Horny stared down at the girl. In all his years, he had never
seen a normal human girl sleep so soundly. Mostly because all of them
were woken up by their towns being destroyed, but also because most had
an animal instinct about danger.
Her long brown hair was spread out around her as she lay on what
looked like the top three inches of a bed. She snuggled against her
pillow and muttered out a name that Horny didn't quite hear. It
sounded like "rhubarb", but with a "ma" sound instead of the "barb".
The girl's sheets were waded up and wrapped in a strange pattern around
her, almost like a tentacle. She was only wearing a white tank top and
panties as far as Horny could see, though she had a silk ribbon between
her thighs.
Then, the girl woke up, yawned loudly and idly pushed Horny
aside. She opened the wooden door to the Dungeon Heart room and knelt
down next to the water surrounding the Heart. Horny approached her as
she washed her face, then the giant Reaper blinked as she grabbed his
loincloth and wiped her face dry.
Sure, he kept his own garment reasonably clean, but shouldn't the
girl have been screaming in terror yet? The girl moved to put the
cloth back when her hand brushed against his thigh. That caused her to
pause.
She looked up at Horny, then back down at his loincloth, then,
she was five feet away. Horny blinked.
"OHGEEZ! I'm sorry! I didn't think..." the girl began, before
noticing her surroundings.
"Where the hell am I?" she asked.
Ordinarily, Horny would have simply killed anyone who tried to
get into the Dungeon Heart's room, but it had been a VERY long time
since he'd had to fight anything and he was suffering from terminal
boredom. If the girl became the new Keeper, he'd have some fun again.
"This is a Dungeon Heart." Horny told her, motioning towards the
three archways and stairways surrounding the magical membrane of the
Dungeon Heart. All around the Heart were treasure chests filled with
gold and gems.
"What's a Dungeon Heart?" she asked.
"It's a magical device that draws in mana and allows it's keeper
to do all sorts of things." Horny answered.
"Are you it's keeper?" she inquired.
Horny shook his head, "I am simply it's guardian. The last
keeper passed on of old age. Would you care to take it up?"
"Uh, that'd be nice, but I've got to get home.... whereever home
is..." the girl responded.
"Horny, who are you talking to?" came the very mature and almost
grave-like voice of an old man as he entered through one of the two
other passageways into the Dungeon Heart room, leaning heavily on a
staff. He had long grey hair that reached his knees and wore a plain
white robe.
The old man gazed at the girl and smiled, "And who might you be?"
"I'm Ukyou Kuonji and I need to get home. Do you know the way to
Nerima?" Ukyou inquired.
"I am Lundar, advisor to the Keeper." the old man introduced
himself, before squinting at her, "Hmm, I can tell by the magical
pattern surrounding you that you were banished to this world by someone
old and powerful, but dimwitted and perverse. It was likely a miscast
spell that brought you here."
The old and powerful could have meant Cologne. The amazon
matriarch was unpredictable and might see throwing her into another
dimension as a sure way to get rid of her. But, only one person came
to mind when the word 'perverse' was brought up. Ukyou growled,
"Happosai."
"You might be able to get home if you were to claim the twenty
Portal Gems of this land. The Dungeon Heart would have more than
enough magical power to teleport you home once it's power has been
reactivated, but teleportation has been nearly impossible since the
Portal Gems were placed all over this land. But you would have to
become it's master and keeper. You would be tied to it and unable to
go home without it. But it's fairly easy to hide and easier to
maintain. You wouldn't have much trouble with it, unless you tried to
move beyond a mile of it's range." Lundar explained.
"But I know nothing about magic." Ukyou protested.
"You don't need to, really. It's mostly directing the will and
learning runes to make spells easier. There are many benefits to being
a keeper, too, such as being able to communicate with any creature,
read any language, you'd never get sick, and you can heal yourself
whenever you're injured." Lundar told her.
"Well... if it's the only way home... but you better not be
pulling my leg, sugar, or I swear you'll regret it." Ukyou warned
Lundar, though the idea of finally being able to understand Shampoo or
Cologne if they ever tried to talk in Mandarin to disguise their plans
was a definite plus.
"There is but one snag to getting home, but you would have to
deal with it either way." Lundar spoke up, knowing that it was best to
get everything out in the open, lest one piss off one's keeper, "The
king of this land has placed all the portal gems under guard, so you
will have to build a fighting force to retrieve them."
"I don't want anyone to get die just to get home." Ukyou said.
"Well, we could build a prison, then your imps would dragged
fallen enemies back to them, but they would starve and become
Skeletons... hmmm, doesn't solve the key problem, does it? Wait, we
could then build a Torture Chamber as well. That would allow you to
convert enemies into allies." Lundar explained.
Ukyou considered it. It was better if no one died and it was the
only way to get home. She just hoped Ranma didn't allow himself to get
caught by that shameless hussy, Shampoo, or Akane, the poster child for
abusive rage disorders. Sure, Ukyou knew she had a temper, but she
considered her to be equal to Shampoo's, who had much better control
than Akane.
A fighting force, though, meant leading at least a battalion.
Was she really qualified to lead troops in battle, let alone a
miniature army? Sure, she'd taught at a dojo, worked part-time as a
short order chef and then as a head chef at a resturaunt, but those
were small groups.
Well, no time like the present to find out, as her sensei used to
say.
"All right. So how do I become it's keeper?" Ukyou inquired.
"Just stand on the highest step. Once there, the Heart will
start to glow." Lundar instructed.
Lundar watched as Ukyou walked up on the highest stair and he
felt the magic rising to touch her and confirm her as it's keeper.
"It's glowing." Ukyou called down to him.
Lunder continued his instruction, "Now, take one step forward."
Ukyou stared at him.
"You will not fall. The Heart is protected from everything so
long as it's protective archways exist." Lundar explained.
Ukyou was having doubts, but decided that he'd spun too elaborate
of a tale to be lying. She stepped forward and felt something akin to
stone beneath her foot. A swirl of green mana surrounded her.
"You are now this Heart's keeper." Lundar explained.
Ukyou had never felt more powerful in her life. She could feel
as though all the power in the world flowed directly through her. She
could heft yattais before, she felt as though she could heft mountains
now.(1)
"Don't get too overexcited, keeper. Though you now feel a lot of
magic flowing through you, you are very much mortal. If you are slain,
the Dungeon Heart can restore you to life, but that may take weeks or
months, and armies can fall apart quite quickly without their leader to
guide them." Lundar warned.
"Right... right... gotta focus..." Ukyou replied, before a brief
little fantasy of her tossing Shampoo and Cologne back to China ran
through her head. She shook it off.
"The power you will gain in conquering this land will be far
greater than what you possess now." Lundar to her.
"Conquer? I thought we were only after the Portal Gems." Ukyou
inquired.
"Indeed, but the people charged with guarding them are the very
same in charge of controlling the land. If you kill or capture them,
it's the same as conquering the land, now isn't it?" Lundar pointed
out.
Ukyou sighed. She didn't want to be a conquerer. This Keeper
business was already getting complicated and she had yet to do
anything.
"Oh yes, if you want, there is a bedroom available to you where
you can dress. I'm afraid it's mostly men's clothing, though, but the
room now belongs to you, being the Heart's new keeper." Lundar said,
motioning to a passageway to the right of the one he had entered by.
Ukyou finally took note of her state of dress and was down the
hallway faster than either Lundar or Horny could blink. When she was
certain neither Lundar nor Horny could see her, or her face, which was
now redder than Ranma's hair when he was female, she took in her new
bedroom.
Her new bedroom had a bed, but it was one and a half times longer
and two times wider than a king-sized. It had luxurious silk sheets,
silk-covered pillows and various top blankets for the seasons. The one
on it at the current time was, as was to be expected, the silk blanket.
On the left side of the room was a large liquor cabinet with
numerous glasses in a cabinet just next to it. On the right was a
large bath with a small privacy screen. And on the right side of the
wall that the bed was against was a closet.
Ukyou checked out the closest. Numerous bedroom robes, everyday
outfits and, oddly enough, accessories like armor and capes. Decisions
bombarded her. If she were going to be the sort of Keeper who
conquered lands, she might as well look the part.
When she re-emerged from her new room, she was wearing an
enchanted chest plate, spiked shoulder guards, a long red cape that
reached her ankles, blue jeans, ankle socks, a pair of sneakers and her
ribbon down in it's usual fashion with a fake flower attached to the
left side. She didn't know where they could've gotten such items,
especially the jeans and sneakers, so she assumed that the wardrobe was
altered in some regards to the keeper's knowledge.
The jeans, sneakers and ribbon threw off the menacing look a bit,
but she did manage a fairly no-nonsense attitude. She hoped.
Then, she noticed the red guy that Lundar had called 'Horny' had
left the room. While he looked like a stereotypical demon, he hadn't
really disturbed her while she slept, so she sort of doubted that his
name was attributed to his libido.
"What's next?" Ukyou asked.
"A spell, I think. We need minions to carry out your will, and
imps are the easiest to make. They require no food, water or rest.
They are maintained by your magic. As your land expands, you'll be
able to summon more and more as time progresses." Lundar suggested.
"Good idea. Make a few." Ukyou agreed.
"I'm afraid I have nowhere near the magical talent that I used
to, Keeper. Thus, you will have to make them." Lundar informed her,
then hastily spoke again before Ukyou could protest, "It isn't hard,
you simply have to imagine this rune and focus your magical power into
it."
Lundar held up a symbol written on a sheet of paper. It looked
similar to a skull with long pointy ears. Ukyou closed her eyes and
began imagining the rune and then mentally began sending power to it.
"That's good, Keeper..." Lundar told her. He then repeated
himself, "Keeper, that's good."
A slightly panicked shout of "KEEPER!", startled Ukyou out of her
concentration. She looked to see roughly twenty little green men close
to half her height. Their heads were large with wide black eyes and
pointy ears, but their little bodies were muscular. In one hand was a
pickax for each imp and on their backs was a sack. The only other
things they had were their loin cloth, a cross-shaped belt held the
sack to it's back and tiny cloth boots.
Ukyou whistled, "So, that spell makes twenty or something?"
"You seem to have a great talent for magic, keeper. Most would
have noticed creating twenty imps." Lundar replied, not mentioning that
most keepers could barely manage five to start with.
"So, uh, what do we do with them?" Ukyou asked.
A magical map appeared in front of her.
"That is a map of your realm. Your imps can see beyond the
simple earth and what they see will be sent to this map. You can also
command all creatures allied to you through this map. Our first order
of business should be to create a lair and a hatchery. The lair will
keep your other creatures well rested and will expediate healing while
the hatchery keeps them fed with chickens. You need but imagine these
symbols where you wish to create them, but your imps should dig out a
suitable place, as each of these runes require at least a five to ten
foot square." Lundar said, holding up a picture of a bed and a chicken
for the lair and hatchery respectively.
Ukyou closed her eyes and focused her will onto the map. The
twenty imps leapt to work, digging and carving away at the nearest
wall. The frenzied work ended ten minutes later. Lundar began to
speak as the gold began vanishing around the Dungeon Heart, "Keeper, I
should note that gold is required to create the runes for these rooms,
and you can only use gold that your imps have collected and placed
around your Dungeon Heart or into a treasury."
"I know. I can feel it now. There's a consciousness that's
guiding me.... teaching me how to make everything..." Ukyou began, her
eyes still closed.
Lundar arched an eyebrow. Well, it was true that most keepers
didn't really need much from a mentor, but the mentors had the
advantage of being able to watch for dangerous situations while the
keeper slept.
Suddenly, mana flared around Ukyou and she glared behind her at
something, "You've overstayed your welcome, Keeper Daven. It's time
for you to rest."
With that, a lightning bolt struck a faint mist that had been
forming behind Ukyou that Lundar hadn't noticed until the lightning
struck it. Lundar gawked at Ukyou as he heard the name. Keeper Daven
had been the last and only Keeper that he and Horny had served. That
his old friend had still been present was startling to say the least.
That Ukyou had just sent Daven to the afterlife was more surprising.
Ukyou regarded her map. Instantly, the twenty imps split into
teams of five, ten running out to where Horny had met Ukyou, five
running back into the room with the lair and the hatchery, and the
others digging at the wall opposite to the one that her imps had worked
on.
"This Dungeon Heart is mine." Ukyou declared, a vicious look in
her eyes. Lundar took a step back from his new keeper in surprise,
then inwardly smiled. He knew he was going to see another Skybird
Trill occur.(2)
It wasn't long before goblins began showing up. Goblins looked
like taller and stupider looking imps, but they wore leather armor and
carried swords, which were much better to fight with. The thing that
really distinguished them was that they wore helmets with viking-style
horns, but most of the helmets only had one. As Lundar had explained,
they often stole armor from their natural enemies, the dwarves, but
after vicious battles, things tended to get damaged.
The goblins found their way to the magical lair and smiled as
plush beds formed out of the floor, before heading off to raid the
hatchery's batch of chickens.
"Okay, I know what Goblins and Imps look like, but what the heck
is Horny?" Ukyou inquired.
"He's a Reaper, a proud race of powerful half-demons that thrived
about six hundred years ago, until they faced the Avatar. After that,
there was a battle between the Dark Gods a hundred and ten years later
and they wound up getting slaughtered and replaced with Dark Angels.
Horny, one of the brightest of the reapers, survived by making a pact
with the former keeper of this Dungeon Heart, as did I, who magically
linked us with the Dungeon Heart. As far as I know, he is among the
last of his kind. Of course, the older Reapers looked much less human
and were considerably more foul tempered." Lundar explained.
Ukyou absorbed that knowledge as she continued to manipulate her
imps. She growled at one imp that was simply standing around when
there was gold to be mined one corridor over.
"Over there, stupid!" Ukyou said, wishing the imp would move to
the vein of gold.
Suddenly the imp found itself standing in front of the vein.
"What just happened?" Ukyou asked, blinking.
"You've learned how to pick up a creature. You can pick up and
drop creatures whereever you like, but be careful not to drop them too
close to enemy forces, for the fall stuns some creatures more than
others. Your imps are immune to it because they are entirely
magical." Lundar explained.
Ukyou blinked. She must have learned more from Daven than she
thought. That or she'd just stumbled upon it accidentally. Either
way, she still had a way to go.
=======================================================================
(1) Ranma didn't notice this as greatly in DK Ranma because he's been
tapping a large amount of ki. Ukyou, on the other hand, has not
accessed as much ki and is therefore less used to the large increase in
non-physical power.
(2) The Skybird Trill is a reference to the first DK series. It's
where a hero on par with the reapers, the Avatar, lived. Obviously, it
was destroyed by the end of the game.
Why start this?
If I can make Ranma even somewhat more evil than before, than I
should be able to do the same to another character.
Why not see what evils a Ranma character is capable of? And
better yet, why not make it NOT FUCKING RANMA?
I always wanted to see my personal favorite character from Ranma
1/2 get the spotlight. Whenever someone gives Ukyou Kuonji the
spotlight, it's usually angst-ridden or has to do with Ukyou eventually
giving up on Ranma.
Here, Ukyou is going to be even more devoted to getting back to
Ranma. She's not the combat genius that Ranma is, but to compensate,
I've given her a greater understanding of magic. She has a hidden
magical genius as opposed to Ranma's combat genius.
Now, what will happen when SHE gets home? Well, I'll leave the
suspense here.
I'm so evil. ^_^
(
geocities.com/tokyo/island) (
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