[Ranma/SM][FanFic] The Phoenix Prince Saga Book 1, Part 3, Chapter 3, Section 3
Linda Ward
Section Third: Ignition
As soon as classes were released for the day, both Rei and
Ranma could be found headed towards the park. No particular esoteric
reason behind the action. They were just two friends, who happened to
also be cousins, spending some time together. Nothing unusual about
that, right?
Well, nothing unusual if one did not realize the reason behind
their choice of destination.
The two had chosen the park because of the unlikelyhood of
anyone actually interfering with their training.
Normally, they most likely would have chosen to train at the
shrine. However, that particular day their mutual grandfather had
chosen to engage in some kind of ritualistic cleansing, and they
didn't wish to get in the way. Personally, Rei would have much
preferred to be at the shrine, but there was still that nagging task
that kept dragging itself to the forefront of her mind.
It was the day. Finally it was time.
Today, Ranma would burn.
**********
They reached the rather small grotto that had housed the weeks
earlier battle between Onna-Ranma and the other four members of the
Inner Senshi. That tiny fact, and the rather ironic additional one of
him rather awkwardly preparing to spar with the fiery Sailor Mars,
caused him to chuckle a bit, rather nervously.
Saotome Ranma didn't hit girls. It was an integral part of his
very being, of his personality. He didn't hit girls. It was something
that was NOT DONE. Or rather, it was something that should be avoided
at all costs. It wasn't that he didn't think girls could fight or
anything. After all, he turned into one, didn't he? No, the reason was
quite simply that Ranma Saotome was an egotistical, sexist bigot. It
wasn't his fault. It was just how he was raised. He didn't really have
anything to do with it. It was just a sad fact that his father was an
egotistical, sexist, larcenistic bigot who raised his son to be in his
image. Somehow, Ranma fortunately missed the larceny part, but he
definitely got large helpings of the other.
Not that he WOULDN'T fight girls. Rather it was that he didn't
like it. He would fight. He just wouldn't be happy about it.
Which meant that he wasn't happy about fighting, or even
sparring, with someone like Rei, or rather Sailor Mars, since Rei
wasn't all that spectacular as her mundane self. It wasn't so much
that she was a girl, though that definitely caused a good portion of
the distress, but rather that she was a girl who was RELATED to him.
And that meant that Nodoka would probably kill him if he hurt her.
Which meant that Ranma was very focused on her defense and not so
much on his own.
And this was Saotome Ranma. So, that wouldn't be so bad.
It was just that today was different.
It was just that Sailor Mars wasn't focusing on his defense so
much.
It was just... just...
Never mind what was said earlier.
It was bad.
**********
Rei pulled her guise of Sailor Mars about her. No fancy light
show, no yelling, no nudie show. Nothing like that. Just one moment
she was the shrine maiden, Hino Rei, and the next the pretty
sailor-suited soldier of love and justice, Sailor Mars.
Ranma just kind of stared. "Hey, didn't you say that when
you first changed there was a big light show and stuff?" He asked,
referring to a comment she had made once during their time on the
steeple.
Mars just watched him for a moment before deciding that he
was truly ignorant, not stupid. "Yeah, during the first time I
changed. I've learned a bit since then. Besides, how do you think I
manage to get around in a busy city like this without showing everyone
who I am with a fancy light and sound show? Hmmm?"
"But didn't you say the other girls still use the light show?"
"The other girls think it's neat. They all have their reasons.
Jupiter once said she liked the feel, the formality or something like
that. Mercury's just a closet exhibitionist. And Moon probably uses it
as a distraction."
"Ok, but what about the other one?"
"Other one?"
"Yeah, you only mentioned three. But you said there was four
others."
"Oh. Venus. She probably thinks its neat cause its magic.
She's one of those Society freaks."
"Society freaks?" Ranma deadpanned.
"Yeah. Society of Creative Anachronisms or something or other.
She's a reenactor. Though I've heard some people refer to her as a
'Stick-jock' though I really don't know what that is."
Ranma stared at Mars. Mars stared at Ranma. Finally they both
shrugged.
"Weird."
"Yeah, well, let's get to sparring shall we?"
Ranma gulped slightly, then settled himself and smirked. "I've
been waiting all day to hear that."
"You asked for it!" Mars replied, charging at him with a
nervous grin.
**********
They sparred for some time, the day progressing eventually
into night and their attacks lighting the Juuban skyline. Neither
giving, nor expecting much in the way of quarter from either side.
Ranma, for his part, was slowly loosing up and showing more of
his signature style. His blocks got flashier. His kicks and punches,
though still light, were much faster and unpredictable. He was finally
leaving the more traditional styles and advancing rapidly into the
esoteric realm of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.
Mars, on the other hand, was slowly growing from just tired to
out and out right exhausted. She wasn't exactly used to the speed,
skill, or power available to her as Sailor Mars being called upon and
actually used for such an extended period of time. It was an fatiguing
task that she had set for herself, and yet there was still something
about it that was unfinished.
It took her a moment to compose herself. Then she leap back
from the battle, leaving Ranma standing in the center with a look of
surprise on his face.
Perhaps he thought that she was asking for a break in the
battle. Perhaps he was trying to figure out what she was doing. Perhaps
he just didn't know the truth behind her actions.
Whatever it was, he didn't move as, with tears streaking down
her delicate features, she yelled out three words followed by a battle
cry.
"Ranma! I'm sorry!" she screamed, through a throat hoarse with
tears. "Fire... Soul... BIRD!!"
The powerful attack based upon the Sacred Bird that Ranma, no,
Shima had trained her in so long ago smashed into the raven-haired man
who stood in the center of the clearing staring up at her with eyes
full of betrayal.
She collapsed to her knees at the first sounds of his piercing
screams.
Sobs wracked her form and tears poured down her face. Nothing
like Usagi's waterworks, but simple honest tears of a cousin who had
just killed the man who was possibly the reincarnation of her brother
who was dead these many years gone and past.
How could he ever forgive her betrayal?
**********
Across Tokyo, in the nearby district of Nerima, the youngest
daughter of Tendo Soun awoke with a scream. Tears trickled down her
soft face at the nightmare. It had seemed so real. Her dearest Ranma
encased in flames and her helpless to protect him, having given her
sworn word not to interfere. The tears just came faster and the sobs
harder knowing that at least part of the terrifying dream was true in
that she couldn't be with Ranma. The only consolation she could find
'to give herself was the fact that it was just a nightmare, and that
Ranma was probably safe at his home, sleeping in his bed with no
worries at all.
It was for the best that she never learned the true horror of
that out of body experience. That alone would have destroyed Tendo
Akane then and there.
**********
Ranma screamed as the Fire seared away the impurities of flesh
from his soul and bore it away.
**********
He moved down the marble hall, his golden armor casting odd
reflections off of the wall, as it seemed to glow under its own power.
It wasn't that he walked down the hall. No, nothing so simple as that.
He was the living embodiment of confidence. He was a Warrior and
Warleader of great renown. He was Golden Death with a Firesword on
horseback. He was the Phoenix's Champion Among Mortals, his very
Prince. He was Shima of Mars. The Man who had Turned Down the Throne
of War for the Phoenix. All this and more was said in his stride. He
smirked at the few servants he saw in the hall. It only served to
enhance the image he was creating for himself as the newly returned
Phoenix Prince.
All of that was ruined by a young girl, barely even into her
womanhood, crashing headlong into his aureate chestplate and smearing
blood all over it.
Reacting purely out of instincts, he caught the girl, scooping
her up into his arms as he stooped down on one knee. He glared down at
her, fully intending to scold the foolish child. Then he recognized the
pained features as those of his younger sibling, Reiki. He shook his
head ruefully for a moment before she opened her eyes.
His sable braid slipped down over his shoulder as he smirked
down at her. Setting her back upon her feet, he straightened.
It was not to last. As soon as she could, she flung herself at
him, somehow managing to glomp his waist before he could react.
"Onii-san! You're here!" the girl cried, not even bothering to
attempt to stop the flow of blood down her face and onto her dress and
his armor.
"Yeah, seems like I am." 'Though sometimes I seriously wonder
why I even bother, with this kind of reception...' "Did you know you
were bleeding on your dress?" 'And my armor.'
As she didn't react, or release him, he scooped her up in his
arms and continued moving down the hall. "We should go and take care
of that, don't ya think?" 'As you obviously don't plan on doing it on
your own...' "Can't have the prettiest princess on Mars dying on us
now, can we?" 'The ONLY princess on Mars...' He rumbled as he moved
down the hall.
The 'prettiest princess on Mars' just chuckled and pinched at
her nose, before proceeding to smear even MORE blood on his armor.
"I'm not gonna die from a nose bleed, Shima-onii! I've gotten lots of
nose bleeds in training!"
"Training?!" 'What kind of idiot gave this klutz a weapon??'
"For what, Reiki-imoto?"
**********
The flames leapt and danced around the strange man in his
father's Hall, but Shima wasn't worried about that. He was much more
worried about the people that this strange golden man might harm.
So, he sat amidst the heat of the flames and pulled the
freezing cold aura that he had recently learned to create around him.
As he did he stared into the black, flaming orbs of the creature
before him.
For a long time, that was all that happened. Then he dropped
the aura and just sat there amidst the searing heat and smirked. The
being smiled back at a fellow soul.
"I am the Phoenix." The voice that emerged from the fiery
man's throat sounded like a child singing. "Every five hundred
years, I die and am again reborn. This has continued for eons of your
time. Always I have stayed away from your kind. Yet suddenly, I find
my existence interrupted. One of your kind, on the sphere called Earth,
a king by the name of Solomon sought to confine me within a vessel as
he had done to my fellow spirits so that he could draw from my powers
as he does from theirs. I alone am now free. As this assault was from
your kind, I come to your kind for justice. I seek one to be my
Champion Amongst Mortals. One of your kind who shall have the ability
to draw from me in his time of need. My Champion need not be of Royal
blood, but as my Champion, he shall be a true Prince. He shall be
known as the Phoenix Prince."
Shima stood from his seat and stepped more fully into the
Phoenix's flames.
"I shall go." His voice steady, firm.
"You? You are but a boy! There must still be much for you to
learn, is there not? Surely there is some other more worthy here, on
the Sphere of War?"
"Perhaps there is some other more worthy, but I'll take their
place. Your flames are hot and burn very brightly. I'd not have any
suffer when I could possibly take that risk in their stead. No, I
shall go."
"This is your true wish, mortal? Realize that you can never
go back once you have accepted. You can never return to what you are
now. The Fires shall burn you and change you, until perhaps not even
you yourself could recognize the result."
"That is not of matter, Phoenix. I cannot desert my people in
their hour of need. I shall not. I shall go with you, and so, preserve
them."
"Very well, mortal. Bid you your farewells, for in the morn, I
shall take you away to become the Phoenix Prince."
**********
"Amilia, is it not?" Shima asked, coming up behind the young
azure headed girl reading in the peaceful grotto. He had doffed his
armor in favor of a slightly more civilized ensemble of cloth of gold
with an embroidered symbol of the Phoenix on the back of his tunic.
She did not startle, as many others did. She merely looked up
at him and smiled her soft and gentle smile before answering quietly.
"Yes, Shima-sama. That is correct. You must be looking for my sister,
though. You can find her down that path there. She is probably
practicing." The girl answered, before returning her eyes to her
book. Surely such a handsome and obviously active man as the Phoenix
Prince would not bother to deign to speak with someone as quite and
bookish as her. Like every other man, he was most likely looking for
Akai. No one ever really wanted to be around Akai's shy twin sister.
"Actually," Shima replied, settling down at her side, a book
in his hand. "I wasn't." He held up the thin tome in his hand as
evidence. "I was just looking for a quite place to read, and you
looked like you'd be the perfect partner."
Amilia blushed at the compliment. She wasn't used to people
like Shima. But, nonetheless, she looked back up from her book and
smiled at him again. "T-t-thank you, Shima-sama... I would be
honored..."
"Don't bother with the sama stuff. I'm no grand high lord to
be called such."
"But you are the Phoenix Prince are you not?"
"I am. But I don't truly care much for titles, besides, you're
a Princess yourself if I remember right. So, you can call me just plain
Shima. I'm not gonna burst into flames or nothing if you do. At least
I don't think I will..." he stood up and spun around, leaving the book
sitting on the bench.
Amilia smiled again. "O-o-ok, Shima-s.. Shima."
He immediately burst into flames, much to Amilia's horror. He
just looked at his flaming self, then looked back up at her. Then he
shrugged. Causing her to be one very puzzled Mercurian Princess.
"Well, maybe I will burst into flames." He shrugged again,
then held out a hand. "Give me your hand, Amilia."
She just stared at the flaming palm being offered to her.
"Come on, Amilia-chan. I haven't got all day."
Tentatively, she reached out and clasped the burning appendage
after setting her book on the bench.
Pulling her to her feet and into his arms, he smirked down at
her. "Tell me something, Amilia. Have you ever flown before?"
She shook her head quickly. Her eyes round with surprise at
not having been burnt.
"Well, I guess there's always a first, isn't there?" He smirked
and with a great leap into the air, the pair soared away on broad wings
of flame.
**********
"You always this brutish, or you just practicing in order to
be brutish towards me in particular? Hmm, Firebrand?" Shima asked the
cobalt headed girl who was methodically destroying rather large chunks
of masonry as he leaned against the doorway.
In response, Akai stopped long enough to glare, then sent her
fist crashing into another brick.
"Geez, what's your problem, Firebrand?" He asked, pushing off
the door frame and walking into the room.
She pulled a pair of books out of her dogi, along with a small
burnt rose. He inspected the offerings and then looked back up at her
with a puzzled look on his face.
"So?"
"So?! So?! I found these in a grotto where I THOUGHT I left my
SISTER! I come back to tell her its time to come in for lunch, and what
do I find?"
"Hey! I made sure she ate lunch!" Shima interrupted
indignantly.
"THAT IS NOT THE POINT!! The point is my sister vanished and
its YOUR FAULT!" Akai roared in response, her face turning Martian
Red.
"So, I took your sister flying. What're you getting so upset
about? It's not like I've EVER seen anyone being nice to her before!"
"SO?! So, you involved MY sister in something so dangerous as
FLYING with a BOY??" Akai continued on her rampage, completely
oblivious to Shima's replies.
"Oh."
"Oh, WHAT?"
"You're jealous!"
"I'm WHAT?!"
"Jealous. Your shy, rather unpopular sister got to do something
that you didn't. You're jealous."
"I AM NOT!"
"You are too. Besides, I'm not a boy. I'm at least 6 years
older than you."
"I AM NOT AND YOU ARE TOO!"
"Interesting idea. Tell you what, how about you meet me in the
grotto and I'll take you out to dinner?"
Akai just stared at him.
**********
The dinner had been nice. A bit formal but nice. Now, they
were enjoying a rather leisurely walk through the rose gardens. Which
was also nice. Mainly because Akai wasn't being a brute.
She was actually quite beautiful. What with the way the
earthlight was reflecting off of her ivory complexion and that rather
nice silvery blue dress. In fact, he could seriously think that she
was his type of girl. A beautiful spitfire. A girl, no, a woman that
could keep up with him. Take his best shots and fire right back.
'What am I thinking?! Falling for one of my BABY sister's
friends?! By the Phoenix! She's just a child!'
Nearby, the mildly telepathic Minanoai hid in the bushes an
giggled at the rather loud thought.
He noticed. He just deigned to actually do anything to ruin
the moment.
**********
The royal ballroom. Nice. Wasn't exactly what he was expecting
though. Maybe he thought it was bigger.
Well, that was unexpected.
There, moving slowly around the marble floor was the blonde
heir to the Lunar Throne. Serenity-hime. Dancing with no partner to
no music.
That simply would not do.
Stepping over to her, Shima bowed deeply, as befitted her
status, despite the fact that he was technically her equal because
of his association with the Phoenix. Serenity-hime startled out of
her reverie at the sudden courtly interruption.
"Y-y-yes, Shima-san?" She asked, a delicate blush beginning
to color her cheeks.
"I noticed you in here dancing, Serenity-hime. Yet, I failed
to notice your partner."
"O-oh... is that all?"
"Of course not, Serenity-hime! It is a terrible thing that you
should have no partner, nor may I add, music which does befit your
graceful semblance!"
Serenity-hime blushed even deeper. "no one ever wants to dance
with me. I tend to trod heavily upon their toes."
"Then, I shall welcome any and all discomfort caused by your
most delicate feet if I should have the distinct pleasure of having
this dance with you, your highness?" Shima bowed again, offering out
his hand.
Serenity-hime giggled slightly, but took the out stretched
hand.
From somewhere, Shima produced a cassette player and turned it
on, causing a sweet waltz to waft into the air. With a smirk, he took
Serenity-hime's hands and the pair drifted off into a complex Lunar
Waltz.
**********
"Alright, Imoto. Let your consciousness flow into the Sacred
Fire here."
Reiki sat and stared at the fire. Then she stared some more.
Finally, she gave up.
"I can't, Oniisan! I just can't!"
"You can, Reiki-imoto. I believe in you. All you have to do is
relax. Trust the Flames. They will guide you as you learn to walk
through the Fire. In time, you will learn to guide them, as is your
rightful place as the Senshi of Fire." Shima smirked at his rather
frustrated little sister who was glaring at the Sacred Fire he had
taught her to build.
Reiki just growled.
Shima sighed slightly and shook his head.
"Listen. You want to be able to talk to me when I'm away,
don't you?" He asked.
Reiki frowned in puzzlement, but nodded her agreement with
the idea.
"Okay. Well, the only way that you are going to be able to
do that is by sending your thoughts through the Sacred Fire. That
way, no matter where I am, I can hear you."
Reiki nodded again, then sat down in sezia before the Sacred
Fire. She took a deep breath, let it out, then took in another and
closed her eyes. By the time she let out the second breath, she was
deep into a trance state.
She reached out gently with a tendril of thought towards the
Fire. In return, the Fire reached out and caressed her thought with a
gentle warmth. Shima had been right! The Fire would be her guide!
She smiled in the trance, and Shima just shook his head with a
grin. He knew she could do it, he just had to convince her that she
could.
**********
"Careful, Kina. Don't overextend yourself." Shima murmured
softly as he watched the younger girl sparring.
He winced as her body smacked hard into the mats. Her opponent,
a Jupiter Knight, snorted and walked off. Not even bothering to help
her up.
Shima stepped in then. He strode over, glaring at the back of
the departing Knight the entire time. Leaning down, he offered her a
hand and pulled her up. Finally getting her on her feet, he dusted off
her back.
"You okay, Kina-chan?"
"I'll be fine, Shima." She replied, staring wistfully at the
departing form.
Shima noticed the direction of her gaze. "Why are you staring
at him like that, Kina?"
"Because he's so good and handsome, and I can never even hope
to be that good." She sighed in reply.
"He's not that good." 'Or that handsome...' "Why do you think
you couldn't be at least as good as him, if not even better?"
"I can't learn. He's so fast and good, that I can never hope
to learn."
"Well, first off, he's an awful person. I mean, anyone with a
shred of decency in him would have helped anyone as pretty as you up.
Especially if he was the reason you were on the floor. Second, he's
not a particularly good fighter and he's an even worse teacher. You
can learn, Kina. I've seen you pick up things so fast, it makes my
head boggle. He just doesn't want to take the time to teach you."
"But he's the only one willing to teach me, Shima!" Kina
looked like she was about to cry.
"No. I'll teach you, Kina-chan."
"Y-y-you'll teach me? B-but you're the Phoenix Prince,
Shima!"
"That doesn't matter. You're my friend, Kina. And I won't let
you down."
"You're my friend? I don't have many friends. Only the girls.
You're the first boy I've ever been friends with. Does that make you
my boyfriend?"
Shima smirked. "I guess, Kina. I guess."
**********
"Hurry, girls! Hurry!" Shima roared from the point, his
Firesword cleaving the life from the Youma surrounding him as he
cleared a path for the five girls behind him.
At his side, Akai the firebrand sent gout after gout of hot
water blasting into the attacking creatures. To his other side, Kina
doomed the beasts to death with her electrifying attacks, willing to
die to help her 'old boyfriend', as she jokingly called Shima. Next to
Kina, Reiki incinerated fiends to the left and right. Over by Akai,
Minanoai was shooting down daemons overhead with the accuracy of a
trained sniper. In the center of their informal arrowhead formation,
Amilia used her computer to locate weak points and used her powers to
provide defensive shielding.
It would have been a great battle. One for the history books.
Only one problem. The person that they were fighting so hard to get to
was already dead with her beloved. It was over before it had even
really began.
One by one they fell, and were sent forward by Queen Serenity.
First, Kina fell, impaled upon a beast's claw, she took out more than
a hundred more with the explosive release of all of her powers at once.
Next Minanoai. A lucky hit knocked her off balance and she went down to
be trampled underfoot, but not before letting off the most powerful
Shower that anyone had seen. It was Amilia that was laid low next. A
flying daemon came down and picked her off the ground. Minutes later,
its and others' frozen carcasses came thudding down.
For a while, it looked as though they were going to win. Akai
and Reiki and Shima. All three fighting for each other. The Youma were
thinning faster and faster, until there were almost no more.
It was one of the last that got Akai. It came up behind her
and raked its claws down her back. She never even had a chance to
wreak her vengeance. Shima did that for her. With a wild, unforgiving
roar, he leapt into the fray, Reiki at his side. His Firesword left
huge swaths of destruction in his path, his fists and feet, glowing
with power, did no less. Finally, it seemed all were gone.
Shima made his way slowly back over to Akai's still form.
Unlike the other's she had not vanished. He knew why. It was because
only one could be sent from each royal family. He fell to his knees
and gathered Akai's cooling body to him as tears ran down his face.
"Phoenix! I call!" Shima screamed, his voice thin. "I have
need of your powers! Send Akai and I into the future! Find us a
place where we can be together and send us there!"
The flames were blinding. They leapt up and consumed Shima and
Akai, taking them away from Reiki and the moon forever.
**********
Back in the present, the flames finally charred a hole in the
ground and Ranma fell into the hole formed, a grinning skeleton of his
former self.
The loose dirt fell down upon him and hardened into glass as it
did.
**********
End Section Third
End Chapter Three
End Book One
Author's notes: Lots of little hints in here! And boy is this
chapter HUGE! I mean, THREE SECTIONS! Gosh. Anyways, this marks the
end of Book One. Which means that you have to wait for Book Two!
That's right! Book TWO! I've got 10 books and an epilogue planned
for the Saga. So, don't worry, more's on the way!
As for the Society mention, it's because quite a few SM fans
seem to be Society members. This was a bow in their direction. And to
those who know what a stick-jock is... MUHAHAHAHAHA! I have made Minako
into a stick-jock! If enough people like it, I'll write a side story
with Minako and Ranma/Shima at a Ren. Faire... Depends on the
response...
--
Look not for me in bright of day
Look not in dark of night
I am but a solitary figment
Alone created of your mind.
-
Siobhan Recca
The Cybernetic Ninja