“Now to my question,” the blue-tressed Megami of the Joketsuzoku Amazons spoke quietly, taking a moment to consider how to best break this to Ranma without freaking him out any. Memories of the world as it was now gave her insight to him having relationship issues with pokégirls... which oddly enough, her memories of the other reality made her chuckle as those same issues didn’t give him problems when it came to human women.
Deciding the best course for the pigtailed youth might be to cater to both sides of the coin as it were, she decided to just come out and saying. After all, either way the ‘son-in-law’ was a bit on the dense side. “How much do you remember of that history we shared when I was an ‘old ghoul’?”
Ranma stared at her incredulously. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rising in warning. “...What?” He asked back in turn, unsure of what to make of such a question. Although, being honest with himself, he knew what she meant deep down.
“Oh, you know,” Cologne spoke softly. “Times in Nerima as human, myself appearing my age, a wizened and admittedly decrepit looking human Matriarch of my people, trying to force you to follow certain laws concerning you defeating a human version of my great-granddaughter, the whole lynchpin starting with your Jusenkyo curse making you female...” she trailed off, watching as the boy’s eyes widened. “I take it this is ringing some bells of familiarity with you?”
Going a little pale, the pigtailed martial artist stared up at Cologne with a mix of awe and bewilderment. She knew. She knew! “How the heck does she remember this stuff? Is she reading my mind!?” He thought in pure horror at the possibilities of what she just might do with such information.
However, an answer was forthcoming. Cologne is a Megami, came the rationalization from the Great Will. Megami had been originally created by Sukotto to serve as a direct medium to communicate with a force he claimed to have discovered that he dubbed the ‘Cosmic Awareness’. It’s speculated that he designed many of his pokégirls with various ranges of ability to tap into this force, which is what gives them their amazing skills and abilities. The Megami pokégirls are arguably the best suited to this, able to read the ley-lines of mana and life itself to make predictions and use powers of incredible might and magic. However, what the Megami recognize as the ‘Cosmic Awareness’ is better known to you as the ‘Great Will of the Grand Universe’. They cannot access the Great Will to the depths that you are able to or are even able to comprehend but they do manage to tap into it to a certain degree.
His eyes widening further in shock at that revelation, it took Ranma a few moments to realize that Cologne was staring at him just as wide-eyed now, her eyes wide with recognition. “Son-in-law,” she finally managed to whisper after having found her voice. “You... you’re using it.”
Blinking his eyes as the woman’s voice broke him out of his almost hypnotic state, the young Asian male and heir of James Sukotto asked, “What?”
“The Cosmic Awareness,” she said softly. “You were just using the Cosmic Awareness.” She didn’t think such possible. It was true that Megami could only be assessed as individuals when it came to their own strengths and weaknesses so the ability to access the power varied between each Megami... but for a HUMAN to be able to work with forces that were supposed to be beyond their comprehension? The comprehension of all over pokégirl breeds even!?
Unable to contain herself, the woman’s awe, excitement and fear was sent the along to the next two links in the chain of Megami intelligence and Cologne cursed herself. Fortunately for her, while there was a feedback of excitement and even terror that matched her own, there were cooler heads along such a chain of command that gave a very possible theory to explain all of this.
Should we be surprised? He is the grandson of the creator, after all.
That had the desired effect of helping Cologne physically calm herself. It was true. James Sukotto was the one that had created their breed, linked them to the very essence that held the universe together, made them the bastions order and the protectors of humanity. Who was to say that if given the time, he couldn’t link such powers to someone else, someone human? That he didn’t give himself such power spoke highly of his humility and reverence to the powers that be yet it did make sense that his curiosity as a scientist would cause him to toe the line eventually. And who better for him to test out such a gift and keep it within his circle of influence than on his own flesh and blood?
“Although when he found the time to do such is anyone’s guess,” Cologne thought a tad bitterly. And here she thought the ‘Megami Conspiracy’ had been doing a fine job of keeping tabs on the important players on the stage of the world and yet this had somehow gone undetected right under their noses and worse to Cologne, underneath her own watchful gaze! Of all the Megami, she spent the most time around him. She should have sensed such sooner! Unless...
“Unless his powers hadn’t become active until recently,” the Amazon Matriarch surmised. This was indeed a turn of events and in a sense, gave some accreditation to the rumors that were flying all over the Nerima Prefecture mere hours before he came rushing in through her door. It was likely his connection to the Cosmic Awareness made him realize the time for action was coming and he had to act now!
Although she knew Shampoo wouldn’t be happy with it, that her great granddaughter had been trying for so long to get the youth to make her his Alpha Pokégirl... Cologne realized that if the young Cheetah was to play her part in a possible grand destiny, then the Amazon Warrior would have to swallow her pride and accept a lesser station in the young man’s life, at least initially. The Megami’s memories of this world led her to believe that much of Ranma’s reluctance to start his path of the Pokégirl Trainer was not the fact that there were pokégirls that wanted to be part of his team, but that they all wanted no less than the Alpha position!
It was understandable. The Alpha Pokégirl was the head pokégirl of a Trainer’s team. The title didn’t bring any special changes or powers, just responsibilities and a number of perks. It also didn’t hurt that the Alpha Pokégirl normally enjoyed the status of being the closest to their owner as being the Alpha meant that they were in a sense, the stand-in wife. There wasn’t a pokégirl that would give up such an opportunity if they really liked the man, (or woman) they were given the chance to be part of their family. From personal experience, Cologne knew this meant that any orders given by the Alpha to other members of the team had the weight of their Trainer behind them, and had to be obeyed, as pokégirls were a hierarchal group and followed such structured casting on instinct.
Of course, even as Cologne considered all the angles, she missed the fact that Ranma had left the futon she’d placed him on and that the young man was currently pouring himself a bowl of pork ramen from the pot sitting and simmering on the stove in the café’s kitchen.
“At least some things never change,” Ranma thought with a bit of relief as he fixed himself a bowl. The soup smelled as good as it ever did, damn it! With all the running and screaming and running and... screaming... he’d worked up an appetite! He was sure the old... er... young ghoul? Eh, whatever, he’d work out a new nickname for her later—wouldn’t mind if he helped himself to some of the Cat Café’s specialty. It was best to eat and recharge while he had the downtime away from all those crazed pokégirls!
Raising her head and seeing that the son-in-law wasn’t where she’d been talking to him, the Megami raised her head. Setting her sights on back wall with the large serving window between the main dining room and the kitchen, the Amazon Matriarch relaxed as she saw the pigtailed martial artist reaching for a spice shaker and adding a bit more kick to the steaming porcelain bowl he had on a matching plate. Shaking her head good-naturedly, the most powerful of Magic-type pokégirl breeds gently stood up and made her way over. “So, Ranma,” she spoke up, startling the youth for a moment. “Have you truly begun choosing your team?”
Blinking his eyes once, twice, it took a moment for Ranma’s mind to register the question. “My team?”
Nodding her head firmly, the Megami inquired, “That is the rumor that is going around. That you are checking out pokégirls as to choose the final candidates to be in your PokéBattle Team.”
Now it was the heir of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts to appear surprised. Suddenly, the way people were acting was making a lot of sense. “Wait, wait, wait!” He spoke up, placing his bowl down on the counter that had been placed on the bottom ledge of the window between the kitchen and the dining area. “People think I’m choosing a team? That I’m...” he trailed off for a moment, unsure if he even wanted to say it. “Picking girls to join me?” Kami-sama in heaven, he wasn’t even trying and he was somehow ending up ensnared within the plots and plans of his old man and Mr. Tendo of this Ret-Conned reality.
Again, the Megami nodded her head. “Yes. Is that your intention?” She didn’t want to push the young man, seeing how obviously uncomfortable he was... but destiny and fate couldn’t be held off forever. The longer he put it off, the more complicated things would become until he either finally gave in or it became impossible to rectify what needed to be taken care of.
Lowering his head a moment, Ranma considered things. From what he’d learned earlier, he was almost a borderline prisoner to his father’s whims. In this reality, he was being made to stay at the Tendo’s place, away from his family, his mother... until he made a choice. And worse, he had a feeling that the choice his old man and Mr. Tendo wanted him to make was one that concerned at least ONE of the Tendo daughters... which probably included that Motoko chick as a result.
And then there were Miyo’s words. He didn’t like to consider it but apparently because of whatever Hiroshi and Daisuke did, he was now a central part of whatever was going on or would be happening? He really wanted to try and figure things out on his own first, maybe even try to show his ‘friends’ the error of their ways and give him back the power that was needed to fix things pronto!
But as always, it seemed that life wasn’t giving him a chance to just simply back out of things. Really, he should’ve expected it. Such was par the course with his life lately.
Finally meeting Cologne’s gaze—“Yes, Cologne,” he thought to himself, trying to get used to the woman as she was now—Ranma took a deep breath and finally blurted out, “I don’t know really. But the way things are going, I ain’t got much of a choice, do I?” He looked to the blue-tressed pokégirl as his hand reached over to the cup that acted as a container for chopsticks. His deftly reached over and grabbed for a set, sliding the disposable wooden sticks out of the paper wrapping.
Watching as the boy prepared to eat, (some she realized was an obvious coping response for the boy when he had to deal with bad news) Cologne offered him a small, almost sad smile. “No, you do not.”
“Well, crap,” the pigtailed martial artist grunted. He leaned against a wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “I should’ve known. I mean, you’re going to go on and on about me being Shampoo’s ‘airen’ until I do something about it, right?” He didn’t wait for a response as he straightened out and made his way over to his meal.
That made the powerful Megami blink her eyes in surprise. Since when was Ranma destined to be Shampoo’s husband? It took her a few moments before realization kicked in. He was thinking of her great-granddaughter’s place in that other reality that the Cosmic Awareness had shown her. And that he knew about it... even seemed to refer to that first on instinct. “Ranma,” Cologne spoke his name to get his attention and put him more at ease.
Such had the opposite effect. The pigtailed teenager didn’t have her call him by name unless she wanted something and so he visibly tensed. “Yeah?” He asked slowly, preparing himself for what he was sure to be a plead to take Shampoo on as a member of his pokégirl team. “What is it you want to know?” He slowly reached with his chopsticks into the bowl, picking up some noodles and slurping them.
“Do you know who is responsible for all this?” She asked at point-blank. Watching as he started to chock on his ramen from inhaling it down the wrong pipe, she took that as confirmation. “Tell me,” she started to speak up. “What happened? Obviously, whatever had been changed was fixed but for the life of me I can’t figure out who had changed the world around us.” She gave him that same small smile from earlier. “While I would have liked to have continued my life as a human and to have only human women around as we both saw it, it’s just not the way things are. Pokégirls are an integral part of this planet and to have someone just... try and wipe them from the face of the earth is most...” she paused, considering just what word best described how she felt. Finally, she looked into his eyes and finished with, “Disturbing.”
Pounding on his chest with his left first, Ranma was doing his best to stop chocking. That had really caught him by surprise and he really did not feel like answering. There was just too much going on and in his opinion, the less she knew, the better! Hell, he might even agree to take Shampoo on as a pokégirl if it meant getting off track from this discussion!
Not getting an answer right away, the Megami frowned lightly. “It was Happosai, wasn’t it?” She questioned. “He does have that fetish for human women...” she mumbled almost irritably. Although she had a feeling that fetish came from the fact that stealing the underwear from and groping pokégirls didn’t have nearly the same effect at rejuvenating the old bastard as it did when he performed such debaucherous acts against human girls. If he could have human women whenever he wanted, there’d be no stopping the Grandmaster of Anything Goes.
Coughing into his hand a bit, Ranma shook his head. “No, no... it wasn’t him.” He finally answered. At the curious look Cologne gave him, the pigtailed teenager sighed. “Trust me on this. It wasn’t the old lech that did this although I can understand why you’d think that.” Seeing as he had her undivided attention, Ranma sighed. “It was Hiroshi and Daisuke, all right?”
The Megami’s eyes widened in true surprise. “Those two boys you hang out with?” She honestly hadn’t seen THAT one coming... and from some of the comments and sensations/emotions she was feeling along the chain of command, neither were a number of the Megami that were part of the Celestial Conspiracy.
Sighing, the raven-haired youth nodded his head as he began to slowly sir his ramen with his chopsticks. “Look, it ain’t no biggie, all right?” He asked her as politely as he could when flustered. “I’m working on it, I’m working on it. Trust me, thing’s will be better as soon as I can get those two idiots to see things my way.”
Nodding her head in agreement, Cologne told him, “I would say so.” If he’d managed to put things back the way they were already, with the Red Plague having taken place and pokégirls taking their proper roles amongst human civilization, then he’d done an excellent job of putting things back after those two had tried to make a world without pokégirls.
And here she’d thought those two had loved pokégirls. Obviously, there was more depths to the two teenagers than they let on. Cologne realized she might have to see about having some friends of her look into that for her. She’d do it herself but she was a bit busy at the moment.
“Now then,” Cologne spoke up. Her eyes focused on the youth. “I thank you for being so forthcoming with me, but I need to ask:”
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(Posted Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:37)
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