Disclaimer: You'd know if I owned any of them. I have an extremely odd sense of humor.

Chapter 15

Ryouga shook his head dazedly. Looking around, he realized that the floor within the circle seemed polished, as if a large amount of heat had passed over it. Something seemed missing, so he absently looked around.

'Let's see, Dumbledore-san, Kasumi, and the ones that Ranma called the trio are by the west wall. I'm facing north, so Ranma was facing… Wait. Ranma. Where is she?' Without thinking about it, Ryouga 'searched' for Ranma. 'She's not here, not in the castle, she's definitely not in England, Japan, or China. So where is she?'

Ryouga thought of something else, and spread his senses over the world. "Must be in another dimension, then," he muttered.

Kasumi cautiously stepped forward and crouched in front of Ryouga. "What did you say, Ryouga? Do you know where Ranma is?"

Ryouga looked at her, and for a long moment, he couldn't breathe as he realized what he had just been doing. "I-I don't know where she is, but I know where she isn't."

Kasumi was confused by that. "What do you mean? And what's wrong?"

Ryouga shook his head slightly. "It's weird. I know where I am for the first time in my life." Kasumi's eyes widened in surprise, but he continued before she could say anything. "And Ranma isn't here. She's nowhere on this world, in fact."

By now, the trio had stepped away from the wall, and moved cautiously forward while Dumbledore watched them all. Hermione spoke first. "How do you know she's not on this world, then? And do you know where you could start looking?"

Ryouga sighed. "I don't know how I did it, but I searched all over. Ranma isn't here. Something tells me she was blown out of this reality, into another dimension."

Kasumi put a hand on his shoulder and smiled to calm him. "If she was blown out of this dimension by the backlash of your curse, does that mean you can follow her?"

Ryouga blinked as he considered that possibility. "I think I could, but it'd be kind of hit-and-miss. I don't know where exactly she might have been sent, but if I can find her trail, I can follow that wherever she is sent."

Dumbledore smiled slightly. "Well then, we shall send you on your way. If you go down to the kitchen, tell them that Dumbledore said you were to be provisioned for a long trip."

Ryouga turned slightly to give him a strange look. "Why are you helping?"

Dumbledore simply smiled, not the least bit offended. "Well, it would be helpful to have our Physical Defense teacher back soon."

Kasumi smiled slightly. "Go on, Ryouga. The sooner you find Ranma, the sooner her students will move onto new material." When he gave her a questioning look, she simply smiled. "I may not have been as into martial arts as my sister, but I can correct their forms and make sure they do not fall too far behind."

Ryouga smiled. "Alright, Kasumi. I'll see you soon, I hope." He hugged her and turned to walk out the door. Without prompting, he calmly set off in the direction of the nearest path to the kitchen.

Kasumi smiled as she watched. "He really does know where he is, now. That's good." She calmly turned toward the trio and Dumbledore. "If you don't mind, I would like to be introduced as Ranma's substitute while she's gone. It should make things easier."

Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, of course. Right this way, Miss Tendo.

> > > > > > >

Once he had gotten the provisions Dumbledore had mentioned from the house elves—strange creatures, but they seemed happy—he set out away from the castle. He had no idea what his travel would do to the landscape, but considering how it looked in the Room of Requirement, he didn't want to take chances.

Ryouga decided on a quick test-hop, there and back again, to make sure he could find his own world. Since he hadn't wanted to go anywhere in particular, he landed in a world with landscape much like what he'd left. He hopped back to his home reality in the exact spot he had left, and found that the land hadn't been affected in the least.

"Huh. Must have been that 'backlash' thing Ranma was talking about," he muttered. Without another word, he was gone from his own reality.

> > > > > > >

Ranma sighed. There were times she would love to know how she managed to get into these situations. 'Let's see, I just left the reality where those elemental warriors were, and landed here. The question is, where is 'here'?' "I wonder if Ryouga would be too annoyed with me if I asked 'Where the hell am I now?' every time I land in another reality."

Ranma sighed and rolled off of the branch she had somehow landed on, and hit the ground with her usual grace. Her ears flicked slightly as she heard a strange sound to her left. With a shrug, she decided to head off in that direction. It was as good as anywhere else while she was here.

Logan sniffed the air when he heard a strange set of footsteps coming from the trees by the wall. The kids were having a no-powers baseball game, so he didn't want them interrupted right now. They deserved to relax once in a while.

Glancing back at Charles, Logan sent a thought. Hey, Chuck. We expectin' visitors?

Charles frowned. None that I know of. Let me check. A moment later, he continued. Strange. There is someone coming this way, but he or she doesn't seem hostile.

Logan raised an eyebrow. 'He or she'? Don't you know?

Charles shook his head, looking in the direction of their mystery visitor. No, actually. I can't. It's like our visitor is either both or neither.

Logan frowned in confusion at that, but just then a redhead came into sight. A casual observer might have thought her harmless, but Logan was far from casual. If she wanted to, this girl could be a very dangerous person to cross.

The baseball game—which had been about to degenerate into the usual chaos—paused as everyone noticed the newcomer.

Ranma watched as the large group noticed her. Most of them had been playing some kind of ball game on the huge lawn of a mansion. Two of them, the only adults that she could see, had obviously noticed her before she revealed herself. Her ears flickered as she heard the others murmuring, and she realized they spoke in English with an American accent. Well, that narrowed things down a bit.

"Excuse me, but would you mind telling me where I am? I'm a bit lost." Logan furrowed a brow at the girls words. If she didn't know where she was, how did she get here?

Charles was the one who answered. "You are at my school for the gifted. Would you mind telling us how you got here, Miss…?"

Ranma smiled slightly. "Ranma. And the way I got here is a bit hard to explain, but I promise I won't bring harm to your students."

Charles raised an eyebrow as he considered this. Her thoughts seemed a bit jumbled, but the girl—Ranma—was telling the truth. "Very well, Miss Ranma. My name is Charles Xavier and this is Logan. Would you mind coming to my office and answering a few questions?"

Ranma smiled. "It's just Ranma, but sure." While they had spoken, Ranma had walked nearer, and calmly followed the man in the wheelchair as he turned toward the mansion.

The other man followed, and Ranma caught his scent. It reminded her of a semi-feral animal, only as tame as he wanted to be. She smiled ever so slightly. 'Boy, can I relate to that! It was a little hard to function around other people for a while after I first merged, I felt like a feral animal at times.'

When the three reached, Xavier's office, he calmly stopped his chair behind his desk while Ranma sat in the chair in front of it and Logan settled against the wall. Ranma looked around the large room, sniffing the air discreetly. 'Hmm. Interesting.' Finally, her eyes flashed and she was looking at Xavier's aura. 'Thought so.'

"You're a mind speaker, aren't you, Xavier-san?" Ranma asked the question idly, not really needing an answer.

Charles raised an eyebrow. "If you mean am I a telepath, then yes. Is there something wrong with that?"

Ranma shook her head absently, already studying Logan's aura. "Nah. Just so you know I like my privacy. I practically blew up at Bumblebee-san when he tried to look at some of my memories without permission." Ranma snorted softly to herself, thoughts turning back briefly. 'I like the man, but he is undeniably nosy about some things. Hopefully he learned his lesson. I made sure he knew exactly what I thought about that.'

Sighing softly, Ranma turned back to Logan once more. She frowned in some confusion when she saw something she wasn't sure she recognized. 'Wait a minute, healing? It looks a bit like some of Osprey's spells, but it's more general. Meant to heal everything? Combine that with the fact that he was much more comfortable outside than he is even now, and the fact that he is only as civilized as he chooses to be…'

Ranma slapped her forehead. "I really need to stay away from certain writers," she muttered to herself.

Charles raised an eyebrow at the gesture and words. "Is something wrong, Ranma?"

Ranma blushed slightly. "Ah, have you ever read a series called Xanth, written by Piers Anthony?"

Logan snorted. "Couple of the kids read that. All I know is it has a lot of puns." He rolled his eyes.

Ranma bit her lip, trying not to smile. "Well, one of the earlier ones is called Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn. It tells the story of Jordan the Barbarian."

Charles raised an eyebrow. By the emotions he could feel coming from her, this could be interesting. "Why are you mentioning this, Ranma?"

Ranma gave up on trying not to smile. "Well, a little back story first. Every person born in Xanth has a magic talent, since Xanth itself is a magic land. Talents vary from extremely worthless—mostly called 'spot-on-the-wall' talents. Those can be exactly as they sound. Others can be more useful, for various reasons. The strongest ones are called Magician or Sorceress level. Of course, there are a lot in between."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Is there some point to this, Cat?"

Ranma smirked wickedly. "Well, like I said, Crewel Lye is about the story of Jordan the Barbarian. He was a true barbarian, and was much more at home in the wild than anywhere else, so he mostly traveled."

Her smirk widened, and Logan was getting a little nervous. "Of course, the wilds of Xanth are extremely dangerous for various reasons, mostly things like dragons and goblins and such like that. He never would have gotten very far without his talent to heal from any injury, to the point that he came back to life too many times to count. See the similarities, Jordan-san?"

> > > > > > >

AN: Yes, I know it's been a while since I put up the last chapter. I'm really sorry, but I had most of this for a while, I just wanted to add a little more. This seemed like a good stopping point. The really annoying part about it is that I technically had this done yesterday. For whatever reason, wasn't cooperating, so you get the chapter now, instead.

For those of you who have never read Xanth, believe me, it's worth it. The puns can be a bit much, though. And the connection between Jordan the Barbarian and Logan just kind of popped in my head, and I really couldn't resist adding it. No idea when the next chapter will be out, so don't be too annoyed with me, please.