Hell is a Martial Artist
Chapter 8
By Ozzallos
Floating.
Ranma Saotome was floating on an updraft of wind as chi swirled around him, buffeting the martial artist from within the air currents of the tornado that he himself had initiated. It would have been a thrilling ride; save the fact he was here to do a job... or more aptly, to finish the job. Hild had been right. He had taken Saffron too lightly, but what could he have done realistically? The great, almighty leader of the Phoenix was little more than a child, after all…
…And now that child was an adult of monstrous power; power enough to where there was no longer any room to entertain the possibility of beating him into submission. Hild had been right. The only thing the brat understood was brute force, and now that he was an adult, there was nothing stopping the martial artist from committing to her advice in full. He had given Saffron his out. Instead, the bastard had taken his own and used them as pawns… Hostages. He wasn't a child anymore, and now it was time…
…It was time for Saffron to die.
He had wrestled with the decision briefly, debating over the moral dogma of taking another life. But again, Hild-san's words rang true. Leaving Saffron alive- even if there had been a comfortable margin to do so -would do little more than leave yet another powerful enemy at his back. It wasn't something that the teen looked forward to, but damned if he would leave the bird king alive to take another shot at him and the others some time down the road.
The tornado did its job and surprise had been total, allowing him the cover to ascend to height and take the opportunity he needed. Ranma descended out of the swirling vapor with the Gekkaja already on its down stroke, leaving the Phoenix King barely enough time to parry the strike meant for his head. The deflecting arm turned to solid ice instantly, taking with it a good portion of his upper right torso and tearing away his right wing. Either way, it merely inconvenienced the man-bird, who caught the Kinjakan out of the passing tempest to re-engage the martial artist while his limbs regenerated.
Saffron's fire returned and Ranma was all but bathed within, narrowly cheating death time and time again as the bird king's attacks grew hotter and hotter. The king had power to spare. He could regenerate limbs at will. He could fly. And through it all, Ranma knew he was losing; buying time until he could retake the advantage.
"…There may come a day when there are no good choices left. You are buying time in the hope a more opportune position will avail itself to you..."
The words floated through the Ranma's mind as he in turn floated through the maelstrom, using upturned fragments of earth as makeshift bludgeons and shielding until he could maneuver into melee range. A solid blow. Two. The Phoenix King was weak when it came to those, but his innate regeneration more than made up for the disadvantage. Another blow. More fire in return.
Only one thing was going to kill this bastard. A tornado of ice straight through his heart. All he needed was one good shot. One reference point through the firestorm and-
What? Akane!
She lanced through the fireball, boiling ice away from her body until he could see Saffron's face through her wake.
It was all Ranma needed.
The martial artist's arm spiraled and he dug hard into the elemental catalyst, winding the modified Hiryuu Shoten Ha as tight as physically possible before releasing it deep into the Phoenix King's chest. Ranma would remember the surprised look on his face until his dying day as they both fell to Earth. But there was Akane…
Akane!
Ranma.
Akane!
Ranma!
Ak-
RANMA!
The pig tailed boy jerked up suddenly, his head swiveling left and right. He was no longer falling to the earth, nor was Akane a magically dehydrated doll. She was sitting in the desk next to him, in fact, staring at him… As was the rest of the class and one perturbed Hinako Ninomiya, tapping her currently pre-teen foot impatiently.
"Buckets, Saotome!" She pointed to the doorway, causing Ranma to sigh. The martial artist slid out from the chair, more than happy to take the buckets to the dream. Akane simply rolled her eyes but held the 'baka' that was all but ready to slip off her tongue. Instead, she watched as her fiancée exited the class room less the cloak of smugness he usually wore.
The door closed. Akane worried.
"I let her in Hild-dono," The pale demon-slash-receptionist motioned to Hild's own office door, which remained cracked open to indicate the anonymous entry.
Hild glanced at the ashen door and nodded gravely. "Thank you, Amanda. Short of the sudden outbreak of Ragnarok, we are not to be disturbed."
"Of course, Daimakaichō,"
With her orders given, Hild turned to the door and pushed it open gently to reveal her office in its usual opulence. Nearly everything was the way she had left it, save three things: First, the curtain was open, folded aside to reveal the view of the Nifelheim cityscape in all its grandeur. That in and of itself was far from unusual, though she had ensured its closure before leaving earlier this morning. Second was the singular book missing from the second bookshelf left of her desk. As her sometimes second home for the last half of eternity, that sort of detail stuck out like a sore thumb, which in turn led the Grand Demoness' final observation; one petite redhead nearly curled up on the black leather of her office sofa flipping through the pages of said book, though she would be surprised if any sort of retention was actually taking place.
Perhaps we shall change that, Hild fought the fond smile from her face and instead put a single index finger to her chin, musing aloud. "Jusenkyo type curses are actually in volume six, dear."
Ranma Saotome blinked. The woman had entered the office so quietly that absolutely none of her senses had been triggered. Of course, it had been Hild, and it was her office anyway, but it only confirmed the redhead's estimate of her ability. Ranma looked at her, then the book with a shrug. "Was bored, y'know?"
Hild chuckled slightly. "The Curses and Hexes Compendium is hardly light reading."
"Figure I got enough of those hangin' around me somehow," Again the shrug, this time delivered with an uncaring expression. "Might as well try getting familiar with 'em.'"
Ranma went back to the book and Hild frowned visibly this time. It was obvious... So painfully obvious, and she sat down next to the martial artist, sidling up next to her. Crystal blue eyes glanced back up at her, and a millennium's worth of experience reading emotions told the Daimakaichō everything she needed to know. Hild brushed a red lock from the girl's eyes and shook her head.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there, Ranma-Chan," She sighed. "I'm in a somewhat… difficult position."
"Sure, you got hell to run," Ranma put her best nonchalant front forward. "Not like you can come runnin' every time a-"
The purple eyed woman put a finger to the redhead's lips, shushing her gently. "If only it were that easy, child, if only. For all the power I wield, Ranma-Chan, I am too powerful to descend into the affairs of mortals unless specific circumstances are met. Saffron is little more than dust compared to that power, and yet…"
Ranma tilted her head, forgetting the book for a moment. "Really?"
"Indeed," Hild confirmed. "In fact, there are specific prohibitions against my direct interference. To even descend in to the mortal realm, I must have these on me at all times."
"Jewelry," Ranma stated, noting the bangles and earrings the woman was pointing out without understanding the significance.
"Limiters. Power limiters," Hild explained. "My child has a bracelet. Maybe an earring at most. Her sister, one or two more as accorded to her stature. My garb is literally cloaked in them, as you can see."
Ranma could see. And she could remember her outings with Hild in the past. Necklaces. Ankle bracelets. Wrist bangles. Rings. She turned a critical eye toward the white layers of hair. "Even the braid?"
"Even the braid," Hild confirmed solemnly. "If one looked at it from a martial arts stand point, it would be like somebody of your caliber challenging a crippled puppy to a duel."
Ranma winced with the example, though it served to drive the point home with absolute clarity. The woman continued, and the very air around her darkened as she did so. "That said, had he hurt you, I would find some way to ensure that he and his tribe would regret the act for a very, very long time."
The statement itself brought the redhead up short more than the darkening aura around the grand demoness, and Ranma held little doubt that she would absolutely carry out that threat to the fullest extent of her formidable abilities. It invoked a feeling she hadn't felt in all the ten years' worth of training with her old man, and likewise found it completely lacking in the subsequent year and change with the Tendos. Even having met her own mother, there was still that ill defined void, but with Hild here and now...
...It felt nice.
"Not that I'd bother ya for a wimp like Saffron," Ranma inserted with bravado in lieu of an easily expressed emotion. "Overgrown bird boy had that ass kickin' coming."
"And I watched the entire thing," Hild's mood relented, and the black aura evaporated as she patted the pleased girl on the head. "Nor did I doubt the outcome for a moment. Any mortal that could defeat my Urd would require substantially more skill than that hatchling displayed to even begin worrying me."
Ranma positively glowed with the praise now and the demoness lifted herself from the leather sofa, pulling the teen's book away with the movement. "I say we do something to get your mind off the troublesome happenings of late." She shelved the obvious indicator of Ranma's former depression and turned back to the redhead with an easy grin. "In fact, I have just the thing."
"What's that?" Ranma hopped off the sofa with new found anticipation.
Hild's grin widened. "Let's go play with the Norns."
Two little girls walked along the streets of Nerima, neither more than ten years old and both angling for the train station no more than a block away. Those walking along side or past the pair would inevitably stare as they passed since the girls were curious sights in and of itself. The attention they drew wasn't due to any shapely curves or innate beauty; both were far too young to betray any of the hallmarks of adolescence. What did stand out was that the two were exotic in appearance. The first child was richly tanned, featuring white hair braided into twin ponytails and long bangs. She wore a strappy black leather ensemble, replete with buckles and nearly thigh high stiletto boots that folded at the top. On a woman twice her apparent age, the outfit would have been... enticing. On the girl, it was outrageous and people stared as they passed.
Her friend was only slightly more conservatively dressed, though still stuck out in the fine gold dragon embroidered Chinese silks the other girl had loaned her for this expedition in particular. She was all but her partner's height but sported fiery red hair tied into a single pigtail at the back. Where the other girl could have been dismissed as a gaijin, the redhead in black could not, which made her general appearance even more bizarre since she was plainly Japanese. Her name was Ranma Saotome, and she continued to fidget as a similarly de-aged Hild led the way.
"Still ain't used to this," The redhead commented, looking at her hands as they walked. Even her voice sounded funny with the higher pitch. Sure, she had done this before, but not willingly and not without the aid of magical fungus. "And why did we have go like this? It's really weird."
"So we can have fun!" Hild chirped, smiling back at her broadly. "Besides, it's easier to have fun in this form anyway since a majority of my power is sealed off."
"And you're still back at the office too?" Ranma arched a thin red eyebrow, to which the white haired girl nodded happily.
"I'm really good at multitasking."
It was weird enough, but if that was what Hild did to unwind, Ranma was more than willing to try it at least once and had thus consented to the de-aging process to match her friend. In the end, chibi Ranma-chan shrugged, being no stranger to the strange while acknowledging the fact that fun sounded really good right about now. Something to forget the shit storm that was her life in general, and especially the stuff as of late. Hild hummed along merrily and Ranma followed, then suddenly saw something to cause her pause.
Or rather someone.
A queer, mischievous smile slowly spread across the Saotome's face, and she stopped her partner. "Hey Hild-chan... Come're a sec."
Purple eyed girl blinked curiously, but followed as Ranma homed in on another girl approximately their age. She wore a simple yellow dress that rested knee high, while her brunette mane of hair fell down her back to the waist. Ranma's target was across the street, her face pressed into the plate glass store-front of a candy store with drool slowly working its way down the transparent surface. The diminutive martial artist stepped up to the all but oblivious girl's back, smiling.
"Hey, Hinako-Chan!"
A disgusting suction sound accompanied the girl pulling her face from the window, and she turned to the speaker curiously. "Hi! I, er... You look familiar?"
The redhead chuckled. "Duh, I'm Ranma, and this is my friend Hild!"
The age defiant high school teacher stared through the lens of nine year old girl's intellect... And stared some more. "But you... you're... You're like me now!"
"Yep," Ranma stated, declining to offer the child the how's or why's of the transformation. Instead, she directed the hyperactive child-teacher's attention onto a different topic altogether. "Hey, Hinako-Chan, we're going to go have some fun over in Chiba. Wanna come along?"
Hild meanwhile watched curiously as Ranma continued to coax the girl to accompany them. It was a strange thing for the Daimakaichō, really. Involving the little girl would only limit their fun with the Norns. Ranma had to know that, but she was still vying for her company...
"I don't know... She looks like a delinquent," The brown haired girl cast a critical eye toward Ranma's friend as she considered the offer.
Hild paused in her mental commentary, staring at 'Hinako-Chan'. A delinquent? She echoed, unsure of what to make of the statement. A quick glance over at Ranma indicated teasing smirk. Of course, the girl was absolutely correct... She was the ruler of hell and perhaps the universe's foremost expert on delinquency and misbehavior, but that word usually wasn't found in the vocabulary of small children. The grand chibi-demoness cocked her head and reached out with ethereal senses, quickly discovering the reason for her partner's smirk. She's not child at all, Hild realized, probing deeper. At least in her twenties... Her chakra pathways are an absolute mess...
"Nah, Hild-chan is nice," Ranma rose to the defense of her friend with a smile, tugging Miss Hinako along. "Come on. We'll have lots of fun!"
"Fun?" The girl processed the word, her short attention span all but forgetting the former misgiving. Hild nodded with a wide smile, but couldn't help but to be surprised by Ranma's spot improvisation and the devious streak she was displaying. "Okay! Will there be candy?"
"What good is fun without candy?" Hild nodded cheerfully, falling in line with the redhead's setup. "I'm sure auntie Bell will give us lots."
Miss Hinako beamed with the offer and the trio of girls was off and running for the train station now, all three determined to have lots of fun.
"Nice place, I guess," The child avatar of Ranma Saotome commented as she and her companions rounded the final block that brought the Tariki Hongan temple into view. In some ways it reminded her of the dojo, though the property seemed to hold its classic architecture with a majesty that the Tendo's place couldn't hope to match... Especially since her place was under constant martial arts siege and in need of continuous repair.
"It was a dump before Auntie-bell got to it," The nine year old version of Hild sniffed with an edge of humor and continued. "A real dump, but she's a neat freak like that."
"Auntie-Bell?" Ranma asked, cocking her head in an attempt to place the reference. The white haired child nodded.
"Belldandy, Urd-Chan's half sister." Hild explained as they walked along the sidewalk parallel to the shrine's property wall. When understanding failed to find its way to the martial artist's features, the child ruler of hell elaborated. "The third girl from when we were first acquainted."
"Oooooh," The redhead's head bobbed with sudden understanding, remembering the third woman and the Moko Takabisha she had been holding against Hild. A slightly devious smile found its way to her face. "Well, I guess this is gonna be all sorts of fun then."
"Are we there yet?"
The redheaded girl and her white haired counterpart glanced back to the third of their trio, a brunette girl of similar age showing an inquisitive, if slightly vacant expression.
"Almost," Chibi-Hild indulged the girl, still wondering at Ranma's logic in bringing the girl. Of course, she could outright ask. As a master manipulator herself, half the fun was watching it all fall apart, and she simply couldn't wait to find out how it would do so concerning their tag along.
"But I'm tired of walking!" Hinako whined, to which Ranma rolled her own eyes.
"Thought you said you wanted to have fun?"
"But it's far!" The girl balked. "I need to go to-"
*STOP!*
All three girls stopped abruptly as the red sign suddenly filled their field of vision. It was also perhaps one of the most comical sights Ranma had laid eyes on in recent memory; rivaled only by the appearance of the pork bun bandits attempting to steal the dragon whisker from her person several months back. It was a robot. Or at least she was guessing it was a robot, judging by the mechanical arms and metallic shell; though it was all Ranma could do not to laugh at the red and white meatball of technology that barred their entrance into the Tariki Hongan temple.
The redhead arched a skeptical eyebrow at the automaton as it held the stop sign out, clearly intent on preventing their entrance before turning back to Hild; behind her, Ninomiya Hinako, who stared on curiously.
"You're kidding, right?" She asked, glancing back to the robot before simply shaking her head.
"Ranma, why do your friends have a dishwasher outside their shrine?" Hinako blinked innocently, studying the artifact for herself now. It hung its head with her words, as if emotionally stricken.
"Banpei is not a dishwasher!" An irritated voice called out, and the martial artist had to stand on her nine year old tip toes to see around the robot to the disgruntled source. A black haired girl stormed up from behind the sentry with a grumpy look on her face. "And he's here to keep trouble makers like you out!"
"You use a dishwasher to keep troublemakers out?" The currently child disciplinarian pressed, slightly confused at just how such a technique could be applied to her own classes.
Ranma choked down her own laughter as Skuld's face took on an even more irritated look, which only succeeded in making her look pathetically cute. Even Hild smirked at the incensed Goddess of the Future before inserting herself into the conversation.
"Don't be such a party pooper, Skuld-chan," The Daimakaichō's own child voice lilted cheerfully. "We're just here to see Auntie Bell and Urd-chan!"
"Well they don't want to see you, so get lost!" Skuld huffed, and Banpei reaffirmed her statement with a fierce nod. Ranma rolled her own eyes and moved to step around the robot, who in turn moved to block her path, shaking its head adamantly.
Ranma studied it and the stop sign it menaced her with and shrugged, taking to the air with a small hop to land on the creation's domed head, destabilizing its balance slightly before hopping back to the ground behind it. The teen goddess' eyes widened as Banpei regained its balance before turning her ire on the redheaded nine year old.
"Hey!" She balked, rushing over to the mortal to confront her directly. Ranma simply gave her a bored look as she continued walking. "Hey! You can't do that!"
"And your robot's gonna stop me?" The young martial artist asked in a tone that conveyed her doubt, annoying the black haired goddess further. Behind the pair, Banpei abandoned his post to keep up, while Ranma's friends walked through the now unmanned anti-demon checkpoint.
"As a matter of fact, he will!" Skuld proclaimed as the whirling of oiled hydraulics finally caught up to them, and the spherical robot planted itself in Ranma's path once more. It thrust the stop sign out obnoxiously, shaking its head.
Ranma gave the robot a half lidded look. "I suppose that's a challenge."
The robot nodded fiercely and a wide mental grin materialized across Ranma's psyche, a grin showing in sharp contrast to the bored expression on her face. She rolled her eyes at Skuld for effect and baited the hook. "All right, fine. If your tin can here wins, we go home; no questions asked."
"Banpei can take anything you throw at him," The Goddess of the Future crossed her arms, confident in her creations abilities.
"Good," The red headed nine year old smirked, leading the robot and its master away from the slate stone path that lead to the house and into the open space courtyard. Both followed eagerly and Ranma glanced back at Hild and Miss Hinako just long enough to give them a wink before turning back to her marks. "'Cuz all he has to do is knock me off my feet."
Skuld's confidence failed for a split second as visions of the redheaded dervish from their very first encounter came to mind. This was the very same mortal that had gone toe to toe with her sister and won. That sliver of doubt, however, was banished almost as soon as it was called forth. All Banpei had to do with knock her off her feet.
How hard could that possibly be?
A confident smile spread across her face as the girl found a patch of real estate within the temple courtyard and waited. She'd have this girl and Hild and her other new friend gone before they knew it.
"And that's our cue," Hild nudged Hinako, leading her away back down the stone path and away from the trio squaring. The brunette looked from Hild, back to Ranma, then back to Hild with a questioning look.
"Um, shouldn't we help Saotome put that robot bully in its place?"
"Nah, she'll be fine!" The white haired child chirped, continuing to the shrine's door with the girl in tow. Her statement was all but a certainty, but it was the tactical implications that intrigued the Grand Chibi Demoness the most. Ranma had just removed Skuld from play by occupying the goddess personally so that she, in turn, could personally deliver the Ninomiya... As if the child was a bomb herself, Hild smiled with thought; wondering just what this particular bomb's payload was.
"Besides, Ranma-chan needs to blow off some steam," The Daimakaichō commented, sliding the shrine door open with ease.
"Skuld-Chan, could you please help with-"
"Hi, Bell!"
"Oh, hello-" Belldandy blinked upon recognizing the unexpected voice, turning away from the clothes she had been folding next to the hallway closet. The pleasant demeanor abruptly lapsed into a neutral expression as she considered her newest guests, bowing slightly. "Good day, Hild-san. I must say, we weren't expecting you to drop by."
Implicit in the statement was that not only that her visit unexpected, but unwelcome. Hild threw her a cheeky smile as if the comment were little more than banter between friends."Just in the neighborhood. Say 'hi' to my friend-"
The space beside the white haired girl was already vacant, causing Hild to blink before quickly reacquiring the child, who was already conducting her own tour of the living room. Even Belldandy stared curiously at the girl in the yellow dress as she zipped from one side of the room to the other, eagerly overturning figurines that she and Keichii had collected as decorations. The girl would give them a quick observation, occasionally shake them once or twice before moving on to the next item that caught her attention; invariably leaving the last overturned.
"Ohh! So cute!" Ninomiya Hinako found a hand sized lucky cat and gave the porcelain figure a good shake before gleefully throwing it into the air several times to be caught. Belldandy's brown eyes followed each trip into the air with worried trepidation before it was caught one last time and put back out of place while the child moved on. "I want this one! Ooh! This is nice! Can I take this one home?"
A pensive look began to manifest on the Goddess' face as the girl continued to overturn the room's contents with reckless abandon. Belldandy let her powers flow out to caress the child, though it only served to confirm the obvious: Something was wrong with the hyperactive brunette, causing her to turn to Hild, who seemed to have been taken somewhat by surprise herself. "Hild-Sama, your...friend....?"
It wasn't what the Ruler of Hell had been expecting from the child and was still unsure if this was Ranma's intention for the girl, or if there was more to come. Certainly she was going to become a supreme annoyance, but... Instead of resolving the dilemma, she turned an easy smile on the Goddess of the Present. "Oh, Bell-chan, I'd like you to meet Ninomiya Hinako."
Belldandy looked from girl, then to the Daimakaichō and back with a befuddled look. Like the Grand Mistress of Hell, she had been expecting something more... Pernicious. "Um, Hinako... chan?"
The girl paused in her excavation of the living room, pulling a decorative brass bell that had found its way into her mouth out with a hollow 'pop!'. The brunette goddess winced slightly as a thin line of saliva leaked away from the ornament, but forced a smile nonetheless. Miss Hinako looked at her with a curious expression, leaving Belldandy at a loss as to how to proceed. She didn't feel evil, but Hild had brought her; and likely not out of charity given how out of sorts her Ki pathways were. With those thoughts in mind, she proceeded forward tentatively. "How are you doing today-"
"I smell cookies!" Hild's grin widened with Miss Hinako's revelation. Indeed, the smell of cookies had just begun to permeate the air and the grand demoness of hell ruthlessly capitalized on her partner's opening that had left Belldandy blinking.
"So do I!" The white haired girl in leather confirmed with false surprise, looking over to the girl. "Do you think Auntie Bell would let us have some?"
"Oooh!" Ninomiya Hinako oozed with delight at the idea, turning a pair of large brown puppy-dog eyes on the goddess of the present. "Can we pleeease have some cookies?"
"Pretty please, Auntie Bell!" Hild followed up and was instantly rewarded by the uncertainty Belldandy's eyes as they flicked back and forth from one faux child to the other. It wasn't the way she would have chosen to torment the Norns, after all, but watching the Goddess before her squirm was a darn good substitute for Hild's normal modus operandi.
"Pretty-pretty please?" The long haired girl continued with such innocence that Belldandy's vigilant resolve began to crumble. "With sprinkles on top?"
There were, in fact, cookies. Those cookies were for when Keichii returned from the motor club. Now, however, Belldandy was faced with a crisis. One supremely evil being- perhaps THE supremely evil being was making syrupy puppy dog eyes at her. Under normal circumstances, Hild could have been safely ignored. It was the inclusion of the other, more innocent girl and her shining eyes that made the Norn's dilemma all the harder, forcing the Goddess of the Present to make a command decision...
...The cookies would have to be sacrificed.
"And what's all the racket out here anyway?" The adult steeping in from the adjacent hallway hollered, then fell silent as her blue eyes flicked from one occupant to the other, noting the new faces. The sandy haired blond was a permanent resident of her household and thus hardly new. She had a pensive look about her normally serene face and was looking at the other white haired girl, who was likewise known, if not welcome. Urd had seen entirely too much of her over the last month to be considered healthy.
Or sane, her subconscious quipped; a thought she readily agreed with on the whole. The mistress of hell had also arrived in her child avatar, which meant that her designs for them were more than likely mischievous in nature if she knew her mother, less out right evil machinations. Mostly. It was a small consolation either way, given what she knew of her mother. The other girl was completely unknown however, but read as a normal human according to her divine senses.
A messed up human, she amended, probing deeper as she traced the girl's physiology, but eventually ignored her in favor of the greater threat. Her blue eyes narrowed on the tanned child, who smirked back at her. "Honestly, doesn't the queen of hell have anything better to do than pester us?"
"Now daughter of mine," Hild tisked, purposely ignoring the sneer placed upon her title by rolling her eyes. "What could I possibly be doing that would top visiting my favorite daughter?"
The older looking daughter cast a bland look upon the Daimakaichō. "I could think of so many things."
"Now you're just being silly!" The white haired girl giggled, turning her attention from the Goddess of the Present and folding her arms across her chest. "Besides here is right where I want to be."
"I'm sure it is," Urd returned testily, glaring back into a pair of purple eye that held a sinister edge in spite of the playful smile worn by their owner. The primary question in the eldest sister's mind, however, was why. The last time her mother had seen fit to hang around the shrine, Keichii had fallen victim to a spell that converted him into an amorous nymphomaniac. Granted, the permanent blush affixed to Bell-chan's cheeks had been quite cute and—The goddess of the past shook off the fond reminiscence, returning to the cause of their consternation. That all led to the Saotome incident, her hearing on high and the constant aggravation that both now represented.
Movement off to her right broke the staring contest, and Urd blinked, watching the girl she had discounted as a threat suddenly break ranks. Even Hild's mischievous smile disappeared in favor of watched the girl suddenly become animated with an "Oooh!"
"Hey, where are you going, squirt?" Urd questioned the girl, who was now walking past her into the hallway she herself had just emerged from. The goddess' face scrunched up with irritation. "You know it's considered rude to just up and-Hey! HEY! NOT IN THERE!"
Hild's head cocked curiously and the action shifted her white pigtails to the side. Belldandy looked at her and she looked back, emoting cluelessness until eldest sister's voice increased in volume suddenly.
"What's in here? Look at all the stuff!"
"That's my room! Get BACK HERE!" A slow smile returned to the grand demoness' face as the sounds of unseen commotion began. "Wait! THAT'S DANGEROUS! Hands off! NO!"
"Hild-Sama..." Belldandy's eyes flicked from the white haired girl and her barely stifled giggling to the hall, where the sound of something glassy and delicate hitting the floor sounded; shattering into their individual sonic components. The Goddess of the present cringed, returning to the grand demoness. "The child seems much too hyperactive for-"
"THOSE DON'T MIX!"
"Look, it's a butterfly! Wheee!"
"THAT'S NOT A TOY!"
"Here we gooo! Upside-HEY!"
Moments later the white haired goddess reappeared, all but dragging the brunette child behind her. Displeasure flashed in her eyes, though it was less for the yellow skirted girl and more for the person who had led her to their house to begin with. "This has got to stop!"
"Stop?" Hild blinked innocently, while Miss Hinako stared grumpily up at the adult who had physically manhandled her. "I'm not sure what it is you're talking about."
CRAAaaCK!
A bass shock wave reverberated throughout the house, causing Belldandy's eyes to widen as the various pictures hanging from the wall suddenly found themselves slightly askew with the vibration. Urd's smoldering gaze remained riveted to her mother's playful smirk in spite of the domiciles trembling, though the unseen activity did cause her to snort with contempt. "You know dang well what I'm talking about, mother!"
BoooOOOM!
Belldandy's dishes hopped from within the kitchen, inciting several slight clinks whose pitch filtered into the living room as well. As if the sounds from the kitchen were a reminder, Miss Hinako's puppy dog eyes suddenly returned to Belldandy. "When can I have my cookie?"
"Now, now, Miya-chan," The Goddess of the Present attempted to placate the little girl and her apparently insatiable appetite for sweets. "I am saving them for-"
Urd's patience, however, abruptly expired in that moment and she held her mother with a menacing glare. "Stop this idiocy immediately!"
"Jeez, it's just a cookie, Urd-chan," the miniaturized Daimakaichō emoted cluelessness, to which the child disciplinarian next to Belldandy agreed with a nod.
"And stop playing innocent!" The goddess accused, pointing past her sister and to the window beyond. "You and the gender jock out there! Stringing him along is bad enough, but now it seems like you're purposely collecting ingrates!"
"But I want a cookie!"
Urd's head pivoted to the right in an almost mechanical motion as a small girl in the modest yellow skirt looked up at the obvious purveyor of household treats. The Goddess' teeth ground down even as the child disciplinarian tugged at the her sister's dress once more. Belldandy was smiling, but the uncertainty of the entire situation was written across her face for anybody who knew her well enough to see.
"Pleeeeeeease?"
Belldandy, reinforced smiled kindly at the girl, bending down to her height. "I'm not so sure so many sweets would be healthy for such... um, an active young girl. Maybe some fruit?"
"But they smell sooooo good!" The girl all but drooled as the scent wafted across her nose. "Just one? Pleeease?"
The hopeful look she generated was all but guaranteed to melt the heart of the unwary. It was also a pathetically cute sight, one that cut deep into Belldandy's already non-existent resistance to childhood innocence. Her better judgment buckled in seconds. "I guess one won't-"
"And you need to back off, spore!" All eyes swiveled onto the white haired adult. Her child counterpart simply smiled and took a step back as events from inside and outside the kitchen took their toll on her daughter. "I know you're not the child you appear to be and she said 'no'! So take your annoying friend out there and my mother home already!"
Miss Hinako looked shell shocked at first, staring at the furious woman as if she had been physically slapped across the face. The wide eyes persisted for a moment before dropping into one of childhood obstinacy. "You're not a very nice person."
"I'd be nicer if you and your friend weren't so irritating!" Urd fumed while the sound of scraping metal being violently applied to the earth outside punctuated her point. Belldandy winced with the grating noise, but continued to watch the confrontation with growing hesitancy. True, the little girl was quite nosy and had all but overturned every part of their residence with curiosity upon arrival... And yes, her friend- surely Hild-Sama's redheaded acquaintance -was tearing up their courtyard as they spoke, but...
"...Urd-Chan, I would ill advise against-"
"You're such a meanie!" Hinako retorted indignantly, her gaze narrowing sharply. "Delinquents like you need to be taught a lesson in manners!"
The Goddess of the Past crossed her arms across her chest imperviously. "Yeah, well, the innocent act may work on Bell-chan, but it won't buy you anything here."
Forgotten off to the side, the Daimakaichō herself was all but grinning now. At first she hadn't realized why Ranma-chan had allowed the child to tag along. Her ki pathways were screwed up and sure, she wasn't all she seemed, but the exact reason for the girl's presence was lost on her. Until now.
Hild wasn't sure what was about to happen, but whatever it was, she was certain that her protégée had meant for it to happen exactly like this. The young grand demoness of hell's smile widened with the realization. She had thought Ranma too naive to be capable of such a work of art, and she was more than happy to watch the redhead's symphony of chaos unfold before her vary eyes.
"You asked for it!" The brunette girl warned, whipping her hand out. In between index and middle finger sat a 5-yen coin. "Prepare to receive your punishment!"
Urd arched an eyebrow, staring sceptically at the coin that rested between the girl's fingers. "What, you're going to bribe me with your—?"
The coin began to glow, stopping her in mid sentence. Urd's eye began to widen with realization. She's creating a chakra vacuum... But her biology is a mess! Why the heck would she generate a chakra vacuum unless...
"Too late, child", Hild murmured as she watched the realization dawn on her daughter's face. The technique flared with a near blinding flash of light.
"Happougoensatsu!"
Skuld watched in horror as her creation bounced once, then twice across the temple courtyard, digging a violent ditch from one end to the other that, in turn, sent another cloud of dust and debris into the air until the red and white robotic construct tumbled to a stop. Banpei remained motionless within the trench for a moment and the young goddess was all but ready to run over to its aid when her creation twitched, freeing a seized mechanical limb from the rubble while sporadically twitching. The girl exhaled a pent up sigh of relief as the hatted robot slowly righted itself, dented and dirty but functional.
"I thought you said that piece of junk was tough?" The Goddess of the Future's eyes widened and she whirled upon her tormentor: One supremely annoying redhead that, unlike the prior encounter, appeared no older than nine years old girl. Said irritant sported an arrogant smirk, rocking back and forth on her heels with pent up energy as she turned away from Banpei's crash site and back to the goddess. "Third time's a charm, maybe?"
"Banpei is not a piece of junk, you... you...!" the young goddess blurted as the girls barb found its mark with absolute precision. In the end, only one word came to mind, a descriptive she wouldn't have been able to use two hours earlier. "You SPORE!"
"And here this spore's still kicking your tin can's ass," Ranma shrugged, favoring the teen with patronizing indifference. "'Cides, your lawnmower challenged me first, remember?"
"He was just being protective!" Skuld blurted back indignantly as the robot finally extracted itself from the crater to rejoin its master; albeit with a slight limp. "You and that girl came with Hild-sama, and she's as evil as they come!"
"Said the tomboy," Ranma rolled her eyes, saying all that needed to be said concerning her opinion on the matter. "Speaking of bullies, weren't you the ones tryin' to take me out two ta one last week?"
The Goddess of the Future sputtered her objections to the rhetorical question, only to have the younger girl cut her off. "Save it. Tell ya what... I'll give your trash compactor another chance. If it wins, I leave."
The teen goddess stared at her dubiously, then back to her scuffed-up creation. Skuld turned back to the redhead with a suspicious look. "...And you'll take Hild and the other girl with you?"
"My word as a martial artist." Ranma replied with barely veiled disinterest. The raven haired deity thought on the matter for a moment before nodding fiercely, slapping her left fist into her open hand.
"Fine then! Banpei!" The robot paused in dusting itself off with a feather attachment it had managed to acquire, turning towards its creator with interest. Skuld smiled with confidence. "Mobility Package B!"
Ranma cocked her head as the robot shifted its center of gravity, allowing for parts of its metal plating to fold away. Eight bugle like nozzles slid into position, each protruding at angles odd enough not to be considered weapons by the martial artist's estimation. Stabilization fins grew from more hidden compartments along its back, and soon Ranma wasn't certain if she was looking at a robot or some mad inventor's aircraft with arms and legs bolted on as an afterthought. Curiosity, however, didn't stop Ranma from making a smart ass remark.
"Look, if you're gonna play Gundam, I got better things-"
"Establish an up-link to the Yggdrasil," The goddess continued heedlessly, and this time, a smallish antenna dish sprouted from Banpei's mushroom domed head, unfolding its dish like an iris and making two revolutions before locking onto a fixed point high in the blue sky. "Download martial arts combat program Gamma Five!"
A small disk access light on the side of the robot's bulbous head began to flash, ceasing after thirty seconds. The antenna withdrew invisibly back into its cranium.
The light went dark and Banpei retrieved a long white strip of cloth from a small hatch along his back, pulling it around his head and tying it off like some martial arts master before pulling a wooden sign from the same compartment for the benefit of its master.
*I KNOW KUNG-FU.*
"Do ya, now?" Ranma eyed the construct skeptically, watching as construct discarded the sign and turned its full attention on her. After a moment, she shrugged, replacing the doubtful look with a confident smirk. "Well let's see what you can do with it, then."
Banpei's bow was the last thing she saw clearly as the nozzles suddenly spouted white jets of steam. Joint servos adjusted to the sudden increase of velocity and only a decade's worth of nonstop martial arts mayhem kept Ranma from taking the open palmed strike directly in the chest. The robotic construct was on her in a blur now, and she spun with the stinging, glancing blow to the shoulder; flattening her center of gravity while pivoting back into the offense. The red and white robot's head jerked back just in time to avoid her foot to the face, while its microprocessor was presented with eight counters to the move. Banpei selected the highest probability of success to accomplish its master's stated goal in just under a millisecond, triggering the hydraulics in its arm to shoot up and deflect the improvised roundhouse kick skyward in order to force the girl terminally off balance.
Against anybody else, the maneuver would have worked.
Against Ranma, it almost did.
Already forced to dump unwanted inertia in the form of a spin, the redhead suddenly felt another stinging blow along the side of her shin; and her offense was suddenly transformed into something closer to that of a destabilized top. Shock course through the girl's thought process while she fought the momentum, planting her hands solidly to the ground and twisting on them through another revolution before pushing skyward through the roll. She was airborne for less than two seconds and had to deflect another strike from the machine, but it was enough. Ranma used the final attack to stabilize her own ballistics and landed like an expert gymnast; sticking the landing with both feet before springing out of the robots effective combat radius with another flip.
"Go Banpei!" The Goddess of the Future shouted with a wide smile, jumping up and down with pom-poms she had acquired from somewhere unimportant to the martial artist, whose eyes flicked from her to the mechanized construct.
Damn fast with the rockets, she catalogued, calling up the brief eight second engagement while her blue eyes traced its structure. Actually knows martial arts too, Ranma scowled mentally with the thought, only managing to keep the emotion from her face while maintaining her trademark smirk like a martial arts technique. Still, the fact that it had not actually learned the art grated against every fiber of her being. The girl had programmed the robot, and it was the closest thing to martial arts blasphemy Ranma had encountered to date.
Battle doji aside, the martial artist amended, and let a slightly sharper edge to her smirk develop. In either case, it didn't matter. She was going to enjoy beating this thing and it programming just as much as enjoyed putting the battle doji down for the count.
Ranma's stance loosened once again and she simply pointed at the robot, beckoning for it to come as if it were a small child. The droid's eyes dilated for the briefest moments, before triggering its thrusters to fire again. This time Ranma was ready when Banpei executed its charge, already profiling away from the initial leading punch and deflecting the hydraulics of its arm upward. The arm servos whined against the sudden redirection of force, but more power was applied and the robot recovered from the breach far quicker than the girl expected. The opening disappeared, but Ranma was already attacking from another vector with a snap kick aimed for the bulbous metallic torso. Banpei's tactical scripting immediately analyzed the kick to counter attack with a ninety five percent probability to destabilize the leg's owner, followed by a three punch combination guaranteed to place the target onto the-
The kick withdrew even as the robot moved to intercept it, and Ranma's hand shot out with an equal amount of speed, grabbing the hydraulic forearm, stepping into the construct's guard while attempting to reverse the joint in order to initiate a flip. That was the plan, at least, until Ranma received her first lesson in robot physiology. The redheaded girl forced the joint to its stops, only to be dismayed that it kept going. The universal shoulder joint pivoted through the angle and Banpei applied more power to it in the same direction, turning the intended robot flip into one containing the martial artist instead. Blue eyes widened in shock as her feet left the ground and her move to disengage came too late. Ranma was air born a second later and this time Skuld's construct wasn't content to wait for its opponent to recover ground-side. The eight thruster nozzles twitched as the servos controlling them altered their vectors, then gave the command to fire. Banpei was air born and produced and open handed strike guaranteed to terminally compromise the girl's ability to continue the fight.
In reality, it probably should have never left the ground.
The fist was instantly intercepted by the tumbling martial artist, who in turn used it to stabilize her tumble and pivot above the robot's trajectory. Her first pair impacts slammed home against Banpei mushroom shaped head before falling into a pair of two rapid kicks that resounded through the robot's structure with hollow, metallic thuds; leaving a pair of dents to match. Millimeter length Ku-band radar flashed through open air to determine the martial artist's exact location above it, reorienting the thrusters even as more impacts were registered. In that same moment, the airfoils along the robot's back extended slightly and its microprocessor triggered a five second burst, causing Banpei to snap into a high speed roll while extending its spindly titanium alloy leg out to its fullest extension. The intention had been to catch the martial artist in leg's arc like a hook and slingshot her into the ground, though the adjustment of his own jet nozzles had given her more than enough warning.
Ranma Saotome pulled her own legs in to shorten her center of mass, curling around the leg like water. The roll had opened Banpei's guard up again, and the redheaded nine year old girl punished the lapse in the form of an open handed fist that slammed into the robot's torso. Skuld's creation adjusted its vector again and sought out its target with a high speed punch combination that only fueled the Saotome's midair dance further. Banpei's first three punches were deflected outright, but Ranma took the forth, allowing it to clip her shoulder painfully in exchange for its Newtonian sacrifice. No matter what technique the robot employed, the martial artist simply would not fall back to earth, a condition that was unacceptable in light of his master's directive.
Further measures would have to be taken.
Banpei screened his next maneuver with a barrel roll punch-kick combination that failed to significantly inconvenience the air born girl in any way, while likewise receiving another impact to the slopped structure of its head. What the maneuver did achieve, however, was total surprise as the final roll-out brought his left arm directly in line with the nine year old, allowing the palm to unfold into a mini ballistic launcher. Ranma registered the potential threat instantly, but instantly was too late at point blank range and the robots hand exploded even as she kicked out into open air. Five meters out from the robot, Ranma realized her mistake as the smallish orb that had been launched at her nine year old person cracked open, unfolding into a bolo weighted net. The array expanded through the intervening space and the redheads own hasty separation only bought her a second's worth of flight time before the netting found her limbs, entangling them to turn the Saotome's controlled fall into a dead drop.
Ranma would have spared an insult for the dirty trick, but falling was something the martial arts heir was all too familiar with and she had less than three seconds to act before the ground decided their match. Her intellect quickly analyzed the situation, determining the netting to be something stronger than rope, with the ability to contract around its victim like elastic webbing. Techniques and scenarios flashed through her mind's eye before the de-aged martial arts prodigy decided on one, slashing at the netting with the knife edge of her hand from within the confined space, parting the snare along multiple axis as she fell through ten meters of air. Her free limbs flashed out and Ranma executed a half roll that allowed her to hit the ground in a heavy crouch while the remains of the net floated down around her. Banpei landed in front of his wide eyed master a second later, renewing his own stance while Ranma returned to her own height with a smirk; a smirk appearing all the creepier with the thin line of blood trickling from the left side of her mouth.
"Almost had me with that one, tin-can," Ranma ran her right hand through her red main while flexing the arm to loosen it. "But if its special techniques ya want, I got more than plenty-"
CRAaCK!
The side of the temple wall disappeared in a flash of brilliant blue light as a blur was forcibly ejected from its interior; slicing a line of explosive debris across the courtyard between the stunned Ranma, Skuld and Banpei. All three pairs of wide eyes tracked the rogue missile as it cut a trench through the grass, tumbling another twenty meters to the far wall before finally coming to a halt in its own cloud of dust. Skuld's attention flicked from the dust shrouded victim to the new circular hole carved in the side of her home, noting shadow of a woman with long hair stepping out from the smoldering breach.
Belldandy! Elation formed as her intellect filled in the blanks with the facts available, though Skuld was left wondering just what Hild had done to piss her elder sister off in such a violent manner. Serves her right either way, she decided, and watched as the Goddess of the Present fully stepped out into the light to finish...
Ranma's own grin took up where Skuld's sudden frown left off when the female stepped fully into the afternoon sun, revealing not the long haired blond-brunette goddess as expected, but the fully adult form of Ninomiya Hinako instead. The breeze caught her rich brown hair in its grasp as she cleared the rupture, radiating an air of indifferent arrogance.
"Behold, the power of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts Happo no Yen Coin Return," The educator advised haughtily while she took her place on the temple grounds to await her opponent's recovery. "Your days of delinquency are at an end!"
Skuld, goddess second class of the future could only stare as the adult strode past while wondering just exactly where things had gone so horribly wrong. Mortals aren't supposed to be this strong! Her mind screeched, trying to reconcile the logic of what she was watching. Even as a fully grown woman, the resemblance to the girl Ranma and Hild had arrived with was unmistakable, and if Belldandy was still inside...!
"Huh. Normally she's only good for one of those," Ranma commented with mild interest, also staring at the educator while noting the heavy aura of invisible power encompassing the woman. It wasn't the ki she normally drained by any means, which only left one conclusion available to the martial artist. "Wonder how much power she managed to suck outta ol' Urd-chan, anyway?"
Skuld's indignant sputtering began in earnest upon fully realizing what had occurred. "This..! You...! It's all your fault!"
"Mine?" Ranma's nine year old blue eyes blinked innocently back at her for a moment, before the arrogant smirk overtook her face again. "Sure, why not? But the deal still stands."
"YOU STOLE MY MANA!"
All eyes turned back to the billowing cloud of dust that was finally clearing courtesy of the afternoon breeze, to the woman standing at its center- One absolutely pissed goddess of the past, now crackling with electrical energy and a temper gone critical.
Ninomiya Hinako simply stared back with an impassive, but firm expression; one that Ranma had seen for herself many, many times before. It was the face of a disciplinarian, and the redhead couldn't help but to fix her own anticipatory smirk. She turned it back to the robot and its keeper.
"How about it?" She asked the younger goddess, allowing the slightest demeaning edge to creep into the question. The martial artist motioned back to the pair already squaring off. "Double or nothing?"
"You'll walk away if you know what's good for you," Urd warned direly. Her attention was focused fully on the Furikan teacher, though the advisory could have easily applied to both potential combatants. Ranma simply shrugged, glancing back over to Miss Hinako.
"I got nothing but fiancées waitin' for me back in Nerima," The redhead commented easily. "How about you?"
"Homework and tests to grade," The educator replied with distaste, then flipped her long mane of hair back with a shrug and eyed Urd one more. "But there is always time to deal with such rampant delinquency."
"Then let's be about it," Ranma's amused countenance blossomed into a full blown smirk as she mentally released the lock Hild had imposed on her body for their fun. The redheads form hissed with steam as if brought to a boil, allowing her to suddenly grow from the nine year old child's body into that of a sixteen year old teenager. The steam evaporated with the light wind and Ranma tilted her head, working the transformation induced cricks out of her neck. She turned back to the raven haired goddess and her guardian, even as Miss Hinako lethargically brought her hands up to form the Five no Yen Return's initial seal for Urd's benefit.
Mana and ki began to gain density around the property and Belldandy herself stepped out into the daylight, her eyes immedietly falling upon the standoff already in process before her. The situation was obvious, and her brain raced for a way to diffuse the imminent violence. Urd had lost her temper to the child-turned-adult after the nearly unbearable insult of having been stripped of her divine mana, while the redheaded girl from their last altercation faced down Skuld.
The Goddess of the Present paled as she mentally connected the dots. While she was more than willing to believe in coincident and chance, the entire situation seemed too perfectly set up to—
"Oh, now this looks promising," A girl's voice chirped. Belldandy blinked, suddenly reminded of their third and final guest. Her frown found the white haired child who was stepping out of the very hole Urd had been blown through, though her displeasure did little do dissuade the Daimakaichō's cheer. "What do you say, Bell. Want to take odds on the outcome?"
"You engineered this," The goddess accused while a frown began to mar her usually serene features.
"This?" Hild blinked innocently, then folded her arms with satisfaction as she turned back to the standoff. "Actually, this is one masterpiece I can't take credit for."
"And I am to simply take your word for it?" Belldandy's sent a piercing stare down to the girl, who shrugged uncaringly. Lacking any clear avenue of progression, the goddess of the past decided to take matters into her own hands. "Then I shall stop this from proceeding any—"
"GET HER, BANPEI!"
"HAPPO FIVE NO COIN RETURN!"
"DIVINE LIGHTNING STORM!"
"MOKO TAKABISHA!"
Blinding light washed across the temple, giving Belldandy only a fraction of a second to drop a barrier field down around the courtyard before property damage commenced in earnest. Banpei's thrusters fired in that very same moment with the intention to bring the girl back into melee range, only to suddenly find himself racing to meet an energy attack head on at high velocity. The construct's CPU made a series of lightning quick calculations and fired the thrusters once more, pivoting its frame fifteen degrees to the right in the final hairs breadth before contact with the glowing blue sphere was achieved.
Ranma watched the Moko Takabisha detonate squarely on target, engulfing Skuld's robot in a violent cloud of rubble as the ki shot's containment ruptured. For whatever else she might have called the robot, the martial artist knew it would take more than that to drop her opponent, nor did Banpei disappoint.
Skuld's guardian burst through the roiling dust cloud in a barely controlled tumble as it fought off a spin with its stabilizers while a hastily deployed- and smoldering -parabolic shield tumbled away from its hydraulic forearm. The thruster nozzles adjusted for their owners' spin with a fractional burst, just before its fist made contact with Ranma's leather bracers; forcing the girl to slide back several feet in turn. Ranma melted out of the cross guard and prepared to renew her assault at point blank when the first mana-fueled shock wave hit.
The other half of the courtyard blistered with incandescent power as Urd's lightning bolt of mana intercepted Miss Hinako's second salvo, meeting at the half way point and warping the very space they intersected. The energies struggled with one another for the briefest instant before annihilating one another and releasing their stored potential in a compressed atmospheric wave front. It roared over the other two combatants and broke against the back of the temple, tearing its structure asunder in a tempest of wood and stone. Though the Goddess of the Past could have easily been considered the more powerful of the pair, Hinako's term at Furikan had been a disciplinarian's dream come true; an experience that served her well when it came to the arena of high energy martial arts firefights. Not that she would ever consider herself a martial artist per se, but the teacher knew martial arts doctrine like the back of her hand and was already ducking left even as her white haired opponent waited for a clear shot through the blast.
Ninomiya Hinako fired from the hip.
Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts weathered another brutal shock wave as she reengaged her own opponent, riding the compressed atmosphere in to breach Banpei's guard by force. The redhead peppered his hull with her fists at amaguriken speeds as she passed in on her strafing run to ensure that wherever her fist fell, the robot felt it. While she wasn't sure where the robot's vital areas were, she was determined to hit enough surface area to find one eventually.
Damage feeds continued to scroll across the periphery of Banpei's awareness as his body vibrated from the various shocks it was being subjected to. The girl blurred by with the shock wave, and while its creator had designed Banpei around a number of contingencies, those contingencies didn't include a martial arts prodigy capable of dealing upwards three hundred blows per second. The robot's arm servos whined with the effort, but the hardware installed was found wanting; blocking or diverting perhaps one in twenty of the hammering blows. Banpei's shell maintained its integrity, however, and the mech whirled around on thrusters before executing a full burn to pursue the girl even as it conducted internal systems bypasses due to battle damage.
The mechanical guardian was on Ranma once more as the shock wave's inertia bled into the background, stalling her slide and allowing Banpei to engage her at high speed. The first punch was easily deflected while the second took all of her left arm to counter. Ranma winced with the high speed impact, but had little time to negotiate a withdraw as a piston driven kick joined the assault. The pigtailed girl hopped out of the strike just before Banpei's robotic talon pulverized the ground, cratering it in a way that reminded her of Ryoga's umbrella.
Strong as the pig, too, The teen sniffed as she twisted through another of the robot's combinations before picking the forth punch with which to open its guard. Banpei's shoulder servo whined as she applied the fullest measure of her strength to the fulcrum, stalling its advance while creating just enough of an opening to catch the left side of its bulbous frame with an abbreviated chestnut fist. Ranma managed to slip seventy eight of the punches in before she had to relinquish the arm or take Banpei's round house counterstrike.
Too slow! Ranma grimaced and brought her right arm around to intercept the hit that threatened to blindside her face. The redhead's arm snapped up, but with little in the way of preparation, muscle and bone took the blow in full and she staggered back to keep her balance while attempting to extricate herself from Banpei's new offensive. She spared another block before using Banpei's next thrust against him; literally hopping up and onto his mechanical fist in a nearly impossible feat to use it as a jumping springboard into the air. His optics tracked her ascension and the flip that followed, only to have his pending pursuit abruptly aborted by his target's two glowing hands.
"Moko Takabisha DOUBLE!"
Nor was Ranma the only one taking the high ground. Urd wobbled upon her own patch of razed earth, choking on the dust around her as she recovered her senses after receiving two more hits in rapid succession by Hinako's technique. Another flash of brilliant blue came in from the right and this time Urd had the reactions to deflect the bolt by hand, sending the mana bolt spiraling harmlessly skyward. Recognizing her tactical deficit, the Goddess of the Past bent the local forces of nature to her whim and rose above the field of battle to gain visibility on the educator, who was still probing the cloud of dust Urd herself had just exited.
Perfect, The Goddess of the Past smirked and outstretched her arm, bringing her hand and a glowing lance of angry electricity to bear on the brunette. She held her target for a moment before a frown crossed her face; one that rapidly turned into a snarl. "DAMMIT!"
The outburst instantly alerted Miss Hinako to her opponent's position, and another mana bolt was in the air inbound for Urd's person at high speed. This time, the disgruntled goddess had three dimensions to work in and simply gained altitude, slipping off to the left and out of the way. Urd shook her head as the mandate from her last hearing played through her memory, as well as what might happen if she were to try and fry another mortal.
Miss Hinako, on the other hand, was faced with her own dilemma, and her face crinkled with annoyance. Her opponent had risen to a height of twenty five meters and was now far too mobile to engage conventionally. The teacher glanced left just as two spheres ripped away from Ranma's grasp, burying the girl's opponent in another violent plum of dust and debris. The adult blinked, then smiled; turning her gaze back up at Urd. Normally she didn't have the power to pull off anything more than a single return blast, but whatever it was that she absorbed from this woman, it boiled eagerly inside her for release, release she was about to indulge in further.
"Behold! My new technique, delinquent!" Urd eyed the woman warily as Miss Hinako took aim at her and formed the attack seal once again. ""HAPPO FIFTEEN NO COIN RETURN!"
Three bolts of mana appeared within her grasp across a triangular grid, building power and gusting the wind around Miss Hinako for the merest of moments before their simultaneous release skyward. Their kick staggered the brunette momentarily, but she maintained her concentration on her link to the foreign power, guiding the three all the way in to her floating target. Urd's eyes widened as the attack burned through the precious two seconds of flight time to her altitude, jinking left to avoid one, then right to avoid the other with no time left to evade the third's terminal arc. The white haired goddess blocked the mana attack directly by hand, allowing its energy to sizzle across her shielding before dying out. Even though blocking the attack was draining, it wasn't a physical impact and that alone was enough. The shield absorbed the mana in full, and that's when Urd's moment of enlightenment descended upon her. This was her energy. She could literally taste it as it rebounded off the shields.
Of course its my energy, The Goddess of the Past huffed bitterly to herself. The screwed up mortal down there is a little mana recycling... Urd's thoughts trailed off, and an odd little smile found its way to her face in spite of the situation; even as the woman below tensed for another attack. The ground flared with her mana released and this time, Urd simply floated stationary in space as another three bolts raced to meet her. The goddess adjusted her shielding and waited. All three found their mark and impacted directly on target...
...Only to waver and evaporate, as if they were candles to be snuffed out by the wind.
Miss Hinako countenance turned to one of sudden alarm, while Urd's grin grew as she considered her opponent down range. She put her hand to her hips with satisfaction. "Now it's time to introduce you to my special technique..."
Ninomiya Hinako backed up a nervous step as the goddess and her grim smile floated closer, sighting her own hand seal on the educator, "...It's called 'gimmie back my mana you little spore'."
Belldandy winced with the execution of the cumbersomely named technique, watching as it ripped mana away from the Hinako girl wholesale. A lethargic river of blue mist separated itself from the woman and wound its way through the air into Urd's grasp, where it collected until the girl was completely drained. The goddess of the past looked at the ball of energy coalescing within her grasp before closing it within her fist, banishing it back into her own reserves.
Hinako blinked without comprehension several timed before her face took on a perturbed look. A five yen coin flicked back into her grasp and was sighted on her adversary. "Happougo-!"
"Sleep," Urd interrupted forcefully, and Ninomiya Hinako simply dropped to the ground upon which she stood, as if every bone had been plucked from her body. A small line of drool began to form at the edge of her mouth as the still adult teacher snored softly.
"Well, that's one way to end a fight," Hild shrugged, somewhat disappointed to see the end of one fight so quickly and thus turned to the other still in progress.
"Stop this before Saotome loses control, Hild-Sama," Belldandy warned deriously, drawing upoin her own power as the redhead's fight with Banpei continued to escalate. She turned to the ruler of hell and leveled her gaze upon the white haired child. "If you do not, I will be forced to intervene."
"Loses control?" Hild stared at the Goddess with an almost bewildered look before turning amused. Beyond, the sky exploded with pyrotechnics as Ranma twisted around a salvo of mini-missiles looking to make her intimate acquaintance. The local airspace crackled around the redhead as she diverted one missile after another, dodged a third and used a forth as a stepping stone to further height before it too detonated.
Another weapons blister along Banpei's back snapped open, and five more missiles were released into the air along tongues of fire, immediately locking on to the teen's body heat and arcing toward her. The lead missile caught the martial artist first and she gave it a good kick along the side of its frame while falling to back to Earth, gaining enough distance between her and its detonation to weather the concussion and intercept the next two missile inbound for her person. The immolation of the first missile caused the immediate deaths of the second and third prematurely, obscuring the girl and her parcel of sky with yet more fiery debris.
Skuld almost felt sorry for her as the remaining two rockets arrowed into the billowing black cauldron unhindered. Of course, there was no doubt that the annoying redhead could take the punishment in her mind. The only question remained as to how much Banpei would have to dish out before- Her thoughts derailed completely less than a second later as the two mini missiles that had just rocketed into the cloud now blazed out in the opposite direct- Exactly one hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction and back down toward their launcher.
"BANPEI!"
The robot felt rather than heard its master's alarm and was already on the move, but there wasn't nearly enough flight time left on the missiles to matter. The first slammed into the earth five meters to the right of the mech, exploding and peppering the white and red robot's hull with fragmentation damage while the other traced in milliseconds behind it, embedding itself into the ground right at his feet, where it too cooked off. Banpei wheeled across the landscape violently as it took the detonation in full; damage indicators filling its AI consciousness while it bounced across the landscape. Ranma burst from her own blacked patch of sky, her fall following the skidding robot through its barely controlled tumble. The teen martial artist was upon it faster than it could assemble any sort of guard, and she slipped in even as it rolled to a stop, a single index finger extending into its torso.
The action took place within the space of seconds, but for Skuld and her preternatural abilities, time had slowed to an excruciating crawl while her intellect caught up to just what she was witnessing and the significance it held.
Ranma's finger was fully extended now, concentrating into an invisible spike of life energy. She seemingly floated in midair through the terminal phase of her attack, while nearly insubstantial tendrils of ki arced from her fingertips and through the intervening space. It took a moment for their meaning to click for Skuld. They were arcing. Connecting. Into Banpei... Strengthening as she fell upon him in that singular infinite moment. The martial artist had yet to physically touch him, but the thin lines of Ki energy meant something, and the Skuld's engineering thought process attempted to dissect their significance. They would intersect with Banpei's main torso plate. Something about where her finger would impact...
The Goddess' eyes widened in horror as the moment collapsed and time began to resume. Ranma's finger; a singular point of highly focused life force. Banpei's metal chest-plate; the point of impact along along a fault line of inanimate metal. Panic surged through the black haired deity as she suddenly realized there could only be one outcome to the girl's touch.
"NOOO!"
Belldandy surged forward with her scream, only to find her wrist suddenly caught up in the nine year old Hild's grasp. The brunette's head whipped around to the girl restraining her, only to find her shaking her head with an amused, but sober expression on her face. The goddess of the present powered up, mana flaring. "Hild-sama, I demand you-!"
She stared at Hild before turning back to the scene, finding that all movement had ceased; both combatants frozen like the still from a picture. Ranma's frame was fully extended, the lines of her sixteen year old body absolutely perfectly aligned with the fingertip that pointed into Banpei's chest; less than a centimeter's worth of space separating it from the robot's hull. Banpei himself had been forced into a trench of his own making, braced for an attack that would never come. Belldandy watched as the teen recovered from her mock strike, wiping the sweat from her brow with a grin. Belldandy blinked, turning back to the girl who had since released her wrist.
"No, Bell-Chan," The childish expression left Hild's face, draining away to reveal the elder within. "Even as the heavens watch Ranma's world fall apart around her, the one thing she remains in absolute, uncompromising control of, is her art."
Belldandy simply stared in disbelief at the Mistress of Hell itself for a moment before her train of through re-boarded. "Be that as it may, these games must end, Hild-Sama."
"Games?"
The goddess adopted a neutral expression for the innocent looking girl, glancing back over at the redhead for a moment, who was now talking to a nearly sobbing Skuld. She turned back to the white haired child in front of her. "The general consensus from above is that you are toying with her for your own amusement. It cannot continue, nor shall we allow it."
"Toying, hmmm?" The girls face sparkled with conspiracy as she leaned into Belldandy's space with a whisper. "Like how you toy with the Morisato boy?"
The brunette's eyes widened as her breath caught up in her throat. The expression lasted mere moments before turning downright indignant. "I am not toying with Keiichi."
"Is that right?" Hild asked doubtfully, persisting in her impish smile. "Then you must have told him about what will ultimately happen when he-"
"Keiichi is not ready for that discussion yet!" Belldandy hissed back defensively, keeping her voice purposely low now. "Perhaps when he understands the ramifications of the wish..."
"Oh, I can help you with that," The girl rocked back and forth on her heels eagerly. "Maybe I can talk to Kei-Chan for you-"
"You are no longer welcome here, Hild-Sama," Belldandy stiffened, her gaze hardening. "Please collect your associates and depart the premises."
"Suit yourself," The Daimakaichō shrugged as the redhead meandered on over to their position with a shapely brunette draped across her shoulders like a sack of rice. Hild released her own child avatar, allowing its form to gush steam as it reverted back to a leather clad adult while smiling at the martial artist and her cargo. "Ready to go, Ranma-chan?"
"Yeah, sounds good," Ranma nodded amiably, then jabbed a finger back at Skuld. Hild found the goddess of the future still in the courtyard, hooking up some form of exotic hand held hardware into Banpei. "I could probably go a few more rounds, but Hinako's out of it and I don't think Skuld's martial arts vending machine would hold up."
The grand demoness simply sniffed with amusement, and began to cut through the courtyard through the front gate, the redhead following with her cargo. She snapped her fingers and shattered Belldandy's barrier field outright, causing Ranma to blink with slight amazement as the property damage they had wrought over the last twenty minutes was instantly erased from the world. "Then we'll be going. Ja-ne, daughter of mine!"
"Yeah," Ranma commented even as Urd floated down beside her sister with a scowl on her face. "And tell the kid I'll be expectin' more of a challenge next time."
Urd's left cheek twitched with the parting shot. A shiver crawled its way up Belldandy's as the redheaded mortal walked entirely too much at ease with what could only be considered ultimate evil manifest...
...and there didn't appear to be a damn thing they could to convince her otherwise.
It was a nice day outside. Kids played outside on the field below, fluffy white clouds pursued a carefree existence along an infinite blue skyline, and tiny sparrows chattered at one another; chasing and being chased among the tree branches. By all accounts it was an idyllic day to be doing, well, just about anything in... Except being trapped within the bowels of Furikan High learning English on a Thursday.
"...is an example of classic American literature. Now repeat after me!"
Ranma's head lulled with thinly veiled boredom as his home room teacher's voice droned on, prompting a glance past the other students in his row to the back window; staring out longingly out into the perfect day beyond. English, he knew. Write? Okay, not so well, but he had picked the language up like how he had learned to unknowingly 'pick-up' goods from an unsuspecting food stand merchant at the tender age of five years old... and then picked up how to run from an angry mob shortly thereafter.
The old man's trip was just full of life lessons, Ranma thought to himself with a mental roll of the eyes, though he had to admit that not all of them were absolutely horrible. Just most of em', the pigtailed boy concluded with a rueful chuckle. It was quite literally impossible for him to count the number of idiotic, asinine ideas the fat panda had concocted over the years. Late one night six months back Ranma had, in fact, tried to do just that. Like counting sheep, however, the martial artist found himself fast asleep fifteen minutes later before reaching moronic idea #176.
Ranma's bored eyes glanced at the clock hanging by the doorway, noting its face with some measure of relief. Just have to hold out for ten more minutes, he thought as the second hand ticked clockwise at an excruciatingly slow pace. Ten more minutes before he could make his escape from English purgatory. Ten more minutes until fiancée hell, he scoffed with the counterpoint. It would take at least a half an hour to lose them all, then another twenty minutes on the train to-
A piece of paper tumbled lightly onto his desk.
The martial artist stared at the haphazardly folded note, then traced its ballistic arc down two desks where Daisuke glanced back at him expectantly. Ranma stared back without comprehension until his classmate began to make discrete gestures to open the note. Ranma sighed while his brain tried to predict just what was so important as to actually write him a note. He never got notes... Especially not in this class. He turned back to the note and began unfolding it with the same care it had been assembled, reading the contents.
"Why hasn't she transformed back yet? Been like that all day."
He blinked as his brain processed the words, then turned back to Daisuke, who in turned held him with a questioning look. Figures, the pigtail boy grumbled and sent an uncaring shrug back in his direction to indicate that he didn't know and didn't care.
Neither were exactly the truth.
In spite of their mutual history, there was a small bubble of concern nagging at the edge of Ranma's consciousness concerning his home room teacher, who had declined to transform back into a small nine year old girl for the entire day. In fact, he knew that when he had dropped the unconscious Miss Hinako off at her apartment yesterday afternoon, she had been an adult then, too. Didn't transform back after getting sucked dry by ol' Urd, the martial artist recalled, returning his attention to the home room teacher in the here and now. Don't think she's drained anybody all day, either...
No sooner had he finished the thought then another piece of paper skittered across his desk. This time Ranma didn't even bother to trace the source and unfurled it. "Did you finally beat her with that sexy move of yours?"
The pigtail boy nearly choked on his own tongue, and quickly shoved the note under his book to accompany the other one, his face blushing slightly with the reminiscence of that particular battle. The paper disappeared from sight, only to replaced with another. Ranma's hand arrested its slide, preventing the folded piece of 8x11 from overshooting the edge of his workspace. This particular note was folded intricately and with more care, indicating a female sender this time. The fact that it was pink may have helped to clue him in on the fact as well. The revelation also prompted a quick glance over at his part-time fiancée, who was staring at him and the note with curiosity, dashing any hopes that its receipt had gone unnoticed. Ranma quickly looked away, returning his attention to the note and began to pick it open with all the care one would put into handling a live nuclear weapon. Eight folds later, a nervous tick found its way to Ranma's left cheek.
"Are you cheating on Akane and having a torrid love affair with Miss Hinako?"
The note instantly imploded within his fist. With any luck, he could ensure its demise before being forced to relinquish it to-
"Saotome!" The throaty demand of Miss Hinako instantly jarred him from his covert plans, and he snapped his head up to find his fully adult home room teacher staring at him, her eyes glittering with the promise of punishment. "What have I said about passing notes in class?"
"Um, I didn't-"
"Then what are these, hmmmm?" The shapely educator stepped up to Ranma's desk and slid his book aside, revealing the incriminating evidence beneath. Miss Hinako leaned in slightly, affording the classroom an unobstructed view of her charms as the interrogation continued. Ranma gulped. The other males of the classroom appreciated his sacrifice even as they left the martial artist to hang. Miss Hinako picked up one of the notes and scowled, passing judgment in atone that brooked no argument. "Detention, Saotome."
The chime of the school bell marked her decision, and the rest of the class all too eagerly made a break for the door even as she whirled back upon them. "I expect a summary of the first chapter, as well a breakdown of the cultural significance for class tomorrow! Dismissed!"
Akane hung back as the class room emptied with a look of slight concern on her face; concern that evaporated the moment Ranma noticed it. She rolled her eyes for his benefit, as if the juvenile behavior and subsequent detention were not only expected, but beneath her notice. The youngest Tendo was gone through the door moments later and Hinako behind her, closing the classroom and sealing him within. She turned back to the slumping martial artist with a malevolent look and crossed the classroom back to her desk, seating herself while arranging the day's paperwork before her. Silence pervaded their company for another five minutes before Ranma took a stab at salvaging the situation.
"Look, about the notes... people were just throwin' em at-"
Miss Ninomiya Hinako looked up with a thoroughly bored look, interrupting him. "The notes don't concern me, Ranma."
The pigtailed teen blinked. "They don't?"
The brunette shook her head and stood up, making her way around the desk to lean on it from the front nonchalantly, while Ranma's sense of self preservation continued to scream the need to evacuate. She hopped back in a motion vaguely reminiscent of a child, sitting on the edge and crossing her long legs; reminding the marital artist that this was not some nine year old girl before him. Clad in her tradmark short yellow skirt, there was no doubt that Miss Hinako was very much a woman at the moment.
"No," She continued nonchalantly, shrugging indifference. "I'll deal with them later."
The Saotome mentally winced, knowing there would likely be a severe deficit of ki in their future. At least for the guys, Ranma revised, but couldn't bring himself to feeling too sorry for them after being thrown under the Hinako bus less than five minutes ago. That thought brought him unexpectedly short, and he cocked his head curiously at the woman waiting before him. But can you? He realized, connecting several related mental dots. How ya gonna drain them if ya can't change back?
"Ah, about your body..." He began tepidly, trailing off as he realized uncertainly how to proceed.
Spoken to any other woman in Ranma's acquaintance, that particular statement could have easily been seen as grounds for a pounding or holy matrimony... or both. This particular one, however, had no vested interest in either and simply nodded. "I was hoping you might have an answer to that."
With his required presence in the classroom suddenly clear, the martial artist stepped back from the brink of fiancée DEFCON one and simply shook his head. "You're guess is as good as mine. Probably a side affect of draining ol' Urd's mana, but I'm really just guessin'."
"Mana?" Miss Hinako quirked an eyebrow, and Ranma simply shrugged.
"That's what Hild-san calls it," The teen remarked. "I was callin' it heavy ki at first."
The educator simply nodded, contemplating the theory for herself before moving on. "Hild-san... The white-haired girl."
"Yep," Ranma nodded and the edge of a smile found his face. "Not that she usually looks like that. Only goes out like that for fun."
"For fun?" The woman cocked her head curiously. "She changes? Like me? And... you too?"
Ranma simply smirked at the torrent of questions. "Not exactly 'me too'. More like only with her help. Hild-san's great company, let me tell ya."
"You don't say," Miss Hinako murmured while not only fighting through her own ration of disbelief, but the near shock of actually seeing what could only be termed delight sparkling in the pig tailed boy's eyes. The educator blinked, as if to dispel the illusion, thought the action only served to confirm it. In the year and a half she had been exposed to the boy, he had only shown her three emotions... indifference, determination and aloof arrogance. Maybe four if one counted the nervousness invoked by the women constantly in his company, but there seemed to be little to the Saotome beyond that.
In short, he existed from within an emotional shell
After four schools and six years of teaching, She had seen enough students in her career to know what to look for, and Ranma exibited everything she had come to expect from an emotionally isolated child, even if he hid it exceptionally well. The fact that she had practical experience in the condition herself wasn't a fact she was willing to admit to, but the emotion that now sparkled in his blue eyes was different... Magnetic, even.
And their idea of 'fun' is just like mine...
"I'm... Not certain I am willing to part with that form yet," She admitted hesitantly, taking a risk that she had taken with few others. There had been too many hospitals in her childhood. Too many doctors and not enough… "Do you think your... Hild-san could help with that?"
Ranma stared; somewhat surprised that he was seeing something beyond the composed adult facade she normally wore. Before, there had been a clear line of separation between personas. Now, he wasn't so sure, and for a moment, the martial artist was unsure how to proceed. Instead of over thinking the situation, Ranma fell back on his martial arts doctrine and crooked a smile for the suddenly fragile looking woman. "Nah, Hild-san ain't gonna mind. The more the merrier."
"Thank you, Saotome," Miss Hinako brushed a lock of hair back as the traces of a grateful smile began to replace her timid exterior. "And perhaps I wouldn't mind more fun... with you and your friend."
"Yeah, no worries," Ranma shrugged it off in an attempt to avoid being the object of praise from the very person who was liable to rip the ki from his body. "Now if you wanna really want to thank me, you'll let me outta here so I can make my appointment."
"Appointment?" The woman finally stood off from the desk, walking to the door to open. Ranma followed, taking the silent invitation in kind.
"Yeah, don't tell nobody, but I'm teachin' myself." The doubtful look Miss Hinako sent back at him prompted his instant protest. "Hey, I can teach too, you know!"
"Martial arts?"
"Martial arts," Ranma confirmed with a grin, to which the beautiful teacher only rolled her eyes, opening the door.
"Then I'll ask you to keep my reputation as a harsh disciplinarian intact, should anybody ask," She added as Ranma bounced out the door. With that and a nod, he was gone down the hallway, leaving her to stand in the classroom door alone.
But not quite as alone as before.
Authors Notes:
We'll, I'm slowly getting a handle on normal life once again. Thanks to everybody who offered well wishes for my father. He's doing better and starting to try his hand at walking again. As to this particular fic, fight scenes tend to slow me down a bit, so it was that and real life crap I was pushing through. Thanks for sticking with my worse than normal writing schedule.
Hinako vs Mana vs Urd – Suck, suck, suck, suck! Spaceballs reference aside, Hinako is a one trick pony for the most part and I readily admit taking liberties with her technique to even have her stand toe to toe with Urd for even five minutes. This was ultimately an unwinnable battle for her, and was scripted as such.
Saffron, the Readers Digest Version – If you're questioning why this was a driveby, there are two reasons. First, there were no changes to the fight and the most I wanted to do was illustrate Hild's influence on Ranma's thought process. Second, the entire theme of this particular fic is Hild's influence on canon events, not a rewrite canon itself. You'll (hopefully) notice that even though canon was progressing throughout this entire fic, I've specifically avoided retelling Ranma.5 from the manga viewpoint. My general policy is that if you, the reader, has to live through another retelling of canon, I had better address parts of it in ways you wouldn't wholesale scroll past like a fail plot dump of canon.
Since I couldn't do that with Saffron's scene, I decided to keep it as brief as possible.
Special Thanks – Jeez, you people know who you are, already. Thanks a bunch, guys and gals.