Knocking on Heaven's Door [MtG/Multicross/SI]

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty (To-Love-Ru)

Yuuki Rito was not expecting the Sliver Inquisition. Then again, nobody expects the Sliver Inquisition. Rito's house from the outside looked even normal, at least as long as someone didn't have a peek at his backyard. There was one such thing as too strange to be called a plant after all, but he didn't seem to bother watering them all the same. I had a bottle of red wine in one hand, and a package filled with sweet treats in my other hand.

I rang the doorbell once, gently.

The one who opened the door was Mikan, Rito's younger sister, and as she looked up at me with a puzzled expression, I smiled in turn. "Good evening," I said with a smile, "Is Rito inside? We have much to discuss."

Mikan furrowed her brows, "I don't know you," she said in the end.

"He fell on my daughter," I answered with a bright smile. "That means he's got to take responsibility, because that's how it works." My smile turned up a notch on the predator scale, and Mikan didn't even need to be mind-whammed to allow me entrance. She simply sighed, the thought that I was lying not even crossing her mind once as she allowed me entrance. She even offered me the guest flaps as she showed me the way into the living room, where Mea was lazily slouching on the couch, a teen magazine open with the strands of her hair as she munched on to some treats while waiting for dinner.

"Who's that?" the Transformation Weapon asked, her long braid twitching slightly.

"A concerned father," I replied with a smile. "I brought treats," I added as I placed the package from the most costly patisserie in the whole town down on the table, placing the bottle of red wine right next to it. "Hopefully we can solve this peacefully." I grinned as I thanked Mikan for offering me a seat at the armchair, where I sat while crossing my legs and planting my elbows on the chair's arms, crossing my fingers together to drop my chin on it.

I needed a fuzzy cat, and then everything would be set for me to welcome mister Yuuki, Rito Yuuki. The shark tank was unnecessary, since I could make do with a Sliver tank. Though I had to warn them not to eat too much of him, or they'd get whatever sickness he had.

I felt Yuuki Rito's presence even before he came into my view, and I was pretty sure the same could be said for him and Nemesis. Yet they appeared all the same from the hallway into the living room, and as my gaze centered on him, it only partially glanced over to where Yami was. After the stun of this afternoon, even though they didn't know what was going on, they had probably decided to spend the rest of the day guarding him.

It didn't matter to me. The only threat could come from Nemesis, because she was the only shrewd enough to fully understand half of the powers of a Planeswalker quickly, and she had been rendered harmless to the Hive by having her memories erased. If push came to shove, I could contain them. It would be an expenditure of resources, but containing a whole Plane wasn't impossible, and it would keep them stuck inside for as long as I lived.

"Yuuki Rito," I said crisply, "Take a seat."

He squirmed as he did that, even though it was pretty clear he was trying his hardest to remember just on whom he had slipped this fine morning, and whether or not it could have anything to do with me. I smiled. "Would you like a pastry?" I gestured at the treats, "They tell me they're the best in the whole town. I thought we could start off with a sweet thing since you thoroughly defiled my daughter with your grubby hands," my smile turned ferocious. "You understand this will not end well for you unless your next words are I will take responsibility, sir."

Rito tensed, swallowing nervously, "I-I don't remember-" I growled at him, "B-but yes!" he bowed his head abruptly, "I'll-I'll take-"

"Wait a moment!" the sharp exclamation came from a pink-haired young girl with a devil-like licorice black tail, who stepped inside with a huff. She was Momo Deviluke, the youngest sister of Lala, an alien capable of communicating with plants and with super strength...which meant that her threat level was somewhere below even Fuuka's White Rabbit's summoning. She basically summoned food, just like her sister Nana. "I've been following Rito all morning, and he hasn't slipped on anyone I don't know the parents of!" she pointed a finger in my direction, "You're just a fraud!"

I smiled and snapped my left finger.

More than a dozen Slivers burst out of my back, slithering their way with unparalleled speed towards their intended targets. Before Momo could summon even a single plant, her cellphone-like device shattered in ashes and cinder, even as chains of light ruptured the ground to block all of Mea and Yami's movements.

I stood up from the armchair slowly, hands in my pockets as I began to walk towards Rito, who had fallen off his seat and was now on the ground, looking up at me with wide eyes.

"I am not here to kill you, Rito," I said gently, "But I will have you take responsibility all the same," I continued with a low growl. "Now let's go talk somewhere else, shall we?"

"Rito, run!" Nemesis' voice came audible enough, "He's-He's stronger than Gid!"

As dark matter formed around Rito's form, pushing him away from my grown talons that struck the floor and broke through it, I sighed and turned to glance at Mikan and at the Slivers surrounding and holding her in place. "Do you really want to run?" I queried as I gestured at the Slivers to push Mikan forward, enabling me to snake a sharp talon dripping with caustic poison around her neck. "Because if so, just tell me," I grinned as more talons emerged from my body. "I'll ensure you'll have nowhere to go back to."

"Nemesis, stop, wait-" Rito said as the dark matter around him retreated back into his body. "If he just wants to talk-"

"He's clearly the one responsible for what happened at school!" Nemesis snapped. "Who knows what he wants?"

"But if he wanted to kill me," Rito said, "He would have done so already, right?" I smiled and nodded at him as I drew nearer still. "Just...let the others go."

"Once we're out of here," I said with a hand over my heart. I took another step, and Momo stepped in front of me, her arms outstretched and her expression determined to stop me.

"I'm not letting you go without me," Momo hissed out. "Whatever you want with Rito, you'll have to bring me along too-" her eyes drooped down as she suddenly fell asleep, falling down to the side as I walked past her sleeping body without missing a beat.

I came to a stop and knelt right by Rito's side, my Slivers gathering back into my back as I dropped Mikan on the ground. I grabbed hold of Rito by the scruff of the neck and smiled as I lifted him up, before dragging him through the Blind Eternities into another plane entirely, one of sand and giant worms.

I challenged him to commit dishonorable acts of slipping and touching women in the middle of the desert of the planet Dune.

I challenged him to do so!

 

[Rooster]

Living forever is awesome
​

Nothing good ever comes from two planeswalkers being in close proximity.

Even if they were just eating a burger.

"Hey, want to sling some spells?" one asked.

The other just raised one eyebrow. He had to rise both when the other brought out two decks for Magic the Gathering.

"What? You thought I was actually going to use magic? Please. That's too much work. Now c'mon. Start shuffling."

And so they were eating and playing. Planeswalkers playing Magic the Gathering. What irony. The challenger had a red-blue deck, while the challenged was given a sliver deck.

"You know, you fulfill the stereotype of cynical immortal pretty well, Mr. Shade. I just don't get it. Living forever has been awesome for me so far."

The other Planeswalker said something about being everywhere and doing everything that this narrator couldn't even begin to predict with any accuracy, so he didn't even try. But he also asked how the first one did it. How after all this time and what he's seen and done didn't grow cynical.

"Well, the way I see it, being a Planeswalker is like playing with Lego's. Oh don't give me that look, it's a perfectly accurate metaphor in my case. When I was a small child, even before I ever became a planewalker I promised myself that I would remain a child forever. Obviously, that didn't work, but I did what I could to keep that spark that I had in my childhood alive. The memories of the first years of my live will stay with me forever. When everything was still new and exciting. I keep that feeling and that's what keeps me going. That's why living forever is like Lego bricks. When I build something I can always tear it down and start again. It's so pointless, and I often end up making the same type of castle with only minor variations, but as long as the process is fun then that's what matters, even if I never make anything permanent."

They talked some more, and inevitably the topic turned to death.

"Don't be sad that it's gone, be happy that it happened. That's what I live by. You might've given up on love, but I haven't. Even after all these years it never gets old. I keep doing it, and I'll keep doing it. Again, and again, and again. Until I have run out of people to love, which thankfully won't happen because of the multiverse. And when they die? I'm not sad. I wasn't sad the first time it happened, and I wasn't sad when it happened for the thousandth. I don't think that means that I didn't love them, because grief is not a competition, I don't have anything to prove to anyone. You wanna know what I think your problem is? You don't live in the moment, every moment. You see too much of the bigger picture and it scares you. If the multiverse is so big, then what's the point of doing anything? Might as well just lay down and die. Except you forget that it's exactly the same for mortals and the scale doesn't matter. The fact that we will all die someday and that everything will be destroyed by entropy means that everything we do has no higher meaning. I choose to create the meaning for myself instead of not having it."

While they were talking the state of the board game was changing. The optimistic walker lost to overpoweredness that was slivers, but that was okay.

"You know, this game can be mathematically solved. Every board state, every shuffling configuration, but I keep playing it anyway. Hell, the world of Yu-Gi-Oh was the world where I've had the most fun since forever. I've found something that I love doing and I'll love doing no matter how much time passes. I've even became the King of Games fair and square. No bullshit 'draw the card I need then and there' necessary. After enough tries I succeeded. And when that dream was achieved, I just got myself another dream. And another and another. And when you've run out of things on your 'to do' list you just add 'think of things I can add to my list' to it, and that's what keeps me from just saying 'fuck it' like you have. I can only hope you'll find something like that as well. For now, how about we play another round?"

In the restaurant a song was playing in the background.

"Who's the man who stole fire for the people?
Who causes trembling in the bones of evil?
Who carved a mountain into a cathedral?"


A little omake I put together about a planewalker expressing my feelings on immortality that are completely opposite to Shade's SI. I'm a bit intimidated about portraying Shade-sempai so I didn't give him any dialogue. I bet if he reads this he could just imagine the lines he would use, but I just can't.

Sorry if it's a low-quality omake, but the message was more important to me than the form it was presented in. Shade's an awesome writer and I actually like his Planeswalker SI, but I also know my views on Planeswalking would be a lot closer to Fuuka's and all the lessons he tried to teach her and all the speeches he gave her would be mocked for being very ridiculous.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-One (Dune)

He who controls the Spice controls the Universe. He who controls Arrakis controls the Universe. He who controls the Worms controls Arrakis. And among it all, he who controls space and time, bends wills to his own and holds the strongest psionic net holds absolute command over every single living being in his surroundings. It was for that reason that the Worms did not bother us.

"This isn't a planet I know of," Nemesis spoke as she appeared from within Rito's form, the boy sitting on the dune with coarse sand all around him. The stifling heat around us was doused by my presence, "Where are we?"

"This is Arrakis," I said. "It's a planet of no importance for us, if not for the fact that anywhere you go, you will meet death." I sat down on the sand next to Rito. "So do not run." I conjured forth a bottle of water, uncorked it, and took a sip out of it. "It wouldn't help you anyway."

"Then let's start with why we are here," Nemesis said, crossing her arms. "If you wanted to talk, you could have done so without forcing us to follow you here. This place must have some significance."

"It does," I acquiesced, "But not for the reasons you might think," I added. "I must begin with citing the obvious. You have awoken as a Planeswalker," I looked at them both, "Though whether the one who awoke was Rito or you, Nemesis, I am unable to discern it just yet. Your state of being makes it hard to understand whether the Spark lies within one of your souls, or both." I took another sip of water. "What this means, in the short term, is that you have incredible powers at your disposal. Immortality, immunity to sicknesses that aren't of a magical nature, natural phenomenons...the list goes on, but those are the key points."

Nemesis whistled, humming with a content smile, "Is that why I'm feeling so charged up?" she chuckled, "It explains how I'm reforming faster than normal. Whatever this Spark is, it must be made of Dark Matter."

"On the negative side, the Spark cannot be shared. Only one of you actually has it," I acquiesced. "So the one who will claim it shall rip it out of the other, killing him, or her." I glanced at my nails, "Which is why we are here on Arrakis, I guess. Eventually the Spark's energy will be enough to restore you fully to your body, Nemesis, and when that happens, well, you'll pull yourself free I reckon." I glanced at Yuuki Rito, "and then you'll die. On the other hand, if she doesn't, eventually your body will grow strong enough that you will simply absorb her, thus killing her instead." I shrugged. "Either way, one of you is going to die within the next few days."

Silence met my words, so I simply pressed on. "Also, I chose this world for another reason." I looked up, and as the shimmering ethereal lights linked themselves to a close, the whole plane was abruptly cut off from the Multiverse's net in its entirety. The sudden shift was like a heavy pressure, which was mitigated by the thousand of glittering glowing gems that burst from my skin, shining and embedding mana deep within my frame. "In here, should you both decide to live and fight against one another, the casualties will be kept to a minimum."

Nemesis' eyes narrowed. "You closed off our escape."

I smiled. "Of course I did," I acquiesced. "I cannot risk you leaving this place without a resolution. Since I know it's the only way to actually have one, please pick whatever choice you prefer. I'll be impartial through this," I added. "Ask any question you wish, I'll answer as best as I can. Or just kill one another and I'll answer the questions of the one that survives."

"Is there another way?" Rito asked. "Whatever happened, can it be removed?"

I hummed, and then shrugged. "It fits that you would ask for a mean that isn't a resolution, but no. You do not fully possess the Spark, so it can't be removed." I clenched my right hand, shivers and tremors rippling across it. "It is merely a matter of choice. One lives, one dies. The worlds keep spinning. Nobody is going to miss a transformation weapon. Nobody is going to miss Yuuki Rito."

I morphed the sands beneath me into a pillow, and then altered the water into a cup of cold ice coffee.

"How do you know of us?" Nemesis asked, "You aren't a transformation weapon, that much is clear. Yet you didn't even let us present ourselves. Can you read minds?"

"If I wished for it," I acquiesced, nodding. "As said before, a Planeswalker has a lot of powers and reading minds is among them."

The sands shimmered as slowly the Slivers began to encroach closer to us. The skies had already been covered, the Psionic net blocking passage as the thundering energies of the atmosphere were being redirected and morphed into power for the interdimensional weave that would have ensnared anyone trying to leave.

"The way you word it..." Nemesis said, thoughtful. "Well, it appears the time has come." She sighed and shook her head, plopping her feet on the sand even though a thin strip of Dark Matter still connected her to Rito's body. "I would have died after the fight with Gid anyway, so the extra time was simply a gift." She turned to smile sadly at Rito, both of her hands touching his cheeks. "It's been nice watching Yami and Mea gain some form of humanity, and it's all thanks to you. It was amusing while it lasted, but this appears to be that special something you always had. I can't take that away from you."

Rito tried to speak, and in that moment, Nemesis gave him a deep kiss silencing him on the spot. "Don't say anything," Nemesis said with a chuckle. She turned to look up at me, "Whatever you need to do, I'm ready."

Large talons emerged from my back, psychic energies lashing out as ghostly and pale flames ruptured into reality around my eyes and face. The apex of creation, the true power of ascension, the thundering that accompanied the conjuring of energies that only the greatest, the oldest, or the Hive could ever fathom to hold merged together. It was quick, and it was painless.

Nemesis closed her eyes with a smile, while Rito's own instead remained open, his fists trembling. The large talon burned with flames lacking color, and as it descended from my back to slam into the young girl's body, Rito suddenly lunged forward.

I watched dispassionately as the talon burned through him, making him gasp and gag as blood splattered out of his mouth, his body twitching in pain. Energies beyond the comprehension of mortals rushed out of the Spark, igniting abruptly as it was from the shock and trying, and failing at that, to escape into another plane. My Slivers hissed and howled as one, the Psionic net clutching upon this world fiercely, holding in everything that dared to try to escape.

Once it was done, Nemesis stood on her own two feet, ensnared by a dozen of my talons as I surrounded her frame and that of Rito, bringing them both back to their home-plane, if by the city's outskirts.

Nemesis looked down at her hands, and then back up at me. "I-" she growled, "I said I was the one-"

"And that is what happened," I remarked with a shrug, letting my talons go off her frame, the wound on Rito's body snapping shut as the Spark within him proceeded to heal the grievous damage. "He'll wake up in a few hours at most, a fully awakened Planeswalker, and by my standards you have died," I shrugged. "As a potential Planeswalker, that is," I quipped with a dry smile, the talons surrounding Rito a bit more, as if afraid he'd slip away and end up in the breasts of some random girl down the street. "I won't tell him that though," I continued. "Perhaps a death on his hands will be enough to make him take what happens next seriously, I wonder."

"What sort of alien creature are you Planeswalkers?" Nemesis asked, "to have your young merge with humans so easily-or perhaps, with other alien races...is that how you are born?"

"That is for us to know," I remarked. "Though you may think whatever you wish, I won't stop you from doing that, since I won't be around to stop you. He'll be back, though," I pointed at Rito. "Perhaps in a matter of days, or weeks at most. Once he's learned the dangers of the Multiverse, then I'll let him go back home."

Nemesis raised an eyebrow. "There are things out there so powerful they scare even a so proclaimed immortal?"

I smiled. "Oh no, they don't scare me," I said with a bitter smile.

I slowly began to disappear, dragging Rito through the Blind Eternities with me.

"They make me wish I had never learned of their existence to begin with."

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Two (Ranma 1/2)

It is only through pain that we are reborn anew. Strength comes from surviving hardships, from tempering the steel of life in the forge of despair, we grow our souls to withstand even the harshest blows. I was of that belief, and most definitely, it wasn't the mere decision to watch Yuuki Rito suffer for the sin of his existence. I wasn't that petty. No, to be honest, as the clear sky over Furinkan took a change and became slightly cloudy, a nearby apartment found itself some new tenants.

It was a short distance away from the Tendo Dojo, but again, I wouldn't want Rito to have to walk a long distance to get to his new source of pain, or well, training. It was a dojo after all. They were supposed to have students. Also, I was going to pay in whatever form of currency they desired, be it in money, gold or women panties. I could fabricate them out of thin air, so money wasn't going to be an issue.

"You ready?" I asked as I glanced at Yuuki Rito's new school uniform, the one that he would need for Furinkan's high school. He was wearing a dark, long sleeved short collared jacket and matching pants with a white collared shirt, which was the default uniform for males. This was Nerima, one of Tokyo's districts that perhaps Rito had visited once or twice with his family, and now was viewing as something completely different.

He had slept for a while after our arrival, and when he had woken up naked, well, he had the choice of putting on that school uniform or simply suffer going out naked as mother nature had intended him to. He most wisely picked the option of getting dressed.

"Ready for what?" Rito asked warily, nervousness beaming off his frame by the score as he sat down at the table in the kitchen, which shared the space with the living room.

It wasn't a spartan apartment at all, there was enough space for a big television screen, a sofa, a nice fluffy carpet, some chairs, and the kitchen counter had every single utensil needed in a properly functional kitchen. If I said so myself, the pleasantness of an all-white living room brilliantly contrasted with the night areas being painted in pure pitch-black agony darkness, a type of color native of another plane. Technically lethal to anyone not a Planeswalker, but if someone wished to creep into my rooms at night, then death was the least of his problems.

"Your first day of school, of course," I said with a smile as I flipped open a newspaper which appeared out of thin air. "Furinkan high awaits you. I've drawn you a map on where to go," I filched from the paper a large enough piece, and twisted it in mid-air until it became a masterwork drawn map of directions. "You can't get lost this way."

He stared at the map, and then at me. I waited patiently for some words to come out of his mouth, but none did. I raised an eyebrow. "You have twenty minutes to get there," I added. "You should get going." I inclined my head to the side, pointing at the door. There, a student briefcase stood in wait of its new owner, the school books already inside. "The principal knows you're coming."

He stood up from the table, and as he neared the door, I flipped the newspaper once. "Also be advised," I said. "You are in another Plane. Should you leave it, I will know. I will not, however, pursue you." I glanced at his face. "You will simply regret it forever." I smiled, and then resumed reading my newspaper. Rito opened the door, and as he was about to step outside, I threw him a couple of keys. He caught them, if not deftly at least with an exclamation of surprise.

"Thanks," Rito said.

"Don't thank me yet," I replied, humming to myself as I flipped another page of the newspaper. "Good luck, and god reflexes."

"Shouldn't it be god speed?" Rito asked, scrunching his eyebrows up in thought.

I laughed gingerly. "Off to school, or you'll be late," I waved him goodbye with a talon that sprouted from my shoulder, and the moment the door closed behind him, I swirled and twirled into the shadows to follow him silently.

Honestly, this was actually kind of fun. It was like crafting Crossovers. I suppressed a giggle threatening to escape my lips as my eyes as I watched Yuuki Rito step out of the apartment complex and head down the street, following the map with his right hand.

I could have brought him to Dune and cut and dry taught him everything he needed to know to lay low, avoid Phyrexians and Eldrazi, and live a long and prosperous eternity. Yet, I didn't. I realized it after travelling with Fuuka that, sometimes, a second perspective was nice. Even if he was everything I despised in a character, he was still his own human existence, and he must have had something interesting going on when the lights weren't shining on him.

Still, this world would also be a nice wake-up call, because as true as the fact that this was Nerima, and that he had to walk down the street in front of the Dojo Temple, so too was it true that on this particular morning, Ranma Saotome had taken a cold shower and was in her female form from the get go, and Akane Tendo was running late together with her.

I did not need to engineer anything.

I simply had to watch, and wait, and take notes as Rito slipped on a pebble, too busy looking at the map, and ended up flying something like twenty meters right into the bosom of Ranma's female form, before twisting in mid-air right against Akane's lap.

I scoffed, and when the inevitable happened, a small smile settled on my lips.

Pain, thou are the greatest teacher.

So learn well, Yuuki Rito.

Learn well...or suffer.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Three (Ranma 1/2)

Contrary to popular belief, Yuuki Rito was not sent flying. He did clutch his stomach and massage his stinging cheek for a while, but that was it. He also conveniently lost his map to the wind. I regretted nothing, of course. Why would I ever regret this? Schadenfreude was the key term, and I could have started him with something far worse.

"I'm sorry about what happened," Rito said with an awkward smile, "Are you two students of Furinkan high?" he asked next, trying to put the shameful accident behind them. Ranma was the kind of guy that would let it be, especially because while he was in her female body, he still didn't have all of the demureness or shame that belonged with it.

"Yep," Ranma replied, glancing at him with a sigh and rolling her eyes. She was in her female form for the time being, but was probably looking for a way to turn back to male without giving himself up to the new arrival. "I'm Ranma." She made a small wave with her left hand, her right holding on to her school briefcase behind her back.

Akane simply huffed, increasing her pace while clutching her school bag firmly. Rito nervously looked at her go with a chagrin expression on his face, before turning towards Ranma. "I'm really sorry about what happened."

"Eh, don't worry about it," Ranma said dully, eyeing him. "You don't feel like a perverted menace," she added. "On the other hand, it's partly my fault. I saw you slip and didn't catch you." She shrugged. "Anyway, know what classroom you'll be in?"

"No," Rito replied, shaking his head. "I just transferred here recently. I was told the principal would show me around-" Ranma actually blinked.

"Oi! Akane!" Ranma yelled to the girl who had been steadily moving further away from them. "Does our highschool have a principal!?"

"Of course it does!" Akane replied hotly, "But...I never saw him. Maybe he came back from Hawaii?"

"Why would anyone come back from Hawaii?" Ranma asked, her expression curious. "Guess you're in luck, Rito." She grinned. "What kind of guy is the principal anyway, Akane?"

Akane said nothing at first, and then she shrugged. "Can't remember," she said. "He terrorized students so much everyone was happy when he left though..." she looked over her shoulder, "What is that?" she asked, making RIto and Ranma both turn at the same time. Quick and quiet like a stealthy ninja, she entered a nearby house and grinned at the old lady having tea by the window, before waving her goodbye and thanking her for the hot teapot. In a second, the hot water ran over Ranma's head turning him into a male.

Ranma didn't even yelp, his eyes scrunched up in concentration. "Akane, what the hell? It's just a wall."

Akane smiled knowingly, even as Rito blinked and gazed at Ranma with a puzzled expression. Then it clicked. "Ah," he said. "You're an alien, aren't you?"

Ranma actually jumped slightly back and nervously looked at Rito as if he was a madman. Akane didn't join in the look of wonder, but was smiling with a twitch to her lips. "No, Ranma's a cross-dresser. He's renowned for his ability to do so when he's bathed in hot or cold water," she smiled as she said that, and Rito nodded at it.

"Don't worry," Rito said with a smile, "I have a friend who changes sex when he sneezes, it's fine, I won't tell anyone."

I held back a snort as I watched Akane and Ranma share an eye-conversation that probably went in the range of What a weirdo. But he looks normal. He's still a weirdo. And that ended with a silent acknowledgment to just show him the way to school and leave him to the tender mercies of the principal.

The courtyard of Furinkan high was a patch of sand and dirt, if with the students looking on with tear-filled faces and biting on pieces of cloth at the sights of Akane and Ranma entering the school together.

I watched calmly as Rito was shown the way to the Principal's office, and as he stepped inside, I materialized behind the swiveling armchair, plopping my feet on the desk and folding my fingers together.

"I was expecting you, Mister Yuuki," I said as a small Sliver with fur began to purr on my lap, my left hand gingerly rubbing its back. The office's windows were closed shut, darkness abounding if not for the flickering of candles all over the room. The Principal would be enjoying an eternal vacation in Hawaii, and I would be taking his place, just so I could alter the papers and minds of the professors, and ensure no trouble would befall the brat.

At least, no trouble that wasn't his own doing.

"You're the Principal?" Rito asked, surprise evident on his face as he flailed his arms in front of him. "Why didn't you say so?"

"Because I'm not the actual Principal," I replied, shrugging. "I'm merely taking his place into this world. The real one's enjoying his vacation in Hawaii still, and he'll keep doing it for as long as it takes." I grinned at him. "Powers of mind control are a terrifying thing to behold, Mister Yuuki. Use them responsibly."

Rito grimaced, rubbing the back of his head as he looked away. "What you're saying is that...I've been using them without knowing?" he looked back up at me, "Is that why I had all the girls around me?"

I hummed, and then shrugged once more. "Don't sweat it. At first I thought I should throw you into a world of sex-filled maniacs just to let your body get it out of its system, then I realized that you're still a minor by my standards, and I thought it wouldn't be nice to do some horrible reverse rape and shatter your mind." Rito actually blushed up a storm at my words, and I simply raised an eyebrow. "Just so we're clear, I'll be keeping your powers in check while we're here. Don't worry about mind-controlling anyone. If someone falls in love with you here, then it's honest."

Rito sighed, and then looked straight at me. "What happened with...Nemesis? Did she-did she suffer?"

"No," I said. "She died quickly and painlessly. I saw no reason to persist."

"This Planeswalker business," Rito hazarded, "Does it mean that my father...isn't really my father?"

I had a choice to make.

It was a terrifying choice. I could tell him the truth, about Planeswalker and sentience, and...and everything else, or I could play the game. I could...I could troll.

I could troll him.

"Indeed," I said with a small smile, my skin reeling in with goosebumps as I held back the howls of laughter that threatened to escape my throat. I stood up from the plush armchair, and nimbly came to a halt past the desk, in front of Rito with both of my arms gingerly touching his shoulders.

"Your Spark is born of mine," I continued smoothly, the smile on my face turning warm and gentle.

"I...am your father."

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Four (Ranma 1/2)

I watched Rito's facial expression go through a plethora of options before I decided to simply shake my head and give him a pat on his right shoulder. "Just kidding," I said calmly. "You shouldn't think everything in terms of aliens," I added. "You're a Planeswalker, a one in a millionth chance of a millionth, a unique existence that cannot be procreated, recreated or modified. You are Yuuki Rito, Planeswalker, and in the vast infinity of the Blind Eternities, you are the sole unique existence that can have that name." I grinned. "You're special, Rito, but not so special as to be a son of mine."

I laughed and then walked away from him, moving a hand to let the curtains slide away and let the light of the sun cast itself within the large office. The slithering forms with triangular crested faces and a lonely sharp talon on the right side of their bodies squirmed from their spots by the curtains' sides, their mouths delicately holding on to the cloth as if it were an egg they couldn't crack.

"They are my children," I said as the Slivers squirmed and disappeared back into my flesh, leaving behind not even a ripple of their passage. "My brothers, a part of me," I acquiesced. "A Planeswalker is, aptly put, a God," I began to float, and crossed my legs as I came to a halt at his eye-level, not really wanting to look down at him. "No laws apply. None that we do not wish to, of course, or that a stronger Planeswalker demands be maintained." I snapped my fingers, and a sandwich appeared out of thin air. "Materialization. Creation from nothingness...well, not really nothingness. Nothingness has a name, and its name is Blind Eternities."

Rito took a deep breath, "Then...how are we chosen?" he asked next. "What makes...a Planeswalker...one?"

I shrugged. "Who knows?" I tapped my chin, "Perhaps the amusement of a higher still race beyond our comprehension? Perhaps cosmic fucking bad luck? Perhaps the entity known as God to every single living being? I do not know, and while I did waste hundred of years trying to find out, I decided that in the end whatever reason there was didn't matter. You are a Planeswalker, so live with it."

Rito sighed, and as the sound of the bell echoed around us, I chuckled. "You're late for your first lesson," I said dryly as Rito's eyes widened. "Off you go. Two floors down, classroom's the first on the right."

Rito rushed off with hardly a goodbye, his student's ingrained behavior to reach for the class faster than a speeding bullet, ignoring everything else along his path. One of my Slivers took in the scene, transmitting it telepathically to me in turn as he stumbled down the stairs, executed a flawless back flip in mid-air, and landed face first in-between the legs of one shocked Nabiki Tendo, who was in turn late for class too.

With an unfazed expression, I watched Rito fly through the air from a punch, and end up breaking through his assigned classroom, landing in a heap of twitching flesh right by the teacher's desk.

"Uhm..." the teacher was an old and bald man with a pair of thick glasses, who nodded half-heartedly before gesturing to him for the rest of the class to see. "This here...is our new transfer student."

"H...Hello," Rito said as he slowly got back up, dusting himself off and exhaling loudly. He grabbed a piece of chalk from the chalkboard and began to scribble his name on it. "My name is Yuuki Rito," he said as he finished writing his name before turning to bow lightly to the class. "I hope we can get along." And with that said, he was told to take the free seat in the classroom aptly prepared for him.

"Yoh man!" Ranma said from the far end of the classroom. I had just so coincidentally ensured that the seat next to him would be free, and so it was that Yuuki Rito ended up sitting right next to Ranma Saotome. An absolute coincidence, definitely.

Rito did take his lesson seriously. Perhaps it was the fact that during lesson hours, he couldn't slip and cause a commotion of sorts. Still, as Rito took dutiful notes, the Sliver net pinged at me, the location of specific individuals worldwide reaching me. Timetables began to build themselves one after the other, and as I acknowledged the position of each of the key characters, I hummed and folded my fingers together as I rested my elbows on the surface of my desk, a smirk gracing my lips as my glasses took on a dark tint.

As a white cup with the Nerv logo appeared atop my desk, a small black beard formed over my chin.

"The scenario is moving as expected," I remarked to no one in particular, my mind crossing the boundaries of the world itself as I saw through the eyes of an invisible Sliver the running of one Shampoo through the rural countryside of Tokyo, headed for Nerima itself by foot. She was coming to kill female Ranma after all, but there was a simple problem that would throw a wrench in her plans.

She was only sixteen years old.

This meant that she had to go to school, Chinese or not, and as the headmaster...

Of course, I couldn't force her. It would mean defeating her and then I'd end up having to deal with that silly kiss of love once more. I could, however, let events unfold with the newly added Rito variable, and see what happened from there. I would cast the pebble that would cause the avalanche, and then watch as the pebble birthed an all new side of the mountain, perhaps one I had never seen before.

The moment the bell rang and a small pause settled itself between the change of the professors, Rito was assaulted by the students in the classroom. They were all curious to find out more about the transfer student and his hobbies, and as he enjoyed a relatively normal break, the lessons resumed soon after. Meanwhile, I ended up glancing at the hundred or so papers that the ex-Principal should have dealt with, and then sighed.

"Carl," I said dreadfully, one of my shoulders suddenly sprouting eyes as a Sliver Prime emerged from it, a massive brain hanging behind his head. "Accounting awaits you."

The Sliver nodded, resolutely showing a happy glint in his eyes as thousands of squirming tentacles dipped in ink or lifted papers up, swiftly beginning to scribble down flawlessly accurate numbers or procedures. He was done within minutes, leaving the years of paperwork caught up, and allowing me absolute freedom from all forms of responsibilities within the school if not for the once a month conference with the teachers.

I couldn't use Carl for that though.

"Thank you, Carl," I said gently as the Sliver preened under my thanks and wriggled back and forth, happily tweeting in a skittering and clacking tone his happiness. I could feel and sense his euphoria, and as he returned within my flesh, I walked out of the office, and began to explore the school.

Well, not really the school, as much as the location of a specific entity within the school.

"Toramasa Kobayakawa?" I asked as the old man with a pair of thick, grey mustaches saw me enter his dingy makeshift shop in the old abandoned area of the school. He blinked as he looked up at me, his surprised expression changing abruptly into one of acknowledgment.

"A customer," he said. "You don't look like a student."

"Because I'm not one," I answered offhandedly. I extended a hand in his direction. "The Tanuki doll, if you'd please."

"Sure, sure, just a moment." his body moved automatically, heading off to the back of the store and returning only a few minutes later with the object in question, a stuffed doll of a Tanuki. I grabbed it from him and in a split-second, all of the old notebooks he had in his store disappeared under my command, ending up moved back up in my headmaster's office. I left quietly, readjusting his stock to prime conditions and fixing the hallway and the decrepit-like side of the building itself. The pettiness of the Principal notwithstanding, if he didn't restock and kept the stuff getting older, I wouldn't give him a second chance.

My school would follow my rules.

As I stepped back into my office with the Tanuki doll, hot tea had already been poured as if by magic upon the various notebooks, but only one actually had words appear on it. It flew straight into my open hand, the rest of the books disintegrating into ashes. Differently from Akane, that actually read the song to summon the ghost, I pulled her out of the Aether and stuffed her soul into a body, much to her visible shock.

"Good day, Miss Musashi," I said flatly, handing her the stuffed tanuki doll and her old notebook, no longer soggy with tea. The long-haired dark-brown girl had the most pleasant of shocked faces on her, her hands clutching on to the proffered doll with quite the intensity. "You are late for school."

"A-Ah..." she mouthed, "But-" she looked around, she looked down at her flesh and pinched it, "But-But I was...I died."

"My school has rules, Miss Musashi," I said flatly, crossing my arms in front of my chest. "Death is no excuse for tardiness! All students shall have their education! Now, since you look a bit pale, I'll let you head back home for today, but tomorrow, I want you to come to school. Understood? No excuses!"

Miss Musashi looked at me, and then at her doll. Her memories slowly morphed and altered, her death wiped out of her mind just as her parents' relocation away from the city. In a matter of seconds, a death, the events that had changed due to her death, and the memories and recollections of everyone else...changed. Just like that, what had mere minutes ago been the ghost of a young girl was now a living, breathing young girl who had been at fault for having come late to class.

"I'm sorry, sir," she muttered, her expression ashamed as she clutched on to her doll. "It won't happen again..."

"Just go home, kid," I said with a scoff, shooing her off.

And off she went.

I yawned, and then took my seat as the headmaster of the school once more. In this world of mad men, he who out-maddened them all became King. "Carl? How many?"

Carl emitted some brief chatter from my shoulder, and then grew silent.

I sighed, and said nothing more.

Forty-nine thousand, eight hundred thirty-six times I had brought that young girl back to life.

And it felt no different than a yawn. A very boring yawn.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Five (Ranma 1/2)

Trouble did not come immediately. I hadn't gone looking for it, and it knew better than to come to me. At the same time, I was going to stoke the fires of chaos as much as possible, just to sit back and enjoy the show. This perhaps spoke volumes of my current state. Once, the manipulation of key events for selfish reasons would have had me up in arms for the indignity of it all. Taking away free will, altering the events, modifying stuff just so it would fit a worldview of sorts and so forth had been a part of my long, really long life once. I had thought I had put them all behind me.

Apparently, playing the god that doesn't do anything but watches gets boring fast. History was cyclical after all, so I should have seen it coming.

It was with that thought in mind that I motioned Rito away from the road back home and towards an empty courtyard of dirt and grass, where a building would one day be built, but that served as nothing more than a place to train in that instant.

I sat down at the top of a stack of steel cylinders, held together with industrial wire and yawned, rubbing my eyes a bit before stretching my arms. "So," I said. "How did you find your first day at your new school?"

Rito shrugged, "It was nice...I guess," he said. "Why are we here?"

"Because it's a good enough place to get started on your Planeswalking," I remarked. "See, I reckon that with your bad luck, you might end up slipping through dimensions and end up pressing against the breasts of a very powerful and easy to piss off individual, so I'm going to explain some ground rules to you."

Rito looked sideways. "It's not like I want that to happen," he mumbled.

"Then fix it," I replied nonchalantly. "You can say you don't want to, you can claim you don't want to and you can even think you don't want to, but hey, you're a budding hormonal teenager. You'd dip the brush if you had the chance and we both know it. Less holier than thou attitude, more human-like answers pal. It's just you and me here, no judgment."

"That's not—look, I—" he passed his fingers through his hair, "I love Sairenji, she's my classmate—"

"I know who she is," I replied. "You also could have told her that on the first day of school and solved it there, but you didn't. And rather than pick one, you managed to get your wriggle room by thinking that if you marry Lala, then polygamy becomes acceptable, didn't you?"

Rito blushed, and began to twitch, "That's—no, it's just...I got so nervous, I lost my voice whenever she was nearby. It's only thanks to Lala if things got to the point where we could talk to one another."

"Then why didn't you tell her your feelings then?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "You were ashamed? Or perhaps you hoped to let things solve themselves?" I massaged my forehead, "Then again, you're a Green bred and thorough, I reckon it's in your nature to do that."

"I just didn't want to ruin...everything," Rito said, "I wasn't really thinking I'd end up...in that situation, but once I was it felt—I can't explain it, but I didn't want it to end badly for anyone involved. I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings."

"Indecision is by itself a painful answer to give," I said quite calmly. "Doing nothing is an answer too, you know?" I plopped my chin on my knuckles. "Try to make a plant grow," I said with a sigh, "But don't forget my words, Rito. If there's one thing I dislike it's to have to repeat the same thing again and again to the same person."

Rito looked around, and then back at me. "Which plant?"

"Whatever plant you want," I replied. "See, there are various means of achieving power as a Planeswalker, travelling would normally be one of them, but in your case it's best we don't move too much around." I tapped with my right foot against the ground. "Concentrate, feel the Spark within you ignite and burn, and let it take over in your stead."

Rito gave me an awkward nod, before crouching down in front of the closest stalks of green he could find. They were nothing more than blades of grass, a couple of sparse ones that still grew despite the poor conditions of the ground itself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, extending both hands over them. Tiny motes of green mana began to gather around his fingertips, pulsing down into the ground and upon the grass.

In a second, the tiny motes around Rito's fingers grew larger as the feedback loop established itself. The thrumming power of the land was there, if not truly Green, at the very least formed from the countless practitioners and the spiritual energy of the people themselves. Through that energy, Rito's Spark burned as it enhanced the land beneath his feet, the mana slowly, but surely, starting to pour out of it as the sparse blades of grass became thick patches of green, small saplings grew and became trees, and vines ruptured forth from the top of the massive ancient trees that now stood in all of their glory high above our heads.

Rito fell on his back, gasping for air as a nearby bush rustled to an unseen breeze, and as his wide eyes took in the change he had made to the once empty building lot, he turned his questioning gaze towards me. I simply hopped off the steel cylinders' top and walked towards him, a hand extended to help him up.

"I did this?" Rito asked as I pulled him up.

"You did this," I answered him. "And I made sure nobody realized anything's changed. Let's get out of here before you inadvertently turn the trees into sexy wooden ladies though," I continued as I began to walk out of the small thicket that had sprouted in the middle of the city, and that to the minds of those nearby had always been there, and would always be. "Capable of giving you wood, if you know what I mean," I wriggled my eyebrows, and Rito stared blankly at me.

I huffed. "Thousands of years go by, and I have yet to find someone who laughs at my puns," I shook my head. "The multiverse is truly an unjust place."

"Maybe try to make jokes that aren't so horrible?" Rito hazarded. "And..." he scrunched his eyebrows in curiosity, "I don't get it," he scratched the side of his cheek, "I feel different, but...not so much."

"Ah, well, think of it as popping a cherry," I said, wriggling my eyebrows as one of the trees in the thicket sprouted cherry leaves. I watched as Rito stared blankly at the cherry tree, and then back at me. "Come on," I pouted, "This one was a good one, wasn't it?" he nervously coughed and looked away. I grumbled, and shook my head. "Fine, and here I am, trying to be the funny teacher. Youngsters these days, never understanding what is going on..." I pinched the bridge of my nose, and as we entered the street that would lead us back home, I stopped in front of the Tendo dojo.

Rito stopped next to me, and frowned. "Tendo dojo? One of my classmates has a dojo?" he asked.

"Yep," I said, "They teach the Anything Goes Martial Arts, and you're going to learn them," I continued with a bright smile. Rito looked at me. I looked back at him. He kept on fixing his gaze on me as if unsure of what I was telling him. I, in turn, slapped him gently on the back and stepped inside the courtyard, ringing the bell to announce our presence.

Kasumi was the one who answered the door, and as Rito guffawed at the sight of my body having become that of a middle-aged man with a briefcase in my right hand, he suddenly understood that I was posing as his father. Mostly because I had taken over his father's appearances for the sake of this secret, covert mission.

Soun Tendo was actually happy to have a pupil into his school.

One that came with a hundred thousand Yen inscription payment on the fly was even better.

Ah, greed...

...the number one sin that works by adding zeroes to a number.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Six (Ranma 1/2)

Later that night, as the whole of Nerima slept, I crossed my arms behind my head as I watched the latest episode of Kamen Rider for the time period at hand. Rito sat by my side, his body twitching slightly from the amount of glorious training he had gone through during the few hours he had been there.

"You know that you're the one choosing whether or not to feel pain, right?" I remarked, glancing down at the broken pile of limbs. "I mean, if you just wish for it, you'll be back up in no time."

"Ah...really?" Rito groaned, "And how...do you do that?" he asked.

"You just concentrate and wish for it," I replied. "It's like asking a bird how he flies. Instinct goes a long way," I added as I made a slurping noise, take-away Chinese on the table in front of me. There was one of everything, and as I ate, Rito simply concentrated. I could feel tiny wisps of Green mana drag themselves through the air to heal his tired muscles, and within seconds he was back up and running.

Well, not really running as much as twitching right and left trying to get rid of the tiny leafs that had sprouted from his arms and legs. "Gah!" he exclaimed as they rustled before falling off him. "That's-"

I glanced back at him, and then chuckled. "Nice hairstyle, Sakura," I commented. Rito didn't understand at first, but as he passed his hands through his hair, and brought a lock of it to his eyes, he gasped. His hair was a bright cherry blossom pink, and tiny petals were falling off it. In a matter of seconds, he had shaken off both the color and the petals, making a mess of the sofa.

"This is so strange," Rito muttered, grabbing hold of a lonely petal, "I grew petals."

"You were probably thinking about the cherry tree," I replied. "I don't think I need to tell you to be careful about what you wish for, but just in case...be careful what you wish for."

I resumed eating the spicy noodles, and as Rito glanced at me after letting the petal fall on the floor, he spoke again. "Do you spend your nights eating?"

"Sometimes," I acquiesced. "Other times, I spend them rewriting under the form of alternate history fiction real events that happened in another world. And I laugh at people complaining how they're utterly impossible and I know nothing of history," I chuckled. "It's amusing how they think that everything must make sense or be logical in order for it to happen. Hell, in one world I visited, it was a perfect replica of Earth but the leader was chosen at random across the entire world's population. It was amusing because there was no age limitation. One day, a thirteen year old passed a law that curfew couldn't be enforced before two in the morning, and it stuck."

Rito stared at the pile of Chinese take-away food and then grabbed a carton filled with fried duck pieces. He grabbed a pair of chopsticks and began to eat carefully, dipping the single pieces in soy sauce or in the bittersweet reddish one that I always forgot the name of, but since it was sauce, it wasn't like it mattered much. "I'm not sleepy," Rito said abruptly, "And...well, I'm not even hungry. I'm not full, but—"

"Those are sensations," I acquiesced. "You can dull them out, not think about them, or think more about it. Say you're doing something fun and you don't realize you're hungry. When the fun thing is over, you suddenly realize it. It's the same. If you want to, you can feel normal hunger, or the gnawing hunger of a man who starved for three months and then have it disappear as you gorge yourself on food. Nothing beats going thirsty for a week and then drinking fresh water though, or depriving yourself of the sensation of touch for a year and then pinching the cheeks of a newborn baby."

Rito stared at me, and I shrugged. "Life experiences, like putting a teapot to orbit around the moon."

"A what—no, why?" Rito asked, munching now on the roasted bits of pork meatballs that had a sweet and sour sauce dripping from their top.

"Because it's funny," I replied nonchalantly, "Or at least, it was. Seeing the faces of those in Nasa when you etch on the side of the moon Hic Sunt Leones and a date for them to wonder how the ancient Roman reached the moon is something utterly amazing. The way they screamed and yelled at each other trying to understand what was going on, ah...good times," I laughed softly.

"I don't remember that happening," Rito asked, his eyebrows furrowing, "But...don't you think you exaggerated?"

"Please," I scoffed, "It's just one world out of countless infinite numbers of them. You still have bonds, and are young at this, but I've had thousands of years, even more I guess, to deal with this. One day, you'll stop cherishing those near you and start growing bored by their trifling, eternal and always identical interactions. Say one thing? Get that answer. Say another? Get that answer. It's boring. Like reading a manga a million times until you grow so bored by it that rather than put it back on the shelf you burn it to cinders, just to see how far the flames can reach."

"That's...that's horrible," Rito said. Whether he was agreeing with me or disagreeing with the flames part, I didn't bother finding out.

I scoffed. "That's life." I nodded. "But don't believe me. Nobody does. They go around, prancing with their fancy beliefs and their egoistic desires of doing the shit they want to do, and who cares if a world loses his temporal axis or rifts spread open? No sir, not our shitty fault sir, well, those spoiled children can fucking sod off and die for their sins. I have better things to do," I grumbled as I summoned forth a cask of wine, "Want some?" I asked next. "This is the best wine in the entire world. It was made two hundred years ago. I know because I had a single wine taster taste all possible wines in existence until he declared this one as the best of them all."

Rito squirmed on his spot on the sofa, and placed back on the table the half-eaten pork meatballs. "I'm a minor."

"And I'm so old I stopped counting my years," I drawled. "You only live eternally, Rito," I continued as I uncorked the wine and took a deep gulp of it, before exhaling and passing it over. Rito stared at the bottle for a brief second, as if unsure on what to do, and then finally took a sip from it. The moment he did, his face turned a deep red, and he gasped and shuddered.

"It's..." he muttered, "It's good. It's fruity-like and...and it's good."

"I know," I chuckled. "I knew it was," I corrected myself. I gestured at him to take another sip, and as he did, he suddenly blinked.

"It's water now," he muttered, looking down at the contents. "Why is it water?"

"So you'd understand," I said calmly, locking my gaze with his. "What it feels like for me to drink that." I slowly moved my left hand's fingers, and the bottle returned to holding into it the best wine in the whole world.

"I...look, there are a lot of things I don't yet understand about this, but can't you just, I dunno, forget about—"

"I did that too," I said gingerly. "I crafted cocoons and filled them with memories of having done things, but then I ended up lacking space," I chuckled bitterly. "In the end, I manned up and decided to suffer through eternity."

"There's no...there's no other way?" Rito asked, "Like, returning mortal or...or something?"

"Or something indeed," I hummed. "But no, there isn't," I continued. "Once a Planeswalker, always a Planeswalker."

Rito stared at the bottle of wine, and then most aptly chose to return to his pork meatballs. "I'd rather live like a human," he said in the end. "When—Can a Planeswalker die?"

"If another Planeswalker kills them, or a God-like powerful entity manages to snuff out the life of a budding Planeswalker, then yes. But the older and stronger the Planeswalker, the more difficult it gets," I explained.

"I have to ask," Rito muttered, "Have you...ever thought about it?"

"No," I answered honestly. "Because I am not alone," I patted my chest. "I cannot die, lest I take with me countless billions. They too deserve their chance at prosperity, thus I will let them live their eternity, bound together until the Multiverse itself will cease its existence." I laughed. "Whatever you do, Yuuki Rito, let me give you bit of counsel." I sighed. "Don't regret. Don't you ever regret anything. Because if you do...you'll keep regretting it forever, and forever...is a long, long time."

If you mewling, pathetic, simpering children cannot decide, then I will rip the choice out from beneath your feet.

Witness me, for I am the greatest thief the Multiverse has ever seen!

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Seven (Ranma 1/2)

Being the headmaster at a school filled with illogical people was perhaps a nice change of pace, but as the clock ticked, the first troublesome individual arrived. Ryoga Hibiki, with his yellow and black bandana, the heavy umbrella on his shoulders and his large backpack on his back stepped into the ring of war that was the courtyard after having cried tears of joy at having found the right location. His emotions were short-lived, though.

Mostly because I intercepted him on the path. "You're late for school, kid," I drawled as I walked towards him from the main door of the school, "Come on," I continued as I gestured at him, "We'll get you sorted out and all."

"Uh? Excuse me sir, but I'm not a student here," Ryoga said, his voice polite as I simply raised an eyebrow in his direction. "I'm looking for that accursed Ranma," he continued, clenching his right fist and turning sideways, gritting his teeth in the meantime. "To challenge him and have my honor restored!"

"Well," I said flatly, "You are Ryoga Hibiki, yes? Your parents wished for you to further your education," I continued, "So they simply spoke to the minister of education while meeting him by chance in Tokyo while trying to reach Moscow." I shrugged lightly as Ryoga actually bought the lie with the hook, the sinker, the cane and the fisherman without the need to effectively alter his mind to accept it. "So whatever school you're in, you'll get enrolled for free."

"My parents did that?" there were tears coming out of his eyes. His gaze lifted to the sky, filled with emotions. I stared blankly at him, and then inwardly decided not to mess with his pure smile. I shuddered the next second, and gestured at him to follow me.

"Now come along, Mister Hibiki," I said as I began to walk back inside the school, only for Ryoga to start heading towards the backyard. I sighed, and silently altered the very fabric of the world. Slowly, but surely, Ryoga's steps brought him back by my side and as we walked inside the locker room, I showed him the newly materialized locker where he could change his shoes and grab a school uniform. "Lessons have already begun, but for today I'll close an eye on your tardiness. Ensure it doesn't happen again," I continued, before turning around to let him change. There was no one in the school entrance, and once Ryoga was done, I began to walk once more.

Guiding him through the hallways, I came to a halt in front of the door of a very specific classroom and knocked resolutely against it before stepping inside.

"Ah, headmaster," the professor wheezed out. He was old, and wrinkly, but he still had that typical teacher-like behavior that made one either respect him, or outright ignore him. Ranma apparently had chosen the latter, seeing how he was looking at the ceiling until the second I had stepped inside. Rito had instead been paying attention, and as his gaze fell warily upon me, I smiled in the general direction of the class.

"Good morning," I answered before ushering Ryoga inside. "We have a new transfer student, so—"

"Ranma!" Ryoga bellowed, pointing a finger in his direction before outright rushing towards the boy, only for him to nimbly jump backwards and begin dodging the blows coming his way. The rest of the students hastily moved out of their desks, even as Ranma's dodging brought him close to the wall.

"Oi! The hell are you doing!?" Ranma yelled, only for Ryoga to increase the speed of his attacks.

"My dreadful enemy Ranma! Today I'll make you pay for what you did to me!" as the wall began to crack, I neared the fighting duo. A single strike hit Ryoga squarely in the stomach, my fingers moving nimbly to strike at pressure points across his front and freezing him in place.

"No fighting allowed at school I'm afraid," I said with a sigh, shaking my head as I plopped Ryoga down in the nearest desk. "Don't make me come down here to stop a fight again, or you'll regret it," I added with a grin as I pressed a couple more points on Ryoga's shoulders, lifting the paralysis off him. "If you want to fight, just go at it outside the school," I continued as I turned to leave. "Have a nice day."

I left the classroom sliding the door to a close, and stepped back into my headmaster's office just in time to gaze through the eyes of a Sliver left behind at the battle of spit and paper that was now underway between Ryoga and Ranma.

I had, after all, put them one next to the other. I chuckled as I watched the fists fly, the hands slap away the incoming blows, the other hand busy crafting paper balls to chew and then spit. It was a war that had no respite. It was a war that held no peace, and that would concede no quarter. Such brutal tactics as bogeys and snot were used, filth scraped off the desks, and chewed gums thrown for the hair-shot.

Admittedly, it was far more entertaining than it had the right to be, and as I watched it, I sighed at Rito's non-interventionist political stance. While being Switzerland was all good and nice, Rito needed a push in the right direction, I reckoned. The rest of the students had stopped paying attention to the professor, and were currently watching slack-jawed the developing fight, Nabiki having somehow left her class as if on a sixth sense, and taking bets in a corner of the room.

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

A chuckle escaped my lips as I watched with wonder the childish fight. While there most certainly was heat, there was innocence to it. It was endearing. Ryoga wanted to beat Ranma, but most certainly he didn't want to rip his limbs off, replace them with mechanical parts, and then alter his mind to become a dull servant of the will of Phyrexia and Yawgmoth. A Powerstone slowly ripped itself out from my skin, and as I glanced at the shining bright light within it, I sighed.

The stone disappeared back into my skin the next second, my ears twitching in alert.

Someone was coming.

No, not just a random someone.

Admittedly, meeting Planeswalkers wasn't that rare of an event, especially because they tended to gravitate around specific planes, but if one went to the fringes of the Multiverses, then normally the ratio of encounter would be greatly reduced. It still meant that once in a while, another Planeswalker would be met. It wasn't difficult to hide one's Spark from scrutiny across the planes, just like it wasn't that difficult to pierce through obscuring magic to find them depending on the skill of the hunting Planeswalker.

"Probably felt Rito's Spark," I mumbled as I felt the energy spread and twitch, appearing out of thin air a short distance away from the school. The Spark was burning a bright shining light of judgment, and inwardly I reeled back from the feeling and the sensation of pure, unwashed righteousness that emanated from it.

If there was one thing I detested, apart from naive fools, it was when righteous sanctimonious Planeswalkers came by pleading for my aid against this or that great evil, as if expecting a lesser evil such as myself to aid them every single time.

I had seen my fair share of ancient evil gods and mighty cruel dragons from worlds that Planeswalkers just budding into their powers couldn't defeat alone.

The fight between Ranma and Ryoga forgotten, I concentrated and slowly brought a Sliver closer to the Planeswalker. The shadows twitched and streamed, the eyes gazing at the somber looking figure of a young and pretty man.

I groaned.

Out of all the possible chances, this Planeswalker clearly was the one type of individual I hated the most.

A mixture of White and Blue Mana surrounded his frame, his glowing eyes and light hazel hair cast in an unearthly glow. He was the classic martyr type. I could smell the stench of his beliefs, his cult leader-like appearance made my skin crawl and he was, without a doubt, not here for sightseeing.

He moved forward and with purpose, heading through the courtyard and straight into the school.

It was once he stepped inside Rito's classroom that I understood just what kind of guy he was.

"You!" he bellowed, pointing a finger straight at Rito. "Quick! Come with me if you want to live!"

I stared, befuddled, at such an earnest introduction.

This was going to be fun.

 

[shadenight123]

Chapter Twenty-Eight (Ranma 1/2)

Rito was, appropriately, shocked. At the same time the Planeswalker did not waste time in roughly manhandling him up from his seat and starting to drag him away. "We need to leave, we need to leave right now before they catch us," he spoke hastily, glancing right and left in a hurry. "How can you not even feel them? You must have Sparked recently, kid," he added. He didn't make the door, mostly because Ranma stood up and nonchalantly plopped his back against it in the time it took for the man to get there.

"Get out of the way," the man said, his eyes narrow.

"Man, I dunno what you wanna do, but you realize we're at school right?" Ranma replied with a yawn, "And we're still having lessons," he gestured at the old professor, who was actually at a loss of words for what was going on, and was most aptly moving his body beneath his desk, as he did whenever things took a turn for the rough with his delinquent students. "So how about you let him go and wait after hours?"

"I'm sorry," the man added apologetically, "But we don't have the time," and with a swing of the hand, flower petals began to sprout out of Ranma's hair like a crown. The next second, Ranma sat down and achieved peace, humming with his eyes closed much to the consternation of Ryoga, who now stood up in turn and rushed forward.

"Oi! The hell kind of martial arts is that-"

He found himself soon joining Ranma on the quest for ascension through meditation, and as the Planeswalker kept dragging Rito away, the boy ended up losing in trying to break free. As Rito was pulled along the hallway, the Planeswalker took deep breaths. "Listen kid, I know you're feeling scared, but you gotta trust me. You've got questions, but this isn't the place. We need to get the hell out of here before the Slivers get wind of you, or they're going to eat you whole and spit out...well, nothing, because they don't spit out nothing, but—ah, fuck, I'm not making any sense to you, am I?"

"N—No?" Rito replied.

"Name's John," the man said. "John Connor," he continued. "You need to understand kid that we're in a fucked up mess," he extended a hand, White Mana brimming to life as a pale ethereal creature appeared, white cloths fluttering to an unseen breeze as arrows stuck through his skin, yet the white cloth was not marred by blood, but remained as pristine as snow. "Listen, the short version is...you're a Planeswalker, you have a lot of power, and there's a really big and bad threat in this spot of the Multiverse. I'm always on the lookout for new Planeswalkers around these parts—some, I manage to get to before the Slivers get to them first." He looked around, taking small but quick breaths. "How did you even manage not to notice? Their stench is everywhere."

"Their what now?" Rito asked, worried. "Where are we even going?" he asked next, "And what did you do to my classmates?"

"We're leaving this place," John said, "There's a net around this school that prevents travel through planes. You didn't even notice that, did you? Going to school like nothing changed," John continued. "But everything changed, kid. Everything changed, and you're a part of it now," and as he said that, the duo reached the school entrance. "They've been encroaching on you and you didn't even realize?" he pulled out from his somber-looking robes a hefty shotgun, and as I gazed at him, I suddenly hissed as the connection came less with the thundering shot echoing through the school.

The Sliver in question shrieked loudly as blood sprayed across the hallway, but to his scream, the rest of his brethren acted as one.

The walls burst as the Slivers hidden within them emerged skittering and clawing through the concrete and the pain, rupturing from the shadows as their fallen brother suddenly pulsed with energies and the flesh knitted itself back together, the advancing horde suddenly coming to an abrupt halt as from a mixture of mana a set of flashy-looking grenades emerged from John's robes, exploding behind them as the white-clothed spirit dispersed into nebulous fog around the duo's frames.

"Get to the courtyard!" John screamed, even as Rito's eyes widened as he was pushed past the main doors and straight into the courtyard.

The school gates were closed, but that wouldn't have stopped a resolute Planeswalker.

"Wait! Wait just a moment!" Rito yelled, "I'm not here—"

And in that moment, I made my appearance.

Well, more like, my battle-worthy appearance that would have seen me getting a few copyright infringement notices from those fine folks at the Warhammer company if they ever caught whiff of just how much design ideas I had stolen from their Tyranids. My form easily shadowed the school as pulsing masses of tumor-like growth crawled across my skin, my wings of leathery flesh folded behind my back. Claws and fangs spread across my skin, hungry mouths and facial Sliver plates acting as shoulder guards and motifs all across my frame. Honestly, I was a thing out of the worst nightmares that could ever be conceived.

"Going somewhere?" I asked, my voice that of a thousand mouths. Burning, whirring and rupturing machines suddenly birthed into existence across the air as Rito was pushed away into the hands of a burly-looking humanoid creature by John.

"Bring him out!" John yelled to the Terminator, receiving a curt nod in reply as the creature with the semblances of Arnold Schwarzenegger did just that, lifting up Rito with ease as if he were just a package that needed postal delivery. Creatures with golden staves and white cloths emerged from the Aether, and I scoffed, chuckling as my laughter made the windows of the school reverberate.

"A duel between Planeswalkers...you are a foolish one, are you not?" the tumor-like growths suddenly burst asunder, lances of pure white light spreading from the skies to come raining down upon my frame, and that of my Slivers. Yet as the windows of the first floor crashed to allow more of the Hive to emerge, as the ground itself quaked and battering rams made flesh emerged, the mutations already rippled across the entirety of the army. Giant scythe-like limbs came down to slice at advanced-looking helicopters, bullets spreading holes into the regenerating flesh of the Slivers.

John Connor flew upwards, a pair of angels lifting him up swiftly as an assorted collection of dragons with blue scales and feathered humanoid chickens came to his side.

The ground quaked as I suddenly lost my balance slightly, a wall of water emerging from the fissures in the ground to drown the Slivers not quick enough to sprout wings and take flight, and yet their corpses floated upwards into the skies, now bloated with pustules of white liquids. The clouds had been replaced by warring angels, bringing down their flaming swords upon creatures whose scales were hard enough to act as mighty shields.

Angels with four arms and four swords spun in the battlefield like hurricanes of death, while the air charged with magic both mighty and powerful, an unnatural cyclone forming in the air. Admittedly, when it concerned the slinging of spells, I was at a disadvantage. On the other hand, I didn't need spells when I had powerful tools at my disposal. A flash of crystalline purity twisted the air around myself and my brothers as the cyclone hit, shattering not just the ground already drowning in water, but also the school, the surrounding area, and much of Nerima itself.

There was no care for the unwarranted destruction, no grief nor a second thought spent on it. It merely had to be, and so it was. John Connor could probably bring them all back to life afterwards, repair everything as if nothing had happened before. It was for that reason that he did not care about the lives that had just been lost.

When death is but a tiny pebble, then life itself becomes insignificant and meaningless.

On the crumbled remains of Nerima We stood unscathed. The skies slowly but surely turned upon us in favor, and as chains of light and shackles of wrought iron ensnared and entrapped the enemies that could not be killed, as the blades fell from angels' hands and holy blood rained down, We chewed, We devoured and We neared. My body lunged forward, quills as large as ancient oaks spat out from my mouths, only for shields of white light to shatter and slow them down.

Searing columns of fire hit and dispersed harmlessly as the Slivers sang, their voices reverberating across the air in a cacophony that was a sweet, sweet music to my ears. The next blow came and sent John to fall down on the ground, his body half-dented and broken. I stared at him, and then sighed.

Well, rather than him, I stared at the shapeshifter that had taken his place somewhere in the middle of the battle, and sighed deeply.

The blistering air crackled as time warped and split apart at its streams, thousands of eyes seeking through the strands of the past the actions taken until that moment, my eyes those of the Hive, the Hive's eyes mine. Through them, through the vision of Time shattered, broken and then mended, I saw the swap happen, and I saw the direction taken. I felt the energies gather, and understood the place they had gone to.

The skies cleared as I took the Hive back within my bulk, the tumorous growths reforming and then smoothing back into seemingly normal skin as my body compacted and shrunk in size, the battle's devastating effects morphing away, returning the town of Nerima to its previous state as the humans crushed beneath the rubble abruptly sprung back to life, acting as if nothing had happened, as if nobody had died, or suffered, or saw death arrive from the skies.

In the stillness and silence of normality, I took a deep breath.

I took a deep breath, and then I left behind this plane.

John Connor might have defeated Skynet, but he should have known better than to pick a fight with the Hive.

My feet landed upon soft grass, the clear sky above my head so pristine and pure it made me inwardly sick inside to behold it.

Very calmly, a small rock-like formation left my open palm as I glanced at my surroundings.

Thus, from the tiny rock that I threw by my side, a massive mountain-like formation grew and within it, countless eggs soon began to grow, nurtured by Mana, and most importantly, hatch.

An idyllic earth post-Skynet was in front of me, with its verdant grass, buildings at the far end of my sight gleaming and filled with workers trying to rebuild and recover their civilization, and rubble thrown haphazardly away from the few habitable centers. This world knew peace as it licked its wounds and tried to recover its past glory.

It would be peaceful no longer.