A Different Type of Visitor (ADTOV) Chapter 11

Standard disclaimer, don't own Ranma 1/2, or Rifts. Wish I had some stock or shares but I don't. I'm doing this for my enjoyment and for the enjoyment of any of my readers. May they continue reading my works after they read this.

Thanks again to all my reviewers. And sorry to everyone who's been bugging me for the past so many months about my stories. All I can say is that I've been BUSY.

Work on ADTOV is still in progress. Book 2 ADTOW is started and will be posted, as it's own story on fanfiction net and mediaminer org. I'm not sure about other hosts as so far this is also posted in Ranchan Crossing bridges. Oh well. On with the Story

Additionally, if you are reading this on FF net, sorry for any formatting bugs and also for the annoyance of the popups and adds. For some reason the hosts at FF decided to do what they did, it annoys me when I read but FF is still one of the best and most comprehensive fanfiction sites on the net.

Chapter 11

Ranma and Nabiki were talking. Nothing much new there, even if it seemed that Nabiki had Ranma on the ropes about something. Again nothing new there as in his short time in the Tendo Dojo he seemed to have a hard time matching wits with the odd girl that he had found himself engaged to.

The matter of his engagement never really seemed to come up in the last few days but that had just changed.

"So why are we talking?" Ranma-kun asked from where he sat on the dojo floor looking across at Nabiki who happened to be dressed in a pair of short shorts and a worn but loose sweater.

"We are talking about us Ranma-chan." She said in a cute but serious voice.

"What about us?"

"The fact that we're engaged mister." She said and leaned slightly forward. So far she had been polite, however the sometimes mercenary girl wanted to maintain the upper hand in this conversation. "The fact that there is a good chance that we'll be spending a lot of time together in the future." She leaned back and looked at him with a slightly hooded expression. "I would like to know more about where you see things oh great traveling martial artist." The last part said with not quite a smirk, although it was a close thing.

Ranma sat there for a moment digesting what his new fiancée has said. Just before Nabiki was about to get frustrated and start up again he spoke up. "I don't know about 'Us' as ya call it. I found out about the engagement from my mom about a week ago, then I show up here and find my pops who has yet to show up at home. To top that off I have this curse and I'm travilin with a gal from some other world. So I guess I'm still catching up."

"Woa," Nabiki started as she looked at her fiancé. "That was deeper than I figured you'd be able to come up with." She said.

"Shakeera's been teaching me some basic Psi. There ain't no way I could learn that without learnin somethin about myself." Ranma said with a shrug.

"What about your speech?"

"What?" Ranma asked with his eyebrows raised. "Oh damn, uh…. Don't tell Shaky please?" He said in a slightly pleading voice.

Nabiki smirked outright as she saw him cringe and then plead to her. "So I'm guessing that she doesn't like it when you talk like a 'barbarian'?"

"No she doesn't. I've been trying to watch my grammar for the last month. It's kind of hard sometimes." Ranma said with an embarrassed expression. "She says that if a warrior is to be of any use beyond a simple swing of the sword then they must be educated and smart. After spending a month with her and watching her repair her ship I've come to understand that." Ranma then looked up at Nabiki with a gleam in his eye. "But I can still usually take her in a sparring match if she doesn't pull out any of her Psi on me."

They both chuckled at Ranma's enthusiastic comment and then were quiet for a few more moments until Nabiki spoke up. "So what are we going to do about our engagement then. Because I know that my Father will not let up when he gets his mind set on something."

"I dunno." Ranma started then winced as Nabiki looked at him like Shakeera did for his bad grammar. "Sorry, I mean I don't know. Just wait it out for a bit then I guess."

"Waiting it out for a bit might not be a completely bad idea when it comes to dealing with our fathers Ranma-kun. However I have no intention of waiting for to long before making my decision. So I want to get to know you to see if you are worth it or not." Nabiki said and sat back a little folding her arms under her breasts. "Besides this is about more than just family honor."

"How do you figure?" Ranma said and looked at his fiancee.

"I figure, because I know my father. And unfortunately I know about the type of person your father is. They have something riding on this otherwise things would be different."

"I guess I can understand that. But what about your sister Akane?" Ranma said as he looked over at a pile of construction materials that appeared to be ready for personal demolition. "If I know my pops he would've wanted me engaged to her instead of you."

"Really? Why would he?"

"Because something else I've been doing this last month is analyzing my relations with others. And my father would not want me engaged to a free thinker. Especially a free thinking woman."

"I figured he was one of those." Nabiki said just as much to herself as she did to Ranma.

"One of what?" Ranma asked cocking his head to one side.

"A misogynist. And an idiot." Nabiki said and watched Ranma for a reaction. The one she got was not the one she expected. Nabiki had thought that Ranma would bristle and defend his father, or at least cringe a little. Instead he just shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'what can you do?' "Anyway Akane wouldn't be a good match for you. She's to proud to be second best."

"Why? From what I've seen she's slacked off in her training for years now. Though I did see that she was working hard now, but it's the hard work of a born again, not the hard work of dedication." Ranma said as he thought back to the few times he's seen Akane practice. "But if she's to proud to be second best then why would she slack off for so long?"

"Because, until shortly before you arrived, she was the best in Nerima. Or at least undefeated. However since you, your father, Shakeera, and Herb have shown up she's seen that there are people as far beyond her as she is from a starting student. And she doesn't like it. In fact if she was engaged to you, she'd probably be nastier to you than she is now."

At that Ranma cringes then decided to change the conversation. "So what is up with Herb anyway. I mean, she's just been hanging around here and seems to be traveling with pop."

The second that Ranma mentioned Herb in the female tense Nabiki started to snicker. She answered Ranma while trying to maintain a calm air to her. "Ranma, Herb has the same curse as you."

"Huh, you mean she turns in to a guy with cold water?" He asked reverting to his old dunce like behavior.

Nabiki finally let out a laugh at the expression of her new fiancé. "No. her girl form is her cursed form. She's actually a prince of the Musk Dynasty or whatever that is. Apparently she was cursed at Jusenkyo when she was training to overcome something that was hindering her in helping your father find you. She and Genma showed up here about a month ago while coming back from searching for some sort of open water kettle from what I gathered." Nabiki thought for a second then continued. "Oh, don't mention the curse to Akane. Herb likes her and right now Akane likes herb, but you've seen my younger sisters attitude towards men."

"You don't strike me as someone who would just tell me that for free. What's your angle Nabiki?" Ranma asked looking directly at her. He knew that her last statement wasn't truly an afterthought like she made it out to be.

Nabiki cringed internally at Ranma's comment. "Damn, he is sharper than I gave him credit for." While externally replying. "Herb and Father have made it worth my while. I won't go into details, but two weeks before you arrived Herb had a talk with Father about Akane." Nabiki then turned towards the open walkway and looked outside. "And for that piece of information I want you to stay on your best behavior around Akane, I don't care if she starts anything, you just behave."

Ranma pouted a bit at being warned like a kid then smirked a bit as he thought up a counter. "Fine, I'll do that. But back to our original conversation. You want me to hold up my part of this engagement right?" He said with a knowing smirk.

"Yes, of course, and I've already told you what I expect." Nabiki said wondering what Ranma was getting at.

"Then you need to hold up your side as well."

"And what side is that?"

"Training. According to Pops and your father this engagement is to 'Unite the Schools'. You need to get yourself up to snuff, I see you are still fit so you must do some exercise. But you don't move like a martial artist and I don't think I've seen you do any practice yet. So it's time to start again."

Scene Break

Later that same day Ranma was walking around the school really bored. The reason for his wandering the school hallways was because Shakeera was currently looking something up in the Library. Today had been relatively uneventful but at least he seemed to be getting less notes on his desk than the prior day. As he was turning a corner he saw a slightly taller youth dressed in a Hakima with a Boken tucked into the waistband. Ranma was not to sure why someone from the Kendo club would be wandering around near the Library but decided to leave it be as he was just waiting for Shakeera to finish up in there.

Just as he was about to do some isometrics in the hallway to alleviate his boredome Shakeera came out of the other room and turned to close the door only to find the other youth standing in front of her.

"Lovely vision of this hallway... perhaps you would grant me the pleasure of your company for the evening?" He asked while bowing slightly to her and somehow producing a red rose from nowhere that held out near to her face.

Shakeera meanwhile started to blush but then got a cross look on her face and turned to leave him behind while she grabbed Ranma's hand.

"Hold Varlet." The strange youth called out and grabbed Ranma's elbow, only to have the pig tailed youth reverse the hold and pinned the kendo garbed to the ground. When Ranma started the move Shakeera quickly released her grip on her companions hand. Once the kendoist was on the ground he gave a quick oomph and drew enough breath to yell "UNHAND ME!"

"Feh, no problem, as long as you do not grab at me again." Ranma said as he stood back up and released his hold on the other youth's arm. "And I'm guessing that Shakeera doesn't want anything to do with you otherwise she would have just answered you."

The hakima clad boy stood up and dusted himself off. "Knave, know that you have assaulted one of the Scions of the House of Kuno. And for that you shall be unforgiven." He took on a more pompous air and pulled out his boken. "But for your obvious steeling of the heart of this fair maden of our school I Kuno Tatewaki the Shooting Star of Furinken High Denounce your debaucherous ways and challenge you to defend yourself!" He yelled and moved to strike Ranma.

Scene Break

Akane was having a conundrum at the moment. Specifically she was wondering lately about the morning attacks on her and all the extra unwanted attention that she kept receiving at school from not just the nutcase Kuno but also from the other boys in her class that kept trying to get her to go out with her on dates or worse.

Not knowing what to do about them she went to the person who seemed to have the best understanding of how to deal with things and people. "Kasumi, can I ask you something?"

Kasumi turned at the sound of her youngest sister's voice behind her in the kitchen. "Go ahead little sister." She said kindly as she turned back to cutting the vegetables for the next meal.

"How did you deal with boys in school?" Akane asked not quite coming out and saying what was really on her mind.

"Boys? I never really had to deal with them I guess. Why do you ask? Is there a boy you like?" Kasumi asked.

Akane shuddered a bit at the last question. "No, nothing of the sort. They just bug me so much sometimes. Always attacking me with promises of love and bothering me with perverse comments." Akane said as she was looking down. "Did you have to deal with that in school?"

"Oh, heavens no. I just told them they'd have to wait their turn." Kasumi said vapidly though Akane could swear that she could almost hear her older sisters snicker. Then what Kasumi said registered on her and the youngest Tendo but Akane was not sure if she wanted to believe that of her sister. Especially as Akane often looked up to Kasumi as her model of what a woman should be like.

"Thanks anyway Kasumi." Akane said and edged out of the kitchen to find her way to the dojo. If Kasumi was unable to help her figure out what to do then she figured that most people would not be able to help her either.

After she left Soun walked into the kitchen and reached for one of the bean pods that Kasumi had just cleaned. Just as he was about to touch it a wooden spoon seemed to materialize out of nowhere and thwack him on the back of the hand. As the Tendo Patriarch rubbed his hand He looked over at his eldest daughter only to find her serenely cutting some vegetables on the cutting board and using both hands for the task. Looking around he couldn't see anyone else and decided to put the strange occurrence off as one of the house spirits was aiding his eldest daughter.

Putting the phantom spoon thwacking out of his mind for a moment Soun turned to Kasumi. "Daughter, did I just hear Akane right?" He asked calmly while still rubbing the part of his hand that had been abused.

"About what father? The boy's? I admit that boy's can be somewhat of a problem, after all boy's are so immature they don't really know how to treat a woman right. That's why they are so boring." She said and transferred the cut vegetables over to a bowl and got started on some form of meat that Soun could not readily identify.

Soun thought on that for a moment before asking his next question. "If boy's are like that what about girls?" He said as his daughter seemed to be in one of her more profound or maybe it was just that she was in a more cynical but profound moment.

"Oh, girls are worse of course. Always expecting boys to do it for them and to read their mind. And no girl would ever dream of listening to a mere boy. That's one of their problems as they expect the boys to know what they want. No a girl needs to grow up into a woman and boys need to grow up to be men. Then their problems become real and they can at least talk to each other."

A few moments of silence drifted between the two of them until the Tendo Patriarch snapped his fingers and left the room to go and find Herb. It didn't take him long as Soun found the young man sitting in the living room fiddling with the Television remote control. Soun grabbed it and turned it around to point towards the TV instead of into Herb's chest and pointed at the power button.

Once Herb had managed to thoroughly freak himself out with the loud blaring of a Japanese pokey commercial and figured out how to turn the demonic invention back off Soun started to speak. "Son, I've been thinking. I would like for you to stay beside Akane more, she needs some help and guidance and you are probably the best person for that." As Herb was digesting those words Soun took the younger mans expression to mean that he understood and got up to go find his old training partner.

That left Herb sitting there trying to figure out what the mustachioed man meant. Not quite understanding but figuring that there was at least one person in the house who could understand some of the mercurial nature of his host and potential father in law Herb went to find her.

A couple of quick raps on a door and he was rewarded by the sound of the middle Tendo's voice coming from inside of her room. "Time is Money. Talk or go away."

Scene Break

On his way to the Tendo's where Ranma had made a temporary home while he worked out his tentative relationship with the middle daughter he thought back to the fight with that Kuno kid. He started out very annoyed, but as his thoughts progressed he got less annoyed and started to see some of the humor in the situation. Especially in how the older youth had lost a great deal of his drive as soon as Shakeera had left the room and then had left swearing to fight another day.

Though he saw the humor of it, Ranma still couldn't believe the nerve of people like that. Thinking that other's wanted them, or even cared about being with them while attacking yet others for perceived slights. He had seen many people like that on the road with his father, and for the most part they were just hot wind though a few did actually have enough skill to make a halfway decent showing of themselves. This Tatewaki though was a cut above most of that cloth. Ranma could sense some deeper skills residing in the boken wielding boy, skills that he had not yet been shown. He hoped to have a chance to test himself against those skills, but not because of a girl or for pure bravado. Rather Ranma wished to test himself against them as few of the sword wielders he had ever encountered measured on the same yardstick that he held himself to.

Ranma was pulled out of his contemplation quite rudely at that point by a cold wash of water that covered his, now her feet through waist. She looked down at the slightly muddy watter dripping off of her silks and groaned. "Great, now I get to slosh my way home." Looking at the car driving off that had splashed the puddle up onto her she cinched up the drawstring on her pants and kept on walking.

Scene Break

Not to far away from where Ranma had another example of the capricious nature of cold water Ryoga found himself hard pressed against a slim but well built lavender haired girl wielding a pair of what he originally thought was small beach balls on the end of a pair of sticks. That thought though had been quickly dashed though when the first one connected with his shoulder. Though not as painful as some other blows he had received from masters, they still stung and caused him to stop underestimating the beautiful girl in front of him. He was just grateful that the girl was wearing a form concealing bodysuit with a breast plate covering her breasts and shoulder guard over one shoulder. He was sure that if her face was anything to show for the rest of her body that she was very very well proportioned and that if she was wearing some of the clothes he'd seen Japanese or Chinese girls wear that he wouldn't be able to face her or properly defend himself.

After another set of assaults by the girl with the oddly colored maces Ryoga pulled out his battle umbrella from his pack and started to block her in earnest while trying to figure out what she was saying. Originally he had gotten into this fight with her shortly after he had shouted out his curses to the youth who had been a thorn in his side for so many years. The last thing he had been expecting was to have a lavender haired warrior from another area assault him verbally and when he wasn't able to answer her she pulled her weapons out from who knew where and started to attack him. So far the desert nomad looking youth had been able to hold her off, but he had not gone on the offensive yet in the three or four minutes that she had been attacking him with those ridiculous looking weapons.

Ryoga had been about to try a tricky disabling maneuver he had learned from a traveling monk when an old voice from behind.

"Ting zhi Xian Pu. ta bu bi zhi he zai tong ban." (1)

He turned to face where the old woman was who had spoken in a dialect of Chinese that he only caught bits and pieces of. Ryoga was slightly startled by what he saw though, instead of a stoop shouldered elder, or a wizened older woman, what perched atop the staff reminded him of a Kappa (2) taken human form with very long white hair.

"Sorry for my heir's attack on your person young traveler. She had heard your cursing of a 'Ranma' and demanded to know a few things. But she had forgotten to use your native tongue" The last was said with a glare to the now slightly abashed looking Xian Pu.

"What do you know of Ranma?" Ryoga said trying not to spit out the vile name as it left his tongue.

"We know that you seem to hold a grudge against one of my wards." The wizened old woman said and hopped her staff closer to the wandering youth. "What is it that he has done to inspire your wrath?"

"You could never understand the hell he has put me through old woman." Ryoga said while striking a pose that to a younger person may have seemed empowered or confident but he had a feeling that the ancient woman in front of him was less impressed.

"I may, or I may not. But I still have inquired kindly. Since you insist on being a foolish youth I may instead release my heir to continue her attack on your person. But instead I think we will just be on our way." With that the old woman used her staff as a pogo stick and bounced off while her youthful heir swung the twin colorful maces behind her back where they seemed to disappear and jumped up to a rooftop nearby on the same path and shortly disappeared.

"What was that about?" Ryoga asked to himself before turning in another direction and trudging his way along in his quest for vengeance.

Scene Break

In the large residence that was the Kuno Mansion Tatewaki was wandering about deep in thought. To any who knew the youth they could see that he was rather consternated on the subject of women. To those who knew him best they would think that is was on his infatuation with Akane Tendo, but they would be wrong in this case. This time he was pontificating on the rare beauty of a oriental born red haired maiden. He had heard of the rare flower that would bloom but once in a generation and that many of these women were highly sought after as women of either influence or destiny.

Of course he failed to even think that the girl that he was mooning over may have dyed her hair. But thus was the failing of many men when they found something to ignite their fancy. Luckily for the youthful Tatewaki the girl in question was a natural red head. But as for her influence and destiny? His mind would either have shut down or become even more obsessive if he knew of their otherworldly links.

Scene Break

"Hey Shakeera, what'cha reading?" Ranma said while perched above her bed in the Tendo Guest room. He was dressed in a black tank top and black shorts and looked like he had just gotten back from a workout. Shakerra meanwhile had dropped her illusions and was sitting on the bed in a similar tank top but had a long pair of yellow pants on as well. She had herself propped up on a set of pillows with her lower arms, while her upper arms were holding the book open and one arm tracing words in a paragraph while her other hand was tracing words in another language in another book printed on some form of metallic paper. As Ranma watched the words on the metallic sheet shifted quickly to a clicking sound that Shakeera made.

A few moments of not hearing anything from her other than the odd clicking she made that seemed to cause the metallic sheet to reform itself into another page had Ranma's skin nearly itching in boredome. So he instead of speaking out loud waived a hand in front of Shakeera's eyes trying to get her attention. Only to be rewarded by finding himself floating in the air held aloft by his four armed companions telepathy.

"I heard you the first time Ranma. I was trying to finish finding this reference first. Translating Trade 5 into your Japanese is a tedious process." She said and then made another clicking sound followed by what Ranma swore was a sharp screeching intake of breath which was immediately followed by the metallic paper rolling itself into a roll and sliding up into her lower left arms forearm bracer. "Memory Paper, made by the T'Zee. Not very useful in combat, very useful in archiving." She sad and then sat up. "I was referencing a technical manual I had picked up from your school's library against some older supporting technology I require to rebuild some of the control circuits of the LightWar. I hope I don't have to rebuild an industrial sector by myself to get it to work." The last said with a sigh.

"Well, do you want to do some training?" Ranma said from an upside down position he had maneuvered into in the air while under the assisted flight of Shakeera's Telekinesis.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, let me set you down first." Shakeera said and waived her upper right arm in a particular motion that caused the Jusenkyo cursed youth to flip upright then float gently to the floor. "Not right now Ranma. I'm trying to finish cataloguing the differences between my ship's electronics and your countries electronics. Maybe later?" She said and stood up to get a good stretch in.

Ranma took his queue to leave at that time figuring that sitting around bugging a telekinetic that could also mess around with magic and a few other things that he didn't want to think about would not be the best for his health. So he quietly left the room and immediately found himself bumping into his fiancé. "Yo Nabiki. What's up?"

The middle Tendo daughter looked at Ranma for a moment before grinning a bit and tossed the glass of water onto him turning him into a girl.

"Hey, whad'ja do that for!" Ranma-chan said as she pulled her now wet bangs from in front of her eyes.

"Just wondering about your curse Ranma-chan. How does it feel anyway?" She asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Ranma had a feeling that his fiancé was more interested in knowing about how her guy side felt than the girl however, but didn't feel like playing into her games at this moment. "Well, it's hard to throw punches sometimes with these." She said and hefted her boobs up with her hands. "And walking is very different, have to swing my hips differently if I don't want to chaff my thighs a little."

"I didn't know you would be so frank Ranma-chan. I thought you were more manly than that about your form." Nabiki said with her eyebrow still quirked. "I mean, even though you have this curse when I first met you you struck me as a person who was intent on upholding the views of 'Manliness' and your father painted you as a 'Man amongst Men'. So, why the frank feminine opinion. Accurate though it may be."

Ranma-chan let go of her breasts shortly into Nabiki's questioning, and stayed silent for a few moments after the last couple questions and comments. Finally when she answered it was in a slightly quieter voice. "I've had a lot to think on this last few weeks Nabiki. And I think I've changed somewhat in my outlook on life. Before when it was just me and my pops I was interested in only the Arts. If it wasn't about the Art and bettering my skills as a fighter I thought that it wasn't needed to be a 'Man.' But then everything was taken from me it felt. However, as I was getting used to my new body I was amongst the Jokentetsu. A race of Chines Amazons by the way-"

Before Ranma could continue further Nabiki interrupted. "Amazons from China? I know you have been traveling with an Extraterrestrial from the Future, but now I know that you are just pulling my leg."

"No, they are really warrior women. Though their men fight too, but for the most part all of their leadership and upper caste are women. Had some rough times there when I was in my guy form by the way." Ranma-chan then leaned back against the wall and made an attempt to blow her wet bangs up but only ended up looking like a miffed pixie with a pout when she couldn't get them to move with her breath alone. "They look down on men more than any culture I've encountered looks down on women. It's made me pretty glad to be back in Japan actually."

"Wouldn't you have problems with your current form then?" Nabiki asked as her curiosity started to get the best of her. She had never met someone who really could say that they could experience both sides of the gender coin. And not from a surgical view either. Even though her upbringing said such a thing should be just plain creepy, she couldn't help but feel a slight form of morbid curiosity. Plus she had already knoticed that Ranma-chan had a much easier time relating and conversing than Ranma-kun did. At first she had thought that it was because it was definitive proof that girls really were smarter than boys. But then she started to watch her fiancee's traveling companion and had to change her mind on that and realized that it was more that as a girl Ranma had less training on how to act so he was emulating Shakeera rather than his father. As a guy Ranma seemed more inclined to rash actions and impetuous decisions. However that dichotomy was starting to grow on her, especially when she was either curious or wanted some girl time. Now if she could only get Ranma-chan into sleep over mode…

"Huh?" Ranma-chan asked intelligently, well intelligently for a ditz. "Whad'ya mean by that? Of course I have problems. Do you have any idea how bad these jiggle?" Ranma-chan said pointing towards her breasts. "And they ache something fierce after practice. How do you girls deal with it?"

"Bra's Ranma baby. But that's not what I was referring to. I meant how do you feel others treat you as a girl?"

"Oh, that's easy. They treat me better, and don't seem to expect nearly as much out of me. Plus I seem to get better portions of food when I go out to eat."

Nabiki just looked at the shorter girl a bit nonpulsed for a moment before stating "That's because those guys treating you better are hoping for something more than a smile Ranma-chan. I can't have my fiancé going around teasing guys without at least knowing what she's doing." She snapped her fingers and got a gleeful and slightly predatory look in her eyes. "That's it! Later we're going to go to the mall. But first, I need to go check on something. So I expect to see you in this evening for a night out at the mall!"

Scene Break

"Nabiki, I would speak with you." Herb-kun said as he saw the sometimes mercenary girl walking towards another part of the house.

"What can I help you with Prince?" Nabiki asked in a pleasant but slighty bored tone. With Ranma and her fiance's traveling companion it was a touch easier to let her guard down. But she was still trying to make heads or tails of the Musk Prince from China. Regardless of any help or aid the youth had given to her soon to be father in law she had her reservations. Especially since the guy was wishing to pay court to her baby sister. After all no one could hurt her family, not if she had anything to say about it.

"I wish to know how to get closer to your sister Akane. I have been troubled by my past, and now need to do more than just court a female from your country. But I find that she is indifferent to me in my birth form, though pleasant in my cursed form. Why would that be?" He asked with a stiff posture.

Nabiki looked at him for a moment. She did have to admit that the Prince was a fine looking catch, even though the pink and purple hair would take a while still to get used to. At least he was not dressed in his combat gear that looked like something that belonged in a Bishonen Manga rather than in real life. However she did not know where he had received the emerald green silk kimono that he was wearing as she had never seen him carting luggage around.

"Well, first you would need to go to school with her. Akane has some friends there, but no guy friends. Also you should probably go to school as a girl though." Nabiki said trying to keep a snicker from her voice. She may be trying to make sure that everything went smoothly with her and her fiancé, but that did not mean that she couldn't have some fun. And besides it would be good for the prince to see what it is like in real world especially the real world of being a girl. After a moment though she saw a look of confusion on Herb-kun's face. "Besides, I don't think that my little sister know's of your curse. That's why she's indifferent to you boy side. She has had a tough time with guys at school and doesn't have much trust for them yet. If you are around Akane as a girl but make sure not to abuse the situation then she will warm to your guy side in no time. Plus it would give you a chance to see other places besides our house and China." Nabiki added the last almost as an afterthought.

"I will give thought to this Tendo-san. Thank you for your insight." Herb-kun said and walked off to the porch to sit down and contemplate things for a while.

Scene Break

After Ranma-chan's curious encounter with Nabiki she decided to head out into town for a bit to see if there was anything to do. So she quickly changed out of her red shirt and pants into a yellow short sleeved shirt and brown pants as her first outfit was still wet.

She first went into an ice cream parlor and batted her eyes at the attendant when she was ordering her cone. After receiving the extra scoop and making short work of the whole cone she fished into her pockets to see if she had any more change. Happy that she seemed to have enough for another cone she jumped up saying a quick hurray. Unbeknownst to her several of the guys in the shop were watching in awestruck lust at the cute red haired girl that was bouncing so bubbly in the shop. On the other side of the room a guy even took several pictures of her with his camera, but again that went unnoticed. However she did get some extra ice cream on her cone for her little bubbly outburst.

After saying a quick but nice goodbye to the guy behind the counter that had inadvertently given her near 3 times the amount of ice cream for the money she had paid Ranma-chan decided to much more slowly enjoy this final treat while walking along. After a few minutes of walking she had gotten the sugary concoction down to just a bit of the cone left while on the other side of a park wall. Just as she was about to take the final bite she heard a wicked laughter coming from the other side of the wall so she decided to jump up and see what was going on.

What she saw on the otherside amazed her. Not at the skill per se, but more as the ridiculousness. A single girl in a brown long skirted school uniform was using a gymnastics ribbon to keep a small group of bandaged people nearly on the ground wincing from the pain of the strikes. At first she thought it was because the four bandaged people had probably attacked the ribbon wielding girl but then she looked at them and at the raven haired school girl and watched her mannerisms like Shakeera had been teaching her.

After nearly a full minute of watching the gymnastic tool wielding girl strike and humiliate the other people Ranma-chan had enough. She popped the last bit of ice cream into her mouth swallowing it quickly and leapt in a parabolic arc that would land her right in the path of the racing ribbon. Once gravity had taken effect upon the red haired girl she leaned forward watching the path of the ribbon carefully as she didn't want to get snapped with it either. Once she had snagged it out of the air she thrust her feet down carefully to finish her leap and faced the school girl at only a few paces away.

"Don't'cha think they've had enough?" She asked with a schooled expression as she was still evaluating the girl in front of her.

The expression on the girls face went from manic glee to almost shocked reverence to a calculated annoyance in the space of a heartbeat though Ranma-chan didn't miss the shock that was there for but a moment.

"You are not a normal girl to be able to catch my ribbon." The raven haired school girl stated almost as if to herself. Ranma-chan let go of the ribbon but stayed in-between the possibly deranged girl and her victim's to make sure that the girl didn't attack her prior victims again. "We shall meet again, and until that time remember the name of Kodachi Kuno the Black Rose!" the girl yelled out as she jumped to a far wall and bounded away.

"What a nut ball." Ranma-chan said to herself then turned around to the people in bandages. She was about to tell them to get up and act like men when she took a closer look and noticed that all of them were actually girls, but they were of a very athletic build and with the bandages she had almost mistaken them for what they were. "Are you girls alright?" She asked instead.

"Does it look like we're alright?" the lead girl asked as she pulled part of her bandage away from her mouth so she could talk. Ranma-chan noticed that her lower lip and jaw was heavily bruised and that the amateur bandage job at best just kept the air from it.

Ranma-chan thought for a second on why the rather loony acting other girl would've attacked them when the lead bandaged girl spoke up again. "We're the gymnastics team from Furinken, that girl attacked us to force us to disqualify from our event next week." She said starting to cry a little. "We had come here to try to even the field but in our injured condition we were not a match for her."

"So what are you going to do now?" Ranma-chan asked nicely.

Scene Break

A little bit later a couple of the injured girls are in Akane's room with Ranma-chan sitting on the raven haired girls bed while watching them talk with his fiance's younger sister.

"Please Akane, we need you to do this!" One of them said while on her knees in front of the youngest Tendo's bed. "There's no one else who can do it!"

While the girl was pleading with Akane, Ranma-chan was doing her best not to snicker. She knew that though Akane was good, she had a tendency to get a bit myopic where her skills were concerned to the point of ignoring a weakness rather than protecting it. However the red haired girl kept quiet while waiting to see how this resolved.

She didn't have to wait long of course as Akane stood up and in a voice and posture probably meant to inspire confidence and pride in one's school, self, and country Akane bravely spoke out. "Of Course I will, for the Honor of Furinken High!"

At the last Ranma-chan was not able to hide her groan or grimace fully.

"What-" was all she was able to get out after Akane turned and glared at the neo-girl.

Scene Break

Ranma-chan was shaking her head after her encounter with the gymnastics girls from Furinken High and Akane. She had narrowly gotten out of the room after her faux pas and she was in the process of hunting down some hot water to turn herself back into at least the physical resemblence of her birth form. 'Sometimes, just sometimes I wonder how everything happened.' She thought to herself in slight bewilderment. Her physical change from humanity though outwardly minimal beyond the pointed ears and slight slitting to her eyes hid the much more drastic changes that she was beginning to understand better within her body. And his as well she was beginning to find, but those changes were different.

In her girl form she had been tracing out her Ki paths during exercise and meditation and she could distinctly trace a second heart's energy signature slightly below and behind the heart she had thought was her only one. However in her guy form this heart did not exist. Though in her guy form she was finding some extra muscles along his back, muscles so far that she could not figure out their use, especially as they weren't connected in the same way to her bone or muscle structure in the same manner of her regular muscles. And his leg mass seemed to be increasing a bit, as if he needed to carry more weight than he actually was. 'As if more weight would actually be a problem' She thought to herself as she remembered some of the heavier things she had been forced to lift in the past month. Things such as boulders more than twice her size, and once a three meter boat that had been capsized she had lifted that complete with its waterlogged cargo from the mud mire it was in to help out the people she and her companions had encountered back with the Jokentetsu.

Her reminiscence was interrupted when she felt a presence, at first it caught her off guard as it was very akin to her danger sense that her fool of an old man had beaten into her. But after just a moment she found that it was not that but another feeling. One she sometimes got from Shakeera and sometimes not. As she was starting to bristle at not understanding the feeling she turned the corner to see the Prince of the Musk standing there.

Initially the two of them bristle, but after a moment both the Prince of the Musk and the itinerant martial artist calm down enough to be at least cordial. "What do you want Herb." Ranma-chan said in a neutral tone. She still didn't know why she felt animosity towards the descendent of dragons. It wasn't even as if she had spent enough time around him to get to know him. In fact Ranma-chan thought that the two of them should get along great as he had a very similar curse to hers. But something in the other youth just plain set her off.

For Herb it was similar, upon every site he had gotten of the sometimes red headed buxom girl or the taller muscled raven haired boy Herb had just felt a sort of competition or rivalry.

Both youths stand there looking at each other for a few moments before Herb speaks up. "I understand that you have an honor pledge to one of Tendo-san's daughters." He said in a mostly formal voice.

"Yeah, I do…" Ranma-chan said trailing off after the last bit as she had no clue why the princeling would start off with this line of questioning.

"That it does not matter which one specifically, but that it is for the purpose of joining your families styles of martial arts." He said continuing his line of reasoning.

Ranma-chan looked at him and suddenly understood why the other youth was following this line of questioning. She waived her hands in front of her as she continued. "I am not after Akane." She exclaimed and settled her arm waiving down. "I'm engaged to Nabiki and even then we don't know if it will go further." She said quickly.

"See that it does, for I would see if my way would be with Akane first." He said in such a way that if the two youths were feral cats then the statement would be in the form of a proper scent marking of their territory. Almost as soon as Herb finished his statement however his demeanor changed from a bristling rival to just another youth trying to figure things out. "So, if you have no interest why the joining of schools?" The prince asked in a much more cordial tone of voice.

Ranma-chan leaned up against the wall and folded her arms under her breasts only to look down suddenly at them. "Do you mind if I change back first? Shakeera's been helping me adjust, but I'm still a guy." She said and started heading towards the kitchen before getting a reply. Herb just stood to the side and gestured with one arm for the red headed girl to progress in front of him.

"I do understand as I share a similar curse. Though I am glad that my other form is closer in height to my birth form. I would imagine that sometimes your fights may be a bit troublesome with the change of fighting forms that you must be forced to endure."

Ranma-chan stood there for a moment trying to figure out the full statement instead of just listening to the first part. It was another lesson that Shakeera had been working hard at pounding into the itinerant martial artist as it was hampering her ability to progress in any of her mental arts that she was learning.

The two continue talking for a bit after Ranma-chan changed back to his birth gender. After awhile they moved on from the initial discussion of why not Akane if the effect was to join the schools and moved on to some of their abilities and some of the changes that Ranma had encountered since gaining his curse and traveling companion. For the joining of the schools Herb found out that the main way that it may be progressed is through a mutual child of Ranma and one of the Tendo daughters as that child would be able to be trained in both disciplines and as such could be considered the joining of the schools. Though Herb did suggest another path and that was that via marriage Ranma would be able to not just legally but would be expected to teach in the Tendo Dojo thereby joining the schools.

One of the other topics that the two of them covered was Ranma's heightened sight, strength, and hearing. At first Herb thought that everyone had these abilities and just chose to ignore them. But after talking with Ranma briefly on the subject realized that the enhanced perceptions may be in part due to humanity but would more likely be a gift of the dragon blood that they both seemed to share now. It was an interesting revelation to the Prince of the Musk as he had been holding most people in contempt for their purposeful ignorance of the world around them. Now he was starting to look at it in a different way, perhaps it wasn't purposeful ignorance of the sheep of humanity, but rather that they were handicapped when compared to one of the Musk or another descendent of the Dragons.

Though Herb had come to this realization Ranma recognized in his fellow youth that the other boy may or may not come to be a better person. Personally Ranma doubted it as the other cursed youth had a tendency towards the arrogant lines of thought and also would often look down upon others. Now that Herb had verification that he really was superior, and not just in the traditional sense it would be difficult to tell if he would become worse or better in the long run.

But after a while of talking Ranma was becoming bored with the self introspection and questioning lines of communication and so begged off to go and practice some martial arts. As Herb was still being mostly introspective he instead went to the koi pond to continue some contemplation on his existence which inevitably led to the lack of existence of his former nation.

Scene Break

Xian pu was walking with her great grandmother Kon Lon after their run in with the infuriated warrior earlier. The fight had been interesting for the younger amazon to say the least. Though the dusty youth was strong, and well versed in a different but effective martial art he had easily been distracted and eventually wandered off from their battle.

"Great Grandmother?" The lavender haired youth asked of her wizened elder who was pogosticking next to her on her staff that was easily as gnarled as she was.

"Yes Xian?" She said to her youngest heir. "What may I answer for you. And remember to use the language of the land. You need the practice if we are to help your friends."

"Yes Grandma. Shampoo wishes to know, why boy run?" She said slowly trying to pick her words carefully. Though Ranma had been helping her with her Japanese when the youth was spending time in their village he hadn't had enough time to school the Amazon warrior enough to be more than barely passable with the language.

"I do not understand that myself young one. Though I have my suspicions. If he is indeed a foe of Ranma we will see him again." Kon Lon said as she continued to Pogo along. "Now Child, what is the name of the prefecture on that sign." She asks of her younger ward while pointing to a posted sign off of the road that they were traveling down.

Xian Pu puts her index finger to her mouth for a moment and says "Parade float…? That can no be right."

In response Kon Lon jumped off her staff and used it to bonk her great granddaughter on the head. "No, You read it very wrong. It is Nerima, not nerimono. Please think those through better next time." While internally thinking to herself "at least she didn't say boiled fish paste." (3).

Scene Break

About an hour or so later after Ranma and Herb had talked Herb-chan had wondered into the room that Shakeera was using. They had talked on light stuff for a few moments when suddenly the four armed woman shouted out. "NASAI LO VERAKA!!!" She jumps up from her terminal she was working with and stretches her muscles out after that as Herb-chan is rubbing one of her ears as if it was ringing.

The pink and purple haired girl looks at Shakeera for a few while thinking on what she said then says "Exists? What do you mean?"

"Oh, you can understand that?" Shakeera says to Herb-chan as she shuts down her terminal. "I didn't know anyone on this planet would understand that language."

"Nul ferako lon por…. uh … poronokutrafai dreugoneece." Herb-chan says haltingly.

"Your words are misarranged, and that is one hell of an accent, but yes you do seem to know a little Dragonese. Where did you learn it from?" Shakeera says as she turns to face Herb-chan directly.

Herb-chan sits and thinks for a second before answering. "It has been passed down the lineage of Dragons in my Kingdome for many generations. But much has been lost over the years. Can you read it as well as speak?" The girl prince says to her with the start of a gleam in her eyes. At Shakeera's nod Herb-chan tells her to wait there for a moment and runs out of the room. Just as Shakeera is getting ready to get up and look for Herb-chan in curiosity the other girl returns with a large hardened scroll case. After pulling it out and spreading the old parchment on Shakeera's bed the four armed warrior was able to see a very well done portrait of his guy form with Dragonese symbols around the edge of the picture.

Shakeera looks at it for just a moment before saying. "It is a Spell of storage, woven into a piece of artwork. There is a small pocket dimension attached to the picture, would you like me to remove it's contents?" She says. When Herb-chan nods her head Shakeera reaches towards the painting then moves her hand in a peculiar fashion and it seems to slide in-between the picture and … something. A moment later she pulls her hand back and it is holding a large leather-bound book clasped with a iron pad. Shakeera hands the book over to the neo princess and says. "I don't know who cast that spell, but it must've been a master, those D-pockets rarely last more than five years."

Herb-chan is looking at it in awe for a few moments before a tear comes to her eye. Shakeera sees this and asks "What is wrong?"

"Huh?" Herb-chan says then realizes about the moisture in her eye. "This is from one of my retainers, who just weeks ago was with me, and then when I traveled back to my Kingdome he was missing along with all my future subjects and my father. He may have been a louse, but he was still a companion to be missed." She then turns to leave. "You have gifted me with something special, I will have to return the favor in the future." With that the pink and purple haired girl turned and left the room.

"Funny, according to what I had heard she was supposed to be cocky and distant. Not understanding." Shakeera said to herself and then turned back to her terminal to get looking at whatever she had seen before being distracted by the picture which she now noticed was still on the bed. "Dang, I do know she isn't that forgetful." So saying she closed the Dimensional Pocket back up so that it couldn't be accessed by anyone but her and Herb then rolled the portrait back up and placed it into its case. "I'll return it to her later."

Scene Break

In another part of the house shortly after Shakeera had pulled the book out of the portrait Herb-chan was going over it. She chuckled at the first person narration, and also at Mint's poor handwriting and grammar, then smiled slightly as it improved over time. Though she continued to get even more puzzled at what was being depicted by the tome.

For some reason, after she had dismissed hem to go home to the lands of the Musk they found the Kingdome under attack by a creature that seemed to be made of obsidian and metal with some form of golden energy that flowed in between the odd plates that made up it's body. For some reason it was looking for someone of Dragon Decent but had found the King of the Musk to be unacceptable that it was looking for someone else. They had joined in the battle and had then been promptly defeated. After that the being had been revolted by those it had seen and flung some form of energy at the castle. Once the energy had struck the front gate it had shot up to the sky connecting the heavenly location and the ground in a great bolt of blue lightning that didn't leave that very instant but instead grew and moved writhing in a fashion unlike any bolt of lightning that the Musk had ever seen. It in turn branched out from on high to strike the ground surrounding the fields and castle before finally fading out of existence.

Once the energy died off there was no trace of the being that had flung it, and the hillsides nearby looked similar, but vaguely different. Though no one could say how so. It wasn't till later in the week that they discovered what the difference was. Somehow they had been transported back to after their last major war with the other tribes near the springs of sorrow, but unlike in their own history, they could not find traces of the near crippled Musk Dynasty, only the shattered forces of the Jokentetsu and the Phoenix tribe. Deciding to find out more of what had happened and to lick their wounds they got to rebuilding their kingdome only to find that there was no heir for when the King would pass away. That may have been alright as they still had some of their women with them, but it was a few years later that they found that the King was to go without any further heirs as he seemed to be barren, and was not able to produce another heir. So they sent out to find the missing Herb, but were unable to.

Herb-chan closed the book after reading for several hours and stands up. "So that is what happened." She said. "Because I was not there, they were hurled into time without me."

Then she read out the final entry in the journal. "Not till two hundred years hence when your missing prince is returned a King will your dynasty be returned to the once and future dragon ruler. To prevent what will happen two hundred years in your past the Dragon King must defeat a being two hundred years in your future. I shall see him in the present of your future to discuss his past but only once he has bridged his being with another."

Scene Break

The being with the charcoal skin and the golden and black segmented armor suddenly stops in the middle of his path. "Finally a trace" he says as his red lensed monocle chimes at him. He chuckles evily then starts on a direct path ignoring everything in his path as he walks.

Luckily for him he is very strong and resistant to many forms of damage, otherwise the walls, racks of merchandise, and even the occasional vehicle he was walking through would have been more than just the annoying buzz of gnats to him. However he was that lucky, but the residents of the shopping district that he was making a new tunnel of destruction in were not. As such they were rather quizzically terrorized by the being walking literally through their midst.

End Chapter

Author's Notes:

(1)This is courtesy of one of my many tranlator tools, however as it is a program please forgive the meaning as I was trying to say in phonetic Chinese "Halt Shampoo, he doesn't know where our comrade is" However I may have said "halt hair fertilizer comrade knows we have don't know where yellow cookies are" or some such like that. If you wish to have a literal word tanslation though I got this particular goody from www chinese-tools com (insert proper dots at various places) I also have one funky widget for my desktop but that translates into actual Han and Kanji for Chinese and Japanese. Since I'm writing for English speaking/reading audiences I felt that Han symbols would be a bit much, but here it is in proper Han symbology "制止縣Pu, 他不知道何處我們的同志是。"

(2)Japanese Water Goblin, a mischievous critter that may live on both land and in water. They can be very nasty though as they often require sacrifice to continue to be appeased.

(3)Nerima doesn't really translate into English, but many very close words do very easily. Nerimono is of course one whish is "Boiled Fish-Paste" "Parade Float" and "Procession". Another funny one is Nerimadaiko which has two that I was able to look up "Variety of Daikon" and "Woman's fat legs". There is also Nerigami, neriageru, neriawaseru, and many close others as Neri is a common symbol and word. Also the placement and symbols for Nerimono and Nerima in Kanji are similar and as someone who is valiantly attempting to learn some of the language I could see how it could be misinterpreted especially if I forgot the symbol for "ku" which is the symbol for prefecture or city.

Ok, this was a long time in coming. Again, I can only apologize for it taking so long, but I won't as most of you understand Life Happens. If you want details PM or email me (Please do not leave it in reviews).

Also my next posts of anything will be awhile as life is still happening. But I am not dead, nor are my works (Yes, even WXJ will be updated and continued). They'll just be long in coming.

Until next time.

TTFN,

Enlu