The usual disclaimer: Ranma ½ is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

This story is part "Bindings/The Next Cycle" Chronicles. See my profile for character breakdowns.


Chapter 1: Riding

"You know, I never seen someone get thrown as many times as you," the stableman said to Ranma. "It's lucky you keep landing on your feet."

Ranma stood where he had landed and threw a sour look at the man. This was the seventh time in three horses that Ranma had been bucked off. Then Ranma turned to the suddenly placid horse and glared at the horse. Now, Ranma was convinced someone was toying with him. All the horses had been sweet as sugar for the first few minutes, when, all of a sudden, they would throw Ranma off. This was despite the owner's assurances that each horse was more docile than the last. Akane's, Kasumi's, and Tofu's horses never misbehaved once.

"I don't get it," the stableman continued. "You're not doing anything wrong."

"Well, I'm going to start to," Ranma said. With that he walked over to the steady mare and looked her in the eye. "You want to play? Let's play!" He swore he saw a challenge in the horse's eyes.


***Earlier that week***

"We're going to do what?" Ranma demanded. Akane was busy squealing in a little girl voice.

"We're going to learn to ride horses," Tofu told him steadily. "Or, at least, you, Akane, and Kasumi are. I already know how."

"Any particular reason for this idiocy?"

"Yes," Tofu reply, but didn't elaborate.

"And that would be?" Ranma pressed.

"You need to broaden your horizons," Tofu answered.

"We need to train for the Solstice," Ranma stated in a hard voice. "Not go on a joy ride."

"This is battle training," Tofu insisted.

"How?" Ranma demanded.

Tofu considered that for a moment and decided to go for the truth. "Ranma, you have ties to the Feline, the Porcine, the Sea, and the Kitsune Kingdoms. The more Kingdoms you're tied to, the stronger your connection to the Nexus, and the stronger you become. Well Mr. Wild Horse, we're going to add the Equestrian Kingdom."

Ranma looked at Tofu oddly. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"You want to win? This will increase your – and our – chances," Tofu confirmed.

Ranma sighed. "Who's idea was this? Jakaro's?" he asked.

"Let's just say he agrees with me and let it go at that," Tofu said.

Ranma sighed again. Akane chimed in: "C'mon Ranma. It won't be that bad. School will be over at the end of the week anyway. You said you wanted to go on a training trip. This can be it."

Ranma looked at Tofu: "You swear this will be a training trip?" he demanded.

"Oh, yes. This will definitely be a training trip," Tofu said.

Ranma surrendered then. "Where is this ranch?"

"It's about five hours by train to the north," Tofu answered. "I've booked us for four days."

"Fine…"


***Back in the Present***

"Training trip," Ranma thought. "Right, so let's make this a training trip." He turned from the horse's head. The horse tried to nip him in the back only to find the young man had flowed into the saddle somehow. This startled the mare for a second.

"Whoa!" the stableman exclaimed. "How did you move so fast?"

Ranma ignored him. Instead, he spoke to the mare. "Guess you're not as quick as you thought." The horse threw him a dark look and started forward at a walk – without a command. As soon as the horse was clear of the stableman (who had introduced himself as Haruo), she bucked and kicked out. But Ranma was ready this time and he stayed in the saddle by hanging on tight. "Is that the best you can do?" he asked. "Because now I'm ready for you, and I can do a lot better than you can." The mare began to run around the corral ring.

"Ranma! Watch out!" Akane shouted as the horse tried to scrape the martial artists against the rail fence. Ranma slid his leg up and out of the way as the horse crashed against the fence. He leaned forward and wrapped a portion of the horse's mane in his fist. As the horse righted herself, Ranma slid back into position and hauled back on the mane. The horse reared up.

"Lady!" Haruo called out to the horse. "Stop that!" The man tried to run over and grab the horse, but she pranced away with Ranma clinging tightly to her back. Lady spun and danced trying to unseat her rider, but Ranma just locked his legs around her torso with incredible strength. The horse leaped into the air, but Ranma held on securely to the saddle and leaned forward to catch himself. When Lady came down, she bucked out again and broke out into a mad run around the ring. Along the way, she spun here and there like a tornado, but Ranma wouldn't let go. Finally, after a few minutes, Lady shuddered to a stop and stood there.

"Are you done now?" Ranma asked the horse. She huffed and snorted but did nothing else.

The stableman grabbed the horse by the bridle and asked: "Are you all right?"

"I'm good," Ranma replied.

"That was impressive, young man," Haruo said. "You can have a job around here if you'd like."

"Nah, I'm good," Ranma repeated. "So, how do I steer her?" he asked.


Tofu sat on his horse watching Ranma and Akane work with the horses and the ranch hand who was keeping a firm grip on Ranma's horse. "Did you do that?" Kasumi asked.

"No," Tofu answered her. "I have no idea what caused that."

"Could it be the Cat Fist?" she prompted.

"I don't know. Other animals don't react to the Cat Fist unless it's active, not even cats. There's no reason that horse should know about it," he told her.

"It has to be something about Ranma then," Kasumi concluded. "The last two horses threw him as well." Tofu just shrugged his shoulders.

Everyone practiced riding for about an hour. The stableman had stopped holding Ranma's horse and just stayed nearby. The horse, Lady, acted up a few times, but Ranma just locked his legs around her and she immediately stopped. Suddenly, a cold wind sprung up and poured through the corral they were working in. All the horses stopped walking and stood there shivering. Ranma stood tall in the stirrups and scanned the area.

"What's wrong with them?" Tofu asked.

"It's the Ghost Wind," Haruo replied. "It appears out of nowhere. When it does occur, it spooks the horses something fierce." Suddenly, Lady lay down. Ranma jumped clear. "Damn it!" the man cursed. Before he could say anything else, the other three horses also lay down. "That's it," he declared. They won't work for the rest of the day now." He blew out a big sigh and added: "It's time for lunch anyway. We'll swap in new horses afterwards."

Ranma was scanning the area from where he stood by his downed horse. "What's up that hill?" he asked Haruo.

"Widow's Tree," Haruo answered. "It's said that's where the ghosts live, if you can believe that. One is said to be the ghost of a widow who hanged herself because she missed her husband." Ranma just nodded his head. Haruo paused at Ranma's casual acceptance of the story. After a few moments he said: "Why don't you four go get cleaned up before lunch? We'll try again around 3PM and hit an easy trail."

"All right," Tofu agreed. As they left Haruo, Tofu stated: "You took that explanation without a word. Was the wind supernatural?"

As Kasumi and Akane joined them, Ranma replied: "Hell yeah. I'm not sure I believe ghosts made that wind, but it was way too cold for mid-spring. It came right from that tree." Ranma paused and then asked: "You didn't mess with the horses, did you?" At Tofu's head shake, Ranma replied: "Well something did. Haruo was really surprised by Lady's behavior."

"So what do we do?" Akane asked.

Ranma shrugged "Something tried to get rid of us. We can leave or force it show itself," he answered.

"Oh my," Kasumi said. "I assume we're staying then."

Tofu gave a small smile. "It's not like the Lord and Lady of Chaos will have it any other way," he affirmed.

"No comment," Akane stated.

They went up to their rooms. Ranma and Tofu were in one room. Akane and Kasumi were in an adjoining room. "You're being silly," Akane told her sister as they were changing. "You and Tofu are married. Ranma and I are engaged. You should be sleeping with your husband."

"Appearances are important Akane," Kasumi told her primly.

Akane rolled her eyes. "No one knows us here," she said. "Who's to say that Ranma and I aren't married?"

"Me," Kasumi answered firmly. "Home is one thing, away is another. Besides, this is a training trip – we don't have time for anything else." Akane fixed her sister with a very direct look that Kasumi ignored.

Next door, Ranma hid his smirk as Tofu raised his eyebrows at Akane's arguments. "This from the girl who use to scream 'Pervert' constantly?" Tofu quizzed quietly.

"Hey, we all grow up – even me," Ranma laughed just as quietly. Then he raised his own eyebrow: "She does have a point though."

"I'm not the roadblock," Tofu protested. "I'll work on her." Then he turned serious. "What do we do about your antagonist?"

"See if we can provoke him/her further," Ranma responded. "We're going to train after lunch, right?" At Tofu's nod, Ranma added: "So let's do it in sight of that tree."

"You're not worried about Akane's safety?" Tofu pressed.

"Naw," Ranma dismissed. "Whatever's out there is after me. My horses were the only one's acting up, and that wind took out Lady first. I think it took out the others just to look like it was not focusing on me."


After lunch, the four changed into gis and set up next to the corral, still in view of the tree. "Absolutely no magic," Ranma cautioned. "Visible or otherwise. Let's not give away more than we have to. We'll start with katas and drills for the first half-an-hour. We'll save the serious sparring for the last half-an-hour." The other three nodded and they began.

Toward the end of the drills, Tofu commented to Ranma during a water break: "Something's watching us. I can't pin-it-down from where, but it can't stop me from knowing I'm being watched."

"O.K., so let's give it something to watch," Ranma said. He called Kasumi and Akane over. "One-on-one sparring," he ordered. "Five minute rounds and then we switch."

Soon, the four Martial Artists were all aware of watchers – especially the human kind. Even without using arcane abilities, the Nerima folks seemed magical in their movements and speed. Their fighting was strictly sparring, but the crowd watched with wide eyes and disbelief on their faces as the bruises piled up and the throws were hard and fast. Finally, four watches sounded the end of the last match and all four individuals bowed to each other.

"All right," Tofu called out. "We are meeting Haruo at 3PM. We've got to get cleaned up. Let's go…" The dozen or so people were silent as they left. They simply nodded to the Martial Artists who nodded back.


Haruo was waiting for them at the trail head outside the horse ranch. He looked speculatively at the four and asked: "Where are you folks from?"

"Nerima," Tofu answered.

"Is that city? You folk are a little bit hardier than we're use to seeing…" At Tofu's questioning look, Haruo added "We usually don't see people beating each other up like that during their free time."

"This is a training trip," Ranma said offhandedly.

"Nerima is bit of a rough area," Akane said diplomatically. "But we're martial artists. Ranma and I compete regularly. Tofu and Kasumi are Senseis."

Haruo pointed at Ranma. "Which is why he was calling the shots this afternoon?" Haruo pressed.

"Ranma and Akane are also instructors," Kasumi explained. "They own a dojo together in Nerima," she added, glossing over the fact that she was also an owner. Akane and Ranma managed to keep a straight face.

"Awful young, aren't you two?" Haruo pressed as other people started to join them for the ride.

Ranma ignored the brashness of the question – he wasn't one to talk after all. Instead, he replied with a shrug: "We're two of several owners."

Haruo seemed to accept that answer and then decided he was pushing the limits of good behavior. Instead he turned to face a nearby stable and began to bark out orders to bring out the horses. Meanwhile, the other guests of the ranch began to approach the quartet. They asked questions similar to Haruo, but were much more polite, relying on friendly small talk to try and elicit answers.

A short time later, Haruo returned with five other ranch hands and a string of horses. He started to assign people to animals when there was a commotion at the rear of the string; an old mare pushed her way forward, somehow slipping her halter. "Whoa! Kazue, what are you doing?" Haruo called out. The horse ignored him and walked through the parting crowd to stand in front of Ranma. With a quick gesture of her head, she seemed to gently bonk the surprised young man on his head.

Haruo looked at the pig-tailed martial artist and commented: "You are a strange one, boy. First, I can't get a horse to stay under you. Now, the old queen of the stable picks you." Haruo looked at one of his men and said: "Kenichi! Find her saddle." Ranma looked startled to see there was no saddle on the horse. So did Tofu, Kasumi, and Akane. Kenichi nodded and left.

In short order, Kazue was saddled and bridled. "Careful with her, lad," Haruo told Ranma. "She's the owner's pride and joy."

"Yes, sir," Ranma answered. The horse seemed to cuff Ranma with her head and motion him toward the saddle. He climbed up (more like flowed) and waited. Meanwhile, Haruo assigned horses to everyone else.

Tofu urged his horse up next to Ranma and Kazue. "What's going on?" Ranma asked.

"I don't know," Tofu answered in a puzzled voice. "Her mind is closed to me. She's either going to toss you off a cliff or be an obedient steed."

"Thanks," Ranma drawled.

Haruo saddled up and led the guests down the trail. Haruo's people rode alongside of the guests, keeping watch over the inexperienced riders in particular. Kazue followed Kasumi's horse without difficulty. "You're doing really well," Akane told Ranma from behind him.

"Except I'm not driving," Ranma said. "She's ignoring any signals I give her."

"What?"

"Oh my," came from in front of Ranma. Tofu just held his head momentarily.

"If I tug on the reins, she ignores me," Ranma clarified. "Watch." He pulled firmly on the reins to turn the horse, but Kazue just shook her head and snorted. Then she seemed to give a little hop that bounced Ranma in the saddle. "I ain't driving," he repeated.

"I think you just got disciplined," Akane noted with a grin while trying not to laugh.

"Great," Ranma groused. "She thinks I'm a colt." The horse nodded her head.

"Well, it's a start I suppose," Tofu noted. "At least she's unlikely to throw you off a cliff now." He pondered the situation for a moment. "She's obviously intelligent. Talk to her."

"Say what?"

"Introduce yourself, introduce us, tell her what you hope to learn. She's your sensei. Figure out what she has to teach," the doctor insisted.

Ranma shrugged and said: "Whatever. It's not like I've got anything else to do." He leaned forward and placed a hand in front of the saddle on the mare's back. "Hello Kazue. My name's Ranma. It means 'wild horse.'" Kazue snorted gently at that. "No, it's true – my Mom gave me that name. She teases me that she named me that because I was in a hurry to be born."

"I didn't know that," Kasumi chimed in.

"She told me a couple of times," Akane said. "I think she's trying to convince me that childbirth will be easy."

Ranma continued: "I'm here with my fiancé, Akane, who's behind us." The horse seemed to hesitate for a second, but let the moment go. "We're going to be married next spring after we turn twenty. The guy two horses in front of us is my brother, Tofu. He's a doctor and one of my teachers. His wife, Kasumi is just in front of us. She's also Akane's sister."

The horse glanced behind at Akane. "It's a long story," Akane answered the look.

"And you wouldn't believe us either," Ranma added. The horse seemed to shrug. "Anyway, we're here because Tofu thought I need to 'broaden my horizons' and learn to ride." Kazue seemed to consider that. "It's a little tough though if you won't let me practice," Ranma hinted. Kazue sighed and pulled off to the side of the trail. Then she stopped. Ranma squeezed gently with his legs and she started forward appropriately. "Thank you," he said simply. "If you don't like something, just shake your head and I'll figure it out." Kazue twitched her ears.

Ranma was about to ask Tofu a question, but the doctor shook his head and made a discrete gesture at Kazue. Ranma took the hint and began talking to Kazue again. He spent ample time praising Kazue and telling her about himself and his companions. He also made a point of telling Kazue what he wanted to do and working through the signals for her to understand. The shape-shifter quickly learned that Kazue preferred 'commands' to be issued by his legs and posture. The less he used the reins, the better she responded. By the end of the ride, he was feeling pretty comfortable in the saddle. "At least on a cooperative horse," he thought to himself.

As they were approaching the ranch proper again, Haruo dropped back to check on Ranma. "How are you getting along with your teacher?" the ranch hand asked.

Ranma decided more praise couldn't hurt. "She's brilliant," he said honestly enough. He considered his next words carefully. "Does she always handle new riders like this?"

Haruo looked a little perplexed. "Actually, she's usually only ridden by Mr. Izuzi, the owner, these days. She's very old as far as horses go – about 42 or so, so we don't push her."

"She doesn't look that old," Tofu put in.

"No, she doesn't," Haruo agreed. "Her back and teeth are in good shape somehow. If it wasn't for the grey on her face, you wouldn't know. I've seen horses in their teens that look in worse shape."

"Interesting…" Tofu said thoughtfully.

At the trail head, people began getting off their horses, but Kazue shook her head when Ranma started to shift his weight. "What's up?" he asked settling back into the saddle.

"That I can tell you," Haruo laughed. "She put up with you, now you have to put up with her."

"Say what?"

"She wants you to give her a brush down," Haruo clarified. Kazue nodded her head.

Ranma shrugged. "Fair enough."

"I can show him what to do," Tofu offered.


Next up: Ghost Hunting