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.
Chapter 2
One jump forward
"When one is of superior quality then no obstacle is too great."
"You said that last time, didn't help much."
"A pitiful setback Saotome, a Prince looks only forward."
"Yeah, that Divine Buster to the ass must be too painful to remember."
"Peasant."
Audio record of a conversation between Reinforce Drei aka Ranma Saotome and Prince Herb during joint training exercise
As the figure observed the scene that it had walked into, a tense silence stretched between the four people inside of the hut before it was abruptly broken by the Jusenkyo Guide scurrying forward. Hands clasped in front of him the Guide placed himself directly between the figure in the doorway and the two Saotomes that were maintaining their defensive stances and warily observed the figure, particularly the younger whose mouth was partly open in preparation for delivering a blunt challenge towards the stranger.
"Many apologies, no offence is meant, please forgive these customers for this slight your Highness" The Guide carefully said in Japanese so that the Saotomes could understand him before switching to a rapid stream of Mandarin, bowing repeatedly.
"Ignorance can be excused once Guide and I am in a magnanimous mood today so I will allow this to pass." The figure replied as he stepped out of the doorway, roughly pushing the other man aside as he did so.
Strolling into the hut itself the blue and white haired man ignored the two Saotomes and made his way across to the only proper chair in the Spartan home, spinning it around so that it faced the still tense martial artists and gracefully seating himself. An aura of supreme confidence radiated from the warrior as his small amused smile reappeared as he began to address the cursed travellers who had relaxed their guard now that it didn't appear that the stranger was out to get them.
"Ignorance may be excused once, after which it is the responsibility of someone appropriate to correct it. This time I will fulfil that role though it is far below my station. I am Herb, Prince of the Musk Dynasty, Heir to the Dragon Throne and Guardian of the valley of Jusenkyo." The now introduced Prince grandly proclaimed as the Guide hurried to perform various tasks in the background.
"Well that's just great buddy..." Ranma started only for Genma to grab him and cover his mouth in order to prevent the younger Saotome from finishing the sentence.
"I'm sorry, my son and I have spent a lot of time in the wilds training, I'm afraid the boys manors aren't at the same level as his martial skills your Highness. He means that it's an honour to meet one such as yourself, we're unworthy of your time and should have known who you are the moment we saw you. I'll discipline the boy severely your Highness. "Genma practically grovelled as the fine survival senses that he had developed dealing with his own master kicked into overdrive with this man.
Ranmas only response was to bite the offending hand blocking his month and attempt to worm his way out of his father's hold, initiating a small scuffle. Herb continued as if the violence in front of him wasn't happening, accustomed as he was to the occasional stupidity of his own bodyguards.
"Of course you are forgiven, you are strangers here. I did not come here today in order to discuss how you have raised your son but for a more pressing matter. Scouts from my people have recently located a monster on the nearby slopes, since it is the duty of the Prince to protect his people I have decided to seek out the beast and destroy it before it can cause any trouble. I was passing the springs themselves when I felt your auras, though I am more than strong enough to dispatch the beast myself, for the good of my people I would seek insurance towards its destruction. As such you will accompany me and prevent the creature from escaping." The Musk Prince stated with a calm superior air as he accepted a drink that the Guide handed him.
"Well your Highness that is something that normally I would love to help with, however the boy and I have an appointment with an old friend of mine that we really can't miss out on..." Genma began explaining as he tried to wriggle out of anything as dangerous as demon hunting.
"You've been 'blessed' by Jusenkyo I see." Herb interrupted, his smile gaining an edge of cruelty as he watched the bolding Saotome stop I his attempts to talk his way out of the situation as if he had a knife held to his face.
"Well yeah Prince, do you think we'd be here if we weren't." Ranma replied with a frown as he managed to slip out of his father's hold and punch him in the side of the head, knocking the other combatant across the room.
"As the Guide has likely not yet told you the 'blessing' of Jusenkyo is an ancient magic that holds few if any rivals in power and complexity on our world. Finding a way to cure or even control it would be difficult if not impossible for those unfamiliar with the ways of the magical world." The dragon prince explained calmly as he swirled the contents of the glass casually.
"I'll find a way, no stupid curse will beat me." Ranma said.
"Perhaps, miracles do occasionally happen after all. As a prince of a magical kingdom that resides in this region and has done for centuries my people would, of course, know nothing of any cures or methods to control the... effects... of Jusenkyos magic." The Prince said in a bored tone, his eyes hardening with intent.
"You've got a cure!" Both the Saotome shouted simultaneously.
"Perhaps, then again, perhaps not. I know of none personally however my people have lived in this valley for a very long time and some of my ancestors were obsessive collectors of knowledge and magical trinkets. If anyone could find a solution then it is the archivists of the Dynasty. The archives and treasure champers of the Musk are vast and varied with things from all corners of the globe. Of course such services are a difficult and arduous task and could only be performed for one that had proven themselves a friend to the Musk Dynasty." Herb finished explaining before gracefully sipping from the glass.
The two Saotomes looked at each other, one with suspicion and the other with greed.
"Helping you with disposing of this monster would be the friendly thing to do don't you agree Ranma." Genma said with a wide smile.
"So we do this and you have your people look into a cure?" Ranma asked slowly.
"Willingly assisting the heir to the throne would make you a friend of the Musk and we look out for our friends." The armoured prince responded smoothly.
"Fine, how tough can one monster be anyway, let's get this over with." The pigtailed boy proclaimed.
"That's the spirit son, go and show them the might of the Anything Goes School!" The master of the Saotome School proclaimed loudly from where he was now sitting at the table with a flask of sake in his hand.
"You're coming too!" Ranma shouted back as he stomped across to the other martial artist intent on forcing the older Saotome into complying.
As the others were distracted by new battle, Herb allowed his smile to briefly blossom into a cruel smirk before schooling his expression and rising to his feet.
"Only those that help are friends of the Musk, actions are far more important than words. If you have settled your discussion for the moment we will head out, I wish to destroy this menace before nightfall. Come." The Musk Prince ordered as he turned and walked towards the door without looking back.
As the sound of conflict ceased and was replaced by the grumble of assent along with the soft sounds of two pairs of footsteps following in his wake the Prince smile became one of true humour for the first time since he had entered the Guides hut. When he had felt the new power and rushed to the scene his first instinct had been to head to the pitiful Guides abode in case the power had something to do with the Springs.
If he was right about the identity of this new power, he just had to play the fools correctly and he would have valuable tools in the future. If he was wrong, then they would surely make strong breeding stock once Jusenkyo recreated the Nyanniichaun.
Covertly signalling his bodyguards to remain hidden at a distance the dragon descendant lead the wandering martial artists away from the hut, and towards the test that had conveniently appeared, at a rapid pace.
Mid-Childa
The sunny and cool weather that the capital of Mid-Childa was enjoying at present had little impact on the mood of the short haired brunette that was sitting outside of a room in the Medical Wing of the Bureaus ground forces headquarters, forced to leave the room while the doctors performed their scans on the 4 patients.
As the door opened she turned her head quickly and partly raised herself from her seat before she remembered the miniature figure currently sleeping on her lap. Settling back down swiftly the Bureau Special Investigator returned the smile the doctor gave her with a strained one of her own.
"Colonel Yagami, you can go in now as we've finished the scans. Your presence would be welcome I'm sure." The older doctor stated as he waved a pad at her.
"Thank you. How are they doing, have you found out what happened to them yet?" Hayate asked with concern as she carefully picked up Reinforce Zwei from her lap, cradling the small unison devise in her hands, and got to her feet.
"From initial tests it appears that they were caught in some sort of power surge, since they weren't braced for it the shock must have been too much for them and knocked them out. That's what happened Colonel, but I'm sure you can sympathize when I say that the how and why parts of a situation are a lot harder to figure out." The doctor commented wirily as he shook his head.
"I understand. Are you sure it's ok for me to go in now." Hayate asked a second time.
"Please, go right on in! Their awake and don't seem to have any problems as a result of that zap, I want to keep them in overnight for observation so I can have the test result gone over by the labs otherwise they could go. The biggest problem is going to be keeping them here, the orange haired firebrand is just about ready to stage an escape attempt." The lab coated man said as he tried to lighten the mood a bit.
"Thank you, excuse me." The mistress of the Tome of the Night Sky said as she slipped past the man and into the hospital room where the four members of the Wolkenritter were resting after having collapsed earlier in the day.
A soft smile came to her as she took in the four members of her strange adopted family as three of them tried their best to get the nurses to agree to releasing them in their own way, be it via calm logic, medical knowledge or shear stubbornness . The picture was completed be the relaxed figure of Zafira, in humanoid form, relaxing on his own bed without a word as he enjoyed the battle of wills around him and chewed on a piece of jerky he had gotten from somewhere.
"The doctor says that you have to stay in the hospital for observation overnight just in case the tests come up with something." Hayate said as she shut the door behind her, causing the Knights to go quiet as they turned to look at her.
The Investigator returned the nurses grateful smiles as she moved deeper into the room and passed them as they left to give her some privacy.
"But we're fine, we don't need to stay in here for a whole night. It takes more than this to take us down, you know that Hayate!" Vita protested as she started to climb out of the bed only to be intercepted by the one she called her mistress as gently pushed back down.
"I do know what it takes to knock you down Vita, that's why I want you all to stay in here like the doctors say. Please Vita, just this once." Hayate softly said as she defused the ticking bomb that was the Iron Knight, causing the smaller girl to grumble loudly but comply.
"That is exactly the reason that we should not stay in here. Finding the source of this should be a priority." Signum said flatly only to lean back a bit as Hayate turned a level gaze on the leader of the Wolkenritter.
"You are staying here tonight, we can figure out what this was after we're sure that it hasn't done harm to any of you." The uniformed brunette stated with a hint of steel in her voice, cutting off any further argument from her companions.
"Since your awake now can you can tell me what happened to you?" The Yagami asked, her voice taking on a more professional tone.
"We've been attempting to puzzle this out as well Hayate. It was a strange yet familiar feeling that rushed threw us." Shamal mused aloud.
"From us" Zafira interrupted, gaining a nod of acceptance from the blond.
"From you? You didn't feel the presence of anyone? A direction?" Hayate probed getting negative gestures in response.
"I felt no hostile presence when the surge came, indeed I felt nothing until it hit which was strange since I was on guard at the time." Signum explained in turn.
"On guard? Why? Was it something in the headquarters?" Hayates mind grasped onto minor fact due to her knowledge of Signum. The woman was always on guard to an extent, for her to mention it meant that she had been actively seeking a threat.
"Yeah now that you mention it there was something, just before I was knocked down a ... pressure... from inside. It was annoying because it was there but it wasn't there." Vita frowned in annoyance at the memory.
"There but not there. Yes that fits, it felt like it was meant to be there but at the same time wasn't a part of me, wasn't meant to be there though not as strongly." Shamal continued for the smaller knight.
"You believe that there may be a connection." The pink haired knight stated with conviction.
"Possibly Signum, we can't rule out anything right know since we don't really know anything yet. Hopefully Reinforce can add something more after I take her in for an in-depth examination." Hayate explained as she looked down at the tiny white haired figure that she was still holding.
"Things are moving again." The only male in the room stated simply.
"That might be so Zafira. I intend to try and get Chrono to push forward the establishment of the special unit, if this is a start of something we need to be ready." The TSAB Colonel said gravely.
"Let them come, doesn't matter who it is we'll take them down." Vita proclaimed aggressively as the others smiled at her antics.
The rest of the brunettes visit was taken up chatting about the various day to day concerns of the group and their future plans for the establishment of Hayates dreamed of unit until the Mistress of the Wolkenritter left to take her smallest follower for her own check up.
It wasn't long before the Knights were once again driving the hospital staff insane with their complaints while they waited for the night to pass.
Jusenkyo
The trio of warriors had made good time across the valley towards the location of the monster, helped along by the coded hints that were being left for the Prince by the bodyguard that was scouting ahead of the group. During the journey Herb had taken the opportunity to fill in the two Saotomes with a carefully edited version of the history and politics of the lands of Jusenkyo.
"You were most fortunate that I was in the area in order to meet you, the Guide performs his duties however he is far from the best informed person when it comes to the magic and ways of Jusenkyo. He is also somewhat partisan towards the Amazons, I doubt that you would like them." Herb said as he ran.
"Amazons? Like the Greek ones?" Ranma asked as he bounced over a bush.
"Ah, that is correct, a tribe of aggressive warrior woman." The Prince stated.
A brief laugh came from Genma earning him a apparently understanding look from the dragon prince.
"Quite. Do not dismiss them however, they are powerful fighters in their own right and have an array of very effective techniques at their disposal. They deserve that title, if it were not for their bloodthirsty pettiness I might admire them for these qualities." Herb continued.
"What's that meant to mean?" The younger Saotome asked.
"They have strict laws, ones that they enforce with ruthless efficiency. It matters not whether or not you know of them, should an outsider break them they are killed or taken as 'servants' without exception. In recent years we have taken to avoiding them in hopes of limiting the damage their stubborn ways have on the people of the Dynasty." The Musk heir finished, inwardly satisfied when he noticed the slight frowns on the faces of the two after he looked at them.
A warbling bird cry echoed from the area in front of the fast moving trio followed shortly by a louder roar and a slight rumbling as the source came closer. Instantly the three members of the group were on guard as they came to a stop and then jumped to the sides. From out of the forest in front of them came a large four legged reptilian creature, a large bony set of spikes and cones on its back along with a mass of tentacles.
As Ranma changed direction and charged into attack the revealed monster, Herb grabbed hold of the older Saotome and pointed to the path the monster had came from snapping out an order.
"Circle around the beast and make certain that it is alone, your son and I shall deal with this creature." The blue haired martial artist ordered.
Genma looked between the monster and the dragon prince before nodding his head and taking off, carefully circling around the creature.
Satisfied that the other visitor to the valley wouldn't be interfering in his testing of this potential future soldier Herb set himself and charged at the target of the hunt which was already engaging Ranma. Snapping off a pair of unfocused ki blasts the Prince engaged the monster in earnest, using his superior speed to weave through the wildly swiping maze of tentacles while hitting the beast with punishing blows that caused it to roar in pain.
While Herb was doing this Ranma was having a far more difficult time fighting the strange creature, the unpredictable movements of the tentacles were making it difficult for him to close in on the monster. The difficulty of this was increased by the fact that most of the appendances were located on the top of the monster, therefore negating the aerial advantage that he normally enjoyed in any fight. Constantly kicking off of the small 'platforms' of energy he had learnt to create a little over a year ago, Ranma bounced around the monster in all directions, occasionally finding an opening large enough that he could dart in and land a hit.
This pattern of battle continued for several minutes as the pair wore down their opponent bit by bit until the creature seemed to become enraged by its lack of ability to kill its tormentors. Letting off a mighty roar the beasts tentacle whips suddenly sped up, whipping through the air at incredible velocities. The sudden increase in speed caught the two fighters by surprise allowing the whips to hit them both, the dragon prince was sent flying into a tree where he used his ki to land softly before hiding his presence and watching the events that were about to take place. Ranma wasn't so fortunate having been in mid air and been knocked across the clearing while making an unpleasant discovery.
It had hurt.
It had hurt like it used to hurt before the incident three years ago.
Over the last couple of years the younger Saotome had gotten used to the increase toughness that he had enjoyed since the incident in the warehouse. Normal blows weren't even felt unless his father charged then with his Ki. To have an attack which didn't seem to have any extra Ki pumped into actually hurt was a nasty surprise and caused his heart to start racing at the implications. As he recovered from the blow he refocused his gaze on the suddenly far more formidable creature, eyes widening as three of the cones on its back lit up and unleashed a trio of yellow beams directly towards him.
Crossing his arms in front of himself he summoned up all the power he could grasp and thrust it forward into a barrier. Instead of the controlled trickle of power he had trained so hard to bring forward a veritable flood of power erupted from within. A purple formless shield materialised in the path of the beams, briefly stopping them in their tracks effortlessly before Ranma lost control of the new geyser of power coming from within causing the shield to collapse. Fortunately for the bewildered Saotome most of the destructive force of the beams had been spent on the shield before it collapsed meaning that when they struck him all that they manage to do was burn a hole in his shirt and knock him onto his ass.
Rolling into a crouch the Saotomes luck proved poor once again as a swarm of tentacle whips screamed in from nearly all directions.
Staring death in the face, Ranmas senses went into overdrive, searching for a gap to exploit, something that would allow him to get the hell out of the way!
Catching a hint of the slimmest of opening the younger Anything Goes practitioner dashed for the sliver of hope. He moved faster than he had even moved before, blurring to the untrained eye, only to realise that it wouldn't be enough. Knowing that he wasn't fast enough, knowing that he wouldn't make it but having no choice but to make it. Digging deeper than he ever had, Ranma pulled out more power than he ever had, reached for more speed than he had ever possessed.
As the tentacles closed and Ranma took his next step his mind and body suddenly felt as if they had been both dipped into an arctic river and electrocuted accompanied by a sharp stab of intense pain directly into his brain. Yet when his foot hit the ground the world seemed to sharpen and he knew what to do, how to get the speed he needed. His voice whispered in a tone he had never used.
"Sonic Move"
As he said this, the world around him seemed to slow to a crawl, the whips of flesh that had seemed so impossible to dodge now barely moving at all. Moving forward the martial artist weaved through the maze of tentacles with ease as he rushed towards the creature and delivered a flying kick to its head, sending it skidding backwards, before the world seemed to speed up once again.
As this event happened Herb smiled in satisfaction.
Leaping out of the dead tree the dragon prince hefted a large mana energy sword and charged at the monster one more time.
"Saotome, hold it!" The Musk heir shouted at the slightly zoned out martial artist as the monster brought its tentacles back in an attempt to defend itself.
"Struggle Bind" Was Ranmas response, still seeing the world with strange clarity, as purple chains rose out of the ground and grasped the monster, holding in immobile.
With a mighty swing Herb cut the squat monster in half lengthwise, instead of it falling into two pieces the creature faded out leaving a glowing blue jewel in its place. Before Ranma could ask about it a dark blurr shot from the side of the clearing and caused the jewel to vanish along with it.
"What... hey!" Ranma shouted as the world returned to normal, the strange clarity he had enjoyed previously fading out.
"Fear not Saotome, it is merely one of my men. He is specially trained to deal with the dangerous remains of monsters like this one, come let us find your father and return to the Musk so that we may celebrate this victory." Herb quickly declared heading out of the clearing to the location that his bodyguards were meant to trap the older Saotome.
"... fine. Let's go find the old man." Ranma grumbled as he allowed himself to be lead away from the battlefield, his mind distracted by the strange event that had occurred to him.
In the bushes nearby a person lay prone to the ground, bleeding hand gripping the pommel of a dagger as they watched the battle between the Musk Prince and the jewel monster. Once the two victorious combatants left the area the person slipped away to provide a personal report to their elder, remote viewing not being a hundred percent accurate in situations such as this.
Authors Note:
Ok, 1 more chapter in the Jusenkyo setup arc then off to Nerima with a hop-timeskip :P .