In the hills about the Masaki shrine two battles were raging. Two girls and two boys, one of whom was a girl at the moment, were fighting as if to kill each other, of course if they had REALLY been trying to kill each other there would have been a lot more devastation.
One of these battles was no where near close, Ryoko was easily Ayeka's superior. Though Ryoko had to note that she was getting much better at taking care of herself than she had been when they first starting living at the shrine.
Ranma and Ryouga, on the other hand, were at the point that it took an interruption to actually finish their fights. Either that or the unlikely event of Ryouga deciding he didn't really want to kill Ranma. The case in this point was an interruption.
"RANMA!! GET BACK HERE AND DIE!!"/"STAND AND FIGHT RYOKO!!"
"Yeah right you can take me."/"Come and get me, Princess!"
"LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!!" Who exactly shouted was lost in the following collision. Resulting in a huge explosion and a pile of four stunned combatants.
Everybody turned away from the mother and daughter reunion to see the geyser of earth and power erupt into the sky in the hills. Well except for Ukyou, who was trying to process the comment about immortality, and her father, who was still unconscious. Then there was quiet.
"Wow, that was big," Nobuyuki commented intelligently.
"Oh! I hope nobody was hurt!" Sasami gasped.
"Those bakas," Akane hmphed. "Well I guess somebody has to go check on them." She started stalking off into the hills.
"Anybody else coming along?" Tenchi asked, turning to follow her.
"You're kidding right?" Leaf said, pointing at Ukyou and blinking. "Listen I have about three months, less now, to cram sixteen years of knowledge down her head before she has to make her choice, and you want me to leave?"
"I'll go!" Mihoshi shouted, cheerfully. Kiyone imagined Mihoshi applying first aid to anybody and facefaulted.
"Umm, Mihoshi, I'm not certain that's a good idea."
"But I thought I recognized that guy that attacked that cu.." Kiyone slapped a hand over Mihoshi's mouth.
"What did I tell you about making comments like that around other people?" Kiyone whispered, almost growling. Then she laughed nervously at the people staring at them.
"I'm not asking," Akane declared before heading back towards the site of the explosion.
"I've never bothered to either," Tenchi agreed, continuing as well.
"Tenchi, wait up!" Sasami called out. "Azaka, Kamidake, we got to go help." The three of them and the logs faded away into the woods.
"What's this about immortality?" Ukyou asked, confused. "And a choice?" Ukyou watched her mother laugh nervously.
"Okay, no time for dawdling about," Leaf said, getting a hold of herself. A dimensional pocket appeared in front of her.
"Looking for some privacy?" Nabiki asked levely, with a smirk. Ukyou face faulted as she worked through the implications of Nabiki with such powers. Then stood up narrowing her eyes.
"What's the catch?" Leaf demanded, narrowly.
"Yeah, Nabiki you never do anything without a profit margin in mind," Ukyou added, Nabiki smirked.
"I'll just put it on your tab Ukyou," Nabiki said.
"Tab?" Leaf blinked. "You owe her money?"
"Everybody owes her money," Ukyou said irritably.
"I'm an honest business woman," Nabiki insisted. "Like I said I'll put the entrance fee on your tab."
"And how will you know when we want out?"
"Just call out, I'll hear you," Nabiki said. At least sticking annoying alarm clocks in there doesn't help my ears much.
"If this is a trick I'm going to skewer you girl," Leaf promised Nabiki.
"I'll do everything I promised to do," Nabiki said eyes closed and head pointed to the ground as she leaned against a tree. "I swear."
As Ukyou and her mother cautiously stepped into the dimensional pocket and it closed behind them, Kiyone slipped up next to Nabiki.
"So what is the trick?"
"I forgot to mention that I put the exit fee on her tab as well," Nabiki said, smirking. "By the way, shall I start a tab for you as well?"
"What are you talking about?" Kiyone asked nervously.
"About a week stuck in our parents' homeworld, and the noises after hours. EVERY night," Nabiki smirked as Kiyone blushed. I told you I'd get you back for having to sleep in that stable.
"Well, here we are Fam," Ihrie said. "Which way now?" She'd heard Fam cast the spell, and she had done it properly, well she had done it half-properly. They should at least be in the proper vicinity of Fam's daughter. Which time of the girl's life, on the other hand, Ihrie had no idea.
"Well, I don't know," Fam said, looking about at all the trees. At that point the explosion erupted a mile or so below them.
"Think that's them?" Ihrie asked drly.
"She did turn out to be rather violent didn't she," Fam said sadly.
"Your fault for trusting a prince like THAT one," Ihrie said.
"He seemed nice enough," Fam said embarrassed.
"So does my father by all reports."
"Well here we are, the Masaki shrine," Iako said glancing at the steps irritably. Ayaka and Yohko looked toward the top and swallowed. Yohko's my sister, damn, at least I'm not half-demon or something.
I hope this means we don't have to fight anymore, Yohko thought. But then it didn't seem to help our grandmothers.
"That's a lot of steps," Yohko stated simply upon seeing the stairs.
"I knew a shouldn't have gotten out of bed today," Ayaka whined. Iako growled, knowing they were both easily capable of making the climb in flash. "All this climbing and sweating is going to ruin my youthful complexion!" Both Manos blinked and looked at the woman after that remark.
"I wouldn't worry about that," Yohko said politely.
"Thank you for your hospitality, Kasumi-san," Amelia bowed to her as they left the building. "You certainly seem to have inherited some of the best traits of your mother." Kasumi bowed slightly, still smiling.
"Yes, well I am sorry she can't still be here to see you," Kasumi said, politely. "She was certainly a very loving woman." If Nabiki had been here she would have translated the exchange into the following.
"At least you're not a man-stealing tramp like your mother."
"Well, at least she was more than woman enough to hold a man or two."
Of course, Xellos, Filia and Zelgadis understood the exchange, sweatdropping. Lina, Gourry and Soun were completely clueless.
"Hey, we've got a month before we have to leave," Lina said loudly. "And I'll bet we can come back to visit later."
"Yes, certainly," Amelia said, smiling. "And perhaps I'll be better company." Roughly translated. "Okay, I deserved that." The slayers individually thanked the Tendos for their hospitality and turned down the street.
"Well, come on where is this place we're going to?" Lina demanded.
"Its a shrine outside the city," Amelia said as they walked away. "Its supposed to have a demon sealed away inside it."
"Shouldn't take too long to get there," Zelgadis said. And in the next moment six bodies were flying through the town. This was only moderately surprising to the citizens of Nerima.
"Hey, you okay?" Ayeka blinked awake to see someone standing over her. As her vision cleared she saw that was some strange boy about Lord Tenchi's age wearing a bandanna and looking at her with concerned look on his face. Only pieces of this filtered through her punch-drunk thinking.
"AHH!! Pervert!!" The next thing Ryouga knew there were a bunch of little logs surrounding him.
"What the...?" Then the electricity started. As a result when everybody else arrived Ayeka was the only one still awake.
"Wow, somebody actually woke up before Ranma and Ryouga?" Akane blinked.
"Is that THIS pervert's name?"
"Damn did I get in the way of battleship?"
"When did Cologne stop by?" Ranma-chan groaned. Then she looked to see Ryouga "still" unconscious. "Hey Ryouga, wake up, you're giving us a bad name man."
"Errggg," Ryouga groaned intelligently.
"Ryo-chan!" Ryoko blinked.
"I must really have been hit hard," the space pirate said after a moment. "I could have sworn that I just heard...."
"Fam, wait up! I'm not a kid anymore you damn wiccan!"
"Oh great," Ryoko whined, then waved cheerfully. "Hi mom."
Everybody looked at the cat girl in the white outfit running down through the trees ahead of a woman in her early thirties or late twenties, with untamed purple hair. Then they looked back at Ryoko, who seemed both older and much taller.
"That's your mother?" Tenchi asked, surprised.
"She seems so..." Ayeka started.
"Naive?" Ryoko asked.
"Ryo-chan!" Fam glomped onto her daughter. "Its been so long!"
"Is that bounty hunter anywhere around?" Ihrie asked, out of breath as she finally reached everybody else.
"Does she mean Nagi?" Tenchi asked.
"Mommm...I..caan't breathe," Ryoko gasped.
"Is it just me or have there been a lot of coincidences recently?" Ranma asked.
"Why do you seem familiar?" Ihrie asked Ayeka, confused.
"Actually, I was about to ask you the same thing," the princess said. "But when would a disreputable creature like you ever be able to encounter a princess of Jurai."
"You'd be amazed who hires mercenaries," Ihrie said, glancing at Fam and Ryoko. "Besides it wasn't a princess that we had problems with, just the Crown Prince."
"What do you mean by that?" Ayeka asked.
"Yeah, what DO you mean by that?" Ryoko repeated.
"Ihrie!" Fam snapped surprised, releasing Ryoko.
"Oh shit...and I always thought Fam ran off her mouth," Ihrie laughed once. "Ignore I just said anything."
"Do you guys sense an incredible coincidence happening," Tenchi asked. Akane and Ranma nodded, Ryouga sat up, blinking.
"Well you, see," Fam said nervously. "Your father is the Crown Prince of Jurai."
"Was, Fam," Ihrie reminded her. "By now he'd be the king. Time travel is annoying."
"WHAT!!!" Ayeka and Ryoko face faulted.
"And now at last I can have the power to win my Ranma-darling's heart! OHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Kodachi yelled. "And the purpose of my ancestors will finally be complete to throw in the bargain!!"
Its interesting that after all those bunglers that tried to call my power, a demon lord pondered as it waited to be released. That it would take marrying into a family of demon hunters to finally fulfill my release. I'll have to thank the Manos before I kill them.