Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½™ or Sacrifice™ or any related characters, terms or concepts.
Author's Notes: okay, a few ideas for "accidents", but none that I felt I could use. Oh well, I'll just make it up as I go along, like I usually do. I must admit my gratitude to reviewer Ormik, who has provided me with perhaps the most detailed and professional review I've ever had. I know there hasn't been much plot development until now, but that will change.
Part 27: Blighted Worldviews, part 2
It had taken awhile, and a heavily edited recounting of their collective story to do so, but the three Ranmas had finally managed to get Nodoka to stop freaking out over the fact she'd met them. In fact, they were actually starting to regret calming her down, as she was now grilling them all mercilessly about their lives, and continued trying to dig into some very 'private' matters irregardless of the way they tried to divert her.
The current topic of choice was their romantic lives. Storm had quickly made it plain that things hadn't changed too much between him and his fiancées, other than the fact Kodachi had dumped him and was getting married to Mint, a member of the legendary Musk Dynasty of China. Storm wondered where Herb was, and how his 'pursuit' of Kasumi Tendo was going. He hadn't been around the Tendo Dojo for a while, he admitted that, but he hadn't seen the dragon-blooded royal since he got back. Come to that, had Mint and Kodachi gotten married yet?
Of course, the moment Storm had finished Nodoka had turned on Grit and Sooth, questioning them about not only their love lives, but also those of the other Ranmas. They would only reveal Cinder's however; they refused to speak about Blight's love life- or even to speak of him at all. For reasons unknown to Storm, they only referred to him obliquely, and never did so by name. The Dark One, they called him. The Hateful One, the Skulker in Darkness, the Cruelty Wreathed in Shadows. These were all titles they used whenever they had to mention him; enough to acknowledge his existence, but not enough to give him any form of personality.
They stubbornly ignored any questions as to who Blight was and why they gave him those names, and when Nodoka turned her gaze to him Storm could only shrug helplessly; he was positive that Grit and Sooth had their reasons, and that those reasons lay buried in their mutual past. He simply hadn't known them long enough to be trusted with such personal details, and once he was he probably wouldn't reveal that knowledge either. The end result was that Nodoka knew there were five of them, but she knew nothing about the fifth of them.
To Storm's shock, he was the only one who had yet to actually choose between fiancées; all of his counterparts had chosen the woman they wanted to marry. Also surprising was the fact that he was the only one, besides Sooth, who had actually considered upholding the Tendo marriage pact; Sooth had switched his engagement to Kasumi, and the two of them had actually held their wedding ceremony a week ago. Which made Storm wonder why Sooth was so calmly sitting around in Storm's version of the Tendo Dojo when he should be enjoying his honeymoon.
In response to his curious stare, evidentially reading his thoughts, Sooth opened one eye and winked at Storm in his own peculiar way. Knowing he would never be able to winkle that information out of the secretive Mystic, Storm turned his attention back to the conversation between Sooth and Nodoka.
"But why didn't any of you choose Akane? She's such a sweet girl and there is the matter of the Tendo-Saotome pact to consider."
"Sweet? Akane? Oh yeah, she can be sweet sometimes- but all too rarely. You've only seen her on her best behaviour you've no idea what her temper is like. All of us have taken far too many hits because of her leaping to conclusions. Face it; we share too many of the same vices and too few of the same interests. And besides which I at least have honoured the agreement between our two families; they never specified which daughter we were supposed to marry, did they?"
"I guess, but is Akane really that bad? I just can't see her acting the way you describe."
"She'll try and hide it from you, and your Ranma seems to have done a good job of calming her down-"
Storm couldn't help but smile remembering how he'd intimidated all of the fiancées into giving him some peace and quiet.
"-But none of us could manage, or we simply decided it wasn't worth the effort. Take Cinder for example. Man, talk about your rough break-ups."
"Why? What happened?"
"Let me put to you as an equation: -open bracket- Akane plus Akane's Temper –close bracket- plus Argument plus –open bracket- Ranma plus Sorcerer Powers –close bracket- equals…?"
"Boom." Storm and Grit replied at once. Nodoka just blinked in confusion as Sooth nodded his head in agreement.
"Boom is right. You know the reputation Sorcerers have in regards to their ability to control their powers? Well, let me say that in Cinder's case, the rumours are true. He spontaneously flared his power and burned the entire Tendo Dojo to ash and cinders. He spat at Soun's feet, officially cancelled the Tendo-Saotome pact and stalked off into the night. When Genma tried to bring him to heel Cinder threw him about three and a half miles with a Detonate spell. He moved in with Ukyo, sparks flew and, before you know it, he was helping her pack up the restaurant and hitting the road again with her at his side. They left their version of Nerima and have basically vowed to never return."
"Wait a minute, if he doesn't have a settled home, then how can he help Ukyo run her restaurant and oversee his demesne at the same time?" asked Storm.
"For one thing, he basically reworked an Altar of his into Ukyo's new okonomiyaki cart, for another he eventually persuaded her to move to Ashcindral. I mean, he offered her the choice between being a queen, and being a wandering chef. Which do you think she went for? Besides which, she's found a real golden opportunity for her personal profits- Cinder's proles go nuts for her okonomiyaki."
Storm nodded in agreement, musing once again on the startling similarities between their two worlds. Though nobody else knew it, an accidental bout of drunkenness had lead to Storm developing a spell that created ice cream, a substance previously unknown to Otherworld and which had proven exceptionally popular- for the first couple of months after the spell had become known to the public, Storm had been besieged by young Elementalists who wanted to learn the spell. The end result was that Storm was now the head of the biggest –not to mention only- chain of ice creameries in Otherworld, and thus raking in the profits.
It was not something he liked to talk about though; less from fear about being pleaded to produce an endless supply of the frozen treat and more from being humiliated for designing such a spell. Of course, there was still some of the latter in his reluctance to reveal his secret- he shuddered to think what might happen if Nabiki found out about ability, or the massive horde of wealth he had stashed away in Otherworld. Come to think of it, where was Nabiki?
Nabiki, unbeknownst to any of the Ranmas, was currently with Mousse in a secretive location, still trying to find the recipe that would grant her limitless wealth. She'd managed to persuade Cologne and Shampoo to "loan" Mousse to her in exchange for persuading Storm to ask Shampoo on a date. Of course, the fact that the Cat Café was empty and they probably didn't want the clumsy boy underfoot may well have played a part in their decision. In regards to Mousse himself, Nabiki had managed to bribe him with a mixture of promises, primarily revolving around a tonic to help him defeat Storm, a love potion to make Shampoo fall for him and enough gold for him to get corrective eye surgery.
Unfortunately, those were the only ways in which Nabiki's plan was working. Even a discrete raid on Cologne's chest of magic components had failed to secure them with everything they needed for the various recipes, and Mousse's blindness was proving a real hindrance in actually making the concoctions; he tended to put in either too much or too little, add the wrong ingredient or to add it at the wrong time. Coupled with that was the fact the recipes were turning out to be harder to comprehend than Nabiki's initial impression had led her to believe, and the result was that Nabiki had well over a dozen vials containing failed potions sitting next to her recipes besides a cauldron bubbling with their latest brew.
"Okay, this time for sure!"
"That's what you said the last three times Nabiki. I'm getting really sick of catching explosions with my face. If I wanted to get hurt that badly, I could always go challenge Ranma, or hit on Shampoo." Muttered Mousse, scratching himself idly as Nabiki glared at him, surreptitiously doing the same- one of their more recent attempts had apparently infested them both with fleas. Finally admitting to herself that her glare had no effect on Mousse –not surprising, giving how used he was to being glared at by Cologne and Shampoo- she turned back to the bubbling cauldron.
"Pass me a sprig of wormswort."
Mousse was privately wondering whether or not it might be a good idea to empty the cauldron –where had Nabiki managed to get that from anyway?- in between batches. However, long experience at the Cat Café meant he kept his mouth shut and passed Nabiki a sprig of what he thought was wormswort. Nabiki took it and threw it into the bubbling morass of liquids, which immediately exploded in a massive mushroom cloud of greasy smoke that billowed out and engulfed Nabiki. Only her coughing kept Mousse from panicking that she'd blown herself up, and the moment he could see her clearly he burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" she snapped.
"Your hair! Blond is so not a look for you!"
Nabiki blinked in confused horror and grabbed the nearest reflective surface, revealing that, yes, her hair was indeed now a brilliant golden in colour. As Mousse laughed until he seemed liable to bust a gut, enjoying the fact that for once since he'd come to live in Nerima the joke wasn't on him, Nabiki's face flushed with rage and her eyes narrowed in fury. With a sudden almost Akane-like scream of fury she grabbed the nearby scoop and hurled some of the liquid at Mousse, who quickly dodged it. And good for him too- the fluid ate through the cement telephone pole it had hit with an acidic hiss.
"Whoa, calm down Nabiki! I didn't mean anything- it actually looks pretty good on you! And I'm sure there's a cure!"
"I am so sick of this! I've tried just about every damn recipe in this accursed book and absolutely nothing works!"
With another scream she smashed her fists down upon the edge of the table closest to the cauldron. Unfortunately for her the legs under fist broke and the other end of the table seesawed upwards, hurtling the ingredients and the previous potions into the cauldron, which immediately began to bubble and swirl and foam like a storm-wracked sea.
"Uh oh…"
The cauldron began to groan and rumble, before finally exploding like a bomb and sending the two would-be alchemists flying through the air. When they painfully raised themselves from the ground, they stared in horror at where the cauldron had been. Now, in its place, there stood a massive, grotesque humanoid form, apparently composed of semi-solid sludge. It looked towards them and roared in a deep, gurgling bellow before suddenly puking twin streams of muck directly at the pair of them, too fast for them to dodge. As they writhed helplessly in pain, paralyzed by the transformations being wrought by the noxious goo, the beast roared again and bounded away into the city. No sooner had it vanished from site than Mousse and Nabiki could move again, their transformations complete.
"Now I just know we're going to get the blame for this… hey, what's happened to my voice?"
Mousse's voice was indeed now a higher pitch and softer tone, far more feminine that normal. Trembling hands patting at chest and crotch confirmed his fears.
"Yaaah! It turned me into a girl! Nabiki, this is all- what the hell happened to you!"
Nabiki's eyes were now ornate gemstone-like lenses, her skin had taken on an appearance that mimicked metallic plating and her hair seemed to have solidified into pure gold. She stared wide-eyed at her hands, turning them and moving her fingers as though to confirm what had happened to her. She met Mousse-chan's stunned eyes with her own horrified look.
"What are we going to do now?"
"I say we go with the most logical conclusion."
"What's that?"
"Find Blight and beg for mercy."
Mousse-chan waited patiently for robo-Nabiki to dig herself out of the crater her face-fault had produced. Then she walked over and, ignoring the mechanical girl's protests and arguments, grabbed her by the steel wrist and dragged her off towards the Tendo Dojo. It was far from easy, given robo-Nabiki's sheer weight and the way she dug her heels into the ground with her apparently enhanced strength, but Mousse-chan was a Chinese Amazon and thus possessed of tremendous strength by sheer virtue of her bloodline. Coupled with her unnatural stubbornness and determination, all robo-Nabiki's efforts did was leave twin gouges into the concrete as Mousse-chan dragged her along.
Of course, the dragging got slightly easier as they went further- it turned out changing her into a living robot wasn't the only effect that monstrosity's sludge had on Nabiki; she was also getting younger and younger with every step. Before they had gone maybe a block robo-Nabiki had physically regressed to a toddler, and Mousse-chan was being forced to carry her. Unfortunately for her robo-Nabiki's mental age remained the same, which meant she was now carrying a swearing, fighting, screaming baby robot. This was made even worse by the fact that the cauldron-monster had left behind a swarm of twisted fighting beasts -generally inanimate objects brought to twisted life- which were randomly assaulting and terrifying anyone in their path.
Eventually, Mousse-chan managed to fight her way through their ranks to reach the Tendo Dojo, which she found that the cauldron-monster had apparently decided to lead a full-scale assault against, its defense force consisting of not only of the expected Akane, Storm, Sooth and Grit, but also of a strangely determined-looking Ryoga, Shampoo- who had apparently been mutated into a cat-girl version of herself and thus was ensuring she kept away from the Ranmas, Ukyo- now sporting an extra foot of height, stereotypical "Martian" antennae and two extra sets of arms, an armour clad Kuno, a young Chinese girl clad in scandalously little clothing and a very angry-looking duo of Mint and Kodachi, the latter wearing what looked like a tattered black version of a Western wedding dress.
It was impossible to tell which way the balance could swing at any given moment, as at one point the monstrosities would reach the very doors of the Dojo, and the next second they would be pushed back to the garden wall. Finally, an unexpected push from a sort of giant tree-man ripped open the side of the house, exposing a scared-looking Nodoka Saotome. The cauldron-monster voiced its gurgling roar and then spewed forth a geyser of acid, aimed directly at Nodoka.
"Mom! Watch out!" howled Storm, incapable of helping as a sort of giant, fur-covered tentacled frog was currently grappling him. But Nodoka was apparently paralyzed with fear, incapable of moving as the toxic fluids lanced through the air towards her. It looked like she would join the ranks of the mutated for certain… until a black blur suddenly shot from nowhere to intercept the fluids, protecting Nodoka with its own body. Mousse-chan and robo-Nabiki were now close enough to see that the blur had been none other than Blight, who stood defiantly in front of Nodoka and neither made a sound nor twitched, despite the fact that the fluids visibly ate into his body with an acidic hissing; the pain had to be incredible.
Nodoka blinked; was this the "fifth" Ranma that her own son and the other two had occasionally mentioned? Blight turned towards her just enough to look at her with his undamaged eye, which Nodoka could see was filled with a profound sorrow. He nodded his head just once before turning back towards the beast, materializing his Soul-Blade before forcing a screaming roar though his decaying vocal cords and launching himself into the battle.
Despite the fact his wounds would have killed a normal man, Blight didn't seem to be even slightly hindered by their presence, closing on the cauldron-monster with an eye-deceiving flurry of blows that were far too fast for it to counter or dodge, with the end result that he literally hacked the raging creature to death. No sooner had it bled the last of its life out, screaming furiously all the way, then the twisted monsters assaulting the house suddenly stopped moving and reverted to whatever they had originally been. Much to the disappointment of those who had been mutated, they remained mutated.
Apparently finally giving in to the pain of his wounds, Blight slumped unconscious to the ground, whereupon his fellow Ranmas immediately closed in on him and gently carried him inside, Nodoka joining them whilst the others who had been part of the defense force began sorting through the piles of debris. Mousse-chan began to wonder if it might not be such a good idea to approach them so soon after this turn of events, but before she could voice her suspicions to robo-Nabiki Shampoo spotted them.
"Aiya! There they are! They're the ones responsible for all this! Get them!"
Mousse-chan gulped and tried to flee, but was quickly overtaken and forcibly subdued by the angry mob. She didn't mind the beating –well, not as such- but did they have to use her own chains to tie her up? And did they have to drag her on her front back inside the Tendo Dojo? She was finding out precisely how sensitive certain parts of the female were when she was hauled off the floor by the scruff of her neck and tossed onto the ground in front of Nodoka and the Ranmas, the latter of which turned from their vigil over the bed-laden Blight to glare at her and at robo-Nabiki, currently being carried in the arms of her angry looking younger sister.
"So, is this what you wanted? Is this the great revenge you intended Mousse? I know why Nabiki wanted the grimoire, but I never believed you'd stoop to such a level." Said Storm.
"What! I had absolutely no idea anything like this was going to happen! I was just the dogs-body- all I did was get the ingredients. She's the one who made that monster, not me, punish her!" yelled Mousse-chan, pointing a finger at the glaring robo-Nabiki. He knew it was far from honourable, but if honour meant becoming acquainted with the wrong end of a very impressive set of fangs and claws, then screw honour! He was distracted from further pleadings/denials by a sudden wheezing laugh from the reclining Blight.
"You needn't worry Mousse; I believe you. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to punish you for taking part in her schemes; just that I'll make your mutual sentence a little lighter. But only on one condition."
"What's that? Tell me- I'll do anything! Anything!"
"Bring… bring me my grimoire. That way, I can heal myself, and cure your various… conditions."
"Oh, you needn't rush on my account; this isn't so bad." Said the unfamiliar Chinese girl. Shampoo responded to that with an unlady-like snort.
"You would say that great-grandmother."
Mousse-chan's jaws dropped; this beautiful young girl was the old mummy? Now that she looked at her, she did kind of resemble Shampoo, though with green eyes and a slightly darker blue for her hair (A/N: if you've seen what Young Cologne looked like in "Back to the Happosai!", then you know what she looks like). She quickly nodded at Blight and the other Ranmas and quickly fled to the vacant lot where she and robo-Nabiki had performed their experiments; she couldn't even think about what the lightened sentence would be like, she had absolutely no desire whatsoever to find out what sort of punishment Blight would consider "heavy". As she left, Nodoka laid a gentle hand upon Blight's burned face.
"My poor, poor son."
"Hey there… mom. I… I'm sorry you had to see me."
"Don't be sorry; you took these wounds for me."
"I'm not sorry that you see me like this, I'm sorry that you had to see me at all. I was trying to spare you from having to know I existed."
"But why? Why do that?"
"Because, monster that I am, there's still a few shreds of humanity left within me, enough that I had no wish to 'blight' your life with knowledge of me. I haven't stooped to that level of atrocity yet."
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?"
Blight stared at her for a few seconds before an ugly and bitter chuckle whispered out of his ravaged throat.
"You are a kind, noble and gentle woman. What sort of torment would such a person undergo, to discover that their own child had become a monster? I couldn't do that to anyone, let along my own mother."
"What do you mean by monster? You're not a monster!"
"Oh, but I am. I am a Necromancer, and by my very nature I am a creature of darkness and terror, of hatred and purest evil. I am, as Sooth so aptly put it, a murderous black magic-using blood-drinking brain-sucking corpse-defiling soul-eating psychopathic freak. What crimes have you –have any versions of Nodoka- committed that I should reveal what their own flesh and blood has –or could have- become? I sought to spare you that pain, but my hands were forced."
Nodoka didn't speak –what could she say?- and simply shook her head at this declaration. The other Ranmas also stared at their "brother", unable to believe that this being, the darkest of their number, could have such a strongly developed sense of honour. That didn't mean that they weren't convinced he wasn't slightly screwed up in the head, just that they found his sincerity impressive.
It was sometime later; Mousse-chan had brought Blight the grimoire and he had used it to devise first a healing concoction for himself, and then to remedy the various ailments afflicting the others, getting someone else to cure cat-girl-Shampoo and leaving Cologne still "youthisized", as per her request. Mousse and Nabiki were the very last ones to be cured, and they were currently standing in the center of a circle of very angry looking Nerimites, who were muttering furiously as the worried duo received their cures.
"Why should they even get cures? It was all their fault in the first place."
"That's right- that accursed monster of theirs ruined my wedding. If not for them, my darling Mint and I would now officially be man and wife!"
"If it's any consolation Kodachi, any one of us could 'stand in' and officialise your marriage for you." Said Blight. This drew confused looks from every non-Ranma present. Blight blinked when he realised they were staring at him, and then sighed dramatically.
"It's part of the duties of the Otherworld Mage; we rule over entire lands, but we also have roles to play in running them. We direct our servants towards our goals, but we officialise their marriages, tend to the injured and even deliver their children. Although we tend to play these roles to different levels."
Unnoticed by anyone, Storm silently drifted off in reminiscence as he recalled the times when he had been called upon to fulfil such duties, like how he had helped deliver Daggertongue's pup, a female she had named Ranko after his female side's name, over a seventeen hour-long labour several months ago. He idly wondered how the energetic little pup was doing; last he recalled she'd reached the Frostwolf equivalent of toddlerhood. Then he wondered if he should let Nodoka know about her existence, and about the fact Daggertongue had asked him to be the… well, the closest translation would be "godfather".
"Thanks for the offer, but no; we shall simply have to hold the ceremony over again. Please see to it that those two do not interrupt it again!" snapped Kodachi, directing a dagger-edged glare at Mousse and Nabiki.
"Don't worry, I think these two will be far too busy for the next week to interrupt you."
Nabiki and Mousse looked nervous as Blight grinned at them and held out a vial containing a faintly glowing pus-yellow fluid, which he then poured out into two cups.
"Swallow."
With no other choice, the two of them did so, shuddering at the taste. Blight grinned and walked past them to grasp Shampoo's arm, drawing her out of the circle and up close to Mousse.
"And now for the acid test. Mousse, pretend Shampoo here just said she wanted to marry you."
Everyone present, bar Mousse himself, stared at Blight as though he'd just lost his mind. Mousse himself simply lunged at Shampoo as though nothing in the world was wrong- and promptly dropped to ground screaming in pain. Blight simply grinned and waved Shampoo back towards her spot in the circle, Mousse downgrading from agonized screaming to pained twitching as she did so. Nabiki stared at Mousse, but quickly averted her attention to the 1000 Yen bill Blight was offering her. Eagerly she stretched out her hand towards it- and froze as tingles of pain, like pins and needles, began shooting up her arm as she drew near it. The closer she got, the greater the pain.
"What have you done to me!" she screamed, Mousse now clambering back to his feet and joining her in directing hateful glares at Blight, who simply voiced a surprisingly Kodachi-like laugh.
"The poison the two of you have ingested reacts in response to the one thing around which your lives have, until this point, revolved around; Shampoo for you Mousse, and money for you Nabiki. Getting too close to either of them will cause intense pain, and will eventually kill you. If you do die, then you shall spontaneously reanimate as my undead servants. Once I feel you have been sufficiently punished, I shall give you the antidote."
That news failed to cheer either of the crestfallen duo; they looked like the world had come to end. But then, in a way, for them at least, it had. Before Mousse could react, Blight suddenly lashed out with another vial, the fluid spewing from its open top to splash Mousse, whereupon it engulfed him in a cloud of purple mist. As the confused Chinese boy finished coughing, the grinning Blight answered his unspoken question.
"That was phase two of your mutual punishment; that liquid I doused you with is one part of a binary compound love potion. Anyone splashed with the other part will become hopelessly infatuated with you and pursue you using the exact same methods and manner that you have used to pursue Shampoo. Just to make things a little more interesting, I spiced your component with an elixir that will reduce your physical capabilities to precisely one-half your normal level."
"Wait a second; you said mutual punishment, right? Well then, why a love potion? I mean, Nabiki and I have nothing going on between us- how is that punishment?" Blight's menacing grin and the sudden tendrils of pink smoke that wafted from beside him answered that question.
"Oh no…"
"Mousse baby…"
Mousse promptly screamed like the proverbial girl and took of running, the infatuated Nabiki in hot pursuit. As they fled over the walls Blight called out to them.
"Don't worry; the love potion and the weakness potion will both wear off in a week."
Dusting his hands he turned to meet the staring eyes of the others.
"What?"
"You are pure evil." Said Shampoo.
"Thanks for the compliment. Besides, I took it easy on him; I could have doused your great-grandmother with the other part." He let the others shudder on that mental image before finishing "after returning her to her normal looks."
Their reaction is best left unwritten…
Okay, this is perhaps the longest chapter in the story, certainly the longest one to date. I'm trying to increase the plot; am I succeeding? Now, I just have a few questions to ask you all:
In the next chapter (which sees the return of Cinder), what should the after-effects be of Blight's punishment of Mousse and Nabiki? Nightmares of nearly (or actually…) lost virginity, a pregnant Nabiki, bitter feud between the two, the budding of an actual relationship between them, what?
Now, sometimes I've been asked for Omakes of this story- unfortunately, I don't have any comedic writing talent. If you can think of Omakes for this story, then I'm asking you send them to me via PM or (if they're short enough) by review. The ones I like best will be included in subsequent chapters.
I'm afraid I'm starting to run out of ideas for this story, so I'm asking you all for ideas to use in future chapters. Also, I have one last idea of my own; the Ranmas, for some reason or another, decide to have a "plane-travelling death rally". This means that the Ranmas all race/battle each other through various dimensions. Should I use this idea? If your answer is yes, then please supply:
-ideas for rides/mounts/vehicles for each Ranma to use in the race.
-suggestions as to which worlds the race should take part in. Please only suggest one per "lap", each lap will consist of one world with the next one taking place in a new world/chapter.
-your vote on which Ranma to win each lap.