Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

[Ranma/Xover][FanFic] Retake chapters 1 & 2

8 views
Skip to first unread message

metro...@mindspring.com

unread,
Nov 15, 2001, 7:40:45 AM11/15/01
to

RETAKE:

An unintended fic which is developing despite that.

Ranma1/2 (c) Rumiko Takahashi & Shogokukan. Various other series included
later.

------

Grey grumbled. This was hardly new. He was not as whiny as Shinji Ikari or
as given to theatrics as Soun Tendo, but he was hardly a stoic and often
feeling put upon.

He had been told that he had one more chance, and that was to take the test
that he had turned down quite some time ago. He'd said there was absolutely
no chance of success. He'd been told to give it a try at least.

Considering *whose* office the request had come from, he really hadn't
thought about declining.

Which brought him here, into a Ranma timeline. He didn't know *when* but he
knew *where* and who. Where was Nerima, Furinkan ward. Which made this all
suck wind. He was an American who was in Japan due to a Japanese talent
scout, at least according to the papers he had.

That test had been to be Akane Tendo's boyfriend in that most shameless
tradition of inserts. He had been of the opinion that being fed to
carnivorous worms was less onerous. Even after that event, when he had gone
through just such a fate on a world known as Gehenna, he had felt that he'd
gotten the better of the deal.

In fact, Grey didn't exactly enjoy being *in* a "Ranma" timeline. Insane and
ridiculously powerful martial artists were common in such timelines, and as
these were all somewhat obsessive and violent, he felt he didn't fit in too
well. He would much rather deal with the "Oh My Goddess" crowd (providing
one can get Urd away from the potions), or a "Sailor Moon" timeline (despite
how severely underage they were - most were at least nice and capable of
carrying on a conversation that didn't involve the words 'die' or 'kill'
coming up frequently), or "Tenchi" (who might be a weenie in some respects,
but he wasn't obnoxious), or "El Hazard" (he'd gotten along famously with
Makoto Mizuhara the one time they had crossed paths), or "Slayers" (he
hadn't gotten along well with Lina, but he'd found a sort of kinship with
Zelgadis) or...

Actually there were quite a few "anime series based" timelines he'd rather
be in. And the closer to a mainline this "Ranmaverse" was, the less happy
he'd been about it.

The first thing he'd done was find a "Manga No Mori" - one of the more
premiere manga shops. And while his command of Japanese had been largely
disabled, the pictures could tell him some things immediately. A Rumiko
Takahashi *had* written some popular comics - Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku,
and something he didn't recognize involving samurai. No sign of "Sailor
Moon" but there was a manga series involving superpower granting sailorsuits
from outerspace, something that reminded him a *lot* of the old "Greatest
American Hero" series retooled for a Japanese audience. Which meant this
*could* be a universe with "Sailor Moon" characters. He wasn't sure he could
take meeting them after the last adventure, but he probably should check it
out when he could.

The second thing, as it was early in the morning on a schoolday, was finding
Furinkan High School.

Grey groaned. There was this huge crowd of boys in sports gear waiting
around the front gate of Furinkan High School. So he was at the beginning of
the series, he'd be running into Ranma, and likely get his clock cleaned. Of
course, considering the Butterfly Effect, he'd likely have maybe one or two
days before his knowledge of the series became completely useless. Though
there was no guarantee that this was a baseline universe anyway.

Kuno began yelling something with gaijin in it. Figured that his Japanese
was so stilted and archaic that only one word in a dozen was recognizable.

The crowd moved. Grey smiled. At last, something to concentrate on besides
how much he *hated* being stuck in this situation.

He had some talents, but as this *was* a Ranma timeline, he had to do it in
martial arts terms. His papers indicated that he was Greylle Shard,
practitioner of Martial Arts Baseball and Heir to the Seven Dragons Style.
Since he was not at all fond of baseball, he could see someone's sense of
irony showing. As for the "Seven Dragons" - he had no idea what that was
supposed to be so he'd just make something up as he went along.

*Pop!*

Now holding a baseball bat, Grey made use of kendo and sword techniques
drilled into him from the Valkyries. If he allowed *this* crowd to defeat
him, it would be a direct insult to his teachers - and they'd be *really*
ticked. Of course, this kind of martial arts universe meant a special attack
should be called out. Maybe... got it.

The baseball bat was not a particularly bad choice as far as a martial arts
weapon. It was fairly well balanced, you could use kendo or jo stick
techniques with minor modifications, and you could really thwack someone
silly with it.

"Hailstorm Defense!" Hmmm. He'd have to work out some better attack names.
He ought to try and keep to a baseball motif whenever possible.

It sheared through a hockey stick to slam into a face mask with enough force
to shatter hard plastic, spun and was then brought endwise into a sumo's
stomach, swung up and brought underneath a karate practitioner's chin, and
rebounded off a soccer player's ribs.

A blocked bokken was the warning that Kuno himself had entered the fray.
Another special technique seemed mandated. Maybe something like "Lightspeed
Grounder!"

Kuno ended up skipping across the school like a stone across the surface of
a pond. Grey decided he'd overdone it a bit. He had to leave Kuno available
to fight Ranma later. Uh oh. There was always one more, if that danger sense
going off was any indication. Might as well play to the crowd and not even
look, just wait then backswing.

*WHAM!*

Deciding to borrow a move from Bob Hope, Grey made a show as if his bat was
a sword and he was slipping it into a sheath, then bowing elaborately.

Waitaminute. *Something* was wrong. There was a lot of muttering going on.

Grey slowly turned, this cold hollow feeling starting up in his stomach.
There was a girl with long black hair, out cold on the ground.

He sighed and picked her up, heading for the Nurse's office. "i *told* them
this wouldn't work out."

--------

Akane slowly focussed in on the ceiling. Her head hurt. A lot.

"Are you okay, Tendo-kun?" Greylle wanted to use the most formal and distant
address possible.

"Who? What?" Akane sat up and the wet cloth from her forehead dropped into
her lap.

"I student. Yomiuri Giants want me study over here, scouted out in America.
Not familiar Japanese custom."

Akane glared at the boy, who was curiously *not* looking at her. "So what
are you doing here?"

"Supposed attend Furinkan. Find fight first day. You okay. I leave now."

Akane frowned at the departing boy's back. She didn't have time for this. It
was already...

"ACK!"

-------

Universes which have an RN or RM tag usually have an individual named Ranma
Saotome. They also have, quite often, most of the usual characters
associated with Ranma Saotome.

Due to something called the Law Of Conservation Of Realities, quite a few of
these had other elements that never quite crossed orbits with Nerima Japan.
These elements existed in a number of other realities as well, without being
crossovers or alternates, because the elements in question rarely directly
mixed.

In the typical Ranma universe, for example, there were various elements of
magic that never got properly explained. Who built the koi rods, or what
created Jusenkyo, or even who eventually dealt with that large oni and
returned Happosai back to normal after they'd attacked California.

There *were* spellcasters and magical artificiers in such typical
"Ranmaverses" - they just preferred quiet areas where there weren't a lot of
ridiculously powerful and obsessive martial artists to muck up their
property.

For various reasons, these "persons of magic" tended to congregate. For one
thing it was awfully handy if one of your experiments got loose to be able
to call up your neighbors and ask for a hand. For another, one could only
properly gripe and moan about the results of your latest incantation with
someone who understood what the blazes you were talking about.

In some universes, this congregation of magi would end up in Pillow Creek,
Minnesota. In others, a small place in Utah called Willow Brook. In this
particular universe, this community of 238 wizards, magi, artificiers, and
such were found in the United States. In a state called Virginia, and in a
small rural community known as Pungo, to be precise. A small town on the
verge of vanishing, a tiny bit of old fashioned Americana tucked away where
most road maps couldn't find it.

Which was how the wizards, magi, artificiers, and other magic types wanted
it.

When one gets to a certain level of power, your typical magi suddenly
realizes a Universal Truth. That Truth being that most of the motives
typically applied to such individuals are actually rather stupid for someone
who is trying to unravel the Secrets Of The Universe. Summoning Demons, for
example, leads to a short lifespan and one associates with the most dreadful
fellows. Conquering The World was rather silly as well, the paperwork and
internal politics leeching the joy from the accomplishment quickly. And so
on.

So, for wizards and magi and the like, when they reached that level of
power, they retired. Summon up some gold? No problem, but why? Use a Copy
Item spell and make a half dozen Playstation 2, or a Temporary Manifestation
of the latest computer game if that's your fancy. Want that new pop singer's
newest CD? Just as simple.

No, material wealth and goals became ludicrous when you'd mastered the
basics of matter manipulation.

So one usually sat back and relaxed, cuddling nymphs or other summoned
spirits, while trying to work out some really nifty spell or item, or one
just puttered around in one's workshop and see what developed. Those at this
stage of wizardry mostly didn't want to be bothered with the Mundanes, who
tended to get terribly frightened or at least upstaged by nearly all
powerful wizards.

Still, they did tend to do things like keep an eye out for young wizards.
The ones just learning their power tended to be a bit rambunctious and could
get into all sorts of trouble.

Which was why Hieronomus ("Harry") Bosch was roused from a decent nap by a
glow on a map that told him that a low power mage had just appeared in Tokyo
Japan.

-------

"Don't be silly, Yuka," Akane insisted. "He's a boy. Worse, he's American,
so he's even more hormone-addled than the ones here."

"But Akane, you *never* argued with anyone about Kuno's conditions. You just
accepted them. So when he defeated you..." Yuka's voice trailed off as she
noticed that throbbing vein on Akane's forehead.

Akane took a deep breath, and realized she'd been doing that a *lot* lately.
"I never accepted that 'defeat me to date me' crap from Kuno. The only
reason I went along with it at *all* was because it was a decent workout.
Frustrating as all, but a good workout."

"And he's so tall and his shoulders," began Sayuri.

"Not you too, Sayuri," complained Akane.

"Don't forget his butt," said Yuka, nudging her compatriot and winking. "And
that blond hair and those blue eyes make him look *so* exotic."

"...perverts..." Akane mumbled, for once not referring to a boy with that
particular epithet.

"Class, we have a new student," the teacher said, interrupting the gossip.
"He's a bit late, but considering that he's American, some problems in
paperwork are to be expected. It says here..."

Everyone came to attention as the teacher froze momentarily while reading
his notes. Just the way he was staring at the paper and repeating "oh my
kami" was enough to clue in even Hiroshi and Daisuke that something was up.

"Teacher?" The class president decided to ask.

The teacher turned and began to write things on the blackboard. Akane wasn't
that much into baseball, but she did recognize "RBI" and a few of the other
terms.

"This boy was scouted out by the Yomiuri Giants in America," said the
teacher, glasses gleaming in the flourescent lamps. "They signed him up for
as soon as he graduates, and he's attending high school here so they can
make sure he's ready for a position."

"Oh no. Please no." Akane looked heavenwards. "Please not in *my* class."

Sure enough, the tall blond boy entered the room and tried to bow. It came
off shaky but passable. "Uhm. I... Greylle Shard is. Pleased to meet you.
Aaaaaa!"

Akane winced. The boy was making little warding gestures. Then he said very
distinctly though under his breath in English "please don't make me sit next
to her."

"Shard-san, you'll sit next to Akane Tendo," said the teacher, ignoring the
winces and pained expressions from both persons mentioned.

-------

Japanese classes had the teachers change with the subjects, but the
classroom remain the same. The exceptions being PE and Home Ec.

Whatever the case, now that he was a little over six feet tall, Greylle was
relatively happy that he could stretch his legs from being cramped at a
little desk.

Unfortunately, this being his first day, the crowds had wanted to see
exactly what the "gaijin tarento" (foreign talent) had.

Which was tricky. Here he was supposed to be the Heir Of Martial Arts
Baseball, and he hadn't played baseball in a very long time. All he had
going for him was some martial arts training from valkyries and a few
decades as a Ranma stand-in, the increased strength and toughness that came
from being a dragon in human form, and some minor spellcasting abilities as
a cleric. Preparing a few spells, he'd thought he'd need the help.

First he'd done pitching.

Naturally, he'd had time to think about this and come up with special
manuever names which had to be spoken before unleashing them. When in Rome
and all. So the "Dragon Thunder Pitch" had been a fastball, the "Dragon
Spiral Dance" had been his double-curve pitch, his rolling slide was now
dubbed the "Earth Dragon Wave" and so on. Incorporating dragons into
baseball. For now at least.

His fastball had caused the catcher to slam into the backstop, leaving
flaming furrows where his feet had dragged from the force of impact. Greylle
had then done a curve ball, a slider, and a double curve. Nothing special,
though the double curve got some strange looks.

Then had come batting. Draconic strength was sufficient that the baseball
was now missing and presumed in geosynch orbit. One of the others, a
grounder, was buried far enough that there was talk of getting a backhoe.
Overall, a tentative success.

Preoccupied, Greylle never noticed the guys in the trenchcoats and
sunglasses in the bleachers.

-------

The mercenary middle Tendo daughter walked back to her classroom in deep
thought, fitting all the pieces she'd just observed together.

Nabiki had smirked and sat down to watch this "practice" when actually it
was just everyone and their classmates wanting to see exactly how good the
foreign talent was. Martial Arts Baseball? Yeah right!

Nabiki's eyes had doubled in size and her jaw had dropped quite early in the
demonstration.

When the boy had announced "Dragon Thunder Pitch" she could have *sworn*,
just like out of some sentai sports manga, that the foreign boy had been
framed by a glowing blue-white dragon. The pitch had seen the dragon
streaking across diamond, resolving into the ball just before it slammed
into Honda's catcher's mitt. One of the guys in a trenchcoat had been
pointing some kind of radar gun gadget, and Nabiki had noticed the guy had
suddenly keeled over on reading the display.

The "Dragon Spiral Dance" had been a pitch that had impossibly followed an
"S" shape. The list had gone on for a good portion of the period, almost as
if he was making things up as he went along. There had been strange pitches,
batting techniques, base-stealing as a martial art, and other things that
had occurred too fast for Nabiki to observe properly.

The Baseball Coach had gone from "Damn gaijin infesting the school isn't
going to be on Furinkan's team" to "Isn't life a beautiful thing now that
we're going to beat the snot out of the other schools" after the first
fifteen minutes.

Nabiki kept track of a lot of things. One of which had been that prior to
this little demonstration there had been muttering about cheating, or that
Akane couldn't be given over to some gaijin no matter what the rules, or
that Kuno had finally been hoisted by his own petard. Now it was how neat it
was that there was that they had a future baseball star attending Furinkan
(which would increase the school's reputation), or that Akane made such a
lovely couple with Shard-san (which caused Akane to fall off her seat in the
bleachers and glare at her friend Yuka), or that Kuno had finally been hoist
by his own petard.

Actually, just beating the snot out of Kuno had assured some popularity to
the new student.

Right after class, a group of the Horde had come to Akane and told the
puzzled young Tendo that now that she was spoken for and had a decent
boyfriend they'd be leaving her alone. Akane had begun protesting that she
was *not* going out with the boy. She was *not* his girlfriend. Nabiki had
taken a moment to whisper into Akane's ear that if she convinced this group
she'd have to go back to the morning melee.

Akane was still standing out in the field wrestling with this moral dilemma
as far as Nabiki knew.

Nabiki let herself into her classroom, still deep in thought. She was
wrestling with several decisions, quite aware that her own future could
hinge on making The Right Choice.

------

Ripples went out from a single change. Some big, some small.

Somewhere in China, a ripple in the fabric of reality went through a place
known as Jusenkyo, which had more than its own share of chaos to begin with.

"Come on boy! I won't go easy on you!"

"Like you ever do!"

"Oh sirs, you have not let me finish my Terrible Tragic Story!"

"Oy Toh Shoh!"

*Legsweep* *SPLASH!*

"Hey, Pop, are we done yet?"

*Burble!* *SPLOOSH!* "BrreeeAAWWWWW!"

"What the hell is THAT?!"

"BreeeeAW!" *THUNK!*

"Aaaaaaa!" *Sploosh!*

-------

Greylle looked over his apartment, then reached out with one hand to put a
palm flat against one wall. Stretching his arms out, he then touched the
opposite wall with his other hand.

Conclusion: dinky. A little over five feet wide. If he laid on the floor and
put his feet against the one wall, then stretched out, he wouldn't be able
to extend his arms fully above his head. Maybe seven feet there.

Bathroom was common to a room next door, someone else's room. Whoever it was
wasn't home apparently.

The closet was one of the walls, which slid open revealing two shelves.

Unfurnished. Which meant that he had to get a futon and everything else he'd
need on this mission, since he was stuck here for a lifetime. Which brought
him to finances. Income was...

nonexistent?!

How was he supposed to eat or anything? Oh. Yeah. IF this worked.

"Create Food & Water," he cast. Doing the rhymes and gestures was better,
more controlled, and certainly classier. He just needed to see if he had
clerical spells.

A cloud formed, then dispersed, leaving a pile of rice and two pickles. Also
some wet floor.

"Make note. When casting spells, have containers ready." Greylle sighed and
added paper towels to the shopping list.

========

as it states above, this was never intended as a fic, just an epilogue to
ASD. However, i'd written enough for two chapters by the time i stopped...
arrgghh.

Setup: Akane has been harrassed by Kuno for a couple of months, but the stuf
only hit the fan and the morning battles had been going for less than a week
when she's "defeated". Greylle, as you know, intensely dislikes Akane Tendo
for a number of reasons. Therefore he's setting himself up to fail the
mission and then go on to find some other place where he can set up shop and
not be bothered by her or any of the other Nerimians (Nerimites?
Nerima-jin?) At least, that's his plan.

Odd how his plans rarely work out, isn't it?

==========


Retake, Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: Ideas contributed by Ed Becerra, White Pheonix, Takahashi
Rumiko, Game Freak, Jozo Mutsuki, Darts/Artmic, Masaki Kajishima, Akiko
Furuya


--------

Following his failure in his Fourth Labor, Greylle had been stripped of
several Aspects or past lives if you wanted a descriptive but not entirely
accurate brief.

Which left his new Core Identity here retaking a test.

That Core was, by fitting into the Rules of Aramar and various "nudges" from
various factors, an Aramarian silver dragon of the "young adult" category.
Also due to events beyond his control, he was a cleric of (in roughly the
order of their influence on his spells) Bast, Hephaestus, Toltiir, and Jared
Saotome (god of crossovers). He had trained as a gadgeteer under Hephaestus,
gone through Valkyrie boot camp, and an operative of the Rival Relief
Office - a group of transdimensional misfits and odd ducks who basically
tried to do jobs that they were underpowered for by cleverness, pluck, and
scavenging anything useful they could on their travels.

After a week of trying to fit into life in a Japanese High School, he'd come
to one conclusion.

Though he loved Japan as a home-away-from-home in many respects, and admired
their politeness and work ethic and ability to pull together: the Japanese
were insane. Especially in Nerima.

Rather more useful observations had occurred from trial spellcasting. AD&D
magic was not quite as workable as it was in D&D style universes. In fact,
every spell he'd worked in that fashion had turned out to have bizarre side
effects. Experimentation had revealed that this was closer to Slayers, which
made him a primarily White Mage. Close but not quite. There were also still
side-effects, but not as bizarre or as powerful as when trying to cast
typical clerical spells.

He was also not able to get a job as it required the permission of his
school, which required very special and extenuating circumstances. While
Greylle thought this qualified, the administration apparently did not.

It further appeared that the Giants couldn't sign him for a contract until
*after* he'd either graduated or married (something his parents had
apparently insisted on.) So, most likely, he'd be here in the Furinkan area
for another two years and subsisting on what he could conjure up as neither
these "parents" nor the "Giants" had taken into account food and extras.
Buying a few bowls, a futon, soap, towels, and a change of wardrobe had
exhausted the funds he'd brought with him. Unfortunately his Universal
Credit Card was missing. Figured.

With the bizarre side effects, he'd only been able to determine a few
things. This *was* a crossover universe of some sort, or at least there were
other elements besides being a straight Ranma universe. What those were, he
had no idea, as every cat within Tokyo had seemed to be drawn straight to
his apartment by the divination. An augury had produced less results, except
that one of the trees visible from his window was covered in sakura
blossoms. Since it was not a sakura tree, this was a bit odd. Even for
Nerima.

The mark of a Rival Relief Office operative, more than any other single
factor, was that they tended to accumulate little gadgets and doohickeys.
Where an agent of the Goddess Relief Office or the Earth Assistance Hotline
had raw power and a connection to Yggdrasil, the RRO had the Barely Adequate
Force and whatever personal resources they'd managed to accumulate. With
spells uncertain, his now typical draconic talents available but likely to
cause a Godzilla alert if he changed shape to access them, and *no* allies,
this meant he was stuck with whatever oddiments had been left in his pack.

A minor computer, without scan capabilities, about the size of a Game Boy.
Something that looked like a rolled up electric blanket but was actually a
parts fabricator. The six pseudo-pokeballs had gotten his hopes up until
he'd found they were empty. Pity. A cute animal mascot would have done
wonders for his popularity as well as providing him someone to talk to who
had a chance of understanding this crap.

A Triax cyborg repair kit. A holodisc containing schematics on 24 common
Droid types from a Star Wars universe. A book on Elven Mating Rituals that
covered four racial subtypes and three major planes that he had never seen
before. Four "Otome Kairo" that clearly were within a few simple steps of
being completed? Three magic bracers that he'd picked up in that odd AD&D
sort of world where he'd picked up those Djinni bracers that had transformed
Kasumi into a sort of Djinn and Shampoo into a Marid. No telling what these
would do without more extensive study.

A sonic screwdriver and his #3 toolkit (brief happy dance). Three changes of
clothing, also a baseball uniform and a... speedo?! That *had* to have been
from Urd. Something that looked like a 4-dimensional backscratcher that he
couldn't remember picking up anywhere. A small brazier, mirror, incense
holder, three vials of holy water, and a set of common ofuda.

There wasn't much he could do for the first week. School and trying to make
sense of the damn kanji, as well as trying to practice his baseball skills,
ate up the time.

But he thought he was beginning to get things to take shape.

-------

"Well, Akane? It's been a week. That's how long Kuno had with his horde to
come after you."

Akane winced. Nabiki had been waiting for her after school daily since the
gaijin's arrival. Joy. "Well, what, Nabiki?"

"Still think the big bad gaijin is gonna try to 'claim his prize'?"

"No," admitted Akane. The jock had actually been very polite to her in his
faltering Japanese. He'd also done some very strange things. Whenever his
path crossed Akane's, she'd noticed that he was checking out the exits
nervously. And if her temper began to show, he *really* got nervous and
started edging for one of those exits.

"So. He's tall, he's handsome, he's gonna be rich as a pro baseball player,
he's polite, he got your morning horde of hentai to lay off. Heck, even
*Kuno* is laying off him. Something about not wanting to hurt the Giants'
future star outfielder." Nabiki knew better, that Kuno's attack on the
player had brought enough high powered lawyers that even the Kuno fortune
could have dwindled to the point where you could hide it in a teacup, but
baiting her sister was *so* enjoyable.

Akane's eyes narrowed. "I offered to spar. He turned me down!"

"Yeah, I heard. He doesn't like to hurt people and he's feeling guilty about
that mess on his first day." Nabiki shrugged. She was thinking of making a
play for the boy herself. Handsome, exotic, muscular, and potentially rich
was awfully attractive. Still, family was important and she wanted to make
sure Akane was ready to go back to having Kuno and Company after her.
"Still, if you wanted to try to get him to that, he *did* defeat you in
combat. Per Kuno's rules, he has to date you if you insist."

"Why would I do that?!" Akane actually snarled for a moment at her sister.

"Because, dear sister, you can then dictate the terms of your date.
Including going out and sparring if you so chose." Nabiki watched the idea
penetrate. "He's American and barely speaks the language, so he has no way
of telling what a typical *Japanese* date is."

Akane stopped. "You think I'd trick some boy to *date* him?"

"No, to spar with a boy who is obviously intimidated by you," responded
Nabiki. She'd been observing Shard-san herself. Speculation that he was gay
was thrown out by the way his eyes had bugged out during the little incident
when Megumi had "accidently" "popped her top" in gym. Operating theory among
the more gossip-prone members of the school, based on this and similar
incidents and perusal of his student files, was that he was shy. As
impossible as that was to believe of an American. "Despite being in love
with you." Actually there was no evidence in the slightest of this. Fear,
yes. And many wondered what Akane had said or done that had intimidated the
gaijin. Nabiki knew from quizzing Akane that Akane didn't know.

Akane was about to rebuke that theory when her eyes widened. The way he
edged away from her. The way he flinched whenever she raised her voice. The
way he always made a point of being over polite when speaking to her. He
*was* intimidated by her. But why?

The youngest Tendo clenched a fist. Obviously it had to be *Kuno*. He'd
either said or done something, and now she had a reputation stretching clear
to the United States! And now he...

Nabiki was immediately aware when Akane stopped walking and just stared off
into space, and wondered what was going on. Akane knew she was just teasing,
Nabiki did it all the time.

Akane's thoughts swirled. Love? Someone felt for her what she felt for
Doctor Tofu? Not like the boys around her who just wanted to beat her?
Things were clicking into place. Of course, Akane had a few strange concepts
about love. Her main example for how guys acted around women they loved was
how Doctor Tofu behaved around Kasumi, so this was quite understandable.

"Well, at least it's Saturday," said Nabiki as her sister began slowly
walking again. "So we've got half a day after school, and all day tomorrow.
Though the forecast is for rain most of tomorrow. Figures it'd be a day off,
eh, Akane?"

"Yeah," said Akane, not really paying attention.

-------

"HEY! STOP!"

Greylle grimaced and stopped. ~Where the hell is Ranma? Isn't he supposed to
be here and he can take Akane and I can get the blazes *out* of Nerima and
away from all these violent morons?~

Akane took a few moments to examine the boy, using interpretations supplied
by Nabiki. Then smiled at the idea. So the big bad Amerikajin was in *love*
and she made him nervous? Well, maybe it would at least take her mind of off
her current failures with Doctor Tofu. Actually, this was rather like Doctor
Tofu around Kasumi. Flattering, even if she didn't really have any interest
in the fellow. Still, for getting rid of that morning problem, she felt she
owed him something. A little. Tiny miniscule amount.

Grey decided this was nerve wracking to say the least. Akane was *staring*
at him. Was this it? She would go into her bloodthirsty berserker attack
mode and do her best "squish the male" routine? If she *did*, he'd consider
it a lost effort and abandon ship. Or at least this ward. Zoom. Though he'd
feel a lot better if Ranma had shown up. In a way he was actually hoping it
*was* the case. He didn't like to fail, but he also didn't like much about
this current scenario.

Akane put together what she knew of the gaijin, in this new light. Compared
to any number of the members of the Hentai Horde, this guy was nearly a
knight in shining armor. And if she *did* go out with him, it would keep the
Horde from reforming. Taking a deep breath, Akane prepared to do something
she'd never done before.

He *knew* it. She had taken a deep breath and started striding forward,
looking *very* determined. Now she'd pay him back a thousandfold for his
knocking her out last week. Either that or some imagined slight. This *was*
Akane, after all.

Akane checked out the nervous looking boy. "So, Shard-san, have you had
dinner yet?"

-----

Soun rustled his newspaper, apparently absorbed in the details of the sports
page.

Nabiki, however, had eschewed subtle to wait by the door. She hadn't lied to
Akane, exactly. She just *had* to see Akane come in. For one thing, she
needed a progress report, and how badly the gaijin had been beaten. Then she
could help nurse the poor fellow back to health, thereby setting her up for
his gratitude. Nabiki felt she could parlay that into either a relationship
or possibly set herself up as his manager in time.

Kasumi, likewise, had decided to wait by the door. Her poor excessively
violent but nice little sister was finally outgrowing the "beat the world
into submission" stage and had gone out on a date! Now if she could just get
Nabiki out of her "mine, mine, mine" stage.

Akane opened the door, saw her two sisters, and very nearly turned around
and exited her own home.

"Come on, Akane, details!" Nabiki wanted to know which hospital the poor
gaijin was in, and how long he'd be in Intensive Care. Akane + date + any
guy = squish.

"Greylle was a perfect gentleman," grumbled Akane. "Didn't insult me.
Listened to me. Didn't stare at my chest or talk down to me. Excepting for
his poor Japanese it went perfectly."

"And this is wrong in what way?" Nabiki smirked.

"Oh dear," fretted Kasumi. It had sounded to *her* as if Akane had wanted
her date to do something quite improper. In a way this was good, as it at
least proved Akane wasn't a lesbian. Still, she was only sixteen.

Akane frowned. All it would have taken was one improper action, and she
would have felt perfectly justified in challenging him to a fight and
pounding the crap out of him. Then he'd leave her alone, giving up his
schoolboy crush, and she could get on with trying to get Doctor Tofu to
notice her. He hadn't even taken liberties with his eyes. "He didn't even
*try* to be a pervert. Rrrrrrrr."

Soun twitched from behind his paper, putting things together in the manner
of a father hearing this sort of thing from his youngest daughter.

Nabiki put things together. Akane had a stubborn streak, therefore she
wouldn't quit just because she couldn't bring sparring up on the first
date's menu. "So when's the next date?"

"We're going ice skating tomorrow evening. He says he's never done that, so
when he starts slipping and grabs onto me," Akane clenched her fist. A
perfect plan. Nothing could go wrong.

Kasumi twitched slightly. "...oh my..." It sounded as if Akane had switched
from pounding boys for being perverts to being somewhat of a pervert
herself. It was nice that her sexuality had finally made itself known, but
still this was most improper. "You're not going to go all the way are you?"

Akane winked at her older sister. "Don't worry, Kasumi. I know what I'm
doing." Of course she wouldn't pound the boy *that* hard. Just enough that
he'd give up.

"Oh dear," Kasumi wondered if she should get the formal teaset out. Or maybe
get a packet of "Cupid Latex" for her youngest sister. Maybe it was just a
phase she was going through?

--------

Greylle went back to the small (he'd seen bigger utility closets) apartment
he had. He was puzzled.

Akane hadn't once hit him. She hadn't insulted him. She'd gotten angry a
couple of times, and he was completely clueless as to the *why* as to the
whole thing.

This was odd.

He'd seen a few (very few) timelines where Akane Tendo was neither a tomboy
nor prone to flashes of overwhelming violence. He'd seen a few more
timelines where she was a misoandric (male-hating) psychopath. Those,
however, were the two far ends. And frankly, he'd had more than enough of
Ranma timelines within the first year of his exploring such things. Watching
the same thing, or subtle variants, over and over again had been both boring
and somewhat nauseating.

Toltiir didn't much care for Akane, her sense of humor wasn't sufficient for
his purposes. Greylle, on the other hand, didn't like Akane Tendo in the
slightest. This was hardly the biggest difference between the two, but it
was one of many.

So, he was left contemplating the Laws Of Mainline Ranma Universes and
considering how to use them to get out of his current situation. They
weren't official laws, written in stone, but they were observed anyway and
might as well have been such. He hadn't memorized the Big Book Of Ranma
Universe Rules, but he remembered some of them. #16 "The Favored Fiancee can
break off the engagement, destroy tender moments (Sakura mocchi, Akane gets
a bad cut, post hypnotic dim sum, etc) and act like a psychotic, but she
will always be right and not have to suffer the consequences of her own
actions because by being the Favored Fiancee she is by nature Innocent."

Nope, he didn't like *that* rule at all.

Of course, he wasn't supposed to *be* Ranma here so he didn't have to put up
with that nonsense.

Hmmm. Which brought up another problem.

He was, by core nature, an Aramarian dragon. Everything in Aramar, or at
least nearly so, was covered by volumes and volumes of Rules. With
everything that had been happening, Greylle hadn't been able to read any of
these volumes of Rules, so he wasn't as familiar with all the details except
a few that he'd had slapped in his face recently.

As a male teenage dragon, basically he was lacking in the lust department.
Male dragons were triggered out of their usually mellow state by the scent
of a female who was ready to do *it*. Since there were no female dragons
nearby, Greylle decided he was safe from *that*. (Was that ominous thunder?
Surely not.)

Of more consequence was the need to return to his natural form occasionally.
To feed and drink and sleep and recharge his natural magic more thoroughly
and efficiently. Since transforming into a 52 foot long dragon in the middle
of Nerima Japan was likely to bring out the Anti-Godzilla Forces, that meant
taking a "training trip" into the mountains. Maybe on Sunday.

Hmmm. More thunder. He needed to get indoors.

----------

"Shampoo, you may have won the Tournament, but I will get even with you."

"Bring it on, Lufa. I am quite ready to... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

"Such childish tactics, Shampoo. Now face the terror of... AAAHHHHHH!!!!"

"BREEEEAAWWWWW!"

*WHAM!* "Don't just stand there! Run! Run for your lives!"

Shampoo slipped into unconsciousness from the blow to her head, her last
sight being of the redhaired girl who had struck her while trying to rescue
her from that THING.

"BREEEAWWWWWW!"

----------

"What's the matter, Soun?"

Soun Tendo seated himself in his usual place and looked at the bartender.
"Sake, Shiro. Bring the bottle."

Shiro did and waited for Soun Tendo to get to the point. He'd seen Soun
bawling his eyes out, usually over something silly, or some other extreme of
emotion regularly. Soun looking merely mildly upset meant something was up.

"My youngest daughter is trying to get some gaijin in the sack."

Shiro almost fell over. "The lesbian?!" Making a warding gesture at Soun's
glare, he shrugged an apology. "Hey, you know the stories as well as I do.
'I hate boys' at *her* age usually means she either really really likes boys
or is contemplating an 'alternate lifestyle'."

Soun nodded. That had perhaps been the only good thing to come out of this
little problem. He knew his little girl wasn't actually a man-hater after
all. "She not only asked this boy out, but she was talking about how
disappointed she was that he wouldn't be a pervert with her."

Shiro nodded. "Okay. Well, at least this boy's got some self-control."

"Damn gaijin, the Tendo family line is pure," began Soun.

"So what's this gaijin's name?" Shiro didn't want to listen to Soun ranting
for hours about gaijin or the purity of his racial line.

"Akane said something like 'Grail' I think." Soun glared at his bottle of
sake briefly. "When I catch him..."

"Greylle? Greylle Shard?"

Soun and Shiro looked over at this third figure.

"That might be so," agreed Soun.

"Haruhiko," introduced the third figure. He then went on to explain that the
Giants had brought this boy over to try and lock him in as a baseball
player.

Soun stopped bawling about "damn gaijin" when he put together foreign talent
with baseball. That was a little different, as pro baseball players such as
"Randy Bass" were tolerable. Though obviously not as son-in-laws. Then the
money was mentioned.

Soun stopped crying altogether. Genma hadn't been heard from in years, so he
wasn't a concern at present. Neither had (thankfully) the Chardin group.

Maybe his daughter's happiness should take precedence over his old fashioned
ideas of racial purity. Though Akane was the Tendo Heir, and one of his
other daughters might well be better for the match. Hmmmm. How to arrange it
though?

Shiro and Haruhiko wondered if Soun had meant to speak all that out loud.
Well, as long as he was going to ask.

-------

Greylle sneezed and felt a chill. Best to get indoors before it rained.

-------

Harry studied the fellow from a distance and sent a quick report back to
Pungo.

:Dragon. Young one. Obviously well practiced to being in human form.
Primarily a White Mage, though very clumsy and not guarding well against
spell side effects.:

The decision now was to confront the Mage or not. Harry had sufficient power
that the dragon would die if it was a threat. Dragons were tough, tricky,
had very keen senses, could fly, breathe flame, and had those claws and jaws
and natural armor. Adolescents were just beginning to come into their power,
and being in human form reduced or removed most of those talents. So killing
the dragon wasn't a big deal, IF it were necessary.

Just that it was IN human form indicated that it was inclined to keeping a
low profile. Though to be sure, Harry decided what was needed was some
confrontation. A low level summoned monster ought to reveal what the dragon
was up to.

---------

Ignoring the feeling of being watched, mainly because he couldn't do jack
about it, Greylle went up and worked on his current project.

Constructing a mini-fusion reactor had been difficult. Once *that* had been
done, it was easy enough to build a few other things.

Records had been checked. There *had* been a group known as the "Sailor
Senshi" in the Azabu Juuban/10th District of Tokyo. They had vanished last
year. More records translated for him had revealed the usual basic plot of
the first season of Sailor Moon.

There were some missing students since a period of about six months prior to
when he had shown up. A few stories and blurred pictures of a *new* menace,
which was the usual buxom female shape but animorphs, and that was it. No
Doom Tree that he could detect.

There being a need for the Senshi, but a big mystery with the Senshi,
Greylle could only come up with one basic plan. He couldn't get away and
investigate as is. Nor could he fill the role of the Senshi by himself. When
he was rejected by Akane and Ranma was her fiance (if someone had to be
stuck with her, better that it was someone who could survive her) he could
investigate *then*. Clerical abilities might make up for Sailor Moon's
absence, and his breath weapon could fill in for Mercury's cold attacks,
sort of. Later. Right now he couldn't.

So what was needed was a *substitute* Senshi.

Which was what he was slowly building. Marionette technology combined with a
little tech-wizardry. He couldn't build a Silver Millenium Crystal or
transformation pen. Typical magic attacks - not possible without a lot more
research. So he was building a Sailor Marionette that worked a little
different from the human Senshi. The first unit was an ersatz Mercury.

That in the last Labor he'd had an unrequited crush on Ami Mizuno did not
enter into this decision at all. Greylle told himself this repeatedly and
was beginning to convince himself.

Ice beams, concealing fogs, and magical disguise fields were *not* possible.
With what he could design and build here without lots of R&D at least. On
the other hand he *could* add a suit of fibers that would do a nice job of
cloaking the android, and a suite of battle sensors to give extremely
attentuated senses, and an internally based force field mechanism to add a
measure of protection.

Though there'd be another problem, he didn't have room for a nanotank to do
the skin and soft tissues up properly. How he'd manage *that* was another
problem for another week.

At least. Camping trip, homework, school, and now a part-time job (an
Import/Export company that could use a fluent English speaker) that he had
to keep secret from the school. Time? What time?

------

It had started out innocently enough.

Greylle had told Akane about his camping trip. Needed to stretch after his
teeny tiny apartment, get away from the city for a brief time, fresh air and
all that, and practice the more powerful moves of his martial arts away from
where people and property could get hurt. He had told her simply because he
didn't want her making any plans like another date. (He was still puzzled as
to *why* she wanted to date him. Didn't she hate boys? And where the blazes
was Ranma?! Though if Ryouga showed up, he thought the two would be a better
match.)

Akane, trying to make sense of Greylle's patchwork Japanese, particularly
what a "shoebox apartment" was, told Yuka and Sayuri. Then mentioned it to
Nabiki.

Yuka told Hitomi about the gaijin asking Akane to watch his apartment while
he was away.

Sayuri told Yukie about how the baseball player had offered to take Akane up
on a camping trip to teach her special manuevers (wink wink, nudge nudge,
say no more).

Hitomi told Asako about how Akane's boyfriend was planning on spending the
weekend with her in his apartment.

Nabiki confronted Greylle about it, asked a few questions, then started
selling the truth to those who knew what was going on with the usual gossip.

Asako told Hiroshi about how Greylle was going to tie up Akane's weekend.

Hiroshi told Daisuke about how the gaijin baseball player was going to tie
Akane up over the weekend in his apartment and then do... and then some...
and THEN. Daisuke openly doubted that Akane would go along with that sort of
thing, but he hoped that someone could get pictures.

Yukie told Sakura about how Akane was taking her boyfriend up on a martial
arts training trip into the mountains.

Sakura asked Akane if she had enough bug spray. When Akane asked why, Sakura
filled Akane in on the details. At which point Akane shouted to the class
that didn't they have better things to do with their time and that none of
this was true anyway. Since class had been in session at the time, this
resulted in Akane standing in the hall with a bucket of water. While there,
Akane decided that maybe that some of this was accurate and Greylle had
actually been asking her if she wanted to practice martial arts on a
training trip.

Akane leaned back against the wall and sighed. At last, a boy who took her
seriously as a martial artist and wasn't a pervert. Too bad her heart
belonged to Doctor Tofu.

Meanwhile, Nabiki had sold the planned route and camping area to half her
class. Kuno was standing in the hall after standing up in class to declaim
the incipient deflowering of the "pure and tidy" Akane.

Which, of course, started yet another wave of gossip and innuendo.

Also meanwhile, Mitsuki was telling her friends about Akane's plans to elope
with Greylle-san over the weekend.

Greylle wondered why everyone was whispering and shooting looks his way.
Must be some Japanese thing. And why had Akane been sent out into the
hallway? She'd gotten upset about something and yelled, but that has been
kind of excessive. Now if she'd pulled out a mallet, that'd be different.

Kuno raced down stairs to confront Akane in the hallway. "Akane! How can you
have given the flower of your womanhood to anyone but myself!"

This was followed by Kuno flying outside the window, fortunately breaking
his fall by landing on a visiting policeman. Whose partner was quite unhappy
about this suicidal attack on an officer of the law when all they had been
here for was to investigate reports of crazed martial artists destroying Mrs
Yamani's shrubbery. Tatewaki Kuno was disarmed and led away.

Those members of the school watching cheered for this phenomenal turn of
events, and many suggested to Akane that she ought to elope more often.

Akane repeatedly denied anything about an elopement, they were just friends,
and further stated something about how her elder sister had more in common
with the gaijin. This was just a momentary temptation on her part, to try to
get either Nabiki or Kasumi together with Greylle, especially Kasumi as that
would then leave Doctor Tofu open. She immediately discarded the idea, as
she couldn't really picture Kasumi ending up with someone so young. Nabiki
didn't have any feelings that didn't involve money.

Nobody realized what was going through Akane's head, or that they were all
talking too quickly for Greylle to understand any of this. Conclusions were
quickly reached.

That nobody had any reason to believe that Greylle had even met either of
Akane's sisters was beside the point. It was a juicy story, after all.

After class, Akemi congratulated Nabiki on her upcoming marriage to the
gaijin. Nabiki smiled, nodded, turned back to her factors, and wondered what
the heck was going on. She was supposed to be the one with the answers but
the questions kept changing and some of the rumors were getting quite
strange.

Kasumi got a call from Hiroko's mother, congratulating her on finally
getting out of the house though didn't she think that a gaijin was slightly
scandalous at least? Kasumi expressed her surprise at her impending marriage
to someone she hadn't met yet and wondered exactly what her father had done
this time.

Akane denied to everyone and anyone that she was eloping with the gaijin, it
was just a training journey that she'd been invited on, and that Greylle
would be a much better match for Nabiki.

Greylle was complimented by a group of boys on his having relationships with
all three of the Tendo girls at the same time, as well as questions about
what kind of foods he ate. Greylle wondered what the heck they were talking
about and didn't have to lie when he said he was getting a headache.

Kuno declaimed the evil sorcerer that had stolen the heart of Akane Tendo
and swore he would kill Greylle for the injustice of it all. As he was
currently in a room with several police officers, a psychiatrist, and a
representitive from the American Embassy, this qualified as perhaps the
single most stupid manuever in a life filled with such.

That night, Nabiki sold Akane the information of the fate of Tatewaki Kuno
(wraparound sleeves and medication figuring heavily into the equation) and
there was much rejoicing.

Greylle showed up at the Tendo household, and it turned out Akane had
forgotten completely about ice skating that night. It *did* give Soun and
Kasumi the chance to meet the young boy. That he looked like a young Terry
Bogard was well noted, by Kasumi at least, who was still operating under the
unfortunate assumption per the earlier phone call that her father had
engaged her to marry her youngest sister's boyfriend. While he was younger,
he didn't look boring at all.

Nabiki studied the young man speculatively as she tried to unravel the
mystery of how he felt about Akane. Pecuinary interests collided with the
fact that this boy seemed good for her sister, though Akane frequently
protested her lack of interest in same.

Akane took Greylle out, forgetting that she wanted to spar with him in her
joy over the prospect of a Kuno-less life.

Nabiki and Kasumi, for their own private reasons, and Nabiki's public
rationale that they needed more information on this boy who was dating
Akane, decided to investigate Greylle's apartment while Akane kept him busy.
Something that Nabiki had been planning to do ever since she'd discovered
the address in his student file and after today had even more reason to.

There is no recipe for chaos, she brings her own ingredients.

==========

okay, that's it for now. i _may_ eventually write more but i'm trying to get
back to some of my more pressing/older works that need to be
finished/continued.

-gregg

0 new messages