Ranma ½ is the property and invention of Rumiko Takahashi. The following
story is not produced for any monetary or personal gain.

Keep in mind the journey is almost always more interesting than the
destination.

Journey

Part Three: Tea With Splynncryth

Chapter 7

"This is complete crap!" the first armored made an angry gesture in the
air. "We had absolutely no warning that he was some sort of mutant wizard!"
The other individual quickly gave a blow to the back of the first person's
rear helmet in token rebuke.

"Don't whine, the client will be charged appropriately for the lack,"
shaking his own insect helmed head he looked around the battle scarred
landscape. "We should have been better prepared."

"Well... we know he had to be more than standard human simply to be walking
unmolested in Atlantis. There was no way to know he was some sort of
powered freak."

The other turned to face the younger man. "It's my responsibility. I should
have set up surveillance instead of simply choosing to strike at him
directly."

"Hey! That was my idea!" the other objected, relieved not to be blamed, but
not pleased to have his contribution ignored.

The older man simply grimaced under his mask at his companion's behavior.
"It was my mission. Despite it being your bonehead idea it was my
responsibility for accepting it."

"Well...I won't argue," the younger reluctantly submitted.

"By the way. Get rid of the damn dinosaur," he gestured at the huge reptile
that was presently sniffing hungrily at the back of his armor.





Ranma wasn't far from these proceedings. He had ducked off into the alley,
engaged the Dimensional Warp technique and then employed a mixture of the
Silent Thief chi masking and mere stealth. He had found that if he fully
engaged the technique in plain sight, the supernatural entities all seemed
to stare at him as if he was holding a beacon. By merely masking his energy
and practicing due diligence through mundane stealth he was able to
practically be invisible without the annoying 'here I am' side effect
caused by actual invisibility.

What he had found was educational. The second fellow he had knocked away
with the Butterfly Kiss had come back a few minutes later to find the first
searching the area, dinosaur in tow. The helmet Ranma had smashed open had
hastily been taped together. A poor bit of protection, but it was obvious
to Ranma that the armor was more for anonymity than protection. After all
anyone that could put up a new force field as fast as he could take them
down couldn't be using mere armor for anything but aesthetics.

The conversation he had been overhearing was not surprising. Drawing a
correlation between the armored individuals and assassins had been anything
but difficult. The question of course was who. He hadn't been in the city
long enough to have any new enemies and his old ones had no knowledge of
Atlantis that he was aware of. That of course was the purpose of his
present hidden state, who had hired these people and who exactly were these
armored people.

Fortunately the eye that had been following him had chosen the last few
minutes to conceal itself. Ranma could feel it's chi, but to all other
means of perception it was simply not there. Probably didn't want to spoil
the entertainment.

Hopping up onto some neighboring roofs he simply waited until the two below
stopped bickering and started to walk away. Ranma simply followed.





Nabiki absently tapped her chin with her finger in contemplation. Masayo
did not know anything about Atlantis but she did know a few things about
monsters. Of course that simply led to Masayo's firm belief that Shampoo
was either dead or fervently wishing she was dead. Nabiki herself had her
own ideas. She was convinced that Shampoo was wishing she was dead.

She was grasping at straws but the attack through the portal had been far
too overwhelming and organized to have been just a few demons on the street
with ideas of random destruction. No, she firmly believed that the portal
had caught the attention of the authorities in Atlantis and they had simply
been mistaken for the typical dimensional raiders. This led to the belief
that Shampoo was alive and probably being interrogated at the moment. Alive
but probably wishing she wasn't.

Even though it made her inwardly wince, Nabiki simply thanked Thoth that it
wasn't Akane. It wasn't that she hated Shampoo, but Akane was her sister.



The man in the grotesque armor was presently more than happy to be wearing
it. The armor and helmet easily covered his face and expression leaving him
to concentrate on keeping his voice calm and level. It was getting
difficult recently. In front of him stood a huge serpentine figure. He
would never mistake it for a mere serpent however, it was a dragon, and
adult dragon filled with all the pride and power that goes with that
position.

"So…why shouldn’t I kill you again," the dragon asked with some less than
concealed ire.

"You, of course could but my companions would avenge me. They would hunt
you down and…"

"Yes, yes I heard that part," the dragon stated dismissively, "it was the
other reason that caught my attention." He had heard so many dying shouts
of vengeance over the years that he mostly ignored them unless they were
especially entertaining. Besides did the little armored man really believe
he’d let any one know what happened to him? He was already using a minor
spell to prevent transmissions and cries for help. Simple precautions.

"We are the private assassins of Lord Spynncryth. If anything happens to me
you shall face his wrath," the man elaborated attempting to sound firm and
confident. A difficult thing to accomplish when you're facing a dragon’s
head as large as your body. And for some odd reason his electrical systems
seemed to be malfunctioning.

"And why would Splynncryth’s private assassins be following me around
trying to drum up some side work," the great wyrm’s head angled itself
slightly to regard the assassin with one eye.

"Lord Splynncryth allowed us to do sidework as long as it doesn’t interfere
with his wishes." This of course was all a exaggeration. The Sunaj did work
for Splynncryth, but it was a far looser alliance than most people
believed. Of course allowing people to draw their own conclusions usually
gave the Sunaj more freedom and influence than most except the direct
minions of the Splugorth possessed. Most of the time.

"Of course. A sovereign lord lets his minions go off and assassinate
whoever they like," hot breathe washed over the man as the dragon snorted
his disbelief. He hadn't been alive this long to not recognize a line of
bull when he was fed it. "Obviously that’s the story you're going to stick
to. Well stop wasting my time and tell me why you've felt obliged to risk
your life by bothering me."

After a moment of silence where the Sunaj reflected on the benefits of
still breathing he started into the speech he had begun before he was
interrupted by an irritated dragon. "We have heard that you are hunting a
martial artist. It so happens that we have become aware of the location of
this person, for a certain price we can eliminate him for you...."

The words were interrupted as a huge clawed hand smashed the assassin back
and pinned him firmly against the wall. "Where is he? I don't need your
services, I'll kill him myself for the affront he gave me!"

The roar of the dragons voice momentarily overwhelmed the armored man. With
the audio buffering systems down along with the other systems the sound
traveled unimpeded to his ears, causing excruciating pain.

"We have agents tracking him, we can give you the location if you wish,"
the man gasped through the crushing grip on his chest and the more
localized pain in his ears. He had to admit that he was hoping the dragon
would volunteer to do his people's work for him. He just wished the process
of convincing it wasn't so painful.



Ranma ducked behind another building. He was almost certain the grotesquely
armored people he was following couldn't see invisible but he didn't want
to take any chances until he had a better grasp of what their abilities
were. The forcefields didn't worry him so much, he was confident that he
could overload the damage capacity of the field with little effort. The
summoned dinosaur did worry him. That was pure distilled magic and that
meant it could be a wild card in combat until he found what its limitations
were.

His prey walked purposefully into a three story building of human
proportions. Hopefully this meant it was their destination. With his luck
they were all vampires and this was merely the storage for cattle. He
grimaced and the thought. He wouldn't discount it but the Splugorth were
notorious in their hatred of Vampire Intellegences and their humanoid
minions. Not that he was an expert but his talks with his manager and his
'mistress' Deevil had brought to light some gross political structures.

Ranma maintained his Umi-sen technique as he hopped onto a building
opposite the one he had just made the decision to stake out. A few of the
creatures on the street stared at him obviously aware that there was a
human in there midst attempting to hid. Ranma simply looked boldly into the
their eyes...or whatever they used and dared them to do something about it.
In most cases they simply went on about their business unconcerned, a few
of them looked at him, looked up to where the eye was floating and cloaking
its presence to the casual eye and hurried onward. A smaller number tried
to play 'abuse the cowering human'. He made short work of these idiots,
however although he tried to be discrete he wasn't always successful. It
was the main reason he thought the armored guys couldn't see the invisible.
Or of course it could be an elaborate trap. It wasn't like he hadn't walked
into dozens of them in his lifetime.

He had just made himself comfortable for a long sit when he heard a voice.

"Ranma? Are you there," a familiar voice echoed in his ear.

"Ah, damn," he muttered to himself. "Nabiki this isn't the best time. I'm
spying on some psychos and I'm being watched by someone else. I don't think
they can do but its possible they might trace you given enough time."

"Sorry Ranma but we have trouble, is this better," Nabiki asked as her
voice suddenly seemed to bypass his ears and resonate in his head. The gods
had given him some contact with this mode of communication before, he had
just never expected it from someone else.

"Telepathy? Since when can you do telepathy," Ranma focused his voice
internally as he had with the few deities who had used this mode of
communication on him.

"Since I learned this darn spell. The option comes with the spell but its
not often used because it's so tiring," Nabiki's voice had more than a
tinge of worry in it and a large amount of urgency. "It's your fiancée
brigade."

"Oh come on," Ranma exclaimed in exasperation. "I'm not even there! How
much trouble can they possibly get into."

"They can if they get it into their heads to follow you," Nabiki stated
flatly.

"Follow me? Nabiki, I'm in another freakin dimension, not the dimestore
down the street! How could they even think about it? You have the only key
to the circles and they all go to very safe places...very far from me," he
pondered skeptically.

"Well guess who made those circles for me? Guess who would do anything for
the attention of a beautiful woman? Guess..." Nabiki was interrupted at
this point.

"I'll kill him," Ranma got the point and was beyond furious. "He's a damn
Summoner...he knows how dangerous this place is," pausing in his tirade he
asked the next logical question. "Are they okay? You stopped them in time,
right?"

"Well...I found out about it a little late," Nabiki tentatively started.
She disliked having to justify here actions to anyone but if she wanted
Ranma's help she had to give a little. "Shampoo had 'Zar start the ritual
at her place. I got there just in time for some things to start shooting
through the portal."

"Are they okay?," Ranma asked worriedly.

"Um...most of them are", lacking a better way to say it she just told him,
"They grabbed Shampoo then the portal was disrupted. The Neko Hanton and
the block surrounding it was destroyed but everyone else was okay."

"They have Shampoo," Ranma asked, continued, "Who's 'they'? If they took
her she's probably still alive."

"I'm not positive but I think they were what passes for authorities in
those parts.

"Ugh. I mixed blessing. They'll probably want to interrogate her before
they put her on the market or eat her," Ranma thought to himself.

"Eat her," Nabiki exclaimed obviously catching the last part of his
thought.

"Eat? Did I say eat? I meant greet her, yeah. Greet...lots of friendly
aliens over here," Ranma lamely tried to cover his slip. "The girls must
have opened a portal to a sensitive spot or somehow made them think they
were pirates. They don't usually respond so preemptively to dimensional
travelers. That's were most of the buyers come from."

"So you can get her back," Nabiki inquired hopefully, ignoring his earlier
pathetic babbling.

"Sure no problem I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding," Ranma stated
absently. Obviously he'd have to work fast before something permanent
happened to Shampoo. He was at a loss as to what to do but his manager
seemed to know how to finesse the system. Surely they could work out a
story that would get Shampoo out alive. If not he'd have to try to break
her out. He was confident he could do it but that might damage his chances
later on with his mission. Nabiki wouldn't like it, but he wouldn't like it
if they started eating his fiancee's. That wasn't the kind of attrition he
was hoping for when he started his waiting game plan.

Standing up he starting leaping from building to building heading towards
his mangers office. If he had bothered to look back he might have noticed a
large black dragon writhing through the air towards the entrance of the
building he had been watching moments before.



Ryoga was extremely unhappy. He didn't remember much after that long chase
through the streets involving the giant cat. Apparently wherever he had
followed Ranma to had dangerous creatures roaming the street. He also was
beginning to have the sneaking suspicion that the people on the street
weren't wearing costumes.

He had woken up a small stone cell, it had a small cot in the corner and a
small basin that was perpetually filled with water. Although spartan it
wasn't unclean or unpleasant. The door to the chamber was locked however,
so he couldn't help but think that somebody thought he was their prisoner.

Of course stone walls don't a prison make, especially for a master of the
Breaking Point, however someone thought he was kept here. The question of
course was who. Rather than perhaps create an incident he had made the
decision to wait and see. He still was feeling a bit battered, though the
bruises were quickly fading.

A scraping sound at the door was heard and it swung open a moment later.
What it revealed was a huge humanoid with a bulky musculature and two large
fangs protruding from the mouth of what almost looked like a neanderthal. A
low toned voice issued from the crude face.

"Well if the little godling isn't awake," the creature taunted. "You should
more careful where you get drunk and pass out, god boy. If our patrol
hadn't picked you up you might have ended up in somethings stomach. Things
that look human should be careful in our fine city, they just might get
eaten."

"Right..." Ryouga looked at the creature and thought over its words. Okay,
maybe he'd been a little naive about the Halloween thing. The people would
have all had to have been as rich as Kuno to afford costumes that good. "So
now that I'm awake and we're all sober, how about letting me out?"

"Not so fast, god boy. There's fines and baggage fee for housing you for
the night..." the thing continued on for several minutes listing a number
ridiculous services.

"Wait! You pressed my clothes while I was unconscious and you want a tip,"
Ryouga interrupted at one point, unable to stay silent any longer. "I don't
even have any local money!"

"That's okay, god boy, here in Atlantis we can exchange almost any currency
in existence...for a fee," the jailer offered magnanimously.

"Er...I'm not sure at the going rated from yen to the credits I hear you
use here, but isn't a half a million credits a bit high," Ryouga offered
hesitantly.

"You high and mighty godlings disgust me," the humanoid snorted, gesturing
as if to ward away dirt. "You get wealth thrown at you by your parents but
won't even pay for services fairly given."

"Now wait a minute! I never had anything just handed to me," Ryouga
protested hotly. "Everything I have I earned by my own hands!"

"So you'll make good on your debts," the creature inquired dubiously.

"Of course I will," Ryouga indignantly stated. Then he froze as he realized
what he had just promised. He hadn't been blindsided this badly since he
had made a deal with Nabiki.

"Great so hand over the money and I'll get it exchanged for you...at cost,
even," it generously offered.

"Everything I have is in my backpack. You probably have it somewhere,"
Ryouga muttered dejectedly.

"Hmm...yes we do. A shame nothing you have covered the amount you owe," the
creature sadly shook its head. "I suppose this means you'll have to default
on your promise. And here I thought you were honorable. For shame."

"Hey! I made a promise and I'll keep it," the young martial artist stated
stubbornly. How this had become a matter of honor he didn't even want to
think about.

"You're new to Splynn? You know I happen to have a few connections," the
creature stated thoughtfully. "You look like you’re a fairly powerful
scrapper. I bet you're not a bad fighter with the blood of a deity running
in those veins of yours."

"Yes," the martial artist answered cautiously.

"I have a relative who manages a few fighters in the arena. If you agree to
sign with him for a couple of fights I think I could write it off."

"So, its like a street fight," he had fought his share of those to feed
himself over the years. It was usually pathetically easy for a fighter of
his caliber but if he had to do it then so be it.

"Yeah...just like a 'street fight', just a bit more of a crowd," the
creature offered politely. Ryouga wasn't sure when he'd gone from 'god boy'
to this things pal but really thought it didn't bode well.



The creature shuffled into a dimly lit office. In the darkened corner of
the room a small tentacled creature tapped on the screen of a monitor,
entering some arcane figures.

"Well," it asked in a bubbling voice.

"He was easy," the larger creature boasted. "Doesn't know a thing about
Atlantis. He actually thought we were the authorities."

"Really. I didn't think he'd be that easy," the other bubbled.

"It was simple. Once I found out that he had that honor weakness I knew it
was over," the creature chuckled and continued. "It also helped that he's a
moron."

"It doesn't matter how stupid he is as long as he can fight. He's a
demi-god, maybe even a godling. They're all fairly tough, even given the
competition in the Arena."

"Just be careful. I've seen a few jokes who called themselves godlings."
The creature positioned itself differently in the seat, causing some
unsavory wet noises to be heard. "I think this one is different. He might
be one of the more powerful ones."

"I think so," a large toothy grin followed this statement.

"Keep going with the obligation track. Also, try to make it seem like it is
his own idea. We don't know how close he is to his parents or
ancestors...or whatever spawned it," a wave of a tentacle enunciated this
view. "If something happens to it, let it seem that he got into the trouble
by itself."

"We might come close to winning. It's been a while since we collared a good
one. The last few died before they could get close to getting us a profit."

"Even if he comes in first place we could afford a leisure pool in the
office," wet sucking noises showed the creatures pleasure.

His companion stayed silent. He wasn't as fond as his partner about dark
moist places. He would spend his money on some serious drinking and female
company of the cheap kind.






Revision 1.0

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