Grave's New Life

Chapter Four

By Philip Weigel

Disclaimer: Sorry officer, I left my Disclaimer in my other pair of pants. But I'm only borrowing the characters from Ranma 1/2 and Gold Digger, I'll return them, honest!

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Grave sighed as she rematerialized outside of Temul. She looked around and noticed that she was by the trees that were outside the city; using a levetation spell, she floated up and onto a tree branch. "Now I'll just wait for Ranma to show up."

********

Meanwhile, back in town, Ranma was walking around the market place, looking for some supplies. He had bought what he thought was good, just the base neccessities. "Let's see now, hmm, I guess getting a map would be a good thing. Gotta know where everything is." As he was walking, the (in)famous Saotome stomach growled, demanding food. "Yeah, yeah, I hear ya."

As he was walking to find a resturaunt of some sort he stopped as he sniffed the air. "No way. That can't be." Ranma spun around and took another sniff of the air. "But, it is. Okonomiyaki." Ranma grinned and walked over to where the food was coming from.

As he walked over there, he saw an old man, roughly eighty or so, wearing blue jeans and a plaid shirt. He was mostly bald with hair that covered his backside. He was complaining about how slow the food was to a brown haired and yellowed furred Kitsune who was tending the stand. She was five-foot-eight, had two tails and was wearing a Kimono

As Ranma walked up to the stand he blinked upon seeing the Kitsune. "A Kitsune?"

The old man scoffed at Ranma's apparent stupidity. "Can't believe he doesn't know what a Kitsune is. They're all over on Jade and the Retreat."

Ranma blinked, not knowing exactly what the old man was talking about when he mentioned the Retreat, Ranma knew of Jade, but not the Retreat. The Kitsune shook her head and smiled at Ranma. "Don't worry about Tom, he's a nice person, I've known him for years."

The old man, Tom, humphed and looked away. The Kitsune shook her head. "Grandpa, don't be so mean."

Ranma blinked. "Grandpa?"

Tom sighed and looked at Ranma. "I'm not really her grandfather young lad. But, you see, roughly fifteen years ago, when she and I were much younger, she was injured by a Dragon and wound up at my place.[1] I took care of her as best I could and she started to call me grandpa."

Ranma nodded and the Kitsune looked at him. "So then, what will it be?"

"You got Okonomiyaki?"

The Kitsune laughed a bit. "Of course. What flavor do you want? I got shrimp, pork, seafood, combo, or fish-lovers."

Ranma blinked. "Fish-lovers?"

The Kitsune nodded. "Yes, six types of fish, including tuna, which is very popular with Werecats."

Ranma shivered at the mention of the word 'cat', but nodded. "I'll try the fish-lovers then."

The Kitsune nodded. "How many would you be having then?"

"Three."

The Kitsune nodded. "Coming right up." She then got to work.

Ranma for his part blinked upon seeing a flame powered stove. True, he hadn't seen much in the way of technology since he lived on the road for ten years with his old man, but he thought that a stove should be a bit more advanced than that.

Suddenly there was a sound, like that of a helicoptor, Ranma remembered what they were like, since his old man had him train at several military bases when he was younger. He looked and blinked upon seeing a young-looking Kitsune with light brown fur and two tails. The young Kitsune smiled at the vendor. "Hiya Uykou!"

The Kitsune, Ukyou, looked at the young Kitsune. "Hello Yoten."

Ranma scratched his head, this was interesting to him at least. 'Heh, she shares the same name as Ucchan. But she ain't my Ucchan, Ucchan wasn't a Kitsune, nor was she a girl.' Ranma shook his head at those thoughts, oh well, he had to get some food and a map.

As Ukyou was cooking the meal Ranma looked around, he shivered upon seeing people with cat-like characteristics. He was tempted to run away, but thankfully, none of them came near him.

Yoten looked at the kid who was looking around at everything with a sense of wonder. He had never seen this person before, but then again, they may have ran into each other before and just never said anything. After all, the world was a pretty big place. "So, what's your name kid?"

Ranma looked at Yoten. "You're one to talk about me being a kid."

Yoten narrowed his eyes a bit, but chuckled. "I'm 74 years old, kid."

"Oh. Name's Ranma. What's yours."

"Yoten."

The two nodded at each other and then Ukyou got done with the food. "Here you go. That will be seven silver pieces."

Ranma shrugged and handed over a gold piece. Ukyou nodded and opened a drawer, placed the gold piece in and then put a glove on and picked up three silver pieces.[2] She handed them over to Ranma. "There you go, you going to eat them here or eat them somewhere else?"

Ranma shrugged, he had most of what he needed, he just needed a map. "Um, I'll eat them somewhere else."

Ukyou nodded and pulled out three boxes and put each Okonomiyaki in a different one.

As Ranma picked up the boxes he muttered, "Now then, where can I find a map?"

Yoten looked at him and shrugged. Reaching into a pocket of holding, he pulled out a map of Jade. "Here you go. I don't need it."

Ranma blinked and took it. As he was walking out he called back to Yoten, "Thanks, kid."

"WHY YOU!"

Ranma just laughed as he walked out of town.

********

Up in her tree, Grave blinked as she saw Ranma walk out of town with three pizza boxes. Smiling, the Lycanthropoid levetated out of her tree to go and see her friend. "Hey Ranma!"

Ranma was a bit startled seeing Grave float like that, but smiled a bit at her. "Hey Grave. I got some food that we can eat."

Grave landed and took a whiff of the air. "Is, is that tuna?" Her mouth watered at the smell.

"Eh, tuna and a whole lot of other seafood."

"Yay!" With that Grave jumped and glomped onto him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Ranma had to steady himself from the sudden glomp, but he was able to stay on his feet.

(----)

Later that night Grave and Ranma were in the middle of the Dim Woods which were north of Temul. Ranma sighed a bit. "Well, at least no one followed us."

Grave rolled her eyes. "They didn't follow us because they aren't looking for you remember?"

Ranma nodded, made sense. The two walked into the woods a bit. Grave panted a bit. "Ranma, can we stop? It's getting late and I'm a bit tired."

Ranma grimaced but nodded. Grave blinked a bit. "What's wrong?"

Ranma sighed. "Nothing really. I just feel that we could cover more distance if we kept travelling."

Grave shrugged. "What for? Is there any place we need to be at?"

Ranma blinked and frowned. "I guess not."

Grave nodded. "Great! So you see my point then."

Ranma sighed. "I guess."

Ranma then dropped his backpack and started to put up camp, while he did that, Grave used her magic and knocked down some dead trees that could be used as firewood.

As he was digging through his backpack, Ranma blinked upon seeing some scrolls inside. "Hey! I forgot about these."

Grave looked at him. "What is it?"

"Well, about four years or so ago me and pops ended up at this weird library. Pops went around ta see if there was any martial arts instructors that I could learn from. Well, I came across this cresent moon that was near the entrance and all of a sudden a whole bunch of books came out of this chute. I wasn't sure what they were all about, considering that I was a bit younger back then." Ranma shook his head and waved his hands a bit. "Anyway, this bald guy with this patch-mark on his left eye came over and picked up the books and then copied them for me. I have to admit, the guy was pretty nice."

Grave blinked as she listened. "Ranma, you've been to Shangri-La?"

"Sangri-La?"

"Yeah, it's also called the Library of Time. That guy you met, he must've been Kahn."

Ranma shrugged. "I guess. Anyway, after I got those books copied I put them into my backpack just as pops came back and said that there was nothing to gain here. So, we left." Ranma then smirked. "After that we I had to do some serious training and I forgot about these scrolls. I never even had time to read them."

Grave nodded and jerked a thumb behind her. "Is that enough firewood?"

Ranma looked and nodded. "Heck yeah. That's actually more than enough."

Grave smiled at hearing that, for some reason, hearing that from her friend meant a lot to her. "So, what's on the scrolls?"

Ranma shrugged and opened one of them. "Hmm, heh, seems this one's all about martial arts techniques." Ranma opened all of them and found that they were all alike. "Heh. When I master these, I won't have to worry about pops getting me anymore."

Grave blinked. "Oh?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah. There's several moves in here. Including tips and tricks on increasing your physical abilities, Ki and Chi manipulation, and even some on being able to become invisible."

Grave shook her head. "Is that all you think about? Martial arts?"

"Well, what else is there?"

Grave rolled her eyes. "Have you even been to school before?"

Ranma looked at her a bit curiously. "A couple times before, why?"

"When was the last time you went to school?"

"About a year or so ago, why?"

Grave sighed. "You aren't going to get anywhere in life without schooling."

"You sure?"

Grave shrugged. "Well, you don't need complete schooling. Just enough to not be considered stupid."

"Ah, I see." Truthfully, Ranma didn't see, but he found it easier to deal with people if he just agreed with them. After all, it kept his old man from hackling him by agreeing to what he said, even if he disagreed later.

"So, what are these techniques?"

"Truthfully? I have no clue."

Grave facefaulted upon hearing that.

Ranma chuckled a bit. "Sorry, I haven't read any of them yet."

Grave shook her head as she stood up, of all the guys that could become her friend, she had to have one that didn't have a full education.

********

Julia Brigand-Diggers, the Armsmaster of Jade and mother of three, sat by an open window of the inn where she was staying at until the Tournament of Arms started. She shook her head and sighed as she went over what she had been told had happened to her youngest daughter. "So, a curse gone awry huh?" Julia muttered to herself as she thought about what was going to happen in the near future. Well, she knew that the opening ceremonies for the Tournament of Arms started in one week, and that the tournament would last a month, but, after that, she had no clue.

She shook her head as her youngest daughter came into the room. "Well?"

Brianna shook her head. "They aren't going to ask the mage council for help on this one mom." Brianna sighed and looked down at the floor. "This, this is all my fault that Gaja was killed. If only I wasn't so stupid!"

Julia frowned and went over to hug her daughter. "Shh, Brianna, no one blames you for what happened there. You couldn't help that it happened, that's all." Brianna just nodded while hugging her mom back.

Julia shook her head, Brianna blamed herself for something that wasn't her fault at all. True, the technology and stuff was overboard, but Gaja didn't die from that stuff, there was no silver in it after all.

After a few minutes of compatable silence, Julia blinked as she realized something for the first time. "Brianna dear, what happened to your hair? The spots are gone."

Brianna blinked. "They are?" She looked at her mom questioningly.

"Yes, your hair is pure blonde, no spots in it."

Brianna scratched her head. "I don't know. Is there a mirror in here somewhere?"

Julia nodded and pointed to one on her right. Brianna went over to the mirror and blinked, her mother was right, her hair was now pure blonde, no dark spots in it at all, she still had her left eye-stripe though. "Honestly, I don't have a clue."

Julia shrugged. "It must not be to important then." Brianna nodded at that, she didn't think much of it herself.

"Heh, my own personal look. Even Cheetah and Gina don't have a look anywhere near like what I got."

Julia smirked. "Well, at least it's better than that time you dyed your hair green."

"I don't think it was that bad mom."

"What about the nosering?"

"Well, okay, that was a bit much, but it wasn't so bad."

"The looped earings?"

"It's a fashion statement."

"The mohawk?"

"I was just trying for my own look mom. I was tired of being compared to Britanny and Gina all the time and wanted something different."

Julia smirked. "Brianna, I don't think anyone's ever compared you to those two before."

Brianna rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever mom."

Julia raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Someone has?"

Brianna shrugged. "Well, occassionally when Brit and I are having some sort of race or competition she always says that she's better than me."

Julia nodded, she'd have to talk to Britanny about that sometime.

Suddenly there was a knocking on the door. Julia raised an eyebrow, wondering who would want to talk to her. She went over to the door and opened it to see the face of Seance, who was standing there. "Hello Seance. What can I do for you?"

"Julia, I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Do you know any Warmages?"

Julia blinked, that was an odd question, but still. "Yes, I know of one, her name's Karia, one of the ten Weaponsmasters of Jade and a Dark Elf who's a master Warmage. Why?"

"I want to meet her."

"Why Seance?"

"Because, I want to change magic schools."

Brianna gasped as she heard that, and Julia raised an eyebrow, there had to be something on the young aura mage's mind for him to say something like that. "Why do you ask that Seance?"

"Because, because I failed to protect Genn from G'Nolga, heck, she even did some serious harm to me because I couldn't stop her."

Julia smiled a bit at the young mage. "Is that all? Seance, dear, you have to understand that G'Nolga is one of the most dangerous opponents any aura mage can fight. She's highly resistant to magic and she's my equal in fighting."

"I still failed. I should've been able to stop her."

Preview of next chapter: "Hey, it's me, Grave Digger. Well, in the next chapter, the plot of this story gets moving on as we skip a week ahead in time. Oh, as for what Ranma and myself will be doing, well, just travelling, him training in martial arts, while I try and get better at using magic, kind of boring if you ask me. Anyway, you just know that there's going to be problems happening all over the place. There's a bald-headed guy that throws lightning around, a purple-haired woman with 100 or so personalities, a blue-armored Undead Knight, a man-turned-woman, and a very angry Dwarf."

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[1] That was a reference to the Dragon's Revolt that happened on the Retreat, some of it spilled over to Jade. Anyway, the thing about the Dragon's Revolt is this, something terrible, in the Dragon's eyes, happened to one of their own members. So, they revolted and the Kitsune of the Eastern Edge Guard tried to stop them, only to have their host bodies end up dead. Kitsune are fox-spirits that need a host body to be able to exist on Earth, Jade, or other physical Realms. Places like the Retreat or the Undead Realm are partly physical planes, but are mostly spirit planes, as such the Kitsune can exist on these planes without needing a host body to survive.

[2] Oh, as for the Kitsune putting on a glove to touch silver, well, the thing is this, silver weakens Kitsune. Now, as for why they do so, well, Kitsune are off-shoots of Werecreatures and while silver doesn't burn their souls like it does to a Werecreature, it does weaken them.