Nerima . . .
"Father, it's time."
The people seated at the coffee table in the Tendou home perked on hearing that voice, and then they turned to see a blue-eyed, raven-haired man standing there. Except for the patriarchs of both the Tendou and Saotome families, everyone's eyes then went wide on seeing what said man was wearing. "Oh, my!" Kasumi gasped.
"Ranma! What are you doing wearing that?" Akane shrilled. In her hands, the transformed Hibiki Ryouga squealed his own inquiry.
Currently draped over Saotome Ranma's well-honed frame was a dark red bodysuit with full sleeves, topped off with blue elbow-length gauntlets and calf-high buccaneer boots. A dark blue stripe bordered in silver went down his left side, its interior edge centred on the middle of his breast. On the breast, as if being poured out of a pitcher of water, was a stylized horse's head. Seeing that, Genma blinked before a delighted smile crossed his face. "You're ready for this, my child?"
"Got no choice now, especially with Gojira about to tromp into town," Ranma asserted before he gazed on Souun. Standing to attention, he then bowed low. "Tendou-dono, this humble traveller thanks you from the bottom of his heart for your more than generous hospitality." He straightened herself as he added, "He also begs leave of you to deal with the current crisis confronting us all."
"You have my permission, child," Souun declared with a nod before a bright smile crossed his face. "And my eternal thanks for your endless patience at this poor man's many shortcomings and how that has come to reflect on you."
"Compared to my true home, Tendou-dono, this was actually quite mild," Ranma -- now Mustang -- asserted with a wink before he turned to leave. "Now, if you'll excuse me . . . "
"Hold it, Saotome!" Nabiki stated. "You're not going anywhere until you . . . "
"Souun, old friend, may my child have your permission to break both her arms to make her be silent for a change?" Genma cut in with an icy grin.
Horrified gasps escaped the younger people in the room except Ranma, he having a knowing look on his face as he stared at Nabiki. The middle Tendou daughter was gaping like a fish at Genma, she shocked to hear such a blunt question from him of all people -- to say anything of said comment not eliciting a scream of outrage from her own father! "Please do not tempt me, dear friend," Souun replied in a neutral tone, that sending another wave of shock through his children. "Don't delay too long, Ranma-san," he then told Genma's child. "Leave these ones to us."
"My thanks, sir. I'll be back."
And with that, Ranma stepped out onto the porch -- and with a leap, he flew off into the morning sky. Everyone watched him disappear, and then the children all spun onto the fathers. "Dad!" Akane shrilled. "What's going on here?!"
"That, child, will be explained when or if Genma's child returns," Souun flatly announced, the fire in his eyes and the ice in his voice warning his children that there would be no dissention tolerated from his daughters. He then stared at P-chan, his voice taking on a very dangerous edge. "And you will behave yourself when that happens, Hibiki-san," -- The scorn just poured in torrents on his saying the honorific -- "Or your actions against my family will be spread broadside across the entire country, soiling your reputation forever!"
Hearing that, P-chan squealed in shock before he passed out in Akane's hands. "Fool only brought it on himself," Genma muttered under his breath.
"Agreed," Souun mused.
The Tendou daughters just stared at the older men . . .
"Oh, my!" a certain ninja then gasped before he moved to extract himself from his usual hiding place -- the ceiling of the sitting room of the Tendou home -- so he could go forth and report to his master. "The Young Master most certainly will be interested in hearing this . . . "
"HAKO DATO SHINSHOU!"
Sasuke screamed out as the boards underneath him exploded, sending the poor ninja flying back-first into the dense roof beams of the Tendou home. As unconsciousness seized him, he then fell through the hole made in the sitting room's ceiling by Genma's attack, he then smashing face-first into the floor close to Nabiki.
"You have a lot of termites in this place, old friend," Genma noted.
"Agreed," Souun breathed out.
Tomobiki . . .
"I've always dreaded this day's coming, dear."
"Oh, Mother, stop that! It was going to come sooner or later."
"Leave her be, Dear. She knows what she's getting into."
"Hai, that's true."
With that, Miyake Toshoba and his wife, Miyake Kimiki, turned to stare on their transformed daughter. Shinobu currently sported a sky blue jumpsuit that was quite flattering on her, it emblazoned with swarms of doves all over her arms, legs and chest. V-topped white boots finished the ensemble. Passing a hand through her lovely brown hair, the woman who now considered herself Rampage then blinked as a curious feeling crossed her heart. "Strange . . . "
"What is it, dear?" Kimiki asked.
"I just sensed several people coming," Shinobu asserted before her eyes closed as she listened to the eerie inner voice all Yizibajohei possessed when it came to dealing with their past-selves. "Wild Rider, Warwind, Caltrop and two others I don't recognise. I think Infinity's gone off to fight Gojira-san directly . . . "
"Why are you friends coming here for?" Toshoba wondered.
"Don't know, but they're heading to the Mendou estate now," Shinobu said as she moved to head out. "Most likely to get weapons for Caltrop. I have to go!"
"Be careful, dear!" Kimiki called out as Shinobu sprang through the door, and then with a leap, she was off.
"She'll be alright, honey," Toshoba assured his wife.
"I hope so . . . "
"WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?!" a Niphentaxian observer, one of dozens sent to the Holy City to watch over the Goddess and Her Holy Company, shrieked out as the recordings from the home of the Sinful Doubter Shinobu were replayed on speakers, they located in a nondescript home somewhere in one of Tomobiki's poorer sections. "THE SINFUL DOUBTER IS ACTUALLY FROM THE UNSPEAKABLE PLANET?!"
"That's what it sounds like, Commander!" one of his subordinates replied.
"What do we do, sir?!" another observer demanded.
"Inform President Oogi about this!" the commander ordered, his eyes ablaze with the insane fury hardened adherents to the philosophy of the Church of Lum could express virtually at a whim. "All of the Faithful must be made aware of this heinous atrocity! Perhaps it is time that we deal with the Unspeakable Ones! The whole galaxy -- No! The whole Universe! -- will rejoice when that happens and finally, finally, finally, ALL WILL BOW TO LUM-SAMA!"
"ALL HAIL LUM-SAMA!" the other observers cheered.
"P.O., we got a big problem!"
"What is it, Killick?"
"Niphentaxians keeping watch on Rampage's home just found out she's from Yiziba," the leading seaman reported. "They're calling home about it."
"Jam it!" the petty officer ordered.
"Are we authorized?" a master seaman asked.
"We are, especially when it comes to those loons!"
"AYE-AYE, P.O.!"
Mahora . . .
"Please don't go, Asakura-san! You'll be in terrible danger from that monster . . .!"
Hearing the pleas of the resident ghost of Mahora Girls Academy's Junior High Class 3-A, the young woman known to her peers as Asakura Kazumi -- on Yiziba, she would be normally called Windtalker -- tried not to chuckle on hearing Aisaka Sayo's heartfelt plea. "I have to go, Sayo-chan," she then said as she finished fixing up the urban camouflage-pattern jumpsuit she had donned. "It's my destiny."
"'Destiny?!'" Sayo shrilled. "What sort of destiny is that?! Actually going out there, risking your neck just to record some fight between Gojira-sama . . .!"
The look Kazumi gave the disembodied spirit in response to that would have normally sent a lump the size of Fuji-san right up Sayo's throat. The former then caught herself as she reminded herself that, regardless of the fact that she and Sayo had become very good friends in the period since the latter's haunting of Class 3-A had been discovered by Negi Springfield, Sakurazaki Setsuna and Tatsumiya Mana, the poor ghost had still been a norm in corporeal life. And norms simply just couldn't understand what was it that drove a Yizibajohei. "Sayo-chan, before me, there've been fifteen different Windtalkers since the Dawn of Power ages ago. When I was blessed by the Conservator before being sent to this planet, I was given the memories of all fifteen of them. None of them were ever afraid whenever they had to go out and do what destiny demanded they do. And neither will I."
Sayo sniffed. "Asakura-san . . .!"
"I have to do this, Sayo-chan," Kazumi asserted. "Ever since I found out about Negi-kun and his powers, I've seethed deep in my soul at the fact that he can't live his life with the ability to express himself magically out in the open! Did you know that if his secret as a wizard did go public, he'd get turned into an instant ermine, just like Chamo-kun?! What type of life is that?! Who gives whoever runs his native society the right to demand that of him! He's eleven years old, for Fate's sake! He doesn't deserve to have all that dumped on his head, especially since he got shanghaied into becoming our homeroom and English teacher along the way!" She closed her eyes. "On Yiziba, Negi-kun could live the life he wanted to live, without restrictions of any sort! The Chosen One's coming means that people here will get the chance to experience the same thing! And I have to help prepare the way for that to happen!"
And with that, she turned and ran out of the classroom, she scooping up a portable camcorder so she could film the fun. Sayo watched her go, her eyes tearing as Kazumi disappeared around the corner, and then she sobbed, "Asakura-san . . .!"
"Asakura-san . . .!"
"Gotta admit there, Aniki! She had us all fooled!"
Hearing his ermine friend's statement, Negi Springfield could only nod as his mind re-ran the conversation he had overheard between Kazumi and Sayo. The young wizard and Albert Chamoline had been hidden in the shadows of a hallway close to Class 3-A, they having moved there when Negi had sensed something very off about his homeroom class' resident paparazzi when homeroom class had convened. After everyone else had been dismissed to go to Library Island and enjoy study hall, both Negi and Chamo had been quick to see that Kazumi didn't seem to want to go anywhere.
Now they knew why.
"Ah, Negi-kun! There you are!"
Negi gasped on hearing that aged, wise voice, and then he turned to see the dean of the Mahora Academy walk up. "Headmaster Konoe!" he gasped before bowing as Chamo moved to perch himself on Negi's shoulder. "Good morning, sir."
The aged wizard and educator smirked under his moustache. "You're concerned about what is happening now with young Asakura-kun, aren't you?"
Negi jolted, a surge of panic flowing through him. As Kazumi's teacher, he was ultimately responsible for her welfare. Even if, as he just discovered, she turned out to be from another planet and possessed a considerable level of power. "Er . . . w-well, sir, y-yes, I am!" he sputtered out before a flash of guilt crossed his face. "Sir, please! I'm sorry that I allowed Asakura-san to leave like . . . "
"Never mind, young man," the Headmaster cut him off with a wink. "After that Destructo fellow appeared last night in Tomobiki, the magical grapevine worldwide has been abuzz with rumours about these Yizibajohei. We need facts now, Negi-kun. Facts! And for that, I'll need you to go after her and watch what she does."
Negi jolted. "Sir?! Don't you want me to bring her back?!"
"I'm sure, if what she just told Aisaka-kun is true, Asakura-kun has both the knowledge and the experience necessary to survive in a situation that even remotely involves the likes of Gojira," the Headmaster replied. "Now, off with you, lad. Do what needs to be done."
"I . . .! I . . .!" the young wizard sputtered, and then he barked, "H-h-HAI!"
And as three people head off to face their destiny . . .
(Posted Sat, 16 Sep 2006 14:20)
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