Dungeons and Drama

"I'm home!" Akane called as she walked in and changed to her indoor shoes. Hearing a vague reply from the kitchen, walked over to see a rather tired looking Ranma pouring himself a cup of tea. "Where is everyone?"

"Kasumi and Velgri are out shopping, the old men went somewhere 'to prepare', and your guess is as good as mine for Nabiki. Want some?" he asked, hefting the teapot.

"Please." A few minutes passed as they sipped their tea before Akane sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Hm?"

"For yesterday. I should have trusted you more."

A moment of silence dragged as Ranma rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. But I guess what you saw was pretty shocking."

Akane winced slightly at the response that fell rather short of forgiveness. "It was… I walked around a tree to see someone I thought of as a friend get … killed." She sighed. "Now I don't even know what to think of him."

"The guy had issues… but he wasn't all bad before he became the Avatar of Darkness." He shook his head. "It was like it twisted him."

"What do you mean?" Akane asked. When Ranma hesitated, she added, "Please. I want to know."

"He said if he won, he was going to protect you from the Dark without telling you he was the Avatar so you'd fall in love with him. He was planning to let everyone else die, except maybe Kasumi."

"That's horrible! I can't believe he'd… Wait, are we sure it really was Ryouga you fought? You said it couldn't have been P-chan that spoke to me because he was actually Ryouga. How do we know it was P-chan who was the fake?"

"Akane…" Ranma sighed.

"I'm not saying it wasn't! I just don't want us to assume it was without considering it."

"Fine. Ryouga knew me and our history, acted like himself except a bit darker, and knew details about you and your family. What about P-chan?"

"Okay, he spoke to me, with a British accent, and uh, said he was from England…" Akane's words slowed as she spoke and realized things weren't looking good for her theory. "And he'd been turned into an animal advisor by, um, Sailor Berk."

Ranma stared at her for a long moment. "Well, you've convinced me."

"Fine! P-chan was the fake, and I was an idiot for ever thinking otherwise!"

"Enh, it was worth checking, but yeah, it was pretty obvious. And Sailor Berk is definitely not a magical girl name."

"He said it was British."

"Oh, it's British, all right, but it's not a magical girl name. Trust me." He finished his tea and rinsed his cup. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about Ryouga and P-chan. I'm going to lie down; I didn't get much sleep last night."

Akane followed him with her gaze, suddenly feeling worse than ever, as he walked out of the kitchen. She'd been so upset about Ranma killing someone she'd thought of as a friend and keeping his cursed form a secret from her that she hadn't even considered what he must be going through. He'd had to watch a boy snuggle up to and get cuddled by her without being able to say anything, and then just yesterday he'd been forced to kill him. She wondered if Ranma had gotten any sleep. She was sure she wouldn't have.

She shook her head as she cleaned her cup. She'd have to do something nice for him later. For now, though, she needed something to cheer herself up. She looked through the cabinets, frowning at how bare they were, before taking a jar and some bread. Even if it wasn't a good brand, chocolate would make everything seem a bit better.

oOo

Well, things hadn't played out as he'd expected, but the result was still pretty good, Drefan reflected as he crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree in the Tendou yard. His idiot charge had gotten off far too easily, but the Avatar of Light and her support group had been thrown into turmoil. Okay, the idiot had shown everyone observing the challenge exactly how much of a fool he was, but as that kind of reflected on Drefan himself as the handler, it didn't exactly leave a good taste in his mouth. Ah well, when in doubt, apply additional vengeance, that was his motto. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a minute to set things in motion.

Drefan opened his eyes and stretched. Well, time to vacate the premises before Velgri returned and things got awkward. He couldn't go back to the nether realms until his current vengeance ran its course, so he may as well look for issues in the region that warranted the attention of someone of his power level. He lazily pushed himself off the tree when his left hand suddenly snapped out and caught a jar before it could smash into his head. He glanced at the label and his eyes widened.

"Marmite! Score!" He waited expectantly for a minute, but no further treats seemed to be inbound, so he shrugged and walked off with a spring in his step. Today was shaping up to be a great day.

oOo

"And that's when we realized we were in way over our heads and needed to call in help," Seiji said as he pulled an old key from his pocket and unlocked the thick wooden door set in the stone wall before them.

Branwen nodded and took stock of the college students who had enlisted her aid. In the lead was Seiji, a slightly portly blond in his second year, who was the head of the Tsuyoi Seishin Academy esoteric phenomenon (aka occult) club and wore blue slacks, a white button up shirt, and a blue blazer. Slightly behind him was Ai, a tall, slender second year with brown eyes and auburn hair in a ponytail that reached her waist, who wore a beige blouse and green skirt and sent frequent scowls at Seiji's back. Finally, bringing up the rear was Emi, a petit first year with green eyes, sapphire colored hair in a pixie cut, who wore denim jeans and a black t-shirt with a picture of a desk bearing a lit torch, a dagger, and a flask containing a potion.

"Shinobu wouldn't have turned tail and run screaming for help," sneered Ai.

"Well, since Shinobu decided she had better things to do than run this club, we're doing things my way. If you don't like it, you're free to go join her."

"I'm not into the con scene," Ai muttered.

"Then maybe you should just make the best of things and stop complaining. Anyway, like I was saying," Seiji continued, as he opened the door and shone his flashlight down the stone stairway, "we got the hell out of there, locked it all up tight, and considered our options. I was thinking of going to a temple or one of the crazy dojos in Nerima, but Emi couldn't stop singing your praises after you saved her from that spider woman, so here we are."

"You were so amazing!" Emi exclaimed breathlessly. "And you wouldn't even accept any sort of reward. Are you sure there's nothing I can do to express my gratitude?"

"Quite sure," Branwen replied cheerfully, paying no mind to the girl's disappointed sigh. "Seiji, how far in did you go, and what exactly did you see?"

"We only went a bit past the bottom of the stairs into a stone hallway and we saw a skeleton slumped against a wall."

"And then Seiji made little shrieking noises and made us all leave," Ai said scornfully.

"It moved, Ai! Its damned skull turned!"

"Even if they're animated, skeletons are really weak. I'm sure we would have been fine," Emi offered.

"Again, this isn't D , Emi. If a skeleton stabs a bony finger into your eye socket, you don't just say you lost some hit points and carry on."

"Seiji is right," Branwen declared, cutting off further dissent. "He didn't run off, never to return, you know. He decided that you needed to prepare properly and get support before exploring further."

"I suppose…" Ai sighed.

"Thank you," Seiji said firmly. "Now, everyone get your lights out. Branwen, you'll go first, right?"

"I'll go second!" Emi cried.

"No, Ai should be next," Branwen disagreed. "She's tall enough to see past me if we run into trouble right away." She also won't be completely focused on my ass, Branwen thought but didn't say.

The group fell silent as they walked down the narrow stairway…

And two hours later, they ran out of the building mere moments before it collapsed behind them. As soon as they were far away enough to be safe from debris, Seiji bent over, hands on his knees as he gasped for breath; Emi collapsed onto the lawn and rolled onto her back, clutching the lit torch in her hand like her life depended on it as she tried to catch her breath; Branwen turned to face the ruins of the building they'd just left; and Ai, only mildly out of breath, looked over her companions and screamed in alarm.

"Emi! You're covered in blood!" she cried, pointing at the girl's face and neck.

"It's okay, it's mine," the bloody girl panted.

"Why would you think that makes anything better?!"

Emi took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm fine, Ai. I'm still new at this, so taking something out of my shirt quickly is pretty rough on me."

"Taking something out of…?" Ai's eyes flicked to the lit torch in Emi's hand and then to her T-shirt and its picture of a desk containing a dagger and a potion in a flask. "Holy shit! You can store things in your shirt?! That's insane!"

"That's amazing, Emi," Seiji said as he slowly straightened. "I don't think anyone else in the club can do something like that."

Emi beamed, then grimaced and pulled a bottle of water and a napkin out of her pocket to clean the sticky blood covering her face below her nose.

"So, what does the potion do?" Ai asked, pointing to the flask on the shirt.

"That's a healing potion! If you were hurt, I could use it to save you! Well, unless you're allergic to peanuts; then it'd kill you."

"I'm allergic to peanuts, Ebi," Ai stated flatly.

"Don't call me that!"

"Don't try to get me killed, then!"

"Ladies, please," Seiji interjected. "Branwen, you're being awfully quiet. Is everything all right?"

"No," Branwen slowly answered as she drew her sword. "Something's coming. You three should go."

"What? No! We can help!" Emi cried as she jumped to her feet.

"Unless you can throw fireballs or something, no we can't," Seiji disagreed. "We'll just be in the way and make things harder for her if we stay."

"But! Fine!" Emi shouted as she stomped her foot. "We'll hide in those trees over there so we can help if you need us. Actually, just in case…" Emi raised a hand to her shirt only to jerk in shock as someone grabbed her wrist.

"Don't you dare!" Ai snarled. "You can get it if you know she needs it! What would pulling something else out so soon even do to you?" she asked as she started pulling the smaller girl toward the trees.

"I'd bleed…"

"From your nose?" Seiji asked, sparing a glance back at Branwen and the ruins as he walked with them.

"From my … everything," Emi replied in a small voice, then yelped as Ai yanked her forward with a growl, making her stumble.

"Yeah… let's hold off on that until we know it's necessary," Seiji said, paling.

O

"Can you feel it?" Branwen asked quietly as she watched a spot on the ground about ten feet in front of the rubble.

"Oh yes," the image of the crow on the shoulder of her tunic replied, "a powerful presence steeped in death and darkness. At its current pace, it should arrive in half a minute."

She nodded. "Any advice?"

"Use your new abilities to empower your sword and generate a protective aura around yourself. If you're able, keep the empowerment weak and pulse it when you strike; that should be less draining and also make your opponent underestimate your strength."

Branwen concentrated briefly, and after a moment, her sword gained a dim golden sheen. A second later, her skin and clothing darkened slightly, as if a faint shadow covered them. She inhaled deeply and took an unhurried step back as a dark gray figure exploded from the ground near the ruins and soared almost ten feet into the air before dropping back down to float a few inches off the ground. As the form hovered there, apparently content to pose dramatically for a moment, Branwen studied it. It stood about six feet tall and was covered in a flowing cowled robe of tattered dark gray cloth. Withered, leathery hands adorned with bejeweled gold rings were occasionally visible in the voluminous sleeves, and aside from faintly glowing cyan stars in place of eyes, only darkness was visible inside the cowl. A glance at the ground beneath it showed the grass already beginning to wither.

"Such torment I shall inflict upon you for the trouble you have caused," the being uttered, in an echoing, ponderous voice. "Killing my servant, destroying my place of slumber, these insults I shall repay tenfold."

Branwen readied herself, gritting her teeth when the entity turned its cowl toward the trees at Emi's distant declaration that he shouldn't have put a load bearing caretaker in charge of the place, then. "Your fight is with me, lich," Branwnen stated, drawing its attention back to her. "If you are victorious, you will be free to amuse yourself as you please."

"Indeed." The entity's cowl tilted to the side slightly. "Lich, you called me… You have no idea just whom you face, do you, human? Tremble in fear, mortal, for I am none other than the immortal wizard Yakult!"

Branwen blinked. "Yakult? You mean like the yogurt drink?"

There was a long pause. "What?"

"There's a brand of drink named Yakult."

"A drink… named after me? Is it a powerful and dangerous brew?"

"It's fermented milk, water, and sugar, I think."

There was another long pause. "I see. Well, it seems I have a busy day of torment and destruction ahead, so let us get started."

"Very well." Branwen paused. "My sympathies about the drink."

"Noted. Now die!" cried Yakult as he fanned his hands before him, unleashing a crackling wave of lightning.

Branwen was already moving before he finished his words, though, running forward and to the side, clearing the spread of lightning with a mighty leap. Upon landing, she immediately launched herself directly at the wizard, her boots sending a spray of dirt into the air behind her from the force. Before she could reach him, however, he clapped his withered hands and a sphere of black light exploded from his form momentarily and she jumped high into the air to avoid it, her momentum unfortunately carrying her to fly far past the lich. As she passed over her opponent, she twisted in the air to face him, and a second later, rapidly swung her sword to intercept the swarm of crimson darts of light he sent her way.

"Passable," Yakult remarked as she landed, "but enough play." With several twitches of his fingers, dozens of small fairies composed of purple fire materialized and flew at the woman who was sprinting toward him. Without a pause, he moved his hands in mysterious gestures and intoned arcane syllables as he began a new spell.

Branwen's eyes darted between the swarm of fiery fairies and the wizard's gracefully moving hands and immediately decided that however bad the former may be, whatever was being cast would undoubtedly be much worse. Steeling herself, she focused all her will and the power that now resided within her into her protective field, which swelled into a visible dark aura around her. As the fairies swooped in, hurling bolts of purple fire at her, she swung her sword, deflecting what attacks she could, and even dispelling an incautious fairy or two, but she did not slow or stray from her course. The bolts that struck her were painful, but she could feel her aura draining much of the energy from them and she briefly hoped they would inflict no permanent damage. But then she was before the wizard, just as he spoke a final word and a small orb of roiling dark purple energy appeared between her hands, and shifting her focus, her power, her everything into her beloved sword, she thrust through the orb and into the lich himself.

There should have been a thunderclap, Branwen thought, but instead the world went silent as a great force hurled her backwa—and Ai looked down at her with concern, her lips moving before she turned away for a second to silently call to someone. She blinked and Ai was kneeling beside her. Apparently noticing her gaze, she said, "Don't worry. Emi is just about done retrieving the potion. You're not allergic to peanuts, right?" Branwen shook her head and Ai flashed her a smile before looking up sharply at the sound of raised voices in the distance, and rushing off.

"That was some blast," the crow on the shoulder of her armor stated, "but don't worry, you should recover soon. Unless that girl actually succeeds in giving the healing potion to the wizard, in which case he'll probably kill everyone here." The crow cocked his head in thought for a moment. "Provided he isn't allergic to peanuts, that is."

"What?" Branwen asked dazedly, forcing her aching body to a sitting position and looking in the direction of the voices. For a moment all she saw was some blurry motion, then her vision cleared to reveal Seiji holding a struggling Emi while Ai tried to wrestle a flask from her hands. A moment later Ai gave a cry of triumph as she pried the potion from the other woman's hands and rushed over with it.

"Here, drink this!" Ai cried as she thrust the flask at Branwen. "Emi's gone a bit crazy, so it'd be really great if you could finish off the lich before she manages to hurt herself…" She trailed off as the girl in question twisted violently, causing Seiji to fold over, hands protectively covering his groin from further injury, then followed up with an uppercut with the force of her entire body behind it, laying him out flat on his back. "Or beats the crap out of Seiji," Ai finished, eyes wide in shock.

Branwen took the flask and downed its contents, feeling strength and a sense of wellbeing burn away her aches and mental fog as she grabbed her sword that was lying nearby and surged to her feet before hurrying over to where Emi was studying the heap of tattered robes in concern. "Emi!"

"Branwen?" the shorter woman asked as she turned to her in confusion, eyes slightly unfocused and pupils dilated. "How are you there and here?"

"I'm not. Now please step back so I can finish off the evil wizard."

"But… how do I know you're not the evil wizard trying to finish off the noble and beautiful Branwen?" she asked, worriedly glancing between Branwen and the fallen lich.

"Because if the wizard was on his feet and I was lying there, everyone would already be dead."

"That's… that's a good point," Emi admitted, uncertainly stepping away as Branwen stood over the motionless form of the wizard, sword at ready.

"Hear my last words, warrior…" Yakult rasped weakly, right before she thrust her sword through his cowl and into the ground.

"No."

oOo

"I'm so sorry," Emi said for the sixth time that evening as she shrank back into the leather armchair, "I should have been stronger willed."

"Please stop apologizing, Emi," Branwen said from the plush sofa where she sat next to Ai, "Yakult was a very powerful wizard, and his magic would have been exteremely difficult to resist. Besides, no harm was done."

"Disagree on that last part," Seiji grumbled from another armchair where he held an ice pack to his already bruising chin.

"But," Emi started to protest before sighing. "Okay, if you really don't want to blame me, I'm not going to annoy you by insisting you do. Thank you for saving all of us."

"It was my pleasure."

"So heroic!" Emi squealed, gazing at the other woman with adoration. "You led us through the catacombs under that building, killed the evil caretaker—I can't believe we fought an actual load bearing villain!—and then fought and defeated the big bad and saved us all! Oh! And you even used some sort of magic against him! You're so amazing!"

"Ah, I just do what I can to help people and make things better," Branwen replied uncomfortably.

"You're so modest! You're a master with a sword, fight monsters, and even do magic! I bet you even know all sorts of arcane knowledge, like how to stop curses and how to protect yourself from love potions…" Emi gushed, an odd gleam in her eye as she voiced the last statement.

"Of course!" Branwen lied without hesitation.

"Emi, please stop," Seiji said. "You're creeping out our guest. And me."

"Huh? What do you mean? But I can change the subject if it's making Branwen uncomfortable." She looked around the well furnished living room they were in. "You have such a nice place, Seiji! Why haven't we seen it before? We should have all our meetings here!"

"And that's why you haven't seen it before. We have a meeting room on campus. We're only here so Branwen can be more comfortable after her battle."

"Ohhh, yeah, this just being a special thing for Branwen makes a lot of sense! It wouldn't be right for us to have regular meetings here."

"Also, the campus is closed and crawling with police and emergency services after the collapse of the 'historic Low House'," Ai added dryly.

"That too," Seiji agreed. "Everyone remember not to talk about what happened today to anyone else."

"But it was so amazing!" Emi cried.

"It was, but I'd really rather not get expelled, or worse, billed for damages over it."

The group fell into silence, sipping drinks and nibbling on snacks for several moments after that before Seiji yawned, then winced and raised a hand to his jaw. "Look, I hate to be a poor host, but I'm tired and hurting, so I'm going to have to ask everyone but Branwen to leave. She's welcome to rest here as long as she wants."

Several minutes later, Branwen and Seiji were alone in the large apartment. "Man, what a day," Seiji sighed as he stretched. "I'm sorry about Emi. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't actually use love potions, but I'll research ways to defend against them and send you the information. I mean, unless you're sure you actually do know everything you need to on the subject."

"Thank you, I'd appreciate that."

Seiji nodded as he started to clean up. "Not a problem. I was planning on looking into it for my own sake anyway. Is there anything else I can do for you? We literally owe you our lives, so if you need money, information, or anything else we can provide, just ask. There isn't too much we can offer in the way of actual magic, Emi is apparently the closest thing we have to a mage—and isn't that a scary thought—but if there's anything else, just say the word."

"I appreciate that, and if I ever have need of something you can provide, I will let you know. For now, I will simply take my leave."

"Yeah, it should be safe to go without the risk of running into Emi now."

O

"That went well," the crow remarked from his perch on top of the line drawing of a gray peak that Branwen knew hadn't been on her tunic previously.

"Much better than it would have before we bonded, I have no doubt," she replied as she walked down the empty street underneath the slowly darkening evening sky.

"You're probably right. Yakult would have been a poor match up for you, but I wouldn't discount you entirely, even unempowered; you are quite the exceptional woman."

"Thank you. That means a lot coming from you," she replied quietly.

"More than it would coming from Emi?"

Branwen laughed. "Much, unless you start aggressively hitting on me and talking about love potions."

"No worries on that front. I don't want anything like that from you."

"Oh? What do you want from me, then?" Branwen asked, a slight teasing note in her voice.

"Your companionship. Out there, on my own, I am but a simple crow," he replied, ignoring his host's snort of disbelief, "but when I'm with you, joining you on your adventures, why, it's almost like I'm a human myself."

"You know, humans have names; if you really want to be one, you should have a name too."

"Humans need names to identify and address each other when they interact; as I only interact with you, I can happily waive this requirement."

"You really don't want a name, do you…"

"I am who I am and have no need of a label. Besides, names have power, and I have no desire to give others power over me."

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm. All right, allow me to demonstrate. Branwen."

Branwen gasped and froze mid step for a moment, one foot off the ground, the entirety of her attention focused on the call that had reverberated through her body, her self for an instant. The moment passed, and she finished her step before stopping and staring down at the crow on her tunic. "W-what in the world was that?!"

"Your name, properly focused and empowered. It's true that it wouldn't have affected you so strongly without our bond, but I wouldn't have been able to do it at all without your name. And a name makes it much easier to target magic in the first place, of course."

"I see… Still, it seems a strange way to go through life."

"Perhaps, but to be fair, in the end, all the ways of going through life are strange."

oOo

"Two thousand yen, please," Nabiki said, holding out her hand. "Thank you," she added once Ranma blearily reached into his pocket, pulled out the money while muttering indistinctly, and gave it to her.

Ranma sighed and shook his head. Several seconds later, he started fully awake. "Why the hell did I just give you two thousand yen?"

"I have no idea," Nabiki said with a shrug as she pocketed her newly acquired wealth. "You seem pretty tired; long night?"

He sighed and stretched, looking around the living room, where he'd zoned out at the table. "Nightmares," he said with a grimace. "Don't suppose you know some trick to dealing with them?"

"I've never had the need," she replied over her shoulder as she walked into the kitchen.

Ranma sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you wouldn't," he said before wincing slightly as his brain caught up to his mouth. When Nabiki placed a can of iced coffee in front of him, he felt even worse. "Sorry…"

"For what?" she asked as she sat down and opened her own can.

"Aah, never mind. Thanks."

They sipped their drinks in silence for a few minutes before Nabiki asked, "Have you decided about the prints yet?"

"Huh? Prince? What prince? Oh..." he said, wilting under Nabiki's stare. "Prints. From the con. Yeah, I'll take a set. A reminder of the good times being the Avatar would be nice right now. Uh, you can take the price out of the money I just gave you."

"Cheapen that lovely gift you just gave me? I wouldn't dream of it. It also wouldn't cover the price of a full set anyway. I'll just add it to your steadily growing debt."

"Two thousand won't cover it? That's pretty expensive!"

Nabiki shrugged. "Like I said, you're getting the full set. Everyone else got some shots of you, group shots, and pictures of themselves with the Avatar. Since you're in all the shots, you're getting a copy of all the pictures."

"I guess that makes sense," he said with a frown. "Ah! But without me, there wouldn't have been any pictures, so that's worth a discount, right?"

Nabiki sadly shook her head. "I should charge you more for such a terrible argument, but I'll let it slide since you're sleep deprived." She finished her coffee and stood up. "You should stop having nightmares; they're not doing you any favors."

"Stop having nightmares, she says," he muttered as Nabiki walked off, "like it's that easy. And it wasn't that bad an argument," he pouted. "Was it?"

The empty room didn't offer any answer.

oOo

"Ah, a wonderful breakfast as always, dear," the man declared as finished the last of his coffee and laid his newspaper down on the table. He leaned over to kiss his weeping wife on the cheek, then stood up, gave himself a once over in the hall mirror (straightening his tie and adjusting a cufflink), then put on his sport jacket and picked up his briefcase.

"Well, I'm off to Nerima!" he called. "If I come back, I'll pick up one of those cakes you like so much from that bakery in Suginami. If I don't, all the papers are in the safe. Goodbye, dear!"

Paying no mind to the crying coming from the kitchen, he stepped outside and smiled as he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "Ah, what a beautiful Autumn morning." Whistling a cheerful tune, he started walking to the train station and his destiny.


Author's note: Even if I don't always say it, thanks to Sunshine Temple for proofreading and feedback.

Emi: Japanese girl's name. Ebi: Japanese word for shrimp.

強い精神 Tsuyoi seishin - Strong spirit/mind