105Disclaimer: I don't actually own any of the characters that will be appearing, except for the Hani in the last chapter. The actual Hani species and the story line belong to C.J. Cherryh, and her Pride of Chanur series of books. A very good series that I highly recommend reading! Especially as I will be changing the story line a lot, and therefore you shouldn't take what I write as the way it happens in the series.
Author's notes: I can't actually give a valid reason for not updating sooner, except for sheer laziness, and procrastination, and writers block, and losing my old computer, and hard drive, but I got my old hard drive back up and running, so I recovered the last two chapters that I hadn't reposted yet. Now I guess I should say on with the story, and please don't hate me for butchering the series that are going to appear in the next few chapters, starting with this one!
Chinese
/panda sign/
/Mercury computer/
*Thoughts*
'Phone'
***Scene change***
Ch. 12 Ranma's Journey Continues! Coming soon to a Universe near You!
***Nearly three weeks after Ranma started trying to master the Neko-ken***
Ranma looked around after waking up, to find that all 30 cats were gone. He looked at the priest and priestess of Bastet that were sitting nearby, and after an initial frown on his part, noticed that they were actually smiling at him. His frown turned to a look of confusion, and then frustration as he shook his head as the memories of what happened to him when he went into the Neko-ken once more surfaced. The memories being accessible to him now due to the meditations he has been doing.
"So why are you both smiling?" he asked in confused frustration. "I once more failed to master the Neko-ken!" He just shook his head, and wondered what he was going to do now, and how much longer it was going to take to get the Neko-ken under control so that he had full mastery of it. The other two present in the training room looked at Ranma, and smile even more broadly.
The priest spoke up saying, "Simply put Ranma, you are much further on the path to mastering the Neko-ken than you actually realize, especially considering how long you have suffered under the false Neko-ken. Usually by this point in the treatment/training regime, the student can't be around any more than five or six cats, but you needed thirty cats to induce the Neko-ken, and from the looks of things, you are getting the memories of what you did, correct?" At Ranma's nod, the priest smiled. "That's another thing that makes us smile! Because usually it's is a lot longer before the memories start to filter back to the conscious memories."
The priestess spoke up then, saying, "Now that you know that, we can tell you that it might be another two or three weeks before you have completely mastered the Neko-ken, and that is a full six months sooner than even our most gifted of students, have ever been able to master it! It usually takes approximately eight to twelve months to master the technique!" The priest and priestess both grinned at the stunned look on Ranma's face, after finding out just how long it usually takes to master the technique!
Ranma looked at the two, and had to ask, "And you think that it might take another two to three weeks for me to master the Neko-ken?" At the twin nods from his instructor's, Ranma grinned and asked, "Is that a challenge?" The two instructors looked at each other in mild confusion, before looking at Ranma and with twin shrugs, nodded. Ranma grinned, and asked, "So what do I get if I get it mastered sooner? Than the two weeks?"
They both looked at each other and after some silent debating, looked back at Ranma and the priest said, "We will give you the highest honor we, as priests and priestess's can bestow, without the permission of our Goddess, and that is the golden feline pendant, that denotes you as a senior practitioner of the Neko-ken, and usually that pendant is only given to those who have served our goddess for fifteen years at least! But she has told us that you are not an acolyte, so the pendant is a very great honor to bestow upon you, since very very few not part of our order have ever received it!" Ranma just smiled and nodded his head in acceptance of the reward.
The priestess then spoke up and asked, "And what is it you will give us if you fail to fully master the Neko-ken in before the two weeks you have decided on?" Ranma smiled and said, "I will pass on to you some of the techniques of my school that will help you become even better warriors." The priest and priestess looked at each other, and then sensing the acceptance of their goddess, they both looked at Ranma and nodded that that would be acceptable.
***Ten days later***
Ranma watched as the door leading to the hallway outside the training room, and he smiled as the priest and priestess just shook their heads, as Bastet walked through the door, and with a smile looked at Ranma and said, "Well Ranma, it appears you have completed the mastery of the Neko-ken and also that you won your challenge! I hereby grant you this golden feline pendant, but I must tell you, this is a very special pendant. Given only by me to those who are worthy, and you are actually only the second person to recieve it!" The priest and priestess both gasped in realization of what honor Bastet was bestowing on Ranma, but they also wondered in what capacity Bastet intended the pendant for. Was she intending to make him her consort, or was she adopting him into her family or was she making him her avatar, or what?
Ranma just smiled, and bowed to Bastet, and while bent over, the Egyptian Goddess of Cats stepped forward, and slipped the pendant over Ranma's head and let it hang down in front of him. As he straightened up and the pendant contacted his bared chest though, he went rigid, and his eyes went wide in shock.
After a few minutes, Ranma returned to motion, and his eyes returned to normal after which he looked at Bastet in shock. "You're adopting me as your son?" He asked in shock.
At Bastet's grinning nod, Ranma just shook his head. "So what does that mean exactly?"
Bastet smiled and said, "Basically it means you are my son, and you have all the rights and privileges, and yes, responsibilities that goes with it. You are as of now, if Kami-sama allows it, basically a god, and it will become official when Kami-sama decides to have you ascend. Otherwise, you will simply be my mortal son, and will be able to call on me for assistance at any time, no matter where you are." At that moment in time, a papyrus scroll appeared before Bastet, who took it and unrolled it to read what was written there.
Subject: Ranma Saotome
Classification: Human/presently immortal
Affinity: Classified Kami-sama's eye's only
Attribute's: Martial Artist
Parent's: Genma Saotome- father
Nodoka Saotome- mother
Bastet- Goddess of Hearth, Fertility, and Felines (adopted mother)
***- classified
***- classified
***- classified
Gender- Aquatransexual- gender altering curse
Aliases- Ranko Tendo, Ranko Saotome
Current location- Ancient Egypt having learned to control the Neko-ken, then continuing to travel.
Reason for temporal translocation- Classified Kami-sama's eye's only
History up to "present"- see attached files
Bastet looked at Ranma and smiled saying, "Well it appears that even now, Kami-sama is only allowing me to adopt you as my mortal child, or I should say my immortal child, since it appears that for the time being, you are immortal, but I guessing that that only means that you won't age, not that you can't be killed!" Ranma stared at Bastet in shock, and asked, "So I can't age, and you're now my adopted mother?" At her nod, Ranma just smiled and said, "Ok mom, so what happens now?"
Bastet shrugged, and said, "That's up to Kami-sama to decide, but I am sure we can get you something to eat for right now!" Ranma grinned, and dashed out of the training room. Bastet smiled and looked at the still stunned priest and priestess, and said, "Well, let's go and see about getting my son something to eat, shall we?" The two followers of Bastet just nodded before following her out of the training room.
***One month later***
Ranma was walking alongside one of the young priestess's for his adopted mother, taking in the beauty of the Egyptian temple gardens, while the priestess simply held his arm with a contented smile on her face.
Ranma looked down at her, and with a smile leaned over to drop a light kiss on her lips, thanking his mother silently for sitting him down and actually having "the talk" with him about sex and all the things that his good for nothing father should have told him about. After the talk, just after he had finally completed mastering the Neko-ken, he had realized that if he was going to be able to function in a relationship when he got back home, he was going to need to try and see what sorts of women he was actually attracted to! With the help of the lovely young priestess by his side, he had gotten over, for the most part, the ingrained flinching from anything remotely intimate, let alone expecting to be malleted for doing anything that might be thought of as perverted.
The young priestess just smiled and returned the kiss, and then grabbed Ranma's hand before dragging him to a nearby alcove that is used for lover's trysts all the time. Since this time of day usually found everyone at other duties, there would be no danger of them being observed, or interrupted, and she was determined to have a repeat performance of what she had experienced the last few nights, in her chambers with Ranma.
***Three hours later***
Bastet smiled as she approached where she sensed her son was relaxing after being "manly" with his girlfriend. She had to talk to her son to let him know some more of the benefits of being her son. Like the ability to speak any language that there is, even being able to speak to any animal, no matter what type it is, not just feline's.
As she approached, she smiled as she sensed Ranma and his priestess girlfriend scrambling to get themselves presentable again. She smiled as she came into view of the couple, and had to grin at the flushed appearances of both her son and his girlfriend, the fact that they were both dressed appropriately once more, and also the fact that they were both breathing hard from their haste to get properly dressed once again.
With a smile, Bastet said, "My dear, could you please give my son and I some time alone, so we can talk?" With a flush of embarrassment at being caught by her goddess with her goddess's son, the young priestess nodded quickly and headed to where she was currently supposed to be at that point in the day.
Ranma smiled sheepishly at his adopted goddess mother and said, "Sorry mom, did I forget to meet with you or something?" Bastet smiled and shook her head, "No my son, I have been so busy though, that I haven't had a chance to tell you all the benefits of being my son. That's what I wanted to talk to you about now though, if you have the time?"
Ranma grinned and said, "Of course I have the time for you mother! Even with my real mom, I always had the time to talk to her when she wanted to talk! Even when I was acting as Ranko Tendo." At Ranma's reminder of what Bastet had read in his file, she just scowled for a moment, before saying, "Well then my son, first let me tell you that one of the benefits of being my son is the fact that you will now be able to speak and understand any language, and also to read them as well." Ranma looked at Bastet in shock, and then asked, "And the other things?"
With a smile Bastet said, "You can also speak to, understand, and be understood by any animal now, not just felines. Now as for the rest of the benefits..."
Bastet suddenly stopped speaking, as a white light started to grow around Ranma, starting from the middle of his chest, and expanding outwards rapidly. As Bastet saw this happening, she said, "Remember my son, no matter where you are, I will hear you if you call for help!" Ranma was barely able to turn his head, and nod to his adopted divine mother, before he vanished in a bright flash of light.
Author's ending note...
I apologize for taking so long to update, but as stated up above, I blame laziness, procrastination, a bout of very very good fanfics, and well, the ever ubiquitous writer's block! I hope you will forgive me for taking so long and I apologize for any mistakes, and also if this chapter doesn't flow like the other's did...I am just now getting back to the writing portion, and I have a lot of idea's for what to cross this over with, and again, send in idea's for who the mother's of Ranma's children should be, and who he should end up with, I have some definite plans now, but depending on who you all vote for, I will take that into consideration. I have gotten many votes, and yes, I have them all catalogued, but after getting booted for posting the results, I won't do that until probably the chapter just before I make my final decisions! TTFN, and god bless and good luck in all you do!