Spirit Hunter
Chapter Seven
Never Meddle in the Affairs of Wizards.
Revised 9th September 2006 by Hiryo
This Chapter has been pre-read by Hiryo. Thank you very much. Please check out his stories.
Disclaimer:
Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi; I am only using it for my own sick twisted enjoyment.
"Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper amour and shouting 'All gods are bastards.'"
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic)
Enjoy!
Yellow light filtered down through the fluttering banners and metal girders of the closed amusement park. Security lights shone on the bright colored fronts of rides and sideshow stalls. Everything had shut down three hours ago and the only noise was that of a single security guard on his rounds shinning his torch into all the dark corners. The closed amusement park gave off a strange feeling, now that it was empty.
From a distant corner of the park, two young boys crept over the barbwire security fence. Chucking their backpacks over the fence, they pushed a blanket over the barbs, and climbed the fence. "Can you see anyone? The guard should be at the other end of the park."
His friend was looking through one of their backpacks looked up quickly then looked back to the bag. "Nup." His head popped back up with a ham sandwich stuffed in his mouth.
Grabbing the backpack out of the hands of the red head, the other boy scowled. "If we get caught Mark won't pay up. All we have to do is stay the night in the haunted house take a picture of us with our watch at one and five and then he'll show us the hole in the wall of his bathroom."
The red haired boy mumbled with his full mouth. "You said I could have five king sized snickers if I did this for you."
The brunette jerked the pack over his shoulder. "Yeah sure, just watch for the guard."
Creeping around the park, the two boys were running like in a bad spy movie, from shadow to shadow. The Haunted House was beside the open-air auditorium where the musical shows were held. When the two boys crept towards the black bulk of the haunted house, they started hearing noises. People were in the auditorium. Potted plants surrounded the entrance, and a paved path led out into the tiers of seats.
The brunette is called Lenny and he really wanted to get a chance to look in Marks bathroom, especially when Marks older sister took a bath in the room next to it.
Daniel the red head was along for the adventure because Lenny had bribed him with food, as Lenny was too afraid to go into the park by himself.
When the boys heard the voices, they stumbled to a stop like stunned rabbits.
Dan panicked and started to hyperventilate "It's the guard and he's going to catch us, and we're going to prison and . . . ."
Len stuck a hand over Dan's mouth. "Shhh, be quite. Who ever it is probably doesn't even know we're here. We can still get to the haunted house. Just Shut Up!" said Dan in a forced whisper as he drew his hand away from Daniel's mouth.
The other boy's eyes were wide and just nodded.
Creeping past the gateway the two boys scurried away from the voices. However, Daniel glanced sideways just for a second, and Lenny who was running to the Haunted House stopped in his tracks when he heard Daniel scream behind him.
Running back to his friend Len grabbed him and shoved a hand over his mouth. "Shut up they'll hear you." Lifting a shaking arm Daniel pointed down the seated incline through the gate to the stage of the auditorium. Len turned his eyes away from Dan's face and saw what made him scream.
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On a corner of the quiet street, not that far away from the amusement park, so you can see the tops of the roller coaster. Someone could be seen walking backwards and forwards. Dressed in long flowing robes the person wore a strange ice cream cone shaped hat on its head. He wore a robe that's covered in golden stars and silver moons. A long white beard fell down the front of the robe and a long wooden staff's topped by a large quartz crystal. Additionaly, a black stuffed black cat was pinned to his shoulder, to finish the outfit.
It was a strange sight even for Tokyo on a Friday night. A drunk, who had just left a local bar for this night, stumbled home, took one look, and swore that from now on he would drink at home.
The 'wizard' for lack of a better word, was walking backwards and forwards waving the staff around. Under his breath, the 'wizard' could be heard muttering. "Why do I have to be the one that always dresses up? No one sees Nabiki in half the outfits I get into."
From somewhere to his left he can hear some one hissing at him. "Sound Magical."
Sighing resignedly, Ranma dropped his head and waved the staff around. "Abracadabra, Wingardium Leviosa, Sasquatch." Out the side of his mouth, Ranma whispered. "Good enough?"
From the bushes, a hand appeared showing a thumb up.
The 'Grand Plan' as designed by Nabiki after they had recovered from the attack outside the magic store. Several serves of Ger's special chocolate brownies assisted that 'Grand Plan.'
Ranma that day in school was unaware that Nabiki had taken the day off to formulate her plan.
Being attacked by someone not out to kill or maim Ranma was a change for Nabiki and her fight the night before had made her angry. 'How dare 'they' attack Nabiki Tendo no one had the right to touch her. That bird-guy had ruined her jacket.' Fuelled with righteous woman fury and chocolate Nabiki spent the day in her room thinking over how she could catch the bastard that attacked her and find out who was behind it all. 'No one messed with me or my clothes and got away with it.'
Her thought process by the time Ranma got home from school was that 'A. Magical people and creatures were being attacked. B. Ranma has a magical curse. C. Lets dress Ranma up like a wizard and hope someone attacks him.' Nabiki was onto her second plate of brownies by the time she had finalized the plan and confirmed the costume hire.
When Ranma got home and avoided Akane, she explained the plan to him. He sounded exited and thought it was a good plan. That may have been the first clue that it wasn't that great of a plan. They had collected Ger after he closed his shop and they set up on the corner of a street were several attacks occurred.
Ranma had been excited about dressing up for the first few hours but it was nearly 2 o'clock and no attack. When Ranma had tried to hop around on his plastic staff like Cologne and failed, Nabiki who camped out in the bushes hung her head in defeat. While Ger lies besides Nabiki fast asleep. In the cold air of the night she though, 'My plan may not have been that well thought out after all.'
Standing up and dusting off her pants Nabiki stepped out of the bushes leaving Ger to snore away. "I think that's it for the night. We can try again tomorrow. If this thing attacks magic we'll give them magic."
Ranma was worried 'It's all right when Nabiki does this for cake and money but now she is angry when she's angry she's scary.' Ranma walked to the bushes and poked Ger with his Wizard's staff.
Ger rolled over and mumbled 'babble grumble flying cheese mumbo jumbo.' Tonight his t-shirt read, 'I Doubt Therefore, I Might Be.'
Ranma shook his head and poked him again.
Ger swiped a hand at the plastic staff and covered his head.
Ranma grinned and picked up a bottle of water, Nabiki had brought for the stakeout, and poured it over Ger's head.
Spluttering the Rokurokubi shot up and yelled when he saw Ranma standing over him. "Arrghh, Gandalf!" Clutching his backpack to his chest, he cried out. "No you can't have my precious."
Nabiki swatted Ranma over the back of the head, with her hand. "You idiot, be quiet. We don't want anyone calling the police."
Rubbing his head Ranma pulled Ger to his feet. "Well that was a waste of time I could have been at home watching T.V." Ranma grumbled as he rubbed his itchy face under the fake beard.
Ger agreed with him. "Why did I have to be here? I could have been sleeping in my own bed at home."
Nabiki swatted Ger around the back of the head, "Because you're our resident expert and we need someone who knows something about what we're doing." Picking up her backpack Nabiki started walking down the footpath away from the boys. "Come on we should head to the train station and head home. We can get some sleep tonight."
Ranma hiked up the bottom of the long glittery robe in his hands and followed her with Ger, which wiped his face behind him. Swinging the staff through the air Ranma flipped it backwards and forwards around his back and over his shoulders.
Their stakeout had failed for tonight but there was tomorrow and Nabiki was going to call the numbers they had gotten off the Magic Store owner who at this moment recovers at a friend out of town.
Ranma smiled as he flung the staff around and thought, 'I've had worse nights.'
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Half way to the train station, they reached the front gate of an amusement park. Ranma stared at the padlock and the tall chainlike fence then grinned at Nabiki. On the other side of the amusement park, Ranma could see the train station. "Nabiki lets take a shortcut through the amusement park."
Nabiki looked up at the tall gates with giant clowns decorating it and frowned. "I don't know."
Ranma pouted and wined. "Please, I always wanted to see an Amusement Park at night. It'll be cool."
Nabiki sighed. 'It wasn't like something would happen when they go through and if anything went wrong Ranma could protect them. I just don't want to cave into Ranma's demand.'
"I suppose we could," she looked at her watch, "if we get to the station in twenty minutes we can catch the train before they take a break for an hour."
Ranma grinned, grabbed Nabiki and Ger by the back of their shirts, and jumped over the fence.
Ranma and Ger were almost like kids in a chocolate factory. Running from one ride to another ride, the two pretended to throw balls at each other and sat in the empty dodgem cars.
Nabiki watched the two boys run around and keep an eye out for the security guard. Watching Ger stand in front of a funhouse mirror, she laughed at his distorted features.
Laughing she didn't notice Ranma's head jerk up and turn to face the far side of the park. "Hey! Ger did you hear that?"
The Rokurokubi stopped laughing at his own image and turned to face Ranma. "What?"
In the still air of the park, a distant scream could be heard.
"That's not good." Nabiki shook her head at the look on Ranma's face. "Go."
Ranma raced to the source of the scream Ger followed slowly behind Ranma.
Rushing through the park Ranma reached the auditorium and saw two collapsed figures just outside the entrance. A man dressed in blue and a smaller figure. Running up to the people on the ground Ranma saw a man dressed in a blue uniform obviously the security guard. His torch lay in a pile of smashed plastic and wires around his head. Someone had bashed it over his head and blood oozed down his face.
Next to the guard, a little boy with bright red hair lay curled into a little ball. Only his shallow breath told Ranma that the boy was still alive. His face was a pale contrast to the bright color of his hair. It's an orange red different from Ranma's female hair.
The boy was unconscious and Ranma was unsure if he should leave him.
Ger puffed up behind Ranma out of breath. "Did you have to run so fast?"
Ranma looked at Ger. "Do you have a phone on you?"
Ger shook his head. In the excitement, he had forgotten to shorten his neck.
Nabiki who had quietly jogged after Ranma finally reached them and the unconscious figures. "Hey! What happened?" Nabiki exclaimed when she saw the security guard and the red haired boy.
"Do you have your phone on you?" Ranma demanded.
Nabiki pulled her mobile out of her pocket and hit the first automatic number on her phone.
Ranma heard her tell the emergency service about what they had found. As Ranma felt the boy's throat for his pulse, he began to stir.
The boy began to pant, his hands reached up to his face, and with them, he began to claw at his eyes.
Ranma gently grasped the kid's hands. "Hey, wake up. What happened?"
Cautiously the kid opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Ger's elongated neck peering at him over Ranma's shoulder. Daniel screamed and tried to push his shoulder blades through the pavement. "Aarrgghh," he screamed and dug his fingers into Ranma's hand trying to get away.
"What is it?"
The boy screamed again. "Monster, Monster!"
Ranma looked over his shoulder and saw Ger. Who in return pulled his head in. "It's Okay? Ger's a good monster."
"Hey!"
The boy looked questioningly up at Ranma who was smiling. "Look I'll beat him up if you want."
"Hey!"
The little boy stopped trying to escape and whispered. "Lenny, they took Lenny."
Ranma saw Nabiki talking on her mobile. "What took Lenny?"
"The monster."
"Let's be sure of this before I rush off. Lenny isn't your pet, or a friends pet."
Daniel shook his head at the strange man that looked like Dumbledore. Harry Potter always trusted Dumbledore. "No Lenny's my friend. We were going to sneak into the Haunted House. Oh no now we've lost to Mark."
Nabiki had knelt next to the security guard and was following the instructions she was receiving over the phone. She looked up at Ranma and Ger. "An ambulance is going to be here in five minutes. Ranma if you want to go now would be the time."
Looking down at Daniel Ranma smiled. "What happened?"
"There were monsters and they took Lenny."
"Where did they take Lenny?"
The little boy started to cry quietly. "I don't know. I fell asleep."
Ranma grimaced. "Okay what did they look like?"
"They looked like big birds, but nasty."
"Where were they?"
"They were on the stage."
Ranma can see through the auditorium's open gate a stage at the bottom of the stacked seats. Ranma stuffed his magical stuffed cat under Daniel's head. "Look I'm just going to have a look at the stage. Ger, the nice monster is going to look after you."
Ger gave a little wave and pulled a hand back through his hair. "Hi, I'm a good monster, like the Cookie Monster."
When the boy smiled at this Ranma jumped down to the stage and found a pile of smoldering ashes still red from a fire that had been lit on the stage. There was nothing else left on the stage except a crumpled plastic bag. Picking it up Ranma turned it upside down. A little black packet fell out of the bag. It was a pack of cardboard rip out matches. On the outside in art deco style silver script were the words 'Neo 5.'
Authors Note:
No, I haven't stopped writing this story. I was just stuck for an idea for this one, but overwhelmed with ideas for my other stories. I will keep writing this but slowly.
Please Review. The more reviews the sooner I update. Moreover, the sooner you find out what is at Neo 5 and who is really behind the attacks and why.
Thanks for Reviewing:
Wonderbee31: Nabiki is a good match for Ranma she can control some of his more stupid impulses. However, I am not sure how much of a romance this story will end up.
Imortis: Thank you, I am trying to make this as original as possible, while sticking to Canon.
Innortal: First off, I really like your stories. Nabiki is really sneaky and avoided her Dad from finding out about the attack, so Ranma avoided the Demon head attack. I just had a mental image of little helium balloons being sold at Nerima fairs in the shape of his Demon heads. Nodoka as a demon hunter hmm, that gives me an idea, and I have Nos running around. Hmm
PLEASE REVIEW, I PROMISE I'LL UPDATE QUICKER IF YOU DO.
14/10/06 Authors Note
I Lied . . .