Aaaand we're back! One week left to the release of FF7 Remake! There's a thing I'm looking forward to. For anyone who is interested, I am planning Twitch streams as I pick up the game on Friday, and for most of the weekend, as we continue to ride out the isolation orders here. Hopefully I'll actually be able to get my copy, considering everything that's going on with the COVID closures happening across the board. On the other hand, I also want people to stay safe, so I'm kind of torn. Looks like we'll be playing this one by ear.

Comments!
Kariston Draconis and kuriboh1233: Congratulations, you win the bonus round! Was it really Finster, not Fenster? I guess I always heard that wrong when I was younger.
Death Of Snipers: The Turks will be making other appearances; the Midgar Wrecking Crew have, between them, a lot of unresolved issues to address with the Turks to let them stay sidelined the whole story. However, we're going to be seeing more of SOLDIER for a bit first. The five shown in the previous chapter are, functionally, OCs. We technically do see some of SOLDIER in the original game, but they're exclusively random encounters in Shinra-controlled spaces. I'm intending to show a little more depth to them.
just yuki and GXY-2013: Events are not going to be playing out exactly as you'd be used to. Ranma's presence has already started to pull on different threads, and we're seeing the beginnings of that now. Does that mean that Aerith will survive? Does that even mean that Aerith will be going to the City of the Ancients? I'm not telling, yet.
WanderingStarmaster: None of the individuals shown in Ch.24 are Kunsel. Time will tell whether he's still around or not.
Mr. Haziq: That would be... now. :D Are you sure you're not reading ahead in my rough draft somehow?

Anyone who is interested in looking up my Twitch streams, I've posted my information in my profile. Hope you tune in, hope you stay safe, and hope you all enjoy the story!

Chapter Twenty Five

One Kalm Day

[ ν ] - εγλ 0007, December 14

It had been a solid three hours in transit on a rough road paved into the dirt by the passage of the vehicles that traveled it. The trek was rough, bumpy, and slower than anyone would have liked, but since Kalm was just over 150 kilometers from the edge of the Drybed, it was still better by far than walking. They arrived reasonably well rested, if somewhat sore from the travel, on the outskirts of Kalm, where they disembarked and walked the rest of the way on the narrow cobblestone streets leading into the center of town.

Originally a fishing town, Kalm bordered the eastern ocean and was home to more than five hundred homes. The buildings were constructed around similar aesthetics to each other, and to Ranma's eyes, they resembled designs that he had seen in various history classes and the occasional television drama. There was a great deal of vertical expansion in many of the buildings as they drew closer to the water, and part of the city was lined on the ocean's face by a giant wall.

The party walked up to a tavern and sat down around a large table, anxious for a good meal. "This'll be my first time having fish since leaving my home," Ranma commented. "Wonder what it's like here?"

Tifa looked at him, shaking her head. "It's… fish," she said flatly. "It's probably pretty fresh this close to the ocean, but what would be special about it?"

"Dunno," Ranma answered. "But you guys don't have chocolate, and my world doesn't have chocobos. So… maybe the fish are different too."

Tifa shrugged, before everyone took turns giving their orders to the proprietor, who set a tall glass of cool water at each setting as they ordered. "All right, then, we're all rested, and we are about to have a meal. What's afterwards?"

"Sephiroth," Cloud answered flatly, looking at each of them in turn. "If he's after the Promised Land, then we have to stop him."

Barret returned his gaze. "Fine, we go after Sephiroth, but before we do, I wanna hear this story of yours," he started, shifting slightly in his chair. "The one about Sephiroth and the 'real crisis for the planet' you were goin' on about before. If we're all goin' after him, I wanna hear it all."

A chorus of affirmation followed this, signaling that the others wanted to know as well. Cloud considered that for a long moment, as the tavern noises proceeded in the background. "All right then, I'll tell you what I know." He took a sip of his water, and collected himself. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be like Sephiroth… I'm sure a lot of kids had something similar, he was the face of SOLDIER for a long time, but that was why I joined SOLDIER. Eventually… I made it in, but by the time I did the war with Wutai was over, and when that was over a lot of the opportunity to gain rank went with it. So I ended up taking any missions that got posted, as a way to prove myself. For a couple years I was working alongside the strongest people in the world. I ended up working with Sephiroth on several missions, and I guess we became friends after that."

"Going on missions together led you to be friends?" Barret asked. "Doesn't sound like much to be going on there."

Cloud shook his head. "Maybe 'friend' is the wrong word… war buddy, maybe… anyway, he didn't talk much about himself, he was a bit older than I was, but after the time we'd spent fighting together, we'd gotten to the point where we trusted each other." Cloud took another sip, and Tifa watched him in silence. "After the war was over, it was SOLDIER's duty to put down resistance against Shinra, and to clean up any messes anywhere near the reactors. One day, a bit over five years ago… we got assigned together on a mission to Nibelheim, my and Tifa's hometown. It was… well… a lot of stuff happened, I'll try to explain it."

Aerith nodded and smiled. "It must have been fun, coming back home a hero and reuniting with childhood friends."

Cloud didn't answer for a long time. "It was… sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I get into this, I need you all to understand this about Sephiroth. He's... unreal, in a lot of ways. All the hype from Shinra about his power in battle, all the stories you've heard over the years… they don't come close. He is far stronger, in reality, than in any story you've heard about him. On our way to Nibelheim, our vehicle was attacked by a dragon… I stepped out to support him, but… he carved through the thing in two blows."

Tifa's jaw hung loose and she nodded absently, recalling the size and the power of the creatures Cloud spoke of. Most of the others had seen or at least heard of the kinds of creatures that wandered the wilder parts of the world. Ranma shook his head. "I don't want to interrupt, but… I'm kind of missing some of what you mean here. My world has legends and stuff, about dragons, but except maybe for one or two places in the world, nobody's actually seen one in living memory. How big are we talking?"

Cloud considered the question. "One of the Nibel dragons would probably just fit in the town square out there," he responded. "They have wings, they can fly and breathe fire, and they can carve through homes and other buildings like they're not even there. Normal SOLDIERs, even a First-Class like me, would need extra forces and backup to take them on, and… Sephiroth just… didn't. Ever. I wasn't his backup. I was just the tag-along." He took a moment to recollect his thoughts and take another drink. "I was fascinated by the way he fought, it was intense. Anyway, that's… I think it's important for you to understand his strength.

"We reached Nibelheim… I'd told him that it was my hometown, and I remember he asked me how it felt to be home. He said he didn't have a hometown… which sounded weird to me at the time, everyone's got a hometown, right? But he said he never really knew his parents, he was raised by Shinra. He told me that his mother, Jenova, died giving birth to him, and…"

"Wait, Jenova?" Barret cut him off. "That headless spooky thing we saw in the tower? That thing has the same name as Sephiroth's mother?"

Cloud nodded, but Tifa glared at Barret. "Don't interrupt him, you can ask your questions later," she chastised him. Barret shrugged.

"So you got to meet back up with a childhood friend, then?" Aerith asked. "That sounds romantic, almost."

"I was surprised, with Tifa, with the rest of the town, it had barely changed since I left." Cloud smiled for a moment, the memories of his childhood briefly breaking through even his stoic mask. "We didn't have a lot of opportunity to talk though… Sephiroth kept us on a tight schedule, we went to bed early the first night, and then straight out to meet our guide early the next morning… and the guide was Tifa." Cloud looked down at the table for a minute. "There was a reactor in the Nibel mountains. The mission we'd been given had to do with monsters showing up in increasing numbers. Shinra, naturally, wanted to make sure the reactor was safe… the town was technically a secondary concern, but… well, you all get how Shinra is, and back then I was stupid enough and naive enough to go along with it. I just believed that things would work out."

At that moment, the proprietor returned with a platter full of food and passed the dishes out to each of them, including fresh glasses of water at each setting. Ranma waited until the man had left, then took the plate of nearly raw steak in the middle and passed it down to Red, who tore into it with gusto. Each of them took a few minutes to tackle their respective dishes. "So… Tifa led you through the mountains?" Ranma asked. "Why not you? You were a local too."

Cloud took a moment to consider the question. "Even when we were kids, Tifa had the lay of the land up there," he answered. "I wasn't much good in the mountains, and I'd been gone a long time besides that. Tifa'd been better than anyone else in town by the time she was seven, and kept doing it the whole time I was in SOLDIER. Naturally she'd gotten hired on as our guide. Of course… I made a fool of myself, and didn't want her to go. I thought it would be too dangerous for her. Sephiroth wasn't hearing any of it, and we'd gone on anyway… myself, Tifa, Sephiroth, and two Shinra troopers from the regular army that'd been assigned as our support.

"It didn't take long for things to start going wrong, either," Cloud continued. "The paths through the mountains are dangerous. One part of the route took us over a long rope bridge between two peaks, and halfway across the bridge snapped. One of the troopers fell and we never saw him again. The rest of us regrouped, and continued on through the mountain itself until we reached the reactor. Sephiroth had our lone trooper wait at the entrance, and wouldn't allow Tifa inside. Said the reactor was full of industrial secrets. Turns out there was more there as well. Sephiroth believed that Hojo had been using part of the reactor to perform… some kind of experiments. The experiments had been creating the monsters that had gone around the mountains. And… there was a sign on a door leading to the innermost chamber… The sign read Jenova." Cloud took another bite and drank from his cup. "Sephiroth… did not take it well. He nearly carved the place open then and there, but I managed to calm him down enough for us to leave."

"Damn…" Barret muttered, shaking his head. "More I hear, more I hate 'em…"

Tifa nodded, taking a bite of her stew. "I… had no idea anything like that was going on in there… I remember, later, seeing the pods, but…" she lowered her head, trailing off.

Red poked his head up from under the table. "I wonder if that would explain anything about the increase in monster sightings in other areas as well. I would like to know more about this, if at all possible," he prompted.

Cloud shook his head. "Don't have much more to say about the reactor," he responded. "After that, we all hiked back down the mountains and into Nibelheim again. Sephiroth… was unreachable. He shut himself off completely, and stayed inside the inn without contact for the rest of the night. Afterward, he just… vanished. We all lost track of him for almost a whole day."

Tifa nodded. "I remember that," she confirmed. "Whole town was in an uproar over it, and even… even Cloud looked worried. Nobody'd seen him leave the inn, but the Shinra vehicles were still outside town, so he hadn't driven off, and he sure as hell wasn't walking out, in either direction. We were all about to start forming search parties… and then somebody saw him, peeking out from a window inside the biggest building in Nibelheim."

"I remember we all used to call it the Shinra Mansion," Cloud added, "when we were kids, because they owned the building, and any time any big suits from Shinra came into town they always used to stay there. Even after searching the place, the troopers couldn't spot him." Cloud raised his glass and drank from it, gulping the last of it down. "I stumbled onto what turned out to be a hidden entrance, that led underground to a big library of some kind. Sephiroth was there… poring over the library's contents like a man possessed. He didn't sleep, he barely ate or drank, and he stayed down there for five days. The troopers and I took it in turn to check in on him, but aside from basic necessities, he refused all contact and kept us shut out of the lower library."

There was a long silence shared between the party, a realization that the tale was coming to a head. "So… what happened then?" Ranma asked, genuinely curious.

"I… went down to the library on the sixth night. Sephiroth was…" Cloud paused for a moment, clearly looking for the right word. "He was different. Everything about him was focused, but... I didn't understand what he was talking about, but I knew whatever he was going on about, it was dangerous. He called me a traitor, he talked about the Ancients, the Cetra… He told me that he had been 'produced' as part of an experiment to create a being that had biological traits of the Ancients as part of him. And then he told me he was going to see his mother."

"You mean… Jenova?" Aerith asked. "That… whatever it was you all saw in Shinra Tower?"

Cloud nodded, still trying to keep that particular memory out of his immediate thoughts. "I was down there for all of three minutes, trying to skim through the books strewn about, but there was no order or sense to them. Some of them were code, some of them were formulas and equations that were so far over my head that it might as well have been coded. Even the book Sephiroth threw to the ground didn't have anything useful in it. So I turned back up and chased him up the stairs, but he was already gone. The troopers in the mansion were gone. And when I looked out the windows, Nibelheim was on fire.

"The entire town, every building and every structure, all of it was just covered in roaring flames," he continued. "I remember Tifa's mentor… I forget his name right now, but he was there, trying to pull people out of the burning homes. I did what I could to help, but I couldn't find anyone else alive. I turned and I saw, at the edge of the town, Sephiroth standing there, running through a villager with his sword. He left and went out of Nibelheim, towards the mountains again, towards the reactor. I followed him, but I couldn't keep up with him. By the time I got to the reactor, Sephiroth was out of sight. But on the reactor walkway, Tifa was there, mourning over her father. Sephiroth's sword was buried in his chest… it wouldn't take anyone much work to guess what had happened. Tifa picked up the Masamune and ran into the reactor. I chased after her, and I was… I just was too slow that day, no matter what I tried to do," he said, lowering his head in apology. "Tifa and Sephiroth were wrestling for control of the sword… he wrenched it out of her hands and… slashed across her body."

"I watched her," he whispered. "I watched her fall. I heard her scream in pain. I saw the blood. Sephiroth was… wrenching open the door to the reactor core, something, I didn't care anymore at that point. I ran to Tifa's side, I picked her up and moved her out of the way, trying to make her comfortable, and I gave her what healing I could… and then I went up the stairs after him. I… confronted him, while he spouted his nonsense about his mother, about all of us being traitors to the Cetra, and how he was going to revive his mother and take her to the Promised Land. We squared off… and… that's the end of my story."

The silence that greeted that abrupt statement was deafening. For a moment, nobody dared react, thinking it was a joke, but then they saw Cloud's face. "Oh hell naw," Barret drawled, banging the table once with his fist, the impact causing the glasses on the table to jump. "That can't be alla it! What the hell happened after that?"

Cloud shook his head. "I don't remember anything after that, for a long time."

"Not even about Sephiroth?" Ranma asked.

"If you're asking if I fought him…" Cloud shook his head. "I might have. But even today I don't think I'd stand much of a chance one-on-one. Back then I was just a kid... stupid, reckless, and eager to prove myself, but… I couldn't have beat him in a fight."

Tifa looked down at the table, clearly uncomfortable from the memories. "The official records... say that Sephiroth is dead."

"Yeah, but Shinra owns those records, they own the newspapers, and they own the media," Aerith countered. "You can't rely on anything they say."

"And more than that, I want to know," Cloud declared, slapping one hand against the table. "I need to know what happened then. I challenged the great Sephiroth… and I lived to tell about it. Even if I accept all that, why didn't he just kill me? I don't understand any of it."

"You aren't the only one," Tifa added. "I survived too… I still don't know how, or what exactly happened between the time I was struck down, and the time I woke up in Midgar."

Aerith sighed, reaching out with one hand and giving Tifa a compassionate squeeze on her shoulder. "There's a lot here that doesn't add up," she said quietly. "I think right now we're all just missing too many pieces of the puzzle… actually, what about Jenova? It was in the Shinra Tower, but you said it was in Nibelheim back then? How'd it get up there? And how could it have gotten out?"

"Shinra could've moved it any time in the last five years," Cloud answered, waving a hand vaguely. "Best guess is that Sephiroth pulled it out when he assaulted the building and killed the President. I think… I think that's everything for now, unless anyone wants to add something?"

There was silence for several seconds, and Cloud appeared to be ready to go settle the bill with the tavern keeper. "Cloud," Tifa said, her voice subdued. "When you found me, in the reactor? After Sephiroth cut me? How bad was I?"

Cloud swallowed hard at the question. "You were in a bad way… even with the healing I was able to give you, you'd lost a lot of blood from the slash he gave you. I honestly didn't know if you would make it."

Tifa nodded, and looked down at her half-eaten stew. Cloud smiled briefly, and went to work on his meal. Ranma looked between the two of them, and remembered his promise to Red from the previous night. "Well, if nobody's got anything else, I might as well go over my story too," he said calmly. "There's been enough goin' on that it's probably worth it to get everyone caught up."

Aerith nodded. "I want to hear this too, I've been there since you got here, and I don't even know if I have the whole story."

Red perked up from below, resting his head on the table with his tongue lolling out. "I wouldn't mind a bowl of water, but I am also interested in hearing this. Unless I am mistaken, of all of us here, I have known you the shortest period of time. The… shape-changing you experience is fascinating to me on many levels."

"Well, don't expect a repeat performance if I can help it," Ranma grinned, as Tifa flagged down the tavern keeper to get a bowl of water. "Anyway… my name is Ranma Saotome. I'm 17 years old, and despite the fact that I keep meeting people while I'm transformed into my girl-half, I was born male and that's how I think of myself. I'm a martial artist, and heir to the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling. And… this isn't my world. I first arrived here a little less than three weeks ago. My world is… I don't know how to describe all of the ways it's different, but even the geography is not the same. I live in Tokyo, the capital city of the island nation of Japan. And I've seen maps of this world… unless something weird happened, this is not the world I was born in.

"I think I've explained the absolute basics of the curse at this point to everyone," he said quietly. "I fell into a cursed spring of water, which is in a place with a whole bunch of other cursed springs. It happened a couple years ago, I'm still trying to find a way to cure it permanently so I can get my life back under some kind of control. How it works is that cold water turns me into a girl. Warm water turns me back into a guy. If it helps, try thinkin' of it as two halves of me, but sharing the same body. The limits to it turning on or off are… weird… it's magic or somethin', it's been around longer than most cultures and almost all the nations that currently live in my world. People older and wiser than me have spent their lives trying to figure it out, and the best they could come up with was 'bugger all', so I don't think I'm getting any closer than that to an answer about why or how it works."

The others collectively shared a look, and then turned back to Ranma. "You told me that this is only like one place in the whole world like that, right?" Aerith asked. "And they let people go there, still? It's not just like sealed up in rocks or something?"

Ranma shook his head. "Old ghoul told me once that the place has a kind of chaotic energy to it..." he waved one hand through the air vaguely. "Short version, the Joketsuzoku tried to seal it up a couple thousand years ago, but it didn't want to be sealed or somethin' weird like that. So they put up a sign that says Keep Out. Course, pops didn't bother to learn a word of Chinese before goin' to China, but didn't want to admit that, so he told me it read somethin' else and I believed him, and then we both ended up cursed. He turns into a panda when he gets splashed."

Barret gave Ranma a sideways look. "The hell's a 'panda'?" he asked.

Ranma blinked. "Uhhhh..." he paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "Think a wild animal, maybe about three times as big as Barret, black and white spots all over its body, and it eats... bamboo, nothin' but bamboo, all day every day. Super lazy. Strong, aggressive, but lazy."

There was a pause among the others as this description filtered through the individuals at the table. Tifa scooped up a bit of her meal onto a fork. "So, how exactly did you get here anyway?" she asked, before popping the forkful of food into her mouth.

Ranma ran one hand through his dark hair in thought. "Honestly, I dunno... not exactly, anyway... though I got an idea about it. There's a jerk in my neighborhood, named Tatewaki Kuno," he continued, holding up his hands and counting off on his fingers as he proceeded. "Worst kind of guy. Selfish, self-absorbed, misogynistic, delusions of grandeur, pretentious, and completely dismissive of anything that doesn't fit into to his warped perception of reality. He's had a major grabby hand-" and he paused briefly to mime squeezing at his own chest in demonstration, the others reacting with appropriate levels of disgust, "-out for my fiance, Akane Tendo, since before she and I ever met. I think, somehow, something he did is what sent me here, but I couldn't tell you what… The last thing I remember back in Tokyo was him running at me with some kinda glowy katana. He shouted something about getting rid of me to be with his 'true loves'..." and the nearly retching sound from Ranma's mouth made clear what he thought of that. "He swung the sword, and it missed me by a mile. And then there was a lot of wind, and I got pulled into... a hole? I dunno how else to describe it. All I can say is that, if he did it, it'd be the first thing in over a year that even came close to causing me real damage.

"It's also because of him that I don't act the way I used to anymore," Ranma said, taking a bite of his fish. "About four months back, he tried… something. The details... ain't important, and it'd take too long to go into right now at any rate. What matters is that… if it'd worked, both Akane and I, as well as both of her sisters, my mother, one of my rivals, and my childhood friend, would have become obedient, simpering toys for him." He looked down at the table, curling his hands into fists in his lap. "I know I'm strong. I know that I have enough strength to put my fist through a block of metal, which means that I have enough strength to do the same to another person. So… I hold back, a lot, as a result. Sometimes I hold back so much that I get hurt. But that's fine, when I'm the only one at risk, because I can take the bruises, the hits, the cuts and scrapes. I'm okay with that because it means that whoever I'm facing down isn't doing that to people who can't take it, can't defend themselves, can't fight back. I don't like bullies, I don't like people who use power as a weapon against those who have none of their own, and I hate anyone who is willing to take away someone else's ability to live their own lives."

Ranma took a long moment, his face downcast, his gaze hidden by the short fringe of hair hanging out in front of his head. "When I found out what he was doing, I... snapped, a bit. I very nearly stopped holding back. I didn't kill him or anyone else, but I was sorely tempted, especially since he managed to worm his way out of any consequences for being a grabby little pervert to half the girls in school, including... well, me... for most of the time I'd known him. Instead, I stopped the little ritual he was planning. I wrecked his home, inside and out. I uprooted every ounce of plant life on his mansion's lawn and carved out the symbol for 'pervert' into the soil so that it would be visible from anywhere. And at the end of the day, I took two things from him. I took away the protection he received from his family, because aside from the consequences finally costing them some of their reputation, it had also finally cost them too much money. And the other thing I took from him was a solemn vow. If he was raw about it, he'd come after me, and me alone. Because I also gave him my own vow that if he ever went after someone else, for any reason at all, and I found out about it, I'd end him then and there."

Aerith and Tifa both looked at Ranma with mixed admiration and terror. Barret and Cloud looked at the young man with newfound respect. "Ranma," Red spoke up from below. "You said that changed the way you behaved. Yet even in the face of the necessary extremes of your actions, you seem to have acted in the best interests of not only yourself but also several innocent women. Why would you see this as a behavior needing change?"

Ranma looked down at him. "Because I used to act like him, some," he answered. "I wasn't nearly as bad, I wasn't a grabass, an' I didn't use my reputation to pay my way out of consequences, but there were habits of mine…" he shook his head, smiled a genuine smile, and looked up across the table. "I realized I needed to get better, to be better, because even with the good I ended up doin' by makin' Kuno face some real consequences, I took a good long look at myself… and realized I didn't like all of what I saw in the mirror that night. So I did something about it. I stopped acting like that. It wasn't an instant thing, I was fightin' against stuff I'd been doing an' taking as normal for years. I had to build up somethin' in my own head that... watched me, for me... and made me look at actions I took for granted, and think about why I did that and who it might harm or affect. It's not perfect, and I still make mistakes. But I'm doin' my best to be better."

The others looked at him. "Your world is weird," Tifa said. "And you're weird. But you're definitely our kind of weird."

Ranma grinned at that. "Yeah, don't take my experiences as 'normal' for my world. Even taking 'turns into a girl because of cold water' out of the mix, my life is pretty messed up compared to regular folks."

Barret looked the boy over, shaking his head. "Man, I gotta hand it to ya," he said, "you're a lot stronger than I thought ya'd be when I first met you."

Aerith looked over at him. "Are you going to keep traveling with us?" she asked simply.

Ranma nodded. "Personally, I wanna get home," he said, his eyes downcast for a moment. "I got no idea what's goin' on at home, if my friends and family are okay, if Kuno is tryin' ta get back to his usual grabby behavior, or if Akane's kicked his ass again. But… I made a promise, and I'm gonna keep it. Besides… I think this adventure of yours is gonna be important, and I think I wanna see what's gonna happen."

"Yeah, and you still need to teach me some of that advanced stuff you did before," Tifa chimed in.

Aerith glanced at Ranma. "Wait, you're taking her on as a student too?" Ranma briefly flashed a look of panic at the tone and words, before Aerith turned and smiled at Tifa. "That sounds like a lot of fun! Maybe we can both learn some of those advanced techniques!"

Ranma's face relaxed back to a neutral expression, and he took a deep breath. "Yeah, that's the plan, so both of you better get some comfortable clothes to train in, we're gonna be starting tomorrow out on the fields while we're trackin' down Sephiroth."

The tavern keeper returned with a large bowl of water and set it down carefully on the floor. Red lapped at the cool liquid happily. "That reminds me," Cloud asked, "we don't really know where Sephiroth went to. He could be anywhere by now. We need to see if we can get some kind of information on his movements."

Barret grumbled his agreement. "Maybe start by askin' around town?" he suggested. "Big guy in a heavy black coat with a nasty lookin' sword, 's gonna stand out some."

"And if that doesn't work?"

Barret was about to respond, when a large man built like a barrel burst in through the tavern door, shouting loudly. The commotion caused most of the party to stand up around the table, as the young man nearly tripped into the tavern keeper. "Good grief, Bartello, what's got you runnin' around like this, boy?" the tavern keeper demanded, grabbing the shoulders of the newcomer to steady him.

"There's this loon in a heavy black coat going towards the swamp!" Bartello answered, his voice almost jarringly light for the size of his body. "I tried to warn him about the Zolom, but he nearly skewered me with that big sword of his. Said we'd all be getting ours soon enough, and then he took off."

Barret gave Cloud a look. "Maybe start by askin' around town?" he repeated pointedly.

"Yeah, yeah, fine," Cloud responded, before turning to face Ranma.

Ranma was currently shorter than he had been a few moments ago. When Barret had stood up, he had ended up stepping on the lip of the bowl of water that Red had been drinking from, flipping it into the air. The bowl was currently resting atop Ranma's head, as was the water that the bowl had previously contained.

"I hate this curse," Ranma's voice echoed from beneath the bowl.

A/N: My brain tossed out the pun that formed the chapter title before I even started writing the chapter. And my brain was really, really damn proud of that pun in the chapter title. I would have dropped it in favor of something else, but I honestly couldn't come up with anything better, so I ran with it.

This chapter is loaded with dialogue. I remember the twenty minute playable cutscene which was the Nibelheim flashback. I wanted to do justice to that scene, but I didn't want to dive in, because I know how I write and that would have been like three chapters worth of text of interminable drag. Nobody wants to sit through all that. At the same time I realize that the flashback is an important scene, sets up huge amounts of the plot and of Cloud's history, and does a lot to establish motivation. So it's also necessary. I did my best to find a balancing act between the two.

So, everyone who mentioned Ranma acting differently, out of character... this is why. I have been waiting for the opportunity to tell this story for a while now. This seemed like the best time to do it. Kuno always rubbed me the wrong way. Not just for the story reasons, but if you look at his behavior and then look at internet assholes who send dick pics, threaten to dox sex workers, use their power and influence like a weapon to deflect consequences while harming the reputations of anyone who would try to bring them to justice... Canon Kuno always slipped right below that threshold, but only just barely.

This story's version finally stopped getting below the threshold. Offscreen, Kuno enacted a thing that would have basically enslaved all of the Tendo sisters, Ranma in her female form, and anyone else in the house at the time who was female (read: Shampoo, Ukyo, Nodoka). Ranma's personal involvement aside, Ranma never liked bullies. This is arguably worse. The end result was that Ranma made sure that even if he managed to dodge the legal and moral consequences of being a womanizing piece of garbage, Kuno would have to face the direct social consequences of having caused more trouble than his family was willing to shield him from.

A secondary effect of this was that this version of Ranma stopped being 'nice' to Kuno. He still holds back the bulk of his strength, because he doesn't want to hurt people, he doesn't want to be the well-intentioned villain. But he unsealed the Umi-Sen Ken and Yama-Sen Ken and learned them fully. He picked up bits of the Hidden Weapons Style and other techniques he'd run across in the past and worked to further integrate them with Indiscriminate Grappling. He furthered his art. All of this was basically to make sure he wouldn't be caught flat-footed again. It's a bit Batman-y of him, but I feel it's reasonable for Ranma to learn from a situation like this, even if the lesson is a harsh one. And... he dropped his more juvenile behaviors. Mostly. The mark of a good character is that they are flawed, but the mark of a better character is that they learn to grow, in spite of or because of those flaws. This was Ranma's biggest moment of growth, seeing Kuno's past behavior and comparing it to himself, and realizing that, yes, he was demonstrably better than Kuno, but that didn't mean he needed to stop there.

I was always amused by the fact that, just after you're done this long flashback sequence, you step outside and some guy runs into town saying he's spotted Sephiroth. I wanted to have a bit of fun with that right after the long exposition.

Hope you like it! Comments and feedback welcome!