Chapter Three: Violation of Sacred Ground
Ranma coughed and waved his hands, attempting to dispel some of the dust that had risen when the massive door had come crashing down. When it finally settled, the pig-tailed youth almost wished it hadn't. The three behind him froze for a moment, before spreading out next to him into a semi-circle around the entrance he had just created. "Son, I think we need to talk about this tendency of yours to get into crazy adventures," Nodoka chuckled. Her son simply hung his head as he replied. "Trouble finds me, mom, not the other way 'round…" Ryoga snickered, "Ain't that the truth," he noted as he raised his aura.
Ranma and Shampoo did the same, casting the large cavern into an eerie golden, reddish-white, and bright blue light. In the illumination provided by the flickering ki, they could see the opponents they were facing. Shampoo and Nodoka took an involuntary ste back, and the two boys' eyes widened in shock. Dark, shady, featureless faces stared back at them from the semi-darkness of the cavern with glowing red eyes that spoke of undeniable bloodlust. Ranma and Ryoga shared a look. "You've got to be freaking kidding me!" The pig-tailed boy exclaimed.
On an unspoken command, the wraiths charged, a featureless, limbless wave of black surging towards them.
V-------------------V
The sight that presented itself to Ukyo as she glanced out of the window of Cologne's home was rather unsettling for the young woman. The window of her guest room had a prime view on the town square, and even from a distance she could hear the telltale sound of musterin arms. She sighed, it seemed as if a religious fever had infected the Joketsuzoku. The okonomiyaki chef turned when someone knocked on the door. "Come in," she called, already knowing it was Cologne. "Hello, child," the ancient woman greeted her. "What's going on outside? It looks as if they're preparing for war," Ukzo's gaze flickered back to the window.
Cologne frowned. She knew her young charge was getting restless; Ukyo hadn't left her house for the last two days, ever since the day after the tournament – it was a wise choice, Cologne admitted, since most of the village seemed to have gone into a racist frenzy, expelling any and all non-amazons by force and closing up the village to all outside traffic despite their alliance with the Musk and Phoenix. She could only imagine what the situation looked like to their allies – after the last stunt the Joketsuzoku had pulled, the Musk and Phoenix were especially wary of them, and only Ranma's impressive display of power and his mother's quick tongue and wit had convinced the two tribes to begin a tentative peace and trade with their female neighbors.
Now, once again, their actions had to look rather suspicious, and Cologne had no doubt as to the consequences if the Musk and Phoenix decided – upon very real evidence – that the Joketsuzoku were a threat. The village had been rebuilt, true, but even now their numbers were small, and even a raiding party would leave a trememdous hole in their numbers. The elder amazon cursed the stupidity of her sisters, for risking the fragile peace that had been achieved after the events that had almost completely devastated them.
They weren't sure how Ukyo would be affected by the sudden purging of the village, but neither had been willing to risk it. Neither, however, had Ukyo been willing to leave the village. Cologne didn't know whether to commend the young woman for her bravely, or to curse her for it. "Perfume and Brush have declared what you would call martial law. They are preparing for the ritual sacrifices the goddess has ordered." The elder amazon shuddered. "It's brutal outside. Perfume's followers have beaten down any resistance and taken the sacrifices by force." Ukyo could feel the emotions pouring off the elder, and knew something bad was going on to so completely shatter the usually tight emotional control Cologne kept.
Then her words registered. Take the sacrifices…? "You don't mean…" Cologne nodded gravely. "Yes. They are sacrificing some of our young warriors, as was done in ancient times. I am glad Xian Pu is not here…they are choosing those that lost in the tournament, but have distinguished themselves in the last several fights. Which also means you're in danger, Ukyo. It would be best if you left the village."
The younger woman paled. "That's – that's barbaric!"
V-------------------V
The sword flashed through the shadowy body of a wraith, severing it cleanly. To Nodoka's surprise, the black mist condensed, leaving the creature unharmed once more. She reared back, stabbing her blade deep into the shadowy figure again, but lost her grip on the hilt of the katana when the wraith pulled, wrenching the blade from her. It struck out with its back claws; the auburn-haired woman let out a startled yell as she felt herself being pulled to safety, even as the glittering talons sliced cleanly through the head of a mace.
"Aiya, Ranma mother be careful," the amazon panted as she swung her remaining bonbori, clearing an area around them for a moment. Nodoka nodded, her reply cut off by a series of explosions from the other side o the doorway, accompanied by red and golden flashes. From over where Ranma and Ryoga were fighting, black mist began to rise, coalescing at the ceiling, only to disperse in a flash of golden light as the Saotome youth cut loose with a massive ki-blast. "Mom!" At the apex of his jump, Ranma spun, releasing a long black shape as he did.
Instinctively, Nodoka caught it, the silver metal of the blade flashing out of the black-laquered sheath, beheading and dispelling a wraith that had been about to impale Shampoo. The two women stared at the reverse-blade sword for a moment. "Aiya, this work much better than Ranma mother old sword," the lavender-haired girl finally muttered. Nodoka was forced to agree.
V-------------------V
The last three wraith fell with an inhuman shriek as two ki-blasts struck them in quick succession, dispersing and incinerating the dark fog they were composed of. Nodoka glanced around the cavern before returning the blade to its scabbard. Holding on to her son's sword, the Saotome matriarch began looking for her own. "Here, mom," Ranma suddenly stood next to her, holding the Saotome honor blade. With a warm smile, she accepted her own sword back, extending the sheathed sakabato to her son. Ranma shrugged and waved it off.
"Keep it, mom. No offense, but I think it'd be of more use than yours." With a giggle, Nodoka nodded. "You're right, son. That's a fine blade you have."
"Hey, guys!" Ryoga's voice echoed over from where he and Shampoo were looking around the cavern. Mother and son made their way across the battlefield, and Nodoka noted with a tinge of awe that the area where the two boys had been fighting was cleanly divided – half of it was pockmarked with craters and littered with debris where Ryoga had been cutting loose. The other half was nearly untouched, save for slight scorchmarking and scattered debris. Once more, Nodoka was amazed at the level of control her son had over his skill. When they reached their companions, Nodoka could see what had caught their attention.
It was a half-opened sarcophargus, but it was much smaller than she had expected. The lid showed signs of damage Nodoka attributed to the wraiths' attempts to open the casket. "That thing is too small to hold a human," Ranma noted as he eyed the stone coffin that wasn't any larger than two large shoeboxes. Nodoka disagreed. "It's a child's coffin," she muttered, leaning over the chipped and worn inscriptions on the stone lid.
Shampoo glanced over Nodoka's shoulder, mouthing the words as she tried to translate the ancient writings into Japanese. The auburn-haired woman, upon noticing the amazon, stepped aside. "This tell story of temple," the lavender-haired girl began slowly. "Temple revere sun-goddess for long long time, but when this child born of priestess, all hope for it to be strong priestess, because everyone feel child's power before even born; and prophecies say that child bring end to all darkness.
Ranma suppressed a snort. "That sounds a lot like hokey-pokey to me," he muttered, earning him a disapproving look from his mother. "And immortal phoenix gods and goddesses aren't?" The pig-tailed martial artist had the good sense to look abashed. Their attention turned back to Shampoo as she began to speak again. "But before child can bring light, it die, and temple suddenly be attacked by weird things. Some of its power remain, and it sealed up here in temple to prevent anyone from stealing it." Ryoga shot a look at the door they had entered through. "I get the feeling they didn't do a very good job of maintaining this place. It's got quite the residents," the lost boy noted dryly.
"This temple been abandoned for many year, so long it legend in Joketsuzoku." Shampoo eyed the cavern critically. "But Shampoo agree with lost boy, this no look like godly temple."
"Either way, we have to get out of this place," Nodoka noted. "We can't stay here forever, after all, and I think it would be wise to inform the Musk and Phoenix of these new developments." The four froze when a blood-curling scream pierced the air. What shocked and, to some extent, scared, them was the fact that it had been a human scream.
Ryoga was the first to regain the ability to speak, albeit shakily. "Th-that was-" Nodoka nodded dumbly in reply. Before either of them could say anything more, there was a large hole in the wall opposite the one they had come through, where the door used to be. Ranma was already gone.
V-------------------V
A surprising sight greeted the trio as they arrived, barely managing to stop in the doorway instead of ramming into Ranma. The pig-tailed youth had his back turned to them, and was breathing heavily. His golden aura could be seen slowly fading around him, and the dark smoke that were the remains of several wraith lay at his feet. Before him lay the unconscious form of a young woman, slumped against the wall where she no doubt had made her last stand against the wraith.
The girl had long black hair tied up into two buns, much like Shampoo's, and she was clad in dark red ceremonial garb. Shampoo's eyes widened in surprise. "Lo Xian!" Ranma glanced over his shoulder, only now noticing his companions' presence. "Huh?"
Shampoo rushed over to the unconscious woman, her eyes flickering over her as she expertly assessed her injuries. Finally, the lavender-haired girl heaved a sigh of relief. "Who is she, Shampoo?" Ranma asked as he knelt next to her. The girl turned around and smiled at him as she replied, "Lo Xian is priestess from Joketsuzoku. She leave village two day before tournament, and gone since then."
A quiet moan from the prone figure next to them caught their attention. After a moment, Lo Xian's eyes fluttered open, and she sat up abruptly, one hand moving to her forehead. She muttered something in Chinese that caused Shampoo to chuckle, and Ranma moved aside to let his mother take a look at the girl. The pig-tailed martial artist joined Ryoga at the doorway that continued deeper into the temple ruins.
The two boys stared warily into the darkness that lay beyond the faint light of their flashlights, for the moment ignoring the quiet conversation in Chinese that occurred behind them for the moment.
"Who's there?" Shampoo smiled softly as she waved at her fellow amazon. "It's me, Xian Pu. How are you feeling, Lo Xian ?" The raven-haired amazon rubbed her temples. "I've got the mother of all headaches. What are you doing here? And who are those outsiders?" The last question had a dangerous undertone, and Shampoo was about to retort harshly when Nodoka beat her to it.
"These 'outsiders' just saved your life, Lo Xian," the Saotome matriarch told her, her voice cold enough to give even Shampoo pause. Nodoka was staring at the younger woman, her eyes boring deeply into Lo Xian's. Finally, the amazon priestess averted her gaze, and nodded. "Thank you," she muttered. "But you still shouldn't be here. This is holy ground, it's dangerous for you to be here."
That earned her a snort from Shampoo. "This doesn't look holy to me. It's dangerous all right, but nothing we can't handle. Ranma could probably eat those wraith for breakfast." At the mention of the pig-tailed martial artist's name, Lo Xian turned her head and stared in mute shock at said boy. "He's here?" Nodoka nodded. "Yes, we were here for the tournament. Things…turned sour. How did you get here?"
Lo Xian frowned for a moment. "I was on my way to the temple north of our village, along with two others. We fell into an ambush, and were chased here. Fo Hn and Do Wel fell. I made it inside, but the creatures followed me. I found this room. The crystal over there, see it?" She indicated a pedestal that held a small, yellow gemstone that had been cut into an elongated oval. "It used to light this place, as long as it was there, they didn't come in here. It went out just before you got here."
Ryoga, who by now had moved over to listen in to the conversation even though he only understood a fraction of it, picked up the small gem. "This thing kept them out of here?" Lo Xian and Shampoo glanced up in surprise. Shampoo nodded her head. "I think it go out when lost boy blow up stairs," she giggled, causing Ryoga to flush in embarassment. "Who this?" the priestess asked in broken Japanese.
"This is Hibiki Ryoga," Shampoo replied in Chinese. Switching back to Japanese, she told the lost boy, "We need get moving, this place no longer safe." Ryoga nodded. Several flashes from the direction of the corridor drew their attention away from the conversation. "Ranma!" Nodoka was past Ryoga in an instant, her son's sword out and at the ready. Shampoo and her sister amazon were behind them only a moment later.
When they arrived at the site of the battle, the fight was already over. Lo Xian stared in wide-eyed surprise at the fading mist that was all that remained of several wraith. "You do that?" She asked the pig-tailed martial artist. Ranma turned and smirked. "They ain't so tough," he grinned. Glancing down the corridor, he added, "We better get moving. There's more of them down that way."
Lo Xian retrieved a weathered scroll from the folds of her robe and handed it to Shampoo. In Chinese, she told her, "In this place, my spiritual powers are being drained. I can still fight, but I can no longer banish these creatures with my wards. The only place in this temple that still retains enough of its holy power to keep them at bay is most likely the tomb of the original high priestess. This scroll has part of the ritual to harness that energy and cleanse the temple. It's only a third of the complete scroll, I couldn't find more."
Nodoka translated for the two boys while Lo Xian spoke. "Lotion," Ranma finally called out, slurring the name somewhat. "You got any idea what's going on here?" he asked in accented Mandarin. The amazon priestess turned to him in obvious surprise. "I think the temple has been taken over by a vengeful spirit." The pig-tailed martial artist snorted, "I think this is a little more than just a spirit," he noted, "What about the seal that was broken?"
"What seal?"
"There was a seal slightly east of the village. Big rock, had the kanji for evil etched into it. There's also a sword that goes along with it, it's big, and has runes all over its blade. I think they called it the 'Sunblade,' or something." At the explanation, Lotion paled considerably. "That's the seal of Amatsu!" "Boy, this is bad, isn't it?" Ryoga asked from the sidelines as Nodoka translated her son's question and the amazon's reply.
Lotion frowned, and all four could feel the fear and anxiety pouring off the young woman. "Amatsu was a fallen goddess. In our legends, she was the daughter of Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and heiress to her powers. She envied her mother's position, and tried to take it for herself. Failing, she was banished from the heavens, and began her revenge here on this plane. It is said she started a long and bloody war between gods and mortals, and ended up challenging her mother again. They fought, and Amaterasu sealed her away. The warriors that survived the battle are our ancestors," she explained. "If the seal is broken, and the sword is gone, then she must be free."
Nodoka frowned. "I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but we saw an apparition of a young woman, who introduced herself as Amaterasu at the broken seal. She said the sunblade had been handed to her champion to fight the coming darkness." Lotion nodded, "if the seal has been broken and Amatsu is free, then that could happen. Why do you ask?"
"That's it!" Ranma exclaimed, snapping his fingers. Everyone else turned to the pig-tailed martial artist in surprise. "What's what?" Ryoga asked. With a smirk, Ranma elaborated. "When we saw that thing, I tried to feel her aura. It's divine, all right, it's like what I've felt around Urd and Bell, but there was something off, something I couldn't quite explain. It felt…different, somehow. I thought maybe it was because Urd and Bell are sisters, but that's not it – it's because she was a fallen goddess!"
His four companions blinked as they tried to digest his words. Ranma waited for a moment. And another. Finally, Shampoo asked, "Huh?" The pig-tailed martial artist nearly fell down in exhasperation. "It's like this; Shampoo, you remember Urd, right?" The amazon had to think only for a moment. "Aiya! Too too sexy sorceress!" Ranma nodded. "Yeah, that's her. There's something different between her aura and the one from the thing we saw. It's…I don't know how to explain this. It's off, somewhere. It's like the difference between limes and lemons. It's basically the same, but…not as focused." He stared into the incomprehending faces of his friends. "It's because she doesn't have her divine powers fully under her control anymore! That's why it's started to mix with other things, wild magic, chi, ki, whatever – she doesn't quite have the control, or the limitations of a goddess anymore."
Slowly, Ryoga began to speak. "So…you're saying that the apparition we saw felt different from a real goddess?" His choice of words caused Ranma to blush bright red and the three women to giggle. "Huh? What'd I say?" The lost boy looked confused. "Yeah, that's it. So she was the fake one," Ranma concluded. "This bad," Lotion added in Japanese. "This mean Amatsu take Amaterasu form and fool village. This bad bad."
V-------------------V
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Ryoga asked as he threw another ki-blast into the darkness. They were trapped in a small room which connected to four corridors – three of which were filling up with wraith. "No idea," Ranma replied as he let loose with a blast of his own. "Can't hurt to try," he said. Behind them, Lotion was placing the small sunstone gem she had found onto the pedestal in the center of the room.
Instantly, the room lit up in a bright yellow light as the gem began radiating as brightly as a small sun, the light reaching into the farthest crevasses of the room and deep into the corridors. With an unearhtly wail, the wraiths disintegrated into nothingness, disappearing as quickly as they had come, their forms banished as the shadows shrank. "Wow," Ranma breathed. "It's working!"
Lotion let out a relieved sigh, then sat down with her back leaning against the pedestal. She exchanged a few words with Shampoo in Chinese, who translated them a moment later. "Lotion no know how long ward hold. Say we better rest few minute then keep going. She think sungem break shadow barrier."
A few minutes later, Lotion snatched the dimming sungem from the pedestal, and the five of them once more found themselves enshrouded in darkness, only broken by the faint illumination provided by their flashlights. Ranma lead the way through the corridor, with Nodoka and Lotion behind him, while Shampoo and Ryoga brought up the rear. The lavender-haired amazon had tied a rope around her waist and Ryoga's, trying to prevent or at least delay the lost boy's getting lost.
They hit the first barrier, and Ranma eyed it warily. He remembered the one they had encountered just after entering the lower levels of the temple too well – that, and the way the rock he had tossed at it had disintegrated. "Ok," he muttered, "Pray." Clutching the sungem Lotion handed him in his right hand, he tossed it at the opaque barrier. Upon hitting the barrier, the gemstone flared in a brilliant white light, causing all five to shield their eyes. When it faded, the wall that had obstructed their way was gone, and they were staring into a dark, black cavern.
Torches that lined the walls ignited themselves, the flames flickering angrily as they lighted up the area. In the dim light they could see they were standing at the beginning of a long platform that led to the center of a hemispherical cavern. The narrow bridge they were standing at led to a large, circular platform in the center of the cavern, and in the center of the platform stood four pillars, arrayed around a casket and altar.