I woke up in a hospital bed with my head throbbing. I couldn't
remember who I was or how I got there, although I had a dim memory of
being hit in the head. Which wasn't much use, as I already had pain to
remind me of that.
Other than that, I seemed to be okay. I sat up and looked down at
myself. I was a woman, dressed in a hospital gown. I had long red hair
in a braid. My body was well muscled, and except for my aching head, I
felt reasonably fit and healthy.
The nurse walked in. "Feeling better, Miss Tendo?"
I nodded. "I need some painkillers for my head...what happened to
me?" Tendo. My name was Tendo. Was that a first name or a last name?
Probably last. Maybe.
She brought me some pills. "This should help you feel better. Your
sister brought you in, said you'd been mugged." She paused. "How much do
you remember?"
"Less than nothing. Not even my own name." Not even that I was
female, until I looked. It didn't seem quite right. "What's my sister's
name?" I took the pills.
"Kay. Kay Tendo. Japanese-American, with long black hair, dresses
nicely, rather pretty. She must be pretty strong though," the nurse
said, checking my chart. "And your name is Ranko. Ranko Tendo."
I nodded. A vague memory of getting mail with that name on it
popped into my head. "What city am I in?"
"Austin, Texas. According to your records, you live at 8697
Rolling Brook Drive." She thought a moment. "Shall I bring you your
sister's number?"
"Yeah, she'll be worried about me." I thought hard, and a fuzzy
memory came to mind. A tall girl, much taller than me, in a very nice
blue dress with a green ribbon in her hair. Soft, brown, twinkling eyes.
A very nice figure. I blushed that I thought about my own sister in those
terms.
The nurse brought me the phone number, and I reached for the phone.
I never made it to the phone because six ugly men in black kabuki
outfits walked into the room. The nurse didn't notice them, walking right
through them as if they didn't exist, but I noticed them. Especially the
9mm pistols they were carrying, and the way they were levelling them at
me. I think they didn't expect me to see them.
Their mistake. I rolled off the bed and let their gunfire riddle
the wall, then instinctively hefted the bed and threw it at them. They
fell down and I leaped out the window.
Bad move. Sadly, I had not realized I was on the 20th story.
Luckily, I had just taken some strong painkillers. I was going to need
them.
*********************
Nine Princes in Anime
An Anime/Amber fusion.
Chapter 1: Out of the Frying Pan...
By
John Biles
*********************
I crashed through the top of an eighteen wheeler delivering soda to
the hospital. Landing on cans is NOT fun. Neither is being sprayed down
by every Coke product known to man while wearing a hospital gown. I
staggered out of the back of the truck with a sprained ankle and lots of
new pain to go with my aching head. Only my painkillers were enabling me
to keep going. Ahh, Morphine. I had the vague feeling I ought to be
dead, but dismissed the thought. Clearly, I wasn't dead.
I staggered across the parking lot. Dammit, I need a quarter so I
can call the police, I thought. Duh...I can go into the lobby and just
tell them what happened. Limping into the lobby, I got some funny looks,
and a middle-aged man held his nose as I passed. Some people don't
appreciate the use of Diet Coke as a perfume, I suppose.
The woman behind the lobby desk stared at me in surprise. "Um...can
I help you?"
"I got attacked in my room and had to jump out the window."
The elevator doors dinged. Instinctively, I dropped and rolled to
one side as bullets ripped into the desk and receptionist from the
elevators. I wish most elevators were as fast as this hospital's
elevators must be. The six men were there, all bruised, but still coming.
In the better lobby lighting, there was something visibly wrong about
their skin. It looked like old newspaper, a kinda dingy grey/tan. As I
rolled along the floor, I spotted a cluster of chairs. They made great
projectiles, knocking the men back into the elevator and the door began to
close. I also found three quarters under them, which I grabbed.
The elevator doors soon started to reopen, so I ran, grabbed the
phonebook off the receptionist's desk, and sprinted out of the lobby.
More bullets. Luckily, I'm a quick runner, and I sprinted out the front
door of the hospital and headed out into the parking lot to hide. A
number popped into my head. 911. Emergency number. If I could find a
phone, I could call the police.
I spotted a phone. Right by the entrance that three of them came
running out through. They split up to search the parking lot. I crept
from car to car. If I can pick one of them off and get their gun, I might
have a chance, I thought. Why are these whackos after me, anyway?
It was hard to stay hidden and watch them at the same time, but I
could hear one of them getting closer. Finally, he came around the corner
and spotted me. I lashed out with a kick and sent his gun flying, then
leaped, flipped over his head, and kicked him from behind, sending him
sprawling. I could hear the others coming, so I grabbed the gun. "Get
back or I'll shoot!"
He kept coming, so I shot. The slug flattened itself against his
trenchcoat. Just my luck, I thought. He did clearly feel it, though.
Silently, he kept coming, so I unleashed every kick and punch I could
think of. I can think of a LOT of punches and kicks. He collapsed, and I
grabbed his trenchcoat, putting it on just as the other two opened fire on
me, and the remaining three came out of the building.
I ran, faster and faster. A car was heading out of the parking
lot. I jumped up on top of the parked cars, leaping car to car. I nearly
fell three times when bullets hit the coat and flattened against it,
because I still felt the impact. It just couldn't put a hole in me too.
With a little luck, I managed to leap onto the car as it turned out
into traffic, and clung to the roof. By the time the men got to their
car, I was gone.
*****************
I still had the phonebook, for what it was worth. I found Kay Tendo
in the phonebook as I rode along on top of the car, which pulled into a
gas station. Hidden Valley Condos, on Guadalupe. Right. Not too far
from here...I think. Only the vaguest idea of the city's geography stuck
in my mind.
The car's driver got out. "Who the hell are you?" He was a bit
taller than me, with long brown hair and bright blue eyes. Nicely dressed
in a suit
I hopped off the car. "Sorry about that. I gotta call the police.
Some maniacs were trying to kill me. Oh, my name is Ranko Tendo." I
looked for a phone book."
She looked again, then stared. "Ranko? You look funky in that
outfit. They said you weren't checked into the hospital."
"Umm...should I know you?"
"We're married."
A combination of shock and the painkillers clonked me out and I
fainted.
********************
I heard the voices before I could open my eyes or think clearly. My
whole body was aching. Probably the painkillers wearing off.
"What the hell happened to Ranchan?" the guy asked. "She said
someone was trying to kill her."
"We went shopping and got mugged. She took a bad headblow, so I
took her to the hospital." The other voice was very feminine and soft. I
recognized it, but couldn't put a name to it. "I have no idea why anyone
in a trenchcoat would be trying to kill her. Anyway, I brought her some
much nicer clothing than that tacky hospital gown."
I could feel hands stripping me and changing my clothing. I tried to
stop them, but it hurt too much to move. I managed to mutter, "Do
it...myself..."
"Don't worry, Ranchan. It's just me, Ukyou, your husband, and
Kay, your sister. You're safe."
Ukyou. I remembered the name. We'd taken an oath of some kind.
Some dim memory of a dress or something. Flowers. Rice. Someone had
been throwing rice at me. How could they waste food like that?
I had more sisters, I suddenly remembered. Wasn't sure how many.
Some brothers too. Maybe. I muttered, "Husband?"
Ukyou laughed. "Well, that's what we let everyone think. I know
you don't like boys like that, but it keeps people off our back, and I
think it's kinda funny." She laughed and squeezed my hand.
I finally sat up. "OWWWWWWW!!!!!"
My eyes opened and I saw them. Ukyou was sitting by the bed, while
another woman, who matched my memory of her, was tossing the clothing into
a basket. She was dressed in a very nice green dress with a low cut
front, although a large bow and broach covered up most of the cleavage
that would have been exposed. "Kay?" I asked.
She turned and smiled. "Yes?"
"How many siblings do I have?" I paused. "Do we have?"
She sat down and thought for a moment. "I'm the youngest. Then
there's you, and then the oldest one is Wanda. She has red hair like
yours. She's the oldest. She teaches at MIT, and you're a fencing
instructor, and I run the family finances."
It didn't sound right. I had this memory of having more siblings
than you can shake a stick at. Still, my own sister wouldn't lie to me.
"Your parents are both dead, Ranchan," Ukyou said. "They were
wealthy shipping magnates."
"I'm going to go wash this," Kay said. "Then we can go out to
dinner."
"Have you called the cops?"
"Don't worry. It's being taken care of," Kay said. She paused in
the doorway. "There's some cards in the desk if you want to play cards
while I'm busy."
Ukyou dug them out. They were simply bound with a rubberband. They
looked hand painted, though how someone had handpainted a unicorn on the
back of each card, I didn't know. "These are weird cards."
"Huh?" I was still fighting pain and adjusting to the concept of
being married to a girl. It was like...right and not right at the same
time.
She showed them to me. They weren't normal playing cards. There
was a city on one of them, a beautiful city of crystal and gold and
silver, spun of lace and dreams. Another had the unicorn on both sides.
A third showed a black pit in a dry cracked plain. It gave me shivers.
For a moment, I was falling, falling. I slammed my eyes shut and it
stopped.
When I opened them, Ukyou had turned to some pictures of people.
The first one was easy to recognize. It was Kay done up in a beautiful
dress, woven of blue and green satin, covered with tiny gems and a
filagree of gold and silver. "Wow," I said.
Ukyou nodded. "I wonder where she hides that dress."
The next card was a red haired woman with spikey red hair. She was
one of the most obnoxious looking people I had ever seen, with a big grin
and an evil twinkle in her bright green eyes. She looked to be around
thirteen years old, and was wearing a white labcoat over a blue vest,
green shirt and a long pleated black skirt down to mid-shin over blue
pumps. "That's Wanda," Ukyou said.
I boggled. "But...she looks...oh, I guess this one was done when
she was younger."
"She still looks like that. Some kind of bone problem where they
don't grow to full length. She teaches physics at MIT," Ukyou said.
The next card was a rich man, nicely dressed in white with slicked
back black hair and huge eyebrows. He was holding a sword in a scabbard,
a katana, and leaning against a huge green M-1 Tank. There were trees in
the background, and he was frowning at me. I disliked him instinctively.
"How about this?"
Ukyou shook her head. "A cousin, maybe? Don't know him."
The next was a blue haired woman sitting at a table. Her hair was
very short and parted slightly in front, and she dressed in an odd white
outfit that appeared to be molded to her body and made of plastic. She
was looking off to the right side of the card, and seemed to be trying to
ignore whoever drew this. I got the feeling she wanted nothing to do with
the rest of our family...assuming these were all family. "Ever seen her?"
"She looks sorta like someone I went to school with, but no."
Ukyou pulled out the next card. This was a grinning black haired
man with a huge pistol in his right hand. He had it pointed directly at
the viewer, while he leaned up against a corner. Unseen by him, a huge
mallet was about to descend on his head from around that corner. I liked
him instinctively, although I also had the feeling I wouldn't want to
stand too close to him most of the time.
I glanced at Ukyou. She frowned. "I think I saw this guy at our
wedding. Maybe." She thought a moment. "Yeah, he tried to get me into
bed with him AFTER the wedding. How he could tell I was a girl...I don't
know. Wanda dragged him to the wedding. He looked like he was gonna bust
a gut the whole time. Never saw him again."
The next one looked old. He was wearing a uniform and looked
somewhat like a policeman, with greying hair, and he sat behind a desk.
It bothered me, because I knew he shouldn't look old, that it was some
kind of trick. I didn't trust him. There was a window behind his desk,
and I could see some sort of suit of giant white armor through the window.
"Was this Dad?"
She shook her head. "I've seen photos of your parents. This guy
might be an uncle or something."
The next card was another old man. He was sitting in a serene
garden in front of a temple with a large unicorn sigil. The artist had
caught him in the middle of a sword kata, which he was performing with a
wooden sword. He was dressed in simple white robes with a few orange and
tan stripes. I felt a current of respect and knew that in him, I found
someone who had always bested me in battle. "Another uncle?"
"I would guess so. He looks old enough to be your father's
brother."
The next one was a young man with black hair. He was dressed in a
yellow wrap around top and tan pants tied tight around his lower legs. An
umbrella of bamboo stood next to a tree by him, and he was trying to read
a map. I couldn't see his eyes, but I did see the bright yellow and black
bandana that kept the hair out of his eyes. He hated me. I knew that.
Why he hated me, I wasn't sure. Something about...bread? A trip maybe.
Yes. We had been supposed to go on a trip to...no, that wasn't right.
"How about him?"
"Not a clue."
I smiled at the next one. A woman, about my age, with long blonde
hair done up in two buns, one on each side of her head, each with a long
trailing pig-tail confronted the viewer in the middle of what looked like
some sort of dance. She was wielding a large golden mace with a red
heart-shaped head, and there was a huge red heart for a background. A
tiara sat upon her brow and she was wearing a white leotard with a short
blue skirt and a large blue bow with a broach in the middle. It looked
somewhat like the broach Kay wore, except this one had four small red
gems, not a large purple one like Kay's. I knew her, and I liked her, a
lot. I knew I could trust her, and that was important. "How about her?"
She thought a moment. "You have a picture of her. I have no clue
who she is...ex-girlfriend, maybe?"
I nodded. "Next."
The next one was very familiar, and yet not. It was a boy, clad in
black and silver armor, a teenager with long black hair pulled back into a
pig-tail. He had a silver rose clasp holding his long blue cloak in
place, and wore long silver gauntlets. He could have been my twin, except
for the hair. And not being female, of course. I was in the picture too,
dressed in exactly the same outfit, right down to the rose. We were both
smiling at the viewer. "I recognize me, but who's the guy?"
"Kay once told me you had a twin brother, but he died."
"Ahh. What was his name?"
"Ranma."
The name struck a chord of memory. Dim memories of
training, of a voice, a man's voice, my father's voice calling me that.
Sometimes proud, sometimes disappointed. I remembered him training me,
training me to be the best. A name came to me. Genma. "Was my father
named Genma?"
"Yes. And your mother was...Nodoka."
Speak of the devil and he appears. I knew the next card, a well
dressed balding man, clad to impersonate Henry VIII, complete with gut,
floppy hat, and rings on his fingers. He also wore glasses, tied onto his
face, and smiled confidently. He oozed power and pride. I wasn't sure if
I liked him, but I knew he had been a strong man, but not a very honest
one. "Father."
"Yeah."
The next one was creepy as all get out. Against a starry
background, he stood next to a building, nailing a voodoo doll to it. He
was wearing some kind of headgear with mounted candles, and he had the
biggest eyes I'd ever seen, with the tiniest pupils. His skin was pale,
and his hair was dark black and short. He dressed in simple black pants,
a white shirt, and a black buttoned up jacket with long sleeves and a high
collar. He made me intensely uncomfortable. "How about him?"
"Cousin, I think. He came to the wedding. Name is...Gilligan?"
It couldn't be Gilligan. I was pretty sure that Gilligan had been
shipwrecked on an island for years...that memory was fuzzy too.
I didn't like the next card either. A man stood with a sword firmly
grasped in both hands, point towards the viewer with lightning striking
behind him. His face was grim, and his hair was dark brown and curly,
jutting out in front. The words 'blue thunder' came to mind. Surely not
his name. "This one?"
"I think maybe he showed up once at a party. Maybe. Doesn't ring
any bells."
The next card was more pleasant. A blond man with short hair,
dressed in a colorful outfit leaned up against a wall, playing the
saxophone. He wore modern garb, unlike many of the cards, and had a
confident grin. He looked friendly, and I was certain he liked me. An
ex-boyfriend, maybe, although I didn't have any boyfriends, I thought.
The thought of having a man as a lover repulsed me, and yet...so who was
this guy? There was something odd about the card, too. It felt just a
little cold. "How about him?"
"Nope. Never seen him."
I was about to move on to the next card, but something about the
card drew me in. I felt like he was nearby. And his name was hovering on
the doorstep into my mind. I stared at the card. I know you. Saxophone
notes drifted through my mind. Two saxaphone players. Him and a woman
with long black hair, in a little cafe with an odd name. ABCB. That was
it. The only saxaphone duel I had ever seen. Her name was Madoka, and
his name was...Yuu. "Yuu. His name is Yuu and he's my...half-brother."
"He didn't come to your wedding, though."
I tried to remember the wedding, but drew a complete blank except
for a kiss, and a lot of rice tossing, and me wearing a dress. "Maybe we
forgot to send him an invitation."
I stared at the card, trying to will it to let me remember more
about him. He was enigmatic, shadowed, his true opinions usually hidden.
He loved music and architecture. He liked to build things. We'd once
played tennis for a day straight against each other. He...
I could see him. Running. Eight men in trenchcoats were after him.
I recognized them. They were like the ones that had attacked me. He
paused and fired at one with a .357, but it just grunted and kept running.
Suddenly, he noticed me. "Ranko?"
"Yuu...what the hell is going on?" I almost lost my concentration.
Was this a memory? A hallucination?
"I heard you died."
"I got better. Who the hell are these people?" He vaulted over the
railing of the second story of a mall. I knew that mall. It was Highland
Mall, only a few miles from here. He landed well, but nearly got hit when
they reached the railing and opened fire on him again.
"I have NO clue, but they don't like me. Pull me through, okay?"
I reached out and grabbed him and yanked.
Suddenly, a hundred and sixy pounds of blond male was lying on top
of me. He was wearing a nice blue button shirt stained with blood and
tan slacks, and carrying a large pistol. He was quite handsome in an
angular sort of way, and skinny. He also was close to a foot taller than
me. "Uh, hi."
Ukyou stared in shock, dropping the rest of the cards. "What
the..."
Yuu looked at me, then at her. "Your girlfriend?"
"Wife," Ukyou said, pulling Yuu off me. "And you are?"
Yuu boggled. "You...got...married? And you didn't invite me?" He
recovered swiftly, as if the boggling had never happened. "Well, you
picked a good one, I have to say. Nice to meet you. I'm Yuu." He
paused and glanced at me with a look that clearly indicated I was supposed
to hint something to him. Sadly, I had no idea what. "Yuu, son of
Chiyako."
"A pleasure to meet you," Ukyou said, in tones that indicated it
wasn't. "So you're Ranko's half-brother?"
He nodded. "So you've seen those trenchcoated whackos too?"
"Yeah. Are they after our whole family?"
"I'd be impressed. So why have you been hiding all these years?"
Kay walked in. "Okay, everything is being taken care of by
Carmella. Now...Yuu?" She looked surprised.
"Hiya. Got anything left from the last time I dropped in? I did
abandon some clothing here, right?"
She frowned. "Yes. I gave it to the Salvation Army, but they said
it was too low-class."
"Well, I've got money. I'm sure you can buy me something suitable.
Although I might wait on changing until those trenchcoated maniacs find us
again."
Kay frowned. "You led them here?"
"Naah, Ranko trumped me in. But they found me no matter where I ran
in Shadow."
In shadow? He must mean he was hiding. Weird phrase, I thought.
"We think they may be after the whole family." Trumped..it sounded
familiar. The cards were Trumps. They were...magical.
Kay suddenly started, then stared at me and at the deck of cards.
"I thought I left those in my room." She started picking them up.
I glanced over at Ukyou. She looked confused and worried, and kept
rubbing her eyes. I whispered to her, "This gets weirder and weirder,
eh?"
Ukyou nodded.
There was a howling noise outside and the sounds of dogs attacking
people and being shot. Kay said, "Oh my, I think they've found us." She
had only picked up half the trumps. She handed them absentmindedly to
Ukyou, then opened her purse and tossed me a 9mm Browning and two clips.
She said, "I had to get rid of the hunting rifles after that party." She
turned to Yuu and frowned. "So this is it, except for my hand grenade,
and the Uzi under my pillow. Prepare yourselves while I go arm. And try
to not get too much blood on the carpet, okay?"
"..."
***************
There were fourteen of them, and four of us. Three and a half,
really...Kay spent most of her time egging on her dogs and trying to
figure out where she had actually left her uzi. What was left of
them. She had six huge wolfhounds, and three of them were dead by the
time we arrived. Yuu and I had already worked out the plan. I was much
better in hand to hand, so I gave Ukyou the gun and she and Yuu covered me
as I rather foolishly went after each of them in turn, stealing their
trenchcoats.
Despite it making them easier to stop, I regretted it, as they
weren't wearing much else. They looked like extras for a horror movie,
with greyish skin that turned scaly around their chests and upper legs,
and an extra mouth in their stomach. Luckily, they weren't too fast, and
I was able to toss them around like ninepins.
Finally, Kay found the Uzi and mowed them down. She sighed. "This
is going to take FOREVER to clean up." This was not something I would
have been worrying about.
Ukyou stared at the corpses. "What the hell are these things?"
They were starting to bubble and dissolve. It was incredibly
disgusting and smelled bad too. Kay was dancing about with a can of Lysol
in each hand, spraying like a madwoman. Yuu said, "Conjurations,
probably. You'd have to ask Wasyuu, I suppose."
The feeling was growing in me that I had forgotten a LOT of important
stuff.
*************
We went out to dinner at The Old San Francisco Steak House. It's
right off of I-35, and the food is very, very nice. It's quite expensive,
but apparently my family is loaded, since everyone knew Kay on sight
there. And me.
We settled down to our meal, and I decided to try to figure out what
the hell was going on. "So you have no idea why they're after you?"
"I think Kunou's mad I won't support his bid for the throne now that
Pop finally bit the dust. Assuming he didn't just get lost somewhere or
decide to go on a really long trip. Which is what I plan to assume until
I see a body."
I nodded. I couldn't remember much, but...it just sounded right.
"Which means he'll try again." Wait...throne?
Ukyou said, "Throne?"
Yuu glanced at her, then at me. I didn't know anything, but decided
to not admit that. "Tell her. She doesn't know."
Kay glanced at me, then at Yuu, who glanced back at her, then at
Ukyou, who looked baffled. Kay said, "So you do remember."
"Of course I remember." I was lying out my ass. I had a mounting
feeling of being in way over my head.
Kay sighed. "You're not going to blow up my house again, are you? I
just took this job so someone who didn't hate you would be watching over
you." She sounded scared.
"Well, now you can make up for it by explaining everything. I've
still got some fuzzy spots, and it seems you were privy to a few things I
was not." I frowned. What kinda crazy stuff is my family up to?
"We still don't know how you ended up here. The first hundred years
or so, you were simply missing. Then Kunou found you, and asked me to
keep an eye on you. I was rather surprised, given how much you hate each
other, but I did so. I've been living in this world off and on for about
two hundred and fifty years now."
Ukyou boggled. "WHAT? How could you possibly live so long?"
"We are not mere mortals like yourself, Ukyou Kuonji. All of us are
of the blood of King Genma of Anime, the eternal city." She thought a
moment. "Get out that deck of cards."
I did so, paging through to the picture of the city. "This city?"
She nodded. "It is the focus of all reality, and all else is but a
shadow of its glory, a reflection in some imperfect way. Those of us of
the blood of its royalty have all lived hundreds of years and seen worlds
beyond your imagining. To those who have walked the Pattern, all things
are open to them."
Ukyou started working on some serious boggling. I listened quietly.
It sounded completely whacko, and yet I knew it was true. Every word
brought back a bit of memory. "And Pop's gone missing?"
Kay nodded. "For decades now, and everyone's starting to eye the
throne hungrily. Not me, of course. I have other concerns. But I think
Wasyuu, and Ryo and Kunou all have their eyes on it, and likely some of
the others as well."
"So Kunou put me here to get me out of the way?" I could believe
it. I had only one real memory of Kunou...me kicking him in the head and
him looking hacked off about it as he toppled off the castle wall.
However, I was sure we didn't like each other.
"Maybe," Yuu said. "You went missing before Pop ran off. Some of
us thought he might even be looking for you at first. Kunou's likely to
have Mendo on his side by now, but I don't know about Ryouga or Goto or
Youshou. Assuming Youshou's not off trying to refight the fifty years'
war with slingshots again." He laughed. "So are you going to make a bid
for the throne?"
Maybe I would. I couldn't let Kunou have it; that was for sure. He
was a dimwit who would run the Eternal City into the ground. And if he
was trying to kill me, I wouldn't sit still for it. "Maybe I will."
Ukyou started to say something, then fell silent and looked nervous.
I decided to cheer her up. "How would you like to be Queen, Ucchan?"
She laughed a little. "Queen Ukyou. Not bad. So you're gonna be
the one to dress male now?"
Yuu said, "Well, you've got my vote. I wouldn't want Kunou to be
king. Wasyuu is too crazy, and Ryo would try to make a law requiring all
women to sleep with him." He turned to Kay. "And what do you think,
Kasumi?"
Kasumi. That was her name. Wanda was probably Wasyuu...which meant
she knew I was here...was this amnesia new? Maybe I had been hiding here
deliberately for some reason for all I knew. I must have had some
memories of something before the mugging. If it was one. What if I had
been starting to remember things, so she had arranged this little
accident? She might be working for Kunou. Or one of the others. A
creeping sense of paranoia was coming over me, and I didn't like it.
Kasumi said, "I will serve whoever takes the throne. I don't want
it, and I don't want to fight for it. I will neither interfere nor aid
you." She sighed. "Other than getting you some decent clothing. If you
do win in that outfit...It just wouldn't do."
*************
************************
Nine Princes in Anime
Chapter 2: The Road to Anime
by
John Biles
************************
Ukyou, Yuu, and I took some of the 'family fortune' and bought
ourselves a black van for the trip to Anime, the Eternal City. Ukyou
wanted to get a jeep, but you can put a lot more guns in the back of a
van. We also grabbed some clothing, music, and other things you need on a
quest to take over a city with three people. Yeah, we sounded insane...we
were. I think the only reason Ukyou came was that she wanted to be with
me, and Yuu wouldn't help her take me to an insane asylum. We also got my
sword rack from Ukyou and I's house and some knick knacks we didn't want
to leave behind. Then we locked up, turned on the burglar alarm and hit
the road. I let Yuu drive.
As we headed onto I-35, Yuu said, "You sure you don't want to drive?
You're better at this than I am."
I shook my head. I had no clue how to get to where we were going,
other than guessing it involved magic. "You drive. I'll watch the road
for trouble. Ucchan, make sure the guns are loaded."
She laughed a little and went to work. She'd brought her
okonomiyaki grill, so I knew she was serious about this. It took up a
third of the back of the van, but she insisted.
We started north on I-35. At first, everything seemed normal, but
then I noticed the road was blue with purple stripes. And Round Rock was
done up in Victorian architecture. We hit the countryside, and the forest
was shrouded in mist, with long fences between it and the road that I knew
didn't exist. "So what route are you planning on?" I asked in a
hopefully idle fashion.
"Well, it's going to be tricky getting this van all the way there,
although Dad did finally build a decent road through Arden. Although
getting past Mendo may be tricky."
I nodded. "He can be a bit overzealous."
We chatted idly for a while. I tried to let Yuu talk in hopes I
would remember things...except Yuu doesn't talk much. Well, he does, but
mostly he makes jokes and isn't very serious. Although I did enjoy the
story about the time our parents dressed up as giant gingerbread men.
I did figure out a bit more. Apparently Dad was married a lot of
times, so Yuu and I are half-brothers. Same for Kasumi and I. It's
rather debatable as to who is legitimate and who isn't.
Finally, right after dodging some dinosaurs crossing the road, Yuu
turned to me and said, "So you really don't remember anything."
"Well, I wouldn't quite say that."
"Virtually nothing?"
Laughing nervously with one hand behind my head, I said, "Well,
uh...I have no idea what is going on with all these dinosaurs and
whatnot..."
Yuu laughed. "How do I get into these fool's quests...Well, the
first thing, then, is to go somewhere we can fix your memory. Walking the
Pattern would do it, but that means either going to Anime-3 or taking our
chances with Laputa..."
Laputa. "The Castle in the Sky?"
He grinned. "I see you remember something. Probably too risky with
your memories fuzzy...but it wouldn't be a good idea if we went to
Anime-3." He sighed.
"How come?"
"Well, there was this girl named Arimi and she just doesn't give up
and...umm..." He trailed off and looked embarrassed.
"Now she wants you dead?"
"I gave her a trial engagement for three months, and it didn't work
out, so now her mother, Queen Misato, put a price on my head." He looked
off to one side of the road. "Hmm. Horsemen. Let's see if we can outrun
them."
I could see them following us. We were going through rolling hills
and light forest. The road was black with yellow stripes again, but there
had been no signs for the last twenty minutes. The horsemen looked
reptillian, though the horses were completely normal. Ukyou and I got
rifles and moved to the windows. They were armed with crossbows.
"They're not losing ground," I said.
"Well, I'll just push our shadow travel a little faster." The
horsemen suddenly vanished. A few seconds later, they winked back in.
Yuu cursed softly. "Right. Hang on. This is going to get wild."
Imagine, if you will, the entire universe vanishing except for one
object, then coming back, totally different, except that one thing is
still there. For us, it was the road, which now ran through a bleak
desert with three suns. There was a sign, which read 'Nightfall City,
Next Four exits.' The city itself was up ahead of us, a pile of adobe and
stone buildings, rather drab and ugly.
The riders were gone. For all of three minutes. Then the city
vanished. Yuu blinked. "What the...I didn't do that."
"What the hell are you doing, anyway?"
"Shadowwalking. It's how we travel through Shadow." He looked at
me briefly. "Which you don't remember, either."
Ukyou kept an eye on the riders while we yammered at each other.
"And I wouldn't know anyway, so tell us."
"All the many worlds of Shadow are reflections of the perfection of
Anime, the Eternal city, our home. Those who are of the Blood of Genma
can walk the Pattern that he drew to create Amber, and thus gain the power
to walk among its shadows. All it requires then is that you move as you
use the power. Normally, you go slowly, thinking of what you should find
as you move, and finding it. If you're desperate, you can 'hellride',
which means you keep one detail and change everything else. It's hard and
slow to shift Shadow near Anime, but the further out you move, the easier
it gets." Yuu paused and gritted his teeth. The city winked back in, and
the shadow riders winked out. Then the city vanished, and the desert
became a plain. The riders reappeared, closer now.
"So these guys chasing us walked the Pattern too? They don't
exactly look like relatives."
"It's possible for people to follow you through Shadow, though a
true child of Anime can usually lose them with some effort. You can in
fact lead an entire army, if you wanted to. However, some other beings
can move through shadow as well. What really worries me, though, is that
someone is moving US."
"Into a trap." Ukyou said.
"Most likely. I dunno how they're doing it, though." The city
winked in again, but this time it was a fairly normal looking town. The
road, however, turned a neon pink with black stripes, and there were
several zepplins over the town. The plain turned into cornfields, and
suddenly, the road was full of traffic. An eighteen wheeler squashed
three of the horse riders. Then the traffic vanished and the city, which
we were driving into, dwindled to a small village of about fifty
buildings. "And it's starting to annoy me."
"Maybe we should just shoot them," Ukyou said. "Try to scare them
off."
Yuu nodded. "Go for it."
Ukyou and I tried to open fire...and nothing happened. "Hey!"
"Great. Another shadow where gunpowder doesn't work."
Ukyou urked. "So we could enter one where say...car engines don't
work?"
"Let's not give anyone any ideas."
I stared at the riders. "So how does this shadow shifting thing
work? You just think it?"
"More or less."
I tried thinking the riders' horses into chihuahuas. That didn't
work. Then I tried thinking of the road bursting into flames behind us.
That worked, but it also set the entire road on fire in front of and under
us too. The fire winked out and Yuu said, "Hey!"
"Sorry." There had to be something I could do to stop them. "Any
idea who could be doing this?"
"Well, Wasyuu, Gosunkugi, and Ryo are probably the only ones of us
who have really studied shadow in depth. All the rest of us just run
around having fun, generally. And maybe Goto. He always seems to know
everything. Actually, I guess Youshou might be able to do this. I don't
see why he'd want us dead, though."
"What about the others?" Ukyou asked.
"Well, if they're working for Kunou, yeah, I could see it." He
frowned. "But how they found us...Shadow's a pretty big place. Infinite,
really."
"They might be using the riders as eyes, somehow," I speculated.
The world shifted again, as farmland turned into light forest, and
light forest into a thicker one, then suddenly caught fire and became
light forest. "I'm going to try something dangerous." He began to
accelerate. "So I'll need your help."
"Right. What?"
"Ever seen the Dukes of Hazard?"
I had a bad feeling about this. "..."
"We're going to make a big chasm and jump over it. Then we'll both
focus on keeping it in place behind us, however the world shifts."
I nodded. Okay. I closed my eyes and concentrated. Ukyou reached
over and squeezed my hand. "Gambatte."
The Dukes of Hazard theme song started playing in my head as I
imagined a huge chasm. A really honking huge chasm. When I opened my
eyes, Yuu said, "You just have to overdo everything, don't you." I
looked. We were plummeting into the Grand Canyon or maybe just a close
relative.
Ukyou said, "We're still moving, right? Fill it with Jello!"
Yuu began to laugh, then concentrated. So did I. The bottom
several hundred feet were now full of Jello. The air turned very cold,
and the van hit the Jello and bounced, making it ripple. The horsemen,
being less spread out than the van, hit the Jello and sank into it. We
simply bounced several times, then started driving over the rough surface
of the Jello. Slowly, the Jello dwindled and the air warmed. We were
driving through a rocky canyon. The walls began to shrink, and finally,
we emerged into a very dry, dusty river valley studded with buttes. It
began to rain and we rolled up the van windows.
"Looks like we lost them," I said.
Yuu glanced at the gasoline meter. "Looks like we're almost out of
gas."
I thought about it and focused my mind. Gas station...over there.
It hurt, and I had the vague feeling I was pushing too hard. But we got a
gas station.
****************
The riders didn't find us for the next two days, which suited me
fine. One nice thing about this shadow travelling is that you can always
find a luxury hotel which gives free service to people who happen to look
like you, so we slept in style. Our plan, such as it was, was to get
close enough to Anime, into the Seven Cities of Gold, to find out who was
actually running Anime, and whether we'd need to fight Kunou or not. If
we were lucky, I would be able to get to the Pattern without a fight. If
not, we'd make new plans.
We pulled into Tomobiki late on the third day. It's ruled over by
King Ataru, a notable lecher. It's one of the Seven Cities of Gold, the
seven main shadows that Amber trades with and has defensive alliances
with. Yuu gave us a long lecture, most of which I promptly forgot.
We stayed in a very nice hotel, the Neptune Arms, run by a somewhat
maniacal ex-sailor and his son. Or maybe daughter. It was hard to be
sure. After dinner, we were playing poker when we got a phone call. It
was the owner's son...daughter? "Yo. You got a visitor."
"Who?"
"Some redhaired whacko. Says she's your sister."
I told Yuu. "Must be Wasyuu," he said.
"Send her up?"
He nodded. "Her help could be useful. Or we might all die." He
shrugged. "If we say no, she'll come anyway."
Wasyuu soon arrived, looking like a twelve year old child with
glasses in a long blue skirt, and a red vest over a white blouse. Her
hair was long, red, and spikey, making her look rather like she was Sonic
the Hedgehog's sister instead of mine. "Well, good to see you've decided
to finally come back to us, Ranko."
I nodded. "So how are things in Anime?"
She sat down on the bed. "Well, Kunou's appointed himself regent
and is making plans to take the throne. Usagi accused him of having
killed you, and now she's fled into exile."
"Why didn't you tell her I was alive?"
"I don't think Kunou knows you're alive either," Wasyuu said.
"Until you got your memories back, it would have been too dangerous to let
anyone know. That's why I've been keeping an eye on you. Once I found
you, anyway."
Yuu frowned slightly. I said, "We think walking the Pattern would
help me...you could have just taken me to it."
"With no memories, would you have gone?"
Probably not, I thought. "So where is Usagi now?"
"No one knows, though we keep hearing rumors about her raising an
army of female warriors. Looking for you, probably." She smiled. "You
two were always pretty...close." Her voice was just a touch insinuative.
Ukyou frowned, and so did I. I could barely remember Usagi, but I didn't
think we had...anyway.
"And the others?"
Wasyuu began counting on her fingers. "Rei hardly ever leaves
Anime-3 anymore. Ryo is busy making contacts out in Shadow and getting
his skull clonked, as usual. Youshou was last seen trying to win the
Battle of Waterloo with medieval knights, although he's apparently talked
to Kunou lately. You've seen Kasumi more recently than I have, although I
have heard she's been summoned by Kunou. Mendo is still tooling around
Arden with Morgenstern." She moved to the next hand. "Gosunkugi and I
have been working on a few experiments and trying to decide whether or not
to support Kunou. Ryouga has been busy with the navy and trying to
find you so he can kill you. He's one of Kunou's firmest supporters. I
see Yuu is with you. Kunou, of course, is in Amber and currently Regent,
likely to be King soon. And Goto is still the Constable of Anime."
Ukyou said, "So Kunou has Ryouga and Youshou on his side and
everyone else is neutral or opposed?"
Wasyuu shook her head. "Mendo will likely oppose anyone who tries
to threaten to overthrow Kunou by land, and Goto will probably support him
as well. With Ryouga on his side, he can defend the sea approaches as
well, and if Youshou stands by him, any military force would be difficult.
Still, it's not impossible, if we all unite against him."
I frowned. I need my memories back. I'm flying blind, and I don't
like that. "This won't be easy, then."
She nodded. "But not impossible. If that's what you want."
"I won't let Kunou usurp the throne. He's a moron." I said flatly.
"Well, yes. He has been getting a bit brighter while you've been
gone, though. Surprising, really. Well, think about it. I'll be seeing
you." She stood up and was gone. I hate it when she does that.
Yuu said, "I think we are going to need to ally with her. We're
going to need all the support we can get. She's pretty powerful."
I nodded. "Well, we can Trump her if we have to. For now, let's
approach Mendo. He might be amenable, and if we can get past him and into
Anime, I can get to the pattern. Are you sure trying Anime-3 is a bad
idea?"
Yuu shook his head firmly. "Yeah."
So instead, we decided to sneak into Anime past all our potential
opponents, so Yuu wouldn't have to deal with his ex. This is the story of
my life, I think.
***************
The real question was whether Mendo would support us, or at least let
us through. We planned to not announce what we intended, especially since
we weren't planning to just try to take over when we got in, anyway.
Shadow Highway #1 runs through Arden to Anime from Tomobiki, so it was an
easy drive. We didn't even have to shift shadow, which gets hard this
close to Anime, anyway. The road was remarkably empty, which bothered me.
We were passing through thick forest on a four lane highway, but we
hadn't seen a car in half an hour. Then we came around a bend and dozens
of dogs came boiling out of the wolves. They were huge and shaggy, about
the size of a very large doberman, and they started chasing our van.
Yuu sped up, but they were faster. Then we came around another bend
and the road was blocked off, with Morgenstern, Mendo's M-1 tank, sitting
right in the middle of the road. Dozens of elves dressed in green
uniforms with bows were lined up behind the barracade. Dad contracted
with some elven tribe a long time ago to defend Arden. Apparently, they
got tired of dealing with some annoying sorceress in their home shadow.
Yuu cursed. "Get ready to abandon ship. This is going to hurt..."
I shook my head. "Stop. We can't evade all these people. We'll
get crushed."
He sighed and screeched to a halt. Several of the hounds couldn't
stop in time, smacked into the back of the van, and passed out. Mendo
popped out of the top of his tank. "COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! DROP
YOU TRUMP CARDS AND COME QUIETLY. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED." Pause.
"UMM...FORGET THAT BIT ABOUT ASSIMILATION." He was using a megaphone.
We came out quietly. I said, "Mendo, we're just dropping in for a
visit. No need to call out the Park Rangers."
When all the elves trained their bows on me, I decided to never call
the elves 'Park Rangers' ever again. Mendo put down the megaphone and
said, "I suggest you turn around and leave, Ranma. Kunou wants you
imprisoned. I'm willing to let you go, but stay away from Anime, Ranma."
I frowned. This wasn't going to be good. I sighed. "Right. Off
to Anime-3, then."
I turned to go, but Mendo had somehow moved from his tank to right
next to me in two seconds. Or more precisely, next to Ukyou, who he
handed a flower. "Ahh, such a lovely lass as you should not be consorting
with such low lives as these."
She blushed. "I...uh..."
I stomped over. "Get away from my WIFE!"
Mendo frowned. "Is it true that such a lady as yourself has been
chained to this pathetic half-man? Come with me, and I will show you how
a real man treats a woman!"
Half-man? I'm female, you idiot...what he's talking about? I was
confused. "I don't want to listen to you and your stupid biases, Mendo!
Get away from MY WIFE!" I shoved him aside and took Ukyou's hand.
His face darkened. "I will not accept such an insult from anyone!
No one shoves me around!" He stomped towards his tank. "You have five
minutes, and then we're coming after you."
I turned to the car to hop in it, and saw the dogs were picking
their teeth with what was left of it. About all that remained of it was
half of Yuu's saxophone and the steering wheel.
Yuu said, "I hope the insurance covers this."
"What insurance?" I said. "RUN!"
We took off into the forest, running like maniacs. We could hear
dogs baying behind us and the sound of Elves moving silently through the
forest while trying to dodge an M-1 tank. Yuu said, "Got any plans?"
"We head for Anime-3...how far is it?"
"About three days on foot."
Ukyou gave a faint strangled cry.
"Wait," I said. "We could just trump out!"
Ukyou shook her head. "The trumps were in the van. They got eaten,
I think."
Now I screamed.
*********************
This was just not my day. Not even vaguely. Especially when we
found out that our guns didn't work. I stared at Yuu. "Hey, why didn't
you tell us?"
"I was wondering why those Elves had bows." Yuu said. "Dad didn't
like guns around the house...he must have done something."
Great. Just great. At least I had my fencing sabre, and Ukyou had
one too. Yuu was out of luck, for the moment. Luckily, we were all in
pretty good shape, so when the five guards who had found us recovered from
hiding from bullets that never arrived, we had gained some ground.
Naturally, this was the moment that three of the hellhounds chose to
arrive. Yuu scrambled up a tree, while Ukyou and I nervously faced off
with them. He was able to keep one distracted by playing fetch with it,
although what was going to happen when he ran out of branches, I didn't
know.
The two hellhounds weren't very subtle. They just bulled straight
ahead. I leaped to one side and speared it in the side, then stabbed a
leg. I kept dancing about, leaping up into trees to avoid the charges.
However, while it couldn't hurt me, I wasn't doing much to it, either.
It's hide was tough and resisted my weapon.
Then Ukyou screamed. Her opponent had her pinned down, but it
appeared the dog was just trying to keep her from escaping, not kill her.
I leaped down and knocked it off her, but then I got nailed from behind by
the other dog, which head butted me into a tree. We could hear more dogs
and guards coming, and things looked bad.
The music came first. I still don't know how she does it. Then the
speech. "Trying to eat my relatives just isn't right! All they wanted to
do was to go to the wonderful city of Anime! I am Usagi, Princess of
Anime, and in the name of Anime, I will PUNISH YOU!" She was standing up
in a tree, clad in her war gear, which looks rather like a school uniform
to me, but it stops bullets, so hey, if it works, don't fix it. She was
waving a long mace with a heart shaped head, which she pointed at the
hellhounds. "BAD DOGS, NO BISCUIT!" A huge red heart erupted from it,
smacking both dogs in the head, knocking them out.
Yuu said, "Nice timing, Usagi."
She bowed. "I try hard. Let's get out of here!" She leaped down
and picked up me and Ukyou, then started leaping tree to tree while Yuu
tried desperately to keep up. She said to Ukyou, "Nice to meet you. Are
you one of my relatives?"
Ukyou shook her head. "I think I'd remember you. You're
um....strong."
"Yeah! I've been drinking milk!" Then she tripped and plunged out of
the tree into a small river. "And just a wee bit clumsy." Sploosh.
*********************
We finally washed up on the beach. The white river has a really
strong current, and by the time we got out of it, we ended up on the
shore. We could see Anime itself far to the north, jutting out into the
sea on the great peninsula at the foot of Mount Kolvir.
I pulled myself out of the river, joining the others on the shore.
We'd lost everything except for our clothing, the swords, and Ukyou's
wallet. And Usagi's funky mace thing. She carries the weirdest looking
weapons. "Now what?" I spluttered.
"Depends on exactly what you were hoping to accomplish by heading to
Anime. Kunou's declared himself King. There's going to be a coronation
soon."
I sighed. "I need to get to the Pattern to get my memories back."
"There's a full moon tonight. We could use the Laputan pattern,"
Usagi suggested.
"Too close to Anime. Kunou will have guards watching it."
"Then we make for Anime-3," Usagi said.
I looked over at Yuu, who sighed. "Maybe Arimi will have forgotten
me."
*****************
I've never seen so many guards put their swords to Yuu's throat
before. "The Lady Arimi will see you now," they said, leading him away.
The trip to Anime-3 had been fairly easy, only a one day jaunt on
foot. Anime-3 is a huge duplicate of Anime, under the waves. It sits
underwater in a sea of this strange stuff called LCL that collects in the
bay where Anime-3 is. You can actually breathe it and function just fine.
If you try to leave the city underwater you'll be in trouble though.
The city is ruled by Queen Misato the Loudmouthed, and has a set of
very powerful golems known as the EVAs. My half-sister, Rei, is one of
the pilots, along with Misato's two children, Shinji and Asuka. We were
standing before the Queen when Yuu got hauled off. She cackled, then
said, "It has been a long time since you came to visit, Ranko." She
smiled. "What can I do for you?"
"Umm...what's going to happen to Yuu?"
"I have decreed that Arimi may do anything she likes with him, for
getting her pregnant and then running off."
"Ack."
Usagi shook her head. "I told him there would be trouble."
"I believe she was planning to start by forcing him to view some
sort of thing known as 'Barney' whatever that is. Amazing the horrors you
can found out amongst the shadows. Anyway, what brings you here in his
company?"
"I ask your permission to walk the Pattern of Anime-3."
"Granted. And for you, Usagi?"
"I'm just hanging out with Ranko while we plan to take over the
world."
Misato laughed. "I will have no part in such plotting. We have
other concerns. Strange beings have been attacking our city, and we must
deal with them. Good luck in your dealings with your brethren."
"Thanks. Umm...can someone show us the way to the Pattern?"
**************
The chamber of the Pattern was deep underground, a silver outline on
a dark obsidian floor. It twisted and bent, but never crossed itself,
forming a swirling outline marked at three points by a sort of side
flaring that looked like a cross mark, but wasn't. "So, I start here and
walk on it to the middle?"
Usagi nodded. "Then it should restore you to your normal state.
Gets rid of demonic possessions, amnesia, disease, alien mind control
devices, pneumonia, the common cold, slow spontaneous combustion, and
Dutch Elm Disease."
I started walking along, watching the pattern spark as I stepped on
it. It started getting harder and harder to move, but I pressed ahead.
"Oh, two things! Don't leave the path, or you'll die! And don't
stop, either, or you'll die."
"But it's getting harder to move!"
"It beats being dead!"
I pressed onward. The flared out section now flared up, a wall of
sparks. I ignored it and pressed through it. My mind was stirring.
Pieces of memories drifting back into my mind. A cute girl with short
black hair, wearing a crown and sitting by my side. A kingdom, somewhere.
I had ruled it. A trip with my father somewhere. A pool. A pit. A pit
without a bottom.
I kept going. Every step brought back memories. Every step gave me
names, places, people, events. I remembered fighting Ryouga on top of a
moving train. I remember being strapped to a table by Wasyuu. "This
won't hurt a bit." I remembered some really disgusting shrunken old man
being in my underwear drawer one day.
My legs felt like lead weights. My arms were so heavy they were
trying to fall off. The second veil was a barrier of stone almost, that I
shattered with my will. In my mind, Usagi, Ryo and I were at the top of
Akbar Pass, battling the Moonbunnies out of Gidget. Millions of the damn
things. We killed and killed and killed, and still the bunnies came.
They'd already stripped the plains of Khyber clean of all plant life.
Another step. Now Kunou and I were fighting on top of the palace
roof. Youshou had tried to break us up so we tossed him off the roof.
Now he came back and stomped both of us into the ground having armed
himself.
Another step. I was with my twin brother. Ranma. Maybe I was him.
The memory was confusing. I was a king, and someone...someone named Akane
was my queen.
My mind cleared every time I raised my leg, put it forward, then
shifted my weight and moved again. Long training trips with my father.
Fighting an army of mutant turtles and a giant rat. Shadows where
people's voices and lips weren't in sync. Some guy in a red and blue suit
who flew. Someone shoving pie after pie into my father's face. Armies
closing in on the kingdom I had ruled. A final battle. Dead. All dead.
Akane...my wife...she was dead. I found another, but she died as well.
It was all very confusing. Sometimes a girl, sometimes a boy. What was
I?
The third veil rose before me, a wall of sparks and light and fire.
I was its master, though I stumbled and nearly fell. I remembered. A
shadow of endless pools with poles in them. If you fell into the pool,
you were carried away to another shadow. We leaped from pole to pole,
battling. Then I got hit and fell.
Everything exists somewhere in Shadow, father once told
me. There are even shadows of ourselves. I've met some of them.
Ranmas who spouted poetry. Ranmas who want to be
lumberjacks. Ranmas who are pacifists. But I have something
they don't, for most of them can never reach the place where it
exists. A shadow called Jyusenkyo, home to a thousand pools or
more. They're cursed. Fall into one and you start turning into
whatever once drowned there. I fell in and now I...I change sex
when I get wet. I had forgotten that. I was born a boy.
It was both a punishment and training. Father had said I
would thank him for it one day. But when I took my final steps
on the Pattern, I knew that day hadn't come yet. The final sparks
died down. I was tired, but I was whole. I stood at the heart of
the Pattern of Anime-3. I remembered everything. My long
quarrels with Kunou. My feud with Ryouga. The time Wasyuu
tried to turn me into a turnip. Avalon. The tears came. Akane
was dead, dead hundreds of years, but the memory, which I was
sure the centuries had dimmed, was strong again, thanks to the
Pattern. Damn it. And our child. Dead. I still didn't really
know where the monsters that brought it down had come from;
I'd blamed Kunou then, but...it wasn't his style. I know that
now. He would have led an army of Samurai against me, not
monsters. He couldn't have sent those horsemen; if he tried to
kill me, I'd know who was trying.
I turned to Usagi. "I'm going to confront Kunou."
Her eyes widened. "You nutjob! That's suicidal!"
"This is the best way for me to get past the guards." Another
advantage of walking the Pattern is that you can go
ANYWHERE once you get to the middle. Like my old quarters
there. "Without putting you two in danger."
Ukyou was staring at me like I was insane. Or maybe had
turned into Satan. I couldn't figure out why.
"Ranchan...what's...what's happened to you?"
"I got my memories back." She continued to stare blankly at
me.
"Ranko turns into Ranma with hot water and back to Ranko
with cold water," Usagi said. She pointed her heart-mace at me.
"You're NOT going alone! I'll walk the Pattern and come with
you!"
"And leave Ukyou behind? I need you to protect my wife,
Usagi-chan. Take her to where you're raising that army. I'll
trump you soon as I get my backup deck."
Usagi blinked. "How'd you hear about my army?"
"A little bird told me."
She fumed. "I told Rei-chan those ravens were a bad idea!
But noooo, she wouldn't listen! Now they're telling all our
secrets!" Usagi always looks cute when she's mad.
Ukyou continued to stare at me. I did my best to smile at
her. "I'll explain everything. Usagi will take good care of you. I
trust her. You can trust her too. Now I have to go kick Kunou's
mangy butt."
Ukyou stared at the ground. "This is all so confusing."
I did a v-salute and formed the image of my old room in
my mind. In an instant, I was there as if I had never left. Well,
if I had trashed my room before my last departure, it would have
been as if I had never left. The trashing must have been recent;
surely the maids would have cleaned this all up, I thought.
Then I remembered the fact that I had locked the door and
gotten Youshou to ward it; theoretically, no one could get in. Or
out. The door was still locked. I frowned and started sorting
through everything.
***********
Everything useful was gone. All I could find was some
decent clothing, so I changed outfits, and a thermos of still hot
water. This was my special thermos. Wasyuu gave it to me as a
birthday present; it always had hot water in it. Useful for dealing
with my curse.
Having garbed myself in my favorite red satin outfit with
black pants, it was time to get a trump deck. Not too hard to do; I
sneaked to the library easily and snarfed one of the decks kept in
the display cases.
"Ranma." I nearly jumped out of my flesh. It was my half-
brother Goto. He was leaning casually against the wall, acting
like he always hung out in the library. "Fancy seeing you here.
Decided to drop in after all this time to find something to read?"
"Is Kunou going to crown himself?"
"Anime needs an Otaking. There are rumors in Shadow.
Dark things stir again. Father is gone, likely permanently. No
one has seen him in centuries this time. If he did find a new
bride, he apparently likes her more than his kingdom. And his
trump is dead. Youshou doesn't want the throne, and all of
Beryl's children have been disrupting the Regency Council for so
long that no one trusts any of them to rule. You were gone, and
even if you weren't, Kunou is your elder brother. The throne is
rightfully his, if anyone's. While Amber has needed all
Genma's children, you've been off gallivanting in Shadow."
"I got sick!" A plague. How it had robbed me of my
memories, I didn't know, but I had gotten sick while fighting in
a war to sharpen my skills. To make it worse, it had been serial
amnesia. Every thirty to forty years, I had forgotten everything
again. Kasumi had introduced me to Ukyou just after the most
recent of my fits. Not counting the one that sent me to the
hospital. I hadn't even thought about that until now; I had been
attacked by beasts like the one that attacked Yuu; they had nearly
killed me, but I killed them and then...time to think about that
later, I thought. "And got amnesia."
"You? The man who once swam a thousand miles without
stopping because you were too cheap to pay for a ship?" He
sounded dubious. I couldn't blame him. "Then what brings you
back now?"
"I saved Yuu from some monsters."
Goto looked around. "Where is he?"
"Queen Misato isn't too happy with him for running out on
Arimi."
Laughing, Goto said, "I can see that. Usagi went into exile for
you, you know."
"I know." I can't bring her here, I thought. Kunou will flip
if she defies him like that; she might get hurt. Like...I won't
think about that. I won't. "She's safe. I've seen her."
"Be warned, Ranma. I bear you no ill will, but I will not
allow Anime to be put in danger by one of you and Kunou's
quarrels."
"Putting an idiot like him in charge would do a lot more
damage than one of our fights." Where the heck have I left my
sword, I thought. "Not to mention, someone plundered my
room. Look into it, Mr. Constable."
"Several people's rooms have been plundered. Whoever it
is can get past locks and wards without leaving a trace. Quite a
mystery." He turned to go. "I will look into it. And I suggest
you slip out without making any trouble."
Kicking Kunou's butt would be no trouble at all.
***********
Stomping around the palace looking for Kunou, on the
other hand, was a lot of trouble. Lots of people gave me funny
looks; I gave them funny looks back; I hardly recognized anyone.
Of course, it had been three hundred and thirty three years since
the last time I was here, so that was part of it. And the castle had
been expanded on again.
I finally found Kunou in the garden. He was practicing
swordplay with Youshou. Just my luck, of course. They're both
better with swords than I am, I have to admit. But I prefer to
fight unarmed, although I do have a pretty impressive sword.
Well, I had it. I kinda lost it during one of my fits of amnesia
after I got sick with a plague; something I'd have to remedy. It
wouldn't do me much good now.
Kunou looked up. "Ranma. Alive and well."
"Despite your best efforts."
"I have done nothing to kill you in centuries. Indeed, you
might likely be dead or lost forever without me. I will not say
you please me with your presence, Ranma. You do not. But I
have larger concerns than your petty self. I suppose you've
come to beat me up."
"Damn straight! I'm not going to let an idiot like you take
the throne!"
"I am the eldest child of our mother. Whatever the merits
of my claim versus that of Ryo, or Washuu or Gosunkugi, I
have a better claim than you. I will be crowned in two weeks.
You can support me, or I can banish you like Usagi forced me to
do."
"I'll fight you for it."
Kunou threw back his head and laughed. "The throne of
Anime is a not a toy. I know I would beat you, but even if I lost,
I would not wager the throne in a fight."
"Coward!" Kunou had always been easy to provoke.
Youshou shook his head. "I see you haven't grown up any
in the three hundred years you've been gallivanting around
Shadow while you were needed here."
"I had amnesia!"
"A likely story."
So I'd used that excuse a few too many times when I was a
child. "It's true this time!"
"Wolf, wolf." He shook his head. "I will not allow you to
endanger Anime, Ranma. Kunou will be Otaking. Will you aid
us or oppose us?"
I might have swallowed my pride and said yes if I hadn't
seen Kunou smirking at me. I felt ganged up on, that he was
trying to manipulate me into a suicidal fight with Youshou.
Unarmed, I could whoop Youshou, but me unarmed versus
him with the Tenchi-ken would be a good way to commit
suicide. Hopefully, he wouldn't kill me, but...best not to find
out.
"Support Kunou as King? When he taunts me, then hides
behind someone else? No way!" I needed a distraction. "Hey,
look, it's a Dragon!"
Kunou turned to look; Youshou wasn't that stupid. It was
good enough. I took off running, ignoring whatever Kunou
shouted after me.
*************
One of the secret techniques Pop taught me was that if
you're in a fight you can't win, make a distraction, run away,
plan your comeback. I began paging through the Trump deck I'd
gotten from the Library. I quickly concluded someone with a
sense of humor had made this one. They looked like they were
designed for some kind of game, with statistics for each of us and
a pithy quote to go with the picture, along with a bunch of
symbols. There were also a lot of people I didn't recognize. I
decided to focus on the people I did know. I could hear people
coming. Had to hurry. Not too many people who would give
me sanctuary; I didn't want to drag Usagi into this, not yet. Ryo,
though...Wasyuu had said he was putting an army together.
Perfect. I pulled his trump, and it soon came to life. I could see
him in the middle of drilling a bunch of oddly dressed soldiers;
not too many wear t-shirts and jeans. "Ryo."
"Hey, Ranma. I see you finally woke up."
"Yeah. Planning to overthrow Kunou?"
"Yeah. You want in?"
I reached out an arm. "Let's do it."
I had gotten out of Anime, and into the pickling pot. But
that's the story of the next chapter.
John Walter Biles : MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu
rhea@tass.org http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/
If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that
was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the
Marring be amended, Manwe and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it,
and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.
--Final Line of The Silmarillion