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Chapter 3: Amazons
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Ranma and Cologne had wandered into the crowd around the log, and began watching the tournament, Ranma could help but tense up at the sight of so many humans
around, knowing she was weaker in her human form.
("Calm down, young one, no one will hurt you here. Just watch the fight and relax.") Cologne took a seat in the crowd and Ranma followed suit, watching as
two young amazons got on the log, each holding a tool she was all too familiar with, they called them 'spears' appearently. Memories of overconfident hunters
that would hurl them at her flesh, the looks of shock and horror that would take the place of that annoying grin when they'd burst into flames several feet before impact, and the screams of agony as she ripped them apart and ate their flesh. She had had several of them actully impact her, but the man had at least 20 armed hunters with him, she had at least 10 of those wooden shafts sticking from her body when she killed the last of them. The feeling of
those bladed tips sent a chill down Ranma's spine, then images of basil and his smaller spears came to her, but she was brought out of her stupor by a pair of screams and opened her eyes to see the battle begin.
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"Ah! Welcome back, honored customer, to the legendary training grounds of Jusenkyo." once again, we see the scene of a fat, chinese man standing before a
fat, japanese man, except this time, the boy next to him was 16 years old and had a broom strapped to his back.
"Yes, well Ranma, here it is, the place your brother died." Genma Saotome threw his pack to the ground and lept to a pole while 'Ranma' did the same.
"Come, boy! Let's see if you can succeed where your brother failed!" The fat martial artist launched himself at the teen, exchanging punches and kicks in midair until 'Ranma' pulled the broom off his back and bashed Genma in the head with it, sending the fat martial artist flying to the ground.
THUD!
"Come on, pops, we done already?" 'Ranma' taunted as Genma stood up and whiped some dirt from his gi.
The boy's lucky this spring was empty, or there would have been hell to pay.. Genma lept to another pole and continued to battle against his supposed son, neither getting the better of the other for a good 30 mintues until 'Ranma' landed on an old piece of bamboo that splintered under his foot, giving Genma
the perfect chance to nail him with an uppercut that lifted him several feet into the air and down towards another spring.
"Oh no! I forgot about the springs!!" Genma began racing as fast as he could towards the spring 'Ranma' was about to fall into, paling at the image of a dragon or something trying to bite his head off.
WHAP
"Gotcha!" the fat martial artist lept and collided with 'Ranma' knocking him out of the way of the spring, unfortunetly Genma continued on with his momentium and landed in another one.
"POP!!!" 'Ranma' raced over to the edge of the spring to see what his father turned into, hoping the stories his father told him of that 'thing' his brother became were just stories.
SPLOOSH!
Genma reached the surface and crawled out of the spring, looking at himself to see there wasn't a change, he was still himself.
"Oh! You very lucky, honored customer, that just drinking well, nothing drown there yet." Genma couldn't help but chuckle at that, he had barely escaped certain doom twice that day, the next thing you know he was going to find his son again! A little ways away, a certain redhead sneezed, and started watching the fight between shampoo and a huge amazon with twin maces.
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"Ah! we are lucky today! Amazons having tournament." The guide watched the two walking over to a large table with a sign reading "FIRST PRIZE!" on it and begin eating the food at a high pace.
"Sirs! What is doing!?" At that exact moment in time Shan Pu had delivered a knock out blow to the large woman she was fighting and turned to the first prize and screamed in anger.
("Damn outsiders! Why are you eating my prize?!") The table is shattered when a bon buri gets smashed into it, Genma and 'Ranma' look at the enraged amazon in confusion until the guide translates.
"We were hungry..." 'Ranma' made a pathetic excuse that only caused Shampoo to become even more enraged, she was about to bash 'Ranma' in the face with her bon buri when a flaming tiger landed infront of her and swatted the boy out of the way before growling at the fat, and very pale, martial artist behind him.
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Ranma was pretty confused, as far as she could tell some humans from another herd wondered into this one and was trying to eat the food that belonged to the winner of the battle and the new alpha male...er...female, she walked over to where most of the amazons were currently gathered and took a look at the two outsiders, and instantly snapped at the sight of Genma, memories of the fat man beating on a small child, throwing him into a pit of cats, and selling him to several people for food food filled her mind, and for some reason this enraged the red head beyond belief and the next thing she knew she was in her oni form and putting her flames in place.
"RRRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!" Oni-Ranma dashed through the crowds and landed infront of Genma, swatting the boy aside. The fat man went paler
than a sheat as Oni-Ranma growled angrily.
"R...Ranma?" Genma was sent flying back by a fireball that was hurled from Oni-Ranma's jaws as she began attacking the fat martial artist in a frenzy of bottled up rage that she wasn't sure why she had, all she knew was that his human was the enemy and needed to be killed.
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Shan Pu was quite amazed at what was happening, the girl had become the fire beast again and was currently mauling that outsider, she was too stunned to move and didn't notice the other outsider sneak up on Ranma with his broom.
THWACK!!!!!!!!
Oni-Ranma took a devestating blow to the head from 'Ranma's' push broom, so much so that she was actually lifted from Genma's body and hurled through the air
to collide with Shan Pu, knocking the girl out.
"Pops, you ok!?" 'Ranma' helped his 'father' up and looked at the burns that covered his body, then to the creature that was just now standing up and putting its flames back into place.
"Come on boy, we have to get out of here!" Genma began running away just to have a wall of flames shoot up infront of him, then circle around until it was surrounding him and both Ranmas.
"GGGRRRRRRRRRROOOOOARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!" 'Ranma' Ran up to Oni-Ranma and delivered another blow with his broom, bu then the black haired boy was sent hurling back ward by a swipe from Ranma, who once again knocked the boy aside to get to Genma, only to be jump kicked by him a second later.
:("GET OUT OF MY WAY!"): Oni-Ranma once again swatted 'Ranma' out of the way, this time knocking him through the wall of flames and stalked closer to Genma.
CRUNCH!
Just to have a rather large boulder land on her head, knocking her out and reverting her to human form. The wall of flames died down and 'Ranma' wiped his hands off after chucking the boulder, and had to hold his nose shut after seeing Onna-Ranma's naked body lieing on the floor.
"No way she was that thing..." Shan Pu got up a couple seconds later and looked over to Cologne.
("Great grandmother, what happened?") Cologne hopped over to her and pointed to 'Ranma'.
("The outsider defeated you by hurling the young one at you, I think you know what to do.") Shan Pu nodded and walked over to 'Ranma', who tensed and prepared to defend himself, and kissed him passionatly before glomping onto the boy and shouting.
"Wo Ai Ni Airen!!" The amazons gasped at this annoucement while 'Ranma' looked confused and attempted to removed the happy amazon from himself. Cologne nodded before hopping over to Genma, who was looking at Onna- Ranma's prone form in shock.
"You, outsider, how do you know this one?" Genma barely acknowleged the fact he was being spoken to and continued to stare at Onna-Ranma.
"I...Don't understand. Why is he like this?" Cologne looked a little confused at this but desided to ask her question again.
"Did you not hear me?" She asked a little louder.
"Huh?" Genma resonded, dumbly.
"I asked, how do you know this one?" Cologne gestured towards Onna-Ranma who started to come around.
("Urg.") Onna-Ranma got to her knees and looked around, noticing Genma there her eyes narrowed as she was about to attack Genma, only to be stopped by Cologne's staff.
("Calm yourself, young one.")
("But the enemy must die!") Ranma tried to attack again only to have Cologne stop her once again.
"She thinks of you as her enemy, do you know why?" Genma looked even more pale, any doubt he had of this not being Ranma were instantly washed away at that sentence, but that still didn't explain why she was a girl.
"Get offa me!!" shouted a struggleing 'Ranma'.
"Airen!!" 'Ranma' was continuely trying to pry Shan Pu from him to no avail, Cologne sighed at this and walked over to them, bopping Shan Pu on the head.
("Shan Pu! Let the boy breathe, its not like he is going to run off.") The amazon reluctantly agreed and 'Ranma' sighed in relief.
"Come, Son-In-Law, you can have 'fun' with your wife later." Cologne began walking into the village as 'Ranma' looked confused.
"Huh?! Son-in-law? Wife?! What are you talking about?" The elder turned around and bounded over to the boy and stood on the top of her cain to reach
'Ranma's' eye level.
"Did you not hurl a rather large fire beast at my great granddaughter?"
"Well, kinda..."
"Was she or was she not knocked out?"
"I think she was knocked out..."
"So then you agree you defeated her in combat, making you her husband due to the Kiss Of Marriage laws of this village?" 'Ranma' looked even more confused.
"Kiss of Marriage? defeat her in combat? But I wasn't fighting her!!" Cologne turned around and watched a rather naked Onna-Ranma enter the village, glaring at Genma.
"Well would you prefer marrying her? You DID defeat her as well with that boulder." Cologne grinned mentally, while she pointed at Ranma. if Ranma were to become an amazon the village would prosper greatly with that fire technique of hers, It probably wouldn't be very difficult to convince the girl to do so.
"What?! Of course not! I don't wanna marry anybody!" Now this brought Cologne back to reality.
"What is your name, Boy?" Cologne asked while narrowing her eyes.
"I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts!" 'Ranma' said, filled with pride. Cologne was a little surprised that this child used the same style as the enemy of all that is female, Happosai. She'd keep a good eye on him and his father, and if they tried to follow in Happy's footsteps...Then let's just say she wouldn't stop Onna-Ranma from killing and eating that fat oaf.
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Cologne was once again in her hut with Onna-Ranma, discussing her views on human kind and also asking questions of her past, only to be given odd answers.
("Tell me, child, why do you view that man as your enemy?") The elder took a small sip of water after asking the question, and Ranma sat across from her with a cold look in her eyes.
("I'm not sure. I see, horrible things, horrible things that male does to his own young. I see it behind my eyes, and feel it as if it happened to me.") Cologne was slightly puzzled by Ranma's use of words, always giving strange replies as if she didn't understand how things worked.
("You say you feel it like it happened to you, perhaps it did?") The aged amazon took another sip while the red head looked confused.
("That can't be so, I am a proud beast! Not the young of some human.") Onna- Ranma said.
("Well you speak human, think human, even look human. Why do you think you are not human?") Cologne shot back.
("Why do you think you are?") Cologne stopped mid sip and turned to the young girl, an odd look in her eye.
("Well, young one, if you are so certain you are not human, then what are you?") the aged woman asked.
("I've already told you, a beast!") Onna-Ranma replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
("There are many beasts in the world, you must tell me more than that.") Now it was Ranma's turn to look confused, the small girl thought that over for a bit before responding.
("What do you mean?") Cologne set down her cup and faced Ranma once again, looking at her with a questioning stare.
("Have you even seen another beast like you? Ever known the parents that birthed you? Do you even know if you really are a beast?") This caused Ranma to pause for a second. It was true, she had always been alone as far as she could remember, and never once had she encoundered another creature even remotely simular to herself. Maybe Cologne was right, maybe she wasn't a beast at all.
("I have one more thing to ask you.") Ranma turned to Cologne once again, wondering what she might want to know.
("What is your name, young one?") More memories sprung into Onna-Ranma's head, that man yelling at young, stealing food and giving the child nothing but scraps. Then there were some other things. A human female playing with her young, nutruring him and caring for him. She would call him in the visions, but Ranma could barely make out what she was saying.
("Ran.") The only thing that came out clearly in the visions, the woman used it a lot, but the man never did, although it didn't seem quite right...
("Ran?") Cologne asked, a little confused.
("It is the only name I know.") The elder nodded before grabbing her staff and began to hop away.
("Very well, Ran. Get some rest, you will need it.") with that the elder hopped out of the room, leaving 'Ran' to her thoughts.
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Note: Oni-Ranma Ranma's Tiger/Dragon form. Were-Ranma Ranma's Tigress form. Onna-Ranma/Ran Ranma's human form. (Please note that Ranma is female in all three forms.)