Disclaimer: This playground was created and is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ. I'm just playing on the swings. Same goes for any other series that might make its way into this story.
Authors note: This is a re-write of Ranma, Far Traveler. I wasn't too happy with how some of the things went and quite frankly, I was writing myself into a corner. So I decided to take a break to think it over and do a rewrite.
Prologue
Two figures covered in dark cloths and wearing cloaks that seemed to blur their forms made their way through the steamy jungle. Shadows seemed to go out of their way to cover the two as they made their way. Eerily silent, they found a break that led them to a small overgrown path that lead down into a mist filled valley. Making their way into the valley, hundreds of pools became apparent, with more hidden beneath the mists. Each pool had a bamboo pole jutting out of it.
The two figures stopped when the sounds of fighting came apparent. Suddenly a boy with a pigtail dressed a dirty gi that might have once been white shot overhead, bouncing from pole to pole in a crazy zigzag pattern. A larger figure seemed to take a higher, more direct rout as it sailed overhead it a massive leap that spanned near a dozen pools. The obviously overweight figure made a surprisingly graceful landing on a pole directly in the path of the bounding boy. There was no pause however as the two immediately jumped at each other, attacking in a beautifully vicious manner. They both mostly ignored the small guide that chased after the two spouting various warnings.
One of the cloaked figures gazed intently at the tableau before it. The brash young martial artists perched on the poles like a majestic predator between bouts of mid-air fighting. The other, older man seemed much too much like an angry bear for it not to be in his ancestry. The figure smirked under his hood at the thought. The second figure, seemed less than interested in the scene.
"We both know how it is going to go. You can speak to Jusenkyo just as well as I. In goes the father, out comes a panda. Startled, in goes the boy, out comes a girl. I'm not really surprised; the springs usually chose their victims curses to teach them a lesson. The diviners back at the stronghold have a rough idea of what's going to happen in the future and it involves that boy." The first figure spoke.
"Oh really? I never put much stock into what they say, it changes on an hour-to-hour biases. I think they make that rubbish up myself. What did they have to say about this one?" The second figure said.
"They say that every single diviner has seen the boy defeat Saffron during his ascension." The first said simply. " The last time every diviner saw the same thing was the great sundering. We can't afford to ignore this warning."
"Its been written in the tapestries that no human could defeat him. And he would just grow back anyway." The second one said.
"He might grow back, true, but there is always that period where he is young and weak, and it gets longer every time. The Phoenix tribe is weak, and I don't think they would be able to survive without Saffron for very long. As powerful as Saffron is, it is his people that are truly important in the grand scheme of things. And as to the part in the tapestries where 'No human could defeat him', well, there aren't really any pure 'humans' left, are there?" The First said.
"Lets just say for a minute that you are correct. The boy will eventually grow up and defeat Saffron. Without Saffron The Phoenix will become weak and perish. And without the Phoenix, our cause would be lost I suppose you would say."
"Not exactly lost, but pretty close."
"Right, lost. Kaput. Over and done with. So what, o great and knowledgeable master of the universe, are we to do about this unfortunate series of events that have yet to happen and may never happen. And why did we have to go tromping through this steaming and sweaty jungle to have this talk?"
"You didn't have to come. And I didn't come here to just watch the destruction of the world. Its not to late to change the path that the boy has been set on, At this point it would just take a drastic change." The first continued while the second just groaned. "I was thinking of different curse, something a bit, oh I don't know, a bit more 'rare'."
"You're dead set on doing this, aren't you? Well, fine, go ahead and change his curse if you can. But Jusenkyo has already decided what is going to happen to those two," The second said as the two bounded overhead, with the guide chasing behind. " our cloaks only cover our presence, and any use of magic will be detected by them. In case you had forgotten, we can't directly affect them ourselves, and the springs say that when he is knocked off that pole, he lands in the center of that spring. To affect the elements to push him off course into a different pool would need a detectable amount of magic AND make Jusenkyo mad, as well as getting us detected. As talented as you are, I don't think you could take out an entire regiment while in a cursed form."
"You've lived with having your way to long my friend. You're to used to commanding it be done and having it so. You forgot that the simplest and most powerful way to change something was to simply ask. I'm been explaining the situation to Jusenkyo while we have been talking and it agrees that if things continue on their current path, it would mean the springs end. Nothing like self-preservation to motivate an ancient entity. Jusenkyo has agreed to make a change. And our opponents will never know." The first figure sketched a small bow towards the center of the springs. "We all forget how things used to be done now and again. Come, let's go back home and watch what happens. Who knows, there may be new opportunities."
"I just hope we didn't make another enemy."
