Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½™ or Sacrifice™ or any related characters, terms or concepts.
Author's Notes: okay, so people are still reading this and enjoying it too- I can't begin to tell you how happy that makes me. I'm sorry for the threat at the end of the last chapter, but to me lack of reviews spells lack of interest (it's one of my many personality flaws). A reviewer claimed this story is starting to dwindle in quality; is it really?
Part 23: The Five Faces of Ranma
Six figures could be seen moving stubbornly through the endless blizzard, just barely visible through the howling winds and fiercely driven snows. One figure spoke to another, shouting to make itself heard above the din.
"How can you stand to live here Ranma? It's freezing! And we can barely see a thing in this weather."
"I'm not affected by the cold the way you lot are, and besides which the blizzard is par for the course in Empyrea; if it isn't snowing, it's raining and if it isn't raining it's foggy. Just try and follow me, I'll get you to shelter before you freeze solid."
A part of Lina wanted to get furious at Ranma for treating her like a little girl, but she decided to strangle such impulses until she wasn't in danger of freezing to death. Besides Ranma, the only ones not suffering from this cold weather were Ryoga, who'd pulled out a set of warm clothing from that oversized backpack of his, and Zelgadis, whose Chimera nature made him, if not immune, then at least heavily resistant to the effects of adverse climates. Finally, just when they thought they were finished, they stumbled into a village; eagerly barging through the doorway Ranma led them to in order to bask in the warmth within.
They'd just started to exult in the regained ability to feel their extremities when they noticed the company they'd just barged in on. And they did not look pleased at their presence. Some thirty or so feral-looking wolf-Beastmen, about forty-five bow-carrying cloven-hoofed elf-women-things, two dozen twelve-foot tall creatures and eight giant hairy beasts. All of the motley monsters looked ready to spring into the attack, but Ranma's sudden appearance behind Ryoga and the Slayers initiated a lightning-quick reversal of demeanour for the creatures, which instantly calmed down and returned to… whatever it was they'd been doing before Ryoga and the Slayers had burst in on them.
The "humans", relatively speaking of course, blinked in confusion –except Ryoga- and then turned their questioning gaze to Ranma. Before they could ask their obvious question, Ryoga answered it for them.
"They obey him because they're his servants, they obey any command he gives them. If we're with him, we're okay. Of course, if he said we were his enemies, things would have gotten real messy, real quick."
"You do realise that, whilst they don't speak Japanese, they do understand it perfectly, don't you Ryoga?"
"What's Japanese?"
"The native language that Ryoga and I speak. Before you ask, I applied a translation spell to the both of us when we came to your world so that we would be able to understand your kind and communicate with you. Now, I'll have to reverse-engineer that spell so that you can understand us. But first I better go and summon Stormclaw back from your world; you stay here and keep warm."
They had no reasons to argue with Ranma's decisions, and any that might have arisen were killed off as Ranma left through the door back into the still-raging blizzard, releasing a surge of freezing wind into the room as he did so. Ryoga and the Slayers shivered and moved closer to the fire whilst doing their best to avoid shoving the other creatures in the chamber aside- though they did wonder why all the creatures were in this building. After a few minutes, Lina started getting bored. Looking around, she saw that some of the creatures had grouped together and were doing something involving cards; it looked like a poker game. She tugged on Ryoga's shirt to get his attention.
"Hey, can you ask them to let us in? It's gotta be better than just sitting around doing nothing."
It was several days later, and the Slayers and Ryoga were both getting restless. Ranma had spent the last few days reverse-engineering his translation spell to work for the Slayers and educating them as to the various differences between his world and theirs, and they were starting to get sick of the way he would constantly warn them to avoid drawing attention to themselves. This attitude began to seep into their unconscious body language, and Ranma couldn't help but notice it as he delivered one final lecture prior to the departure for Nerima.
"And remember, it wasn't too long ago when we used to burn people like you, so don't blow your cover! With all that said and done, let's go; a new world awaits you."
Ignoring the way the others gagged at that cheesy line, Ranma led them to his Altar, gesturing in the manner needed to activate the portal between Sliverspine Village and the Tendo Dojo before stepping into it.
Lina shook her head to clear her senses after the brutal assault they had been subjected to by using the portal. She couldn't exactly remember it, all she could remember was a brilliant white light and intense screaming winds, the two working together and intensifying until they filled the world and left her totally cut off from reality. Then, the sensations had faded away suddenly, leaving her floundering as the world surged back into being. Now she could finally see again, and she blinked at the unusual architecture as a young woman came out of the house, a strangely soothing smile on her lips. Somehow, her very presence filled Lina with a strange sense of peace, and it looked like she wasn't the only one.
"Why hello Ranma, who are your new friends?"
"Hi Kasumi, these are some people I met on my… training journey. This is Inverse Lina, Gabriev Gourry, Greywords Zelgadis, and Wil Tesla Saillune Amelia. Guys, this is Tendo Kasumi."
Lina wondered why he had introduced them family-name first, then shrugged it off as local custom and joined the others in greeting Kasumi. She began leading them into the house with the offer of some snacks, which helped cement her place in their hearts as a good person, when Ranma pulled a strange contraption from out of nowhere and pressed a hidden button on its edge. It opened up and outwards, making a faint clicking sound, and Ranma frowned slightly and tapped it gently with his fingers before closing it up, putting it away and giving a courteous bow to Kasumi.
"I'm sorry I have to leave again so soon, but I have a very important appointment elsewhere, and unlike Ryoga I can't afford to be late."
"Speaking of Ryoga, where is he? I thought he was bringing up the rear of the group when we came through the portal."
Ranma looked around in confusion at Zelgadis' question, and then shrugged, a sign of disinterest and nonchalance, before whispering an incantation and vanishing into thin air.
Though no one knew it, Ryoga was still in Sliverspine Village, and not because he'd gotten lost (for once). Ryoga had been fuming about Ranma taking back that Ultimate Annihilator Key ever since the act, and had done his best to try and discover where Ranma had hidden it ever since they'd gotten back to Sliverspine. Though he had yet to succeed, he had managed to find one artefact; a bizarre and very ornate sort of jar-thing. Hearing one of Ranma's minions entering, and remembering Ranma's anecdotes about Empyrean justice, Ryoga tucked the vase-thing into a subspace pocket and jumped at what he took to be a nearby window.
Once he recovered from driving himself headfirst into solid rock, he instead staggered over to a nearby door, which to his good fortune turned out to be an actual way out instead of a closet. Luck continued to favour him to the point that Ryoga actually managed to find his way out of Ranma's house without being caught stealing. In a mixed blessing, there was one of the wolf-creatures Ranma had called Frostwolves standing nearby, and Ryoga approached it -or rather her- to ask for directions.
"Ah… excuse me, miss? I meant to go back through the Altar with Ranma, but I kinda missed him leaving, Can you take me there?"
She looked him up and down a bit, visibly thought it over, and then nodded. She loped off towards the Altar, Ryoga trailing behind her and silently hoping he'd be able to figure out how to get back to Nerima.
Meanwhile, in place that was both closer to Dalara Peaks than the next heartbeat and yet further from it than the most distant star, the air was suddenly rent with a brilliant surge of light and noise as Ranma materialized about thirty feet above the ground, his elegant drop to its surface spoiled only by the way the boggy, tainted, rotten ground squelched underfoot, unleashing noxious vapours fragrant with rot, decay and putrescence. It was fortunate that Ranma coupled a will of star-forged steel with previous acclimatisation to the nature of Stygia, or else he may well have gagged on the fetid mists that had engulfed him. But even he found it an attractive notion to exit the cloud as quickly as possible and head for where the Other had told him to come.
Within minutes he stood before the place, pausing awhile to see the fruits of his other self's labour. In appearance, the Other's home resembled an old but still stately European manor. A tiny part of Ranma, deep inside his consciousness, wondered why he had not chosen to make his home to resemble a traditional Japanese mansion. But he dismissed the question as unimportant. As he walked up the creaking steps that led from the swamp-like ground to the house's porch, he stopped and turned at the sound of thunder; a storm was brewing and blowing towards the house, though he would be inside and, hopefully, away from the rain, which was likely to be either tainted and poisonous or completely disgusting, a rancid gruel of blood and pus and decaying meat, long before it started.
The door opened with a stereotypically ominous creaking, squeaking noise mere seconds before Ranma's hand touched the knob. Ignoring it as simply Stygian dramatics, Ranma walked down the long, dark, dusty hallways, admiring the numerous and random growths of slime-moulds and fungi that passed for interior decoration in Stygia, though he knew they also served more practical purposes that ranged from food-supplies to ready-made alchemical components to auto-defense systems. He dodged his head to one side as a giant moth whirred past and then lifted a foot as some sort of serpent-scorpion thing scuttled underfoot, the equivalent of household pets in this bizarre place.
But Ranma ignored them and walked on, down dark, moist corridors lit only by luminescent fungi, past shattered doorways with who-knew-what horrors lying beneath a concealing blanket of impenetrable shadows within, on and on he walked, devoid of concern; this house might be alien to him, but yet it was also home, the outcome of a path he hadn't walked, yet had. Finally, he reached the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
"And here he is. Didn't I tell you he'd come? We know myself. Gentlemen; the last of our number. We are complete."
Ranma grinned, and four perfectly identical grins returned it. He settled himself into an empty chair to take in the appearance of his "other selves".
The Necromancer was seated to his right, tongue occasionally slithering past his fangs to lap Skullbubbler from a tarnished gold goblet.
To the Necromancer's left was the Sorcerer version of himself. His differences were less noticeable than those of the Necromancer, consisting as they did of a slight flush to the skin and, more distinctly, red highlights to his black hair.
To Ranma's left was the Mystic, whose eyes were closed and who wore a strangely Kasumi-like grin. Of all the Ranmas, only the Mystic lacked the pigtail. Instead, his hair hung to shoulder length, with flowering vines tangled within it- in fact; the vines were actually sprouting from his head.
Finally, to the Sorcerer's right was the Geomancer; of them all, he looked the closest to Ranma, who actually couldn't see any differences between the two of them at first. Finally, Ranma realized that the Geomancer's frame was wirier than his own, tight cords of muscle and sinew plainly visible beneath his skin, flexing with every move he made.
Having discovered how to tell them all apart, Ranma opened his mouth to speak. And then closed it again; how the hell did you address someone when all five of you shared the same name? The Necromancer noticed his discomfiture and laughed.
"Yeah, it would be pretty confusing if we went by our real name; we'd never be able to figure out who was talking to who. So we came up with 'nicknames' or 'codenames' so we could have conversations without going insane. They call me Blight."
"Grit."
Commented the Geomancer, taking a swig from a tankard of Mountain's Blood, a rich, heady Glebian ale brewed from mushrooms.
"Sooth"
Said the Mystic, his eyes remaining fastened shut as he sipped delicately at a cup of some sort of Elysium wine that Ranma couldn't identify.
"Call me Cinder."
Replied the Sorcerer, his voice crackling and spitting like a blazing fire- though that may have been due to the large gulp of molten steel he'd just taken. Ranma thought quickly; what sort of name could he use? Seeing the way they looked at him, he shrugged and spat out the first thing that came to him.
"I guess you can call me… Storm?"
"It shall suffice. Now then, gentlemen, a toast."
"To the future, to the past, to the weave of time."
Ranma chanted along with the others; the words felt strangely comforting. Grit slid a glass of Liquid Lightning, a very expensive brand of Empyrean liquor, across the table to him. He clinked it against those of the others and drained it in a single gulp.
Meanwhile, in Nerima, Ryoga had been lucky enough to find that Ranma had apparently left the portal open- that, or teleporting between Altars was simply a matter of walking into the mana-stream- and was currently seated on the Tendo Dojo's living-room floor, trying to figure out how to unlock the jar-thing he'd stolen from Ranma's home in Sliverspine.
"Gah… stupid thing! How do you open this wretched piece of garbage?"
"Hey, pass it here, maybe I can get it open."
Ryoga, somewhat reluctantly, handed it over to Lina, who had been sitting close by and eating a snack laid out for her and the other Slayers by the ever-thoughtful Kasumi. For several long minutes, Lina examined every square inch of the vase's surface, her nimble fingers poking and prodding and prying until, finally, there was a sharp, hissing click and the seal at one end loosened, wisps of oily black smoke curling from the thin crack of an opening. Ryoga snatched it from Lina's grasp and savagely yanked it open, and then all was fire and thunder and screams…
Across the dimensional barrier, all five Ranmas suddenly screamed as a surge of some incredibly powerful unholy force washed through the very essence of their beings, agony like nothing they had ever experienced, pain so pure that even Blight could find no pleasure in it. Their glazed eyes met, five identical pain-wracked faces twisted in mutual agreement, and as one they disappeared, gone to find whatever it was that had assaulted them so. To find it, and to destroy it…
To Be Continued…Okay, okay, I know; a short chapter and a cliffhanger ending- not my usual style. I'm sorry, but I have a big fight scene intended for the next chapter and I need some input from you all before I can do it. Please answer any of the questions I have below that you feel like doing; remember that the more reviews you submit, the faster I get new chapters written and uploaded.
1: Do you have any suggestions for new Spells/Mana/Hybrid Techniques for the Alternate Ranmas? Take a look at the "Style Descriptions" back in chapter #19 for inspiration; I'd do so myself, but I wrote the chapter and I'm still coming up blank.
2: Can you give me suggestions for what weapons Cinder, Grit and Sooth's Soul Blade (from chapter #23) might form?
3: Are there any particular personality traits and/or habits you can suggest for the Alternate Ranmas? Just so I can make it easier to distinguish between them?
Okay, that's it. Please review; I can't do this without you!