Muyami Academy
What if they ALL went to the same school?
Muyami Academy
What if they ALL went to the same school?
        
Previous chapters at: http://members.xoom.com/bellchan/

        Thanks to my prereaders, T.H. Tiger, Bombadil Goh, Jeffrey Cornish and William Morse. Also thanks to Jed Hagen and Stardragon for surprise C&C. ^_^

        DISCLAIMER: Ranma 1/2 characters and stuff, and Inu-Yasha characters and stuff, not to mention Ursei Yatsura characters and stuff, copyright 1999 Rumiko Takehashi. Tenchi Muyou characters and stuff, copyright 1999 Pioneer & AIC. Mamono Hunter Yohko characters and stuff copyright 1999 AD Vision, NCS, Toho Company, LTD, Mad House, and I don't know who else. Koko wa Greenwood characters copyright Yuki Nasu. Mint na Bokura characters copyright Wataru Yoshizume. Other characters and stuff also copyright the creators and owners.

Chapter Sixteen
Curse of the Mermaid
*Teaser*


        "You're Yohko's friend? A second devil hunter?" She raised her eyes. "There have been two at one time before, but so powerful?"
        Ranma blinked. "Who are you?" she asked.
        "I'm Haruka," the other girl replied.
        "Harkua? That's -- that's the name that demon called me."
        "Haruka, the first Devil Hunter? My stars, don't they teach you girls anything these days?"
        Ranma frowned. "The first Devil Hunter? Oh, I think Madoka Mano-sama said something... to be honest, I've only been a Devil Hunter for a week...."
        "I see. Well then, we've got a lot to go over."
        "Wait a second," Ranma said. "If you're Haruka, then... am I in the past?"
        Haruka laughed. "Haven't you figured that out, yet? You're in the past, but not as far as you think. You are in the warring states period, which is still far in the future for me."
        "Warring states? I'm not so good on history. But then -- how can I be talking to you? Or am I just dreaming?"
        "You're not dreaming," Haruka said.
        "Good, 'cause I don't remember falling asleep. I just remember getting speared...."
        "That's right," Haruka said. "You're not sleeping. You're dead."
        She stood up, and beckoned Ranma forward. "Now... shall we practice?" she added. "We don't have much time."

***

        Back in the land of the not-quite-living, Ranma was still struggling to wrap her mind around one simple fact.
        "What do you mean, I'm dead?"
        "You know," Haruka said, "deceased. Expired. Departed. No longer living. Passed on. Took your last breath. Joined your ancestors. Kicked the bucket. Gave up the ghost. Made the supreme sacrifice. Took the big sleep. Shuffled off this mortal coil. Fed the tree. Went to the happy hunting grounds...."
        "But I can't be dead! I'm still here!"
        Haruka rolled her eyes.
        "So you think everything ends when you die? Sorry to disappoint you."
        Ranma blinked. "I guess I... I never thought about it much."
        "That's good," Haruka said. "You don't really need to. Now, we need to practice, before...."
        "Met my ancestors..." Ranma repeated, then glanced up sharply. She looked about. "Then this is the happy hunting grounds?"
        Haruka rolled her eyes again.
        "Those are just expressions, Ranma," she said. "Anyway, don't worry about it. You'll get better."
        "Get better? I thought you said I was dead!"
        "Oh, so you've accepted that, have you?" Haruka smiled. "Most people don't 'get better' after death, I'll admit. But you're different."
        "Because I'm a devil hunter?"
        "No," Haruka said. "Because you've eaten mermaid flesh."
        She raised her weapon again. "Now," she said, "we have not much time, and I wish to use it to train you rather than discuss this any further. Shall we?"


***
        "What's wrong? Her heart is beating. Why doesn't she wake up?"
        "The body lives, but no soul posesses it," the boy said.
        "What? Who are you?"
        "Don't worry, he's a Priest. He's a friend of ours."
        "So where's her soul?"
        "In the realm between life and death. You can't contact it from here; you can't influence it."
        "Like fun I can't!" Ranma growled.

        "Hope this immortal stuff works," Ranma muttered. She plunged the dagger through her heart.
        "Ranma! No!" Kagome yelled, but it was already too late. The world around Ranma faded into darkness....

***

        "You've got a second curse? Oh Ranma!"
        "You're not making this easy you know."
        "What do you mean? What curse?"
        "You are under the curse of the mermaid."
        "That's not a curse, is it? I'm not going to turn into a monster am I? I thought it just made me immortal!"
        "Immortality is the curse."
        "Exactly," Yuta said.
        "What are you babbling about? That's a blessing, not a curse," Ayeka replied.
        "Unless you're immortal, you really don't have any idea."
        Ayeka folded her hands across her chest and gave the strange man a haughty look. "I am immortal," Ayeka said, "as are all of the Planet Jurai. We're different from you mortal Earth dwellers in that regard."
        Yuta stood, extended his hand, and drew a knife across it. Ayeka gasped, then watched in fascination as the wound healed itself in the span of about ten seconds.
        "I am immortal as well," Yuta said. "And I still say it's a curse."
        "Well, I can't say I'm that immortal," Ayeka said, mollified. "But I still don't agree with you... growing old and dying is clearly a much greater curse."
        "Immortality is neither a blessing nor a curse," Belldandy said. "It becomes a curse when your loved ones are all mortal, and you are not."

***

        Ranma lay in Ukyo's bed, in Ukyo's room, in Ukyo's body.
        She drifted on the edge of sleep, in and out of dreams and half dreams. She saw herself with Ukyo... Ukyo kissing her... they were getting married... Ranma was the bride... Ukyo was the bride... Ranma was the groom... Ukyo was the groom. Sometimes they were both brides, both grooms; sometimes Ranma was still Ukyo, sometimes back in her own body. Then she was placing the mermaid flesh in Ukyo's mouth again, shoving a steel blade between her own ribs, searching for Ukyo in the world beyond, waking up again in the wrong body....

        "Do you take this woman to be your wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?"
        "I do," Ranma said, as he stared into the eyes of his beautiful bride Ukyo. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his father, beaming with pride....

        "And do you take this man to be your husband...." As the priest droned on, Ranma stared up into the eyes of her betrothed, Ukyo, who looked quite handsome in his black tuxedo. Ranma glanced down at her wedding dress, then over to her mother, who had tears rolling down her cheeks....

        "Do you have the ring?"
        Ranma turned. Yohko stood behind her, in a beautiful dress of blue. As Yohko handed over the ring, Ranma noticed that the diamond centerpiece was clutched in the jaws of a silver dragon. It's red eyes were flashing....

        Ranma slipped the ring onto Ukyo's hand. Only Ukyo was in Ranma's body still, and Ranma was in Ukyo's body, and they both wore bridal gowns....

        "With this ring, I thee wed," Ukyo said. She produced a dagger and placed the tip against the white silk of Ranma's bodice. Slowly she pushed the dagger in. Red blood dribbled down the front of the wedding dress. Ranma could feel the cold steel piercing her heart....

        "Uchan, we have to go back. Your body is waiting for you."
        "But that life is over, Ranma," Ukyo said. She wrapped her arms around Ranma's waist. "Stay with me here, Ranchan. It's so beautiful, and there's no more pain. We can be together."
        "I can't stay," Ranma said. "I wish I could."
        "Oh Ranma," Ukyo said, "if you can't stay, then I guess -- I want to be with you. Wherever you are." She hugged Ranma tightly, then drew back. "Only, Ranma, why are you a girl...?"

        "And so I pronounce you husband and husband, wife and wife," the priest said. "You may now kiss the groom."
        Still in Ranma's body, Ukyo was now a guy wearing a tux. Glancing down, Ranma saw that he, in Ukyo's body, was also a guy in a tux. Ukyo leaned in to kiss him....

        Ranma awoke clutching a pillow to her chest. The room was dark and silent, save for the light breathing of Shun in the bunk above. Ranma frowned. Rooming with a boy, in the boy's dorm -- why did that feel so odd? Had her world view changed so much already?
        Her left hand ached. The sensation had been growing all day, but she'd been so busy she'd just ignored it. Now, the ache was overwhelming. Staring at her hand in the semi-dark, Ranma realized that something was very wrong.
        Her left hand -- Ukyo's left hand -- looked odd. It was hard to see in the faint moonlight that filterd through the curtains to dilute the darkness of the room, but the hand did not look normal. The fingers looked longer, and bonier. The whole hand felt curled and deformed, and the skin itched terribly.
        Ranma scratched the back of her hand. Suddenly the skin peeled away, revealing a surface of green scales beneath.
        Ranma gasped, and stared at it in horror. She knew what it was. The mermaid flesh is a poison. Very few who eat it survive the experience.
        I've done this to you, Ukyo, Ranma thought. I've turned you into a monster.
        Maybe it's best that we're stuck this way, in each other's bodies. Maybe it's best we never switch back. I did this to Ukyo; she shouldn't have to live with it. This should be my burden to bear....

***

        In the morning there was a knock at the door. Ranma blinked in confusion. Had she been asleep? But the last thing she could remember, it had still been dark.
        There was another knock. In the bunk above, Shun mumbled something incoherent. Ranma rolled out of bed and stumbled to the door. She opened it. "Yes?" she said, still half asleep.
        "Back here." It was a girl's voice. Ranma rubbed her eyes and stared into an empty hallway. "I said, I'm behind you," the girl continued. "What did you think, I'm going to just knock on the front door?"
        Ranma turned around. A girl's head was protruding from the window -- literally, since the window and curtains were both still shut. One girl to Ranma's knowledge showed such disregard of solid objects, and she had the same wild, spiky green hair.
        "Ryoko?" Ranma asked.
        "Hey, Ukyo," Ryoko said. "Oh, but it's Ranma, isn't it? Whatever, Bell said to fetch you. Apparently her bratty sister has something cooked up for you."
        "I don't think girls are allowed in here at this hour...." Ranma began.
        "Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's not like I'm actually in the room is it? Now come on!"
        Ryoko grabbed Ranma by the wrists and pulled her through brick and glass. Suddenly they were flying through the air. Ryoko's arm was about Ranma's waist. The cold morning air chilled her instantly; she was still wearing Ukyo's boy-style pj's.
        "Hey! I'm not even dressed yet!" Ranma yelled.
        "No time!" Ryoko replied. Grass, trees, and roses flashed by, roughly three stories below them, and then they passed through solid wall. The chill air was suddenly warm again.
        Ryoko set Ranma down. They were in Belldandy's room. Belldandy was there, along with her roommate Madoka, her sisters Urd and Skuld, Akane, and Ukyo, still in Ranma's body.
        Skuld was kneeling on the floor. In front of her were two unusual devices -- they looked like helmets of a sort, bright white plastic with flashing lights on top and goofy eyes painted on the front.
        Ukyo saw Ranma and smiled. "Ranchan!" she exclaimed. "You'll never guess what! Belldandy's younger sister Skuld thinks she can switch us back to our own bodies!"
        Instinctively, Ranma hid her clawed left hand behind her back.
        "Think I can?" Skuld said. "Are you saying I could fail?" She waved her hands at the two items in front of her. "They're perfect! Skuld's Revolutionary Soul-Rotation Psy-Transference Mojomixer Mark III! They're brilliant! They're Spectacular!"
        Akane frowned. "Not exactly modest is she?"
        "I gotta admit," Urd said, "for once, the brat might have actually built something useful."
        "Hey! Who you calling a brat?"
        "What is it?" Ranma asked.
        "A soul-transfer machine," Urd replied. "Not really my style, but if it works it'll solve your little problem."
        "Problem?" Ranma said. "What problem?"
        "Hello?" Ukyo said. "The problem where we're stuck in each other's bodies? Remember?"
        Ranma looked into Ukyo's eyes, then looked away.
        "I... I don't want to go back," Ranma said. "I want to stay in this body. You can have my body, Ukyo. It's a good one. I always kept in top physical shape, and as a girl, I look pretty good. And it's even immortal. You can have it...."
        "Don't be stupid, Ranma," Ukyo said. "I'm not going to stay in your body if I can get my own back."
        "You don't like my body?" Ranma asked.
        "I like it fine!" Uyko exclaimed. "I especially like it when you are in it, instead of me! Why is that a problem? I thought you'd be desperate to get your own body back!"
        "Well, maybe," Ranma said, "but... things have changed."
        Belldandy stepped forward, concern in her eyes. She grabbed Ranma's right hand and asked, "Ranma, what's the problem?"
        Ranma frowned, then reluctantly, held out her left hand. Everyone gasped.
        "Oh, my!" Belldandy exclaimed. She took the clawed hand and inspected it carefully. "I see. It's the poison from the mermaid's flesh, isn't it?"
        Ranma nodded. "Ukyo's cursed," she said, "and it's all my fault! She shouldn't have to deal with this... if we just stay the way we are...."
        Ukyo held the rigid, scaled claw, turning it over, inspecting it.
        "Let's see if I understand this," she said. "When Ranma ate the mermaid's flesh, she became immortal? Correct?"
        Belldandy nodded.
        "But I... I wasn't quite so lucky, was I?"
        "No," Belldandy said. "Mermaid's flesh is poisonous to humans. Less than one in a thousand gain immortality. Most are transformed into monsters, those know as the lost souls."
        "Am I going to die?"
        Belldandy sighed. She placed a hand on Ranma's forehead and closed her eyes. Moments later she said, "There is no immediate danger. You are still mortal. Someday you will die. You have gained great healing powers, but the mermaid's poison is eating away at your body. It will eventually destroys you."
        "And that could be... how long?"
        "I'm not certain," Belldandy said. "Perhaps as little as a year. Perhaps in many years, even more than a normal human lifetime. You will not age. You will always be just as you are now, apart from the spreading of the curse."
        "Uchan," Ranma said, "it's all my fault. Let me stay in your body...." Tears were rolling down her cheeks.
        "Don't be dense, Ranchan," Ukyo said. "If it weren't for what you did, I wouldn't even be alive. What kind of curse is that?"
        "But...."
        "No," Ukyo said. "We will change back. Now."
        Ukyo turned to Skuld. "We're ready whenever you are," she said.

***

        Inu-Yasha held a small object in his hand. It looked like a delicate glass globe.
        "What's that?" Yohko asked.
        "Your friend's soul," the demon replied.
        "Chigako? You mean she's still alive?"
        "Alive? Her soul still lives, aye," the half-demon said, "but her body no longer exists." He handed the globe to Yohko carefully, and added, "When you smash the globe, her soul will be freed. It's best if you do it soon. Her soul does not wish to be trapped like this. But wait until you are back in your own time."
        Yohko nodded numbly. She stared down at the fragile object in her hand, and tears began to fall. "Oh, Chigako," she whispered softly. "I'm so very, very sorry...."


        "Maybe... maybe Professor Ikari could give Chigako an android body, like Nuku Nuku's."
        "Nuku Nuku is a cyborg not an android. There's a difference -- Nuku Nuku has a flesh and blood brain inside her head. There is nothing physical of Chigako left. Can the professor build a thinking android, and can he splice someone's soul onto the artificial body?"
        "I don't know. But there must be something we can do!"

        Ryoko cocked her head. "All you need is a body, right? One that isn't already occupied, so to speak. Any body will do though?"
        "It's hard to say for sure. Why?"
        "I know where you can find a body like that."
        Without warning, Ryoko grabbed Yohko's arm and lept into the air. There was a slight hum, and the two girls vanished from sight.

***

        Yohko barely had time to catch her breath as Ryoko teleported several times in the span of two seconds. They were halfway across the campus and hovering above one of the utility buildings -- Yohko thought of it as a utility building, since it wasn't used for any classes -- and then Ryoko was diving straight for the roof.
        Too fast, Yohko thought. We're going to crash....
        Yohko shut her eyes tight. Nothing happened. Two seconds later she opened them again.
        They were passing through floors, walls, ceilings and various objects as if none of it were really there. Yohko had seen Ryoko phase through walls and the like before, but doing it herself was completely disorienting. She flinched as each object rushed towards them, but they always passed through harmlessly.
        At first, she didn't even notice what they were passing through, but then it dawned on her. Room after cavernous room full of hulking machines -- armored tanks, giant robots, massive guns, rockets and ufo-like vehicles all flew by in a flash. What was all of this stuff?
        "I know it's around here somewhere," Ryoko muttered. She teleported again, and again. She doubled back through a warehouse Yohko had already seen. Then she stopped.
        "Aha! Here it is!"
        'Here' was a small security door with a light flashing above it. Ryoko pulled Yohko through. On the other side was a long, narrow room bathed in green light. On either side of a path leading through the center of the room, while on each side were two rows of large tubes of polished steel. Each had a glass window, through which you could see a greenish liquid and... Yohko drew closer, not quite believing what she saw.
        Each tube held a human girl.
        Yohko's eyes went wide. "Wha...?" she began.
        "Clones," Ryoko said. And it was true, the girls were identical: young, maybe fifteen or sixteen; slender, with pale skin, and with short blue hair and reddish brown eyes.
        "There's more than a dozen," Ryoko said. "All exactly alike. They have to be clones. Cloning is regulated galactically but I'm sure whoever's doing this doesn't know, or care. But if they've been fully grown in tanks like this, then there won't be any mind or personality present. They'll be like newborn babies: a blank slate."
        "Then Chi's soul could possess one of these?"
        "You said you needed a body, right?"
        "But will her memories transfer along with her soul, I wonder?"
        "It worked that way for Ukyo and Ranma."
        "That's true. Well, it's Chi's only hope, so...."
        A deep voice echoed through the room. "What are you two doing in here?"


        "This... little ball... this is the girl's soul?"
        "That's what the priest said."
        Principal Ikari studied the round crystal for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.
        "Fascinating," he said. "And you wish to place the spirit of this girl in one of these clone bodies?"
        "If it will work," Ryoko said.
        "We don't have any other options," Yohko said. "Her real body is gone! If this doesn't work, then she'll be dead for good."
        The Principal seemed to consider this for a long moment.
        "I see," he replied. "Very well. You may proceed."


        One tube slides forward, down, drains. opens up.

        "I'm quite interested to see if this works," Ikari said. "For one thing, is the clone body truly an empty vessel? I admit it is a clean slate -- like a newborn, without memories or knowledge of any kind -- but wouldn't it still have a soul?"
        Ryoko blinked. "I didn't think of that. But it's not like we've got any alternatives."
        "But suppose, for the moment, that it does? If you succeed, and your friend's soul inhabits this body, what then has actually occured? Does the body possess two souls? Have they merged? Or does her soul push the infant soul that was present out into the void?"
        Ignoring Ikari, Yohko stepped forward and stared down at the naked, blue-haired clone girl.
        "So... what do I do?" she asked.
        "How should I know?" Ryoko said. "I've never done this before. Didn't the priest say breaking it would release the soul?"
        "Yeah, but how can I be sure her soul will enter the body? What if it just drifts away? Maybe I should put it in her mouth. Under her tongue, say."
        "And then what? It'll just dissolve? Like it's some spiritual throat lozenge?"
        "Have you got any better ideas?"
        Ryoko held up her hands. "Hey, I just knew where the spare bodies were. The rest is up to you."
        Yohko shrugged, then carefully pried the girl's mouth open and inserted the small globe. "Can't hurt to try," she muttered. "If it doesn't work, then we can break it...."
        Moments later, the girl's eyes fluttered, then opened. She stared up in confusion, then focused on Yohko. "Yohko?" she asked.
        "Chi? Is it you?"
        "Of course it's me," she said. She looked at the other two, then around the room. Her eyes focused on the long row of tubes, each with a blue-haired girl floating inside. "Where am I?" she asked. "What's going on?"
        Principal Ikari stroked his bearded chin. "Fascinating," he said. "Absolutely fascinating." Then he nodded sharply and added, "Yohko, Ryoko, help her out of the tube and then follow me. We need to get her showered, and into something warm, and then I want to run some tests...."


Chapter 22 Teaser
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