Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko, Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.

Ranma and Cologne were sitting in another of the giant rooms that should be smaller than they were. This one was furnished with modern exercise equipment, as well as what appeared to be a large shooting range at one end.

"What did we come here for?" Ranma asked.

Cologne answered, "There are still many things that you need to learn, but my quarters are too small, and have too much stuff I care about in them to allow you to play with magic around them."

Ranma could understand that. HE did sometimes lose control of the spells she taught when he first tried them out. Of course he hadn't known that they were spell at the time, but still… "Where's everyone at?"

"We're still not sure who wants you dead so badly. Plus, you seem to have amassed something of a fan club among the young women currently staying here," finished Cologne with a grin.

Figured. "Well, let's get started then."

"I've taught you every defensive and offensive spell that I know, as well as simple chi manipulations, but there were spells that I couldn't pass off as more chi techniques. The one that operates the rings, for example." Ranma didn't remind Cologne that he could just use the crystal bands to teleport.

As the day passed, Ranma eagerly absorbed all the information that Cologne passed on to him like a sponge. When she finally called a halt to the day's study, Ranma was well versed enough to travel by ring, separate oxygen from water to extend periods of submersion, and pass through most solid matter.

Nervously, Ranma walked through the ornate, gold-framed door. Instead of the expected cavernous room full of people, it led Ranma into a small office. The walls were lined with shelf upon shelf of books. Near the back of the room was a large, intricately carved wooden desk. The same white-haired man Ranma had first seen when he had been introduced to the other mages by Cologne sat behind it.

"Ranma, come in, come in," he said pleasantly. "Have a seat." He pointed to a chair in front of his desk that had not previously been there.

Ranma took sat down and asked, "You wanted to see me?" Was this guy in charge? How was he supposed to treat him?

"Please, call me Lerris. As the Head of Council, it's my duty to formally recognize all new Mages."

"I thought that I had already been accepted, Lerris." If the guy wanted to be informal, Ranma wasn't going to stop him.

"I guess I didn't word that right, sorry." Lerris grinned sheepishly. "What I should have said is that I'm the man who assigns you a rank and quarters."

Wow, he was getting his own place!

"Everyone is very impressed with you, young man. No one has shown a potential as high as yours since I became a Mage over four centuries ago." He sighed. "I'm afraid that I never achieved that potential. The life of a scholar doesn't lend itself to the kind of exertion that is needed to build chi force. Anyway, I digress." Lerris reached into a drawer in his desk and retrieved a small black box. He opened it and passed it to Ranma.

Inside, Ranma saw, was a small egg-shaped crystal amulet with a thick gold chain attached to it. Within the transparent amulet a miniature battle of power raged. A miniscule fire swirled around an equally small bolt of lightning that appeared to be little more than a spark, and a wisp of darkness darted around the crystal interior in a vain attempt to escape both the fire and the lightning. "What is it?" Ranma gasped.

"That signifies your place as the strongest Mage within the Order. Each Order of magic users and psychics has one. I'm passing mine on to you. That's why you are getting quarters at such a young age. Well, that and the fact that Madelinn, Margaret's grandmother, insisted that her granddaughter have her own home if she was going to be married." Lerris winked at Ranma.

Ranma groaned. "Does everybody know about that?" Ranma asked pitifully.

Lerris grinned at him. "Heheh. I'm quite sure that the entire population knew of it within an hour of the event."

"Why is everyone taking this bonding thing so seriously? All it does is let me get a fuzzy idea of Margaret's emotions when we're close together. Right now, with her back in Japan I can barely feel anything at all."

Lerris for once looked mildly serious. "Ranma, every documented— though I can't figure out why they were documented in the first place— case of soul-mates meeting has led to both parties falling in love. Every single time. Three such times, both the man and the woman were happily married to other people, but once they had met their soul-mate… let's just say that the pull one soul-mate feels for another is irresistible. The bond is just an extension of the more primitive connection you already share."

Ranma wondered how Lerris knew so much more about the subject than Cologne did, but the man had said he was over four hundred years old, plenty of time to pick up lots of stray information. It also dawned on him just what Lerris was saying. Him and Margaret were literally meant to be together. But it was still strange. Very, very strange.

Seeing that Ranma had grasped his meaning, Lerris continued, "Cologne asked me, as a favor, to find you a job that you could still carry out around a school schedule. Would teaching a martial arts class be all right? Many of our Guardians and Warriors are very poor fighters physically, so your services would be greatly appreciated. The job pays well, too."

Ranma nodded absentmindedly, still thinking about the revelation about himself and Margaret.

"Would you like me to show you to your quarters?" Lerris asked. His grin had returned, helped along by the look on Ranma's face. He remembered having that look himself a few hundred years earlier. It was right before he had gotten married.

"Yeah," Ranma answered.

Ranma should have expected it. It was probably Cologne and Cynthia's idea. There was no way that his quarter's being three down from Margaret's parents' was a coincidence. Not with the number of available room in a place as big as Atlantis. Oh, well, at least it was his.

"Place your hand on this panel," Lerris pointed out a small panel identical to the one on the outside of the door.

When he followed the instructions another panel revealed itself a foot to the left of the original.

"If you want to give someone access to your quarters, you must place your hand on that panel while they place theirs on this panel."

Ranma nodded in understanding. He turned to survey his place. It appeared to be the same size as Margaret's, but with much plainer furniture. A couple of sofas, a few chairs, and a coffee table made up the entirety of the furnishings. The kitchen was full of new appliances, and the three bedrooms each had a queen-sized bed, a large closet and a small bedside table. All together it was plain, and empty, but it was a much nicer place than Ranma would have been able to afford otherwise. With a job and no need to buy his own food thanks to the giant, fully stocked pantry, he knew that it wouldn't be hard to get a few luxury items such as a TV.

Lerris left Ranma in his quarters to finish his administrative duties for the day.

The next day passed much as the last had for Ranma. Cologne spent half the day teaching him miscellaneous spells that wouldn't really help in a fight, but were convenient to know. He was growing tired of not seeing anyone else, though. It was like the halls were being cleared before he could walk down them. Ranma decided to find Cologne and ask her about it when he saw her again.

Cologne and the other Council members were currently listening to a report of the situation in Tokyo by Kenji. The Warrior Mage was covered in soot and his armor had several fresh scratches and dents.

"Some of those kids down in Nerima have potential to be Mages if they can learn basic enough control to actually begin training in magic. The Sailor Senshi are all exceptionally powerful Channelers. They somehow apply their magic to enhance their speed, strength, and endurance, something Channelers aren't supposed to be able to do."

"What of the actual conflict?" asked one of the councilors.

Kenji said, "I've never heard of general civil order breaking down as fast as it is in Tokyo. The fighting spilled over into Juuban the night before last, and now nearly every ward is in turmoil. We have managed to set up safe zones in some of the city's larger parks. With my Mages, the Senshi, and the Hibiki kid stationed in strategic places, we are keeping the safe zones safe, while letting the JSDF deal with the rioting. They are better equipped to subdue large numbers of people than we are."

"Would you recommend more Mages be sent in? Or perhaps some members of the other Orders?" Cologne asked. She personally wouldn't do it, but Kenji had assumed command and he was doing a good job, so it was his decision.

He shook his head ‘no’. "It was hard enough convincing the officers that we were just gifted concerned citizens, and my son-in-law's little harem didn't react all that well when they found out that I was his father-in-law. They could become hostile towards more of us. Besides, too much of a display of force, and someone higher up in the government is going to get ideas."

He had told the fiancées! Cologne couldn't believe it. Ranma wasn't going to be happy. Margaret probably wouldn't either for that matter. But the fiancées, Akane most of all, must have pretty much exploded. It was a wonder that Kenji had survived.

Just as the soldiers were about to be trampled underfoot of the latest wave of rioters, Ukyou leapt from the roof of a moderate size office building and landed in the midst of the mob. The flat of her spatula and murderous rage served much better than the tear gas and rubber bullets that the soldiers had been using, and within a minute over seventy-five men and women had been placed in one state of unconsciousness or another. The soldiers, all twelve of them, looked at her like she were the angel of death. They ran away without so much as a thank you.

Right then, Ukyou felt like the angel of death. Well, maybe just the angel of Ranma's death. For days, that had been all she could think about. Ranma had run off and gotten married to some girl that no one had ever heard of. Margaret was her name. What kind of name was Margaret? It wasn't even Japanese. Ukyou had seen Kenji in action, tossing around balls of napalm and lightning bolts, so taking her revenge out on the girl was out of the question, at least as long as her father was on the same continent.

"Shi Shi Hokodan!!!" cried Ryoga. The beam of chi that sprouted from between his cupped hands was enormous, and as it angled down towards the ground, dozens of windows in the surrounding buildings shattered from the force of its passing. The beam struck the asphalt in front of the stolen Jeep full of crazed Tokyo citizens, causing an explosion that threw the vehicle and its occupants into the air only to land on another stolen jeep.

Ryoga kept pouring heavy chi into the beam, and swept it through the small convoy of five jeeps and two light urban assault vehicles that had been commandeered after the soldiers using them had been overrun. When there was finally no sign of movement, Ryoga cut the flow of energy off and slumped back into a folding chair he had found in the stairwell. He knew that if he moved any farther, then he would become lost.

Everything had, for at least a couple of seconds, seemed perfect. That really powerful guy claimed that Ranma had married his daughter, leaving Akane to him. When Ryoga had heard that, he thought that he'd never again be able to do a depression fueled chi blast. Sadly, nothing ever worked out for Ryoga. Instead of being deliriously happy like she should have been, Akane had been pissed. Pissed with a capital PISSED. She sure had managed to get a nice-sized battle aura going for a while, but eventually her anger had died off.

After that, Akane had found an empty supply tent and cried for hours. Ryoga knew because he had succeeded in following her. But why had Akane cared at all? He had seen her relationship with Ranma declining for months. Every time he showed up at the Tendo dojo, whether in cursed or human form, they seemed a bit angrier at each other, a little less patient. Hell, Akane should have been celebrating a permanent solution to her obligation to marry the bastard. But she wasn't, and Ryoga also knew why. She still, somehow, loved the bastard. His little porcine ears had heard her say it herself as she cried.

That thought alone had given Ryoga the almost endless depression needed to become the high-powered energy cannon/sniper that he was currently serving as. Akane loved Ranma even after his betrayal. He had no hope of winning Akane's affection as long as the bastard lived.

The depression building again, Ryoga stood and picked out an over turned car as a target.

"Kiiyaa!" Shampoo shouted as a pink and purple ball of energy erupted from her right hand and blew the arm off a pipe-wielding man who had been in the process of beating an elderly woman to death. In her left hand she held her favorite sword, just in case someone got within close reach. She had felt the need to relieve some stress, so this little excursion into the urban jungle had turned into a sort of therapy session.

Her increasing chi manipulation abilities, fueled mainly by anger, were an extremely good way of funneling off the useless emotion. She found that as long as she kept them small enough not to drain her energy, she could fight better with the clouding influence her anger normally exerted gone.

Far off in the distance, she caught sight of the yellowish-green light given off by Ryoga's monstrous chi blasts. Now that she herself could project her energies, Shampoo appreciated just how powerful people like Ryoga, her great-grandmother, and her airen… no, ex-airen… were.

That was the source of her anger. If Ranma had married, then the marriage laws no longer applied and she had no claim on the man she loved. How could he go behind her back like that? Just for the hell of it, Shampoo used another surge of anger to destroy the TV a man had been struggling to carry across the street. What was worse was the disappearance of her great-grandmother. It could only mean two things. She had caught wind of Ranma's plan to marry another, unlikely since she would have left a note or message of some kind, or she had somehow helped Ranma. But why would she do that? Didn't she care about her own great-granddaughter's feelings?

At almost the same time that Jupiter saw the flash of Ryoga's devastating energy beam from across the city, she unleashed a devastating attack of her own. The bolt of lightning that she threw towards another horde of rioters split into hundreds of smaller bolts forming a kid of web that fell over the people, delivering enough high voltage to incapacitate them, but not enough amperage to kill.

"How are things in your area?" Jupiter asked Mars over her communicator.

"Everything is under control. Mercury had a little trouble earlier because she didn't want to hurt anyone, but she's gotten over that. Seems that someone attacked her mother."

"Oh, no! Is she all right?" Ms. Mizuno was so nice; she hoped for Ami's sake that she wasn't hurt.

"A few bruises, but she is a doctor and she said that she was all right."

Jupiter breathed a sigh of relief.

"Unfortunately, her mom also figured out her real identity," Mars said in a whisper.

Oh, shit! "Oh, shit! How?"

"Mercury called her mom as she was carrying her to her zone. The magic wasn't strong enough to hide her identity from someone so close as her mother. That's what Mercury thinks, anyway."

"What is she going to do?" What if she felt it was her responsibility to reveal their identities?

"Nothing. She thinks that her daughter being a famous hero is 'neat'. Mercury says that she wants our autographs."

Jupiter was still chuckling when they broke contact.

"Hey Cologne, why don't I ever see anyone else in this place? If the whole bunch of us was here, I should have run into at least a few other Mages," Ranma said as he followed Cologne into her quarters.

The gold-veined walls were hung with delicate ink sketches and numerous Jade figurines sat on shelves around the room.

"Ranma, just because we're Mages doesn't mean that we don't have to maintain a life outside. Just like Margaret and Cynthia having to return for school and work, the others also had to leave. With the trouble in Tokyo, I suspect that Margaret and Cynthia, along with a few others, may be returning. At least you'll get a chance to meet some people from the other Orders."

Ranma felt a little stupid. He hadn't even thought of that rather simple answer. Then he remembered the other reason he had come looking for the Amazon. "Thanks for talking to Lerris and getting me that job as a teacher."

Cologne waved the matter off and in grave tones said, "Ranma, we got a report from Kenji a short while ago. All of Tokyo is now caught up in the chaos. Your parents are safe, as are the Tendos, so there is no need to worry about them."

It was all his fault that Tokyo had gone to war with itself. If he had just not told Cologne about those weird-ass weapons, then none of it would have happened and Margaret wouldn't be stuck with him like she was.

Cologne saw Ranma's mood shifting towards depression and made an attempt to cheer him up some before telling him the really bad news. "Ranma, this really isn't your fault. A very smart young woman, one of the Sailor Senshi I believe, has discovered that your presence merely aggravated a pre-existing condition in Tokyo. It would have eventually happened anyway, almost as soon as you left, but the longer you stayed the worse it would have been when you did leave. It's better to get the whole mess over with."

Ranma was indeed heartened by Cologne's news. By looking at it in her perspective, Ranma could see how his leaving like he had, had lessened the suffering of the people of Tokyo. At least that's what it sounded like.

Now for the bad news. "Ranma, Kenji also brought us another piece of information." Ranma looked at her expectantly. “He thought it would be funny to see how your other fiancées would react to discovering your involvement with his daughter, so he told them that he was your father-in-law. They didn't take it well." Cologne had expected Ranma to do something, anything, but…

Ranma just stood, stiff as a board, staring at her with his mouth agape in horror.

To be continued.

Author's Notes: Damn, I just keep churning these things out. I hope you enjoy it.
Send C&C to dark_phoneix@hotmail.com

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Last revision: May 21, 2007