This story is a work of fanfiction. As such, it owes a great debt to the creators of the characters used herein: Rumiko Takahashi, Matt Bozon, Erin Bell Bozon and the creative teams of Kity Films and WayForward.


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


Chapter 8
Good Morning, Scuttle Town!

Author's note: the Nerimans are people of the 80s, unspoiled both by mobile phones and game consoles. The Tendou House belongs to those 70percent families that do not possess a Famicom (aka NES). Of them all, only Ranma played a video game, once in his life, with that pretend-sick little boy. And it was a classical spaceship scroller.
So don't be surprised when obvious parallels would go over their heads: nor the fiancees, neither Nabiki do even know what a video game is. While Ryouga... You're kidding, right?


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


The chain of suspension bridges was zig-zagging from rock to rock, its path dictated by convenience of attaching them. Some were in decent shape, only creaking lightly underfoot, others were thoroughly rotten, with barely one board of three remaining attached to sad, unraveling ropes. Akane put a brave facade, jumping over with proud look, but was squeezing P-chan tightly above deep water. Nabiki was playing it safe wherever there were piles of jagged rock below. Ukyou, Xian Pu and Ranma weren't even paying attention, too taken with sightseeing, while Shantae was skipping without a care in the world, the route familiar to her like the back of her hand. She didn't even blink when another turn revealed a weird thing floating in the air, akin to a green totem pole with a frowning face on it.

"What sort of wonder is this?" Ukyou asked.

"Wonder?" Shantae stopped, looking around. "Where?"

"My unsophisticated rival was referring to that unidentified green object over there," Xian Pu clarified eagerly.

"Oh, that..." Shantae lost interest, disappointed. "It's a common flying stone. Any ruins have lots of them and dungeon bosses use them for traps and the like. This kind of magic is widely used, but it's useless for me.

The totem pole was floating slowly at steady height, repeating a route through three points as if it was drawing a five-meter triangle in the air.

"For how long would it keep floating like that?" Nabiki asked, intrigued.

"Until one of the fixing points falls off," the half-Genie replied, already on her way. "If these points are deep in the rocks, It'll keep floating there for centuries until the sea wears the rocks down. Let's go!"

A couple of bridges later — the rough mainland shore was already close — a girlish giggling reached from beyond a bend. Shantae reacted to it with uncharacteristic irritation: "Why, you parasites!" She dashed forward, her face like she was about to teach a lesson to a naughty cat.

The Nerimans were hot on her heels.

Beyond the corner of the rock wall there was a wide flat terrace with three mermaids occupying it. Quite the eyesores, their top half was that of a green-skinned, red-haired girl while the bottom half resembled a purple fish with red flippers. All the three were giggling, making eyes at the approaching humans and blowing them kisses.

Shantae wasn't inclined to talk, throwing her right hand up palm forward. Ranma focused all her attention on her: he had no chance yet to see what her attack magic was like. He saw transformations, he saw protective bubbles, but what she attacks with beside her hair wasn't even mentioned. He wasn't going to defend anyone either: who knows what sort of bad blood they have between them. Besides, standing between an irritated girl and the target of her irritation... Such madness deserves honorary obituaries.

The lighnning bolt that flashed into existence was impressive, leaving ringing ears and spots in their eyes. Ranma managed no notice a second spark that shot from Shantae's other hand into the ground.

Of the mermaids, one managed to leap into the water beforehand and two thrashed in arcs of high voltage. One slumped, dazed, but the last one burst like a balloon, leaving a small puddle of water with a small fish flopping in it.

"Did you do her... in?" Ranma asked cautiously, looking at the flopping fish.

"Do whom to where?" Shantae lifted a brow. "Are you having trouble with the language?"

"He meant," Nabiki tried to phrase it delicately, "that there was a mermaid and now she is gone."

"What mermaid?" the disguised girl huffed in indignation. "It was a shikigami! Here, the leftover fish!" She walked up to the puddle, picked up the fish and made a point of swaying it around by the tail. "Do you think monsters come in crowds just like that? Four out of five send their shikigami and there is no end to them, you slay and slay them, they burst into piles of trash then come again the next day."

"Piles of trash?" Ukyou grew curious. "You mean, you don't have to use a paper talisman to create a shikigami?"

"So that's how they make them in your world...? To be honest, I don't know how the monsters are making them. But more often than not it's out of trash. At times something useful drops that you can sell in the shop. But that is rare. The snake women always burst into piles of bones picked clean. Orcs are the most useful, these often use semi-precious gems. I can go to the forest hunting them if I run out of money. But that should be done sparingly, lest they—

"Take offense?" Xian Pu suggested.

"No, worse. Become glad there is someone to fight. They then begin coming to my lighthouse, hollering under my window early in the morning - or even worse, wander into the town on their way. I don't need that."

"Ant the rest one fifth?" Xian Pu asked out of curiosity as she walked up to the mermaid to nudge the tail with her foot. The top, girl half was quite ordinary size — in a shells bra, thankfully — while the fish tail was long and powerful.

"The rest come in person," Shantae replied. "Then crawl away beaten. Serves them right!" Walking up to the mermaid, she put her foot on the tail fin and barked "Scram! Now!"

The mermaid stopped playing possum, jerked her tail free them leaped off the rock in one powerful motion, disappearing in the water with barely a splash.

"Aren't you too harsh on them?" Akane, the kind soul, asked.

"You'd stop sympathizing with them when they blast you in the back with a bubble," Shantae retorted sharply. "I don't know what do they need here, but no one so far was able to talk to them. They giggle and smile, but if you cone close - bam! They either blast you with a bubble or jab their trident at you. They are monsters, enough said."

The six girls and a piglet continued walking.

The mainland was at hand's length. Everyone let their guard down, excited to see what the town was like. A board crunched, breaking. The adjacent ones proved to be even flimsier. Resulting in a natural outcome of aaaaah-splash.

"Little Sis Akane swims like a hammer," Nabiki commented calmly as bubbles were subsiding on the sea waves.

Letting out a sigh, like this was a chore, Ranma jumped down, disappearing in the water gracefully without a splash.

Akane was thrashing at quite a shallow depth so she was soon dragged back to the surface despite the tomboy's valiant efforts to swim back into the depth.

"P-koff-chan!" the saved girl wheezed tragically.

Realizing the piglet wasn't anywhere around, Ranma cast a nervous glance up. Was anyone going to help? Xian Pu was standing there stone-faced: her usefulness in rescuing drowning persons was zilch. Ukyou was searching where to put her big spatula. Shantae tried to start some sort of dance, but grabbed at her temples, then shook her head.

"Here," Nabiki said unfurling her whip and leaning over the guard-rope. Akane managed to grab its tip. Ranma dove hastily leaving her hanging there, bobbing slightly on the small waves.

"Help me pull her up, I guess," Nabiki addressed the fiancees: Shantae would have trouble due to her disguise.


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


The redheaded pig-tailed girl was diving with powerful strokes, guided by vague feeling of Ryouga's familiar ki. She wasn't trained in this quite exotic art, what could she do? She had to work with what she had. The feeling began growing unfocused. Was she already close, or was the pork chop beginning to drown...? Half a minute of frantic searching she saw a dark shadow in the greenish darkness. Aha!

And then she was suddenly squeezed by powerful arms, making her exhale in surprise!


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


"Is he going to be all right?" Akane grew worried, having already been dragged onto the bridge, when bubbles burst out of the water. It wasn't clear if she meant her fiance of the piglet.

"Are there dangerous things down there?" Nabiki asked the half-Genie.

"Nothing he couldn't beat easily," the other girl replied. "Biter fishes, mermaids, exploding sponges - and that is all. I'm more worried for the piglet."


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


Having calmed the lost boy — because it was none other than him — with a couple hits at his solar plexus, Ranma was already dragging him towards the surface when she registered a tiny, awkward detail.

Naked Ryouga. As in, completely.

Letting out a blurb of irritation, the redhead changed direction, beating her legs and her free arm with redoubled energy, hurrying to go around the rock. She had to take a breath soon, and this... ungrateful pig was complicating matters by thrashing around.

Deciding finally that they wouldn't be seen from the bridge, she let him surface.

"Ranma!" the bandana-clad boy yelled accusingly as soon as he caught his breath. "It's all your fault!"

"I don't know how your curse got turned around," the redhead hissed unclasping his hands from her shoulders, "but I don't think you should show in front of Akane like this." She cast a pointed glance downwards, her voice sarcastic.

He blinked uncomprehendingly. Then he got it. He covered himself by reflex, accusing Ranma, but what came out was just bubbling as he dunked because his hands were suddenly out of keeping him afloat.

"You'd better hold your piglet!" She added loudly, then whispered: "Go, get lost somewhere. And don't come back without wearing pants. Because Shantae is growing suspicious, and we don't want to know what she'd say to her best friend... Go, scram. I'm tired of fussing over you. If you want to become P-chan again, try hot water. Who knows, maybe it'd work."

She turned around to swim back to the bridge, hoping the lost boy would get himself lost for a week or two. One extra martial artist on the already overcrowded team wasn't worth the headache.

"Did he drown?!" Akane cried out in horror when she saw the redhead swimming alone.

"Ryouga picked him up!" Ranma shouted cheerfully, hoping that Shantae wouldn't add two and two. "He landed here with us but got a little lost on the road between worlds!"

"Yeah, he can got lost anywhere," Nabiki noted, figuring it out instantly.

Pops, splashes and Ryouga's battle cry sounded suddenly from behind the rock.

"Oh no!" Akane worried. "Alone, in an unfamiliar world full of monsters..."

A mermaid flew, rotating, over the rock to splash down explosively. Skipping a couple times, she skid to a stop, just bobbing there listlessly, her eyes swirly.

"I would worry for the monsters instead," Ranma reassured her in a confident voice.

But then she had to worry for her hide as Shantae was adamant in her decision to go save Ryouga.

To her luck, when they got around the rocks they only found a couple knocked out mermaids. The rising sun itself wasn't visible, obscured by one of the islets, but it set the dark sea alight with blinding red glares. Finding even a swimming elephant amidst all this sparkling was an unreal task.

"His endurance," Ukyou consoled the half-Genie, "is only rivaled by his ability to get lost on a straight road without any forks. It can't be helped, it's like a law of nature. Either you drag him around by hand or on a leash or he disappears at the most inconvenient moment to return a month later."

Shantae sighed grumbling something about "not needing another Bolo". In the end she simply shrugged the issue of Ryouga off to head towards the town with renewed enthusiasm.

The more observant Nerimans concluded she must be used to friends rushing blindly ahead.

Passing a hundred meters of forest that looked more like a park, they walked out onto a round square the entire center of which was occupied by a circular pond, its edge encased in stone. The square itself was submerged in shadow of the park trees but the tips of roofs were already shining with sunrise light.

"Don't fall in the spring," Shantae warned them with overt seriousness. "People get their water here."

One woman was doing exactly that. Filling her jug, she lifted it onto her head to walk away elegantly straight, her hips swaying.

"It's Uncle's workshop over there," Shantae pointed to the left. "That big one is the bathhouse, we have to get you a subscription, the single visit prices are very high to rip off visitors. The ruin to the right," She pointed to a shoddy building with a big hole in the onion top of its tower, its door boarded up. "Is where my friend Sora is... I mean, she will be.. Would probably be keeping her eggs. Further that way is the city wall and the gate. See the bored guard?"

True to her words, a mudbrick fence was visible through a gap between the houses, with a fancy opening. A sleepy man was hanging around it, dressed in red pointy hat with hanging ears and a red half-shirt leaving one shoulder bare.

"It's their uniform," Shantae explained the obvious. "Right... Further to the right we have the shop — I'll show you later — and the art gallery completes the circle. Hmm... Where to now?"

"Weren't we going to warn someone?" Xian Pu reminded her.

"Yes, of course!" Shantae hurried towards the workshop with all the speed her disguise allowed. The door was locked. She started knocking with her fist. "Un— Greatly esteemed Mimic...! Hel-loo...! Mii-miiic...! Is anyone home!"

Attracted by noise, a tiny girl came, dressed in a dress leaving her shoulders open. Proclaiming proudly "I am four!" she walked away, her nose in the air.

Shantae kept knocking. The guard at the distant gate was growing suspicious.

"What is going on..." the half-Genie mumbled dropping her hand.

"If you are here to see the old Mimic," a boy of about ten piped in chewing on his apple, "he's at the relic hunter expo today. He went there before dawn."

"Thank you!" Shantae told the kid tanned almost black in blue baggy pants. "Let's go!" She wadded with renewed energy down narrow winding streets drowning in shadow while the top floors glowed with crimson sunlight.

Barely half a hundred meters later they emerged onto a wooden bridge crossing a narrow bay narrowing towards the right to a cleft in the rock face. A hundred meters to the left its mouth was crossed by yet another bridge, this one made of stone, also leading to the second block ahead. The chaotic conglomeration of houses big and small and round onion-topped towers was lit by sunrise, reflecting brightly in the dark waters of the bay.

Shantae slowed down to a comfortable crawl as she began sharing her memories: "I ran down that bridge over there to repel the Ammo Baron invasion. They were swarming something terrible! I didn't know yet that the mayor had sold us out... By the way, I'd have a talk with him..."

"Forewarned means armed," Xian Pu shared a Chinese folk wisdom.

"So true," Shantae agreed gladly. "I'll show them now...!" She glanced around. "And here, on this spot, Sora pushed me off Wrench. I won't let you down, she said. Then, suddenly, she grabs me by the shoulder and throws me out! How could I know she meant she won't be landing to keep Wrench safe from the hordes of tinkerbats swarming down here? She could've warmed me at least. I landed hard, barely able to run." She absent-mindedly rubbed her posterior. "Then, just as I fought off the first wave, blam! the pot crashes nearby. I mean, one of those she uses to summon her tinkerbats to the battlefield. Turned out she was shooting them from the ship that was hanging over there, just beyond that bridge." The disguised girl pointed to the left. "And then she started shooting at me with these pots, one after another! I barely managed to run to cover behind the houses. One pot hit a tower — that one, sticking out of the water — so it fell like a cut down tree and sank."

"Wait," Nabiki interrupted her stream of eloquence. "What sort of pot it was that it brought that tower down? It's solid stone!"

"Well, a round iron one," Shantae explained. "About this big across." She gestured at the level of her height. "I don't know if they sit in there to begin with, or are summoned after it lands, but such a pot has a lid and through that lid they are jumping out, three tinkerbats at once. And they keep jumping out until you break the pot."

"Who is that she," Ranma asked, "who was shooting the pots?"

"But Risky Boots!" Shantae didn't understand her question. "The Queen of Seven Seas, Bodacious Bucanieer and so on. Who, do you think, commands tinkerbats? She alone. No one else has them."

Wondering who these tinkerbats were, the Nerimans were walking along a meandering channel observing the local architecture. All buildings without exception were made of the same terrakota-colored brick, some straight, some crooked, sometimes plastered with what looked like clay. Fancy windows and cloth overhangs were everywhere. And lots of towers built, it felt like, just for the sake of art. The town was not standing on the mainland as it seemed at first but on a chaotic gathering of peninsulas and islets, long buried under it. Streets were running along channels or pits where the bottom cold not be seen. Massive round grates in the stone sides of riverwalks hinted at presence of an underground labyrinth or at least a branching sewer.

A bearded man rowed by, his boat so loaded with barrels its sides were barely above the surface.

"I see the tides here are rather provisional," Nabiki said quietly to herself as she glanced at a wooden mooring attached to the channel side. It had wooden stairs leading into the water but ending half a meter down. "So this is an inner sea akin to Japanese or Mediterranean...?"

Shantae was merrily mincing forward, pointing: here she had been roof-hopping to lose the Ammo Baron minions with gatlings — the word was said in broken English — there she had freed a restaurant from tinkerbats swarming it while its owner was hiding on top of that roof — a wooden attic was pointed to, sticking out of a very tall tower. You don't say, I wonder myself how she got up there. And that small, unassuming hole in the wall over there — see? — leads to a closet walled off long ago. There was a chest with a heart holder inside... No, but the monkey can. And on the roof of that house—

"We are meandering like this because there is no shorter way," Xian Pu intruded politely into the stream of her enthusiasm, "Or are you so eager to show us the town?"

"Well, I do want to show you the town," Shantae admitted. "But checking if tinkerbats are hiding somewhere is more important. I don't want this disguise to go to waste."

"That's the right idea," Ranma began cautiously, "but I noticed lots of sewer entrances around here. Could they be hiding there?"

Shantae froze in her tracks. She then face-palmed in shame: "I knew I was missing something!"

"The network is so wide?" Ranma asked.

"No. Most of these pipes rather lead to dead ends. But tinkerbats have these, how they call them, pots with windows and flippers for diving. While there are lots of caves or just walled off cellars under the town. You wouldn't believe how many corners down there weren't visited even by adventurers! But I prefer not to explore these tunnels. It doesn't stick to the mermaid, but holding my breath when using gills takes too much concentration."

"So the enemies are, most probably, sitting underground," Ranma concluded. "And we can't get to them without drawing attention."

"And I cannot transform," Shantae agreed. "So, no sneaking up on them quietly as a mermaid. Besides, where would I search for them? You need a whole day to check just a half of the passages down there. But sometimes they are hard to notice, or secret, or blocked deliberately with something..."

"So what is your plan now?" Xian Pu asked.

"Hmm... We go to the Uncle. Warn him, then patrol the city until the expo opens—" Her stomach growled expressively. "Heh... Warn him, then have breakfast, then patrol. Maybe we'd notice something suspicious. But even if not, I know beforehand what Risky is planning. This time we will surprise her!"

Taking a decisive left turn Shantae began meandering through the city at an angle, towards a specific point on the wharf. Which they soon reached. The wharf was wide, clad in stone, with wooden piers running out into the sea. There were only a few fishing boats parked there, their sails furled. The view from here was impressive: the concave shoreline was hugging a huge southward-looking bay with arches of rocky islets. To the right, a large palace could be seen in the distance, washed out in pinkish haze, the onion top of its central tower impressively huge. It seems it was on a peninsula because only the sky was visible beyond it.

Far to the left, the lighthouse could barely be discerned, a black mushroom-like shape on top of a rock against the blazing background of sunrise.

"Here it is." Shantae pointed at a large building that looked like a warehouse. "They rent the hall for the expo here. Let's go around it first, all right?"

Going "around" wasn't as easy as it sounded: the buildings facing the wharf were forming a solid wall with a minimum of passages. Most, it seems, were warehouses, some of them with wooden loading cranes on their upper floors. While passing one of these, Shantae glanced at the crane, then at the pier across it, and snorted at some thoughts.

Finally they came upon a side street they followed into the narrow back streets permeated by the smell of fish.

Halfway on their path back toward the wharf Shantae suddenly flared with barely restrained animosity at the sight of a stunningly magnificent platinum blonde woman loitering in the open doors of some house. Ranma moved unobtrusively to keep Akane between them: this woman was dressed in a thong bikini, thigh-high stockings and a half-skirt completely open in front like a mini-cape with crimson underside. Ranma gulped, suddenly very interested in the local architecture. Akane's eye twitched.

Also, this heartbreaker — whose bust threatening to burst out of her top made even Xian Pu envious — wore elbow-long gloves and a red bow in her hair.

"Looks like you can't stand that tramp," Ukyou noted quietly when the irritating woman was behind them, having only paid them an uninterested glance.

"She wastes Heart Squids for artifacts!" The half-Genie's eyes flashed with righteous indignation. "How this shameless person could! They are so cute! And she slams them with a red-hot hammer, for some lousy heart holder..."

It was clear this was a sore spot for her.

"Who are Heard Squids?" Akane asked, her voice sympathizing. "And where does that nasty woman catch them?"

"Well... On the trees, usually," Shantae replied like it was obvious. "Never again, I did her... Ahem. They are like baby Warp Squids," She parted her hands at the width of a soccer ball, "but they are always red and their head has a dimple. But more importantly, they have talent for finding trouble, like cats!" Ranma shivered but she haven't noticed. "And just like cats they tend to climb up. Sometimes you find them in the jungle in the crown of tallest trees."

"Land squids are nothing unusual," Nabiki said, clearly thinking of something. "We saw weirder. But what is a heart holder? It's the second time you mention them."

"Well..." Shantae seemed lost for a moment, her train of thought interrupted by the sharp departure from the topic of squids. "Here." She pulled a big flask, or vase, out of her subspace pocket. The crystal heart-shaped vessel looked like it was full of transparent ruby liquid. It had golden handles at both sides, sapphire stopper and base were adding colors, contrasting with ruby and gold. It was giving off a weird feeling of someone staring at you with mirth from inside.

"Is it some sort of potion?" Xian Pu asked.

"It's not liquid," Shantae warned. "But rather some kind of.. smoke, I guess? As soon as you remove the stopper it would come out and permeate you making you tougher. About a time and a half, I think. You can use more than one, but the result is diminishing..." She stared at the vessel with a sour expression, lost in thought.

"Judging by how cheerful you are, there are other pitfalls," Nabiki noted.

"Besides me knowing now whom they are made from?" Shantae replaced the artifact. "Healing potions begin having less and less effect. You grow used to taking risks: why be careful if most things barely scratch you. But the extra toughness vanishes in about a week. And you cannot feel that, you can only guess.

"A treacherous thing," Ranma agreed.

"I'm keeping this one for a rainy day." Shantae nodded. "Then that day comes and I am too busy to remember about it."

They made almost complete circle but have never spotted anyone suspicious. Well, they thought, once, that they did, but it turned out such men wrapped up so thoroughly that only their eyes are visible were quite common around here.

"Men in burquas, women in thongs," Nabiki summed up quietly to herself. "The more I see, the more the similarity to Arab countries feels superficial."

Truly, most women they met had bared midriff. Ranma was envying them quietly: it was a tad too hot here for her silk shirt — which had two layers, by the way!

Ranma offered to jump onto the roofs, take a look around but Shantae asked her to belay that for after the breakfast, pretending to be unassuming pedestrians for now. What was she hoping to see from the ground level? The rooftops here were a labyrinth, one could hide a whole army there.

They walked out to the wharf.

"I think we had enough wandering around on an empty stomach," Ranma hinted as her eye caught on a fish stand, its canvas canopy visible at the base of one of the piers. "I'm even ready to roast it myself, if needed."

"I have a whole box of cabbage left back at the lighthouse," Ukyou added. "We should find a use for it before it spoils. But I don't have a flat grill and I don't know whom to bribe to get a permit to sell food. I don't even know if they have suitable ingredients for roast-like— I'll be!"

The alien tongue misbehaved at times, making something weird come out of your mouth. Especially when talking about exclusively Japanese things like okonomiyaki.

"I know it would be against your principles," Nabiki adviced, "but you'd be better off selling the cabbage to some local restaurant of what they call them. We are all deep in adventure and I have a gut feeling we are going to be saving the world for a full day. Bet you won't have time to get used to local food-stuffs?"

"No thanks," Ukyou grumbled. "I can smell a big pile of... adventure myself."

"P-chan is probably hungry too," Akane injected incongruously. "Wherever he is."

Xian Pu was stony-faced: warriors do not complain about hunger. But she was feeling nostalgic for the noodles from back home in the Cat Cafe — the noodles she had thought she was sick and tired of.

"I'm... ahem... would like to have a snack myself," Shantae interrupted them, accompanied with suspicious growling. "But maybe we should warn the Uncle first?"

"Wait," Xian Pu stopped her. "He is now where the attack is planned to happen, right?"

"Well, yeah," Shantae said, not understanding. "In that house we passed by."

"So there are hidden enemies, most likely," the amazon declared with confidence. "Your Uncle, would he be able to hold his composure if we manage to whisper the truth to him?"

"Oh, no." Shantae shook her head. "Oh, no. He'd raise such a fuss..."

"We cannot warn him," Xian Pu concluded. "We tip the enemy, we lose the advantage of surprise."

"So we have to set a trap?" Nabiki suggested. "We have overwhelming foreknowledge and an overwhelming hidden Ranma our opponents know nothing about."

The redhead swelled with pride.

"This... this could work," Shantae agreed reluctantly. "Catching Risky and giving her to the palace guards... We'd have a day or two to act without interference until she escapes... But the lamp!"

"We'll take it from her," Ranma promised confidently.

"Surprise her sharply," Shantae advised. "You are stronger and faster. Don't give her breathing room. Or she would surprise you in turn. Our... aunt..." She switched to roundabout speech because the hungry girls were already closing on an eatery, attracted inexorably by the smell of roasting fish. "..is full of surprises, smart and treacherous. Even as she plays a simpleton who likes to laugh."

The dock-side eatery was similar to summer cafes back home in that it had tables placed outside surrounded by a small fence and a large canvas overhang, currently furled up. Shantae wasn't even counting copper coins waving the expense off as negligible. The food was really cheap, simple, but they mopped it all up almost swallowing the plates: the cooks here knew how to roast fish. The fish itself was amazing, this being a seaside town. Their host had to order seconds, and then again.

"This is almost as tasty as shiner roast.. Ugh... teriyaki," Akane declared.

"Yer bullshittin'" Ranma objected in a sated voice. "This is better! I wonder what they make the sauce from?"

"Many a clan war," Ukyou injected in a wise voice, "was waged for such knowledge."

The general mood was relaxed and overconfident. The sun parted with the horizon, growing brighter, its rays beginning to scorch. The day was promising to be hot.

"What should we do next?" Nabiki raised a question. "There are several hours til the expo opening."

"We are tourists," Ranma said with authority. "Wander around the town, sightsee. The most important thing is," She cast a pointed look at Shantae, "we don't know any locals... By the way!" Her eyes lit with enthusiasm. "Is there a beach somewhere around?"

"There are several," Shantae replied. "Deeper into the shore, between rocks. You can't see them from the wharf."

"Ranma!" Akane chilled the redhead's enthusiasm. "We do not have any swimsuits!"

"I can lend you my spare ones," Shantae offered. "They are with ties, one-size-fits-all."


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


They combed the town again without zeal, just killing time. More people were walking the streets, children running around. The sun kept creeping higher, heat rising.

On one of the streets they passed through, there was a two-meter red ball with purple spots standing in a corner, resting on a ring of smaller balls. The Nerimans would have passed it by, taking it for either a forgotten ball or an abstract sculpture, but Shantae exclaimed: "Hey, it's the Squid baron! Fancy meeting you here!"

The ball jumped up in surprise, turning around sharply. There was a face on its other side, a mouth and two eyes of matching size. "Who...? Where...?" He squinted at them, not recognizing anyone. "No, no, you are mistaken! I am your average, utterly unassuming Warp Squid!" He scurried away bouncing on those small balls — Ranma managed to recognoze them being curled up tentacles. In his haste he failed to round a corner properly, crushing someone's wooden bucket and slamming into a wall so ponderously the clay-colored plaster crumbled. After he disappeared beyond the corner, there were sounds of pottery breaking.

"Such a bull in a china shop," Shantae grumbled. "Did you take a good look at him? He's the boss of one of the dungeons we'd have to visit."

"We have to?" Xian Pu asked. "Why?"

"Well, the la— that thing, it is sealed at this moment in time. To make it work, we have to gather the three seals. One is in the possession of this `utterly unassuming` one. Another one like him has the second one, and the last seal is nailed to the wall in Ammo Baron's Battle Tower. I'd like us to start right away, but the aunt is serious business, we have to deal with her all together."


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


Urged by Ranma, Shantae led them to the beach. Towards the left, eastern end of the wharf by the piers which were accumulating sailships, then the wharf flowed seamlessly into the stone bridge crossing the narrow bay - and there, behind a couple buildings and a wall of greenery, was a small sandy beach. Its other end was against the park through which they entered the town. The square with the round pond was close by.

"Well, who should be swimming?" Shantae asked. "Keep in mind I only got two sets of bikini."

"Me! Me!" Ranma pushed forward.

"And you, Akane?" Shantae hinted her friend.

"I... You saw how well I can swim." She looked downcast.

"Not even splashing near the shore?"

"She is talented, she can drown at knee depth," Ranma needled. And got her deserved lump.

"Maybe Big Sis Nabiki...?" Akane suggested rubbing her bruised hand.

"I'd like to," the elder sister declined politely, "but first I have to find a secluded spot to test how good I am with this thing." She patted the rolled up whip on her belt. "I have an... inkling that I got not only the suit but also skills, similar to how we could speak the language. But this requires thorough checking."

"You can go to the first or second rock on the way to my lighthouse," the disguised half-Genie advised. "If you go around them, the town is not visible from there and no one would disturb you, except my friends or the mayor. There could be mermaids, though..."

"Don't worry, I'm good at running," Nabiki reassured her.

"Maybe you, Xianpuu?" Shantae asked.

"She got a curse too," Ranma injected. "She turns into a, uh... clawed, meowing thing."

"Oh... Why didn't you tell me?"

"There's only me left, Ran-cha." Ukyou winked at the redhead.

"Swim, have fun." Shantae handed them blue-and-white striped pieces of cloth with ties. "The cabin for dressing is over there, beyond those bushes. We, meanwhile..." She turned to face Akane and Xian Pu. "Let's visit the general store, I think? I'll show you around."


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


While Akane ans Xian Pu were gaping at the contents of the general store — which was selling everything from shovels and pottery to most esoteric spell books — and wondering why there was a partial dinosaur skeleton hanging from the ceiling — or was it a dragon? Ranma and Ukyou kept swimming vogorously, just short of growing gills. They swam along the wharf, not even themselves knowing what for, dove in front of that building where everything was going to happen, but only found the expected layers trash instead of a bottom.

The three girls returning from the shop observed suspicious explosions boiling up like white foamy welts to the left of the beach, amidst the rocky islets. Shantae concluded with displeasure that Ranma must have poked the local fauna.

The swimmers reached the beach to crawl out onto the sand. Ranma was giggling stupidly while Ukyou was berating her, picking at her ear: "Ran-cha, what did you touch that spiny blob for? My ears are still popped!"

"But... eheheee... It was funny! It was staring witch such a hilariously severe look! How could I know they explode when offended?"

"Ran-cha." Ukyou sighed, rolling onto her back, swayed around by the small waves rolling onto the sand. "Did Shantae-han tell us about exploding sponges? She did. So, was it so hard to realize that that pink stuff was a sponge? Even if it had eyes?"

"I'm sorry," the redhead said standing up with some effort. "I got carried away. I will be careful from now on!"

"Right." Shantae frowned. "No more adventures and exhausting training! If you wear yourselves out I would fail without your help!"

Ranma immediately backed up and surrounded the half-Genie with suffocating care: the other girl was sweating in her pregnant disguise of Ranma's black pants, a dense bed cover with the egg and pillows on her belly and a massive turban that was probably making her head terribly hot.

And she had to endure it in this heat until the noon.

Shantae had hard time fending Ranma off as the pigtailed girl put her in a beach chair and dragged it into shadow.

Then she haven't noticed herself falling asleep.

Akane sat down by her side, staring out into the sea.

"Hard to believe we are on another planet, eh?" Ranma sat down next to her.

"And we can only return home through magic," Akane agreed. "It's like we were spirited away into a fairy tale."

"Be careful, all right?" Ranma cast a worried glance at her. "Fairy tales could be—"

"Scary, with a bad end," Akane finished for her. "I know. But here everything is in our hands. We decide how it ends... I will be careful, I promise."


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


"Do you remember where that hole is," Xian Pu asked Ukyou who was drying her hair, "where Shantae said a heart holder is hidden?"

"I think I do, but— Oh! We're in her past, it should be still here! But that hole is tiny, only a cat would— I see, you clever girl...! Wait, what do you need me for?"

"How would the cat break the chest?" Xian Pu explained. "With her teeth? Her claws? I propose we get that artifact together, then give it to Shantae for safekeeping. We can decide who gets it later, by playing rock-paper-scissors, or present it as a gift for Ranma. Depending on circumstances."

"I like your plan," Ukyou approved pulling her black tights hastily onto her still damp legs.


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


Shantae slept for three hours, only awoken once when Ukyou and Xian Pu brought something wrapped up and asked her to store it in her ki-pocket. She liked this new name for it!

Then she and Akane went roaming the town - just the two of them because Xian Pu, Ukyou and Ranma each decided to "scout around" on their own, agreeing to meet again at the beach. Ukyou went browsing various shops and eateries to get a hang of the local prices and cooking habits. Xian Pu slipped into the bathhouse and soon a white and lavender cat slipped out. Ranma went to check if Nabiki was all right or she had soon to console the inconsolable Akane.


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


Akane and Shantae were sitting at an outdoors table of a cafe, picking lazily at a melon just to have an excuse for staying there.

"Even pretending being pregnant is hard," Shantae complained wiping sweat from her brow.

Akane was about to reply when Shantae suddenly grew alert, putting her slice down to stare at something across the street.

"What's wrong?" Akane asked cautiously, not risking turning around.

"It's Barracuda Joe, the future fancy man of my friend Sora."

"Fancy man"?

"He was going out with her, she thought they'd marry, then he just dumped her," Shantae explained with disapproval. "How else can I call a man like that? `There is other fish in the sea` and just left. Just after I put a lot of effort into returning him to life, picking his soul from such a hole. All for Sora. And he just says `I had time to think` and dumps her. Boy was she yelling after him..."

Akane turned around, her glare murderous.

There was a well muscled man on the other side of the street, as tall as her father, dressed in a blue military coat. He had prominent horseshoe mustache. There was a funny rectangular hat on his head, like a flat, blue truncated pyramid, with ears and a fluffy, striped tail - which was also blue. When he turned to face them, a stylized face became visible on the hat's front surface, made up of two eyes and a mouth.

Akane was going to give him a piece of her mind when Shantae stopped her: "Wait, he is also someone important in Ammo Baron's army. See him taking measures with that thing of his? I'm sure he is searching for the highest tower. They are preparing to take over the town."

Truly to her words, the man was fiddling with some sort of geodesic tool on a tripod, writing something in a clipboard. Then he packed it up and left.

"You are not going to stop him?" Akane asked quietly.

"I am... torn, to be honest," Shantae admitted. "On the one hand, I'm itching to throw a wrench into their plans, making sure they can't gain anything. I would have a talk with the mayor yet! On the other hand, if we change the past there would be no palace disruptor cannon. Or they stick it on some hill, making no errors because there would be no Bolo, and succeed in destroying the palace. That would be a disaster!"

"So they are our enemies but can become our unwilling allies?" Akane said. "Ugh, what a tough decision."

"Let's see how our trap works out," Shantae decided. "There are about ten days before the invasion, if everything goes the same."


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


Nabiki wasn't on the first rock. Nor on the second one. Ranma was beginning to expect the worst when she found the middle Tendo sitting on top of that flying totem pole, just past the place where they met mermaids and lost Ryouga.

"How did you get there?" The redhead was puzzled.

The green stone pole was floating a bit higher than the top of the rock, never coming closer than about four meters and five more further away in the two furthest points. Nabiki was sitting clenching it between her legs, swaying slightly when it was changing its direction sharply in the points of the triangle it was drawing through the air.

"These reflexes are amazing," the girl dressed like Indiana Jones replied. "I am very good with the whip - it's like I was learning to use it since childhood. But trusting these reflexes..."

"You felt you can get there, so you just did?" Ranma guessed.

"Exactly." Nabiki took a pointed look downwards. Some ten meters below sharp rocks were protruding eagerly from the water. "I got to this pole with amazing ease. But going back... There is nothing on that rock to latch with my whip onto."

"Don't sweat it, I'll get you off it!" Ranma promised, taking aim. Then she suddenly changed her mind: "Ten thousand yen!"

"You will get me off here anyway," Nabiki retorted calmly. "As soon as the others find me missing. Three."

"Five and I won't tell anyone!"

"Deal!" Nabiki grinned.


( 。◕ シーンブレイク ◕。)


The next chapter: NWC, meet Risky Boots!