Hey, catonfire. I’d like to apologize for snapping at you in my review reply yesterday. I was having a VERY bad day, and I took it out on you. I have recently acquired a script of the A!MG Manga, and am diligently reading it with my speech reader. You were right. Sorry again, man.

The actions that Kami-Sama took last chapter shall be explained. He’s not just a cold bastard, and his motives will someday be clear. Ryoga’s also, when he has his altered back-story explained, and it is REALLY different, let me assure you. A cookie to anyone who can guess what it is, and yes there are hints to it scattered through the last few chapters.

Chapter 12-A. Brother/sisterly love, and an insightful Ryoga?

Urd stood in front of a mirror in her room at the temple, holding one of the class 8 limiter earrings in her hand. Carefully, she switched the class two seals she was wearing for them, and felt the majority of her power fading into the background, yet her informational link with Yggdrasil was growing slightly stronger. She had expected this to happen due to her new role as a monitor of Ranma Saotome, but what she hadn’t expected were the changes to her physical appearance, as her hair turned light brown, and her voluptuous figure faded to almost plain proportions.

She looked like a normal eighteen year old Japanese school girl. Grimacing in disgust, she turned around to see her younger sister Skuld staring at her from the doorway. “What are you looking at, squirt?” She asked, annoyed.

“Just noticing that you look a lot better like that.” Skuld said, before smiling vindictively. “Old hag.”

“Why you!” Urd yelled, and extended her hands. “Urd bolts!” To her shock, nothing happened aside from a mild fizzling spark that formed at the ends of her fingers, before disappearing.

“Class 8 limiters, remember?” Skuld asked, before she pulled a file folder from out of hammer space and handed it to her sister. “Here’s your new identity.” She said, more seriously.

Urd took the file folder, and looked it over. She was apparently a high school girl named Urd Nushiko, third year and newly enrolled at Furinkan high. “Urd Godchild?” She asked, looking at Skuld skeptically.

“It was all I could think of.” Skuld said, blushing slightly. “Are you going to need a ride to your new apartment?”

“I’ll be all right.” Urd answered, a little confused that Skuld would offer. “Will you be all right as the primary administrator for Yggdrasil for the duration of my new assignment?”

Skuld nodded, before walking from the room.

“Good luck squirt!” Urd called, as her sister headed for the temple’s bathroom. She thought she heard someone yell “Same to you old hag” from inside, but she couldn’t be sure.

Walking into the living room where Keiichi sat watching TV, Urd looked around for her second sister. “Where’s Belldandy?” She asked, having not seen her anywhere.

Keiichi shrugged. “Megumi dragged her off somewhere.” He answered, in a tone that indicated that he wasn’t too thrilled about this, then he noticed Urd’s new look. “What happened to you?”

“Oh well, I’ll say goodbye to her later. As for what I look like, it’s for my new assignment.” Urd said, as she stepped towards the Television and tried to step through, where-upon she just kicked the glass with her foot, stubbing her toe. “Youch!” She yelped, glaring down at the offending toe and at the television alternately.

“Is there something wrong?” Keiichi asked, looking at Urd in concern.

“I guess these limiters keep me from using transportation spells too.” Urd answered, as she fingered an earring. “I guess that’s why Skuld asked if I needed a ride to Nerima.”

“Well, if you need a ride there I could take you on my bike.” Keiichi offered, uncertainly. “It’s a pretty long way from here to Nerima.”

“Thanks Keiichi.” Urd said, looking thoroughly disgusted with herself for not thinking of the possibility that she could lose her method of travel. As Keiichi went to get his motorcycle keys, she got the distinct impression that her troubles for the day hadn’t even gotten started yet.

HR

In the Nerima district, Ranma casually walked along the fence, his arms behind his head as his sister walked on the sidewalk ahead of him. As he was pretty early for school, he could afford to take his time, and Ranko had walked almost half way to her school without having to get off the fence to rest. Hearing the sound of someone running towards him, he tried to turn around, however his bad luck with water, there was a canal next to the fence, caused him to miss a step and fall backwards. As he hit the water, he heard the distinct sound of Ranko screaming in terror.

HR

There he was, The poor fool Saotome who was under the spell of the vile demon in woman’s shape. What was worse, the demon was now apparently out side of Ranma’s body, posing as a harmless young girl. In a way, this was good as it no longer distracted him with it’s luscious curves, and it’s beautiful eyes, and it’s bountiful breasts, and it’s…

he snapped himself out of his almost drooling state, with difficulty, and decided that now was the time to attack, when the demon was distracted with staring at Saotome in some perverse seeming of childish innocence. He Sprang from his concealment in a bush, running towards the two. What luck, Saotome had fallen into the canal, and the demon was alone.

As he brought his Bokken down and the beast let out a desperate scream, he was shocked to see a black ribbon snake out and grab his target away, to a location that he could not see. He was more shocked, however, when the more beautiful version of the Demon came roaring out of the water where Ranma Saotome had fallen, pure anger in her eyes.

HR

Ranma came shooting out of the canal, her mind clouded with worry of the same sort that she had always felt when Akane was in danger. She had heard her sister’s terrified shriek, and she would find who had made her scream like that and make them suffer. Looking around, she couldn’t see Ranko, however Tatewaki Kuno was staring in slack jawed amazement at her, with that stupid Bokken of his held in his hands. “Kuno, did you attack my sister?” She asked, in a low and dangerous voice.

“Indeed, if that small hell spawn was your sister evil one, then the samurai Tatewaki Kuno didst indeed slay it with all dispatch.” Kuno said, confused, but still knowing an opportunity to brag when he saw one.

“You’d better be lying as usual, or I’m gunna kill you Kuno… slowly.” Ranma said, cracking her knuckles. As Kuno didn’t seem to be retracting his statement, she formed a ball of blue light in her hands, firing it at him with a shout of “Moko Takabisha!” Following the ball in, she rained punches onto the battered form of the Kendoist, shoving him back with each blow until he was flat against a wall, when a voice cut through her rage.

“Ranma, stop!” Ranko cried, as she ran from the corner where she had been pulled by the mysterious black ribbon, seeing her brother turned sister beating up the man who’d attacked her. She knew he shouldn’t have done it, but this was going too far.

“R, Ranko?” Ranma asked, as she stopped beating on Kuno long enough to let him slump to the ground. Running to her sister, she hugged her in relief. “I was so worried about you, are you all right?”

“I was okay, the ribbon girl saved me.” Ranko said, cheerfully.

“The ribbon girl?” Ranma asked, looking to where Ranko had come from. Recognizing a familiar aura behind the corner, her eyes widened. “Kodachi?” She asked, surprised.

Kodachi Kuno slowly walked from the shadow of the corner building, revealing herself to be wearing a blue and black gymnasts leotard, and holding a coiled ribbon around her left arm. “Hello, are you the pigtailed Demon girl that my brother has been harping on about?” She asked, looking at Ranma curiously.

“Yeah, I guess…” Ranma said, surprised to see that Kodachi seemed almost sane, and had saved her sister. “Um, I’m sorry ‘bout beatin up your brother like that, but I thought…”

“That is quite all right.” Kodachi said, as she looked over at Tatewaki sadly. “As you may know, my brother gets very strange ideas in his head that sometimes take a beating to get out… but I must ask, did I truly see you as a man before, and a girl now?”

Ranma looked slightly nervous, but nodded. “Yeah, I’m cursed to turn into a girl when I’m hit with cold water. I’m really a guy.” She said, still weary of Kodachi, and wondering at her strange attitude.

“That is hard to believe, but it is far better than the alternative, that I am relapsing into insanity.” Kodachi said, with a small smile, as she picked up her brother and slung him over one shoulder.

“You need help with him?” Ranma asked, concerned.

“Sadly, I do this often.” Kodachi responded, before bounding off towards the Kuno mansion. It was a good thing that she had decided to follow her brother this morning, after seeing the slightly more insane than usual look on his face, or the Kuno family name may have been sullied by the murder of a small child. As she reached the mansion grounds, she dumped her brother off of her shoulder, not truly caring on which part of his body he landed.

Looking at a large clock that her father had had mounted to the front of the house, she realized that she would be late for her own classes at St. Hebereke if she didn’t hurry, and ran to get changed into her school uniform.

HR

Back with Ranma and Ranko, the elder redhead looked at the receding form of Kodachi Kuno in astonishment. Was it possible that she had just seen a SANE member of the Kuno family? She would have to ask Nabiki about this when she got to school, assuming she had enough yen in her pocket to cover the info.

“Ranma, are you coming or not?” Ranko asked, tugging on her older sister’s shirt.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry Ranko.” Ranma said, continuing down the street with her sister.

HR

As Ranko and Ranma approached the middle school, Ranma saw Yoiko standing out front, her older brother next to her with a light cast on his broken arm and looking confused. “Hey Yoiko!” Ranko called, running ahead of Ranma. To her surprise, her friend began to point at Ranma, talking to her brother.

“See, that’s her. Isn’t she cute?” She said, happily.

Ranma stopped in her tracks. She’d just been called cute, by a twelve year old… her eye began to twitch, but then Yoiko went on.

“And she goes to Furinkan high, she can lead you there too. Isn’t that great?” She continued, talking to her brother.

“Yoiko…” Ryoga said, looking distinctly embarrassed. “What did I tell you about this last time you tried it?”

“But Ryoga, please, with what that Akane girl must have done to you to make you look so sad last time, at least go to school with her, you always said you wanted to go to school again anyways, please?” Yoiko begged, looking up at her brother with puppy dog eyes.

Ryoga sighed. “All right.” He said, and his sister jumped up and down happily while Ranko and Ranma looked bemused.

“Do I get a say in this plan?” Ranma asked, her eye twitch having gotten worse.

Yoiko looked at Ranma, realized that she must have heard everything she’d said, and had the decency to blush. “You… heard that?”

“Yeah.” Ranma said, and smiled. “But I’ll at least take him to the school if he wants.”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind.” Ryoga said, sending a death glare at his younger sister.

Ranma nodded, and grabbed Ryoga by the hand, if only to keep him from wandering off in the wrong direction before beginning to walk towards Furinkan. After the two were out of earshot, Yoiko grinned. “I think they like each other!” She said, happily.

Ranko just sweat dropped as her friend grinned idiotically, before leading her into the school. She hoped Ranma didn’t hurt Ryoga too badly.

HR

While walking to Furinkan, Ranma and Ryoga were in an uncomfortable silence before the latter broke it. “I’m sorry about my little sister.” He said, blushing. “She decided she was my personal match maker last year, and she hasn’t given up since.”

Ranma just nodded. “Yeah, I’m starting to get the idea that little sisters are like that.” She said.

“So, what’s your name?” Ryoga continued, wondering what that last comment meant. Ranma stopped, floundering around for a name to give the lost boy. She could just tell him she was Ranma, but given the scene earlier at the school he could fly into one of those rages of his and start attacking her, and she didn’t want to have to deal with it. Before she could say anything, he continued. “You’re Ranma, aren’t you?”

The redhead stopped, and looked at Ryoga in shock. “H, how did you know that?”

“Well,” Ryoga said, hesitantly, “I read your Aura, and noticed it was really close to his. Saying that you were Ranma was just sort of a guess.” He admitted, sheepishly.

‘Since when could Ryoga read Auras?’ Ranma thought, but decided to forgo asking him this question, as she realized that it was getting late. “We’d better keep going.” She said, grabbing Ryoga’s hand again and walking for the school.

“Next time, Yoiko should set me up with someone who’s actually a girl.” Ryoga said, looking annoyed.

“This has happened before?” Ranma asked, surprised.

“Well, the last time she set me up with someone, it was this cross dresser named Tsubasa.”

Ranma grimaced.

“You know him?” Ryoga asked, surprised. Maybe he was wrong. He had thought there was something more than simple cross-dressing going on here, given that Ranma now had more Female chi than a guy was technically allowed to have without going kinda unstable.

“I met him once or twice.” Ranma agreed, but thankfully got to drop the subject as the school came into view. To her annoyance, the crowd of Hentai were there, and Akane had apparently already gone through them judging from the straight line of unconscious bodies in the middle. “if you can still fight with that arm, You mind helpin me out with these guys? I’m gunna be late as it is.” She asked, looking at Ryoga.

The lost boy just nodded, and the two charged at the Hentai, carving through them like hot knives through butter. Surprisingly, Ryoga’s progress was only rarely hampered by his injury, and Ranma began to notice that his loss of strength and endurance had benefited him in other areas. He’d be pretty fun to spar against, if she could train him up to a level where he could take a few hits, at least.

END part A.

Chapter 12-B, The attack of the eight foot tall Tentacle horror!

Ryoga looked at the now male Ranma, as he exited the men’s bathroom brushing water off of his face. “So you change with water?” He asked, curiously. “You’ll have to tell me how that happened at some point.”

Ranma nodded distractedly, before looking at Ryoga. “Can you get to registration without getting lost?” He asked, looking at a clock in the hallway and noticing that he was already ten minutes late.

“I wouldn’t chance it if you wouldn’t mind.” Ryoga said, embarrassedly. Seeing how lost his sister kept getting in the last week had re-enforced the fact that Hibikis had no sense of direction, usually so easily ignored, and he was uneasy about wandering off now.

Ranma nodded, taking Ryoga’s hand and leading him to the principles office.

HR

“Class, let’s welcome Ms. Kuonji back from her four day long leave of absence.” Ranma’s class teacher said, glaring at Ukyo, who had been off for the past week to make extra money to keep her restaurant open, just in case her father decided not to let her return home. She blushed, and tried to slink down in her seat, when she heard something that sent her bolt upright. “And I’d like everyone to welcome a new student, Ryoga Hibiki. Mr. Hibiki, perhaps you’d like to introduce yourself?”

Ryoga looked distinctly nervous as he walked to the front of the room and faced the class, clearing his throat. “Hello, I’m Ryoga Hibiki. My family are travelers and I haven’t been to school since Jr. high, so it’s nice to be here.”

In her desk, Ukyo clenched her jaw, and tightened her hand on the side until her knuckles turned white. What in hell was HE doing here? Luckily, she didn’t make any more of a commotion than that. As Ryoga bowed to the class and walked back to his seat, he caught sight of Ukyo and flinched away from her.

HR

That day at lunch, Ranma was headed towards the tree where Nabiki normally operated her little information business, wishing to ask about Kodachi Kuno. As he came close, he saw Ukyo already there, talking to Nabiki quietly. As she finished, Nabiki pointed at Ranma, and Ukyo looked annoyed. “That’s what I get for thinking you’d be hard to find.” Ukyo grumbled, as she turned to Ranma.

“Were you looking for me Ukcha- I mean Ukyo?” Ranma corrected, hoping that Ukyo wouldn’t notice his slip.

The Okonomiyaki chef raised an eyebrow, wondering about what Ranma had almost called her before. She had gotten a lot of information about Ranma’s supposed mental transformation from Nabiki, but she didn’t know why he would ever call her Ukchan. “Well, I wanted to talk to you about something, Saotome.” She said, deciding to get right to the point. As she was about to continue, she heard Nabiki give a soft curse from next to her.

“Is it just me, or is that smoke coming from the Dojo?” Nabiki asked, worriedly, as she pointed to a curl of smoke that rose into the sky in the distance. Ranma looked where she was pointing, and saw it. “Damn, I guess I’ll talk to you later, Ukyo. Nabiki, go find Ryoga and take him to the Dojo.” He said, as he ran for the edge of the school yard.

“Where are you going?” Nabiki asked, irritated, as she ran after him.

“To see what that is!” Ranma called back, as he leapt over the wall and hit the edge of a nearby roof. Ukyo looked back and forth from Nabiki to the small trail of smoke, shrugged, and went after Ranma. Kasumi and Soun Tendo were usually at the Dojo at this time, and the eldest Tendo sister was a friend of hers, and occasionally ordered food from the restaurant.

Growling in annoyance, Nabiki went to get Ryoga, wondering why Ranma had told her to do it and thinking that she’d get him back for ordering her around at some point.

HR

As he reached the Tendo Dojo, Ranma saw a smoldering pile of what appeared to have once been women’s panties in the middle of the yard, and a hole in one of the walls. Soun Tendo was standing on the porch, looking shocked and with twin streams of water trailing down his cheeks. Walking up to him, Ranma waved his hand in front of the older man’s face but got no response.

“Mr. Tendo, are you all right?” Ranma asked, but Soun continued to stare in teary eyed astonishment at the burning pile and hole in his wall. Sighing in annoyance, Ranma ran out of the Tendo compound, finding that there was an easily traceable trail of destruction leading into the distance. Hearing what sounded like an explosive going off, he quickly increased his pace along the trail, wondering what the heck was going on.

HR

“You aren’t getting away, freak!” Taro yelled, charging after Happosai with the cask of water over his head. Unfortunately, the old man had gotten him with a cup of hot tea earlier, changing him back from his monster form into a human, but he was going to get Happi with this water and get him to change his name if it was the last thing he did!

“Just give up my boy, besides. I don’t see what’s so wrong with the name pantyhose!” Happi said, as he dodged a punch of the hand that Taro wasn’t using to hold up the cask.

“Well you wouldn’t!” Taro yelled back, as he caught sight of a glass of water sitting on a table in an open air Café nearby, and went for it.

“No ya don’t.” Came a third voice, as a red blur zipped in front of Taro, taking the glass with it.

“Who the…” Taro said, before seeing a black haired boy with a pigtail standing on the street next to Happosai.

“So what do ya want Taro?” Ranma asked, before realizing what a stupid question that was. “Oh right, ya want your name changed.”

“I don’t know how you know what I want, but it doesn’t matter. Are you siding with the old man?” Taro asked, cracking his knuckles.

As Ranma looked around his new battlefield, he contemplated this question. He had sided with Taro against Happosai before, but it seemed that the monster cursed boy had done something that had left Mr. Tendo in shock, and Ranma didn’t know what Taro would be like here, where everyone else seemed to be somehow different. Then, he caught sight of the cask of water that Taro was holding, and recognized it. It was the exact same one he had brought to splash Happosai with “Spring of drowned Virtuous man” water, that had actually turned out to be from the spring of drowned twins. Was it possible that he was doing the same thing here?

“Hey old man, does he have tentacles?” Ranma asked, looking at Happosai.

Happi looked surprised, but nodded. “Yes, he just merged tentacles into his cursed form recently, how do you know about that?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Never mind.” Ranma said, now pretty sure he knew what was going on, even if he didn’t know how it was happening. “Taro, you really don’t wanna use that water on the freak, it’s not what you think it is.” He said, doubting that Taro would believe him.

“Oh, then what is it, if you know so much.” Taro said, scowling. This guy was getting on his nerves. He just showed up, interfered with his plan to get Happosai to change his name and now he was saying that he didn’t have the right spring water?

Ranma looked at Happosai, pictured what he’d probably do if he knew that there was spring of drowned twins water in Taro’s cask, and shook his head. “I can’t tell you.” He said, instantly knowing that it was the wrong thing to say when Taro ran at another source of water, a water fountain, nearby. Ranma dove to stop him from transforming, but only succeeded in getting himself wet along with Taro, changing into female form. As the tentacled monstrosity rose up in front of her, all she could think was “Oh shit…”

HR

Ukyo jumped from rooftop to rooftop, cursing herself for letting Ranma outdistance her. One thing was for sure, he was as good a martial artist as Nabiki claimed if he could move that fast across the roof tops. She had arrived at the Tendo Dojo just seconds before, and when she had asked Mr. Tendo where Ranma had gone he had just pointed mutely to the hole in the wall.

Now, she was following a trail of singed roof tiles, broken pavement and for some reason, a large amount of broken water pipes, to the scene of a battle where she heard bombs exploding and other sounds of heavy combat.

As Ukyo arrived on the scene of Ranma, Happosai and Taro’s battle, her mouth hung open in shock. There was a red haired girl who looked an awful lot like Ranma’s little sister, only older, battling some sort of giant monster with tentacles while Happosai jumped around the sides of the fight throwing the occasional bomb. As the girl got pinned by a particularly nimble maneuver by the monster’s tentacles, Ukyo decided to act, unslinging her battle spatula from her back and jumping down, bringing the blade down in a swinging arc that sliced into several of the appendages.

The creature gave a bellow that sounded strangely like a bovine moo before dropping the girl, who tossed a grateful “Thanks Ukchan!” over her shoulder as she dove back into the fray. For a split second, Ukyo stopped at the sound of the name the girl had called her. It was the same one Ranma had almost called her at the school, and Nabiki had told her about some sort of transformation curse, could this girl be Ranma? Before she had time to think more, one of the monster’s undamaged tentacles swung around and tried to knock her feet from under her, causing her to jump up and out of the way. ‘Damn sugar, better get your head back into the fight.’ She thought, not even wondering WHY she was fighting this monster in the first place.

HR

As Keiichi drove his sidecar equipped motorcycle down the narrow streets of Nerima, he began to notice that the place had more than it’s fair share of battle damage, both new and old. “Are you sure this is where you’re supposed to go, Urd?” He asked, uncertainly.

“That’s where my target lives.” Urd said, shrugging from her position in the sidecar where Belldandy usually sat.

“So why do you have to do this assignment, anyways?” Keiichi asked, finally breaking the silence. Urd and Skuld had both been called up to Asgard last night, and now Urd was suddenly on some sort of mission.

“I’m supposed to monitor a mortal who may become a god.” Urd said, as she looked around for the next turn. “I’m supposed to find out how he ascends and stop it.”

“But wouldn’t it be good to have another god around?” Keiichi asked, confused.

“It would if it didn’t mean that we needed a new Demon to equal the odds again, and then we’d need to re-order the Doublet system to take them into account, it’d be an administrative nightmare, not to mention that the demons could sneak a few assassins by us while the system’s down.” Urd said, glumly.

“What’s wrong?” Keiichi asked, as Urd directed him to turn right at the next intersection.

“Nothing…” Urd muttered, before the bike rounded the turn, and the two were confronted with one of the strangest sights even they had ever seen.

“I, is that a demon?” Keiichi asked, concerned.

“If it is it’s the strangest one I’ve ever seen.” Urd answered, as she climbed out of the sidecar.

“Maybe we should get out of here.” Keiichi said, nervously. “Those girls seem to be handling it.” As he said this, one of the two girls who were fighting the Demon, a redhead, dove out of the way of one of it’s tentacles, allowing the brunette to cut it off. The demon roared in pain, and convulsively twitched all of it’s many limbs, sending a wooden cask it had been holding into the air, and directly at Urd and Keiichi.

Urd tried to erect a shield to deflect the cask, which had a very strong magic signature emanating from it, but the shell of force sputtered and died, causing her to remember that she was currently a class eight. Cursing, she tried to dive out of the way and closed her eyes, awaiting impact…

To Be Continued!

MWAHAHAHAHAHA! Talk about a cliffie! So, if last one was “Damned short filler,” what is this?