Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Pillars of Strength ❯ Chapter 8 ( Chapter 8 )

Pillars of Strength
Chapter 8
Afroplex - jwessels@ranko.homelinux.net
http://ranko.homelinux.net/

Disclaimer - This crossover story is not for profit. All characters within are property of their respective owners. Please don't sue me, you won't get anything out of it since I'm but a poor college student.

Hikaru and Ranma silently followed Mokona out of the Forest of Silence, but it was still only mid afternoon. Unhindered by monsters their pace was significantly increased.

"Hey marshmallow! Oh much further is this volcano?" Ranma called up ahead. Mokona turned and gave him a smile, then continued to bounce on ahead. "Somehow I feel that fuzz ball is trying to annoy me."

Hikaru gave a short laugh, "Ya think? I think it's cute sometimes."

"Cute? You call that cute?" Ranma threw his hands up in the air. "Mokona is about as uncute as a certain tomboy that I know."

His statement seemed to hurt Hikaru since her shoulders dropped slightly and she remained silent. Ranma's unease increased till he finally laid a hand on her shoulder, startling her out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry," Ranma said. "I just get so frustrated, I'm not even sure why I got pulled into this or even what these mashin are supposed to do. Although, the pace hasn't changed and I still have as many enemies here as I do at home."

Over their travels, Hikaru caught a rough idea what life was back in the Nerima ward, Japan but never the full story. Now seemed as good a time as ever to learn the full extent of Ranma's troubles - especially since he seemed to avoid the subject at times. "Just who would want to fight you? You are a good person," Hikaru stated the last sentence not as a complement, but as a fact.

Ranma cross his arms behind his back. "Well, first there was Kuno. I think he's totally nuts, going on about me being sorcerer and hiding his pigtailed goddess."

Hikaru opened her mouth to ask the question when she was interrupted. "My girl side. Yup, and he's seen me change several times. His whole family is about like that. His sister is about the opposite, in love with my guy side but out to kill my girl side. Then there is their father, the principal of the school, has some sort of fetish with bowl cuts and not afraid to cut your hair when you aren't looking."

The dead seriousness in Ranma's voice, and the way he acted like it was a day to day fact of life scratched Furinken High off Hikaru's list of places to visit when they got out of this place.

Grabbing a tree branch that was in their way, Ranma tensed and snapped it off with ease, "No. That's just the beginning."

"Ryoga Hibiki. I consider him a good pal, but he is always out for my blood for no reason at all. I just goad the porker on during our fights, but he knows that's part of the Anything Goes style. Anything goes after all. I do enjoy the challenge, but I wish he would give it a rest sometimes." Throwing the broken branch far to the right in frustration, "It's not like I gave him his bad sense of direction, or his curse, or asked him to follow me to Jusenkyo, or-"

A soft hand on Ranma's shoulder broke him out of his ramblings, "Ranma, I'll be there to support you. Perhaps if someone different explained to him your concerns he would think differently."

The reassuring words calmed him down, but realization dawned on him and his shoulders slumped, "But it wouldn't work, and would probably make things worse."

"Worse?"

Ranma fumbled around for words, realizing now that he hasn't told Hikaru the whole story about his fiances. "Um... my fiances?"

This stopped Hikaru in her tracks, "Fiance?"

"Plural. Three, with Kodachi as a wanna-be four."

"Do you love them?"

"I don't want to hurt them," Ranma whispered.

"That's no what I asked you Ranma."

Resuming their walk forward and Hikaru kept up beside him, Ranma started counting off on his finger. "First there is Ucchan. My pop took off with her family's okiyamaki cart as the doury when I was six or so. He left her behind. About a half a year ago she found me at Furinkan High. I didn't know she was a girl till we fought then. Up to that time I always thought she was my best pal - a guy - and I still consider her my best pal but not in the loving kind of way."

Hikaru remained silent for Ranma to continue. She wanted to hear the whole story before making any judgment.

"Next was the Chinese amazon Shampoo. I first met up with her after I was cursed at Jusenkyo. My pops, thinking with his stomach as always, ate the first prize of some contest she had just won. To deal with the problem and save our hides, I challenged her for first place. Naturally I won, but turns out that if a girl outsider beats an amazon, the amazon has to kill the outsider."

"Didn't you say she was your fiance though?"

"Yup. Later on in Japan she tracked me down, and I accidentally beat her as a guy. This changed things, and then she was bound by amazon law to marry me. After that things were just as bad as if she was trying to kill me, always drugging or trying to kill my other fiances with me getting caught in the middle. THEN, there is her curse where she turns into a c-c-ca... furry thing."

"Cat? What's so bad about that." Hikaru raised her eyebrows.

Ranma shivered, "Ya, those things. I don't really want to talk about it, lets just say I want to avoid those at all costs." Taking in a breath to calm his nerves, "SO, you could say Shampoo isn't really the best choice for a long term relationship. If only I could find a way to let her and Ukyo go back home without hurting their honor, things would be less crazy."

"You mentioned Kodachi, which makes three. What about the fourth?"

"Akane Tendo, an arranged marriage by our parents. You faced her in the Spring of Eterna. I don't really know what I was thinking around that tomboy. We would have those moments that would always get interrupted, or most the time we fought. Now that I've had time to think here in Cephiro, I don't think things probably would have worked out between us."

The two of them finally caught up with Mokona, and walked in silence. The vegetation was starting to give way to hardier grasses as the terrain changed to granite. Mokona started to pick up the pace, and like slowly boiling a frog, the two began to run without realizing it. Ahead, two figures were seen sitting at a campfire. One had a large staff, the other a sword.

Hikaru's eyes grew wide with recognition, "Clef and Ferio!"

Ranma leaned down in mid stride and picked up Hikaru. Picking up the speed to full, Hikaru's long pigtail flapped over Ranma's shoulder. He skidded to a stop in front of the mage. "Yo! How's it going?"

Clef and Ferio had stood up.

"Glad you could come. I have grave news," Clef approached the two. By then, Ranma had let down Hikaru, who wasn't afraid by now of jumping through the air.

Hikaru feared the worse, "What happened? Did Zagato murder the princess?"

Clef shook his head, "Far from that - Zagato wouldn't even think of doing such a thing. Instead, I believe something has happened to your friends, Fuu and Umi. I felt something that cut me off from sensing them entirely. I don't know where they are."

Ranma balled his fist, "Damn, that moron Zagato probably attacked them just after we left." He almost turned to run the entire journey back into the middle of the forest when Clef spoke.

"We must get to the mashin first, then we can consider saving your friends. Zagato is far to strong to consider approaching right now," Clef pointed to the volcano. "I can get us to the volcano, from there it will be up to Hikaru to awaken the mashin."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Ranma was getting impatient.

Raising his staff above his head, "Creature! I summon thee!" The end glowed brightly, and a vortex swirled. From it, the same bird creature that the magic knights had ridden before emerged. It flapped its large wings twice before settling.

It lowered its head to allow Hikaru to carress its beak, "Hello! Nice to see you again. Would you take us to the volcano where the rune god is?"

The creature knodded twice, chirping. All four and Makona hopped on its back. Lifting off, dust and ash around them bellowed up in the sparce landscape. Turning, it flew close to the ground.

Ranma loved the thrill of the ride, nearly standing in his excitement. This was what he strived for during his art - total freedom. Hikaru was a little more frightened, and hung on to Ranma's shirt tightly. Before, they were high above the landscape and probably moving just as fast, but now the closeness of the ground and the turns around the towering rock pillars made it seem they were going much faster.

Ferio simply closed his eyes, he wasn't used to riding such creatures and preferred to get it over with. Clef observed there surroundings with a look of indifference - 800 years backed behind him this wasn't something new.

Hikaru eventually started to relax, and started to enjoy the ride along with Ranma. Before long, the bird creature glided down to a cave entrance.

Climbing down first, Clef started walking to the entrance, "We are here. The shrine is just inside."

As soon as the rest were down, Clef returned the creature to its rest in his staff. The four ran inside, mostly to keep up with Hikaru and Ranma in their excitement.

Suddenly, the tunnel opened up to the internal expanse of the volcano. Around them, the outcropping dived into the depths - shrouded by fog or other gases. Directly in front of their platform, large metal doors ten stories high or more. Gold lined the edges.

"Whoa," Ranma looked around.

Approaching the doors, Hikaru reached out to touch the gold trim. All of a sudden, the doors cracked open and tendrals of fire reached out around Hikaru.

Ranma didn't waste a second, believing it to be a monster. He lept up to intercept Hikaru being pulled in, "Oh no you don't! Let go of Hikaru now!"

Feeling the intense heat, he realized it wouldn't be best to grab Hikaru through the reathing flames. His tactical mind put together what he did back in the forest when they were trying out their magic, and decided to try a variation.

"Hyruu shotan ha revised! Horizontal!" Ranma swisted his arms in a spiral, getting dangerously close to the heat. It didn't help that he was on a collision course with them. Angling his body, he flipped over Hikaru can completed the spiral.

Immediately, the source of the flamed was pushed back. The tornado propelled Ranma and Hikaru back. Inside, the source of the flames took note of the disturbance and examined this unknown factor that thought he was protecting its magic knight - what it found interested it very much.

Hikaru had gone into a trance the moment the flames had touched her, and was broken out of it just as fast. "What happened?" She then noticed that they were sailing toward one of the jutting pillars - with nothing else around it but the hazy red pit.

Ranma reached out to catch her, and pushed off the side of the pillar upward. He was already looking toward their next point, and bounced off it just as easily. Finally, they touched down on the ground beside Ferio and Clef.

Ferio was wide eyed at Ranma's acrobatics, and that strange attack that he pulled off against the flames.

Clef was wide eyed at Ranma interferring with the rune god - successfully.

Before either could speak, the doors swung wide open. The same flames came out in greater numbers, angling around Clef and Ferio harmlessly. This time, they persued both Ranma and Hikaru.

Hikaru tried to dodge one, but one to her right caught her as she moved into it. She immediately fell into the trance once more.

Ranma jumped straight up, and angled his body to barely miss another. Surprise dominated his expression he realized he was a gonner a four other tendrals of flame converged in on him with no way to escape. As he raised his arms to block and be severly burned, he tried to use his time aura to slow down their advance but again was shocked when it did no good.

His mind entered a fog the moment the flames touched.

Back on the ground Clef and Ferio watched. Ferio was about to take action when Clef put a hand on the swordsman's shoulder, shaking his head to not interfere.

As the door closed, the two were left alone with Mokona. "All we can do now is wait."