This story is a work of fanfiction. As such, it owes a great debt to the creators of the characters used herein: Rumiko Takahashi, Matt Bozon, Erin Bell Bozon and the creative teams of Kity Films and WayForward.
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Chapter 23
Sequel Hook
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In work and fun, a whole month slipped by unnoticed. The crew began showing signs of fatigue. Nabiki realized the martial artists can't work like that for much longer: while it was a new and unusual experience it held them captive, but becoming circus workers by trade was against their nature, after all.
The inflow of tourists thinned a lot: a storm season was approaching, the main attraction of the island was irrevocably lost, having been turned into dark steel caves full of sharp corners and dangerous pits, the lower levels flooded.
The resort's owner waved their concerns aside: she was see and watch and decide what to do the next year: either sell it to Armor Baron or find another attraction. The locals were only glad that the legendary terror from the deep was done and over. A good riddance.
They had to wonder: what was Risky scheming this time? Well, and try carrying the resort's popularity on the circus' shoulders, brainstorming to invent new routines.
The final point was made by the first typhoon that fell on them without warning and kept mauling the island for a week. The reason the locals built their village in such a, seemingly, awkward place, under the shadow of rusty cliffs of the Sunken City's ruined walls, became painfully clear in all its fierce mercilessness. The typhoon was mighty. The roaring wall of rain-permeated air was ripping away anything not hidden well enough. Even Ranma wasn't risking to go out into the open. Only the palm trees persisted, whipping like springs along the ground. The ocean was throwing itself onto beaches in white-foamed mountains of water, was hammering the cliff faces creating deadly swirling currents. All monsters either hid or leave them to Natural Selection. All locals were sitting indoors repairing the fishing implements, at times coming all at once to help when the wind tore someone's roof off, despite the village being well hidden from the majority of the force of nature's wrath..
Vera was busy all the time healing the wounded and the sick. The small drop in temperature that the outsiders were openly enjoying proved a horrible, fly-causing chill for her fellow dark-skinned tribesmen. Shantae was helping where she could but the magic of her refresh dances was unsuitable for curing diseases because it healed the malignant bacteria too, giving the disease a second breath.
There was no one to perform for. The familiar paths to the Tree Village and to Armor Town became deadly dangerous while the network of warp platforms closed with the end of the tourist season. They could only sit indoors eating their supplies. While typhoons promised to keep coming one after another.
Luckily for the stranded troupe, one last airship dared to sneak through the pause between the first typhoon and the next to carry out tourists who stayed too long. By sacrificing half the capital and most of the stage props Nabiki managed to get the crew a place on board.
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Just a short time ago, it felt like yesterday, the sky was clear, their fun time felt like it would never end. Girl Ranma and Nabiki were studiously repeating dancing moves under the oversight of Shantae who had got used to the role of a teacher.
Akane came to ask about something. The half-Genie tried involving her in the process: the more, the merrier. The youngest Tendou began inventing excuses, one sillier than another.
"Come on, Akane." The dancer girl wasn't giving up. "A warrior not knowing how to dance is awkward both at a feast ind in battle."
"I dance horribly anyway," Akane was evading. "There is no reason wasting time on me."
"There is only one way to dance bad," Shantae retorted sagely. "Doing it without joy."
"That's what I am—!" Akane snapped at her. "Sorry."
"Sensei, there are nuances," Nabiki injected.
And told her about the hentai horde that had been assaulting her younger sister at the school gates, the hordes of idiod boys thinking with the wrong brain, sicced on her by one popmpous upperclassman who declared her a prize for the one who could defeat her. And how their greedy grabbers and lecherous eyes nearly made Akane into a hopeless man-hater.
"The horror!" Shantae was taken aback. "However, avoiding dancing because of that is like not adventuring because you are afraid of monsters!"
Akane took a breath to give a sharp rebuff. But she could only think of her own delve into Ryugenzawa as a monster hunter. And Shantae's favorite principle of `you have to face your fears head-on`.
"Only a dance lets you really understand your body," the purplette kept her agitation up. "And nothing else helps becoming more flexible and evasive so well! Better risk being a target of unwanted attention and be able to twist out than live cowering like a frightened mouse. Afraid of one's own body, that's horrible."
"I know, Little Sis," Nabiki added. "The hentai horde served as good training. But that training had its pitfalls. Just remember how you nearly lost to six Tinkerbats only because they had bladed weapons."
"You have to know to evade," Ranma said yes to that. "There are strikes you can't just absorb with your muscle!"
Akane groaned in frustration, her unwillingness creaking and giving under the weight of reasonable arguments.
"Mastery of dancing helps weaving different moves together," Shantae injected. "Intuitively, when you have no time to think — as in battle."
"That, by the way, is the foundation of the Anything-goes style," Ranma lectured. "Weaving various moves together on the fly to change your patterns, flowing from style to style. Any fool can try — and make his defense full of holes along the cracks between unlike moves. Only someone who mastered the Anything-goes can meld them into a solid whole. Come on, Akane, you're the heir of the Tendou branch!"
"All right, you convinced me." She sighed like they were inviting her to harvest potatoes. "I will give it a try."
Since then, Akane was learning dances with the others but since she was behind everyone, Shantae had to teach on the double.
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The sudden storm was brief but fierce. The airship was blown about like a rag in bulldog's jaws. The battery of magic carpets providing most of the lift got soaked and the craft began losing attitude barely avoiding an untimely mountain in its way — which left memories of a cliff face jumping at them from the rainy murk with hair-raising abruptness.
Limping on a wing and a prayer to the Oasis Town, the captain booted the extra passengers swearing angrily at the overload. The Nerimans were left to make the rest of their journey on foot while the scuffed magical dirigible spun its propellers up hurrying to flee deeper into the Sequin Land from the nextt yphoon that was already on the horizon.
Returning to Ammo Town did not bring any relief. The town got rebuilt into something unrecognizable, the usual terracotta-colored walls and canvas overhangs gave way to metal. Many buildings looked like bunkers. Instead onion domes, there were canons, cannons and even more cannons mixed with strange military-looking contraptions. Ammo Baron had no need for a Guardian Genie: hsi soldiers, contrary to Shantae's old prognostication, succeeded in reducing the surrounding monster population to nothingness and were currently running around firgting the consequences of flooding. The tiny brooks from the hills had swelled into churning rivers of muddy water, broken trees and other flotsam, which often resulted in driftwood pileups making those rivers overflow their shores and wash away anything in reach.
Staring at the top of a tank sticking out from the dirt-brown bay, Shantae told the story of her getting caught in a flash flood in the wild badlands beyond Water Town: a sudden rainstorm turned a dry canyon into a deathtrap. Beaten by flotsam to the inch of her life, the half-Genie only managed climbing ashore miles downstream, her hair turned into something one usually extracts from a clogged sink.
Wind and rain were whipping the tiny tower of the lighthouse permeating it with chilly drafts, pounding the tiled roof and howling resonantly in the iron stovepipe. It was almost always storming. The bay itself was hidden from the prevailing winds but the lighthouse stood on one of the horns of the crescent framing it. Waves were reflecting in the chaos of small islets, rising unpredictably. The hoary hulks were springing up as if from nowhere, licking at times at the sagging suspension bridges. Shantae was walking those with terrifying carelessness, her ponytail streaming like a wind sock. For Akane, each visit to the town became a harrowing experience despite all her progress in her relationship with water — however small.
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During one of the sunny days at the Siren Island Shantae invited everyone to swim in the ocean instead of the pool, `that hot soup pot full of chlorine` as she called the tourists' favorite soaking spot derisively.
Which was fair: it was heated by sun, providing very small distance across. No comparison to the wild ocean with its powerful surf, even in secluded bays, its expanse stretching to the horizon. With mermaids, sharks and other dangerous fauna included. Nothing is better than a short swim of one or two miles to feel alive.
Xian Pu wished them luck and departed: the catgirl dance still remained an unattainable dream for her.
Ukyou was eager to test her new bandoleer and throwing spatulas with coating against sea water. She threw it on over her bikini.
Ranma shuddered, still traunatized after the locking accident, but ran after cold water and bikini: a man faces his fears head on and stuff.
Nabiki grabbed at the opportunity to test herself: her itch for adventure, which was the prime cause of her being here, wasn't gone, only suppressed by circus management troubles.
And only Akane was being dragged by her frien'ds hand like a lamb to the slaughter.
After an hour of swinning, the half-Genie walked out of the water tired and happy. To be shocked by the sight of a disheveled and scuffed Akane girdled with a life ring that she was clutching with the look of grim determination.
"We tried," the redhead said spitting sand out. "All this time we kept trying."
"But she has some sort of anti-talent at this," Ukyou added grooming the sand out of her hair. "Maybe even a curse."
Shantae immediately tried to help. But it wasn't that easy: at each her suggestion, "we already tried that".
She made them go for the second round. With mermaid Shantae having Akane's back — able, importantly, to underwater. Right there, a midst the terrifying, disorienting watery abyss, she was encouraging "come on, Akane, you can do this!"
Sand was getting in her gills, the thrashing Akane kept stepping on her tail or hitting her right in the solar plexus, but there was a progress! Well, at least by the point the younger Tendou lost consciousness, finally choking, and they dragged her ashore to resuscitate, she had stopped panicking underwater by reflex and was drowning heroically still.
They resuscitated the hammer girl, she caught her breath and went back into the fray. Ranma was worrying: what if the next time she drowns they fail to resuscitate her! Even Ukyou could not watch a human being treating oneself so horribly.
Shantae suggested a scientific approach: what were the causes of her desorientation, separate them and beat them one by one.
Turned out Akane gets totally demoralized by the blurred vision that happens to the human eye underwater.
"Some problem," the redhead couldn't help commenting snidely. "That happens to everyone! You need swimming googles, or come as a mermaid. Or make your peace with only seeing a blur any farther than your outstretched arm."
"Let us try a blindfold first," Shantae suggested diplomatically.
"Right!" Akane agreed perking up immediately. "Many forms of advanced techniques require training without sight!"
"And to stay sure to tell up from down," Ukyou suggested, "let her carry a big stone on her back."
"A really big one," Ranma added. "For its weight to trump any currents and other sideways drift."
And so, they have found a huge round boulder, which weighed about a ton, covered Akane's eyes with a blindfold and loaded her bent back and arms stretched back with that boulder.
"Ouch." Shantae shivered. "I'd be flat as pancake under that."
"Underwater... its weight... will halve," Akane groaned out, moving her shaking legs bit by bit, her feet sinking in the sand.
"Physics." Ranma nodded sagely. "The density of water is one and density of rock is somewhere around two."
"For sea water, a bit higher," Ukyou corrected, "While rock's is a bit lower... But who cares about such little things."
Akane succeeded crossing the surf line — albeit nearly getting stuck in wet sand — succeeded holding her breath... And continued on, stubborn like a bulldozer, under the diminished weight of the boulder.
Mermaid Shantae was circling around her, having her back and encouraging.
Power lifting whilst holding one's breath is an extreme exercise but Akane kept going forward with the grace of a stomping sumoman, raising puffs of murk from the bottom and losing bubbles from her nostrils. It was working!
A stray bottom-feeding shark made an attempt at her stuck out derriere: moves strangely, means sick or weak. What if edible too?
By all accounts the danger sense should not work against predators not feeling aggression towards their prospective meal... But Akane's, it seeems, haven't read that book. She straightened throwing the boulder weighing half a tom underwater. That was it for the cheeky fish but the youngest Tendou added a spin punch hitting it right in the muzzle despite her blindfold.
The critter didn't even twitch as it expired, only a puff of blood dispersed from its maw.
"That was a sneak shark attack!" mermaid Shantae explained the situation hastily. "Don't hit me, I'm pulling you out!" Picking her friend up in a bridal carry she rotated to swim on her back so that Akane's head stays above water as she swam back to the shore.
Ranma rolled the boulder back to the beach. Ukyou dragged the dead shark away to the next small bay: the sea piranhas were the last thing they needed now. Inspired by her success Akane was fired up with so much enthusiasm Shantae had to hold her back:
"Only while you can, all right...? As soon as you feel you can't anymore, drop the rog right that instant and I'll pull you out!"
"Of course!" Akane agreed rolling her shoulders. "I won't let you don!"
They blindfolded her. They loaded her with the boulder. She went forward like a bulldozer, pulling her feet out of the sand, then further across the bottom. Forward she went, down a gentle sandy slope, into the cool twilight of the depth.
"Akane, isn't this enough?" mermaid Shantae asked her, worrying.
The other girl grunted something in response, bubbles bursting out, and kept going.
"Akane, come on, let's get you out!" Shantae exclaimed in alarm seeing her friend unsteady on her feet, her legs shaking under the boulder's weight.
Akane gurgled stubbornly but kept going.
And then , without warning, she collapsed and the boulder hammered her into the bottom, murk billowing, crushing a huge bust of bubbles out of her.
The bubbles began their unhurried ascent forming a flickering umbrella-like shape while Shantae rushed to the rescue reaching her friend with one stroke of her tail. She rolled the boulder off... Well, she tried to. The boulder wasn't rolling. The flattened Akane wasn't even twitching.
Shantae panicked pushing with all she got, her tail aching from the strain, murk billowing from the bottom — to no effect. She tried pushing with her tail against the bottom to move the boulder with her back, only to realize the mermaid body isn't build the way foe this to be useful. Transforming back, she tried that un the human form...
The boulder wasn't moving!
While the panicking Shantae gathered enough wits to surface and cry for help, while Ranma heard her and arrived like a rabid dolphin... They thought it was too late.
That this time, they won't resuscitate her.
Girl Ranma was pushing at the unresponsive carcass, ribs creaking. Shantae was turning red-faced blowing air into her. Not really believing she's survive, simply out of refusal to abandon her own.
Was it a miracle, was it her notorious stubborn streak but she pulled through.
When Akane coughed weakly and began blinking awake, cross-eyed and pale like Death warmed over, Shantae lened over her and conveyed in her most heartfelt voice: Akane, turns out you're a total idiot! When you are told ``while you can` it means while you can, dropping the stone yourself for me to pull you out. Not until you fall unconscious, it crushes you and we despair thinking we killed you. Because, screw you bent over an anchor, my mermaid form isn't strong enough to move it‼！ Got it?"
Akane coughed with a guilty look.
They never repeated the swimming lessons — not for the lack of eagerness on Akane's part, that was in overabundance. But because everyone else was simply afraid. Even Shantae, who, for a long time, kept waking up from nightmares about being helpless to save her friend.
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They had to forget about tours and other circus activity as roads turned into quagmires cut by former fords turned rapid floodwaters. The surrounding towns did not have halls of suitable size. If only they had a real big top... It would have been swept away by wind. Not to mention carrying that kind of equipment requires a couple horse-driven carts an a whole team for disassembling and installing it.
So, it was turning out, the circus they had bet on as their sole source of income, was a seasonal work. And now a pause between seasons came.
The rent for the lighthouse was several months due. Luckily, Ammo Baron wasn't forcing the issue.
They were doing what they could.
Ukyou was staying in the Bandit Town for days, it being the only place where you can carry out cooking business without a license. How did she came to agreement with that place's mob no one was asking.
Ranma, Xian Pu and Shantae were scraping the last bits out of the surrounding dungeons.
Ryouga acquired a weathered long-boat somehow and was fishing day and night, in any weather, in places no sane local would brave because of either monsters or dangerous rocks with strong currents.
But that still required a license!
Ammonians came, met his eyes by accident. And went away swallowing their demands.
Ammo Baron came personally, with is entourage. Looked at a super-hobo dressed in rags, able to break a tank with his pinkie. Ammo Baron left, deciding that the minuscule profit wasn't worth it.
Tle local enforcers came, from the local equivalent of Yakuza from the Bandit Town. Impressed, started a long talk about everything and nothing. Ryouga was well acquainted with such folks, although without as close contacts as Ukyou had. Only a very naive person would take them for bloodsucker parasites — although petty tyrant punks do happen. Those sorts were more like a mix between wolves keeping the forest clean and friendly society. Not a nice one, but that's what a little man had. Getting a loan or finding justice in court were for wealthier sorts, while those at the bottom had the Yakuza. They would loan and they would bring justice. Just don't come crying because their sort-of-laws are as kind as natural selection.
And then there was such a hog on their turf. Or, more likely, a wild boar. And what should they do with him?
Ryouga did not know either. He'd like to respect local customs — but his crew had to eat, too. The bargaining process was long, finding a compromise together. As a result, he would pay some tribute to the local enforcer — a harsh old man of small stature in shalwars and turban, bearing a yataghan and impressively long moustache — while a share of his catch would go to feeding the downtrodden — he saw those `downtrodden`, yeah — and he'd help from time to time with repairing poor people's huts.
It wasn't hard for him at all.
Only, the income from selling fish dropped nearly to zero.
It was Nabiki who hit gold. Recalling which language played the role of the ancient forgotten here and recalling her top grade for English at school — you have to perfect the mastery of the master civilization's language, as well as your body, enduring any exercise, as with the yoga and with jogging, because those investments would pay back a hundredfold later — she went to the Sultana's palace for a job interview. And was accepted into the position of a translator by the scholars there. Despite them swearing much and doubting her interpretations at every turn. None the less, their research moved forward escaping the dead end it was stuck in. While the middle Tendou was, it fact, carrying for the whole team.
It felt like they would pull through, would survive til the next season... Until, one day, everything went downhill.
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"This is it," Ranma stated as he walked out of the bathhouse's doors. "Washing's over. She can't prolong our subscription, they forbade her. And there's an ammonian watching her.
"How forbade?" Shantae was taken aback. "Why?"
"From the very top," Barracuda Joe explained as he emerged from the doors after Ranma. "Subscription is strictly for town's citizens, requires a passport. Nepotism and corruption won't be tolerated anymore."
"Let me guess," Xian Pu piped in acerbically. "We and Shantae do not count anymore?"
"The ranks of citizens," Joe pointed his index finger upwards, "by no means include, I quote, `some rascal girls who tried taking the town from me through sorcery`. Soooo... Either join the military, or pay in full, like a guest. The coffers need filling."
"Oops," the half-Genie gasped. "Ammo Baron learned about my attempt to fulfill the former mayor's wish. It came back to bite me now... No deed is without consequence."
The bath was now going to cost, considering the increase in prices, 56 coppers for each visit for the whole crew. Almost five jewels, a price they absolutely could not afford.
The grim discussion on how to get out of this pickle was interrupted by the arrival of Sultana's guard. Two huge knights wearing blue and gold armor with solid bell-shaped helmets were clanking with every step. One was carrying a scuffed and disheveled Nabiki by the scruff of her neck, like a naughty kitten. Another was carrying some sort of scroll.
His voice rumbling like an empty iron barrel, the guard read Sultana's special edict: "The aforesaid Nabiki Tendou, from now on and for ever, is prohibited from participating in theological disputes, as well as approaching the palace within a cannon shot. In case she disobeys, clap her in irons and send her to hard labor." Dropping the middle Tendou unceremoniously on the ground, the two clanked away.
"Big Sis, are you all right!" Akane Rushed to Nabiki who was standing up with a groan.
"I'll live," the other girl rebuffed. "But our last source of income is gone. What possessed me to ask them which of their god's names was the correct one: Allah, Tangyr, or are those one and the same? How could I know they'd explode from that...? Not literally, stop looking at me like that. They simply went apeshit."
"And started beating up on you?" Akane gasped out.
"Worse," Nabiki explained limbering her waist up. "They tried explaining it to me in depth, all at once. And snapped at each other. It seems, that split in the opinions is their sore spot. One was beating his colleague with the holy book in Oigul translation, another with the same book but in English translation. The third one was beating them both with a copper jug for disrespect towards sacred things or something like that. I had no time to get into minutiae detail, I was dodging. It was like a furball of rabid bears, not elderly scholars. This all," She pointed at her bruised right cheek, "is merely a collateral, I caught some flak while departing the reputable congregation on all fours, like a roach under artillery barrage."
"It is time for you to return to your own fairy-tale," Shantae concluded with sadness. "This world is not accepting you. Bummer... But you, no doubt, have your own lives, your own dreams at home. And those dear to you."
"Pops, the parasite he is," Ranma agreed. "You won't believe me but I am starting to miss him. And besides him, there is Mother."
"Too bad we have to part," Xian Pu said simply. "You can't hop between worlds for a visit."
"As far as I remember," Nabiki injected, "the worlds of different, ahem, fairy tales aren't normally correlated at all?"
"Yea, each world has its own time flow," Shantae confirmed. "Until a link forms tying certain moments of time to each other, you cannot even tell what is the past and what is future for one another. When you go back home, the crossover link will break and the refractive time will become undefined again. A minute here may become a thousand years at your place. Or the other way around."
"This means... We part forever?" Akane forced her voice to remain steady but a tear welled in her eye none the less.
"I know." The dancer semi-hugged her. "You leave and there is no way back. The same wish... We know, we burned ourselves. Even if you can find a Genie in your world... I have a hunch that the limit of three wishes per person is fundamental. Mayhaps you only get three wishes is for your entire life, from any genie. I'd loathe wasting that life-long limit of yours but I simply don't know another way."
"Squid Baron should know," Nabiki suggested. "Many of his phrases... In short, he's in the know for sure."
"But we got no way to catch him," Shantae shot that idea with regret. "During the storm season, the Warp Squids skedaddle into the, howzit, gadfly-pelagic zone, with their whole families. I can reach those depths as a mermaid, of course, but there is no way of finding them. It's pitch dark down there. Bummer..."
"Don't be so down, warrior sister," Xian Pu encouraged her. "Warrior's life is bright but often short. We all will part some day. Instead of feeling sad, be glad our roads crosses. Remember us beating a legendary baddie together. Us helping each other grow stronger discovering new secrets of our Paths."
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When Shantae failed to transform into a mammoth, neither her fifth nor her fiftieth try succeeding — either an elephant or nothing — she and Xian Pu began brainstorming the problem.
They concluded you can't realize some abstract creature through yourself, you have to imagine a specific one, known to you to the tiniest detail.
In the amazon's case, realizing a "specific girl" in her mind turned out... Unknown, what to ever begin with. The transformation dance either works, or it doesn't. There is nothing to tell you "cold" or "warmer". You cannot know how close you were to success, just to miss it by a tiniest margin in the fog of unknowin.
Xian Pu tried different approaches. She tried femininity, moving with such fluid grace that Ranma started averting his eyes and Akane gnashing hr teeth. Tried realizing herself through a warrior maiden, to the point of halving the monster population. She even tried releasing her inner fishwife, becoming similar to a hobo in her manners and her unkempt mane. There was no response from all that.
The breakthrough came from an unexpected direction: Shantae befriended a horse. Granted, she could befriend anyone, but a horse...? The poor mare was held all the time in stable, without any motion. Her middle-aged owned from Armor Town did not know himself why did he bring a horse to the island. The poor critter was wasting in her stall so Shantae offered to walk her, without a second thought. And protect her from the monsters in the process.
It was then, that Shantae learned, to her amazement, that horses are incredible animals, very agile and able to rock-climb. And that they can move their bodies in a multitude of ways you don't expect of them. Gradually, Shantae stopped worrying about the horse and began taking her along into more and more risky places. The critter was observant, had noticed her combat style... And was soon dashing half-crouched through low cave passages where Shantae herself could only move on all fours, climbing vertical wells, ascending cliff faces as well as any mountain goat could and rush-kicking monsters by twisting on one hoof.
The owner was overjoyed at first, seeing his animal lively again. Then he began having suspicions. In the end he cried from the heart: "What did you turn my Lil Pearl into!"
"Into a real adventurers' attack horse," the puzzled Shantae answered honestly, which made the said horse arch her neck proudly, snort and stomp her hoof.
The man mellowed out in the end — he had a kind heart, he was just twitchy — and proclaimed he will sell the horse to a good adventurer at the first occasion, because it would be wrong for such a wonder to dash her talents in the stable. But he forbade Shantae from walking her, "before the mare learns spitting fire".
From that experience and a wild hunch, Shantae danced an absolutely wild dance... And returned into Arena Town hooves clopping, tail flowing in the wind.
Nabiki was ecstatic: a circus horse would refresh the circus repertoire greatly! "Can you voltige?"
Shantae only got to Xian Pu an hour later grumbling that as soon as you transform into a horse they start riding you right away. But still! Her first transformation dance invented fully by herself, without any tips from spirits!
After sitting over it discussing for awhile, the two girls concluded that action was the key, as they suspected. But not just any action, one expressing the body's abilities in motion, in a natural tendency of the creature towards what it liked.
Aha, Xian Pu said. And started thinking: what for her personally was a free motion of the body in a natural tendency?
That resulted in a... Ranma Seduction Dance. Performed by a cat. How did the pigtail bearer manage not running through a wall would remain a great unsolved mystery. But the cat turned into a girl — with ears, tail and noticeable "meow"-ing in her voice.
Shantae came running at Akane's enraged screams, furious yowling and crashing of furniture being smashed — but she only witnessed the outcome. Xian Pu — whose white hair wasn't reaching even her shoulders, with pink cat ears and a colorful shiner around her eye — was purring contentedly, having been wrapped in a towel by the chaste Ranma. Akane, clawed so badly like she was attacked by a man-eating tiger at the very least, was glaring stubbornly. Ranma, red to the tip of his ears, was averting his eyes not to look at the amazon.
"What could I do," Xian Pu added with regret so fake it was painful as she flicked her claws out, then in again. "When for me-ow a `natural tendency` is wooing my-eow husband...?" Her tail slapped against her taut thigh the towel was beginning to slip off of.
Shantae congratulated her, sincerely but awkwardly, with her victory: the achievement was really outstanding, conquering the peak of dreams... But that also hurt Shantae's best friend badly. A hasty Full Restoration dance washed all wounds away... Except those on the heart.
Akane let a noisy breath out, then congratulated as well, her jaw muscles knobbing.
Xian Pu tried getting rid of her curse by simply getting stuck as a catgirl. But alas, even after four hours in that form hot water washed all cat traits away. Without even a tiniest delay.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Only Shantae and outlanders from Nerima remained in the Mimic's workshop. The old man himself, Bolo and Sky had left after saying their goodbyes - as a precaution. The rain was droning beyond the walls, water falling in small streams from the wide onion roof. A lone kerosene lamp was holding the dreary overcast twilight at bay with its warm light.
"This is it." Akane sighed. "Shantae-chan, I wish you—"
"No!" the other girl interrupted her, startled. "Focus on your path...! The last thing we want is a failure because of such a— All right, getting on with it. This is like jumping into cold water. Focus, brace yourselves. Only think of your home. Right?" She cast a meaningful look at Nabiki.
"I will try," the mercenary girl replied with pointed indifference. "But... The risk is real." She turned to face Akane: "Little Sis, if if turns out you have returned without me... Just accept that as my fate. This itch for adventure, it's unquenchable."
"We will be praying for you, Big Sis," the other girl replied whistfully.
"All right, is everyone concentrating?" Shantae worried. "Are you ready? Did not forget that you need to think of what you want to return to, not try thinking you are in the wrong place?"
"I..." Akane stuttered. "I wish to return to Big Sis Kasumi. Me to her, not her to me...! I hope I won't end hell knows where..."
"I am after the uncute one," Ranma said succinctly. "Wherever she ends up."
"I'm after my dearest husband." Xian Pu smiled. "Wherever he ends up."
"I..." Ukyou sighed, giving up. "I am going back to my okonomiyaki shop. No matter where they all end up."
"Ranma, you bastard, I won't leave you alone!" Ryouga added.
They all surrounded the half-Genie who was standing with her arms raised and her eyes closed.
Squeezed into the narrow space below the floorboards, Risky Boots also crawled, her hat gathering dust, closer to her eternal nemesis. Her grin was threatening to split her face.
"And the two of us, half-Genie brat, are after a whole new world waiting for us, full of deadliest dangers and mind-boggling adventures. Come on, we both outgrew this kiddie pool. Enough stewing in the Sequin Land. Wider! Look wider! Dare to challenge a whole world, with new friends you'd surely make. Me, I'm going to make sure you are never bored."
"Hhhaaahhhh!" Shantae breathed a shout out making everyone lit up with brilliant outlines. Even if Ranma had time to notice a painfully familiar silhouette in a pirate hat outlined through the floorboards, he did not have time to do anything about it. Shantae snapped her fingers thunderously. The world was washed out with white light.
The mythical limit known to those savvy under its sacral name of "the fourth wall" shuddered, pierced twice, from that side and back again. But not all the traces led to the same reality.
The End( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
March 15, 2024. Translated to English June 27, 2024.
A.N:
1. You know the cases of characters rebelling and against the author's plan...? This happens to me a bit more often than never, once in a decade approximately. So, suddenly, Shantae cussed. I, like: Shantae doesn't use bad language, ever despite being a hot-headed gal. Her language (a fantasy counterpart of Turkish) doesn't even have the required vocabulary. But nooo. She was refusing to say anything else in response to Akane's antics. Yes, that wasn't exactly cussing at the f-word level, that was more an euphemism. But... She surprised me, all right. Reminding me that "doesn't tolerate and has no desire to use" is a different thing from "doesn't know".
2. I began writing the sequel back in 2019, and from the beginning I chose an open-ended structure for it: all key events outside characters' control will be decided with dice rolls, I will then adapt and figure out how to write further and the characters will develop the situation by being themselves. There is a starting block 7 chapters (of which 3 pilot chapters are already written) where the plot nailed down, plus one plot point afterwards being inescapable as well (all roads lead to Rome), but after that threshold...? Her Majesty d20 dice decides. I specially bought one for this (because I was never a pen and paper player).
The first throw was: would Nabiki get isekaied along...? With 25percent probability that she won't thus ending the Ranma crossover for good.
One of my readers asked for a reroll. I am still waiting for more opinions. Mind that you only get one re-roll, with the same 25percent probability of Nabiki returning back to Nerima. And that a successful roll would mean one point twenty five percent probability of Nico Robin dying as a result of certain sand croc ditching her in favor of Nabiki as his pet poneglyph reader.
Mind also the one in twenty chance for the isekai to end badly for Nabiki from the very start if the rolls is a natural 1 — she got no plot armor at that stage and Impel Down is not nice any time of the year.