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 17
The dark side of the Sequin Land
This Cheb is very, very sorry.
I published the Russian version of this chapter in January, started translating it to English right away, then postponed — just for a little while, pinky-swear — then it's suddenly "ohshi, the year is ending already!"
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Early in the morning Shantae flew to the Spy Scope, to check what sort of nonsense was going on with the Dribble Stone. While everyone else was washing their faces, gathering and having a quick breakfast she completed her loop. Hastily gulping a bento made by Ranma — the three fiancees agreed on ceding it to him to avoid a culinary battle — she said some nasty person had hidden the magical stone in deep underwater caves under the factory. No wonder Bolo couldn't find it. He did well, did everything right, it wasn't his fault.
The said guy perked up, his spirits lifting.
They began deciding, who with whom and where to.
"Please stop going in the same team as Akane," Shantae demanded from the amazon. "You are picking on her all too often, it becomes some sort of unhealthy trend."
"All right," the other purplette agreed easily.
"Somehow that's too easy!" Akane wasn't inclined to believe her.
"Why, she's a friend of the tribe!" Xian Pu snorted. "Our gracious host — let me refresh your memory — had saved a sister warrior from a fate much worse than death... Whom I should partner with, then..." She began eyeing Ranma making the youngest Tendou tense again.
"Breaking you, people, into teams is worse than that riddle with a wolf, a goat and a cabbage head!" the half-Genie exclaimed in frustration. "Let's do it like this... I go after the Dribble Stone, no one else could: you have to dive very deep, can only reach it as a mermaid. Let Ryouga go after the Twinkle Stone, he'll get it faster than anyone if he breaks all the walls in the labyrinth again. Ranma should go beati happoubats and collect the dark magic, speed if of essence here... Everyone else...?"
"Someone has to lead the way for the pi— our lost boy," Ranma injected scathingly. "Otherwise it'd take a weak for him to reach the boss."
Ryouga grew stubborn.
"Sora can lead you to the right place on the island," Shantae said with confidence. The blond pantomimed dying from cold but the half-Genie haven't noticed. "After that... Bolo, will you lead him? Factories are your turf, you'd know best where to go and which walls to break."
"You can count on me!" The blue-haired guy slapped his fist against his palm, burning with desire to show his worth after the yesterdays failure.
"Don't forget scrolls of Bubble!" Shantae reminded them, doting. "Not only the boss is shedding electric bolts like a firework. Trere are lots of robots that throw downright scary thunderballs."
"I'll go with the boys to the Frostbite Island," Rotty proclaimed. "I'm curious to visit it, also Zombies aren't afraid of cold."
"I'll pass," Nabiki admitted with reluctance. "My body is... not heroic at all." She then added under her breath: "Besides, I need to re-evaluate my... readiness to die."
Shantae, though, overheard her and panicked: "Guys... Guys! Does everyone have their auto-potions?"
"I'll never go anywhere without a couple 'em!" Bolo affirmed.
"I have... my own methods," Rotty replied evasively.
"Auto-what?" Akane was confused.
Shantae started. "I did... explain auto-potions yesterday and about never going anywhere dangerous without a couple in your inventory? Right?"
"Umm, no?" Akane replied, unsure.
"You definitely did not," Nabiki drawled. "This is the first time I hear about them."
"Here!" Shantae hastily produced a cone-shaped flask with a narrow neck and wings, red liquid splashing inside. "A last-ditch potion. If, by chance, they bring you down it activates on its own! You can drink it like common healing potion but that defeats its purpose."
"Wow!" Akane took the offered flask to start examining such a wonder.
"I'd have liked to have one yesterday," Nabiki said in a flat, too flat, voice. "Every time Death was breathing down my neck."
She kept all emotions out of her voice but her eyes flashed dangerously startling the half-Genie.
"How come?" Shantae was horrified. "I though you'd be safe, you only had to make a short run!"
"For starters, my whip can't touch ghosts at all," Nabiki hinted.
"I was driving them off her," Rotty injected airily. "Sometimes in the very latest possible moment! Without me, they'd have nommed her for sure!"
"But they only should appear at night!" Shante gasped out.
"The overcast day there was so dark the twilight in that gully was enough for them." Nabiki straightened her hat with one finger. "But one ghastly maw in you face is, essentially, nothing. It's when we found we had no means of breaking that underground passage's ceiling and had to detour though the, how she calls it, `fun` part of the forest..."
"Naw, we haven't reached the really fun part," Rotty corrected her.
The half-Genie's eyes flew wide in realization how badly she had bungled.
"I had enough fun for a year," Nabiki disagreed. She then began counting, straightening her fingers, in a voice best suitable for discussing weather: "Crusher roots in funnies combinations. A spider the size of a two-story house spitting out a whole sea of fire — who could have thought, spiders and fire. Kissbots with suction on the scale that'd make Picolet Chardin envious. Wild zombies staging fun surprises by digging out right under your feet. Fun tombstones with a crab mummy inside. But the funniest part were the surprise ghostly hands and surprise tongues from the ceiling aiming to paw or slobber all over you... Have I forgotten something?" She lifted a brow.
Complaining was not in her nature. Exploiting compassion, on the other hand... It wasn't relevant right now but she was aiming at preferences in the future.
Shantae's face, though, displayed naked horror. "I'm a horrible leader," the dancer mumbled, crestfallen, gnawing at her nails. "If... How could I ask you fight the Pirate Master...? Because of my inexperience you will get all killed!"
Whoops, I overdid it, Nabiki thought without much remorse.
"Don't be so down, you will work it out!" Akane tried reassuring her. "We have this potion now!"
"But what if I forget about something else?" Shantae wasn't that easy to persuade. "My absent-mindedness already led to me sending the least experienced f us through that place! My own skin crawls when I remember that run with Rotty in my arms!"
"Ahh, we had an adventure together that only you remember!" the Zombie gal exclaimed with theatrical sadness. "With me in your arms!"
"Let's put it this way," Shantae glared at her. "Your trick of `oh noes I was bitten by a spider, my legs are growing numb` won't work on me again!"
"Shucks." The green girl shrugged nonchalantly.
Shantae just harrumphed haughtily. Although this sniping got her out of her funk.
"I survived, that's what counts," Nabiki put her word in. "Gained experience as well. You learn much better when your hide is on the line.
"You got it!" Ranma approved. "You are growing!"
Akane boggled at him.
"It's how real training works!" her fiance replied her silent question. "That motto, `the path of a martial artist is fraught with peril`, this is what it is about. Let me tell you later when we gather the stones and catch the Happi-copies, all right?" He turned to the half-Genie. "Shantae, we will be all right. Just send one experienced martial artist with each group and everything will work out. All right?"
"We have to go!" she flared up with resolve. "Ryouga with you, me with us, Ranma is an one-man army by himself... All right, the others...?"
"I'll stay around," Xian Pu said. "Someone has to keep an eye on the town. Or, to be exact, on Risky and other... outstanding personalities. United by disaster and all that, but I am wary of them infighting simply from the force of habit."
"Good thinking," Shantae agreed. "You could keep an eye on Uncle as well... All right, here's the lamp." She handed the artifact to Ranma. "Did we forget anything...? Sora, don't forget to dress warm! Let's go!" She dashed away like she was shot from a sling.
Akane ran after her.
When they were almost at the gates, they met an irritated Ukyou going in the other direction, dressed in her traditional worker's garb consisting of black thighs and blue robe with its sleeves pulled up with white ties.
"No objections if I come with you?" the okonomiyaki chief grumbled making visible effort to stay polite.
Shntae stopped in indecision, glancing at Akane doubtfully.
"Don't worry, me and Akane-tan get along when Ranma is not around," Ukyou said. "Why, that lowlife!" She kicked the town wall in anger, which resulted in her jumping on one foot. "When he needs working hands for a pittance, he's all politeness. But as soon as it smelt like trouble, get out."
"Who are you talking about?" Akane inquired with caution. "What lowlife?"
"Oh, he's not worth talking about," Ukyou dodged. "You are in a hurry, I think?"
"Of course!" the half-Genie stuffed a winged flask in her hands. "Let's go!" She ran ahead.
"Akane... tan, What is this thing?" Ukyou showed it to the other girl while doing her best to catch up.
"A last ditch... healing item?" she replied breaking her breathing rhythm on the run. "Like, if they take you down it would work on its own. Shantae-chan did... give me one."
They turned left, like yesterday, except Shantae did not turn into the corn field. She kept leading them down the road, kilometer after kilometer, under scorching sun. Akane couldn't understand at first why was she running so slow. Akane herself was used to running much faster in the mornings. Later, after they traversed about four times as long as the whole Nerima was across, Akane realized the advantages of a slow economical pace and began watching her friend trying to copy her running style. Ukyou was huffing, sweating but stubbornly refusing to fall behind.
In the end Shantae turned into the woods. It was much the same as the forest they had been running through yesterday if the landscape was less broken and there were fewer monsters. As they went they found Ukyou's spatula was very effective against bats — she was downing them in one swat — and against spiders, a shield against their poisonous spit. Akane was unloading on orcs.
But the forest was stretching on making her afraid she'd get lost here forever if she falls behind. To their luck, they haven't met any giant monsters so far.
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"Stop, you little freak!" Ranma was rapidly gaining on a fleeing happoubat. The agile thing dodged again, jumping onto of several huge marble heads lined up on this small clearing.
Ranma stopped, glaring at his opponent irritably. It was cackling, hopping in place like an ugly overgrown monkey. During the chase they had made about five laps around the island through sheer cliffs, caves, pine tops and dungeons, by a man grieving next to a stone statue, across the spine of a giant lizard sleeping on the mountaintop — Ryugenzawa did not have monsters this big — and again across steep cliffs, ravines and rocks along the shore. The accursed happoubat was slower, weaker but its ability to dodge was on par with the old lecher. It kept dodging in unexpected directions or making everpresent monsters take the hit instead. Ranma's path was littered with knocked out mermaids, crabs and frogfishes.
The pigtailed guy was forced to admit — with great reluctance — that yesterday they managed to catch these parasites only thanks to... baits.
"Why does this keep happening to me! Again I have to... Yeech, disgudting. Just you wait... I mean, don't go anywhere, I'll be right back!"
Gritting his teeth he sped towards nearest waterfall.
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"It's chilly," Rotty commented flicking a snowflake off her green shoulder.
"You just have to move vigorously!" Bolo proclaimed, bare knees flashing between woolen poncho and fur boots
Ryouga grunted indifferently conveying this was nothing.
"Are you kidding me!" Sky exclaimed in outrage as she tugged three shawls closer, Wrench under her arm. "I began freezing even on approach to this island!"
The frosty landscape surrounding them was abundant with snow, ice and snow-laden pines. Above the mountaintops a huge, chaotically kludged together building was soaring in the sky that was glowing soft winter blues and pinks, giant propellers turning lazily. There were chains holding this mysterious conglomeration in place, looking like thin threads from here.
"Our goal is there." Sky's shawl twitched pointing direction. "Don't wander around, there are ice werewolves around. Doubly so, don't enter any graveyards! Many tombstones... Aren't what they seem.
"That's true for other places too," Rotty added merrily.
They met their first ice werewolf much sooner than expected. A huge wolf of snow and ice snarled rushing them. Which resulted in a bored, disappointed Ryouga and an icy man in blue boxers sticking bare heels up from a snow drift.
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When Akane was beginning to feel they have either lost their way or made to run in circles by some sort of evil sorcery, the land around them began gradually changing. More and more of the pits happened to be filled with water turning gullies into still ponds overgrown with duckweed. Trees were growing sparcer but taller, becoming giants reaching for the sky. Instead of flappy orcs, there were more and more nagas and crabs. Akane was punting the crabs away in one kick. The snake women did not just have claws, they turned out to be surprisingly springy, leaping above your head to try slamming into you from above. Lone nagas were laughable but those monsters were often slithering in twos, accompanied with bats. The little snappy things were prone to approaching from behind in the most inopportune moment. After Akane got bitten the trio had to change their tactics. Ukyou was focusing on swatting the bats with her spatula while Akane and Shantae were tag-teaming the nagas.
Their advancing was going without much trouble until they met an especially fierce armored naga. Big red spiky pauldrons, a segmented carapace on top of the snake tail part, an armored bra... While the Japanese girls were staring, the snake warrior woman threw her arms forward, palms open, unleashing a stream of bright magic projectiles the size of an orange. Ukyou shilded herself with her battle spatula while Akane performed a dodge roll but still one hit her in the shoulder. It was like being hit with a brick. Jumping onto her feet she rushed after Shantae who was running at the opponent. Akane took to the left to flank the naga between the two of them. The naga hurried to release another stream. The half-Genie dodged in a sliding pihrouette to the right. Akane closed the distance in a dash and grabbed the snake woman by the wrists forcing her arms aside. The opponent's strength was great! Shantae began hair-whipping. Naga opened her mouth incredibly wide. Akane's gut feeling made her lean out of the way of a single projectile her opponent simply breathed out nearly hitting her in the face. Ukyou added with throwing spatulas making the naga falter. Finally Shantae's hits had effect, the monster shattered into a pile of bones.
"That was a tough... Ouch!" A winged parasite who had snuck upon her unnoticed in the heat of battle sank its fangs into Akane's shoulder trying to drink her blood. Then it got flattened right then and there.
"Akane-tan seems especially tasty," Ukyou said pulling out some bandages. "It's like with mosquitoes, they appreciate some people more than others."
"Parasitic bloodsuckers," the youngest Tendou grumbled pulling her gi shirt off and rolling her triply hurt shoulder. "Why didn't my danger sense work?"
"Because it wasn't feeling aggression towards you," Ukyou explained. "You don't consider a bun an enemy when you are going to snack on it? So the predators of all sorts don't either. I got nearly eaten by wolves once while training in the mountains..."
"By the way," the half-Genie noted as she was wrapping Akane's shoulder in gauze. "Danger sense doesn't also work when they are not trying to off you but rather catch you to eat later. Like that time nagas caught me and then started boiling me afterwards."
"Boiling?" Akane echoed, not believing she heard that correctly.
"Yup," Shantae said. "In a big cauldron. Lit fire under it, poured carrots, greens..."
Water in the cauldron was heating up slowly but inexorably. Having finally realized they were really going to make soup out of her, Shantae was struggling desperately. But her legs were tied together tightly, her heels pressing against her buttocks. Her arms tied behind her back weren't conductive to freedom of movement either, as well as her ponytail tied to them. In fact she could only either bend down diving completely under the surface of the future broth — the horror — or straighten keeping her head above the surface and cussing a blue streak at the snake women. Who quickly grew tired of it and slammed a big apple into her mouth making her nearly dislocated jaw ache. The half-Genie tried biting through this improvised gag but the apple proved incredibly durable. After that the nagas were content with listening to her muffled moans. While the water was growing hotter! Standing on her knees on the cauldron bottom hurt, she had to shuffle constantly. The nagas were slithering around with salt shakers, adding spices or dill. Shantae kept writhing, pulling at the ropes biting into her body, but the fetters weren't giving. The water wasn't feeling too hot but she couldn't help recalling that tale of a frog who haven't realized it was being boiled until it was too late. Shantae was feeling herself weakening. The heat was soaking into her, draining her strength, her heart fluttering like a songbird squeezed in a fistful. Soon she barely had enough strength to hold her head above the surface. The nagas were tasting the soup with a ladle, adding pepper. Shantae was refusing to give up, she still kept struggling, weakly and powerlessly, but there was a raw melancholy of understanding: this was it. She could only hope she faints before melting alive, thawing into oils in the boiling water. She was bitter her body she had been so proud of will become a banal chowder. So unworthy of her mother, who had died heroically fighting evil... But how did the daughter pass away? Missed a couple hungry monsters with a net. Such a shame. Her vision was beginning to darken. Shantae was vaguely aware of going limp and beginning to slide under, when suddenly...
"Saved by whom?" Akane exclaimed.
"By Giga Naga. I mean, she was verily huge, the size of Giga Mermaid — remember I told you about her...? Long story short, she plucked me from the cauldron and those two parasites had to eat bland soup with no meat. Or not. I can't remember it well, my head was swimming from heat."
Shantae wanted to thank her savior from the bottom of her heart but because of the apple she could only manage unintelligible moans. She was lifted towards the face and examined by huge eyes with a vertical slit pupil. So beautiful! She was going to ask to untie the ropes when her world suddenly went topsy-turvy becoming dark and slimy for some reason. Shantae twitched a bit, disoriented, her thoughts still scrambled from the heat. What had just happebed...? And then she was squeezed with great force, her shoulders creaking, her ribs groaning...! When she could finally breathe, sparks in her vision were dying down. It was still dark and slimy but now also smelt nasty and sour. Still weak, her mind anemic, Shantae was trying to figure what happened to her. Got stuffed into a slimy bag with ankle-deep water on its bottom...? Why...? And then she was squeezed again! A wave rolled along the bag, it contracted in a ring pressing its slimy folds against her head — ouch, it stung her nose! — then this compression rolled downwards pressing against her body tightly but not sliding because this wasn't really motion but such a strange wave of contraction. The air trapped in that part of the bag was bursting free along the bumps and pits of her body with unaesthetic sounds and when the contraction rolled down her submerged legs and passed further the air bubbled out of there with a very familiar groan... Then Shantae finally got it: she hadn't been saved. She had been eaten!
"She just went and swallowed you?" Akane inquired, shuddering.
"Yeah, like a meatball!" Shantae affirmed in a voice so merry it jarred. "Nom — and I was done for. Well, at least I know why people's stomach groans. It's those waves rolling along it pushing air through stomach juices. But I'd prefer learning that in some other way than swimming in said stomach juices, thank you very much."
Being digested alive is a hundred times worse than being boiled! Because now she surely would not lose consciousness until she melts completely! Along the chilling horror, came rage at this.. this... She couldn't find words! And here she had been going to thank her! Shantae was writhing with all her might, pulling at the ropes, her muscles aching and the ropes biting into her body leaving burning raw abrasions. If not for the accursed apple — did it grow on an ironwood tree or what? — she'd be trying to gnaw her way out...! Alas, the ropes weren't giving while the stomach was just giving a bit, springy. All her efforts were of no more use that writhing of a worm on a hook. The stomach juices were rising. Only on the bottom yet, but the regular contraction waves were successfully washing these all over her, head to toe. Her entire body was prickling, cuts and abrasions burning, it was beginning to itch and bite between her toes, in her ears and other intimate places. But her nose was the worst, a whole caustic conflagration burning there! She had to breathe snorting desperately against the burning liquid getting into her nose while the air was in the form of foam at times. Tears were rolling from her tightly shut eyes! Shantae tried resisting the next contraction wave but just got folded forcefully, her spine protesting, pressed apple against knees such that her face got dipped in the rising liquid. Her nose burned so badly she saw sparks! She barely managed to snort it away... She couldn't think of a way out. Her entire body was beginning to itch and prickle — but slower than the stomach juices were rising. So her fate was to drown...? It would be very, very painful. She wanted to live! But she was going to drown sooner or later: the acid was standing higher than her waist when it wasn't being poured all over her. Her doom would come even quicker if the freakish naga decides to lie down: Shantae couldn't even roll from side to side with her arms and legs tied so tightly. If she just had one hand free...! The prickling all over has gradually grew into intolerable itching. Shantae redoubled her writhing — not from fear and anger anymore, those faded into background overshadowed by all-consuming itching. She was itching to scratch everywhere at once!
"The horror!" Ukyou commented while using her spatula to block a burst of magic bolts unleashed by another naga warrior while Akane was flanking the snake woman. "How did you escape!"
"Well, I didn't notice clothing melting off of me right away," Shantae explained while looking watchfully around. "And when I did I was grieving for my hair, I thought it melted too..." She smacked a bat with her hair. "But it haven't even crossed my mind to think about ropes."
"What about ropes?" Akane asked as she hit the naga with a straight right punch so powerful the monster was launched, rotating, down a cliff into bushes below.
Suddenly, the restraints on her elbows fell away, the rope weakening and slipping off. Hr wrists remained bound but with her elbows free there was much more freedom and leverage. Straining, Shantae tore the half-digested ropes freeing her hands. She immediately began scratching desperately trying to reach everywhere at once! But all was in vain, instead of every place scratched five more were starting to itch, and... And then she got it. She wasn't a helpless food item anymore! She could fight and win...! To be honest, the hardest part was stopping her attempts to scratch. But another wave quickly reminded her she was running out of time by pressing her arms against her sides and washing her with caustic liquid that set her nose on fire. Grabbing a knife from her inventory Shantae began cutting the ropes on her legs furiously and soon she was untied. She could get free now! She climbed up slimy pulsating folds, only to met a creasy end closed dead shut by a ring of rock-hard muscle. She tried stabbing. The stomach proved perfectly tough — at least she couldn't find any damage blindly by touch. She tried cutting, the same story. Either the stomach was so titanic or her knife's edge was already digested. Its slippery metal was hissing and bubbling under her fingers. Squeezed by another wave, she slipped down into the stomach juices. Her entire body was itching so badly no other thoughts could fit in her head but scratch! What to do...? Free at last she wanted even less to be digested. If beating it doesn't work... Disregarding all safety rules, Shantae began launching Storm Puffs with all her might, until she ran out of mana. The stomach became full, stuffed with magical thunderclouds pressed dangerously against her body, burning her with electric discharges. Then they went off all at once, lightning bolts striking stomach walls, Shantae, other clouds indiscriminately. Her world was drowned in blinding convulsions... She came to from horrible burning in her nose when she tried to breathe. Her entire body was aching, itching horribly, there were sparks swimming in her tightly shut eyes, her chest hurting from the lack of air — but there was sunlight reaching through her eyelids, grass and dry twigs under her hands and legs, and someone huge was hurling loudly nearby. Finally tearing the accursed, jaw-dislocating apple out, she took a lungful of fresh air. She then downed a whole vial of healing potion feeling great relief as the dire itching faded away. Opening her eyes she aimed her accusing finger at her bent over, sick opponent of such proportions that she was like a righteous mouse at the foothills of an elephant. But she was devil-may-care about such trivialities right now, shouting her threatening admonishment out: "And don't do that again! Got it?"
"And she obeyed somehow, and was never seen in those woods again," the half-Genie finished her story. "Even though I was so tiny next to her, and wasn't wearing any pants to boot... I only realized that lather, otherwise I'd have combusted from embarrassment right then and there. The healing potion restored my shoes and top but my pants got digested without a trace. Those were my old ones with a red sash I went on my first big adventure in. I had to learn making a grass skirt in a hurry simply to enter the town. Then order new pants. This pair, with the black middle. I ordered two pairs, just in case. And a new top to go with them. The old one, with floating sleeves, looked cool but adventuring in it was awkward, those decorative kind-of-sleeves kept catching on everything."
A lake was stretching ahead, white Greek-styled ruins sticking out of it. There were columns with characteristic swirls in their tops, platforms, half collapsed wall sections...
"You, uhh, have to get wet here," Shantae warned. "There is no better approach to the factory entrance, terrain to the sides of it too broken."
"Umm," Akane voiced with trepidation as she eyed the yawning mirror-like expanse.
"Don't worry, I planned for everything!" the purplette reassured her. "There's only a couple places where you have to swim, I'll carry you on my shoulders. Everywhere else could easily be jumped from rock to rock... Well, consider it training using the, how Ranma's father calls it, Brazilian methodics." (note 1)
"I..." Akane gulped nervously. "Let's do it!"
The first stretch where they had to swim was right at the shore. Shantae began a dance but was interrupted by Ukyou: "Will you carry her as an elephant"
"Huh?" The half-genie stilled, taken aback. "Why elephant...?"
"Well, elephants swim well. And their backs are wide, Akane-tan would not fall off. Right?"
The pointy-eared one froze, taken aback.
Then she began a different dance.
Poof! The violet sparks dispersed revealing a modest-sized elephant in an embroidered saddlecloth. Shantae approached the shore stepping into the water cautiously. Then deeper until she was swimming, her trunk raised above the surface. After swimming a bit to and fro she climbed to the shore and turned back into a girl.
"Elephants swim well indeed! Why didn't I think of this myself...? All right, Akane, I'll carry you to that platform over there, you'd have to keep jumping from there." She danced again turning into an elephant. Akane jumped onto her back and she started swimming.
Ukyou dove after them, glad to have a chance to freshen up.
When they were almost at the first platform Shantae suddnenly jerked, gurgling. Ukyo managed to block a spear thrust from below, metal clanging against metal. Dark, human-sized shadows were circling down below.
Akane hurried to jump to the stone platform, her hand outstretched to help Ukyou. She tore the okonomiyaki chef out of the water. A mermaid surfaced behind the still prone girl, spinning her trident up. Ukyou twisted around, her combat spatula reached the monster foiling the attack. Shantae de-transformed into a human as tridents thrust out of the water to the sides of her, missing the suddenly shrunk target. Akane stretched her hand out to help, but the other girl was still too far away! Shantae had the sense to whip her hair wrapping it around Akane's wrist, almost pulling her over the edge. Akane heaved with her entire body, falling onto her back and pulling Shantae out of the lake like a carrot. The soaking wet half-Genie flopped onto her preventing her from jumping onto her feet. Mermaids began surfacing around them, aiming their tridents!
"Watch out! They're going to shoot!" Shantae jumped onto her feet but staggered clutching at her belly. "Then, take this!" Gritting her teeth, she began some dance that was exuding menace.
Akane did not have time to watch, back to back with Ukyou, she got ready to block... Whatever.
The mermaids began launching bursts of bubbles. There was a clang of magic against spatula behind her. Akane punched two bubbles out, caught two more in her chest. She should have dodged, but Ukyou was behind her! Those bubbles hit like bricks.
Shantae managed pulling her big move off before most of the mermaids could start firing. A victorious note thundered like drums of war, the world flashing purple.
No one was attacking them anymore. Akane took a cautious look around. All mermaids were floating limply, listless orange and green carcasses. Those had their fish half green, not purple, unlike the ones from the sea shores.
"Such scoundrels!" Shantae huffed with indignation. "That was low! They are only good for fish soup!" She gasped, staggering. To Akane's growing worry she was all covered in cuts and bruises, her trousers torn. It seems most mermaids were targeting her at first.
"Whoops, elephant can't fight in water," Ukyou said sheepishly, grasping the point. "Well, um, sorry."
"Don't sweat it!" the half-Genie waved her concerns away, wincing. "Ow..." Steeling herself, she began another dance. This one was peaceful, soft and tranquil, and very modest for a belly dance.
"Full Restoration!" The wave of purple accompanying this shout faded revealing a perfectly intact half-Genie.
"Wow, I'm healed too!" Akane exclaimed feeling the pain from the hits she had received disappearing. She rolled her shoulder, unwrapped the bandage. The bruise there was gone as well, the points of former bite marks itching faintly. "So you can heal others? Cool!"
"I... can?" Shantae replied, puzzled, as she stared at her healed friend. "Well, I'll be! And I thought it being just a very wasteful, especially powerful dance of self-healing... How had Tuki phrased it...? Full restoration? So she meant full party restoration, then...?"
"Tuki?" Akane echoed.
"Oh, it's the Lamia I bought this dance from. She specializes in rare magical curiosities. Such a sneaky snakey! Remind me to visit her, maybe I could find something else useful I don't have yet."
"Those mermaids were brutal," Ukyo commented eyeing the limply floating opponents. "Even the Happoubats weren't as dicey. Is it always like this in these parts?"
"No." Shantae frowned. "At least, they have never attacked in water. And never in such packs. What riled them so much...? No, doesn't matter. You go on, I'll swim down, whack the rest of them. My bubble is strong too!" She began another dance.
"Wait, where to?" Ukyou interrupted her.
"Til that edge!" Shantae pointed at a sheer cliff barely visible between the ruins chaotically protruding from the water and the tree crowns. "Then as far up as you manage. I'll fly up later, throw you a rope." She continued her dance.
"So we need to go up the cliff?" Akane inquired.
Poof! A mermaid appeared from a cloud of violet sparks. Blue haired, green and scaly all over.
"Glub" she gurgled out parting her webbed hands. She then smiled charmingly — such teeth, fit for a piranha — and dove in a single leap. Soon dull explosions began sounding from the depths, knocked out mermaids surfacing from time to time.
"Umm, how do you think," Akane asked with trepidation as she assessed the distance to the nearest column. "This last ditch potion... If I drown — would it heal me so that I could drown again...?"
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Ryouga narrowed his eyes staring at the massive gate of wrought iron criss-crossed with rows of rivets. This obstacle had no breaking points at all. Not even a hint of them. Whatever magic they used here in this land, his Crushing Weak Point was never working on anything worth using it on.
"Well, how is it?" Sky inquired impatiently bouncing from on foot to another.
"Stand back," Ryouga grumbled moving from the door to wild rock beside it. Thankfully, they haven't thought of enchanting cliff faces as well.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
The factory hidden behind a waterfall turned out to be not just a factory, but a cave factory. Meaning it was built inside a huge cave. And not just any cave, but a partially flooded cave. Many walkways and strange contraptions were suspended over a yawning expanse of still water. Akane was putting on a brave face. Even when she had to duck and hang onto the underside with only her hands hiding from ubiquitous biped gators wearing coveralls.
They climbed into the next cave across a rail with chains, under which huge rings were hanging at regular intervals, some of them open into halves. As Shantae said when all this was moving you could only grab the rings and ride them lest the chains on the rail lop your fingers off.
Akane and Ukyou were wondering what those lines with moving rings could be for — and here were lots of those — when they stumbled on a working line.
The rings were creaking along slowly, the line stopping for long pauses. Under some rings, mermaids were dangling, attached by their arms tied above their heads.
Akane inquired on the subject of mermaids. Shantae replied airily not to mind, they were making preserves out of them here.
Akane repeated, full of horror and disbelief: she probably heard that wrong?
It turned out that no, she didn't. This factory was really producing canned mermaids.
Akane fired up instantly: down with the factory, free the mermaids! No quarter! So what if those had attacked them! You can't do this to people!
After that, every gator they met was pummeled. Wasn't easy: the enemy crocs were tough, even Akane's straight right punch was only knocking them back at first. Every contraption was wrecked. Even a bruised heel did not diminish Akane's resolve. Ukyo's spatula proved super effective against cables and pipes. Every mermaid was untied and either dropped down into the water or thrown higher where gators couldn't reach: all fish girls were dazed, barely twitching.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
"Wait!" Bolo halted his team's advancement. "This corridor leads to a dead end. There's storage or secondary housekeeping there. See this? The power mains lead towards that end, not from it, and it is too weak for something like an assembly line. Much less ventilation. We have to turn... hmm... Right here!"
"I was wrong thinking of him as a weaksauce martial artist," Ryoga thought as he shattered yet another wall where he was instructed to. "He is not a martial artist at all, he is a tinker. He only knows enough fighting not to be running from every critter. This world is so full of them that without some fighting ability the easiest choice is crawling towards a cemetery right away."
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
"Here you are! Woo-hoo!" girl-Ranma was calling out with a painfully fake smile as she unbuttoned another button on her shirt.
Silence was her reply, suffused with everpresent whisper of sand streaming in tiny streams.
The rows of square columns barely stood out of dusty gloom, lit dimly by her fuming torch. Her feet were sinking in sand covering the floor in drifts.
"Che!" the redhead swore. "How could I corner anyone here if all walls have holes in them...? It's like Ryouga had passed through here!"
She froze momentarily, then facepalmed: "Ryouga really had passed through here. So that's where Shantae was chasing him!"
Wait. Something was not adding up. If she was here yesterday, why didn't she clean happoubats up?
The answer was kind of obvious: she was in too much a hurry to catch one... Lost person.
"Why you, eternally lost swine, I'll make you— Hark!"
Barely audible cackling of a Happoubat was reaching from somewhere nearby.
Grinning evilly, Ranma began prowling in that direction.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
In the end of the line they sabotaged there was a finished product storage: huge, sealed barrels stacked along the wall. Turns out, the preserves were a whole mermaid per can. Shantae walked to the nearest one and began breaking it. After some five kicks the lid flew off. The liquid poured out bringing the mermaid carcass with it.
"I am all for foiling villainous plans," Ukyou begain an a roundabout way, "But why on earth would wne need a dead mermaid for? Ain't we released all living ones already?"
"What? Dead, you say?" The purplette grew worried. She nudged the carcass with her foot. The mermaid began twitching, her eyes swirly. "They aren't dead, we have to save them all... Ugh, if I can't stand these parasites!"
"So these cans aren't, ahem, boiled yet?" Ukyou inquired knocking the lid of the next one with her spatula.
"Boiled?" Akane asked joining the process. "How goes?"
"Well, they usually make preserves like this," Ukyou explained, "They seal the can, then sterilize it by heating it to about 120 degrees. Meaning all preserves are in fact boiled."
"The horror!" Shantae shuddered. "No, there is definitely something else at work. Dark magic, probably. Or just magic. Food in my inventory won't spoil for weeks. And that's good. If he was boiling them, I could tolerate the the mermaids, but—"
The biped gators floodedd the hall in numbers, at least a dozen of them, like they gathered from the entire factory. Did someone finally realize they were under attack and sound the alarm?
Akane shuddered from the gastronomical craving in the reptilian eyes. It reminded her too much of the morning pervert crowds who looked at her like they were eyeing a piece of meat. She began fending assault from all sides, moving with familiarity. The toothy maws were giving her extra motivation.
Ukyou was bashing her spatula left and right swearing like a vulgar street vendor from Osaka. Who she in fact was.
Shantae was whipping and dodging too but her ultimate dodging technique wasn't working well on the floor littered with mermaids. She stumbled once, twice, tvisted offering her bracer for a toothy maw to hit. But the Techno Baron's minions were standing up, shaking stupor off and pushing again. Tough crocs, dangerous even one on one.
Three tried biting Akane at once. If not for training with Shantae they'd surely get her side. But she dodged, teeth sank into the fabric of her gi instead. She couldn't dodge well with a gator hanging on her flank. Not even trying to get free or take the shirt off, she wrapped its lap around the snout, squeezed with both hands to prevent the mouth opening and began spinning, battering her opponents with their fellow and kicking where they tried intruding into this predictable rhythm.
Realizing she couldn't hold on like this, Ukyo began hitting to kill, with the edge of her spatula.
Shantae slipped on someone's scaly tail reflexively kicking one leg out to keep her balance... Two gators bit into it, one sinking its teeth into her calve, another into her thigh. A third one was incoming, aiming to tear into her side.
Twirling towards her friend's scream, Akane threw her opponents aside like bowling pins — there was a sound of ripping and the obstacle to her movement was gone — to rush to the rescue, but the half-Genie struck faster than anyone, a stream of flame erupting from her outstretched hands washing over her opponents.
The biped gators grunted, stinking like something burning but stubbornly holding onto their prey. The one who didn't yet sink its teeth into her tried pushing forward to do so, but only got a full maw of flame for its efforts.
Akane froze mid-step. Ukyou froze with her spatula raised. The last gator standing froze with its maw open.
Shantae kept firing, flame washing over her three opponents. She have not stopped even after they released her smoking leg, the trousers singed. The stream of fire was roaring from the half-Genie's index finger like from a hole in a gas tank. A pleasant smell of roast began wafting around.
Its eyes like saucers, the last carnivore shuffled sideways, sideways, then ran like a frightened rabbit, its stubby legs blurring.
Shantae stopped the stream of flame. She gingerly lowered her mauled, still smoking leg. Three carcasses barbecued crusty stood for a moment, then toppled landing among slightly steaming mermaids.
"And now," she proclaimed matter-of-factly as she downed a healing potion, "Alligator steaks!" She crouched over her defeated opponents producing a bovie knife.
Akane stared at her friend with horror.
"Are these creeps tasty?" Ukyou inquired as she beaned one of the fallen ones behind her with her spatula: she thought it twitched.
Akane felt ill.
"Well..." Shantae turned around to reply, her knife hovering over its intended target. Seeing Akane's eyes, she got her expression wrong and instructed her hastily: "When telling about this, they had dropped these steaks. And not in any other way, period. Because children will be listening. Adults could get the hint if they have... Understand?"
"Uhh, all right..." Akane choke out, still reeling from shock. "But... how could you? They're almost people..."
"Well..." Shantae scratched her ear as she turned, still crouched, towards the roasted remains of her opponent. "They tried devouring us first, anything else doesn't count." She aimed her knife.
"Exactly!" agreed Ukyou. 'They asked for it, going at us with `eat or be eaten`."
"As one wanderer with a beard of impressive proportions told me," Shantae continued as she cut off a more appetizing chunk, "in a dungeon either you eat them, or they eat you... He told so many fascinating things about healthy food...! But if you listen to him, you can't beat a dungeon without eating monsters on the way. That's too much for my tastes. Or are dungeons in his home land so deep you have to wander them for weeks...? Here." She handed Ukyou a chunk, the chief sinking her teeth into it with gusto. "For me, it's always easier to find a town than to hunt in the wild, then cook the game in the same wild. Evwn disregarding the danger that bush meat always carries a risk of some nasty disease... I just don't have it in me to hunt. I prefer parting ways, even with those who is trying to eat me. So I only hunt rarely, and only the vilest of those who hunts me first."
"The vilest?" Akane echoed, still mildly nauseated.
"Oh! I haven't told you yet!" Shantae put another chunk of gator meat away into her ki pocket and turned around to face her friend. "A little while ago, they— I mean, it was a little while ago for me, in this timeline they have a year before they sink that low — In short, either they had trouble catching enough mermaids or something, but they began kidnapping girls from nearby villages and making them into counterfeit canned mermaids. There was a special fish swallowing onto their legs—"
"Bastards!" Akane got incensed instantly, all doubts forgotten. "Killing them is too kind!"
"Just don't off Techno Baron for company," Ukyou warned her after she finished chewing. "If you do, this alliance heroes and villains would just shatter, it's holding together on a wing and a prayer as it is. The grand villain would have a great time crushing us one by one, then... An interesting taste, by the way. You can't tell if it is meat or fish. Are there more good pieces?"
"Here," the half-Genie handed her one. "Akane, really try not to off him by accident. Unlike all others, Techno Baron is not a fighter, you can break him in half with a sneeze. I say from experience."
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Xian Pu eyed the tinkers critically. Mimic and both barons were neck deep in tinkering, their disagreements forgotten. Correction: their usual disagreements. Every five minutes or so they squabbled about how to fiddle another fiddly bit or how to screw another screwy bit. It all sounded like total gibberish to her.
Ammonians and tinkerbats were swarming, a complete chaos in her opinion. They were dragging something, sawing, hammering or otherwise thinkering. The clatter was deafening, she had to make earplugs out of cotton. The chaos was growing too: the possessed inventors had already took hold of two adjacent warehouses next to the one they had appropriated in the beginning.
Risky Boots gave her the slip, the slippery bugger. Try keep up with her with those cannon and hat of hers! Where the pirate lady was now and what was she scheming was a complete unknown. Nothing good, for sure.
Wishing she'd have a magic carpet at hand — those were a thing, from what she overheard — she assessed if she could leave for some three hours without endangering the master plan. It looked like she could.
Armed with coins and a nice looking jewel from the ones she pocketed yesterday, she headed towards the Squid Baron's dungeon. After passing through the town gate she started running. She had to be back before sundown but the dungeon was some distance away, plus she still had to find that fountain in the parts of the labyrinth they hadn't explored yesterday.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
When Shantae finally resurfaced — and the entrance to the deep underwater caves had to be found before diving, it happened to be hidden in a pond from which one of the columns of the roller slide behind the factory rose — Akane and Ukyou had already explored the surrounding jungle out of boredom. Beside all sorts of snappy critters, they had found the Giga Mermaid Shantae had told them about.
"Here." Akane lead her friend to bushes you could peek from. "See her?"
Barely visible through the trees, a chained mermaid the size of a good whale was lying on a shore. Her dark green tail half submerged, rusty chains biting into her lettuce green body, her grayish green hair tangled and stretched between trees.
"So, let's save her?" Akane suggested.
"We will turn around now," Shantae said, "pretend we saw nothing and go home quietly."
"But why?" Akane exclaimed, hurt and disappointed.
"One time, it happens. Two times — well, may have been a coincidence," the pointy-eared one replied irritably as she really turned around to walk away. "But a third time? No, I do not want to know what sort of relationship she has with Techno Baron and why this... captivating captive is always in chains while her people are being turned into preserves. I have no desire to know, got it? The less you know, the better you sleep."
"Hmm, she likes being tied up, you say?" Ukyou perked up with unhealthy enthusiasm.
"Hush!" the half-Genie rebuked her. "Don't you dare disturbing my blissful ignorance!"
"Maybe we still try?" Akane suggested without conviction, her eyes shifting between the two.
"While you are freeing her, she rages," Shantae warned.
Akane looked back at the oppressively huge mermaid. Who she wasn't sure would fit the Tendou plot if stretched out. The very thought of such hulk raging instilled trepidation.
"And don't ever think the chains would pose any obstacle to her," Shantae continued. "Even with her arms tied, she unleashes such a barrage of lightning that one failed dodge and you are done for. Lightning bolts, thunderballs, all sorts." She looked into Akane's eyes. "I am loathe to test if your danger sense is advanced enough to dodge a literal forest of lightning bolts that strikes from the sky without warning. Not with only one auto potion per person. I myself barely survived both times, and I do not want a third one!" She turned to Ukyou. "Especially goes for you. You have ingrained reflex of blocking with your spatula. You'd smash a thunderball without thinking and game over."
"Then... Just leaver her there?" For Akane, not helping someone in need was just wrong.
"Freeing her is not enough. She begins raging even more, hitting with a tail slam and with lightning in turns. And she won't calm down until you pummel her. Do we really need that? No, we don't. We wrecked the factory and that's enough. Let them sort it out without us!" Shantae strode away firmly.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
"Seems this was the last one," girl Ranma breathed out with relief as she vacuumed a puff of dark magic with the lamp. "So effing disgusting!" She shivered as she untied the shirt from her waist and pulled it on covering herself. "I hate luring Happousai with my own tits, feels like being smeared in shit every time... How many of these knockoff letchers did I catch? About fifteen, no less."
She jogged tiredly towards the shore and the hired boat waiting there. Revolting, ill smelling sludge was splorching under her bare feet, dark clouds overhead touching the tops of rolling hills covered with the same vile stuff. The Mud Bog island in all its glory, a place he'd gladly live without visiting ever. As if yesterday was not enough! Even the netherworld — the entrance to which was here, nearby — was a much nicer place!
No matter, soon he will leave this place for good, just as he reaches the shore.
Dog-sized bugs attacking at times were punted with all the force of Ranma's irritation. Much bigger, bus-sized empty bug shells scattered here and there were hinting that this place could be much livelier at times.
Thankfully, that wasn't his problem anymore.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Akane, Shantae and Ukyou were returning along the shores of an enormous lake, the Mermaid Falls being one of its tributary bays. The water expanse was stretching to the horizon, it was hard to believe this was not a sea. Shantae was happily playing guide: she had lots of stories to tell, she had circled around the entire lake during her first big adventure.
The lake was stretching to the left of them. Some distance behind them, out of sight, lay the Water Town. Likewise, but much closer, hidden in one of the forest cut through with bays, there was the Dribble Fountain where the Dribble Stone had been resting intitially and where Shantae got her first transformation dance. On the far shore, a steep snowy peak was hovering over the horizon, indistinct in the haze like a ghost: Mount Pointy, its top housing Twinkle Palace, an icy dungeon incongruously populated by flaming bananapenguins. To the left of it, not visible from their position, was the Cackler Mound, the Ghost Forest, the Snail Wasteland and other harsh places only populated by undead and monsters. Far to the front of them and a bit to the left, a desert was stretching right from the shore, the guests had the pleasure of visiting it already. Somewhere deep in the desert there was the Oasis Town and the Ammo Baron's camp. Further beyond the desert and the lake were Mud Bog, wild forests and the Bandit Town. Yeah, that's what it is called. Sinister characters gather there and sit in the tavern all day drinking root beer. Wonderfully tasty, but better not to over-indulge: you haven't seen true horrors until you visit that place's latrines. Dungeons choke full of monsters couldn't even compare!
So, telling stories and enjoing the views, they walked out onto a road where they caught up with a slowly moving dray-cart. From that point they continued their way sitting on top of the bags filling this jolty transport: all three felt incredibly lazy after their victory. All four stones were practically theirs: no one believed in Ryouga's inability to beat the boss.
Akane lamented her ruined gi shirt: the entire right side was torn off baring her side up to her armpit. Shantae reassured her they'd repair it nicely.
The road was twisting and winding, going around obstacles of sorts Shantae usually vent over effortlessly. Which voided the long itching question of why wasn't she using roads. The dancer pulled out bento boxes made by Ranma, life never felt so good.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
"Gah!" Bolo slipped landing on his posterior.
"Why didn't she say the floor here is a damned skating rink!" Sky exclaimed with exasperation while mincing across smooth ice.
Something rumbled in a dark arch at the far end of the hall, growing closer rapidly.
Ryouga planted his I-beam into the ice floor and shifted his feet further apart. He will show this maggot!
"Don't forget the bubble!" Bolo warned pulling a scroll from his pocket. He and Sky read magical texts at the same time, bluish transparent bubbles surrounding them. Ryouga was firmly of opinion that such tricks were beneath him: nothing they met so far could even scratch him. Well, except that one freaky robot resembling a tower of Hanoi made of boxes. But that one just exploded at an awkward moment, yea.
The boss was rumbling close by, just beyond a tunnel bend. Bolo and Sky were fleeing towards the walls, the former on all four, the latter with the help of her parrot pulling her. Ryouga harrumphed...
A cross-bread of a spiky streetcar and an iron dragon rushed from the darkness. Above its stylized toothy jaw, narrow slits of its eyes glowed baleful crimson.
"My respect for this Shantae grows," Ryouga though flying into a wall while the bent I-beam flied into another one. "She's a brave one, for sure."
The boss disappeared in one of the many arches. Something fell down. Turned out it was Rotty's head. They didn't have time to grow terrified as the rest of her body popped up under it like a jack-in-the-box. The Zombie gal proceeded walking to a wall at a brisk pace, helped by the prominent protector on her sturdy shoes.
The Steel Maggot dashed across the hall one more time, nearly hitting Sky who guessed wrong into which of the arches it would turn. Then Ryouga picked himself out of the wall and stood in the bosses' path with a bent I-beam tiled forward.
He jumped onto the roof easily: he had ample experience riding trains on the outside while this thing was barely faster than a bus traversing a winding mountain road. Now he only had to play a shell game with this thing. There were three domes, like huge fire engine beacons. He hit the first one, it lit up green. He hit the second one... Wrong guess, it lit red.
The boss sparked electrocuting him, its spikes spew swarms of miniature thunderballs. Rouga, smoking and twitching a bit, had to admit he was wrong refusing the scroll of Bubble. But only to himself, silently: men do not whine.
Its segments creaking, the boss dove into a tunnel. Ryouga dropped flat to the roof, not keen of testing the height of the ceiling with his own head. When the Steel Maggot, after curving through tunnels, rolled back out into the hall, he stood up and hit the first dome.
Bolo, who was waiting with his spiky ball on a chain ready, caught the boss with it to ling himself onto the roof but was too slow to hit the third dome as Rotty's precisely aimed head landed on it. The dome pressed down and clicked, lighting green. Wrench dive-bombed the last one with a battle cry.
The hybrid of a streetcar and a Mad max truck slowed to a halt. Ryouga hurried towards the fourth dome that popped out of the machine's tail. He hit it with all his might, mindful of Shantae's tale of how she had to repeat the whole sequence four times before she finally managed disabling it.
It crunced, it sparked... One hit from Ryouga proved enough to bring it down for good.
They picked around for a while, not knowing what to do. Ryouga tried breaking it further. Finally they noticed the edge of something flat and bluish in the slit between the tail dome and the hull. So this was the Twinkle Stone?
It wasn't easy, dislodging the magical item stuck fast to the hull. They had to wreck the tail of the mechanical monstrosity before they managed getting it out. Then it stuck fast to the ice floor, frozen shut.
This magical thing the size of a big ceramic tile was a pain to handle. You couldn't touch it without risking to freeze your hands off. Breaking it from the floor required tearing a chunk of the floor out. At least some use for Ryouga's ultimate technique! To carry it they had to sacrifice one of Sky's shawls.
How did Ranma-bastard manage the Sizzle Stone if that one was as hot as this one was cold?
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Here it was! Xian Pu in her cat form was jumping from ledge to ledge descending towards the magic fountain far below. Too bad she had nothing to offer the spirit, not even a symbolic offering: her clothing was left far behind because traversing the dungeon as a cat proved much easier. Than going nowhere: stuck at the first grate door, Xian Pu was forced to use canteen on self. The cat squeezed between the bars easily. And continued going with ease. Fireballs and other nasties were zipping harmlessly overhead, she only had to mind the tail. Narrow crawlspaces became wide corridors. Trap rooms were ignoring her presence. Monsters, she was just running around those overgrown oafs.
Sniffing the air, she approached the fountain shyly. A round silver jug stylized as a Warp Squid, with little balls of tentacles and a smiling face, was squirting water from its narrow neck, droplets arching and splashing around. The jug was surrounded by several life-sized statues of playful cats, the same silver. The air here smelt... like something mystic and playful, her fur standing on ends like electrized.
Xian Pu placed her paw on a upraised plaque on the fountain bowl's edge inscribed with mysterious runes. She felt trepidation. Usually she was indifferent to spirits, even as she showed customary respect. But now she was going to ask a favor from an unfamiliar spirit while offering nothing and the outcome terribly important to her.
She mewled hesitantly: may I? If it's not inconvenient to you?
Bright sparks flew up from the fountain. Xian Pu jumped back. A cat walked from behind the fountain, looking exactly like her cat form only in shades of blue instead of white and purple. Xian Pu greeted it with fear and hope, flustered to the point unbecoming of a warrior.
The Dance Spirit meowed reassuringly: everything is all right, don't fret, young one. This was not analog of speech but the emotions and the message were crisp and clear. The blue cat walked around her, studying and sniffing her.
Then it umped suddenly away to begin dashing to and fro like a kitten chasing a toy, leaping like it was hunting invisible birds and even spinning like it was chasing its own tail. The spectacle ended with it stomping with comically exaggerated gait like it was trying to pretend a big tiger.
It then stared ad Xian Pu expectantly.
What had just happened?
The Dance Spirit chittered demandingly: "Go on, repeat after me, greenhorn."
She felt horribly embarrassed: to be so slow to realize this was how a cat dancing looks like! What was she expecting, a waltz on hind legs? Xian Pu hurried repeating, mixing moves and doing them wrong in her embarrassment, accompanied with exasperated chitters from the spirit: "wrong", "bad", "you call that a leap", "terrible".
Oh, the shame.
The spirit had to guide her through the dance three more times before it concluded "will do".
And, nothing. This was it...? She haven't transformed into anything. Were her efforts for naught?
"Now do it again, this time with feeling, pouring your magic into it!" the spirit snapped loudly.
Magic... magic... Unsure what to do, Xian Pu tried weaving her Qi into the dance. Come on, come on... She was concentrating so hard.
And, nothing.
She felt like yowling and clawing something in frustration! Too bad the spirit wasted so much effort trying to teach her thanklessly...
The Dance Spirit approached her, small for some reason. Barely up to Xian Pu's belly. Rubbing against her front paw, it purred "Good job, young one. The road begins with the first step!" and disappeared behind the fountain in two leaps.
..to think of it, the fountain was decidedly smaller as well!
Afraid to believe in her success, she approached it, examined her reflection. The rippling water was blurring things but the face staring back was definitely saber-toothed. Who was she now, a saber-toothed lynx...? She examined herself with curiosity. Her body proportions stayed the same, like a common house cat, her fur stayed the same white with purple highlights, if a bit thicker. But that was not important. She did it! She transformed! The dance wasn't that impressive? This was but the first step. More would come in the future, maybe a cat girl dance, maybe a badass sabertooth tigress dance!
"Great many thanks!" she yowled wildly, overjoyed.
"You are welcome," chittered from everywhere at once. "Your joy is my best reward!"
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Author's Notes:
1. Brazilian methodics: a shout-out to an old Soviet cine-magazine where one schoolkid offers to train his fiend in goalkeeping using "the Brazilian method" — which boils down to putting him if front of a huge glass storefront. The kid manages incredible feats of soccer ball catching but eventually misses once. Glass shattering, a shrill police whistle... "Now we train running," his friend says, "using the Brazilian method."
I felt that was so Genma...
2. In the Russian original Rotty often uses Internet memes in her speech — but I am not skilled enough to convey these in English.
Completed in Russian: April 09, 2020. Published January 08, 2021. Translated to English: November 22, 2021.