The Mynah approached, looming closer. Closer.
Genma cringed, unable to run any further as the bird raised a wing to strike.
Pop!
Genma lowered his arm after a few minutes. The bird was gone? Gone. GONE!
[A clever strategy if I do say so myself,] panda-signed Genma before fainting.
Weeping about the remains of house and dojo, not to mention all the crocodile bite marks he'd received getting away from Midorigame, Soun limped back into his own yard.
Ami and Sanri were unconscious and being carried. Ami'd gotten clipped by a thrown morningstar. Sanri had gotten punched by an ogrillon.
Unri was limping. Having a bugbear land on top of you can do that.
So it was a very good thing when the Guide called out and shadows moved forward - that the shadows were friendly.
"What's happen' here?" growled a deep voice with a thick accent. "Oi, take them injured to the main chambers we can heal 'em up there."
"Someone who speaks Japanese!" Ranma was grateful for this.
"What language be that?" asked the short figure as he moved up and the Guide motioned the two injured persons to be taken ahead.
Ranma stared in the light from the sword he'd grabbed earlier. He hadn't paid that much attention in their trip from the temple but he thought he'd mainly seen humans. This guy was maybe four feet tall but wide and fairly muscled, wearing thick armor. While Ranma thought he'd be slow as a tortoise in all that metal, there was something that spoke of an experienced warrior when he saw the midget.
"Japanese? It's the language of Japan," said Sailor Venus.
"Hmmm, so it be a nation specific language, eh?" The fellow frowned at that. "No. I don't speak this Sun Land Language ye speak of. I be using magic. With this many races and this many cultures, it be a good idea to put together some form of translation. Hence this thing. I be Thorrin Veth, a dwarven cleric of Moradin here consulting with my counterparts in the faith of Eilistrae."
"A clockwork skull?" Ranma looked at the oddity.
"A Mimir, lad. The simple ones just act as a tour guide, the more complex ones can do some translatin' as well." The cleric put the skull back on his belt. "Something I picked up in a place called Sigil far from here. Now. If ye can give me your side of this story?"
Akane ran into the remains of the house, still wearing a wedding gown.
"Look! It WORKED, Saotome!"
Akane slowly turned to regard her father. Questions of why her father's gi would be missing a leg and had various holes, not to mention all the bandaids, were temporarily shelved."What worked?"
[It was for your own good!] (panda sign flip) [Now the houses are united!] A panda also wearing bandages and with one arm in a sling nodded enthusiastically.
"You mean that you did this? Father how could you?!" Akane felt like crying. Or hitting her father. Or screaming. Or... something.
"It was for your own good. Father knows best," assured Soun Tendo. "You'll see."
"See?! SEE?!" Akane was beginning to twitch. She slowly crossed to her father, grabbed the front of his gi and pulled his face down to her level. "I JUST FOUND MYSELF IN A CHAPEL BEING MARRIED TO HIKARU GOSUNKUGI! How exactly is that for my own good?"
Soun laughed it off. "You see and now... who?" He had stopped laughing.
"Hikaru Gosunkugi," growled Akane.
"Oh," said her father. Point. "He did it!"
[Traitor!] The panda sign began flipping again.
Akane had just been pushed into something beyond rage. She reached out and crushed the panda sign before anyone could read it.
Ami looked around as the healing magic finished. Vaulted cavern. Dark Elves. A halfling running around with a platter full of mugs.
Her hand reached out and snagged her Mercury Computer. Typing so fast that she almost expected to see her fingers in knots, Ami brought up some of the downloaded files.
"Ami! Are you okay?" Minako asked as she took a seat nearby.
"This is the Promenade. Eilistrae's Promenade under the city of Waterdeep." Ami began reading the text quickly. "I knew I'd seen it before."
"'Eilistraee?' Saltharna kitoiou menalharan?"
Ami noticed that in addition to the one nearby elf, she'd managed to get the attention of everyone nearby. "Let's see if this works."
Minako looked at the window just opened on the computer. "See if what works?"
Ami typed in a sentence and then read a line of text that had appeared below it. "(We come peace in (nonsense sound) strange land.)"
"(Some kind of translation (reference not found) cast through that thing?)" asked a male dark elf who was apparently the medic. As soon as he had spoken the liquid syllables a text in Japanese appeared below.
Ami typed some more and relayed the text again. "(Yes. (nonsense sound) needs to hear more speak to get work.)"
The cleric said something else that the machine couldn't translate then said something that made sense. "(If you'll come with me, quarters have been prepared for the honeymooners.)"
Ami and Minako followed only to find a nice set of rooms with a very large bed dominating it.
The cleric helpfully went around, touching various items and saying the word in his language that corresponded to it. He was a little surprised by the duration of the spell, but he'd heard about these Al-Qadim artificiers being able to cast spells through their clockwork devices that lasted longer than normal.
Ami was beginning to nod off by the time this was done, so the cleric left thereafter.
When Ranma and the others showed up, it was obvious that the story about them all being married had spread.
Azusa Shiratori stopped skating because of all the damage and debris on the roadway, but then stopped entirely when she saw this little open book with a deck of cards nearby.
"Oooh. This might be cute," said Azusa to herself. "Let's see what one of them looks like!"
So saying, she turned over a card only to find:
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sun, 16 Nov 2003 12:44)
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.