Ranma wasn't sure. It seemed as if time was slowing down as the life drained from his body while he was impaled on the bamboo pole at first. That could have just been shock though. It was when everything just outright stopped that he found himself as much puzzled as he was in pain. Then things went back to being really weird when the pain in his chest receded and he found himself being lifted off the pole. He was flying back through the air as his existence was being rewound again, fully aware of his flight yet he couldn't make any efforts to control his actions or movement. It was annoying as hell.
Making matters worse, when he landed back at his starting position he found himself once again smacked by the damned panda. Hurtling across the valley floor, this time on a different ballistic trajectory, Ranma looked over towards where he thought he would land this time. It looked like he would clear any of the poles by a good few feet so he was happy to see he would end up there. Then he froze in the air as he started his arc back in for a landing. Well, least whatever is playin games with me ain't gunna stick me on more poles while it plays with my life. Wonder how I'm gunna get to avoid getting hauled off to Nerima though? While he was in thought Ranma had been going back to his launch point once more. Hope this doesn't take to long.
Many times Ranma drifted from where he was struck by his father. Sometimes it was a backhand blow that would send him airborne, sometimes a kick or uppercut. Each flight took a different path trough the air. Each time he would near a pool or cluster of pools and either hover in the air for what felt like several minutes even though everything within sight seemed to be frozen. After what felt like he had been launched dozens of times he found himself shimmying back and fourth trough the same slice of sky as if whatever was trying to decide his fate just couldn't make up it's mind. Just figures...
After a particularly long pause in the air that nearly resulted in Ranma falling asleep from boredom he suddenly jerked back to his launching point once more. It's about time. he thought as he wished he could move his body so he could grumble, yawn or at least get the itch on his nose. The speed of his movements had a sense of sureness to them this time and Ranma hoped this would be his last trip trough the air.
Once more he was in front of his father, who was an angry panda at the moment, with his guard shattered by shock.
Once more he took a kick, this time a high crane kick to the sternum and flew into a high arc.
This time he passed trough the highest part of his flight and came back down, worrying that it looked like he was going to cut it awful close to another pole.
Ranma huffed and tried to steady himself mentally when her realized it would just be a close miss and he neared the pool. Then he felt the back of his gi snag on the pole and felt as it bent quite far. He blinked as his nose brushed against the dirt next to the spring a moment. No. That would just be to easy. He had just enough time for that thought when he felt the bamboo pole straiten and fling him back the way he came from.
If it could have occurred to him at the time, Ranma would have been happy to note that he was flailing and screaming under his own power as he took his uncontrolled tumble trough the air. To bad for him he was busy being dizzy and didn't have time to care as he pinwheeled above the valley floor. One other thing he was to busy to notice as the spun through the air was that his memories of Nerima and the latter part of his last trip trough China faded from his conscious mind. There would be no real memories but vague feelings would hint at things Ranma may have once felt or done. Finally though Ranma splashed down into one of the springs. As the guide and a confused panda approached the spring Ranma, now changed, broke the surface.
When Ranma popped up from the water sputtering he had an eerily familiar sense of something being off, yet a whole other load of strange concerns joined it immediately. He seemed to feel like he was shorter. That was bad. His hair was pale blue. That was odd but for some reason he couldn't help but think that it should have been red. Looking at his hands he could tell how wrong things seemed. They were white. Not 'average caucasian' white. Not even 'need more sun' white. No, his hands looked pale as fine porcelain and as delicate as a doll's.
Words to Ranma's left made him whip about and feel the motion of his chest wobbling. For some reason this was less disturbing to his thoughts than it should have been, as if it was familiar for some reason. "Ah, young mister customer fall in spring of drowned ice maiden!" The portly man in the Mao jacket was looking trough a notebook as he spoke. "Is very tragic tale of Yuki-onna from you's homelands that drown in spring two thousand year ago while chasing thief! Now whoever fall in spring take body of Yuki-onna." The guide looked up from his small book to look at the currently female Ranma. "Is not so bad young sir, you look human at least. Could be much much worse, yes?"
Ranma just turned to the grumbling panda next to the guide and narrowed his, now her, eyes and prepared to pursue and badly hurt her father. She would have done just that, had her instinctive angry reaction not snap frozen the pool she was in, trapping her lower half. Looking down at the icy pool, Ranma blinked. "Did I just freeze the spring or did it do that itself?"
The panda, which had been about to cut and run, had stopped to listen in as the guide explained. "Was you young sir. You have body of Yuki-onna, so you has powers of one also." The guide flipped a page in his notebook. "Power over ice, cold and winds. Ability to turn to mist or snow."
Genma shuddered. If the boy had turned into a normal weak woman he would be berating the boy for his pathetic and unmanly behavior. A Yuki-onna on the other hand, he did not want to mess with. Genma would like his blood not to be ice thank you very much. Genma made a mental note that he would need to revise his list of insults and jeers he used to make Ranma angry so his cheap shots skilled maneuvers would be effective.
"So I'm not just a girl, I'm a monster girl." Ranma muttered. Though some of those powers actually sounded kind of neat. For a moment Ranma wondered how he would use them. Then the instincts came and she broke apart into a fine mist just to reform on top of the now frozen pool. "Ok how the hell did I do that? No, how did I know how to do that?"
The newly minted Yuki-onna and Guide ignored the indignant growls and growfs from the panda as the Guide tried to figure out how to explain it. "Is magic of Jusenkyo springs. If mister customer had fallen in duck or bat spring, mister customer would know how to fly. If mister customer had fallen in to frog spring, mister customer would know how to catch flies with tongue. Is magic of springs to let one know how to use new body."
Ranma just hung her head and sighed heavily. Yup, sounds about right. Ranma ignored the yelp from a suddenly frost covered panda. Serves him right.
The guide rubbed his hands together to warm them back up after the frosty breeze Ranma produced. "You take this very well young mister customer."
"Suppose I am." Ranma shrugged. "I can't seem ta shake a feeling that this has happened before somehow. Maybe I was here in a past life or something."
The Guide just nodded. He had heard stranger things that were true. "Come along mister customers, I show you how curse work." With that he led the pair to his hut to show them how hot and cold water would effect them.
While that was going on not to far away something else that would have an effect on Ranma's future was happening. On a cliff overlooking the valley of pools stood a grumbling boy. He was dressed in a simple tattered yellow shirt and black pants and happened to be hauling around a huge backpack. He looked over the valley and grinned to himself. "Soon I'll have my revenge on that coward for running off!" With that, he promptly turned around and marched into the forest away from the cursed pools Jusenkyo.
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(Posted Tue, 05 Nov 2013 05:38)
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