Today's crossovers: Ranma 1/2, xxxholic, and Mushishi.
Bree was awakened rather suddenly by the sound of panicked elephants, gunfire, shouts, and the sound of motor vehicles. Bree leapt from her burrow. Poachers. They were after a young bull elephant that had yet to separate from the herd.
The poachers never knew what hit them. There weapons were wrenched from their hands and flew out of reach. Their Jeeps overturned and they were left sprawled on the ground. Bree used a calming charm on the elephants to keep them from trampling over her. She experimentally patted the young bull on the side and grimaced when her hand came back bloodied. Closer inspection revealed that elephant only seemed to have a minor wound from being grazed.
The poachers could only stare in mute terror and the strange figure before them. It was obviously a woman wrapped from head to toe in a traditional kanga. The once bright fabric had clearly better days as dirty and torn as it was. She had somehow calmed the elephants and the young bull had allowed her to place one of her pale hands on its side. She was upset by the blood and turned to them. What they saw wasn't human.
Blue eyes with catlike pupils, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and claws they were sure hadn't been there a moment before. One hand grasped a stick and the other was covered in blood. As she approached on of the men scurried for a weapon. She flicked the stick in the air and muttered something and the guns floated up into the air before lodging themselves into the branches of a tree.
"Stay put." Bree snapped. The man stilled.
"Who's your leader?" Bree demanded because there was always someone that everyone deferred to in every group. The men were silent.
"Did I not speak clearly enough! Tell me who your leader is before I punish you all!" She snarled.
"Please wait!" exclaimed one of the older men in the group as he stood up. "I am the leader, do not hurt them!"
Bree glared at him. He was keeping a respectful distance. Bree closed the gap and grabbed him by the face, smearing blood on his cheek. Bree was smaller than him but size didn't matter in this case. The fear of the unknown creature that had him in its grip kept him from fighting back.
"You woke me up." She growled. "You led these men to slaughter this herd." She gestured vaguely at the elephants that were starting to wander off. "Their distress woke me up. Why would you do that? For profit? Or did you just decide that driving a species to extinction seemed like fun?"
"Please," the man begged. "We are not bad men. We have families to provide for. We were only going to take the bull."
"And the others would have fought for him. Just as you would fight if someone wanted to kill one of your children and take their teeth." Bree growled.
"We did not mean to awaken you, please, we are sorry. We will not do it again. Let us go, please." The man begged.
"Why should I believe you, the leader of a band of killers?" Bree demanded. "Why shouldn't just end your miserable lives right here!" Bree threats were empty, she was just venting her frustrations, but the men didn't know that.
"We have familes, children! They are waiting for us to return home, please, I beg of you, have mercy." The leader said. Bree scowled and let him go.
"Never do this again." She said before walking into the grass and shifting into her animagus form.
Hours later the men were rescued. Their story spread and it became the tale of a pale spirit with demonic blue eyes, razor sharp teeth, and hands soaked in the blood of anyone who dared attack any animal in that area for their distressed cries disturbed her rest. From then the area was rarely hunted and people passed through it carefully for fear of awakening the spirit. As for the men, some lived off the land, some went to the city, some emigrated, and some found new ways to profit from the elephants through eco-tourism. Bree never knew any of this.
Line line line
After terrifying the poachers, Bree continued moving north. Did some train hopping and made it all the way to Egypt, just barely dodging Death Eaters that were more competent then then the ones that had been sent after her previously.
She decided to get on a flight to India inside of going through the warzone that was the Middle East. She had briefly entertained the thought of going that way because she had some relatives stationed in the area and wouldn't they be surprised if she popped in for a visit. She decided against it because she wasn't that insane yet.
India was, in a word, crowded. Too many people led to too many cars and too many motorcycles and too many little car/motorcycle hybrid things. Since it was crowded it was also loud and Bree felt very out of her element. The bustling cities she had visited before didn't compare to the amount of activity in their Indian counterparts.
One good thing about the crowds was how easy it was to get lost in them. The Death Eaters could never follow her for very long before she'd give them the slip.
Bree made her way to China. She would have rather gone straight to Japan, but the Big List of Debtors said that someone who owed had last be seen at a place called Jusenkyo. So now Bree was tracking down Genma Saotome who had promised his son in exchange for a hot meal. Bree figured that the family business could use the extra manpower in some way.
While Breewas searching for Jusenkyo Bree fell down a cliff and just missed falling into a spring. The area Bree found herself in an area filled with springs that had bamboo poles sticking out of them.
"Ah! It is lucky that you did not fall in the spring of drowned mermaid. It is a tragic tale of a mermaid who drowned in the spring, now anyone who falls in is cursed to take to form of a mermaid." A man said.
Bree stared the springs. They definitely felt off.
"Right." Bree said blandly. "I have some kind of luck." She turned to the man.
"So do live around here?" she asked.
"Yes, I am the Jusenkyo guide." The man answered.
"So you'll know if a man and is son was in this area some time ago. The family name would be Saotome." Bree stated.
"Ah yes!" the guide exclaimed. "They came to train at the springs. I tried to warn them about the danger but it was too late. The father fell into the spring of drowned panda and the son fell into spring of drowned girl." He explained.
Well the certainly made things more interesting.
"Do you know where they are now?" Bree asked.
"Yes. The names of everyone who falls into the springs in written down." The guide answered. And so Bree found herself wandering the Nerima Ward of Tokyo Japan. Her current disguise was a Wa Lolita outfit. The outfit consisted of a kimono top over a petticoat, she was also wearing button up boot and stockings. Everything was colored in various shades of purple except for her wig which was pink and tied back into a bun. She also had purple contacts. She had picked the outfit because it stood out. And it stood out in a way that was not typical of Bree Smith. Most would have exected her to gravitate toward the Punk Lolita style and the colors black and red.
And really, Bree was getting very many looks now that she was in the Nerima ward. There was a reason the magic restrictions in that area were rather loose. A quick "Point Me" had Bree headed in the right direction. She soon found what she was looking for, the Tendo Dojo.
She knocked and a kindly looking young woman answered.
"May I help you?" she asked politely.
"Yes I'm looking for Gen- ah… Saotome Genma." Bree stumbled slightly over her words, remembering that the Japanese put their family names first.
"Oh my. Can I ask what this is about?" the woman inquired.
"The Saotomes owe my family a debt." Bree explained.
"I see." The woman let out a long suffering sigh.
"Why don't you come in, I've just started dinner and I believe that Saotome-san is on the porch play shoji with otou-san." She said, allowing Bree into the house.
"I'm Kasumi, by the way." She mentioned as she led Bree to the back porch. There was a man there but Bree overlooked him and focused on the panda. It was holding a sign. Bree scowled. Written lauguage always took a little longer to translate. After a moment Bree could see that the sign said "No one here but us pandas."
"That won't work. I know about your curse Saotome." Bree stated dryly. The panda grabbed a cup of hot tea and dumped it on its head which caused it to transform into an overweight man in a training Gi.
"That's better. I assume that since you tried to trick me you know why I'm here, but I'll say it again anyway. I am the niece of Lisa Smith and I've come to collect on the debt you owe her." Bree told Genma. He paled quite dramatically at the mention of Lisa's name.
"L-L-Lisa!" he stuttered out fearfully. Bree looked amused.
"Yes. Lisa." She repeated.
"Perhaps this discussion could wait until after dinner. You must be tired from traveling, come sit and rest." Said the man Bree had overlooked, she assumed that he was Kasumi's father. He was probably stalling for his friend but still, free food was free food.
"That sounds lovely. I haven't had the chance to sit down to a home cooked meal in a while." Bree replied. Actually she hadn't had the chance to sit down and eat any sort of meal for a while. She was always on the move and had to eat on the go.
The dinner was rather awkward. After Bree had been introduced to Kasumi's younger sisters, Nabiki and Akane, and Genma's son Ranma, there had been little conversation. Everyone kept glancing at Bree, Akane had broken her chopsticks twice, and Bree, after much frustration, had given up on chopsticks and pulled of fork out of storage.
"So," Nabiki began as Kasumi started clearing plates. "I didn't catch your name, what was it again?"
"I never gave it in the first place, but if you need to call me something I suppose you could call me Eris." Bree replied.
"I see." Said Nabiki. "So Eris, I take it your Ranma's latest fiancée." Bree smirked.
"Whatever gave you that idea? I'm just here to collect a debt." She explained.
"Genma tends to cover his debts by engaging his son to the people he owes." Nabiki stated.
"The terms of the agreement were that his son would be given to my Aunt. There were no specifications beyond that so my Aunt can use him however she wants." Bree stated. "I am here to get Ranma to go to England to do whatever my job my Aunt has planned for him. Besides, I have no interest in marrying him.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" Ranma shouted.
"You're not my type." Bree replied.
"How long would Ranma be expected to work for your Aunt?" Nabiki asked, getting back on topic..
"A time limit was never set. It could be three days, it could be until Ranma dies." Bree answered.
"Would you accept something else?" Genma blurted. Bree turned to him.
"Like what? Money?" Bree thought for a moment. She could use some more money to boost her traveling fund.
"Hm, we may be able to work something out." She said. "How much would you consider your son's life to be worth?"
"What!" the exclamation came from just about everybody in the room.
"Well I want to make sure that the amount of money received is equal to the value of what was original offered, which in this case would be Ranma." Bree explained.
"Well he's an absolutely worthless son. Very disobedient, always skipping school and he doesn't have any skills at all." Genma said hastily.
"Hey!" Ranma protested. "I'm the best Martial Artist in the world!"
"Really?" Bree asked. Ranma paled.
"Er, no. I mean I'm about average really." He answered, backpedaling rapidly.
"Right, right." Bree replied dryly. "I'd say about one and a half million should cover it. Dollars that is."
"Dollars?" Genma asked, apparently trying to calculate how much that was in yen.
"Yeah. I spent my first eleven years in America. The dollar was the first currency I learned." Bree replied. "Anyway, you have until I leave Japan to pay me, otherwise I send the big men with big guns to come collect Ranma."
"When do you leave?" Kasumi's father, Soun, asked.
"Oh, whenever I decide to really. Since August I've been to France, Germany, Italy, parts of Africa, India, and China." Bree answered.
"You must not be staying in one place for very long then." Soun commented.
"No, not really. There just hasn't really been one place I find interesting long enough to keep my attention. I think Japan will be different though." And by that Bree meant that Japan teemed with the supernatural more than other, the wards were different than Europe's and it was far more concentrated than the wild expanses of Africa.
Bree was finally able to contact her Aunt. Well sort of, it was more like she contacted one of her Aunt's contacts. Anyway, Bree found out that Snape was the new Headmaster of Hogwarts and Slytherin's locket was found in Kreacher's possession. Apparently Sirius's younger brother had stolen it. One more Horcrux gone. One step closer to defeating Voldemort.
Bree stays at the Tendo's that night because she has nowhere else to go. The next morning the family is trying to come up with ways to earn money and Bree's sitting on the back porch eating pocky and wondering how long she had until everything went to hell.
She should have felt bad, she supposed, for putting the family in the room behind her under so much stress. Families are like jigsaw puzzles, take away one piece and it leaves the whole thing incomplete. They were all very afraid that she was going to remove a piece of their puzzle. And what about the piece that was removed? Barring death it would feel so very lonely and out of place, wouldn't it?
Bree frowned around the piece of pocky she was sucking chocolate off of. For a brief moment she wondered if she was puzzle piece and then decided that if she was a puzzle piece than she was the right eye from a picture of a Cheshire Cat, or maybe the sharpest fang from its grin. Either way she'd be one of those difficult ones that were kind of in the middle and not one of the easy ones along the edge. The edge of a jigsaw puzzle was always the easiest to build, especially the corners.
It occurred to her that it didn't really matter what kind of puzzle piece she was or wasn't because she wasn't a puzzle piece and she wondered why she started thinking about puzzles and her part in them since she was, after all, a cat. Contrary by nature, picky, and doing what she wanted whenever she wanted to.
Over the next few days Bree learned that Nerima was a basically the insane asylum of Tokyo. Ranma's fiancés, Shampoo and Ukyo, were helping him earn the money that would allow him to stay in Tokyo. Kodachi Kuno kept trying to buy the debt from Bree so that she would own Ranma but was constantly driven off by Shampoo, Ukyo, or Ranma's girl form. Ranma's rivals, Mousse and Ryoga, kept trying to drive Bree away so that Ranma would have to leave Tokyo but where thwarted by the fiancés and Ranma. Bree found the whole thing to be entertaining.
It was entertaining as long as you weren't on the wrong side of the property damage and had the right state of mind. But still, Bree was getting itchy, or at least that was how she described it. It really wasn't so much of an itch as it was an urge. There was more to Tokyo than Nermia and Bree needed to go see it.
"I'm going out." Bree announced to Kasumi who was the only in the house that day.
"Oh? Where are you going?" Kasumi inquired.
"I don't know yet, I guess I'll find out on the way." Bree replied.
"Well, have fun." Kasumi stated as Bree left.
Many miles later, Bree was in another part of Tokyo entirely. She just let her feet take her where they wanted to go and she found herself in front of a building that combined western and eastern styles.
"A customer! A customer!" two little girls chanted. One had short pink hair and the other had long blue hair in pigtails. They each grabbed one of Bree's hands and dragged her into the house. They led her to a woman with long layered hair.
"You were at Dumbledore's funeral!" Bree exclaimed. The woman looked amused.
"Yes I was." She answered. "I'm Yuko."
"You can call me Eris." Bree replied.
"I see." Yuko replied. "Watenuki!" she called into the house. "Bring us some tea and some snacks."
Someone in the house started grumbling. Yuko motioned for Bree to sit down. Soon a young man with black hair and glasses brought them what Yuko had demanded.
"So," Yuko began, "I suppose you're curious about this place."
"A little." Bree replied.
"This is a shop that grants wishes." Yuko explained. "Anything that you desire, as long as you're willing to pay the price."
"Be careful what you wish for. When dreams come true and wishes are granted there will always be a price to pay. For everything you desire, you have to pay an equal price in return." Bree stated. She locked eyes with Yuko. "I've heard you're voice before. Echoing inside my head."
"You're rather unique aren't you?" Yuko said. "Able to remember events you never witnessed and stories you've never heard. That makes thing easier since youalready have an understanding of how thing work."
She took a sip of her tea. "Now, what is your wish?" she asked.
"I want Voldemort to be defeated once and for all and for no harm to come to my friends or family in the process." Bree stated.
"That is a wish I cannot grant. Voldemort has steeped his soul in dark magic. Unraveling it would inevitably cause harm." Yuko explained. Bree frowned and thought for a moment.
"I want… I want my friends and family to be safe from Voldemort. I want Voldemort and those that work for him to be unable to hurt my friends and family." She said.
"That wish I can grant." Yuko replied.
"So what's the price?" Bree inquired grimly.
"You will have to take all hurt on yourself. You're safety will be compromised and I cannot guarantee your life. Your friends and family will be safe from Voldemort and his underlings, but you will be in more danger from them than you are now." Yuko answered.
"Okay." Bree replied. "I'm willing to pay that price." The air suddenly became thick with magic. It swirled around Bree for a moment, and when the air cleared Bree felt as if she had lost something. Like that feeling you get when something falls out of your pocket.
Bree left that shop in the same manner she had arrived at it, letting her feet decide the way. She wandered down a narrow side street. One minute she was walking on solid concrete and in the next she found her boots squelching in the mud.
She looked around and saw that she was in a forested area. The air seemed cleaner somehow and it looked as if it had just rained. Water was still dripping from the trees. The most interesting things about the forest were the strange glowing creatures that floated through the air.
"Hey there!" someone called out. Bree turned and saw a man with white hair covering one eye coming her way. As he got closer she saw that is visible eye was green and he was carrying some sort of box on his back.
"Can you tell me how far it is to the next town?" he asked once he was close enough that he didn't have to shout.
"No." Bree replied. "Truthfully I have no idea where I am."
"So you're lost." The man said.
Bree shook her head. "I was just walking on a dry street and now I'm it a damp forest. It happened in between steps I think. I was in one place, then I took a step and found myself in another place entirely." She explained.
"Did you try walking back the way you came?" the man asked.
"I got distracted by those glowing creatures in the air." Bree answered.
"They're call mushi. Not many people can see them." The man replied.
"I see." Bree said. "I should probably be going back now. Kasumi will be starting dinner soon." She turned and took a step back the way she came from and found herself back on the street. There was no sign of the forest or the man anywhere.
"Maybe from now on I should have a destination in mind instead of wandering aimlessly, before I get myself stuck in a place I can't come back from." Bree said to herself. "Of course then I might miss out on something fun." She tilted her head to the side. "Decisions, decisions."
She got back to the Tendo residence in time for dinner.
"Where did you go today? I saw your boots by the door and they were covered in mud, but it hasn't rained in weeks." Nabiki said.
"I'm not quite sure. One moment I was wandering through the city and the next I was in a forest." Bree replied.
"Sounds like you walked through one of the thin places in the world." Someone said. The source of the voice looked like a small mummy on a stick.
"Old hag! What are you doing here!" Ranma exclaimed. The old woman wacked him on the head with her staff.
"I came to see the girl that has everyone so worked up." She explained.
"Who are you?" Bree asked.
"I am Cologne, matriarch of the Chinese Amazons and Shampoo's great-grandmother." Cologne answered.
"You can call me Eris." Bree stated.
"That's not you're real name is it?" Cologne asked.
"No. But I'm not dumb enough to give out my real one, especially not with where I've been today. Before I ended up in the forest I was at rather strange shop."Bree answered. "It was run by a woman named Yuko."
"So that old witch is still in business?" Cologne questioned. Bree nodded.
"What price did you pay?" the old woman inquired.
"That's personal." Bree stated coldly.
"Would someone explain what the heck the two of you are talking about?" Ranma exclaimed.
"This girl here seems to have a talent for finding the supernatural." Cologne replied. "The shop she spoke of I know for granting wishes."
"Wishes?" Ranma repeated.
"For a price." Bree interjected before Ranma could start fantasizing about getting his curse removed. She had heard stories about all of his attempts to find a cure.
"Well how much is it?" Ranma asked.
"The price isn't monetary, it can be anything as long as it's equal to the value of the wish. For example, if you went to the shop asking for your curse to be lifted Yuko could askedfor your martial arts skills in exchange." Bree explained. Ranma went pale. "Then again she might not. The point is, in order to gain something you have to lose something." She continued.
"You are quite knowledgeable on the subject." Cologne commented. Bree shrugged.
"I know too much, sometimes that helps me." She replied.
The meal continued on smoothly and Bree went to bed soon afterwards.
