Ranma made several insistant commentaries that there flight path shouldn't even go near to flying over the Jusenkyo Pools. While most people assumed Ranma was just being superstitious in a "once bitten, twice shy" sort of way, they concurred....just to be on the safe side. (Besides, many were more lenient to the concept of magic after Thor paid Sunfire a visit.)
Landing near the Phoenix Mountain was also a bad idea, both because of Ranma's past with them and because the proximity to the pools. Granted, Ranma wasn't really sure WHAT the Phoenix people's feelings toward him were (he did manage to give them an easier life after all), but now wasn't the time to learn.
The Musk were a slightly less volatile situation. Ranma knew for certainty, due to certain messages received, that Prince Herb at least held him in respect (for both their fight and the fight with Saffron) and considered himself to owe a life-debt to Ranma. However, others brought up the fact that it would probably only increase tension in the area to bring in local allies. And they were trying to reduce strife, not increase it.
Plus there were the Musk attitudes toward women to consider, while Herb and his lackey's were more naive and ignorant than they were domineering, nobody knew for certain about the rest of the tribe (if there was a rest of the tribe...Herb had never made it clear if he Mint and Lime were the last or not).
In any case, the mutants ended up setting down on the Amazon side of the region, in a clearing within a couple of miles of the village.
Needless to say, they found the village seemed to be expecting them.
The entire complex was virtually spiked with spears and bows were in attendance all along the walls. A tall, withered old woman stepped forward to the top of the walls and looked down toward them.
"May I ask the reason for your visit?" she demanded.
"Negotiations," Sunfire said.
He rose up into the air, coming level with the old woman's eyes. Fujisawa, smirking and cracking his knuckles, remained standing by Kasumi, wearing some rather practical hiking clothes, though still seeming a bit out of place among the other three. Yomiko stood nearby, though she appeared no more of a threat than Kasumi. The old woman was not impressed.
"What form of negotiations?" the old woman asked. As they spoke, birds of every species in the region began to appear.
"It involves two of your number in Japan," Sunfire said. "Elder Cologne and her great-granddaughter, Shampoo."
"Ahh," the old woman said. "You've come to negotiate on behalf of Shampoo's reluctant Airen." She considered the situation. "I assume that you've come to the conclusion that people less emotionally connected will be more 'reasonable?'"
"That is the assumption," he said.
"And if we're not reasonable?" the old woman asked.
"Then we shall have to be unreasonable as well," Sunfire answered.
"The four of you?" the old woman asked.
In that instant, a swarm of birds swooped along the walls, and in their wake every bow-string was snapped and bows rendered useless. The house wife in hiking gear was swiftly replaced with a large tiger that sat patiently watching the walls.
Spears were torn out of the hands of warriors into the air where Sunfire incinirated them.
As for Fujisawa, in a move almost faster than the elder could see, he had advanced on the gate of the village and smashed it inward. And he was back with the others almost before the instant of action was over.
"The four of us," Sunfire ascertained. "Or we can call our students in to join us. Including Ranma."
The old woman frowned for a moment and calculated her people's chances for victory. They were three elders in the village, but the rest were mostly young, immature warriors who would likely drop like flies before these assaults.
Even if they won...it would be a pyrhic (sp) victory. They would be left easy prey for the Musk, Phoenix, or even just the elements. They were not farmers, such a battle would destroy their stores, and they wouldn't have anything to trade for more food for more than a season, nor would they have the force necessary to steal food.
It was simple...battle was death.
"We shall talk," she said.
****
After hearing the discussion of Shampoo and Cologne's methods, not to mention the situation of Shampoo's "defeat" over Ranma the old woman, Powder, was actually somewhat agreeing with the foreigners.
There were several parts of the law that their journeying tribemates had "overlooked."
First, the challenge had to be an official match with onlookers to judge the situation. The amazons were warriors, they did not expect everyone of their number to be unbeatable. If the marriage laws extended to every accidental or circumstantial defeat, well, the Amazons and Musks would have long ago ceased to be separate tribes.
Second, there was a pre-existing marriage contract in existence. The boy was already married by their laws, and exempt from the law. A contract of the like between the Saotome and Tendo families had the strength of a Kiss of Marriage in their laws. (they had to change that a couple of thousand years ago when they realized that trade was easier and more profitable than raiding)
Third, and this wasn't so much a part of the law, but it was pointed. The Kiss of Death had not been given in well over five hundred years, hence the reason the crowd had been so stunned when Shampoo gave the red-haired girl the kiss. And it appeared that Shampoo had given the kiss twice.
The failure to follow through on the first was understandable considering the Jusenkyo curse. The second kiss, on Akane Tendo, however, was at best a vain attempt to intimidate either her opponent or Ranma. And at worst it was just a frivilous put on. In either case it was apparent that she never intended to follow through on the kiss to Akane Tendo. Not to mention that Akane Tendo had never beaten her, and the Kiss of Death was not for rivals in love.
Shampoo seemed to be disrespecting their laws and misusing them left and right. And her grandmother, the power-grasping old crone, seemed to be aiding her.
And then, of course, there was the stupidity. If an untrained girl like this Nabiki she had met had managed to defeat Cologne, even in the situation of taking her by surprise, then mutants were something to be treated with respect. Especially when added to the display given their village.
"Well," Sunfire asked. "What is your answer?"
She couldn't allow these foreigners a total victory, however. After conferring with the other elders, she had her answer.
"Cologne and Shampoo shall have no help from the village," Powder said. "They shall be considered exiles until such time as they prove that we should change our minds."
"And shall you do anything about their activities?" Kasumi inquired.
"No," Powder said. "They are now exiles, it would bring dishonor to deal with such beyond defending the village. Though the fact that they have not been acting within our laws shall be made clear to them."
In other words...they'd just made Cologne and Shampoo more desparate and taken away the laws they followed. And the "until they prove" otherwise part certainly indicated that if Shampoo should acquire Ranma somehow, they would not be opposed to admitting them back in.
At least it meant they had only two warriors to deal with, not a whole army. And from the sounds of it, Cologne and Shampoo should be easy to deal with.
At least, Sunfire hoped so.
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(Posted Sat, 14 Dec 2002 13:06)
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