The time gates ceased to exist. “Oh, heck. That can’t be good,” Setsuna said, a moment before being swept up by the new history.
Serenity held the Ginzuishou over her head in bitter triumph. The attacking forces were destroyed; not merely routed but annihilated by her weapon of last resort. But… it was her last resort both because there was nothing else left to use, and because there was little remaining of her domain for the backlash to destroy. Not a weapon of final defense, as much as a means of bloodied revenge.
No one would have her queendom, at all, and she was left alone to wring what little she could from her triumphant devastation. Her main comfort was that she would not last long beyond its demise. The weapon was inexorably linked to her life and its use had drained them both. Her demise was inevitable and imminent.
Neither would anything else survive long; not with the environmental guards destroyed with her. For anything to be salvaged there was only one recourse: strip the star cores from the survivors’ dying bodies and send them through time and space to be reincarnated rather than allow them to be reclaimed by the galactic caldron.
The process was not at simple by any means, but Serenity had just enough power to do that, and also to place two advisors in suspension to guide her spiritual descendants in rebuilding the realm.
So she raised the Ginzuishou one last time, willed the Time Gates to open… and everything went haywire as chaos rushed out.
The star cores of her daughter, loyal warriors, and subjects were transmigrated, but so too were those of the forces corrupted by Beryl. The overload staggered Serenity and shattered the crystals before she could complete the program. She was unable to divert the essences into the time gate as planned. She barely had enough resources to keep them from dispersing entirely, and redirected the essence to the nearby planet. In doing so, she was unable to ensure that they’d bond with compatible host forms, and could only hope for the best.
It was a wet and dreary afternoon as Saotome Genma, Saotome Ranma, and their flight of faeries arrived in Nerima. It was in fact, pouring down miserably; lovely weather for ducks and water faeries.
The street vendors were sheltering under awnings, the occasional water or wind faerie flittered about struggling to keep the shelters dry, and those with fire faeries had them working hard in their firepots to keep the shelters warm.
However, the street faeries seemed such small sprites when compared to the four apparitions manifested above the Saotomes’ heads, keeping them dry despite the downpour, and that observation set the street abuzz with whispered conversation.
Ranma normally took a certain satisfied pride in the reaction to his faeries’ strength, but the boy had other matters on his mind. “I cannot believe you’ve arranged a marriage without discussing it with me, Old Man! … Well, actually no, I can believe it. It’s totally the kind of stunt you’d pull.”
“Quiet, boy; this is for your own good!” Genma growled.
“Feh! Now I know it’s gonna be trouble,” Ranma snorted. “Listen up, Old Man, I don’t have time for such nonsense.”
“Oh! Do you have anything better to do?”
“Well… Oh, yeah. Almost anything’s better than getting tied down to some girl I’ve never even met.”
“Well, that’s no problem at all.”
“It isn’t?” Ranma asked suspiciously.
“We’ll simply meet them first, then you’ll make the right decision. Or else.”
“Yeah, right. See, that’s not gonna happen. Come up with a better plan, Old Man.”
“Very, well, plan B: I subdue you and drag you along.”
“You and what army, Old Man,” Ranma snorted.
“Setsuna, Michiru, Haruka,” Genma counted off his fingers, drawing strength, speed, and empathy from his faeries.
“Bring it on, Old Man!” Ranma smirked as he called upon his own flight.
(Posted Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:04)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.