Keiichi found his thoughts again wandering toward concern over Ranmira. He found it slightly odd that his thoughts always seemed to revolve around Belldandy and her sisters in one sense or another. First Belldandy, then Urd, Skuld and now their temporarily 'lost' sister, Ranmira. That Ranmira had been lost was probably the primary reason he was concerned. Nearly seventeen years ago, Saotome Nodoka had been impressed enough by the Goddess' courteous and well-mannered behavior that she had wished to have "a son like" Ranmira. Procedurally, this meant that Ranmira would 'become' a part of the Mortal boy to act as a guiding influence, insuring that the boy developed into the kind of person his mother wanted him to be. Except no one had counted on a sudden outbreak of bugs causing the Yggdrasil system to store Ranmira's assignment and personal memory files in unknown locations. With Ranmira therefore silenced Saotome Ranma had then grown up as a normal Mortal might, learning how to behave from the only influence he had - his father, Genma, who had taken the boy away from home at an early age with the premise of turning Ranma into a martial artist and a man. Skuld had given Keiichi a rather quick briefing on Ranma's life, the most interesting detail - well, to Keiichi, anyway - being the curse that caused Ranma to transform into a girl by simply throwing cold water on him. Yes, there was an actual place, buried somewhere within China, where a person could enter a pool of water and become cursed to change forms with cold or hot water. Keiichi had wondered then if it was a good thing he had no plans to visit China. Urd and Skuld would probably enjoy tormenting him even more if he acquired a Jhusenkyou curse. And Megumi, too, now that he thought about it. Oh, *she* would have a ball with her poor brother's curse... Maybe Ootaki and Tamiya would then have a *real* guinea pig to strap into their ridiculous machines. Wasn't thinking about the bad things that could happen to you a good way to invite something bad to happen to you in real life? Maybe not, but why take that chance? An Aa! Megamisama / Ranma 1/2 Crossover Instruments of Change Part Two written by Mike Koos ------------------------ It had taken Skuld and the system administrators most of these past seventeen years to locate and restore Ranmira's files. As far as Keiichi knew, Ranmira was supposed to be fully recovered from her experience by now... though his concern wasn't about to let him rest until he saw it for himself. And, assuming curiosity ran in the family, she would be paying a visit to the temple sooner or later. Well... if he'd been unaware of his family for somewhere over a decade and a half, he would want to visit them as soon as possible, too. He was willing to bet Ranmira wouldn't make her first appearance through the front door, either. The Goddesses could travel from place to place by using specific things as portals. Belldandy used mirrors, Skuld used water, and Urd - for some reason he still had yet to determine - currently used television sets. Then there was Peorth, who used camera lenses. What means of 'travel' would Ranmira use? Keiichi set his empty teacup by the kitchen sink, then took care to refill the kettle and placed it back upon the small electric hot-plate. He reached for the hot-plate's two-prong plug. All they had left in the tea box was plain tea... It wasn't the kind Belldandy liked, but it would do until the next trip to the market. Whatever method of travel Ranmira used would likely have something in common with her sisters' methods. What would it be, then? Tea? Radios? Books? He figured he still had several of the latter open in his room. His room. Yeah, that would be the perfect place for another Goddess to make her entrance, wouldn't it? Keiichi sighed, dismissing those lines of thought. Just because the Goddesses favored unusual entrances didn't mean he had to let his anxiety drive him insane. Besides, had anyone told him that Ranmira was definitely coming to the temple, or when? No. It was just him, attempting to second-guess the Universe's perverse sense of humor. As he brought the plug up to the wall outlet, electricity began to visibly arc through the air around the outlet. Hadn't Skuld said all the wiring in this place was sound? He instinctively backed away from the outlet, but had the typical misfortune to trip on something and landed on his rear. Was the outlet going to explode? Oh, dear. Within the second that followed the electricity receded in on itself as a head framed in red hair emerged from the field of energy. Another second, and a wide-eyed Goddess tumbled out onto the floor next to him. She stood, carefully brushing the dust away from her clothes, and exhaled. "Sixteen years out of practice," the Goddess laughed. Then, her eyes found Keiichi reclining on the floor. "I'm sorry," she offered Keiichi a hand. "I didn't mean to startle you." Keiichi accepted her offer to help him to his feet. "That's okay. I'm used to it by now." He wasn't, truthfully, but there was no need to tell the Goddesses that. Her eyebrows raised. "Oh! You must be Morisato Keiichi, then." How had she come to that conclusion? "Please, just call me 'Keiichi.'" He suddenly recalled who this Goddess was likely to be. "Ranmira?" Ranmira nodded. "Pleased to meet you, Keiichi-san. I am Ranmira, the Goddess of Change." She offered him a respectful bow. "Again, I would like to apologize for startling you. I really should have been more careful." Keiichi studied her for a second. She appeared to be somewhere around the age of sixteen, though he knew for a fact she was older than that. Ranmira's features were perhaps a decidedly curious mixture of Skuld's youthful appearance and Belldandy's mature, gentle features, with a mischievous implication to her sapphire eyes and face that for some reason reminded Keiichi of his own sister. Come to think of it, she *did* have that 'little sister' look to her. Before he could open his mouth to tell her not to worry about having startled him, Belldandy walked into the kitchen. "Is something wrong? I thought I heard some kind of commotion in here..." Her eyes settled on Ranmira. "Ranmira?" she asked. Ranmira's face brightened. "Oneesama!" she exclaimed, rushing to hug her older sister. "When Skuld told me everyone was here, I wasn't sure whether or not to believe her." "Skuld would not lie to you," said Belldandy. "Yes. But you have to admit it's unusual for all of us to be on this plane for an extended period of time." Belldandy smiled. "I wouldn't call that unusual. It is merely a coincidence." thought Keiichi. "A rather big coincidence, wouldn't you say, oneesama?" Urd had remarked offhandedly after Skuld located Ranmira almost a week ago that the red-haired Goddess tended to behave like a copy of Belldandy. She *was* acting somewhat similar to Belldandy now, though he wouldn't have thought to define her as a 'copy' of her older sister. Was there some sort of sibling rivalry between Urd and Ranmira as there was between Urd and Skuld? "Well..." Belldandy was saying, "what's done is done. I assume you have just come from checking in?" Standard Goddess Relief Office procedure in the cases of the kind of wish Ranmira had granted Ranma's mother - as Skuld had explained to Keiichi - was to limit a Goddess' access to her memories and powers so that she would not be tempted to change the course of Human events while she portrayed a Mortal. With that in mind, Ranmira would only be free to visit after one of her occasional required check-ins to her Relief Office... or if something extreme was currently happening around her. "Yes. They say that as far as they can tell, my psychological and physical profiles each match the results from my last tests, so I will be fine, save for the sixteen-year hole in my memories. They're going to keep a close eye on my test results for the next decade or so to make sure they didn't miss anything." Once again Keiichi had to marvel at how a span of ten years could turn out to be so inconsequential to a Goddess, but forcefully willed that thought from his mind almost as soon as it had come. It raised issues - issues concerning his relationship with Belldandy - that he wasn't willing to deal with at the present time. Belldandy rested a hand on the doorknob of the door leading to the living room. "That's good to hear. Why don't we go into the living room? Skuld and Urd are in there now." Keiichi recognized the look of concern that surfaced on Ranmira's face as an "And you left them ALONE in there?" look. Just how long had Urd and Skuld been at their squabbles, anyway? "That sounds like a good idea," admitted Ranmira. Skuld would be disappointed if she hadn't taken the time to say 'hi' while she was in the neighborhood. Belldandy led her sister and Keiichi into the living room. Keiichi mentally smirked. It was sparsely furnished, however, so if the two sisters ever had an all-out serious argument here, there were extremely few places to hide. Ranmira waved to Urd and Skuld. "I'm home!" she joked. "Well, if it isn't our errant little Goddess," Urd stood and walked over to her with a smirk to her face. One learned to be wary of Urd when she showed any trace of a smile. "Finally decided to come visit your poor, humble family, huh?" "What in the world are you talking about?" Skuld directed the question at her. "It's called humor, kid," Urd coolly glanced sidelong at her. "You might want to look into it, sometime." Keiichi decided he had better say something to interrupt the two before they formed a new argument. "Umm, Urd? Why did you say that Ranmira acts almost like a copy of Belldandy? I don't think she does." Urd grimaced. So much for tact. As Ranmira winced at the reference, Skuld frowned. "A 'copy?'" she glared at her eldest sister accusingly. "I should have *known* you would be starting that nonsense once we found her!" She turned to Keiichi. "See, Ranmira's got a reputation now for acting like a virtual copy of Belldandy thanks to our big sister." smirked Urd. She'd thought she was doing her little sister a favor; if Ranmira wanted to be like Belldandy, why not tell everyone that she was? Sure, it hurt that Ranmira hadn't chosen to idolize her, but Urd was fond of her younger sisters... even Skuld. "...And all because Urd has to have her *stupid* pride--" Urd rounded on her youngest sister. "Since *when* did this have anything to do with my pride? For someone who's supposed to be smart, you really don't know anything about psychology, do you?" "Enough to know that you need to see a psychiatrist!" the Goddess of the Future retorted. And so it began again. Belldandy and Ranmira immediately set to trying to break the pair apart, Keiichi noticed. That implied they had had to do this quite a bit. Urd and Skuld were only trading insults for now, but no one in the room needed to be told that their arguments could get worse. Much worse. So much so that Keiichi desired not to think about it. Belldandy tried to convince Urd to stop bickering... while Ranmira urged Skuld to do the same. Keiichi knew from experience how futile that could be. Yet here he was, attempting to help Belldandy and Ranmira with the unenviable task of separating their eldest and youngest sisters during yet another petty argument. Especially since he already had some experience in the matter. When Ranmira stepped back from Skuld in frustration, he edged closer to her. "Uh, hey, Ranmira?" he asked her, nervously. "Look, I'm sorry for what I said. I had no idea it was a sore point..." The Goddess smiled. "It isn't. Please, Keiichi-san... you needn't trouble yourself over it." Like Belldandy's smile, hers seemed to have a calming effect to it. "I'm afraid those two simply love to argue about practically anything." "I know," Keiichi found himself saying. "And it's never easy to stop them, either. Isn't there anything we can do?" Ranmira strained to hear him over the increasing volume level of her sisters' argument. "I'm sorry... what did you say?" Keiichi looked at her blankly. Obviously, he couldn't hear what she was saying. Ranmira let all her breath out in one long, exasperated sigh; then, she inhaled deeply and gathered as much of her courage as she could find. She imposed herself between Urd and Skuld. "That's *enough*!" Ranmira yelled. "I would like you to end this pointless argument right now!" Everyone immediately fell silent and stared at Ranmira in shock. It took a moment for her breath and pulse to return to normal. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout like that." No one said a word. "Urd, why do you always insist on trying to spite Skuld?" she inquired. "Oh, lighten up," Urd told her, though privately she was still surprised by her sister's forceful intervention. The Ranmira she knew wouldn't have been so quick to do that... "How else are sisters supposed to behave toward one another?" A look of disbelief came to her sister's eyes. "Urd!" exclaimed Ranmira. Belldandy exhibited a similar reaction. Urd laughed in response. After a slight pause, she thought to add, "You know, if you had been this assertive when they gave us our assignments, you might've been the one in charge of the Future now, instead of Skuld." Skuld fumed while Ranmira blushed at the comment, acting sheepish. "*Hey*!" Ranmira quickly recovered. "You know I chose to be what I am today," she said, hoping to avoid another argument. "And I wouldn't change a thing. No offense, Skuld, of course." Skuld smirked. "None taken." Keiichi wondered. She sat alone, allowing her thoughts to temporarily become lost in the clouds of steam that rose from the hot water that surrounded her. It was a wonderful little hot bath, really, one of her favorites; a little place somewhat removed from the outskirts of Tokyo. The room itself was smaller than a racquetball court, and the synthetic scenery was negligible, but this particular hot bath was a good place to lose one's thoughts - or oneself, if it ever came to that. There was also the added bonus that people were less likely to notice what she happened to be or even care, so long as she wasn't a male. Only when a male tried to sneak into the women's side of the hot baths did anyone sit up and take notice... so to speak. In some circles, she knew, she might have been mistaken for the Goddess Urd - and had, on occasion. There was a very good reason for this, though neither she nor Urd *truly* liked to dwell on it for different reasons. Marller subconsciously ran a finger through the slightly damp strands of her permed hair. Unlike Urd, her hair was more blond than platinum. she mused. The only problem was that she was having trouble coming up with a suitable scheme. She spent half an hour tossing around ideas, to no avail. Urd and her sisters required *special* plans... Marller sighed. ** ** ** A small surge of electricity framed one of the unused electrical outlets in the family room of the Tendo home. A second later, Ranmira peeked her head out through the electrical field and looked around. Satisfied that no one was around to witness her entrance, she stepped into the room. But something didn't feel right. Now that she was completely present, she could feel it. A familiar sense... Ranmira hesitated, extending her senses outward. There was nothing of consequence in the area, however. Thank goodness her Office had authorized her to retain her memories and normal power levels for the time being; she needed to catch up on nearly seventeen years' worth of back work. Marller watched from a distance as Ranmira shifted into Ranma. That had been close. Ranmira had almost detected her - until Marller had remembered to mask her presence. What good would any schemes be if Ranmira knew she was here? No, that wouldn't do at all. Not to mention the fact that if Ranmira knew she was in the area, the Goddess would likely alert her sisters, and Marller would have all four Goddesses to contend with. Not that it worried her much; it simply meant the difficulty level of her scheme would be markedly higher. Kasumi entered the room and saw Ranma sitting at the table. "Oh, hello, Ranma-kun," she said in her usual lilting manner. "I didn't hear you come in." Marller found herself wondering for a moment if Belldandy was also posing as one of the Mortals here. "THERE you are!" a new voice exclaimed. Ranma glanced up to see Akane enter the room. "Where have you been? We've been looking for you all day!" Hadn't Ranma said he was going to try *not* to be a jerk from now on? Why, he could have been off with Shampoo, Ukyou or even Kodachi for all she knew - not that any of *those* three would tell her if Ranma was indeed with them or had been with them. As far as she knew, he hadn't been at the Nekohanten, Ukyou's restaurant or the Kunou mansion when she checked... and she'd been thankful that Kodachi was the only nut she'd had to put up with on her visit to the Kunou residence. thought Marller. Ranma was apologizing. "I'm sorry, Akane. I was visiting some old friends and I didn't want to worry you." He wondered where that had come from. He wasn't even sure where he had *been* the entire day. And why wasn't he able to lie to her about it? A voice in his head told him that it was not a good idea to lie, especially to Akane. Ranma asked the voice a question without expecting an answer. the voice assured him. Well, at least part of him knew where he had been. Now if he could just convince that part to reveal that particular piece of information to the rest of him... Strangely enough, Akane was having difficulty bringing herself to argue with Ranma as she normally would... and she could see Ranma was finding her lack of an argument puzzling. What in the world was Ranma up to? The best she could think to do was take a glass of water from the table in frustration and toss the contents at Ranma, turning the boy into a girl. Marller's eyebrows raised in further interest. She snorted. Ranma didn't complain, as Akane had expected. "Kasumi?" Ranma asked. "Do you have a towel I can use? Kasumi nodded. "Yes, I do. Wait here; I'll be right back." Akane was privately starting to worry. Why was Ranma once again not acting like himself? It was so... so... unnerving. Was Ranma suffering from some kind of odd selective amnesia from a blow to the head or something like that, similar to the time 'she' thought she was completely a girl? She would have to take him to Tofu-sensei's as soon as possible to make sure. She wasn't going to have much time to finalize her plans. The unmistakable sound of a steady drumbeat of footsteps grew louder until it was obvious there was someone outside the gates of the Tendo home... then, the next thing any of them knew, Kunou Tatewaki was in the room with them. Even Marller had to admit to a bit of surprise... if only because she had been paying too much attention to Ranmira to keep an eye on the surrounding area. Kunou's eyes immediately found both Akane and Ranma. He seemed to take on a look of anguish. "I came here to give these roses to you, Tendo Akane," he stated, indicating the tremendous bouquet of roses he held in his arms, "although their beauty most certainly pales in comparison to yours. Alas, but the pig-tailed goddess is present as well, and it would not do to slight someone of her lovely charms..." <'Pig-tailed goddess?'> Marller echoed in her thoughts. For Ranmira to reveal her presence to anyone without a very good reason would be to break the rules and risk being penalized. Ranmira wasn't one to break the rules. Marller checked the senses she was receiving from everyone except Ranmira's Mortal form. No, none of them knew the truth. This 'Kunou' likened Ranma to a Goddess because he was deeply in love with her, although he didn't know who she was - *and* the 'Akane' girl, all at once! - but he hadn't the faintest clue she actually *was* a Goddess! It took a bit of effort on Marller's part to keep from losing control over her efforts to keep Ranmira from detecting her presence and break out into laughter. Then Ranmira would detect her, and all her plans would be shot. No, couldn't have that, now. As she turned back to the scene, she saw that Kunou had taken both Akane and the 'pig-tailed goddess' into his embrace with a cry of "Oh, the torment! I shall never be able to decide between you, so I must have you both!" The two girls punched and kicked him into low orbit. Marller thought sarcastically. Still, the fool - not to mention that wooden sword he thought he needed to carry with him - had given her an idea. And it was one in which she wouldn't have to expend much effort at all... just sit back and let others do her work for her. It was always so much fun to use Mortals to toy with the Goddesses. And, knowing Ranmira, she'd probably become so flustered when things started falling apart around her... She took her leave then, to set her plan in action. Marller located Kunou as the Kendo swordsman was walking home, a few streets away, with his usual dejection. "So that's it, huh?" she goaded him. "You're giving up on Akane and Ra-- er, the pig-tailed goddess just like that?" Kunou studied her. He wondered who this new stranger was, who knew about his affections for the two girls without being told. The demon had assumed she wouldn't need an elaborate disguise to fool one so blinded by his emotions and pride as Kunou, so Marller had adopted a disguise that consisted only of a wardrobe change and a minor illusion to conceal the markings on her face. For all she knew, Kunou would be the superstitious type and deduce what she might be from the markings on her face alone. Not that the illusion would fool Ranmira or her sisters; they would be able to see past the illusion with little trouble at all. It would be enough to fool this Mortal, however. And, just in case, she added a second illusion - one that blurred the air around her ever so slightly so as to make her appear somewhat vague or intangible. "Who are you, and whatever makes you believe the objects of my affection concern you in the least?" My, but this Mortal did think highly of himself, didn't he? "Just think of me as a guardian angel for now," Marller told him. An angel? Far from it. "My name is unimportant. I'm here to help you with your loves." Now, she had his interest. "How?" "With this sword." She drew the weapon from behind her back. The hilt was the only part of the sword which implied any connection at all with the powers of Darkness, though Kunou seemed to disregard both that - and the fact that someone claiming to be a guardian angel was handing him a weapon - as he turned the sword over in his hands. The blade resembled that of a katana and was exceptionally polished as well as sharpened to the finest edge he had ever seen. "Use it to challenge the girl you love to a fight. If you win, her heart will be yours forever." She smiled. "She will love me, truly and unconditionally?" "*Forever*," repeated Marller. It would work on a Mortal, to be sure, but would it have any effect on a Goddess? That was a question she didn't know the answer to. Oh, well... at any rate, it'd be good for a decent amount of entertainment. Kunou's abrupt pronouncement startled her. "I shall do it! I shall win the heart of my beloved! Oh, thank you, dear angel!" That said, he raced off. Well, *that* had been easy. Now to sit back and see what the fool could accomplish. Ranma had gone off to his room by this time, having restored himself to normal, claiming he wanted to study for an upcoming test. That left Akane alone in the yard to work out and wonder even more about Ranma's state of mind. she thought, forcing an amused tone to her thought-voice although she was too worried to mean it. If that was indeed true, then *she* was one of the major contributors to Ranma's condition. And she *had* malleted him in the face just before he'd started to act weird, too. This was probably her fault! "Oh, Ranma," she sighed. "I'm so sorry..." All of a sudden Kunou had his arms wrapped around her again. "Worry not for that wretched Saotome, my dear Akane-kun." frowned Marller, watching from her original seat in the yard as Akane gingerly removed herself from the embrace. Akane, remarkably, was doing her best to keep her restraint. "Can this wait until *later*, sempai? Ra-- er, a friend of mine might be hurt and I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone right now." Well, anyone *but* him. The swordsman didn't immediately respond. Marller considered sending Kunou a little 'push' to get on with the plan for a second but relented; it wasn't all that likely to help with the dimwit, at any rate. "Not to worry, Akane-kun. I have not come here to talk, but to challenge. If I defeat you, you will forget about that pathetic wretch Saotome and be mine forever." Hmm... not Kunou's usual challenge - but hadn't the idiot yet caught on that he couldn't defeat her in a fight? At least not yet. She was about to send him flying again when she reconsidered. Fighting Kunou just might be the thing to take her mind off the guilt she felt for potentially being the cause of Ranma's unusual behavior. "Okay, fine. You'll never beat me, but let's go ahead and get this over with." Akane reached for a Kendo practice sword, assuming her opponent would be using the bokutou, as usual. She did have a little bit of experience in Kendo... though that wasn't the reason she wanted to use a sword of her own. She wanted to fight Kunou on even ground. Her fights with Kunou and Ranma were currently *very* uneven; she would simply pound them and go on with her day. But now, there was a chance her simple poundings might have done irreparable damage to someone she... cared about. Akane did not want that to happen to anyone else. Besides, she did have her martial-arts training to fall back upon if she couldn't hold her own in a sword-fight against Kunou. She'd done fairly well the few times she confronted him with a sword in the past, but each of those fights had been interrupted in one form or another before they could be completed. Akane was more than startled when Kunou drew out a metal-bladed sword and promptly attacked her with it. Any cries of whether or not this fight was fair were lost as Akane scrambled to defend herself. She could see that there was a distant, perhaps vacant look to Kunou's eyes, yet he was fighting far more fiercely than she had ever seen him fight. Marller was laughing. While it was true that the sword Kunou held did serve a magical purpose, Kunou had assumed that it also boosted his skills so that the sword's purpose could be achieved. In fact, the only power the sword had was for the purpose Marller had described to him, with a somewhat different result than what Kunou was expecting... if the boy's mistaken belief made him fight better with the new sword, that was an unexpected gain. Upstairs, in the house, Nabiki threw open the door to Ranma's bedroom. "Ranma!" she said, hiding the fact that she needed to catch her breath. "Akane's fighting Kunou again, out in the yard! And she's losing!" <*What*!?> Ranma followed Nabiki down to the yard where he could see for himself that Akane was barely holding her own against Kunou. Both of them could see the apparently... *possessed* behavior with which Kunou was fighting Akane. What was going on here? This was hardly like Kunou at all... Nabiki heard Ranma say, "That sword... it can't be!" and wondered why. Ranma recognized the sword Kunou was using? How had he gotten a good look at it? Kunou's swings were almost too fast for her to see. She could tell he was using an actual metal blade as opposed to his expected wooden sword, but beyond that... Marller noted Ranma's presence. Then, one of Kunou's strikes shattered Akane's practice sword, and the swordsman raised the blade to bring it down on his opponent one final time... The sword was suddenly blasted free of Kunou's hands with an electrical blast that had most of its power conducted into his body by way of the sword. Nabiki barely registered a female voice screaming, "NO!!!" next to her. What!? She hadn't recalled Ranma coming in contact with any water within the last minute... they weren't anywhere near the koi pond... but... that *wasn't* Ranma standing next to her... was it? Without the sword Kunou crumpled in an unconscious heap to the ground. Akane stared wide-eyed at him while trying to catch her breath. Marller, too, stared at the scene. She hadn't expected Ranmira to interfere like *this*... Something wasn't right here. A stunned Akane and Nabiki watched as Ranmira turned slightly to vaporize a bush a slight distance away with another burst of lightning. Marller was startled to find that her cover had abruptly disappeared. "*MARLLER*!!" It was Ranmira - quite angry - glaring directly at her and charging a third lightning blast in and around her right hand. Uh-oh... "How DARE you endanger the lives of these people in this fashion!" The word "Oh, --" crossed Marller's lips. (...to be continued...) ------------ Credits: Written by: Mike Koos Prereaders: Richard Beaubien, Jonathan Ng, Shadowmane, Tom Williams, David Wills With apologies to Takahashi Rumiko and Fujishima Kosuke... All parts of this series are available at the RAAC archives at ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/anime-fan-works or from my WWW pages at http://www.fanfic.net/~makoto/ Comments and questions welcome. * Mike ('Kino Makoto') Koos: makoto@cal.net * http://www.fanfic.net/~makoto * * "I can do nothing to stop you. Your background music is too strong * for me." - Sam Johnson, Whose Line is it Anyway?