Crystal Memories - Ch 5

[Konsaki]

Crystal Memories
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction
Author: Konsaki

The redheaded mithra rolled her emerald eyes as she let out an exasperated breath. "Look, I know you're not happy about it but I already said I was sorry. I'm not apologizing again, so you can stop looking at me like that," Kitoria stated as she leaned against a stack of wooden boxes, arms crossed under her chest.

Averting her gaze, Hiroshi tucked some wild copper hair behind an ear to keep it from blowing in her face with the ocean breeze coming into through the cave mouth. Letting out her own small sigh, the younger mage lowly replied, "You could have warned me, though…"

"I did," Kitoria pointed out with a nod before looking to the side to look through a window. Inside, she saw the other human and mithra pair still shopping and talking with who she guessed was the galka store owner.

"You could have warned me better," Hiroshi sharply said back with narrowed eyes.

Finally letting a light growl of irritation enter her voice, the older female threw her hands up in exasperation, "I was twelve for my first time! That's eight years and who knows how many more since then! And I already told you the first time's the worst and it gets easier each time."

"I'll help you get over your 'first time'," a human in a group of passing sailors called out to the pair, a lecherous look in his eyes and voice.

Both redheads snapped glares towards the laughing and whistling men. Their laughter quickly died out into warning yells as the younger mage brought a hand up containing a roiling ball of fire in it, only for Kitoria to forestall her attack with a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"We're talking about mage scrolls, jackass, so get your mind out of the gutters and 'Shut Up'," Kitoria angrily yelled as she gestured towards the initial sailor. "Now scram before I let her fry your asses!"

The human sailor tried to say something snappy in response but it took him a second to notice his mouth working with nothing coming out. He snapped his hand up to his throat with wide eyes before he realized what had happened and send a seething glare towards the mithra woman.

"You can leave now," Hiroshi dismissed the group with a smirk, still holding the ball of fire over a cupped hand while quirking her brow.

"We don’t have time for this," a bald elvaan of the group stated, jerking his head further out towards the dock. "There'll be time for wenches later," he commented as the sailors started moving again. As the group wandered away, with the two females keeping a close eye on the group, Hiroshi dismissed her magical fireball to nothingness.

After a few seconds had passed, Kitoria shook her head while running a hand through her hair. "Stupid idiots," she muttered before looking to the shorter female beside her. "Just a warning, don’t let any of the Temple Knights catch you doing that; it's against city law."

"Doing what?" The copper haired mage asked in response, confusion in her voice and face.

"Using an obvious attack spell to threaten someone," the leather jacket wearing mithra answered.

"But doing what you did is legal?" Hiroshi inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Whatever do you mean 'what I did'," Kitoria replied with a smirk on her lips, "Did you 'see' me do anything?"

"No, I guess I didn’t," Hiroshi replied with her own knowing smirk while tucking more loose hair behind an ear. Glancing towards 'Heratio's' herself, the mage watched through the window as Ranma curiously examined a small cannon on display. Taking a guess, she figured Daisuke was talking with the store owner by the counter which wasn’t visible through the storefront window. Looking back towards the massive cave entrance and the vast sea of blue waves and bright sky beyond, Hiroshi asked her companion, "So, what's with that balcony over there that overhangs the bay?"

"What? Oh, the airship dock?" Kitoria questioned as she looked towards the indicated object.

"Airships… You guys have airships but not cars," Hiroshi dryly stated with a roll of her eyes.

Quirking her brow, Kitoria responded, "I don’t know what 'cars' are, but I do know airships are pretty new. They say Cid, the genius from Bastok, created the plans for them during the last days of the Crystal War but it took him over ten years to perfect them." Shrugging her shoulders, she added, "I may be wrong, but I think there's only four or five in existence."

"Huh…," the copper haired girl succinctly replied in thought before asking, "You ever ride on one?"

"Twice," the green eyed mithra stated with a wistful sound to her voice, "and each time was amazing. Feeling the wind through your hair as you stand on the deck while flying a thousand of feet above the trees. Being able to look over the side to see the ground racing along below you… it was amazing!" Sighing, she shook her head as she added, "It's too bad it's so expensive, though. I was only able to get on due to a Royal Writ given to me because I was on a mission for the Crown."

"Really? What were you doing?" Hiroshi asked with interest, turning her head towards the mithran mage.

"Sorry, can't talk about it," Kitoria apologetically answered, ending that line of questioning.

"Ah," Hiroshi muttered in acceptance before the pair fell into a comfortable silence, the two just listening to the sounds of the ocean echoing off the cave and the noises from the dock workers and sailors working their trade.

After a couple more minutes, they heard the door chime from 'Heratio's' entrance as it opened up and closed. Turning towards it, they saw a relaxed Ranma and irritated Daisuke making their way towards them, the gunslinger's grumbling voice barely carrying to them. "That almost wiped me out, man. Bullets are freaking expensive!"

"Just be careful with what you have then, I guess," Ranma offhandedly replied as she walked a step ahead of the taller human teen. As they got closer to the two mages, the white eared martial artist called out, "Ready to go?"

Nodding her head, Hiroshi quickly replied, "Been ready. Took you guys long enough."

"It was Dai who was taking his time in there," Ranma defensively stated, showing the redhead her empty hands. "I was just checking it out cause… just cause," she lamely supplied with a shrug.

"Hey! I was trying to make sure I got the right ammo for this thing and not get ripped off," the brown haired teen hotly stated, still unpleased with his lighter coin purse even with a heavier ammo pouch.

Rolling her eyes, Kitoria stepped in, "Anyways, we still need to stop by a grocer's store before we head home." Glancing towards the only male of the group with an evaluating gaze, she asked him, "You did save enough to pitch in for food, right."

"Uh…," the brown eyed teen stalled, his brain derailing before running over how much he had left from his recent purchase, "Yes?"

"Good," the elder mithra replied with a smile, "I remember the one time I had to buy a new sword, my old one broke on a mission, and forgot to save enough for food. Yeah, was a really lean two weeks before my next payday."

"I'll keep that in mind," Daisuke said with a light nervous laugh, as the group started to leave the San d'Oria port and reenter the city market proper.

oO0Oo

"That was crazy," Daisuke exclaimed as the quartet made their way down the rapidly emptying streets towards Kitoria's house.

"That was the auction house of the south district," Kitoria said with a smirk, tapping her chin with a finger while her other hand carried a bag of produce. "It's usually not 'that' busy though, so I guess they had an event or something going on."

"I'm just glad we didn't have to go through that mess," Hiroshi commented while shaking her head, "I mean, did you see that crowd?"

"Reminds me a little of the lunch fights I had in middle school," Ranma offered, glancing over her shoulder out though she didn't have line of sight anymore.

"There was probably some 'new discovery' or something which caused a run on some item or something," Kitoria explained as they approached the building her home was in. "It happens every once in a while, sometimes being real but it seems more often than not is a scam or something."

"So basically, someone has a lot of something and needs to sell it off and they make a lot of money doing it," Hiroshi theorized while climbing the stairs.

"Pretty much," Kitoria agreed with a nod, "At least, that's my take on it."

"So, what do they sell at that place," Daisuke inquired as they entered the household, moving to set the goods down on the table.

"Weapons, Armor, Clothes, Food, Medicine… Pretty much just about anything you can think of," the red haired mithra replied before pulling her leather jacket off to put it on a coat hook on the wall, "That's where I got this thing. Pretty cheap compared to the local stores too but still good quality."

Grunting, Daisuke muttered, "Maybe I should have gone there to get more bullets…"

"Maybe next time, now that you know what you need," Ranma suggested as she moved over to the table and sat down, her long white tipped, black furred tail carefully curled to the side.

"They're open through the night," Kitoria informed the younger group as she started to wash some of the vegetables in the sink in preparation for dinner. "You can always head out yourselves if you wish later."

"Head out where?" A sluggish voice asked out from down the hall.

"The south auction house," the red haired mithra explained to her sister, glancing over while still washing the produce in the sink. "There was an event there this afternoon when we went past." Seeing her sister's disheveled state and noticing Mariana not running around underfoot, "You feeling alright? Where's Mari?"

Liana just waved the questions off, "She's still napping and I joined her cause I have something to do tonight." Rubbing her eyes clear with a yawn, she added, "Depending on how it goes tonight, I might need to go out tomorrow as well."

"Ah," the redheaded mithra acknowledged with a nod, turning her attention back to the vegetables before her, "I'll look after her then but you keep safe out there."

"I plan on it," Liana wryly replied with a small grin on her lips before giving a nod of acknowledgement to the younger trio which had just moved in. "How was your day?"

"Pretty good except for the part where your sister tried to explode my brain," Hiroshi stated, gesturing towards Kitoria's back while smirking slightly.

Liana quirked her eyebrow while she heard her sister sigh. "I talked her into buying her first spell scroll today," Kitoria explained, not bothering to face the copper haired mage. "I had to listen to her whining for half an hour after as punishment," she added with a smirk, hearing the small squawk of indignation from the other side of the room.

The brown haired mother just cupped her cheek with a hand as she smiled at a memory, "That reminds me of when mother did the same with you. She finally had to bribe you with sweet bread to stop you from crying."

A suffered sigh escaped the redheaded mithra as she set the vegetables to the side and turned to face the room. "I was twelve… and just barely that." Seeing Hiroshi's smirk, Kitoria rolled her eyes while saying, "Hush you."

"Didn't say anything," the human mage responded while leaning against a wall with her arms crossed beneath her chest.

"Uh huh," Kitoria vocalized her obvious disbelief while setting down the washed vegetables along with a cutting board and knife on the table before Ranma. The martial artist blinked a bit before giving a shrug and started cutting the various carrots, potatos and greens.

Liana just smiled at the byplay between the gathered group in the room. "Other than that, then, did you enjoy your day?"

"Right up until I found out how much ammo costs for this thing," Daisuke lamented as he held his revolver in his hands, opening up the cylinder to look through the empty chambers. "I'm pretty much broke now."

"Don't forget that knife and clothes you got, too," Ranma pointed out, gesturing with the knife she was using to cut the vegetables while Kitoria worked at the stove behind her.

"Well, yeah," the gunslinger acknowledged, patting the sheathed knife on his right hip. "So, it's not too bad, I guess." Shrugging, he looked towards the brown haired mithra and asked, "What you doing tonight?"

"Just a guild mission," she waved off with a hand, "Someone wants some information on something." Shrugging, she closed out that conversation by saying, "That's all I can tell you about it. Sorry." Having said that, Liana stretched her back with her arms above her head, letting out a small moan with a small smile. "I guess I should go wake Mariana up or else she'll be terrorizing you all night long."

"Yeah, thanks for that," Kitoria replied with a laugh as she stirred the broth heating on the stove.

Turning his brown eyes from Liana's retreating back to look towards the mithra at the stove, Daisuke asked, "So, what's the plan for tomorrow?"

"Well, now that we've gone to the guild, gotten clothes and such, I think we should try and talk to the scholar that the Guildmaster mentioned," the spiky haired mithra woman replied over her shoulder.

"Yeah, gotta change back and go home," Hiroshi called out in agreement.

"Assumin' the guy can even help us," Ranma countered as she finished chopping the last of the vegetables. "Knowing my luck, the guy'll do something but won't be able to do anything to help."

"Don’t be so pessimistic, man," Daisuke replied with a frown, "He'll be able to help and we'll be heading home before you know it."

[LawOhki]

Not a whole lot to comment on since it is kind of a filler portion. The 'period' joke was kind of lame and the sailors were a bit weak.

I would still like to see some racial differences. Hiroshi/Daisuke being treated by shop owners differently than the Mithra for instance. They are supposed to have some different personality traits.

[Konsaki]

"Hey! Watch it!" The black haired galka yelled out in surprised annoyance as he twisted his large frame, carefully controlling the balance of the stacked boxes in his arms. Glaring over his shoulder at the two teenagers who barely dodged around him, the galka growled under his breath about inconsiderate humans.

"Sorry!" Daisuke called back over his shoulder as he hurriedly resumed the pace set by the copper haired girl running ahead. Gulping down a deep breath of air, he pushed a little more to close the distance between them.

Daisuke hated running, as any of the other guys at Furinkan High would attest to. There were only a few reasons he would do so willingly, barring the obvious reason of running for his life and safety. Even so, there were a couple of times that he didn’t mind running; if it was Saturday's physical training class, which meant an afternoon off from school, and if there was a good looking girl running ahead of him.

This is where he was having a moral issue with his current situation. On one hand, he had said cute girl running ahead of him, admittedly keeping a strong swift pace, her long copper braided hair bouncing around just above the tight shorts covering her shapely rear. On the other hand… Said cute girl was his childhood friend of over thirteen years and, more importantly, 'was' a guy up until just over a week ago.

His train of thought was derailed as Hiroshi jerked down a side road, revealing a column of San d'Orian Temple Knights marching towards him. Jerking down the same passage as his transformed friend, Daisuke could see the growing sneer on the towering Elvaan leader, the polished silvered Captain's platemail gleaming in the late morning sunlight.

Once more pushing his pace to catch up to Hiroshi once more, he called forward, "Hiro! Slow down, man!"

Looking over her shoulder as she throttled her pace back to an easy jog, the copper haired girl asked, "What's up? You tired already?" Frowning slightly, she added, "It's only been, like, a half hour."

The brown eyed male returned his own small frown as he snarkily responded, "Well, not all of us are super-powered martial artists or long distance track stars."

The red eyed girl gave a quick glare at the tone she received but chose not to respond. After a minute at the slower pace, the pair passing through a stone archway connected to the city's outer wall, Hiroshi finally slowed down to an easy walk. "Okay, let's take a break." She stated as she moved off to the side of the large cobblestone road they now found themselves on.

"Thanks, man." Daisuke replied in sincere gratitude as he finished catching his breath, wiping a hand across his brow before flicking it to the side to clear the sweat from it.

Wiping her own brow, though clearing noticeably less sweat than her friend, the redhead moved over to lean forward onto a smooth wooden fence. Taking a clearing breath, she said, "Sorry… I just get into a runner's trance and…"

Leaning onto the fence close to his friend, Daisuke chuckled lightly. "No problem, man. Just… quit running me into people, okay?" He quipped with a grin while running a hand through his sweat matted hair.

Hiroshi just rolled her ruby eyes with responding grin, getting his friend's drift. "Yeah, sorry. Guess this wasn’t the best route to take."

The tan tunic wearing male just chuckled again before responding, "It could be worse. We could be in Ranma's shoes!"

The Lina lookalike beside him covered a giggle with a hand at that comment. Smiling at the memory, she agreed, "Yeah… he wasn’t too happy was he?"

"He looked like a drowning cat!" Daisuke stated with a bark of laughter, picturing the scene in his head.

"Might have something to do with that scientist, scholar girl having her assistant dumping hot and cold water on him repeatedly." She dryly replied while still holding a wry grin on her pink lips. Daisuke just shrugged as he continued to chuckle at the event not even two hours past playing through his mind.

The trio had followed Kitoria's directions to the scholar's residence, where Fiamomo ran her business from, and were surprised to find that the tall elvaan who answered the door wasn't the scholar but just the assistant. Once they were ushered inside and passed the bookcases filled with scrolls, books and odd devices made of crystal and metal, they were introduced to a short blue haired taru reading a large book at a table built for someone her assistant's height.

Their conversation actually started on a rather bland note, Fiamomo obviously skeptical with their story of being transported from another world. The taru scholar's mood changed drastically when she asked for proof and Daisuke offered up Ranma's Jusenkyo curse, to the martial artist's annoyance.

What followed was a whirlwind of events, involving a small demonstration of the gender changing and a slight discussion of payment and costs. Somehow, it all ended with Hiro and Dai being dismissed for the day, while Ranma found himself unhappily sitting in a large basin as an energetic blue haired taru brought forth device after device while continually ordering her assistant to douse the mithra with alternating warm and cool water. When Hiro and Dai laughed as they left, the disgruntled martial artist loudly declared his vengeance, causing the pair to laugh even harder.

Daisuke chuckled again as the memory ran through his head once more, shaking his head slowly. Glancing to his right, he found Hiroshi staring ahead with a small grin quirking her lips upward. Following her gaze, Dai finally looked into the fenced in area and blinked at the large birds milling about inside; some pecking at the ground lightly while others preened themselves or napped in the morning light. After a calm quiet minute or so between the two, Daisuke asked, "What you thinking about?"

"Just watching the birds." Hiroshi replied offhandedly, watching a particularly energetic chocobo who was dancing around flapping its stunted wings. "They're kinda cool." She added, with a gesturing hand wave, "Like huge gold chickens people ride like horses."

"I guess." The brown haired teen offered non-committally with a shrug, taking notice of the same golden chocobo as it let out a warbling, chirping call. After a few moments, the bird started fluttering it's wings once more in an odd dance. "What's got his feather's ruffled?" Daisuke asked out with a quirked grin on his lips.

"Don't know, but he's really going at it, huh?" the copper haired girl replied with a small shake to her head. The fledgling mage saw her companion nod out of the corner of her vision as she kept her eyes on the golden chocobo making the commotion.

The pair leaned against the fence , silently entranced by the scene… right up until the chocobo mounted another.

Realizing what was happening, Hiroshi jerked her body around to face away from the copulating foul, loudly declaring with flushed cheeks, "Okay! I'm done watching the birds!"

"Ah, yeah. Same here, I guess." Daisuke agreed a moment later, also turning away from the birds who were already finished with the deed. Glancing towards his friend, he asked, "So… now what?"

Quirking her head slightly as she started walking away from the chocobo pen, Hiroshi thought about it for a moment before scrunching her nose slightly. "I don’t know about you man, but I'm thinking we head back and get cleaned up before lunch."

Scrunching his eyebrows, the brown eyed youth discreetly sniffed under an arm. "Yeah, that sounds cool." He agreed with a nod.

Nodding herself, Hiroshi continued walking for a moment before a smirk overtook her face. Glancing over to her best friend, she stated with an amused tone, "Alright! First one there gets dibs!"

Before Daisuke could fully process what she had said, he saw his transformed compatriot bolt back into the busy San d'Oria streets. "Damnit! No fair!" He yelled at the fleeing girl as he started his pursuit, already seeing the gap steadily growing and knowing that he had no hope of ever catching her.

[Konsaki]

"You really suck! You know that?!" Daisuke yelled out, anger dripping off his voice like grease from a stuck pig roasting over a fire.

"Bite me, human!" The scar faced thug before him yelled back as he thrust forward, his knife flashing through a errant sunbeam in the alleyway.

Leaping backwards and to the side to dodge the deadly implement, wary of the piles of debris piled along the clogged passageway, the brown haired teen's own dagger sliced through the air in a defensive swipe to push the elvaan gang member away. "Not you, idiot… Ranma!"

Deeper into the alleyway, the black haired girl squatted over one of the two lifeless forms laying on the ground around her. The martial artist ignored the pained and pitiful gibbering of the only conscious thug of her group as she pulled a small pouch of coins out of the downed male's pocket, Ranma quipped back, "What's wrong? It's only one guy; I had three over here."

"You're used to this, jerk!" Daisuke yelled back as the two knife fighters faced each other down for a quick breather. Glaring at the long haired thug he demanded hotly, "Why are you still here?! You're all alone!"

Daisuke saw the thug's brown eyes twitch slightly to the side at the question, to view Ranma behind him Daisuke guessed. Before the thug could do anything else, Ranma's voice called out once more, "Don’t worry about me. The fight's all you and him."

"Fuck you, Ranma!" Daisuke bellowed out as he slid up into a jabbing knife thrust with his left hand. Seeing the thug dance back, the human teen turned tail and jerked into a retreating sprint. Hearing a curse from behind him and the thug's own scrambling chase, Daisuke slid to a halt by a stack of boards leant along the wall.

The sound of clattering boards falling to the ground and pained curses caused Ranma to glance up from the ring she had just liberated from the gibbering female cowering in the corner of a large wooden crate and the alley wall who, just a little earlier, was trying to ventilate the martial artist's neck with a thin stiletto. Ranma watched Daisuke kick a knife in her direction along the ground while the thug pushed himself out of the fallen lumber. Glancing towards the only conscious thug of her trio, Ranma commanded as she stood up, "Just shut up already. We're done here."

Ignoring the now quiet nodding girl behind her, Ranma walked picked up the knife from the ground as she ambled up to Daisuke. Seeing that he was at a loss as to what to do now and the thug had finally extracted himself from the debris, Ranma calmly said, "Hey, Scarface. Take off your belt and pants." At the confused looks she got from both males before her, Ranma reiterated, "You heard me. Take 'em off now or you'll be doing it after dislocate an arm."

Ignoring the lowly cursing thug who started his assigned task, Daisuke gave an incredulous look towards his high school friend. "What the hell, man?! He was just trying to kill me and you just want him to take his pants off?!"

Ranma just quirked an arched brow over her crystal blue eyes as she asked back, "So, what? You want to kill him then?" Seeing the thug stall at that question, she asked with annoyed authority, "I didn’t tell you to stop, did I?"

"Well, no…" Daisuke lamely replied, ignoring the now pant-less gang member as he struggled with his morality and the feeling of being jilted by the end of the fight.

"Then relax. You won." Ranma summarized with a shrug, overall giving off an air that this was old hat. Giving her attention to the elvaan male standing nearby, thankful that his shirt was overlong, she said, "Throw 'em to me." Snagging the brown course wool clothes out of the air, she jerked her head towards the three others of the ambush behind her as she directed, "Now grab your friends and get lost."

Turning her attention once more to Daisuke, the martial artist waved her hand in a following gesture. "Come on, Dai. Let's get out of here and get some food."

Feeling a little numb, the brown haired human just nodded as he sheathed his weapon and followed Ranma passed the trio she had decimated just ten minutes earlier. It wasn't until long after they had exited the slummy district and reached a bustling main road that he completely gathered his wits. "What just happened?"

"You won your first knife fight. Congrats." Ranma offhandedly replied with a pat to the confused male's back.

Brushing off the hand and flashing a glare to his blue eyed companion, he rebutted, "Not that!" Immediately after, he shook his head violently before rubbing a hand down his face. "I mean; yes, that… but also all the shit before that too!" Leaning in and whispering harshly he said, "It's like you planned all that shit!"

"I did."

Ranma's blasé reply threw Daisuke for a moment before he inquired in the same harsh whisper, though incredulity now filled his tone, "Why? I mean, why'd you drag me through the slums like that!?"

"To get into a fight, duh." The martial artist replied with a roll of her eyes before grabbing Daisuke and pulling him to a stop into a nook between two stores. "Look… I know what I did wasn’t 'nice' but you needed to go through that." She explained before letting out a breath through her nose.

Crossing his arms across his chest, Daisuke frowned at the shorter fighter before him. "That's bullshit. Why'd I need to go through that crap?"

Giving a deep sigh before pinching the bridge of her nose, Ranma replied soon after, "What happened when the fight started with those guys? I took three of 'em and you froze." Seeing Daisuke start his denial, she jabbed a finger into his chest through his light blue shirt, "Yes, you did. If I hadn't yelled to shake you out of it, that moron would have gutted you."

Daisuke's jaw tensed with the harsh but true criticism he was on the receiving end of, finally jerking his eyes away from Ranma's piercing blue.

Ranma let him silently absorb and replay that part of the fight in his head for a few moments before she continued talking, "What if instead of thieves it was one of those green ork guys? You'd be a red smear in the dirt." Giving a lopsided grin, she clapped him on the shoulder as she proudly stated, "But now, you've not only been in that 'first fight'; you won it untouched. You should be proud, Dai!"

Furrowing his brow as he turned his gaze back towards the raven haired girl, the brown eyed boy said, "I don’t feel 'proud'. I feel pissed off… At you!" Jamming a finger towards her face before throwing the hand back over his shoulder towards the area they just left, Daisuke complained, "You freaking drag me all morning through slums and shit, looking for a fight but you don’t tell me that! Damn it, I even asked you why and you lied to me!"

"Hold it right there!" Ranma interrupted loudly and forcefully, eyes and voice showing her displeasure as she countered, "I never lied to you! I told you straight up I was looking for something!"

"You didn't tell me it was a damn fight you were looking for!" Daisuke yelled back in her face. Taking a deep breath, he noticed the looks the pair were getting from people walking by along the street and took another breath to try and calm down more. "Look… would it have killed you to let me know that you were planning on doing that?"

"It would have killed the point of going through all that mess!" Ranma replied, half throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. "The entire point was to get you over the 'first time' shock that all fighters go through." Pointing a finger towards her own chest she admitted, "Even I froze when my pops threw me to the wolves the first time. But just like Pops did for me; I was looking over you and if you got in a bind, I'd have stepped in."

Quirking a brow with a skeptical look, Daisuke asked, "Really?"

"Yeah." Ranma simply replied with a quick nod.

The brown haired youth stood silently for a while after that, just looking into those crystal blue eyes as if to see if there was any lie lying within. Eventually, he let out a breath and ran a hand through his hair before asking, "So know what?"

The green shirted girl's lips smiled widely at that question as she happily chirped out, "Now, we go celebrate your win! Let's go find some bakery, a candy store or something." Patting a pocket, she continued grinning, "I mean, those dipshits are the one paying, so let's go crazy!"

Daisuke couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at the energetic mood his friend was putting off. "Alright, fine. But only if you tell me about your first fight and what happened."

"Eh… it's pretty boring." Ranma waved off as she stepped back out into the flow of traffic, intent on finding those snacks.

"Oh, hell no! You're telling me all about it! You owe me!" Daisuke called out as he quickly jerked into the flow to keep up with the more experienced fighter. "Hey! Don’t ignore me, Ranma! Come on, man!"

[khammel]

A couple problems jumped out at me in 2 of the posted segments...

"Just watching the birds." Hiroshi replied offhandedly, watching a particularly energetic chocobo who was dancing around flapping it's stunted wings. "They're kinda cool." She added, with a gesturing hand wave, "Like huge gold chickens people ride like horses."

"I guess." The brown haired teen offered non-committally with a shrug, taking notice of the same golden chocobo as it let out a warbling, chirping call. After a few moments, the bird started fluttering it's wings once more in an odd dance. "What's got his feather's ruffled?" Daisuke asked out with a quirked grin on his lips.

It's is a contraction of 'it' and 'is' or 'it' and 'has'. The possessive of 'it' is 'its'.

"It would have killed the point of going through all that mess!" Ranma replied, half throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. "The entire point was to get you over the 'first time' shock that all fighters go through." Pointing a finger towards her own chest she admitted, "Even I froze when my pop's threw me to the wolves the first time. But just like Pop's did for me; I was looking over you and if you got in a bind, I'd have stepped in."

Pops is used as a nickname here, not a possessive (or even a coloquial contraction of Pop and is or has). It should be Pops.

[gsteemso]

Generally good "slice of life" stuff, but perhaps not very much plot progression? I am hardly in a position to criticize — my chapters get longer and less interesting with every one I post — but "it takes one to know one," and all that.

Also, "foul" does not mean the same as "fowl". Horny chocobos made me laugh though. :¬)

[LawOhki]

"Bite me, human!" The scar faced thug before him yelled back as he thrust forward, his knife flashing through a errant sunbeam in the alleyway.

So what race is this scar faced thug? And why not some comment about how useless that mithra would be? Right before someone reminds him that she just took out everyone else. Seeing more racism or ways in which the various races interact is something I would like to see more of. This scene is also kind of a repeat, Ranma's already seen the other two get into a real fight.

The Hiroshi/Daisuke scene NEEDS to be more awkward. Hiroshi either needs to be in denial or unable to stop paying attention to differences in treatment. Both her and Daisuke should be having some very clumsy moments of sorting out how they are going to interact with each other. Even if Hiroshi doesn't want anything to change, Daisuke would no doubt be unable to just go along with it, or the reverse. Could even use a scene with Hiroshi asking Ranma how he deals with the different expectations/treatment.

[Konsaki]

"Wait! Hold it right there! What do you mean 'you can't help us'!?" Hiroshi heatedly demanded after she jerked up out of the wooden chair she was previously seated on. "We didn't waste five days and our money just to hear you tell us that!"

Fiamomo's lips twisted downward, the blue haired tarutaru visibly displeased at the interruption by one of her clients. "If I may be allowed to finish…" She stated with an obvious air of derision before doing just that, "As I was saying, I cannot help you any further; specifically with the matter of your transplantation from your world to this one."

Reaching over to pick up a piece of paper from the table to her side, the long eared woman turned her frown and frustration towards the notes she had written on it. "The issue, basically, is that I am unable to record a clear sample of the magical signature due to multiple factors." Pointing towards Hiroshi, Ranma and Daisuke in order, she expanded her statement, "Your own magical core is corrupting every reading I tried to obtain due to its sheer strength. Your 'curse' is doing the same but with slightly less contamination, due to age I suppose. Luckily, I was able to get something from you but unfortunately what I did get, I can't do anything with."

"Okay… Why not?" The brown haired male asked, glancing towards the mage and martial artist seated to his right.

The blue haired scholar gave an impassive shrug as she answered, "As I informed you before you paid me, I specialize in magical maladies afflicting the physical form, not teleportation magics."

"Which is why you went crazy over my curse." Ranma theorized, gesturing towards the spot in the room where he spent the day sitting in a wash-bin getting doused with alternating temperature water.

Fiamomo just smiled widely as she patted a different but much thicker pile of notes as she agreed, "Indeed! The research potential in the readings I was able to obtain will have me going for months! Think of the possibilities!"

"Master… focus, please..." The blonde haired assistant intoned with a suffered sigh from the side.

"Fine, alright." The taru replied to her grossly taller elvaan assistant with a flippant hand wave.

"Back to the 'can't help us thing'." Hiroshi redirected the topic, her annoyance clear as she asked, "So, what now?"

Coughing into a fisted hand, Fiamomo regained her composure of a studious scholar once more before she answered, "As I was about to explain, before I digressed, while I specialize in magical ailments, I do have a colleague who happens to be researching just this sort of event." Taking off her small rimmed reading glasses to polish them, she tempered the teen's emotions by adding, "Of course, as I understand it, the events he has investigated are all local teleportation errors on a scale vastly dwarfed by your own event."

"Okay." Daisuke said with a shrug, not bothered by the tarutaru's words, "So you give us his address, we talk to him and he tells us how to get home. No problem."

The woman with short aqua hair just quirked an eyebrow at his comment before shrugging herself. "In so few words; yes, that is what I was planning." Gesturing towards her assistant, who stepped forward with a message tube and a folded piece of paper, Fiamomo expanded on the plan, "My colleague somehow managed to gain the eye of Shantotto and obtained a staff position at the Orastery." As the assistant handed over the two items, Fiamomo took a moment to grumble under her breath about the unfairness of the selection before gathering her composure once more to add, "The tube contains a condensed findings report to give her a jumpstart and the other contains her address."

Curious, Ranma opened the folded paper to read said address. Raising his brow in confusion, he asked outloud, "Water district… Windurst?" Looking up, he further asked, "Where's that?"

"On the southern edge of Mindartia." Fiamomo blithely replied, her statement completely true but ultimately useless for the three teenagers. "Now, unless you wish to stay for further testing on your transformative issues, I believe our business is concluded for now." Finishing that, the vertically challenged woman turned completely towards the notes on the table and started to ignore the teens for the more interesting data held within her scribbling.

"I apologize but let me show you to the door." The assistant spoke up, gesturing toward said exit to the building. There was some grumbling and daggered glares towards the willfully ignorant taru but the teens complied with the request.

Finding themselves back on the street, the late afternoon traffic flowing before them as they stood on the small porch, the three looked at each other in loss for direction. Daisuke finally put words to the feeling by repeating Hiroshi's earlier question, "So, now what?"

"I don’t know about you guys, but I'm heading back to the house." Ranma stated with a shrug and a jerk of his head, sending his black bangs bouncing with the movement. "I figure one of them will know how to get to this place."

"Oh, great and wise Mari! Please bestow your knowledge upon us lowly mortals!" Daisuke theatrically intoned out with dramatic groveling by bending at his waist with arms forward.

Hiroshi snorted out a small giggle behind a hand while the black haired fighter rolled his eyes. "She probably knows more about this place than you do." Ranma countered as he motioned for the group to move into the street.

Walking slightly behind the taller fighter so he could cut the traffic, the copper haired girl tapped her chin lightly in thought as she glanced back towards the scholar's workshop. "I wonder how long before she can make a cure…"

Ranma just shrugged, though Hiro couldn't see it, and replied, "Ami said she'd be busy for months, so… I'm not holding my breath for it anytime soon."

"Yeah, I guess so." The scarlet eyed girl agreed with minor defeat in her voice.

Pushing forward to walk beside her, Daisuke put a hand on her shoulder and tried to cheer his friend up by saying, "Don’t worry about it, man! Look at it this way; at least you don’t have to worry about changing back and forth with water like Ranma does."

Hiroshi gave the unchanged teen a look filled with skepticism in response. After her friend pulled his hand awkwardly away, she countered his reasoning by saying, "Maybe, but at least he can change back." Hearing this, Ranma just glanced over his shoulder at the pair for a moment but stayed silent while listening in.

"I guess." The brown eyed teen hedged at the rebuke, spending a few more moments to ponder before inquiring, "It is that bad? You know, being a chick?"

The green shirted girl bit her tongue to keep from spouting off her initial response and thought about it for a moment. After a minute of silent walking, she finally answered the question, "No, it's not, in a way, I guess… but it's not 'me'. You know?" Looking towards the back of the martial artist ahead of her, she added, "I guess I know how Ranma felt all those times he got locked or whatnot. Sorry for being a jerk about it back then, Ranma."

Kind of surprised at the turn of the conversation, Ranma started walking backwards so he could give Hiroshi a confusing look. When he finally spoke a moment later, his voice was laced with uncertainty, "Uh… Don't worry about it?"

Daisuke just watched the interaction with a quirked brow, continuing through seeing Ranma dodge to his left to avoid someone he couldn’t see. Giving his head a quick shake while moving to the side himself, he asked to the currently sole female of the trio, "So what about your mojo?"

"What?" Was the succinct, all inclusive response from both Ranma and Hiroshi as they gave the brown haired blue shirted male confused looks. Hiroshi added on by asking further, "What are you talking about?"

"I mean your hocus-pocus, magic stuff you got." He answered, with fake mystical hand movements.

Continuing to give her childhood friend a confused look, Hiroshi responded, "Yeah, what about it?"

"What are ya going to do if you lose it?"

Hearing that made Hiroshi jerk to a dead stop in the street, causing someone behind her to quickly adjust course or else run into her. Blinking at the angrily growled 'Hey, watch it, shrimp' from an armor clad human man, she quickly continued her forward pace. "What do you mean 'lose my magic'?" She warily asked her friend, not knowing or liking where this line of questions was headed.

"Hey, relax man…" Daisuke quickly came back, patting the air with his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm just saying, Lina's supposed to be this badass powerful wizard or something, right? And you didn't get magic till you became her, right?" Seeing his copper haired friend nod silently and hesitantly, he finished his thought, "So, if you get cured and stop being Lina… do you lose her magic?"

The girl just continued to walk in silence as her face held obvious pondering going on as she walked on autopilot, unconsciously maneuvering with her companions through the thinning traffic as they made their way out of the busier section of the city.

When it had first happened, when she first found out that he had become a she, Hiroshi couldn’t help but finally realize irrevocably what Ranma felt like all the times he got locked back in Nerima. It was only the very existence of Ranma and his curse that kept her from breaking down into a hysterical mess; the false hope of his experiences that her circumstances might be similar. She would have broke completely at the knowledge that there was no 'curse' and no 'changing back' with hot water if it wasn't for one thing:

For everything she had lost with her change, she had magic!

Growing up as a kid, one of her deepest hidden wishes was to have superpowers, magic or some special power like all the heroes in the manga her mother bought for her to get her to read. Flying, laser beams, super strength… and she now had magic! Honest to god magic!

The realization of that fact was… intoxicating.

It made the entire experience tolerable… even enjoyable as she felt the tingle of power flow through her being with every spell she had cast after learning how to. With every blast of fire and lightning, she wondered at how awesome it would be to be slinging spells in her own old male body once she got it back.

Now all that was in jeopardy and Hiroshi honestly didn't know what to think… what to do.

If she came across a cure, would she go back to a he and risk losing this one thing she'd wished for secretly all her childhood… or would she forsake the cure and stay as she was, with the definitive knowledge that she wouldn't lose this empowering, addicting specialness that was magic.

Hiroshi couldn’t answer that question… and that fact frightened her more than anything else…

[Konsaki]

@khammel
I fixed those errors. Thanks for pointing them out to me.

Generally good "slice of life" stuff, but perhaps not very much plot progression?

This was a conscious decision I made when planning this chapter, to not forge ahead too quickly and focus some more on the characters. This is especially important with Hiroshi and Daisuke since they didn't really have any characterization in the Ranma-verse as their purpose was to be 'everymen' to Ranma's superpowered martial artist.
Don't get put off, though, as the rest of the chapter is going to move the group out of San d'Oria and back into the world.

Also, "foul" does not mean the same as "fowl". Horny chocobos made me laugh though. :¬)

Err... damn you, autocorrect? Thanks for the catch.

So what race is this scar faced thug?

Elvaan, as I put in the next paragraph. I guess I could make more characterization for the mook, though.
- "Bite me, human!" The scar faced, long eared thug yelled back as the elvaan thrust forward, his knife flashing through a errant sunbeam in the alleyway.

And why not some comment about how useless that mithra would be? Right before someone reminds him that she just took out everyone else.

Ah, I'll decline due to the fact that he's concentrating more on the armed combatant before him. Hell, he can see Ranma is already wiping the floor with his mates and is getting desperate.

Seeing more racism or ways in which the various races interact is something I would like to see more of.

If you're looking for more racism, you're gonna be disappointed overall. Racism is going to be a rare thing in this, but you will see more bits of interacting quirks over time. I'm just not going to focus on it to the detriment of the characterization and story.

The Hiroshi/Daisuke scene NEEDS to be more awkward. Hiroshi either needs to be in denial or unable to stop paying attention to differences in treatment.

It's only been two weeks and there are obvious changes that neither can ignore but, yes, they are both in denial that the best friend mechanic hasn't changed. It's just not that the elephant in the room isn't getting in the way yet. It'll get there but I dont want to front load it as an "OMG! You're a chick now! I cant be friends with you! We should be making out instead!" situation. It just seems like a path to a bad fanfiction to me...

Both her and Daisuke should be having some very clumsy moments of sorting out how they are going to interact with each other. ~ Could even use a scene with Hiroshi asking Ranma how he deals with the different expectations/treatment.

As I said, stuff like this will come in time. Whether I'm succeeding or not, I'm trying to make this not seem manufactured when it does happen.

As always, thanks to everyone for the feedback. Even if I don't agree with your thoughts, it makes me ponder over my reasoning and double check if they're really what I want to have the story go.

[frice2000]

Shouldn't the whole race change and thus changes to their brain chemistry and instincts be affecting them a little? Mithra aren't human and they'd likely find themselves reacting to things in ways they wouldn't have in their old bodies which would seemingly be a much bigger deal then the gender changes. Mithra have that whole hunter tad more in tune with nature tribal cat thing going do they not? Really odd to see that element totally missing. Seems like a lot could be done with that.

[Konsaki]

"That's… far." Ranma eloquently noted as he looked over the worn crude map that Liana had laid out on the table, his white tipped tail flicking behind him belaying his mild consternation.

"Eight to ten weeks?!" Daisuke parroted an earlier statement incredulously, running a hand through his hair and letting out a breath.

Pursing her lips while looking over the course drawing of the two contents which made up the Middle Lands, Liana traced a finger over the path she last took from Windurst to San d'Oria. "Like I already said, we were going pretty slowly on that trip. The noble we were escorting kept wanting to stop all the time and really tacked on the days." Leaning back from the map with a shrug, the brown haired mithra turned back to preparing dinner. "We didn't mind too much about that though, because our contract had a penalty clause for running over time."

"So, how long will it take us?" Daisuke pointedly asked with a quirked brow, mentally drawing a line from the kingdom they were in on the northwest area of Quon to the Federation of Windurst which lay at the southern tip of the continent of Mindartia.

Tapping her chin with a finger from her free hand, the mithran mother pondered the question for a moment before responding. "A couple of weeks of you push it, rent some chocobo and hitch a ride from Selbina to Mhaura. Most likely, though, I'd say three if you kept a comfortable pace and still took both the chocobo and boat."

Liana's green eyes turned towards the hallway as her daughter let out another pleased squeal before running the length after a light blue ball. She glanced over at the human girl who was playing with Mariana, taking note of the fact that Hiroshi had so far stayed out of the conversation. The human mage had been relatively quiet and introspective since the trio returned and while Liana wondered if everything was alright, she decided to just let the girl sort through her thoughts for now.

"That'd take us from here, to here, there and there." Ranma muttered under his breath, his white ears perked forward in interest as he traced out the stated path. He frowned as he ran the route through his head again. "Why can't we just hitch a boat from here directly to Windurst? Wouldn't that be faster?"

"I'm not feeling the boat thing, Ranma." Daisuke warily butted in before Liana could reply. "I mean, me and boats don’t get along."

Quirking an eyebrow, Ranma regarded the brown haired teen with a skeptical, "Really?"

"Yeah." Daisuke replied a little sheepishly before jerking a thumb over towards the third part of the teen trio. "For my thirteenth birthday, my dad took me and Hiro out into the bay… It didn't turn out well. Right, Hiro?" Not hearing a response from his friend, he looked to the side and repeated, "Right, Hiro?"

"Huh? What?" The confused redhead blurted out, jerking her head over to her friends seated at the table.

"I was telling Ranma about the time you and me were on a boat for my birthday."

"Oh." Hiroshi replied in understanding before her lips turned downward slightly. "You barfed on my shoes…" Idly, she picked up the ball the two year old fumbled and dropped to the floor before lightly tossing it down the hallway once again, sending the child screaming happily as she chased it.

Ignoring his friend's annoyed statement, Daisuke turned back towards his martial artist friend. "See. I was like that the entire time we were out there. Haven't been out on the water like that since."

"Well… considering that, it leaves only two routes left." Liana said with a small frown of thought. "You can either try and buy a ticket for an airship from here to Jeuno then Windurst or rent chocobo along the same route."

On one of their trips to the San d'Oria port, they had chanced upon an airship pulling into the docks. It had surprised the trio as it looked like a giant wooden boat with helicopter blades attached at multiple points to provide it lift. To the Japanese teens, it looked like it should fly like a brick but Kitoria reassured them that it was a safe secure, if expensive, mode of transportation once the creator had ironed out all the bugs. It seemed that each of the main city-states connected up to Jeuno, as it was a major trade hub.

"I'd like to try the airship out." Hiroshi offered up, getting into the conversation now that her previous thought train was derailed.

"How much would that cost?" Ranma hesitantly asked the elder mithra who was slicing up some carrots into thin chips.

"Probably more than you have." Liana mused, making an assumption of what the younger trio had in currency from previous conversation. Then she blinked and shook her head as she remembered an important detail. "And you need a permit, which you also don’t have. Sorry, I forgot about that till just now." She stated apologetically.

"So that leaves the longer overland route through Jeuno or making Dai suck it up and taking the boat at Selbina." Ranma summarized as he rubbed his chin in thought. He easily ignored the indignant 'hey' from Dai as he ran through what he'd need to pack for either route.

Before he could get too far into his mental list, the front door swiftly opening to allow entrance an obviously agitated Kitoria broke his concentration. As the mithran mage barely kept herself from stomping into the house as she grumbled under her breath. Her ears laid back into her spiky hair and tail tip flipping wildly just added to the air she was giving off.

"What's wrong, Kit?" Liana asked in concern about what was bothering her sister.

"That son of a bitch, Narrik, is back causing trouble." Kitoria growled angrily as she jerked an arm back to point outside.

"Kit! Language!" The elder sister snapped back, flashing her eyes towards where her daughter was running back up the hall with the ball in her hands.

Following Liana's gaze, Kit winced before forcing herself to take a deep breath to calm down some. Having done so, she looked back towards the table, her eyes lighting up once she realized who was seated there. "Ranma! Perfect!"

"What?" The black haired martial artist asked in confusion even as the redheaded mithra came up, grabbed his hand and pulled him out of his seat.

"Come with me! I need your help with something!" Was Kitoria's hurried reply as she started pulling him towards the still open front door.

Not really knowing what was going on but used to this kind of situation back in Nerima, he slipped his hand loose as he stated, "Okay, okay… let me get my shoes on first."

Sharing a quick look between themselves, Daisuke and Hiroshi nodded and made their own way towards the pair of mithra. "Mind if we tag along?" Daisuke asked as he slid on the leather boots he traded his sneakers for a couple of days ago.

"Sure, fine, but we got to go!" the green eyed mithra hurriedly agreed as she pushed Ranma out the door not a second after he finished putting his shoes on.

Starting to get a little irritated and still in the dark as to what was happening, he asked over his shoulder as they descended the stairs, "What's the rush and who's Narrik?"

"Narrik's a prick from a rival guild." She replied tersely as she moved to his side. With a hand gesture, they started down the street as she quickly added, "Him being in another guild isn’t the issue though, it's cause he's an asshole."

"So, what's that got to do with this?" Ranma asked with a raised eyebrow.

Mentally kicking herself into gear, the red tailed mithra responded by saying, "Oh, yeah. Well, he's been trying to make a name for himself, which is good and all, but he's doing it by crippling people in challenge fights at the Pit." Letting out a growl, she added, "A couple months back, he broke Kristi's leg in a match."

"That sucks but it doesn't sound too bad." Daisuke piped up from behind the pair, causing both mithra to glance over their shoulders.

"Yeah, well, once wasn’t enough for him. He went and broke it two more times before we could stop him." Kitoria explained with a scowl on her face before saying, "It's going to be months before her leg heals, if it ever does."

"And you know this guy's going to be there?" Ranma continued his questioning, though his eyes held a steely look to the blue as he looked straight ahead down the road.

"Oh, yeah." The slightly elder cat-person answered with a feral grin. "The idiot was boasting about how he was going to run a clean sweep earlier today at the Chipped Horn Pub."

Ranma just nodded in acceptance, pondering over tactics before requesting, "Tell me about this Pit place…"