For disclaimer see prologue.

Chapter 02

This is Most Ominous

Yume's awareness returned and he realized almost instantly that he wasn't awake. Of course the sprawling white void before him was familiar. His body was still garbed by his cloak, and he still carried his scythe. Moments after his 'arrival,' he was joined.

"Hello boss."

Death nodded his curt greeting.

If they were to have been anyone else able to see them, they would have been surprised at how frighteningly similar the two looked. Both figures' facial features were obscured by their respective heavy hoods. Only subtle differences could be discerned. For example, while Yume's skin had become slightly less tan than from when he had been living, he still had flesh. Whereas Death's body was only bones. And another difference was that while Yume was tall the immense form of Death dwarfed him. Aside from those and a few minor other things they were barely discernable.

"How was your arrival on the plane?"

Yume merely glared from under his cloak.

"It was a tad bit rougher than what I had anticipated, and the landing left something to be desired ..."

'Yeah like not having been cursed into a man monkey or whatever.'

Death nodded leaning on his scythe a bit.

"But you survived and arrived and that's what's important. I'm sure you will do fine in that parallel dimension I sent you to."

Yume stopped and stared at his superior his hood falling.

"Did you say parallel sir? As in similar to my original plane of existence."

Death nodded.

"Of course, we wouldn't want you to go somewhere in which you were completely alien, that would have been one of the later test sites."

After thinking about how Death had initially said 'You're guess is as good as mine.' In regards to where he would be going.

"Um no disrespect sir. But I am almost certain that I was put in the wrong place."

Death looked at his potential apprentice shifting the grip of his scythe from his right hand to his left. Using his right hand he beckoned Yume forward, where he placed a cold bony hand on Yume's skull. A quick flash and a heavy dizzy spell later Yume regained his senses.

"What was that? It felt like I just got my brain from a mixer."

Death waved his hands unconcerned.

"I just read your memories. It seems you are telling the truth. This is unexpected I will have to consult the higher ups about this."

Yume nodded then began tapping his fingers against the flat of his weapon's blade, suddenly looking worried.

"Uh sir about my trial can I ask you a few questions?"

Death's eyes seemed to glow briefly as he turned to his charge.

"Yes?"

Rather than stutter and avoid the subject, which Death probably knew about already, Yume got straight to the point.

"Firstly, how far can my interactions with the inhabitants of this plane go? Secondly am I allowed to reveal myself to them? Third, what is my mission?"

Death mulled over Yume's questions slowly. Being sure to phrase them correctly so as to avoid confusion with the boy.

"For the first question, you can interact as a normal, wait scratch that, slightly abnormal citizen. As to the second, you most certainly can't reveal it straight out, though you may drop small hints, although nothing too obvious. If you do you will trigger a protection program and you will be unable to reveal the proper information."

Yume nodded.

"As to the third since you were transported to the wrong plane I will have to get a new set of goals for your mission. Until then return to the plane and be careful. I will return when I have been giving the proper information."

Yume nodded and prepared for Death to take his leave, and then for himself to awaken.

"Oh and a few more things Yume."

Yume faced his boss.

"While it seems you are very weak if you practice and work at it your strength will steadily rise."

Yume nodded as that weight was lifted from his mind.

"Um, sir is there a spell or something that I could use to convey a similar image to the one you are projecting now? You know the whole death aura, and the bones look?"

Death tilted his head as he regarded his charge.

"I've never had it described like that before but yes."

With that he places his hand back on Yume's head and a brief shock later Yume knew how to do it.

"Thank you sir."

Death began to move away, only to stop four steps from Yume.

"Yes."

"Huh?"

Yes, you can just don't let it interfere."

"Interfere?"

Death sighed and his bony shoulders slumped a bit.

"You can accept or reject the Amazonian kiss of marriage (after all according to the laws of her people you two are married) if you so wish, however don't let it interfere with whatever mission you get."

Yume smiled and pumped his fist.

"Score."

"And don't let the mortals touch your scythe. It could have... complications."

Yume nodded hearing the serious attitude in his boss's voice.

With that Death vanished, and soon after he vanished as well.

----------

"Pops put me down, we have to go back for Will, we can't just leave him."

[We don't have time for stragglers] [He's not our problem, besides] [we only have one stop left.]

Before the last sign had been flipped Ranma's attention had already been drawn away. He was looking very carefully at where he thought he saw a flash of purple in the woods.

"I think we should go pops."

[Why?]

Genma's answer was put in a form even he could figure out, namely that of an arrow embedding itself in the ground inches from his feet. Genma took off after his already fleeing son. Shortly after they were followed by a pissed off purple haired pretty Amazon princess *try and say that five times fast*.

-----*From here we will leave Ranma and his father. Although there will be periodic check-ins as to their progress across China to their homeland of Japan. And have Yume meet up with them again later in the fic. *-----

Yume's eyelids felt heavy as thought began to return to his body, in fact if he had to say it he would tell someone his whole body felt heavy. Finally after much effort on his part he managed to pry his eyes open. As he looked around the room several adjectives came to his mind, small was one of them. He might have gone so far as to say that the room was "cozy," that is had he known what the word meant. He was lying on a bed that was fairly soft, from what his back was telling him. Slowly he managed to tilt his neck and take a look at the whole layout of the room. In front of him was a door, to his right was a wall with a window, and to his left was a small wooden dresser, although it lacked the polished look that he was used to seeing in wood furniture. Above the dresser hung what appeared to be a pair of ornamental spears. Sitting up in his bed he then spotted his bag leaning against the wall next to the dresser.

'Well this is unexpected. I'd have thought that they would have locked me up or something. Oh well.'

Almost deciding to re-enter dreamland, his eyes shot open and he was out of bed.

"Where is my sickle?"

As if to answer his question the door chose that moment to open, revealing Perfume. She stepped into the room with her eyes narrowed, her arms crossed in front of her ample chest, with her foot tapping the floor in irritation. Instantly Yume felt the resounding urge to drop to the floor and grovel pathetically at her feet. Shaking his head in order to clear it he stood up to his full height for one of the first times since he had arrived *most of the time he has been slumped over so as to better blend*. From his vantage point he easily looked down on Perfume. Despite the obvious size differences, in both mass and stature she wasn't backing down, causing Yume's eye to flit over to the spears on the wall, knowing full well that he couldn't face Perfume unarmed and hope to win. At least not for a while.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Yume's eyes flitted back to the spears as he thought about his answer.

"Out."

"Out to where?"

Swallowing his growing unease he decided to go for it and keep up his aloof 'I'm better and you know it' attitude.

"Out to retrieve MY weapon." 'Oh yeah reeeal smooth Casanova.'

If it were possible Perfume's eyes narrowed even more at his underlying challenge.

"It's not your scythe, you stole it and you know it."

At this point had anyone chosen to step in-between them, that unfortunate soul would have been eviscerated and left for dead.

"I'll have you know that it was given to me as part of my training."

Before Perfume could reply, another Amazon entered the room and began speaking rapidly in Mandarin. As the conversation continued Yume found that he was beginning to be able to pick up certain words.

"..... fainted ....... darkness ........ your Husband ........ weapon."

After the mention of what he assumed had been himself and a weapon his thoughts turned to his scythe. After all the blade of his weapon did have that appearance of utter darkness as opposed to it having the black color of its handle. Using the conversation that the two girls were having as a good distraction, he slipped past them into the hall and eventually out of the house.

Luckily enough for Yume the village wasn't really that large. By finding the challenge log that hung in the center of the village he was able to gain his bearing and was able to take note of the path that he and Perfume had fought. Following the trail of gashes, small craters, and the occasional smear of blood that littered the ground, he came upon a crowd of people (which he assumed were Amazons).

'I wonder what has them in such a huff.'

Easily looking over the majority of the crowd he saw what was happening. One of what he assumed was the village warriors, was curled into the fetal position, with her weapons dropped to the ground forgotten, she was shivering violently (however just shy of convulsing) the whole time barely making a sound. Around her village elders and people spoke as excitedly as Perfume had upon the other girls arrival, all the while gesturing between the fallen girl and Yume's black handled scythe. The weapon itself had its blade embedded in the ground, its handle jutting from the soil at an approximate forty-five degree angle. Just deciding 'to hell with it' Yume shrugged and began forcing his way through the crowd, after all what could they do to him, lock him up? Taking hold of the handle he felt a small jolt and dismissed it, pulling lightly the blade wretched from the ground. Spinning it he righted the weapon and brushed some dirt from the surface of the blade. As he turned to leave he noticed something was wrong, all the talking was absent and silence had taken its place.

"Stop."

The firm voice shattered the silence. Not even bothering to look around at eye level he focused towards the ground. His eyes were, one wouldn't say greeted, more like assaulted, by the sight of three what he guessed were elders. He recognized two of the three, the closest was Lotion, and behind herself Cologne and another flanked her.

"What do you think you are doing young man?"

Still going with his 'ah to hell with it' attitude he answered.

"Well, I'm carrying this weapon of Mine back to .... wherever it was that I woke up, then I figured I'd grab my bag and go."

Lotion turned and conferred with the elders then turned her gaze back to him.

"Might we have your name?"

Yume smiled at the phrasing of the question but decided to answer anyways.

"Sure. My name is Yu.... er that is to say my name is Will."

"No last name?"

"Nope I'm a Roman."

The elders raised their eyebrows as one (it was pretty creepy) and Cologne spoke.

"You mean Ronin?"

Yume thought about it.

"Yeah I guess that too, sort of."

Before the questioning could continue, Perfume arrived and she was, well ..... fuming.

"Where the hell were you? I turn my back on you for ten seconds."

"Fifteen actually."

Yume's further snide comments were cut short by Perfume's glare.

"AS I was saying, for ten seconds and you go and disappear."

It was here that Yume saw something odd, while he heard her speaking, her lips moved in a different fashion. It seemed to Yume like he was watching a poorly dubbed movie. He raised his hand to her forestalling any further comments.

"Could you speak Japanese for me for just a few seconds."

She merely blinked at the odd request and gave him a perplexed look. With that she switched to Japanese. (Apparently she had been speaking Mandarin before).

"Why do you need me to speak Japanese? You seemed to understand my Chinese enough to correct me earlier."

Yume nodded absently as she again had the dubbing all wrong. Before she could continue he spoke again.

"English now please."

Perfume was now confused; she turned to Lotion trying to seek some kind of guidance. Lotion however just shrugged her shoulders and motioned for her to continue.

"Why Perfume need speak Engrish?"

Yume shouted at his small victory.

"Right there!"

Perfume stared at him as though crawfish were crawling from his eyes. Yume merely smiled.

"Thank you I wanted to see something."

With that the black hooded figure turned and walked in the direction that he came from. Perfume stood for a few moments just gaping at his back, and then she quickly followed her erstwhile husband/fiancee. Lotion began to cackle uproariously and followed the retreating pair. Soon after the group's departure the remaining elders had the crowd disperse and the still shivering girl taken to the healer's hut.

The door to Perfume's house had seen its fair share of abuse, insistent young suitors, panicking villagers, angry warrior girls, etc. However it was barely able to hold its own against the force that Perfume slammed it open with. Storming into the house Perfume quickly moved into and down the short hallway of her house, stalking to the guestroom. rearing back, the thin guestroom door stood even less of a chance than the front door would have as Perfume kicked it into the next world. *We will now observe a brief moment of silence to honor the soul of the recently departed door. . . . . . . . . Thank you* Her ire at her unknowing husband dissipated a good deal when she saw him on the bed. She wasn't expecting to see 'Will' lying on the bed holding up a rather large book and reading. Her surprise was furthered aided in it campaign to reign in her anger, as she watched the rather peculiar sight of a black furred tail, swaying back and forth on the bed. But she was further surprised when she actually looked at him. The hood, which had been obscuring most if not all of his face, was lowered revealing to her what her husband looked like. His hair was thick and looked black, although she did notice that when the light hit it at the right angle it gave off a brown sheen. His dark blue eyes were slightly sunken into his skull, and thin giving him a rather creepy appearance. Overall she had decided to herself, he wasn't as bad looking as she had expected someone wearing a hood like that would have been. Although she did notice he was a bit pale. He looked to the door and smiled at her, as though he had just realized she was there.

"Yes?"

She shook her head vigorously trying to re-summon the anger she that she had had earlier and glared at him.

"Just what do you think you are doing."

He stayed silent for a moment, then looked at her, then back at his book, finally back to her.

"Um ... I suppose I was reading."

Perfume barely managed to catch herself as she face-faulted.

"I mean what makes you think you can just wander around our village and take things?"

She resumed the pose she had when Yume had first woken up.

"Well the fact that it is mine has a bit to do with it."

As she began to open her mouth in order to refute his statement and tell him he was wrong, she got a painful surprise, in the form of a gnarled wooden cane hitting the back of her head.

"Be silent child."

Perfume jumped as she heard Lotion speak. She quickly spun around and faced Lotion her mouth agape.

"But ... but great grand ...... I mean honored elder, what do you mean?"

Lotion let off a small bark of laughter as she patted Perfume on the leg (which at her current vantage point was as high as she could reach).

"Oh my dear child, you know there is no need for such formalities in our home. Call me great-grandmother if you wish you know it's not disrespectful here."

"Sorry great-grandmother."

Lotion smiled and moved into the room, she then proceeded to hop onto the bed.

"Hello son-in-law."

Lotion always liked the part where the unwary outsider was informed that by the laws of the Amazons he was now married to the girl he had defeated in combat. Meanwhile Yume was struggling quite valiantly against his urge to say "score" as he looked over Perfume. Perfume's cheeks reddened at her grandmother's behavior.

"What's up Honored .. uh .. Elderly ... Great-Grandma-in-law?"

Lotion fell over and Perfume stared at him.

"What did I say something wrong?"

Lotion managed to regain her dignity, and cackled at the boy's antics, taking a seat at the foot of the bed as Yume sat up. Perfume on the other hand sat on the edge of the bed in-between Yume and Lotion.

"It would seem great-granddaughter that your husband already knows about the Kiss of Marriage."

Yume shrugged.

"I don't know that much, just the part about marry outsider who wins if male, and kill if female. Although I do have to confess I hadn't planned on sticking around long enough to have gotten it."

The urge to smack himself in the head was amplified as he took in the rather angry looks both Perfume and Lotion were sending his way. Perfume turned away and made a 'humph' noise. Lotion's look of anger turned to anger and curiosity.

"And why would you have done that? Do you think that Perfume is ugly or unworthy of you attention?"

Perfume's head whipped back his way and her earlier glare was intensified. Yume was quick to jump onto the defense, waving his hands in front of himself to cushion the anger directed his way.

"Oh Lord no. Perfume is a babe, and a hell of a good kisser if past experience serves me correctly. Although that follow-through shot is a kicker. I mean I don't even think he village champ hold a candle to her."

Yume prayed his compliments would help pull his singed ass from the fire. He was relieved to see Perfume blush.

"I just didn't plan on letting myself get tied down. I was only planning on staying as long as I was required to. Now however there may be a conflict of interests."

Lotion raised her eyebrow.

"Whose interests?"

Yume remembering what Death had told him tried to come up with a good hint that would help him but not be too obvious.

"I can't really say much due to my job, but my boss is very much like Charon."

Perfume looked at him oddly then voiced the question that she was itching to ask.

"Who's Charon?"

Yume smiled coolly. Barely resisting the urge to say 'Ah that is a secret'.

"If you figure that out you will be that much closer to finding out."

The glare that Perfume directed at him barely had any of her previous intensity in it.

Lotion smiled at the two, and stood up.

"Well I'll lave you children alone."

With that said she left the room her cackle lingering in the air for a few more seconds. Yume shrugged and rolled onto his back, lifting the heavy book above his head and resumed reading. Perfume tilted her head and gave him an odd look. Before Yume could react Perfume reached over and snatched the book from him.

"Can I help you with something?"

He asked as he tried to retrieve the book. Perfume less than half paid attention to him as she dodged around his attempts to get his reading material. Finally with a heavy sigh she shrugged and dropped the book onto the floor, incidentally having it land on his foot.

"What are you reading Will?"

Hopping around nursing his abused foot Yume's only reply was a string of muttered curses. Finally after he managed to regain his 'footing' he bent over and collected his book.

"Well I had been reading this book before someone had decided to come and start screwing around with it."

Sitting back on the bed where Perfume was currently lounging in his former position, Yume began to thumb through the pages while complaining quietly about nosy wives. Perfume, of course in coincidence with the newly doubled force of Murphy's law that was affecting Yume, heard him complaining and whapped him soundly on the head. As he rubbed the sore spot on his head, he began to question whether he made the right decision by accepting the kiss of marriage. Shaking the questions of what might have been off he returned to reading. He felt Perfume shift on the bed and assumed that she was getting off ...... the bed. (Though the thought of the other crossed his mind for more than an instance.) He was surprised however, when he felt her rest her head on his shoulder.

"So what does that say?"

In his rather awkward position he was rather oblivious to her rather blatant use of her powerful feminine charm to get the answers she wanted.

"Well it's telling how to properly harness the threads of magic and manipulate them into creating a fireball."

She leaned over a bit and looked at the chicken scratch that littered the page and decided to play along.

"So what would that do?"

Yume smiled as he held out his hands and ignited a small ball of unreal looking blue-green fire. Curious she began to reach out to touch it only to have Yume dispel it with a wave of his hand before she was able to make contact with it.

"You may not want to touch that, it is extremely hot."

She looked at him with doubt clear in her eyes as she had felt no heat coming off the ball.

"Well I mean it did do quite a number on you before, didn't it?"

Perfume was struck by sudden realization.

"You used that in our fight didn't you?"

He nodded.

"Yes that was what made my 'Blazing Blade' so devastating."

He suddenly became quite aware of her annoyance as her grip on his shoulder tightened to a near painful level.

"Um is there a problem dear?"

Her grip loosened to a more tolerable level and she moved her head so she could look him in the eye.

"Did you hit me with that attack on purpose?"

"Not really I was going to use the attack as a distraction and then make my getaway. I never expected you to stand and take it head on like you did."

"Is that why you healed me?"

Perfume already knew about what had happened while she was out and was very happy to know that 'Will' cared enough that he would heal her, even after she attacked him.

"Yeah."

"So why is it that you stayed."

Yume blushed a bit and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well you kind of caught me off guard with that Kiss of Marriage. After I had healed you I couldn't see you breathing so I thought you needed artificial respiration. But then you kissed me and said those words and that basically meant the two of us were married so I had to stick around."

Yume assumed a pose that spoke greatly of honor and duty.

"Then again what kind of idiot would run out on a marriage with such a babe."

'At least he's honest I guess.'

Perfume did blush a bit at his compliment after all when one was the village enforcer, compliment were few and far between. As she turned to say something to Yume she was surprised when he gave her a deep, if clumsy and awkward, kiss. As their lips parted Yume smiled broadly and laid back onto the bed to continue reading. Perfume on the other hand had decided on some other activities for them to engage in as opposed to reading. (Yume was in for it now.)

(TBC)