; she was probably wearing it herself. Well, that and he could see her doing so. That led to the third reason he was uncomfortable.
3) She was carrying him over her shoulder like a bag of rice while jumping from branch to branch at a pace usually compared to more mechanized means of conveyance, like say, a motorcycle, or a jet plane.
Said girl, complete with fire red hair, was muttering under her breath. He couldn't catch much of it, but the things he could catch were a) about him, and b) uncomplimentary.
In other words, she was cursing like a sailor about the 'pervert' she'd found. This did not bode well for our intrepid hero. When she sprinted at breakneck speed over a rickety wooden bridge, which in turn was over a deep canyon, he knew decisively that they were heading away from the shrine. This, too, did not bode well. What is she planning on doing with me?
Several perverted fantasies involving her whisking him away for a tryst formed, but he quickly shook it off. This was a time to be serious. Besides, given the reason she'd beaten the snot out of him they were highly unlikely anyways.
So, he reviewed the situation. He didn't have the leverage to break the vines. He didn't have clothing. Night was swiftly coming, so the previous problem was a bit more pressing than usual. He didn't have any form of access to the tenchi-ken, or his bokken.
So, in short, unless someone else did something, he was screwed. He started sweating.
"Eh? You awake back there?"
Oh boy… not good.
"Well? Say something, jerk."
"Mmmph!"
There was an embarrassed chuckle. "Oh, right. Forgot about that. I went a bit overboard, didn't I?" Then the tone of voice changed. "But you shouldn't have been looking at me you ass!" Then there was a muttering. Hopeful at first because it mentioned an apology, but not so in the end, largely because he didn't think he was the 'uncute tomboy' mentioned.
"MMMPHF!" Tenchi had tried to say something to get himself out of this mess, but the gag wasn't helping. But, luckily for him, it seemed to be enough.
"Oh, alright, already. Settle down a second!"
She stopped fast enough to make dust swirl up around them, and casually dumped him on the ground. She ripped the gag off casually, and leaned down into his face.
"Alright. Where's the nearest place where there's some other people?"
Tenchi gulped. The answer would probably not be pleasant- for either of them.
"Back the way we came."
The red head stared at him incredulously, then looked back that way, probably trying to see if she could see the shrine from here. Then she grumbled.
"I'm an idiot. If I'd been paying attention, I could've saved a lot of time. This is just my luck."
She continued grumbling to herself even as she hoisted Tenchi back up onto her shoulders, and started making a beeline for the shrine the moment they were back over the bridge.
Sensing his companion, such as she was, would not appreciate being bothered, Tenchi contemplated his fate. Then he wished he hadn't. In fact, he hoped they weren't found for some time. Hopefully long enough for him to find some clothes. The consequences of being found in this position were not good. No matter who showed up first.
He started sweating heavily.
Speaking of which, Ryoko had finally spotted Tenchi. The old man had come in saying he'd left Tenchi to think about things. Which meant that he'd knocked Tenchi out and left him in the grass. When he failed to return after several hours, she was immediately dispatched to look for him.
And just maybe we'll forget to come back for a bit, have some 'quality' time.
Ryoko was giggling to herself, just as she'd spotted him. And her. She was stealing Ryoko's Tenchi. She'd already stolen his clothes, and she was dragging the real thing off to who knows where. She had to die now. In fact, death was too good. She dive bombed.
She made a resounding slamming noise when she hit the ground. She looked up to see the red head blinking at her. "Who're you?"
Ryoko didn't answer, she just growled, and flew at the hated red head, throwing a punch. It never landed. Her face however, managed to make a crash landing as the weight of the girl plus Tenchi slammed into her head from above. The girl spoke again. "Can you at least tell me why you're attacking me?"
Ryoko growled, and phased through her opponent, coming up to a more or less standing position, if you don't count the fact that she was floating about a foot off the ground, anyways. Ranma landed softly, having adjusted instantly. She eyed Ryoko. "You wouldn't happen to know a guy named Herb, would you?"
Ryoko's voice was low and dangerous. "Give me Tenchi. Now."
Much to her surprise, the redhead only blinked. "Eh? Is that his name? I didn't catch it before I tied him up. Had to use a lot of vines too, he's stronger than he looks." A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Tenchi was very much awake, and sweating profusely.
"YAAH!"
Ryoko's battle cry filled the area as she charged once again. This time she slammed into a tree, breaking it in two. She shoved the rest of it absently off of herself as she looked around for her opponent.
She couldn't see the girl, but what was worse was her inability to sense her opponent. This wasn't good, especially if she was to get her Tenchi back soon enough to run off with him herself.
There came a noise from behind her, and Ryoko spun, launching a blast… right into the still naked, still tied up, still heavily sweating Tenchi.
Shocked at what she'd just done, namely the deep frying of her 'one true love', she failed to detect the ki infused fist before it impacted the back of her head and rendered her unconscious. There came a chuckling as Ranma faded back into view, smirking.
Then she sighed and, muttering to herself the whole way, put one of them over each shoulder, moving towards the strange ki signatures she felt in the distance.
Washu, self proclaimed greatest scientist in the universe, frowned as she felt her link to Ryoko cut off suddenly. She was about to look into it, when she was interrupted by blazing sirens.
Well, actually, they weren't sirens, so much as they were miniature versions of herself running around screaming 'Intruder alert! Intruder alert!'. Washu nodded a moment, then turned back to the computer. Then her hands started flying across her keyboard when the full significance of it hit her. Looking through out the house she found… nothing. It started up a basic math equation in her head.
Intruder alert No sign of intruder = Not Good
Not Good Ryoko's link cut off = Bad
Bad Tenchi missing = Really Bad
Then, something did appear on her monitors, out in the back yard. Four people. Ayeka, Yosho, Sasami, and Mr. Inruder. That was worse. The intruder was holding Sasami hostage.
While this was not usually too much of a problem, given that Yosho was armed with the Tenchi-ken and was better trained than Tenchi himself, this was still really bad, as Yosho lay on the ground bleeding to death.
Really bad Yosho down = Deep #&$!#&$ $#!%
Ayeka was sweating. Electrically charged, her guardians surrounding the man holding Sasami hostage, keeping him from going anywhere, they were at a standoff. If he moved, she and the logs would fry him. But if she moved, Sasami was dead. And there was no guarantee that anyone was coming to save them.
Of course, then someone yelled out from the front of the house.
"Hello?"
The distraction was all the assassin needed. The moment Ayeka's attention was diverted, he struck out, smashing both of her guardians into the house wall. Washu appeared then, and a dome appeared overhead. The man cursed. "Release the barrier, or she dies."
Washu glared at him. "Iwamans aren't known for mercy. She'll die either way, we both know it. The knife's poisoned."
The man shrugged and grinned. "Well, you're right. Might as well get it out of the way then." He raised the knife. Ayeka was up in an instant, rushing for her sister. She was far too late as the knife came down…
And slashed right through empty air and into his own stomach.
"Sasami!!"
Washu blinked. Sasami was right there, hugging Ayeka for all she was worth, bawling her eyes out. The assassin raised something to his lips, and drank. "The antidote!"
The antidote also disappeared, just as there was the sound of flesh cracking plastic, making the man slump forward, unconscious. A smirking red haired girl appeared off to the side, bouncing the vial with the antidote in one palm, casually holding the knife in the other. She arched an eyebrow. "So… someone mind telling me what's going on?"
Of course, that was when Ryoko showed up, saw Yosho, the girl, and the knife. She screamed, and launched a pair of energy blasts at her.
Washu blinked. And blinked again. Their red headed interloper seemed to be missing, and Ryoko was near the ground peering everywhere intently. Barely restraining her extreme irritation that Ryoko had scared off the person holding the antidote, Washu tried the diplomatic approach. She lost her control after the first word. "Ryoko, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"
Ryoko was a bit taken aback. "She was…"
"I don't care! She had the antidote to whatever the hell it was that guy in black used to poison Yosho with on her, and you almost vaporized her!"
Now Ryoko was confused. "What guy in black?"
"The one right over… huh?"
The man was gone. Washu's response was immediate. "Crap."
Ranma released the Umi-Sen Ken. He'd been using it since the crazy woman had started pelting energy blasts at him again. Hearing the talk of antidote, he'd decided to sneak into their house and leave the knife and the antidote where they'd be found by anyone with half a brain.
Then he'd gotten the hell out of dodge.
One thing he was convinced of now was that he was back in Japan. Somewhere. As he, and probably Ryoga, could attest to, very few people spoke Japanese outside Japan, so the fact that it came so naturally to all of them was a big clue. Well, I should probably try to find a city. There can't be one too distant from here. I need to find out where I am. And how long I've been out. Probably at least a couple of weeks given I'm back in Japan.
Ranma's musings were interrupted by a voice he'd never wanted to hear again.
"Hello landling."
Ranma turned to Saffron, wings holding him a few feet off the ground, smirking confidently at him. Ranma gulped unconsciously, but readied himself to fight.
I so do not need this right now.
Washu twitched.
She'd found the antidote and the knife on the table just inside.
That was good.
Her sensors hadn't detected the entry, and to her cameras, they'd simply materialized out of thin air.
That was bad.
Tenchi was back.
That was good.
He'd been bound and naked.
That might have been good, had she been allowed to escort him down to the lab (just to make sure he was okay, mind you), but Ayeka accused Ryoko of it, Ryoko accused the red-head from earlier, and the whole thing had ended in a fight.
That was mostly irritating, but still kinda bad.
But now, and she simply could not believe the horrific timing, now the fire-person/thing was back on her scanners, apparently blowing up sections of the forest just to the north.
That was bad.
The bad was outweighing the good at this point, and the sheer compression of it all into the space of a few hours was really starting to make her wig out.
She really didn't need Ryoko's whining right now. It was time to break out the 'mother knows best' card.
"Ryoko! Check it out! Now!"
"But…"
"I am your mother, and you will do as I say! Tenchi will be here for you to ogle later! GO!"
Ryoko went.
Ranma dodged back instinctively as Saffron tossed a fireball. He winced as the grass started to go up. He calmed, bringing up the soul of ice, and made it a bit colder than normal. Not what he'd used on Saffron last time, but it was more than cold enough to keep the flames down.
Several minutes later, Ranma barely skipped out of the way as he wiped the sweat off his brow. He was tired from running and using the Umi-Sen Ken all day, not to mention carrying the pervert and the crazy girl. At least it didn't look like Saffron was doing ay better though, as he was barely able to keep himself off the ground, and his blasts were coming less and less frequently.
Ranma swore silently as Saffron raised both of his hands over his head and gathered his flaming ki for yet another blast. Right then, Ranma got what he needed, a distraction. They both detected the new energy source, but Ranma didn't let himself be distracted by it. Ranma smirked as he gathered the cold ki in his hands with his confidence, even as Saffron swore and turned back.
"Die landling!"
"Mouko Takabisha!"
Ranma, however, lacked sufficient ki and confidence to power the blast properly, and the fireball smashed through it, hitting him, sending him flying back against a tree. As the source got closer, Saffron cursed.
"You're lucky today landling! I'll be back. And I'll destroy everything you hold dear!"
That was the last thing he remembered seeing before he blacked out.
Ryoko returned a short while later with an extremely burnt red-head. She was holding the girl as far away as possible, like she was something to be thrown in the garbage. Washu sighed, but Ryoko dumped the girl on an examination table without further complaint, before looking for (and finding) Tenchi, who was, much to her disappointment, now fully clothed.
Speaking of which, the clothing the red-head had 'borrowed' from Tenchi was burnt beyond repair. Only a few choice strings kept it on her, much to Tenchi's discomfort. Washu sighed and shooed them out. Yes, she'd call if she needed anything. Yes, she'd tell them when Yosho was capable of handling visitors. And YES, she'd inform them when her newest patient woke up.
She grumbled a bit, but soon settled as it appeared that Yosho would be recovering and that no new problems would be presenting themselves almost immediately. Being the greatest scientist in the universe was tiresome at times, but once things were well in hand they always seemed to go better.
Sometime later, the group, minus the still unconscious Yosho, was gathered around the now hospital gown clad girl. Washu grinned. "Would you guys get a grip already? She'll be up in ten seconds. Eight… Seven… Six… Fi-"
She was interrupted by a low groan from the girl. Her eyes wandered from face to face lazily, until she found Ryoko's.
The only reason the leaping kick missed was that Ryoko turned immaterial.
Landing lightly on her feet, she teetered a bit, then fell over. Washu shrugged. "Given the stories, I thought it best to keep her a little sedated." Then she frowned. "But I used enough to take out an elephant. Her metabolism must be something else…"
A bit later than this, with the misunderstandings sorted out, the girl laughed sheepishly, hand scratching the back of her head.
"I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this."
Well, it's been a while, but I had some issues to work out with the plot lines of all three fics. shudder
In any event, the next chapter I post on this series will be Bladed Honor. All you really need to know at this point is that Ranma is alive, so I could have left you hanging last chapter if I'd felt like it. But I didn't.
As far as the ending goes… I couldn't resist.
Reviews:
pspinler writes:
Well, this is a fun premise. Mostly good writing, too, especially in the second half of the chapter.
Obviously Ranma and Sauffron have merged in some way such that only one of them is dominant at a time. Ought to make Sauffron getting his revenge more interesting. :-)
The Tenchi xover bit is odd though. Why in the world are the Tenchi characters involved at all ?
-- Pat
An excellent question, Pat. Why Tenchi Muyo? I need Ranma to stay out of Nerima for a while, while Kenshin's thing goes down. I needed him out, but I didn't want him to be alone, I need characters interacting with eachother or I go nuts writing the thing.
Now, that being said, the cast of Tenchi provide a neat plot opportunity, namely for something besides the Ranma vs. Saffron grudge match. They provide a good place for him to stay, people to train with, and badies to fight. Until I'm ready for him to return to Nerima anyways.
Okay, that seems to be it. Remember, the next chapter I'm releasing for the series is a Bladed Honor chapter. Then, a chapter or two after, we start Dragonic Fate.