Ranma 1/2, Gargoyles
Ranma, the Time of Changes
By Brendan O'Donnell
Chapter Six
Ryouga sat in the back seat of the police car, wrapped in a tablecloth. *I sure hope he did say something about getting me clothes.* Ryouga thought to himself. He slumped, letting himself collapse into the seat. *I’d better not fall asleep.* He thought. To distract himself he thought of how he had gotten where he was.
*Akane knows. She was holding me talking about what she wanted to do in retaliation, then there was a flash of light and I’m falling onto a table.* He had glanced off the edge of the table, however the impact had overturned a pot of hot water siting on the edge. A quick splash and he had been a naked man in a small restaurant. Naturally his first instinct was to grab a tablecloth and cover up.
Unfortunately for the coffee shop owners the disorientation of teleportation, the noise of New York city, and the way people screamed around him in a language he barely understood combined to scare the young martial artist silly. When the waiter approached, Ryouga had shifted into a fighting stance, however as he lost his balance and fell on his back he had realized that he was too tired to fight anyone. He used this feeling of helplessness as a focus to gather his Shishi-Hokodan. Fortunately for the people in the coffee shop, Ryouga recognized that they weren’t directing any hostility against him. So he had released the energy he had gathered in the only direction he was sure it wouldn’t hurt anyone, straight up.
Elisa Maza walked toward the doors of the precinct. Her shift was over.
">Morning Maza.<" Morgan called to her as she walked toward him. He was walking just behind a young man with a white tablecloth wrapped around himself.
">Hi Morgan, who’s he?<"
">Oh, weird thing, according to him one second he was in Tokyo the next he was standing naked in a coffee shop downtown. Do you speak any Japanese? He’s not that comfortable with English.<"
">Sorry Morgan, can’t help.<"
Ryouga was siting on the floor leaning back against the wall. *Ok, this is New York City, which means I traveled almost halfway around the world without walking a step. Of course walking to New York would be real unusual for me. I mean New York isn’t Honshu, or Okinawa, or Hawaii, was that place Texas...?*
">Hey Hibiki, your lawyer’s here.<" Said the guard as he walked up to the cell and opened the door.
">Lawyer?<" Said Ryouga as he rose to his feet. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans with tan canvas sneakers.
">Well, she says she’s working for you. She was even ready to pay your bail if that cafe’s owner wanted to press charges.<"
">He didn’t want to press charges though, so you have no reason to hold my client.<" Said a serious faced brunette as she walked past the guard. ">Shall we be going Mr. Hibiki?"
Ryouga looked at her, then sighed and said in Japanese "It doesn’t matter," as he walked out of the cell.
Cologne sat in a room beneath the Nekohanten writing a letter to her daughter.
Channel,
Thank you for telling me what Perfume is planing. If she attempts to act I grant you this proxy to oppose her with my full backing and authority. As for the question of my return, I consider the Saotome boy a prize of great value, but the cost of making him part of the tribe has been enormous, and we still have no assurance that our goal will be achieved. Failure is unacceptable, however I have recently found a possible alternative. It will take several months to explore the possibilities, during that time I will continue aiding my granddaughter in her pursuit of Ranma. Should she continue to fail however, I shall accept it and return home.
Ryouga walked down the steps of the police station following the woman who had arranged his release. She glanced back at him.
"This way sir. My client wants to talk to you." She led the way to a limousine and opened the rear door.
The red haired woman inside smiled at Ryouga. ">Come in, we’ve a lot to discuss Hibiki-san.<"
After hesitating a moment Ryouga entered the Limo.
">An associate of mine saw that energy display you put on last night, I was very impressed by what I heard.<"
">Uh, thank you...<"
">Destine. Dominique Destine.<"
Ranma walked into the Tendo home and shut the door behind him. "I’m back." he announced.
"Ranma," Nabiki said as she walked out of the main room. "You said something about Ryouga appearing with some flash of green light, didn’t you?"
"Was he here?" Ranma responded looking Nabiki in the eyes. She looked calm and collected as usual, but here and there the mask was slipping revealing the uncertainty she was feeling.
"P-chan was."
Ranma scowled.
" Akane and I were scaring him a bit when he started glowing green and vanished. Now you’ve seen this, do you think he’s OK? I mean Akane’s scared that he might have really hurt himself because of her."
Ranma shifted to a thoughtful look. "Hmm, the last time he didn’t seem to be hurt by that green thing, just tired. And part of that could have been from walking for however long he walks. Still we can’t be sure till we get some sort of confirmation. Hmm." Ranma thought a moment, then walked to the phone and dialed a number.
"Who?"
Ranma raised his hand. "Obachan? Yes it’s me Ranma... No he’s not here... Well you recall how I saw him appear the other day?... Yes the green light... Well Akane made him disappear while we were talking... I don’t know, I guess she was getting back at him for P-chan and he got scared... Ok thank you." He hung up the phone.
"Who was that?"
"Mrs. Hibiki. She promised to call us when she hears from Ryouga. And Ryouga always sends her postcards whenever he has the opportunity."
Nabiki looked at the phone a moment then said, "Akane’s in the dojo."
"Akane."
Akane turned to look at her fiancee standing in the doorway of the dojo. "What do you want Ranma?"
Ranma entered and looked around. There was a pile of smashed cinderblocks visible through a hole smashed in the floor. "Nabiki said that Ryouga teleported again." *I’d better not give any indication that he might not be ok.*
"Ranma... What if whatever that green light was hurt him. What if he’s... It’ll be all my fault!" She roughly wiped away the tears from her eyes.
"Akane, there’s no way of knowing where Ryouga is so we should just assume that he’s somewhere he can handle. Anyone who can give me as good a fight as he can is pretty well prepared for most situations."
"But he was a pig when he disappeared."
"He’s been a pig almost as long as I’ve been a girl. He knows how to handle himself. And when he gets the chance to mail his mother another postcard she’ll tell us."
"His mother?"
"So he can’t see his mother because he’s scared how she’ll react to the curse?" Fox said to her husband.
"It seems that when Genma left ten years ago on his training trip ten years ago he swore an oath that Ranma would grow up to be a ‘Man Among Men’. If Ranma failed to measure up he and Genma would have to commit seppuku. Ranma and Genma will use a tanto dagger to slice open their stomachs, with Nodoka decapitating them once they’ve cut deeply enough. Once she ends their suffering she would be obligated to use the sword on her own throat." David Xanatos replied. "It’s a question of honor, and here in Japan it’s counted as more important than life. Especially for a martial artist like Ranma."
"’Man among Men’, that leaves some room for interpretation." Fox thought a moment then turned back to David. "We’re treating the Saotome and Tendo family’s to dinner in two days right?"
"Indeed Mrs. Xanatos," Owen replied.
"Good." she said as she opened her cellular phone
"It’s all Ranma’s fault." Ryouga said as he looked out the windows of the limousine.
">Ranma?<" Dominique asked.
Ryouga blinked a moment and glanced at her. He scowled a moment. ">Ranma is... Ranma is son of a thief and coward, he’s dishonorable, cowardly,<" Ryouga slipped back into Japanese as he became more caught up in his explanation, "He, he has three fiancee’s and is always after more! One of them is the sweetest woman in the world, and if it wasn’t for him she might want me the way I want her! RANMA!!"
"RYOUGA!" Dominique’s sharp statement drew the lost boy’s attention back to his host. Who was now looking at him with an annoyed expression on her face. "You break it you bought it." She gestured at him and Ryouga realized he had manifested a fairly strong aura as he went on about Ranma.
">Gomen, sorry Destine-san.<" He said, dimming the aura to nothing. Then he blinked and looked at her. "You speak Japanese?"
">Not in a while. And I think you’d better practice your English unless you’re planing on leaving soon.<"
Ryouga looked at her a moment. ">Nowhere to go.<" He looked out the window. "There’s nothing for me anywhere."
">What are you moaning about. After hearing what you did in that coffee shop I’ve come here because you’re going to be swamped with job offers and I want you working for Nightstone Unlimited.<"
Ryouga looked at her a moment then asked ">Uh, you offering a job?<"
Dominique grinned at Ryouga. ">I haven’t decided on a position yet, but anyone with your abilities would be an incredible asset, especially with all the industrial espionage to deal with.<"
Ryouga thought. He thought of Nerima. *I wanted to distract myself from Akane. Maybe I can forget about her here.* ">I accept.<
Xanatos rolled across the floor again, then with a shift rolled to his feet instantly pivoting where Ranma had stood before he threw him across the dojo. He couldn’t see anyone anywhere.
"Ok, not bad," came Ranma’s voice from above him. Xanatos looked up as Ranma jumped off his head. Xanatos looked at him with a slightly annoyed expression. Catching it Ranma replied "Hey you are improving pretty fast, it’s just that there’s no way you could train up to my level in only a week."
"I know," Xanatos replied, looking annoyed. "It’s still annoying when you do stuff like that."
"Well let’s call that enough for today." Ranma said walking toward the entrance to the dojo.
Xanatos stared at him. "Are you sure?"
Ranma turned and looked at him.
"Not that I’m questioning your judgment, it’s just a real change to stop before all my limbs are feeling numb."
"You have to be careful about getting to attached to any patterns."
">And when the body is falling asleep the chi flow in these meridians diminishes while it increases in these.<" Cologne said, indicating several lines on a human shaped doll.
Dr. Sevarius clicked the trackball on his laptop a second then sat back and took a sip from a glass of water. "Yes..." He peered at the screen. ">Yes, I think I’ve got it! I’ll have to custom build those completely new biosensors, and figure out a way to get him to wear them, but it looks like it can work.<"
Cologne smiled as she looked at the Laptop’s screen. "Excellent."
Nadoka Saotome was walking along the stream that ran though the park. The Saotome sword was wraped up and tied to her back. She glanced at the flowers, turned to look at the stream, then sighed and just looked down at the path. "Ranma," She wispered. *My son how are you? Has Genma succeded? Will honor force me too... NO! You are manly, you must be...* She blinked as she felt a presence right beside her.
"Nodoka Saotome right?" asked an American accented voice. Turning her head Nodoka looked at the woman who had just spoken. She was about her height, dressed in a red and green kimono. Her long red hair fell freely down her back, and there was a blue tattoo around her right eye resembling a geometric representative of a canine head.
"Yes, how do you know my name?" Nodoka responded.
"Actually your son told me about you, I’m Fox Xanatos." she replied with a grin.
Nodoka looked at her a moment. "You know Ranma..."
"I met him a few days ago." Fox responded with a grin. "You must be very proud."
Nodoka lowered her head and sighed. "I haven’t seen him in a long time. I want to feel proud of him, but I don’t know if I can yet."
"I think you can, but since the first thing Ranma did when I met him was save my life I’m a little biased."
"Ranma saved your life? How manly of him!" Nodoka replied with a happy expression on her face.
"Oh yeah, that promise. I don’t know how Ranma can handle it, knowing that his entire life is entirely dependant on the subjective judgement of one person." Fox shook her head. Taking a step along the path she added, "Walk with me for a bit and I’ll tell you some of what I’ve seen about Ranma." She slowly walked down the path, her natural agility only partially making up for her unfamiliarity with traditional Japanese wooden footwear. Noticing Nodoka effortlessly keeping pace with her Fox smiled and began talking. "You see I came here on business and I wanted to just relax and take Alex for a walk."
"Alex?"
"My son." Fox smiled, then added, "It still feels so incredible to say, My son Alexander."
Nodoka smiled. "I remember when Ranma was born."
"Right, speaking of Ranma I was walking along the canal that’s about three blocks from the Tendo house. Where I had the bad timing to stumble onto a fight between Ranma and one of the folk who are regularly trying to kill him..."
"Well David’s no slouch when it comes to Martial arts, but he tells me that Ranma is deliberately reigning himself in dramatically and he still gets clobbered thoroughly in their sparing matches."
"Well, then Genma was able to train Ranma well." Nodoka said quietly.
Fox looked at Nodoka, "Ranma is a great fighter, but he misses his mother. Still his life is entirely dependant on your personal whim so it’d natural for him to be hesitant."
Nodoka stopped and glared at Fox. "You think I would…" She said angrily.
Fox looked at her with a slight smile. "I think you’re not like that. The thing is I learned that something happened to Ranma in China. It’s temporary, it was unintentional, it’s at least theoretically curable, but because of it, Ranma has a lot of fear that meeting with you could mean the end of the Saotome family." Fox sighed. "But that’s not the only thing there is for him to be afraid of. He hasn’t seen you in years, and he wants to see you again. But more than that he wants you to feel proud of him. The thought of you being disappointed in him is what scares him more than anything."
"From what you have said, I can’t see how he could disappoint me." Nodoka replied.
"If you’d like to meet him David and I are taking them all out to dinner tomorrow night. I’ll send a driver to pick you up, OK?"
Demona sat at her desk, drumming her fingers and looking out the window. *A little more than an hour and a half till sunset.* She thought as she looked up at the fiery orb. *This human body…* The distaste she felt for humanity surged into an anger against Puck for giving her humanity during the day, then the anger faded as she looked at the sun again. *I have wondered what the sun looked like for so long…* She glanced at the clock in her desk and frowned. *I set Ryouga up with that tailor in the room down the hall 45 minutes ago.* Demona frowned to herself.
There was a knock at the door of the office.
Dominique Destine looked at the door and said ">Enter.<"
The door opened and admitted a secretary with Ryouga in tow.
">Pardon me for disturbing you Ms. Destine, but this guy was wandering through our offices three floors down looking for your office. After he asked me where it was the third time I decided he needed to be taken here personally.<"
">Thank you, I can take it from here.<" Dominique replied. The secretary opened left closing the door behind her. Dominique looked at Ryouga. ">Hibiki-san, you’re now my employee. Is there anything I should know that will affect how you work?<"
Ryouga looked down. ">Well… I kind of… It’s a family problem…<"
">Look me in the eye and talk plainly.<" Dominique’s voice remained calm and quiet, but it had a tone and force that resonated stronger than the loudest shout.
Tearing his eyes from the floor Ryouga looked at his new boss and said, "I get lost and I turn into a pig!"
">Good, now say that in english.<
">Gomen, sorry I said…<" Ryouga thought of his language a moment.
">That you lose your way and turn into a pig.<" Dominique said calmly.
Ryouga blinked.
">I think you’d better sit down and explain this to me in detail. And you can explain about that energy attack and any other tricks you know.<"
Demona walked into the hidden room behind her office, closing and locking the door behind her. She glanced out the window. *From the outside it’s black as obsidian, but from inside…* She looked at the sun, it’s lower half concealed by the buildings of New York. Demona hated humanity with an intensity that had grown over the millenium she had walked the earth. She felt a constant sense of self-loathing and revulsion throughout the day. Except for the times she saw the sun and felt it’s warmth on her face. This was when she simply felt envious of the human who knew this wonder all their lives.
The sun had dropped even further behind the buildings, and was coming into contact with the true horizon. Demona calmly walked over to a nearby wardrobe and began carefully removing her suit. *Just because I can afford to buy a new suit every day doesn’t mean I have to.*
Akane stood in front of the mirror in her room. The Xanatos’s had decided to take the Tendo’s and Saotome’s to dinner that night, and since they had chosen a fancy restaurant, they bought everyone a new set of clothes. Akane was wearing an exquisitely crafted light blue silk dress; pulling on the long gloves she contemplated her appearance. Raising the hem of her skirt she curtsied slightly, then spun into a quick piroet and thought about the live band and dance floor Fox had mentioned. She frowned as she heard Ranma screaming about something in his room. *What is he up to?* She thought as she walked to the door.
Traveling down the hall to the Saotome’s room she listened at the door a moment.
"Chikusho, goddamn, sulfurous felgercarb!"
With a slight grin she knocked on the door as she opened it.
"What?!" Ranma declared as he turned to the door, dropping his hands from the worst attempt at knotting a tie that Akane had ever seen. He froze, staring at his fiancee.
Akane smiled. "Trouble, Ranma?"
"Uh," Ranma shook his head, then turned away from the door, reaching for the tie as he attempted to mentally force the blush from his cheeks. "Nothing I can’t handle." Ranma stated distractedly, as he began loosening the bizarre variant of a sheepshank he had tied around his neck.
"Honestly Ranma, why can’t men ever admit when they need help?" She said as she walked in and pushed his hands away from the tie and eliminated the knot.
"I don’t need help." Ranma commented in a surly tone, glancing away while crossing his arms across his chest. "I just haven’t had much practice with this sort of thing."
"Don’t make such a big deal out of it. I haven’t had much practice either, but it’s easier to do this for someone than to do it on yourself." Akane responded as she precisely tied the tie, and tightened it to his collar. For a second she considered pressing the knot upward a little farther, then she dropped her hands to her sides. "There, all better."
With a slight grumble Ranma turned away, then paused. Looking back at her he said, "Thanks Akane."
Ranma looked at the limos that had pulled up at the curb. Such cars were rare in Japan where space was so precious, and the Xanatos’s had commissioned two of them. "Ranma!" Xanatos called as he stepped from the first limousine. "I see the tailor did a good job." He commented as he looked over Ranma’s suit. His gaze moved to the three sisters. Nabiki was wearing a deep red low cut gown, which made her confidence in her looks very clear to everyone. Kasumi on the other hand was dressed much more modestly, yet her yellow dress was strapless. "Well, always a pleasure to see money well spent." He said with a smile on his face. Glancing at the two fathers in their own formal outfits he added, "Excuse me," and walked over to the pair.
"Xanatos-san?" Soun commented as the billionaire simple draped his arms around the two men’s shoulders.
"Oh nothing to worry about, I just wanted to mention that I’ve heard about some of your matchmaking attempts with Ranma and Akane," Xanatos commented with a grin. Shaking his head he continued, "I would prefer if you took the night off from doing that sort of thing, I would hate to have to make the effort to avenge myself if you abused my hospitality." He squeezed both men’s shoulders then released, walking to the limo that he and fox were sharing with Ranma and Akane.
"Um, what sort of vengeance would he have in mind, Saotome?" Soun commented to his friend quietly.
"I’m not sure. He’s an American so it’s probably…" Genma’s mind conjured up an image of Xanatos in a pinstriped suit, hat pulled down to shade his eyes, and his mouth curled into a smirk as he leveled a tommygun at him. "Let’s not find out."
Soun thought of Xanatos sitting in an expansive office, then with a gesture sending a hoard of ninja’s with cowboy hats and old west pistols descending on him and his family. "That’s probably a good idea, Saotome."
Ryouga sat on the roof of Nightstone Unlimited’s New York office contemplating the stars. He glanced at the handcuffs attaching him to a rooftop vent with a frown. *">Sorry, Miss Destine says this meeting has to be alone, and without me or someone else there you have to stay in one place<."* The guard who had locked it on had been leading Ryouga around the entire day, even in the bathroom.
Ryouga was glad to finally have a brief period of oh so familiar solitude; however the comforting embrace of quiet couldn’t diminish the anger gnawing at his insides. He hated the way no one trusted him to find his way only slightly less than he hated the fact that they had good reason to expect him to get lost. *Dominique-san said that someone she knew who had studied magic would meet me here to study my curses.* He frowned and looked around. *Why here!*
"Ryouga Hibiki," A voice proclaimed from behind him. Leaping to his feet and pivoting to face this potential threat, Ryouga barely noticed himself tearing the handcuff free of it’s anchor. As he saw what stood behind him he took a step back, dropping into a defensive posture almost as an afterthought.
She was a full foot taller than he was, the black wings rising unfurled from her back towering over a foot higher still. Her skin was a dark blue, and her feet and hands sprouted ferocious looking claws. A bat shaped headband held her fiery hair out of her face, and her loincloth and small top would have provoked a sever nosebleed in Ryouga if they had been worn by someone less intimidating.
">I am Demona, young human.<"
"Wha… Wait ok," Ryouga lowered his hands, and forced himself to relax slightly. ">Are you sorceress Dominique-San know?<"
Demona considered Ryouga for a moment, looking at him appraisingly. ">You of course are the boy I pointed out to Dominique. She understands the power of magic, she knows how valuable my aid has been to her.<" Taking a step forward she added, ">You’ve never seen a gargoyle before, have you?<"
">Uhh, no have not.<" Ryouga replied, forcing down his fear. *It’s not even her appearance that has me spooked; She shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on me like that!*
Demona pulled a golden cup from the satchel she wore across her body. She poured the contents of two separate bottles into the cup. Speaking a sharp Latin word she made a sharp circle above the cup with her left hand. A bright flame, green capped with blue rose ignited in the cup. ">Hold still,<" she stated as she walked around Ryouga, spilling a trickle from the cup to form a circle around him. When the circle was complete, she held her left hand above the flame and spoke three Latin words. The flame became a rising plume of translucent smoke, shimmering with ever changing colors. Demona brought the cup before her and looked through the smoke at Ryouga.
Ryouga waited.
">Quite the jumble.< Demona commented as she lowered the cup. She poured the remaining contents of the cup onto the circle, which evaporated instantly. ">You are saturated with a great deal of magic, much of it the work of the children of Avalon. Dealing with it will not be easy.<"
">Children of what?<"
">The third race, beings of pure magic. Japan’s Oni, the legends of Amaterasu and Susanno, and much more are based upon their existence.<" Demona stated. ">Their magic is powerful beyond description, and countering it is not a simple thing to contemplate.<"
"If you can’t help me why am I here!" Ryouga responded with a scowl.
Snarling Demona grabbed Ryouga by the collar, raising him so that he could look directly into her blazing red eyes. ">I care nothing for your welfare and happiness, Human! I am here for my own reasons, and if you give me cause I will turn you to stone and shatter you into dust!<" The crimson light faded from her eyes, and she lowered him to his feet, releasing him. ">I do intend to help you however. Dominique and I have exchanged favors at times and her aid is very useful to me. Now, you will tell me about your curse.<"
">R-Right. There’s a place in China called Jusenkyo…<"
A somewhat disheveled Fox and David walked into their suite. Fox walked to one of the recliners, and collapsed into it. David simply leaned against the wall and contemplated the mirror. ">That was an unusual experience.<"
Fox looked at him. ">Didn’t you encourage those labor unions to use the UcChans and Nekohanten for dinner tonight?<"
David Xanatos shrugged. ">Of course darling, but you know there’s always a chance of a plan going wrong.<"
">Not as wrong as this plan.<" Fox responded sourly. She thought of the girls chasing Ranma, the fountain, the can of fabric dissolver... *In all, this was a plan completely shot to hell.*
">Well at least everything worked out.< David commented shrugging his shoulder.
Fox remembered Nodoka’s reaction as everything fell completely apart. ">David, if I ever show any willingness to let Nodoka Saotome discuss Manliness with Alex, please kick me in the shins.<"
Grinning David replied, ">Only if you do the same for me.<"
---------
Note: I apologize for not describing the evening out, but I am no good at thinking deviously so I couldn’t really envision a plan worthy of Fox. If you can and want to try writing it be my guest.
Anyway, the next part takes place a couple of months later and brings Ranma Company to New York.