Three Worlds, One Bout Of General Confusion
Himura Kenshin was doing the laundry. Okay, so that was something that could be said about almost every day, but what of it? It was true enough. Now, I could have said that the Hitokiri Battousai was doing the laundry; that would be a little more unusual, but still, technically, the same sentence.
But we won’t get into that. Amber eyes are good sometimes but not when directed at the author.
Anyway, Kenshin was doing the laundry and enjoying it. The day was pleasant, slightly warm for late spring; the promise (or threat) of summer’s heat was making itself known but the chill bite of winter hadn’t yet quite relinquished its hold on the temperature. A slight breeze made it positively pleasant.
But it didn’t look as if it were going to rain, hence the reason Kenshin was doing the laundry.
He dressed as per usual; in his worn pink gi and white hakama, which wasn’t exactly new either. But he didn’t care, it was comfortable. He also had his sakaba sword sheathed at his side. Whether or not this was for self-defense in the event of killer laundry, we will never know, but he did nonetheless.
Kenshin smiled to himself at the sound of Karou yelling at Yahiko for some flaw in his form or attitude while she trained the spiky haired youth. He couldn’t hear her exact words, but could guess them – “80 (or 100, or more, depending on her mood and the severity of Yahiko’s transgression) more repetitions! Now!”; and Yahiko’s response “Oi, busu!”; then a yelp when Karou hit him and doubled the number; finally, the rhythmic “Ichi… ni… san…” of the student counting off his punishment.
Kenshin had no idea if this was correct, of course, but it seemed likely. It was something to keep his mind occupied, at least, as he scrubbed the laundry for all the poor li’l cloth was worth.
His mind was wandering so much, in fact, that it took him a few seconds to realize what had happened when he suddenly found his hands empty. A shame, really, because the sparkles that he turned into in the yard of the Kamiya Dojo was a really neat effect.
He looked around the hazy, colorless, nothingness that he found himself in rather blankly. And said the only thing he could think of appropriate to the situation.
“Oro?”
It echoed, very slightly.
***
Saotome Ranma had managed to make it though his morning with remarkably little incident. Wake up, spar with pop, get tossed in the koi pond, toss pop into the koi pond, kick the crap out of the resulting panda for a little while until Kasumi cheerfully called “Breakfast is ready!” and came out with the indicated meal and a kettle of hot water.
Despite having to make use of the kettle because of the aforementioned koi pond incident, Ranma had actually had a pretty good morning. Genma had done a rather spectacular bellyflop off of the roof into the pond this time courtesy of the bottom of Ranma’s foot to the small of his back, so wasn’t feeling quite well when he sat down. This made the usual battle over food an even easier victory than usual for the son. Therefore, Ranma had been so busy stuffing his face that he hadn’t had a chance to insult Akane, even though she had muttered several acidic comments about his admittedly sloppy eating habits. Ranma had then changed into dry clothes, even though this would probably prove useless as the day progressed, which made them late. They were running to school at top speed, Ranma on the fence, Akane on the ground like any normal person, when Ranma suddenly dissolved into tiny little particles of silver dust. Akane was so intent on running that she missed it, a shame because it was a really neat effect after all, but one that was again wasted.
Ranma kept running for a little while after he materialized in a familiar (to the readers, not to him) hazy, colorless nothingness. He heard a faint echo of some sound as he forced himself into a slower walk.
“What the hell?!” was his reaction to the occurrence. Considering that he yelled it at the top of his admittedly powerful lungs, this phrase echoed a lot more than the other one had.
Suddenly he tripped over something.
***
Duo was actually asleep when the predictable transfer (again, to the readers, not him) happened to him. This also happened to be the only one of the three so far that anyone noticed; Heero was… slightly miffed by Duo’s creative avoidance of the bucket of ice water that he had been about to pour over the other pilot’s head to wake him up. No, that hadn’t been his idea but Wufei’s; Heero thought it was a little childish but was indeed one of the few tactics that had proven able to wake the braided idiot when he was well and determined to sleep.
He didn’t appreciate the beauty of the pretty sparkles, however, which means that yet again the effect was wasted.
As for Duo, while he didn’t get a chance to see the sparkles, the transfer actually had the same effect as the bucket of water would have, and woke him up. With quite a nasty jolt too; if asked later his choice as to which method was preferable he probably would’ve chosen the ice water.
He cracked his eyes open to see a hazy… void surrounding him on all sides. At first he came to the obvious conclusion and assumed he was dreaming, but an ear-piercing scream convinced him otherwise. He rubbed his eyes and started waking up beyond the mere ‘eyes open’ stage.
Being tripped over completed the job.
“Hey! What the hell…”
“Oh, stop whining, the three of you,” said a female voice out of nowhere. Literally, since they were in fact nowhere… but that’s beside the point.
“Hey…” the woman’s voice came again. “Would you *mind*?” A body formed out of the nothingness, either that or the haze that filled it; which one it was didn’t really matter too much. “Thank you,” she said to no one in particular as she materialized, then she turned her attention to the three standing in front of her… well, two standing; the third was laying on his back, still not having stood. Duo rectified this situation by jumping to his feet, nearly bowling over the young boy who had tripped over him. The three looked at each other warily for a moment, and, upon seeing confusion reflected in each of the other two, turned to the woman with narrow eyes.
She was tall, statuesque, and had long, white hair, but was definitely not old. She was also dressed in a very revealing, sleek dress that Kenshin almost protested to before bringing his mind back to the fact that this woman seemed to have abducted him. And right in the middle of his laundry, too.
“Who th’ hell are you?”
“Are you OZ?”
“What is your business with me, de gozaru ka?”
The resounding click of a sword being loosened from its sheath.
The three questions were asked simultaneously, with the echoing click punctuating it all.
The woman seemed unruffled. “My name is Urd, goddess second class limited. I am not associated in any manner with any human organization. My business with you three will be explained shortly. And do not draw your sword in this place, Battousai,” she said coolly.
“Battousai ?” said the other two incredulously. They looked at each other, for a moment, then at Kenshin.
Kenshin didn’t know how to react to this particular situation; it wasn’t exactly something that he had prepared for. “My name is Himura Kenshin, de gozaru,” he introduced himself. “You are…”
“Saotome Ranma,” introduced that person.
“Duo Maxwell,” said the Deathscythe pilot. He then did a classic double take. “Saotome Ranma?” he burst out into laughter. “Treize must be on crack, thinking I’ll believe this… or did Wufei set this up? Man, I don’t know who thought I believe this…” he chuckled to himself, then spoke again. “C’mon, who hired you? I mean, did they actually expect me to believe that I’ve just met the Hitokiri Battousai and a guy with a magical curse…”
“How did you know about that?!” Ranma was pretty sure he’d never met the gaijin before, but that didn’t mean anything.
“Oh, c’mon, it’s a classic legend. Some people even believe the stories… but even if he ever actually lived it was over three hundred years ago. And Himura Battousai… now *that’s* someone out of the history books. Over four hundred years ago… but at least he was real. So who are you really?” Duo folded his arms over his chest smugly.
“Excuse me…” the woman interrupted impatiently. “Duo Maxwell, most annoying of the Gundam pilots… why’d I have to get stuck with you?” she rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. Suddenly a bucket materialized in her hands and in one smooth motion it’s contents were relocated to Ranma.
Duo and Kenshin both gaped as before their eyes the third member of the group was transformed into a shorter, busty girl with red hair of a hue that put Kenshin’s to shame.
“Are you convinced yet?” The woman said smugly.
The two who were still male gave their assent by not speaking, but Ranma wouldn’t. “No way!” she looked at Kenshin. “If he wants me to believe that he’s the Battousai, he’s got to fight me.”
“Oro?” Kenshin blinked. “Fight me, de gozaru ka?” That was… awfully casual, for a challenge…
“Yep.” Ranma answered smugly.
Urd produced a kettle and changed Ranma back. “Don’t even think about it. Not a chance in hell that I’m letting you break the rules. I’m the one who’d get fried. Ranma, you’ll just have to believe it, because it’s true. You shouldn’t have a problem with it, considering what else has happened with your life…” she trailed off meaningfully.
Ranma scowled. “What about you, ‘Urd goddess class two limited’? Why are we supposed to believe you?”
Urd smirked. “I don’t really care if you believe me or not. You can’t do anything about it. But let’s leave that alone for now and get on with business, shall we?”
There was no answer.
“Great! Now, first of all, three of you just won’t be enough. I’ll need each of you to choose someone to fight by your side.”
“Fight?”
“Yes, idiots, you will be fighting. Oh, haven’t I explained that to you yet? Well, nevermind, it doesn’t matter. Someplace needs your help, and you three, soon to be six, have been drafted for the job. Now, if all of you will please choose someone, and say their name…”
Kenshin was a bit confused. His mind worked without his knowing it, though, and he said the obvious name. “Sagara Sanosuke.”
Ranma thought. The lady was right, this wasn’t really too weird. Now, the only question was who… Ah ha! Now, if this person could be convinced not to fight him… oh well. “Hibiki Ryouga.”
Duo, still feeling that this somehow had to be a dream, said the most obvious thing, for him, considering that he was going to be fighting. “Deathscythe.” He got two odd glances and one annoyed one.
“A human (or close facsimile thereof) someone, please…”
“Oh… Heero Yuy, then… with Wing Zero?” he added hopefully.
“Not a chance. Okay, here you go…”
***
Sanosuke was walking casually down a certain street in Tokyo when he vanished into miniscule flecks of white light. A few people noticed, but they don’t count. My poor little effect…
***
Ryouga, by some freakish coincidence, was walking down the exact same street (except he thought it was in Hokkaido) when the exact same thing happened to him. A few people noticed, but didn’t care too much. They’d long learned to tune out the bizarre happenings around them, particularly when it came to a certain group of people of whom he was a rather prominent part.
***
Heero wasn’t even on Earth when his turn came around, though, so there goes that pattern. No, he was standing by an empty bed, holding a bucket of ice water and wondering where Duo had gone and what was up with the silver sparkles when suddenly he experienced the same thing himself.
***
All six were considerably startled when the three appeared suddenly in front of the one who had named them. There was a pause as they collected themselves, then:
“Duo… korosu…”
“RANMA!!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THIS TIME?!?!”
“Oi, Kenshin, what the fuck’s up?”
They had a few seconds to look around confusedly, but not nearly enough.
“Well, and you’re off, guys! You’ll meet up with the folks you’re working with as soon as you get there!” With that, the woman vanished again.
Three mouths opened again, to ask what was going on, but before they could, they vanished with a slight *pop* (no visual effects this time).
And reappeared, somewhat disoriented, on the outskirts of a town that only Kenshin and Sano thought of as even vaguely normal. The buildings were somewhat dingy, but not too horrible; it was the middle of the night but the moon was high in the sky, providing enough light to see by, at least.
One person was there waiting for them, an indistinct figure with long, dark hair and full robes so white that they practically glowed in the darkness. Ranma tensed a bit, then relaxed when the stranger spoke, in a distinctly masculine voice but one totally different from the Chinese Amazon whom he had thought it was at first. “Are you the other team of Hunters?”
Before anyone could interrupt rudely, Kenshin answered, “Hai, de gozaru yo.”
The greeter nodded. “The name of the one who sent you here?”
“Urd.”
“Good. Follow me, we have rooms for you to spend the night.”
They did. Most of them were confused, several were in a daze - a few were even in a confused daze, but they all followed, nonetheless.
***
tbc...
~Mordain
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