Old Soul 1/2 - chapter five.
                                  by
                   Francis Bourque <fbourque@abacom.com>


Standards' disclaimers applied.
This chapter is a Ranma 1/2 and Slayers xover.
I don't own any of their characters or series.
I had appreciate all commentary about my fic because
it had began to grown on it how and chapter fourteen
just took final form today.

         Begun: 18 September 1999
Last Update: 27 September 1999

Version 1.0

<> Panda' signs.

() Sound.

Thank to Trevor Hoffert <battlekrome@hotmail.com> for pre-reading
this chapter.  I'm less in need of it than before but it help a lot
to correct small mistakes.


Where can you find all final chapters of Old Soul 1/2?

"Ranchan Totally Crossed Out": http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim/



Chapter five: "Experimental magic is always unpredictable at best!"


[Tendo's house]

Ranma had just returned from eating at Ukyou's Okonomiyaki.


"Lina, a letter had just arrive for you!" said Kasumi and gave it to her.

"Thank!  Have you any news about Gaele?" Ranma asked her.

"Yes.  She's right here!" Kasumi presents the gem to her after taking it
out of her pocket.

When Ranma touches it, it glows brighter then ever and starts to float and
doing circle around Ranma and Kasumi as if it was happy to see them.

"It wasn't dead as I said.  Did you know that you seemed to be able to
 generated magic too?" Ranma asked her, after admiring Gaele doing
an attic around them.

"No, I didn't know." Kasumi replied.

"I can teach you how to generate it and give power to Gaele.
 It was probably the reason she had liked you so much because
 you seem more in sync than me with the elements of nature."
Ranma explained to her.

"Oh my!  Gaele will be so happy!" accepted Kasumi.

"All you have to do is concentrate and imagine the magic flow from
 you to Gaele when it's in your hands." Ranma explained to her and
added as an after thought:
"If it doesn't work, come see me again and I will try something else."

She leaved Kasumi and Gaele with their happy reunion and she went to read
her letter in private.

After closing the door to her bedroom and sitting on her futon,
she open the letter and read in Mandarin:

"Greeting Ranma of the Amazon,

   I hoped you had a good time, because we didn't have any.

   I wrote to you about the situation we were facing here at Jusenkyo.
   We are a war with the Musk Dynasty.  Until now it was only small
   encounter and minor lost from both sides, but I asked of you to come
   as soon as possible.  I'm sure your help will be need shortly.

         Your adoptive mother,
         Cologne of the Amazon."


"I will need to teleport, I hope the spell will work.
 It's still my time of the month too." Ranma thought and after
remembering that last fact, really hope not to be disperse to
the four winds when she will try it.

After having made her decision, she went to find Kasumi.

"Kasumi, can you keep it for me please?" Ranma asked her after she found
her in the kitchen.  She gave to her the small rock she had prepare as
focus to a teleport spell after she had arrived here.

"Oh my!  Another floating gem?" she asked, hopeful.

"Not at all.  It's to help me to return here more easily." explained Ranma.

"I will keep it then.  You go somewhere?  Need anything?" Kasumi asked her.

"I have to return to China.  I have a little war to take care of." replied Ranma
and ran away before . . .

"OH MY!" was heard by anyone in the house who wasn't deaf.


[Tendo's Dojo]

Ranma was ready to teleport with her sword at her side.
She didn't normally keep it on her but it's a special case.

She was glowing red faintly for the last five minutes,
trying to calm herself.  That time of the month
wasn't easy to live with.

When she fell ready, she began the spell.

"'Gateway . . . Shampoo . . . "

She paused and with her mind and magic researched the focus she gave
to Shampoo just for this spell.  It took her three minutes to find it,
even with her calm state of mind.  After fixing her location in her mind
she added:
" Activation'!" to complete the spell.

She disappeared in a flash of intense white light.

She thought of Akane just as she teleports, which cause Akane to disappear
from her bath in front of Nabiki.  Half the water disappeared too.


[China.  Shampoo's bathroom]

In a flash, Akane appeared above the bath.

"Aaahhh! (SPLASH)" Akane yelled and land directly on Shampoo.
Both were as naked as the day they were born.
A lot of water had splashed on them too.

After Shampoo saw what has land on her she reacts in her usual manner:

"Pervert Girl!  What are you doing on me!" she yelled in Mandarin.

"What happened?" Akane can only reply in Japanese.

"Pervert Girl! Shampoo kills!" Shampoo yelled,
now than she knew which language to use.

Akane panic and tried to quit the bath and put her hand on Shampoo breast
in her attempt, she squeezes them to be sure of what her left hand was
touching.  Shampoo became more enrage and kick Akane out of the bath.
Akane lands, after turning on herself, on all four.

"Hey, that hurt. Who are you anyway?" Akane protested.

"Where you came from?" Shampoo yelled back.

"What happened here?" asked Ranma.

After hearing all that yelling, she had decided to investigate and had opened
the door to the bathroom.

"Ranma, you came back!" shouted Shampoo in Mandarin, very happy to see her.

"Ranma no Baka!  It's all your fault!" yelled Akane,
after seeing who was responsible for all that insanity.
That didn't amaze her that much though, it's Ranma after all.

Ranma for her part, was out cold on the floor after losing a lot of blood.


[Sitting room]

After Akane was given some clothes by Shampoo and Ranma was put to bed,
Akane and Shampoo were seats on each side of the table.

"Pervert Girl, what you doing in Shampoo's bath?" .

"My name is Akane Tendo, not Pervert Girl!" Akane protested.

"What Akane doing?" Shampoo insisted.

"I don't know.  Ask Ranma when she's awake.  It's always her fault
when something weird had happened before." protested Akane.

"Shampoo known what Akane meant, Ranma always in weird thing."

"Hey!  I'm not that bad." protested Ranma.  She has heard theirs
little chat from behind the wall and had cried out when she heard that.

"The Weird's Magnet is awake.  Care to join us?" asked Akane loudly.

Ranma enters the room and sits down opposite Shampoo.

"What happened exactly?" asked Akane.

"First, where were you when you teleport?" Ranma asked to her.

"In the bath with Nabiki."

"Then, as a guess, I would say that you teleport to similar circumstance
 and dropped in the nearest source of water." Ranma explained.  She'd
had time to think about it while they were talking and this was the most
likely explanation.  A good thing Shampoo wasn't at Jusenkyo though.

"But why did I teleport in the first place?" asked Akane.

"It's my fault.  I thought of you while doing the transfer and it was enough
 to take you along." she explained.

Akane was very angry by this, not to saw what she thought of being
dropped on Shampoo like that.  It was humiliating.

Akane had her mallet appeared on her laps and was considering
a Ranma's pancake.

Ranma was eyeing it carefully, gulped loudly and waited for it.

Shampoo was looking at the two of them, curious to see what would happen
and was thinking: "Never a dull day with Ranma."

Ranma then opened her big mouth:
"It's not my fault!  If you weren't so distracting, I wouldn't have thought
 of you in the first place."

That seemed to enrage Shampoo though Akane was only stunned by that
accidental compliment, and it was Shampoo whom this time was considering a
Ranma's pancake.

She took Akane's mallet from her stun hands and went after Ranma.

Ranma then jumps out of her seat and runs for it out of the house, while
dodging a Shampoo's mallet happy, even if she wasn't happy at all.

"Shampoo, what did I do?" while dodging her swing and attempted to bash
 her.

Shampoo stopped just the time to cry in Mandarin:
"I have waited more than six months for you to compliment me and you go
 and complement Pervert Girl!"

And resumed her bashing attempt.

"Stop that!  You could hurt someone!" protested Ranma while dodging on all
 the place of the Amazon's village.  Shampoo was very eager to hurt her.

"Shampoo my love!" exclaimed Mu Tsu after groping on Ranma's bosom.

"Hey, I'm not Shampoo!" Ranma protested and proceeded to trash Mu Tsu.

"You were right, that wasn't as big as usual." replied Mu Tsu from the
ground.

"Pervert!" Ranma yelled.

Mu Tsu was trash but not enough for Ranma after a comment like that.
She kicked him very hard.  Shampoo had assisted on all that but didn't
interfere until now.

"Where stupid Mu Tsu will land this time?!  Not that I care!"
Shampoo asked Ranma while seeing Mu Tsu disappearing very fast
to the north of them.

"I don't know.  I use a brief 'Fly kick'.  He will be here tomorrow though."
replied Ranma.  She has forgotten why she was dodging Shampoo.  Shampoo too
to her great relief.

"Too bad.  I was wishing for a great vacation for the next few months at
 least." Shampoo said, disappointed.

Ranma had laughed a little about that, then asked her:

"So anyway, what was that war situation Cologne had wrote to me about?"

"We had better wait for Great-grandmother to explain it to you.  I don't
 know all the details." Shampoo replied still in Mandarin.

"I will see her then.  Where is she?" she asked.

Ranma and Shampoo then began to felt nervous and looked around them.
Nearly all the Amazons were around them with all theirs weapons at
the ready.

They were convinced to be under attack when all the battle sounds
had begun, but had decided to watch the show when they saw what was
really happening.  Impressing the Great-granddaughter of the
Elder Cologne could explain all the draw weapons by their prompt
reaction to a possible treat though.

"All of you, return to the preparation of war!" exclaimed Shampoo to all
the warriors, most were females but a small number among them were males.

"Ranma, follow me.  We will see if Cologne is in the village or
 in reconnaissance." Shampoo asked and explained to Ranma.

They went to find her.


[Cologne's House.  Shampoo had moved out soon after Ranma went to Japan.]

They were sitting around another table after they took Akane
on the way here.

"What the deal?" Ranma began in Japanese for Akane benefit.

"To explained this fiasco, I have to explain to you how it had started."
Cologne said.  Seeing she has all the attention of Akane, Ranma and
even Shampoo, she resumed:

"Four days ago, a patrol went out to investigate the Musk Dynasty.
 We had reason to believe they were on the move to take brides by force
 after some disappearance had occurred among us."

She looks them again to see their reaction and she received one:

"What had started a war?  The Musk was always a problem before without
 resulting in a war." Ranma asked.

"It seemed than Herb was curse last year in the same manner then
 you were with the pool of drowned girl though he hadn't been with the
 drowned spirit's pool.  After they had researched in Japan
 for the mean to unlock the curse, he had returned here and began to
 acted even more forward again us.  You had assisted on some of these
 cases.  But now he seemed to have shifted his preference from animals
 transform with the drowned girl's pool to the Amazons themselves.
 We can't permit that to happen and had sent some of our better warriors
 to stopped that."

"Wait a minute.  You meant he has unlocked his curse.  Where can I find
 him?" Ranma asked eagerly to go retrieve it, whatever it was.

Cologne looks at her in a sign of reproached but Ranma was too focus
on the curse to see it.

After taking a great breathed, Cologne explained to her:

"Unfortunately, in their attempted to find the artefact to unlock the
 curse, they destroyed it.  Sorry to give the bad new but it was the
 only meant to unlock the curse that I knew of.  It also why they
 didn't want to approach the curse springs of Jusenkyo, because they
 had be at risk to become a bride themselves permanently since they lose
 the Kaisufuu."

Ranma has a very low moral after hearing that and after some thought
about it, she asked:

"Why you didn't told me about it before?"

"At the time, we didn't know where the artifact could have been,
 only than a thief stole it many years ago and disappeared with it.
 I decided not to put your hoped up, just to crushed it immediately after."

After some more thought, Ranma replied:
"I think I understand that you meant well."

"Thank to understand, daughter." said Cologne, relieved.

"So, when will I go to kick these stupid man for destroying that artifact?"
suddenly asked Ranma, very eager to take her revenge for destroying it.

Everyone facefault.  That seemed to hurt a lot too.  What with all the
blunt weapons lying around them, bondori for example was very hard.

"Hey, to which of you own this?" Akane asked to all of them.  She had
dropped on it among other things.

"That Shampoo's weapon! Give that! Shampoo lost it when Shampoo went to
 live elsewhere." replied Shampoo in Japanese and taking the bondori
from Akane.

"Akane, I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Ranma said to Akane who was
ready to attack Shampoo with her mallet.

Instead, she had mallet Ranma through the roof in a very high trajectory.


[At the end of the trajectory]

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHhhhh! (SPLASH)" Ranma had just splashed in a pool.

"Sorry sir!  You just fell in the pool of drowned Dragon who drowned
 there more than three thousand years ago.  Now whoever fall in pool
 change into a Dragon . . . " the guide said in Mandarin but stopped when
he says that the girl who had just dropped in the pool from the sky
was still a girl.

"I knew than that pool was not used for the last two hundred years,
 but why nobody warned me about a change of template?!" asked the guide.
He was always the last to learn these changes, most of the time when
someone fell in it.

"Where? Where?  I don't see any Dragon.  If you pay me, I could get rid of
 it for you?" asked a slightly change Ranma.  Her hair, for one thing,
were more orange-red than bright red like before.

She was about to come out of the pool.  She didn't know what had happened
but if it Naga fault again, she will laugh a lot less after she'd use a
'Dragon Slave' on her or better yet, a 'Laguna Blade' up her posterior.

"Oh!  Forget it.  I'm hungry!" Lina thought to herself.

"Where the Inn?" she asked the guide in Japanese.  A Japanese slightly off,
but he was able to understand what she had meant.

He just pointed to the north to the Amazon's Village.


[Just before the Amazon's Village]

The two guards in duty were startled by the appearance of a girl who,
while looking like Ranma, had orange-red hairs.

The time they had decided what to do, Lina was way past them.

"Eu, what should we do?" asked one.

"Just forget it.  It wasn't a Musk's obviously." replied the other guard.

"And did you saw how easily she had jumped these walls liked
 they were nothing?!  It was Ranma without a doubt."


[Into the Village]

"I didn't remember being able to jump so high without magic." Lina
said to herself, but didn't search further than that.

She was approaching a group of Amazons Warriors who were practicing
between them.  Some of them were taking risks even Lina would never
dream of taking without dying.

"They are insane!  At least Gourry has a magic sword to back him up." said
Lina loudly, not noticing all the attention she was getting all of a sudden.

"Where is he anyway?" she asked herself.

All the Amazons who had heard her comment decided to teach her a lesson.

"And you can do better?" asked one menacingly.

"Any days!  I'm Lina Inverse, better sorceress in the world." Lina announced
loudly.

Most of the Amazons present were startled to learned she wasn't Ranma,
even if her hair were not the same color, she was looking just like her.

"Get her!" yelled one.  All the Amazons Warriors were advancing on Lina with
weapons draw, ready to used.  They had a spy to kill after all.

"It's how you wanted it!" exclaimed Lina and proceeded to trash all of
them at once: "'Fireball'!" she yelled to give more power to it.  When
only air fizzle though, she decides to apply the good old method when
her magic wasn't working.

"It's that day again!" yelled Lina and ran for it.  It didn't take
long to outdistance all of them, she then jumped over the walls and hit
directly a tree, who had no right to be here, right after she'd given
a look back.

When some of the Amazons had arrive and saw that she was out cold, they
tied her up and return with her to the village.


[Cologne's House]

After the warriors had deposited Ranma on the couch in her house, Cologne
was asking question about what happened to one of them in Mandarin:

"You say that she was arrogant and she had called herself Lina Inverse?"

"Yes Elder.  Some of the warriors had wanted to kill her for that too.
 If she wasn't out cold when we had reached her, it was likely to have
 happened."

"Nothing else?" she added.

"Yes.  Her hairs weren't of the right color.  They are red now but before
 they were orange-red."

"Thank for bringing her to me.  You can go.  I will take care of her."
Cologne dismissed them and turned to see to her daughter.


[Half-hour later]

"Oh my head!  I ran into a tree or what?" asked Ranma, moaning about the
great headache who was knocking in her skull.

"Good!  You could maybe answer some questions now?" asked Cologne to her.

After some adjustment in her vision, Ranma finally replied to Cologne:

"Not so loud." she protested.

"Do you know a Lina Inverse?" asked Cologne a lot less loudly.

"It's me and it's not.  I'm very confused.  AAAAHHHHhhhhh!" Ranma began
and lose consciousness again after taking her head in her hand in
great pain.

"Hey, her hair just turns orange-red." said Akane after seeing the change.

"The warrior who took her to us reported the same thing.  If my guess is
 right, she will awaken as Lina Inverse." Cologne explained to her.

"What!" Akane had half jumped to the roof when she heard this name and added
in shaking:
"It's impossible.  She's just an anime character!" she yelled in a panic.

"What do you mean?"

"What Pervert Girl means?" Shampoo echo to her great-grandmother.
Just seeing the girl in that state of mind and shaking like that was
disturbing because anything which upset her like that was very serious.

"Lina Inverse is a sorceress in an anime call 'Slayers'.  She's so good
 at magic that very few magic' user dare to encounter her.  Among the few
 who survive such encounters were Dragon and Masoku." Akane explained in
a state of panic.  She was still shaking from the possibility alone.  After
all Ranma looks exactly like Lina Inverse now with that hair color of her.

"Calm down!  I don't think that Ranma will disappear.  From past
 experience, the two lives memory of the soul had just merge.
 Ranma will be fine, but very different in some aspect.
 I was waiting for this to happen, just not so soon." Cologne explained
to the two girls.  Akane had seemed to calm down a little at hearing that.

"Now that you have calm down, do you mind explain to me what you were talking
 about?" Cologne asked Akane, trying to calm her down some more with
that question.

After Akane had stopped shaking at seeing Cologne looks at her with
a reassuring smile and she laugh a little at how it looks on Cologne
to smile like that.

"Sorry!  It's just than that name usually means big trouble, like the end of
 the world or something.  It was always liked this in 'Slayers'." Akane
explained to them, trying to remain calm.  Not easy to do with a
'Lina Inverse' at her side, even if unconscious at the moment.


[Spiritual' plan]

"I should have known.  Even in his sleep, he sleeps!" exclaimed Lina Inverse,
Looking at Ranma Saotome's male form and shaking him without a reply.

She had waited for him to awake for the last two hours, subjective time
because in the spiritual plan, time passes a lot faster.

Suddenly, Ranma became awake, ready to face any treat imaginable.

"What happened to me?" he asked to nobody in particular.  Normally he didn't
have a girl looking just like his female form except for the hair when
he came here before.

"It's about time you awake.  You are the only one I knew of who sleep
 in his dreams." an exasperated Lina said to him.

"Do you have anything better to do than sleeping?" asked Ranma, eyeing Lina
lack of curves.  A tomboy as he sees it.

"Who are you for calling me a tomboy?!  'Fireball'!" exclaimed Lina and
shoot her spell in his face.

Or tried too.

"Why that didn't work?  Even in my dream I can't use magic." muttered Lina,
upset as hell by it.  She resigned herself to it and replied to Ranma
previous question.

"I prefer eating in my dreams.  It's more fun.  Happy now!" exclaimed Lina,
still upset by all of it.

"To each his hobby then!  So who are you anyway?" he asked her.

They were face to face, standing and looking at each others.

Ranma saw a girl, looking just like what he was looking like as a girl but
with orange-red hair.  She was wearing an odd outfit made of leather,
a pair of white gloves with many gems on her black cape and outfit
and she was looking absolutely upset about something.

Lina saw a very handsome boy, black hair in a pigtail, red Chinese shirt,
a black pant and absolutely clueless about what had happened to them.

That upset her even more.

"Have you even one idea what kind of hell I have had this past year?!" she
yelled at him after losing it one more time.

"No.  It's surely Pop's fault.  All was always his fault anyway in one way
 or another." he replied.

"I didn't talk of that.  I'd been in your head half alive except when
 you had called on some of our powers for the past year.  I had tried to
 contact you at least five times, all for nothing because you just pass out,
 idiot!  And now I had just discovered that we should merge soon if we want
 to survive." ranted Lina, yelling her heart contend to him.

"What did you mean, merge?" he asked.

"Exactly that.  If we don't merge, one of us will die and the other will
 follow shortly after that.  The spirits of Jusenkyo warned me
 about it.  The Dragon's pool was the means they chose to awaken me
 totally, else even the Amazons would have dies or disappear in the actual
 war." she continued to rant with a year of frustrations to make for.

"And they gave me Jusenkyo as a power source because the Masoku and the
 Lord of Nightmare didn't exist in this universe." she said and smiled
at it.  One power source without all the evil which came with it usually,
it was like a dream come true for her, even if she'd to beg them to lend
it to her.  She just has to remember the calling method to use it and
not call it too often.  She just didn't intend to explain the deal she did
with the spirits to him.  He will absorb some of her personality and most
of her memory, but not whatever she had learned since she died last time,
or at least not consciously.

"What was that deal you were thinking about?" Ranma asked her, suspicious.

She had forgotten than thought can be heard here.

"Nothing you need to know for now." Lina tried to dismiss the matter.

"As I see it, you just wanted to take over my body.  I won't permit it."
Ranma protested.  He didn't understand half of what she had said.
That was crazy from the beginning anyway.

"It wasn't crazy!  It's the truth!  I'm you!  You are me!  We are one and
the same soul.  The only differences between us are the memories we carried."
she ranted some more.

"You said it, 'we' carried.  So where you came from?" he asked.

"Idiot!  You are lucky than magic didn't work well here!  I'd fried you in
 one instant if I could."

"Try lightning.  It works just fine." replied Ranma to be helpful
before he had thought he was the likely target from it.

"Lightning?  Hum," was thinking Lina loudly.

"Wind, crimson flame. Grant the power of thunder to my hand! 'DIGU VOLT'!"
she had raised her arms in Ranma direction and lightning shoot from them.

He was able to dodge most of it, but he was hit anyway because Lina
lose control of it when she senses the hit herself.


[Thirty minutes later, subjective time]

Ranma was on the ground, electrocutes by the attack with his clothes in
bad condition.

Lina was seething in the corner she had just created in this void.
She had discovered than anything she did to Ranma was the same then
if she did it to herself.  Make sense too now that she thought of it.
At least her clothes didn't suffer from the attack.

"Hey!  Ranma, undead yet?!" she asked the stash of clothes on the ground.

"How do you think?!  You just electrocuted me!" he muttered loud enough
for her to hear.

"You should know than all we did here will only effect us if we want it
 too.  You nearly fried me just in believing to your how dead.  Anyway,
 what the deal here, lightning normally didn't worked like that.
 I had the impression to maintain an entire storm in my hand for a
 while here." asked Lina without pausing.  She had already learned
she didn't need to breathe and use it at full extends.

"You know, that day.  It seemed I'm the only one on this planet
 who was affected by it.  Some of my spells will just stop working
 while other went crazy.  Only some of the spells will work as
 they should during that day." he replied, a little anxious about her
reaction.  She has a temper worse then anyone she had ever seen before.

"You are very lucky that some of them worked.  Me, I'd become powerless
 at that time if you forget the sword and Gourry." she replied.

"Who is Gourry?"

"Was.  He's probably dead since I died myself.  He was the best swordsman
 I had ever seen and a lot better than Kuno.  I don't think we
 could compare the two anyway." she replied, lost in memory of a more
happy times.  Gourry was maybe an idiot, but he was a genius in others
aspect too, she just had to find them very deep in him.  She was still
at it before she died, though she prefers not think of her own dead.

"Sorry to learned that.  It won't help us in your situation though.
 Any suggestion?" he asked.

"As I saw before, we should merge.  Time is short.  We should do it
 before one of us began to disappear from existence." she asked again
with the same insistence than when she had wanted the Sword of Light from
Gourry.

"Are you sure than one of us will die if we don't merge?" asked Ranma,
a little less certain of it being a simple take over.

"Yes, I'm sure." replied Lina with an air of confidence she didn't really
possess.  She has her own doubt but with the imminent death of either of them
or both, she can't refuse the final merging of the memories and personalities.
The process had begun since last year, the final merging was just to
integrated the two lives as one.

After thinking of it for some more minutes, which Lina used to think of
it too, he finally replied:

"Ok.  You win!  How do we proceed to do that merging?" accepted Ranma and asked her.

"We just touch our hands and Will the merging.  I think." replied Lina,
a lot less sure how doing it now than Ranma had accepted it too.

They then approach each other with their hand extent.

Lightning seemed to course from one another.  Probably the remaining charges
of the previous spell.

Then Lina starts to glow bright red and Ranma bright blue.

Their hands finally touch and all went white.


[Cologne's House]

While Cologne was learning all she can about slayers from Akane for the
last half hour, Shampoo was looking at Ranma for any change when suddenly:

"Shampoo don't like it.  Ranma glows bright blue and red at the same time!"
she exclaimed after seeing that happening on Ranma.

"Great-grandmother!" she yelled in panic.

"Yes?" replied Cologne, while entering in the bedroom.  As soon as she saw
Ranma glowing like a Christmas tree she called to Akane:

"Akane, come fast!  Ranma will awaken shortly and we don't know in what
 state of mind she will be."

Akane was entering the bedroom at that moment anyway and asked worried:

"Will she be all right?"

"She should but not for the first few minutes.  They will be hard on
 her and us too if she loses control.  No one does anything threatening,
 even for fun.  Is that clear?" Cologne asked the two girls very serious
about it.

The two girls accepted with a sign of their heads and returned
checking on Ranma's state.


[Ranma's Subconscious]

Ranma Inverse or Lina Saotome or Ranma Saotome or Lina Inverse were
in any event as one, though you would not know it by seeing then
going at it.

"What do you meant by that?!" yelled Ranma.

"Just that all things relate to magic should belong to me.
 I will leave martial art to you." she explained to Ranma as if to an
idiot, which didn't pass well with him.

"But I liked doing magic.  You can't take it away!" he exclaimed.

"It's my magic!" she replied hotly.

"Not just yours.  I knew for a fact that I had magic potential even
 before Jusenkyo.  Why do you think our magic is so screw up." he said.

That had stopped her an instant, but not for long:

"Without me you would never have learned magic in the first place."
she protested.

"With Cologne around?!  She would have eventually taught me anyway."
he replied to that.

Lina thinks some more about that.

"Ok, you win for now, though it isn't finish!" she exclaimed and disappeared.

Ranma-chan was seething for a while and disappeared too.
Being male was too good to be true even in her dream or subconscious
it seemed.


[Cologne's House]

"Hiya!  Ranma awakes!" exclaimed Shampoo.

They were waiting anxiously around Ranma bed, not sure who will speak to
them when she will awake completely.

Ranma open her eyes and saw the two girl and adoptive mother around her.

"Did anyone saw the dragon who hit me?" she asked weakly.

"No, did you take its number?" Akane asked as a joke.

"Shampoo kills!  Where Dragon?" Shampoo asked after remembering she didn't
knew of any dragon around here.

"It was a joke great-granddaughter." replied Cologne.

"But Dragon very dangerous.  Shampoo should kill it before it attack Ranma
 again." she protested.

Cologne just knocked on Shampoo with her staff.  Not very hard but enough
to compel her to think.

"Shampoo sorry!" she replied when she finally understands the extend of
the joke.

"Better.  Now Ranma, how do you feel?" Cologne asked her.

"A lot betters.  Except I'm very confused about my name being Lina, Ranma or
 both." she replied, which confused the two other girls too.

"It was to be expected.  Your soul is as one now?"

"Yes, very much.  We were at war here for a while and that Lina was insane."
Ranma explained, not noticing she had just insulted herself in a way.

"No other problems?"

"No.  My head is clear for the first time since Jusenkyo comes to think of it."
said Ranma.  If she didn't take into account the girl creaming in her
head about that insane comment.

"Good.  We will depart to war tomorrow at noon.  Take a rest until the time
 come." Cologne said to her and went to others urgent matters.

After her exit the two girls were asking a lot of question to Ranma.

"You are really better?" Akane asked her.

"Shampoo happy Ranma ok." Shampoo said and was bouncing a little
in her excitement.

"Yes Akane, I'm fine.  I'm happy to see you to Shampoo." Ranma said to them.

"Now, I really needed my rest.  Good night you two." Ranma said and smile
at both of them.

"Good night." called Akane while going to bed herself in the same room than
Shampoo.

Shampoo remained for a while just looking at Ranma.  She wasn't sure if
she was the same Ranma she had knew for the last year but she seemed
close enough for now.


[Central place in the Amazon's Village]

Cologne was facing most of the remaining warriors, most females and some
males.  Some even chose to go in their curses form when they possess
a useful one.  When she obtained the silence, she began:

"Our main objective today is to rescue all the Amazons who were ambushed
 by the Musk Dynasty's warriors.  No needed to say what they will do with
 them if we don't react violently to their abominable act again us."

Most of the women present were in great fury again the Musk.  Most
of them had daughters or near relative who had been kidnap at the started
of the hostility and didn't intend to permit it to continue.
Very hard to calm them down.  After another five minutes Cologne
was able to continue:

"My adopted daughter has arrived yesterday from Japan to help us.
 She was able to tap into the power of Jusenkyo and will explain
 to you what we can do with it."

After finishing her speech, she leaved the place to Ranma.  Some of the
warriors were still remembering her conduct from yesterday but decided
than beating-up the Musk was more important.

"I hadn't been an Amazon for more than a year but I already felt as one
 in my heart.  What the Musk are trying to do must be stopped and
 we must leave them a clear message that we will not permit such
 thing in the future." Ranma began.  Her speech had been prepared with
the helped of Cologne and Shampoo this morning.  She received some
curious stares with what she'd just said and continued:

"I was able yesterday to use the power of Jusenkyo with their approval.
 I could already boost any individual who is curse by Jusenkyo to a
 level of Ki not seen in any other then the very best like Cologne or
 myself.  In addition to that, I received additional power to deal with
 Herb himself if I need to.  Anyone who is curse please comes see me
 to do the spell on you as soon as possible.  I intend to go as soon as
 I had finish with that.  Thank you!" she then waited for anyone willing
to received a boost of power.

Most of the warriors were already going to patrol around to eliminated
any Musk warrior they can find.  They have order to kill only if
capture weren't an option, though some of them didn't care and intend to
kill all the bastards on sight.

For her part, Ranma was already readying to cast the first boost
of power on four Amazons.  Two of them were in their curse form
of a panther and a tiger.  Ranma was trying to ignore the 'Big cat'
the better she can.  She was cure of the Nekoken but still was afraid
of cats but not to the extend of paralysis like before.

After checking her how link to Jusenkyo, she began the spell:

"'Through the power of Jusenkyo,
  Empowered by your curse,
  Until the sun disappear,
  You shall be protected'!"

Ranma was glowing red and blue, both colors not mixing with each others.
They condensed in front of her and shot into the four Amazons at
the same time.

Ranma could already sense the increased in power.
She was more than impresses by the amount of Ki she could detect in them.

Taking a breath, she said:

"Cologne, can you explain to them the plan?" Ranma asked her.

After Cologne took these four to talk to them, Ranma simply said:

"Next!"


[Musk Dynasty's camp]

"Mint, Lime comes here NOW!" was yelling prince Herb.

"(Splash)!"

Herb-chan wasn't at all please.  They had again splashed her with cold
water.  She hated her girl's curse because she was never able to sense
that kind of attack.

To the visual delight of the two perverts who had that look again of
utter stupidity while saying:

"Titties!"

They were the only one than her curse still amuses.

She'd had enough!

She just blasted them.

For the help they had been since she was curse, she should just kill them.

"Now to conquer these females' Amazons." she said to her other lieutenants.
They, at least, knew their place.

"We capture three more in the past hour, Herb-sama!" replied one.

"Good.  Anything else?" Herb-sama asked.

"Yes.  We have lost contact with some of our patrols, which isn't unusual
 with that much females around here, except it happened to six of them at
 the same times." another one report.  He was waiting for further order
about that.

"Send Mint and Lime when they had returned.
 They were always good to be where they shouldn't be before." Herb-sama said,
she was still female but with them out of the way, she should be able
to relax.

"Bring hot water as soon as possible!" she ordered the last lieutenant
who had remained here.  He went to meet his prince's wish.


[Amazon's Village]

After Ranma did the last spell of boosting, she was doing another speech
to the Amazons who had received that boost:

"First, all of you will remain near me at all time.  Never wander to more
 then five hundred meters.  Cologne already explained to you the plan to finish
 this war with victory on our side.  All the other Amazons were given the
 exact opposite order to remained out of that distance from me and if
 you saw some of them in that range, tell them to go out of it.  The spells
 I will use won't have any effect on you but could be lethal to others
 particularly for the Musk." they all smile at the idea.  Not a pretty sign.

After some time, she continued:

"Shampoo will remain with me as bodyguard.  Any Ki attack won't concern
 me but physical attack can be very dangerous if they distract me in
 the middle of a spell."

Just as she was turning, she saw Akane coming to her.

"I want to come.  I'm a martial artist too!" said Akane.

"Not to denigrate your talent, but we will probably kill in that war and I
 don't remember you ever doing it before." Ranma replied to her.

When she saw Akane gulping at that reality of their current situation,
she said:

"What would you say to remain here and help to protect children?"

Ranma was waiting for a reply which came after Akane had flush, opened
her mouth a couple of times without saying anything and finally:

"But,"

"Sorry to say it, but it isn't the place to play war." Ranma had interrupted
her and went her way out of the village before she could react.
Most of the curses one had followed.


>From behind Akane, Cologne had approached her.

"You know she's right about it.  You will do more good in freeing a warrior
 from her duty then going in unknown territory unprepared."

"I know it now.  I just didn't envision it quite that way before." Akane said
downcast.

"Good, because now we can discuss your initiation as an Amazon." added Cologne.

"What!" cried Akane and facefault in shock.

Cologne loves so much to see that kind of reaction, as long as it wasn't herself.
With all the training she had received herself from Ranma this last year,
she's more or less immune to common shock.


[Near Jusenkyo, but far enough not to fall in any pools]

"Herb-sama!  We are under attack!" cried on of his lieutenant, not stopping
to say more and returned outside in a panic.

Herb had taken his sword and went to destroy the intruder who dare
attack him.

What greets him wasn't what he had in mind when he thought of intruders.
All around him, his man was dodging, running or screaming in pain from
all the RPG shoots attacking them.  It had seemed to be a RPG, or fireball
he rectified when he heard a shoot of "'Fireball'!".  He didn't need long
to locate the young girl with red-orange hairs, less than five hundred meters
in front of him, with all the shooting she was doing around him.

He had narrowed his eyes and decided to retaliate.

He shoots a very big ki-blast of two meters in diameter directly at her.

It went right through her to his shock.  He didn't receive the same training
than Cologne for the past year.

Most of his warriors, some Amazons and Shampoo stopped when they saw the
blast going right through Ranma.  The blast had continued on its course
and did a huge explosion far enough behind Ranma for not having any effect
on her, though her hair seemed to fly around her now.

"Who are you?" called Herb.

"Your worst nightmare!" Ranma said, using a spell to spread her voice on
all the battlefields.

"How Ranma did that?" Shampoo could only ask in Mandarin.

"Easy, I'm just an illusion.  AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ranma then turned to her
and disappeared.

Shampoo had been frightened by that laugh.
No need to imagine what anyone else thought of it.



Not far from there, behind a big tree.
Ranma was talking with herself.

"You didn't have to frighten Shampoo like that!"

"It's more fun.  Try to remain in your head, doing nothing for the past
 year, and come see me again."

"Sorry about that.  Now what we do next?  It's your plan after all."

"All are as they should.  Don't worry, what can go wrong?"

She shudders.  What indeed?

"When will we stop talking like that anyway?"

"In less than one year.  Our two personalities were not compatible
 enough to go faster.  And fear of losing ourselves slow down the process
 even more."

In the distance, they heard many scream.
It was time to complete the plan.


She resolutely went in Herb direction and began the build-up of power
she will need for a spell with a lot of alteration.  She began to walk
through the Amazons and warriors without stopping.  No ones tried to
stopped her either.  They didn't want to die if she was still angry
which seemed to be the case.

When she was in view of Herb and most of his lieutenants, she chanted the spell.

"'Curses from twilight and dawn, changed from forms that flow,'"

Darkness and light began to form a shield around her.

"'buried in the flow of cursed magic,
  In Thy great curses, I pledge myself to Jusenkyo!'"

Her form could now be seen as a distortion as if through a wall of water.

"'Those who oppose us shall be curse and lock by the power you and I possess'!"

she was singing the spell when Ranma suddenly vanished to the shocks of
all the Amazons presents, but the sky remains very dark and stormy.


[Spiritual' plan]

"Where am I?!" Ranma asked suddenly.

She was about to finish the casting of the spell, when she had appeared
here.  She was examining her surrounding.  All she could see was
at first absolutely nothing.  After a few seconds she began to saw
better.  She has in front of her what look like a girl of sixteen
with very long red hair.  But Ranma was startled when she was unable to
determined which colors were her eyes.  The girl had seemed translucent and had
other spirits around her.  Ranma was able to see a Panda just liked
her father, other animals from a panther to a lion and a centaur
with wings and other things she can't really recognize about it.
Some of these spirits were easy to see, where others were very pale
and near nonexistence.

The first thing Ranma thought to do was to attack,
but forget that idea when the girl in front of her talked in her head.

'Sorry to bring you here.  You were about to use our powers without
 ours consents.  You have to know the price to pay before you complete
 that spell,' began the spirit of the girl who drowned at Jusenkyo.

'What?!  I don't understand.  I have to save my Amazon's sisters from
 the Musk!' Ranma exclaimed, worried for all her friends and all theirs
plan depended entirely on that spell.

'Are you ready to pay the price?' the spirit finally asked after talking
silently with some of the more solid spirits around them.  They had
already talk the matter with Lina and it should be enough of a consent
for now.

'I'm ready to pay the price if nobody had to die for it.' replied Ranma.
She added that condition to shorten the time she lost in there and
to be sure not to die for it.

'We, the spirits of Jusenkyo, accepted your terms.  The next time you cast
this spell or it counterpart, we shall talk again.  Farewell.' the girl said
and waved her hand.


[Battlefield]

Ranma reappears at the same place.  She was still in her power-up and
was ready to finish the spell.

"'CURSE SLAYER'!" yelled Ranma.

A wave of darkness and light leaved her two hands like a tsunami.
It made more than 160 degrees of arc in front of her.

Herb was shooting Ki-blast after Ki-blast to destroy the wave without
any effect.  He'd been stun when Ranma had disappeared earlier and didn't
react immediately when she had reappeared.

Some Amazons were engulfed by the spell along with most of the warriors
of the Musk Dynasty.  Herb, in his rage, didn't think to flee either.


[An hour later]

All were silent on the battlefield.

As silent as could be a small army of Amazons at least.

Ranma was presently trying a new fashion and had again changed of hair
color from red-orange to silver this time.

"Have you find princess Herb yet?" Ranma asked Shampoo while smiling
about the princess part.  Herb was in for a bumpy ride.

"No, he was at the center of the blast and he was throw very far.
 What was that spell anyway?" asked Shampoo.

"Just an improved version of the Dragon Slave.  A lot less destructive but
 a better weapon when dealing with Musk warriors and Herb in particular."
Ranma explained without saying much.

"You don't want to say!" exclaimed Shampoo disappoints.

They kept silent after that.

Their prisoners were mostly women.  They were groping each others and
kicking, punching and other means to stop it from happening to them.
What do you expect from some pervert people like the Musk anyway?
It was very disturbing  to see such a show.

The worse of them all were Lime and Mint.  They already had tried hot water
on themselves without success, though they tried to stop the other to
do so too.  They were in the phase 'Titties' for the past half hour.

Ranma had tried to ignore their antic but couldn't totally leave them
without being watch.

"Animals!  All of them!" Shampoo suddenly said, looking at the two perverts
going at it again.

"What do you expect from people who bread using animals even transform
 into human?  A wolf and a tiger weren't the better choice to have normal
 peoples." Ranma replied.

After some silence between them, Ranma added:

"They should have found her.  I will go to assist them.  Wait here."

Ranma then concentrated and said: "'Raywing'!"

When nothing happened, she decided to walk.
The 'CURSE SLAYER' had totally drained any magic from her and most
of her Ki too.

It will be good to keep her figure at least.  With a sign she sprints
in the direction she knew as the most probable to locate Herb.
She was very important for their plan to work out after all.

In Ranma mind:
'Now if only she could explain to Lina why they shouldn't loot the body,
 especially if not dead.  Though after that she'd kill them, which is even worse.'

In Lina mind:
'Why can Ranma leave me alone about that.  Some of them even had magic
 swords or items.  I feel naked without more backup.  He's so stubborn,
 he sure didn't take that from me.'


[Amazon's village]

Cologne and Akane were still in the central place where we had seen
them last time.

"What do you mean by initiation?" asked Akane, not liking the sound of it.

"Just the usual.  You should prove yourself worthy in combat and some others
 tests I'm sure you can pass.  Just do your best." explained Cologne to her.

"But why should I?" asked Akane, worried about all the implications.

"It's very simple.  Yesterday you have defected Ranma, quite easily even, and
 by Amazon's laws she should have given you the kiss of death.  Now, it's Ranma
 we are talking about and she's not the kind to kill without a lot of
 good reasons and killing a close friend like you is not an option.
 And don't forget than Ranma was a man before last year and the
 kiss of marriage in that case should be use.  Now with a mess like this,
 the only real option is for you to become an Amazon." explained Cologne.

"You called it simple?!" asked Akane in disbelief,
not understanding half of these crazy laws and explanations.

"Yes, the choice is for either you to become an Amazon or you leave
 a mess so big than Ranma will have problems to deal with them.
 I'm sure you don't want to do that." said Cologne.

She had seen Akane's potential and wanted her to their side.  She had
sense magic in her, for one thing, when she had used that mallet of her.

Its 'interpretation of Amazon's laws 101' today, a course to take if you ever
want to go to China.  In Cologne case, she mastered it long ago.


[Battlefield.  Half hour later]

Herb was retrieved after Ranma explained to some Amazons that they were
suppose to find a girl dress like Herb, not a man.  They had found him
very fast after that.  Shampoo was still laughing about it.

"You can stop anytime soon, you know?" Ranma asked Shampoo when she
continued laughing her heart out.

"Ahhh Ah! It's too funny!  I can't believe you didn't warn them about that!
 Wait till I say it to Cologne!" after saying that, she continued to
laughed though a little less unrestrained.

"How is Herb, healer?" she turned and asked to a warrior who also knew medicine.

"She should be awake since five minutes ago though she had faked it." she said.

Ranma can't believe it.  Herb was a good actor, evens her didn't sense it,
though she was very drained right now.

"Herb, prince or should I say princess of the Musk Dynasty?" Ranma asked
the fallen warrior and prince at their feet.

Seeing that her ruse didn't work well enough to give her more information about this
situation, Herb decides to stopped faking being asleep.

"What do you want?  We don't intend to surrender.  Already our army will
 come very soon." Herb replied to her defiantly.

"Have you recently tried hot water?" Ranma asked, not at all intimidated
by what she said.

"What do you mean?" Herb asked, already dreading being lock again in
her female form.  She could lose her status as future ruler at a minimum,
and after this fiasco it a sure thing.

"Just than that spell I had used at the end was to put a female curse on
 all males who were present, a permanent one at that." Ranma explained
to her, not saying all the true to put Herb in a desperate state.

In Herb's head, she was desperate and chose to find more info on the matter
of the curses.

"I don't believe you!" Herb replied.

She was startled to have hot water cascading on her from behind.  She was
even worse when she didn't change.  Herb says her life slip away from her
grasp and she would have begged that girl if not for her training as a ruler.

"What do you want?" she finally replied, defeated in the worse way possible,
but still in a defiant tone.

"I'm not a diplomat but it very simple as Cologne would say.
 First, release all Amazon's you kept captives,
 second, never again attack the Amazons,
 third, you will pay compensation for that war,
 and last, if you ever attack again, I will personally do that
 spell on all your peoples at the same time and won't unlock the
 spell even if beg for."  Ranma finished.  She had discussed these same
terms with Cologne and had found them to be sufficient.

"Is that acceptable?" Ranma asked when not receiving any reply.

"You will unlock that curse on all of us?" Herb asked after seeing she didn't
have any choice in the matter.

"Yes.  I will leave the curses as a means to remind you not to cross
 the Amazons ever again, but will remove the lock on all your curses."
Ranma explained to her with a feral look.  Though that make her look more
kawaii, she didn't seem to have noticed the effect yet.

"Shampoo, do you think Cologne and the Elders will approve?" Ranma asked her.
She needed more approval to support her present position as a leader here.

"Yes, without a doubt." replied Shampoo.
She was able to stopped laughing after the talking had turned very serious.

"Do we have a deal?" Ranma asked to Herb.

"We see we don't have much choice.  Can you unlock that curse before
 our armies arrive?" Herb asked her.  He didn't like the idea to be on
display anymore than needed to an army of perverts.

"Ok.  I can do that.  Just don't forget what I will do if you ever break
 this agreement." Ranma warned her.

"Yes, you can be sure I won't forget it." replied Herb.  Ranma was not sure if
it was a treat to her or what.

"Ok.  All the Amazon, kept away from here or behind me.  All your women
 in front of me there." Ranma points in front of her where most
of the Musk warrior were anyway.

Herb didn't like the comment about his women but went among them anyway.
She had to knockout some of the more aggressive, but they didn't really
needed to be conscious anyway.

Ranma took position and said:

"'Those who had opposed us shall be unlocked by the power you and I possess'!"

The build-up was very faint but was sufficient to unlock all the curses
when a second wave shoots from her and enter every woman.  Some
of them had reverted to a man, while other to animals.
But most remain female as was the case for Herb.

"Herb," Ranma called to her: "one last thing.  If the name of Lina Inverse
 meant anything to you, just know that as I was the enemy of
 all who lives, I will be your enemy personally if you don't behave."

"Gee," she thought "I even rhyme in my treats now."

Some of the man and women blanched when they heard that name.
Herb was just puzzle by this but knew a treat when he heard one.

"As I said, I won't forget!" Herb said with more conviction now that her position
can't be taken from her.

"I'd recommended you talk to some of your man or women.  They seemed
 to know me." Ranma said after seeing how some of them had react.

"We will leave you with that now.  Send a diplomat to finalize the agreement
 when you are ready and don't forget to send to us in good health all the
 Amazons.  Don't forget any, else I will be very upset!"

With that last warning, Ranma, Shampoo and all the Amazons retreated in order
to return to their village, leaving Herb with a very big mess and a lot of
explanations to do.


[Amazon's Village]

"Now am I an Amazon?  Are you sure of it?" Akane was asking Cologne.  After
many tests and a fight where she didn't do too badly but was beat by her
opponent anyway, Akane was relaxing and hoped not to go through it anytime
soon.

"Yes, you had passes all the test.  The short version of it, but it's valid."
Cologne said to her.

"Gee!  I'm sure I don't want to know the long version then!" said Akane while
looking up to the sky.

"Now we will just have to announce to Ranma than her new trainee just arrives."
said Cologne before going away from Akane.  She was sure the girl wanted
to rest after all she just went through.


[Some time later]

The Amazons warriors were returning victorious from their little war.
They just had some casualties but no death to report and were in good
humors for the most part.

The only one who wasn't as happy about it was Ranma herself.
She'd had to heard Shampoo laughing at her for most of the way home.
She was sulking in her corner which was not very physical in nature
but she tries to her credit anyway.

"Can't help it!  Ahh, Ahhh, ahhh, ah!  If you had seen your face when they
 was searching a man with Herb description and you had just remembered you
 didn't warn them about the change of gender.  Shampoo doesn't know if the
 tree where you were banging your head against could be save.  You nearly
 topple it over.   Ahhh, ahh, ahhhhhh, Ohhh!"

After a while of the same, Shampoo had calm down enough to announce:
"I think we just arrive.  You can look now."

"A good thing we had won the war.  I wouldn't want to know how I'd be
 treat if we'd lost."

That calm Shampoo to the point of stopping her from snickering.
She then said:

"Shampoo sorry.  Didn't laugh much the last week with all the problems we
 were having.  Ranma forgives Shampoo?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah.  I forgive you.  Just don't do it again." replied Ranma.


[Cologne's House]

". . . and it was liked that most of the times in the anime." Akane had just finished
explaining the Slayers story to Cologne.

They were both sit at the table, drinking herbal tea, between all the
explanations Akane had to do for the last half-hour.

"And you think that Ranma could have been Lina previously and I think so too now
 that you had explained that series to me.  Just the magic was very similar to
 what Ranma was able to do most of the time.  It explained too why the magic
 didn't seem to work properly in some case.  For one thing I wasn't able
 to do that much magic without running out of it after one or two spells myself
 but Ranma didn't have to stop at all.  Can you help me to determine if Ranma
 was Lina Inverse and not anybody else?"

"Sure!  How will we do that thought?  Maybe using some of our knowledge about
 Slayers." proposed Akane.

"Good idea.  What was that Masoku who always throws her off balance?"

"Xelloss I think, but 'That is a secret' as he would say." Akane smiled
at the pun.

"Very good plan.  We will do that." after Cologne said that, she quite without
saying more.

Akane to herself:
"I hoped I didn't create a monster.  One Xelloss was enough."


[Outside]

The Amazons just returned from their victory in the war and it was one
of the reason for Cologne departure from Akane.

Cologne went Ranma's way to have a report on the war.
When she saw Ranma and a snickering Shampoo, she relaxed and asked them:

"The plan had worked as expect?"

"Very well.  They shouldn't bother us for the next century at least."
replied Ranma, very confident in herself as usual.

"Tell me all the details later.  For now I wanted to know how you handle
 that Lina Inverse?" inquired Cologne.

"Not as well.  You shouldn't talk like that of her.  We were merged enough
 not to know who was talking most of the time and if her personality and
 temper" Ranma explained but had winced when the said personality yelled
at her.  A good thing she wasn't able to use Ranma's voice to do so.

"Sorry.  I still have trouble with her." finished Ranma.
She winced again.

While they were talking, Akane had arrived.
Her clothes were of Amazon's fashion.

When she saw Ranma, she asked her:
"What happens to your hair?"

"I over extend my power.  Much liked when I had used a 'Giga Slave' as Lina."
she said to them.

Some Amazons just blinked and understood suddenly why Ranma was able to
used Jusenkyo's power though not one of them shy away, after all Ranma
was an Amazon just like them.  The others were instructed in the matter
soon after.

Some would call it gossip while other would call it serious talk.
In either case, it was suddenly very noisy.

"I think we should leave them at their activity." said Cologne.  She
then invited Ranma, Shampoo and Akane to her home with a gesture in that
direction.


While on their ways, Cologne asked suddenly:
"So Ranma, your trainee in Amazon's technique just arrives.  When do you want
 to begin training her?"

"What?  I don't remember anything about that.  I will teleport to Japan
 in a week and that won't leave must time to even start." Ranma protested.

"It's a good thing Akane will return with you then."

". . ." Ranma was stun speechless and had remained frozen while the other continued
on their way.

After regaining her composure, she ran after them and before reaching
Cologne she asked her:

"How that happened?"

"That is a secret." Cologne said.  She was trying hard not to burst laughing
at the look Ranma gave her though what she did after that was a surprise even
for her.

"'Ra Tilt'!" yelled Lina while pointing at Cologne.

The spell began to act, but before any harm had come to Cologne,
Ranma passes out.  A blue-white flame had flicker very briefly around Cologne,
but not enough to harm her to her how relief.  Cologne was to say the least shock
to have obtained a reply so unlike Ranma.  She surmises that doing too much magic
wasn't good for Ranma though very good for herself in this case.

"I think than we had just witnessed Lina Inverse without a doubt." Cologne said, still shaken
by that spell.

"Yeah, it was one of her spells in Slayers.  It could destroy low and middle class
 Masoku." replied Akane.

Akane was shaken because it was partly her plan and seeing Ranma using
such a lethal spell was unthinkable.

"I think we should refrain from upsetting Lina Inverse for the time being."
Cologne proposed.

"You meant Ranma?" Akane asked.

"No, Lina.  Ranma wasn't a problem but that Lina seemed as rash as
 how you had described her in that show." replied Cologne.

"We should put her to bed, she won't be happy if we leaved her out there."
Akane proposed and took Ranma by the hands and continued in their ways.


[Ranma's subconscious]

"You nearly kill Cologne!  Were you out of your mind?!" Ranma yelled at her.

"But she's just like Xelloss with 'That is a secret'.  It freaked me out!"
she protested.

"The only reason you didn't kill her with that spell was because we ran out
 of power.  That won't happen again next time you freak out because we
 have too much power to throw it accidently and we won't have bandits to
 trash for venting your frustration liked before."

"I wasn't frustrated!" she protested.

"So you say.  If I'd known, you would be so dangerous,
 I'd never agreed to merge!" he replied.

"Hey, sniff, you are so means." Line said and started to cry.

Ranma saw it and tried to console her.

"I'm sorry.  I didn't mean it."

"Sucker!" exclaimed Lina while putting her tongue at Ranma.

"No fair, you faked it!" he replied.

That didn't stop him to put his tongue at her too.

We will leave them at it because they were worst than siblings from there on.


[Morning.  Next day in the bathroom]

Ranma was taking her bath in the furo while talking to herself,
or Lina to be exact.

"Will you stop talking about that!" said Ranma, exasperated.

"But why not increase them just a little?" pleaded Lina.  She'd put the
kawaii look if she could, but she'd need a mirror first.

"No, it's final!"

"But it's not hard to do.  Just a little spell of transformation.
 You know I can't cast it myself.  It's your magic that work here."

"Talk about it.  Your magic was deadly while mine is useful at least."

"Not my fault if I had only Masoku to kill most of the time.  If you think
 life was easy there, always between the Dragon's idea of order and the
 Masoku's destructive nature.  So we created very destructive magic, or in my
 case I learned the most powerful spells and I had Amelia to supply healing
 with white magic and Gourry to take care of minor threat and Naga
 to mess things a lot more just for the fun of it.
 It's why I didn't learn most about transformation magic, and believed me
 it wasn't an area of study very popular at the time."

"Why that?" Ranma asked.

"Because only the Masoku and the Dragon could transform, and doing it too
 was a good way to get kills very fast.  I knew it because it's what I did
 when I saw one using a transformation spell." said Lina.  When she senses
Ranma sceptic aptitude, she said: "Ok, I ran like hell, but I had returned
 later to finished it off."  with Gourry help, she didn't add.

"Yeah, Gourry had seemed handy at time." Ranma teased her.

Lina had blushed crimson as did Ranma evidently.

She finishes her bath and after getting her clean clothes on, she
went to find food in a very huge amount.


[Training ground around the Amazon's village]

Akane had asked Ranma the previous day to teach her some techniques.

"First, are you really sure about this?" asked Ranma.

"Yes, I want to learn this.  While shattering rocks aren't very useful,
 the increase in durability is very important, and you explained to me than
 most of the female's Amazon learned it too." replied Akane.

"Ok, if you are sure." Ranma finally replied.  Before coming here, she'd
had no idea what technique Akane had wanted to learn.

They proceeded to go to a training ground more appropriate to learn
the Breaking Point.


[Next day]

"When I said you were built as a brick, it was a compliment!" Ranma protested
loudly.

Ranma was currently running for her life with Akane in hot pursuit.

Akane's mallet was ready to flatter Ranma in a pancake as soon as
she'd catch her because she hadn't liked the comment about brick,
and Ranma had discovered than an exhausted Akane didn't means a helpless Akane.

"Gee, if you think I will  'somersault above Akane'  ever  'dodge right'
 compliment you  'roll left' again 'flat on the ground' . . ."
Ranma had talk too much and Akane had take full advantage of it and
put a stop to Ranma 'compliment'.

That didn't hurt Ranma must except maybe her pride.


[A week later]

Ranma and Akane were in another private location out of the village and
were having a serious talk.

"Ok Akane, you have learned some useful techniques and I will continue to teach
 you, but I can't teach you that because you aren't ready and maybe
 never will!" exclaimed Ranma.

"I had wanted to learn magic since I saw you use it!" replied Akane.

"Yeah, but me I was a special case.  For one thing I have so much magical
 energy in me than not learning it was too dangerous.  But you,
 you don't possess enough to do more than one or two spells a day."

"It will be enough most of the time anyway." replied Akane, very stubborn
about it.

"AAAHHHHHH!" Ranma cried and she gave up.

Lina seeing that take control and asked:

"Why do you want to learn magic anyway?"

"I'd like to learn the Raywing spell.  You don't know what it like
 to walked when you could just fly instead." explained Akane,
hopeful that Lina would teach her.

"I don't think you have enough magic to use that more then two minutes."
Lina explained to an Akane very depressed at the news.

"Though the 'Fly' spell Ranma had created can be more in your power level."
Lina added after she'd see how much it meant to her.

"Really!" exclaimed Akane.

"Really.  Ranma's 'Fly' spell use Will, Magic and Ki as main components
 and a Raywing spell use Will, Magic and Air Elemental.  You have enough
 Magic and Ki to make it work with your strong Will."

Lina had learned from Ranma many things about magic.  She had known a lot more
but some more technical knowledge could be useful as was the case here.
Even if Shamanism and Elemental were similar in most case,
they weren't exactly the same.  This could explain why some spells
didn't work properly.

"How long can I hope to use it in a day?" Akane decides to ask because
Lina hadn't seemed to be here for the last five minutes.

"Hard to tell." Ranma replied.  She had heard Lina thought but was
able to reply to Akane.

"No idea?"

"A long time if you build your Ki and Magic some more.  Do you want a
 Jusenkyo's curse to boost it?" Ranma offered.

"What kind of sick question was that!" replied Akane, disgust at the thought.

"Sorry.  It would have made things more easy because, in a curse, a lot of magic
 are asleep most of the times.  Depending of the curse, your Magic could
 have been boosts from two to ten times than what you already possess."
Ranma explained to her the conclusion Lina and herself had come up with
about Jusenkyo's curses.

"I'd prefer not." Akane replied, not comfortable with the concept.

"Why do you want to fly anyway?" Ranma asked her after some thought.

"It's silly." Akane could only say.

"No, you have got to have a reason." Ranma replied to that.

After Akane hesitates between saying or not saying, she decided to go for it:

"It just that as a little kid, I'd that wish to be able to fly like in some
 movies on martial arts or magic.  I would have daydreamed about
 these powers and it's one of the reasons I learned martial art among many
 others though except until you came, I didn't considered magic could
 possibly be real or even ki-blast as Cologne shows us." Akane explained.

She had begun to speak in being embarrass, but more passions had build-ups
in her talk as she had continued to explain.

Ranma, seeing that, finally accepted to teach her.

"Ok.  You win.  Who am I to go against a dream like that?" joked Ranma.

"Thank!  You won't regret it!" exclaimed Akane.

"Can't breathe." Ranma complained weakly in an embrace even worse than
Shampoo ever gave to her.

"Oops.  Sorry!" Akane let go of the redhead very fast after that.

"How come your hair just turns red?" Akane asked.  She had just remark it
and it was red-orange for the last two days and silver before that.

"You sure?" a clueless Ranma asked.

"Yes, they are bright red, just like before we came here." replied Akane.

"Wait a minute." Ranma asked and closed her eyes.


[Ranma's Mindscape]

Ranma suddenly appeared from nowhere to a scene very unusual for
theirs share dreams usually.

Lina was presently eating a lot of food, places on a very big table
in what had seemed to be a restaurant or maybe an Inn like what
Lina had in theirs past life.

"What are you doing?" Ranma asked.  Lina hadn't stopped long
to eat but did it just the time to say:

"I'm eating.  What its look likes?!"

"Not very substantial for a meal." replied Ranma.

She had stopped completely and the food, table and Inn disappeared.
She then frowned and asked.

"I was hungry and you didn't feed us for the past three hours and
 an imaginary dinner was better then nothing!" exclaimed Lina to him.

Ranma was slow some time but there, he was frozen solid.
Small icicles began to form on him even.

Don't forget, it's a dream and Lina was having fun.

Ranma decided to forget it and quite the Mindscape.


[Previous private location]

"Lina had seemed to have found a means to dream while I'm awake." said Ranma
to a startled Akane because Ranma didn't open her eyes before
she had begun to speak.

"It can be useful to know who is in charge anyway." said Akane.

"Yeah.  I don't know yet how she did it though.  She was eating and
 was complaining than we didn't eat for the past three hours."

"I'm hungry too and it's a good idea." said Akane.

"Yeah.  C'mon, I wanted to take a very hot bath!" exclaimed Ranma and
had started to run at top speed to the Amazon's village
with Akane not far behind.


[End of chapter five]


[Author's notes]

Chapter five had needed much more research on Slayers than previous
chapter.  Hope you can recognize Lina and she's IC most of the time.


[Magic spell]

For anyone who wonder where the 'Curse Slayers' came from,
It's a modified version of the 'Dragon Slave' adapt to the kind of
energy Jusenkyo possesses.  With all the researched Ranma did
and the natural link than she had with Jusenkyo, Lina
was able to create this spell though she had to pass an entente with
the spirits of Jusenkyo before Ranma even knew about it.


[About next chapter]

Good news!  Chapter six is already at 16k and still growing.

It's about the Sailor Senshi in battle with the Negaverse,
with some possessions, . . .

Stay tune for chapter six in an FFML near you :)