CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
"You know, you still have much more to learn," Aura smirked as she once again parried one of Tidus' sword strikes.
Tidus was furious. He WAS using his Delay Attack, and Aura really wasn't that quick, but he still didn't manage to break through her guard.
'Maybe you should consider using Armor Break...' Shuyin suggested.
"Feh," Tidus grumbled. "That attack is cheap. A REAL swordsman has to know how to win without relying on attacks like that. There just HAS to be a way to break through her defenses."
'Well, if you insist...'
CLANG!!!
Tidus' hands vibrated, as his sword was once again deflected by the massive sword of the petite girl. "Perhaps Armor Break isn't such a bad idea..."
----
"Be careful, Ranma," Akane shouted. "A Flame Flan! Remember? You won't be able to hurt him with your bare hands."
"I'm not going to use my hands," Ranma smirked. "Watch!" He cupped his hands as he was going to use his Moko Takabisha. But instead of a sphere of Ki, a gleaming ice crystal appeared in his hands. "Black Magic Moko Takabisha: Crystal Shot!" And he threw the magical attack towards the burning pile of goo. One hit, and it went down.
Akane stared. "How did you do THAT?"
Ranma grinned. "Well, I taught Carbuncle one or two things about martial arts, and he combined it with his magic abilities. So, to return the favor, he taught me some magic... and I combined it with my Ki attacks! Neat, huh?"
----
Rikku quickly pulled out a Remedy and used it on Shampoo. Instantly, her green face turned back to its normal color. Still gasping and choking, Shampoo sat up. "Huh... huh... Shampoo... never do that again... Big plant's breath... worse... than violent girl's cooking!"
"Hey!" Akane snapped.
"But look at it that way," Rikku answered. "With your Gun Mage abilities, you should have learned the Malboro's Bad Breath as a Blue Bullet by now."
Shampoo thought about it and finally said: "Shampoo not think that makes up for her suffering..."
Nabiki smirked. "Think of it that way, Shampoo: No one will really notice the difference between that attack and your normal breath."
Shampoo glared at her.
----
Kasumi happily twirled around while trying out her new dance steps. It was really handy: The confused fiends almost instantly attacked each other.
"Nice work," Wakka said. "I still didn't manage to get my ball inflicting that kind of status problem."
"But that's also boring," Tidus murmured. "Where's the fun in letting the fiends killing themselves? I prefer the old-fashioned way..." And he gripped his sword and finished the Nebiros off.
----
Ukyo slowly stepped back when the two Ogres stomped towards her, growling viciously.
Ranma stepped up next to her and shouted: "Hey, big guys! You leave the lady alone, okay? 'Cause if you don't, I have to tell my big friend over there to bash you up. And he reeeaaaally had a bad day..."
The ogres blinked, turned around and looked up at the big, black-furred, winged, sword-wielding, humanoid lion that was hovering before them.
Griever just smirked.
----
"DAMN!" Nabiki shouted when the Anacondaur attacked her. "I'm out of grenades. Okay, then get ready to..." She reached for her gun, when the fiend whacked it away with it's arm. She gulped. "Well, crap!"
She already saw herself being the snake-fiend's lunch, when Shampoo raised her gun and shouted: "BAD BREATH!"
And the absolutely horrendous, disgusting, nauseous green cloud bursted forth from her magical weapon and enveloped both the Anacondaur and the Alchemist.
The snake got blind and confused and repeatedly tried to hit a nearby boulder... and Nabiki? She just gasped and choked, as her face turned a sickly green, then her eyes slowly closed... and she fell asleep.
Shampoo sweat-dropped. "Whoops!"
----
That night, they were resting in the small Al Bhed agency right in the middle of the Calm Lands.
Yuna saw Ranma sitting by himself on the ground, staring off into the distance.
"Hey," she said in a cheerful voice and sat down next to him. "What's up?"
He frowned. "I just thought about your journey. And about what Rikku told me at Home: That you will die when you receive the Final Aeon."
Yuna looked down. "I... I know that most of you don't want me to use it, but... Akane told me that you really wouldn't be able to use it, because it's not a pure Esper, right? So that's really the only option we have."
Ranma shook his head. "That won't work. If it just comes back, several years later, your death will have been in vain. And I don't want that. We all don't want that - especially not Tidus!"
She sighed. "I know, but... what am I gonna do? Just let Sin continue his rampage?"
"No, I didn't say that," Ranma responded. "But there has to be another way. I just want to know what it is that makes this Final Aeon so special... why is it the only way do defeat Sin? Is it just because of its power? I think, if we use all our Aeons together, even without the additional support of our guardians, the two of us would be easily able to beat Sin. I saw his powers during the battle at Djose... it's attack powers are the only problem. But perhaps it's because of something else... I don't know..."
Yuna looked into his face. "Well, what do you want me to do?"
Ranma looked up. "I want you... to go to Zanarkand and receive the Final Aeon. But at first, I want to see what it is, what it does. Perhaps then we can think of a way of using its powers that doesn't result in your death."
Yuna sighed. "I just wish Yevon wouldn't have deceived us all... I always supposed the maester's teachings would be our only right way of thinking... that only knew what would be best. I grew up with them... never questioning them... and now I realize that everything... everything I believed in... it was all one big lie."
"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "Kinda depressing, isn't it? I knew something was fishy about Seymour, and I never liked some of Yevon's rules, but... that the whole system would be that corrupt... no way no one ever managed to find a way to get rid of Sin for good."
"What are we going to do about them?" Yuna asked. "I mean, we already killed Seymour, and yet, he came back to go after me..."
Ranma snorted. "Well, no wonder when Mika himself is already dead. I mean, honestly: They shouldn't have called themselves Yevon, but more something like 'Cult of the Dead!'
Yuna giggled. "Now, who would come up with a stupid name like that?"
----
In another dimension, a certain Lich sneezed.
"Gesundheit!" one of his Ghoul subordinates growled.
Kel'Thuzad sniffed. "Thanks... You know, with this cold climate here in Northrend, I just had to catch a cold sooner or later..."
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:12)
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.