Greetings,

Well, this is probably as close to original fiction as I'll ever put on 
the FFML�

Just some ideas that have been bumping around in my head for a 
while now.

As always C&C is always welcome, send to either:
gargoyle@glasscity.net
or
gargoyle4@hotmail.com
Flames will be filed in the round folder�

I am also looking for a better title, but for now�

***

Mythos
By
Joshua Trujillo

Part 1 - Conditions and Responses

Akuji set his spear against one of the columns surrounding this 
room. Or space, he corrected himself. There weren't really any 
rooms, per se, in this whole castle. Just a collection of spaces 
meagerly delineated by a wall, or a certain collection of chairs. The 
odd kitchen appliance, a rug.

Except this room. This, in the best sense of the word, the only true 
room in the castle. And she lay within. She of the shortish, raven 
hair. Young...So eternally young.

There was a set of one hundred, nineteen columns that were placed 
around the central area. Akuji scowled at each in turn as he passed. 
A new one constructed itself in perfect sequence with the rest 
every week. If Akuji were more of an art collector, he would have 
stared for hours in complete awe and fascination at the intricacies 
carved thereon. He was not, so the only thing he saw them as was 
an obstruction of the view.

Each was almost a complete story. Almost, for the story that each 
told led, in some way, to the next, and also held abundant 
information about the last. Each spoke of countless dangers and 
even more countless perils. All of which were bravely undertaken 
by him.

Akuji? No, not him. He would have laughed in derision for such a 
remark. Then he would have killed you summarily. But since the 
good reader is far from his prying eyes, the most expected from 
Akuji is the tight sneer that curled it's way across his thin, flawless 
face.

No, the stories written on all those columns were about him. Shiro 
Daiou. Of course that wasn't his real name. He had a name, one 
that his mother had given him at birth. One that he knew was his 
own. Akuji didn't know that name. It was good for Shiro that he 
didn't, for it would have been much easier to kill him if he did. 
That's the problem with heroes. Well, one problem of many.

That is; the less they realize their position AS hero, the better they 
tended to be at it. And this one was nauseatingly, spectacularly 
good at it. Akuji had already had him blown up on three separate 
occasions and still Shiro managed a way out of each.

Akuji ran his hand over the nearest column. The columns were 
magic, of course, as nonmagical columns don't generally build 
themselves in a week. Akuji could also feel the mixture of radiated 
warmth that mimicked living tissue with the coolness of the 
engraved stone. So her...So like her.

A short burst of laughter escaped his lips. It was a humorless, 
hollow laugh that echoed through the darkness around him. Akuji 
stepped around the column, his gray eyes turning more invariably 
inward. Down three short steps to the center of the room. In the 
center was a depression set into the stone. In that depression 
resided a pool of burning liquid. Its fires seared the flesh from his 
hands on more than one occasion, and like any child, Akuji had 
learned to look and not touch.

At times, Akuji would simply lounge on the topmost stair, his back 
resting against a column, watching the fire dance and play like 
thousands of errant puppies in a field of wildflowers. The nature of 
the liquid was a mystery to Akuji and would remain so until that 
accursed Shiro arrived. The subtle irony of the whole thing was 
that, while Akuji was no longer trying to kill him, Shiro was more 
than capable of getting himself killed trying to get here. The small, 
downward turn of his lips would have frozen the hearts of his 
minions in the terror that his ire would be drawn towards them. 
Luckily, the only person to see it was also the only person he could 
never do without.

Her.

She rested quietly in the center of the liquid. Neither in the liquid, 
nor out, but somewhere in between. The quiet look of sleep that 
belied the careful surges of power that crept out every now and 
again. It was these surges that built the columns. It was that power 
that kept Akuji at bay and that same power that he ultimately 
longed for.

Akuji shuddered reflexively as a surge flowed through him. He 
looked to his left as soft scrapings could be heard. The columns 
were adjusting themselves. Making room for another. Akuji 
scowled. He had dallied too long. It may have been his favorite 
place, but that did not excuse laxity.

Akuji called for his spear and it sailed from it's resting place to his 
familiar, comfortable grasp as he strode from her tomb.

There was work to be done.

***

Another explosion could be heard in the distance as she lay 
gasping for breath on the cool, wet sand. She rolled over onto her 
back and watched her breath escape into the night air, softly 
floating towards the stars before disappearing. A soft, rasping 
chuckle from her right drew her attention. She lolled her head to 
look at the blonde who was chuckling in between gasps for breath 
from her hands and knees.

"I told you to blow the ship AFTER we made the deal, you nit!" 
another, softer voice spoke from her left.

"Oh shove it Rei," the blonde gasped.

The blonde collapsed on the ground and lay there, panting.

"Well, you almost hurt poor Ranma here. And she isn't immortal 
either," Rei continued.

"I know, I know," the blonde said, regretfully, "Ranma, I'm sorry, 
but they were teasing me..."

Ranma reached up and felt a lump starting to rise on the side of her 
head. She began to rise to a sitting position, but the throbbing 
became worse and she lay back down.

Pretty tender too, must've hit it when I hit the ceiling, she thought.

"Ikari, we've GOT to help you with that temper of yours," Ranma 
squeaked out.

Seeing that Ranma was having problems, the blonde moved over 
to her and sat up nearby. She helped Ranma to a sitting position 
and held her close. Ikari rocked back and forth slightly and sung 
softly in the ancient language of her tribe. A soft glow filled the 
night air and Ranma could feel the lump on her head settle to a soft 
bruise, then the bruise vanished slowly back from where it had 
come. Ranma could feel the soft words stop in her head, but the 
flow of light continued as other, unknown bruises and cuts healed 
themselves. Ranma could also feel herself losing consciousness as 
the healer magic generally made her want to sleep.

Rei cleared her throat.

"That's not exactly what I meant, Ikari," She said, barely holding in 
her jealousy, "And you don't need to hold her so close to heal her 
either."

Ranma's eyes snapped open and, while she couldn't move her head 
due to Ikari's iron grasp, she could feel the...Softness, against 
which her head was resting. Ranma began to feel the blood rise in 
her cheeks and she pushed herself away from Ikari.

The soft, magical glow fell away as Ranma rubbed the sleep from 
her mind. She yawned quickly and took several deep breaths. Ikari 
yawned herself and stood. She walked to the brunette that was 
seated on a small sand dune not far from the two.

"Do you need any help, Kinkaku-san?" Ikari asked her plaintively.

Rei picked up her foot, which she had put back together earlier, 
and squished it onto the end of her left leg. Ranma grimaced as the 
bones could be heard knitting themselves back together. The click 
and clack of the bones meshed with the snap and pop of the 
tendons and muscle.

"No Ikari," Rei said, "I am immortal, remember? But it still doesn't 
mean that I like putting myself back together every time you get 
honked off."

Ikari threw out her hand in front of her in half a prayer.

"Sorry."

Ranma swallowed the bile that rose as the popping of sinew 
continued. Something occurred to her and she reached into her coat 
and pulled out a small leather pouch. Anything to keep her mind 
occupied while Rei reattached appendages. Ranma ran the pouch 
around in her hands, checking for damage. She breathed a sigh of 
relief, as the hard leather seemed undamaged. Ranma opened it up 
and poured out the water that had collected inside. She pulled out 
the little pieces of metal and examined them.

Between both full moons and the fire from the still burning ship 
offshore, she felt that she could pretty fully examine the pieces for 
damage. The first piece was a largish wheel. It was completely flat 
on one side and Ranma could tell it was slightly convex in shape. 
The other side was covered with runes and instructions that Ranma 
couldn't read. She had tried, many times. Between her knowledge 
of Japanese, the language she was born with and English, which 
had been forced upon her at the various schools that her father had 
forced her into, it gave her a wide knowledge of lettering. But 
these symbols...

Ranma had to remind herself that these symbols were an ancient 
form of Ikari's tribal language. Even Ikari couldn't read them. 
Ranma took the etameran cloth out of the pouch and shook the 
water from it. It still fascinated her to look at it in the light, how 
the water beaded on its' surface and rolled away like tears from a 
baby. Of course, her current clothes were also made from etameran 
cloth as well, which would account for the fact that they were dry. 
Her hair may not be, but the rest of her was at least.

She dried each piece of the machine as she examined it. First the 
disc, wiping the dirt and particles from it. Next was an egg-shaped 
bit of metal that was no larger than a robin's egg. Ranma pulled at 
the ends of the egg and it opened with a springy resistance, like 
two magnets attracting each other. A small puddle of water 
splashed to the ground. Ranma wiped the insides of the egg dry 
with the cloth and checked the spring action of the egg. It clasped 
together as it should and Ranma set it with the disc.

The next piece was a smaller, bent section of metal that she could 
clasp onto the bottom disc and attach to the next piece, which was 
a shaft of interwoven metal into the center of which the egg would 
sit. Ranma dried each piece and replaced them in the pouch which 
had a liner of etameran cloth and was therefore dry as well.

"Are you done playing with that thing?" Ikari asked.

Ranma looked at her. Ikari Pintogahazareru was her name. A pain 
in the ass was her game. She was tall for one thing. Taller than 
Ranma even in his male form, and he didn't really know how to 
react around her. At times, Ikari intimidated her and Ranma still 
didn't know how to react to that, even if it had been almost a year 
since Ranma had met her. For one thing, she was always angry at 
something, and more often than not, it was Ranma. She put her 
hands on her hips and just stared at the red-haired girl in front of 
her. 

Her blonde hair took on a whitish tinge in the blue-silver 
moonlight and was tied back in a ponytail with a strange device. 
Kind of like a clamp that tightened with the surrounding air 
pressure so that it was always tight on the head and never, 
therefore, would need adjustment.

Ranma absently touched her own. Ikari straightened the belt on her 
robe and continued to fix Ranma with a noselong glare. Her robe 
ended just after her bottom, and the leggings began just below her 
waist. Ranma knew because they were just like her own. Except 
hers were green, Ikari's were blue. Ranma frowned inwardly. She 
had come this far in two short years. Now she didn't even have a 
problem wearing women's clothing�

Ranma placed the pouch back in her coat and began to put her 
boots on.

"I'm just waiting for Rei to get herself together," Ranma said, 
raising an eyebrow at her.

"I'm ready," Rei said, bouncing up next to Ranma.

Ranma sighed lightly and got up, her muscles still singing from the 
explosion on the ship. The healing that Ikari performed may have 
healed her wounds, but it never did anything for the soreness. 
Ranma put her coat on and followed Ikari as she stomped off 
towards the base camp with a flip of her hair. Ranma looked to 
Rei.

Rei Kinkaku smiled back at her under raven black hair. Same as 
Akane's, except hers was nearly down to her waist. Rei had more 
of a round face than Akane, but was nearly identical in every other 
way. Same general body shape, larger breasts though. Ranma 
smiled sheepily back at the thought and dropped her head back to 
the trail. Rei shifted her belt around and replaced the short 
scabbard back in its place near the small of her back. The jumpsuit 
she wore stretched tightly across her chest as she did this and 
Ranma brought his focus more forward to keep from thinking 
about it. Yes, Ranma had a bigger chest and everything, but she 
was used to it. Rei's or Ikari's, however...

"Hang on a second Ranma," Rei said, putting a hand on Ranma's 
shoulder.

She stopped and Rei balanced herself on her left leg. She twisted 
and there was a slide-pop as her foot slipped back into joint. 
Ranma grimaced again and Rei giggled lightly at her.

"Do you HAVE to do that with me?" Ranma asked.

"And if it pains me to walk back to base camp rather than FIX it?" 
Rei teased him.

Ranma hemmed and hawed a little, but had to agree. Rei Kinkaku 
and all her tribe were immortal. Something like a genetic anomaly 
many generations ago, Ranma didn't know the specifics. What it 
meant was that she went on adventures with Ranma like it was 
nothing indeed. She'd already been blown up twice on this quest, 
following Ranma around like some kind of puppy. Ranma couldn't 
complain. She was always there for her. Bandaging her wounds, 
defending her against the all the weird tribes that wanted Ranma's 
head for some reason or other. She seemed to Ranma like a 
combination of Ukyou and Shampoo. Unfortunately, she was also 
very much in love with Ranma as well.

One other thing that Rei's tribe had was the gift of truesight. Which 
meant that Rei saw Ranma without her curse. Rei's grandfather had 
foreseen what Ranma was doing in this world and had sent Rei 
with her to see her through to the end. Ranma liked Rei's 
grandfather. A sensei that Ranma could have really looked up to.

Rei was also one hell of a fighter. She was twice the swordswoman 
than Ranma could ever hope to be and she didn't have much 
compunction against using it. She very much thought that Rei was 
as good with the blade as Ranma was without it. Hell, she even had 
ki-based attacks using her blade. The long, wicked looking blade 
made Ranma shudder every time she drew it. She had been trying 
to get Rei to knock bandits out or disable them rather than kill 
them as she normally did. Ranma stopped trying after the last 
group. They had attacked without warning and one of them had 
knocked Ranma out and almost...

Ranma pulled her coat around her as she shuddered.

"Are you cold?" Rei asked, drawing closer.

Ranma shook her head. She didn't want to give Rei any opening. 
She may have been a good friend, but she was also as opportunistic 
as any of his other fianc�s.

So much was still strange in this world...And Ranma had been here 
for almost two whole years, or had it been two whole years? 
Ranma didn't know. One thing she did know was that for all that 
time, she'd been stuck in this form. She sighed to herself.

The trail reached up and over a small hill. On the other side of the 
hill they had set up a small fire the night before, which had been 
brought down to embers for their little side trip to the boat, which 
still backlit the horizon offshore. Ranma looked up at Little 
Brother as she made her way into camp.

The smaller moon circled slowly around the larger moon, Big 
Brother, in a two-month cycle. Ranma didn't much like to look at 
Big Brother, as the face changed every time you looked at it. 
People said it was because the life on the surface was like any 
other life and kept moving. Ranma wondered what could live on 
the moon like that. Of course, Big Brother also had an atmosphere, 
as she understood it. Little Brother, however, was serenely devoid 
of life, just like her own moon. And that comforted Ranma in some 
little way.

Ikari had brought more wood out from the surrounding forest and 
was trying to get the fire going again. Ranma shook her head in 
wonder. There was such a dichotomy in this new world. The 
cultures of this world had such great technology at one point. It 
had folded in on itself millions of years ago and the people now 
regarded it with the same reverence as Ranma would a microwave 
oven back on her world.

Naturally, the things that lasted the longest seemed to be weapons. 
This disgusted Ranma as she sat down on her brushpile bed. The 
featheroot swished slightly under her and settled into shape to 
accommodate her. Ikari began swearing lightly to herself as she 
worked on the fire. Rei sifted through her pack as she sat on 
Ranma's right and handed a molin to Ranma. Rei seemed to live on 
these things. She smiled and Ranma took it, now seriously wanting 
to help Ikari get the fire started.

Ranma sighed and looked at her molin. It looked to Ranma like 
someone freeze dried a faerie, each one always more hideous than 
the last. They didn't taste bad, in fact, they reminded Ranma of 
those little beef sticks he used to get at the pharmacy near Tofu's 
clinic. Something American called Slim Jims�He used to joke 
with Akane that Jim couldn't be that slim, as they were selling off 
bits of him all over the world.

Ranma thought again of home as he tore off a wing and started to 
nibble. It didn't help any when Ranma looked over to Rei and she 
had half a head sticking out of her mouth. Ranma sighed again. So 
much was strange in this world�

"Thinking of home again?"

Ranma looked at Rei. She nodded and went back to thinking again.

"You know, if you'd talk to me about it, it may help," Rei said, "I 
mean, I know we only met a couple of months ago, but I think you 
can trust me."

Ranma smiled at her.

"Just thinking about the moon. Well, the moon as it was back 
home."

"Which one?"

"Oh, back home, we just had one moon," Ranma said.

"Oh," Rei nibbled at her molin again, "But, if you had only one 
moon�"

Ranma looked back to her. Rei seemed to have trouble sometimes 
connecting the fact that Ranma wasn't from this world. She could 
plainly see that Ranma wasn't really a woman, but that didn't seem 
to be enough sometimes.

"What Rei?" she asked.

"Well, with only one moon, your cycles would only be about a 
month apart, wouldn't it?" Rei made a disgusted face at the 
thought, "Ooo, no wonder Akane beat you up all the time."

Ranma laughed at this and could just nod in agreement at the 
thought.

"Yeah, I guess. But if that were the case, then what about 
Kasumi?" Ranma asked.

"She's the one with the money, isn't she?"

"No, that's Nabiki. Kasumi's the eldest," Ranma stopped herself.

Did she just say eldest?

"Oh, well, maybe she didn't have any ovaries?" Rei asked.

Ranma began to say she did, but had to stop herself. How did 
Ranma know? She didn't. Rei didn't have any, but then that's 
because she forgot to reincorporate them when she was eaten by a 
local predator as a child. They were lost. Still out there somewhere, 
still viable, still intact. Just not in Rei.

The fire puffed into life in front of them as Ikari sat herself down 
on Ranma's left.

"I wish you wouldn't talk about stuff like that," Ikari muttered, 
chewing on her own molin.

Ranma smiled slightly. Rei was such a bodily person, she would've 
loved to study a person like Happosai. And Ranma guessed that 
Happosai wouldn't much mind it himself, though Rei would 
probably end up dissecting him. Ranma thought that having such 
an intimate knowledge of one's body that one could put it back 
together normally made one curious.

Ranma finished off her molin and lay back on the brushpile. The 
myriad stars danced and played in the night sky and soon Ranma 
drifted off to sleep.

***

The garden looked good. All plants nice and neat in their little 
rows. Covered, at least for now, with a thick layer of mulch. The 
nights had grown less cold in the last month or so, so the mulch 
may be able to come off sooner than expected. That was good, 
though some would of course remain to ward off weeds.

Esu wiped her forehead with the edge of her glove. The spring sun 
glared down and at this altitude could be quite harsh early. Her 
etameran coveralls protected her from the scrapes and cuts that one 
would get otherwise, even if they did make her look like a 
bumpkin. She didn't care. Not much call for city formality up here 
in the valley. Esu liked working in the garden at the nunnery. She 
looked back to the high wall of the compound behind her. The 
namagoroshi had been coming in less numbers since the equinox 
last week. Esu shuddered at the thought of those poor things. Esu 
returned to her duties and picked up the water pail.

"Son-sama!" a voice cried from across the compound.

Esu looked up. It was Ijisai. The young girl stumbled to the edge of 
the garden, but would not cross. Esu stepped lightly across the 
rows and came out of the conclave that her plants provided. Ijisai 
bowed in regard to Esu's status and waited for her to be allowed to 
continue.

Esu hated this kind of formality, especially within the confines of 
the nunnery, but she realized that if women like Ijisai were to 
learn, they must do so by repetition. Esu put her pail down and 
placed her hand on Ijisai's right shoulder, allowing her to continue.

"Son-sama, there is a stranger at the front gates," Ijisai said quickly 
and sharply, "She is greatly injured and in desperate need of help 
for her wounds, but we couldn't bring her in without issuance from 
one of the protectorates and-"

"Ijisai, stop babbling," Esu said calmly, "Bring her at once to the 
healing rooms and begin preparations for her stay. If she is in need, 
then we will tend her. Now go."

Ijisai knelt quickly and rushed off towards the main gates.

A visitor? Wounded no less. Esu hoped that she hadn't run into a 
namagoroshi, otherwise there would be no healing her. Esu picked 
up her pail and walked quickly into the tool shed. There was really 
no need for her to rush. She wasn't a healer. And the healers would 
be needed before the girl, whoever she was, woke up. Her duties as 
protectorate would only come in handy tonight, when the 
namagoroshi came.

Something bugged her though. Something she couldn't quite place. 
She had that kind of feeling ever since she woke up this morning. 
The gardening helped. It always helped focus her thoughts, but it 
was still there. Even worse, Esu thought it was something that she 
was forgetting.

Perhaps she would see this strange woman for herself. Esu headed 
for the bathhouse.

***

Ranma opened his eyes. It was a ceiling. He blinked and looked 
again. It was a ceiling. His ceiling. Well, not his ceiling per se, but 
the ceiling that he was so familiar with at the Tendo house. There 
was a loud rumbling next to him and a furry arm bopped him in the 
nose. Ranma huffed in annoyance and swatted his father's arm 
away. It was morning, so he got up.

He stopped. Slowly, to make sure that they didn't fly away if he 
looked too quickly, he pulled the front of his boxers open. They 
were there. THEY were there! Ranma felt like jumping around 
screaming for joy. He was whole again. He was male again. 
Another thought crossed his head at that point.

He rushed out into the hall. It was still dark this early in the 
morning, but she should be up. Ranma hurried downstairs and 
paused at the entrance to the kitchen. Peering slowly inside, he 
could see Kasumi at her duties in the still of the morning. He 
giggled slightly and bounded back upstairs. At the top of the stairs, 
he came to a dead stop.

One last thing remained. He crept slowly to her door. He smiled 
and straightened the duck on the front of her door. He wondered 
absently how he ever missed something as cute as that. He guessed 
he was just being ignorant and young. It had been two years after 
all.

He gently opened the door and a bright light spilled out into the 
hallway. His vision blurred and he shut his eyes towards the 
blinding light. When she opened her eyes, the hideous deformed 
shape of a molin was there to greet her. Ranma opened her eyes 
and scrambled back in alarm. Rei giggled and chewed on the molin 
head.

"If you must wake her up that way Rei," Ikari mumbled from the 
other side of the brushpile, "Could you NOT use a molin. Bad 
enough we have to eat those things. I'd rather not see one in broad 
daylight."

Ranma caught her breath and looked down at herself. She was 
wearing the green robe, leggings and brown boots that Ikari's tribe 
had given her. The coat that Rei's grandfather had given her. The 
pouch with the machine lay nearby, shining with dew in the new 
morning. Still a woman. Ranma curled her legs up around her in 
the pretense of being cold. She wanted to curl inside herself and 
die.

A short sob escaped her and she got up. Just a dream. A cold, cruel 
dream. She sobbed again as she headed across the hill. Looking out 
onto the bay, she could see the still smoking remains of the trader 
ship from last night. The bow still stuck prominently out of the 
water, as if in defiance of the water in which it was sitting. Ranma 
felt a hand on the small of her back. She knew it was Rei. Ranma 
quickly wiped her eyes and coughed a couple times.

"You dreamt of them again, didn't you?" she asked.

Ranma could only nod.

"I'm sorry Ranma," Rei said, folding her arm in Ranma's, "I'll not 
wake you up like that again, okay?"

Rei rested her head on Ranma's shoulder as they watched the sun 
come up fully over the eastern horizon. It was slow to burn the 
shoreline of the fog that had collected during the night. Ranma 
looked to the gulls that were circling far overhead. Riding the 
warm currents from the land, they swooped low into the cooler 
currents from the sea, looking for fish. It was going to be a hot day. 
Summer would only be hotter, though. That was one more thing he 
missed about Japan. The temperance of season. Well, at least in 
Tokyo.

She shook her head of the visions from the dream that haunted her 
still. She knew what needed to be done and what was real.

"I'm sorry to ask this Rei," Ranma said, still looking at the ship, 
"But we still need that cargo."

Ranma could feel Rei nod her head. She realized what needed to 
be done, and only Rei could do it.

***

Gerou stopped reading the writ that the tall man at the other end of 
the table had handed to him. His master, Akuji, sat at the one end, 
thinking out his reply. It wasn't as if they couldn't talk, this was just 
the way things were done. Properly and nicely, otherwise, it could 
get real ugly real quick. Gerou walked to the side of his master and 
waited patiently for the writ to appear for him to read.

It never appeared.

"And this you would have of me?" Akuji asked in the silence that 
followed.

The tall man simply nodded.

Gerou froze. Why was the master speaking to this man? If there 
was speech occurring, then this man was powerful indeed, for it 
was the privilege of the very few that heard the voice of his master.

"And Meijin, if I do this, give you the Tenmei, then you will 
release her?"

Again, a nod.

"Then you will have it. Gerou," Akuji turned to his manservant, 
"Round up the subjects. I have missions for them. I will speak with 
all of them together, and remind them the penalty for fighting 
inside the castle."

"Yes, m'lord."

"And Gerou?"

"Yes, m'lord?"

"Bring the young one, Renbo-chan, to my chambers later," Akuji 
smiled wickedly in thought, "For her, I have a very special mission 
indeed."

"At once, m'lord."

Gerou turned and fled off into the dark recesses of the castle. Akuji 
turned back to his visitor.

"Why not just claim it?"

The visitor just shrugged his shoulders noncommittally and got up 
from his place at the table. He floated out towards the balcony area 
and Akuji followed. The beige and gold robes of the visitor drug 
along behind him in a ghostly manner, while a half halo of fire 
circled endlessly around his head. Akuji was beginning to get 
annoyed at this silent fellow. Certainly Meijin Senban wasn't 
beyond the reach of Akuji, but he often acted like he was. The 
visitor reached the balcony and pulled up short as a long and 
wicked looking spear hovered into position in front of him. Meijin 
turned and raised an eyebrow at Akuji.

"Meijin, I want to know."

Meijin sighed slightly and raised his hand. The air shimmered into 
light fog in a small area near Akuji. The mist formed itself into a 
picture. The morning light on a vast plain. Shining brightly on�?

"Who is this boy?"

Meijin smiled and slowly phased from sight. Akuji raised an 
eyebrow of his own and stared at the picture for a time. The boy 
was standing in the field, facing into the sun. There were several 
women with him, some of whom Akuji didn't recognize. He 
looked familiar somehow, like someone Akuji would know if not 
for�

The image began to fade into the air from which it came.

A thought came to him, but he dismissed it without hesitation. A 
stupid idea really. This boy couldn't be the Shiro Daiou. Akuji had 
never seen him before. The image still burned in his mind�But 
the Shiro Daiou was a woman�

***

Ikari looked into the inky black waters. Rei had been gone for a 
long time. Sure she was immortal and all, but Ikari didn't want to 
wait for Rei to regenerate herself if something large and nasty had 
taken off bits to eat later. Ikari felt the lead line next to her. It was 
still taut, which meant that a large section of Rei was still attached.

Ikari looked back at Ranma, who was just lying in the boat with 
her eyes closed. She told Ikari she could monitor Rei by the feel of 
her chi floating around in the waters. Ikari let a small smile escape 
her lips. Ikari had been her constant companion on this crazy quest 
of hers for almost a year now. Ranma had stumbled into the village 
wet, hungry, half-naked and scared out of her mind. In fact, it had 
taken Ikari to calm her down. She had been so scared, she acted 
like some kind of animal.

Ranma hadn't even remembered the whole event, like her mind had 
taken a hiatus. Ikari frowned at this. Ikari's sister hadn't revealed 
anything when she dove into Ranma's mind. Well, other than the 
fact that Ikari had been forced into accepting Ranma's quest. Ikari 
had never been the one to accept anything that was forced, but her 
sister had been adamant.

So they outfitted both of them and they lit off into the wilderness. 
And Ikari thought it was odd. Ranma seemed to know how to 
survive on her own, certainly not the scared animal-like girl that 
came into their village two months before. At the time, Ikari had 
just thought that Ranma was a fast learner, and she was. But not 
that fast. Ranma knew things that only experienced hikers knew. 
Odd. Looking at Ranma then, lying in the bottom of the boat, Ikari 
could see the change that had come over her since they had met.

Oh sure, Ranma kept honking her off for one thing. Like she had a 
knack for sticking her foot in her mouth or something. That wasn't 
the reason she blew up last time, but hey, they had been teasing 
her�Ikari looked up at the looming bulk of the ship beside her. 
She wondered idly what kept it afloat in such deep waters.

The boat began to rock slightly and Ranma sat up.

"She's coming up," Ranma said sleepily.

"Did she get it?"

"I don't know," Ranma said, trying to balance the boat, "I can't read 
minds, just chi."

Ikari kept silent, but frowned in Ranma's direction, which Ranma 
missed entirely. A hand came up over the side and Ikari helped 
pull Rei into the boat while Ranma stabilized it. Rei rested for a 
moment in the boat before leaning her head back over the side as 
she coughed up water, which she seemed to do for a few minutes. 
Rei reached into the top of her jumpsuit and pulled out a bar 
wrapped in a bit of etameran cloth, which she handed to Ranma. 
Rei leaned back over the side as Ikari untied the rope from around 
Rei's waist and started to row towards shore.

Ranma urped slightly at the hacking and puking noises, but tried to 
block it out. Ranma opened the cloth and brought out the rough 
piece of stone and examined it. It was about a third of a meter long 
and shaped somewhat into a bar. The color shone against the late 
morning sun a bright milky green. The same color as the seaweed 
they were passing through. One of which reached up and wrapped 
a hungry leaf around Rei's neck. She pulled, but couldn't get it to 
let go, so she just shrugged.

Ranma was going to help, but the plant suddenly went limp and 
Rei replaced her blade, which Ranma hadn't even seen her draw, 
let alone slice the plant with. Rei pulled the leaf tentacle from her 
neck and tossed it casually back into the water. Rei coughed again, 
but waved off the help that Ranma was just about to offer. Ranma 
sat down again. Rei was like that when she tried to get herself back 
together, but Ranma still hated the fact that she had to have Rei do 
it in the first place.

The bar of jade would not have been worth it if jade weren't so rare 
in this world. It took them this long just to find a dealer who might 
have enough to make it worth the trouble. And to think the dealer 
had planned to double cross them all along. Well, he was sleeping 
with the fishes. Along with the rest of his crew as well.

***

The healer quarters were in a more open part of the nunnery. 
Windows provided air and light and good humor. Whatever that 
was. Esu looked out a window overlooking her garden. Well, at 
least the patients had a good view.

The strangers' wounds were serious indeed. In fact, the healers had 
taken her to the sterile rooms almost immediately, which normally 
meant that she wouldn't be seen for a time. A little faster recovery, 
but still out of sight, with which Esu didn't feel comfortable. It was 
just past noontime when Esu was allowed to see the girl, who was 
sleeping soundly from the healing.

Esu could see that something had gotten a hold of her all right. The 
scars that laced her beautiful face were severe. Esu thought she had 
been lucky to come away from that fight as intact as she was. Esu 
also saw that she probably wouldn't be able to speak about her 
experience for a couple of days yet. Esu looked deeper at the 
strange girl and suddenly, the something that had been nagging her 
came into sharp relief.

This was�No�

Esu ran to the door and out into the foyer area.

"Ijisai!" She shouted, "Ijisai!"

Esu ran down the healer wing and into the main dining hall.

"Ijisai!"

The girl dropped her spoon and shot to attention in front of Esu. 
Esu growled sharply and brought the girl to her feet.

"Ijisai, listen to me," Esu began as she tried to sort things in her 
mind, "Bring the expedition logs from the last journey I made. I 
suppose it's been about a year and a half ago."

"Yes, Son-sama!"

"Ijisai, make sure you bring everything," Esu continued, "Logs, 
journal entries, archives. Everything. And definitely make sure you 
bring the possessions box as well. Now hurry, and take some of the 
other acolytes with you! This must be done post haste!"

"Immediately, Son-sama!" Ijisai yelped, flush with excitement.

Ijisai scrambled out of the hall as Esu turned on her heels and 
headed back to her own quarters. If the stranger was who Esu 
thought she was, then everyone was in great danger, and it would 
be up to Esu to find the one person who could help�

Ranma Saotome.

***

So what do you think, sirs?


Joshua "Gargoyle" Trujillo
"Stone Cold Protector of the Righteous"
"Owner of The Anime Bar and Grille - The Best Ribs in the Multiverse"

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