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A man with long ponytailed white length hair was sitting on a tree, watching the ensuing fight between Kencana and her opponents. Even though he was near the fighting area, they didn’t notice his presence as he was actively repressing his power. He smiled as one of the fighters’ battle spatula hit Kencana’s hand and the winged woman counterattacked by punching her in the gut before she turned her focus to the girl with short blue hair.
The young girl put her hands in front of her and unleashed a multitude of blue energy waves that hit Kencana directly.
“Heh, what a messed up way to fight, sending a healer to draw the opponent’s attention. That girl would have done better if she serves a supporting role” He clucked his tongue. “But the girl with short blue hair’s power is pretty impressive despite the lack of focus,” the man commented wistfully. “Then again, it’s a good plan, really,” he continued as Shampoo took the opportunity to unleash her own ki attack. Despite that, he shook his head, knowing very well that they would eventually be defeated by Kencana. It was to be expected, as her power was beyond their combined strength.
He had to applaud their tenacity as they keep fighting despite knowing that they couldn’t defeat. At last the male Amazon managed to slightly injure Kencana by unleashing a powerful spell, a spell that would have defeated lesser demon lords.
But in the end, Kencana still won, just as he had predicted.
Then, to the man’s surprise, the pigtailed boy that Kencana had defeated first began to stir and materialized a sword which he recognized as a Soul Cutter, a special sword that was an extension of its user’s soul and have unique different combat ability.
When the boy executed his Soul Cutter’s first release and it morphed into some kind of nagitana, the man had a smile on his face. It widened into a grin when the boy’s twin swords transformed into a spear. The boy had really piqued his interest with the ability to use both good and evil infused weapons. He stood up, ready to intervene in the battle when it became apparent that Kencana wanted to initiate the contract between herself and the boy by force.
Of course, the boy surprised both he and Kencana once again as his weapon rejected Kencana’s offering. Of course, her look when she found out about that had been priceless.
The man would have sat down again to watch the fight’s conclusion but he suddenly felt a new presence appearing. While he normally detected people by their ‘presence’, he found out about the newcomer due to the lack of it. The man felt as if everything in his radius had come to a standstill. “Your presence is certainly surprising me, stranger. Did you come to watch the fight?” he asked in a friendly voice. “Are you here because of her, or you here for the boy?”
Nothing happened, as if there was no one there in the first place.
He sighed. “For you to control yourself… it’s rather a bit unnerving. Very well, I’ll take my leave since you obviously wouldn’t want me to see me here,” he said as magical runes began appear around him, character by character. “But be assured that we’ll meet in the future,”
The man then reappeared at a beach thousands of kilometers away from Tokyo, next to a mansion. Then the main door opened and a butler in his fifties walked out and bowed. “Good afternoon, Master Schneider. I trust that you have enjoyed your trip,” he said in British accent.
“Not really. I got chased away by someone,”
“Bully for him, sir. Would you like your normal Darjeeling tea?”
“That would be superb. I’ll be at the garden,” Schneider said. A few minutes later, the butler reappeared with a tea set few minutes and served it to Schneider. As Schneider took the cup and its saucer into his hand, he asked, “Anything happened while I’m gone?”
“Master Itachi had called regarding clan matters,”
Schneider took a sip, enjoying the warm golden liquid. As he put his cup down, he said, “Doesn’t the uncouth man realize that he’s wasting my time?”
“Yes, that he is”
“He and the Blessbringer clan he cherishes so much are too weak,” he said before turning into another direction, “just like you are,”
“DAMN YOU, SCHNEIDER BLESSBRINGER!” a very large three horned demon growled as the smaller demons escorting it raised their claws and weapons threateningly. “I, Zirgo the demon lord of the Seventh Aclimentist will kill you, the betrayer to The Clause!”
“Shall I take care of them, Master?” the butler asked.
“Oh, heavens, no! Please get me a piece of pie, Smith,” Schneider said before turning toward the demons, “Would you lot care for a cup of tea?”
“Fuck you!”
“I take it as a no, then. Blueberry pie, Smith,”
“Very good, sir” the butler said as he left the place.
When he returned with the pie, bodies of dead demons littered the whole garden, their blood seeping into the sandy ground. However, Schneider was sitting neither any sign of a fight nor blood stain on and around him, drinking his tea quietly.
“Impossible…” the demon lord croaked as its life seeped away. “What are you…?” it said before its eyes dulled and became lifeless.
Schneider put his cup down as his butler put the pie on the table. “Like you said, just now, old friend. Schneider Blessbringer,” he said although knowing that the dead demon couldn’t hear him.
“Shall I hang his head on the wall with the rest of your collection?”
“Hmm? Oh no, just throw the lot in the garbage. I wouldn’t dream of marring my beautiful wall with its ugly and smelly head”
“Very well, sir” the butler nodded before going off.
Schneider looked at beach as a flight of seagulls flew by. “Your appearance is rather surprising, Kencana” he said. “But welcomed’; the boy’s as well nonetheless,” he said while grinning.
“In the end, Phantasm Moon would be mine,”
“Eh? What happened? I’m suddenly at home” Ranma asked to no one in particular as he stood behind her, facing the other way. “Hmm… Feels like Nabs is somewhere around here”
Nabiki dropped to her knees with one of her hands pressing her towel close to her body. “How?” she asked quietly as her body slowly trembles.
The pigtailed martial artist turned around and was nearly floored by the sight of a half naked girl in front of him. But he quickly controlled himself. Ranma had never seen Nabiki in such a state that it confused him. “Nabiki?”
“Please leave the room for a while”
“Why?”
The girl had recovered some of her wits to manage a small smirk. “I really don’t mind if you want to watch me change, Saotome-kun”
Ranma felt his face burning. “It’s o… okay, I’ll go out” he said while slowly turning around and marched of the room, silently wondering why his own body felt a bit sluggish in doing so. He was so focused on the thought that he forgot the scythe with glowing blade that was in his right arm.
A few minutes Nabiki, wearing a yukata motioned him to enter the room. “So, you can start by telling me how do you ended up appearing behind me,” Nabiki said seriously when he took a seat in front of her. “By the way, I didn’t expect you to arrive until later this afternoon,” she said while looking at the scythe he set next to him. “Maybe something to do with that?”
Chuckling nervously like he always did whenever he was in trouble, Ranma said, “You know, that’s really surprising as I’m still confused by what happened. I was doing a practice slash while waiting for Akane and the others to get ready to return here when I accidentally ripped something,” his face scrunched in confusion, “you may not believe me, but I ripped something out of nowhere and then poof! Here I am,” He laughed. “That doesn’t make any sense, does it?”
“The ability to cut through dimension,”
“What do you mean?”
“That scythe of yours, it can probably cut through dimensions. That’s its ability,”
“The ability to cut through dimension?” Ranma asked.
“It is a very powerful method that allows you to move through obstacles and protection,” Nabiki was about to add some more when she caught hold of herself, “Is this the first time you use it?”
“Now, it was yesterday, when I fight against the Aoyama…,” Ranma didn’t finish the statement as he suddenly had a thoughtful look. “waitaminute… that’s not right. I didn’t fight her using the scythe; I fought her without Unmei Kiriage either. It’s like I was fighting against someone else… and then that faceless person” he said, missing Nabiki’s slightly darkened look.
“Maybe someone erased your memory,” Nabiki offered neutrally.
“Erased my memory?”
“Yes” Nabiki crawled closer to Ranma. “Hold on a minute,” she said as she held Ranma’s face and slowly pull his closer to hers.
Ranma swallowed hard as time began to stretch into an impossible infinity. Sure, he had been kissed before, but not in the same circumstances. Furthermore, to be kissed by her… He suddenly noticed the curvy, rosy lips in front of him and instinctively licked his own. Her face, her nose, few stray strands of hair on her cheek; everything was shouting for his attention. Even her closed eyes were tempting him.
That was why he nearly shouted in disappointment when she merely put her forehead on his instead of kissing him.
“A memory seal,” Nabiki pronounced as she withdrew.
Ranma’s attention was still riveted at somewhere else. “Huh?”
“A memory seal is used to block a certain memory by covering it with a false one”
Quickly tuning to her words, he said, “Oh, like that acupuncture technique Shampoo used on Akane,”
“Saotome-kun…”
“Yes?”
Nabiki brought her face closer to Ranma. “Did you think that…,” she said as she put her hands on his face once more, “I was going to kiss you just now?”
“No, of course not!” The answer was given a bit faster than what would be considered as normal.
“Really?” Nabiki’s face was a mere inch from his. “Are you telling the truth, Saotome-kun?” she breathed.
“I th… no I don’t think about that at all!”
The middle Tendo girl was quiet for a moment before breaking into a grin and pushed Ranma away. She then began to giggle uncontrollably. “You should have looked at your own face just now. It was hilarious!”
Realizing that he had been had, he pouted. “Well, excuse me for being sincere and stupid enough to fall for your tricks”
“You’re too kind for you own good,” Nabiki said as she tried to control her laughter. She managed to form a smile. “That’s what I love about you so much,”
While the statement was said in jest, it had the effect of making Ranma’s heart beat skip. Then he realized that she was joking again.
After Nabiki stopped laughing, she continued, “I’ll help you remember about the fight yesterday,” She then put a hand on his forehead. “Close your eyes. This will sting a bit,” Her hand began to emit green glow before it changed into dark green. After a minute, she removed her hand. “Open your eyes. Do you remember anything?”
“Yes. It’s… the fight… everyone… Ucchan”
Nabiki held up her hands. “Whoa. Slow down. Maybe it’s better for you to just calm down and perhaps we can talk about it later,” Before Ranma could protest, she pushed him out of the room. “Now, get out before anyone sees us together and jumps into an undesirable conclusion,” After she had closed the door and felt him leaving, she let herself drop to the floor, breathing heavily. “That was a very close call” She then smiled softly. “You know, Ranma, not everything is a lie”
A few hours later, in the middle of Nerima Park a magic circle appeared, giving off white glow as it did. Then, it began to change as the symbols on it began to rearrange themselves. After the change had finished, the resulting magical circle’s glow grew darker and darker. A figure who was watching the transformation grinned. The barrier that was erected by Kimiko Tendo to protect Nerima has been twisted to do the opposite thing. Things would get livelier soon.
It was time to put the plan in motion.
The morning after, Ranma found herself, as the old lady managed to splash him on the way to the place, wondering why she was summoned there. Aside from that, she could hide her awe at the size of the place. For the old mummy to build a training dojo that size underneath Nekohanten… no wonder he couldn’t see the Amazon training.
“Are you okay, Ranchan? You look dazed,” Ukyo’s voice caused him, er, her to look at her.
“So, old mummy… OUCH!” Ranma said as he rubbed his head. “Why are we here?”
“Do show respect to the elders, boy,” Cologne said as she grimaced at the sight of her broken staff. The boy’s head wasn’t forgiving to the delicate item. She sighed and threw it away, wondering whether she should order the one she saw advertised on television the night before. It was made of tungsten alloy and would certainly last a bit longer than her wooden one. “To tell you the truth, I was hoping you would tell me, since I received a note to let everyone into this dojo,” she said as she gestured around her. Although it was located underneath the Nekohanten restaurant, the place certainly didn’t look cramped and dark. If any, it was more spacious and well kept than the Tendo dojo.
“What do you mean, you old… chronologically progressive Fulica cristata?” Ukyo asked.
“You know, it would have been better if you just use ‘old coot’,” Cologne told her drolly.
“So, old coot, the deal is that each one of we received a note to come here,” Ranma said.
“Lay off the name-calling, sonny. Anyway, it’s supposed to be ‘us’,”
“Aw, we know that already. Just now you told everyone about that,” Just after she spoke, warm water wet her head, triggering her transformation back into a young man.
“Now, I’m expecting my reward, hubby dearest,” Shampoo said as she glomped him.
Ukyo, not satisfied with playing second fiddle entered into the argument with the female Amazon on who will get him as a human-size plush toy.
“If it okay with you, I will explain the reason all of you receive a note to come here before pandemonium breaks loose,” a feminine voice said from behind Cologne.
“You were lucky that I didn't turn around and snap your neck by mistake, Tendo-san,” The elder Amazon was shocked by the fact that a mere teenager, inexperienced at martial art some more, managed to sneak up behind her. “It would have been less impolite to just announced your uninvited arrival,”
“True,” Nabiki conceeded. “But you have to admit that it would have been easier to convince everyone of what I have to say by making, how do I say this, a flashy entrance? Or would you prefer the ‘magical princess’ approach?”
Cologne turned toward the middle Tendo girl who stood at her spot, arms crossed. “Ho? And what do you have that will explain what happened to everyone here on their trip?”
Nabiki smiled wanly. “Maybe I can start by helping you explain the secret behind your village's foundation and the real rational behind the so-called 'Marriage Laws'; by extension why you're so fixated on getting Saotome-kun here back to the village. Or would you rather explain to them instead?”
There were few things that could surprise the wise matriarch; this was one of them. “How do you know?”
“Simple. You didn't exactly object Shampoo from going when she told you that she was going to follow everyone to Shinmeiryu school of kenjutsu, right?”
“Yeah... That's strange. Great grandmother did tell me to try to learn from them,” the said girl mused.
“It because the school shared the same purpose as our village,” Cologne said quietly. That is to prevent the resurrection of the being known by the name The Great Devastator. You really surprise me once more, Tendo Nabiki,”
“I take that as a compliment,”
Chuckling a bit upon hearing the reply, Cologne continued her explanation on the village's history. Unlike general perception the Amazon village was established by a male warrior who settled with his family at the site where The Great Devastator tainted the land in order to watch for any sign of her resurrection and was tasked to warn everyone when that happened. However, due to a twist of fate, he had only daughters, seven of them. Even though he had yearned for a male heir to take over his responsibility, in the end, he trained his daughters to take the job. Fiercely dedicated to the oath to protect the place, the daughters didn't move to other places when he and his wife died. Even when they married, they brought their families to stay there as well.
“That's why there are seven members in the Council of Elders!" Mousse exclaimed after the wise matriarch finished her explanation,”
Cologne nodded. “The marriage law, as all of you already know, has two purposes. First, to find a powerful warrior to marry into the tribe and by extension, to take the responsibility as the watchers as well. Two, to force our warriors to practice. All right, Tendo Nabiki, I've pretty much explained my village's stake in the son-in-law. Now you can explain why you're here,”
Nabiki traced some symbols in the air. “Release,” she chanted and everyone except Cologne, Ranma and herself almost collapsed to the ground, all the while clutching their heads in pain. “I’m sorry but whatever all of you are seeing right now is what happened during your trip to Kyoto,”
“Wait. Are you saying that you’re the one who sealed my memory along with them?” Ranma asked.
“Correct,”
“Then…”
“Hush, Saotome-kun. I didn’t lie to you. All I said was that someone had erased your memory; I clearly remember not denying about putting the seal in the first place,” She then addressed everyone else, “Sorry for sealing your memory by accident, but this ready to deploy spell I used on you have an area effect; I intended the spell to affect the Aoyama sisters in the first place. Guess the cheap version couldn’t target particular subjects compared to the more expensive ones. But it served the purpose, yes?”
“Like hell!” Mousse cursed. “You’re not the one got his memory erased,”
“It wouldn’t be good for the Aoyamas to find out about the incident, at least not yet,” Turning toward Cologne, she said. “Your village had failed to stop the resurrection. She's already alive for quite some time and they,” she said while gesturing to everyone around the two of them, “fought her in Kyoto,”
Cologne closed her eyes, trying to control her emotion. "I see. Then we have failed our duty as the overseers,"
“It's none of your fault really. Now, what makes you think that Kencana, or as known as The Great Devastator to your village will come to live at the spot where she tainted the land?”
“So where is she right now?” Ranma asked.
“Closer than you think,”
Ranma looked around and settled on Mousse, giving a suspicious look at the man's crotch area.
“Not that close, Saotome-kun,” Nabiki said drolly. “But close. Continuing with the explanation, one Kimiko Aoyama managed to contain her power ten years ago at the cost of her life,”
“Aoyama Kimiko? That sounds like the clan in Kyoto,” Mousse commented.
“And that land is Japan? Ukyo asked, knowing where this will lead to,”
The elder matriarch nodded. The clan that inherited the Shinmeiryu technique, the Aoyama clan is related to our village.
“So, if they found out that she’s here, then they would certainly try to avenge Kimiko’s death. And when a prominent clan is seen mobilizing most of its members to a particular place, other clans would take notice. In the end, everyone will come here, which would certainly benefit Kencana. By the way, by proxy, my family’s also connected to the your village, Elder Cologne,” Nabiki said.
“What do you mean, sis?”
“When Aoyama Kimiko got married, she adopted her husband's family name,”
“And her husband's family name is?” Ranma asked.
Nabiki rolled her eyes. “Tendo,”
“Hey, that sounds like your family name,” Ranma remarked.
“Of course, it is, you idiot," Nabiki said a bit acidly, frustrated by his slow pickup. “She's our mother,”
“Oh,”
“Right, I guess I better to continue. It turned out that Kencana wasn't reborn with her full power. In order to fully regain her power, one of the things that she needed is power,”
“Does this have something to do with the disturbance I felt?” Cologne asked.
“Yes. You see, all throughout history Nerima had been the nexus of chaos, due to the fact that Kencana died here. As a result, it attracts many that seek to harness its power. This was rectified by my mother twenty years ago when she and my father moved here by erecting a very powerful seal, on that encompasses the whole town. It functions as a very powerful demon trap, killing any ethereal entities apart from those that was already inside the array or those that come from the underworl...”
“That sounds a bit impossible to me,” Ranma said with disbelief.
“So says the guy who turns into a girl when he got wet,”
“About the seal," Mousse interjected, "what happened to it?”
“My mentor told me that the seal was modified to allow the monsters to enter. Now, the lowest level demons have already entered the city. Eventually more and more powerful ones will come here, no doubt attracted by the chaos energy,” Nabiki smiled. “But when they come here, Kencana would be waiting to kill them,”
“That doesn't seem bad,” Akane remarked.
“Demons are entities that have a lot magical energy or mana as referred to in RPGs,”
“That means, she can collect their energy for her own use. And I can see why you don’t want the other magic users to know about this. If they come here, then she can easily harvest their mana. How do you come to possess so much information?” Cologne asked, curious.
“I inherited my mother's knowledge as well worked for the Dimension Witch,”
“I've heard the name before. It seems that she charges exorbitant price for her service. I can see the similarities,”
“Thank you, elder. Now, here's the situation. More and more demons will come into Nerima, no doubt attracted by the seal. While we can tell people to move out, I honestly don't think that they will listen to us. Besides, with few exceptions, the demons would certainly go toward the seal in order to feast on the power contained inside it. But...”
“But we have to take care of them just to be on the safe side,” Shampoo said.
“Not me,” Nabiki said, “you,”
“Why not you? I've seen how you fight that classmate of yours and she's quite powerful,” Ranma questioned.
“It wouldn't good to rely on me. Besides, you have just revealed what supposed to be a secret. You will pay for that, Saotome-kun”
Ranma cringed.
“Um... I don't want to interrupt but I think I can't help all of you in this,” Ukyo said with a sad face. “Unlike Akane and Shampoo, I didn't exactly train myself and it showed during the fight,”
“Ask your father about your clan's heritage and you might learn something,” Cologne said.
“What do you mean?” she said while turning toward Nabiki.
“10,000 yen,” Nabiki said with her hand outstretched. Upon receiving the incredulous look from everyone she shrugged. “Sorry, I've been giving freebies lately that it's bothering my conscience,”
“I think all of this information is a bit heavy for us. I'll tell Miss Daidouji about her family later. Shampoo, why don't you and Mousse bring them to the dining room?” Cologne said, the meaning of the statement obvious; they were to continue their talk during lunch.
Shampoo counted everyone to estimate how much food would be needed and then doubled it, since Ranma was present. “Come, I'll show you the way,” she said as a graceful hostess.
Everyone began walking toward the staircase that would bring them out of the underground chamber and into the restaurant, with the exception of Cologne and Nabiki.
“WHERE AM I?” Ryoga’s anguished voice called out from somewhere in the restaurant.
“Like a clock work,” Cologne muttered. “Why now?” she asked Nabiki when she was sure that everyone was out of earshot. “You could have reveal your secrets to us earlier but didn't. Even your younger sister didn't know the secret, if her expressions were of indication,”
“Because I miscalculated. Before, there was no need as even if she was reawakened, she would be quite weak,”
“But you didn’t undo the seal on their memory willingly,”
Nabiki sighed. “True. Saotome-kun’s power manifested early and even now it’s growing at a tremendous rate. If this goes on, it wouldn’t matter if I seal his memory or not as she and the others will certainly be attracted to him,”
“Sounds like him all right. But why Son-in-law?”
“Simply put, his energy has three elements: orderly creation, orderly destruction and chaos. You can say that he’s like a living myth for having the three simultaneously. However, being that makes him a prime candidate to become a catalyst,”
“A catalyst?”
“Yes, or in other words, the key to power,” Nabiki stopped for a moment, “or the power itself,”
1. It’s been a while since I updated but seems like I lost the spirit somewhat. Losing an earlier version of this chapter sure sucks. I put off writing this to wait for a better motivation and poof! Few months has passed, four to be exact. Oh well. Seems like I’m not dead yet though
2. I would be happy to hear any kind of comments from you people.
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