Here is the conclusion to chapter six....
*What is keeping her?*
Kaneda Tendou tapped his foot on the pavement and stared at the
face of his watch yet again, wondering what was keeping Ranko from
arriving at her usual time. He was certain that all of his practice and
training was going to pay off today, and he would finally beat Ranko
Saotome in a fight. Then he could move on to his next step.
Spotting Ranko entering in through the main gate, Kaneda started
to walk towards her when an unexpected extra appeared behind her.
Kaneda frowned when he saw the young nobleman trailing along a
little behind Ranko's right elbow. He frowned even more deeply when
he noticed the bundle of roses in her arms, and his back teeth ground
together. *Who the hell is that pompous-looking jerk with Ranko?
Not that I really care, that is,* he quickly amended in his thoughts.
Kaneda stomped over to the couple, an unexpected anger filling
him. It was not jealousy though. At least that was what Kaneda kept
telling himself in his mind. He saw Ranko spot him just before Kunou
did, and she rolled her eyes.
"Ranko Saotome!" said Kaneda sternly. "I challenge you!"
Kunou looked at the younger boy standing before him and sneered.
*This will give me a perfect opportunity to prove myself to my true
love. I shall smite this lowborn peasant who dares to make an assault
upon her in my noble presence.* Before Ranko could make a reply of
her own, Kunou had smoothly interposed himself between the two of
them, drawing his bokken in a well-practiced move.
Kaneda glared at the unexpected impediment in his way.
"Methinks someone needs teach you a lesson in manners when it
comes to addressing one of the fairer sex, knave," said Kunou loftily.
"And Tatewaki Kunou is just the man to do so."
"Look," sneered Kaneda, not even bothering to hide his contempt
for the other boy, "Milord, I strongly suggest that you get out of my
way, or I might be forced to feed you that big stick that you're waving
around. I have a challenge to deliver to Ranko Saotome."
"As I know that even such a beautiful flower that is Ranko Saotome
could easily dispatch you," said Kunou with a glance at the love of his
life, "I fear that I would find it most seriously off-putting if she had to
bother with one such as you. Therefore, if you can defeat me in single
combat, which you will not, then you may challenge her."
Kaneda attacked with a growl, and the two boys began to fight, their
newfound hatred for each other growing as they exchanged flurries of
savage attacks. It was a very even battle between the two of them.
Kunou's wooden weapon moved with grace and speed, giving him a
reach advantage that forced Kaneda to stay close to negate that
advantage. They traded punishing blows as they moved around the
courtyard area, and the cadets watching shouted encouragement as the
two warriors battled each other.
As Ranko watched, her feelings alternated between extreme anger
at being "protected" by Kunou and thrilled that two such strong men
were willing to fight over her. She glanced at Nabiki and noticed that
the older girl looked visibly miffed that Kunou was fighting her
brother over Ranko. Her previous irritation at the two boys quickly
faded as she watched them fight with an almost fascinated expression,
her breath coming a little faster as an odd excitement filled her.
Kunou's words had struck a surprising chord of response in her and
left her with the realization that she would have some serious thinking
to do. She wouldn't mind being protected by a man, as long as he first
acknowledged that she didn't need it. That thought surprised her as
she watched the two boys battling for her favor.
With a savage grin on his face, Kaneda drove a lucky blow into
Kunou's stomach, and he felt the satisfying impact of his palm against
flesh. He heard Kunou grunt in surprise at the sharp pain from his
gut. Sensing victory, he took advantage of the older boy's moment of
hesitation and brutally decked him with a single, solid uppercut to the
jaw. The kendoist fell to the ground without a sound, and Kaneda
almost calmly stepped over the fallen aristocrat without another look
and approached Ranko. She stood there with her arms folded across
her chest, and an unreadable look on her face.
"Now that the preliminaries are over, Ranko-chan," said Kaneda
with a half-smile. "We can move onto the main event." He stopped
right in front of Ranko, and that pleasant tingling sensation that he felt
when he was around her was back in full force. He had been fortunate
in taking relatively few strikes from Kunou, so he was still at his full
fighting capability as he let his breathing calm a bit. *I don't know
what it is about you, Ranko Saotome, but I get such a thrill out of
challenging myself against your strength. I've never met a girl half as
tough as you are before.*
"I don't have time for this today, Tendou," said Ranko, flipping her
long braid of hair back over her shoulder, where it came to rest lightly
between her shoulder blades. She forced herself to ignore the pleasant
tingling of her nerves as she looked Kaneda squarely in the eyes. "I
have a lot to do today, so let me take a rain check on beating you up
again." She turned her back on him and walked towards the main
Academy building.
"H-hey!" shouted Kaneda, surprised at her actions. "You think you
can just turn your back on my challenge like that? Whatsamatter?
You afraid of me? Is that why you brought a bodyguard with you?"
Ranko stopped suddenly, and her posture changed slightly before she
slowly turned around.
"What did you say?!" Ranko asked, anger rising up in her voice.
Her right eye twitched slightly. "I don't need any man to protect me,
Kaneda Tendou!" Her fists clenched in her building rage. "I'm strong
enough to take care of myself, you jerk! You take that back!"
"Make me," said Kaneda with a smirk and a tilt of his chin. The
tingle of excitement within him increased in intensity, and he watched
with some interest as Ranko's breathing deepened, a sure sign that the
shorter redhead was now readying herself for combat. He had dealt
with her self-appointed defender easily enough, and he was even more
confident of his victory over her now. He set himself into a fighting
stance, and he heard his older sister Nabiki setting bets in the distance.
Ranko tossed her bookbag to the ground, narrowly missing a puddle
from the pre-dawn rain. She cracked her knuckles slowly as she felt a
surge of intense anticipation fill her, vaguely pleasurable, riding along
her nerves as strongly as the feelings of desire that Kaneda evoked
within her from his mere presence. She angrily stomped on any such
thoughts, denying that she was attracted to the young martial artist
standing before her and looking so insufferably smug at the hit that he
had scored on her ego. Ranko was well-known to pride herself on
three things: her independence, her intelligence, and her fighting
ability. Kaneda had insulted two out of the three in a single breath.
They moved around each other slowly. Each studied the other for
that flicker of weakness in either gaze or posture that would signal the
beginning of the actual combat. Ranko felt extremely contented by the
prospect of a good fight, a humming running along every muscle in
her body. *This will be just what I need to clear out the cobwebs in
my head.*
Then, as if with a single thought, they came together in a sudden
clash of martial arts skill. They wove into and out of each other's
defenses, punches and kicks blocked or dodged by the other.
As they fought, the depression over her personal problems lifted for
Ranko, and she found herself beginning to enjoy the savage thrill of
competition against a worthy opponent. She struck out at Kaneda,
finally managing to slip a solid blow in through his defenses to tag
him in the shoulder. *This was just what I needed today, after all,*
she thought with a slight smile. Her heart raced with excitement,
tingles running all through the nerves of her body.
Kaneda matched Ranko's smile with one of his own. It felt good to
fight with her, for some reason. He grazed his fist across Ranko's jaw,
her head tipping back slightly to roll with the punch. *I'm going to
win today. I know it!* he thought, but there was also a tinge of regret
in it. He had never trained as hard to defeat an opponent as he had
over the many weeks since the day that Ranko had first arrived at the
Academy. Kaneda's intense determination to dominate over Ranko
was equally matched by her own will to resist.
Cheers were shouted out by the crowds surrounding them. None of
their fights had ever lasted this long before. Usually, Kaneda took a
disabling blow early on that weakened his defenses sufficiently enough
for Ranko to win by knocking him out. Today that was not the case,
and neither fighter was giving a single inch in their conflict with each
other. Blows that might have ended the fight were simply being
shrugged off by both combatants. There was a new level of skilled
savagery being explored by the two young warriors.
"Come on, Ranko!" shouted Sayuri. "Show Kaneda who the better
martial artist is!" Beside her, a different desire was being expressed.
"Come on, Kaneda!" shouted Hiroshi. "Put her down! Show Ranko
that men are stronger than women!"
The two paused in their cheers of the fight to briefly glare at each
other. "What did you...?" they both said in stereo. They glared at each
other again.
"Looks like your friend is about to finally get what's been coming to
her for a long time, Sayuri-chan," said Hiroshi with a smirk. "Kaneda
Tendou is the best fighter at the Academy, and I think he's going to
finally reclaim that title today from the little upstart girl over there."
He pointed with his thumb towards the fight. Ranko took a punch into
her side at that moment, but she gave back to Kaneda a solid kick to
the face in return.
"Oh, really?" purred Sayuri. "Care to lay a little side wager on that,
Hiroshi-kun?"
"Like what?" asked Hiroshi, intrigued. "Speaking of wagers, why
aren't you helping out your boss right now?" He gestured with the
same hand in Nabiki's direction, where she and a number of her
assistants were taking betting money in a flurry of activity.
"I wanted to watch the fight up close, okay?" snarled Sayuri. "The
bet is this, loser has to do what the winner says for a week. So what
do you say? Are you man enough to bet against me again, Hi-chan?"
Hiroshi frowned deeply at her old childhood nickname for him.
"Anything the winner says, eh?" said Hiroshi with a sudden smirk.
He turned to watch the fight for a moment. Ranko was in the process
of fending off one of Kaneda's assaults, just before launching her own
brutal counter-offensive a moment later.
"Nothing perverted, you jerk!" snarled Sayuri, blushing across her
cheeks with embarrassment.
"Like I'd want to do anything like that with a flat-chested girl like
you, Sayuri-chan," said Hiroshi with a grin. He saw her face blush
once more, this time with feminine rage. "But I accept your bet."
"I'm going to make you pay for that remark, my future slave for a
week," said Sayuri with a sudden, evil grin. "It isn't nice at all to
make comments like that to a girl about her body."
"Yeah, whatever," said Hiroshi. They had known each other since
they were little children, and they had been like this since their first
meeting. They both turned back to watch the fight.
Meanwhile, the two fighters sprang apart, an unspoken agreement
to catch their breaths occurring. Ranko licked her thumb quickly and
rubbed some saliva on a small cut on her cheek, from a grazing hit by
one of Kaneda's fists. She was feeling more and more excited by the
fight as it progressed, and the maelstrom of emotions inside her were
becoming more than a little confusing to her.
Kaneda breathed deeply as he kept his fists raised in front of him.
Several colorful bruises were on his face, but he felt almost exalted
inside. After weeks of defeat after humiliating defeat at the hands of
the shorter, redheaded girl standing a small distance away, Kaneda felt
that today was finally going to be his day. He would show Ranko
Saotome which was the stronger sex.
Kaneda studied the redheaded girl as he caught his breath. Despite
her tomboyish ways, Ranko was heartbreakingly beautiful to him, and
her fighting ability was an exciting addition to that beauty. She was
like one of the fabled Chinese Amazons, and a fantasy of winning her
heart the day he stood over her bruised and beaten body refused to
leave him.
Ranko regained her strength quickly during the brief break in their
combat, and she began moving towards Kaneda with a gleam in her
eyes, a promise of painful mayhem about to be committed. *I'm going
to put you down so hard, Kaneda Tendou, that you'll beg me to accept
your apology for all of your insults to me in the past,* she thought
fiercely, memories of being called 'unfeminine' or other hurtful things
that he had said to goad her into fights, and also during their fights,
ringing in her mind.
Kaneda sprang into motion a moment later, but he was moving a
little slower than he had at the beginning of the fight. He kept finding
his attention drawn to Ranko's blue eyes, and he was distracted by his
memories of what her figure looked like in her gym uniform. *You're
going to be mine, Ranko Saotome,* thought Kaneda firmly at that
moment.
Ranko's fist smashing upwards into his chin brought his awareness
back to the fight with a quick rush of pain. Her follow-up strike with
her other fist in a solid punch into his gut less than a moment later
caused the world to fall out of focus for Kaneda. He blindly struck out
with his own right hand in a punch and was rewarded with the feel of
his knuckles solidly impacting into her ribcage.
Ranko backed up, her ribs flaring with pain. Kaneda's blow had
caught her just below her breasts, when she had dropped her guard for
a moment to finish the reeling boy off. The pain was already fading to
a dull throb, so none of her floating ribs were seriously injured as far
as she could tell. She kept her guard up and blocked several more
punches and kicks from him, before unleashing another devastating
series of blows into her opponent.
"You're getting slow, Kaneda-baka," said Ranko with a little smirk,
certain that she still held her edge over him in this fight. She was
starting to get tired from her injuries, but Kaneda was looking even
worse to her. She kept him at bay with some high spinning kicks.
"Hmm," noted Kaneda a moment later. "Pale green panties. That's
pretty feminine for you, isn't it?" He smirked at Ranko, but his gamble
paid off badly.
"You PERVERT!" shouted Ranko, her cheeks flushing bright red
with embarrassment. New strength filled her limbs from the white-hot
rage that followed along behind it. "Now I'm REALLY going to hurt
you, you JERK!"
The swiftly uprising heel of Ranko's right foot caught Kaneda right
under the chin in a solid blow that lifted him clear off of the ground.
Stunned by the unexpectedly savage strike, he became the target of two
punches and another powerful kick before his body finally impacted
hard against the ground. Luckily, his fall was broken when he landed
right on top of the awakening Kunou, sending the aristocrat back into
slumber.
Lowering her leg from the final kicking position that had knocked
Kaneda unconscious, Ranko surveyed the scene, her full chest heaving
a little from her exertions. She saw Sayuri come walking up to her, a
smile on her face. She watched Hiroshi, her nostrils flaring slightly,
as he went over to Kaneda and lifted the boy to his feet with the aid of
another male student. Together they managed to carry Kaneda off to
the nurse's office, and Ranko smiled at the departing figure of Kaneda.
*Maybe that will finally convince the jerk to treat me better.*
"Congratulations on another victory over the male sex, Ranko," said
Sayuri with a smile. "Today's fight lasted pretty long. I was starting
to get worried."
"Ahh, I can take that stupid jerk any day of the week," said Ranko
with a confident look. She spit out a little blood to one side, not
noticing Sayuri's briefly pale look when she turned back to her only
friend on campus. "He's strong, but he's slow. Speed and skill will
always overcome strength and ego." She went over to pick up her
bookbag, sparing the fallen Kaneda a single look.
Nabiki came over with a couple of her more burly male assistants,
and Ranko regarded Kaneda's sister with a flat look. Ranko always
felt a wariness around the other girl, much like keeping an eye on a
cobra. She made no real secret of her dislike for the two Tendous, and
the feeling was mutual as far as Nabiki was concerned. But Nabiki
was occasionally useful to her, so she could be courteous on those rare
times that Nabiki talked as if they were friends.
"I see someone familiar has finally started following you to school,
Ranko-chan," said Nabiki with a cool smile, regarding the body lying
unconscious nearby. "Is Kunou-kun still showing you interest?"
"Yeah," said Ranko in a neutral tone. "I didn't have the heart to tell
him to go away this morning, so he followed me like he was my own
personal bodyguard." She made a face expressing her disgust at that
thought, then sighed softly. "Guys are so stupid. If I was a guy, I
wouldn't treat a girl anything like how Kaneda or Kunou treat me."
"You want my little brother to treat you differently?" asked Nabiki
with sudden interest, her eyes sparkling coldly.
"NO!" shouted Ranko, her face blushing again. Nabiki, always a
student of the human condition, filed that observation away for future
use. "I mean, I want a guy to treat me nice, but also like an equal. Is
that so much to ask? Half of the guys here are either afraid of me, and
the other half look at me like I'm some piece of meat. On the other
hand, Kunou over there treats me like I'm made of fragile porcelain or
something, as if I need a man to protect me." Ranko jerked her thumb
to point in the direction of the still-slumbering aristocrat.
"Well, I think he actually loves you," said Nabiki coolly, ruthlessly
stamping down on the faint twinges of jealousy occurring in her heart
when she said those words. She reminded herself that love was just
another commodity to be bought and sold. To treat it as anything else
was for fools and poets.
"Well, I don't love him," said Ranko firmly. "Still, if I could find a
guy who's smart and strong, then I could let him deal with these other
jerks in exchange for my love." She batted her eyes in a mockery of
traditional feminine frailty. Sayuri burst into laughter, and Nabiki
even smirked a little in amusement. To one side, Nabiki's two male
assistants looked uncomfortable, and Ranko saw Nabiki flick her gaze
to them for a moment, her expression turning icy.
"Carry Kunou-kun to the infirmary and leave him on one of the
cots, boys," Nabiki commanded casually, and they snapped to obey.
When they were out of earshot, Nabiki grinned mirthlessly. She
turned back to face the other two girls. "You see? You just have to
make sure that men know who's boss. Isn't that right, Sayuri?"
"Huh?" asked Sayuri, surprised at Nabiki's question. "What do you
mean, Nabiki-sempai?"
"I've seen how you keep Hiroshi-kun in line, Sayuri," replied Nabiki
in a sardonic tone of voice. "You've had a firm hand on the boy for as
long as I've known you. One of my little spies even told me about his
latest loss to you before I came over. An entire week as a slave to all
your desires?" Nabiki smirked at the other girl.
"Well, uh..." stammered Sayuri, her cheeks turning red. "It's not
like that at all!"
"Who was it who got Hiroshi-kun to take you on dates for an entire
month, just last month?" asked Nabiki, looking like a hunter who has
just discovered prey.
"They weren't dates!" shouted Sayuri, her cheeks were now burning
even brighter. She immediately lowered her voice. "He was just, um,
paying off another bet."
"Uh huh," grunted Nabiki, still smirking. "Whatever you say,
Sayuri-chan." She turned her attention back to the redheaded scholar
girl and gestured casually with a hand. "Ranko here can have any guy
at the Academy for the asking, but she keeps having to deal with my
brother coming on to her in his own clumsy way."
"I never asked for that," grumbled Ranko. "And how does fighting
with me equal courting?"
"You have to know my brother as well as I do, Ranko-chan," said
Nabiki with a knowing look. "I think you remind my brother of our
mother."
Ranko made an annoyed-looking face, and Sayuri looked surprised.
"My mother was a soldier when she married my daddy," said Nabiki
in a neutral tone of voice. "I suspect that my brother likes warrior-type
women for that reason."
"So that's why he keeps challenging me?" asked Ranko, sounding
very doubtful. Nabiki nodded.
"He talks about you at home," said Nabiki calmly. "I think that
you're the first girl he's met who's as tough as he is."
"Huh," grunted Ranko. "I'm actually tougher than he is." She
rubbed a finger along a bruise on her jaw.
"It sounds like love all right, Ranko," said Sayuri, quite happy to
turn the attention away from her.
"Your brother is weird, Nabiki," said Ranko, shaking her head. "I
mean, that's pretty twisted to like a girl who beats you up all the time.
How come you've never told me this before?"
"Well, you were awfully hard on him today," said Nabiki, frowning
coldly at the other girl. "Kaneda-kun may be a bit dimwitted at times,
like most males, but he is part of my family. I just thought you might
go a little easier on him next time if you knew where he was coming
from." She pointed a finger at Ranko and her tone of voice turned
accusational. Besides, I've even seen you smile sometimes during the
fights, so admit it, you like fighting with my little brother." Sayuri's
eyes got big as she stared at her redheaded friend.
"Well, maybe a little," admitted Ranko reluctantly, and Sayuri's
already large eyes managed to get a little bit bigger. "He's not a bad
martial artist, but I could put up with less insults from the jerk." She
made a tight fist and snarled as she said, "Can you believe that he even
keeps calling me an unfeminine sort? I'm as feminine as the next girl,
damn it!"
"Of course you are, Ranko-chan," agreed Nabiki smoothly. "I've
never thought of you as otherwise. Too many of our male peers equate
a strong woman with an unfeminine woman, like we all should be
some sort of meek doll for them to do with us as they will. I for one
refuse to deal with a guy on those terms."
"I didn't even know that you dealt with guys much at all outside of
business, Nabiki," said Ranko, calming down. "You actually have
dated some of them?"
"A few," acknowledged Nabiki with a slight wave of her hand, her
cool demeanor back. "I seem to frighten most of them as much as you
do, Ranko-chan. Still, there are one or two that somehow manage to
be interesting to me in other than a purely professional manner."
"Care to name any names, Nabiki-sempai?" asked Sayuri, her sense
of curiosity getting the best of her.
"Not especially," said Nabiki with a pointed look, as she enjoyed the
rather discomfited expression on Sayuri's face. "It takes a rare man
indeed who can intrigue me for long."
"What about Kunou?" asked Ranko, gesturing over her shoulder
with her thumb at the unconscious kendoist being carried into the
main building. "He's rich, and he's a high noble."
"Are you trying to convince me or yourself, Ranko-chan?" asked
Nabiki coolly, feeling irritated at the other girl. Ranko blushed briefly
at that, and then Nabiki continued speaking. "Kunou-kun is a good
enough catch in his own way, I suppose. After all, living amidst all
that luxury does have a certain appeal, but there's more to life than
money. I live comfortably enough for my needs already, so why
submit myself to a man for more?"
"That's sort of surprising coming from you, Nabiki," said Ranko.
"Money is just one way of keeping score in the game, dear Ranko,"
said Nabiki with a cold smile. "The other way is through favors and
power over others. I prefer the second, but I enjoy having the first. If
I can find myself an intelligent man who could advance that, as well as
offer other suitable inducements to make a marriage worthwhile, then
that man is going to be mine." Her tone was matter of fact.
"Just like that?" asked Sayuri, a little doubtfully.
"Of course," admitted Nabiki, her usual sardonic look back on her
face. "I am not unattractive by any means, and I have a good head on
my shoulders to go with my physical assets. I doubt that any man will
be able to resist me for long, once I set my mind to making him mine.
Of course, I would also enjoy a challenge before I win, maybe a certain
amount of resistance, but I would win. Nabiki Tendou doesn't like to
lose."
"I feel sorry for any guy you set your sights on, Nabiki," said Ranko
thoughtfully. "He won't know what hit him."
"Be glad that you're not a man, Ranko," said Nabiki with an odd
tone in her voice. "If you were, I could have you wrapped around my
little finger inside of a month, guaranteed."
Ranko snorted.
"You doubt me?" said Nabiki with a slight pout. "Ranko, I'm hurt."
She quickly replaced the pout with her usual expression.
"Let's just say that I'm not convinced that all guys are that easy to
fool with a pretty face and some soft words," replied Ranko. "I know
if I was a guy, you couldn't win me over that easy. A smart guy could
see right through any games."
"For someone who regularly expresses such disdain for the males of
the human species, you seem to think quite highly of their reasoning
abilities," said Nabiki with a note of sarcasm in her voice.
"I just want to believe that not all guys are stupid perverts driven by
their hormones," said Ranko with irritation. "That's all I mean."
The other two girls looked doubtfully at Ranko as they all walked
into the building. Classes were soon to begin.
******************************
***** Earth #0001-001
Tatewaki Kunou stood outside the walls of the Imperial Academy,
dressed in the traditional styles of his warrior ancestors instead of his
uniform from Whitehall Academy. Resting comfortably in his hand
was the haft of a wooden sword, though he was now of an age where
he could carry steel if he chose, and his father had gifted him with a
well-crafted set of daisho (katana and wakizashi) for his sixteenth
birthday. The truth of the matter was that Kunou was not actually
seeking to kill Ranma, only defeat him utterly (perhaps breaking a few
bones in his declared enemy in the process), and then he would display
the battered remains to his beloved sister.
*Ahh, Kodachi, my sister* thought Kunou. *Such a fragile and
delicate flower art thou. The duty of defending thy honor thus falls to
me, as thy elder brother, to smite the cur who would seek thy hand so
unworthily. Ranma Saotome shall know humility and pain when I am
done with him. It is inconceivable that it should be otherwise.*
At his side, dressed in his Whitehall uniform, a silken scarf of the
snowiest white added for effect, stood Mikado Sanzenin. Held in one
of his hands were his own weapons, twin jo sticks, as he stood within
easy talking distance of Kunou. As his bokken-wielding companion
had fallen into a thoughtful mode, he amused himself by eyeing a few
of the young lovelies entering the grounds of the Academy. He was
actually rather impressed with the selection available and was making
note of some faces that he desired to know the names and phone
numbers of later. Unfortunately since he was acting as Tatewaki's
second, he remained by his friend's side. The women could wait until
a more appropriate time, but he was sure that the sight of two young
Lords of the Empire was making an impression upon their passionate
hearts.
Kunou spied Nabiki Tendou walking down the street and hailed her
with a wave of his hand, his eagerness to see if she had any photos of
her sister overcoming his usual stoicism. "Tendou-san," he greeted
her formally. "I do not see your lovely sister with you this fine day. I
trust that she is well and hale?"
"Milord Kunou," said Nabiki, bowing politely to him, a touch of
amusement in her voice. "My sister is well, but she has other concerns
occupying her today." She eyed Mikado Sanzenin with a neutral look,
brief memories of his counterpart filling her mind's eye, and her own
thoughts of him were quite the opposite of the ones that she was the
subject of from the aristocrat in question. She decided to have a little
fun at Mikado's expense and gave a polite, little bow in his direction.
"Sanzenin-san, I presume?"
"Sanzenin-sama," corrected Mikado gently, and her opinion of him
dropped a few points, not that it had started all that highly placed to
begin with. He was amazed that the beautiful girl before him already
knew his name, but he reasoned that she was doubtless an admirer of
his, perhaps having seen his photograph in one of the newspapers that
reported on the doings of the Nobility. "You are indeed a very lovely
creature, Tendou-san." He took hold of her hand, an act that caused
Nabiki to blink at the breach in protocol, and he smiled warmly at her,
with a hint of seductiveness rising in his tones. "Perhaps after my
companion and I are finished with our business, you might do me the
honor of giving me your phone number?"
*What a pompous ass,* decided Nabiki, her thoughts about the
young nobleman darkening. His touch was even mildly revolting to
her, as well as the lecherous appraisal that she had noticed him giving
her. She firmly withdrew her hand from his grip, casually tapping one
of the Shiatsu pressure points on his wrist with her other hand when
he refused to let go at first, causing his hand to spasm open with a very
painful muscle cramp. "I'm afraid that will not be possible, Sanzenin-
san," she said coolly. "My social calendar is quite full."
"A pity," said Mikado through gritted teeth at the sudden pain in his
hand, rubbing it casually to ease the intense cramp in it, not realizing
that Nabiki's innocent-looking caress from her other hand had caused
it. He could not seem to get his hand to close for several moments as a
few more waves of spasms went through it before finally subsiding
away. The pain also distracted him enough that he had not noticed
her refusal to use the '-sama' honorific with his name. "It would have
been very," he paused for a moment as he searched for the appropriate
word, "gratifying allowing my humble self the great honor of showing
you the many great pleasures that I have to offer." He allowed his
gaze to pointedly linger on her chest before bringing it reluctantly
back upon her face. With an ingratiating smile, he finished, "Many
great pleasures indeed."
*Ick,* thought Nabiki with disgust, suddenly feeling an intense urge
to flatten the lecherous nobleman on general principles. *If Ranma
doesn't kick your ass, then I will.*
"Have you had a chance to obtain any of the small tokens of my lady
love for me that I requested of you yet, Nabiki Tendou?" asked Kunou,
interrupting Mikado's ill-fated attempt at seduction.
Nabiki turned to face him, in her mind calculating just how many
different ways that she could put Mikado down using only one major
muscle group area to attack with. She only came up with twelve. That
number just wasn't high enough to suit her, so she expanded her
search to include two areas and was more gratified at the result.
"I have managed to obtain a few photos of my little sister to tide you
over for now, Milord Kunou," said Nabiki with a sardonic grin. She
held them up in her hand casually, five photos from her scrapbook, of
Akane training. "I have not yet been able to get you a lock of her hair
though. That may take awhile."
Kunou actually began to tremble a bit at the sight of the photos of
Akane. His expression spoke volumes for the depths of his desires.
"I think two thousand yen each will be sufficient for my expenses on
the matter," said Nabiki smoothly. She felt a little odd for doing this,
even though it was the exact same sort of act that she would normally
have given little reaction to only a few days before. It was distracting
to her, and also more than a little annoying. The pictures in her hand
weren't even very risqu�. She had several female cadets that she knew
certain things about, things that they did not want known publicly, and
she had traded on that information to get them to pose for pictures in
lingerie, only hiding their faces with masks to ensure that they would
continue to cooperate in this. The pictures of just one or two of the
five cadets in question made up the bulk of that little side business for
her. Nabiki spied Mikado eyeing her with a speculative look, and she
was reasonably certain where his thoughts might now be going as to
what else he thought she might do for money. *Hurt him really bad,
Ranma,* she quickly amended to her earlier thoughts about the other
aristocrat.
"The gods themselves would weep at such a price, but I shall pay
it," said Kunou loftily, his eyes fixated on the small photos of Akane in
various poses. He pulled out his wallet from his robes and quickly
counted out ten thousand-yen notes into Nabiki's outstretched palm.
He took the photos from her and gazed at them with adoration. *Ahh,
my beautiful tigress,* he thought with a smile. *How I love you so.*
"I will see what I can have for you next week, Milord," said Nabiki,
pocketing the money with another quiver of conscience. "You might
also be interested in learning that my sister will be getting transferred
to a new school on Monday." Kunou's head snapped up.
"She will finally be away from that cur, Saotome?" asked Kunou, a
gleam in his eyes. "Truly the gods have answered my prayers then!
Hah!" He struck a majestic pose. "Then all that remains is to smite
the fiendish Saotome and rescue my sister from his lustful desires."
At that moment, Ranma came walking around the corner and
spotted the waiting Kunou and company. *Oh, damn,* thought
Ranma, noting that the aristocrat was armed and dressed in the same
sort of archaic outfit that his counterpart usually wore. He also saw
Mikado Sanzenin standing with Kunou and was mildly puzzled at
that. Finally, he saw Nabiki with them, but she had apparently just
concluded some business with Kunou as she was standing to one side.
Shrugging his shoulders at what he felt was inevitable somehow, he
continued walking towards Kunou.
Kunou's eyes looked down from gazing upwards at the sky in a pose
that he thought made him look virtuous and caught sight of Ranma,
and he felt a savage hatred possess him. *Now I shall finally smite the
villainous Saotome and show him to be the lowly and unworthy peon
that he truly is,* thought Kunou, beginning to smile nastily. The point
of his weapon moved slightly.
Mikado reluctantly tore his eyes away from his admiration of Nabiki
Tendou to see what Kunou was now looking at. *This is the man that
stole Kodachi-chan's heart from me?* he thought with amazement, a
grin crossing his face. *Kunou-kun will take him apart in seconds.*
He stepped back a pace to give his friend some fighting room, certain
that this would all be over quickly.
Nabiki spotted Ranma and gave an inward smile. She headed over
to her usual area for doing business and rounded up her assistants.
The setup for a betting pool began, and she set the odds to encourage
bets against Ranma.
"Ranma Saotome," intoned Kunou solemnly, feeling the desire to
smite Ranma growing as the other boy walked towards him. "Allow
me to introduce myself. I am Tatewaki Kunou, of the most noble
House of Kunou, undefeated Duelist of Whitehall Academy, and I am
here to forcibly prevent you from taking advantage of my naive, little
sister, as well as stopping thy lecherous advances against the beauteous
Akane Tendou." Kunou raised his weapon to point it at Ranma.
"I see," said Ranma calmly, again feeling an odd sort of inevitability
about the whole encounter. He set down his bag very casually, not
taking his eyes off of Kunou, and then stood up straight and looked
him squarely in the eyes. "And I am Ranma Saotome, of the Clan
Saotome." His eyes flickered to Nabiki while keeping Kunou on the
edge of his vision, as she watched the spectacle taking place while she
accepted bets, and he pitched his voice loudly enough for her to hear.
"I am Heir to the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts, and I accept
your challenge."
Nabiki briefly locked stares with Ranma across the short distance
separating them. *Oh, you really think so, do you, Ranma-kun?* she
thought, looking at him with a flat gaze. *You and I have something
to... discuss, it sounds like.* She broke the duel of stares after a few
moments and went back to accepting bets on the outcome.
Kunou sniffed disdainfully and attacked, and Ranma leaped over his
head, lashing out with a kick to the aristocrat's skull. He hoped to end
this quickly, but Kunou took the strike better than he had expected
him to. They went into a blur of motion for several seconds, engaging
each other at a speed that only Nabiki and Mikado could really follow
with clarity. Ranma found himself slightly hindered by the uniform,
cutting into his skill and agility advantage a bit, but he was still more
than Kunou could deal with. He heard a faint rip from one of the
seams of his jacket as he fought, but he did not let it distract him from
dealing with the young nobleman.
Within moments, it was over. Kunou took the full brunt from one
of Ranma's kicks, hitting him across his jaw and slamming him back
into the wall at his back. The nobleman actually left a series of faint
cracks in the stonework from the impact of his body against it. When
he didn't do the sensible thing and collapse unconscious immediately,
Ranma punched him across the face a few times until he did, taking
care not to leave any serious damage. When Kunou finally slumped to
the ground unconscious, Ranma turned his eyes to Mikado.
"Ready to try your luck, Mikado?" asked Ranma with a glimmer of
humor in his eyes.
"You will address me as Lord Sanzenin, you peasant," said Mikado
coldly. He had been more surprised than the rest to see Kunou taken
down so easily by Ranma, knowing how skilled his fellow aristocrat
was with a weapon, but he was not afraid to face the pigtailed boy. "I
challenge your claim to Kodachi Kunou."
"Kodachi is just a friend," said Ranma, pausing a moment to study
the other boy. "I've got no real interest in her beyond that, so there's
no need for violence."
"Liar!" accused Mikado, glaring at Ranma. "How could any man
resist such a woman? The sight of her eyes gazing with love at you.
The feel of her soft lips parted in a passionate kiss. The thought of
that silken-skinned, athletic body wrapped around you. How could
any man resist the thought of that?!"
"Well, when you put it _that_ way..." murmured Ranma, pitched
low enough that only Mikado could hear it. His attempt at humor
seemed to drive the other boy into an almost frothing rage.
Ranma was really trying hard to be reasonable about all of this, but
nobody seemed to want to listen to him. He moved closer to Mikado,
and immediately had to dodge a blurring strike from one of the jo
sticks in the other boy's hand. There had not even been a blink or a
flickering of the eyes to warn him that an attack was coming, so it
came very close to breaking a rib if Ranma had not dodged it.
Dodging and ducking under and around Mikado's two wooden
weapons, Ranma was taken by surprise when the taller boy's foot also
lashed out and caught him in the thigh in a glancing blow. *That's
what you get for being cocky,* Ranma scolded himself. He studied
Mikado's movements with the eyes of a scientist. *He's using Escrima,
both armed and unarmed styles. Moderately interesting, but this won't
even be a challenge.* Ranma leaped up into the air and lashed out
with three quick kicks that Mikado was unable to block or dodge, each
one whipping his face into the next strike that came in. Ranma landed
back on his feet and noted that Mikado wasn't moving, only standing
there with a blank look on his face.
"You awake in there?" asked Ranma, waving his hand in front of
Mikado's sightless eyes. He calmly tapped his finger against the other
boy's forehead, and Mikado Sanzenin fell like an uprooted tree. "I
thought not." Ranma went over and picked up his bag and quickly
dusted it off, before walking past the entire student body and into the
main building.
Nabiki smiled after he passed her. *Nicely done, Ranma,* she
thought, sparing the fallen Mikado a cold look. Hardly anyone had bet
on Ranma, so she had just cleared quite a lot of money. It made her
feel a little more charitable to the pigtailed boy, even though she also
felt that she was obviously the better choice to lay claim to being Heir
to the Anything-Goes School between the two of them.
Upstairs, in his office, Dean Fuyutsuki studied the commotion that
had just occurred down at the main gate with interest. After learning
that Kodachi Kunou would now be attending here, he had taken a little
time to refamiliarize himself with her file and that of her brother. He
suspected that it was most likely Tatewaki who had just accosted
Ranma, based on what he had seen of the aristocrat's most recent
psychological profile, but the distance was too great for him to be sure.
He had been unable to see most of the fight due to the wall blocking
his view, but Ranma had emerged unscathed from the altercation.
That pleased him. *The Saotome boy is proving to be a fascinating
case study,* he thought with a faint smile, sitting back down behind
his desk and folding his hands in thought.
******************************
***** Earth #0001-812
Ranko tried hard to keep from yawning as her homeroom instructor
finished calling the roll for the class. Wearing one of her usual bored
looks on her face, she turned her gaze to stare out the window to her
left. She dimly heard the instructor as he began talking about the topic
for the class, Civics, that subject filled with all of the usual sort of
propaganda on being a good Citizen in the Empire. Ranko tuned it
out completely and continued to stare out the window. There wasn't
even a grade offered for the class, and none of this was ever going to
be on a test, so she did not let it concern her.
Sensei Tokimo began to drone his way through the lengthy lesson,
and most of the students joined with Ranko in letting thoughts wander.
The teacher's monotone voice continued on, and eyes began glazing
over. *If the man would only sound excited, or even raise his voice
occasionally, then it would be easier to take,* thought Ranko as she
watched the sky outside.
A short time later, Ranko unlocked the door to her lab. She paused
for a moment to take it all in. In this special place she could forget
about her troubles with her mother, Kaneda Tendou, and Tatewaki
Kunou, so thoughts of things outside her experiment had no place here
now. Ranko was on the brink of a new adventure in her life, and she
imagined that she could even smell the promise in the air. It would be
here that she was going to prove her mastery of time and space, and
her brilliance was about to become unquestioned.
Ranko flipped on the lights and tossed her bookbag into the chair by
the workbench. She locked the door securely behind her, so that she
could be assured of remaining undisturbed. Ranko felt strongly like
rubbing her hands together in glee that all of her efforts were finally
about to be rewarded. *Today it all comes together,* she thought with
eagerness. *Today I get to see some of Father's alternate worlds. I can
hardly wait.*
Quickly flipping on the main power bar, Ranko let the machine
warm up. She ignored the self-check routines that she had written as
the device went through them, only to note absently that everything
was operating in its proper parameters. After assembling the device
yesterday, she had managed to obtain full synchronization with
another life on her first try. If she had had more time, her first full
submersion test would have taken place shortly thereafter, but there
had not.
*Today is the day though,* Ranko thought smugly. *Today I show
the world that the beautiful Ranko Saotome is as brilliant a scientist as
she is a skilled fighter. Maybe even more so.* She eyed the last few
lines as they came up on the screen and tapped in her responses.
*SCAN FOR NEW COORDINATES: YES
*SELECT QUANTUM BAND FOR SCAN: RANDOM
*SET CYCLE INTO ACTIVE MODE: YES
*SET TIME DURATION FOR TEST: 30.00 MINUTES
*WAITING FOR SIGNAL FROM NEURAL INTERLINK HEADSET
*Here we go,* thought Ranko as she picked up the headset from its
resting place next to the keyboard. She sat down on the ugly couch
and rested herself back, placing the headset upon her skull. There was
a tickling along the inside of her skull, vaguely pleasant in a strange
way. *Let's do it!*
In the background, the computer spoke in gentle tones, its artificial
male voice repeating over and over for several seconds as it scanned
through the parallels, "Searching... Searching... Searching...."
Suddenly, it spoke the words that she felt that she had been waiting
for her entire life, "Quantum signature match found. Now activating
cycle."
******************************
***** Earth #0018-101
"Run, Ranko!" shouted her mother's voice, as Nodoka, dressed in
jeans and a man's style shirt, came bursting into the clearing that she
found herself standing in and headed at her at a dead run. They were
in a jungle somewhere, Ranko quickly determined, as she felt sweat
running down her torso and saw heavy plant growth around. Angry
shouts in a language that she did not know sounded from the trees
behind her mother.
Not knowing what else to do, Ranko turned and ran, slowing only
for a minute as her mother caught up to and pulled ahead of her,
letting her take the lead. She spared herself a brief look, finding
herself dressed in a pair of shorts, a man's shirt with the front tied
together so that it exposed some of her trim belly, calf-high socks, and
boots. A small pack rose on her back, and a battered, brown, fedora-
style hat rode on her head, now held down by one hand as she ran
along behind her mother.
*What the hell is going on?!* Ranko wondered fiercely as she and
Nodoka ran for their lives. She spared a single glance back and saw
what looked like a hundred brown-skinned people armed with spears
and blowguns emerge into the clearing at a dead run. That sight
encouraged her to run a little faster.
After several minutes, they came to a screeching halt at the edge of
a cliffside. Below them ran a muddy river, the waters deep and wide
as they roiled along. Ranko saw her mother stuffing a small, glittering
crystal of some sort into the satchel at her waist before turning to face
her daughter. Whatever it was, it looked valuable. She looked at
Ranko and smiled, acting as if she was enjoying every minute of this,
securing her waist satchel more firmly.
"We're going to have to jump!" shouted Nodoka. "All of those
headhunters want the eye of their sacred idol back pretty badly, and
our own heads along with it! So, off you go!" Her hand shoved Ranko
hard in the lower back, and she was catapulted out into space. She
gave off a long scream as she plummeted towards the water below.
Ranko hit with a splash, going in feet first, and a surge of memories
filled her mind at that same moment. She swallowed a little of the
muddy water from the double shock and came up sputtering and
coughing when her head finally broke the surface. She had managed
to somehow keep a grip on her hat, apparently instinctively feeling it
to be important to her. As she coughed out some water and gasped in
air, she let the memories wash over her.
She was Ranko Saotome, only daughter of Nodoka and Genma
Saotome. Her father died from an illness when she was only a baby.
Her mother was Doctor Nodoka Saotome, an adventuring archeologist
(and treasure hunter), known around the world. She had taken Ranko
everywhere with her since her husband's passing: raiding from the
tombs of ancient China, scouring the sands of the Arabian Deserts for
priceless, lost artifacts of kings, and even traipsing around the jungles
of South America. That was where she was now, in Peru specifically.
It had been an exciting life at times and quite educational. She spoke
a dozen languages and was comfortable in twice that many cultures.
After several long minutes of swimming, Ranko finally dragged
herself from the water, on the far side of the river from where she was
shoved in by her mother. Hearing a metallic click, she looked up to
see a girl her own age, dressed fashionably in tight shorts, snug shirt,
and a Panama hat, keeping her covered with a pistol. Ranko
recognized the other girl with a blink of surprise.
It was Kodachi Kunou.
"I see we meet again, Miss Saotome," said Kodachi, before laughing
at her, a chilling sound. "My, you do seem to be a mess, wallowing
around in the mud like that. Still, that only seems fair for leaving me
and my mother in that nasty predicament in China. Those barbaric
Amazons were not pleased to find us trussed up in their sacred tomb.
Luckily my mother managed to convince them that we were victims
ourselves of you and that horrid woman you call your mother." She
gestured with the pistol for Ranko to get out.
Ranko struggled out of the thick mud, hearing it squelching rather
unpleasantly in her boots. *Well, this life is certainly an interesting
one,* she thought. She took a few steps and her head fogged up as a
grayness fell across her vision.
******************************
***** Earth #0001-812
"Recall complete."
Ranko blinked her eyes and grinned. Her first test run with the full
submersion protocols running, and it was a complete success. She got
up and checked through the data, as soon as the room finally stopped
wobbling a few moments later. *Must be some sort of phase distortion
that I haven't quite compensated for,* she decided, her eyes studying
the numbers that flowed across her screen. She sat back and let
another grin cross her face.
"YATAH!!!" Ranko shouted with glee, pumping her fists into the
air. The rush that she felt at her success was immense. "I am such a
genius! Hah! Just let's see some hormonally-challenged boy match
me in intellect!" She immediately began setting up for her next test
run, eager to see what else she could discover in her alternate lives.
******************************
***** Earth #0001-001
Ranma gently touched another spot on the circuitboard with the
voltage meter, noting the level of power running through the wiring.
He checked it against his notes, finding it to match his specifications
exactly. Moving to the last connection, he found another match to his
notes, and he then set the meter down. *That's it,* he thought, a little
puzzled at finding nothing. All of the resistors and transistors were
working at their stated specs, so there was no way for the power surge
to have even reached the coil, unless it had been generated within the
coil itself. But that was ridiculous, or at least that was where Ranma's
thinking was going.
Leaning back, Ranma stretched out his arms and legs, feeling them
loosen from the cramped position that he had been seated in for the
last several hours. It was getting to be late in the afternoon, and he
still wanted to test the system with a couple of runs now that he had
checked out all of the components. *There is no way that the surge
could have occurred in the coil, but it did,* thought Ranma with a
frown, hating having a mystery like that. He had checked every circuit
pathway three times to be sure of that, and none of them were the
source of the mysterious surge. The energy to do so would have had to
come in from along the signal pulse somehow, and the probability of
such an occurrence happening was so low as to be beyond imagining.
Yet it had happened twice in only a few days. It left Ranma puzzled.
*A fluke event,* Ranma decided. He had checked every other one
of the possibilities that he could think of and eliminated them, leaving
only two remaining. One, it was a feedback problem of some sort,
perhaps caused by his linking with certain quantum frequencies and
resulting in an energy surge pulled from the quantum foam itself, the
vast energy field where the different timelines were suspended like
stations on a radio dial. Or, two, it was an act of Kami-sama. Either
way, it left him with a single decision, to abandon the research or
continue to use the device.
Ranma wasn't sure what to do.
He had come so far, devoted so much time to this experiment, that
he could not bring himself to simply stop. He sat and stared at the
device. The Quantum Neural Resonator was his life's great work. It
had enabled him to add more to his notes on the anti-gravity device,
after all. *I'll... just run a few more tests,* he decided, picking up the
headset and flipping the power on. *I'll try a few of the frequencies
that I have already recorded.* He took a few minutes and hacked the
software code to trigger recall mode if the coil's power level surged
beyond one percent over baseline. It was a simple enough change, and
it should provide him with a modicum of safety for his remaining
tests.
Ranma tapped away at the keyboard, taking his time as he set up for
the next test run. He checked the clock on his wall and noted that he
still had a couple of hours until his training class. He pulled up one of
the files and waited for it to load.
*QUANTUM COORDINATE FILE #0000004 LOADING INTO
ACTIVE MATRIX... PLEASE STAND BY...
*MATRIX LOADED... FILE #0000004. DETAILS? YES
*FILE #0000004 - QUANTUM DIVERGENCE POINT OCCURRED:
158 YEARS
3 MONTHS
0 DAYS
5 HOURS
57 MINUTES
59 SECONDS AGO.
*There is an odd sort of progression following here,* noticed
Ranma, looking at the breakdown of the file. *So far, the early scans
are roughly one quantum band apart. Yet some bands must be getting
skipped, since I am getting to band sixteen on files eleven and twelve.
Puzzling.* He felt sweat on his palms and rubbed them against the
cloth of his pants. He settled back onto the couch and put the headset
on, listening to the computer speak softly in the background.
"Activating cycle."
******************************
***** Earth #0004-998
Ranma was staring up at the ceiling of his room, lying on his futon.
This familiar thing surprised him due to the lateness of the hour. It
was only the middle of the afternoon, and he was in bed, but he did not
feel sick at all. In fact, his body seemed to have a lethargic feeling of
satisfaction running through it. He blinked his eyes and waited for his
mind to awaken and clear a bit, since he had apparently entered his
counterpart while he was just waking up from a nap or something, so
his thoughts felt a little fuzzy. *What's going on?*
That was about when Ranma noticed that there was an arm lying
across his chest, and a warm body cuddled comfortably against his
side, completely hidden beneath the covers. To say that he was
surprised by this would be putting it mildly, but he blamed it on the
sleepy state he had found himself in. This body was in such a relaxed
and comfortable state that it took a little motion from the body lying
next to him to call his attention to it. Not even the top of her head was
visible, so all he had to go on for identification purposes was that: a)
the body was quite obviously female, and b) she had an athletic build.
A warm gust of breath wafted against his shoulder. A female voice
mumbled softly against his side, but the words spoken were totally
unintelligible.
Ranma's eyes darted around the room, and he was uncertain what to
do. Posters of several martial arts action movies were tacked up on a
few locations around the walls, a severe contrast to his own rather bare
walls at home. He blinked when he noticed that three of them even
had himself pictured prominently on them, with action movie titles
such as: "Young Master: The Legend Begins"; "Young Master II:
Warrior of the Empire"; and (this title was the one that was most
amusing to him, apparently a comedy of some sort) "Big Trouble In
Nekonron, China."
He stared at them, feeling a chuckle threatening to bubble up from
inside him, distracting him briefly from trying to figure out who it was
lying next to him. He focused his mind on this more important matter.
*Who is lying next to me? Who is lying next to me?* He repeated
this mental question like a mantra, hoping to stir up his fragmented
memories to make themselves available quicker. He blinked his eyes
again as the name finally came to him, along with a brief rush of
memories.
*Shampoo?* he realized with shock. He gently lifted up the covers
with his free hand and took a quick look downwards, and seeing her
head of long, tousled, violet hair confirmed it. He moved a little bit to
one side, trying to ease away from her in order to get out of bed. The
Chinese Amazon firmly held on to his arm in her sleep, a pleased
smile curling her lips. She muttered something softly in Mandarin,
then sighed as she tightened her hold on his arm. Ranma decided to
just lie back and see if any new memories would unfold.
As expected, the kaleidoscope of memories filled his mind, scenes
from an alternate life. He was Ranma Saotome, Heir to the Saotome
School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, the only school of martial arts
descended from the Founding School, and for the last three years he
had been one of the biggest box office hits in the martial arts action
movie genre. The "Young Master" series alone had already made him
wealthy by the time he was fifteen, and his latest film, the comedy that
he was looking at the poster of, was even now earning yen by the
truckload across the Empire. It was a surprising life to find himself
living, but the surprises did not end there.
The other unexpected (but not unwelcome) change was the girl at
his side, his wife. Apparently, right around the time of his sixteenth
birthday, to prove his detractors wrong, those who called his fighting
scenes faked, he had gone to China to participate in the 'Tournament
of the Amazons' and had been given the unexpected opportunity to go
up against Shampoo, recently acclaimed the Village Champion, by a
series of amusing circumstances. The purple-haired Amazon had been
obviously unimpressed by the sight of him, at first, which had irritated
the young star, used to having girls his own age flocking to him. The
two young warriors had fought hard for close to an hour before he
finally managed to overcome her skills and knock her out. He did not
even really remember their wedding night though, and he suspected it
was due to some sort of special Amazon alcoholic drink he had been
given at the victory celebration.
When he had awoken the next morning, Shampoo was sleeping at
his side, murmuring words of love in her sleep in Mandarin. She had
not left his side for a single night since then, and his nose had a drop
of blood emerge from it at the memories of what had gone on every
night, almost always multiple times, since his marriage to her. *I had
no idea that Shampoo was so, er, eager in bed,* he thought with some
amazement, *or that she was so flexible.* A second drop of blood
then joined the first, and he backed away from looking at more such
memories to examine what this version of himself knew of the history
of this timeline.
For someone who had always before expressed great disdain about
the importance of history, Ranma was now getting quite a first-hand
education on the significance of changes to it. In this timeline, like in
his own, the final conquering of China by the Sixth Japanese Imperial
Army led to the interesting discovery of a small tribe of very special
people, the Joketsuzoku Amazons of China. He could not remember
how things had happened in China in his own timeline, but he knew
that it had not gone quite as it had here.
In this timeline, the Amazons had tried their best to fight against
the invaders, but it was ultimately in vain. Their special martial arts
techniques that they had used in combat had seemed like sorcery to the
first troops, but the iron determination of the Emperor to allow for no
defiance of his divine rule refused to admit surrender. It was even
thought that only by completely exterminating the Amazons would
victory be attained, but a chance meeting had changed that destiny.
A young soldier, and one of Ranma's direct ancestors, named Ryu
Saotome, was on solo reconnaissance near the regions of Joketsuzoku.
He surprised a young maiden warrior of the Amazons, also on solo
reconnaissance for her people, and they had fought. It was said that
they struggled through half the night against each other, using only
naked fist and steel, by the light of a full moon. In the end, Ryu had
emerged as the victor. The young Amazon pledged herself to him as
his wife, per her own people's laws. Ryu was an honorable warrior
from a proud samurai family, and the Amazon named So Pu was
comely, so he had agreed to the marriage.
The Emperor of that time, upon hearing the report of this young
warrior conquering an Amazon as an individual, came up with a very
radical plan. Armies were proving to be impractical against such a
remote enemy, and there were always hot-blooded sons of the many
samurai families looking for challenges. The Emperor sent a long
letter to the Chief Matriarch of the Amazons, Khu Lon. In it was a
challenge, as well as a treaty. The Amazons would not be destroyed,
but they must withdraw from the defense of China. In exchange for
this, the Emperor made a pledge to send ten of his very finest young
warriors to challenge ten young Amazons to single combat. He also
stated that the warriors sent would all be unmarried men.
The specific terms of the challenge were still considered a state
secret, but over time it became commonly known as the 'Tournament
of the Amazons.' The Emperor sent his emissaries throughout the
islands of Japan to find warriors of superior martial arts ability, and
the ten finest warriors that were found took up the challenge eagerly.
Out of this original group, six of the ten young men emerged from the
Tournament victorious and claimed Amazons as brides. The Emperor
honored his pledge, the Chinese Amazons were left alone, and they in
turn left China to its eventual fate.
Since that day, over a century and a half ago, it had become a sign
of skill to attend the Tournament of the Amazons. Any man winning
an Amazon bride was able to remain there in the village, or he could
return to Japan with her. Ranma had been the first of his family line
since the days of his ancestor, Ryu, to attend the Tournament, held
every twelve years since that initial treaty was signed. The result of
his trip, and a mark of great honor for the Saotome family, was the
lovely girl who was sleeping beside him. She had been his wife for
less than two months.
Shampoo shifted her position and casually draped one long leg
across his body as she snuggled happily against him. Ranma felt a
cold sweat break out on his forehead and swallowed nervously. *I'm
just going to lie here and pretend to be still asleep,* he decided,
fervently trying to ignore the odd sensations awakening in his body
from the feel of Shampoo's leg gently moving against his body. *It
just wouldn't be right to take advantage of this, uh, situation.* The
soft silk nightgown clinging to her body was very sheer, and it was not
helping Ranma's concentration at all. He tried to remember how much
time he had left before recall mode was supposed to kick in. Thirty
minutes? Twenty?
Ranma heard Shampoo's breathing suddenly change as she woke up
and peeked her head up above the covers. She moved her free arm and
gave him a hug, as he tried very hard to not look at her full breasts,
currently straining against the wispy thin silk of her nightgown as she
slid up his body. He attempted to draw his mind away from staring at
the tempting sight by reciting the periodic table of the elements, but he
lost count somewhere around Argon. The feel of her body against his
was awakening the most intriguing sensations.
"Good afternoon, Husband," said Shampoo in her singsong way of
speaking Japanese. She sat up and smiled warmly at him, her eyes
bright with affection, and then her tone of voice became a little bit
husky with her passions. "Shampoo so happy with beloved husband.
Ranma make Shampoo feel so good this morning. Ranma ready try
again? Shampoo ready." That last declared with certainty, she pulled
herself up for an openmouthed kiss, and nibbled at his lower lip very
gently.
*I suppose I could use this time as a, uh, um, learning experience,*
Ranma reasoned, feeling his thoughts becoming more confused as his
desires for her awoke further. When Shampoo's left hand drifted down
his body to grasp gently at a certain location, her fingers beginning to
insistently fondle what she found there, his resistance to her advances
crumbled quickly. *It's like my dream.* He pulled her closer to him
and felt a warmth and closeness for the Amazon that he had never felt
before for a girl, the emotions of his counterpart coloring and filling
his thoughts as he tasted her lips against his own.
"Oh, Ranma," murmured the Amazon, enjoying the feel of his lips
against her jawline after the long kiss finally broke. "Shampoo love
Ranma so much." She cooed softly.
Ranma felt her supple muscles moving under her skin, the body of
the Amazon warrior reacting to his touch as if it had been a musical
instrument made to be played by him alone. His hands rested on her
sides as they kissed once again, and that was when he absently noticed
that she was only wearing the nightgown's top and that he was naked
beneath the covers, two startling realizations that brought a third little
drop of blood from his nose, especially while feeling what Shampoo
was still doing down lower on him with her hand.
The purple-haired Amazon looked him lovingly in the eyes and
softly said, "Shampoo take Ranma up to Clouds and Rain as dutiful
wife should. Ranma relax and let Shampoo do everything."
Ranma blinked as she disappeared beneath the covers, and his
thoughts briefly cleared as his alternate's memories informed him of
what was about to happen next. He could not seem to summon up the
will to protest her actions, and a distant thought sounded in his head, a
hope that he had enough time left. His ears picked up the faint sounds
of Shampoo softly giggling as she shifted her position, her lips kissing
down to his waist area. He was now fully aroused, and it was an effort
to relax as he felt his breathing quickening like he was about to enter
into combat.
To call what happened next a completely new experience for Ranma
would have been putting it extremely mildly. Shampoo apparently
took such 'duties' as a wife very seriously, and she was putting every
possible effort into giving him maximum pleasure. He heard more
faint giggles emerging from underneath the covers as the Amazon
began her ministrations on him, and an occasional cooing sound as
well. A pleasurable tension slowly began to build within him from her
efforts, and he noticed out of the corner of his awareness that he was
now gripping the sheets to either side of him as he slowly ascended up
to the Clouds and the Rain.
*I can't believe that this is happening,* thought Ranma, his head
rearing back as the feelings of pleasure kept building and building in
intensity. *It feels so good... so good.* His eyes fell half-closed as he
let himself surrender to the many sensations assailing him, and brief
images of the women from his own life rose up in his mind unbidden
as the feelings grew closer and closer to peaking.
Then the pleasurable tension finally reached the point of no return,
and his body and mind were both overcome by the waves of orgasmic
sensations now flooding through him. A name forced its way through
his lips as he yielded himself up to the pleasure, lost in the bliss of the
moment, and, an unknown number of seconds later, the gray void of
recall claimed him, and the world faded away.
******************************
Ranma became aware of himself as his body shuddered with the last
vestiges of orgasm, his beautiful wife working her usual magic upon
him. He guessed that she had decided to awaken him in this most
pleasant of ways, thinking he had just been asleep until now. When it
was finally done, he let out a soft sigh of contentment. He felt her
pause in what she was doing. Shampoo's head emerged from beneath
the covers, a very deep frown on her face that puzzled him even as she
glared at him. A light blue aura seemed to surround her.
"Ranma say other woman's name!" she accused him. "Shampoo no
could hear name clearly, but know it not Shampoo's!"
"Huh?" said Ranma, confused by what was going on. "No, I didn't."
"Yes, Ranma did!"
"No, I did not!"
"Did!"
"Did not!"
"Did!" yelled Shampoo one final time. To punctuate her argument,
her fist then lashed out and impacted into Ranma's face, propelling
him from the bed on a ballistic course to slam into the wall, leaving a
deep impression in it as he rested partially embedded into it. "Now
Ranma learn why it not nice to play with loving Amazon wife's tender
feelings."
"Help," murmured Ranma, as the half-naked Amazon loomed up
behind him and cracked her knuckles, her eyes narrowed in that most
feared of looks by men, righteous female fury.
The sounds of carnage began to ensue.
******************************
***** Earth #0001-001
"Recall complete."
Ranma opened his eyes and sighed as the hum of the headset faded
into the background. "Wow!" he muttered, feeling quite pleased with
himself. "I never realized I could be such a stud with the ladies." He
stretched his arms up over his head and grinned happily. "I must try
and remember _that_ file in particular." He found himself to be very
tempted to link back to that reality immediately.
"No," he finally decided, sitting up to examine the data from the test
run. A lingering feeling of well-being filled him as he watched the
graphs of the power levels. The coil's power levels had risen to 0.5%
on three separate occasions for a little less than a second each but had
not crossed over the borderline he set. He looked at the clock on the
wall. "It looks like I have time for one more file before I need to quit
for the day. Let's see what file number five has to offer."
Ranma pulled the keyboard down to his lap and started typing. The
system hummed as it loaded the file information. Ranma adjusted the
headset. *I've got to see if I can make this thing smaller.*
*QUANTUM COORDINATE FILE #0000005 LOADING INTO
ACTIVE MATRIX... PLEASE STAND BY...
*MATRIX LOADED... FILE #0000005. DETAILS? YES
*FILE #0000005 - QUANTUM DIVERGENCE POINT OCCURRED:
221 YEARS
9 MONTHS
29 DAYS
14 HOURS
32 MINUTES
17 SECONDS AGO.
Ranma relaxed back onto the couch and closed his eyes, the headset
resting comfortably on his skull.
"Activating cycle."
******************************
***** Earth #0007-079
Ranma stumbled for a moment before quickly regaining his balance
as he walked along with his father. He adjusted the sunglasses that he
found himself wearing, blinking his eyes at the afternoon sunlight. He
had noticed a tendency for his eyes to dilate for a few moments after
he possessed an alternate version of himself, rendering him sensitive
to bright light. This time was no exception and the bright sunlight
was exacerbating the problem as he felt his eyes water for a moment.
He took a guess that he was somewhere in the central market district
of Tokyo as he looked around.
"Are you all right, Ranma?" asked Genma, pausing for a moment to
look back at his son. He looked impatient at the delay, apparently with
a strong desire to get to the place he seemed to be heading to. "We
need to hurry up, or we're going to be late for the auction."
"I just tripped, Father," replied Ranma, deciding that a little bit
more formality was easier to fake. *Auction?* he wondered. *Are we
going to buy a car or something?* He let himself trail along behind
his father, and they soon arrived at an area filled with people who all
seemed to be waiting for something to happen.
Genma turned to him with a smile. He was wearing a fine silk suit
in charcoal gray, and looked quite prosperous. Ranma had noticed
that he was also wearing fairly fine clothes himself, instead of a school
uniform of some sort. *I guess I don't need to go to school here, or it's
some sort of holiday,* he decided.
"Are you excited, Son?" asked Genma, looking at him expectantly.
"Uhhh... yeah," Ranma replied, trying to look eager, seeing his
father smile back at him in reply.
"That's the spirit, Son!" said Genma exultantly, clapping him on the
back as they walked over to one side of the crowd. They pushed their
way to the front of the crowd, Ranma trailing along a little bit behind
Genma like a satellite. "I hear that they even have several samples of
the legendary Chinese Amazons in the latest batch," Genma said as
they reached a point near the stage.
*Chinese Amazons?* wondered Ranma, suddenly realizing where
he was, and what they were here to buy. *Oh, no. No.* At that very
moment, the memories of his counterpart washed over him. He let
them settle into place for a moment, ignoring them as he listened to
Genma speaking.
"It's a proud day in a young man's life when he buys his first female
slave," Genma said jovially, looking at Ranma with a paternal smile.
"The Empire knows how to take care of its Citizens. Why, I remember
when I was a boy, the day I was able to purchase my first female slave,
Rina. She was fresh from the newly conquered territories in Russia,
those the Empire first acquired during the Unification War, you know.
She was a beauty."
Ranma tuned out Genma's words, focussing his thoughts on piecing
together his life in this timeline, one where the Empire now controlled
the entire globe in an iron fist. The Unification War was the name for
the final efforts by the Western European powers twenty-five years ago
to hold back the Empire from claiming them by right of conquest, but
they failed. The entire population of the planet was now divided up
under the control of the various Prefectural Governors, each of them
under the direct control of the Emperor. To be an Imperial Citizen,
and especially to be a noble, was to be a Lord of the Earth, but to be
anything else was to be some degree of slave.
The Saotome family was considered poor by most standards of the
nobility to which they belonged, but his father ran a very successful
dojo that earned him some respect and an adequate income for his
family. The Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts was alive
and well on this world, and Ranma was the designated Heir. However,
they were not the only School that claimed descent from the Founding
School under Master Happosai (dead for over fifteen years now from
some sort of training accident).
Ranma rubbed at the spot on his face where a bruise had been only
yesterday, a phantom pain, a reminder of his counterpart's less than
excellent performance in one of his frequent disagreements with the
youngest of the three daughters of the Master of the Tendou School,
Akane Tendou, on the relative strengths of their competing martial
arts schools. As usual, their disagreement had become heated, and
this Ranma had ended up receiving her fist into his face, distracted at
a critical moment by one of her seductive smiles, preventing him from
dodging. Akane hadn't pressed her advantage, instead standing back
and lowering her fists, a smirk on her face and a gleam in her eyes as
she watched him pick himself up off the ground. She had patted him
on the cheek and sauntered off. Luckily no one else had been around
to see his dismal performance.
Against a male opponent he still remained undefeated, even with
the likes of Tatewaki Kunou and Ryouga Hibiki attacking him all the
time, accusing him of trying to steal their girlfriends. Ranma blinked
at the reoccurrence of the same people being involved in this life, but
he was amused at this Ranma's problems. In this world, each of the
three Tendou sisters was very well-versed in the fighting skills of the
Tendou School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. Both schools were
famed across the Empire for the capabilities of its few students, but the
training was more rigorous than most would-be martial artists were
willing to put up with.
Of them all, this Ranma preferred to fight with Kasumi. She was
the Heir to her family's school, as he was to his, but she was also the
only one that would fight him fairly and not use any feminine wiles to
distract him during a fight, his one weakness, like Akane and Nabiki
would do with glee. Kasumi had recently returned from an exhibition
tour around the Empire, demonstrating her family's style in the various
Arenas around the globe. She had even added a few new tricks to her
arsenal since last time. Her increased skills were a fun challenge for
him, and he was working up counters for her new techniques.
Nabiki was the ultimate seductress in a fight, using her beauty to
distract him before unleashing her considerable skills at fighting to
pummel him unconscious. She had even once worn a breakaway shirt
to one of the duels that he had fought with her, which he discovered
when it came off in his hands as they were grappling with each other.
He had been totally mesmerized by the sight of her bare breasts firmly
bouncing, surprised that she had not worn a bra, a moment before her
leg had kicked him unconscious. Genma had not been pleased to hear
that Ranma had fallen for such a cheap shot.
Lastly, there was Akane, and she was the worst, at least in the eyes
of this Ranma. Strong for a girl, her frame was well-muscled on top of
a solid skeletal structure, but she was also nicely padded in all of the
right places. She was not as fast as her two older sisters, but she made
up for it with enormous power in her strikes, sufficient to shatter bone
if her fist made solid contact. Akane was not as well-built as Kasumi
or Nabiki, but she had a compact beauty all her own. She just had to
smile at him with a certain look in her eyes, and his reactions would
hesitate just enough for her to unload upon him with powerful strikes
from her fists and feet.
Genma and Soun had once been the best of friends, when they were
training with the revered Master Happosai, in this timeline one of the
most well-respected martial arts masters that had ever been see in the
Empire, but they had had a severe falling out towards the end of their
training. Each of them had desired to be the one to officially carry on
the Anything-Goes School under their name, and only under their
name, the beginnings of a rivalry that continued to this day. Only
now, each of them had passed on that rivalry to their children, and this
Ranma was outnumbered three to one.
The three Tendou girls never attacked him all at once, but they all
seemed to fight with him at least once a week. And his skills had
shown marked improvement from having regular sparring partners for
the last two years, ever since Ranma and his parents had returned from
wandering the globe. Kasumi he could fight to a standstill, and she
seemed to enjoy their encounters as a chance to polish her skills with
an equal opponent. Nabiki and Akane he generally lost to, only due to
their preying upon his weakness. They alternated in their challenges
against him, and each seemed to enjoy the duels with him much more
than he did with each of them.
That brought events to their current place in time. Genma had
finally had enough of this weakness in his son and had decided to do
something about it, so he and Ranma were here to purchase him a girl
who would be his sparring partner as well as a bedroom playmate, in
order to get him more used to fighting a girl. Inside his counterpart's
mind, Ranma mentally blinked at the notion.
The curtain opened and Ranma beheld a dozen young girls near his
age, each of them strikingly beautiful. Only two girls had hair that
differed from brown or black in color, and one of those framed a very
familiar face, with long, violet locks of hair that he had last seen in a
very different life, Shampoo. To her right was the other girl, a pink-
haired beauty who occasionally glanced at Shampoo, and her features
rivaled Shampoo's own. Both of them had the appearance of martial
artists, muscular and graceful in appearance, even weighted down by
the chains holding them.
Ranma only had eyes for Shampoo. He saw her standing tall and
proud, her posture unbowed by the chains and manacles on her wrists
and ankles, as she looked out at the crowd of men. Like the other girls
with her, Shampoo was dressed in a simple, white silk outfit composed
of a long sleeveless tunic with a short skirt that barely reached to her
thighs and was cut low in front, exposing her cleavage to easy viewing
by prospective buyers.
The pink-haired girl near Shampoo caught sight of Ranma in the
front of the crowd, the only person less than forty years of age, and she
smiled at him sexily. He shifted his gaze to look at her in surprise,
and she adjusted her posture to thrust out her nicely-endowed chest in
his direction. There was a promise contained in those eyes that was
quite captivating, and her athletic figure was very tempting to him.
She licked her lips as she looked at Ranma, and frowned murderously
at Shampoo when his eyes went back to look at her and stayed there.
Ranma was grateful for this chance to offer Shampoo a good home.
He could see in the mind of his counterpart that this Ranma was a very
honorable sort, and he would never mistreat the Amazon. He tugged
on Genma's sleeve and whispered the identity of his selection to him.
He felt a fatherly slap on his shoulders, and saw Genma nodding in
agreement with his choice.
"An excellent choice, my boy," said Genma. "She looks to have a
good amount of fighting spirit in her, and that body looks built for
being made love to by the right man. Consider her yours."
"Thank you, Father," said Ranma with genuine sincerity.
Luckily for him, Shampoo was one of the first girls placed up on
auction, so he had time to watch. She went up for sale right behind
the pink-haired girl named Perfume, who turned out to be another
Amazon. Shampoo earned a fair amount of bidding, but her cool,
defiant look limited the height that it climbed to from most of the
potential buyers. Finally, it came down to Ranma and a representative
from one of the zaibatsus, apparently recruiting for the Arena. The
Amazon, Perfume, was one of his purchases, and it looked close for a
time when it came to being able to buy Shampoo. However, he finally
dropped out, and Shampoo became his property for the sum of a little
over five million yen, a full million yen over what Perfume had gone
for in price.
When the gray void of recall finally pulled him away, he wished the
Ranma of this life good luck with his new slave.
******************************
***** Earth #0001-001
"Recall complete."
Ranma blinked up at the ceiling of his lab and smiled. He felt that
he had just done a little bit of good on one world, and it made him feel
pretty happy. *Shampoo,* thought Ranma with a smile. *In three
different lives she is part of it.* A brief fantasy about the Amazon
filled his mind as he relaxed on the couch, but he shook his head free
of it a minute or so later. He sat up and pulled the keyboard over into
his lap, his fingers beginning to tap away, calling up the diagnostic
software. He eyed the clock on the table, seeing that he only had a few
minutes left until his training class was to begin. *How time flies,* he
thought with a smile. In one day he had managed to: deal with the
annoyance of Tatewaki Kunou and Mikado Sanzenin without taking a
scratch; determine that his device design was apparently safe for his
father's use tomorrow; meet a version of Shampoo in one counterpart's
life who was his wife; and purchase another one as a slave for another
counterpart.
All in all, it seemed to have been a pretty full day so far. Now he
just had to finish up in his lab, and then he could go out and show
Nabiki Tendou that he was the better martial artist. No ties for him
today. Ranma Saotome was certain that he was going to win.
A short time later, Ranma found himself facing off against Nabiki,
both of them seated across from each other after they finished with
their stretching. He noticed that Nabiki seemed angry with him, and
he imagined that he could feel it rolling off her like waves of heat. It
was rather disconcerting.
Unlike yesterday, Ranma was now wearing his uniform for physical
education: a pair of blue shorts and a gray T-shirt emblazoned with the
words, "Property of the Imperial Academy Athletics Department." He
was wearing the black slipper shoes that Nabiki had gifted him with,
as they just felt more comfortable for this sort of training. He made a
mental note to obtain a few more outfits like the first one to expand his
wardrobe. It felt vaguely 'wrong' to dress as he was now clothed to
train in martial arts.
Across from him, Nabiki was dressed in the same sort of outfit that
she had on yesterday, only with a red Chinese-style shirt on. She saw
Ranma looking at her appraisingly with a slight smile on his face, and
she continued to glare at him but said nothing. *I'll show you who the
'Heir' to the Anything-Goes School is, Ranma-kun,* she thought with
amusement, her expression becoming one of her usual cool smirks.
*Just you wait for it.*
Finally, it was time for their daily sparring match. Only the two
coaches were present this time, and Sensei Fujinami acted as their
referee once again.
As before, neither of them held anything back from this match, even
though it was nominally sparring. Things proceeded much as they
had yesterday, each of them weaving in and out of the defenses of the
other, and both proving themselves to be equally as adept fighting on
the ground as in the air. However, today there was something subtly
different, an air of much greater intensity in the efforts that Nabiki was
putting forward, and the upper hand began to fall away from Ranma to
her, to his great surprise.
Almost desperately, Ranma struggled to regain the initiative, but he
became more and more pressed into a defensive posture. As minutes
passed, Ranma briefly managed to regain the upper hand for short
periods of time, but they were not to last. Nabiki's slight edge in skill
and her marginally superior levels of conditioning were both acting to
force the upper hand away from him each time that he thought it was
finally his. Finally, he was forced into a defensive posture one last
time, and then it was over, almost a half hour after they had begun.
Ranma stared up at Nabiki in shock, his inner thoughts matching his
outer expression. He had lost.
"Looks like I win, Ranma-kun," purred Nabiki teasingly. "Perhaps
I should be the one to call myself Heir, ne?" She smiled at him in an
almost seductive fashion.
Ranma's reply was interrupted by the coach yelling at them. He did
not have an opportunity to talk with her for the remainder of class, so
he occupied his thoughts with reviewing the fight in his memories as
his body went through the usual training regimen. Over the day off
from classes, he planned on doubling his training efforts. He was now
determined to best Nabiki. He was confident that it was only a matter
of time.
In one of the upper windows of the Academy, Dean Fuyutsuki was
smiling downwards at the practice field. It had been a close contest, so
very close indeed, in his eyes. He nodded to himself as he watched
one of the coaches spur them out to the field to begin running. Even at
this distance, Ranma looked shell-shocked.
*Now their real exertions against each other will begin,* the Dean
thought with a smile. *Ranma will have to learn to treat Nabiki with
some respect, it seems.*
******************************
***** Earth #0001-812
Ranko yawned and stretched in her chair. She was finishing up
analyzing the data for the worlds she had visited with her equipment
so far. She had about fifteen minutes left before her training class
with Sensei Fujinami, or as she called him in her thoughts, "The
Sadistic Bastard From Hell." She had steadily moved out across the
timelines and visited six worlds today, scanning for a world in each
quantum band as she went outwards from her own timeline.
*I hope that Kaneda-baka hasn't yet recovered from the beating that
I gave him this morning,* Ranko thought with a grin. *Although, it
might be fun to beat him up again for some stress relief, but I just want
to get my workout done and go home.* She frowned and sighed rather
despondently. *Of course, then I have to face my mother and her
insane demands for me to marry some loser guy that she picks, one of
them the same Kaneda-baka.* She stretched some more and heard her
spine crack and pop a bit as she thrust her chest out and put her arms
behind her back.
Finally done with backing up the world frequencies she had scanned
out and visited, and other related information, onto a datadisk, Ranko
shut down the system and stood up. She grabbed her bookbag and
flipped off the lightswitch on the wall. With a jaunty step, she headed
down the hall to her training class.
A half hour later, Ranko ran alongside Nabiki and Kaneda as they
went around the track. Kaneda had a colorful series of bruises now
adorning his face from her efforts this morning, and a few new ones
from his attempt at a rematch a short time ago. He had pressed the
issue, and she had cheerfully beat him up once again, proving herself
right that it was a great stress reliever.
As they moved around the track, Kaneda kept trying to pull ahead
of Ranko, but she was determined to keep even with him. Nabiki, not
to be outdone by the shorter redhead, kept up with them as well. It
was at times like this that the dislike that they felt for each other would
really surge to the surface, instead of lying buried deeply enough that
they could speak civilly with each other. When the stress of training
was on them, their true opinions of each other would shine forth more
clearly.
Nabiki pulled ahead of Ranko once again, her longer legs giving her
a pace advantage that greatly irritated the shorter girl whenever they
trained together. Nabiki was about ten centimeters taller than she was,
and most of that was in the legs. Her reach advantage also evened up
the skill discrepancy a bit between the two girls, but that just made the
redheaded scholar girl work that much harder, a result that pleased the
Dean. However, the sparring matches between her and Nabiki could
sometimes become quite heated and had nearly turned into real fights
a few times, but one of the coaches would break it up before they ever
seriously hurt each other.
Afterwards, following a long shower under the hot water, Ranko
walked home, feeling tired but also pleased with her successes of the
day. However, she was not so distracted that she failed to sense a
presence ahead of her in the gathering twilight on this quiet section of
streets. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl dressed in the uniform of a
cadet at Blackhall Academy stood before her, a single white lily held
in her hand that she toyed with, occasionally bringing it to her nose to
smell the fragrance. Ranko shrugged and started to walk around the
other girl.
The other girl's eyes looked up and a wicked smile lit her face. She
moved to block Ranko's progress and said, "You are Ranko Saotome,
are you not?"
"I am," replied Ranko, pausing in surprise. "Who wants to know?"
"I am Asuka Saginomiya," the blonde girl stated dramatically,
pausing for effect before continuing, "the White Lily of Blackhall
Academy." Her gaze stabbed at Ranko. "You have taken something
that does not belong to you, so I am here to show you the error of your
ways."
*Are all of the nobility a bunch of lunatics?* wondered Ranko, her
gaze flat as she returned Asuka's look. *Must be all that inbreeding.*
She studied the other girl, noting little things about her stance, the set
of her jaw, trying to gauge her level of ability if this came down to a
fight. "So what have I taken from you?" she asked tiredly.
"The heart of a noble warrior," said Asuka grimly, the look in her
blue eyes cooling to subzero temperatures. "A man who is too highly
stationed above one such as yourself for you to dare claim his love."
"Look, lady," said Ranko, her voice filled with annoyance, "if this is
about Kunou, then you can have him. I don't want him."
"Silence!" ordered Asuka imperiously, a tone that just happened to
rub Ranko the wrong way.
*It looks like a fight, after all,* thought Ranko, her eyes narrowing.
The girl in front of her irritated her more than even her attitude would
generate, but Ranko did not care. She felt a rage against the other girl
bubbling up within her.
"You dare to cast aside such a man?" thundered Asuka. "How dare
you, you impudent, little guttersnipe? How a lowborn harlot such as
yourself could have tempted the heart of a man like Tatewaki Kunou is
simply beyond me." She smiled nastily as she saw the hit she had
gotten on the redhead with her words, pleased at the result.
Ranko squeezed the handle of her bookbag, the leather squeaking in
her tightening grip. Her eye twitched slightly as her fury mounted.
*She called me a harlot? A guttersnipe? How dare this blonde bitch
say such a thing to me?* Without waiting for Asuka to finish her next
statement, Ranko hit her in the face with a punch, knocking the other
girl to the ground.
"That was a mistake," said Asuka coldly, wiping the back of one
hand against her mouth, feeling her own anger at the other girl
growing. She had intended to dispassionately beat Ranko senseless,
but facing her like this seemed to awaken something within Asuka. A
primal, savage rage rose within her, directed at the redhead, and a
desire to humble the other girl utterly. "I will BREAK you for that!"
Ranko dodged back as Asuka launched a kick at her from her seated
position, her body pushing aside her tiredness as she leaned back from
the kick and let it sweep by her face. She dropped her bookbag and
went on the offensive, punches and kicks aimed at vital spots on the
other girl's body, but Asuka met her with great skill. Ranko felt her
lips curling into a grim smile as her body filled with new energy at the
unexpected challenge.
Off to one side, Kodachi Kunou watched the fight with interest. It
was exciting to her to watch such a savage combat taking place, and
even moreso when she realized that Asuka had met her match and
more from Ranko's skill. Not being a fighter herself, the sight of other
girls who could fight was always exhilarating to her, so she watched
her friend and the Saotome girl attacking each other with breathless
interest. If Ranko was actually able to take Asuka in this fight, as was
looking more and more certain from the look of things, then Kodachi
had found the makings of a new game, a fun, new game.
Meanwhile, Ranko drove her fist across Asuka's jaw and the young
noblewoman's knees buckled under her as she wavered on the edge of
unconsciousness. A kick knocked the dazed girl into the lamppost,
where she slumped down in defeat. Ranko waited to see if it was a
trick and relaxed her guard a little when there was no movement from
the White Lily. A few fresh bruises had been added to her own body
and face while she had dealt with the other girl.
"Terrific," muttered Ranko, taking the time to look at the state of
her clothes. "Mom is going to love this." She patted herself down,
trying to straighten herself out, before giving up. She gathered up her
bag and glared at the unconscious Asuka, shaking her head. She then
continued on her way.
Kodachi emerged from where she had watched the fight, and knelt
down to look Asuka over. The blonde girl came awake with a jerk, her
hand lashing out to grab Kodachi by the collar before she realized who
it was. She let Kodachi help her up.
"Damn," muttered Asuka, holding one hand to her cheek where a
bruise the shape of a certain redheaded girl's fist now lay. "The little
bitch got lucky against me." She shrugged off Kodachi's helping hand
and staggered a few steps before her legs firmed under her. "Never
before have I had such a battle." She turned to face Kodachi and an
odd light came into her eyes. "I will punish that little bitch for this
indignity! I swear it!"
"Of course, Asuka-chan," said Kodachi with a nod of her head.
"Let us get you home now though. Tomorrow is another day."
******************************
***** Earth #0001-001
Ranma collapsed back onto his futon and stared at the ceiling. He
felt drained. The loss today against Nabiki rankled a bit, and he had
resolved himself to training harder to defeat her. He felt twitchy about
the loss, as if part of him did not even want to admit that it happened,
but he knew that he would win in the end. Ranma Saotome always
won in the end, and he would keep trying until he did. To add further
misery to his day, all throughout dinner he was forced to listen to his
mother chattering on about the good qualities of each of the girls that
he was going to meet next week, including a certain Miss Tendou.
Each of the glowing descriptions and subtle demands about marrying a
proper girl just made him feel more and more anxious, as if the walls
were starting to close in. *How quickly life can change,* he thought
as he laid his arm across his eyes.
For several minutes Ranma just laid there, his mind processing the
events of the day. He still had some nagging questions to deal with
from his jaunts to the other Earths that he had been to, ones that he
had put off getting the answers to long enough. He rolled to a sitting
position and eyed the computer that sat on his desk. *Now is as good
a time as any to start looking for some answers,* he decided with a
firm nod of the head.
Ranma powered on his computer and waited as it booted up. He
settled himself comfortably in his chair and began typing, calling up a
number of programs that he had specially written for such information
searches in the past, those that he did not care to have traced. Just in
case he ran into any problems with Security Directorate monitoring, he
started by logging into the data relays at Tokyo University through a
secure and secret backdoor that a friend had once told him about. He
then began bouncing his communications signal around the planet by
means of several non-Imperial nodes first before he re-entered into the
Imperial Datanet by means of one of the Science Ministry hookups.
With all of the high-security protocols set up to prevent such a thing
from happening, it was a little bit of a challenge to his abilities, but
Ranma had cut his teeth on computers many years ago and had only
kept perfecting his skills ever since. His fingers danced across the
keys as he navigated around the dangerous areas of the Datanet. Over
the past several years such efforts as this had been one of his hobbies,
a way of thumbing his nose at the system. Finally, after he finished
setting it up so that he could not be easily traced without at least his
awareness, he hacked into the first Datanet server he encountered and
began punching in his first information request.
*PLEASE INPUT INFORMATION DESIRED: CHINESE
AMAZONS, ALL AVAILABLE INFORMATION
*The Amazons of Joketsuzoku, China were discovered by the Fourth
*Imperial Army in the year 1841 (see entries for Mount Phoenix, and
*Musk Dynasty). The Supreme Matriarch of the Amazons willingly
*entered into a treaty with the Emperor in the year 1849, recognizing
*his divine sovereignty. A primitive, agrarian people following a
*simple matriarchal-based system of local government, they have been
*consistently labeled by the Security Directorate as a low-risk group
*for rebellion. END FILE.
"That's it?" asked Ranma, expecting to see reams of data, instead of
a single paragraph. "That's not much...." He wasn't sure if a search
for Shampoo or any other specific names would even turn up anything,
what with the information on the Amazons being as sketchy as it was.
If the Empire followed its usual patterns for how they maintained the
census on the conquered peoples under its control, then Shampoo
would only be identified by a serial number, not her name. He decided
to investigate some of the other groups mentioned to see if he could
learn more from a different angle.
*PLEASE INPUT INFORMATION DESIRED: MUSK DYNASTY,
ALL AVAILABLE INFORMATION
*The Musk Dynasty was discovered by the Fourth Imperial Army in
*the year 1841 (see entries for Joketsuzoku Amazons, and Mount
*Phoenix). Determined by the Security Directorate to be a clear and
*present danger to stable Imperial rule of the region, a pogrom was
*declared against them by special order of Director Shikei Kashuoh in
*1845. Extermination measures were carried out under the direction
*of Colonel Hisatou Tendou in 1846 with the final elimination of last
*members of the Musk Dynasty confirmed in 1848. END FILE.
*Hmm.... What could a group of primitives in the backwoods of
China have done to warrant an extermination order?* Ranma thought
with a frown. *Local ethnic groups have resisted the Empire before
without such a level of reprisals, let alone genocide. That seems to be
a surprisingly harsh reaction by the Security Directorate. I wonder
what it was that frightened them so much about the Musk Dynasty?
The Amazons were left alone, and they have some powerful abilities at
their disposal. I wonder why the Musk were not? A very interesting
puzzle.*
Ranma sat back in his chair and thought about this, idly tapping his
fingertips together as he rested his elbows on the arms of his chair. *I
don't seem to have any memories from that other Ranma about any
encounters with them, so I suppose they might not exist in his timeline
as well,* he mused. *Still, if there are any members of the Musk
Dynasty somehow still managing to survive, then they aren't going to
be too happy with any of the existing descendants of Colonel Hisatou
Tendou. I wonder if Nabiki even knows what her illustrious ancestor
did? Perhaps not.*
Ranma eyed the indicators for his countermeasures software, all of
them running in the background. None of them had been triggered
yet, so he was still safe. He moved onto his next data search.
*PLEASE INPUT INFORMATION DESIRED: MOUNT PHOENIX,
ALL AVAILABLE INFORMATION
*The inhabitants of the region known as Mount Phoenix in southern
*China were determined to be only a rumor by the Security Directorate
*in the year 1842 (see entries for Joketsuzoku Amazons, and Musk
*Dynasty). END FILE.
*That's the shortest one yet,* thought Ranma with a smile. *If they
haven't been spotted by anyone since then, then they must be a myth.
Ah well, now for the big one.*
*PLEASE INPUT INFORMATION DESIRED: JUSENKYOU, ALL
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
The system seemed to hiccup and paused for several long moments
while the system conducted a search for any files related to his request.
Ranma nervously eyed his countermeasure indicators, but they had not
yet been tripped. After a time, the screen cleared and came back with:
*ALL INFORMATION ON JUSENKYOU IS CLASSIFIED BY
IMPERIAL EDICT.
*Hmm... that's interesting,* Ranma thought, sensing a genuine
challenge to his abilities now. He cracked his knuckles and grinned.
*However, it's not about to stop me.* He began to call up some of his
best hacking algorithms, ones that not even his father or any of his
other teachers even knew that he had. He had crafted them all on his
own, testing their effectiveness and refining them further during his
travels with his father, even once going so far as to penetrate into the
Security Directorate's payroll files for fun. A few moments after he
activated them, he was rewarded with success.
*STAND BY FOR FILE TRANSFER FROM SECURE SERVER.
*Ha! The Anything-Goes School of Data Hacking strikes!* Ranma
exulted to himself. He grinned at the screen, but his grin didn't last
long.
*Jusenkyou Valley and its many Springs were first discovered by the
*Fourth Imperial Army in the year 1841 (see entries on Joketsuzoku
*Amazons, Mount Phoenix, and Musk Dynasty). The local tales of
*the Springs' reported magical ability to transform living creatures
*into duplicates of the first creature drowned in a particular Spring
*was initially thought to be a myth. Preliminary gathering of evidence
*was delayed due to several pacification efforts needed in nearby
*regions. Confirmation of Springs' magical ability to transform living
*creatures obtained through direct experimentation in 1847. The
*M�bius Institute (see entry) has classified Jusenkyou Valley as an
*Alpha Class Mystical Nexus and maintains a representative to
*monitor the site.
*The Musk Dynasty was discovered to use the so-called 'Spring of
*Drowned Girl' in order to breed with local animal life in 1845. The
*Security Directorate determined that members of the Musk Dynasty
*were to be re-classified as sub-human, and were to be considered as a
*clear and present danger to the future security of the Empire. The
*necessary purification efforts were carried out under the direction of
*Colonel Hisatou Tendou in 1846. The final pogrom was completed
*in 1848, save for ten subjects reserved for use in experimentation (see
*current entries for Human Enhancement Projects). Current status of
*Jusenkyou Valley: Maximum Security Biological Research Facility.
*END FILE.
Ranma's countermeasure software picked up a trace attempt at that
time, and he immediately cut the connection to the Datanet. The link
died quickly, the attempted trace frustrated by the numerous cutouts
and blind alleys that he had set up in advance. Ranma breathed a
quick sigh of relief, and then he saved the text of his captured data.
*So that's the real story,* he thought, considering what he had just
seen, amazed at the implications and tantalized by the references that
were given. He had answered some questions, only to raise even more
in the process. *No wonder it was classified, but at least the Amazons
still exist. Since the Empire has practiced a relatively light approach
with them, they may even be much as they are in the other Ranma's
timeline.* He wandered back to his futon, undressed quickly, and
stretched out. Despite the earliness of the hour, he was exhausted.
*I wonder if Shampoo even exists in this timeline?* Ranma sleepily
mused. *Is she back at her village, the Champion of her people? Is
she married to some guy? She's the only one I haven't been able to
find. Not that I've really tried to find her* He laid his arm over his
eyes. *I wonder where she is now....* His thoughts faded off to sleep.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Thanks to my pre-readers for all of their help and advice:
Michael Allen
Jim Bader
Donny Cheng
David Eddy
Doug_W
ShortYes
D.B. Sommer
T.H. Tiger