Ranma 1/2: Ranma No More Alternate History By: Dani Yanega yanega@mindspring.com (please respond to this e-mail address) Chapter Eleven As they leave the ship neither of them notices the shadow, which is hiding between two warehouses, watching them leave the docks. They exit the wharf talking quietly among themselves. "Ranma, I have a question for you." Ranma looks at him from the corner of his eyes. "Yeah, what is it?" "Well, um, now don't laugh, ok!" Ryoga stammers as he puts one of his hands behind his head. Ranma smirks, but nods his ascent. "Well, since we can telepathically talk to the cats, can we do the same between us? I mean, if we could, it would be great in battle; we can communicate what technique to use without letting our opponents know. Plus, well, umm, it would kinda, you know." Ryoga rambles. Ranma thinks about what he is asking and the implications. "Well, it is possible I suppose, but we would have to experiment and we may not get a very far range, but yeah it can help when you get lost. Now, don't forget, if you do get lost before we can check this out, you have a whole city of helpers no matter where you end up." Ryoga grins; he was going to like being able to talk to the cats. They continue on, when they pass an alley, they stop and reach out with their minds. They touch the minds of the inhabitants living in the alley. They learn nothing is happening, but they do get directions toward a wooded area outside of town near the business district. That may work for training and a laboratory for Ranma. They follow the instructions again missing the shadow that is watching them from across the street. They decide not to take to the rooftops, as they want to get familiar with the area. When they pass the city zoo, Ranma stops and reaches out with his thoughts, Ryoga watches for a minute then does the same. They turn and smile at one another, then continue on their journey. When they reach the outskirts of Tokyo's business district, they find the woods and head into them. When the boys disappear into the woods, the shadow steps up behind them watching them enter. It watches them fade into the thick clump of trees. After several hours of running, Ranma and Ryoga finally make it to the base of a large mountain, there is very little daylight left so they make camp for the night, with their shadowy friend still watching them. /*\*/*\ They arose early the next morning, did some katas and worked with the Neko-Claws they found they were effective up to three feet away, and that they cut through solid rock like it was butter. They then tried to communicate with each other telepathically, it was a bust but they weren't going to give up. Towards midmorning, they were ready to start up the mountain. With the speed and agility of the Neko-ken they were able to climb a little more then over halfway up the mountain before dusk. They made camp on a small plateau, with very little vegetation, for a fire. They set up the tent and were able to gather a small amount of wood to build a very small fire for cooking. They didn't talk much as they were tired from the climb, so after they ate they went to sleep. /*\*/*\ As the sun rises the next morning, neither boy wants to get out of their nice warm sleeping bags inside their nice warm tent, but their growling stomachs had other ideas. Ryoga restarts the fire, as Ranma prepares their breakfast. "I think we should make it to the top by late afternoon that should give us enough time to locate a cave or start to make one. Once we get my lab picked out we will start training in the Bakusai Teknetsu." Ryoga nods, as he sips some of the nice hot tea. "Just as long as we do it down there where it is warm." Ryoga responds, while pointing down the mountain. Ranma chuckles and starts putting his things in his dimensional storage. While Ryoga douses the fire and packs up his backpack. Once they finish packing they began the next leg of their climb. /*\*/*\ By mid afternoon they were almost to the top when they stop at another ledge this one had small cave entrance. Ranma has Ryoga wait for a moment as he goes inside though, not expecting much. Five minutes later he comes back out and motions Ryoga to enter. Once inside, Ranma starts to mumble quietly and glows with his purple aura. The cave entrance then disappears from view. Ryoga reaches out to touch where the cave door use to be all he found was solid rock. "Man, I am never gonna get use to that." Ranma chuckles, Ryoga turns and flares his aura to help light the way. They need to travel a short narrow passage, and do it stooped over. Ryoga has to remove his backpack and drag it behind him. They travel like this for several yards. Ryoga notices it is a steep downward slope, he thinks about carving steps into it to make it easier to traverse. When they reach the main room of the cave, it is huge. It is the size of a school gymnasium, with six tunnels shooting off it. "I am going to check out the tunnels then those ledges up there around the walls, will you be ok here for a while?" Ranma says pointing at the top of the cave and to the tunnels. Ryoga nods and sits down and starts going through his backpack. Before Ranma disappears he pulls out several of the torches he took from his old lab. He lights them and taking his fist punches some holes in the cave's walls to hold them. He then goes to explore each of the six tunnels after about two hours he finally comes back to the main room. He then looks up toward the ceiling which is about the height of an eight-story building. At varying heights starting at about thirty feet up are a series of staggered plateaus. About a dozen or so look to have caves on them. While the rest about ten or fifteen seem to be just ledges of varying depths, but usable. Again Ranma disappears, jumping to the first plateau some thirty feet up checking out the caves on each of the dozen or so plateaus. After another hour or so he finishes and returns to the main room. Exhausted he sits down in the middle of the cave floor and takes a deep breath. Ryoga sits next to him and hands him a bowl of hot ramen and cup of tea. Ranma looks around and sees Ryoga had converted a small alcove into a cooking area, for right now using his traveling cook stove. He smiles as he eats some of the ramen. "Well what's the verdict, bud." Ryoga asks as he sips his tea. "Well in two of the six tunnels were other entrances which I closed. We can store some things there but we will want to keep them clear for emergency exits." Ryoga nods he agrees. "The other four open into small caves ranging from about ten feet to forty feet square, those we can use as storage. Since it is fairly cold at this altitude when can use one as a cold food storage." "What about bedrooms?" "Well I was thinking we could use the plateaus we can jump from one to another like steps, or maybe build staircases and walkways connecting all twenty five plateaus. Thirteen of them have small caves not quite big enough to be caves but larger then an alcove. I can use the ones that don't have caves as libraries, the ones with caves to small for rooms I can set up as laboratories, I plan on using one of the main caves as a storage and drying area for my herbs." Ranma says pointing to one of the cave. "The next thing we gotta do is start building the shelves and furniture but that won't be to hard, we can even buy what we need and carry it up here." Ryoga drops his teacup on the rock floor, and gapes at his friend. Ranma laughs then pulls one of his pouches out of nowhere. "You'd be surprised what I can carry so don't worry. Now I am thinking the last two plateaus at the top would do for our bedrooms, the caves also have smaller alcoves like that one." Ranma points to the alcove Ryoga was using for the cook stove. "So we will have a small fireplace to keep us warm. Toward the very top of the cave, just past the last ledges are some small tunnels. Barely big enough for a mouse to get through. But I felt cold air coming down them so we have ventilation." Ranma takes a bit of his ramen, then looks sadly around the cave as he states flatly. "This will take some time to get set up but we can do it slowly and this way we have a place to come to if, my mom, well, you know." Ryoga nods and places a comforting hand on his friends shoulder. "So anyway tomorrow we will go back down the mountain and start our training, and we will discuss how we are going to use all this space. With the ledges and all this floor space I should be able to create a very nice size library of not only magical tomes but martial arts manuals as well." Ranma finishes with a big grin. Ryoga joins him. They then decide to settle in for a quick chat with great grandmother before they go to bed. They told her about the caves and she said she will think of some ways to use the space. She also likes what they have planned already. When they finish they put their sleeping bags down in the center of the cave and went to sleep. Outside their hideaway the shadow seems confused, as it looks for the boys. When it could find no trace of them it begins to climb back down the mountain, mumbling some very nasty words.