[GRIT] (recap) The Holy Hairclipper
Author:   Aaron Peori <tzubi@ns.sympatico.ca>
Date:     1999/06/02
Forum:    rec.arts.anime.misc

Why is it every time I say I'm getting this thread moving it
just bogs down again. I swear, this thing is cursed. ;p I
geuss it must be because everyone is at exams or otherwise
occupied and noone has time to do anything. Oh well,
hopefully today I will have the next post which will get
everything going again (yeah, right) up. If all goes well.
There is some stuff Jason and Damien wanted to do but if
they don't get it out I'll let them put it in retroactively
and work from there.

Now, since the entire thread took place over a year or so
and I have to give them a chance to do things I'm going to
post here a rough outline of the events leading up to and
including what happened in the Holy Hairclipper quest, bot
for newbies and vets who may have begun to forget details
that are several months old and were moved over quickly in
the first place. ;p Not every single plot thread is included
here, if you want to update the thing, you do that...

Basically the whole thing started several months ago (GRIT
time) when P-word cast a very powerful cantrip on Jason-O
(Jason-Original, known now as Jo) that made the hair in his
male form grow uncontrollably fast. This curse was not the
same as a Dragon's Hair curse, because that wears off and
could be staved of by tieing in back with a s Dragon's hair,
which this one could not. He discovered that he could use a
Mamono Hunter Ring to transfrom himself into Mamono Hunter
Heavensrun, with an increase in magic ability and the
ability to summon a Soul Sword, but only as a female. Other
things happened aroudn this time to, such as U-chan getting
a Werewolf curse from Jyusenkyo, multiple people falling in
love with Amy and Ukkyo got kidnapped by Epsilon but no one
noticed.

Tarou and Shiroma (an evil twin of Scott) fought but Tarou
beat him easily and only recieved on nick on the arm from
Shiroma's sword for his trouble. In fact, this is so
insignificant I don't know why I mentioned it.

Several things happened in the world, including Epsilon
killing JO (who was resurected shortly thereafter) and
getting blown up by the combined power of Ryouga, Ranma,
Blade, Mist and Jo (with some help from Kappa, Al-X, Gaeld
and Tenchi of Tenchi Muyo!). After his death more events
occured. The Tendo mother was mysteriously returned to life
and Nabiki suspected it was all a plot of N'astirth so she
began to lose touch with her family The came the return of
Ryuu Kumon and the dual revenges of both him and Tarou on
Ranma, both of which failed.  Jacen was also driven insane
by the One Ring, given to Kasumi by an agent of Nastirth,
and nearly killed his brother. Jo managed to calm him down
but Jacen decided he couldn't live in his clone-brothers
shadow anymore. Ranma and Akane had their twins, Isamu and
Nuriko.

Several romantic interludes happened with Jo's potential
girlfriends (which now includes Ukkyo), U-chan was turned
into the Magic Knight of Earth and several months passed.

At the same time as the children were being born the
mysterious Mount Pheonix was destroyed by a figure that
resembled Ranma with an ancient technique known as the Nexus
Flare.

That was when Jo did some research with Mist and discovered
an ancient Greek civilizations used a relic known as the
Heaven's Gate (not to be confused with a meteor-suicide cult
of the same name) that was based on rightous emotions. The
relic had the ability to grant wishes from the god Cepheus
to those it found worthy. However, the relic existed only
in seven pieces (or Keys) which were stolen under mysterious
circumstances and Fourteen demons hid the Keys across the
world.

Mist was helpful because in his former life as Epsilon he
had fought one of the demons (Envy) and gotten a Key. But
Epsilon could not prove worthy of it so it was useless to
him and he pawned it away. Looking to investigate this Mist,
Jo and several of their friends went to Korea where they
intended to look into the Keys whereabouts.

Once there they split into two groups, one investigating the
demons old lair, the other trying to track the Keys
movements. Things went wrong. First Mist ran into an old
relation, literally, in the form of Epsilon's adopted son
Caine. Caine was now a powerful Time Mage (and some sort of
natural temporal paradox) and ran a mercenary group with
mysterious connections. Meanwhile at the cave Jo teamed up
with a stranger known as Gilgamesh (or just Gil) with
red-skin, a big sword and a devotion to the ideals of an
unknown master. They went with him into the cave and Jo
stumbled upon a mysterious artifact which merged with his
Soul Sword. They then attacked Envy, U-chan got a level-up
in Magic Knight-dom and Envy was killed (but not before
revealing he was only a decoy). Caine knocked out everyone
in Mist's party except Al-X, who he gave a message to and
then left to fulfill other obligations and plan for his
(apparent) revenge against Mist. Gil leaves the group
because he has other quests to finish.

Our heros returned to Nerima, except Mist who went off to
deal with his feelings about Caine showing up again, since
he thought the boy was dead. In Nerima Jo recruits help from
some people, but the Nerimans have been busy in his abscene
dealing with a chinese vampire who was terrorizing Nerima.
Several people, including Blade, Jingai, Stackpole and most
of the newbies, went to a convent just outside Nerima where
they had a big battle that ended up blasting the vampire
(Shiela) to China.

Tarou had shown up and made friends with Jo and agreed to
help him on his quest, he brought his sister Lo Shin with
him, and it appears a lot of people wanted to be his
student. Which Lo Shin happily extorted them out of most of
their money for the privelege. He then gave a mystic braclet
to Akane which allowed her to sense the feelings of her
twins no matter where she happened to be. U-chan and Al-X
had a very nasty fight and it appeared the two were breaking
up, at the same time Jo chose to be with Amy over Ukkyo.
Both Al and Ukkyo got drunk together and it looks like they
may very well have slept together. Clues surfaced showing
that the Firewater school ay have survived in Hokkaido.
During this time Steve's power, the Fire of the Dragon
nearly destroyed him but was driven from his body. Chyron
was recruited to Jo's quest because she knew where on of the
Keys was held.

Two groups went to China, on seperate quests. Both meet up
in Jyusenkyo and Jo's group ended up staying at the house of
Tarou's mother. Jacen took Al-X and Nabiki and went north to
find the secret of the Firewater rumors there. There were
several intense discussion in Jyusenkyo, and a minion of
Gaelds nearly killed U-chan but she was saved by Scott who
showed a strange affintity for dark-magic. The groups got
together and wiped out Shiela. Several dark figures attacked
Steve, the Council For, and in the battle his Fire returned
to him. They were driven off by several GRITers. Caine then
showed up and sealed off Jyusenkyo; encasing the pools in
magic, indestructable crystal while he stole the essence
from an unspecified pool.

Meanwhile, a mysterious figure was travelling to Nerima
along with Mint and Lime. Another figure gave it directions
that sent it off on the wrong course for several weeks.

In the aftermath of Sheila destruction the GRITers had a
party at Thyme (Tarou's mother)'s house. Lo Shin spiked the
punch and several people got very drunk. During the
hullabolo their were some embarassing situations and Mist
revealed he loves U-chan, much to his regret. Some fights
broke out, one of note was between Scott and Jo.

In Nerima Ryouga finally revealed his curse to Akane, she
got very angry at him and Ranma and drove them both out.
Ranma and Akane's relationship became as bumpy as it has
ever been. Ryouga wandered back to Akari's farm, seeking
some meaning in his life. However, a mysterious figure
ambushed him there and insinuated that he had killed Akari.
That last Ryouga was heard from was he performed a Perfect
Shishihokodan...

Most people headed back to Nerima in the wake of the party
in China. Two groups split from the main group to head to
places in the Chinese mountains and in eastern Europe. In
Hokkaido Al and Jacen chased a young women to a remote
village of Ainu, where they caused a great fuss by breaking
the magic seal of obscruity that kept it seperate from the
outside world. Before leaving China U-chan ran into Arashi,
the Priestess of Water. Mist revealed that Gaia calls the
Knights and Priestess in times of great need. Arashi told
U-chan about Terra, the Priestess of Earth, who lives in
Ireland. U-chan resolved to go there.

In China the warriors saw that Pheonix Mountain had been
destroyed and they moved on. When they got to the demon's
lair they discovered the home of Jei's old Kung Fu master
there. After resting there they moved up to the top of the
mountain along with Jei's master and his old rival Wong and
the ghost woman Su Yee. The mountain was topped by a
monastery where violence was forbidden, they had mystic
sense of peace to negate the negative emotions from the lair
below. The GRITers journeyed into the lair and Jei
discovered a special spear. Steve had to awaken and leanr to
control his Fire before he could follow them. Then they
awakened the demon Wrath, which had been lulled to sleep by
the monastery above. During the battle Steve was almost
killed and Wing revealed an unknown power as he blasted the
demon. Steve's life was saved only by the fact that the
original dragon of the Fire ressurected itself and him. The
heros fought the demon and killed it. Jei ended up bonding
to Su Yee as she became his spirit guide. The demon wasn't
finished yet, and came back in astral form. Mist and Kappa
destroyed it by consuming all the positive energy of the
monastery to destroy it. The GRITers proved worthy of the
Key and took it with them. The dragon left to collect the
Fire it had lost in it's death thousand of years ago from
the world. Steve apparently lost all his Fire (again) in
this process.

In Europe the heros climbed Mount Doom and fought the
powerful demon Pride, who nearly defeated them because they
couldn't work together. U-chan goes through a level up when
fighting Pride and gets a new name (Ueki) as well as
reaching her final stage of Knighthood. Once Pride was
destroyed Gilgamesh showed up again and ended up dueling Jo,
who went Psycho on him and forced Gil off a tall cliff where
he dissapeared from sight. Jo recieved the Key.

In Hokkaido Jacen and Al had managed to win some trust from
the council of the Ainu village when a strange visitor
showed up. This was a powerful and unusual alternate reality
version of Nabiki (calling herself Ikiban). In her wake a
robot monster of unknown design attacked the village and
drained the life force (chi) of the people before being
destroyed. Al, Jacen and Ikiban saved the people's life. A
mysterious figure killed two people and pointed all evidence
towards the GRITers however.

Around here Hayato was assualted by several people who
looked like the five Ukclones and vowed revenge on Ukyou
again. (check out the manga for who Hayato is).

The two groups not in Japan rendivued in Europe but were
attacked by a group of normal humans armed with powerful
weaponry. They beat themm off but could not learn the origin
of the attack. In reality the group was a strike team from
I.M.P.A.C.T. (the International Meta Power Advisory Council
Team) which is an organization dedicated to destroying all
super-humans. Secretly it is run by Caine as a method of
controlling meta-powers across the world. Caine then decides
to kidnap U-chan, and recruits another ally to do so. In
Hokkaido, the Nerimans set about fixing the damage they did.

All this time Blade and Ukyou are in China with Stackpole,
where they have some undisclosed as of yet adventures. (look
for a GRITfic coming out sometime this century...)

The group in Europe splits up as several people head to
Ireland to meet up with Terra. Among them are Scott, Konatsu
and Tarou as well as U-chan. The others head to Hokkaido to
meet up with Jacen and co, but encounter a delay when the
shuttle they travel becomes sentient. In Ireland they meet
Terra, who is being tutored by the Whisperwood and knows
some things about the Kinghts. It is at this point that
Scott recieves Excalibur and becomes the Magic Knight of
Void. Caine and his allies attack them before they can get
used to this. In the battle Caine and crew dominate the
battle and the wind-warrior Kuutaro runs off with U-chan. He
challenges her to a death duel but when she refuses he
reveals he is actually the Knight of Wind. She summons her
Mashin, and restrains him while his own Mashin removes the
evil influence from Kuutaro that was controlling him. In the
process his memories are lost. At the battle Taoru is beaten
by the demon-mage Midgar, but Konatsu saves his life when
Midgar's sword turns out to be one who took from the former
Knight of Water and that Konatsu is the new one. Caine
retreats.

In Hokkaido the three groups rendezue and Jacen is shown to
be the fifth and final KNight, the Knight of Fire when he is
given the spear Jacen found. Mist and Tarou are sick of
being beaten and they convince Jo to let them train and
command the group in battle. Before they leave the GRITers
are besieged by hordes of fanboys and religous freaks who
think the GRITers are gods and legends. They narrowly escape
and Jacen heads back to the village with Al and U-chan, who
have made up. Much to Mist's regret. The other train on an
island that Mist owns for a week. Jo starts having strange
prophetic dreams that he believes have something to do with
Cepheaus (remember him?). Steve yet -again- regains his Fire
of the Dragon, hopefully for good this time. Mist also
discovered a very powerful sword was stolen from his isle
but he can't figure out by who.

The group on the island went to an hidden city in the
antartic, where they sensed a familiar presence that
dissapeared quickly. The city was found deserted with only a
few archeologists left, among them Xong Rose and Prof.
Kelgar. Chyron went nuts and almost awakened a powerful
apocalyptic robot before she was stopped. Xong took most of
the group to India to fight on of the demons while some few
stayed behind.

The group in India was bushwacked when Xong tried to leave
them to the female Wrath to finish off. But she couldn't
esacpe and was forced to hurt J2 severly to stave off the
GRITers. This and several other factors caused Wing to go
psychotic again as his personality changed and he attacked
Xong mercilessly. Finally Wrath was defeated, by Kappa who
sang her a love song and then by Jei and Mist with the
Hiryushotenha. The demon was sealed in a bubble which
follows Kappa around lovingly.

In Antartica the group was lured onto a skyhook where Kelgar
betrayed them and they were attacked by Apollo and the Black
Reactor Army. Chyron luaghed at Apollo, since she knew the
man personally and whoever this was he wasn't him and the
GRITers pounded thee BRA. Apollo got made and set the place
to explode then teleported away. The GRITers managed a
narrow escape when Jei flew the shuttle up to retrieve them,
Jo was almost killed retrieving data from the Skyhooks
computer.

The people from Hokkaido in the meantime fought the Demon
gluttony, and with the help of a level up on Jacen's
Knighthood defeated it. They then finished repairing the
Ainu's village and magic shield mysteriously ahead of
schedule and left for Antartica.

When they arrived they found Jo and Tarou fighting. Tarou
found out that Jo had not yet dealt fully with Ukkyo before
consumating his relationship with Amy (back in Hokkaido).
Tarou was getting fed up with Jo and everyone else in the
party. As the other group arrived the caputred Xong was set
free by Caine who then locked the GRITers inside a time
bubble for several weeks.

While our other heros were busy back in Nerima Natsume and
Kurumi showed up. This caused Rumiko to get mad and run off,
when tracked down she fought of people with a burst of
hellfire and dissapeared. The Ring Wraiths showed up,
confirmed Kasumi was the new "Lord of the Ring" and that Ann
had demonic heritage. The eveyrthing went to hell as the
Council For the Fire, in desperation, attacked to try and
get Ann on there side. Her Fire was awakened (along with her
demon side). There was a big battle, during it Ro almost
destroyed the planet when he used the KonTatsu-Kai form
while mimicing the Fire, and even after he was stopped Ryuu
Kumon was shwon to have the Fire and he almost destroyed the
planet when it was awakened and his Kageryu-kyo technique
went off. Over the course of the battle the original dragon
of the Fire showed up and tried to collect all his old Fire.
he couldn't hold it all so he allowed it to disperse into
the world again, where it is to stay.

During all this Caine made deals with Shiroma and Damian
(Stark's evil twin, I notice a pattern here...) to help them
in exchange for their help. Caine wanted one thing from
Damian, Kiwi.

Shortly thereafter Blade and Ukyou returned from a long
vacation in China. But all was not well. While the newbies
tried to deal with the machinations of the Stahlfaust
corporation Blade's old (and supposedly dead at Epsilon's
hands) lover showed up in the form of Tonya. She had amnesia
and carried Blade's sword as well. Blade went off to think
but was attacked and blasted by a mysterious figure that
travelled with Mint and Lime in a massive attack. Ryuo-ou
(Steve's erstwhile mentor) and Ganryu (the original dragon
of the Fire) arrived and commented on the massive Fire this
individual had. The figure went into Nerima and attacked
Ranma, and was driven off when a blast of hot water showed
it was Herb's daughter Incense who had used the cursed
springs to gain an adult body and awesome power. Incense
then went on to capture the Ken Ni Kaze.

During the battle with Ranma Kiwi was captured by the
Stahfaust when she went berzerk but her counterpart Yuri
(sorta) joined the GRITers when she broke out of their
control. The battle with the Stahlfaust heated up, literally
when the Nerima faction of the now split organization blew
up it's headquarters, and fled to a new secret facility. The
Nerimans followed Kiwi's trail but she had been experimented
on and brainwashed and delivered to Caine. They fought
through a research station and learned her location from
Yuri with a little prodding by the evil scientist Nanami.
Caine had taken her so he would have a suitable force to
attack a demon he had located in New York, since his own
employer had ordered him to make sure the GRITers never got
the Heaven's Gate and the wish it carried.

And that's pretty much everything important that happened so
far...

-------------
Epsilon