I don't own Ranma or TWEWY. Nor do I own the joke for this chapter's header. Primarily because there isn't one. I got lazy.
aAaAa
Ranma sized up her opposition warily, the wolves all glaring at her and poised to attack at a moment's notice. Grimacing, Ranma quickly ran through her list of options. 'Okay, they're just wolves, this shouldn't be TOO difficult. Pops and I beat these things up all the time just a year or two ago; this shouldn't be too difficult even with six of them!'
Grinning cockily and cracking her knuckles, Ranma waited for one of the wolves to strike first before remembering that she was on a time limit. Luckily it didn't seem to matter, as at that moment three of the wolves attacked. Unexpectedly, they rocketed towards her at speeds completely unbecoming of normal wolves, catching Ranma off guard. One of them cut a shallow scratch on her arm even as she leapt upwards to avoid them. Landing on a nearby car hood, Ranma wisely decided to reevaluate the wolf pack's threat level. 'I take it back. Fighting wolves sucks no matter where I go.'
These wolves were fast. Not as fast her top speed, even without ki to enhance herself, but fast enough to be a huge pain to take out when there were six of them, especially considering her current lack of life energy. Plus she was on a time limit, and was going to die anyways if she didn't win this quick. Rapidly thinking through her options, Ranma decided on a plan of action.
Taking a deep breath, Ranma put on a cocky smirk and glared at the rapidly regrouping pack of wolves before her face suddenly shifted to shock.
"AHHHH! WHAT IS THAT?!" Ranma pointed behind the pack.
None of them turned around.
Ranma continued to point, adopting a sheepish look after a few moments. 'Well, I can't say I really expected that to work on wolves, but it was at least worth a try...'
One of the wolves ran out of patience and lunged at the car Ranma was still crouching on. In response, Ranma stopped pointing and jumped up a good fifteen feet in the air, allowing the wolf to crash its head into the surprisingly tough windshield. This was followed by the logical conclusion of Ranma returning to Earth and crushing the wolf's body into the front of the car. It disappeared in a burst of static a moment before the rest of the pack lunged at the car.
'Well, that's ONE down I guess...' Ranma thought as she leaped off the vehicle before the canines could maul her. 'But what to do about the rest...' She couldn't very well just leap over and wail on them with her fists, not when they could move like that. Even if she was marginally faster than them, with five of them attacking at once she'd get sliced and diced in seconds. There was no leader to put down to cow the rest into submission either, at least so far as she could tell... not that these were normal wolves to begin with. She desperately needed a ranged attack, but without access to ki what could she do?
Well, there were a couple of bikes...
The wolves had just turned around and begun to sprint towards their red headed target before one of them was smashed into by a bicycle, followed up by a second bicycle and a street sign. The two hit wolves dissipated into static as the three that had managed to avoid the projectiles turned and snarled. Ranma just smirked. 'Three down... and I can definitely deal with just three of these things.'
Off on the sidelines, Shin and Juu were switching between glancing at the battle and glancing at their palms, which were currently at 3:18. Juu looked worried, and Shin had positioned himself at the edge of the barrier so as to make a sprint as soon as the wall went down. The gray hooded reaper, having reappeared in a shadowed part of the area, was watching the fight intently. He was surprised that the girl he'd expected to be torn to pieces in the first ten seconds had taken down half of the Garage Wolves... and seemingly without the use of psychs. Or a partner for that matter, unless she'd somehow managed to partner with her shadow or a pin. "Never seen anyone try beating on Noise barehanded and just throwing shit at them before... I wouldn't have even thought that would work. This chick is interesting. I almost hope she makes it." The reaper chuckled under his breath.
Unfortunately, Ranma had run out of things to throw, the previously thrown items now being pretty much useless without the element of surprise. The wolves were too quick to be caught by those if they saw them coming. That didn't mean Ranma hadn't thought of another plan though. She charged the noise, and they charged her in turn. Slipping between the head on charges of two of the wolves, Ranma danced around the back of the third one and grabbed its rather bizarre tail in mid stride. Even as she lifted it off the ground and began to twirl the wolf above her head, Ranma frowned as she felt her grip on the tail begin to slacken. "What are these things even MADE of? I can't seem to get a solid hold on it..."
Unable to hold on for more than a few moments, Ranma's grasp on the poor canine was released... only for the force of the spin to send it smashing into the sidewalk at high velocity and returning the creature to static. Ranma grimaced. She had been planning to use the thing like an improvised club to take out the other two, but obviously that wasn't going to work if she couldn't even hold on to them.
"Ah, that was a stupid plan from the start. To hell with it, there's only two of ya left anyways!" Ranma sprinted forward as the wolves turned towards her once again. Before they could even move she was upon them. "KACHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!" Ranma shouted as she barraged the two remaining wolves in the face. Seconds later they let out pitiful whines as they slumped to the ground and burst into nothingness.
As the adrenaline wore down and Shin and Juu cheered at the win from the sidelines, the hooded reaper stepped out of the shadows and began to speak.
"Well, that sure was a show Red! Can't say I recommend not using psychs, but I guess if it works for you..."
Ranma was less than pleased at his casual sounding tone. Where did he get off, acting as if he hadn't just tried to kill her, and was in fact still GOING to kill her if he didn't get rid of the barrier. "Yeah yeah, whatever, I still don't know what psychs are so I don't really care. Take down the invisi-wall already!"
The reaper smirked under his bandana. She didn't even know what psychs WERE? And she didn't seem to have a partner... this was gonna be good. Definitely THE player to follow if she didn't get erased.
"OY! Stop spacing out and take it down!"
While the reaper had been contemplating this Ranma had moved into his face and was now glaring at him and had grabbed the front of his hoodie. He just laughed and held his hands up in surrender.
"Fine, fine, you win... but before I do, one question. You got a partner?"
"NO! YOU IDIOT, I ALREADY SAID I DIDN'T! NOW TAKE THE WALL DOWN!" Ranma was through with this. There was no way she was going to let this idiot kill her for real by just standing around long enough.
"Please, we're almost out of time!" Juu interjected, having been hopping nervously from one leg to another while she watched the two argue.
Ranma glanced at her palm. 1:02 remaining...
She snarled and slammed the reaper against the side of a building. "Last chance..."
The reaper laughed, despite his current position of being held a foot off the ground by a volatile redhead. "Alright, alright..." He snapped his fingers again and a flash of light momentarily blinded the group. Shin, still waiting at the barrier's, prior threshold, waved his hands in front of him to make sure the wall was gone. As soon as he confirmed it he took off towards 104, shouting a quick "Hurry!" behind him. Juu ran off after him, as Ranma resisted the urge to clock the reaper before dropping him and running off as well. The reaper simply stood and watched them slowly shrink in to the distance before grinning. Setting up a barrier was usually left to the support flunkies, but apparently doing it right in front of the "goal" had been a good idea after all. Sure it was a little unfair, and the bitch GM probably wouldn't like that he hadn't sent any of the fun her way even if she couldn't do anything. But he'd erased three other pairs before those three had even shown up, so his personal quota of life extension was set for the rest of the week, and now he even had someone interesting to keep an eye on. Time to go make some bets with the others before they noticed this little dark horse...
nNnNn
"SAFE!" Ranma yelled out as she skidded into the 104 area. She checked her hand just to make sure, but the clock had stopped at 15 seconds to spare. Just in time. Shin and Juu were right behind her, both of them panting with the effort of running to the building so quickly.
"Phew... made it..." Shin gasped out.
"FINALLY! And here I was beginning to think I wasn't even gonna get my boots..."
The bag Shin still held which contained the combat boots suddenly tore at the handles as a teal and white blur snatched the now torn off lower half of it out of the air. The blur stopped in a crouch about twenty feet away from the trio before straightening up and revealing itself to be a person.
Ranma quickly analyzed the newcomer as she approached the trio. It was a girl, not even out of her teens by the look of it. Her most striking and obvious characteristic was her skin, which was a white so stark it was as if someone had carved her from marble and brought the stone to life. The top half of her hair was covered by a fading yellow bandana, while that which remained uncovered was a white similar in tone to her skin. It fanned out in spikes just past her ears, except for two longer spikes which stuck down past her shoulders. She wore a purple and teal striped sweater, torn... no, sliced at the neck and torso, barely reaching over her chest and revealing a good amount of her midriff. It was obviously too large for her, the sleeves completely covering her hands. A purple and pink striped scarf was wrapped around her neck, which seemed bizarre considering the weather... then again, Ranma couldn't even feel the sun on her skin, so perhaps wherever they were didn't really have weather. Loose beige cargo pants paired with pastel pink shoes served to make the girl's ensemble look even stranger.
Ranma did a double take when she glanced at her face- her eyes were bloodshot, with pure red pupils at their centers. Her mouth was set in an expression akin to that of a lioness who'd just found easy prey, which reminded Ranma to quickly evaluate the girl's potential combat skills. She highly doubted this girl was an ally, especially since she was looking at them like the catch of the day, so it was probably best to be prepared. 'Decent speed... some sort of cutting move, if the bisected bag is any indication. Confident, so she's probably got some sort of special power which makes her thinks she'll win... or she's just stupid, like Kuno. Those pants are concealing how she walks, and I can't see how much muscle she has under those sleeves... damn.' Ranma shook her head. She didn't know enough just from a glance to truly estimate this girl's threat level.
The girl finally decided to address the group, still grinning all the while. "Yo, I'm Entra, resident reaper and current Game Master. Where have you lazy shells been? I was worried I wouldn't even get these when no one showed up..." She held up the now unpacked boots before kicking off her shoes and stepping into her new footwear. "Guess I made it too hot to handle if they only made it here with 15 seconds left... man, of all the groups of players I could have gotten I got the bunch who only BARELY beat the easiest mission." Entra complained out loud, more to herself than the nearby players. "I know the little degrees tend to twiddle their thumbs and freak out on the first day but COME ON. Maybe if I stick less support reapers in the area next time... nah, those shells can sit there stuck at the walls like ice statues for all I care if they can't even get past a bit of chump-grade Noise. If the weaklings ain't erased yet they best be more prepared tomorrow or their asses are gonna get erased faster than a snowball in hell."
Entra continued to talk and sat down to tie up her new boots, while Ranma impatiently tapped her foot, hoping the girl would stop monologuing to herself soon. Meanwhile, Shin and Juu had backed away and were discussing Entra's earlier proclamation amongst themselves in panicked whispers.
"SHE'S the Game Master? Juu, I thought we weren't supposed to see the Game Master until the last day!"
"I guess... she decided to show up early? Or maybe she just wanted to get her boots in person?"
"But this is bad! Like, really, REALLY bad! Neither of us have figured out psychs yet and I doubt even Ranma can take out the boss reaper without a partner! What if she attacks us?!"
"Well... there wouldn't be much point to this game if she could do that on day one, right? Let's just calm down and hope she doesn't, since there's not much we can do even if she does..."
"Yeah, okay... let's just make sure we don't piss her off then. Any idea why she called us shel-"
"Am I gonna have to stand here all day or are ya gonna finish talking to yourself someday soon?"
Shin and Juu's eyes widened. Not two seconds after they had concluded they definitely shouldn't anger this girl...
"Why'd ya even need boots anyways? Don't look like there's anything wrong with those..." Ranma gestured to the discarded pink shoes now lying in the middle of the street. "And you really couldn't think of anything better for us to do than-"
Shin hurriedly attempted to shut Ranma up by slapping a hand over her mouth from behind and dragging her back to where Juu stood before she could make the situation any worse. "Ranma, please stop complaining..." Shin whispered in Ranma's ear. "Who cares about why she wanted the shoes, that's the Game Master... you know... the 'Boss Reaper' who more than likely can permakill us in a few seconds?"
Ranma easily pried Shin's hand off her face before turning around and responding in kind. "Do NOT touch me like that, got it?" That was embarrassing. Evidently she'd been relying too much on being able to sense ki if she hadn't noticed him coming up behind her. "And she don't seem too tough, I bet I can take her out right now if you just-"
"Hehe, you better not little shells, I'm kinda highly involved in whether you come back to life or not." The pair swiveled their necks to see that Entra had suddenly cozied up to them and apparently heard their whispered conversation. She was now far too close for comfort. Ranma shot backwards immediately, having had far too much experience in personal space invasion for her liking, especially with enemies. She'd DEFINITELY been relying too much on ki sensing. Shin, however, simply froze, too scared to move.
"Hey, you shouldn't freeze up when someone gets close, who knows what could happen..." Entra whispered almost sensually as she traced an ivory white finger across Shin's neck. "I think I'll call you 'Possum', because it looks like your strategy for avoiding danger is playing dead... would you like to play that part even better?" Entra's teeth seemed to lengthen as Shin's brain finally restarted and he scrambled back towards Juu, terrified out of his wits as his imagination ran wild with nightmarish possibilities of what this girl had been about to do. Looking at Juu, Entra spoke again. "And she can be 'Bait'- she doesn't move aside from shivering, she's shrinking in on herself, and she hasn't contributed to this conversation at all! Just like a frozen little worm, impaled on a hook..."
The sweater clad girl turned back towards Ranma, who was still eying her warily in an attempt to glean more information from her posture and movements. "And for your information, Red, those shoes ain't worth shit. The color sucks and they remind me of The System." Entra's smile faltered, grinding her teeth a bit upon speaking the last two words.
"My name is RANMA, Ranma Saotome, don't you dare call me Red again!" Ranma retorted angrily. Damn it, was was with these reapers associating her with this body's hair color!? Ranma absolutely refused to become known specifically as a girl in the not-exactly afterlife because of her stupid cursed body's hair color.
'Although, I suppose they could be referring to my shirt...' The thought crossed Ranma's mind briefly before she shook it off. 'Whatever, that ain't gonna be a nickname for me, period!' She unconsciously shifted to a battle position- this girl was almost certainly dangerous, so it was best to be prepared.
Entra giggled, rather creepily in the opinion of the only other people there. "Ha ha HA, alright then Red, how about 'Hothead'? It'd suit your flaming idiocy. Maybe 'Brainless'? Don't you get it? What kind of moron deliberately provokes someone 100 degrees above them? I'm not supposed to fight today, but you really make my blood boil..." Her teeth once again seemed to lengthen and increase the size of her smile before she chomped down, seemingly attempting to restrain herself.
The redhead remained unperturbed, despite having clearly seen the girl's teeth this time. "Yeah, you ain't the first person I ever heard make creepy threats involving my organs. Hell, you DEFINITELY ain't the first to stake a claim on my 'heart', according to half the people I know it belongs to everyone BUT me. You're gonna have to try harder if you wanna creep me out or put me off guard. And my name is RANMA!"
The snow haired girl sighed, now back in control of herself. "Brag all you want, but if you ain't gonna pick one I'm stickin' with Red. It fits you. Sadly, I better finish up here, I'm expected at a meeting." Entra sneered in disgust. "Oh, and no matter what you may think this was an extremely important mission, and if you criticize my instructions again you'll find my new boots rammed so far down your throat that your tongue will be taking up permanent residence in your intestines. But hell, congrats on getting here at all I guess, if nothing else you've provided for MY needs and you saved all the worthless shells who didn't even try to get here. Before I go, I'm curious, what psychs are you three using? Figure I should keep my eye on the only three who actually got he-"
"Okay, WHY do you keep calling us shells? And would SOMEBODY tell me what psychs are?!" Ranma yelled the latter part with her head at the sky, frustrated about how everyone aside from her seemed know about whatever these were. Turning back towards Entra, she continued, leveling a glare at the increasingly irritating teen. "Actually, you know what, I got a LOT of questions about this game, and if you're the boss around here then I bet you can answer them."
Entra's Stepford smile returned to her face. "Oh HO, you got some gall mouthing off to a Game Master. I don't particularly WANT to get to that meeting, and I appreciate the ice cold nerve you got, so I'll answer... mm, three things. Don't feel like dragging this out any longer, and I'm gonna get my ass burned if I don't show up at all. I'm sure those two" she nodded towards the couple currently breathing sighs of relief that Ranma's attitude wasn't going to get them killed, "can explain most of this to you anyways. So make em GOOD questions, got it?"
Ranma nodded. "Alright, that sounds fair..." At least she'd get SOME information on her current situation. Even if the source was THIS girl...
The reaper just smirked at her in return. "Alright then. I ain't gonna answer why I call you players shells, you'll find out in time on your own and I ain't spoiling that on the first day. So I'll assume your first question is what psychs are? Hehe..."
Before Ranma could process the first part of that statement Entra's arm suddenly shot to the side in a line. As she completed the motion a barbed wire speared out seemingly from nowhere in an attempt to impale the already backflipping redhead. Ranma landed just out of the range of the wire and glared at the white skinned woman, whose grin seemed to have impossibly gotten even wider than before. "THAT is a psych. Everyone here in the UG uses them, both you players and us reapers. Not sure how you got here without knowing what you were even using, but-" Entra suddenly looked puzzled, as if only just realizing something. "Hey, wait... how are there only three of you? There ain't no three way partnerships, and I'll ice my own head if someone made a pin partnership on the first day, so how come one of you doesn't have one?"
"Yeah, okay, there's my second question. What are partners, how do you get them, and why are they important?" Ranma asked, attempting to cover all bases with this question.
Entra's hand quickly met her forehead. "I said make them GOOD questions... how'd you even make it here? All the same..." Quirking an eyebrow, Entra placed a sleeve-covered hand on her chin as she gained a contemplative expression. "Interesting... hmm, did I forget to have the harriers populate the city with extra Noise? I thought I told them to turn some extra pins-made-Noise loose but I might have forgotten... lazy pieces of..." Entra began muttering to herself rather loudly again, as if deliberately ignoring her present company. "That might explain how she survived this long without a partner, otherwise they'd have been on her in seconds... eh, it's the first day. It can be a LITTLE easier than the others. Hell, considering they only JUST made it I might even have to take it down a notch... damn, and here I thought this would be fun."
Suddenly a pair of fingers snapped in front of Entra's face, who looked up to see the irritated redhead that owned them. "Ya know, I've been told it's polite to not ignore company. I'm starting to see why, since you doing these little self-talks is sort of pissing me off." This girl was really starting to remind Ranma of Kodachi, what with completely stopping conversations just to talk to herself.
Entra looked directly at Ranma, now less than a foot away, and addressed her as if she hadn't moved or said a thing. "You got off easy today Red. Better find yourself a partner tomorrow, or the Noise will swarm you like moths to your flaming head." Ranma backed up, slightly confused but still annoyed.
Another devilish grin wormed its way across Entra's face. "I'll make it simple- for you players, partners are made via a touch of hands, and they're necessary to use psychs. Reapers can bend the rules a little, so we don't necessarily need HUMAN partners, and us higher ups don't necessarily need them at all. But all you really need to know? Without one, Noise will attack you even if you don't start deliberately trying to ice them. Can't even fathom how you got here without going through some of them since, despite what he may think, I KNOW there was a harrier reaper who stationed himself outside this area and started acting like a support one. Which I was perfectly fine with, I certainly ain't gonna avoid any chance to make things more unpredictable and chaotic. But here's my question for you- how'd you get past his Noise without psychs? Don't tell me Possum and Bait over there got you through."
It was Ranma's turn to quirk an eyebrow. "What, those wolves? Pretty sure I didn't use any 'psychs', martial arts was more than enough to take care of 'em. Sure those mutts were a little fast but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle."
Entra looked thoughtful for only a moment before her toothy smile returned. "Ain't supposed to be possible to take out Noise without psychs, but whatever. At least you're interesting... but I suggest you get yourself a partner anyways, because tomorrow the sky will run RED with Noise. I'll be making sure of it. Dunno how you're gonna actually GET a partner now that the game's started and everyone's pretty much taken though; maybe you can ice someone else's partner and then take them for yourself? Whatever, ain't my problem. Now hurry up and ask your third question, and no more about the game. I'm stone-cold bored stupid with explaining things you could learn from pretty much anyone else in the UG. This whole set up sucks anyways so I'd suggest you don't bring it up with me. EVER. So maybe..." Entropy's tongue flicked out to lick her lips. "You should ask about ME."
Ranma was getting stretched past her boiling point by now- it had been heating up quite a bit over the last half hour or so and this encounter was not helping. Her mood had swung from confused, to panicked, determined, anger, and rage, all within a very short time span. Even with the few upsides there were, the stress had only been building. Dying due to an unfairly angry fiancee, being attacked by frogs and wolves, and dealing with an asshole in a hoodie, not even mentioning that calling her "Red" was apparently becoming a trend- it had been a bad day even by Ranma standards. At this point she had no patience left to deal with some egotistical girl with too much power telling to her to kill- sorry, ICE someone with complete nonchalance. Much as Ranma knew that she really shouldn't piss off the "Boss Reaper", she couldn't help herself from shooting off the question that had remained on her mind the entire conversation.
"Gee, alright, if you ain't gonna offer anything helpful then here's a question for ya- how much do your cheeks hurt from constantly being stretched past their natural limit?"
Shin and Juu, completely forgotten by fellow player and Game Master alike, simultaneously choked.
Entra suddenly burst out laughing. "Oh man, you are gonna be FUN to finally ice on the seventh day! You better make it through the week, I cannot WAIT to fight you. I'm gonna blaze through you so hard you'll look like charcoal by the end of..." Entra abruptly paused, looking unhappy. "Too much like Goathead, gonna have to nix that one..." Entra cursed and turned around. "Well, it's been fun, but it's time for you to take a snooze now. See you on day seven, Red."
'A snooze? Wha-' Ranma, Shin and Juu abruptly crumpled to the ground. A cackling Entra walked off, looking forward to the end of the week.
mMmMm
AN:
I'm going with the "noise swarm the players without partners" assumption of the seven minute limit aftermath for now. Correct me if it was explicitly stated somewhere.
You should already have noticed what may seem like a major plothole- it's not. Unless you're thinking of something different.
For those not satisfied by a description, a picture of Entra (drawn by an acquaintance/friend) can be viewed here: dragonmanx. deviantart art/Request-stream-8000-354077036. It is slightly spoilery as to what she uses for her noise form abilities, so only view if you don't care about that. Then again, she sort of spoiled them all on her own, didn't she? Ah, the flaw of the passionate.