Ranma's eyes were still wide as he sank beneath the surface. Who could blame him? After all, when he'd smacked his father into one of the many pools of water, he'd expected him to jump right back out, only slightly soggy. Instead, when a giant panda weighing at least a ton leapt out, landing delicately on top of one of the bamboo shafts, he'd been understandably surprised and turned his head away to ask the guide just what the hell was going on.
The panda had taken the opening and blindsided him.
And now, despite being a strong swimmer, he was sinking to the bottom of this pool... and something about his body felt wrong, but for some reason he couldn't see through the murky water to find out what it was.
His flailing hand came into contact with something. A rock? No... a bone. More bones. Then something else... rotten fabric... the clothes of whoever had drowned here. A shudder went through his spine as he jerked his hand away, knocking something as it passed. His hand closed around it involuntarily, and he began to rise back to the surface of the pool.
xxx
"Growf!"
"Mr Customer fall in spring of drown Panda. Very tragic story of Panda who drown in spring one thousand two hundred year ago."
"Growf... GROWF!"
"Oh, young Mr Customer? He fall in spring of... spring of... one moment, must check guidebook... Ah, here is. Young Mr Customer fall in spring of blonde girl who fall in spring five year ago while chasing dangerous monster."
"Growf?"
"No, remember quite clear that girl was one who do the chasing."
Ranma surfaced, taking a deep, gasping breath and interrupting their conversation as she slowly clambered out of the pool, dragging a picnic basket in one hand. She looked up and snarled, lunging for them but failing to take her new body into account and slammed face-first into the ground.
"Perhaps it be best we take young Ms Customer inside and make young Mr Customer again before explain."
"... Growf?"
Genma didn't really get it, but 'Make young Ms Customer into young Mr Customer again' sounded promising. Also, the deep pools of overwhelming rage that had shown through his son's eyes hinted that his waking up in a bed rather on the muddy ground would do a great deal towards prolonging his lifespan.
The basket was left by the pool, water slowly draining out, and neither of them noticed the way Ranma's shadow had begun to writhe.
xxx
Rage. Hatred. But... what was he so angry at?
An image appeared in his mind. Some sort of huge dog... wolf... but like no other wolf he'd ever seen before, and he'd seen quite a few. A cross between a wolf... and a man. A word filtered through his mind. Werewolf. His rage redoubled, and he felt himself snarling, thrashing about, desperately trying... needing to kill the werewolf.
Panic began to set in as the image of the werewolf faded away and he realized that something was tangled around him. His eyes snapped open.
And he fell out of bed onto the floor.
"Oh, so young Mr Customer is finally being awake, then."
Ranma groaned as he slowly sat up.
"... Head hurts. Where's pops?"
The guide paused, then lifted his hand to point at the panda sitting patiently in front of the stove, waiting for a kettle of water to heat.
"WHAT! You gotta be out of your..."
'Sorry, boy,' read the sign the panda had just lifted to interrupt his son with, spinning it to continue on the back 'but it's all true.'
Ranma could only stare as he absorbed this. The sight of the panda pouring a cup of water over its head and turning into his pops seemed to snap him out of his dazed state.
"I... I don't get it. Just a splash of water, and he turned into... what did I turn into then? I don't remember..."
"I am afraid, young Mr Customer, that you fall into one of Jusenkyo's many Nyanniichuan spring. This particular spring is of girl who drown only five year ago. As such, is much stronger than other Nyanniichuan."
"Stronger? Drowned girl spring..."
Ranma looked down at his chest, noticably male, and sagged in relief.
"Wait, I get it. It's just temporary... thank kami, for a moment you two had me really worr..."
He was interrupted by the guide sadly shaking his head.
"So sorry, young Mr Customer. I try to warn, but Jusenkyo always takes those it desires. Curses can be nullify temporarily with hot water, but there is no cure. Next time cold water touch, curse become active again... and if Jusenkyo decide you not spending enough time under curse, will make cold water touch. Roof spring leak, water pipes break, water fall from nowhere, send hurricane and monsoon to the cursed sometimes too."
"... WAIT A MINUTE! POPS! DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS!"
"YOU KNOW I CAN'T READ CHINESE, DON'T BLAME ME!"
"YOU IDIOT!"
Several minutes and much arguing later, Ranma had finally cooled off enough to remember the rest of what the guide had said.
"Hey... you said something about the curse on the spring I fell into being stronger than the others. How so?"
"Oh! I am impress young Mr Customer! Most people never asking about the curses themselves... instead they only ask about cures, and become upset when discovering there are none."
The guide took a deep drag from his pipe before continuing, Ranma waiting impatiently for answers and even Genma looking slightly interested.
"Curse of spring strength is determine by how many years have pass since something drown in spring. If something drown in spring, and next day someone fall in, they come out as perfect match of what drown physically and mentally. Will look, act, and believe themself to be what drown in spring. As time pass, curse grow weaker... quickly at first, but slow down very fast. After a year, personality of drown victim still there, but no longer completely override real personality. A voice in head, and can drive cursed ones crazy."
He took another drag from his pipe. By this time Ranma was openly fascinated, and Genma was subtly craning his neck to hear more.
"After five year, personality of drown one is mostly gone, and memories have begun to fade. After ten, is completely gone, and memories are mostly faded. Long time after that, one hundred years after drowning, memories would be completely gone, and cursed one no longer look exactly the same as drown victim. After very long time, one thousand years pass, all specifics fade from spring and cursed one sometimes only look barely similar to what drown in spring. Instead, look like what would look like if born as what drown. Elder Mr Customer fall into spring where panda drown one thousand two hundred year ago. He look like what he would look like if born panda, but nothing else. His mind still completely same, he have no skill at truly being a panda. No Memories, or leftover panda-mind. He stand on two legs like man, walk like man... is not good. Pandas not made to walk long on hind legs, will slowly damage self if try. Elder Mr Customer will have to learn how to be panda when panda."
This time when the guide paused, it was to glance at the two martial artists faces. The elder was discomfited, obviously unhappy with what he'd been told. And the younger was obviously anxious, worried about what he was going to hear.
"You, young Mr Customer, fall in spring where girl drown only five year ago. Personality of girl mostly gone, but some overwhelming traits remain. Memories still there but difficult to get at, especially in uncursed form. If she was good at something, a little might carry over. Also... I am thinking she was not a normal girl."
"Oh? What makes you say that?"
The guide lifted a hand, pointing to the wall opposite from the fireplace. Their heads turned to the wall, where the shadows of the guide and Genma were sitting still, just normal shadows.
Ranma's shadow had begun playing solitaire sometime during the explanations. It lifted a hand and waved at them before turning its attention back to the cards. Genma was obviously spooked, and Ranma sported a small sweatdrop.
"Okay... Wait, I don't get this. If the moving shadow thing is something to do with the curse, but I'm a guy right now, when why...?"
"Not know. Nothing like this happen before, in all time that Jusenkyo exist and have guide. Must remember to make note of this in journal, is almost as interesting as what I read in predecessor's journal of man who try to cure curse by jumping into Nanniichuan."
"And what happened to this man?" Genma interrupted.
"As I say, is no cure for Jusenkyo. Adding another curse only make things worse. Instead of turning into bat, he turn into half man, half bat monster. He flee Jusenkyo in panic... I think Amazons kill him. If not them then Musk or Pheonix."
Ranma, who'd closed his eyes to concentrate better, ignored the two as he delved into his mind, sifting through what was his and what wasn't. The first thing he found was obvious. An irrational, nearly overwhelming malevolent hatred towards werewolves. There was some small dislike for other... Darkstalkers? as well, but even thinking of werewolves threatened to dump him into a seething torrent of rage. If he were ever to come into contact with such a creature, he was uncertain he would be able to hold himself back from attacking it.
It was scary. If this was faded, then what had the girl been like when she was alive? The rest of what was left of the girl's personality was miniscule at best. A slight attachment to the basket, a teensy desire to wear a red cloak and hood, and a slight, nagging urge to start tracking down bounties on these 'Darkstalkers'.
Now for the memories.
After a moment, he realized the guide had been correct... It was incredibly difficult to find any of the girl's memories, and even once he'd found them they were covered in a thick shroud... he could make out the tiniest hints of sound and sights, but could see nothing more.
Then the mental dam broke to his relentless pressure, flooding every memory to him at once. His eyes snapped open to their widest point as he paled and dropped off his chair and onto his knees.
"Ranma? What's wro..."
He was interrupted by Ranma vomiting on the ground. Loudly. He expelled everything in his stomach, and then continued heaving afterwards even with nothing left to purge.
"Oh dear. I fetch mop."
Ranma was too sunk into the memories to answer.
It was horrible and gruesome. This girl... she called herself a bounty hunter. That was one thing, and some of the creatures in the memories deserved to be hunted down and exterminated, for sure...
But then there were the ones who didn't. Beings that had simply tried to blend into human society as best they could, meaning no harm to the people around them. Beings that lived in the wilderness, and would actively avoid humans. Newborn creatures, that couldn't have possibly done any wrong in their short span of life. Entire enclaves of creatures that might have fed off of humans now and then to continue their own existence, but had taken care to never kill those they fed off of... slaughtered like animals.
Not just slaughtered, but taken and butchered, and their parts sold to eccentric 'collectors' and scientists as 'specimens'. Even one instance where she had gone out of her way to capture an infant and sell it to a scientist to experiment upon while it still lived. As far as the memories went, it was probably still alive somewhere... even if it would prefer to be dead.
He couldn't take it. The memories, they were... so much blood...
He lost consciousness.
xxx
In the darkness, there was something. A shape... a figure... a person. Dark hair, pulled into a ponytail... no.
It was him. But he was there, and he was there, so who was he and he was who? The figure that seemed to be him but could not be, yet was, turned and gave a familiar grin. Rain fell, and that familiar face and body shrank and shifted and changed until a blue eyed blonde stood in front of him, wearing his gi and smiling. Then the gi itself changed, shifting and swelling until it became a red cloak and hood covering the girl in her entirety below her neck and the upper half of her face.
The smile never changed, not even slightly, but the darkness seemed to draw closer, draw nearer, and enwrap them both. She began to drift forward, and Ranma began to stumble back, more terrified of this one, small girl than any number of demons from the deepest, darkest, most fiery pits of the damned.
There were no walls in the darkness, and yet as he stumbled back, he drew up against something that prevented him from retreating further, even as the smiling, cloaked girl drew ever nearer. He wanted to close his eyes, but couldn't, couldn't blink, couldn't move, couldn't breathe as this apparition finally came to a stop, less than a centimeter ahead of him. For a moment, it was like existence itself was watching, and waiting, to see what happened next in this darkness.
Then she slowly drifted forward once more, through him... into him. It felt... there was no way to truly describe it, but the closest analogy would be that his very soul had been compressed, to allow something else to take hold of it and share the space it should occupy. Perhaps, eventually, one would manage to expel the other. Perhaps his soul and the other that was not would become something like roommates, accepting each others presence. Perhaps they would merge, and become one. Ranma didn't know any of these possibilities... couldn't know them. All he knew was overwhelming pain. A soul was not something that could naturally be meddled with.
But after a time, minutes or hours or decades, he could not tell, he rose from his convulsions and stood again, only shivering lightly. There was a mirror before him, and he saw himself for a moment, shuddering with the effort of standing, and then... a cast came over his reflection and he saw her, still smiling.
He awoke, screaming.
xxx
A.N.
Wow. This turned way different from what I'd expected, really fast. All I wanted was someone who could improve Ranma enough that he could keep up with his fiancees, but not make him too powerful, and I came up with an answer. B.B.Hood, of Darkstalkers.
Of course, once I had made the decision, the plot flatly refused to develop the way I wanted it to. After a few false trys and frustration, I eventually decided to give up, let the plot go the way it wanted to, and work around it afterwards. And so came this. Most of it was fine, but the last chunk... that was a bit more out there than I was hoping for. Still, this was a very difficult chapter to finish, so I'll just leave it as is and see how this develops. Usually this sort of thing ends up working out better than I could ever have planned it anyway... (shrugs).
Right then... back to 'Towers'!