Time Loops
Numbers in Nerima
Chapter 5
I own nothing. This is for fun, not profit. If I was making a profit, I wouldn't need to work for a living.
Ranma looked around the ballroom with all the elegantly dressed people and shook his head. What the heck was going on here? Considering he couldn't really make out anyone's faces he figured that he was either in the Silver Millennium, or was dreaming. Seeing the floating cats dancing with three-headed dogs on the ceiling, he was tempted to think of the latter.
"Ah, Mr. Saotome." A familiar voice spoke up to his right, causing him to turn and raise an eyebrow at the blond idiot in an orange tuxedo. Seriously, who the hell made a tuxedo out of orange? "I trust that you're taking a liking to our... Accommodations."
Suddenly the surroundings around him shifted and blurred and he found himself on a chair, chains wrapped around him as he looked at the blond idiot, this time in an orange lab coat, grinning at him. "Okay, seriously, Naruto, lose the orange."
"NEVER!" He screamed to the heavens while shaking his fist dramatically. "I shall prove to you that orange is far superior to anything you know of!"
"Even sex?" Ranma asked with a raised eyebrow.
Naruto sputtered for a moment before the walls were blown open and Sakura, what the hell is she doing here?! Ranma thought as the pink haired monster flew past him and through another wall.
The two looked into the smoking hole as a short-brown-haired, boyish-looking person stepped through, dusting the sleeves of the jacket they were wearing.
"Otto?" Ranma blinked a few times.
She smirked at him. "Call me... Saotome... Otto Saotome."
Ranma gasped awake with a jerk and sat up, or tried to as Tre rested her head on his lap and Uno had her arms wrapped around his shoulders while snuggling to his side. "No more late night parties while watching Bond films." He muttered to himself.
"Bad dream?" Nabiki asked as she looked around the darkened entertainment room that they were in. "I don't care how much Washu taught you, this is still impossible." It had been a small hall closet before Ranma decided to play "mad scientist" with it.
"You'd be surprised how easy it is to make a room large enough for a DDR party when you fold and bend space around you." He chuckled softly. "Besides, Washu does it on a grander scale, I just used it for a small room."
Nabiki looked around and sweat-dropped. "Small? This is at least as large as the school gym."
He shrugged. "Hey, if we want to have another failed wedding, this place is less likely to fall apart than the dojo." That got a laugh from Nabiki as she looked around the room and the various large seats and small couches that were strewn out in front of a large, flat-screen television. "You really should stop stealing from other universes."
"Heh, they won't miss a television a few chairs, sofas and the like." He chuckled. "Besides, I paid for them."
Nabiki shook her head and looked at the others in the room. Wendi was snuggling up to Nove's side as the shorter redhead rested her head on Wendi's head, both seemingly exhausted. Cinque was strewn across both of their laps as she slept there. Across from them, Otto and Deed slept cuddled against each other. Sette slept on a recliner in the corner, covered in a red blanket as she rested. "Where's Sein and Dieci?"
"Not sure..." Ranma frowned a bit but blinked as the two stepped back into the room.
Sein rubbed her eyes and stumbled to the large bean bag in the middle of the room before flopping on it, grabbing the nearby discarded blanket and covered herself up, falling back asleep.
Dieci sighed as she looked at Ranma and Nabiki. "...We had to use the bathroom." She flushed slightly as the two chuckled. "Um... How are things with my cannon going?"
"Pretty good." Ranma smiled at her. "Only lost ten shadow clones to random explosions."
The long-haired girl sweat-dropped. "You're... Taking that well."
Nabiki rolled her eyes as she grabbed a chair on wheels. "I doubt that he lost that many clones to your gun, Dieci." When she blinked a few times, Nabiki shook her head. "Look, he once built the Death Star from scratch in this universe just to see if he could. When it exploded, he took out all of Oceania with it." Seeing Dieci look at her blankly, she sighed. "You'll have to sit down and watch the Star Wars movies sometime."
"...Movies?" The brown-haired girl blinked a few times. "The Death Star is from a movie?" Of course it would be, it would have to be.
"In this universe it is." Ranma explained to her. "There is a universe where the Death Star actually exists." He sighed as Uno mumbled something in her sleep and squeezed his body tighter. "I've been to that universe a few times, so I know how the thing is made." He chuckled softly. "Anakin once used the Borg to build a Death Star just to prove to Kirk that he could."
"I... See?" Dieci blinked a few times as Nabiki rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry, you'll see more crazy things out there when you start looping. Just don't try to see what happens if you combine the All-Spark with the Death Star. The results... They aren't pretty." Nabiki chuckled as she remembered the results of what happened after that. After all, it had resulted in one of her earlier fused loops.
"Oh..." The confused cyborg looked at Ranma, who sighed softly.
"Don't worry about it. I've been looping for so long that it's rather insane. Most of my memories are swiss-cheese when it comes to smaller things." Ranma looked at Dieci and his eyes, to her, looked so old that she felt rather small and insignificant. His eyes seemed like he had seen the secrets of the universe, had cracked them apart, had figured everything in reality out and found that he knew nothing. All of that, she saw in an instant.
A moment later, the feeling was gone and all she saw was tired, humorous eyes looking at her. "Ah... Sorry." Dieci chuckled and rubbed the back of her head.
"Don't worry about it." Ranma smirked at her.
(---)
Mornings in Nerima for most of the people around the Tendo Dojo had come to a routine. Most of the time it was being woken up by yells, crashes, growls, explosions that went off in the Tendo yard. There was often times laughter and cries of surprise or loud splashes of water. It generally ended as people were settling down for breakfast. Until the week everyone was at the beach, most of Nerima had gotten rid of their alarm clocks. They didn't need them much anymore. Thankfully for the past three days, the Tendo house was lively again and no one needed alarm clocks.
So when there was an insanely large explosion and several windows, glass objects, cracked walls and broken streets, most people actually did pay attention.
After all, most of them had never had their houses front walls either cave in or be blown away by an object going so fast that it broke the sound barrier several times over while creating a gigantic destructive pressure wave around it while doing so.
In the Tendo yard, Ranma, Cinque, Sette, Nove and Genma, in his human form this time, stared stupidly at the broken wall, the street and the buildings, trees, fences and light posts that were all destroyed. "...It's like some sort of giant ball ran through there." Nove commented as Ranma shook that off and followed the path of destruction.
When he and the others got to the end, Tre was laying face-down in a crater, not moving. Frowning, he nudged her shoulder, getting a groan from the purple-haired cyborg. "Tre?"
"I cnt mv." She said, her voice muffled as Ranma rolled her over, revealing her shirt, pants, bra and panties all torn up and in tatters on her front. Her face, arms, legs and the front of her torso were cut up and bleeding from hundreds of shallow cuts.
"...Ouch." Ranma muttered and shook his head before putting a hand over her torso. A soft light appeared in his palms and she groaned slightly, squirming until the marks over her skin slowly faded and disappeared.
"What the heck..?" Genma took a step back, wondering what Ranma was doing.
"Healing technique." Ranma rolled his eyes. It was rather amazing how easy it was to use minor healing spells and convert it to other types of energies. Really, other than extremely potent healing spells and abilities, most all healing magic and techniques were exactly the same. Using Ki to heal was really the same as using Reikai, magic or Chakra with some minor tweaks.
"Can't do that again." Tre moaned as she sat up, her upper clothing finally giving up and falling apart, leaving her topless in a crater. She looked at Genma, who was ogling her. "...Can I kill him?" She asked while covering her naked breasts with her arms, blushing and frowning while looking away.
Ranma rubbed his head and pulled out a large robe and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Knock it off, Genma." Really, he was acting like he had never seen a pair of breasts before. Then again, Tre had a rather large chest, that might have had something to do with it.
Nodding her thanks, Tre stood up, only to have her pants and panties tear apart and fall to the ground in tatters. "...I liked those pants too." She muttered as she tightened her robe and made her way back to the house.
Ranma looked at the destruction and laughed at it. "Well, at least I don't have to clean it up." He said as he followed Tre back to the Tendo home, but not before kicking Genma for being an open pervert.
Cinque shook her head and looked at Nove and Sette. "Don't develop a technique that causes your clothes to disintegrate as a result."
When they got back to the house, Wendi and Sein were looking at the path of destruction curiously. "Tre-nee..." Wendi waved the taller cyborg down. "What happened?"
"I was finally able to use Mach Impulse." Tre muttered and walked into the house. "I'm starving." She grumbled as she went into the house and to her room. Even if she was starving, she wanted to at least wear a pair of underwear under the robe.
The last thing she wanted was someone looking down when she was wearing nothing but a robe on and get a free show.
Blinking, Sein turned to the others as they walked into the yard. "...Does this happen all the time?"
"More than you know." Ranma smirked at her and looked at the destruction sighing. "Oh well..." He'd get some clones to clean it up later. "Tre's right, we should eat."
Later at the table, Nove looked at Tre seriously. "Just what the heck happened out there? You suddenly glowed and shot off like a cannon ball."
Wincing as she recalled the pain she felt from crashing into the ground like she had, Tre shook her head. "Finally was able to use Mach Impulse, the results weren't good." She grumbled as she practically wolfed down the food.
"Meaning she managed to develop the raw technique but hasn't refined it yet." Ranma had a smirk on his face and a tone of voice that had Wendi shuddering and jumping into Nove's lap, shrieking in fear. "It wasn't that bad." He deadpanned at her. Honestly, she hadn't even begun to go through his real training methods and this was how she was reacting?
"Ice doesn't freeze that way." Wendi murmured as she shook on Nove's lap, who sighed and dislodged herself from the other redhead, pushing Wendi off of her lap.
"Anyway... What's with the weird energy you use?" When Ranma looked at her with a raised eyebrow, she clarified, "it's like magic, but... Not... I don't know... It's like... A 44 megahertz frequency while magic is more like a 55 megahertz frequency." Nove's face felt flush at the looks she was getting. "It's the closest thing I could think of!" She waved her arms in front of her rapidly to get them to stop with the weird or teasing looks.
"Actually, I was thinking the same thing." Cinque looked at Ranma through her one good eye. Her eye-patch was off and to the side, allowing the slightly confused and concerned look on her face to be completely seen. "It's nothing like anything that I've ever seen, so I was a bit curious."
"It's chi." Ranma said with a shrug, but he was amused by the two. "I'm honestly surprised that you didn't call it magic though." Most people of Mid-Childa just assumed it was magic no matter what. It had taken a long while for the Wolkenritter to stop calling it magic and they KNEW it wasn't magic.
Nove chuckled at that, glad that people weren't calling her stupid or staring at her fully. "Well, it was like magic, but there was something that felt off. I thought it was some sort of IS at first, but... That girl who attacked me, she used the same thing as you did."
Idly wondering what Shampoo was up to, Ranma nodded at Nove. "Yeah, it's chi. It's the basic life energy every living thing has."
"...If everyone has it, does that mean..." Nove began as Ranma shook his head.
"No. It's a pain in the ass to learn how to use properly anyway. Most people, if they can use it, just use it to strengthen and enhance their bodies, nothing more." Plus it generally took most of ones life time to learn how to use beyond simple body enhancing. "It's not like magic, where if you have it, you can use it. Though, magic and chi are similar in the fact that everyone has varying amounts and varying levels of ability when it comes to what they can do." Ranma tapped his chin a few times.
"Son... Magic?" Genma looked a little confused before getting splashed in the face with cold water, turning him into a panda. "Growf?"
"You turn into a panda with a splash of cold water and magic confuses you?" Ranma rolled his eyes as the panda grumbled and settled down. "Still..." He looked at Nove and Cinque, smiling at them. "Great job. You two didn't call it magic the first chance you got."
Nove and Cinque both felt their faces flushing, but they had pleased looks on their faces.
(---)
Watching Shampoo train, Cologne idly smoked on a pipe and wondered about a few things. Mostly she wondered about the girl's seeming rivalry with that redheaded girl, Nove. There was more to that girl than she was seeing. Not only that, the redhead's older sister, Tre wasn't too skilled, but she was strong and fast, which wasn't too unusual, she had fought against the Musk before, those warriors were either stronger or faster than any human could possibly be in one life time. The others were also a mystery, but they all had signs of training, or at least experience of some sort, in their walk. Some had more than others, of course, but there wasn't much that could be done about that. "Really, granddaughter, are you that hard-up that you can't concentrate?" She enjoyed the flushed, angry look on her face from that. If Shampoo couldn't get her emotions in order, well... Cologne sighed softly and shook her head. While she was grateful that Shampoo had gotten a new drive to train and better herself, she could see that the girl wasn't improving very quickly.
"Shampoo..." Cologne shook her head, sighing. "That's enough, you're just wearing yourself out."
"Not..." She panted softly. "Done yet."
Shaking her head, Cologne had to wonder what it was about pride, arrogance, anger and frustration that kept people from truly reaching their full potential. "Yes, yes you are. You've trained non-stop for the past few days, you're not getting any better right now."
Shampoo frowned at that, unsure why Cologne was so stubborn about all of this. "I won't lose to her again!" She explained, clenching a fist tightly. "I just need to figure out how to beat that attack of hers." She frowned as she spoke in Chinese.
"Where on Earth am I now?!" A male voice yelled suddenly, getting both Amazons attention. "I swear! I was in Paris a few minutes ago." Both Amazons sweat-dropped as a boy with a spotted bandanna on his forehead walked into the clearing. They didn't know where this "Paris" was, well, Shampoo didn't, Cologne had a vague idea of it being on an entirely different continent, but that was it.
"You aren't near this Paris, boy..." Cologne told him, getting a startled jump from Ryoga as he spun around and looked at the two stupidly. "You're in a construction lot in Nerima."
"Really?" Ryoga blinked, rubbing the back of his head. "That would explain why everyone's speaking Japanese, but why is it only a twenty minute walk from here to Paris?"
Shampoo sweat-dropped heavily, so heavily in fact that she fell over. "Stupid, this Japan, not Paris."
"But! I swear! I was just in Paris! I was by the Eiffel Tower, people were speaking French, well, there were some Japanese and English in there, but I thought they were tourists."
Holding up a hand and pointing behind her, Cologne sighed at him. "Was that the tower you were at?"
"Huh?" Ryoga looked up and blinked, nodding. "Yeah! Wow, I didn't know that Paris was near Nerima." He got a groan from both women in response.
"Shampoo think that he dumber than Mousse." The purple-haired girl grumbled as she sighed heavily.
(---)
Walking around the city, Nove could only sigh softly. Honestly, with the way things were here, she wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to Mid-Childa again. The thought of not always being awake for the loops and being a criminal really didn't sit well with her. Really, this world was peaceful, if a little strange. She blinked as a knife suddenly embedded itself in the sidewalk in front of her. "Eh?" She looked up and blinked as she saw some guy in long white robes and black pants stand on the top of the telephone pole, his incredibly long hair, seriously, it rivaled Sette, Dieci and Cinque's hair lengths, fluttered in the wind and his eyes were closed at that moment. Nove could feel her face heat up slightly. He had a pretty face at least.
"So, there you are." The boy intoned as he jumped down to land lightly on his feet. "I shall make you pay for taking Shampoo's honor!" He cried out while pointing at a telephone pole that he had just jumped off of.
"Uh... that crazy purple-haired girl?" Nove blinked, getting the boy to turn towards her voice and pull out of his sleeves... "...Those are some thick glasses."
Putting the glasses on his face, he squinted and leaned forward. "Huh, you cut your hair. Never-mind that!" He jumped back and pulled out a pair of broadswords. "Prepare to die!"
"What is with people trying to kill me lately?" Nove muttered as she ducked under the slice towards her head and twisted to the side of his follow-up sword thrust.
"Karma for kidnapping Vivio?" Nove turned to see Sein and Dieci there, watching her, the shorter-haired cyborg grinned at her. "That and all the pranks we pulled back then."
"Then why aren't, eek!" Nove had to jump over some chains with sharp points that nearly skewered her, "why aren't you dealing with this then?"
Sein shrugged and turned to Dieci, who scratched her head. "...Maybe people hate redheads around here?" Both Nove and Sein looked at Dieci, who shrugged. "What? It seems like everyone gets irrationally angry at Nove for some stupid reason."
Nove blinked as her back touched a brick wall. "Well, this sucks." She muttered and tensed her legs, preparing to leap out of the way of his next attack.
"Fist of the White Swan!" The boy cried out as his hands blurred, in that instant, Nove, Sein and Dieci's faces all turned green and Nove froze, getting clocked upside the head and sent tumbling to the ground.
"EWWWW!" All three girls cried out as Nove quickly scrambled away from the crazy person.
"Nove, you okay?" Sein asked, looking at her in concern.
"Eww! I need a bath. One in acid maybe!" Nove gagged as she shuddered, looking around for some water to wash her face with.
"Hey!" Dieci frowned at the boy, who was smirking at them. "Why don't you at least use something more normal!"
The boy blinked at her. "...What's wrong with "Fist of the White Swan"?" As far as he knew it was a perfectly legitimate technique, albeit it was unorthodox, but that was the point of his style.
"YOU HIT ME IN THE FACE WITH A DUCK-SHAPED TRAINING POTTY!" Nove screamed at him.
He smirked at them. "I, Mousse of the Chinese Amazons, am a master of black magic and hidden weapons." Flicking his wrists to the side, he held four knives in each hand, between each of his fingers.
Sein blinked a few times as she saw him do that. "Hey, Cinque would just love to know how you did that." The shortest cyborg might not have said anything, but Sein had once lifted that long coat of hers and it was heavy as hell, mostly because of all the heavy knives that it held.
Mousse said nothing and threw the knives at them, missing them by more than a good foot and causing them to dig into the walls and sidewalks around them. "Now, for stealing my Shampoo's honor, die!" Jumping into the air, he pulled out more chains, these ones had spiked balls on the end and threw them down, aiming at Nove. It was too bad about Sein and Dieci, but that was the price to pay for being in his way.
Sein just dropped through the ground and Dieci jumped back while Nove jumped straight up and glared at the nearly blind idiot. "You tried to hurt my sisters!" She yelled at him.
The next thing Mousse knew was a pair of feet crashing into this throat and chest, before he was driven into the ground so hard that all the windows around them rattled and shook.
"And stay down!" Nove snarled at him, raising her foot to stomp on him again before Sein grabbed her from behind and pulled her away. "Lemme go! He tried to hurt you! Lemme go!"
"Calm down, we're okay, Nove." Sein said softly to her, smiling as she slowly relaxed. "I don't think it would be a good idea to kill someone."
"Why not? They keep trying to kill me." Though Nove could feel the anger leaving her body, she didn't have much will to keep hurting the jerk, she just wanted to know why Sein wouldn't let her finish him off.
"Ah..." Sein didn't have a comeback for that.
"Would you want to be like them? Jerks that kill for no reason?" Dieci asked her shorter sister as she walked up to the pair. "Even when we were criminals, Nove, you never would have killed someone without a really good reason."
Sighing, Nove slumped and nodded. Dieci was right, after all. "Thanks."
Both Sein and Dieci smiled at her as she was freed from Sein's grasp. "Come on, sis, let's get some ice cream or something." At least they could forget the horrible experience that way. "...And get your face washed up."
"Ewww! I almost forgot!" Nove shrieked as the trio left the fallen Amazon in the dirt.
Mousse groaned as he slowly sat up a little bit later and rubbed his throat. "She kicks like a mule." He muttered, before coughing and getting up, stumbling off. He needed a place to sit, rest and recover after all of this.
(---)
Sette blinked as she saw Ryoga walking around, seemingly lost. She was about get his attention when a bus drove between them for a few moments. When the bus passed, Ryoga was gone, leaving the tall pinkette looking on in confusion. "...Where'd he go?"
Unseen to Sette, there had been an open manhole cover which he had walked over, causing Ryoga to fall down and into the sewers, getting soaked and triggering his curse. "Bwee!" The little piglet cried out helplessly as it was swept away from the sudden rush of water that came from further up in the sewers.
(---)
"Curse this 54-year-old body and it's need to go to the bathroom every four hours!" A male voice was heard from a building.
"I told the professor that messing with time travel was dangerous."
"Shut up, Zoidberg."
"Aww..."
(---)
Sette just shrugged and walked off, wondering what she was going to do for the rest of the day. Blinking, she thought she heard someone call out to her, before a there was a lighting up of green light in the area and a rumbling of a motorcycle. "Hello, Otto."
The boyish girl smiled at her taller sister. "What's up, Sette?"
The taller girl shrugged as she looked at Otto. "Nothing much, honestly. Saw Ryoga, but he went and teleported away before I could say anything." She tapped her chin, blinking a few times. "Been using your IS lately?"
Otto blinking and slowly shook her head. "No... Why do you ask?"
"No reason, I just thought the area lit up in green for a moment." Sette did think it was weird though, who else had glowing green energy beams of doom anyway?
(---)
In a tree, several blocks away, a severely burned and beaten up Kuno Tatewaki groaned and tried to get up. Well, okay, he wasn't beaten up, and his clothes were only slightly singed, it was the fact that he had landed on the tree-branch a bit too perfectly for his own tastes. "Mine... Jewels... Do not go crunch that way..." He said in a high squeaky voice as his body turned to the side before falling straight down and landing on his head. At least nothing major was injured, or so people who disliked him would have you believe.
But that was something for another time.
(---)
A couple hours later, after getting out of the sewers, a while in the public baths, and a new change of clothes, Ryoga found himself wandering around Nerima again, taking in the sights and wondering about the offer that the old woman, if she could be called a woman, had given him.
Flashback...
"Well, boy, I'd be willing to train you. I can teach you a technique that will make you nearly unbeatable." She smiled at him in such a way that he just shuddered.
"No thanks. I'll just be going now." He said as he turned around and started to walk out of the area and to Nerima, or maybe to Okinawa, no one was sure with a Hibiki. Unless their name was Dan, but no one talked about Dan.
"That's fine, if you change your mind, I'll be right here." She turned away for a moment, to say something to Shampoo in Chinese and turned back to Ryoga, but he was long gone, leaving a blinking Amazon, who shrugged and went back to Shampoo.
End Flashback...
"I still wonder how Ranma does that." A female voice spoke up, catching Ryoga's attention. Anyone speaking of his hated rival, or at least he thought Ranma was his rival, but Ranma had never been able to make him fall to the ground so easily before, at least not in middle school, would catch his attention easily.
"Not sure, Tre-nee." A shorter girl, with long brown hair, was shrugging as she walked next to a tall, short purple-haired woman. "I do like what he did to my blades though."
The taller woman smirked at her. "You mean being able to channel your magic better, Deed?"
"Of course."
"It's you!" Ryoga yelled and pointed at Tre, his eyes were wide, before he narrowed them. "I remember you! You were the one running around naked that night!"
Tre blinked in disbelief, mostly because she honestly didn't know who the babbling idiot was. "Uh... What?"
Ryoga glared and curled his hands into fists. "You know what I'm talking about! Don't try to deny it!" He yelled as he grabbed at his bandannas and pulled four off of his head, getting a blink from the two cyborgs.
"How many of those things do you have?" Deed asked, wondering how he did that. "Sette would just love to know how you did that."
Snapping his wrist down, the soft fabric suddenly stiffened as if it was hard wood or metal, before Ryoga snapped his arm out, throwing the bandannas as though they were spinning shurikens or even buzz-saws.
(---)
"What's wrong boss?" A clone suddenly spoke up as Ranma stiffened and narrowed his eyes.
"Not sure, but something feels... Off..." He muttered, before shaking his head. "Not sure what it is, but anyway, are we almost done with this?"
The clone smirked as he held up Dieci's cannon. "Almost. Just have to finish the overdrive mode for this thing, then we'll have some fun with it." The clone chuckled, almost darkly and gleefully.
"...You've been spending too much time around Brianna, haven't you?" Ranma deadpanned as the clone smirked at him.
"Hey, I love big guns, explosions and her big guns." There was a perverse look on his face as he giggled not unlike some other perverts in the multiverse.
"...I wonder if you're supposed to represent my libido or something."
Shrugging, the clone laughed at him. "Hey, it's not like you go out and try to get some lately anyway."
"Now I know how Naruto feels." Ranma muttered softly, wondering why he thought something was wrong in the world.
(---)
Her face was stuck in a stunned position as the wind blew around her. Both Ryoga and Tre were looking at her, both with eyes fairly wide, Ryoga more-so than Tre as Deed, in an almost comical slow motion, reached behind her and pulled at her hair, only to find out that it was only half as long as it had been before, and only on her right side. "...My hair..." She said slowly, realizing that her hair was long on one side and badly cut on the other side. "...You cut my hair..." She could still feel the strands as they fell out of her long hair. "...My hair..."
"Uh..." Ryoga felt bad that her hair got cut like that. He didn't know much about how girls saw their hair, but he knew that they spent a lot of time taking care of it. "Sorry?"
Deed blinked a few times, before focusing a gaze on him that could melt steel. "You..." She didn't know when she called for her weapons, but they materialized in her hands, lighting up. "Cut..." Her eyes, normally an incandescent red in color, though slightly darker than Wendi's own eyes, seemed to sharpen and burn in a blaze of anger. "My..." Tre wasn't sure if Deed could use fire-based magic, since it was rare that anyone had any sort of elemental magic from Mid-childa. No one was really sure why it was rare, but the common belief was that using devices to do calculations for magic was the reason. "HAIR!"
Tre couldn't help it, she winced reflexively as Deed laid into Ryoga. Honestly she was surprised that the blades weren't slicing him to ribbons, but that wasn't important as Ryoga screamed out in pain with each hit. There was a small explosion and Tre shook her head. "There goes a car... And some garbage cans... And a brick wall..." She commented before finally grabbing Deed in bear hug and lifting her up. She was grateful for her large size and immense strength, she needed every ounce of it as Deed struggled and thrashed to get back at the thoroughly beaten Lost Boy.
"Lemme at him! Lemme at him! He cut my hair! He needs to pay!"
"Remind me not to let you cut the lawn." Tre idly commented, before noticing the tears falling out of Deed's eyes. "...Deed?"
"...He cut my hair... I liked my hair! Now it's ugly!" Deed suddenly slumped, before snapping her head up and glaring at the groaning, barely moving and heavily bruised Ryoga. "Lemme at him!"
"No! Let's... Let's go home... Maybe Ranma can fix this?" Like someone flipped a switch, Deed calmed down as Tre pulled her out of the area.
"You think dad can?" Deed asked, her voice full of hope. When Tre nodded, Deed slipped from her grasp and landed lightly on her feet. "Well then, what am I waiting around here for?!"
Tre could only watch, stupefied as Deed took off like a rocket, saying she'd be at the Tendo Dojo if anyone was looking for her. "...What is it about this place that causes such insanity?" Tre asked to no one in particular. "Then again..." She sighed, remembering the smiles that her sisters had, the way that they could just have fun and no one was trying to arrest or bother them for just being themselves. "...I'm getting soft." Tre shook her head, oddly not displeased by the notion.
Maybe they were becoming more human? Tre didn't know, but if it was a positive thing she really couldn't complain. Well, except for the insanity that seemed to be contagious, that she could do without.
Back where he was layed out, totally bruised and beaten, Ryoga groaned blinked, either he was seeing things, or someone was over him. "Pick him up, Shampoo." An old voice, why did it sound familiar to him? Why was the world moving? He wasn't sure anymore. He was grateful that he didn't have to think about it anymore as his vision darkened completely and he passed out, not that he'd ever mention that he was beaten by a girl. Nope. He had his pride after all. If anyone asked, he'd say that he let her beat him up.
(---)
"Tofu-Sensei, there's a Ms. Takeda here to see you." Uno called out to the back as the man in question came out, smiling at the taller woman, before turning to the smaller, older woman.
"Hello, is your ankle still giving you problems?"
"Just a small amount." The older woman admitted as she limped slightly.
"Well then, how about..." The door to the clinic opened up, getting both Tofu's and Uno's attention. In that instant two things happened, first was Ms. Takeda gaping and wishing that her ankle wasn't hurting and Tofu's glasses fogged over heavily as the person in question walked through the door. "Ka, Ka, Ka, Kasumi! How nice to see you here!" Tofu got all giggly and jittery as Kasumi smiled at him.
Uno, thankfully, had moved away and had pulled Ms. Takeda away from the two. She wasn't sure what was going on exactly with Dr. Tofu, but for some reason she didn't want to be near him right now.
Giggling, Kasumi smiled at the doctor. "You're so silly, I'm just returning this book I borrowed." The instant that she put the book in his hands, Tofu suddenly erupted into insane giggles, spun to the side and flung open the metal cabinet that was used to hold various white coats and supplies, along with a full-size skeleton model.
"Hee hee hee! Betty, what are you doing here?" Grabbing the skeleton, he started dancing, spinning around, and around, and through the door, destroying the wall, as Uno stared stupidly, the old woman thanked Uno for saving her life and Kasumi was just giggling at the antics of Dr. Tofu as he crashed through mail boxes, fences and telephone poles.
"...This happen often?" Uno asked, getting a surprised look from the older woman. "...What? I've never seen those two in the same room together."
"...You are most lucky." Ms. Takeda nodded sagely at her. "Would you be a dear and help me to the bus stop? Tofu-sensei won't be back until tomorrow at the earliest."
"Uh... Sure." For all her experiences, Uno really, really found that she felt like a fish out of water in this city. "...That was kind of funny."
"As long as he doesn't get his hands on you." Ms. Takeda chuckled softly as Uno nodded, before blinking as she looked back into the room. "Coming, Kasumi?"
"Hmm? Oh sure." She smiled and followed the tall Number. "What about work?"
Uno shrugged the question off. She'd just clock out later.
(---)
"Ranma?" Uno blinked as she walked into the kitchen shortly after taking Ms. Takeda home. "What are you doing?" Seeing Deed sitting on a chair with a white apron around her neck, looking miserable while Ranma had a pair of scissors in his hands as he held up her hair... "Oh..." Uno sat down on another chair in the kitchen. "So what's with the hair cut?"
"Ryoga cut my hair..." Deed said, pouting heavily as she heard the snip and cut through her hair. "Very badly, and now I need my hair cut to even it out." She seemed more upset as she said that. Ranma, surprisingly, was quiet as he cut her hair.
"Ouch..." Uno could understand, growing hair as long as Deed had was a pain normally, to have it cut off like that... "You did get him back, I hope."
"He's still alive..." Deed muttered as Ranma stepped out around from behind her. "Well?"
Smiling slightly, he materialized a few mirrors around Deed and had her look at them. "I think it turned out pretty good."
Uno couldn't help but agree as she saw Deed's hair, it was a lot shorter, just past her shoulders, as opposed to before where it was competing with Cinque's hair and reaching her butt. "Not bad."
Even so, Deed seemed to be even more upset as she looked at her new hair-style. "...You really did like your hair long, huh?" Ranma asked her, getting a sniffle and nod from the cyborg. Smiling softly, Ranma got behind her, his hands glowing as he gently grabbed the ends of her hair and pulling down and much to the shock of both Deed and Uno, the hair started to grow, going from her shoulders down the length of her body until it reached the length of her hair from before.
"...wow..." Both cyborgs could only stare in awe as Ranma smiled at them.
"How did you learn that?" Uno asked, Deed was too shocked at seeing her hair back to normal again, getting a shrug from Ranma in response.
"You'd be surprised what you can come up with when you're bored some days."
Uno was about to say something when Deed suddenly jumped off the chair and hugged Ranma tightly, tears leaking out of her eyes as she thanked him profusely. Seeing Ranma smile softly as he hugged her, the eldest of all the cyborgs was rather struck by how Ranma looked like a father at that moment. Idly, Uno wondered just why Ranma's eyes seemed to light up in happiness whenever Deed, Otto or Sette called him father, before shrugging it off, it was something to ask him about later.
(---)
Contrary to common thoughts among various loopers and anchors, Ranma could, in fact, sleep in a room with women and not have sex with them all the time. While those people would say that was impossible, that was just what was happening, minus the sleeping as Uno, who was under the covers in the futon that she, Tre and Ranma shared, just couldn't sleep. There was just too much on her mind. "You two asleep?"
"Not yet." Tre muttered, sighing softly while Ranma chuckled from his spot between them and turned his head to face her.
"What's wrong?" He was curious, there wasn't much to see in the dim lighting, but then again, his eyesight was so much better than most people's even a small speck of light allowed him to see almost perfectly. There were times he wasn't sure whether to thank Brianna and Britanny or curse them for their involvement in that.
"I've just been curious about something..." She said as she sat up, revealing that she was wearing a large t-shirt under the blankets as she turned to look at him. "You look at Deed, Otto and Sette differently than the others."
"Really?"
"Yeah..." Uno nodded and sighed softly. "It's not like you're playing favorites or anything, but your eyes seem happier whenever they call you "dad" as opposed to the rest of us. Why is that?" She might not have asked had she known more about the subject, it wasn't her fault that no one explained things to her. Really, it wasn't.
Both Uno and Tre looked at Ranma in confusion as he stood up and walked towards the window, opening it. "Sorry... I... I'm not going to answer that one, Uno." He sighed and looked at them. "I'm not mad, I just... I just don't like talking about that subject, that's all."
Both Uno and Tre were left with nothing but questions and confusion and really had no idea just what had happened exactly.
Retreating to the roof, Ranma sighed softly as he sat there, ignoring the wind as it blew against his body as he looked out at the buildings silently. There was a lot that he had forgotten over the years, mostly for his own sanity's sake, remembering every little detail that one went through over a countless amount of years could drive someone insane. There were just some things that stayed with a person though.
The loss of his first child was one of them.
As he sat there thinking, a lone tear fell from his face. He hadn't done anything wrong, hell, it had been so early in the loops that he had used them to try and fix everyone's problems. Actually having a child had been the happiest moment of his relatively short, at the time, life. His hands actually shook slightly as he held his hands up to look at them. He could still feel the weight, the way his child wiggled, squirmed, cried and even kicked at him.
Then the loop restarted.
Closing his eyes, he chuckled mirthlessly. "Not very funny." He muttered to himself, tears falling down his face, he didn't care if anyone saw him at that moment.
"Still can't forget, huh?" A familiar voice spoke up, causing him to nod as he turned to the person in question.
"You never had to deal with the memory, Nabiki." Ranma shook his head at her, his face tear-streaked at that moment. "My first child... I can never forget the sudden shock of losing my first child, Nabs."
"I wish you wouldn't call me that." The brown-haired girl muttered as she moved towards him and sat down within arm's reach of him. The two sat there in comfortable silence for hours, just watching the night as it went by slowly.
They would still be there, sitting silently and looking out at the day as the sun slowly crept over the horizon, signifying the start of a new day.
Man, what a way to end the chapter, huh?
Don't worry, future chapters are funnier, I promise.
And Deed is scary when she gets angry.
I'm TRYING to keep the story in line with Ranma 1/2 while changing a lot.