Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, I do not claim any rights to any of the characters or concepts created or owned by Viz Video or Rumiko Takahashi. This is just the work of one fan to the others. The only characters or concepts that I claim are the ones I created or introduced. That said, I bring you:
For Love and Money, the War of the Horse. A Y3 story.
Chapter 15: The long road home.
Ranma shook her head and rolled her shoulders as she walked back to her quarters. It had been a trying week, if she was going to be honest with herself. Prince Herb had grown accustomed to getting his way over the years, and Tai Dai had proven to be surprisingly informed and predictably stubborn. It had led to some rather tense moments, but she had every reason to believe that they had found enough common ground that she should be able to return to Japan in the next few days.
Of course, her return trip was proving that things would likely not be boring. Tai Dai insisted on accompanying her back to Japan to speak to Qiang Pu and to meet Xaph Ti Pyn. Douglas had already said he would make the arrangements, but who knows what that would entail, really. At least the Musk hadn't made any demands on visiting yet.
Honestly, she expected it to happen.
The remaining mercenaries had either been accounted for, or had vanished into the surrounding countryside. Without an established chain of command or supplies, they were not nearly as much of a threat. The Musk had put a bounty on their heads, so if they were smart they would not stop running until they left China.
The bigger concern was who had organized this in the first place. Someone who knew enough about the region to set all of this up, and who had the power and connections to make it happen. Someone who had wanted to strike at the Amazon's, perhaps? Or were they just the start for whatever they had planned? And who was their agent that had been acting behind the scenes?
All the ones that had likely had direct contact with this unknown person or their agent had been eliminated, either during Ranma's attack or by the unknown assailant that had blown up the temple. Ranma would assume it was the same person that had killed the Musk Parsley was the one responsible for the bodies of the missing guards.
All of them had been killed quick and clean, the work of a professional who didn't seem to like to use knives or weapons. Even the ones that had been strangled to death didn't have any signs of being bound, or a garrote being used. It was like they had been incapable of fighting back.
Perhaps a nerve strike, or a poison of some sort. Ranma wasn't a doctor, and most of the best of the Amazon's healers had been killed. Even Tai Dai, as skilled as she was, was considered little more than an apprentice according to what she had said.
And the Musk certainly did not have anyone with the talents and training to figure out how their men had been kept from being able to fight back.
Ranma settled in at the desk in her room and had started to open the next message for Douglas when a knock at the door interrupted her. She looked at the message, then shrugged and went to open the door. She wasn't too surprised to find Tai Dai waiting for her with her medical supplies at hand.
Ranma smiled and welcomed Tai Dai into her quarters. She was sure that this visit was about more than tending to the last of her wounds. More than likely, Tai Dai wished to learn some new facts to add to her understanding of Japan.
Not that Ranma minded, of course.
Herb, Prince of the Musk shifted in her seat as she looked over the papers once more. The negotiations had gone well, so far. The incident had caused any amount of trouble, but it was also possible it had opened up possibilities that would not have been a reality before. The Musk had always disregarded the outside world as insignificant, or a nuisance like Beijing.
Needless to say, recent events had forced her to take another look at those thoughts. The outside world had come and upended a status quo that had existed for centuries in a short time. In the past, seeing the prideful Amazons laid low would have been something to celebrate, if it had not shown their own weaknesses. Most of the men who had rebelled had been outliers and outcasts, but Parsley had been a trusted man, at one time.
It was possible that there was still some rot to remove from her own home.
Prince Musk leaned back and stretched her back before she fixed Lime and Mint with a steely glance, and the two faithful idiots quickly found anything but her chest incredibly interesting. She sighed and went back to the paperwork as she contemplated what they would have to do next.
They had placed Pepper, one of her most trusted older warriors, as one of the guardians of Plum. He would make sure that the young men that had been sent to the Amazon's village didn't overstep themselves, and would treat the villagers with respect. It would be a challenging task, but she had every confidence in him. He had been the one who had trained her, after all.
The chance to grow the influence of the Musk in the area, and to be seen as a unifying force was something that she would not have thought about before she had met Ranma. The outsider had made quite the impression on her since they had started to sit together along with Tai Dai of the Amazon's to try and forge a path forward for the peoples of this area.
And perhaps it was time to reevaluate how Beijing was perceived amongst the peoples. If a small force like the ones that had overrun the Amazon's could cause this much havoc and death in such a short time, then what was Beijing truly capable of?
Perhaps it would be beneficial to the Musk to forge an alliance with the outsiders that the Amazon's had made ties with. The same ones that had unleashed Ranma Tendo on the invaders.
Perhaps it was time to make inroads with this Teahouse of the Japanese.
The short, burly Musk warrior known as Pepper frowned as he watched over the forms and techniques of the young Musk that had been placed under his care. They were strong, but some of the milder of the warriors. Hand picked by himself with the approval of Prince Herb. It would be a dangerous, difficult task not just because of the risk of another attack on the village. The nature of the past relationship between the two peoples made this a potentially volatile situation. A boiling pot that could overflow at any moment.
And the best chance to change their little section of the world.
Change had already started, quite a bit at the direction of Elder Tai Dai, who had suspended both the Kiss of Death and the Kiss of Marriage. Two outdated traditions that would have made the situation here even worse, especially when you considered the pair of problems that he had gained.
The pair of problems that were currently supervising the practice of the hodge podge of older and younger women who were just about all that the Amazon's had left of their active warriors. Outsiders and outcasts that had been welcomed back into the fold along with the young girls and those that had once been trained to some extent. Those were the women that Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung had to work with.
The pair of seasoned and blooded warriors bore the fresh scars and wounds with a sense of pride. They had survived the initial assault, but not without paying a price. Both of them still bore the bandages that covered where their left eyes should have been. From what he had heard, one of them had lost her eye during the attack, and the rumor was that the other had gouged out her own eye as well. A rumor that he had not sought to confirm or deny, partially out of respect, but also to not give the pair of Amazon's any more chances at being able to ambush him while he was alone.
Not for anything overtly violent, mind you. Well, it was likely that sex with the pair of Amazons would not be a gentle thing. But they had singled him out as the target of their affections. If he had been some young and inexperienced warrior of the Musk, he would have been overwhelmed and frozen at the prospect. But he wasn't. He had lived and loved, and known lost. He had buried both a wife and child when he had been a younger man.
And now he found himself in the sights of a pair of Amazon hellions.
Pepper stiffened as the two elder Amazon warriors moved to flank him. The pair of Amazons were hard to pick apart, but his nose could tell the slight difference between them. He turned his head briefly to his left and nodded slightly. "How can I help you, Elder Ling-Ling?" He said then looked at the other. "Elder Lung-Lung."
Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung exchanged a look before Ling-Ling asked. "And how did you know I was not Lung-Lung, Pepper of the Musk?" Ling-Ling asked.
"I have a good nose.". Pepper answered, then figured that maybe the truth would make the pair lose interest in him. "My father was very traditional. He chose to have a beast bride, and I was the result. He managed to find himself a badger, who he dunked into the Pool of Drowned Girl. I was the result."
Lung-Lung nodded and grinned. "We had figured as much, with how you were built."
"And .. that doesn't make you lose interest in me? And why are you both pursuing me? Wouldn't it be better if just one of you sought out a…. Companion?". Pepper asked, and instantly knew that he would probably regret doing so.
"We have always shared everything, Pepper of the Musk. Just like we chose to lose an eye, so that we would remain on equal footing." Ling-Ling stated, then Lung-Lung continued. "And we figured that you would have the stamina to…. Keep up with us. And the backbone to stand up to us, when it was needed. Elder Tai Dai is right. We must change, or die."
Ling-Ling spoke at this point, and watched the two disparate groups of warriors. "And we want to live. Come to our house later, please. We have much we want to discuss with you."
Lung-Lung laughed and smiled. "And don't look like that. We won't jump you and have our way with you. We want you to accept us. Both of us. How we are."
Pepper swallowed and slowly nodded, even as he questioned his own sanity. He wasn't sure what it was that the pair of Amazons wanted, if they were to be true to their word and didn't intend to attempt to take what he had not offered them so far. But he did know that he respected the pair of hellions enough to believe that they would be true to their word.
The pair left him alone until they had finished their training for that day, then waved and winked at him before they escorted their charges toward the women's baths. He watched them go, then turned and clapped his hands once, to draw the attention of the gawking young men who had been entrusted to him. "Okay, you stinky lot. Down to the river and let's get cleaned up."
There was talk about building a set of baths for the men, but that hadn't been done yet. The women's baths were a relatively new addition, one of the things that the Japanese who visited the village had built.
A change that would have been basically unthinkable a decade or two ago.
He took his time to get ready after he had seen his men to the house on the outskirts of the village that they had been housed in. He respected Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung, yes.
But that didn't stop him from making sure that his belt was tight, and would prove difficult to remove quickly.
Pepper had debated leaving his weapon behind, but he felt naked without it in this place that had been held by outsiders recently. And, if he were to be honest, a lifetime of conflict had not been washed away so quickly. He was sure that the pair of Amazon Elders would understand.
His keen nose picked up the smell of what the sister's were cooking before he even saw their house. He stopped outside and stood there for a minute before he knocked on the door, and was quickly face to face with Ling-Ling. "I hope I didn't make you wait long?" He said to the Amazon Elder.
Ling-Ling shook her head gently and stepped back as the knife in her other hand found its way back into the sheath on her thigh. "Not at all. We figured it would take a bit to get your flock roosted for the night.". She said as she led him to sit at the table.
It wasn't the first time that Pepper had been in the sister's house, and he figured it would not be the last. It was a simple structure, with the majority of the house as one large room. He made sure he didn't glance at the large, single bed that sat in one corner of the room nor at the door that led to the bathroom. Other than that, the only door besides the one he had entered led to the closet-armory.
Pepper sat at the table, while Ling-Ling sat across from him. He could easily see Lung-Lung as she worked away in the kitchen and prepared a traditional meal for the three of them.
The same grace that he saw on the practice field filled every movement of hers, and he looked away and met the grinning face of Ling-Ling and the Musk warrior sighed and shook his head.
"She is definitely something, isn't she? She is the better cook, that is for sure ". Ling-Ling said with an easy smile on her face. "I'm the better musician, though."
Pepper gave the Amazon a quizzical look and she shrugged. "It's something that I wouldn't have thought about, before. But when you have met women like Tachi, Amaya and Mother Konatsu, you learn to better appreciate all the aspects of a person." Ling-Ling said as she stretched.
Lung-Lung placed the food on the table as she smiled at Pepper. "After all, if you don't know a person, truly, then how can you trust them with what is most precious to you?"
Pepper nodded and for a while, the three just ate and looked over the others at the table. Pepper finished and pushed himself back just a bit and looked at the twins. "So, what is the real reason you invited me here, if it isn't to try to seduce me?"
Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung exchanged a look, before Ling-Ling spoke up. "Because the best way to achieve what we want is to have you fully onboard with it."
Lung-Lung continued as she refilled the glasses for all three of them. "And it's going to fall on the three of us to make sure that your men and our women pair up as smoothly as possible."
Pepper chuckled. "And what makes you think that they will pair up?"
Ling-Ling answered him. "Because that is obviously what Prince Musk and Elder Tai Dai intend to happen. And if it's going to go well, then it's going to fall on us to make sure that nothing untoward happens."
Lung-Lung nodded as she stretched. "And we will be the ones that show them that it can work. The people of Jusenkyo need to coexist, and for that they need to change. Your men must learn to accept aggressive women, and ours need to not count on men being passive."
"And you two think that we should just do what, put on an act to make all of this work?". Pepper asked as he regarded the pair.
Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung exchanged another look before they leaned forward in unison from across the table. "We are both serious about what we want from you. It isn't an act." Ling-Ling stated before her sister nodded. "And we are willing to do what it takes to make this work, really work. We can't replace those that you have lost, not would we try to. But together, the three of us can create something new. A new life, a new hope…. A new family."
Pepper sat back a little and looked away from the pair as he blushed a bit. "I'm not willing to rush into anything."
"That's fine, we have time to bring you around to our idea." Ling-Ling stated with a smile, before the pair steered the conversation onto the subject of their students.
Later that night as Pepper made his way back towards the room he had in the house that the Musk shared, he thought about that night, and the enticing offer that the pair of audacious hellions had made. He could admit that they were attractive, and not just their looks. Their personalities meshed rather well with his, once you got past the fact that he usually felt like he was being stalked by the pair of them.
He sighed as he leaned his back against the now closed door of his Spartan room, and wondered what it would be like to wake up with someone next to him again.
He shook his head as he smiled wryly. He had best not tempt fate too much, or it was quite possible that they would sneak into his bed to help convince him.
Just to be sure, he double checked the door to make sure it was locked before he laid down.