Akane grumbled as she lumbered out of her bed, the sound of someone banging on the gates having woken her up. She wearily put on some simple clothes and proceeded out into the hallway still half awake. Her first stop she paused at the guest room in order to prove to herself that Ranma wasn't in bed and this was his fault somehow. Surprisingly enough, she found both Ranma and Genma sleeping soundly in their room. She blinked, the confusion making her a little more awake, she shrugged and closed the door yawning as the pounding continued.
"How could anyone sleep through this noise," Akane wondered as she shuffled downstairs toward the noise.
Akane was getting more cautious as she continued towards the banging sound. By the time she exited the main building she was wide awake and considering whether or not she should go back and wake up Ranma. That thought got her more than a little riled up.
"Why do I need that idiot?" Akane demanded irritably. She paused a moment to say a prayer to Ryoko for protection. The divine incantation was answered with phenomenal speed as a field of protection surrounded her. Akane briefly wondered at how fast the request had been answered and then shook it off as she proceeded to the gate.
Akane stopped at the gate and growled, the fingers of her hammer hand itched to summon her weapon upon the fool that had dared interrupt her sleep. She ripped open the gate and looked beyond, shouting as she did so. A strong flash of red power formed into her hammer and it was pulled back prepared to land a mighty blow.
"WHAT DO YOU -- acck!!!" Akane's hammer dissipated instantly as her words caught in her throat. Her eyes bugged out and she stood there, concentration split between getting her breathing started again and trying to assimilate the evidence her senses were providing her.
Sitting, in midair, outside her gate was a woman with long silver hair a black swishing tail. Her head was nodded forward and she was loudly snoring. Her hand was still repeating the action of knocking on the now absent gate.
Akane managed a breath at about the time she was starting to turn blue and was now trying to get sound out of her mouth. The woman continued knocking.
"Ry...Ry...Ry..." Akane stuttered, then she took a deep breath and at least superficially calmed down. "Lady Ryoko?!" The woman's head snapped up and she looked around blinking.
"Oh..." Ryoko yawned, stopping her knocking as she stretched out. She blinked a few more times and turned to Akane. "Couch?" Akane, shocked speechless pointed back towards the main building. "Thanks." Ryoko breezed past Akane and quickly found the main shared rooms. She hunted down one of the long comfortable couches Nabiki had acquired and plopped down, falling instantly asleep.
Kasumi strode quietly towards the kitchen and paused a moment to regard the visitor sprawled out on the crouch and contentedly snoring away. Kneeling in front of the couch, Akane was still wide-eyed and apparently in shock. Abruptly the silver haired woman gave a low, mischievous giggle.
"Tennnchi," Ryoko muttered, before rolling over and curling up on the couch. The goddess then smirked and growled low, "Ayeka." She flailed out her arms and then started snoring again. Kasumi turned beet red as she recognized the implications of the mutterings, but Akane was fortunately still enough out of it that she completely missed everything.
"I think I shall have to put a great deal of extra effort into breakfast," Kasumi commented calmly as she walked into the kitchen. Akane nodded and continued attending her goddess as Ryoko slept on.
Genma woke up and prepared to wake up his son in the traditional manner of punting him outside and then attacking at full force, eventually getting tossed into a pool. He hesistated and glanced around warily.
"I sense a presence," he muttered. "Of one I have not felt since....It's probably nothing." He waved it off stood up, reared back his foot and kicked forward.
"Wha -- ?!" Ranma was out the window before he was even aware of the strike, he came to his senses quickly and whirled about to glare angrily at where his father would be coming from. He suddenly hesitated in his motion, looked towards the living room, and was unprepared when Genma attacked. A dazed Ranma stood up and looked down at her soaking self irritably.
"You're slacking off boy!" Genma snapped proudly.
Ranma got to his feet and hit the air in one motion, Genma started to respond when Ranma reached him. Unsurprisngly there was soon a panda in the pond. Genma rose up and launched another attack on Ranma and soon the sparring was on in full gear, Ranma forgetting what had distracted her in the first place as she made the effort to teach her father a lesson.
The morning sparring ranged a little further than normal as Ranma decided to bring retribution in spades on her father for catching her off guard earlier. Both martial artists took a leap over the walls and took the battle into the town. If it had been a normal day Akane would have been returning from her jogging about now, and wondering why she couldn't hear the sparring.
Nabiki stretched awake and yawned as she stepped off her bed. She sauntered over to her desk and prepared to do some morning scrying. Nabiki yawned again as she assembled her scrying brazier. She pulled out a set of flint and steel, not wanting to waste magic just to start a small fire. As the flint and steel refused to spark she began to get a little irritated, which woke her up a little.
"I guess I have to use a little magic today," she finally muttered, nearly tossing the flint and steel away. She shook herself fully awake and incanted a small fire spell...and nothing happened. She glared at the obstinate brazier. "I know I cast that correctly."
Nabiki stood up from her chair and looked down at the brazier angrily. She picked up the brazier and examined as she decided whether or not to pray to Xellos for a small fire. Then a small fire seemed to spontaneously start in the brazier. Nabiki narrowed her eyes supiciously and leaned in toward it to make a closer examination of the brazier.
Kasumi halted the practice of making breakfast and rushed towards the sound of the explosion mixxed with her sister's scream. As she passed through the common room she briefly saw Akane standing up, knocked out of her deity inspired daze when a threat to her family appeared. As they pounded up the stairs to see what happened, Ryoko blinked awake and sat up looking around.
"What went boom?" She looked around for a couple moments, shrugged upon deciding that there was nothing that required her avatar's attention and laid back down on the couch.
The Tendos stopped dead at the smoke trailing out of Nabiki's room, then continued forward, crowding into the door. They coughed as they fought through the smoke to find Nabiki's room covered in soot. As for Nabiki.
The priestess of Xellos was staring at the twisted remains of a brazier, covered, head to toe, in thick black soot. Where exactly the soot came from no one could tell, only the brazier seemed to be damaged.
"Nabiki!" Soun called out desperately. "What happened in here?! What attacked you daughter?"
"Yeah, Nabiki," Akane said. "What happened?"
"Sister?" Kasumi asked. Nabiki blinked and rolled her eyes before shaking her head clear and turning to them.
"I think I may have annoyed Lina," she said. Akane lost her balance and planted her face into the floor.
"What the -- ?" Ranma's eyes were drawn away from her retreating father to a group of three people in light tunics, wrapped head to toe in bandages. They were surrounding a woman in priestess robes in an empty lot. It was easy to identify who she was a priestess of. Only Jurains wore robes that intricate. "What's with the guys in the banda...arrgg! Damn it!" Ranma stopped dead as she realized that her father had vanished while she was distracted.
"Pardon me," the priestess said politely. "But you are from Furinkan Hall are you not?" The woman had a cultured accent, with a taste of viciousness laced under the surface. It was no surprise that she was accepted as a priestess by Ayeka.
Ranma turned her attention to the situation and sat down irritably. She considered helping the priestess, but a quick survey of all involved showed there was little need. She settled down to watch the show just in case, however. One of the bandaged attackers might get lucky, even against a priestess favored enough to use magic.
"Please," the priestess continued, still standing still. "No need to hurry on my account. If I am not mistaken, the competition is not for a week."
"No more talk!" one of the bandaged attackers shouted.
"We've got you," another added. "At last! We're finishing you off here and now!"
"Prepare to die!" The attackers launched forward, each weilding a pair of light, colorful clubs. The priestess finally moved in response to the attack, producing an acrobat's ribbon from her robes.
"Forgive me, please," the priestess said more firmly. "If I've failed to convey my message!" The viciousness was no longer vieled as the ribbon whipped in a cricle about the woman, disarming all three attackers and putting an end to their charge.
"Huh?" Ranma said, mildly impressed. Ayeka's priesthood preferred the whip, but they weren't commonly regarded as warriors of exceptional ability.
"If I may restate it," the woman almost growled now as the ribbon surrounded her. "...perhaps this! Or this! Or this! Will be clearer!" With each shout the ribbon came down on her attackers. Then the ribbon came to a halt, wrapped around a slim hand. The priestess stared in shock at the person that had stopped her whip.
"Dontcha' think that's enough?" Ranma asked honestly. "I mean ya already beat em, now ya just gotta call the constable, right?"
"You stopped that ribbon as if it were nothing," the priestess said quietly. She was sweating a little as the level of tension rose, but she still held the ribbon tight against Ranma's grip. "If you'll forgive me, you seem to be no ordinary girl." Ranma swallowed nervously.
"Uhh, yeah," Ranma admitted, the priestess's eyes narrowed as she examined the girl. "I'm not."
"Good," she said. Ranma prepared to move as the priestess spoke. "Because I prefer not to treat girls with ordinary courtesy!!" The ribbon in Ranma's hands faded to nothing as the priestess's hands shifted quickly.
A host of thorny vines erupted under Ranma trying wrap about her, but found nothing but an after image. The priestess kicked up one of the dropped clubs, catching it and swinging outward towards a blurry shape moving away from her spell. The blur coalesced into Ranma as she split her legs, dodging under the clubs and taking the priestess's feet out from under her.
The priestess rolled into a handspring that revealed a little more than Ayeka would have been comfortable showing of herself in public. The priestess landed and looked back over her shoulder to see Ranma already prepared for another round, and not looking at all worried.
"Well, you are very good," she said with a smile. She relaxed her stance, one hand twisting as she summoned magic to produce one rose, black as the night. "Remember, I am called the Black Rose of Hebereke Temple. Kodachi, the Black Rose. Please don't forget it." Then the woman leaped away cackling shrilly as Ranma looked on, cringing at the similarity to the woman's goddess.
"Oh, how humiliating!" one of the attackers moaned, bandaged face in her hands. Ranma rolled her eyes and turned toward them.
"What's with the crying?" Ranma demanded. "You attacked her." The attacker whirled on Ranma tearing the bandages off and revealing a young woman's face.
"She attacked us first!" the woman snapped.
"We're the Furinkan acrobatic troop!" they declared.
Hey, I know these girls, Ranma thought nervously.
Ryoko finally stretched awake and popped her spine, standing up. She yawned and looked around wearily. She finally caught sight of Akane kneeling in front of her and smiled.
"Hey, what's going on?" she asked pleasantly. Akane blinked and leaned forward in confusion.
"Lady Ryoko..." Akane started.
"Ooo...say that again," Ryoko asked cheerfully.
"Uhhh," Akane blinked. "Lady Ryoko?"
"Yeah!" Ryoko slammed her fist down triumphantly. "Lady Ryoko. LADY Ryoko. Lady RYOKO her divine grace." She sighed. "I never get tired of that." Akane's jaw had dropped, and she hadn't picked it up yet. Nabiki walked in, head wrapped in damp, soot soaked towel, and Ryoko blinked. "What happened to you?"
"How much do you want to know?" Nabiki asked, without dropping a beat. Ryoko smirked teleported behind Nabiki, slapping the woman on the back companionably. Nabiki went sprawling several feet forward, catching her balance with Akane's help.
"You got guts, girl," Ryoko said approvingly.
"Yeah," Nabiki said cautiously, drawling it out. She caught a glimpse of Akane's face and started for the door. "I'm going to try another bath." She spoke irritably as she strode out of the room.
"So Akane, what's going on?" Ryoko asked again with a smirk.
"Uhh..." Akane paused as she considered the question. "I...going on?"
"You're not freaking out on me, are you?" Ryoko asked, arching an eyebrow.
"No!No!No!" Akane said waving her hands. "I'm fine."
"Good," Ryoko said, nodding. "You know, I like you. I think you've got potential."
"Thank you, Lady Ryoko," Akane said breathlessly, bowing deeply. "I can't begin to tell you how much it.." She stopped and swallowed as Ryoko leaned forward into her face, eyes narrowed.
"That's why I'm giving you a little warning," the silver haired goddess said.
"Warning..?" Akane swallowed.
"I'm not the goddess of mindless violence," Ryoko said solemnly, arms crossed. "Whatever your sister says."
"Uhhh..."
"Akane Tendo!" someone called out. Ryoko put her face into her hand as three people rushed past her towards Akane.
"We've been so humiliated!" One of the girls asked. Akane was still looking at Ryoko nervously. In the entrance to the room, Ranma saw her Auntie in lecture mod and "eeped," freezing in mid step.
"Excuse me," Ryoko said. "Can't you recognize a goddess lecturing her priestess?" The three acrobats froze and blinked before turning slowly around.
"Uhhh..." their eyes popped wide as they recognized the being that they had just brushed past. Ranma was meanwhile trying to sneak out.
"Ranma," Ryoko said without turning aound. Ranma froze and slumped in resignation. "Aren't you going to say hello?" Akane and the three acrobats leveled surprised stares at the red head.
"Uhh.." she swallowed, and turned to face her Aunt. Auntie she doesn't know what I am! Ryoko arched an eyebrow and smirked, but continued to look in Akane's direction.
"It isn't everyday you meet your fiancee's goddess," she said. Ranma released a deep sigh of relief as the mortals all nodded, certain that nothing else was going on.
"Hello...uhh...Lady Ryoko," Ranma hesitantly spoke to Ryoko's obvious amusment. Ranma had no problem imitating a nervous attitude. This being because the nervous attitude was real. And perhaps Ryoko might know something about where her mother.
"Now, why were you three screaming for Akane-chan here?" Ryoko asked.
"Contest...injured....cheating Jurain bit..." one of them stuttered.
"Did you say 'cheating Jurain'?" Ryoko asked. They nodded fervently. Ryoko turned toward Akane. "You were here to ask Akane to take your place I guess?"
"Yes," one of them said.
She's good, Ranma thought. Better fighter than most of them. Ryoko chuckled and rubbed her hands together. Ranma shuffled nervously, this could get very bad.
"Akane, feel like humiliating a Jurain?" Ryoko asked. Akane blinked and gave a determined look.
"I'll do it!" Akane declared. "I won't embarrass you!"
"Ohh," Ayeka said looking down into the still pool. "She's going to humiliate one of my servants, is she?" She smiled and cackled evily. Elsewhere in the great forest of trees that encompassed the combined realms of the Masaki powers, Tenchi looked up and gave a resigned sigh.
After the three acrobats had left Ryoko made a play of looking Ranma over carefully. Her smirk faded soon after she saw the scar on Ranma's cheek.
"That's a neat little battle scar, kiddo," she said. Had to be good, are they dead?
A jerk of a celestial, Ranma muttered. Ryoko arched an eyebrow at the half-formed thought. Ranma's eyes popped wide as she felt Ryoko gathering power. Wait.
"Hmm," Ryoko said outloud. "I guess that means you can fight." You don't want me to heal it? Ryoko stood upright and smirked as a memory of Akane calling the scar cute flashed through Ranma's mind. Akane looked on at Ranma's facial expressions and bit her lip. It looked like there was another level to the discussion almost.
"Yeah, I can fight a little," Ranma said dryly. She turned to Ryoko and saw the goddess's face turn suddenly solemn. "What?"
Have you been talking to devils? Ryoko asked.
"Wha.." Ranma stopped herself. I mean, WHAT!? Do I look stupid? Ryoko stared at him for a moment longer
"Don't worry, its probably nothing," Ryoko said waving off Ranma's concern. "Well, you're a fine choice by me." Akane slumped in surprise.
"You accept he...I mean him?" Akane gasped, then quickly added, "Lady Ryoko."
"Yeah," Ryoko smirked, amused at Akane's self-denial. "I couldn't like him better if we were related." Ranma sweated.
"Uhh," Ranma said. "Shouldn't Akane be practicing for this competition?"
"Acrobatic Martial Arts?" Akane asked disparagingly.
"Against one of Ayeka's?" Ryoko added.
"Yeah," Ranma scratched the back of her head. "How hard could it be?"