Scroll 1. Xuat waerr'ess ka waerr'khal mzild belaern.
(Never lie when the truth is more profitable).
"Hi, pal, my name is Seg. Yes, it is not the WHOLE name, but it does not matter, right?
Yes, I'm a traveler, as true as that you are a trader. Another name of the profession? Well, the meaning is the same, and I am apologize if I am offended you. And - yes, I would be grateful for a meal... IF you accept gold here. A-ha, thank you".
. . ."Aaaah, that hit the spot, so to say. No, it's Ok, I have no wish to take my shades off, thank you very much. You think so? Yes, I was told I am a sneaky one, repeatedly, but no, the gold is not stolen, and as you already check, IS real. Yes, I notice it... A professional quirk to notice odds and ends, if you prefer.
So, what is the name of the city? No, I am just... hitch-hiking along the coast, and sleep the last two hours of the ride, so disoriented a bit. Ah, a Tokyo suburb? Nerima, you say? Well, what a surprise. This ride was a little quicker that I was hoping.
Anyway, thank you for the meal, it was very good. Now, I am going to... Huh? Panda? In Tokyo? Fighting a... redhead... girl... Sorry, pal, but I had to go... RIGHT NOW".
. . .Well, for anybody familiar with certain manga OR anime it was a familiar sight: a girl and a panda fighting at really impressive speed, with skill and precision. A girl stating that HE is heading to China and turning around... to run directly in a stranger.
Not too tall, around Ranma's male form height, fairly thin, but not frail; very tanned, with white hair, wearing some plain black clothes and carrying some stick... Nothing spectacular.
Yet Ranma was alarmed, and rightly so, as for the martial artist of his caliber to not notice a man while IN FIGHT... It was just plain weird and improbable. His father - maybe he can sneak on him, an old man was GOOD (not that he would admit it outloud anyway), but stranger?.. Then stranger start speaking, and 'alarm' was no longer a strong enough word.
"Are you Ranma? Saotome Ranma?"
Yes, Ranma was a proud man and a martial artist, but right now he was rather... stressed. Having some amazon after your head for two weeks and then some can do it to the human being. So he was attempting to be subtle... Well, 'attempting' was the operative word.
"What do you want?"
Ok, subtlety was never his strong point. After all, who can teach him to be subtle? Genma? Yeah, right.
"A-ha, so you ARE him. Well, I have a proposition for you... and your father."- Stranger wave a hand in the general direction of panda (who was currently feigning unconsciousness).
"What 'proposition'?"- Ranma slightly alter his... her stance, ready to fight or run.
"Well, we can discuss it over the meal. My treat."- Panda was no longer sprawled on the ground, and it's sign in the hastily scribed kanji was expressing an agreement. After all, Saotome Genma never turns down a food, especially free food... Plus if he would be capable of finding a hot water, his SON would make far better first impression... or so this stranger said. Rubbish, of course... WAIT, this stranger KNOW...
"I would NOT recommend you to attack me, Genma-san."- Stranger speaks as if he was clearly amused by said perspective.- "While I am far less proficient in hand-to-hand than you, I am a magic user, and just recently had... problems with the... martial artists like yourself, so I am prepared. Do we understand each other?"- a lightning begin to circle around the right hand of the stranger, and Genma forced himself to calm. He was not remembering this man, so it was unlikely he hold any grudges already… Plus it's always a good idea to hear the mage out, especially if you are cursed and as so have no doubt in the reality of the magic (though it will be hard to ignore the electric charge visibly running around the hand anyway) - not that he was startled with the stranger's apparent lack of the aura- oh no way.
"You are sorcerer?"- Ranma was not inclined to miss ANY chance of curing his curse.
"No, but I MAY know where you can cure your curse. You understand that you can not cure it by using the Spring of the Drown Boy, are you?"
"WHAT!"
"This way, please."
Sufficient to say that the street cafe where stranger was eating several minutes earlier was just about to get a real profit.
. . ."So, Seg-san, you say the curses are mix, not cancel each other?"
"Yes, they behave as wet paints rather then dry one. You can paint a black wall in a white color if the black paint is dry, but try to paint a damp one, and you'll get something gray at best, thoroughly dirty at worst. So IF you jump in the Spring of the Drowned Boy, you'd become..."
"A freak."- Ranma was VERY pale now.
"You CAN say so, but the name of such... aberration is hermaphrodite. Yes, it will be only your cursed form, yet I believe it is not your goal?"
"NO WAY!"
Genma was just munching a rice ball. So far he was getting an excuse to head to the Tendo dojo instead of China, so right now this stranger was playing in Genma's favor. No reason to worry, right? Plus a prospect to be cured... Not bad.
"Well, in this case we can make a deal. You will help me, I will help you, is it good enough?"
"How?"
"Well, as I already mentioned, I had a... problems a while ago. Because of this, I was forced to use a Wild Portal to escape said problems, and now I cannot return to my... land without someone to accompany me." (To Genma) "You notice something... strange about me, right? It's one of the effects from such an unfortunate situation. Right now any portal spell would get distorted and dump me in some random location, and as my land is... hidden there, I could not get there by any... normal means. Plus possibility of some old... troubles of mine to get in my hairs once more."
"You want a bodyguard?"
"No, just a companion. Two companions would be better as otherwise YOU would get your own troubles in returning. A... balanced pair of companions would be far better."
"Balanced?"
Seg smiles. For some unknown reason Genma get a creepy feeling just looking at the said smile.
"Yes, balanced. I don't need an escort to my homeland, just to my friends... around halfway to it. Any troubles are unlikely if possible. The problem is, we need someone to go with you, and I would prefer someone NOT famous for being a petty thief..."
"Hey!.."- Genma was not too thrilled with the implications.
"...as Saotome Genma is known there from the times he passed by with some short pervert... and we want ALL involved alive and well, are we not?"
"Huh..."- suddenly the insults was not THAT bad.
"So, Genma-san, who would you recommend as a companion to Ranma?"
Genma was not known as too wise one, and he just got an idea from that remark on 'balanced' pair... Well, will you believe he was creating a trouble on the spot?
"Well, a fiancée of the boy could accompany him..."- he completely missed that satisfied smirk...
"Oyaji, I don't..."
"Now, now, son, you want to be cured? Then you need a companion, and our best bet is one of my friend Soun's daughters. After all, it's almost safe, right?"
"Ow, crap..."
"Anyway, IF you and your companion would accompany me, I am willing to give you a directions to someone who CAN cure your... affliction or provide a directions for you to learn doing such curing yourself. As for your companion - I believe that person would also want something, but it WILL be a different... deal. Are you in?"
"To the heck with it. I'm in."
"Good. Well, after you two will finish the meal, let's go to the..." (to Genma) "You said something about your friend?"
For the record.
The names of the chapters are drow proverbs.
Seg "Hiss" The Moriel, a drow (half-swartalf half-drow born in the Midgard, to be precise) is the original character. Basically, he's a non-conformist drow, worshiping Vhaeraun and Loki, a trickster, prankster and stealthy sneaky type all in one. Yes, one of his previous adventures was in OUR dimension and on OUR Earth - present times, no less; yes, he read through Ranma 1/2 manga and has his own agenda on the whole matter; yes, he usually wears shades just to hide a typical for drow red eyes. The spell used to persuade Genma is "Shocking grasp" (from TES II Daggerfall, unless I get the spell name mangled, but in fact it exist under different names in TES I and III-IV too; fairly useless little thing, ironically – as almost all the "touch" range battle spells are). No, he is not and would not be a juggernaut of any kind (though he is fairly high level); no, he is not interested romantically in any of Tendo sisters, nor fiancées, nor amazons, not hates anybody of Tendos nor Saotomes - just a stranger who've seen his share, and no, he will not take 'too too active' part in the later chapters; no, he is not a mage (meaning: this is not his profession) - just a stealth specialist with some magic of his own (a definite norm in Tamriel); no, he is NOT telling the WHOLE truth, but he is not lie outright either - see the first chapter name... an remember it was EVIL culture who supplement it – why lie when you can use assorted half-truths, implies or just tricks making truth less believable? He has a CN alignment in the terms of ADnD, and his sense of humor is quite nasty, but he is not outright malicious either. Was a minor ally (nobody "Of Great Importance", to be sure) of the Hero who solve the problems in Lith Myatar and Waterdeep in the events of the Hordes of Underdark (and earn a problems with House Maevir there), and later spend some time in the Tamriel (getting quite a bit of magical lore and contacts with the daedra in the process). Yes, he has his own ideas of situation and no, Genma is not going to be too pleased in the end. In fact, Seg's intentions from the start was to bring his "escort" to, say, Tamriel and vanish for some time- kind of "teaching to swim by dropping in the middle of the pool" (exactly the thing he actually did).
Plus, Genma is not ENTIRELY stupid nor completely amoral, just got an extreme case of rather normal for the Japanese division of the whole world on "us" and "them" with entirely different rules applied (wait, who I kidding? It is perfectly natural for ANYBODY human, myself included), plus too much pride and too little objectivity. Plus WAY unhealthy level of hypocrisy... Though he IS somewhat stupid, of course.
Nodoka is out of the picture yet (but she is up to a surprise in the later chapters, I guess).
Oh, and Seg's words about the mechanic of the curse is just his ideas... They can be truth or half-truth, or even false- but he himself believe in them, so he is not lie. What a lucky coincidence that the resulting deeds are matching his needs, ne?