Pausing to consider the situation, Arrow hesitantly turned to their commander. "It is 'sin-say', correct?"
Absently looking up from the magic pamphlet about his new life, the young man answered with none of his usual problems. "Yes, it means teacher in my language. The uh, one of my old home at least."
Nodding, the warforged considered the situation. "As our tail has been dealt with, shall we go now to acquire these blunt arrows and meet with my brothers? If we can get some leather scraps, I should be able to make the arrows."
Still troubled by some thought, Ranma found something to write with in the magical pack. Opening the little booklet, Ranma turned to the inside page that listed the author as someone named Kiyone with a strange and very long job title. Under that was a blank space on the page where publisher information might have been in a book from Earth.
"Just a moment, I need to write a little note here, then I'll pack up."
Despite the dismissive way he said it, he took a few moments deciding just what to write in the limited space. Even if it was only something short, he felt it was important to get this right.
Sitting at her desk in her room among her piles of paper work, a certain green haired djinn was busily switching between reference books, checking rules, making drafts, and occasionally updating a small booklet.
This continued until the subject of her work starting writing in the other copy of the booklet.
That in and of itself was surprising. According to his file, for the young man to realize that two way communication was possible through the book was surprising. An even further stretch of the imagination was that he would use the safest patch of blank page to send her a short message. If the book determined his life, then the inside of that cover page was the only part that wasn't a part of it. Indeed, it was almost like having the author sign the book for someone, as it upped the value instead of changing the contents.
Even more surprising, it was not some sort of selfish request, which would have been the only logical option. Indeed, she was so impressed he'd figured it out, she would have tried to accommodate him had that been the case.
Still, his note impressed her in an entirely different way.
In all her years working in the Djinn Material Plane Public Relations Department, she had never gotten a commendation for her hard work, much less a thank you note.
Upon arriving at the warforged's camp, Ranma was happy to find out that Tao and Karma had been patched up easily enough. On a slightly more troubling note, he didn't want to try and explain what an inflatable sheep was, much less what it was for. Heck he didn't even want to think about it too much.
Apparently though that strange cube was of some value, though still exceedingly strange as Zen was still trying to figure it out. That of course brought to light the stuff Ranma had salvaged from the junk pile himself and had stowed in his wonderful magic pack. If anything else, perhaps Zen could tell him something about the katana.
What was puzzling however was that instead of the katana, which he had intended to pull out, he instead got a letter addressed to him.
"As soon as you have a moment, put on the ring, wait for it to glow, then rub it and say Kiyone'."
A bit curious, Ranma gave the simple gold ring that had been enfolded in the letter a glance before putting it on. It took a moment for it to glow, at which point he rubbed it and said the magic word.
Some might have wondered why Ranma would willingly mess with magic. Well, if the magic word had been Mihoshi, the ring might have gotten tossed into an abyssal chasm. Perhaps not that bad maybe, but he's at the least have let Zen handle it then as if it were some sort of magical bomb.
So it was with some relief that Ranma noted the harem girl materializing before him had straight green hair and did not exude bubbly blond bimbo in the least. "Thank you for seeing me so soon. There are a few things I'd like to handle in person if you don't mind?"
Pleasantly surprised and hopeful that her polite manner would be a good thing, the young martial artist nodded.
Nodding in a polite little bow forward herself, the green haired genie pointed to the clear cube by Zen's side, as her and Ranma were currently center stage of attention. "If I could have that cube please. It shouldn't be here, and it would be best if I sent it back."
The artificer hesitated to hand it over, but getting a firm nod from Ranma, he did however reluctantly hand it over to the summoned girl. "May I know what it is?"
Pursing her lips, the genie tucked the device away into nothingness and then put one hand on her hip. "That is fair I suppose. It is a type of summoning gate for items. It would all be either useless or dangerous for you however."
Turning to Ranma, the genie nodded approvingly. "If I recover this thing, that will give me some more leeway to help with your case. Speaking of which, we have much to discuss and I can only stay so long."
Nodding in deference to her, Ranma motioned for her to take a seat so they could talk. Since this would be his life in this strange world they'd be discussing, he was rather intent on getting some good answers.
Instead of taking a seat and making herself comfortable, Kiyone also pointed at their planned seating area, except she was using a magic gesture. Th reason for which became apparent as a low table spread with food and drink appeared along with seating cushions. "I don't believe you'd had a chance to eat yet, right?"
For once, Ranma was treated to the sight of what he wanted to see a genie do, namely the magical feast creation thing. Happy to see a good type of genie magic, Ranma sat himself down and tried some fruit. "So, what's up?"
Sighing, the green haired genie joined him at the table, pouring him a drink. "Oh, where to begin? I suppose first, the bad news. That being there isn't really any way for you to continue in the martial arts. It would be best if you took up another discipline for many reasons. That said I couldn't see you dabbling in a divine magic style, nor even really an arcane style. Likewise many of the other standard paths seemed not to fit to you to well, so I got a little inventive. Are you familiar with the Jedi of your movie culture?"
Thinking about it, Ranma was curious where this was going. "Yeah, from those movies, the space monk guys with the glowing light swords."
Nodding, Kiyone only hoped this would work out. Not only would Ranma have to agree, but she would also need the approval of the council. "How would you like to learn an art such as that? The energy of the blade would be your own, and it would involve learning special defense against magic, plus using a bit of magic in a natural way. At least natural to you, like special maneuvers instead of spells."
Ranma seemed to consider it easily enough, though it was obvious it wasn't thrilling news. "I guess, it would give me something to do to keep from getting bored if I can't study my family's art here."
Nodding, Kiyone knew it wasn't good news as he'd dedicated his life and sacrificed much for his art, though she didn't intend for him to abandon it. "It is not too far from where you are now, you should have no trouble integrating it into your art. You would have to adapt to this world in a number of ways regardless since magic is so powerful here. Still, you would need to round out your training in the arts, including the sword and philosophy. I think I've already documented it all, but I'll make sure to update you. I also gave you a travel guide so you can get a handle on how things are here."
Thinking of something, the genie turned towards Tao. "Do you still have those two magic books you gathered from the pile of junk?"
Tao considered the request only briefly. "The magic ones? Yes, though we have yet to identify them."
Nodding, Kiyone motioned at a clear space on the table. "One is a spellbook and would make a good gift for Issandra. The other is a magic tome that Ranma should read. The magic in it will help heal certain...mental injuries."
Hearing that seemed to perk Ranma's student up, who rapidly moved to gather both books and hand them over. "If I may inquire, what is your relation to sensei?"
Pausing for a moment, the genie seemed to consider the four warforged. "Young Ranma was granted a wish as a reward. Knowing he wasn't wise with words and deals, he went to someone he trusted as wiser. A moment of anger from someone he trusted and incompetence from the one handling the wish ended up with him being banished from his homeland. I am to clean up the wish-giver's mess and try to make things well for Ranma within the limits I must work."
The four warforged were military units and thus understood when a human was keeping something on a need to know basis. They still had their curiosity however as Zen posed the question. "I wasn't aware wishes worked in such a manner."
Nodding, the green haired genie sighed in a put upon way. "Yeah, well miracles come from deities, and wishes come from various entities of similar power. In my case, I'm with the Djinn of the Elemental Planar Council. I mostly end up with paperwork and not actual people work."
Glancing at her bracelet, Kiyone seemed a bit troubled by what she saw. "Sorry, but my time is almost up. Ranma, be sure to study and adapt before going off and getting into too much trouble. Your new friends are rather fragile by your standards after all and need their training as well. Also make sure to check your pack, I'll put your supplies in there from my side as I get them."
Standing up, she was apparently getting ready to go. "That ring will turn into a regular ring if you take it off. If it is glowing, you can summon me for a while, though I can only offer limited advice and magic."
Bowing slightly, the genie was already fading into mist at the legs. "Good luck young warrior."
A tad numbed by information overload and the trip down memory lane, Ranma only managed to numbly wave to her.
Curiously he grabbed the note she left, finding it to be a check list.
[_] - Study Tourist Guide for Eberron to learn basics of where you are.
[_] - Practice from Abilities Booklet to fill in gaps in Monk Discipline.
[_] - Train Allies to acceptable levels. They will last longer that way.
[_] - Give book wrapped as present to Issandra.
[_] - Study magic book until done in one four hour sitting. Meditate for four more hours. Book will vanish.
- Try to stay low until then. Might have quest for you once done with basic training. Will be in touch. Check pack and keep it safe.
Nodding thoughtfully, Ranma had to wonder when Kiyone had managed to gift wrap one of the books in brown paper and label it as a present from Ranma to Issandra. Seemed a bit odd that he was supposed to give a book to a girl, but he figured Kiyone knew what she was doing. No clue why a ninja would want a book though.
Noticing Issandra wasn't back yet and he now had food, Ranma decided to go ahead and get some of the studying out of the way. That just left his warforged students, but he already had plans for them. "Hey Arrow, when you get those practice arrows ready, shoot 'em at Tao. Tao, you need practice blocking, dodging, or if you can, catching the arrows. Let's see, Zen, you gather the arrows and take them back to Arrow, and Karma can act as Zen's bodyguard and prevent stray arrows from hitting him."
Tao lit up as he realized this was his first training session with a master of the art. "Is this part of my first lesson sensei? -- Yep."
Zen took some exception to this as he was the designated team healer and thus was in a minimum of combat if possible. "Why am I being involved in the training? I'm supposed to avoid being damaged."
Already aware of Ranma's methods, Arrow had already figured out that part. "That is the point Zen. You are training to move around the battlefield doing something other than fighting, while Karma will be defending you from attack. That requires cooperative training."
Chuckling heartily, Karma grabbed Zen in a maneuver he had picked up at a humanoid drinking establishment known as a 'headlock-noogie' combo. "Maybe this will cease your grumbles about being in battle!"
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Valor Phoenix
(Posted Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:53)
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.