I remember when things were normal, Nabiki lamented to herself, as she and Akane half-carried the exhausted pigtailed girl back to their house.
Dinner had been somewhat different, their new houseguests telling stories—Uncle Genma starting and Ranma eventually correcting them and telling them what really happened.
But then…
“Well,” Nabiki muttered, “this is new.”
Right before the two fathers could start into a new bottle of sake after one of Kasumi’s usual masterful dinners, several small lights flew into the room through the open door, circling about.
“Huh,” muttered Ranma, as the lights started circling closer to him. “Wonder what they want.”
“What are they?” asked Akane, slipping into her defensive stance.
“Calm down,” Ranma said, giving her a tired glare. “They’re just yōsei.”
Kasumi just smiled as one settled on her outstretched hand, the bright ball of light changing to a small girl, insect wings on her back, now smiling at the taller Tendo.
“Well, why are they here?” Nabiki asked.
“Not again,” muttered Genma, reaching for the bottle and taking a huge swig of it directly.
“Boy!” he yelled, having topped off his body with liquid courage. “Enough of this foolishness! There was enough of this on the road! I forbid you from doing anymore of this insanity before my good friend or his family!”
“Meow.”
Paling, he looked down, spotting the two spawns of evil that forever haunted him partners of his son, glaring at him in ways cats were not meant to, each one with a paw on the now cracked sake bottle.
The message was clear, even to Genma: stay out of it.
“I see,” Ranma nodded, drawing everyone’s attention back to him, to see a dimly lit fairy hovering before him, a crystal-chime sound seeming to come from her.
“See what?” asked Akane, wondering why she couldn’t understand the fairies.
“Gotta go,” Ranma stated, standing up and heading towards the door.
“Boy!”
“Shut it, Old Man!” Ranma called, grabbing his shoes by the door, not noticing nor caring how two others were also getting their shoes. “I need to take care of some responsibilities!”
Part of her wanted to curse herself for following. Her feet were sore, she was now hungry, exhausted, and needed another bath.
But if those pictures panned out…
The only reason she had come along was that if magical beings were asking their new houseguest for help, it had to be important, as in important enough to create pictures she could sell for a good chunk of yen, even if it was to a tabloid.
She also knew why Akane had followed him: martial artist rules or Akane’s usual ‘I can do it too!’ attitude. At the least, Nabiki knew she might get a few action shots to sell to Tatewaki.
Either way, they had only made it there because some of the yōsei had lagged behind to help them get there … for whatever reasons fairy girls would.
“WHAT THE—?” Akane screamed, barely avoiding being struck by a Kia as it bounced down the street and into a closed shop.
“I think we found Ranma’s emergency,” replied Nabiki, charging up her camera’s battery.
“WHO TRAINED YOU PEOPLE?” they heard Ranma yell, followed by a bestial scream.
Looking around the corner, they spotted Ranma striking some huge female-like … thing with a silvery staff, knocking it back from two downed girls who were both bleeding and barely wearing much clothing anymore—exposed areas of flesh showing that the creature had likely removed said scraps with its claws.
“How dare you!” cried one of the girls. “I am the 97th generation devil hunter of the—”
“Don’t care!” yelled Ranma, ducking under the creature’s fist and nailing it in the gut, knocking it back a few meters. “I’m sure most of the other ninety-six before you were just as stupid!”
“HEY!”
Ranma would have palmed his face in anger, had the creature not tried to spear him at that moment with something ejected from its left arm, a putrid slime dripping off the spike as it sailed by him, embedding itself in a wall, and slowly melting through it. “Okay, fine Ms. 97!
“What are we facing?” he demanded, grabbing a piece of broken concrete from the creature’s rampage and launching it to block the creature’s pot shot at the downed devil hunters.
“Demon or oni?” muttered the second girl, giving it some thought.
Ranma hissed in annoyance. “Really? That’s the only thing you could think of?” He was beginning to think Bastet joke on devil hunters: devil hunters categorize things in one of two categories: kill now or date now and kill later when it develops tentacles—wasn’t that far off.
“Well, then what is it, if you’re so smart?” the first one stated, using her sword to brace her weight against the ground and attempt to stand, her injured left leg not strong enough to support her weight, even with accelerated healing.
Snorting, Ranma bounced away from an incoming kick and reached into his shirt. “Okay then, a lesson on Common Sense.
“If humans in all their essence have spread across the globe, so too have the supernatural!” he yelled, pulling out a small wooden container from within his shirt and rushing in to strike it.
Akane rushed forward, wanting to prove herself, while Nabiki hung back, glad she had also packed a few extra rolls of film. She had already emptied one on the short battle and was halfway through another. Large amounts of yen were already dancing in her eyes at what they would bring.
Akane raced forward, her mind focused on the battle, the rush of combat. She was a martial artist, she had to protect the weak. She had to…
She had to deal with the pain of concrete meeting body as Ranma’s cats tripped her.
After all, she wasn’t even remotely trained to deal with something like this.
The creature choked as Ranma thrust the gourd into its mouth, cracking it open, and flooding its stomach with the fluids within.
“And this, oh Ms. 97 and friend, is what happens when toxic chemicals leach into a dryad’s main tree,” Ranma stated, hopping back as the creature flailed about, pieces falling off as it shrunk, taking on a more feminine appearance.
“What’s a dryad?” the friend asked.
Ranma just growled at them. He had encountered this common problem about devil hunters. Steeped in tradition, they forgot simple things. They assumed the only evils in their lands were those they had always known about, forgetting that like humans and their economies, even magical creatures had spread out across the globe, migrating to new lands.
They also forgot that just because they knew everything the previous generation knew, the same might not hold true for that previous generation. Techniques were lost, as most devil hunters worked on an oral tradition, meaning no scrolls left behind to say ‘learn this too’. As such, if one teacher was killed off before they trained an heir in everything, techniques and teachings were lost to the sand of time.
Even Bastet and Sekhmet could not offer what was lost. Those items rested solely with whatever patron God or Goddess had started that particular devil hunter tradition.
“Now, you guys watch her and keep her calm while I go and try to deal with whatever poisoned her before that dryad cordial wears off.”
“I’m coming too!” Akane demanded, standing back up. She had been tough enough not to injure herself from tripping over the cats.
“Can you locate a dryad tree and purify toxic waste from the land?”
“Um…”
“Then stay here and ensure the dundering duo don’t kill her,” Ranma finished, taking off towards a nearby park, three balls of light soon flying towards him and illuminating the way, telling her that the yōsei were helping.
“Jerk,” muttered Akane, before running towards the panting creature, now more resembling a dryad than the monster before. It may not have any action, but at least she could learn something.
“Why do you keep following me?” Ranma asked, looking about several trees.
“A girl has to make a living,” Nabiki said with a smile.
“And just so you know, dryads have no issue making your death very painful if you tell certain people of her main tree,” he replied.
“Really?” Nabiki drawled.
“And just because she’ll owe me for this, don’t assume I’ll use that to save you,” Ranma continued.
She paused for a moment. True, she could get a few more photos of the poisoned dryad, and selling out the tree really wasn’t worth much—honestly, for all she knew, a dryad could move it. What did she know about Western myths?
But she had an inkling that what Ranma was going to do was much better to capture on film, and likely worth more to some people.
Soon, he found was he was looking for, and held his hands up; power visibly gathering in them.
“You may want to step back,” he said.
“Why? You going to blow something up?”
“No; I’m about to unearth some very toxic stuff,” he finished, slapping his palms on the ground.
She still found it hard to believe that the person that she and her sister were carrying back home had created a localized earthquake, one powerful enough to crack the ground and reveal some rusted barrels to the world. She had even managed to get a few shots of them, including the exposed labels. Quite a few local environmental magazines and hopeful prosecutors would love those shots.
And the company who had deposited those barrels would love to see them disappear. She’d have to see who owned them now before posting them or selling them. No need to burn future bridges.
Afterwards, Ranma did something that bathed the area in a white light. She actually had to take a few more pictures to show the radical change in the health of the vegetation. Partially wilted leaves all of the sudden took on the look of plants that were professionally cared for.
He had healed nature. Now that was a power she could definitely sell. A lot of countries would pay for someone to ‘magically detoxify’ their mistakes.
Oh yes, she could just imagine all the money she could get for that.
The duo had returned, finding Akane standing over the two moaning devil hunters.
“What? They tried to kill her after you left,” Akane replied, looking at the downed girls. She had almost felt bad about hitting them. It was as if they had no idea how to fight at all. Even the morning Hentai Horde had more skills than these two.
Ranma just snorted, even as he helped the dryad stand. “Anyway, I was able to purify a lot of the toxins from the soil, so you should be fine. You may want to have the yōsei spread some of your seeds around if they can, in case the government decides the best way to get the rest is to dig it all up and put a coffee house there.”
“I thank you, as do my little friends,” the dryad stated, bowing deeply and showing off her form.
Dryads didn’t wear clothes, just leaves and bark covering various bits. Being rescued from insanity and death by a fine example of manhood gave her little reason to cover up now. Dryads were a type of nymph, after all. “Though if I may inquire, how did you get such a strong dose of cordial?”
“Helped a dryad in southern China,” Ranma replied. “And no, I will not go into further details.”
“I see,” the dryad murmured. “You realized how strong that was, correct?”
Ranma nodded. “It is why I never drank it.”
“Why?” asked Akane.
“A male who drinks a cordial will turn into a dryad, the time depending on the strength of the cordial,” the dryad replied.
“…” was all Akane could say, looking at her. “Why would they do that?”
“Until you understand fae as a whole, you could never understand the quirks of the parts,” the dryad waved off.
“Hey!”
“And you two,” Ranma stated, looking at the devil hunters, “if you want to not get your asses handed to you because of poor learning, come look for me at the Tendo Dojo in Nerima.”
“Thank you!” called out the friend, as Ms. 97 glared at her.
“I shall return to my woods,” the dryad replied with a smile. “Feel free to visit, young traveler. It is so rare I get decent conversation.” With that, she took off, walking away.
“Should we be letting her go?” asked Akane.
Ranma shrugged. “Like most things in nature, you learn soon enough the best thing you can do is leave them alone.
“Besides, we need to get back,” he replied, walking away, the two Tendo girls quickly following.
“So, you intend to leave us here?” growled the devil hunter.
“You have a teacher. Call them.”
It was only a few blocks later that he had almost collapsed to the ground, using a canteen of water he had kept somewhere—probably the same place he had kept that cordial—and splashed himself.
Akane just arched an eyebrow.
“What? I weigh more as a guy, so if I’m about to ask for some help home, shouldn’t the burden be weaker?”
Nabiki blinked, wondering if it had been a trick of the eye. For a moment, it looked like his cats were nodding in agreement.
“You need help now?” asked Akane, smiling.
“Hey! I just had to remove a lot of toxic waste that had leaked into the earth, over nearly a kilometer of land! Do you know how tiring that is?”
“No,” Nabiki stated. “But I’m sure we can help you back for say … a thousand yen?”
Ranma just glared at her. “How about … I don’t fry you and your film with a nice lightning spell?”
“Are you threatening my sister?” growled Akane.
“Depends.
“Is your sister trying to extort me?”
Nabiki just hummed along, continuing to walk to home, ignoring the yelling behind her.
She had film to develop, after all.
Kasumi blinked as she stared at the corner of the yard. She was relatively certain that bush hadn’t been there before.
“…” was heard, making her peek closer, spotting several yōsei sitting in its branches.
“Oh, it’s your home,” Kasumi replied.
“…”
“Well, I was going to suggest the other corner to my right, near the koi pond. This corner never gets much sunlight, so it might harm the growth of your bush.”
“…”
“Oh, sure, the koi would love the company. And it is closer to the wind chimes.”
“…”
“Well, I guess I could find a spot for a new tree,” Kasumi pondered, giggling lightly as several yōsei settled in her hair and began to play with it, making braids. “But I don’t know if we have much room for them here.
“Although, nice Mrs. Izumi does have that open yard she’s been looking to fill with something.”
“…”
Kasumi nodded. “Oh, that would be great!” She knew having a magic boy/girl in her life would be exciting.
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(Posted Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:54)
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