Ranma 1/2: Ranma No More Alternate History By: Dani Yanega yanega@mindspring.com (please respond to this e-mail address) Special Note: Yes I have been told Ryoga does not know the Shi Shi Houkou Dan this early in the original story line. Well I am sorry but this is a Alternate History and Ranma isn't the only one who had things change on him. Chapter Four The Amazons begin to settle in for the night on the same plateau Ryoga and Ranma vacated that morning. While the elder Mas Cra starts a fire in the same fire pit used by the previous occupants, they discuss the guard rotation for the night. They do not notice, however, that they are being watched. On a precipice up a little higher and about twenty yards to the left of them, is an advance guard of soldiers, watching them. They have already sent a runner back to Musk headquarters to see if they should capture, kill, or follow the women. The runner also carries information about the red hair girl and her companion. Informing headquarters that they went higher up the mountain but got out of sight before their destination could be determined. \*/*\*/ As the sun is peeking over the horizon, the Amazons start preparing for the next leg of their climb. While in a cave some ways up, a young pig-tailed boy is using a new technique he learned at the merging of his soul with that of his great grandmother. He is 'hiding' 30 tomes, over 500 scrolls, and about 150 plus bags of herbs, gems, magical items, gold coins and potions. [At least I will have money to start a new life when I return to Japan.] When he finishes all that is left are the torches and furniture. Ryoga just watches with amazement as his companion is able to hide a small mountain of stuff without showing any signs of it causing any problems for him. Ryoga then catches site of something flashing in the torch light in Ranma's hands. Around Ranma's neck is a silver locket he had found in the top drawer of his desk. He opens it to reveal the profiles of four very special people. The profiles are made of hand carved ivory, and then placed on a background of abalone. To Ranma the four people are ancestors, to Ra Koh they are those whom she loved dearly. Ranma wore the locket under his shirt next to his heart on a sturdy leather cord. \*/*\*/ The Amazons start the next leg of their climb, still unknown to them, the Musk soldiers are tailing them. Their orders were brought back to them along with a General of the Musk army. Four Amazon warriors and two Elders would give the Musk great power over the Amazons in their battles with them. If they capture the other two, well, the girl would be a wife for a soldier and her male companion would just need a dip in the Nyanniichuan. The soldiers stay about 30 feet lower then the Amazons as they follow them up the mountain being sure to keep them in site. The General has sent one soldier ahead of the party to keep a closer watch on their prize. \*/*\*/ Ranma and Ryoga decide to stay one more night in the cave before heading to the coast and going back to Japan. When Ra Koh read Genma's mind she gleaned all the information about Ranma's mother from it and Ranma decided to go home to her. He also decided to look for a cave there to setup another laboratory to continue with his magic. Ranma begins sparring with Ryoga, although he refuses to teach Ryoga any known Amazon techniques he does teach him some of the basic Anything Goes style. While Ranma teaches Ryoga, Ryoga teaches Ranma some of his Chi techniques. He showed him, the Shi Shi Houkou Dan, but did not release it in such a small area. Ranma could not manifest the depression needed to feed this attack so he set about to find out which was his stronger emotion. After many tries and with the help of Ryoga, Ranma found that his confidence is the strongest, this enables him to create the Moko Takabisha, and although still not perfect, it is something to work on. \*/*\*/ After supper Ranma sits in the middle of the cave and starts meditating as his breathing calms and his heart rate slows he begins glowing his now standard purple color. Ryoga watches from his alcove, while Ranma goes into a trance to talk to his great grandmother. After a few minutes Ryoga gets bored and settles in to sleep. He can not believe the turn of events, he comes to Jusenkyo to exact revenge on Ranma Saotome, and instead he watches the martial artist receive a curse and abuse by his father's hand. He sees him leave and in following found a friend he has sorely missed. There is much more to the cursed boy if the nightmares Ranma had last night were any indication. Ryoga decides to make it his business to be the one thing the lonely boy did not have, a friend. Maybe together they can ease each other's lonely existence. \*/*\*/ Ranma walks out of the blackness that was his mind and sits to wait for his grandmother. As he sits, he looks again at the locket he now wears. He can see the resemblance, between himself and the four faces in the locket. He gently rubs his fingers over the smooth ivory surface, as if by touching it he could absorb who they were and what they were like. "They were a wonderful family. I hope Hiroshi was able to find someone else to love him and my children." Ranma looks up and sees his grandmother standing over him looking at the locket, tears rolling down her face. Ranma could see she is trying to stem the flow, but they kept coming. He stands and wraps his great grandmother into a warm embrace. He holds onto his grandmother until she cries out her tears of grief for her lost family. \*/*\*/ After some time Ra Koh quiets down and pulls away from her grandson. "Thank you grandson, it is nice to see you are not your father's son." Ranma's brow knits in distaste. "And I hope I never am again!" Ra Koh reaches up to pat the boys shoulder. As they settle down to talk, Ranma puts the locket way. "Well grandson, have you been practicing your Amazon Wa Shu fighting?" "Yes, grandmother I have, and I have been working with some of the special techniques as well. But some are hard to practice in a cave. I will work on those on our way back to Japan." Ra Koh looks at her grandson sadly, although before his melding with Ra Koh Ranma would never have noticed the change in her expression, he did notice now. "You want to visit the village don't you?" She nods and sighs heavily, eyes brimming with unshed tears. "But it won't be safe for you or your friend with the Amazon laws. I also believe your father is there. That is where the guide would have taken him since you did not act normally after being cursed." Ranma thought for a moment, then his eyes narrowed dangerously. "We can go if you want, I can stop my old man if he gets in the way." Ranma smiles demonically at the thought. Ra Koh was about to comment when she starts glowing in her now bright purple aura. Ranma jumps to a fighting stance fearing the Neko-Ken has escaped. "What is it grandmother?" "There are Amazons near by on this plateau and they are under attack and... _oh no_, two are my descendants!" Ra Koh gets ready to break the link to run and help her family, but Ranma stops her showing the positive side of the merging. "Wait, grandmother, we will help them but is there a different way out of here?" His grandmother looks at him quizzically, then understands they need to show up from elsewhere so that if they need to hide they could do it without revealing the cave to the Musk. She nods then Ranma wakes. He jumps up and wakes Ryoga, he gives him a quick run down as to what is going on. Then has him follow him to the second exit near the ceiling of the cave. \*/*\*/ The Amazons are just settling in for the night, after reaching the ledge where Ra Koh's hidden Lab is located. They are deciding guard rotation for the night, when suddenly Ku Lon and Mas Cra stiffen, then in a blur of movement they are standing about five feet away from where they were sitting, two darts embedded into the ground where they had been. The other Amazons are up with their weapons drawn as their attackers make their presence known. Twelve Musk soldiers come out of the darkness with weapons drawn for the attack. The four Amazon warriors charge to meet them. The General keeps back two of the guards to try and bring down the Amazon elders with drugged darts. He knows no one in the Musk Dynasty can fight the centuries old warriors and win. He gives the order to start firing repeatedly at the elders in the hopes to try and overwhelm the old women. There is a twin cry of... <"KACHUU TENSHIN AMIGURIKEN!"> The darts begin to disappear in mid air only to land at the elders' feet. The General is about to the give the command to start another volley when he hears his men scream in pain. He turns and sees they are clutching their bloody hands, on the ground next to each man is a yellow and black spotted bandana each covered in blood. The General looks around, for the attacker. He then hears an Amazon war cry that has not been heard for nearly 1500 years. \*/*\*/ Ranma and Ryoga climb to the top of the cave using small niches cut into the rock. When they reach the top they find a small crawl space. They enter the space and crawl for about a dozen feet when they come to a dead end. Ranma starts glowing and the solid rock face disappears. When Ranma crawls out he crawls right into a puddle of ice cold water, to which he becomes a she. "Damn!" She mutters as she stands up. Ryoga comes out next, looks at the changed boy and just shakes his head. Ranma quickly closes the exit up again. They continue to the edge of the small plateau they are on and look over the edge. They see about twelve soldiers rushing the young girls in the group. What looks to be the leader and two others are trying to turn the two old women with them into pincushions. They hear the shout of the old women. <"KACHUU TENSHIN AMIGURIKEN!"> Ranma smirks at the awe plastered on Ryoga's face at the speed the women's hands move they look almost invisible. Although Ranma knew of the technique and its speed this is the first time she'd seen it. Ranma taps Ryoga on the shoulder and breaks the spell. She points at the two guards with the blowguns. Ryoga nods and removes two bandanas from his head still leaving one left. He spins them on his fingers until they start to glow very lightly and stiffen to razor sharp steel. He then lets them fly, they went straight to their intended targets. The cloth shurikens cut deep gashes into one of the hands of each of the soldiers causing them to cry out in pain as they clutch their injured hands. The General turns to see his men injured and two bloody bandanas on the ground. When he starts looking around for the attacker, he hears the war cry of an angry Amazon, but can not locate her. Until... \*/*\*/ After Ryoga let loose the bandanas and they did their job Ranma stands and jumps from the plateau she is on she does a flip then aims an extended foot at the unsuspecting General, letting off a loud, war cry as she descends. <"AAAALALALALALALALA!"> Everyone stops and looks around at the cry then the Musk soldiers see a red and purple blur hit their General and knock him flying into the distance toward... [_Uh oh_!] ...Jusenkyo, Ranma shrugs her shoulders. The two matriarchs smile an 'IT OULDN'T HAPPEN TO A NICER GUY' smile. The two soldiers that were with the General came out of their shock to lung at the pretty red head. It should have been easy to overpower her, since she is concentrating on the other twelve soldiers; it should have been easy they thought as they lost consciousness from being hit with a steel reinforced red bamboo umbrella. Ryoga and Ranma then jump into battle with the last dozen soldiers, fighting with the already exhausted Amazons. The Elders decide to stay back and watch the skill of the two young martial artists. Ku Lon and Mas Cra smile as they note a few Amazon moves mixed in with the red heads normal style. They watch as the newcomers jump, kick and punch many of the soldiers, but being Musk they are a lot tougher then most. They surprised the General and the other two which gave them the edge they needed to defeat them so readily. The matriarchs then notice the boy and girl are surrounded by eight of the soldiers while the other four are keeping the young Amazons busy. They are back to back in ready stances, talking to each other the Amazon elders straining to hear what is being said and just barely making it out over the fighting. "Well, Ranma, do you think your ready to use your new attack?" "I had better _be_." Ra Koh's influence has eased a lot of Ranma's cockiness and pride to more respectable levels. "Ok, then let's do it." The Matriarchs' eyes go wide as they see the couple start to glow with great power. The girl purple and the boy greenish yellow, then they hear the twin shouts... "SHI SHI HOUKOU DAN!" "MOKO TAKABISHA!" They each got a guard, knocking them over the edge of the plateau. Ranma feels the drain of the attack and falls to one knee, this is the first time she actually used her chi blast, and has not built up a resistance to its draining effects. The remaining Musk decided to take advantage of this by rushing the tired girl. It is then that the last six collapses to the ground soon to follow were the four fighting the younger Amazons. Ryoga helps Ranma regain her footing and they look at the fallen soldiers, each one has a dart protruding from their necks. They look to the Amazon Elders who just stand there looking innocent. Then they hear the call of one of the other warriors. They look to see the three younger warriors unconscious on the ground and the fourth about ready to collapse. The four of them rush to the aid of the fallen women. Ranma directs they each pick up a fallen woman and she helps lead the almost conscious one to the rock facing of the plateau. Mas Cra is about to start shouting when Ranma again glows purple and the rock disappears. Mas Cra's words die on her lips as her jaw drops in surprise. They all enter and Ranma closes the wall behind them. She and Ryoga lead them to the alcoves and deposit two Amazons per bed. Then the elders start examining the wounded women. They had lost a bit of blood but not enough to be life threatening. The elders start pressing shiatsu points to stem the flow of the blood. They also press the pressure points to speed in healing and increase the regeneration of chi. The last one they use on Ranma as well. As the four wounded women sleep the others sit down for a long needed talk.