Honor redefined
I must reiterate my thanks to my proof reader Jesanae Tekani
Ch2:
A new start
Ranma sighed at the unfairness of it all. He had just finished catching up on his sleep in time for lunch when he realized that he had forgotten it. The stupid tomboy had rushed him out before he had had a chance of grabbing it from the counter where Kasumi had prepared it.
"Here, Ranma, I made you lunch."
'Great, now the tomboy is going to try to feed me her toxic waste,' he almost groaned. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate someone making him lunch, he did. It was just that he hated being used as a guinea pig just because Akane couldn't accept the fact that she just couldn't cook.
"Ranma-honey, I heard you forgot your lunch today! Well, don't worry, I'll have you some extra special okonomiyaki, coming right up!"
'Okay, I'm saved; now all I've got to do is get rid of the baneful sludge that Akane made,' Ranma thought as he watched Ukyo set up her portable barbeque and start cooking him lunch. The smell had already started him drooling in anticipation.
"What do you think you're doing, hussy?" Akane yelled, starting to lose her temper. "I made him lunch and he is going to eat it."
'Well at least it's only two of the girls here; their fights aren't nearly as bad as when all three are involved.'
"Who you calling hussy, stupid violent pervert girl?"
'Okay, I'm doomed.' All three of his fiancées had arrived, distruction and a painfull beating could only follow.
"Ranma eat too too delicious Raman, yes?" Shampoo chirped as he started to back away from his three fiancés.
"Ranma, you will eat the lunch that I made for you!" Akane demanded.
"Ignore that biohazard of Akane's and have lunch with your cute fiancée," Ukyo entreated.
'This isn't good…' Already Akane had started to generate a very large aura based on anger and jealousy. Ukyo had unsheathed her large spatula, quickly forgetting the burning okonomiyaki on the grill, and Shampoo had recovered her bonbori.
As he continued to edge away from the time bomb that was his three angry fiancées, he bumped into Nabiki. "3000 yen and I'll resolve this problem for you." She pointed in the direction off his fiancés. He just nodded eagerly and reached into his pocket for his rapidly diminishing supply of cash.
"Ranma, you pervert, isn't your harem large enough? Stop flirting with my sister!" And with a massive swing of her mallet, Akane sent Ranma flying of into the direction of the dojo.
*****
Stomping off in anger, Akane didn't expect this argument to be any different from the ones they had had before. Even when Ranma didn't return to school for the afternoon classes, Akane wasn't too worried; she just figured that she had hit him a little harder than usual. It wasn't until she arrived home to be greeted by a cleaned-out guest room that she rethought some of her actions.
*****
Ranma growled as he sailed through the air toward the dojo. It wasn't so much the mallet strike that had hurt, but the lack of trust. He had always tried to live honestly and show character, despite the constant manipulations and blunders that his father kept springing on him. It wasn't so much his actions that were judged, though, but his appearance.
Even he realized that his lack of education, his constant unthinking comments and his over-eagerness to fight were corroding his image. How could he change that, though? School was useless; sure, he managed to pass everything, but that wasn't to say he understood it. He couldn't when he was missing all of the knowledge that what they were trying to teach him was based on.
The constant moving around and training didn't really give him time to think things through or socialize. Everything that wasn't combat related he delegated to his father, so in effect his father became his brain. Now, though, he had been in Nerima longer than he had stayed anywhere. It had awarded him time to think and learn that there were things out there that, while being useful to know, weren't combat related.
Of course, with so many people hounding him at all hours, he hadn't had time to learn many of them, and so he remained the same. Ranma realized that he presented the image of someone who couldn't think his way out of a fight-who didn't want to. He became someone who didn't have any aspirations in life but to fight.
That, would change today, but the environment in Nerima wasn't suited for the type of training he had in mind to help him change things. He would, he decided, need to go on a training trip to think things through and try to change the way he had been raised; it wasn't too late he decided to retrain the way he thought. His martial arts progress had been slowed of late also, this would be the perfect opportunity to correct that.
Ranma just cursed as he landed in the Koi pond. It didn't matter, though, and if he had his way then this would be the last time that happened. Climbing out and being careful not to slip on the wet rocks that surrounded the koi pond, Ranma looked up to see Kasumui watching him from the house.
"Yo, Kasumi. Tell pops That I'm off on a training trip. I'll be back soon and tell him that ill get more trainin done without him and Akane taggin along."
He was sure that Kasumi would relate the message just as he was sure that the to old men, Akane and possibly the Amazons would come looking for him. That was okay, he and his father had been hiding from people almost the entire trip and since he had come to Nerima he had learnt a few new stealth techniques. They wouldn't find him before he was ready for them to.
With that, he went upstairs and packed his few belongings. When he returned, he would be a changed man.
*****
Yosho looked around as he sat for the evening meal that Sasami had cooked. Where once mealtimes would be filled with life and activity, today there was a solemn atmosphere. He had called a family meeting, and yet where once he would expect six others, now only Sasami and Ayeka were in attendance, Tenchi's death had affected them all. Mihoshi had left to rejoin the Galaxy police and to place a report, possibly undergoing reassignment. Washu hadn't left her lab since his body had been found, and Ryoko had gone mad with grief and run off to who knows where.
The reason for the meeting really only affected the two princesses sitting in front of him anyway. 'It is a testament to their strength that they are here at all,' Yosho thought. "I have received communications from Azusa that you are to return immediately to Jurai. There have been events that directly threaten the stability of the empire and you are needed there." He didn't even bother mentioning that it would be safer on Jurai, or that he was being recalled as well. He didn't plan to leave Earth anytime soon; he had come here for a reason and he wouldn't be leaving until he had achieved what he had come to do.
"But we have to find out and punish those responsible for Tenchi's murder! We can't possibly leave until whoever is responsible pays for their crimes! And what about Ryoko? How can we leave this planet to that pirate's tender mercies? " asserted Ayeka bursting into tears. Sasami just sat there staring at the food that she had prepared.
"Azusa is preparing a fleet to escort you two, which should be arriving shortly," continued Yosho, completely ignoring Ayeka's hysterical outburst. Washu had kept him up to date with events in the empire, and he was even less inclined to return than he would have been normally. What the people needed wasn't someone who would further destabilize the empire, though with Tenchi dead there was only one other possibility.
His other daughter had also had a son, one that he had not seen since his birth, when he had inhibited the boy's Jurian powers. While he had been a little skeptical about his daughter's marriage, he knew that she always kept her family foremost in her mind. Nodoko would not let the piece of trash she had married interfere with the way her family was run, which was a good thing, since he had held no secrets from her. Yes, he would need to find out what had happened to his estranged grandson.
*****
Nodoko Saotome had been, for the last eight months. preparing for the return of her son and husband. Their trip, she knew, had ended over six months ago, but she didn't doubt that they would return, at least to Tokyo. She had built a dojo on the back of her estate so that her son would be able to teach the family art when he returned, and she had also been redecorating the house. Her son would be a man among men and one of the best martial artists in the world. However Nodoko didn't deceive herself; Ranma, no matter how good he was or what training regiment Genma put him through, just would not have the experience required to be the best.
When the phone rang, Nodoko ran for it as she had done every time over the last six months. "Daughter, I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news." It was her father, Yosho, and those words struck terror into her heart. The combination of what he was saying and the sound of his voice filled her stomach with dread. Yosho had always been a strong and hearty man whom nothing could faze, and his voice had normally reflected the confidence that he held; today his voice held no confidence and little strength only bleak despair.
"Tenchi has been assassinated.
All at once it was as if a weight from her heart had been removed. Her son wasn't dead-but then a different weight replaced it. "No, you said he wouldn't be needed for the succession. I haven't seen him in over ten years, Father-how can you think of taking him away now?"
"Daughter, didn't you hear what I just said? Tenchi was assassinated. Assassinated! It is even more important now that we have a clear line of succession." The argument with his daughter was returning strength to his voice, if not the confidence that she remembered it containing.
"It doesn't need my little boy, Father, it has you! After all, aren't you the son of the emperor? The line of succession seems clear enough to me," Nodoko retorted, though her argument seemed to lack spark as though she had suggested such before and already knew what the reply would be.
"You know full well what the results of that decision, daughter. It is the reason that I exiled myself to this planet in the first place. If I were to inherit the throne, the empire would be split down the middle, and we would be looking at civil war at best and annihilation at worst. Both the council and the people need someone to eliminate division, not create it."
Nodoko sighed at the futility of the conversation; she had always known it would come to this. It was in part why she had chosen such a dishonorable husband as Genma. It was also why she had sent Ranma off with him at such a young age. If what she suspected was to occur, then her son needed to be strong enough to protect both himself and others. Genma was a first class martial artist with a lot of potential, even if his master had squandered a lot of it.
The first few years of Ranma's life, she had taught him to live with integrity and honor, enough that Genma's dishonorable ways would not completely rub off on him. The brain is an incredible organism, and those first few years were very important in a child's development. Oh, she was very certain that he had picked up a number of terrible habits from her disgusting husband, but after those first few years they would not be impossible to squash.
"There is a little problem if you expect to just come around and pick him up, though, Father," she said with a sigh.
"Nodoko, this is no time to play games. The situation is grave." Yosho's voice held a warning.
"Officially, my son's training trip finished six months ago, and yet were is he? I'm positive that he isn't dead, but the only other possibility is that Genma has done something really stupid and is hiding the boy from me."
"It is very important that you find him, daughter. Let me know if you need help."
Nodoko rubbed her eyes as she hung up; as hard as it was for her, she was sure that what her father planned for her son would be harder. She just hoped that Genma had done a reasonable job of raising her son, and that her father would let her join him when the time came.
Somewhere in Nerima, a panda shivered despite his thick fur coat.
*****
Ryoko just lay with her back towards a tree and sobbed. After running from the image of Tenchi's body, still slumped over a pool of dried blood, for what seemed like hours, she had found herself in a forest. It was strange, though, since she was sure that she had already passed through the forest that bordered the Misaki Shrine.
'It really doesn't matter were I am, I will never be with my Tenchi again' she thought. "This wasn't how things were meant to end," she mumbled as her sobbing intensified. When Yosho had defeated her and sealed her in the cave that was to become her tomb for the next seven hundred years, she had felt nothing but relief. She had hated how Kagato had enslaved her will and used her as a living weapon. Ryoko remembered well the faces of those she had slaughtered while she had been under his control.
While she had been trapped in that cave she could feel Kagato's control over her slipping. It was decades later, however, that his control had been finally silenced. She had been looking forward to being released soon after that. After all, you do not blame a knife or a gun for the use its owner puts it to.
She had been fortunate, though, for she had been created from a combination of Washu's ova and some genetic material from the Mass. While the powers she had been given from using the gems that Washu had given her had been great, they weren't the only powers that she had.
It was true that it was the power of the gems that made her such a terrific weapon and had drawn Kagato's attention, but when Yosho had taken those gems from her and trapped her in her tomb, it hadn't removed the powers that she had been born with.
As a result, she had been able to create an immaterial double to keep track of what was going on on the outside. Due to the energy draining properties of the cave, it wasn't something that she could do all the time, but it was something that she could do enough to keep her sanity.
It had been centuries more than she had anticipated before she had once again started hoping for her eventual release. Tenchi, even as a young boy, had seemed to almost sense her presence; at least, he had always seemed to know when her immaterial double was around, even if he didn't show any evidence of being able to see or hear her.
It was something new. In all the centuries of containment, Tenchi had been the only one that seemed to be able to sense her. Not even Yosho, crown prince of Jurai, someone who had been powerful enough to stop her at the height of her power, had been able to do that.
So naturally, she had taken an interest in this small boy. Ryoko had followed him everywhere when she had had the energy to, and throughout the years had fallen in love with him.
It seemed to be a natural ending to an unnatural love affair when he had freed her from her imprisonment. It was her hope that she would be able to further her relationship with the boy. Then Ayeka had arrived, complicating things, especially when she seemed to take a liking to Tenchi.
She still shuddered when she remembered Kagato, where Tenchi had nearly died. Then there had been Dr. Clay's assassination attempt. It had all worked out in the end, though, and she had even become more human through her merging with Zero.
Things at that point seemed so certain to work out; she had been getting closer to Tenchi and he seemed powerful enough that she didn't need to worry about him dropping dead one day. He had, though, and every time she closed her eyes, she could see those filmy eyes that bespoke the end to her fairy tale ending.
That just wouldn't do. She would join him for her fairy tale ending even in death. She couldn't do it with a blade; her increased healing would make that extremely messy. No, all she needed to do was replicate the draining properties in the cave, and with the gem on her wrist, that would be relatively easy to do.
Ryoko raised her arms and concentrated in pushing her energy into the surrounding woodlands. It seemed to be working, too; already she could feel her strength lessening. She would be with her beloved Tenchi soon. She would have her happy ending.
*****
Ranma stretched out his limbs after a hard day's run. It had been a couple of days since he had left Nerima, and he felt great. He hadn't realized how repressive the atmosphere had become in Tokyo.
No more interfering old men, no more fiancées and no more old ghouls. It had given him an idea why his father seemed to run from his problems; it would be so easy for him never to return to Nerima. The weight of his responsibilities would force him to return, though, and sooner rather than later.
Currently he was at Yakushima, the furthest he could be from Tokyo and still be in Japan. Relatively undeveloped and remote, it provided him the best chance he had of remaining undisturbed for a couple of weeks. If he didn't move by then, the chances of being found by the Nerima crew began to stack up.
Even though he had had to travel hard and fast to avoid detection, Ranma had been able to use his creed of turning everything into training to garner some quality stealth and conditioning practice. Now that he had arrived at his destination, he could use the extra time that he wasn't traveling to broaden his training regime.
Casually brushing past a low branch, Ranma lowered his camping pack. 'This will be a good place to camp,' he thought, looking around at the clearing he had chosen. It was far enough from town not to cause any problem and near enough to fresh water that he could make do with the rations he had gathered on his way.
Ranma stopped setting up his camp as he felt a rush of energy into the surrounding wilderness. At first he had thought it was Ki, but that didn't seem right-it was definitely something that he needed to investigate. Dropping his half-constructed tent, he dashed off to find the epicenter.
Reaching it, he was quite surprised to see a rather attractive girl around his age leaching her own energy into the surroundings. 'So what was that other energy I felt earlier?' Ranma just shook his head and tried to remember the shiatsu point that Tofu and used on him, both to block Ki flow and induce unconsciousness.
When he was sure he had it correct he jumped down from the branch he had hidden himself on and applied it. Not a moment to soon, it appeared; she had almost drained herself dry. Whatever she had done almost killed her. Ranma shrugged to himself and started dragging her to his campsite, but not before making sure that she was really unconscious. The last thing he needed was for her to wake up and jump to conclusions.
Besides, it looked like she needed some care, which she wouldn't get slumped over almost dead in the woods.
I must reiterate my thanks to my proof reader Jesanae Tekani
Ch2:
A new start
Ranma sighed at the unfairness of it all. He had just finished catching up on his sleep in time for lunch when he realized that he had forgotten it. The stupid tomboy had rushed him out before he had had a chance of grabbing it from the counter where Kasumi had prepared it.
"Here, Ranma, I made you lunch."
'Great, now the tomboy is going to try to feed me her toxic waste,' he almost groaned. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate someone making him lunch, he did. It was just that he hated being used as a guinea pig just because Akane couldn't accept the fact that she just couldn't cook.
"Ranma-honey, I heard you forgot your lunch today! Well, don't worry, I'll have you some extra special okonomiyaki, coming right up!"
'Okay, I'm saved; now all I've got to do is get rid of the baneful sludge that Akane made,' Ranma thought as he watched Ukyo set up her portable barbeque and start cooking him lunch. The smell had already started him drooling in anticipation.
"What do you think you're doing, hussy?" Akane yelled, starting to lose her temper. "I made him lunch and he is going to eat it."
'Well at least it's only two of the girls here; their fights aren't nearly as bad as when all three are involved.'
"Who you calling hussy, stupid violent pervert girl?"
'Okay, I'm doomed.' All three of his fiancées had arrived, distruction and a painfull beating could only follow.
"Ranma eat too too delicious Raman, yes?" Shampoo chirped as he started to back away from his three fiancés.
"Ranma, you will eat the lunch that I made for you!" Akane demanded.
"Ignore that biohazard of Akane's and have lunch with your cute fiancée," Ukyo entreated.
'This isn't good…' Already Akane had started to generate a very large aura based on anger and jealousy. Ukyo had unsheathed her large spatula, quickly forgetting the burning okonomiyaki on the grill, and Shampoo had recovered her bonbori.
As he continued to edge away from the time bomb that was his three angry fiancées, he bumped into Nabiki. "3000 yen and I'll resolve this problem for you." She pointed in the direction off his fiancés. He just nodded eagerly and reached into his pocket for his rapidly diminishing supply of cash.
"Ranma, you pervert, isn't your harem large enough? Stop flirting with my sister!" And with a massive swing of her mallet, Akane sent Ranma flying of into the direction of the dojo.
*****
Stomping off in anger, Akane didn't expect this argument to be any different from the ones they had had before. Even when Ranma didn't return to school for the afternoon classes, Akane wasn't too worried; she just figured that she had hit him a little harder than usual. It wasn't until she arrived home to be greeted by a cleaned-out guest room that she rethought some of her actions.
*****
Ranma growled as he sailed through the air toward the dojo. It wasn't so much the mallet strike that had hurt, but the lack of trust. He had always tried to live honestly and show character, despite the constant manipulations and blunders that his father kept springing on him. It wasn't so much his actions that were judged, though, but his appearance.
Even he realized that his lack of education, his constant unthinking comments and his over-eagerness to fight were corroding his image. How could he change that, though? School was useless; sure, he managed to pass everything, but that wasn't to say he understood it. He couldn't when he was missing all of the knowledge that what they were trying to teach him was based on.
The constant moving around and training didn't really give him time to think things through or socialize. Everything that wasn't combat related he delegated to his father, so in effect his father became his brain. Now, though, he had been in Nerima longer than he had stayed anywhere. It had awarded him time to think and learn that there were things out there that, while being useful to know, weren't combat related.
Of course, with so many people hounding him at all hours, he hadn't had time to learn many of them, and so he remained the same. Ranma realized that he presented the image of someone who couldn't think his way out of a fight-who didn't want to. He became someone who didn't have any aspirations in life but to fight.
That, would change today, but the environment in Nerima wasn't suited for the type of training he had in mind to help him change things. He would, he decided, need to go on a training trip to think things through and try to change the way he had been raised; it wasn't too late he decided to retrain the way he thought. His martial arts progress had been slowed of late also, this would be the perfect opportunity to correct that.
Ranma just cursed as he landed in the Koi pond. It didn't matter, though, and if he had his way then this would be the last time that happened. Climbing out and being careful not to slip on the wet rocks that surrounded the koi pond, Ranma looked up to see Kasumui watching him from the house.
"Yo, Kasumi. Tell pops That I'm off on a training trip. I'll be back soon and tell him that ill get more trainin done without him and Akane taggin along."
He was sure that Kasumi would relate the message just as he was sure that the to old men, Akane and possibly the Amazons would come looking for him. That was okay, he and his father had been hiding from people almost the entire trip and since he had come to Nerima he had learnt a few new stealth techniques. They wouldn't find him before he was ready for them to.
With that, he went upstairs and packed his few belongings. When he returned, he would be a changed man.
*****
Yosho looked around as he sat for the evening meal that Sasami had cooked. Where once mealtimes would be filled with life and activity, today there was a solemn atmosphere. He had called a family meeting, and yet where once he would expect six others, now only Sasami and Ayeka were in attendance, Tenchi's death had affected them all. Mihoshi had left to rejoin the Galaxy police and to place a report, possibly undergoing reassignment. Washu hadn't left her lab since his body had been found, and Ryoko had gone mad with grief and run off to who knows where.
The reason for the meeting really only affected the two princesses sitting in front of him anyway. 'It is a testament to their strength that they are here at all,' Yosho thought. "I have received communications from Azusa that you are to return immediately to Jurai. There have been events that directly threaten the stability of the empire and you are needed there." He didn't even bother mentioning that it would be safer on Jurai, or that he was being recalled as well. He didn't plan to leave Earth anytime soon; he had come here for a reason and he wouldn't be leaving until he had achieved what he had come to do.
"But we have to find out and punish those responsible for Tenchi's murder! We can't possibly leave until whoever is responsible pays for their crimes! And what about Ryoko? How can we leave this planet to that pirate's tender mercies? " asserted Ayeka bursting into tears. Sasami just sat there staring at the food that she had prepared.
"Azusa is preparing a fleet to escort you two, which should be arriving shortly," continued Yosho, completely ignoring Ayeka's hysterical outburst. Washu had kept him up to date with events in the empire, and he was even less inclined to return than he would have been normally. What the people needed wasn't someone who would further destabilize the empire, though with Tenchi dead there was only one other possibility.
His other daughter had also had a son, one that he had not seen since his birth, when he had inhibited the boy's Jurian powers. While he had been a little skeptical about his daughter's marriage, he knew that she always kept her family foremost in her mind. Nodoko would not let the piece of trash she had married interfere with the way her family was run, which was a good thing, since he had held no secrets from her. Yes, he would need to find out what had happened to his estranged grandson.
*****
Nodoko Saotome had been, for the last eight months. preparing for the return of her son and husband. Their trip, she knew, had ended over six months ago, but she didn't doubt that they would return, at least to Tokyo. She had built a dojo on the back of her estate so that her son would be able to teach the family art when he returned, and she had also been redecorating the house. Her son would be a man among men and one of the best martial artists in the world. However Nodoko didn't deceive herself; Ranma, no matter how good he was or what training regiment Genma put him through, just would not have the experience required to be the best.
When the phone rang, Nodoko ran for it as she had done every time over the last six months. "Daughter, I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news." It was her father, Yosho, and those words struck terror into her heart. The combination of what he was saying and the sound of his voice filled her stomach with dread. Yosho had always been a strong and hearty man whom nothing could faze, and his voice had normally reflected the confidence that he held; today his voice held no confidence and little strength only bleak despair.
"Tenchi has been assassinated.
All at once it was as if a weight from her heart had been removed. Her son wasn't dead-but then a different weight replaced it. "No, you said he wouldn't be needed for the succession. I haven't seen him in over ten years, Father-how can you think of taking him away now?"
"Daughter, didn't you hear what I just said? Tenchi was assassinated. Assassinated! It is even more important now that we have a clear line of succession." The argument with his daughter was returning strength to his voice, if not the confidence that she remembered it containing.
"It doesn't need my little boy, Father, it has you! After all, aren't you the son of the emperor? The line of succession seems clear enough to me," Nodoko retorted, though her argument seemed to lack spark as though she had suggested such before and already knew what the reply would be.
"You know full well what the results of that decision, daughter. It is the reason that I exiled myself to this planet in the first place. If I were to inherit the throne, the empire would be split down the middle, and we would be looking at civil war at best and annihilation at worst. Both the council and the people need someone to eliminate division, not create it."
Nodoko sighed at the futility of the conversation; she had always known it would come to this. It was in part why she had chosen such a dishonorable husband as Genma. It was also why she had sent Ranma off with him at such a young age. If what she suspected was to occur, then her son needed to be strong enough to protect both himself and others. Genma was a first class martial artist with a lot of potential, even if his master had squandered a lot of it.
The first few years of Ranma's life, she had taught him to live with integrity and honor, enough that Genma's dishonorable ways would not completely rub off on him. The brain is an incredible organism, and those first few years were very important in a child's development. Oh, she was very certain that he had picked up a number of terrible habits from her disgusting husband, but after those first few years they would not be impossible to squash.
"There is a little problem if you expect to just come around and pick him up, though, Father," she said with a sigh.
"Nodoko, this is no time to play games. The situation is grave." Yosho's voice held a warning.
"Officially, my son's training trip finished six months ago, and yet were is he? I'm positive that he isn't dead, but the only other possibility is that Genma has done something really stupid and is hiding the boy from me."
"It is very important that you find him, daughter. Let me know if you need help."
Nodoko rubbed her eyes as she hung up; as hard as it was for her, she was sure that what her father planned for her son would be harder. She just hoped that Genma had done a reasonable job of raising her son, and that her father would let her join him when the time came.
Somewhere in Nerima, a panda shivered despite his thick fur coat.
*****
Ryoko just lay with her back towards a tree and sobbed. After running from the image of Tenchi's body, still slumped over a pool of dried blood, for what seemed like hours, she had found herself in a forest. It was strange, though, since she was sure that she had already passed through the forest that bordered the Misaki Shrine.
'It really doesn't matter were I am, I will never be with my Tenchi again' she thought. "This wasn't how things were meant to end," she mumbled as her sobbing intensified. When Yosho had defeated her and sealed her in the cave that was to become her tomb for the next seven hundred years, she had felt nothing but relief. She had hated how Kagato had enslaved her will and used her as a living weapon. Ryoko remembered well the faces of those she had slaughtered while she had been under his control.
While she had been trapped in that cave she could feel Kagato's control over her slipping. It was decades later, however, that his control had been finally silenced. She had been looking forward to being released soon after that. After all, you do not blame a knife or a gun for the use its owner puts it to.
She had been fortunate, though, for she had been created from a combination of Washu's ova and some genetic material from the Mass. While the powers she had been given from using the gems that Washu had given her had been great, they weren't the only powers that she had.
It was true that it was the power of the gems that made her such a terrific weapon and had drawn Kagato's attention, but when Yosho had taken those gems from her and trapped her in her tomb, it hadn't removed the powers that she had been born with.
As a result, she had been able to create an immaterial double to keep track of what was going on on the outside. Due to the energy draining properties of the cave, it wasn't something that she could do all the time, but it was something that she could do enough to keep her sanity.
It had been centuries more than she had anticipated before she had once again started hoping for her eventual release. Tenchi, even as a young boy, had seemed to almost sense her presence; at least, he had always seemed to know when her immaterial double was around, even if he didn't show any evidence of being able to see or hear her.
It was something new. In all the centuries of containment, Tenchi had been the only one that seemed to be able to sense her. Not even Yosho, crown prince of Jurai, someone who had been powerful enough to stop her at the height of her power, had been able to do that.
So naturally, she had taken an interest in this small boy. Ryoko had followed him everywhere when she had had the energy to, and throughout the years had fallen in love with him.
It seemed to be a natural ending to an unnatural love affair when he had freed her from her imprisonment. It was her hope that she would be able to further her relationship with the boy. Then Ayeka had arrived, complicating things, especially when she seemed to take a liking to Tenchi.
She still shuddered when she remembered Kagato, where Tenchi had nearly died. Then there had been Dr. Clay's assassination attempt. It had all worked out in the end, though, and she had even become more human through her merging with Zero.
Things at that point seemed so certain to work out; she had been getting closer to Tenchi and he seemed powerful enough that she didn't need to worry about him dropping dead one day. He had, though, and every time she closed her eyes, she could see those filmy eyes that bespoke the end to her fairy tale ending.
That just wouldn't do. She would join him for her fairy tale ending even in death. She couldn't do it with a blade; her increased healing would make that extremely messy. No, all she needed to do was replicate the draining properties in the cave, and with the gem on her wrist, that would be relatively easy to do.
Ryoko raised her arms and concentrated in pushing her energy into the surrounding woodlands. It seemed to be working, too; already she could feel her strength lessening. She would be with her beloved Tenchi soon. She would have her happy ending.
*****
Ranma stretched out his limbs after a hard day's run. It had been a couple of days since he had left Nerima, and he felt great. He hadn't realized how repressive the atmosphere had become in Tokyo.
No more interfering old men, no more fiancées and no more old ghouls. It had given him an idea why his father seemed to run from his problems; it would be so easy for him never to return to Nerima. The weight of his responsibilities would force him to return, though, and sooner rather than later.
Currently he was at Yakushima, the furthest he could be from Tokyo and still be in Japan. Relatively undeveloped and remote, it provided him the best chance he had of remaining undisturbed for a couple of weeks. If he didn't move by then, the chances of being found by the Nerima crew began to stack up.
Even though he had had to travel hard and fast to avoid detection, Ranma had been able to use his creed of turning everything into training to garner some quality stealth and conditioning practice. Now that he had arrived at his destination, he could use the extra time that he wasn't traveling to broaden his training regime.
Casually brushing past a low branch, Ranma lowered his camping pack. 'This will be a good place to camp,' he thought, looking around at the clearing he had chosen. It was far enough from town not to cause any problem and near enough to fresh water that he could make do with the rations he had gathered on his way.
Ranma stopped setting up his camp as he felt a rush of energy into the surrounding wilderness. At first he had thought it was Ki, but that didn't seem right-it was definitely something that he needed to investigate. Dropping his half-constructed tent, he dashed off to find the epicenter.
Reaching it, he was quite surprised to see a rather attractive girl around his age leaching her own energy into the surroundings. 'So what was that other energy I felt earlier?' Ranma just shook his head and tried to remember the shiatsu point that Tofu and used on him, both to block Ki flow and induce unconsciousness.
When he was sure he had it correct he jumped down from the branch he had hidden himself on and applied it. Not a moment to soon, it appeared; she had almost drained herself dry. Whatever she had done almost killed her. Ranma shrugged to himself and started dragging her to his campsite, but not before making sure that she was really unconscious. The last thing he needed was for her to wake up and jump to conclusions.
Besides, it looked like she needed some care, which she wouldn't get slumped over almost dead in the woods.