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No Need for Destiny
Chapter 15
No Need for Returns
Disclaimer: I don’t own this series or any other series. I am just floating an idea. I am making no money, nor plan to, off this venture. If you think of suing me over this, then grow up.
I would like to first personally thank all of those reviewing my stories. I enjoy reading your comments, and try to correct the grammatical errors I miss with my final read-through as well as my spell checkers. The suggestions you all make will help make this story better for everyone to enjoy, as well as allow my to fix some plot holes I may unintentionally leave. If you find any, let me know, and I will correct them and repost the chapters.
Sailor Galaxia, the strongest Sailor Senshi in the universe and the leader of Shadow Galactica, merely groaned as she tried to pry herself from the ground. Her Sailor Animamates, the proud pseudo-warriors she created, who had defeated the Senshi of their own worlds, lay broken on the field of battle.
Air exploded from her lungs as a kick connected, shattering more of her golden armor, and tossing her across the field of battle, her opponent’s voice tormenting her now.
“This is the best you can do, the best challenge you can offer?” he asked, stepping towards her, his eyes full of menace. “You came here to my world, my domain, my dominion, in order to carry out the same carnage that has sent billions of refugees to my doorstep.
“And you think I would be weak enough to fail as well?” he asked, placing his foot on her upper back, and forcing her back onto the ground, ending her pitiful attempt to stand back up. “Did you not once stop to think why they fled here? Why they did not spread out for hope?”
“W-what are you?” she coughed out. “You’re not a Senshi.”
“No, I’m not,” he said. “I’m something more than you’ll ever understand.”
The pressure stopped on her back, allowing air to enter her bruised lungs a bit easier. But the respite lasted only a moment, as her tormentor reached down to grab her by her throat, lifting her off the ground with one hand, and forcing her to look him in the eyes, her own weakening strength all that kept her from being dangled by her neck, as she clutched onto his arm.
“I know the truth about you ... the truth that lies in your heart,” he said, red eyes seeming to pierce into her soul.”
“I ... I don’t understand.”
A smirk appeared on his face, his green hair blowing in the breeze. “I saw the machinations of this power once before, ten thousand years ago. Did you think I wouldn’t see Chaos buried so deeply in your body, Galaxia?”
Her eyes opened wide, her pale and bruised face filled with shock. He knew? How?
“Do not think what you do goes unnoticed,” he said, his eyes still boring into her, his free hand sending a blast of energy to one of the Animamates that had tried to stand and launch an attack. “There are things out there far stronger than you will ever be, far stronger than even the Galaxy Cauldron.
“You just had the piss poor luck to try and take one of them on,” he finished, his face forming a sneer.
“Alas, it is not to be,” he said sadly, as he tossed her aside, her body skidding only a few meters along the destroyed and overturned earth before she stopped, her face still looking towards him. “I may not have access to the Gates, but even I know whose destiny it is to cleanse you of your mistake, and hopefully restore the worlds you’ve destroyed in your useless quest.”
He glared at her, a glare filled with hatred, anger, yet so cold as if deep space had no comparison to it. “But do believe this, trash: if you or your ilk come to my domain again, if I even hear rumor of a single plan to try another attempt on my kingdom, on one citizen, on one refugee...”
He paused, walking closer to her, and bending over enough to whisper it into her ear. “If that happens, destiny or not, I will wipe you from existence in the most painful ways possible. There will be nowhere in all of existence, in all of time and space where you would be able to hide. And I will not give one damn whether my enemy is Galaxia or Chaos.
“Do I make myself clear, filth?”
Galaxia could only glare at him, trying to still understand how one person could possess such power. “What are you?”
“I am Lord Enma, child of the House of Pluto and the House of Kuramitsu. I am ruler of the domain of Alpha Centauri and all who enter. And I am not someone you can fuck with, little girl.”
He hated having to let them go, to let them begin their efforts that would lead to Earth being targeted. But he knew she would be something his reborn sister would have to contend with. Like Metallia, Galaxia would be a test on her path towards whatever Destiny had planned.
Of course, if the Golden Girl returned before then, Destiny be damned, he was burying her. No one came to the Silver Regency, planning death and destruction, and got away alive.
“She what?” growled Enma, sitting in the Command Chair of his ship, as he communicated to Earth and to Nabiki Tendo Kuramitsu, his mother of sorts. It appeared after all that it may not have been his half brother Ran who spread that ‘Jade Dragon’ name.
“She asked that you pick up her children, who seem to be on Avalon, and who seemed to have been granted permission to do so by your father,” she responded, rubbing her forehead.
“And he didn’t tell me this before ... because? I mean, he’s the one that said Ran and I had to rule those systems and take care of them. Doesn’t this fall under information we should have?” asked the heir of Pluto.
“He didn’t tell me either,” admitted Nabiki, which shocked Enma. “I only now found out because Hild asked me to fetch them.”
“She tell exactly why Dad hid this?”
Nabiki shrugged. “Said it was a secret.”
“Oh that makes perfect sense,” growled Enma. “Anything else I should know that the Old Man hid from me?” Normally, Enma prided himself on proper decorum, especially when communicating with people. But given the bombshell that had been dropped on him, he felt such measures would only get in the way of expressing his anger.
“Don’t worry,” growled Nabiki as well, not liking the fact that her dear husband was hiding secrets from her—sure, she was hiding secrets as well, but certainly not bigger than sending two children by him and Hild to Avalon—well, as far as he knew anyway, “I will be discussing this with him tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” blinked Enma.
“He’s with Washu for the night,” said Nabiki with a smile. “By tomorrow, I’m pretty sure he’ll be easy to break.”
Enma slowly nodded. Sometimes he really didn’t want to know certain things that went on with his parents’ lives.
“Anyway,” Nabiki started again, holding up two envelopes, which slowly faded, only to reappear in front of Enma on his ship, “she sent these messages to them, including enough solid pishogue for them to make it back to Earth and still be at full power.”
Enma growled at that. He had no problems with demons as a whole. Hell, he was on very civil terms with many of them. But there were always certain groups who by their very nature bugged the hell out of him.
These two not only were of that group, but represented prime examples of those who pissed him off at times. “You know, I should have suspected something about her at least. She looks just like Dad when he was younger.”
Nabiki shrugged. “Bring them here, and try to keep them from causing trouble, if at all possible. I’d rather not have them creating havoc on more than one world.”
“They are Hild’s children, Mom,” Enma said. “Do you really think they won’t cause something when they come to Earth?”
“One can hope.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” said the sometimes helpful Mazoku. “I’m sure someone’s just talking about me.
“I wonder if they’re cursing my name?” he said with a smile. To think, someone after all this time was still wishing him harm. It gave him a warm feeling inside.
“They won’t be back till tomorrow,” said Yajiro Kojima Kuramitsu, her husband, as he placed a folded towel on his forehead.
“And how do you know that?” asked the balloon expert, Mikan Kurenai Kuramitsu.
“I read the sign on the tea shop while we were climbing those stairs,” he replied in an even voice.
“Oh,” said Rushuna, lying back into the water. “Well then, we have the old place to ourselves.”
“Old place, my ass,” growled Yajiro. “I built it, remember. Granted, I didn’t build it to the specifications of angry tomboys.”
“Her Dad did warn you about that,” smirked Mikan.
“So,” said Rushuna, hoping to stop the likely argument from forming between her two spouses, “what should we order out for tonight?”
He could hear the waves.
Ranma Saotome Kuramitsu slowly opened his eyes; the pale light on the horizon, across the waves, suggested dawn was approaching. The beach fire slightly to the right was down to bare embers and a few remaining logs almost gone, a far cry from the raging bonfire it had been last night.
Then again, they had been very busy, too busy to keep attending the fire.
He looked down, spotting the sleeping nude form of his first wife, as they spooned. It had been so long since he had last held her in such an embrace. There had been many times within the twenty thousand years of separation where he wanted to run to her, damn the consequences, and bring back her memories, to save her from Kagato, to even watch over her closer than he had been.
But he made a promise on his honor; both to her and later Tsunami after he had learned what Kagato had done. It had only been Tsunami’s pleas that kept him from going out and eliminating that dark clone of his former friend.
It didn’t keep him from kicking the fool’s ass out of Seniwa space whenever he attacked. Any losses on their territory tended to be from Commanders who decided their fleets could handle the attack.
But to be honest, he was relatively certain he would have broken that word to stay away, had not Tenchi completed their project those months ago. Luckily, the boy proved their point, and Washu was allowed release from her oath and her search.
“The sunrise is beautiful,” she murmured, her eyes having opened while he had been thinking.
“It always was with you near me,” he said with a smile, bending over to kiss her cheek. “How much longer do we have left here?”
Washu slowly made the calculations in her head. “I think we’ll have to leave soon. This subspace creation’s time dilation effect will equal morning in the normal world in a few hours,” she said sadly.
“And Nabiki and I do have to board a train in Wakkanai,” he said. “Time for us to return to the stream of time as well.”
“I know,” said Washu. “But I expect you to be in my bed at sleep time,” she said with a smile.
“How about our bed on PI?” asked Ranma. “I can easily put a body-double of some sorts in my room at the Tendo Dojo then, and I know Nabiki’s been missing you as well.”
Washu just smiled, still looking at the sunrise in the recreation. “Maybe, but I would prefer a bit more one-on-one time with my husband before spending that time with my wife.”
Ranma just smiled. “You know she misses you as much as I did. And does the fact we just spent a month in a subspace domain you created with a time dilation effect so we could enjoy our time together again have no meaning?” he asked with a bit of a teasing smile.
“Fine,” Washu huffed. “I’ll spend time sharing you with her tonight. She did have a whole twenty-thousand years with you.”
Ranma just smiled as he lay back in the sand, sniffing his First Wife’s hair. “Just think of all the stories she can tell you, stories that give humor at my expense.”
“There is that,” said Washu, grabbing his arms as they were wrapping around her. “I wish we could have had those years together, my love.”
“We have these years now,” Ranma said. “And if the shit I went through didn’t kill me to this point, we’ll have many more together. Granted, I’ll need to watch my granddaughter a bit more to ensure she doesn’t end up like that version Z summoned and Tenchi’s kami-side went off with.”
“You’re related to Misaki?” she asked in shock.
“Through Utsutsumi,” said Ranma. “His father was rendered near sterile by an assassin,” admitted Ranma. “My ... sperm ... was a genetic match so they could alter it, make it look like he had been the father, without and chance of some reporter or what-not finding out the truth.”
“Does Lady Seto know?”
“I suspect,” said Ranma. It was still a bit of a sore subject with him. They had borrowed his sperm, resequenced a bunch of the genetics, just to ensure an heir who was beyond reproach, all because some idiot assassin had tried to sterilize the royal line.
Not that the fool or those who hired him got to enjoy the fruits of their plotting. But it did prove that being spaced near a star was a very cruel way to die.
“Any likelihood it’s the reason she’s so focused on bringing your clan in with Misao’s marriage?” asked Washu, kissing his arm.
“Never stopped her before,” said Ranma. “She’s focused on having no singles left in the universe. Truthfully, I don’t think your Kami-status would stop her.”
“I have you,” admitted Washu with a sly smile, turning over enough to now face her lover. “If she tries to take that from me, I’ll be very ... pissed.”
“Of that, I have no doubt,” said Ranma with a chuckle, rubbing his chin.
“Are you okay?” asked Washu, her hand reaching to touch the chin that she had smacked only a few hours ago in the real world, but over a month ago in the subspace realm she had created.
“The moment I woke up,” smirked Ranma.
“You are such a tease at times,” giggled Washu for a bit, before she caught his lips once again. “But it’s why I love you so much.”
“I thought it was my winning smile?” he asked, sounding somewhat offended.
Washu just shook her head. “Some things never change, despite how the universe develops.”
Ranma just nodded, eyes closed, smile still on his face.
Shaking her head, Washu turned back towards the sunrise. “Don’t forget to let me scan you and the others soon. We have no idea how constant use of the wings of the Lighthawk will affect a person.”
“You know?”
“Mikumo told me some stories, including his own exploits and how many wings he can summon,” she said with a smile.
“Ah,” said Ranma. “You are getting past that little ‘sample’ phase, right?” asked Ranma nervously.
Washu just smiled, before her lips curled into a slightly evil appearance. “Would you rather I get yours or Tenchi’s?”
“That’s cheating.”
“That’s blackmail,” Washu corrected.
“You do realize that in a way, he’s your step-great-great-great-grandson,” added Ranma, hoping to remove her options.
“Like that means anything on Jurai,” she said with a smile, as she rolled over and straddled his waist. “Now, be quiet and let Mama enjoy her remaining hours with her stud. She needs her samples.”
Yugi sighed. “He’s been cleaning all day yesterday and today, and keeps muttering about Seto coming for his single grandson; even Mom’s a bit worried about him.”
“Okay; that counts as odd,” said Honda “Tristan” Hiroto, peaking through the front window of the Kame Game Shop with the other members of their group, watching as the elderly man—a man who often complained about his back going out—was currently dusting the top shelves ... while hanging from the ceiling by one foot clamping onto a banister rail.
“At least he’s behaving himself,” muttered Mazaki “Téa” Anzu.
“You don’t think he’s finally lost it, do you?” asked Joey, staring at the elderly man. “Cause what he’s doing now ain’t something you’d think a normal person would ever do.”
“Gee, you think,” groused Téa.
“Oh my,” said the elderly voice of a man from behind them.
“AH!” screamed the quartet, jumping around quickly, and spotting... “Professor Hawkins,” said Yugi with a sigh. “Please don’t scare us like that.”
“I’m sorry,” said the oldest friend of Yugi’s grandfather. “But it has been so long since I have seen Solomon there doing anything like that.”
“Wait,” said Joey, “he did stuff like this before?”
Arthur nodded. “Oh yes; why one time while we were exploring this one tomb, I saw him defeat a whole slew of tomb raiders who thought we would be better off dying at that moment.”
The four could only blink at that. “You mean to say,” said Tristan, trying to figure out how to put this as delicately as possible, “that Yugi’s grandfather has some super-ninja skills.”
“Oh my, yes,” smirked the Professor. “Why he even taught me a bit.”
The others could only swivel back in forth between the American and the view of Yugi’s grandfather, trying to resolve this new knowledge with what they thought they knew of the old man.
“Wait a minute,” said Yugi. “If he can do all that, why’s he always complaining about being old and joint pain?”
“Because Father is a trickster at heart.”
The group paused, before turning towards the voice, spotting Yugi’s mother, standing with a bag full of groceries.
“Mom?”
Yuki Mutou just sighed. “He’s always been more of a character than a man of any serious demeanor.” Well, that and a pervert; don’t really know what Mom saw in him.
“He has his moments though,” said Arthur.
“Well then let’s go in!” smirked Joey, as he opened the door and poked his head in. “Hey Gramps, how are—EEK!”
“STAY AWAY FROM... Oh, sorry Joey, thought you were someone else.”
Said boy soon found himself frozen against the wall, several daggers barely missing hitting him. “...”
WHAM!
“What the hell do you think you are doing, Father?” yelled Yuki, slipping past the scared teenager and bopping her father-in-law on the head.
“I thought he was Seto!” cried the elderly Mutou.
“That’s no excuse for throwing knives at people!” she yelled, before ripping the daggers from the wall, and freeing Joey. “Now ... why don’t we all sit down and have some tea,” she finished, placing a large smile on her face, as she took the weapons and the groceries into the kitchen.
“I must say Solomon,” said Arthur, “I certainly don’t want to know what’s got you running so scared.”
“What’s Kaiba-boy have to do with this?” asked Joey, trying to put on a brave front after narrowly escaping those blades.
“Professor,” asked Téa, “where’s Rebecca?” She wanted to know where the certain pushy girl was hiding, before she started to pounce on Yugi again.
“Oh, she’ll be along in about an hour,” the elderly man said with a smile. “She had to go to a challenge. She said she’d be back here after it finished, small tournament really. But she seemed really exciting to see you all again.”
“I bet,” grumbled Téa.
“How come I didn’t know about this tournament?” glared Joey.
“Because Joey my boy,” said Solomon, “you are one year too old to join in. Rebecca however is just young enough to do so. But if you’re nice, I’m sure she’ll duel you afterwards.”
Joey just smiled and nodded towards the man who had almost turned him into a human pin cushion.
“Grandpa, what did Kaiba do to you?” asked Yugi.
“Kaiba?”
“You yelled out Seto before you attacked Joey.”
“Oh,” he said slightly embarrassed, “different Seto, my boy. Trust me, if you ever meet them, you’ll be doing the same thing.”
“Oh yeah!” yelled Joey. “When they meet Joey Wheeler, you’ll never have anything to fear again!” he yelled with his usual bravado.
“I’ll never understand why you all call yourselves those American names,” grumbled Yuki, as she served them some tea.
“Dueling identities,” said Solomon. “After all, you don’t want rabid fans tracking you down; better to go by a stage name.”
“So you go from Jonouchi Katsuya to Joey Wheeler?” asked Yuki.
“You better believe it!” smirked the man in question.
“But why not choose Japanese names?” asked Yuki. “And why didn’t my son choose a different name?”
Yugi just sighed as the others stared blankly at his mother. Like he was going to follow that stupid suggestion from his grandfather.
“Now remember, Yugi; never use your real name. That’s something you save for fangirls.”
That was the day I realized my grandfather was a pervert. It had been a heartbreaking realization for the King of Games that day.
“Anyway,” said Arthur, hoping to end the strange silence that had befallen the discussion when Yugi’s mother added logic to the conversation—even he had wondered at times why they did such a weird thing, but assumed it was due to poor announcers who got their names wrong to begin with—really, how could they confuse his granddaughter’s last name and call her Hopkins?—“why did you ask me to come here with Rebecca, Solomon?”
Solomon just chuckled lightly. After all, it wasn’t every day you had to explain to your best friend why you needed to engage grandchildren. Oh man, now I wish I had bothered to learn Kage Bushin when Dad offered it to me. I have a feeling I’m going to want a head start here real soon.
One appeared to be a boy no older than eighteen, hair placed into a pigtail, while the other was a female with short brown hair cut in a pageboy style.
“Kami-sama,” grumbled Nabiki, playing with the ends of her hair, “I forgot how much I hated having short hair.”
Ranma just smiled as he continued to read. “Just wait till you learn some things we forgot over the years,” he added, handing her a small palmtop computer. “Granted, I never thought I would look this bad through someone else’s eyes,” he muttered.
Before time caught up to where they had disappeared from, the duo had taken certain measures to watch over their counterparts and gather some information. Having been over twenty thousand years, they weren’t exactly sure if they would remember who they used to be, at least not enough to keep people from being suspicious.
Sighing, Nabiki took the offered screen, glancing at her own formerly sordid past. “Was I really so young,” she muttered, looking at the data on her former life as the Ice Queen. “Short hair and a small time con artist; gee, I had it all.”
Ranma could only chuckle, grabbing a newspaper and preparing to look over it. “Yeah, well I was sure a good catch. Aside from martial arts, I really didn’t have much going for me. I’m half tempted to just show a bit of my IQ at school, just to see how many teachers I can make think that the End of Days is upon them.”
“It’ll be easier for you to be the dumb jock than me to be the Ice Queen,” she said, her eyes closed.
Shrugging, Ranma continued to read his paper while thinking of his own file. Man; that makes me look like an ass half the time. How the Hell did I get so many girls after me.
Oh yeah, Saotome charm.
“Ranma?”
“Hmm?” he asked, looking into the paper.
“I got an interesting bit of information yesterday while at work.”
“You talking about moving up the fusion reactor time table?” he asked. They had been deciding whether or not to release that discovery soon, thanks to the booming energy market.
“No,” she said, pretending to focus on the small computer and the personal files on Nabiki Tendo. “I was talking about a bit of fact that Hild told me.”
“What did she say?” he asked.
“She talked a bit about bringing her children by you to Earth.”
His eyes slowly rose from the paper to stare into hers, fear that he would see the fires of Hell inside those irises dying as she simply stared at him with a cold glare. “In my defense, you never asked if I had children with her.”
Her eyes narrowed a bit. “Don’t think that’ll save you. I want answers.”
“Depends on what questions you ask.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about them?” she asked.
Ranma folded the paper back up, before setting it off to the side. “Hild asked me to at first, then the kids did,” he started. “After all, the social issues are similar to why I couldn’t publicly claim my children during the Silver Millennium.”
“Explain?”
“A male chosen as consort to the Elder Goddesses fathering children with the Daimakaichō,” he said with obvious sarcasm. “They wanted to make their own way without family power offering them an easy path.”
She slowly nodded, understanding the point. After all, she had had more than a few descendants tell her that they planned to hide their lineage in order to see how far they could go on their own. “And the fact you never told me?”
“She asked me to,” Ranma said.
“You know what we said about secrets—well, secrets of this nature,” she said, knowing full well that there were certain secrets she had no desire to share with him at the moment. “But this does explain some of those absences around that time.
“You didn’t carry on a relationship without me, did you? They are the only children?”
“And there are easily hundreds of demons of all levels and quite a few new gods that wouldn’t hesitate to use their family history for a power play,” he countered. “The less people who knew about their family connections, the better.”
“And why are they on Avalon?” she asked.
“Do you know how long it took the two of them to reach First Class Unlimited License? Twenty Years, no demon in the system ever made that in less than three centuries, and even then, they were making every dirty deal they could.”
“So what; you sent them to one of the protected worlds for a challenge?”
“Away from Earth they can’t access the power base like the other New Gods can. On Avalon, they would be nobodies, newbie demons looking for a start. They wanted a challenge yes, but also to prove it wasn’t a fluke.”
“Ranma, I read their files from what Enma has, I also know that you would need to have either his or Ran’s permission to even get into those worlds to drop them off.”
Ranma just snorted. “Those two haven’t even shut off that wormhole yet,” he answered. “I just transported us through and I came back.”
“I thought that was shut off.”
“What is closed can always be opened, especially when their ships told PI how they did it in the first place.”
“And their actions on Avalon?” she growled out. While the brother was far worse than the sister, she still felt angry that they were contaminating the culture like they had been.
“They are doing no more than Enma,” Ranma replied with an even tone. “Or have you forgotten what he’s been doing to Avalon and Edo. I know you remember the wife he met on either world.”
“That was low, Saotome,” she said.
“That was the truth,” he replied. “Enma is moving those worlds to social evolution. Avalon is also the only world those two could have gone to.”
“Did anyone else know?”
“Ran may have suspected,” Ranma admitted. “I know he patrols the two worlds on occasion, and he may just be sensitive enough to pick it up. And they would have avoided Enma like the plague.”
“Not his daughter apparently,” Nabiki grumbled, remembering several reports.
“Who do you think made those reports?” asked Ranma with a smirk.
She could only release a deep sigh as she leaned back into the seat across from him. “So the reason you suspect Ran knows is because he monitors all of the factions on Avalon.”
“To a point,” he said. “Even they don’t know everything that goes on Edo or Avalon, Ran just spends more time on Avalon due to the magical nature; that and I’m pretty sure Enma has him watching how his youngest is doing.”
“So do they have a tree ship?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “The ships are based on the Elder Goddesses. For them, it would be like a prison. Even connecting them could cause harm to both.”
“Fine then,” she said. “But don’t think this will get you off the hook; I know Enma wants to discuss this with you. And I heard he plans to tell Lona a few things as well.” Nabiki did find some satisfaction that Ranma paled at the mention of Enma’s second wife. If it was one thing that put fear into a Kuramitsu, it was the wife of a Kuramitsu.
“Now get back to studying, jock,” she said with a smirk. “We need to know our parts well enough if we’re going to pull off this act.”
They certainly did not expect to see Washu, in adult form, humming, as she finished making the food herself ... by hand.
Ryoko could only blink in shock, before turning her head, leveling a glare at Ayeka. “You killed me in my sleep, didn’t you, Princess? Now I’m in Hell.”
“I did no such thing!” yelled Ayeka.
“Um ... Washu-chan?” asked Tenchi, looking around as if at any moment, a trap would be sprung.
“Yes, Tenchi?” stated the humming woman, as she laid out the prepared dishes.
“Why are you making breakfast?” he asked carefully, not wanting to set the Goddess off.
“I felt like it,” she said with a smile. “I had such an enjoyable month with my husband, I decided to share my good cheer with everyone.”
Those who normally stayed at the Masaki house took a small step backwards.
“Morning, Mom,” yawned Mikumo, as he moved passed the group and sat at the table. “What’s to eat?”
Washu just chuckled. “So much like your father, always ready for a good meal.”
“He did say you made the best pancakes he has ever had, got me a bit curious,” said the recently reunited son to his mother.
Before he could take a bite however, he paused, looking at the woman who was currently smiling as she continued to prepare the meal. “No,” he said simply, as he continued to eat.
“No?” asked Washu, pausing in her movements to stare at her son.
“No, as in no, I don’t want any details, any hints, and images, anything at all to hint at what put that smile on your face. Dad and Mother did that sort of thing all the time, and I would prefer not to have new mental scars added to my psyche.”
The others could only look at him, even as the knowing smile developed on Washu. “Then hurry up and eat, dear. I have to talk to the others.”
Ryoko’s eyes shot wide, before she turned back to Ayeka. “I stand by my first statement.”
“But I thought everyone loved MolMol,” said Kaolla Su with her usual innocence.
“No complaints here, sugar,” said Mitsune Konno in her Osaka accent. “Nothing wrong with a free vacation.”
“And what did you do to require the need for a vacation,” said the short haired kendo mistress known as Motoko Aoyama.
Keitaro sighed. Of course they had fun; he was the one running around all the time trying to stay alive.
“I did wish I could have spent more time with Onii-chan,” said Kanako Urashima in her usual monotone manner, her cat Kuro meowing in agreement.
Naru Narusegawa just sighed, before glaring at the adopted sister. She had been hoping to enjoy some time with Keitaro, but Kanako was always popping up. “Right now, after that flight, I just want to take a nice hot soak.”
“At least we have some fresh groceries,” said Shinobu Maehara, the resident chef. “I’ll be able to make us something quick if we need to.” It had been a while since they had returned from the airport, as well as the train ride to Hinata Springs.
“I love Shinomu’s cooking!” came the excited reply from Kaolla.
“Ara, will there be watermelon?” asked the Watermelon Princess Mutsumi Otohime
Keitaro paused a bit, stepping at the top of the steps. “Did someone leave the television on?” he asked worriedly. They had been gone for a while, and that alone might jack up the utility bill. And if it was on, what else might have been left running?
Sadly, technology made such happiness difficult to come by.
“Man, there’s even less on these channels than back on Seniwa,” he sighed heavily. Was it too much to ask for decent entertainment to be broadcasted? Mexican soap operas, Italian theater operas, horse races, sumo wrestling, stock reports, some weird creature called Spongebob, something done in claymation, and a few sappy love interest movies; and not one damned thing he felt like watching.
“I’d settle for a damned Sgt. Floaty rerun,” he murmured.
“Who are you?” came an angry female voice.
Leaning his head over the back of the couch, he spotted several people, all female except for one. “Hmm?”
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” asked the woman once again, pointing a sword at him.
He was no slouch when it came to swords—there were some benefits to a long life aside from exploration. But there are also some events one does not wish to remember, one of which was staring right at him. “Any reason you’re using that sword, or are you just stupid.”
“What?” growled out Motoko, ready to attack this trespasser.
“I only ask because I’m pretty sure that’s the sword I sealed a minor demon in,” he said evenly.
“WHAT?” the group yelled out.
“But that sword’s been in the Urashima family for generations!” gasped out Keitaro.
“Your point being?” said Yajiro. Really, was his daughter just not telling people certain things.
“Dinner’s going to be a bit, Ya-chan,” said the voice of Rushuna Tendo Kuramitsu, as she and Mikan Kurenai Kuramitsu exited the kitchen.
“Who are you people?” yelled Naru.
Rushuna just tilted her head. “Oh, we’re the original owners of this land. By the way, have any of you seen little Hi-chan?”
Shrugging, Yajiro simply stood up and turned around; enjoying the fact that real life was still much better than television. “She means a woman named Hinata Urashima.”
“What do you want with my grandmother?” asked Keitaro, even as Kanako moved closer to him in case he needed to be defended.
GLOMP!
Sadly, no defense is able to block the Family Love Glomp.
“WAH!” cried Rushuna, as she hugged her great-grandson. “Why didn’t Hi-chan tell me my great-grandson was coming over today? Mi-chan; we need to make more food!”
“Great grandmother!” yelled out the shocked tenants.
They were once again startled when the door behind them slammed open, allowing an elderly woman to drag in a smoking woman. “Hurry up, Haruka, I need to hide a few things before they get here.”
“Hide what?” growled Haruka Urashima, very tempted to see if perhaps she could finally beat the old bat.
“Most likely us,” said Yajiro, causing the duo to stop their frantic entrance.
“Shit,” muttered Hinata, as she saw that yes, her parents were there ahead of her.
“You know these people Mom?” asked Haruka, sorely tempted to crack her knuckles. Then again, she rarely got to see her mother in such a state, she decided to enjoy it while it lasted.
“Y-you could say that,” the elderly woman said nervously.
“Well,” said Yajiro, looking over at his nervously pale daughter, “anything you’d like to say Hinata?”
The elderly woman gulped, before her figure seemed to morph into a younger form, much to the shock of the tenants of Hinatasou. When she had finally resumed a form outside of her disguise, she could only stare nervously at her father. “I can explain.”
“Not just you,” said Ranma warily. “My guess is they’re all at the Dojo.”
“Think ‘Grandfather’ will be there as well?” she asked with an evil smirk.
“One can hope,” Ranma said with a deep sigh. He still found it hard to believe that the school he invented to ‘distance’ himself from Anything Goes was in fact the school that Anything Goes was based on. Talk about being the cause of your own issues. I wonder what else will end up being related to my trip into the past, aside from the Old Perv. “Of course, hope meaning zip inside Nerima.”
Nabiki just nodded. “Got your game face on?”
Ranma just smirked. “Act cocky, mouth off, and ignore teachers; yeah I can do that. Not like I’ll learn anything new,” he muttered. “How about you?”
“Being the Ice Queen in business is easy,” she said. “Don’t know if I can keep it up as just plain Nabiki Tendo again.”
Ranma just shrugged. “Just pretend I did something couch-worthy.”
“Could work,” she said with a smile. “But I just hate the idea of throwing you to the wolves, as it were.”
“I thought the hard part would be seeing Akane pine for me.”
She just paused, looking into space for a moment, before focusing once again on her husband. “Ranma-kun, do be careful about my little sister.”
He paused at that request, turning back to look at her. “Are you afraid she might steal me away?”
“I’m afraid what she might do if she realizes our situation in even the barest of terms,” she said. “I have no doubt Akane had deep feelings for Ranma Saotome. I am worried what will happen when she meets Ranma Kuramitsu.”
Ranma nodded at that. “Ain’t me for the moment,” he said. “Right now, I gotta be Saotome, you gotta be Tendo.”
“So that’s a no to running and leaving this all behind?”
“You’re the one who told me running from things solves nothing,” he said with a smirk. “Besides, I thought you had some secret plan to deal with this.”
“Oh, I do.”
“Clones of me?”
“And add more problems to this universe; I don’t think so,” she said with a smirk.
“So then what’s in those cryo-tubes you have hidden on PI?” he asked.
“You know of those?” she asked, a slight bit of shock in her voice.
“Of them, yes. What’s in them, no,” he said.
“What’s in yours?” she asked, trying to deflect the question.
“Family,” he said quietly.
Nabiki looked at him for a moment. “Family?”
“Ever wonder what happened to my mother’s family?”
“You mean...”
He just nodded. “I even have an Uncle named Mikamo,” he said, as he looked at her. “I’m just wondering how to bring them in without risking everything we’ve built up so far.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “Why are they in there and not out here?” she asked.
“Auto accident, would have killed them if I hadn’t teleported them out in time,” he said. “But I couldn’t just put them back there as ‘miraculous survivors’, so I waited till now. After all, we never had any signs of them before now.”
“And just how do you plan to bring them back?” she asked. “While I’m sure your grandfather might understand, I seriously doubt they would enjoy being kept from Earth.”
“Just ask Urd or Skuld to grant me a fake wish,” he said with his usual cockiness. “I’ll wish for my mom’s family to be restored, and while they do a good light show, just teleport them to my location. They won’t remember anything and will simply think the Goddess just pulled them through time.”
She nodded, even as her own thoughts delved into the issue. “Not a bad plan, it could work,” she mused, wondering if it could even fall into her own plans.
Taking a deep breath, he could only release it, before once more focusing on the path ahead of them. “We’re in uncharted territories now; no more future knowledge or extra hopes to hedge against. We’re on our own.”
“We have hope,” she said quietly.
“In Nerima, it really is all we have,” he mused with a smile. “So, how many of them do you think are at the Dojo right now?” he asked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Well, I told them to keep it quiet,” she mused. “So my guess is ... every damned one of them,” she said with an even voice and a straight face.
“Who do you think let it slip?”
She paused at that. “Well, I imagine the fathers were trying to convince Akane to go drag us back, so they likely let it slip at a bar, so Kodachi knows, what with Sasuke usually tailing them. Kasumi goes to the market, and she’s usually there at the same time when Cologne is ordering supplies for the Nekohanten. And Akane’s mood will have tipped off Ukyo.”
They just nodded quietly as they finally approached the front gates to the Tendo property. “Looks like a full house,” she mused, sensing the power levels inside the place, including the hidden Kuno ninja as well as Konatsu’s repressed energy.
Ranma just sighed, stretching his body and limbering his form up for the little fight he knew was about to occur. “Okay, ready to ‘act our age’, my lady?” he asked with a smirk.
Her smile mirrored his. “Don’t break anything Saotome, or I’ll have your wallet by the buckle.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, slipping back into a more relaxed manner of speaking, and silently thankful he had observed his younger self for a while. It really had been too long for both of them to recapture their old attitude. After all, after over twenty thousand years of experience, of heartaches and grand joys, how does one retake a small role; a role you finally realized was small to begin with.
Taking one last breath, they reached for the gate.
No, he was most worried about the needed time he would have to expend on Avalon. From what his sources on that world had reported, the local New Gods were creating havoc the likes of which hadn’t been seen in centuries, not since he helped separate a certain Dark God into seven pieces and binded them to human souls to be worn away with reincarnation. The fact that some of them had woken up spoke of needed concern.
The fact that his youngest daughter had put said pieces back down did speak well for her limited training.
“She’ll need to learn a few things,” he muttered. “The Mazoku seem to be torn on his resurrection, but they do agree he needs to be reborn in some form.”
His other daughter on that world hardly rated any concern. She had always been strong, even taking in a fragment of a New God who had yet to even begin to reform from the battle with Old Ruby Eyes, and had proven herself a powerful warrior. And while he was a bit concerned she had adopted a sentient creature and named him ‘Spot’, she had still proven she was a warrior for Good. Oh sure, she wanted to drag her sister’s bloody and broken carcass around their hometown for displaying her bath as she had. But all siblings went through periods like that.
Well, the Kuramitsu siblings did. He wasn’t too sure about the rest of the universe.
“A ship has been detected holding course along our path to Entrance 453 of the Sealed Systems.”
He blinked at that. Someone was waiting at a specific point? “Identify.”
“Ship identified from Jurai Royal Registry as Nami, registered to Princess Minaho Masaki Jurai.”
“Minaho’s ship,” he said, rubbing his chin. “What would she be doing here? Last I heard she was working with Lady Seto.”
“Unknown; but we are receiving a general coded signal addressed to you. Analysis indicates she wishes contact before you enter into the Sealed Systems.”
Nodding, he looked towards the view screen, seeing the image of the Royal Jurai class ship floating against a seemingly empty sea of stars. After all, only sophisticated subspace sensors could spot the array that kept the Sealed Systems sealed and safe from pirate activity, or any other kind of outside influence. “Open a channel.”
The screen flickered, showing the dark haired form of Yosho’s daughter. “Lord Enma.”
“Lady Masaki, how may I help you,” he said, neither bowing more than their heads, given that they were sitting in their respective command chairs.
“I was granted permission by Lord and Lady Kuramitsu to journey with you into the Sealed Systems,” she said, as her ship sent over the agreement.
“Oh?”
“Yes,” she said.
“And may I ask why you have come? Jurai knows the Kuramitsu don’t let them look at these systems.”
“I ... I believe I may find a trace of someone important to me.”
“I will need more than that,” Enma said without emotion.
“They didn’t,” she countered.
“I am not my parents,” he said.
She looked off to the side, her voice replying in a whisper. “Arashi.”
His eyes widened at that. While he knew the Princess of Jurai had fancied his brother, a relationship that might have gone forward had it not arisen during a period of tough times between Seniwa and Jurai. Nowadays, even given Lady Seto’s acceptance, it would still be a tough relationship, but the couple would be happy, aside from the political ramblings on both sides.
The fact that she still wishes to help determine what had happened to Arashi spoke volumes to him. He had always wondered whether or not the two were attracted to each other because of the ‘forbidden fruit’ issue, or if it was real love. At least now he had some clue. “Very well, you may dock. But I do remind you to be on your best behavior aboard my ship.”
“Thank you, Lord Enma,” she said with a bow. “I do hope I don’t embarrass myself too much,” she said with a smile, before she cut the transmission.
Enma sighed as he sat back into his seat. Could there really be clues to Arashi’s ... problem inside the Sealed Systems?”
“I know Phlegyas,” he said, feeling his ship’s uncertainty. “But I trust her on this issue. Besides, you and I know we could use a fresh perspective on finding out what happened to our rogue brother.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t want you to keep an eye on her. But we can’t waste the first lead we’ve had in damn near a decade.”
Inside was the picture of a smirking blond man with deep blue eyes, and a woman with red hair. “I shall find out what happened to you Arashi-kun; you ... and our son.”