Path of Chaos: Ascension of Supremacy

by Lord Rance

A powerful entity has been reborn after so many eons being dead, but what if the entity doesn't want to go back to what he used to be? This is a story of a powerful god, who doesn't want to become a god.

8. Chapter 4

PATH OF CHAOS: ASCENSION OF SUPREMACY

- Lord Rance

Disclaimer: Seriously, I don't own any of the anime characters that appear in this entire fanfic, otherwise I'll just make sure you'll know if I do make new characters.

Author Notes: Summer heat evaporates most of the creative juices in the brains of fanfiction writers. Really, it's a known fact. I'd rather spend my day sleeping rather than think in this heat. Good thing it's the rainy season in my location right now.

I would like to thank Cory D. Rose (http/shihanna. for pre-reading this stuff. Saiyan No Baka 03 is released, and can be found either in or his homepage.

Ancient Language (used by gods and goddesses, Ancient Gods): "-Ranma-"

Thoughts: ((Ranma))

Telepathy: "((Ranma))", ""((Ranma))""

English/Chinese/Other languages specified: ""Ranma""

Electronic Communications: ("Ranma"), (""Ranma"")

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CHAPTER 4 - THE WHEEL OF FATE SCREECHES TO A HALT

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The whole battle screamed to a stop as they all witnessed a new player in the field.

The young boy was currently flexing his newly recovered arm, which was still sporting bits and pieces of the bandages that were wrapped around the formerly amputated arm. That and he was also glowing red.

Yosho almost dropped the Tenchi-ken in shock. He recognized the symptoms of that... creature that he has encountered once before. It took him a long time and almost half of the universe before he even got to defeating that demon that used to ravage the planet of Jurai all those years ago.

Yosho was thankful that he got the lucky shot over to the demon's neck,
momentarily sapping her strength that gave him the time to yank all of her gemstones out of her body. He entombed the totally drained destroyer of worlds in this planet all those years ago, using his own Juraian energies to create the prison that could hold her powers in check. He then sealed the gemstones he got from the monster into the Tenchi-ken's hilt, all three of them.

Now looking at this rather impassive looking young boy that Yosho had accompanied all these years, no matter how short it was, he can't help but remember that demon... the demon Ryoko.

But there was a contrasting difference between this boy and the one he encountered way back then in the past. For one, the boy exhibited a more stoic and seemingly pacified flux of power, which could be a boon or a great curse, Yosho really didn't know. Whilst he remembered that Ryoko's aura of pure hatred reeked out of her body as she exploded with destructive energy, she attacked Jurai without any second thoughts at all. Second, the boy's expressionless face really took the cake, which looked like he really hadn't got any qualms about the repercussions of spewing this much energy on his currently very young body. It seemed to Yosho that Ranma has yet to master the power he unwittingly unlocked within himself, and was now acting on pure instinct alone. Ryoko on the other hand went wild and berserk, although by the looks on things on Ranma's end right now, the possibility of him going haywire is not far from the list.

Miroku shielded the gaping Sango with his body, as he watched intently on the events that were transpiring in front of him. His body shuddered strongly at the waves of pure energy that he felt that was coming from the boy in the middle of the energy tornado. He just knew that his Kazaana was useless in something like this.

Sango felt her knees buckle at the sight. All their enemies seemed to converge towards the boy's position. As she watched Ranma's hand regenerate itself from the stump before, her awe was unmatched. It was rather handy that he had that kind of ability, but it also made her wonder what kind of monster the boy was. Having no obvious conclusion,
she just settled to watch the upcoming confrontation.

Kagome had long made her way to the non-moving hanyou Inuyasha, who used his sword as a prop to hold himself upright as he glared on the spectacle. The energies Kagome felt weren't really malevolent, but it wasn't all that friendly either. She held Inuyasha's red yukata tightly as she looked fearfully on the light show. If Yosho's accounts about his companion were true, then this young boy could very well be her cousin.
She shuddered at the thought.

Inuyasha was quite livid and a bit wary upon seeing the glowing Ranma.
The way the boy regenerated made him remember someone named Naraku, the one his group was really after before the encounter with these new monsters. He somehow detected a faint loss of control on Ranma's part,
for some reason, so he gripped his sword tightly in his right hand. All the while he leaned absently on Kagome's ready shoulder.

Ranma's pupiless eyes surveyed the surroundings. As he spotted the forementioned monsters, his lips curled up into a nasty smile.

The shrill cries of the Manticores reverberated loudly all over the field, making all the people present save for Ranma cover their ears. If possible, Ranma's grin just grew wider as he heard the cries. He leapt to the air, and stayed floating up in the air, much to the surprise of the spectators, although Yosho's expression reflected that of dread.

The shrill cries turned into gurgles of horror as the monsters got mutilated one by one. But there was something weird about the battle itself, because Ranma refused to give the final blow. The boy clearly avoided his more devastating moves and just swerved against the swipes of his enemies. The spectators also took note of the glowing things along Ranma's upper wrists. They looked like gemstones, and were glowing bright silver.

A third gem glowed brighter than those other two on Ranma's wrists,
which was located somewhere on Ranma's chest. Even if Ranma's body was clothed, the brilliance of the silver glow still filtered through the fabric on his chest.

The boy continued his onslaught upon the monsters, his afterimage appearing more than twice in one place. But, even as impressive as his attacks were, none of the monsters disappeared as of yet.

Yosho's eyes narrowed slightly. "He's toying with them." He stated quietly, but it was picked up by Inuyasha's sensitive hearing. The hanyou turned sharply at him.

"Waddya mean, 'He's toying with them', huh?" Inuyasha growled as he limped towards Yosho's position, with Kagome on tow. Sango and Miroku heard Inuyasha's angry question, and was approaching him with their own curious expressions as well.

The older man glanced at the approaching group. "He's not delivering the final blows. He has enough energy to destroy them at this point. He's still... testing the waters... of his new found powers."

"W-what is he!" Everyone turned to the shivering Kaede, who was transfixed at the one-sided battle in front of her.

Yosho gave her an appreciative look, and nodded to himself. "You can feel it then?"

Kaede turned to glare at the long haired man in front of her, but the shock was still too much for her to change her expression. "How can you not feel that! Aside from the clearly visible battle aura, which may I add for all I know is known to usually be invisible to the naked eye,
the pressure in the air is so great that I could get smothered in it!"

"What are you talking about?" Kagome asked loudly as she took in the weird emotions playing on her friends' faces. If this boy Ranma was really her 'cousin', then she would have to understand how the hell he got up from his coma state and recovered his limb like that. It seemed to her that he was some sort of a monster, just like what he's currently fighting right now.

Miroku frowned. "The boy is expending so much life energy that it is phenomenal. And the way he moves... he's even faster than Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru combined!"

"But..." Yosho gritted his teeth, as he tightened his hold on the Tenchi-ken, "I don't feel the boy's familiar ki in it. Whatever he's doing, he's not controlling it right now. I would suggest that we prepare to defend ourselves if ever he decides that those Manticores are not enough for him to play with."

"Who is that boy!" Kaede asked Yosho once again. Her desperation in her voice was evident.

Yosho grimaced. "He is not of human descent, if that's what you wished to find out." He sighed loudly as he massaged his temple with his fingers. "I am not entirely human too, but his origins are more obscure than mine. There are other lifeforms out there in the stars..." he trailed off.

Kagome gasped. "You mean... my cousin's an alien! And so are you!"

Yosho shot Kagome an thankful gaze. "So, you are not from this time, I figured just as much. Anyway, that is true."

Inuyasha, Kaede, Sango and Miroku had blank expressions on their faces.
"Aliens?" they asked in chorus.

Kagome turned to her uninformed friends. "Well, you see... those stars out there in the sky are more than just decorations. They are like our sun itself, with planets like ours, and supporting life. In the future,
we called them 'Aliens' or 'Extra-Terrestrials', meaning, those who came from outer space."

Kaede faced Yosho. "Is this true? Are you beings from another world?"

The ponytailed man nodded hesitantly. "Yes. I crashlanded in this planet almost two Earth centuries ago. Although I am part human, because my mother was half-Earthling. My race is called Juraian. Ranma over there,
from what I gathered from his stories, came from the future. He was born on this planet, but his blood is completely non-human. The most obvious species in his anatomy is his Saiyajin trait, which was because of his tail. Although his tail color was the first I've seen so far. The power he's exhibiting right now, I've seen this one a long time ago. I am still hoping that isn't the case though..."

Sango scratched her head in confusion. "Juraian? Saiyajin?"

Yosho nodded once again. "Juraians are from a far distant world from here. They were known for their special powers which I can't explain clearly to you as of yet. Saiyajins on the other hand are known as planet-destroyers. They have powers way beyond the imagination of anyone in the universe. The Juraians are the only ones that could match the powers of the Saiyajins. The Saiyajins have a special condition that makes them grow into giant uncontrollable beasts once they are exposed in the light of a full moon. Don't worry, Ranma seems to have none of that special condition." Thankfully! Yosho mentally added gratefully.

The group fell into silence as they went back to watching the battle in front of them. Ranma was still dancing around the decapitating blows that were intended for him, and his feet never even touched the ground.
His quick orientation to aerial maneuvers strengthened the emphasis of the Saotome Aerial Combat specialty.

Suddenly, Ranma found himself in the middle of a tight circle, with the monsters in each side. He grinned nastily and gathered red energy in both the palms of his hands. He spun and released multiple ki blasts on all sides.

The group had to duck and shield themselves as the explosions filled the air.

"Dammit!" Inuyasha screamed eloquently as he shielded Kagome from the flying debris.

Ranma lowered his hands as he watched the dust settle down. Still grinning at his foes, he phased out of his position and reappeared on the ground, holding his arms to his side. Yosho noticed at least four fifteen inch luminous blue blades jutting out each of Ranma's knuckles as he clenched his fists.

The soft blue blades in Ranma's knuckles looked like wings when gazed from afar, especially with Ranma standing with his arms spread a bit wide on his sides like that.

Ranma then proceeded to blur out of existence once again and gutted his enemies left and right, unmindful of the savage way he did it.

As the pieces of the Manticores flew everywhere, Ranma took to the skies once again. The blades on his hands mysteriously vanished as he cupped his hands near his torso, aiming at the still dusty area that he had whirled himself into a while ago. His hands glowed red as a ball of something appeared in his hands.

Yosho bristled as he felt the power build-up in Ranma's direction. He turned to the spectators and shouted, "Everyone, find somewhere to hide.
Ranma's going to release something real powerful that might reach even us!"

Sure enough, the bright glare of light coming from Ranma's now outstretched palms became a signal for all of them to run and take cover somewhere.

BOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!

The loud cries of the rapidly disintegrating bodies of Manticores sounded off across the battle site. The earth shook and shuddered as pieces of soil and stone flew in all directions, even occasionally hitting the now hidden watchers. Strong gusts of wind created a backlash that emulated from the ground zero of the blast.

When Yosho and the others finally managed to peek through the cloud of dust that covered the area, they found a rather large crater that was once where the monsters lay cut up and helpless a little while before.
Nothing was left except for some pieces of burnt wood and the smoking dug-up earth hole. They looked up and saw the still floating Ranma hanging on the air, his arms on his sides as his head drooped down.

Ranma's head snapped forward, and slowly turned towards the cowering group.

His pupiless eyes bore into them, as he seemed like he was staring into their souls with them. His hands twitched visibly, and the blades of blue appeared once again on his knuckles. He grinned at them evilly.

Yosho cursed under his breath as he unsheathed his own sword, the blade sprung forth from the wooden hilt of the Tenchi-ken. "Inuyasha, take everyone away from here. I'll try to stall Ranma as long as I can."

"Wha?" Kagome asked stunned as Inuyasha perked up to Yosho's request. He was about to comment about it when Yosho's voice broke his thoughts once again. "I know you want to stay and fight, and believe me if you were a bit in better shape now I would welcome the company. But seeing as you are now, you will only give him an easy target. Listen well, in Ranma's state right now, he might be even far more dangerous than the Manticores themselves."

Sango unslung her gigantic boomerang and positioned herself beside Yosho. "I'll stay with you." She said in a calm voice.

Yosho shook his head. "No, I better handle this alone. Conventional weapons will just irritate him more."

Kagome finally found her voice. "You're not serious in saying that we should leave you behind here while you battle... Ranma... alone! Don't you trust us?"

"Dammit! I fought with someone like him a long time ago! She had destroyed a thousand worlds before I barely beat her with this weapon of mine! I assure you, if you stay here, I will not be able to defend you.
You might even count as a distraction for me!" Yosho growled. He breathed in deeply and continued, "It's not that I don't trust you at all, it's me keeping you alive! Right now, you can't even beat the Manticores, how long do you think you will fare to him, who destroyed those monsters a little while ago without any effort at all!"

Sango quickly backed off at the tenacity of Yosho's outburst. She exchanged glances with her companions, who nodded back reluctantly.
Sighing, she looked at Yosho once again, who still haven't taken his eyes off the floating Ranma. "Alright, just be careful, okay? We still would like to learn more about you."

Yosho laughed half-heartedly. "If I survive this, me and Ranma are gonna give you the story of your lives."

Sango nodded and rejoined the group as they backed away quickly from the impending fight. Meanwhile, Ranma on the other hand got impatient and raised his arm, pointing the bladed knuckles towards Yosho. The older man just growled and looked back at Ranma defiantly.

With a smile of glee, Ranma dove for Yosho. The latter lifted his sword up and desperately blocked the test swipe the former had thrown to test his defenses. His whole frame shook as he felt the power behind the blow despite its slow execution. Yosho knew that Ranma was able to him at that first attack alone if he had been serious.

"So... there is still Ranma in you after all! Still holding back against your opponents..." Yosho said out loud. If Ranma had heard the comment,
he didn't give any signs of acknowledging it. The pigtailed boy just cocked his head to one side and proceeded to test the strength of Yosho's Tenchi-ken by furiously attacking it with swipes of his 'claws'.

Clucking his tongue in annoyance, Yosho pushed off the confrontation and backed off. When he had succeeded in keeping the berserked Ranma away,
he concentrated on his own powers. Suddenly, the whole area was bathed in a soft white glow. As the light died down, Yosho was garbed in the white Juraian battle armor. The last time he has summoned this was when he battled Ryoko. Yosho felt that this was such an emergency that needed the armor.

SHHHHHH-CHINGGGGG!

CLANG!

CHINGGG!

The sound of sliding blades of energy echoed all over the field, as the blurs of Ranma and Yosho met each other in furious swipes and thrusts of their respective weapons. Sparks of blue cascaded out as the blades encountered each other, which showed just how strong their blows were.

In an eye blink, a strike scored for Yosho. The older man had struck a forward thrust into Ranma's lower right abdomen. The blade went into the front side straight out of his backside. The pigtailed boy grimaced in pain as he bit off a scream, but nevertheless the tenacity in his eyes hadn't dimmed the slightest, though he did stagger a bit as Yosho quickly pulled the humming blade from the wound.

Yosho allowed himself to rest a bit as he watched Ranma back off from his strike. As he watched, the wound was already glowing blue and closing itself up. Yosho just sighed. He needed to at least slow down Ranma, but how? Unless he stabbed at the boy's throat Ranma couldn't be fazed by anything anyway. But never mind that as of now. Ranma just straightened up once again.

Yosho lifted the hilt to eye level, the sword horizontal up on the air.
He pointed the blade towards Ranma's leg. It would have to do.

Yosho lunged, aiming for the leg. Ranma quickly sidestepped and let Yosho pass by him. The pigtailed boy raised his clawed hand up in the air to slash at Yosho's back, but was surprised when Yosho twisted his body and used the centrifugal force of the twist to throw the illuminated sword directly into Ranma's unguarded neck.

THWOCK!

Ranma's gurgled scream filled the air as his head snapped back. The energy sword, with its hilt still filled with power, struck devastatingly into Ranma's throat. The blade went through and through once again. Ranma's hands quickly clawed at the air as his body fell back to the ground with a thud. He was jerking wildly.

Yosho quickly reoriented himself and made his way towards Ranma's writhing body. His hand went to the hilt of the sword as he fed energy into it once again. Yosho grunted as he struggled to stabilize Ranma's thrashing.

"Crap..." Yosho's eyes twitched as he realized what he just muttered.

I've been hanging around Ranma for too long...

The Juraian Prince looked sadly at Ranma. "Good thing he's in berserk.
Who knows how proficient he is when he's in control and is evil?" He blinked when his gaze went to Ranma's hands. The blades were really wicked-looking.

"Where the hell did you get those!"

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Inuyasha abruptly paused in walking as his fluffy white ears flicked and heard a loud cry coming from the battlefield. The inhuman growl wouldn't have been picked up by normal ears, but he is all but normal after all.
His resolve stiffened as he clutched the untransformed Tetsusaiga to his side. He turned back towards where the battle was waged and prepared to run.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome strutted up to him, glaring all the way. "What do you think you're doing?"

The hanyou snorted softly as he continued to gaze towards the battlefield. "I'm gonna go back."

"What!" Kagome bellowed out in shock. "But why? Are you just going to ignore Yosho's wishes!"

"No!" Inuyasha retorted hotly. "But if I don't go back and help... my pride will be crushed forever! I don't wanna feel that! A human... or.
something... shielding a demon! Unthinkable!"

"Inuyasha..." Kaogome began, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her sentence. She turned and saw Sango shaking her head.

"He's right, Kagome." Sango said softly. "I feel the same too. My own pride as a demon exterminator is screwed. I can't sleep knowing that I left someone like Yosho out there to defend me. I will go back with Inuyasha."

"I'm going with you." Everyone turned to see Miroku calmly looking back at them. His fierce expression seemed foreign all of the sudden.

"Why... why are you all doing this?" Kagome struggled not to cry out in irritation. They were given a chance to escape... and they wanted to get back? Why?

"Pride mostly, but also the fact that I wanted to help Yosho." Sango replied.

Miroku shrugged. "I just wanted to protect Sango as much as I can."

Inuyasha snorted. "Whatever!"

Kagome was silent for a moment, as if debating to herself whether to agree to their plan or not. After a while of consideration, she finally looked up to them and nodded tiredly. "Fine..." she muttered, "But make sure you come back, you hear me?"

At their nods, the trio of youkai hunters went back towards the path to where they came from to help Yosho.

Back in the battle, Yosho grimaced as Ranma's movements became much more erratic and jerky than before. He was having a bit of trouble trying to control Ranma's angered body while he drained it of the excess energy.
The pigtail boy's head was still in the red color, although it was now pulsating back to its original black color. Despite the danger in his situation, Yosho managed a small smile as he saw the brief return of Ranma's psyche.

Just a little bit more... Yosho thought to himself as he tightened his hold in his wobbling sword once again.

But alas, Fate has something in store for them once again, as Yosho's hand suddenly stiffened in numbed pain. Yosho's eyes widened as his grip finally slipped off the sword, and watched in slow motion as Ranma's head slowly lifted up from its downed state. The surrealness of the situation was really quite foreign to the Juraian prince, and that he couldn't believe that he might be doomed to die in the hands of a thirteen-year-old super hybrid alien.

Yosho closed his eyes as he in turn fell back to the ground. He resigned himself to his fate.

Some scuffles were heard, but other than that nothing touched him. Yosho hesitantly opened his eyes and saw a red garbed figure standing between him and Ranma.

"Inuyasha..." Yosho said softly as he watched the hanyou struggle to hold down Ranma. On either side, Sango and Miroku helped in clamping down the pigtailed boy's motion.

Inuyasha looked over his shoulder and grunted. "Don't need any of our help, huh? Yeah right..." He muttered gruffly.

"Inuyasha! Stop that!" Sango chided the hanyou softly.

"It's alright..." Yosho said as he struggled to stand up. "Truth be told, I'm actually quite glad you came back. I thought I was a goner in that slip-up." He walked over the huddled group and held down the Tenchi-ken once again. This time, the interval of Ranma's flickering red to black hair became longer, until it finally stopped into black.
Ranma's blue pupiless eyes faded and shrunk back into the blue-gray pupils. With that, the boy's movements ceased as his eyes shut closed.

"Is... it... o-over?" Inuyasha stuttered out as he panted. Ranma's strength was a bit too much for him. He could imagine what would happen to him if he did challenge the pigtailed boy earlier.

Yosho nodded tiredly. "Yeah, I guess... uhmm. Miroku, what are you doing?"

Miroku looked over to Yosho as he paused from his work. On his hand was a rectangular piece of paper that resembled a ward of some sort. "I'm planting some demon wards for Ranma if ever he wakes up."

The older man shook his head. "That won't work. He's no demon. It would just irritate him once he wakes up." He looked over his surroundings and grimaced. "By the kami... everything's destroyed."

Inuyasha snorted. "Feh. The village was totally obliterated. I guess only us, Kaede-obaba, Koneko and Ranma survived."

"So, now what?" Sango finally asked the ultimate question.

"Now..." Yosho said tentatively as he brushed a strand of black hair from Ranma's face, "We go back to my land. I might know someone who can explain and perhaps help in Ranma's predicament."

"Oh?" Sango asked. "And who might that be?"

"Hakubi Washuu." Yosho deadpanned.

They hurried back to the village, or whatever was left of it. Inside the now-demolished hut of Kaede, Yosho and the rest entered. Kaede and Kagome tensed when they saw Ranma's unconscious body being carried by Inuyasha and Yosho. Kirara ran towards its master after casting a wary glance towards the sleeping pigtailed boy. Shippo just ducked behind Kagome's back.

Yosho and Inuyasha carefully placed their cargo unto the crumpled mat inside the ruined hut. Koneko quickly went to the boy's side, caressing his arm softly. The Juraian Prince then faced the frightened people and raised his hands slightly in the air. "No need to panic. Ranma is harmless as of now. But we need to take him back to a place where he could be examined. Since there is nothing much left here but us, I would like to invite you to come with me."

Kaede looked around her hut. Huge holes decorated the walls that were caused by the multitudes of explosions that had occured because of the battle. She looked further and saw countless dead bodies of the people in the village, who were very much alive a while ago. She suppressed the urge to cry.

Everything was a mess.

The old miko knew there had been survivors, and wished them all the luck in the world. Looking back at the ponytailed young man in front of her,
she nodded her consent.

Time to live once again.

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In the Gates of Time of this Parallel World, a certain green haired Senshi awoke in her sleep. She sat abruptly on her soft bed, panting as sweat pour down her brows. She quickly leapt off the comfort of her bed and strode up to her Time Key. She gestured to the blank large screen in front of her and managed to conjure the project she has been working on for the past three thousand years. Her red eyes widened when she saw the images.

The future was in disarray, and it branched from the one she had set up into a thousand other possibilities. Not only that, those thousand possibilities branched out into other thousands upon thousands of other possible futures.

The Crystal Tokyo was nowhere to be seen.

She cried out in dismay. "This can't be! The Senshi aren't even born yet! How could this have happened!"

The Senshi of Pluto frantically searched in the Time Gates for any clues as to what or who caused the greatest disturbance in the timeline up to date.

The only clues that she had successfully extracted from the Gates were of a young man with a hair in a pigtail, with a fluttering picture of a reddish tail.

Her irritation grew when the images failed to clear themselves up.
Instead of clearing, they blurred a lot more than normal, preventing her from making a definite lock on her target.

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Home World Masaki Shrine, Washuu's Pocket Laboratory...

The diminutive redhead was sitting on her console, typing something on the keyboard. She occasionally took a peek at the large bell-like container on her right side that housed a certain silver shelled egg,
which was approximately seventeen inches in average diameter. Quite large compared to the first cabbits Washuu had encountered.

"Amazing, simply amazing!" Washuu cackled out loud as she gazed on the egg. "I hope Ranma would forgive me if he finds out that I took a sample of his blood a long while back. If Ryoko has Ryo-Ohki, Ranma should have his own as well!"

Washuu still remembered the time when Tsunami had disturbed her sleep.
It was almost twelve years ago when Tsunami came to her with a boy in tow. He was severely injured from scrapes and cuts along his body. At first, Washuu was outraged that Tsunami would just wake her up for this little thing. She demanded why Tsunami couldn't just have solved it by healing the boy. As far as she remembered, the blue-haired woman was the Goddess of Life in the first place. Healing the boy was a small thing for Tsunami.

The redhead was then surprised when she heard Tsunami say that she couldn't heal the boy. When she finally examined the young child, her surprise grew tenfold when she realized who he was.

Tokimi's child... a Choushin with a mixture of a Saiyajin...

A worthy specimen...

She finally understood Tsunami's reluctance in this case. The healing power of Tsunami might not work in this case, and would probably make things worse. So Washuu took the boy and started her work.

After the examination, Washuu's enthusiasm was greatly diminished when she found out how serious the wounds were. The boy was literally dead,
but for some reason, he was stubbornly holding unto the thin thread of his life by pure willpower.

Just like his mother...so stubborn. Washuu thought warily.

Washuu knew that if left alone, the boy will die in less than a day's time. They had only one chance, and the risk was great.

That was when she had spliced Ranma, the boy's DNA with the last Masu DNA sample she had left. Ranma may have had super fast healing even without the addition, but the graveness of his wounds was even far too much even for his enhanced healing. The gamble paid off, but Washuu was a bit cautious. She took precautions in limiting Ranma's power by locking some ingrained instincts in his head, especially from the Masu point-of-view.

Ranma healed perfectly, as if there was any doubt on her success.

As a habit, she took a sample of his blood and kept it for safekeeping.
But Washuu was finally tempted to use it anyway, when she remembered how her daughter Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki interacted way back then. Ranma might become lonely and would come to need some company, so she took the liberty of using the blood sample and turned it into her third cabbit.
Ranma was finally released and her 'parole' has expired, so it was back to the cryo-chambers Washuu went. But not before storing that silvery colored egg that Ranma's blood had produced in another cryo-chamber.

Now, after twelve years, she finally remembered about it when Ranma visited them almost a month ago. The egg had been dormant for a short while, and was now ready to hatch. Washuu calculated that a new cabbit will be born within the next fifteen days.

Washuu just couldn't wait the possibilities of how this new hybrid of cabbit will turn out. Having a minute amount of Ranma's DNA in this cabbit's own would prove to be very interesting indeed...

The silver egg suddenly pulsed a bright red glow that originated from its center. Washuu grinned as the egg pulsed into life.

"Yes! I have a new guinea pig!" She smiled.

Maybe it was a change in the lines of destiny, or fate, or whatever.
but one thing was for sure. Washuu is going to have the shock of her life.

It seems that like its own 'sibling', the egg was saturated with Chaos.
A short moment after the egg pulsed, a small rip in reality appeared on top of it. Washuu's glee turned into horror as she watched the silver egg disappear into the dark swirling hole, into what place, we do not know.

For now at least...

Even as the rip resealed itself, Washuu continued to stare blankly at the empty container.

A few moments later, a loud screech of indignation echoed all over the Masaki home, eliciting shudders of fear from each and everyone in the said home.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Back in the Parallel World, Ranma's 'dumpsite'...

Climbing up a small hill, Yosho and the rest of the group walked across the grassy plains, with Ranma in a makeshift stretcher in tow. Some youkai managed to attack them since they left the ruined village, but they were successfully fended off. Lucky for them, it would seem that the Manticores have also made themselves scarce, perhaps recuperating and regrouping from that sudden loss that they experienced a while back.
Although Yosho had no idea if the monsters were that intelligent or not,
he just shrugged as he thought of the worse-case scenario anyway, just to be sure.

It has already been four to five days since the beginning of their trek towards the shrine Yosho spoke of. As of now, they are currently refilling their canteens made out of skins of animals that have been hunted before from a clean river that was located at the bottom of the small hill that they have transversed.

Silence permeated the area as the group worked amongst themselves. They have decided to stop there for a while to rest. Finally, Koneko was the first to break the stony silence.

"Yosho-san..." Koneko began, "What do we do when we reach the shrine you spoke of?"

Yosho sighed as he continued to wash some cooking utensils that they were about to use to cook some food. "I wish I knew. I plan on freeing someone well-versed in Science and as well as Technology. She also has the knack to discover secrets... even when confronted with magic."

"Will she be able to help Ranma?" Kagome couldn't help but ask as she gazed down to the unconscious pigtailed boy.

"It has promise." Yosho replied shortly. "It's better than to wait and see whether Ranma has broken the berserker state he was in or not,
right?"

"I guess..." Kagome relented.

Sango walked up to Yosho and Kagome's area and sat down beside them.
"Yosho-san, can you tell us anything about this... Washuu person?"

Yosho smiled gently and stopped his work on the utensils. "Well... keep an open mind here. Remember, I'm not from this planet." he began, "As far as I heard from where I came from, Washuu was the best scientific mind in the known worlds. She could conjure anything out of junk heaps,
create her own large place of work out of a small area, and was very curious at anything she hadn't heard of before. If it's a mystery,
she'll be the one to solve it. She was involved in an experiment that locked her up. I've heard that she's been double-crossed by her assistant, who stole her creation."

"You have very high hopes for this..." Sango commented on the side.

Yosho nodded. "We have to find out what happened to Ranma... as well as prevent it from happening again. I only lucked out in stopping him this time. What if I fail the next time? Who will be able to stop him?"

"May this old woman join in?" Kaede came wobbling into their semi-circle. Yosho stood up and helped Kaede sit to one side.

"Kaede-baba, we were just talking about what we are to do in the future." Koneko intoned seriously.

Kaede nodded slightly. "I know, dear. We have much to do... so many secrets to uncover, right?" She looked meaningfully at Ranma's sleeping form.

Yosho cringed slightly, just below the observation level of the others.
But somehow, Sango caught the small action.

"Yosho-san..." Sango said meaningfully, casting a half-lidded stare unto the now slightly sweating Juraian prince, "Are you telling us everything?"

Yosho's eyes widened a bit, but he didn't say anything.

"Yosho-san?" Kagome asked as well.

The prince suddenly expelled the air in his lungs as he tried to muster the courage to tell. "Well I..." he began reluctantly, "I mean... oh well. Since we are going to travel together, you might as well know.
Ranma's state was a bit familiar to me..."

"What do you mean?" Kaede prodded.

Yosho grimaced as he forced himself to remember the past. "At least two hundred years ago, I volunteered to hunt down a dreaded planet destroyer. Her name was Ryoko, and she was truly an exact match for her name. It was as if she summoned demons as she tore across the universe during that time. I chased her off, and wandered until we reached this faraway planet. We battled for days, not even resting one bit. I poured every ounce of power I had in that fight, and I almost didn't make it.
Her powers were astonishing, and it seemed that she had an infinite source of it. Finally, I got a lucky blow in, and ironically, it was the same blow I tried on Ranma. I got her by the neck, and kept her there until I pulled off three gems from her. You see, I realized that it was the source of her powers. That left her terribly weak and helpless, and I sealed her inside the cave where the shrine was located."

Yosho held out his sword hilt as he showed the three red gems to the listeners. "It was a long fight, but it finally ended. In the battle,
she destroyed my ship, so I got stranded here. Then two hundred years later, I fight another one like her. But the difference here is... Ranma doesn't have any of the three jewels in him. I did see some kind of a different gem within him. But that wouldn't make him any less dangerous.
Did you see the rate he recovered and the way he regenerated his lost limbs? That's quite tiring to fight with..."

"That is true." Kaede nodded sagely. She had been surprised that Ranma had been able to recover his lost limb effortlessly.

"I just hope Washuu-san can help us." Yosho muttered to himself.

Everyone kept silent as they just looked at each other. It was a long trip, but it will be worth it.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

In Ranma's mind...

"Great... now I'm lost in here?" Ranma snorted disdainfully as he floated in the darkness. It has been a while since another image appeared, but now he realized that it was all over. So what the heck is he still doing here?

As he was about to start another bout of curses, the room suddenly lit up. Ranma was blinded by the light. He rubbed his eyes furiously and blinked them as he tried to get reacquainted with the light. When the spots finally went from his eyes, he gaped as he saw a red haired girl standing in front of him, her arms clasped behind her back. Ranma was sure she wasn't his female form, because the color of the eyes was all wrong. They were green, and her red mane was in a crab-like design. It reached to her upper waist. She wore a black fit body stocking that had long sleeves and leggings. It was then overshadowed by a pair of shorts and a loosely fit t-shirt.

To Ranma, the girl was about thirteen years old, and was currently staring intently at him.

Ranma gulped nervously. The way she looked at him felt like a cat watching a mouse. "Uhm... hi?" he squeaked as he slowly backed away. He knew who this little girl is! And not only that, but the memory of her 'little experiments' were still fresh in his memories.

The girl blinked. Then she giggled lightly at some private joke only she knew. "Hello, Ranma-chan!" she chirped cheerfully.

Seeing his pensive state, the girl cocked her head to the side slightly.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

Ranma looked at her suspiciously, his tail quickly unwrapped from his waist and started to twitch in the air. "Well excuse me for being curious as to how you entered here, but I just want to know what you wanted."

The girl nodded. "Direct to the point... I like that in a man." She winked at him seductively, which was currently disturbing for the fact that she was just a kid anyways. "I am Washuu, the greatest scientist in the whole universe!" She cackled madly as two puppets emerged from her shoulders, clapping and throwing confetti around.

Ranma sweatdropped. "Uhmm... yeah. Actually, I kinda know who you are. I met you before I got here. But that still doesn't answer why you're here, right?"

The girl named Washuu immediately stopped laughing and blushed. She coughed and cleared her throat. "Oh... right. Sorry about that. As I was saying, I am Hakubi Washuu, a scientist. You can call me Washuu-chan."

She started pacing in front of Ranma. "This place here is inside your mind, and if you're here, that means you're currently unconscious out there. Now that I'm here, then something must've happened to trigger the failsafe I installed in your head when I healed you up all those years ago. I assume it was years ago. I am not really here, mind you. I am just a memory that I hid in your brain, dormant, until such time that it will be needed. Well, such time is now I'm afraid."

Washuu gazed towards Ranma and saw his bewildered look. "You were taken inside my lab by Tsunami. You were all scratched up and wounded pretty badly. I had no idea how to treat you. By the way, you already know you're not human right?" Seeing his nod, she continued, "Okay, even with your incredible healing abilities, the wounds you sustained from whatever did that to you really put a damper on things. In other words,
you were dying. I had only one way to save you, and that was to use a special kind of treatment. I spliced your DNA with some other race that I classified as the Masu. These amazing creatures had this hyped up healing ability that surpassed everything I had expected. I even used it when I conceived my daughter. But that's beside the point now right?"

"That means I have Masu blood in me, as well as the Saiyajin and"
Ranma faltered because he forgot the other one.

"Choushin... you have Choushin Megami blood in you as well. Anyway, the treatment went perfectly. But that doesn't mean that it won't cause any problems." Washuu explained.

"Problems?" Ranma asked fearfully.

Washuu sighed. "Ranma-chan, I did something horrible to you. I did something to change you permanently and didn't ask permission to do it.
But it was the only way to heal you. Please understand that."

Ranma looked at her for several minutes before answering, "I understand.
Now what seems to be the problem then?"

Washuu grimaced a bit. "Well, the Masu were not only known for their fast healing, but other abilities as well. Their bodies can naturally negate gravity as well as their lack of need for air. One of their unique skills was their ability to displace their own mass to be able to pass through solid objects. It's pretty handy. Another is teleportation,
meaning, instantaneous long distance travel by use of thought only. I also know that they can split their bodies into two, but I don't know if it can be more than two. Their energy levels are a little higher than the Saiyajins, and their bodies can survive the vacuum of space. As their name denotes, as long as there is Mass, they survive. Constant mass is their main theme. They were able to assimilate some characteristics and abilities of some things that they can come in contact with, and that which they can bow down to their own wills.
Though I was not able to decypher what characteristics that the Masu DNA in you had taken."

She gave Ranma a pinning look. "Ranma-chan, you are very very powerful,
even before the splicing with the Masu. Now that you are part Masu, I shudder to think about it. So I put some mental blocks in your mind, to act as a limited limiter of some sort. You cannot access some of your more powerful abilities because of that. But for some reason, you broke the blocks. In turn, it activated this interactive memory drone in your head to instruct you just in case. I don't know if I can help, but I will darn try."

She turned her back to him and gazed at the dark beyond. "I heard that my daughter went berserk when her full powers were unleashed. Although I am not sure if that was intentional or not, she was quite a powerful world-destroyer. Yes, Ranma-chan, she destroyed thousands of worlds before Yosho defeated her. I don't want that to happen to you."

"Why?"

Washuu turned to Ranma when she heard him ask that. "Why do you care so much about me?" he continued.

Washuu kneeled down and cupped Ranma face in her eyes to make him face her. "Ranma-chan... the blood that flows in you came from my sister,
Tokimi. Eventhough sometimes I think she's misguided, she is my sister.
I love her, and now her son, my nephew, is in trouble. You are family,
and I will feel devastated if I don't help you."

She suddenly blinked and backed up. "I can't connect with my remote computer from here. No sign of it whatsoever, and the coordinates of dimension are a bit off. Where are we anyway, I mean outside this mind that is..."

Ranma scratched his head. "Oh that. Well, I made this wish from a certain Nanban Mirror, and it was kinda broken when I used it last.
Probably it took me to some remote dimension or something, but as far as I went in this world, it's a distant past parallel to where I came from."

Washuu nodded. "I see. You have to find my counterpart in this world. I may be able to help you if I could actually touch you. Don't worry about this installed memory, it will erase itself once it served its purpose.
Again I'm sorry, Ranma, for what I've done to you."

Ranma shrugged. "No biggie. It's not really a bother to me."

Washuu gently embraced the boy. "Just find my counterpart here,
Ranma-chan, and I will help you. Take care of yourself for now, nephew.
I'll be back a little later to accompany you if you're still here. When my counterpart is found and is able to download the necessary data she will need to reconsider about your condition, I will be deleted. I cannot delete myself as of now because I hold necessary data for my counterpart to use or whoever is qualified to take care of you."

The pigtailed boy smiled and hugged the diminutive scientist back. "I understand, Washuu-chan. And thanks... you know... for saving my life all those years ago."

Washuu nodded and let Ranma go. She smiled softly at him and backed away, slowly disappearing in a black mist.

Ranma sighed. "Things just kept getting better and better, ne..." he muttered.

He was once again left alone in his mind. For now.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Back to the Parallel world...

Five more days on the road later, the group finally reached the bounderies of the future Masaki Shrine. As in the future, the land was littered with ancient trees that grew into clumps of forests. A small mountain was in the middle of it all, and they could see a small trail leading to the top. A small structure stood at the top of the small mountain.

"So... that small shrine up there is the place you spoke of?" Inuyasha asked gruffly as he looked at the scenery around him with an air of boredom. Kagome elbowed him, however, mumbling something about being discreet about his words or something.

Yosho just chuckled. "Actually, the whole forest area that surrounds that small mountain is part of the land."

"Wow... a big area of land..." Koneko gawked at the whole scope of it.
Miroku beside her had felt the intense energies that swirled over the air. Since they have stepped in the bounderies of the place, he had felt the wall of pure ki that hung over. It scared him to some degree,
because he had never felt anything so powerful before. Miroku looked back at the old miko Kaede, who was also gazing contemplatively at the surroundings, trying to discern whether everything was real or not. As like the monk, Kaede felt the strong spiritual energies that reside in the area.

"By the way..." Yosho mused as they walked on, "The shrine is run by me with four other priests. The other priests have no idea as to who I really am. I would like you all to practice caution with what you speak of in front of them."

The others nodded in agreement.

After a short time of taking note of the surroundings, the group finally was on the move once again. Eventhough they have entered the area, they were still a bit far from the shrine. It was already noon, and as they moved now, they would reach the shrine by early evening. Ranma hadn't even stirred from his slumber as he was carried by Inuyasha and Yosho on a stretcher, nor do they want to. They were still wary about him being berserk when he awakens.

About a half hour of hiking upwards the slope later, they stood in front of a simple but big wooden house, that the group following Yosho assumed that was the shrine. A smaller house was situated at the left side of the shrine proper, which Yosho pointed out to be the office of some sort. There was a small path that veered to the left in the middle of the shrine and the shrine office, which led to a light forest behind the shrine itself. Far beyond the forest was a small stone mountain, small compared to the other mountains that encircled the area.

A group of four men in priest clothes emerged from the office. They all looked at the group and immediately recognized Yosho and the stretcher-ridden boy. They quickly went to them and relieved Inuyasha and Yosho of their cargo.

Yosho smiled gratefully at the priests and turned to the newcomers.
"Well, let me introduce you to my fellow priests of the shrine... Genjo Tanaka, Hino Akira, Yamano Eiji and Tendo Hisaki. They took care of the shrine with me, especially if I leave for some important errands such as the one I've been with Ranma."

Almost as one, the four mentioned priests bowed their heads slightly towards the visitors.

The tallest priest with the name of Hino Akira spoke up, "Yosho-san,
welcome back. What happened to Ranma-kun?"

Yosho sighed. "A long story, Akira." He told his fellow priests about what had transpired for the last five or so years of traveling of Ranma and Yosho. The priests blanched when they heard of the sudden abundance of monsters around the countryside. They also kept in mind to stockpile enough wards in the near future to repel the youkai. Although the priests were a bit wary about Inuyasha, Miyoga, Shippo and Kirara's presence, they realized that they were some of the good youkai that tried to live peacefully with the humans.

Yosho ushered the group inside the rather deceptively large office hall,
since Inuyasha and the rest of the youkai in their group can't enter the shrine anyway. Inside the office, Ranma was carried to one of the spare futons located at the back room, which was used if ever some homeless individual managed to stumble unto the shrine and ask for a roof to sleep under. After the priests made sure Ranma was quite secured (they tied him in bedposts with huge chains, which its origins were still unknown up until now, and wards plastered all over the place... because as far as they understood from Yosho's explanation, more like assumed,
Ranma was possessed), they rejoined the exhausted group and served tea and some bread to them, which was gratefully accepted.

After a short while of resting, Inuyasha finally said, "So, when are we gonna see this Washuu person?"

One of the priests, Hisaki, immediately rebuked, "What? Were you planning to free the dreaded goblin Washuu!"

"Goblin?" Kaede, Kagome, Sango, Koneko and Miroku asked altogether.

Yosho rubbed his palm on his forehead. "There's no other choice, Hisaki.
I'm afraid we have to free her. Although the stories about her being a monster goblin was a bit highly exaggerated, partly to make the illusion of her being highly dangerous so that she may not be awakened unnecessarily. But she is needed now."

Tanaka shook his head. "Everything is happening too fast. Sudden monster population outbreak, Ranma's gone berserk, the goblin Washuu being freed... what else is next? Ryoko being freed as well?"

Yosho and the other three priests blanched visibly.

"Bite your tongue, Tanaka!" Akira hissed, "The demon Ryoko must never be freed! You heard what happened all those years ago!"

"Please, don't quarrel again." Yosho groaned. "Washuu's help is needed.
She may be the only one to explain and probably bring back Ranma to us.
Don't worry, I will keep her in line."

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

After much debate, Washuu's release was finally approved. By the early next day, they went outside of the office and followed Yosho towards the slightly used path. Kaede, Koneko and the other priests chose to stay and tend to Ranma's needs because the young boy was still unconscious.
Kirara was convinced by Sango to stay as well.

The group of Yosho, Kagome, Sango, Inuyasha and Shippo reached a small intersection of some sort. Yosho opted to go to the right path, which swerved a sharp turn towards the other side of the stone mountain.

"Yosho-san?" Kagome asked after some time of silence, "Where does the other path lead to?"

Yosho glanced down to Kagome. "That path goes to the sealed cave of Ryoko, the world destroyer I defeated all those years ago."

"I... see." Kagome nodded.

A lingering silence enveloped the group as they hiked their way towards Washuu's depository. It was nearing early noon when the finally reached a small clearing. Across the clearing lay a more elaborate path towards a small apparatus of some sort that was sticking out in front of the mountain face.

"Washuu's prison, a cryo-stasis chamber that was designed specifically to contain someone as resourceful as her, crashlanded here long ago. She was trapped there by her own assistant, who goes by the name of Kagato by the way. He's the same one who kidnapped Ryoko and used her to destroy Jurai, in order to steal Tsunami's tree. You see, Kagato wanted to take the greatest power in the universe, and he discovered that Tsunami's tree was that." Yosho explained as he examined the apparatus.

The Juraian nodded here and there as he prodded with the device in front of him. Just as he was about to press something, he felt a huge manifestation in the air. He turned suddenly, to the surprise of the rest of the group, and stared at the black swirling rift that hung on the air in the clearing. He slowly walked towards the rift and examined it cautiously, followed by the others.

When Yosho finally walked up underneath the portal, a silver light shot out from it, temporarily blinding them all. Yosho, in his haste to cover himself, started to raise his arms up to his face. Halfway there though,
a soft thud was heard. Yosho grunted as he fell back down to his backside. When he opened his eyes, he gaped at the silvery ball that was clutched to his chest. Kagome carefully approached Yosho, followed by Sango. Inuyasha and Shippo hung back on the background, examining the surroundings for surprise youkai attacks.

The odd ball shaped like an egg pulsed in silver light. Yosho stood up and brushed the dirt from his backside with one hand. He chuckled and said, "Well, we really DO need Washuu this time. Strange things keep on appearing, and we need her to analyze them."

After securing the egg in his arms, Yosho went up to the contraption that imprisoned Washuu and pressed his palm on the surface. A soft blue glow erupted from Yosho's body, which flowed out to the surface of the equipment. With a loud clang and a long hiss, a cloud of cold air emerged from the machine, covering most of the nearby surroundings.
Kagome and Sango hugged themselves when they felt the biting cold air rush past them.

The contraption was a bit of a bubble size, with it's chromed sides glistening against the high sun. A small porthole of a circular window was the only opening one could find from it. The front side of the bubble opened up and revealed a figure within the foggy interior. Small bits of ice chips were quickly melting from the figure's pale cheeks.
Her red hair burst out of their containment, which fell down on the figure's shoulders. She was quite tall, and her childish body was covered by her hands, which were crossed over her chest. Although she had a modest black bodysuit over her slender body, it still covered little of her body. Slowly, her eyes snapped open, which revealed green pupils to everyone.

The small girl tried to move, but fell forwards as her body had still to cope with her new awakening. Yosho saw this happening and tossed the egg to Inuyasha, who automatically caught it. He dashed forward and caught the falling redhaired girl. The girl's stiff body slowly melted in Yosho's arms. She slowly lifted her head up and reoriented herself to her surroundings.

Yosho helped the woman to her feet and said, "Hakubi Washuu, I presume?"

"I... erk... I..." The girl stammered, unable to stabilize her voice.
Instead she opted to nod at the question.

Seeing her nod, Yosho smiled. "Welcome back, Washuu-san. It's been a long time, more than two hundred years have past since then. You are on Earth, where your pod had crashed all those years ago. By the way, your daughter, Ryoko, is imprisoned in this planet as well."

Washuu's eyes quickly gazed to Yosho, seemingly asking a question.

Yosho understood her gaze, though. "She's alright. Ryoko caused quite a ruckus on Jurai and other planets back then, but I learned that she was under Kagato's influence. I stopped her though, and she's currently sleeping in a cave not far from here. But that's not why we awakened you."

Looking intently at Washuu, he continued with all seriousness, "Someone very powerful appeared to me one day, five years ago, and now he quite lost control of his powers. Washuu-san, the symptoms of the berserker state he was in was somewhat similar to Ryoko's, not to mention the power. I wish for you to examine him."

Washuu nodded, then finally noticed the silver egg in Inuyasha's hands.
Her eyes' widened extensively as she pushed Yosho aside to stagger towards Inuyasha. The half-youkai felt a little peeved at the small girl that was slowly approaching him. He was about to scream at her when the girl grabbed the egg in his arms. Washuu turned away from him as she looked intently at the egg. Her eyes gleamed mischievously as she directed a small smile in Yosho's direction. Her mouth formed some words as her voice cracked from the lack of use.

"C-C-Cabbit... E-Egg." Washuu gestured to the egg. Yosho quirked his eyebrow and nodded to Washuu, understanding her proclamation. But Inuyasha just had to open his big mouth, much like Ranma's more colorful version of the foot-in-mouth disease.

"Feh!" Inuyasha snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. "This shrimp will help us? She's just a kid! What can she do, huh?"

Before anyone could shush the hanyou, Washuu glared at him and tapped a button on her watch. Something above Inuyasha glowed a bit and a narrow beam of light encompassed the surprised hanyou. Before their very eyes,
Inuyasha shrunk down into two feet, with disturbingly green scaly skin and a yellow beak for a mouth. The top of his head was covered with a golden disk of some sort, that reflected the rays of the sun.
Surrounding the disk were white strands of hair. Also, two fluffy ears popped out on the sides of the disks.

Kagome, Sango and Shippo sweatdropped as they watched Inuyasha make some sort of growl/quack noise. He was furiously stamping his foot on the ground, which was ignored by the smug Washuu.

"Interesting... a Kappa, I presume, Washuu-san?" Yosho nodded sagely.

Washuu just smiled with satisfaction.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

It was late afternoon when the group and an additional companion arrived back at the shrine office. The priests almost freaked out when they saw the small redhaired girl with green eyes. Yosho tried his best to pacify them, which worked in most parts. Kaede was a bit curious as to how a small child could help them, but thankfully she kept her questions to herself. Being a kappa like what the old miko had seen that happened to Inuyasha was rather... weird.

Washuu lay the silvery egg delicately unto the table as she went to the sleeping Ranma's side. She quickly took his wrist in her hands and checked his pulse, muttering to herself all the while.

Yosho stood a little ways behind her, as well as Kagome, Koneko, Sango and Kaede. Inuyasha was held at bay by Miroku and Shippo outside the office doors. The hanyou was still pretty mad at what happened to him back when Washuu was freed.

Washuu then stood up and faced the assembled crowd. "Amazing..." she mumbled, not really paying attention to her surroundings. She whipped up her holographic computer out of thin air, much to the shock of Kaede and Sango. Even Kagome was a bit surprised at the sight of a transparent computer hanging on the air.

Washuu typed furiously for several moments and continued her rants,
"Excellent Saiyajin genes... the best Masu genes as well... and... what in the name of all that is holy is this!" She almost stumbled back as she checked the results of her findings once again.

Yosho grew impatient. "What's wrong, Washuu-san?"

Washuu snapped her head to Yosho. "I told you to call me... nevermind.
Sorry, I was a bit busy back there. Did you know that this boy is probably one of the top two greatest specimens I have ever encountered in my twenty thousand years of mortal life?"

Yosho snorted. "You mentioned Saiyajin and Masu... so he's both those species?"

The redhead sighed and finally sat down on one of the open seats left.
"Yes, but there is something you should know. The boy has Choushin blood in him as well."

Everyone except Washuu watched in morbid fascination as Yosho paled visibly and stumbled backwards, stammering incoherent words.

Kagome eyed Washuu curiously. "Choushin? What's that?"

Washuu turned to the raven haired girl. "It's not a 'what', but a 'who.
You see, in the beginning of this universe, there were a race of extra-dimensional beings known as the Choushin Megami. As the name implies, they are Central Goddesses... known as the pillars of the universe. They are known to be one of the elder gods that had been first created out of the Void. This boy here, has the blood of the Choushin in him."

"How do you know such things?" Kaede asked.

Washuu glared lightly at the old miko. "As I've said before, I'm the greatest scientist in the whole universe!" Then her gaze went to Ranma.
"But, you may have to know the truth as well." Her gaze snapped back to Kaede. "More than twenty thousand years ago, together with my sisters Tokimi and Tsunami, we became the pillars of the Universe. Tokimi is the goddess of Chaos, Tsunami is the goddess of Life, while I, was the goddess of Knowledge. I gave up my goddess status and became a mortal twenty thousand years ago."

Kagome, Koneko, Kaede and Sango's gasps of surprise were heard. Yosho just nodded sagely, the rumors were proved to be true about Washuu's origins.

"Y-y-you're a Goddess?" Koneko asked fearfully.

The diminuitive redhead graced Sango with a soft smile. "'Was' a goddess... I gave that up long ago."

"So that means..." Yosho cleared his throat, "That Ranma is a part of your family, right?"

"Nephew, actually." Washuu clarified as she brushed an errant strand of hair on Ranma's face. She looked back to Yosho, and with all seriousness, she continued, "He's Tokimi's son, by the way."

Yosho once again backpedaled, screaming all the way, "T-T-Tokimi! He's of evil blood? By the kami... it's bad enough that he went berserk like Ryoko did long ago, but TOKIMI! Although he already mentioned this piece of info a few years back... I never would've imagined it to be true! But with you confirming it... dammit!"

"Excuse me, Yosho of Jurai." Washuu intoned so formally that Yosho quickly shut his ranting up. "I must inform you, that although my sister Tokimi was obsessed about some things, it doesn't necessarily mean that she's evil. Besides, what is 'evil' anyway? The division between good and evil were made by mortals, you know. There is actually no good or evil, only choices."

"B-b-but... Tokimi's son!" Yosho whined.

Washuu snorted. "Oh please, stop patronizing yourself. Even Jurai has some evil in it also. You just don't see it because you are on their side. As I said, it's all in the choices really. Now, I need to extract the installed memory that seemed to have been inserted in his mind. It would seem that a counterpart, or maybe someone other than me who is well-versed in science, had treated him before. He, or she, already detected the vast potential in Ranma, and installed mental blocks to limit his abilities. I need to see the interactive memory I detected in his mind. It would help me assess his current condition and what I should do."

She blinked and glanced at the silver egg sitting innocently on the table. "Oh yeah, that egg is for later. But as far as I have already scanned earlier, it's a cabbit egg. Now I think its connection with Ranma is a bit too obvious, right? Anyway... now to extract the memory..."

Washuu summoned her computer once again and took out some... thing from some... where (shrug who knows where she gets her tools, but my bet would be in hyperspace). She took out a palm sized scanner and waved it near Ranma. The scanner immediately lit up and the small monitor flickered into life.

An image of Washuu herself formed in the monitor itself, much to the scientist's curiosity. "Well, it would seem that I, rather, a counterpart of mine treated Ranma in the past already..." Washuu said.

Everyone went behind the redhead in an attempt to see what was happening in the device.

"Oh good!" The Washuu image said in relief, "You've been found. That's great. Listen, you probably already know this, but I'm another Washuu from a different reality. Therefore, Ranma himself is not in his home reality. Now that I have access to your computer, I calculated that this reality we are in is a parallel to Ranma's original world, with a spatial difference of 2.78 percent. But be careful, it is growing unbalanced rather rapidly as of late. You know what will happen when it reaches critical stage, right?"

Washuu groaned and rubbed her temples with her fingers. "Yeah, yeah.
anyway there is time for that later, what I would like to know is what is happening to Ranma as of now."

The image nodded. "Ah... that. Well, I pacified Ranma-chan earlier. His consciousness is sort of... drifting in his sleeping mind right now.
It's a failsafe, if ever he accidentally unleashed a tad too much of his power too early. Now that his powers have reawakened, the abilities I locked up back then will slowly restore themselves in his head. He will eventually learn and remember some of the more devastating attacks that I hid from him before. I suggest you make him a special limiter temporarily."

The redhead sighed. "I see. Well then, have you deleted yourself in his memory?"

"I already started, and I'm going to finish after I give you the data you need." The image replied. "I also already downloaded the necessary data in your computer, as well as the pre-recorded impromptu speech of Washuu back home."

Washuu smiled softly. "Thank you. Now all I have to do is find a place for my laboratory room." She glanced around and saw an innocent looking closet at the left side of the office.

She pointed to the closet and referred to Yosho, "What's in that?"

Yosho gazed at the furniture. "Just the broom closet. You know, cleaning supplies and stuff."

Washuu cackled with glee. "Perfect! Now I have a place for my laboratory!"

"Eh?" Everyone sweatdropped at the sight of a Washuu laughing madly. For some reason, it sent shivers up and down their spine.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

"By the way, Washuu-CHAN..." Kagome began as she watched the redhead tinker with... something... inside the closet. "Why do you look like a thirteen-year-old if you are more than twenty thousand years old?" In truth, she was a bit skeptical at that one, but the presence of Yosho and his abrupt acceptance of Washuu's proclamation was a factor for her to believe it anyway.

Loud clanks and a couple of hammer blows can be heard from the inside.
Behind her, Koneko, Kaede and Sango took naps on some spare futons to placate their headaches because of what they have seen before. So much information was crammed up in their minds in so little time. Shippo and Inuyasha decided to explore the forests that surrounded the shrine. It will also serve as a patrol of some sort. Good thing Inuyasha had already turned back to his normal form, much to his relief. He was still a bit wary around Washuu though.

Without stopping from her work, Washuu replied in a muffled tone,
"Something bad happened to me when I was in my more... mature version.
I'd rather not talk about it, so let's just leave it at that. But I can transform my body to any age I want at will."

Kagome's face scrunched up. "You can control your appearance?"

"I can change my physical age, yes. But my looks are a different matter altogether. But it's possible, because I'm the greatest scientist in the universe!" Washuu paused in her work to cackle loudly. Kagome just sweatdropped, big time.

"Anyway..." Washuu continued, "Why are you so curious about it? Do you want me to... wait. That's it! I finished it! I'm really a genius!"

Kagome had to step back as Washuu backed out from the closet. With a flick of her wrist, Washuu made her transparent computer keyboard appear once again and typed into it. A small flare of light erupted from the closet, and immediately died down. Kagome peered into the closet and saw nothing but midnight darkness inside.

Washuu took note of Kagome's questioning look towards her direction, and turned to Yosho. "Yosho-dono, please bring Ranma and follow me. And Kagome-san, please bring the cabbit egg with you as well." And with that, she turned and entered the closet fearlessly. Yosho just sighed and mumbled under his breath about small redheads with pushy attitudes.
He walked past Kagome and followed Washuu through the dark insides of the closet. Kagome watched in fascination as Washuu followed by Yosho were both swallowed by the darkness. Kagome shrugged her shoulders and carefully wrapped her arms around the silver egg that was laid on some blankets on a table. She cautiously followed the pair, tentatively touching the black interior. With a yelp, she was sucked inside the darkness anyway.

Kagome was a bit disoriented but regained her footing. She looked around blearily and gasped. Instead of darkness, there was a bright light inside wherever she was. Not only that, but in it was one of the most complicated and advanced apparatus she had ever seen. Sure, she came from the future, but the things she saw inside this place was still a bit too futuristic even for her. She hadn't noticed that her mouth hung open as she stared at the scene.

"Please put him down on the table, Yosho-dono. Kagome-san, please place the egg on the small glass container." Washuu asked as she tinkered on a machine. As soon as Yosho set down Ranma on the makeshift bed with white sheets, a couple of tentacle like things came down from the machine that hung on the ceiling and latched unto Ranma. A diagram of Ranma's body appeared on the huge screen at the back of the room. Washuu nodded as she changed the view perspectives of the diagram. Kagome stiffly went to the other side, where a glass bowl was held up by a small pedestal. As she put the egg inside, the other half of the glass bowl lowered itself from the ceiling and sealed the egg in a ball.

"H-How!" Kagome finally found her voice as she walked up to the Yosho,
who was gazing intently at the different apparatus around the lab.

"Washuu certainly has the best gadgets in the universe." Yosho commented lightly.

Washuu whirled around and opened her arms wide. "Of course! By the way,
to answer Kagome's question... this laboratory is in a pocket universe.
It's always there, and all I have to do was install a gateway from somewhere towards this place. In which, I used the broom closet."

"Anyway..." Washuu continued to prod on Ranma, as she glanced once every so often at the charts on the large screen. "So far he's in perfect shape... a bit fatigued because of something like an extensive power expendage. His mind is in somewhat a standby mode. The mental blocks that were installed in his brain did its job, but from what you told me,
he still went on attacking eventhough he was not in control. According to the interactive memory I extracted from his mind, my counterpart in his home world was afraid of him being unable to control his extensive powers, hence the failsafe. Hmmm... he also seems to have learned about how to manipulate his age by instinct. I doubt that he noticed it."

"Really?" Yosho asked thoughtfully, "I taught him how to use his ki to hide his true age, more like a disguise field, because he was involved in an accident that caused him to revert back to a child's body. He is actually at least in his twenties, I think, as far as he told me. So that's why he could change his age at will, eh?"

Washuu nodded. "Yes. He thought he was doing the disguise field technique, but the truth is that he learned how to change ages by choice, although I figured it drains him more than necessary."

Yosho sat down on one of the stools. "So when will he wake up?"

Washuu placed her index finger on her chin and tapped it thoughtfully.
Glancing at her watch, she says loudly, "Just about... now!"

Ranma's eyes snapped open as he suddenly sat up on the table. He gasped for air as he sweated a little, as if he just woke up from a long nightmare. He felt his tail unwrap from his waist and started to twitch at his back, but he was far too disoriented to care right now. Looking around wildly, he spotted Washuu who was looking at him curiously.

"Washuu... chan? Yosho? Wha... what? Am I awake or is this still a dream?" Ranma asked groggily as he supported himself up with his elbows.

"Ranma..." Yosho patted the boy on his shoulder, "You've been unconscious for more than two weeks. We were afraid of the worst."

"Two... weeks? Wait... last I remember... those monsters... my hand.
KONEKO!" Ranma was about to bolt out of the bed when three metallic strips latched themselves around his torso and his arms. He fell back down to the bed with a thud. "Hey! Lemme go!"

Washuu wagged her finger in front of Ranma's face. "No way, Ranma-chan.
You're still not in the clear to go out. That last stunt you unconsciously pulled really took out a lot in your reserves, and also some people are quite afraid of you right now. So you better sit tight."

"Besides..." Yosho continued after Washuu, "Koneko is alright. Right now she's resting just outside the laboratory."

"Laboratory?" Ranma queried as he looked around. "Ah... Washuu's pocket universe. By the way, what the heck happened to me? And why's my hand back? I remembered my whole hand got cut..."

"It just reappeared, Ranma-san." A new voice attracted Ranma's attention. He turned to the source and saw a very familiar girl, with long raven hair that reached up to her upper waist and was dressed in a green collared school fuku. Wait a minute... school fuku!

"Who are you? And why are you dressed in a fuku?" Ranma lifted his eyebrow as he examined the girl from head to toe. The girl was a bit surprised at his question.

"I'm Higurashi Kagome. How did you know that I'm wearing a fuku?" Kagome asked.

Ranma nodded slightly and sighed. "I'm from the future. But according to what someone taught me before, when someone goes back to the past, he or she alters his own future, so this must be a parallel past for me."

"Really?" Washuu was curious, her head bowed down on a small worktable as she seemed to work on something. "The theory you explained is partly correct. You can always send someone back to the past because a new parallel path will divert itself from the main path. Although, for some reason, the path we are on is unstable, as what the memory in your head had explained to me before."

"Unstable?" Ranma shook his head. "Anyway, so what happened to me?"

"Wait!" Kagome called out to him. "What's your name?"

Ranma cocked his head to one side. "Huh? Saotome Ranma... why do you ask?"

Kagome stood up, surprise and joy evident in her face. "S-Saotome? As in, Saotome Genma and Nodoka's son? Then that means, you're my cousin in Saotome Genma's side!"

Ranma shrugged. "Adopted. The truth of the matter is that they are not really my parents. I'm not even human. But take note, this is a parallel world for me. There might be a real Saotome Ranma that will be born out of Nodoka and Genma in this world, but he is not me. I'm from a parallel world to this one."

"I... I understand." Kagome said lamely. "It's just that, we received news that Ranma had died because of a training accident. It's a shock to learn that he's still alive, although now I think it's just wishful thinking."

"I died? Dang... I must be a weakling here then..." Ranma sighed. So,
his counterpart will die in this world. What a waste.

"Ranma-chan..." Washuu called Ranma's attention to her, "The blackout you experienced was due to the failsafe my other self in your home world temporarily installed in your head. That won't happen anymore, but just to be sure, I will give you these special limiter bracers. It limits the amount of bio-energy you give out, which in turn prevents you from going berserk because of too much power."

Washuu lifted her hands up to show Ranma two ornate bracers, much to Ranma's surprise. He suddenly remembered that he lost his other bracers a long while back, which he didn't remember how and when. He carefully took the bracers and snapped them on. The bracers glowed light blue for a moment, then diminished. He felt his body weaken for a bit. He quickly compensated by giving out a bit more of his ki.

Ranma nodded to himself, then turned to Yosho. "Yosho, how's the situation with the Manticores?"

Yosho was about to answer when Washuu interjected. "Did you just say.
Manticores? You mean to tell me that those... things... arrived here"
The redhead almost screamed out as she was almost nose to nose with Ranma.

Ranma gulped as he saw Washuu's eyes twitch rather dangerously. "Uhm.
yeah... that's what cut my hand before..."

Washuu cried out as she clutched her head. "Dammit! How did those things reach here!" She breathed in and out as she tried to pacify herself.
"Manticores were some sort of a genetics experiment from a planet thirteen thousand lightyears from here. That was about six thousand fifty years ago. The planet Rosgoth, if I remember it right. They were a race of conquerors, and they created the Manticores as their foot soldiers. It is said that their very same soldiers destroyed their culture, and thus the Rosgothans disappeared from the universe. Their experiments, the Manticores, started to move from planet to planet after that. Their resiliency, their ability to regenerate and their ability to survive space made them very mobile. The whole armada of Juraian warships and Galaxy Police battle cruisers were needed to destroy them.
The only way to stop them was to neutralize every cell in their body. I didn't know that some had survived and reached here."

"They did." Yosho sighed. "And they have quite a large group. More than a hundred fifty of them are on this planet. For some reason, they started targeting locations where there might be a strong person,
bio-energy-wise."

"Yes." Washuu nodded. "That's why Ranma was being pestered by them."

The redhead smiled at Ranma. "By the way, there is also a weird field of some sort surrounding your body. I tried analyzing it, but it was a bit fuzzy. It was just classified as a transmogrification ability, although how you do it I don't know."

Yosho actually chuckled at that, but stopped when he saw Ranma glare at him.

"It's a Jusenkyo curse." Ranma said sullenly. "I turn to a girl with cold water, a boy with hot water." A splash later, Onna-Ranma appeared,
red hair and all. Onna-Ranma turned her glare towards the other redhead,
who was smirking at her with a water gun in her right hand.

Meanwhile, Kagome's jaw fell down to the ground as she stared on her newly found 'maybe' male cousin turn to a very... healthy redhaired girl, disturbingly quite like the grinning scientist in front of them.
The only differences were the hairstyle and the eyecolor. Oh yeah, and the breast size too. For a thirteen year old girl, onna-Ranma seemed too busty for her own good.

Just when Ranma was about to scold Washuu, the scientist's water gun blurred and squirted unto her... err his face once again. Ranma transformed into a guy once again, much to the relief of the boy.

"I have got to take some tests with you female form later, Ranma-chan"
Washuu almost jumped with glee. So far, Ranma has been everything a genius scientist like her ever needed. "Regarding the abilities you will gain, you will have to train in them for a while, before fully mastering them."

Ranma nodded seriously. It would be fun to train once again.

A rapid bleeping sound caught their attention. Washuu quickly moved to her console and examined the results that appeared on the enlarged screen in front of them. She turned to the glass ball that was situated at the other side of the room. Ranma blinked at the sight, because he had just noticed the thing now.

"Washuu-san?" Yosho asked as he moved near Washuu.

The scientist turned to Yosho and nodded slightly. "The cabbit egg.
it's hatching."

Before Yosho could ask any more questions, a soft crack was heard from the glass container. Washuu, Ranma, Yosho and Kagome all crowded around the ball as they watched the silver egg distort its shape. A large crack appeared on top of the egg that grew larger and larger. Finally, a small hole appeared on the egg's surface. A small snout started sniffing and pushing itself out of its containment. With a louder crack, the egg broke into half, spilling its silver furred content. The small furred thing that emerged from the egg shook its head and meowed loudly. The gem that gleamed against the light on her forehead was black. Its large rabbit-like ears flapped around as it continued to groom itself.

"Well congratulations, it's a cabbit." Washuu snickered as she turned to the diagrams near the glass ball. "And it seems the cabbit's female too."

"It's so cute!" Kagome gushed as she stared on the half-rabbit, half feline animal that was grooming itself inside the container.

The cabbit finally realized that she was being probed, so she opened her eyes and stared at her surroundings. Washuu took note that the cabbit's eyes were blue, the kind of blue that was found on Ranma's eyes as well.

Everyone watched as the furry animal perked up when Ranma and the cabbit locked stares with each other. Their eyes bugged out when the cabbit slowly faded out of existence and reappear at Ranma's foot. It took some willpower for Ranma not to scream and jump up in fright. Instead, he just stared with his mouth open.

"Miya! Miya?" The cabbit hopped up and down as she looked up to Ranma.

The pigtailed boy seemed to have shaken himself out of his shock and replied, "What, oh, I'm Ranma." He suddenly have this urge... well he gave up and bent down to pick the cabbit up. The silver furball could only meow in delight as she hopped into Ranma's open arms. The pigtailed boy turned to Washuu, absentmindedly scratching the cabbit on her ears.

"Washuu-chan, what exactly is she?" Ranma gestured to the sleepy creature in his arms.

Washuu pulled out a pair of glasses and replied in a scholarly tone,
"You see, a cabbit is an original creation of mine. It is a hybrid of a Masu gene with a special live mineral not found in this galaxy.
Basically, cabbits can transform into large space ships, and are very powerful at that. But the cabbit in your hands is a lot more special..."

"Why?" Ranma asked curiously.

"Because..." Washuu said as she crossed her arms across her chest, "Not only did my other self use some Masu DNA, it seemed that she used your own DNA. You see, although you have Masu in you, you also have Saiyajin and as well as that Choushin in you."

"Choushin?" Ranma tilted his head to one side, then brightened up considerably, "Oh! You mean that Juraian thing?"

"No, Ranma-chan..." Washuu wagged her finger in front of his face.
"According to the data of the interactive memory from your head, it was purposely put on the records that you are of Juraian blood. Before you ask, it's really simple as to why my other self did it. Imagine if someone found out that you are really descended from a goddess.
imagine what the reaction of the whole universe to that would be, ne?"

Ranma paled at the thought. Images of countless experiments of different alien breeds conducted into his body really dampened his mood. But still... a goddess! Then again... according to the amount of chaos in his life, this was not something really new at all.

"Hmmm..." Washuu examined the cabbit's DNA structure on the screen. She typed a few words and the figure changed into Ranma's DNA. Washuu patted herself on the back. "Amazing, Ranma and the cabbit have almost the same structural DNA, although not as close as siblings are though..."

The cabbit wriggled in Ranma's arms. "Miya... miya." she said softly.

Ranma nodded to the cabbit. "I see... don't worry. I'll take care of you."

"Actually, you are the only one who the cabbit will listen to anyway"
Washuu commented as she reached up to scratch the cabbit too. "You see,
the only way for you to understand her is a telepathic link. As her master, you are the only one who can share thoughts and feelings with her, and of course that's vice-versa as well."

"Miyaaaa..." The cabbit purred as she rubbed her head on Ranma's chest.

"Wha-what! What the heck do you...? Not with that again!" Ranma sputtered as he mock glared the cabbit on his chest while his tail stood up to one end. It was deftly ignored all the same.

Ranma looked up to the heavens, muttering, "What the heck did I do to deserve this...?"

Washuu then turned her smirk to Yosho. "So, Yosho-dono. What's a Juraian Royalty doing in this planet, hmmm?"

Oh yeah. Yosho sweated at Washuu's intense stare.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

The next day, we see Ranma staring up to the blue sky.

He sighed.

This was one of the rare times that he got to relax. Whenever he got the point where he relaxed, something or someone interrupts everything, and chaos ensued. Now, he was a bit relieved and paranoid at the same time.
He was expecting something incredible to interrupt his nice day out.

The cabbit, which he affectionately named Rin-Ohki, was sprawled unto his chest as he lay on the soft grass. The name 'Rin' meant 'bells', for her soft meows which cuts through silence like a tinkle of bells. He found a perfect spot for resting under the leaves of the giant tree near the shrine. It was near the lake too, so the air was rather cooler there.

He had been sparring with Yosho and eventually Inuyasha, and it has been a long day. He was specially training his body to adjust with the abrupt changes that swept his body. He found that he can actually lift off to the air without much effort at all, and his ki reserves were really really large as of the moment. During the fight, he was barely able to keep his battle aura from bursting forth from his body. But the biggest surprise was when Ranma was caught unguarded for a moment, he was swatted off to the trees. Instead of painfully knocking dow the trees one by one with his body, he went through them! Washuu mentioned something about his body able to rearrange its molecules and stuff in a heartbeat, but he really didn't understand any of those.

Inuyasha was up on a tree quite far away from Ranma. He had to admit, he was quite surprised that the squirt could actually match strength with him. Only, Ranma was still a bit disoriented and was tripping once in a while during their sparring session. Otherwise it was all good. At first he thought of Ranma as a hanyou like him, but once again he heard the story of aliens and outwordly lifeforms from the redhead scientist herself. The girl Washuu even confessed that she was also an alien herself.

He still remembered what happened when they went out of the laboratory...

- FLASHBACK -

It has been five hours since the whole entourage entered inside the laboratory. Outside, the other part of the group grew restless, most specifically Inuyasha, who began spouting colorful words. Not that anyone would fault him at worrying, Kagome was still inside the strange wherever it was that the small redhead brought her into. Inuyasha was about to follow Kagome, but when he opened the closet all he saw were straw brooms and empty pails inside.

Just when they were about to take a second look at the aforementioned closet, the old wooden door creaked wide open, and out came that little girl called Washuu, followed by a rather haggard-looking Yosho and a really disheveled young boy who looked at the same age as the scientist.
He was the same boy that they had carried from the destroyed village.
Something furry was draped over the boy's shoulder. His reddish tail was lose and was dangling between his legs on his back, which was really quite disconcerting. Kagome trailed behind them as she tried hard not to giggle at the sight.

Yosho sighed loudly as he fell back on a chair. "I hope I never get to feel that again, Washuu-san."

When Washuu giggled, Ranma snorted. "You got it easy, I have to spend two hours in that thing, you know."

Yosho glanced tiredly at Ranma and nodded. "True... how true..."

They both sighed dramatically once again.

"Oh, don't be such big babies!" Washuu chuckled as she got a glare from the two. "Besides, at least now we can monitor everything, ne? By the way, Ranma-chan... start practicing those new skills of yours.
Especially floating and phasing through objects. Don't forget teleporting too."

Seeing rather blank stares coming from the group except Ranma, Yosho and Kagome, Washuu reiterated, "Ranma is not human. Because of that last stunt he pulled, he managed to break a seal in his abilities. Now,
rather than lose control again, I suggest that he train himself in those abilities, right?"

Nods of agreement was seen from the group.

- END FLASHBACK -

Inuyasha pouted. It was bad enough that he felt scared at those monsters that Yosho and Ranma had called Manticores. He heard that they were world destroyers or something, that they strive only for the destruction of the planet they land unto. So he resolved himself to spar with Ranma and Yosho, when the two broke off the group and announced that they will spar outside the grounds.

He knew that Ranma was strong and fast. He just didn't realize how much.

- FLASHBACK -

"You wanted to spar with us?" Yosho asked curiously as he led Ranma and Inuyasha to a clearing just beside the beautiful lake. The shrine was a bit far away now, and unwarranted damages can be kept to a minimum with them being far away from the place.

Inuyasha growled and gripped his sword. "Yeah, what's wrong with it? Ya think I can't take you on!"

Yosho raised his hands in a placating manner. "No, no, no... it's just that..."

"You're too angry. And impatient." A boyish voice interrupted Yosho.
Inuyasha turned to face the owner of the voice. It was Ranma.

The hanyou growled loudly and lowered himself until he was face to face with the stoic Ranma, who was scratching something on his shoulder. That furball thing that hung there, apparently.

"What didya say, punk?" Inuyasha growled out.

Ranma sighed. "I said, you are too angry and impatient."

"ALRIGHT!" Inuyasha straightened and leapt back a good twenty feet, and unsheathed his sword. The small blade suddenly glowed bright and was replaced by an enormous white blade with some white fur surrounding the base at the top of the hilt. He took a couple of practice swings and pointed the huge sword to Ranma. "C'mon, show me what ya got!"

Ranma just shook his head and lifted the furry thing on his shoulder.
Inuyasha was a bit astonished when he realized that the thing was alive and was... meowing? Ranma handed the thing to Yosho and walked a little ways away from them, looking at Inuyasha rather intently. He took his time, judging from the slowed pace he set himself into.

Inuyasha grumbled as he got impatient. He watched Ranma as the boy leisurely took his time to reaching wherever he planned to be. The hanyou finally lost his patience as he leapt towards the still walking Ranma, who just calmly looked up to the incoming half-youkai. Inuyasha swung his sword to a downward slash, which was promptly evaded by Ranma.
The boy quickly floated away from the hanyou as he landed unto the ground. The soil gave way from the extra weight, creating a small crater.

Inuyasha whirled around and slashed at the spot where he last saw the floating pigtailed boy before. Once again, all he hit was air. He looked around and saw Ranma floating at least two feet off the ground behind him. The boy had a serious calculating look on his face as he floated there, with arms crossed across his chest.

The hanyou growled and once again leapt towards the boy. This time,
though, Ranma didn't dodge. Instead, he slapped the heavy blade to the side with one hand. Inuyasha was momentarily stunned at the unusual attack Ranma did, and was temporarily off balanced. The small interval was all Ranma needed to use the force of his slap to whirl Inuyasha around by use of centrifugal force. Inuyasha was disoriented enough to let himself be whirled around on the air, and Ranma caught the scruff of the hanyou's hakama by the neck. Inuyasha blinked when he realized that he was stopped in midair and was dangling on his neck. He turned his head and saw Ranma calmly looking at him.

"Are you done?" Ranma asked in a bored tone of voice as he started to lower them down to the ground. Inuyasha just growled as he threw his sword down to the ground and punched Ranma. The hanyou was surprised once again when Ranma caught the strong punch with his free hand without any effort at all. He then struggled as hard as he could, hating the feeling like he was some sort of a bad puppy being punished.

When they finally touched the ground, Inuyasha twisted away from Ranma's grip and leapt for his sword. He rolled on the ground and stood up, his sword ready. But he was shocked when he couldn't see Ranma anywhere in front of him. Then, he felt a presence behind him, and he got a sinking feeling he knew who it was.

"Your back is open. You should've been hurt pretty badly by now." Ranma said casually as he floated away from Inuyasha. The boy went to Yosho and retrieved the furry animal, yes now Inuyasha knew it was an animal,
and was cooing at it.

The Tetsusaiga fell to the ground from Inuyasha's nerveless fingers as he slumped down to the ground.

- END FLASHBACK -

"He is strong... really strong." Inuyasha muttered to himself as he gazed on the blue sky. "He would've been one heck of a teammate with the battle with Naraku months ago. But I don't wanna face Naraku again"
He still remembered how Kagome almost got killed in that encounter. He carefully fingered the pink glass ball that hung inside his hakama by his neck. Kagome had given him the Shikon no Tama, maybe because she knew of what he wanted. But now that it was over, it was really not that clear anymore what he wanted. He loves Kagome, but if he wished to be human, he will die before he could even get to see Kagome in her own time once again. If he wished to be a full blooded youkai, what purpose of that for him then? Nothing at all... nothing right now.

Inuyasha sighed. It was real confusing for him.

Meanwhile, Ranma was happily oblivious to everything around him. Inside his mind were some subtle questions and battle plans that were being redrawn. Some skills were still in the rough, like phasing through walls and stuff. Floating and flying he got used to real easily because he already knew the mechanics of it, even the energy claws that he managed to generate while he was in berserk mode. The Neko-ken was quite responsible for that one, because his body was still nostalgic about the technique. Hiding his ki right now had been a bit harder to cope unto,
and teleportation he just figured out the theories behind it. It might be a better substitution for the other skill he lost somewhere along the line, the one Goku taught him long ago.

"Miyah..." A soft meow broke Ranma from his thoughts. Glancing on his chest, he found that Rin-Ohki was looking at him with her own blue-gray eyes.

"Ah... sorry. Was it too messy in my head? It's just that... there are a lot of things to consider right now." Ranma replied.

Rin-Ohki sat up on her hunches, still on Ranma's chest. "Miyah, miya miya miyah."

Ranma sighed and reached up to scratch the cabbit on her ear once again.
"Alright... I'll try to relax for now. And thanks, Rin-Ohki."

"Miiiyaahhhh..." The cabbit had closed her eyes in delight as she curled into Ranma's chest once again, truly happy feeling Ranma's massaging fingers on her special spot. Yes... life is good for her.

Suddenly, she felt her master stiffen up. She opened her eyes and gazed to her master questioningly.

Ranma looked at the cabbit. "Say, Rin-Ohki, I'm bored. Let's go exploring."

The cabbit seemed to shrug as she jumped down to the side, allowing Ranma to stand from his previous position.

Ranma bent down and lifted the cabbit to her shoulder, saying, "Yeah,
let's go to that cave Ryoko was trapped in. Yosho mentioned it earlier."

"Miya miya!" The cabbit said indignantly as she swatted Ranma's head with her ear lightly.

"Hey, I'm not Juraian, so it's okay... right? I can't break the seal so it's alright." Ranma tried to reassure the cabbit.

Rin-Ohki just sighed and let her master do what he wants.

Ranma saw Rin-Ohki's resigned look and took that as a yes. He smiled warmly at the cabbit before floating up in the air. They took off towards the cave that was situated on the left side of the crossroads that separated the road towards the cave and Washuu's former prison.

They spotted the cave easily enough, which was barred at the mouth by a metallic fence. It was barely new, and it was already sporting some bad rust spots that made Ranma think. It wasn't such a good seal after all.

Ranma and the cabbit perched on his shoulder approached the fence. With a quick tug, the lock snapped open, much to Ranma's surprise. He cautiously entered the dark cavern. As he walked a bit further, he spotted another sealed opening in front of him. But this time, it was barred by what seemed to be the end of the tunnel, much to Ranma's irritation. Just as he was about to turn back, he spotted a small area to the side where an old wooden sword hilt was stuck into a stone slab.

"Miyahh..." The cabbit said in a warning tone as she looked suspiciously at the sword.

"The Tenchi-ken." Ranma confirmed for the cabbit. "I'll be damned... the one Yosho carried is a fake hilt. Probably made it out of the wood from his own space tree, Funaho." He blew off the dust from the hilt, which exposed large red gems, much different from the ones that were displayed on the fake hilt Yosho carried around with him.

"I think he made the fake hilt before we went on that adventure. He can't pull this one out, because it will break Ryoko's seal. Instead, he asked his tree to craft him a new one, an exact replica of the original one. Maybe for good times sake... or sentimentality. But it still worked okay." Ranma contemplated as he reached towards the hilt.

When his hand brushed unto the red stones, the gems erupted in red light, bathing the whole cave in the glow. Ranma gaped as he watched the hilt vibrate from its position, causing the stone it was imbedded in to crack and finally crumble to dust. The hilt still had a rusty blade as its edge, but it was shattered once the freed sword fell to the hard ground. The ground suddenly shook violently, and the apparent end of the tunnel suddenly lowered itself down to the floor.

Ranma and Rin-Ohki looked at one another. The pigtailed boy gulped, his tail twitching from side to side behind him. He summarized the whole thing in two wonderful words.

"Oh crap."

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

In Heaven, Kami-sama's Office...

The Almighty nodded as He watched everything. He leaned towards His special telephone and picked up the receiver. Dialing a long series of numbers, He waited as the line rang to the other side. After three rings, someone finally picked up.

("Moshi-moshi... Hild-sama's Office, this better be important!")

"PATCH ME THROUGH HILD. THIS IS KAMI-SAMA." The Lord of Creation answered patiently.

("Uh... right away, Kami-sama.")

"HMMM... THE DEMONS ARE REALLY SHORT-TEMPERED..." Kami-sama muttered to Himself.

("Erm... this is Hild. Kami-sama, is that you?")

"HILD-CHAN..." Kami-sama replied as He tried to pool His thoughts. "IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE WE LAST TALKED."

There was a momentary silence in the line. "HILD-CHAN?" The Almighty called to the receiver once again.

("H-Hai... Kami-sama... Deus-chan... it has been a long time hasn't it?")

"YES, IT HAS." He answered, full of emotions. "IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE YOU LAST CALLED ME BY MY REAL NAME. HILD-CHAN... YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING WHY I CALLED, RIGHT?"

A choked sob was heard from the line. ("N-Not really. I just wanted to hear your voice again, anata. Nevertheless, you'll still tell me why,
right?")

Kami-sama smiled to Himself. "IT'S TIME, HILD-CHAN."

("Is it that time already, anata? Shall I declare 'Him' a rebel in Nifelheim, then?")

He nodded, despite knowing that Hel wouldn't be able to see it anyway.
"SO WILL I FOR ASGARD. IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT TO BE ABLE TO HAVE A BETTER FUTURE, WE HAVE TO DO THIS TO THEM, ESPECIALLY TO 'HIM'. BUT STILL, WE HAVE TO DO THIS."

("Alright Deus-chan. By the way, could you lose the big voice thingie? It hurts in the ears you know.")

"Ack. Sorry koishii... I got used to it. After countless millennia of keeping my persona as the most powerful being in the universe, I tend to forget who I was." Kami-sama replied sheepishly. He sobered immediately as He continued, "I will remove his restrictions now. The others will break their weaker seals by themselves."

("Sigh, then we'll start the preludes of Ragnarok then? The REAL Ragnarok?")

"Yes, Hild-chan. I just hope the others will be ready by then."

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

In the Home World...

Once again, a brown haired girl's vertical elliptic symbol on her forehead glowed for a moment, then split into three small black dots that were in a triangular pattern. After a moment, it reverted back into the elliptical symbol that was once there before.

The girl blinked to herself when she felt her energies shift in a fraction of a second, then return back to normal. She finally ignored it and continued humming as she continued her work in the kitchen.

In a parallel dimension that was saturated with magic...

A young woman in a tavern was tending to her customers with ease. She wove into the crowds as she carried drinks and plates of foot without much effort at all. Suddenly, she felt her magic simmer like a kettle of water on a stove. She didn't see, though, that her forehead shone momentarily as three golden dots in an inverted triangular pattern.

Once the feeling has passed, she took note to consult her books about the strange feeling later on. She tossed her long blue hair to one side and continued her work.

In a parallel past...

Unknown to those who don't know what and how to look for it, a young man's forehead lights up momentarily. Three silver dots in an inverted triangular pattern emerged from his forehead, just between the eyes, and vanished once again as if nothing happened.

He suddenly stiffened when he felt a slight change within him, but after a moment he shrugged it off as he continued what he was doing. That was,
cursing the fates.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

To Be Continued...

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Author Rants:

Sorry it took so long. Summer heat is bad... real BAD. Got my mind fried and dried.

Spent the summer days sleeping... to relieve myself of the heat.

We all know that it is much easier to cope with cold than warmth. When it's cold, all you have to do is bundle up. When it's hot, you need aircon, electric fans, handheld fans, etc. etc.

See? Cold good. Heat bad.

Ja ne.

- Lord Rance

In case you need my email for some reason at all, those who will send flames, well, I'll just douse it with my trusty bucket of cold water!