Scroll 4. L'elend zhah alurl.
(The traditional is best).
...The cold water return Genma to consciousness. "What a dream... Scratch it, what a nightmare... to send a boy to a simple mission with his fiancée and see him appearing not a minute after the departing- and what kind of department!- with Nodoka of all people... It must be a hunger, I suppose..."

"So, oyaji decides to join us in the land of living, after all. Good. Kasumi, I believe you would know a way to coax your father to follow this great idea too? I guess a certain... things must be set, preferably sooner then later."

"Of course, ussta ssinssrigg, and it will be a pleasure to me too."- The tone of the purring female voice was implying that said process will hardly be of any pleasure to the Tendo patriarch.

Genma sat very slowly, just to get a little time to reassess a situation. No way his son could change that drastically that suddenly. So, there must be an explanation. How can it be...

"Oyaji, don't strain yourself. You could not guess this reasons, so take it easy."

'Damn, whatever it was, it was quite a shock, if he was that easy to read that his son was doing that so effortlessly.'

"No, oyaji, the shock was big, but not that big. I just got a whole hell of a practice for the last few years. And mother is not there... yet. I take a liberty to search for her address in your things, and already call her. A train from Shinjuku will arrive half an hour from there. And you can forget about running or playing with your curse."

"Ranma! How can you... W-why?"

"Because there are much news heading your way, and I would prefer to address this matter just once. Most of it is... sensitive stuff. As in 'sensitive high explosive', so do not press your luck. And now, oyaji, meet my sister Ranko. Ranko, you know oyaji".

Well, normally Genma would be already in the middle of the big speech about 'the shame', the 'ungrateful children' and the whole 'family honor' idea. But right now he was too out of his element with the fast and decisive action of the one person he thought he know, impending visit of his wife and a scary as hell sight of the elder Tendo daughter readying some strange concoction (his eyes was watering at a two meter distance from it) apparently to awaken her father... Poor Soun... Well, 'better him then I am'. Wait, 'sister'? But Ranma...

"Yes, now I've got a sister, and a great one, but you will get the details later... meaning with all the others. Right now just try to remember a simple fact."

Damn, this newfound sharpness of the boy was most unsettling. Even worse was a silent contemplation from this new 'sister' of his son, oh so strangely resembling Nodoka. So the elder Saotome start small.

"Son, you have no idea..."

"I need no idea, oyaji, for I know you too well. Right now you are lacking information, so be a clever martial artist for once and do not butt in the whole matter blindly. We have a... situation there, and a nasty one to boot. Nabiki, any news on our... friends?"

"Not yet, ussta ssinssrigg, and I hope we lost them in this dash through the Underdark; if we are lucky, they can even let themselves in some of the local... politics."

"Nobody is that stupid, ussta xukuth, but we can hope, I guess. So, will your father join the party or is he decide to take a nice long nap after all?"

. . .

(one hour later, Tendo-ke, the same party plus Saotome Nodoka)

"Well, basically, we found ourselves all alone right in the middle of the slowly boiling... silent war, I guess. After this... incident with the Neko-ken Nabiki insisted on the general information sharing, so we would not be caught flatfooted the next time some... old problems appears. That was an... unique talk, and I must say I was more than impressed with both girls..."

"So was the two of us too."- Kasumi was smiling now, but this smile was far from any serenity... there was something predatory there, and Akane shivered involuntarily, glad despite herself that this particular smile was not directed her way. Genma, at the other hand, was sweating big time.- "Imagine this, to spend a lifetime on the road, pretty much without friends, not getting any training in the human interaction, not to mention these curses of him... After all of that not to become a bitter one-dimensional jerk... I was looking forward to meeting your, Nodoka-san, and I am most pleased now. But we are already dancing around entirely too long, so..."

"Mother, meet my twin sister Ranko."- Nodoka appears to be utterly stunned by this little declaration.- "Mother?"

"T-twin sister? Ranma, but you are my only child..."

"I was the only child, right. Right now, okaasan, you have a son and a daughter, twins."

"Yes, okaasan, it's right."

"H-how is it possible? It's..."

"Well, 'magic' will be the best word there. Let's see, while on training trip with oyaji, we visit a specific training ground in China - Jusenkyo, the valley of the enchanted springs, and both end up cursed. The curse is not quite right a word- it's more like 'evil spell' or 'enchantment'- but anyway it is- or in my case was- water-specific, turning it's victim in whatever drown in the spring with application of the cold water, and returning it to the natural form with the hot water. Well, to make a long story short, oyaji turns into panda, and I was 'cursed' to turn into girl. It was... about two weeks ago, local time."

"'Local' time? Wait... You was cursed? To turn into girl? Genma..."

"Okaasan, let it slip- at least, for now. Oyaji was meaning well, as usual... And he cannon help being idiot once in a while. Yes, I was cursed, but in the end it was for the better. We will have a lot of problems later, but right now the situation is far better then any of us can hope just this morning, so hear the whole story first, if you please."

"Well, if you insist..."

"We insist, okaasan. It's important."

"Agreed. Ok, back to the story. This morning we meet the stranger who promise a possibility to cure the affliction in return for our help, and Nabiki there agreed to accompany me on the mission. The 'best' part of situation was that the stranger himself was... cursed in a way, so when he attempted to make a portal to the destination point he end up dragging Kasumi alongside us too. After that, the three of us lost tracks of the stranger in question for a while... And had a lot of adventures in the span of three years, or a little less."

"But you said you depart this morning!"

"Yes, and I was not lying. Anyway, at the end of the third year, we three was on the errand for a local daedra lord, Azura- quite a lady, to be sure. Anyway, it was a simple matter- just to kill a several vampires, no sweat,- but we found a... portal of sorts on the way back. An ayleid portal. And Azura was helpful enough to point that it can be used to cure my... condition, in a sense."

"'In a sense'?"

"Yes. The portal drained the Jusenkyo magic from me in the process of it's activation, but there was a... backslash of magic, and a powerful one. There was three of us at one side of the portal, but four of us emerged at the other side, and none of us avoid... changing."

"Sounds... dangerous."

"More like strange. You see, the portal in question was made by Ayleides when it becomes apparent that they are losing a war to the Empire. It was targeted to the Forgotten realms, and used simultaneously with the time altering spells, so Ayleides ends up in the past of the world they travel to. It was a precaution against the Empire following them, and it works. The only way to activate said portal was to bring a continuous active spell- old fairy magic, no less,- on it's surface, and the disruption of said spell was the price. In our case, the spell was nothing to do with the time, so we was not dumped in some ancient era, but polymorphic spell, so..."

"We end up as a shapeshifters,"- deadpanned Kasumi.- "Even more, the disruption of spell change our race permanently- we are ayleides ourself. The change is not that big, and mostly concerns our lifespan and abilities, but it is still there."

"You are... yousei? But you does not look any different,"- Akane was cautious, but curious. Was this strange story truth? Was this her sisters?

"In a sense. Our looks is almost the same, and Kasumi here make sure that the changes would not be visible for a while. Anyway, back to the story. Seven years after the portal incident we finally succeed in creating of spell capable of bringing us home."- Nabiki's voice was smooth as a silk.- "As the targeting a specific place is not that different from the targeting a specific time, we decide to return the same day as we departed, and here we are. And father, before you will start to mess with the idea of 'choosing the bride', don't."

"W-why? WAAAAA..."- Slam!- "Ouch..."

Well, the Tendo Waterfall was interrupted quite spectacularly courtesy of Nabiki of all people.

"Oneesan, what..."

"Imotouchan, let's can it. If you want to hear father wailing before he hear the full story, it's your choice, but I will not tolerate such a inhospitality. There are traditions around, and they must be respected."- Akane was speechless. Nabiki, defending traditions?

"Well, to answer your question, father, you cannot start this... indecent running around, because there will be a problem. Ranma already married to the two of us, by the church of Sune Firehair ceremony, and neither I nor Nabiki have any intention to end our relationships with Ranma."- Kasumi was calm and centered, as always... Well, almost always, not that the elder Saotomes know it.

"Nonsense! What some gaijin..."- Wham!- "Ouch..."

Well, nobody says Genma can learn on his neighbor's errors.

"Ranko, dear, was it really necessary?"

"Sure was, okaasan. After all, he must hear the statement before he make any objections, right? Besides, I owe him a kick or three for some of his training techniques all right."

"Dear, but that was not very ladylike..."

"I know, okaasan, but 'that' was at the very least satisfying and prevent oyaji from being impolite at the same time. I would gladly learn anything you would want to teach me, but the ancient traditions of the land we travel last year demand exactly the thing I did."- Well, drow of Underdark mostly are belong to matriarchal society...

"Oh my..."

"Okaasan, do not worry. Ranko is right, we will gladly learn anything necessary. And before I forget, let me invite all of you to our tower... say, how about tomorrow morning?"

"Tower?"- Genma was trying to wrap his mind around the idea. Owning a dojo- he can understand, but tower?

"Yeah, a lovely little tower at the pocket plane not too far from here. Had to kick a demilich out of it first, but it was worth it. So, will you be our guests?"

"S-sure,"- Nodoka was pretty much out of balance. First, her son invite her to a little family meeting; then she find that she had a daughter (and her son's twin) who has something to do with the (now gone) curse of her son (and, apparently both of them somehow become something straight out of some strange myths)... Oh, and her son apparently was married to both his girl companions (so manly!) and owns a tower in the some strange place. After all these news the fact that her husband turns to panda with a little cold water was just so small a detail... Well, at the very least the things cannot become any more strange then they already are, right?

"I would not count on that, okaasan. Usually when you think that situation cannot become more screwed up, it quickly becomes far worse..."

A little side note:

'ussta' – 'my', 'mine'

'ssinssrigg' – 'passion', 'love', 'lust'

'xukuth' – 'heart'.

All three on Ilitiiry (a drow language).

Well, after this particular chapter posted I am starting to rewriting and hopefully expanding these four first "scrolls". I expect to end this process around the August 28th, and the next chapter will be added only after that. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I think I better re-check all the parts of the story early, as I catch myself several times on way too schematic descriptions and/or inaproppriate word choice; there must be more such problems around so I am out at the bug-hunting trip right now ;)