"Hey guys," Lina said. "Let's stop here a moment." She started drifting down to the ground, predictably, toward what looked to be a buffet touting itself as "all you can eat."
"Lina-san," Amelia said. "We don't have all that long to be around here..." Not to mention the fact that the ONLY good thing about this is that I get to see my baby again after so long.
"Hey," Lina said. "Would you prefer me and Gourry to destroy this restaurant's lauder, or your daughters?"
The other Slayers considered that for a moment.
"Let's stop here," came the unanimous decision. In very little time they were walking into the restaurant and waiting in line as in instructed. Ahead of them a discussion was going on.
"And I expect you to be perfectly well behaved," a woman's voice was saying.
"Yes, oneesama," another woman said.
"Eat at a proper human pace," said the first woman. The Slayers heard Lina urk and suddenly turned to look at the pale sorceress.
"Yes, oneesama," said the second voice. She sounded a mixture between terrified and bored. Strange mixture that. Zelgadis looked further down the line and blanched.
"Sherra Grausherra is in line ahead of us," he whispered. Nobody paid attention to the urking and pale Lina as they looked past the other assorted people to see Sherra standing in line and looking frozen in place.
"No annoying people to feed your sword," the other person, a tall, purple haired woman. "He'll get plenty of nourishment from the wait staff without you deliberately egging them on."
"Yes, oneesama," Sherra said woodenly, nodding.
"And go invite your twin sister and brother-in-law to join us," the woman said finally.
"Yes, oneesa...huh?" Sherra blinked and looked back to see Lina flinch as she tried to sneak out of the restaurant. "LINA!!!! No WAY you are leaving me alone with HER..." the purple haired woman LOOKED at Sherra and she flinched and spoke in a very, very, very, tiny voice. "No offense....oneesama."
The Slayers all readied for battle, resulting in the other people in line between them and the two women scattering.
"You do not want to take us all on, Grausherra," Filia said coolly.
"Errr...Dynast fired me," Sherra said nervously.
"What was that?" Amelia asked. "A Darklord...fired his servant?"
"Something about should have known better than to hire me in the first place," Sherra muttered irritably. "I was going to stay with my ex-husband...but he sort of tried to cut off all my hair."
"Yes, and she called me to give her a lift back home. Lina," the purple-haired woman said to the red-haired sorceress still frozen at the door. "I do believe I invited you and your brother-in-law to join us."
"Yes Oneesama," Lina said walking over to her sister very slowly. "It has been a long time...hasn't it."
"Four hundred years since either of you even sent me a message," the purple haired woman said. "And suddenly I hear from Sherra. 'Oneesama, I lost my job and I got stranded over her in Mom's and Dad's world...can you help me get home?' And you...I have to happen on you by accident."
"You're four hundred years old, Lina?" Gourry asked. "Wow, that's why you're so small...withered I guess." Lina was too terrified at the moment to retaliate.
"Wait," Filia said. "If you're Lina's older sister that would make you...is that you Ceipheed-sama?"
"Really Filia," Luna said. "Don't you recognize me out of my work uniform?"
This produced a collection urks from most of the Slayers as they realized who they were talking to, with one notable exception.
"Oh, hello Grandfather," Luna said casually to Xellos. Three sets of female eyes were suddenly latched onto Xellos and speaking the same word.
"GRANDFATHER!!?!?!?!" Sherra, Lina and most loudly (as well as violently as she dragged him down to her eye level) Amelia.
"So you're dead set on immortality then?" Leaf asked her daughter. Ukyou sighed.
"Well look at it this way Mom," she said, gesturing toward the gathering of half-mazoku and the jubliant pair of Ranma and Akane. "It looks like everybody I know is going to live for thousands of years, practically on toward immortallity. They DON'T have a choice, I do...I choose to hang around Ranma...errr...them."
"That does make a good point," Leaf sighed and started to rub her eyes. "I am really considering taking up that Kiyone girl's offer for a massage
"Errr...Mom," Ukyou said. "Do you know what she means by 'massage'?" Leaf stopped and cracked open an eye to glance at Ukyou.
"I assume she meant a massage," Leaf said.
"Yeah," Ukyou said. "A full body massage..."
"A full...oh...OH!" Leaf's eyes popped wide. "Thanks for the warning, Ukyou, she was quite persuasive that could have...by the way...just how do you know that?"
"Errr...no reason," Ukyou said blushing. Well Mom is right. She's REALLY persuasive.
"Excuse me," Leaf said, standing up and striding over towards the half-mazoku. "KIYONE MAKIBI!!!!!!"
"Yeah, what is...ulp," Kiyone looked back and saw Ukyou making desparate 'run away' gestures, saw Leaf advancing like the wrath of God and winced as she prepared to do something that would forever mar her reputation as cool and in control. Angered parents tended to do that to her though. "Umm...Excuse, me, I have to..."
"But won't you miss meeting your mother then?" Ayeka asked, with a touch of reprimand and amusement. Kiyone froze in her would be attempt to escape righteous reputation and slumped resignedly.
"You're going to enjoy this aren't you?" Kiyone asked.
"You need to learn to settle down," Ayeka snapped irritably. "If I am going to be related to you, I will not be connected to a slut."
"You!" Leaf snapped as she arrived, glaring at Kiyone. "I want to talk to you!" She reached out and snagged the nervous Kiyone by the ear and started to walk away.
"Hey! I didn't do anything she didn't want to do!" Kiyone protested. Leaf stopped next to Ryouga remembering certain things that were let slip earlier. She turned to glare at him.
"Errk..." Ryouga said intelligently as Leaf's free hand shot out to grab his ear.
"AND WHILE I'M AT IT, YOU'RE COMING TOO!!!" she growled and started dragging the too of them off. She glanced toward Ukyou. "UKYOU!!! FOLLOW!!!"
"Uhh...okay Mom," Ukyou said nervously.
"Anybody else get the feeling there's going to be at least one shotgun wedding there?" Ryoko asked.
"Man do I feel sorry for them," Ranma said.
"Well, Ukyou and Ryouga anyway," Akane said. "By the way, has she tried anything with YOU Ranma?"
"Errr, not sure," Ranma said. "She was talking to me for awhile kind of funny and then got really frustrated and stomped off muttering about eunuchs or something."
Nabiki blinked and looked at Ranma for a moment before dropping to the ground laughing.
"Did I say something funny?" Ranma asked.
"You know," Ryoko said. "I'd have yourself checked out for some sort of brain damage. Because from what I gather, NOBODY has actually outright not figured out she was trying to seduce them."
"They either tell her off or wake up next to her," Nabiki confirmed between laughs. "Oh that is just too perfect."
"So because I didn't notice," Ranma said. "I have brain damage."
"Probably something your father did," Akane said irritably. "Like body toughening by beating you with steal rebar or something."
"Hey," Ranma said. "Gave me the hardest head that I know of." Everybody looked at them and tried to decide if Ranma knew he had just insulted himself. Akane just threw a bucket of water over him in a state of amused exasperation.
"What's the elf-lady doing to my brother and Kiyone," Mihoshi asked.
Kodachi took a look at the lovely outfit the bracelet had formed for her and cackled. Soon...very soon...she would release the family patron and then her Ranma-sama would be hers.
Nodoka watched the scene with a light heart and leaned back to enjoy the natural environments. Suddenly a pale-skinned woman with midnight black hair stepped out of the tree next to her.
"Nodoka Saotome," the woman said very formally. "I am Artemis. I am here to inform you that due to your good nature it has been decreed that you are to receive one wish."
"Any wish?" Nodoka asked, blinking in a little surprise.
"Yes," Artemis said a little irritated...and sort of nervous. She was sort of hoping that the other beings in the area didn't notice her before she got this done with. That MAKIBI girl was somewhere around...
"Well," Nodoka said. "My only real wish is that Akane and Ranma give me some nice heavenly grandchildren soon." Artemis had time to look over to Ranma and Akane before the display of power produced by a granted wish called all eyes to her.
"I'll get right to working on that wish," Artemis said quickly with an almost drunk expression on her face. Then she stepped back into a tree and vanished.
"Hecate! Hecate!" Artemis shouted.
"What is it, Artemis," Hecate asked sounding rather depressed. "I have work to do."
"Remember you said we needed some mortals if we were ever going to produce children that were both ours?" Artemis asked.
"Yes," Hecate said, depressed. "Polymorphing doesn't work because of what your brother did to me...and well that's the only answer I've found."
"Wait until you hear about the wish I just granted," Artemis said.
A man wandered through a barren wasteland and sighed. He looked from one end of the vast, dead lake before him, to the other.
"WHERE THE HELL AM I NOW!?!?" he demanded angrily.
And Nate Grey, a man from a universe that no longer existed, wondered just where he had been deposited this time around.
Part 11 | Fanfiction