VISIONARIES By: Matt Taylor Disclaimer: All Ranma 1/2 characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. All Tenchi Muyo characters are the property of AIC/Pioneer. I receive no payment for this. ************** CHAPTER 8 All Ryoga Hibiki saw was darkness. Acres and acres of pure black all around him. He felt like he was floating in nothing at all. Ryoga fought down the panic, and tried to move himself through the darkness. He couldn't see his hands or feet, or any other part of his body, but felt them moving. He felt them flail around as he fought to get out of the darkness. At the same time he felt something trying to hold him down. He fought against it, though and kept going until he could swear he saw a thin edge of light. The light exploded then, and his hand moved up to shield his eyes. "Are you okay?" A feminine voice asked him. He let his eyes adjust to the light, until he saw the form of a girl his own age sitting next to him. He looked down, and saw he was lying on a bed. "W...where am I?" He asked. The girl got a happy look on her face and ran to the door and yelled. "Father, Kasumi! He finally woke up!" She ran back to his bedside. "I'm so relieved that you finally woke up. We were afraid you'd be in that bed forever. Forgive me, you're in the Tendo dojo." She got up and made a slight bow. Ryoga now had a better look at her. She was about his age, but slightly shorter. She had long black hair down her back. "I'm Akane Tendo." "Ry...Ryoga." He said, then another two people burst in. One was an adult man, with a moustache, and similar long black hair, he was dressed in a black gi. Behind him was an girl who looked like she was probably Akane's sister. She had the same long hair, but with a brown tinge. She was dressed in a nice dress, and apron, as if she'd been cooking before being pulled up here. "Ah, you finally woke up." The man said. "You gave us all quite a scare." "It's so nice to see that you're alright." The woman said. "I'm Kasumi. This is my father, Soun Tendo." "I'm Ryoga Hibiki. How long have I been here?" "You've been in that bed for the last three and a half weeks." Soun said. "You crashed the ceiling of the dojo roof." "For which we expect you to pay for." Another voice said, as another teenager entered. Unlike her family she had short hair, done in a helmet style. She wore jeans and a t-shirt, along with a blue jacket. She had a very shrewd look on her face. "'Sigh' This is my sister Nabiki." Akane said. "And just ignore her." "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause you any trouble." Ryoga said. "Oh, it's perfectly alright, but how did you come to crash through our roof?" Kasumi asked. Ryoga strained for a minute, trying to call up the memories of what had happened. "Ranma Saotome. I was fighting Ranma Saotome," Ryoga searched through his memories again. "But we were interrupted by a woman. She attacked me and sent me flying into the sky." "Really? A woman did this?" Nabiki asked. Just cause Nabiki cared about profit more than life itself, didn't mean she didn't have a streak of feminism in her. "Yes. Now I must go through the trouble of finding Saotome again. I must defeat him, or I will have no honor." Ryoga said, suddenly standing on the bed. He suddenly felt a rash of pain go through his side, as his injuries flared up. He clutched at his side and crumbled back to the bed. "Easy there. We brought Doctor Tofu in, and he says you've got some broken ribs. You better take it easy." Akane helped him back to a lying position. "Would you like some tea, Mister Hibiki?" Kasumi asked, sweatly. "Um, sure." The eldest sister went to prepare some. "Well, I better go calculate how much you owe us. There's the roof, and then there's all this caring for you, and..." "Nabiki! Would you please stop it!?" Akane said. Nabiki huffed and turned around, leaving the room. "I'm sorry, she gets like that sometimes." Akane turned to her father and saw a cold look on his face. She recoiled slightly, she had never seen her father look so...intense. After what seemed like forever, he spoke. "Ranma Saotoma?" He asked. "Yes." Said Ryoga. "Ranma Saotome...would he by any chance be related to Genma Saotome?" He asked quietly. "I think so. I seem to remember Ranma saying his father was named Genma." Ryoga answered. Soun stood up then, and silently left the room. "What was that about?" Ryoga asked the youngest Tendo. "Beats me." ************* Soun Tendo quietly walked away from the room, his face not showing any of whatever emotion he felt at the time. He went to his bedroom, and looked through the closet, pulling out a old picture album. Inside, he looked at all the pictures he had collected over the years. He turned to a section near the beginning and saw many pictures of himself as a young man, along side a man wearing a white head turban, with black hair. Soun's face grew stone cold at the sight. "Genma Saotome. To think I once considered you my best friend. After all these years I can finally find you, and then....." "TENDO!!! Come down here!!" a loud voice came from below. Soun cringed in fear. If only Genma hadn't betrayed him..... "Soon, Genma, I'll find you, and make you pay for the torture you put me through." ************* Here, floating above Yokohama, a stealth field keeping it invisible to the human eye, a space shuttle scans the city below. "Yagami. How goes the scanning for Ryu-oh?" Kiyone Makibi asked her ships computer. "Still running scanner. Results still negative." "Great." Kiyone laid back in her seat, enjoying the silence. When you had a partner like Mihoshi Kiramitsu, silence was few and far between. "Baakkrrraasshhh!!" Kiyone winced as a crashing sound came from the back. She sighed, reminding herself she knew it was too good to last. "Kkkkiiiyyyoonnneee!!" Came a loud voice from the back. "I broke the Automatic Tri-phonalator again!!" Kiyone fought down the urge to kill, and went to the back. Mihoshi Kiramitsu, the bubbly blonde who passed for her partner, stood over a pile of ruined parts, tears pouring out of her eyes. "I'm sorry, Kiyone, I was trying to fix the broken rotator on it, but I guess I twisted to hard and it...." "It's alright, it's alright." Kiyone waved it away and went about picking up the pieces. "Look, you go finish scanning, and I'll handle this." Mihoshi grinned and skipped up to the bridge. Kiyone bent down and began picking up the pieces. It had always been this way, she would try to clean up after Mihoshi's blunders. Ever since they graduated together from the academy, Mihoshi had hung around Kiyone and held her back. Because of her partner, Kiyone had been held back from almost every promotion that had come up. Still, despite how bad her career had been going, she had gotten a plum assignment like this one, if they found Princess Ayeka, a promotion would be on the way. "Vvrroossshhh!!" Kiyone was flung to the side, as Yagami seemed to start to dip and swerve. "Mihoshi!!" Kiyone dropped the broken pieces and ran to the bridge. Mihoshi was sitting in the command seat frantically pushing buttons. "What happened!?" "Well, I tried to get Yagami's scanning speed upped, so I started to mess around with the speed oscillator, and gauge, but I guess...I pressed the wrong button." Mihoshi whimpered. Kiyone sat down next to her and began to press several buttons. "Mihoshi, the speed oscillator is what calculates the SHIPS SPEED!!! NOT THE SCANNERS!!!" ".....Oh." "Come on, come on! There's gotta be a way to stop it!?" Kiyone continued to frantically press buttons, but everything came up negative. "Stealth fields, losing power!!" Yagami spoke. "WHAT!?" Kiyone and Mihoshi both said as one. By now, the ship was slamming around out of control, and in a few minutes their stealth field would vaporize and normal earthlings would see an out of control spaceship. "Kiyone! Do something!!" Mihoshi screamed. "I can't, the control's won't respond!" Kiyone yelled back. Yagami slammed around the sky, until finally slammed forward on a collision course with what looked like a castle on the edge of town. ************* "How are you feeling my sister?" Tatewaki Kuno stepped into his sisters room, where she still lay on her bed, a bandage wrapped around her head. "I...I am feeling better, my brother, but I must regain my strength, so I may make that fowl monstrous wench pay for her attack on me." Kodachi said, her mouth twisting into a scowl as she said so. "Do not worry yourself, sister, none may embarrass a Kuno and live to tell the tale, you shall have your vengeance against the wicked demoness, as I shall have my revenge against Masaki." Tatewaki said, holding his fist up in a dramatic pose. "I still don't understand how she just appeared out of thin air like that." Kodachi said thoughtfully. "Did you not hear what I said, Sister?" Said Tatewaki. "She is a demonness, it was the result of her evil magics." "Pardon me, sir?" An old butler entered the bedroom. "What is it?" Tatewaki asked. "There is something heading this way right now." "What do you mean? What is it?" "I am unsure, sir. Perhaps, you should take a look?" Kuno humphed, and mumbled something about incompetent help. "Very well." Kuno followed the butler down to the main lobby of castle Kuno. In all of Japan there where few houses who could match the beauty of Castle Kuno. It was decorated with many beautiful paintings and tapestries, statues of the various Kuno family members stood on pedestals, themselves stationed among the velvet carpet. Kuno felt a measure of pride at how well he had kept the home up since their father opted to spend so much time at the school. "Here sir." The butler opened the double doors, and Tatewaki stepped outside. He looked up and his eyes rose in shock. "What the...!!??" ************* "Today's the day." Ryoko sat in an easy chair in the Masaki family living room, with what looked like a brown egg sitting on the inn table in front of her. It had been a few weeks since her battle with Princess Ayeka and her ship the Ryu-oh. It was during this fight that her partner/ship Ryo-ohki was destroyed. Leaving behind this small egg. Some of the people living in this house, it was already stuffed to the brink with herself, Tenchi, Nobuyuki, Ayeka, her sister Sasami, Katsuhito, Ranma, Ukyo, and, Ryoko bristled slightly at this name, Shampoo. That Chinese slut had been hanging onto her Tenchi ever since she decided that Tenchi was her fiancée. Some stupid old Amazon law saying that since he "beat" her in battle, she was bound to marry him. "Crack..." Ryoko pulled herself away from thoughts of cutting off the Amazon's head, as she heard a cracking sound. She grinned, as she felt a small presence in her mind. Cracks began to appear in the egg. The presence got stronger and stronger as she felt the mental link form. Small pieces of egg shell were flung aside as a small furry foot came out. Ryoko held a hand to her head, she hated how the process of reforging her mental link to Ryo-ohki gave her a headache. "miya..." Ryoko looked at the egg, hearing the small sound. Finally the shell shattered, revealing the small baby form of Ryo-ohki. The small creature lifted it's head, lacking even the strength to open it's eyes. Ryoko spoke to her small ship through the mental link. Reminding it where it was. She lifted the small creature up, and nuzzled its fur against her cheek. "My little Ryo-ohki." She said. "Hey, Ryoko, what's up?" Ryoko jerked as Ukyo walked up behind her. "Uh...nothing, nothing at all." She said, grinning. "What's that?" Ukyo moved around to the front, getting a view of the top of the small creatures head. "Oh, this?" Ryoko asked, for some reason, she felt reluctant to show Ukyo the newborn Ryo-ohki. The small cabbit had always been the only real friend she could remember. She slowly moved her hands away, so Ukyo could see. "Oh! It finally hatched." Ukyo said, picking up the small creature. The cabbit sniffed her hand, its eyes still closed. "It's so cute!" "Miya?" Ryo-ohki asked. "What's so cute?" Sasami asked, as she walked in. "Look at this. Ryo-ohki finally hatched." Sasami took the cabbit from Ukyo's hands, her own eyes lighting up at the sight of the creature. It finally opened it's eyes and stared at the little girl. "Miya." It said happily. "She said hello." Ryoko said. "You can understand her?" Sasami asked. "We're mentally linked." "Oh. She's so cute!" Sasami giggled as she looked over the cabbit. "Miya!" "Let's go get you something to eat." Sasami placed Ryo-ohki on her shoulder, and walked towards the kitchen, followed by Ukyo and Ryoko. "Let's see. What to feed her?" Sasami looked around until she saw a vegetable basket on the counter. "I know!" Sasami pulled a carrot from the basket and handed it to the small cabbit. She sniffed it a few times, before her eyes lit up. "MIYA!!" She grabbed it and began munching. In a few seconds it was gone. "My, she's a hungry little thing." Ukyo pulled another carrot out and gave it to the cabbit, it to was gone in a few seconds. Ryo-ohki finally took the initiative herself and lept right into the vegetable bin, in a few seconds she had managed to detect every carrot in it, and in a few more minutes all of them where gone. "Oh dear, I was going to use those for supper." Said Sasami. "It's okay Kid. I'll handle it." Said Ukyo, beaming. Ryoko looked over at the Oknomiyaki cook for a moment. You would have to have been blind not to see it. She was happy that Sasami wasn't cooking. In fact, she seemed to always get more cheery when she cooked instead of the young princess. "The only one who don't seem to notice was Sasami.....and maybe Ranma," thought Ryoko "Course that's not a big surprise." Ryoko chuckled. "C'mon Ryo-ohki, let's go see if Tenchi's on his way home yet." "Miya." The cabbit jumped onto her mistress shoulder and both of them phased away. Ukyo turned away and towards the stove. "Well, I better get started." "I'll help." Said Sasami. "Oh, that's okay, Sasami. I'll handle it." Ukyo said. Almost shooing the little girl away. "Well, okay." ************* "Aaaaaaggggghhhhhh." A long moan escaped the Yagami's cockpit. Kiyone Makibi pushed a piece of debris off of her, and tried to get up. "Ouch, that hurt, Kiyone." The squeaky voice spoke up next to her. Mihoshi sat up, and Kiyone found her partner essentially unscratched. She grumbled and worked her way back to the main exit. "Come on Mihoshi, let's see where we are." Kiyone hit the button to opent he exit and the door whooshed open. "We have to see how bad the damage was, and if we can make repairs." Kiyone turned around and was abruptly met with a bokken tip pointed towards her throat. "FOUL BEAST! YOU DARE INVADE THE HOME OF TATEWAKI KUNO!? SLAYER OF EVIL, AND THE GREATEST WARRIOR IN ALL OF HISTOREEeeeeeee....." Tatewaki Kuno stood before them, his kendo uniform dirty and ripped in some places, his hair ruffled. For a few moments, his face held an unthinking rage, but all of a sudden it seemed to seep away, and the bokken dropped from his hands. He suddenly dropped down on one knee before Kiyone, and took her hand. "My lady, please forgive my outrageous words. It is obvious that one with your beauty could not have been responsible for this grievous accident, but surely the spirits which rule the wind and air have erred grievously." Kuno said. "Uh...right." Was Kiyone's only response. While it was true she could think of one evil spirit responsible for her misery, and here it came now. "Wow Kiyone, who's that?" Mihoshi asked. Kuno looked up and his gaze fell on the blonde, and he was immediately over at her side, on the same knee. "Truly the gods have blessed me, allowing me to see two such visions of loveliness." He said, kissing her hand. "Oh, that's so nice of you to say, I always thought that the color of my uniform really brought out the color of my eyes, but there was this one person who said that my uniform looked grungy, but I had just gone through a mudslide at the time so it was probably understandable, you see we where chasing this crook called Hiakru the muddy and he had his hide-out near this old river so we had to..." Kiyone suddenly put a hand over her partners mouth. Kuno finally got up from his kneeling position, and stood straight before them, from out of nowhere a breeze showed up, creating a wonderful dramatic effect, as it blew his hair and kendo uniform slightly. "I am Tatewaki Kuno, greatest warrior of Japan, embodiment of the spirits of great heroes of the past, he who shall smite the wicked, and remove evil from this world, I am...The Blue Thunder!!" He raised the Bokken dramatically to the shy, and a crack of thunder sounded. "Wow, it's so nice to meet you, Tatewaki Kuno. I'm Galactic Police detective, Mihoshi Kiramitsu, and this is my partner, Kiyone Makibi." Said Mihosh. "Mihoshi, and Kiyone, more fitting names for goddesses I will never find." He said. All of a sudden, A ribbon came flying out of the shadows, to encircle, Kiyone around her throat. Kuno turned in rage. "Sister! Release her now!" Kodachi stepped out of the shadows, her hand holding the handle on the other end of the ribbon. "Release her, brother!? This foul wench is responsible for destroying the front of grand castle Kuno! She shall suffer from my wrath!" "I....didn't...do...it!" Kiyone wheezed through the ribbon. "Please, don't hurt my partner, I'm the one who crashed the ship." Mihoshi said through her tears. "Ohhohohohohohohohoho!!" So it is you who is the victim of the Black Rose!" In a flash the ribbon was removed from Kiyone's throat, and a volley oc needle shaped clubs was headed towards Mihoshi. Mihosh jerked and dodged, and found, to her surprise, that she had dodged every one. "ENOUGH!! Sister!! These women are guests! You will not be attacking them." Tatewaki said. "I see brother, two new propositions for you!?" She asked mockingly. Tatewaki's face grew red with rage. "As I said before, these two are guests. Sasuke!!" All of a sudden, a small form dropped from the ceiling, revealing the Kuno's ninja retainer, Sasuke. "Yes sir?" "Find these two some rooms." Kuno said. "At once." With that, he was gone. Kodachi through a venomous glance at both detectives, but it was obvious her brother had made up his mind. "Miss Kiyone, Miss Mihoshi, you both are guests here, until your vessel can be repaired." Kuno said, taking Kiyone's hand, and leading them both away. "Uh...thanks." Said Kiyone. "That's very kind of you!" Chirped Mihoshi happily. Kodachi watched them leave. She grimaced as she remembered all the other woman who Kuno had made guests. Of course, all of their stays ended the same way. The Black Rose grinned evilly. Perhaps this would be entertaining. ************* This is China. It is here among the Amazon village of Joketsuzoku, that there is much consternation and activity. One of the high elders is preparing a journey to Japan. Here in one of the High elders homes, some of the largest in the village, that a small elderly woman packs her things. Despite her height and age, she is one of the most powerful fighters on the planet, if not the most powerful. "Elder Kuh Lon, is this journey truly necessary?" A servant asked. The woman turned. "Yes, The last message I received from Xian Pu has me somewhat unsettled, it said that she was very close to the woman who defeated her, she should have sent a letter to me telling if she was successful or not. That is not like her." "You are worried?" "Slightly. But I am aware of Xian Pu's abilities, she can defend herself quite easily, But I...never mind. My reasons are my own." "But your certain you can track her down?" "Positive! I have been tracking down people for the last 200 years! Most of them where much more skilled than my great granddaughter! You doubt my abilities?" She said the last part with a dangerous glint in her eyes. "O...of course not elder! I would never doubt you." "Good! Prepare my bags then, I leave immediately!" "Yes." ************* This is also China, but in a much colder, and darker place. Here a somber form sits atop a black throne, his entire body encased in shadows. Before him, kneeling on the ground are two young women. "So Kuh Lon is leaving to find her Great granddaughter?" The figure asked. "Yes, my lord." One of the women asked. "This is an unexpected problem." He said, his voice deep, and slightly gravelly. "We cannot afford to lose track of Kuh Lon, it would be detrimental to the plan." "What do you suggest my lord?" One of the women asked. "......Follow her, no! Accompany her as her honor guard. She may be against it at first, but will give in, eventually. Keep track of her, and take a communication crystal to keep in tough with me." "Yes my lord. Shall we prepare to leave?" "Do so, and quickly. Now go." Both woman stood up, and in a flash, both where gone. The man on the throne turned and saw another man carrying a tray of glasses. Hepicked up a glass of white liquid from the tray, and drank it down. "The plan proceeds, with them following her, it will only be a small detriment. They are accomplished and powerful, perfect Amazons, she will suspect nothing." "Yes my lord." The butler took the glass and left. The man on the throne leaned back. "Soon Kuh Lon, soon." TO BE CONTINUED. NEXT CHAPTER: THE AMAZONS ARE HERE, AND THE INTRODUCTION OF HAPPOSAI!! ************* AUTHOR'S NOTES: I am incredible sorry for how late this is. I just ended a serious creative slump, which struck me half way through this chapter. Once again I am very sorry, and the chapters will be out sooner from now on. Also, I want to welcome aboard my pre-reader for this series, Lord Talon. Welcome!