Chapter 9

Mother and Sisters...Huh?

Doctor Tofu left the Nanban Mirror with Nodoka, as he went further downtown, toward one of the movie studios a friend of his ran. Entering the main office he found his friend on the phone, "Yes, of course Mr. Lucas it'll be sent out right way," the man said in a reassuring tone before hanging up.

Tofu smiled slightly, "Who was that Kenosuke, he sounded vaguely familiar?"

The man behind the desk rolled his eyes, "Don't be coy with me Ono, you knew exactly who was on the other line. Seems Mr. Star Wars wants to create a television series based on the Knights of the Old Republic, and asked us if he and his crew could use our back lots for a couple of months."

"Be insane to turn down that kind of publicity," Tofu stated somberly. "Um, I don't suppose you have costumes for Dark Age or Middle Age movies in your Costume Department?" he inquired

"Are you kidding...? We still have half a dozen costumes from New Zealand. If you want Tofu, I'd be glad to give you some since you're such a nut for that stuff," Kenosuke stated leaning back, while smoothing his mustache back. "Just sign off on them and good luck with them."

Tofu nodded as Kenosuke filled out the slip that he would need to have what costumes Tofu needed for the trip. He and the three young women would be wearing for their trip to where Ranma was now at. The four of them had watched Ranma spend most of the day eating, according to Kasumi, Ranma must've missed breakfast. After that, Ranma spent time with the female Dark Elf as she led him around the village. The two walked arm in arm while Pirotess, as they later found out, would point things out to Ranma and give details on what the object held as significant. This was all before Tofu left, so he had no idea what was going on now.

Entering a massive room filled wall to wall with costumes, some from the best movies he's ever seen both in Japan and from the United States, he walked passed some outfits that came from the movie 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'. He even saw some copies from 'The Last Samurai,' he was seriously tempted to take the Union uniform he saw from that movie. As he walked deeper into the room, a middle aged woman appeared from behind one of the racks, and she smiled professionally. "Yes, what are you doing here?"

Tofu bowed to her in respect, "Actually I came here looking for some costumes that were used in the Lord of the Rings movies, more specifically three female outfits and one male. A friend of mind is the head producer of the studio and gave me this slip to show you."

The woman nodded looking at the paper, "Good thing you came as you may well know most of the costumes here are layovers. Waiting for the American Studios to come and pick them up. While others are simply sold on Ebay," the woman stated softly as they went along the racks looking for the right costumes.

It took awhile but they finally found the costumes they were looking for, tucked away in a small area. "Not many costumes left, just six female and three male, all looks like they are for extras in Minas Terith scenes."

Tofu looked at them closely, "I'll take all of them if that's okay?"

The woman smiled, "No that's better than okay, we'll finally get them out of here, need to make room for the next overseas movie the Americans make."

Between the two of them they wrapped each bundle tightly into paper and tied them, as they were walking back Tofu spotted props in the corner and casually drifted toward them. He saw a medical kit lying on the table opened, so he quickly put to memory what he saw inside the kit for when he needed to make his own. Finally upon coming to the entrance he bowed to the woman and departed. Taking the train back he wrote down the items he would need. Sitting down in the train he set his gathered items aside and mused. Most of those he knew in Nerima were dead or retired. Leaving for an unknown world actually was sparking the good Doctor's interest more than he realized. To open up a medical practice in a world literally from his fantasies would be a dream come true. He couldn't keep the smile from his lips as the train grinded along.

Entering the Tendo home he went into the dining area and saw that Nodoka, Nabiki, and Kasumi had not moved one inch, staring into the mirror intently. He stepped closer watching as Pirotess was holding Ranma from behind her head on his shoulder while Ranma was looking over a beautiful underground lake. It was no wonder they were all so silent when he entered, the lake was giving off a pleasant looking bluish white color so soft that made it breathtaking.

"Piro what is that glow?" Ranma asked softly.

Piro purred a bit opening her eyes, "That's the lichen in the water it glows like that when it's about to blossom into moon lilies. I always came here. It brought me a lot of peace."

Ranma smiled softly, "Can see why, reminds me of this night after a Christmas party, when we had a meteor shower, wasn't like this but it was nice."

Pirotess smiled again snuggling as closely as she could to him, feeling Ranma tense a bit for a second. She knew the reason, "I know you are not use to this my love," she whispered.

"Kind of hard to be, got glomped by a lot of girls before I met ya," he gently turned around in her embrace looking up a bit as she was slightly taller than him. "I know 'this' ain't glompin' and I will get better with it I promise, just makes me uneasy."

Pirotess nodded gently using her thumb to tap her temple, "I know all you know and you know all I know now," she stated.

Ranma chuckled slightly, "Yeah I know, better go find out what Slader and Granite are doing," they walked away from the glowing lake looking for the Troll and Gnome.

"He looks so happy," Nabiki said softly. "At least happier than he was with Akane."

Kasumi nodded in agreement looking down at her hands while Nodoka watched her son and his lovely girlfriend walk back to the huge building they originally saw. "Damn you Genma," she muttered softly to herself. The girls had missed the uneasy look Ranma had when Pirotess had hugged him tighter, but she didn't. She was even willingly to curse the fiancées for this, but if Genma hadn't taken Ranma on the training trip. Ranma's social skills wouldn't be so raw and Akane's main avenue of jealousy would've been curved earlier than it had. Nodoka would of made sure of it. If she had been there the first strike to Ranma would be the last. She would have taken Ranma home that very minute, but she hadn't been there, Ranma endured two years of abuse and insults all because of his father not giving Ranma the talk.

Nabiki meanwhile had opened one of costume packets and looked at it, "I don't think this will fit us, Doc."

Tofu nodded, "I figured I may need to alter most of them to fit you."

Nodoka turned the ones that were label for her, "Um Doctor these are male outfits, if I'm taking the male and the girls are taking the female, what will you be wearing?"

Tofu smiled slightly, pulling out something. Before arriving he stopped in at his clinic to put up the auction sign and gather up some special items. He pulled out a series of robes he used in some Cosplay for D&D. "Already had mine, those are for you."

Nodoka's right eye twitched a bit, "Doctor, I believe we need to have a serious talk once we reunite with Ranma."

Tofu smiled totally missing the implications, "Of course Mrs. Saotome."

It took the foursome several days to alter the outfits enough to wear them, and by that time Ranma, Pirotess, Slader, and Granite had left the realm of the Dark Elves making their way west to meet Slader's people and to stop them from crowning his brother Chieftain. Nodoka had turned an outfit used by one of Foramir's Rangers into something slim and form fitting, she discarded the wrappings that covered the Saotome family blade and looped the sword onto the belt that came with the outfit. The costume was dark brown primarily, tight fitting brown trousers, black undershirt, with a leather vest bearing the symbol of Gondor on it. Doctor Tofu suggested she remove the symbol but she flatly refused, having taking a liking the symbol and what it represented. The rest of the ensemble was some leather wrist guards, heavy boots, and a long brown cloak with a hood.

Kasumi had turned the outfits given to her and Nabiki by Tofu into something useable. Her outfits consisted primarily of two scullery maid attires, along with formal attire. The scullery maids wore simple brown dresses that buttoned up in the back with a grayish skirt. The formal attire was a beautiful light purple dress with long satin sleeves, a generous neckline that plunged far enough to give a decent amount of bust to flatter and yet not give detail, the skirt was long enough to hide her feet. Tofu had to keep clear if she wore this for fear of losing himself.

Nabiki's style of outfits had been heavily modified, she hated the scullery maid look on her, so Doctor Tofu asked her what kind of looked suited her. Nabiki had flipped Tofu's Dungeons & Dragons costume guide to come to and outfit style she liked. This happened to be those of the human archers. Kasumi had stripped away the skirts of the maid dresses, and cut out a new pattern, while Tofu used his savings to go and buy leather for the clothing Nabiki wanted. He and Nodoka also began to convert their savings into gold dust and nuggets, or precious jewels. Kasumi and Doctor Tofu were amazed at how much money Nodoka had, Nabiki on the other hand only snorted.

"Got to think of the panda, really believed he'd marry someone who wasn't loaded?" she asked them looking up from her sewing a past time she wasn't thrilled about doing. After cannibalizing her costumes Nabiki came up with two outfits that was dead ringers for D&D archers, Doctor Tofu had even made the expense of buying her a bow and some arrows, the arrows were modern. The archer outfits were much like Nodoka's Ranger clothing, with a few minor alterations. Her undershirt was light brown, with a dark forest green outer shirt and a black leather vest, her cloak was also forest green, clasped with a special clasp design to look like an arrow head. The pants were dyed black, and she wore light boots that were padded for comfort. The belt held a small dagger that Tofu had bought and an empty quiver. The other outfit was a dress much like Kasumi's only light blue instead of purple and no sleeves instead to small spaghetti style straps that hung loosely off her shoulders showing her bare shoulders and a bit more bust than Kasumi.

Tofu stood back to look at Nabiki's archer outfit which was what she was currently wearing, "Okay Nabiki I've set up a target for you, so let's see if you can hit it," he stated as both of them went out into the back of the dojo. Nabiki frowned heavily drawing her bow and notching one arrow to it. She reared the bow string back, concentrating on the target and let it go. The arrow flew across the yard and hit the target dead center of the bull's-eye. "Impressive Nabiki...Bull's-eye, have you done this before?"

Nabiki smirked slightly at first, "Nope first time."

Tofu gave a brief nod, "Well then, try it again make sure it's not a fluke," Nabiki scowled but did grab another arrow and drew it back and then let it fly, the arrow again flew across the yard to land right next to it's brother dead center in the bull's-eye. "Very nice, now the moving targets," he pointed to a set moving bull's-eyes. "Also do it in rapid fire, let's see if my hunch is correct."

Nabiki shrugged focusing on the moving targets and taking a deep breath she started to reach for the arrows. Quickly she'd aim, fire, and reached back until there was nothing left of the arrows. Looking up she saw roughly almost all of her arrows had struck home, three or four had gone wide striking the tree behind the targets or the fence, and six of the arrows had hit the targets on the bull's-eye or extremely close to it. She felt Tofu gently pat her shoulders, "By the Kami, Nabiki you're a natural," Nabiki's cheeks reddened never had been praised her efforts much the only one who had ever praised her efforts to a degree had been Ranma. Though the pig tailed martial artist never said anything directly to her about her mercenary life, there was one incident that brought some clarity to her.

-Flashback-

Nabiki and Akane were walking quietly home from school, when Nabiki spotted one of her clients had stepped in front of her. "I need to have a few words with you Tendo, it's about a business transaction."

Nabiki shrugged, "What's on your mind?"

"The fight Saotome was in the other day, I think the odds were highly unfair I'm new to the school, and I want at least a partial refund."

Nabiki sighed mostly in regret she had used the money from Ranma's fight to repair the ceiling at home. "Sorry no refunds," she stated coolly.

The other student glared angrily at Nabiki and before Akane could react to protect her sister the boy struck out with his fist only to be intercepted by Ranma's palm. "Hey what ya think your doing?"

The boy paled slightly, "She didn't give me a fair bet and now she won't give me a refund," he stated hoping that stating his case wouldn't get him pounded flat.

Ranma glanced at Nabiki and shrugged, "Ain't got a refund because she used it to fix the side of the house that I was knocked through because of my mouth."

"WHAT!" the boy shouted in outrage forgetting Ranma for a second.

Ranma frowned deeply, "Chill I like to see you fix a house or pay bills when your mom or pops don't have money comin' in."

The other boy blinked a few times before taking a deep breath snorts, "Fine, next time I'll be a little more cautious with my money."

Ranma broke out into a huge smile, "You'll try but one thing Nabiki is good at, is separating ya from your cash, so my advice have less cash."

The boy nodded walking away, Nabiki decided to hide her gratitude beyond an arch eye brow, "What was that crack again, Saotome?" Ranma started to sweat turning to face her. She watched him chuckle nervously scratching the back of his head.

"Oh hey Nabiki, Akane, didn't see ya there... Well gotta run," the pigtailed boy answered jumping up onto the nearby fence and ran off.

-End Flashback-

As much as she wanted to make Ranma pay for his little comment, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. It was the closest thing she ever had from him that could be considered a compliment. She slowly dropped her arm, letting the bow hang loosely in her grip, "Thanks Doc," she said casually.

Tofu had slowly donned on his outfit, that was reminiscent to the Dark Lords of the Sith in the Star Wars movies. Basically it was a black on black tunic, black pants, dark brown leather boots, a belt, and a black cloak with a hood. The only minor difference was two things... He carried a hip pouch with Dark Ages medical equipment, as well as some modern medical supplies. He also carried a long sword strapped to his waist, the outer tunic was deceptive however, underneath the heavy black tunic was a two fine layers of chain mail he hand woven himself during the last D&D convention he attended. He turned to regard the group, all decked out in their period clothing. The only one missing had been Kasumi who had gone to put the government auction sign up for the home. They had already torn down the dojo, and the girls had put the small shrines dedicated to their mother, father, and baby sister in with their belongings. He turned towards them.

"Once we do this... The four of us will be dropped literally on Ranma, with no one holding the mirror in this world, it'll crash into the ground and shatter it, leaving us trapped," he stated explaining the finality of what they would be doing.

"We made our decision Doctor," Nodoka said softly. "This world has brought us nothing but pain and misery. A new world and a new life is what the girls need, my son is all that I need. So please Doctor, continue."

Tofu nodded, "Focus on Ranma and shed a tear, the mirror will do the rest," they all did as the doctor instructed and with a flash of light the four vanished. Without someone to hold onto the mirror, the Nanban mirror fell. The shiny surface caught the corner of the table and shattered into a million pieces.

In Lodoss, Ranma, Pirotess, Slader, and Granite were casually making there way west when Ranma stopped and his body started to tense up.

Pirotess stopped looking at him questionably, "What is the matter my beloved?" she asked softly.

"For some reason my danger sense went off, last time that happened was when I was home, and this one happened just before Shampoo crashed her bike onto my head," he stated softly. A second after he finished that sentence, a bright flash appeared above the sky, and four bodies dropped. Pirotess, Slader, and Granite watch in morbid fascination as the bodies seemed to become magnetically drawn to Ranma as they fell. Ranma looked up in time as the bodies collided with him crashing them all to the ground in a heap. Pirotess could see her love's foot sticking out of the heap twitching.

"Ranma!" she shouted worried about his safety, quickly dismounted from her horse and running over to him. When she and the others came closer she saw that it was three women, two around Ranma's age and one older woman who bore a startling resemblance to Ranma's female side, and a man. The four groaned softly, the two men in the heap groaned the loudest since it was they the three women landed on top of.

"Oh my!" one of the girls grunted.

"Kasumi?" Ranma muttered quickly recovering he looked at the four people that crashed on his head he had a mixture of surprise and joy on his face. "Nabiki, Doctor Tofu, MOM!" he shouted at the last part quickly sliding over and hugged his mother who was still trying to reorient herself. "H-H-How did you get here?" he asked as the shock wore off.

Tofu groaned softly, "I think I've broken something," he muttered adjusting his glasses, and pulling something from behind his back. He readjusted his glasses looking at a broken carrot from the supply bag Nodoka had been carrying. "Oh."

Nabiki shoved Tofu off of her looking up at the monstrous Troll gulping a bit, before looking at Ranma. "Long story Saotome," she grabbed her bow checking to make sure it survived the crash and sighed in relief.

The five on the ground slowly stood up. "Guess you guys can tell us on the way to the Gnome Village," Ranma said with a shrug brushing his body off of the dirt and what not that his clothes had collected while on the ground.

Nodoka finally returned the hug her son had given her. "Yes, a lot has to be explained but not just by us, my son," she smirked slightly looking at how close he and the Dark Elf were standing. Ranma blushed slightly and started to sweat.

Slader smirked slightly, "What's the matter boy feeling pressured?"

Ranma glared at the Gnome, "Little ghoul," he snorted crossing his arms in disgust.