1568: The Wildfire Ring

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

So an Assiti Shard transposes a huge chunk of suburban Tokyo with its geographical equivalent in the 17th century. Fortunately for the inhabitants, they've got a JSDF base, natural gas tank farms, a passel of MADMs, and Mishima Heavy Industries on their side. That's the simple part.
The principal complication: the Higurashi Shrine came along for the ride on both ends, and the Bone-Eater's Well is now a dimensional bridge rather than a time tunnel -- the Sengoku Jidai end can now have its history messed with and they'll still have a (very small) link to the modern world.
And, oh yes, there's the matter of that youkai-ridden chunk of wilderness where modern Nerima should be.
And the sheer entertainment value of Cologne negotiating with the past-time Amazons, including her own younger self. (And Happousai's, too.)
All told, though, I don't really know what to do with this one...
--Sam
"Clown smash ALL!"

[ordnance11]

1642 in an anime setting...heh
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Valles]

I can think of at least one other problem - food.
Modern-day Nerima has about seven hundred thousand people... IIRC, about seven times the size Kyoto was in those days. Even today, keeping a population that size fed isn't a trivial task.
...Granted, now that I think of it, MHI probably has the tools to whip together a fishing fleet or something, but it'll be interesting and no mistake. Relations with the local youkai will be a lot more problematic than those with... was it Musashi-dono? ...since, IIRC, Sesshoumaru's domain is actually Kansai, which wouldn't be relevant except that the Taiyoukai ruling 'Edo' would be someone we don't already know.
Hmmmm.
Ja, -n

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

And then there's the Nobunaga question. (That kid from the early chapters may be the Oda Nobunaga, despite his denial -- I've heard that pattern covering his robe is the Oda mon...)
...Oh, wait, I've got the timing wrong -- Inu-Yasha takes place ~500 years BP. Which dumps young Cologne and Happy out of the picture, unless they've been lying about their ages.
--Sam
"If I could just reach those peanuts...!"

[DKnight54]

You know, there's a perfectly reasonable reason for Happosai and Cologne to lie about their ages....

They are both YOUMAS!(Or at least a reasonable assumption to make )

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

Well, in this setting it'd have to be youkai, since I have no intention of further complicating things by introducing Sailor Moon.
(And there has already been one fic in which Happy revealed himself to be three-century-older Myouga.)
On the other hand, I do kinda feel like throwing another Yuzo Takada manga in there to maintain parity with Takahashi... so maybe Pai and Yakumo could show up, trying to push the new world's history further off course by saving the Sanjiyan -- either through taking Kaiyanwang down, or if they arrived early enough, by preventing Shiva from going nuts in the first place.
...That would, though, involve trying to reconcile the ending of 3x3 Eyes with three other series. And that one winds up with a massive, worldwide, blatantly open supernatural war. So maybe not.
But some ground rules... let's say the "front end" occurs in summer 1996, a bit after the end of R.5 and at some point to be named later in central IY... and nail the Sengoku end down at... I need to think about that one. Probably sometime pivotal during the life of the genuine Nobunaga. 1568, maybe.
--Sam
Akane: "I say we start the Meiji Restoration, three hundred years ahead of schedule!"

[katreus]

Maybe it's that whole "don't call the first day after a date (it makes you look needy), don't call the third day after a date (it makes you look callous), always call the second."
Same way with ages? ;x
Just enough age to gain respect but not enough for people to run away screaming?

[Necratoid]

I just keep picturing a certain babboon clad demon repeatedly ending up collateral damage to a certain line of attack helicopter.

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

Probably not more than once... I'd imagine that a swarm of miasma wasps could do pretty severe damage to air intakes, rotor blades, and whatnot.
--Sam
(Saotome Ranma is Harry Lefferts. Obvious, really.)

[Herr Bad Moon]

---

(Saotome Ranma is Harry Lefferts. Obvious, really.)

---

This is both heartening and saddening for me. Heartening because Ranma, Ryouga, Mousse and Kuno (who incidentally would probably have an orgasm after the Ring of Fire) as that universes version of Grantvilles' Teen Action Force Go! cracks me up. Saddening because unless some sort of diplomatic mission goes out to Europe, Ranma won't be able to accidentally add to the love polygon that is his life to include not only Smoking Hot Japanese and Chinese ladies, but Smoking Hot German girls as well like Harry did
Still, as a big fan of the Shard universe, I dig this idea on a instinctual level.---------------
-Jon
Being the Mariner hitting coach is like being the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.
-Poster on USSMariner.com
---
Jon
"And that must have caused my dad's brain to break in half, replaced by a purely mechanical engine of revenge!"

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

Well, as you'll see sometime in the next couple of hours after a bit of the first chapter has been completed, I plan to dump that particular polygon right at the start. (It needs to begin during a wedding, after all. ^.^ )
Not that the smoking hot girls of the era won't be chasing him anyway.
--Sam
"It's starting to smell a little like danger in here. Or heavily-fried food."

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

"If there are any here who object to these two being joined in marriage," Father Sugimura proclaimed, "speak now, or forever hold your peace!"
Having uttered the Dread Words, the bravest priest in Nerima prudently ducked behind his pulpit and began to pray for a major miracle.
"Well?!" the bride practically snarled, her eyes flashing as she scanned the dojo for any sign of opposition. "Anyone? C'mon, own up and get it over with!" She flourished her bouquet in a threatening manner, its threat level heightened considerably by the large wooden mallet it had been constructed around.
"I don't think anyone here's gonna take ya up on that, Akane-chan," the groom concluded. "Yo, Father!" Ranma rapped on the pulpit. "Y'better surface and get this done before anything really big happens."
Father Sugimura stood in a tentative manner, nervously thumbing his rosary, and did a final once-over of the more problematic wedding guests. Hibiki Ryouga remained in his seat, happily handcuffed to his fiancee Akari; no trouble there. Kuonji Ukyou was apparently content with her position as Saotome's best man, a situation probably having to do with the ninja in bridesmaids' gear. Even the young Chinese lady who Sugimura had previously classified as the single biggest threat to any attempt to marry the Saotome boy off to anyone else was now, he'd been assured, satisfied with her new engagement to that boy with the glasses. As for the Kunous... only Tendou Nabiki knew exactly what had been done to prevent their presence, and no one really wanted to ask her.
All in all, the many obstacles that had stood in the way of this marriage had dissolved with unnatural ease. With only the faintest tremble in his voice, Father Sugimura launched into the final ceremony.
"Isn't it wonderful, old friend?" Tendou Soun whispered to Saotome Genma as their children exchanged vows. "After all this time... the'yre so dedicated to each other..." He would not cry, Soun told himself, if only because he didn't believe the dojo would be able to take that much water damage. "Our dreams have finally been realized!"
"Indeed, Tendou," Genma replied. "It does this old man's heart good to see such determination..."
They would have cause, in the months and years to come, to praise that determination to the skies. It would be the core of something wonderful, a beacon of hope in a savage time.
As Ranma and Akane kissed, the Wildfire came, and a strange new world was born.
1568: REKKA NO ENJIN

An Assiti Shard Story

--Sam
"Bad man... hit dog... with street!"

[Rieverre]

He'd never thought of himself as a history enthusiast, for several reasons, the main being the most obvious one ...
... it was hard to be enthusiastic about things you've actually had to live through ...
... despite which, or maybe because of which, he was one of the first to realize what was actually going on.
Hard as it was for him to actually believe it. Then again, he'd seen enough weird things during his life to not dismiss such out of hand.
Jigoku's sake, he'd been one of those weird things.
Well, not so much been, really. That implied he wasn't. The fact that he was still standing, rather than lying on the ground, bleeding from the katana slash that had almost taken an arm off before he'd snapped out of the disbelief-induced stupor, told a different story.
For the tenth time, he checked. The city was still behind him. And the rapid _shift_ in landscape ... well, from where he was standing, despite the hill not being all that large or high, it looked like the whole accursed district had been ...
Transplanted. Yeah, that word fit better than most.
He sighed, straightening his slashed up coat and grumbling at the need to get another one soon. The good thing about so called 'modern' times, in his opinion, had always been the fact that you rarely had to fight someone with a weapon that left your clothes in tatters by the time you were done. Guns, he thought, were far more neat and tidy, and exit and entrance wounds were far easier to conceal and easier on the clothing.
Oh well.
It looked like he'd need to brush up on some old skills.
Stashing various looted weapons away on his person felt oddly ... nostalgic.
He didn't know if it was a good or a bad nostalgic, though.
With another mournful sigh, the person who'd been dubbed the 'hundred man murderer' started his trek back towards the far-off skyline, away from the bodies of several samurai and their horses as well as the wreck of his car (he'd been on the very edge of whatever it was had happened and managed to hit a tree when it was over and done with and he'd run out of road).
He wondered whether he could get his hands on a kimono with a manji symbol on the back, just for old times' sake.

---

---

Because he's Manji. I like the character, and he's handy like that. Just either have him still working on his 'evil men' quota or say Yakobikuni lied to him about the Kessen-chu expiring after he'd fulfilled that self imposed goal.
Also, despite being from a few hundred years after the 1500's, he'd likely still have more knowledge about the mundane ways things worked in ye' old Japan than Inu-Yasha and Co' would - since they deal mostly with youkai and their ilk.

-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

I haven't read much BoM at all, so don't know the character well enough to work with directly, but if you want to run with this 's cool with me. Should be a shared 'verse, after all.
(The bloodworm thingies are the only overt supernatural element in that series, right? If so, I can't see any particular logic problems with melding continuities.)
Accursed district? I see he knows Nerima well. ^.^
...Come to think of it, even if he dates from a later period, the odds are pretty darn high that Manji will have run into Happy on occasion...

---

It would be more than fifty years before a new generation of hyperphysicists unraveled the story behind the Ring.
In a more stable and less supernatural universe, the chunk of warped spacetime -- a forgotten byproduct of alien artwork -- would have impacted the Earth fourteen years later and thousands of miles away. Here, however, matters were more complicated.
The center of that complication was another Assiti artifact, of similar composition but radically different properties, which had buried itself almost unnoticed in the soil of the Kanto plain many centuries previously. This 'Splinter' formed a two-way conduit, a time tunnel spanning exactly four hundred and twenty-eight years, accessible only to beings of strange power and destiny.
That tunnel had wreaked subtle havoc on the Earth. Its presence locked history into an unchangeable mold... and here, on this world in this universe, that was simply unacceptable. Chaos, here, was more than an impersonal force -- it was very nearly a sentient creature in its own right -- and the Splinter pinned it down like a butterfly under glass. It thrashed, it struggled, but even its attempts to free itself were bound into the emerging pattern. Ridiculously unchangeable, events in the immediate vicinity of the tunnel became unchangeably ridiculous. The same story, played out over and over again with different actors, decade after decade, century upon century.
One such story had just ended when the Shard neared Earth. Another was already under way, but it was diluted, stretched through the tunnel itself. Chaos, seeking any possible means of escape, reached out... latched onto the Shard...
...and PULLED.
The Shard met the Splinter at high speed. The two fragments of art, so similar yet so different, simultaneously amplified and negated one another. Instead of swapping the
area around the Splinter with a random piece of land from a random time, the impact switched the tunnel itself end-for-end. A sphere covering a five-kilometer radius around the Higurashi Shrine exchanged places with its geographical equivalent of four hundred and twenty-eight years in the past... and, as had happened so many times on so many other Earths, a new universe was born and its parent reality was forever altered.
This time, though, a connection remained. The Splinter remained, no longer a temporal distortion but a dimensional bridge, no longer a thorn in the side of chaos. And no longer restricted to a chosen few.
But that would not become clear for some time to come.
The wedding guests dove for cover, reflexively reached for weapons they'd checked at the door, and otherwise behaved as one would expect when a burst of impossibly loud thunder had just rolled across them. Searing light in a myriad of impossible colors roiled across the sky in a ten-kilometer dome, wildfire like nothing that had ever been seen before. Every living creature within the dome was struck by the bizarre sensation of falling in a completely alien direction at extraordinary speed for far, far too long...
...and then it stopped.
Ranma and Akane Saotome broke the kiss and stared at each other for several seconds.
"...Wow," Ranma managed. "Want to try that again?"

--Sam
"Evil, chum, is ever-green."

[Elsa Bibat]

I dunno having the Higurashi Wormhole still active kinda complicates it a lot more than it should be.
You can spin an entire series off of people trying to exploit that little well for economic gain. Imagine Sterling's old short story "Mozart in Mirrorshades" spun large - a technically superior future universe exploits past timelines.
The appeal of the 163X series is that Grantville was totally on its own. Period. If they had screwed up they were screwed.

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

All true... but I don't want this to be a note-for-note copy, y'know?
Part of what I see in this one is a fairly intense philosophical (and occasionally literal) conflict between those who want to exploit the heck out of the new world and those who see it as a chance to get it right this time. Consider that here, the Simpson figure is going to be Natsume Akiko. @.@; Almost more Islander than 163X, in that respect.
Given that the Well can still only transport one or two people at a time, plus what they can carry into and out of it, there's not too much room for resource razing -- I kinda doubt it'd be all that economical (now watch as everyone comes up with unspeakably clever ideas that never occurred to me -.-#).
I'm also considering, but not tied to, the idea that "unleashing" Chaos will amplify magic -- dramatically boosting the power of every martial artist, spellcaster, and supernatural creature on both sides of the Well. Just a thought.
--Sam
"Oh, there's crime here. I can smell it."

[VladimirTherin]

---

there's not too much room for resource razing

---

Go one step farther, and make the well have a "cooldown", or that only people with high spiritual power can use it at all.
Otherwise its still useable for high-bulk things like gem/gold ( or other more valuable items)

Of some interest:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1568

[Custos Sophiae]

The well can also transport information, both digital and DNA. How much is a live dodo worth?
As for magic, including martial arts, and technology:
Technology can typically support a much larger population than magic, because it's amenable to techniques like mass production. (When magic does allow such things, it tends to end up looking a lot like technology.)
A larger population means that the world's best mages/martial artists will be better, in potental, simply because there are more candidates to choose from. Technology can also support a much larger percentage of arcane specialists, since it means we don't need 90% of the population to be peasants. (And, again, when magic is so cheap and common we don't need peasants, it tends to be functionally equivalent to technology.)
Thus, the modern world might even start out with an advantage in the arcane arts over the Sengoku Jidai. In the long one, it would certainly have one - clear proof of real magic would lead to a flood of researchers, and money, investigating the field, provided only that strengthening magic didn't bring about the collapse of technology.
If it did, people would die by the billion, which makes for a grim story. If not, the modern world heads for technomagic, combining the best of both approaches, and in a century or so would be able to trample the Sengoku Jidai underfoot - but a century is ample time for dozens of stories.
For the first few years, the modern world would be too busy taming the monster-haunted wilderness replacing Nerima to help the displaced version much, but there's also another possibility that would reduce the possibility of help even further.
What with the colliding temporal distortions, and the aura of chaos, the history of the oriignal timeline easily could be rewritten. Nerima could find itself connected to a modern world where none of the love polygons ever happened, and where the history of the last few centuries is utterly different to what they know - Japan a province of the Korean empire, China split into five warring states (2 democratic, 2 fascist, 1 theocratic), America dominated by the Iroquois republic, etc
In such a situation, getting help through the well wouldn't be much of an option.

[ECSNorway]

Something to keep in mind... as far as I know, the well at the Higurashi Shrine only works for people who posess a shard of the Shikon Jewel... which will limit to a serious degree who can make the trip.
I have to agree, the isolation of Grantville is a big part of what made 163x such a good story. It'd be nice to have some connection to the modern world... but it complicates things a lot for the author.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[classicdrogn]

I think the shikon shard thing is the limiting factor to go with, there - if you only allow major characters to have one, then whoever is forming your hero cast governing group will be able to limit what goes through pretty well. Besides, if they let it become common knowledge on the future side of the well that there was a path to the past there, THEY'D get trampled under the heel of government exploitation as well, and some charactrers at least are smart enough to realise that and persuede most of the others (Nabiki springs to mind as the immeiately obvious one).

- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
A kung-fu nun in a leather thong was no less extreme than anything else he had seen that day. - Rev. Dark's IST: Holy Sea World
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Jinx999]

Has ANYONE been able to use the well except Kagome and Inuyasha? Incidently, I don't think Inuyasha had a shard the first time he went through.
Nobody in the manga I've read seemed to want to use the well much. Not even for things like food and medical supplies for the local village or hiding the McGuffin of the issue where the bad guys can't find it.
They'd attract attention if the dragged a badly wounded Sango into a modern hospital, but considering how badly she gets hurt, that would be the least of their worries.

[ECSNorway]

Yes, actually. The centipede-demon chased Kagome back through it in the first few episodes.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

Ah, inconsistency. Makes it much easier to arbitrarily declare that things work the way I want 'em to.
How's this as a ground rule: however the Well worked before, anyone can use it now -- but by "anyone" I mean only living... um, living and undead?... um, y'know, ensouled beings can activate the shift, and only two reasonably human-sized people at a time, plus whatever they're carrying -- not all that much (Kagome's biggest load was her backpack and bicycle). Further, the well will only reactivate... let's say, ten minutes after the previous users have completely exited the other end?
New concept: the Youkai Purge. In Ranma/IY history, the Tokugawas instituted a nationwide war on supernatural creatures starting 40-60 years after IY time, virtually wiping out the youkai population -- this explains why they're relatively rare in modern Japan. Something for the heroes to consider, on both sides of the issue... and something guaranteed to make Sesshoumaru extremely unhappy once he finds the right history books. (And yes, it's IN the history books.)
More Wiki pages to check out:
Nerima. Note the presence of some (probably not enough) farmland, as well as the residence of several famous manga-ka. (Leiji Matsumoto needs to be on the Emergency Committee. Much fun, I think, could be had here.)
The Sengoku period
The Ikko-ikki: a rebellious-commoner power bloc, potential allies against Nobunaga and/or youkai...
--Sam
"I'm betting that I'm just abnormal enough to survive!"

[ordnance11]

---

The Ikko-ikki: a rebellious-commoner power bloc, potential allies against Nobunaga and/or youkai...

---

The Ikko-ikki were opponents of Nobunaga. period. Ally to one side and you become the enemy of the other. You also have a problem with the Hojo clan, because Tokyo and the Kanto plain is their domain. They can try and claim Nerima legally since it is in their domain.
And let us not forget that Nobunaga is not the only one who can become the unifier..Takeda Shingen of Kai and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo are contenders.
Nerima has to capability of making anyone of these the overlord of Japan.
If they choose to side with the Ikko-ikki on the other hand, the only chance they have of surviving is to re-stage the Meiji revolution.
and that's not factoring the various Yokai into the picture.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

And that -- the revolution -- is of course what one of the major displacee factions, headed up by the NWC, will be aiming for.
"We've been given a chance to rewrite the history of Japan, and to get it right this time! If we work together, we can turn this feudal hell into a nation-state that Ookubo Toshimichi would have been proud of..."
Whereas Natsume Akiko, default head of Mishima (her grandfather having been on vacation in the Ryukyus) will be giving serious thought to establishing a corporate state that could Rule The World. And given that the relocation of MHI's industrial facilities means that the most advanced weapons technology on Earth is now her sole possession... she might wind up ruling both worlds. All in the name of keeping her family safe, of course.
--Sam
"Oh, what a goofy work is man!"