[Ranma][Fanfic] The Bet - Grand Tour 1

[MetroAnime]

Ranma 1/2: The Grand Tour 1
R.Takahashi owns the Nerima bunch. Aramar and
the Ninefold Worlds are my creation. No money made on
any of these though i may eventually try to do
professional stories set in Aramar. My other works can
be found at the RAAC or on my website at
http://members.aol.com/Metroanime/main.html
if you are offended by dark stories, skip the first
few chapters.
for timeline purposes this occurs after the 1st
wedding attempt has gone wrong.
Grand Tour 1: All Aboard____________
_/Nerima, Japan, Earth 1996 AD, Prime +214156\____

"Yeah, right Ranma." Akane snorted in a most unfeminine
gesture.

"I'm telling you, Akane, this place just creeps me out."
Ranma didn't like magic, didn't care for it at all.
Everytime something magic came into his life it was
spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

"The least we can do is look around, Ranma. Or are you
too chicken?"

"Hey, now. Don't go doing that. Gee, you are SO uncute."
Ranma checked out one mirror. Six carved oriental
dragons surrounded the mirror, except that when
one tried to trace the length of any of the dragons,
you seemed to end up at the head of another dragon.

"Oh REALLY Ranma. You are so childish!" Akane snarled,
her temper had been ready to unleash ever since that
run in with Happosai and her father telling her to
check out this store WITH RANMA. As if she couldn't
handle it by herself!

"If you're not going to help, I wish you'd just GET
LOST!" She picked up a book (nearest blunt object)
and flung it at Ranma, who was still inspecting some
dumb mirror as opposed to helping her look for some
sign of whatever burglar had been in earlier. Her eyes
widened, and the scene seemed to go into slow motion.
The book struck the back of Ranma's head and he
moved forward into contact with the glass surface.

The carved wooden dragons moved then, seeming to
writhe around the silvered glass which itself had turned
suddenly opaque, and Ranma abruptly was gone.

"Ranma?!" Akane touched the surface of the glass a
moment later. As soon as he had vanished, it had
returned to normal. There were no signs that the dragons
were anything other than plain wood, or that the glass
was anything other than glass.

Akane blinked. "Ranma, you idiot, what have you done
now?"
------------------------0--------------------------------
Ukyou and Shampoo were at the gate in the morning,
arguing this time about what constituted a proper breakfast.
Cologne nodded from where she sat atop one of the walls,
still smoking whatever pungent herb she had in that
pipe. It wasn't a narcotic, whatever it was, and Nabiki
was itching to get her hands on it. No doubt some
secret of the Chinese Amazons.

Nabiki stretched and looked around. No Ranma + Akane
(looking guilty) + (Ukyou/Shampoo) here + Daddy (wailing
about how the schools will never be joined now) +
Cologne looking like she'd had a rough night = "Well,
what did you do now, sis?"

"I went with Ranma to the Cursed Antiques store, the
owner thought Happosai had been trying to get in again."
Akane shook slightly. "Ranma looked into this mirror
and it SWALLOWED him."

Nabiki noted that Akane was lying. Nabiki had a knack
for knowing when someone wasn't telling the whole truth
and nothing but the truth and would have considered
becoming a lawyer in order to fully use this ability,
but hey, she had SOME scruples.

Kasumi smiled sweetly. "Akane, last night you said
you knocked him INTO the mirror."

Ukyou and Shampoo glared at Akane, united in the
usual manner of "Akane is completely unsuitable for
Ranma, but if she wasn't in the way I'm sure I could
get him" that was their frequent sole point of agreement .
Nabiki was quite glad that she'd gotten that life insurance
for Ranma and Akane. Of course, Nabiki was the beneficiary.
She'd hate to lose a sister, but if she was going to lose a
sister anyway she'd get richer. The sound of an old
fashioned cash register going off echoed in her mind.
Oh yeah, and Ranma was gone, but her feelings on
THAT were classified as "So Secret I Can't Even Tell
Myself."

"So, Cologne," Nabiki addressed the amazon elder with
respect. The same way you handle rattlesnakes, large
venomous insects, and high explosives. "I assume that
you know more about this?"

"I sensed something last night, if that's what you mean.
A strange disturbance as of a door opening and closing
again." Cologne puffed again, and the strangely sweet
scent of her pipesmoke swept through the room. "It
isn't an amazon treasure, that's for sure. It might
have been made by the same ancient people who made the
Nanban mirror, or Phoenix Mountain, or any number of
other people. We'll just have to see for ourselves,
won't we?"
---------------------0-----------------------
"I'm not saying I believe in it, mind you,"
the old man said, "but I MIGHT know something about
that particular item." He stopped as a razor sharp
spatula was suddenly touching his throat.

"I'm not saying I believe you," said Ukyou
in a quiet voice, "but I MIGHT be inclined to think
as they were here at YOUR request, that using this
opportunity for extra income MIGHT not be a wise idea."

The old man waited for the spatula to be
removed before shrugging. "Well, it was wortha try."

Cologne glanced up from her inspection of the
mirror. "This is very old work, I suspect from the
look of the wood that it isn't even from our world."

"What you mean, great grandma?"

"I mean, child, that this came down from some
world along the Probability Road. This is a gateway,
of sorts, that leads to all manner of worlds. The other
end depends on many factors but will likely only open
under specific conditions."

"Ranma," Shampoo said, running her hand against
the silvery surface. She was briefly pensive, then realized this
was magic. None of the others had her level of experience with
magic, therefore she had an advantage. Shampoo concealed
her grin and resumed a look of concern.

"What were you and he saying when he vanished,
Akane? It is vital that you remember what you said word
for word." Cologne pogo sticked back to where Akane and
the two fathers were standing. "You were standing here?"

Nabiki looked over the mirror. Magic was
something that exploited loopholes in what were
supposedly inviolable laws of physics. Loopholes were
a Nabiki specialty, but she was quite willing to
concede that this might be beyond her. Nabiki _was_
quite curious about it, though. Fantasy literature was
full of things that could be useful in a business
environment. Who needed to turn lead into gold if you
could influence the stock exchange?

"He was inspecting that mirror, and called me
uncute. Then I said that if he wasn't going to help,
he should just get lost."

"Ran-chan," Ukyou said as she leaned against
the mirror. "I wish I could see you again." A tear
began to track down her cheek.

Nabiki watched Ukyou, surprised that the
chef would give up on Ranma so easily. Which was
when Nabiki noticed the movement.

The dragons began to move, and Ukyou fell into
the mirror's surface. As she did, her flailing hand
reached for SOMETHING to hold on to as she felt the pull.

Nabiki went into panic as Ukyou grabbed her.
The chef was already vanishing into the mirror and
the death-grip on her own arm was threatening to drag
a second person through the mirror. "HELP!"

The others turned just in time to see a
struggling Nabiki vanishing into the mirror's surface.

Shampoo jumped from where she wandered,
not wanting to see Ukyou cry (she'd have no qualms
about killing the obstacle, and considered using Formula
110 more than once, but watching someone cry was
another matter), and grabbed Nabiki's ankle just
as it vanished into the mirror. Shampoo's forward
momentum carried her through the mirror and the
surface rippled and hardened immediately.

"Nabiki?" Akane managed. Great, now she'd
managed to lose both a fiancee and a sister.
-----------------------
_/Hatchery, Dragonlands, Aramar, 7th Age, Prime Nexus 4\____
Ranma landed in a rocky canyon with a cloudless
blue sky above and a dry wind fitfully stirring the air.
Ranma felt like he'd just stepped into an oven. Though
dry, the heat seemed to suck the life right out of his
body. He glanced up at the wall, but there were no
marks to indicate where on the surface he had come from.

"Akane, you uncute tomboy, what have you done
now?" He noted a tiny iguana scurrying across another
of the canyon walls and wondered exactly where he was.

Tapping the striated rock of the canyon wall,
Ranma decided that staying here was out of the question.
There was no shelter, no water, and (unless you counted
that iguana) no food. There was little in the way
of shadows, so finding a place to at least get out of
the sun was his first priority.

Walking down the canyon, Ranma couldn't help
but feel a little nervous. Who knew what kind of
problem Akane had gotten him into this time?

Six hours later, three figures slammed into
nearly the exact same place Ranma had.

"Ouch. Nabiki, you're heavy."

"Moi? I thought you were in better shape,
Kuonji."

"Tracks. Ranma be here." Shampoo pointed. "He
go that way."

"I am surrounded by brilliance," Nabiki put as
much sarcasm as she could into it. Noting the glares from
both Ukyou and Shampoo, Nabiki decided not to allow
her irritation at being dragged along on this "adventure"
to show TOO much.

There was silence for a time, broken only by
the crunch of gravel underneath three sets of shoes.

"It very hot."

"You notice we've been walking a good half hour,
and the sun's still at the noon position?"

"Hmmmm." Nabiki HAD noticed. She had thought
her imagination was working overtime.

The uneasy silence returned.

"....here..."

The three stopped as one. It was merely an
errant word, caught by some acoustic trick, but it was
Ranma's voice.

"Ranchan!" Ukyou was the first to start
sprinting.

"Ai ren!" Shampoo was faster and quickly passed
Ukyou.

"Yeah, yeah, right." Nabiki didn't stop her
bored trudge. How did she get involved in all this
anyway? Adventures made one late for dinner. This
sort of thing was supposed to happen to Akane, not
her, she'd only gone to that store because she'd thought
she might find something there useful to unload on
Kuno or one of her other marks. Not to mention the
inevitable betting pool on when Ranma would get back.

"Aiyaaaaaa!"

Nabiki stopped. Shampoo had screamed? The big
bad oh-so-superior amazon had screamed? It brought a
brief smile to Nabiki's face.

"Ranchan!"

Nabiki eased forward. That had sounded like a
note of panic from Ukyou. She was close enough to see
that the canyon ended abruptly and a beach was vaguely
visible. There seemed to be something that was
reflecting a lot of light near the exit.

Nabiki reached the exit and stopped. Shampoo
and Ukyou had both drawn weapons, but looked fairly
daunted. Ranma merely looked puzzled.

Gleaming scales the color of silver shifted
in the light, and a head the size of a typical Japanese
car regarded the three women. Nabiki idly noted that
the teeth displayed in that mouth were at least the
length of her forearm. She estimated the creature's
length in excess of twenty five feet.

BIG, thought Nabiki. She wondered what the heck
something that size ate, then immediately promptly filed
the concept of "Diet" under "Things you don't want to
consider when said creature is sitting in front of you."
Especially when the majority of teeth briefly shown were
the sort of pointed thing you find in carnivores.

"Ranma, you okay?" Shampoo regained use of her
mouth first. She was still in a guard position but it
had registered that neither the big carnivore nor Ranma
were in anything approaching a battle stance.

*Oh, DO put your weapons away. I realize that
you're a long way from home, but you needn't assume that
EVERYTHING here is going to devour you on the instant.*

"Telepathy," Nabiki noted. "Makes sense, your
mouth isn't really constructed for Japanese." Now if she
could just stop shaking...

*Oh-ho. Here we've got a clever one. You'll do
well, child.*

"Uhm, Ranma-honey...."

"It's okay, Ucchan. Frostbite here's a friend,
sorta." Ranma indicated the dragon with a thumb. "On the
other hand, there's something you should see." He
pointed out to sea now instead of at the dragon.

"There's nothing out there," Nabiki started.
Then it began to register. At the farthest part of her
vision, the horizon seemed to curve up.

"Aiyaaaa."

"Ranchan?"

"We're not in Nerima anymore, Toto."
As expected, Nabiki's comment went past everyone,
though she felt the dragon (oddly enough) radiate
a brief amusement.

*Fascinating as all this is,* the dragon's
mental voice said as it uncoiled itself and thrust massive
wings out to either side. *We must be going.*

"Going?" Ranma was puzzled. "What about the
mirror?"

*Travel to this realm is strictly one way through
methods such as you described. In the meantime, much
as I enjoy conversation, we really must get you off the
Hatchery. Some of my fellows are not NEARLY so
understanding.*

"You got this job because you are," Nabiki
realized. Judging from the stone shelter, this was
some sort of guard post.

*True. You ARE quite clever. There is a weak
point in the dimensional wall there within the cliffs.
I was appointed by the Emperor to keep watch on anything
that might come through.* The dragon moved closer,
ignoring the way two of the little folk edged back. After
all, he WAS looking particularly splendid today
having freshly cleaned his scales.

"Uhm, so how are we supposed to leave your
Hatchery, then?" Ukyou tried to picture this creature
in front of her as a mom.

*Excuse me, I am NOT of the female persuasion.
While I can't read minds, if you insist on projecting
such strong mental images at me, at least TRY to make
them a little less silly. As to how you are to leave,
I shall require your assistance in getting my harness
on, at which point I shall fly you off to one of the
islands where people similar to yourselves dwell.*

"Other humans?"

*No. I'm sorry to tell you this but what you
regard as human is considered a near-mythical race,
also known as the Founders. The only humans around are
those like yourself who have come from the ancient past.
Delphins, elves, dwarves, ogrii, goblinkin, canin, caivehi,
burrowers, kinnari, and a number of other races, yes.
Native humans, no.*

"Ancient past?" Nabiki looked over at the
harness the dragon was dragging out of the shelter.
"Then this is a Dyson sphere, but those are supposed
to be inherently unstable.(1)"

"Dyson sphere?" Ukyou looked puzzled. "I must
have missed class that day."

"A theoretical structure type named after the
theorist who came up with it. You build a planet that
has a sun at its exact center, with a helluva lot of
surface volume. Don't remember the exact figure but
it is somewhere on the order of 100,000 Earth masses,
I think. I read about it in a manga once but it's been
a long time."

"Oh." Shampoo was glad Ukyou had spoken up,
as she hadn't had a clue either.(2)

*You want the answer to that, ask a Mu. They
LOVE things like that. Just be ready to pay the price.*

"Mew?" Shampoo asked.

Frostbite didn't reply with his usual telepathic
voice. Instead an image came to them of a crystalline
ant nearly three meters long, standing on the edge of
some oddly organic looking structure. In the background
could be seen others that looked exactly the same,
scurrying back and forth.

*They are collectors of information. Telepaths
of a hive intelligence. They most often seek payment by
collecting memories, as long as it is new to their
collective. As offworlders, be careful of any deal you
make with them. They are not evil, but can be greedy.*

"You said 'ancient past' earlier," Ukyou
stretched the harness out on the ground and wondered
exactly how she was supposed to get this on the dragon.
Said problem vanished when the dragon in question
grabbed a strap with his teeth and flipped the harness
over his back. "So we're in some sort of future where
there's dragons."

*Yes. You have not only travelled in space
but in time.* Frostbite finished adjusting the harness
and waited for the little ones to start buckling it
into place. He could have done it himself, but it was
important to give the newly arrived something to do.

"So, if we're stuck here for at least some time,
we need to know where and when we are, ne?" Nabiki
was a little nervous as she saw the huge teeth and claws
from this close. Again the thought came that she really
didn't want to figure out what this creature ate until
AFTER she was back home or at least out of range.

*I'm not a cannibal, you know.*

Nabiki nearly jumped out of her shoes. She knew
somehow that only she had heard that last comment. She
turned from the buckle she was working on to stare into
an eye as large as her head. Blue. She wondered why
she hadn't noticed that the monster had blue eyes.

*Yes, Ukyou. That's where that strap goes.
Don't worry about it. As long as you don't get sand
trapped there it won't hurt. No, Xian Pu. Excuse me,
then, Shampoo, you won't have to cling to a strap for
hours of flight time. I've had to ferry Amazons, who
are very similar to you in appearance. Different kind
of Amazon, I'm thinking, but yes, you probably will
get along with them.*

Nabiki realized that the soft murmurring from
each of her companions was actually simultaneous
conversations with the dragon. One apparently only had
to strongly project an image or vocalize for the dragon
to be able to pick it up. Natural translators, then.
The UN would love these guys.

The blue eye blinked and the extra voices were
gone. Nabiki shivered. Control was everything to her,
money the most obvious way of keeping score in that
regard. This situation had never been under her control,
and was slipping further away from that desired
condition every moment.

"So, Frosty..." Ranma looked over his section
of the harness, ignoring the pained rumble from the
dragon, "how the heck are we gonna fly in this thing?"

*There are saddles in the shelter which buckle
directly onto the harness. As long as we don't run into
deveagles, chimerae, bostone, skimmers, evil mages, or
some cruising teenagers you should be fine.*

Shampoo gave the dragon a weird look.
"Teenagers?"

Ukyou paused. "Mages?"

Nabiki smiled, raised an eyebrow, and said
sweetly "excuse me, 'should be' does not exactly fill
me with confidence."

Ranma shrugged and went to look for the saddles.
Sounded like good training if nothing else.
========================================
(1)- Can't you picture Nabiki as a Companion to
Doctor Who? Actually there are several cast members
who'd fit the role quite well. But one can picture Nabiki
running scams, stealing things, and taking pictures up
and down the timestream quite easily, ne? Then coming
back to Nerima and becoming a wealthy inventor...

(2)- Of course, if Shampoo were a companion of
Doctor Who, wearing that ultra short Chinese dress,
no doubt the ratings would be quite...lucrative.

Ranma 1/2: Grand Tour 1 B
R.Takahashi owns the Nerima bunch. Aramar and
the Ninefold Worlds are my creation. No money made on
any of these though i may eventually try to do
professional stories set in Aramar.
=============================
_/Nichieju, China, Earth 2003 AD, Prime +314156\____
Light flared. Two figures dropped to the
ground from a swirling hole.

A woman in a stretch pantsuit looked out
over the devastation. "Aiyaaa. What happen?"

Her companion, a tall man with silver hair
sniffed the air. "The fires were a long time ago. I'd
say the area has been abandoned for roughly five
years, maybe a little more."

"Five year..." Shampoo looked out over
her ruined village. "Why we here, where is Ranma?"

The man sighed and pointed to the
ground. "This is why. This is where you died on
this world. Don't forget, this may not be your own
world. If it isn't we can rejoin the others and I can
do a Recall at the next weak point. We can then
try again next year."

Shampoo stared at the scattered bones
and broken bonbori lying there on the shelf.
"Shampoo dead here?"

"Afraid so." Frostbite rarely blinked,
even when in human form. "This is your home
village, right?"

Shampoo nodded, tears streaking
down her face as she looked at the ruins. She
was a tough warrior, but the sight of her home
in this condition was a bit much.

"Any idea who would have done
this? It almost looks like fire dragons went
through here. Look, that patch of ground over
there was fused to glass. That would have to
be magical fire or plasma weapons. Any idea?"

Shampoo slumped to the ground,
not speaking for several minutes. "Phoenix
Mountain. They stopped by Ranma, though."

"Here, I guess, they weren't." He
flicked some errant hairs back out of his
face. "Well, come on, let's go down there."

"...I..." Shampoo shook her head.
She remembered her first fight, there by what
was now a patch of black glass. She knew
the number of steps to the Elder's auditorium,
which was that collection of burned out
beams and supports clawing at the sky. She
remembered taking her meals over by that
scarred pit that was once a grove of trees.
And she remembered meeting Ranma at the
challenge log, which was one of the few
things left standing.

"Come on, Shampoo. They
deserve a burial, a bit late, but it is better
than never." Frostbite held out his hand,
waiting for her to take it, before turning to
the task before them.

Three days previously: (subjective time)
_/Sea Of Shadar, Aramar 7th Age, Prime Nexus 4\____

A dragon with scales the color of pewter flew
over seas that looked tropical, the blue-green spotted
with areas of coral and other areas of deep blue-black
that spoke of unplumbed depths.

Nabiki noted that at a height of what she
estimated to be 3000 feet, that the air pressure was
higher than she expected though still less than what
she had experienced earlier.

The eerie trick of the horizon seeming to curve
UP still failed to resolve itself. "Hey, Frosty!"

Their ride dipped slightly as his massive head
craned back to glare at the figures on his back. *Must
you?*

Nabiki ignored him. There was some irritation
in the dragon's mental "voice" but also an undercurrent
of amusement. "Exactly when and where are we, anyway?"

*You are on the plane of Aramar, in an area
known as the Shadarian Empire, over a portion of ocean
declared as Territory of The Dracokin, in the Seventh
Age Of Man, Fifty seventh year.* The dragon turned his
head back to flying and the ride immediately smoothed
out.

"So how far in time did we travel? We're
obviously not on Earth." Ukyou didn't doubt she could
make it here, with okonomiyaki you could make a living
anywhere.

*Exactly? I'm not sure. Calendars change and
empires rise and fall. Even the definition of a year or
an Age Of Man varies.*

"Stop evading." Nabiki knew an evasion when she
heard it. She did enough of them herself.

*If you insist. If you came from the same basic
timeframe that I think you did, then it has been well over
one hundred seventy five billion years.*

A brief moment of silence, one that the dragon
appreciated. "Can't be, the universe..."

*Yes, child. Your universe has collapsed and
expanded again. The Mu refer to this as the 'Heartbeat
Of God' - and which god they refer to is probably not
one I'd want to meet. I know that many of the races
were supposedly crafted by humans in the First Age,
though each of the races denies this, of course.*

"Including dragons?"

*No. Dragons were formed from elemental magic
when this universe was being ripped asunder. More detail
on that, you'll have to go to a priest or historian. It
was not one of my better subjects.*

"What of other amazons?"

The dragon paused then shared a memory.
---FLASHBACK--------
The dragon waited for his riders to dismount,
then shifted to a human form, completely out of his
harness. He stretched out on the sands with a sigh.

The two tall women looked a little
startled and reached for weapons, only to stop as the
transformed dragon got up and started gathering
firewood.

"Hope you don't mind. My wings were really sore
after that flight. My human form's also a bit more
compact and it's easier to find shelter this way."

The oriental looked at her taller companion
and finally shook her head.

"Good. Say, I'm new to this courier duty stuff,
what say you tell me about your adventures while we set
up camp? Heck, I still don't know why I've got to carry
you clear from Nihon to Cross Isle."

"We just completed Boot Camp, and we're new
recruits for the Imperial Guard, Shipcrafter's
Division." The oriental said after a slight hesitation.

"Really? I thought that Cross Isle only had the
amazons of the House of Southern Cross."

"That's Lydia here," the oriental jerked a
thumb at the redhead. "She's House Southern Cross. I'm
of Rising Sun. While it is true that Cross Isle is the
headquarters for Southern Cross, they are not the only
one of the Twelve Houses to dwell there."

"Ah," Frostbite said. He pointed a palm at the
stack of driftwood and incanted a brief verse. Flames
appeared, slowly crawling along the drier pieces.

"So you're a priest," Lydia remarked. "I'm an
apprentice mage but I recognize that from the temple.
Which of the powers do you serve?"

"Etragar the Healer."

The two stared for a moment and started
laughing. "A dragon who's priest of a god of healing,
whose priests are allowed only the weapons that nature
provides them, oh that's a good one." Lydia chuckled.
----End Memory-------------
*I've been friends with them as they grew up,
and have some ties to both clans now that they are
elders within their Houses.*

"What that?" Shampoo pointed towards a tower,
alone on a small island that seemed mainly composed of
jagged rocks.

*That is the home of a great wizard who does NOT
get along with amazons of any House. He had a bad run-in
with a group of amazons known as the Feryl when he was
younger, and it has left him scarred and twisted in more
ways than just physically.*

"Is he powerful enough to get us home?" Nabiki
looked at the tower and noted that the shadow seemed to
indicate that the tower didn't quite touch the ground.

*Possibly.* The dragon hesitated. *I would not
try to intrude there, though. If it were just Ranma and
I, it would be something to look into. If you could play
the part of slaves to Ranma, it might work. That mage
was tortured for years for the crime of being male, and
any female seen that even looks like she might be in
command of a man could cause the old insanities to
bubble forth anew. Too risky.*

"What, he'd kill us? Doesn't make him any better
that those Feryl, does it?" Ukyou tried not to look
down. Flying had never been a big problem before, but
this was on something that was actually alive and
beating wings, and the sensations were completely
different.

*No. He isn't quite sane, but he's never gone
THAT far.* Frostbite paused again. *The clan of amazons
known as Rising Sun based quite a bit of their culture
and philosophies on ancient videos and stories of what
their ancestors supposedly were like. Their main
language is similar to your own. The name THEY give to
that wizard, is Hentai.*

"Eeeewww." Nabiki glanced back. The thought
occurred to her that if she could get some of this
mage's stuff back home, she could make major profits.
Still, the thought of some of the possible
interpretations she could make out of that nickname was
sufficient to curb her curiosity.

"...so why go so near?" Ukyou thumped the
dragon on the shoulder nearest her saddle.

*Hentai built his tower along a feng shui,
one of the lines of power that crisscross this area.
If I use it, we can cut some time off our journey.*

"You not going to do what I think you are."
Shampoo clutched her saddle tightly. "I getting airsick
enough. You no want to..."

Cold. Dark. Nabiki looked around. The sun and
sea and everything had been replaced with an airless
darkness. She gasped for the air that suddenly wasn't
there. Closing her eyes, she gripped the saddle.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

Nabiki's eyes shot open. The sensation of air
moving had come at the same moment as Ukyou's shriek
and the muted sounds of Shampoo throwing spectacularly
up over the dragon's side. Nabiki glared at Shampoo, as
her own saddle was placed almost directly behind the
amazon, with predictable results.

"What was the damn hurry," Nabiki thumped the
side of the dragon. It did wonders for calming her
nerves.

*Needed to get you here before the Changes set
in.*

"Changes?"

*Anyone who comes to a high-magical energy
universe from a low energy universe gets changed by
their mindset, personality force, whatever. Sometimes
it is just the way the universe pigeon holes you. I
wasn't always a dragon, you know.*

That was a disquieting thought. Nabiki wanted
to ask more but some odd flashing from a castle below
them caught her eye. What the heck was the castle made
of anyway? Quartz crystals?

*Hang tight. I've been given permission to
land.*

"What do you mean hang tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggghht!"
Ukyou hadn't started out airsick but was rapidly getting
there.

Ranma howled with pleasure, this was better
than a typical roller coaster ride. They'd gone from
a near-stall to a power dive, Ranma estimated the
speed as well over 90mph. Nothing compared to the
speed of a bullet train, but when what you're riding
is alive and is dropping almost straight down, it was
a completely different sensation.
-------"now"--------
_/Juuban, Tokio, Japan, Earth 2003 AD, Prime +314156\____
Ranma slammed into the ground, turned
and saw the little grave. "Oh shit. This isn't the right
Reality."

The clue was easy to see. A small, child
sized grave, with a marker that read Ranma Saotome.
Ranma read the date of death.

"Shit, that would've been around the
time...that Pops locked me in with all those c-c-cats."

Ranma spent a few minutes in the knowledge
that his father's desire for training him, really had killed
him in at least one life.

Taking out a sheaf of papers from his
pocket, he finally turned away from the tiny grave.
"Ok. If it isn't our home reality, we're to meet at
the front gate of the Tendo dojo at sunrise. If we
can't meet there, we notify people of where we'll
be by posting memos on the bulletin board near
the train station. If neither of these is suitable,
then watch for Frosty to show up on the local
news then head there."

Ranma shrugged. "Simple enough."
With a last glance behind him, Ranma jogged
out into the evening.
---------------------
Nabiki looked at the face in the mirror
and wondered what the hell had happened. She
was older, and hadn't weathered the intervening
years well. She looked...worn down.

Then there was this apartment. Squallid
was the first thing that came to mind. The sound
of some massive pump nearby indicated she was
near some construction site. Bottles of cheap
sake everywhere, stuff that you wouldn't even
feed to Happosai.

The only thing not looking cheap
and tattered in the apartment were the clothes.
Nabiki looked at some of the garments and
blushed. No way could she ever wear THOSE.

Sitting on the edge of the bed,
and trying NOT to think about the last time
it was cleaned, Nabiki started analyzing the
situation and started coming up with some
answers she didn't like.

The calendar, for example, read
October 13, 2003. So they had gotten very
close to their own time, a mere eight years
had passed since they'd fallen into the
mirror in that antique shop. Considering
how far they had to go, that was very very
close indeed. Lijra was as good as her
reputation.

There was a heavy scent of
disinfectant, a small stove, and she was
apparently living off of Top Ramen. A
quick search of the room also yielded a
small ID badge. She worked at the large
Bank Of Nerima, apparently.

Her pupils shrank when she
saw the job description. OL. She was
an Office Lady. The automatic reflex
of grabbing a bottle and knocking back
a slug of the stuff caught her by surprise.
She coughed a fair amount of it up when
she realized what she had done.

Nabiki shuddered. There had
always been the possibility that, even
if she could finagle college somehow,
she'd end up as one of the low paid
little "office dolls" who were stuck
for life in their regimented little duties.
No matter how brilliant or business
saavy you were, there was always
this sort of hell awaiting those whose
luck had failed them.

"I should have at least
been able to get to college with what
I made off of Ranma," growled Nabiki.
She unconciously took another drink.

The phone rang, just about
sending Nabiki into a coronary. After
the third ring, the answering machine
picked it up.

"Ah, Nab-chan." Nabiki
shuddered at the name the male caller
used. He had a greasy sound to his
voice. "When you wake up, you
might want to put something 'special'
on. You wouldn't want to disappoint
my...friends, would you? I shall bring
my boy by later, he deserves a reward.
You understand, don't you? Nabbi?"

Nabiki looked at the phone
as if it had been transformed into a
venomous snake. When you "jumped"
into one of your Analogues or other
world selves, it took time for memories
to filter from the native to the traveller.
Strong emotion would bridge the gap.

Revulsion and shame brought
back the image of the Yakuza boss who
had been amused at Nabiki blackmailing
one of the Furinkan students. One of the
Furinkan students who had turned out to
be related to said boss. Her continued
day-to-day survival hinged upon some
things that she DIDN'T want to dwell on.

Shuddering for a few moments,
Nabiki got up, put on some of her drabbest
clothing, and left. She had no idea yet,
how long she'd be here, but she wasn't
going to wait for assimilation between
the native and the travelling Nabikis.
---------------------------------------
Ukyou found herself in a
similar situation in Kansai. In an obviously
illegal casino operating in a "love hotel"
in Osaka, as a near naked okonomiyaki
chef whose battered appearance was
sufficient to keep her from being "tonight's
special" at least.

That didn't keep her from being
fondled on a regular basis. The first flash
of memories that had hit her had caused
her to run to the nearest ladies room.
Memories of her father's yattai, of meeting
a nice young man, of finding herself with
child as the young man turned out to be
not so nice. Of her family disowning her.

Which brought her here. As
soon as she could, she snuck off, found
the locker room and changed. She had no
wish to be around here any longer than she
had to, and if were much longer, she'd kill
the next person who tweaked her breasts.

Ukyou didn't know what
reality this was, she didn't care. She wanted
out, NOW!
-----------------------------------------------
<splice here for part 1c to make the first chapter
complete.>
without Ranma brought to you by a
story idea from Ukyo...@aol.com
though i have taken it in a much different
direction than she did.
Musk Dynasty cutting a deal with the
forces of Phoenix Mountain? Why not.
Phoenix Mountain can always betray the
Musk later. Saffron has destroyed
Juusenkyo, and the Nichieju and sister
villages. The survivors are prisoners of
the Musk Dynasty.
There's still a LOT of closed doors for
women in Japan, and the Yakuza really
doesn't like competition. Hence Nabiki's
predicament.
Frankly, I really like Ukyou, but without
Ranma she wouldn't have developed her
fighting skills to the extent she has, and
might have turned out a lot less forceful
in personality or physically.
Ranma got off easy. He was merely
killed as a child, and finds out that his
parents seperated immediately afterwards.

Ja ne, next segment they leave this world,
and go somewhere much happier.

gregg

Ranma 1/2: Grand Tour 1c
R.Takahashi owns the Nerima bunch. Aramar and
the Ninefold Worlds are my creation. No money made on
any of these though i may eventually try to do
professional stories set in Aramar.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Nabiki paused at the sign on the wall
of what _used_ to be the Tendo dojo. That it
wasn't named that anymore merely underscored
the dislocation she felt at being in this Reality.

"Tofu Chiropractic Clinic" was followed
by a set of hours.

The sight inside the gate was shocking
to Nabiki. There was her sister, Kasumi, sitting in
front of the house, crying...

"Kasumi?"

Kasumi looked up, shame at being seen
slowly replaced with recognition. "Nabiki? Is that
you? I haven't seen you in...years..."

Nabiki frowned. No hug, no kind words,
no vaguely oblivious smile. What had happened to
cause this Reality to spin off from the one she knew?
According to Lijra and Sjul, those two wizardess
types, if they missed the correct Reality, they could
go back by gathering together and using the Recall
device Frostbite was carrying.

However, to improve the chances on the
next try, they had to know how much variation and
what the cause of the variation was from their home
reality. Then, in a little over one year, they'd be able
to correct the aim and try again.

"Kasumi, what's wrong?" Nabiki, still
sixteen inside a much older body, wasn't very good
at the "touchy-feely" kind of thing, something she
shared with Akane.

"Oh, just...nothing." Kasumi looked away,
shame coloring her face.

"Aw, c'mon, Kasumi. You can tell me, I
won't even charge for it." Nabiki was aware right
after she said it that it was the wrong thing to say.

"It's my husband..." Kasumi's voice was
a thin whisper. Nabiki had to stand right next to her
sister to hear it.

"Doctor Tofu?" Nabiki's eyes took in
the bruised temple, an old break on the upper lip,
the way her blouse almost concealed bruising on
her arms. No, Nabiki thought, it couldn't be.

"We...missed you at the wedding. I
guess after Akane married Tatewaki you were
kind of soured on the marriage concept. After
all, look how wonderful their marriage turned
out." Kasumi's voice was bitter.

"Kuno?" Nabiki made a face. Kuno
married Akane?

"He's still cheating on her, keeps
her locked up in that mansion of her, after all,
in that samurai world of his she's property to
be kept and protected..." Kasumi closed her
eyes but the tears wouldn't come.

Nabiki noticed that Kasumi was
crying, but without tears, she'd gone through
something horrible then. "But what about
Doctor Tofu, I mean, he's always loved you."

"Do you remember how he used
to destroy things around me, it should've been
a clue. He can't help it, really."

Nabiki closed her eyes, seeing where
this was going. "So he's still doing it, and now
one of the things that is getting trashed is you.
Great, just...great. What about Daddy? What
about Mister Saotome?"

"Father died a few years ago, Nabiki.
You know that. Who is Mister Saotome?"

Nabiki felt something click together.
"Ranma's father. You know, Genma Saotome?"

Kasumi looked up at Nabiki with a
puzzled expression, and Nabiki knew she'd
guessed right. "I don't know either of them,
Nabiki, are they friends of yours?"
one day previous (subjective):-------------------------
_/Lijra's Tower, Aramar 7th Age, Prime Nexus 4\_
"So, there's a hotshot mage here who's
agreed to help us?" Ukyou made a show of
looking around the top floor of the tower, which
more resembled a kitchen than anything that came
out of a Hollywood wizard set.

"Spatula girl knock it off. Great grandma
cook up plenty magic." Still, even Shampoo was
disappointed. It was all so neat and tidy. "Maybe
we just in wrong room."

Nabiki hummed a bit and inspected a
book. It was written in something vaguely like
English, but was clearly a different version than
was taught in schools. She briefly toyed with
the idea of sneaking off with it.

Shadows thickened and a woman
appeared, her black skin, white hair, and golden
eyes marking her as being a dokkalfar. Not that
any of the four travelers had seen any before.

After Nabiki realized that she'd
jumped up and ended up in Ranma's arms,
she slapped him and told him to cut out the
funny stuff or she'd tell Akane about it.

"Children, behave yourselves."
The woman looked them over with a frown,
then scrutinized both Nabiki and Ukyou.
"No wonder the Emperor's willing to help
you out. Has anyone told you that you
resemble the Empress when she was
younger?"

Nabiki frowned. "Only about
two dozen of those amazons, though I
am NOT an engineer and do not conceal
various knives upon my person."

"And you," Lijra looked over
Ukyou carefully, "quite resemble the
Heir, though she wouldn't be caught
dead in public without a daisho."

"So I've been told," Ukyou
griped. "And told, and told, and told."

"Whatever, now here's the
deal," Lijra took a seat near the stove
and made a gesture. Little spheres of
light appeared in midair. "There's an
ALMOST infinite number of universes.
We can eliminate a number because
you're human. We can eliminate more
because you came from a world where
technology develops. We can eliminate
the outer rim because magic obviously
works in your world, otherwise you'd
have to have been pulled from outside
your universe.

"That still leaves a pretty
big number. I'm going to have to talk
to each of you about your world and
do some divinations to narrow it down
some more. When I know what basic
Node to shoot for, I can then try sending
you within that Node. You find out what
doesn't match your homeworld, then we
try again.

"Problem number one. Due
to certain arcane matters, a little over
one year is going to pass for you here
between attempts. That means you're
going to have to find jobs and come
back here periodically.

"Problem number two. If
you're not careful, this universe is
adaptive. It will try to fit you into its
own Rules. Ask Frostbite, he started
out human and a traveller from outside,
same as you. He's been a dragon for so
long he's forgotten his human name.
Since that event, we do have amulets
that hold off the change. They aren't 100%
effective, though.

"Problem number three. You'll
physically merge with your other selves
if such exists on the world you're entering.
Mental merging begins shortly thereafter.
If you are more than 50% merged with
your other self and return, your other self
will abruptly be missing. Anything less
than that, and your other self will continue
on in their native reality.

"Going past 90% merged would
be bad. There's a chance you couldn't
return if you wanted to..."
--------------------
_/Tendo Dojo, Nerima, Japan, Earth 2003 AD, Prime +314156\____
Nabiki listened to what would have merely
been a horror story except that she was personally
involved.

"So Kuno-baby's keeping sis on a short leash,
while he goes out and tries out new mistresses on a
regular basis." Nabiki shook her head. "How come Akane
lets him get away with it?"

"Well, Nabiki, after the fire, that was right after
you tried to bluff the local Yakuza grandfather as you
recall, our bills were enormous. Then father got sick and
died and all those hospital bills came in. Tatewaki was so
kind to help cover those expenses, but only as helping
out his wife's family."

"That still doesn't sound right. There must be
something else going on."

"What's going on, Nabiki?" A young man
walked in through the open gate. He couldn't miss
Kasumi's flinch, then how she relaxed when she
realized it was a stranger.

Ranma's eyes passed over Kasumi, taking
in the number of bruises. Someone was beating on or
hurting Kasumi? That was like strip-mining Mount
Fuji or performing chakra torture on Winnie the Pooh.
Something unthinkably wrong.

"Uhm, Nabiki, I think I found the variance
point that Lijra was talkin' about. Hey, 'Biki, you don't
look so good."

"Thank you SO much," Nabiki said with a
glare. "That just was SO observant of you."

"Uhm, well I died during the nekoken
training, so I'm guessing that was it. So, at least
Akane's happier in this world, huh?"

"Ixnay on the...Ranma, you dolt! Out of
all the time I've known you, and ALL the stupid
things you've said, you have just topped yourself."

"So you died?" Kasumi blinked. Three
times. "You're looking much better now."

"Oh, um, Kasumi..."

"Kasumi, sis, I think we've got to have
a talk."
-------------
The dragon flew at a fair rate of speed
for a winged creature, particularly one of its size.
That still meant that it was barely passing 70mph
and therefore had a LOT of ground to cover.

*It'll drain me quite a bit, but there are
some feng shui here. I think I can do a jump.*

"Then best you do so. Chinese
government not like it they see big flying thing
on their radar. Shampoo no want end up splat
on ground."

*Yes, I could see where that would
put a definite crimp on things.* Frostbite pulled
into a thermal, pulled all the mana he could
together and twisted space.
---------------------------------
"Okay, people," Nabiki called out,
"everyone in the circle, Frosty in the center.
Just like in the diagram Lijra provided. Link
hands now. I do NOT want to stay one
moment more in THIS world."

In fact, neither Ukyou nor Nabiki
wanted their Alternates to stay here. Any
version of themselves trapped in this Reality
would be too many. After making a few careful
adjustments, Frostbite thought he could
manage a physical as well as the usual mental
transfer.

Kasumi watched from the front
door as the glow began to build up around
the man in the center, his silver hair whipping
up as if a strong breeze was blowing from
the ground to the sky.

Kasumi considered. Doctor Tofu
would be getting back today. He'd have
missed her terribly, she knew, so his glasses
would fog up and he'd lose control again.

She still hadn't healed from the last
set of injuries she'd gotten that way. Shiatsu
could only go so far in mending physical
damage.

Tongue touching an empty spot
in her mouth where a tooth had been knocked
loose last year, Kasumi made a decision.

Kasumi crossed the ground swiftly
and grabbed her sister. There would have to be
room for one more...
=================================
Grand Tour chapter 1 finished.
NEXT: 1.25 years (subjective) later...