Baptized By Fire
By:SWIL
ON TOP OF a mountain two fighters squared off. There were massive holes in the ground from their attacks. The wind blew and offered the two fighters an escape from the unforgiving sun. Sweat poured down the red-haired female's abused face. Her red long sleeve shirt was unbuttoned at the top and it showed a generous amount cleavage. She had her sleeves rolled up past her forearms, and she wore a silver bracer on her right wrist. Her overly large silk black pants were tied at her ankles. Her blue eyes stared determinedly into her opponent's crimson ones.
A large kettle flying through the air broke their stare down. Ranma wasted no time going after it. She put all her attention on it and would have been crushed by a huge ball of Ki if Mousse had not interfered.
Just as the kettle was barely outside of her extended hand the ground began to shake. The earthquake opened the ground at about the same time it would have hit the ground. Ranma watched in shock as the kettle fell into the unending pit of nothingness. She continued to stare into the hole, and refused to believe that she just loss her last chance to return to being a man. The laughing of her opponent caught her attention.
"The mountain is crumbling from the strength of my Ryu Sei Hisho," he told her sounding quite happy with himself. "It's impossible to recover the Open-Water Kettle from the bottom of the Earth.
The ground shook again as it began to close. Ranma watched as Ryouga grabbed one Herb minions and used him to keep the much smaller hole open.
"Ryouga," Ranma called out worriedly.
"Finish your fight. I'll bring the kettle back," he told her confidently.
Ranma began to feed off his confidence. She turned back to Herb more determined to beat him and regain her rightful gender. She stared at him coldly as she tried to figure out her next move.
"What are you going to do. You have no more tricks up your sleeve," he told her confidently.
'There's so much hot Ki in the air that I don't need to make him mad, but he already knows the counter to the Hiryuu Shoten. But I can catch him off guard if I get pulled into my own technique,' she thought as she began the spiral movements that were required.
Herb watched her dispassionately. 'This again? If she is going to do the same attack I'll just wait and counter her.
Mousse's cry for Ryouga broke Ranma's concentration and successful killed off the attack. She turned to she ground had closed up. For the second time in the same match Ranma completely ignored her opponent and ran to where Ryouga had been. She fell to her knees and began to claw at the ground.
'I gotta save him,' she repeated again and again. 'It's all my fault. If I had caught the kettle he wouldn't be down there,' she thought as she ignored the blood that poured from her finger tips. She stopped when she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders.
"He's gone Ranma," Mousse told her.
Ranma glared up at him. "I gotta do somethin'. It my fault that he went down there," Ranma explained.
Herb laughed before Mousse could respond. "I told you that you would not be able to retrieve the kettle," he told her.
Ranma stared at the person who was the cause of all her pain. She thought about him beating her easily in Nerima, she thought about him locking her curse, and she thought about the death of Ryouga. She felt nothing but anger. "I'll kill you," she growled out. She felt an intense heat in her right arm. She slowly lifted up and aimed it at Herb. She screamed as she forced the heat out, and a stream of fire flew from her hand. The attack caught the gloating Herb off guard and sent him flying.
When the attack ended Ranma and Mousse stared at her arm in shock. Ranma's arm was still on fire, but what really shocked her was the flames did not hurt.
"What the heck was that Saotome!" Mousse demanded.
"I-I don't know," Ranma told him still staring at her arm.
"You better figure out how to use it because he's coming back," he warned her.
Ranma looked up and felt her curiosity return to anger. Herb was flying back wearing just his white pants the armor on his upper body had been stripped off. Ranma stood up and slipped into her fighting stance, and Mousse scrambled away. Herb restarted the fight with a flying straight punch. Ranma slipped it and responded with a flaming uppercut. The punch connected with Herb's midsection, and caused him to cry out in pain. Herb crashed into the ground and rolled to a stop. Herb stood up slowly clutching his stomach. His face had lost all of its smugness, and anger had replaced it.
"Hito Ryu-zan Ha!" Herb cried out as he used his free hand to attack.
Ranma was forced to dive to the side to avoid begin hit. Ranma rolled to her knees and fired her flames at Herb. Herb countered and shot a Ki blast at Ranma. The two attacks exploded and pushed both them backwards. Ranma flipped back onto her feet, and backed away from the cloud of dirt their attacks had kicked up.
'I have the advantage in close range,' she began to reform her strategy. 'I also got theses flames, and they seem to be doing a number on Herb.' Ranma started to smirk with her new power she felt she could win this battle and avenge her friend.
Their battle field cleared and Ranma charged at Herb. She dodged two Ki blasts and quickly closed the gap her red hair fluttered violently as it trailed behind her. Ranma tired to catch Herb off guard and attacked with a leg sweep. Herb saw through it and easily hopped over the leg. Ranma spun around in time to bring her hands up to block as kick Herb sent before he landed. The force behind the kick was still enough to send Ranma sliding on her back. She righted herself and flipped onto her feet to finish her forced slide.
'That did quite go as planned,' she told herself. She did not get anymore time to think because Herb was already headed towards her. Herb threw another Ki blast which Ranma slipped easily, but she had not expected him to anticipate the way she was going to moved and was caught unprepared when his fist was lounged into her stomach. Her eyes widened and spittle flew from her mouth. Herb withdrew his fist and sent Ranma flying with an elbow to her temple. Ranma hit the ground and gracelessly rolled to a stop.
She looked up from her spot on the ground and saw four different versions of Herb coming towards her. She quickly stumbled to her feet and tried to figure out which one was her true opponent. She called on he flames and forced the fire into a wall to give herself more time to recover. She had to dive out of the way when one of Herb's Ki blast sped towards her.
After she rolled to her feet she waited for Herb to continue their fist fight. She played defense while slowly building up the flames in her arm. Ranma slipped an over hand right then slid out of the way of a flying knee. Once Herb landed she saw her opportunity. She crouched low and exploded towards Herb. Her right fist was cocked back and it blazed with her new trump card. Herb turned around with his hands up as he tired to block Ranma's punch. Her looping right fist connected with Herb's jaw. Fire exploded on impact and threw the two fighters away from the other.
Ranma hit the ground hard, and she laid there face down with long labored breaths. Mousse ran to his friend slash rival's aid. He quickly rolled her over and breathed a sigh of relieve.
"You had me worried for a moment Saotome," he told her. "How are you holding up?" He asked.
"Did...did I...win?" She asked him weakly.
Mousse nodded, and watched Ranma's eyes shut as she passed out from exhaustion. He stood up and started to make his way towards Herb's down body. From where he was standing he could see the smoke as it drifted off his face. He could also smell Herb's burnt skin. He was about half way there when Herb's two lackeys stepped in front of him.
While they confronted each other they failed to notice the blue corona the flickered around Ranma. The ground shook and a stream of water exploded from it. Ryuoga jumped out from the hole that was created from the water. Before any of them could say anything the ground shook more violently, and started to break apart. Lime and Mint quickly picked up their downed leader and made their way off the mountain. Mousse turned to go get Ranma when the area that she was at broke apart. Mousse hopped across the crumbling terrain while he reached into his sleeve and pulled out a chain. He threw it just as Ranma started to disappear for his view. His sighed in relief when the chain looped around her ankle. He gave the chain one hard tug and nearly fell from his perch when the chain came back with only a part of her pant's leg. He and Ryuoga rushed over to the side of the mountain and watched the part that had lost attachment hit the ground and mushroom cloud of dust prevented them from seeing anymore.
"Ranma..." Ryuoga whispered in shock.
PB
Ranma slowly opened her eyes, and bit her lip to prevent herself from crying out in pain. She hurt everywhere; from her head to her legs. She moaned softly as she focused her Ki to work on her infinite amount of injuries. She sat up and hissed as the pain had started reduce. She looked around and took note that it was dawn outside. She also noted that she didn't know where she was. Red and yellow leaves shook as the wind blew. Before her fight with Herb it had been early Spring. The room was bare of anything besides the futon that she currently sat on.
'Either I was knocked into a coma, or someone kidnapped me,' she thought as she forced herself up onto her feet. She looked down when her bare feet hit the mahogany hardwood. She now wore a white long sleeve robe that was tied at the waist. As she looked down she was reminded of what she lost thanks to Herb.
She cupped her breasts and glared at them. 'Great now I'm stuck in this weak form,' she thought heatedly. Sure she was faster, but she loss a lot of her strength. The loss of strength did not really nag her as much as to how fast she loss it. With a splash of cold water she loss the strength that she had spent the last ten years of her life to gain. Now thanks to Herb it was loss indefinitely. Her anger dissipated when she thought about Ryuoga. 'He loss his life thanks to me. If I'd had been prepared I would've wiped the floor with Herb back in Nerima,' she thought. 'I would've stopped all this from happening.' She clenched her hands into fist and squeezed hard enough to draw blood. The despair she felt for Ryouga's death turned into anger for putting him into that situation. 'I failed,' she thought angrily. 'And because of my weakness someone died unnecessarily.' She squeezed her eyes shut as a few tears slip down her cheeks. 'On my life it won't happen again. I don't care how much training I have to do. It will get done,' she thought with determination.
"Oh, you're awake," the housekeeper said shocked to see Ranma up without any assistance.
Ranma did not respond, but she stared at the woman dispassionately. The maid's outfit was similar to what Kasumi wore; except her dress was black. She was slightly taller than Ranma. Her black hair hung freely down her back. A black head band with a metal plate was tied around her forehead. Inside of the plate was a picture of a large star.
"Are you hungry?" She asked Ranma.
She was a Saotome, and food was always good so she ended up nodding her head. Then she remembered that she did not know where she was or who the maid was.
"Where am I?" She asked half demanded. "And who are you?"
The maid smiled sweetly at Ranma before she answered her questions. "You are in Hanabishi Estate, and my name is Kogane." Ranma asked her another question just as she turned to leave.
"Can I get some clothes?"
Kogane looked at Ranma and blushed faintly. "I'm so sorry. I hadn't expected you to be awake and I didn't bring any clothes," she explained to Ranma. "Wait here and I'll go get you some," she told Ranma as she rushed off.
She did not have to wait long. Kogane brought back a pair of white panties, black pants, a white sleeveless shirt, and a pair of black shoes. Ranma nodded her thanks before she picked up the pair of panties. She hated them with a passion, but she knew better than to make a fuss over them. She quickly put them on and picked up the pants. It was tight spandex material, and left nothing to the imagination. With these pants she had no choice but to put on the underwear. She slipped into the white shirt, and then stared at the shoes.
"I think the shoes are broke," Ranma told her. She was a little offended when the maid laughed at her.
"All shoes are made like that," she told Ranma as she pulled up the bottom of her dress to show her shoes had the toes cut out.
Ranma shrugged then put the shoes on anyway. Once she was dressed she followed the maid out. She saw several other maids most of them females, and each of them wore the same headband. Their shirts all had the same symbol; it was an upside down 'U' with three dots in the middle, and it had to quotation marks on the right half.
The house was extravagant. The rooms that she could see into were huge and every piece of furniture, and every picture looked to have cost an arm and a leg. Eventually they made their way to the dinning room. Ranma stared silently at the extremely long table. She had to do a double take to see the woman who sat at the end of the table. The woman had black hair cut similarly to Nabiki's. She had purple eyes, and she wore pink lipstick. She sat in a black long sleeve dress, and on her neck sat a gold chain necklace.
"Kagero-sama, here is the guest," Kogane said as she bowed and left.
She nodded and turned to address Ranma. "Please be seated. The food will be served shortly," she told Ranma. "I hope you like Sukiyaki."
Ranma nodded. She loved food as long as it was cooked by anyone other than Akane.
"As you may have heard my name is Kagero Hanabishi. I am the owner of this house," She was about to say more when the food was brought out. "Thank you Satori."
The man looked to be in his early twenties. His black hair was wild and his bangs went down the middle of his face. He had a slim but muscular build. Ranma also noticed that he had his headband tied around his neck. He nodded to Ranma after he placed the food in front of her.
Ranma picked up her chopsticks but she could not find the energy to dig in like she normally would. The food was perfect from the thinly sliced meat to the cooked vegetables.
'This is great. It's even better than Kasumi's.' She was so wrapped up with the food that she forgot that someone else was there.
"So where was I?" She asked herself. "I was going to ask you what did you think of the house, but we can move onto more serious matters," she said to gain Ranma's full attention. "Where is Recca?"
Ranma swallowed before she responded. "Who?"
"My son," Kagero answer. "I did a summoning spell to bring him back, but instead of getting him you show up."
"So you're the reason I'm here," Ranma stated. "Where exactly is here?" She asked and hoped the Kagero would clarify.
"You are in the Hidden Star Village. But you still have not answered my question. Where is my son?"
'Hidden Star? I've never even heard of the place. A village? There aren't even villages in Japan. Am I still in China?' She thought herself.
"Look Lady," Ranma said as she switched her attention back to Kagero. "I don't know a Recca. Send me back home."
Kagero stood up. "You must know him," she said as her voice began to crack. "Are you his daughter? His lover? His friend?" She asked grasping at straws.
"I ain't no one's daughter," Ranma told her hotly. "I'm a guy," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"You're lying. You don't have to ashamed of him I'm his mother."
"I ain't lyin'. I got a curse. And before you brought me here I was fighting to get my manhood back," Ranma answered her, upset at being called a lair.
"Well explain how you got that bracer," Kagero demanded.
Ranma shrugged her shoulders before she answered. "I've had for as long as I can remember," she said as she held it up.
"That bracer is made for people who come from my clan. It prevents them from killing themselves when they uses their flames."
Ranma thought back to her fight with Herb, and remembered bring forth her flame. She concentrated and forced it out again. "You mean this?" She asked Kagero.
Kagero stared at the fire that danced on Ranma's right arm. "That's not possible," she said as she walked over to get a better look. "Women can no longer control the flames."
"I already told you that I'm under a curse," Ranma told her annoyed.
"So you're really a boy?" She asked with hope in her voice. Ranma nodded and told her about the trip to Jusenkyo. When she finished she unprepared for the massive hug she found herself in.
"You are Recca," she repeated again and again into Ranma's shoulder.
"I ain't your son. My name is Ranma Saotome," Ranma told her while she had the life squeezed from her.
"But you are," Kagero told her as she backed away. "You see my son was or is to be the next leader of our village, but my husband's first wife was jealous because her son was born with the flame first," she began to tell Ranma.
"His first wife was named Reina. Her son was to originally inherit the role as leader, but you were born and you also possessed your father's flame. A meeting was called and the elders decided you were more fit to lead. About five years later you were kidnapped by Reina. By the time that we found her she was using the Hooridashimasu no Jutsu, and you were sent to another realm. It took me until yesterday to find you," Kagero explained.
"Nice story, but I all ready got a Mom and Dad," Ranma told her.
"Do you know who your mother is?" She asked Ranma.
Ranma racked her brain desperately and she tried to remember something about her mother. She pulled a complete blank. "That don't mean nothing," she said as she tried to defend herself. "I've been on a ten training trip when I was little."
"How old are you?" Kagero asked. "Wait...you should be fifteen going on sixteen?"
Ranma nodded her head. "That was a good guess. I'm kind of tired of hearing about Recca," she said and paused briefly. "I'm ready to go get my cure so send me back."
"What's in that realm that we can't replace in this one?" Kagero asked.
"My manhood, and to kill the one who did this to me," Ranma finished with a cold stare.
"With if we could make you stronger?" Kagero fished for any way to keep Ranma.
"How strong?" The thought of utterly destroying Herb weighed heavily in her mind.
Kagero's eyes lit up with hope. "Unstoppable," she said as she hoped to keep Ranma attention.
"Sorry I'm more of a hands on type," Ranma told her and added a shrug of her shoulders. "So if you can't show me how strong I can get then you can send me back."
"My grandfather is the Sandaime Hoshikage," she told Ranma. "He's the strongest in our village," she stood up and grabbed Ranma's hand. "I'll take you to him."
PB
The walk to the Administration building did not take much time, and at the moment Ranma sat in the lobby on the third floor in front of the Hoshikage's room. Kagero went to talk to him, and Ranma assumed it was about her. She had sat outside of the room for around fifteen minutes, and had started to get bored. The two guards that stared at her the whole time had started to get old also. She needed something to do or else she was going to start to dwell on the aftermath of her fight. She stood up and started to stretch. The guards' eyes were trained onto her the entire time. The door opened while she tried to pop her back.
Kagero smiled when she saw Ranma. "You can come in now."
She shrugged and mumbled, "This had better been worth the wait."
Ranma enter the overly large room, and locked eyes with the old man who sat behind the big desk. The was a bit of paper work stacked up on the side of the desk. The man had a receding hair line that slipped all the way to the back of his head. He had age wrinkles on his forehead. He had thick sideburns that framed his mouth, but stopped before it connected with his goatee. He wore a blue loose fitting long sleeve robe, and put on a white short sleeve cloak on top. He smiled when Ranma sat down in the air chair in front of him.
"So you're the strongest in the village," Ranma stated. "You don't feel like much."
He laughed at her comment. "The same could be said about you," he answered his smile never left his face.
"Let's get this over with so I can go home," Ranma told him determined to wipe the smile off of his face.
"So what do you want to see?" He asked her.
"What are you talking about? I don't want to see anything. I want to pound you into the ground so I can leave," Ranma told him.
His eyebrow rose, but he kept his infuriating smile. "So you would like to spar?"
"I told you I was hands on. I could careless about what kind of trick you can do," Ranma told him.
"Ah this shall be fun," he answered and stood up. Ranma could see that he had a build very similar to her father. "I haven't sparred with anyone in ages," he told her. "Come on let's go to the training ground."
Ranma was led to an open area. It was cleared of trees and most the grass was gone.
"So how shall we do this?" He asked Ranma, who just shrugged her shoulders. "The first to be knocked unconscious or to surrender," he stated. Ranma nodded and crossed her arms. "Come at me when you're ready."
Ranma did not need to be told twice. She charged even though she knew it went against all of Genma's teachings. She attacked the Star Shadow with caution. Ranma tested the waters with a quick jab in which he slipped easily. She slowly began to up the pace, and forced him to dodge and block her punches and kicks. During this whole time he still wore a large smile.
Ranma decided to go full out and called out, "Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken!" The flurry of punches caught him off guard, and allowed Ranma to tag him a few hundred times before he was able to break away.
"I didn't see that one coming," he said as he still smiled at her. "I guess you're getting serious."
Ranma did not say anything as she charged at him again. The third Star Shadow stepped backwards and stomped onto the ground. Ranma threw herself out of the way wall of fire. She rolled and continued to charge him from a different angle. The Hoshikage flung his arms forward and twin beams of fire shot at Ranma. She jumped over them and cocked her fist back until she was close enough take off the Third's head.
Her punch was easily parried and she found herself victim to an open palm to her back that detonated on impact. She flew through the air and trailed smoke, and resembled a plane with a blown engine. As she got ready to hit the ground she flipped so that she would land onto her feet while she rubbed her midsection.
'He's using fire attacks. So I should be able to use the Hiryuu Shoten,' Ranma thought to herself. Ranma was slipped passed a couple waves of fire and began her dance. She was forced to pull harsh amounts of her Ki to enhance her speed to avoid being hit with his detonating attacks.
"Hiryuu Shoten!" She screamed as she held her fist in the air. The Hoshikage was caught completely off guard as he was swept off his feet into the air. The third leader of the Hidden Star panicked while he was being battered one hundred mile per hour winds. He tried to use his flames to over power the impromptu tornado. His attack caused the winds to gain more speed. In desperation he began to pull out his Jutsu.
Ranma watched as his body was tossed around by her attack for a couple of minutes and turned away when he added more fuel to her attack. She walked to Kagero and crossed her arms under her chest. "I'm ready to go home."
Kagero looked at her with wide eyes. "How...How did you do that?"
"Ancient Amazon technique," Ranma told her. "I'm tired to waiting. I want to go now," Ranma explained.
Ranma nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand placed onto her shoulder. She turned and saw her opponent smiling at her. His clothing was in ruins. His white cloak hung to his body by threads, and his blue robe had deep tears in the fabric. He had a few cuts scattered around his body, and he looked slightly winded.
"We should call it quits old man, before you get hurt," Ranma told him.
"If that's the best that you can do, then I'm in great shape," he responded and pointed at her flaming tornado with his thumb.
"I can do a lot more," she told him as she walked back towards the training ground.
Once they were back where they started the Star Kage pulled off his tattered cloak, and cracked his joints. "This was fun young one, but I'm going to have to put a end to our little get together," he told Ranma.
Ranma shrugged her shoulders and slipped into a defensive stance. Ranma watched him move his hands and fingers with Amaguriken speed. She was completely taken off guard when bolts off lightning streaked towards her. She dove, ducked, and dodged the streaks. She began to charge up her Ki blast her attack.
"Mökö Takabisha!" She screamed and sent her attack at him. Ranma watched again as he made the hand signs again. She did not expect him to spit onto the ground. As her attack closed in on her target a wall of fire erupted from the ground where he had spit earlier. Her attack did not make through his defense. The wall was dropped as soon as her attack was cleared.
Ranma had started to charge him when he had started to make his next hand signs. The ground disappeared as she placed her foot down. She screamed as she was swept away be magma. When she was spit from her impromptu bath she was burned everywhere neck down. She moaned in pain as she forced herself to her knees which shook from exertion. She felt as if her legs were made of jell-o. The last thing that she saw was his smiling face.