Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or Sacrifice™ or any related characters, terms or concepts.
Author's Notes: Eight chapters, 120+ reviews and only one real flame? I mustn't be as horrifying a writer as I thought! Oh, and I realise I got the Unlocking Kettle (Kaisuifuu) mixed up with the Locking Ladle (Chisuiiton) in the last chapter; I've edited that and whatever other mistakes I've made in the previous chapters.
Part 8: Meetings and Beatings, Part 1
Having tricked (for lack of a better word) Genma out of the location of his mother's house, Ranma was currently in Sliverspine, preparing himself for his first true meeting with the mother he'd never known whilst growing up. He paced backwards and forwards across the cluttered floor of his house, mentally reviewing his plans, choice of outfits and, perhaps most importantly, the list of Genma's wrong-doings he intended to give to her.
"Let's see, stealing Ukyo's dowry, engaging me to Kaori for a bowl of rice, two fish and some pickles, the Neko-Ken, Jusenkyo, lying to her about being 'Ranko's' pet panda, what else should I tell her?"
In his state of absent-mindedness, Ranma accidentally walked out of his hut and into the pouring rainstorm outside. Being drenched in frigid water quickly shocked him back to his senses and sent him scrambling back through the door.
"Man, am I glad I finally got rid of that wretched curse pop got us. Wait just a minute… why do I have this feeling I forgot something?"
He concentrated for a few seconds before a picture of a raging Ryoga appeared in his mind's eye. He thumped his open palm in realisation.
"I knew I forgot something! Gotta wait for this storm to finish first."
Smiling at having remembered, Ranma made his way to a crude chair in the corner, cleared the junk off of it and sat down. He had something else to think about now; while it was true that his Altar, and thus his link with Otherworld, could only be destroyed by the Desecration spell, Ranma had no intention of allowing the Nerima Wrecking Crew to attempt to destroy it. Who knew what would happen if it got damaged. So now he had to try and figure out what sort of creature he could summon as a Guardian.
A Silverback? Nah, too big and too flashy.
Sylphs? No, Akane would just get mad at the sight of them.
Storm Giants? Not strong enough.
A Flurry? Next.
Ranma snapped his fingers as the answer hit him; a Yeti! Strong, tough, powerful and with a worse attitude than Ryoga's, it was the perfect guardian. Now he just had to get the necessary souls to create one…
Somewhere in NerimaA day had passed since Ryoga had departed the Tendo Dojo, declaring his plans to head for the mountains and train so that he could challenge this "new" Ranma Saotome. Unfortunately for him, he was completely lost and absolutely nowhere near the mountains- he hadn't even left Nerima yet! He pulled out a well-worn map of Japan and scrutinized it. As he tried to narrow down precisely where he was and where he had to go, someone poked him in the back, flinging him into an instinctive fighting position. He blinked in confusion when that "someone" turned out to be Ranma Saotome.
"Heya Ryoga, what are you doing?"
Ryoga blinked; the last time he'd seen Ranma, he'd been effectively threatening his life, cold and harsh as a blizzard. Now he was seemingly back to his old cocky yet happy-go-lucky self. A sweatdrop rolled down the back of his head as his silence prompted Ranma to place a hand on his forehead and leaned in close to scrutinize his face.
"You really must be sick, but I'll be frostbitten if I can find any fever."
"What are you talking about? What do you mean 'I must be sick'?"
"Sheesh, I've been back about three days and you still haven't asked."
"Asked what! What are you talking about!"
Ryoga was now thoroughly convinced that Ranma had completely lost his mind.
"Hello? Curse, cure, P-Chan, me, any of this ringing any bells?"
Ryoga blinked as he assimilated that data, before he finally managed to figure out what Ranma was referring to.
"What's the point in asking? It's not like you can get any more cures here, or that you'd be willing to share them in the first place."
"Firstly, the cure is so simple even you could pull it off, secondly, who said I wouldn't share? I'll admit I don't exactly have much cause to share it, but that wouldn't have stopped me considering it if you'd asked."
"What do you mean you don't have any cause to share it!"
"Essentially, why should I fix something that isn't my fault? And don't look at me like that; did I make pop drag us both to those stupid springs? Did I make you chase me to China, or fail to get out of our way? Did I make the old ghoul train Shampoo at the springs? Did I make that idiot Mousse take his glasses off and just walk straight into the damn Spring of Drowned Duck? Did I? Couple that with precisely how often you've all screwed me over when it came to potential cures, is it any wonder I have severe doubts about giving you the cure I finally found?"
Ryoga actually backed up a step, as Ranma seemed to be working himself into a fury. Ranma's fingers flexed rapidly, emitting cracks like walnuts breaking, before he clenched his right hand into a fist and brought it to rest against his chest, breathing heavily through his nose as he visibly forced himself to calm down. But that single lapse of control was enough to make it plain, even to Ryoga, that there was a lot of resentment and rage bottled up inside Ranma. Smiling as though he hadn't been just about to blow a fuse two seconds ago, Ranma continued.
"Anyway, I'm willing to share the secret to curing Jusenkyo curses with you, on three conditions."
"Name them!"
"Firstly; you will never reveal the secret of the cure to the other cursed locals- I will decide when and if they are worthy of receiving it. Secondly; once you are cured you will tell Akane about being P-Chan- I don't need her moping around because her little pet has disappeared for good."
"B-but I…"
"Can never work up the guts to tell her? Then take these."
Ranma gave Ryoga small vial full of pills.
"These are confidence pills, take one of them and for the next 72 hours you'll be so confident, why, you could even tell Akane that you love her at last. The third and final condition is this; come with me to my mother's house."
"Huh?"
Ryoga was confused; why would Ranma want him to meet his mother? Ranma rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation.
"Because I intend to tell her precisely what pop did on our training trip, he has no intention of letting me reach her."
That made sense; even Ryoga had to admit that Genma Saotome was far from a sterling example of a martial artist, as well as being cowardly and deceitful enough that he would try anything to save his own skin. He nodded in agreement.
"All right, I'm in. So let's go already."
"Great. Oh, and you'll get the secret when we reach mom's house, no sooner, no later."
Several hours later, Ryoga was beginning to wonder if Ranma hadn't gone paranoid. True, since they started towards where Ranma said his mother was they'd experienced several "accidents", from being accused of being shoplifters to being mugged to cars that shot from out of nowhere to try and run them down, but it had been nothing they couldn't handle. Ranma attributed all of it to Genma's handiwork, whilst Ryoga privately doubted that Genma had anything approaching the subtlety or brainpower needed to pull them off.
Then came an event that convinced Ryoga that maybe Ranma wasn't going nuts at all; the two of them had entered an intersection, when pouring down from every street came a flood of cats, a feline tsunami that swept upon them with a speed and ferocity they couldn't evade. Unable to even leap aside, Ryoga buried his hands into a nearby wall to anchor himself and tucked his face into his chest to shield it, he had no choice but to trust to his Bakusai Tenketsu training to spare him from the worst of the damage.
When the last screeching cat had finished clawing at him and wandered away, Ryoga finally unanchored himself. His clothes were shredded, but he hadn't taken too much damage himself, though for perhaps the first time in his life he could sympathize with Ranma for having been put through the Neko-Ken. Speaking of Ranma…
"Where are you!"
Oh great, he's probably on the other side of Tokyo by now. If he hasn't reached the other side of Japan anyway.
"I'm up here Ryoga!"
Huh?Ryoga looked upwards, seeing nothing but a tiny dot floating high in the air. When that dot descended though, his jaw dropped. The "dot" turned out to be Ranma, encased in a shell-like silver aura, which flared out as a set of magnificent wings from his shoulders. He hovered above the ground for a few seconds before cancelling the aura and dropping to the ground effortlessly. Ryoga picked his jaw off the ground and tried to wrap his head around what he had just seen.
"You… wings… flight… aura… how?"
"You didn't think that tossing lightning bolts and ice sculpture were the only things I picked up on my journey, did you? Oh no Ryoga, I can honestly tell you that you ain't seen nothing yet!"
Perhaps it was desperation, perhaps it was sheer stupidity, but Genma finally made an actual appearance in his confrontation with his son. And that was his worst mistake of the day.
"Ranma! My son! At last, I've found you!"
"Hey Ranma, is that your mom? Ranma?"
When Ryoga looked at his companion, he saw that Ranma was visibly shaking with rage, his fist clenched tightly and the beginnings of a red-black aura shimmering around him. As Ranma's "mother" got closer, Ryoga could see why; it was nobody other than Genma, in one of his usual pathetic "female" disguises. Looking backwards and forwards between the grotesque man, and his twitching son, Ryoga couldn't help but think of the numerous times Ranma had tricked someone (usually him) with his girl-side.
Geez, guess the saying really is true; like father, like son.
Ryoga snapped out of his thoughts when Ranma visibly shifted moods, going from the brink of fury to joyous and happy in the blink of an eye.
"Mom? Is that really you? Oh, it's been so long!"
Only Ryoga could see that Ranma's right hand, tucked behind his back, was beginning to glow with a weird white light.
"Let me touch you and make sure you're real… pop."
Ranma's voice shifted from happy to menacing with that last word; Genma's eyes bulged in terror as he realised he had been outwitted, but before he could even move Ranma lashed out with a speed that even Ryoga could barely follow. With a single touch of his hand, Genma was encased in a thick shell of bluish ice, his features just barely visible beneath the overcoat-like prison. Ranma turned to Ryoga, visibly calming down.
"Can you bring him along? I'm sure mom will have a few things she'd like to discuss."
"Not so fast! When are you going to tell me the secret to curing Jusenkyo?"
"If I tell you, will you do as I ask?"
"Yes! Now tell me already!"
"Alright then, the secret is this…"
Ranma leaned in close and whispered in Ryoga's ear, Ryoga's eyes shot open and his jaw dropped.
"That's the secret!"
Ranma nodded.
"You're kidding?"
Ranma shook his head.
"All this time, and I could have been cured…"
"Yes, life's full of nasty little shock's, isn't it? Now come on- I haven't seen her in twelve years."
Ryoga nodded and lifted the Genma-sicle onto his shoulders with a grunt; Genma was far from a featherweight even when he wasn't wrapped in a cubic foot of ice.
The Saotome HouseNodoka Saotome sighed and slung the Saotome Honour Sword onto her shoulders; she intended to visit the Tendo Dojo again and see if her husband and son were there yet. A knocking at the door interrupted her musings on her long-missing family.
"Oh my, now who could that be?"
She quickly walked towards the door and opened it.
"Hello? May I help…"
She stopped in mid-sentence; there, standing on her doorstep, was a young man who looked strangely familiar. Her heart raced; could it be?
"Hi… mom?"
From several feet away, Ryoga watched as mother and son embraced each other.
Somewhere in Nerima"Find him you fools! We must get the Locking Ladle back!"
"Yes sire!"
"At once master!"
Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty fumed with rage as Lime and Mint shot off in two different directions. The trio had arrived at a harbour close to Nerima, but had been ambushed by shrivelled little troll of a martial artist, who'd stolen the Locking Ladle after paralysing them with some sort of mould-bomb. Herb gritted his teeth and ground his fist with rage; that wretch would pay!
All right, chapter 9 is up; Ranma finally meets his mother, Ryoga knows how to cure himself, and the Musk are tearing up Nerima in pursuit of Happosai, who stole the Locking Ladle when he went to pick up his barrel of Nyannichaun. But I need recommendations here; should Ranma fight with Herb and/or the other Musk first, or should Happosai splash him with the Locking Ladle first? If the latter, should Ranma get into a fight with Herb, or team up with him to get revenge on the ancient pervert first?
Before anyone points at that Herb is Jusenkyo-cursed himself at this point in time, and thus a female, I know that; Herb is being referred to as "he" deliberately, because only Lime and Mint know he's in the body of a girl, and they have been taught to refer to him as male- or else!