"Y'all could've at least let me finish eating, y'know…" Ranma said with his hands shoved in his pockets as he walked alongside everyone else.

"You were about to take your sixth plate before we dragged you away!" Lissa cried out with her hands at her side while giving him a disapproving look. He felt like he was a teacher being scolded by one of his students. Only her experience in all this probably outweighs yours a hundred to one, he thought. Stop trying to equate her size to her skill. She's already saved your ass… Literally.

Ranma murmured to himself, trying not to rub his sore arm. He thought about just how Lissa could be so strong… and Chrom too actually, dude just shrugged off a hit from me. That's pretty impressive… Kinda reminds me of Ryoga, actually.

Ranma stopped dead in his tracks as that came to mind.

Can he be as strong as him too?

Lissa and Chrom both noticed that Ranma had stopped walking.

"Are you alright, Ranma?" asked Lissa, her nurturing tone returning to her voice. It was never too far away.

The newly-minted tactician just shook his head.

"Fine just… thinking 'bout some stuff"

"Is it something to share?"

"No, no... Not really. Nothing important, anyhow."

"Are you sure?" Lissa tried to press on. Darn her and her naturally caring attitude, he swore to himself.

"Yeah, it's fine."

He tried to placate her with a confident full-toothed smile. In retrospect, maybe it drifted too far into a smirk. He didn't notice her look away to hide a blush.

"Ranma!" Chrom called out to the Pigtailed fighter. "Come over here!"

"What's up?" He replied as he took a place next to the bluenette prince.

"You see those men over there?" Chrom asked pointing ahead.

Ranma squinted to take a look and sure enough there seemed to be six figures in the distance. They were far enough away that Ranma couldn't make out any unique features, but they seemed to at least be of many varying heights.

"So? What about 'em?"

"We should investigate. Our borders are threatened every day. They could be unfriendly."

"Can't argue with that, I suppose."

The foursome made their way towards the six figures, finally making their way up to them. Ranma took the time to take a look at each one of them.

How do you even get white hair? How can it be so common that three of them have it… or grey? Blonde and red. That black-haired girl noticed us, her eyes widened a lot… Wait, is she looking right at me? Can't be. Hope not. Last thing I need is somebody else crushing on me here.

The Shepherds finally came up directly to the group. None of them made any threatening moves, so Chrom waved, wanting to keep everything calm.

"Say, strangers! Do you need any help?" said Chrom, his hands on his hips. The prince met their placidness with his own sense of dashing.

Chrom and the white-haired girl shared a conversation, with Frederick and Lissa chiming in now and then. Ranma wasn't too focused on that. He was instead looking right at the girl who, now that he was closer, noticed she had her hair in a long braid, sort of reminding him of his hair (only longer). She kept looking right at him, not faltering when his stare matched her own.

What's with her? He leaned side to side and watched as her blue eyes stood right on him Is there something on my face? She's looking at me as if she saw a ghost or something.

"Hey! What's your probl-" Ranma interrupted when Lissa pulled on his sleeve. "Hey! What's the deal?"

"Come on, we need to deal with invisible warthogs," Lissa explained in so few words that Ranma was left entirely lost.

"Okay, what the hell did I miss?"

"That silver-haired girl happens to be a princess who's lost her land's prized invisible warthogs."

Well, of course, he thought. Why didn't I think of that?

"...Huh. Do you suppose invisible meat tastes better than normal meat?"

"How can you still be thinking about food? Five plates, Ranma!"

"In any case, keep that stave at the ready. In my experience, warthogs are about as mean and ravenous as I am when hungry, and they're a lot bigger."

"Have you met warthogs before, Ranma?" said Lissa, her eyebrow cocked with curiosity.

"That isn't a story to tell on a full stomach, believe me…"

From behind them, they heard someone trying to stifle their laughter and failing at it. The two teens turned around to look at the source of the noise. All they saw was the black-haired girl giggling through her clasped hands. The pair looked at her, their faces twisted in confusion. They looked at each other, as if the other one may have the answer. It took a few more moments of laughter from the girl until she wiped a tear from her eye. She took in a large breath.

"Oh my goodness… I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself," she sighed. before one last giggle came out. "You just… reminded me of someone," she admitted while scratching the back of her head.

Ranma had about a thousand more questions from that explanation but no time to ask them.

"Em! What are you doing!? Lady Corrin needs our help already!" The redhead with the ponytails came up and grabbed the braided-hair girl's arm and pulled her away.

"Em…?" Ranma heard Lissa whisper as she was dragged away.

Oh right, that's the nickname Chrom and Lissa have for their sister, isn't it? Well, no way her name is Emmeryn too.

Ranma looked over to the still-confused Lissa and poked her shoulder.

"Hey, come on. Didn't you say we need to join Chrom to help this Princess out or something?"

Lissa, back out of her head, nodded.

"R-Right.. Come on. We shouldn't keep them waiting."

When they both made it to where the fighting was taking place, Ranma immediately saw Chrom and Frederick swinging and stabbing at the air. Guess they found the… warthogs? Squinting Ranma could almost make out a purple aura. Wait, there's something weird going on here… warthogs don't have Ki like that. Focusing his senses harder Ranma was able to make out more humanoid shapes.

"What the hell is going on here?" Ranma rushed in to go and help Chrom and Frederick but his senses flared out and he leaned back just in time to see something fly by his face. Looking towards his right he just makes out the image of… Is that a fucking ninja!?

"Lissa! Go and help Chrom and Frederick! I think they're hurt."

"What about you?"

He spared a moment to look back at her and give her his confident smirk.

"I can handle myself… It's just a bunch of animals after all" he lied to placate her, having now a fair idea of what he was up against.

"Ranma, that's irrational!"

"Just run on my signal, okay?"

"What's the signal?"

"You'll know it when you see it," he said as he faced the same invisible warrior who had thrown a shuriken at him. His fists balled up at his side. His own aura started to radiate, one of pure confidence. It glowed a bright yellow. Too bad for these ninjas. They're at a huge disadvantage here, unlike those goons yesterday. I'm not tired today.

He crossed his arms in front of him just as the ninja threw more shurikens at him.

"Moko Takabisha!" he shouted as he thrust his hands out and fired off his Ki blast of pure concentrated ego. It flew right through the shuriken knocking them away and hit the group of Ninja which caused a small explosion scattering them away.

"Now!" He shouted at Lissa. Her trance broke before she nodded nervously and ran towards Chrom and Frederick.

"Two days in and she's already a better listener than Akane..." he sighed as he cracked his knuckles and jumped into the thick of it.

Dodge here, punch there, these Ninja are kinda lame. No wonder they need to be invisible, they suck at being ninjas… But that brings up the question, why the hell are they invisible!? Ranma thought to himself as he nimbly moved around the group that came to try and surround him. At least they know how to control their emotions it seems, this isn't enough of a Battle Aura to make a Shoten Ha… not that I should make one, Buddah knows what the others would think if I suddenly just made a tornado. His fist embedded itself in the gut of another Ninja and he threw him at the others.

Man this is just pathe- "AAAH!" He shouted as his back was impaled by more than a couple shurikens. "Shit!"

He whipped around, starting to yell. "Moko Takab-"

He stopped when the ninjas were taken out by the familiar braid-haired girl. She held a sword in her hand as the ninja fell to the ground.

"Huh..." He said lamely as he reached around to pull out the Ninja Stars from his back hissing as he got one out. "Yep… real lame, if they were any good these would be poisoned" He said nonchalantly as if what just happened to him was no big deal.

'Em' just marched towards him, glaring right at him. Something about the way she was looking at him made Ranma sweat a bit. "Are you an idiot!?" She shouted at him, a stark contrast from earlier. "You could've gotten yourself killed!"

"Hey! I don't know who you think you are, but I had this under control!"

She rolled her eyes as he continued to pull the stars from his back, watching him wince with each one pulled.

"I've also noticed you've kept them all alive, what's that about? These are enemies!"

Ranma rubbed the back of his head as he looked away. "... I uh… I don't kill," he said quietly.

"That's a mindset they obviously aren't sharing with you, as I'm sure you've noticed." She said gesturing to him trying to indicate towards his back wounds. "Also I'm sure your allies have a few kills under their belt already, with your no kill thing that doesn't bother you?"

Ranma still looking away replied with "... I get why THEY do it... I just... don't see why I have to. If I can end a fight without killing that's ALWAYS gonna be the option I take. If I had no other choice then that's different…" He trailed off getting a little lost in his thoughts.

She walked up and waved a hand in front of his face, he blinked as he shook his head.

"Not that it matters to you. Why do you care anyway?!" He shouted defensively at her.

She stepped back as he shouted, looking as if she wasn't expecting him to shout at her. "I just... well… I er… don't want to see you get hurt" She said lamely with her eyes shifting left to right as if she was looking for an escape route.

He sighed and shook his head "Whatever, we should get back into the fight. Come on, Em" He said as he looked over to her only to see her eyes wide in surprise.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"N-No you just called me, Em… where did you…?"

"Your friend said it earlier, all I know to call you by. Don't really know what your name is after all"

"Oh! Of course!" She giggled a little and slapped her forehead. "My name is Emily. Sorry about all of that earlier"

"Name's Ranma, and don't worry about it," he smirked and jerked his head towards the comba. "Now, come on. Let's get back in there."

She gave him a nod and a smile before they both headed back into the fray.

There weren't many more for either to do, as the enemies have been culled fairly well by this point. There were a few stragglers left over but they were being swiftly dealt with by the combined might of Ranma and Emily.

The last of them all grouped together to gang up on the two black haired fighters. Ranma dodged a star being thrown at him which flew right past him. He followed its path with his eyes and noticed that it was going straight towards Emily. Before he could warn her the star ended up hitting her sword mid-swing, the surprise catching her off guard, causing her to drop her sword.

"Shit! Hold up!" he cried out to her, running to help her out.

Or at least he was until she stepped straight into a fighting stance and started to take on the last of the ninjas in hand to hand combat. Ranma only stood by as she floored every one of them single-handedly. He almost lost track of her moves.

Ranma looked at Emily with his mouth gaped in surprise. Actually… some of those moves… I could swear that was Anything Goes.

"Hey! Who taught you how to fight?" He asked out to Emily

She visibly jumped at the question and instead of looking him in the eyes she shifted on her feet looking away.

"My father," she said, averting her eyes from him.

"Your… father?"

Before Ranma could get a response or question her even further, the blonde man he saw earlier made himself known, arms spread wide and exclaiming loudly.

"Emily! It has been way too long since I saw your martial prowess! It is such a shame you aren't allowing yourself to use the fearsome power of your techniques! We all know that-" It was at that point that the blonde man stopped talking and stared right at Ranma before letting out a piercing scream.

He moved quickly to Emily's side and whispered something in her ear, to which she just nodded and sighed along too.

"Could someone explain what's going on to me real quick? I haven't felt this lost since… Well, in a few hours, I suppose."

The blonde one came forth and locked Ranma in the tightest handshake of his life. "Hark! Accept my apologies, Trusty Sir, whomst I can assure I have never met before just now. My name is Odin Dark! And again I apologise for screaming the way I did! Your… powerful aura just left me utterly stunned! For it reminded me of Emily's powerful father!" Speaking of whom promptly stomped her foot right down on Odin's just as soon as he had finished speaking.

"OUCH!" He screamed "What did you go and do that for?"

"You're talking too much, Odin!"

Luckily for the two of them Ranma had zoned out, having trained himself to do so at the drop of the word 'Hark'.

"Listen, Ranma, don't think too much about what Odin said, trust me, he doesn't either." Emily said to try and keep Ranma from questioning too much.

"Yeah…. Sure," Ranma said, pretending like he heard everything that was said.

Now that the "warthogs" were taken care of, Ranma finally made his way back with his group. Each member looked a bit worse for wear, but it was nothing that Lissa's stave and healing magic couldn't repair.

As Ranma rejoins Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick. Chrom was already handing Corrin two items, that while Ranma had no idea what they were they looked really valuable and important.

Wonder what the heck he was carrying those things around for

Corrin nodded as she took the two items with grace. "Chrom… Thank you, I promise to use them well"

Frederick shook his head "Hmph. I cannot stop Milord if he insists. I will give you something as well" He reached his hand out and dropped a pebble into Corrin's hands.

"Dude! Did you seriously just give her a pebble!? Why are you even carrying a pebble!?" Ranma questioned as he gave Frederick an incredulous look. "Might as well just not have given her anything!"

"I'll have you know, Saotome, I clear pebbles from the path so Milord and Milady don't trip. But the one I just gave to Lady Corrin… there's something special about that one, I'm sure of it."

"Don't see what could be so special about a pebble…" Ranma spat.

Corrin looked between Ranma and Frederick "Er… either way. Thank you, Frederick… I'm sure there's some… way to use it-"

Ranma interrupted her "Corrin, you don't have to be polite to him. It's a pebble. At most you can flick it into someone's eyes" He said before looking right at Frederick "and apparently at worst you can trip on them" He added with a chuckle.

Frederick harrumphed while Corrin couldn't help herself but to giggle a little.

The White Haired Butler typed cleared his throat before speaking up. "Lady Corrin, I believe it would be in our best interest to head home."

"Ah! Right you are Jakob. Well… It was nice meeting you, Chrom, Lissa, Frederick… and, uhh..."

"Ranma."

"It was nice to meet you as well Ranma"

The teenaged martial artist nodded to her in acknowledgment.

Chrom walked up to her with his arm outstretched "If you get the chance, come visit us again sometime. I'd like to talk more about our respective kingdoms."

Corrin smiled and shook his hand "I'm sure if you wish it, we'll meet again someday. Just hold fast to your beliefs."

Chrom released his grip and nodded "I will. I'll look forward to the day our paths cross again."

Corrin backed up, standing at Jakob's side "Thanks, Chrom. I hope to spend time together again someday as well."

As Jakob and Corrin walked away, The Silver haired man Ranma noticed back in the beginning walked up to him.

He bowed slightly before Ranma with his arm draped across him and the other behind him, "Before I leave, Sir Ranma, I have a bit of a favor to ask of you… see I'm something of a… psychic"

"Are you now?" Ranma asked, feeling skeptical immediately towards his statement.

"That's right, and in your future, I see you meeting a Pink Haired dancer, she's going to ask of you a request, do me a favor and accept it would you? It would mean an awful lot to me and her"

"I'll uh think about it I guess… " The Teen said while he scratched his face looking confused.

"That's all I can ask of you" He smiled before he walked away to join his Princess.

Dude never even told me his name.

Next up the Red headed girl in ponytails walked right up to him and stared right at him, she looked as if she wanted to say something to him as well, but instead she let out a "Hmph" and walked away.

The hell was that about.

Next up was Odin, he came right up and smirked at Ranma "It's quite a shame you couldn't bear witness to the sheer wonder of my dark magic! Nothing would have pleased my warrior's heart more than to show someone with tremendous aura such as your own the magnitude of power I possess!" He laughed as he boasted and finished off with some kind of pose with his hand in front of his face.

"Uh… Yeah. Maybe next time."

"Haha! Next time indeed perhaps!" and Odin walked away, joining back up with the others.

Hopefully that never happens

Next to come up to Ranma was Emily. She gave him a smile and a bow. "It was a pleasure to fight alongside you. I hope we can do it again one day"

Ranma blinked at her before he bowed back, feeling like he had to. "Me too, we should have a spar the next time we meet" He said with a smirk.

"Heh… we might." She said with a sly smile before walking off.

Lissa came right up next to Ranma "They sure were a weird lot weren't they?" Ranma gave a snort in agreement.

"That Odin one specifically, liked his name though. Like… something an amazing hero would have. Wouldn't mind naming my son something like that," she said, before giving a slight giggle.

"Yeah, well I just sure hope I wouldn't have a kid dressed like that" Ranma and the others after having watched as Corrin's group walked off into the distance, were back on track to their original mission.

Chrom was the first to speak. "So… Do you think we'll see them all again?"

Ranma responded to him "You just might. When you do, I'm sure it'd be a smash."

"Are you implying that Lord Chrom would be in a melee?"

"No, I meant something else. Although I guess he doesn't strike me as someone who'd be in a brawl."

Lissa stopped their conversation in its tracks "Would you two stop being an ultimate waste of time and look over there! There's a woman passed out on the ground!" She yelled while she pointed forward.

There she was. A white haired woman, passed out right on the ground.

An: So I debated with myself a bit on whether this should actually have been put in it's own separate story, but since it's gonna have a few callbacks further on in the story I figured I might as well leave it in as is.

Hope you all enjoyed the… let's say foreshadowing with the trio now turned quartet.