Juraian Knigh Chapter 03
Disclaimer:Pretty standard. Don't own Tenchi, Don't own Ranma, just my job, my car, my life, and such. I am writing this for pure fun and to share it with people of like minded reading interests.
Author's Notes:see at the end.
Chapter 03Explanations
Ranma stood there and just looked at Seto blankly for a moment then hung his head in shame. "I guess that I should explain then. If you want you may be my second." He said in a slightly depressed tone.
The elder woman looked at him for a second before catching the reference to his Japanese culture. "Nonsense, There is no need for you to kill yourself over someone else. Just tell me who she is." Seto says as she leans forward onto her practice blade while hiding a grin at the way she is coaxing Ranma to answer her questions.
"You will probably want to get rid of me anyway. I am that red haired girl, it is a curse I received over a year ago." He said while still averting his eyes.
Seto looks at him with a blank expression that just disguised her actual thoughts and feelings. "Really, I can definitely see how you are a buxom red haired girl. Who happens to be several centimeters shorter. And how that could be considered a curse. Now come on, who would believe that?" She said hoping that those were the right buttons to get his competitive spirit back into the open.
"What? Of course I am. And it Is a curse. Cold water activates it." He said a bit indignantly.
"Sure sure, prove it." The larger woman said while looking down at Ranma-kun haughtily.
Ranma-kun just groans at the injustice then hops over to the river running near their small grassy practice area and jumps into it. When she got out she walked back towards Seto as Ranma-chan was doing she heard some gasps and turned around quickly to see what had made the noise.
On the other bank there were several girls both in civilian garb of their home planets and a couple in the GXP uniform of midshipmen. As the small group saw the raven haired hunk that supposedly saved their ship and many of their lives jump into the river they were curious. When he turned into a short buxom red head they had first gasped, then a couple of them squealed. And the last one blushed a very deep crimson and ran off murmuring excuses to her companions.
Ranma-chan sees this and thought to herself that perhaps the sight and disgust of his curse really was nearly universal. She walks slowly back over to where Seto is standing and sits on the grass near her. "Happy?" Ranma-chan says up to the Admiral that she had been sparring with just a little bit ago.
"I'm guessing that since you were just a guy that you have a way to change back?" The now much taller woman said to Ranma-chan who just nods in reply. "Good, then it's not to bad."
"Wha'dya mean not to bad lady?" the short red head said indignantly and folded her arms under her breasts, which unfortunately only added to her indignation as she realized what doing so did to her looks.
Seto just looked at her and suppressed a near overwhelming urge to either snicker at how cute the now petulant expression wearing Ranma-chan looked or to walk over and cuddle her or tickle her for the same reasons. Instead she replied. "You are still your same race, and not some animal. You can change back even if it is annoying. You do not endanger others with your 'cursed form'. And I'm guessing that you can experience a much more fulfilled life with that alternate form than most beings can experience in a hundred lifetimes." After Seto finished her statement to the now even more petulant looking Ranma-chan she got a slight gleam in her eyes and looked at the few girls still left observing them from a distance. "So why do you think that people dislike you or the curse?"
Ranma-chan just looked at her blankly for a moment then looked in the direction of the girl who had run off then glanced at the other girls who were still there but now avoiding her gaze while chattering among themselves. After a few moments of that she looked back at Seto with an expression that said 'You're kidding right?' When the taller woman didn't answer but kept staring at the smaller girl Ranma-chan finally broke and spoke up. "Of course they dislike it. It made one of them run off." She said as she swept her arm over in the direction of the one she had mentioned.
"Ha!" Seto guffawed out shortly since she couldn't hold it in any longer. She then continued with a slightly smug and knowing smirk. "They aren't disgusted by it, they're being perverted."
"Wha-?" Ranma-chan said without quite as much eloquence as she may have been able to muster if she hadn't been caught completely off guard.
"I mean, that they are having perverted thoughts and expressing it between themselves." She looked at Ranma-chan's completely bewildered look and continued. "Did you think that only boys were allowed to be perverted? Trust me, girls can be many times worse." She then looked down at her watch before looking over at the small group of young women watching them. "Aren't a few of you do on shift right now?" She called out to them and enjoyed the whole group scrambling to hurry off to what ever duty station required their presence.
Seto then looked down at the now blushing red head and decided to have a little fun. "Did you see the girl with the brown hair? She's probably bi-curious, and was probably imagining you turning into a girl in the middle of some… fun." She said with a lecherous tone. Only to blink as Ranma-chan's eyes rolled back into her head and she passed out on her feet only to fall down. "Wow, he really is inexperienced." She said out loud. "Probably some bizarre Earth tradition. We'll just have to see about that then." She said to herself as she leaned down to pick up the diminutive red haired girl. As she walked off plots and plans started to coalesce in her mind and after a while Admiral Seto Kamiki had a course set in her mind for this enigma of a being that had probably saved both herself and her crew inadvertently.
Scene Break
Back on earth, specifically in Furinken High School in the Nerima Ward outside of Tokyo talk is going around. Talk a bit more crazy than usual that is. Normally it was about the local weirdness, things like a crazed Kendoist craving after multiple women. Or an insane barber wannabe that ran the school. Or perhaps about a group of martial arts styled gymnasts attempting another victory through slightly underhanded techniques. One of the crazier ones going around was about the latest run in with a teacher that normally appeared to be a pre pubescent child but was in fact a young woman in her mid twenties.
However today in the grounds of Furinken High another line of conversations was going on. This time about the local trouble magnet and cursed martial artist. The first rumors were probably relatively light hearted or said in jest. About him being abducted by aliens or some other such nonsense. Though the Chemistry and Science club seemed much more likely to accept those rumors than to listen to the other obviously falsified rumors of his curse that turns him into a buxom red head. The headier rumors earlier in the day even went to the fact that he had left Akane, one of his Fiancee's, to serve in some form of Alien Foreign Legion. Though the rumors ranged quite the gamut from Alien Princesses kidnapping him to becoming a slave or sex slave to tentacle monsters from the stars. One strain of rumors said that a Intergalactic bounty hunter had finally closed in on their quarry and had taken the pig tailed youth in to stand trial for some atrocity committed by someone of his likeness out among the stars.
Into all this Akane Tendo has walked, not back in school but a few days before it all became quite overwhelming. She was a pressure vessel ready to explode. At least the Hentai Horde had not been acting up lately, but Kuno had upped his normal plague of attention on the youngest Tendo.
What really bothered her deep down in her psyche though was the fact that outside of Kuno and two of her closest friends, the entire school was abuzz with talk about Ranma and Aliens. Sure, for her he had been gone for a whole week, and she didn't know who leaked to the school that he was missing. But she couldn't fathom why everyone was talking about Aliens. It was Completely ridiculous. Ranma wasn't abducted, Akane knew it for a fact. Instead the idiot had somehow turned an attack of his into some bizarre form of human energy cannon from the Tree of Togenkyo. She wasn't sure if he even survived it, but she was sure the idiot was somewhere traveling through China or somewhere else.
Meanwhile in another part of Furinken another Tendo was busy at work. This time though it was not on the local toughs and martial artists fighting it out. Nor was it on various blackmail projects. It did however involve the missing pigtailed boy or girl depending on the water temperature. The betting pools she was arranging spread over only a few major categories, and many minor ones of course.
Nabiki's first major betting pool consisted of Ranma ever making it back and of course if he did make it back then when. Her second pool was over whether he did this on purpose or not, it was a relatively minor pool compared to other pools she ran regularly as far as choices were. However a lot of students and even some of the schools staff had bet in that one. Mostly to the end of his not purposefully doing anything. It was her third major pool that drew the most bets, and of course the largest ones as well. This pool was over what type of aliens had abducted Ranma in the event that he actually lived. Some of the responses actually tickled her pink and others had her wondering what the image rights would be worth to the Hentai industry.
Scene Break
Back at the Tendo house Kasumi had become a bit worried. Her family had arrived home not to long ago, but their young house guest Ranma had been gone a lot longer. She was thankful for being home, but regretful at what was going on around her. Her middle sister seemed to be fine, but with the emotional mask she almost always wore it was hard for her to be sure. Her father was doing what everyone expected of him. Specifically crying about the missing boy, or plotting with Ranma's father over how to get him and her youngest sister married.
Kasumi's youngest sister however was doing about the worst. Her anger was spiking further than normal. In fact it was becoming so bad at times that even her father was taking notice rather than cowering or crying over his vengeful daughter.
On the other hand at least Ranma wasn't around to take the brunt of it, even if his disappearance was the cause of her little sisters latest outbreak of violence and aggression.
All told the eldest of the Tendo daughters was feeling a bit indecisive of where to go next. So much of her families life had been swept up in the pig tailed youths adventures and endeavors that this sudden absence from their life made it a bit harder to cope with everything else that went on as well.
Of course to top it all of she also needed to prepare for Ranma's mother Nodoka to stop by, but this time there wouldn't even be Ranko to visit with her so she needed to figure out something to do to make sure that Mrs. Saotome was taken care of and entertained as well. Plus Kasumi needed to make sure that Akane didn't have to much time alone with the older and enigmatic woman as the eldest Tendo girl did not know whether Nodoka would act as a calming influence on her volatile sibling or as a catalyst for greater or more damaging change.
It was just turning into so much to be indecisive about.
Scene Break
During the last half a day Ranma had taken great lengths to avoid people. Somehow word had spread throughout the crew about his gender changing curse. Though they called it an ability, and several had already hinted that he was lucky Ranma knew the truth and that truth was that it was a curse.
What made it worse however was unlike the norm back in Nerima where the guys tried to come onto him and the girls avoided him. Here the male crew were trying to find out what it was like or even how to get cursed similarly and the females were getting almost as bad as Shampoo with their pushiness. Especially since not just one girl, but several were actively trying to get him to change in front of them. Currently he was on the run from one of the most persistent of the girls of Seto's crew that was chasing him around. He could just imagine that she was around the next corner, and he was praying to himself that she wasn't off shift as that often meant the most embarrassment for him.
Shortly after he had woken up from the Seto induced information overload earlier Ranma had gone to take a shower and change back to a guy. While in the bathing area she was to caught up in thoughts and didn't realize that someone else was there till after she had stepped into the flowing water from the open shower. As Ranma-kun stepped out of the spray he opened his eyes and saw a golden red skinned girl that was a little shorter than him standing there in the buff. As he had seen several people who either had great costumes on or different than normal human skin tones the reddish golden skin didn't surprise him nearly as much as her nudity. What really caught him off guard next though was when the girl came forward and introduced herself as Sumoi Katsurugi and asked him if he could change back to the girl. That freaked the aqua transsexual enough to just grab his clothes next to him and run.
To make matters worse he ran into her again several hours later and she was still naked. Afterwards when he had gotten away he asked Seto about it and she relayed that the Catyr were a genetically modified race that were initially born to colonize high gravity and radioactive planets. But there wasn't to many of those planets around, as such a small colony of the race had started on a nearly Terran world and then reverted back in technology losing the capability of interstellar flight for several centuries. During that time they lost the want of wearing clothes as their genetic enhancements made it so that even sub freezing weathers were decently balmy to them.
Seto also stated that it was quite the surprise when the Galaxy Police had encountered one of the Catyr's spacecraft as it made it's initial voyage to a nearby star system once they regained space flight technology. The crew was mostly Juraian and a couple of them nearly had a heart attack as they saw the state of dress up close. Since that time very few of Sumoi's people were part of the GXP because they disliked violence as well as some of them often times were mildly radioactive and since they didn't like to wear clothes they stayed on their planet. Of the people that did join other groups they often conformed while on duty, but off duty they either pushed the regs on their cultural choice or outright broke them. Seto herself often looked the other way as long as the Catyr in question didn't offend or act inappropriate with the other crew members.
Back to the present though, he had been on the run from her because she kept trying to get him to change in front of her because she wanted to make sure that the change was 100 and not just superficial. As the red skinned girl was training to become a science officer in the GXP she was absolutely fascinated by the curse and the ramifications on his social life that such a change would incur as Sumoi knew that Ranma's race as a rule didn't change and wasn't functionally hermaphroditic.
All that boiled down to a lot of running on Ranma's part however as the young martial artist didn't wish to be someone's guinea pig no matter what. Little did he know the problems that could occur if he was the focus of their attention.
Scene Break
Seto chuckled inwardly while reminiscing on the occurrences of their not unwanted addition to her current voyage. She watched from the side for the last while since her sparing match with the youth, and couldn't help but laugh as he struggled to just figure people out. The cultural mix that was the Galaxy Police probably caught him so off guard that she and her crew were seeing the youth for what he was instead of any masks that he normally wore in front of others.
To the quixotical woman this was a good thing, as what she saw was to her opinion a being of immense capability and adaptitude who could flex to most situations. Plus he was already well versed in battle tactics and capability. After the attack on her craft and some of the recent upswing in piracy and out right assaults on the peoples who plied the stars the platinum haired woman had been giving special thought to increasing some of the Galaxy Police's anti boarding and assault recruitment. In fact once she got back to the training areas with several of her midshipmen crew she planned on upping most of their physical training to include hand to hand and boarding procedures.
After her brief internal solillique Seto looked around the bridge area of the ship and saw one of the midshipmen standing near a duty station watching as the person at the consol explained how everything worked. She beckoned him over and asked him to find Ranma as they were nearing their destination.
Immediately after he left she called out to the captain of the Juraian craft "Please initiate the landing process, it is time for us to disembark at our stopover to the Galaxy Police Academy."
Scene Break
The runner that Seto had sent after Ranma was high tailing it down one of the many sub corridors of the ship he was currently attached to. Looking at his wrist he observed the dot on the computer display of his GXP issue comm watch as the ship's living computer interfaced with it to help lead him to where ever their earstwhile savior was spending his time currently.
"Serateho, where is Ranma right now?" He asked his comm unit as the dot kept moving around on his watch.
She is currently in transit herself Ensign. Please continue on your path and enter the reserve sanctuary forest surface level B The computer told the runner who had been tasked with finding their passenger. "Hrmmm… She?" the Ensign said to himself as he entered the open area in the center of the ship that appeared to be nothing so much as a giant park with a great tree growing in the center of it.
After a few minutes he found where his quarry was hiding. However Ranma apparently was not alone as the runner could see. Below the tree were a pair of the female midshipmen from the GXP academy that they had on board during this cruise. One of them was holding what appeared to be a reddish shirt and the other a kettle of water.
As the runner walked up he heard a female voice up in the trees calling out "Gimme my Clothes back you Crazy Girls!"
"Great, either the computer's got a glitch, or the rumors of our guest are true." The runner thought to himself as he cleared his throat behind the two midshipmen. "Ladies, don't you have duty stations to be at?" He asked them as they settled down.
Both girls eeped and ran, leaving the clothes in a bunch below the tree. The runner had just picked up the shirt when he heard a slight sound in front of him and saw a buxom red haired girl wearing only a pair of shorts standing there with her arms crossed under her breasts.
"Mind giving me back my shirt?" She asked and held out her hand to him expectantly.
The runner blushed a bit and turned around holding the shirt out to Ranma-chan.
"So what'cha need?" She asked him after a brief rustling of clothes. "Oh, I'm decent now." Ranma-chan stated when the Ensign didn't turn around.
He turned around and saw the red haired girl standing there in a red shirt that appeared to be a modification of the GXP exercise wear and a pair of black pants. She looked only mildly perturbed as she was looking at a overturned kettle near by the two midshipmen had been carrying.
"Admiral Kamiki requested your presence on the bridge Ms. Ranma, we're approaching our first destination." He said professionally as he now was able to discharge his obligation so that he could get back to his duty station for the approach. "Umm…" he continued looking at where the girls had run off to.
"Oh, they wanted to know how complete the curse is." Ranma-chan stated with a slight blush herself. "Dang girls are worse than Daisuke." She said to herself before looking back at the runner that Seto had sent. "So do we go now? Or do I have time to change back?" the busty girl said.
Scene Break
Shortly after Ranma-chan enters the bridge area under the great tree. She's still a bit red in the face from embarrassment with the whole ordeal of being an honored guest and with the harassment of the midshipmen on the ship. "At least the regular crew are leaving me alone." She thought to herself as she walked up to Seto.
The tall woman dismissed the runner as she saw Ranma-chan standing there and waived off the smaller girls inquiry as to why she was called here by turning to the view area above them.
Ranma-chan was about to ask again why she was here when she looked above as well and saw a great planet taking up much of the sky from where she looked. The planet was predominately tan in color with a single large ring around it. However there were vast strips of green and a band of blue that was visible from where their ship was. She could also see at least two moons in the distance, one appeared to be reddish in color and the other looked to be bright blue, almost luminous. The aqua transsexual could also make out what appeared to be large structures out in the distance and even several other ships made out of wood like the one she was currently on.
"woah." Was about the only semi intellectually coherent thing that could come to Ranma-chan's overloaded brain at this moment. Standing there looking at the vast planet visible above the ships park horizon she felt a sense of smallness as the vast space in front of her loomed above her.
Ranma-chan jumped slightly when Seto placed her hand on her shoulder. "A Grand sight is it not?" The older woman said. "Soon we will be in our orbit and then we will take care of your problem."
"Huh?" Ranma-chan said then looked up at Seto. "Problem?" She said in a quiet voice.
Seto Kamiki almost laughed at the innocent look in the girls eyes. "Yes, your energy drain problem. We shall have a meeting with the Royal Council later, to reward you for your service, and to properly stabilize your energy." She said with a twinkle in her eyes.
Ranma-chan then felt a cold chill run down her spine as she observed the woman in front of her that she had began to know this last week. She thought that she had gotten a decent feel for the tall enigma of her savior and benefactor, but now looking at her she could only think that someone else held the strings to her life now besides herself or her old man.
Scene Break
Somewhere else, far behind Ranma-chan and Seto, back on Earth a meeting was happening. The room appeared rather nondescript, florescent lights above, white walls with sky blue base trim and a tiled floor. A long table stood in the center with many people sitting around it. There were placards in front of each person designating different countries. Japan, United States, Italy, Russia, Germany, Australia, Brazil, England, France, and several others were there.
Currently everyone was looking to a screen behind the head of the table, where on the screen the imagery captured earlier of the extra terrestrial vessel were projected. A man in a lab coat was standing near the screen operating the projection with a remote. As the wooden vessel drifted towards the Earth with debris spewing from several breaks in the hull a Energy Ovoid shot upwards to the vessel. Just before it impacted the man in the lab coat stopped the view and pressed a couple buttons on his remote and a blue square outline appeared around the Ovoid and then the square expanded to take up the screen. As the resolution enhanced itself a humanoid figure was becoming visible. Another box appeared around the figure and then zoomed to fill the screen and a few seconds later it enhanced itself enough for the people in the room to make out a grainy face of oriental features.
End Chapter
Author's Notes:
Sorry for the LONG delay in posting everyone.
Life caught up with me this last couple years. I'm not dead and gone, in fact I've continued to outline all of my works semi-regularly. However, the flushing out of my outlines has proven to be to time consuming to be able to post regularly.
Thanks to prompting from some of my readers I've made time to get back to writing (even though I usually don't read fanfiction anymore).
All four of my posted stories shall continue, and hopefully I don't drop totally into the void like many of the other authors of long running Ranma fiction.
Until next post… TTFN