Return

Return - Part 1
A continuation of an idea by Long Ngo
Written by Lei

Author's Notes:

You've heard of "Self-insertion" fics? Well now I present to you a well- used previously unnamed genre: "Ranma-insertion!" RRAAAAY!

Insert usual disclaimers here, characters don't belong to me but to someone(s) else but they were sooo much fun I just had to borrow them.

Ranma appeared in his room in Asgard and looked around at everything that had been left exactly as he had left it all those years ago. Walking over to his desk he ran a hand along the silky surface of the golden wood and grinned, it was times like this that made him really glad that there was no such thing as dust here. His fingertip continued it's exploration and ran over the crystal computer screen and keyboard that were a part of the desk.

<Activate.> Ranma spoke in his native language for the first time in years and watched as the screen lit up and logged him into Yggdrassil. A message would be sent off to all other terminals telling everyone he was back. He was sure he'd be getting return messages anytime now, but before having to handle them he wanted to look around the place and say hi to his sisters.

He smiled and walked out the door after a cursory glance around the rest of the room. Bed, bookshelves, chair and magic lab. It was all there.

He moved into the hallway and turned towards the main living area in the apartments. If any of his sisters were off duty they'd probably be there.

He walked into the empty room with it's wall of windows looking out across the area surrounding Yggdrassil and it's complex of which his apartments were a part. Drawn to them he looked at the incredibly blue sky and the mixture of lush emerald trees and buildings so white they glowed. A small lake lay in the middle of a valley a short distance away and reflected the sky through waters clear enough to be glass which gave it the appearance of being the same blue as the sky. Ranma stepped out onto the balcony and breathed in deeply.

That was what he had missed most about this place. It was the smell of purity. Everything was clean and fresh and had a clarity which made everything seem so very solid except where the colours glowed lending a softening, dreamy blur to things.

Impulsively Ranma flipped in midair and went tumbling across the balcony in a series of somersaults and leaps. He was glad to be back home.

His celebrations were interrupted by a knock on the door which Ranma went to answer, still smiling. He greeted the Valkyrie on the other side warmly.

Ranma was waved directly into Kami-sama's main office and he went to stand next to the chair where his father sat. He was still in his Kami- sama form, having adopted it a few hundred years ago and liking the ornamentation it had. Rumour also had it he adored the hair, which was long and thick and black, and would give it one hundred strokes on each side twice a day, though no one had caught him at it yet.

His father's earrings tinkled as he turned to look at Ranma. He smiled. <WELCOME HOME, RANMA. PLEASE, SIT DOWN.>

A chair appeared in the space directly behind Ranma and he sat, sinking back into it as it moulded itself to his lines.

<YES, I KNOW. I'VE BEEN CURIOUS ABOUT SOMETHING. DID YOU EVER COME TO LOVE ANY OF THEM?>

<Love? Well, yes, but not that way, although Saotome Ranma was falling in love with Akane.>

<NO, NO. BUT YOU ARE MY SON AND I AM INTERESTED IN YOU YOURSELF AS WELL AS YOUR ACTIVITIES.> He sighed. <THERE'S ALSO THE FACT THAT BELLDANDY FELL IN LOVE WITH A MORTAL.>

<What? Bell, the Ice Queen? Wow, the guy must really be something.>

<Eh?>

<They're still down there? Well, I guess I'll be going down then, it has been fourteen years since I've seen them.>

<Right.>

<Yeah?>

Ranma blinked. <What? What do you mean 'your curse is staying'?>

Ranma nodded slowly then grinned. <I suppose if I have control over it it's alright and it was fun tricking Ryouga like that.>

Kami-sama sighed. <TRY NOT TO TAKE TOO MUCH ADVANTAGE OF IT, RANMA, AND KEEP THE KNOWLEDGE SECRET FROM THE DEMONS IF POSSIBLE. NOW YOU'D BETTER HEAD OFF BEFORE THE SUN SETS IN JAPAN. AND DON'T FORGET TO LET EVERYONE KNOW WHERE YOU'LL BE AND REROUTE YOUR MAIL TO SKULD'S COMPUTER.>

<Yes, Father.>

<Yes, Father.> Father and son grinned at each other and Ranma went off to his room to do as his father had told him. While he was at it he also sent a brief message to his sisters.

Skuld was on her computer when a message suddenly flashed on her screen. Reading it, Skuld got really excited. "Oneesan, Oniisan is coming home!!"

Seconds later the other residents of the temple were sitting around Skuld staring at the computer screen and beaming happily, all except for Keiichi who had no idea what was going on. Belldandy read the news for herself and laughed delightedly, flinging her arms around Keiichi and kissing him throughly and Urd couldn't help but smile uncontrollably at both the news and Belldandy's actions, her smile a long way from the half-smirk it normally was.

All of a sudden something occured to Bell and she jumped up with a gasp. "I'd better go and start dinner, oh what shall I make. His favourites, what were they again..." she disappeared out the door, her expression abstracted as she sent her mind back a few years to the last time she had seen him.

Skuld also jumped up. "Yeah! Come on, Urd, we've got to make sure the place looks great!" she denegrated into mumbling. "I'll have to go and reprogramme Banpei-kun, he needs some new wiring through his motor and..."

Urd, surprisingly, agreed and decided to make sure the guest room was set up in such a way that Oniichan would think himself home. She could see it now, something like that room she had seen in Loki's house last time she had been there, though it would probably be better if she changed everything from magenta and lime to something more subtle...like orange and blue. Perfect. She walked out of the room rubbing her hands and headed towards the creation of the perfect room.

Keiichi sat unmoving, still confused, as each of the Norns abandoned him. He sighed and went looking for Bell.

Entering the kitchen he heard the sound of humming as Belldandy chopped something up and threw it into a bowl of similarly small pieces of vegetables. Then she carefully measured liquid ingredients into a different bowl adding a pinch of salt and setting it aside.

Keiichi watched for a moment wondering when she would notice him. Then she began singing, the lyrics corresponding exactly with her actions. He sighed and decided that she'd tell him in her own time and he went outside, settling on the porch to watch the sunset.

He listened to the birds, the occasional sound of a vehicle passing on the street below and the sounds of Skuld working on her latest machine. He often found himself sitting here when he needed time away from Urd and Skuld and found that trying to identify the cars driving past relaxed him, dragging his mind away from the problems of living with a trio of goddesses and helping him keep his hold on sanity.

His eyes caught on the golden sunlight dancing between the leaves of the tree in the yard and he watched mesmerized as one small ray of light gradually became brighter until it had obliterated a good portion of the shadows cast by the tree. Then something began to solidify within that column of light and seconds later when the light once again became a small ray, Keiichi was staring at a young man, dressed in white standing in front of the tree, facial markings similar to Bell, Urd and Skuld on his forehead and cheeks.

The guy looked up and noticed Keiichi. He smiled, his deep blue eyes sparkling and he walked towards the porch sitting next to Keiichi.

"Hi, you must be Morisato Keiichi. I'm Ranma." He held out his hand and Keiichi took it without thinking, nodding.

"Uh, Hi."

"So you're the guy Bell's been talking about for the past 15, 16 years, eh?"

"Uh..." Keiichi had no idea what was going on. It was at times like this that he really felt out of his element and that he just wasn't meant to rub shoulders with the kami.

Ranma laughed. "I'm Bell, Urd and Skuld's brother. I've been out of touch for a while but I managed to catch up with some of the news when I got back to Asgard so I know about the wish and stuff. It's wierd, your wish was almost the same one that I was working on."

Keiichi had slowly relaxed while Ranma rambled and now looked across at Ranma with a questioning look on his face, his interest caught.

"Yeah, well, 14 years ago I was granting this woman a wish and she wished that one of her daughters would marry someone like me. Kami-sama decreed that meant *me* and I ended up being adopted by this family of martial artists whose own son had died a year earlier. Then Genma, my 'father' decided to train me in martial arts and dragged me away from Nodoka, my 'mother' and I ended up following him around all over Japan and China for ten years."

Keiichi looked confused and opened his mouth to ask a question. "So what does that have to do with marrying one of the ladies daughters'?"

"Hmm. Well after ten years was up we ended up at the Tendo dojo in Nerima. Tendo Kimiko was the woman whose wish it was. It turned out that Genma and Soun, Kimiko's husband, had been training partners and had engaged their children before they were born. And hey presto! the contract could be fulfilled. But Kami-sama stuck a limit on the contract saying that it would only happen if one of her daughters wanted it. And well, Akane just wished that she didn't so now I get to visit my sisters for a while before heading back to Asgard." He sighed. "I think I'll miss Saotome Ranma's life though, it was...interesting, to say the least." Turning to Keiichi Ranma smiled as he noticed that his companion had relaxed. "So what's been going on around here? I only managed to catch a couple of things."

Keiichi began speaking, already liking this guy with his warm, laughing eyes, so like Belldandy's. He started off with the full story of the wish and some of their adventures, reaching Urd's unfortuna practise at being a demon during what had been dubbed 'The Terrible Master Urd Debacle' when Ranma found himself buried under a pile of three goddesses.

Out of reflex he jumped to his feet with a 'GAAH' and tried to slither his way out of the three-way glomp. Finally getting free he found his sisters and Keiichi looking at him strangely.

Again he made a reflexive action, placing a hand behind his head and laughing nervously, "Oh, hi. Um, sorry 'bout this."

"Ranma! I'm so glad you're back. It was bad enough when you had to stay on Earth to complete that stupid wish, but then Belldandy had to leave aswell and ev-even Urd left and I was alone and-and I-I...I missed you Oniichan!" Skuld returned to her glomp and Ranma put his arms around her smiling at her ruefully then looking up at Belldandy and Urd.

"I missed you too, Skuld." His smile stretched. "Missed you as well, Urd, Bell."

So ensued another group hug, this one four-way, with Ranma a willing, even enthusiastic, participant.

Finally they broke apart, Skuld and Bell still with tears of happiness in their eyes and Urd and Ranma with suspiciously bright eyes.

"Well, why don't come in Ranma, dinner's almost ready and I've made all your favourites."

"Yeah, and I want to show you all my latest inventions. Just wait 'till you meet Banpei-kun."

"And I was in charge of getting your room ready and I hope you'll like it."

Ranma smiled at each of his sisters, it twisting almost unnoticeably when Urd said her bit. He remembered some of the things Urd was capable of and Keiichi's stories hadn't made him any more confident about her ability to stay out of trouble. Still, he loved them all and thought he could handle an Urd-decorated room for the time he was here. "Great."

They all filed in and headed directly for the dining room where they sat at the table and began to catch up.

"Anyway, Keiichi, you were telling me about Urd and her pretensions towards demonhood."

"Um, yeah. Well..."

He was interrupted before he could start. "Whu...? How long have you guys been talking?"

"Since, what? Sunset?" Ranma looked at Keiichi who nodded.

Urd, Belldandy and Skuld stared at him. "You've been here for," Urd looked up at the clock on the wall, "For over an hour and you didn't even say 'hi'?" Her voice was ominously soft, her menacing expression mirroring those of Skuld and Belldandy.

"Um..." He stopped talking. His trio of sisters took this as an admission of guilt and Urd charged up a ball of power, Belldandy followed and Skuld pulled out one of her bombs. Ranma gulped and prepared to execute one of the many techniques he had mastered in the past 14 years; The Saotome Secret Technique. Run away!

He took off, jumping as high as possible to dodge the missiles and diving out the door, heading for the temple gates. He got through them just in time to avoid being turned to splinters with it and took a sharp right racing along the wall. Not seeing his sisters yet he leapt over the wall back into the temple and saw them run out.

"Oh man, I forgot they all have tempers as bad as Akane's," he mumbled and walked dejectedly back to the temple to sit next to Keiichi.

"For the past two years I've lived in constant fear of exactly that sort of reaction to certain things and I finally get away from all of my fiancee's and end up back with my sisters who seem to be just as bad." He sighed.

Keiichi looked surprised at his return and looked around for the three goddesses. There was no sign of them. He frowned and then what Ranma had said caught up to him.

"What do you mean 'fiancee's'?"

Ranma shot him a glance, "Well, Genma happens to be an idiot, very good martial artist, but still... Anyway he made the arrangement with the Tendo's before their son was born then engaged me to this girl called Ukyou a year into the training trip. There's a couple of other similar arrangements like that then there's Xian Pu who's a Chinese Amazon I defeated in combat which means that according to their laws I'm her husband. And finally there's Kodachi who's a psychotic martial arts gymnast who nominated herself as my fiancee. You have no idea what sort of problems they caused...although there are similarities between my life and some manga that're around."

"So it was, um, an interesting wish then?"

"Interesting? Well, yeah, I guess so. That's not to say I'd like to do it again mind you. With my powers and memories limited like they were it was hard to do a lot of the things I had taken for granted. Not that I knew I had taken them for granted, what with not having memories and all. But I did learn alot of martial arts which made up for alot of things. Say is that something burning?"

The two guys turned to the kitchen door and saw the slight wafts of smoke drifting lazily out. They looked at each.

"Um."

"Mm."

They watched the smoke for a little longer then Ranma sighed. "I guess we'd better do something about that, hunh?" He pushed himself to his feet and wandered into the kitchen followed by Keiichi.

"WHERE IS HE!!!" Urd screamed fom where she stood at a crossroads. Belldandy was standing on the curb opposite her and Skuld was adjacent to the both of them, typing furiously on one of her devices.

"AAAGH! I can't find him. This stupid thing doesn't work! All it's picking up is the temple. How did he get so good at hiding? Grrr...I'll find you yet, 'Niichan."

Belldandy continued to search, her eyes piercing shadows and striping trees bare, then she spotted something and the shout she let out was almost worthy of Urd. Her sisters rushed over to her to see what was wrong, and something big was obviously wrong if Bell was screaming.

"What is it?"

"Yeah, What's wrong, Bell?"

"My dinner! I forgot all about it. It's going to be ruined!" So saying she took off in the direction of the temple at Mach 2 leaving Urd and Skuld obscured by the cloud of dust she had kicked up.

"I didn't know it meant that much to her. You've got to wonder about her priorities sometimes."

"Mmhmm. Well, maybe we should head back as well. We haven't seen any sigh of Ranma and he'll come back eventually."

"I guess."

They followed Belldandy at a much slower pace still keeping an eye out for their wayward brother.

Belldandy drew to an abrupt halt just outside the temple and drew a deep breath, the dust cloud settling behind her. She walked calmly into the house almost breaking down again when her nose caught a vague smell of smoke still lingering in the air. Her pace picked up a little and she entered the kitchen.

She stopped.

"So what happened after that?" Ranma was asking, stirring something on the stove.

Keiichi, carefully cutting up some vegetables blushed. "Ah well, then Urd and Skuld were called back to Asgard and Bell ended up with a fever so I...uh..."

"You...?"

"I tried out some of Urd's things to see if I could find something that would help her and I...uh...I enedupifbreats. Then I managed to get through to Asgard and Urd..."

"Hold it! You what?"

Keiichi was blushing furiously now, "I-I ended upwithbreasts."

"Eh?"

He sighed and took a deep breath, hanging his head. "I ended up with breasts, and really long hair."

Ranma froze. "You...ended up with breasts, as in a girl?"

"Well, sort of..."

Laughter erupted from Ranma and he had to sit down in the middle of the floor to stop himself from falling. Keiichi's embarrassment slowly transmuted into resentment and then began heading towards anger when Belldandy came to her boyfriend's defence.

"Ranma, stop laughing. He only did it to help me, it's not funny."

Ranma gasped in a few breaths of air and tried to calm down. He opened his eyes and stared up at Bell standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips and began laughing again.

"So-sorry, Bell, but I can't help it, it's just so...bwahahahaha!"

"Hey, what's going on?" Urd and Skuld stepped into the kitchen and looked around. Keiichi and Belldandy were both standing there looking annoyed and Ranma was rolling around on the floor laughing. Wait a sec...Ranma was...rolling around on the floor laughing.

"Where were you, Ranma!" Skuld grabbed a hold of him and began shaking him back and forwards. "We looked everywhere for you and couldn't find you, where were you?"

"Eh?...heheh...I was, um, I was here all the time." He caught a glimpse of Keiichi and exploded again collapsing back onto the floor.

By now Urd and Skuld were starting to look annoyed as well. Belldandy caught their eyes and they nodded back.

A lightening bolt, a ball of goddess power and a Skuld-bomb all hit Ranma at the same time and he stopped laughing.

"Okay, geez, I'm sorry." He stood up and brushed the dust off him having already recovered. "You are sooo uncute."

Urd gasped. Belldandy and Skuld's eyes widened.

"Uh oh." Ranma realised what he had just said. "I'm dead."

But instead of the expected reaction of a mallet in the head he watched in stunned in disbelief as Skuld began to cry and Belldandy went to comfort her and Urd stood there in stunned incomprehension. He blinked.

"Ranma, you shouldn't say things like that."

Ranma bowed his head and sighed. "Sorry, Bell. I didn't mean it, it's just habit I guess. Come on Skuld, you're cute, really you are."

"Really, 'Niichan?" Skuld sniffled.

Ranma smiled, "Yeah. Really. Now cheer up, if you keep crying like that you'll end up with red eyes and then you would* be uncute." He chucked her under her chin. "And Urd, you didn't believe me did you? When you're the best looking goddess anywhere?"

Urd finally snapped out of it. "Of course I didn't. What do you take me for?" She walked up to him and smacked him on the head.

"Oy!" He grinned.

Ranma moved back to his preparations and stirred whatever was in the pot. "You finished with the vegetables, Keiichi?"

"Um, no." He went back to cutting things.

"Why don't you girls all go and relax while Kei and I finish up in here?"

Belldandy stared at Ranma. "Y-you can cook?"

"Eh, oh sure. Oyaji couldn't cook if his life depended on it and it was just the two of us for ten years. It was either learn or slowly die of food poisoning. And if I died there was no way I'd be able to fulfill that contract. So yep, I can cook."

He took the vegetables from Keiichi and tossed them into the wok.

"O-oyaji?"

"Yeah. I ended up as a four year old at the beginning of the contract and was adopted by a couple. Didn't you guys check it out with Yggdrasil?"

"Father restricted access to those files for some reason. I did try to access them but when Kami-sama does the programming himself..." Skuld sighed in envy.

"Maybe it was because you being essentially mortal would have brought alot of your enemies out of the woodwork." Belldandy put forward.

"That would make sense, I guess. Anyway, how 'bout I give you a rundown at dinner. Then you guys can help Keiichi finish up all the stuff he's been telling me."

"Okay." The three goddesses filed out of the kitchen and Ranma and Keiichi went back to work.

"By the way, Keiichi, sorry 'bout laughing like that, it's just that...um, well, you'll find out soon enough, but maybe I'd better wait until we're with the girls. That way we might actually get to the dinner part and I'm starving."

Fifteen minutes later everyone was sitting at the table, full plates in front of them. Belldandy, not wanting to hurt Ranma's feelings was the first to take a bite of the food. She chewed thoughtfully and swallowed, everyone else watching her carefully. She smiled and Urd, Skuld and Keiichi sighed in relief, sending their chopsticks in the direction of their meals.

"Wow, Ranma, this is great." Belldandy complimented.

"Thanks, Bell-chan. Glad you like it."

"So you going to tell us what you've been doing for the past 14 years?" Urd asked having swallowed her first mouthful.

"Sure, I guess. Did you hear anything about the contract at all?"

"We know it was for a woman named Tendo Kimiko, you told us that much before you went to grant it, but that's it. As soon as the Ultimate Force was activated Kami-sama restricted your files."

"Okay. Well anyway I went to visit Kimiko. She was in hospital with cancer and didn't have long to live. We talked a bit and I asked her what she wished for and she eventually said she wished that one of her daughters could marry someone nice like me."

"What? That sounds quite a bit like Keiichi's wish except it was asked by a third party."

"Uhuh. That's what I thought when I heard about why you were all down here. Anyway the wish was approved and Kami-sama said that since everyone unique it had to be *me* who would marry one of her daughters. But He also made it a provisional wish based on the desire of the daughter. Then He severly limited my memory and powers and had me adopted into the Saotome family. Their own son had died a year earlier so they were happy for the replacement. It turned out that Saotome Genma, my 'father', and Tendo Soun, Kimiko's wife, had engaged any children they had and since I had been adopted that meant me. After a year Genma took me on this extended training trip for ten years, leaving my 'mother' behind..."

Belldandy had just served everyone with the ice cream for desert when Ranma got to the Jusenkyo part of his story.

Ranma licked his spoon with a sigh of pleasure. "This is the life. If ice cream was the only good thing on Earth it would still be worth it living here."

Skuld nodded in agreement. "I agree. Ice cream is the one thing worth dying for." She gave a moan of pleasure as she put the next spoon of vanilla in her mouth, an expression of total bliss crossing her face as it melted deliciously in her mouth.

"Sure, whatever. Ranma, keep going. So you got to Jusenkyo..."

"Right. Well, Jusenkyo is this valley of cursed springs in China, it's also a legendary training ground or something and Oyaji, of course, just had to train there. He didn't know Chinese though so he wasn't aware of the 'cursed' that was a part of the Valley's name."

"What sort of curses?" Urd was curious.

"I'll get to that. So there we were at Jusenkyo with the Guide yelling at us to be careful when Oyaji jumped onto one of the poles that was sticking out of the springs and I followed. Now you have to understand that I wasn't actually me, so to speak, during this entire wish and I wouldn't have done anything like that had I had all of my memories. Unfortunately I didn't. So, Oyaji and I were fighting it out and I knocked him into one of the pools. Next thing I knew there was this huge panda flying at me and me being surprised, it managed to hit me into a pool. Next thing I knew...and this is why I was laughing before, Kei...I was well, a girl."

Ranma looked around expectantly waiting for the reactions that were a part and parcel of that announcement. He got just what he wanted.

There was silence for a few moments and he smiled. Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief and he grinned then he tipped a handy glass of cold water over himself, Keiichi stared in shock, his sisters fainted and he laughed.

"This is the best part. I just love watching them do that."

It was a few seconds before Skuld finally began stirring and she lifted a hand to her head. "What a dream." She looked around and noticed that she wasn't in her futon as she had supposed but leaning on the dinner table which still had the remains of the meal on it. She realised she had been fortunate that she hadn't hit anything when she had collapsed. She raised her head and found a petite redhead sitting next to her, one that looked a little familiar but she didn't think she'd ever seen the other girl before.

"Who are you?" she blurted.

The redhead giggled, "I'm Ranma. Don't you remember?"

"Oh...yeah." It was all coming back to her, the Jusenkyo story and the glass of water. "So, how...?"

"Let's wait until Urd and Bell wake up, 'kay?"

"Okay."

A groan sounded from the floor where Urd had fallen backwards and a similar one from where Belldandy had fallen sideways into Keiichi's lap. He was blushing. They pushed themselves back into a sitting position.

"What happened?"

"Who are you?"

They both ended up looking at Ranma who smiled brightly.

"Ranma?"

She nodded, "Yup."

"Oh my."

And Urd started laughing.

Ranma awoke to the sound of birds chirping cheerfully the next morning and he cracked his eyes open wondering why Oyaji hadn't woken him for training yet. He glanced over to where he should have been snoring and discovering nothing he remembered the breaking of the contract, his brief return to Asgard and then going to visit his sisters. He stretched and collapsed back onto the futon deciding that since he didn't have to bother with training anymore he could go back to sleep.

Then again, maybe he couldn't. Ranma sighed and pushed himself into a sitting position, some habits were hard to break and waking at the crack of dawn for training was one of them. Throwing off the blankets he rose gracefully to his feet and summoned up a copy of his Chinese clothes and headed outside to run through a few katas. As much as he hated to admit it he really did like martial arts.

Back before this wish he hadn't been much of a fighter, physically, much preferring magic. But there was something in the movements and the adrenaline rush of fighting that just couldn't be matched and he supposed he'd be continuing his training.

Reaching the yard he began a simple kata and drew it out, instinctively improvising moves as he'd been taught to do, the unpredictabitlity of his school being one of it's greatest strengths. That's why he always trained with Genma in the mornings, because katas just didn't give you that same edge. He'd have to see what he could do about finding himself a good sparring partner.

Then he lost himself in the movements of his body. He didn't notice Belldandy stopping to watch him while on her way to the kitchen to make breakfast nor Skuld and Urd sitting on the porch rubbing their eyes and admiring him. Keiichi also did a double take upon seeing him, but it wasn't until Belldandy called everyone for breakfast that he snapped out of training mode and appeared at the dinner table.

He began to inhale the meal Bell set before him but stopped abruptly at the stunned look on her face. He sighed.

"It's going to take a lot of getting used to to stop being Saotome Ranma." He took a sip of the tea that Skuld poured for him and continued eating at a much more reasonable pace.

"So, you're a martial artist now?" Urd asked.

"Uhuh. And one of the best too." He waved his chopsticks in her face and when he pulled back he had food between them which he popped into his mouth with a grin.

"But you hated fighting, 'Niichan. What happened?"

"What can I say? It grows on you. And martial arts is primarily for defence, so it's not the same as Thor and Heimdall hacking at each other with those big knives of theirs. It's called martial arts for a reason."

"So, what are you going to be doing now?"

"I've got a holiday fro a while before going back to wish granting. And this time I'm going to be working legitimately for the Goddess Relief Office, what with Ranko and all. And before you ask, that's what we often call my girl side to remove some confusion."

"How long have you got before you have to go back?"

"Father says I can take as long as I need to readjust to immortal life. It's a big change so I'll probably be here, oh, a month or so. Hey, you don't mind do you, Kei? I wouldn't want to impose or anything."

"No, that's okay, you can stay as long as you like."

"Thanks. And Keiichi tells me you and him go to Nekomi Tech and Urd and Skuld are doing their goddess studies here at the temple."

"That's right."

"Hmm, well I'll likely be joining them then. Kami-sama decided he wasn't going to remove the curse but he was going to make it so I could control the transformation so I'll start by practising that then brushing up on spellcasting and stuff. But if there's anything I can do to help you guys just ask, 'kay? That goes for you also, Kei."

The goddesses and Keiichi nodded and breakfast was finished in a comfortable silence before Bell and Kei headed for their morning classes and Urd, Skuld and Ranma lounged around trying to get Ranma up to date on his Asgardly gossip before he began answering all his mail.

"AAAAAGGH!!!"

Skuld looked up from her computer as a frustrated, male yell echoed around the temple grounds. She blinked a look of curiosity entering her brown eyes as she slowly stood and made her way out of the room to where the scream had originated from. Stepping into the passage her eyes locked with Urd's green ones and they questioned one another before turning to find their answers elsewhere.

Once outside they found Ranma where she was standing breathing heavily in front of a pile of dust that had once been a rock.

"'Niichan? What's wrong?"

"Mm. You do know that Bell's not going to be very happy when she found out what you did to that poor rock, don't you?"

Ranma remained facing away from them but a snort sounded clearly in the still afternoon air. "I know. And nothing's wrong!" Her shoulders slumped. "Nn. I'm going for a walk. I'll be back in time for dinner, okay? Bye." She began to walk towards the gate leaving two bewildered sisters behind watching her retreating back.

Skuld and Urd looked at each other and frowned.

"You think maybe he misses being in Nerima?"

"No! He doesn't like it here better than in Asgard and he wasn't in love with anyone in Nerima!"

Urd looked a little amused at Skuld's outburst but chose not to comment on it, "Then I wonder what's wrong?"

The expression of annoyance on Skuld's face disappeared and her voice was very soft when she spoke again.

"Yeah."

Ranma watched her feet with narrowed eyes as they moved down the road. Foot up, move forwards, foot down. Move weight onto front foot and lift back foot, move beyond front foot as weight is taken on balls of front foot. New front foot down and repeat sequence.

Fourteen years out of the business and she was really rusty. She couldn't even figure out what should be a simple solution to what surely was a simple problem. And it was one she had been stuck with for a couple of years. You'd think that even if she couldn't consciously remember being a god her subcounscious would be working on things, but noooo, it didn't work like that, her subconscious had to be working on stupid, irrelevant things like what to name the pet turtle he'd always wanted! Ranma's frustration rose again and she began muttering to herself as she walked, ignoring the shocked and frightened looks she was getting from the people she was passing as she began to glow.

"Stupid curse, stupid Oyaji, stupid wish, stupid water, stupid girl- form, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid...how? Stupid curse. Not a curse anymore...yeah right...need to control it...maybe?...yeah...uhuh...no... stupid curse..."

Ranma began to look around for something else to destroy, needing to hit something to relieve to the frustration that had been building within her constantly for the past fortnight as she tried and failed to work out how to trigger the metamorphasis from male to female. Water was still the only thing that worked she thought disgustedly. She was better than that. Back in Asgard she had been one of the best along with Bell, Peorth and some of the older gods. But nothing in a whole *two* weeks. She growled softly under her breath and finally spotted a sturdy-looking concrete wall that looked like it would last a while. Ryouga, Mousse or even Kunou would have been better but she supposed this would be better. She smiled bitterly. She'd even be able to repair it till it was better than it had been for a long time.

A picture of Belldandy flashed through her mind and she sighed. Bell would be sure to frown if she knew she was even thinking about doing what she was thinking of doing and Bell's frowns were one thing she could definately live without. It was up there, tied at first place, along with Kasumi's frowns and Kami-sama's frowns.

Ranma jumped onto the nearest roof to remove herself from the temptation and began roof-hopping as fast as she could, restricting herself to the skills she had had as a human in Nerima to make it more of a challenge.

All of a sudden Ranma found herself deep within the realms of amateur philosophy and stopped abruptly, sitting on the highest point of the roof she was on and held her hands loosely clasped around her knees. She had changed a lot since becoming Saotome Ranma up to the point where Saotome Ranma was a part of her. She kind of liked the arrogant jerk that had grown up as a martial artist with Genma as a father. She was also impressed with the fact that she had turned out as well as she had. She had a stronger will than she had thought. Saotome Ranma could do with some education though. Martial arts was all very well but there was far more to life than that and to restrict yourself to one thing like that, she just didn't understand it. Why when she had been in Asgard she had had four things that made up her life. There was magic and there were her sisters. Magic; one, Urd; two, Belldandy; three and Skuld; four. And now she could say there were five since martial arts was still something to her.

Ranma grinned suddenly. She'd have to go see how she'd do against some of the warrior gods up in Asgard.

Feeling much better Ranma stood up and stretched, leaping down to the street and looking around to find out where she was.

The street lights were starting to flicker on when Ranma stepped out of the cafe he had just left, having procurred some water to deal with his curse, and saw something dark move in the corner of his eye. Turning his head he glanced in that direction and his kami-senses came online. He pondered the familiar tingle that accompanied the presence of demons as he looked more carefully into the shadows of the park across the street.

The leaves rustled in the wind but he didn't see anything else but the tingle was still there so he stepped closer wondering just how much influence Saotome Ranma had had on him, that he was going alone into something that could prove perilous then he shrugged. It didn't really matter since this was now him.

Moving quietly through the trees both sets of senses on full alert he finally saw something out of the ordinary; a flash of white from beneath the cowl of a black cloak. The flash stopped and resolved itself into the figure of a man dressed in the black cloak that fell to his feet. White gloves with red knuckles appeared from the sleeves and held out a hand to the young girl that stepped from behind the trees wearing a short kimono and two red ribbons, one binding her hair and another tied around the ankle of a bare foot. She reached a hand towards the cloaked figure and they came together in a light embrace, swathes of black cloth surrounding the delicate form of the girl.

Another figure appeared behind them a scowl on her beautiful face as she watched the two. Then came another figure, also blonde, but this one Ranma knew. Marller. The demon he and his sisters had grown up with and here she was with others of her kind. This was definately something he'd have to report.

Other shinma materialised as well all of them watching in silence as the young girl and her companion parted and turned to them. Five of them also Ranma knew, not personally but they well respected in Asgard and he could recognise them due to descriptions he had received.

"So, an alliance then?" One of the men, wearing a turban asked the girl who turned golden eyes towards his and nodded in agreement.

"Hai. Until Cait Sith is defeated. We cannot allow him to resurrect the Mazoku."

Ranma's eyes widened at the mention of the evil beings that, even in Asgard, were almost considered mythological, it had been so long since they had threatened the world.

"Does he have anything specific in mind to ressurect?" Carlua, the blonde asked eyeing the hands that still joined Larva and Miyu.

Silence fell among the eight figures as each tried to recall something which may tell them of Cait Sith's plans.

"Ah, I think maybe Greater Beast Zelas-Metallium and Ruby Eye."

Looking over at Lemunia, Pazusa raised an eyebrow.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, he told me about his mother and how he wanted to bring her back. Since Zelas-Metallium is the only female mazoku that there are records of...um, maybe he thinks she's his mother?"

Carlua looked disgusted. "And why would he think that? It doesn't sound very likely to me."

"Yeah, well maybe that's because you're too st..."

"Lemunia."

The young shinma cast an annoyed glance at Pazusa but lapsed into a sullen silence. Carlua smiled in triumph and Lemunia snarled silently.

Larva removed his mask, "It is somewhere to start. What do we know of Zelas-Metallium and Ruby-Eye?"

"There are seven parts of him, each bound in a separate place somewhere in the world. Each part has powers of it's own and would be hard to stop in it's own right. If Cait Sith managed to resurrect all of Ruby- Eye, also known as Shabranigdu, we could not stand against him."

"So we need to find these seven pieces of him and make sure they never awaken." Miyu's golden eyes gleamed.

"Hold!" Spartoi held up a hand for silence. "There's someone here."

Ranma, still watching and listening debated what to do now. He could either stay where he was and hope they didn't find him, run or step out and introduce himself. There was one thing in all this that he was sure of; if it came to a fight, he would loose. Seven demons, and fairly powerful ones at that, were not odds he could beat, even with Saotome Ranma's strange luck.

"A kami," Larva breathed as his senses swung outwards searching for their uninvited guest.

"Come out, kami!" Pazusa called motioning to Water Lipper and Spartoi to begin making for Ranma's position.

Ranma remained where he was for a few seconds longer, "I knew this damn curiosity would get me into trouble. I could have called Bell or someone for backup, but no, I just have to go and do things by myself. I've got to learn to be cautious again." He stepped out of the tree he had hidden in and fell lightly to the ground. Stepping into the small clearing he smiled a little nervously at the shinma gathered there and bowed a little.

"Uh, hi."

"What do you want here?"

"Ranma!"

"Hey, Marller, how's it going?"

Marller's eyes narrowed and she walked up to him, cracking her knuckles. "I'm going to kill you, Ranma. Do you have any idea what you did to me, jerk?"

"Ah, well..." Ranma backed away nervously, "No?"

"That was a rhetorical question! You're not meant to answer rhetorical questions! Jerk!"

"Oh."

Marller had Ranma backed up against a tree and reached out a hand to close around his throat.

"You're going to pay, Ranma. Pay dearly." Her voice dropped into the Dangerously Soft register and her other hand drew back. Ranma found himself staring at the fist that formed there.

He slipped into his martial arts training and turned aside the hand that was reaching for his throat and watching the rage grow in her eyes he readied himself, memories of a similar situation flashing through his mind.

The fist blurred and Ranma leapt turning in the air above Marller's head and landing lightly behind her the same as he had the first time he and Akane had sparred. He took a few rapid steps away from the angry demon before turning to face her, still ignoring the incredulous looking shinma.

Marller turned and charged her fists flying with inhuman speed as she struck at Ranma. Ranma dodged everything and tried to calm her down.

"What did I do?"

"Do! You're asking me what you did!? You...you..." Marller degenerated into inarticulate sputterings, still trying to hit Ranma.

"Larva, stop her." Miyu's voice sounded from somewhere out of Ranma's range of vision and a streak of black flowed between the two combatants grabbing Marller and holding her as she spent her fury against the air, legs and arms waving wildly.

"What's with her?" Lemunia asked Ranma.

"No idea."

Seeing Marller spent of energy, Carlua walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Marller, what's wrong?"

Marller looked up and glared at Ranma her gaze as furious as it had been though her body was exhausted. "Him...he...he stood me up!"

All of the shinma without exception facefaulted as did Ranma.

"What?"

"You heard me! You stood me up! We were supposed to go to Olympus for the weekend and *you* never turned up. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? Bast still gets me about it. And then you had the gall to disappear for years on end! Without saying goodbye! Why do you think I asked to be assigned to sent against Belldandy? Because I couldn't get to you, you JERK!" Marller screamed the last then fell silent her breathing heavy, her eyes still glittering.

Ranma stood looking confused until her words finally sank in. "Oh, is that all?"

Miyu and Carlua gasped in horror, even Water Lipper looked a little shocked and Marller wrenched herself free of Larva's imprisoning hold to launched herself at Ranma. Tackling him to the ground she grabbed his throat and began throttling him.

"Is that all, you say. That all? Bast *laughs* every time I see her and even lower class demons snicker behind my back! All because you stood me up and you ask if that's all!" She bared her teeth in a snarl and tightened her grip.

Ranma tried to speak, but all that came out were the sounds of him being strangled.

Again Carlua laid a hand on Marller's shoulder but this time she was scowling in Ranma's direction. How could he do that? Standing someone up and in front of her best rival. That was truly despicable. "Marller, don't kill him. You want him to die slowly and painfully don't you? Don't kill him all at once."

Miyu nodded. "She's right. You need to humiliate him before you kill him."

Larva, Pazusa, Lemunia, and Spartoi had all reached the edge of the clearing by now standing well away from both the indignant females and the angry one but looking on with interest. What Ranma had done didn't seem like that big a crime but it obviously was. Each of them swore that they would never commit the offence of standing someone up.

Marller let go of Ranma and stood up watching as Ranma's face slowly changed from purple back to normal.

Groaning a little, Ranma pushed himself to a sitting position and glared at Marller.

"It wasn't my fault. Bast told me you couldn't make it and she offered to go in your place." Ranma shrugged.

"You went with Bast! Why you...."

"Jerk?"

"Creep?"

"Lecherous swine?"

"Two-timing pervert?"

"Shut up! Let me do it. Ranma...Ranma no BAKA!" Ranma raised his arm in defence against the blow he knew would be coming and cast about for something to say.

"I would rather have gone with you!" The blow never came and Ranma looked up to see Marller staring at him. "And all we did was visit, I swear. Nothing happened."

The three girls looked at one another; the jury deciding on Ranma's guilt. Miyu and Carlua nodded, the righteous female anger fading from their faces.

"Benefit of the doubt."

The tension lessened considerably and Marller took to ignoring Ranma.

Pazusa cleared his throat and decided to begin again. "What do you want here, Kami?"

"I was on my way home when I sensed, um, Larva? So I followed him and the rest of you guys arrived and the mazoku are as much our business as it is yours so I decided to listen in." Ranma shrugged, "If you're going up against someone wanting to resurrect any of them I'm not about to stop you."

"And the others of your kind?"

"I can't exactly say but I expect they'd be willing for an alliance if necessary. According to records half of our number and yours were destroyed when Ruby-Eye was last fully resurrected and even then we only managed to split him into those seven parts Lemunia was talking about and seal him away. I think the threat of him reawakening calls for drastic measures."

"He's right. For this we're working together and the more the better in such a case." Miyu's eyes caught Pazusa's and he nodded slowly.

"Good. Then I'll be off. I have a report to make. I guess I'll be seeing you around."

"Ranma."

Ranma looked warily at Marller, "Yeah?"

"If you have anything for us you can contact me at Mishima Sayoko's house. Your sisters know where it is."

"Right. Bye." He tossed up a casual hand as he walked out of the clearing leaving a group of seven shinma behind him in the dark.

It was full dark by the time Ranma reached the temple and he knew he was late for dinner. Oh well, some things were more important than getting home when you said you would. He walked into the temple, nodding to Keiichi who was studying at the table and found his way to the kitchen.

"Hey, Bell, any food left?"

Belldandy spun around and smiled brightly at Ranma. "Oh, you're back. Of course there's something here. Why don't you go sit down and I'll bring it out for you?"

"Okay, thanks."

He joined Keiichi at the table and the two guys were soon joined by all the girls.

"I thought you said you'd be back in time for dinner, 'Niichan?"

"Sorry, Skuld, but something came up. I did try to get here."

"What was it?"

"Anything we should know about?"

Ranma chewed on a mouthful of rice. "I gotta check things out with Kami-sama first. Tell you about it later."

"You're going back to Asgard?"

"Yep. Tomorrow. My holiday was up anyway."

The next morning Ranma rose again at dawn for his workout and was treated to a special breakfast by Belldandy before he left. Urd and Skuld were also up to say bye so he hugged them all and caught a sunbeam to Asgard.

Sitting at the desk in his room he activated the computer and proceeded to file a report on his meeting with the shinma then sat back to await the summons he knew would come.

And come it did in the form of a Valkyrie, identical to the one who had summoned him last time. She guided him through the maze of corridors that made up the Yggdrassil complex until they came to the main office, where she motioned for him to sit until Kami-sama called for him. Ranma sat in one of the chairs ranged along the walls of the foyer and picked up a magazine two weeks out of date, absently flipping through the pages until he caught sight of a familiar face.

The artical informed everyone that Ranma, God of Destiny, Goddess of Change (now his official title) was back online. He read through the speculations as to where he'd been and managed to keep from laughing too loud.

Putting the magazine back on the coffee table where he had found it he yawned and tipped his head back to stare up at the ceiling. His eyes moved across the crystal dome and the shelves full of hanging plants that sat just under it. Following the curve of the dome past the hedge of green and down the marble columns that descended into the floor he was sidetracked onto the bas-relief murals that lined the walls. Some of the scenes he could recognise but others were totally out of his realm of experience. It was strange that he'd never noticed them before, he'd always thought the walls were blank, just plain marble.

Kami-sama's secretary, a gorgeous, red-headed valkyrie, cleared her throat to get Ranma's attenetion.

<Kami-sama is ready for you now. Please go in.>

<Oh, thanks.> Ranma stood and walked to the doors which swung open as he approached.

He sat on the seat that appeared behind him and faced his father.

<RANMA. IT'S TIME YOU WENT BACK TO WORK, YOU'LL FIND YOUR NEXT ASSIGNMENT ON YOUR COMPUTER WHEN YOU GET BACK TO YOUR APARTMENT.>

Ranma frowned. This wasn't what he had expected after his report.

<Ah, sure, but what about...?>

<RANMA, YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN YOUR INSTRUCTIONS.>

Ranma nodded. <Yes, Father.>

Ranma stood and turned to the door, very disappointed at the way things had gone, but no one disobeyed Kami-sama.

Ranma nodded, snapping a salute in acknowledgement and this time his eyes were full of excitement and as he continued his walk out of the office he was almost skipping.