Many stories follow a particular universe. Some stories follow a particular multiverse. There is even the rare story in which a character hops from one multiverse to another, although this begs questions of whether the two multiverses were not simply a single multiverse with a fracture down the middle. This story is different from those stories. This story follows a world. But not just any kind of world. A Riverworld. You see, a Riverworld is something of an afterlife. A place where the dead are reborn. But most Riverworlds drawn from one particular world. This Riverworld was different from those. This one drew from a variety of multiverses. There were those in this world who came from Jade, those who came from Ethshar, those who came from, well, just about any series you might imagine. And in a few minutes, this newly formed Riverworld is going to experience its occupants waking up for the first time since their initial deaths. All scattered and mixed up, a few people might find themselves near a familiar face, but for the most part, the inhabitants of this world would be finding themselves relatively alone. A good number wouldn't even be able to converse with those around them, finding themselves without a common language. How would martial artists who could level mountains react to the sheer mountains which separated sections of the river? How would geniuses respond when the most advanced building materials they could get their hands on were bamboo, flint, and fish scales? How would those with Jusenkyo curses respond to being in a world which basically consisted of a single very long river valley? What would the introduction of people who could fly do to the dynamic of a Riverworld? This was going to be interesting.
Blue eyes opened. References to a pigtail would be made, but due to the resurrection process, the individual in question was currently completely and absolutely bald. This was clearly evident due to the fact that he was entirely naked. In fact, there were a lot of people around here, the blue eyed martial artist noted, all of them bald and naked. Including a good number of women. Cringing procedures were immediately employed.
All around him, the martial artist noted that, rather than getting angry at him and hitting him, everybody else simply seemed concerned with covering themselves up as best they could. This afforded the blue eyed man the chance to try and remember what was going on.
Let’s see… there was that incident with Saffron, then the wedding, then there had been that talk, and then Akane had made that apology cake, his father had forced him to eat the whole thing, and next thing he could recall he was here, naked. Obviously this was either some sort of dream, or somebody’s idea of a not-funny-at-all prank. Especially since all these other people had been swept up in it, and he didn’t think that all these people appreciated being shaved bald. Especially, he blushed, “down there”. He wasn’t quite sure WHY somebody thought it was a good prank to put him in some kind of river valley shaved bald and left nude along with tons of other people in the same condition, but… oh, it could have been the old letch that did this, although that wouldn’t explain why he was still male… ah, the river, of course. The presence of the men was for plausible deniability, and here’s this convenient stream to turn poor Ranma into a girl again.
Ranma’s musing were cut short, however, as a young woman approached him with a question on her face.
“Son-in-law… is that you?”
Just a short distance along the shore, a very irate and bald werecat was waking up. Somebody had shaved her bald, and she looked ridiculous. Somebody was so getting a kapowie over this.
“Sweeto!”
Sheila grinned. Ah, there’s a good target.
Near to the other two, but still close enough that the crowd separated them, a man who, up until moments ago, subjectively, had two mismatched eyes, was finding that there was no mask covering his face, and, what is more, he could see out both eyes without feeling any kind of chakra drain. Looking around caused momentary confusion, but then the man nodded. He knew what was going on.
“Kai!”
That didn’t seem to work. Maybe try it again?
“KAI!”
This couldn’t be… real, could it?
Mr. Arrow looked around. Well, of all the theories as to what happened to you when you fell into a black hole, he couldn’t recall any of them saying that you’d end up in a nudist colony. Well… there were a few, but generally nobody paid attention to them. Who’d have thought that they’d be right? Well, if he had survived, then he was obligated to at least attempt to find a way back to Captain Amelia, and he was certain that the scientific community would love to hear his input on the matter of black holes. Now to just see about getting directions to the nearest space port…
Cohen, when he awoke, simply grinned. He could feel how much younger his body was. His diamond dentures seemed to be gone, but that was all right, because his real teeth were back. Standing up, Cohen’s smile widened at the lack of any arthritic popping. The barbarian hero looked around, and instantly spotted a boy talking to a young woman. The both of them were obviously also heroes, from the way that they carried themselves, and looking around further, Cohen could see still more heroes. Looked like he was in one of those warrior afterlives where all the heroes went for eternal battle. Well, nothing for it but to go challenge one of them to a battle and see what the fights were like.
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(Posted Mon, 04 May 2009 19:25)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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