The following month saw an increase in the general level of insanity in the Nerima ward of Tokyo. Ranma was paralyzed and abducted by a young man on a horse and learned Martial Arts Tea Ceremony to defeat a monkey in combat. A huge contest was held for Martial Arts Takeout, as in delivering food, and basically all the crazies in town (including myself and Ranma) participated. When I got to the end and gave Kuno Tatewaki his food straight from my inventory he was forced to declare me the winner even though he found me terrifying. I won a lifetime supply of fresh ramen, ironically enough from the Cat Cafe. I later asked Ku Lon to teach me to cook the stuff instead and keep the money the Kuno idiot had spent on the grand prize. I was pretty sure I'd end up in Naruto at some point, and there was no way I was going to finance his addiction from a restaurant even if I could conjure trade goods. I could conjure ingredients too, and cooking was fun. Besides, I planned to figure out a way to add a large garden to the warehouse at some point and it would be great to use fresh fruits and veggies.
What really sent the weirdness off the scale was Happosai showing up. The three-hundred-plus year old pervert in maroon sweats had finally broken out of the cave Genma and Soun had sealed him in years before while he lay in a drunken stupor. The shrine in the dojo had fallen and bounced, spooking Soun and warning him that something was amiss. The very next day the pervy old man showed up, standing all of a meter tall (much like Ku Lon) and carrying a bag full of ladies' undergarments. When Soun told him he couldn't stay because all the guest rooms were full he pitched an epic fit and started trying to poke holes in the decorative doors.
The moment he discovered that the doors were essentially invulnerable now he turned his eyes to Ember, the only being in the room radiating enough magic to have cast such a spell and asked Soun who the other guests were. When he jumped at my sister, whether to attack or molest her I'll never know, he hit a shield thrown up by one of my idle thought processes. I didn't even realize that was what had happened at the time, but I did stand up with my eyes glowing silver and a fiery white corona around my body. When Happosai only slid down the barrier and eyed me like he was trying to figure out how many brain cells I was missing I completely uncapped my aura by turning off [Mystical Energy (Concealment)].
The entire block was bathed in ethereal silvery light and colored motes of reflective pearl. Happosai dropped his pipe and bag in shock, and the Saotomes and Tendos backed away to the edge of the room with the exceptions of Ranma and Kasumi. They bathed in the light and felt refreshed, while Happosai himself appeared to be starting to smoulder. He dropped into a crouch before me and started apologizing over and over again as rapidly as he could speak, demonstrating the origin of the Saotome Crouch of the Wild Tiger technique. Ember pointed out to me as I slowly clamped down on my aura that I'd changed my appearance with a hand gesture to her face, but I wasn't overly concerned with it at the time. The letch would not be attacking or groping my sister. Looking was fine, speaking was less fine unless she was alright with it, but touching was forbidden without invitation.
As the last of my aura snapped back under my control I noted the exultant expressions on Ember's, Kasumi's, and Ranma's faces and the terrified looks of the rest of the household. With a slow exhale asked Happosai to stand. He was shaking, and it didn't look like an affectation. I knew I was powerful, but I hadn't let my aura loose since I started learning to control it in The Gamer universe. I'd learn afterward that my hair had gone completely silver, my eyes had looked like shining amethyst, and that everyone in the affected area had been healed to one degree or another. Plant and animal life flourished and grew unnaturally quickly for months after the incident. A wandering ghost cat had been banished from a nearby temple, too. I didn't care.
Happosai learned the rules of the house that day, and Ember had a long talk with the residents. When I finally calmed down enough to leave my room, I approached each member of the household in turn and apologized for the loss of composure and the display. Gamer's Mind hadn't kicked in because I hadn't wanted it to kick in. Ku Lon and Ryoga were filled in by Ranma and my secret was out. Within the week I was no longer the Red Witch. I was now the Silver Witch, the Lightbringer, or some sort of shape-shifting kami depending on who you asked.
Happosai moved into the attic to stay out of the way and offered to teach Ember and Ranma in earnest to make up for "attacking" her. After some discussion both accepted on the condition that they trained in male form to lessen the temptation, for which Happosai actually seemed grateful. He avoided me after that, but what he taught Ember she taught me during our own talks and training. My display may have rattled the old man, but it didn't stop him from harassing the rest of the district.
[Quest Update! Learn ALL the things!]
-
The Autumn school term started, and with it came a new face: Kuonji Ukyo. She'd challenged and beaten Genma then left him on the side of the road the day before, and she challenged Ranma after school. When asked what the challenge was about, she told a tale of hardship and woe in which Ranma and Genma had promised her ailing father to take her with them on their journey as Ranma's fiancee, then stolen the Kuonji food cart and ran away without her. Ranma's reply that he didn't remember any of that, only playing with her for a few days and then riding off on top of the cart with Genma pulling it only made her angry.
I heard most of this after the fact, since I didn't usually need to walk the kids to or from school anymore. Akane and Ranma were both skilled enough and mature enough to handle anything that was likely to come up, and Nabiki knew how to blend into the background so she wouldn't be caught up in such foolishness. If Ranma had still been Genma's student exclusively he would have accepted the challenge without question. As it was he had been learning from both myself and Ku Lon for around five months and had learned that honor could sometimes be restored with words rather than fists. Fists could always come later, of course.
A very irate Kuonji Ukyo was lead to the Tendo home and voiced her problems to me as the only adult home at the time. I vehemently disagreed with her assertion that Ranma was at fault, and told her that Genma bore the burden of replacing her cart and should make amends on his own. Ranma himself looked briefly annoyed at the implication that his completely uninformed decisions as six year old meant essentially nothing in this case, but could see where I was going with my argument. Ukyou retorted that her father had made her swear to become a Saotome or kill them as some sort of ridiculous dying wish [1], and I asked if she really wanted to be adopted by the man who stole her food cart and left her in the dust. She looked taken aback at that, and mumbled something about marrying Ranma. That was when it came out that Ranma hadn't even known the difference between girls and boys at the time, and was having romantic troubles of his own with both the Tendos and the Amazons competing for his attention.
I hadn't been aware he'd gone on dates with both Akane and Xian Pu until then, but was happy for him. The problem of Kuonji Ukyo was put to bed when I firmly explained that she could either try and make Genma adopt her, legally change her name, or join the race for Ranma but if she attacked my student with the intent to kill she'd also be facing me. The fireballs that started hovering around me when I said that and Ranma's look of alarm at trying to manage dating three young women at once seemed to convince the girl this was a bad idea, and she sighed sadly with a tear running down her face. It was cruel but necessary, I thought. I wouldn't leave her insisting she and Ranma were engaged like in the series or trying to kill him; it wouldn't do anyone any good.
When she left I followed her to the front gate, then made an offer. I couldn't make this right for her and Genma was in my opinion unlikely to repay the debt he owed her, but I could help her get back on her feet. I assumed she'd been wandering around with a portable grill and making okonomiyaki for spending money since her father died, so I would help her track down the stolen cart or get started with a new one and a place to stay. She looked miserable and asked me what I wanted for it. I shrugged and said I wanted her and Ranma to be happy, then took her back inside the gate and opened up a portal to my warehouse home for the first time since I started the Jump.
She gaped at it, but followed me through into the spacious and fully-furnished western home. When I told her she could stay for as long as she wanted before we found her a place she glomped onto me in a hug and cried her eyes out. I'd never really thought about it before, but the life of a wandering martial artist was essentially homelessness. She was a sixteen year old girl who'd been alone on the road for most of ten years, excepting those times she could find someone to take her in for a while. Even with martial arts and being a good cook she'd probably experienced some awful stuff out there. I made a point to bathe her in [Holy] light as she cried, healing what I could.
Mentally contacting Washu to purchase an endless supply of food and a few other things for the warehouse was easy, and she told me that Ukyo had been relatively lucky on the road. Her father hadn't been her only relative, and some cousins had taken her in until she was fourteen and they didn't have the room or money anymore. She'd struck out on her own with enough skill and supplies to fight off most any predator, be they animal or human. People had tried things with her, but she'd never let them get far. She'd actually been prepared to commit suicide after she killed Ranma and Genma, but hadn't been able to bring herself to finish the panda-man. Since she thought she hated them both, marriage was never an option in her mind until I started talking about alternatives to killing.
[Spent 80cp; 420 banked cp remaining]
[Warehouse now has loft, extra portal, constant food supply for five, and is doubled in size]
I spent the afternoon helping Ukyo get settled into her temporary home, conjuring clothing and toiletries and the like as necessary. She fell asleep pretty early, so I went ahead and conjured a door and frame like I had in the Potter-Verse to hide the portal. Since it was in the outer wall of the Tendo compound and should have entered to the street rather than a warehouse in its own dimension it was going to stand out anyway, but I thought Ukyo would appreciate having a nice sturdy (and warded) door. I'd expand the warehouse home upward when I had some free time to add rooms and such. The loft extension was worded in such a way that the warehouse itself could be infinitely high, and Washu had used that interpretation. I hadn't been able to see the ceiling.
When I left the warehouse I scryed for the food cart, which took a while. I might have had better luck beating the information out of Genma, but honestly that man was going to be getting a ton of karma kicking him in sensitive places regardless of what I did. The local gods were more than capable of judging him without my interference. If he screwed up in front of me and it felt appropriate to step in to prevent it from affecting others I wouldn't hesitate, though. The cart itself was in an overgrown ditch, so I retrieved it and put it in an unused section of the warehouse as a project.
As I'd known from the series Ukyo studied Martial Arts Okonomiyaki, which I asked to learn enough of to help her train since she started showing up in the dojo for our early-morning and afternoon sessions. At the very least I wanted to figure out how to wield the Shovel of Light as a giant baker's peel. I felt like I hadn't beaten enough people with a shovel lately. I was the Shoveller, after all.
A rather large man came by with a bunch of dojo signs that week and tried to challenge the Tendo dojo for theirs. Genma and Soun deferred the fight to the students, saying if the man couldn't beat on or all of them he had no right to challenge the masters. Since I was technically a student of the Tendo branch and none of the others were home, I beat the tar out of him with my Shovel while his strange sign-manipulation techniques did absolutely nothing to the warded building or me. He left bruised and shamed without any of his signs because of some stupid challenge terms I hadn't bothered to pay attention to, and the fathers celebrated.
-
I created a wood clone and disguised it with [Illusion] before ordering it to return the dojo signs to the previous owners. I hadn't practiced the clone technique much yet, so the odd leaf or branch still stuck out sometimes and they weren't yet capable of using any of my non-druidic techniques. They also didn't return memories of what they'd seen and done like shadow clones did in the series they came from (Naruto), which I wanted to figure out at some point. Being able to be in more than one place at a time would be amazing, and being able to spam clones for training would be even better. I'm still not sure if the clone returned all the signs or not, but I did eventually hear about a large section of the Amazon Jungle recovering from a decades-long clearcutting operation overnight. I wiped an imaginary tear from my eye and muttered about my clones being hippie bastards just like me.
Wait. I'd been meaning to add a garden to the warehouse, and my wood clones could perform manual labor. I also had a bunch of skill and theory books about creating golems from the Black Rock stash I'd received in The Gamer. If I combined the abilities of a golem and clone, would I get a permanent clone that regenerated from anything but complete destruction? I spent my nights the next few weeks working on first creating a bunch of golems for construction and gardening, then helping set up my new multi-story hydroponics/garden area and giving the golems instructions.
Since the plants themselves would take time to grow and I didn't want to waste anything I took some of theory I'd learned and developed in the PokeVerse, the knowledge I'd gained from casual observation of my inventory, the techniques I used for teleportation, and some of the logic-skipping shenanigans from the Potter-Verse to create a deposit box at the bottom of the area that would automatically deposit the harvested products in my inventory. Each level of the gardens would have a place for the golems to drop things into the waiting box below, and the construction-assigned golems would continue to build additional layers using [Mystical Energy (Generator)]s and some pre-programmed [Conjuration]. By putting the entire structure against one wall of the warehouse (and asking Washu to ensure it would work) I allowed the construction to be anchored to structural supports and built arbitrarily high without risk.
A few additional golems were tasked with creating similar structural supports and columns for any other structures I wanted to stack, leaving the entire infinitely-high warehouse looking like an ever-growing atrium with space for structures to be built into each side. A few design sessions netted me a teleportation system that I could key people into for certain floors, and more golems were tasked with adding the functionality to each floor. There would be no infinite elevators in my warehouse, but I did make sure to include an infinite staircase just for fun. Each level had its own door to keep people from falling more than one floor, and each door was marked with the floor's number (one being the bottom).
My final task was to ward the entire place, which Washu had to help me understand the mechanics of since it was now infinitely large. Anyone looking up more than ten floors would see a sky reflecting the weather outside (or a dense fog with light streaming through, barring outside weather), anyone and anything that entered without permission would trigger an alert and be automatically dumped in a sub-dimension where time didn't pass, the air would always be clean and fresh, and the wards themselves would react to anyone other than myself who committed violence within the warehouse without my permission by either ejecting or imprisoning them as intruders. The power source for the entire thing was another sub-dimension I created using [Instant Dungeon / Genesis] and filled to the brim with self-replicating [Mystical Energy (Generator)]s that pumped out mana and [Holy] energy and linked to the walls, floor, and theoretical ceiling of the warehouse itself as a kind of massive faux ley-line.
Washu's help didn't stop at advice and explaining the way to ward my now-infinite warehouse, though. She herself stopped time to have several long discussions with me about what I'd built, and how it was essentially becoming my own godly realm. The more time passed the more power would accumulate, and the more power that accumulated the stronger the wards and my influence over everything within them would become. With a timeless prison dimension and an accelerated-time energy dimension overlapping the entire infinite structure I was well on my way. She did recommend I eventually create another expanding dimension of empty space to serve as the basis for any true multiverse I might want to create in the future.
When I asked her if that meant my journey was nearly over she snorted, then reminded me that she herself was immortal, capable of existing in an arbitrary number of places and times simultaneously, and possessed of enough power to bring into being multiple overlapping dimensions with arbitrary properties even down to the laws of physics and the creation and direction of life itself before she merged with her sisters, and I had to not only finish an end-Jump but eventually reach that level of power myself. Having not quite considered that before, I asked her how I could possibly do that with just the power of the Jump-Chain. The Gamer was unlimited yes, but with the way experience growth slowed and my stats were capped it could take millions of years or longer to achieve what she wanted. Washu actually grimaced when I mentioned the slowdown and my stats being capped.
"That's not going to be the case forever, Wren. The Gamer was merely a way to introduce you to infinite growth and possibility. It's how I started the seed of divinity in you. You'll eventually overcome the limitations built into the system when your power as a god grows stronger. It's already happening, just below the surface. As you grow even the rules of the Jump-Chain may be overcome. It will take time, but that time is finite. I made a promise to you when we went over the rules, and while even those rules may change with negotiation and power I will not prevent you from rejoining the one you love most."
I nodded sadly, the pain of separation coming back to the surface with the reminder. I'd done my best to bury it, but my devotion influenced nearly every aspect of my life and action I took. Perfect memory and perfect repression would never help me forget something I couldn't bring myself to forget, my most precious memories. In an effort to turn the conversation to another topic I brought up the Wishing Sword and the other artifacts I'd acquired in the Ranma-verse so far.
Washu started negotiations by offering to raise my choice point bank limit to 2000, 500 for each wish, for the sword. I argued that reality-warping artifacts were really freaking rare, and that if I worded it right I could in theory get all the powers offered by the Ranma jump including an infinite number of Weirdly Specific Martial Arts in just my first wish. I should get a bank of at least 10,000 points and it should be full. Washu blew a raspberry at me and countered that she didn't want to give me more power than I knew what to do with before had the maturity to use it. I'd have to either scale back or spend the time to actually get used to my new power somehow.
I pondered for a few minutes, then offered to lower the bank to 5,000 points (full), making my experience needed to level linear, and removing the cap on how far I could train my abilities. Washu shot me a look I couldn't interpret then turned and opened up a hard-light console in a language I didn't understand. After a few minutes of typing and looking at results she turned and nodded with a hand held out for the sword. I gave it to her, and it vanished into nothingness while a constricting feeling I hadn't even known was there eased around my core.
"Next?"
"Well, since you're giving me a full bank of 5,000 points I now have 420 to spend before time restarts or they're wasted, right?" I got a little smirk and a raised eyebrow in reply, then the catalogue materialized in front of me. I added Continuous Study from The Gamer to my list, earning a chuckle from Washu. The remaining twenty points I spent on adding a stasis pod to the warehouse. It would be nice to study if nothing else.
"I'd like to negotiate for the mirror next," I said pulling the item from my inventory. Washu held up a hand at this.
"The Mirror has a set value as per the Jump document's gear heading. It's an unusual interpretation, but it applies. There's only one Nanban mirror so it gets the fiat rules. You can either keep it or trade it in for 400 choice points." I blinked at that.
"What's the," I started before remembering the tidbit she was referring to. "You mean it'll respawn in the Warehouse if it breaks? And it'll work in other worlds? I'm not sure I want to get rid of it then." She nodded and motioned me to continue, so I put the mirror back in my inventory with reverence. I'd just wanted the unclaimed shiny, but this was amazing!
"Ok, so my other business was about the Kettle of Opening, the Locking Ladle, the twin staves that allow Saffron to ascend, and the source of the springs itself. Will the kettle and ladle work outside of the Ranma jump, and if they do work do they do anything other than unlock and lock Jusenkyo curses?"
"Yes they'll work outside of the Ranma Jump, but no they won't do anything else unless you duplicate the Jusenkyo curses with your own spells with the intention of allowing the artifacts to work with them. Then those will also be affected." I nodded thoughtfully, and Washu continued. "I'm also not willing to negotiate over them, the battle dogi from the Monkey Temple, or the ton of magical artifacts you took from the Death Eaters in your last Jump. You should probably either use them or get rid of them. The Wishing Sword was a potential problem, and you had a point about using it to get everything in the Ranma-Verse. The mirror had a value set for it. You'll need something else to bargain with if you want anything else." I hmmed thoughtfully, the started asking questions.
"I've been meaning to ask you a few things. I remember from The Gamer that Han Jee-Han was able to arbitrarily increase his mana through some sort of ki exercise. Can I do that myself, and if so would it just be a matter of focussing on said increase?" She nodded an affirmative, so I continued.
"Can I do the same for my health?" Another nod.
"What about my stats? Since I'm a shapeshifter I should be able to arbitrarily improve at least my physical stats that way, right? And since you uncapped them I could be arbitrarily fast, strong, and tough." A more reluctant nod.
"Ok, the next one's a little odd. I'm immune to fire and I have a special affinity for fiendfyre. Am I also immune to fiendfyre?" Washu's eyes glazed over for a moment before she nodded.
"Right. So I can combine skills and abilities based on logic, or even arbitrarily thanks to Gamer's Skills. If I were to make a [Holy] version of fiendfyre, would I still be able to control it as per the Fiendfyre Master perk?" [2] She gave me an exasperated smile at that and said she would tweak the perk to make it work. My fistpump turned the smile into a smirk.
"Alright, I think this is the last one: are you the one capping my precog or am I subconsciously doing it myself?" I asked. She looked at me closely, actually moving so we were only inches apart.
"That's not right. You're doing something with it but it's not being actively blocked. It's almost like...there it is! You've been subconsciously looking at it for clues about what to do, but haven't actively been watching it because you were...afraid?" She looked at me quizzically. "Why exactly are you afraid of knowing what's coming? It could save your life, you know. It's...it's been feeding into your luck! You've almost mutated the skill into a pseudo luck bonus!"
Well, luck was pretty nice, but was I afraid of using the precog I gained from Pokémon psionics? After considering the question for a moment I could only conclude that I was. But why? Picking apart the basic motivations for the fear wasn't easy and I'm absolutely certain I missed some things, but part of it seemed to be about being more disconnected from those around me than I already was. There were some serious questions of reliability in there too, since anyone else with precognition or the ability to mess with time could mislead me using it. When I voiced these concerns to Washu she actually smacked me in the head and said told me that was why I needed to level up the skill. My face burned, and I resolved to start on that right away.
Concentrating on [Multi-Focus], [Divination (Precognition)], and [Counter / Dispel] I started working out how I wanted the new skill to work in my head. A moment's thought brought the catalogue back and I purchased Nullification from the Potter-Verse to add to it. I wanted something that would look ahead for me but not bother me with actually seeing the possible futures all the time, so [Multi-Focus] was a must. [Observe] would allow me to identify the future threats and [Counter / Dispel] and Nullification would allow me to prevent anything supernatural that I didn't want happening. I could do more, though. It would make the skill harder to level, but I added [Barrier], [Elemental Bending], and [Telekinesis] to the mix of possible counters.
Washu watched me with interest as it all came together. A separate thread of thought with all my bonuses behind it would constantly monitor the immediate future around me, looking further out as it got more reliable. It would warn me of anything coming my way as a sort of danger-sense, but would also actively attempt to counter anything it could identify. Integrating [Haste] into the ability would make it able to enhance my reflexes when necessary.
The warnings themselves should enter the rest of my mind as a sense of where the threat was, how fast it was moving, and everything [Observe] could tell me about it. The precognition itself and [Observe] cost me nothing, but the [Multi-Focus] would lower the number of available simultaneous tasks I could perform and the counters themselves would cost MP, but since I was using something like 0.05% of the normal MP cost with the various energy mastery skills I had and my focus gloves I hadn't actually seen my MP bar dip in...well, it had been a while. The basic cost of the skill work be the cost of concentrating on it with [Multi-Focus]. I added [Scry] at the last moment to make sure I could observe things going on outside my line of sight, since observe didn't work very well with things I couldn't see.
[By doing something special, you've created a new skill: Active Precognitive Defense!]
While I was at it I could dedicate a thread to using [Observe], [Copy], and a sort of local [Scry] to study the techniques being used around me and commit them to memory for later review. I also needed to continuously train my resistances to cold, radiation, and fire. In order to do that without attracting attention I'd need a skill to produce harmful radiation in a very contained way so that I didn't irradiate everything around me, but creating such a thing was simple enough. It would be a lot like what I'd done for [Elemental Bending] and [Illusion].
[By doing something special, you've created a new skill: Elemental Bending (Radiation)!]
I had a total of twelve free areas of focus available at this point, one of which would now be permanently assigned to [Active Precognitive Defense]. Using another to alternately irradiate, chill, and heat me would reduce that number to ten. I could leave the healing to my passive [Holy (Regeneration)] to level that up, and having dedicated threads constantly running would level up [Multi-Focus]. Washu had wandered off and was now sitting in a floating chair sipping a hot beverage and checking her console, but I was a little too busy to notice. There was one more thing I wanted to try. [Counter / Dispel] was an amazing tool on its own, but for specifically magical techniques the Nullification perk was far superior.
I played with casting my own harmless spells for a few minutes, observing how Nullification worked and comparing it to [Counter / Dispel]. It used an entirely different method. Where the skill I'd developed relied mostly on physical principles like destructive interference and other ways to counter energy that made sense to an engineer, Nullification either erased the energy entirely or suppressed it in a way I'd never seen before. Trying to visualize how it worked was giving me a slight headache, but the technique itself relied more on the conceptual parts of magic that analysis didn't do much for. Something clicked, and I conjured a stone on the floor of the warehouse, then twisted the concept I'd learned from Nullification just so.
The stone ceased to exist. It was a bit like the vanishing spell in how the effect played out. Next I conjured flame with [Elemental Bending], making sure to use [Holy] energy instead of mana or whatever I'd been using before. A twist in my mind as I watched the silvery-white flames immediately erased them from existence. When I conjured more I twisted in a slightly different way and watched as the flames went out but the energy powering them stayed.
[By doing something special, you've created a new skill: Counter/Dispel (Universal Nullification)!]
With an evil smirk on my face I modified [Active Precognitive Defense] to incorporate the new . My new skill took more MP than I'd like, visibly dropping my total few a second or two just to erase or suppress things the small things I'd tested. More testing revealed that it expended between ten and 100 times the energy of a standard [Counter/Dispel] but was far more flexible and effective. The expenditure still seemed to scale normally with the strength of what I was getting rid of, and suppression did very interesting things to physical objects. They became ghostly, a bit like my [Mystical Energy (Body)]. Now that I was thinking about it I focused on divining what would happen if I performed the technique on my own body and got several possibilities back based on exactly how I tried to go about it.
If I did it wrong my body was destroyed and I was stuck in [Mystical Energy (Body)]. If I did it very wrong I didn't even get that far, I simply ceased to exist. If I did it just so...I became ghostly without a need for an energy form. I was unaffected by gravity and only able to move thanks to my other supernatural abilities. I made a note of that for future use, then bid Washu goodbye.
-
The days flew by after that with only minimal involvement on my part. I still spoke to and provided support for the people around me, but I didn't actively seek them out except for Ukyo, for whom I was essentially acting as a surrogate parent. Guinevere especially loved to spend time with the girl.
Akane got a part in a play, but backed out when it turned into a fight over who would play the Romeo to her Juliet. Ranma had offered to try out, but Akane said it would just make things worse and said she'd sign up for a community theater project or something where it wouldn't be associated with the school.
Ukyo acquired a stalker briefly, but a beating with The Shovel when he wouldn't listen to reason scared him off. Happosai started throwing firecrackers at people in the streets and was also beaten with The Shovel when he refused to listen to reason or the law. It really had been too long.
Akane ate some weird soup of Happosai's and started growing facial hair, but Ranma solved that one. Xian Pu brought over some ramen from the Cat Cafe and gave Ranma some "waterproof soap" [3] to use on their dates, since it was inconvenient having him constantly switching genders and attracting attention. Ryoga and Mu Tsu also got some of the soap and a copy of the catalogue to order more, if only to stop them begging for it.
Genma disappeared for awhile, which was kind of nice. At first I thought it was just about the soap, but Ranma eventually tracked him down to where he was living it up as some rich kid's pet panda. That had happened in the story hadn't it? Who the hell fed a panda food like that, anyway? A panda that ate human food and drank a lot of booze should have stood out more, I felt.
All the while I worked on improving the warehouse, fixing and improving both mine and Ember's equipment and the okonomiyaki cart, honing my energy affinities to cold and fire, and finding ways to improve my [Mystical Energy (Resistance)] and [Physical Endurance]. I was not only immune to extreme temperatures now, I actually gained health and mana from being exposed to them.
What finally brought me out of my daze of building and improving things was when Ukyo approached me with Guinevere on her shoulder, the former looking very nervous. That wasn't actually terribly unusual, as she often asked for advice or help with things that she really should have had all along. No, what made it stand out was that when time froze around us and Washu showed up they were still moving.
"Washu? What's going on? Ukyo, what's wrong?" The women looked at each other, not as strangers but as people who'd become well acquainted with each other. Ukyo determinedly strode forward to stand before me and asked me something that rocked my world.
"Wrin...Wren, will you adopt me as your daughter?"
[