Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ use it merely for entertainment purposes.
It was a quite morning in the Joketsuzoku and the current Elder in charge, Lo Xian, was calmly watching some of the Amazon Warriors change posts along near the gate. It had been about three months or so since Ku Lon sent word about the defeat of Saffron of Phoenix Mountain. Even now she could not believe whom the one who defeated the God-King. And it had nothing to do with the fact that it was a male, it was the fact that it was a person so young that did it. She knew there were people that could defeat Saffron, at least if he never truly ascended to Godhood, but usually it would take elder Lycanthropes to defeat him in one on one combat. The Elders of the Amazons could defeat the demi-god but it would probably take all of them to do it. "And to think he's Xian Pu's husband," the Elder thought. "He would be a fine addition to the Tribe, maybe I can get Ku Lon to ask Xian Pu if she is willing to share." The old crone smiled at that, her heir needed a strong male and outside of the supernatural creatures she doubted there were many that were stronger than Ranma. "And even if Xian Pu is willing to share I doubt that he will submit. If so I will have to advise my Great Granddaughter to subtly instead of the usual methods."
Her plans for the future were abruptly cut short when she felt a weak but very distinct Ki signature near the edge of the village. The Ki signature was one that belonged to a person of Dragon descent. And that only meant one person, Prince Herb of the Musk. "But why is it so weak?"
"Elder!" on of the Guards called, "And intruder approaches. She looks severely injured."
Herb stumbled her way down through the undergrowth of the forest around her. Normally she would never head in this direction, but she was desperate and she knew only one place had the resources that could help her. Herb Prince of the Musk Dynasty, when she was male, was literally dragging her severely injured body to her people's greatest enemy, the Amazons of Joketsuzoku. "Must…get…help," was the mantra going through her mind.
As the walls of the Amazon Village came into her blurry view she could not help but let out a small smile. "Now…if…only…they…don't…finish…it," the chances of that were small to say the least. The Musk and Amazon have been fighting each other for several generations. And while the two tribes had not fought each other in many years, mostly do to the decline of the Musk, her once mortal enemies were now her only hope.
As the beaten and battered Princess, currently, of the Musk came closer to the gates she heard one of the guards call out, "Elder! And intruder approaches. She looks severely injured." Those were the last words Herb heard before she collapsed do to her injuries.
Lo Xian quickly approached the gate. She knew from her correspondence with Ku Lon that Herb fell into the Spring of the Drowned Girl and now took a girl form when splashed with cold water. So there was not doubt in her mind that the injured intruder was Prince Herb. As she approached unconscious girl, with several Amazon Warriors following, she took note of all the injuries Herb sustained. The Elder of the Amazons could not help but wonder what could do this to a person of dragon descent, for like Saffron very few people could defeat the Musk Prince much less give him, currently her, such serious injuries. "Who is she?" one of the Amazon Warriors asked.
"Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty," Lo Xian answered. "A few months ago he fell into the Spring of the Drowned Girl this is her girl form."
"Prince Herb!" one of the Warriors asked astonished. "We must kill him!" Several shouts of agreement came from the crowd as the Warrior drew her sword and advanced on the weakened enemy.
"Stop!" Lo Xian ordered. She understood the Warriors' response to this, it was a prime opportunity to end one of the Village's greatest enemies. But in this case Lo Xian felt something big was going on and Herb had the answers to that feeling. She also felt what she heard she was not going to like.
"Why Elder?" one Warrior questioned, "We must kill all of the Musk!"
"I know," Lo Xian said. She was willing to overlook the questioning of the orders just because even to her it seemed so strange. "But there is not much in this world that could do this to Prince Herb. I wish to know what did it and why she was willing to drag herself here." There was no doubt in her mind that Herb came of her own free will. "Take to the prison, make sure she is secured and call a healer. We make sure she wakes up so we can get the information I seek."
The first thing Herb felt when she regained consciousness was pain. Her entire body was till recovering from the attack. And even with the dragon blood she knew it would be several days, maybe weeks, before she was at full strength. The next this she knew was that she was tied down with Ki enhanced restraints, not that she could move anyway with the way her body was feeling. The last thing she noticed was that she was not alone, Herb detected a massive Ki signature that could only belong to an Amazon Elder, "I made it, good."
"I never thought I would here a Prince of the Musk Dynasty say that," Lo Xian said truly surprised. Lo Xian moved closer knowing that with the restraints and the weakened condition, both form and injuries, the Dragon Descent could not hurt her. "Tell me, why have you risked you life to come to here?"
"To seek aide," Herb admitted. "Need the Lupines you have alliance with." Herbs voice was week but still strong enough to speak clearly.
That caught Lo Xian totally off guard. The Musk feared the Lupines after what happened all those centuries ago. "Why would you wan the aide of the Lupines?"
Herb could feel her strength giving out, so with the last of it she said one word, "Weretigers."
In Northern Scotland, in the Highlands, two weres of the wolf kind were trudging their way through the mountains in order to reach a sorceress that specialized in chaos magic. Ranma and Aishia were one the last leg of their trip in order to see if Ranma's Jusenkyo Curse could be lifted. They had left the Scott Stalk's Manor only two days ago. Their time there was short, only enough time to rest, pick up the manuals and for Ranma to spar with Scott. "I still can't believe how good he was," Ranma-chan said, a passing car splashed her. "I've never fought anyone that was so balanced before. He was almost perfect in speed strength and stamina." The fight had started out pretty even, with both fighters in their human form. After only a few seconds Scott made a comment about recognizing the pervert's style. Ranma had no doubt Scott was referring to Happosai. When Ranma used some Amazon techniques he was caught off guard, but quickly recovered. It was after about ten minutes of fighting when the two went into there biped forms. That was where Ranma saw Scott's true skills and saw he was really outclassed. With Centuries of experience fighting in the biped wolf form Scott easily overpowered Ranma with near amounts speed, strength, skill and stamina. Ranma knew Scott dragged the fight out in order for him to get a feel of what fighting a real werecreature was like.
"That's the Fang of Lunar Stalker style for you," Aishia replied. "It teaches near perfect balance of speed, strength, and stamina."
"Yeah I read the opening of he first manual," Ranma-chan said. "'Strength to hurt, Speed to Hit, and Stamina to Continue.'" Ranma-chan reached into her pack and pulled out the first manual. I can't wait until I try some of these techniques. That Lunar Slam hurt like hell."
Aishia laughed Ranma-chan's enthusiasm, she honestly never saw someone look so happy after they got knocked to the ground as Ranma did when Scott used a couple of signature techniques of the Fang of Lunar Stalker Style. "You'll get your chance, but for now lets get going we're only a few hours away from Dona's. And remember to speak English around her."
"I remember," Ranma-chan said in English.
At the same time in Nerima it was early evening at the Tendo Dojo. Soun and Genma were getting drunk and playing shogi, as usual, Akane was out for an evening run, Kasumi was shopping and Nabiki was in her room just waiting for Genma and Soun to get drunk enough so they would sigh anything she placed in front of Genma. "Ssaotome once Ranma getss back we'll have him maryy Akane and the Shools will be joined," Soun said just starting to get drunk enough to slur his speech.
"Yess Tendo, the boy will join the Shools," Genma said also getting drunk.
"Bakas," Nabiki thought from the stairs. "They're so drunk that they forgot Auntie nullified all the engagements." She then looked down at the divorce papers, "They'll be so out of it that Genma will sign these without hesitation." She admitted that the simplicity of the plan was rather brilliant, get them drunk and have Genma sign. Getting the two drunk was far from hard. Nabiki left money out for Genma to 'find' earlier today before she went to school and like clockwork the two went out to hit the bars. She did not put much out to ensure they would be back at the Dojo by the time she got home, but that was where the second part came in. Namely Kasumi mentioning she 'found' some sake around the house. If anyone with half a brain heard that they would have known something was up, because with Happosai, Genma and Soun there was never any sake that stayed in the house more than an hour. But Genma and Soun did not have half a brain between them so they though nothing of it.
Nabiki shook her head at the last thought. While she had no love for the Fat Panda that ate away all her profits she did still love her Father. Unfortunately she lost all respect for her Father years ago when he abandoned her and her Sisters after their Mother died, "Mom would hate him if she saw him like this," She thought pitting the child her Father became.
"Only on the third bottle," Nabiki thought. "Auntie said for Genma to get drunk enough he would have to have consumed at least four bottles on his own. With Daddy helping him finish the sake it'll take at least four more." A part of Nabiki thought of the loss of money this plan was costing but another part reminded her that seeing Nodoka free from Genma was well worth it. "Plus after this I think I will sell the Baka-Panda to the Zoo. That ought to make up for this cost easily, after all pandas are quite rare and valuable."
After a few minutes Nabiki estimated that it would be another two hours or so until both men had the proper blood-alcohol level for the plan to work. That meant that she had time for herself since Kasumi would not be home from shopping until about an hour or so later. "Maybe I should work out a bit," Nabiki thought. She mentally laughed at that, even two months ago she would have never thought that. But after getting back into training, even as light as it was, she found she really enjoyed performing the lethal dance the katas symbolized. After she realized just how enjoyable it was she was finally able to fully understand why Ranma spent so much time on the Art. With that though Nabiki went up to her room to change into a light workout clothes and then went out to the Dojo to do some exercises to pass the time.
Akane had come back from her jog in an irritated mood. Usually a jog relaxed her but it just was not enough. Her usual stress relief, hitting Ranma, was not available because she had not seen him in months. Because of that she was even quicker to anger than usual, though the only ones that really felt her wrath were Kuno and a few perverts, in her mind, that tried to ask her out. Some new kids came to school last week and one asked her out politely, of coarse Akane just jumped to the conclusion that they were just trying to catcher off guard to beat her to date her, so she knocked them out without so much as a though of remorse.
Figuring she could work off some stress by breaking some bricks Akane made her way to the Dojo walking past her Father and Genma-Panda, he spilled some water on himself. When she got to the Dojo she heard someone was already in it. Moving closer to see whom it was she saw Nabiki doing some light yoga as a warm up. Seeing Nabiki in the Dojo working out brought to mind her latest cause of anger, that fact that Nabiki and Kasumi were practicing the Art once again. With her temper rising she stomped her way to her sister, "What are you doing in My Dojo?" Akane demanded.
Nabiki for a moment was caught off by the hostility but then steeled her gaze coming into the Ice Queen persona, "Don't you mean Our Dojo? As in the family's."
"it is mine!" Akane yelled. "It's mine because I'm the Heir to the Tendo School. it is mine!" Akane yelled. "It's mine because I'm the Heir to the Tendo School!" Nabiki kept her gaze solid as her littler sister yelled, but on the inside her anger was coming to the surface, "You need my permission to use it!"
"Since when do I need your permission?" Nabiki asked this time with a little edge in her voice. "Since when are you the Master of the Dojo?"
"Since you turned you back on it for money!" Akane said, she saw a slight flinch in Nabiki's gaze meaning she struck something. Feeling elated that she affecter her sister Akane pressed further, "Since you abandoned the Art and Mother's memory to…" Akane never finished her sentence as a loud smack was heard though out the Dojo.
The smack came from Nabiki. The barb about the money did affect her but when Akane brought their Mother into that caused her to loose her control, "Mother's memory? You spoiled little brat! Don't you dare bring her into this! If she were here, Mom would be more disappointed in you than she would ever be in me! Everything I do is for the family! Everything Mom ever did was for the family! But you everything you do is for you, you are the most spoiled person I met! You expect everything to just be handed and if everything doesn't go your way, whether it's the Art or how you cook or how other people act, you throw a temper tantrum and hit something and blame someone else for your action!" Nabiki was now breathing hard from the outburst, "No Little Sister, Mom would be ashamed of you more than she would ever be ashamed of me."
Still in shock at the slap Akane was unable to call on her usual anger when someone threatened her. So she did the only thing she could she ran from the Dojo and up into her room. As she passed Soun and Genma watched her go by just as stunned as she was. After a nearly a minute of silence Soun started to wail, "WWWAAA! Nabiki hit my Baby! WWWAAAA!"
Nabiki hearing the wail did nothing but steel her gaze once again and left the property with Soun's wail repeating in her head, "'Nabiki hit my Baby,' 'Nabiki hit my Baby!' Kami I don't believe him!" It was at that moment that Nabiki was not sure if she still lover her Father or not.
After Nabiki left Genma came out of his shock and used the opportunity to switch some shogi pieces and take more of the sake.
In Scotland Ranma was lying, in his boxers, in a ring of strange runes while a woman in her late forties had her eye's closed in deep meditation. He and Aishia arrived at Dona's home no less than an hour ago. He was so exited at the time he actually turned down the food Dona offered the two travelers. Ranma wanted to see if his curse could be removed and if it could he wanted it lifted as soon as possible. So here he was laying of cold, though dry, stone while magical energies circled around him being used by the sole other occupant, Dona, scanning his curse to see if it could be lifted. Aishia was not here with them because her presence would disrupt the scanning spell.
After three hours Dona finally opened her eyes. Ranma felt the energy stop and looked up at her. The look he saw was not encouraging, "Can you cure me?"
"No," Dona said sadly. "I can't cure you of your curse because it's not being powered by Chaos Magic."
"But Riener say…" Ranma tried to object but Dona cut him off.
"Riener was in error," Dona interrupted. "The curse is powered by Primordial Magic."
"Then I just find someone who know that kind," Ranma said still trying to maintain hope. The sad look on Dona's face was not helping.
"I'm sorry but no understands Primordial Magic Kid," Dona stated. "It's the oldest kind of Magic, some mages believe it's the kind of stuff that give life, and one has that kind of power."
"So I stuck with curse?" Ranma asks already knowing the answer.
"Yes," Dona sadly nodded. Seeing Ranma become depressed she continues to speak hoping what she has next to say will cheer him up a bit. "I may not be able to remove the curse but I think I can make it more manageable."
"What you mean?"
"Riener was in error in thinking the curse was powered by Chaos Magic but he was correct when he detected it," Dona said. "The part that is Chaos Magic is the part that attracts water to you. I believe I can remove that part of and it would make it at least more manageable."
"You mean I not get wet every minute?" Ranma asked gaining a little hope. If he could get some control over it. The curse might be as Dona says, manageable.
"Yes," Dona confirmed. "The Chaos Magic draws the water to you at seemingly random events. With out it you would only be subject to getting wet with the same chances as everyone else."
"No more sudden rain or lady with ladle or car splash me with small puddle?" Ranma asked.
"Correct," Dona answered. "It's not much but it will help."
"I take what I get," Ranma said. "When we start?"
With a yawn and a grumbling stomach Dona says, "Not until tomorrow. Chaos Magic takes a lot of energy to use so I need to rest and something to eat." Ranma started to mutter in complaint but Dona never heard him because Ranma's stomach growled with Dona's in agreement of the food. "Well looks like you agree, so why don't we both get some rest and food."
"Ok," Ranma conceded, "But tomorrow we'll get right back at it."
At the Neko Haten Cologne was preparing some ramen when she glanced out the window and saw a messenger bird flying to the restaurant. When it was close enough she saw that it was the fastest the Amazons had and only used for emergencies. As it came in an open window Cologne saw a message attached to its leg. Even though Cologne had no idea what the message said, she knew she would not like it one little bit.