Chapter 5
Power exploded out of Ranma in an inexorable torrent. It instantly shattered the upthrust bracelet into pieces and fractured her senses into a dizzying kaleidoscope of sight and sound. The whirlwind of force whipped around her consciousness bringing with it a cacophonous vortex of elemental fury. Glowing red ribbons of force mixed with stars and comets and contrails of light whipped around her soul while blue force ribbons twisted into suns and moons and frozen streaks of living shadows surrounded her in their warm embrace. She was enveloped by shards of ice and rings of fire and bolts of lightning and a swirl of golden stars and an avalanche of rocks and the waves of the ocean and the frozen vastness of space and the inky depths of the void itself. It tore her apart it made her whole it filled her with completeness it caressed her with warmth it gave her strength it left it was gone.
"Initialization sequence completed. Auxiliary units fully deployed at optimal power levels. Serenity-sama gives you her blessing."
Ranma opened her eyes and blinked. Blue eyes stared into eyes of blue; red hair faced off against red hair. She saw ... herself ... over and over and over and over and over again and every herself was dressed in a strange mockery of a girl's school uniform. A white bodysuit with an armored breastplate and a big ribbon bow, a colored sailor collar, an almost indecently short pleated skirt, white elbow gloves with a colored ribbed cuff, colored knee boots, and jewelry ... jewelry, damn it all ...
She made up a double-sized sentai team all by herself, and damned if she wasn't color coded as well.
There were variations to the overall uniformity besides the colors. White-skirt red-boots held an ornate Chui, black-skirt maroon-bow wielded a tall Li Gua, purple-skirt maroon-bow an odd double bladed Da Dao, navy-skirt yellow-bow held a fairly standard northern-style Dao in her left hand, and teal-skirt navy-bow held ... a hand mirror? Blue-skirt blue-bow's eyes were covered by a blue tinted visor and she carried what appeared to be a small makeup case? Okaaaaay...
"What the fu..."
Ranma's attention was abruptly brought back to the here and now. Herselves turned to face the bastard who had just threatened to do ... that ...
"YOU!" herselves spat with vitriol.
Taro suddenly found himself facing ten extremely pissed-off redheads. Ten extremely pissed-off and healthy redheads - some of whom were armed. Ten extremely pissed-off healthy somewhat armed redheads who were now entirely too close for comfort ... especially considering his canteen was laying on the ground three block away.
"Oh shit."
"Sere-chan?"
Serenus looked up from the pile of data pads she had been reviewing for the last three hours. The situation on Albineo had rapidly taken a turn for the worse and she was hard pressed to divert sufficient resources to shore up her local defenses in time.
"Yes, Beryl?" A least the news her sister was bringing had to be good for a change - the smirk on Beryl's face said that much at least.
"Your new boy's well ahead of schedule," Beryl said in an amused tone of voice. "I just got confirmation from the Ginzuishou that it's now online and fully deployed."
"Are you sure?"
Beryl nodded, her smirk growing even larger.
"That's odd," Serenus replied with a small frown. "It should have taken considerably more time for it to construct a properly keyed transformation focus."
"True," Beryl agreed. "But if it had found something suitable which already existed ..."
"I suppose," Serenus said. "But the odds of that occurring aren't really measurable." She shrugged her shoulders. "Oh well ... at least that's over and done with. I take it there were no complications with the attachment?"
"Not from the initialization and deployment routines," Beryl replied. "There were no negative indicators anywhere in the update transmission."
"Good - one less thing to worry about," Serenus said with a satisfied smile. "That will finally let me concentrate on the ... did you say fully deployed?"
"Yes."
Serenus snorted. "He must have encountered the old man, then. That should give him a nice opportunity to work off a little stress. Please keep me informed if anything significant happens." She turned back to her data pads and sighed. There was so much to do, and so little time to do it all in.
"Hiyaaaa!"
"Oooof!"
Red-skirt purple-bow Ranma grinned evilly; her punch had just slammed Pantyhose full-force through the fence of the vacant lot she herself had landed in a few moments ago. She had managed to beat her other selves to the punch and was the first to face off against Taro since she had ... transformed. By unspoken agreement her other selves had stepped back and let her have first crack at the bastard - if she had actually turned into a Dairanger-like sentai team then all of her needed to know what extra abilities they had all just acquired, if any. Besides, she'd just get in her own way if all of her other selves tried to fight along with her at the same time. At least, she would until she'd had a chance to practice fighting together with herself.
Of course, if Pantyhose managed to change then all bets were off - and there was a good chance he eventually would given how water always seemed to be attracted to anyone with a curse. She was almost looking forward to that. In the meantime, she fully intended on giving Taro a reminder on why he should have never even thought about doing ... that.
She quickly ran through the new hole in the fence where she had just tossed her opponent, noting that she was faster by half again than her normal girl-form. However, she wasn't fast enough to prevent Taro from somehow managing to roll out of the way of her follow-up axe-kick. Judging by the hole she had just gouged out of the concrete, her strength was now easily on par with her boy form - without having to use any ki boosting. The costume also seemed to act a bit like body-armor because she had barely felt the impact from the missed kick. She leapt out of the way of a leg sweep and realized she would definitely have to train in this form for a while - her leap had carried her too high and far away from Taro to prevent him from recovering.
She tried not to pout when another one of her selves stepped in to take her place.
Ranma, green-skirt salmon-bow, had watched her other self closely and leapt right in to replace red-skirt when her other self's dodge had gone awry. She blocked several punches with her forearms and was moderately surprised to find she had barely felt anything from the blows. Her speed was up, her strength was up, and ... okay, remember the outfit's protection doesn't apply to where she has bare skin showing - that missed block on her upper arm hurt like it normally would.
Damn it, why couldn't she have gotten a normal sentai uniform with full bodysuit and helmet out of the deal? And what was with the hentai-length skirt and all the dorky jewelry, anyway? At least the upper part of the outfit was a leotard instead of a separate blouse and panties - she could almost pretend she had more clothing on than when she went up against Kodachi in the Rhythmic Gymnastics competitions. It wasn't by very much, though.
Her side snap-kick propelled Taro a good half a block down the sidewalk. Ten irate redheads caught up with him before he could get back up on his feet. White-skirt blue-boots made sure he stayed down for a while.
"Okay, now what do we do?" Orange-skirt blue-bow Ranma asked herselves after tossing an unconscious Taro into a nearby dumpster.
"First, we gotta figure how to get out of these stupid outfits," white-skirt red-boots replied.
"Yeah." "No kiddin." "You got that right." "You bet."
"I say we hunt up the idiot who designed these outfits and pound on him a while," navy-skirt yellow-bow quipped.
"Later. I wanna get outta this before we run into someone we know - like Kuno," purple-skirt maroon-bow replied.
"Yeesh." Ten redheads shuddered as one.
"So, any ideas?" blue-skirt blue-bow asked.
Ranma looked at herselves and nodded. "Bendis."
"Okay, but we better figure out how to get home without anyone else seein' us," teal-skirt navy-bow added.
"Wonder if the Umisenken works when we're like this?" green-skirt salmon-bow asked.
"One way to find out," white-skirt blue-boots said, setting up the peculiar ki-cloak the Thousand-Seas technique required.
"Looks like it does."
"Not from here, I can still see her outline," blue-skirt blue-bow said.
"Must be those fancy goggles you got on, cause I sure can't see her," black-skirt maroon-bow replied.
"Who wants to talk with the fox? We better not all try at the same time," red-skirt purple-bow asked.
"Why not?" white-skirt red-boots replied "We can just meet in our room and use that scroll thingy again."
"Oh yeah. Forgot about that."
"One problem," blue-skirt blue-bow said. "How we gonna get Bendis away from Kasumi?"
Ranma looked at herselves - she really didn't have an answer for that one.
Bendis groaned. She was sore, she was tired, she had a splitting headache, and she had to find a way back into the Tendo-ke compound before Ranma returned from her mother's house. Unlike the first time, she didn't have the benefit of an already open front gate, and the exterior fence was both too high and too solid for her to either jump over or squeeze her way back in.
She also wanted a bath. Make that - she needed a bath, right now. Ranma's father had swatted her directly into a small cluster of garbage cans and, while they had successfully broken her fall just enough to prevent her from being seriously injured, she had also been the beneficiary of a good portion of the cans' contents.
In others words, she stank - and in this case, quite literally.
She would have to have a few words with Ranma regarding her father's attitude ... once she found a way back inside, that is. Most of the detailed information she learned had been about Ranma herself; she hadn't had the time to study the material about the other people in Ranma's life outside of a really broad overview. It was now obvious that there were a lot of other things she needed to know now in order to guide her charge effectively.
"Geez, Bendis, I woulda thought you'd get enough to eat from Kasumi. What happened, Pops steal all yer food too?"
Thank the Goddess! "I'm not in this state voluntarily, Ranma. Evidently your fa..." Bendis's head whipped back and forth. She spun around in a circle once. She could have sworn ...
"Hey, don't get yer tail in a knot - I'm standin' right next to you."
Bendis turned to the source of the voice. ... or what she thought was the source of the voice. "Ranma?"
"I'm here, Bandis - just usin' one of Pop's techniques so no one else can see me in this stupid outfit."
"Outfit?"
"Stupid outfit. Y'know - white sailor leo, hentai skirt, boots, gloves, jewelry ..."
Bendis sat down suddenly. "Oh. You've transformed, then. Wait, how could you transform? You shouldn't be able to for at least two more days and I haven't told you what any of the henshin phrases are either."
"Yeah, let's just say I had a really good reason t' figure it out myself, 'k?"
"Oh dear ..."
"Don't worry, I took care of him. Right now we got other problems t' worry 'bout."
Bendis felt herself being picked up.
"Just relax and try not t' think at all. I haven't tried takin' anyone else with me in the Umi before, so I dunno if I can cloak someone 'sides myself. I do know it won't work if yer all tense and nervous-like, though."
Bendis blinked - she had just felt the strangest feeling wash over her. At least she could finally see Ranma now, and she could understand why her charge was a bit put out - she had forgotten how ... feminine ... the senshi outfits actually were.
"Whew! Man, Bendis, you really stink, y'know that?"
"I am painfully aware of that fact, Ranma."
"Something wrong, Sis?"
Nabiki leaned back against the doorway of the kitchen and watched as her older sister paced nervously back and forth in the kitchen. Kasumi's behavior wasn't at all typical for her, but Nabiki suspected it was just another load of Saotome Strangeness floating around.
"Well I was going to get Bendis-chan a little something to eat but when I went to check up on her she wasn't there and Ranma-chan is going to be so upset with me for not keeping an eye on her all the time and I hope she hasn't run away or gotten out and hit by a car or something that would be just ..."
"Whoa, WHOA there Sis. Aren't you getting a little worked up over nothing here? The fox is probably out back doing her thing in the bushes or something."
Kasumi suddenly stopped and stared at her younger sister. She blinked. Twice.
"Oh of course. How silly of me."
"Glad to be of service," Nabiki replied with an obvious smirk.
"Kasumi!" Soun called out from the other room. "When's dinner going to be ready? We're hungry!"
"Another twenty minutes, Father."
"Hang on - I'm going to jump in through the window," Ranma whispered to the fox cradled in her arm. She had noticed that the window to her room was cracked open, which meant that at least one of her other selves had already managed to sneak in. Fortunately the leap wasn't as difficult as it could have been since she had used the run back to the house to figure out exactly how much of a "boost" the sentai transformation had given her.
Ranma dropped the Umisenken cloak and set Bendis down on the floor.
"Okay, I found Bendis outside. How many of us are back already?"
"Ranma?" Bendis looked up at the white-skirted redhead. She groaned when several additional redheads suddenly appeared in the room.
"I've got the scroll," black-skirt maroon-bow replied.
"Looks like we're one short," orange-skirt blue-bow added.
"I'm here," purple-skirt maroon-bow answered, climbing into the room from the window sill. "Sorry - had to detour around Kuno."
Ten redheads shuddered as one.
"Well, let's get started," white-skirt blue-boots said. "I don't wanna be here like this and have Nabiki walk in the door, do you?"
Ten redheads shuddered in unison once more.
Black-skirt maroon-bow walked to the center of the room and sat down facing the doors. Ranma cracked open the scroll. "Sure hope this works again. Confuto."
All of herselves were quite happy to see the repeat of the previous light show. She sat down in a rough circle surrounding the black fox.
"Now, care to fill us in on what the heck's goin' on here?" white-skirt red-boots asked.
Ranma sighed. She knew from experience she'd have to wait a few minutes for her answer. After all, it always took her a bit to regain her composure after she spent time banging her head against a solid surface like Bendis was doing at the moment.
"So, you gonna tell us what's happenin' now?"
Bendis shook her head. "Ranma, not only did you somehow manage to transform completely on your own but you also managed to deploy all of your alternate senshi units at the same time. What in the Goddess's name did you encounter which made you feel you were in dire and mortal danger?"
"Huh? Pantyhose wouldn'ta killed me. Try and beat the crap outta me or worse? Sure, but I don't really think he'd actually try an' off me like that."
"Pantyhose?"
"Pantyhose Taro. He's got a curse which turns him in to a big flying minotaur-thing. He added a bunch o' octopus tentacles to his curse a while back and he's usually a big pain in the ass."
"Oh yes, that one," Bendis agreed with a nod. "You've fought against him before, though, haven't you?"
"Yeah, but this is th' first time he's threatened to rape my girl-form and stake me out as bait for the old freak afterwards."
"Ah," Bendis said with a flat tone of voice. "Yes, I can see how that would do it. Indeed."
"Speakin' of doin' it, we ain't stuck like this permanent like, are we?"
Bendis winced. This was a bigger headache than she thought was possible. And speaking of headaches ...
"I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, Ranma," the moon fox replied. "But before I get into further explanations, I'm going to have to ask if you'd object if I were to switch forms. I have a splitting headache and the stench from the garbage is almost overwhelming at the moment. Switching forms will allow me to correct both of these impediments."
"What, you got a curse too?"
"No, Ranma. Although my ability to change forms is very similar in effects to your Jusenkyo curse, it is simply a natural ability which I have always had."
"Sure, if it will get rid o' the stink. How's it gonna do that, anyway?"
"Both my form change and your senshi transformation have a little extra magic built into them which 'fixes' any damage to our appearance when we invoke them. If your uniforms are somehow ripped or torn in a fight, they will also be automatically repaired the next time you transform into your senshi forms."
"Cool. So, what do you change in to anyway?"
Bendis smiled. "A girl."
"You turn into a girl?"
"Yes. I did say my form change was very similar to yours, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but ... geez, you better not end up being another fiancée."
Bendis's nose slammed into the floor when her legs all gave out from under her at once. She quickly pushed herself back up to a sitting position.
"No, Ranma, I am definitely not your fiancée, nor do I have any intention of becoming so."
"Good. I got enough problems that way as it is."
"I know." Bendis replied with a sigh. "Please give me a moment, as it requires nearly my entire concentration to change forms." She closed her eyes and tried to relax. A few seconds later a soft golden glow surrounded the black fox. Her body suddenly expanded and writhed, shifting as she grew in stature. Every part of her body remolded itself to human form as it filled out in its expansion. The process was quickly completed, leaving in its wake a beautiful and shapely black-haired girl with a golden crescent moon on her forehead.
The transformed fox stretched as she stood up. She stretched some more, putting her hands behind her head and arching her back to help reset her vertebrae. She dropped her arms to her side and rolled her neck a few times, then bounced up and down on her toes a couple of times to settle everything in properly. It had been a long time since she had assumed a human form and the different sensations were always so ... fascinating. The fact that both her headache and that awful stench were now gone was simply an added bonus.
Bendis opened her eyes, which were the same brilliant shade of blue as the ones she had in her fox form. She frowned a bit and cocked her head slightly to one side. "Ranma, why do you all have your eyes closed like that? You look like you're in some sort of pain."
"Bendis," Ranma said in unison through tightly clenched teeth. "Clothes. Now. PLEASE?!?"
The newly transformed girl looked down at herself before giggling nervously. "Oh, sorry ... I forgot!"
"How can you forget something like that?"
"Well, it's been a while since I've been human," she replied. "Induviae videor!"
A starburst of golden ribbons wrapped themselves around the black-haired girl. They quickly coalesced into a gorgeous blue silk kimono with an intricate brocaded ocean motif and a dark blue obi. Tabi and zori completed the ensemble. Bendis sat down in seiza and giggled again. "You can look now, Ranma."
Ranma opened her eyes and sighed in relief. She really needed to learn how to keep her girl form from ... reacting ... like that, and if she was going to be stuck in her girl form for very much longer, she'd also have to figure out a way of getting a little relief ... and soon. It was getting harder and harder to simply ignore the constant parade of tits and ass that kept falling right in her face.
"Now, you gonna tell me why I got nine other 'me's sittin' here? How come these outfits are so damned skimpy, why couldn't we gotten regular sentai uniforms in the first place, and how the heck do we get out of the damned things and back into our normal clothes?"
"One question at a time, Ranma, please," Bendis replied with an amused smile. "The transformation is part of Milady Serenity-sama's gift to you. It will assist you in your battles against the upcoming darkness by insuring you will never have to fight alone and unaided. Well, as one person, that is."
"Can we 'undo' this, or am I stuck as ten 'me's all the time now?"
"Don't worry, Ranma. Your alternate selves can easily be released or withdrawn at will; in pairs or all at once. You have different henshin phrases you can use to control this ability, and that is one of many things I was sent here to assist you with."
Ten redheads sighed simultaneously in relief.
"Regarding the outfits, you are senshi as opposed to sentai, Ranma. The uniforms are traditional and have been used in Milady's temples and palaces for millennia. Each suit is symbolic and represents the senshi's association with their planetary mana pools. It is something you will just have to live with, I'm afraid."
Ranma grumbled to herselves. "Y'know, that really sucks. If we'd gotten normal sentai outfits with helmets I wouldn't have to worry about everyone else seeing me in 'em. I have enough problems with everyone thinkin' I'm a pervert as it is."
"Ranma, the senshi outfits are imbued with magics which prevent anyone from recognizing you while you're transformed. You don't have to worry about the opinions of your peers."
"I dunno, Bendis. Pantyhose sure seemed to know it was me when I was beatin' him down a bit earlier. Heh. Tossed his ass right in the trash where he belonged, too."
"Did he see you when you were actually transforming, Ranma?"
"Well, duh - of course he did. He couldn't of been more'n four or five meters away when it happened. Bastard had just landed and changed back when he started spoutin' off on how he was gonna do me right then an' there, an' me being barely able to stand after kissin' the concrete too many times."
"I see," Bendis replied. "Because he actually saw you transform, the disguise magic no longer affects him. I can also see how you managed to release all of your alternate senshi selves at the time."
"Yeah, I got pretty pissed off when he started yappin' about stakin' me out in a spread for the old freak."
"I don't blame you in the least, Ranma. I do hope you didn't actually kill him, however."
"Naw, just smacked him around real good for a while. Was glad he didn't change back to his cursed form, though."
Bendis nodded in satisfaction. People who professed rape got absolutely no sympathy from her at all.
"So, what else would you like to know, Ranma?"
Ranma stared - hadn't the fox heard a thing she had been saying? "Yeah. How do we get out of these stupid outfits and back down to a single me?"
Bendis slapped her forehead lightly with one hand. "Sorry, Ranma, it's been a long day."
"No kiddin'!"
"You need to release your senshi forms first. Simply relax and imagine pulling the outfit back inside of you. The transformation should drop automatically once you have done this."
"Okay, that sounds simple enough."
Ranma closed her eyes and visualized herself in her normal clothes. She felt a small ... wavering ... and could tell that she no longer wore the "uniform". In fact, it actually felt like her original outfit was back - complete with fight damage and all.
"WHAT THE FUCK?"
Ranma's eyes snapped open and her eyes widened in shock. Her nine other selves had remained when she had shifted back to her normal clothes - but there were now four other hers and five HIMS - and not a one of her other selves had a single stitch of clothes on.
"BENDIS!!!!"