Home Coming by imortis Ranma ducked into a crack in the wall as he ran around the corner and breathed shakily through his nose to cut down on the noice, he prayed it didn't hear him. It'd been too long and he'd worked to hard to let this monster stop him. He waited until the thing was almost past before he came out and launched the blast "TIGER BOMB!!!" ranma shouted grinning that such a small blast had taken out the giant lizard. It had almost literally consumed it whole, leaving only a red haze in the air. Ranma looked both ways as he came out of the rock face and started running for the stair case he remembered so well even though it had been some years since he had seen it. He unslung his bag after chopping the only man lizard thing he found to bits with his sword. He looked around as he pulled out his supplies and quickly started setting up. Oh yes he could feel the energy that had sent him, oh so long ago, ranma still felt it! Oh how foolish it had seemed to him then. He and akane had just confessed their love for each other a few weeks earlier, they had wanted to wait, let things cool down first. They had come across an antique shop and gone in to it thinking they could sneek into the back for a private kiss. Ranma pulled akane back with him and leaned her against the book cases end before starting to kiss her passionately. she pushed him back grinning "ranma I wish you knew what it was like being the one considered the push over all the time, I wish you had a chance to learn that your fist won't save you in some battles. I wish you'd learn that sometimes a team can do a job where one man can't." Ranma winced "tall order love, harsh." he comented then looked up feeling something weird. Akane slapped his arm lightly "you know what I mean! I just hate the fact that I have to play the weakling even after everything you've taught me." Ranma nodded turning about and picked up a strangely glowing crystal "whys this thing glowing?" he asked. She took it and the light flaired "granted. It says granted. Whats that mean?" she looked up to see a slack faced ranma fall through the wall and disappear. Oh ya, he'd learned those things, he mused setting up his last warding stones and started weaving the spell. He had woken up on this very turret, he had barely escaped with his life. Those first years he'd barely gone a weak without someone beating him within an inch of his life because most of his power had been stolen along with his ki. He had learned that to take something head on and exspecting them to feel your punches was a suicide run, he had learned that lesson with pain and months of agony. But he had stuck in there! He'd worked on the softer parts of the art he had witnessed every now and then and worked hard in learning them. Then his luck had changed, a passing soft shoe, the name given the ninja of this world, although they are like royalty here, had seen him take his revenge on a man that had beaten him once and dared think he could impress the woman he was with by whiping up on the weakling. Ranma had made him knock himself out against the walls. After that he learned that it took greater strength then he ever imagined to make his normal powers work in this place, plus the star of the moon goddess. Ranma touched the star on his forhead in prayer, hoping this would work. Suddenly a light flaired and a woman was standing on the air in front of him "why would you leave me then?" Ranma bowed to her "I have to mistress, this is not my home, i can never be happy here, you are the only comfort I have in this world. I can feel this place eating away at me, with each passing year I feel myself weaken. I was not born of this world, and because of that, it will not allow me death, and it seems power isn't something it will let me have for long. I must return home where I belong, where I can live a normal life. Would you have me become less then a living body here? Unable to lift a finger in my defence yet able to feel their weapons rip at my flesh, knowing with ever growing despair that I will wake up from what I plead will be the end?" She sighed "but I will miss you. My favorite acolyte. I watched you fight your way up from being knocked aside by the lowest street person to being able to best my high priest. And the whole time you never once felt pride in what you've become." Ranma clutched his hands to his chest "but for what did I do it!? To return home! Why feel pride when that which makes you live isn't even in the world with you? Where all the hope I had was a cliff face that traveled to the home of the gods even! There I was down at the bottom learning the sin of pride. I had great pride mistress! In my world none could best me in a real fight! Then I was cast down into this world for my sin. At long last I can return to my home! Please, I want to go home." She touched his head when he had broken down and started crying "I shall not keep you from it if you wish it so much. I love you my friend, you have aided me many times. Here." she held up her hand and a fist size diamond smoothed to a clear shine sitting inside a cup of silver appeared "this will tell you where you are just by holding it up to the sky. I bless you on this trip lord ranma." she murmured kissing his forhead. Ranma smiled through the graying beard on his face "you are so beautiful mistress.... if you ever have need of me, contact me through this." She nodded touching the globe "I wiil my friend, now hurry, someone has found your presense and is coming to investigate." she murmured letting him go to finish his work. He jumped up and set about finishing. Akane sat under the tree with ukyo and nibiki staring off into space. "Come on akane, its been six months since he disappeared, you know he'll be back." nibiki murmured softly. Ukyo got a bitter look on her face looking away. Akane looked at nibiki in a faint attempt at suprise "you nibiki? You've never offered hope before." Nibiki sighed "I know, and I'm sorry, but I can't stand looking at the dead shell of my sister anymore! If this keeps up I'm going to curse the day saotome first came to us again. If theres one thing I know about ranma, its that hes always come home to you akane." she said smirking. All of them rolled their eyes seeing a grandly posing kuno struting towards them. "Ah! A trio of beauties all under a tree awaiting my presence." he intoned in a softly lilting voice. He nelt down by akane and layed a hand on her shoulder boldly. Akane didn't seem to care "its so good to see you so happy with that sorcerer gone. my love what? Don't tell me you still morn the time we were apart?" Kuno was saved from being beaten, by the air to the side exsploding in a flash of light and a man with long flying grayish black hair clutching something to him dashed across the school yard out of it. He turned back and put down what he was holding "hide loki!" he comanded the small thing that unfolded to reveal a small winged dragon it rambled at him softly. The man looked back at him "hide I'll be fine!" Suddenly a much larger dragon that walked like a man stepped through the portal "you will not escape us that easy moon lord! This be the second time you dared tresspass on dragon keep." akane and the others gapped at the creature, not even taking notice of the man until light flaired from him "you forget your place monster! I may have come to your world as nothing, but I have left it a lord in my own right, and I have come home! Already I feel what was mine returning to me!" He jumped up twenty feet and kicked it in the face twenty times before back flipping away "oh yes! Let me show you the power everyone was so happy to laugh at me over. FLAME STRIKE!!" he roared thrusting his hands in the air and the dragon spread his wings roaring in pain as the pillar of fire desended on it and burned away half the scales on its body "that is truely clever lord saotome! Let me show you why I am dragon lord!" Ranma raised hands burning with ki and launched himself through the air at him "sorry scale face, the gates closing and your kind stink when you die CHESTNUT FIST!!!" he called landing four thousand glowing ki punches that snapped scale like it was wood. He then switched to his leg and it flashed forward with blue ki flairing with every hit. the dragon screamed crashing half threw the gate and clutched at him bleeding body as he pulled himself back through the portal "know this saotome! You have angered many lords and quite a few gods in the last few years, you have not seen the last of us!" Ranmas front flaired with light as a large ball of ki flaired in front of him "hey this is an old one dragon lord MOUKO TAKABISHA!!" he launched the blast back through the portal and sank to his knees watching it close "fair thee ill delira, may I never see you again." he said hearing a loud rumbling as the portal disappeared and grinned "can't follow me now!!" he crowed falling to his back in the grass. He spread his arms and looked at the sky "I'm home, finally after all this time.... I've come home." Ranma started laughing through his tears as he pulled the half globe map from his pocket "and where are we loki? earth is as large a place as delira." he comented to the dragon as he hopped to his shoulder. he looked at the globe when it flaired and the beautiful long haired blond appeared in the same dress he had just seen her in "mistress! Why are you here?" She smiled at him "I wished to see the home you would leave me for. Do you not recognize this institution?" ranma looked where she had waved and stood frozen in shock "this was my school! Wow! After all these years it is still standing?" he exclaimed. She laughed "drop your age lord ranma, you will find a surprise." Ranma bowed slightly "yes mistress." he murmured cupping his hands together and felt the swirling power his chanting called wash away the disguise he had worn for some years and he was lifted off the ground a little as he grew taller, returning to his full height. Ranma twirled about a little after it was gone grinning "you don't know how good it is to feel the sun on your face after years of wearing that beard." He looked down hearing the small dragon cheep at him and laughed holding his arm out "do you like small one? For once you see me in my real form!" he shouted happily throwing his hands up in the air and spun about a little then stopped "well hell, its been so long, what the hell do I do now loki? Maybe I can take an ad out in the paper? Wanted, position and power close to that once held on alternate world, training in gaurdianship of the northern wards, roving priest of the moon goddess and ronin master on four continents and former heir of the anything goes school of martial arts. What do you think? Think that'll work?" the dragon scrambled up the proffered arm and babbled at him for a second before shrugging. Ranma pouted "ya your right, maybe I can wash dishes somewhere. Hey want to see if the tendo ke is still around?" He hopped on ranmas head and screamed happily at the air he was breathing "yes the air is sweet my friend!" he said happily jumping to the top of the fence and bounding into the sky his shape dwindling away with no sign of heading back towards land. Nibiki looked wided eyed, all of them were wide eyed ever since he had appeared. Ranma landed in the yard hard and gapped around at it "its still here!" he exclaimed walking around and stood before the pond "after eighty years the house is the same!" he almost shouted turning about and fell backwards onto his ass seeing kisumi staring at him in shock. He covered his mouth pointing with a shaking hand "you... I.... are you.... maybe kisumis... daughter? Grand daughter?" he asked badly shaken by the sight of her. He looked up hearing the gate open and scrambled back away from a gasping akane standing there staring at him. Ranma scrambled to his feet and quickly looked through his pockets before holding up the globe "mistress!" he shouted holding it up to the sun. He looked seeing soun and genma come to the porch with nodoka who was brushing her hands off. Ranma dropped the globe backing away quickly from genma when he came out into the yard. Ranma reached into his coat and pulled out a sword covered in blue fire warding them off as the goddess walked through the fence "my, is this how you greet your family dear?" ranma flicked his eyes to her "don't trifle with me goddess! I gave up on ever seeing my family again sixty years ago. what trickery is this?!" he demanded lowering the sword. She smirked "can't I gift my favorite man?" she asked pouting. He covered his face with his hand "what did you do? The spells I used should have taken me to a place where none of this exists." She grinned biting her finger "I know, I... changed them. Surprise! In this world you've only been gone six months! Aren't you happy!" ranma dropped his sword "you told me time travel spells were impossible!!" he protested. She bowed "thats were being a goddess comes in handy my friend! Are you happy?" Ranma gripped the sides of his head shaking it "this has to be a joke! Their dead, their all dead...." he declaired sinking to his knees "so long.... please don't torment me..." he was sobbing now. The dragon hopped to his back and started crying in distress as he pulled at ranmas hands. The goddess looked baffled at the family starting to slowly gather around the weeping man. "I do not understand ranma, why are you not happy I have done this?" she asked sitting next to him. He sat up and looked at her having gained control of his sobbing "don't you get it goddess?! I worked myself to death and beyond for twenty years looking for a way to get home, to return to my family. Then I realized, twenty years, they would be as far apart from me as I was from them, hell some of them were probably dead! I gave up! Understand? I gave up at ever returning to my family. I've done some bad things, don't you get that? How can I return home after what I've done?" She looked shocked for a minute then laughed "what you've done!? What is it you've done that makes you so bad?" she demanded. Ranma looked down finding that question a rather hard one to answer "I killed eight thousand people in one hour!" She rolled her eyes "they were trolls trying to over come the stockades of my biggest city." he blinked nodding absently "so they were..... ah! I killed half a million babies in one night!" He winced hearing his mother gasp in horror at that "don't you remember ranma? They were the offspring of the demon hezul with the fifty dragon females he raped then murdered after they layed the eggs." ranma nodded scratching his head looking for something bad "oh ya, forgot about that. uh..... I'm a ronin! Have been for the past eighty years, I I've lied, I've cheated, I- I've... stolen.... I joined the ninja class of that world!" He nodded thinking he had her. She blinked then leaned towards him "ranma, the ninja are couriers, they are respected the world round because they can be relied upon to deliver the message they have been charged to send. Being a ninja is an honorable job there." Ranma grumped "curse those flighty fools! Uh.... I stole someones shoes!" he said the last weakly and he knew what her answer was "because he stole them from you first." he sighed "ya I thought they looked familiar." Ranma sat there for a minute thinking about it idly watching kisumi playing with his dragon "what about the time I killed that hooker that was annoying me?" he asked. The goddess was getting annoyed "she was a life leech and you were sent to kill it." he nodded "oh, thats why she wasn't so nice. Ok, I give up, you tell me why I'm upset about coming home to my family." She rolled her eyes "could it be because you feel guilty for getting over them?" she asked. He frowned "hey thats not fair! I worked for twenty years trying to find a way home! Then for another sixty to get the answer. Aren't I allowed to be angry at finding out all I had to do was get a god to send me back? I went on with my life because I thought there was no way to get back within their life times. The only reason I wanted to go back when I did was because I wanted to be buried on my own world." he looked down closing his eyes. He blinked looking to his side and lost himself in akanes eyes as she smiled slightly at him "we missed you ranma." she whispered softly. ranma blinked at her for a minute then looked down "this..... this is a rather lot.... to get used to akane, I haven't been this emotional in so many years.... years of dreaming of this..... and waking up to pain so unbarable...." he broke off closing his eyes "I guess..... I'm just waiting to wake up." Ranma sat at the table feeling bemused at the normal manners of everyone there. He blinked to the left seeing his father go for his food and reacted the way he always did. Genma eeped barely drawing his hand back as the axe embedded itself in the table top between them he blinked at ranma over top of the axe head, he hadn't seen the boy move. Ranma stared at him "I've been at dinner tables where doing that would cause you to be dragged off and had all your skin peeled away, then they would separate the muscles from your bones one at a time until your just a pile of bones and a neatly stacked pile of meat." he sat back "know what you do in a city where thats common practice?" he asked him. He shook his head looking pale. Ranma looked back at his dinner smirking "have a vegtable salad." Ranma sat out on the porch watching the moon swing past and chuckled "whats on your mind?" the goddess said reappearing. Ranma looked at her "your not going home are you?" he chuckled. She grinned "of course not! I told you, your my favorite of all my priests, none of them had your spirit." He sighed leaning against the wall "so what are you going to do? I think the moon goddess job has been taken." he pulled out his pipe and puffed on it gently before noticing the old man blinking at him he looked back wondering where he had seen the old man before. He took another drag on his pipe before looking back at the moon "you never really notice...... but the moon?" he looked at the man with a smirk "shes cruel, shes cold and if you can swing it, the greatest ally you'll ever need." After a self conscious night, the idea of sleeping with an animal desturbed him more then he was willing to admit, he almost blew up the house when a hand on his shoulder woke him up. he blinked a few times until he ajusted to the sight of akanes worried glance. "May I help you? Has the battle started already?" She blinked at him "ranma? Its me, akane." she said gently touching his face. He drew back sharply "are you one of the goddesses nubile young beauties sent to tempt me? I must admit you are one of the best looking of all of her flock but I must restrict myself to meer human females since your kind tend to turn good warriors into lovesick dimwits that can only mumble dazedly about 'her heavenly beauty'." She blinked at him for a minute until the goddess appeared laughing uproariously at them as well as everyone gapping at him in the doorway "he said dear, to put it plainly, your over welming beauty has struck me dumb and I can't stop babbling." she giggled sitting on air. Ranma snapped his fingers at her "it is that exactly! I must confess that my memories of last night were the same as that I might have after explaining the fine points of a shot glass to a beer tankard." The goddess chuckled akane "he means he drank everyone under the table and his glass started talking to him." ranma nodded "aye and what a vile sense of humor he had too! Everywhere I went I seem to meet the same one....." he broke off losing himself again in akanes eyes. He sighed, a small goofy grin creased his face. The goddess jumped on it "ha!! I knew it!" He looked just as questioning as the rest of them "knew what mistress?" she grinned evilly at him "remember that wager we made concerning a certain priest and his cast iron chastity?" he frowned thinking hard "no. As far as I can remember none of your preists were above a street succubis." She looked coltish "oh? You mean you did meet selena that night?" she purred. Ranma blinked "don't be absurd, you know I never... oh, you meant me." he looked down blushing "nope. Can't remember the wager." he said after a minute. She grumbled to herself for a second then stood strait "I bet you that one day you would meet someone capable of turning your mind to mush with just a look, someone you'd fall for the first time she smiled at you. You bet me you'd die a lonely old man with nothing to speak of in the way of family." He blinked for a minute before looking back at akane, the smile returned. After a few minutes he heard someone giggling and looked up. He blinked at his mother in confusion for a second then looked at the goddess "one thing, what does that bet have to do with anything? We made that bet sixty years ago under a bridge while hiding from the hordes of the sixth ring of hell, I can't believe you remember really, you were quite delusional from being burned by hell fire." She grinned pleased "oh you do remember! It was so heroic, he grabbed up my sword and threw himself into the middle of them! It took three days for the burns to heal and he was still fighting! There were more dead demons on the field then living ones. Of course, by then they were overwelming him, but that didn't matter, I summoned a cadre of seraphim to relieve some of the strain on my greatest of preists." she hugged ranma from the side, he was embarressed by the story "so what makes you think you won that bet?" She let him go and grinned impishly "the terms of the bet was that you would find someone you could love with my help. Look! You've found her!" she declaired in glorious triumph. ranma smirked at akane for a minute "that can go either way mistress, I was in love with her long before I met you." Luna shrugged "so? You still found her with my help." ranma opened his mouth to protest but couldn't find an answer. He looked disgruntled for a few minutes and she murmured soothingly at him as she dumped a bucket of water over his head. Akane gasped as his clothes melted away as he changed and instead of his dark many pocketed pants and shirt, she was covered, barely, in flimsy gauze like silk and nothing else. Ranma started grumbling to herself seeing the costume "come on! I don't wanna do the morning rites!!" She looked at him sternly "just be glad I'm not summoning the preists." she said snapping her fingers. They all disappeared from the room only to reappear on the porch with ranma in the yard. She glared at the goddess "I'm not performing the morning consumation, I'll just tell you now!" she clapped her hands at her "dance! Celebrate the morning come." everyone looked up as the gate opened and the sound of running feet. She looked up and eeked seeing kuno and his sister. She brought the silk raps up and started dancing. Luna sighed in contentment seeing the way she almost disappeared as she turned into a whirl wind of beautiful limbs and the twirling silk "oh! What a magnifacent way to greet your love!" kuno bawled charging the spinning mass. The goddess snapped her fingers and the wannabe samurai flew back to smash into the wall which held him in place "to interfere with the dance of the morning is tantamount to death. Stand away peasant!" "What right do you- irk!" he shut up when a piece of rock compressed over his throat. Suddenly light burst forth from ranma and she rose magistically into the air as a golden tornado rose up around her. Ranma twirled faster as a humming sound came from the tornado "akane, would you be willing to help ranma with this next part? He would try to kill me if I asked anyone else. This part isn't easy to finish without a preist to stablize the fluxing power." Akane looked worried "what do I do?" luna smiled "just follow you instincts, I'll take care of the rest dear!" she twirled her fingers about then flung them at the girl in a flash of light. Akane spun into existence wearing darker silks, as naked as ranma "now that won't due." she murmured and suddenly she grew taller by two feet and developed into a very delectable man. he stood strait and bowed to the goddess before turning and walked strait into the vortex. The vortex burst outward as the dark cyclone that appeared rose up to the brighter one and merged with it. They heard a slight scream of pained pleasure, the two colors merged so well your couldn't tell them apart. After fourteen minutes both of them screamed in estasy sparking off a white fire burning inside the tornado. Luna was suddenly holding a large gold coated globe that winked at the vortex. In the blink of an eye a bolt of white energy burst forth and stabbed into the globe. Slowly the vortex started to disapate into nothing until the two were suddenly laying on the ground. Nodoka got up and walked quickly over to them. She gasped in horror looking down at them. The man akane had become was laying atop ranma hiding her nudity, it was the way ranma had her legs rapped around his that horrified her "you made them have sex!?" Everyone ran over and gapped at the blank look on ranmas face and the way the two were holding each other. The goddess laughed softly "oh my no! Its a very chancy thing, if the preist or the preistess do not want to then the vortex would have blown apart. Ranmas unique nature qualified him as both preist and preistess. When ranma was new to the preisthood they tried to trick him into performing the rites as a woman first, thinking to use her virginity as a nice way to butter me up. She killed the preist seconds before the consumation. I was understandably upset, at the arch preist! Ranma joined the preisthood on my urging, I was greatful to him for saving my life." She nelt by them and ran her fingers through ranmas hair "such a simple thing he did, punched a stranger in the back of the head for slapping a waitress. It made the man drop the spelled bottle he carried, the one the demon kings trapped me in. It wasn't until a few weeks later he remembered the bottle he'd absently pocketed." Ranma moaned softly opening her eyes "weres." she murmured softly. Luna grinned at her "yes it was!" she laughed. ranma nodded closing her eyes again "threw the bottle at an out cropping of rock over top of the weres nest. Next thing I know this really pissed woman having the worst kind of bad hair day appears. She tore into those weres like they were made of paper." She nodded "filthy animals. Hate them." Ranma ran her hands up akanes back until she was gripping his head in the traditional hold to break her neck "you don't want to do that ranma." luna said taking ahold of one of her hands. "Why not?" she asked looking at akanes face, her movements having woken him. She looked at his face for a minute before laying her head back sighing "I should have known. After grein you wouldn't choose just anyone to do this." She hugged him to her and looked up at the sky feeling tears in her eyes. he touched her face lightly "whats wrong?" he asked softly. she snapped her fingers and the two disappeared. Luna sighed "that boys just too modest for his own good." Ranma looked away from akane as they appeared on her bed "please let me up." she asked softly. Akane winced rolling off her and blinked in suprise seeing the thin trickle of blood that had gone down her leg "you were a virgin!" he gasped. Ranma picked up akanes robe "such things can be restored you know, thats not a very good way to test a persons purity." Akane grabbed up a towel and hurried after ranma down the hall and made it to the bathroom just as ranma was closing it "talk to me, please?" ranma looked at him for a minute before letting go of the door and stepped back "ok." She walked into the bathing area and turned on the cold water tap "can.... can I?" he asked softly. She looked at him for a minute "akane.... you shouldn't.... I don't have the right to be your fiance." she looked down "your.... I used to have this scar..." she ran her finger from her knees to half way up her belly "I should have realized... a girl by herself...." Akanes eyes widened "you... no!" ranma nodded "I couldn't do a damned thing about it. I finally pissed one of them off enough to kill me. He.... forced me onto his sword." she looked up at him "I was glad, it meant they couldn't use me anymore, I welcomed the pain. It made the dirty feeling go away. It happened two more times in the next five years, after that, no one wanted to touch me. then luna came, told me I didn't have to live with the scars, told me no one could touch me in the preisthood. I had regained a modicum of my fighting skill by then..." She looked down "they fixed me up good huh? They used their magic to restore me to the purest state I was in there, pretty much the minute I arrived. It was like it had never happened...." she looked at him and tears rolled down her face "but it did. It did, and I lost what ever innocence I had left. I don't deserve to be with you." He pulled her to him "ranma, I'll make you a deal." he sat down on the edge of the furo "how about we let me deside that. Let me deside who I want to be with." he pulled her tight against him "ok, I've desided." he lifted her face to look at him "I want you. I want my ranma. You are mine. I'm not giving you up for anyone. I don't care how you got back or what it took, your back, you came back to me. You came back." he blinked a few times finding tears in his eyes "you didn't desert me...." Ranma touched his face "do.... do you.... mean that?" he nodded and suddenly found he was holding a tigeress in heat. Ranma kissed him so passionately he felt dazed when it was over. But it wasn't. Ranma reached down and started jerking on his manhood "I need you." she breathed lustfully. he nodded holding her hips to keep them from falling. Ranma stopped suddenly and looked at him ashamed "what am I doing?" she pulled away from him and covered her face with her hands for a minute "I really am a pervert." she leaned her head on the wall. Akane put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her neck "how is it perverted to make love to the one that loves you?" he asked softly. Ranma leaned against him "is it really that simple?" he chuckled sitting down on a stool and started scrubbing her down. "It can be, if you let it." ranma moaned feeling his hand exsplore her lower lips with the cloth "that simple..." akane nodded kissing her neck as he dug the rag in harder then abandoned the cloth all together and pressed three fingers up her. ranma cried out gripping his legs as an orgasm started rumbling deep in her belly. akane grinned in pleasure that he could do this to ranma. ranma leaned forward enough to let him position his member and gripped the rail if the shower, throwing her legs over his knees and cried out in exstasy when he started bucking. When the two came out of the bathroom akane was female again, and wearing the same white silk dress that ranma was. The dress was basically two strips of cloth that went down to their ankles, secured at the waist by a red sash that traveled up their chests and wound around their necks from behind. Their ample cleavage was displayed in all its glory. Ranma crossed her arms as she stood in front of the dozing goddess "why did you do that to me? Why did you put me through it?" The goddess looked up at the two speculatively. "How did you keep from doing that for seventy years? I've never seen that rite performed with such potency before." Ranma shrugged "please answer my question. You know why I never did that, you saw the scars." she pointed out shakily. She looked at her for a minute "two reasons child. First off, its been seventy five years since it happened. The longer you hold onto the pain the more it would hurt when it comes out. And second..." she looked at her wearily "if you hadn't, I would have died later tonight." Ranma eyed bugged out "you've peeked my interest." she said sitting down. She smiled "ask yourself, what is the most constant thing of luna city? What is the one thing that will always be there?" ranma blinked for a minute in thought "the morning rites and the chanting." she nodded "ever wonder why?" ranma blinked for a minute thinking about it "no, it was a fixture, you don't question the stone under your feet or the golden tornados that greet the morning." she nodded "then i did my job well!" she said pleased. ranma waited. she smiled "the reason all gods have pretty much the same rites and rituals because they are acts of empowerment. we gods live off of those rites they sustain us in life by feeding us the energy we need to continue protecting our people." ranma blinked "so... i see. thats why you gave akane the shapeshifter spell." she nodded smiling "yes. i need at least two preists and preistesses to sustain me." she smiled at them "and here i have what i need in two!" ranma frowned sullenly as he grabbed up a bookbag "i do not see why i should go to school, i'm a hundred and three years old!" he complained to the two woman standing in front of him. "ranma you have only been gone six months, your still exspected to go to school." his mother said firmly. luna nodded "i wish you to learn well ranma, since the more you learn about your world the more i know, and let me tell you, your efforts to learn so far is rather pathetic. now stop screwing around and learn something!" she comanded. he grumbled for a minute before sighing "yes mom, mistress, i promise to learn everything they have to teach." nodoka nodded until luna yelled after him "and no leaching the information from the teachers minds!!" she said warningly. she chuckled looking back at nodoka "that boy is just way too good at doing things perfectly, he became arch bishop of luna city in only three years." she said proudly. she smiled weakly "is that good?" she asked. luna chuckled "that job takes dedication and a lifetime to get, normally thirty maybe fourty years of working at the lower ranks before you'd be considered." ranma smiled at akane and moved closer taking her hand "how are you feeling love?" he asked softly. she smiled squeezing his hand and leaned on him "i'm a lot happier then i have been for a while." she murmured. he smiled kissing her softly, absently pulling them to the side noting the jingling of a bell. he let go the kiss and blinked curiously at the angry purple haired girl riding the bike that had barely missed them "i say girl, watch who you hit with that thing! next time one might just punish you for such rudeness!" he barked sternly at her. she got even more angry at that and pulled out her maces. akane looked worried gripping his hand "ranma don't! if you upset her she'll run home to her grandmother." she pleaded. ranma blinked turning to her and ignored the girl "so this is some sort of weakling?" he asked curiously. she started to answer when she saw shampoo attacking and blinked as ranma easily held her off one handed while still focusing on her "uh.... well, her grandmother is an evil old witch that tormented you for the longest time, don't you remember?" he looked thoughtfully at the sky as he snatched one of the maces from the girl and belted her across the face with it, sending her smashing into the wall. "no. i remember your family, and i remember my family, if it was really importent i would remember it, right?" he winked at her smirking impishly. she looked at shampoo and smirked at the shock and hurt on her face "no. if it was importent enough, you would remember it. i guess it doesn't matter does it?" she leered seeing the rage on the girls face as ranma hugged her "nope, its so hard to remember the unimprotent people of your youth." he sighed holding her close as they left. she giggled softly to herself as they reached the school yard and he kissed her gently "you do know what kind of hell this is going to drop on us?" she asked smiling. he smiled touching her nose "its not enough for me to worry about. theres very little they can do that would slightly annoy me." he chuckled walking another few steps when he noticed the kendo sword that shattered over his head. he looked up and frowned at kuno who was demanding someone give him another one. ranma let akane go and stalked up to kuno "you. you are the one that tried to interfere with the rites of the morning." kuno was saved from answering him when ranmas hand clamped down on his throat and squeezed as he bore him back to the wall. he slammed him into it and took the bokken one of the kendoist had brought and slammed it through his forearm and into the wall ranma ignored his screaming as he took another of them and penned his other arm to the wall. he smacked his head back into the wall to shut him up and glared around at the pale faced people around them "to interfere with the call of the morning is the same as death. if he had suceeded in stopping her it would have ripped her to peices. i may get in trouble for not killing him, but this is my punishment. i will no longer tolerate his actions against my family or my fiancee." ranma looked anxiously at akane when she walked slowly into the room "your not mad at me are you? mistress will be pissed enough that i left him alive." he pleaded with his eyes. she took his hands and after a minute hugged him tightly "its ok ranma... i'm just a little.... horrified, when i think that what you did was concidered lenient where you came from. please, don't go around killing people?" she pleaded. he nodded holding her close "i'll try not to, but when your dealing with twenty years of gentle handling compared to eighty of extreme measures... its hard not answering my attackers the way i'm used to." she kissed him softly "we'll be ok." ranma frowned walking out into the schoolyard looking through the school book in his hand "this is a load of misleading statements and glorified ego stroking! look at this! all this statement is, is a prettied up way of saying we murdered every man, woman and child because they weren't japanese." he closed the book and shook his head sitting down next to akane "is there a place somewhere around here where i can find the actual facts?" he asked looking slightly frustrated. he blinked seeing that akane and nibikis attention was focused on an old woman standing with a man in white robes and the girl from earlier "oh look, the hit and run artist brought friends." he said nodding politely before picking up another book and started flipping through it "ok, here, did he or did he not murder this guys family?" he showed akane the page. she frowned "ranma, honor demanded he avenge himself on them for betraying him to his enemies." she disagreed. ranma frowned looking at it "akane, it says here this guy was unable to hold the pass so pulled his men out, how is that betrayal? this guy was pissed so he slaughtered his whole family because he had common sense." she turned back to him looking annoyed "ranma! i don't care! that happened six hundred years ago! it is unimportent to me. no ones saying they weren't foolish and short sighted. its done and gone. your supposed to read the history, not argue the wording." he nodded flipping a few more pages "sorry. forgot, its not my job anymore." he looked pathetic and she sighed smiling slightly "its ok. but please try to pay attention?" he blinked at her for a minute before blinking at the end of colognes staff, he'd caught it unconsciously and hadn't even noticed her efforts to pull it from his grasp. he blinked letting go "sorry about that, please forgive my absent mindedness, i only just got back yesterday." he said looking slightly embarressed. cologne frowned at him "where have you been son in law?" she demanded. ranma blinked looking confused "thats interesting." he looked at her for a moment then at the two sisters "am i married?" he asked. they shook their heads "not by japanese law." nibiki said smirking at him. he nodded relieved "thats good, i was a little afraid i'd been unfaithful to someone this morning." he smiled at akane and she grinned blushing. he started to say something to her when nibikis words hit him "not by japanese law!? what the hell does that mean!? am i married or not?!" he demanded. nibiki pursed her lips "by the laws of another land you do indeed have a wife, but since the bond was never created between the two of you, its never been formally recognized." ranma blinked for a minute thinking about it then grinned clapping his hands "good! thats a relief, my mistress would be displeased with the idea of me having a wife concidering what akane and i did this morning." akane blushed harder and hit him "you don't have to anounce it to the whole school!" she hissed. ranma blinked at her curiously before noticing the bonbari he'd just sank his finger in. he blinked for a minute at it before examining the angle of the weapons desent and speed, he didn't like the results "i say, what gives you the right to attack my fiancee?!" he demanded shattering the weapon with a touch from the other hand. he moved between the sisters and the three "do you know the penalty for attacking a priestess?" he growled clinching his fists. cologne moved between the two "and whats that boy?" she demanded. ranma glared at her stonily "death. the goddess demands no mercy for those that would attack her people." cologne glared "you dare threaten an amazon?!" she struck out at him and ranma easily defended himself "woman, i've done more then you can imagine, if she attacks my love again she won't ever be seen again." she hissed attacking him in ernest, feeling out the new strength she felt from him. ranma easily held off her efforts and smirked suddenly pressing something to her chest which knocked her back away from them. ranma held up his hand "know you mortal the punishment of the moon goddess!" he declaired and light suddenly burst around her and she screamed in agony slumping back when it finished "you have assaulted the arch bishop of the moon goddess luna, because of it i have placed the mark of the one that punishes on you, until such time as my mistress dains to remove it from you, you shall be at the mercy of the rune of the shunned ones. now remove yourself from my presence." he looked at the other two with her "when she is in a more respectful frame of mined bring her to the tendo dojo so my mistress can deside if she is to be freed." he waved them gone and sat down again. after the two had removed the barely conscious cologne ranma looked around at the gapping faces of the students and the teachers "my mistress is a very loving goddess to those that are worthy of being of her people. and she is merciless against those that would dare harm any of her children." he nodded and sat back down and picked his book back up. ranma stopped as he walked into the dojos gates and blinked a few times at a disaproving mother and goddess "what is this i hear about you stapling this kuno boy to the wall of the school earlier today?!" nodoka demanded. luna scowled "what is this i hear about you sparing the boy you stapled to the school wall today ranma?!" they looked at each other "you wanted him to kill the boy?!" nodoka demanded. luna nodded "he tried to do something so heinous that they put the person to death instantly when ever it happens, when it rarely does! there isn't a crime more evil then this!" nodoka blinked "what did he do?" she asked. luna stood firm "he tried to interfere with ranma this morning. if he had stopped her it would have instantly killed her and caused a great deal of pain for me. its one of the worst sins imaginable." ranma nodded coming up to her "all he had to do was touch the cyclone and it would have killed me. i have to be lenient mistress. if i judge offenders here as i did there then we would be driven from the land. the people here are relitively peaceful and only a handful out of millions require normal judgements. oh, and i placed the rune of the shunned ones on an old woman that attacked us at the school during lunch." luna wrinkled her nose "why us such a distasteful punishment?" she asked. ranma smirked "this old woman has caused me a great deal of trouble since she came here. besides that, she contends that i have already been wedded to someone." luna scowled and looked at nodoka "what is this?" she asked. nodoka sniffed "i do not recognize their claim, it is a law with them that if a man defeats one of their females he is legally married to her, even if he refuses. they have been tormenting ranma for a while now trying to make him return to their village with them." lunas scowl deepened "is that so? well to hell with her, she can wear the rune for the rest of her life." she looked firm. ranma cleared his throat "mayhap, we can use it to make them release me from this law? they have gone so far as to try to force me to live my life as a woman perminently while trying to force me to return with them." she looked even more angry "or i could just smite their home off the face of the earth and then their laws won't matter since they don't exist anymore!" she looked like the picture of the wrathful goddess. ranma cleared his throat firmly "mistress please, remember that until you can astablish a base of power here your options are extremely limited. if you start doing that sort of thing here you will be shunned by the people you would help." she pouted at him before shrugging "alright, i get the picture. it was just an idle thought anyways, i'm not strong enough yet to do that sort of thing." she pouted at him. ranma smiled slightly "i realize this mistress and i will do my best to get you what you need, but if you make the people hate you before your settled the only option would be for you to go home." she blinked at him "no need to be mean ranma, can't i have a little fun?" she pleaded softly. ranma smiled "i've been your priest for sixty years mistress, i'll do my best to make it so you have such perogitives, but for now you need to let me first make it safe for you to do that." she smiled kissing his cheek "your sweet." she turned about and walked back into the house. ranma chuckled softly and looked at his mother "i had no choice but to do that to him mother, if i did not he would continue trying and sooner or later, suceeded in killing me or akane. when you take that into acount the fact that he has on a number of occations tried to kill me and is firmly set in the delusion that if he does kill me my girl side and akane will love him to death. he truely believes he has a right to stand in my way. this is an error on his part and i have desided its best to stop tolerating him and to put an end to it." she looked undesided and he smiled gripping her forearms gently "mom, please understand when i say this, but i believe i'm a better judge of whats right and wrong then you are. i am one hundred and three years old, i was the governer of luna city for thirty years, i was my mistresses comanding general for sixty three years. i know i look the same as i did six months ago, but i'm not. i've been in battles where hundreds of people were lost on both sides and still won. i've done and seen many things, please believe me when i say, i don't need help in making decisions." they looked up hearing a chuckle and looked at cologne standing next to shampoo standing near them "i see there are some things i need to learn." she said softly. luna appeared and scowled down at the two "how dare you try claim my priest as yours!? his life is his own to live and i will not tolerate anyone interfering where he dosn't aprove." she reappeared as normal and glared at them from beside ranma "ranma has made his choice of who he will wed and i aprove of it. no one has the right to say different." she crossed her arms waiting. shampoo started to get angry and cologne waved her off "would you have us turn our noses up at our laws? we have no choice but to bring him back with us, if we don't shampoos punishment can be as small as dooming her forever to live as a cat, or as much as putting her to death. would you have us just ignore that?" she demanded firmly. luna sniffed "what do laws made by humans matter to the decision of a god? i say the law does not apply to this man because he is imune to all laws but my own." cologne looked unconvenced "why should we give up on this man? our claim takes presedence." she said matter of factly. luna sniffed "he was mine longer then he was yours and your claim is like nothing, he was betrothed at birth to his soon to be wife. you will leave him alone or i will wipe your people of the face of this planet." cologne looked narrow eyed at her "and how would you do that?" she asked. she snorted turning to ranma "if i told you to kill every amazon you could find would you?" she asked him. he nodded bowing "you are my mistress, i've done worse for you." she nodded smiling at him "and what makes you think you could do that boy?!" cologne hissed. ranma looked at her "i held off five battalions of hells finest warriors for the three days it took the seriphm to arrive and back us up." she snorted not believing him "with the right terrain any man can hold a position with a minimal amount of warriors." she shook her head. ranma smirked "single handedly, in an open field. flatland for miles, i held them off for three days. do you really thing a bunch of woman, ranging from pathetic as shampoo to coniving as you, could begin to stand in my way? i believe it would take me two days to hunt them all down mistress." he looked at luna "shall i mistress?" he asked respectfully. luna smiled at him "no, i think it would be best to return with these and explain what will happen if they continue to harrass your family." he bowed low "shall i send us now?" he asked waving at the air and a scene of dirt roads and crude looking huts appeared. she shook her head "no, i think we might enjoy it more if we traveled there, i wish to see more of this land." she mused and he closed the gate, ignoring the way the three amazons with them gapped at the ones staring back. ranma bowed "when shall we leave?" he asked. she looked thoughtful "when does the school year end for you?" she asked smiling. ranma smiled "this school year ends in four weeks mistress." he said dutifully. she nodded "then we shall go then, how would you two feel about being wedded at that time too? make a tour of it!" ranma cleared his throat blushing slightly "it is not up to me mistress." he murmured looking at akane inquiringly "are you telling me something?" she asked smiling. he smiled "i don't know really, but i do know that i'm not sleeping in that room again." he said smiling. she looked curious and he grimaced "i find the idea of sleeping with an animal loathsome and disturbing. besides that, i don't want to start smelling like livestock." he smirked looking at genma when he shouted in indignation "i do not smell!" he bellowed angrily. ranma smirked at him "still, only simpletons sleep with livestock, i agree your not a normal flea ridden animal, but since i have no reason to sleep in the same room with you i shall differ to mother and allow you two you own room." nodoka arched her eye brows "what makes you think i want to sleep with an animal?" she asked smirking. he smiled charmingly "why mother! because your married to him of course! i on the other hand am not and i realize that my presense in the room hampers the two of you from showing each other the loving devotion you must feel for each other, i mean, why would you be married if you didn't?" she frowned at him "i don't really think this is your business son." she said looking forbiding. ranma frowned back for a minute before nodding "as you wish mother, but if you wish, i can void marrages without the agreement of both paties, its a right i have as her priest." he said motioning to luna. she nodded smiling consolingly "your man not exactly the person you thought he was at first?" she guessed. genma jumped between them and glared at ranma "don't put stupid ideas in your mothers head boy." he hissed angrily. ranma scowled at him "you know...." he smiled at his mother smiling pleasently "we could get a bundle by selling pop to a zoo." he said temptingly and she giggled softly seeing the purple look to genmas face "thats alright dear, if your not going to sleep in the guest room with your father then where will you sleep?" she asked. ranma shrugged "anywhere but with an animal." she nodded smirking slightly "i guess that puts a hamper on the plains of certain felines." she teased. he shook his head quickly "i hate cats. i can't stand cats, and i'm not too fond of cat lovers either, their wierd." she nodded soothingly "i'm sure your wife will be a dog person." she said reassuringly. ranma smiled in relief "good. hate cats." he looked at akane and smiled moving up close to her "i'm sure if someone would be willing to share a room with me...." he trailed off softly and she grinned blushing slightly "i might be able to find someone, how about we go talk about it privately?" she tempted. he grinned throwing his arm around her shoulders and turned her away from them "did i mention the time i worked undercover as a massuase to a coven of demonesses? you wouldn't believe all the places on the body that causes pleasure, those girls knew something about exstasy, let me tell you." he stopped before they entered the house and flung something he was suddenly holding at shampoo who lunged at them and she shreeked when the thing burst outward and rapped around her tightly "ranma!" luna exclaimed shrinking back from it in distaste "did you have to use the phallic weed?!" she exclaimed, quickly pulling the two remaining tendo sisters and nodoka away from the thing. ranma smirked looking smugly at the interest some of them were giving the thing that was slowly shredding her clothes "i think its quite fitting mistress, shes been a bitch in heat for a long time now, this will be more then enough to put her in her place." he smirked at the wide eyed horror on her face when she realized what the thing intended to do to her "no! shampoo no have sex with plant!!" she shreeked and jerked harder on it then cried out jerking up strait falling back "how dare you!!?!" cologne roared at ranma as she hurriedly started cutting at the weed, not seeing the part that rapped around her until it had her "oh did i forget to tell you? it will grab ahold of the closest female that touches it and won't let go.... until its sated." he chuckled softly before snapping his fingers and they disappeared. he looked satisfied "how could you do that.... its horrible!" nodoka exclaimed. ranma scowled at all of the women, akane included who looked horrified "no matter what you saw of the things those two did to me mother, its not half what really happened. you have no idea what i had to do to convence them to not kill akane." luna looked at him forbidingly before grabbing his head and he jerked from her demanding pull "those whores!!" she shouted in outrage. he scowled wiping at the sweat on is brow "where did you send them?! i'll summon a raptor vine!" she demanded. ranma winced cringing "please mistress! i may have been harsh but.... gah!" he shivered. akane looked worried "whats the difference?" she asked. ranma grimace "the phallic weed is gentle and it leaves no lasting damage, it just humiliates them horribly, but the raptor vine..." he shivered "that ones found only in the deepest pits that even lord brimstone dislikes looking into. those things..." he waved it off shivering "i really don't think its safe to allow that thing free here, you remember what happened the last time it got free." she shuttered nodding "don't remind me." she groaned. ranma nodded "i meant to punish them, not depopulate china." he said firmly. she nodded "i see how that would be bad. but what did you do to them?" she asked plantively and he chuckled waving to the wall and it showed a scene of the two writhing about in the grips of the vines "know this woman of amazon, this is what happens to those that would dare dishonor my clan. i send them to you so all may see that not even amazons will stand if i am angered again." ranma chuckled at the voice and twirled his fingers about and two of the girls that moved to help the two were caught up in it "your not going to do that to the whole village?" luna asked amused. he shook his head "nope, it'll die in four hours, limited lifespan. i may have a grudge against them but i'm not going to disgrace all of them, just those that helped them do that to me." he smirked as the vine snaked out and grabbed another of them "does it still reproduce?" she asked and nodded when one of the women chopped off the strand and it whiped around its victim and grew a whole new one "yep. its going to seek out all but a few of the women of colognes clan, all of those responsible for the trouble they visited on us." "ranma that horrible!" kisumi exclaimed. ranma looked at her for a minute "you don't think cologne handled gathering all the things needed to make the pheonix pill herself? all those damn drugs they forced on me, it was a team effort of pretty much the whole clan. i suffered they're heavy handed behavior back when i was a confused teenager, but i'm not anymore. i sat as judge over four hundred exicutions back in luna city and didn't bat an eye. i'm not bad, or evil, i'm just not innocent anymore, that was one of the first things taken from me there. ask luna, i'm not a harsh person, i'm just older." luna nodded when they looked at her "ranma brought peace to my city, the people really loved him because he was desent and fair, not to mention honest and honorable. i remember once, he enraged the leaders of this one nation neighboring ours, he comanded ranma have this mans family exicuted for a crime they'd trumped up against him, they wanted him gone for something or other." ranma smiled slightly "his farm sat over a lode of farnite gems, they'd found out about it and tried to steal it." he supplied. she blinked "anyways, he looked at the case and promptly ordered the priests cadre to go there and free the man! they attacked and drove out the army they sent into our land and sent them packing, and he told the king to piss off. and after they declaired war on us ranma personally led the army in concuring them! not many people tried to harm our land while he was in control, we lived under an unheard of time of peace even when at war because ranma always took the war to them, very few battles were fought on lunarain soil."