Ranma 1/2: Ranma No More Alternate History By: Dani Yanega yanega@mindspring.com (please respond to this e-mail address) Chapter Twenty Three The rosy fingers of dawn jumps up and scares the _hell_ out of everybody (complain to my DM/GM Hayashi, not me). Those of the 'Joketsuzoku Village' have already put in several hours of training and work. To get ready for the Nekohanten's big opening. They have decorations of colorful paper streamers and balloons. Mas Cra grumbles at the waste of money for the decorations, but when Ku Lon watches her covertly she notices Mas Cra smiling and having fun getting the Nekohanten ready for the big event. After the decorations are in place all the Amazons sit down for a hearty breakfast. While they are eating Ku Lon makes her announcement. Standing on her chair she clears her throat and begins. All eyes but Mas Cra's turn to her. "Ahem, Mas Cra and I have been talking and as the ruling counsel present we have decided that all of you will be going to school" There is a collective dropping of chopsticks, as all the Amazons glare at their elders. "La Si, Xian Pu, Ryoga, and Ran Koh will be attending Furinkan High School. While Che Ri and Cy Sin will be attending the local college." Ran Koh looks thoughtful then voices her objections. With the obvious backup of the rest of the young Amazons. "_But_ why elder? We need to be here to help run the 'Joketsuzoku Village', you and Elder Mas Cra can not run it alone." "That is true but Che Ri and Cy Sin will be signing up for evening classes so they will be here during the day. I will oversee the restaurant while Mas Cra will take care of the Emporium. One of the main reasons these four were permitted to join me, is to _learn_. The knowledge they gain will help strengthen the tribe." Ran Koh takes a moment to run what Ku Lon has said through her mind. She then looks up at her great aunt. "But Ryoga and I are not returning to your village. Why do we need to go to school?" It is Mas Cra; who answers the young sorceress. "It is required Ran Koh, besides what better way for you to locate the others then to be in public, instead of cooped up here." Ran Koh and Ryoga both look at the elders with unconvinced gazes, it is then that Ku Lon continues. "Since the school has just let out for spring break, you four will start classes in two weeks. Ryoga we have talked with the administrators at the school to let them know of your, um, directional deficiency and that if they see a rise in the cats around the school, to leave them as they help in guiding you." Ryoga looks shocked then angry at the presumption of the old woman, but before he can say anything La Si places a calming hand on his. These causing him to blush as he looks down at her delicate hand on his, he blushes even more as he places his other hand on top of hers. Ran Koh acknowledges her help with a small smile, then turns to the elder. "Why did you have to tell them about his direction problem, Ryoga does not like people knowing that." Ku Lon raises an eyebrow, in mild surprise, than answers the question. "Well, everyone will know about it the first time he turns a corner and disappears, he has done that here many times. This way only the faculty is going to know about his problem. This is to help Ryoga, if he is late to classes continually, he will be in constant trouble. You also know that with you and Ryoga at Furinkan that the cat population will increase. We also asked, that the cats are allowed full access to the school and grounds, so that he has guides. This helps the administrators, not to consider Ryoga a hardship for the other students, since they won't need to lead him around. The vice principal was quite impressed with Ryoga's ability to _train_ some of the local cats as guides." Ran Koh smirks at Ku Lon and Mas Cra, then looks to her friend. Sighing deeply she knows what she is about to say is going to hurt her soul mate. She turns to face Ryoga but can't look him in the eyes. "They are right, you know. I mean as long as it is only the principal and faculty. It will help keep you out of trouble with the teachers." Ryoga looks at his friend, betrayal written on his face, he then nods sadly, since there isn't too much he can do about now. "Well, I gues..." There is a loud knocking at the outside door of the 'Joketsuzoku Village'. The Amazons first look startled at the intrusion, then Cy Sin goes to answer the knock. Michael Sanders stands there with a look of urgency. He follows the beautiful Amazon into the Nekohanten. The others watch him enter; they can see the anguish on his pale drawn face. He acknowledges Ku Lon, then stares for a moment at Mas Cra, shrugs his shoulders and bows to her as well. He goes to stand next to Ran Koh, who stares up at him, with a knowing looking. He then asks her, with some urgency in his voice. "I need to speak to you and Ryoga can we go somewhere a little more private, please." Ran Koh's look changes to suspicion. Then she turns to the elders. "May we use one of the private dining rooms?" Ku Lon nods her consent and watches as the three of them head toward one of the private rooms. Then Ran Koh turns to face the elders. "Aren't you two coming? This will probably be about last night, and it does effect two Amazons. Plus you are _suppose_ to be here to help us with this situation." Ku Lon just shakes her head with a knowing smirk on her face; Ran Koh stands there with her hands on her hips tapping a foot on the floor. Ku Lon excuses the other Amazons to have them finish getting ready for their special _guests_ tonight. Then she and Mas Cra follow Ran Koh in to the private dining room. Michael and Ryoga are sitting at the table, when the three Amazons enter the room. Michael opens his mouth to say something, but Ran Koh raises her had to stop him. "This concerns them, as our elders, they will be _staying_ during this meeting." Michael reluctantly nods, as he fidgets in his chair, while the women settle in around the table. "I had a strange dream last night, but it was more then just a dream, wasn't it?" Ran Koh and Ryoga nod, they tell him of their dream. Michael sits transfixed, when the soul mates finish, he leans back in his chair and lets out a low whistle. Mas Cra and Ku Lon watch him intently during the narrative for his reactions to what was in the dream. Then Mas Cra narrows her eyes; she leans in closer to him, and sneers out. "Tell us _male_ what your dream consisted of." Ku Lon just rolls her eyes, as she plans to have a _very private_ conversation with Mas Cra later. Michael raises an eyebrow at the attitude of the old woman then responds to her, with very little respect evident in his voice. "My _name_ is Michael Sanders, I am _NOT_ one of your _males_. I don't care if you are an elder of your tribe or not, you will show me some curtsey and respect, or I leave. I will continue this conversation with Ran Koh and Ryoga somewhere else away from this complex, _you_ and Ku Lon." Mas Cra at first looks shocked at the presumption of this _male_ then anger starts to spread across her ancient face. She starts to glow an angry red, but Michael is not impressed as he remembers his first meeting with an enraged young sorceress. Ran Koh stops the confrontation before it can start. "Elder Mas Cra, you are here in Japan to help us with this problem not be the cause of one. I am incline to agree with Sanders-san, your archaic attitude will change or Ryoga and I will leave and you will be left to explain to the counsel _HOW YOU LOST_ the Amazons chance at bringing me back into the tribe." Mas Cra eyes flash with rage, then she turns deathly pale, when she begins to realize just what Ran Koh is telling her. Ku Lon reaches over and pats her friend on the shoulder then looks to Ran Koh and smiles sadly at her. "I will talk with Mas Cra later, please tell us of your dream Sanders-san" She finishes as she turns to face Michael. Michael nods; he takes a deep breath, just as he is about to begin the curtain parts and in walks Cy Sin with a tray of hot tea and five cups. She sets the tray on the table and gives a shy smile to Michael then turns to leave. Mas Cra looks from Michael to Cy Sin's back as she exits. She then looks to Ku Lon who nods. Ran Koh clears her throat which startles everyone back to the discussion at hand. "Well my dream starts, as I wake up in my other form, by a small stream. I try to change back to human but can't. I become frantic, and as I try to let out a screech, I have no voice. I am about to take to the sky when there is a rustling in a grove of trees near the stream. I head toward it, when I enter the trees I feel the presence of something or someone who is important to me. I soon exit the trees into a small clearing. In the center of the glade is a golden white griffin, and she is crying." Ku Lon looks skeptically at the furniture seller, then raises the question. "How do you know the griffin is female, Sanders-san?" He shrugs his shoulders, then responds with a confused look. "I don't know, I just do." Ran Koh looks to the elder and helps Michael out. "I think it is because there seems to be an empathic link between us. Our link was made stronger during the meeting with Sanders- san that changed my cursed form, but the link was always there. How else were we able to know each other?" Ran Koh explains directing attention to herself, Ryoga, and Michael. Ku Lon seems to accept this but all three of the cursed victims could see she had more questions. Michael waits, when Ku Lon does not ask anything else he continues with the telling of his dream. "When I go over to her, I give her a gentle nudge. She looks up startled, she backs away from me slightly since she seems frightened of me. I flare the symbol on my forehead; this causes her to relax, when she sees I am the same as her. We start to head back the way I came from in the effort to get help. When we feel an unyielding sensation of something trying to pull us toward the opposite direction, we fight the sensation, because we aren't really sure we want to follow it but there is an urgency in this pulling, so start to follow. We hope when we get there, someone will be able to help us. We start to move with the sensation, we try to take to the sky but we find our ability to fly has been removed as well. So we walk, when we leave the small grove of trees there stretching before us is a dirt road. The rode runs from east toe west, and the pulling seems to be coming from the west. We turn west and let the tugging lead us to where we are to be. "We traveled for what felt like hours when we hear the sound of hooves coming up behind us. We turn and charging toward us, in a huge cloud of dust is a golden white centaur. Like me and the griffin he is larger then normal. Where I am about the same size as Ryoga and the griffin is the size of a full-grown horse. The Centaur however, is the size of a full-grown Rhinoceros. His horse's body and hair is pure white with the golden highlights, but his human body is as black as ebony. When he stops to face us he looks at us confused, we see his Tao symbol flare, which is like mine and Ryoga's white on the left, gold on the right. The griffin's is like Ran Koh's gold on the left white on the right. "The griffin and I then turn to continue down the road, the centaur follows closely behind us. The road stops at an another grove of trees and we can see the flashing lights of golden white, silver black and coppery red, coming from somewhere near the center. So we pick up our pace and run toward the lights." Michael stops and takes a gulp of his now cold tea, while the others seem to start breathing again. Then he begins again his voice a raspy whisper. "When we enter the glade we see the three women and three men floating and spinning in opposite directions. We walk up to the tigers as we sense that is where the pulling comes from. Just as we stand behind them the monks appear, there were six with us; we also notice that six monks each appear with the other animals as well. Then the monks start chanting, and then from there it pretty much follows Ran Koh's and Ryoga's dream." The Amazons sit back and digest what Michael has related to them, then Ryoga asks. "At the end when the monks and guides disappeared where did you go?" Michael shrugs, slightly, then answers as if it was common knowledge. "I can't answer for the others, but I woke up." Mas Cra nods then leans in with narrowing and cold inquisitive eyes. "Did _you_ get a good look at the other leaders or possibly the other Jusenkyo victims?" Michael takes a deep breath and thinks for a few moments, after he collects his thoughts; he answers her, while shaking his head. "The leaders no they were the same for me as they were for Ryoga and Ran Koh. As for the other cursed victims, they were in shadows, and although I can't be definite about them I can hazard a guess. I do know that the dragons and the Phoenixes both have three other members, the same as the tigers. I saw their symbols glowing in the darkness but all that did is cause a bright glare, so I couldn't make out any shapes. I do know some are low to the ground about the height of the Griffin, and some are about my size, as well as that of the Centaur. Then some were quite tall over ten feet. In addition, if the color setup follows our pattern the Phoenixes are like the tigers one female plus two males. The Dragons have two females and one male." This news was intriguing to the Amazons elders. Ran Koh looks thoughtful then asks Michael another question. "Are you sure you couldn't tell what kind of curses they had Sanders-san?" Michael pictures the image of the glade in his mind, but the harder he tries to focus on their shapes the more elusive they became. Finally he gives up and shakes his head no. Then he turns to the people with him and glaring at them, as he asks them. "And could you people, please quit calling me Sanders-san I'm starting to feel very old." He looks directly at the matriarchs of the Joketsuzoku with a wry grin. Two staffs reach across the table at blinding speeds to whack Michael on the top of his head. "_Ooww_, man, that hurts!" He complains rubbing the top of his head. Ran Koh looks at him with a smile that says, 'better you than me'. Michael gets up from the table preparing to leave. "I need to get back to my store, I will see you tonight at the grand opening." The others rise and nod their ascent. Ran Koh starts to escort Michael out when she is met halfway across the Nekohanten by Cy Sin. Ran Koh backs away with a smile as she lets Cy Sin take over. Ku Lon and Mas Cra watch the scene play out in front of them and they watch the other scene of La Si and Ryoga as he helps her to set up the tables for tonight. "Have you told her yet?" Mas Cra asks; Ku Lon shakes her head, no in response, as she answers. "No she has enough to worry about tonight with her mother coming, to worry about that as well." Mas Cra snorts a dry crackle of a laugh and then nods her head in agreement.