Author's Notes: This... took a lot longer than I expected it to. But hopefully, this will be worth the wait. I wanna thank you all for your fondness for this crazy little idea!
Chapter 3: Trial by Fire!
Luna hummed softly to herself as she stepped into the gloomy darkness of the Adventurer's Guildhall; sure, the sun was still several minutes away from peeking over the horizon, but that fact didn't mean anything to those poor unfortunate Guilder staff members who had the unenviable task of working on the morning shift. Like her.
'Let's see now... Amy's in charge of the tables all being set out, Maxwell has the breakfast chefs getting everything taken care of in the kitchen... Everything looks to be going to plan. But then again, it's not as if we get a whole lot of customers here this early in the morning!'
Luna giggled to herself at the very thought.
"Uh, scuse me, Miss Luna?"
"Yeee!" Luna squealed in girlish fright, arms snapping up as she spun around to face the source of the unexpected voice, tripping over herself in her shock.
"Whoa, hey, careful!"
Instead of the hard rump-first impact with the guildhall's stony floor she was expecting, Luna felt a pair of strong arms wrap firmly yet gently around her, hoisting her aloft in a perfect bridal carry. She uncertainly opened her eyes slowly, the faintest gasp escaping her lips as she found herself staring up into the concerned face of one of the guild's newest recruits.
'Oh, my! He's...um... who was he again? Oh, that's right, Ranma Saotome, the nice new boy with the exotic class! Wow... he's a bit young, but... he's certainly got some nice eyes...'
Firmly shoving that little thought into the box of assorted frustrations from still being one of the oldest unmarried young women in Axel, Luna politely smiled and said, "Thank you, Ranma."
"Hey, no problems. There we go... sorry about spookin' ya, but the door was open and I saw you'd come in. I really, really need to talk to ya..." Ranma explained as he gently swung her to the floor.
"You... do?" Luna asked in response, even as she carefully tested that she had her footing back again.
Ranma blushed softly and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah... um... this is really embarrassing, so I wanted ta do this when it was just the two of us...'
Luna's eyes went wide in shock as her traitorous heart skipped a beat. 'No, he can't mean! But... I mean, he is of marriageable age, and I'm certainly more than ready to find Mr. Right! Oh, but he's untested... then again, with how he handled himself during the cabbage harvest, he's going to go somewhere - why, he might even become almost as legendary as Kyouya Mitsurugi! But it's so sudden... am I really so desperate for a good man that I'll just throw myself at the first handsome youth to confess to me?'
"See... where I come from, we don't use Adventurer's Cards. Not like these. I was hoping you could maybe teach me how to use mine properly?" Ranma asked meekly, holding out his card cradled in the upturned palm of his hand.
'...I should have known it was too good to be true,' Luna wept in the privacy of her mind.
"Er... you feelin' okay, Miss Luna? You look... kinda down," Ranma now cautiously appraised the receptionist, who had suddenly gone from looking increasingly excited and decisive to almost as morose as Ryoga after Akane had resorted to feeding her latest experiments in cooking to P-chan in the span of a second.
"Oh, sure, I'm fine," Came the dull, depressed tone. Then the voluptuous older woman fiercely shook her head, and she was all business once again, while giving him an appraising look that suddenly reminded Ranma of Nabiki. "But, you say you're really not that experienced with using Adventurer's Cards at all?"
"Never seen anything like them before in my life," Ranma replied truthfully, doing his best to appear as sincere and honest as possible.
"Very strange… but alright then, let's go over to this table, and I'll walk you through it, okay?"
Over an hour later...
"...My head hurts. I didn't expect this to be so complicated," Ranma moaned despondently, as he kept staring at his Adventurer's Card like it was a surprise school test which he hadn't had a proper chance to study for, due to all the various chaotic events in his life.
"Oh, don't worry, you're picking it up very quickly! It'll all become second nature with time and experience," Luna cheerfully assured him, before her expression grew more serious and she pointed to a specific section of the card.
"Now then, this particular detail is the one part which you really need to pay the most attention to. If you'll touch it here, please?"
Ranma obediently did what Luna instructed him to do, watching as the card's extended surface of glowing light - like a hologram from some sci-fi anime - shimmered and changed, seeming to become slightly more solid.
"What you have just done there was to put your card into edit mode. This mode is where you can freely spend your skill points, both to raise your ability scores and to add on new skills. Keep in mind, each Adventurer's card is enchanted so that only its original owner or a licensed senior member of the Adventurer's Guild wielding an access token can open it in edit mode. But! Once it's been opened, anyone who can touch the card can freely use it, so be very careful about when you put it into edit mode," Luna cautioned Ranma, looking him squarely in the eyes, an extremely serious expression clearly visible on her face.
"Why's that such a big deal?" Ranma asked immediately, his own mind quickly latching onto the obvious seriousness of the whole situation.
"Once a change has been made to your Adventurer's Card, undoing it is virtually impossible. A mean-spirited saboteur, or a witless fool, could do so much damage to an adventurer's inherent traits and skills; if they were given the chance to. Because of this fact, pretty much every single adventurer only allows another person to access and interact with their card in edit mode if they really trust that person," came the patient but emphatic explanation. "Now, if you'll touch it here, that'll shut edit mode down and revert it to normal..."
Once more, Ranma followed Luna's instructions. "Okay, yeah, I think I got the basics of it now! Thanks a lot, Luna, ya really helped me out."
"Oh, it's quite alright; I really can't believe that this was all so new to you. You must come from far away indeed," Luna commented with a polite smile, before she suddenly sighed, grimaced, and rotated both her shoulders irritably.
"Hey, you okay?" A curious Ranma asked, looking at the young woman with concern.
"It's nothing... just some stiff shoulders. I've always been a martyr to them," Luna sighed forlornly, rolling her neck in an obviously futile attempt to try and alleviate the pain.
Ranma frowned compassionately at the sight. His card disappeared amongst his belongings with a subconscious flick of the wrist, but his eyes were preoccupied flicking back and forth to take in the guildhall, looking about for any potential witnesses.
'Oh, I'm gonna regret this, I just know it, but... she went outta her way to help me, I gotta return the favor!'
"Miss Luna? I know a thing or two about joints and easin' pains... you want a shoulder rub?" He shyly asked, doing everything he could to make it so that he could come off as innocent, and not the kind of perverted sleazebag that he knew would normally make this sort of offer to a woman like Luna.
He wasn't sure if he was offended, relieved or happy when Luna blinked in surprise and, after a mere moment's visible calculation, just smiled politely, nodded, and declared, "Why, thank you, Ranma; I'd appreciate that very much."
'...Wow, she must really be hurting. Poor thing... I better use all the tricks!'
He might have been a little less reassured, if he'd been privy to the various thoughts currently running through Luna's head.
'It's almost adorable that he thinks a ploy that simple would work on me. But hey, he is cute, and it'll at least take my mind off of things for a bit. Besides, I've heard worse pick-up lines... if only from jerks using them on the younger staff... Hmm, didn't Aiko say that there are advantages to having a younger lover?'
Oblivious to the somewhat less than innocent thoughts running through the older maiden's head, Ranma walked around behind Luna and, after some careful study of her upper spine, reached firmly and decisively for her shoulders...
Outside the Guildhall...
"Oh! Good morning, Darkness! I didn't expect to see you here so early in the morning!" Yunyun chirped excitedly, bowing to the taller Crusader.
"Good morning, Yunyun! I must admit, I was a little excited about the prospect of our first official meeting as a party," Darkness grinned slightly, her long tail of orangey-blonde hair swaying as she tossed her head.
"I know exactly what you mean; today might even be our first quest! I mean, Ranma and I did one yesterday, before the emergency cabbage harvest, but this would be our first quest as a trio!" Yunyun beamed with delight at the very notion, even as she and Darkness stepped through the doors into the guildhall proper.
'Oh, happy day! I made a friend yesterday, and now, I have two friends! ...Well, a friend and a half, admittedly, but she seems really nice - I'm sure we'll be best friends soon as well!' Yunyun gleefully giggled to herself at the prospect.
'Such a strange girl. Not at all what I would have expected of an Archwizard, never mind a Crimson Demon... but she certainly seems to be a nice person. Oh, I do hope she and Ranma will be willing to be friends as well as party members!' Darkness silently prayed.
Both girls were drawn from their respective musings as a woman's voice suddenly echoed through the empty guildhall, wailing and moaning fit to wake the dead.
"Oh! Oh, oh, oh, Ra-Ranma!"
"Geeze, cut it out, Luna! Damn, you're so tight - I've never known any girl like you!"
Darkness promptly tripped over Yunyun, bringing the two young women crashing to the floor in a clattering of armor and pained squawking.
"Wh-wh-what the hells?!" Yunyun squealed, her face redder than her eyes, which themselves were nearly as wide as tea saucers. A strange feeling, like an icy worm squeezing tight around her heart, was just barely registered through the absolute shock and mortification, which was itself only slightly muffled by the fact she was struggling to breathe with Darkness' ample cleavage in her face.
"Th-That sounded like Ranma! Ohh, maybe I misjudged him!" Darkness cried excitedly, grinning like a madwoman, cheeks bright red. Oblivious to the squirming Archwizard squished firmly beneath her, the Crusader quickly scrambled to her feet and sprinted towards the voices.
Yunyun gasped gladly of sweet, sweet air, then hastily clawed her way to her feet and ran as fast as she could after Darkness.
"No, wait, I can explain, it's not what it looks like!" Ranma pleaded, face as white as a nobleman's sheets, practically sobbing as he waved his hands desperately.
"It... looks like you were giving Miss Luna a shoulder rub and she was really enjoying it?" A confused Yunyun pointed out, looking from her terrified party member to the slightly red-faced but dreamily smiling older woman half-laying on the table in front of him.
"Um... well, yeah, I guess in that case it is what it looks like..." A confused Ranma slowly confessed, looking slightly less panic-stricken as he spoke.
"Oh. And here I thought you were ravaging Miss Luna in the middle of the guildhall, because your wanton desires were simply too great to be contained," Darkness sighed forlornly.
"Why do you sound so disappointed to be proven wrong?!" A mortified Yunyun demanded of her teammate, gaping wide-eyed at the Crusader.
"...Did I say something weird?" Darkness asked plaintively.
"Um... excuse me, Ranma? But are you going to finish?" Luna politely inquired.
"Huh? Wha? Oh! Sorry, Luna - here!" And with that, Ranma reached down, grasped Luna's neck, and sharply jerked it from side to side, causing a sickening crackle-crunching sound that made Yunyun go slightly green. Oblivious to her discomfort, Ranma asked, "How's that feel?"
Luna sharply sat up, gently rolling her shoulders and then her neck, before smiling in amazement. "That feels so much better! Thank you!"
"Hey, it's the least I can do. But you need to stop workin' so hard, I once worked on a Martial Arts Lumberjack who wasn't as stiff and knotted up as you! ...Also, if I were you, I'd get some new bras, because your old ones clearly ain't giving you the support ya need," Ranma absently advised her.
"...Oh. Sure. I'll get right on that," Luna quietly replied, blushing softly as she got up and briskly walked away.
Ranma promptly took the seat she had vacated and gave Yunyun and Darkness a nervous grin. "So, ah, anyway... you guys want some breakfast?"
One breakfast massacre later...
"Ahh, that hit the spot," Ranma sighed appreciatively, absentmindedly patting his stomach with one hand before he moistened his throat with a sip of apple juice - the guildhall's liquid refreshments largely consisted of various liquors of assorted strengths, with a small selection of herbal teas, juices, and water, and so he'd gone with something he could at least identify.
"Yes, the chefs here certainly do know how to carry out their craft well," Darkness politely agreed, even as she was dabbing up the last smears of egg yolk and bacon grease on her plate with the last crust of toast.
Yunyun gently blew on her herbal tea to cool it more to her liking before she took a sip. Staring into its depths as if she were scrying the future, the Crimson Demon tentatively asked, "So... um... I was wondering... I mean, if it's okay, Ranma...?"
"What? C'mon, whatcha ya wanna know" Ranma asked, looking quizzically at his first adventuring partner.
"Wuh-Well... I just... I wanted to know, what exactly are we going to do as adventurers?" Yunyun meekly glanced up at Ranma from her cup, an apologetic look already on her face.
Ranma tilted his head quizzically, blinking twice before he said, "Um... Isn't just being an adventurer kind of its own description?"
"Well, uh... most people who become adventurers tend to do it because they have a particular goal in mind. Wealth, fame, power... all that sort of thing. It kind of affects the sort of quests that a party takes, where it goes with its life, you know?" Yunyun meekly pushed her index fingers together, unable to look Ranma in the eye.
"Obviously Ranma intends that we use our skills as adventurers to help those in need! What is strength like ours for if not to contribute to the eternal war against the Devil King and his demonic legions?!" Darkness cried proudly, jumping to her feet and striking a triumphant pose.
"That's right!" Ranma chimed in, unable to keep from grinning at Darkness's enthusiasm.
"Okay, that's good to know! But, ah, that's a bit of a long-term, abstract goal... do we have any more immediate goals?" Yunyun asked timidly, before briefly flinching as both of her party members turned curious gazes upon her.
"...I just thought that maybe it might be a good idea to set our sights on something a bit more short-term? You know, just while we're still getting to know each other?" The socially unpolished Crimson Demon elaborated, cheeks stained red.
"...Yeah, that does make sense. But, like, what kind of plans would we even make?" Ranma asked politely, while nodding his head.
Yunyun's fingers tapped a nervous tattoo against the tabletop, in a manner akin to a tap-dancing spider on a hot tin roof. "Um... a pretty common short-term goal for an adventuring party would be to get enough money together to buy some kind of long-term accommodation..."
"Really? I would have thought that acquiring land would require a very sizable expenditure," Darkness interjected politely, looking quite puzzled.
"Oh, it absolutely is, but compared to the long-term costs of continuously renting hotel rooms, it's far more economical! Many adventurers try to get around it by staying in stables, but those are really very uncomfortable and unsanitary..." Yunyun went a little green at the thought of it.
Having slept rough in more than his fair share of stables, sheds, animal pens, chicken coops and dog kennels in his previous life, Ranma nodded emphatically at Yunyun's words, a rare serious expression on his face. "Yeah, you ain't kiddin'... Alright, I guess that our first goal is some kind'a place we can share! ...Which means we better get to pickin' out a quest so we can start building up a little nest-egg, huh?"
Ranma then clapped his hands sharply in decision, the girls both jumping at the sudden sound, which he ignored as he briskly rubbed his palms together before jumping to his feet and striding over to the quest-board. Yunyun and Darkness quickly scrambled to join him, the trio of fledgling adventurers pouring over the jobs currently on offer.
"Let's see here... Somebody wants adventurers to hunt Horned Rabbits on the southern plains? Is that really something that you need adventurers for?" A confused Ranma asked his teammates, glancing over to them in bewilderment.
"Horned Rabbits are omnivores with a vicious temperament and are very unpredictable. They not only ravage croplands, they also attack and devour livestock, even farmers if given the chance, and they're surprisingly dangerous even as individuals - a big colony of Horned Rabbits will easily overwhelm all but the highest leveled farmers, so culling them is a major responsibility for low-level adventurers in towns like Axel," came the confident response from Darkness.
'Wow; all you need are a pair of glasses to push cutely up your nose, and you'd be just like one of those exposition girls from an anime,' Ranma marveled to himself, before turning his attention back to the board.
"I suppose we can check that out if it's nothing else, but I'd like to try something a bit more serious. What else is up here... there's a farmer who wants somebody to check out a potential Barometz sighting...?"
"One of the great scourges of farmers! Barometzes are herbivorous plant monsters!" Yunyun chimed in, looking serious as she did.
Ranma turned to face her, head tilted in slight bemusement. "...Don't'cha mean carnivorous plant monsters?"
"Nope. See, the Barometz has a very strange life cycle. In its seedling state, it resembles a very large and plump cabbage, lettuce, or similar leafy green. But, once it's had a chance to reach its intermediate state, that central bud opens up and turns out as many as three walking plant-monsters in the shape of lambs or goat kids, all linked up to the mother-plant by vine umbilicals. They've got voracious appetites, and they strip their surroundings bare of every last scrap of vegetation, growing into giant horned ewes and she-goats before their mother-plant dies and they go off into the wilderness to lay seeds and start the cycle over!" Yunyun explained, eyes glowing softly as she did.
"An' let me guess... they like to sneak their seeds into farmer's croplands, because veggies and fruit trees are a lot tastier than wild grass and weeds?" Ranma asked rhetorically, frowning at what he was hearing.
"That is correct," Darkness interjected solemnly. "They are not especially formidable beasts, which is why they are deemed appropriate for beginner adventurers to hunt, but they are more than capable of slaying and consuming entire fields of crops single-handedly!"
"...Put that one on the 'maybe' pile, then. I wanna get done looking over these before I make my decision," Ranma declared.
"Hey! This quest-giver wants an adventurer to track down a Dancing Foliage that's been seen in the nearby forest and persuade it to move into their garden!" An excited Yunyun announced, tapping the intriguing flyer as she spoke.
"Ooh, really?! I've never seen one!" A rapt Darkness stepped forward to take a closer look at the flyer that had so intrigued Yunyun.
"Me either! But I hear they're just some of the most gorgeous things!" Yunyun chirped delightedly, the two young women exchanging mutual wide-eyed grins of glee, Yunyun's own eyes bright enough to read by on a dark night.
"What is it with girls and flowers?" Ranma asked unthinkingly, eyes still running all over the quest board.
'Look for proof of a Shellycoat in the river... check out goblin sighting... already did a toad hunt, so I'm not allowed for another week or so, Yunyun said... somebody wants a hand harvesting carrots - really? That's an adventurer thing? ...Hey!'
"You guys, check this out! I think I just found the quest for us!"
Darkness and Yunyun crowded closer to get a better look at the quest that had caught Ranma's eye. It was the Crusader who reacted first, nodding solemnly.
"Yes, this does sound like a worthy case. I would have no qualms about accepting this one," Darkness noted.
"Well, I was kind of hoping we could look for the Dancing Foliage," Yunyun confessed, before she hastily added, "But Darkness is right; this sounds like a really worthy quest too!"
Ranma glanced from the quest over to Yunyun, frowning gently to himself as Yunyun's words sank in.
'Well, yeah, it's only fair you girls get to pick some quests too... but this one sounds a little more important... I wonder...'
He gently wove his way around the two girls and stepped over to Luna's alcove, the blonde-haired receptionist smiling politely as he made his way into view.
"G-Good morning, Mister Saotome. Have you selected a quest that you wish to pursue?" Luna asked, the very height of professional decorum, with only the faintest blush on her cheeks and the very brief stumble of her words hinting at her earlier embarrassment.
"Ah, yeah, I have, but I wanted to ask first... can I only take one quest at a time, or can I do multiple ones?" Ranma asked her, doing his best to ignore his own briefly flushing cheeks.
"Well, requesting to do multiple quests in the same area all at once isn't exactly illegal, per say;" Luna replied, while raising her eyebrow curiously at Ranma's question. "The main issue comes from adventuring groups either getting in over their heads and deciding to move onto a new job, the old quest being left uncompleted, without any updates on the status being given to the guild, or someone not being careful about potential collateral damage, when using certain spells and abilities; something which can cause some complications for other parties in the area!"
"I see..." Ranma nodded his head in a thoughtful manner. "Maybe later, after we got some more experience under our belts. Alright, this is the one I wanna apply for today..."
QUEST ACCEPTED!
Investigate the Livestock Disappearances in the Northern Forest!
A gentle breeze blew through the trees, adding a cool, refreshing lightness that nicely countered the natural warmth of the day, the generous canopy above shielding the group from the glare of the early morning sun. It was, all in all, a picture-perfect day for a hike through the forest, and Ranma couldn't help but smile as he took it all in. He absently adjusted the small pack on his back, containing basic supplies needed for a night or two of camping, before he then turned to his companions.
"Hey, you girls alright? We been walking a fair way..."
"You need not fear, Ranma; my stamina is well-suited to this task. As a Crusader, my heartiness is beyond reproach!" Darkness proudly announced in reply, her own pack neatly fitted against her shoulders.
"Never doubted it, Darkness... um, Yunyun? Are you sure you didn't maybe overpack?" Ranma asked nervously, rubbing the back of his head in his uncertainty.
"I'm - phew! - I'm fine, Ranma! Honest!" Yunyun assured him, taking two steps forward to prove her point, only to briefly sway like a bamboo reed in a stiff breeze as she did so. Atop the Crimson Demon's dainty shoulders was heaped a massive backpack easily three or four times the size of the packs being carried by Ranma and Darkness, its straps straining to contain the contents that bulged unevenly from within.
"I must say, Ranma's concerns echo my own... whatever have you brought, Yunyun?" Darkness asked, looking just as concerned as Ranma did as she studied the overburdened Archmage.
Yunyun grinned a rather strained grin and brightly announced, "Oh, just the bare essentials! A fortnight's rations, multiple changes of clothing, sleeping bags, extra blankets, cold weather gear..."
"...The northern forest's farms are a day's trip from Axel at worst, so we probably won't be here for more than three or four days at most. The locals also promised to provide food and shelter for the adventurers answering the quest," Darkness hesitantly pointed out.
"Also, ain't it the middle of spring?" Ranma added.
Yunyun either didn't hear them or chose to ignore them, for she continued her rambling list. "Fifty meters of rope, spare shoes, oh, and can't forget the books! There's Common Creatures of the Northern Forest, Unusual Creatures of the Northern Forest, Rare Creatures of the Northern Forest, Legendary Creatures of the Northern Forest..."
"...You're sure you're not gonna have a problem carrying that pack all the way to where we gotta go?" Ranma asked again, arms crossing on his chest as he gave Yunyun a stern look unthinkingly copied from his father.
"D-Don't worry, Ranma! I know that the stereotype of Mages and Archmages is that we dump Strength for Intelligence, but I swear, I can handle it!" Yunyun insisted, puffing out her chest in determination.
Five minutes later...
"...I'm sorry. I really thought I could handle it," Yunyun whimpered in dismay, cheeks burning red with mortification as she buried her face into the back of Darkness' neck.
"There, there; it's perfectly alright, you tried your best," Darkness cooed softly to her in response, unflinching even as she felt tears start to drip underneath the collar of her armor and run down her back.
"I just wanted to make sure I was contributing to the party..." Yunyun sobbed softly, the tears still coming thick.
"Hey now, don't cry, Yunyun! You were only trying to help!" Ranma interjected quickly, trying his best to sound conciliatory from where he was toting Yunyun's pack in addition to his own and making it look easy.
A loud sob echoed off of the trees from Darkness' back, and Ranma flinched, face wracked with guilt.
"Aw, c'mon, please stop cryin'... I can't take it when girls cry. It was just a rookie mistake, we're all gonna goof-up like that! Heck, I made the same mistake, too!"
At Ranma's assertion, Yunyun peeked up hesitantly from Darkness's neck, sniffling before she asked, in a voice filled with hope, "Really?"
"Yeah, I was only four or five; I wouldn't listen to pops, so I overpacked my bag and he made me carry that bag for miles before I finally fainted from exhaustion. Then he threw away everything he felt I didn't need while I was unconscious," Ranma explained.
Both of the young women stared at Ranma, the only sound to be heard the soft whistle of the breeze through the branches overhead. Ranma shuffled uncertainly from foot to foot, before Darkness suddenly broke the silence.
"You have clearly gone in a very different direction to your father..." The blond-haired Crusader sighed absently as she spoke, glancing off into space.
"Why exactly do you sound so disappointed when you say that?" Yunyun asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes as she redirected her focus to her human steed.
Darkness didn't answer Yunyun, her attention instead focused on Ranma as she seized the opportunity to broach a question that she'd clearly been sitting on since breakfast, all those hours ago.
"I've been waiting to ask... whyever did we find you massaging Miss Luna? Do you have a... how they say, a 'thing' for older women?"
Ranma nearly tripped over, twisting to face Darkness with an appalled look, blushing almost as red as Yunyun.
"Wha?! No! I mean, there's nothing wrong with older women, but I wasn't! I don't! I was just trying to do something nice for somebody who needed it!" He protested frantically.
Sympathetic embarrassment warred with bewilderment in Yunyun's mind, and after a fierce struggle, the latter won.
"Why are you so defensive about it? I mean, okay, it's not something that just anybody would have done, but why do you seem so scared to admit you were doing something nice?" The young Archwizard asked.
Ranma's blush faded, though his cheeks were still quite flushed as he deliberately turned away from the two girls, kicking an innocent rock that had done nothing to deserve such treatment before declaring over his shoulder, "Look... I... I knew a girl, back where I'm from. Could tell she needed something like that almost constantly, but she also had someone who… Well, they'd have not given me the benefit of the doubt like you two did about my actions there…"
He shook his head at that, thoughts drawn inexorably back to his former life and away from his new one...
'And ain't that an understatement? Hell, honestly, I don't know who needed it more - Kasumi or Nabiki. There were times I couldn't even look at 'em without wanting to wince, because I could read how tensed up an' hurting they were from their body language. But of course, I couldn't make the offer without somebody getting mad and taking a swing at me for being a pervert or cheatin' or some other crap like that... Not that either of them probably would'a accepted the offer in the first place; would have been too weird to get that familiar with 'em.'
'...Honestly, now I think about it, I never really did get to know either of Akane's sisters. S'almost funny; all that time living in the same house, and I barely knew anything about them. Kasumi did almost all the housework, Nabiki liked money but mostly because it could sate her sweet tooth, an' she was part of a local tennis club, but if I racked my brain, I couldn't tell ya anything about either of them. It's like, once they said Akane was gonna marry me, that was it; big ol' wall went up with them on one side and me on the other. Then things just started getting crazy and I couldn't even think about how weird it was...'
'Ah, well, it's no use cryin' over spilt miso, as they say. They're in Nerima, I'm here in Axel, and we won't ever see each other again...'
Early afternoon...
"Ah shoor am grateful that you young'uns came alla this way out here from th' big city ta lend us a helpin' hand! Ah gotta say, this whole mess be crazier than a hawg-dawg with butter on its snooter..."
Farmer Jake Wazcowiz shook his head, making his russet orange disheveled haystack of hair, mustache and beard sway and rustle with the motion. He was a tall man, lean and rangy like a wiry old tree, with muscles like corded ropes and hands as big as shovels, with a big beaky nose that poked out of the mess of hair that obscured his face, a single large wart right on the tip of it. The clothes he wore were plain but well-cared for, simple rough cloth and leather that just screamed "farmer", even to somebody like Ranma. No, especially to somebody like Ranma.
"Hey, that's what adventurers are for, right?" Ranma cheerfully announced.
"Ranma is perfectly correct! Although I wouldn't exactly consider Axel to be 'the big city', myself", Darkness added in a soft mutter to herself.
"So, ah, what makes the situation so unusual, Mr. Wazcowiz? I-I don't mean to be rude, but being this far outside the city walls, well, don't monster attacks sort of come with the territory?" Yunyun meekly inquired.
"Yer right, li'l lady, but that means Ah dun seen it ahll in mah years up here. Ah done fought 'r' run away frum everythin' that the mountains has to offer. Ah know the signs of goblin raiders, owlbears, giant toads, ogres, minotaurs, wyverns, horned rabbits - even had a slime come oozin' thru these here parts when I was knee-high ta a cricket! An Ahm telling y'all, these signs ain't right..."
"In what way?" Ranma asked inquisitively, mind already whirling as he tried to analyze what the farmer had told him.
"Werl, mostly, there ain't any! Can't find no tracks nowhere, an' that's just not right. Giant Toads leave small craters and puddles a' slime wherever they sit, an' real slimes, well, they burn the ground down ta th' rock as they pass, so in a place like here? Ya'll'd haff ta be blind drunk to miss 'em. But this... thing, or these things, whatever it is - they are - it don't leave tracks nowhere, no how. Just puddles a' blood, an' bits a' carcass. Even those don't look right... Ah done seen plenty of claw-marks in me life, but these? They spiral round and round, almost like a whip strike. No normal critter could make a wound like that, not unless'n it broke its arm ta pieces or it was slashin' at somefin' that were spinnin'..."
"Curious indeed... Ranma! Our course is clear; we absolutely must get to the bottom of these strange attacks - this sounds like a truly fearsome beast!" Darkness asserted proudly, hand going to the hilt of her mighty two-handed sword as if to add extra weight to her words.
"Oh, yes, we must try to help!" Yunyun agreed, nodding excitedly, eyes glowing like candles in a dark tomb as she clenched her hands into fists in her eagerness to do battle.
"Ah shore appreciate this, young'uns! Now, this here beast don't never show itself in th' light of day, so why don't'cha'll give us a hand wit' th' chores? We'll feed ya up at supper, then ya'll can stand watch and sort this bastard out, eh?!"
Ranma glanced over at his companions, who met his gaze with their own steady expressions of confident determination. He nodded to them in acknowledgement, and then turned back to Mr. Wazcowiz.
"Sure thing, mister; we'll be doing everything we can!"
Several hours later...
Mr. Wazcowiz had been as good as his word. The three young adventurers had gotten a chance to meet the entire Wazcowiz family - his wife, a very pretty woman even with the cow-like legs and tail and ears, and their eleven children, ranging from close to Ranma's age all the way down to a months-old baby. Ten girls, and a single boy, the middle child, who had followed Ranma around like a stray chick all afternoon. Not that Ranma could entirely blame him, because every time Ranma tried to imagine having five older sisters and five younger ones, his brain briefly shut down in self defense at the concept.
Just living with the Tendo sisters had been bad enough, after all... especially when that cursed time of month rolled around...
It'd been fairly mundane work, all things considered. The Wazcowizs were pig farmers primarily, rearing a herd of easily two or three hundred pigs that grazed amidst an ancient orchard of chestnuts, pears and apples, making for what even Ranma had to admit were some impressively sized and succulent-looking porkers. Why, the smallest of the weaners on the Wazcowiz farm looked like it could have eaten P-chan in one bite! Their job had largely been stalking through the orchard, looking for any signs of break-ins amongst the very impressive fence that surrounded the property, interspersed with some minor harvesting.
"Ah used ta patrol th' boundary on mah mules, but thems was the first 'uns ta go. Poor ol' Spitfire and Jezzebel; Ah kin still hear 'em screamin' in th' dead a' night... and Jezzebel once kicked a bear's head clean off!"
Ranma had helped herd the small number of dairy cows - practically wiped out by this mysterious creature - and the only slightly larger herd of goats into the newly reinforced barn for evening milking, and even lent a hand with the milking. Mr. Wazcowiz had noted in surprise at how deft Ranma was at the task - particularly the way Ranma had headbutted one recalcitrant pregnant nanny into submission before dragging her over by the scruff of her neck to the milking stool.
...Ranma still wasn't exactly sure just why Darkness had gone so red at the sight of him coaxing milk from the teats, though...
When the sun went down, the whole brood had tromped inside - as Mr. Wazcowiz sombrely explained, he didn't dare let his children outside when darkness came. Dinner had been simple farmer's fare, but plentiful, and certainly cooked by somebody who knew what they were doing! The centerpiece of the whole feast had been a dish unlike anything Ranma had eaten before, though he could roughly liken it to a meat bread or a savory taiyaki; a great big circular mass of crisp, rich golden pastry, with a lighter, flakier sheet of pastry over the top. Cut into wedges, it revealed an interior of cooked and shredded pork, allowed to cool and set semi-sold with some kind of savory jelly. Pink and tender and rich, without a hint of gristle or excess fat, and studded with hard-boiled eggs buried like treasures. Ranma had ended up eating three wedges, and two pieces of sourdough bread heaped with slices of onion and hard cheese, before washing the whole thing down with cups of non-alcoholic apple cider.
That had been an hour ago. Now, Ranma, Yunyun and Darkness sat quietly around a small fire they'd erected near the dairy barn, as the pigs were scattered in various bowers throughout the orchard. A surprisingly cold wind whistled between the trees, part of the reason behind the fire.
Yunyun tried to sidle a little closer to the fire without it being obvious that she was doing so, before nervously breaking the silence. "So... what are we going to do, Ranma? I've never hunted a monster at night before..."
"Fear not, Yunyun; I vow that no creature, no matter how foul nor depraved, shall ever lay one slimy, clawed appendage upon your soft and innocent skin! I shall stand between you and any beast of the wilderness, no matter how unspeakably vile it may be in its brutal, inhuman lusts!" Darkness suddenly interjected, eyes seeming to flash in the firelight, a strange crooked grin plastered drunkenly across her face, her cheeks seeming almost flushed in the flickering illumination.
Yunyun stared at the Crusader, her utterly appalled expression plain to see even in the dim light of their makeshift camp.
"Darkness...? It's probably just an animal, you get that, right?" Ranma asked, giving her an uncertain look.
'I dunno why, but for some reason, she just put me in mind of the old freak...'
Darkness stared innocently across the fire, blinking in confusion as her gaze shifted from Ranma to Yunyun and back again.
"Did I say something strange?" She asked quietly in seemingly genuine non-comprehension.
"...No, it was nothing," Yunyun meekly conceded.
'How am I supposed to tell her what that sounded like? She's my second ever friend - I can't hurt her feelings by saying she sounded like a pervert!' The Crimson Demon plaintively noted to herself.
Unaware of Yunyun's mental anguish, Ranma interjected, drawing both girls' attention to himself. "Anyway, Yunyun, you girls remember what Mr. Wascowiz said? This thing, whatever it is, ate both his mules first, then went after the cows and the goats - it hasn't touched the pigs. I don't see any reason it'd change its habits now. So all we have to do is wait here, and it'll come to us. Then we kill it."
Darkness nodded graciously before she proclaimed, "A simple plan, but one bearing great wisdom. I will proudly put myself in the way and be the shield that these poor innocent creatures need - its claws may catch, its jaws may bite, but no monster shall overcome me!"
"Okay then... you had a chance to actually go over all those monster books you brought out with us, Yunyun? Got any idea what this thing could be?"
The Crimson Demon squeaked instinctively, cheeks turning rosy pink as the focus of her teammates so suddenly shifted to her, but she quickly rallied her wits as best she could.
"Ah, I, that is, yes! I mean, I've been through the books as best I can, but I must admit, I haven't really found anything...I'm sorry..." Her shoulders drooped and she tucked her chin defensively into her chest, too ashamed to look Ranma in the eye as she confessed to her failure.
"Hey, c'mon, at least you made the effort! I never even thought to look this kind of stuff up myself, so you're ahead of me there," Ranma chuckled. "Besides, you ought to have found something cool in all those books - you brought enough of 'em!"
"I mean... yes, I did, but none of them really matched with what Mister Wazcowiz said. What he said about them leaving no tracks behind... it makes no sense," Yunyun sighed, shaking her head.
"Course it does. You only leave tracks if you travel on the ground. So any critter that doesn't leave tracks has to be moving through either the air -"
"But... the canopy here in the northern forests is so thick, I don't think any flying creature large enough to carry off something as big as a cow or a mule would be able to fit through the trees," Yunyun hesitantly interjected.
"Which means... it's gotta be in the trees..." Ranma concluded, words trailing off as they all looked upwards at the dense undercanopy overhead, which even this close to the farm largely blotted the sky from view, the branches rustling ceaselessly as the wind blew through the trees.
Yunyun paled, grabbing the copy of Legendary Monsters of the Northern Forest that she'd brought out with her and hastily began thumbing through the pages, even as Ranma and Darkness both rose smoothly to their feet as one, each scanning the gloom overhead.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no, why didn't I think about this before?! I'm so stupid!" Yunyun sobbed guiltily, even as she flicked desperately through the 500-page hardcover tome.
"Hey! None of that!" Ranma chided her, glancing away from the trees to cast a look at Yunyun over his shoulder.
The Crimson Demon somehow went even paler, looking up at Ranma and blinking tears out of her eyes. But just as she opened her mouth to say something...
"Hiiyaaarrghh!"
From out of nowhere, a creature suddenly charged the three adventures; a short, gangly thing, gaunt and spindly, with exaggeratedly long limbs and a face that reminded Ranma of a jack-o-lantern that had started to rot, if somebody had stuffed shark's teeth in the too-wide maw. It brandished a chipped, ragged blade with maniac enthusiasm, spittle dripping down its chin as it screamed maniacally, hurtling towards them as fast as its little feet could carry it.
"Goblin!" Yunyun sang out in warning.
"I'll deal with it!" Darkness cried, already counter-charging the little beast. The metallic clatter-clank of her armor plates shifting mingled with the thunder of her hobnailed boots on the ground as she raised her sword high, intent on felling her victim with a single mighty blow.
'Where'd that thing come from!? Wait... why am I only hearing Darkness moving?!'
Ranma's subconscious screamed at him, awareness honed by his prior life sounding an alarm that he didn't dare ignore, pure instinct guiding his words as he roared out, "Darkness, no! Something ain't right!"
But the Crusader ignored her leader's warning, bellowing proudly, "Foul fiend! Test your blade's edge against me!"
And so she struck with all her might, the two-handed sword whistling through the air and straight through the goblin's midriff!
...Only for it to dissolve into a disintegrating tangle of misty vapors, the strings of fog disintegrating before Darkness' startled eyes.
"What trickery - glak!"
"Darkness!" Ranma yelped as the blonde woman suddenly clutched desperately at her throat, before being yanked bodily into the air like some invisible giant had reached down and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. Kicking and voicing strangled protestations, she disappeared into the darkness of the undercanopy with rapid rustling of leaves and creaking of branches.
"Shit! Can't see it! Yunyun, light it up!" Ranma ordered, even as he continued sweeping his gaze over the area where Darkness had vanished.
"I can't! I don't know the light spell!" Yunyun confessed, wand clasped in a two-handed, white-knuckled grip as she bit her lip, on the verge of tears.
"What kind of wizard can't manage a simple light?! Never mind! Improvise! I know you can do this, Yunyun!"
"Y-Yessir, I will! Um - Um - Ah! Flare Arrow!" Yunyun cried, thrusting her wand skyward; flames crackled into life from thin air around its tip before rocketing forth, a streaming missile of fire that struck not the tree into which Darkness had been pulled, but one right next to it. Yunyun's target erupted into an eldritch inferno, flooding their surroundings with light and finally giving them a good look at Darkness' assailant.
It was a huge, horrible thing; a shapeless great lump of flesh, streaked in leafy greens and wooden browns and shadowy blacks, a natural camouflage. Its thick leathery hide was festooned with what might have been long, irregular tufts of bristly hair and putrid flaps of diseased skin, or patches of moss and lichen - it was impossible to tell. From its squamous bulk protruded ten great tentacles - like those of an octopus, but ending in the distinct arrowhead-shaped pads of a squid's tentacle, complete with wickedly hooked claws. And splitting the whole mass in two, just below a pair of black, soulless eyes, was an enormous flabby-lipped maw dribbling strings of rancid drool... of course, that might have been because the abomination was currently trying to cram Darkness into its noisome gullet, and only the Crusader's thrashing legs currently remained outside of its fanged jaws!
Yunyun's horrified scream split the night air, but it was muted and dulled in Ranma's ears. The whole world seemed to slow down as adrenaline kicked in with a vengeance, Ranma's body surging with hidden power as instinct and emotion united in a single common purpose.
"You spit her out!" The martial artist roared, unconsciously gesturing to make the blades spring forth from his gauntlets, legs tensing as he prepared to launch himself like a human missile at the abomination dangling from the branches overhead.
"Hiiyaaarrghh!"
Suddenly, that hideous scream tore through the air once again, answered in kind with a chorus of foul screeching. From out of the darkness beyond the blazing tree's aura of luminescence, more goblins suddenly manifested and began charging right at Ranma, who was forced to leap backwards as a chipped and battered axe suddenly swept through the air at knee-height.
"Where'd you come from?!" He demanded unthinkingly.
"Kyaaa! No, no, stay back! Flame Burst!"
Ranma's head jerked around as he saw that half a dozen goblins had circled Yunyun. The voluptuous young Archwizard clapped her hands together, and promptly exploded in a roiling wave of fire, the sight of which made Ranma's heart leap into his throat.
"Yunyun!" He cried in dismay, only to blink in surprise as the fire vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving an unscathed Yunyun sighing in relief at the epicenter of a patch of ash the exact dimensions of the fireball that Yunyun had called forth.
'Wait a second; where's the bodies?' Ranma's mind raced as he took in the sight, pure instinct letting him dodge the clumsy, flailing strikes of the goblins that were still pursuing him with crude cudgels and battered blades that Ranma would have been ashamed to be touched by.
"Hiiyaaarrghh!"
More goblins suddenly came charging from the darkness beyond their ring of firelight, and Yunyun immediately jabbed her wand at them, crying, "Myriad Mystic Missiles!"
Baseball-sized globes of energy - like bubbles of translucent black glass wrapped around tiny whirling bolts of iridescent lightning - erupted from the tip of her wand, hurtling at an impressive speed at the onrushing monsters. Each struck a single goblin and detonated with a sharp flash of light, the creature it hit simply vanishing in a burst of mist. But the goblins were undaunted by this deadly barrage, hurling themselves blindly into Yunyun's rate of fire, each casualty letting the survivors press closer as she tried desperately to keep track of them all. One even got right into the circle of ash before she obliterated it, and that's when Ranma spotted it.
'No footprints! Could it be? Only one way to find out... man, I'm gonna look dumb if I'm wrong...'
His feet touched the ground as he ended his most recent defensive hop, and he held fast, watching unflinching as the closest goblin launched itself at him, twin daggers outthrust as it dove into his chest - !
...And passed straight through him, without so much as a phantasmal breeze ruffling Ranma's shirt as it did...
The axe-wielding goblin swung at Ranma's midriff, and its blade passed through Ranma without leaving so much as a nick on the fabric. A third goblin, this one wielding a club, made an attempt to bash Ranma's kneecaps, but there wasn't even a single twinge of pain that resulted.
"I knew it! Yunyun, don't waste your mana - they're not real! They're like ghosts or something!" Ranma cried to his partner.
"Eh?! You're sure?" Yunyun asked uncertainly, partially turning to face Ranma. Before he could answer, Yunyun squealed in fright as one of the goblins lunged for her, its sword sliding harmlessly across her neck as it staggered and fell right through her. Meekly, Yunyun reached out and poked her hand right through the head of another goblin, which wavered like a really bad TV image in response.
"Illusions?" She wondered aloud, bewilderment on her face. "But why...?"
"To keep us distracted - Darkness!" Ranma cried in dismay as the creature above them, which had been stubbornly gnawing on the woman jammed halfway down its gullet as the fake goblins had held their attention, suddenly opened its jaws as wide as it possibly could and then bit down with one almighty chomp, filling the air with a horrific *crack-crunch* sound!
"No!" Ranma cried, a sickening feeling in his gut, whilst behind him Yunyun gasped in horror and averted her face guiltily.
Suddenly, the octopoid abomination let out a bellowing gurgling scream, its bestial fury causing the two adventurers to clasp their hands protectively over their ears. With a mighty convulsion of its malformed bulk, it violently spat Darkness free, the Crusader hitting the ground so hard she bounced and then rolled to a halt right at Ranma's feet.
She was covered in thick, glutinous strings of mucus that stank of blood and rotten meat, her long hair plastered to her scalp and her back, her armor entirely shredded and leaving her clad in nothing but the form-fitting black under-suit that she had chosen to wear... but she was, to all appearances, perfectly intact. Her breath came in quick, harsh pants that made her bosom jiggle in a way that would have had Ranma averting his eyes instinctively had he not been caught up in his relief at her miraculous survival, her cheeks rosy red under their coating of filth.
"What a beast! I have never been so violated!" Darkness gushed, eyes sparkling as she grinned a crooked grin that made Ranma's brain nearly strip a gear in trying to process the disparity.
"Why the hell do you sound so happy when ya say that?! I was worried sick that thing had eaten ya!" Ranma thundered, tongue running away from him in his moment of emotional weakness as it usually did.
Darkness visibly started, as if she hadn't realized he was there until that moment. Her cheeks blushed and she demurely looked away from Ranma, unable to meet his gaze, an expression that would have been cute if she wasn't slathered in stinking spittle. "I... ah... I'm afraid I have a little confession to make, Ranma..."
"You - what? No, never mind, more importantly than that, how the hell are you not dead?!" Ranma demanded, absently startling to manhandle the slimy Crusader as he studied her for obvious bite wounds.
"Oh, so strong! But fear not, Ranma; as I assured you, my defenses are impenetrable - the beast's teeth never even pierced my flesh!" Darkness proudly asserted, looking Ranma in the eyes and smiling triumphantly.
Harsh retching and agonized moans drew the three adventurers' attention back to the beast in the tree, which was fiercely spitting onto the forest floor, metallic clanking and clattering making it evident what it was regurgitating. It bellowed again with fury and misery in its voice, the crackling flames illuminating the reason for its suffering
"...You broke its teeth. You must be gristlier than Akane's last attempt at sukiyaki," A dumbfounded Ranma announced, eyes fixated upon the bloody stumps lining the monster's jaws.
"...I am not gristly," Darkness protested in a soft voice, looking genuinely hurt at the comparison.
Under normal circumstances, Ranma would have been immediately struck with guilt and would have tried to fumble an apology. But since they were on the battlefield, he had other things on his mind - namely, the five or six tentacles that suddenly came stabbing viciously towards him and Darkness! Without even thinking, he grabbed Darkness by her long ponytail and used it like a handle to drag her out of harm's way as he sprang out of reach of the flailing limbs.
"Myriad Mystic Missiles!" Yunyun cried again, unleashing another barrage of those magical bolts at the monster looming above them.
With shocking speed for something so large and ungainly looking, the beast swung its way out of danger. Four of its ten tentacles lashed out to reach into the shadow-shrouded undercanopy, clearly anchoring themselves around sturdy branches through a combination of coiled muscle and suckers, thus letting the beast move by both swinging itself like some horrifically deformed monkey and by pulling itself sharply in one direction.
This strange, herky-jerky, deceptively swift means of locomotion meant that before Ranma could react, the beast had swept past him and was hurtling towards Yunyun, bellowing furiously as tentacles stabbed forth yet again - !
Only to be intercepted by Darkness! The barely-clad Crusader moved faster than Ranma knew she could and dove in between the flinching Archmage and the incoming tentacles. The long fleshy appendages snapped tightly around Darkness, pinning her arms to her sides and binding her completely in loops of flesh before the beast, howling hatefully, began to viciously whip her through the air, bodily thrashing her against the ground and the trees, filling the air with the sound of wood cracking and one solid object slamming against another.
"Hang on, Darkness!" Ranma cried as he charged into the fray, Yunyun forced to hold back her spells for fear of hitting her teammates.
"D-D-Don't ruh-ruh-rush on - ah! - On muh-my account!" Darkness stammered and slurred, and Ranma had the uncomfortable feeling it was only partially because of the fact that the creature was dragging her face-first through the dirt as hard and fast as it possibly could, as if trying and failing to grate her face off against the abundant roots and stones.
'Sheesh, I think this chick is a bigger perv than Kuno! At least he wasn't getting off on me 'n' Akane kicking his ass... was he? Oh, ew, now I can't stop thinking it!'
Ranma shivered, icy fingers running down his spine as old memories tried to intrude into his mind's eye. With the strength born of far too much experience in doing so, he violently shoved them into a dark corner in the back of his mind, ensuring he only stumbled momentarily before he resumed his charge towards the dangling beast.
With one powerful leap, he hurled himself into the air, launching at the creature's blind spot - its back. Preoccupied with its futile efforts to batter Darkness to death against the landscape, the octopoid horror didn't realize Ranma was attacking until he landed upon its ichthyic bulk. Its foetor assaulted Ranma's nostrils the instant he made contact, and he gagged in disgust.
'Ugh, smells like that sauce of Ucchan's I messed up stirred in a pot with rancid natto!'
But his revulsion didn't sway him; clinging to its rugose body with his legs, even as the beast realized it was in danger and tried to reach for him with a free tentacle, Ranma curled his hands into fists.
"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!"
Moving so fast they were invisible to the human eye, Ranma's fists slammed into the top of the creature's skull over and over again, hundreds of blows delivered in a fraction of a second. Back in Nerima, this would have been merely painful, but here and now, Ranma was fighting to kill, and so each fist was crowned with the wickedly sharp blades specifically mounted upon his battle gauntlets for just such a battle. Thus each punch was also a stab, delivered with all the force Ranma could muster, puncturing viciously through flesh and bone, sending rank ichor flying in great arcing sprays.
'C'mon, c'mon, just DIE already!' He snarled to himself in frustration as he continued his best efforts to dig out the monster's brain with his bladed knuckles.
The nameless beast thrashed and flailed, swinging itself madly back and forth in a futile attempt to shake Ranma off, smashing Darkness against one tree so hard that it was split in half before it launched her in the other direction, slamming headfirst into a second tree that likewise split in two, its severed portion crashing to the ground. Its tentacles now free, they snapped towards Ranma like malformed serpents, streaking through the air with clawed suckers aiming squarely for Ranma's throat -
And with one final defiant bellow, Ranma slammed his right hand into the monstrosity's skull with so much force that he buried his forearm into its flesh and bone halfway to the elbow.
The tentacles jerked and spasmed in mid-strike, whipping spasmodically through the air as they jerked and thrashed in their host's death throes. And then, finally, they went limp, hanging from its ichor-caked form like perverse streamers, swaying in the breeze as its rank vital fluids dripped freely into the thirsty earth.
Ranma extricated his hand with a sickening squelch overlaid with the faintest of crunching sounds and leapt away from his former perch, expecting it to collapse bonelessly to the ground. Instead, it simply hung where it had died, its supporting tentacles still locked in an octopoid death-grip on the branches that had conveyed it in life.
"Phew... that got closer than I would'a liked," Ranma muttered to himself, shaking his right hand in an attempt to flick away the worst of the gore.
"Ranma! Oh, you're okay - that was incredible, I can't believe you did that! You're not hurt, are you?" Yunyun gasped slightly as she came running over to Ranma, her eyes glowing so brightly that Ranma would have sworn he could have read by them if he were rude enough to try.
And hot on her heels was Darkness; scuffed and filthy, but visibly unharmed, even in the face of the battering she had received. She swayed slightly as she walked, a silly grin on her face before she shook her head, coughed, and visibly tried to recapture her former dignity.
"Truly impressive, Ranma! A blow well struck, and a kill justly earned. You should be very proud of yourself!" The Crusader announced, sword once again ensconced on her hip.
Ranma turned to Yunyun with a smile. "Yeah, Yunyun, I'm alright. You did great, giving us some light to actually see what we were doing."
Yunyun grinned and let out a wordless squeak of joy, kicking up her heels in pride at Ranma's words. Her antics made Ranma's smile deepen... until he turned to Darkness, whereupon an uncharacteristically serious expression took over his face.
"But you an' me need to talk, Darkness..."
Chapter End & Closing Notes
And so, our heroes' first quest as a fully fledged party comes to an end! Hopefully, this update was worthwhile. For my next story update... I think it's time my first fantasy-centric Ranma crossover, "Love Opens Many Doors", got an update, so hopefully I'll see you all there soon.
Also, if anyone can identify the origins of the beast, I will be most impressed indeed. Yunyun's magic, I'm sure everybody can immediately figure out, but that's going to need a bit of knowledge to identify...