Ranmazoku
Chapter 7 - No Ordinary Walk In The Woods
By PansutoTarou5925
DISCLAIMER - I do not own the rights to Slayers nor do I own the rights to Ranma �. Long live the rightful owners of these two fine anime. This work is non-commercial and is done only in imitation of Rumiko Takahashi and Hajime Kanzaka. Imitation is the sincerest flattery, no? US rights owned by Viz and Software Sculptors. If I mention the Senshi, Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi(Sp, anyone?) and.. and.. I dunno who has the US rights, but it's theirs not mine. (I'm drawing a blank)
Author's note - This story originated from an idea on Nighthawk's page and is some guy named NesTea's fault. If he's reading this, I'm curious to know what he thinks of all this. Questioning me would be like questioning Xellos if you ask when the next section comes out, because it's a secret.
ALTAVERSE WARNING - This is an ALTAVERSE. Events, characters and the like may not resemble canon. People who are rabid canon-thumpers beware! (and eat a Dragon Slave while you're at it)
PREVIOUSLY - Ranma discovers he's not Genma's son, that Xellos is his father, that he's not even human, studies black magic under Phibrizzo, yadda yadda yadda, gets in a fight with Ryouga and curses a decent sized crowd to act like Kuno. Then he corrupts Hotaru into becoming a mazoku and put a world of hurt on some poor Daimon and Eudial. Afterwards he spied on the Inners, took Nabiki, and got Kasumi angry! Then they went to the Slayers world and met Lina and Co under false identities. Read the previous chapters, really, I'm not good at rehashing stuff.
NOTE - [...] indicates telepathic communication between Ranma and Hotaru in the Astral plane.
The Desert of Destruction was an amzing place. Even the Sahara on my home plane isn't as deadly, as forlorn, or as unrelentingly inhospitable to life as this endless sea of stark white sand. The blasted stones and parched, long dead trees that crumbled at a touch provided the only relief to the eyes for as far as his magically enhanced senses could reach. Not even Hotaru and I were visible to break up the monotony. And this was at night, when the overhead canopy of stars, an endless dazzling shower of diamonds on a deep black sea known as the night, provided something interesting to look at. During the day, the monotony was such that it drives lesser people insane.
Imagine spending centuries here, with no one else to talk to, no one else to see, nothing to do. Just sitting there, slowly going mad in the still desert air. No wonder Phibrizzo went mad.
"I've never seen such beautiful stars." Hotaru said, from beside me. Or, of course, you could take life's lemons and make lemonade. An astronomer would likely kill to be able to put a telescope up here. No clouds, no other people to put up annoying lights and buildings... the only negative would be that the place was only marginally less of a blast furnace at night than it was during the day. I wonder why, really - most deserts are cold at night. I should know. That idiot Genma dragged me across a few.
"Yeah, it's something, isn't it?" I said noncommitally. I looked around and noticed footsteps wandering west. "Looks like Nabiki decided to move west in search of water. Don't know what she's thinking. She couldn't find water at the ocean. She's a city girl, not an adventurous type like me." I shrugged and started following the tracks. "Let's take a little stroll through the sand, Hotaru. Looks like dinner is on the move."
We found Nabiki on the western side of a sand dune. She had tossed a tarp over a pit to rpvide some relief. We could hear her panting, It was pretty easy to find her, really; she was absolutely swamping the area in hatred and anger. Hotaru poked her still invisible head through Nabiki's tent. She quickly grabbed me and hauled me back over the dune.
"What the heck?" I blurted, forgetting to remain silent. Why had Hotaru pulled me back from the pit? The closer we were, the more energy we'd get.
"She's not decent." Hotaru said, blushing. I stopped for a second. But only one - I had to retrieve my camera from subspace. "Hey!" Hotaru yelled. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Getting revenge." I said simply, and walked back over the dune. "I'm going to get her back for all the times she's seen me naked." I could see Hotaru getting steamed. This was kind of funny, actually. What would Hotaru's blunt instrument of choice be? "I'll take a few pictures of her sweaty, heaving, luscious-" I dodged the sudden swipe of the Silence Glaive. Mental note - do not tease Hotaru. "Ack! Hey, lay off!" Hotaru ditched the Glaive and tackled me.
"Dammit! Don't be a pervert! What kind of evil demon are you?" she growled as she tried to gouge my eyeballs out. She worked her leg up and kneed me in the balls, forgetting that wouldn't work on a maozku for the moment. Not that it would work on me even if I were human for the moment, as I was still in my "Ranko the Sorceress" disguise.
"A mazoku!" I said, struggling to keep her from hurting me. While she couldn't do much harm with physical attacks, she could rip up my disguise some. We both froze when we saw the (naked) form of Nabiki crest the dune.
"Who the hell are you perverts?" we heard her say as we phased out.
"It's a good thing she can't see in the dark like we can." I said in annoyance to Hotaru as we returned to walking north of the town where we had met Lina earlier.
"What on earth is she doing anyhow? Why is she running around naked like that?" Hotaru fumed. "What kind of a perv did you pick up for your Priest, anyhow?"
"If I wanted a pervert for a lieutenant I'd have gotten Happousai!" I thundered. "She probably stripped down because it's hot enough to melt lead out there!"
"She was PROBABLY expecting you to drop by to check up on her and was planning to seduce you!" Hotaru shot back. Why did every girl I ever met seem to get this way? L-sama must hate me.
Or, more likely, there was yet another curse attached to me that was all Genma's fault. Some sort of "Attract Violent Girls To Me" spell. Maybe I could shift it to Happousai or something and put it to use.
"Get real, Hotaru. We don't feel those sort of emotions, so why would she try?" At least, we shoudln't feel those emotions, from what I've read, but Hotaru was acting like Ukyou right now.
"*I* feel those emotions. Or are you insinuating that I'm not really a mazoku? Are you?" she yelled, pulling out the Silence Glaive again.
"Jeez, Hotaru, calm down. I'm not interested in Nabiki like that. She's a snake, a viper. She's a backstabber nonpareil and a master manipulator." I said, trying to defuse the situation.
"Yes." Hotaru agreed, then fixed a withering glare on me. "The perfect wife for a mazoku!"
I sighed. Obviously, I couldn't win. "Look, Hotaru, I'm not interested in Nabiki like - get down!" I said, tackling Hotaru and rolling us both into a ditch. The spot where we had been standing just a few minutes before was now a crater.
A woman was floating off the ground, a broad sword held in one hand resting across her shoulder. "Well, well. If it isn't Xellos's kid."
"Who the hell are you?" I said, brushing myself off.
"I'm Sherra. And you, my young friend, will never become one of the Lords of the Mazoku." the woman said, materializing a powerful aura of magic that seemed to suck the heat out of the ground.
I gulped. This would be ugly.
Ugly, but not unwinnable. Not if I fought smart, and I'm nothing if not a smart fighter. I grinned, calling up the confidence I didn't really feel. "Come on, you might be strong, but do you really think you can take on two of us at once?" She smirked and arched an eyebrow.
"I've killed more people than you've met in your whole life. I've killed my fair share of mazoku, too. You two," she said, indicating us with her sword. "aren't more than a warm up." I nodded, smiling happily, and mentally signaled Hotaru to follow my lead. We didn't have a chance unless we ambushed her. Of course, as we were already confronting her, this would be a little difficult.
But not impossible.
I darted forward, screaming loudly as I brought my power up. I pulled forth the magic that was my birthright, and directed into my hands, preparing a powerful blow. Sherra settled back on her feet and readied her sword, tendrils of magic wrapped around it to block my attack. At the last minute, I shifted my stance, and fired the blast into the ground.
"GO!" I screamed, teleporting away blindly. As I went I yanked the also-teleporting Hotaru along with me, and came out in a small clearing. "Again!" I yelled, this time physically dragging her along. This time we were on top of a bar. Over and over again we teleported, each time to a different place. Finally, I stopped, feeling tired. "Good. She can track us. But she wont' find us."
Hotaru looked at me funny, so I felt the need to explain, power rushing back into me as we stood on top of the local jail. "She can follow us. But I hit the same place several times, looping around. She can't tell which way we went any more, following our magic like that. Which means it'll be a bit before she finds us. But before she does, we're putting some distance between us."
"If we teleport, she's going to just keep tracking us." Hotaru pointed out in a bored tone.
"We're not going to teleport. We're going to use a powerful technique - the Saotome Secret technique." I said, smiling.
"And what would that be?"
"We steal those horses and don't use magic."
"Oh.."
"You realize that that woman is going to catch up to us before long. She won't stay fooled forever, and we can't avoid using magic forever, too." Hotaru said as we rode, the sun rising to the east. The horses, which had originally been tan, sleek creatures, were now foaming and ragged. We had ridden without regard to their health through the night, and both were near death.
"No, but she won't have the advantage of suprise. We've been reducing our magic signature and she's trying to track us. We'll see her before she sees us, and we aren't out teleporting around the world like we were. This time, its us who have the initiative. And we're going to use the Glaive to cut her down to something more our size."
"That's right, you told me half her power is in that sword."
"Right. When she comes, you're taking that damn thing out of the fight. After that.... I don't think she's interested in a fight to the death. At least not her death, anyhow. If we give her enough of a kick, she'll go away. She wouldn't want to start a war with the Metallium family, not if she got that banged up trying to off me." I said, giving my horse a kick with the spurs. It wanted to slow down, but I wasn't about to let it until I was as far as I could get from Sherra. At least my confidence was no longer feigned; I was pretty sure about my assessment of the situation. We'd beat up Sherra, change Nabs into one of us, get the sword, and return to Nerima. I figure Nabiki and Gos can keep the wrecking crew occupied while Hotaru and I go after the big prize: Jusendo.
Hotaru and I rode in silence for another hour or so, until her horse tripped and broke its leg. That kind of ended our pleasant little trip. I let my horse go in the valley, while we headed for the river. If we were going for speed without magic, it looked like I'd have to get wet again.
"Have you ever used one of these things before?" Hotaru asked, looking at the boat we had just lifted. I gave it a once over and turned to her.
"Nope. How about you?"
"Me neither. Uhh... isn't this supposed to be extremely dangerous and exciting?" she said, looking at the river. It was a raging torrent of white, swirling water and big rocks.
"Yes, basically. That's why I figure it should come naturally to us -"
"HEY!" a big burly guy yelled, cutting us off. It was the woodsman whose boat we had just stolen, waving a big axe. Hotaru raised her Glaive to blast him before I yanked it down.
"You wanna bring Sherra on top of us like a ton of bricks?" I asked sarcastically. "Get in the boat." Hotaru suicidally dove into the boat, which probably would have broken her arm if she were human and tried that. I hopped more sanely into the boat. The woodsman, apparently not noticing or not caring about the swirling waters of death we were in, ran into the water. "Are you out of your fucking mind?" I yelled at the guy, He immediately lost control and was swept along by the current. "What a moron. I thought only Kuno and Ryouga were dumb enough to pull stuff like that - OW! What was that for?" I said, rubbing my head.
"Stop babbling about the idiot and help me!" Hotaru yelled, having smacked me with the Glaive again. She was using it to pole off of rocks as we careened wildly down the raging river. I grabbed an oar and pushed off of any rocks that came near. Occasionally we'd get wedged against something, but hey, ten years of martial arts trainging wasn't for nothing. Every time we got stuck I managed to pry us loose.
"Give me a place to stand and I can move the world!" I crowed, having moved not the boat but the whole damn boulder this last time. As we lunged forward again, I looked over the waters. "Wonder what happened to that guy. Probably dead by now." Suddenly, the boat spun sickeningly and tilted, nearly dumping us in the water. Bloodied and soaked, the bedraggled, psychotic looking woodsman hauled himself out of the water, axe handle clenched between giant, bucky-beaver like teeth. 'No way could that guy survive that!' I thought, incredulously.
"Foolish thief! I, Mikhail of Garym, plan on sending you to a watery grave." Hotaru and I sweatdropped, which was almost disastrous as we slammed against another rock. Seeing as we didn't get stuck again, we turned back, to see that Mikhail's woundes were gone. Instead, he was frothing and snarling.
"Damn, he's crazier than the Kunos! Kick him overboard, quick!" I yelled, fighting to make myself heard over the roaring water. As I moved forward, though, a ham-sized fist lashed out with an axe at inhuman speed. I ducked, missing a bad haircut by inches. Another swing, again lightning fast, and I was nearly pitched in the water as the boat lurched again. "Can't we talk this out? If we fight here, you're going to die even if you win." And with the boat lurching too much for me to keep balance while dodging, not to mention me unable to use magic to heal or else Sherra would come, that was a better bet than I would have liked. "Perhaps.." I ducked again, the axe whizzing over my head. With perfect timing Hotaru brought the Glaive down and sliced through the haft of the axe, sending the head into the river. Also with perfect timing, I pushed him just as he was taken off balance by the missing weight of the axe. He fell down, catching the ropes along the side just before he fell in "Good move, now... ah..."
"You think that helps you? I haven't even begun to fight." He spit at me. I can't tell if he hit; partially because there was a lot more liquid than spittle in the air. But the distinct cracking sound he made as he bloated up was the main factor. He seemed to just gain weight, bones and skin sickeningly rearranging itself, with the side of the boat splintering form the strain. Fur burst out of his skin - he had been hairy before, but now he was a monster - and his mouth filled with teeth much too big for my peace of mind. In a guttural, snarling tone, he spoke again: "I'd have rather hacked you up with my axe. But.. this'll do just fine." The bear Mikhail the woodsman had become lunged forward sweeping its two paws forwards, hoping to rip me in half with his claws. Deciding that I was going to have to abandon my feet, I jumped straight up as the boat lurched again. Heedless of my absence the bear continued, bulling over Hotaru and slamming into her with such force that she went sprawling.
"AHHHHHHH!!!" she screamed, grabbing ahold of the railing as she stumbled over the side. She dug in with the Silence Glaive, and pulled herself over the side. She came face to face with the berserk bear, which lashed out at her with an oversize paw. She screamed, having to choose between getting drowned or having her face torn off. Granted, both would only be temporary, but Sherra would come by to make it permanent if it happened...
I fell on the back of the bear, kicking hard into its head and turning a blow aimed at Hotaru's head into one aimed at the deck. Which meant we were now taking on water, as the bear ripped its arm free and a good chunk of the bottom of the boat with it. It turned to face me, some of the fury spent. It roared, and charged.
Dodging frantically as the water inexplicably calmed, I wound my way around the bear, dodging its blows with more ease now that I didn't have to worry as much about the bobbing boat. Of course, if a bear and two people decide to have a rumble on a boat, it's going to rock anyhow, but it wasn't as bad. The bear roared even louder. Then I noticed it's mouth wasn't open. That was when I saw the waterfall.
"AHHHHHH!!!!"
"ShrriiiiiEEEEEEEK!
"GROAAAAAAAR!"
The three of us fell, free-falling down the side of this majestic torrent of clear glacier water. Down below, a nice, sparkling pool of water was waiting for us. Right now though...
I wrestled the Glaive away from the screaming Hotaru and kicked off the boat, adjusting my fall in mid-flight. It was a good thing Hotaru was so terrified that she forgot how to fly; we'd be in real sorry shape if Sherra showed up now. Grimly I set the Glaive under my arm, twisting to aim it at the heart of the bear.
The bear slammed into the water, and I slammed into the bear, ramming the Glaive through its chest. The woodsman-turned- bear died instantly. Having your chest torn out does that to you. Wrenching the Glaive loose from him, I turned and swam underwater, looking for Hotaru. She had swallowed some water, I could sense, and would need to find her.
I fished her out. She was out cold and not breathing, which was normal for a mazoku, but the constant ebb and flow of magic in ehr body was slowing. She'd die unless I used magic. Unless...
I had always figured I'd do this first as a guy. Though Mikado stole that from me, I figured the first time I voluntarily kissed someone I'd be a guy. But there was no question that, unless I gave her some of my magic to get her jump started, we would both die when she regenerated.
I took a deep breath and opened Hotaru's mouth. I tried not to think of her lips; I thought of my own possible imminent death, which worked wonders in clearing my mind. I wouldn't think about how luscious the lips were, or how soft her face was. Nope. Didn't cross my mind.
I breathed a little magic from my throat, just a tiny bit, enough to get Hotaru's magic working again. That's when she grabbed my head. Hotaru's eyes opened and locked on mine. I quickly shook her loose.
"What were you thinking? Can't you swim!" I yelled.
"I was LOOKING for my GLAIVE. Which I see someone has stolen!" ,she fired back, immediately getting lost in the fight.
"Stolen? What do you mean, stolen? I had to kill the damn werebear, sionce you were more intent on screaming loud enough to be heard in Seyruun!" We continued screaming as we walked away from the river. The dangerous moment on the shore was fast forgotten. I could rest easy, now.
And I'm back form my long vacation. I'll keep writing this and the other stories, don't worry! I am most assuredly not dead. I did, however, have quite an eventful summer. Multiple disasters, a new computer, a pile of new manga, and the normal wandering around the nation occupied my time quite fully. And now, within a day of ending that adventure, I write a chapter of Ranmazoku. Let's hope that's an omen.
Heh, it gets more interesting, no? One of the chief antagonists for the next arcs of Ranmazoku puts in her first appearance. If you don't know who she is, Ranma will be explaining it to Hotaru soon, so just sit tight. If you do know, hey, more power to ya. Things will be heating up soon. Ranma's plan is coming to a head, and people who can actually hurt Ranma and aren't hotheads who just charge in blindly are moving against him now.
Also, the whole river scene was basically ad libbed, but it's all good, I think. Someone was annoying me on Delphi, and somehow it inspired the fight. A bear on a boat in a river, where Ranma can't dodge easily or use magic.... heh. Worked well, I think. How about you?
If Hotaru's character is off here, remember she's just been turned into a mazoku, is actually strong now and not easily winded and sickly, is slightly older looking, and has had her Silver Millenium memories returned. And no, she doesn't look back with much fondness; Saturn was shunned then too.