[Ranma][FanFic] Featherbrite's Tale rewrite 1-2

[Gregg Sharp]

Featherbrite's Tale, the Bet. v 2.5
by Gregg Sharp based on Rumiko Takahashi's situations/char
CJ_Angel TM CJAngel (mentioned but does not appear)
other char TM Jack Chalker, JRR Tolkein, Pioneer, and
various other sources credited in the chapters they appear.
Otherwise standard disclaimers, limitations, substitutions
and refunds apply. Metro...@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/
1: A Nervous Child (ANC)

"Adventure? No thank you. They make one late for supper." -
B. Baggins

"I'm *not* stupid, I'm *not* expendable, I'm *not* going!" -
F. Baggins

---------------------------------------
A yattai sat in a forest clearing, with two small tents
nearby. Titania walked into the clearing, the Queen of
Faerie inspecting the area where a change was to be made.

She'd won the Bet, and while many of those present had
cried "cheat" (especially Loki, but he'd always been a poor
sport), Titania was not one that even the Norse god of
mischief wanted to cross without a lot better payback.

Titania smiled and watched invisibly as Ranma stirred,then
got up to go relieve himself. The child was feeling
particularly lonely and unhappy, having just left his best
friend Ucchan behind.

Now other bets were being exchanged. Who would Ranma end up
with? Nabiki? Ukyou? Akane? Kasumi? Shampoo? Oberon?
Vladimir? Madame Lao? Kodachi? There were even a few bets
being made on a Ryouga-Ranko match, which amused Titania no
end. There were wagers placed on how many ripples, on how
often things changed, and on the "happiness index" of the
whole group. One wagerer had even tried to place a bet on
how many suitors Ranma ended up with. Only one person had
bet that he ended up alone. Of course, you got excellent
odds that way.

Oh, and one of the planar Nabikis from a timeline that had
already collapsed was now working at the Rival Relief Office
as an Office Lady. Titania herself had been so amused that
she'd added pointed ears and pixie wings to the girl as a
"gift." Everyone was teasing her about how she was going to
make a wonderful tooth fairy.

Titania watched Ranma move off, and clicked the timeline
into a permanent mode. Now it was time to sit back and watch
to see what developed.
---------------------1981-----------------------------------
Ranma wandered from the camp. He wanted to go back and
visit Ucchan. Why had the other boy been running after him?
Pops said to forget about him, but he was Ucchan's buddy! It
really hurt to leave another friend behind.

Still, for whatever reason, they had the okonomiyaki cart,
so at least they were still eating well.

The tinkling of bells caught Ranma's attention. A tiny pink
glow, visible inside an enormous spider's web.

Ranma saw the huge and hideously black spider, and seemed
to split. One image was of a Ranma who ran back to his camp,
to later awaken and think it was all a nightmare. That Ranma
faded.

The other Ranma solidified and threw rocks at the big hairy
spider until it fell. A tree branch impacted the thing three
times until it was reduced to splattered bug bits. Ranma had
absolutely no idea what kind of spider it was, but anything
bigger than his head was not something he wanted crawling
around while he was asleep.

If he knew that this was actually a bog imp, he would
likely have been far more careful.

"Thank you," came a voice like chiming bells. "Could you
please free me, little boy?"

Ranma turned and stared at the butterfly caught there in
the web. Carefully he freed it, using another tree branch
push the sticky webs away from the creature. "What are you,
anyway?" It kinda looked like that pixie on the "Aura
Battler Dunbine" ads he'd seen.

"You call my kind yousei here, though my kind are called
faerie elsewhere. Thank you, son of Adam, my name in your
reckoning is Featherbrite."

"My pop's Genma." Ranma wasn't too sure what he was looking
at. Pink pastel wings that seemed a cross between a
butterfly and a dragonfly, the figure looked mainly like a
human woman, nude,with long pointed ears. There were other
differences, particularly with enormous (comparitively) long
eyes.

"Well, then, son of Genma. You have freed me, so ask me a
wish, and if it is within my power, I shall grant it."
Featherbrite nodded. There were Rules about this sort of
thing, and they had to be followed. Form was very important
to her tribe.

"You must not be very strong if a spider was gonna eat you.
What kinda wish?" Ranma sniffled. He still missed his buddy
Ucchan.

"True. My personal power rating is not impressive in the
manner of my kind." The six inch tall figure glided closer,
examining the child. "Wow, you've been through some serious
problems." There were aberrations in the child's aura she
had trouble interpreting.

"Can you grant a wish that I'm back home with my mother?"

"If I knew where your mother was, I might be able to take
you there." Featherbrite paused. "Uhm, why exactly are you
here, and not with your mother?"

Ranma gave his muddled explanation of why they were
travelling, that he was to learn and devote himself to the
martial arts.

"Isn't that...kinda limiting?" Featherbrite had no idea
about normal human childhoods, despite the number of
centuries she had been alive. It all just didn't seem right.
"If you focus only on martial arts, won't you be kind of
stuck for the times you're not fighting?"

"Dunno." Ranma hadn't thought about it that much.

"Well, then, have you decided what you want to wish for?"

"How about I wish you could be my friend?" Ranma held his
pinky up.

"You wish for me to be your friend?" The faerie blinked.
Well, certainly the child seemed to need one. It was an
unusual wish. Seeing the child nod in response, Featherbrite
smiled. "Deal."

"Umf," Ranma nodded once, solemnly, just like he'd seen his
father do.
----------------------1983-------------------------
Ranma had just turned seven, and Featherbrite was miffed at
Ranma's father. This was something that occurred on a
regular basis.

"I can't believe that man, honestly," she huffed, her
little bell-like voice breaking off into the same monologue
she usually had regarding the youth's father.

"Oh, come on, Brite. He just wants me to focus on the Art."
Ranma looked a little sadly at his present, though. The
wooden flute the diminuitive fairy had made for him was
smashed beyond even Featherbrite's ability to put it back
together.

"Ranma, I want to start teaching you some things beyond the
Art. Things that may not help you in a fight, but that will
help your life outside the match." Featherbrite didn't add
that this was also to take a large stick and forcibly insert
it in Genma's eye. While most faerie couldn't even begin to
understand moral behavior, they tended to tone some of it
down around human children.

With as few births as occurred among the faerie, children
of any kind were seen as a blessing most wondrous.

She'd been able to observe a lot more human behavior back
when Ranma had started attending school and thought she had
the basics down. Leaving Ranma for brief periods to spend a
lot of time in a human library had helped enormously, though
using faerie magic to decipher the text had been a bit
draining.

"Okay, I guess. Like a new game?"

"Yes," Featherbrite nodded happily. "A new game entirely.
If you stand in the middle of this ring, I will take you to
someplace new, where a second here is an hour there."
---------------1984---------------
Genma stared at what was becoming a usual sight. After two
years of this, he still had no rational explanation for some
of the odd stuff that happened around Ranma.

In this case, food. Here they were in the mountains of
Japan, near a monastery where the monks lived lives of
aesthetic hardship.

Genma's stomach grumbled as he looked at the small mound of
banana peels, apple cores, orange rinds, and other foods
that somehow the boy had managed to forage during the night.

He puzzled over the foreign words on the bottle, wondering
what the heck "Flintstones Chewables with Iron" was, and
where the boy had gotten THAT.

He'd wanted the boy to eat ONLY rice. It would toughen his
stomach and then Ranma would have a much more efficient
digestive system. So, he had to find out how Ranma was
getting this food, and stop it.

That and figure out why he kept getting the feeling that
someone was laughing at him.
---------------1986----------------
Genma looked over at where a ten year old child named Ranma
was reading some book and shook his head.

Ranma was a wimp. He, Genma Saotome, had failed. Failed
miserably to steer his son on the True Path of Martial
Righteousness.

The boy wouldn't steal. He wouldn't lie. He talked about a
Code of Honor. Where he got such strange ideas, Genma had no
idea. The Code Of Honor that Genma had taught him was what
one would expect of Anything Goes martial artists. Anything
Goes if it serves Genma's cause.

Ranma kept showing up with books and magazines and ancient
scrolls. Some dealt with martial arts, many didn't even meet
that level of acceptability. Sun Tzu's "Art Of War" was one
thing, but what use was his current reading material- "Lord
Of The Rings" going to be? Gymnastics had its place, to be
sure, but it was still wasteful to spend time *reading* when
Ranma could be practicing the Art.

Then there was all the strange techniques Ranma kept coming
up with that he claimed his imaginary friend was teaching
him. Some might have originated in those books, but other
skills had to have been taught. But from *where*?

Instead of stealing food, the boy would get out a hat,
kneel down in the plaza or market, and begin playing tunes
on that bamboo flute. People actually paid Ranma to keep
playing. He would "find" things for people, and get more
money that way. Then he'd BUY food. This was as unlike the
Master's training as it was possible to get.

The shame of it all weighed heavily on Genma. The Master's
training had been painful and humiliating, but effective.
Genma had set out to "tone it down a little" but otherwise
put Ranma through the same thing. Turning his gaze to the
heavens, he implored them as to WHY he had such a worthless
son! Where had he gone wrong?

What he said, however, was to the shopkeeper. "Two deluxe
beef ramen." Ranma wouldn't begrudge his father the money.
This was another sign to Genma that he had failed.
----------------------------
Genma found himself puzzled. This was very familiar
territory.

Genma found himself giving up in disgust. This was rapidly
becoming familiar territory as well.

That he disliked these constant foiling of his plans was
more than a little understated. He truly HATED this sort of
thing but was learning that Fate (or something) had other
plans.

The third attempt to get Ranma to learn the Catfist had
ended about as well as the other two. Tie Ranma up in fish
sausages, throw him into a pit of starving cats, instant
unbeatable fighter. Genma turned his eyes heavenwards and
wondered how something so simple could turn so wrong.

First time, in went Ranma. Genma had sat back, waiting to
see his son ripped and clawed by the hungry cats. Except
that *somehow* the fish sausages had ended up being thrown
back up into his lap. Genma had spent a moment being puzzled
before cats had starting making impressive leaps and somehow
cleared the walls of the pit. In very short order, Genma had
found himself being attacked by dozens of insanely hungry
felines. He'd escaped, he was too old to learn such a
technique anyway.

The second time, Genma had been prepared. He'd thrown Ranma
in, closed the lid over the pit, then run behind a set of
concrete pipes used in construction. After a few moments,
his curiosity got the better of him and he snuck a peek.
There had been Ranma, surrounded by cats. Unfortunately
Ranma had somehow divided the fish cakes up into roughly
even portions and given all of the cats enough to eat.

The third time, Genma had taken no chances. One hundred
starving cats, check. Ranma tied up so that he couldn't
possibly get loose, check. Liberally smeared flesh and
clothing using fish paste, fish oil, and with a light
caviar garnish behind each ear, check. Lid in place, check.
He'd spent days arranging things so that that everything
would be perfect.

When he'd come by the next morning, there had been a
curious thing. The entire lot was surrounded by toadstools!
How odd, but Genma knew enough about foraging not to eat
these. In went Ranma. The caged cats were upended into the
pit, and Genma had thrown the lid down immediately and
stepped back.

Genma looked down into the empty pit and wondered how Ranma
had managed to screw up his plans THIS time. Such a
disobedient child. Genma had to admit, though, the boy was
getting really good as an escape artist.

Just as Genma was prepared to say to heck with it, a breeze
blew over one of the pages of the training manual. As he
read the next page of the Catfist, he reluctantly admitted
that maybe not being able to teach Ranma that particular
technique wasn't so bad after all.

Sitting down and waiting for Ranma to show up, Genma looked
again at the various precautions he'd taken, and had to
admit that Ranma *was* rather good at vanishing. Maybe he'd
learned a special technique after all...
-------------1989--------------------------------
"Ranma, for the insult of the bread, I challenge you!"

"Oh, keep your shirt on, Ryouga. What about all the fruit
I've shared with you? What about all those pastries? You
wanna fight me, I ain't got no problem with that, but you
want to do it over a few lousy sandwiches?" Ranma tossed the
eternally lost boy an apple streudel, turning his eyes
heavenward in unconscious imitation of his father's frequent
pose.

"A FEW sandwiches?!" Ryouga caught the streudel, noting the
light flaky crust, that it was so fresh that the icing was
still moist and the apple filling was still hot as if it had
just been pulled from the oven. Considering that the nearest
bakery that produced these was over fifty miles away, Ryouga
found himself wondering yet again just how Ranma did that.

Ryouga shook his head, more of this magic stuff no doubt,
and Ranma REFUSED to share how he did it. "How dare you try
to change the subject! I made you a man-to-man challenge!
And don't you dare cheat by using your magic on me!"

"Yeah, right, Ryouga. Whatever." Ranma cracked his
knuckles. "You wanna name the time and place?"

"The empty lot behind my house!" Ryouga knew he could find
it, even without using the magic compass that Ranma had
given him. Like he could trust anything Ranma did. "Tomorrow
afternoon!"

"Yeah, okay. Ryouga." Ranma shook his head. "Hey,
afterwards you wanna go by the mall? I'll bring my flute and
your drums, we can practice that piece, maybe get enough
money for
a really decent meal?"

Ryouga smiled, remembering the last group of lessons in
drum techniques. ESPECIALLY remembering the way some of the
girls from that other High School had looked their way.
Ranma had been right about that, at least, musicians got
attention from the girls. Ryouga dreamed of the day he had
his own groupies. He was *so* tired of living in Ranma's
shadow. That wouldn't last long, though. "DEAL!"
-------------Mar/10/1990------LIME WARNING(1)--------
"Featherbrite, you've been naughty!" Ranma shook his head
at the little pixie. They were in the Faerie Realm so he
didn't have to pretend he was muttering to himself.

"Hey!" Featherbrite huffed and turned away for a moment
before curiosity got her to consider her changeling. "Define
'naughty' if you would!"

"It took me awhile to realize it, but you've been using
enchantments on me, haven't you?"

"Hmmmph." Featherbrite floated in midair and turned her
back on Ranma. "You got some objection to that? You can eat
food of the Faerie Realm without fear now. You're taller and
stronger than you would have been just eating rice gruel and
what that damn father of yours would have gotten you. What
makes you think I've done anything else?"

"From oyaji's reaction when we took the bath at that hot
spring. His eyes bugged out and said something about how he
HAD promised to make me a 'man among men' or some crap like
that." Ranma paused. "I would'a thought it was just some
kinda trick but the other people were staring too."

"Oh." Featherbrite did something that was very rare for a
faerie. She blushed.

"What else have you done?"

"Oh, errr." Featherbrite started to fiddle with her
fingers. "Just a few little things, an infusion of faerie
magic here and there. Enhancing this or that. Just little
things that I'd thought would be good."

"Promise me. No more enchantments on me unless you clear it
with me ahead of time."

Featherbrite turned back to Ranma and held her hand up
solemnly. "If you feel that strongly about it. Except for
normal healing magic, I promise not to cast any additional
enchantments on you without your prior consent."

"Good." Ranma knew that there were probably some loopholes
there, but that this was as good as he could reasonably
expect to get. "Now what exactly DID you do that got Oyaji
so shocked?"

Featherbrite looked embarrassed. "Well... I've heard how
human males have this thing about size and stamina. I've
also heard human females complain about a lack of stamina,
endurance, and THAT sort of thing. So...'cause I didn't want
MY friend to grow up with any sort of deficiency or
inadequacy...I kinda made a couple of... corrections."

"Why do I have a feeling I'm probably better off not
knowing the details?"

----------Apr/13/1990-------END LIME WARNING----------
"So, you'll engage my Rink to your Ranma?"

The woman was impressed with the young man. Quite handsome,
a good cook, a musician, and a capable martial artist from
what she could see. Yes, a fine catch. Staking out this
martial arts tournament had proven to have unexpected
dividends.

"Well, I don't know. He's already..." Genma watched as the
amazon put another nugget of gold on the table. "Sold."

Genma gleefully made off with the money. This was
wonderful. The boy was such a disappointment in so many
ways, but he had become marketable somehow. What these
various parents saw in Ranma was unclear to Genma, but he'd
already sold Ranma six times to parents who wanted a good
mate for their daughters.

Not that he had any intention of keeping any of the
promises.
---------------------1991-----------------------------------
-
An impromptu jam session was underway in the Faerie Realm.
It had been bound to happen sooner or later. Featherbrite
was just as glad that it had been later.

A minor functionary of the Seelie Court, one of the
Princesses was out surveying when she heard one of Ranma's
music lessons. (Faerie Princesses, contrary to what mortals
might think, were actually fairly numerous. It was a
constant problem as the number of Faerie Princes were
relatively low. Ages ago Titania had decreed that Mortal
Heroes were suitable lifemates for a Faerie Princess.
Unfortunately Heroes of any stripe tended to be rather hard
to find and justifiably paranoid when they were out doing
heroic deeds.) She and her little group had come to find out
what a mortal musician was doing in the Realms.

So Featherbrite was hanging protectively near Ranma. Ranma
was attempting to follow along on his flute a tune that was
old when the world was young. Or, at least, a good deal
younger.

A grinning satyr set the beat with his drums. A pair of
twin sylphs sang a wordless melody that seemed to curl in
and around the voice of Ranma's flute. The whole thing had
an appropriately otherworldly quality to it that wouldn't
have sold well in mortal pop culture, but did fairly well as
an attempt to gauge the mortal's skill level.

"So...Bri'te," a hamadryad paused in her examination of the
mortal. "Are all the tales about mortal lovers true? Are
they a raging tempest to the cooler winds of faeriekind?"

"I don't know, and I'm NOT going to find out. Nor should
you, Holly! By the standards of his culture, he is still a
child." This was one of the things that Brite had been
nervous about. That one of the faerie would get curious and
decide to lure Ranma off. ESPECIALLY as Ranma could well
qualify as a Hero-In-Training.

Tall (for his age), handsome, broad shouldered, a skilled
fighter with magical talents, a bard with lore of the
faerie. Featherbrite glanced nervously at the Princess.
Ranma was WAY too suitably heroic for this to have gone
unnoticed.

"Hmm. He's your changeling, then?" Holly knew there was an
old custom of saving human children from abusive parents,
stealing and adopting the child. It was rarely done,
especially nowadays with all the problems of living in the
mortal realm now.

"Yes," Featherbrite nodded, glad that Holly understood.
"And a friend. He saved me from a bog imp when he was no
bigger than a leprechaun. I would appreciate it if you
didn't mess
with him."

Holly laughed. "I'll tell the others he's under your wing,
so to speak. He's got more than one of us curious, you know.
I take it the resistance spells woven through him are yours?
Nicely done."

"I've had years to build them up and refine them."
Featherbrite nodded, proud of her handiwork. She had made
those enchantments years ago, and they continued to
strengthen on their own since her promise not to lay
additional enchantments on Ranma.

That promise didn't keep her from refining the ones already
in place.

Featherbrite looked nervously around. The Princess, the
oriad, the naiad, and both sylphs were looking quite
curiously at Ranma. Speculation and a certain degree of
hunger were evident.

She was just glad they weren't closer to Makai. That could
have been bad.
------------------------------------
(1)- Featherbrite has never associated this closely with
humans before, but has observed them off and on for over
9,500 years. Yes, she does have some truly odd concepts
about humans. That's where some of the humor of this story
will come from. She may be an ANC but she's definitely not
an AKC (All Knowing Character).
---------------------
The Faerie Princess glanced at her handmaidens as they left
the clearing.

"Mistress?" The chief among them, a sylph, responded to the
unspoken command.

"That boy is the pixie's changeling?"

"Yes, milady. Some nice protective spells too," the chief
handmaiden noted. "Bri'te has indicated that he is a 'hero
in training' or something."

"A hero? How very... interesting." The Faerie Princess
considered for a moment. "When is a mortal considered to
have reached adulthood?"

"By many standards, within one mortal year. By others, not
for another five such years. Pardon, my lady, but I'm not
sure which is the case here."

"Well, in a mortal year, perhaps I should look up this
Ranma again."
----------March 1, 1992-------------
"Ranma, I don't like this place," said Featherbrite
unhappily.

"It doesn't look that bad," said Ranma. "Just a balancing
exercise, nothing more. Combat on top of bamboo poles. The
only thing different is the pools of water." His eyes didn't
look towards Featherbrite, he just seemed to talk out loud a
lot.

"C'mon boy, follow me," Genma leapt for the top of one of
the poles, balancing himself quite easily.

"Right behind you," Ranma also found balancing on the
bamboo quite easy.

"Don't fall in the springs," Featherbrite floated above
Ranma's head. "I see some things here that are bad. Very
powerful raw faerie magic, beyond anything I can handle.
Neither your glamourie or resistance to enchantment will
help you."

Ranma leapt into battle with his father, ignoring his
friend for the moment. Featherbrite watched as Genma fell
into one of the pools and a panda emerged.

The Jusenkyo Guide was rattling off something about curses
which finally got Ranma's attention. Unfortunately he should
have been paying attention to the panda.

"Ranma!" Featherbrite extended as much of her magic as she
could, trying to shield him from the effects of the curse.

She felt the more powerful magic of the spring warping her
own magic, overwhelming the shield she'd hastily placed over
Ranma. All the times that she'd brought Ranma over to the
Faerie Realm had left some residual magic within him too.
Not to mention the various infusions and weavings of faerie
magic she'd done over the years.

Ranma looked down at herself and screamed. Featherbrite
merely groaned and they both listened to the Guide going on
about how a girl had drowned in the spring and now whoever
had fallen in the spring took the body of a young girl.
Though he'd never seen one with pointed ears or long eyes
like that before.

Ranma's attention went from her breasts to her back, and if
anything the shock level was increasing.

Featherbrite apologized and was explaining that her shield
had been absorbed and twisted by the magic of the spring.
That it looked like it wasn't permanent, but that there was
probably a trigger that would allow a person in cursed form
to return to normal.

Ranma removed the top of her gi as she stepped out of the
pool, dimly hearing the Jusenkyo Guide stutter and stop.
Ranma reached over her shoulder, feeling the thin surface
behind her, then pulling it forward to where she could see.

Ranma glared, first at Featherbrite, then sought out the
panda. Wings snapping wide and to the sides, Ranma got
really angry and launched herself at the startled panda.

Featherbrite flew along as best she could, but she was
tired from the attempted shield, and the other two had
strong emotions driving them on. Rescuing the Hibiki boy
from a fall took most of her remaining energy, and she
floated back towards Ranma's backpack and some rest.
---------------------------------
"Don't eat that, Ranma." Featherbrite had a feeling about
this. She had a bad feeling about this. Faerie tended to
listen to such feelings.

"But I'm so hungry," Ranma replied, practically salivating
at the feast before them.

"Uh oh, Ranma," Featherbrite clung to the girl's shoulder.
"Remember when I told you that only the 'pure of heart'
could see me?"

"Yeah, go figure that oyaji can't see or hear you." Genma
still thought that Ranma was talking to an imaginary friend.

"Well, there are others who can. A magic wielder, or a
psychic, or someone with ties to the supernatural can see
me. There's an old woman over there who's staring at me."

"You sure she's not looking at me? Are those damn wings
showing again?"
---------------------------------
Cologne couldn't help but staring. An Old One. She hadn't
seen one of those in years. It was associating with that
outsider woman. Now, did that mean the outsider was a mage,
with the Old One a familiar? No, the relationship was
clearly more friendly than a
master-slave one.

Shampoo had defeated Dowel and was yelling at the girl
about controlling her panda. Cologne settled back to watch
the fight, as the little Old One pointed towards a nearby
kettle. The girl splashed herself, straightening up as...

Cologne blinked. Shampoo had challenged a man? This could
be interesting. A Jusenkyo-cursed man who associated with an
Old One, no less. There was a danger for those who used chi
to attentuate their lifespan, and that was ennui. This
looked like it *just* could get interesting.

The fight was brief, and once again, Cologne was annoyed
that Shampoo had never managed to learn subtlety nor
patience.

"<Shampoo,>" Cologne hopped up to her favored Heir as she
was picking herself off the ground.

"<What is it, Great-Grandmother?>"

"<Give this one the Kiss Of Marriage, then go with them, I
will contact you shortly.>"

Puzzled, Shampoo complied. At least he was cute. And taller
and stronger than Mousse.
----------------------------------
Genma waited until the amazon girl's back was turned, then
struck as hard as he could manage, using one of her own
bonbori.

Nothing would be allowed to interfere in the plan to unite
the two schools of Anything Goes martial arts. Even a cute
and friendly Amazon girl. ESPECIALLY a cute and friendly
Amazon girl.

She hadn't explained that Amazon Law stuff to Ranma yet, as
something had seemed to spook her about him. Genma knew that
every so often Ranma would be talking to something that
wasn't there. That sort of thing _would_ throw a few people
off.

Since it had occurred after leaving Ukyou, Genma had
realized what it was. Ranma had been so attached to his
Ucchan that he had invented an imaginary friend to replace
her. It was a good thing he'd seperated the two when he had!

Genma wiped the smirk off his face, then went to check out
of the inn. With any luck, nobody would check that old
steamer trunk until long after they were gone.
----------------------------------------
Featherbrite didn't buy it for a moment. The way that girl
had been looking at Ranma, there was no way she'd just been
following them to make sure they left the amazon lands. She
wasn't entirely sure what, but that hadn't been the whole
story.

She knew Ranma agreed. Probably that baka Genma had done
something to drive her off. Just like him, the old panda!
Every time Ranma was going to make a new friend, his father
would go
hauling him off on further training.

Featherbrite sighed and continued to search, knowing she'd
be able to track Ranma by the bond they shared. This girl,
though. Frankly, she'd been hoping that Ranma would get
mated soon. Past time he had a mate, or two, or three. Why
humans had to be so uptight about these
things...

There were still questions Featherbrite had that needed
answers, and she hoped that by observing Shampoo she could
figure them out.

Except that the Amazon seemed to be able to sense her
presence. Featherbrite had seen the amazon get more and more
nervous the longer she was around Featherbrite. Hmmm. Well,
she'd see what she could do.
----------------------------------------
The panda tried to drag the girl to the house, but she
wasn't having anything to do with it. Finally, Genma managed
to splash the darting winged girl with hot water after the
rains stopped.

After that, the panda was able to stun Ranma with a street
sign and drag his unconcious body into the Tendo household.

Ranma woke up slowly, finding himself surrounded by three
girls and a man of about his father's age. Moaning at the
pain at the back of his head, he took in the auras of those
present in the manner that Featherbrite had taught him.

The man was a complicated blur, always shifting from one
extreme to another. He had a bright glow that spoke of much
experience, but the strength was "off" and Ranma didn't have
enough experience to tell what was wrong with this picture.
What the heck was purple and yellow supposed to signify?

The oldest looking one was radiating white, pale gold, and
a weaving of dark blue. Basically a nice young girl, beneath
that there was a great sadness, and personal self-sacrifice.
Ranma decided to be this girl's friend, to try to break down
the shell and see if she
could be healed.

The other two also showed signs of that underlying sadness.
The second one had just erected wall after wall around
herself, while the younger fairly burned with a barely
suppressed anger that was ready to be unleashed as soon as
she could find something to focus it on. Underneath the
walls or the anger there was someone nicer.

Everyone in this family, Ranma decided, really needed some
help. They'd all faced tragedy of some sort, and none of
them had coped that well with it. Well, he could go along
with this engagement nonsense for now, and leave when it
didn't work out.

"You wouldn't be..."

Ranma winced again as his head began to throb. "I'm Ranma
Saotome. Sorry to trouble you."

"No trouble!" Soun gestured. "My eldest daughter, Kasumi,
she's 19. My eldest daughter, Nabiki, she's 17. My youngest
daughter, Akane, she's 16. Pick any one you want, she'll be
your new bride."

"I told you, father, I HATE boys." Akane looked over the
figure and decided that while he was cute, technically so
was Kuno and look what a freak of nature HE was. Besides,
there was something just *wrong* about the boy.

Nabiki speculated. The boy had a thoughtful look to him,
and he was major cute. She had taken stock of his physical
attributes and been quite impressed. Maybe...

Kasumi observed carefully. He didn't look THAT young.
Something about the way his eyes looked at her sent an odd
feeling along her spine. He was tall, broad, and had really
nice muscle definition. He wouldn't have looked out of place
on the cover of a romance novel. (Not that Kasumi would
admit reading them.)

Ranma decided. The angry one didn't require additional
pressure, the eldest needed a friend, and the middle one had
a large loneliness in her aura. Until he could figure a way
out of this mess, go with the least damage or the most good.

"Nabiki. No offense to you other two." Ranma smiled at
both, noting the stunned expression on the youngest and the
faint disappointment in the eldest.

"Interesting. Why me?" Nabiki felt uncomfortable at the
attention, ecstatic that SHE (the one who would have to BUY
a date at Furinkan) had been chosen over Akane (unwanted
suitors up the yin-yang).

Kasumi frowned slightly. She knew she wasn't attractive,
had a sex appeal of zip, but there had been a brief guilty
hope that she would be chosen. Still, this younger boy had
been nice and polite, and he'd only been conscious for a few
moments before being forced to choose a bride. No doubt
Nabiki wearing a flattering kimono compared to Akane's
sweaty yellow gi and her own housedress had clued Ranma in
as far as who was the most interested in this engagement.

"Well, er, it's that kimono of yours." Ranma noted Kasumi
nodding and wondered what that was about. "Er, combined with
your hairstyle, it just tells me how complicated your
personality really is." Saotome special technique: verbal
dodge.

"Better you than me, sis," Akane snorted. She continued to
stare at Ranma out of the corner of her eye, however. Much
as she hated guys, she was used to being the center of their
attention. Being casually but politely dismissed like
that...

Ranma thought for a moment then sighed. They may throw
everything out now, but they'd find out sooner or later.
"You may not want this, though. When I was in China,
something terrible happened."

Ranma explained his curse, that he'd gotten mixed up in
some magic during his training journey, and then that
fateful plunge into Jusenkyo. He was prepared for the
disbelieving looks. Then he splashed himself.

The sound of jaws dropping simultaneously around the room
could be heard in what was otherwise near-total silence.
Genma was the only one who didn't react.

"Wings?" Kasumi stared at the pastel wings that vaguely
resembled those of a dragonfly.

"A girl?" Akane looked disgusted. Bad enough that she'd
almost gotten engaged to a boy, but to a boy who turned into
a girl? She'd begun to think he was kind of cute, she should
have known he was a pervert. Well, at the very least this
meant that Nabiki would reject him/her and they could put
all this engagement nonsense behind them.

Nabiki blink-blinked. The slender elfin form was looking
directly into her eyes with eyes that seemed to see right
through her and managed to convey a sort of sad
understanding. There was a faint smell of raspberry/citrus
in the air. It was the conveyed mood from those eyes, the
expectation that Nabiki would be disgusted and horrified by
this change that cut through all the reactions swirling
through her. She shouldered those reactions to the side and
forced a neutral/friendly expression into place.

"So," Nabiki finally managed. "Are those wings functional?"

Ranma blinked. She could feel...sympathy? Not pity exactly,
but the middle girl was sorting through her own feelings.
Ranma began a slow smile. "Do you want to see?" Ranma
stepped out into the backyard and held out her hands. Maybe
this would work out, she hoped so, she could really use
someone to talk to right now. Featherbrite just didn't
understand the human experience too well, and his father
wasn't the sort to inspire confidence.

Nabiki was quite hesitant, taking the sylph's hands out in
the yard. She was rewarded with a bright smile from Ranma
and an odd tingling sensation that seemed to pass from Ranma
through her. Then she noticed that the sensation was almost
of freefalling and the ground was no longer pressing against
her feet.

Looking down, Nabiki saw that both of them were merely a
couple of feet up.

"I noticed that if I'm carrying something, I can make it
lighter and carry it, unless it's metal. I seem to have
problems with anything metal." Ranma's voice was very calm
and soothing, as if she half expected Nabiki to begin
freaking out.

Nabiki found the loss of control unsettling, but the
possibilities of this mode of transport were already
beginning to register. An old line in a manga about the
Faerie Folk being slain by the touch of cold iron came back
to her, and she looked with concern at her transformed
iinazuke.

"What are you doing with my sister, you pervert!" Akane had
been frozen with shock for a moment, then started stalking
forward. In her vast years of experience, all boys were
perverts, and the idea of becoming something like THAT was
completely perverted. Nabiki didn't know how to fall, she
could get easily injured from even a short drop. That Akane
might be jealous was, of course, ignored.

Kasumi found herself feeling something else, something
almost completely new to her. Watching the two lift off,
their hair drifting up as if both were weightless, to stand
there drifting in midair... Kasumi actually felt a brief
stab of jealousy. To effortlessly fly, free and unfettered,
to be able to watch the house and her responsibilities
dwindle away...

Ranma tightened her grip as Akane stalked forward,
spreading her wings slightly. The two shot up into the air
to almost rooftop height.

Nabiki wasn't idle, her mind continuing to catalog and
analyze the experience. She hadn't felt any acceleration, as
if inertia had been somehow suspended here. More ideas began
to flick into place. How fast could she go? How high? How
far out did this weightlessness go? How much mass could
Ranma negate?

Nabiki glanced down as they drifted in place, then shut her
eyes. Every instinct said that they were about to fall, that
nothing was supporting them, that they'd get hurt when they
hit.

Seeing Nabiki close her eyes and clench her jaw, Ranma
slowly lowered the two down again. She watched carefully,
seeing more with the violet eyes of her cursed form than
merely reflected light. Nabiki flinched slightly as her feet
touched the ground, then she started breathing again.

"Sorry, Nabiki, I guess you weren't ready for that..."
Ranma was suddenly interrupted by having Akane grab her
shirt.

"WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!" Akane pulled Ranma
off balance in order to shout in the sylph's face. Concern
for her sister, anger at this arranged marriage thing,
disgust at the thought of being married to something not
completely human, more disgust at the thought of how close
she'd come to being married to a girl, bruised pride that
she'd been passed over just like with Doctor Tofu, that
annoying buzzing sensation, and a certain degree of jealousy
combined to form something she was more comfortable with.
Anger. "NABIKI DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO FALL, SHE'S NOT A MARTIAL
ARTIST." Akane stopped as Nabiki placed her hand over
Akane's mouth.

"Next time, Saotome, I want to be held a little bit closer
and I am NOT looking down." Nabiki had thought of dozens of
ways to make money on this sort of thing, and had surmised
something that Ranma hadn't realized yet himself. This last
was that the legends of Faerie generally represented them as
being very open emotionally, if not quite human. Based on
her limited exposure to both forms, she could see where the
cursed form was much more expressive and open.

And what was with the girl's perfume anyway? There was a
smell as of a recent rain in a pine forest, somehow
evocative of spring. And were her eyes changing color? Was
that due to viewing them at different angles of lighting or
something else? So many questions. Nabiki's curiosity was
engaged, and it was a powerful thing once aroused.

Being held at arm's length though, that had to go. She
wanted a better safety margin. A glance over at her younger
sister brought Nabiki a brief smile. A guy was paying
attention to HER, not bowing and scraping to the little
princess. She'd have to (subtly) rub Akane's face in it
later, it was one of those things that Akane had always held
over her... Akane the popular one, as opposed to Nabiki the
feared one, or Kasumi the ignored one.

Kasumi looked down and realized she'd dropped a cup while
watching the brief flight. "Oh my. That was one of the good
cups too."

"Allow me," Ranma walked over, giving the still
angry/concerned Akane a wide berth. Quite obviously she
would have to be careful around the youngest. The youngest
girl's aura was flashing through so many color cycles
(though that light blue tinge of pride seemed to be the
strongest) that Ranma wasn't sure at all of what the young
lady was feeling. "I can fix this."

Kasumi looked at all the tiny pieces of the cup. "I'll just
get a broom."

Ranma held her hands over the cup and began concentrating,
finding the parts that were once together and convincing
them to rejoin.

Kasumi took a step back, but smiled as the pieces of the
cup moved together, fitting back into a whole. The cracks
finally smoothing over as the pieces fused as if it had
never broken.

Nabiki whistled. More money to be made, even better, now
they didn't have to buy a new cup to replace the broken one.
Even Akane blinked at this, the idea occurring to her that
after she broke the bricks, Nabiki's fiancee could make them
whole again. Never again having to buy new bricks could save
that money for other uses.

"Ah, to have such talent in the Art, but to waste it on
such trivial things, Tendo!" Genma made a pleading gesture
to the heavens. "What did I do to deserve such an ungrateful
child?"

Soun opened his mouth to reply then caught the looks Nabiki
and Kasumi were giving Genma. Wisely, he shut his mouth. For
some reason he could see the idea of adding panda steaks to
the menu floating briefly on the air between his middle and
eldest daughters. Surely that was just his imagination
though.

Kasumi picked up the cup and turned it over in her hands.
There was no sign it had ever been broken. How useful! Her
eyes caught Ranma's as the sylph reached for the kettle.
"Can you do this on other than cups? Any other substances?"
Kasumi immediately started to think of other household uses
for such a talent.

"Well, yeah, as long as it's a simple object and it isn't
metal. I can't do metal too well for some reason." Ranma
yanked at her ponytail in a nervous gesture, especially as
Akane smirked. Ranma had a bad feeling about the look in her
eyes.

Akane was merely smirking because she now had a tool. This
Ranma was a boy, and boy = pervert. If he got out of hand,
he had trouble with metal and this could be used to teach
him his place.

Nabiki leaned against a wall and had an entirely different
smirk. Simple objects, as long as they weren't made of
metal? Seamless repair of breaks? Yen signs began to dance
in her vision. Museums, archaeologists, wealthy people with
expensive breakables. Just going down to a junkyard and
finding broken things, then reselling the repaired versions
could net her a fair amount of revenue.

Her gaze flicked back to Ranma as he restored his
masculinity and his humanity with a splash of hot water. Her
gaze swept up and down his frame in an appreciative survey.
She had expected some dumb lout, that the best she could
hope for was that he was cute. She began tallying up the
pluses and minuses and found, overall that she could live
with the inconvenience of the minuses and enjoy the pluses.
Nabiki's grin increased slightly as her eyes went exploring.
She could think of a few pluses for both forms.

"So, Ranma," Nabiki still wasn't sure about this whole
engagement thing, but a short term relationship didn't seem
too unattractive, in fact it seemed downright lucrative. And
not all the profit she was looking at was monetary in
nature. "I've got some research to do, but don't forget you
owe me a longer flight tomorrow."

Ranma nodded, a faint smile showing on his face. He
couldn't read her emotions as easily as when in his faerie
form, but Nabiki didn't look nearly as angry or unhappy as
she had earlier.

Two others watched with very different feelings on the
whole thing.
--------------China-----------
Featherbrite continued to watch the purple haired girl, who
continued to peer into shadows as if she felt something
was...off.

"<Ah, Shampoo, and you have brought the Old One.>"

Shampoo had been on edge for quite some time. She jumped
into the air, trying to look in all directions at once.
"<Where? What is it? I have felt like there was something
there...>"

Cologne sighed. "<Child, relax. The Old Ones were often
mischievous, rarely malicious, though often alien. I'd judge
that this one offered you no harm.>"

"True," Featherbrite replied, noting again that this small
and old-appearing figure was quite capable of seeing her. "I
am called Featherbrite, a wind-faerie of the Cor Mai Tal
tribe, honored one."

"<Honored one, eh?>" Cologne hopped over to where she could
get a better look at the tiny figure. It was not often that
she ran across one smaller and more ancient than herself.
She rather enjoyed this. "<Translation effect, eh? That's
handy. Mind telling me what's going on, little one?>"

"<Okay, Great Grandmama. It's...>" Shampoo's voice trailed
off as Cologne shot her the dreaded Grandmother Look, a
special attack known to freeze children in their place. It
did so.

Featherbrite began to tell her tale, that of her friend
Ranma returning to be told by his father that the Amazon had
gone back to her village, but that both Ranma and
Featherbrite had felt that the panda wasn't telling the
whole story.

"<Shampoo, didn't you tell the boy why you had come after
him?>" On seeing Shampoo shake her head, Cologne gave an
exasperated growl. "<Well, why not? I can't believe you
found
the boy intimidating!>"

"<Great Grandmother, something did not feel right. It
just...felt strange. Then the strangeness followed me!>"

"<Little one, can you show yourself to my Great
Granddaughter?>"

"No, only some people can see me. Usually it is the pure of
heart, or a child, or those who are mages." Featherbrite
thought briefly. "It would be difficult to do this without
either using a spell or an infusion of faerie magic.
Possible, but it would require time and some work."

Cologne sighed and found a rock to sit on. "<Well,
Featherbrite, you said? Let me tell you what is going on
with that friend of yours and my Great-Granddaughter here.>"

Shampoo moved carefully, watching Cologne's eyes as she
addressed...nothing. Shampoo continued to stare and noticed
that there was a point about three feet in front of her
Great-Grandmother where her own eyes refused to focus. There
was a...ripple in the air, almost a heat shimmer. Shampoo
continued to stare, trying to make out this "Old One"
through sheer will.

"<So when Shampoo was defeated, she gave the boy the Kiss
Of Marriage.>"

"Marriage?" Featherbrite thought about it. There were so
MANY confusing human customs. She'd run into this before,
though. There was that Sultan Whatshisname, and he'd had
thirty wives. How many centuries ago had that been? But had
that changed? "That means an arrangement between exclusive
mates, doesn't it? I'm not sure I approve."

"<Don't tell me, you think he should wait till he's
older?>" Cologne chuckled. It wasn't unheard of for a
marriage to take place between fourteen year olds in her
society.

"Hmmm? No, no, he's an adolescent. Old enough. I just don't
understand exclusive mates. Favored mate, THAT I could see."

"<First mate? Most favored mate?>" Cologne knew from the
bits and pieces of stories that faerie viewed things much
differently from humans. How could she explain marriage to
someone who likely didn't even understand the human need for
ceremony?

"DEAL!" Featherbrite exclaimed, bobbing in the air happily.
She'd gotten a good deal for Ranma, and maybe this girl
would help take away some of his father's influence!

Cologne's face went blank momentarily, then she groaned.
Maybe the son-in-law would be able to explain this.
-------Japan------------
Akane had been waiting for the knock on her door. "Come in,
Nabiki."

Nabiki opened the door and let herself in, pausing for a
moment to regard her sister.

Akane answered the unasked question. "I don't trust him."

"Why not?" Nabiki leaned against the closed door and
continued to study Akane.

"He's a boy. I know boys, look at how many of 'em I've got
after me. They're all jerks and perverts." Akane made a
dismissing gesture to indicate what she thought of the boys
at school.

"So. He's not from around here. Admittedly we've just met
him, but he doesn't *seem* that bad."

"Which means he's hiding something." Akane nodded her head.
"I'll tolerate him for your sake, sis. One wrong move
though, and *kapowie*!"

Nabiki watched her sister and determined several things.
One of which cut back in her own plans to rub Akane's face
in the fact that Nabiki had a handsome guy. Akane was
telling the truth, and there was more to this Ranma than
could be easily summed up in a single sentence. There was a
vibrancy about the young man that the male population of
Furinkan was missing. And that this guy had chosen Nabiki
over Akane had rattled little sister's cage.

"Gee, Akane, I would've thought you'd be happy about your
big sister getting a boyfriend." Nabiki shook her head and
tried to look amused.

"I'm just hoping you don't get hurt, Nabiki. He's too good
to be true in some ways, too weird to be acceptable in
others. And this whole arranged marriage thing stinks!"

"Give him a chance, Akane. He isn't *that* bad." Nabiki
wanted to convince herself as well. After all, the boy had
chosen *her* instead of Akane. She wanted to believe that
Ranma was more discerning than the average Furinkan youth,
as opposed to there being something wrong with him.

Akane shook her own head. "It isn't like you to let
yourself get pulled along by some 'pretty boy' even if he's
got some skills. SOMEBODY has to be suspicious and use their
heads here. What if I'm right? Can we take the chance?"
-------------------------
"School?" Ranma shuddered. His father had gotten fairly
nasty earlier about time spent away from martial arts
training, so now being all but shoved out the door to go to
school just seemed to be more of his father's doublespeak at
work.

"You're going to the same school as Akane and me, I'll meet
you there." The shock had worn off, and now Nabiki was
feeling serious doubts. Ranma's splash in the pond this
morning had
convinced her that the last evening was NOT a dream.

Yesterday morning, magic had been the stuff of empty headed
people's fantasies, a convenient mechanism in manga, foolish
dreams born of the desire that life not be the dog-eat-dog
world that Nabiki knew it was. Yesterday morning, and every
morning before that, Nabiki had well known that there was no
magic, no miracles, nothing beyond the rational world.

Today magic was looking rather sullenly at her as she
prepared to leave him behind and go meet with her factors.

Nabiki walked quickly from the house, putting distance
between her and the impossible. She'd seen it, but it
couldn't be. It could NOT be. Changing forms, he violated
conservation of mass without even considering where the
energy for the process came from! Flying in that faerie form
had no regard for such factors as gravity or inertia. Making
that cup come together as if it had never been broken?

It was all impossible. It couldn't be done. She'd seen it
last night, and then saw almost everything again the very
next morning. Nabiki shook slightly as she ran, not even
realizing that she was running away in more than meaning of
the term.
-------------------------
Ranma watched sadly, seeing the fear and confusion swirling
around his erstwhile iinazuke. He'd mishandled the
situation, gone too fast, he now realized. With his father
and Nabiki's father pushing for a fast engagement and
marriage, they'd likely push any chance for that eventuality
out the door.

Ranma sighed and gathered his things, putting his flute
within the case that Kasumi had handed him. Thanking her for
the kindness, he waited for Akane to show him the way to
school.

Now if they could just go five minutes without him freaking
her out, or her insulting him, Ranma would count the day as
being at least not a total loss.
----------------------China---------------------------------
------
"<I really wish I could see you,>" Shampoo noted to her
invisible companion. "<Great Grandmother told me that I
should open my mind, try to see with my mind or my heart and
not my eyes. Now if she had just told me HOW I'm supposed to
do this.>"

Featherbrite sat on the Amazon's head and smiled. Without
knowing why, Shampoo had gone into a long-distance loping
run that she could maintain for hours at a time. Also
without it really registering on the warrior's mind, she had
taken each branch and turn that would eventually lead her to
Ranma.

There was communication, and then there was communication.
Since the Amazon could neither see nor hear her companion,
the companion was using other methods to get to know the
Amazon and lead her to Ranma. A few passes of enchantment,
and subtle nudges got the bouncy young girl into a
thoughtful and talkative mood.

Featherbrite listened to the girl's story during the
periods where Shampoo was walking, and found that the
barbarian princess was not as simple as she appeared. The
faerie continued to "tweak" a few things, and Shampoo found
herself relating major events in her life to the invisible
companion. All the while, Featherbrite tried to remove the
amazon's uneasiness towards her- the result of faerie not
precisely being of the world that Shampoo's senses were so
highly tuned to. Shampoo was not as prone to anger as others
were, though fear and anger were the most frequent responses
to the faerie presence. Years of being around humans had
taught Featherbrite how to damp the effect, and usually this
just manifested as a sense of something out of place.

Shampoo found herself in a circle of toadstools after six
hours of her pace, yawning and wondering why this felt like
such a good place to take a nap.
--------Japan-------
"Good thing there was a pool there," said one of the
students as Ranma and Kuno continued to fall from the third
floor of the school.

Ranma's yelp said otherwise.

"You idiot," grumbled Akane. "What, did you think you could
fly as a boy too?"

"What did you say, Akane?" Hiroshi glanced at Akane,
wondering what the heck THAT comment had meant.

The waters of the pool erupting a moment later gave answer.
Wings spread and with the sparkling glow that meant her
self-control was currently shot, Ranma shot out of the pool.

"That idiot groped me!" Ranma shuddered in mid-air.

"RANMA! YOU IDIOT! Did you want everyone to know about your
curse?!"

Ranma blinked, realizing where she was. Also realizing all
of the classmates were currently staring at Akane. "Way to
go," Ranma mumbled.

"Oops," managed Akane as she realized the same thing.
"Well, it's your own fault, you freak!"

Ranma glided to within a few feet of the open window. "I
thought we settled that already! It's a curse, curses are
not something you CHOOSE to get. Curses are inflicted. About
the only thing this curse has going for it is this flying!
(Which is a bit of a rush, but that's beside the point.)"

"Look at you," Akane wasn't quite yelling but it came
close. How dare he argue with her! "Not only are you a
pervert, you're a perversion! You're a freak!" He was
calling attention to her, people would think SHE was a freak
or something for associating with Ranma.

The crowd looked from one to the other, not quite
understanding what was going on but some of it was beginning
to penetrate.

"So Ranma turns into some kinda elf girl, cause of some
curse." Daisuke summed up for the even slower members of the
crowd. "Least she's cute."

Both Ranma and Akane looked disgusted at this last
observation.

Far below them, Tatewaki Kuno was making his own
observations, staring up at the winged girl above him. A
pig-tailed goddess, a waterborne sprite, a vision of
otherworldly beauty. Now, how was he going to catch her?
------------------------------------------------
FEATHERBRITE'S TALE
Chapter 2: Annoying New Challenge (ANC again)
or... "Wings Over Nerima"
metro...@mindspring.com insert standard disclaimers about
not owning these characters.

"The meaning of life? That's simple boy. Life is what
happens while we are making other plans." - O.W. Kenobi

--------------Faerie Realm---------------------------------
Featherbrite looked over the sleeping Amazon that she had
brought here and decided how best to do this. She wanted to
get this woman warrior to Ranma as soon as possible, but the
ships making the journey were all steel and iron <shudder>
and Shampoo couldn't swim that sort of distance. Shampoo's
experience with swimming so far had been restricted to
mountain streams.

Featherbrite had gotten to know the Amazon over the past
few hours, and as this was the first girl who had ever shown
any interest in Ranma, Featherbrite wanted this to go right.
This was a major step in seperating Ranma (her friend) from
his father (nasty stupid brute) and in Ranma's maturity.
She'd read a book on the subject once. While it hadn't made
a whole lot of sense to the faerie, the bits about dating
and sex had struck her as being fascinating.

No doubt the transformation from boy to man was something
mystical triggered by such behavior.

Featherbrite grabbed a few nuts and berries that would have
fascinated a botanist, then fed the sleeping amazon. An
application of Will and thousands of years of experience
were enough, otherwise Shampoo would never have been able to
leave the Faerie Realm.

Featherbrite continued to concentrate as Shampoo shuddered
in her sleep and began to shrink. Featherbrite murmurred a
few soothing words into the girl's ear. A battle of wills
now would have been disastrous, but this was the fastest
method the faerie could think of getting Shampoo to where
Ranma was.

Besides, Featherbrite had plans involving the Amazon. She
had promised Ranma not to make further alterations in HIM
without prior consent. Meddling was just one of those things
a faerie had to do. It was basic nature. Unlike the Unseelie
Court, a bog fairy or the like, Featherbrite wasn't cruel in
nature. Making a little adjustment here or there so that the
amazon would have fun, enjoy life, and not take things quite
so seriously...why that was in her best interest
after all!

The faerie looked over the transformed Amazon, nodding. It
wasn't perfect, but it was only supposed to last until the
next sunset anyway.

At least the _physical_ transformation was.
-------Furinkan SHS--------------
Ranma sat back against the tree, watching the crowds, and
sighed deeply. After the fight with Kuno had come repeated
demands from faculty and students to see the curse operate
again and again.

He'd been fondled, pinched, had a wing almost torn off, and
had the school biology teacher waxing almost Kuno-esque
about the possibility of a full biopsy.

Even as much as Akane disliked him, she had turned a bit
green at some of the details that Mister Hisakawa had been
expounding on.

Ranma knew Akane's problem. She was used to being the
center of attention, plus she had the usual martial artist's
"attunement" to their environment. Ranma had spent a lot of
time in the Faerie Realm, so he just seemed "off" to those
who were so aware of their surroundings. If Featherbrite had
been here, she'd have been able to adjust his glamourie so
that Ranma was more in synch. Akane would lose some of that
hostility, and everyone would be happier.

Or maybe it was just Akane's time of month.

Nabiki had been avoiding him. Kuno hadn't been seen since
the incident.

All of which brought Ranma here. At lunch, back against a
tree, with nobody willing to talk TO him but almost everyone
talking ABOUT him. Not really having an appetite, he took
out his flute instead.

Featherbrite had given him another flute to replace the one
she had made, bringing it from somewhere within the Faerie
Realms. It looked like it was bamboo, but Genma's best
efforts hadn't put a scratch in it. She said it was an old
instrument crafted by a Lord of Elvish.

Ranma began to play in the manner that he had been taught
by Featherbrite. He began with the tune "Greensleeves" but
poured his feelings into it, and it became something
entirely different.

He didn't consider that when a normally gifted musician
puts all his heart into a piece, it can take on a sort of
magic. When the musician in question was trained by one of
the Faerie, and when the instrument being used was crafted
and enchanted by a Lord of Magic, the results could be
far-reaching.

The music spread over the campus, and as Ranma played the
music, so the music played the listeners.

Sayuri cried as the music told of a child's loneliness as
he was taken from his home and mother to wander the cold and
the rain with an indifferent father. The flute spoke of
constantly being on the move, and a father who equated
affection with weakness.

Yuka grew angry as the flute told of how a child could be
tortured for the sake of the Art, and of pain endured
repeatedly and senselessly. Of a restless dark where eyes
maddened by hunger gleamed.

Hiroshi stared at nothing in particular as the flute
skirled through brief passages of friendship found and
eagerly accepted, then lost again and again as the open road
called the father on to other places. Of keeping to the
shadows to avoid entanglements with the law.

Daisuke knew exactly what the flute spoke of as it told of
being alone in a crowd, of no one to call friend or kin or
confidant. Of having to keep the world at bay rather than
grow too close to anyone, rather than risk having one's
heart rended by their loss.

Tatewaki Kuno heard the flute sweep through a passage of
despair as another friend left, of the feeling of sadness at
having been challenged to a battle by one who had been
deemed friend. He listened to the flute speak of life
without a home, without a family, and felt unfamiliar
feelings stir within his heart.

Nabiki stared out the window at the flautist and listened
to the flute speak of days and nights without food or water,
no bed or shelter. The song seemed to speak of a lifetime of
poverty and privation, of times of such loneliness as one's
heart seemed to be reduced to cold stone and ash and the
bitter taste of it filled one's mouth.

The flute briefly broke into a bubbly happy tune that
brought smiles to many faces, speaking of a friend found,
one who didn't quite understand, but was there for him.
Hikaru Gosunkugi felt he understood the loneliness, and
longed for such a friend himself- someone who could touch
his soul and bring the sun out of the darkness.

Akane flinched as the flute spoke of becoming cursed, of
such a simple thing as one's body being taken and _twisted_
into a new form, without control, without any warning. The
flute sang on about being overwhelmed as everything was
thrown into chaos with a single careless moment.

Keiko Amano stopped her article in the school paper as the
flute erupted into the joy of finding oneself able to fly,
to leave behind the anchors to the ground and soar
effortlessly through the clouds. For a brief shining moment,
Keiko understood what it was like to be freed from trudging
along the ground, and instead to twirl and dance along the
winds themselves.

Both Akane and Nabiki winced as the flute spoke of new hope
dawning, of extending one's hands and craving friendship,
only to find disgust, distrust, dislike, and needless
cruelty as others sought to distance themselves, rather than
leave their own hearts vulnerable.

The flute finished, speaking this time of being an exhibit
on display, of being judged unclean, of having the curse
triggered repeatedly for no more than a moment's cruel
entertainment. Again it spiraled, speaking of hardships
endured, and still more loneliness and the horrors of being
forced to endure further ostracism.

Ranma put the flute away, he always felt better after
having played. As if a burden had been shifted. He ate the
obento that Kasumi had prepared and wondered why everyone
was looking in his direction.
------Sea Of Japan, "fishing" vessel Myoo Na
Maru(1)--------
"Captain? Captain Fujii?"

Captain Fujii put aside her recently acquired copy of
"Love's Fiery Embrace" and grumbled that this had better be
good. She'd been waiting for the Japanese version of the
romance novel for months.

"Radar contact. Something is coming up fast." The scruffy
looking helmsman stuck his head in the doorway.

Fujii nodded. The werecat was a solid crewmember, she
should have known it was something serious to get him to
interrupt her reading. "What is it? Coast guard? Madame
Lao?(2) Chinese Military? Please, don't it let be the damn
Flying Dutchman again. I swear they must have a Hibiki
navigating."

"Unknown, cap'n," the Hindustani grimaced at the thought of
the ghost ship. They encountered it every so often. Too damn
often by his standards. Of course, he considered adventure
and excitement to be *bad* things and preferred things to
remain simple. Unfortunately, he'd signed on to *this* ship
for a five year contract. "Whatever it is, it's airborne and
very small. Too slow to be a missle, though."

"Okay, that lets out Gojira, the Flying Dutchman, and
probably Lao." You never could tell with Lao, but she
definitely didn't qualify as small. Fujii thought about it,
nothing was on deck to indicate what their vessel really
was, and unless you were familiar with the bizarre history
of the ship designated in several port authorities as "That
Damn Ship" or the "HMS Weirdness Magnet" by others you might
think it was a normal fishing vessel.

"Well, let's see it." Fujii trailed after Neko-san, pausing
only to nod at the male amazon at the controls. Talcum
pulled a hidden switch and a few key preparations were made,
just in case.

There was a hum felt through the deck as certain devices
folded back into housings along the sides of the vessel.

Neko-san stared off to the West, trying to catch a glimpse
of the object. His daylight vision was among the worst of
the crew though, so he couldn't see them until they were
almost alongside the vessel.

The dot became a shape, though they were only a few hundred
yards away before Fujii could make them out. "Faeries?!?"

"Mark that," came the comment from Nathan as he slipped
into place beside the Captain. "Looks like a wind faerie,
and someone under an enchantment. That's probably her
clothing they're carrying. Interesting... I didn't know
there were any faerie left."

Fujii didn't ask. One of the unwritten rules aboard the
Myoo no Maru was "Don't Ask Nathan How He Knows Something."
It was like asking him about astronomy or history. The
consequences could be horrible. He could tell you.

Nathan Brazil usually told his shipmates the truth. This
was the horrible part.
---------Shinjuku, Tokyo--------------------
Night crept over the Japanese islands. The Hunt began and
ended as it always did, with the predator dropping
now-lifeless prey down into its lair. Less than an hour had
passed since nightfall.

The hunting was good in Tokyo. No one had any real faith,
garlic was rare, and the real threats were all but
nonexistant to someone who took reasonable precautions.

Now something different intruded into the old and well-worn
routine. The predator sniffed the air and smiled. Faerie
magic had been used, and used sloppily. That meant a young
faerie. Inexperienced. Vulnerable.

The vampire abandoned its newest victim and sped forth, the
succulent blood of a young faerie beckoned,and if it was a
brownie or other house-faerie then its mortal family would
provide...amusement.(3)
--------------------Tendo-ke, Nerima--------------------
"Excuse me, Ranma, what are these?" Nabiki fingered one of
the paper slips hanging from the outer wall. "These almost
look like spiritual wards." Except that they seemed faintly
luminescent, for one thing.

"Nabiki," Ranma flipped off the wall and stood before her,
looking down at her with a faint smile. "What do you know of
faerie magic?"

Kasumi answered from where she had been sitting. "It's
small scale things, isn't it?"

Nabiki shook her head when she saw that Ranma was still
looking for an answer from her.

"You tell me, Saotome, up until yesterday magic was
something that didn't exist."

Akane settled back into the shadows, still not quite sure
how to handle what she had seen and felt when Ranma had been
playing that flute earlier. Had he cast a spell on her? Was
that why she had felt like that? Why was everyone else so
trusting of him? He was a stranger, he dabbled in magic, he
could easily be a demon or something.

"Faerie magic isn't about demanding or forcing the universe
to do anything. I know how to ask the pieces of the cup to
come back together, or to convince them the break never
happened. It's also about feeling, as the faerie are more
emotional than intellectual."

Nabiki watched Ranma put two more of the wards in place.
"So...you had a bad feeling?"

"Yeah," Ranma said with a nod. "Mind you, these aren't
really strong, but I had to learn how to do this for trips
into the Faerie Realms, there's things in there that you
don't want to meet." Like bog fairies.

"Ranma."

"Yes, Nabiki?" Ranma looked hesitatingly back at his
on-again/off-again iinazuke, trying to guess her mood from
the swirl of colors around her.

"Could you play something on your flute again?" Nabiki
didn't mention the recording equipment. "Something a bit
happier than you played at lunch?"

Ranma nodded and finished the first set of wards. "I'd be
happy to, Nabiki." This was looking up, she'd asked him to
play for her. Akane's aura had less anger (though she was
still radiating distrust as well as other things he couldn't
identify), and Kasumi's was showing a little less of the
barriers.

Ranma settled onto a section of roof, aware of his father's
disapproval and of Soun Tendo's vague agreement with his old
friend. Though Soun was a little put off by how years of
frustration had altered Genma. Time spent playing music was
time wasted that could have been spent on the Art.

Ranma felt there were different Arts, each having their own
time and place. Featherbrite had quoted him some ancient
song about this. "A time for war, a time for peace..."
though in the original Aramaic it had an odd cadence.

Sometimes Ranma wondered about that. What it was like to be
over 12,000 years old. To have a friend who would grow old
and die almost within the blink of an eye compared to that
sort of lifespan... How much of the faerie viewpoint was due
to such a long lifespan? She had seen Empires rise and fall,
mankind struggle up from stone knives and bearskins to some
kind of civilization more than once by her own admission,
and the Industrial Age that had caused most of her own kind
to retreat to the Faerie Realms and other worlds.

Putting aside such considerations for the moment, Ranma
felt the presence of Kasumi and Nabiki doing the dishes in
the kitchen below. Akane was starting to fidget over algebra
problems. Something lowkey, but Nabiki had requested
something happy.

Featherbrite hadn't known the name of the piece that she
had taught Ranma. It was just something she had heard once
in Europe during the so-called Dark Ages. A peasant folk
tune with brightly clothed dancers forgetting their problems
for a time to become lost in the restless energy of the
dance. Again he did as he had been taught and threw himself
totally into the music, this time without taking the
liberties he had during his lunchtime concert. His foot
tapped against the rooftiles to provide the beat.

Akane looked up, her homework forgotten for a moment as the
melody came through her window. Seeing a strip of paper
hanging over it, she pulled it down. Another spirit ward.
Honestly, that boy was such so strange. If it turned out
that this *was* some kind of trick, she would remain
untouched by it.

Nabiki sped from the kitchen with her tape recorder and
quickly set up where she could record the little serenade.
She had mailers with the addresses of two recording studios
ready. The smile on her face was only partly from the
revenue, there seemed to be some infectious energy in the
alien music.

Kasumi merely listened to the music and enjoyed. It was her
way, just as looking for a profit was Nabiki's, and Akane
MIGHT bring herself to enjoy it but wouldn't admit it. A
brief image came to her, of brightly dressed gaijin dancing
with frantic energy in the light of a campfire as a pair of
farmers played.

Uncaring, Ranma finished the old dance tune and went on to
something a little more modern. Only a little bit though. He
wondered if Featherbrite had actually met Bach...

Kasumi looked up as the piping went into the "Ode To Joy"
and marvelled again at her sister's iinazuke. Perhaps he was
a bit immature, but he obviously was not as simple as she
had
first perceived him to be. There was some growing rift
between Ranma and Nabiki, and Kasumi considered the
possibility that one one woman's trash might well be
another's treasure.

Nabiki listened to the old piece played in a manner that
the composer had probably never anticipated. She checked and
made sure that the recorder was still running. The gleam in
her eyes was a reflection of the money she stood to make.
--------------------------------------
(1) The very same weirdness magnet/fishing/smuggling
vessel i used in Happi Days, renamed from "Chacha
Maru." The basic concept remains the same. Captain Fujii,
Neko-san, Nathan, Talcum, and the others are part of one of
the rules that govern anime universes. "Strangeness
accumulates."
If anybody wants to use 'em in a fanfic, feel free. I
have stats on 'em.
(2) Permission to reference Madam Lao from Jim Bader. No,
she doesn't actually appear. I have other villains planned.
(3) This is a villain. Villains bad. Don't worry, before
this fic is too far along, this villain will be dealt with,
though some repercussions may remain. However, this IS an
evil villain, which means that all is not sweetness and
light here.
(4) The bit about Cold Iron and the fey folk is from the old
stories about them, and how you ward them off. Faerie magic
is depicted in this fic as low power, low scale, and emotive
and instinctual rather than ritual.
------Tendo-ke, Nerima---------
Akane couldn't sleep. The reason for this was not the
algebra homework she'd failed to
complete, nor the English test the next day.

It was an unfamiliar feeling. Guilt. She'd been nasty to
this Ranma since the beginning. At first it was because here
was some new boy. She hated boys, they'd never given her any
reason to think they had any value whatsoever.

Still, he'd been fairly kind and more mature than the rest
of the boys she'd known. Though the talk about invisible
faeries (his father denied there was anything of the sort)
and his curse freaked her out, she realized that it wasn't
_completely_ Ranma's fault. He'd been dragged around without
any friends or family, so it was only natural that he was a
little weird.

Okay, make that a lot weird.

Still, there was something about him that just set her on
edge. He hadn't (so far) done anything to justify her
suspicions. If he could make Nabiki happy, then shouldn't
*she* be happy? Maybe it was what Nabiki said it was, that
for once a boy had actually ignored her. Akane dismissed the
thought after a moment. Despite what Nabiki had been
hinting, Akane knew she didn't suffer from too much pride.

Then there had been that music at lunch, and she'd felt
regret since then. She actually had a lot in common with
Ranma. Loss, and loneliness, and she'd felt the same
alone-within-a-crowd that the song had seemed to whisper to
her.

Akane got honest with herself in the manner that some
people managed to do in the state between wakefulness and a
sleep that wouldn't come. The reason she disliked him wasn't
that he was a freak of nature that set her teeth on edge
(though his cursed form did that) or that he was capable of
doing things she couldn't (though she resented him for
that.)

Akane could admit it to herself, though if she were fully
awake she'd have denied the whole thing as ludicrous. She
had found Ranma attractive from the start. He was good
looking, well built, good at the martial arts, had a sense
of humor and honesty, and was much more desirable than the
hormone crazed BOYS she had to fight every morning.

"First halfway decent guy to show up at Furinkan, and he's
not only a freak but he chooses
Nabiki. NABIKI! Over me." Akane stared at the ceiling, not
particularly aware that she was whispering aloud. "Why? I
can't have Doctor Tofu, and now this freak chooses Nabiki.
Why not me?" She ignored the voice that said that if she
hadn't been hostile to him, she could get him. Besides, he'd
said earlier that he was only going along with this
engagement thing for the moment. He had stated earlier that
he was sure that when their parents noticed that none of the
girls were interested in him, they'd call it all off.

A sound at her window, like a tapping, brought Akane to
full wakefulness. Akane rose
from her bed, trying to figure out who could be
up at this hour.

Akane found herself looking into eyes the color of fresh
blood before she knew she was in
danger.
----------------------Kuno mansion, Nerima-------------
"Sasuke!"

"Here, Master Kuno!"

"Don't do that!" Kuno got his heart rate back under control
with some effort. If he didn't know better, he'd have
thought the bucktoothed ninja enjoyed popping out of nowhere
and startling him.

"Sorry, Master Kuno."

"Have you located what I have asked for?"

"I have had to request its manufacture, Master. It will be
ready for tomorrow's battle!"

"Excellent." Kuno didn't even bother looking at his
underling. He was too busy contemplating the glorious battle
that lay before him tomorrow. "Tomorrow, my winged elf maid,
tomorrow you shall be mine!"

Kuno's laugh echoed outside the Kuno Estate the way
properly done maniacal laughter is supposed to.
-----------------Tendo-ke, Nerima-------------
Ranma was awake, and if he had been in yousei form would
have been hovering near the ceiling in agitation.

The outer layer of wards were not very powerful. Imps or
gremlins would be stopped, but otherwise it was just a
warning system. Those warnings had gone off as Something
broke through.

The wards outside the house itself were rather stronger and
more specialized. These were
specifically wards against supernatural evil. If something
broke through those, there was some
serious trouble. There wasn't the sensation of some
supernatural evil breaking through those, however.

Both the room Ranma occupied, and the room Nabiki occupied
had another layer. This last
layer was subtle, hidden, and only meant to give the
occupant a few extra moments of warning.

It was this last layer that had gone off, a silent alarm
that Something Wicked This Way
Comes. That it had apparently gotten through the second
layer was indication to Ranma that this
was not one of the mindless Thyngs of faerie, nor even a
bog-imp such as the "spider" that had
been ready to devour Featherbrite all those years ago. This
was therefore Evil and Intelligent.

Ranma kicked his father awake then made a hand signal where
the panda could see it.
Genma immediately came awake without his usual grumpiness
and far more quickly. He had been the
one who had taught Ranma the shinobi hand signals years ago.

Danger. Intruder. Nearby. The hand signals were only meant
to convey specific ideas, but this it did very well. Ranma's
hands stopped as the door to the room began to slide open.
----------------------------
Nabiki awoke immediately at the sounds of a fight going on.
Wondering what could be this bad at 3am, the groggy teenager
stuck her head out her door and wondered if she were still
dreaming.

Hissing like a monitor lizard, Akane hefted Genma in his
giant panda form over her head and threw him down the stairs
like a rag doll.

Ranma did a spinning kick to Akane's head that should have
torn her younger sister's
head off but just caused Akane to stagger slightly.

Ranma used the opportunity to apply an Octopus hold to the
berserk teenager. "Nabiki,"
Ranma managed as Akane tried to dislodge him. "Get <urk> a
spirit ward. <Ak> Hurry!"

Nabiki froze as she got a look at Akane's face. Maybe it
was the bared fangs, maybe it was
the glowing red eyes, maybe it was just the way she kept
slamming the struggling Ranma into and through the walls.
She didn't think that was her sister after all.(1)

Nabiki just barely registered Kasumi moving forward and
slapping something against Akane's forehead. Whatever it was
had to be hot because smoke immediately started pouring up
and Akane HOWLED.

It wasn't until after Akane had collapsed and a shaking
Ranma was leaning against the wall that Nabiki saw what
Kasumi had in her hand. A silver cross.

"WHAT was that?"

"Vampiric possession." Ranma tried to catch his breath.

"Vampires," Nabiki managed. "Well, I suppose if curses,
faerie, and the like exist, I shouldn't be TOO surprised.
Why did it come here? Why Akane?"

"I don't know," answered Ranma honestly. "Why Akane? I'm
not sure, and speculating would be pointless. Oh, thanks,
Kasumi."

"How do you know about vampires, anyway? Is this one who
followed you?" Nabiki was shaking and scared and didn't like
either condition.

"No. My faerie companion introduced me to one once during a
night I was being music trained. He isn't a bad sort,
though, and would NEVER do this sort of thing."

"A nice vampire?" Kasumi stated, apparently not noticing at
how Ranma had stared at her nightgown before turning away
flushed. It was just her way of repeating things to indicate
that she understood.

"Yeah, whoever or whatever attacked, I'm sure it wasn't
Geoffery. He's wandering Japan looking for a cure." Ranma
sighed and looked at the damage. "Guess I better get started
fixing all this."

Nabiki hesitated before kneeling down next to her sister.
One hiss or gleam of red though,
and she'd be doing a credible imitation of a gazelle. She
brushed the hair back from Akane's neck and stared at the
two wounds revealed there.

"I'll need to reinforce the wards, and if Kasumi can buy
extra garlic, we can keep this
from going any further." Ranma's gaze met Nabiki's over the
prone Akane.

"Oh dear," summed up Kasumi.
---------------Shinjuku, Tokyo---------------
Vladimir entered his lair and scowled at the surroundings.
So close, he'd been so close.
If he could drink the blood of a faerie, and use the wings
and body in the Dark Arts, then his long plan could be
completed.

"Soon, soon, I shall have my vengeance against you, Dmitri
Maximov!"

The vampire entered his coffin to rest. Tomorrow he had to
feed again on Akane Tendo,
and then he'd be able to get past the wards and get the
blood and body of the faerie.

He didn't realize how much like his ancient foe he had
become.
--------------Tendo-ke, Nerima---------------------------
Kasumi was up, as was usual, before the sunrise. She'd
gotten a little less sleep than
normal, undead showing up in the middle of the night having
that effect, and was hoping the rest
of the day was calm enough that a nap could actually be
scheduled.

A six inch faerie entering through an open window dispelled
that idea.

Kasumi hoped that Ranma would be able to put together that
mixing bowl again.

Featherbrite noted that this girl's eyes were tracking her,
and allowed herself to be drawn from the reunion with Ranma.

"Oh, you must be Ranma's imaginary friend." Kasumi
remembered Genma's talks about that. Ranma denied that the
friend in question was imaginary. If she could see the
little creature, then Ranma obviously had a very good
imagination.

Featherbrite used her abilities to pass through the young
woman's almost nonexistant mental defenses and gave a sigh
that would have been accompanied by a big sweatdrop if she
weren't so tiny. A couple of temporary fixes seemed to be
indicated. This girl was so polite that she just accepted
what that horrible Genma had told her, almost without a
second thought.

The faerie checked and found that this girl actually found
Ranma attractive! Not that she'd ever do anything about it
because of some odd barriers she'd put over her behavior,
and
some other things the faerie wasn't exactly sure about.
Ranma insisted that tweaking someone's mind was wrong, but
surely a few corrections here and there would be ok.

"Genma is mistaken. He is not very clever." Featherbrite
put a little extra power into the words. "I am invisible to
many. You can see me."

Kasumi nodded. Yes, she had noticed that Mister Saotome was
missing a few bricks from the load. A few donuts shy of a
dozen. The elevator didn't quite reach the top floor, in his
case at least.

Featherbrite looked this girl over, inside and out, and
immediately labelled her "Candidate #2" as far as THAT went.
She'd find Ranma first, then get a sleeping Shampoo off the
roof. The sooner she got someone to start sleeping with
Ranma, the sooner she'd be able to get the damn panda's
influence over Ranma diluted.

Finding Ranma asleep, Featherbrite decided that this was a
VERY good idea and found her own place to sleep.
---------------------------------------
"Okay Saotome," Nabiki licked nervous lips. "I'm ready."
Silently she added that she _hoped_ she was ready.

Ranma scooped Nabiki up in her arms. "Okay, what first?"

"How high up can you go?" Nabiki tried not to think about
the stomach flipflop sensation of freefall. They were only a
foot above the ground, and she had a squeeze bottle of cold
water in case (somehow) they ran into hot water during the
flight.

"What are you two doing?" Akane came out, holding her head
and looking like she'd just gone two rounds with a world
class martial artist.

"I'm going for a ride, Akane. He's my iinazuke, after all,
and it's only fair to find out what all he can do. Even if
he's a she at the moment." Nabiki turned to look at Ranma.
"Now, Ranma, let's find out."

Akane watched as the two figures shot up into the air,
quickly becoming specks in the distance. "Baka..." Akane's
voice broke on the last syllable. She wasn't sure if she was
referring to Nabiki or Ranma. Not that she was jealous, mind
you. She had vague memories of the previous night filtering
in, but they didn't make much sense at the moment.

Kasumi dried a plate and looked skyward at the dot that was
her sister and her fiance. She wondered if she could get a
ride later. "How nice. Do you suppose Ranma's little friend
is still asleep in his room?"

Akane gave Kasumi an odd look. "Little friend? Kasumi, are
you feeling all right? Mister Saotome said that it was all
just Ranma's imagination."

"Mister Saotome is a few cards short of a full deck."
Kasumi continued to watch as the tiny speck made a ninety
degree turn and passed behind a cloud. "He's a few fries
short of a Happy Meal. Not running on all cylinders. A few
holes under par."

Akane stared and wondered exactly what was going on.
Deciding she was too tired to care at this point, Akane went
back into the house to finish getting ready for school.

Kasumi merely felt a pang of envy, quickly suppressed, and
decided to see if Ranma's little friend was ok.
---------------------------------------
Nabiki decided she would not squeal, she would not faint,
she would NOT do anything to indicate that she was viewing
the entire experience as anything but a scientific
experiment. She was admittedly having a very hard time with
this.

After looking down at teeny-tiny roads and the tops of
clouds, Nabiki had realized that they had stopped climbing
in altitude because the air was getting thin. Not that
Ranma-yousei's wings beat or had anything like a surface to
air ratio that would have supported them. Because much
further up would have been difficult to breathe.

As far as speed went, she had trouble figuring out the
details. Her watch indicated that they had traveled the one
kilometer from the ice cream parlor to Furinkan high in less
than ten seconds. That indicated, Nabiki did the numbers in
her head, 6km per minute or a top speed via Air Ranma of
roughly 360kph.

She noted that while weightless and blithely ignoring
several important physical laws, it was NOT effortless. When
the two of them arrived at Furinkan, Ranma was quite winded.

Regaining her footing, Nabiki nodded at Ranma. "Well, that
was interesting. I think that I might have a few ideas how
we can make use of that flight talent of yours."

"Whatever you say, Nabiki. I need to find some hot water
before classes start."

Akane arrived and looked around. Everyone was paying
attention to Nabiki and Ranma? Nobody had noticed that she
was here? It wasn't like she felt well this morning anyway.
She decided to be happy about this turn of events, rather
than resent the way everyone was ignoring her arrival.

"Ah, winged goddess, how your presence shines like the
morning sun itself. Truly, you must be a wild spirit. Let my
heart tame you, that you may accept the jesses of my love."

Almost everyone was staring at Kuno.

"Uh, Kuno. What the heck are you talking about?"

"I come prepared to capture your heart, with this." Kuno
pulled the manriki-gusari out and threw it in one motion.

Nabiki stared in horror, the moment seeming to be in slow
motion as she noted the steel had sleeves of some dark metal
on the links.

"What kind of lame attack is this," Ranma asked as she
reached out to snatch the weapon out of the air.
-------------------------------------
(1)- based on scenes from TOS, Nabiki is not what one would
call a morning person. It takes her awhile to bring the
higher functions on line.

Next: Another New Complication. we'll see you there.

--
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http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/

"Chinese Amazons, powerarmor, energy blades, some things
just are meant to be."
-Shampoo, A Very Scary Bet

ja ne,
gregg