Ranmazoku Ch 11
By PansutoTarou5925
DISCLAIMER - I do not own the rights to Slayers nor do I
own the rights to Ranma ½. Long live the rightful owners of
these two fine anime. This work is non-commercial and is done
only in imitation of Rumiko Takahashi and Hajime Kanzaka.
Imitation is the sincerest flattery, no? US rights owned by Viz
and Software Sculptors. If I mention the Senshi, Sailor Moon
belongs to Naoko Takeuchi(Sp, anyone?) and.. and.. I dunno
who has the US rights, but it's theirs not mine. (I'm drawing a
blank)
Author's note - This story originated from an idea on
Nighthawk's page and is some guy named NesTea's fault. If
he's reading this, I'm curious to know what he thinks of all this.
Questioning me would be like questioning Xellos if you ask
when the next section comes out, because it's a secret.
ALTAVERSE WARNING - This is an ALTAVERSE. Events,
characters and the like may not resemble canon. People who are
rabid canon-thumpers beware! (and eat a Dragon Slave while
you're at it)
SPECIAL WARNING - This comes after Ranmazoku and
Ranmazoku Special. Don't get lost on me.
NOTE - [...] indicates telepathic communication between
Ranma and Hotaru in the Astral plane.
Her human form sucked.
Well, actually, it was quite powerful and pretty, and she liked it
for old times' sake, but that didn't change her fundamental
opinion of it, which was firmly based on the one thing that truly
mattered to her.
And what truly mattered to her, like what truly mattered to all
mazoku, was pure, raw, unadulterated power. Attitude was just
icing on the cake. But, of course, there were problems with
maintaining her inhuman, monstrous form all the time. For one,
it was conspicuous. Two, it was bigger and more inconvenient
to move around this desert castle they had fixed up.
Third, and most importantly, Ranma didn't train her unless she
were in her human form.
"Center yourself." Ranma said, also in his human form at the
moment. He was sitting in a lotus stance across from her, a
malignant dark aura draining the life from everything nearby. A
fly touched the aura of shadow and died, the raw hatred put out
by Ranma killing it just by overwhelming the fly's almost
nonexistent mind with malice towards all living things. Plants
growing in the packed dirt of the courtyard, the few weeds that
had survived out this far from the oasis, turned brown and
wilted. "Center on pain, despair, anger. You want these
emotions to flow through your corporeal shadow, the reflection
of your astral form."
Hotaru clenched her teeth and focused on the things she hated,
every painful moment of her lives. She thought of the other
Senshi, of the Moon Kingdom, of the city of peace and refuge
the reborn Senshi had built in the wasteland of anarchy Ranma
had left behind on Earth. She thought of Nabiki, her only rival.
She started, a whisper at first, but progressing to a steady
drumbeat cadence of fury. "I hate... and I hate... and I hate... I
hate, I hate!" she shrieked, her own aura powering up and
flashing with streaks of purple flashing through its shadowy
depths. More plants died; where her and Ranma's auras
touched, they fought viciously, crackling like a battle of
thunderstorms.
"Now," Ranma said, still sitting quietly, "focus on destruction.
Focus carefully on how you want to destroy your opponent.
Focus on how you will strike your opponent. Imagine the killing
blow - pull the hatred to it!" Ranma's aura suddenly swirled
into his hand, vanishing into it, as he punched down from his
lotus position. Instantly the ground rocked under their feet and
a huge plume of dust rose in the courtyard, and clods of dirt
rained down on her head. Looking through the mess with magic
eyes, Hotaru saw that Ranma was now hovering just off-center
over a crater that nearly extended to her feet.
Hotaru similarly envisioned her own hand smashing into an
imaginary opponent, the impact obliterating all but a few brown
hairs to drift on the wind. The ground exploded under her; she
was only dimly aware of having punched into the ground like
Ranma had.
"Excellent, Hotaru. It was hard adapting martial arts techniques
to mazoku, as we're really on a separate plane of existence, but
this will give us an advantage the next time we need to go
undercover."
"Is that it for training today, Ranma?" Hotaru asked. She hoped
not; that meant she could hang around him longer.
"Actually, yes. However, I want to know what's happening in
the outside world." Good, Hotaru thought, she could explain
what they had learned.
"The nations formerly within the god-sealing field want to send
an expedition to explore the outside world. Representatives of
all the nations, plus the high officials of several governments,
most notably Seyruun, have gathered in Saillune to launch the
fleet." Hotaru said.
"And all the information we have on nations outside the former
field is a thousand years out of date." Ranma grumbled. He sat
quietly for a few seconds.
"We could always disguise ourselves as the obsessive fans of
Lina and Amelia again." Hotaru said. Suggesting that Ranma
dress up as a girl was always good for a laugh - and a rare taste
of negative emotions from the more powerful mazoku.
Sure enough, Ranma's eye twitched. "Why should we do...
that?"
"Well, as the royal family of Seyruun is there, then Amelia is
there, therefore one of her crazed fans could plausibly be there.
Lina Inverse would probably want to go to new lands, so one of
her crazed fans could also plausibly be there. And even if
they're not, no one will question us." Hotaru reasoned,
explaining the logic of her course.
"What if we just go as we are, but in more normal clothes?"
Ranma countered, not really wanting to be a girl for any length
of time.
"Because we have more chance of getting to go on the ships if
we can tag along with Lina!"
"Big deal," Ranma said, "we could just teleport over to the new
kingdoms."
"We'd have our steps dogged by all the other mazoku lords,
and there'd be fights everywhere."
"Point."
Hotaru decided to use her trump card. "Besides, you might get
the chance to annoy your father this way."
Ranma's eyes brightened. "OK, I'm sold!"
"Explain to me once again why I decided to do this?" Ranma
asked, scratching her red hair. Having it loose like this annoyed
her to no end, and the headband was even more irritating. It
simply wasn't what she was used to.
"The off chance of annoying Xellos." Hotaru whispered. She
herself looked sickeningly cute in her faux-Amelia outfit, down
to the sickeningly cute pink trim. Hotaru frowned. If they did
end up hanging around the real Lina and Amelia, she needed to
give her some fashion tips. Purple, for instance. And the use of
ribbons and bows instead of these silly star-jeweled pins as
accessories.
Ranma ignored Hotaru's intense look at her wrist, correctly
surmising that the current source of her anger was too girly for
him to care about. She silently and surreptitiously snagged a
strip of ribs from a food vendor and stuffed the entire thing in
her mouth, crushing it - meat, fat, and bones - with total disdain
for normal, human eating patterns. She wiped her hands on
someone's cloak, again without being noticed, then picked
someone's pocket, stuffed the purse in another guy's belt, and
bumped both of her victims.
"Thief!" the person he had just pickpocketed screamed in
outrage, pointing at his bag of coins, plainly visible on the other
man's belt.
"What the-" the other man managed before getting punched in
the jaw. He rubbed his chin. "You bastard! Want a fight, do ya?
I'll give you a fight!" With that he lunged at his opponent and
tackled him, quickly starting a brawl that engulfed the nearby
crowd in seconds.
"Finished having fun?" Hotaru asked acidly. Inwardly, she had
to admit that the emotions felt pretty good. Ranma nodded
broadly, an extra spring in her step.
It wasn't hard finding where the fleet was. A blind, deaf, and
dumb person with the IQ of a rock who was wholly unable to
find the water - such as Ryoga - would find that it was, in fact,
almost impossible to miss the fleet even if you wanted to,
because a steady push of humanity towards the docks forced
people to take a look at the ships whether they wanted to or
not. Of course, the sheer number of people complicated their
search, but not as much as it would have been if they were
looking for anyone else. Though Lina Inverse was many things,
and would tell you so herself if you gave her a quarter of the
chance, inconspicuous was not one of them.
"Shit." Ranma groused, trying to look over the crowd. "I hate
being so damn short when I'm a girl." Hotaru looked at her
with an expression of long suffering. It was the one thing that
irritated Ranma-sama to no end, that her female body was
shorter than any of his lieutenants. Hotaru had grown up,
mostly, on becoming a mazoku, but Ranma had already been
close enough to adult. Even so...
"Why don't you just change how tall you are, instead of
bitching about it so much?" Hotaru asked, exasperated. "You
drained the magic of Jusenkyo, it shouldn't be that hard!"
"Lina Inverse has already seen me like this, remember? No one
grows a foot or so in a couple of weeks." Ranma fired back.
Even so, Hotaru noticed that Ranma gained two inches
suddenly. She smirked and looked away. Sometimes Ranma
could be so prideful. Changing her appearance probably hadn't
occured to her up to that point. A flash of red caught her
attention, however.
Hotaru swatted an overweight man out of the way one-handed,
sending him crashing into a food stand. Jumping up on a crate
to get a better vantage point, she looked down at one of the
docks by where the various dignitaries of all the nations would
be giving speeches soon. Sure enough, the bright red hair could
be seen moving through the crowd. And being pulled along
behind was Gourry Gabriev. "I see them." Hotaru said, jumping
back down. "Let's fly!"
Ranma nodded, running into the crowd. Normally this wouldn't
go anywhere, as the press of humanity was too strong for
anyone merely human to shove their way through, but Ranma
and Hotaru were hardly human. More people met the same fate
as the fat man, as the two hurried through. At one point, Ranma
stole a page from the Tokyo subways and shocked someone
with an arc of crackling electricity, jolting them out of her way.
And when someone in the crowd also reminded her of the
Tokyo subway, by groping her..
Blue eyes flashed and the culprit's life flashed before his eyes.
He had no idea what the girl was, but human she wasn't. For
her part, Ranma managed to check the impulse to cause him to
blow up, or melt, or vaporize into motes of dust, and settled for
the less flashy method of turning him into a cockroach. Her
boot stomped down.
"Got off lucky." Ranma growled, before rushing to catch up to
Hotaru. Hotaru was already on the dock, as a few people
getting bumped into the water attested.
This was the incomplete Chapter 11... probably never before
seen, IIRC, except by Tomas and maybe a handful of others. I
think I might have posted a version on the forum a long time
back, I'm uncertain. Oh well.
Ranmazoku Ch 11
By PansutoTarou5925
DISCLAIMER - I do not own the rights to Slayers nor do I
own the rights to Ranma ½. Long live the rightful owners of
these two fine anime. This work is non-commercial and is done
only in imitation of Rumiko Takahashi and Hajime Kanzaka.
Imitation is the sincerest flattery, no? US rights owned by Viz
and Software Sculptors. If I mention the Senshi, Sailor Moon
belongs to Naoko Takeuchi(Sp, anyone?) and.. and.. I dunno
who has the US rights, but it's theirs not mine. (I'm drawing a
blank)
Author's note - This story originated from an idea on
Nighthawk's page and is some guy named NesTea's fault. If
he's reading this, I'm curious to know what he thinks of all this.
Questioning me would be like questioning Xellos if you ask
when the next section comes out, because it's a secret.
ALTAVERSE WARNING - This is an ALTAVERSE. Events,
characters and the like may not resemble canon. People who are
rabid canon-thumpers beware! (and eat a Dragon Slave while
you're at it)
SPECIAL WARNING - This comes after Ranmazoku and
Ranmazoku Special. Don't get lost on me.
NOTE - [...] indicates telepathic communication between
Ranma and Hotaru in the Astral plane.
Her human form sucked.
Well, actually, it was quite powerful and pretty, and she liked it
for old times' sake, but that didn't change her fundamental
opinion of it, which was firmly based on the one thing that truly
mattered to her.
And what truly mattered to her, like what truly mattered to all
mazoku, was pure, raw, unadulterated power. Attitude was just
icing on the cake. But, of course, there were problems with
maintaining her inhuman, monstrous form all the time. For one,
it was conspicuous. Two, it was bigger and more inconvenient
to move around this desert castle they had fixed up.
Third, and most importantly, Ranma didn't train her unless she
were in her human form.
"Center yourself." Ranma said, also in his human form at the
moment. He was sitting in a lotus stance across from her, a
malignant dark aura draining the life from everything nearby. A
fly touched the aura of shadow and died, the raw hatred put out
by Ranma killing it just by overwhelming the fly's almost
nonexistent mind with malice towards all living things. Plants
growing in the packed dirt of the courtyard, the few weeds that
had survived out this far from the oasis, turned brown and
wilted. "Center on pain, despair, anger. You want these
emotions to flow through your corporeal shadow, the reflection
of your astral form."
Hotaru clenched her teeth and focused on the things she hated,
every painful moment of her lives. She thought of the other
Senshi, of the Moon Kingdom, of the city of peace and refuge
the reborn Senshi had built in the wasteland of anarchy Ranma
had left behind on Earth. She thought of Nabiki, her only rival.
She started, a whisper at first, but progressing to a steady
drumbeat cadence of fury. "I hate... and I hate... and I hate... I
hate, I hate!" she shrieked, her own aura powering up and
flashing with streaks of purple flashing through its shadowy
depths. More plants died; where her and Ranma's auras
touched, they fought viciously, crackling like a battle of
thunderstorms.
"Now," Ranma said, still sitting quietly, "focus on destruction.
Focus carefully on how you want to destroy your opponent.
Focus on how you will strike your opponent. Imagine the killing
blow - pull the hatred to it!" Ranma's aura suddenly swirled
into his hand, vanishing into it, as he punched down from his
lotus position. Instantly the ground rocked under their feet and
a huge plume of dust rose in the courtyard, and clods of dirt
rained down on her head. Looking through the mess with magic
eyes, Hotaru saw that Ranma was now hovering just off-center
over a crater that nearly extended to her feet.
Hotaru similarly envisioned her own hand smashing into an
imaginary opponent, the impact obliterating all but a few brown
hairs to drift on the wind. The ground exploded under her; she
was only dimly aware of having punched into the ground like
Ranma had.
"Excellent, Hotaru. It was hard adapting martial arts techniques
to mazoku, as we're really on a separate plane of existence, but
this will give us an advantage the next time we need to go
undercover."
"Is that it for training today, Ranma?" Hotaru asked. She hoped
not; that meant she could hang around him longer.
"Actually, yes. However, I want to know what's happening in
the outside world." Good, Hotaru thought, she could explain
what they had learned.
"The nations formerly within the god-sealing field want to send
an expedition to explore the outside world. Representatives of
all the nations, plus the high officials of several governments,
most notably Seyruun, have gathered in Saillune to launch the
fleet." Hotaru said.
"And all the information we have on nations outside the former
field is a thousand years out of date." Ranma grumbled. He sat
quietly for a few seconds.
"We could always disguise ourselves as the obsessive fans of
Lina and Amelia again." Hotaru said. Suggesting that Ranma
dress up as a girl was always good for a laugh - and a rare taste
of negative emotions from the more powerful mazoku.
Sure enough, Ranma's eye twitched. "Why should we do...
that?"
"Well, as the royal family of Seyruun is there, then Amelia is
there, therefore one of her crazed fans could plausibly be there.
Lina Inverse would probably want to go to new lands, so one of
her crazed fans could also plausibly be there. And even if
they're not, no one will question us." Hotaru reasoned,
explaining the logic of her course.
"What if we just go as we are, but in more normal clothes?"
Ranma countered, not really wanting to be a girl for any length
of time.
"Because we have more chance of getting to go on the ships if
we can tag along with Lina!"
"Big deal," Ranma said, "we could just teleport over to the new
kingdoms."
"We'd have our steps dogged by all the other mazoku lords,
and there'd be fights everywhere."
"Point."
Hotaru decided to use her trump card. "Besides, you might get
the chance to annoy your father this way."
Ranma's eyes brightened. "OK, I'm sold!"
"Explain to me once again why I decided to do this?" Ranma
asked, scratching her red hair. Having it loose like this annoyed
her to no end, and the headband was even more irritating. It
simply wasn't what she was used to.
"The off chance of annoying Xellos." Hotaru whispered. She
herself looked sickeningly cute in her faux-Amelia outfit, down
to the sickeningly cute pink trim. Hotaru frowned. If they did
end up hanging around the real Lina and Amelia, she needed to
give her some fashion tips. Purple, for instance. And the use of
ribbons and bows instead of these silly star-jeweled pins as
accessories.
Ranma ignored Hotaru's intense look at her wrist, correctly
surmising that the current source of her anger was too girly for
him to care about. She silently and surreptitiously snagged a
strip of ribs from a food vendor and stuffed the entire thing in
her mouth, crushing it - meat, fat, and bones - with total disdain
for normal, human eating patterns. She wiped her hands on
someone's cloak, again without being noticed, then picked
someone's pocket, stuffed the purse in another guy's belt, and
bumped both of her victims.
"Thief!" the person he had just pickpocketed screamed in
outrage, pointing at his bag of coins, plainly visible on the other
man's belt.
"What the-" the other man managed before getting punched in
the jaw. He rubbed his chin. "You bastard! Want a fight, do ya?
I'll give you a fight!" With that he lunged at his opponent and
tackled him, quickly starting a brawl that engulfed the nearby
crowd in seconds.
"Finished having fun?" Hotaru asked acidly. Inwardly, she had
to admit that the emotions felt pretty good. Ranma nodded
broadly, an extra spring in her step.
It wasn't hard finding where the fleet was. A blind, deaf, and
dumb person with the IQ of a rock who was wholly unable to
find the water - such as Ryoga - would find that it was, in fact,
almost impossible to miss the fleet even if you wanted to,
because a steady push of humanity towards the docks forced
people to take a look at the ships whether they wanted to or
not. Of course, the sheer number of people complicated their
search, but not as much as it would have been if they were
looking for anyone else. Though Lina Inverse was many things,
and would tell you so herself if you gave her a quarter of the
chance, inconspicuous was not one of them.
"Shit." Ranma groused, trying to look over the crowd. "I hate
being so damn short when I'm a girl." Hotaru looked at her
with an expression of long suffering. It was the one thing that
irritated Ranma-sama to no end, that her female body was
shorter than any of his lieutenants. Hotaru had grown up,
mostly, on becoming a mazoku, but Ranma had already been
close enough to adult. Even so...
"Why don't you just change how tall you are, instead of
bitching about it so much?" Hotaru asked, exasperated. "You
drained the magic of Jusenkyo, it shouldn't be that hard!"
"Lina Inverse has already seen me like this, remember? No one
grows a foot or so in a couple of weeks." Ranma fired back.
Even so, Hotaru noticed that Ranma gained two inches
suddenly. She smirked and looked away. Sometimes Ranma
could be so prideful. Changing her appearance probably hadn't
occured to her up to that point. A flash of red caught her
attention, however.
Hotaru swatted an overweight man out of the way one-handed,
sending him crashing into a food stand. Jumping up on a crate
to get a better vantage point, she looked down at one of the
docks by where the various dignitaries of all the nations would
be giving speeches soon. Sure enough, the bright red hair could
be seen moving through the crowd. And being pulled along
behind was Gourry Gabriev. "I see them." Hotaru said, jumping
back down. "Let's fly!"
Ranma nodded, running into the crowd. Normally this wouldn't
go anywhere, as the press of humanity was too strong for
anyone merely human to shove their way through, but Ranma
and Hotaru were hardly human. More people met the same fate
as the fat man, as the two hurried through. At one point, Ranma
stole a page from the Tokyo subways and shocked someone
with an arc of crackling electricity, jolting them out of her way.
And when someone in the crowd also reminded her of the
Tokyo subway, by groping her..
Blue eyes flashed and the culprit's life flashed before his eyes.
He had no idea what the girl was, but human she wasn't. For
her part, Ranma managed to check the impulse to cause him to
blow up, or melt, or vaporize into motes of dust, and settled for
the less flashy method of turning him into a cockroach. Her
boot stomped down.
"Got off lucky." Ranma growled, before rushing to catch up to
Hotaru. Hotaru was already on the dock, as a few people
getting bumped into the water attested.
This was the incomplete Chapter 11... probably never before
seen, IIRC, except by Tomas and maybe a handful of others. I
think I might have posted a version on the forum a long time
back, I'm uncertain. Oh well.