Ranma Aqua-Isekai'd, by Chaos Orchid
Chapter 6: Cologne's Family and Another's
Something was wrong. Ranma's hebijebi alert was going off in his head, but was it muffled. He couldn't pick up the direction the danger was coming from. From those bird-angels, Phoenixites? No, his guards said they were gone and would not risk being any closer to the Village of the Women Heroes. Shé seemed to be right. The warning didn't seem to coming from the sky. It was closer to ground level.
Closer to the group around him. Was it Prune? The purple-haired, mid-twenty woman in the Mao uniform who had been acting as his guide to this place, a place called This-side? He felt like giving her some slack just because she claimed to be a mother. And during the battle she had shown no combat skill, but no cowardice. (Unlike Pop who had seen the opportunity to runaway and did.)
What about Nylon? He hadn't been a coward, but he hadn't been much help in the combat. It would have been just the opposite if he could have summoned that ox-man(-crane-eel) of his. It would have been formidable. What a sparring partner it was going to make!
Was Shé the problem? Shé was as the leader of his guards, somebody who could almost instantly bind, gag and put a noose around his neck. And those were only the simplest of the techniques he had seen. But he was coming to reluctantly trust her. Shé had kept her grip on him loose and didn't make him feel like the prisoner he was. And because Shé had, he knew which side to fight on during the battle.
Then there was the Family. They hadn't told him its name, but Ranma had the strong impression they felt they were a family. They were acting that way towards each other. Not that he ever really knew what a real family was like. He and Pop had never freeloaded off of one. Ukyo's had come the closest, though.
Tint was a little taller than he was and a little more mature looking. Dress him as a samurai he would fit right in with those period dramas. Perhaps as the handsome star. But he doubted the guy would agree to a chonmage, the helmet-holding haircut that made them look like they were balding. He was proud of his hair streaked with highlights. What he wore did belonged to another age: a woven leather armor with metal studs in strategic places and a tunic underneath. His weapons so far had been a sword-on-a-pole, yǎnyuèdāo, and the very non-East Asian boomerang. What other weapons were in his weapon-space? The one he seemed to prefer to wield was greed.
There was a big, burly man called 'Powder', but the woman before Ranma was also confusingly called Powder. Despite being busty, she was as tall and shapely as a fashion model. She would seem the flawless example of the traditional, feminine woman if she weren't as bad as naked. At least she had on stickers over her, uh, down there. And stickers were over her nipples, too. C,cat stickers! He would almost prefer to see her really naked rather than have to look at those! But, no, wait! That was good! It would keep his eyes away from ogling her boobs. He wouldn't be coming off as a pervert!
But why(!) was she practically naked?! Why was Shé?! Shé only had on ropes! They covered more than what Powder had stuck on, but they left most of Shé's skin exposed. The more Ranma looked at her-and he desperately tried not to stare at any woman!-the more he saw that it was the ropes that were what most drew his eyes. As they wrapped around her, they followed and emphasized her very fit curves. They were proudly announcing to all who looked her way that she was, in fact, not a man but a woman. Both women were doing it!
Was being naked acceptable here, wherever here was? Animal Town had no problem with seeing people, humans, naked. Of course he was told they weren't allowed to have a clothes-space because clothes could be used as weapons…or something like that. That didn't mean that there weren't other humans who did wear clothes. Perhaps those were ones who took the time to go into their clothes closets.
It made no sense! The higher you go, the colder it gets-And this Here was up among the tallest mountains in the world! It was very chilly right now, in fact! Ranma, don't ask why.
Ranma had to look away from those girls. Instead his thoughts turned to the one girl who was not more-than-half naked. She was wearing a short dress with a Mandarin collar and Chinese floral print over her very womanly figure. It wasn't a mini, but she would still tug at it now and again. She seemed to wish she was back in the ripped….
Oh, right! They had come to the main gate of the Village of Women Heroes. It actually was big enough to be called a town, with maybe five-hundred or more people all living within its white stone walls. (More still if animals were counted.) The defense walls were not as high as they should be; buildings on the other side could be seen over it. Ranma felt with some effort he could leap over it. He would still have to be prepared to combat its guards. The guards had to have the best weapons in weapon-space.
One leader of the guard met another, Shé. This one did not believe in being naked. Her arm and leg guards were steel and an sky-blue, embroidered mantle over chain mail. She was otherwise an very pretty though ordinary looking, middle-aged woman…. until she took off her helmet, Ranma saw light lavender with purple highlights hair fall out. "This is the boy Elder Cologne told me about, Shé?"
"This is the new immigrant. The younger one, Rinse. The older one has…escaped." Shé admitted to failure.
"My pop's an idiot! He used the distraction of the attack to get away. But he'll come back for me." Ranma knew that wouldn't excuse Shé, but his testimony could help things to go easier on her.
"Suìtǐ told us about the battle with the Phoenixites."
"Sweetie?" Had he seen anybody else there?
"Yes?!" From a bracket above dropped a young girl with a beige cape, a long cloth over culottes and a tied vest. She looked very cute and her hair was done in a feathery style. She had a mischievous smile.
Nylon didn't have one. His expression became sour.
"Take our guest to see the elder," Rinse told her.
"You do know where Elder Cologne is. You will take us directly to her," Shé wasn't asking questions but talking to somebody she wished she could order.
"I have honing talent!" Sweetie bragged. "I'm in tune with Grandmother Cologne." Her smile became smug, "I'm her favorite!"
"Not for long, let's hope," Nylon glared at her. "I'll even pray for it." To this, she stuck her tongue out.
In a low voice, Eyeshadow said to Ranma, "She's not really Cologne's granddaughter."
"I am, too!" And she turned to Rinse. "Aren't I, Mom?!"
"You come from the egg of my egg. Now, off with you, Sweetie. Find our grandmother."
Ranma opened his mouth…but then remembered: Don't ask why. The story had to be complicated. Very complicated.
"Follow me!" Sweetie told them and grabbed the ends of her cape to hold it out behind her as she hurried ahead of them. It didn't take her long jump up on a building's sidewall, ricochet off to the wall across from it and then reach the rooftop.
Ranma was up there, waiting for her.
"Hey! You're not supposed to be up here!" She was miffed he was showing up her showing off!
"Hey back at you. You're takin' me to see your grandmother. I'm just following you."
"Follow the leader, then!" And she ran to the edge of the roof and leaped off. Ranma saw that her legs were too short and her muscles were too young to get her all away across the courtyard beneath!
But she spread the cape in her hands and used her ki aura to collect, shift and warm air under her to make her own thermals. They were just to extend her glide. It helped she was so small and light. And that the flap of cloth in back sort of acted as a tail.
Ranma was on the next roof before her.
Sweetie didn't take it sweetly. She stomped her feet. From her belly bag, she took a pill, swallowed it and shivered. In her other hand was now a small bottle of something. This she poured on herself.
And then she was gone! In her place was a falcon. The falcon Ranma had met before! It whistled its shriek and then swooped away and out of sight between the buildings and houses.
Somebody landed and stumbled along the rooftop. Ranma kept her on her feet. It was Eyeshadow.
"You okay?!" Tint called out. Ranma figured he had thrown the light girl up here. She wasn't able to roofhop by herself.
"She's/I'm okay!" they answered.
Ranma remembered the last time he held…. He quickly let go of the attractive girl. She, too, seemed to feel awkward. What to do? What to say? How about, "She turned into a bird and flew away."
"That's Sweetie, alright. But, uh, we shouldn't need her now. Come." And she headed for a trap door. She wasn't even going to try to jump. "We think Elder Cologne is in here."
The floor below was something out of a book about wizard's, full of all sorts of strange and common-looking things jumbled together. Where a cauldron was in a chimney, a pipe came out of a cast iron stove that a wok sat on; a counter had laboratory beakers next to large spice rack full of a variety of herbs and there was two chests with a label on each of their cubbyholes. Part of the floor had an Onmyō star drawn on it and laying inside of it were three coins marked with I Ching hexagrams as well as Western-style, multi-sided dice. A local map with too many lines on it for them to be roads was on a table. And there were more; so much more Ranma had to think the only thing missing was a magic wand. Or was there? Did that barely carved staff count as one?
"Don't touch anything!" Eyeshadow warned. "If you what you take doesn't make you miserable, Elder Cologne will!" She had Ranma take the stairs down before her just to make sure the stranger didn't try anything.
The downstairs was in stark contrast with the attic. If this place wasn't a house, it looked like a house. For somebody as important to the Women Heroes as Elder Cologne seemed to be, it wasn't richly decorated. Nothing proclaimed that a noble was here and you had use your most formal language. It looked like a pleasant, even homey place if you could live without even the simplest of modern inventions. Or that was the mental picture Ranma had.
The first words Ranma ever heard from Elder Cologne were, "Powder, put some clothes on! You haven't the same excuse as Shé to runaround nearly naked!" And the first thing he saw when he went into the room was Powder in a long, red qípáo (cheongsam) with a slit up to a hip. She and Tint were blocking Ranma's view of the elder. But that was only until they noticed him approaching.
…. This was an elder? A beautiful woman in her early twenties(?) smiled at him but there was suspicion in her eyes. She did not quite trust him and he got the impression she might not trust any men. She barely nodded her head as she introduced herself, "I am called Kělún. And you?"
Ranma felt he had better bow. "I'm Ranma, Ranma Saotome of the…." Had Pop been right to not want them to know they belonged to the Anything-Goes School? "...Indiscriminate-No: Gung-Ho School of Martial Arts."
"I feel you're lying," she frowned. "But I also feel there is no dark motive behind it. Just caution. Very well, that will do…for now. We have more important matters to discuss.
"Ah! Eyeshadow, isn't it! Come in and stand by your fiancee!"
"Fiancee!?" Ranma cried and pivoted to face the redhead. She looked like she could become sick. "I don't want-She don't want-Why would we want, want…."
"Why?" Cologne paused for dramatic effect…
And said, "You, Shé, and the elder and middle sisters of the Keshōdai family are dismissed. This will be difficult as it is without onlookers."
"Your wish is our order, Elder Cologne," Shé bowed.
"But our little brother can tell us later?" Tint asked.
"Sister!" Powder insisted. "Elder Cologne just said she was now a girl! She's getting married to this boy!"
Eyeshadow clutched her stomach, but didn't heave.
"Whether our discussion remains a secret or not will depend on its outcome. Now, be off with you, youngsters!"
Being the highest ranking, Shé had to be the last to leave. Shé saw Tint give Eyeshadow a sympathetic pat to the shoulder on his way out, "I'm really sorry how our adventure turned out for you, Tsukiko."
While Powder kissed her on the cheek, and could only bring herself to say her name, "Eyeshadow." Before she left she looked at Ranma. "Please take good care of Little Sister."
Shé closed the door behind her. And now there were only three in the room. The young Elder Cologne, Ranma…and his fiancee.
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NOTES:
Ah, yes, the story of Rinse and Sweetie. It was inspired by what happened in Rumiko-sama's Saffron arc. It should fill a chapter or two on its own and provide plot devices. Anyway, this Aqua-Isekai now has a mischief-maker. A sort of young, non-perverted Happosai. (And her thermal technique is a variation of Hiryū Shōten Ha, but manipulates cold with hot.)
The story of why Cologne is a young woman while her other half on That-side is 300-years old is less complicated, but is based on something else that happened in the manga. I know where I'd like to take it. It could become quiet significant.
And then there's the story of the Keshōdai family. Being they could become Ranma's future in-laws, their dynamics should will come into play a lot. As you can see already, they are different in many ways from the Tendōs.