Chaotic Order
Chp 2
Disclaimer: Do I look like I own this?
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In Asgard, a huntress was on the prowl. Her prey was the most elusive in all of the heavenly realms. The usual hiding places had been cleared. All forms of impediment had been questioned and eliminated. Her terrible visage threw others out of her way as she stalked to the only place left that could house this most evasive of prey.
The door was stout wood, unidentifiable as any earthly tree. A single brass knob was all that hampered her progress now. She seized the metal instrument, hefted her weapon to test the weight, and charged.
"URD!" roared the Norn of the Future, throwing open the door. Skuld's oldest sister leapt three feet in the air. "Just what in Father's name are you pulling now! What do you have up your sleeve?"
"I haven't done anything lately, kiddo. What are you on about?" Urd looked to be on a slow boil. Now that she'd gotten her heart rate under control.
"Don't lie to me, you old bag! I know this is your little prank. And I'm telling you to stop this right now!" Skuld limbered up her hammer and produced a minor explosive from her robes.
Urd summoned her powers, drawing a curtain of electrical energy around herself. "And I'm telling you, I don't have any clue what you're talking about!"
"There's a punishment for lying!"
"There's a punishment for not respecting your elders!"
Several levels up, the Immortal Lao felt the floor shudder under him. A brief examination of the tiles under his feet and the walls around him revealed no structural defects. Shrugging, Immortal Lao took another swig of his drink. There was something to be said for this mixture. Jack Daniels did indeed seem to go well with Coca-Cola.
Below, Urd was slower in getting up than her sister. Skuld snatched the other woman's hair and brought Urd's head up to the file she held.
"That mortal Ranma Saotome is under someone's possession. Found that during a debugging. So I checked. Turns out somebody granted another mortal a wish. I'm quite aware that Ranma Saotome was your pet project. So what did you do?"
"I didn't grant that wish," Urd told her little sister.
Skuld let go of her sibling's hair. "Then who did?" Skepticism could be seen in every line of her body.
"L-sama."
Skuld fainted.
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Ranma hurt. All over.
The boy was quite aware that he was not as phenomenally, psychotically strong as the real Ranma Saotome. He had, unlike the true version, devoted some of his time to pursuits outside of martial arts. Genma had had kittens, but the scruffy youth considered that as a side benefit. Besides, he'd found out in his first life that he preferred to train at his own pace, accepting help where necessary, but otherwise going it solo. He was, simply put, a loner. Friends were nice, but his usual interests were solitary ones.
This had been his first mistake. The absolute filtering out of all other influences had made Ranma Saotome a martial arts god, nearly unbeatable, capable of pushing past his own inhuman limits to become even stronger. Ranma didn't regret his decision in the least, but it had bit him in the ass this time.
He was also not following his own plan. Originally, he had wanted to ditch Genma the instant the fiasco at the dojo was done, but the entertainment value of the situation had sung, and like a fool, he'd fallen to temptation. And just this morning, Furinkan High had come down on him.
Quite simply, Kuno had nearly handed Ranma his own ass.
He was not as powerful as the real Ranma. He had won the fight only by skill, tactics, and sheer ruthlessness. Kuno's bokken could shear trees in two. Ranma's strategy was to avoid the wooden blade at all costs. Deflecting the blade had proved necessary several times, and the few direct hits that had landed had been doozies. Mostly he'd tried to be faster than Kuno and smarter. The latter was quite easy; the former was not.
Dealing with the Shooting Fart after that debacle was labeled 'non-viable option.' School was skipped. The dojo was out until later time. This left most of Greater Metropolitan Tokyo.
Tokyo was a big place.
Ranma sighed. This looked like a business section; mostly automobile traffic and office high-rises. Meaning there would be a majority of shops and stores here. Meaning Ranma could finally get some shopping done. He'd been out of reading material for two months now. He was also out of paper and his creative side was getting antsy.
Just when things were looking better, reality crashed back in. Ranma was flat broke.
Not just regular broke; Kraft-macaroni-and-cheese broke. Pert-Plus-shampoo broke.
Making a note to pick up some Jeff Foxworthy tapes, Ranma continued on his not-so-merry way. He was just coming to a particularly busy freeway when he spotted the girl. She was doing an impressive balancing act; what with walking on the divider like that. Taking a few squats to loosen up his legs, he tried to gauge the distance from where he stood to the dividing girder. He would have to remember to thank Genma later.
Well, no, maybe not.
In any case, Ranma took a running leap over four lanes of traffic to land just behind the girl. And caught her just before she could fall. He watched the expression in her eyes turn from fear to anger. She shrugged out of his grip and continued walking.
"You know, it's not that often I find someone who likes doing this kind of thing," he said with a smile to the girl's back. She didn't answer.
"You do this a lot?" Still no answer.
"Oh boy, are you friendly."
"Would you just shut up and go away?" she retorted over the sound of cars whizzing by at around one hundred and ten kilometers an hour.
"Well, I just thought that us two freaks should at least trade names. Kind of a companionable camaraderie."
"My name's Urumi Kanzaki. Now please go away."
The boy smiled. He'd been right. "Pleased to meet you Urumi. I'm Ranma Saotome. But you can just call me Ranma.
"Oh yeah! Hate to tell you this, but I couldn't leave even if I wanted to. I'd need a running start to clear the traffic. Besides, I don't want to leave."
"Are you always this annoying or am I just lucky?"
Ranma smiled. "I'm always this annoying Ms. Kanzaki. It has to do with one of my hobbies. I think one of my favorite pastimes is playing with peoples heads."
"Yeah, messing with someone's mind is great." There was an evident smile in her voice. "Especially when they deserve it. That's the best feeling in the world."
"Getting something over on the people who pissed you off? Yeah, I can see that."
In a certain book written by one of Ranma's favorite author's, there was a very detailed description on how to peel a safe. One simply finds a chink in the safe, a small hole that a tool could be fitted into. Then, one worries away at the hole until that the hole is big enough to pull money through. The key was patience. One had to be very deliberate to find the chink, one had to be very deliberate at whittling away the safe's armor.
The same could of course be applied to people. And Ranma was very close to finding Kanzaki's chink.
"Not just those idiots that piss you off," Urumi clarified, "it's also those dirty liars that betrayed you." Ranma grinned.
"So you're going to get back at them. Teach them never to mess with you again?"
The girl gave a skeptical laugh. "They're too stupid to learn to leave me alone. But I'll be happy enough getting my revenge."
"Revenge, huh? Heavy stuff. How you gonna do that? Not gonna toilet paper their houses, are you?"
"No." Silence for a few moments. "I'm going to blow up my school."
They stopped talking to climb up a pole, cross a horizontal beam, then drop to the sidewalk below. Ranma looked back at the directional sign they'd just dropped from. It proclaimed that Holy Forest Academy was coming up soon.
"Blowing up the school? Like I said; heavy stuff. So, it's some so-called friends giving you hell," the boy speculated.
"Just one. And to boot he's supposed to be my teacher."
The young Saotome snorted. "Some teacher."
"All teachers are like him. They just turn on you when things get difficult."
"Can't say as I've had much experience in the public school system. But I do know that my teacher, Genma, wasn't just worthless and shifty. He was downright wicked. And to make matters worse, he's the sperm donor responsible for my body's creation."
Urumi paused and stared at him. "You're a test-tube baby?"
"I wish," he growled, "That would be nicer than knowing some woman spread her legs for that sack of fat."
They started walking again. Kanzaki eventually asked her second question of the day.
"I take it you hate your mother, too?"
"Don't even know her. But I do know that three years after she pushed out her one and only child, she had a contract written up. This contract stated that the boy and his father would commit ritual suicide if the boy did not live up to her idea of manliness. Might I also add that her idea of manly is synonymous with most people's idea of lechery, dishonesty, and adultery.
"But it is fair to say that I do not consider myself the child of either of those freaks. And I fully intend to break the Saotome honor blade if I can ever get my hands on it."
Ranma had begun snarling halfway through his rant. His lips were pulled back, baring his teeth. Kanzaki thought that he looked about ready to bite through someone's neck. She was quite acquainted with cold anger. Murderous rage was something she'd never seen before. That sparked a kind of thought in Kanzaki. Whatever her betrayals were, they were nothing compared to what Ranma had been through.
Urumi at least had Tomoko, a friend who provided unconditional love and loyalty. And perhaps her mother, who provided love of a more conditional kind. There was someone even more alone than her. They didn't speak again until they got to the gates of the school. The blonde girl noticed that her male companion didn't leave her side. Just continued on into the grounds as though he had every right to be there.
"What are you doing?" she asked him, for once her questions not teasing.
The older boy just smiled down at her. "Making sure you don't hurt anyone. If anyone asks, I'm your older brother, here to check you out early. Just act like I belong and we won't have any problems."
Feeling herself smile back, Urumi stated the obvious. "You've done this before."
"Many a time," Ranma said with a nod.
The bombs were planted. All near a window, Ranma noted with some cheer. They only ran into one teacher, and that was on the way out. Ranma spun some cock and bull story about being Urumi's half-brother and being sent by their father to come get her. The woman bought it without question and the pair walked out into the school yard.
"Three…"
The martial artist froze a half-step behind the schoolgirl.
"Two…"
He used a gliding step to maneuver completely behind her.
"One…"
He limbered up, ready to plant his feet if need be.
"Zero."
The school exploded. Ranma felt small bits of debris strike the back of his calves. His only comment was, "Boom."
The pair split before anyone else found them.
