Authors note: I have decided to tell Ranma and Serena's story in the first half of part two and switch to everybody else in the last half. I know this will probably annoy some of you and I appologize. I do actually have reasons for doing this, but I'm not sure whether or not they will become apparent in the future.
“Hey! That’s mine!” bellowed Lina as Gourry reached for the last piece of teriyaki. He took it anyway, but not before Lina could get a hold on it too. The two of them began tugging on the piece of meat while growling at each other and shouting insults.
Zelgadiss sighed and shook his head at their show of ill manners, but did nothing to stop them. With those two distracted it gave the rest of them a chance to get some food for themselves. He began piling food on to his plate and noticed that Amelia was already stuffing herself.
Finally Lina was able to stab Gourry’s hand with a fork and he let go with a yell. Lina stuffed the entire piece of food in her mouth and shot Gourry a triumphant look. “You didn’t have to stab me Lina. That hurt.”
“Youf shoulg ghage gef go.” Said Lina around the food she was eating.
“What did you say?”
Lina swallowed and a look of contentment crossed her face. “I said you should have let go. Then I wouldn’t have had to stab you.” Lina reached for some more food and noticed that it was all gone. “Ghaaa! Where did all the food go?!”
Zelgadiss patted his full belly. “Sorry Lina. I thought you were done.”
Lina glared at Zel and turned to Amelia. “How could you let him eat all of my food?”
Amelia burped and then covered her mouth with a slight blush. “Excuse me.”
Lina turned bright red and stood up with her fists on the table. “I can’t believe you ate all of my food! Now I’m going to starve to death.”
Everyone big sweated. “Lina,” said Zel slowly, “that was your fifth helping.”
Lina paused for a moment and considered what had just been said. Suddenly her face brightened. “Oh yeah. I forgot I’m not paying for this. Waiter,” she hollered, “bring me another helping.”
A very tired looking cook poked his head out from the doors leading to the kitchen. “You want another one?” he asked in amazement. Lina nodded and he sighed. “That’s the last time I make a deal like this.” He ducked back into the kitchen and the sounds of pots and pans banging together could be heard.
The reason Lina was getting all of this food for free was because the town they were currently staying in had been plagued with monsters and she had made a deal with the mayor to remove them. The mayor, it turned out, owned an inn and restaurant and had promised to personally make Lina and her friends an all they could eat meal and give them free lodging if they could rid the town of the monsters. He was now learning the folly of that deal.
Lina sat down with a large smile on her face. “Now that the important matters have been dealt with we can move on to less important ones. What are we going to do with our sleeping friends?”
Everyone sat there considering various possibilities. The two strangers Lina had found in the forest had been unconscious for about three days now. They had healed their wounds and given them fresh clothing, but they had yet to awaken for even a minute. They were currently lying on beds in one of the inn’s rooms.
“Well we can leave them with the town doctor,” suggested Zel. “He seems fairly competent.”
Lina shook her head. “I want to be there when they wake up. It’s not everyday you get to meet people from another dimension.”
Zel snorted. “You don’t even know for sure if they are from another dimension. For all you know they could have simply fallen through some kind of magical transportation gate. I hear such things exist.”
“But what if they are from another dimension,” piped up Amelia. “Wouldn’t it be grand to talk to visitors from another world. Imagine the stories they could tell us, or the things they might be able to teach us. Maybe where they come from their defenders of justice who will be willing to help us in our fight against evil.”
Lina sighed. “Somehow I doubt their defenders of justice Amelia.”
“Well then maybe their from a world of oppression and are trying to find brave warriors who will help them free their homeland. Maybe we could travel to their dimension and aid them in their struggle against tyranny. Just think. I could be the first Seyrunn princess to spread justice to a whole new world.”
By this time both Lina and Zel were ignoring Amelia. “Um…” said Gourry, “who are we talking about?” Everyone’s head hit the table.
Lina propped her chin on the edge of the table and gave the swordsman a look of annoyance. “Never mind Gourry. We’ll wait for a couple of days to see if they wake up and if they don’t than we’ll move on. Agreed?” Everyone nodded and Lina smiled. “Good. Now we just have to wait for more food to come.”
“Are you Lina Inverse?” asked a voice from the direction of the door leading out of the inn.
Lina turned to see a large man dressed in black armor with a large sword strapped to his back taking up the entire doorway. His black hair was long and tied in a ponytail and his face was marred with numerous scars. His dark eyes were the kind that said ‘don’t trust me I’m evil’. Lina wouldn’t have trusted him if she couldn’t have seen his eyes. “Who wants to know?” she asked.
The man smiled. It didn’t make him look anymore friendly or trustworthy, though. Rather, it made him look like he was torturing small animals. “I am Dalgar, and I have come on behalf of one Lord Koldan. He wishes to meet you.”
“Did he happen to say why he wanted to meet me?”
“No, just that he did.”
“Well, until you have a reason why I should see this Koldan guy, I think I’ll just stay right here.”
“I don’t think you understand. I wasn’t asking.” The man raised one gauntleted hand and suddenly the whole room glowed with a faint blue light. All four slayers were on their feet in an instant. “I have cast an anti-magic field on this room Ms. Inverse. None of your spells will work in here now.”
“Well see about that. Fireball!” Lina threw her hands up before her and attempted to launch a fiery missile at her new opponent. All that came out though was a thin trickle of smoke. Seeing Lina’s predicament, Zel and Amelia tried their spells.
“Flare Arrow!”
“Elmikia Lance!” Unfortunately neither of their spells worked either.
“You see. You are helpless. Come with me without a struggle and none of you will be hurt.”
“We’re not helpless yet. I still have my secret weapon.” Lina jumped behind Gourry and pushed him towards Dalgar. “Go get em Gourry!”
Gourry reached for his sword, but grasped only air. “Um…Lina. My swords gone.”
Everyone began checking for their weapons and found them all to be missing. “How?” wondered Zel aloud. As if in answer to his question the walls of the inn began to shimmer and men stepped out of them. One of the men had an armload of weapons, which he laid at the feet of Dalgar.
“My companions here relieved you of your weapons while you ate,” explained the black knight. “They were wearing chameleon cloaks that allowed them to blend in perfectly with the inn’s walls. As you can see I’ve thought of everything. Escape is impossible.”
Lina assumed a fighting stance as did the others. “We won’t go without a fight, and you will find that without weapons or magic we are still formidable fighters.”
“Ah, but so are my men. They are from the plains of Lochai and they are masters of unarmed combat.”
Lina had heard of the warriors of Lochai and knew what Dalgar said was true. It was beginning to look as if he had indeed thought of everything. The cloaked warriors were about to attack when everyone’s attention was suddenly drawn to the stairs where someone could be heard approaching. They all watched as a short red headed girl came down and surveyed the area. Then she scratched her head and said something in a language no one in the room could understand.
He stood resplendent in his blue armor as he overlooked the massive courtyard with hundreds of people milling about within its confines. In the center stood a massive fountain decorated with crescent moons and across the way was a huge dais bearing the same decoration. Large columns ringed the courtyard itself and he had a wonderful view of the Earth as it rotated slowly in the heavens. But it was not the Earth, or the columns, or the dais, or the fountain that attracted his attention. It was the people.
His eyes wandered over the masses gathered here in celebration, searching for the one person he wished desperately to find. He spotted her standing near the edge of the courtyard, her flaming red hair identifying her as easily as the uniform she wore. Checking the sword he wore at his hip, he started forward and the crowd parted before him giving him easy passage among them. They did not need the silver serpents embossed upon his armor to identify him. Everyone knew the Dragon.
He reached the place he had seen his love standing only to discover she had moved. Looking around he found her talking to the Princess of Jupiter. He didn’t know her name, but he knew the two were good friends. Riana turned to see him and smiled. He opened his mouth to give greeting, but a commotion from the dais distracted him. Queen Serenity and the princesses of Venus, Mars, and Mercury stood upon the raised platform commanding silence.
The queen opened her mouth to say something, but it was forever lost in the explosion that erupted behind the Dragon. He whirled, sword coming to his hand in a flash as he tried to figure out what had just happened. Standing amidst shattered columns were Earth’s four generals. He watched in dismay as Malachite raised his hand and black fire shot towards him. He had no time to prepare a defense and in the last instant before the dark fire washed over him he knew that it had been planned that way. He just prayed that his one love would survive the attack and that his companion would avenge his death.
After the great battle that rocked the Moon, the Dragon’s disembodied spirit floated over his destroyed body. Across from him floated the spirit of his beloved, her body destroyed in the same blast that had killed him. Oblivious to the destruction around him, and not sure how the dead comforted one another, he reached out to Riana and held her in his arms. At that moment Queen Serenity cast her final spell and the two lovers were cast towards Earth to be reborn in the future, but because of their close proximity the spell caused two to become one for all eternity.
Ranma-chan’s eyes snapped open and she stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling. She didn’t actually see the ceiling or any of her surroundings though, because her sight was turned inward. So that’s how it happened, she thought. That’s how I ended up as the reincarnation of two different warriors. How annoying. With that thought, she sat up and surveyed her surroundings.
She was definitely not anywhere she recognized. The room wasn’t very large and furniture was fairly sparse. There was a cracked sink and mirror on one wall and a wardrobe across the room from the sink. Next to the wardrobe was a small desk and chair. Straight across from Ranma-chan, right in the middle of the room, was a stout wooden door. Behind her was a window and she saw that it was about midday. Something brushed up against her hand and she looked down to see Serena in the bed next to her. She was out of that bed in a flash.
Upon leaving the bed Ranma-chan noticed she was wearing a rather frilly, pink nightgown. “Someone’s gonna pay for this,” she grumbled. She walked over to the wardrobe, noticing that the floor was wooden like the walls, and threw the doors open. Inside she couldn’t find her normal clothes, but she did find a pair of brown pants and a red shirt that fit her nicely. There was a pair of boots as well, but they didn’t look very comfortable so she left them there.
As she was getting dressed, Ranma-chan’s stomach growled. “Feels like I haven’t eaten in days. Wonder how long I was out.” Another thought crossed her mind and she began examining her body for injuries. Surprisingly, she found none. “Weird. Time I found some answers.”
Checking to make sure Serena was okay, Ranma-chan left through the unlocked door. Outside the door was a hallway large enough for about two people to walk abreast with doors set evenly down its length. She deduced that she was in some sort of motel or something.
Down the hallway to her right she heard people yelling, but more importantly she smelled food. At the end of the hallway was a staircase that Ranma-chan descended to a large room that glowed with a faint bluish light. In this room there were lots of people and they were all staring at her with looks of curiosity. There were seven men dressed in various types of clothing surrounding an odd group of four people. She found the guy with the blue hair and skin very interesting. Standing in the doorway leading out of the room was a large man she assumed to be the leader of the other seven.
Ranma-chan scratched her head. Things were not looking good for the foursome. “Um…does anyone have any hot water?” she asked.
The big man said something in a language she couldn’t understand and waved his hand in her direction. From behind her another man suddenly appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her in an attempt to keep her from interfering. One of his hands casually took hold of one of her breasts in the process and didn’t let go. That had been a mistake.
Ranma-chan broke the man’s grip on her arms easily and reached back to take hold of his head. Seizing two clumps of hair she jumped as high as the low ceiling would allow and whipped the man over the top of her head. Boards splintered when he hit the ground. “Pervert,” she growled.
The big man was giving orders again and now three more of the men were advancing on her. They were moving slowly, but not cautiously. Apparently they didn’t find one girl to be too much of a threat no matter what she had done to their friend. They were even dumb enough to attack her one at a time and she defeated each of them with ease. The pile of bodies in front of her now totaled four.
The last four left watching the foursome and spread out to surround her. They at least were taking her seriously. They came at her as one, throwing barrages of punches and kicks in an attempt to defeat her. Ranma-chan had to admit that they weren’t too bad when they actually took the fight seriously. Unfortunately for them they were rather slow and she was able to block all of their strikes and counter attack before they knew what had happened. The score was now Ranma-chan eight, bad guys zero.
The big man had a very frustrated look as he entered farther into the room. He said something and drew the massive blade he had strapped to his back. It was very large and very black, but Ranma-chan wasn’t paying attention because she had just noticed the delicious smells of food coming from the kitchen. A shout from the man brought her back to the fight at hand.
“C’mon,” she said gesturing towards the kitchen, “I’m hungry. Can’t we finish this after I eat?” The man angrily swung his sword into the air and brought it crashing down on top of a table, splitting it in two. The strange foursome had been slowly edging towards the door, but stopped at the man’s show of strength. “Guess not. I’ll just have to finish this quickly.”
Ranma-chan had some experience with swords. Not a lot, but enough to know that the man across from her seemed to have a lot more skill than Kuno, and his sword was real too. Attacking a proficient swordsman wielding a very large, very sharp sword, head on was neither intelligent nor easy. She decided to do this the smart and easy way.
Her battle aura erupted around her and everyone took step back. The man seemed absolutely stunned and he began examining the room while muttering to himself. A red headed girl within the foursome extended her hands towards the man and said something. She seemed miffed as to why nothing had happened and turned to stare at Ranma-chan. In fact, everyone was now staring at her.
Suddenly the man charged her with a shout and Ranma-chan released the energy building around her. “Mooko Takabisha!” The orange blast hammered into the man’s chest, crushing his armor and sending him flying through the door and out into the street. Ranma-chan cracked her knuckles and smiled to herself as her battle aura died. “So when do we eat?” she asked turning to the foursome.
The red head came over and began examining her up and down. She put herself face to face with Ranma-chan and began spitting out words in a demanding tone of voice. Unfortunately she couldn’t understand a word the girl was saying. “Maybe I’m in France or something,” she muttered.
Suddenly the bluish light that had permeated the room vanished and the girl smiled. The girl walked over behind the pile of men Ranma-chan had defeated and shouted something. She watched in amazement as the entire group lifted into the air and zipped out the front door to land in a heap on the street. “Neat trick.”
The group of four separated themselves from the martial artist and held a small conference outside of her hearing. “Like I could understand anything they were saying anyways,” she grumbled looking around for food, hot water, or both.
A girl dressed in white separated from the group and came to stand in front of her. She made soothing noises as she reached up and put a finger to Ranma-chan’s forehead. The two were engulfed in a soft white glow for an instant and than the girl stepped back. “She should be able to understand us now,” she said.
Ranma-chan rubbed the spot on her head where the girl’s finger had rested. “That must come in real handy on vacations. I could have used it a few years ago.”
“How did you cast a spell in an anti-magic field?” demanded the red head.
Ranma-chan blinked. “Huh?”
The girl growled. “That spell you used. How did you cast it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t use magic. Well, not unless I have to,” she amended remembering Amy saying something about a Scouts powers being magically based.
“Than what was that blast you used to take out Dalgar? It looked like magic to me.”
“It was chi.”
“What’s chi?”
Ranma-chan was growing tired of this. She was hungry and this girl was very demanding. “Listen, I’m starving. How ‘bout I answer your questions after I eat? I have a few questions of my own as well.”
The girl’s stomach rumbled loudly and she blushed. “I forgot I was still hungry. Hey waiter! We have another guest so keep the food coming.” Ranma-chan heard loud grumbling from the kitchen.
The girl who had breached the language barrier popped up in front of Ranma-chan and grabbed her hand. “Come and sit with us and tell me all about the dimension you come from. I want to know about all of the great battles you’ve fought in the name of justice.”
“Um…what do you mean my dimension?”
The girl blinked. “You mean you don’t know?”
“Know what?”
The blue man with turned to look at her. “It appears our guest has no idea what has happened to her.” He bowed and extended his hand. “I am Zelgadiss, traveling warrior and sorcerer.”
“Nice ta meet ya. I’m Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. So tell me, why do you look so funny for?”
“It is a curse that I have born for many years now and still I cannot find a cure.”
“Curse huh? Did you fall into Jusenkyo too?”
“What’s Jusenkyo?”
“Guess that answers that. So you can’t change back to your normal form at all?”
“No. I am stuck like this until I can undo the sorcery that caused my transformation.”
Ranma-chan considered this for a moment. “Well I guess that makes your curse worse than mine, but at least you’re still a guy.”
The girl with short hair bounced in front of her again. “You’re cursed? How?”
“Never mind. Who are you?”
“I’m Amelia, first princess of Seyrunn, the greatest city in the world.”
The red head came up behind the girl and hit her on the top of the head. “Do you always go around telling strangers you’re royalty so that they can kidnap you?”
“But Ms. Ranma’s not a bad person. She’s a defender of justice. Right Ms. Ranma?”
“Um…Sometimes.”
“See? I told you so.”
“Whatever. I’m Lina Inverse, sorcery genius. I’m the one who found you and your friend half dead in the forest.”
A tall blonde man stepped up next to Lina carrying a handful of weapons. “I’m Gourry Gabriev. I’m the one who carried you out of the forest.” Having introduced himself he began handing the weapons out to among the four travelers.
“Well, I suppose I should thank you, but I’d love to know what I was doing in the middle of a forest. The last thing I remember was fighting that Dolgoth guy above Tokyo. That and a lot of pain.”
“So you really don’t know how you got here?” asked Lina
“Not really. Where’s here anyway?”
Lina exchanged glances with the rest of her party. “Here is another dimension.”
Ranma-chan sat in stunned silence. This was going to make getting home difficult. At that moment the cook brought out two steaming platters of food and all thoughts of other dimensions left her head. She fell on the food the minute it hit the table. As the cook was leaving, though, she stopped him with a shout. “Can you bring me some hot water?”
“Why?”
“So I can pour it over my head.”
“If you want a bath than there are hot springs out back.”
“I don’t want a bath. I just want hot water.” The man nodded and Ranma-chan went back to eating.
Zel had thought Lina and Gourry were fast eaters, but the food just seemed to disappear from in front of Ranma. He couldn’t even see her eat. If this girl traveled with them for long then he was going to have to start eating separately or starve to death.
The man returned with a small teakettle and stared at how little food remained. He set the kettle next to Ranma-chan and went back to the kitchen mumbling about being eaten out of house and home. While still stuffing food into her mouth with one hand, Ranma-chan casually reached over and dumped the kettle’s contents over her head. Everyone else stopped eating.
It took a few moments for Ranma to realize that everyone had stopped eating and was now staring at him. “What?” he asked around a mouthful of food.
Amelia pointed at him with wide eyes. “Y…you were a girl and now you’re a guy.”
Ranma nodded. “My curse.” He went on to explain about Jusenkyo and his accident there. He explained how the curse worked and how very annoying it was to spontaneously change sex with varying temperatures of water. “You get used to it over time and it’s better than some of the curses I’ve seen, but I’d still do almost anything to get rid of it.”
Ranma paused for a moment. A month ago he would have done anything to get rid of it. Now, though, he wasn’t so sure. As a Sailor Scout he had enormous power and if someone like Dolgoth attacked again he would need all the power he could get. He and Serena had managed to beat Dolgoth with the powers of the Dragon and Phoenix, but he couldn’t remember how he had done it. If it came down to his pride and innocent lives than his pride would have to go. Akane had taught him that. Serena had taught him that there was no loss of pride in becoming a girl.
“What a terrible thing to befall a champion of justice,” exclaimed Amelia. “To think that a man good enough to save us from foul bandits would be so cursed. Have the Gods no mercy.” Ranma stared at Amelia, but the others ignored her. Apparently she did this kind of thing often. “I can tell that you and Serena are going to get along real well.”
“Serena is the name of your companion?” asked Zel and Ranma nodded. “And I assume she comes from the same dimension as you?” Ranma nodded again. “Speaking of which, since your sorcerers do you know how to get us home.”
Lina shook her head. “Although I’m a sorcery genius, most of my magic is designed to blow up bandits and such.”
Ranma looked to Zel and Amelia, but they shook their heads.“Damn. I can’t stay here. Neither of us can. We have to find a way home.”
Lina thought for a moment. “There’s the Book of Zot. It’s rumored to contain secrets of dimensional travel.”
Zel shook his head. “It’s just a legend though. And even if it is true than it’s contained in the Tower of Zot, said to be somewhere in the desert of Shlak. The desert definitely isn’t hospitable and I’ve heard that the tower is not only trapped, but is cursed as well.”
Amelia slammed her fist on the table. “We can’t let curses or traps or deserts stop us from helping these two lost souls find their home. We have to try and help in the name of what’s right.”
Lina considered for a moment. “I’ll tell you what. I’ve heard that the tower of Zot contains tons of treasure and magical secrets.” Her eyes began to glitter. “Lots and lots of treasure.” She began to drool as she envisioned herself swimming among gold coins and massive gems. Shaking her head she brought herself back to matters at hand. “I’ll help you get back to your home, but you have to agree to let me keep all of the treasure we find.”
“That’s fine with me. I don’t have any real use for large amounts of treasure.”
Lina smiled. “Good, then it’s settled. But there is one thing I want to take care of before we began our search.”
“What’s that?”
“I want to pay a visit to one Lord Koldan.”
“You mean the guy who sent those men?” asked Amelia. “Why would you want to do that?”
“Curiosity. I want to find out why he wanted me. And I want to make sure he doesn’t want me again.” She turned to Ranma. “It would be great to have your fighting ability with us, but if you want to stay here than I’m sure the innkeeper would be obliged to give you free room and board.”
Ranma smiled. “Those nine only provided me with a warm up. I’d be glad to go with you, and I’m sure Serena would be too.”
“It’s settled than. When your friend wakes up we’ll find this Koldan guy and then we’ll set off for the desert of Shlak. Adventure and treasure await us.”
