Grave's New Life

Chapter 19

By Philip Weigel

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, never have, never will. High Lord Fred Perry and Rumiko Takahashi-Sama own the main characters, Godfather Ben Dunn owns any Ninja High School characters, and the rest belong to their respective owners.

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“Dammit!” An angry and heated voice screamed out in frustration as the owner of said voice knocked down several trees as a well-built body crashed through them without a care. “Dammed voice!” Looking around, the person growled. “Dammit! Where am I this time?!” He shouted to the heavens, not expecting an answer.

A low sucking sound, followed by a wet and spluttery, sticky sound was all Ryoga’s warning as a white, semi-liquid substance fell out of the sky and hit him right between the eyes. Screaming out in indignation, Ryoga wiped his eyes in an attempt to clear them of the vile goop that was infesting them at that moment. Wiping the nearly-white gunk from his eyes, Ryoga growled. “Stupid birds!” The only thing he could think of that he was mildly glad for was that he had managed to get hit by hot water a couple days before.

“Ranma, why didn’t you show up on the day of our fight?!” Ryoga couldn’t understand why his rival would just up and leave for China, making him try and track down his rival. “Only to fall in a blasted pool of cold water.” He growled in remembrance as he recalled all the problems that had happened shortly after getting cursed. He shuddered as a certain thought bubbled to the surface. “No, please! No more of that Hell!” He screamed, turning east and running that way for several feet. At least, until he slammed into the side of a cliff at full speed, creating an indentation in the side of the rock formation, just before he blacked out, his last thought was of the personal Hell he had seen several times since becoming cursed with that freakish body. [1]

(---)

While Ryoga was passed out cold, other forces were hard at work that evening.

“Saotome, what should we do?” A slightly whiny voice bawled to his slightly over-weight friend. “What about the schools? We still need to tell my girls about that!”

“Do we?” Genma asked as the two walked to the bar to mourn the loss of his son, as they had been doing ever since the attempt to use the scroll to return Ranma to them had failed. “Ranma’s not here, so do we really need to tell them?” He asked, his sense of self-preservation kicking in. Something told him that if he told the girls about the engagement, he’d be a world of hurt for some reason. [2]

“Bu, but, Saotome, those are my girls, they should know the truth about the engagement!” Soun practically wailed. With Genma’s son dead, there was no real reason to hide the engagement anymore. Soun was conveniently forgetting about another engagement he had set his daughters up with many years ago, but then again, he had forgotten many things over his life-time, so his forgetting a “minor” incident that happened while he was training with Genma could be forgiven.

Before Genma could reply to his friend, two figures jumped off of a nearby building and landed in front of the two martial artists with nary a sound. The two Japanese fighters blinked as they saw a teenager with a rather healthy build, purple hair, and red eyes and was wearing a short skirt. The other figure had long white hair, eyes that seemed way too big to be on the face. The shorter figure also wore a green robe and held an incredibly tall, for the creature, gnarled staff. “So, you’re the one that my great-granddaughter said helped the redhead escape.” The shorter one said in perfect Japanese, the voice giving it away to be an old, extremely old, woman.

Genma gawked slightly. Proving that Ranma wasn’t the only one who could stick his foot in his mouth, Genma jumped back slightly, pointed, and yelled in surprise. “Ahh! A Ghoul!”

Her eye twitching slightly, the old woman cracked her staff on the fat oaf’s head so fast that he didn’t have a chance to move quickly enough to avoid the strike. She mentally smirked as she was rewarded with a meaty crack as her staff hit its mark, sending the one who insulted her into a nearby wall.

Groaning as he slid to the ground, Genma shook his head and gawked slightly. That ghoul just hit him across the street hard enough to make a slight imprint on a solid brick wall. He shivered when he caught her looking at him with narrowed eyes. ‘Just like the m-m-master was...’ He thought to himself in surprise. He vaguely recognized the young girl, but with the appearance of the old woman, he was left with one option, well, the only option he could think of. “I’ll show you! Hiyah!”

The old woman merely raised an eyebrow as the portly martial artist jumped at her with a leap-kick. At least the fool wasn’t a complete waste of space if he was willing to try and take her on. She chuckled and waited a moment, before jumping to the top of her stick. When Genma’s foot got in range, she slapped it to the side, before hitting him back across the street and into the same depression that she had hit him into before.

Off to the side, Soun was laying on the ground face-first, his arms outstretched and his hands in warding positions as Shampoo stood over him with a bonbouri in her hand, scowling slightly. “Stupid male should learn place with Amazons.” She said flippantly.

If Soun were conscious, he would have agreed.

The old woman rolled her eyes as the fool got back up to attack again, only this time shakily. “Well, he’s persistent.” She could give him that at the very least. Still, she would have to finish the fight soon. She wasn’t getting tired at all, but it wouldn’t do to kill the fool before they found their prey and killed her. They’d kill him after they were done with the girl. Anyone who helped an escapee from their village deserved to be punished, but only after they had taken care of the problem.

Genma frowned and got to his feet, a serious cast on his face. Looking at Soun, he grimaced in seeing his old training partner out cold. That meant that he was alone against two opponents, normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but one of them was good enough to knock him around several times, similar to what his old master was capable of. He had one choice in his mind.

Cologne blinked as the fool actually started to glow brightly with power, with the way his body was, she didn’t think he had it in him to actually generate an aura, much less one that was twice his size. She couldn’t tell if it was for show or if he was actually serious with using it. If he was serious about using it, she may actually have a fight on her hands. ‘Why, I might actually break a sweat.’ She thought to herself, chuckling mentally.

The gi-clad fighter got into a stance and tensed slightly. “Saotome School of Anything Goes final attack!” Amazingly enough, his aura got even denser than it had before. [3]

Cologne blinked and tensed on her staff, whatever this final attack was; it sure seemed to be fairly powerful. She was certain that she could defeat it, even if it would be harder than usual for her.

Genma then waved, turned to the side and ran at top speeds. “Retreat!”

A moment later, the two Amazons stood, staring stupidly at a dust cloud as Genma continued to get away. Cologne blinked several times as her opponent left the area. The purple haired girl behind her could only sweat-drop. That was the person that defeated her in battle? He sure didn’t seem like much, then again, against her great-grandmother, not many people did seem like much.

Cologne blinked a few more times until Shampoo spoke up behind her. “Shampoo think that we be tricked.” The younger Amazon was treated to a rare sight, that of an Elder twitching before face-faulting and getting back up again, just to fall back over and twitch in the hole she made in the ground. [4]

(----)

Running at top speeds, Genma didn’t even bother to look behind him as he escaped from the little troll. He knew he couldn’t go back to the Tendo Dojo. ‘That evil creature probably already got the information out of Soun.’ He thought to himself. Going back to the Tendo home and Dojo was out; otherwise those women would come back and try to finish the job. ‘But why are they after me?’ The Saotome Patriarch asked himself, frowning slightly. It didn’t matter in the end. All that truly mattered was surviving. ‘But where can I hide?’ He thought to himself. Bars were out, as was anywhere near the Tendo Dojo, people in that area might just tell those women where he was staying at. Suddenly his expression brightened. “Of course!” He yelled out. It was risky, but if he played his cards right, he would have a free place to hide and those stupid women wouldn’t know where to find him.

Genma really should have watched where he was going, however, as he ran into the middle of the street, only to get hit by a runaway car, which knocked him through the air. Thankfully, nothing important on Genma's part was damaged, as the car ran into him from behind, sending him flying away. The poor car, on the other-hand, had its front end and bumper crushed in, as some would point out, in the shape of a rather large ass.

“Oh, dammit!” An agitated voice screamed out from the inside of the car. “Well, at least the dammed thing stopped.” A young woman’s voice sounded as she got out, surveying the damage.

“Now do you believe me that the brakes were out?” An elegant female voice spoke up as she stepped out of the car to look at her partner, shaking her head.

“Fine, fine, I’ll get someone to fix the brakes.” The first woman said, sighing. She rolled her eyes as the second one nodded, smiling victoriously. [5]

A few hours later...

In the middle of a carpeted room, a petite female figure slept, curled up on bean-bag chair as light shone through the window, draping her golden spotted furred form in its warm light. Rolling slightly, she uncurled and stretched her arms above her head and her legs straight out as she woke up from her nap. “Mmmm... That felt good!” She smiled, waking up.

“Nekotama! You’re up!” A familiar female voice spoke up in surprise. The little Werecheetah smiled as she saw her best friend’s mother, wearing a light green kimono, walk into the room.

“Is Ranma home?” She asked, standing up and looking around for a clock. She had fallen asleep a little bit after lunch, so she assumed that school was out by that time. Her greenish-blue eyes spotting the clock on the wall, she blinked as the clock read at least an hour after school was out. [6]

Nodoka smiled at Grave, who was dressed in a red t-shirt and loose blue shorts. “Oh, I sent him out to get some food after he got home from school.” The older redhead replied casually. Seeing Grave sigh and look down, Nodoka quickly added to her previous statement, “But he should be back quickly.” Grave perked up and looked at her, smiling.

“That’s good.” Grave smiled, stretching and getting the last of the kinks out of her back. “Auntie?”

“Yes, Neko-tama?” Nodoka asked as she walked to the door out of the room.

“Do you know anyone who wears a white bandanna, a white body suit that’s dirty, is slightly pudgy, and a little taller than Ranma?”

Nodoka blinked, that description sounded a lot like someone she knew and loved very well. “Why do you ask?” It was best to find out what the other person knew before giving away any information that you knew. If it wasn’t important, then they didn’t need to know everything. Even if it was that lucky little and cute Neko-tama.

Grave shook her head. “Well,” she began at length, “I saw this fat man chase Ranma around the school in my dream, screaming at him to marry a fiancée and do his duty, or something that involves fighting off fools who come to beat him.” The worst thing, in Grave’s opinion, was the amount of darkness that was following the fat man, as if he had a lot of bad history following him. Her eyes narrowed as she thought about it. Why did that fool seem so, so, so stupid, yet scary at the same time?

Nodoka nodded, that sounded like her husband alright. “Well, I wouldn’t worry about it too much; it was just a dream, right?”

The younger girl nodded, her bangs bouncing on her face lightly. “Yeah... Plus I’m sure that what I saw wouldn’t happen.” She smiled. “After all, my Ranma’s the best!”

Nodoka raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I’m sure he is.” She was certainly surprised when the little dear had all but just declared her son as her intended. ‘Ah, my son, so manly.’ She thought with a mental sigh.

It only took Grave a few moments to realize what she had just said. Blushing, she amended her statement, “Ah, I mean the best marital, ahh, martial artist.” She couldn’t believe how flustered she was becoming. Her face had to be bright red, facial fur or not, she had to be blushing heavily.

Nodoka nodded, smiling as she turned and walked out. She never would have thought that the Neko-tama would become so smitten with her son. She knew that the girl liked her son, but to practically come out and shout it out surprised the heck out of her. When she got to the kitchen, she gasped in surprise. “Genma?!”

(---)

The slightly portly martial artist panted slightly as he leaned up against a telephone pole, though he made sure to keep his eyes and senses open at all times. He never knew when he’d run into one of those crazy women. Still, his current course of action was foolish at best, and even he knew it. He didn’t have much of a choice. If he didn’t go and try to hide out at his wife’s house, those crazy women might actually hurt Tendo’s daughters. He knew that Tendo would never forgive him if his daughters were hurt.

Taking a deep breath, Genma shook his head and groaned. He hadn’t ran in a panic like that in a long, long time, not since the last time he tried to escape from his old master’s tyranny. He sighed as he saw his wife’s yard. All he had to do was sneak in, not tip her off that he was home and get some cold water so he could hide in his Panda form. He groaned as his back throbbed. ‘Stupid out-of-control drivers.’ He thought to himself as he jumped behind a couple of garbage cans, before raising his head up, looking around and practically jumping from behind the trash cans to a thin tree near the edge of the wall. Defying all laws of physics, Genma managed to seemingly disappear behind the tree, before sticking his head out on one side to look, then he slipped it back behind the tree and out to the other side and look there as well. [7] [8]

Slipping up to the house, he molded himself to the wall next to the door, before grabbing the knob to the door of the house, turning it, he smiled to himself as the door opened up with ease. He didn’t think that Nodoka would lock the door too often, well, maybe to keep him out. Idly he rubbed his head as he recalled all those lumps that she had given him trying to keep him from taking their son out on a training trip. Slipping inside, he blinked as he heard Nodoka talking to someone. ‘Must be one of her friends.’ He reasoned to himself, before slipping down the entryway to the kitchen. If he didn’t run, he figured he would make it. His wife’s blasted senses seemed to go off when he ran, but when he tried sneaking around, she couldn’t tell he was anywhere nearby, it was weird that way, but who was he to complain? Well, if he didn’t have to sneak around, he could get to places quicker. He grinned as he got within jumping distance to the kitchen. A few more feet and he’d be able to hide out here for awhile. Though, he had to admit, he was quite amazed that he hadn’t changed into a panda on the way over.

The moment he entered the kitchen, he heard a gasp behind him, causing him to spin around quickly and tense up. He didn’t want any of those blasted women to get the better of him. One look at the person in front of him, however, caused him to pale and practically wet his pants.

“Genma?!” Nodoka gasped out in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

The Saotome patriarch gulped and tried to think of a way out of this one. He had a few ideas in his head, but he needed to get one out and quick.

Meanwhile, in the living room, Grave frowned as she heard Nodoka gasp in surprise. ‘What’s going on?’ She thought to herself, before tip-toeing up to the door of the living room and listening in. Whoever this Genma person was, he seemed to be upsetting Auntie Nodoka.

“Nochan, please...” He began, trailing off. How the hell was he supposed to explain that their son wasn’t there?

“Where is our son?” Nodoka asked, crossing her arms under her chest. She cursed the fact that she didn’t have her Katana on her, but hopefully Genma would be scared enough that he would be more willing to give out information without her needing to persuade him too badly. She knew that Ranma had just gone out to get some food, but she wondered why she hadn’t seen him with Genma.

Genma sweated heavily, Nodoka just had to ask where their son was. He blinked as something came to him. He didn’t have to tell her the whole truth about what happened, but something that was enough of a lie would hopefully get his bacon out of the fire. Mustering up all the acting skills he had, he threw his head back and covered his eyes with his arm. “Oh, No-chan, it’s terrible! An evil Amazon used some powerful magic and spirited our son away!” That wasn’t a complete lie after all, that Amazon was evil, there was powerful magic being used and Ranma was spirited away. [9]

In the living room, Grave frowned, her eyes narrowing as she listened in. ‘But, but auntie said that Ranma went to get some stuff from the store. And, and auntie said that Ranma was home after school.’ She thought to herself worriedly.

“Just what do you mean, Genma?” The redhead asked, narrowing her eyes. If something happened to her son in the time he was gone, she was going to rip her husband a new one.

Taking a breath, Genma gathered up his courage, he just hoped that he didn’t mess up on this. “Ranma was spirited away by some magic and, and he, oh I can’t say it.”

“What?” Now Nodoka was getting nervous, if something really did happen to her son and Genma was trying to just let her know about it, then she could forgive him for not being around for ten years.

“Well, Ranma, is, might be, could be, dead.” Genma stuttered, lowering his head. As much as he was trying to avoid his wife’s anger, even he was extremely upset by this revelation. He did care for his son after all.

Grave’s eyes snapped wide-open as her body trembled hearing that. “No.” She whispered to herself, images of Rook and his cronies getting their grubby mitts on her Ranma and doing horrible things to her best friend. Hands trembling, her mind conjured up images of her friend battered, cut, bruised and bleeding with him on the floor, groaning in pain, while Rook stood over him, a glowing red saber held in the air, blood dripping off its edge as he laughed maniacally.

Trembling in anger, her aura sprung up around her as her eyes turned nearly pure white. Images of a life without her best friend ran through her head. From what Ranma had told her of what Genma was capable of, it wasn’t too much of a stretch for her to imagine him doing something incredibly horrible and evil to Ranma. ‘Genma Saotome, because of you, I’ve seen Hell! And it’s life without my Ranma!’ She mentally screamed as she walked into the hallway, glowing brighter than the forth of July. [10]

Meanwhile, an unconscious youth sneezed, causing him to wake up. Groaning, he shook his head. “Something tells me I should sue someone for taking something from me.” What it was, he wasn’t sure just yet.

Back in Tokyo...

Cologne blinked as she looked off to the East. “Hmm... Most ominous.” She mused to herself as she and her great-granddaughter sat in an abandoned warehouse. She could feel a sudden burst of strong, yet unfocused, magic off in the distance. It felt as though a mage had just lost his or her temper and was about to unleash the wrath of the gods upon some poor fool who dared cross their path. “Oh well.” She shrugged it off as unimportant. It was better to leave well enough alone and not bother a mage who was extremely upset. Besides the fact that the Amazons hated dealing with mages in the first place, they tended to have lots of nasty tricks up their sleeves.

“Great Grandma?” Her heir’s voice spoke up from behind. “Why we leave that other man behind?”

The old woman smirked. “There’s no need to do anything with him. He may have been around the fat fool, but we have no use for him.” She waved it off. “We don’t need to cause any more trouble than necessary, at least until we catch that other fool.”

(----)

Nodoka blinked as that cute Neko-tama walked into the room, glowing so bright, the redhead wondered if she would need to turn on the lights for the house for the rest of the year. She blinked, seeing tears fall out of her glowing white eyes and down her face as she stared hard at Genma. Stepping back, she’d try to calm the girl after she vented a bit, trying to calm over-powered or hot-tempered fighters usually ended up with one getting hurt. And she had thought that Neko-tama didn’t fight.

Genma gulped and started taking steps backwards towards the door. Maybe if he didn’t make any really sudden movements, the creature in front of him wouldn’t attack him.

One look at said creature’s face caused him to change his mind, the angry snarl with the tears falling down her face caused him to loose his nerve and turn around. He wouldn’t normally run, but that aura was pretty strong, not to mention the creature looked about ready to kill, and if she knew how to use that aura, he would be in trouble.

When Genma had his back to her, Grave’s eyes widened, glowing even brighter before she held her hands up and let loose with such a massive blast that caused the portly martial artist to get blasted through the outer wall of the Saotome house, through the upper portion of the stone wall surrounding Nodoka’s home, before he disappeared in the distance with a “Ping”.

Looking for a few moments as Genma disappeared over the Tokyo horizon, Grave shuddered, before collapsing to her knees, her aura breaking up into spiraling wisps around her body, her eyes returning to normal, as she fell to her knees, her face looking at the ground as more and more tears fell out of her eyes and onto the floor. “Why? Why him? He, he saved me. Why couldn’t I save him?” She asked no one in particular, her body wracked with soul-searing sobs as her tears fell down her cheeks, dripping onto the wooden floor.

Grave stayed like that for several moments, until she heard a voice she would have sworn she would never hear again. “Um, what happened? Mom? Grave?”

The Werecheetah-looking girl gasped and looked up, her eyes slightly red and puffy from crying, and stared. “Ranma?” She couldn’t believe her eyes. That fat man had said that he was possibly dead, yet he was standing right in front of her, a few grocery bags in his hands.

Ranma blinked, frowning slightly as he saw his friend crying. “Grave? What’s ooof!” Ranma’s lack of an articulate response could be forgiven when Grave practically leaped from the floor and tackled him to the ground, hugging him fiercely, her body trembling as she sobbed into his shoulder. She didn’t care that she may have broken what was in his bags, she was just glad to have him back in her life.

Ranma blinked and took his hands out of the bags, before returning her hug softly. He wasn’t sure what more he could do at that moment, but she seemed to really need a hug.

Looking on as her son held the sad Neko-tama, Nodoka smiled. She was wasn’t sure if going up to the Neko-tama while she was crying would have been a good thing after seeing her blast Genma, but she was glad it all worked out, even though she was surprised as hell that her son was alive. ‘Hmm... Shouldn’t have bought what he said.’ She thought to herself, before sighing and smiling at Grave and Ranma. ‘So manly.’ She thought in bliss. [11]

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Preview of the Next Chapter: “Hey, Grave here. Well, we didn’t get to the stuff with school; this chapter seemed to not go that way. Not sure what’s going to happen next though. The script was destroyed by axe-wielding psycho-midgets from hell.”

[1] I’m sure you know what hit Ryoga in the face. And, yes, there is something terrible he saw.

[2] That’s his strongest ability, to sense potential danger to himself. So, he always makes sure that he has at least a scapegoat. Course, this isn’t flawless, but it works 7 times out of 10. It’s the other 3 times that he gets in trouble.

[3] Genma did create an aura to go toe-to-toe with Happosai for a moment or three in the manga. Of course, he couldn’t do anything with it and passed out a few moments later.

[4] Hey, what did you expect from me?

[5] Ten points to those who can figure out who those two are. And the points here are just like on “Who’s Line Is It Anyway”, they don’t count. And, yes, it’s a crossover-cameo, which means this is the only time you’ll see them.

[6] Yes, I know it’s early in the day for Genma and Soun to get drunk, but hey, it’s Genma and Soun.

[7] Couldn’t help myself here, what do you all think?

[8] Yes, I know that Genma wouldn’t go there normally, but he didn’t see much of a choice. He could try hiding elsewhere though, but he never thinks of the long-term consequences anyway. Well, maybe he would have, had he not been cursed. Who knows? Other than Rumiko Takahashi-sama that is.

[9] All in Genma’s mind, people, all in Genma’s mind. Then again, he’s not totally off here. “The greatest lie is the truth.” – Ranmazoku.

[10] Thus proving that it’s not just the Nerima natives that jump to conclusions with little information on hand.

[11] Nodoka may have seemed indecisive here, but when someone starts glowing and blasts someone for being angry, I wouldn’t want to talk to them, they might still be upset.