Second Night: Reinforce Drei

(Nanoha/Ranma X-Over)

Disclaimer- Both Nanoha and Ranma series belong to their respective copyright holders. Not me. This piece of fiction is done solely for entertainment and no profit is made from it in any form.

Timeline Note: The Ranma elements pick up near 3 years post prologue however the Nanoha elements are near 10 years post prologue (StrikerS period). The 2 times are the same; the book merely spent 7 years in limbo during its escape.

Chapter 1

First Flicker

'How would I make use of Reinforce Drei if it was assigned to me as part of my forces during a battle? I take it that you mean Saotome when you say that, at least have the decency to use his name when you talk about him. In truth I view him as something of an out of control vacuum, turn him on, point him at the enemy and clear the area. Unless you're planning to send him up against the Yagami woman, then I would skip straight to running since he tends to take it personally when that happens.'

Quote from General Herb (King of the Musk Dynasty, AA-Ranked Ki Adept/Combat Mage), 1st Corp, Sentinel Alliance, addressing Alliance officer cadets.

Unregistered Planet 112

Jusenkyo

A pair of dirty figures slogged along the muddy track as it twisted through the mountain range along what was mostly likely the least travelled of routes in the region heading towards the latest, and unknown to the younger of the duo, last planned stop on their long training journey. A journey that had snaked its way across the length and width of Japan and even into the nearby countries of the Pacific Rim in search of the next glimmer of martial knowledge or mythic training grounds with which to improve their skills.

The pleasant if cold weather belayed the downtrodden mood of the pair, a mood which despite what might be common with others, had nothing to do with the fact that the younger had been forced to carry the older of the pair as they fled from a particularly persistent group of pursuers through the wilds of China in the pouring rain last night. Confident that they had finally lost the last of the varied irate shopkeepers and cranky monks for the time being they had changed direction and were now moving through the mystical valley of Jusenkyo and closing on the first of the pools which appeared to be the central feature of the landscape.

"Why are we here again Pops, it doesn't looks like it will give us a challenge. Didn't we do the pole balance training last month with those spears?" Ranma asked crankily as he walked behind his father and attempted to shake the latest layer of mud off of his thin footwear with little success.

"We were interrupted last time my boy! A martial artist must always strive to accomplish perfection, you can never train enough in the ways of the Art Ranma, I thought I taught you better then to ask stupid questions like that!" The larger of the two announced grandly as he did his best to strike a heroic pose while keeping up the brisk jogging pace the Saotomes had adopted since Ranma had dumped him on his ass at the end of the night.

The younger Saotome grumbled under his breath about stupidity obviously being infectious and fat old man starving hard working martial artists with their stupid ideas. The muttering was caught by Genmas survival sharpened ears as the he twisted partly around without breaking stride and pointed at his offspring accusingly.

"It wasn't me they were after that time boy! I warned up to stay away from anything you saw that caused your stomach to rumble, but you couldn't follow my instruction and just grab the scroll the monks had left as part of the training exercise! Oh to have such a dim witted son, Nodoka I have failed you!" the bolding master of the Anything Goes cried out overdramatically as Ranma fumed in the background.

"That wasn't my fault! I didn't even touch the stupid gem this time, you can't place the blame on me if the battery finally died or whatever. How old was that thing anyway, it had to have been about to go anyway." Ranma protested loudly in his defence before glaring at his father again as something occurred to him.

"Weren't those monks shouting something about a sacred scroll being stolen between baying for my blood and other bits. Whose fault would that be huh?!" The student of Anything Goes countered only to have it waved off airily by his father.

"Bah! They were just playing along with the training. I admit I've made one or two minor miscalculations in the past Ranma however I've never had an organisation form solely to hunt me down, that's one thing you surpass me with son. I'm so proud, my son has created his own organisation to be a rival, no simple martial artist rival is good enough for him." Genma said as he wiped away fake tears.

Ranma nearly tripped as one of his father's favourite taunts was brought into the argument, the only one he couldn't completely claim to be the old man's fault. Over the years of travelling and training Genma had racked up an impressive array of debts to various bars, restaurants and shops he had ripped off with eat and runs along with a line of angry dojo owners when he had skipped out on then carrying there precious technique scrolls. Things had settled into a routine until 3 years ago when Ranma discovered that he would drain magical doodads by touching them if he wasn't concentrating, at which point the Saotomes had found out the angry monks and hedge magicians were a hell of a lot more persistent and dangerous then random shopkeepers. It had gotten worse when said monks had found out about said shopkeepers and decided that the best way to bring down they targets was to join forces. As such the Anti Saotome Union, ASA for short, was born though Ranma tended to refer to them as the Asses. Because of them the Saotomes had become very good at running and hiding over the last 2 years given all the practice they had been getting.

"Damn it you old fart that's your fault too! If you hadn't ripped off all those people they wouldn't have that much money to come after us with!" Ranma protested again as he pointed back at his father.

"Pitiful excuses boy! Accept the truth like a martial artist!" Genma replied as he jumped up onto the first of the bamboo poles sticking out of the pools.

"Take that back!"

"Make me boy!"

The pair shouted at each other as Ranma joined his father on the poles and they prepared to engage each other.

As the two Saotomes began their daily ritual of attempting to beat each other into submission on top of the flimsy stretches of material and drench their opponent in the small pools of water below them a short pudgy man in a green Chinese uniform hurried across the area towards them.

"No sirs! Jusenkyo is no good place to train!" The man shouted at the two as he got closer.

"Sirs! You come down now, is not safe. Please stop!" He continued as the battling martial artists seemed to ignore him in favour of searching for an opening in their opponent's defences.

"Sloppy boy! I thought that I had a worthy heir not a pansy!" Genma mocked as he slipped a blow past the younger Saotomes defences and knocked Ranma into one of the other poles.

"It's not over yet you lazy drunk!" Ranma proclaimed as he bounced off of the pole and rapidly circled the more experience fighter.

"No! Come down now! You no know the danger, is very bad you fall in pools!" The man shouted again as he scrambled after the battling pair following the fight as it moved through the maze of pools.

The fight continued until Ranma was able to catch his father in mid air, kicking off nothingness without a brief flash of light from the soul of his foot, giving him sufficient leverage to hit his father through the pole he would otherwise have bounced off of and into the spring next to it. Landing lightly onto the bank next to the pool Ranma finally took notice of the stranger running up to him.

"Sir get away from the pool! Bad if you fall in, very bad!" The man shouted as he rapidly closed the distance.

Turning to face the man he missed the sudden appearance of a dark shape erupting from the pool and throwing itself across the distance between them with incredible force. Reacting on instinct the younger Saotome attempted to bring up his arms to block the charge, a pale white shield briefly flickering into existence faintly before being brushed aside like nothing and a furry paw hitting him in the side. The force of the strike sent him skidding backwards and into a nearby pool, his last sight of a black grizzly bear standing upright in a pose as if finishing a punch before sky and water covered his vision and he closed his eyes and his world exploded in pain.

As Ranma hit the water of the pool, the magic of Jusenkyo went to work, for ages the ancient forces of the Springs of Sorrow had permutated the valley carrying out the twisted curse that infected the land upon any that were unfortunate or foolish enough to be caught in its trap.

While not sentient in the slightest the curse had encountered many things since it had come into existence and had adapted to counter or work around them within the limits of its corrupted programming quite effectively. When presented with this new target it immediately sought to carry out its task and force a new template onto the being, feeling the fabric of the strange creature of magic that had dropped into its domain it located a pre-loaded yet dormant template that fit the specifications of the spell matrix linked to the spring, the Nyannichuan.

Since it wasn't intelligent the Springs simply choose the path of least resistance that would allow for the operation to be completed. Channelling increasing amounts of mana into the being it eventually managed to awaken the template and attach the activation trigger to it loosely. Up to this point the physical thrashing of the being in the spring had been below its notice and the minor drain on its power only slightly more worthy of attention, when it finally managed to successfully activate the template however the slight drain transformed into a flood as the being grasped hold of the link to the template and sucked the Springs mana through it like a straw.

Had Jusenkyo been alive it might have experienced panic or a cold sensation of death seeping through the link from the being, as it was wasn't alive the sudden drain merely tripped long unused protocols. A huge amount of mana was sent down the link in a single burst, disrupting the drain long enough for the Springs to seal the link though it wasn't able to sever it completely. After this the Springs went to work reconstructing the lost template pool in a separate location.

The change took only a few seconds, the magic of the Springs and the workings of the Book acting faster than the conscious mind could comprehend as the strange battle was fought between the two automated magic's.

On the outside the result was far more spectacular than the normal seamless change that most victims experience. A few moments after Ranma disappeared beneath the water and lost conciseness the spring lit up with a pillar of white light that reached high into the sky before exploding in a dome of black death as the excess mana from the surge that the Spring had sent was dissipated in the quickest manner available.

The watching man and man-turned-bear were thrown backwards by the shockwave that knocked over a number of bamboo sticks and obliterated the Nyannichaun completely. Fortunately the two of them avoided tumbling into any of the other springs, with the help of Jusenkyo in the man's case and Genma developed survival instinct and experience with Happosai in his allowing them both to get away un-curse, or re-cursed in the grizzles case.

As the shockwave dissipated grizzly-Genma focused his gaze onto ground zero of the blast while crouched low to the ground and using his new claws to grip the earth below him for extra traction. With the obscuring light and shadow gone he was able to see a floating white haired woman with closed eyes, an elaborate black uniform and most noticeably of all 4 pitch black wings protruding from the small of her back. The appearance of the strange woman lasted only a few seconds before it disappeared in a flash of white revealing an unconscious Ranma that promptly fell to the earth like a puppet with its strings cut.

Climbing to his feet Genma proceeded to move over to his fallen son in order to check on his condition, after all it wouldn't do if anything permanent had befallen him. Genma had a retirement of leisure and scamming his old friend Soun to look forward to which all relied on the boy.

The man scrambled after the older Saotome trying to explain the situation before they did anything else that might get him killed or worse yet cursed!

A few miles away in 4 different directions several heads snapped up as they took notice of the sudden magical burst of energy. Of those 2 decided to take action immediately, one breaking into a run towards the location of the signal followed by his subordinates while the other called for a meeting and scouts to be sent out towards the sudden event.

After managing to drag the sleeping boy out of the impressive hole that he had inadvertently created in the ancient valleys earth, the pair of older men had relocated to the Chinese mans small hut a short distance from the location of the Saotomes unfortunate meeting with the corrupted magic of Jusenkyo.

The insides of the abode were simple, containing only the very basics for living and the roof leaked in several locations. This didn't stop Genma-grizzly growling in satisfaction at getting into shelter as he moved further into the hut and unceremoniously dumped the un-conscious Ranma onto cold hard footboards to the surprise and stammered protests of the other man.

"Ah customer be careful! Ah young customer seem ok, you wait 1 moment please." The man said as he hurried to check the fallen Saotome before nodding in satisfaction and heading across to the stove in order to heat some water.

While the man faced the stove and waited for the water to boil he began to talk aloud.

"I am Jusenkyo Guide, my family charged with looking over Jusenkyo and stopping unfortunates from being cursed! Much shame to fail I feel but you no listen to my warnings so sirs is now cursed by springs, very tragic. Sir is cursed by Spring of drowned Black Grizzly Bear, tragic story of circus bear that escape only be drowned by springs when it try drink. Young customer falls in Spring of drowned Girl, much tragic story of girl that fall out of sky and drown landing in pool, too tragic story." The self proclaimed guide explained cheerfully as he watched the water and ignored the dull thumps from behind him.

"Customer no worry though curse reversible, cold water turn to bear, hot water make man again so no worry yes! Ah it finished now, WHAT CUSTOMER DO!" The Guide exclaimed as he turned around with 2 glasses of water in his hands only to behold the bear shaking the boy hard and slapping him with a large paw.

"Grrr, gruf, grrr" The bear responded articulately.

"Perhaps this help you sir" The Guide said as he poured half of the glass filled with hot water onto the bear.

"Ha! Hands! Wake up boy!" Genma celebrated as he transformed back into a human before turning back to his son and preparing to start off again where he had left off as a bear only to be stopped by the Guide.

"Please honoured customer let me." He said as he poured the glass of cold water directly onto the younger martial artists face.

Before their eyes the body lying between then seemed to hesitate and the began slowly shifting, the pace of the transformation picking up speed as the younger Saotome shifted from a dark haired young man into the slightly older looking white haired that they had briefly seen before, hovering above the destroyed Spring of drowned Girl. Unlike that time however this version looked far less menacing, lacking the ebony wings or the sinister, if a little silly in the Guides opinion , looking uniform that she had been wearing before. On top of this it was revealed that the woman had blood red eyes as they opened when Ranma sat up, sputtering to clear the water that had got into her mouth and nose.

"Cough, cough. Damn it! Stop trying stupid training techniques on me in my sleep Pops! WHAT THE HELL!?!" Ranma exclaimed as he managed to focus on the present enough to notice the changes he had been put through.

"Sir be calm! Is cursed by Spring of drowned Girl, cold water transform customer into girl but hot water change back! Here, young customer see for self. " The Guide quickly thrust the half full glass of water into the hands of the irate Saotome in the hopes of preventing his hut from suffering the same fate as the unlamented spring.

Taking the glass Ranma quickly splashed himself, like before the transformation seemed to hesitate for a moment before shifting him back to his male form. Patting his chest carefully the magical martial artist turned to look at the guide with a frown.

"What the heck is going on?" He growled with irritation at yet another magical mishap butting into the train wreck that was his life.

"A question that We would also be most interested in learning the answer to Guide." Another voice stated as 3 heads turned towards the door, the Saotomes jumping to their feet and taking defensive stances.

The Figure in the now open doorway merely smiled in amusement at their actions.

"... reboot doesn't seem necessary... "

"... collapsed, just fell to the floor... "

"... Signum knocked down ... "

" ... Wolkenritter, was nothing ..."

"Ohhh, loud. " She complained as she slowly opened her eyes and the world came back into focus.

"ZWEI!"

Authors Note:

Right first chapter is now done hope you enjoyed it. For those curious got watch Nanoha A's Episode 10 to see what armoured Ranma looks like in this chapter.

Thanks to the TFF crew for the inspiration their musing gives me.

Until next time. Shad4c out.