Family Trees
A multi-crossover
Part 7 - A Change in the Tide
By Thrythlind
Last Episode: Ihrie and Fam discuss casting a gate opening spell to visit Fam's child. Kiyone and Nabiki discuss another person. Leaf finally finds Ukyou. Iako comes as close to panicking as she's ever been on discovering that Yohko is her half-sister.
In the hills about the Masaki shrine two battles were raging. Two girls and two boys, one of whom was a girl at the moment, were fighting as if to kill each other, of course if they had REALLY been trying to kill each other there would have been a lot more devastation.
One of these battles was no where near close, Ryoko was easily Ayeka's superior. Though Ryoko had to note that she was getting much better at taking care of herself than she had been when they first starting living at the shrine.
Ranma and Ryouga, on the other hand, were at the point that it took an interruption to actually finish their fights. Either that or the unlikely event of Ryouga deciding he didn't really want to kill Ranma. The case in this point was an interruption.
"RANMA!! GET BACK HERE AND DIE!!"/"STAND AND FIGHT RYOKO!!"
"Yeah right you can take me."/"Come and get me, Princess!"
"LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!!" Who exactly shouted was lost in the following collision. Resulting in a huge explosion and a pile of four stunned combatants.
Everybody turned away from the mother and daughter reunion to see the geyser of earth and power erupt into the sky in the hills. Well except for Ukyou, who was trying to process the comment about immortality, and her father, who was still unconscious. Then there was quiet.
"Wow, that was big," Nobuyuki commented intelligently.
"Oh! I hope nobody was hurt!" Sasami gasped.
"Those bakas," Akane hmphed. "Well I guess somebody has to go check on them." She started stalking off into the hills.
"Anybody else coming along?" Tenchi asked, turning to follow her.
"You're kidding right?" Leaf said, pointing at Ukyou and blinking. "Listen I have about three months, less now, to cram sixteen years of knowledge down her head before she has to make her choice, and you want me to leave?"
"I'll go!" Mihoshi shouted, cheerfully. Kiyone imagined Mihoshi applying first aid to anybody and facefaulted.
"Umm, Mihoshi, I'm not certain that's a good idea."
"But I thought I recognized that guy that attacked that cu.." Kiyone slapped a hand over Mihoshi's mouth.
"What did I tell you about making comments like that around other people?" Kiyone whispered, almost growling. Then she laughed nervously at the people staring at them.
"I'm not asking," Akane declared before heading back towards the site of the explosion.
"I've never bothered to either," Tenchi agreed, continuing as well.
"Tenchi, wait up!" Sasami called out. "Azaka, Kamidake, we got to go help." The three of them and the logs faded away into the woods.
"What's this about immortality?" Ukyou asked, confused. "And a choice?" Ukyou watched her mother laugh nervously.
"Okay, no time for dawdling about," Leaf said, getting a hold of herself. A dimensional pocket appeared in front of her.
"Looking for some privacy?" Nabiki asked levely, with a smirk. Ukyou face faulted as she worked through the implications of Nabiki with such powers. Then stood up narrowing her eyes.
"What's the catch?" Leaf demanded, narrowly.
"Yeah, Nabiki you never do anything without a profit margin in mind," Ukyou added, Nabiki smirked.
"I'll just put it on your tab Ukyou," Nabiki said.
"Tab?" Leaf blinked. "You owe her money?"
"Everybody owes her money," Ukyou said irritably.
"I'm an honest business woman," Nabiki insisted. "Like I said I'll put the entrance fee on your tab."
"And how will you know when we want out?"
"Just call out, I'll hear you," Nabiki said. ~At least sticking annoying alarm clocks in there doesn't help my ears much.~
"If this is a trick I'm going to skewer you girl," Leaf promised Nabiki.
"I'll do everything I promised to do," Nabiki said eyes closed and head pointed to the ground as she leaned against a tree. "I swear."
As Ukyou and her mother cautiously stepped into the dimensional pocket and it closed behind them, Kiyone slipped up next to Nabiki.
"So what is the trick?"
"I forgot to mention that I put the exit fee on her tab as well," Nabiki said, smirking. "By the way, shall I start a tab for you as well?"
"What are you talking about?" Kiyone asked nervously.
"About a week stuck in our parents' homeworld, and the noises after hours. EVERY night," Nabiki smirked as Kiyone blushed. ~I told you I'd get you back for having to sleep in that stable.~
"Well, here we are Fam," Ihrie said. "Which way now?" She'd heard Fam cast the spell, and she had done it properly, well she had done it half-properly. They should at least be in the proper vicinity of Fam's daughter. Which time of the girl's life, on the other hand, Ihrie had no idea.
"Well, I don't know," Fam said, looking about at all the trees. At that point the explosion erupted a mile or so below them.
"Think that's them?" Ihrie asked drly.
"She did turn out to be rather violent didn't she," Fam said sadly.
"Your fault for trusting a prince like THAT one," Ihrie said.
"He seemed nice enough," Fam said embarrassed.
"So does my father by all reports."
"Well here we are, the Masaki shrine," Iako said glancing at the steps irritably. Ayaka and Yohko looked toward the top and swallowed. ~Yohko's my sister, damn, at least I'm not half-demon or something.~
~I hope this means we don't have to fight anymore,~ Yohko thought. ~But then it didn't seem to help our grandmothers.~
"That's a lot of steps," Yohko stated simply upon seeing the stairs.
"I knew a shouldn't have gotten out of bed today," Ayaka whined. Iako growled, knowing they were both easily capable of making the climb in flash. "All this climbing and sweating is going to ruin my youthful complexion!" Both Manos blinked and looked at the woman after that remark.
"I wouldn't worry about that," Yohko said politely.
"Thank you for your hospitality, Kasumi-san," Amelia bowed to her as they left the building. "You certainly seem to have inherited some of the best traits of your mother." Kasumi bowed slightly, still smiling.
"Yes, well I am sorry she can't still be here to see you," Kasumi said, politely. "She was certainly a very loving woman." If Nabiki had been here she would have translated the exchange into the following.
"At least you're not a man-stealing tramp like your mother."
"Well, at least she was more than woman enough to hold a man or two."
Of course, Xellos, Filia and Zelgadis understood the exchange, sweatdropping. Lina, Gourry and Soun were completely clueless.
"Hey, we've got a month before we have to leave," Lina said loudly. "And I'll bet we can come back to visit later."
"Yes, certainly," Amelia said, smiling. "And perhaps I'll be better company." Roughly translated. "Okay, I deserved that." The slayers individually thanked the Tendos for their hospitality and turned down the street.
"Well, come on where is this place we're going to?" Lina demanded.
"Its a shrine outside the city," Amelia said as they walked away. "Its supposed to have a demon sealed away inside it."
"Shouldn't take too long to get there," Zelgadis said. And in the next moment six bodies were flying through the town. This was only moderately surprising to the citizens of Nerima.
"Hey, you okay?" Ayeka blinked awake to see someone standing over her. As her vision cleared she saw that was some strange boy about Lord Tenchi's age wearing a bandanna and looking at her with concerned look on his face. Only pieces of this filtered through her punch-drunk thinking.
"AHH!! Pervert!!" The next thing Ryouga knew there were a bunch of little logs surrounding him.
"What the...?" Then the electricity started. As a result when everybody else arrived Ayeka was the only one still awake.
"Wow, somebody actually woke up before Ranma and Ryouga?" Akane blinked.
"Is that THIS pervert's name?"
"Damn did I get in the way of battleship?"
"When did Cologne stop by?" Ranma-chan groaned. Then she looked to see Ryouga "still" unconscious. "Hey Ryouga, wake up, you're giving us a bad name man."
"Errggg," Ryouga groaned intelligently.
"Ryo-chan!" Ryoko blinked.
"I must really have been hit hard," the space pirate said after a moment. "I could have sworn that I just heard...."
"Fam, wait up! I'm not a kid anymore you damn wiccan!"
"Oh great," Ryoko whined, then waved cheerfully. "Hi mom."
Everybody looked at the cat girl in the white outfit running down through the trees ahead of a woman in her early thirties or late twenties, with untamed purple hair. Then they looked back at Ryoko, who seemed both older and much taller.
"That's your mother?" Tenchi asked, surprised.
"She seems so..." Ayeka started.
"Naive?" Ryoko asked.
"Ryo-chan!" Fam glomped onto her daughter. "Its been so long!"
"Is that bounty hunter anywhere around?" Ihrie asked, out of breath as she finally reached everybody else.
"Does she mean Nagi?" Tenchi asked.
"Mommm...I..caan't breathe," Ryoko gasped.
"Is it just me or have there been a lot of coincidences recently?" Ranma asked.
"Why do you seem familiar?" Ihrie asked Ayeka, confused.
"Actually, I was about to ask you the same thing," the princess said. "But when would a disreputable creature like you ever be able to encounter a princess of Jurai."
"You'd be amazed who hires mercenaries," Ihrie said, glancing at Fam and Ryoko. "Besides it wasn't a princess that we had problems with, just the Crown Prince."
"What do you mean by that?" Ayeka asked.
"Yeah, what DO you mean by that?" Ryoko repeated.
"Ihrie!" Fam snapped surprised, releasing Ryoko.
"Oh shit...and I always thought Fam ran off her mouth," Ihrie laughed once. "Ignore I just said anything."
"Do you guys sense an incredible coincidence happening," Tenchi asked. Akane and Ranma nodded, Ryouga sat up, blinking.
"Well you, see," Fam said nervously. "Your father is the Crown Prince of Jurai."
"Was, Fam," Ihrie reminded her. "By now he'd be the king. Time travel is annoying."
"WHAT!!!" Ayeka and Ryoko face faulted.
"And now at last I can have the power to win my Ranma-darling's heart! OHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Kodachi yelled. "And the purpose of my ancestors will finally be complete to throw in the bargain!!"
~Its interesting that after all those bunglers that tried to call my power,~ a demon lord pondered as it waited to be released. ~That it would take marrying into a family of demon hunters to finally fulfill my release. I'll have to thank the Manos before I kill them.~
Family Trees
A multi-crossover
Part 8 - A Current Moved
By Thrythlind
Warning and Disclaimer before: any guess as to when the characters are going to find a way into the real world to rip me to pieces...
Last Episode: The roving disaster areas collided, Nabiki gave Ukyou and Leaf some private space to talk, she then decides to blackmail Kiyone a little. Fam and Ihrie tell Ryoko about her father. And virtually everybody else is about to hit the Shrine.
"This is driving me CRAZY!!" Akane shouted. Then she turned back to look between Ihrie and Ayeka. "Every since I got here I've had this feeling I should know you and that green haired lady back there, and now YOU show up."
"Well, she does sort of act like Kodachi," Ranma-chan noted.
"Like that...that..arrogant...lunatic?" Ayeka sputtered in rage.
"Certainly seems to fit you, Sis," Ryoko smirked.
"You be quiet!"
"We REALLY shouldn't have said anything, Ihrie," Fam noted. ~Wow, for once I'M the responsible one.~
"I know, I know," Ihrie practically growled.
"Even if that's how SHE'S familiar, how about Makibi-san, or her? I mean until now I only got this feeling from Nabiki!"
"Don't ask me," Ihrie said. "Last time I felt anything like it was with an old love interest."
"That Ashram person right?" Ryoko froze letting people pass her for a moment.
"Is something wrong, Ryoko?" Tenchi asked.
"Yeah, Oneechan," Sasami noted. "You just turned white as a sheet."
"Sasami! She is NOT our sister!!"
"Umm...that cat-girl," now Ranma stopped and took a good look at Fam, before taking off at a run down the hill. Ryouga laughed nervously as Akane glared at him. "Heh, imagine that, and I thought he'd already noticed."
"I'm sure," Akane left to chase after Ranma. "Get back here you baka!! She's NOT a cat!" Everybody looked at Ryouga for a moment.
"Ranma's afraid of cats," he snickered viciously.
"Ohhhhh kay," and they turned back to staring at Ryoko.
"Do you know Ashram, Ryo-chan?" Fam asked.
"Tall, serious, dark-hair?"
"Yeah," Ihrie said, nervously. "Why?"
"Do you know where he is now."
"Well, he just sort of left one day, don't know where to. He took the news that my father was some kind of demon pretty hard," Ryoko took a look at her hair for a moment.
One his way to the shrine, Xellos suddenly felt VERY nervous.
"I don't have that much money," Kiyone protested.
"Oh, please I just wanted to see you squirm," Nabiki snickered. "Still a little information here and there would be useful."
"Like what?"
"Like the name of anybody that's every crossed paths with Genma Saotome, or at least any recorded encounter."
"Deal," Kiyone agreed, with the Yagami's computers that would be easy to find. She imagined her mother's reaction to finding out that her daughter had inherited "Dad's" roaming eye.
"Ugh, what hit me?" Nabiki and Kiyone turned to Jiro Kuonji pulling himself up from his enforced nap.
"According to reports you pissed off the walking earthquake and then took a swan dive into Kiyone here," Nabiki said simply.
"Uhh," he tried to consider this. "Did you see a brown haired girl with pointy ears..."
"Your wife and daughter are in a dimensional pocket discussing matters," Kiyone explained hostilely, after all this guy had missed Mihoshi and bowled into her. ~Not bad looking for an older guy though, hmmm.~
"Oh that guy is awake!!!" Mihoshi yelled loudly. She bounced over and stuck her face into Jiro's. "Hey, do you know what the name of the guy that thew you was?"
"Uh...Ryouga.." he said.
"YATTA!!" Mihoshi yelled happily, jumping up down happily. "Hey Kiyone!! You can meet my brother!! Ooo I wonder if A-Ko is here too!!" Kiyone sweatdropped.
~Mihoshi's family??~ Kiyone wondered what she had down in her previous life to deserve this.
"Ah HA!!" Nabiki turned to the diminuitive pink haired scientist that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. "I found that anomaly." A surprised half-elf, quarter-elf fell out of thin air as Washu typed on her console.
"Hey! They paid me for that!" Nabiki said as the elf-bloods disappeared again.
"That pocket is messing up my calculations!" Mother and daughter popped into existence.
"People expect to get what they pay for!" Leaf and Ukyou popped out again.
"You compare money to scientific discovery?!?"
"I made a deal, and I'm HOLDING that deal!" Kiyone, Mihoshi, and Jiro watched as Ukyou and Leaf kept appearing and disappearing with hardly a time to get a word in.
"QUIT IT!!!" Leaf and Ukyou shouted at once over several pops.
"You two are pathetic." Most people didn't notice the phrase, but Kiyone and Nabiki, feeling a now VERY familiar sensation, both turned in the direction and groaned. Nabiki's distraction resulted in a fuming pair of girls about reading to tear into Washu and Nabiki.
Xellos suddenly felt irrationally paranoid, almost as if some cosmic force were out to get him.
"Umm, Ihrie, you didn't sleep with him or anything did you?" Tenchi
"Ryoko that's a rather rude question."
"Oh please Lord Tenchi, as if she knows ANYTHING about social graces."
"What's going on?" Ryouga scratched his head, but decided not to go off anywhere since he'd probably just get lost.
"NO, I did not sleep with him, not that it is any of your business," Ihrie said.
"Your father wouldn't happen to be Xellos Metallium," Ryoko asked, ignoring the looks she was getting. "Would he." Ihrie suddenly felt a little scared.
"Yes," Ihrie said nervously. "Why?"
"Metallium-sama?" Ayeka blinked. "He was a friend of my mother's." Ihrie and Ryoko took a moment to look at Ayeka, and then nodded.
"Suddenly the hair makes sense," Ryoko mumbled. Then she blushed and turned back to Ihrie. "Well isn't it funny what travelling over time and dimensions can cause."
"No its not," Tenchi put in, remembering his own experiences with alternate universes.
"What is it Ryoko," Ihrie asked angrily.
"You shouldn't be mean to Ryo-chan, Ihrie!" Fam retorted innocently.
"Well, you see, Ashram is my son," Ryoko started, pointing her fingers together.
"IHRIE!!" Fam's voice reached painful tones. "That was my GRANDSON you were flirting with?"
"Ah HA!!" Ayeka pointed. "You see what kind of woman she is Tenchi, she's just not fit for you! There is NO way this demon woman is blood of Jurai."
"Ayeka," Tenchi said wearily. "Not right now."
"Ah Akane, I was almost back to house anyway!" Ranma-chan's voice whined.
"You are going to stay here and be polite to your cousin's girlfriend's mother!" The surprising thing was that Akane didn't find that an awkward statement. "Ranma no Baka!!"
"But she's a c-c-c-c-c..."
*THWACK*
"Oww!"
"I'm sorry, did we miss anything?" Akane asked sweetly as the Tenchi crew, Fam and Ihrie all blinked at her.
"The scarred girl was dating the silver-haired girl's son."
"Oh, so?"
"It gets worse," Ryoko said, nervously. Everybody looked at her. "Ashram's father is Xellos Metallium."
Ihrie turned green and really silent for a moment.
"MY FATHER IS A DEAD DEMON!!!!!!!!"
Xellos was not certain he had actually heard that, but it made him nervous anyway.
"Anybody you know?" Nabiki asked, as everybody turned to the shout. They had been talking to the three exorcists about one Kodachi Kuno when the shout rang out.
"Nope, that's a new voice," Kiyone said. "I wonder what the purple-haired breeding program left behind this time."
The green-haired woman had her shoulder grabbed and she was twisted about to look at a snap shot. The angry twin was holding it and looking down with barely restrained anger. Kiyone sweatdropped while Nabiki shrugged.
"Oh, we recognized what you two were when hit the top of the stairs," Nabiki said.
"I'm Yohko's sister AND I'm half demon," Iako muttered. Then she did something she had never, in her life of martial and supernatural discipline, ever done. She fainted. Ayaka Kisaragi snatched the picture as it drifted down and looked at it again.
"You know I thought he looked familiar," she said. "My parents know him and his oath-bound, well wife I guess."
"Hey, he's one of the top people on my ex's home dimension!" Washu declared looking at the pic.
"I think its time to have a little family discussion," Kiyone said to Nabiki.
"Unfortunately so," the younger girl sighed. "I was hoping not to let Akane find out about this."
"So if you felt this familiar tug towards your half-brother," Ranma's mouth was working him towards a grave. "Why'd all three of you feel it towards each other?" He looked around and realized he had just said something stupid.
Akane, Ayeka and Ihrie regarded each other curiously. Ihrie had it pretty much figured out by now, but the other two took a little longer.
"This has to be some cruel joke," Ayeka said.
"Well I can think of someone who can probably answer some questions."
"Oh?" Ihrie asked.
"I as well," Ayeka noted. "Since I am thinking of someone else that I've felt that same 'tug' as you call it with before."
"NABIKI!!!""KIYONE!!!" And they as a crowd rushed towards the shrine.